The pouch that contained lots of stuff was obviously some sort of seal technique. Since it was possible to make a canteen that stored a lot more water than was normally possible using fuuinjutsu - then the idea of a bottle of sake that never ran out wasn't too far a stretch of the imagination.
"Now how does this work?" asked Anko as she opened the stolen pouch and looked inside.
Unauthorized access is not permitted, said a voice inside her head, sounding odd as if the speaker wasn't talking with just one mouth.
She'd once seen, in a trip to the capital, some young kid drinking some ice cream confection through a straw that curled and twisted in on itself. It felt as if she had turned to liquid and were being sucked through just such a straw.
When she stopped and felt as if her bones and flesh were no longer infinitely malleable - it was dark.
Anko fortunately knew a few things about such situations and quickly used her other senses to get a picture of her surroundings.
Slowly dripping liquid hitting a pool of the same, probably water. Some sort of cave? Rock floor, rough - natural cavern of some kind?
Another noise sounded, one that caused Anko to go completely still in the darkness. Something had just sniffed the air and stirred. Something BIG. Like a big summons. Something moved again, and she placed the size as over ten Manda - using the boss snake summons as a reference. NOT good.
Anko decided creating a light was not a good idea as it made you very visible to potential enemies. Fortunately there was another possibility she knew. Hands flicked through the handseals quickly and she channelled chakra silently in the technique to give her darkvision.
She saw the cavern was huge, extending out into the darkness beyond the range of the jutsu. There was a small pool nearby, with water dripping into it from the darkness above.
Then there was what was sharing space in the cavern.
"WHAT THE #?*! IS THAT?! %@&##!"
The thing moved slightly to regard her, then raised its head off of the cavern floor to regard her more fully.
BIG. She couldn't see the end of it. The jutsu she'd used gave her a visual range of roughly roughly 500m. She could see enough to see how freaking huge it was and Anko realized that she had been right. It was at least ten times the size of Manda and infinitely more dangerous-looking.
It regarded her briefly. Then it said something.
Her name.
It was not her name "Anko Mitarashi" but something else, something more primal and intricately connected to her. Somehow it summed her up - her past and her future, her hobbies, preferences. The face she showed to the world, the one she showed to her admittedly small group of friends, and the one she kept hidden even from them.
She wasn't aware how long it was before she became aware that she was on her knees, crouched over, clutching her head. Feeling as if that single word from the Beast had been like tapping a glass with a spoon - causing it to chime and reverberate. Like a more forceful utterance of that word would have shattered her into a thousand pieces.
Experience had taught her - there were fights that it was best to avoid, and there were times you had to be very very polite. There were other times when you had to at least ACT stronger than you were to avoid getting swatted.
She got to her feet again, snarled up at the beast and put her best game-face on.
"That the worst you can do?" asked Anko.
Child, you have no idea what my 'worst' would do to you, rumbled the Beast.
"What's the worst you can do, kill me?" said Anko, hating the fact that she was shaking.
The Beast before her sighed and shook its head in what was obviously a copy of a human gesture.
Anko realized she'd taken a step backwards as the Beast fixed its eyes upon her, felt power gather around her.
"Enough," said a woman's voice.
Anko slowly looked up. There was now a woman, with unbound dark hair, between her and it.
"You really should have known better," said the woman to Anko. "There really are times when caution would suit you better."
"Well," said Anko, who HAD noticed that the big Thing there had immediately backed off from whoever this was. "Why ruin a perfect record?"
The woman raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at her before turning her attention towards the Beast.
Anko felt the brief impulse. She could zip over there, put a kunai against the woman's throat, demand her way out of here. She twitched as she judged the distance.
The Beast regarded her and spoke again.
Anko felt herself shatter into thousands of tiny pieces. Then those pieces shattered, and the resulting dust shattered. Then there was a rush as things were put back together.
The woman put her hand against her head as the dizziness passed. What had just happened?
She was... Anko. Yes, that was it. Her name was Anko Mitarashi. She was the owner of a tea shop. She was a master of tea ceremony, and the Uzumaki boy's tutor in etiquette and ninjutsu.
Anko looked over her kimono, a light tan with embroidered cranes in gold, and over her tea service as she tried to figure out what had jarred her from the soothing routine of her duties.
A woman entered the shop, looking around. "Well, this is interesting. I can also see you're rather more at peace with yourself, but I really think that this won't do. Sorry about that."
"Excuse me?" asked Anko.
There was a sense of suddenly breaking apart into a thousand pieces.
Anko blinked and uncurled from where she'd apparently gone into a fetal position. "WHAT THE #$@! WAS THAT?!"
"The guardian here used your truename and then changed your life to make you less of a thief," said the woman. "I simply changed you back. You should have the memories of that other life though, so perhaps that will give you a measure of that peace."
"I... remember," said Anko softly as she tried to grasp what had just happened. The thing was, she COULD remember. Remember having a crush not on Orochimaru but on Minato Namikaze. On being friends with him and his girlfriend Kushina. On swearing to look after the child. Raising the child, defending him, teaching him what she could. Having a tea shop that was occasionally vandalized but then rebuilt by ANBU who frequented the place. She had served a useful and necessary role in that different past - providing a link to culture and ceremony as well as brief time of peace and reflection for ninja. It was... odd.
"It'll fade somewhat," said the woman. "Now, if you would?"
The world around her blurred and they were suddenly in a gazebo surrounded by a trimmed lawn and gardens.
Anko blinked as the absence of the Beast and her new surroundings penetrated. "What?"
"This is something of a dream that I've set up to meet people in," said the woman. "You know me as 'Mitternacht' if you've read the reports."
"Uhm, should I have?" asked Anko, suspecting that maybe she SHOULD have read those reports after all.
The woman rubbed the bridge of her nose briefly. "Your body is currently lying on the floor of the meeting place. I simply wanted the chance to speak with you."
"Okay, so speak already," said Anko, trying to get some control of the situation back.
"Kurenai-sensei?" said Hinata as she finally woke up. "I had the strangest dream."
"What did it involve?" asked Kurenai.
"Naruto-kun and chocolate glaze?" asked Hinata as she tried to remember. Slowly she levered herself up. Odd, this wasn't the training ground. This was...
Naruto stared.
Kiba stared.
Well, heck EVERYONE was staring.
Hinata's eyes tracked back to Naruto. FAINT!
"This time I don't blame her at all," said Naruto.
"Clearly, lying her down next to Anko was NOT a good move," said Kurenai.
Jiraiya had waited for the scout to approach him.
He wasn't hiding. He had actually set up his campsite but hadn't summoned toads or used any jutsu beyond a handful of D-Ranked "camping jutsu" that most ninja didn't even bother with nowadays.
A little earth-technique cleared a spot and put a little crater in the ground. Gather some twigs and sticks, apply a little fire technique. In very short order he had a hammock strung between two trees, a minimal-smoke campfire going, water heating up in a kettle over that fire, and was chewing on a ration bar he'd picked up back in Roulette.
He didn't bother to do anything about the watchers when they arrived, in fact he pretended they weren't there. He didn't detect any hostile intent, just wariness. Well, much hostile intent anyway.
In the meantime he just waited for the one of the women to arrive.
She did, obviously taking her time to appear nonthreatening. Jiraiya noted that and attributed it to them being mostly curious. He hadn't done anything to particularly flag any danger signals, beyond following that one trader. Honestly, they should have expected that - and expected less than scrupulous people to do so. Flash a little money and you'd draw rather unsavory people who'd try to take it from you. So a few precautions were to be expected.
Well, cautious but curious was his own approach.
When he'd arranged the campsite, he'd put one log near the fire on one side - with another log on the other side. Aware of the scrutiny, he'd placed a few things out around the campsite - clearly arranging for an overnight stay. He'd also gotten two cups and a tea set. Sharing tea with what he suspected was an attactive young lady was not as good as warm sake - but it was a start. Besides the "harmless old pervert novelist" guise - while perfectly natural for him and a part he could play to perfection - was sometimes not as well received as it could have been. Until he knew more, he couldn't...
Jiraiya didn't tense, but instead reviewed the camp's placement. One of the hidden watchers had waited for him to be distracted while adjusting the kettle. Then that watcher had darted forward and then back up into that tree. He frowned and casually glanced over the camp, then compared the memories of the camp as he'd set it up versus what he'd just seen.
Hmmm. One of his books? Had he set out one of the Icha Icha series? Well, it might work to go with the "harmless pervert author" image. Or they might chase him from the area while throwing sharp pointy objects. One got him more information than the other, but both outcomes served to give him more information than he had now.
The newcomer finally arrived and stopped at the trail where the campsite was just off that track. Jiraiya noted that the hooded cloak hung down to ankle level and was identical to the one that the trader had worn. This individual was a bit shorter though, perhaps a genin or the equivelant. This also was a hopeful sign.
The giggle from that one tree was... well, it could be a hopeful sign or it could be something to be concerned about.
"The hour grows late. Do you mind sharing your fire for a few minutes?" asked the newcomer. Jiraiya guessed young woman, chunin age. Well, for a typical chunin. Some genin stayed genin for quite some time.
"No problem," said Jiraiya, broad grin in place. "I saw you coming and I'm making tea."
"I see," said the hooded figure, who then paused and undid the clasp, taking the cloak and spreading it out to cover her seat.
Jiraiya couldn't help but stare. Cute. VERY cute. Also quite obviously not from around here. Long pointed ears, skin a shade or two darker than chocolate, eyes that were as red as those of Kurenai Yuhi but longer and more slender. White hair that hung down past her waist. She wore some unfamiliar looking clothing, silk of some kind from the look of it, with leather dyed a dark blue forming the fastenings.
Jiraiya relaxed back on his log. The young girl was bait. If he did anything untoward, no doubt the watchers would turn hostile. Well, he wasn't inclined to hostile yet. Lecherous perhaps, though she looked a bit young for his tastes.
Another giggle from the tree, which caused his guest to startle and then look nervously at him.
"Strange birds around here," said Jiraiya. "Now, you've probably guessed why I'm here."
The girl looked relieved for a moment and then wary.
"I am," began Jiraiya, preparing to introduce himself.
"The author of Icha Icha Paradise!" said a voice.
Jiraiya blinked as suddenly he was surrounded.
"Can I get your autograph?" asked one of the young women who'd NOT been bait.
Yes, Jiraiya thought, this WAS beginning to look hopeful.
"What? You're kidding," said the bait. "He's the writer of those?"
"You've read my novels?" asked Jiraiya.
"Are you here to research a new one? Can I help?" asked the one who was holding out a VERY well-worn copy of Icha Icha Paradise.
"I just loved page 472!" said another woman, who propped a copy of the same novel so that the spine was framed by her breasts.
Yes, Jiraiya thought to himself, this was beginning to look QUITE hopeful. My goodness gracious, that girl put Tsunade to shame!
CRASH!
"My lady!"
Tsunade looked at the glass of booze draining off the table, then slowly looked up at the concerned Shizune.
"My lady, what happened?" asked Shizune, who hadn't been looking at Tsunade at that moment.
"I feel as if some great upheaval in the natural order has just occurred," said Tsunade carefully, as she picked shards of glass up. "And also, somehow, someway, Jiraiya is involved."
Orochimaru twitched and the victim on the table died. "Hmmm."
"What happened?" asked Kabuto.
"I suddenly felt as if in some no-doubt trivial manner, Jiraiya had just surpassed me," said Orochimaru with a frown. He hadn't nearly finished with this patient and the peasant had the audacity to go dying before he was ready.
"Impossible," said Kabuto.
"I suppose," said Orochimaru. "You should be getting back to the Leaf before much longer."
"Nothing of import happens there anyway," pointed out Kabuto.
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(Posted Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:38)
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