Chapter 3

Daylight as gloomy and miserable as it was- made it feel so wrong - so counterintuitive to a clandestine operation but yet they had done it. They stood in the stream that fed the laboratory, using the reinforced concrete banks for cover.

"Are these things ever built above ground?" Kakashi mused.

"Nope."

Hoisting herself up, Anko had already summoned the snake by the time Kakashi reached her. It was the same size and width as a shoelace, slowly winding itself round her fingers. Anko brought it close to her mouth as she whispered. The snake's eyelids closed almost lazily in response to her strokes and an affectionate kiss before she slipped him into the water. With a flick of his tail, he was through the grille and gone.

"It's lab protocol," Anko said simply, in response to his questioning look. "If there is a suspected impurity in the batch they have to ditch it."

"I hope I'd get more than that for a suicide mission."

"Well..." she said, amused. "If you asked me nicely." Anko had turned away but he saw a smile linger

Creeping along the bank, she stopped at an alcove above the water line as water thundered beneath them. Both crouched to keep themselves in the shadows. Again, close enough to smell that perfume. Close enough to reach out and touch her...

**Don't. Do. It. Hatake.**

It must have been half an hour before they saw the smoke rising from the incinerator.

**Go!** Anko signaled.

Making the hand signs quickly, Kakashi held his hand below water level, reversing the flow of water at a rising pressure until the filtration system was overwhelmed. He felt the resistance give, like a drum that had been pierced and sounds of a siren rang in the distance.

**Go!**

They had entered the lab through waste disposal - the only exit/entrance that was not monitored. Anko indicated the staff lockers ahead, Kakashi sprang the lock with a kunai, quikly handing Anko a boiler suit, before stepping into his own. Taking the sunglasses from his pocket Kakashi put them on - adjusting them with a smirk.

"Fucking finally," Anko groaned, as she rolled her eyes.

**Seriously she needs a bar of soap for that mouth.**

Following the noise down the corridor they moved quickly. People in lab coats jostled past them in their haste to get out. They moved past one security guard who was alternating between barking orders into a radio and waving people on towards the exit. Pushing past him, and against the flow of traffic nobody took any notice apart from one smart ass in a suit.

"Maintenance why don't you go and _do_ some maintaining?!"

"Asshole," Anko hissed.

"Temper, temper," Kakashi murmured, as he pulled her along by the elbow. Finally, they broke through the crowd, as they reached the fire door leading to the stairwell.

"Another level down?"

"Yep."

Sensing the shuriken fly over his shoulder first, before it sliced through the wire. The light at the camera blinked a final time before going out. She had made the shot easily without adjusting her movements. Anyone following them on the monitor would have chalked it up to a technical fault. Kakashi pocketed the shuriken.

"Anko," he said, ruefully. "Ears tend to work better attached to the head."

"I agree," she said, sweetly. "Still on your head- aren't they?"

The water was already ankle deep at the bottom of the stairwell. A wave of water swelled up around them as they pulled the door towards them before it abated, water level lower than before but still deep. The electricity had been cut to that floor so only emergency lights gave illumination. Artificial light played off the surfaces, green, blue and yellow. The door closed behind him and he thought unpleasantly of a tomb. The sirens blared even louder on that level.

"Where the hell have you been?!" someone shouted down the corridor. Ahead of them there were four guards standing at the junction, blocking their path looked confused.

"Who are you?"

Of course - there just had to be- another party of guards and the real maintenance team right behind them.

**Up!**

Anchoring his body, Kakashi allowed Anko to step on his thigh before she launched herself towards a ceiling panel, sliding into the cavity she created with her foot. Extending her hand towards him, their fingers were already entwined before the sparks of the chidori hit the water.

It was over.

After dropping from the ceiling Kakashi used his chakra to stay above water level. Anko followed suit but she sank through the water with a splash, thinking it better to conserve her chakra.

"Woah," Anko whistled, as she surveyed the damage. It died in her throat when she realised that she had soaked Kakashi head to toe. And she threw back her head and roared with laughter.

"In there," He growled, as drops of water dripped from his hand. Anko followed, still fighting to compose herself.

Swiping one of the passes from the guards gave them access to a small conference room. It was backbreaking work, but neither complained as they piled up the unconscious guards and maintenance men. Passes and radios had been unclipped and destroyed as they took what they needed before they left.

**Dr. Tzukaki Koje**

The plaque glistened in the semi-darkness, beckoning them down the hallway. Kakashi tried the card. And then again, before it flashed red.

"They've found him, Kakashi," Anko whispered, putting a hand to prevent him from doing it again. "Access has been rescinded. We need to trip the fire system."

**Well, that's easy enough.**

As the kunai sailed down the corridor, the papertag exploded, and the siren wailed louder as lights went from blue to red. Kakashi was through the door first. Anko followed before she screamed. The door had closed fast on her wrist, she had pulled it through but the door was now locked.

"-I'm sorry Kakashi-" He shook his head dismissing the apology.

"How's your hand?"

"I'll live," she hissed, as she flexed her fingers and wincing as she rotated her hand. The laptop had been flipped over, as she used a small screwdriver to remove the panel.

"Get the safe. Code's 38-28-39"

Punching in the code quickly, Kakashi yanked the door but it wouldn't budge. Again, the same combination but no give.

"Are you sure? "

"Yes!" she snapped, as she continued to crush the hard drive with a paperweight. "Try it again, then the hash symbol."

The door swung open.

**You're a fucking idiot Hatake.**

"Why were you so sure?" he muttered, as he placed the hard drives on the desk. Anko took one and began removing the panel.

" -girlfriend's dimensions," she muttered." -mine too."

Perhaps it was from the exertion of destroying the hard drives, but had she gone a little red? He said nothing as he busied himself with preparing the paperwork, feeling a touch warm too.

**38-28-39 hey?**

Using a fire jutsu to create a fire in the safe, he fed paper files watching the flames swallow them hungrily. Anko tossed in the discs from the hard drives.

"Ugh- that smells awful!"

But suddenly he felt it - a vice-like grip on his chest unrelated to the fumes. Anko clawed at the maintenance uniform, hooking her fingers into the neck of her own jumper.

**Feed a flame, starve a fire...**

"Air filtration system," he choked.

"No- shit- Kakashi," Anko splattered.

Anko was at the door trying to get leverage with the tip of the kunai but if they had switched the air off to that level...

Eyes scanned the room. The safe, it was recessed in an alcove. Why? Was there a cavity in the wall? Dawning comprehension broke - one panel had a silicone sealant afixed to each edge to make it airtight...

"Anko!" He shouted, as he indicated the panel.

They worked quickly using their kunai to slice through the silicone. Fingers fumbled, bodies clashed as they prised the panel off. Relief swelled with the air that pooled in his lungs, turning to Anko knowing he probably had that same goofy grin too.

**Thank fuck for electric risers.**

**Go!**

Pushing Anko through, heat seared with the introduction of oxygen, flames lapped at his back but Kakashi ignored them as he set the paper bombs. Pulling himself up after her, Anko had climbed about 12 metres ahead. Scaling it quickly, they were both two levels up when the paper bombs went off, sending a blast of heat and smoke up the shafts of the riser. And Kakashi was In reaching distance of her ankle when the radio crackled at Anko's hip. She must have heard it too - there would be a welcome party at the top.