Sorry for the late upload. The end of the semester was last week and chaos occured. Plus, I really wasn't into this chapter. On another note, I've finally realized why this story is so shit. I did no actual planning for it. I have the character ideas and that stuff, but when it comes to the plot, I have been lacking. So, what I am going to do is take a hiatus on this story once Naruto leaves. That way I can try cleaning it up and making it more fluid. My other story also needs some cleaning, but it's not as far along as this one so it's not as bad. As for what I'll be doing during that time is writing another(I know it's a lot) story. I'll put a description at the bottom. Unlike the other two, this story will have a plot and will not follow the Naruto timeline. If you want more, scroll to the bottom. For now, enjoy the chapter. Please leave a review on what you thought or what you'd like to see in the story.
I don't own Naruto, I'm sorry to disappoint.
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The day after their return, Team seven was called to the Hokage's office, Neji having also been summoned. When they enter the hokage's office, they were surprised to see two others. "Hey, Shikamaru. Hi Shino!" Naruto greeted.
"Hey Naruto. Hi Sasuke," replied the tired Nara with a weak wave. Sasuke gave his own wave for a greeting. Shino bowed his head for his greeting, small but a greeting nonetheless.
"Hello Nara-san, Aburame-san," said Hinata in a diplomatic voice, slightly irked that he didn't greet her as well.
"Oh, hello Hinata, Neji," Shikamaru said, surprised that Hinata was being friendly, but too tired to show any visual emotion. Shino too was surprised, though, he didn't care enough about it to actually show his emotions. Neji remained silent, indifferent as to whether or not he received a greeting or not. The genin were interrupted by a clearing of the throat from their Hokage.
"If we're done with the pleasantries, let's get down to business. I called you all here to discuss the results of the Chunin exams. Now, while I wasn't there to witness them myself, my predecessor did keep a notepad with who would make a good candidate. Using that along with input from the clan heads of Konoha, we have come to a conclusion as to which of you will become a chunin''.
Tsunade paused for a moment, looking each genin before her in the eye. "Shikamaru Nara. You are the only chunin here today". Shikamaru's eyes went wide in surprise for a second, before narrowing once more. He completely ignored the congratulations the others had given him.
"Wait a minute. I lost my match".
"Yes, so I was told. However, from what I have read and heard, you had completely out smarted your opponent, only losing because of a lack of chakra and laziness. On top of that, when the village was attacked, you assisted in the defeat of Gaara of the sand by taking on one of the foes who tried to stall". Shikamaru had a tint of pink touch on his ears as he was reminded of his later bout with Temari. Reluctantly he took the vest, no overly thrilled at the idea of more, and harder work.
"Now, the rest of you. I received many positive comments. However, many of you do not have the maturity, or were not able to demonstrate enough skill during the event. You may attempt again next chunin exam. You are dismissed". Tsunade promptly turned back to her paperwork, urging the genin, and now one chunin, to get out. Even Naruto was able to read the room, and they all filtered out, quickly grouping up once outside.
Once the genin had closed the door, Tsunade stopped with ehr work and sighed with relief. Opening a drawer, a large green bottle was revealed. Pulling the cork off with a satisfying *pop, Tsunade took a large swing of Sake. When she finished, a goofy grin was left on her face. A grin that soon left once Shizune entered the room with more work and gave her a scolding. Fortunately for Tsunade however, she now had a way to silence, or at least put a temporary stop to Shizune's rants. "So how's Kakashi doing Shizune?".
Everytime, Shizune would immediately silence. Granted it had only been yesterday that he had taken her on a tour of the village, but with the amount of Sake Tsunade drank, she had already used this tactic 5 times.
When the genin left the Hokage's office, the dividing amongst themselves; Naruto, Sasuke, and Shino grouping around Shikamaru; and the two Hyugas walking side by side a little ways back. "Way to go Shikamaru! Now you're a chunin!".
"Wo hoo. More wooork. Just what I wanted," Shikamaru sarcastically groaned.
"It would've happened either way. Getting it now just means you don't have to take the tests later" argued Sasuke, slightly irked he did not receive a jacket of his own.
"At least you were able to demonstrate your skills in the exam," voiced the young Aburame Aburame. Jealous of his comrades, and angry with Kankuro for denying him the chance to showcase his skills at the exam. He hid none of this frustration in his voice.
"Well at least, now we have more time to train and improve ourselves before the next one. That way it'll be even easier!" Naruto said, trying to bring more optimism into the conversation.
Unfortunately for Naruto, it didn't. Instead, Shikamaru started complaining about all the extra training Asuma would be having him do, and Sasuke started comparing that training to what he did with Anko. From what Naruto was hearing, he wasn't sure if he was excited or terrified about Anko helping in training.
Hinata and Neji remained silent during all of this. 'The elders will not be happy' was the only thing going through their heads. While Hinata' father may be the Patriarch, even that didn't protect Hinata from the Elders' wrath. Ever since Hanabi and he started sparring, Hinata had been becoming more and more of a target to them, being seen as weak. Her standings with them only worsened when she modified the fighting style.
Neji, in turn, was not in such poor stances with the elders. That is until he lost to Naruto. Being the Hyuga protegee, they placed a lot of expectations on him. Expectations that did not allow for failure.
Both received punishment.
{[]}
The rest of the day was given to the genin. Each of them heading their separate ways. One to cloud watch, one to relax, and the others to train, if not having to report to their superiors.
Else, where in the village Sakura was heading to the hospital to visit Lee again. 'They said he went through a dangerous procedure to fix him. And that Tsunade-sama was the one leading it. I wonder if it worked'.
To her delight, it did. Lee was still bedridden, but now he had a date to look forward to. "Once more my flames of youth can burn brightly!". 'If only there was a medical procedure to get rid of that' Sakura thought.
"Sakura, when I recover, will you train with me?" Lee asked, hope in his eyes.
'This is a date to him'. Sakura was unsure of what to say. "Ummm…".
Lee grew depressed at her hesitation. It's okay, I know you have other things to do".
"No! No. I'd love to train with you Lee. I just need to talk with my sensei okay?"
The million dollar smile returned to Lee's face in an instant, "Okay! Together we shall grow stronger in the flames of our youth!".
A sweat dropped on Sakura's forehead. Her meeting with Lee was cut short by a nurse checking up on him after hearing his loud declarations. Sakura took her leave to meet up with Ino. She would ask Kurenai-sensei during training the following day.
Thankfully for her, Kurenai agreed. Even for just getting out of the hospital, Lee was in incredible and inhuman shape. After convincing him that he had to do lighter exercises instead of pushing himself even harder, the two agreed to only do 20 laps around Konoha instead of the usual 50 that he and Gai sensei would usually do. Sakura had to take a break after only 8, rejoining Lee for another 7 before having to take another break, waiting for Lee to finish on his own.
After she tried to reason that they should do even less push ups and crunches. Lee was hesitant, and normally would've said that he'll do 5 for every one she does; but in a rare moment of sympathy, Lee didn't. Instead he kept pace with her. Matching her every movement with his own.
Once they finished, Sakura flopped on her back panting, wondering how Lee could do this stuff regularly. She was surprised when Lee flopped beside her. "You're down already? I thought you usually did 100 of those a day! Or was it a thousand?".
Lee smiled, not entirely sure why though. "I'm supposed to be taking it easy right? I don't want to hurt myself more, right?".
"Well that doesn't sound very youthful of you. I thought you'd be all over about thriving in the flames of your youth or something. Needing to regain your strength as soon as possible".
Lee didn't say anything at first, trying to think of an answer. But nothing logical came to mind, so instead he answered with how he felt. "For all my life, I've been left with my youth and what to do with it alone. Gai sensei helped, but he only encouraged me to improve my own flames while he improved his… I thought it wouldn't hurt to share some of my flames with you". Both Lee and Sakura's faces inflamed. Lee realizing what he had said, and Sakura at how touching it was.
"S-sorry! That was stupid of me! I shall do 1000 headbuts to make up for it!". Lee was just about to start smashing his head into a training log when Sakura spoke.
"I like sharing my flames with you too Lee". Lee froze in place, only moving when Sakura had taken his hand to lead him away from the log. "How about we go get some lunch? Besides, isn't it about time for your medicine?".
"Oh. Yeah. Well where did you want to go?"
"First let's figure out your medicine, then we can go get some sushi. There's a new crepe stand that I want to try out after though".
Lee wasn't thrilled about having to take the liquid horror the hospital had given him, but with Sakura around, he wouldn't be able to go anywhere until he did. After a few overly dramatic minutes with Lee gagging and pretending to die after only half a dose, Sakura shoved the rest of the dose in his mouth, quickly putting a water bottle to his mouth to get him to swallow. Lee reluctantly swallowed the rest of his dose, shivering in it's after taste. Sakura had to drag him halfway to the sushi restaurant.
Lee had planned on getting back to training right after eating. That's what he had thought the day would be like. Instead, he found himself being dragged around by Sakura as they ate their crepes together. Lee had never felt more out of place, but at the same time he had never been so comfortable. For the first time in his life, he wholeheartedly didn't care what other people were thinking. With Gai sensei he would only ignore the people around them and their glares or looks of disgust.
With Sakura, he would see the odd looks, but he almost laughed when he saw them. 'They're jealous of me, because I get to share my youth with someone like Sakura'.
By the end of the day, nothing else had been bought. Although there had been some plans for future purchases that had been made. More specifically, plans to improve Lee's fashion. Lee kept making arguments to try and convince Sakura otherwise, but it was futile.
!_!_!([])!_!_!
The following week was filled with training in the mornings and d-rank missions in the afternoons for Team 7. Anko had yet to return from her mission to Hinata and Sasuke's disappointment. While the warm up was hell, they did enjoy the lessons afterwards. That's not to say the two didn't practice independently after their mission of the day. Naruto was still clueless to what they had learned from Anko, but he did get to see what Kakashi had been training them with. To be frank he felt like he was being left behind. Thankfully for him Kakashi already had something planned for him to start working on. Wind Chakra.
More specifically, channeling it to sharpen kunai. While it wasn't his strongest element, Kakashi could channel some wind chakra on a kunai. After a short demonstration that resulted in a kunai flying through 5 trees before getting stuck halfway through a rock, Naruto was hooked on learning. Having laid out the bait, Kakashi got comfortable on a tree branch and started reading his book again. To his delight, this continued for the next 2 weeks, with a 2 day break for an easier C-rank mission. His days of relaxation were put on hold however when Anko finally returned from her mission.
"I've only been gone for 4 weeks Kakashi and you've gotten this lazy?!". Kakashi shrugged at the angry jounin. "I guess I have my work cut out for me. Alright maggots! I want 5 laps around Konoha in 1 hour!". Sasuke and Hinata promptly left, Naruto didn't move asking to make sure he heard right. "Did I stutter? Now get your ass moving before I move it for you!". Naruto finally accepted that Anko wasn't fooling around and sprinted off.
Naruto found himself questioning whether he was hearing things right when he heard the rest of Anko's insane workout routine, but he had learned his lesson the first time and didn't question it. By the time they had finished, the three genin fell onto the grass together to catch their breath. "That… Woman… is Crazy... " Naruto said between breaths.
"Uzumaki! You're with me! Hinata. Sasuke. You know the drill".
The three genin peeled themselves off the ground. Naruto wasn't comforted when Sasuke decided to wish him luck.
"Alright Uzumaki, seeing as I don't know much about what you can do, we're going to find out your strengths and weaknesses. You got it?!"
Naruto gulped and nodded his head replying with a weak, "yes".
The smile Anko gave him sent a shiver down his spine. After showing her the jutsu he knew, surprising Anko with the rasengan, the two sparred. Naruto getting his arse handed to him on a silver platter every time.
"Well you're not half bad kid. But you have several flaws in your style. You try to fight while invisible, and silent. That's a good idea, but your actual fighting style is horse shit. On top of that, your chakra is like a beacon to where you are. Now, while I doubt you'd be able to cover up your chakra manually, I have heard you dabble in fuinjutsu. Is that right?".
"Yeah. Do you know a seal that could work?!"
"Me? No. But, I know that there is a seal for it. I'm guessing with the Hokage, but I'm not sure. For now we'll work on fixing that fighting style of yours".
"Hey! It's the academy's style!"
"Ah, no wonder it stinks"
"Well if you're going to teach me a new fighting style, which one will it be? Your's?"
"What?! Oh Kami no! You don't have nearly the amount of flexibility needed. Hell no! No. I think I have a good idea of what would benefit you, but I won't be the one to teach it to you. I'll leave Kakashi to do that. Instead, you and I are going to continue sparring".
"But I just finished sparring you!"
"How about this. If you can land three hits on me, and I'll get Iruka to take you to that ramen place you two love".
"Wait. Why is Iruka sensei being dragged into this? It's you I'm fighting!"
"Do you want your ramen or not kid?! Besides, I'll repay Iruka eventually".
Naruto thought about it for a second before taking his fighting stance again. "That ramen is mine"
The two battled it out for the rest of the day, multiple crashes sounding off. Kakashi started wondering why he thought it'd be a good idea to put those two together. When he went to check on them at the end of the day, he found every other tree either snapping or cracking, with both Naruto and Anko still ready to go.
"Training is done! Pack it up!"
"Not yet! I just need to get one more strike on Anko and then I win!". Naruto then launched himself once more. Kakashi sighed in defeat and walked away. Hinata and Sasuke looked to him for an update on Anko and Naruto, but all he said was "they're going to be a couple more hours. You two can go home. Tomorrow you'll be practicing on the topics you've been working with Anko with independently. She's already helped out more than I asked her to. I fear what she'll ask me for in return".
"Why didn't you just teach us?" Hinata asked.
"I think it's best to get a different perspective on things. And she's the only other person with a curse mark. As for why she trained with you. She had a fighting style that would work well with your flexibility so I decided to take advantage of that. Anything after that, was her initiative".
"But that doesn't explain why she came back to help Naruto," Sasuke pointed out.
"Yeah, but Iruka asked me to".
"Iruka sensei? What does he have to do with Anko?" Hinata inquired.
"Oh. You don't know? Anko and Iruka are dating". The two genin took a few minutes to process this. They were trying to comprehend their academy teacher being romantically involved with such a wild card like Anko. The two looked at each and shrugged at the same thinking, 'Opposites attract?'.
It took 2 hours after Team Seven had left that Naruto had finally managed to land his third hit on Anko. Granted he found himself beaten all over, but it was worth it for the reward in store for him. "Ha! I did it! You owe me a trip to Ichiraku's!".
Anko looked down to the small cut on her arm that was the third and final strike he had managed to land on her. "Not bad kid. To be honest I only expected you to land one with that taijutsu, maybe you'll be an actual opponent in a few years". Anko was interrupted by a loud snore. Naruto had passed out from exhaustion after his declaration about Ichiraku and was out like a light.
A tick mark formed on Anko's forehead, and she was about to pound him in when Iruka showed up. "Anko! What are you doing out here so late?!".
"I was training the brat and he just fell asleep when I was talking to him!"
Iruka chuckled, hopping down from the tree tops to land beside Anko. "Yeah. He would always do this in class, although this time I think it was genuinely because he couldn't go any longer".
"You think so? Well that kid has the endurance of a demon. If he wasn't going to collapse, I was going to myself soon. Oh and you owe him a trip to Ichiraku's".
"Wait! WHAT?!"
"Yeah, if he got three hits on me I promised him that you'd take him to Ichiraku's"
"Why you! Do you know how much a trip to Ichiraku's cost?! I nearly went bankrupt last time. And with you helping out with Kakashi, we've got even less money to...mhmhmm"
Anko had silenced Iruka's ranting by catching his lips with her own. "I'm sure I'll find some way to repay you," she added seductively.
Iruka was about to reply when Anko fell asleep in his arms. 'WHAATTT! Seriously?! AAAARRRRGGGG! She's lucky she's damn cute'. Iruka picked Anko up, bridal style, making a shadow clone to pick up Naruto before doing so. He sighed, "Why does it seem like I'm always cleaning up after my precious people?".
[{}{}[]{}{}]
Anko spent the next day teaching Naruto the basics of the taijutsu form before going on a week-long mission, but not before giving Iruka his payment for Ichiraku's. She may call it Iruka's payment, but in reality, it was more for her.
After a week of self instruction, with help from Kakashi, Naruto was finally starting to pick up the form and was making leaps and bounds during his sparring matches with Hinata. Instead of having to rely on his speed and durability, Naruto could now start to rely on the form for his offensive power. As he had more spars with Hinata, he was starting to get the idea she was enjoying beating him up. Of course she would heal him afterwards, often needing him to remove his shirt so she could see his bruises. He had asked why she couldn't just use her byakugan to see his injuries, but she insisted that she wouldn't be able to see bruises with it. Since he didn't have a byakugan himself, he listened and would take off his shirt, causing Hinata to turn pink again. He was starting to get worried about her, he wasn't sure it was healthy to be turning pink so frequently.
When Anko returned, she spent a day with each of them to measure their progress. Hinata was still was working on masking her emotions to a more extreme or perceptive crowd, but she was becoming more and more comfortable with incorporating water into her fighting style, and had advanced from incorporating one of the moves Anko had taught her, to being able to do it fluidedly in her fighting.
Sasuke had made major progress with his wrist crossbow, now able to easily infuse fire and electric chakra into the bolt and had as much control over it as he did kunai. His curse mark showed no sign of having direct influence on him.
She was very pleased to see Naruto start to gain a grasp on the taijutsu style she had given him. Ironically, it was called the fox form. Focusing mainly on confusing the enemy's senses and throwing quick strikes in the opponent's openings. This worked well with his silence and invisibility, but his execution of the form needed improvement. He kept on wanting to throw a rasengan or heavy hitting strike, ruining his form entirely.
After giving a day to each of them, Anko's visits stopped entirely. When asked where she had gone, Kakashi had said "she's got a life too you know. Besides, while we've been training, the other teams have been doing missions. Tomorrow's the last day of training before we start going on C-rank missions more regularly, once that happens, training will be pushed to the side.
"Yes! Finally some good missions! Now I can really kick some ass!" Naruto cheered.
Hinata and Sasuke had the same thoughts, although they kept those thoughts to themselves for the most part.
[}{][}{]
The final day of training Kakashi was nowhere to be found. The only clue that he had even shown up was a small paper card telling them he had something to do today and that they'd have to train on their own.
Within 3 minutes after reading this card, the three decided to instead find and follow Kakashi. Using Hinata's byakugan, they were quickly able to locate him. And Naruto's stealth jutsus helped them sneak up without being spotted.
They had expected Kakashi to be lounging around and reading his perverted novel. Kami decided to have something a bit more interesting happen.
Kakashi was sitting at a Cafe table, still in shinobi attire, but without his vest. If not for his stiff back and furious darting of the eye, one would've said he looked more relaxed. The genin were confused as to why their sensei was acting so strange until the other piece of the puzzle showed up. Shizune. After taking her seat, Kakashi's nerves lessened greatly. The three genin(yes, including Naruto) had all the pieces fit together.
'They're on an actual date?!'
While they had known Shizune and Kakashi had met up a few times, none of them had realized how far it had come. While they had initially been upset at their sensei for ditching them, they had done a complete 180 and now had made it their mission to follow the two for the rest of the day.
The trio followed from the rooftops, peeking over the side to watch their targets, waiting for something exciting to happen. While Shizune and Kakashi seemed to be comfortable with each other, they didn't hold hands, or link arms, or anything that a couple would do. They always walked side by side, with an irritatingly large gap between them. Nothing extreme, but a foot of distance between each other made the genin question where or not the two were actually on a date.
Eventually, the genin found themselves perched in a tree above Kakashi and Shizune, trying to listen to their conversation. Unfortunately they were still too far away. Naruto edged closer to try and hear. Hinata and Sasuke sayed behind, not risking the possibility of falling. Naruto still could only make out a few words from the couple standing below him. "Have you seen the…. Maybe you can show me… How bad… Tsunade's drinking…"
'Dammit, I still can't hear anything'. Naruto continued to lower himself, getting closer and closer, but also losing a stable perch on a tree branch. Thankfully, chakra helped him stay on the tree branch though when he finally got close enough. If only chakra would help the branch stay on the tree. Naruto came crashing down on top of the young couple.
Neither Shizune or Kakashi had been paying much attention to their surroundings so Kakashi was only able to move forward to try to protect Shizune. In the process, Naruto landed on him, knocking both him and Shizune to the ground. Once regaining his wits about him, Naruto promptly got up and started freaking out until he noticed that no one was moving.
'What? Did time freeze or something?'. Turning back around, he found the cause of everyone's motionlessness. When Kakashi and Shizune had fallen down, Kakashi's lips also had fallen onto Shizune's. The two were in complete shock. Naruto took his chance and ran away at top speed before the two finished and decided he needed a punishment.
Hinata and Sasuke quickly followed.
Lucky for them, Kakashi and Shizune were too distracted to really notice. Kakashi was the first to move, slowly pushing himself up before standing up and offering Shizune a hand. Shizune timidly took it, her face recovering from the shock and starting to fill red. The two stood with a sizable gap between them, neither one able to look the other in the eye.
"I um… I didn't mean to… ahh". Kakashi kept trying to form words to try and explain himself, but could come up with none. He finished saying, "I'm sorry".
Shizune raised her head to lock eyes with Kakashi. "Don't be. I… I didn't mind it".
Kakashi's blush was finally starting to show on the edges of his mask. "Would you like to try that again?". Shizune slowly closed the distance, cupping Kakashi's face with one hand to pull his face to meet her own. Just like the first time, her nerves seemed to have each their own firework show. When they broke, it felt like someone had ripped away a warm blanket on a cold morning.
She tried pulling down Kakashi's mask but he stopped her. "Not here". He then led her to his apartment, which had several seals to prevent peeking and spying on it to protect his mysteriousity. Once the door closed, Shizune hesitated before removing his mask. Indecisive on whether it was because she was too excited or too scared.
"How long has it been since so one has seen your face?" she asked.
"I'm not sure. But I do know that you will be the only one alive to know what it looks like".
Shizune held conflicted emotions at this. She was thrilled that he would share something so sacred with her, but she also felt disappointed realizing that he had lost everyone else he had considered close enough to reveal himself to.
"Why did you choose me?" she asked.
"I'm not sure," Kakashi replied, surprising Shizune. "I had never even considered the idea of romance before you, I thought that it just wasn't worth the risk if I were to lose that person. Then I tried it with you, and for the first time I… I felt full. I guess that's why I chose you…".
Shizune was taken back by his words. She had never thought herself capable of having such an impact on someone. With his words giving her courage, Shizune pulled down Kakashi's mask.
The two of them were not seen until the following morning. Both with an odd glow about them, and one trying to hide a slight limp.
The three genin all put the pieces together in varying amounts of time. Sasuke being the first, and Naruto finally piecing it together after various hints from his two teammates.
Thankfully for Kakashi, their mission required great focus and caused Naruto to easily forget about the whole ordeal before he could really start embarrassing Kakashi. That didn't stop Sasuke from taunting Kakashi every now and then. "I'm glad to see you've moved on from reading Kakashi. For a while I thought you would be entirely trapped in that realm of fantasy". Sasuke barely dodged the fist that would've sent him flying into a tree.
Upon their return, Team 7 were almost instantly given another mission. This time though, it would be a co-op between them and Team 8. Though they would be given a day of rest beforehand. Tsunade kept Kakashi after dismissing the genin though, saying she needed to talk with him.
Kakashi had only felt this amount of fear only once before in his life, and that was when several dozen kiri anbu had been trying to kill him.
"Kakashi Hatake!"
"Y-Yes, m-m-m-ma'am?"
"I am aware of your growing relationship with Shizune, and my thoughts about it are poor at the moment. She is like a daughter to me, and with your reputation, I question whether or not you're a suitable choice for her. Tell me Kakashi, why are you interested in Shizune? I know it took Jiraiya to actually get you two to try dating, but that doesn't explain why you've continued with it. So, what do you see in Shizune?".
Kakashi gulped in nervousness. 'If I say the wrong thing I may not leave this office alive'. "It is true that when it started, I had only asked Shizune out because Jiraiya had asked me to. To be honest, I didn't think it would have lasted longer than the first few dates".
"And what changed?"
"I did… I have always feared becoming close to people. Those who are precious to me ended up dying. So, I isolate myself from most people. To be honest, she's not all that special. Her looks are average, her ability as a medical nin is notable, but it's nowhere near your prowess… but she's the first person I've ever felt comfortable around. Maybe it's because she's the first person I've tried opening up to, but she's still the first. Now that I have, I don't want to lose her".
Tsunade closed her eyes, thinking about what she had been told. "As someone who has spent over the past decade running from the past, I understand where you're coming from. You have my approval to continue with your endeavors, but just know. If you hurt Shizune, I'll make sure to deliver 10 times the amount of pain back to you".
The pen Tsunade had been holding was completely crushed, ink dripping down like blood. Kakashi quickly thanked Tsunade for her acceptance and got out of there as fast as possible. Tsunade sat there for a few moments in silence before cleaning up the mess the pen made. She then promptly pulled out a bottle of Sake.
"Kami I hope that works out. Shizune needs this. I've been so selfish these past years. I guess it's back down to you and me buddy. Tsunade and her Sake… At least I don't have to worry about you leaving me". She then took a long swing of the drink. Hoping to drown her emotions.
{}_{}
Welcome to the end. Not the best chapter I've produced, but it is part of the story. I thought a break chapter was needed after the previous one. Now that I've set myself up for "filler" stories, that's what the next few chapters will be. They will contribute to the story, ut there's not going to be any major training sessions and it's most likely going to be a mission a chapter.
For those curious about my new story, here's a description. Instead of staying in the leaf, a young Naruto finds himself joining the circus. After years of being on the road, Naruto decides it's time to visit the village of his birth. While he came to preform, he found himself wanting to stay for the company. In order to wed Hinata however he must prove himself to be a worthy suitor. He is tasked with becoming a shinobi of the leaf and assisting them in putting an end to their kidnapping crisis. With a performance or two inbetween.