Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any shape or form. If I did, it wouldn't be fanfiction, would it?
"Hey! Kakashi! Hurry and get up! Oi, Hatake! Answer me, damn it! Where the hell is his apartment? Are you sure that it's this floor, Shizune?"
Panting frantically, Shizune gasped, "Yes, Lady Tsunade. Our files state that Kakashi Hatake lives on this floor in this building—."
Tsunade growled impatiently, and the two of them continued running along the long balcony in front of the apartment doors. "Who designed this stupid building anyways? Damn it… I don't know how much more of this running she can take… KAKASHI!"
As soon as the hokage's snarl cracked the air, a door opened among the row of them and the man in question stepped out of the apartment, running his fingers through his silver hair.
"Ah… Lady Tsunade, Miss Shizune," Kakashi greeted them sleepily, his words punctuated by a yawn. "To what do I owe your visit? It's Sunday, and it's four o'clock in the morning, you know…"
"Shut it, Kakashi, and let us in now," Tsunade snapped impatiently. Kakashi lifted his eyebrows but stepped aside quickly to let the two women through to his bedroom. There, Tsunade and Shizune set the person they had been carrying onto the bed and began unloading scrolls and seals from the large black medical bag slung over Shizune's shoulder.
"Lady Tsunade, what's going on?" Kakashi asked, a bit of alarm in his usually relaxed voice. "Why did you come all the way here to treat…? Who is this anyways?"
Ignoring Tsunade's roars of being a useless lump asking stupid questions, the agile ninja smoothly slipped through the chaos and peered observantly at the patient on his bed. His open eye widened in surprise. "Don't tell me that this is… The genin exam proctor, Anko Mitarashi?"
"Yes, yes, it is," Tsunade answered in annoyance, setting up spells around Anko's unconscious form. "Now, stop standing around and help us control this damned mark that the blasted man with more tongue mass than brain mass gave her! You've sealed Sasuke Uchiha's curse mark before, right? That's why we need you to help, stupid! Get your chakra going and focus it on the base point, or this girl will die, got it?"
"Uh, yes, I'm on it," Kakashi responded, and placed his hands on the curse mark's origin on Anko's shoulder. It was hot to the touch, and scorching black spots spread across her skin like fire. Anko was drenched in cold sweat, her heart beating violently in her chest. Like the venom of a deadly snake was coursing through her veins…
Gathering all of his chakra together, Kakashi sent it out in a steady stream toward the mark, trying to control and diminish it. Tsunade and Shizune were sending their own chakra into Anko's most prominent chakra points. Swearing loudly, Tsunade cursed Orochimaru repeatedly and wished aloud for one of the Hyuga clan's Byakugan to make targeting points easier. But the searing curse wouldn't fade. Anko's body turned icy despite the curse marks, and her breathing began to falter. The pounding of her heart echoed through the apartment like the ticking of a clock, numbering the seconds they had left.
As the sun sank into the horizon and scattered stars across the dark sapphire sky, Kakashi felt the last of his chakra depleting quickly. Tsunade and Shizune were also rapidly spending their chakra. But Anko was still unconscious.
"Lady Tsunade, we're going to overwhelm Anko Mitarashi with chakra at this point!" Shizune cried frantically, placing her hands over Anko's heart. "Her pulse is slowing, and it's shaky. I'm afraid that we only have a matter of minutes left to keep treating her like this, due to her body's tolerance and the amount of chakra we have left. We could try the anchoring technique we once used for Neji Hyuga, but the chance that will work is only five percent out of a hundred."
"I hope that Orochimaru burns for eternity in the fiery pits of the devil's domain," Tsunade muttered murderously. She squeezed her eyes shut and forced out more of her chakra. Anko gave no visible response. Her body had been still for the last hour, and only the slight movement of her chest and weak heartbeat indicated that she was clinging onto life. The black marks on her ashy pale skin had mostly faded, but a large patch still remained splotched over her collarbone, shoulder, and neck. It was an hour from midnight, and it would take at least four more hours to get rid of the entire patch. Time was running out.
"…No good," Tsunade announced grimly after ten more minutes. "Even I'm down to my last ounce. We could ask for chakra donors now, but I don't think anyone in this village has the chakra to suppress the curse mark."
"Should I… go look for… some… possible donors?" Shizune panted while she wrote out a life protection jutsu from the floor, having been drained of all her own chakra a few moments ago. Tsunade shook her head.
"No, there's not enough time," she answered. The hokage took the jutsu from Shizune and sent the rest of her chakra into it. Tsunade sealed the chakra onto Anko's chest, right above her heart, and heaved a sigh. "I'm done," she told Kakashi. "I don't have one drop of power left in me. You can continue, but I'm afraid that we may have already lost Anko. I'm sorry."
Gritting his teeth together, Kakashi tried to summon up more of his chakra, but there wasn't more than another few seconds' worth left in his body. No… Anko couldn't die. There was no way of that happening! Anko Mitarashi had been a student under Orochimaru, for crying out loud! She had been like one of the boys ever since they were kids. She was regarded as one of the toughest and scariest exam proctors out there, and she was feisty and independent. Anko was one of the best ninja in the village, and possibly all of the five countries. Now, glancing at Anko, Kakashi couldn't help but to think of her as… frail. Her skin was cold and almost gray, and her hair, normally up in a twist, was loose and lank. But she couldn't die. Not like this…
"Please, don't die on me, Anko," Kakashi whispered, and pushed out all of his chakra in a large wave. The chakra went into the curse mark's origin, and the black marks around it immediately disappeared. As the glow of the sudden surge of chakra died down, Kakashi withdrew his hands back to his sides, and all three of the team looked anxiously down at their patient.
Anko had stopped breathing.
Coldness rushed down Kakashi's spine and he plunged into darkness for a split second. Was Anko… dead? Was it his fault? Shizune had said… Anko's body wouldn't be able to take any more chakra. But he had sent that concentrated wave of it straight into her… Did he just kill her?
And Anko suddenly drew in a deep breath and moaned softly. Kakashi sank to his knees and sighed in relief.
"Thank goodness," he murmured, and closed his eyes, losing consciousness. Unconsciousness was his good friend. It prevented him from thinking about anything.
-o-
…heavy? Why couldn't he lift his arms? There were probably held down by weights, those training weights that one of Gai's students always used. Lee, was it? But these weights were probably a lot heavier. Were they even on his eyelids? They were so heavy… But… what was that flowery scent? It made him dizzy. But it wasn't such a bad smell. And those damn elves… Why did they have to steal his Christmas tree that grew pillows?
Awakening slowly from the delirious dreams that only came with being blacked out for a period of time, Kakashi let himself take a breath before cracking his right eye open a bit. He blinked and opened his eye fully. Hm… It was his ceiling. He could see the leaves of the plant on the windowsill above his head, the plant he called Mr. Ukki.
"Hey… you conscious yet? Or are you still zonked?" a voice asked, a bit of amusement in it. Kakashi groaned. Not now… He still wanted to sleep. He felt like he hadn't been able to rest for years. Just… ten more minutes, please? Five?
Despite the throbbing in his head, Kakashi sat up and combed his fingers through his silver hair. The room slowly came into focus as he blinked a few more times, and his eyes fell on a chair next to his bed.
"How are you, sleepy? You were out for quite a while, you know," Anko told him, swinging her legs back and forth. "It's been… almost twenty hours that you were asleep. It's like… you're pregnant or something."
"Sorry," Kakashi yawned. "I was nearly dead, though. I think I had never felt as tired as that before in my life."
Anko snorted. "Yeah? Well, I nearly did die, stupid, so count your blessings. Tired… Bah…" However, she fell silent and looked away.
"So…" Kakashi said, breaking the awkward silence that had settled between them. "Why are you still here? I mean, I don't mean to sound rude, but you're healthy again, right? So… Well…"
"Yeah, I am better now," Anko answered rather plainly. "But… I thought that I should thank you, you know? You saved my life. And… just… Thank you," she finally finished. They lapsed back into quiet. Kakashi adjusted his mask so that it was evenly settled at the bridge of his nose.
"If… you don't mind," he began softly, "why did your curse mark act up the way it did? Do you think that Orochimaru is within close proximity of Konoha? Or do you think that he's… manipulating you?"
Shaking her head, Anko pressed her hand to her forehead. "I have no idea what to think, honestly," she sighed. "Ugh, damn it!" she suddenly snapped angrily. "Why the hell did that stinking slithery thing put this stupid mark on me anyways? What does it do, besides throw my life into turmoil?" She hissed furiously.
Kakashi swung his legs around over the edge of the bed to face her. "Lots of things in life are like that, you know? I don't know why I have silver hair, for example. Well… that's a bad example, but anyhow… Some things just happen, and for reasons that are inexplicable, but that's just how life works, right? It's the course of life."
"Kakashi, you sound like one of those messages you get in a fortune cookie," Anko told him. She grinned, though. "Well, I guess that's true," she admitted happily, swinging her legs again. Suddenly, she stopped and became serious, and peered intently at Kakashi.
"Erm… What?" Kakashi asked, a bit nervously, as Anko narrowed her eyes at him and frowned. "Did I say something wrong?"
Anko shook her head again. "No… But I just thought of something… When someone says 'what's his face', shouldn't that automatically mean you?"
"I don— Wait, what?"
"Well, hardly anyone has seen your face," Anko pointed out. "You're always wearing your mask, even when you sleep. I mean… seriously dude. You won't die simply by showing your face, you know."
"I know, it's just a habit I have. I've been wearing a mask for a while now, since I was a kid, and—."
In the midst of his rambling, Anko reached forward. Pinching the fabric at the bridge of his nose, Anko yanked down Kakashi's mask in one swift movement and kissed him. After a brief moment, she pulled away and released the mask from the grip between her fingertips, letting the mask hit Kakashi square on his nose with a sharp slapping sound.
"Ow," Kakashi complained, rubbing the spot where the elastic had connected with his skin. "That hurt…" He suddenly lifted his hand from his face and opened his eye wide. "Did you just kiss me?"
Anko scoffed. "Do you have to ask? Of course it was." She shook her head in disbelief as Kakashi turned a slight shade of pink. A mischievous smirk crept onto Anko's face. "That was your first, wasn't it?" She stood up, ignoring the shade of crimson her companion was turning. "I'm off, then. I'm going to tell everyone that I saw your face! Yeah…"
Returning to his normal color, Kakashi blinked. "Oh… You did? But I thought that your eyes were closed…? Maybe I saw incorrectly, or maybe that smack with the mask messed me up—."
"I didn't say," Anko interrupted, "that I saw with my eyes, did I?" She grinned evilly. "Later!"
Truly worried now, Kakashi scrambled off his bed and chased after his visitor frantically. "Ah, Anko? Please don't do that! Anko? Mitarashi-san? Oh, no… Come on, if my students find out, they'll never let me hear the end of it! They still make fun of the time I fell into a garbage can, and that happened years ago! Heck, Asuma and Iruka still make fun of me for tripping over a fish in a stream when I was six! Anko—!"
-o-
A pointless bit of fluff that I needed to dispose of from my brain. I know, it's really badly written, but I wasn't really focusing on it... Sorry, I'm writing a fic for Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki at the moment, and I'm putting all of my effort into that, so... Yeah... And, to tell you the truth, I'm not a big fan of Naruto. I just take slight interest in it. Well, I hope you didn't think too badly of this fic, and I really want to write more for this pairing. Kakashi needs someone energetic in his life, you know? And I... I feel kind of bad for picking on him, but I must! Thank you for reading!