Chapter 1
“Hokage-sama?” Anko asked, stepping into the empty debriefing room with uncertainty. It was strange enough to be called for a briefing in the hospital, especially when she wasn’t aware of any current medical emergencies. But considering the light craving for dango she’d picked up just before the summons arrived, she was definitely on guard.
“I’m pulling you for an intel mission to Hot Springs. Shikako Nara will be leading the mission. She set this up herself and she has a better sense of what you'll be looking for."
Anko tilted her head to the side in consideration, a little surprised that Tsunade bothered to explain. Anko's status had honestly improved by bounds under her compared to Hiruzen, but orders were still orders and Anko would have obeyed without an explanation. For that matter, Nara was demonstrably competent and had run intel missions more recently than Anko. Despite her seniority, it really wasn't that strange for her to lead the mission. “Okay.”
Tsunade gave her a knowing look that said she knew exactly what Anko was thinking, which. While uncomfortable, probably wasn't that far off.
"Isn't Aoba her usual intel partner, though?"
"He's currently unavailable. And to be honest, I prefer you for this one."
Anko stared. It was still jarring, sometimes, how casually Tsunade trusted her. It was one thing to be fairly certain Anko wasn't a traitor -- one thing she'd fought for far too long -- but it was another to prefer her. In any situation, really.
"You've been training up to Jonin level with Maito Gai, yes?"
Anko wasn't sure how much it was a question or just a reaffirmation, but she nodded nonetheless.
"Good. I suspect Nara could run a routine mission on her own. But not only do her missions have a habit of escalating, this particular mission is to Hot Springs. Considering the circumstances..."
Anko straightened. "I understand, Hokage-sama."
Tsunade regarded her for a long moment, then nodded. "Nara Shikako is mission leader, but you're in charge of bringing you both back alive."
...
Anko set out from Konoha with Shikako at dawn the next day, moving at a pace that had them covering decent ground while allowing Shikako to read her in on roughly what they were looking for.
She was surprisingly close-mouthed on why the masochist murder cult was so important or urgent that it was worth wading into Hot Springs with the current international tension, but Anko was willing to trust Shikako's judgement on how important the secret was against whether it became relevant to their search.
They reached the Konoha outpost near the northeast border within a few hours, where they found no real news despite the expected tension of the scouts keeping an eye out for opening moves of a war. They were on there way again with little hassle, until Shikako pulled to a sudden halt less than an hour from their destination.
Anko eyed her expression, focused on the middle distance on nothing in particular, with a frown. "What's wrong?"
She hesitated, then started explaining that she felt 'weird' chakra around the town. As Anko's frown grew in concern, Shikako started to wave it off.
"'Weird' chakra has only been mission relevant for me once." Then she paused. "Well, Twice." Another pause and Anko was torn between amusement and foreboding. "Okay, three times."
“And how many times has weird chakra not been mission relevant?”
Shikako took a breath as if to speak, then paused, her gaze drifting slightly to the side. “Uhm. Actually. None that I can remember.”
Anko gave her young mission leader a flat stare. “How likely is it that you actually forgot?”
“Well. Not very.”
Anko huffed a laugh. “Right. So the town we’re investigating has Important Weird Chakra. Anything else?”
"I don't... think so?"
"Are you asking or telling?"
Shikako shrugged with a wry smile. "I'm hedging."
...
“Shit.”
Anko came to a stop in the main street of the village, as abrupt as Shikako's had been outside of it.
Shikako tensed beside her, eyes darting to the side even as she turned to Anko, checking the area from her peripheral vision. "What's wrong?"
“I need dango so bad right now.”
Shikako laughed in startled surprise and continued to radiate faint amusement all the way to a sweet stand an equally amused bystander had pointed out, unwavering in the face of Anko's defense that her cravings were always a bad sign.
As Anko worked her way through far too many sweets, Shikako paused and titled her head slightly to one side. “It’s bad luck to be superstitious, you know.”
“It — what was that?” Anko sputtered, surprised.
Shikako blinked, then repeated a little slower but with the exact same tone, "It's bad luck to be superstitious, you know."
Some days she really had to hand it to this kid. It was impressive how she managed to fit so much sass under that genuinely friendly exterior.
“It’s not superstition, brat, it’s instinct. It’s all the details you’re noticing and processing and putting together before you even consciously realize it. And, maybe a little, it’s chakra. Most older ninja have a warning sign when things are about to go really wrong. Mine is dango. For that matter, maybe yours is weird atmospheric chakra.”
Shikako hummed and tilted her head to the side, still seeming somewhat dubious but at least considering it. "Maybe. We'll be on guard either way."
Anko huffed and shook her head. "Good enough for now, I guess."
...
Anko woke with a choked-off gasp, back arching as pain flared through her chakra network. It took a desperate, hazy moment of blunt, scrabbling nails before she even realized what was happening. She desperately took stock of her surroundings — Orochimaru must be close, must be doing something nearby for the curse mark to hurt this much. She was still in the hotel room she’d rented with Shikako the previous night. There were bells ringing, long and low and so loud it was a wonder she hadn’t noticed them first. She could feel them chiming in her bones, throbbing in time with her pulse and the surging of putrid chakra.
“Roll over” came a quiet hiss from the dark figure suddenly looming above her. Anko reached for her weapons, fighting through an alarming haze of exhaustion only to find that she didn't have any -- of course, they were supposed to be civilians -- when the figure jolted back hands raised, voice familiar and placating.
Anko blinked hard and willed her eyes to focus. “Shikako?”
The figure nods even as it slides into focus. And somehow the world makes even less sense. They're on a mission to Hot Springs, Orochimaru shouldn't be anywhere near.
“What—”
Shikako shook her head quickly, and given that Anko wasn’t entirely sure what she was going to ask she had no idea what the answer meant. “The curse seal is fighting the containment.”
“What?” Anko asked again, her hand reaching up and back to the join between shoulder-blade and neck where the pain was concentrated white-hot before radiating through her body. Her nails dug into the skin with a burst of focused pain before Shikako was pulling her hand away and urging her onto her right side.
“Let me get a look at it, there might be something—”
The bells were tolling louder now, far too loud, and between that and the pain in every muscle, in her bones, in her chakra, she could hardly think. She rolled over.
Anko wasn't sure what Shikako was planning. It wasn't like they had access to seal expansion all the way out here, so unless the Nara could just whip that up -- but before she'd seemed to try anything she was rearing back with a wide-eyed look of shocked disgust.
The pain spiked sharp and hot. Anko could feel it like the seal was somehow wrenching at the core of her, tearing away at her chakra rather than filling her with it's own. The seal had always hurt but somehow this was worse, a clawing agony that threatened to tear at her mind as well as her body.
She was dimly aware of Shikako steadying above her and then leaping for their bags, pulling out paper and ink and scrawling a seal with desperate speed.
Anko grit her teeth, closed her eyes. Spared a moment's relief that Shikako seemed to have some idea what to do. Clamped a hand back over the seal now that the seal mistress didn't need to look at it only to choke out and wrench her hand back.
She'd felt a lump. A giant, fleshy lump pushing out of the seal on her shoulder, noticeably growing even in the fraction of a moment she'd pressed against it.
Shikako seemed to be finished with her seal because she launched back across the room to hover over Anko, holding still for only a moment with wide, watchful eyes before Anko felt something pull out of her and the pain vanished with an abruptness that left her gasping in shock.
Shikako slapped the paper down behind her with a hissed, “Seal!”
And then it was over. In the distance, the bells fell silent.