Disclaimer: Author does not claim any ownership over Masashi Kishimoto's intellectual property
Author: Here's Round Three (Two, chronologically). The confrontation between Tsunade and Kushina, vignettes with the younger generation of femme fatales. Another note: The last scene's format has been fixed and new content added. I went back to it and wrote in a tie-in to this upcoming scene.
Thank you readers for encouraging standards.
Scene 02: Lukewarm
Touching one of her blond locks, Tsunade bemusedly observed Kushina's display with wary care. Torn between being concerned at a kunoichi's maternal backlash and the odd fate of a fatal encounter with a woman whom upon reading the profile Tsunade had begun to sympathize with, Tsunade opted for the high road. "Explain?" she scoffed, mindful of the aqeous blade the woman projected, the chakra making them every as integral as the fire-haired woman's own limbs. "Narrow the field before you ask such questions."
Terse, Shizune looked to her for guidance, herself equally privy to the same life-sensitive classified material, but relying on her for interpretation and direction in this situation, where the whirlpool stranger, former-first kunoichi of Konoha had provocated on her own.
"Why make a scene?" Tsunade asked sincerely, turning the conversation, "Why the display if you are not going to attack?"
"I'm not?" Kushina replied playfully, releasing her hold on fluid weapons, allowing the water to dissipate back into the air from spray into mist. "Considering that my family has been all but buried -for all the wrong reasons- who do you think you are to reassure me that my return to this life, this village, this child, would be anything but a confrontation?"
"Once you take the poison you injected into the air, I will assist you." Tsunade groaned as Kushina released the secondary effects of her jutsu. "If you intend to commit suicide to prove a point, I won't stop you, but expect me to truly erase you from all the records, and your son for the worse I believe will grow up without ever even having this second chance to know you." she soberly threatened.
"Go-Hokage," pondered Kushina. A faint vulpine appearance graced her facade. "Daughter of the First, yes?"
"Ah, so the prodigal mystery has secrets of her own," Tsunade parried. "Don't make it difficult to be nice."
"The village has a leader now that can stand against hypocrisy?" Kushina grunted, "of course, the Uchiha clan is extinct, or rather, their numbers are controlled to a manageable level." The fact that the slip jarred Tsunade allowed Kushina to go on. "I'm not saying I trust you, or that I have any way to hold you to your word except as a mother to a leader, the elder of the village," another grin from the frown it elicited, "but I will take a chance."
"Don't act like everything is owed to you," Shizune bit out.
Drawing a glare, Kushina assumed an akimbo pose. "It isn't, but in the limited time I've been back, I've been a very," she emphasized, "very, busy girl. Loving the man fate-bound to be the Fourth kept me bitterly aware that I'd always be the other woman in his life next to his village, but it didn't keep me from becoming one with his world as he made me and his child his world. And you, wallflower of a mouse, should know best how dirty little secrets can change even the most set of minds."
Kushina could only barely complete a blink as within that space of time, Tsunade's temper broke and the Hokage proved her reputation as one of the Sannin, when she flash-strode abreast her left side, and comically, her right finger -with the horrible manicure- Kushina absurdly noticed, the instinct of a nin of a fallen land and the unrestricted age of warfare in which she matured and grew, could manipulate her chakra, and the air once more to combine an aqeuous barrier of chi and chakra that mitigated the full impact the Fifth Hokage could muster with a simple placating poke above her left breast.
The whirlpool kunoichi's heart skipped a beat in the most unromantic way. Muscle memory and reflex forced her to buckle her knees and go down, lest she allow the full force of the inhuman poke to ride through her body as it would have had she allowed the follow-through.
"Courtesy goes a lon-" Tsunade began to say, before the very air around her came alive and the rest of the room suddenly became very dry as the glass on the walls inhaled vapor from the outside, stressing them in a concave manner. A moment later, she released her chakra and the watery hold evaporated into mist not before Kushina countered southpaw, her own central finger flanked by the index and the ring, made their own admonishing poke into her solar plexus. The transfer of force directed the ground beneath each woman to fracture and crumple into a shallow crater.
She grinned at the equal riposte, having a grunt ripped from her lungs, little more, somewhat awed that the ingrate and brash had managed to touch her -on the attack no less.
Silence claimed several frenetic heartbeats between both sides.
Catching her breath and recentering herself, Kushina leaned back with a false look of admiration, sucking in another deep breath from how already echoes of pain were radiating from where one touch had knocked her sixth sense back into her.
"I'm beginning to see the resemblance," Shizune dryly commented from the sideline, herself caught aback by Tsunade's physical outburst to the temper-baiting manner of the Namikaze woman."
Deciding to settle the matter quickly before more unwanted attention came upon a very sensitive situation, the Hokage offered her. "I do too..." she murmured. Looking past the woman as one of the anonymous white masks revealed themselves, "look what you did..."
The whirlpook ninja unapoligitically shrugged.
"I'll take the first step," Tsunade told her plainly. "I owe that boy too much to deny him this, even as caustic as you are," she carefully defined. "Shizune, have one of Naruto's comrades escort Ms. Uzumaki-Namikaze to see her son, then meet me at the elder's council."
That drew surprise from the red-headed nin, "This is..." she drew out, "appreciated."
"The ANBU will be leaving you alone," Tsunade emphasized to the eavesdroppers, then groaned. "Meanwhile, this display has to be explained to that council of geriatrics." She gave her a sober glance. "Enjoy what you have, and know, I'm not for you, but I am for that boy."
"Why?" Kushina asked.
"With everybody's help," Tsunade told her, "he could become the first pre-emptive Hokage since his father. Its up to you whether or not you contribute to his future." With no response forthcoming, she told Shizune as she left. "I believe Sakura is still inside the building, introduce her as a distant relative of his before you leave them."
"Tsunade." Kushina said after her. When the Hokage looked over her shoulder, the whirlpool kunoichi gave her an eerily-familar thumbs-up. "Only the best!" she exclaimed in another haunting parrallel to the boy that had brought her out of retirement and spiritual limbo.
SCENE BREAK
Selection. Variety. Temptation. "I love not worrying about weight," boasted Sakura as and Hinata paced the serving line at the hospital, eyeing the various small-portioned viands and entrees. "A bit bland," she commented, underlying her own salivations, "but these medic types trim out all the heavy stuff."
Hinata observed Sakura, surprised at the change of moods the girl had undertaken. Though she considered her a friendly -albeit unfamiliar- acquaintance, Hinata was careful of the girl. Whilst Naruto had lived his life with an iron will that complemented the heart he wore on his shoulder, reserved Hinata was very critical of herself, and projected those same reflections at the boy. And naturally had a negative reaction to anything ill projected at him. Even as a friend, Sakura had built up negative instances with Naruto in spades, giving Hinata an indefinite disposition on the girl.
"Hinata?" Sakura gently chided, causing the pearl-eyed waif to address her directly, a direct confrontation the Hyuga heiress had not aptitude nor fondness.
"I just go by what looks delicious," she murmured. She shrugged bashfully, tapping a finger underneath her left cheekbone for emphasis. "Taking chances, I'm usually pleasantly surprised."
"Trust your blood limit, not your nose," Sakura twisted the saying with a thoughtful quirk of her head. Consciously avoiding the primary courses, the girl strode purposefully over to the dessert section and played the dangerous game of compensating cake with fruit, which Hinata silently was in spectacle of.
Immersed the the selection of confections, bon bons and cakes, Sakura lost track of time and when she finally settled on one of her first options -the Tira Misu- Hinata had already gone around her and finished her own orders. "Three sacks?" Sakura observed, staring the parka-donning violet, "Kiba eats that much."
The girl blushed and Sakura felt a strange discomfort at the parrallel she saw in the reserved wallflower. "Its not just for Kiba and me."
The admission of which caused Sakura to wrangle with a lopsided smile, feeling caught, a little annoyed, more so shamed by someone else from another team being more considerate of her last remaining comrade in Team Kakashi. A shy laugh. "Well, aren't you the flower," teased Sakura, a little put off. It escalated when she noticed that Hinata had already begun making her way back upstairs.
"I..." the shy violet fumbled with her words fingers fidgeting on the banister, "I should get this to Naruto," she blurted out, "-and Kiba! He's still asleep," she continued, the fingers movements almost taking the speed of a jutsu being signed, "Let's eat in Naruto's room."
Extending her stride, the strawberry nin walked hurriedly. Heel, toe, step. Heel, toe, why do I feel neglectful, step. Heel, toe, I'm caring for him already, why do I feel bad, step. So the mantra continued as she kept her comments on Hinata's bumbling bashfulness to herself.
At least you won't have to worry about him chasing after you anymore. The caricature of her libido spoke to her.
Its not that! He's too dense to even know when a girl likes him! Sakura argued in return.
Predictably, this voice could always make her dance, even in her own mind. So... it pondered, why do you seem so crestfallen?
Me? Sakura laughed internally. The idea was preposterous, even if she felt her heart tugging when she dealt with the openly-smitten yet reluctant girl. So much has happened, and I think I'm growing up faster than I ever wanted to.
Nice dodge, her avatar granted her. When you feel like being honest with yourself, I'll still be here.
"Sakura?" Hinata asked her at the landing in the lobby. "Sakura?"
She waved off the faint confusion in the girl's eyes. I swear, the entire way you act you draw pity. Why is it that being rude to you is like kicking the dog? Sakura mentally grumbled to herself. "Daydream, but here I am," she theatrically pirouetted, "back to the land of the living!" she finished with a flourish that ended with a bow that touched her right fingertips to her opposing toes.
"Shizune wanted to speak with you," Hinata explained to her, the girl meekly pointing out the stern -and currently uncomfortable- kunoichi softly murmuring with a very familiar looking stranger. Sakura noticed the deliberate sets of glances Hinata gave her between herself and the unfamiliar person.
Work?! Already... Sakura mentally resigned herself. The girl consciously draped carnation bang that draped free away from her forehead and gave Hinata a parting, conspiratorial quip. "I'll see you up at the idiot's room when I'm done with what Shizune has for me." Acting on a feeling, Sakura entered into an emotion-provoking combination. "Take care of him for me until I get back, alright?"
Watching the shy girl choke on a volatile mixture of emotions and hormones, Sakura acknowledged the deal before Hinata could even muster conherent words from reluctant stutters. "Whether that fool says so or not, he does need company..." Sakura soberly began before applying the trap. "But he is tender right now..." she left off before she hurried walked towards the two patiently waiting women, herself feeling conscious as to what they were saying about the scene unfolding in front of their eyes as she obtained one-way payback on a girl who she considered a little too kind for her own good. Kakashi, you would be proud.
End Scene.
Author's Notes. Chasing the rush of the read right now. I think the text is beginning to flow smoother, and longer now than it has for months. Expect vignette of subscene based scenarios. Simple enough to keep me on track.
Upcoming: Hinata's own POV on the upcoming events, old meets new in prelude to a reunion that could only be awkward.