Fighting with Kakashi was like fighting with a bear—unpredictable.
While becoming accustomed to matching the movements of a Hyuuga, quick and as fluid as they were, like the flowing of water, Anko found it breathtaking to grapple with the boy. He was quicker, and his motions were like lightening.
Powerful, sudden, and unrelenting—words she used to describe herself.
He looked surprised when she managed to counter his attack and it was enough for her. She reached a hand around his neck and leaned away from him, using her feet to keep her steady as she put all of her weight and momentum to shove him into the dirt. Hands moving to his arms to hold him down, she landed on his chest and stared.
"You're not as strong as I thought you would be, Kakashi of the Sharingan."
His brows creased at her strange title for him but she wasn't feeling in the mood to explain it. Perhaps he would remember her words when it became time for him to be called that? Perhaps he would hate her then, hoping she had said something and hoping he would have listened. She wondered if it would be like the butterfly effect—if this would be the start that changed everything.
Anko laughed.
She was certain he wouldn't spare her the time of day if she said his teammates were to be 'met with a terrible fate'.
She shouldn't have laughed.
Anko yelped when he took her moment of distraction to turn the tables, twisting out from underneath her and reaching for her wrists. It was his turn to hold her down.
"You're insane," he said and she wished his words were true.
"I'm just a girl," she returned.
She shoved him away, tired of interacting with him if it would mean she would be losing. Brushing off her clothes, she stood up. "Thanks for the workout."
Anko walked off after that and deliberated a future in which she was honest, and she had people beyond herself to protect.
(Self-involved, self-obsessed. She never thought of who was most important to her. By the time she had, it was too late—and her regrets began there.)