"And they say I'm the crazy one," Anko angrily got in her sleeping bag. She turned on her left side to look at Kakashi. He was resting on his elbows warming his feet up at the fire. "Why don't you put something on you? It's cold."

"It's chilly so shut up unless you want to catch a cold and mess up this mission," he said gazing at the stars.

"And you of all people are telling me that. We lost a day because of you. Because you wanted to stay here where there's obviously nothing instead of advancing and actually getting the chance to rest our back on a bed."

"It's only the first day and you're already complaining…"

"Stop pretending that it's my fault! Can't you see that you're sabotaging yourself?!" she cried.

He narrowed his eye. "You know nothing. Go to sleep, we're leaving early tomorrow."

She turned on her side muttering to herself. "Go to sleep…crazy bastard."

In less than an hour she finally fell asleep. The fire snapped at his feet. He looked around him. Stupid. There was nothing there, just his imagination. It was good that he was only with Anko. Nobody would believe her if she were to tell anyone. She turned in the sleeping bag facing him. Her face was so peaceful; there were no wrinkles on her small forehead. She looked more like a child than ever. He found himself smiling at irony of it. She was nothing like when she was when she was when awake. She was nothing like Rin. She was loud and wild and impulsive and crazy. She was unlike anything he encountered before in a girl. He decided he shouldn't discriminate, but it wasn't like he was going to start comparing her to Gai. He sighed. Somehow, he didn't know why, but he felt that she won't say a word about today. The sky was filled with stars. The crickets were singing. The wind soundly blew. Had it not been for the gruesome crime committed there, the place could have been mistaken for a patch of heaven. But he knew better than that. He knew he needed to rest for tomorrow; for Rin.

Anko had never slept soundlessly. Part of that was due to the fact that she often had strange dreams or even nightmares. I really full subconscious she often thought. She wasn't expecting him to be the same. She got up as soon as she heard his gasps. She looked around her. Nobody was attacking them. Still, Kakashi was fighting someone.

"No, no…" she heard. "No…"

He was fighting himself and obviously wasn't wining. She carefully went up to him and gently shook him. "Hey…Hey…"

He turned almost hitting her.

She caught his hands in her. "Kakashi!" she cried.

Brusquely, he got up. Sweat was dripping from his forehead.

"It's okay," she said not letting go of his hands. "It was just a nightmare."

"Anko…" he gulped taking in everything around him.

She softly looked at him. He looked at her. He pulled his hands away and lay back down.

"Go back to sleep," he said turning his back at her.

She didn't complain. She returned in her sleeping bag. The fire was almost gone. She shivered. She couldn't go back to sleep. She gazed at the stars.

"Are you sleeping?" she asked.

No answer came from him.

"It's okay if you have nightmares. I understand. I often have them," she continued. "I usually don't remember them clearly in the morning, but I never forget. Now I don't have them so often."

He didn't move.

"You have them because you have a full subconscious. Don't get intimidated."

"I am not intimidated. Now shut up and go back to sleep," he finally said.

"Are you always so moody?" she asked.

"Do you have a problem with that?"

"Not really. You are funny when you act like that," she grinned.

He didn't reply to that.

"So what are we going to do tomorrow?"

"Go to the village and gather clues to where they head. I wounded one of them pretty badly. I think they stayed at an inn."

"Okay," she said.

"Hey, Anko…" he wanted to say.

"What?"

"Nothing. Good night."

"I will," she peacefully said.

"What?"

"If you ever get agitated in your sleep. I will wake you up."

"No, I don't-"he wanted to say.

"It's okay. No one was there to wake me up," she said.

"Hm…" he grumbled.

The next morning, it took Kakashi a considerable five minutes to realize that he really was awake and that his sleeping bag was really in Anko's direction and that their fingers really were intertwined. He gently tried to break away from her grip. The situation was embarrassing as it was. There was no need for her to wake up. He decided it was wise for him to take a bath in the river not too far away and start breakfast after. It bothered him that he couldn't remember how he got there in the first place. All he could remember of the previous night was Rin all over again. When he came back she was still sleeping.

"Hey," he gently poked her. She turned. "Hey, Sleeping Beauty," she gave her a nudge.

"Hm…What…?" she got up in a sitting position and rubbed her eyes.

"It's time to wake up," he said as he put out the fire. "Here's some breakfast," he threw her a little box. "You bragged that you were always early and stuff."

"Hey, I really am," she opened the little box and started eating. "But I didn't sleep well last night because someone had nightmares all the time. You're such a baby," she tiredly said.

"Hm…Well, hurry up and eat so that we can finally get a move on," he said as he started gathering camp.

Muttering to herself, she helped pick up everything. Twenty minutes later, they were running down the field getting closer to the small village. As soon as they saw the gates they stopped.

"Listen," he started. "You go from hostel to hostel and ask for a group of three men. One of them got injured. They must've stopped somewhere," he said.

"What if they're not here?" she narrowed her eyes.

"They will be," he coldly said before leaving her.

And just as she had feared, none of the seven hostels she went in to had ever encountered three men with one of them being injured. She was tired and irritated. Maybe Kakashi had better luck. But firstly she needed to find him. They never settled a meeting point. That was worrying. Just as she feared he was probably going crazy. Finally she saw him waiting for her in the shadows. He had a troubled look on his face, dragging outlines in the ground under him. She jumped on the rooftop of one building and then onto the tree in front of him.

"Found anything?" she asked.

"No. You jinxed it," he replied. Was he trying to be funny?

"What now?" she asked.

"There is one more place near the outskirts of this little village. That's the last place they could have gone to," he said.

"Makes sense," she jumped out of the tree and caught up with him "If they were trying to keep a low profile."

"I guess they were," he said as they kept going further ahead. "That's the one," he pointed to a cabin a few yards away."

"Race you there!" she cried before she started running ahead.

He sighed. Why wasn't he surprised? He was anxious to find information on the rogue ninjas, but his pessimistic side was getting the best of him. He feared disappointment. He was getting ready to pass the doorway when Anko came rushing back knocking against him.

"Kakashi!" she yelled looking up at him; they're faces alarmingly close.

"W-what?" he said distracted by their closeness.

"I found something," she continued. "Come! Come!" she grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him along the hallway to the reception desk.

"I can walk by myself!" he roughly pulled his hand away.

She scolded at him. "I was just trying to help."

"Learn to discipline yourself," he growled and walked ahead.

She looked after him. At least he wasn't that haunted man from earlier.

"So you say that three men came here?" she heard him speak to the lady at the desk.

"Yes and they rested here for almost a week. One of them seemed badly injured."

"Did they go out often?"

"Not really. They never left together. Only one of them left. He was a talkative fellow. We used to chat before he went back to his room."

"Did he give you any indications about where he was heading?"

"I can't recall…"

"It's important, Mrs." He pleaded.

"Why?"

"Those three were dangerous rogue ninjas. They slaughtered many innocent people. I was assigned to hunt them down. So please…if you could remember…?"

"I… I think they said something about their home village in the mountains…" she rubbed her temples.

"Thank you," he said.

"What now?" she carelessly asked looking down at their sandals.

"We rest here tonight and starting from tomorrow we're travelling north towards the mountains inspecting every single patch of land. Got that?" he asked.

"Absolutely," she nodded.

"Good then. You should rest for a while because many sleepless nights are in for you and I don't think the accommodations will be as luxurious as here."

"I'm ready for everything and anything," she said.

He raised his eyebrow. "I'm going to book us rooms."

"Kakashi!" she called.

"Yes?"

"Is she worth it?" she asked.

"Who?"

"Your friend. She's dead still you're not letting go. Is she worth it?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Because to me she is nothing. I need some motivation. Is she worth it?"

"Every heartbeat of it," he darkly said before leaving.

Sighing she looked down at her sandals. A tear fell on the floor between them.

Gah one lousy update in such a while! I'm really sorry but I had finals.