safety [Kakashi Hatake x OC]

seventy-six

It took Anko approximately five minutes to start snoring. Eri, on the other hand, couldn't sleep.

With their futons on the floor, Anko had completely thrown off her own sheets and the bed was was all folded and misshapen, along with limbs that reached out and found Eri. Anko had latched onto her waist and was attempting to slide her knee between the other girl's legs.

While Eri enjoyed the comfort of being held, she wasn't sure how to feel. She didn't want to push Anko off, but it didn't feel okay either.

She looked over her shoulder to see her mission partner's sleeping face. She looked a lot softer when she was asleep. Her features were round and gentle, which was much different than her mischievous personality. Perhaps she was also soft and gentle beneath the loud personality.

Yet, thinking about her more deeply also brought Kakashi to mind. Something about his sad but kind eye that closed whenever he smiled at Eri made her stomach twist into a knot of confusion. Part of her longed for him, and she didn't know why. She felt like she missed him in some sort of odd way.

'What is wrong with me...' Eri thought to herself and groaned, curling up to her knees. A few hours earlier, Anko had told her that she wanted to kiss her.

Amidst a furious blush, Eri narrowed her eyes, raised a brow, and squeaked, "The hell?!"

And the questionable and very forward woman responded with a playful snicker, saying, "I'm just teasing you, sweetheart." Then she leaned back on her legs to give Eri space to sit up.

And when she did, the mauve-haired girl frowned and fixed her disheveled clothing. Partially sarcastically and partially seriously, she asked, "Do you have a crush on me or something?" and rolled her dark eyes.

Anko paused and did think for a moment before answering the other girl, catching her off-guard with how deliberate the typically nonchalant one was in her response. "Maybe I do." She shrugged as if it were nothing.

Just like she felt the first time she met her - after losing her memory of course - Eri was intrigued by her boldness and fearlessness. Everything about the young woman was odd, yet confident, and that fascinated the curious girl.

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The next day, the two kunoichi did as they had discussed. They parted ways and spoke to various villagers and travelers to gather intel on their target. Anko, however, did so lazily and didn't put much effort into her conversations; she was confident she had it all figured out and didn't really need to exert more energy in their search. Instead, she was paying attention to all the places that had different treats for her to try.

Eri had abandoned the distracted woman long ago and gathered her own information. They reconvened later in the afternoon to plan their attack, and despite her seemingly absent-mindedness, Anko did - in fact - have their plan all figured out.

She had theorized what street their target would be on and when and how they would catch him. Seen as the more serious of the two didn't have more of a lead than what her mission partner had already gathered.

And in the middle of the night, when the questionable and mysterious man climbed from the sewer tunnels to the dimly lit and moist alley above, Anko and Eri were in place. He had shown up exactly how Anko had predicted, and Eri would be lying if she didn't admit it was impressive. Even more, her accuracy and ability to track and solve problems seemingly effortlessly was attractive.