Running a Village... uh, you know the rest.

It was a heavy sigh, not one of resignation but one of acceptance as Kai looked over his desk again. Setsuna's was clean so his could be this messy in a strong contrast to hers. It made his eyes water as he eyed the inbox on his desk. Its contents overflowing in a stack twice as tall as the box itself. He didn't want to do it. Like at all. Still there was much to do when running a village. Invoices, vouchers, billing, taxation, grants, levies, zoning. And that wasn't even all of the military stuff that Setsuna handled herself.

"I need a damn secretary." Kai mused running a hand through his loose crimson hair and signing off on the last parts of building contract for residential areas. Not barracks, that was all Setsuna's call, like apartments and houses. Right now there were a lot more fighting men and women in Honegakure than there were book-keepers and bean counters, the ratio was reversed from most villages, there usually being about thirty to forty bureaucrats to one trained Shinobi.

The paper landed on one of several outboxes, each labeled to go to their independent handling offices. A kid would come in and take them in an envelope to the office, and usually drop off another inch of paperwork in his box. However as full as his inbox was his outboxes were equally full. Pushing back from his huge desk Kai put his feet up on it and decided now was the perfect time for a breather, and a drink and a smoke, and a quickie but he doubted that unless a gorgeous woman walked into his office right now, he would settle for a scotch on ice, a pack of Land of Fire Longs, and the open window.

That was the great thing about his office, Kai thought as he pulled open a desk drawer and pulled out a glass, a bottle, a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. The window behind him, that of his office had the same view as Setsuna's Office only ten or so feet lower. As his office was directly under hers, by of course her assignment. He'd heard of keeping someone under their heel, but this was taking it a little to far for him, but with the huge office space and wonderful view Kai really had no reason to complain.

The ice was kept in a separate drawer's special ice maker. It made a huge cube of ice for meant for drinks like his Land of Water old vintage Scotch, he would add one of the massive cubes before pouring the beverage of choice over it and return the bottle to his drawer. After a short ship to take the edge off the young man quickly pulled a deathstick from its package with his lips and lit it with a quick flick of his wrist with the lighter. A few puffs later and he was in relaxation Heaven.

There were few things that could make this moment better, the warm sun on his back, a smoke, and a nice sipping drink to relax to before killing off the last of his paperwork.

And suddenly, with a quick swoop, one of those things was missing as a body blocked out the sun filtering in through the window. Once Kai turned to address his surprise visitor he'd find Setsuna sitting wordlessly upon the sill, her legs crossed as she eyed him with a mildly exasperated expression.

"I'm not granting you a secretary unless it's a competent male," she quipped half-seriously. "I couldn't trust the country's biggest womanizer to get any work done at all if he had an attractive female at his beck and call."

Kai blinked for a moment as if surprised by his bosses sudden arrival. She was a Shinobi, as most who viewed her Voluptuous body commonly forgot, to Kai such a thing was a reminder that she was a damn good Shinobi. "Oh Hi boss." He noted raising his glass to her while looking nonchalantly over his shoulder at what w as possibly the most powerful single woman in the world. "Drink?" He asked more as though he was picking up a date at a bar than addressing his boss.

Of course he had business for her but he wanted to be pleasant and offer her all of the comforts he had. "It's a 238 Land of Water Black Label Scotch. Very smooth." She looked comfortable enough in his window, so he wouldn't offer her a seat, and he wasn't even sure he'd ever seen her smoke, so he'd let her ask if she wanted one.

"Awe. But that's the best part of having a secretary." Kai opined playfully, "The competent part, I mean. There's enough eye candy walking around the office of the Honekage to satisfy any man." He was of course teasing his boss as he went back to the paperwork on his desk, it was almost all mindless sign offs.

"Hm..." Setsuna considered for a moment before coming to a quick decision. "I suppose a little drink wouldn't hurt before the end of the day. No roofies for me though. I still have too much work to do to spend time being drugged." She continued to take quick jabs at his reputation, though it was obviously not serious if her bit of a smirk was any indication. "As for eye candy, you know that's never been my intention and I'd appreciate you not thinking it's for yours or anyone else's benefit."

Kai scoffed playfully at the assertion that he'd had to use roofies to get any of his many conquests. "I would never dream of using drugs on such a fine lady." Though it was the truth he would pass it off as his well and overblown womanizing image. He was already making quite the stack out of his completed paperwork. In the middle his free hand would pull a glass from the drawer adding a custom skull shaped ice block with little tongs, then pouring a little of the amber liquid for his esteemed guest and adding an eyedroppers worth of crystal distilled water. He would then flick the glass and make it ring, before picking it up by the bottom and kicking off of his desk. "Of course you don't do it for me, but you cant be un-beautiful, I mean the Honekage should always look stunning, and leave people breathless when she enters a room, you just happen to come by it naturally."

Kai was definitely good at flattery but that wasn't why he was so high in Hone's chain of command.

The slide was only a few feet and Kai would lean back over-far in the seat exercising his balance training taking the rickety old wheeled seat up onto two wheels as he reached back and held the wonderful old drink out for the woman called the Honekage, while looking up at said woman from the way his chair was canted backwards. "For the miss, one Scotch on the rocks." He would hold the balance until so long as took for Setsuna to take the glass.

"I suppose that's true enough," Setsuna pondered while reaching out to accept the glass of alcohol from Kai's hand in his awkward position. "Thank you. The leader of a village should always look their best no matter who they are. It's an image to uphold, after all. The appearance of a leader is usually reflected on the village that they oversee. A sloppy and unkempt leader often runs a very loose shift and their village suffers for it unless they have very competent assistance."

She raised the glass a bit before bringing it to her lips and taking a slow sip. This wasn't something to be gulped or simply drank away.

Kai would kick his legs forward and slowly bring the chair down into a sitting position, and roll it back forward to his desk with the momentum. "You've very welcome Miss." He would start working on papers again for just a moment, before flipping a page and scoffing again. "Ugh territory disputes." He would crumble the paper and toss it. The rolled paper would circle the rim of his trashcan once before falling neatly in with quite a few other papers crumpled in quite the same way.

"I know I could just say no." Kai explained preempting whatever Setsuna might have to say on the subject while still working through the piles of papers, "But after a day of desk-rage I get a little catharsis jerking jerks around, with the whole I must have misplaced it excuse. Especially on overly-trivial matters that make it to my desk." Kai seemed rather pleased with himself, though he was born and raised a shinobi he was making a fine bureaucrat, though it wasn't his first choice for profession. Kai would stop and take a long sip of his own drink, and give a slow sigh.

Setsuna's brow furrowed as Kai chose to not only discard an official document, but crumple it up and toss it into the trashcan never to be seen again.

"That's hardly ethical," she commented, her tone one of disdain. "How about attempting to solve the problem by convincing them that this is no time to worry about petty territorial disputes when our village is only just beginning to blossom rather than further infuriating them and exacerbating the problem any further than it already is." It wasn't a question. "If we can't even work and cooperate as one unit we're as good as dead the moment the first threat to our safety makes itself known. It's only been five years and our village cohesion is already beginning to break down into squabbles and rabbling."

Kai stopped right in the middle of a packet of paperwork and looked over his shoulder at Setsuna with a full shit eating grin. "It's completely unethical. But you didn't hire me for my ethics, you hired me for my abilities, to see the big picture and to get the job done and my experience being..." He would use a direct quote, "Hokage's desk bitch." He would shortly go back to work on the water and hydroponics management packet.

"Besides it's a requisition to clear another section of heavy forest for lavish homes, for some of well to do investors of Hone who got tired of last-years absurdly-expensive homes." Finishing the packet he would place it on the finished pile and look over the next document before sweeping his drink into his hand and swiveling his chair around so he could face Setsuna. "Everyone here's in the same boat, they're all behind you. If your command is to charge head first into the enemies artillery then that's what everyone will do. Hone had the distinction of being a village that's made up of mostly service-age Shinobi, nearly seventy-seven percent of the population in fact as opposed to Suna's second highest at forty-four percent. Everyone here's a professional, they've all had to work with people they didn't trust or didn't like, but they're all survivors and I'm staking my life on them banding together when the excrement hits the rotating air circulation device."

"...Right," Setsuna muttered, not looking entirely convinced or impressed. "Actually I hired you with the understanding that you would do things by the book and not jerk people around unnecessarily. I wouldn't be so adamant if your method of disposing of the problem actually solved it by stretching the rules, but I'd rather not have our villagers getting pissed off about something that doesn't need anger."

There was a moment of silence. "If they're angry, its because they couldn't get it their way. When I say it's trivial, I mean its trivial to everyone involved." He was still on trying to convince her that he wasn't doing harm. "My methods are effective. Even If I color outside the lines, it still makes a pretty picture, and it's a picture that everyone fits into. Everybody will never agree on everything. You, or your vision is more apart of keeping everyone together than paperwork, or mansions for rich investors, or parks for kids, or stalls for vendors. All that small stuff can be put off, like I'm doing with little consequence." The red haired man's lips would turn up into a what could only be described as a shit eating grin because he knew the most powerful woman in the village wouldn't like the next three words out of his mouth. "Trust me, Setsuna."

Setsuna set the glass aside on the sill of the window to cross her arms with a doubtful expression.

"I'm sure you can understand that trust is something that I have very little room to supply. Just... don't let any complaints about this find their way to my desk, alright?"

That was all the crimson haired rogue needed to hear from his boss. "Well you've trusted me with this office, so you should trust me to keep something petty like a complaint off your desk too..."

The male's gentle deep voice would fade out for a moment as it seemed like he was doing more to study his counterpart than actually talk with her, the playfulness in his features fading just as quickly as his voice did, It was something about her features that spoke to him. She seemed pale, though she was a lady of very fair skin it looked almost clammy. "When was the last time you had a good meal?"

Setsuna raised a high brow in Kai's direction as he changed the direction of their conversation rather abruptly with something entirely unrelated, her doubting expression only becoming moreso.

"I have far more important things on my plate than food that didn't come from a styrofoam cup and going out on a dinner date with you. It should be much the same for yourself unless you're shirking your duties." She paused a moment, her expression lightening while she glanced at the trash can and back. "...Right."

She was trying to change the subject back to his paperwork, she didn't like being the focus of his attentions... Okay... Kai gave himself too much credit there, Setsuna didn't like being the attention of any male, though Kai felt there was a special place in the pit of her stomach just for him. "Styrofoam cup?" The red haired man would almost sound disgusted parroting that statement. "You're the face of the village, your being malnourished makes the entire village look weak." Which she would know opened them to attacks, standing in the way of her peaceful mission.

"I'm not telling you to hire a personal chef." She'd shot that idea down before so Kai wouldn't try again. "However I'm not going to let you wither away while trying to live a meek lifestyle. Your health is more important than the Barriers around the village." Kai paused to let her proverbially chew on that thought for a moment before continuing. "So, I'm going to start cooking your lunches while you're at work. But you have to make up for lost time. Tonight you're coming to my house for dinner."

Setsuna scoffed out a short chuckle. "If I didn't know better I'd swear you were trying to order me around." She smirked. "But I know you'd never be foolish enough to think that you could take me by force. I eat well enough to remain perfectly healthy and have no physical complaints as yet. Whatever weakness you imagine to see in me is a fallacy and I'll not have any part of this conversation being spread to anyone else. Loose lips are the bane of a village moreso than weakness. Even a weak leader can appear strong so long as his followers are loyal. I won't stop you from bringing in lunches, but I've not got enough time to waste on a candlelit dinner for two right now."

Kai's brow furrowed as she was quick to try and dismiss his claim as a way to get her to a romantic evening. "You don't have to lecture me on what idle gossip does to a village's morale. I've seen it first hand besides. You eat healthy so you don't have to deal with problems caused by horrible diet and malnutrition." He wouldn't let her distract him with what she knew he wouldn't do in the first place. "We both know you don't eat as well as you should. You're the Village's leader. You should be eating well enough to keep your strength up for your demanding job and public life, because even if I don't speak of that "fallacy" others will see and speak of it."

Taking a long sip to finish his drink Kai would reach and set it on his desk before continuing talking. "And you assumed that I wanted you one-on-one for a candle light dinner. But you didn't mention the violin... Either way It wasn't a closed event, you could bring along anyone you wanted, even that blonde-bombshell of a sister you have."

Setsuna sighed deeply, not bothering to hide her annoyance in the harsh breath. It was no wonder Kai was infamous with the women if he was as persistent when it came to getting dates as he was with cooking her this super special dinner of his.

"Fine," she finally relented. "I refuse to admit to any form of malnutrition, but if this dinner is really so important to you that you'd risk my ire rather than back down I'll eat with you, but Natsume will be coming with me and only after the both of us have finished our work entirely." She'd been taking casual sips of the drink as they spoke, but she now slammed back the last of what was in the glass before tossing the empty cup back to Kai with a slow, underhanded swing. "Now I have to hurry if I'm to make time for this." She still sounded rather irritated.

Kai's hand snapped to the glass like a the strike of a viper, his lips curling up in a victorious smile. "Please don't think of it as MY victory, think of it as a small victory for the village." Though that little part in the back of the tenacious redhead's mind was starting to party as Setsuna digressed and agreed to come to his place tonight with an escort and imbibe some of he best food he had to offer.

That however started the cascade in Kai's mind: Exactly what he was going to prepare!?

Oh well, he would think over paperwork. He needed high nutrition meals that had quite a bit of protein, because even though Setsuna was an administrator she was also still physically strong and needed to keep her muscle mass up. AND he only had until she completed dinner and arrived at his house to plan, gather ingredients and create his meals!

It was going to be a challenge. Kai loved challenges.

"Feel free to powder your nose before coming." It was a teasing comment, he doubted Setsuna would do more than change out of her work attire... if that. Or maybe down a few hundred milligrams of Ibuprofen for the headache she was sure to have. With the comment he would also place the glass she'd passed to him right beside his own, so close as to look like they were touching but separated by a hairs breadth.

"Right..." Setsuna replied in obvious irritation at the comment about powdering her nose, rolling her eyes before beginning to get up from the sill. "Because I'm really concerned about how I look in front of you. Work first; dinner second. I'll be at your door at my earliest convenience tonight with Natsume in tow."

As he was setting the empty glass beside his own, Setsuna was already on her way back to her office after fleeing out the window. If anything this little event would likely put even more stress on her person as she attempted to hurry through the remains of today's business.

The sun had already set by the time Setsuna and Natsume had arrived at Kai's door with a brisk knock, both women dressed as they normally did. Setsuna appeared ready to dive into combat at any second while Natsume remained fashionably cool, disinterestedly glancing off into the sky as the two of them waited for Kai to answer the door.

Kai smiled as Setsuna finally begrudgingly agreed to be at his door. Of course he cherished the idea of treating Setsuna to a romantic candle light dinner on a private beach with the full moon above, however he had been serious about her keeping her health up. Not to mention that Natsume was an idol herself. So instead of having one beautiful woman over for dinner he was going to have two.

With the prospect of showing the Honekage his cooking skills up close and personal he'd have to make an big initial impression and keep and he would need to shop hard... So instead of going himself he would abuse the hell out of his summoning contract. Kana was already taking cooking lessons from him, she would be a wonderful apprentice and sous-chef. Not to mention she was a powerful combatant and one of his faster summons when she was not transformed.

Summoning the fox eared girl in humanoid form, Kai would quickly relate the foods and lists of ingredients, some would be difficult to find others would be normal stops, most of Kai's regular stops would be familiar with the girl and give her his reduced rate. With all of that done she would be off out the window with her summoner scribbling furiously through the stack of paperwork that had.

Kai made it home with the sun still a little ways over the horizon. He would crack his knuckles and start in where his little helper had left off. Durring the process he would explain the odd choices as diet changes for Setsuna and that she was bringing Natsume with her, though Kana had been briefed on the village leader, her little sister would be much more of a mystery.

When the pair of ladies knocked, Kai answered right away, he'd changed from his usual work attire to something a little more relaxed, and easy to clean if he'd spilled anything on it. "Please come in." He bade stepping back through the portal into his home. "Welcome. It's not as humble as either of your abodes but I hope you enjoy your time here."

Of course Kai's house was a three bedroom two and a half bath affair with an absurdly sized kitchen and dining room but with overall meager living room and den. It was obvious that the house was built to be more like a restaurant, with the well furnished dining room being the center piece after one walked into the entry way. To the left through an open doorway was the living room, and to the right was the access to the Kitchen.

"Thank you," Setsuna accepted formally with a quick nod before stepping in with measured strides. She didn't really feel comfortable with this and so decided to treat it as a business meeting of sorts rather than a gathering of friends.

"What's up, Loverboy?" Natsume was much more casual as she hopped in quickly after Setsuna and hung her hat at the door. "So this is Cafe Kai, huh? It's quite a feat to get Setsuna to even leave the house for something that isn't training or work related so you must've done a real fine job of wooing her. Good luck getting such a cold fish to go any further though. If you do I'm gonna have to start calling you Romeo or something, cuz you got the moves." With that, she danced her way off toward the nearest sound system Kai may have had laying about, probably in the living room. She ignored the venomous glare Setsuna was attempting to shoot her, though she could feel the killing intent in the hairs at the back of her neck and instead elected to keep speaking. "Please tell me you've got some good beats. God help you if you have to try to force conversation. ...God help us all."

The stereo was aptly displayed in the quaint living room, that included a flat panel TV as well. It wasn't decedent but decorated in a very tasteful and conservative manner. The Blonde would find the selection of music apparent on shelves below the main player. The selections were major artists from every genre of music from folk to rock and roll and from rap to electronica were all represented.

As Natsume passed into the passed into the living room Kai would sigh, "Help yourself." If she wanted mood music the hip girl was most likely the best to choose it. "I would ask you if she's always like that... but I imagine the answer is unsurprising." He would motion to Setsuna towards the table he would let Natsume do her thing, there was no point in trying to wrangle her and Setsuna was already starting to look bored. "I'm glad you relented and decided to spend your evening meal here. There's very few people I would crawl through the mud for, but you top that list."

The dining room had quite a few impressionist paintings on the walls, along with a few seasonal decorations. However one of the paintings didn't fit in among the impressionist works was a red hand print smeared down and a black hand print smeared across it to make a cross. In a circle around the cross was a writing in a script that Kai didn't recognize but it had called out to him.

Upon entering the room Kai would pull out a chair at the head of the table for Setsuna to be seated in.

"Oh wow!" Natsume called from the living room, not saying much else over the sounds of rattling and shuffling as she began to sort through everything available to her. Kai would likely know what the exclamation was about since he was the owner of such a wide selection. It would likely take Natsume a bit of time to finally commit to one thing or another.

"...Yeah..." Setsuna replied to Kai's comments on Natsume and how she usually was. "Not surprising at all, I'm afraid. ...But relented is an apt enough term for my agreement to join you here. If you've got anything... uncouth in mind, toss it out immediately." She accepted the offered seat with a stern look before actually taking it. "This is purely business and nothing else." It was immediately afterward that Careless Whisper started up from the sound system in the living room. Apparently Natsume had decided on some mood music. Setsuna could only groan quietly in response and massage the bridge of her nose.

Closing his eyes and pursing his lips to hold back a smile was all Kai could do to contain the embarrassed feeling at the mortifying choice of music that was played for them. He would exhale slowly the perfectly formulated reassuring response that he might give to Setsuna would surely ring hollow against such music. Recovering and taking a moment to scoot his guest of honor into her final seating position. "Perhaps we should've informed Natsume that this is a not a romantic occasion ahead of time."

Though Kai had similar plans to wine and dine Setsuna in the past this was more about her eating habits than their relationship. He had laid his motivations bare to raven haired leader, something Kai seldom did, that she might find them agreeable. She was here that was all that mattered now, now he could show her all of the support he could offer her outside of his ability as a Shinobi and an Administrator.

"Natsume. Please come and be seated. You are my guest after all." Kai would bid above the music moving to the chair next to Setsuna's and pulling it out for the blonde bombshell. That only left the place across from the two for him. He would have Kana do final prep, plating and serving of food. She would be finishing up the appetizers now as Kai finished seated his lovely dinner guests. Then they could get to the real fun:

The food.