"Anko might we speak with you a moment?" Ibiki asked, waving for Anko to follow him.
"'We'?" Anko said in a bored tone.
Ibiki nodded and gestured for her to follow him with a serious expression. Snapping up the last two pieces of dango into her mouth, she followed him, wondering if something really dangerous were going on.
When she was led into a small room, dark in a soothing manner, and saw the Hokage sitting down and enjoying a pipe. There was already a faint haze gathering up in the top of the room.
"Oh, hello, Anko," he said in cheerful manner. "Please sit down."
She walked over toward the couch and leaned back onto it, looking casual as Ibiki stepped in and closed the door behind her. The looks of concern were telling and Anko tried to think if she'd had any particular episode recently that might have gotten back to them.
"How are you sleeping?" the Hokage asked.
"Hmm?" Anko asked, shrugging aside in a dull tone of voice. "I'm getting five a night, consecutively most of the time."
Most people weren't well acquainted enough with Anko to be able to understand her tones and moods. Her normal excited attitude was standard for her and didn't really mean anything and she had several variations of sing-song for when she was irritated or having fun.
If she really was paying attention she sounded bored.
Heaven help the person she spoke to in anything like what most people considered a normal tone of voice.
"That's bare minimum for health," Ibiki noted.
"Tsh, if this is about the...whatever...in the barracks," Anko said. "Yamanaka's kid was asking questions she really should have known better to and I got a little demonstrative with why she should know better...she and her father, decided to play a prank on me as a result."
"That display was nothing like when you were fifteen," Hokage said with a smile. "I have a recording if you want to know what was going on."
His smile faded a little even as she grimaced at the teasing.
"But the triggering event combined with recent rumors is...concerning," the Hokage said.
"Other rumors?" Anko said with an arched eyebrow as if such things didn't concern her. "About me? There's something new about me?"
She tapped her fingers. Maybe she should attempt to socialize more so she could tell when people were avoiding her.
The problem was that would mean socializing more.
And socializing would eventually mean more people than the Hokage and Ibiki knowing about her night terrors.
A bad reputation was good for not socializing.
And indulging her fascination with the sight, sound and smell of blood and scaring people in little ways was good both for managing the issue and keeping a bad reputation.
"Do you know a Sakura Haruna?" Ibiki asked.
Anko raised a hand up, one finger outstretched and scratched at her cheek casually and yawned.
"She's one of the new class isn't she?" Anko asked. "One of the parade that's after that underwear thieving Uchiha boy."
"There's a rumor out that she has a taste for Anko, actually," Ibiki said.
"Hmm, I like it on my dumplings too," the snake-summoner said.
"Not the red bean paste," the Hokage said.
Anko blinked, faced with a moment of thoughtless blank space.
She blinked again.
The impossibility of what they were discussing started breaking through the blank space and she started understanding the definitions of words again, followed by the implications of those words.
"She's...twelve..." Anko's voice trailed off as she realized that depending on when puberty got into full swing, that was about the perfect time for hormones to go crazy and allow for all sorts of stalkerish, obsessive behaviors. "Crap."
Such as being hooked into a certain man's lies and dragged off to be the one surviving subject of a formerly trusted master's experiments in forbidden jutsu.
"And you recently groped a twelve year old girl," Hokage said.
"I was teasing her," Anko protested. "Really, I have no interest in little kids of either gender. Have you talked to her yet?"
"Given this came to our attention after Sakura herself left the village on mission," the Hokage said. "Not yet. We won't talk to her unless we see her take action though. It might just be a phase and shouldn't be something to concern her with in that case. We're talking to you because you're the adult."
"How bad are these rumors?" Anko asked.
"Given that it's also the name for a food," Hokage said. "They are likely far exaggerated and misunderstood."
Anko paled.
"How. Bad?"
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:35)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.