Thank you so much to all who read and reviewed! Sorry it took so long but here's chapter 2! The girls settle into each other's company... but soon its time for a few visitors to liven things up a little!
Written for Bite the hand that feeds, Anything, Aemkea, Queen Dopplepoppeous, Seventenks the Ultimate F, RurouniGochan & blue L. You guys rock for reviewing, hope this chapter doesn't disppoint!
Special thanks to Kilerkki: who read a draft on this chapter, inspired parts of Shizune and Suzume's conversation, and provided much needed veracity to the idea that Rin makes a good editor for a certain person's literature...
Girl Talk Chapter 2: Konoha's Girls
So it had been about an hour since the five youngest of the village's kunoichi had been deposited in the recovery ward of Konoha's General Hospital and things had settled for the most part into a reasonably easy atmosphere. It was lucky, in a way, because if girls didn't get along they usually took steps to express themselves. When the girls in question included a skilled genjutsu user, a tooth-and-claw genius, and an intellegence expert proficient in the use of pointed weapons the situation could rapidly have decended into anarchy of the most alarmingly bitchy kind. They would have needed the two medics in the room in short order.
But, things had been going well. As well as you could hope for anyway. Despite being poisoned Anko had managed to offend everyone in the room in short order (so that Shizune didn't feel like she was being singled out or anything) and was currently being distracted by Kurenai; who had for some reason found herself liking the eleven year old kid. With the aid of the horoscope book her teammates had bemusedly brought her earlier, Kurenai was trying to teach Anko about ways of telling the future but the younger girl was a little too impatient to take it all in at once.
Shizune and Suzume, for their part, were catching up with each other - which was a happy and sad business because this was a war after all - but they were smiling all the same because it was really great to get to talk to them again. Shizune had managed to pry herself out her bed and across the ward to sit in the chair by Suzume's bedside and the two were quietly talking about whatever drifted into their heads.
Rin was quietly reading one of her medical textbooks, feeling too sickly to relax into conversation like the others, and was revising new research into healing jutsus that had been developed while she'd been in the field. Her nose and eyes were running a bit, and though her head felt full of cattarah she kept gamely trying to absorb in information. It wasn't really working, but if Rin had inhereted one quality from her team it was stubborness and she wasn't about to let a book and a virus beat her.
She suddenly coughed violently and groaned at the twinge in her chest as she did. Maybe it was a good thing Sensei had dragged her to the hospital this morning. This was a nasty virus and with her finely tuned chakra sensing abilities she could feel the battle the herbal medication Yakushi-sama had given her waging war on the symptomatic aspects of the fast-acting disease. Still, sickness didn't mean she couldn't read her book. Defiantly she refocussed her eyes and started into another chapter on cell metabolyte data as the other girls paired up and chattered quietly to each other. Five minutes later she was completely unconscious and drooling slightly on one of the pages.
It was peaceful enough, and for most of the morning the five of them were content enough to be in the ward rather than in the field.
Give her credit, Kurenai wasn't a people-person at the best of times. She was quiet, intense and serious-minded and had been all her life. She suspected the real reason she seemed unable to simply ignore Anko and stare in frustrated aggrovation at the ceiling while she wished she was with her teammates was the girl's sheer peskiness. But even then, she found that she couldn't be mean to Anko. And Kurenai was plenty capable of being mean if she felt like it (not that she did often, but she could) so there had to be something else. Maybe it was the other girl's bright but brittle smile, maybe it was the way she had to be too young to be out learning how to be a ninja with someone like Orochimaru, maybe it was the fact that she was actually pretty funny: but Kurenai found herself sitting on the end of the girl's bed with her horoscope book and trying to keep her from bouncing off the walls.
"So do I get to pick which one I am?" Anko asked, staring with narrowed purple eyes at the Zodiac wheel spread across two pages infront of them.
"You don't choose your star sign Anko-chan," Kurenai said, tracing her finger around the wheel.
Anko frowned, so far as she was concerned you chose everything that was yours. "Why not?"
"Because it comes with the month you were born in - and you were born at this point in October so it makes you a Scorpio. See? A neat scorpion sign for you," Kurenai smiled a little over at Anko and the other girl smiled back before taking a good look at the picture of the scorpion on the page.
"Does it eat the other ones?" she asked expectantly.
"No… Anko-chan…" Kurenai sighed, wondering where this violence came from. She supposed it wasn't a bad quality for a ninja...
"It could kick the crab's ass," Anko insisted. "And totally devour those fish."
"It's not meant to - oh forget it, come on, let's look at another page," Kurenai rolled her eyes a little, and turned to the section on tea leaves. Surely Anko couldn't turn that into something violent.
She was shortly proven wrong, Anko saw snakes, swords and kunai in every single set of leaves and Kurenai utilized her immense patience and restraint to resist the urge to smack her head off the bedside table.
Having watched Rin pass out in her book, Shizune smiled a little and carefully got to her feet so she could slowly walk over to Suzume's bedside. She eased herself into the chair next to her and smiled familiarly over at someone she hadn't seen in far too long a while. Shizune remembered Suzume from being seven years old, and wondered how much the competent Chuunin infront of her had changed from that girl.
"So how is it working in Intellegence?" Shizune asked to start, curious about the mysterious department's operations. Shizune might have been a talented medic, but her indepth specialization into healings and poisons meant she knew little to none about the other aspects of shinobi operations in Konoha. Always thirsty for knowledge, she wasn't about to let this opportunity slip by.
Suzume pursed her lips, "Intellegent," she replied with a knowing smile. "I practically live in the Intellegence HQ in the Palace, my teammate Ebisu-kun and I work with the higher-level strategists on long-range tactics."
"How did you break your leg if you spend all your time in the Palace?" Shizune couldn't help but ask.
Suzume shrugged a little, "I was running a data pouch to an outpost outside the village, Intellegence stuff. It shouldn't have been too high a risk this deep inside our territory - 79 liklihood of no contact with the enemy - but you know how the odds like to play against us these days." The teenager said the last part with a dark frown. She spent alot of time with those odds and they weren't good company.
Shizune's eyes widened, "You were attacked?"
The wavy haired Chuunin nodded once, and dropped her glasses-shielded gaze to the bedsheets. "Yes, on the way back. A 3-man team from Hidden Rock. One of them used that aggrovating Doton jutsu, you know, the one where the rocks fly out the ground? Broke my leg in three places," With that she peered down and gave her bandaged limb a trusty pat, "But not to worry, it was worth it you know?"
Having not had that much experience in the field, Shizune couldn't help but ask how. The edgy smirk Suzume gave her made her wonder for just a second if this was really the same girl she'd once seen burst into tears over a broken crayon. She supposed everything changed in times like these, but then why was there so much familiar about Suzume still?
"I was sent alone - given the odds of interception and the current man-power shortage - but I am a Chuunin after all, and I knew they were after me before they showed themselves. I maneuvered them into a trap I'd already set and blew them all apart with explosive tags. It was ridiculously easy, all things considered," Suzume said, talking through Shizune's thoughts.
Dawning fell on Shizune and she couldn't help but gape, "You let them break your leg, so they'd approach you for the information you were carrying and enter the trap?"
"It's the safest way, isn't it?" Suzume said mildly, stretching her arms and leaning back. "Anyway, explosive tags tend to make alot of noise so it wasn't long before some of our people came and brought me back. I've been in surgery for a whole day - aparently the breaks were rather dire. I'll need to remember to fall better next time."
As a medic, Shizune couldn't comprehend this cavalier attitude of the girl infront of her towards damaging her own body. But her musings on the subject had to wait because her friend reached over and gave her a light smack in the arm.
"Enough about my admittedly brilliant misadventures Shizune-chan, how are things with you? I heard you had been apprenticed to Tsunade-sama a few months ago." She grinned slightly, "Looks like she's got your loyalty as well as your skill judging from your little spat with Anko-chan over there."
Blushing Shizune nodded, "Tsunade-sama is amazing, she really is-"
"So I heard," Suzume noted wryly.
Shutting herself up Shizune just smiled sheepishly, "I've learned so much already, and her help preparing me for the Chuunin exam in Akagahara was invaluable. She says I have a real talent with poisons and antidotes." Her face fell a little, "If I hadn't been so stupid as to work myself to exhaustion I would have been the one to take care of Anko-chan..."
"Don't waste your time worrying over it, the kid's doing just fine," Suzume assured her briskly, and they both glanced over to where Kurenai was patiently (and a little desperately) trying to explain the principles of palm reading to the hyperactive 11 year old. Suzume dropped her voice a little, "Though I have to wonder what her parents were thinking allowing her to be apprenticed to Orochimaru-sama..."
"They won't think anything of it, her family died in the raid four years ago," Shizune said quietly, looking back to her friend, dark eyes heavy.
Suzume's face froze a little and she sighed, "Guess that explains it then," she commented, seeing Shizune's expression. She knew that look all too well these days and gave her classmate's hand a small pat. "You lose someone in that one too? It was a bloody night."
Shizune sighed a little, eyes still on the bed. "My aunt... well I say 'aunt' she was very young for that. She was at the Academy with us you know, just a few years below."
She glanced over her shoulder to Anko again. "She would have been in the same graduating class as Anko-chan," she said softly.
"I'm sorry, Shizune-chan, for all that's worth," Suzume said, knowing it wasn't worth much. Suzume considered herself incredibly fortunate not to have lost any of her family that night. To be fair, that was because she'd spent it armed to the teeth and defending them - amazed to discover she had the skills to manage that only two days out the Academy. Well, if nothing else Suzume knew she was a quick study.
The other girl managed a brave smile, "It... it's alright. I suppose, that's war isn't it? It was hard on my family, my Uncle Dan especially. He'd always taken care of her, you see. He's a Jounin in the perimeter defence squads you know. He mentions Intellegence sometimes, do you ever see him?"
Suzume nodded, "Yes, he's the one with blue hair. I know him..." she smiled slyly in an effort to lighten the other girl's thoughts, "Isn't he dating Tsunade-sama?"
Shizune went pink and opened her mouth to say something, probably defending the two of them or denying the relationship altogether but Suzume laughed and waved her hands. "I'm Intellegence, Shizune-chan, I know these things, ne?" The other girl gave her a frustrated sort of smile and she went on, "Don't worry, I'm sure nobody cares. It's not inappropriate anyway, they aren't in related divisions at the moment."
"How do you know all this stuff?" Shizune asked, a little amazed. She had enough trouble remembering the names of the hospital staff and she'd been here over three months. Suzume seemed to know everything about everybody, Shizune supposed that kind of memory was what made her so valuable to the Intellegence division.
Suzume just smiled sphinx-like and didn't reply. Shizune rolled her eyes a little and tipped back a little in her chair, working the muscles in her fingers and toes to get her rejuvenating chakra flow into her extremities. She was feeling a bit better now, far better than she had after waking up at least. They were quiet for a little while, but soon enough Suzume was chatting again.
"So what do your family think of you working with Tsunade-sama?" Suzume asked. "Only the best get apprenticed to the Lengendary Princess Tsunade..."
Shizune flushed a little, a hesitant smile flitting over her face, "They... they say its good that even though I'm not fighting like them and Uncle Dan I'm doing something constructive for the village. I... I think they're maybe a little proud."
"Well I'm definitely proud of you, how about that," Suzume told her, deliberately not looking at her suddenly beaming friend but smiling all the same. "Wish my family weren't too scared to be proud of me. God, my mother is such a pain about me running any missions out there - I've just stopped telling her when I go. At least they're never more than a day and quite infrequent these days. Probably just as well I practically live in the Palace at that rate."
"Your family aren't ninjas?" Shizune couldn't keep the surprise out her voice. Given that this was a war between ninja villages it was predominantly only ninja families who were by this stage sacrificing their children to be trained in the arts of war. Civilians had mostly abandoned Konoha, save a few stalwarts like the Teuchi, the Ichiraku chef, who'd thankfully stuck with their village. Shizune didn't blame the others for leaving, in a way she thought it best they did, even if it hurt. Raids like the one that had killed her little aunt were more and more common these days, and nobody was safe.
Suzume shook her head, "We run the Korean BBQ on Lotus Street." She smiled, "If you ever get hungry just mention my name in there and you'll get all the free dumplings you can eat."
Shizune would have graciously accepted the kind offer, but she was too busy stammering in surprise. "But... why did you... I mean the war has been in full swing for a decade, why did they let you attend the Academy?"
"Who says they 'let me' do anything? When I was seven I told them I was going and I went." Suzume almost laughed at Shizune's stunned expression, "They weren't best pleased, you know - said I should be learning how to cook instead - even my big brothers and sister. But, well, they changed their minds a little after the raids started and it became clear even people trying to make an honest living were fair game for our enemies."
Shizune knew how that went, "Are they all alright?" she asked, knowing she probably wouldn't like the answer.
"They're all still alive and kicking, or should I say, cooking," Suzume told her, and Shizune couldn't help but smile. "We've had some close calls but we stick together and franky, having a ninja in the family has been good for business, even if they don't like it very much. So far nobody who's tried to break into, set fire to, or bomb the restaurant and its proprietors has managed it. Or managed to retain their limbs for that matter..."
"They're very lucky to have somebody as clever as you to defend them, Suzume-chan," Shizune said a little amazedly. It was kind of inspiring, to hear that at least one small family, one way of life was surviving during these troubled times.
"Aren't they? Even they have to admit my traps rock," Suzume said with a grin. Shizune couldn't help but grin back as her friend sighed smugly and glanced up at the ceiling. "Still, doesn't stop them worrying themselves sick whenever I do anything beyond polish my kunai. I suppose that's just how it is when you've got a non-nin family."
"Oh I don't know, despite what they say my parents are very, very glad I'm away from the fighting most of the time," Shizune told her.
Suzume nodded thoughtfully, "It's bitchy to say, but it's a good thing you're taking specialized training at the hospital Shizune-chan. It's brutal out there, hideous. The reports I see..." She shook her head a little and found herself glancing over to where Rin had fallen asleep under her textbook. "I mean, take Rin-chan. You saw who her sensei is, you heard where they've been for the past month. She's a high callibre field medic, I'll admit but she's still twelve years old and she's been out there fighting since she was six."
"You can't be serious," Shizune murmurred.
"I am. Her team's file crosses my desk every other week. The missions they've taken, I mean it's all well and good having a genius like the Yellow Flash leading you - and they say that Hatake boy is something else despite, y'know, what happened with his father - but still..." She let out a low breath, "I don't want to think about the things she's seen and done and been through. We graduated when we were ten! Can you believe they dropped the grad age so low for some of the kids after we left?"
"It's not right," Shizune said tightly. "People with talent like Rin-chan's team and Anko-chan shouldn't be rushed through the system like that, it's not safe for them."
Suzume laughed a little, dry as a bone. "Shizune-chan, listen to yourself. It's not safe anywhere. At least they're learning how to be useful to Konoha faster than we did. And they are useful, there's no question there."
"It can't be good for them in the head, I mean... what they do normally isn't normal at all," Shizune insisted quietly.
Suzume shrugged, "No. But you're better off crazy than dead. Anyway, in a way Rin-chan's totally luckier than me or you."
"Huh? How?"
The other girl grinned and Shizune didn't have to imagine her eyes sparking behind her dark glasses, "Well, I spend all day everyday with Ebisu, and love him though I do he is such a stuck up little closet-pervert; and a dozen old men in a stuffy office. You've got Tsunade-sama who is admittedly a very pretty lady but a lady all the same and I'm kinda sure that's not your angle..."
Shizune rolled her eyes, "Well given that she's dating my uncle we've established it's not hers at least," she replied evenly, voicing some of Suzume's wry banter.
The other girl smirked as her friend finally loosened up a little in the face of her gossipy teasing, "Right... well for all the shit she goes through at least Rin-chan's sensei is pretty hot, ne?"
Shizune burst out giggling and had to balance to keep herself in her chair. "He's a total dork!" she laughed quietly, trying to make sure Rin couldn't hear.
"Oh come on! Didn't you see his body?" Shizune went bright red and kept giggling into her hands as Suzume went on, "And hey, cute face too; love the blue eyes."
"I guess he was kind of sweet," the medic admitted in a whisper, then stopped herself to give her friend a squinted look, "Oh come on yourself, Suzume! He's like so older than us."
"Doesn't stop me from looking and it shouldn't stop you either," Suzume grinned slyly, "I mean, we kunoichi ought to get some compensation for being outnumbered by these stupid men as well as dealing with these pointed weapons and threats of death all day everyday."
"That's a conflict of interests, Suzume-chan," Shizune said, trying to sound stern despite the laughter in her voice, "We do what we do to protect Konoha and serve the Leaf."
"Screw that, I joined to spot some cute shinobi tail," Suzume informed her coolly, and Shizune's uncontrollable burst of laughter knocked her clear off her chair as Suzume tried and failed to keep down her own snicker of amusement.
A few hours into the morning, Shizune finally had to retreat back to her bed to rest up but still had a blushing grin plastered on her face from Suzume's conversation. Things might have changed with both of them, but they could still talk themselves hoarse. Kurenai had needed a similar break and was back in her own bed too, still talking quietly with Anko who was animatedly describing the various ways in which her star sign would totally own half the other ones. Kurenai had decided to help facilitate this new way of interpreting the Zodiac and was nodding in all the right places while Anko animatedly chattered on. Rin was still asleep under her book.
In general, things had toned down a good bit, and the comfortable lull could have extended for some time. Maybe even until lunch. Until a cheerfully booming Toad Hermit jumped through the window and onto the foot of Rin's bed with a bellowed greeting and dramatic pose that would put Maito Gai to shame.
The other girls jumped in shock, wondering what the hell was going on and why the Legendary Sannin Jiraiya was suddenly in their hospital room.
Surprisingly, or maybe not so much, it was Rin who provided the answer, smiling as Jiraiya reached over and gave her sleep-tousled head a paternal pat.
"Good morning Rin-chan, your sensei - that idiot brained boy of mine - said you weren't feeling well. I've come to cheer you up!" he said cheerfully, apparently oblivious to the fact that she'd been unconscious two seconds previously.
"Good morning Jiraiya-sama," Rin murmurred, trying to rub the sleep out her eyes as she blinked blearily at the huge Toad Hermit who turned to beam at her.
"So Rin-chan how-" Jiraiya's greeting was cut off by a louder-than-necessary call from across the ward
"Oi! Jiraiya-sama-baka what are you doing here?"
He frowned and turned to look down his nose at Anko, "Oh and hello to you too Anko you little brat."
Anko stuck her tongue out at the Sannin and smirked.
"You get poisoned or something? Orochimaru was bitching about it earlier in a mission breifing," he asked casually.
"Yeah, but I'm okay now," Anko said defiantly, just like Orochimaru had taught her - not showing weakness. Especially not around Jiraiya.
The Sannin rolled his eyes, "Sure you are, green's a natural skin tone for your sensei brat - not you."
"OI! Orochi-sensei is not green!" Anko practically snarled.
Jiraiya smirked, "Oh yeah? Well-"
"Jiraiya-sama, we're trapped in here with her when you leave," Shizune said warningly, cutting him off before he could completely enrage Anko.
"Hmph, well don't worry about Orochimaru-teme any brat, he's not going on any missions today," he said in an effort to be civil. Somebody had to be the adult here.
"I wouldn't worry if he was," Anko informed him with a proud sniff, and Jiraiya got that feeling he did sometimes that if Orochimaru ever (god forbid) had a kid they'd wind up just like this. The number of times he'd gotten that exact same look, that exact same sniff from Orochimaru back when he was a kid... it was just freaky. Really freaky. With that, she went back to examining her palms like Kurenai had been trying to show her and Kurenai, Shizune and Suzume made an effort to give Rin and her visitor some privacy by striking up a conversation of their own.
"How are Kakashi and Obito?" Rin asked, bringing his attention back to the reason he was there.
"Hmm well Obito managed to set Kakashi's sleeve on fire," he said, crossing his arms. Rin groaned slightly. "And the Hatake brat was in the process of using his ass for target practice when your Sensei showed up this morning. He was still yelling at them about it when I got there - swear to god kiddo, that Hatake brat's so wound up I don't know how you stand him."
"He's just different Jiraiya-sama," she said, rubbing her forehead.
"That's one way of putting it," sighed Jiraiya, even Orochimaru hadn't been that tightly strung when he was a kid. Jiraiya had gotten him to come peeping more than once - he'd stake his mullet on the fact that Kakashi would be dead before he did anything even vaguely perverted eh, that is, healthy like that.
"He can't help it," Rin said, sounding a little sad.
Jiraiya huffed, "Maybe not, he's still a little bastard though."
Rin sighed a little, there was little use arguing with facts. Then she frowned worriedly, "He didn't really hurt Obito did he?"
"Nawh, Goggle-Boy ran too fast," Jiraiya told her, remembering too-late that he'd been told not to let Rin know about any of that. Oops. Oh well, at least he hadn't mentioned Kakashi's burns - she'd probably drag herself out the bed and out to the training fields herself if she knew about that. He took a good look at her; she didn't seem to be panic stricken or anything by news of her teammate's scuffles. But he could see why his boy had put her in hospital and was acting pretty paranoid about her getting recovery time; she looked terribly pale and her lovely brown eyes were bloodshot and cloudy. And she'd been trying to run missions like that? God.
"What's wrong Jiraiya-sama?" Rin asked, wondering about the suddenly dark look in the Sannin's eyes. He blinked and gave her a cheesy grin, "Ah, just wondering how you guys grew up so fast, I remember when you three were shorter than my knee and now look atcha! Running around with fireballs and medical kits and everything, it makes me nostalgic for the days when you guys could be controlled with promises of ramen and a few hours at the swings..."
"That's still sort of true..." Rin said with a small smile. Jiraiya laughed and ruffled her hair.
With that the slightly sad look dropped out his eyes and Jiraiya grinned inanely over at the girl watching him from over the cover of her book. Rin knew that look, Sensei used it on them when he wanted to go get ramen for lunch. On Jiraiya it meant only one thing, as close to his heart as ramen was to Sensei's.
"Well, I can't bring either in here Rin-chan, but since you're stuck in here with these other sickly girls I thought I'd come read you a story!"
It crossed Rin's mind that this forboded badly, but it was too late anyway. Jiraiya pulled out his notepad and grinned at her.
"You already helped me go through the first three chapters, but I wrote a whole 'nuther one last night that could totally do with your female insights to make it… what's that phrase you use?" Jiraiya gave her a pensive look from over the top of his notepad and Rin gave in.
"'Within the realms of feasibility', Jiraiya-sama," Rin said, putting her book away and getting her 'editor's mind' (as Jiraiya liked to call it) in gear. She was still a little dazed after waking up from her nap, and therefore didn't completely clock the fact that there were four other girls in the room who might not be so accepting of Jiraiya's rampantly perverted eccentricities. Though honestly, seeing as Rin had been practically raised in Jiraiya's company she didn't know that much better. As Shizune had said, what was normal for her wasn't normal at all.
Jiraiya grinned and plopped down next to her to go through one of the drafts of chapter four of Icha Icha Paradise. Within five minutes Kurenai, Shizune and Suzume's convesation had completely stalled in incredulous shock as they turned to make sure they were actually hearing what Jiraiya and Rin were saying. Little Anko was listening raptly, most of the words thankfully flying over her spikey haired head (though she memorized them to ask her sensei about later). Oblivious, Jiriaya went on enthusiastically, asking Rin's advice on every other sentence. He needed it; though experienced and enthusiastic about his reasearch, he was still kind of new at actually writing anything and it helped to have someone who would go through his work with him. Especially someone as kind and good at keeping secrets as Rin. She could also spell, which was a major plus.
At any rate, Rin was the only girl he knew who'd go over his stories for plot holes with him and help inject a little female realism. Actually, besides Tsunade she was the only girl he really knew, and Tsunade would brain him with his own sandal if he asked her to read over drafts of the book with him. Jiraiya was very keen on his stories being just as appealing to the ladies as the fellas, maybe even more so, and so he listened to what Rin said about certain parts being "mindnumbingly unrealistic" and having "glaring anatomical mistakes" and ammended accordingly.
The fact that she was twelve years old didn't really play into it - seeing as she spent half her time running around in battle zones it wasn't like she was some untainted little girl (though, curiously thought Jiriaya, she'd somehow remained innocent). She had the maturity to pass medical school with flying colors, to perform major surgery whilst under attack and to slit an enemy's thoat, Jiraiya felt it only fair that she get to know about the fun side of adult maturity too.
Plus seeing as she was a medic and knew all about human anatomy it wasn't like any of it was much of a surprise to her.
Or at least, that's what Jiraiya thought and Rin left it at that. She might be completely embarassed by their blatantly pornographic content but the fact was she did think Jiraiya-sama's stories were great. The plots were always fun, the characters reminded her of people they both knew, and the emotional transparency of everybody involved was a wonderful escape from the uniformly opaque people they co-existed with in the ninja world. Rin was far from a romantic at heart, but it was nice to imagine a world where it was okay to fall in love with someone without running the risk of destablizing a millitary unit, jeapordizing the safety of a hundred people or being driven insane by their imminent death. It was far from real, but they could always imagine.
Not to mention the fact that she liked Jiraiya-sama and knew it was because of him that Sensei was as amazing as he was. She owed him her sensei and the safety of her team - the people she cared more about than anything, and she was more than willing to surruptitiously go over his books with him if it made him happy.
"And then Junko says..." Jiraiya pulled a mysterious face and jumped into a completely hilarious melodramatic pose, "I am going to lose track of you!"
Which it always seemed to.
"Hey, what is this? Everybody's got a Sannin but us!" Suzume whispered to Kurenai in the bed next to her. The genjustu girl rolled her eyes slightly.
"Suzume-sempai, that means we're lucky," she said quietly with an elegant eyebrow cocked at Jiraiya, as he extravagantly mimed a passage of his latest book. Rin had a hand clamped over her eyes and was watching him through a gap in her fingers.
Before anything more could be said on the subject (though given what she'd seen, Suzume had to agree with the younger girl), the door to the word slid open and a hellfire screech thundered through the room.
"Jiraiya, what the hell are you doing in the Female Recovery Ward?"
Freezing mid-dramatic-poise, Jiraiya swivelled on his heel to spot Tsunade glaring death-from-on-high at him.
"Behaving like a perverted idiot!" Anko informed her, prompting an exchange of death-glares between her and Jiraiya that only ended when Tsunade strode over and clocked him about the head hard enough to smash his face into the floor.
"For god's sake, Jiraiya! They can't even run away from you!" she shrilled, beautiful face flared pink with a familiar embarassed rage.
"Give me some credit, Tsunade!" Jiraiya wailed defiantly as he dragged his face out the linoleum floor, "I was just here doing a good deed for my student, you know how it is-"
Tsunade clearly didn't believe him and crossed her arms as she glared down at him suspiciously.
The girls glanced at each other. Anko looked cheerfully malicious, Kurenai looked thoroughly exasperated, Shizune looked utterly shocked, Suzume looked like she wanted to take notes, and Rin looked like she knew what was coming.
"What good deed could possibly entail you breaking into the Female Recovery Ward?" Tsunade asked, and Jiraiya knew this was his only chance to escape without a more expansive beating. Whoever said girls were easy never met Tsunade. In fact, from Jiraiya's experience whoever said girls were easy was a moron, blind, deaf, and living in a cave somewhere.
Which, judging from the expression on Tsunade's face was exactly how he might end up if he didn't think fast.
"I was just here to check up on Rin-chan for my idiot student, she's really sick if you hadn't noticed," he explained, trying to sound patient instead of vaguely terrified.
Tsunade gave him a look that all but screamed 'I did notice since I'm the village's head medic you moron!' and tapped a foot, obviously awaiting a better explanation.
"And to take her mind off her sickness and suffering..." he said meaningfully, obvously hoping Rin would start groaning in agony to illustrate the point. She managed a small cough. "...I began to regail her with one of my excellent stories!"
Tsuande was well aware of what kind of stories Jiraiya found regailing and her eyes narrowed like kunai aimed at his forehead. It was one thing to pervert your own students, every sensei wound up doing that to some degree (just not so literally as Jiraiya) but to move on to the next generation? There was a reason Jiraiya's team had been made up of three boys, a very good reason.
"Excellent in what way?" she asked, eyebrow twitching.
Rin opened her mouth to say anything before Jiraiya said something to get himself killed but Anko beat her to it.
"Tsuande-hime, in the story it's excellent," she said, raising her hands to wiggle the fingers like Jiraiya had (strangely the expression fit),"When a dozen topless babes-"
Rin clapped her hands over her eyes, Jiraiya turned as white as his hair and Tsunade cut Anko off with a yell of "JIRAIYA! YOU DIRTY-"
"Tsunade I can explain!" he squeaked, somehow getting her to stop with her fist an inch from his nose. He could feel the chakra buzzing around it and knew if she hit him with that he'd be coming back in the hospital in a stretcher. If she let them admit him... which she might not.
Tsunade seethed at Jiraiya, who decided his only chance here was to make sure she understood that he had only been discussing plot and characterisation with Rin, nothing more. Well, not much more. But the porn, that is -enthralling romance - was essential to the fabric of the story! Not including it in Rin's analysis of his work was just... inefficient, if nothing else. Yes, that sounded professional and competent. He'd say it like that.
Unfortunately the opening line of what he came out with didn't sound that way at all.
"Seriously Tsunade, what do you take me for? I mean, these girls aren't even legal and-"
He'd meant 'legal' as in of age to read his books.
Tsunade took it the other way.
After his teammate's eyes twitched into an O.ó expression Jiraiya realized what that had sounded like.
Two seconds later Tsunade hurled him bodily out the window by the ear with a scream of "Get out of my hospital you goddamn pervert!"
After slamming shut the window she'd launched Jiraiya out of, Tsunade turned to the girls and hissed air through her teeth before planting her hands on her hips and surveying the five of them. Even Anko settled down a little under the force of that rage. Shizune hoped her sensei's temper didn't get the better of her in here; she'd seen Tsunade do worse to Jiraiya-sama... but not often.
Sighing, Tsunade reigned in her temper and just rubbed her forehead, "Okay, you girls, he didn't bother you too much did he?"
Behind her Rin quickly mouthed 'say no!' to the other girls who all followed suite. Even Anko, who truth be told, enjoyed agitating Tsunade just as much as she enjoyed agitating Jiraiya. Possibly more: when provoked Tsunade's temper tantrums had the added bonus of propety damage and fluent cursing. But for now she got the impression that helping Rin out here might be better in the long run; at the very least it was leverage for future encounters and Orochi-sensei was always telling her to look to the future.
"No, Tsunade-sama," they all chorused.
Tsunade gave them suspicious looks but just sighed and gave in to their little code of silence. She had more important things to be doing. One by one she checked the girls' progress in recovery and was generally heartened by it. Anko was responding well to her antidotes (the projectile vomiting had stopped at least, god the state of Orochimaru's apartment was probably the reason he wasn't running missions... cleaning it would take all day) and would be well enough to be discharged later in the day. Kurenai's chakra was slowly replenishing with the aid of some wards pasted to her abdomen and back, which Tsunade checked for coherency before telling the serious girl she'd be able to leave the next morning. Rin was through the worst of her flu symptoms and would be ready for discharge to a quiet bed rest in her home in the evening, so long as she kept taking her herbal medications each hour. Suzume's damaged leg was still in serious shape but the pragmatic girl was perfectly unconcerned about it and wasn't surprised when she was told she'd be left in recovery for another few days to heal.
Last, but certainly not least, Tsunade carefully checked her own apprentice over and was unaccountably relieved to see she had some color back in her face. When Shizune had passed out onto her patient's bloody leg Tsunade had nearly had a heart attack and after working out what the problem was and angrily placing the unconscious girl in the recovery ward she'd had to spend twenty minutes in the bathrooms fighting down hysterics. It was ridiculous, she knew, but Shizune had seemed fine, been smiling even, and just so suddenly dropped like she was dead and there had been blood all over her face from the wound she'd been treating and she'd been so pale...
It had made Tsunade relive Nawaki's death in a way that she prayed nothing ever could or would again. And aside how furious she was with the girl for getting herself into such a state and then scaring her so badly, Tsunade had been made to realize that Shizune was more than just an attachment at work. The connection to Nawaki she'd felt there ran deeper, and Tsunade had spent her free thoughts for the past day and a half insisting that she didn't want a little sister. Didn't want someone she could lose like she'd lost her little brother.
She'd thought to talk to Dan about it tonight, perhaps. He had a way of making things clearer, of putting emotions in perspective that had made everything so much easier for her these past few years. But for now she just checked Shizune's single chakra ward and gave her a mild scolding about overworking herself. When the girl's face fell and her cheeks flushed she sighed and put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a wink and a smile to make up for it and telling her that it was alright. That everybody had to learn their limits sometime and she'd see her at work tomorrow morning.
It was a touching little moment, and as was her way Anko couldn't let it stand.
"Hey Tsunade-hime? What does that mean, 'aren't even legal'?" Anko asked, curiosity and a complete and utter lack of guile written all over her face.
Tsunade blinked and for a second Shizune almost laughed at the 'oh-shit!' look on her face. But she caught herself and turned with a cheerful smile to Anko's curious face.
"Ask your sensei about it, Anko-chan," Tsunade said, and then she waved goodbye to the girls and left.
Rin sighed and buried her face in her hands. Jiraiya-sama was going to get beaten on by two Sannin today. Sensei wouldn't be happy.
This was a little heavier in tone than chapter one, and the other chapters that follow, but I was really set on giving some insight into these characters when they were young, as well as having some humour. As always, please let me know what you think and any parts that you liked/think need improving.
Thanks!
ps: Major credits to Kaeru Soyokaze whose fic 'Fluff, pure and simple' inspired Tsunade's O.o expression...