Title: Three Lies
Author: Lovesrainscent
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own these Naruto characters and stand to make no profit from posting this story.
Summary: When a stranger comes to town Tsunade must confront an uncomfortable new reality.
Three Lies
The same chakra signature that allowed him to slip into Konoha and past its defenses raised the suspicions of those who knew him best.
Tsunade felt it in her head, in her heart, in her bones. Hair prickling at the back of her neck, she felt what could not be come walking into Konoha.
She crept out, Shadow of Fire, tamping down her own chakra, masking it and hiding her own signature she followed him.
Although she was no longer the Hokage she was still a Hokage and her clandestine skills had always surpassed his anyway. How else had she eluded him for all those years all those years ago?
Silently she padded after, watching from rooftops and alleys. It was easy to track his chakra signature because it was so bright and clear and alive.
His actions seemed innocuous enough, at least for the time being. But she began to notice they were too innocent, too familiar, too similar. Every step, every movement, was his. The way he placed his order at the table, his voice when he ordered at the bar, the way he held the cup - it all came flooding back to her. Lousy gambler though she was she was a studied gambler. She'd spent years examining the mannerisms of her opponents in excruciating detail. This man had no tells about him at all, nothing to indicate that he was impersonating another. He was not impersonating he simply was...
She couldn't even think the name. She felt a fist close around her heart and something constricted tight in the back of her throat and she had to scramble away.
The question was no longer why was he here?
It was why was he?
Why did he exist?
She flew then to the house that held the answers. Smashing through defenses, smashing through the door, fists balled up with lethal amounts of chakra she stormed into her black-haired former teammate's house slamming him against the wall, pinning him to it, forearm pressed against his neck so he could hardly breathe.
"What did you do?" she hissed venom in her voice that would give even Manda pause. "What did you do, Orochimaru?"
She saw it then, haunted look, horror in his eyes. "It wasn't me," he whispered. "I felt it, too. It wasn't me."
Relenting she drew back and he slumped against the wall. Willing her chakra to subside she tried to calm her own breathing, too. Orochimaru sank into a chair and motioned for her to take another. She paced the room a couple of times, hands on her hips, head tipped back examining some vague point on the ceiling before she finally accepted.
"Well?" she asked staring intently at him.
"This...simulacra... is not my creation. It did not come from me. I do not recognize the technique..."
"It's him, Orochimaru," she hissed again.
"Don't you think I know?" he asked and his voice contained the same anguish and loss she felt in her own heart.
"Your ...sons...," she started but he finished the thought for her.
"Are clones, yes. But they are...engendered. From the first moment of their existence their experiences are their own. Even though the genetics are mine, their experiences, thoughts and memories belong to them alone. And the Resurrection jutsu restores the original spirit. But this...this...I do not understand."
Moments ticked by and they sat in silence in the dimly lit room. Finally Tsunade whispered softly, "Orochimaru, if you didn't do this did you ever plan to...that is...could you have cloned him...or me?"
Orochimaru started to answer then he recognized the pain and pure disgust in her own voice. "No," he lied.
Tsunade relaxed somewhat but there was still a haunted look to her. Rising she left, heading back to the village. Orochimaru went to the door and watched her until she disappeared from his sight. Then he sighed and left for his lab. In a back corner of a cabinet in the back corner of the lab he withdrew a case containing a few samples - blood, hair and skin from each of his teammates collected long years ago. Lighting a burner he carefully incinerated each one.
"Come with me," she said, sidling up beside him, wrapping her arm around his so that they strolled down the street arm in arm. Her genjutsu was for the benefit of others so they would not recognize the Lady Tsunade walking with the stranger. He recognized her instantly, remembered her voice, her scent, her stride. She was the one thing he had not counted on, had not planned for.
As she turned the corner he also remembered without hesitation where they were going. She was steering them to the bar they'd both become fond of when he had first returned from training Naruto.
And they both knew which booth they would choose.
And they both knew which food the other would select.
And they both knew which drink the other would order.
Seated and served she asked him bluntly, "Who are you?"
"My name is Kashin Koji," came the equally straightforward reply.
And he hadn't realized it would be this difficult. Up until now she was just a memory, a recollection, some fact recalled from a text book. But here seated in front of him she was real and warm and human and alive. He could see through the genjutsu even though she kept it in place for others.
Anyone else would see a moderately attractive brunette having a drink with the masked shinobi.
But he saw her.
Hair as golden as he remembered. Voice as melodious as he remembered. He found himself wishing to tell some dumb, bawdy joke like he used to do so that he could hear her laugh once more.
But he didn't. She was asking another question.
"What is your purpose in Konoha?"
She would have asked him anything then just to hear him answer in that deep rolling voice of his. The voice she remembered calling to her after countless battles to see if she was okay, asking her out for drinks, waking her up in the morning.
She couldn't go down that path. He was answering her and she had to pay attention even though she would have much rather remembered hearing his voice from those mornings when she was sleeping with her head pillowed on his chest then he would tumble them over and wake her up in the best way possible.
She tried to jerk her attention back to the present. He was answering.
Kashin Koji told the truth just not...all of it. He presented no threat to Konoha, in fact he was and always would be on their side.
"I will not allow you to bring harm to this village or to those I love," Tsunade stated firmly, her love of the village unwavering as he knew it always would be.
Then another question from her and this one he almost could not hear and almost could not answer.
"Do you remember me?" hoarse whisper from her.
How could he ever forget? Their entire past was emblazoned in his memory. He remembered when they met at six years old. He remembered when she beat him up and the numerous times she'd patched him up. He remembered the first and last time he kissed her and the first and last time they made love.
He reached to take her hand and she snatched it back as if burned. It was his chakra and his calloused hand that touched her and if she let him linger she knew that she was lost.
"Lady Tsunade, I remember you as if...," his voice faltered, "as if you were a princess in a story my father told me," Kashin Koji lied.
Unshed tears threatened to spill from the corners of her eyes. She nodded. "That's good. As for me, I don't want you any where near me," Tsunade lied and she was gone.
A/N: Merriam Webster defines horror as "painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay" and I thought it suited this fic. At least it was the mood I was trying for.