It was the smell that hit her first. The intoxicating smell of smoke. She rushed the moment she felt it leaving Kakashi long behind. She stopped when he saw it. He stopped too. She felt him behind her. She heard him call her. She didn't answer. She was surprised that he couldn't feel it.
"What happened here?" she heard his voice loud and clear.
Her eyes were wide with fright. Tears ran down her cheeks. It was from the smoke. He squeezed his eye too.
"Damn," he looked away. "You were right."
"I know," she whispered.
The village was destroyed. Doors were run down, windows were broken and shops were destroyed. Nobody was there. But there were no corpses. That was what fazed her to no end.
"It can't be," she said advancing. A branch snapped under her foot. "Where is everyone?"
"I think that no ones here. It's just that…" he rubbed his chin. "Have you noticed there are no corpses?"
She gave him an annoyed look. "Well, duh!" she cried.
She nervously paced around. "Well, what are you waiting for? Check!"
"Right," he revealed his sharingan annoyed with his low reaction.
Before he gave her an answer she thought she heard a cry coming from a burning cottage. She ran up there.
"That's right," she heard Kakashi's confirmation.
She couldn't enter the house. Flames were all around including inside. A cry of a child came from upstairs. She gulped.
"Kakashi! Please, stop the fire!" she called. She wasn't good with water jutsus.
A gush of water exploded from his mouth the moment he finished performing his hand signs. The fire was out in a matter of seconds. Anko got up in a tree and jumped inside the upstairs bedroom. A little boy of five years old was crouching on the floors. His face was hidden behind his hair and small hands. He was sobbing.
"Oh, dear," she bit her lower lip. "Hey," she gave him a small nudge. "Hey…" she crouched in front of him. "Hey!" she cried and tore his hands away.
The little boy had incredibly huge and electric blue eyes. His face was smeared with mud and tears. Anko felt her heart sink.
"It's okay…" she smiled running her cold fingers over his forehead and brushing his hair away. "I'm sorry fro yelling," she gave him a soft hug.
"Where's mommy?" the little boy muffled in her ear.
"Mommy is…" she looked around.
"Anko!" she heard Kakashi's voice behind her. She looked over her shoulder. He was sitting on the windowsill. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, right," she swept the boy off the floor and jumped outside the window.
"What's that?" Kakashi asked.
"What do you think it is?" she narrowed her eyes at him while softly caressing the sobbing little boy. "Why don't you put out the other burning house and scan the area again."
Although he did not like getting orders from her, since after all he was the mission coordinator, he did as she instructed him to.
"It's okay. You can stop crying now," Anko tried speaking to the little child. "My name is Anko and that's Kakashi. What's your name?" she patiently asked.
"Y-Yoh…" the little boy sobbed.
"I'm glad to meet you Yoh," she smiled. "You think you can tell me what happened here?" she continued.
The boy pulled away.
"It's okay," she firmly caught him by the hand. "We're here to help. See?" she pointed to her forehead protector. "A big village with kind and good people sent us. Konoha, you know?"
He nodded.
"Good. We want to be your friends and help you. Now, can you try and tell me what happened?"
"So, what does the kid got?" Kakashi came back.
Anko sucked in a deep breath of air. "I was just getting to that."
"I…I don't…" the boy tried to say.
"Yes?" Anko softly battered her eye lashes.
"I…" he started crying again.
"Do you at least know anything?" Kakashi snapped.
"Kakashi!" Anko slapped him away. "He's scared, can't you see? What is wrong with you?"
"We're wasting precious time here, Anko," he growled. "I don't have the time nor do I have the patience to council some scared baby."
"Then fucking leave," she glared at him.
He stepped back.
"I mean it, Hatake, just leave," she continued. "Just leave and cultivate your sick grudge. Fuck! She's dead for crying out loud! And I'm sure she wouldn't like to be acting like this. I tried to put up with your messed up cocky manners, but not any longer. This child had no fault. Nobody does. I'm sorry for acting insensitive right now, but that's how you've been acting. You think this would have made her proud? Do you? Well if it did, then she's half the person I thought she was!"
"You have no right to speak of her," he growled.
"I don't care," she gritted her teeth before twirling on her heels and returning to the boy.
He was fusing, but decided not to go after her. He watched her return to the victim and let her words sink in. He wanted to shut her up really badly. It wasn't about Rin anymore. She challenged him and that he could not accept. Ever since he turned chunin nobody had dared to look him straight in the eye the way she did. It drove him crazy.
"Are you okay?" he watched her. "Did that dude scare you?" she asked. "Don't worry, he's like that all the time," she tried laughing. "He's got a stick shoved down his back. Can you imagine how uncomfortable is that?"
He thought that the boy would start crying again, but he started giggling. Anko smiled back at him. He curiously watched them interact. Anko turned into something he never saw before. She was laying off the bravado and was becoming a naturally good intentioned sweet person. He bit his lower lip. He was becoming jealous of the little boy. Once he had also been in his position. His parents dead and chaos all around him. Never had anyone smiled to him. He didn't want just any smile. He wanted her smile.
"Hey, bastard," her voice helped him snap back to reality.
"Call me that one more time and I'll break your lips," he growled. "I'm in charge anyway," he coldly said.
She rolled her eyes. "I don't know how much I care, but…" she trailed off. "Yoh said that they came here in the morning claiming that all of the other villages had surrendered and that they should follow them to the north. The villagers opposed and they attacked. Finally, they made them follow."
Kakashi rubbed his chin. "Can we trust him?"
Anko looked over her shoulder. "He's only a scared five year old who wants his mommy," she stated. "I think we can."
"Fine, then," he took out his map. "This means that these villages here," he circled a group of four villages are already deserted. "We need to get here," he pointed to a group of mountains. "But," he paused. "Imagine how many they are."
"We should send all the info we know and call for reinforcements," Anko said.
"Exactly. Let me handle this," he preformed his hand signs and in no time Pakkun was in front of him with a blunt expression.
"What now?" he asked. "Anymore childhood memories?" he looked around. "This place's a mess."
"Yeah, I know," Kakashi replied as he concentrated on a piece of paper. In no time it was filled with his thoughts. He wrapped it up in a scroll and gave it to the dog.
"Sure thing," he took it in his mouth. "What's up with the kid?" he muffled looking at how Yoh and Anko were drawing something with a stick in the ground.
"He's just an informer," Kakashi said.
"Seems to me he's more than that. Sooner or later she'll be asking if she can take it home," he continued.
"How do you know that?" he grimaced.
"And you'll accept anyway," he took off.
"Hey, Pakkun!" he yelled. He hated it when the dog blew him off.
He turned to Anko. "Let's go."
"Heard that, Yoh?" Anko asked helping him get up. "It's time to go."
"Wait, he can't come," Kakashi said.
Her eyes widened. "Of course he can, Kakashi," she slowly said. "He needs to find his parents. They're there! Held captive."
"That's not our problem, Anko," he calmly said.
Her eyebrows furrowed. "Of course it is! Isn't the mission to save the villages and people from the rogue ninjas?"
"Yeah, but not adopt little children along the way and drag them along. Finding his parents it's his problem."
Anko blinked. "But… he can die."
He stared at her and gulped. She had that strange effect on him again. The one that made him fear he might open up to other people's desires and wishes. He did not want to be part of anything anymore. It was only him. Still, she made him realize things. He was not insensitive; he was self conservative. It was something natural.
Anko just shook her head. He was Hatake Kakashi after all. She needed to stop trying to convince herself that there was something good in him. She needed to stop forcing herself to think that he was a nice person underneath the cold mask. She needed to stop trying to act like a hero. She twirled on her heels and proceeded to Yoh. It will be tough telling him to try and fin his way to the closest village.
"Hey, my little friend?" she started.
"So are we leaving to find mommy?" his blue eyes were full of hope.
"Not really," she said with a broken smile. His eyebrows furrowed. "I and Kakashi are going to head off and save your parents. You can't come."
"Why?" he confusedly asked.
"Because it very dangerous."
"But I'm scared," he tugged onto her sleeve. "Please take me with you," he started crying.
"Oh, sweetie," she looked at him with teary eyes. "You don't have to be scared. We fought away those bad people. Now all you need to do is go to a safe village," she whispered to his ear as his tiny arms circled around her neck.
Kakashi bit he lower lip. "Okay you two, break it up. We don't have time to cry. We need to find a place to set camp," he started walking.
"You mean…?" Anko curiously stared at him. "You mean Yoh can come with us?"
"Get going, lazy ass," he growled.
"Ha-ha!" she laughed. "Come on," she jumped ahead of him with Yoh on her back. "Let's roll!" she ran ahead with the energy of a blazing sun; the echo of her giggles remaining in Kakashi's ears.
He closely followed them. He didn't like getting too close. They were chatting away. He could hear her enthusiastic voice. It felt comforting even though he couldn't make out any words. Why was Anko Mitrashi ever seen as an outcast? From what he noticed she was almost too passionate about her job. She was not at all level-headed. What made her become what she was? The whole village knew about his tragedy and feared him, but not so many things were revealed about Orochimaru. He stopped when they reached yet another deserted village.
"I remember this place," he heard Yoh telling Anko. "There was this man here who used to trade goods with my family. He gave us good apples."
Anko patted his head before turning to Kakashi who had already scanned the area and found no one.
"All right," she said moving up to him. "Let's just go a little further on. We just need provisions from this village," she told him.
"I'll get water," he said.
"I'll take care of food and blankets"
"Blankets?"
"Yeah, well, we need some extra blankets and clothes for Yoh," she explained.
"The weather is fairly fine," he twitched.
"You never know," she stalked off and he couldn't help but think that they were on some kind of vacation.
Will it be like this when he'll have his own family? Will he have a caring, yet temperamental wife? Will he have one child or two or five? He shrugged. Will he even have a family someday?
"We're going to go to a cold place," Anko said while Yoh helped her pack a few blankets. "And nights are chilly," she grinned. "Good thing we have a tent. Have you ever slept in a tent?"
He shook his head.
"Then this'll be the first time, right?" she winked as he followed her. Kakashi was already waiting for her. "Ready to go?" she picked him up. "Ready," she nodded in the other ninja's direction before running off.
He shook his head. It turned out that Anko was full of surprises. His eyes twitched in horror when she found her in clearing trying to set up a tent.
"Why are you setting it up? It's not like the other times we did it," he asked.
"Well you don't expect Yoh to sleep on the ground," she said trying to push in the needles. "He might catch a cold."
"Suit yourself; I'm going to look for wood."
"Go help him," Anko nudged Yoh. The little boy trailed after Kakashi.
"What are you doing?" Kakashi glared at him.
"I'm here to help you," he said.
"No need to," he said picking up what seemed to be half a log.
"That looks awfully heavy," he said trying to find something at least half as heavy as that. He found a long branch and started pulling it over his shoulder. Kakashi peered at him over his shoulder. He smirked into chin.
After bringing the log to camp he set it on fire while Anko tried cooking some fish.
"How is it?" she asked Yoh.
"This tastes horrible!" Kakashi spit it out. She glared at him. It was true; her cooking wasn't like Rin's.
Yoh forcedly smiled. "I think it's good."
"Why thank you," she gave him a pat on the head.
Later on that night, both Anko and Yoh went inside the tent. She lay next to him and covered him with a blanket.
"Bedtime now," she said. "Early start tomorrow."
"Hey, Anko?" he said.
"Thanks for taking me," he said before closing his eyes.
She smiled. "No problem, kid."
He shyly took her hand in his and she let him. Kakashi planted his sleeping bag in front of the tent. He was not going in no matter how warm it was. He peeked inside. He was jealous of Yoh.
It was close to early morning when Anko was woken up. As usual, it was Kakashi having a bad dream. Only that this time he wasn't crying for Rin.
"Dad! Please, I'm scared…" he wrestled in his sleep. She tiredly looked at him. "Mom."
She tried nudging him, but he took her hand in his again. She blushed thinking that he woke up, but he was still sleeping. His hand clutched hers. "Mom."
She smiled. "Its okay, my son, come inside," she pulled him in the tent.
"Mom…"
"It's okay…" she ran her fingers through his hair. "I'm here."
He finally drifted to sleep.
