Mei worried that Kakashi taking on their "intimacy lessons" on top of everything else would be too much. He assured her that he'd manage. As she'd pointed out, people made time for what mattered. Mei kept an eye on her husband's state of mind and health, just in case.

On one sunny day in the Leaf, Mei and Kakashi were out on their daily walk after Kakashi's lunch. Mei was about to comment on how blue the sky was when Kakashi abruptly stopped in the middle of the road. Even knowing what was happening, Mei still wasn't used to it. Kakashi's clones didn't dispel mid-day unless something important happened.

"What's wrong?" Mei asked under her breath, even as she scanned the faces around them. She put on her best smile. They were in a public place but no one seemed to notice their Hokage acting strangely, yet.

"I-" Kakashi stopped. "My clone found a scroll…it's full of techniques and jutsu; they're my father's."

Mei's eyebrows went way up. She took in a slow, even breath, remembering to keep her smile natural-looking. Her eyes darted around again. Their stillness in the center of the road was starting to gather attention. Mei looped her arm through Kakashi's and gently tugged him forward and around the corner. Then they both vanished into an alley.

Kakashi followed Mei's lead, but he wasn't really seeing the world around him. His eyes were far away, his face carefully composed.

Mei was about to say something else when Kakashi spoke. "I want to see them for myself." Then he was gone in a swirl of leaves.

Mei let him go, her worry like a pit in her stomach. There wasn't much she could do now. "See you at dinner," she whispered after him.

She did not see him at dinner. The Mizukage hadn't truly expected to see her husband, it had been a hope more than anything. Kakashi didn't reappear that evening either. Cozy in her bed, Mei hunkered down for the night with her book but kept glancing up every few minutes. At last, she turned her light out and went to sleep.

The next morning Mei showered and redressed quickly. She wanted to pop over to Kakashi's room and be sure he was there but she also wanted to be casual about it. She knew she'd worry the ANBU if she ran over to check on Kakashi in the middle of the night. She felt uneasy, but not so uneasy to cause a scene. Kakashi was a grown man and could take care of himself.

Mei had just finished tying her topknot when there was a knock on the door. Heart in throat, Mei rushed to answer. It was Shikamaru and Mei's heart plummeted to her toes. He noted the frown on her face.

"Good morning Lady Mizukage. Have you seen Ka- Lord Hokage?" Shikamaru asked. He'd almost forgotten the title. Mei's heart dropped through the floor.

"Not since yesterday afternoon, honest," Mei replied quickly. They took her at her word. There were three ANBU behind Shikamaru and one darted off at her answer. This reminded Mei of their Hokage kidnapping drill, only she wasn't suppressing a smile now as she had then.

Shikamaru looked like he wanted to curse but only frowned instead.

"I think-" Mei wasn't exactly sure how to say what she wanted to say. She assumed that Kakashi was still in the forbidden jutsu archives, but she had no idea where that was. Clearly the ANBU guards didn't follow Kakashi there but she didn't know if Shikamaru had access to that place as Jonin Commander. "We'll have to ask Tsunade. I think I know where he is, but not where, if you catch my drift."

Shikamaru's stare met hers and his eyes brightened in understanding. "Tsunade should be at the hospital." They hurried off with the remaining ANBU shadowing them.

The four of them didn't get very far. Yamato, Naruto, and Tsunade met them in the tower atrium at the front entrance. "Lady Mei! Sensei is missing!" Naruto burst out the second he saw them.

Shikamaru's eyeroll was palpable. "Keep your voice down Naruto, no need to start a panic. We know where Lord Hokage is."

"You do?" Naruto inquired.

"Yes," Tsunade responded firmly. "But let's take this conversation to his office."

Once they were all standing in the Hokage's office, the space behind the desk noticeably empty, Tsunade said, "so no one has any idea where he is?"

Naruto spluttered. "You said we did!"

Tsunade growled. "I'm not about to shout, in public, that our Hokage is missing, even if it's true!"

Naruto shrank back at her implied rebuke.

"He's not missing," Mei said quietly. She glanced at Shikamaru. He gave her a small nod of go-head. "I believe he's in the jutsu archives. He was headed there last time I saw him."

Tsunade's shoulders fell in relief. "Oh is that all? So it isn't that he's lost, he just went somewhere you couldn't follow him."

"We won't know for sure until someone checks," Yamato said.

"No can do," Tsunade responded. "I handed the reigns over; I can't enter the archives anymore."

"Security is tight," Shikamaru agreed. "I can't enter the forbidden jutsu archives unless the Hokage accompanies me."

Tsunade gave an exasperated sigh. "He was supposed to set it up so someone else had access besides him."

Shikamaru made a mental note to move that up on the list of priorities.

"What would happen if Kakashi died," Tsunade asked, annoyed. "When sensei died, it took Shikaku and me ages to get back in there, and that was with him knowing the procedure. I have no idea why sensei felt the need to tighten security around the forbidden scrolls. Security around them was never so strict when I left the village."

Naruto sheepishly put up his hand. "I know why."

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. "Naruto, how DID you learn the multi-shadow clone jutsu so early?"

Naruto was saved from answering that question by the office door easing open. The current Hokage slowly backed into the room and closed the door softly behind him. Kakashi's hair looked more like bedhead than usual and his general appearance was ruffled. He turned, saw the assembly waiting for him, and his shoulders slumped. All hope of sneaking into work unnoticed was dashed.

"Brat, where have you been?" Tsunade demanded.

"Call off the search, situation normal," Shikamaru muttered to no one in particular. Besides the sweet relief, Mei felt the ANBU in the room move to obey.

Kakashi scratched the back of his head. "A black cat crossed my path?"

Shikamaru's face was blank. Tsunade and Naruto had matching crossed arms and disapproving looks, for different reasons. Yamato gave a small smile of relief and went about his business, dragging Naruto out the door with him.

Despite Tsunade's unanswered demand, she too, left. She realized it wasn't her business to know. She was no longer the Hokage and Kakashi didn't have to answer to her or any of them, not really. Mei walked up to Kakashi and gave his hand a squeeze. "I'll see you at lunch."

Despite that promise, it took until the evening, in her room, for Mei and Kakashi to be able to talk about it. Sometimes keeping up appearances got in the way of them living their lives.

"You're allowed to be human you know," Mei opened the conversation.

Kakashi had been quiet most of the day. He wasn't brooding, just quiet, muted. He'd take a slow breath before answering any question and his expression remained carefully neutral.

"It was irresponsible of me to fall asleep in the archives," Kakashi replied. "Everyone will be happy to know that Shikamaru now has access to the forbidden scrolls in case of… an emergency."

"What kept you?" Mei asked, already knowing the answer in part.

"My father had an entire scroll's worth of original techniques that were forbidden," Kakashi shook his head in disbelief. "I never had a prayer of surpassing him."

"You and your father had different skill sets," Mei reminded him. They'd discussed this in their kage days. "Don't compare kunai to shuriken." She looked at him awhile and when he didn't respond she asked, "are you okay?"

"Yeah," Kakashi replied. "I just, there was so much I never got to know about him." He stared ahead for a time. "When my clone found the scroll, it didn't even open it. It just stared at the label for several minutes and then dispelled. It didn't know what to do." Kakashi almost chuckled.

"What did you do?" Mei asked.

Kakashi laughed for real this time. "I stared at it awhile too." He looked at his wife and smiled. "And then suddenly I couldn't wait to open it, to memorize every line." He sighed, looking back at the middle distance. "It felt like a loss but a gain at the same time." He suddenly chuckled. "Some of them were banned, not because they were dangerous, but because they'd gotten him into trouble."

Mei blinked. "Trouble?" What kind of "trouble" did a ninja get into that didn't involve imminent death?

"When my father was a boy and they were laying pipes for the Leaf's original plumbing system, he tried channeling lightning through the water in the pipes, just to see if he could." Kakashi raised his eyebrows at his wife.

Mei laughed a little nervously. "And?"

Kakashi smiled. "And he superheated the water and blew up a block's worth of brand-new pipe. The Hokage himself reprimanded him for it."

"That was all in this scroll?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Some of the techniques have reasons and warnings attached. I'm glad they did, I've never even imagined my father as a boy."

Mei shifted closer to him and they entwined their hands. "Are you going to use any of the techniques?"

Kakashi's smile was more muted now. "I don't know. I'll have to promise myself to have a clone think about it all day tomorrow just to get myself to sleep tonight."

Mei frowned. It made her sad, seeing her husband's time so strictly regimented. That was part of the job though. Even personal problems needed to be worked out only when there was free time to do so. Kakashi just happened to be able to manufacture free time for himself, sometimes. She considered the irony of using a forbidden technique to give oneself time to think about the morality of using a different forbidden technique. It was late and her head was starting to hurt.

Putting her mind back to the situation at hand she said, "if anyone should be using those techniques it's you, but they're forbidden for a reason."

"Maybe they're forbidden because only a Hatake could use them," Kakashi smiled roguishly.

"If that was the case, then you'd have them, not the village," Mei countered gently.

Kakashi's smiled waned, he was in thought again. "Maybe."

"If you try them, have someone with you," Mei advised. "Another person, not just a clone."

Kakashi nodded. Then his eyes got childishly wide. He stared at his wife. "This is what the elders warned me about. You want to steal Leaf Village techniques!"

Mei threw a pillow at him and he chuckled with her.

"I'm serious. Be safe!"

"I will, promise." Kakashi looked at her for a long moment, so long that Mei started to feel self-conscious.

"What is it?" She finally asked.

"What would I do without you?"

"Probably something ill-advised," Mei muttered.

Kakashi paused, thinking. "I can't tell you what a relief it is to have someone to talk to."

Mei smiled. "I have an idea. That's what makes me so good at it."

Kakashi's smile faded a bit. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you when you-"

"Don't, don't apologize for what we didn't have then. We have each other now. That's more than I've ever had to hang onto before." Mei smiled.

"Remember our first after-summit dinner?"

"I thought you were such a weirdo," Mei admitted.

"Me?" Kakashi exclaimed. "You were the one who used senbon to claim the last piece of meat!"

"Oh, I did, didn't I?" Mei was thoughtful, remembering. "Well I admit, I do overcompensate a bit when I'm meeting new people. I didn't want you to see me as weak."

Kakashi snorted. "See you as weak? Not possible. Your front is too good. That's what made me wonder."

Mei tilted her head in question.

"What you had to hide."

They locked eyes for a long moment. "I wondered about you too you know."

"Oh?" Kakashi leaned back.

"No one is that calm at political meetings."

"Gaara."

"Point."

"And yet, you didn't spend your evenings with Gaara," Kakashi pointed out.

"Are you fishing for reassurance?" Mei smirked.

"I'm poking holes in your logic. If you thought I was such a weirdo, then why spend every evening with me? We both lingered, but why did you do it?"

"And leave you sitting at the restaurant all by your lonesome?"

"Mei."

"I don't know." She looked thoughtful. "Something about you spoke to me and I wanted to get closer to hear what it was trying to say."

"And what did it say?" Kakashi asked, curious about the analogy.

"It said, he might understand."

Kakashi nodded slightly but didn't say anything right away. Then, "we steady each other."

Mei knew what he meant. Their lives, careers, personal problems, they'd always handled those things alone, kept themselves to themselves. Now that they had each other, they could steady each other when one felt weak. It made them both stronger.