Tsunade read Tenten's technical summary for the third time and somehow looked less impressed than she had after the second.
"According to this," she said, "the prototype can now launch her in multiple directions."
Kenji leaned against the edge of the desk. "Tactical improvement."
"Structural damage with options," Tsunade corrected dryly. She slid the document across the polished wood. "Sign the witness section before she finds an excuse to test it on the eastern watchtower."
Kenji took a pen, glanced briefly at the text, and scribbled his name near the bottom margin.
Tsunade looked at the paper, then up at his face. "That is the requisition authorization line. You just signed off on twelve crates of explosive tags."
"I support village defense."
"Redo it."
Shizune, who had been cross-referencing supply forms on the side table, let out a soft sigh and walked over with a fresh duplicate. She leaned in beside Kenji, her shoulder brushing his sleeve as her finger tapped the correct line.
"Here," Shizune murmured. "Bottom right."
Kenji didn't immediately take the pen back. He looked at Shizune, noting the neat line of her dark hair tucked behind one ear. Tsunade picked up the R&D division's supplemental notes, seemingly absorbed in the material again.
Kenji casually slid his left arm around Shizune's waist.
Shizune didn't flinch. When his hand drifted lower, his fingers cupping her ass through the dark fabric of her skirt, her hand dropped to catch his wrist.
She kept her eyes firmly on the paperwork. "Not here."
Kenji glanced toward the center of the desk. Tsunade was still reading.
"She isn't looking," Kenji whispered.
Shizune turned her head slightly, offering a flat, experienced stare. "That isn't the same as not noticing."
Kenji gave her a faint grin. When Shizune released his wrist to turn the page, his hand didn't retreat to his pocket. He brought it behind her again, keeping his palm low and pressed against the small of her back, angled so that Shizune's body and the edge of the desk shielded the contact.
A blue interface flickered to life in his vision.
[Sudden Mission — Under Her Nose]
[Get handsy with Shizune without Tsunade noticing.]
[Reward: +2,500 SP.]
Kenji read the prompt. He looked at Tsunade, who was cross-referencing a budget figure, and then back at Shizune.
Shizune caught the subtle change in his eyes. She leaned closer, barely moving her lips. "No."
Kenji kept his face blank. "I didn't say anything."
"You didn't have to."
Tsunade turned a page. "Shizune, did the hospital confirm the delivery of the second-stage burn ointments?"
"Yes, Tsunade-sama. The shipment cleared the southern gates yesterday afternoon."
"Good."
Shizune crossed the room to file one of the completed forms, giving Kenji a pointed look before she left. He raised both hands innocently and spent the next minute doing exactly what he had been summoned there to do. He signed another sheet, corrected the line Tsunade had complained about, and even managed to read half of Tenten's repair estimate without getting distracted.
Shizune eventually returned with another document and leaned beside him again. Kenji behaved himself while she explained which section needed his signature, although the moment she reached across him for the previous sheet, his hand quietly found her waist.
She caught his wrist beneath the edge of the desk without looking at him. "I already warned you."
Kenji glanced toward Tsunade. The Hokage had one elbow resting against the desk while comparing Tenten's report with a handwritten list from R&D. She hadn't looked in their direction for several minutes.
"And I listened."
Shizune glanced down at his hand, which had already drifted from her waist to her hip. "For almost a minute."
Kenji grinned, but let her push him away. He signed where she indicated and stayed out of trouble long enough that Shizune finally stopped watching him from the corner of her eye.
That was when he tried again.
His hand slipped behind her while she sorted the completed forms, hidden by her body and the side of the desk. Shizune noticed almost immediately, but instead of making a scene she pressed her elbow against his arm and continued reading.
"Kenji."
He kept his attention on the report. "Hmm?"
"Stop."
"You're distracting me."
Shizune slowly turned her head and stared at him.
Kenji nearly laughed.
Across the desk, Tsunade continued working as though neither of them existed. She asked Shizune about a hospital shipment, listened to the answer, made a note in the margin, and immediately moved on to another page.
Kenji withdrew his hand when Shizune pushed it away again.
Nothing happened.
Tsunade didn't look up. She didn't pause. She didn't even give him one of those suspicious glances she normally used whenever he was standing too close to something valuable.
A couple of minutes passed before Shizune needed another signature. She came back beside him, clearly believing the warning had finally worked, and Kenji waited until Tsunade became occupied with another column of figures before his hand wandered again.
Shizune's pen stopped for a moment.
"The western training range requested another forty practice targets," Tsunade said. "Approve twenty."
"Twenty," Shizune answered, making a quick note on the form.
Kenji felt her knee press hard against his leg in warning and reluctantly backed off. When Tsunade reached for her tea a few seconds later, Shizune used the opportunity to shove his wrist completely away and gave him a look that promised consequences later.
Kenji only smiled.
Tsunade lowered her cup and continued reading.
Still nothing.
That was what finally convinced him Shizune had been exaggerating. Tsunade hadn't looked their way once in several minutes.
So when Shizune stepped beside him again, Kenji pushed his luck.
He kept the movement hidden behind her, one hand resting innocently on the desk while the other wandered beneath the cover of her skirt. Shizune stiffened and immediately reached back for his wrist, but Kenji caught the report with his free hand and pretended to study one of the figures.
"This number looks wrong."
Shizune tightened her grip on him. "Your hand is wrong."
Kenji had to bite back a laugh.
Tsunade's pencil continued scratching across the page.
Shizune tried to keep working while quietly fighting his hand away, but that only made Kenji more confident. If Tsunade had noticed anything, surely she would have said something by now.
Then the pencil stopped.
"Kenji."
His smile faded slightly. "Yeah?"
Tsunade remained bent over the report.
"Take your hand out from under Shizune's skirt."
The room went very still.
Kenji slowly turned toward Shizune. She closed her eyes and let out a long breath through her nose, looking exactly like someone who had known from the beginning how this would end.
Only then did Tsunade raise her gaze.
"Did you genuinely think I couldn't tell?"
Kenji reluctantly withdrew his hand and looked at the mountain of paperwork covering her desk. "You looked busy."
Tsunade stared at him for several seconds.
"I'm a Kage."
[Mission Failed.]
[Penalty — Thief's Fine]
[Next successful use of Steal costs 2,500 SP.]
Kenji's expression soured as the prompt vanished. His eyes drifted toward the pen lying beside Tsunade's hand, but he immediately decided that testing Steal on office stationery wasn't worth two thousand five hundred points.
Tsunade noticed the look. "Something wrong?"
"You made something expensive."
"Good." Tsunade leaned back and looked at Shizune. She had already straightened her skirt and returned to the paperwork.
"You weren't exactly surprised."
Shizune's fingers tightened slightly around the board.
"This isn't new, is it?"
Her fingers tightened around the clipboard. Kenji started smiling before either of them answered, which was apparently enough for her to drive an elbow into his ribs.
Tsunade's eyebrow rose.
Shizune suddenly became very interested in checking the paperwork again.
Tsunade stood and walked around the desk to collect the report Kenji had initially signed in the wrong spot. She held out the fresh sheet. Kenji reached out to take it, but before his fingers brushed the paper, Tsunade caught his wrist.
"I'm watching that hand," Tsunade warned.
Kenji glanced down at her fingers locked around his wrist. "You're holding it."
Tsunade kept hold of him for another second before pushing the report into his free hand. "Sign."
Kenji took the pen with his left hand and scribbled his name in the proper box.
Tsunade reclaimed the signed report and dropped it onto the completed pile. "Before you leave—Sasuke's ribs are healing properly. The Curse Mark hasn't flared again. If that continues, Shizune can clear him for light training by the end of the week."
"He's going to hear the word 'light' and immediately try to summon lightning," Kenji noted, rubbing his wrist.
"That's why I'm the one deciding what light means," Shizune said, adjusting her clipboard.
Kenji turned toward the heavy oak doors, ready to leave.
Before his fingers touched the brass handle, the door swung open.
An ANBU operative stepped sharply into the office. The operative bypassed Kenji and dropped to one knee before the Hokage's desk. "Urgent report from the southern perimeter patrols. Two unidentified shinobi have crossed the border into Fire Country."
Tsunade's expression hardened. "Description?"
"One is a large man carrying a sword wrapped in bandages," the operative reported. "The other matches an S-rank entry in the bingo book."
The ANBU paused for a fraction of a second. "Itachi Uchiha."
Kenji's smirk disappeared. He didn't need to hear the rest of the report. The wrapped sword made the second identity obvious.
Kisame.
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