Whew! This is the last chapter for this fic! Thanks to all of you who read this! Have no fear – I'm pretty sure there's going to be more Kakashi and Anko romance going on later! Please give me your feedback!

/

When Anko woke up, she noticed that she was pressed up against something warm and solid. Her eyes felt heavy and she had the worst headache ever. On top of everything, her whole body hurt – like she'd fought with a mountain. And lost.

"Oh? You're awake?" came a calm voice. The voice sounded like it was extremely close to her…almost directly above her head… She could even feel the vibrations of the sound…

"Please tell me this is a nightmare and that you aren't holding me in a compromising manner," Anko mumbled up at the silver-haired shinobi. She'd figured out that he was carrying her bridal style.

"This is a nightmare." The Copy Cat Ninja chuckled. "You should go back to sleep. We aren't far from the village."

"No…I can move. Let me go you," but her eyes were closing before she could finish her insult.

She dreamed about why she hated Kakashi Hatake so much…

Anko walked out of the Leaf Hospital, another therapy session over and yet no memories to show for it. It was so frustrating! No matter how much the ANBU interrogators searched her subconscious, they could never find any memories from chunks of the past year.

She walked through the streets, heading for the training fields. With no mentor, Anko often trained herself. She yearned to reach out and ask others to practice with, and normally, no, before Orochimaru ruined her life, she would have marched up to another ninja and demanded a spar. Now, Anko didn't know how others would handle it. She resigned herself to individual training, unless Kurenai was free. Kurenai was older, so she had more missions to do. Anko knew the Hokage wouldn't let her go on any missions yet, because of her situation.

Anko felt so alone.

Finally, she reached her destination only to find that another team had gotten there first. She looked around and saw that the squad's sensei hadn't showed up yet. It was silly of her to worry about getting shooed away, but still. She ran up to the trio. "Hey! Can I train with you?"

One boy turned around. He wore orange goggles and the crest of the Uchiha clan was sewn on his shirt. "Who're you? Oi! Kakashi, who's that girl?" he nudged the silver haired teen next to him. Anko recognized him as Kakashi Hatake, two years her senior, son of Konoha's White Fang. He'd definitely be a good training partner.

"Don't bother me, Obito," Kakashi muttered angrily, but he looked where Obito was pointing.

Anko stood in front of the group, exuding confidence. "I'm Anko and I wanna spar with all of you!"

Kakashi stalked up to her. "I know who you are. You're that traitor girl who helped Orochimaru." He growled. The girl in the trio looked very uncomfortable, like she wanted to say something, but held her tongue.

Anko was taken aback, but not for very long. She got angry. "What did you just say? I'm not a traitor!"

"No, you're worse than a traitor. You're treasonous scum. If you have any once of loyalty to the village, you should kill yourself."

"Kakashi, don't be so harsh on her. She's only eleven. She didn't know any better. Right, Rin? Rin?" said Obito. He looked to his teammate for backup, but she still said nothing.

Kakashi ignored his squad member. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"I don't have to prove myself to you." Anko spat. "You don't know me."

"I don't need to know you to know that Orochimaru branded you with an evil mark capable of giving you dark powers. And I certainly don't need to know if you'll use it or not."

"Take. That. Back." Anko hissed, her rage nearing the boiling point. "How dare you question my loyalty?"

"Let me make myself clear. If I ever see or hear about you using that mark, I will not hesitate to end your sad excuse for a life." Kakashi threatened.

That was it. "Why you," Anko made for a punch to Kakashi's masked face.

"Whoa, there." A flash of yellow gently pushed Anko backwards. "Let's not take this too far." The Yellow Flash himself appeared.

Anko was confused. One second she was about to deliver sweet justice, the next she was a meter away from her intended target.

"Sorry I'm late. I didn't know we had one more joining us." Minato said.

Kakashi glared at Anko. "We don't."

"Yeah, I was just leaving." Anko spun on her heel and stormed off. She knew one thing for sure: she would loathe Kakashi Hatake for the rest of her life.

/

When Anko came to again, she was in a hospital bed, dressed in hospital clothes. Most of the pain was gone, though she still felt tired and bruised, with a dull yet bearable throbbing in her head. The cut on her arm was a pale, jagged line on her skin. Anko was very grateful for medical ninja. She looked around the room and saw someone had left a flower in a vase. Anko reached for the attached note and scanned it quickly. It was from Kurenai. She must have healed up already she thought. Good, I didn't hurt her when I went nuts.

"You're up again." Came a smooth voice. Anko nearly jumped out of her bed. She hadn't noticed Kakashi sitting in the corner of the room. He had a few wrapped injuries, but looked fine otherwise. He brought a chair to the edge of her bed.

"Why are you here? Come to keep that promise you made?" she sneered. "And what a way to do it, huh?"

Kakashi looked away.

"Now's not the time to wimp out, you know. Go on, try me."

"You remember that?"

"Why would I forget? One more person watching and waiting to kill me doesn't make much of a difference. I mean, I already had ANBU monitoring my every move for the year I came back to the village," she paused, her bitterness boiling over, "but I'd expected something different from a prodigy like you. I thought you would be able to see past who my sensei was."

Kakashi ran a hand through his unkempt silver hair. "I was in a bad place at the time. I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions."

Anko just stared. Did he think that a simple apology would undo the personal hurt he'd caused her, and the subsequent distrust she faced from the older shinobi? Well, he's got another thing coming if he thinks an "I'm sorry" will work! She thought hotly, though the pathetic look on his face (or what she could see of it) made her want to believe him. "Jumping to conclusions? That's an understatement."

"It is, but there isn't much more I can say to you."

"Then why are you here?" she met his gaze steadily.

"Let me finish my piece and then you can kick me out."

"Fine, let's hear it." Anko wiggled around on the bed to make herself more comfortable.

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow, but didn't comment. "I admit that I thought you were a traitor before,"

"I believe 'treasonous scum' was the exact phrasing you used." Kakashi winced at the recollection. Anko wanted to see him squirm.

"If you would let me continue," he said quickly, "my sensei told me I was wrong to have said those things, and I even spoke with Lord Hokage about you – he told me that you were a good person. I didn't believe either of them until,"

Anko knew where he was going. "Until that Uchiha kid died."

"Yes," a flash of sorrow passed through his visible eye, "and I finally understood the importance of my comrades. Ever since then, I've tried to mend things between us."

Anko begrudgingly thought back to some of her past encounters with Kakashi. She noted that he'd approach with a lazy greeting, not at all like the sanctimonious ninja he used to be. Most of the time, she would storm off after insulting him, and others she would chase him off with knives in her hands. Still, she admired his persistence. It was incredibly vexing, trying to maintain a raging anathema for someone who was trying so hard to get on her good side. "That still doesn't explain why you're telling me this now, besides the fact I feel too sluggish to move. You could have easily put me under a genjutsu to make me sit still."

Kakashi shook his head. "I know you'd hate me more if I did that. I'm telling you this now because now that you've used the mark,"

"I'm evil now?"

"Anko," he said with a tired look, "please don't interrupt me. I admit that before I believed that your curse mark was only capable of corrupting your mind and body – and I think it can – but you didn't use it for evil, or even for a lust for power."

She rolled her eyes. Thanks for realizing that, she thought to herself.

"You used the chakra it supplied to save us."

"Well duh! What else was I gonna do with it?" Anko exclaimed, astounded at how slow the Copy Ninja was being. However, she finally remembered the emotion in Kakashi's eyes when she saved him and Kurenai – respect.

"I was wrong to doubt your loyalty to the village."

"Damn straight you were!" At least now he knew that he had been at fault.

"Right. With that out of the way, I have something you need to promise me."

Anko gave him an incredulous look. Just who does he think he is? Though she was…touched by his apology, she didn't feel inclined to let him have the satisfaction of knowing. "I don't have to promise anything to you."

He moved closer, the space between them growing tense with awkwardness. "Anko, I'm not joking around." His voice was quiet, but serious.

The violet haired kunoichi was suddenly faced with an internal conflict – she didn't know if she wanted to back away further onto the bed, punch him in the face, or close the distance between them. Whoa, whoa, wait! What? I don't wanna kiss the guy! "Hey! Stay back!" she tried to keep her tone commanding.

Kakashi stayed put, taking advantage of her discomfort. "You need to give your word that you'll never use that curse mark again."

Anko didn't understand why he was asking such a thing. She never intended to use it, but the situation had been dire enough that she was left no other option. "I controlled it back there, besides, what if you guys,"

"No." he said. "Promise me that if this happens again, you'll sacrifice me over using the curse mark."

A bunch of snarky comebacks arose in her head, but Anko had a feeling Kakashi would not take it well. "Fine, I promise."

"Swear on your honor."

"Oh, so I have honor now do I?" Anko couldn't help but say it. "Why are you so caught up in this? Why are you wound up about my well-being?"

"Because I won't allow another comrade to die for my sake." His words weighed heavily on Anko. Wow, that Uchiha guy's death must have changed him she thought.

"I guess I can't go recklessly into battle now. Drat."

Kakashi sighed, still in close proximity to Anko's face. "Why are you being so difficult?"

"I am not!"

"Then swear you won't use that mark again."

For a while, the two ninjas stared at each other - Anko defiant, and Kakashi with a low-burning intensity that Anko found oddly attractive. She could play this game for ages. "And you're serious about this whole comrade thing? You're not blowing smoke up my,"

"Yes, I'm very serious." He replied with the same patience from the beginning of their conversation, despite Anko's attempts to rattle him - to see if he was faking it.

"Oh." Anko couldn't bring herself to keep despising him. He was going out on a limb to make things right between them, even though they hadn't been friends beforehand. Then she remembered how he'd killed the mutant that attacked her. He could have let the thing finish her off, left her to fight for herself, but he didn't. Kakashi even tried to keep her safe by telling her not to continue on, which greatly annoyed her, but still. At first, Anko believed that she'd only saved Kakashi out of obligation (and to get him back for being the hero), but the more she mulled it over, she came to the conclusion that she wanted to protect him. Maybe it was out of spite for what he'd said four years before, or maybe it was because deep down, she'd saved him because it would mean he would have to see that she was loyal to the village and her comrades.

Kakashi exhaled heavily, leaning back into his chair. He moved to get up.

"Wait."

"Hm?"

"I promise I won't use the curse mark again."

There was a long silence between them. Kakashi walked back to the bedside. "Good. I'll take my leave, then. Get well, Anko."

A strange idea popped into Anko's head. "Wait!" Kakashi gave her his attention. "It's rude to leave when someone's trying to talk to you, ya know."

"What did you need to say?" He asked lightly.

Anko didn't know why, but she having a hard time saying it. "Do you…do you think we can start over?" an embarrassed blush rose to her face. She hated when that happened. It was so girly!

Kakashi cocked his head curiously. "Start over?"

"Yeah, you know…pretend all of that stuff never happened."

He seemed astonished behind his mask. "If you want, I guess we could,"

"Great! You can pick me up after I get out of here."

"Um, what?"

/

The next day, Anko was discharged from the hospital. She lounged around in the waiting area, taking Kakashi's habit of arriving extremely late into account. Finally, an hour after her official dismissal, the silver haired shinobi appeared. "You're late."

Kakashi scratched the back of his head, smiling hesitantly beneath his mask. "There was a little old lady who needed help with her gardening, you see, and,"

"Ah, be quiet." Anko muttered, getting up from the seat she had occupied for the past hour. "Let's go."

/

They ended up walking through the Shopping District, browsing the various shops and booths the bustling market provided. Kakashi seemed to be impartial to any one store, only requesting that they not eat sweet things. That did not sit well with Anko at all. I'll get him to like sweet things, heh! She thought deviously, admiring the view she was getting from where she was standing – behind Kakashi as he leaned over to inspect a little trinket. She always thought the Copy Ninja was rather attractive… not that she would have admitted it to herself or anyone else before.

"Like what you see?" Kakashi stood upright and faced her, amusement dancing in his visible eye.

"Please, don't flatter yourself." Anko snickered.

"Oh? I must have been mistaken when I thought I saw you looking at my behind during our mission."

Damn, he's good! "Yep! Completely wrong – I think you need to do more squats. You still avoiding Gai? Maybe you should train with him more often."

Kakashi just stared at her lazily, which unnerved Anko. "So how are we going to start this 'starting over' process?"

Anko fake pouted. "Are you that eager to get away from me?"

The other teen was taken aback. "I didn't say that,"

"Good!" Anko smacked him on the behind and walked ahead a few steps, "we'll see how today goes and go from there." She turned back, a devilish smirk played on her lips. "Hmm, your ass isn't so sorry after all."

He came up behind her. "I'm glad you think so." He whispered, his tone sending a different sort of shivers down Anko's spine.