A/N: Hello again

It's been only a week since my last update – I know a week isn't that fast for updating but under the current circumstances it's not that slow either. I'll try to update weekly but as always life tends to get into the way so I hope you won't be too disappointed if a certain lazy author makes you wait awfully long again.

Meh I'm rambling too much, ne? On the with the story

Chapter three

"Te, this is sooo boring." Anko remarked annoyed upon seeing her teammate return. To underline her point she stretched her arms yawning.

"So easily tired?" An amused voice rang out.

Anko didn't bother to answer.

"Where's that energy of yours?" Kakashi teased, only to have Anko stuck her tongue out at him.

"You would be tired too standing here the whole day." Slowly her typical grin spread over her face. "Well I might forgive you for letting me wait here the whole time if you at least remembered to get me something." She tilted her head with her evil grin slowly turning into a smirk. "No? Well that's too bad – for you."

In the inner courtyard of the castle a kunoichi pointed with a suppressed chuckle at two figures standing on the roof, one backing away with the arms raised in defense. The one standing beside her nodded approvingly and in unison they jumped on the roof.

Xxx

"Uhm, Anko, you know… why don't we just…" Kakashi was almost frantically searching for an excuse to get out of this one. Finding an excuse wasn't the problem – the problem was finding a good excuse. Just as Anko's grin grew eviler beyond words his ears caught the sound of something left to him and so did Anko so immediately they leaped away.

Just as Kakashi was about to take out a kunai he realized the situation and instead he raised an eyebrow. There just in front of him Genma and Shizune were standing.

"Hey you two, what are you doin' here?" Anko somewhat greeted them with a less evil smile as it had been a minute ago. "Vacation?"

At that Kakashi raised his left eyebrow – though no one could notice – only Anko would get the idea to spend one's free days in Chocolate Country.

"Nah not really." Genma answered casually. "But someone thought you might need a babysitter so we were hired."

Shizune nudged him saying, "The truth is that someone else here didn't want to rely on ninjas hired by the lord. That is why we're here, but I uses it won't hurt for us to join forces."

"Yeah that'd make things easier!" Anko agreed enthusiastically.

Then the four leaf-nins compiled what they had found out so far before they agreed that Genma and Shizune would examine the whole area – much larger then Anko and Kakashi could do before while latter would still guard the castle.

Xxx

The constant patter of rain was for a while the only sound. That was until Anko decided that it was far too calm for her liking and broke the silence.

"Hey Kakashi!"

"Hn?"

"Why do you always wear that mask?" She asked curious.

"Habit." Was he going to answer every question in one word?

"Then how do you eat?"

"I take it off." Wow four words.

"Really? I've never seen you without it before." She said trying to imagine how he looked without a mask. With little success. But now she was even more curious. "Hm, why don't you take it off?"

"Why should I?"

"C'mon – just for me. Please?"

Kakashi only blinked confused as an answer so that Anko added almost casually, with an evil grin "Or do I have to remind of happened at the end of our last mission? Ya know it would just be fair…"

"Okay, okay." Kakashi gave in. "I'll show you later, alright?"

"Yeah, I'll make sure you won't forget it."

Just as Kakashi wondered how he ended up in this one his fine sense of hearing picked up the noise of cracking branches and rustling leaves. It could be an animal but usually those were quieter. Immediately he silently alerted Anko too and simply sharing a look they decided that Kakashi would take a look at who- or whatever had been there while Anko was keeping an eye on the rest so that nobody could sneak in using the backdoor.

With a kunai at hand Kakashi hopped down landing silently as a cat. From here he headed straight for the bushes leaving his teammate behind and advancing into the growing darkness of the night.

Xxx

If it hadn't been for the rain he might've been to sniff the intruder out but like this he would have to rely on his other senses – though that wasn't a problem. So it took him only mere minutes to find footprints – they were barely hidden at least for a ninja indicating that whoever was here knew to some degree what he or she was doing but he or she definitely wasn't a shinobi. That was if this person didn't want to be found.

Following the footprints he soon caught a glimpse of a man's silhouette with a swift movement Kakashi was behind the intruder within a second. The stranger appeared to have finally noticed the copy-ninja's presence for he stopped immediately which was probably due to the sharp blade pressed against his neck.

"Who are you?" The leaf-nin questioned coolly.

"Me?" The other asked as if they weren't alone in the woods in the middle of night but on a crowded street. "I'm just a normal villager taking a walk."

Well that obviously had been a lie – Kakashi could tell – plus the man sounding as if he didn't take the whole situation serious. A thing – considering the present circumstances a 'normal villager' certainly wouldn't. His instinct warned Kakashi not to let his guard down and if there was one thing he had learned in his years of service as a shinobi of the leaf then it was that your instincts were always correct – you only could misinterpret them.

So he repeatedly queried, "Who are you really?"

Apparently there must have been some kind of joke for the stranger started silently sniggering before speaking again. "Why do you want to know? Why does Konoha even bother if there are some thieveries here and there?"

Kakashi was slowly losing his patience with this guy and that his alarm bells were ringing didn't help either. Nevertheless he stated calmly "Konoha's been asked for help – that means we're not going until we've caught all of you. So I'm going to ask you one last time – should you lie again you're not going to live to see the next day." To emphasize his point Kakashi put a little more pressure on the kunai so that the blade slit through the fabric of the mans collar.

"Catch all of us?" The man asked mockingly. "Before you can do that you'll most likely be already buried under tons of rock. That is if you get that far."

Just as he was saying that there was already a glowing light under his jacket caused by the fire burning the explosive tags.

Xxx

Anko was climbing back on the roof again after making sure that no one had sneaked into the castle already starting to wonder what took Kakashi so long. The very moment she thought that a terrible explosion cut through the silence coming from the direction where her teammate had been heading to…

TBC

A/N: Alright chappy's done

I hope it wasn't too bad (I've got the feeling that the whole thing was just one large dialogue o.O)

Anyway reviews are always appreciated

Thanks to inu/naru fangorl, Ornlu, SHADOW DRAGON TWISTER, Chavva and fire.elve for reviewing

disappears in a poof of smoke