Title: My Triumph lasted till the Drums

Chapter 11: An imperial affliction

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

AN: Thanks to SilverMoon6817 and Ludicc for reviewing last chapter. I really enjoy your comments and take them to heart. I want you all to like what your reading, and to be reminded of certain things that I may not be getting right about the characters really helps me a lot. You all rock! Also, thanks to all those who follow and favorite. It puts a smile on my face everytime I see a new person reading, and I always check out your stuff. I have a question for you all. Can you recommend me any good stories that involve the Akatsuki and an OC or Hinata Hyuuga? I read Lavender Clouds recently and adored it. Looking for more like it with Hinata or an OC. Also, any good HinataxSasuke stories? Thanks!

Nanami-chan!

I have amazing news! First, I want to wish you a very happy New Year. I know that this letter is a little bit late for that, but I hope this year is very successful for you. I know that you are doing your best with your training, so keep it up!

Anayways, I have super fantastic news! I'm pregnant! I know you must be excited. I am due sometime in October, so when you come back to the village you'll have another little sibling to look after. I have spoken with Hizashi-san and he says that you have been writing letters to Neji. You know, letters that hell read when he gets old enough to understand so he doesn't forget you. If you want, I'll keep letters for this little one too! I mean you don't have to, but know that I'm willing to do it.

I saw Mikoto a few days ago and boy is she getting bigger! I guess she is due in July. That's only four months from now. She told me that you told Itachi-chan to tell her to keep peonies in the house, so I sent out your father to buy lots of them. I think he might be a bit allergic to the flowers, he keeps sneezing! But, he is too kind to get rid of them. Minato is so excited to be a new father again.

Please stay safe on your travels, I need my daughter to come back safe and sound, for me and your baby brother/sister.

Love you!

-Kushina

Nanami-chan,

I decided to add on to this letter. Your mother was so excited to tell you the news, she almost forgot to let me attach my own letter. Hopefully this quick note will suffice. I am very excited about the news, and I imagine you are too. I just want to remind you about our talk before you left. Know that we will always love you no matter what.

Please be safe.

-Minato Namikaze

PS: This is your mom again! I just thought that I'd let you know that I witnessed a pack of girls following your boyfriend around town the other day. You'll be happy to know that he brushed them off successfully, and let them know that he wasn't available to date. I'll keep you posted!

Nanami had spent several months with Tsunade and Shizune. The almost five-year-old was sure that she knew the pair well, and they knew her well. They often spent time talking about their lives, in Tsunade's case, she would tell stories about past missions or patients. Rarely she would talk about her time in Konoha, time with her friends and family. When she was drunk, she would talk about her brother, Nawaki. She would talk about how much she loved him and missed him. She would also talk about Dan, Shizune's uncle, but these stories were very rare. Yes, Nanami though she knew everything there was to know about the Slug Queen.

She was proved wrong in the early afternoon on the fourth Saturday of March. The trio was walking from a small village in the Northern part of the Land of Fire. It was so small that Nanami didn't take time to learn its name. They set out to travel to the Land of Wind. Tsunade deemed that Nanami was done with the physical portion of her training. Rarely could Tsunade get a hit on the child, and her chakra control was perfect. She began storing the chakra for the Reserve Seal. The first several weeks of this technique had drained the girl, but she persevered and after a few months, she could store her chakra like it was second nature. It was as mindless as breathing was.

So, Tsunade felt it was time for Nanami to begin working on poisons and antidotes. She explained that the Land of Wind was the best place to practice, as they had the most diverse group of poison experts in the elemental nations.

They were walking a small forest trail when they were jumped by bandits. The bandits had spied the group of women and the young girl and believed them to be easy prey. Tsunade had felt them approaching first, and warned her students. They kept a normal façade and continued down their path.

There were ten of them, all men. None of them were shinobi. Nanami confirmed this by activating her mutated Byakugan, noticing their underdeveloped chakra network.

"Take them out quickly. Don't kill, simply incapacitate and tie them up," Tsunade instructed, beginning to take a simple taijutsu stance. Her apprentices nodded and prepared themselves.

Nanami decided that the gentle fist would be the most practice technique. Her creation of gentle paralysis would come into use here. Gentle paralysis was what she decided to call her technique of locating the body's natural pressure points and using her chakra to strike them. Once these points were struck, the victims could not move certain parts of their bodies for a period of time, or until Nanami reversed the technique.

Swiftly, the three began to defend themselves against the attack. Nanami used her technique on the nearest bandit, hitting both of his shoulders, his arms and legs, then his core. The man fell to the ground in pain. Nanami looked down at the man in shock, realizing that this was the first time she had to truly defend herself.

"Nanami look out!" a shout came from Tsunade. This was Nanami's first real encounter with the enemy. She was calm in her actions, but the fight was overwhelming her senses. This was the first time in her life she acknowledged that she could possibly die again.

In this flurry of emotion, Nanami was too distracted to see the single remaining bandit lunge at her with a knife. Nanami turned her head toward the attacker.

"Too slow, I can't block in time," Nanami thought, beginning to bring her arms up to block the attacker. Against Tsunade's teaching, she closed her eyes.

Something warm and wet dripped down her face. Nanami slowly opened her eyes to see she wasn't dead. Tsunade stood in front of her, the woman's arm was elbow deep in the bandit's chest. Blood was everywhere.

Before her eyes, Nanami's master dropped to the ground. She shook uncontrollably.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune cried, running to her master's side.

Nanami stood, frozen in place. To see a woman of her stature in such a weakened state, it was shocking to say the least.

"What's wrong?" Nanami asked, urgent to understand why her master was in such a hysterical state.

"You didn't know?" Shizune began, "Tsunade-sama is hemophobic."

After that incident, Shizune and Nanami carried Tsunade to the nearest town and checked into a hotel and hot spring.

Nanami was sitting alone in their room after washing the blood of her person. Shizune had washed Tsunade off and took her down to the hot spring, to relax her muscles that had painfully constricted themselves.

Nanami was scared. She was scared for Tsunade, who held something deep inside her that caused her so much pain. She was scared that she would be asked to leave her apprenticeship because of her error. And, she was scared to realize how week she was. Her whole life she had been told she was a genius. People loved her and relied on her. She felt like she was on top of the world. And now she had almost died in her first real battle. She took down a man so easily, she was proud at her efficiency and following her master's orders flawlessly. She was caught up in herself and her new emotions that she momentarily forgot the circumstances surrounding her.

It was her fault that Tsunade was shivering in fear. Her own pride got in the way of battle and she hurt the woman she looked up to the most. Nanami was contemplating this when the door to the room slid open, and in walked Tsunade, no longer shaking. Nanami immediately stood up from her bed and approached the woman, who stood motionless at the door. Nanami fell to her knees and put her forehead to the ground.

"Tsunade-sama. I am so sorry. Please forgive me! I was reckless and cocky, I forced you to kill that man to save my life. I promise I'll never be so proud again," Nanami said, hurriedly, her voice shaking and uneven.

"Stand up," Tsunade said.

Nanami looked up at Tsunade and followed her order, tears pooling in her periwinkle eyes. Tsunade brought her fist up. Nanami closed her eyes, waiting for her punishment. Instead, Tsunade gently brought the fist down to the child's head. She then wrapped her arms around the girl.

"It was your first real fight Nanami. I shouldn't have expected so much of you. Sometimes I forget that your still just a child," Tsunade explained, one arm around the girls, the other petting the hair on her head. "I could have incapacitated the man. But, I was angry and scared that I wouldn't reach you in time. That fear made me lose control and use unnecessary force. I don't want to lose you too Nanami."

"You won't Shishou. I promise."

Dear Kaa-san and Tou-san,

I am so excited to hear the good news! I am excited to meet my little sibling. I'm going to be very busy when I get back taking care of Neji, Itachi's brother and my sibling. Itachi and I are going to be great siblings to them, don't you think?

I have been learning a lot on my travels, not just jutsu either. This journey has been very important to me, even though I miss everybody so much.

I miss your cooking! I really want to get some dango, but Tsunade-sama says it's bad for my health. I wish I could tell her that drinking too much alcohol was bad for her health. But, she would clobber me if I said that.

Sorry that my letter is so short this time, but Tsunade-sama is having us travel to the Land of Wind. I'm going to start learning about poison, disease and medicine. I'm so excited to start on it. Please stay safe and take good prenatal medication. Tou-san, you better get home early from now on to take care you my little sibling. Paperwork is not a good excuse any longer.

Can you maybe send me from dango for my birthday? It might be the only way to hide it from Tsunade-sama.

I love you both so much!-Nanami

Omake: Gambling with Tsunade

"Alright ladies, let's do this!" Tsunade exclaimed walking into the town's pachinko parlor. Nanami and Shizune both released a tired sigh and watched as their master walked in with a brief case full of money. They looked at each other before following her in. They knew there was nothing they could do to stop her.

After several hours of losing badly, Tsunade's temper grew. Nanami sat at the machine next to Tsunade, bored. She wasn't playing, just waiting for Tsunade to get tired of losing before she'd leave, buy a few bottles of sake, then get drunk in their hotel room while Nanami meditated, stretched and went to sleep.

Tsunade noticed Nanami sitting bored of to the side. Her temper got the better of her.

"What? You bored sitting there or something?" Tsunade asked, a bit perturbed that Nanami wasn't sharing her annoyance with losing.

"No," Nanami said, unconvincingly.

"Well if you're so bored, how about you try?" Tsunade said, shoving a small ball in Nanami's hand. "Just put in in the slot there, and pull the lever. You'll see it isn't as easy or boring as you might think."

Nanami took the ball in her hand and rolled it between her fingers. She remembered people in her past life that played these kinds of games, but she couldn't remember if she had played them or not.

She put the ball in the slot on the machine in front of her. When the machine started blinking and making sounds, she pulled the lever and watched as the single ball made its way through the peg in the machine. Her eyes followed the ball to the middle of the machine and watched as it disappeared into a small hole. Suddenly, the machine lit up even more and emitted a loud siren sound.

"How'd you do that?" Tsunade demanded.

"Do what?" Nanami asked.

"You just hit the jack pot with one ball!"

"I won?" she asked her master.

"Yes!" Tsunade said, still in disbelief at the luck of her student.

"But, it wasn't even that fun."

"Well you better get used to it. I'm taking you to all these things now," Tsunade said, going to collect the money Nanami had won.

"Great…" Nanami sighed.