Characters: Tsunade
Summary: Hands that heal and kill.
Pairings: None
Author's Note: Very short drabble. Don't complain about the length.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Calluses and scars might show, thick and shining, on the much-abused hands of other nin, but not on the hands of Senju Tsunade. Her hands are instead pale and perfect, immaculately manicured and soft. Not a kunoichi's hands but the hands of a princess instead (and that's what she is, isn't she?), and Tsunade, knowing them to be an asset to her, anxiously keeps them safe, keeps them pure; in her youth she wears gloves into battle constantly, and as she learns more on medical ninjutsu and breaks down walls in that area of ninjutsu she pumps chakra into cuts and bruises and shining mounds of flesh that might become calluses to make them go away.
Her hands are her greatest pride, and Tsunade will do anything to make sure they stay that way.
But as the years pass, things start to change.
Tsunade stares down at pale flesh and superimposed on top of skin she sees blood and grime. Sweat and tears. Years of suffering, all piled up for her eyes to see. Tsunade doesn't bother trying to wash her hands; she knows that these stains are not the sort of things that can be washed clean.
These hands have seen so much death, so much blood on top of them. They have healed and killed; been the salvation of villages and the ruin of them as well. Saved Naruto but couldn't save Dan, so much agony trapped under skin that seems so perfect but only hides the rot…
Tsunade holds her hands out to the light. They're nearly translucent under the sun.
She wonders why she can't see words of misery etched into the skin of her bitter hands.