OroAnko

The Couple

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The Couple

OroAnko () is the term used to refer to the relationship between Orochimaru and Anko Mitarashi.

Their Relationship

Part I

Chūnin Exams (Arc)

Anko meets "Shiore".

Anko proctors the second stage of the Chūnin Exams held in Konoha. She breaks into the room where the first stage was held and showily introduces herself to the assembled genin. When she realises that she entered too soon, she tries deflecting blame by instead reprimanding the first stage's proctor, Ibiki Morino, for how many genin were allowed to pass to the second stage. She leads the genin to the Forest of Death where she explains the rules for the second stage and the dangers they'll face in the forest. She attacks Naruto Uzumaki with a kunai when he suggests she's exaggerating, only for the kunai to be returned to her by Shiore, a Kusa-nin.

Anko shocked by Orochimaru escaping her.

Shortly after the second stage gets underway, Anko is alerted to the discovery of three dead Kusa-nin, among them Shiore. From examining the bodies it becomes clear to her that they've been dead for some time and, because they're all missing their faces, she concludes that Orochimaru has infiltrated the Chūnin Exams. She orders that the Third Hokage be informed of what's happened, that two teams of Anbu be deployed, and then goes into the forest to find Orochimaru on her own. She locates him shortly after nightfall and tries to use the Twin Snakes Mutual Death Technique on him, only to discover at the last moment that she's been attacking a shadow clone. He reactivates her dormant Cursed Seal of Heaven, immobilising her with the pain, and warns her not to cancel the Chūnin Exams before departing.

Despite the pain, Anko is eventually able to reach the center of the Forest of Death. The Third Hokage treats her cursed seal and, after hearing what's happened, speculates that Orochimaru is after Sasuke Uchiha, who Orochimaru has branded with another Cursed Seal of Heaven. Anko tries to argue that Sasuke be removed from the exams and placed under guard, but the Third insists the exams continue per Orochimaru's instructions. During the preliminary matches, Anko stays by the Third's side, informing him of the participants' particulars; she is amazed by Sasuke's control of his cursed seal during his match.

A month after the preliminaries, as the final round matches near and it becomes increasingly clear that Orochimaru means ill to Konoha, Anko tries to apologise to the Third for her failure to kill him. She also rues over the death of the Fourth Hokage, believing he could have stopped Orochimaru, but the Third tells her to neither blame herself nor to dwell on the dead.

Kaima Capture Mission

Anko awakens at night after having a nightmare about Orochimaru.

Because this is the same country where Anko received her cursed seal from Orochimaru, the Tsunade puts Anko in charge of the mission, hoping it will help her regain her memories of what happened there.

Anko remembers her past with Orochimaru.

Upon arriving, Anko recalls her time with Orochimaru in this area, and her cursed seal begins to resonate and cause her pain.

Orochimaru shows Anko one of his experiments.

The arrival of Yoroi enables Isaribi to escape, and the two escape. Anko attempts to pursue but is paralyzed by pain from her cursed seal. Anko falls unconscious from the pain caused by the cursed seal.

Orochimaru lies to Anko.

The episode then moved to Anko's sudden reflection on her memories. She saw Orochimaru approaching towards her, telling her that the Hokage had found out about their experiments.

After Anko recovers, she reveals the truth about her past and this chain of islands. She tells her team that several years ago, Orochimaru used this place as a base to conduct many of his horrific experiments. He was responsible for the people mysteriously disappearing; kidnapping them and using them as lab rats. Isaribi was one of them. These actions also started the legend of people being captured by spirits. Determined to make Orochimaru pay, Naruto insisted on destroying the hidden lab.

While Anko was able to guide them to the lab thanks to prior knowledge she had as Orochimaru's former apprentice and revealing that Orochimaru was her Jonin, they were ambushed by the enemy.

Isaribi managed to escape, and left Anko locked in the room to face three large lion-like mutations. Anko made quick work of the three and walking towards a room while feeling pain with the curse mark. While opening the room, Anko thought to have Orochimaru only to discover it was Amachi and Isaribi. Amachi and Anko have a conversation about Orochimaru and the Curse Mark before Naruto and Ino appeared.

After escaping with his team from the crumbling lab as a result of the all the fighting inside, Naruto and his team went after Amachi and Isaribi. Naruto then found himself up against Isaribi. When Amachi went to see, Anko stopped him about Orochimaru and Sasuke and taunting her about Orochimaru tossing her aside.

Orochimaru gives Anko a Curse Mark.

After the Kaima Capture Team completes their mission, Anko locates the lab where Orochimaru carried out his experiments and remembers that he gave her the Curse Mark and he didn't abandon her but that rather she left him. She is happy by the truth.

Part II

Itachi Pursuit Mission

Orochimaru's current host body, Gen'yūmaru, begins to reject him, leaving the sannin to cough up blood and consider initiating his Living Corpse Reincarnation. Kabuto pulls out his Ninja Info Cards from the Chūnin Exam days three years ago, and Orochimaru recalls back when he first encountered Sasuke in the Forest of Death, when he ingested Sasuke's scroll and forced Sasuke to stab himself in the leg with a kunai. He tells Kabuto that he knew that Sasuke was the perfect host body for him when he witnessed Sasuke activate his Sharingan and combine the Manipulating Windmill Triple Blades along with his Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique to burn him when he was using Shiore's body; subsequently, he remembers how he had given Sasuke the Cursed Seal of Heaven and had encountered Anko shortly after that.

Anko asks Orochimaru about his white snake shed skin.

At a young age, he found the shed skin of a white snake, and asked his sensei, the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, what it meant. Hiruzen had told him that the white snake's skin was rare and that it was renown as a sign of good luck and renewal, possibly meaning that his parents may be reborn someday. Years later, during a mission, he witnessed Tsunade's brother Nawaki dying and remarked that the lifespan and vulnerability of humans were weaknesses, and eventually began seeking out a reanimation technique. Some time later, he had gained Anko as an apprentice, who had noticed the white snake skin Orochimaru had kept. He had told her that he was experimenting not only with reanimation but also with regeneration.

In Konoha, Naruto, Tsunade and Jiraiya notice the blood red sunset and consider it a bad omen; while on a mission, Anko hears a rustling sound and throws a kunai in its direction, only to pin and kill a white snake. Remembering Orochimaru, she then clutches at her cursed seal.

Fourth Shinobi World War: Climax

Orochimaru revived from Anko's cursed seal.

After Kabuto is defeated by Sasuke Uchiha, Anko's unconscious body is found by Jūgo and Suigetsu Hōzuki. Wishing to speak with Orochimaru, Sasuke uses the Evil Releasing Method to revive Orochimaru from her cursed seal, causing her cursed seal to disappear in the process. Anko remains unconscious throughout the ordeal and they leave her behind.

• .

Quotes

• (To Orochimaru, before engaging him) "This is no time to reminisce, you’re an S-class criminal, top of the most wanted list. You've got to be taken down, and it's only fitting that I'm the one to do it. 'Cause after all, you're the one that taught me everything, right, Sensei?" - Anko

Trivia

• Orochimaru eventually used Anko as a test subject for his Cursed Seal of Heaven. Of the ten subjects, Anko was the only survivor.
• In an interview included with Naruto Anime Profiles, Vol. 1, Kishimoto states that Anko is his favourite female character, due to her "relationship with Orochimaru".
• Studio Pierrot's Settei sheets of Anko show that she was 141 cm at her Chūnin Exams when she was first part of Orochimaru's genin team, 143 cm a year or so later.
• Unable to enter Sage Mode because of the fragility of his host body, Orochimaru instead developed an alternate method of harnessing his senjutsu chakra through cursed seals, which he tested on Anko and several others before eventually using the finalised versions on Kimimaro and the Sound Four.
• Anko is the first test person to survive the Orochimaru Curse Mark infection.
• A filler story mentions that Anko lacks many memories of the time with Orochimaru because he had erased part of her memory when he locked her up in the dungeon as she built a laboratory and his experiments on Kikai (Orochimaru there began kidnapping residents of the marine realm to test experiments on them) knew.

Among the fans

Oroanko is not a popular pairing probably due to the huge age difference between them, and the fact that Orochimaru used her as an experiment. And it is also not nearly as popular as other couples involving Orochimaru but it still have some fans.