Characters: Shizune, Tsunade
Summary: It's a meeting of the minds. That and Shizune pounced on her while she was hung-over in order to get Tsunade to agree with her.
Pairings: None
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
At first, Tsunade takes the girl in out of guilt, and though she never says it outright, Shizune, though a small child is no idiot. Children can sense these things, and Tsunade ought to have known that. She ought to have known that Shizune would pick up on it.
Shizune can tell that she isn't always wanted. It's most blatant when Tsunade has to rent a hotel room and leave her there in order to go drinking or to a gambling hall; the irritation is so thick it could be cut with a knife, and it's not like Tsunade's trying to hide how inconvenient the child with her is.
Shizune often wonders why Tsunade has her with her at all, in these moments.
They never come to a point of convergence, not when Tsunade's drowning her sorrows in sake and fruitless risk taking, and not when Shizune is trying to understand why it's simply not enough to go on with her life, and not dwell so much on the failures and losses of the past.
Never, at least, until Shizune is about eight years old.
"Tsunade-sama?"
When Tsunade doesn't answer this is how Shizune knows the older woman is still suffering from the effects of a hangover, last night's indiscretions coming back to haunt her. Even at eight, Shizune already knows how she won't be spending her adulthood.
They are walking on the road, as usual, through the highlands of northwestern Hi no Kuni, the hard-packed earth hard on Shizune's small feet. If Tsunade's head is still aching from last night, then Shizune's feet are still aching from the countless days of walking it took to get to the last village.
"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune is more insistent, tugging on her sleeve.
Tsunade swats her hand away negligently, grunting slightly in pain—odd; these are usually the sounds she makes in bed when Shizune tries to wake her up. "Cut it out, Shizune. What do you want?"
Shizune sucks in a deep breath and tells herself that it's only the hangover that makes Tsunade's voice so sharp. "I was wondering if… well…"
"Come on, girl, spit it out." Tsunade's voice is brisk. "I haven't got all day."
"I was wondering if you'd teach me medical ninjutsu."
At this, Tsunade's eyes clear a little of the miasma of alcohol still there. "What? Why on Earth would you want to know that?" The fact that she actually sounds genuinely confused discourages Shizune immensely, but not entirely.
So I don't have to watch you throw up in the toilet and watch you get drunk and hung-over for the rest of my life. Shizune has to bite her tongue to keep from saying that; understandably, Tsunade wouldn't be happy with that answer. But the one she gives is, in a way, is just as blunt. "Because, Tsunade-sama." Shizune stares earnestly up at her. "Because I want to do something useful. And because I like healing things." It's true; Shizune's already tried her hands with bandages and herbal remedies countless times on animals with cuts or infections.
Shizune also doesn't say that her entire family were medics, and that she wants to keep on the family tradition. That in itself will almost certainly be enough to drudge up painful memories for Tsunade, something Shizune honestly doesn't want to do.
"Okay." Somehow, that response is anti-climactic; really, Shizune expected more of a fight than this. Tsunade's voice is strangely neutral as she goes on. "When we get to the next town and I sober up, I'll start teaching you. It's about time your general training started, anyway. It'll be hard, though."
The girl's face lights up. "Oh, thank you, Tsunade-sama!"
Shizune knew she could get a yes out of Tsunade if she just hit her at the right time. Accosting her while she's hung-over is usually a good way of getting what she wants.
And, for once, both are in accordance with something.
Maybe, Shizune hopes, their lives will converge on one spot with this.
It's not too much to hope for, she thinks.