One day later, inside a cave.
Anko Mitarashi was calmly chopping a carrot in front of a cauldron that was boiling with a delicious meat and vegetable stew. Devan, not far from her, was resting on an improvised bed.
The woman, Anko, had a dirty face, slightly chapped lips, and a somewhat tired look. Although she hadn't had to face a ninja in the last day, there was something that didn't let her sleep to the point that her sanity was slowly deteriorating.
"A man, Danzo Shimura asked me to accompany another man, Devan, on a mission…" Anko squinted her eyes, the recent dark circles on her face becoming more pronounced.
"A man, Danzo Shimura told me that there was another man, an elite ninja ready to ambush Devan and kill him—that's the mission," the woman repeated in a low voice as she chopped some onion.
Her eyes narrowed, she tilted her head slightly to see Devan who was still unconscious not far away, and then turned her head back to look at the cauldron.
"A man, Danzo Shimura is the culprit, but I am the responsible one. The man Devan is a good man, he saved my life and now he's unconscious," Anko observed the fire under the pot with some anguish.
"A man, Devan, is…" She couldn't finish her words; her face blushed, her body trembled, and her mind seemed confused for some reason as she thought about the necromancer.
Anko grabbed the kunai with which she was cutting the vegetables, looked at the blade, and her reflection in it. She squinted her eyes, a strange idea crossing her mind, then looked at Devan not far away.
"A man, Devan, is handsome, attractive, of good character, selfless…" Anko said many lies that for her were the truth. She tightened her grip on the kunai as her gaze on Devan intensified, her hands, for some reason, seeming to move on their own.
"A woman, Anko Mitarashi, can return to Konoha and become a respected ninja if she completes Danzo Shimura's mission," she whispered to herself, yet her head moved continuously from side to side.
"But…" her hands moved at high speed, pressing hard on the handle of the Kunai while her muscles tensed.
The kunai in Anko's hands flew at high speed, cut through the air, and stopped just millimeters from piercing her own throat. "But Anko, I am the one responsible, Aren't I?"
She murmured, her eyes completely red and shining, her chest rising and falling with heavy breathing.
Anko Mitarashi, a Jounin ninja, seemed about to lose her sanity. Many thoughts swirled in her mind, from guilt to an attempt to regain composure.
She tried to think about herself, her life in Konoha, her selfishness, and her will to live. However, the guilt in her mind for bringing Devan into this mission, where Danzo had set a trap to kill them both, made her mind start to collapse.
Struggling between two feelings, guilt and the will to survive, Anko's hands trembled as she held the kunai near her neck.
"I must…" Anko paled, bit her tongue so hard that some blood began to drip from her lips, down her chin, and fall to the ground. Dust began to rise beneath her as she battled her own emotions.
"W-what is this? Why am I thinking like this? Why am I trying…?" Anko gritted her teeth in anger.
At that moment, Devan, who was unconscious, was awakened by the dust in the air. He quickly lifted his head, sat up, and looked around with a dazed expression.
"Eh?" Devan let out a small groan that quickly made Anko regain her composure.
The necromancer, suddenly awakened by a strange dream, moved his head like a chick, blinked several times, and observed his slightly trembling hands.
"Hmph," his heavy breaths were soon accompanied by a slight tinnitus that made his mind dizzy.
Slapping his face, Devan lay back down. "Where am I?" he squinted, and before he could ask anything else, he quickly heard a voice not far from him.
"Devan!!" A woman, apparently on the verge of tears, was calling him. The necromancer felt a slight chill and turned his head toward the voice. Not far from him, with a bright smile, a dirty face, and a joyful look, Anko Mitarashi was watching him with complete happiness.
The woman, Anko Mitarashi, changed her attitude as soon as she saw Devan wake up, such an abrupt change in her would even make Danzo pale if he saw it.
"Devan… you're awake, that's… great," Anko approached quickly, crouched down, and with rapid speed placed a hand on Devan's forehead. "Are you sick?" she asked before lowering her hand to the necromancer's chest. "No, it shouldn't be that, then, Aºre you dizzy?" Anko asked again.
Devan, on the other hand, just stared at the woman's face without saying a word. His eyes focused slightly on her exposed cleavage, and a bright smile appeared on his face.
"It's probably because you used too much chakra for that summoning. Oh, well, that's fine, you just need to eat something and recover," Anko finally said after inspecting the necromancer's body for a moment.
Then, she quickly went to the cauldron to serve a bowl of steaming stew, brought it to Devan with a smile, and offered it to him. "Come on, you need to recover…"
…
In Konoha, at the secret base of the Root ninjas.
"Orochimaru has been taking too long," sitting in a chair similar to the Hokage's, Danzo Shimura watched the two Root ninjas kneeling in front of him.
"What has that snake been doing?" Danzo bit his lower lip as he struck the tip of his staff forcefully against the ground.
The old man quickly stood up, unable to control the slight anxiety in his heart, and began pacing in circles around his chair.
"Orochimaru, Orochimaru, Orochimaru," he repeated three times before stopping. "Damn it!!!" Danzo threw his staff away, his eyes almost completely filled with a particular fury.
The old man stomped forcefully before walking back to his chair, looked again at the two Root ninjas who had not moved, and opened his mouth.
"For some reason, Orochimaru still hasn't sent a report on whether his mission was successful or not. That, that, that's wrong, understand?" the old man said in a hoarse voice. "Orochimaru wouldn't do this; it's not his style, unless something happened."
Danzo began thinking about Devan again. He had been thinking about that man for the past few days.
Danzo really had a good reason to suspect the necromancer. In fact, a few weeks ago, while personally patrolling some places in the village, he saw Devan from a distance talking to a boy who looked like a street urchin.
At that moment, Danzo didn't pay it much attention and decided to continue his patrol. Weeks later, the news came that the boy who looked like a vagabond and that he had seen on the street had tried to assassinate Naruto.
That was already strange enough to make Danzo suspicious of Devan. However, days later, Kurenai Yui, who had spoken to Devan only once, ended her own life.
"It's impossible for this to be a simple coincidence!!!" Danzo shouted as he stomped the ground forcefully, feeling furious.
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