Previously: Kushina fights like a pack of dogs; Jiraiya shares Tsunade's backstory; Suzu thinks about Minato.


Tsunade did her utmost to pretend that we didn't exist when we followed her from town the next day. Considering how we were completely out in the open, doggedly following her every step, it was an effort. I would have commented on it if not for the fact that I was so busy keeping an eye on our other companion.

Kanta, walking two steps behind with a travelling staff on his shoulder and a bindle tied at its end, stared straight ahead. He made no move to acknowledge my staring. Tsunade made a tsking noise but let him be. Jiraiya, on the other hand, was having none of it.

"Why are you here?" His face held not even a hint of smile. "I told you to get lost."

"I haven't given up," Kanta answered quietly, his eyes fixed on the path in front of him. "I will become Tsunade-sama's student no matter what."

"So you're going to stalk me all over the country?" The lady in question scowled at this.

"I haven't given up," Kanta repeated determinedly. He was speaking to himself more than us. "I won't give up."

After Jiraiya had told him to leave he'd been gone the rest of the day, so I'd assumed he'd been driven away by the hostility. But it turned out following Tsunade around had inoculated him to all kinds of rudeness—he'd only gone to take a bath and find some food. Initial conversation revealed that he was only two years older than me, and the backstory he published painted him as an entirely non-ninja entity. The story, it seemed, was this: though his father—and his father, and his father before that—had all been ninjas, he had never studied the shinobi arts. He knew some basic iryou-ninjutsu, but that was because his older sister had been a medic-nin before she'd died during the Third War.

"After she was gone, I didn't know what to do," he admitted. "But that's when I remembered Tsunade-sama. So I left the village to find her."

"And you actually found her," I said neutrally, refraining from revealing my thoughts on the likelihood of this or his chosen cover. It was not unheard of for civilians to learn iryou ninjutsu, but they were a very select family attached to a very particular ninja clan. As far as I knew no one outside those circles had ever even bothered to attempt teaching non-shinobi. Perhaps it wasn't an unreasonable dream, but making an apprenticeship to Tsunade of the Sannin the first step to try certainly was. Clearly no one had taught this boy how to construct a proper cover.

While we were on the road I claimed the bag of intel reports from Jiraiya, linked my arm through Kushina's, and began rereading them while walking. She took this in stride and made sure I didn't slam into any obstacles, but Tsunade began eyeing me suspiciously. Jiraiya just told me to speak to him later.

The deluge of information was just as disorienting to read the second time. A smuggling ring in the north. Two yakuza families in a territory war in the east. Gossip from the capital. A variety of notorious criminals moving about in the underworld, including the saddest and sparsest report about a missing-nin I'd ever seen.

"Name unknown. Age unknown. Appearance unknown. Village of origin unknown. Rank B. Known to use poisons. Last spotted in Urahira two weeks ago."

Jiraiya frowned at this as we sat together over lunch. Shizune and Tsunade were bickering quietly while Kushina, peering off into the horizon with one arm raised, stood beside them. Kanta untied his sack and removed some dried fish and rice balls.

"And that was from Konoha's network, not mine?" The Toad Sage queried. "A Leaf shinobi gave us that?"

"I'm actually not really surprised," I admitted as I handed it over so he could see for himself. "Intel's still gutted from the same wave of reassignments I washed in with. Naoto-buchou did say at the rate we were going we'd lose all ability to gather internal intelligence. I suppose it's more unexpected that they actually had time to write a report at all."

"...Maybe I'll talk to Minato on Imasaki's behalf," Jiraiya said after a moment. "If this is what he's had to work with… hm." He stared down at it. "It was already old when we got it. At this point it's well past its expiration date. You can disregard it."

"That's good," I declared, cheered by this. One fewer point of info to keep track of was fine by me. Jiraiya gave me an amused look.

"You still have a long way to go, kiddo."

"Aha!" Kushina exclaimed triumphantly as she scooped down to pick something up from the ground. "Gamaburou!"

Distracted from replying, I looked up. She had a small orange messenger toad in her hands. So that's what she had been waiting for all morning.

"What the heck?" asked Tsunade. "Isn't that one of Jiraiya's toads?"

"It's one of Minato's," Kushina corrected, totally unfazed as Gamaburou regurgitated a scroll and offered it to her with his tongue. She took it happily. "Thanks, Burou. I'll get you something good from the next town before you head back."

"Ahh, wait a sec, Sis, I got one more," Gamaburou said. I watched with fascination as he spat out another missive. Even now I still had wonder that the Myoubyoku toads just walked around with all the manner of objects and documents tumbling about in their stomachs.

"Eh?" Kushina accepted this second letter with curiosity. I was curious, too. The first was clearly from Minato—the couple had been exchanging letters since we left—but I hadn't a clue who the second's sender could be. Kushina broke the seal and wandered over to us.

"Suzu, it's from ojisan," she said after a moment of reading. "Here."

"It's for me?" How surprising.

"Yeah, listen. Dear Kushina, how are you? I hope your mission is going well. Please pass this along to Suzu. Best wishes, Souhei," she read. Then, shrugging, she passed it along. I took it.

"Dear Suzu," I read back for her benefit. "Tsubasa won't stop bothering me so I'm sending you this letter from him. Please reply as soon as possible and tell him to get off my back. Love, Souhei."

As I unraveled the scroll a set of folded papers fell out. Kushina's eyes lit up.

"Tsubasa?" she asked excitedly, perking up at even the slightest chance to hear of a potential boyfriend. I never knew it before, but it turned out she was a diehard romance fan. "Who's Tsubasa?"

"He's my friend," I replied idly as I picked up the papers and unfolded them. "He's kind of sharp, but he's nice."

And for all Tsubasa did have that air of broken glass behind his smirks, I could tell that he tried his best not to smirk too often. Though he'd prodded at me about Uncle Souhei when we'd first met, I knew he wasn't malicious. He did his best with his rough edges.

Hi, Suzu!

Hope your mission is going well. You've been away for like two months now and it sucks since we just got to meet each other, but I guess otherwise things have been okay. Make sure you come by Kyouya's as soon as you get back. He's letting me build a treehouse and it would be awesome if you could come and help make a secret hideout with me. I've never had a secret treehouse hideout before.

Hideaki told me he would help out if I could convince Kyouya to let me use the big sugar maple near the back gate. Kyouya said yes pretty much as soon as I asked, so I'm really excited. Nana's helping me furnish it and we've got a bunch of rugs and cushions picked out...

The letter went on to detail more treehouse plans. It even included a surprisingly detailed sketch and floor plan, full of pointing arrows and dimensions.

"Wow, that's really impressive," Kushina remarked as she looked over my shoulder at the drawing.

"It kind of is," I agreed as I tilted my head and held the scroll away at arm's length for a better look. It was a big treehouse. That sugar maple was going to have be a pretty sizable tree.

...and that's pretty much all that's new with me. I ran a couple of missions this week but it was all just perimeter patrol and gate duty. My teammates don't want to try to take missions out of the village, which wouldn't be that bad, I guess, if they didn't always ask for the exact same ones each time. Can't you tell me more about your mission? I know you said it was a secret, but at least tell me where you are! Are you still in Fire Country? Are you overseas?

Write back soon!

Tsubasa

As I was reading a piece of paper fell out onto my lap. Curious, I picked it up and found it to be a flat origami rose, folded out of patterned paper.

"Oh my gosh, he's so cute!" Kushina squealed. "Suzu, he definitely likes you. He invited you to his secret hideout and everything. Minato wasn't half as charming as that even when we had actually been dating!"

"Tsubasa's pretty friendly in general," I demurred as I inspected the paper flower. "Besides, he sure seems to be getting a lot of people involved for this to be a 'secret' hideout…"

Kushina just gasped again. "You call him without honorifics?"

I paused and realized that I did. That… was probably a side effect of speaking English to him, now that I thought about it. But I couldn't tell her that, so after an awkward pause I busied myself with the origami without replying. Kushina squealed again.

It was a well-made thing with sharp corners and crisp creases. I noticed, though, that where the four points of the paper met in the middle, one of the edges was folded back very deliberately. Jiraiya looked at it, too. Then he smirked and wiggled his eyebrows at me. I resisted the urge to put my hand on my face.

I waited until we were on the road again and everyone was distracted to take it out once more and pull the flap back. The paper flower unfolded and revealed the message written in English inside.

Daisuke came to the last meeting looking for you.

Startled, I quickly refolded the paper and stuck it back into my pocket when Kushina glanced back at me. Misunderstanding me completely, she gave me a wink and an impish smile. I didn't protest at her knowing look; my thoughts were already leaping away in a completely different direction.

Daisuke Sarutobi was looking for me? That angry amalgamation of insults and affront? I thought if he'd had his way we'd never meet again. My brow creased as a sudden sense of foreboding overcame me.

What did he want?

Furisode City, so named for the two curving rivers that flanked the city like a maiden's kimono sleeves, was where the trouble began. It all started ordinarily enough—we found another inn to stay at, Kanta went off to send a letter home to his uncle, and Kushina stayed behind to write to Minato while Jiraiya and I went shopping for provisions—but midway through sealing a load of jerky into scrolls and discussing whether or not we could bribe Tsunade to come back to the village, a hand seized the back of Jiraiya's collar.

"Wh—"

He fell over as he was yanked back. Taken aback to have been snuck up on—after all, we both had passive chakra sense—we looked up and were startled to see the Slug Sannin herself standing over us, arms akimbo.

"What was that for?" the Toad Sage petulantly demanded as he swung himself back upright. I hastily shoved the rest of the food into my own scroll before gathering everything up and putting it into my pack.

"Come with me," she tersely said and, giving no other explanation, began marching back towards the inn. Exchanging looks, Jiraiya and I grabbed our stuff before following after her.

"So what's the matter, Princess Tsunade?" Jiraiya asked once we had arrived back at our rooms. His tone did not sound quite sardonic, but it was definitely something close. Tsunade, ignoring him, put a hand into the fold of her kimono-style blouse and pulled out a piece of paper.

"Shizune's been kidnapped," she announced as she slammed it onto the table. I jumped while Jiraiya's eyebrows shot up. He reached forward to take the note. "She's being held ransom for my gambling debts. It's the same Golden Whatever people from last time."

I stared at the note and felt immediate alarm bells go off. Yakuza enforcers or not, Shizune was a trained shinobi. Even on the chance they had managed to somehow take her off-guard there was no reason she couldn't just beat off her attackers and escape on her own. I opened my mouth to point this out.

Jiraiya, though, dropped a hand on my shoulder and leaned forward with a shrewd glint in his eye. "And what do you want us to do about it?" he asked. I looked bewilderedly at him before realizing that he was deliberately playing along. Tsunade tsked and glared.

"I need you to help me get her back," she huffed as she crossed her arms. "There are about eight of them if they haven't changed up their group since our last encounter. They weren't hard to defeat, but they're all skilled enough that I can't deal with so many of them in a hostage situation."

I sincerely doubted that, but beneath Jiraiya's quelling grip I knew better than to say it out loud.

"Besides, I've never smelled such an obvious trap in my life," Tsunade continued. "The smarter choice is to have you go answer their demands while I rescue her."

"So you want us to be bait, eh?" Jiraiya crossed his arms as well. "Sounds risky. What's in it for us?"

Tsunade scowled. For a moment I wondered if she would just drop this act, whatever it was, and give up whatever gambit she was trying to pull off so he could yell at him to just buzz off. But she seemed to marshal her resolve after a moment and sighed.

"I'll consider coming back to help with your fool's errand if you do," she muttered, sour. "Maybe. But don't get your hopes up."

"Hmm." The Toad Sage crossed his arms and began tapping a finger on his bicep thoughtfully. Then he grinned sharply. "Well, what are teammates for? We'll go a step further, Tsunade, and take care of it for you. You stay here at the inn. Kushina and I will go and deal with Shizune and the hitmen for you. And when we get back, you'll give our request a good and proper think, eh?"

"Oh, whatever, Jiraiya," Tsunade replied. Her thoughts were unreadable behind a mask of irritation. "If that's what you want to do then just go already."

"So I'm keeping watch in case she makes a run for it?" I asked as we made our way back into the hall and towards the room I was sharing with Kushina.

"Well, nominally." Jiraiya snorted in reply. "It's not a problem of if so much as when. Here, come on."

We opened the door and found our red-haired companion feeding snacks to Gamaburou.

"Oh, you're back already?" Kushina looked at us with surprise.

"Yeah. We've got a situation," Jiraiya said and then explained.

"Don't you suppose Shizune would be long gone by now?" Kushina asked curiously at the end of it. "They obviously have a meeting point somewhere for if they get separated."

"Shizune's sympathetic enough to our cause that I don't think she'll have left outright," Jiraiya replied. "We're not going to rescue Shizune anyway, it's almost guaranteed she's already escaped. I mostly just need you to go pay the enforcers off while I go touch base with her."

"We're going with the bribery plan after all?" I asked, surprised. "Do you already have funds prepared?"

"Kiddo, when it comes to Tsunade I always have funds prepared," Jiraiya snorted again. "At this point it's only language besides booze she's willing to speak with me anymore."

That… was actually slightly upsetting to hear. Having lost teammates to death and circumstance both, I couldn't help but feel like I had something of an idea of how that might feel. It was an unhappy thing.

"Now kid, you're a decent runner," Jiraiya forged on briskly, paying it no mind. "You've done enough training on the road for me to see that. Combined with your seals, I think that should be enough for you to keep Tsunade in place."

Wait, hang on. "Are you actually asking me to try stopping Tsunade of the Sannin?" I asked as my eyebrows flew up. "All my bluffing aside, I told you I'm made of nothing but hot air. If it comes to an actual fight she'll stomp me into tiny pieces."

"Please, kid, I don't buy that for a minute. You broke into a secure hospital ward under guard by an entire division of ANBU. No one does that without at least one ace in the hole."

That—wasn't really wrong, I supposed. But it certainly did assume that I possessed a certain degree of sense and skill that was… not quite reflective of reality. I was really starting to regret how that entire escapade had begun to color me in the eyes of others. Unfortunately, there was no way for me to deflect expectations with the fact that I had only gotten through because I had had an in with one of their members—that was a sure-fire way to get Akihiko into unbelievable amounts of trouble. That sort of thing had bad enough penalties in the General Forces; who knew how the Special Forces might deal with it.

"Besides," he continued, "you don't even really have to stop her. Just keep her busy and slow her down long enough for either Kushina or me to finish up business and get back. You can manage that, can't you?"

I looked down at my hand doubtfully, but Kushina gave me an encouraging smile and Jiraiya raised an eyebrow expectantly at me. I sighed and rubbed my neck.

"I'll do my best, then."