With my wide eyes
I've seen worlds that don't belong
My mouth is dry with words I cannot verbalize
Tell me why we live like this

Broken – IX

"Oh wow!" Rin's overly excited voice woke Anko early one morning. The auburn-haired girl was looking out the window. The room was still dark, as the sun had barely risen. "Anko-san, wake up, it's snowing!"

Like any normal teenager, Anko loved the snow for one reason; it cancelled school. So she flew out of bed, joining Rin at the window. Sure enough, the fluffy white flakes were floating towards the ground. She could tell it had been going for a while, as there was a clear couple of inches. She grinned.

"Awesome!" Rin looked over at Anko. This was the first time the former had seen the latter so excited.

"Let's go wake up Obito-kun and Kakashi-kun. I'm sure they'd love to see this."

Anko wasn't sure Kakashi loved anything. But she still liked the idea. So she followed Rin up to the third floor, and together they crept into the boys' room, careful to close the door behind them. Anko suppressed a giggle. Obito was sprawled over his bed, left arm and leg hanging over the edge, his mouth wide open. His pillow was on the floor.

"Oh he's begging me to…"

Rin stifled a laugh as Anko grabbed Obito's pillow and pressed it against his face. After about half a minute, a muffled yell issued from under the pillow, and the boy's leg swung out, catching Anko in the hip. She went down laughing.

"What the hell?!" Obito gasped, bolting up. Kakashi opened one eye, shooting the offending boy a glare.

"Quit shouting Obito; it's too early." The boy shot his best friend and outraged look. His dark eyes were filled with anger and disbelief.

"Mitarashi just tried to suffocate me!" Anko was lying on the floor, still laughing her head off. Kakashi opened both his eyes all the way, rolling them.

"Isn't it a little early for you to be in here?" He asked, sitting up. He looked at the clock. "Isn't it a little early for you to be awake?"

Rin pointed to the still shaded window. "It's snowing out." She said conversationally, as if nothing had happened.

That did it. Obito bolted out of bed, stopping long enough to kick Anko (who was still laughing on the floor) lightly in the head. He threw the shade up, and a large grin spread slowly over his face.

"All riiiight!"

"Quiet!" One of the boys in the next room shouted, thumping on the wall. Obito rolled his eyes and shouted back,

"Aw shut it Gai!" Rin laughed. Kakashi just rolled his eyes again. Anko took a deep breath as she sat up, rubbing tears of laughter from her eyes. Obito shot her a glare.

"As for you…"

In one swift movement he had grabbed his pillow and dove at Anko, who shrieked as she flew away from him. "Oh no you don't!" He shouted, diving at her again. "Get back here, I'm not letting you off that easily― whoops!"

In his attempt to grab Anko, he had tripped over the rug and tumbled down. Right on top of her. "Oof!" Anko grunted as Obito landed on her, and all the wind was knocked out of her. Rin tried to ask if they were all right, but she was laughing too hard now. Even Kakashi couldn't suppress the smile that dared to cross his lips. "Get off you big brute!" Anko gasped as she struggled to shove Obito away. Her struggles were futile, considering he was at least fifty pounds heavier than she was, and about a foot taller.

Knock-Knock

All four kids froze as someone knocked on the bedroom door. "Uh oh…" Obito said faintly, exchanging a look with Kakashi, who sighed as he called,

"Come in." Minato opened the door. His eyes landed on a very strange scene. Kakashi sitting up in bed, Rin leaning against the wall near the window for support, and Obito and Anko on the floor, the former on top of the latter. Minato sighed.

"Don't ever tell me." Obito and Anko, catching the implement of this, flew away from each other at once, similar looks of disgust filling their faces. "What you can tell me though, is why you're making all this noise. And, for that matter, why you two―" He looked between Rin and Anko, "are up here so early. Never-mind here, why you're awake so early."

The two girls shot each other sheepish grins, and launched into a short explanation of what had happened that morning. Minato raised an eyebrow as the girls spoke, laughing at the part where Anko tried to stuff Obito, and shaking his head. Sometimes it was hard to remember that the four of them were just kids. This was not one of those times.

Konohakagure was always a naturally noisy place. A bunch of kids between the ages of three and seventeen, all together under one roof? A little bit of noise was almost inevitable. But that same bunch of kids on an unexpected day off from school, when there was snow outside? It made certain people (like Tsunade) glad for the invention of earplugs.

But even kids had their limits to how much noise they could make and handle. And Anko was quickly approaching hers. Her head was starting to hurt; she rubbed her temples, sighing deeply as she observed the scene around her. She really needed to get away from this for a little while. Luckily, fate offered her an escape.

"Hey." She jumped a mile as Kakashi seemingly appeared behind her. "We're going out for a little while. Down to the park. Wanna come?"

Did she ever. She jumped up, more than ready to leave. "Defnitely." She said, turning to run upstairs. "Just let me grab a jacket."

The walk to the park was fairly uneventful. Obito was, as always, a few steps ahead of them, his tongue out as he tried to catch some of the still falling snowflakes. Rin was laughing as she watched them, her cheeks already bright red from the cold air hitting her face. She was dressed heavier than the rest of them, wearing a hat, gloves, two sweatshirts and a heavy jacket. Obito, Kakashi, and Anko had bothered with hats or gloves. Kakashi was just wearing a jacket. Obito hadn't even bothered with one. Anko was wearing one that would be more appropriate for spring. Rin had shaken her head when she saw how they planned on leaving.

"When you all come down with pneumonia, don't come crying to me." She'd warned before they had left. None of them were at all worried, of course. They were all too happy to be worried. Even solemn Kakashi was managing to enjoy himself. But that could have been because of a certain, purple-haired girl who was currently walking next to them, looking happier then he had ever seen her. He smiled under his mask.

Anko breathed deeply as she took in her surroundings. Everything was completely white, which could kill someone's sense of direction. But it was all beautiful. There were still no plows out, and no cars were driving, so the street was still completely undisturbed. It looked as if someone had whited it out.

"Nice." She said to no one in particular, shoving her hands into her pockets. She didn't just mean the snow either.

As soon as they got into the park, they found a snowball fight. A couple of boys from Obito's and Anko's class had started one.

"Oi, Uchiha!" One of the boys, Daisuke, shouted when he saw Obito. "Get over here, we need another person on our―"

He stopped dead as his eyes landed on Anko. And to everyone's surprise, he scowled. "What's she doing here?" He asked scathingly, not taking his eyes off of her.

"It's a public park." Anko snapped, her hands clenching in her pocket. "I'm fairly certain I'm allowed to be here."

"You're not hanging out with her, are you Uchiha?" Another boy, Koushiro walked up behind Daisuke. Like the first boy, he gave Anko a glare.

"So what if I am?" Obito said defensively. "You guys don't get to choose who my friends are, not if you want me in on your snowball fight."

The two boys exchanged scowls, but bit their tongues. Obito tried to be casual. "So…do you want me to join or not?"

Another exchanged look, and Daisuke nodded. Obito grinned.

"All right then, come on!"

And they took off. Rin, in an attempt to smooth over the awkward moment, started to say, "Koushiro and Daisuke are―"

Anko didn't hang around to hear the rest of what she knew was an insult. She whirled around and stormed off, kicking up snow as she walked. Kakashi and Rin stared after her, sighing.

"Poor Anko-san." Rin said in a low voice. "Guess Obito-kun wasn't kidding when she said nobody in class liked her. Do you think we should just leave her alone, or―"

Kakashi answered the question by walking off to find the purple-haired girl. Rin stared after him, and a familiar twinge pulled at her heart. He was so attentive to Anko. And for the life of her, Rin just couldn't understand it. Who was Anko, after all? Just a stranger, a stranger invading the life they had worked so hard to create. Why was Kakashi letting her? There was just so much Rin didn't understand.

Kakashi wandered around the park for five minutes, unsure if he would ever find the elusive girl. She could be very good at hiding when she wanted alone.

But finally he found her, in a very unoriginal hiding spot at that. He had expected her to be a little more creative then to just climb a tree.

"Not your best hiding spot ever." He called up to Anko, an eyebrow raised. She looked down at him, but didn't answer. Her eyes were off, distant, the way they often looked when she thought someone was going to force her to do something she didn't want to. He sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Those guys are jerks." He said conversationally. She rolled her eyes and looked away, her gaze fixed on a spot some ten feet away.

"Like I care about them." She said, grinding her teeth together in an annoyed way. Kakashi shook his head Anko liked to pretend she was though, she didn't care, but he knew it was all just an act. Sometimes he wished she could figure that out.

"Well, you shouldn't. You didn't do anything to them, after all, why should they hate you?" She narrowed her eyes at the spot she was staring at.

"It's not me." She said finally. She looked angry now. "Though it probably doesn't help that I've kicked their asses on quite a few ocasions. It's just….Orochimaru-sama." Kakashi's blood boiled at the mere mention of the man's name. "You know, a lot of people know him, and he's not very well-liked―"

Kakashi remembered the first time he had seen Anko, asked about her. He remembered the venom that had been in Obito's voice when the boy had said her's and Orochimaru's names. Obito had said that nobody in their class had liked her, just because Orochimaru was her guardian. He hadn't understood it then. He didn't understand it now.

"Anko―"

Whap!

Kakashi jumped a mile as a snowball slammed him in the back of the head. He whirled around, intent on murdering whoever had thrown the snow, and found himself facing a smirking Obito. Apparently he had gotten bored with the other fight, and decided to start one of his own. Rin was standing next to him, protesting the snowball he had thrown.

Kakashi smirked a little despite himself, and bent down, scooping some snow into his hands and patting it down. Obito's eyes widened; he hadn't expected retaliation.

"Damn!" He ducked as Kakashi threw the snowball as hard as he could. "So you wanna play that game, huh?" He called, plunging his bare hands into the snow. Rin shuddered. How the hell did he do it?

It didn't take long for Rin and Anko to get dragged into the two-man fight. Obito hit Anko intentionally, knowing she wouldn't be able to stay out once she got hit. And Anko hit Rin by accident. Before long, the snowballs were flying, and all four kids were laughing, even Kakashi.

Anko ran behind a tree, avoiding Obito, who had somehow managed to throw two snowballs. Her foot hit a slick patch though, and down she went, landing on her back. She choked as the wind was knocked out of her.

"You all right Mitarashi?" Obito called, seeing what had happened. She didn't answer.

"Oof!" Five year old Anko's feet went out from underneath her, and she hit the ground hard, scraping her chin on the ice. "Ow…" She wined, trying to push herself up. But the ice was slick, and down she went again. Orochimaru looked back, noticing her disappearance from his side. He walked back to her.

"Get up." He ordered, his voice cold. Anko tried to push herself up again, only to slip once more. "Get up." Orochimaru said again.

"I can't." She said, her voice quiet. "It's too slippery. Can you help me?"

He said something she didn't catch under her breath, then reached down and grabbed her wrist, yanking her up forcibly. She gave a small yelp of pain, but knew better than to say anything along the lines of 'that hurt.' She kept her mouth shut and murmured a smalled word of thanks before they began walking again. She hadn't gotten far when she slipped again. It was slippery today. She didn't ask for help thsis time. Orochimaru walked back to her. He didn't say anything, and he didn't try to help. Anko shivered a little. It was cold…

"You're shivering." Anko jumped a little as someone put their jacket over her shoulders. It was Kakashi. She looked around at him. "You all right? You look a little dazed."

She thought for a second, then smiled and nodded. "You sure? You're not cold, are you?"

She shook her head, still smiling. "Nope. Not anymore."

"I think she hit her head." Obito said, rolling his eyes. He was shivering, and not to mention soaking wet. "I'm freezing here!"

"Told you to where a jacket." Kakashi said, standing up. He held out a hand to help Anko as well. She took it gratefully. "Come on, let's head back."

Rin mercifully slipped off her own jacket, handing it to Oibto. He took it, grinning sheepishly. "Thanks Rin."

"Don't mention it. Let's go."

As they left the park, Anko went to hand Kakashi his own jacket back. He shook her off though. "Keep it. I'm okay."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Don't worry about it." Anko smiled and pulled the jacket a little more tightly around her, a small smile playing on her lips. Don't worry about it. For once, that was something she could actually do.

Author's Note:...there's a very good explanation as to why I haven't updated in so long...okay, no there isn't. Review to show you're not mad? :sad eyes: --Sam