"Talking"

'Thinking'

Jutsu/ Bijuu/ Summons

Flashbacks, Letters, and Setting

I don't own Naruto

Chapter 12: Meeting the Legendary Sucker

At the Hokage's Office

Sarutobi Hiruzen was tired, having been hard at work for hours, staying up all night. He looked down at the jumble of papers on his desk, covered in plans and ideas he had been trying to work into an edict. The last few years, and especially the last few weeks, had shown him things needed to change in Konoha.

The government in Konoha had been designed with checks and balances, as the Shodaime, Senju Hashirama, tried to include multiple clans into his village's government, and tried to give them a big voice in how things were run. Hashirama didn't want too much power in the hands of one person, lest they become corrupted and go mad with power, and spread different duties to elders, civilian council, and shinobi council.

At first it worked well, as the charisma, respect, and fear Hashirama commanded was enough to hold everything together. Everything was still new, and nobody was established well enough to scheme anything behind the Shodaime's back. The system even worked during the Nidaime's reign, as he was an unparalleled administrator, unmatched in talent ever since. Tobirama came up with most of the institutions in Konoha, both before and after he became Hokage, including the Academy, the Military Police Force, Merchant's Guild, amongst many others. He was also more ruthless than the Shodaime was, and nobody dared to do anything against him either.

Hiruzen had inherited a robust political system when he became the Sandaime, and ran a tight ship in his first term, being a much more youthful and driven leader at the time. By this time however, the systems had been there for a while, and clans and other groups had become firmly established in their respective roles and places. They began exploring loop holes and the like, but Hiruzen was still able to command enough respect and fear for them to stop at merely exploring and testing boundaries.

Konoha was very unified under the Yondaime, as the village was brought together by common enemies during the 3rd Shinobi War. When Minato had become the Yondaime, he was so loved by nearly everyone, that the thought of plotting against him, or going behind his back was close to nil. Throw in his uncanny ability to read people and situations, and his reputation as the deadliest Shinobi at the time, and nobody had even the smallest desire to get on his bad side.

It was mostly following the Kyuubi attack that people began taking advantage of the disorganized state of Konoha. The chaos following was the perfect opening for people to change the status quo, to start pushing the boundaries of their power and influence. The Sandaime was way too busy dealing with the reconstruction, reorganization, and salvaging process, that he wasn't able to keep tabs on all the political intrigue taking place behind his back.

It was at this time that the civilian council began growing their influence, as they played a key role in rebuilding the village, being major components of the economy. They began to have more of a voice beyond their former spheres of influence, and gained more of a voice in village affairs.

The elder council also began to accrue more power for themselves, as Hiruzen gave them more authority and power in an effort to divide the work and responsibilities, and make the reconstruction process more efficient. It worked, but it had an unintended consequence when Danzo became the unofficial leader of the elder council.

Now that the village was in a somewhat more stable position than before, and the recipients of additional power and responsibilities had proven themselves unreliable, Hiruzen decided it was time to take the power back quietly.

Sure, he had been unable to deliver justice to the parties responsible for one of the greatest tragedies to befall Konoha since the Kyuubi attack, due to the destabilizing effect it would have, but he would do what he can to make sure it never happened again. He would make sure the offending parties would be stripped of their power, and punish them hidden from the public eye.

He was unable to publicly execute Danzo for his crimes right now, but Hiruzen would make sure Danzo paid the price, even if it took him years. Any sudden action might be questioned, suspected, or avoided, so he decided he would set him up long term. He would cast his rope around Danzo, and slowly tighten it over years, until it was a tight noose around that old mummy's neck. He would compile all the evidence of numerous crimes Danzo had committed, until Danzo didn't even have a single crack to escape through.

Sure, there wasn't enough concrete evidence to sentence Danzo with, but the Third was a shinobi, not a samurai. Danzo was going to learn that he wasn't the only one who played dirty games. Hiruzen looked at several scrolls left to him by Naruto. He already knew several of the crimes Danzo had committed. He would just plant the right evidence needed to bring it to light.

The Third could feel a headache coming on. He had been getting these headaches more and more often since taking the hat again. Hiruzen decided it was time for a break, and got up with his pipe lit. He gazed out the window, puffing on his pipe as he looked out over the village. His mind began to wander to recent events, and what happened last night in particular.

Flashback

The Sandaime had been working on his plans late at night, thinking of ways he could get back Danzo for his scheming and overstepping his boundaries. He was thinking of all the unanswered crimes Danzo got away with, and decided it was soon time for a reckoning.

The only problem was Danzo was very good at cleaning up after himself. He rarely left any evidence, and Hiruzen had nothing he could use to convincingly incriminate him to the public. All he had with him right now was a single ROOT ANBU body, given to him by a certain blonde ANBU.

His mind was deep in thought when a figure tapped at the window. Hiruzen immediately tensed up, and got ready for whatever was to come. He relaxed when he saw the boy he was just thinking about. He smiled and motioned for him to enter.

"Hello Naruto-kun. What brings you to my office at this late hour? If I'm not mistaken, are you not supposed to be bedridden for a few more days?" The Third asked Naruto.

"Well, let's just say there's been some unexpected progress." Naruto responded. "I have a personal request to make Hokage-sama."

The Sandaime had a soft spot for Naruto, as he felt like he didn't do a great job looking after him after the Kyuubi Incident, and gave him a lot more leeway than most other shinobi. He decided to hear what Naruto wanted this time. "What is that you need?" Hiruzen asked.

"I'd like your permission to go search for your former student, Tsunade." The blonde told Hiruzen.

That was unexpected. Hiruzen raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Tsunade? She hasn't been seen in years. What made you want to look for her all of a sudden?"

"Someone precious to me needs her help. I'll find her and bring her back no matter what. Just give me a couple weeks." Naruto responded.

It warmed the old Hokage's heart to know that despite Naruto's usually cold exterior, he was still the kind and caring boy underneath, or at least had parts of him left. He could guess who he wanted Tsunade's service for. "It's Mikoto-san, isn't it?"

Naruto responded with a nod.

Hiruzen decided to give him his blessing. "Go. Make sure you bring her back. The village could use her talents. It's time for her to get over her loss."

Naruto saluted the Hokage and prepared to leave, when Hiruzen suddenly had an idea.

"Naruto-kun?"

Naruto stopped moving. "Yes, Hokage-sama?"

"Do you have any more of those "scrolls?" Consider it a personal request in return for answering yours." Hiruzen asked.

Naruto silently unsealed several scrolls holding ROOT bodies, and handed them over.

There was a devious smile on Hiruzen's face as Naruto left through the window to begin his search. He had both the evidence to plant, and the greatest infiltrator and stealth expert, who also happened to be Konoha's premier seal master, under his command. He could definitely work with this.

Flashback end

Tanzaku Gai

The blonde on a mission walked down the streets of the famous town of pleasure, and took in the sights. He had stopped by the town, after hearing rumors that Tsunade had been sighted here recently. So, this was the kind of places that old Slug Sannin liked to visit.

Seriously, what was up with these Sannin? One was a sick, twisted psycho who likes to experiment on people, one likes to gamble her life away and live the life of a bum, and one was a deadbeat pervert, who was proud of his voyeurism of women less than half his age, preferring to peek on women without their consent, rather than taking care of his godchildren. Naruto spat on the ground with the thought of the last person. Was it the Sandaime who made them like this? Or did their power drive them insane?

Naruto sent out his shadow clone in different henges to see if they could gather any information on the whereabouts of this alcoholic, gambling addicted woman. His faith in the woman's ability to help his aunt in all but blood was dwindling, but he still clung to any possibility there was to help the woman who had helped him and sister so much.

One of his clones, disguised as an old woman, passed by one of the biggest gambling houses in the town, and overheard a regular talking to one of the staff.

"Hey, when is Tsunade dropping by? I need to join her table and make back my losses from yesterday." The gambler asked the bouncer.

"Who knows? The sucker probably is passed out drunk somewhere right now. She'll probably wake up with a hangover near lunchtime, and drop by in the afternoon to lose more money." Naruto overheard the bouncer say.

The gambler and the bouncer didn't pay any attention to the old woman who passed by their gambling house, and turned the corner and entered an alley. She disappeared with a small puff of smoke, and elsewhere, Naruto sported a grin on his face.

Several minutes later, the real Naruto stopped in front of the gambling house, and began to walk in. He was stopped, when a burly man with an intimidating face grabbed him roughly by the arm.

"Say, gaki, aren't you a little too young to be entering such a place? Don't you know what this is? Why don't you go play with your parents, kid." The bouncer told Naruto.

Naruto said nothing, but pulled out a small wad of cash, and tossed it to the man who let go of Naruto to catch the Ryos flying at him. He caught the wad, and looked at Naruto in shock, surprised at seeing a teenager who couldn't be over 15 carrying so much money. Naruto just winked and shushed him with a finger to his lips. The bouncer decided to keep the money and stay silent. If the kid wanted to lose his money, what was that to him? It's just good business.

He looked around the gambling house, and saw it was lot more decorated and animated inside, than it looked from the outside. It was only around 10 in the morning, and people were already getting drunk, and gambling at various games. Pretty, scantily-clad women walked around, serving alcohol to people, to make them drunk enough to be oblivious to the various ways the dealers were cheating them.

He decided to wait for Tsunade in here, and decided to try one of the games to kill some time. He wasn't too familiar with any of the games, and went to the simplest looking one, a game where the dealer would put 2 dice under a cup before shaking it, and you had to guess odds or evens.

"Hey, aren't you a little too young to be here? Who let you in?" The dealer asked in curiosity, looking towards the bouncer, who just shrugged.

Naruto ignored his question, and asked his own. "So, how do you play?"

The dealer decided it wasn't his problem if some kid wanted to lose all of his money. It would be a good life lesson he supposed. "It's pretty simple kid, you bet money, and guess if the dice under my cup are going to show odds or evens. If you guess it right, you win double, and if you're wrong, you lose the money you bet. So, what's it gonna be?" the dealer asked.

Naruto pulled out another small stack of cash and counted out 10,000 Ryo, before placing it on the betting table. The dealer grinned, 'Time to deprive this kid of 10,000 Ryo.' He thought to himself. He put the dice under his cup and began to shake it.

"Alright then, what's it gonna be? Odds? Or Evens?" The dealer asked Naruto.

Naruto paused for a second before saying, "Evens."

The dealer lifted the cup, revealing one die showing 2, while the other showed a 6. "Heh, beginner's luck. Here's your 10,000 Ryo, and another 10,000 on top of it." He didn't mind losing a little money. It was an old trick of many gambling houses anyway. Letting them win the first few rounds to get them hooked, and then cleaning them out later.

Meanwhile, Naruto's heart began pumping wildly. He just doubled his money in no time at all! He regretted not betting more. He counted out more money in a frenzy and placed 500,000 Ryo on the betting table. The dealer was shocked at seeing the amount of money the blonde kid seemed to be carrying. Was he the son of some noble? The stakes just went up by 5000%.

"Odds or evens?" the dealer asked after shaking the cup.

Naruto replied, "Odds."

The dealer revealed the dice underneath, and Naruto's face lit up with a wide smile. Ok, he could see why Tsunade enjoyed gambling so much.

At an Inn in Tanzaku Gai

"Ugh, my head. Shizune get me some water." A buxom blonde woman called out, as she woke up from her alcohol-induced sleep with a hangover.

"Hai, Tsunade-sama." The woman called Shizune replied, dutifully heading to the kitchen to get her sensei, traveling companion, and her dead uncle's lover, some water.

She sighed as she poured the water. They had spent many years, around a decade, wandering aimlessly, while Tsunade gambled away her large inheritance, and Shizune cleaned up after her mess. She had left Konoha with Tsunade a little after the 3rd Shinobi War ended, when she was 11.

Here she was, 9 years later, fetching water for her master to help her with her hangover again. She wondered if this was all her life would ever amount to. Her master rarely trained her, as she was too busy gambling or getting drunk, and even when she did train her, it was mostly in the field of medicine. She was still only a Chunin in other skills, and technically a Genin, since she never returned to Konoha to take her exams.

The bond between the two were strong. She was loyal to Tsunade, and cared for her greatly. However, she was still somewhat disappointed at how her life was turning out to be. She had dreamed of becoming a great kunoichi, accomplishing much and making a name for herself in Konoha, and maybe even finding love by this age.

She was 20 now, and while she was very skilled in iryojutsu (medical ninjutsu), her other skills were lackluster. Their nomadic lifestyle, often running from debt collectors and the shinobi they sent after Tsunade for not paying her debts, prevented her from forming any bonds with other people, let alone any boys her age. She had rarely done any missions, and the only name she made for herself was as the little raven-haired girl who followed Tsunade around as her porter and secretary.

She looked at her reflection in the water in the cup. Though she wasn't ugly by any means, she couldn't help but be disappointed in what she saw. Instead of seeing the intelligent, loyal, and dutiful woman with a subtle, refined, cute, though somewhat plain beauty that she was, she saw a mediocre, unfulfilled woman who never had the affections of any man, in her reflection.

"Hello? Are you coming with that cup of water or what?" Tsunade called out from her bed, breaking Shizune out of her thoughts. She went over to Tsunade and handed her the water she asked for.

"Just what the doctor ordered. My head feels much better now." Tsunade exclaimed after drinking her water as quickly as she could drink her alcohol. "Did you eat breakfast?" Tsunade asked her apprentice.

"It's nearly 2, Tsunade-sama, I had lunch a little while ago. I saved some for you too." Shizune responded.

"Great! What would I do without you Shizune?" Tsunade asked rhetorically, as she walked out of her room to get a bite to calm her stomach. "Why don't you take Tonton on a walk while I eat and freshen up?" Tsunade suggested.

"Oink-oink!" Tonton squealed in agreement.

Shizune giggled with a hand over her mouth. She had a caring nature, and enjoyed taking care of people and animals. "Alright, Tsunade-sama. I'll go for a quick walk around the town with Tonton. Enjoy your meal!" She told Tsunade as she prepared to leave with Tonton, Tsunade's pet pig."

"While you're at it, stop by the gambling house and make sure there aren't any of the debt collectors or any of the shinobi after me, waiting there for me." The Slug Sannin asked Shizune, with a mouthful of the brown rice and stir-fried vegetables Shizune had left for her.

Shizune hated being involved in her less-than-legal activities, but found herself somehow embroiled in them every time. The things she did for her master. She sighed. "Fine. I'll check there aren't any of your "friends", waiting for you at the gambling house."

Tanzaku Gai Gambling House

Shizune swung by the gambling house on the last leg of her walk with Tonton. Her plain looks served her well as a scout or lookout, as many people would overlook her. It was much harder to notice a slender, raven-haired woman, compared to a tall blonde woman with a very sizable pair of assets, which was barely covered in her grey, sleeveless kimono-styled blouse.

She took a look around, and noticed a crowd gathered around a blonde teenager, who seemed to have a large pile of money in front of him, and a nervous looking dealer in front of him. 'What's a young boy like that doing in a place like this by himself?' Shizune thought to herself in concern. It worried her that a kid was already getting involved in this dirty world of gambling. As much as she loved Tsunade as her master and friend, she didn't want another person to walk the path her master was walking.

She considered going over to convince the boy to leave, but saw him winning over and over again. 'Ok, maybe he isn't like Tsunade at all.' She thought. Tsunade loved to gamble, but she had absolutely no talent for it, and lost time after time.

She decided not to draw attention to herself, and decided to head back to tell Tsunade that the coast was clear.

"That's another 20 million Ryo for me!" Naruto exclaimed as he pulled the piles of cash closer to him with both arms. He was making a killing. Forget going on missions. Gambling was where it was at. Tsunade was a sage for cracking the secrets of life.

The dealer decided this was too much. "Alright, alright. You've taken enough of my money. How about you play a different game now?" He practically begged Naruto to leave him alone.

"Fine. I'll try… that game." Naruto responded after looking around the building. As he looked around, he caught a glimpse of the owner of the chakra signature he was sensing. She was definitely a shinobi, but her chakra levels didn't quite match what he expected his quarry to have. He decided he was having a good time making money, and decided to wait a little longer for Tsunade to show her face.

An hour later

Tsunade, accompanied by Shizune, who held her bag of borrowed money, and Tonton, walked into the gambling house. All the dealers who had been cleaned out by Naruto began to smile once again when the legendary sucker entered the building. Looks like they'd make their money back. Tsunade was given a hero's welcome when she entered, and was guided to her seat at the cards table.

Naruto immediately sensed the huge, though smaller than his, amount of chakra that entered the building and turned around to see a buxom blonde walking in with that black haired kunoichi he had noticed earlier, and what appeared to be pig with a pearl necklace. The older blonde woman was being mobbed by waitresses already trying to serve her drinks, which she accepted readily as she took her seat.

He took out a picture of the person he was searching for, and noticed that the busty blonde who entered and the person in the picture were indeed a match. Which was a little strange, considering that the picture was taken in her 20's, and Tsunade was supposed to be almost 50. He shrugged. Maybe she had a really advanced skincare plan.

Naruto decided to observe her first, like he did with all his targets. It was important to analyze the target, to see how they acted and responded to different things.

Tsunade sat at a blackjack table, and placed 500,000 Ryo on the table. Go big or go home seemed to be her motto. The dealer began to shuffle and deal, and Tsunade received her hand of cards. A 7 and an 8. The dealer had a Jack visible, and a card that hadn't been revealed yet. She couldn't hide the look of distaste at the hand she got. She decided to take a risk.

"Hit me." She asked. The dealer dealt her another card, which was revealed to be a 2.

'Damn!' she thought. 17 wasn't that high, but could risk a bust if she asked for another card. She looked over at the dealer's Jack that was revealed and began going over possibilities. If that hidden card was anything over a 7, then she would be losing 500,000 Ryo.

Shizune leaned over to whisper to Tsunade's ear. "Tsunade-sama, there's a big chance taking another card could leave you with a bust. Besides, there's a good chance that his card is lower than 7, and he might get a bust when he draws another."

Tsunade considered what her apprentice told her, and also made some calculations of her own. An ace, 8,9,10, Jack, Queen, or King would all mean that the dealer wins. Even if he drew a smaller number, there was enough wiggle room for him to draw another card and win. She decided to get as close to 21 as possible, and tapped on the table, against Shizune's advice.

The dealer dealt her a card, which she flipped over. It was a 5. Bust.

The dealer greedily grabbed the 500,000 Ryo, a little more eagerly than usual, as he had seen his coworkers get cleaned out by some boy who had the luck of the gods.

Tsunade smashed her fist into the table. Damn it. She should have taken Shizune's advice.

Naruto watched Tsunade get angrier and tipsier as she progressively lost more rounds, and decided to leave his table to get a better view of his target, and gathered all of his money to leave the table.

He was getting up to leave, when a hand roughly grabbed his right wrist, preventing him from leaving the table. Naruto looked up to see who the hand belonged to, and saw a tough looking man holding him by the wrist, while a different man with his hand on a tanto that was hung from his waist stood on his other side in a threatening manner.

"Where do you think you're going after stealing 75 million Ryo?" The tough looking man angrily asked.

"Stealing? I won the money fair and square. Now let me go, I'd like to go to a different game now." Naruto calmly told the man.

"How about you leave the money here, and we let you go back to mommy with all of your fingers?" The one with the tanto threatened, as he drew his blade slightly to reveal a small amount gleaming steel.

Naruto said nothing, but quickly summoned a kunai into his left hand, and drove the kunai through the tough looking man's wrist, and deep into the table. The man screamed in pain from the unexpected kunai through the wrist. He let go of Naruto's wrist immediately.

The other man saw what happened, and tried to draw his tanto quickly, but the blonde teen kicked the butt of the tanto, sending it back into the sheathe, before slamming the palm of his hand into the man's mouth, sending him flying backwards, and crashing into a different table, which tumbled over along with the man.

Everyone stood speechless at seeing two of the thugs they had hired as bouncers get handled so quickly by a 14-year-old boy, while Naruto nonchalantly gathered his money into a sack he had gotten earlier.

"I think I'll try out the slots now." Naruto declared calmly as he walked over to the slot machines. Nobody dared to stop him.

Shizune and Tsunade had noticed the commotion and saw the thug bleeding from his mouth by some overturned table, and the one who stayed where Naruto was once seated, pinned in place by a kunai. The choice of weapon and quick reflexes immediately told them he had some shinobi training.

For a second Tsunade wondered if he was one of the shinobi hired to make her pay up, but he paid her no attention as he pulled the lever on the slot machine. She saw the large amount of winnings he had, and assumed he was just a shinobi in training who had come to blow off some steam with gambling. Besides, she was a freaking Sannin, even if she was a bit tipsy. Some damn teenage kid who looked like he would be fresh out of the Academy by now was not going to keep her on her toes.

For a moment, she had thought he looked familiar, but she couldn't place a name to a face. Spending nearly a decade trying to drink your memories away tended to make you forget a lot of things. Anything except for the thing you were drinking to forget.

She was slightly jealous at his good luck, as he pulled another winning combination, and a small amount of coins poured out. It motivated her to make her own winnings, and she turned around to focus on her own game.

There wasn't any more commotion after that, and the gambling house wasn't a stranger to violence, with alcohol and money being involved. In fact, it was almost a daily occurrence. They just brushed it off as one of the bloodier fights.

Nobody paid much attention to the blonde was enjoying his smaller winnings at the slot machine. All except Shizune, who felt there was more to the teen than what met the eye. He was strong. A lot stronger than what he liked to show. The fact that he kept looking over at Tsunade kept Shizune vigilent.

"Damn it! How is it possible to lose this many times in a row? It's a statistical anomaly! I should have at least won once!" Tsunade growled out angrily. She was nearly 50 million Ryo poorer than when she came in. She saw how much money the blonde brat had won, and overextended her hand, hoping his luck might have rubbed off on her. Clearly, it didn't.

The dealer had a devious smile on his face as he shuffled the cards. "Are you sure you want to play another round? I'm starting to feel a little bad for taking all your money." He taunted her. He knew how to push her buttons, to get her to lose more money.

Tsunade angrily tossed another small stack of 1 million Ryo at the betting pool. "Shut up and deal me my cards." She hissed at the grinning man.

"Perhaps you could deal me a hand too, dealer-san." A new voice said from next to Tsunade.

She looked at the newcomer to her table, and saw it was the blonde shinobi boy from earlier.

"Hope you don't mind if I take this seat next to you, Tsunade-sama." He asked her.

Tsunade and Shizune tensed up. "How do you know my name?" Tsunade asked. He was too young to have heard about her exploits, wasn't he? Were they still talking about her, wherever he came from?

"Oh, how rude of me. Please, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Naruto." The blonde introduced himself with a small smile.

*Author's Note*

Back again with another chapter!

Tsunade and Shizune finally make their appearance! Hope you guys remember this is roughly 5 years before the canon start of Naruto, and Shizune has been aged down a little, so things are bound to be a little different.

For the record, I'm not sure I made things clear about the money system I wrote for my story. 100 Ryo = $1 USD. Well at least roughly. So just take away 2 zeros from whatever amount of Ryo I write, and that's how much money is being talked about. So, Naruto made nearly 80 million Ryo, which is $800,000 USD. The man is making some serious dough.

Here are the votes for the pairing so far!

Shizune 124

Samui 78

Izumi 69

Mei 74

Anko 70

I'm wondering if I should take out Izumi. I'm leaning towards keeping her with Itachi, but I haven't quite decided things yet. I'm writing a lot of open ends for many relationships right now, so I can easily connect Naruto and his female counterpart later.

Also, I just want to point out that Naruto has a lot more up his sleeve than what I've been able to write so far, since he likes to hide his power, and use the bare minimum necessary. Which is why he prefers using stealth in his fights. I'll reveal some of his powers in an upcoming arc.

Anyways thanks for your time and attention! Thanks for reading another chapter! Please leave your thoughts in a comment or review!

Until next time!