Tsunade sat behind the Hokage desk, filling out paperwork, trying to ignore the man standing in front of her.

"We need to talk to him," Jiraiya said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Naruto and I are only back in town for a few days and I know you won't have this conversation with him on your own accord."

"I know, Jiraiya, but I really have to finish filling out this paperwork," she tried to convince him, sounding tired and frustrated. Jiraiya slammed his fist in front of her.

"Summon him!"

Tsunade acted immediately on instinct, forming the single-handed seal a Hokage uses to summon ANBU.

The man who appeared in front of them was obviously not expecting to be summoned to the Hokage Tower at that particular moment. He was barefoot, the bindings on his pants had not been done, and the only top he was wearing was sleeveless and skin-tight, extending all the way up to a mask covering the lower half of his face. He wore no forehead protector causing some of his gravity-defying silver hair to flop forward into his eyes.

"What do you want?" Kakashi growled in a tone most unbefitting for addressing the highest-ranking ninja in the village. Somehow the lazy crossing of his arms cause him to look more frightening. Tsunade seemed temporarily incapable of speech.

"You were in the middle of something?" Jiraiya tried, unsuccessfully, to hide a snicker.

"I was about to shower," the younger nin grumbled, a crease appearing between his eyebrows.

"That ANBU summoning jutsu really works well, doesn't it Tsunade?" Jiraiya commented, spurring Tsunade out of her stupor to wipe the drool off her mouth. "I recall Minato mentioning one of the main reasons he made Kakashi ANBU was to keep track of him with it."

Kakashi didn't respond beyond turning his glare to focus on Tsunade, who looked like she was trying desperately to remember that he was HALF HER AGE… She coughed a couple of times to regain her composure.

"What do you want?" Kakashi ground out again as Jiraiya let loose a few more snickers and Tsunade moved papers around.

"To talk to you, brat." She responded sarcastically. "The Third left some of his notes behind on the ninja who he had future plans for. One of them was you. You were on his short list for Fifth Hokage." She finally looked up from her papers to find Kakashi looking unsurprised.

"He'd mentioned it a few times. So?" The silver-haired nin shrugged uncaring.

"Preparations were never officially made and you had a team to look after, as well as a young missing gennin to worry about, so Jiraiya and I became the Elders' choice." Tsunade watched him carefully for a reaction, and got nothing. She sighed heavily and resisted the urge to throw a particularly large book at his head. "Kakashi! Are you in full support of my being the Fifth Hokage?"

That question caused his jaw to drop.

"Of course I am!" He replied, a bit offended that she even had to ask. "I refused to accept his nomination every time we discussed it. I don't want to be Hokage."

Tsunade furrowed her brow in indignation and Jiraiya let out a full laugh this time. Kakashi and Tsunade never could successfully communicate with one another.

"Why is that so urgent you had to call me at this precise moment?" Kakashi ran a hand through his hair to get it out of his face, reminding himself that he needed to get it cut soon.

"There is a war coming. I had to make sure you were fully behind me. Beside me." Tsunade turned her attention back to her paperwork, not really wanting to give him her full attention. "I want to put you back in ANBU missions while you're without a team, a hand written note from the Third strictly forbids it. Why is that?"

Kakashi raised his bare wrists to her.

"I tried to commit suicide." He stated, sounding rather bored.

"WHAT?" she glared up at him and slammed a few pieces of paper into the desk with her fist.

"Once in ANBU before Sandaime made me move in with Tenzo, then a second time when he told me I was released from my ANBU duties."

Tsunade had stomped around her desk at this point, her hands were on her hips, and she was preparing a good yelling rant.

"You are SO STUPID! WHY on EARTH would you DO THAT?" She looked like she had a lot more rant to go, but Kakashi just dropped his wrists and shrugged in bored defeat. She shut up as they stood, barely inches apart. He looked into her eyes and she searched in his. For a few moments they just stared, the world stood still as, for a moment, they understood each other. Tsunade knew how that felt, she'd hidden from loss for so long in alcohol and gambling. Kakashi had hidden as well, in his cold exterior. They knew pain, they both knew the feeling of their heart ripping to pieces and not being able to do a thing about it. Rather than yelling louder and getting angrier, she sighed and found herself holding back tears.

"Are you alright to go back into ANBU now?" Tsunade finally questioned softly. Kakashi lifted a single shoulder.

"I don't know," he murmured softly. "I would rather continue with solo missions and jounin missions. Though I wouldn't mind working partner missions with Tenzo again."

Tsunade nodded, considered that, and then found herself reaching for his hands. As she took them, he found himself unwilling to fight her looking at them. Slowly, Tsunade turned Kakashi's hands over in her own to look at his wrists. She'd always wondered why he wore those short, fingerless gloves, but now she could see it plainly. There were crisscrossing deep white scars on the insides of both wrists, the gloves would be just long enough to hide those scars from sight. After a few minutes, she dropped his hands and he pulled a step back from her.

"Alright, brat," she grumbled, not quite angrily. "I'll put you on a partner mission with your kohai. Then, you'll take some solo A and S rank missions. I also want you on my diplomatic team. The Third is very clear in his notes that you are to be seriously considered essential in the running of this village."

"All I want are the missions, I don't need the diplomacy or the recognition please, Tsunade." He purposefully left out the honorific on her name, to make this a personal request.

She just frowned at him, eyebrows wrinkling. "You're a genius, Kakashi, and virtually flawless at what you do. I need you and your guidance more than I want to admit. You've changed a lot over the years and, as much as it pains me to admit this, I want you by my side here. Help me govern and represent this village." Her voice turned more sincere and less upset as she spoke, as though she were gaining confidence in the words she spoke to him.

"She's right, you know." Jiraiya added softly. "You're one of the greatest assets to this village. Your experiences and your heart and your deep connections with Naruto are what's going to help us change the entire shinobi world. We need you as much as we need him. You can't have a world-changing student without the teacher who can show him how to achieve his ideals."

Kakashi sighed and ran both his hands through his hair. They were shaking slightly now as he bowed his head and his stance slouched. He thought over what the two Sannin were saying to him, he lived so deeply in his world of self-hatred, how could they possibly be right?

"Just think about all this, Kakashi," Jiraiya urged. "We both plan to be around for a while, we just want to be confident that you'll be here to take over when we're not. Naruto still has a lot of growing up to do."

The three stood for a little while longer before Tsunade turned back to her paperwork, Jiraiya turned his attention to a couple scrolls of his presumably new book, and Kakashi basically just tried to compose himself.

"Ok," he said finally, his voice was soft and slightly choked. "I'll think about it."

"You should really get back to that whole showering idea, brat," Tsunade replied grimly, but with a darkly playful glint in her eyes. "You stink."

Kakashi shot her a rude hand gesture and teleported away while Jiraiya just laughed in relief.