Disclaimer (dis-claim-her): I don't own naruto or any of its characters, but I do own the way that these words form together into this lovely lil piece of work.

Chapter 1: Voluntary Decimation.

She didn't know how long he'd been standing there, shoulder to shoulder with her, his hands shoved into the pockets of his dark blue pants. But then again she didn't really care. It wasn't often that someone voluntarily stayed in her company, and Anko would be damned if she ruined whatever little moment of decent camaraderie she could get. Or at least she tried not to.

"We're getting wet." A smile spread across his covered face, and though she couldn't see, he knew that she knew it was there.

And as predicted, she smirked. "You're ability for stating the obvious never ceases to amaze me." I tried, honestly I did.

Silence poured between them for a moment, sliding off their skin much like the tiny drops of water that dripped from overhead tree limbs and trailed along her cheeks, or clung to his usually untamable hair.

His voice was a whisper, barely louder than the rain its self, yet it seemed to shatter the quietness like glass. "Which do you think hurts more, trying to out run the past, or attempting to drown yourself in it?"

"Hm." She bit down on the tip of her thumb, a habit he noticed that she'd develop as of late, and frowned. "The first one."

One of his eyebrows arched but he said nothing, instead opting for a nod so that she would explain.

"Its like a never ending game of chess when you run, always trying to keep one step a head of your opponent. The problem is, that your opponent happens to memories and feelings. Thoughts that can creep along your subconscious like spiders, small and venomous." She turns to face him then, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "And it always points toward the same outcome. A damned checkmate."

Again he nods, this time in consideration, before kneeling down so that his arms rest upon his knees. "But is it not possible, that purposely subjecting one's self to such thoughts can cause an extreme amount of damage?"

There was a hitch in his voice that she did not fail to notice, but refused to comment on. Instead she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against the trunk of a large tree. "Which would be easier, to face your death with open arms, or to run from it, knowing that eventually you'd be caught?"

He tilted his head back in order to glance at her. "Do you enjoying poking holes into my arguments?"

She smiled, and again he noticed for the umpteenth time this week, that it refuses to reach her eyes. "What do you think?"

"I think," Kakashi stood, wiping mud from his pants legs. "that your past can easily become an obsession."

Thunder rumbled overhead, causing both ninja to look up at the sky as lighting splits it into tiny pieces.

And she frowned, this time biting down on her lip. "And who could ever compete with an obsession?"

The question was rhetorical. He knew that. And so he allowed silence to claim them once more, watching as she lounged against the massive trunk.

Later, when he was tucked away into his bed due to the flu, he would find it mildly amusing that she blamed him for her cold.

And yet another magnificently short piece of work created by yours truly (--;). Even though I don't know squat about anko, I think this turned out pretty well. At least it was fun to write…