Chapter 46
Tsunade rolled her neck, ignoring the disconcerting crackling sound it made. Only two more meetings scheduled for today, she told herself. She knew she ought to be more cheerful. A major enemy was gone, and in defeating him, the various different shinobi villages were working together to a degree no one had seen before. Still, a nagging voice at the back of her mind wondered how long that would last now that their common enemy was dead.
A knock at the door. She smiled, even though her head hurt. “Come in!”
The door opened to reveal Usagi of Kumo, wearing the same sort of tired smile Tsunade knew she had herself. The Hokage suppressed a groan when she saw the mound of paperwork in her arms.
“Please, have a seat.,” she said, gesturing across the desk.
“Thank you.” Usagi accepted, and dropped the papers onto the desk with a loud, fluttering thunk. Tsunade's eyelid twitched.
“I'll try not to take up too much of your time,” Usagi said, sliding the top paper toward Tsunade. “I just need you to sign this, giving our little group continued permission to stay here in Konoha.”
Tsunade raised an eyebrow at the rest of the stack.
“Hm?” Usagi said, following her gaze. “Oh, no, that's not for you. I get to spread that little bit of misery around.”
“Heh.”
She swept an eye over the form, but nothing stood out as trickery slipped in, or any other sort of skullduggery. She signed and handed it back to Usagi.
“How is Konoha treating you?” she asked, making time before her next meeting, which was sure to be more complicated than this one.
“It's lovely, of course. I think the change of scenery has been good for my assistants, even if they haven't been involved in all the flirting going on.”
“Flirting?”
“Surely you've noticed? Most of the younger shinobi have been using the newfound cooperation and friendship to pursue, well, cooperation and friendship.” She waggled her eyebrows.
“Oh, that.” Tsunade shrugged. “Teenagers.”
Usagi laughed. “Mostly, yes, though I think some of the kunoichi have set their sights on older men.”
“Were we ever that young?”
“My marriage may have been arranged, but that doesn't mean I didn't flirt at every opportunity at that age,” Usagi said with a grin.
“You must be missing your husband.”
“I am.” Her smile softened. “Perhaps I'll have some vacation time soon. Still, in that crowded little office, it's hard to feel lonely.”
Tsunade almost winced. The office, which had never been intended for so many people, had been made ready in a hurry. On top of that, she was pretty sure Danzou had picked it out himself. He had never liked Usagi.
“Oh, don't get me wrong, we've gotten rather attached to that little closet. Still, if all goes well and we open a permanent embassy, we will need more space.”
“Of course. I'll see what I can do.”
“Thank you. Now,” Usagi said, standing, “I'd better let you get on with your day. And I still have to track down more people for all of these forms.”
“Good luck,” Tsunade said, grinning at the thought of other people having to deal with it.
---
“Have you had lunch yet?”
Kakashi looked up from his book, and down from his perch in the tree, to where Suisho stood, shielding her eyes from the sun. He had spotted Usagi walking around with paperwork in her arms and malice in her eyes, and had decided to take an extended break from his duties. The break had not, however, included lunch.
“Not yet. You?”
“I heard someone's opened up a pretty good okonomiyaki stand by the park repairs. I was hoping to grab a bite to eat before I go to help. Care to join me?”
He scanned the surrounding area, and didn't see Usagi anywhere. “All right.”
Displacing a few leaves, he hopped down and stowed the book in his pouch. Suisho's eyes followed it, and she grinned at him.
“Playing hooky, are we?” she asked.
“I work better when I'm relaxed,” he said.
“I'd have thought that sort of reading was more exciting than relaxing,” she said, starting toward the park.
Something in her tone made his cheeks warm as he fell into step with her.
“It can't be both?” he asked.
“I suppose it is better that way.”
He didn't trip, but it was a near thing.
“So what had you up in a tree?”
“It's a lovely day. Isn't that reason enough?”
“It wasn't Usagi-san's paperwork inquisition, then?”
He coughed delicately. “I don't know what you mean.”
Suisho laughed. “We just got Subayai to fill it all out for us.”
“Doesn't she mind?”
“She's the responsible one on our team.”
“She's the youngest, though, isn't she?”
“Yeah, but she hates to be reminded of that. She's been training as long as Ishitaro and I have, she just started younger.”
“We started pretty young in my day.”
“You talk like 'your day' is over. You're not much older than I am.”
“I don't think you're old enough for a decade to seem like nothing,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
“I mean you're in your prime.”
She looked him up and down out of the corner of her eye and grinned. If he didn't know better, Kakashi would think he was blushing under his mask. Before she could say anything else, however, the okonomiyaki stand was in sight. A bit of a line had formed, made up mostly of people working on repairs. They went to the back of it.
“Ah, hold still a second,” she said, looking at him.
He froze. She stood up on her toes, leaning in to touch the side of his head. Her fingers brushed up against the tip of his ear, sending a shiver down his spine. She stepped back, holding up a leaf.
“This was stuck to your hair,” she said, looking into his eyes. “How careless of you.”
“Ah... What kind of okonomiyaki are you going to get?” he asked.
She blinked, nonplussed. “Um. Pork belly, I guess. You?”
“Hm. That's a good one. Maybe I'll get the same.”
He turned toward the front of the line, watching her from the corner of his eye. She looked off balance and for a moment he felt guilty, until a small smile of determination crept onto her lips.
---
Iruka glanced out the window of the teacher's lounge. Reikoku was waiting for him. Again. She didn't come to ask him to lunch every day. Sometimes her teammates were able to get her to actually concentrate on her work. Today, however...
He considered taking her to Ichiraku for lunch, but dismissed the idea. He wouldn't expose Teuchi and Ayame to her, even if he did miss the ramen. Perhaps he could sneak out there with Naruto later. He also considered just staying inside until afternoon classes, but he wouldn't put it past her to come in after him.
Bracing himself, he finished up the task he was doing, and went outside. As soon as she spotted him, her face transformed, shifting into half-lidded eyes and a smile that he privately thought was out of place in the daytime.
Not even waiting for him to speak, she slid up beside him and slipped an arm through his.
“How does gyudon sound for lunch?”
“Er... That's fine,” he said, already feeling off kilter.
He'd heard that talks were going well toward forming a more permanent alliance, and that some of the foreign delegations were thinking of sending some of their people home. Yukigakure, as small a power as it was, had only sent Reikoku and her team. He wondered if they would bother staying on or not.
It would be more peaceful, he admitted, if she left. Though he would probably go back to eating the same thing every day, except for when he worked through lunch. He already knew he would just fall back into old routines.
“What do you think?” she asked, bringing him back to the present.
“Hm? I'm sorry, my mind must have been wandering. What did you say?”
“I was saying that people were talking about having a festival to celebrate the big victory. I think it could be a lovely evening, but Ikari said it would just be frivolous.”
“Hm. A festival might be nice...”
“You'd look absolutely dashing in a yukata, of course.”
In spite of himself, Iruka blushed.
“As would I, but I didn't pack one,” Reikoku went on. “Still, I'm sure there are some decent shops here.”
He mumbled something agreeable.
---
They met almost every day, in various places around the village, depending on what rooms were in use, and who 'they' meant on any particular day. It nearly always included Naruto and/or Sakura, though sometimes official assignments kept them from being on time. Kakashi was there more often than not, and while he was always late, he arrived closer to the stated meeting time than he normally did, when it came to this. Yamato, Sai, and Sumire all made appearances as well, though they gave higher priority to other items on their schedules. They met in unused Academy classrooms, meeting rooms of Hokage Tower, quiet areas of the park, and even in Naruto's apartment on one occasion, though he hadn't made much of an effort to clean.
A week or so into things, they had their first piece of actual news.
“What is it? What did you hear?” Naruto asked, running so fast that he slammed into the classroom's doorframe instead of skidding to a stop as he intended.
“You're early,” Sakura said, looking up from the map spread out on a desk.
“Yeah, I got your message. What did you hear?” he asked again.
She glanced past him, but no one else was on their way yet. She sighed.
“We received some intel that a man matching the description of a man seen traveling with Sasuke was seen near the Land of Water.”
“And?”
“And not much else. The man was alone, as far as we know. That's all we have,” she said.
“Yeah, but it's more than we had yesterday,” Naruto said after a pause, his smile returning.
She smiled in kind, if with less energy. She hated to admit it, but these days, Naruto's optimism was a big part of what kept her going with the search for Sasuke. She would always keep looking, of course. He was her teammate, too. But Naruto's insistence on being so happy for every lead, however tiny, kept it from being quite so despressing.
He nearly buzzed with excitement, peppering her with questions to which she had no satisfactory answers for half an hour, until Sumire arrived. Sakura repeated the news for her. Unlike Naruto, Sumire frowned when she heard, though Sakura figured it was in thought.
“The last report said he was traveling with three others, right?” she asked after some time. “Is his team falling apart, then?”
Sakura shrugged one shoulder. “We don't have a lot to go on.”
“I know. I'd just half expected him to come home once he'd...” she trailed off. “Stupid.”
Sakura shook her head. “No, we thought so, too.”
“Not us. Him,” said Sumire. “The fool probably thinks he can't come home.”
“But he can!” Naruto said, scowling.
“We'll just have to show him he's wrong, then,” Sumire said with a grin.
Sakura smiled in return. “Yeah. Anyway, it's getting late. I don't think anyone else is coming tonight. If you see any of the others, tell them, won't you? We need to start planning a mission.”
“Of course,” said Sumire. “I think the Hokage is planning some kind of event soon, but it shouldn't be long, and we could probably convince her to let us go right after.”
“Hopefully the trail won't go cold...” Sakura said.
“We'll pick it up, one way or another.”
Sakura nodded, rolling up the map. “Yeah. I'll catch Kakashi-sensei next time I see him, and I'll drag him to the next meeting if I have to. We'll have a plan ready by the time we can leave.”