Impossible to Forget

Chapter 18: Thoughts

Anzu was still asleep when I left for the office the next morning. A quick note on the kitchen counter was all that she would need to realize that I had barely been able to sleep at all the night before and had rushed off to work early for a head start on the day. I may leave work earlier in the afternoon than I used to before I had adopted her (so that we could spend time together either after her day at the Academy or after training with her genin team, you know, family stuff), but I still got to the office earlier in the morning than almost everyone else. Who am I kidding? The only people who are there before me are the guards taking the night shift at the tower.

What had kept me up thinking all of last night? Very simply, it was the problem with my mother, of course.

I had realized while tossing and turning that we, as in Kakashi and I, needed to bring up the whole investigation into my mother's actions at the upcoming summit. First rationale: the incident when she was a genin happened in the Land of Lightning, and there is a possibility that the Cloud Village might have some idea as to what the original mission had been. It was even taking place in the Cloud which would make it even easier to get our hands on any necessary files. Second rationale: the problem might stretch far past just our village. Who knows what Nori's final goals were? 

Now I was very happy that Kakashi had asked me come with him. I'd definitely want to give the debriefing myself. This, however, meant that I'd need some sort of presentation to give. So here we are at my office at the break of dawn as I drafted up the reports that would be handed to all of the Kage. And this is why I have no social life.

It didn't take me very long to get all of the info together into a single report. Either this meant that I simply didn't have a lot to work with or I'm just really efficient and good at my job. You know what, I'm going to go with the latter in order to boost my confidence.

Binding it together, I made my way to Kakashi's office, hoping that he was in by now. His tardiness is truly aggravating.

Artificial light was peeking out from under the door of the Hokage's office so at least that meant that I wouldn't have to wait for him to show up, and I seriously considered just barging in without knocking so that he could have a taste of his own medicine and realize how rude and obnoxious it was. But I couldn't. I just couldn't burst into the Hokage's office unannounced. Rule follower to a fault, that's me.

Upon entering the office, I was disappointed (but not overly surprised) to find that Kakashi was in fact late and that Izumo was sorting some files for the Hokage to look through. 

He looked up from his task, "Hello, Kaiyo, is there anything that I can help you with?"

"Actually yes," I smiled at the helpful chunin, "can you make me five copies of this, please, and ask Kakashi to look over it as soon as possible? It's a report that I'd like to give at the up coming summit."

Izumo nodded, "Sure, I'll get right to it. Do you know why Kakashi's late today?"

I shrugged, "No clue. Why would I know? That man was almost late to his own inauguration as the Hokage, his tardiness knows no bounds."

Izumo gave me a look of total agreement and a small wave as I turned to leave the office.