Hey everyone!!! I'm updating super soon because it was a cliffy and I felt really bad...I know, I'm such a bad negotiator. I said I wanted lots of reviews before I updated but, like I said, i felt bad and I'm a big mush. Anyway, here's the next chapter.

CHAPTER 9: A Visit From Konaha's Hokage

Kakashi flinched as Haruya slapped him in the face for the hundrenth time."I'm not telling you anything," he managed in a hoarse voice. It was amazing what pain could do to a voice. They had been trying to get him to talk for at least eight hours and his face was bruised and cut from the slaps and punches that Haruya continued to give him. It wouldn't't hurt as bad if every punch and/or slap hadn't been backed by his seemingly never ending chakra supply.

"You'll talk. Trust me, you'll talk," Kiana growled as she pulled out a kunai and walked up to him with an evil gleam in her eye and a twisted grin on her lips.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anko's eyes fluttered open and she blinked several times. The room was completely white, the walls, sheets, curtains,beds and chairs:all white. Great, I'm in a hospital. Wait, how did I -OMG! Kakashi! She shot up out of bed and began searching the room for her clothes. She ignored her massive headache as she tried to remember everything that Kiana had said, maybe she left a clue to where they were holding Kakashi...

"Where do you think you're going?" Kurenai asked as she walked into the hospital room and set the cup of tea she was carrying down on the side table. She walked over to Anko and tried to make her friend get back into bed. "Get back in bed. Shizune hasn't given you an Ok to leave yet."

"I have to help Kakashi. They took him! I'm going to kill them, i swear it!" Anko said pushing her best friend aside and resuming the search for her clothes. Then a thought came to her mind and she turned to Kurenai. "Um, how did I get here? Last thing I remember is passing out in the middle of the woods."

Kurenai sighed, "If you get back in bed and promise to listen to the whole story and not interrupt or made any remarks what so ever."

Anko thought for a moment before climbing back into bed reluctantly. "Okay, I'm in bed. I promise not to interrupt. Now tell me what happened."

Kurenai nodded and sat at the end of the bed. "Well, Kotetsu and Genma were in the village only a mile or two from where you were. After you and Kakashi didn't return, Nemiki decided to go to the village to see if anyone there had seen anything. Kotetsu overheard her asking questions about a ninja in a mask with silver hair and a female ninja with purple hair and ..um...well she said you were kind of ...um...crazy.-Anyway! Kotetsu told Genma and they both agreed it was you two and that you guys were in trouble. They went to Nemiki and told them who they were. She agreed to take them to the campsite where the fight happened and they found you unconscious and that Kakashi had gone missing. They brought you back to the village and told Lady Tsunade everything they knew. Nemiki and Vayzu are here too. They're both fine. Lady Tsunade wants to speak with you as soon as you are able too. She's really worried about Kakashi, she knows that Orochimaru will kill him if he doesn't get what he wants. And Kakashi cant escape since he's outnumbered 4 to 1.Not even he could get out of that one. That's basically all we now so far. We don't know what happened during the fight. Thats where you come in. What happened?" she asked curiously.

"She said I was Crazy??" Anko fumed, picturing the many ways to show Nemiki the true meaning of 'crazy'.

"Anko, Focus!!" Kurenai said rolling her eyes."You can yell at Nemiki later, right now you need to tell me what happened."

Anko sighed but then explained the whole morning to Kurenai. She included the fight and Kakashi's kidnapping, and then hesitated, debating whether or not to tell Kurenai about her little confession the night before.

"Anko, what is it? I know you're not telling me something," Kurenai said noticing the hesitation and sounding a little hurt that her friend would keep something from her.

Anko sighed and looked out the window, "The night before the attack I kinda told Kakashi that I loved him..." she said with a nervous smile, rubbing the back of her head.

"You what?! Since when? I thought you only liked him?!" Kurenai asked in rapid succession. She jumped off the edge of the bed and stood next to Anko with her arms folded across her chest and her eyes bright and excited, waiting for the details and a better explanation.

Anko couldn't help but smile at seeing her friend so excited. And so she sighed and told her friend everything. "Well, while we were on the mission, Nemiki had her paws all over him and I was jealous, I mean so jealous I thought of several thousand painful ways to kill her in my head and then entertained myself by playing them out in my mind...So I realized that if I can get that jealous over someone who Kakashi obviously doesn't have feelings for, then I have to care about him a lot more then just 'like'. And I decided that I wouldn't drag it out and so I just told him.I figured that if I kept it to myself I would be distracted and I might ruin a chance at a relationship. Plus, if I was going out with him you wouldn't try and set me up with any of Asuma's friends or the "nice" men you meet on your everyday basis.Anyway, he was about to give me his answer when those four goons attacked," she explained.

"Wow, I cant believe you told him you love him. Thats just...wow," for the first time since Anko had known her, Kurenai was speechless.She had obviously overlooked the whole set up remark and was too wrapped up in the news to even yell at Anko for it.

Anko laughed, "Yeah, I know." Then she suddenly became serious, "Kurenai, I have to go find him" she said looking up at her friend. She felt the many spots all over her body where she had taken a bad punch or a kunai cut, but she ignored and put the pain out of her mind as she was taught too.

Kurenai sighed sadly and looked down at her bruised and cut up friend, "Anko, Lady Tsunade wont let you go back out on a blind search. You and I both know it. Let her handle this, she is the Hokage now and they wouldn't have given her the position if they thought she couldn't handle it."

Anko shook her head, "Kurenai, you don't understand. He stopped in the middle of his Lightning Blade attack because they threatened to kill me. Its my fault he was captured. If I hadn't been drugged with the needle, he would have continued the attack and probably killed at least one of them. I have to go get him. I owe it to him."

Her friend shook her head slowly, "Anko, we cant risk losing you too. I know you don't want to consider this but they could have already killed him. They could just be pretending he's alive so that they get what they want. What if its a trap and you walk right in the middle of it to save someone who is already dead?" she asked, playing devil's advocate.

Anko was silent for a while before shaking her head vigorously, "No, they would interrogate him first and see if he'll give anything up. Ibiki is my partner, he talks about this kind of stuff all the time. Kakashi is alive but they are probably torturing him right now. I have to get to him BEFORE they kill him. Kurenai, why don't you get it?"

"I do get it, really, Anko, I do. But I also get that there is a huge chance you could die. I cant let you sneak out. I'm sorry," she turned and walked towards the door, hiding her glossy eyes from her best friend, "I'll tell Shizune that you're awake." With that she walked out of the room and locked the door from the outside.

Anko groaned and laid back into the sheets. She looked towards the windows and cursed when she saw the lock securely in place. If she broke the window then everyone would here and a bunch of annoying maggot ninja would be in her way. She just had to wait until someone gave her an opening.

---------------------------------------------

An hour later Anko awoke to the sound of the lock on her door unlatching and the quiet creak of the hospital door opening. Shizune, thinking Anko was asleep quietly walked over to her bed and looked her over. She let out a small sigh and was startled when Anko opened her eyes and sat up. "Shizune, When can I leave?" Anko demanded.

Shizune shook her head and replied calmly, "Not until tomorrow at least. You have to give your body time to rest and recover. You don't just get poisoned and then jump up and go running around."

"But Kakashi-"

"Will be fine," Tsunade cut her off as she entered the room. "I'm sending in Asuma, Gai, Kotetsu and Genma. They will bring him back. You need to rest or you'll just hurt yourself and prolong your stay in the hospital."

Anko was too pissed at being treated like a child to care that it was the Hokage she was about to argue with and so she growled/yelled, "But it was my fault he got caught! Plus, why cant I go on the rescue mission? I'm just as strong, if not stronger than most of that team!"

"You need to recover. Also, I have reason to believe you are emotionally attached to this mission. That could compromise everyone's lives," Tsunade replied, knowingly.

"Kurenai told you? I'm never telling her anything again!" Anko fumed before getting back to the argument, "If I love him wont that just make me work harder to save him? Plus I've fought these assholes before and I know what type of attack they use and who the pair up with, that makes me the best p[person to have on the team!"

Both Tsunade and Shizune were quiet fro a moment before Shizune whispered in awe, "You love him?"

"Didn't Kurenai tell you?" Anko asked, confused at their shocked expressions.

"No, Kurenai has only spoken to me once today, that was to warn me that you were going to fight me on my decision, she said nothing about your feelings toward Kakashi, " Tsunade replied.

"But then what did you mean when you said that I was emotionally attached to this mission?" Anko asked mentally beating the shit out of herself for being so stupid as to think that Kurenai would ever tell her secret.

"I meant that you would be emotionally attached due to the fact that Orochimaru was the one behind all of this and that it is his men who have Kakashi," the Hokage explained.

Anko was silent for a long time and during that time she called herself every foul name and curse word she could think of. Finally, after mentally abusing herself, she spoke, "Lady Tsunade, either you allow me to go or I defy your orders, sneak out of the hospital and go on my own. Your choice, but either way, I'm going to save Kakashi."

Tsunade thought for a moment before sighing, "You all leave tonight at 7. Don't be late." With that she turned and walked towards the door, but she stopped in front of it and said over her shoulder, "Oh and Anko, don't think you'll ever win another argument with me again." She then left just Shizune and Anko in the white hospital room, staring after her.

Anko smirked and jumped up,"Where are my clothes?" she asked after she looked around and was unable to find then.

Shizune sighed but walked over to the closet and pulled out Anko's now clean trench coat, skirt and fishnet 'shirt'. Anko took them and changed as fast as she could. "What time is it?" she asked when she had finished dressing.

"Its 6:30."

"Good, so in half an hour I'm going to see Kakashi again."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

So? Did you like the focus I put on Anko this chapter? I feel like I tend to focus on Kakashi more and so this is an almost all-Anko chappie. I felt really bad writing the part where Kakashi gets beat up, really I did. I love him and so it hurt me to have him beat up like that...sigh the sacrifices we must make. Plus, I think I'm improving on my ability to make longer chapters. I mean, the first one was just over 400 words. The last one was over 1700. Big improvement, have you noticed?

Oh and I would like all of you who seem to not like me and refuse to review know that this cold shoulder you're giving me has started to turn to frost bite and that would leave me with only one arm and without the ability to type up more chapters...so if this story is to continue, REVIEW PLEASE??? gives puppy dog eyes and gets on knees Puwwweeessseee???? Really, its not hard. You just have to click the little purple button on the bottom of this page and say if you liked the chapter or not. so um...do it? for me?