AN: So as of now, I'm aware that at least five of you are boiling mad at me for going through and killing Jiraiya, but I'll get over it, and so should you cause there's a new chapter. :l

Anyway, I really though Kishi did Jiraiya a disservice by not giving the people close to him enough time to grieve, so I expanded it (another reader had a very similar view on this topic, Kyuubi 123 to be exact). So please enjoy, it's a sad one, but I think I'll have some happy ideas later on.

Disclaimer: not mine, nothing!

Almost instantly his face turned to blank stone, emotionless and cold like his features had been rubbed away smooth with a sander. He stood with his shoulders slumped and knees shaking almost invisibly.

"What?" His chin bobbed as he spoke, trembling and stumbling over every letter.

"He's gone." And she wasn't doing much better. She was lucky, she had her hands propped up on her desk in front of her face, she could hide her mouth; keep the quivering out of sight. Her eyes, as pretty as they were, had become blank and lackluster, almost like they weren't alive anymore. Her age started to show in that split second Shizune was watching.

The assistant stood near her, eyes careful as they watched the Hokage's body, kept track of the miniscule tremors that engulfed her tiny frame every now and then, when her resilience was waning.

Shizune was suddenly overcome with this urge to push Sakura and Kakashi and Sai and that toad out of the room and lock the door so the two blondes could be alone. That and she didn't really want to see the both of them break down, especially Naruto. That would be a very hard thing to witness and she didn't think she'd be able to keep herself together if she did.

But that was her duty, to stand beside Lady Tsunade no matter what.

Even through this hell.

"And you let him go?" Tsunade lowered her head, inconspicuously wiping her eye.

"Yes." That was when Naruto's face turned angry; his bright blue eyes went wide in rage.

"So you let him kill himself? How could you?" He was screaming now, not even caring if he was crying or not because he was pacing before Tsunade's desk like a hungry lion, eyes cold as they focused on her.

"Why couldn't you have gone?" Naruto pointed his finger at her, breath heavy and brow knitted in absolute rage. Tsunade raised her head to meet his eyes, lips moving and words trying to form but nothing came out. Her eyes burst and a look of absolute pleading washed over her face.

"Oh that's right, I forgot. You have a village to run." The boy basically snarled it as he turned to leave, furiously throwing the door open.

"I hate you!" If he had really tried, he could have rocked the door from it's hinges with the sheer amount of force he put into slamming the office door, leaving everyone slack jawed.

The exception being Tsunade.

Sakura turned to go after him, stopping when her name was called.

"Let him go. He needs to be alone." Tsunade's voice was strained as she spoke, the kind of strain that happens when you're trying to hold back tears, they were pooling in the corners of her eyes as she stared absently at the door.

Shizune recognized that look immediately; she had lived with her when it was the only thing that crossed her mistress's face.

Devastation.

Suddenly and slowly, like it hurt to move, she pushed herself up and out of her chair.

"Where are you going, milady?" Shizune asked quietly, black eyes full of concern as they followed her mistress and her green coat to the door.

"To let him yell at me." Her hand turned the knob of her door.

"But you said to let him be. Why are you-?" Sakura stopped talking when Tsunade opened the door, feeling something like finality fall on her little pink head. She was being ignored, and it came to her when the door closed.

Sakura turned to Shizune, eyes still loaded with the same look of wanting. The brunette waited a good minute before so much as blinked before choosing to speak.

"She's punishing herself." Sakura looked confused, brow knit in the emotion.

"Lady Tsunade and Naruto are more alike than you think, they get angry the same way. They need someone to take it out on or else it'll keep boiling until they just explode. She's punishing herself and helping Naruto. Confusing as it sounds." Shizune finished with a sigh and straightened some papers on the big mahogany desk and putting a cap back on a pen.

"Their way of coping, Sakura. It has something to do with guilt factors and remorse, like my book said. Although it would be irresponsible to compare real life to a book-!"

"Sai." Kakashi put his hand on the pale boy's shoulder, and gave him a small smile under his mask.

"Sorry." Sai shrunk back, eyes watching Sakura as she hesitated near the door.

"What he means, Sakura," Kakashi began softly as he lead his team out of the office and into the hallway.

"Is that sometimes people need anger to get past their grief."

"Naruto!" Tsunade's fist came down on his door, nagging and knocking as loud as she could. She knew he was in there, every cell in her body had pointed her to his doorstep, call it what you will, a lucky guess, a gut feeling.

It was maternal instinct.

"Honey, please. Let me in, we should talk." Tsunade pleaded from the other side of the door while Naruto sat slumped against the inside. He sat there listening to her plead; felt the vibrations from her fists quiver in his back and skull. Her silky voice cut through the wood of his door and melted in his ears, flipping switches in him that sent the tears racing down his cheeks.

"Naruto Uzumaki, I will break down this door! Answer me, dammit!" Her fists kept raining down on the door, louder and harder like she was making good her threat. Her voice sounded hard and pained, like it hurt her to speak.

And then it stopped.

Just as suddenly as it had started and he felt a little empty now that she had given up on him, he couldn't even feel her presence anymore. So he sat there in silence and counted the ticking of his clock, counted each wasted second until a new sound filled his ears.

Naruto didn't have to look up to know what it was.

Tsunade had scaled the wall and picked the lock on his window, sliding in with the grace of a ghost.

"Naruto-," She ducked a scroll at her head and caught the shoe he had ripped off his own foot.

"Just go away!" He screamed, tears running down his face and his arm in position to throw something at a moment's notice. But Tsunade pressed on, taking a few more cautious steps and dodging his next projectile: a box of instant ramen.

"Please stop throwing things at me."

"No! Not until you leave!"

"Or until you run out of things to throw!" Tsunade hollered back and took two more steps, honey eyes turned dark whiskey as they centered on the tear streaked face of Naruto, held his cerulean eyes in hers and watched, waited.

With each step closer, he seemed to deflate and give up, and with each step closer, Tsunade could feel his cloud of pain and anguish erecting a barrier around him, shielding her out.

"Naruto," Her voice was soft like a whisper, serenading him and breaking down his wall until she was able to get down on her knees before him, at eye level, and waited for him.

To move.

To yell.

To cry.

To hit her like a small child.

She waited for him to react.

She caught him as he fell into her arms, face buried in her shoulder as his entire body was engulfed in backbreaking sobs. His self entirely was crumbling, pieces of him were crackling down onto his floor, and it looked like nothing other than her arms could keep him together.

They didn't say a word, he couldn't form any and she wouldn't dare open her mouth. He needed this, he needed someone he could be himself around, he needed someone who wasn't afraid of the face behind the smile.

He needed someone who knew his pain.

"I know it hurts," She cried in to his hair, smoothing some of his bangs away from his sweaty forehead as she slowly started to rock, the both of them swaying lightly back and forth.

"And I know how you just want to set the world on fire because of it." Naruto's sobbing had started to dwindle into hiccups and angry moans, and what remained of his tears was wiped away by Tsunade's soft thumbs.

"He wanted to keep you safe, that's why he went. For you, for me, for the entire village. He's a hero."

Naruto sucked up his congestion and looked up at his blonde baa-chan with weary eyes.

"I didn't mean what I said to you earlier. I don't hate you."

"I know that, I'm not dumb. You were angry, I understand. I've hurt people doing what you did many times." A tinge of chagrin settled in between the syllables. Tsunade looked down on Naruto: his eyes were puffy, his bottom lip was upturned in a puppy dog pout only he could pull off at his age, and he was looking at her.

"It's ok to be angry, people would think you're crazy if you weren't angry." Tsunade let out a light laugh, shifting the teenager in her arms until he was sitting up again.

"You don't have to be angry alone, Naruto. You have an entire family you can go to. You have me, Sakura, Kakashi, Shizune, that Sai kid." She cupped his face with her hands and held him so he could look at her, so he could watch the words come from her mouth, to see that they were real.

They sat there looking into each other's eyes for the longest time, a thousand truths spilling from one iris to another.

Then he broke again, closing his eyes and falling back into her as more tears fell from his eyes, more pain welled up inside him and reality set in.

"He's g-gone." Naruto sobbed into the nape of Tsunade's neck like internal dams had finally suffered through the last crack and just burst, letting loose a whirlwind of emotion.

And she would be there to catch him when he fell, her hands would hold him, put him back together and pick him back up. Just as Jiraiya would be the wind moving the trees, the little sparks that flew off of connecting kunai, the steam coming off the ramen.

He would be the glue that held them both together.

And they would hold.

Woe is me, writing these angsty pieces of drama, I should be on Broadway! :O Naw, probably not, I don't even like plays...but I digress.

How was it? Was it believable or a bit too OOC for the both of them? Please let me know so I can improve for next chapter.

PEACE :P