A/N: I think you know the routine for summary/disclaimer already. From this point on, the length of the parts is going to vary a bit more. Some will be very short, others won't. Happy reading!

10. Blizzard

In the middle of a snowstorm, in a cliff-side cave lit by a small fire, two teen chuunin prepared to sleep.

"Well, you did want to take one last mission before taking the jonin exam."

Anko and Iruka were snowed in on the way back form a C-rank delivery mission.

She had decided to specialize as an Examiner, one of the field agents for the Torture and Interrogation Department.

Though Anko had no wish to torture anybody, she knew from past experience that she had a natural flair for getting information out of someone without torture. Usually, her methods involved a combination of creatively employed midlevel genjutsu and strong spririts, but nobody had complained about her methods yet, probably because they were effective and didn't require a medic-nin or a body bag to clean up after.

Besides which, she herself had once termed the missions standard to the group as 'just like a hunter-nin, but with orders to capture, not kill', something she liked about the job. One of the Examiners, Morino something - really ought to learn the name before going to work with or for him – was reputed to have never killed anyone. Ever. Given his occupation, that made him all the scarier.

The only downside was that Torture and Interrogation was the department that was placed in charge of organizing and running the Chuunin exam when it was in Konoha. But what were the chances of actually being placed in any significant position there?

Anko shivered. So cold.

She looked at her rolled-up bedroll forlornly, then at Iruka as he sat in his, having climbed in after banking the fire for the night. Damn this blizzard. Why couldn't it have held out until we made it back to Konoha?

"Scoot over a bit, Iruka." He looked a bit confused and was blushing slightly.

"I'm cold, you're cold, the fire is doing jack squat to keep us warm, and I see no reason to freeze."

Iruka slid over and made some room. It would be a tight squeeze, but at least they'd be warm. Anko slid into the bedroll next to Iruka and settled in to sleep.

A few minutes later, both ninjas were as deeply asleep as anyone of their profession ever were in the field, wrapped in each others arms and just enjoying the safe-feeling warmth of each other's presence.

Outside, the blizzard howled on.