AN: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Let's all give him cookies.
This is an old gen ficlet that's been standing on my computer for forever.
Kakashi sat on his bed, Pakkun in his lap, trying to decide what to do. He'd been feeling 'off' for weeks now. His muscles ached for no particular reason, and when they did have a reason, like him running his ass off for a mission, they hurt a hell of a lot more than they used to. During a taijutsu match with Gai he'd also noticed that his punches and kicks didn't have the same impact as they used to. Simply put, he felt weak.
Maybe it was because he'd trained very little the last few months. There was hardly any time for it with all the missions Tsunade had been sending him on. He understood that their village needed the money, but he barely had time to rest up before he was sent out again.
That didn't really explain the constant soreness though, his Anbu days had been very busy too, and back then he hadn't felt nearly as bad as he did now.
He should just get it over with and go see a medic-nin. Even if it turned out to be nothing they would probably order him to rest. Tsunade would agree, she was slave driver, but she valued her people and Kakashi knew that if he gave any indication of being sick or genuinely overworked, she would put him on non-active immediately.
That was also the reason he hadn't said anything until now. He drove himself mad when he didn't have anything to do, so vacations weren't exactly his idea of a good time. He'd never actually needed one before. Maybe he was getting old.
Tomorrow morning, he decided. Tomorrow morning he would go to the hospital and get himself checked out.
He curled up in the middle of his large bed, trusting Pakkun to stand guard while he slept.
The next morning he went to get ready, only to discover that he had very few clean shirts left, so he decided to do some laundry first. Doing the laundry was hard work and it made him hungry. The refrigerator was almost empty though. Obviously he needed to go grocery shopping.
He made his way to the market to replenish his supplies. It had been a long time since he'd seen the shop owners, six days at least, so he had a little chat with each of them. It was only polite.
He came home, laden with groceries, and opened the refrigerator to put some stuff away. The refrigerator smelled. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, and he almost needed to shove his head in there to smell it at all, but it was definitely there. He'd better clean it before any weird funguses got it into their heads to attempt to grow there.
Once his refrigerator was sterilized and then filled to the brim with fresh groceries he looked around his kitchen. Were those crumbs on his floor? Couldn't have that, they might attract mice and he sure didn't want to-
"Will you go already?!"
Kakashi looked down at the frustrated pug near his feet, and then pointed at the crumbs on the floor. "Mice"
Slowly and deliberately Pakkun trotted towards the spot Kakashi indicated and with one lick he removed the three breadcrumbs from the otherwise spotless kitchen floor. "No mice, and if they come I'll eat them too. Now will you please go see a medic-nin?"
Faced with the pleading eyes of his most loyal companion, Kakashi couldn't justify putting it off any longer.
Hidden behind the cover of his Icha Icha he made his way towards the hospital.
He ran into Sakura. Some people would call that luck. Not him though. Especially when she told him that Tsunade herself was working a shift and would want to see him.
Sakura stayed during the investigation. It was weird to talk about his weaknesses in front of his former student. He was supposed to be the protector, the caretaker…
They took a little of his blood, ruled out slow-acting poisons and iron deficiency. Then they had to consult some books, they said, and left him lying on a gurney in a cold sterile room.
He summoned Pakkun to keep him company, even though no pets were allowed. Pakkun was more of a person than a pet anyway.
It took a long time for them to come back and Kakashi was starting to prepare himself for bad news, some obscure degenerative muscle disease or something.
By the time they got back he was fairly sure he could take the news without any outward sign of distress.
Tsunade gave him a serious yet annoyed look. "You've got a vitamin D deficiency brat."
A vitamin D deficiency? It was that simple? "Meh… how?" He ate his rations like a good little boy, weren't they supposed to prevent things like vitamin deficiencies?
"Because you insist on covering yourself up. Completely. All the time. Mission rations aren't meant to compensate for a complete lack of sunlight, you know."
Kakashi had to admit that he hadn't seen a lot of sun lately, but it was at least partly Tsunade's fault. S-ranked missions were often easier under the cover of darkness.
"It's partly my fault," Tsunade seemed to have read his thoughts, "I've been overworking you. Things are going better now though. You've done your part for the village; I'm giving you a month off to recover."
A month? A whole month? "Do I have some lethal disease you're not telling me about?"
Tsunade ignored the question. "I'm giving you cod-liver-oil. Take a desert spoon of it everyday. You're getting calcium supplements too. Drink some milk while you're at it, it wouldn't harm you to gain a little weight. And I want you to start wearing less clothing. It's summer for crying out loud; at least lose the long sleeves."
"This could be considered sexual harassment you know, ordering me to wear less clothes…"
Tsunade smacked his head hard, but then gently ruffled his hair. "Get out of here brat, and take your Chihuahua with you."
She liked him. He could tell.
end