More than Enemies
This story takes place shortly after Naruto, Sakura, Sai and Yamato encounter Orochimaru on the Heaven and Earth Bridge.
Prologue
It was a mostly quiet night in Konoha – late spring with clear, warm skies yielding a brilliant display of stars – but this tranquility did not seem to reach inside the Hotaru Sake bar. Within the small establishment there was a woman, seated all the way in the back with empty sake bottles covering her table, and she had just picked a fight with another of the bar's regulars. Both were drunk, and what had started out as just a discussion had escalated into an argument that was now dangerously close to becoming an all-out brawl. The woman had just issued a loud challenge to the man across from her when another woman ran back to their table.
"Lady Tsunade!" Shizune shouted. "I've been looking everywhere for you! What are you doing?"
"What does it look like," Tsunade said irritably. "I'm teaching this brat a lesson."
"Lady Tsunade, honestly, you need to stop doing things like this. Come on, we need to get back."
"You go," Tsunade replied. "I could use another drink."
Shizune grabbed onto Tsunade's arm as she reached for another bottle. "You've got sake back home but please, enough of this!"
Tsunade glared down at her attendant for a moment then sighed. "Fine. Let's go."
They headed out, Shizune apologizing repeatedly to the owner of the bar as they went, and returned to the Hokage's Residence. Once Shizune had seen Tsunade safely returned to her room, she wandered off to take care of some last minute work before turning in for the night herself.
But Tsunade would not sleep. She sat in the dark on her floor, a newly opened bottle of foreign alcohol she'd received from Jiraiya beside her, and thought about the last few days. The elders had been pushing her more and more about the issues with Naruto and the Akatsuki, concerns about Danzō had been weighing heavily on her mind, and the paperwork she'd been putting off was piling up. She closed her eyes and took another drink from the bottle then tried to stand, but she lost her balance. She backed up and managed to sit on the edge of her bed to keep from falling over, but the bottle slipped from her hand and shattered on the floor.
"…Damn," she murmured, sliding off the bed again and kneeling to pick up the pieces of glass. A large shard caught the moonlight streaming in through the window as she picked it up and she saw a flash of yellow and purple reflected back at her. She gasped and her hand twitched, dropping the piece of glass, but not before it had sliced into her finger.
Tsunade stayed still for a long while, staring at the shard, blood dripping softly from her cut, but there was nothing to see. Eventually she reached for it again and held it up in front of her but all she saw now was her own faded reflection. She set the glass aside and crawled onto her bed, leaving the mess on the floor. Her eyes wandered to the window as she squeezed her injured finger, trying not to look at the blood.
Maybe it's time… to see him again.