40 Anko Mitarashi

" Today is not the chunin exams right? "

" Right "

Mizuki nodded sagely ( heh ) to Anko.

" Then why am seeing the students come here in droves..? Did you start a genjutsu while I wasn't looking? Not fair you know. Kai! "

Called out Anko, trying to break her illusion, no doubt, but the students remained standing, looking at her funny, and Hokage did the same just looking at her with a helpless expression.

Mizuki mouth twitched into a smile.

' Take that old bastard. Handle these clan heir, let's see what you do about me now infront of my class. '

Mizuki had made the plan in a hurry, but it was somehow working out fine until now, he was always wary of what could have been Third's plan when he had called Mizuki out for such a weird Jonin assesment, it being this quick wasn't normal, and Mizuki wasn't one of those people who tend to throw everything to the back of their minds because they ' are too lazy to do anything ' and ' absolute power trumps all ' or some nonsensical reasoning of epic proportions, all to hide they were too stupid to think of a way to solve the problem.

Humans didn't become top species with some random ' absolute strength ' nonsense. They had used their minds, as that was the Natural weapon of humans. Their only actual advantage.

And Mizuki used it good, whatever Hiruzen had planned would have left any Mr ' too lazy to think ' on one of their favourite ' life and death ' battles. Whereas Mizuki here was standing coolly watching Hiruzen get ganged by the academy students, while he was forced to stay in his kind old man persona all the time.

' Heh, but I gotta give it the old man, I still haven't seen any crack in his kind old man persona, not when I was with him not when he is here surrounded. It's almost like he is actually like this, even personality assessments I have done show his day to day actions are just like an actual good old man, how can someone be so damn good at hiding...? He is really scary. '

Meanwhile Anko finally couldn't take it anymore

" Then those students are really standing there watching us perform or something?! Are you kidding me!?!? "

Hiruzen found this a good place to step in. As he tried to calm Anko down.

" It's alright it's alright, pay it no heed, I am the one who decided to bring them here, they were all too eager to see their sensei fight, I couldn't keep that from them. "

Anko made a wry smile as she decided it was fruitless to say anything more.

But she definitely re assessed Mizuki.

Anko was the one who was called to conduct the Jonin assesment of Mizuki, she didn't think there was anything wrong with that. Usually she was one of the prime candidates to hold any kind of assessments, be it Chunin or Jonin.

She was given this important duty despite her being a special Jonin, but Anko knew it wasn't a question of her strength, oh no. She was very much a Jonin in every conceivable way, but she never managed to acquire that rank and likely never will.

Subconsciously touching her neck, she gritted her teeth at her source of frustration.

This damn curse seal and taken it all from her, her glory, her happiness, hell this was the reason she couldn't get promoted to Jonin despite having the strength.

She had to handle her chakra with a lot of caution, as soon as it got low, the curse seal would spread and leave her compromised. This was the reason she can only use her Jonin strength for a while before needing to step down, this huge liability had made her unfit for anything other than one quick fight or scouting.

This was one of the core reasons she was assigned to assesments, they don't require long term chakra planning.

" You know, I thought I found a gem in the dust when I saw you coming Mizuki san, but it seems I am just out of touch, you even got yourself a fan group.. how nice..."

Anko said as she turned towards Mizuki, her tone dripping sarcasm and a hint of.. flirting? Raising his eyebrows slightly at her coy smile, Mizuki decided to play along, he simply replied with a big smile of his own.

" How kind of you to say that Mitarashi San, I too had similar thoughts, that I found an absolute gem, but It would seem you too have your admirer watching. "

Giving him a slight smirk Anko looked at Mizuki's grey eyes as she said in a slightly raspy voice.

" And where is the admirer then? I can't see anyone but yours around. "

* Eep *

Anko wouldn't ever say she almost let out a startled eep as Mizuki bent forward, now his face before her face, almost at a distance where she can feel his breath. It's warm she thought.

" Why that would be me Anko san... Am I an admirer enough for you...? "

' Oye! You don't just say stuff like that out of nowhere!? '

Thought Anko in a slightly flustered way as she aimed to keep up her poker face, but her body betrayed her thoughts, she had cowered slightly facing Mizuki's gaze, seemingly slightly smaller than she was.

But as she remembered the audience they had right now, she still managed to put her two hands on his chest and attempted to push him away.... only she was the one getting pushed away instead.

' What's with you?! Are you using chakra to stick to the ground or something??! '

Though Anko was complaining she could tell this wasn't chakra, Mizuki was just that strong, those muscles weren't just for show she now confirmed.

Coughing in her hand to avoid further embarrassing herself she said, attempting to play it off coolly.

" Well I am flattered and all but this isn't going to make your assessment any easier you know? "

Anko had said so but she felt the one getting the assessment would be her.

' I am not good enough.. '

Those were the thoughts going on in her mind.

Mizuki was a great guy, she had spent a while with him before the Hokage had got here and she could already tell.

He was sunny, smart good looking, almost unnaturally so and now she was sure he was strong too..

And what was she? What did she have to show...

Anko knew she was brash and she didn't know how to talk without messing up by saying something dumb infront of him.

She was stupid too, even keeping up with him had taken a lot of effort from her part.

While he was a walking sunshine, she was here dressing up like some... pleasure work Kunoichi...

But it wasn't like she wanted to act like one, she wasn't was actually walking around wearing only a net. This was all a part of Kunoichi get up with fake skin under the net, most Kunoichi used this sparingly as it looked too risque to be worn in non seduction related missions.

But Anko.. well, she had decided to wear only this as her get up, she always thought it was all related as a work of Kunoichi so she had started wearing some from her early days, but she still had to go for a single mission like that, hell she had still to even use her seduction arts on anyone at all. In her early years she didn't care and after her fall from grace, she didn't dare.

But the get up just kinda stuck with her, reminding herself of days gone by. Something to remember her naive past self..

She was happy back then, she had everything but now she had nothing.. so how can she possibly even dare to hope-

" You don't need to go easy on me Anko san.. just let yourself go, don't hold back.. I am here, I'll be right here. "

Anko was looking at Mizuki with slightly widened eyes.

' You'll be right there....? For me.? '

Anko, all her life has been dealing with deceit, cold looks and knife carrying smiles were her daily food, so his sincerely warm eyes with which he was watching made her shudder.

Unknowingly, her eyes started to moisten, she didn't even know she needed to hear something like this, she was living in a very hopeless situation with nobody but herself to give her company, she was all alone with cold eyes everywhere, nobody to rely on, only people to avoid, thankfully her slightly moist eyes had evaded everyone but Mizuki standing directly infront of her.

Both had very different thoughts going on.

While Anko was feeling emotions she didn't want to feel, Mizuki's words having been interpreted in a very different way by her, she was certain Mizuki had managed to guess what she was thinking, she was too stupid to hide something form him it would seem. So that made her all the more emotional and very very happy, that he had told her he will be there, he will still be with her as she tells him all her troubles.

She finally had someone to rely on.. After all this while she too can have a shoulder to cry on..

It felt... nice...

Meanwhile Mizuki himself was thinking something along the lines of

' Why is crying..? She is sad I am underestimating her or something..?'

Mizuki was thinking fast, trying to make sense of the situation, meanwhile Anko was beginning to realise she might have found herself someone of significance, someone she could rely on without deceit. She didn't want to lose that, so she kept looking, kept admiring his warmth filled grey eyes with her emotion filled ones.

And so the situation was staged, two souls, each with with their own stories, looking for a way within each other's gaze...