A/N - Not quite sure how I feel about this chap... I'm not sure it quite fits with the rest of the story, but I think it still has some important snippets... So, it's a short one, but the next one should be up tomorrow afternoon, probably, if I don't get distracted. Can't wait to hear what you guys think! Enjoy!

"Hound-senpai?" Tenzo's voice cut weakly through the forest as the two nin ran toward the location listed on their scroll.

"Yes, Cat?" Kakashi responded curtly.

"Is everything okay?" He asked, hesitating slightly, not entirely sure it was his place to be in his senpai's personal business.

"Do I not seem okay?" Kakashi asked, avoiding the direct question.

"You seem upset, Senpai. We're going after an S-rank missing nin, it's dangerous to be so distracted."

"I'm fine, Cat." Kakashi muttered.

"Oh, well, alright then," Tenzo said, backing off. He worried about Kakashi when he got evasive like this. Either it meant he would be unnecessarily bloody on the battlefield or he would get home chakra depleted; sometimes both. He really hoped his senpai was telling him the truth.

The two leapt though the forest, dropping their chakra masks every now and then to lure the Tarou Kenta to follow them away from the village. They would also sometimes chuck a kunai or exploding tag behind them as well, to keep up the pretense as though it were imperative no one followed them. After several miles, they could feel his chakra following theirs.

Kakashi hid a grin behind his mask. If there had to be one way to avoid feeling the emotional pain he felt crushing inside his chest from Minato sending him on a mission immediately after they'd shared a far too enjoyable make-out session, then this was the way he wanted to go. The pain of rejection that was gripping his heart at that moment was just too much to bear, and he knew he wouldn't be able to handle the aftermath well at all. He could only imagine the way his life would fall apart when (or if) he returned from this mission. Minato wouldn't be able to look him in the eye, they wouldn't tease each other or have such nice, relaxing evenings together, Naruto would slowly be pulled out of his life because Minato would lose his trust in Kakashi's decision-making skills, and obviously they could never sleep in the same bed again. He could feel the stabbing pains all over his body and it was worse than anything that had physically ever happened to him. So, he decided he was going to go down fighting or die trying. He'd always had a soft spot for suicide missions anyway.

Every intuition in Minato's gut was telling him that sending Kakashi on such a dangerous mission so quickly after their delightful, although confusing, encounter was a horrible idea. He'd just needed it to be one day later, or one day earlier that the stupid rogue nin showed his ugly mug. And, as a result, Minato was now both hungover and irritable enough to kill the next person who walked into his office. Well, really, Minato didn't kill anyone that day. Jurou had come in to help organize the office until he realized how miserable the Hokage was and sent him home.

Minato meandered aimlessly around his house for a while, trying to remember the feel of Kakashi's lips, his tongue, his whole body pressed against him. Then he shook his head to clear it, half a bottle of alcohol and a sleepless night were not exactly a promising start for any day, never mind the fact that he was going to have to pick up his boisterous son in a few hours and explain to him that he'd sent his favorite niisan on a perilous mission in the middle of the night. Minato suppressed a shudder at the thought of how angry and upset his son was going to be as he wearily climbed the stairs.

He fell onto his bed and immediately formed his blanket cocoon to get some sleep. Kakashi had better return as soon as possible completely scratch-free.

"Senpai!" Tenzo hissed through his faceguard, trying to contact his team leader.

"What?" Kakashi's harried voice hissed through the static of Tenzo's reception.

"What's our plan?" He asked, matter-of-factly. Their whole journey so far Kakashi had refused to admit something was bothering him, but he was usually never this difficult to get a decent schematic out of.

"Who says we need a plan?" Kakashi's voice came back through to Tenzo, though it reassured the young mokuton user not at all. That smirking, slightly psychotic voice was the same one that led to the infamous ambush massacre of the Green Valley Mission, a tale often told to the newest ANBU recruits when warned about what could happen if they let their emotions get in the way of their duty. 43 foreign nin brutally murdered within 12 minutes. There had been no grace, no finesse, no forethought, and it had left the 5-man team literally as much as figuratively drenched in blood. It was one of the main missions that had earned Kakashi the nickname "Cold-Blooded Kakashi." Tenzo most definitely did not want to catch a repeat performance, he'd had front row seats for the first show.

"We need a plan, Senpai," Tenzo hissed as forcefully as he dared through their communication system.

Tarou Kenta, the rogue nin, had followed them out to a sufficiently secluded area so they would be able to take him down without threat to theirs or any of the surrounding villages. Now, the man was seeking them out, the ground rumbling ominously beneath them as they worked to conceal their presence. His patience was quickly running out, both Kakashi and Tenzo could feel the tremors deep in their bones.

"We could just follow our guts," Kakashi murmured silkily, appearing on the tree branch just behind Tenzo.

"What the hell happened last night, Senpai? There's no way we can beat him again with you so distracted? Think of Naruto, if no one else! How would he feel if you died on a mission because you were too distracted to make a simple plan?!" Tenzo spat angrily, but quietly, whirling around to confront the man behind him.

Kakashi opened his mouth for a retort, but saw only the bright blue eyes of his favorite toddler in mind's eye. Tenzo had a point. Even if his relationship with Minato was effectively ruined, Naruto couldn't get caught in the middle. Minato would not send Kakashi off to die without letting Naruto say goodbye to his second favorite person in the world. But, something else nagged on his brain from what Tenzo said.

"Again?" Kakashi asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Yeah, this is the guy from that mission with the scroll hidden in the mountain," Tenzo frowned, Kakashi was usually pretty good at remembering what S-ranked nin they fought before. "We were able to defeat him to get to the scroll, though at the time, we didn't kill him."

Kakashi cursed under his breath, it all made so much more sense now.

"That's why Minato-sensei couldn't send anyone else," he breathed, mentally slapping himself on the forehead. Sometimes his emotions where that man was concerned really did blind him.

"Of course, the Hokage needed us, specifically, to go on an extremely dangerous mission with absolutely no preparation time for a reason!" Tenzo, on the other hand, resisted the urge to bash Kakashi's brains in his thick head. "We are the only ones who have ever outsmarted him before!"

That's when the ground beneath them shook violently enough to split the tree they were standing on right down the middle.

"When are you brats going to come out AND PLAY WITH ME?!" The large man they had been followed rumbled, his entire body seemed to be helping with the impending earthquake. And on his shout, the whole forest seemed to be shaking.

"So, the plan, Senpai?!" Tenzo nearly squeaked as they tried to keep hidden while finding any sort of stable ground. Kakashi reached up and scratched his head, remembering once again the problems of letting your emotions run away with you on the battlefield; more specifically, what happens when you realize suddenly, that you don't want a particular mission to turn out to be suicidal.

"Ah…."