disclaimer: I disclaim! The stories, the characters, everything. Even the mythology behind this, because I totally butchered it. Sorry if that's offensive, but I was too lazy to research. It won't happen again.
Title: Seven Days
Pairing: JiraiyaTsunade
Ink Blots: The last day's conversation was spawned by a conversation I had with someone the other night. It basically blew up into this. I'm sorry in advanced for any typos you might find. This story was difficult to write for some reason. It sounds funny to me, but I hope you like it.
I.
When he first appeared, Tsunade had drunk herself into a half coma in expectation. She took one look at his ethereal form and puked on the carpet by his feet.
"Of all the women in the world, Jiraiya, you use your last seven days to haunt me?" the Hokage had spat, wiping the corner of her lip.
There was no laughter in the face of the dead man in the room. It was just another sign that he both was and wasn't the Jiraiya she found dead in a lake this morning—the dead forget how to smile.
"Doesn't that tell you something, princess?"
The last surviving sannin sneered.
"Yes."
She threw back the whole bottle of sake, forgoing tradition, and downed it in a gulp.
"It tells me that you're as dumb in death as you were in life."
II.
Tsunade doesn't remember much of day two. She was too drunk.
She does remember cussing. She remembers walking down the streets, and punching building near the hot springs into rubble.
She remembers hearing of Team Kakashi and Team Eight returning home. A retreat. Mission cancelled due to the death the sannin.
All missions were cancelled, and all teams recalled.
Sasuke would be returning this time.
Just another reason Tsunade found to drink.
III.
By day three, Tsunade had stopped talking to the ghost beside her in public. No one said much about it when she did; everyone believed she'd cracked. They gave her pitying looks, though, and that was enough to make her stop.
She didn't want pity.
She wasn't cracking.
She was just being haunted by the ghost of her dead best friend. There's nothing wrong with that.
The drinking didn't stop, but it did slow down. She wouldn't stop until he was gone. She was too afraid she'd break down in tears, and to hell if she was a woman who just lost the last link to a far gone era, she was Hokage damn it.
Hokage's don't cry. She'd let Naruto break that record.
"You trying to join me princess?" Jiraiya said that day. If she hadn't known any better, Tsunade would've taken it as one of his old playful teases. But ghosts don't tease, just like ghosts don't smile.
"Fuck off," she mumbled into her glass of liquor—this one imported, and more like moonshine or paint thinner; stronger, better to forget things with.
The ghost shook his once white head.
"Not yet."
IV.
On day four, Tsunade gave up trying to forget she was being tailed by a ghost.
She looked over her shoulder and grinned.
"So, what's it like being dead big guy? Any fun?"
Jiraiya shimmered. She figured this was as close to amusement as he'd be able to get.
"It's not bad I don't guess," he said, arm rubbing at the nub where his other one was in life. "It'd be better if I could see through things instead of walk through them."
The Hokage snorted. "You're perverted even in death."
The ghost shimmered again. "Death doesn't change much, princess."
V.
At day five, they'd begin to talk about mundane things. Neither one of them wanted to reminisce, or discuss battle plans against the Akatsuki, or think of how Naruto was going to act when he was back. So they talked about other things instead.
Jiraiya said he'd spied Genma and Shizune in one of the empty rooms. He'd shimmered happily and said they were doing stuff that'd give Icha Icha a run for its money.
Tsunade revealed she'd read all the Icha Icha books, as well as everything else Jiraiya had written.
She also let it slip that she was the one who wrote that steamy letter that gave the toad sage inspiration for chapter seven of book one—the chapter that made the great Minato Namikaze check into the hospital for excessive blood loss.
Ghosts don't blush, so Jiraiya shimmered out of view for a good five minutes. When he came back, he was still shimmering gleefully.
"Princess. Why don't you hurry up and die so you can show me that move you—"
"JIRAIYA!"
VI.
Day six was the funeral.
Tsunade was the only one smiling.
Teams of ANBU were surrounding both Sasuke and Naruto. The former for obvious reasons; the latter because he was too upset to keep tabs on the fox—he'd already demolished a building or two.
Sakura was between them, holding both of their hands. Tsunade was surprised to see the Uchiha was squeezing hers as tight as Naruto.
"He came back." Jiraiya whispered.
"He'll still be tried. He's still a traitor."
Jiraiya nodded solemnly. "Go easy on him, princess."
Tsunade wanted to curse and ask why she shouldn't lock him up and throw away the key.
"Because if Orochimaru had come back willingly, we would've fought for a fair trial, too." He placed a translucent hand on her shoulder. "You won't lose just one if you fail this boy, princess."
VII.
Day seven.
Jiraiya's last day.
It was hard to admit, but Tsunade didn't want him to go. Even as a ghost, she believed it was better to have him by her side, than to be gone from it forever.
"Will you hate me when I've left you? Like they did?" he asks as the clock reaches the hour of his departure.
She shook her head, panic filling her heart. "No, I could never hate you. Not even if you were to drive a kunai through my chest." There was a lump in her throat. "I'd never be able to hate you Jiraiya."
"That doesn't make me feel much better," he whispered.
Tsunade wiped a tear from her eye. They were starting to fall already, big wet ones just rolling down her cheeks.
"I didn't say it to make you feel better Jiraiya. It's just the truth." Her voice wavered. Her chest is constricting, emotion making it hard to do anything but cry and feel.
"Why couldn't you have said it before?" His voice almost sounds pleading.
Tsunade feels her heart breaking a little more.
The feeling of loss finally hits her. It's not an unfamiliar feeling, and maybe that just makes it worse. But in all her life, this is the loss she never wanted to feel. Jiraiya had always been so much stronger, so much grander of a person than she could ever hope to be. She'd always believed she'd go first, put all her faith into it.
She didn't think she'd be able to survive without him. Even when she was away from him, when she'd not heard from him in years, he was still alive, and that gave her courage to live. But he was gone now. And she'd wasted the seven days she'd had left with him with drinking and smart ass comments.
"Jiraiya…I—"
Lips brushed hers. They were soft, barely there. He'd probably put all of his willpower into just making his lips tangible enough that she'd feel it, if for just a second. He pulled away and tried to pull half tangible lips into a smile.
"Don't say you love me, Tsunade-hime. That kinda talk, it doesn't suit you."
And he was gone.