The Sa in Sayonara
By Maria Szabo
Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters are not mine. This is a work of fanfiction
Even from the hospital, she could hear the roar of the crowd, cheering at the gates. She supposed they had good reason—the truce with the Village Hidden in the Clouds would be the final one, the official ending of the Great Ninja War. And yet for her, it meant another ending.
Tsunade made her last rounds slowly, lingering to adjust a pillow, suggest a treatment, or make a simple jest with that poor fellow whose leg was crushed during the daring mission that forced the Raikage to concede to the peace agreement. A brave man—the only one of his team to have survived. He looked a little like Dan, with his long straight hair and gentle expression; except that Dan was long dead and she no longer cared much about that sort of thing.
The halls were virtually empty, and she welcomed their silence, moving quickly down the corridor towards her office. It wouldn't be long now. She'd already packed, as soon as she'd heard that the envoy was arriving. Sarutobi-sensei would be too busy playing Hokage to notice her absence until it was too late to send someone after her. The ANBU would be needed to keep watch on their allies, not worry about some wandering kunoichi. And her creditors…well, they'd just have to eat their debts, wouldn't they?
She smiled grimly at the thought, but it faded quickly at the sight of a tall man who waited at the office's doorway. His back was turned to her, but she recognized the wild silver mane at once.
"What are you doing here?"
"Not even a hello? Oh, c'mon…" he refused to move out of the way as she went to open the door, and she was forced to push past him. "How long has it been?"
"Not long enough." Evidently. The electricity was still there, damn him. Jiraiya was the last man she wanted to be attracted to. "Do you mind? I have work to do, you know."
"Like what?" He ignored her obvious hint to leave, and followed her into the room, his eyes darting around curiously, as if he had never been in a medical office before. "Haven't you heard? They've signed a truce. The war is over."
"Yeah, yeah." She set the charts she was carrying on the desk and began to sort them: discharged—to file, continuous—to the in-box on the desk.
He leaned over and set his hand down on top of the pile, to stop her. It always surprised her how large his hands were—even when they were children, Jiraiya had been big. She wasn't a petite woman, but he made her feel small.
She didn't like that, either.
"I'm working…" she reminded him.
"I don't think you heard me." He lowered his voice significantly. "Cloud. Surrendered."
She met his eyes, since he was looking at her as if that should mean something. But nothing was coming to mind, and she shook her head in confusion.
"You owe me a date!" Jiraiya gave her a huge, triumphant grin. "So where do you want to go?"
"I never said…"
"You did!"
"I didn't!"
"You did. Back when you, me and Orochimaru had to escort the Daimyo's daughter over to the Nation of Mist, remember? You said the Cloud Village would never surrender to Kohona, and I said they would, and Orochimaru said we'd probably all be dead by then so who cares? And I said no, and you said…"
Oh, she remembered now. "I said that if Cloud ever surrendered to Kohona, then hell would freeze over and I would go on a date with you."
Both hands were on the desk now. "Exactly."
"But I was FOURTEEN YEARS OLD when I said that."
"It's been a long war," he admitted. "Sorry you had to wait. But I'm here now!"
It was too much. Tsunade sunk to her chair, laughing, and at some point, the tears started to fall, and wouldn't stop. And in a moment, he was there, kneeling beside her, taking her into that bear like embrace that she both longed for and dreaded.
"Okay, what's this?" he asked, in a very different tone.
"It's nothing," she said, "Nothing."
She moved to escape, but he kept her close. "Don't lie. You've got your traveling baggage here, and when I went by your place, your landlord said that you had given up your lease. What's going on?"
She couldn't meet his eyes. "The war is over."
"Yes?"
"So. It's not essential that I stay here anymore, is it?"
His face grew very still. "You're…leaving the village?"
She nodded.
"Does Sarutobi-sensei know this?"
She shook her head.
"Dear gods, Tsunade…"
"I have to do this. I can't…I can't…stand by and watch this anymore. All this death, all this blood. I kept telling myself I was needed because there was a war, and people were being hurt, and I could heal them, but now…without a war, there's enough healers without me."
"But…"
"And you know how Sarutobi-sensei is. He won't listen, he never does. It's like he decides something, and that's the way it's going to be, and the hell with any evidence to the contrary! How long did it take before he realized the truth about Orochimaru? How many innocent people died because of that?"
"Did you want to believe it?"
"No, but that's not the point…"
"But it is. The old man made a mistake. He does that sometimes. You know it. I know it. That's why he needs us here, to help him."
"You help him. I'm just a tool. And I won't be used like this anymore."
"Oh, Tsunade," was all he said. He pulled her in close again, and for a moment she took in the rough texture of his clothing and the musky scent of his skin. But that would never do. Jiraiya was Jiraiya, and she had things she needed to accomplish.
"Don't tell him," she asked. "Don't say anything until I've gotten well away. Please."
"If I must. But…" He lowered his head and gave her a fierce, hungry kiss. "You still owe me a date."
So strange, she thought. It doesn't taste like goodbye.
FIN