Viraten's note: Did nobody find the last chapter bittersweet and heart-warming? I guess on top of being unable to write romance, I can't do those either. Oh well, I must be doing something right to not get any flames so far. Thanks for the reviews, and especially thanks for making them average out over the chapters!

After Anko had so graciously re-clothed herself, the two jounins stared at each other, around the room, unpacked their bags along with other essential, uninteresting things.

Then they talked.

They didn't talk about much. They talked about new techniques, the 5th Hokage, how Anko would love to get her hands on a helpless Orochimaru, how Kakashi also felt an unusually strong violent tendency toward Kabuto, and how Anko encouraged it.

They didn't only just talk. They chatted, caught up, laughed, chortled, hit each other a bit. Well, Anko playfully hit him, chortled, before outright laughing at him as he stoically held in any outwards signs of pain. She could hit really hard.

Naruto didn't come back. After he had left, many of the other guests saw the expression on his face and got the message. Sakura tried to goad out what had happened after her curiosity had been triggered. She even went as far as to promise him not one, but two dates with a promise of kiss. Naruto still declined, holding his hands over his ears childishly repeating, 'I'm not listening.'

And so the night came. Whilst in Naruto's and Sakura's room, there were two single beds, this just didn't happen to be the case in the jounins' room. It was as if fate was setting them up.

"Looks like I have no choice. I'll just sleep on the floor." He looked down at his future bed. It didn't look too inviting, being hardwood. It would've been nice to sleep in a nice soft bed after camping out the night before.

"Aww…come on, don't be like that. You can sleep on the bed." Kakashi looked at the woman. Well, he did prefer the bed and since she insisted on it, why not? He missed the slight mischievous glint in her eyes.

He was already changed into his pyjamas, including an individual mask for sleeping, and climbed into bed. Sitting up against the headboard, he took out his copy of Icha Icha paradise and began reading. However, before he could really notice something, he looked sideways at Anko, who was already in the covers.

"Uh…Anko? What are you doing?"

"I let you sleep in the bed, isn't that enough?" She shuffled under the covers. "We can share the covers, if that's your problem. And I don't bite." She moved the covers down, to show her face, smirking.

"Unless you want me to," she added suggestively. Kakashi just stared at her before turning back to his book.

"Whatever, I have no qualms." He lied. Actually, this was one of the few times he'd actually been in bed with another woman. After all, he did wear a mask. Thad didn't exactly send them swooning in his direction, not to mention the fact that he was a busy ninja, contrary to popular belief. The paperwork that comes with training genin could be startlingly immense.

"Goodnight, One-eye." She pulled the covers over herself again, but then popped her head out onto the pillow. Kakashi returned his attention to his book. It was getting to the exciting part but he didn't feel excited, in that way.

Contrary to popular belief, the Icha Icha series was not just mindless sex. It had action, romance, drama, and was very humorous. It just happened to round off with steamy scenes. And he had just reached one of those steamy scenes, yet it felt so unappealing now. How ironic, he reflected that he would think this while in bed with a woman. He glanced over at her. She was now fast asleep, hugging the covers to her body. But he noticed something further.

Her face was much calmer now. Every other time he'd seen her face whilst unconsciousness, it seemed distressed and tensed. However, now it was so serene and peaceful; sort of cute. I'm going senile already Kakashi mocked himself. He placed his book away and sloped down on his side of the bed, willing himself to sleep.

As if sleeping in an awkwardly platonic state wasn't strange enough, then waking up to find you were cuddling up to the other person was even more disturbing. Kakashi's one unclothed eye opened, closed and then opened again, upon registering a strange purple mass.

"Anko, is that you?" She murmured slightly, shifted a bit before realizing where she was. As it looked, she had sometime over the night made her way over and placed her head on Kakashi's chest. In turn, his arms had wrapped around her small body. She instantly jumped off.

"What the hell were you doing?" He looked at her dumbly before replying.

"I'm still on my side of the bed." He simply stated before getting up. Surveying the scene, he was indeed quite right. Kakashi smirked; it was a small consolation after the tantalizing performance she put on yesterday. He got out of bed and said no more on the matter. Out of the corner of his uncovered eye, he could see a faint blush line.

After the embarrassing moment ended, things resumed as normal. The jounins dressed, privately of course, packed up and went down to the diner. Half an hour later, Sakura dragged down a complaining Naruto, whose protests swiftly ceased at the smell of food. His larger than life attitude returned as he garbled down the plentiful breakfast.

The quartet set off, fully rested and hunger settled. The city's inhabitants made no secret at gawking at them, pointing and whispering. At one point, at a short rest, Naruto decided to show off a bit with his aim of shurikens. Then Sakura punched the ground, winning the crowd over to her side. Not to be outdone, Naruto began preparing a rasengan, swirling chakra and all. Anko could not miss this opportunity.

She sneaked up behind him, his attention diverted by the scores of young children surrounding them. Then again, he was never much good at detecting others. One wonders how he managed to survive so long. Her arm circled around his neck yet he still failed to notice. It was only when she brought her tongue out and licked his whiskers that he flinched and the chakra in his hand exploded. Thankfully, he hadn't accumulated enough to endanger anyone around him and had only charred the skin on his hand.

"Ouch! What the hell are you doing, you crazy woman!" He yelped, clutching his injury with his other hand.

"What? I'm just helping you train! You should be able to detect when someone is sneaking up on you." She berated, all the while a grin plastered on her face to match his canine ferocity.

"Kakashi-sensei, why didn't you stop her?" Sakura asked, slightly annoyed.

"I didn't see her." He blatantly lied but she just sighed. He was never any good at excuses after all. She moved over to Naruto's side, taking his hand, and commenced healing.

"See, there was nothing to worry about!" Anko chirped. Kakashi looked on. Watching this reminded him of the times when Team 7 were a team. Of course, it was definitely much different now, and nothing could replace the original team. Still, it was nice change from the drama of recent. Even so, he felt a bit disconcerted at the atmosphere. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it was foreboding.

"So that's the Kyuubi vessel, huh?" The man smirked, donning a cape. The other man, face hidden in the shadow of his hat merely nodded.

"Lucky, lucky, lucky! They gonna love us for this in Akatsuki!" The man chirruped as they watched the Konoha ninjas from a safe distance.

Viraten's Note: Ooh, an ominous ending to an otherwise light-hearted play around chapter. Now, I've kind of worked out what I'm going to write for the ending. The fic will probably finish up in a two or three chapters, just to give you the heads up.