(A/N) Onward! New character introduced, so that's nice.
Mito frowned out the window of the Hokage tower as she spotted Kakashi once again in the village. An odd sight, even if a welcome one. "Kushina, is it just me or have you seen Kakashi around the village more often than usual?"
"No, you're right," Kushina agreed, kicking her feet up on her desk. "I keep seeing him around with this one other guy! It's weird!"
"Can you send a shadow clone and ask him to dinner?" Mito asked. She was the shadow clone today, the original back at the house playing with Naruto.
"Yep!"
"Tell him we're having his favorite food for dinner, I don't know what that is though," Mito said quickly.
"Miso soup with eggplant coming right up," Kushina agreed. "I'll send the shadow clone to tell original you if Kakashi agrees."
"Thank you," Mito replied, deeming herself rested enough and going back to her paperwork.
The young man Kakashi had been hanging out with was apparently also in ANBU, although Mito had her suspicions about him being from ROOT originally, and she knew Kushina agreed with them. Tenzo, a very nice boy about Kakashi's age. With Mokuton no less. Which she was also mildly suspicious about.
"So, Kakashi, wouldn't you agree it's about time you retired from ANBU?" Kushina suggested casually. Oh good, Kushina had brought it up so Mito didn't have to.
Kakashi shrugged, having already downed his bowl quickly enough no one saw his face. "Maybe."
"I wouldn't mind that," Tenzo admitted quietly.
"We'll start on the papers right away," Mito decided, smiling kindly. "It's no hassle. Taking someone out of ANBU is one of the easier things. You try wading through the paperwork around reassigning someone from one department to another. Retiring is easy in comparison."
"We'll bring them by for you to sign next time we see you!" Kushina chirped.
Mito, seeing everyone was finished with their food, even Naruto, who'd actually finished his a while ago and had since wandered off with a Kushina clone to play somewhere else, collected the dishes and put them in the sink to wash later.
No one was talking when she came back to the table, so she picked something and went with it. "Tenzo, I'm sure Kushina is curious as well, so would you mind showing off your mokuton?"
"Huh? O-oh, sure," Tenzo agreed quietly. "It's not at all close to Hashirama's though."
"Dear, Hashirama was a Senju, and a full-blooded one at that. Very few people will ever reach his level." Mito patted his shoulder. "So don't worry about it. It's your mokuton, show us how it works."
Tenzo ducked his head, and let Mito lead him out into the training field near the house.
He displayed his mokuton, and Mito internally wondered if there was a specific reason it wasn't trees he was creating and building, but rather just straight dead wood. "Can you make a tree? Like a living tree?"
Tenzo clasped his hands together in the snake symbol, and concentrated, but only a post came from the ground. He shrugged helplessly.
"How do you see mokuton?" Mito asked curiously.
Tenzo looked at her in utter confusion.
Mito hummed, trying to phrase it in a way he'd understand. "While you use Mokuton, what do you picture, how do you use it, how do you see it." She tried.
Tenzo frowned deeper but didn't look quite so confused.
Mito let him think.
They never did get their answer, Tenzo was still thinking about it by the time they had to put Naruto to bed and shoo Kakashi and him off.
The next day, Mito filed the retiring papers for Tenzo and Kakashi. They signed them, and that was that.
An unfortunate, although somewhat expected side effect, was an inevitable meeting with Danzo.
Honestly, it only solidified the suspicion that Tenzo had been a root agent at some point, perhaps had been still while in ANBU.
"Why did you put in the retirement from ANBU papers for Tenzo and Kakashi Hatake?" Danzo demanded, waving the papers in question.
"They didn't want to be in ANBU," Mito replied calmly. "Who am I to stop them from relaxing a bit. They have served for years, even years longer than the normal ANBU agent. There's no reason they can't move to just being regular jounin for the time being. We aren't at war."
"But we could be without warning," Danzo insisted.
"What a sad existence," Mito sighed, turning and looking out the convenient window. "Always looking for and seeing war when there isn't any."
She could feel Danzo bristling, his chakra tightly contained, but still flickering angrily.
"Can't you just enjoy the peace?" She asked, turning back around to witness his very angry face for herself. "Live in it while it lasts, you old warmonger. War isn't a good time to raise children or take care of a village, and I fully intend to keep this village at peace if possible.
"Hashirama may not be able to fulfill his dream of a world where children don't have to go to war, but I will do my darndest to ensure Naruto's generation sees it."
She stalked towards Danzo. "You will not stop me, I will not allow it. You can try if you wish, but put one foot out of line and I will execute you myself." She stared down at him, grateful she'd remembered to put on her heels. It made looking down at him so much more satisfying. "You are not in the village hierarchy, remember that next time, Shimura."
She strode past him, cheerfully lording her current height over him, and leaving. Ah, it was a wonderful thing to be able to be taller than him. She'd have to get some information out of Tenzo later though if ROOT was still happening it was time to go in and dismantle it herself with Kushina's help.
They'd have to convince Kakashi and Tenzo to babysit for a day, maybe send them to look around another village for a couple of days. To keep Naruto out of the way.
(A/N) I'm sorry this is late! It got really late and then I couldn't finish it and really had to go to bed, so yeah. But it got up! And yes, I headcanon that Mito wears heels to every meeting with Danzo for the express purpose of being taller than him and therefore able to look down at him. In canon, Mito's just under a centimeter shorter than Danzo, so heels definitely give her enough height to look down at him.