Chapter Text
Darkness. That is the only word that can even begin to decipher this nauseating eeriness which is blind to the eye. There is nothing to be seen as all of the landscape hides behind the curtain of lone gloom, all of it being consumed by the thunderstorm that rages on. The waves rise high to accept the befalling showers and sink low to submit them to the rest of the sea. The lightning declares its presence with help of deafening thunders. The waves reply with the large ripples of their own as they take on to what the skies throw to them.
The vision of this phenomena only comes to the sight when being illuminated by the lightning. Other than that, a shadow of murk adds onto it and hinders the virtual sense. Thus, it is to be excused if any bold hearted sailor were to pass by and miss the view of a stunted rock of an island that rests into this part of the sea. Even more insignificant is the shabbily built shack that stands upon this rock, appearing too poor to withstand the situation at hand.
A bellowing roar can be heard as the window panes crackle and dent. The merciless shattering of glass continues throughout this exchange. The excuse of a door seems willing to unhinge and let the swift winds take it. The roof appears ready to collapse.
This is, offcourse, what the exterior of the structure has to say, for what goes on inside is a completely different story altogether.
The interior is filled with blackness as well, rivaling the one on the outside, but it fails to provide any sorts of noise which matches the horror of the storm. What hangs inside is silence, as quite as death, as fragile as glass. It breaks just as easily when a heart wrenching scream tears through it, remains of which rebound in form of echoes, each one less disturbing than the previous.
Another sound is heard soon enough. This one is quieter, but hard, like that of leather furiously running over a surface. Just as it goes off, the pitch black room gives way to a glow. The glow is not warm, but rather cold enough to make the person it is focused on shiver.
The glow comes from a pair of reptilian eyes, whose bright shine seperate them from the rest of the abyss. The gaze of those eyes is steel cold, black slits in the middle glaring at the subject in scrutiny as it writhes like a dying fish longing to be freed of her pain. If it continues to be so, there is no hope for her, he believes.
The subject, also the source of the ear splitting scream, continues to whine in anguish, every bit of her being aching as severely as it could. She continues to twist and turn, her torment giving rise to restlessness as she coils in every possible way to ease her suffering. That is to no avail. No matter what she does, the stinging pain just seems to increase. A single tear leaks from one of her tightly shut eyes as she grunts and cries.
The seething relaxes in a few minutes, but to Anko, it feels nothing short of an entire lifetime. Her cries dwindle and she manages to stay in that particular position even if her body commands otherwise. She savours the relief heavily, starting with inhaling largely to make up for the lack of air in her lungs.
By the time it seizes entirely, save for the spot of discomfort where it had contaminated her whole body from, she is spread on the dusty floor, drained of all her strength almost entirely, gasping for her dear life and not caring for the dirt matting onto her wild purple hair.
With life restored back into her, she finally makes the attempt to see the glow for herself. Turning her head ever slightly so, she half heartedly faces the light that she had garnered from the corner of her eye. The chill those charged eyes send her way evidently reaches her and her half shut eyelids widen a bit, less so in stagger and more in recognition.
A sound similar to a an exhale reaches her now functioning ears. Apparently, he is all too amused to be acknowledged by her. Mustering up strength to say anything is an obstacle, but she manages to cross it as her lips start to quiver.
“L-lord” She begins, her shaky tongue hard to support. “Oro- chimmmaru?”
For the first few seconds, she is greeted with nothing save for the sound of the sea storm on the outer edge of the rock. The conclusion that this person is someone —or something— else is prepared to seep into her head, but those thoughts are scratched when the being opens his mouth.
“Yes, Anko?” Comes the reply, and Anko feels an unknown sort of relief enter her body at the familiar husky voice. The pain had numbed her to an extent, due to which she fails to connect the dots regarding her current situation.
“S-someone at-attacked me.” She professes, her throat getting heavy. The pain was too much for her twelve year old self to bear, but she tries to hold back the tears that the discomfort has brought upon her. She wants to sob, and if lord Orochimaru doesn’t allow her to, she’ll do it once she is alone at home.
What she hears next, however, completely foils her plan of doing so. Not only that, it nearly causes her heart to stop as well.
“I know that, my dear child.” She could feel the sadistic grin behind this overtly sweet voice in her nerves. “For I am the one who attacked you.”
If she could open her eyes wide enough, she would have, but she still had too much stamina to garner.
She resorts for a small gasp instead.“You attacked me?” She whispers, sans the stutter this time. Her eyes fill up just as her teacher ignites a candle, his form now capable of being seen, but blurry to her.
“Indeed I did.” He confirms. Even if her brain is not working as logically as it should, the lack of regret in those words is easily picked up by her.
Anko can’t hold it back anymore. She closes her eyes and streams of glycerine escape, just as she sobs pathetically,
“But why? Why did you do this to me?”
If Anko was expecting for her tears to melt his heart, she could not have been anymore wrong. The only thing her wailing does is feed her sensei’s sadism and allows a nasty grin to form.
“Because I wanted to see whether you’ll survive or not.”
This was a simple, upright reply, but not the one she had been expecting. Truth be told, she has no idea what she was supposed to expect when questioning her teacher who almost killed her.
She breaks into tears, moaning and crying right in front of him. Today, she didn’t have the time to tell herself that she isn’t supposed to do so or she won’t be taken seriously. She just wants to cry, to wail and howl. Her sensei, the one person she would trust with her life, has tried to end her. The betrayal is too much for her to handle. She has suffered too much in life to deserve it. She will cry her eyes out if she must, but she will not stop until there is grief in her.
The grief, the irritation, the anger she has towards life comes pouring down as she shrieks. A storm stronger than the one tearing away their windows rages inside of her.
Orochimaru, offcourse, could not care less for any of that. No, that would have required for him to see Anko as a human in the first place. But he let her cry, because she would need to be attentive for the next part of his elaboration. He just pays enough attention on her sobs as he does on the winds outside. However, once it becomes evident that she is most likely going to cry herself to death, he knows he has to intervene.
“Now, now, Anko.” He chides, fake enough for her to cognise. “There’s no point crying now, is there? The condition you are in, you aren’t going to survive long enough to finish your mourning.”
She gives a deaf ear to his warning and continues to weep. For all she cares, the angles of death can come and escort her to the underworld; she would not even flinch. One of the closest people in her life just stabbed her in the back, that too quite literally. What does she have to live for? If she is being honest, death would have been a better alternative than her current situation. Atleast she would have met her end peacefully, unknowing of the harsh truth. All her fond memories queue up in front of her eyes as she prepares to depart from her life, not knowing what exactly is making her more sad; the betrayal, her upcoming demise, or the fact that she won’t see those near and dear to her in this lifetime.
Orochimaru, meanwhile, takes his time stalking upto her and sinking his knees, ruffling the near paralysed girl’s accumulated hair and flicking away her tears in mock affection.
“But worry not, my dear pupil.” He interjects as she continues to ignore his presence. “For I know a way by which you can survive.”
She hates it. She absolutely loathes herself for the piqued interest this brought into her. Taking life saving remedies from the man that treated her like a lab rat. But she cannot stop herself in time, because the advantages of living seem to outweigh that of death, one of them being able to report this incident. Atleast that is what her mind convinces her of.
She doesn’t respond, but her body language symbolises that she is listening. He gives a maniacal giggle and his snake like eyes glow up frighteningly before he answers her ask.
“Yes, you will be able to live and test this new power of yours.” The fact that he just described the worst kind of torture she has ever experienced as nothing more than a mere power boost tells Anko that he has indeed gone insane. The psychopathic expression of his would not help his case either.
“All you have to do is come with me.” He ends, and sees no sign of realisation anywhere on her face.
He sighs, and in order to compliment her understanding, he reaches for her face. Naturally, she blenches. He grabs hold of her headband and with a clean swipe, he yanks it off of her. Then, as her saddened, curious eyes look on, he presents it to her.
“You have to simply leave your past behind in order to live on, you understand it now?” He raises an eyebrow, anticipation painted on his face.
She understands. She most definitely understands. He is asking her to leave the leaf village. More specifically, he wants her to betray it. That is the only plausible reason occurring to her as to why she should forget her acquaintance with them.
If anybody else had been betrayed, given a choice between living and becoming a criminal, all in a span of ten minutes, heavens know they won’t be able to take it. Anko is no different. She heartily wishes that this is nothing more than a nightmare, or a stupid genjutsu, that is ruining her mind, but all the pain she feels, that runs down her left shoulder and the one in her heart, is very real.
She has a choice, but in truth she has no choice. She feels helpless. She feels desperate. The choice is right there, but it truly isn’t.
“Well?” He furrows, quirking an eyebrow like he’s asking her what flavour of ice cream she wants rather than whether she chooses life or death.
A fresh set of tears emerges from her eyes as she opens her mouth to answer, too sorry for her own self and for everyone she has ever cared for, all of whom lived within the very borders which she wouldn’t be seeing ever again either ways.
———————————
As the ship nears the shores, his heartbeat gets more and more difficult. He continues pacing on the deck with worry seeping itself off his forehead in form of precipitation. He can barely stop the worst kind of thoughts from invading his head. He cannot understand for the life of his why he is even entertaining such possibilities.
We should’ve left earlier , one such thought declares. What if she is gone by now?
He tries pushing them away, but to no avail. These thoughts have made themselves at home eversince they were called into the Hokage’s office just before leaving for another mission, one involving a bridge, and told that they will be instead looking for Anko and Orochimaru, who haven’t reported from their wave mission since a month.
A month? And they tell them now?!
He grunts with such force that the seagulls resting on the railings flee in terror.
Kakashi wasn’t the only one that labelled it as bullshit, since Obito had started barking there and then, telling the Hokage that he won’t be forgiven if his friend doesn’t make it back alive, and to everyone’s surprise, Kakashi had shown support for Obito this time, warning lord third that if they are too late, it is his mistake. The hokage’s face was a sight to behold, but he didn’t have time for that; he had to go and bring Anko back.
If she is alive, that is. His train of thoughts is causing him to go insane.
He feels a hand gently grab the back of his shoulder, and he instantly rotates on his heels to come face to face with another boy, identified by his trademark goggles and grin. He has a soft, sympathetic smile on his face right now, one which indicates that he understands the other boys feelings. He nods and declares,
“Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure she has already kicked ass of whatever was causing her a delay.” He winks and Kakashi can’t help but smile at this gesture.
A girl comes upto the two of them, smiling brightly despite the ever so evident hurt in her eyes which makes Kakashi feel guilty.
“Obito’s right.” She assures just as ship reaches ashore. “You know Anko is stronger than that.”
He can do nothing except agree with their conjectures just as the three of them jump down the boat and make a beeline for the wooden structure that stands in front of them. All three of them look at each other, then at the door yet again. The answer to what was Anko’s fate lies inside, and naturally none of them are ready to take the step, because secretly, they have all assumed the worst regarding their friend.
In finalty, Obito is the one who gulps down his fear and gets hold of the wooden handle. Holding back his breath, he pushes it open with closed eyes and all three of their beating hearts come to a stop. The only things to be seen inside are the chemicals from Orochimaru’s labs, without which he wouldn’t even budge. The only thing even signifying the presence of a human is the dried rusty stain, which was obviously a pool of blood before bein evaporated, that lies in the middle of the shack.
Shakily, Rin scans the pool for chakra, only to reply with a heavy throat. “I-it’s Anko’s...”
That is the last thing Kakashi hears before Obito’s choked sobs fill the room. Tears roll down the Uchiha’s sunken face as he comes to the realisation that his dear friend is no more. Soon enough, he is joined by Rin, sniffing and whimpering uncontrollably.
That is when Kakashi feels his legs get shaky, since the carpet from beneath them is so smoothly snatched. He falls on his knees just as tears start shedding from his own eyes and into the puddle of blood in which he stares his reflection.
Anko is gone. The one person he could share all his grievances with, the one who never gave up on him and brought him back from doom, the first person he ever considered his friend, the girl he was not so secretly in love with. She is gone.
The night is welcomed by unstoppable bawling of three children who just lost a dear one.