AN: Note that I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any of the characters from either Anime. This work is a fanfiction written out of my love for the series and not in any attempt to make a profit.

Proofread by: Author

And so, in this chapter, we get to see Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Shizune. Although, things are different from canon, as I hinted in the last chapter. Hopefully, my story won't be any less entertaining. Enjoy.

Chapter 104: Tsunade for Hokage?


"Naruto, I can't breathe!" Sakura managed to huff out, only to find that Naruto's grip around her didn't lessen one bit. "Naruto, listen, if you don't let go of me-" Sakura began, raising her voice to let him know just how annoyed she was with him, only to stiffen as she realized that Naruto was crying, sobbing against her.

"I was so worried. Everything was going so wrong, I thought you were gone forever!" Naruto explained, finally letting up on the hug, although Sakura was no longer concerned with that.

"What happened?" Sakura inquired, realizing that it couldn't be just about her disappearance.

"W-well, after we last saw you, Jiraiya approached me and told me to come with him to find Tsunade. Apparently, the council wants her as the Fifth Hokage. The third has chosen to retire." Naruto began to explain. Sakura was worried about how Naruto was scowling when he said Tsunade's name.

However, whatever his annoyance with Tsunade was, it was nothing compared to his grief as he resumed retelling what had happened, his sad expression returning immediately. "I wanted to say goodbye to you, but you were asleep, and I thought' it'd best to let you recover in peace. You looked like you needed the sleep. Anyway, I left the village with Jiraiya. While staying at an inn, Itachi showed up together with some shark-man and tried to kidnap me, only for Sasuke to come rushing as well. Itachi did something to him, and from Sasuke's shouting, I found out that Kakashi is in the Hospital, and that you had gone missing. Sasuke seemed convinced Itachi was to blame for your disappearance." Naruto revealed, which Sakura felt her breath hitch in surprise. Sasuke had confronted Itachi, and ended up hurt because of it. She felt guilt for not having been with the two of them to help, even if she knew that it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference. She didn't think it made much sense to assume Itachi was the one responsible for her disappearance, although Sasuke and others might have made the connection due to the timing fitting if nothing else.

"Jiraiya managed to save us, but Sasuke was sent back to Konohagakure. I wanted to go back to look for you and make sure Kakashi and Sasuke were alright, but Jiraiya was adamant I come with him to find Tsunade. He says she is the best medical-nin to have ever existed, and that she can definitely fix Kakashi and Sasuke up if no one else can." Naruto explained, his anger returning once more. "Only that hag doesn't seem to care, at all!" Naruto revealed with a frustrated shout.

"Well, that's a nice recap and all, I'd love to give my own. Although, perhaps we should get a bit more comfortable? I don't mind snuggling up to you Naruto, but if anyone saw us like this, there'd be rumors going around soon." Heikō suddenly replied, taking over control from Sakura, smirking and wiggling their eyebrows while she shimmied her arms underneath Naruto, to remind him that he was currently pinning them down to the ground, straddling them with his hips around their own. Sakura mentally recoiled in horror at Heikō's implications as she realized she was right, while Naruto just looked confused.

"Heikō?" He asked before he suddenly realized just what Heikō had implied. Suddenly blushing, Naruto jumped back from Heikō as if burned, and Heikō let out a laugh as she sat up.

"Oh, god. You should see your face!" She exclaimed, pointing towards Naruto, who was trying to stutter out an apology. "Oh, don't worry. We're not going to hit you for it, Naruto." Heikō assured him, amused. "It's actually a great change of pace, compared with the last week or so we've been gone." She revealed, before sighing as she felt her mood drop at the mention of their torture. She'd have to explain that as well, Naruto would not be happy.

"Wait, company? Actually, what happened, Heikō? Sasuke thought you were kidnapped by Itachi, but that obviously wasn't the case, right?" Naruto wondered, and Heikō shook her head.

"I was kidnapped, but not by Itachi. Honestly, we're a bit uncomfortable talking about it, so I'd prefer to only tell the story once. You think we can find Jiraiya, and perhaps Tsunade as well? I think I need an evaluation after everything that happened, even if I feel fine, doesn't mean we actually did a flawless job healing ourselves." Heikō pointed out, frowning slightly as the thought of actually having missed something didn't sit well with her, either of them actually. To not be certain or in control of their minds, the very thing they excelled in thanks to their Kekkei Genkai was terrifying.

Naruto looked worried and alarmed at the implication of Heikō's worlds, but considering her earlier admission of being uncomfortable talking about it, he settled for the more positive train of thought. "Wait, healed yourselves?" He asked, inquiring about her choice of words.

Heikō chuckled as she allowed her right hand to flicker with green medical chakra as she raised it. "Learned to do this while I was gone. It's a bit scary how much we improve in scary situations." Heikō admitted, although she still managed to give Naruto a tired smile. "I'll explain everything later, so how about finding Jiraiya?" Heikō asked, and was glad to see Naruto nodding as he stood up.

"Yeah, he's pretty much been following Tsunade and Shizune around all day anyway, so they're either at a bar, casino, or gambling house," Naruto explained with a sigh, before gesturing for them to follow him before he summoned a clone to pick up his stuff while he led them into town.


Naruto had been right on the money with his claims. While they didn't find Jiraiya and Tsunade right away, they did find Shizune when Naruto thought to make a few shadow clones to widen their search. One of the clones had thought to check Tsunade's and Shizune's room at the inn they were staying at. Having found Shizune, they easily found Tsunade who had managed to shake Jiraiya and then comfortably hide away at a gambling house.

"Hey, Tsunade, where's Pervy-Sage?" Naruto demanded, earning him an annoyed scowl from Tsunade, who raised an eyebrow at Shizune and Heikō following him.

"I don't know and I don't care. Now get lost, I don't want anything to do with you or your Sensei, brat." Tsunade told him, before looking down at the dice she had rolled using a cup and sighed as she saw it as a loss.

"Fine, whatever, but I need you to at least look over Sakura for me," Naruto told her, which only seemed to anger Tsunade as a vein on her forehead became pronounced enough to become visible.

"You have no right to ask anything of me, brat. You lost to me, so that's that!" Tsunade declared, turning away, only to stop as she heard Jiraiya speak up from behind them, having arrived in the company of a Naruto clone that dispelled itself.

"Now, that's heartless, Tsunade. Aren't you a medic? Where's your compassion? Won't you take a moment to heal Sakura at least?" Jiraiya asked her, making Tsunade sneer in annoyance.

"If she's good enough to walk around on her own and not visibly in pain, I'm not needed." Tsunade insisted, before betting on another game with the man in front of her.

"I get why you called her a hag, Naruto. She's terrible, unsuited to be both Hokage and a Medic-nin. She doesn't care about anyone." Heikō said, intending to get a reaction from the woman. Shizune gasped and was about to launch into berating Sakura for insulting Tsunade, but before she could, Sakura found herself thrown back and out of the building before she could react.

Instincts took over, and she barely managed to tumble into a roll as she landed on the street outside. Looking up, she saw a furious looking Tsunade cracking her knuckles in front of her. "This is your funeral, brat!" Tsunade told her, before throwing a punch down at them.

Heikō managed to dodge by moving backward but was unprepared for Tsunade to continue her swing instead of pulling back as she missed. As the punch connected to the ground, it shook, and a crater formed beneath them as the ground burst apart.

"Holy shit, she's actually trying to kill us!" Sakura exclaimed, and Heikō felt that she might have done too well of a job angering the Legendary Sannin.

Wide-eyed, Heikō did the only thing she could to move away from Tsunade without any ground beneath her to push off of, and used Tsunade's body as a platform, pushing off to get away, launching herself parallel to the ground. However, Tsunade wasn't a simple opponent by any means, and Heikō found a hand close around one of her ankles before the world spun around her, and her back erupted in pain, the wind forced from her lungs and vision swimming with blue and white as her eyes stared up at the sky.

Heikō took a few moments to realize that she wasn't breathing and greedily took a deep breath to correct her mistake, only to begin coughing as dust and blood filled her lungs as well. Rolling onto her side, she felt Shizune approach her, while Jiraiya and Naruto stood by Tsunade. Reading their lips, she could tell that Naruto was ready to fight her, while Jiraiya tried to get through to Tsunade, saying she had gone overboard.

Heikō was thankful as Shizune began healing her, making her pain go away, only to nearly stop, gasping. Looking up, Sakura saw her eyes were wide in horror. She was about to ask what was wrong before Shizune turned her gaze towards Tsunade instead.

"Tsunade! This girl, she's worse than I thought, s-she looks like she's been tortured and healed repeatedly!" Shizune revealed, which had Tsunade rushing over to her as well to begin examining her, while Naruto cast her worried glances, and Jiraiya looked on wide-eyed.

"Brat, you should have said something! What the hell is this?!" Tsunade tried to admonish her.

"Naruto did, but instead of doing your job, you judged me healthy and told us to leave. That's why I said you're unfit to be a Medic-nin." Heikō shot back, trying to stand up, only for Tsunade to stop her, although she didn't say anything as she kept healing Sakura, a strained expression of guilt and anger on her face. "And when I called you out, you decided to beat up your would-be patient instead," Heikō added, which made Tsunade flinch, her anger disappearing, being replaced with more guilt and regret instead.

When Tsunade didn't respond and just kept healing her, Heikō sighed and looked over to Shizune instead. "So, I know roughly how bad the damage is from a self-assessment, but I couldn't heal it all, and I doubt I got everything. What do you say?" Heikō asked her, and Shizune shook her head.

"I'm still looking, but… I'm amazed you're even alive, what happened to you?" Shizune asked, sounding both amazed and horrified. Heikō looked around and saw that there were a lot of people looking their way.

"I don't think that's a conversation we should be having out in the open. I'm good enough to go, right?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"Let's go back to the inn," Jiraiya suggested, and there were no objections from the rest of them.


To say that Jiraiya and Tsunade were displeased to learn that Orochimaru was an understatement. Naruto had been horrified to know what Sakura and Heikō had been through, but Tsunade grew more sympathetic towards her, offering to have a look at their medical chakra as some sort of apology. In the end, a comment from Jiraiya turned Sakura's demonstration into a bet.

If Sakura could learn the mystical palm technique in less than a week, Tsunade would come with them to Konohagakure and become the next Hokage, as well as give Sakura her Necklace. If not, she'd be taking payment from treating Sakura at double the price she usually charged, a sum that only Naruto could pay.


AN: So, unlike how it went down in canon, Naruto's Rasengan was complete when he fought Tsunade in Tanzaku-gai. Naruto still lost against her, and even though he surprised her, no bet was made. Now, however, with Sakura grasping at the mystical palm technique, which is supposed to be another A-rank technique, considered to take ages to learn even when you have great chakra control, which is a prerequisite to learning it in the first place, an opportunity comparable to what was seen in canon arises.