Right now, the humor is taking a back set to the romance. I need to set up a relationship before I can do relationship hijinxs. But I promise, it will be funnier starting next chapter. And I also need to give credit to EagleJarl and his story Team Anko. It doesn't have AnkoXShino as a couple, but it made me imagine the possibility. I advise a read in general for great characters, good plot, and my favorite Orochimaru. But first, read this and enjoy (and leave a review)

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Elsewhere in Konoha, she began to stretch after taking a nice nap in the middle of the day. Work had been quiet with so few spies to deal with, so she was able to take a nap. And, even though she wouldn't admit, would like to look nice for her date that night. She was sort of embarrassed that she had let that heroic brat, Naruto Uzumaki, convince her to accept this blind date but it was what it was. She was already 30 and still single. Not that anything was wrong with being single but she wanted a normal life after her messy past had been cleared up. She wanted a guy in her life, at least to have fun with. Kurenai was a bore a lot of the time since she was raising her cute kid, but she could accept that. She couldn't mess with Kakashi since he was freaking Hokage. Of course he would, the lazy bastard. He could be late anytime he wanted, and no one could call him on it anymore. And of course Ibiki was into his new hobby of painting. The horror imagery was cool, but she wasn't really the artist type. And other allies and such were only good for small doses and not the fun type. So what if she accepted a date to a guy she didn't know. She was Anko Mitarashi, and she could do damn well whatever she pleased.

She looked at the clock and realized it was a bit later than she expected. She had expected an hour, hour and a half nap tops. But it had gone on for almost 3 hours, and she had 15 minutes to get ready and head to Shimora's for her mystery date. She cursed the insomnia she had been dealing with in the last few weeks, making her toss and turn at night. She wanted to at least give this thing a chance, and almost sleeping through it was the exact opposite of that. She was thankful she leaved near the place though, she would actually have to time to do a few things before she jumped over to her favorite dango shop in the Elemental Nations.

She quickly put on a skirt for her to wear, as she had been in just her body mesh for the nap. Her skirt was not that comfortable to sleep with. Making sure there were no creases, she put on her belt as she made her way over to the bathroom to tune herself up. A quick run through of her hair with a brush dealt with bed head before she quickly put a band in for her signature ponytail. A quick make up spruce up including reapplying eyeliner and lipstick in order for them to reach acceptable date standards. She looked herself over in the mirror and felt confident she was smoking, as usual. She just hoped this date would recognize this. She looked at her watch that said 6:51, she knew she had to leave then.

Slipping on her shoes and tan overcoat in a fluid motion as she left her apartment, she quickly shut the door behind her and leaped to ground level, making sure not to land on anybody (which had happened before.) Brushing off any of the dust, she quickly made her way up the street and took a right before she was at Shimora's. She didn't see anybody waiting near the entrance like Uzumaki had said, but he still had a few minutes so she was going to let it slide. She quickly strode up to the spot and decided to wait for this blind date of hers. She looked around, wondering if he was in the street coming here at this moment or what. Her eyes lingered to the taller guy that was seeming to be coming her way. He was wearing a gray coat, with sunglasses and long gray pants and a slightly lighter gray shirt. She recognized that look as one of the younger Aburame's, Shibi's kid she thought to herself. He was in the Uzumaki's group of friends. Did she really just accept a date with this kid? Well, at least he was on time.

She nodded towards him as he walked up in front of her. "So, are you the guy Uzumaki sent for me?" She asked brashly.

She hated that she couldn't see his eyes, but Anko knew he was studying her, probably not expecting her. He put his hand out for a handshake. "I am. My name is Shino Aburame, a good friend of Naruto's."

Called it, she thought to herself. "I knew I recognized you. We have been on missions before together. As you know, my name is Anko. Pleased to see you again, Shino. I know Uzumaki and his sensei pretty well myself." She grabbed his hand and shook it, each one analyzing the other. They were aware of each other and had gone on missions together, but they did not really run the same circles and knew only the basics about one another. Honestly, Anko thought to herself, she hadn't seen this Aburame in about a year, when he was babysitting Kurenai's kid while they had a mission together.

"Well, Anko, may I suggest we go in and have a seat." He gestured to the inside of Shimora's.

Anko nodded. "Of course. Let's get a seat near the window, those are the best in this place." Shino led as Anko let herself follow this mysterious teen a decade her younger. He found them a nice seat near the window and moved the chair out before taking the other chair. Anko raised her eyebrow, realizing he was acting gentlemanly and getting her seat. She sat herself on the chair and scooched up, giving him a point for being gentlemanly.

"You know, it is a bit rude to wear a hood in a place like this, buddy boy. You might want to let it down, at least for now." Anko pointed out. Shino looked around and saw it did seem a bit out of place for him to be wearing it, so he calmly reached up and pulled off his hood, showing his short black hair that hadn't changed since he was younger.

"Does this seem better to you?" He asked, wondering sincerely.

Anko nodded. "Much. It seems like you were hiding wearing that thing, which is kind of the opposite of a blind date, right? Though to be honest, I didn't expect Uzumaki to send me a quiet brat like you for this, you know?"

Shino agreed. "I do agree. I did not expect Naruto to have my date be, well, much older than me. Because romatnic relationships are usually from those in the same age group."

Anko shrugged. "That may be true, but an adult is an adult. You are gonna learn quickly kind that age is pretty much just a number from here on out. People pretend that younger means inexperience and older means wisdom, but that is a load of shit." She waved down one of the servers who was passing by. "So Shino, what are you in the mood for?"

Shino found her comment a bit vulgar but very true, and looked to the server. "Green tea and two skewers of kinako dango, please."

"And I'll get the green tea, 3 skewers of Anko dango, and 2 skewers of Mitarashi dongo. And make it snappy." Anko told the server who was quick to leave. Anko turned to see the raised eyebrow of Shino. "Yeah yea, my name is my favorite types of dango. I bet my parents must of planned it or something."

Shino did not have any good response to that so instead he looked over Anko. She noticed this and puffed her chest out slightly to see if she could garner a reaction. "So, you checking me out huh? Do you like what you see?" She was amused to see he had a light blush.

"I do admit you are an attractive woman, Anko. But I was simply looking to get a read off of your opinion of me using your body language. Because many women are, as they say, put off by the idea of the kikaichu beetles in my body." Shino admitted to her bluntly. Anko understood him well. Having skin that was suited for bugs to live in your body and exit it with, and the beetles themselves, could be off-putting. But it didn't matter that much to her.

"So what, you got some creepy crawlies inside you? Big deal. I've had missions where I had to spend two days hiding next to a maggot infested corpse. Long story, but secrecy was key so I couldn't just kill the bastards looking for me. After that, I don't got any problem with bugs or kikaichu or anything like that." Anko told one of her least favorite stories from one of her past missions.

Shino didn't fully believe her, sending a dozen of them under the table to wrap around her wrist quietly. A few seconds later Anko felt them around her fist, raising it into the air to see it better. Shino expected her to be creeped out or something, but she simply let out a laugh. "It's nice that you got me a present and all, but I would rather a bracelet be made of beads or silver or something, you know?" She watched as the kikaichu left her wrist and return into Shino, and his body seemed to relax itself. She hadn't even realized he was tense.

"I should have believed you. I apologize for not being trusting." He looked embarassed from the parts of his face she could see.

Anko shrugged it off. "Kid, I don't lie. After my snake bastard sensei used his forked tongue to double talk me when he taught me, I swore off it except for official purposes. So when I say your bugs don't bother me, they don't. And when I say you would probably be handsome if you took off those shades, I mean it too." She liked teasing and picking on this stoic Aburame. He seemed to be able to take those jokes well.

Shino pushed his sunglasses further up on his face with a finger. "Thank you for the compliment." Was all that he said.

With that, the conversation turned into a more general conversation where one another got to know each other better. They started off with their experiences with shared points, like Kurenai and Naruto, but eventually got far more personal. Between bites of dango and sips of team, Shino revealed he liked being alone with his insects, his almost completely vegetarian diet, and he liked to read fiction books about aliens. He thought the prospect unique. Anko talked about how she liked to perform tea ceremonies, her preference to beer over other drinks, and how she had mainly read either Icha Icha or horror stories when she decided to read.

As the date went along, Anko noticed how Shino seemed to relax around her and how his face seemed to shift from a neutral to a more smiling expression. And she seemed to like his presence. He wasn't too talkative, but he listened and was honest and seemed to be physically attracted to her. He seemed to react whenever she did anything that could be remotely sexualized like moving her chest or giving certain looks to him. She was enjoying it, along with the dango that they both ordered more of. They talked a bit about interesting missions and played a game of one-up as he mentioned his disasterous Bikochu beetle mission with Uzumaki and she mentioned a B-Rank that ended up with them destroying the artifact they were protecting while attacking their own shadows. It was truly an embarassing moment Anko hated recalling, but she didn't mind telling Shino. He just listened and nodded and entered his input.

About two hours after it began, it was over. The bill came in at nearly 750 ryo, which made Shino thankful Kiba and Naruto had warned him about Anko's appetite. (He was content with 4 sticks of dango, while Anko ate 10.) He quietly handed the money over to ther server with a tip for a job well done, and the two exited Shimora's side by side.

"You know, I could have paid about half of that. You can be chivalrous and all, but I did eat most of that bill." Anko told the Aburame as they stood in front of Shimora's.

Shino shook his head. "It was only proper that I pay for this date, since it was on my behalf my friends set this up. If you would like, we could split the check on the next date."

Anko's eyebrow rose highly. "Next date? So you are so confident you can get another date with me?" She asked almost arrogantly.

Shino looked at her in what she could only think of as surprise. "Well, I was thinking this date had gone well. We both seemed to have a good time, and we had good conversation. I thought a second date was a normal step after a successful date like this."

Anko looked at him for about a full minute, trying to make him sweat. She looked directly into his sunglasses and noticed a bead of sweat coming from one part of his forehead. Success. "Yeah, I would actually like that. It went a lot better than I expected. Uzumaki wasn't a total idiot this time." Shino nodded his head in agreement. "You know, it is only kinda late. Would you like to come back to my place for drinks?" She asked suggestively, wriggling her eyebrow in a suggestive manner.

Shino was quick to respond. "That sounds...fun, but not tonight. I feel it would be wrong to intrude so quickly in your personal space. Perhaps when we are closer I could come over for drinks, but not tonight." Shino was logical, not dumb and naive.

Anko smirked. "Good call. I would have slipped a bit of poison in your drink and throw you out my apartment if you had said yes. I'm not looking for a horndog, you know?" She waved to him as she began to walk towards her apartment. "Let's talk about when later. Have a good night, Shino."

Shino put his hood back on his head. "Have a nice night, Anko. I hope we talk again soon." With a small smile on his face, he turned and began to head home. He guessed Naruto was the King of Winning indeed.