>You had been a renegade up until recently, trying to scrap by on your own, jumping from one job to the next, all because of your misguided sense of justice. It wouldn't have been that bad if you had a decent idea of what you were doing, but perhaps that incompetence was what got you into this situation as well. As it stood, you were always in financial trouble, and almost always getting out of fights with dumb tricks like smoke bombs, or wounds from actually engaging with those stronger than you. You started in hopes of taking down evil shinobi, but all you did was make enemies before you had finished your training.
>Because of this, you were captured by a group of evil shinobi. Exceptional evil shinobi. Evil shinobi doing things even most shinobi on that side condemned: evil shinobi running a slave trade. Shinobi, for their excellent training, supposedly made for great "pets", "bodyguards", or "servants", according to some.
>For some reason you had always thought women and girls were the primary victims of such businesses, but you learnt that shinobi don't discriminate on gender or race, and you did so the hard way. The only thing these sort of people paid attention to was physical fitness and age, and the former was rarely ever a problem for a shinobi, while the latter was just to ensure slaves would be a long-term investment. In some ways males were actually even harder to acquire, as those were more likely to kill themselves before being properly restrained. But you couldn't. You were a coward. Or an optimist. Perhaps even both. Either way, you regreted it the moment your window of opportunity was closed roughly and violently.
>Your "reeducation" was harsh. Very harsh. You remember very little though, as the combination of drugs and puppetry kept your mind empty throughout most of it. You quickly lost your grip on your identity, both your real name and your shinobi name. In hindsight those may have been the first things you unlearned...
>After what could have been days, months or weeks, you were put up for sale. You could recall hearing that you were finally an empty slate. It was then that something strange happened. Statistically improbable, at the very least.
>You were put into a glass cell, like others that were in the same situation.
>The potential clients were led in, and after a few minutes, one had an eye on you. She kneeled down in front of your cell, reading the costs, and began talking to one of the people in charge, a very powerful looking lady with a tough face and a large scar on one of her exposed arms. They shook hands after a few minutes, and she was led inside. You looked up, and she began rubbing your cheek with a surprising gentleness. Something you hadn't felt since you left your home for training at least a year ago. Even though you couldn't remember your own mother's face, the memory of this gentle touch was something even the intense brainwashing couldn't get rid of.
>You were taken out, and in intense and painfully restricting bondage, you were taken home by the lady. Her house was large, and out of the way. It was somewhere between a normal house and a mansion, but it was definitely not in the public eye.
>Once through the front door, you were put down on the floor.
>"Hm... Your name?"
>"..."
>After a few moments of odd silence, she spoke up.
>"Oh dear..."
>She begins to untie you.
>"Walk, dear."
>You had some trouble getting up at first, but did as you were asked, walking a few steps. You started off with a mild limp, but after a few steps it fixed itself.
>"Hm..."
>"Mistress Haruka?"
>A young girl with black hair walked in. For a second you thought it could be this Haruka's daughter. But if that were true, the lady would likely look older, so you dropped the thought.
>"Ah, Mirai. Great timing. I got one without any major issues. He seems to be rather weak, but he can probably still be helped."
>"Huh... So, if it works on this one...?"
>"Yes. But we don't know if it will work. And it might take a long time. If he fully recovers, we can see if we can do the same for others."
>Mirai turned to you, now even more interested.
>"Hey, what's your name?"
>"..."
>"He... He isn't answering."
>"Yep... They definitely didn't mess around. He can respond to basic orders, it seems, but... He doesn't appear to speak. But I think that he's still in there. It's just that the ability to link it all was damaged."
>The girl, Mirai, thought for a moment, and then came up with something.
>"Talk."
>After a small pause, you responded.
>"Yes..."
>Haruka stares, interested in it all.
>"Do you know your name?"
>"No..."
>"Hm... We'll pull it out of you sooner or later. For now, let's call you..."
>"Anon!" Mirai interrupted her with strange enthusiasm. And after a strange glare from Haruka, she elaborated. "We uh... We call one another that on my favourite shitposting boards."
>"That will work, I guess. Not at cute as I'd hoped, but it makes sense."
>It was from here that they began to work on fixing you up. They (and three other girls) had bought you mostly as an experiment: a test to see if mindbreaking could be undone. Through weeks of interaction, with them, television, actual pets, and sometimes friends of theirs, your mind began rebuilding the gaps between pieces of information. While some details were lost, you eventually began to remember who you were, what your aspirations were, and what trails and training you had gone through before. But even though you remembered your name, you kept Anon as a nickname. Going from a shinobi name to a nickname wasn't a large jump. Well, besides having no name inbetween those periods.

>A few months later you talked with Haruka, finally asking something you thought about almost immediately after you began your recovery.
>"Uhm... Haruka, say..."
>"Yes, Anon?"
>She was leaning on the table with her chest, as provocative as ever.
>"You're... You're a sadist, right?"
>"Amnesia again, Anon?" she asked, an amused smile on her face from the rhetorical question, knowing there was no way you could have missed that.
>"Yeah, well, uhm... Why didn't you abuse the situation...? I was an easy prey when you bought me... I... I was basically trained for just that... Why didn't you...?"
>She pressed her finger against your lip and began to speak.
>"I'm a sadist, but I'm not cruel. Don't you get it? The reason I hurt my friends is because they can handle it, and they get stronger from it in the end. Perhaps, once you're strong enough, you will get the same treatment. But for now," she interrupted her sentence to blow you a kiss, "keep improving."
>"I-I will!"
>"Good. Be a big guy."
>"For you..."
>You then realised Mirai naming you Anon was more appropriate than you expected, and chuckled a bit as you went back to your daily routines of your current life, training both mind and body. And soon, you would begin helping others like you, to the point where the Crimson Squad would slowly become a respectable force of shinobi that had gone to the deepest reaches hell and back, a haven for renegades.