Of Whiskered Cheeks and Dango Sticks

This was originally posted years ago on my first account, which I've recently gone back and scrapped/scrubed/whatever innuendo you prefer. While this is an older piece and not up to the same par I'm writing these days, I'm still fond of both the pairing and the work, so this is a repost of the original (now with Anko's surname fixed.)

There was pluck of her favourite rice dumplings and a burst of flavour. A droplet of sauce managed to escape and sit on the corner of her mouth. Anko grinned as blue eyes shifted from calm to revulsion and finally widened before looking away sheepishly, just as she finished licking her lips slowly in a tease. Her grin became close to manic. Sitting outside her favourite dango stand, Anko Mitarashi bit dumplings off her skewer, one hand holding her upright as she leant back on the bench, and one of her long legs crossed over the other, showing off the metal fishnet bodysuit that hugged her thighs, not to mention her waist, arms, breasts and so forth. Next to her, one Naruto Uzumaki gave a tremble and tried to focus on his own dango skewer, eating much slower than she was.

Naruto was one of Anko's preferred ninja students. He was loud, obnoxious and bratty, but hell, so was she, and the kid was fun. Why would anybody want a toy or a video game or even a copy of Icha Icha Paradise when they could have a Naruto, capable of pranks, making an ass of himself, tearing up a battlefield and of course, glorious reactions of embarrassment, anger and fear when teased or hurt. Mind you, Icha Icha was very fun too. But after catching him wandering around the streets of Konoha as soon as her stomache told her to eat, she decided that having such a potentially fun ninja for company wasn't a bad idea at all. There was always times for printed smut later.

"Oi there, Naruto-kun. What'cha up to? Fancy meeting you here.."

Naruto squinted, making a questioning noise in the back of his throat before something in his mind kicked in. 'Scary Anko-sensei!' Of course since their expedition to the Wave Country, Naruto's opinion of her changed from "creepy" to "irresponsible and childish", and, bloodlust or no, certainly not someone to be afraid of. ...She was still scary though, there was no doubt there.

"I live here" he answered dryly, not at all enjoying the way the older woman was eyeing his pants.

"Oh? I was just about to grab something to eat, wanna join me?" Anko's hands clapped together, her head tilting and her eyes slipping closed as her cheeks moved upwards, a smile of innocence plastered on her face. Naruto, for his part, had the sense to be cautious. Anko could be a con-man, or woman as it were, and there was no such thing as innocent fun - at least not in his experience. But while his mind sputtered a warning of 'watch out' his stomache was shouting 'ramen', and as always, the more experienced organ won out.

"Eh.. I guess so Anko-san.."

Anko's smile turned sharply into a grin of triumph, and she grabbed his wrist and dragged him away, her eyes flicking back to his pants.

Specifically, the bluging pocket where his wallet was kept. After learning of course that they would be eating the best dango in all of Konoha, instead of just Ichiraku's Ramen, he threw up a fair share of protest, and when she finally got tired of it, Anko flicked him in the ear and decided to tease him a bit instead.

And here they were. She stretched her legs for a moment before folding back under her, one over the other, and she smirked around another ball of rice as he went wide eyed, frightful of just what she'd do if she caught him staring. Of course, she already knew, and having him stare was the point.

"You checking me out? Sheesh, can't trust you kid's to even take a girl to lunch these day's without getting fresh." The effect was instant, as the fox boy almost choked on the dumpling he was swollowing, sputtering and turning red before pointing up at her.

"You're the one who dragged me here! I mean.. wait, no! Why'd I wanna check you out a scary person like you anyway?"

Anko smirked. Naruto was more fun than she remembered, and in an instant her arm was wrapped around his neck in a headlock, a finger nail tracing the line of his middle whisker-mark.

"Heh, still a tough-guy? You probably can't help but flirt with danger, hm?" Naruto sweated bullets. Scary or not, Anko was attractive, and the warm breath on his ear, the finger on his cheek, and her arm holding him against her side effectively silenced him. For a moment.

"If danger's the woman who's pushing me against her rack.."

Anko grinned wider and leaned down, tongue flashing against his cheek in a quick lick. A mental note of 'Not a prude' swept through her mind before she released him, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his stuffed froggy wallet and sitting it on his lap with a heavy plop, making him hunch over instantly.

"Thanks for buying my lunch Naruto-kun. Ja ne." With a manic smile and a dangerous wink, Anko jumped away, leaving a swirl of leaves as Naruto's voice echoed up after her.

"ANKO-SAN! PAY YOUR HALF!"

Three years later, Special Jounin Anko Mitarashi stomped moodily through a small village to the north. Dirty streets criss crossed everywhere while structures were built with a repeating traditional paint scheme and a uniformed look. A peice of paper flapped on a billboard near her. She only took the briefest moment to look at the poster before looking away. "Have faith, for we live in troubling times." It's colors were faded and it's edges were torn along the sides from being windswept and moved, and when everything was said and done, it just helped her feel even more irritated for being stuck in her current situation. Her sandals kicked up small puffs of dust as she walked through the streets of the town where she had been sent to. A long wooden toothpick in her mouth was being chewed beyond recognition. Violet hair tied at the back ruffled in the light breeze. The town itself was nothing more than an over-glorified trading community, and had more industrial estates than housings, it seemed. 'For all the good it's doing...' Another garden variety village wanting something from Konoha in return for it's services, whatever they may be.

Times had, to a degree, become troubling. They were boring. The days themselves had become short, droll pains in the ass in Konoha. For almost three years things had been.. off. The youngest Uchiha, Sasuke, star of his graduating class and most recent to bear the Cursed Seal of Orochimaru, had indeed followed in the footsteps the snake Sannin had predicted. The squirt was power hungry, and left. It seemed the tense air that had surrounded him, who Anko had once affectionately referred to as "Uptight and Moody" had come to a head. Meetings were established in secret, lengthy discussions followed, and her own experiences with Orochimaru put her in the top chair of every one of them. Discussions only went so far however, as any idea of action's taken had to be well prepared, and executed with the utmost care. And, as most thing's did, it earnt a place in the middle of a stack of To-Do missions, and became old news.

And then, just as quickly, the town seemed to land itself in a funk. The Hokage had become lazier than usual, content to sleep in her office, until she started training/torturing the pink haired girl from Kakashi's squad. The Copy-Ninja himself spent most of his days reading his perverted books in a corner. Townsfolk had returned to normal life. "When the hell did it become so quiet?" Kurenai didn't bother looking up from her soup as Anko half ranted the list that was bothering her, which only served to annoy her more, chewing her Dango stick harder.

"I think it was when Jiraiya took Naruto with him to train." At this Anko looked up. "When'd that happen?" "Back when it got too quiet for you to handle, I take it." Anko tapped the tip of her nose with her toothpick in thought. Naruto was the loudest stamina freak she had ever met and was ever likely to meet. His absense would certainly explain the quiet mood around town. He also had that knack of charm that affected people, that made them want to consider him family. 'Probably the way he calls every damned woman Nee-chan, heh.' But hey, she had to admit, it worked. She knew Tsunade and her helper Shizune were fond of him, which accounted for the even lazier mood of the Hokage lately. It also explained why she was able to get away with it: Shizune, she thought, was probably the type who would bury herself with some extra work to serve as a distraction.

It explained how the over-the-top crush for the Uchiha, Haruno, was training with the Hokage, and why Kakashi spent more time to himself reading Icha Icha than training, and why not one person looked fearful of the Nine-tailed fox. And, knowing Jiraiya, it was probably going to be this way for a while to come. "So Naruto's gone with the pervert hermit? That sucks." Kurenai did look up at this, and smirked. "Aw, what's wrong Anko-chan? Noone else who'se cheek you liked licking?" The trademarked unpredictable grin spread over Anko's face and she threw her dango skewer over her shoulder. "What can I say? Whisker's get me hot."

And so, for three years, things had become troubling, by which it was boring. Her windswept coat stopped billowing against her legs as she made her way inside the dingy lobby of the town's main goverment building. She bit into her bare dango skewer again, the taste of her favourite food long since gone, which only soured her mood more. She utterly despised alliance missions. They were all the same: excruciatingly long travel time just to sit down at a desk inside a sweltering conference room, sign a document, nod politely and turn around, ready to make your way back. The only one saving grace to this entire lousy mission was the promise that a contact from Konoha had already arrived in town and, after hearing Anko was forced to undertake a mission that made her as "mad as a cut snake", pun intended, had promised to meet with her later so she wouldn't have to travel alone.

"Better not be some dull moron.." "Excuse me?" Anko blinked, looking past the skewer in her mouth to the flushed receptionist of the lobby, who had trouble keeping his eyes on her face. He was pasty, mop-topped and unimpressive. "I'm Mitarashi Anko of the Villiage Hiddin in the Leaves. I'm here on the request of your town official." Anko crossed her arm's over her chest, turning her head and, spotting the nearest bin, spat her skewer into it. The stick sailed to it before nose-diving, hitting the bottom with a noise. 'Attention is a girl's best friend.' she thought as the flushed receptionist managed to overcome his tunnel-vision, quickly moving to usher her inside.

'May as well get this over with...'

Several hours later, Anko left the building, cursing their lack of a decent ceiling fan, their pitcher of warm water and the very worst food she had ever eaten at a conference. Her mouth still had the stale aftertaste, even after drinking two glasses of the room-temperature water. She felt hot and sticky, and even though it had become dusk outside, it was still humid. The lone breeze that had been sweeping around had died before she finished walking to the end of the street.

"Fuck! S-rank? What kinda sick joke was Tsunade playing?!"

And then, she heard it.

"They make those S-Rank missions because if you screw it up, hell sometimes breaks lose... kinda like sending an Icha Icha script to a country that's expecting a decleration of war or something." Anko cought a glimpse in the corner of her eye, but the voice-alone gave it away. 'Well speak of the nine-tailed devil and it shall appear.' And there stood one Naruto Uzumaki. Blonde hair, whisker marks along the cheeks and a black and orange wardrobe were his very trademarks, and grown up or not, Anko could still see the tell-tale cockyness that he was famous for in his youth.

"Well if it isnt my favourite loud-mouthed brat." The same light back-of-the-throat laugh she remembered answered her as Naruto uncrossed his arms and slipped his hands into his pockets. "Favourite? Aw, your too kind Anko-san. Did you miss me that much, or have the other's just gotten quiet?" Anko strode up to him, noticing first and fore-most.. he was now taller than her. "Nah, but everything become so damn quiet, you're the only loud-mouth left, so it'd be pretty sad if you wern't my favourite, hm?" It just wouldn't do to let a taller young man think highly of himself, she decided, but she knew it was in vain. In Naruto's mind, he was top dog and noone and nothing could make him think otherwise.

"Ah, I've had to give some of the loud-mouth away, Anko-san. Ero-sennin didn't appreciate it much, you see." Anko pursed her lips and nodded, looking him up and down now that she was close enough to take in his details in the dark. His clothes had changed.. sort of. It was still the puffy orange jacket, but with a sharper, thick black stripe along the shoulders and down the zipper. His headband was black, not the standard blue given to Konoha's Genin, and the permanent marker that bounced around on his shoulder was gone. 'Heh, maybe he has grown up a bit.'

"Aw, is that a half-assed way of saying your boring and no fun anymore?"

"That depends. Is the fabulous Anko Mitarashi still unbelievably single?" Anko grinned. Maybe Naruto was more fun then she remembered.

"It's criminal. How about you be a half-decent person and take a single woman out to eat already? I spent enough time in that dive of an office working out how to make this place happy, so let's see what they can do for us, hm?"

"Anywhere you want to go?"

"Nearest place that's still open. Don't know, don't care, I just know I need dango and a drink after all that."

Soon enough Naruto found himself sitting in a three-walled booth in the first eatery they could find. It was small and looked just as dusty on the inside as it did on the outside. Anko lead the way inside, dropping a document on the counter before looking around. Naruto recognised the seal of Konoha, as well as Hokage Granny Tsunade's signature, and the overall format of the letter resembled the same ones used back when he was doing missions with other teams. A standard, official form saying that the bearer was a nice person, and because they were nice, the Village of the Leaves would cover their bill. Anko meanwhile spotted a faded, private booth close to the exit and made her way over, sliding into one of the seats and looking at the menu before Naruto joined her. For the younger ninja, eating with Anko gave off a sense of deja vu. The last time they had done this was years ago, and like now, it was mostly quiet, with neither saying anything before she decided to tease him. He was pleasently surprised however when after ordering, Anko was the first to strike up a casual conversation. By the time their food arived, Anko's dango and Naruto's ramen, as well as a bottle of sake, they were having a normal (for them) chat about the past few years, Anko's story being considerably shorter than Naruto's. ("It's been boring.")

She in turn was pleasently surprised to hear that the fox container's tales were that much more interesting. He still had the primary goal of returning Sasuke Uchiha to Konoha, but soon they turned to a topic that Anko was far more keen to hear about.

"So, wait a second, you're telling me that while you were training, Jiraiya actually got you to write a book of Icha Icha?" Anko was waving a now clean skewer around as Naruto slurped down a set of noodles, nodding before she gave a loud laugh. "Oh, that's priceless. What's it called?" He shrugged. "Dunno, Ero-sennin named it, I just ghost-wrote it." Anko seemed disappointed to hear that. "Ah that's no fun, you find out what it was called as soon as you can, got it?" Naruto considered how Anko could be both requesting and forceful in the one breath, but he preffered to poke fun at her while she was sipping some of her sake and get her to choke instead.

"Anko-san, are you that eager to see something naughty I've done?" he asked, trying to look innocent and having to take another bite of his noodles to hide his glee. Anko smirked from the behind her cup. "Think your the only one who can pull a prank Uzumaki? I wanted to see what the Hokage and her assistant would say if I told them their precious Naruto-kun was an open pervert who wrote trashy porn books." His plan officially backfired as he choked. 'Heh, your still fun, Naruto.' But Naruto was being childish fun like she remembered. She wanted to know if he could still be as much fun when it came to "grown up matters". Grinning to herself, she scooted around to the adjacent bench, patting him on the back as his coughs subsided.

"Ah there there, feeling better now?" It was falsely sweet, a teasing coo, but before he could think of a good enough comeback, her hand moved to rest on his knee, and Naruto knew she was playing a game. And he decided then and there if he couldn't give as good as he got, he didn't deserve the title of "Number one most unpredictable ninja". With a slightly over the top sigh, he gazed at her with the most innocent face he could wear. "Ah, how could I ever repay you for patting me on the back, Anko-chan?" Naruto couldn't hide the playfulness in his voice, but Anko never got a chance to notice before he slipped his own hand on to her leg, a few inches higher up from her knee.

She was taken back, but she never showed it. That would be giving it away, after all. Instead, she ignored his question and leaned back into her seat, grabbing hold of the edge of her coat and giving it a wave. "Naruto-kun, you're making me go all warm here you know..." An extra wide, slow flap of her shirt and she heard his breath catch in his throat, and she mentally added a point to her score, leaning her head back and closing her eyes blissfully. 'Game, set and match, hah.' And then she felt it, a cool breeze starting at her neck before it quickly swept down to her coat, specifically to her chest where she just flashed Naruto. Her eyes snapped open and sure enough, she caught a blonde head hovering near the gap in her coat, lips pressed together and blowing.

"What the hell?!"

"I'm cooling you down, Anko-chan."

It was the final nail in the coffin as far as she was concerned. Naruto had clearly grown up, from being the loud-mouthed prankster who was either too stupid or too brave to give up, to being a mature (and pervertedly fun) young man. She swung her arm around his neck and pulled him up, leaning against him. She quickly took in the details of his face, his hair was still wild, his whisker marks as prominent as ever, and she traced the three with her fingernails.

"What is it with you and that?" Naruto's voice was strained, and she could tell he was trying to keep his voice calm. She didn't try to hide her smug look either, her fingertips tracing his whisker's back and forth as her other arm tightened around his neck, a quick warm breath rolling passed his ear as she chuckled.

"Aww, is little Naruto feeling like a trapped fox?"

Anko's voice had never been very feminine. She spoke low, deep when she wanted to be intimidating, fast and slightly higher when she was being silly. She never had Sakura's bright voice, or Hinata's shy honey sweet words, or even Ino's girlish giggle. But Kami, those words, those tracing fingernails, the hot breath, they all made something low and primal grip Naruto's mind. Her flirty challange did more than any lewd fantasy or sexy photo had ever done for him. It was confusing and impossible to resist. He twisted and pressed back against her, his head dipping down to her neck as he nipped, his teeth barely sinking into the muscle of her shoulder. She hissed and flexed, her arm tightening even harder around his neck. "Isn't that when they're most dangerous?" His voice was low, and had the same hint of a challenge that everything he did have. It was hot, she knew, and that he was doing it on purpose made it hotter.

'Heh, still a tough guy, Uzumaki?' Naruto pulled away from her neck, slowly, ever so slowly, and as the corner of his lips barely brushed against her throat, and Anko decided she was going to find out just how much of a tough guy Naruto Uzumaki was. Pushing him away from her, she looked him up and down again quickly. Hooded blue eyes roamed over her, from her face down, and back up. Heavy breathing, rising chest and flushed whisker marks stood out, even in the dingy restaurant. 'And speaking of standing out..' The effect it was having on him was hard for her to miss, and she smirked.

Noone made Special Jounin without being smart, and Anko knew that even though she'd probably end up hating the wretched little community, the smart thing to do would be to rent a room and stay the night. No matter how big or small, trading towns felt themselves to be that much higher up in the grand scheme of things, making some negotiations go on for hours. The first thing a wise shinobi did was book a room in a hotel, preferably on the main street, near the same entrance used to enter the community, while still being close enough to the procedings. It was the basics of the basics for all diplomatic missions. One panting, flushed and aroused young man against her however left her thinking about where the hell she had booked in at before finally remembering.

Naruto felt his warm lusty haze suddenly rip free from him. Anko's hand grabbed his wrist and held it tight before pulling, and he suddenly found himself being dragged outside and along the dusty main street. It had gotten much darker out, the breeze that had picked up again now had a colder chill to it as it hit his cheeks. The coat in front of him billowed around at Anko's sides, but before he asked if the wind was bothering her, he was pulled off the street as the older Jounin veered into the outdoors hallway of a local hotel. One, two, three doors down on the right hand side and they finally stopped, Anko's hand rummaging through her pocket when they did. The hall was really just a canopy stretched over two narrow buildings, with potted plants spaced between every door, he noticed, as he looked around for any sort of lamp or light on the walls. He didn't get a chance as suddenly the door they stopped at was thrust open.

Naruto was jerked inside and spun, to be pushed against the nearest wall. He heard a rustling sound and he reached out to try and find where he was in the dark room, and his fingers settled on steel mesh and cool skin that was starting to warm back up. He tried to make a quick sense of what was happening, but he could only think of how surreal it seemed, like something from the Icha Icha series come to life. And how the rustling had to have been her weather-beaten coat, because as his wrists were gripped and moved upwards, he felt only the mesh of Anko's bodysuit, and the warm softness of her breasts.

"What.. are you..?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

A knee rubbed against his crotch, caloused fingertips holding his neck. A warm breath with a scent of sake filled his nostrils.

"I'm trapping you..." And for a fluid moment, Naurto heard a chuckle before moist lips snatched him away.

A week after the successful mission to "Calm the whiners up" as she reported, Anko was smiling happily to herself as she sat on a bench outside her favourite restaurant, plucking her Dango dumplings off a skewer with her mouth and sitting with a can of red bean soup in one hand and a book of Icha Icha in the other. The skewer hovering in front of her face moved aside.

"I can't believe your reading that." Naruto half chuckled, half sighed, before biting off one of Anko's dumplings.

"I can't believe you wrote it." She retorted, taking a sip of her soup before she motioned with her hand to bring her skewer back up in front of her. It swept in front of her mouth and pulled away as she retrieved a dumpling, chewing with her mouth open as she spoke around the rice.

"His mouth dipped down, tongue lashing out to taste the sweet dip of her navel, a mewl of extacy slipping from between her lips..." Anko swollowed her rice and smirked at him. "Maybe it was the vanilla sauce but I found it more ticklish than anything, Naru-kun.." Naruto's cheeks grew warm for a moment at the memory, before he swollowed another dumpling and replied, quieter then her reading voice.

"That almost sound's like your daring me to have another go, ne Anko-chan?" Dark eyes flashed to his blue ones, hooded and seductive.

"Make it a bet and your on." 'An adorable blush and a quick perverted comeback. I may just have to claim him after all.' she thought. It was at that moment when none other than one pink haired medic nin-in-training and one blonde and busty Hokage had chosen to eat lunch, and soon they found a very pleased looking Anko reading a erotic book while being fed by Naruto.

"Oi, Naruto you pervert! Just what's going on here?" Sakura was still as intimidating as she was in her youth, but before she could throw a playful smirk at her old team mate, the manic grin from Anko cut her off. Specifically, the manic grin at the word "pervert". Sakura brushed it off however, noticing the older woman was far too engrossed in her story to even look up.

"Hey, I'm not the one who's reading it, am I?"

"Indeed, Naruto.." Tsunade crossed her arms under her large chest, smirking down at the darker-haired woman. "If Anko here keeps reading with that smile, she'll start getting a reputaion as bad as Kakashi's." Naruto and Sakura briefly wondered if Kakashi had such a perverted look under his mask when he would first read a new copy of his favourite "non-fictional" book.

"Oh, you have no idea how engrossing it is, Hokage-sama..." said Anko, as she flipped a page, drawling out parts of her sentence. "I can't put my finger on it, but some parts of it are just so.. familiar." Beside her, Naruto stiffened, turning his face away as his cheeks began to flush. Both Sakura and Tsunade caught this, but neither commented. "Jiraiya is certainly a renowned peeping tom, Anko. Maybe you should question him about that the next time he comes through town then?" Anko put her book down on the bench, open at the page she was reading before she drank the last of her soup. She gave a content sigh and threw the can over her shoulder where it sank into a garbage bin before she stood up.

"Nah, that old pervert didn't even write it. Anyway, I'm a bit busy at the moment. Foxy here just made a bet and I'm eager to see him pull through or pay up. Ja ne." And with that, Anko grinned, winked, and grabbed Naruto's arm, both vanishing in a quick swirl of leaves. Sakura watched as his flushed face had given an almost scandalised look before vanishing. Tsunade however was frowning, and picked up the discarded novel, looking at the cover.

"This.. is last years date."

"But, last year Jiraia-sama was training with Naruto-kun. If he didn't write it then..."

Sakura trailed off as Tsunade's face went beet red, having skimmed through the page Anko had let the book lay open at. Concerned, she looked up and over the shoulder of her teacher at the pages. 'Her fingers swam and pulled through blonde hair, watching his tongue move away from her abdomen, a trail of saliva left in it's wake.'

"Oh my..." they chorused together, red faced and embarrassed.