Anko

When she was a genin, Anko was on a team led by Orochimaru. Their team took part in the Chūnin Exams; during the second round, they confronted a team consisting of Hayate Gekkō, Ibiki Morino, and Tokara. Orochimaru took a strong interest in Anko, teaching her several of his signature jutsu and, in the anime, what he'd learned about immortality. Orochimaru eventually used Anko as a test subject for his Cursed Seal of Heaven. Of the ten subjects, Anko was the only survivor.

In the anime, Anko refused to continue following Orochimaru after she received her cursed seal. Unwilling to kill her because she was so valuable as a research subject, Orochimaru altered Anko's memory so she would believe she'd been abandoned for lacking the ideal drive to fuel the cursed seal. She always held a grudge against Orochimaru for what he did and believed it was her responsibility, as his former student, to stop his

Anko is noted to be similar to Naruto Uzumaki, both being loud, stubborn, and prone to acting without thinking. Naruto himself is somewhat unsettled by her because, when he mocked her during their first meeting, her immediate response was to throw a kunai at him and lick the blood from his resulting wound. Despite her personality quirks, Anko has a strong commitment to her village and mission, often choosing to face threats alone in order to buy time for her allies to escape or for backup to arrive. This is particularly true in matters relating to Orochimaru: although she admired him when she was a child and aspired to be like him when she was older, she now believes it is her obligation to use the same jutsu he taught her to bring him to justice. The Third Hokage insists that Anko shouldn't blame herself for anything that Orochimaru does.

Anko is an average-sized, young woman who was of slender frame. She has light brown, pupil-less eyes. Her hair - black with a blue tint in the manga and violet in the anime - is styled in a short, spiky, fanned-out ponytail. She usually wears a custom-made outfit that is crafted of thin metal mesh to fit the lines of her body, that covers her from neck to thigh. Over this, she typically wears a tan overcoat with a purple in-seam and a pocket on each side, a dark orange mini-skirt, a dark blue belt, and pale grey shin guards. In addition to the typical forehead protector, she also wears a small pendant that looks like a snake fang.

Being a tokubetsu jōnin, Anko is indeed a highly skilled kunoichi. Even as a child, her talent gained the attention of Orochimaru who would take her up as his disciple. Her prowess ultimately earned her recognition as a legendary kunoichi a decade after the Fourth Shinobi World War.

While under Orochimaru's wing, she was taught many of his techniques, such as the Hidden Shadow Snake Hands and its stronger variant. Her skill with these techniques, in particular, allowed her to easily outmaneuver the collaborative efforts of the Ino-Shika-Chō trio during their Genin Exams. She could also perform Orochimaru's murder-suicide technique as well. She was also the first surviving recipient of his Cursed Seal of Heaven, which appears as three tomoe at the back of her neck. Though it flares up from time to time in its attempt to encourage her to use it, she refrains from doing so. It is eventually removed from her body following the Fourth Shinobi World War