12 years later...
It was hard to decide what was worse, the explosion that rocked the west side of the leaf village or the giant cloud of flour that came pouring out of the ramen house covering everything in sight. Anko Mitarashi didn't even have to ask if anyone had seen anything or who was the culprit. She knew without a shadow of a doubt who was responsible.
To confirm her suspicion three pre-teens came spilling out of the eatery, coughing and sputtering.
"God, Naruto. What the heck is wrong with you?" Sasuke Uchiha growled deep in his throat. The young man had never worn a smile that Anko was aware of. And for good reason. It was probably why the girls thought so highly of him though. That and the devilishly handsome blue eyes and dark hair that fell into those eyes.
The blond haired boy in question laughed and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. A common trait that spoke volumes. This young man had a head on his shoulders but he wasn't known for using it too often. Though for Anko to say anything would be like a pot calling the kettle black.
The third teenager, a female with short pink hair and vivid jade eyes named Sakura Haruno, was still coughing waving a hand in front of her face to try and clear the air. "Naruto! I can't believe you did that!" She hissed. "You're going to get us in trouble!"
Naruto snorted. "What? It was just a couple of noodles! They weren't making them fast enough and I was starving!" He wailed.
"And that's the reason you decided to use your shadow clone jutsu...to help them?" Sasuke snarled.
The blond boy was again laughing sheepishly, his grin rather wide. Anko watched him for several moments noting that even when he was under fire from his teammates Naruto had a bright smile. Never the less, she too was now covered in flour and that simply wasn't going to cut it.
"Naruto Uzumaki!" She barked, stomping out of her hiding place in the alley way. "You'd better have a good explanation for all of this."
At the sight of her the young man's blue eyes went wide, his cheeks that bore the marks of the fox demon inside him turned a bright shade of red. "I ah..." He was sputtering now, rubbing his shock of wild blond hair and still grinning.
"Just where is your sensei?" Anko demanded, placing her hands on her hips. Her brown eyes swept over the three children one at a time, making sure they knew she was unhappy with them.
"We don't know..." Sakura was the one to speak up first, her voice barely above a whisper. "We were supposed to meet him this morning but...he never showed up."
"And Naruto here thought he was starving to death so we brought him here." Sasuke interjected, his voice a low growl as usual. He was looking pointedly at the other boy all but screaming 'I told you so'.
"Huh..." Anko tapped her chin in thought. It was like Kakashi to be late. He was often extremely slow, and infuriating enough he always did it purposefully. But not to show up at all? "I should send you three into the Forest of Death to look for him." She muttered. "However, since I am in a rather good mood today you will all join me for dango."
"But..." Sakura looked rather
uncertain of this, already shifting her gaze to the flour covered
ramen house. "Don't you want us to clean this up?"
"If I
did I would have already told you to." Anko said thinly, though she
was smiling widely.
Beside her Naruto was jumping with joy. "Oh I know this great place that has ramen and dango. It's awesome! We have to go there!"
Anko was again watching the young man. Though he'd had a hard beginning it was easy to see he hadn't let it destroy him. That was almost familiar.
"All right then Uzumaki, lead the way." She told him with a nod. Naruto was practically gone before she'd finished speaking. The other two followed close behind which left her with time to think.
Kakashi was certainly going to hear about this is she discovered he was off reading that book again.
She had a brief fantasy of grabbing it from his fingers and tearing it to pieces. But that wouldn't be very nice now would it?
The group reached the new eatery and Anko shook her head. At least this one wasn't covered in flour. She'd have to remember to ask Naruto exactly what he'd done so she could recreate it in the presence of that chili bowl haired Gai Maito. That man was so full of himself it was terrifying to behold. She could just see his own student Rock Lee ending up the same way. He was already halfway there with the hairstyle and the speech pattern. Someone should get around to slapping some sense into that child.
It was a shame indeed that Kakashi had never bested Gai. Knocking him down a peg or two was another fantasy she entertained on a daily basis.
Her attention returned to the group of pre-teens, now paused outside the door. "What's the..." She didn't get the rest out as her eyes rested on Kakashi sitting inside, his back to them.
"Hello there..." He turned, his dark eye sparkling as it rested on Anko. She always hated this part. The moment their eyes met her heart would do a little skip and then stop beating for a few seconds, memories flooding back to her. It was the reason she tried to avoid this man.
His shock of gray hair was in it's usual state of disarray, held back by his head band. He also still wore that infuriating mask and to this day she couldn't figure out why. Though she knew a part of it was to hide his sharingan eye that belonged to a former friend.
He got to his feet and crossed the
small space, ignoring his students to stop in front of her. "It's
been a while." He said softly.
Anko shook her head. "Only a
week or so." She whispered back.
"Hum..." Kakashi nodded thoughtfully then reached out, his long thin fingers brushing the tip of her nose. "Been bathing in flour lately?" He teased, the eye that showed sparkling with mischief. "I hear it's good for the skin."
"It's also good to fry dirty books with." Anko purred, leaning close so that she wouldn't be over heard.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "You're just jealous." He chuckled. Then without warning he turned away and returned to his seat. "Children, you're going to be spending a week with Gai-sensei. It seems that Anko and I have a mission..."
