This was originally posted as a song-fic, but was deleted due to the rules against lyrics. I apologize for the rule infraction and am reposting this without the song lyrics. For anyone reading this, this one-shot takes it's name from the song "Mystery of You" by the band, "Red". For the full effect of the story, I suggest you listen to that song as you read. The line breaks indicate where lyrics should be. Please, enjoy.

The Mystery of You

The moon shone brightly down on the town that he and Naruto were resting outside of. He could tell she was nearby and yet; he had mixed feelings about seeing her again; joy and anger, longing and frustration.

As they approached the bar that he had sensed her chakra in, his heart began to race as memories of their time together began to reassert themselves with a powerful force.

Sarutobi just frowned and shook his head at his three young students. He pondered how he was ever going to be able to deal with such a diverse selection of children: the loner, the show-off, and the idiot; the latter being currently tied to a pole with the other two taunting him for being unable to retrieve a simple set of bells.

"Alright Tsunade, Orochimaru, that's enough teasing. You two can go. Jiraiya, I need to have a word with you"

The blonde turned her attention to her sensei and stated, "Hai!" She gazed back at Jiraiya and smirked, "You're in trouble!"

She punctuated her mocking sentence by sticking her tongue out at him before turning and heading off with Orochimaru heading in an opposite bearing. Jiraiya stared sadly off in Tsunade's direction, watching her walk away. He was so consumed by his thoughts that he didn't even notice when Sarutobi cut him free of the ropes. His hard collision with the ground drew his attention away from Tsunade and to his sensei standing before him, staring down at him in his seated position.

"Sarutobi-sensei? I'm not really in trouble…am I?"

The older man quirked an eyebrow at this; he thought that Jiraiya would have understood that he just wanted to encourage him not to give up, but it seemed that what Tsunade said really stuck with him.

He laughed softly, "Of course not. I just wanted to talk."

"Oh…"

Sarutobi couldn't tell if that was a sound of relief or disappointment, but he again noticed that the young boy was staring off in the direction that Tsunade had left from. The man sat down beside his student and waited for him to speak and, finally, after a period of brief silence, he spoke:

"Why does she hate me?"

Sarutobi turned to the boy, "She doesn't hate you, Jiraiya. She saw an opportunity to tease and belittle you. She wanted to show off – to show that she could best a boy. She doesn't hate you, but if you train there will come a time when she won't have the opportunity to do that again."

Jiraiya scoffed, "That's not what I meant, Sensei. I meant…. Why doesn't she like me back?"

Sarutobi sighed, "Now that, Jiraiya, will be the mystery of all women you will encounter… how do I get them to feel the same way about me as I do about them…"

Jiraiya's hearted ached for Tsunade as she watched her sob her eyes out over the loss of her younger brother. He saw Orochimaru place a hand on her shoulder only to have her violently shake it off as she continued to cry. He wasn't sure how long his heart could take it, her hurting so terribly, yet he didn't want to feel the pain of her rejecting his sympathy.

'You're being stupid, Jiraiya. Who cares if you get hurt? You're doing nothing to make her feel better!'

Jiraiya stepped forward and hugged Tsunade close to him. He felt her tense slightly before relaxing and crying softly in his embrace. The toad summoner hid a smile and masked a sigh of relief before beginning to gently rub a hand up and down her back. He whispered softly to her:

"Tsunade, please, Nawaki wouldn't want you to be like this."

Tsunade nodded and stepped out of Jiraiya's embrace, wiping her tears away, "I-I know…he'd want me to be s-strong…b-but…it still hurts…"

She turned and slowly walked out into the rainy night, heading back to her home and it pained Jiraiya. She required time alone, but he wanted to help her every step of the way through her grief; however, she needed to find her own way to work through this difficult time.

"You have feelings for her…don't you, Jiraiya?"

The silver-haired man remained silent, even ignoring the second comment from his teammate, "Don't let it distract you…and don't let it get you killed."

"Orochimaru! Attack his blind spot when I give you an opening!" Tsunade shouted as the rain continued to pour on their battle against Hanzo.

She wanted to end this battle quickly; she had to leave her division without their medic in order to pull the Amegakure leader away from their location. Thankfully, Orochimaru and Jiraiya had followed her; without them, she would have been defeated, but together, she hoped they had a chance to succeed.

"Tsunade! Look out!" Before she could fully react, Jiraiya was standing in front of her, staring down at her. A large blade had pierced his left shoulder; nothing serious, something easily healed; yet that attack was aimed directly at her heart. He had saved her life.

"J-Jiraiya…"

He pulled the sizeable kunai from his shoulder and turned to face Hanzo, witnessing him pull back after Orochimaru's attack with Manda, before the masked leader declared that he would allow such brilliant shinobi to live, even christening them "Konoha's Legendary Sannin". During the man's speech, Jiraiya began to wobble slightly from blood loss, which caused Tsunade to move next to him and support him.

The Toad Sage wasn't quiet sure at this point whether his light-headedness was from the shock of the wound or the fact that Tsunade was supporting him and pressing her body against his. It was a surprise after the incident at the bathhouse, when she nearly killed him, but he didn't care. He deserved it, and would do anything to have her forgive him.

When they departed the battlefield and she healed him, he became horrified as, yet again, he couldn't fully comfort her as she watched Dan die before her, despite her best attempts to heal him. He stood solemnly by, watching Tsunade suffering, hating that it would be inappropriate for him to attempt to console her. He began to ponder if all the years of training and all the lives they ended prematurely had fully prepared them for something like this.

He woke up in a cold sweat, his dreams yet again plagued by the nightmares of the night he couldn't prevent Orochimaru from leaving. Yet, as he lied awake in his bed, something else didn't feel right. He rose, quickly dressed in some clothing and left his apartment.

Jiraiya finally found Tsunade walking towards the west entrance of the village with a young girl in tow, who he later recognized to be Dan's niece, Shizune.

"So, just like Orochimaru, you're leaving too?"

She stopped and turned, looking at him with red eyes; eyes that told him she had been crying, "Yes…I can't do this anymore…anything…I'm tired of fighting, Jiraiya…there's nothing left for me here…"

"But…" he stopped, he wasn't ready to tell her, and it would make things worse, "Do you have permission?"

She nodded, "It's a self-imposed exile; the Hokage understood."

The blonde turned and walked faster, pulling her new apprentice along with her before leaping off and, yet again, Jiraiya was the only one left, watching his teammate leave him behind.

"I love you…" He whispered.

Jiraiya kept mostly silent, during the exchange between Naruto and Tsunade before he finally spoke up, asking to have a moment alone with her. She agreed and, once Shizune and Naruto left, the slug queen turned her attention to him:

"Why are you here, Jiraiya? Trying to fulfill a promise of long ago to reunite the team?"

He shook his head, "No…it's past that now. Orochimaru killed Sarutobi-sensei. The village needs a Hokage, Tsunade…and since I'm not cut out for the job, they want you."

Tsunade-hime knocked back another shot of sake, "You mean you don't want to do it, so suggested me instead."

"You know me too well."

After a period of minor anxiety and a battle between old "friends", Jiraiya was relieved when she agreed to become Hokage. The little, orange idiot taking all the credit for convincing her to return, but Jiraiya liked to believe…. liked to hope…that him coming back into her life convinced her a little bit as well.

As they returned to the village, Jiraiya remained quiet. This drew the attention of Tsunade who had, never in her life, known Jiraiya to remain silent. He typically filled any moment of time with some talk about women, but he was still. What surprised her the most were the longing stares she occasionally caught him giving her. She vowed to find out what was causing this behavior

The toad sage knew that Tsunade was catching on to him, but he didn't care. He knew that he'd wasted too much time in his life trying to get Orochimaru back to the village so he could then bring Tsunade back on the promise that they'd never be separated. He wasted too much time in not telling her how he felt from the first time they'd met to even now and he vowed to tell her before she could leave him again.

The warm sake helped relax Tsunade as she stared out from her new office across the village. She regretted not returning before Sarutobi died. She did miss her sensei after all, except she didn't particularly enjoy all the paperwork he left behind.

A small knock at the door interrupted her thoughts and before she could shout at the person, who she would have placed a bet on Shizune interrupting her, she was surprised to see Jiraiya. She stood:

"Jiraiya. I thought you'd be training Naruto or writing a new book right now."

The man smiled softly, "No, I thought I'd drop by instead."

"Well, this works out perfect because I need to ask you something-"

"Tsunade, there's something I've been meaning to tell-"

"When we were returning to the village the other day-"

"I should've told you a long time ago-"

"Jiraiya! Will you stop talking over me?"

The toad sage was slightly stunned before he advanced towards her quickly and swiftly moved behind her desk. He reached up and caressed Tsunade's cheek ever so gently, and spoke softly:

"No, you're going to listen to me first, because I believe what I will have to say will answer your question."

She nodded, still very shocked and confused by his actions.

"Tsunade… I love you. From the moment we met, I had feelings for you and over the years as our team became closer and closer, it grew into love. A powerful love that caused me to suffer when you suffered and made me leap in front of kunai for you for fear of seeing you hurt. I didn't have enough courage to tell you the night that you left and I have regretted that moment ever since, because I have wasted so much time, Tsuande… so very much time. I know now though, that I'm not going to waste any more time."

Jiraiya leaned in and did something he had waited nearly forty years to do; he kissed Tsuande's soft lips…

…and smiled softly as she returned the kiss.