Tsunade knew the burden of responsibility that wearing the Hokage's robes really was. She'd seen three of the men who shaped her become bowed down and tired under the weight of the office. She'd seen countless others dying while proclaiming that they would bear that burden next. It was a responsibility that she'd been raised with, the knowledge that she might one day step into those robes and lead, even if no one, herself most of all, had honestly thought that she would be the only one left.

Even now, as she sifted through reports from the elders, from her Jounin and Chūnin Commanders, from the heads of T&I, the guilds and the councils, she wasn't sure she had made the right decision, coming back. She had spent nearly twenty years running from the burden of leading others and she wasn't sure that she could get back into the mindset that a true Hokage needed. She wasn't sure if that ability was lost to her, after two decades of caring only for herself and Shizune.

But she did know that Jiraiya standing in front of her desk, looking determined, meant that he was about to add to the list of things that were going to be sure to make the headache threatening to appear worse.

"Akatsuki is on the move." Jiraiya stood in front of her desk, stance combative but with his arms crossed defensively over his chest. Tsunade recognized the stance from when they were younger, when Jiraiya thought he was right but was prepared to be dismissed.

Tsunade barely glanced up from her paperwork. Danzo wanted to do what with ANBU? Wasn't he retired or, better for everyone, dead? She scowled as she scrawled "rejected" across the proposal instead of the "no way in hell" that she wanted to. "That's nice, but I knew that – it's the direct catalyst that led to one of our most promising genin and the last Uchiha defecting from the village at the same time that he managed to land eight other shinobi in the hospital, five of whom were in critical condition."

And wasn't that a headache and a half? She was going to have to deploy more of the jounin and chūnin than she was strictly comfortable with, leaving the defense of the village in the hands of genin and the few civilians that had some training, in order to make it appear that Konoha had not been unduly weakened even if the last member of one of their founding clans had defected. Tsunade truly wasn't sure if it would be better or worse for them to claim it was a kidnapping.

"No, Tsunade, I mean that Akatsuki are hunting jinchūriki." Tsunade's head snapped up and she gave Jiraiya her undivided attention, taking her attention away from the annual prison report. Her old teammate's face was a grim mask, age and worry combining to make him look nearly as old as Sarutobi-sensei had been instead of the only fifty that he truly was. "Naruto cannot stay in the village where he's easy to locate."

That was the last thing that Tsunade needed to hear. That was the last thing she needed the Council to hear, because they would order Naruto locked away somewhere, "for his own safety" of course, and that was not something that the blond would willingly tolerate and she wasn't sure that Minato's brat would tolerate either.

"Then take him on a training trip." She ran a hand through her hair in frustration. "No one will know any different." And since Jiraiya was one of the three Sanin, there was only so much grumbling that the Elders – and the Council – could do. "But make sure it's soon, or the Elders and Council will try and trap you in the village."

She'd like to see them try, but the last thing the village needed was the destruction that an escape by Jiraiya would cause – or the scandal of having to declare him a missing nin. Not to mention that any chance of Jiraiya taking Naruto and vanishing would be completely lost.

"Is that an order, Hokage-sama?" She sneered at him for the use of her title, something that she would never get used to, not from him. Jiraiya had never done respectful well and it was ridiculous when he tried. But she'd play along with him this time.

"Yes. Your Hokage orders you to take your new apprentice on a training trip in order to get him settled into the role."