Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Slight AU warning.
Italicized lines are thoughts.
Bold italicized lines are flashbacks.
Don't forget to review when you're finished reading!

XXX

Flight

Kakashi knew something was wrong. Sakura couldn't have known anything about it and Naruto was the most naïve ninja he had ever met but Kakashi was wise with age—not that he was a geezer—and knew exactly what was bothering Konoha's precious Hokage. Tsunade could try to hide it with all her strength but Kakashi was not stupid enough to pretend not to notice.

Unfortunately, Tsunade wasn't in the mood to see anyone lately. Even Shizune was left in the dark.

"She's barricaded herself in her office for days. She stays there all day and only leave to go to bed. Do you think something's up?" she wondered, sitting across from the ex-ANBU in the bar.

Sakura was worried, and frustrated. She came to Kakashi complaining how Tsunade had refused her training when she had gone for her usual eight-hour session with the large-busted woman. Deciding to poke his nose into his ex-student's business, he went to see Tsunade.

The fireflies danced around his head and mosquitoes buzzed on his bushy silver hair as he ascended the stairs behind the Hokage memorial to see what the fuss was about. He had insisted Sakura go with Naruto, Chouji, and Hinata to Ichiraku Ramen while he talked to Tsunade.

The building was approaching and he entered it, nodding his head to workers and to Shizune, who looked perplexed and discontent.

"Are you going to see Hokage-sama?" she asked.

"I am. It'll only take a minute."

She shook her head. "She doesn't want to see anyone, like I've told you before. I don't know what's going on, but lately she's been very depressed. I hear her crying sometimes. A few months ago her office was broken into, but we don't know who the culprit was, and she also began to destroy her sake cabinet. I think something bad happened. Maybe it's got something to do with Uncle Dan, or Nawaki perhaps."

"Well, I'll find out sooner or later," he mumbled. "I'll take my chances," he said in a louder voice.

Shizune shrugged. "Tell Tsunade I said hello if she lets you in."

Kakashi went to Tsunade's office and knocked on the door gently. "Hokage-sama, may I be granted entrance?" he asked in the most polite voice he could muster.

"Go away Kakashi," came a muffled reply.

"Come on, the cleaning ladies haven't been in there for days," he joked. "Your office must look like a pigsty. No offense to TonTon."

"I'm not in the mood to hear your crappy excuses for comedy!" she barked.

He was taken aback. She usually loved his jokes. Throwing away the act, his face turned gravely serious. He tried the door, and when he found it locked, he punched it. A chakra barrier pushed him back.

"Dammit woman!" he yelled, kicking it and employing Lightning Blade, bursting through the barrier with a swift slice and blowing the door away with it.

'I'll pay for that later,' he thought as he stepped through the doorframe.

Tsunade glared at him with amber eyes filled with annoyance and anger. "I told you to leave me alone. Now you've blown my fucking door down. Stupid ass."

She was laying on the ground next to her sake cabinet, which was in terrible condition. The glass was shattered and the wood burnt and chipped, with bottles missing or strewn over the floor, empty and some looking to have been opened by smashing them against her desk, which was also in complete disarray.

Tsunade's head was resting against the wall, her hair out of its ponytails and hanging bare against pale skin. Her usual clothes were drenched in sake and sweat. Her face was sickly, and her fingers clutched a half-empty bottle of some heavy flavor.

There was one more thing that caught his eye. He stared down at her, his eyes widening. "When…" he stuttered, not knowing what to say.

She smirked. "I was about to put on the genjutsu when you came in. Why do you have to be such a bitch, Kakashi, hmm? All I want is peace and quiet, but no I can't have that because I have a country to run, and you sure as hell aren't making it easier with you bursting in here like it's your fucking living room."

"Tsunade…I…but…whose?" he blurted out before he could catch himself.

Her face darkened, and she put a hand against a large belly that held what most large bellies held. "…Yours."

"This isn't funny! I mean, a baby is a wonderful thing and here you are being a recluse and trying to drink yourself to death! Don't you know how much that can hurt a baby?" Kakashi barked.

"Don't fucking judge me, Kakashi! You have no goddamn idea how this thing is poisoning me. I don't want it but there's nothing I can do about it because our stupid jutsu researchers haven't perfected abortion yet so I'm tuck with this thing and the worst part is I hate it but I don't and when I have it I have to love it even though it'll just be there to remind me how goddamn stupid I am and how I wish I were dead."

Tears were cascading down her face and Kakashi realized that the baby was from someone that she didn't love. Dan was dead and no one, as far as he knew, had a relationship with her.

"Who? Who raped you?" he asked, standing up straight and trying not to falter from her screaming.

"Raped?" she laughed. "Oh, you think I can't protect myself? I'm just a defenseless little girl? Well I'm NOT! No one normal can rape me, I'd kill them in a heartbeat! How dare you accuse me of being weak, you son of a bitch…"

"I'm not accusing you of anything!" the teacher interrupted. "But you wouldn't be so miserable if you'd had sex with someone who you wanted to have sex with! I'm not stupid, you know. I've seen it before, and I know you have too. You're a doctor, you probably see girls in the same situation as you all the time."

"But I'm Hokage." The statement she spoke was enough for Kakashi to comprehend her situation. The Hokage, leader of the Fire Country, raped and pregnant and miserable and a drunkard. Her reputation—and happiness—were at stake, the latter slowly filtering away.

"I wouldn't tell anyone," Kakashi promised. "I'll die with this secret. You can give the baby to adoption in another country. No one has to know…"

"Go away."

"What?"

"Please, get out. Don't tell anyone. Now that you know, just leave me be. I can handle this. I'm the super-strong Hokage my country looks up to, remember?"

She was smiling miserably, and Kakashi heart cracked. He'd never seen someone look so depressed in his life, not even Sakura and Naruto after Sasuke left. He also knew he never wanted to see someone like that again.

Now, he was going to Tsunade's home, carrying a blanket and a huge package of hot chocolate. He was determined to have her drink something that didn't contain alcohol, and now that he was the sole secret keeper of her pregnancy he felt like he had to protect her.

What was worse was that she seemed weaker in his eyes. Now, she was no longer the headstrong, loud, and sly leader of the Fire Country to him. She was instead the weeping, miserable, and fragile woman who was in the leader's chair. He knew why she didn't want anyone to know. She wanted them to see her as a leader, for the first time in her life. In her past she had been overshadowed by Jiraiya and Orochimaru and now she was finally making the front page of the news, so to speak.

He told Sakura never to get pregnant until she was ready.

"You sound like my parents," she laughed. "That was pretty spontaneous, though. What made you bring it up?"

Her house came into view and he sped up, walking towards it at a brisk pace. He paused a few yards away from it and noticed the lights were on and the back door was wide open. Confused, he abandoned the front and made his way towards the back.

A window was shattered and the door was hanging off its hinges. Sensing danger, she dropped the items he had brought and opted to go in through the window, avoiding broken glass strewn all over her living room.

The living room was empty, but he heard voices coming from her bedroom. He silently crept over to it, concealing his chakra as best as possible and moving so carefully not even a skilled ANBU could detect him.

"I'm not giving her to you." It was Tsunade's voice, and the 'her' mentioned must have been the baby.

"You will when she's born. You agreed to it," another voice hissed. It was silky, but underneath Kakashi could hear hunger and dominance.

The voice he recognized in an instant. His fingers curled around a kunai and he readied himself as he peered into the room.

Tsunade was lying on her bed, with Orochimaru on top of her, stroking her hair and also gazing down at her belly with hungry snake eyes. It all clicked in his head.

Orochimaru was the father.

That was even worse.

He burst in, throwing the kunai at Orochimaru's head. He picked up Tsunade and dodged it, holding her by the waist against the opposite wall.

"Kakashi? I told you to leave me alone!" Tsunade shrieked.

Orochimaru pressed Tsunade against him. "Kakashi Hatake. What an annoying pleasure to see you. Unfortunately you have arrived at an inopportune time so I advise you to leave for your own health."

"You sick fuck," Kakashi spat. "You raped your ex-teammate, the Hokage? Your ex-girlfriend?!"

"I was bored, and she was miserable. So, I decided to make her happy again," he spoke in his honey-and-acid tone, his tongue snaking out of his mouth and licking Tsunade's cheek. She winced and Kakashi saw how weak she looked compared to Orochimaru, like a lion and a mouse.

"You made her happy? She's drinking herself to death because of you! Your baby is growing inside of her. How the hell is that supposed to make her happy?!" he yelled.

"Don't act like a counselor now," Orochimaru chastised. "If you had seen her when I was with her that time months ago you'd have seen how much she misses me. She's just experiencing a hormonal imbalance, that's all."

Tsunade whimpered as he bent down and kissed her on the collarbone, nibbling her skin gently. Kakashi threw another kunai at the snake Sannin who moved him and his forced lover again, this time into the living room.

"You love me, don't you?" Orochimaru asked in a demanding tone to Tsunade. "I'll bring you Katsumora Fields pear sake everyday. Ah, and if you come with me you can see our daughter all the time. You don't need to keep yourself locked away in Konoha, unhappy because you can't see me without it being a crime. In Otogakure you'll be hailed at the Otokage's wife and the mother of the greatest kunoichi in the world. She'll pass you and become unbeatable."

"Not under your tainted teaching!" Kakashi barked.

"You can't stop me, Kakashi," he drawled, "because compared to me you're a cockroach." Groping Tsunade's large breasts, he smiled. "I'll let you take a turn with my lovely wife, if you want."

Tsunade pushed away from Orochimaru. "I'm not a whore and I'm not your wife!"

"You want to be," he said. "I know what you want. I used to give you what you want. And I still do. You're the one who confessed to me you've always wanted a daughter. I gave that to you and now you're being ungrateful."

Orochimaru leaped into the window frame and turned, facing Tsunade. "Just remember what you wanted, and know that I don't judge people who put their own needs over someone else's. And remember that I'll be back when my daughter is born."

He left, and Tsunade crumbled into a crying heap in Kakashi's arms. He held her and rocked her like she was a child, broken and tired of life.

For the next few months she slowly recovered, growing stronger and hiding her growing belly skillfully. She even smiled every now and then, though Sakura had to go to Shizune in order to continue her training.

Tsunade gave birth in Kakashi's house to a healthy baby girl, with long black hair with blond bangs and slanted amber eyes. Tsunade looked down at her baby, and despite all the complaining she had done, she looked upon her with pride and happiness. Yet, Kakashi saw something else glittering in her loving gaze. It was completion, as if Tsunade had finally won a game she had been struggling with for years.

She went home with the baby and continued to do her duty, leading the country with no interference from Orochimaru. Kakashi took care of the child, named Mieko, while she was busy and at night she came home to a smiling, beautiful child and would exchange smirks with the ex-ANBU.

Kakashi was getting ready to deliver Tsunade adoption papers so they could put little Mieko up with a nice family from Iwagakure. He had the papers all ready, and tucked them under his arm as he trekked over to her house, the route etched in his mind.

He knocked on her door. Waiting a minute or so with no reply, he knocked again to no avail. He tried to back door and found it unlocked. Calling Tsunade's name, he went into Mieko's room.

It was completely bare. Her dolls, toys, diapers, everything were missing, her crib bare. In Tsunade's room, everything had been emptied out of her dressers and her picture frames missing. There was a note left on her bed.

Kakashi…I'm sorry.

He slowly put down the note, and stared a hole into the bare wall above her bed. Her happiness, her looks of achievement…they were there for a reason. Kakashi thought he knew why, but now it all made sense. Why she seemed so comfortable all of a sudden, and why every now and then sadness would cross her face. And now, he knew where she had gone.

"…TSUNADE!"

XxXxXx

People have been asking for a sequel to Sake, so here it is. Sake was my most successful one-shot, and I decided that because of that, along with everyone's begging I decided to write one. I'd like to thank anonymous reviewer tot for giving me the idea for the sequel. I'm in New York in my aunt and uncle's house, alone, so I decided to write it to pass the time. I hope you all enjoy it, and no I'm not writing another sequel for the sequel. That's the surprise ending, enjoy what I wrote and no complaining!

Until next fic,

JadeCrescent Fallen