The next few days for Anko are pure agony. She only left the villa to make sure the village is okay and to restock the kitchen. Anko even makes sure to make something that Kakashi likes in hopes that a familiar scent might bring him back. But, when he hasn't so much as stirred, Anko begun to actually lose hope.
Sitting next to Kakashi on the floor, she studies his features and notices the stubble and how… musky he has become.
"Shit…" she mutters and quickly goes to get a rag and bucket of warm water to clean up the Copy Ninja. Anko wipes him down and debates on what to do with the stubble he has. Deciding to just leave him be, she throws the rag into the bucket and scoots it over so she can sit on the floor with ease.
Over the last few days, Anko had managed to read every single book that Hitatsu and Miku owned and she has thought about turning to Kakashi's favorite series. But, she'd sooner eat her own foot before she reads those so called novels. 'If… no, when Kakashi wakes up, I really have to talk to him about his choice in reading material.'
Realization strikes Anko when she corrects herself. He has to wake up. The village needs him and Anko has come to term that she needs him too. While he's been in a coma, Anko thinks over her feelings and everything between the two of them. It's been nearly half a year since she moved in with Kakashi. Honestly, she's always known about his feelings, but she /tried/ to never return the feelings. She felt she didn't deserve to be… cared about by someone like him. Plus, she was supposed to be the village crazy snake lady. Men were supposed to be scared of her. She was the student of Orochimaru after all. … That part is something she isn't proud of anymore. In fact, she /still/ feels like she's under his shadow even though it's been years since she left his tutelage. The mark on her shoulder and just him… Sometimes, she feels like she's suffocating thanks to everything having to do with him.
But with Kakashi, maybe she can move forward from her past. And maybe… just maybe she can help him with his past and demons. She knows it will be hard, but she's willing to try. That's all she can do, right?
Anko looks him over and smiles sadly at him. "Probably should have let you kiss me that night we left Kurenai's, mm?" Adjusting herself, she lays next to him and places a hand on his chest, feeling him breathe, which soothes her for the time being. "I just really need you to wake up. Please." Soon, she's chuckling. "I don't beg for just anyone either, Kakashi. Consider yourself lucky."
She imagines his retort and closes her eyes, seeing his closed eye smile as well. "Damn it, Hatake… You better wake up, you asshole."
Swearing to herself, she gets up immediately and changes to head out. She has to seek some other form of human interaction that's not her… friend in a coma. However, before she leaves the manor, she looks back to Kakashi's body and bites her lip gently. She did promise she'd keep an eye on him. But at the same time, she has to make appearances as Miku. Yeah, that's definitely a good reason for human interaction.
Anko takes a deep breath and heads into the village to give it the proper check it deserves instead of the simple walk around and head back to check on Kakashi.
When she actually looks around, she sees just how bad the village is doing. Less people were on the streets selling things for fear of the gang of ninjas running amok with news that Kakashi was taken down and there was no sight of Hitatsu.
Her blood starts to boil at what she sees. Letting out a stream of air through her nose, she talks to everyone in hopes of getting to the bottom of this… And perhaps she'll get some more ninjas to help out.
The only person willing to talk to her was Gojiro. He tells her how the gang upped their prices of protection since the so called leaders tried to run them out and failed.
Anko nods at the old shopkeeper and tells him not to worry. She gives him her best smile and decides to make one last stop before she heads back to the manor.
Knocking on the door of the little medical house, she waits patiently and looks directly into the eyes of Atsumi. Smiling weakly, she heads inside once the medical ex-ninja moves out of the way.
"Any changes in him?" she asks.
Anko shakes her head. "Nothing yet. Usually I'm carefree about this sort of thing. We're ninja, this is our line of duty," she replies after making sure they were alone, as to not blow her cover. "He was unconscious for a bit after a fight with Uchiha Itachi." Anko crosses her arms and sighs. "But this… I feel to blame for this. So, it's hitting me hard, I guess. I feel like I should be doing more for him!"
Atsumi places a hand on her shoulder. "All you can do right now is be there for him. Be there when he wakes up. He'll definitely be disoriented when he does. You'll have to catch him up and keep him stable and not worried about anything. Got it?"
She looks warily at Atsumi and just nods. "Got it," she replies. "Uh… might sound weird, but, do you have anything for insomnia? I can't sleep."
"Worried about Kakashi, mm? I have this herbal tea that's specially made in the area. Give me a second to whip you up a small batch."
Anko watches as Atsumi heads to her office to make a batch. Sighing, she glances at nothing particular on the floor and her grip tightens on her arm as her mind is finally made up. "Never mind, Atsumi. I have something I have to do," she starts, "... watch Kakashi for me." And with that, she leaves the office to head back to the manor.
The ex-ninja walks out of her office and is about to retort when she notices that she's all alone. "Damn it, Anko…"
xXx
Changing out of her Miku clothes and into her usual outfit, Anko wipes her face from the makeup, fixes her ponytail to how it usually looks and packed a small bag of extra shuriken, kunai, and explosive tags. "It's now or never," she states as she glances once more to Kakashi and smiles faintly. "I'll be back, I promise."
Adjusting her pack, Anko makes a mad dash towards the area they last saw Aki and the other rogues. Thankfully, she has skills as a tracker, so it wasn't all that difficult to find traces of their whereabouts. They weren't necessarily skilled ninja in masking their old camps.
"Tch… rookies," Anko mutters to herself as she finds blatant tracks most likely leading to their main base. Her eyes narrow though. She knows it's most likely a trap and she's heading right towards it. But, she doesn't sense any chakra in the immediate area. Taking in a few breaths to compose herself, she bites her thumb and summons one of her smaller snakes to check up ahead. Once it's given its orders, the snake slithers off. Anko decides to take this moment to compose herself even more and not let what's going on cloud her judgement. She knows she'll never hear the end of it if the usually calm and collected Anko lost her shit over Kakashi being injured.
She also knows that getting revenge is not a good idea for trying to fight someone. But… this time, she's willing to make an exception for. Closing her eyes, she waits for her snake to return before any action can take place. She leans against a tree, arms crossed over her chest as she hopes the snake makes a swift return.
xXx
Atsumi sighs as she heads into the manor Kakashi's comatose body's in. No one asked where the doctor was going and she's definitely glad for that. Reaching the living room, she kneels by Kakashi and checks him over. "Hmm.." she hums out loud, taking down some notes and rereading old ones to see if there's any change. As she reads on, she does notice that his breathing is better and his bones are healing nicely thanks to her chakra.
"Think one more session is in order," she says to no one but herself as she places her hands glow green on his chest. While healing him, Atsumi looks to his face since she felt… something. "Mm?" Staring at Kakashi's face, Atsumi waits for something to happen. When nothing did, she raises a brow and goes back to healing the injured shinobi.
There's no way.
Or is there?
Groaning. That's all he can do at the moment.
"Ka-Kakashi?" Atsumi says to his groan. "No way, are you awake?"
His right eye opening should be answer enough for her. "Where…" he pauses to swallow a dry lump in his throat. "Where is… Anko?" Kakashi asks, not even aware of his exposed face or the fact that she knows who he is.
"I… I don't know. I just know she said she had something to take care of." Atsumi frowns. "Do you think she'd be reckless enough to fight the enemy by herself?"
He tries to get up, but Atsumi stops him immediately. "I wouldn't put it past her, honestly. I know… she's smarter than this, but her temper…" Kakashi swallows and realizes that his mouth is extremely dry. "Water-"
Atsumi nods and heads to the kitchen to get him a cup of water. She helps him drink and settles back down next to him. "You can't even get up to go after her, Kakashi."
Then, it hits him. "Wait… how-"
She rolls her eyes. "How else would you even be awake right now, good sir? I've been healing you the last four days, Kakashi. Don't worry, Anko's and your secret has been safe with me."
"How can I trust you?"
The medic taps a bruise of his and narrows her eyes. "You're alive, aren't you? Anko and I made sure of that. Besides… no one outside of this manor knows about you, Hatake Kakashi. They're too scared to ask… what, with what's been going on over the last few days with Aki's gang running amok now."
Kakashi frowns. "That bad, huh? I need to help out Anko-" He tries to get up but is stopped by Atsumi's hand forcing him to lay back down.
"Nope. You're staying here. Anko can handle herself. Have more faith, got it?"
He pauses then nods once. "Yeah…" Kakashi knows she can handle herself. He still feels like he should be there to help her. He swears under his breath, eyes closing. All he can do is rest and hope for the best with Anko being able to handle herself.
"She'll be fine, Kakashi. Just rest and be ready for her to return."
He nods once more. "Okay."
xXx
Once the snake came back, Anko steels herself as her snake returns. Given confirmation, she takes a deep breath and dashes towards the camp. This is the final leg of the journey, Anko tells herself. If she can beat them here and now, the village will be safe for good. The deal that Miku and Hitatsu have put their blood, sweat, and tears into will be completed and the land they care about will be saved.
Her mind goes through various plans. Every single outcome. Every single tiny detail, she thinks of. It would be easy to just attack with a huge snake summon of hers. Attack the biggest area she can and pick off the stragglers. Nodding to herself, she builds up chakra, bites her thumb and summons one of her largest snakes.
In a huge puff of smoke, the snake appears, hisses loudly, and smashes into the campsite, killing most of the rogues.
Anko watches as stragglers start to run towards the snake to try and kill it. But with its thick hide, the small kunais and paperbombs are merely tickles and faint scratches. She smirks, commands it to keep the ninjas encased in the smaller area, then she jumps down to kill the few ninjas that remained.
Once most were down, Anko starts to feel uneasy. 'This is… too simple. Too easy,' she thinks as she kills another rogue. 'Where the hell is Aki?' Tapping her chin with her finger, Anko glances around to see if she can find the rogue kunoichi. She keeps her guard up, however. Kunai at the ready just in case she has to defend herself.
Just as she is about to set up a trap, she hears a disembodied voice.
"Oh, dear Mitarashi Anko. Did you really think I would let you off this easy?"
"Genjutsu….?" Anko says to herself.
"Mhm… you're right. There's no way you can break out of this by yourself. And, now that you're here… I can take you to Orochimaru-sama." Aki replies, appearing just a bit away from Anko, darkness engulfing the both of them.
"Orochimaru…?! What does he have to do with this?"
Aki laughs. "I might as well catch you up. Who do you think put all of this together? Orochimaru. He wanted me to put Hitatsu and Miku under a genjutsu so they… can be persuaded in choosing ninja that look like them to replace them as they go out and see the neighboring lands. I knew Hatake and you were the phonies the entire time, my dear."
"Why not get me when you had me in your other camp a few days ago?"
"I hadn't expected Kakashi to show up. He… put a little damper on the plans."
Anko snarls. "This seems extremely extravagant just for him to get his hands on me. He was the one who left me. Why would he ever want me back?"
"Don't know. Didn't ask, Anko-chan…. Now… be a nice little ninja and come with me to Orochimaru-sama. He's been expecting you." She beckons Anko with her finger.
Swallowing a lump in her throat, her body moves on its own and heads towards Aki. Thankfully, she had a backup plan, just in case. With a snake hiding in her sleeve, she has the snake bite her, injecting her with its own supply of chakra in order to break her from the genjutsu.
She keeps the facade up. Walking up to Aki, offering her hand. Once Aki takes it, Anko sends a few snakes from her sleeve and wrap up the kunoichi.
"What?! How? My genjutsu is near perfect! You shouldn't have been able to break out of it at all!"
Anko smirks and lifts her free arm so the sleeve falls down. "Near perfect, as you just said. Besides… I always have an ace up the sleeve." Snickering at her own little joke, Anko turns serious and brings Aki closer. "Give me one reason to not kill you here and now. And if I like it, I'll let you live."
Aki racks her brain for anything to help her. Nothing comes to mind however. Even her mud substitution isn't working, her eyes go wide as she actually fears for her life.
"Aw, can't use your mud jutsu? As soon as my snakes wrapped around you, they were syphoning your chakra. They're teeth are like needles, so you probably didn't feel them. Or you're so full of adrenaline. I don't care either way. You're dead and this land is safe." Anko states matter-of-factly.
"Ah… you are like him. So cold," Aki says quietly.
Anko's blood ran lava hot as she had her snake break Aki's neck. She seethes, has the snakes recede and lets her body drop dead onto the floor. "I will never be like him… I… I have something he doesn't." she tells herself and checks the surrounding area to make sure any and all rogues were killed.
Looking to her snake summon, Anko pats its side and nods. "Go rest buddy. Thanks for your help."
"Anything for you… Anko-sama," the blue snake says then poofs away.
Her gaze goes from the land around her to her hand. After a moment, she reaches for the dormant curse mark on the nape of her neck. Maybe… Maybe she is more like him than she lets on.
"No… I'm nothing like him."
Anko knows Orochimaru's plans were foiled this time, but, he would probably always be after her. No, she'll always fight against him. She has a home to protect. A someone… to protect. Then her head jerks up.
"Kakashi!" she exclaims and makes her way back to the manor.
xXx
At this point, Kakashi's finally able to sit up. Atsumi helps him rest on the sofa, rather than the floor now. Despite having faith in Anko, he can't help but be worried.
"Atsumi-san… Did Anko look prepared to fight a whole camp? I just… I know she's well capable. But-"
She looks up from her medical file, over the rim of her glasses. "Kakashi for the last time, don't worry-"
They were interrupted by the door opening and banging against the wall. Kakashi looks up and sees a tired and scrapped up, but otherwise unharmed, Anko. "Anko, you're back."
Anko says nothing. She stares wide eyed at the man on the sofa. The man that just a few short hours ago was still in a coma. With lips pursed together, she walks over to him, places her hands on his shoulders. She still stares at him then pulls him in for a hug.
"Don't you dare scare me like that. I thought you were dead, Hatake…"
Kakashi, surprised by the hug, eventually returns it. His eyes close as he pulls her closer, glad for her safe return.
"I'm too stubborn to die. You know this, Anko," he says with a faint smile.
Her heart flutters, seeing his smile without his mask. She smiles faintly in return and looks to Atsumi. "I want to thank you too, Atsumi-san. Without you… Kakashi might as well have been dead."
The ex-medical ninja smiles, nods, and stands up. "Well… he'll make a full recovery. Anko, if you want I can tend to your injuries?"
"Oh.. yeah, sure," she replies quietly and pulls away from Kakashi to be healed.
"So, what happened?" Kakashi asks as Atsumi begins healing.
"So much…" Anko trails off, trying to figure out where to begin.