This will not be your traditional, no beginning interest involved, nothing to do with each other until the last moment, NaruAnko story. This, my friends, is something that I hope will be original… welp there goes the originality. Anyways, in this, they have been friends for as long as they have known each other, and are of the same age. I cannot stress this enough, because it will impact on how this is written. Anyways, that's enough riff raff. Enjoy the story.

Dizziness was the only thing that could be sensed as Anko waltzed through the streets of Konoha, stumbling and using the walls and windows of numerous shops to hold her drunken form up. But even then, the strong nips and bites of the winter endlessly gnawed at her sanity as she made headway to her home.

"Fucking hell…" Twas all she could mutter as she puked along the side of the dirt road, tripping over her feet and barely able to vault over the growing number of vomit puddles scattered along the street.

Before she knew it, she had hit her head on the corner of the wall with a resounding crunch as it cut a deep gash into the top of her skull.

Twilight had long passed, and the lonely night was only marred by the beer bottles or random assortment of garbage thrown her way when she had gone too far into the more hating part of town. With a great heave, she inhaled, resisting the urge to puke once again as she succumbed to the blanket of flittering white snow.

Glittering and glowing under the moonlit night were the streets, and even she had to admit that for once it truly looked beautiful. She had been so enamored that she hadn't noticed the rather heavy bleeding stemming from her head, and only had begun to realize her desperate situation when she had tried to lift her hand. It wouldn't budge. Not an inch, a centimeter, or even the length of her hand. Her body was already freezing cold, and certainly the pool of blood that had been gathering had grown too much for her to bear.

With a sigh, a few tears grazed the ground beneath her sunken form, and as her arms lay by her side, she wished so much at this very moment that she had stayed home. Man… this is just my luck…

Lazily rolling her eyes towards the sky, everything had begun warping and spinning, and she was still fighting to keep herself conscious, as if to prolong her fleeting life. But… I guess things could have been different. I really pissed Naruto off with that last comment, didn't I? Man… and over a topic I should have known would hurt his feelings too… damn…

"Oi, Naruto." Looking over from across the couch, he raised an eyebrow as the purple haired woman stretched her legs across his form.

"I wonder… if your parents would know you ended up being friends with someone like me… if they'd approve…" With a slight tick above his eyebrow, he fought off the urge to nearly see red. He was getting tired of her putting herself down.

"Anko…"

"You know, I never really got to understand why people left you alone. You're a nice guy… I mean, seriously. But for all that it's worth, you really got the short end of the stick-" He couldn't tell if she was simply talking out of her ass or if she was serious, but for the most part, her down trodden attitude was starting to piss him off. She needed to wake the hell up!

"Anko-"

"And all that stuff, when I heard about the scroll I nearly pissed myself in laughter, thinking about you, of all people, taking it? Ha! Man… and then we started growing up and all that… we became more distant… and now… I feel like I couldn't be further away from-"

"ANKO!" She gulped, and a shot of adrenaline quickly found itself in her veins as she leapt off of the couch, startled out of her mind. But it wasn't just that, it was the watery, gravely tone he had taken when he spoke- that only ever happened when he was truly ready to kill someone, or worse…

"Okay… okay… I'll leave. I didn't mean to piss you off that much. I'll be back in a bit." She called out after him, slamming the door shut straight after, not even bothering to take her coat with her as she made her way to the nearest bar. But she had only barely been able to catch when he called out after her, but she swore that was just a part of her imagination…

"Anko? Anko?"

"Anko, is that… no…"

"Anko! Oh kami, you're hurt! This is why I told you not to go on these drinking binges, damn it!" Naruto rushed over to her side, quickly coating his hand in a faded glow of green, rushing through and quickly closing her wound, preventing her from losing too much blood.

With a mirthful laugh, she lazily looked over to him, and the action of him throwing his coat around her form didn't even register through her mind. Naruto?

The fact she had lazily said it aloud didn't pass her mind, and for all she knew, she could still be hallucinating, maybe even tripping on something that might have been slipped into her drink. But she knew that she had barely been saved... she had lost so much blood.

The midnight sleet had begun to downpour, and even the warmth of the coat could only fight off the oncoming storm in vain. And before she lost consciousness, a single thought rendered into her mind, giving her the humble reply to her earlier hopelessness.

It came quiet, yet unlike the storm it was warm, and comforting.

I'm safe…

With a yawn, she stretched her stiff limbs out from under the blankets that had been carefully packed around her body, and she frantically looked around, spotting a smiling Naruto, quietly keeping an eye on her as he read a book. Tossing it aside to the table, he rushed over to her, inspecting every inch of her body, as if in practice, and set out a sigh of relief as he found no open wounds on her body, save for the bandages put in place around her head.

Looking over to the clock, it gave a time of 1:56 AM, on…

"Tuesday?!" She looked over to him, wide eyed, and tears spilled endlessly as she cried apologies into his chest. She didn't even want to look him in the eyes, as she knew that, he would only hold empathy in those bright cerulean orbs. It made her feel guilty… yet… there was an unexplained warmth that flooded the entirety of her body. He had been treating me for nearly two days straight if those bags under his eyes were to say anything.

"Honestly… you scared me, Anko-chan. I would have been alone had you actually passed away in that street. Listen, I care for you so much I can't begin to fathom how I would live without you." She looked up and could only stare back at him, simply gazing through him as a wave of emotions and pain hit all at once. Clutching her head, she took a deep breath as he climbed into the covers behind her, cradling her form into his own body.

It was strange though… had anyone else tried it, she would have sent snakes to ream the inside of their throat… but it was him. Kami she wanted to let him know so bad… but she knew that he could still be an otherworldly kind of dense when it came to the opposite sex, despite her usually brash and intense nature.

"I… I'm sorry." Looking away from him, she rested her head onto his abdomen, blankly staring into the fire as her emotions burned from within her.

"For what?" He murmured, brushing his fingers through her hair, loosening the hours old bandages that had long outlived their purpose.

"For what I said earlier to make you so angry… I didn't mean to-" He stopped at once, and lifted them up, using the palm of his hand to brush against her chin as delicately as he could.

"Listen… I wasn't angry at you, just with the fact that you thought the way you did. I hate seeing you sad, and it pained me beyond all measures when you said what you did, particularly the last thing you said."

"Wha…" Her words came back to her in a rush… and the only thing that came to mind was before she left. We became distant… and I said that I thought that.. but.. huh?

She was caught completely off guard as he connected his lips with her own, running his hand up and down the middle of her back as he did so. The fact that he'd kissed her hadn't even registered her brain, and she simply shut down for a moment, waiting for the rest of her mind to reboot.

His lips left her own, and even though the first hadn't registered, she smiled as he came in for a second turn. Her mind ached a bit, but it was simply… and very wonderfully overridden by the warmth, the sparks, the intensity at which the two had begun to connect with each other.

Gone was the cold, lonely street, and in came the warmth of a burning fire, and a partner who had managed to burn even brighter inside her heart.

When they had disconnected for the lack of air, she smiled, cried, and laughed at the same time, all the while being pulled into his chest. She didn't know what to feel, or rather, how to react to something she had long forgotten she had been wishing for.

"Anko… I hated myself that night, especially when you had thought that we had begun to separate since then. I absolutely hated what I've been doing… the fact that I've ignored what's been in front of me this whole time."

"Naruto…" She was at a loss for words, or rather, nothing would come out of her mouth as the butterflies flying through her stomach came to catch at her throat. Is he… but I thought…

"Anko, I don't know why it took me all these years to say this, but I love you. And if that doesn't prove to you what I'm getting at, I want to spend the rest of my life… with you at my side." Backing away, she used her fists to wipe away her eyes, and clutched at the sheets as she stared at the blonde-haired man before her. She could absolutely, positively, not waste her chance, so she was going to make a change for the better. She would change, with him at her side.

"I know… Naruto. I've been waiting all this time."

"I thought you would never want me." They finished the other's sentence, and laughed as they embraced for the final time that night. Throughout the course of the early morning, their love could only be illuminated by the dimly lit fireplace that carried throughout the night, burning brightly like the feelings that were never left behind.

Done! How did you like this? Was it good? Bad? Meh? Who cares! As long as you enjoyed reading, I can certainly say that I enjoyed writing. So keep on loving each other, and give your significant other the attention that they deserve before it's too late.