187
Dan had been everything Jiraiya was not. Unflinchingly loyal, a true believer of monogamy and a sweet man to boot. What's more, Tsunade had loved him as deeply as a woman could love a man - a true love, without the convoluted yearnings of a child. Her heart ached as she remembered the flowers and candy, little notes of a pure fluff, and the warmth implied with such simple actions.
She turned away from the rain washed window. The glass reflected a lie Tsunade wished far too long to make a reality.
The older she got, the more it seemed her bitterness ate away at her. Maybe that was why she drank and gambled, all obsessive vices that - like the window reflected her false beauty - reflected a woman far too dependent on things. Dependent on a man's love perhaps. Oh, she was fairly good at going on without it, disguising her problems as easily as her face, but in the end what was she besides a woman?
Dan had given her what she craved for the fastest -
and Tsunade had little patience for boys who got themselves tied to training poles.