The Art of Conversation

There are very few who are well versed in the art of conversation. Those who are masters of conversation are able to utter what movement cannot convey; just like how a dancer uses movement to share an emotion, a word-artist can voice a concerto of love. Kakashi X Anko

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Children were running and cycling down streets, laughing and taunting as families would be communing in dinner. Lovers could be found walking hand in hand under the dimming dusk. But, as always, she'd ask him for only one thing.

"Talk to me," she would say to him as they sat outside in the fresh summer evening.

"What do you want me to talk about?" he asked her.

"Anything," was her answer.

It was then that he'd tell her of something mundane and boring: like how his day went. Then, he broached the subject of how his self-appointed rival tried to beat him at a ridiculous task once again but failed.

"Gai is really annoying isn't he?" she commented, smiling as she watched him, her bare legs dangling over the roof's edge. "Sometimes, I wonder why he even bothers."

He inches his hand closer to hers, hoping that she would feel his yearning for contact. Sadly, once again, she ignores him.

"I think that it takes a real tenacious character like Gai to overcome the difficulties in life."

"Oh really?" she would try to bait him, "How so?"

"Well, if you give up, then what's the point in living? There wouldn't be a point in walking, in talking, in becoming a ninja if you can't overcome adversity." He shrugged.

"But, why would you bang your head on a closed door, if you know that there's no point in fighting?" she questioned.

"Because there is always a way in," he told her. "If the door's closed, try the window or climb the roof and get in through the chimney."

She only turned her attention away from him and watched the children playing down below them. She had realized that he was the one who had baited her in this conversation.

"What do you want from me, Kakashi?" she asked him a little irritated for losing.

"A lot of things," he admitted. "But, for now, I only want your answer."

She continued to ignore his existence as she answered his question. There was a faraway look upon her features.

"I guess emotions can't be helped, we are human first before ninja." She stated, as he nodded in agreement. "But, such emotions are what we have to fight off if we want to continue this lifestyle."

"There are many successful clans, Anko," he took a strand of her hair and tucked it behind her ear. "And all of them know this emotion."

"I don't want to feel love, Kakashi, anymore than I want to repeat my past with Orochimaru." She stared at him with hard eyes. "You know what it's like to love and lose. Why gamble our friendship on one measly feeling."

"But, as you said, we are human first." He told her. "And humans feel the need to be loved. A normal man's mission in life is not to throw shuriken and wield swords, it is to find where he belongs, find where he is loved."

"I am not human anymore," she announced, touching the curse mark on her neck. "I am a kunoichi, I don't need love."

Kakashi gazed at her tempered frown. He brought his hand to her cheek and turned her face towards him.

"I am a man and I need your love." He told her simply.

She gasped in shock to see the pain in his eyes. To see his suffering so apparent in the surface halted her breath.

She groaned in frustration.

"Why do you do this to me, Kakashi? I thought we had an understanding." Anko pulled herself up to stand. "We were only going to talk as friends and nothing more."

She watched as dusk befell the village turning the clouds pink and purple. The night bugs sounded far below them, and lights in houses turned on. A siren could be heard far away. The rooftops of Konoha were slowly being darkened by shadows.

"I can only be myself with you. I can joke around with you. I can stay by you and not feel a single ounce of pain." He declared. "I belong with you."

"That's bullshit!" she screamed at him. "You don't belong with me anymore than you belong with Kurenai. Stop lying to yourself!"

"I think that you're the one lying to yourself." He said stonily. "I can take rejection, Anko. Hell, I can even take you stabbing me with a kunai, but hearing you lie over and over to yourself hurts me too."

"We are not the same person, Hatake!" she said physically pushing him away. "You can't feel my pain anymore than I can feel yours. We are alone in this world and we'll always be alone. Look at the people down there."

She pointed at the children running around playing games.

"As long as I live, I will make sure that they will never feel our pain. When they grow up, they will become doctors and bakers and florists." She looked at the dark expression etched on Kakashi's face. "I will protect them and make sure that their future isn't anything like my past, my present or my future. Theirs will be better, a happier one."

"But, you can have both." He told her. "You can still continue to live this life and enjoy it."

Anko took Kakashi's hand and held it tight.

"My body is a weapon, and so is yours." She said as they looked on over people walking within the village. "Our bodies were made to protect others. And our mission never ends. I don't want to have to stop protecting what I've lived for so I can selfishly have a love life; so I can start a dumpling shop. Those are dreams, Kakashi. But the reality is, my life has already been decided. I choose them."

"You are being selfish." He took her hand and pressed it to his masked lips. Her shocked indignation brightened her eyes against the darkening skies. "You alone can't decide what those children will become. You can't decide for them who they will be. They have their own life to live to decide that. They still have many more choices to make in life and some of them will be the same ones that we made."

"But, if I continue working, the future will be better."

"I don't doubt that, Anko, but the future isn't here yet. It won't be here our lifetime, it won't be here in their lifetimes." He also pointed at the crowds below. "There will be more wars, just as there will be more peace. There will be more Akatsuki and Orochimaru, just as there will be more people like Naruto and Hokages. You can't control that future, but you can control yours."

He took her hand and pressed it to his steadily beating heart. "You know what my feelings are for you, Anko."

Anko flushed at the feeling of his pulse fluttering under her palm, his eyes imploring her to answer his question.

She took her other hand and pulled down his mask, and then pulled the second one down too, to reveal his handsome, boyish face. She pressed her lips to his gently for a moment, before pulling away.

"Fine, I'll date you," she answered, grinning at his relieved expression.

A/N: I know that I should be working on the last story for Windy Days, but I felt that I was getting to worked up over it, and as a compulsive writer, I couldn't help but write this. I started writing it about three hours ago, and it just flowed out of me like a good conversation. Kakashi certainly is a master of conversation, isn't he?

I decided to use this pairing because, I haven't use them before, and I would really like to start working on their characterization for future stories. I hope that this story is still apreciated eventhough it wasn't planned.

Please review and tell me what you think. Once I'm done with the 'Days' Series/Saga, I might do on of Kakashi and Anko. I'm still thinking about a genre that would suit them both.