A/N: So this story is somewhat inspired by "Anko's ruff day" by W01fPack, but will have many key differences and will follow more of the canon storyline; albeit with significant changes of course.

This is the prologue showing how Naruto obtains the Adamantine Sealing Chains and how he meets Anko; the next chapter is when the real story starts.

And to those of you that read "Stay Away From Him!", the next chapter is almost done.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 1: Prologue

Walking through the streets of Konoha was a short 12-year old boy with spiky blond hair, bright blue eyes, and three whisker-like markings on each of his cheeks. He also had a strange proclivity for wearing orange, which isn't exactly conducive to his career as a shinobi, as evidenced by his bright orange tracksuit. This was Naruto Uzumaki, genin of Konoha; and he was not having a very good day.

He and his team had just returned from their first C-rank mission, which had been upgraded to A-rank due to certain unforeseen circumstances. On that mission he had met a kind young man named Haku who he had quickly befriended after the boy had given him some rather enlightening advice that someone becomes truly strong when they have something precious to protect. Taking the boy's words to heart, Naruto had hoped that they would meet again in the near future.

Unfortunately, their next meeting would be their last.

The day after their meeting, Naruto had learned that the gentle boy was in fact the accomplice of the man who had been hired to kill their client Tazuna; Zabuza Momochi. Zabuza was an A-rank missing-nin from Kiri and a former member of their infamous seven swordsmen and wielded the cleaver-like blade known as Kubikiribocho.

Once he arrived on the bridge, having woken up later than his team which happened to allow him to save the bridge-builder's daughter from a pair of thugs, he was greeted by the sight of his female teammate, Sakura Haruno, guarding Tazuna while his other teammate, Sasuke Uchiha, and their jounin-sensei, Kakashi Hatake, were each engaged in combat with their respective opponents; Kakashi with Zabuza and Sasuke with his accomplice.

Sakura was somewhat frail-looking girl with long, pink hair and green eyes. Her outfit consisted of a red cheongsam with a white circle pattern and dark green biker shorts.

Sasuke was a somewhat pale boy with the signature black eyes and black hair of his clan. Sasuke wore his hair spiked up in the back with bangs framing his face while his attire consisted of a navy blue sleeveless shirt with a high collar and the Uchiha clan's symbol on the black with white shorts.

Kakashi was a fairly tall man with spiky silver-grey hair and wore the standard jounin attire; aside from the cloth facemask that covered from his neck to the bridge of his nose and his headband slanted in a way that it covered his left eye.

Seeing that Sasuke was having a hard time with his opponent who had him trapped in a strange dome of ice, Naruto acted without really thinking things through and joined his teammate inside of the dome. He realized his mistake too late once he was peppered with a barrage of senbon by the masked ninja within the ice mirrors. Things continued in this manner for several minutes with little sign of improving until Sasuke managed to unlock his clan's legendary bloodline; the Sharingan.

With his clan's highly coveted doujutsu, Sasuke was able to catch glimpses of their opponent as he moved between mirrors; not that seeing things helped much since he wasn't fast enough to do anything about it. Sasuke continued to follow his opponent's movements, while he and his blond teammate continued to be treated like pincushions, until he began to notice a pattern to the masked boy's movements. Predicting which mirror he would move to next, the young Uchiha launched his signature "Fireball Jutsu", but was too slow as the masked ninja made his way into his intended mirror; though he did have a small singe on his right leg showing that he had not gotten away unscathed.

"This is your last warning," the masked boy warned as he brandished his senbon. "I do not wish to kill you, but if you do not surrender now I will be forced to do so."

"Never!" Naruto yelled as he tightened his grip on the kunai he had been using to deflect as many senbon as he could. "We'll never give up!" Sasuke nodded his agreement as he too gripped his kunai tightly. Haku frowned behind his mask with a mournful sigh.

"Very well then; for Zabuza-sama I will kill off my heart and do what is necessary."

Crouching into a ready stance, Naruto and Sasuke prepared for the wave of senbon to be sent at them; only for the entire barrage to be unleashed in Naruto's direction instead of spread out as they had been. Crossing his arms in front of him in an effort to protect his face and neck, Naruto prepared himself for the pain that was to come. But it never did. Lowering his arms and blinking his eyes open, Naruto was shocked to see his raven-haired teammate standing in front of him with numerous needles protruding from his body and blood dripping from his lips.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled as he caught the boy when he began falling backwards. Setting him down gently, Naruto could feel water pooling in his eyes as he looked into his teammates eyes; which had reverted to their usual black color.

"I don't know," Sasuke got out before coughing up a glob of blood. "My body just moved." Sasuke's eyes were struggling to remain open as his blond teammates tears began raining down on his face as if they were trying to wash away the blood. "You're such a crybaby."

"Bastard," Naruto shot back at the smirking Uchiha as his tears continued to fall. He waited for the retort to the insult, but it never came as Sasuke's eyes drifted closed. Sasuke?" Naruto choked back his sobs as he shook his teammate's motionless body. "This isn't funny, Sasuke; wake up!"

"Is this the first time you've seen a friend die?" Haku asked as Naruto began pulling senbon out of Sasuke's body. "He died an honorable death; he was a true shinobi."

"Shut up…" Naruto whispered as he stumbled back to his feet. Naruto wiped the tears from his eyes as he continued to look at his downed teammate.

"It's unfortunate that such a promising young man had to die so young."

"I SAID SHUT UP!" Naruto snarled as his head snapped up to show slit red eyes. "YOU DON'T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT HIM SO JUST SHUT UP!" Naruto's fists clenched tightly at his side until blood began to drip from his hands.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" With that, Naruto rushed forward and began to repeatedly slam his fists into the mirror containing his masked enemy. The mirror didn't have so much as a scratch on it as Naruto continued to punch it despite the blood dripping from his knuckles.

"It's no use; you'll never be able to break my mirrors." Naruto ignored the comment as he continued his senseless assault. Haku opened his mouth to say something, but the words were caught in his throat as his eyes caught sight of something unusual; two chains that seemed to be hovering over the young blond's shoulders like a snake waiting to strike. Eyeing the silver links in interest, Haku was unable to react in time when they shot forward and tore through the mirror; and him.

Seeing the mirror collapsing, Naruto broke out of his enraged trance and saw his opponent fall to the floor with two chains speared through his chest; chains that were…coming from his back? Looking behind him, Naruto confirmed that the chains were, in fact, coming from his back. Setting that aside for later, he approached his downed enemy and inspected the wounds from the strange chains. It was apparent that the young man would not survive his wounds, but Naruto still felt like he needed to physically vent his sorrow and frustration. Pulling his right arm back, Naruto put all of his remaining strength into the punch that he sent toward the masked face. Easily yielding to the force of the blond's fury, Naruto stood motionless when the mask shattered to reveal the kind boy he had befriended the day before.

"Haku…" Naruto whispered in a raspy voice as he collapsed to his knees and could once again feel tears pooling in his eyes. "Why?"

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun," Haku whispered before coughing up a large amount of blood. Naruto could see that he was sincere in his words and that he truly was sorry; which only seemed to make the pain Naruto was feeling worse. "I did what I had to do for my precious person."

"You mean Zabuza…" Naruto frowned as Haku went into a rant about him being nothing more than a tool for Zabuza and having no other purpose than to serve him. Naruto couldn't understand the ice user's line of thinking and, quite frankly, he didn't want to; that was a very morbid way for someone to live their life.

Any further discussion was cut off as the area was filled with a shrill chirping noise. Looking to where Naruto knew Kakashi and Zabuza to be fighting, Naruto could make out a blue light, but that was the only thing visible through the thick mist.

"Zabuza-sama!" Haku yelled as he struggled in an effort to get to his master, but his efforts were in vain and he only succeeded in exacerbating his injuring his wounds as the chains had pierced through the bridge beneath him anchoring to his spot. To prove this point, the boy suddenly vomited a large amount of blood and seemed to be drowning in his own blood as he gasped for air. Unable to stand the sight of the boy suffering in such a way, Naruto drew a kunai and stepped forward.

"I'm sorry, Haku."

With their fights concluded, Naruto and Kakashi regrouped with their team; neither of them commenting on their fights or the blood covering them. To Naruto's surprise and delight, Sasuke was seated next to Sakura against the side of the bridge, very much alive. After that, they had been confronted by Gato and his horde of hired thugs, but they were easily taken care of.

With Gato dead and the townsfolk now feeling a sense of pride and determination to defend their home from any such future threats, team 7 decided to say their goodbyes and head home. With no civilian to slow their pace, the group was able to make it home in a fraction of the time it took them to make it to Nami no Kuni.

Having given the Hokage his report for the mission, Naruto now found himself wandering the streets of Konoha with no real destination in mind. He continuously thought over his battle with Haku. Between the strange chains and…killing Haku, his head was a whirlwind of confusion; this led to him bumping into someone and finding himself falling flat on his ass. Unfortunately, he happened to bump into a rather infamous woman named Anko Mitarashi…and made her drop her dango.

"You got a death wish, brat?" the woman snarled as she grabbed Naruto by the collar and dragged him to his feet. Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Naruto found himself looking into a pair of brown, pupil-less eyes that were currently glaring at him as if they were trying to set him on fire with their gaze alone. Leaning back to get a good look, Naruto found that he had bumped into a fairly tall, attractive older woman who was likely in her early 20's with violet hair styled in a short, spiky fanned ponytail. Her outfit consisted of a fitted mesh body suit that covers from her neck to her mid-thighs. Over this she wore a tan overcoat, dark orange min-skirt and the outfit was finished off with pale grey shin guards. She also wore a fang-like pendant around her neck and a wristwatch.

"Damn, it was just an accident lady; chill out." Anko felt her eyebrow twitching in anger as she tightened her grip on Naruto's collar.

"What did you just say?" she asked rhetorically in a tone that sent shivers down Naruto's spine.

"I-I said I'm sorry?" Realizing how much danger he was in, Naruto had quickly backpedaled in an effort to appease the woman that, quite frankly, scared the shit out of him.

"Not good enough, brat," Anko snorted as she set Naruto down and pointed at the stick of dango lying in the dirt. "You owe me an order of dango."

"That seems fair." Naruto shrugged; he would probably demand compensation too if someone spilled his ramen. As the woman grabbed him by the wrist and started dragging him off, he had no idea just how big of a mistake he had made.

"I made you drop one stick; how the hell does that mean I owe you all of this?!" Naruto feared for his wallet as he watched the woman polish off her fifth order of dango before throwing the stick so that it was sticking out of the seat next to his head; just like all the other ones that were surrounding him like she was trying to leave an outline of his head in the back of his seat.

"That sounds like your problem," Anko shrugged before picking up another stick and bringing it to her mouth. Letting out a defeated sigh, Naruto resigned himself to being broke and reached for his own stick of dango. He stopped however when his violet-haired companion held her now clean dango stick just in front of his eye. "Get your own."

"But I paid for it…"

"That sounds like another you problem," Anko smirked as she once again tossed her stick next to his head.

"Whatever," Naruto grumbled as he pulled his hand back. What neither of them was expecting was for a small chain to suddenly launch from the palm of his hand and skewer a piece of dango.

"…"

"…"

"So that just happened," Anko tried to downplay her surprise as she examined the small chain carefully. Naruto nodded wordlessly as he pulled his hand back; the dango still hanging on the end of the chain. Lifting it to eye level, he looked the chain over carefully before shrugging and lowering its sweet captive into his mouth.

"That's good dango," Naruto complimented making Anko's eyebrow once again twitch in irritation. Ignoring the violet-haired tokubetsu jounin's ire, Naruto continued to experiment with the chain and found that it was fairly easy to extend and retract. Remembering the battle on the bridge, Naruto tried to imitate what he had done before and create a second chain; this proved to be more difficult as he tried to produce another chain from his palm with little success. While he was trying to get a grasp on his strange new ability, Anko watched in interest while she continued to eat her dango; they should probably let the old man know about this.

"Oi, brat-"

"Stop calling me that!" Naruto interjected with a glare at the woman who only smirked at him in response.

"Does the old man know about this?"

"Actually…" Naruto trailed off as he rubbed the back of his head. "I sorta forgot about it."

"…You forgot?" She asked incredulously earning a sheepish nod for a response. Anko groaned before grabbing the last few skewers of dango and polishing them off. "Let's go tell him then."

"Wait, shouldn't we pay for the dango?" Naruto asked as she grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him out of the booth.

"They'll put it on my tab," Anko waved him off as she continued to drag him away. "You can pay for it later." Naruto groaned in response; he was hoping she would've forgotten and let him off the hook.

[At the Hokage Tower]

"So do you know anything about these chains, Jiji?" Naruto asked excitedly thinking he had some kind of bloodline like Sasuke; maybe that would help him find out who his parents were...

Looking at the two people who had barged into his office moments ago, Naruto and Anko, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Sandaime Hokage, stared at them blankly as he took several puffs of his pipe before setting it down and wordlessly opening one of the drawers of his desk. Reaching into the drawer, he pulled his hand back to reveal that he was now holding a picture in his hand which he looked at for several seconds with what Naruto thought was some sort of sad expression.

"This is the only other person to have ever shown the ability to use the 'Adamantine Sealing Chains'," the elderly kage finally spoke as he set the picture on his desk before pushing it to the other side. "Kushina Uzumaki…your mother." With those two words, Naruto felt like the world came to a sudden halt. His whole life he had wanted to know who his mother was. Did she abandon him? Did she love him? Or did she hate him like everyone else? All these questions and more had always lingered in the back of his mind; maybe now he would get some answers.

Reaching out with shaking hands, Naruto lightly grasped the picture as he held it reverently like some sort of sacred artifact. She was a slender woman with fair skin, violet eyes, and the most beautiful red hair he had ever seen flowing down past her waist. In the picture she was wearing an oversized green dress that went all the way down to her ankles…over her visibly pregnant belly. Naruto was forced to hold the picture away from him so that he didn't ruin it with his tears.

"She's beautiful," Naruto whispered as he imagined what things might have been like if she hadn't died. "Did…did she love me?"

"More than anything in the world," Hiruzen smiled wistfully as he thought of the girl that was like a daughter to him. "I've never seen anyone more excited about being a mother than when Kushina found out she was pregnant with you." Naruto had so many questions he wanted to ask, but found himself unable to because of how difficult it was becoming to breathe…and why was the room spinning?

"Breathe, kid; breathe," Anko's voice and the feeling of her hand on his shoulder managed to break through the haze around his mind as he took in a deep breath and fell back into the chair behind him.

"Can I keep this, Jiji?" Naruto asked referring to the picture in his hand.

"Of course, Naruto-kun." The elderly kage stood up and walked around the desk before kneeling down and pulling his surrogate grandson into a hug. Naruto was quick to return the hug as he began crying into Hiruzen's chest.

Anko shifted awkwardly feeling like she was intruding on such a personal moment. After several minutes, Naruto had finally calmed down some and Hiruzen went back to his seat behind his desk.

"Are you feeling better, Naruto?"

"Yeah," Naruto gave a few short sniffles as he wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeve. "I'm just tired; I think I should go get some sleep."

"I agree; you've had a long day," Hiruzen nodded his agreement. After the incident in Nami, the trip home, and now this, it was a wonder that Naruto hadn't collapsed yet. "Anko, would you mind escorting him home?"

"Of course not, Hokage-sama," Anko gave a short bow before lightly patting Naruto's shoulder. "Come on, kid; let's get you home."

[15 Minutes Later]

"Thanks for walking with me, Anko-san," Naruto thanked the violet-haired woman next to him in an usually quiet voice; it just went to show how tired, both physically and mentally, he really was.

"Don't mention it, kid," Anko ruffled his hair and smirked at the look of annoyance on his face. "And cut out the –san shit. I'm not a fan of honorifics; those are for stuck-up bastards with a stick up their ass." Even with how tired he was, Naruto managed a laugh at the comment and couldn't agree more.

"Thanks, Anko." Making their way up the stairs of his apartment building, Naruto looked at Anko anxiously as they approached his door. He had a lot of fun with her today, despite the threats and whatnot, and hoped that they could hang out again sometime; she was like an older him! But she was eleven years older than him and was a tokubetsu jounin; why would she want to be friends with a preteen genin?

Hey, Anko…" Naruto shuffled his feet nervously as he tried to muster up the courage to ask her. He could count the number of real friends he had on one hand; he didn't exactly have a lot of experience with this sort of thing. "Would you want to…hang out some time?"

Anko smirked at the nervous jinchuuriki thinking he looked like some academy girl giving a confession. "Sure kid; you still have to pay for my dango after all," she answered making Naruto pale dramatically knowing that he would probably have trouble paying his rent after having to pay her dango bill. The worries about his wallet were quickly forgotten though in favor of the happiness he felt for making a new friend.

"Awesome!" Naruto found the energy to pump his fist in the air as he gave the snake summoner a bright smile. Not the usual one he plastered on for the various villagers who muttered their hateful curses; the soft, real smile that he showed to his few precious people. "Good night, Anko-chan; see you later." With that, Naruto entered his apartment and went straight to his bed where he promptly fell asleep almost as soon as he hit the mattress.

"Anko-chan, huh?" Anko smirked in amusement as she hopped off the railing in front of her and onto the adjacent rooftop. "He's definitely an interesting kid."

[The Next Morning]

Once he made his way to his team's training grounds, Naruto gave a brief greeting to his teammates before sitting down and deciding he should practice more with his chains since it would probably be about three hours before their sensei showed up. Once again creating chains from his palms, he made them coil around his hands and up his forearms like a snake; this did not go unnoticed by his teammates.

"How are you doing that? And where did those chains come from?" Sakura was the first to ask as she continued to watch the strange chains move further up her blond teammate's arm.

"Hmm? Oh, this is my bloodline." Naruto answered casually as if it were an every day occurrence.

"You have a bloodline?!"

"Since when do you have a bloodline?" Sakura and Sasuke both voiced their surprise; his pink-haired teammate of course being more vocal in her response.

"Yep; I got it yesterday after I saw Sasuke…you know." Naruto answered not wanting to finish that sentence. Sasuke grimaced at the memory while Sakura looked down with a sad expression.

"So does that mean you have a clan?" Sakura was genuinely curious since everyone had always thought he was just some clan-less orphan.

"Yeah, the old man said that the Uzumaki clan was a well-known clan…until they were wiped out at the beginning of the second shinobi world war." Sasuke would never admit it, but he gained a new-found respect for his blond teammate; he wasn't the only one whose clan had been wiped out.

"That's pretty cool," Sakura said as she looked at the chains before she realized how that might've come off. "I don't mean what happened to your clan! I mean the chains!" She quickly amended.

"Relax, Sakura; I know what you meant," Naruto chuckled as he waved her off.

"So what are they?" Sakura once again inquired.

"Jiji said they're called 'Adamantine Sealing Chains'; apparently my mom was the only person to ever use them."

"I'll never understand how you get away with calling Hokage-sama that," Naruto just shrugged in response with a smirk on his face.

The three of them continued their conversation for a while before separating to do their own things while they waited for the perpetually-tardy jounin. Naruto was slowly starting to get the hang of his chains, but still couldn't produce more than two at a time. He did manage to barely make two of the thicker chains from his back like the ones he had used to…kill Haku; that was still a sore subject and was sure it would be for a while. After continuing in this manner for about two hours, Kakashi appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Sorry I'm late," the cycloptic jounin apologized insincerely.

"Let me guess; you got lost on the road of life?" Naruto asked dryly earning a closed-eye smile from the silver-haired jounin.

"Now you're getting it."

"Hn."

"Whatever."

"Let's just get started." Kakashi sweatdropped at his students' reactions.

"Alright, let's go see what missions are available."

[6 Hours Later]

After doing several D-rank missions, Kakashi had them do some teamwork exercises and practice the surface-clinging exercise more. Once he had called an end to their training for the day, Naruto noticed that instead of the normal orange book he was usually reading, Kakashi was reading a little green book. Taking a look at the title, he didn't quite understand what it was.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yes, Naruto?" Kakashi looked at his blond student over the little green book.

"What's 'Shibari'?"

A/N: So there's the first chapter; hope you all enjoyed.

Like I said in the A/N at the beginning, this was a prologue and the next chapter will be more interesting.

As for their ages, as of now, Anko is 23-years old while Naruto is 12-years-old; Anko's birthday is two weeks after Naruto's on October 24th.

Thanks for reading.