It was a mistake to come back to pilfer the letter. She'd been fooling herself in pretending that it might have gotten lost in the stack of papers on Tsunade's desk or swept through a window before it'd been read. Still, why nitpick when it was neither the last nor the worst mistake she'd made the night before?

It was a surprise to find she'd woken first, given how hard she knew the sannin pushed herself. It had taken a few moments after she'd sat up and blinked at the hokage lying in the bed—not hers but the hokage's—before she remembered what had led up to the morning.

Mistakes. She wasn't the only one to make them the night before, but it fell on her to correct it, because the hokage had more than enough weight on her shoulders and heart already.

It only took a few minutes to let her head clear—slowly, because further chakra use would awaken the woman—and then she slipped wordlessly out of the bed. Moving silently in a room with a sleeping figure wasn't a skill she often had to make use of, but it was a basic shinobi skill she'd learned long ago all the same.

In gathering her clothing, dressing, and exiting the room, she made not one errant ripple in the air. Her teachers would be proud, if not for the circumstances surrounding the escape.