A Nugget Of Advice, Chapter 15
The last member of the Senju Clan, Tsunade, was doing her usual thing in an evening: drinking heavily and gambling her savings away. Shizune's fussing had been annoying and almost killed her buzz, which is why the blonde buxom woman sent her helper out of the gambling joint.
"Hit me again."
The short-haired man rolled the dice in a bamboo cup, a sleazy grin on his face. "Call it."
"Chō."
The dice hit the ground. It was three on both of the dice. "Han. Pay up."
She grumbled and gave the man 3,000 ryō. That would have to be it or else she would have to start giving out some paper IOUs. She stumbled to her feet, fixed her outfit a bit, and grabbed her sandals before leaving the gambling house. The men in the house had a smirk on their faces that Tsunade wanted to punch. "Leaving so soon, ma'am? A pleasure playing with you this evening! Hope you get your money back somewhere else."
"Shut the fuck up," Tsunade gruffly said. She stormed out the gambling house, opening the panel door with roughness. "Come on, Shizune. Let's go."
"Tsunade-sama, can we just stop, get something to eat, and turn in for the night? It's getting late," Shizune bemoaned behind Tsunade. Said woman took a giant swig at her sake, straight from a white glass bottle, uncaring of the disapproving bystanders who they passed by.
It was the usual night for them and Shizune knew this already, so Tsunade wasn't sympathetic for her younger assistant. Shizune knew what she signed up to when she left with Tsunade all those years ago. After all, she could have walked away from all of this; Tsunade could handle herself, and even if she couldn't, it would be just fine. It wasn't a life Tsunade would want to wish on anyone, but this was a life Tsunade chose herself. Anywhere to get away from Konoha.
Still, she couldn't help but wonder how she has gotten this way. Once a time ago, she was a prodigious medical ninja with many accolades, one of the strongest shinobi of her home village, and her strength was almost on par with the Hokage itself. Now, she was just some washout lush who didn't remember some days sometimes. She hadn't been home in so long, she forgot how it looked like.
'Konoha,' she started thinking. The warming alcohol snaked its way down her throat, but thoughts about the village ran cold in her.
News about the invasion of Konohagakure had reached her ears a few weeks ago when she was chugging down the finest liquor available in Cha no Kuni. Not that it bothered her too much; the village was her home formerly, but it had become a stranger to her many years ago. She had no friends in Konoha. Her teammates all left a sour taste in her mouth; Jiraiya, perhaps not too much, but Orochimaru had become something of a bastard in the past decade.
Speaking of Orochimaru, he was busy, wasn't he? He was the head of said invasion, somehow recruiting Sunagakure and his own force to do his bidding. It seemed like Orochimaru had finally come back to their old home and killed their old master. Maybe she'll pour a drink and slam one down for her former teacher. Well, any excuse to drink really – every moment without drinking was like a burning itch to her, and she scarcely remembered a day where she wasn't sauced out of her mind.
She looked over at her assistant before sighing. Maybe they should get something to eat. Sitting down and drinking was better than standing and drinking. "Shizune."
"Yes, master?"
"There's a place across the street. Let's eat there."
"So, you've seen this lady?" Naruto asked the man in the gambling spot, dangling Tsunade's photo in front of her. It was night and places were starting to shut down. There weren't a lot of places that fit the bill for Tsunade to be in that were still open, so they decided to try out little gambling houses like this. Neji stood behind him as the man sat on the floor, legs folded.
"Ah, her? Yeah, you just missed her about an hour or two ago. Got here for a few hours playing Chō-Han. Really bad at it too, haha! Dropped a lot of money."
"Can you tell us where she went, sir?" Neji politely stated.
"Don't expect the information to be free. You wanna know where she went?" The man then flashed a set of dice in his hand. How about you play a game?"
"What? Oh, come on, we don't have time for gambling, buddy."
"We don't live free here, kid." The man shrugged. "Now, are we going to play or are you about to go about your way? Because we got plenty of other people to entertain today."
Naruto growled. "The hell? Listen, buddy-" Naruto was interrupted by Neji placing a placating hand on his shoulder.
"I will play your game." Neji rubbed his eyes briefly.
"Great. Someone with some balls." The man smirked, ignoring Naruto glaring daggers at him. "Now, I know you two are shinobi so no tricks or you ain't getting no sort of information. And we'll know if you did something too." The man pointed at a rather muscular man who stood in the corner of the room, who folded his arms. Apparently, he must have been some sort of former shinobi or something. "So, what's it going to be?"
Neji nodded, sitting down on the tatami floor. "Play."
"Alright, let's make a deal. Since I would hate to take too much money from you two kids, even though you two are shinobi and all, I'll make it you a deal. I'll give you the information for free if you win. Lose and it'll cost you a 1,000 ryō." The man smirked and dropped the dice into his bamboo cup and start shaking. Neji's expression didn't change and he stared at the cups. The man then slammed the cup to the ground after giving out a melodramatic roar that Naruto couldn't help but roll his eyes at.
"So, what will it be? Han or chō?"
"Han." Neji called.
The man looked at his bodyguard who stared at Neji for a moment before nodding solemnly. The man lifted the cup and sure enough, the dice was odd like Neji called. The man blinked but didn't look too bothered. It wasn't like he lost much.
A minute later, Naruto grumbled. "All of that just to tell us the lady's right across the street."
"It was a bit of a time-waster but at least we know where she might be now instead of the goose-chase we were doing today."
"Yeah, we got lucky," Naruto admitted. "So, how did you know it was odd?"
"My eyes," Neji smirked. "A quick Henge on my eyes and I turned on my Byakugan without it seeming like I did. I did it in case the man knew I was a Hyūga. Very possible since the dealer implied the bodyguard was a shinobi."
Naruto whistled. Clever and quick. Using the Henge no Jutsu without hand seals nor the usual smoke that usually comes with it? Looks like Naruto would have to improve his skill with that technique to that level. "When did you do that?"
"When I rubbed my eyes." Neji leaned on the restaurant's outer wall.
Naruto chuckled but then got serious. "Activate your Byakugan and take a look inside this place. Tell me if our guy was correct."
Neji nodded and activated the Byakugan, his eyes still under the spell effect of the Henge no Jutsu. Naruto knew the Byakugan had the ability to see behind the user, meaning Neji and him didn't need to step into the restaurant at all and check for Tsunade. He nodded at Naruto. "She's in there with another woman, drinking."
Naruto turned the volume up on his wireless radio and brought it up to his ear. "Yo, Shika, guys, come in."
"Go," came the slightly tinny response of Shikamaru.
"She's at a restaurant we're nearby," Naruto informed Shikamaru and the rest of his teammates. "Shino, can you find us?"
"My kikachū already knows where you are at, Uzumaki-san."
"Shino and I are on the way," Kiba remarked. "That leaves Shika and Chōji. I guess we should meet up with them and then you."
"10-4," The Nara sounded off. "See you then and just keep her in your sight, guys. Do not lose sight of her."
"Copy." Naruto said and got off the radio. He looked at Neji, "Still got the Byakugan on?"
Neji nodded. The blond chūnin quickly did a hand seal and created a clone, who quickly transformed into a different looking person with brown hair and a normal looking black kimono. "Go inside and keep an eye on her. When she moves out, you move out, got it?"
The transformed clone nodded and stepped inside the restaurant. Naruto and Neji found themselves waiting for a bit until they saw movement, only from the rest of the team of Shikamaru, Shino, Kiba, and Chōji.
"No movement, right?"
"Yeah, that's why we're still here."
Shikamaru nodded and gestured them all to step inside the restaurant. They found Tsunade alright, drinking from a large bottle of sake. Comparing her to the picture they had of her, she didn't look like she aged a day having the same young-looking skin. The only difference was her long hair now in pigtails that went to her back, an more impressive bust, and the jolly blushing face she had on, a good sign of her drinking. She was joined by a younger, much plainer and mousier woman of black hair and much more modest features. According to their information on Tsunade, that was supposed to be her assistant, Shizune.
"Tsunade?" Shikamaru approached their table with his entourage.
Shizune blinked. "Konoha shinobi?"
"Who the fuck is it?" Some members of the team winced at Tsunade's unfriendly tone. She shifted her gaze from the table and her bottle to them.
"Charming woman," Neji muttered, visibly annoyed by the blonde woman's choice of language.
"I concur," Shino added, just as dry as Neji.
"Damn, this is Tsunade?" Kiba whispered to Chōji. "I was expecting some old chick, not a hottie…"
"Weren't you gushing about her photo earlier, Kiba? Try to keep it in your pants," Shikamaru said, rubbing his forehead. He could tell this would be quickly turned into something complicated.
"Who the hell are you kids? And tell your Inuzuka friend that if he wants to have children later on his life, he stops trying to take a peek under my blouse." Tsunade grouched out, earning the wince of the young Inuzuka. "Huh? What do you want with me?"
"Tsunade, we're here on behalf of Konoha-"
"Yeah, no shit. Mm." She took another swig of her bottle. "I can tell by the green vests and the headbands and whatnot. The question, again, what the hell does Konoha want with me?"
"I'll just be frank as I'm sure news travels quickly across the country. Konohagakure needs your help, ma'am. Our forces have been severely weakened in the invasion. We've lost many of our chūnin and jōnin in the attack."
"I heard," She uttered evenly, a frown still plastered on her face. "What does that have to do to me?"
"Take a hint, lady," Naruto finally stated, which caught Tsunade's attention. "You're a medic, apparently the best in the world too, and Konoha needs your help."
"Maybe you should take a hint yourself, kid. Matter of fact, why don't you kids all take a hint? I'm not interested in helping Konoha with their problems."
"What? Why?!" Naruto screeched.
"I'm not a leaf shinobi anymore. I'm just a simple traveling woman now." She shrugged.
"So you don't give a damn about your home?" The blond glared at the woman, who chugged at her bottle again, unbothered by his piercing gaze.
"Your friend is hard of listening or something, kids?"
"Listen to me! You don't give a damn about Konoha anymore, huh?"
Tsunade met Naruto's heated gaze with a similar one of her own. "Didn't I just imply that? I wish Konoha all the best but I'm not going back to the village for any reason."
"Not even to help your own people?" Shikamaru interjected, his eyes narrowed at the woman. "Many of our shinobi are dead, and many more will die. Our medical staff are overworked and cannot handle the workload."
The buxom woman shrugged in stark indifference. "And? So, what? You're going to rely on one woman like me to pick up the slack? Isn't that a little stupid?"
"You're one of the legendary Sannin. You're worth more than 10 of our best medics."
Tsunade snorted unimpressively. "Yeah? Well, Konoha must not be training them well these days." She went for her bottle again but found her hands empty. She turned, her eyes narrowed in anger. She got up from her seat and almost everyone did a flinch – including the gaping Shizune – at her expression. "Who did that?"
"You must be slipping then if you didn't know it was me." Naruto held the sake bottle in his hands. "Maybe you're not as good as people keep claiming you are."
"You caught me off guard. Congrats," Tsunade said dryly, rolling her eyes. "Now, give me back my bottle, kiddo."
"Nah."
"Er, Naruto, what are you-" Chōji started to ask, but Shikamaru held his hand up to silence the Akimichi teen.
Naruto took a glance at the leader of their team. "Why are we here, Shika? Trying to get this old hag to come back to the village with us? Are you even worth it, granny? What are you even doing here?"
"Give me back my drink, you little brat. I'm not going to repeat myself again." The woman sneered, narrowing her eyes.
"Drinking your life away, gambling your money away. You're not doing anything worthwhile."
"Yeah? So? What do you even know, you little fucker?" Tsunade started to crack her knuckles. "I'm not above breaking the bones of a little barely-made-it-past-puberty, snot-nosed brat, especially in public. Might have to even smack around said brat. So, if you want to avoid that, I suggest you give me. Back. My. Drink."
Naruto smirked. "Make me. How about we make a bet, granny?"
"I'm in no mood to-"
"If I can land a blow on you just once, you're coming back to the village with us. You help heal all the people that need medical assistance in our village, and then you can go about your merry way. If you can make me give up, then we'll leave you alone and you get to get smack me around a bit."
Tsunade then started laughing joylessly. "Oh, the gall of you kids! Ruining my night with coming here and bothering me. So, all I have to do is beat the crap out of you until you finally give up so I can finally get some peace? That's perfectly fine with me. I've been wanting to fuck you up since you first opened your loud mouth." She grabbed the green haori on the seat she sat in before. "Follow me outside. We can take our fight there."
"Ts-Tsunade-sama! Please, don't-" But Shizune's pleas fell on deaf ears. Tsunade started storming away, with the team from Konoha now in tow.
Shizune sighed and followed.
"Naruto, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Kiba said first, watching as Naruto started stretching. "You know you just pissed off a sannin, right?"
"So?"
"S-So?" Kiba sputtered. "Dude, she is like fucking strong. Haven't you read up about her? She's not only the best medic in the history of shinobi but also has some freaky superhuman strength. She'll kick your ass before you can even get the chance to do anything."
"Yeah, Naruto, I don't even know why you agreed to this," Chōji interjected, eating from his potato chips. "You're going to get beat to a pulp for almost nothing."
"Nah, I gotta do this, guys. This hag is fucking annoying. Plus, you heard what she said: she was not going to go back to the village in any sort of fashion. This is the only way to get her back."
"That doesn't make any sense! You're going to get hurt, bro." The Inuzuka teen tried reasoning with his teammate but Naruto didn't seem ready to back down.
Shikamaru sighed, "I have to agree with Kiba and Chōji, Naruto. She's pretty damn strong. Even if she has been doing nothing but gambling and drinking her life away, she's still a sannin for a reason." The Nara then shrugged. "But, Naruto's correct, guys. She's not going to come with us willing."
Neji nodded. "She didn't seem willing to come back with us at all. This is really our best shot."
"Though, we probably have a better chance if we all worked together."
"I concur," the silent Aburame teen stated. "But unlike Naruto-san, I am unwilling to come back to the village with a few broken bones."
They all had to agree with that one, each member of the team nodding vigorously.
Naruto chuckled, though perhaps a little nervously now. "Ah, it'll be alright, guys."
Shikamaru didn't look too sure. "You got a plan, Naruto?" Naruto shrugged. "So, no plan?" Naruto shrugged again. "None of us are healers here except the lady who's going to beat you until you give up."
The blond laughed again. "Have a bit of faith in me, guys."
"Hey, brats, are you done talking over there? Let's get this over with so I can get some shut-eye already. Gettin' kinda sleep here..."
Naruto dropped into a stance, a frown on his face. He had a plan to deal with her, but if his teammates were right about Tsunade, he would have to come up with something even more than a simple grab her from the underground and hope she would be too slow to react.
Still, he could always try. "Let's fight, granny."
She seemed to find Naruto's new moniker for her annoying as she gritted her teeth. "Anything goes, kid. Hit me with your best shot."
"I'm supposed to set the challenge's rules."
"I'm just trying to make it easier on you." The sannin cracked her neck twice. "Now, are you ready?"
He nodded, "I'm ready." Tsunade then did something odd; she put one of her hands behind her back. Then she pointed a finger at her younger opponent. The blond teen raised an eyebrow at that. "What are you doing?"
"I'm not going to need more than one finger to take care of you."
Naruto's frown deepened. "You know what they say: pride before the fall."
"I think you should probably adhere to that saying better." She evenly said out, smirking.
Naruto nearly growled, letting her get him angry but he calmed down. He waited to see if she would do anything for a bit. She did nothing. He quickly got tired of waiting and he decided he would make the first move. He quickly made a few hand seals, dumping a rainfall of rocks over Tsunade's head with his Earth Release ninjutsu. Tsunade quickly dodged them, but Naruto already made the transition to another similar ninjutsu as a wave of rocks flew at her direction.
Instead of dodging this time though, Tsunade brought the finger up and merely tapped them in quick succession, before they became nothing but pebbles and dust. Naruto tried to ignore the gasp from some of his teammates and the "Holy shit!" that came out of Kiba's mouth.
Tsunade yawned. "Boring. All you're going to do is shoot rocks at me?"
'Well then, she definitely has super strength…' Naruto inwardly thought, trying to hide his awe at the hag's display of skill from his face. However, he was far from discouraged from continuing this battle. He spawned five shadow clones, who sped in her direction at several angles, set on overwhelming her with numbers.
Rather than being perturbed by his usage of shadow clones, Tsunade merely scoffed and did battle with them as they charged at her in different directions. Naruto's taijutsu wasn't at the level of some of his peers back in the village yet, but he still felt comfortable at a close range and he was a far cry from the scrapper he once was. Yet, Tsunade wasn't acting intimidated by that and was still dead set on using just a finger. Naruto had a feeling his clones would be dispatched quickly by the sannin. He wasn't too surprised nor all that disappointed by seeing his doppelgangers go up in smoke.
Okay, color me impressed, Naruto thought to himself. Even when being retired, and a drunkard, the woman was clearly still at a jōnin-level – clearly above him. But to beat her wasn't his objective – he just needed to hit her, just once.
The blond teen tried one more time to make shadow clones – this time, three. Tsunade's unimpressed look made his use of the ninjutsu again seem futile but he was done assessing her skill. Instead, he already had a plan in mind for the retired kunoichi.
Tsunade yawned again dramatically. "Is this what you can only do, little boy, clone spam me to death? You would have a better time trying to bore me to death."
The clones closed the distance between Naruto and Tsunade. The first clone was intentionally slow, which got him quickly destroyed, but both the second and third clone charged at her at a much faster speed. Tsunade didn't flinch and destroyed them again with one finger with the same ease, which turned out to be a mistake. Tsunade blinked as the third clone exploded but not in smoke. Instead, the clone became a wave of mud that hit Tsunade but didn't seem to inflict damage on her.
The real Naruto then made a dash at her, to which Tsunade seem ready to stop but she didn't move. Or rather, she could not. The woman's eyes widened as Naruto smirked, "I told you. You shouldn't have gotten cocky!" He cocked a fist back.
He then had his triumphant expression wiped away with a look of horror as Tsunade too cocked back a fist and then punched him in the face. He flew back. "Argh!" And slammed into the ground of the street hard.
"Tsunade-sama, please! That was too much." Shizune complained.
Tsunade shrugged as she no longer felt the desire to fight Naruto. "I'm done anyway. You can go ahead and heal him already." She started to walk away until she realized she heard moaning and turned to see the boy standing, just barely.
"Haha," the boy chuckled. "What's wrong? It seems like you didn't quite just use one finger like you said you would."
"You look like a mess, kid," Tsunade shook her head, trying to stay cool again. "I just wanted to do enough to knock you out, but it seems like you're a stubborn bastard. Why are you trying so hard to fight me anyway? None of your friends are trying to step in because they know they can't beat me, so why are you trying?"
"I never give in. Just like how I will become Hokage one day," Naruto grinned, despite how much in pain he was feeling. He really wished he used a clone to try that strategy against her. Blood dripped down his face from his forehead protector. "Unlike you, you who have given up on everything and some person wailing in her own pain, I'm trying to become strong enough to protect the village and one day become the Hokage."
He approached, his eyes focused on her. Tsunade flinched, as if she saw something, and looked down, her eyebrows knitted. Naruto remembered the steps and let go of a breath. Concentrate. He started charging chakra in one palm, spun the chakra right in a spiral until it became a blue orb. He flexed his fingers and was amazed at how much progress he had with the technique now. Power, control – maybe even containment now. 'Maybe… I got it down now.'
Naruto jetted forward. Tsunade's eyes widened wide as Naruto approached with the loud hum of the Rasengan. Whether it was out of arrogance, fear, or real awe, she stood rooted in place. He was determined to show her his strength. Before he could touch her though, a hand grabbed his wrist and threw him into the ground. Naruto could no longer concentrate, and the ball once spiraling almost perfectly exploded on contact with the ground. He yelped as he was thrown away.
"Shit, Naruto," Shikamaru gritted his teeth, wondering who the hell was here now to stop them. He stared at the newcomer – then newcomers – that interrupted the teen team from Konoha. Who were they? Companions of Tsunade?
"I think playtime is over with this little tyke, Tsunade," an extremely tall man said in a baritone as he stared at Tsunade. The team from Konoha finally got a look at the man now in front of them. He wore a black shirt, a similarly colored mask, and had a grey hood on. Green eyes that had no pupil and glow in the night sky. At the side of the tall man, a shorter man with crimson hair and eyes appeared and looked back at them all with a smirk on his face.
"Instead, why don't you play with little old me, young whippersnapper? It's been a while since I tussled with a Senju," the tall man rasped out again with a nasty look in his features.
End.
A/N: Time to throw a little curve-ball in the game.
Translation List:
Chō-Han – "Even-Odd." Japanese gambling dice game.