Chapter Eight and Nine

Author note: originally this was divided into two chapters, but since eight was pretty short, I decided to fuse it with nine. So enjoy!

Miles away from her, Naruto was scanning his surroundings. Where could it be? He focused his blue eyes on every herb and plant that looked even a tiny bit like the Lavender Tear. He sighed. This is the last chance we get on finding it, otherwise this mission has failed. And if I blow another mission, Tsunade-no-baachan is rea-hea-heally gonna spout lighting....That prospect made him shiver; when Tsunade was mad at you, you couldn't be sure to survive...
Anyway, this part of my area's cleared. On to the next one dattebayo

Well, it's not here, she thought as she glanced through her surroundings again after thoroughly examining it. Let's go further.

Yes. Yes! Almost there, my lovely purple-eyed bloodline holder.

She felt the wind going through her long black hair as she jumped through the trees. The huge branches of the trees above her were, luckily enough, not blocking the little starlight there was, so she didn't have to use the byakugan to see where she was going
She found another open spot. As she stood still to observe it, she felt something strange. It was as if something was very, very wrong. She opened the map she had in her backpack and looked for the open spot. This is strange....She looked again to be sure she was right. This place isn't supposed to be here!

Naruto arrived at the next part of the area and examined it thoroughly. Nope. Again, nothing. He sighed. This might take a little more time then I thought. He looked upwards to the moonless sky. Time we do not have...
He narrowed his eyes. Maybe I should check on Hinata, help her or something, my area is almost done anyway...he thought and he jumped into the trees.

Two bright yellow eyes lit up from the darkness, spying upon the black-haired girl as a predator on its prey. He could feel it. The desire. He felt like a bucket that could overflow any minute now. Hold on. Just hold on...he scolded at himself. It is not time yét. Just a few seconds or so....

She jumped down from the tree into the middle of the open spot. She looked around her with close attention for anything moving that shouldn't be. She felt the adrenaline raising up. Calm down Hinata! Just the fact that this place wasn't on the map doesn't mean there's something terribly wrong!
She activated her byakugan.

Oh yes. You look so beautiful when you do that, my beauty, I can't wait....

See, there's nothing wrong. It's just a normal open spot in a normal forest. I'm seeing ghosts while I should be searching for the Tear. Great. She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself down by thinking of her handsome blonde teammate. She pictured him in her mind, with his blue eyes directed at her and his usual grin covering his face, his blond hair blown in the wind. And oh, how it worked. She felt her adrenaline-level decrease and her muscles relax a little. Alright, off to the Tear! She left the open spot and went on searching.

The leaves rustled in the trees. There was something in the air, but it wasn't the wind...

The Fifth sat at her desk, sighing. This is such a boring day...she thought to herself. She turned her seat so she was sitting with her back against her desk, facing the sight of Konoha at almost-sunset. She tried not to think about the mountains of paperwork waiting for her, yearning to be handled. Another sigh escaped her mouth. She reached for the bottle of sake she always hid in a secret compartment of her Hokage-desk she discovered a while ago. Ha! I wonder why such a compartment was build in in the first place. Did the previous Hokage's also had an assistant who wouldn't let someone enjoy a good bottle of sake or other 'un-Hokage-like matters'? Tsunade laughed silently as she thought of her predecessor and sensei, the Third Hokage, hiding 'secret documents', such as naughty magazines in this desk, quickly putting them away in their hiding place as soon as someone entered the office.
It's a shame he's gone...she mused and recalled the days he'd been her sensei and they had formed 'Team Sarutobi', together with Jiraiya-no-bakaa and Orochimaru-no-weirdo. Even though he hadn't really showed it, Sarutobi-sensei had always been a bit of a perv. As Jiraiya is now, but he's like a thousand times worse....

==============================flashback============================================================

Tsunade sighed of pleasure as she stepped into a bath of Konoha's hot springs. First one foot, then the other. She made sure her towel was fastened enough and made a spring into the hot water. SPLASH! it sounded as she disappeared underneath the surface of the water.
As she surfaced, she spit out some water like a little fountain and pulled her hair out of her face. She swam to the edge of the pool and relaxed her muscles, still tightened from the last mission.
She was lucky it wasn't very crowded today, so she could have a nice and quiet moment to herself.
'Ahhhhhhhh, this is liiiiiiiiiiiiiife...' she moaned, enjoying the hot water warming her body.

Jiraiya sat at the other side of the hence, peeking through a hole in the wood, so small he could only peek with one eye. He loved days like this, a mission finished with success, and then time to relax and do what he just couldn't seem to help.
He saw some girls coming in and walking towards the pool. They were giggling and screaming as they tried to temperature the hot water with their toes. A small towel was everything that covered their bodies.
'It's so hot!' one of them giggled.
It sure is, tehe.

'Could you please be a little more quiet' he heard someone say, sounding very annoyed, 'I'm trying to relax over here'
He looked with his one eye in the direction the voice came from. His eye widened and his face went blank.
Oops. I'm so dead if SHE finds out what I'm doing.
He looked at the blonde woman, her eyes were closed, a peaceful look laying upon her face. But darn, she's really pretty....I guess it won't hurt if I just…looked at her a little....tehehe...she won't notice...
The girls started to giggle again as they threw water at each other. He focused his eye on them again. Now he was the one to be giggling.
'My, my, if you could use sexiness as oxygen, you beauties could live under water, ' Jiraiya cooed as he found inspiration for his new book.

'Just what do you think you're doing, Jiraiya?!' a woman's voice sounded from behind him. His body stiffened. He looked at the spot where Tsunade had been what seemed only seconds ago. No one to be seen. Shit.
Slowly he turned around, trying to cover his panic with a wide grin. There stood a furious, dripping Tsunade, holding her towel close to her body.
'Doing some research?' he tried, still smiling like crazy.
'Like hell I'm gonna believe that! You were just peeking weren't you?!'
'Hey now, 'peeking' is such a big word, let's say I was 'gathering information'.'
'Bakaa!' She smacked him to the ground. 'You perv! Don't you have something better to do then ruining the peace of this place?!'
'I don't think I'm the one ruining the peace...' he mumbled as he stood up again.
'You said something?' she asked politely, but with an undertone so scary it gave him goosebumps.
'Nonono, nothing, really, no, did I say something? I didn't say anything' he stammered, walking backwards, his arms held in front of him, close to his chest, ready to dodge the deadly punch he was now definitely going to get.
'But I gotta say, Tsunade...' he said grinning, little blushes appearing on his cheeks, '...you look really good in just a towel...'
A few seconds passed. Tsunade's face got redder and redder, her teeth were chattering, pure rage causing her to start shaking.
Jiraiya sweatdropped. 'I guess I just committed suicide, didn't I...' he mumbled.
'HELL YEAH!!' she yelled as she came at him, overflowing with her superhuman strength, her fist ready to connect with his body...

==========================end flashback==========================================================

After she discovered what he was doing when he was 'researching', she never went to a bath-house again. At least not when Jiraiya was in town. But she was pretty sure he wouldn't try to peek on her again, after all, she had slammed him right into the hospital where he had laid unconscious for weeks. And even after all those years, he would still refer to that event as 'the first time I almost died'.
But that still didn't alter the fact that there were plenty girls left to peek on, girls who didn't have superhuman strength and didn't beat the hell out of you when you peeked on them. At least that was what he said when was leaving and she asked him what he was gonna do.
That hopeless pervert...Will he ever change? she wondered.

Shizune read the document, shocked. This can't be. This can't be true. She re-read it to be sure she was interpreting this the right way. ,iOh, no. She closed her eyes, forcing herself to keep thinking straight. I must report this to Tsunade-sama immediately!

Tsunade looked outside through the window. She took a swig of the sake and swallowed it slowly. She loved the burning feeling it gave in her throat.
She could overlook the whole Village from her Hokage-office. She saw the last bit of sun struggling to stay above the horizon. It would fail eventually, she knew. But it were these moments she treasured the most; the rooftops of the Konoha-buildings were glimmering in the last sunrays. Some leaves were flying in the wind, chasing each other. The Village seemed so peaceful....
It were these moments she was glad she had returned to and became the Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

But the moment didn't last very long.

The door swayed open and a panting Shizune was standing in the doorway. She held some papers in her hand and looked at Tsunade with a disturbed look un her face.
'Gah, Shizune, when will you learn you'll have to knock when you enter a Hokage's office? You scared the hell out of me!' Tsunade exclaimed, more worried about this sudden alarming entrance of her apprentice then mad about the harsh interruption of her thoughts.
'I'm sorry, Tsunade-sama, but you háve to read this!'