Standard Disclaimers: I own nothing of Naruto and make no profit off of this fan fict. I'm doing my best with the Japanese honorifics but the Wikipedia doesn't address my specifics and Rosetta Stone ain' got me that far yet ;) Let me know if there's anything glaring please.

Running through the forest, leaping from tree to tree, was often more dangerous than one might think. Sure, there was always the prospect of being thrown off balance by an enemy's kunai and falling, or becoming disorientated when the natural zig and zag of following branches forbade a straight path. But there were other things, like the danger of slipping due to the oddly viscous nature of squirrel poop, or avoiding the occasional hive of bees.

Not that Kakashi, the famed Copy Ninja, had ever fallen prey to such things, no.

Never.

However, it was in the spirit of caution and wariness for those types of easily overlooked dangers that he was eyeing his mission partner. There was already a bump rising at the side of his head, and he was not eager to encourage another one.

"Hokage-sama? I never would have guessed it was you. You look so… urm…. so…"

A dark eyebrow had twitched.

"Lovely and capable!" Kakashi's visible eye had curved upward in a smile. "You should think about wearing that henge all the time."

In retrospect, it had been a rather foolish thing to say. Perhaps, he thought sadly, he'd been spending too much time with Naruto lately. The excitable and often orange-colored young man was very sincere and full of good intentions that simply did not prevent his foot from making a vacation home in his mouth.

Given how well known Tsunade's face had become, it had been decided that she should use her jutsu to change her appearance on the mission. Since she, actually in her fifties, maintained an altered appearance on a daily basis anyway, this was no strain on her capabilities. For the moment, she appeared to be a young woman with black hair that streamed down her back in no less than five separate plaits. Her hitai-ate allowed two curling locks to drift down by her chin in an artful but not very original style. She wore the standard Konoha gear, though a scroll or three along her back promised sealed gear that her specialty would undoubtedly need once the poison had been discovered.

In some ways, she looked like a buffed and shined up Shizune. It was clear that she'd stolen something of the eyes and chin from her assistant with the appearance she'd chosen. Since Shizune now bore the blonde locks and impressive curves of her Hokage, it seemed fair.

After all, a village could not be without its Hokage, and if anyone could disguise themselves as Tsunade accurately in the face of ninja scrutiny, it would be Shizune. It wouldn't be for very long in the end, anyway.

In fact, Kakashi was fairly certain that having to impersonate the Hokage was not something Shizune would have minded, in other circumstances. It was a grand opportunity, after all, to let loose a little and enjoy some of the glory and power that came with the paperwork.

Which reminded him of something. Kakashi dropped back slightly, having taken the lead in their travels, to match pace with Tsunade.

"There's a fairly good place to make camp, or there used to be, about two hours from here," he said conversationally.

Tsunade nodded, "Good. That will give us a chance to rest up. That should put us a few miles from the village and can walk the rest of the way in."

"Sounds fine with me," Kakashi shrugged. He paused a beat, "So, why was it that Shizune-chan could not come along?" He'd already discovered that Sakura was already on a mission of her own, away from the village.

"That's none of your business," Tsunade said. The words were not sharp, like an attack. Instead, they were neutral, solid.

A defense.

"I don't mean to pry," Kakashi said mildly, "But Shizune-chan is a comrade of mine. If there is something wrong with her that prevents her from carrying out a mission, it worries me." He let that rest for a beat, and followed up, "Does Genma-san know?"

Tsunade frowned, "Does Genma-san know what?"

"That Shizune-chan is so ill she cannot take a mission?" His tone was filled with feigned innocence.

Tsunade sent him a scathing look, lips twisted as if to reproach him not for the question, but for the obvious lead in.

Kakashi filled the gap with a loud gasp, pushing even further, "Wait, she… she isn't pregnant, is she?"

"No, she is not pregnant," Tsunade scoffed at him. Dark eyes flashed, "If you must know, she's strained her wrists. Nothing that will keep her from desk duty, but a mission assignment is totally out of the question."

"Ah, I see…" Kakashi cocked his head to the side. "It must be quite a strain if neither you nor she can heal it."

"Some things should heal naturally," Tsunade raised her chin. It was an obvious but near irrefutable evasion. "But I wouldn't expect you to understand that."

"Of course not," Kakashi agreed, "Why a strained wrist could prevent an otherwise healthy ninja from going into the field is beyond me."

A point, most definitely. Tsunade recovered immediately and fired back, "There are other reasons as well!"

"Oh?"

"Ton-Ton is hurt."

Now it was Kakashi's turn to look surprised. Not necessarily at the words, but at the overly prim tone they were given in. It was outright haughty bordering strongly on imperious. Surely she couldn't be serious?

"Ton-Ton? But, I thought she was your pet?" Kakashi was truly puzzled.

"Yes, she is. But she's always liked Shizune better." Tsunade sighed. She muttered something under her breath about porcine traitors.

Looking underneath the underneath, a common shinobi phrase, had always been something Kakashi tried to live as well as practice. As a result, even though he ran alongside the Hokage, a person whose title required the highest obedience and a sannin, a ninja whose power commanded the highest respect … he smiled.

He was well used to the diversionary tactic of giving outrageous reasons in the place of explanations when there were situations he had no desire to discuss. He'd had years of practice and had honed that art to a razor sharp perfection. What he wasn't used to was being on the other side of the situation.

He hadn't realized Tsunade had a sense of humor.

"I see," Kakashi made a tsking sound and bowed to the inevitable. She wasn't going to let him know what was going on, no matter how he asked. He couldn't prevent one last teasing dig, however. "That is quite a shame. But, look on the bright side. I'm sure both of them will be healthy by the time you get back. Almost as if they'd never been injured at all."

Ah, there was the swat he'd been half-expecting for the past five minutes. Had it connected, Kakashi would have surely been seeing stars. As it was, the whoosh of Tsunade's palm flying by his face made his hair ruffle.

Gesture of irritation given, Tsunade simply ran faster, pulling ahead of him, "Brat."

By the time they found a place to camp, by a small river and the shelter of several broad pines, they were ready to rest. Theoretically, they probably could have travelled quite a bit further but there was a distinct difference between "could" and "wanted to" even for ninja.

A small fire provided carefully controlled heat and light, and they made the usual "mission" soup of standard rations and whatever edible plants they could find nearby. It wasn't that bad and clean up was quick. Afterward, Kakashi leaned back and took out his travel copy of Icha Icha Paradise (as opposed to his house copy, or his training copy). Tsunade rolled her eyes at him but didn't otherwise protest. Instead, she summoned a rather hefty book from one of her scrolls and began reading, making occasional notes.

Perhaps it was the quiet. Only the soft flip of turning paper and the gentle scratching of quill on parchment gave any variation to the sounds of the night forest around them. Usually on a group mission there was at least a little chatter to break up the monotony. Not that Kakashi was often the source of such, but he'd gotten used to it with Team Seven.

Then again, besides the mission, what was there for him to talk about with Tsunade? She was literally twice his age. They were peers in the fact that they were both Kohona ninja, but that was likely to be as far as it went. He began studying her, unobtrusively.

For a while, she read. There was a furrow between her brows that spoke to her concentration. Her hand moved smoothly on the parchment, often jotting down thoughts without looking. There were a few ink smears as a result of that, but surprisingly not many. Her back was curved in, comfortable if not relaxed, and her head was tilted just slightly. Listening to the area around them, devoting some attention to the woods and their perimeter as well as to the task at hand.

It was the balancing act of a person accustomed to many difficult missions but even more, many difficult missions with time constraints - multi-tasking as a way to accomplish her goals in as short amount of time as possible, because each morning might be her last. Watching her, it was impossible to forget that her entire ninja career had been made up of missions that were not held just for coin, but for the survival of the village.

She was out of practice, though.

He could see in the subtle shifts of tension that she kept letting one thing or another slip. A line she had to re-read, a note that she scratched out, a sound that shouldn't have startled her but did. It had been years, decades, since she'd been on a mission like this. Eventually, she gave up everything but the pretense of work. Her hand stilled and her gaze settled beyond the pages of her book.

"Do you miss it?" he asked finally.

She glanced up at him, "Miss what?"

"This. Missions. Field work in general."

She eyed him for a moment, as if suspicious. "Miss the cold nights, the lousy food, and the blood? What do you think?"

"How about the freedom, the companionship, and the adrenaline rush?" he waggled a finger at her. "I'm fairly sure you don't get at least two of those things out of pushing paper."

She wrinkled her nose at him, the very mention of paperwork somewhat distasteful even after all this time, "Well, there are those things, I suppose." Her book was placed to the side and she spent a moment sealing it back up in one of her scrolls. "It took a while, you know, after I left the village. I suppose that's part of the reason that Shizune-chan and I moved around so much. Risking your money isn't quite the same as risking your life but it does in a pinch."

Kakashi had known of other ninja who had retired and faced similar problems. Some managed to handle it. Some did not. "Did you regret leaving, then?" he asked quietly.

"No," her response was just as quiet but there was no hesitation in it. Her gaze went somewhat distant, probably focusing more on the ghosts of the past than the fire in front of her.

"Do you regret coming back?"

"No, of course not! Don't be stupid," Tsunade barked, shooting a glare at him, "I knew exactly what I was coming back for and why. The village didn't need me, then. It does need me now."

Perhaps the village hadn't. It was hard to say what may have changed had Tsunade stayed. He knew better than to argue the point, though. Obviously, a nerve had been touched. He raised a hand, fending off protests and signaling his acceptance of her answer.

The glare remained for several more moments before she shook her head. "Besides," she said more calmly, "you have to face the enemy in yourself before you can be effective facing an enemy on a field. Sometimes that battle just takes longer than you might hope."

"Funny," Kakashi said with a smile, "That sounds like something Ibiki Morino told me some time ago." It was followed by an enforced "vacation" from active ANBU service and several "talking" sessions with a ninja therapist. Losing the last of his precious people had not been easy on him and, in retrospect, burying himself in his role in ANBU had likely been its own type of running.

Tsunade, who had read his psyche file, accepted the gesture behind that statement for what it was. "I'm not surprised to hear that. In fact, I think that might be one of Morino-san's unspoken rules of life."

Kakashi nodded gravely, "It's number twelve."

She laughed, "Wait, he actually codified them?"

"He calls it his "Rules for Getting Through Shit" and there are twenty five of them," he confirmed.

"Really? Tell me what they are, then."

Kakashi was glad to oblige. The conversation flowed smoothly between them after that. They knew quite a few people in common and had been on similar missions, granted though in slightly different wars and positions. In the end, he felt that silences between them in the future would probably never be quite so daunting ever again.

He was fairly satisfied with that.