Anko Mitarashi

is the proctor for the second exam of the Chūnin Selection Exams and leader of the Infiltration and Reconnaissance Party.

Background
Anko was once the student of Orochimaru. Later she, along with nine others, were branded with Orochimaru's first ten samples of the Cursed Seal of Heaven. Of the ten, Anko was the only one to survive, establishing the one-in-ten chance of surviving the Cursed Seal. Orochimaru supposedly rejected Anko as a subordinate, believing she did not have the lust for power or vengeance needed to fuel the Cursed Seal. Orochimaru lost interest in her, though he believed there was some value in letting her live. In the anime, after learning of her past, she was glad to discover that she wasn't tossed away like trash as she first had thought by Orochimaru, but chose to leave Orochimaru herself.

Personality
Anko is easygoing, tomboyish, playful, stubborn, and sometimes hyperactive, making her very similar to Naruto Uzumaki in many ways. Despite portraying several "Naruto-like" habits, she has shown to be very knowledgeable and studious. However, she is also shown to have a bloodthirsty (in a literal sense) side, as shown when she scratched Naruto's face with a kunai, and licked away his blood. This probably comes from her time with Orochimaru. She regularly makes sure to have at least basic knowledge of the landscape for which her next mission will take place.

As shown in flashbacks during the Land of Sea arc, Anko greatly admired Orochimaru while under his tutelage, seeing him as a role model and was inspired to be more like him. After being branded by Orochimaru with the Curse Seal, Anko became enraged and carried a deep loathing for her former teacher. From there on, Anko continues to search for Orochimaru in hopes of taking him down, feeling that it is her duty as his former subordinate to stop him, even at the cost of her life.

Appearance
Anko has light brown, pupil-less eyes. Her violet hair is done up in a short, somewhat spiky ponytail. She is commonly seen wearing a tan overcoat, complete with a fitted mesh body suit that stretches from her neck down to her thighs. She wears a dark orange mini-skirt, as well as a forehead protector, a small pendant that looks like a snake fang on a thick cord rather than a chain to prevent it from being easily torn off in combat, a wrist watch, and shin guards. She also wears a dark blue belt around her waist that connects to her skirt that has an appendage-like sash. The Cursed Seal of Heaven, which takes the appearance of three tomoe, is at the back of her neck on the left side.

Abilities
As a child, Anko's talent for ninja arts were presumably high, as shown from Orochimaru's initial interest in her, even comparing her abilities to Sasuke. Her training with Orochimaru made her a powerful fighter as she was shown to have very quick reflexes and precise aim. During her brief scuffle with Orochimaru, she was able to outmaneuver him several times. She was also able to counter Kabuto Yakushi's ambush, despite losing to him.

She has good aim, as she made a perfect Konoha symbol out of dango-sticks without looking.

Snake Techniques
Anko knows several forbidden and snake related techniques taught to her by Orochimaru, the most notable of which is Twin Snakes Mutual Death Technique, a murder-suicide technique she attempted to use to eliminate her former sensei in the Forest of Death for the sake of her village. She is also shown to summon snakes and use them for the Hidden Shadow Snake Hands technique and its stronger variant. The fact that she was sent to lead the team searching for Kabuto is strongly suggestive of how much Konoha respects her skill.

Despite never using the Cursed Seal of Heaven, she was said by Kabuto to retain some of Orochimaru's chakra because of the mere fact that she was branded with it.

Chūnin Exam Arc
Anko was the proctor for the second exam, which she announced during Ibiki Morino's speech, after she made a rather loud entrance into his class, annoying him since she was early. During the second exam, Izumo Kamizuki, Kotetsu Hagane, and Mozuku notified her of three dead Grass ninja. Anko saw that all of their faces had been stolen, and, after she recognized the face-stealing technique, she demanded the Grass ninjas' IDs. After seeing the IDs, Anko realized that the Grass ninja, who she met earlier, was Orochimaru in disguise. Later, she arrived at a confrontation with Orochimaru, and it was revealed that he used to be her sensei.

Orochimaru was able to reawaken her Cursed Seal during their battle in the Forest of Death, thus incapacitating her with the pain and ending their fight. Anko then rushed to inform the Third Hokage. During the preliminaries, Anko strongly requested to pull Sasuke Uchiha out the exams in order to keep the Curse Seal under control, but was denied. Feeling guilty that she was unable to kill Orochimaru, she later talked over her encounter with the Third Hokage, but he reassured her, telling her it wasn't her fault that Orochimaru got away.

In the anime, she appears briefly in her favourite dumpling restaurant where Naruto asks her about the Legacy of the Fourth Hokage, but quickly becomes angry with him when he eats her dumplings without permission and chases him away with thrown dumpling sticks.

Invasion of Konoha Arc
When the Sound and Sand villages invaded Konohagakure, she did not take the front lines, and instead assisted bystanders in getting away from harm. Anko was later seen attending the Third Hokage's funeral.

Search for Tsunade Arc
In the anime, Anko makes an appearance along with most of the village to watch Tsunade's inauguration as Hokage.

Land of the Sea Arc
In the anime, Anko's past was explored, in which she led Naruto, Ino Yamanaka, and Shino Aburame on a mission to protect a shipping convoy. The Land of the Sea is where Anko was found after Orochimaru had branded her with his Cursed Seal, and subsequently abandoned her. Orochimaru had also erased any memory Anko had of the event, and was intentionly sent to the Land of the Sea by Tsunade, giving Anko a chance for her to remember. After the mission, Anko found her way back to the place where she received the Cursed Seal from Orochimaru, and remembered what actually had happened. She was glad to discover that she wasn't tossed away like trash as she first had thought, but chose to leave Orochimaru herself.

Part II
Anko made a number of cameos in the Naruto: Shippūden anime; when Kakashi recalls Jiraiya's warning about Naruto's transformation in the dumpling shop, Anko is seen walking in front of it. Anko is also seen during one of Naruto's dreams, he interrupted a number of kunoichi (amongst them was Anko) relaxing in a hot spring while he was peeking. She later appeared at Asuma's funeral, along with several other characters not present at the funeral in the manga. She was also mentioned by Naruto in one of the anime's ending sketches; in the sketch, Naruto invited Chiyo to try Konoha's best dumpling restaurant, saying that even the "scary snake lady" liked to eat in this place.

Itachi Pursuit Arc
In the anime, after Sasuke absorbed Orochimaru, Anko was shown to be on a mission with Mozuku and Iwashi. Sensing someone behind her, she threw a kunai into a bush and killed a white snake. Knowing that a white snake was Orochimaru's signature, she covered her seal with her hand and looked toward the sky ominously. Also, she was seen in Orochimaru's flashback when he talked of the white snake skin. He offered to teach her about immortality, which she eagerly accepted.

Invasion of Pain Arc
Before Pain attacked, Anko was dispatched, along with Sai and Yamato, to track and locate Kabuto Yakushi. Anko cautioned the rest of them to not let Kabuto detect them. However, right after discovering his location, Yamato interrupted, and apologized to her and Sai, stating that they had an emergency on their hands, after discovering that Naruto had broken his seal on him, and had achieved his six-tailed transformation.

Five Kage Summit Arc
With Sai and Yamato back in Konoha, Anko is still currently tracking Kabuto. Danzō Shimura instructs two Root members, Dajimu and Tera, to follow Anko and Terai to locate Kabuto before she does.

Confining the Jinchūriki Arc
While Anko was tracking Kabuto with her team, they came across three dead Takigakure ninja. After examining the bodies Kabuto left behind, she saw how Kabuto was mastering Orochimaru's powers and wondered why Kabuto was leaving his tracks behind so clearly. Anko and her team continued to follow a trail of corpses left by Kabuto until they reached a forest area. She ordered Tokuma Hyūga‎ to look ahead with his Byakugan, and was shocked to learn that Kabuto was with Madara. She wondered if Kabuto left a trail in order to expose Madara's hideout. She decided to inform the village right away.

Shinobi World War Arc
Afterwards, Anko and her team-mates remained stationed near the Akatsuki base, located at Mountains' Graveyard, in order to report information back to the Allied Shinobi Forces. She demanded to know what Tokuma saw underneath the hideout, after Muta Aburame's insects scanned the surface below, reporting a large amount of living beings.

As Madara and Kabuto's forces move out, Anko sent the rest of her team ahead so they could warn the rest of the Alliance that the army of Zetsu was now on the move, despite Ranka's protest. She hid herself in the bushes, until she sensed Kabuto's approach and began to battle him. Anko is later seen defeated, unconscious and being held by Kabuto's snake tail.

Madara meets up with Kabuto after the fight, realizing that Anko was able to get extremely close to his hideout and Kabuto had known about this, who he speculated was the one who led her there. Madara then orders Kabuto to kill Anko after a groan came from her, noticing that she was still alive and still has knowledge of the location of his hideout and its entrance. However, Kabuto refuses, stating that he cannot kill her yet because he is planning to use Anko to absorb Orochimaru's chakra remains out of her to make himself stronger, since she was compatible with Orochimaru's Cursed Seal.

Kabuto goes on explaining that absorbing the chakra will strengthen the Summoning: Impure World Resurrection's binding power and to do this was to have a living human sacrifice, and that is why Kabuto cannot kill Anko. When Madara demands for Kabuto to show him how Impure World Resurrection actually works, Kabuto safely conceals Anko underneath his cloak, transporting her to an unknown location, as he demonstrates the technique to Madara.

Afterward, Kabuto takes off to a remote area to concentrate on Impure World Resurrection and he re-summons Anko, placing her unconscious form in a seal that drains her chakra into Kabuto's body, giving him more power to strengthen his control over his undead army.

Video Games
In the Ultimate Ninja games, Anko has the ability to go into Curse Seal Mode instead of Ultimate Mode when facing Orochimaru.

In some games she makes non-playable appearances as a background character, a guide when navigating the main menu and various game modes, or a shopkeeper for purchasing unlockable items.

Trivia

 * Anko is Kishimoto's favourite female character, due to her "relationship with Orochimaru".
 * Anko is quite popular for a side-character, and even came in 11th place, right behind Hinata, in the first official character poll.
 * Anko Mitarashi's name is derived from the sweet red bean paste used in popular dango, while her family name is after the Mitarashi syrup.
 * According to the Official Databook:
 * Her hobby is tea ceremonies.
 * Anko's favourite foods are sweet bean soup and dango. Her least favourite type of food is spicy-tasting food.
 * Her favourite phrase is "Arriving!"
 * Anko has completed 647 official missions in total: 72 D-rank, 86 C-rank, 398 B-rank, 89 A-rank, 2 S-rank.

Quotes

 * (To the Genin) "Heads up, boys and girls, this is no time to be celebrating! I'll be your next proctor. Anko Mitarashi. You ready for the second test? Good! Then let's go, follow me!"
 * (To Naruto Uzumaki) "Tough guys like you usually leave their blood all over this forest."
 * (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?"
 * (To Kakashi Hatake, about Sasuke) "I don’t care what the heck he is! If he stays, he’s a danger to everyone! Don’t you see!? As he gets stronger, so does the Curse Mark! That thing is feeding off his chakra! It’s a Forbidden Jutsu that devours the one who bears it! It’s incredible the kid’s still standing. By now, he...should be dead."
 * (To Orochimaru, about leaving her) "But why? How could you do this!? I don't get it, I've looked up to you more than anyone in the world!"
 * (Thinking, after regaining her memories) "I wasn't cast aside. It was my choice, and mine alone."