Characters swam in front of Tsunade's eyes, momentarily obscured by her eyelids as they relentlessly struggled to drift shut. For a moment, the papers slipped out of her grasp. Tsunade made no effort to catch them as they drifted onto her desk.
"Shizune, is it done brewing yet?" she called.
"It just finished, Lady Tsunade!" Shizune rushed into the Hokage's office. In her hands, between a pair of thick oven mitts, rested a steaming pot of coffee. "I'm sorry, we're out of anything to put in it."
"It's fine." Tsunade picked up the pot with her bare hand. Lifting the lid, she drank straight from the vessel, ignoring the stares of the ANBU agents passing the open door. "Thank you, Shizune," she said when she'd finished. "How much more is there?"
Shizune shut the door. "There's another stack of war reports over there," she said, indicating a thick pile on the left side of Tsunade's desk. "Also… these just came in." She stepped forward and produced a series of files from under her arm. Sighing, Tsunade took another swing of coffee before accepting them and opening to the first page.
A familiar face stared back at her from the stark pages in her hands. Beneath the photo was a list of known abilities gathered from numerous field reports. Tsunade's heart sank as she saw the list had grown again, this time almost stretching to the bottom of the page.
The next few pages contained summaries of different after-action reports. To Tsunade's dismay, the number of casualties now stretched into the quintuple digits. Innumerable crimes flooded the pages, each more heinous than the last. Other sections of the report concerned the crimes of his accomplices, but they often paled in comparison.
"Shizune…" she said wearily. "Why can't this all just be over?"
"I wish it could be, Lady Tsunade. But no war ends in just a few days, and the Fourth Shinobi World War isn't a normal war."
Tsunade raised the coffee pot, but set it back down without drinking as she sat back in her chair. "Still, I would have hoped we would have crushed the Pale Army by now. Maybe we would have if it hadn't been for Kabuto's Deathless Legion." She rubbed her forehead. "Any news from the other Kage?"
Shizune checked her notes. "Lord Raikage is holding the line at Ishimura Fortress, but he reports that his troops can only do so much, and the enemy is adapting to his new 'thunderclap' move. Lord Gaara remains vigilant in the desert, but the enemy is using fire jutsu to fuse all of the sand into glass. Lord Onoki and the Thundering Fury are fending off the Deathless Legion in the mountains. And Lady Terumi has not yet returned from her honeymoon."
"When will that woman have enough?" Tsunade muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes. Her gaze drifted out of the window, imagining she could almost hear the booms that accompanied the flashes in the distance. Out loud, she said, "I've never believed the Five Great Nations would truly fall, let alone in our lifetimes. Even when the first blow was struck, I thought we could end it all in a day, two at the most. But 8 months? How can we withstand another week of this, let alone win?
"I don't know, Lady Tsunade," Shizune said. "But you were made Hokage for a reason. When the people look to you, they know you have the power to guide them through the darkness."
"I wish I had the power they think I do, but right now I haven't the faintest idea of how the village is going to survive this war. Not win, survive. If we can't find some way to-"
"LADY HOKAGE!" Without warning, an ANBU agent burst into the room. "He's back!"
Tsunade's head snapped around. "Where is he?"
"Ichiraku's. He just ordered their new dish, but he looks hungry!"
Tsunade grabbed the picture from the file she'd been reading and ran out the door after the ANBU agent. "Hurry, Shizune! We can't let him get away!"