A Bad Time for Poor Judgement

Chapter 3

            Daylight as gloomy and miserable as it was- made it feel so wrong - so counterintuitive to a clandestine operation but yet they had done it. They stood in the stream that fed the laboratory, using the reinforced concrete banks for cover.

"Are these things ever built above ground?" Kakashi mused.

"Nope."

Hoisting herself up, Anko had already summoned the snake by the time Kakashi reached her. It was the same size and width as a shoelace, slowly winding itself round her fingers. Anko brought it close to her mouth as she whispered. The snake's eyelids closed almost lazily in response to her strokes and an affectionate kiss before she slipped him into the water. With a flick of his tail, he was through the grille and gone.

"It's lab protocol," Anko said simply, in response to his questioning look. "If there is a suspected impurity in the batch they have to ditch it."

"I hope I'd get more than that for a suicide mission."

"Well..." she said, amused. "If you asked me nicely." Anko had turned away but he saw a smile linger

Creeping along the bank, she stopped at an alcove above the water line as water thundered beneath them. Both crouched to keep themselves in the shadows. Again, close enough to smell that perfume. Close enough to reach out and touch her...

Don't. Do. It. Hatake.

It must have been half an hour before they saw the smoke rising from the incinerator.

Go! Anko signaled.

Making the hand signs quickly, Kakashi held his hand below water level, reversing the flow of water at a rising pressure until the filtration system was overwhelmed. He felt the resistance give, like a drum that had been pierced and sounds of a siren rang in the distance.

Go!

They had entered the lab through waste disposal - the only exit/entrance that was not monitored. Anko indicated the staff lockers ahead, Kakashi sprang the lock with a kunai, quikly handing Anko a boiler suit, before stepping into his own. Taking the sunglasses from his pocket Kakashi put them on - adjusting them with a smirk.

"Fucking finally," Anko groaned, as she rolled her eyes.

Seriously she needs a bar of soap for that mouth.

Following the noise down the corridor they moved quickly. People in lab coats jostled past them in their haste to get out. They moved past one security guard who was alternating between barking orders into a radio and waving people on towards the exit. Pushing past him, and against the flow of traffic nobody took any notice apart from one smart ass in a suit.

"Maintenance why don't you go and do some maintaining?!"

"Asshole," Anko hissed.

"Temper, temper," Kakashi murmured, as he pulled her along by the elbow. Finally, they broke through the crowd, as they reached the fire door leading to the stairwell.

"Another level down?"

"Yep."

Sensing the shuriken fly over his shoulder first, before it sliced through the wire. The light at the camera blinked a final time before going out. She had made the shot easily without adjusting her movements. Anyone following them on the monitor would have chalked it up to a technical fault. Kakashi pocketed the shuriken.

"Anko," he said, ruefully. "Ears tend to work better attached to the head."

"I agree," she said, sweetly. "Still on your head- aren't they?"