"Baa-chan" Naruto whined as he shifted foot to foot. He was the hero of the Leaf and arguably the strongest Shinobi in the world, but at this moment he felt like an academy student being scolded. "My handwriting is fine. I don't need a refresher course datte-bayo."
Tsunade rested her chin in her palm as he made his case. She had no intent on backing down. Chickens had better scrawl than the boy, and if he was going to take her hat that had to change. "What I fail to see is how you made it this far with poor writing. I can't even read your mission reports baka. How do you expect to do this job when anything you write is illegible?"
Whiskered cheeks reddened. "You're just getting old Granny. That's why you can't read it. You need glasses! I'm going to be Hokage because I can protect the village better than anyone else. I won't let it get destroyed like…like you did." Hands covered his mouth after the words were out and his eyes shut expecting to be hit for his outburst.
"Get out."
"Baa-chan?"
"I said get out Naruto! Iruka Sensei will be setting aside time to work with you. I'd advise you to take the lessons to heart." She snarled and waited until the door shut before sinking her head into her hands and letting out a short scream of frustration.
He'd been napping on her balcony; well really it was the slope of the roof under her window, but the area slept fine. Jiraiya keep his eyes closed as he thought over the conversation. Naruto was full of himself. Kid had good reason to be, he'd surpassed his sensei years ago. Still it had been an internal fight not to jump up and give the boy an ear twist for disrespecting the Godaime.
He wondered if Naruto understood the depth of what Tsunade had done when Pein attacked. He heard the account straight from her and it was enough to curl his hair. She'd poured all of the chakra she had built up into the village, drained herself to a husk to try and save who she could.
Did he not understand? The dead don't normally come back to life. Tsunade had saved everyone she could and paid dearly for it. Nagato's rinnegan hadn't been in the equation. She saved lives at the cost of her own; not knowing a one off miracle was going to render her sacrifice moot.
When her scream reached his ears, Jiraiya pulled himself up and climbed through the window. Butt comfortably leaned against her desk; he waited until she raised her head. "Well Hime, you did say Naruto was more like Kushina than Minato in personality."
A manicured hand ran through her hair in a futile attempt to keep it out of her face. "Kushina would have bit her tongue off before talking to me like that." She sighed. "I don't blame the kid. He's never really forgiven me for sending you to fight Pein alone."
His brow winged up. "You sent me? I told you I was going and left, wouldn't even let you send a team or come with me. Why would he think you… you let him think it. Why do you punish yourself like this?"
He shook his head. No one was as hard on Tsunade as she was on herself. For all her words about people being fools, she took the cake when it came to taking care of herself. Of course they'd had steps, small ones. He tempered his meddling in her life, and she worked to take better care of herself and made the vow to leave her seal alone unless it was a matter of life or death. It was less than they wanted from the other, but for the moment they made due.
"I'll talk to the boy."
Tsunade felt a smile curve her lips. "Bah, he's a teenager. He'll calm down, and if he doesn't I'll take care of the matter myself. I'm not so far gone; I can't knock sense into kid."
It was on the tip of his tongue to protest. Naruto was his idiot pupil. Instead the Sannin nodded before changing the subject to a lighter note. "You should wear glasses Hime. You'd look like a sexy librarian."
There was a snort of laughter before her hand moved to touch his knee, a light show of affection. "Bah, I'm not playing part in your lurid fantasies."
"It was worth asking. I'll just have to imagine it until I can talk you into wearing them." He teased leaning down to press a kiss to the top of her head, before shoving away from the desk and climbing back out the window. "Take care of my Kage, I'll be home tonight."
She felt her cheeks reddened at his words. They were rarely affectionate with each other, it wasn't considered to be Shinobi, but these small snippets of time and gentle words. They enamored her. "Bah, take care of my Toad. I don't have time to go to the pond and look for another."
It took Jiraiya under thirty minutes to find the boy nose deep in a bowl of ramen. He sat next to him and raised a hand for an order. Dark eyes caught sight of Naruto looking at the prosthetic appendage with a frown before the tell tale grin appeared. "Pervy Sage, can we train datte-bayo? I want to show you the new technique I'm working on."
The Sannin nodded absently. He wasn't sure how to tell the kid that he was off base. Tsunade had taken the brunt of Naruto's scorn as a form of penance and seemed to still be beating herself up all these years later.
"Being Hokage is a tough job." He finally said filling the silence as he watched his ramen being made. "There's a certain balance to it."
"If Lady Tsunade can do it, then I don't see why I'll have a problem, datte-bayo. I'm going to be a better Hokage than even my dad."
Jiraiya turned in his seat and put a hand on his godson's shoulder. There was a lesson here, and it was long overdue. "The Godaime is the best Hokage this village has ever had. If you've not realized that by now, you're blind. How many lives are here because she healed them? She wrote the book on medical ninjutsu and changed the way missions are done, all with the purpose of protecting the Leaf."
"She sent you off to die! Lady Tsunade let you go fight Pain alone and then didn't even care enough to have someone try to find you. She let Pein destroy the village and then hid away for six months. She failed. She's a drunk and shouldn't even be allowed to be Hokage anymore."
The Toad Sage said nothing, only nodded to the girl behind the counter when she handed him his order. Chopsticks were pulled apart, and noodles stirred in an absent gesture. Naruto was an angry teenager. While it had been close to forty years since he'd been in the same boat, Jiraiya attempted to relate.
"The village needs the Lady Hokage. She was the best person for the job when she took the hat, and she's still the best person for it now. Grow up Naruto, being Hokage means making hard decisions. Tsunade has always put this village first, and you wouldn't be here if not for her medical skills."
Naruto shrank back, chastised. He was angry, had been angry for years about her dismissing him when the knowledge came of Jiraiya dying. "But you lost your hand because of her datte-bayo." The words were spoken quietly. He knew the Hokage only did what she thought was right for the village, but she hadn't done enough.
"Nagato took my arm not Tsunade, and that's the last I want to hear on it. If you think you can be a better Hokage, than get your act together and learn the job." He pushed the bowl over, not even a bite taken. "Eat and then you can show me this new technique of yours."
Blonde head jerked in response before attacking the bowl of noodles. There was still anger in his gut, but his Sensei was back. He'd get to see Naruto become Hokage and protect the village better than anyone else. The lessons on handwriting could be tolerated as long as it got him closer to his dream.
