Run with the Hares (Hunt with the Hounds)

Chapter 1

It's almost sundown; his guard detail has yet to find him, which means Kakashi is just two hours away from being 30,000 Ryo richer.

Losing his detail the first time was practice.

The second time was experience.

After so many years, it's child's play, and Kakashi looks forward to Tenzō and the rest showing up, defeated and ready to drink themselves under the table in a fruitless attempt to reclaim their honor.

He'll count it as two wins if he can slip out before the bill, but that might be pointlessly self-congratulatory because Kakashi can't remember the last time he paid for drinks. Maybe he should feel bad, but maybe his old ANBU outfit should also know better than to bet against him at this point.

But if they're dead set on being robbed blind once a month, who is Kakashi to prevent them from fattening his pockets? Smug at the prospect and looking forward to another win, Kakashi settles onto one of the trees at the edge of the training grounds just outside Konoha.

He has his favorite Icha-Icha series out and is well into the action when a chakra signature he doesn't recognize flickers at the edge of his senses. Kakashi immediately stills when the source heads his way, too forward to be an obvious threat, but years of training can't shake the tension.

Right before it gets too close for comfort, the chakra flares in ANBU code:

-Friendly-no-threat-guard-

Not a threat, then, just the guard rotation. And they'd sent him a rookie.

Relaxing, Kakashi holsters his readied kunai with a wry grin, flaring back an affirmative before flickering away without warning. He lands soundlessly on a branch a few dozen meters away, the annoyance of having to put away his book canceled out by the amusement of dealing with new blood.

He wonders about the circumstances of being put on his detail, whether the others warned him about Kakashi, or whether his reputation preceded him. Regardless, he has enough grace to afford the poor chump a fraction of pity before he takes off through the boughs.

His pace is much faster than called for, so close to the village, but Kakashi has never been a lenient man and doesn't intend to change that now. His friends referred to him as a pain in the ass on more than one occasion, but when pressed, grudgingly admitted he was worth the headache.

It was that sort of tenacity that Kakashi fostered as Hokage. He'd spent years honing it to a razor's edge, deftly walking the tightrope between headache and treason for over a decade before finally, finally, flinging the Hat at Naruto like it was an exploding tag. Unfortunately, his freedom had the same caveats as Tsunade's: his ass in a seat as a council member.

Through joint effort and a liberal promise of violence, he and Tsunade managed to reduce their required presence at the weekly council to a monthly thing- a promise that didn't include being punctual. Not that Kakashi would volunteer any more hard-won freedom to a table of doddering elders. That would be setting a bad precedent. After all, Kakashi has a reputation to maintain.

No dice on a retired Hokage officially ridding himself of guard detail, though, so Kakashi is forced to take matters into his own hands...unofficially.

So Kakashi mentally runs through all his favorite hiding spots, vetoing several bars as he flits through the dense forest toward the village. Despite being in the same boat as Kakashi, Tsunade has painfully predictable haunts, and unlike the Godaime, he has no intention of being an easy find.

If the rookie wants to find him, they're going to have to work.

And if Naruto makes a fuss, then Kakashi would be adamant that it wasn't dereliction of duty so much as it was... a test of conviction for the newbie. After all, what good is a guard detail if they can't find their charge?