A/N: Hey everybody. Back again with more. This font looks weird - I think they're changing things around here. Nevermind though - we've got a lot of ground to cover today. There will be plenty of all kinds of emotions in this one. Let the rollercoaster ride begin. Enjoy!

Anko let go of Kakashi's hand and stood up to answer the door. She held her side as she said, "Sorry, but I've got to let her in. If I don't, the next time she and I have a drink together, she'll put me in a genjutsu where I'll think I'm naked in a crowd."

"She'd do that to you ?"

"She's done that to me. You have no idea how bad Kurenai can be when she wants to be."

"More like evil. Wonder how Asuma puts up with her?"

"Same way you put up with me I suppose. I'll try and get rid of her." The pounding continued until Anko said, "Alright already! Please! You're going to break my door down anyway if you don't stop pounding on it!"

She opened the door and Kurenai practically burst into the apartment. "Ok, tell me everything! What happened! What's the problem? Holy God look at your face, you're all swollen." In a matter of five seconds, she went into Anko's kitchen, grabbed a plastic bag from under her sink, reached in the freezer and put some ice cubes in the bag, then wrapped it in a dish towel. She shoved it at Anko and said, "Here, ice those eyes. Sit down, and tell me everything."

Anko said, "Ok bossy! Jeez." She sat next to Kakashi, while Kurenai sat on Anko's couch so she could face her.

Kakashi said, "Oh hi Kurenai, nice of you to drop by."

"Are you going to start your shit with me again?"

"No, I'm just curious about something. Anko was out looking for you, and suddenly you're here. How did you know she was looking for you?"

"Genma found me and told me, and I came right over."

Kakashi fumed, that fuck . . .

Anko could feel Kakashi's anger rising, so she said, "Why don't you go see Asuma for a while huh? Give us a chance to talk a bit."

Kakashi said, "That's a pretty good idea. I think I'll do that," he secretly hoped he'd run into Genma while he was out.

Anko said, "Just don't forget where home is." She smiled weakly at him.

He smiled back and said, "It's wherever you are. Be back in a bit." Kakashi turned and left the apartment and headed toward Asuma's.

Kurenai immediately said, "What the hell was that? Don't forget where home is? Why! Did he forget? You've got a lot of explaining to do. I swear, I leave you alone for a couple hours and all hell breaks loose! I need a drink."

"Me too."

"None for you! Not until Tsunade says you're completely healed. Alcohol only suppresses the healing process. Never mind, no drinks. Just TALK ALREADY!"

"Alright, quit your screaming! Calm down; this is going to take a while." The two lady shinobi sat on opposite couches and Anko proceeded to tell Kurenai exactly what happened after the surprise yui-no.

Genma pressed the buzzer under Sakura's name at her apartment building. He held his nose slightly as it still oozed a bit of blood, but it wasn't flowing like a river anymore. Soon the speaker emitted a crackle and he heard Sakura's voice say, "Yes? Who's there?"

"It's me Genma. I need to ask a favor. Can I come up?"

"I don't know," Sakura said, "I'm getting my stuff ready for work tomorrow. Aren't you supposed to be at your place with Shizune right now?"

Genma rolled his eyes. Everybody seemed to know his business. He said, "I was supposed to be there, but she got held up with Tsunade. I've had a bit of an accident and I was wondering if you could help me out."

Sakura said, "Just go to the hospital. They'll fix you up there."

Genma lied, "I'm still bleeding and I feel a little light headed." He just wanted to avoid more people seeing him in the state he was in.

Sakura said, "Oh alright then, come on up. Second floor." The door to the apartment building buzzed, and Genma walked in and up the stairs to Sakura's apartment. She stood in the hallway in casual clothes waiting for him. Her eyes got a little larger as she saw that he really was still bleeding, but only just a little. His eyes were starting to blacken a bit and she could see his nose was pretty crooked. She stood aside and let Genma walk into her apartment. He muttered a quick 'thanks' and walked inside.

Sakura asked, "How the hell did you manage that? Who almost knocked your block off?"

"No one. I walked into a wall."

"Take your hand down so I can see everything. Just lightly hold the cloth under your nose to catch any blood. I don't want blood on my carpet."

"No problem."

Genma re-arranged his hand so Sakura could see the extent of his injury. He thought, God I hope she can't figure out that someone did punch me. She'll figure out it was Kakashi if she can tell. Sakura's a smart girl, great with analysis of just about anything. I bet she can analyze my face and tell what's happened.

Sakura turned Genma's head slightly so she could look in each of his blackening eyes one at a time. She said, "Look at my eyes as I turn your head. I want to make sure you don't have any brain damage. Looks like you took one hell of a hit." She turned his head the other way and watched his eyes as they stayed fixed to hers. "Nope. No brain damage and your eyes themselves look intact. But your nose, holy shit. I'm sure you want me to fix it, but I can tell you right now, it's going to hurt like a bitch."

Genma said, "It hurt pretty badly when it happened. I think I can take you fixing it."

"It will require me straightening it back out. If I don't, you'll have a deviated septum and your sinuses will be blocked on one side of your nose. If it heals that way, you'll never breathe through your nose normally again." She put her hands on either side of Genma face, so her fingers wrapped around to his ears. She very gently put both her thumbs close to his nose, but she didn't touch it yet. She looked like she was assessing how much force she'd have to use to get it back in place. "You sure you want me to do this? I do recommend it, but without any anesthesia at the hospital,"

"Just go ahead Sakura, and do it before, FUUUCCKKKK!!" Genma yelled, then panted frantically the instant Sakura used her thumbs to quickly snap Genma's nose back to its original position. "Oh fuckity fuck fuck fuckity fuck. FUCK! Damn it Sakura! FUCK!"

She took her hands off his face, giggling quietly to herself; they never believe you when you tell them it's REALLY gonna hurt. "Now," she said, "I'll pump you full of some healing chakra. It'll stop the bruising around your eyes, and it'll take some of the pain away. But you will need to use ice on your face, twenty minutes on, twenty minutes off for at least a few hours. And do the same thing tomorrow. Then come see me for another treatment. I want to make sure it's healing straight and doesn't go crooked again."

"Oh fucking GOD that hurt. Wow, I didn't expect it to be worse than when I hurt it in the first place! MAN!"

Sakura placed her hands above his repositioned nose and the healing chakra she pumped into his face stopped the oozing blood seconds later. Genma swore he could feel the blood vessels in his nose being repaired. Sakura's amazing. All medical kunoichi are amazing. His thoughts returned quickly to Shizune since she too was a gifted medical kunoichi. He felt guilty, but only slightly, knowing that he had so far lied to Asuma and Sakura about how he'd gotten injured, and he knew he'd lie to Shizune about it too. She didn't deserve to be lied to, but he couldn't tell her that Kakashi had punched him out because he had his hands on Anko. Nope, that wouldn't fly at all.

Sakura took her hands away and was pleased with what she saw. "There. The swelling's even gone down a little now that the blood vessels are healing. Go straight home and get some ice. Do you hear me? Ice both eyes and your nose very gently for the next couple of hours. And you might want to have Shizune stay home. I know how much she likes you, and she just may break your nose again if she kisses you like she did at the yui-no."

"I hadn't thought about that. You're right. Maybe I'll send a message to her and tell her to stay home tonight." Genma knew that Shizune would never buy any excuse he had, but he planned on trying to get her to stay home anyway. He found that he kind of wanted her to stay home also because he wanted to think about Anko for a while, and wonder if she was indeed going to be free for dating any time soon.

Genma got up and thanked Sakura. He offered to buy her a drink some time, and then he left her apartment and headed for his own.

Kakashi arrived at Asuma's apartment, still steaming from the information Kurenai gave him. He knocked on Asuma's door. He didn't have to wait long for the big ninja to open the door and say, "I had a feeling you'd be by. Come on in. Beer?"

"Yeah. Just what the Dr. ordered."

"Oh shit, I probably shouldn't have offered you one. You are still healing."

"Shut up and get me one."

Asuma said, "Alright, keep your pants on."

Kakashi looked at him sideways and said, "I only take them off for girls, and only ONE girl in particular thank you. But you do have that manly goatee thing going on. It's kinda cute."

"Fuck off Kakashi."

Kakashi giggled through his anger.

Asuma came back with two beers and handed Kakashi one. Both took a long swallow and were quiet for a minute, letting the cool liquid invade their stomachs. Asuma finally asked right out of the blue, "Why did you deck Genma?"

Kakashi did a double take and said, "Damn you're direct."

"What did he do to Anko?"

"Damn again."

"Are you going to tell me, or am I going to have to beat it out of you?"

Kakashi paused then said, "You and what army big boy?"

Asuma laughed and said, "Alright, I know you came here because Kurenai probably kicked you out, so why don't you tell me what's going on. I'll tell you what I know, but you go first."

Kakashi took another long swallow and said, "There really isn't that much to tell. I found Genma at the little sake bar that Anko and I had our first "experience" at and he had his hands on her shoulders, and she'd been crying. That's all I needed to see."

"So you popped him one? He was pretty messed up when he came here. Said he ran into a wall."

"Oh did he? That fuck."

"Yeah he did. Why was Anko crying anyway? Genma said she wouldn't tell him."

Kakashi's anger stewed a little more. "Something happened after the yui-no, which by the way, I have to sincerely thank you guys for, it was great. But afterward, Anko and I had a chance to sit and talk and some stuff happened, and I left."

"You what? But you LIVE there! Where the fuck were you going to go?"

"I still had my old place, so I went there. I stayed there an hour or so then went out looking for a drink. And can you believe this? I was actually going to go FIND Genma to thank him for helping save Anko's life! Guess what I found instead?"

"Him with his hands on your fiancé."

"Exactly." Kakashi finished his beer and handed the empty to Asuma. "Got another?"

"Sure. But there's got to be more to it than this. Tell me why you left. What is it you guys talked about?" As Asuma got up to get more liquid refreshments, Kakashi began to tell him the details of the conversation he and Anko had that caused him to leave to give her some space.

"HE WHAT?!" Kurenai practically screamed in Anko's face.

"He left." Anko had explained exactly what she and Kakashi had talked about after the yui-no. She told Kurenai everything, right up to the point where Kakashi walked out and went back to his own place.

"That bastard! How dare he leave you when you needed him? I swear to God! When I see him, I'll slap him in a genjutsu so fast that he'll think his own dick is a cobra and he'll cut it right off!"

Anko was shocked! She said, "Oh no you won't! You can seriously do that? Really? NO, not to Kakashi. It was pretty bad earlier, but not THAT bad."

"But you seem pretty ok now. I can tell you were crying, Genma said you were too. And what the hell happened out there? Genma said he walked into a wall."

"Kakashi did it."

Kurenai nodded and said, "I figured he did. What happened?" Anko proceeded to tell Kurenai the whole situation about how she'd gone out looking for her about an hour after Kakashi had left, and that she had to keep taking breaks because of her injuries. She made it as far as the sake bar, where Genma helped pick her up off the ground and sit her on a barstool. Unfortunately, as Genma steadied her, Kakashi turned the corner and assumed the worst.

Kurenai said, "So Kakashi laid him out."

Anko nodded. "Genma's lucky Kakashi didn't kill him. He did warn him before to keep his hands and everything else off me."

Kurenai said, "Come to think of it, I do remember that he had a bit of a thing for you. But you guys were friends for a long time before that. On top of that, he's with Shizune now. How can Kakashi still not trust him?"

Anko shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I've never given Genma any indication that I'm interested. In fact, when we've been sent on missions together, I've threatened his life more than once when he's tried to cross lines. If Genma seriously wants to be killed, Kakashi would be happy to kill him."

"They were buddies at one time too. But I guess you've driven that stake between them. One of them gets you, the other doesn't."

"Yeah, it's a mess. But Kakashi and I came back here and talked about things for a while, and right when you came here, I was about to tell him about the decision I'd come to about this whole thing."

"Am I allowed to hear what your decision is? No wait. I don't want to know. YES I do! No. YES! Oh, dammit, just tell me. If you can that is. Can you?" Kurenai blathered along.

Anko smiled at her and said, "Of course I can tell you, because you're going to be a very important part of the planning."

Kurenai looked confused, and said, "Planning? Planning what?"

Anko said, "My wedding."

A/N: TADA!! She's decided. She's finally ready to do it! Now, it'd be good if she let Kakashi no wouldn't it?

Next up: Shizune ignores Genma's request for a night alone, and Kurenai absolutely FREAKS at Anko's news and begins to make plans with her. Meanwhile Kakashi and Asuma have some more friendly banter as well as more beer. Finally, Genma begins to obsess and fantasize. See you soon!