Inside on the Outside

Anko was greeted by another rainy day as she made her way from her apartment to the academy. “Great, why don’t I just fucking go back to bed?” She thought as she drug herself down the sidewalk toward the academy entrance. She shook off her umbrella before entering the inside main hallway of the academy. Once inside, Anko went to her second floor office and unlocked it. She picked up a stack of folders that were slipped into the mailbox that was on her door. She had another box in the main mailroom, but this slip was used for last minute mail or for issues that needed resolved immediately.

She took the folders and began to flip through the contents as she sat at her desk. Everything was related to the upcoming chuunin exam. It seemed that the chuunin exam rolled around as quickly as it was over. Anko flipped through the papers attempting to determine how many copies she would need of each item. She sorted them into stacks and labeled everything accordingly. She then spent the morning parked in the copy room attempting to get everything copied. Once she returned to her office, she began sorting the copied stacks so that she could stuff everything into envelopes for the exam applicants.

“I have something for you.” A voice called to her. Anko was on the floor at this point, she looked up to find Kakashi standing in her doorway. He was holding a very large mailbag.

“Oh, shit you have got to be kidding me? Are those what I think they are?” Anko asked truly disgusted.

“If you think its fan mail, you’re wrong; if you think its chuunin exam candidate entries, you’re right!” Kakashi said with spiteful joy. He walked into her office and plopped it in the floor beside where she was working. Anko stopped what she was doing in order to open the mailbag and dump all the entries.

“God, this is such crap, not only do all these entries need to be sorted by country, but then I have to put them in fucking alphabetical order.” Kakashi laughed at her and sat on the tiny couch she had in her office. “And to top it all off, half of these fuckers won’t even show up, let alone pass the damn thing!” Kakashi was amused.

“You’re a lively one.” He said to her.

“So, what are you doing right now?” Anko asked.

“I’m pretty booked. I have to sit around and read my book, then I have to walk around and read it, then I’ll probably shove my hands in my pockets and half listen to Gai ramble about the ‘spring time of youth’ or whatever the hell it is he talks about. Half the time, I’m just pretending to hear him.” Kakashi said.

“Sounds fascinating, here, you can help. Sort this stack by country. I’ll work on these.” Anko literally threw piles of applications into his lap. She demanded if Kakashi sit in her office he might as well make himself useful.

“You know none of these are Fire Country applicants, right? The jounins of potential candidates this year are supposed to hand deliver applications to you or Iruka.” Kakashi said.

“Yeah, I know. I’ve already received at least twenty applications. Hey, go get me a big ass stack of envelopes. You can do that when you come back.” Anko said.

“Do you always order people around like this?” Kakashi asked standing up.

“If they wear a mask I do.” Anko said. Kakashi laughed and took off to the mail room to get her the envelopes. While sorting the countries, her mind wandered: “I wonder how many women he’s been with. Knowing Kakashi, it’s either forty or none. He’s an extreme person.” Anko thought. She quickly tossed the thought aside as she continued sorting through the mass applications. Kakashi returned.

“Here I brought you another present.” He held up a smaller mail bag that had appeared for Anko in the mailroom.

“Ah, fuck!” she hissed. “Give it to Iruka!” Kakashi laughed as he covered her desk in a sea of envelopes.

“These came from Iruka, inter department delivery.” Kakashi said. He dropped the bag into the floor and resumed his sorting of applications on the couch.

“People just want me to stay pissed off don’t they? It’s raining like crazy again and now there’s a flash flood of fucking mail.” Anko asked in her usual bitter and sarcastic manner. Kakashi was finding great humor in this.

“Man, I would hate to be around you when you’re really pissed off. Although, it may be kind of fun to watch.” He said.

“I’m sorry, I apologized to Iruka for this, sometimes I get a little angry. I occasionally have some rage issues.” Anko kept throwing mail around in its designated areas.

“It’s alright, besides, I bet that rage comes in handy sometimes; people get you a little worked up and watch you go. Besides, it’s like wearing your inside on the outside and that’s sexy.” Kakashi said to her. It took Anko a moment for that to set in, finally she perked up.

“What!?” she had stopped sorting mail.

“Well, yeah. A woman with as much rage as you obviously have will make you successful and quite likeable. Whereas, if you bottled up all of it, one day you’d just go apeshit and kill someone; then oh! No more friends for Anko.” Anko laughed. Kakashi went to Anko’s desk drawer to look for rubber bands. He had finished sorting his first stack and he was going to label them and band them together. His one eye widened when he opened her drawer.

“Anko…why have you not spoken with me about this before now?” He was overjoyed.

“About what?” she said dryly.

“Why do you have the new installment of Come Come Paradise and I don’t!” Kakashi demanded. Anko grinned.

“You mean you’re not through the previous one? What chapter are you on?

“Ten, but back to my previous question…”

“Oh, you’ll freak when you get to chapter 13; and I’m already through that one so I bought the next book. You can borrow it if you’re nice to me.”

“I had no idea you read Come Come Paradise!” Anko rose to her feet. She was going out into the hall to get something to drink.

“Oh, Kakashi…there are many things you don’t know about me.” She affectionately put her hand in the middle of his head and shook his gray, white hair into messy spikes. She slipped out the door.