status ongoing
background the two years between Naruto and Naruto Shippuden
notice Why does inspiration strike in the wee hours of the night, always? I don't get it. It's like the universe is purposefully trying to prevent me from getting enough sleep. My thoughts are kind of fuzzy when it comes to describing Kakashi's situation. The specifics of depression are a blur to me, but I'm trying to portray Kakashi's feelings as best as I can, while working out his budding relationship with Anko. There's a long way ahead, that's for sure.

xi. the sharpest tool

Anko bit her lower lip as her eyes bore intensely into the object of her attention. "I hate shogi."

"You are two matches ahead," Kakashi deadpanned.

Her eyes slowly lifted to stare at him. "Those facts aren't mutually exclusive, you know."

"I suppose they're not."

"Checkmate," Anko said triumphantly after a moment, moving her king in the square next to his. "Finally."

Kakashi sighed in defeat. He wondered how much better she would play if she actually enjoyed the game. She had won three matches in a row without the bat of an eyelash — excluding the occasional nagging about the game itself. Kakashi thought of himself as a very perceptive person and a good strategist at that, but for the love of him, he could not figure out Anko's strategy as the game panned out.

He had never considered her as an insightful person, but she had proven him wrong time and time again on this mission. On the one hand, there was her unwavering professionalism when it came to the actual mission. Even though she had made her distaste known on various instances, she didn't once waver from her patrol duties. On the other hand, there was her uncanny ability to beat him in shogi. He briefly wondered if she had been playing against Shikamaru in the time she had been mentoring him. It would explain her amazing skill.

"Only you would use the king as a main attacking piece," he said as he began putting away the pieces.

"The point is to create an element of surprise, which I did," she said smugly, taking in his dejected stance. "Oh, don't sour, Hatake. You can't be the best in everything."

"I wasn't aiming to."

Anko hummed in mock agreement and stared out towards the open field. It was dark, just a little after dusk and the world was slowly falling asleep.

Most of their mission had gone by uneventfully. They had encountered a couple of bandits along their way there, but it was nothing the two jounin couldn't handle. After their initial fight, things had moved along smoothly. Kakashi wouldn't dare say it out loud, but he actually enjoyed Anko's company. Sure, she was loud, and a bit nosy, but she knew how to tell a joke and he had to admit that the stories that he had been forced to listen to had been kind of interesting. He had been colleagues with Genma for years, and yet he had never known so many details about his life as he did after some of Anko's stories about the other jounin.

That was another thing he had learned about Anko; she was a terrible gossip. She didn't even do it out of curiosity. She just felt bored more often than not and decided to prod this person or the other about their lives. Kakashi couldn't understand why they would actually tell her, but then again, Anko could be rather scary when she wanted to.

In those few days, Kakashi had also learned not to doubt her intellect. Not that he had thought of her as dense before. She was working in T&I, after all. The human mind was her playground. To assume she was ignorant was about the worst move you could make.

That was why he wasn't precisely surprised by her exclamation, a few moments later.

"It doesn't add up, you know."

"What doesn't?" he asked, leaning back against one of the pillars of the porch. Soon, they would have to start their night patrol around the estate.

"The mission, Hatake," Anko scoffed. "I've been thinking about this. You're an elite shinobi, probably one of the strongest we've got at the moment — and I'm not saying that to stroke your ego — and the Hokage just casually sends you out on a lousy escort mission with me, of all people? I bet there's dozens of actual A and S-ranked missions waiting for you to take on."

He sighed deeply. "This is an A-ranked mission, Anko."

"Please, Hatake. Don't insult my intelligence. We left Konoha four days ago. And since then, the only potential threat we've encountered were those lowlife bandits. Don't try to convince me that this is anything more than a C-rank in everything but the paycheck."

"It's not my job to evaluate mission rankings. I am a shinobi and so are you. We do as we are told."

"But this," she gestured at their surroundings, "this is reckless thinking. The Hokage is wasting away Konoha's human resources. I have my hands full with the upcoming Chuunin exams and you are perfectly equipped for high-ranked missions. Yet here we are, both of us wasting away on a freaking chuunin mission. Why is she doing this?"

"I requested this mission, Anko," Kakashi said at last. It wasn't a total lie, although his reasoning behind it couldn't have been farther from the truth.

"What?" Anko asked in surprise. "Why?"

"As you said, I am an elite shinobi. So are you. And while we have both been on countless missions before, we have little to zero experience of working together. Now, as I'm sure you know, we are currently heavily understaffed. The Sound/Suna invasion a few months ago has dealt a blow in our forces. Jounin are almost hard to come by nowadays. So the few of us left, we can't afford to be unacquainted with each other. We have to know each other's skills, techniques and fighting styles, in case things go downhill again. We can't march into war with uncoordinated forces. And we definitely can't risk being caught in our sleep again."

Even he was impressed with his bullshit make-up story. He wondered why everyone had so much trouble believing his excuses. He was clearly a natural at this, if Anko's pondering look was anything to judge by.

"I'll give you the benefit of the doubt there. But this—" she made a vague gesture again, "—is still stupid. Couldn't she have waited for a bigger fish to throw our way if she wanted to test our teamwork?"

She could, Kakashi thought. Me, on the other hand…

"I don't know, Anko. My only speculation is that the Hokage didn't want to risk an untested combination on a more complicated mission. Maybe she wanted to see if we simply managed to get along first."

"So what are we, then? Test subjects?" she asked angrily. Clearly, being doubted was not something she took lightly. He couldn't blame her. "This situation stinks, and I'm gonna talk it out with the Hokage the moment we get back. We're not children, for fuck's sake."

Kakashi's mind clamped down on that bit of information. What if Anko went through with that and Tsunade told her the truth? That he had asked for any mission at all, regardless of its conditions? That he just couldn't bear to spend another day in the village in fear of losing his mind?

His heart skipped a beat. What if she told Anko that he was depressed? It would be a fat blatant lie, of course, but it could still damage his reputation. And the last thing he wanted was Anko snooping around in his business, gossiping about him with the rest of the jounin behind his back. No, he wasn't going to risk that.

"I hope your discomfort doesn't derive from my company, Anko," he offered, trying to take her mind off the subject of their conversation and her blatant disagreement on Tsunade's orders.

Anko laughed loudly at that and Kakashi considered himself safe for now. The mood was alleviated. "Men. You always think it's about you, don't you?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I wouldn't know what else to think, given your clear indignation towards being on a mission with me."

A sly smirk tugged at her lips. "Trust me, Hatake, if I had a problem with you, you would have noticed."

He had no doubts about that.

"So, you want to take the east or the west wing tonight?" Kakashi asked, standing up and offering her a hand, which she disregarded and scrambled to her feet.

"Ugh, do we really have to do this? No one's gonna bother attacking this place."

"Come on, Mitarashi. It could have been worse."

Anko rolled her eyes and gave him an indignant look. "Pray tell, how could that ever happen?"

"I could have been Gai," he offered with a smirk and watched as Anko's face contorted in horror at the possible prospect.

"Yeah, point made." She walked past him and patted his chest. "I'll take the west wing."

Kakashi watched her until she disappeared behind the corner. Catastrophe averted.