It was the middle of summer, the weather was nice, and Anko was having a nice, big, triple-decker ice cream cone. It wasn't often that she visited the Leaf village now. In fact she was staying in the village for one reason. The summer festival was coming up, and she had hoped for a certain someone to sweep her off her feet and ask her out. Still she knew that he probably wouldn't. She saw him pass by earlier, nose buried in his book, passing by not even noticing her.
"Anko, it's you!" cried a familiar voice. She turned to see Iruka coming toward her, but she liked him but only as a friend, not as a summer festival date.
"Hello Iruka, how is Kakashi doing?" She asked. Iruka looked somewhat surprised, but he answered.
"He is doing OK. It's hard to believe Naruto actually got his dream of being Hokage. I'm happy for him. Kakashi must be proud of him. How was your mission to the coast?" Iruka asked, looking cheerfully at her. "Say I was wondering…" he continued, rubbing the back of his neck and blushing hard.
Anko smiled because she knew what Iruka was going to ask. "Do you want to go to the summer festival…with me?" He asked, blushing harder than ever. Anko smiled good-naturedly and said that the person she originally wanted to ask her out obviously wouldn't so that's why she wanted to go with Iruka. Also Anko thought, Kakashi might get jealous of this development. That will be interesting.
Sure enough, when Kakashi came and saw Anko and Iruka talking about the festival, he got a little bit jealous of the two. Kakashi thought, damn it! I knew I should have asked when I passed her earlier. Why was I too nervous? Now Iruka has her. Then Kakashi glared at Iruka from a distance for a full two minutes. Then he went on cursing himself for not getting Anko earlier.
Anko had tried her hardest not to grin so hard at the fact that Kakashi was glaring at Iruka. Her plan had worked. If she played her cards right, Kakashi would be at the summer festival, pretending to read his book, but he would actually be looking at and following Anko and Iruka the entire time they were at the festival. For this she had to thank Iruka.
Since it was three days until the festival, Anko thought that she could enrage Kakashi by hanging out with Iruka most of the time. Thankfully she could count on Iruka to ask her someplace, "Anko? Can you…um…well…I was wondering if you wanted to go to the lake tomorrow?" Iruka asked, rubbing his neck so hard he probably would hurt himself if he did that any longer.
Anko chuckled playfully and said, fully aware that Kakashi could easily read her lips, "Sure! I would be happy to go tomorrow. What time?" She glanced quickly over to where Kakashi was standing, looking utterly fuming with jealousy. She had to feign choking to prevent herself from laughing.
Iruka looked panicky and slapped Anko on the back. Anko waved her hand in such a way that Iruka knew she was alright. He sighed in relief and said, "How about 3:00?"
"That would be great! Ok I'll see you tomorrow!" Anko said with a big smile as she got out of her chair and started towards the shopping area. She wanted to find a good dress to wear to the festival. She walked into the first clothing store she found. To Anko's surprise, she found that Hinata was the owner of the small store. Hinata saw Anko and walked over to where Anko was standing.
"Hello Anko! I haven't seen you in a LONG while," Hinata said, cheerfully leading Anko down an aisle of the most beautiful dresses.
"Same here! I can't believe you and Kiba are going out. It seems like yesterday that you first joined Kurenai's team. You have grown up so much. Oh I like this one!" Anko replied, looking at a beautiful pale blue dress with one sleeve. Hinata smiled and said that since the summer festival was coming up, every dress was 10% off. Anko looked at the price tag and agreed that this was a reasonable price. Hinata took Anko to the cash register to sell the dress. Anko paid the exact amount that was stated on the dress and Hinata sold the dress to Anko.
Anko was just waving goodbye to Hinata when she bumped into Kakashi at the front door. "Oh!" Anko cried out in surprise and mischievous cheerfulness. "Kakashi, what brings you to this store?" Anko asked innocently. Kakashi looked at her in such a way that Anko had to bite her tongue just to not laugh.
Kakashi said nervously, "Uh…I just wanted to buy a suit for the summer festival," Anko just had to laugh at this one.
"Kakashi…this is!" Anko took about 10 seconds to stop laughing, "A WOMENS DRESS STORE!" Anko had to lean against the doorway just to stop herself from falling on the floor laughing. Kakashi was blushing a bright red and apologized for bumping into Anko. "Don't mention it Kakashi…I haven't had this big of a laugh for as long as I can remember!" Anko said, still laughing really hard.
After Kakashi left, it took Anko three minutes to recover from what just happened. Hinata had been giggling also. Hinata said, "Is he the one who is going out with you?"
Anko looked at Hinata with a wide grin and said, "No, I am going with Iruka. I wish Kakashi was my date though," Hinata agreed that Kakashi and Anko would be the best match. Anko gave Hinata a fond farewell and left the store feeling better than ever.
Anko looked around in another store for a swimsuit. She chose a very good looking one-piece when the exact same thing happened, Kakashi bumped into her. Anko explained to Kakashi that it was a bathing suit store for women. Again Kakashi apologized for bumping into her, and Anko was laughing so hard she couldn't breathe.
After that entire ruckus with Kakashi she was ready to plop down on her bed and just fall asleep. She lay on her bed and just stared up at the ceiling for almost an hour, thinking about Kakashi. She felt a little bad for using Iruka to get to Kakashi. She took of her outfit and put on her pajamas and slipped under the covers of her warm bed. Then she fell asleep and dreamed of the summer festival in three days.