So I'm going back and revamping this story chapter by chapter. This was the first story I wrote so I feel like it deserves to be cleaned up a bit. If you've read the story already, I'll be adding a lot of stuff and if this is your first time, enjoy the ride.
I Don't own Naruto
Tsunade looked at her reflection in the mirror and did a couple turns to see how she looked from different angles. Not too bad, she thought as she went to grab her purse. She was wearing a strapless black dress that cut off right above the knee and hugged her body like a second skin. She matched it with black four inch heels and golden loop earrings. She pinned her hair up into an intricate bun atop her head. She decided to dress up since she hadn't really worn anything that you would consider sexy in years. She locked the door of her apartment and started walking downtown to where Jiraiya said he would meet her.
It still felt weird hearing herself say that. The words "going on a date with Jiraiya" was something she thought she'd never hear leave her mouth, especially with how she was now. Maybe when she was a hopelessly romantic teenager she would consider the possibility, but she had grown up and moved on. Jiraiya, it seems, never did though. Lucky for him, she hadn't grown up as much as she thought she had. Maybe all it took was him nearly dying for her to realize she absolutely could not live without him.
Jiraiya was checking out his latest novel when he heard the click clack of heels on hard pavement. He looked back and could have sworn that his eyes were bulging out of his head. He coughed awkwardly and smirked as his eyes roamed up and down Tsunade's body, soaking in every curve and dip. Just when he'd thought he'd seen it all, every type and variant of woman to exist on this planet, Tsunade pulled something like this and blow him away. It wasn't every day that you met a woman who could seduce you with the curl of a finger and kill you just the same way. Not even he, an artist of articulation and words, could properly describe the dangerous elegance she exuded. There were no words that could do her justice, it seemed, so he settled with saying, "Tsunade, you look beautiful." Good enough.
Tsunade almost didn't recognized Jiraiya if it weren't for his mane of white hair. He stood there clad in a nice light blue button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of fitted dark blue jeans. She couldn't help but laugh at how strange it was to see her teammate in anything aside from those heavy robes that he constantly wore. She even thought she spotted some scruff adorning his chin and jawline, something she hadn't seen on him before. It suited him well. Actually, she'd almost forgotten how handsome her teammate had been. After a while he just became Jiraiya, not the "Lady Killer of Konoha," as he was so aptly known as. There was no denying that he cleaned up well, and she couldn't fault the women that fawned over him when he so much as winked at them. She did, however, still think he was a slut for exploiting his looks like he did. But she didn't care for that side of him, that flamboyant man-whore facade that he put up nearly ninety percent of the time. She wanted to see the Jiraiya that sat there brainstorming for a new story, the one that came into her office unannounced to ask her to drink with him, the one that didn't try so damn hard to act cool.
"What?" Jiraiya asked as Tsunade came up chuckling to herself. His eyes slid down to her breast by habit and was amazed at how that dress could hold them in, considering that it was cut lower than her normal clothes... if that was even possible. She couldn't blame him for staring tonight because goddamnit it was almost as if she was shoving them in his face, it was impossible not to stare. Flaunt what you got I suppose, he thought with a sigh.
"Nothing, nothing." Tsunade replied and looked up at him expectantly. She had to admit, she was feeling sort of excited, nervous even, at what the night may hold for her. She had been out with Jiraiya countless times before, but the two of them could definitely feel the difference between all those times they went drinking and this, whatever this new thing was.
They began walking down Konoha's main street towards the restaurant. "You look nice Hime. Why don't you dress up more often?" Jiraiya asked, looking down at her small figure.
"So pigs like you don't get any funny ideas." She replied without looking up. She cursed his height over her, it gave him a prime view of her cleavage and there was nothing she could do about it.
Jiraiya laughed and nodded thoughtfully. "I know better than to mess with you Tsunade, I can't say the same for other men though."
The two walked into the restaurant and were seated immediately. The restaurant was a rather expensive one and was known to have excellent food. Tsunade didn't worry about the price, knowing how much money Jiraiya made from his porn books. In fact, she wondered why she never bothered leeching money off him before instead of borrowing from loaners, at least then she wouldn't have had people chasing her down. Plus she wouldn't feel bad for stealing from him, since she was probably the star in more than one of his books. She must have been entitled to some kind of compensation.
"So," Jiraiya started in a serious tone, "Let's get down to business shall we? From what I observed, Pain has multiple forms and can apparently revive himself. One of the bodies has already been deposited to the autopsy lab, as you already know. I didn't recognize all of them, but one of them you already know." Tsunade's eyebrows knit together and she thought back to anyone that she might know that would become an Akatsuki leader. Who in the world cold he be talking about?
She gave up and asked, "Who was it? I can't think of anyone."
The waiter came by with their sake and they nodded in thanks and poured each other a cup. Jiraiya gulped his down and let out a content sigh. "Do you remember the three orphans we met in the rain village?" he asked. Tsunade thought for a while and let out a small gasp when it came back to her.
"The three who you trained for a year?" She took a sip of her sake to calm her nerves a bit. She'd been a little anxious since they got there. Of course she remember those three, they're the ones that took Jiraiya away from the village for and entire year, and for what? She had been so angry at him for leaving them at such a vital time, they were in the middle of a goddamn war for crying out loud. Orochimaru had even been peeved at Jiraiya ditching them, and he didn't even like the guy.
Jiraiya nodded and continued. "Well one of them held the fabled Rinnengan sage eyes." Tsunade's eyes widened and she looked at him in awe. That was impossible. The Rinnengan was the stuff of legends, they weren't even sure if it had actually existed.
"You never said anything about that when you came back all those years ago," she said hotly. Jiraiya wasn't the type to keep secrets from her, so she felt a little angry that he never revealed this information until now.
Jiraiya ran a hand through his hair nervously, "Well I didn't think it would be the best thing to share, y'know? The kid had a bright future ahead of him, and I didn't want them to be targeted in the midst of the war." He gave her a sheepish grin, to which she scoffed and downed another glass of sake.
"Whatever, none of that matters now because now he's the leader of the Akastuki and targeting your current student." A pained expression passed on his fcae, but it was gone just as soon as it came. Tsunade would have felt some guilt at digging into an open wound like that, but she was more than a little displeased with him at the moment. "But besides that, how are we supposed to stand against a man with that kind of kekkai genkai?" she asked with a worried look. What kind of power does one posses with that kind of ability? Her stomach lurched at the thought of it.
Jiraiya just shook his head and shrugged. "I really can't say yet, but I did learn something in the midst of battle." He lowered his voice, making Tsunade edge closer. "The real Pain isn't there. They may have had the same eyes as Nagato, but none of them held even a shred of resemblance. One of the Pains looked like one of the other orphans that I trained though, Yuhiko. What gets me is that Yuhiko didn't have the Rinnengan when he was little, but has it now." Jiraiya leaned back and took another sip of his sake. Tsunade was trying to grasp what he was saying, but couldn't come up with any logical explanation.
She sighed and massaged her temples. "What does it all mean though? How can there be more than one Rinnengan user? None of this makes any sense." Tsunade looked up at a frowning Jiraiya.
"When does anything ever make any sense Hime," he said mostly to himself, but she had heard him all the same. The waiter came around with their food and seemed to brighten the two up a bit. It's always hard to worry about humanity with an empty stomach. The two thanked the waiter and sniffed in the heavenly scent that was noodles.
"Why do you always call me Hime?" Tsunade asked, wanting to change the subject to something less dramatic.
"Because you're the granddaughter of the first Hokage, as well as the grandniece of the second, and on top of that the student of the third. That makes you a princess of the Hokages," Jiraiya replied with a mouth full of pasta.
"But you're the only one that calls me that," she said in an exasperated tone. "Besides, I'm the Hokage now, so that makes me the queen instead of just a princess," Tsunade continued defiantly, causing Jiraiya to chuckle a bit.
"I suppose you're right. I can't believe they didn't come to you in the first place to take up the spot after Sensei, you've practically been raised for the position of Hokage," he mused aloud. She had never really thought about it before, but she had always been immersed by the Hokage life whether she wanted to be or not. "But you're still just Tsunade-Hime to me, although it seems like Orochimaru never got out of the habit of calling you that either."
Tsunade frowned as the face of her old friend intruded her mind. Even though they were bitter enemies, he had never stopped talking to her like she was his teammate. Granted, she had always gotten along with him better than Jiraiya, making her possibly his best friend when they were young. It was just strange to think that no matter how far gone he'd become, he still saw her as the same Tsunade from their youth. "I guess I'm only Hime for one person now," she said somewhat bitterly.
"That's alright. You're still my Hime, and I'm still your knight in shining armor." He ran his finger around the rim of his glass, smiling crookedly at her. She wondered if he even knew that he was constantly smiling like that, or if it had just become a habit from constantly teasing her.
"Riding in gallantly on a giant toad? That's hardly noble," she said sarcastically. "Stop being so cheesy, you sound like a bad soap opera." She hid her rosy cheeks behind another sip of sake, hoping the blush that had appeared on her face could be passed off as her being tipsy.
By the time they were finished eating, the two were both drunk with laughter. Jiraiya paid the bill and helped Tsunade out of her seat. She was leaning on him the whole way to prevent herself from tripping and falling. Perhaps heels weren't the best option for getting drunk in. They were walking downtown but no one gave them a second look, knowing how their Hokage got sometimes. Or most of the time, actually.
Jiraiya tugged Tsunade a bit and led her to a place that he knew she had never seen before. "Come on," he said, "I wanna show you something." He guided her through an open forest, having to catch her a couple times due to her heels getting caught in the tree roots. She finally decided to take them off and walk barefoot. She was giggling the entire way, being the happy drunk that she was. It was such a polar opposite to the regular hot tempered Hokage that she was throughout the day.
Jiraiya led them to a bridge that crossed a lake that was filled with koi fish whose scales reflected a rainbow of color in the moonlight. He had sobered up a bit and leaned on the rail. Tsunade looked around in wonder. "It's beautiful." She whispered. "I've never been to this part of the village before. Where are we?"
Jiraiya turned so his back was facing the ponds and leaned his head back to look at the stars that shown bright above him. "No one knows about this place but me, I think anyways. I used to come here as a gennin. It's an abandoned hot spring that was forgotten over time. It's nice huh?" Tsunade nodded and went to look at the fish below. She was getting more sober by the minute and didn't like it one bit.
They stood in silence for a while, not wanting to break the serene environment. She glanced over at the man next to her, eyes wondering to the bare portions of his chest that were exposed from where his shirt had come undone. There were scars, deep ones that seemed to stretch endlessly on his tanned flesh, hiding themselves beyond where the fabric hid his skin. Some of them were old, faded with time, but she could tell just from a glance that there were fresh ones there, ones that hadn't even healed completely. She bit her lower lip and slowly said, "Jiraiya… I'm really sorry for putting you in such shitty situations. You barely got back alive and I don't know what I'd do if…" she trailed off.
Jiraiya looked at her questionably then noticed that one of his buttons had come undone, revealing the top of his chest. He pulled his shirt closed and laughed. "What? These? These are nothing. Not even a tickle." He sounded reassuring but she could see something dark pass behind his eyes.
"Stop trying to act so cool, you're a bad liar you know," she said threateningly. He stopped laughing and scratched his nose in thought.
"Fine, guess you always want to do it the hard way. Pain was the hardest opponent I had ever fought. Not even Hanzo was as hard to fight as Pain. In fact, Hanzo was killed by Pain." Tsunade thought back to when they were younger, before Orochimaru became hell bent on living forever, before their teacher had died, before she left the village. Hanzo was the one that gave them the title of Sannin and almost killed the entire village, and Jiraiya made it seem like Pain was able to swat him like a fly. She couldn't even begin to comprehend what must have happened in Amegakure, and the more she thought about the more her blood pressure rose. He wasn't going to give her a play-by-play anytime soon, that much she was certain of, and there were thousands of scenarios playing through her head of what could have happened, each one worse than the last.
Jiraiya interrupted her thoughts. "Hey, I have a crazy idea." Tsunade looked up at him to see that there was a mischievous twinkle in his eye, that much hadn't changed since they were little gennin running around playing ninja. No matter how old he got, or how much wiser for that matter, he would never be able to shake off the troublemaker tendencies that he had. She was thankful for that, it made her life a little more exciting, if not troublesome.
Tsunade rolled her eyes and looked at him with her head cocked to the side like he was some little kid trying to get her attention. "What now?" she asked with an exasperated sigh. She knew how all of Jiraiya's ideas ended, and she wasn't looking forward to cleaning up a mess this late at night.
Jiraiya looked at her through lidded eyes and with a crooked smile said, "We should take a dip in the ponds." Tsunade went to whack his shoulder but he caught her wrist. Why is it that I haven't been able to get a good hit in the last couple days, she wondered. Jiraiya rolled his eyes and in an annoyed voice said, "I'm not just trying to see you naked. I just thought that it'd be fun. Now are you going to play nice from now on?" he asked and let go of her wrist.
She yanked her arm back and huffed. "No promises. And that's one of the stupidest ideas ever. I am not getting wet in these clothes, especially after spending all that time on my makeup. And I'm sure as hell not gonna' skinny dip with you here."
Jiraiya smirked, "Does that mean that you'd do it if I wasn't here? I mean I could always walk away for a minute and-"
"Oh shut up!" Tsunade snapped. Jiraiya just laughed, then checked his watch with a sigh. It was fun while it lasted, he thought. "You know, I really did worry about you after you left."
Her voice was soft and sincere. He turned to see her face, but she had her back to him, busying herself by tossing small pebbles into the water. He didn't know what to say. Sorry? That wouldn't do, not to make up for all the trouble he put her through. Thank you? That just made him sound desperate. She didn't expect him to reply though, so she continued anyways. "I can't tell you how much you mean to me Jiraiya, believe it or not. I didn't realize it until you were gone, until the thought of never seeing you again became a very real possibility. I don't know who I would turn to if it ever came to that, since you were always the one for me to fall back on in case I needed support. There's no one in the village, in the entire world even, who could replace you. You get on my nerves, but I wouldn't take you any other way. All those years that we didn't see each other, I forgot what it was like to have a friend like you, one that I could wake up in the middle of the night to talk to, that I could get belligerently drunk with, and after you and Naruto came to me to ask me to become Hokage, all these feelings came rushing back to me."
She turned to him now, meeting his unwavering eyes with a heartfelt smile. He was just watching her, without a smirk or snappy comment for once. He had been waiting to hear her say these words since he first met her, and it was so surreal hearing them after all this time. He didn't want to ruin it or interrupt her with something stupid. "I guess what I'm trying to say is thanks for keeping your promise, for coming back I mean." They shared a comfortable silence after that. There wasn't anything left to say on the matter, him being there with her was all he needed to give her. There was an warm smile on his face as he continued to gaze down at her.
"We should go Hime, its getting pretty late." He said after a while, turning as he did so to begin walking back. Tsunade followed, heels in hand. They walked back in silence. All the shops had already closed and the only light that shone was from the moon. Tsunade was watching the little details that made Jiraiya him. The way he slouched a bit with his hands in his pockets. The way he shuffled his feet, probably because he wasn't used to wearing shoes that weren't 6 inches off the ground. I wonder how his hair got that long. How does he even clean hair like that? Or brush it for that matter. And I wonder what those red lines are for, he's never really brought it up before. I should bug him about it sometime.
Jiraiya was doing the same with Tsunade, how the hell do boobs get that big? Not that I'm complaining. Jiraiya thought as he looked down at the small women. He'd always loved the way she carried herself, like she had nothing to prove. Whenever he looked at her face his eyes always unintentionally focused on the small purple triangle at the top of her forehead, resting above the eyes that he loved so much. They could either be soft honey drops or hard amber stones, depending on who they were on.
They stopped at the front of her apartment and stood awkwardly, not knowing what to do next. Tsunade took the lead by unlocking her door, "Well I guess I'll see you la-" she was interrupted when a pair of warm lips sealed off her own. Her eyes widened in shock once her brain was finally able to process what was going on.
Well at least she hasn't punched me yet, Jiraiya thought, that is until he felt a hard shove to his chest. The two stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, waiting for the other to react to what had just happened. Tsunade was shaken up by his abrupt gesture, but not enough to keep her from shooting an icy glare that could kill at him. She couldn't think straight right now, her hormones were raging through her and she reacted the only way she was used to.
Jiraiya instantly regretted his actions, but he hadn't meant to do it. His body moved without him thinking, it was like he went on autopilot in the worst way possible. Now she looked like she was about to strangle him, and he didn't blame her. God, he knew she hated being caught off guard like that, why'd he have to go and do something so stupid. "Tsunade, I'm so so-"
He was cut off when a resounding slap made contact with his face. Damn, that hurt more than her punches, he thought with a wince. His face burned, but he tried again anyways. "Tsunade let me ex-"
"Shut up," she interrupted sharply. "Don't talk. You're not even worth a punch you pig." With that, she slammed the door behind her, throwing her heels and purse onto the floor by the doorway. She made a beeline for her bathroom, peeling off her clothing and throwing it wherever it landed as she walked. Turning the shower onto the hottest setting, she leaned her head against the wall of her shower and let out a shaky breath, shivering as the scolding water rolled down her head and onto her face. She closed her eyes to try and calm herself.
What had just happened? Had Jiraiya just kissed her? It all seemed so distant, like she was just a spectator to the whole event. Her now rational mind cringed at the look he had given her after she shoved him away, he hadn't deserved the reaction that he got. He had caught her off guard, and she automatically responded in the only way she knew how to. He should have known better than that though. She banged her head softly against the wall, cursing under her breath at how vicious she was to him. Did't she tell herself she was going to give him a chance?
It was all moving much to fast for her, that was all. She had been rejecting him for years, pushing him farther and farther away each time, expecting him to just spring back up. She needed some time to adjust, to cope with her emotions and this new relationship that she was willing to try with him. They were charting into unknown boundaries after all. This time, she might have finally pushed him far enough that he wouldn't come bounding back though, and the thought of that frightened her.
Jiraiya stood at her doorway for longer than he meant to, but he was too stunned to move. After a while, the reality of things started to set in and he backed away with a sad smile. "Goodnight Tsunade, love you too," he whispered to himself before walking away with nothing more than a throbbing cheek and a bleeding heart to show for it.
Thanks for reading, reviews are very much appreciated, and have a nice day. :)
