Disclaimer: Refer to chapter 1.
AN: Chapter title: An Old Friend Appears!
"Tch. These damn things are everywhere. How many did he even send out this time? There can't be this many who listen to him, right? I can't even get Katsuyu to do something like this." A blonde woman cursed from her position around a corner, hated the fact that she had to hide for the moment, hide once again from the agents that were so endlessly pursuing her. "What does he even want now?"
There was a number of things she could think of but none of them made sense at the moment.
This seemed more random than anything.
'Could it be because of the attack?' Her mind cast aside the theory before she could pay it much mind. 'No, it doesn't make sense. It was a victory more than anything. Sure, they took casualties but nothing major. Especially if the rumors of who was behind it are to be believed.'
She couldn't help but remember the pale visage of her once friend, her once ally.
Before he had become nothing short of a monster, before word had reached her of what he had done to so many innocent people, how monstrous he had allowed his pursuit of knowledge to become.
'Could it be about him?' She cast that idea out just the same as the other. 'No. He's planning something else. If he was around, I would know.'
She once more glanced around the corner she had hidden herself behind, frowned when she once more spotted a hopping blur on the street, traveling too low for most to take note of. Unfortunately for the one behind the blur being here, she had become used to avoiding any and all pursuers.
'Still not safe to leave.' She concealed herself once more, watched the hopping pest as she suppressed her Chakra more, kept herself from being detected. 'When are they going to give up? How long is it going to take for them to get the message, send it back to that pervert?'
Next to her, a black-haired woman didn't risk a glance around the corner, couldn't risk it, and simply let the blonde woman tell her when it was safe to move.
So far, it had been dangerous to move from the town for hours. They had gone rushing from one gambling hole to another, seemingly trapped according to what the blonde woman saw.
'When is this going to end?' The dark haired woman couldn't help but think such a thing, had been run ragged across the pass few days as the two of them had gone racing around the town, had seemingly never come close to breaking away from whatever unseen force was so tirelessly pursuing them. She could feel an ache in her legs, a tiredness gradually overcoming her discipline to follow her master. 'I don't know how much longer I can keep this up.' A glance was sent towards the blonde haired woman she tirelessly followed, had followed in the footsteps of for so many years. 'How are we supposed to live like this if we're constantly running?'
In her arms, a pig dressed in a dark red vest and a pearl necklace made a sound, drew the eyes of the blonde woman.
"Really?" The blonde woman cursed once more. She looked from the pig and back to the rooftops, to the exit of the alley the two had spent the last few minutes in. "It looks like we don't have a choice anymore." She spared a glance towards the exit once more. Her eyes closed, Chakra focused to enhance her other senses. The black haired woman could feel a sensory technique settle around her, expand to cover a few blocks. Brown eyes snapped open. "Follow."
The single word was the only warning she had before the blonde haired woman was gone, was present in front of her one moment and gone the next. She sent a near panicked look around her, tried to find if she had decided to make an exit down the other end.
"Shizune!" A harsh whisper drew her eyes to the building above her, the woman she was looking for presently on the rooftop. "Come!"
She only nodded, was quick to push her exhausted body to reach her teacher.
She was already moving to the next rooftop, her sensory net expanding and she cursed a moment later. The delicate web of Chakra was gone, dispersed with the intent to conceal the source of it. It had already been deliberately made off center, her teacher knowing most would expect the center of any sensory net to be where to find her and correctly guessing it would buy her time. It was simply one of the many skills she had employed for decades. Both in her time as an active Shinobi and now as a gambler usually running from debt collectors, her skills had served her well.
Her teacher caught her when she would've stumbled, fallen to the roof beneath her.
Brown eyes were concerned for a moment, a familiar comforting flow of Chakra entering her body from the hands of her teacher. She was running a diagnosis on her, she could even feel some of her energy return as her teacher refilled her stores using her own ample stores of Chakra.
"Be careful." Concern filled her words as she pulled away. "Remember, stay close. We'll get out of this. Trust me."
"Of course, Tsunade-sama."
"Drop that nonsense already Shizune." Shizune found herself wincing after a firm poke to the head. Well, she would've winced if there wasn't already a comforting flow of Chakra spreading, had been injected into the site at the moment of contact. It wasn't that far off to say she didn't feel anything from the touch. She was reacting more from the fact that she had been poked than from actual pain. "I keep telling you, there's no need for that kind of stuff."
Brown eyes were currently focused down below, relentlessly scanning in whatever her search was for. Shizune had no idea what it could be, none of the past few days had made much sense to her.
She had even cut back on her gambling in favor of running, in favor of keeping a step ahead of whatever was after her.
What it was, Shizune would likely never be able to tell. She was aware of the usual threats to the two of them, the debtors, the rogue Shinobi after her teacher's talents, any number of things like them, but she had no idea what pursued them now.
She was beginning to think whatever it was simply wasn't human with how ragged their latest series of runs had left her, the fact that it seemed like they were still being pursued no matter what they did.
"These things are everywhere. I thought we would be fine in the Land of River but there's even more of them than back in the Land of Water. It's like they're everywhere all the time. How is he even getting them to listen to him?"
Her words drew a look from not only the woman who accompanied her but the pig in her arms as well.
"Tsunade, do you know what's happening?" Shizune hadn't sensed any of the familiar debt collectors, any of the Chakra signatures she had become more than familiar with over the years.
She barely sensed anything at all in all honesty. The only thing she could sense in the slightest had been a trio of debt collectors that had been following them since her teacher's last run of bad luck in the Land of Lighting, had been abele to stay on their tail but nothing else.
The three likely Shinobi Academy dropouts hadn't been able to do much, had actually missed them walking right past them more than once already, their disguises amounting to a pair of raised newspapers.
Beyond those three, no one else had followed them recently, thus there being no real reason to Shizune for the blonde woman to be so paranoid, to be so quick to run from place to place.
"I have an idea."
The Slug Princess, Tsunade of the Senju Clan, one third of the group collectively known as the Sannin, observed the streets from her new perch on the rooftops.
She knew who was behind the sharp increase in their pursuers, the odd nature of their newest batch of pursuers, knew something was happening but was committed to not involving herself in whatever was happening.
There was no reason to bring her infamous luck into play, to bring more problems to the situation at hand.
She was better off far away from him, far away from what had once been her home.
It was better for everyone this way.
She couldn't hurt anyone this way, couldn't spread her cursed luck to anyone else this way.
People were safe the longer she was away.
People would stay safe as long as she stayed away.
'What could you possible want Jiraiya? After all this time, why try to find me now? Why try to bring me back now after so long?'