It would have been romantic to say he lost track of how many times they'd made love that night. Jiraiya lay comfortably on his back in the predawn light and listened to the soft breathing of Tsunade beside him. It would have been romantic, but the five times they reached for each other would be forever implanted on his mind. It would take a force out of this world to have him forget a single moment of it.

She was, magnificent hardly seemed the word for it. Goddess seemed trite; Queen was apt, both to him and her role in the Leaf itself. The Sannin chuckled lightly at his musings. She was his. Somehow, someway despite his mistakes and carelessness, she'd let him in. Dark eyes glanced over at her, face slack in sleep and limbs akimbo across the bed. There was a bit a drool on her cheek, and her blonde hair had been mussed so much it curled.

"Sleep in Hime. You deserve the rest." He said in a whisper before rising to dress in the near dark.

A week later Kankuro, with the prosthetic safely scrolled away came to the village. The fitting went without a hitch. The new polymer, based off of zetsu cells gave the arm a lifelike look to it. Eventually, Tsunade had plans to re-grow limbs utilizing the research she had, give them a chance to gain back what they had lost. For now, the prosthetic was best she could do.

Jiraiya sat stripped to the waist and slowly curled and straightened the arm, moving fingers to get the hang of it. The sand Shinobi went over the basics of the limb. It was water proof, sand proof, and was held on by the chakra threads. Pull your chakra into yourself to remove the limb for repair.

He's walked past them, seemingly oblivious to the words being spoken. Tsunade, eyes questioning followed until she understood. There were summons to call and contracts to re-sign. The broken man was the Toad Sage of the Leaf once again. Her hand rested on the puppet user's shoulder in thanks before leading him back to her office.

"Thank you for the quick work on this Kankuro."

"It's not a problem Lady Hokage. The Sand owes you our gratitude. After the war, you could have simply healed your Shinobi and gone home or put the Leaf's injured first. Instead you specified by injury regardless of what village. If not for you doing that, my sister would be dead."

Tsunade settled into her chair, worn out as she often these days. Getting older was hell, she wouldn't deny it and counted the days until Naruto was able to finish his Hokage training and take the hat from her.

"Those are kind words Kankuro of the Sand, and I've heard Temari might be making the move to the Leaf permanently."

He grimaced, still a bit wary of his sister leaving the Sand for the laziest ninja he'd ever met. The shadow user didn't deserve her. It was plain as the purple paint on his face, but he made her happy and such had the blessing of the Kazekage.

"Seems so."

Her mouth opened to ask about the Kazekage when Jiraiya pulled himself through the window to land light as a cat. He strode forward and reached out his hand to shake the Suna native's heartily. "You've given me means to protect my precious people. I won't forget it."

Kankuro merely nodded a bit at sea until he saw the man look back to the Hokage. There had been rumors, had been rumors long before the man's supposed demise that the Slug Princess and Toad Sage were more than old friends. It seemed there was no need for rumors now.

"Lady Hokage, if I have your leave."

She nodded absently, attention on the hand he waved like it had always been his. There was relief, more than a bit of it that turned into confusion when he shut and locked the door being the retreating jounin.

"Baka, if you think we're going to-"

His laugh cut her off. "Don't be naïve Hime. When I take to you in here, it'll be a night and there won't be a chance of someone walking in mid deed."

"It worries me that you already have this rendezvous planned out Jiraiya."

"Be quiet for a minute Hime. I have something to say, and I wanted peace to say it."

Her head tilted in a listening gesture. He seemed nervous and she couldn't fathom why. They'd been together every night for the last few weeks, and intimate more times than she could count in the last few days.

"Well tell me Jiraiya. I have things to do today."

"Impatient woman I want to tell you thank you and that I love you more than life. You're making it difficult for me. It's a wonder I try at all."

"Kiss me, idiot. Kiss me and get the hell out of my office. You can tell me thank you when I come home tonight."

His lips curved before the Toad Sage strode across the office to pull her into his arms, arms that could protect her, arms that he would hold her with tonight. "I'll kiss you, and tonight I'll have dinner ready when you come home as thank you, and after… well we'll just see won't we."

There was a shiver down her spine. One that had her wanting to say to hell with tonight. She couldn't though, tempting as it was.

"I'll look forward to it."