Kakashi was well on his way back from Jiraya's hut when something alerted his senses, he wasn't sure what it was, but he suddenly knew with absolute certainty that something was out of place. As he turned to look around for it his eye throbbed again under the bandage. Wincing in pain he kept from reaching for his eye, but turned his head in time to catch a flash of movement. By the time he focused on it, it was gone. Kakashi went to where the movement was and started looking for signs that something had passed, he was certain there was something…

"-Getting harder to sneak out, but when I got your message, Kakashi could be a threat, it might be easier to tell him, as well as The Fifth. Not just that, but I think I may have raised sympathies with my partner, if I reach an opportune moment I think I'll drop a few discreet hints and see how he reacts."

"Okay, but you be careful, here take this, if you get in trouble release the seal and he'll find me."

He heard the second person moving to leave already and he had to hurry to catch a glimpse of blonde hair rushing away, leaving the first voice- Kakashi gasped, giving away his position. Looking up at him, Kakashi saw Uchiha Itachi.

Itachi pointed to his eye that corresponded to Kakashi's Sharingan eye, "You should be more careful Kakashi, that eye you posses is very rare," Itachi smirked as he quickly flashed through the seals to do the great fireball Jutsu. As Kakashi moved his arms to defend himself he saw the flames wash over his body- except they didn't burn. Kakashi immediately recognized it as Genjutsu, but as he looked to spot Itachi he had already escaped.

Kakashi looked down at his arms that should have been burned, even with just Genjutsu Itachi was more than skilled enough to make Kakashi have physically lived the pain of searing burns, so obviously Itachi's only goal was to escape. But why- Itachi should know he'd overheard that he had a spy in Kohana? Who could-

"Kakashi could be a threat, it might be easier to tell him, as well as the fifth."

"Naruto!"

kaKAkaKAka

"Hokage-SAMA!" Kakashi had run with all his might bounding across the whole of Kohana in mere moments, the dire urgency of the situation deeply embedded in him. Kakashi practically leapt into Tsunade's office, Tsunade just looked up at him dismissively before she spoke.

"No Kakashi I have no intentions of healing that eye just yet-"

"Hokage-sama, I just spotted Uchiha Itachi in the forest on the edge of the village. Not only that, but I believe several members of the village may know why and are concealing it. My time with Jiraya was an attempt to get Jiraya to slip any information to a secret Naruto has been hiding from me, and I'm fairly certain it was Naruto that Itachi was talking to in the forest."

"But, Kakashi, if Akatsuki is after Naruto, why would Itachi just talk to him?"

"I don't know, but whatever the reason it has something to do with a secret being kept by Naruto, Iruka and Anko, which I discovered hints of, and Itachi was telling Naruto my suspicions could be bothersome."

Tsunade frowned, her expression giving subtle hint to the true age and wisdom behind her younger face. "He called you a threat didn't he?"

"Yes, but he also suggested that I be told whatever this secret is."

"Naruto left word that he'd be out of the village training, which I only allowed because he said he'd found a Chuunin and a Jounin to watch over him- Iruka and Anko…" Tsunade looked on the verge of hitting something as she stared at the paperwork on her desk, "I don't like secrets this big, especially ones that may endanger the village; we'll have to make Jiraya speak."

"That's why I came here, when I thought it was just some small, personal secret, it became just a personal battle between myself and them, but add in an S-rank missing-Nin…" Kakashi didn't bother to finish.

Kakashi was hard pressed to keep up with the now motivated Tsunade. Quickly they passed by where Kakashi had spotted Itachi and moved on, strait for Jiraya's cabin. A pond lay just outside with a few frogs croaking innocently, most of them stopped croaking, noticing Tsunade's storm-like approach. After a moment they all started croaking with a greater intensity, a few hopped off in one direction or another away from the pond. Tsunade made it up to the door and with one swift punch the door flew off its hinges, "Knock Knock," she said without a hint of humor in her voice. Tsunade went over to a large, overstuffed chair with white over-fluffed hair poking over it, "Jiraya-"

The moment she put her hand on the chair the precariously balanced barrels wearing his jacket and a wig toppled over- "Damn it!"

She turned with a flourish and was out the door, searching the grounds…

Kakashi on the other hand, stayed inside, and began searching the cabin. "Hmm, if I needed a quick hide out, what's the first place that would come to mind… preferably someplace with easy viewing to anywhere else in the place…"

Kakashi frowned, "…Never gonna live this down…"

"SEXY NO JUTSU!" Kakashi transformed into a beautiful woman, with his hair color, a face somewhere between Anko and Shizune, and a bust approximate to Tsunade's. He smirked when he heard a loud thud and a muffled gurgle. Changing back he traced the sound to a hidden panel in one of the walls. "Tsunade-sama! Over here!"

Opening the small hidden room Jiraya had the innocent expression of a young child caught with his hand in a cookie jar, "Kakashi, Tsunade-san, were you looking for me long?"

Both of them frowned, and saying nothing, Tsunade grabbed Jiraya by the collar and began dragging him back to her office. When they reached her office she firmly flung him into a chair, "Okay Jiraya, I'm going to give you one chance to answer me truthfully as to why Itachi would be talking to Naruto in the forest tonight- and before you come up with some smart ass quip, I remind you that you've already given yourself one strike this evening due to your recreational stunt."

Jiraya took a moment of silence before he spoke, slowly, and carefully, at just above a whisper, "It's not my secret to tell, it's something between the previous two Hokage, which is why I told Naruto I wouldn't tell in the first place. I understand your position as Hokage, but since this is a secret made by the Hokages before you, this is beyond your authority."

"Then at least tell me where Itachi fits in Jiraya, this is not a game!"

"No, it's not, it's life and death, yours, mine, Itachi's, even Naruto's, I won't be the one who lets this slip."

"Jiraya you must realize there aren't any positive conclusions I can jump to here, you're hiding a secret that involves an S-rank missing nin- who murdered all but his own younger brother; a secret that you've apparently known for at least as long as you've been back according to Kakashi. If you're protecting Naruto I can understand why you're keeping it from the village at large, but there is no reason you should be hiding it from me."

Jiraya sat there listening without any clues in his face, just staring blankly, "I said what I had to say and then some, it's not my secret to tell, nor is it directly under your authority."

"You realize what you're forcing me to do, don't you?"

Jiraya looked down, a reserved expression of sadness crept into his face, he looked ready to retort again, but stopped himself, looking instead to the side. He steadied his expression and looked straight into Tsunade's eyes. Tsunade sat behind her desk and set her arms strait out on the desk. She started to move as if to bring her hands together, but stopped. There was a long moment of uncomfortable silence between the three people in the room.

"You have until Naruto, Iruka, and Anko come back to decide, at which time, I'll ask all three of you once more, at which time, if I don't hear an answer I can believe," she paused to steady her breath, "I'll have to hand you over to the interrogation squad, and then banish you from the village."