A/N: A quick update!

Disclaimer: Alas, Naruto will never be mine

Chapter 21 – Sideline

Kakashi could tell it was early afternoon when he awoke groggily a day after his disagreeable dinner with Iruka. The light that slipped around the edges of his pulled blinds had a certain persistent warmth to it that mornings usually lacked. He turned over in his bed to glance at the alarm clock for confirmation and then became still again to ponder the oddity.

Kakashi didn't often oversleep. Given his habit for lateness and love for napping, not even his former students would have known that he was actually an early riser.

He pushed the sheets back and sat up at the bedside to rub the tiredness from his eyes. "Might as well enjoy the break," he decided to himself. Kakashi stood up and wandered into his bathroom for a long and hot shower. Taking his time afterwards he walked around his apartment naked for at least for a half an hour to straighten his book piles, throw out some of the dead things out of his fridge and water Mr. Ukki, his beloved house plant.

As Kakashi finished up putting by some dishes in his sink, he looked back at Mr. Ukki who had his name written in white chalk on the rim of the red clay pot that was his home. "Don't look at me like that," he told the fern. "Why care about being naked when your single and you don't have a roommate?" Mr. Ukki, always a stickler for propriety, seemed unconvinced. "Ok, ok! I'll get dressed," Kakashi relented. "Geez who knew plants could be this bossy?"

The jounin went to his dresser and pulled out the first piece of clothing he wore everyday, a fresh mask. He pulled it over his head and with a few practiced tugs set it perfectly in place letting out a sigh of contentment. He almost laughed at himself when he caught his reflection in the mirror. Here was a grown man in his birthday suit wearing nothing but a face mask.

"I look like a character in one of the Icha Icha manga," he thought. The funny thing was he felt perfect clothed as long as he had his mask on. Pants were truly optional. He finished dressing at a leisurely pace that Nara Shikamaru would have been happy with and then walked over to a window, doffing the blind to stare out in annoyance.

"Where is that damned bird?" he wondered.

A brown sparrowhawk was the signal bird of choice for the Konoha mission dispatcher. Kakashi was pretty sure that they had been using the exact same bird to find him in the village now for the last dozen or so years. The thing had this uncanny ability to find him anywhere at anytime. He had stopped questioning its freakish ability a long time ago, but to not have it shrieking and dive bombing his house when he was back from an A-rank mission. A mission he hadn't given his report on yet was well... just plain odd.

Kakashi was tired of waiting. He disappeared from his bedroom to appear on his roof an instant later and sprinted away over the rooftops towards the Hokage's home. He was rushing because he felt angry for some strange reason. A reason he could not quite figure out. He was positive that he could have strolled over to her house stopping to talk to every person he met along the way and that stupid bird wouldn't ever appear.

When he got close enough to teleport himself into the Hokage's office, he did not hesitate. He performed the jutsu in the blink of an eye and found himself staring at an empty chair in an empty room.

Kakashi knew that he shouldn't have entered the Hokage's mansion with ninjutsu, but he was letting his emotional state drive him. Without Tsunade being right there to confront it sort of robbed him of his momentum. "I guess I should go look for her," he thought, calming down. Kakashi wandered out of the room figuring he would check downstairs. After all, it was really a big place for one person.

It did not take him long at all. He went into the Hokage's library with its red-green marble columns and endless shelves of dust and scroll to find Tsunade poised in the middle of the room. She stood tapping her foot as she stared hands on hips at a cast iron scroll stand she had setup in a washtub full of steaming water. The summoning scroll on the stand was peculiar looking in that it had a reddish sort of glow around it.

"There's something sealed in that," he informed her nonchalantly.

Tsunade's foot stopped tapping, but her gaze stayed fixed on the scroll. "I know that," she said in a dissatisfied tone. "I'm trying to figure out how to move it."

Snapping out of concentration, the Hokage spun turned to face him finally. "Kakashi!" she said in mild surprise, "I wasn't expecting to see you."

The scarecrow-nin felt his visible eye twitch uncontrollably as he remembered that he too was annoyed about something. "I've come to give my report Hokage-sama," he said woodenly.

"Oh, don't worry about it," she told him with a smile. "You can go." Tsunade turned back quickly to her glowing scroll problem.

Kakashi could feel his blood begin to boil. He turned to leave when he stopped to loo back and open his mouth again. He knew it wasn't a good idea.

"Why did you sent on that mission when you don't even care how it went?" he asked peevishly.

Tsunade ignored him, which alas only fanned Kakashi's ire.

"Why was that even A ranked?" he went on. "A chuunin or even an adult genin could deliver a letter... and you had me practically sneaking out of Konoha. Why?"

Tsunade sighed and responded, but not with an answer. "Kakashi, I'm busy right now and I'm expecting another visitor soon. Can we discuss this later?"

Kakashi was still exhausted from the long string of missions he had just completed for her. Each one had been the delivery of a letter to different daimyo house or to a Leaf operative in every major town from here to the Lightning Country border. He, of course, didn't read the details of each letter, but was sure that they were concerning the Hokage's upcoming trip to meet with the Raikage in Suzurimura. It was a town on the border between Lightning and Fire in old Sound Country, considered a neutral territory by both nations.

"I figured that she wanted a jounin to do it for fear that it would be intercepted by someone look to sabotage the meeting. Still...and then with all the dire secrecy, not telling anyone including other jounin where I'm going on a mission." Kakashi closed his eye and let his whirling mind become still. He wasn't sure how long it took, but the answer to the Hokage's little game was becoming clear to him slowly.

"You know I passed Iwashi on the road when I was returning," he began. Tsunade still seemed intent on not paying him any mind and Kakashi's voice took a false levity, "You'll never guess what he was doing! He said that he had been given the honor of delivering announcements for your upcoming trip." Kakashi's sarcasm deepened. "Which was funny cause here I thought that's what I was doing."

Tsunade had clearly heard the last part. "Kakashi your job is to complete missions not interrogate the Hokage," she said coolly. "I suggest you walk out of here now."

Kakashi heard the warning in there and realized that he was overstepping certain boundaries he normally skirted to begin with. "She's right I'm out of line," he thought. He was about to leave when he decided that since he had pissed her off he might as well ask her another thing that had been bugging him.

"Anyway, did you know the Anbu watching Uchiha Sasuke let him run around at night now? I thought he still had a curfew."

Kakashi was surprised when he finally got Tsunade's attention. She looked away from her scroll to give him a face with fiery eyes that neared rage. "Of course I know! They are my Anbu! Perhaps, I should have some them escort you out!"

Kakashi shoved his hand his pockets and just shrugged. It was his natural reaction in situations like this; he didn't respond well to threats. "I figured I'd let you know since we both know Orochimaru has been active near Fire Country again..." Suddenly it all came together for him

"You're not planning on going up to see the Raikage." he said with his epiphany. "What are you planning to do with Sasuke then?"

Tsunade appeared to settle down from the fury she had been building up to just a moment before. A warm smile settled on her face as she shook her head in a rueful way. "Kakashi... you..."

He watched as she walked toward him and didn't even think it to take his hands out of his pockets as Tsunade covered the last three feet between them in an instant of blinding speed. A purplish glow had flickered on her right hand as she landed it solidly on his chest.

All the feeling went out of him at once and he sensed his body was collapsing to the floor. Tsunade grabbed the front of his flak jacket before he fell and tossed him like a rag doll to a seat on the couch she had near the scroll stand. Kakashi's eye was still open but he was unable move a single muscle in his body.

"I can't breathe, "he realized.

Tsunade walked over to the couch and sat beside him. Her hands flashed through several seals until they gained another purplish aura. This time she laid her hands on either side of his neck and as she did so Kakashi felt the sweetness of air enter his lungs again.

While the jounin recovered Tsunade leaned over toward the table that laid beside the couch and picked up several of sake bottles that littered its surface. Giving each a good swirl she kept going until she found one that wasn't empty yet.

"Tsunade... you..." Kakashi sputtered.

"You left me little choice Kakashi," Hokage said calmly with a wave of hand. "I know Sandaime indulged you often, but I'm not blessed with his patience or good humour". She paused as she took a sip of rice wine.

The Godaime reclined back before continuing. "Yes, you certainly are a genius," she informed him, "and you were exactly the person I need for those missions."

"What about Sasuke?" he said haltingly. Whatever she had done to him made it a challenge to speak.

"I've temporarily paralyzed your extraskeletal musculature from the neck down Kakashi. You will remain that way for the next day until certain things I'm setting up are in place. If I could be sure you'd be a good boy and listen then I wouldn't need to do this." The Hokage finished her drink in long swallow. "I don't have time to overlook your selfish ways right now."

"What about Sasuke?" he repeated with slight rasp.

She glanced at the clock on the wall and frowned. "I wasn't lying when I said I was waiting for a visitor. We don't have long to talk."

She looked at him silently as his eyebrow was still knitted in anger. Her voice softened to almost apologetic as she said, "I don't know about Sasuke, but I can tell you this. You failed to help him when he was a boy and then I did little better other than not letting the village elders execute him...with what's about to happen I think it's time that I let the person who can help him do so."

Kakashi's eye narrowed a little. "Naruto?"

Tsunade refilled her glass only finish it again in a long swallow. "Maybe it was the third generation's mistake," she said peering into her empty cup. "We tried to prevent the sins of the pass from occurring ever again...Maybe they just aren't our sins anymore."

Tsunade stood up and paced to the library's closed doors before returning to stand over the famous and powerful man known as the "copy eye ninja", an elite jounin of a thousand techniques. One of the strongest ninja Konoha had ever produced, whom she now had as defenseless as a newborn.

"I'm sorry I can't give you more," she said to him sincerely. With that, the Hokage laid her hand gently on his head and Kakashi could feel the light pressure of it on his unkempt hair. His eyes, both covered and not, began to flutter closed as a great tiredness fell on him.

Kakashi fought the feeling as long as he could and heard voices around him that grew fainter with passing moment.

"Tsunade-oba-chan, what's wrong with Kakashi-sensei!"

"He's fine Naruto he just needs some rest. Izumo! Kotetsu! Come in here. I need you to take..."

Kakashi could hear no more as he drifted off into oblivion, his part in the world's happenings suspended by Tsunade for a brief time.

TO BE CONTINUED

A/N: I probably should have revised this a little more, oh well. The plotlines are all coming together soon! Also I consider the next chapter which will be called "Damage" probably the best action chapter I've written yet. Stay tuned!