12. The Need to Get Stronger

"Storm Style: Lighting Rain!"

"Shit! Everybody get out of here now!" Anko ordered her students.

Anko's words came too late. Blue lightning rained down from the sky and struck the four Konoha shinobi. All four members of Team Three screamed in pain before falling to the ground, blue static surrounding their bodies.

The four shinobi tried to get up, but found that they couldn't. The lightning had paralyzed their bodies.

"W-What? What the fuck?" Anko questioned as she struggled to get up.

"Give up. It's useless." Nasumareta replied nonchalantly as he approached the Konoha shinobi. "That technique of mine paralyzes anything it hits. Granted it's only for a short time, but you all will be dead before it fades."

"No…no! Body, move dammit!" Anko ordered herself.

Nasumareta walked over slowly to Hinata and picked her up by her jacket. The girl started to cry. He wasted no time in stabbing the girl through the throat. The tears that had run down her eyes mixed with the blood dripping from her throat. He then tossed the corpse of the Hyūga heiress over to the side before walking up to Shikamaru.

"HINATA!" Anko screamed as she tried to get up again. "Y-You…stay away from my students!"

Shikamaru continued to struggle against his paralysis, but his efforts failed. Nasumareta grabbed him and impaled his lighting rod straight through the Nara's head.

"SHIKAMARU!" The tokubetsu jōnin screamed again.

Nasumareta then walked over slowly to Naruto. The blonde tried similarly to Shikamaru to get up, but he too failed and was grabbed by the former Kumo ninja. The boy was then stabbed straight through the heart before being tossed to the side.

"NO! NARUTO! NO!" Anko cried out.

Nasumareta walked slowly to Anko. The tokubetsu jōnin kept trying to get up, but her efforts were not working.

"G-God. DAMN YOU!" She hissed to the approaching figure.

The former Kumo shinobi grabbed the woman by her throat. His face then immediately changed. Instead of Nasumareta, Anko was now looking into the eyes of her former sensei, Orochimaru.

"I must say, Anko-Chan, I'm impressed. Even I wasn't able to kill off all my students. You really are a sensei beyond comparison!" Orochimaru taunted her student as he licked his lips with his snake-like tongue.

Anko didn't have time to react. Orochimaru had already stabbed her in the chest with the lightning rod. Her vision started to fade.

"AHH!" Anko let out a blood curling scream before she got up, her eyes completely wide.

The tokubetsu jōnin looked around at her surroundings frantically. Instead of the battlefield by the Tenchi Bridge, she was in her bed in her apartment in Konoha. There was no battlefield, no missing ninja, and no corpses of her students. She sighed in relief.

"Okay…everything's okay. They're okay. They're alive." She told herself, breathing hard. "…dammit! That nightmare gets worse each night!"

Ever since the battle against Kakuzu and Nasumareta, Anko had been having nightmares. They all involved her students dying at the hands of Nasumareta and always end just as the man is killing her. The nightmares got worse with each subsequent one. This one in particular surpassed the others when the image of her former sensei, Orochimaru, appeared in her dreams in place of Nasumareta.

Anko immediately got out of bed, grabbed a glass bottle of sake from her kitchen, and walked out into Konoha. It was early morning: the sun was just starting to rise. The tokubetsu jōnin walked while drinking her sake, trying to clear her mind. She was currently mulling over the reason she believed she was having the nightmares.

'We should have died. We got so lucky that it isn't even funny!' Anko thought bitterly. 'If Naruto didn't release the Kyūbi at that moment…if Nasumareta hadn't wasted so much chakra in the fight…if Han didn't stop the Kyūbi from taking complete control over Naruto…if any of that didn't happen, we'd all be dead!'

The snake summoner started to chug on her bottle. After finishing it off, she crushed it in her hands. Glass punctured her hand, but she was too deep in thought to care. 'I couldn't do a damn thing! I got paralyzed and that was it for me! I couldn't help them…I couldn't save my students. It's my job to protect them and I failed…heh. Some sensei you turned out to be Anko!'

Anko's walking soon turned into running. She was now heading in the direction of training ground forty-four.

'I fucked up badly. Now it's time to fix that! I have to make sure I can get stronger so something like that can never happen again! I have to get stronger to protect them, and I have to get them stronger to protect themselves!' Anko thought. All of the rage over her nightmares and the incident were converted to determination.

Her speed increased as she continued to head to the training ground, ready for a workout of her own before she met up with her students.

Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru could tell there was something wrong with their sensei. She was acting funny when they met up for their daily training sessions. On a usual day when they arrived early, the members of Team Three would sit and chat before starting the warm up. Today, Anko immediately had them start their warm up.

Anko, herself, didn't look to be in good shape. The woman had bags under her eyes and bruises on nearly every part of her body. Her right hand was bleeding as well. The woman seemed to not notice her condition, or she didn't care about it. She was more focused on the warm up.

The warm up, in itself, was also odd. Anko had doubled the work she traditionally assigned. It could be compared to the work Gai assigned to his team. This caused her students a lot of pain.

The three genin were in the middle of push-ups when Hinata fell to the ground in exhaustion. She didn't have time to rest, however, as Anko had tossed a kunai right in front of her.

"We aren't over yet. Keep up the work!" She ordered.

"Eep!" Hinata gasped as she continued her work, breathing hard and being very slow with it.

"Give her a break Anko-Sensei!" Naruto said while doing his push-ups. "After all the running, the sit-ups, and all the other crap you've had us do, we are exhausted!"

"The enemy doesn't care if you're exhausted. Hell, they'll be excited. Makes you an easier kill!" Anko retorted, giving her blonde student a glare. "Now stop yapping and focus on the work!"

Naruto had nothing else to say. He just continued silently with the warm up.

After another good ten minutes, Anko had stopped the warm up. Her three students immediately fell to the ground in pure exhaustion.

"Alright, now we'll work on something else. I'm going to work on your reflexes!" She said.

Immediately as she said that, kunai came flying at her students. Hinata and Shikamaru were able to dodge in time, but Naruto was hit by one in the leg. He winced in pain.

"Ah! What the hell?" He cursed.

"You should've all dodged those easily." She stated sharply.

"We're exhausted!" Naruto retorted back.

"And like I said, enemy shinobi don't care! Now, back to work. Dodge properly and that should be the only injury you get!" She replied before tossing shuriken.

Her students then immediately got up and started to hurry out of the way of the attacks of their sensei.

By the end of the session, Anko knew her students needed a break. Hinata and Shikamaru were close to passing out from exhaustion and Naruto was starting to take too many injuries.

"Alright, take an hour to cool down." Anko ordered her students.

They didn't have to be told twice! Shikamaru promptly took a nap right on the spot. Naruto and Hinata then sat down and tried to ease their tired muscles.

'…maybe I'm being too hard on them.' Anko noted to herself. '…I'll work on something I think they all will enjoy for the individual stuff. And I'll try to take it a little easier tomorrow. But I'm not going to soften up too much! I need them tough!'

An hour passed by quickly. The three genin stood up and got ready for more training. All three were still incredibly sore, but were feeling better than they had earlier.

Anko immediately made two shadow clones. "Okay, I'll be working with Shikamaru. Naruto and Hinata: you both have my clones. Now, let's get to work!"

The two shadow clones immediately went off with their respective students, heading in their own direction. Shikamaru was left alone with his sensei.

'Okay, she only calls us by our names and not those troublesome nicknames when she's being serious. Something's up with her.' Shikamaru thought to himself out of concern for his sensei.

"Okay Lazy Ass, it's about time we finally worked on something I can legitimately teach you. I worked on your reflexes, your strength, and your mind each time, but now let's work on something to give you some variety!" Anko told him as a smirk appeared on her face.

'…and now she's back to the nicknames and smirking like a little kid. Anko-Sensei, you are too troublesome to figure out.' Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"So what exactly will we be working on?" Shikamaru asked.

His sensei nodded in response. "It's about time we started working on your jutsu other than your shadows. This'll also give you some offensive attacks other than just spamming your explosive-tagged kunai! Now, watch my hands!"

Anko then ran through a few hand signs before she shouted "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu." Multiple fireballs were released from her mouth. The fireballs made direct contact with nearby trees, lighting them on fire. Anko smirked before she used a water style jutsu to put out the flames.

"You see that? It's pretty easy to learn as far as fire jutsu go and also packs quite a punch! I also know quite a few who use the fire to cover shuriken. You can come up with a few different tactics for it!"

"Hmm…" Shikamaru actually grinned at seeing it in action. "…I could work with it!"

"You better! Anyway, were you watching the hand signs? Try and do it!" Anko ordered.

The Nara nodded and made the same hand signs he saw his sensei make. He then took in a deep breath and attempted to breath out fireballs. Instead, however, he only caused his mouth to get very hot and smoke to come out. The Nara immediately started choking.

"Heh, you're only just starting with fire. Expect that to happen a lot when you just start!" Anko told him while laughing.

"…troublesome…" Shikamaru managed to eventually say between the coughing.

By the time the time coughing died down, the two immediately continued work on the jutsu.

One of Anko's clones led Hinata away from everyone, near a small clearing surrounded by wooden posts. When the two arrived there, the clone turned and faced the Hyūga.

"Alright Stutters-Chan, you've gotten good with the bow. You know more than I can possibly teach you, so you're going to have to improve on your own with it." She informed her student. Hinata nodded in understanding. "So we'll have to work on something else for today! Now quick question: you're still working with your clan on the Gentle Fist right?"

"Yes." Hinata affirmed. "Whenever I don't have missions that interfere, father still works with me on it."

The clone of Anko nodded in acceptance. "Good. Then I guess I'll leave taijutsu training to your family then. So, how about we work on some ninjutsu?"

The clone then pulled out a blue scroll and tossed it to her student. Hinata grabbed it and looked at its title.

"Water Style: Gunshot?" She read.

"C-Rank Water Style jutsu. Can be used at any range. You turn your chakra into water and then spit it out in the form of rapid-fire water bullets. The more chakra you have, the more bullets you can use and the larger they can become." She explained. "Fun fact: the Nidaime Hokage used this jutsu as a basis for developing his advanced water manipulation that allowed him to turn water vapor into a source for water. How he did that, I have no fucking clue. But hey, it's interesting trivia!"

"You know a lot about multiple types of jutsus Sensei." Hinata noted.

"Hmm? Of course!" Anko's clone scoffed in response. "Fire is my specialty, yeah, but I don't want to stay behind in the other elements. It's good to have a few different tricks up your sleeves in case you fight certain opponents. It also just makes you a balanced shinobi!"

Hinata nodded in understanding before she turned her attention to the scroll. She was already studying the basics of it and the required hand signs.

"Heads up: you will fail the first time you try. It may be C-Rank, but it's pretty complex. It's going to require you to concentrate a lot of chakra in your mouth and solidify it into water." She informed her student. "Keep practicing though. The important thing is that you get this jutsu down eventually, so don't stress if it's taking time!"

"Right!" Hinata agreed as she placed the scroll down and made the necessary hand signs. "Water Style: Gunshot!"

The Hyūga heiress concentrated her chakra into her mouth and attempted to create the jutsu. The end result caused the girl to go into a coughing fit, losing concentration on her jutsu.

"Yeah…that sounds like your average first attempt on that jutsu! Just like if you just starting working with fire jutsu!" Anko's clone joked as she watched her student continue her coughing.

She eventually went over to her, and patted her on the back, helping her out.

"Well because of that coughing fit, I can tell you got the chakra concentration part down relatively well. Now we just need to work on turning it into solid water that won't choke you!" The clone stated. "How about I demonstrate for you before you try again?"

Hinata nodded and the clone started to make hand signs, ready to demonstrate the jutsu. Hinata watched dutifully, hoping to recreate the jutsu quickly.

The second clone of Anko led Naruto to an empty part of the training ground that was barren: no trees, no training posts, nothing.

"Okay Whiskers, let's w-" The clone started.

"Wait, Sensei, can we work on this?" The blonde asked as he pulled out the scroll Han gave him.

Anko's clone gave the boy a curious look before she took the scroll and looked at it. Her eyes widened when she saw what the scroll was for.

"Headhunter? Where'd you get an earth style jutsu? They aren't overly common here in Konoha." She questioned.

"Han-Nii gave it to me and he thinks it'd give me some 'variety' in jutsu. I agree, so can we work on it?" He asked again.

'Han-Nii?' The clone repeated the name in her head. 'Guess they were closer than I thought. Pretty surprising that Han gave him a jutsu though. The original me might find this really interesting…'

"…eh whatever. I'm just a clone: I don't have to follow my original's orders when she isn't here." She shrugged, changing the plans for the blonde student. "Yeah, we can work on the jutsu!"

"Yeah! Awesome!" Naruto cheered, jumping up and down a little. "Okay, now let's get to work!"

"Whoa, settle down Whiskers!" Anko's clone mumbled. Naruto stopped jumping around and stared at her, waiting to hear what she had to say. "Now, have you looked at the jutsu at all yet?"

Naruto shook his head. "Not really. Only a little bit, but I kind of would have preferred to start practicing it with you in case if I screw up. I figured you could help me with any problems that I have with it!"

"Fair enough. Understand though that I don't know this jutsu and earth is probably my weakest element, so I don't know exactly how much help I'll be with this. But I'll do my best!" She said before tossing the scroll back to Naruto. "Now, just try it I guess!"

Naruto nodded before he looked over the scroll again. He studied it for a few minutes: the details behind by the jutsu and the hand signs. He then put the scroll away and made the necessary hand signs.

"Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu!" Naruto shouted.

The blonde, however, used too much chakra in his attempt. This caused Naruto to sink into the ground itself. He fell down to his shoulders, shouting the entire way.

"Ah! D-Damn it! What the hell?" Naruto cursed as he tried to get out of the clone.

Anko's clone, after witnessing the attempt, immediately fell to the ground in laughing fit. "Oh God! I didn't know it was possible, but you just got shorter!"

Her laughter only annoyed Naruto, who's struggling increased.

"Ugh! Hey, Sensei! Quit laughing and help me out of here!" He shouted.

"Can't do Whiskers!" She replied between laughs. "You wanted to learn this juts, so you should fix the problems you make with it."

Naruto grumbled to himself as he struggled to get out of the ground. He was going to have to practice this jutsu and he couldn't do it like this.

'…why do I have a feeling this is going to be a really long day?' He grumbled to himself, still trying to pull himself out.

All three genin were exhausted after their individual training. They had spent every second working on the jutsu assigned to them. Shikamaru and Hinata were both suffering from chakra exhaustion while Naruto experienced physical exhaustion from having to constantly pull himself out of holes. In addition, all there were still worn up from the earlier training from that day.

"You all look like shit!" Anko laughed.

Naruto and Shikamaru glared in response at their Sensei. Even Hinata gave her an annoyed look. This only caused the tokubetsu jōnin to laugh in response.

"Yup. And it seems like my lovely little brats are pissed! Now that right there is the reason I love being a sensei!" She stated before she stopped laughing and gave them all a serious look. "Yeah, I know I probably tired you all out a lot today more than usual and I admit I was a bitch today, but I need you guys to get tougher for the future. I want to make sure that if something like our last C-Rank happens again soon, you all will be able to have a fighting chance on your own without my help. So expect the next few sessions to be rough, but I think it'll be worth it in the end."

The three genin of Team Three stopped glaring at their sensei and gave her a shocked look. They all then nodded simultaneously.

"I'll be a little more lenient tomorrow, since I probably did go a little overboard, but the training will still be difficult. I am going to do my part to make sure you three can live a long fulfilling life as shinobi of Konoha!"

"We get it. No big deal Anko-Sensei! We're just going to get stronger after all, so no complaints from me!" Naruto stated excitedly.

"Good. Good to hear!" Anko stated with a smirk. "Anyway, I have some plans today, so no missions. You are all dismissed. Just take it easy for the rest of the day and relax. You all earned it! See you brats tomorrow!"

Anko made a hand sign before using the shunshin and disappearing, leaving her students alone.

"Show off! She just loves that shunshin!" Naruto grumbled.

"Naruto, this is Anko-Sensei. She loves flashy entrances and exits. Are you just now realizing this?" Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"Shut up!"

Hinata giggled as she watched her friends argue.

"Well, if we got the day off, I'm probably going to go head to Ichiraku. Want to come?" Naruto said as he started to walk off.

Both Shikamaru and Hinata nodded. The three members of the team were then off, heading to go get lunch.

It didn't take Anko long to reach where she was heading: the memorial stone for ninja killed in combat. The stone was not too far away from the training ground, making it only a small walk to get there.

The tokubetsu jōnin grinned when she arrived there. Just as she was hoping, a man was there. He was a tall man with white, spiky hair. He wore the Konoha flak jacket and a pair of pants that had kunai holders on them. He also had on a mask over his face and his forehead protector covered his left eye.

"Kakashi! What's up?" She shouted at him.

The man, Kakashi, looked away from the memorial stone and faced Anko. He gave her a smile behind his mask before he walked over to her.

"Good evening Anko. It's been a while." He replied. "Need something? You usually don't come out here."

"You would know. You're out here every day!" Anko noted.

Kakashi shrugged. "True. I feel that I should be though. There are many people here who don't get as much respect as they should."

Anko nodded with a frown on her face. The mood of the conversation had taken a rapid turn from positive to negative. "Yeah…I understand. We both know quite a few people on there, don't we?"

"Yeah." The white-haired man replied before he gave another smile to the woman. "Anyway, you probably didn't come to talk about stuff like that. What did you want to ask me?"

The tokubetsu jōnin immediately perked back up. "Spar with me."

"Hmm?" Kakashi gave her a strange look.

"You heard me. I'm looking for a sparring partner and I want to know if you'd be willing to be my partner!" She explained.

"Odd. Why me? Aren't you closer to someone like Kurenai? Wouldn't you rather ask her?" He asked.

"Because you're good. Real good. And don't deny it!" Anko stated sharply as she noticed that Kakashi was going to interrupt her. "I spar a lot with Kurenai, yeah, but I need someone a little tougher. I need someone who will push me beyond my limits. I figured you probably would be the best person to come to."

"I see…" Kakashi noted, rubbing the back of his head in slight embarrassment at the praise from his colleague. "Well, I'll be free in about four or five hours if you want to spar today. Where do you want to meet up then?"

"Your training ground will be fine!" She replied, a large grin on her face. "Thanks a lot Kakashi!"

"No problem. We haven't sparred in a long time anyway, so maybe this'll be fun!" Kakashi told her with a smile behind his mask. "…anyway, I'm probably going to have to go soon. I'll see you then?"

"Where you heading?" She asked curiously. "What are you running late to now?"

"I'm supposed to meet up with my genin team." He replied simply. "Anyway, see you later Anko!"

Kakashi waved goodbye before he disappeared in a shunshin, leaving Anko alone.

"…a jōnin sensei showing up late to his genin's training sessions. Typical Kakashi." Anko scoffed. "Well whatever. Not my problem. Anyway, I ought to prepare myself. Our spar is probably going to hurt!"

Anko then hurried off to go prepare for her spar. She was excited that he had said yes and was ready to see if the spar could help her improve on her skills.

"Itadakimasu!" Naruto shouted loudly before he started scarfing down his ramen.

Hinata and Shikamaru were much quieter, and slower, as they ate their food. In thirty seconds, the two of them had only gotten through a small portion of their bowls while Naruto finished his off and was requesting another bowl.

"Ah! I missed this place! If there's anything I missed from being out of Konoha, it was ramen!" Naruto mentioned with a content smile while he waited for more ramen.

"Go figure." Shikamaru chuckled as he took a second away from his bowl to talk to his friend. "If I were to say what I missed most, it would be my bed. I forgot how much easier it is to sleep on a real bed."

"That would be what you miss, lazy ass!" Naruto stuck his tongue out at his friend.

Hinata giggled to herself as she continued to eat on her ramen. She loved moments like these where Naruto and Shikamaru argued amongst each other. They amused her a lot.

Shikamaru was about to respond to Naruto, but Teuchi came forward from the back and gave Naruto another bowl of miso ramen. The blonde immediately turned his attention solely to the bowl and started eating again.

"…have we done that comparison between you and Anko-Sensei on who is the faster eater yet? You and your ramen versus her and her dango?" Shikamaru asked.

"We haven't, but we should! I know I could take her down dattebayo!" Naruto said proudly between slurps.

"Speaking of Anko-Sensei, did you guys notice something off with her?" Hinata questioned her friends.

"Hmm?" Naruto stopped eating and faced the Hyūga heiress. "Well yeah, she even admitted it. She was being really tough on us to work on improving our training!"

"Yeah, but it goes beyond that." Shikamaru spoke up. "Her mood seemed to change over and over again: more often than usual. And she seemed stressed still."

"Still?" Naruto and Hinata said in near unison as they gave the Nara heir a strange look.

"You haven't noticed?" He questioned. "Well, ever since that fight with those missing ninja on the mission, Anko-Sensei has been acting different. Sure she would joke around and be her troublesome self, but she seemed always like there was something on her mind. It only got worse each day. Something was bothering her and stressing her out, and it still is. Today was the worst she's been!"

"…how did you notice all that?" Naruto asked.

"Attention to detail and paying attention to subtle changes in character. I might be wrong, but I don't think so." Shikamaru shrugged. "So, what do you think?"

Naruto and Hinata remained quiet for a few seconds before Hinata spoke up.

"She probably is." She said, a frown on her face. "Should we do something?"

"Like what? It's not like she told us any of this." The Nara grumbled.

"…ooh, I know what we can do!" Naruto spoke up.

The blonde immediately told his friends the idea. Hinata and Shikamaru both smiled after hearing what he had to say.

"Simple, but I like it. I'm sure she'd appreciate it!" Shikamaru said.

"She will! Hopefully it'll help her feel a little better." Hinata stated quietly.

"I have a feeling it will! If I know Anko-Sensei, it should!" Naruto said, a smirk on his face. "Anyway, we should go do it after we finish eating. We wouldn't want her to head over there before we can do it for her, would we?"

"Right, right." The Nara nodded in agreement.

"She said she had some plans today, so we might have a little bit of time." Hinata told them. A thoughtful look then appeared on her face. "I wonder what Anko-Sensei's plans were anyway?"

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

Anko unleashed a giant fireball from her mouth. Kakashi retaliated with the same fireball. The two jutsu collided with each other and canceled each other out.

"Dammit Kakashi! I didn't realize sparring with you would be just you copying every jutsu I do!" Anko cursed at him, starting to breathe hard.

"I'm the Copy Ninja for a reason, you know?" He replied with a smile. His forehead protector was no longer covering his left eye. It was wide open, revealing the Sharingan.

'He's screwing with me. I know he's doing that to me on purpose to piss me off, so that way my actions will get less focused. Well I'm not going to let him get the better of me that way!' Anko told herself before she ran forward to attack.

The two shinobi engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Kakashi was able to parry her strikes with his own. He managed to land a good few punches directly at the tokubetsu jōnin, but she showed no signs of giving up.

Realizing she was getting outmatched, Anko jumped backwards, made hand signs, and released another Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu at Kakashi. The fireball flew faster than the other one and managed to hit Kakashi, causing him to wince under the flames of the fire. Anko smirked before she saw him disappear in a poof of smoke.

Before she could react, a hand grabbed her from underground and pulled her down into the ground. She was dragged all the way down to her neck. Kakashi then appeared in front of her, giving his traditional smile behind his mask.

'…this is the jutsu that Naruto wanted to work on today. Guess it's pretty effective.' Anko thought to herself.

"Well, I supposed that should cut it for today, right Anko?" Kakashi asked. "I'm assuming you don't need help getting out?

Her response was only disappearing in a poof of smoke as well. Kakashi's eyes widened in response.

"Shadow Clone?" He mumbled to himself before looking for Anko. 'I don't remember her even making one. That's pretty impressive to pull that off on me!'

He didn't have time to look much. Snakes shot from behind a nearby tree and grabbed the man with their teeth. They bit down hard on him, causing him to wince in pain.

"Heh, now let's get this over with!" Anko stated as she appeared from behind the tree. She then pulled back on her hands in an effort to pull Kakashi forward.

Her efforts worked, as Kakashi was sent flying towards the tokubetsu jōnin. She then made more hand signs.

"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" She shouted before unleashing a burst of fire from her mouth, heading at the approaching Kakashi.

'Ah, I see what she's doing. She used her snakes to immobilize me and pull me in close to her so she can use the Dragon Flame Jutsu, a jutsu that is more effective the closer you are to the target. Very effective!' Kakashi thought to himself before he started to make hand signs of his own. 'However, Anko, I am not immobilized like you think I am. Water Style: Gunshot!'

Kakashi quickly launched a ball of water from his mouth that collided with the fire. The water quickly put out the approaching flames and continued flying at Anko. The tokubetsu jōnin was hit head on by the jutsu, causing her to fly backwards and her snakes to let go of Kakashi. She landed on the ground hard.

"D-Damn it!" She cursed before getting up and getting a position to keep fighting.

"Anko, that's probably enough for today." Kakashi told her as he moved his forehead protector to cover his Sharingan eye.

"We are not done! I can still fight! Now let's keep this up!" Anko demanded as she pulled out a kunai.

"Anko, please. Besides the fact you were already bruised before we fought, I can tell your chakra is running low right now and that you're even more tired. We sparred for a while. We should call it quits for the day!" The jōnin explained. "We don't want to get you too tired. You'd be useless if you were overworked and exhausted. Just relax!"

Anko said nothing in return. She looked down in thought.

'…he's right. I have been overworking myself today. I can't let that happen, otherwise I might burn myself out. I'm going to have to take it a little easier…' She thought.

"However," Kakashi started, getting the attention of Anko, "we can continue sparring some other time. Would every other day be okay with you?"

Anko immediately grinned in response. "Hell yeah it would! Meet here same time?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yep. Now, I'll see you then. Why don't you go and relax."

"Right. Thanks Kakashi!" She thanked him, her grin seemingly larger. "I'll see you later then! Bye!"

Anko then walked off, too tired to make a shunshin.

'She's better than I remember. I actually had to use my Sharingan and I got myself tired out a little bit. And if we keep sparring like that, we will both get better. These sparring sessions will be pretty useful!' Kakashi noted before he pulled out an orange book from a pocket in his pants. 'Anyway, back to where I was when I left off!'

The jōnin giggled to himself with a blush on his face as he walked away from the training ground himself.

After sparring with Kakashi, Anko went out to go get dango. The sensei of Team Three ordered a large plate of her favorite food and a cup of tea. As soon as she got her desired meal, the woman immediately started to eat at a rate that would cause Naruto to gasp.

'Every time I'm away on a mission, dango gets better by the time I come back!' She noted in her head as she continued to chew on her food in contentment.

Anko was alone in the restaurant other than the workers. She took her time eating and tried to keep her mind focused solely on the food. She made an effort to avoid thoughts on her nightmares or her role as a sensei.

She was able to relax.

By the time she finished her meal, she was smiling peacefully and playing with a few of the sticks that her dango were on.

'Okay, I feel better now. Kakashi was right. I needed to rest a little bit. I need to stop stressing myself out so much!' She told herself.

A clerk came over and took the plates away from Anko. She then turned her attention to him.

"Hey, so how much was it today? I know I went a little overboard on how many I ordered." Anko asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head.

"You? Nothing." The clerk informed her.

"…huh?" She gave him a strange look. "Look, don't screw with me. How much do I owe?"

"As I said, nothing. Three young kids came in today and paid a good amount of money and put it under your name. And you didn't eat as much as they paid, so you don't owe us a thing!" He replied.

"…huh?" Anko's eyes widened.

"Yes. A Hyūga, a Nara and…a blonde-haired boy were the ones who paid for you." The clerk replied. "They seemed to really look up to you and wanted to do something for you. We warned them how much it would probably cost to cover one of your meals, but they didn't care.

Anko's eyes seemed to widen even further. Her students had paid for this meal? They had down something like that for her, especially after she was being (as she put it) a bitch to them?

"…okay then. Thanks a lot sir." Anko told the man before she walked out of the shop and headed back to her apartment.

Anyone who saw the tokubetsu jōnin that night would have seen a sight rarely seen. Anko was walking down the streets of Konoha with a smile on her face. Not a sadistic smirk or a mischievous grin: a plain, sincere smile.

'I'll have to pay them back somehow. Those three…they're fine shinobi and great kids. And I'll do my part to keep them alive!' Anko thought to herself with pure determination in her eyes.

That night when Anko fell asleep, she was not greeted by the same nightmare that was tormenting her. The dream she had reminded her of a dream she used to get growing up where she (of all people!) became the Hokage. She couldn't remember much about this dream, but it was a peaceful one and she enjoyed it. There was one thing she truly remembered from it though: Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru were alive and were proud jōnin of Konoha. The snake summoner knew she was going to do everything in her power to make sure her dream did come true.

Time fell into a pattern for the members of Team Three. Days turned to weeks. Weeks turned to months. They continued meeting up each morning for training, which was still more difficult than it was prior to the mission to Tenchi Bridge. Slowly, the three genin became used to the new training method and encouraged Anko to make it more difficult. Their slightly sadistic sensei was more than eager to add to the difficulty.

One notable change that occurred from before the C-Rank mission was in the attitude of Anko. The woman seemed more attached to her genin. She occasionally joined her students when they went out to lunch at Ichiraku. If someone ever stopped her and asked her about her team, she would shower them in praise and say nothing but good things about them. It was true: the infamously sadistic Mitarashi Anko was becoming a softie for her genin students.

…not that she would ever admit that to their faces. No, of course not!

As the members of Team Three improved from training, they improved in their mission taking skills. They took more missions now and went through them quickly. They had been able to complete twenty-two D-Rank missions and eight C-Rank missions: a record very impressive for rookie genin!

Things were becoming routine for the members of Team Three. No matter what any of them would say, the four members were secretly hoping for something to take them away from the same activities.

Their secret hopes were answered when a bird wearing the crest of Iwagakure flew into Konoha, carrying a scroll on its back.

Sarutobi Hiruzen knew he was getting old, so he felt the need to read the scroll twice. He then read it over a third time to make complete sure, and then a fourth time to fully understand what was going on.

Iwagakure had just sent a notice to the Hokage that the village was sending two genin teams to participate in the Chūnin Exams that were being held in Konoha this year.

The Sandaime lit his pipe and looked out of the window in his office, staring at the Hokage Monument.

'The Chūnin Exams are coming up. They'll be here in two weeks. And it'll be the first time Iwa has sent a team to a Konoha exam in over thirty years!' Hiruzen thought to himself, breathing out smoke from his pipe. '…something tells me that this year's exam will be very interesting!'