Pupil of the Serpent

A/N: Another chapter edited (read: rewritten). Boy, I'm sure starting to remember why simply deleting this story was a much more attractive prospect than fixing it up—the whole thing sucks! Every single paragraph, I find myself wondering, "What was I thinking when I wrote that?" I'm a bit embarrassed that I've left this story up in this condition for years. The rewriting process has been fun, at least, albeit tiring. Enjoy!

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To my reviewers:

@Lynn: Wow, real tears? You're the greatest! May you continue to derive entertainment from this story for a long time to come. Every review is a blessing, so keep at it!

@weaselchan: I'm so glad you're enjoying the story. Hopefully, you won't be too disappointed in me after this chapter. Looking forward to your next review!

@Small Fox: You're not alone, my friend! Unfortunately, most readers will probably end up hating him by the end of this story, but his fate is already written in stone. As always, I thank you for your review, and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

@Clover_Grl: I must say I'm quite overwhelmed by your praise. Thank you . . . I can only hope I continue to live up to your expectations in the future. Orochimaru is also one of my favorite characters; being so undeniably evil while inspiring such fanatical devotion among his followers indicates a depth of character that is unfortunately never fully explored in the series. I'm glad the short chapter lengths are a good fit for you, though I can claim no credit or insight for this; I'm simply unable to write any more than a couple thousand words at a time. I hope you'll stick with Orochimaru and Anko until the end, and thank you again for reviewing!

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The next morning found Anko as exhausted as she'd been the night before. Though she'd finally managed to fall into a restless sleep, she'd been plagued by vague, formless nightmares. The only thing she could remember was that she'd been alone. Completely and utterly. 

"You're awake." Jiraiya's voice was more relaxed than it had been the previous evening, though she could still hear the strain in it. He was squatting near the fire, cooking something that smelled suspiciously like pork ramen. The thought of food was tempting, but Anko was not so easily distracted. Immediately, she scanned the campsite, looking for her sensei. Her chest tightened as she realized that he was nowhere to be found.

"Where's Orochimaru-sensei?" she demanded, leaping to her feet.

"Good morning to you, too," he replied wryly. "Your sensei is brooding somewhere. He tends to do that when something's bothering him."

Anko regarded him warily. "How do I know you're telling the truth? Sensei said you were spying on him."



"Orochimaru is rather paranoid, isn't he?" the Sannin remarked agreeably. "Breakfast?" He offered her a steaming bowl of noodles.

She hesitated, then took the bowl, slurping the noodles hungrily. "He's not paranoid," she told him between mouthfuls. "You were spying on him."

Jiraiya grinned. "So were you, last night."

The girl frowned, considering this for a moment. "Only because I wanted to know what you were talking about, and I knew no one would tell me," she said at last, a bit defensively.

"Yes, that's usually the reason that ninja spy on people." Jiraiya's grin was growing broader.

Anko responded with a furtive smile of her own, warming to the man. He didn't seem so bad . . .  She finished her ramen, putting the empty bowl aside. "Is it true?" she asked at last. "What she said about Orochimaru-sensei?"

The white-haired shinobi sighed, then sat down, leaning back on his hands. "That depends on which part you're talking about."

"That her brother was Orochimaru-sensei's student."

"Yes, that part was true."

"And . . . he died?"

"Yes."

The girl tensed. "Because of Orochimaru-sensei?" Her voice had dropped to a whisper.

"That's not what I believe."

Anko released a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "I knew it. The things she said . . . they really hurt him."

Jiraiya glanced up sharply. "What makes you think that?" He was the only one who had ever been able to read Orochimaru's true thoughts behind the emotionless mask that he showed the rest of the world, and it had taken years to even crack the surface of the man's thoroughly-frozen emotions. To hear this little girl, who had known Orochimaru for only a few months, so easily interpret what had essentially been a passive response . . . it was unnerving. 

The little kunoichi shrugged. "I could tell. Tsunade-san's brother . . . it wasn't that he didn't mean anything to Orochimaru-sensei. He just doesn't like to show his pain."

Jiraiya tried to keep his jaw from dropping. How is it that this child could be a better and more loyal friend to Orochimaru than me or Tsunade? To say that she was astounding would be an understatement.

"Jiraiya-san?"

He cleared his throat, but his voice remained thick with emotion. "Yes?"

"Do you think . . . Orochimaru-sensei cares about me like he cared for Tsunade's brother? It wouldn't have to be as much," she added quickly, gnawing her lip nervously. "Just . . . a little."

She's so insecure . . . He looked into her large amber eyes, reading the desperate desire that was written there so plainly. Damn you, Orochimaru. What are you doing to this child? She had obviously made her teacher the absolute core of her universe. No wonder she had learned to read him so well—his approval was the only thing that mattered to her. He winced inwardly; the girl definitely had budding romantic feelings for her teacher, and they would only get worse over time if she didn't find something or someone else to anchor herself to. That kind of dependence was unhealthy in the best of cases, and to think of a child obsessing over Orochimaru . . . well, the potential for disaster was enormous. Not that it was really his friend's fault; the man had the emotional sensitivity of a stone. He probably wasn't even aware of her attraction to him, or if he was, he had dismissed it as simple, childish infatuation. Which it wasn't. The girl had been emotionally starved for her entire life; now that she had found a source of nourishment, she wasn't likely to give it up easily . . . even if it was poisoned. 

Realizing that she was waiting impatiently for a response, he forced a smile onto his face. "No, not quite that way." Anko's expression was devastated, and Jiraiya instantly felt as if he'd kicked a puppy. "You're special to him in a different way," he added quickly. "After all, you're a different kind of person."

Hope surged in her eyes. "Really?"

"Yes, really." He laughed, though he didn't really feel very cheerful. "For Orochimaru to take you on as an apprentice, there must be something incredible about you." This was the truth. After Nawaki's death, he'd never expected his old teammate to take another student. Come to think of it . . . her circumstances were so very much like Orochimaru's had been. Did he pity her?

Anko gave him the widest grin he'd ever seen. A few minutes later, as they were tidying up the remains of their meal, Orochimaru and Tsunade entered the clearing, walking side by side. 

"Right on time," muttered Jiraiya under his breath. Tsunade looked embarrassed, while Orochimaru just seemed bored.

"Are we finally ready to work together?" Jiraiya asked, raising an eyebrow.

The two looked at each other, and Orochimaru shrugged. "Somewhat."

Which was about as much of an answer as you could expect from Orochimaru.

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Nearly six hours after breaking camp, the four ninja were still on the move, leaping swiftly among the treetops. Anko’s ankles ached from the constant application and release of pressure applied by the limbs she was using as springboards for her movement. Still, she was determined not to slow the group down, so she simply endured. They'd been mostly heading due north, and she wondered why—there wasn't much directly north of their current location besides the Land of Hot Water, and there was nothing there to warrant the deployment of even one of the elite Sannin, much less all three. As she pondered this, Orochimaru suddenly came to a stop, looking around.

"Anko and I are stopping here," he announced. Anko blinked in confusion. It wasn't as if she was adverse to taking a break, but why were just the two of them stopping? 

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "We'll go on ahead, then." 

“Fine. I’ll catch up soon.”

“Don’t take too long. We’re counting on you to back us up.”

“Of course. Don’t get yourself killed without me, you incompetent fool.”

Tsunade hesitated, lowering her head almost shyly. “I may have misjudged you, Orochimaru. If you can forgive me, I . . . I’m counting on you, too!”

The snake Sannin nodded. “Understood.”

Without pause, the two ninja continued on, leaping through the foliage with alacrity. Jiraiya glanced over at Tsunade slyly, a faint smile playing about his lips. "So," he began casually, "what prompted this change of heart?"

She gave him a withering look. "Don't play dumb. You were the one who told me to hide and listen to what the girl had to say."

Jiraiya chuckled. "So I take it you found her convincing?"

"I don't know about that. But I am convinced that she needs him. I will not risk a child's sanity for the sake of revenge. And there is a chance that she's actually right about him."

"For what it's worth, I've always believed that he was secretly fond of Nawaki. He visits the grave, you know . . . though he's always to careful to make sure you aren't there."

She turned her face away, though not before he could see the crystalline sparkle of a tear in the corner of her eye. "Don't," she whispered.

"Sorry."

They continued on in silence for a few minutes before Tsunade spoke again. "I'm worried about Anko. That is not a normal student-teacher relationship."

He did not have to ask what she meant. "I know."

"With the kind of attachment she's forming, she'll never be whole without him in her life. And while I may be willing to accept that he's not a completely heartless bastard, I think we both know that he's a little too ambitious to be reliable. If he thinks he needs to use her to get somewhere he wants to be . . ."

"He won't do that. Not to her. She's special somehow; I can feel it."

"I hope you're right."

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Anko glared at her teacher, who stood at the entrance to the cave that he'd brought her to, his back already turned to her as he prepared to leave. For the first time since she'd become his student, she defied him openly. "You can't leave me behind! I'm not afraid to fight!"

Orochimaru closed his eyes, trying to block out the image of that annoyingly cheerful face, still slightly rounded with the last vestiges of baby fat. "C'mon, Orochimaru-sensei! Take me along, just this once! I'm not afraid to fight!"

Stupid, stupid little boy. Why had he run ahead like that?

He sucked in a deep breath, then opened his eyes again. "I know. That's exactly why you're staying here." He didn't dare take her beyond this point—despite the non-combative nature of the mission, it was still quite possible that they would encounter hostile ninja, and Anko wasn't ready for that kind of fighting; not yet. He would not allow another student to die pointlessly. "Sometimes, teamwork means knowing when not to help, Anko."

She clenched her hands at her sides, furious with the way he was writing her off. She hated it when he treated her like a helpless little girl. "That just means you think I'll get in your way! I won't, I promise! I've learned everything you've taught me; I'm ready!" She was his student, after all; didn't he think she was worth anything? How was she supposed to show him that she was worthy of his affection if she never got a chance to prove herself?

"You're not ready. On this mission, I'm not just your sensei. I'm your commander, and I'm ordering you to stay behind. Or don't you know how to follow orders?"

The sudden coldness in his voice was almost more than she could bear, and she felt her eyes sting with the effort of holding back tears. He really didn't think she could be trusted to help him. The sudden surge of anger she felt made her bolder than she had ever dared be before. "Fine," she spat. "If you don't want me to come along, I'll just follow you."

In a sudden whirl of ebony hair, Orochimaru turned his head to fix her with one golden eye. A terrifying smile appeared on his face, and he ran his tongue over his lips, as if he could already taste blood. Anko found herself unable to move, or even breathe—she was completely paralyzed by the deadly killing aura that he was projecting.

This . . . is Orochimaru-sensei? She grit her teeth, fighting to remain standing, but it was a doomed effort. Her heart was beating so rapidly that it was painful. In her mind was the certain knowledge that she could be killed at any moment. One wrong move, a single twitch, and it would be all over for her. Superimposed over the figure of her sensei was an enormous white snake, golden eyes gleaming as it opened a fanged maw to swallow her whole.

"Don't overestimate yourself, little girl. This is real combat, Anko-chan. You'll be killed. Is that what you want?" His voice was smooth and silky—the deadly hiss of a predator just before it struck. She was going to die.

I'll be killed . . . With a choked whimper, Anko shook her head. She staggered back against a wall of the cave, then slid down until she was sitting on the floor. Tears began to roll slowly down her cheeks. Abruptly, the dreadful, threatening aura disappeared. In a swishing of his robe, Orochimaru was kneeling at her side. Gently, he gathered her into his arms. Too upset to be ashamed, the girl pressed her face against his shoulder and cried.

"You scared me, Orochimaru-sensei," she sobbed. "You scared me really bad."

"Shh," he whispered. "It's all right, Anko." He stroked her hair comfortingly. She cried for several more minutes until she was able to regain control of herself, though she still trembled violently. Gently, he took her shoulders and pushed her back to arm's length. "I shouldn't have done that to you."

Her face was streaked with tears, and it was obvious she was having difficulty getting words out. "You're mean, Orochimaru-sensei." Her voice was barely above a whisper.

He breathed a sigh of relief, giving a short laugh. If she was already feeling well enough to pout, she hadn't suffered any permanent trauma. Using one finger, he carefully wiped the tears from her eyes. "I'll treat you to dango when we get back to Konoha, so forgive me, okay?" An offer to buy dango was usually enough to bribe his student into just about anything.

To his surprise, she shook her head. "I won't forgive you. Not unless you're really going to make it up to me."

He smiled at this. "That sounds scary. What do I have to do?"

She looked up at him, staring directly into his eyes. "Will you kiss me, Sensei?"

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A/N: On to editing the next chapter. Yikes—this is liable to take a while. Reviews are always, always appreciated.