"I accept," said Tsunade.
"Good," said Naruto as he quickly did a hand sign that neither Tsunade nor Jiraiya recognized. His eyes closed and he fell back only to be caught by Sasuke who lowered him carefully back into his seat.
Tsunade gasped as she felt herself being taken somewhere out of her own body. Her eyes widened, but she could see nothing around them.
"Where am I?" asked Tsunade as she looked at the room filled with empty desks that she stood in now. It looked suspiciously like one of the rooms in the ninja academy at Konoha. All of the rooms there looked alike, but for some reason she felt like this specific one meant something to her.
"We're at the ninja academy," answered Naruto. "This is the room that I had all of my classes in." Naruto smiled as he too looked at their surroundings. It felt like so long ago that he was in the ninja academy with Iruka trying to teach him.
"How did we get here?" asked Tsunade.
"We aren't actually here," answered Naruto. "This is just a memory."
"Why are we here?" asked Tsunade.
"I'm winning our bet," Naruto answered as a smile crossed his face.
"And how do you plan to do that with a memory of an empty classroom?" asked Lady Tsunade.
"There are many qualities that are required of someone who is worthy to become hokage," Naruto completely ignored Tsunade's question. "You have to be strong enough to take things that hurt you without any complaint."
As he said this the memory started to speed up and several of the students start to file into the room quickly. Tsunade actually recognized most of the kids there. She knew them from when Nawaki had first gone into school. She didn't understand. How did Naruto get a hold of this memory. He wasn't alive then and she had very few memories of inside the classroom that her brother was in. Maybe this was one of the few days that she did remember, she thought as she looked up at the board to see what day this actually was. She gasped when her eyes landed on the date written on the board. It was her brother's twelfth birthday. She bit her lip. It was the day before Nawaki died.
Suddenly the memory slowed down as the classroom door was slammed open. "It's my birthday!" Nawaki yelled from the door. Tsunade bit her lip even harder as tears pricked at her eyes. She hadn't been able to see her brother's exuberance in so long because she had blocked off any memories of him in favor of never having to suffer through the happy times that she knew she would never get.
"Who cares pipsqueak," laughed one of the other boys in the room.
"Shut up asshole," yelled Nawaki.
"What's that around your neck?" asked the girl who sat next to the boy that had spoken earlier. "Oh you got jewelry. What a girl." With this the entire classroom erupted into a fit of hysterical laughter.
Nawaki deflated slightly, but he still stared defiantly at the two bullies. "I'll have you know that this necklace belonged to the first hokage," he said proudly.
"Yea right," laughed the boy. "Like he would wear something so girly. You're just using it as an excuse so that you can act like a girl."
"Now now," said the teacher calmly as he walked into the classroom. "Go sit down Nawaki. Before I mark you as tardy." The memory sped up again and Tsunade growled.
"Who were those kids?" she growled.
"Their names are unimportant," Naruto said. "The only thing that you need to know about them is that they continually bullied Nawaki throughout all of his time in school."
"If he had told me than I would have knocked some sense into them so that they would never mess with my little brother again," said Tsunade.
Naruto laughed at that. "He was strong," he said, "and he could handle them on his own, which is exactly my point. I have showed you one of the qualities that your little brother has in common with a hokage."
"Just because he has a quality that a hokage could or could not have had, that doesn't mean that it was just a fools dream," said Tsunade.
"To be hokage you must be willing to put all others before you in every way. Even if that means that you must give up your desires, your love, and even your life." As Naruto said this the memory slowed down again as the door to the classroom slid open once more. Tsunade looked at the board to see that it was the very next day as the frantic looking man rushed up to the teacher and whispered into his ear.
The teacher's eyes widened and he turned to the students as the man rushed out of the room to move onto the next one. "Alright listen up," the teacher tried to say firmly, but his voice shook as he spoke. "We are evacuating the school. Stay calm and stay with me in a double file line."
The students quickly stood and followed their teacher's directions. Tsunade looked around and found her own brother at the end of the line. She followed him closely and noticed something that she never would have expected from her brother. He was shaking in fear with one hand clutching tightly to the necklace that she had given him.
"It gives him courage," Naruto said from beside her as they followed the line out of the school and on the pathway at the hokage monument.
"I was told that he rushed in," said Lady Tsunade.
"He was very frightened," answered Naruto.
"If he made it to the monument with all of the other students, than why is he dead?" asked Tsunade as her fists clenched. "He was safe here so why did he die at the school?"
"Look around," said Naruto. "Is there anyone that you notice is missing?"
Tsunade looked at the line in front of her and saw only students with fear written all over their faces. She didn't recognize any of them. She hadn't known any of them. But there was two people that she realized were nowhere to be seen. "The bullies?" she gasped. They weren't in line with the rest of the students. She remembered seeing them in the classroom, but now they were gone.
"In times like this," said Naruto, "where chaos and fear dictate our actions, people get left behind."
They reached the top of the monument and the teacher allowed the students to walk in one by one as he made sure that all of them were there. It didn't take him long to realize that there were two students missing. "Where are Konan and Koaru?" he asked suddenly hoping beyond all hope that he had not left two children behind at the school.
Nawaki's head jerked up and, before anyone could stop him, turned and dashed back down the side of the mountain. His teacher called after him, but he continued to run with Tsunade and Naruto close behind. When he reached the outer edge of the school he skidded to a halt and crouched low behind a bush. Tsunade's own ninja instincts made her crouch behind a bush as well as she realized that several of the enemy ninjas were already here. Naruto just remained standing and watched the two of them survey the area around them. He felt bad for showing her this, but he knew that she had to see it. Now is the best time anyway. Hopefully it would deter her from trying to get them back from Orochimaru in the future.
Grabbing the pendant around his neck one last time, Nawaki made a sudden dash for the nearest door into the school when no ninjas were close by. He was just barely able to slip through the school door and close it before any ninjas turned the corner and found him. From there he slowly crept through the school, looking for any form of life. It didn't seem like the ninjas were inside the school. Tsunade only hoped that was really the case and Nawaki only hoped that they hadn't already found the two.
Suddenly, a soft crying entered their ears and Nawaki turned a corner to find Koaru leaning over Konan trying to wake him up.
"They're twins," Naruto said suddenly. Tsunade nodded. She had figured that much since they looked so much alike and seemed to work so well together. "And they have been abused all of their lives." Tsunade looked over at Naruto in shock. She would never have guessed that. She hadn't noticed any of the signs of an abused child in them. "They only have each other so when he fell and got knocked out she stayed behind to try to wake him."
Nawaki crept up to her and silently crouched down next to her so that he could examine the boy and make sure he was still alive. He didn't know much about medical techniques, but he at least knew how to make sure that someone was alive. He reached out to check his pulse when Koaru threw herself on top of Konan and screamed. "You can't have him!"
"No," Nawaki said quietly trying to calm the girl before anyone heard them. "It's me. It's Nawaki."
Koaru slowly turned her head so that she was looking at Nawaki. "I couldn't leave him behind," she cried.
"I know," said Nawaki, "but now we have to get out of here before anyone comes."
"I'm not leaving him," she said.
"We aren't leaving him," Nawaki said as he moved forward and wrapped one of Konan's limp arms around his neck. Koaru did the same to the other side and they both lifted Konan up so that they could drag him with only his feet dragging on the floor. They didn't make it far before they heard someone coming towards them. Nawaki made a quick decision and turned them around so that they would be going deeper into the school.
"Where are we going?" asked Koaru.
"I don't think we'll be able to make it out of here with him unconscious," Nawaki answered.
"I'm not leaving him," said Koaru.
"I know," said Nawaki. "That's why we are going to hide."
"Won't they find us?" asked Koaru. She was still crying, but Tsunade noticed that she was trying to make an effort to stop. Nawaki's words weren't exactly helping her in this though.
"No," said Nawaki. "I have the perfect hiding place where I always go when I want to hid from people. I've never been found there."
"Are you sure we won't be found?" she asked. "Won't they sense our chakra?"
"Don't worry," said Nawaki as they turned the corner and found themselves at a dead end. Before Koaru could start freaking out again, Nawaki crouched down and pulled open a small door that was barely noticeable. He took Konan from her and said, "Get in."
She did as she was told and crawled into the small section in the wall and then turned to help Nawaki force Konan into the small space as well. "What about you?" she asked, but Nawaki only smiled and closed the door.
"Why isn't he going in too?" she asked as she watched him turn just as two ninja rounded the corner to find him.
"The crawl space is barely big enough for two," Naruto answered. "Let alone three people. He wouldn't have fit in there if he tried, and if he had tried he would have put their lives in danger as well. This way he is the only one who is in danger."
The enemy smirked as Nawaki pulled out a kunai. And they attacked him without mercy. Tsunade watched as they killed her only brother. Her body started to shake as the blood flowed from his lifeless body and her mind raced with thoughts of how much she wanted to kill those men who had killed her brother.
Suddenly, everything disappeared.
"Konan and Koaru were found the next day," Naruto said as she calmed down. "Konan had been unconscious and Koaru was suffering from aftershock so neither of them could tell anyone about Nawaki saving their lives. They became ANBU and lived their life everyday remembering that sacrifice that your brother took in order to save their lives. They died while on a mission together. They never left each other's side."
"Why did you show me that?" she asked.
"Because you needed to see it," Naruto answered. "You needed to know why your brother really died. You needed to know that he was a very strong young man and that his death wasn't in vain. You needed to know that your brother deserves respect from you instead of the constant thought that he died of stupid actions."
"I've always respected my brother," said Tsunade.
"But you have always thought that if he hadn't been so stupid and hadn't run into battle where he didn't belong, than he would still be alive today," said Naruto. "That may be true. If he hadn't been so brave to save others even at the cost of his own life, than he could possibly be alive right now, but those two that he saved would definitely have died. Your brother chose the lives of those two over his own and you need to respect that decision and stop living in the past."
"How would you know so much about me," said Tsunade. This boy was starting to freak her out. No one, not even Jiraiya and Orochimaru, knew that much about her. How could he know things that not even they could?
"I have seen people whom I consider to be family die," answered Naruto, "and I have asked myself if they would have survived if they hadn't thrown themselves into the situation that they died in. Sometimes I have even wished that they hadn't, but then I realize that, if they hadn't died when they did, so many other people would die in their place. People must die. It is the way of life, and though it seems cruel to us when we lose someone we truly care about we must also realize that those people who lived because of that one person's sacrifice will have loved ones that would have mourned their loss just as much as we have and would have thought the same thoughts that run through our heads."
"What would a child know of death?" asked Tsunade. There was no way that he would have encountered a loss as painful as hers had been.
"A child would know nothing of death," answered Naruto, "in a world filled with peace and tranquility, but this world has pain and destruction in it as well and so many children know plenty about death." He hoped that that would be a good enough answer. He really didn't want to try to think up an excuse as to why he had seen so much death while he was trying to find the next memory that he was searching for.
Tsunade nodded. She didn't quite accept that answer, but she was unwilling to press it farther because she could see a pain in Naruto's eyes that she could only remember seeing in her own eyes after Nawaki and Dan had died. Naruto knew of death, and she would accept that for now.
"Now we must move on," said Naruto as he pulled another memory around them. This time it was one of Tsunade's own memories. "A person who is going to become hokage must want to always do what is best for the people no matter what the price would be."
Tsunade watched her own memories of Dan as he talked about how he wanted to become hokage to protect Konoha flashed in front of her. She smiled as she remembered that he had been the only one that had supported her when she was trying to get that bill passed.
Then the memories stopped on a forest and Tsunade gasped as she recognized it as the one that Dan had died in. "A hokage must know when to stop his ninjas so that they won't hurt themselves in vain," she heard Naruto say behind her as she watched herself try to heal Dan.
"Come on," she was crying, but the wounds just wouldn't heal.
"You're running out of chakra," Dan coughed out some blood. "You need to stop."
"Not until I heal you," she tried to say.
"No," said Dan as he took one of her hands into his own and broke the contact she had with his chest. "You need to stop or you'll run out of chakra."
"No," she tried to pull her hand away from his to put it back on his chest, but his hand held fast around her own. "Please let me heal you," she cried.
Dan shook his head. He was quickly losing himself and he needed to say these words now before he couldn't say them anymore. "I love you," he said as his eye closed.
"No!" screamed the memory of Tsunade as she placed her hands back on his chest and tried to heal him.
Tsunade shook as she watched the scene. All of the pain that she had felt at that moment filled her body and tears rolled down her cheeks. She watched until the memory faded into nothingness and then turned to Naruto.
"The only way that you could have healed him is if you completely depleted your chakra supply and died yourself," Naruto said.
"I would have rather died and let him live," she said quietly.
"And your sentiment was shared," Naruto said. "There is another quality that they both possess that would make them great hokages that I want to show you, and it is the only quality that you lack."
"What is that?" asked Tsunade.
"They have to want to be hokage," said Naruto.
Three images appeared behind Naruto. The memories of her brother, Dan, and Naruto stood there as all three of them spoke. "To be hokage, that is my dream."
"And they must be willing to die to protect their village even if it means giving up that dream," Naruto said as he pulled out a kunai and slashed it across his wrist. Blood flowed out of his arm as the memory of Naruto disappeared and the other two memories morphed into their faces in their death. Tsunade shook as she looked at them, but even through the fog that the fear of blood was creating in her mind she noticed something that she had never seen before. All three of them were smiling.
i hope you enjoyed this chapter as well