-.o.-.o.-.o.-.o.-
6 Years Old
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Tsunade
Tsunade snorted as Naruto glared at her from where he was panting on the grass covered hill. Minato was shakily standing on his feet, and Gaara was right next to him, hands trembling as he held his kunai.
"You brats ready to give up yet?" she called arrogantly, putting her hands on her hips. Somewhere behind her Jiraiya snorted and she rounded on him, eyes blazing.
"Do you want to join them Jiraiya?"
He squeaked in fear and held up his hands. "No, no! I was just laughing at them being ready to give up. In fact…" The corner of his lip twitched as he pointed behind her, and she whirled around in time to dodge Naruto's fist. Then she kicked him back down the hill with a pretty decent blow, and Gaara came at her from the right. She grabbed his arm and threw him into a charging – but not fast enough – Minato, sending them both flying back down the small hill. She smirked evilly when they all glared at her.
They all have something individual they need to work on, but the biggest thing is their teamwork. She studied them as she thought, allowing them to regain some strength. She had been working them pretty hard lately though. They need it, she thought ruthlessly. If they can get their shit together and form a team, they'd be nigh unbeatable.
It had only been a week since Jiraiya and his boys had found her, and she still couldn't believe that she had been talked into training them for a month. As she set her feet, preparing herself for the rush of attacks from the three, she could admit silently to herself that she wasn't talked into it. She could claim she was all she wanted, but really, this had been won fair and square.
Damn, dirty kids.
Naruto had made a bet with her that he and his brother could win her a lot of money in exchange for training. She had agreed, and lo and behold, they had won her enough that she could pay off her debtors in this village, and still have some left over.
Her attention was snapped back to them when Naruto tensed, telling her that he was going to attack. She caught a clumsy kick from Naruto then grabbed the other, forcing him to hold his body up in the air.
"Stop!"
Everything froze, and she leveled her glare on the one in her grasp. "You're short Naruto. Now, that isn't always a bad thing, since when people see you, they'll underestimate you. Take advantage of it."
While she knew he resented it, it was true. He was only 3'4, pretty short for a boy of 6. Even Minato was taller, though only 3'6, while Gaara was the tallest at 3'10.
She moved his foot from chest level, holding his small body up easily, and lowered him to the ground. Then she patted her knee. "You want to go for the knees and hips, because you get more leverage and damaging power. You'll lose it if you go higher, unless Minato or Gaara is distracting them and you can jump."
I could give them some hint as how to form this team. "You have the brute strength, your brother has the speed, and Gaara has the long range attacks."
For being short, Naruto is going to have a lot of power. He's gonna be a brute when he gets older, she thought with a grin.
Then she threw him suddenly into the other two, where they were a little too slow to dodge. They did catch the flying boy though, even if they staggered a bit.
Even though they glared she had to admit, Jiraiya did well in raising these three. They hardly ever talked back to her, and did everything that she said.
"Now, make up a plan and come at me again. There's no way the three of you shouldn't be able to take me down at least once if you do it right."
Naruto perked up at that, standing and brushing off his pants. The hyper blond was already bouncing on his heels, any bad feelings gone. Need to respect him for that at least. "You really think so baa-chan?"
Her eyebrow ticked and she gave him an evil smile. "Yes."
She used shunshin to appear in front of him, and thumped him hard enough on the head that he fell on his ass, whining. "And don't call me that! You have ten minutes."
She whipped away from them and sat herself down by Jiraiya and Shizune, accepting the cup full of saké from her teammate.
"You think they can actually do it?" he asked. She nodded, smirking as she leaned against the tree. It was the middle of summer in Kusa, and the shade under the oak was a nice, cool spot.
"I wouldn't have told them that if I didn't think the little idiots could do it," she muttered before downing the liquor.
Jiraiya filled her cup again as he hummed. "Minato told me that you're teaching him medical jutsu."
"Tch. He's the only one that has the control for it. As it stands, he'll never be on the same level as me or even Shizune, but he'll be damn close. Besides, your team needs a medic, and he's the best candidate."
It was quiet for a moment, the only sound the soft, indistinct murmuring of the boys down the hill. She hummed, voicing thoughts she'd had since she met them.
"You know, Jiraiya, I think you should spend time teaching Naruto some of your special moves. Tch, Naruto isn't special," she said in response to his surprised look. "Minato is like his dad - he's got the speed instead of strength." She hummed thoughtfully, now sipping her saké. "Though…with the wind flash thing those two have…I guess they're pretty damn fast."
"Yea. Who ever knew that it was something Minato gave them when they were babies?" At least, that's the theory he believed.
The twins didn't know how they could do it, but they had told him that they had always known the small, pinky-nail sized seal that allowed them move like that. Over the years, they had embedded it into anything nearby when they had stopped. There was only one stipulation however. It could not be put on or in anything that was living, or once was.
They didn't know why either, only that it didn't work when they tried. They also had to be written in their combined blood.
When he had finally gotten them to explain what it was, they had told him that their father did it with his natural affinity, lightning. Except the Yondaime had somehow twisted it into a space-time jutsu, somewhat like the shunshin. Using his elemental affinity just made it easier. Now they on the other hand, didn't use it as a space-time. He hadn't quite figured it out yet, and they didn't know, but it seemed like they simply disintegrated and let the wind take them to the next seal. The farther apart the seals, the more chakra, which was why they had so many scattered over the Elemental Countries.
In battle, they used the same technique that the Yondaime did. Except, instead of his special kunai, they used tiny pebbles with the seal embedded within them. So if they lost one, all anyone would see is a plain, dull rock. It was basically the same thought behind the stones that hung around his, Kakashi's, Gaara's and Sarutobi-sensei's. He wouldn't be surprised if by the end of this training session, Shizune and Tsunade would have matching stones.
Tsunade stared at her teammate as he stared off into space, and smirked when one of the twins threw a pebble at her. "You'll have to do-"
She dropped her cup and scrambled backwards around the tree as she got a face full of blonde and wind, and ran smack into Gaara's sand. It enclosed her completely except for her head, and while she knew she was strong, she also knew she wasn't quite strong enough to break out of the chakra laced sand; especially when it was filled with Shukaku's as well.
Naruto was beaming at her, bouncing the pebble that had hit her in his hand.
"Alright idiots, you got me," she admitted, and smiled a little when the two blonds whooped in happiness, and even the ever stoic Gaara cracked a small smile.
Brushing stray sand off her clothes when she was released, she glanced at Jiraiya, who was looking a little pained.
"What's wrong with you?" she asked. He coughed, sheepishly scratching the back of his head.
"Well, I forgot to tell you how they do their wind flash jutsu. You see the stone that Naruto is holding?"
She nodded. "The pebble?"
"Yea. Well, that pebble has a very small seal embedded within it by the Kyuubi's chakra. It's the same premise as the Yondaime's jutsu. They throw the stone, activate the seal inside, and follow it."
"But…" She frowned. "How?"
"Wind," Minato said simply as the three sat in front of the adults. Naruto sprawled on his back, staring up at the sky, and Gaara put his head on the blonds stomach, his legs thrown over Minato's lap. Minato settled his hands on the pale legs, and all three of them looked extremely comfortable.
"Wind?" she asked, hating that she sounded stupid, but she just didn't get it.
"Yea, wind. Uh, how to explain it…" Minato muttered to himself, eyes glazed and thoughtful.
"Without an affinity, it would require the use of dangerous levels of chakra." Surprisingly, it was Gaara who spoke, his voice calm as usual. "It can be done, but even for us with a Bijuu's chakra to call on, it would exhaust us quickly. From what I understand the Yondaime used lightning, and traveled along the bolt. Though he was able to change it into a time-space jutsu. Hmm…anyway. They use wind. By using an affinity, it lessens the chakra they use, as well as giving a medium to travel with."
He hummed slightly as Tsunade thought it through. It made sense, actually. "What about the other elements?"
"We haven't figured out how to do it with others," Naruto replied, yawning and putting his hands behind his head. "At this point, I don't think it can be done. Fire, water, and earth don't have quite the same properties as lightning and wind."
Tsunade hummed again. That made sense too. Lightning and wind were the two most destructive elements, and also the fastest. Also, no matter how she thought about it, she just couldn't see it being done with any of the other three.
She was thrown out of her thoughts by a loud squeal from Naruto.
"Ero-Sennin! The Kyuu's wanted us to show you something! Princess wanted to ask something too…" His eyes scrunched up as he tried to remember what his Bijuu had said, and Minato sighed.
"After seeing it, Princess and Laz want to know if it qualifies as a special element or not, like Gaara's sand."
Tsunade blinked at the names. Princess and Laz? Who… Then she remembered. Jiraiya had told her that somehow the original Kyuubi had been split into two entities after being sealed, twins just like Minato and Naruto. No one knew how it had even happened; only that it did.
"Uh," Jiraiya said, blinking a few times. "I suppose. You want to do it here?"
"No. We should be on water for this." Minato and Naruto smirked, and even Gaara snickered a little, telling her that he knew what it was too. "We don't want to burn down everything."
"There's a large lake behind us," she supplied, curious. They jumped to their feet and shot off into the trees, and the three adults got to their feet more slowly, exchanging looks.
"Well it's something to do with fire," she said dryly, and Shizune grinned while Jiraiya laughed.
"Mmm. It should be interesting if it's something that the Kyuubi's showed them."
They made it to the lake and found the blonds already standing on the surface, Gaara relaxing on a stone ledge, pants rolled up and naked feet in the water.
"Hey hey! You guys ready?" Naruto called to them and they nodded. Tsunade sat cross-legged on the ground and crossed her arms.
She watched with narrowed eyes as what looked like a small blue flame started between their feet. The water below began to steam, and it only got thicker as the flame began to slowly engulf their bodies.
It wasn't long before they were completely covered, columns of steam rising around them and into the sky. Then both boys opened their eyes, and said a word that she couldn't hear.
Her jaw dropped and eyes bulged at what happened. The blue disappeared from the flame and the steam increased tenfold, almost making a fog around them. The only way she knew that they were still surrounded was the way the air warped and bent from the heat.
Standing, she started to walk over to them, but she only got a few feet onto the water before they yelled, "Don't come closer!"
"Why not?" she yelled back, a little miffed.
"We…can't control it properly yet! Don't…want to…kill you…" Minato yelled, and with just the little bit of lessening the distance between them, she could see the strain on their faces.
"Baa-chan…please, go back…" Naruto said, his voice tight. "We're…loosing it…"
She hightailed it away, and as soon as her foot stepped on solid ground, the technique exploded. She was thrown into Jiraiya by a wave of blistering heat, and they were only protected from being boiled alive by a hasty, pure chakra barrier from her teammate.
She whirled around, her heart thumping with fear for the boys, and sighed quietly in relief when she saw that Gaara had caught them with his sand and was slowly bringing them to shore. Her relief turned to agitation as she stalked over to them, smacking them both on the head as soon as they were deposited onto the bank.
"Baka! You don't use techniques that could kill you and other people until you can control them!"
Naruto glared at her, rubbing his head. "Then how are we supposed to learn how to control it if we don't practice!"
She opened her mouth to argue back, but Minato's quiet voice stopped her. "Tsunade-hime, please. We knew you could protect yourselves, which is why we felt confident enough to show you. No harm will come to us when we practice that, and we have only done it when no one else is around."
Still peeved, she glared at them, switching it to Gaara when the small red head walked up. "You knew about this?" She demanded.
He shrugged. "I knew. I've been with them each time."
"And you didn't warn us?"
Gaara just shrugged again, giving her a little smirk which sent her temper flaring dangerously. "Minato is right. The three of you can protect yourselves."
"You little…" she snarled, but was stopped from strangling the bastard by her teammate, switching her glare to him as he stood in front of her.
"Tsunade-hime, I would prefer you not to kill my charges," he said with a smile, and she closed her eyes, deliberately reining her temper in. When she felt it was at a more manageable level, she opened them and glared at the kids around her. Taking vicious satisfaction in the fear in the faces when she smiled, she pointed back the way they had come.
"You have to the count of three to get out of my sight and back to the hill. If you're not practicing taijutsu by the time I get back, I am going to have a conversation with your Bijuu, and tell them not to give you any of their chakra for a week."
All three gaped at her, eyes wide in astonishment. That was a new threat. It didn't matter that she didn't know how she could pull it off, but if they didn't listen, she would find a way.
"But…baa-chan…" Naruto whined, and squeaked as he dodged her fist, sprawling ungracefully on the ground.
"One," she started, holding up a finger as her eyebrow twitched. When they just looked at each other, her eyes started snapping fire. "Two."
She smirked as they all rushed away, looking back out to the pond. She noted the difference in the water levels and blinked in surprise. It was at least a good two inches down from where it had been before they did their technique. The air was steamy around them, slowly dissipating in the gentle, constant wind.
"Do you suppose that was regular fire?" she asked quietly.
Jiraiya shook his head, and she fell in step with him as he started walking back towards Shizune. "No. The temperature of it was hot enough to melt sand." He held out a hand, and she narrowed her eyes at the bit of clear, smooth glass that was there. Taking it, she blinked at the faint hint of Gaara's chakra that was still attached. It had to have happened when he caught the twin's right after the explosion.
"For it to be like this…" she said quietly.
"Right. It burned away all the impurities making it clear, and it's completely smooth. You only find that with obsidian, which is made with-"
"Lava."
They looked at each other, thoughts whirling. If the twins could control something that was the same temperature as a substance that could melt stone…
Jiraiya pulled something out of his shirt, and looked down at it as though he was seeing it for the first time. "So that's how…"
"That's how what?" she asked, stepping closer to see the stone. To her, it looked like an ordinary, polished piece of quartz, no bigger than the center of her palm. It was a flat circle, and only the width of her pinky. The light happened to catch it just right and she swore she could see… "Can I see that?"
Jiraiya shrugged and took the chain off. As soon as it touched her skin, it pulsed with the combined chakra of the Kyuubi's and the twins, and she almost dropped it. It felt like a warning, and her instincts were screaming at her to drop it, but she didn't. At least now she knew what she had seen was true. There was a seal inside the stone. Not inscribed on the outside. Actually inside it.
"Jiraiya, what-"
She got nothing else out as two very pissed and agitated chakras came barreling their way. She barely had a chance to step back into a taijutsu stance, automatically reacting to the threat of violence coming towards her, when two blond and red blurs attacked.
"Why did you take it from him?" Minato demanded as she twirled around, blocking furious strikes from him.
"We trusted you Tsunade!" Naruto yelled, and it hurt her more than she would say to have him call her by her first name. She swore as he almost dislocated her knee, punching him in the solar plexus and sending him crashing back into a tree. She stepped back, eyes narrowed as she studied the icy, pissed expression on Minato's face.
"It's not what you think!" She prepared to defend herself as Minato frowned, readying himself to attack her again, but then Jiraiya stepped in.
He grabbed the back of Minato's shirt, and threw him into the same tree that Naruto was still trying to untangle himself from. It had been a long time since she had seen such a furious expression on his face as he faced the twins. She sat down and started to heal her knee and the bruises and the cuts she had gotten from the brief exchange, listening the entire time.
"Boys! Explain yourselves, now! Haven't I been telling you that you need to learn patience?" His hands were on his hips, and she smirked a little to see the sheepish expressions on their faces as they stared at the ground, fidgeting.
"But, Ero-Sennin…" Naruto whined, and got a sharp rap to the top of the head for it.
"No, don't 'Ero-Sennin' me Naruto! You rushed into it, instead of using your head! What the hell would make you think that she would take it from me? She wanted to look at it, so I let her! You didn't even bother to ask what was going on first! Because of it, you're going to spend the rest of the day practicing your control! Now. Go apologize, and do it right."
Their faces blanched when he mentioned the control exercises, and she smirked when they bit their lips, looking at her. They rose to their feet and walked over slowly. She blinked in surprise when they gracefully went to their knees, putting their hands on the ground and bowing to her.
"Our deepest apologizes, Tsunade-hime," they said in unison, and she sighed. She was still annoyed, but they hadn't done any lasting damage.
"It's fine," she snapped, almost regretting her sharp words when they both flinched, foreheads still pressed to their hands. "Get up. I said its fine."
They glanced at each other and then sat back on their heels, watching her with apprehension.
"Uh, you probably have questions," Naruto said quietly, giving her a small version of his trademark grin. Rolling her eyes, she glared at him.
"No shit." Holding up the stone she dangled it in front of her, caught for a moment by the beautiful way the quartz caught the light. "What is this exactly?"
"It is a piece of quartz," Minato said, and she transferred her glare to him.
"Once again, no shit. What is the seal inside of it, and how did it get there?"
"Ah, well…that one is a little harder to explain," Naruto chuckled nervously.
"With the help of Jiraiya and the Kyuubi's, we designed a seal that allows the wearer to tell us if they need to meet with us, or if they are in danger." Of course the clinical explanation would come from Minato.
"Yea! We also added our wind seal to it, so if the person is in danger, we can go right to them!"
She frowned at the explanation from Naruto, and looked to the patient Minato for the rest of it.
"What he means, is that the seal has three levels to it. The first is only if the wearer needs to talk, nothing life threatening. Second is the need to talk, but urgently. Third is if their life is in danger. If it ever is taken away from the person it has…bonded to, for lack of a better word, it alerts us immediately."
Her frown only deepened as she examined the seal more closely, only now seeing the faint pulse of red chakra outlining the outermost part of the coin sized seal.
"So as soon as I touched it, it alerted you?" They nodded. "Is this how you know how to use the fire jutsu that you showed us?" Another nod. "How?"
"The Kyuubi's are fire based Bijuu, which is how we were able to embed the seal directly into it. We carved the seal onto the surface, and they sunk it into the stone, and then melted it back over the seal so it never wears away." Minato shrugged and turned his head to look at Naruto. It was then that she saw the small pulse of white in the gauged plugs that were in their ears.
Those must be the receptors, she thought.
"Anyway," Naruto continued, after the silent conversation they had. "They taught us how to change their chakra into actual fire, and then spread it over our bodies." They shrugged again, but she saw the embarrassed pride they had. Then Naruto grinned cockily, putting his hands behind his head. "It was nothing after that! Now we just gotta learn control!"
"How do you make it invisible?" Jiraiya asked, eyes narrowed and thoughtful.
Naruto gave him a cocky smirk, and Minato smiled smugly before chorusing: "We used your pervy jutsu!"
Jiraiya's jaw dropped open, and Tsunade turned to look at him. She knew exactly what jutsu they were talking about. "Your technique, huh?" Her voice was sickly sweet, warm with the old anger she always held for her perverted teammate, and he turned to her, face pale.
"Tsu-Tsunade-hime, I-"
"I don't want to hear it Jiraiya," she snapped, waving her hand. There was another question she had. "Why do the Kyuubi's help you two so much? From what I understand, the Bijuu don't work with their Jinchuuriki like they do with you."
She blinked at the change that came over them both, wariness and trepidation twisting her belly.
They both drew themselves up to their full height. Their faces closed down into hard masks, their eyes becoming cold chips of sapphire.
"We cannot tell you that, Tsunade-hime," they both said with a bow, and even their voices were rougher, deeper.
"Why not?" she asked, despite the nagging feeling that she should just drop it now. She swallowed her own rapidly beating heart when they both looked her in the eyes, and she felt the pull of their personality just like Jiraiya had warned her about. They continued to stare her down, and she felt as though her soul was being dissected, every failure and triumph laid bare before the ancient, haunted eyes.
She forced her gaze away, and shakily pressed a hand to her temple as dizziness washed through her, leaving as quickly as it came. Taking a deep breath, she spoke without looking at them. "Fine. Keep your secrets." She knew her voice was bitter, but didn't care. "Now stop with the eye thing."
"We all have our secrets, baa-chan," Naruto said quietly, and she glanced at them. They were back to normal, but their eyes shone with melancholy. She wondered what other secrets the two geniuses had in their brains, but from the display just now, she knew she would never push. Not unless she wanted all her secrets bared to the world too.
~o~o~o~o~
Later that night, Tsunade and Jiraiya were sitting silently on the roof of the inn they were all staying at, when two blond heads made their way over the edge. Tilting her head curiously, she exchanged a look with her old teammate as the two walked with solemn faces to them and knelt, using chakra to stick to the tile.
"Can we help you two hellions?" she asked, grinning a bit when they smirked at her new title for them.
They exchanged a brief look, smirks falling off, and Minato took a deep breath. "Jiraiya, we need you to tattoo something on us."
Tsunade was taken aback, but Jiraiya just hummed. "What is it this time? You both already have storage seals."
"It's…well…" Minato blushed a bit, his eyes guarded. Naruto rolled his and smirked.
"It's a seal so we can read minds," he said bluntly, and it made both of them blink.
"Read minds?" she asked, and took a drink of her saké. "Why would you need to do that?"
"We're shinobi baa-chan," Naruto said as his smirk widened when she scowled. "If we can use whatever the hell it is with our eyes to our advantage, there won't be any need for us to break into people's minds. Princess and Laz helped us with it. They said that if we activated it and caught the person with both our eyes, then we'd be able to look through their memories like a picture book."
"But…how does it work?" she asked, seeing the validity in having such a seal. Whatever it was with them – be it a Kekkei Genkai or simply their personality – it would be stupid for them not to capitalize on it. She scooted closer to Jiraiya when he was handed a piece of paper, the seal drawn on it. She narrowed her eyes as grey ones opened wide in shock, and poked him in the side of the head.
"Explain it to me damnit."
He blinked, and the fact that he didn't blush or stammer something told her how into the seal he was. His index finger began to trace the inside symbol – infinity.
"I can't believe you two found a way to use this," he whispered, voice awed and slightly scared. He glanced to Tsunade, and smiled thinly. "The infinity symbol is a powerful one, because instead of a regular symbol, this one can't be deactivated and will use chakra permanently...and continuously. For all the others, you put a set amount of chakra into it, and that's it." His finger then started to trace the three circles overlapping the symbol, the smallest encircling the point where the infinity crossed. The second was bigger, crossing the center of the loops. The third circled it all.
"This largest circle is an inhibitor, so the infinity doesn't use more chakra then it should, and it can be turned off. From the looks of it…this would only take as much chakra as a Kage Bunshin?" He glanced up, and smirked when they nodded. "The second is where it really starts. I would say that this is based off the Yamanaka's jutsu, and the Sharingan. This is what would allow you to look into their minds and see their memories?" The twins nodded again. "The third, the smallest one, is purely Sharingan. It transfers what you saw directly into your brain for storage. How…"
The twins smiled slightly, and shrugged. "The Kyuubi's were the ones that really designed it," Minato said with another shrug. "They told us what to draw, and we did."
"Have you tried it out yet?" he asked, and they nodded, eyes darkening.
"Gaara…he let us try it out on him. Ero-Sennin…" Naruto hissed quietly, and Minato automatically took his hand, face cold. "The things that happened to him…one of these days I will see his father dead and dragged through the streets."
The ferociousness of his tone took Tsunade back, but she was even more surprised to see Minato and Jiraiya nodding their heads, eyes hard. She wondered what had happened to the red head. She knew his father was the Kazekage, but she knew it wasn't her place to ask. He had been declared dead a year ago, a few months after he had gone missing, but that obviously wasn't the case.
"So, will you?" They both spoke at the same time, something she still had to get used to.
Jiraiya shrugged and poured himself a new drink, while pulling out a small scroll from his hip. "Sure. How big, and where?"
"Both temples, and hopefully no bigger than it has to be. We managed to condense it down so it fits there, but we were wondering if you could make it smaller."
Jiraiya hummed as he sipped his drink, studying the seal. She simply sat there, knowing this entire discussion was way out of her league.
"Let me look it over tonight, and I'll do it in the morning before you start training with Tsunade. For now though, go to bed. Gaara will be missing you two."
As if on cue Naruto rubbed his forehead, and Jiraiya sighed. "Shukaku still giving Princess trouble?"
"Yea," Naruto sighed, starting to rub his eyes and yawning. "They're getting pretty pissed at him, actually. If he doesn't quit, they might do something drastic."
Now she was even more confused. "Wait. What the hell does the Kyuubi's have to do with Shukaku?"
All three looked at her, but it was Minato who spoke first. "That's right…you don't know. To make a long story short, the Kyuu's are more powerful then Shukaku, and one of them makes sure that he doesn't try to take over Gaara's mind at all times."
She frowned. It made sense, but… "Why can't you just make a seal for that, instead of having one of the girls constantly on guard?"
Naruto and Minato shook their heads. "We tried. Even with Jiraiya's and their help, there's no seal we could think up that would suppress his mind, but still allow Gaara access to his chakra. It's either both, or neither."
She nodded. Now it made a lot more sense. "You said if he doesn't quit. I'm guessing that he is constantly trying to break free of their hold to take over Gaara?" They nodded. "What would they do, exactly, if he doesn't stop?"
They both just gave her a tired look, and Minato answered. "Probably kill the fool."
"But…I thought that was impossible."
"Naw," Naruto muttered, stretching out on the roof with his head on Jiraiya's crossed ankles. Minato did too, except his head was on a powerful thigh. The entire picture was one of comfortable familiarity, and she knew they sat like this a lot. "Bijuu can be killed, but it takes so much to do it that it's not worth it. Just easier to seal them into someone, and be done with it. Besides, if a Bijuu is killed, a new one will just take its place."
"Won't that kill Gaara though?"
"No," Minato said, yawning too. "When we said that they'd kill him, we didn't mean literally. They would just kill his sentient mind. His conscious, basically."
The twins abruptly shared a sly look and she could see the light bulbs going on in their brains. "That's not a bad idea, actually." And just like that they were off in their own world, starting with Naruto.
"She could…"
"Saves us trouble."
"Another one might…"
"Not likely."
"Sure?"
"Mostly."
"Not now though…"
"Yea, few years."
"Stronger…"
"Yes."
"Ok! Stop it!" Tsunade demanded, glaring at the two of them as they blinked and looked at her. "Both of you go to bed, now! I don't want to hear either of you bitching about being tired in the morning!"
They both squeaked and scrambled down the roof, leaving the adults in blessed silence.
"I don't get how you've handled those two since they were born," she muttered, smirking as he laughed.
"It's been an adventure, let me tell you."
~o~o~o~o~
Tsunade scowled at the three boys, grumbling as she tried to free herself from her current prison.
"Give it up baa-chan!" Naruto caroled. "Admit it! We got you this time!"
"Yea right gaki," she sneered, thinking that they did actually have her this time. And it was still a week shy of their one month mark. The three of them really were geniuses, able to work together flawlessly and come up with plans on the fly. Like this one.
She scowled again and tried to use her chakra to create flaws in the glass prison that was encasing her. She had been scared for her life when that special fire of theirs had come roaring towards her, but all she had gotten was a sensation of heat as the sand enclosing her had been turned to glass. Not even her clothing was singed.
"Tsunade-hime…" Minato said quietly, and she scowled at him. "I refrained from sealing your chakra because of who you are. If you were an enemy, it would have been the first thing we did after enclosing you in that prison."
"Then why don't you?" she challenged, increasing her chakra output. It was scary that she couldn't find any flaws in the glass to exploit, but she was also filled with a sense of pride. They hadn't been working together like this when she first started training them.
She saw a flash of blond, and suddenly she couldn't sense her chakra at all. Gaping, she slumped in the prison, starting to feel disorientated with the sudden loss of half herself.
"Ok, ok, you win," she gasped. Her vision was starting to blur and queasiness was overcoming her. The glass shattered around her, and three smaller bodies supported her as she collapsed onto the ground. Her chakra was unsealed, and she took a deep breath as her senses restored themselves.
Sitting cross-legged a few minutes later, she motioned for the three of them to sit in front of her, not missing the proud smirk on Jiraiya's face from beneath the same tree.
"Alright you three. At this point, I have nothing left to teach you. Minato, you need to work on your control, and you could be a med-nin that rivals me or Shizune." She smiled at the small, embarrassed smile she received, and turned to the next blond.
"Naruto, you need to learn how to curb your impulses. If you think before you act, or even just listen to Minato or Gaara, you'll be fine." Her smile turned to a smirk as he blushed brilliantly, scratching the back of his head. She turned to the last.
"Gaara…honestly, you need to work on letting go of some of your control. You tend to over think things, which can be fatal in the midst of battle. Work on developing strategies." All she received was a nod from the quietest in the group.
She stood, and put her hands on her hips. "Well then, congratulations on surviving your training with me!"
She smirked as the blonds jumped up and danced around, and Gaara smiled. She wasn't quite done with them yet. "Now, as payment, you can come win me more money."
A chorus of "Aww Tsunade" was heard as she dragged them off into town.
It was early the next morning, and Tsunade smiled at the quartet as they waved to her and Shizune, before disappearing around the bend and out of sight.
Her hand absently went to the milky quartz stone around her neck, and she turned to her apprentice, seeing that she was doing the same thing to hers.
"We may have to find them again," she muttered, and refused to blush as Shizune gave her a knowing look. She'd never admit it, but those brats had wormed their way into her heart.
She honestly did want to see them again, to see how they turned out. Grinning at Shizune, she rattled a purse full of the earnings that the twins had gotten her.
"Time to go Shizune," she said, and relished the instant frown that overtook the others face.
