Tick. Tock.

The sound of the clock against the wall was the only sound in Anko Mitarashi's lonely room. For days she had laid there, barely getting out of bed save to eat or relieve herself. She simply had no motivation to do anything else. Admittedly this was her own fault, but Anko wouldn't admit that. She refused to admit that the fact that she hadn't left caused her to feel even worse.

Anko knew that she could walk out and do something, anything, but ever since her last random romantic fling had failed, she had felt the desire to go out and move on missing. What was the point? How many men had she half-heartedly pursued in an attempt to get free food or comfort between missions?

Too many. Far too many for her. It didn't help that many of those men had later died on mission, a risk that came with the job of being a ninja. Then again if they died it must have meant that they weren't strong enough for her. Strength had always been a turn on for her; no one weaker than her would do. As hard as it was to admit, she was a snake at heart; venomous and deadly to all who tried to get close to her.

And then, a knock at her door pulled Anko out of her thoughts and back into the real world. At first she ignored it; the person would probably go away before long. The others who had come before did. They'd assume she wasn't home, or that she was on a mission, or even that she was asleep. No one who cared enough to try and get in to see if she was alright came to mind.

This time however the knocking didn't stop. Anko threw a pillow over her head, trying to ignore it. Minutes went by and still the knocking didn't stop. Finally, in frustration, Anko jumped to her feet and stormed over to the door. Oh, whoever decided to bother her while she was in the middle of her moping was going to get it.

She threw open the door, fully prepared to unleash her wrath upon the person there to the fullest extent possible. Instead, what she was met with stunned her into pacification. Her brain reeled trying to comprehend what it was seeing and trying to comprehend why she was seeing it.

What Anko was faced with was a younger male with messy brown hair, sharp black eyes, sharp teeth and a large dog sitting next to him. Oddly enough, both the dog and the boy were blushing furiously and looking positively dumbstruck.

The next thirty seconds dragged on for Anko like they were years. She desperately tried to force herself to stop staring blankly at the man, she certainly wasn't making herself look good. "Er... hello. Can I help you?"

The man's mouth worked, the blush never leaving his face. Sweat beaded on his forehead, his eye twitched, and he didn't seem to be on earth anymore. The dog wasn't much better, its mouth was agape and its tongue hung out to one side.

A frown crossed Anko's face; she had been brought out of her funk for this? That was just unacceptable. She leaned forward, getting right in the man's face. "Hello! Anyone in there?"

Suddenly he jumped back, horribly flustered. "Gah! Don't do that!"

Anko's eye twitched as anger welled up in her. She took a step forward, pressing a finger into the man's headband. "Don't do what? You showed up on my door unannounced and then proceed to waste my time! Get on with it!"

The man batted her finger away. "Fine! I'm here because Kurenai-sensei told me to come and check up on you! She was worried, but I see that there wasn't much of reason for that!" He tried to look her in the eye for a few seconds, obviously trying to stare her down and try to look tough. But then his eyes wavered and began lowering.

Great, now he was trying to ogle at her and he wasn't even being subtle about it! Her anger only fueled further by this display of disrespect, she had half a mind to deck him one. But the cooler half of her mind prevailed, and she settled for grabbing his chin and forcing him to look her in the eyes. "Hey! I'm up here!"

The boy's face was a mix between anger and that sort of uncomfortable arousal that stunk of someone who caught a woman bathing. "Well.. you see..."

"What? What is it? Spit it out Inuzuka!"

"You're not wearing any pants."

Anko blinked. Then, she slowly looked down at herself. Sure enough, she wasn't wearing any pants. Well, this was awkward. Anko slowly raised her gaze back to the Inuzuka lad. "I'm going to let go of you, and then I'm going to go back inside. When I do, you're going to turn around and go back to Kurenai and tell her I'm fine. Alright?"

The man nodded. He was like a mouse facing down a cobra. "Got it."

Anko glared, a shadow passing over her face in the process. "And if I hear that you told anyone about this... I will kill you. Are we clear?"

"Perfectly."

"Good. Now get out of here." She released the Inuzuka man, took a step back, and slammed the door. Damn that was embarrassing. Even thought she was reasonably confident that she had intimidated the man into silence, she knew Kurenai would get the truth out of him somehow. She always had a way of finding things out. Anko didn't even know why she had sent a man like that to her.

She shook her head, trying to clear it as she wandered back over to her bed and unceremoniously fell into it. Ah her bed; it never got on her nerves or pissed her off. She breathed a heavy sigh, trying to keep her mind off the fact that she just had a reasonably attractive male at her door and she sent him off in was probably a confused and rather awkward state of mind. Well, there went another wasted opportunity.