Kishimoto is the creator and owner of Naruto.

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Chapter Ten

Meetings

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"Here we are!" Tsunade stated as she landed gently on the road leading up to the main gate of Konoha. Shizune landed almost as lightly beside her, but the other Shinobi were a great deal less graceful, only Itachi and Hiashi not stumbling from exhaustion caused by the pace that Tsunade had set.

Crouching down, Tsunade ended the tree-climbing-inspired chakra hold on Hinata, allowing her to drop to the ground and trot over to her father, who proceeded to pick her up. Although he had been quite insistent on being the one to carry his daughter, Tsunade had pointed out that as one of the best defense-specialists in the team and the one with the byakugan, Hiashi would be best in a close flanking position, using his dojutsu to scan for threats and being ready to intercept should any arrive.

Of course, now that they had reached their destination, the roles had changed and Tsunade half-expected Hiashi to be carrying Hinata around for the next several months, if not longer.

A mental image of a stone-faced Hiashi sat in a child's chair at the Shinobi Academy, Hinata perched on his lap, almost caused her to laugh and she quickly banished the image before turning her focus to the gate as it swung open, Itachi having taken the initiative of talking to the gate guards.

"I think that we should go to the tower first." Tsunade suggested. "Just so that Sensei can see for himself that your lost treasure has been returned safely.

"An excellent idea." Hiashi agreed with a small smile.

"My lady, if I may…" Shizune said quietly, just as they had decided beforehand and Tsunade nodded.

"Go ahead. Once you're done, see if you can get one of the bedrooms in the old Senju manor set up for an overnight stay."

"Yes, my lady." Shizune bowed before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

"Memories." Tsunade sighed and most of the shinobi around her nodded in understanding.

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"Tsunade." Hiruzen said, a small, sad smile flickering on his face as Hiashi left the office, his daughter asleep in his arms. "It's good to see you again."

Tsunade nodded and moved round the desk, her medical reflexes taking over.

"Sensei, what have you been doing to yourself? You look terrible. Your chakra is unbalanced, your control reduced and it looks like you aren't getting enough food or sleep."

"The last few years have been hard. Danzo getting killed and having to re-integrate his ROOT back into the shinobi ranks hasn't helped either." Hiruzen sighed. "Where's your niece? The gate sent word that she was with you, but…"

"Shizune wanted to pay her respects to Minato and Kushina." Tsunade said truthfully. "I believe she wanted to stop by the remains of their old house, then go to the memorial."

"I engraved their names myself." Hiruzen sighed, looking down at his desk, but Tsunade saw that his gaze was unfocused. "Namikaze Minato, Uzumaki Kushina, Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto. I failed him, Tsunade. I failed Minato, I failed his family."

"But everyone knows." Tsunade said, resting her hand reassuringly on Hiruzen's shoulder. "They know about Minato's son, the burden he was asked to bear and how he was betrayed before the village could see him as the hero he truly was. How is Jiraiya taking it?"

"Jiraiya's out searching for whoever did it." Hiruzen said quietly. "But he said the Toads are being… cryptic about it. They keep referring to Naruto as being lost, not actually deceased."

Only decades of self-control kept Tsunade's breath from catching. Fortunately for her, Hiruzen continued without noticing.

"The name Naruto has become quite popular now. In the last year alone, seventeen boys have been given that name, and twelve girls have been named Naruko."

"Kushina would laugh at the confusion in the schools when they all enroll." Tsunade dead-panned and Hiruzen nodded with a sad chuckle.

"She would indeed." He confirmed. "She would indeed."

For several minutes, both of them remained quiet as the sun slowly descended towards the horizon, then Hiruzen coughed.

"I hear you've settled in Wave. Planning to stay there?"

"For the foreseeable future, yes." Tsunade said. "I've adopted a couple of the local orphans and have set up a small clinic that I'm thinking of extending at some point. The locals are very happy to have the great IryoSannin helping to cure their coughs and sniffles. Shizune is happy too, she's fallen for one of the orphans, he's about her age and helps a lot round the clinic. He's got good potential as a ninja, I may train him."

Hiruzen nodded slowly. "Train him up enough and I might poach him to become the Godaime Hokage. Kami knows I never wanted this job back…"

A knock on the door caused them to look up, then it opened to reveal Shizune.

"My Lady, Lord Hokage."

"Shizune, how did…"

Tsunade's question trailed off as she remembered who was with them and Shizune lowered her head slightly.

"I got to say and do all that I wanted to, My Lady. Do you wish my further presence, or shall I wait at the mansion for you?"

"I'll join you at the mansion." Tsunade said. "We'll head back tomorrow."

"Yes my lady." Shizune said, bowing before retreating out of the room. Hiruzen and Tsunade watched her leave, then Hiruzen spoke.

"While you're here, do you wish to claim any of the Senju scrolls from the archives?"

"Only the medical ones, I'll copy them when I get home and then I'll have the copies sent back here to be used in the hospital." Tsunade said. "I may be living with my new family in Wave, but Konoha is still my true home when all is said and done. I just need more time to come to terms with…"

"Dan and Nawaki." Hiruzen said softly, his voice filled with understanding, glancing at the door where Shizune had vanished. "Of course. Take all the time you need."

"By the way," Tsunade said as a thought occurred to her, "The next time you see the Daimyo, you may want to put forward the possibility of getting a full alliance with Wave. They don't have a Hidden Village of their own and an alliance would secure that border."

"An excellent idea." Hiruzen smiled. "And of course, having you already there and building up the goodwill won't hurt a bit."

"My thoughts exactly." Tsunade smiled. "My thoughts exactly."

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Hiashi sat down in front of the Clan Council and looked round as if daring the Elders to meet his gaze.

"We owe a debt to the Senju Clan for doing what we could not, for preventing the byakugan from falling into enemy hands."

"The Caged Bird seal…" One of the Elders began, only for Hiashi to interrupt him in a cold, intense voice.

"Would have done nothing! Even if my daughter had been branded with the Seal, they could still have taken her eyes without triggering it!"

Several of the Elders flinched at the thought of losing the things which made them so feared on the battlefield.

"They had planned to use her as breeding stock!" Hiashi hissed. "The Caged Bird Seal would have done nothing to stop the offspring sired upon her from being born with our sacred dojutsu!"

The silence deepened as Hiashi glared at them.

"I will not tolerate any more of your attempts to curb the development and creation of the new protective Seal. The sooner that it is created, to protect our bloodline against all threats rather than turn us against each other, the better!
"As such, I declare that from this day forth, no-one shall be branded with the Caged Bird Seal for any reason! If you wish for our eyes to be protected, then you will support the creation of a seal that does just that! Do. You. All. Understand?"

The small movements would have been frantic nods in any other clan.

"Good." Hiashi closed his eyes for a moment, but his long-suppressed rage didn't abate and several of the Elders found themselves tensing up.

"Among the possessions of the one who stole my daughter was a piece of parchment with the patrol routes and times of our guards on it."

Hiashi's eyes re-opened and seemed to ignite with a fury that no-one had ever seen before.

"One of you betrayed us. I want to know who and why!"

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"Tsunade!"

"Tsume!" Tsunade laughed as the Kunoichi grabbed her in a massive hug which she returned. "And these are?"

"A couple of Kunoichi I've been mentoring in my free time." Tsume waved at the older of the duo, a red-eyed dark-haired teenager wearing a chunin vest over a red sleeveless bodysuit. "This one is Yuhi Kurenai, she's naturally gifted at Genjutsu and is working on integrating it into her fighting style. Kurenai, Tsunade."

Kurenai bowed slightly, her eyes sparkling with curiosity and Tsume waved at the younger girl next to her, a purple-haired young teenager wearing body armor, bracers and a katana slung over her right shoulder, allowing for a fast draw combining with a downwards-slashing attack. "And this cute genin is Yūgao Uzuki, a budding Kenjutsu specialist. She's currently studying tracking with me as she's hoping to become an ANBU. So, wanna catch up a bit, maybe help me continue their education in what being a real Kunoichi is about?"

"It would be a pleasure." Tsunade chuckled. "Come in and help me uncover some of the furniture so we can sit down as we talk."

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The gates receded into the distance, vanishing behind the canopy of the trees as Tsunade and Shizune leapt through the branches.

"So it worked, then?" Tsunade asked after checking that there were no other chakra sources within range. Shizune nodded, indicating her bulging bag.

"It did, but I almost failed. There were far more scrolls than I had expected in there, it was fortunate that Minato had been experimenting with new storage seals. He managed to create a storage seal less than a tenth of the size of a normal one, but it still took me twelve scrolls to seal everything."

Tsunade whistled. "Kamis above, you had to seal the equivalent of a hundred and twenty scrolls of stuff? How much of it was jutsu?"

"About a quarter were books and scrolls, mainly about Fuuinjutsu." Shizune replied, ducking as she passed a bit to closely to one of the branches. "There was a lot of gold and jewels, and four of the scrolls are weapons. I almost couldn't believe how many of his Kunai he had pre-stored, two entire scrolls worth."

"Well, at least when Ruto starts learning the Hiraishin, he'll have plenty of Kunai to practice with." Tsunade shrugged after several minutes thought. "There were Hiraishin scrolls, weren't there?"

"There were." Shizune nodded. "Three of them, one of them signed by Senju Tobirama."

"You're kidding!" Tsunade gasped. "It's a Senju technique? I thought Minato had created it."

Shizune shook her head. "From what I was able to see from the scroll, Minato refined it, cutting the amount of chakra it needed and minimizing the time it took to implement. Tobirama noted that he could only use it a few times before before needing to rest, Minato could use it hundreds of times and over considerably longer distances."

Tsunade whistled, then slowly nodded.

"If it's based on a Senju technique, that means that we could possibly learn it ourselves, which will help us in teaching it to Ruto when he grows older."

"It'll be useful for going into town and back as well." Shizune grinned. "Just put one tag in the back room of a small building in town and another back in the mansion and… pop! Instant movement."

"Might be an idea to install a platform with fake seals on it." Tsunade mused. "Make them look complicated enough and no-one will suspect it's really a small tag that does it. Include a few light-seals for dramatic effect and it'll look cool as anything."

"Put a tag in the Senju mansion and you'll be able to visit Konoha whenever you like." Shizune added, then she grinned. "How many tags do you think Minato left around Konoha?"

Tsunade shrugged. "Probably quite a few. Now, using them is another problem. The old lecher tried and failed to learn it."

Shizune frowned. "Interesting. We both know that it couldn't be his chakra control that was the issue since Jiyaiya-sama is capable of Sage-mode… blood-lock perhaps?"

"We'll find out back at the mansion." Tsunade shrugged as she ducked under a branch growing at just the wrong height. "I hope the scrolls explain the damned technique. I don't want to spark the lecher's curiosity by asking him about the Hiraishin."

"That could be a problem." Shizune agreed.

After several more kilometers had flashed past, Tsunade smirked.

"My lady?" Shizune asked nervously, having seen that particular style of smirk before.

"It occurs to me that Kashi knew Minato's style the best." Tsunade noted. "I think it will be a good project for him. Keep him out of trouble, as it were."

Shizune managed to both pale and blush at the same time, much to her mentor's amusement.