And into the Tsunade Arc we go!
Something, something... Without further ado.
Chapter 36: The Final Sannin
Sasuke's eyes fluttered open slowly, expecting to have to adjust to the sunlight above him, but instead finding himself in the middle of a patch of shade.
A patch of shade that was thanks in large part to Naruto hovering over him, a goofy grin on his face that seemed entirely inappropriate for what they'd just gone through.
"You're awake!"
That seemed fairly obvious to Sasuke, and he couldn't suppress the sigh he let out a second later, trying to sit himself up. He was greeted almost immediately with an intense ache, both from his right arm, which near instantly collapsed beneath him, and then by his ribs, which cried out as he landed on them.
"Ow." He commented rather uselessly.
"Um, right," Naruto spoke up awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I should've probably started with this, but Itachi managed to re-fracture your ribs, and you've got a pretty severe wound going up your right shoulder. It's advised that you move as little as possible. Once we find Tsunade, Pervy Sage is going to get her to heal you up."
Well, I guess I can't really complain about that. Sasuke groaned, trying to ignore the way his chest flared up in pain every time he took a breath. Still, the sooner the better on this Tsunade character.
"And what will I be doing in that time?"
Naruto scratched the side of his head.
"Erm… well, Jiraiya said you should be resting."
"I suppose you know me well enough to know my response to that?" Sasuke asked with a tiny grin.
"Eh, decently well enough, yeah." Naruto let out a breathy laugh. "Jiraiya should be back sooner or later, you can tell him all this then."
"Right."
The next hour passed slowly, Sasuke doing his best not to focus on the way his breathing was strained, or on how whenever he moved his right arm, it felt like he was digging into it with a fishhook. He narrowly managed to push himself into a sitting position by leaning against the tree behind him.
Unfortunately, while doing this, he'd gotten some pollen in his nose, and couldn't quite manage to hold back a sneeze.
He'd very nearly cried from how much that'd hurt.
It wasn't for another half an hour that Jiraiya arrived back in their tiny encampment, and by that time, the residual aches of his restless body had taken away any and all gratitude he'd still had for the man for saving them.
"You're late." Sasuke hissed out through his teeth, glaring daggers at the Sage. "Naruto said you'd be back 'soon' an hour and a half ago!"
"Funny how that works, sometimes you take a bit longer than you expect to." Jiraiya was, apparently, having none of his shit. "Didn't I save your ass not twenty-four hours ago? Quite frankly, you owe me one and then some." Jiraiya looked down at him, squinting like he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. "And you're supposed to be resting! What the hell are you doing sitting up on your own!?"
Sasuke coughed, avoiding eye contact in some bid to avoid a deserved lecture. Seeing his expression, Jiraiya simply sighed, before walking over to Naruto.
"Until we can meet up with Tsunade, kid over there is out for the count with his injuries. Keep him from standing or doing anything that could aggravate his wounds, got it?"
Naruto nodded, entirely serious for one of the rare moments in his life.
"I don't just want to sit still while you two have this training camp!" Sasuke complained, not quite leaning forward, but certainly trying to. "Isn't there anything you could do!?"
"Yeah, it's 'get Tsunade'." Jiraiya deadpanned. "Kid, your injuries might be pretty bad, but that woman could heal them in the span of twenty minutes, maybe less if we're being honest."
Sasuke sighed, accepting that even if wasn't particularly satisfying.
"Is there anything I can do in the meantime?"
The old man considered that for a moment, rubbing his chin with one hand as he seemingly tried to work something out.
"Well, you could practice that Genjutsu of yours."
Sasuke's eyes widened minutely. He vaguely remembered Zabuza calling the same technique a Genjutsu when he'd used back on the bridge to stop Naruto. If Jiraiya of the Sannin was confirming it… well, he wasn't going to doubt the man on that.
"I… I suppose I could try and learn more about it." He flinched slightly as he tried to reach for the feeling it caused, but it was like putting on a blindfold and sticking your hand into a pit of needles, hoping to find a single piece of hay. "It's… I've tried to use it outside of combat before, but nothing ever comes of it."
"Well, of course." Jiraiya reasoned easily, sitting down in front of him and gesturing for Naruto to do the same. "Simply put, that Genjutsu is beyond your current abilities."
"What?"
"Ok, so, tell me if this sounds familiar." Jiraiya cleared his throat. "You're at the end of your rope against an opponent you can't beat. You're about to die, or someone close to you is, and you reach deep within yourself to find something, anything, that could save them." Jiraiya gestured to the back of his head. "For you, I think it might be a pain in the back of your skull, probably coming from your visual cortex trying to overload your Sharingan. The next thing you know, though, you're using some super advanced Genjutsu, yay, everything's solved."
That…
Wasn't entirely inaccurate.
"How'd you know?" Sasuke asked, not suspicious, but more curious.
"Kid, you're not the only person to ever surpass their limits in a pinch, we ninja do it all the time. I myself haven't done it much recently, but I used to all the time when I was a kid in the middle of a war-zone. You do whatever you can to keep your friends alive."
Sasuke nodded, accepting that without much trouble.
"So… how do I go practicing an ability that I have no idea how to access?"
Jiraiya raised his pointer finger, as if to proclaim rather easily how to do an impossible task, and then visibly deflated a second later.
"Well, do you remember where you generally access the ability from?"
"My… eyes?"
"I meant more like… what part of your head hurts, or where do your eyes feel the most focused, something like that." Jiraiya gestured once more to the point at the back of his skull. "Like I said, the obvious point for the pain would be the visual cortex. Feel around, see if that's where the pain usually originates from."
Sasuke did as asked, poking the underside of his skull, inspecting the area to try and recognize the feeling he usually experienced. It took perhaps thirty seconds for his eyes to widen minutely.
"Here, just like you said."
He had to admit to some surprise. He sometimes forgot that Jiraiya was a world-renowned ninja, widely regarded as one of the strongest to ever live, when he was traipsing around town, stealing the wallets of small children, and using that money to go and get himself too drunk to stand.
"I guess even you can do it if you try, huh?"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean!?" The Toad Sage berated him, before sighing and sitting down on the ground. "Well, anyways, I'm afraid in this particular matter I'm not going to be much help. Genjutsu was never really my forte."
"What is?" Sasuke felt like asking, wanting to know a bit more about the so-called 'legend' in front of him.
"Ninjutsu, particularly summoning Jutsu's, though, then again, I guess that goes for all three of us."
The Sannin… Sasuke caught on to the man's insinuation. So Tsunade can summon a giant just like the other two?
"Whereas Tsunade was good at the medical side of Jutsu, and Orochimaru was gifted in creating and iterating on jutsu, I was always more on the… I suppose you'd call it the battle-side of Jutsu. I learned to throw big fire-balls, summon giant frogs who were good at killing things, and just in general blew a lot of crap up."
Jiraiya stroked his chin for a moment, seemingly realizing something.
"Y'know, looking back, I think the fact that none of us use Genjutsu might come back to Ol' Hiruzen. He never really taught us any, and if my memories can still be trusted, I think I can count the number of times he ever bothered using any on one hand."
"None of you? Really?" Naruto rejoined the conversation, having been poking a small toad that was sitting on a nearby tree branch. "I mean, it's one of the three big kinds of Jutsu, right? I thought it'd be… I don't know… used more?"
"Really comes down to the nature of the art on that one, kid." The Older man exclaimed. "Genjutsu is a tough son of a bitch to learn, to practice, and to utilize. I mean, you can't really practice Genjutsu without someone to practice it on, in the first place, so unless you've got a knack for it naturally, chances are you won't be able to get better at it using traditional training methods."
Makes sense, I suppose. Sasuke nodded along. Then… does that mean Itachi was always that good with Genjutsu?
It was a frightening thought.
"Then, to even utilize Genjutsu, you've essentially gotta' use it in a one on one environment. An advanced Genjutsu… and by that I mean a normal advanced Genjutsu, not one of those crazy ones your brother's able to use, can at any time be canceled out by someone around the victim being flooded with external chakra." Jiraiya shrugged his shoulders. "Not to mention, there aren't a lot of people who want to devote ten years of their life to learning how to trick someone into killing themselves, when you could learn how to kill them yourself in a month, maybe less."
Sasuke couldn't help but wilt slightly.
Did he forget I was trying to learn a Genjutsu here? Sasuke laughed quietly. Not exactly the most inspiring speech about them.
"But you're different."
Sasuke's eyes opened widely as Jiraiya turned on him, a small smirk on his face.
"You've got the aptitude for it. I don't think it's a stretch to say you're not as good at it as your brother is, but that shouldn't mean anything. If you're a prodigy at this stuff, then Itachi Uchiha would be a prodigy among prodigy's, perhaps the strongest Genjutsu user this world's seen since the age of the warring states, and hell, even then, he might still be stronger than the old legends." Jiraiya gave him a light pat on the shoulder, which shot a spark of pain through his right arm. "It wouldn't do to measure yourself against him when it comes to Genjutsu. Learn them at your own pace, and find things you yourself specialize in."
Sasuke let out an indignant breath, letting his head lean against the bark behind him as he tried to let the man's words wash over him.
I don't need you to tell me how special Itachi is. Sasuke complained mentally. Trust me, I'm aware.
…Still, I guess his advice isn't terrible. But… what exactly is it that I excel at?
I guess I could always ask.
"Uh, Naruto?"
"Yo?"
It was a bit awkward to come out and say.
"What… do you think I'm good at?"
Naruto seemed to ponder that for a moment, making a small "Hmm" sound as he did. About ten seconds later, he finally answered.
"I guess you're pretty good at Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, especially when you use your Sharingan. Your style is really versatile, and you're able to easily flow from a Jutsu into hand-to-hand combat." Naruto smiled awkwardly at him. "Uh… I swear there's more… but I'm kind of… blanking?"
Sasuke glared as Jiraiya guffawed loudly.
"Well, thanks Naruto, my best and closest friend. Good to know I'm valued."
"OI! I said I was just blanking!" Naruto stressed as he tried to think of more things to say. "I… Well, you're a really good… defensive fighter?"
Sasuke sighed as Jiraiya fell to the floor, clutching his sides.
"I'm trying, Ok! Jeez! You act like this is easy! Why don't you try it!?"
"Fine, I will." Sasuke briefly thought of what to say. "Naruto, you're a well-rounded fighter, specializing in short to mid-range combat. Your main forte is in analyzing your opponent with Shadow Clones and then beating them through abusing their weaknesses. You're also fairly adept at numerous Shinobi techniques, including shuriken Jutsu and Taijutsu." He took a breath, wearing a look of superiority. "There, easy."
Naruto's left eye twitched.
"Fine. Be that way."
"What do you mean "Be that way"!? You're the one who started this!"
"Children, please." Jiraiya spoke as he regained control of his faculties. "Let's not fight. Naruto, your description of Sasuke was fine. Sasuke, your description for Naruto was also fine. Just because one was longer and more complex doesn't mean it was deeper in any way." The man laughed under his breath a second later. "And if you think Naruto's analyzing most of the time he sends out Shadow Clones, I think you're overestimating him a bit."
"What is this, 'pick on Naruto hour'?" The boy in orange shouted annoyedly.
"I was complimenting you not one minute ago!" Sasuke shouted back.
"OK, one more time and I beat the shit out of the both of you." Jiraiya spoke in deadpan, waiting for them both to be silent, glaring at him without uttering a word. "Good, thank you. Now, Naruto, while Sasuke here works on his Genjutsu, I'm going to teach you that Jutsu we talked about earlier."
"Oh, you mean Ras… whatever, right?"
"Rasengan, yes."
"Neat." Naruto commented. "So what am I doing?"
Jiraiya held a finger up for the boy to wait a moment, before reaching into his coat and pulling out what looked to be a small orb. A second later, Sasuke recognized the quiet sloshing sounds and noted that it must've been a water balloon.
"Right, so listen up."
/-/
Zaku was back again, which had, over the course of a few days, gradually gone from a surprising occurrence to a regular one.
He sat quietly at the edge of their training area, doing his best not to interrupt as he whispered back and forth with Kin and Dosu, the both of whom seemed far less enthusiastic about visiting her. Anko seemed to find the entire thing hilarious as she stood a way's away from them, looking between her and Zaku over and over, occasionally giving Sakura this… odd expression.
I'll ask her later what she's so amused by, I guess.
"Alright, twice more." The doctor who'd been attending to Sakura's experiments for the past few days called out. "You're close to a breakthrough with this."
Yeah, definitely. Sakura deadpanned, finding herself disagreeing with the woman's theory. I'm soooo close to figuring out the Wood Style. I'm sure attempt number two-hundred and five will be totally different to the previous two-hundred and four!
She focused her chakra around her curse mark, letting some of the malignant creation's own chakra flow into her own, creating an odd mix. She then tried to force that into all the little nooks and crannies of the curse mark, feeling for where some of the First Hokage's cells resided.
She'd gotten decently good at locating them, it was drawing out their power, and mixing it with her own, that was giving her trouble.
She did things slightly different this time. Instead of mixing in some of her chakra in order to better control the outpour of Hashirama's own, she decided to feed it only the curse mark's chakra. Perhaps the raw natural energy, without any of her own to get in the way, would stimulate the Wood Style enough for it to explode forth? She put her hands out, channeled that chakra, and focused hard.
It was around twenty seconds later that she let out a disappointed sigh.
Nothing happened.
That wasn't exactly surprising. The tests they did here ended with nothing happening about 95 percent of the time. In the single case where she did manage to strike a good balance between using her own chakra and the curse marks chakra, applying the appropriate amounts of both to Hashirama's cells, and outputting them in a successful way, the resulting Jutsu had been a single pink cherry blossom sprouting from the back of her neck.
Not exactly inspiring stuff. Sakura deadpanned. Even if it had been pretty cool.
"So, what did you attempt that time?" The doctor asked once more, chronicling Sakura's attempts to master the Wood Style in her notes.
Sakura briefly explained her thought process from before, to which the woman merely nodded.
"Alright, then once more."
As Sakura began focusing once more, a single thought nagged at her from the back of her head, until she truly couldn't focus anymore on wood style. Instead, she found herself looking up into the face of the Kunoichi who'd been testing her the past few days.
"Hey, uhm… miss?"
The root woman looked up, eyeing Sakura curiously.
"What is it?"
"What's your name?"
She hadn't been expecting the doctor's eyes to widen to such a degree, nor for the look of confusion on the woman's face to be so depressing.
"I do not have a name." She replied simply. "I am given a codename when I go out on missions, but I have no need of one outside of them."
Sakura tilted her head to the side, a bit confused.
"Then… what do people call you?"
"Doctor, or ma'am." The woman shrugged, an oddly human gesture for someone who seemed almost robotic. "It doesn't matter."
"Then… what was your last code name?" Sakura asked, before realizing that could be construed as trying to get information. "I mean – if you're Ok with giving that out! I'm not trying to-"
"Codenames from finished missions have no meaning, it is fine." The woman waived away her concerns, before sighing, as if she were a teacher dealing with bratty kids all day. "My last codename was Ra. If you must call me something, you may refer to me as such."
Ra, huh?
"Why do you care, if I might ask?"
Sakura looked up at the woman, feeling a bit awkward.
"Well, I guess I just wanted something to call you that wasn't 'Doctor', y'know?"
"I still say we should've named her ourselves." Anko called from the back of the room, shouting so that both Sakura and Ra could hear her. "I was thinking 'dick lips', personally."
The doctor gave a sharp glare towards Anko, once again showing that she clearly did feel emotion, and another towards the sound trio, who'd laughed just a bit too obviously at Anko's joke.
"Getting back on topic," Ra quietly seethed. "Please resume your tests."
"R-right!" Sakura answered, before falling back into her mind once more.
This time… I'll do the opposite extreme.
She reached for her own chakra this time, completely ignoring the curse mark's chakra, and flooded Hashirama's cells with it. She reached her hands out, tried with all her might to force that same chakra into them, and pushed outwards.
Once more, there was nothing.
She let out a small huff of frustration, one which her curse mark immediately latched onto, nearly managing to slip past her little pen of chakra and snake down her arm. She reigned it back in a second later, forcing it back into the seal, and shut the lock rather fiercely.
At least this training's made me a lot better at dealing with this thing. Sakura couldn't help but admit as she massaged the skin on which the curse mark sat. Though the jury's still out on whether or not this'll work in combat…
She'd simply have to hope it would.
"Please, explain your thought process this time as well."
Sakura went through the motions, explaining her attempt, and Ra documented it.
"Very well, we're done for the day."
The woman stepped forward, making to leave, but stopped at the door. She let her hand rest on the frame, lightly tapping on it.
"Not everyone in this place will take your question as kindly, Sakura Haruno." Ra's voice was almost empty, almost devoid of any meaning, but Sakura could catch the tiniest hint of melancholy hanging in the back of the woman's throat. "You'd best be more careful."
"I appreciate the warning, ma'am." Sakura gave a small bow as Anko walked over towards her. "But, well… I'm not going to abandon my ideals just because I'm in some weird, new place. You're all people too, aren't you?"
To her surprise, the woman before her merely laughed, looking back over with what she could only describe as a jaded expression.
"Perhaps once." She answered. "But not anymore."
And then she was gone.
"Fun one, isn't she?" Anko joked, playfully punching her arm as she circled around her. "Still, at least you're getting some decent training out of this."
"Yeah, I guess so."
She wasn't all that surprised to find her mood had fallen slightly thanks to the doctor's comments. She wasn't sure what to make of them, either.
No longer people? Sakura questioned. Just what is that supposed to mean?
"Hey, Sakura?"
She turned to look up at Anko, giving the woman an apologetic smile.
"Sorry, I'm just… thinking."
"No worries, I get it. Your first time in Root is always a weird feeling." Anko looked around the room, silently envisioning something. "The place is so full of people, and yet it's one of the most somber, silent places you'll ever visit. You might as well be in a library for the terminally ill."
"Why are they like this?" Sakura couldn't help but ask. "I mean are there like… experiments done or something?"
Anko didn't laugh at her comment, which seemed to be the final hint she'd needed that whatever was going on here, it must've been at least a bit sinister.
"Not experiments, but it is a practice that almost anyone else besides Danzo would find horrifyingly immoral." Anko smiled bitterly, grinding her teeth together. "And yet this bastard not only survived that attack on the leaf, but he's probably one of the people behind it… I guess some things never change."
Sakura's eyes widened.
"D-Danzo was one of the people behind the attack!?"
Anko looked down at her, then seemed to survey the area, watching for any signs of movement out of the corners of her eyes. There was, of course, the sound trio at the edge of the room, at this point arguing about something rather incessantly. Nothing else seemed to set the woman off, however, for she continued a moment later.
"It's what Jiraiya, Naruto, and Sasuke are up to. They're off to get us some back-up before we challenge Danzo. Well, that, and to get the new Fifth Hokage as well."
"That's all well and good, but you just said-"
"Yeah, I let that little morsel slip, but we'd probably best not discuss that in here." Anko gestured to her ear, then pointed with her thumb at the surrounding walls. "You get me?"
"R-right!"
"Sorry, I messed up." Her teacher admitted, a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead. "If we're lucky, they're slacking a bit."
"And if we're not?"
Anko paused for a moment, before smiling down at her.
"Then I'd have to break us out myself."
"Uhm… no offense, Anko sensei, but are you really that strong?" She held her hands up in surrender as Anko's eyes narrowed. "I'm just saying, even you said there were a ton of people in here! Are you sure you'd be able to take them all on?"
The woman glared daggers at her, lightly punching her above her left breast.
"Oi." Anko berated her quietly. "Don't be realistic, it's no fun."
Sakura simply sighed, before sinking back into her serious mood.
"So… the plan is to wait for Jiraiya and the boys to come back… and then what?"
"Did I not just say we can't talk about this here?"
"I know you did, but at the same time, you can't just drop hints like that and then stop!"
Anko sighed, rubbing a hand down her face as she contemplated her students words.
"I'm not finished yet."
Sakura's eyebrows rose.
"Huh?"
"Just a second."
A moment later, there was a faint, almost indistinguishable sound of hissing. Sakura's eyes widened as she realized what her mentor had been doing.
"Alright, there are no audio recording systems in this room, we're good." Anko let out a loud sigh of obvious relief. "Here I was thinking I'd accidentally screwed up the whole plan, hah."
"So… you let it slip on accident then?"
"Nope, it was definitely on purpose." Anko corrected her, smiling down in a joking way. "I did it completely on purpose."
"Yeah… OK." Sakura thought about something a moment later. "Actually, when you said audio recording… does that mean there are video cameras in this room?"
"Oh yeah, like eight of the damned things." Anko did some light stretches, indicating with the movements of her head the camera's locations. "One every 45 degrees. Technically those cameras can pick up audio, but we shouldn't have to worry about that with those three chatting up a storm." She pointed with her thumb to the sound trio in the back of the room.
"I checked specifically for any equipment that could pick us up even with them talking, and from somewhere we wouldn't see, and I didn't find any of those, so we should be fine. Alright, you had questions, yeah?"
Anko smirked at her, a devious expression that looked completely at home on her features.
"Hit me."
/-/
"I hate you."
"I don't see why you'd hate me for helping you out." Naruto commented as he desperately fought back a fit of laughter. "I'm just being nice, after all."
"I have nothing for you in my heart but hatred."
"I think you've got me mixed up with someone else, my name is Naruto, I-"
"Put me down!"
"Make me?" Naruto asked, snickering as he held the boy underneath his thighs, giving Sasuke a makeshift piggyback ride. "Because quite frankly, I don't think you can at the moment."
"You do realize that dragging me around like this is probably putting more strain on my ribs than if I was walking on my own, correct?"
"Frankly, I disagree."
"I fail to see how you disagreeing means anything."
"Because you can't exactly get down on your own, can you?"
"…This is abuse. You're abusing the disabled because they can't fight back."
"You were the one who said he wanted to get out and see the town!"
"I said I wanted to get up and get some air! There is a massive difference!"
"You were already outside, how could you get any more air than that!?"
"I'd been sitting in the same spot for nearly seven hours!"
"And you had air the whole time!"
"Would you two shut the hell up!?" A stall owner who'd have the unfortunate task of listening to the two of them argue for the past minute complained loudly. "Some people have actual responsibilities!"
Naruto debated starting an argument, but found himself all argued out, instead deciding to walk away, carrying the angered Sasuke along with him.
"You can apologize whenever you want." The boy spoke simply.
"You might be waiting a while." Naruto shot back.
They walked for a while as Naruto investigated all the nearby gambling parlors, or anything that struck him as vaguely shady looking. He had a feeling that a normal twelve-year-old probably wouldn't have even gone near some of the establishments he was snooping inside, but then, a normal twelve-year-old didn't have a battery shaped like a giant fox hanging out in their stomach, nor were they carrying another fireball-spewing-twelve-year-old along their back.
A few people inside gave them intriguing looks, though quickly looked the other way once Sasuke adjusted the headband atop his head. To them, they were probably some odd chimera, a fusion of two ninja that was searching for its creator.
"Hey, Sasuke!" Naruto whispered. Well, he tried to whisper, and that was what mattered. "We should pretend to be some undead chimera or something! And say something like "only Tsunade can split the two of us apart again!"!"
"Why the hell would we bother doing that?" Sasuke scolded him. "We already have a reason to look for Tsunade, we don't need to make up a fake one."
Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto noticed a fairly tall black-haired woman shift. It wasn't obvious, and he was fairly sure that if he hadn't been looking for someone, he wouldn't have seen it.
Is she reacting to what I think she's reacting to?
…Better test it out, I suppose.
"I mean, this is Tsunade of the Sannin! It's not like we can just request an audience with the Tsunade, even if we do need her to heal your injuries!"
"Why are you being weird?" Sasuke called him on his behavior almost instantly. "You notice something?"
He gestured with his head towards the woman behind him.
"Thinking there may be a connection. Not sure yet."
Sasuke sighed, before, with a small blush, he spoke up.
"Ah, oh, woe is me, the pain is nearly unbearable. I hope we can soon come across the strongest medical ninja of all time, Tsunade of the Sannin, or else I fear I may not make it."
Naruto glared at the boy.
"Really. That's the best you've got?"
"Oh, shut up! I'm a damned ninja not a freaking actor!"
"Uhm, excuse me?"
They both turned towards the voice, well, Naruto turned, and Sasuke just sort of went with him. It was the same woman from earlier. She wore a simple black kimono and sandals. She didn't exactly stand out in the small gambling parlor's entryway.
"Yeah?" Naruto feigned innocence. "Did you need something?"
"I couldn't help but overhear the two of you…" The woman looked almost guilty, though Naruto couldn't see why she would be. "You're looking for Tsunade-sa– Tsunade, correct?"
"Yeah, we're trying to find her so she'll heal my friends shoulder, and his ribs."
The woman before him blinked once or twice, as if doing some mental arithmetic.
"In that case… allow me to take you to her. I'm sure she'd be willing to help heal some children, but… well, are your injuries bleeding?"
"Er," Naruto could tell that Sasuke wasn't entirely sure why such a thing would be relevant. "Well, one of them was, but it's been sewn shut already, so…"
"That's fine! Good, even. If you'll follow me, then I can-"
The woman seemed to realize they weren't following, for she looked back towards them with her eyebrows raised.
"Er… are you coming?"
"So you're saying I should just follow some random lady I just met back to her house!?" Naruto questioned, smirking to himself. "If you think I'll fall for that, then you've got another thing coming! Iruka Sensei told me to never follow a stranger back to their house, especially when their offer seems too good to be true!"
"Naruto I swear to the gods I will end you." Sasuke growled from on his shoulder.
"Right, no kidding around, sorry."
He stepped up to follow the woman, but by the time he did, she'd stopped, and was now gazing down at Sasuke.
"You said his shoulder and ribs were injured, correct?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Are those his… only injuries?"
"Yeah… is that a problem, or?"
"No, no, I was just thinking that if that's the only problem, I could go ahead and heal him right here. We needn't get Tsunade for something like that."
"W-well, you see, my friend has a phobia of people with black hair, so-"
"Please shut up." Sasuke sighed out. "We were actually looking for Tsunade for another reason as well, Miss. Is there any way you could let us and our master meet with her?"
"Who's this master of yours?" The woman's face remained calm, yet it was hard to miss how her posture straightened, silently preparing herself for a battle if need be. "Just so I know who we're dealing with."
Naruto didn't really see any need to hold back on that kind of information, but at the same time, he wondered why the woman would be so hostile towards them.
"His name's Jiraiya, he and Tsunade are old teammates, or, well, that's what he tells us."
If it was possible, the woman in front of them somehow managed to drop her guard and raise it tenfold at the same time.
Yeah, Naruto thought, grinning slightly. That seems like an appropriate response to having to deal with that Pervy Sage.
"Well… that's… I can't say I expected to have to deal with this when I woke up today." The woman spoke, grasping at her heart in an attempt to calm herself down. "Both of them in one day… what are the odds…"
Naruto's eyes narrowed, even if he didn't quite know what the woman meant. If his theory was correct, however…
"Shizune!" A voice called out from outside the parlor. "Haven't you finished up in there yet!? I swear I didn't have that many bills outstanding!"
Who's that?
"Is that her?" Sasuke asked.
"Ah, yeah." The woman, apparently named Shizune, turned her back to them, leaning out the doorway and shouting down the alley. "Just a moment, Tsunade-sama! There are some people here who want to speak with you."
A moment or two of silence later, Tsunade's voice called back.
"Oh, c'mon! I thought I told you bastards that I paid the last of my outstanding debts half a year ago! I'm not going to fall for any more of these-"
The woman who entered was perhaps an inch or two shorter than her retainer. She had long blonde hair drawn into twin ponytail's that hung low on her head, and was wearing a green colored Kimono over a fairly simple outfit. Upon seeing the two of them, she nearly immediately stopped speaking.
"You don't look like debt collectors." She put together rather quickly.
"That'd be because we aren't." Sasuke responded.
"We're here to bring you back to the Leaf Village!" Naruto shouted. "We've gotta' overthrow the guy that betrayed Lord Third, and make you the new Fifth Hokage!"
Tsunade blinked once, then a second time, before, with a sigh, she leaned against the door-frame beside her.
"Damn." She breathed out just loud enough for them to hear.
"I think I would've preferred the debt collectors."
End Chapter 36
Alright.
Back to writing this story after Christmas. Shorter chapter while I warm my fingers back up into the writing groove.
This is one of those "Everything's set-up and nothing happens" chapters, which I always hate writing, but that doesn't make them any less important.
Still makes me feel shitty though.
In other news...
Man, there's no other news.
See you all next week!