“You are all adults now.” Anko started her lesson with her students sitting around a table in her dining room and sipping hot tea. The decision was made rather quickly that Ino would be a fourth member of team 1, as strange as it was Orochimaru sensei had decided on it so, out of respect she didn’t complain about being the lead of the first 4 genin team.
“By civilian standards you are still children, as some of you haven’t even bled yet.” Anko said with a serious expression.
“I certainly have not bled yet.” Ryoshi interjected with a raised hand. As he tried to hide a smirk behind the tea cup he sipped. He thought he was being funny, not only because he is the only male in the group but he also is the tallest, not counting Anko, making it seem like he is also the oldest. Apparently only Ino had thought it was at least somewhat funny as only she giggled slightly the other two smacked him on the back of the head, no doubt Ms Mitarashi would have done the same if he was within reach of the woman sitting on the other side of the rather large table. He of course saw the hits coming, as it was a habit already to be on alert with his byakugan all the time given his chakra reserves. But he condemned himself to the smacks knowingly as the joke was worth the little pain at least in his opinion.
“This is important, be serious, brat!” scolded his sensei.
“My apologies, sensei.” He said although he was still smirking slightly. With a sigh Anko continued.
“Today’s lesson is not a lesson in the generic sense, yet I will tell you information that will no doubt save your life should you understand, so no practice today. After the talk you just try to take it all in.
As I was saying you are considered adults by the shinobi world but not the civilian one. Because you are still young, you are vulnerable. Although the academy does an okay job at training, no amount of it can really prepare you for the cruelty and darkness of the shinobi world. Have you all heard the Hokage’s speech about the will of fire?”
The group nodded in response.
“Well, I am here to tell you that’s propaganda.” Waiting for a response Anko saw confused faces looking back at her so she continued.
“Ninjas are tools, expensive ones at that. So all the hidden villages have some form of indoctrination done to their shinobi to ensure loyalty. I am not here to tell you that the leaf is evil or we should rebel or other treasonous talk. It is just how Orochimaru sensei taught me and how I will teach you. Although it might be dangerous to go about telling your peers about such things. My house is under heavy seals done by sensei himself to shield it from spies. So nothing we talk about today will go out. Understood?”
“Yes, sensei.” Responded Ryoshi, while the others simply nodded.
“I need you to say it like him.” Anko pushed.
“Yes, sensei.” The girls responded.
“I am talking about this, because I want you to understand your place in the ninja world, so you can make better choices pertaining to your own survival. It would be a black mark on me, if all my students got themselves killed, because they thought something they shouldn’t have. As long as we are an asset to the village we are fine, but if that changes and we are no longer useful. There is no use keeping a rusty kunai, you are thrown out. Again I am not saying this to seed hostility towards the village, it just is, what it is. It is how the world works. Think about this and what you wish to do with your life, now we will move on.” The girls showed thoughtful faces but Ryoshi was still at attention looking at Anko. As a man that has seen war and done the bidding of others, he understood the way of the world, perhaps even better than Anko herself so he was not surprised by the revelation. Something else surprised him though. This information was dangerous to tell easily influenced kids. It could be that double whammy of ‘we told you to not trust us so you can trust us’ thingy.
“Now I don’t know if you know about kekkei-genkai, so I will say it is a special ability that comes from peoples heritage. I mentioned you guys are vulnerable earlier, because of this. Heirs of clans that possess such abilities are seen as valuable assets, because of the power potential of such individuals. They are easier to capture or kill when they are still young and haven’t come into their powers fully. Ino here is a clan heir, even though her clan deals with information extraction from prisoners, which can be done in other ways. She is still valued more than a normal ninja…” Anko was having some trouble expressing herself, as she paused and looked like she wanted to say more. Orochimaru walked into the room through the kitchen door and continued for Mitarashi.
“What my cute little student is trying to tell you is that, because you are seen as a valuable ninja Ino-chan and are still very young, you may be a target for capture missions. Most importantly though you will be treated as a breeding stock staying under permanent sedation. So suicide may be a better choice.I said the same to Anko when we first met.”
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Explained Orochimaru to the new ninja and now audible gulps went around the table.
“I hope you will never have to use these.” She said as she pulled out four tiny balls from her pocket and placed them on the table. “This is a poison of my own making it a quick and painless death. Have them with you whenever we go out of the village for missions.” The young ones reached out to grab the pills. With heavy realisation dawning on their still childish faces.
“Tomorrow when we meet for training, I hope you will take it seriously as I will do my best to realise your potential, but it ultimately falls on your own shoulders to become strong.” Said Anko with a finality.All through the talk the boy was thinking about how much he could really trust Anko? The earlier revelation about the indoctrination had thrown him for a loop. So he decided to just ask.
“How much could we trust you, Anko sensei?” Asked the boy, nothing more and nothing less. The expressions of his peers turned into shock.
“Well, kid. That’s why I told you earlier about the village propaganda, it is to instil love and loyalty towards the village, now you know that, so now you can determine what has value to you, what you love and have loyalty to, that's not something I demand of you. I want you to find that for yourself. I for example value my sensei over the village, but I hold no hatred towards the village. Like I said it just is.” She then turned to the rest of her students.
“This is something all of you should determine on your own, don’t let other dictate what you can love.” She said with a genuine small smile. It felt good that her students took her seriously, she decided as she watched their faces scrunch up in thought and glance around as if looking for something to love. She looked at them one by one, as she gave them some time to think on the current topic. Ryoshi seemed already determined but still in thought about different topic. He seemed like he was always thinking about something else and never paying attention, but that was never the case. She thought maybe the eyepatch was throwing her reading off. Ino, the youngest kept glancing at Ryoshi for some unknown reason. Anko couldn’t really determine why because it kept changing from admiration, to caution, to apprehension, so she couldn’t determine if she was having a crush or something else. As a clan heir, these topics probably weren’t that strange to her, especially given the psychological specialty that they held, she was probably trained since she could talk about such issues like brainwashing. Yui the already quiet girl already had a pretty face and was rapidly developing, her fate was obvious if she got captured but her face showed understanding and determination. She had resolved herself. Akari the usually loud girl had been silent today, understandably so, but still her face was still scrunched up in thought. Now that she thought about it, she didn’t know why they had all chosen to be ninja and now perhaps was the best time to ask.
“It’s obvious for Ino-chan because she is an heir, but why did you choose to be a ninja anyway?” Asked Anko to no one in particular.
Akari, glad to be taken away from her thoughts, answered first.
“I want to be like Tsunade-sama, powerful and respected, while still healing people.”
When no one else spoke up, Yui decided it was her turn.
“I want to be able to do what I want to, mainly be free like Jiraya-Sama.”
Ino jumped in without waiting, apparently not wanting to be last.
“I want to be like my father.” She said, back to her chipper mood. Ryoshi was still in thought when he realised it was his turn.
“I want to be able to protect my sister and myself with my own power.” He said but after a brief pause, just as Anko was going to nod in satisfaction he added without any shame.
“Most importantly though I want to be powerful so I can have a harem.” Then he nodded to himself as if satisfied with his answer. Anko was seething, when behind her Orochimaru cracked a small chuckle.
“I am considered to be powerful, yet I don’t have a harem kid.” He breathed out between chuckles. Without missing a beat a response was thrown at him by Ryoshi.
“Yeah, but you got hime-sama. I don’t think harem can measure up to her.”
“You got me there, kid.” He said finally calming down and sipping tea.
“Anyway, we will have some individual training first for a few sessions and when we get the hang of what each of us can do, we will move onto teamwork exercises. That’s the plan.” Anko said, forcing herself to not kill the little shit sitting in her dining room. The little shit however, decided it was a good idea to stand up to say something else.
“This might be important for teamwork. I’ve got a secret to tell.” The shift in his tone was obvious so it grabbed everyone’s attention. Then after letting out a sigh, he moved his hitai-ate away from the covered eye revealing his byakugan.
“I’ve got a byakugan.” He said simply. Silencing the room. The young ones were considering what exactly this meant, while the adults knew already. Orochimaru, recovering first, only said one word.
“How?”
“Was born with.” Came the reply from the boy.
“Interesting… only one eye. That is not normal.” Orochimaru talked, as he examined the boy.
“No signs of rejection or scarring, it definitely feels like a genuine one. But how could it be just one?” He was thinking out loud.
“Your sister… Is she a twin? He asks, his curiosity peaked. “Also does she also have one eye…Of course otherwise we would have known by now that there is a non-Hyuga with byakugan.” Hmm.
“She is not my twin, but she also has one.” The boy answered a bit uncomfortable with the snake man being so close and curious.
“That is curious, the only thing I can think of is that there is another bloodline of equal genetic strength, otherwise byakugan would occupy both eyes. That is affecting the eyes of course. There is only one that I know of.”
“The Uchiha’s Sharingan.” Anko finished