The next day, as they set off back onto the road, Naruto felt much better. He still felt a little nervous, but now he was confident that he was going to be able to do what he wanted. "How much longer are we going to have to go before we find grandma Tsunade?" Naruto asked without thinking about what he was saying.

"Grandma?" asked Jiraiya.

"Yea," Naruto said thinking quickly. "She's as old as you isn't she?"

Jiraiya laughed. "Yea, but you'll be surprised."

"How much longer?" asked Naruto again.

"I heard that she was in this next village that we're coming up to," answered Jiraiya.

"Where did you hear that?" asked Sakura.

"At the inn that we stayed in last night," answered Jiraiya.

"You mean we didn't just stay there so that you could look at naked women?" asked Sakura.

"No," said Jiraiya sounding somewhat insulted.

"But that was mainly why we stopped there," mumbled Sasuke. "The information gathering was probably just an afterthought."

"You guys think so little of me," pouted Jiraiya.

"That's because you give us so little to think about," Sakura laughed.

"Look!" Naruto said happily as he pointed in front of them. "The village."

"That's where Tsunade is," said Jiraiya.

Naruto was almost giddy as they approached the village he couldn't wait to talk to the woman that had been like a grandma to him.

They had to go through several gambling places before they finally came upon a very drunk Tsunade playing in a casino. Jiraiya was the only one allowed in his gambling place so he went inside to get the woman.

"How weird," said Sakura. "A gambling place that actually has standards."

"They can't have too many," said Sasuke. "If they let Tsunade-sama in their."

"Baa-chan isn't that bad," said Naruto.

"She hit like five other gambling places before she came to this one. She probably doesn't have any money."

"That's not true," Naruto said with a smile. "I bet she actually has a lot of money." Both Sakura and Sasuke gave him a weird look so he just continued. "She's goes on winning streaks before something bad happens. Last time we came to visit her she had won a whole bunch of money because she was just about to meet Orochimaru. It freaked her out. To tell you the truth, I bet that she has already met with Orochimaru and is now contemplating on whether or not she wants to join him as his new physician since he lost Kabuto."

"Why would she even consider?" asked Sakura.

"Orochimaru gave her a pretty enticing offer," answered Naruto. "He promised that if Tsunade joined him that he would help bring both her lover and her brother back to life. The whole promise is a lie and she knows it, but she wants to believe it so badly that she actually is starting to."

"I didn't even know that she had this struggle," said Sakura. "She never told me."

Naruto smiled. "She never told me either. I only found out when I was searching through her memories for something else."

"What were you looking for?" asked Sakura.

"I don't remember," Naruto shrugged with a smile.

"They're coming back," said Sasuke.

Naruto became jittery as he saw the three of them walking towards them. He didn't know what his was going to do when he saw baa-chan again. Sasuke saw his nerves and wrapped their hands together to comfort him. Naruto looked over at Sasuke and immediately calmed down. He was glad that he had Sasuke this time. He didn't know how he would ever be able to make it through this without him.

Jiraiya took them to a restaurant where both he and Lady Tsunade ordered lots of alchohol. Sakura was disgusted by how much they were drinking. She had always known that Lady Tsunade was an alchoholic, but she had never seen the woman that she looked up to drinking so much.

"Why are you here?" asked Tsunade as she took a big gulp of the sake.

"I've been looking for you all over the place," answered Jiraiya. "Should have known you would be gambling."

"It's like a reunion," muttered Tsunade after a few more gulps of her sake. "All the old faces coming back at the same time."

"You mean Orochimaru," said Jiraiya. "So what happened?"

Tsunade glanced over at her friend, a gesture that Naruto hadn't seen the first time they had this conversation with the older woman, and said, "Ah, nothing very much. We said hello. That's about it." She took out a deck of cards and began to shuffle before placing them down on the table so that Jiraiya could shuffle it himself. "Well then," she said. "Why have you been looking for me?

"I'll cut right to the chase," said Jiraiaya as he placed the deck back on the table. "Tsunade, in it's wisdom the village has come to the decision to name you as the fifth hokage."

Tsunade's hand twitched as she reached for the cards. Another gesture that Naruto hadn't noticed before. He wanted to smile at himself. He remembered being so confused about what Jiraiya had said about the woman being old that he hadn't really payed attention to anything either of them had said until Tsunade spoke ill of the hokage.

"You heard about the third hokage," said Jiraiya as he picked up the hand that Tsunade had delt to him.

"It was Orochimaru's doing, right?" said Tsunade. "I heard about it. In fact he told me himself."

"Hold on," said Sakura. She couldn't take it anymore. This wasn't the woman that she had always looked up to. This was someone totally different and she hated it. "He told you about everything and you're still talking about him like a friend. I can't believe you. I thought you were better than this!"

"Sakura," sighed Naruto as he placed a hand upon her own. "I'm sure she has a good reason."

"Who are these brats you have with you?" Lady Tsunade's eyes narrowed at the three of them.

Jiraiya chuckled. "This is Naruto Uzumaki and his friends Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha."

Tsunade's eyes widened as she continued to stare at them. Naruto could only assume that she knew that he was the container of the nine-tailed fox. To bad she didn't know that he really was the Kyuubi and not just its container.

"I'll say it once again," said Jiraiya. "The leaf village has chosen you to be the fifth hokage. So, what's your answer? Do you accept it Tsunade?"

"Impossible," said Lady Tsunade as she threw her whole hand away. "I decline."

"I remember you saying the same thing to me the very first time I asked you out," Jiraiya smiled, "but you have to do this. It has all been very well thought out by the council."

"The council can't control everything," Naruto said with a smile. "Sometimes things don't go exactly like the council wanted."

"You're slipping Jiraiya," said Tsunade. "This apprentice isn't at all like your last one. He's a fool with a big mouth. And he's funny looking too."

"Well," said Jiraiya. "To be fair, it'd be hard for anyone to measure up to that standard. The fourth hokage showed all the signs of becoming the greatest ninja in generations. Brimming with talent and natural abilities. Bright kid. Popular. And to top it off, nearly as handsome as his teacher."

"I have to agree with most of that," Sasuke spoke up this time. "Except for the handsome part. Naruto's dad was way more handsome than you. There's also one more thing that I want to say: Naruto is the strongest ninja that was ever born. Not even his dad could top his skills."

"Sasuke!" gasped Naruto. They didn't need to know that.

"You got guts to claim such a thing," said Tsunade. "Why don't you just prove it to me. Let's take this outside and you can show me all that so-called power."

"I refuse," Naruto said as he stood from his seat. "My power is not a show for you to enjoy, and I refuse to hurt anyone from my village because I actually believe in hokage just like your brother and your boyfriend did. You know what's the worst part about you renouncing being hokage and thinking that it's nothing but a fool's game? By doing that you are betraying every emotion that your loved ones had. You are destroying the whole reason that they died. It makes me wonder if you even love them at all."

"How dare you say that to me!" gasped Lady Tsunade. "I loved them." She paused for a moment before continuing. "How did you know all that anyway?"

"Because," answered Naruto. "Just like them, my goal is to be hokage. Remember this, to be hokage, that is my dream."

Tsunade gasped. "You are a fool," she said after a moment with a look of sadness. "You're head is full of false hopes if you think you can actually be hokage someday."

"Is that what you told your brother and your boyfriend?" asked Naruto.

"Watch what you say kid," growled Tsunade.

"If you don't believe me than let me prove to you that those two deserved to be Hokage no matter how much you think that their goals were false hopes," Naruto said. "I'll even make a bet with you since you like to gamble so much."

"What's that?" asked Tsunade. She was always ready for a bet.

"I bet you that I can prove that they deserved to be hokae. If I win than I get that necklace that you're wearing and if I lose than we will return to Konoha without you and you can have all this money." Naruto pulled out his frog wallet, which was stuffed to the brim with money.

"I accept," said Tsunade.

Yay for the next chapter. I'm sorry it took me so long to write this one, but I've been having a lot of trouble with this story lately. If you guys will be willing to hang on for the next few chapters I'm sure I'll get to the point that I won't have so many problems with it.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.