Deception

When Anko cautiously returned to the village and reached her home without encountering the ambush she had anticipated, she couldn't help but feel puzzled by Lan's intentions.

She already knew that Lan was a sleeper agent planted in the village by Orochimaru; logically, he should have silenced her to keep his secret. Why, then, had he let her return to the village unscathed?

If he had tried to move against her within the village, the risks would have been too high. Could it be that the guy was betting on her being too grateful for his life-saving intervention to report him?

Was that guy being too arrogant? Orochimaru meeting with him must have involved some unspeakable secret that might threaten the village's safety. She absolutely could not sit idly by.

Yet, the moment she was about to step out the door, she hesitated.

If not for Lan's warning, she would have likely perished alongside Orochimaru's shadow clone, throwing her life away for nothing.

Considering she had been left not far from the village afterward, it was undoubtedly Lan's doing as well.

He had effectively saved her twice. If she were to report him now and cause his death, wouldn't that be going too far?

And so, Anko spent several days at home, torn by indecision.

On this day, having finally made up her mind, she arrived at Hyuga Lan's home, prepared to have an honest and open conversation with him.

Facing Anko's second visit, Lan seemed to have anticipated it long ago.

He unhurriedly set down the technical documents he had just obtained from Orochimaru and calmly asked Anko, "Is there something you need?"

After speaking, Lan gestured for her to sit down and talk it over slowly.

Once Anko was seated, she looked at Hyuga Lan with a serious expression and said, "Lan, I think you know very well what kind of person Orochimaru is. Collaborating with someone like that won't end well."

"What do you mean by that? What exactly are you trying to do by coming to me?"

Faced with Lan's question, Anko didn't beat around the bush and stated her intentions directly.

"Join forces with me. Let's get rid of him together. That way, we can clear our names and eliminate the threats hanging over us."

Anko spoke with a hint of nervousness, prepared for Lan to mock her, but to her surprise, he only smiled faintly and asked with a puzzled look, "Join forces with you?

I'm curious, why are you so insistent on killing Orochimaru?

Could it be that there is some unknown secret between the two of you?"

Anko was so desperate to get rid of Orochimaru because she vaguely sensed that she held some unusual significance to him.

However, she still didn't know what Orochimaru intended to do by keeping her alive; even when she had tried to assassinate him, he still hadn't killed her.

These were merely guesses without concrete evidence, and even if she spoke of them, they wouldn't be convincing. Yet, her intuition told her that she and Orochimaru could not coexist in the future, so to survive, she had to strike first.

But the current problem was winning Hyuga Lan over to deal with Orochimaru, not discussing her own issues, so Anko turned the topic back to Lan.

"You refuse to move against Orochimaru, that traitor to the village, because your true identity is actually the spy he planted in the village, right?"

Facing Anko's accusation, Hyuga Lan stared into her eyes and said word for word, "That was in the past. Since he defected, I have drawn a clear line between us and paid the price to regain the village's trust.

You cannot accuse me of being his spy just because I was once his subordinate. If we follow that logic, wouldn't you, a former disciple of Orochimaru, be even more suspicious?"

Faced with Lan's denial, Anko grew anxious.

"What nonsense are you spouting? You went to meet him that night; you two clearly still have contact. He must have assigned you some mission..."

Before Anko could finish, Lan interrupted her.

"I recall that you were the one who went to see Orochimaru that night. It seems the person he wanted to see was you. Are you the spy he planted in the village?"

Hearing this, Anko immediately retorted, "How could I be a spy!

I went there to kill him. You must have seen me move against him."

"Is that so? And did you succeed in your assassination?

Is Orochimaru dead?"

Seeing Anko shake her head, Lan continued to press, "Then I'm curious. You went to assassinate Orochimaru, failed, and yet returned to the village unscathed. Since when has Orochimaru been so kind-hearted that he would tolerate an assassination attempt and let the culprit go? That doesn't make sense."

Then, shifting his tone as if he had realized something, Lan continued, "Or are you lying? Were you actually meeting with Orochimaru that night to receive his orders?

Could it be that you really are the spy he planted in the village?"

Hearing Hyuga Lan say this, Anko grew flustered, pointing a trembling finger at him as she said, "You... you are making false accusations! You're a thief crying 'stop thief'!"

"Heh... I simply analyzed what you did. Now you're accusing me of framing you.

If the same logic applies to me, why isn't it considered slander?

What kind of reasoning is that?"

Faced with Lan's counter-accusation, Anko wanted to defend herself, but the words died in her throat. She herself did not know how to explain why Orochimaru hadn't killed her, but had spared her life instead; it was entirely inconsistent with how Orochimaru operated.

"Anko, speak up. How have you been in contact with Orochimaru, and what exactly does he want with you? You need to think clearly—there is no good end to collaborating with someone like Orochimaru. It's not too late to turn back now."

"There is no contact between Orochimaru and me. He was looking for you, not me... I just happened to sense his arrival..."

"Is that so? If you sensed Orochimaru's arrival, why didn't you report it to the village? Do you have any idea how dangerous he is? What is your true motive for withholding such intelligence?"

Faced with Hyuga Lan's accusations, Anko was momentarily stunned into silence. At the time, she had sensed Orochimaru's arrival and had only one thought in her mind: revenge. In her impulsive state, she had acted on her own to assassinate him, forgetting that she should have reported this vital intelligence to the village first. Now that this lapse had been seized upon by her opponent, she found herself trapped in a quagmire where she could hardly prove her own innocence.

"Can't answer, can you? It seems your status as an Orochimaru spy is effectively confirmed. Add to that your slander against a fellow villager and your attempt to shift the blame—how do you think the Third Hokage and the other high-ranking officials will punish you once they find out?"

At the mere thought of the village investigation she had endured recently, Anko couldn't help but shudder; she dared not face that ordeal a second time.

"This is all your slander, your one-sided story. He... they will believe me..." As she spoke, Anko's voice grew quieter, as if she herself realized how feeble these defenses sounded.

"I am a member of the Hyuga branch family, bound by the Caged Bird Seal; my life and death are in the hands of the main family. Between the two of us, who do you think is more likely to be a spy—someone like me, who doesn't even control their own fate? Or is it that you hold a grudge because of the village's previous investigation into you, and that's why you summoned Orochimaru to conspire with him?"

Confronted by Lan's accusations, Anko finally realized why he was so confident in sparing her life: when it came to the probability of being a spy, her chances were far higher than Hyuga Lan's. If she tried to point the finger at him, she would likely drag herself down in the process. Realizing this, Anko understood how laughable her threats must have seemed to him. She had truly been foolish, acting without consideration, and that was how she had ended up in this predicament.

Seeming to sense that the time was right, Lan stepped up to Anko, patted her shoulder lightly, and whispered into her ear, "Considering that we have both been implicated by Orochimaru and share the same plight, I won't pursue your offense this time. But there must never be a next time. Remember, neither of us went to the Forest of Death that night, and we certainly never saw anyone named Orochimaru. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Hearing Lan put it this way, Anko realized he wanted to bury the matter between the two of them. If she dared to expose him, he would drag her down with him, resulting in a lose-lose situation.

"What kind of deal did you make with Orochimaru?"

"Is that question really so important to you?"

Seeing Anko nod, Hyuga Lan realized that if he didn't clarify the specific reason today and completely dispel her suspicions, this foolish woman would surely continue to pester him. So, he spoke directly, "He wants me to help him investigate a guy called 'The Fool.' I assume he's just another unlucky soul who popped up from nowhere. You know how it is—anyone targeted by Orochimaru never meets a good end..."

Upon hearing this, Anko didn't really take in the rest of what Lan said. At that moment, only one thought occupied her mind. The enemy of an enemy is a friend. If she could find this "Fool" before Orochimaru did, she might be able to join forces with him and perhaps, together, they could deal with Orochimaru.