The Obligatory Author's Note:

- This chapter belongs between 15 and 16! Keep that in mind, so you don't get confused! -

Many, many apologies for letting it go so long between updates. I really meant to be better about this, but unfortunately this quarter is hitting me pretty hard in the school obligations department, so writing has been going unusually slow. This chapter actually belongs somewhere in the middle of what is right now Chapter 15, but for now it's going to stay here because if I update and then move it, people will be confused. Next time I update, this one will get moved into place, I guess. There is another chapter that I'm working on that will basically replace Chapter 16, because the time jump in there is almost spork-worthy, and I need more exposition along the lines this chapter starts in order to justify the ending I have planned. After I finish that one though, I'll get back to work on the ending. You will be happy to know that the next two chapters of the ending are outlined on pages 134-146 of my copy of Hobbes' Leviathan, and only need to be turned into something that contains complete sentences. Please bear with me on all this, I imagine it's annoying. I'm a perfectionist, and I have a tendency to want to overjustify things. To everyone who's been leaving reviews, I love you! (They make me write faster. Or at least try to update faster). Hehehehe. Anyway... this has been usually long for one of my Author's Notes, so I'll shut up now and let you get to this little chapter that is so out of place right here (you didn't think I'd let that cliffhanger be fixed when I could do other things, did you?).

Later that afternoon, Kakashi stood in front of Tsunade's desk in her office, preparing to give his daily report before going out yet again on a surveillance mission. Since Sauske had fled the village and both Naruto and Sakura were being trained separately, he had little else to do and was one of the few ninjas Tsunade could afford to send out to survey the borders and collect information. There was something unusual about this particular meeting, though. Tsunade looked up at the clock, then back at Kakashi as he stood in front of her.

"Kakashi, you're on time. Any particular reason for this?"

Kakashi ignored the comment and began his report. Things had been quiet lately at the border. The closest thing to activity had been the members of Akatsuki slowly gathering together at their headquarters. It was unusual – a thing not seen for at least seven years – and it was a sign that something was happening, or would be happening soon, but it was nothing that they could take any action on. It did seem, Kakashi noted, that they had found something new to concentrate on. This didn't bode well for the assumption that it would be another three years before anyone made their move.

"I think it's pretty obvious now that capturing Naruto and eliminating Orochimaru isn't their only goal. They've got something new that I'm afraid is going to expand their power even further."

Tsunade shuffled through the papers on her desk, skimming over the written reports the others manning the borders had left for her over the past few days. They all had the same basic information, but Kakashi went farther as far as raw speculation. She hadn't had time to read it in its entirety, but she had a feeling she wouldn't need to. It was fairly easy to see that Akatsuki would rely on a surprise attack to make their plan, whatever it might be, easier. Tsunade had heard earlier of Akatsuki's new friend, though. A reliable contact had informed her a few days ago of a young boy who had appeared not far from the borders of the Mist Village. He'd wandered the woods for a few days before being snatched up by Itachi. It wasn't clear yet if he was a threat, or just the man's fancy, however. Time would have to tell on that front. She regretted that Jiraiya was busy with training Naruto – he'd been the source of most of the information the village had on Akatsuki, and now that information flow had slowed to a trickle. She hoped it wasn't too foolish to allow Jiraiya to take time off to train, and she considered calling him back to the village, then realized that her mind was wandering.

What remained though was that Kakashi had nearly been early for this appointment. She watched his eye carefully as he went through the rest of his report, all mundane things. At this point, even the strange experiments Orochimaru occasionally set free to wander the border region were mundane business, but there was something else there. She aimed to squeeze it out of him, but she waited intently for him to finish his report before she struck.

"And I think it's best that you have Jiraiya and Naruto return at once," he continued, unconsciously affirming Tsunade's instinct to do just that and trying his best not to shift uncomfortably under her watchful gaze. He might have been one of the few ninjas left in the village that she favoured enough to trust with her dirty-work, but that didn't mean that the woman didn't freak him out occasionally. It wasn't even her unnatural strength and power. It was, he decided, probably that calculating look she always wore while he was giving his reports, like she was constantly weighing the odds. Perpetually making bets on the future. It was unnerving.

"You do realize that you are no longer in any way responsible for Naruto."

"That's beside the point, I'm worried for this village's safety! Jiraiya alone cannot protect him from Akatsuki, even if neither of you would ever admit it. If Naruto falls into their hands as well, there's very little hope for the future of the village."

Tsunade cleared her throat and folded her hands on her desk.

"And you really think that Naruto isn't mature enough to resist them?"

"It's not a matter of whether or not he'll resist…"

"Haven't you taught him well enough, Kakashi? Doesn't he know well enough not to betray the village?"

There was a flash in Kakashi's eyes. Tsunade congratulated herself on knowing where his buttons were, and how to push them. A little further, and she'd get to the root of what was really irritating him.

"Are you forgetting who he's up against here? This is ludicrous! Five seconds around Itachi and he could be brainwashed against him. And, Sharingan powers aside, who's to say they won't simply release the Kyuubi, or do any number of experiments on him? You've seen those things they've made and let wander out there! Are you aware of anything going on around this village? Or even in it?"

He paused for a moment, considering whether he should continue. Directly questioning Tsunade's governing of the village was dangerous territory. He'd started now though, and it was almost worse to give up the momentum and try to cover for his slip. She wouldn't be likely to let it pass unnoticed. He'd stepped over the fine line he'd been toeing.

"Oh?"

"You turn a blind eye to those men, for example. How is that safe? They just 'fell from the sky.' Do you expect people to believe that? You have no one watching them at all. Has it crossed your mind that they might be spies?"

Tsunade sighed and stood up. For a moment, Kakashi wondered if he'd gone too far.

"So that's all that's been bothering you?" Tsunade laughed, leaning back against her desk and visibly relaxing. Kakashi stared, stunned at her positively flippant manner. It wasn't the reaction he'd expected at all.

"You know something about them that you haven't told any of us," Kakashi stated matter-of-factly. He had little hope that she'd actually share the information, however.

"Well," Tsunade said with a smirk. "As a matter of fact I do. However, if I tell you what it is, you have to agree to take on another job for me."

Kakashi nodded noncommittally, just enough to get Tsunade to continue. He could see now that she'd been leading him to this all along anyway.

"The first one, Hughes – he was never my responsibility. I imagine it was probably Sarutobi that brought him here. It's been many years since anyone's come through the Gate, but I imagine the Third saw a need to bring someone else in, considering the imminent battles."

Kakashi considered this for a moment, but it just didn't sit right.

"Sarutobi had to be bribed into training Hughes. If he brought the man here himself, why didn't he take him in willingly? There was a good chance that he could have been stuck out in the woods indefinitely. It's not easy to just wander into Konoha. Or at least, it never used to be."

Tsunade let the hint of insubordination slide. He hadn't shown this much disrespect for his superiors since before he'd become a Jounin. Clearly he was more stressed than he seemed, and she made a mental note to allow him some more time off. Or, perhaps, the mission she had in mind for him would allow him to relax a little.

"I'm sorry, this isn't like me. Continue. It's been a very long week for me. I'm not used to being on duty constantly," Kakashi apologized, noting Tsunade's look of frustration.

"I should have come to expect it, at this point. It's not fair of me to ask you to take on other responsibility in addition to what I'm already having you do. This will be separate, I promise. You'll work within the village; consider it a break. However, you do, I suppose, need to know the whole story. For one, the story risks being lost very soon. There are only three people alive now that ever knew it. Usually someone only learns of it when they become Hokage. I'm going to need you to learn it and be able to use it, and to do that, I need you to study under Roy Mustang."

Kakashi coughed and raised an eyebrow, trying to stifle some sort of derisive laugh that wanted to escape his lips. Study? Under that cocky man? He'd only just become a Jounin. And he knew Hokage-level information? Kakashi refrained this time from putting his thoughts into words though, and allowed Tsunade to continue.

"I realize it sounds odd, but trust me. There are some things I need you to learn from him that will help us." She stood and walked over to the line of portraits of the past Hokages along the wall. "It actually goes back to the Fourth. Actually, a rather large amount of it was going on while he was training you, but it was never shared outside of the circles of elders. The information was known, on some level, since the founding of the village, but it was the Fourth that took it the farthest. It was discovered not long after Konoha was first founded, that our world was not alone. It was connected, by way of a gate of sorts, to at least one other. I'm not sure, exactly, how they found it originally – it might have been an accident, it might have been a rumour started by someone who had come through, I don't know. But as far as I know, throughout history it's been extremely rare for people to travel between our world and the one Hughes came from. There was a small amount of research done on it in the early times of the village, but there's only been one known incident of anyone going through from our side, and up until now, outside of the rumours of whoever made the discovery, we haven't heard of anyone actually coming through from the other side." Tsunade paused for a moment to watch for whatever reaction Kakashi might have to this strange information, but he seemed to be taking it all in. She continued.

"That clan, though it doesn't matter now, was a very proud part of Konoha village – very in touch with their family history, too. They had an amazing bloodline limit that allowed them to concentrate chakra into solid projectiles that they were able to levitate above their heads. They disappeared through in an accident in the research, it seems. After that, the study was abandoned and labelled as a sort of taboo that only the most powerful ninjas were allowed to know, and only then because we don't like to let information die out. Losing that family was a strong blow to the village so early on, but I imagine if it's really possible for people to go through the gate, then they've safely ended up elsewhere."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at this random tangent. Tsunade didn't often wander off on tangents while explaining things. He shrugged at her odd gaze, and she picked up her story yet again.

"It was many years before the actual research scrolls were discovered again. They were encoded, and oddly enough Jiraiya had been hoarding them thinking they were soft-core pornography since he found them in the back of the Third's offices. I'm not entirely sure how the Fourth swiped them, but he was the one that discovered that they were actually coded research. It wasn't until he'd decoded the research and presented it to the Third that Jiraiya admitted it had been stolen. I think he'd been secretly been amused, thinking that Yondaime had a hidden smut fetish. He did look sort of crestfallen when it was pointed out that the scrolls were secretly full of jutsus."

"Anyway, it wasn't much later that Sarutobi named his successor, and between the wars most of what had happened was forgotten, though I assume from what I've seen he and Sarutobi probably continued the research on some level as well. I believe he might have wanted to teach the sannin as well, believing it was now more important for the Konoha ninjas to know the secrets of this world-gate, but by that time all three of us had either left the village or were planning to leave it. Though, in my case even if I had been around to learn, it was outside my area of expertise. In fact, the only one that might have benefited at all from the knowledge was Orochimaru, and I can only hope that he never actually pursued it."

There was a pause in the story again, and Kakashi wondered where, exactly, Tsunade was going with this. It made the recent events make a little more sense, but it didn't seem to relate to them in any way that would require his assistance in whatever plan she had behind this.

"Actually, I also have a sneaking suspicion that Jiraiya also continued the research much later, after the Fourth died. It matches up with his first release, almost exactly." She smiled. "It seems like the sort of joke he'd be likely to play on people, at least. Which leads me to why you're the most qualified for this, being the second foremost expert on Icha Icha Paradise in Konoha."

"Wait… are you telling me Icha Icha is coded research?"

"Yes."

"Jiraiya's… coded research?"

"Probably."

Kakashi stared at a point just above and to the left of Tsunade's shoulder, eyes out of focus as he tried to process this information. It almost bothered Tsunade that, for once, his wandering gaze didn't immediately land on the centre of her chest. It was definitely a sign that she'd affected him.

Kakashi made an incoherent noise of disbelief and blinked a few times, trying to focus. Icha Icha was good smut for being coded research. Maybe Tsunade had gone insane in her old age. Now was not the time to question that, however. He simply nodded and attempted to sum up his assignment.

"So, I'm supposed to see what I can learn about this gate from Mustang, then? Because clearly if more people are coming through now, that means someone has probably figured it out on their side. I also need to somehow decode Jiraiya's..." he coughed, "research. Correct?"

"Yes." Tsunade nodded, motioning to Kakashi that he was free to leave. "Oh, and Kakashi?"

"Yes?"

"Could you see to it that whoever is spreading the rumours about me being with Shizune stops?"

"But I thought you were 'with' Shizune."

"You know what I mean," Tsunade glared.

"Yes, well… the problem is that it's Jiraiya. I think he's jealous. Maybe you should call him back to the village and have a talk with him."

With that, Kakashi turned and left the room.