Tsunade truly hated paperwork. If there is one thing that would almost make her regret giving in to Naruto and becoming Hokage, all these years ago, it was paperwork.

And since the end of the Fourth Great Shinobi War, less than a year ago, she drowns literally under the paperwork.

Oh, how impatient she was to finally be able to pass that damn hat to Kakashi... She smirked at this thought, he didn't know what was waiting for him!

Rare was the times she could escape Shizune, she often had to hide in the hospital on the pretext of helping Sakura, but she took advantage of that time as if her life depended on it.

Today, unfortunately, Shizune had managed to cloister her in her office.

Nara Shikaku was with them, as Jōnin Commander, to decide on the different promotions they had to award. The war had severely weakened their strength, and they were still far from being as strong as before.

At the end of the hour, when the only woman of the legendary trio was resigned to her fate, the door of her office opened abruptly.

It was with wide eyes that the three occupants faced Nara Shikamaru, his hands and clothes covered in blood. Tsunade clearly saw Shikaku tensing, his eyes scanning his son for injuries.

"Tsunade-sama! Ino sends me to pick you up. This woman, Rina, she's hurt." Shikamaru was suddenly stopped, staring at his hands. It was probably the first time he had looked at them since they had been covered in blood.

Tsunade didn't fully understand his reaction; Shikamaru had seen the war, it was hardly the first time his hands were covered with blood.

"Shikamaru, the full version."

He looked at her, eyes bulging, noticing for the first time that his father and Shizune were also present.

He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes.

"On the way back from the mission we came across an ambush that two dissident ninjas of Kiri had come up against a woman and three children. She was about to be killed while protecting one of them, and we decided to intervene. We managed to capture them, but Rina -the woman- was severely injured, Ino ad repaired the most urgent damage, but she couldn't do anything more. She says you're probably the only medic-nin who could save her. She and Naruto probably have already arrived at the hospital to find Sakura."

Tsunade hesitated for a second to scold him on the risks of bringing a stranger inside the walls of Konoha, wounded or not. But after studying his face, his eyes closed forcefully, his features pulled by the fatigue and the guilt that emanated from him by wave, she decided that it could wait after she was saved the life of this unknown woman.

Without a word, she headed for the hospital, Shizune following her quickly.

The same image circled in Shikamaru's mind as he finished summarizing the events at his Hokage. Her face, white and unconscious, blood flowing from her mouth.

He knew that she had not been so badly hurt when she came back from the forest, and he suspected that it was the use of her instantaneous movement technique that had made her condition worse.

A technique she had used to save him.

It was a hand on his shoulder that made him open his eyes. He realized that only he and his father were left in the office.

"Tsunade-sama left for the hospital with Shizune... Tell me what worries you, son, it's hardly the first time a civilian is injured during one of your missions."

"She... She fought with us, and her wound... She had her wound saving my life. She didn't even know my name, Dad... She didn't even know the names of the three children she was defending... "

Shikaku didn't really know what to say. The injury that a comrade suffered to save your life was always harder to accept than the one directly inflicted to you. And Ninja of Konoha or not, Shikamaru saw this Rina as his comrade.

He just took his son in his arms.

It took almost thirteen hours of surgery to put Rina back on her feet. Once the operation was over, Sakura, Shizune and Tsunade left their patient to return to the private waiting room where they knew Team 10 and Naruto were waiting for them.

Shikaku and Hinata were joined to the four concerned young adults.

"Tsunade-sama! How did the operation go?" Ino was the first to notice them.

All the occupants of the room turned towards them, waiting for an answer.

"It's a success. That said... I would like to know how she ended up with such injuries."

Relief was readable on everyone's face.

"The original wound was caused by a kunai, but I think..." Ino's gaze snick on Shikamaru quietly for a second, worry on her face again. "I think she suffered the worst damage as a result of using an instant shunshin-like movement technique... I think, like shunshin, using this technique when you are injured is dangerous, but she decided to use it anyway."

"To save my life."

He had his head down, his elbows resting on his knees and his fists clenched. And the guilt he gave when he came to pick her up in his office had been replaced by anger.

"I was stupid. I lowered my guard, and she put her life in the line to save mine."

There was a tense silence during which no one dared say anything, surprised by Shikamaru's anger.

"She will take a day or two to wake up, but she will recover... However, she remains unknown to us, and I can't allow her to stay in the hospital any longer, the risk is too great. I had a room prepared for her at the T&I, and when she wakes up Inoichi will take care of her interrogation."

After a slight silence, Tsunade was about to leave when she was stopped by Naruto.

"Tsunade-baachan wait! Shikamaru, the letter."

The young man just looked at him, frowning for a few seconds before a flash of understanding crossed his eyes, and he pulled an envelope out of his pocket. He gave it to Naruto, who crossed the room to give it to her under the curious eyes of all the other people present.

The envelope was stained with blood but still in good condition, 'Hokage-sama' was written on top in a pretty calligraphy.

Her face was deformed by surprise as she turned the envelope over and saw the red wax seal. The Senju emblem was proudly enthroned. Who would dare to use the emblem of her clan to write her a letter? The clan of which she was the last representative.

She opened the envelope with trembling hands, as much apprehension as anger. She slowly pulled out the sheet to read the contents.

'Hokage-sama,

I don't know who will read this letter. I'm not naive to the point of thinking that my father is still the owner of this hat... My name is Senju Sayuri and more than twelve years ago, as I write this letter, I was abducted and propelled into another dimension. I searched relentlessly for a way home, desperate to see my family again.

Unfortunately, without success. My life being threatened, I know that there is no chance that it will happen one day... But I deeply hope that my daughter, my little treasure, my Rina, succeed where I failed.

Yesterday, we celebrated her first birthday, and I know that I will not celebrate with her the second, that I wouldn't have the opportunity to talk to her about my parents, my brother or Tsunade. I also know that it's possible that she decides to never return to my world, after all, her father is from here. I could never force her to return to Konoha or even tell her how extraordinary my village is.

But if she decides to try the trip, I beg you Hokage-sama, I beg you with the heart of a nine-year-old girl who lost her family, accept her.

Please, accept to let my baby know her family.

With all my respect,

Senju Sayuri.'

When she looked up, breathing shaking, she noticed that everyone in the audience was looking at her with a mixture of shock and worry. She suspected that her face had probably lost all colours but did not find the strength to reassure them.

"Yuri-nee-chan..." her voice sounded empty in her own ears.

She needed answers. She had to know if it was true. Was this girl her... Was she Sayuri's daughter?

She let go of the envelope and the letter as if they had burned her and, without thinking, ran towards the room of this Rina.

Rina.

She still remembered the uninteresting discussions that she and Sayuri had, perched on her grandfather's stone's head. Sayuri had always said that if she had a daughter, she would give her the name of a flower, to somehow honour her father's Mokuton and perhaps even start a new family tradition.

Rina.

She remembered the days when her mother kept her and Sayuri and taught them how to make flowers crowns. She always insisted on only lilies and white jasmine. 'Look how one would think to see a mother and her little girl!'

Rina.

She stopped abruptly, arriving in the room she had assigned to her... patient. She didn't remember Sayuri's face or even her voice. She had not opened an album containing pictures of her since her disappearance. But she remembered her hair. She had inherited the hair of Mito, her mother, even if slightly nuanced by the genes of her father they were still inflamed. Red hair that remained etched in her memory.

Hair that his supposed daughter hadn't inherited.

Rina.

She gently raised her hand to the face of the sleeping young woman. Gently, she put her fingers on her eyelid. She had to see her eyes. She needed to see her eyes. When an emerald-green iris so like that of the jewel was revealed under the eyelid, Tsunade left the tears stuck in her eyes flow.

She pulled back until her back hit the wall and slid against it.

Sayuri.

Nobody really understood what had happened. Gazes were fixed on the door by which Tsunade had stormed out, stunned. Shizune was the first to recover and went to the letter that put the Hokage in this state.

"So? What shocked Shishou?" Sakura finally asked, after several minutes of silence.

Shizune's eyes travelled several times between the paper in her hands and the young woman with pink hair, her mouth opened and closed several times.

"It's... Kami..." She quickly reread the letter, wanting to make sure it's all-inclusive." This is a letter from Senju Sayuri..."

Only Shikaku had a reaction, his breathing slightly cut off surprise, the others were only a little more lost.

"Senju?" Naruto started, not understanding. "I thought Tsunade-baachan was the last Senju?"

"No one really has talked about Sayuri-san since her disappearance... I myself didn't hear Tsunade-sama speak about her until she was in her worst moments. She was the last daughter of the Shodaime..."

Shizune stooped to pick up the envelope as Shikaku repeated the explanations.

"Senju Sayuri was the same age as Tsunade-sama; she was abducted even before I was born. It's said that it happened inside the walls of Konoha. Nobody knows what happened when the Senju brothers' rescue team arrived." Shikaku stopped with a frown.

"My father said it was the loss of his daughter that day that caused Senju-sama's death a few months later, on the battlefield. That he wasn't fighting at full capacity because, for him, since he hadn't been able to protect his daughter, he was no longer able to protect his village."

He was silent as everyone assimilated the new information. Until finally, Naruto speak again.

"But what about Rina? How did she end up with the letter of a girl who has been dead for more than sixty years?"

"Forty years, Naruto. Shodaime-sama has been dead for forty years! How do you deceive yourself with such basic information?" Sakura couldn't help but look at her friend in despair.

"According to the letter..." Shizune cut off Naruto's protests. "It's written that she isn't dead and that... Rina is her daughter. And there was this in the envelope."

Shizune gently pulled a chain from the envelope, a charm hanging idly at the end, representing the emblem of Uzushiogakure in the center of which enthroned the emblem of the Senju.

"I think it belonged to Sayuri-san..."

The eight ninjas were staring at the pendant, unsure what to do now.

"Maybe we should go finding Shishou?" Shizune looked at Sakura for a second before nodding, and the two women headed to where they thought they would find their Shishou and Hokage.