Hi everyone reading this. I haven't written anything for a very long time and felt the sudden urge using my favorite pair of characters. This is just a little character piece, nothing too exciting, but a bit sad at the end. Please enjoy.
Something was lucky about today. Jiraiya could feel it in the way the wind breezed passed him, by the faint spring scent that lingered just under his nose, and most importantly by the lack of mission statements. No news from the Hokage was always good news, and he quite enjoyed his rare day off meandering around Konoha, but there was something so inexplicitly wrong about a bored shinobi. Every part of his sensible mind screamed at him to stop walking towards the grand building. Jiraiya was not, however, the most sensible man. And she was his muse, there was no doubting that. It was like some kind of unforeseen force was pulling him from his innermost core towards her, there was nothing he could to prevent it even if he wanted to.
Conflicting emotions surged through him as he stood at the entrance of the formidable hokage tower. At one time he looked up to its peak with childlike reverence and excitement, then later with sorrow and remorse, and now at this point in his life he didn't quite know what he felt. Contentment? No, but things seemed to fit together in a certain disarrayed manner, and he wasn't sure if things had gotten better in his life or if he'd just grown more accustomed to living in a broken state. After a second of pondering he leaped to the top of the tower to where he knew he'd find the large window that overlooked Konoha.
For a while he just stared. He didn't mean to be creepy or anything, though that may be just an inherent part of his nature depending on who you're asking. He just wanted to take in the scene for a bit before disrupting. There was something so endearing about the way Tsunade went about her work when she thought no one was watching. It was about as peaceful as he got to see her, despite the small scowl she kept. His knuckles rapped gently against the window so as not to startle her.
"Oi, you free for a bit?" he asked, swinging a long leg over the open frame.
"Even if I wasn't would it make a difference in whether you stayed or left?" she quipped, stretching her arms upwards.
"No, but it would make a difference in whether or not we actually talked or I sat here silently antagonizing you with my presence alone," he replied. He sat at the corner of her desk, glancing over the document she had just finished and wrinkling his nose in distaste.
The blond hokage sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest, eyeing the man in front of her curiously. Jiraiya had always made a point to bug her whenever he had the chance, but she didn't entirely dislike it. He was perhaps the only non-crises distraction from the monotony that came with being hokage. He was a necessary evil for getting her through her day at times. "And what have you brought to the table today old man?"
Jiraiya's eyes rolled unconsciously at her comment, "Something a little different than usual." His hand slipped into his robe and came out holding a small bag. "You feeling tea today?"
"Tch, did Shizune put you up to this? She's been campaigning pretty hard lately to get me off alcohol," she said.
"I think I'm the last person she'd recruit to get you sober Hime." Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. At one time he'd call her by that title sarcastically, but nowadays she wasn't so sure what his motivation was for using it. "I'm not exactly the best influence in terms of things like virtue."
She nodded her head in agreement, "Yeah, but she also knows you're one of the only people I'll listen to that could persuade me otherwise."
A quiet hum escaped Jiraiya's throat, "Well that's a surprise to hear. I was under the assumption that my words just floated off into the atmosphere whenever we talked. It's nice to hear you take some of the things I say to heart," he said, grinning at her.
"Don't think you matter that much dummy," she said, snatching the bag of tea leaves from his hand. She opened it to bring to her nose and inhaled deeply, savoring the rich and heady scent of jasmine. "I'll have you know you're very replaceable- hmm this is good tea, where'd you get this from?"
Jiraiya smirked at her as he took the bag of tea leaves back, "As you were saying?" He picked up the water kettle that sat on the corner of her desk to fill with water. "You got anything to warm this up with?"
"Nah, I usually just use a fire scroll to warm it up. I should have some lying around somewhere," she said as she leaned back in her chair, hands resting behind her head.
"Glad to see you're putting the village's supplies to good use," Jiraiya said, shaking his head in disbelief at her laziness. He held the pot up in front of him, performed a quick hand sign, and blew out a small flame against the base of the pot, bringing it to a fast boil.
"Ah, how useful you fire natures are to have around," Tsunade said. She grabbed two small tea cups from her drawer, placing one in front of herself and the other across from her.
Jiraiya set the pot down between them and poured some of the tea leaves into the small metal infuser inside before taking a seat in the chair on the other side of the desk. "Yeah, some of us like to actually use different styles of ninjutsu instead of just smashing everything we see with our fists, crazy right?"
"It's worked pretty well against you so far, Lord Jiraiya," she retorted, matching his sarcasm with her own.
"Touché. I suppose there's a reason you became the hokage over me after all Hime," he said.
Tsunade scoffed, "You mean besides your blatant disregard for responsibility?"
"I'll have you know I did not come all this way on my day off to have tea and be verbally abused," he said with a joking smile.
"Hm, right, no of course not. It's because you're some kind of masochist that's fallen hopelessly in love with the most bitter woman in Konoha." she said as she poured both their cups.
"You give yourself too much credit, love is a bit extreme," he replied.
Tsunade cradled her cup, staring into his onyx eyes very deliberately. If he had been anyone else, he'd probably be squirming in his seat from her piercing gaze, but Jiraiya had the best poker face of anyone she knew. "I could have sworn my teenage self received more than one sappy love poem from a certain aspiring writer," she crooned.
This did manage to take Jiraiya off-guard. "Heh, I'm certain you have a whole stack at home that you read when you need to feel young again Hime," Jiraiya snarked. He was treading into dangerous territory here.
Tsunade gritted her teeth in anger but simply smiled deviously at her former teammate. "You're wrong on both accounts, ass. Actually, I keep them in my desk when I need a good laugh at your foolish expense." Her reached for her bottom drawer slowly, savoring the shocked look on his face.
"You do not still have those! You're bluffing," he exclaimed. He was both flattered and mortified.
Her grin widened once she brought the crumpled and aged papers out into the light. Jiraiya sat back in his chair, chuckling incredulously. She raised a single manicured brow at him, "Dare I read one to remind you what kind of fool you sound like?"
Jiraiya sucked in a lungful of air in deliberation. "On the one hand, I'm sure they're amazing because i've only ever written pure gold. On the other," he paused, cringing at the stack of papers, "I'm not sure if my 17 year old standards match my standards today," he admitted.
"I would hardly call what you write 'gold,'" Tsunade cackled loudly. "I am sure that you'd want to crawl in a hole and die if you read what I had to read all those years ago."
Jiraiya sighed heavily in defeat as Tsunade continued to snicker, glossing over his messy handwriting. "Well go on then, might as well get it over with," he said.
"Alright, this one is definitely my favorite," she said gleefully. She cleared her throat and read,
"Dearest Tsunade
Whose beauty is unrivaled
Whose blond hair flows with the wind
Like a leaf across the plain
And who glides through the battlefield effortlessly
With the elegance of the princess that she is
I could watch her endlessly
Getting lost every time in her vast bosom
Under which her heart beats viscously
Just as mine beats for her"
Jiraiya scoffed loudly, "That wasn't even that bad, especially not for a kid," he said.
"Did you really think you'd woo anyone by telling them you'd get lost in her tits? Or that it's okay to use the word 'viciously' to describe a heartbeat? You went from sappy to 'I'm going to stalk you and murder you in your sleep' real fast with that one," she said through laughs. Nothing brought her more joy than embarrassing her pestering friend.
"Alright, fair enough, but I could write you a way better poem nowadays. That was the naive Jiraiya, I'm a changed man now," he replied with conviction
"I highly doubt that. If anything, your writing has become more depraved and disturbing throughout the years of becoming a lecherous old man," she said.
"Think what you want of me Hime, but the numbers in my checkbook don't lie, nor do the thousands of fans I've gathered worldwide through my books alone. It's not my fault you're not open minded enough to appreciate it for the art that it is." he said, sipping his tea. "Oh man this tea is awesome. You gotta try it.
She sipped it slowly, relishing the warmth that it brought through her body. "Damn, you may be an idiot but you have good taste, I'll give you that much."
"I'll take whatever compliment I can get from you, Hime," he chuckled.
Today was not a lucky day. Tsunade could feel it in the ominous wind that blew through the village, the murky clouds that lingered over the sun, and most of the all the lack of communication she'd gotten from Jiraiya since he had left. No news from Jiraiya was not a good sign at all. It had been only a few days since he left for his mission, despite her pleas to make him stay. She had a bad feeling about it from the very beginning.
She couldn't even pretend to focus on her work, so she opted to sit by the frog pond for a drink. Oddly enough, she didn't find herself reaching for the bottle of sake that she kept under her desk, but rather the bag of tea leaves that Jiraiya had left so many months ago that she'd forgotten about until now. Today was indeed a tea day.
After boiling the water and finding a spot right next to a lazing frog, Tsunade grabbed the small bag to pour the leaves in. To her surprise, there was a small note taped to the bottom of the bag. "That's weird," she mumbled to herself.
She detached the paper and unfolded it as she waited for her tea to steep. She immediately noticed the slanted handwriting of her teammate and felt her stomach swell up into her throat. It was a note addressed to her. It read, "Hey Hime, thought I'd leave you something to show you that I have grown up at least a little bit since we were teenagers. To prove it, here's a poem that I know will make you think I'm even more irresistible, if that's even possible. Anyways, enjoy the rest of the tea. I only got it because I know jasmine is your favorite, I don't really like jasmine that much to be honest, so I'll leave you with the rest."
She wasn't sure why, but she couldn't bring herself to read past his note. She could feel her throat tightening up from all the emotions that were flooding through her. It was completely unlike her to act like this, maybe it was just due to all the stress she'd been put through lately. She poured herself a cup of tea and cradled it against her chest protectively, inhaling the fragrant jasmine to calm her nerves. She breathed deeply, sipped at her tea, and steeled herself to continue reading.
Dearest Hime
I can't imagine a life without you
When being with you
Feels like floating through the clouds
Or being gently kissed by the sun
And every day of living
Is another blessing
To have seen your face
And to hear the beat of your heart
It gives me the strength
To push forward
When I need it most
To live
To survive
Just for the chance to hear you
Say my name
Just one more time
And under all these stars
I feel like a speck
That's just being carried with the tide
But you make sense of it all
All I can do
Is hold onto your hand dearly
Hoping you'll journey with me
Through it all
Maybe one day we'll find a path
Together
Or maybe we'll just remain lost
Forever
Tsunade looked up from the paper. Her gaze fell onto the frog. She stared at it solemnly, then sipped from her tea once more. A single melancholy tear rolled down her cheek as she watched the small creature. She knew at that moment, every fear and anxiety that she'd been holding onto since she watched him walk through those gates, they were true. Every single one of them. Jiraiya was never coming back. He left her, just like everyone else, just like she said he would. She knew she would never see her friend again.
The frog croaked at her, then dove under the surface of the water, leaving her with only her tea and her thoughts. She leaned her head against the wooden structure she was sitting on and gulped the whole cup down. It burned her tongue, her throat, she could feel it burn all the way through her body until it settled in her stomach. It didn't compare to emptiness she felt inside though. Nothing would. She had permanently lost a piece of herself that no amount of sake would make up for. So she swore off it, for his sake.
She poured more tea.
Thank you all for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. I always thought this was a really cool scene in the manga and wandered what was going through Tsunade's mind at the time. Feel free to review, or not if you don't want to, no biggie.