Visits

a/n &dis: I do NOT under ANY circumstance own Naruto, Kishimoto-sensei does. I own any OCs I introduce, my plot (after the adopted chapters) and my insanity. Keep the flames down please, Tobirama, Zabuza and my other Suiton users have all run away. This is kinda AU, mostly plot faithful.

"Tsunade." Hiruzen said, a small, sad smile flickering on his face. "It's good to see you again."

Tsunade nodded and moved round the desk, her medical reflexes taking over.

"Sensei, what have you been doing to yourself? You look terrible. Your chakra is unbalanced, your control reduced and it looks like you aren't getting enough food or sleep."

"The last few years have been hard. Danzo getting killed and having to re-integrate his ROOT back into the shinobi ranks hasn't helped either." Hiruzen sighed. "Where's your niece?"

"Shizune wanted to pay her respects to Minato and Kushina." Tsunade said truthfully. "I believe she wanted to stop by the remains of the old house, then go to the memorial."

"I engraved their names myself." Hiruzen sighed, looking down at his desk, but Tsunade saw that his gaze was unfocused. "Namikaze Minato, Uzumaki Kushina, Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto. I failed him, Tsunade. I failed Minato, I failed his family."

"But everyone knows." Tsunade said, resting her hand reassuringly on Hiruzen's shoulder. "They know about Minato's son, the burden he was asked to bear and how he was betrayed before the village could see him as the hero he truly was. How is Jiraiya taking it?"

"Jiraiya's out searching for whoever did it." Hiruzen said quietly. "But he said the Toads are being… cryptic about it. They keep referring to Naruto as being lost, not actually deceased."

Only decades of self-control kept Tsunade's breath from catching. Fortunately for her, Hiruzen continued without noticing.

"The name Naruto has become quite popular now. In the last seven months, twelve boys were born with that name, and five girls named Naruko were born."

"Kushina would laugh at the confusion in the schools when they all enroll." Tsunade dead-panned and Hiruzen nodded with a sad chuckle.

"She would indeed." He confirmed. "She would indeed."

For several minutes, both of them remained quiet, then Hiruzen coughed.

"I hear you've settled in Wave?"

"Yes." Tsunade said. "I've adopted a couple of the local orphans and have set up a small clinic that I'm thinking of extending at some point. The locals are very happy to have the great med-nin sannin helping to cure their coughs and sniffles. Shizune is happy too, she's fallen for one of the orphans, he's about her age and helps a lot round the clinic. He's got good potential as a ninja, I may train him."

Hiruzen nodded slowly. "Train him up enough and I might poach him to become the Godaime Hokage. Kami knows I never wanted this job back…"

A knock on the door caused them to look up, then it opened to reveal Shizune.

"My Lady, Lord Hokage."

"Shizune, how did…"

Tsunade's question trailed off as she remembered who was with them and Shizune lowered her head slightly.

"I got to say and do all that I wanted to, My Lady. Do you wish my further presence, or shall I wait at the hotel for you?"

"I'll join you at the hotel." Tsunade said. "We'll head back tomorrow."

"Yes my lady." Shizune said, bowing before retreating out of the room. Hiruzen and Tsunade watched her leave, then Hiruzen spoke.

"While you're here, do you wish to claim any of the Senju scrolls?"

"Only the medical ones, I'll copy them when I get home and then I'll have the copies sent back here to be used in the hospital." Tsunade said. "I may be living with my new family in Wave, but Konoha is still my true home when all is said and done. I just need more time to come to terms with…"

"Dan and Nawaki." Hiruzen said softly, his voice filled with understanding, glancing at the door where Shizune had vanished. "Of course. Take all the time you need."

"By the way," Tsunade said as a thought occurred to her, "The next time you see the Daimyo, you may want to ask about getting a full alliance with Wave. They don't have a Hidden Village of their own and an alliance would secure that border."

"An excellent idea." Hiruzen smiled. "And of course, having you already there and building up the goodwill won't hurt a bit."

"My thoughts exactly." Tsunade smiled. "My thoughts exactly."

.

The gates receded into the distance, vanishing behind the canopy of the trees as Tsunade and Shizune leapt through the branches.

"So it worked, then?" Tsunade asked after checking that there were no other chakra sources within range. Shizune nodded, patting her bag.

"It did, but I almost failed. There were far more scrolls than I had expected in there, it was fortunate that Minato had been experimenting with new storage seals. He managed to create a storage seal less than a tenth of the size of a normal one, but it still took me twelve scrolls to seal everything."

Tsunade whistled. "Kami, you had to seal the equivalent of a hundred and twenty scrolls of stuff? How much of it was jutsu?"

"About a quarter were books and scrolls, mainly about Fuinjitsu." Shizune replied, ducking as she passed a bit too closely to one of the branches. "There was a lot of gold and jewels, and four of the scrolls are weapons. I almost couldn't believe how many of his Kunai he had pre-stored, two entire scrolls worth."

"Well, at least when Ruto starts learning the Hiraishin, he'll have plenty of Kunai to practice with." Tsunade shrugged after several minutes thought. "There were Hiraishin scrolls, weren't there?"

"There were." Shizune nodded. "Three of them, one of them signed by Senju Tobirama."

"You're kidding!" Tsunade gasped. "It's a Senju technique? I thought Minato had created it."

Shizune shook her head. "From what I was able to see from the scroll, Minato refined it, cutting the amount of chakra it needed and minimizing the time it took to implement. Tobirama noted that he could only use it a few times before needing to rest, Minato could use it hundreds of times and over considerably longer distances."

Tsunade whistled, then slowly nodded.

"If it's based on a Senju technique, that means that we could possibly learn it ourselves, which will help us in teaching it to Ruto when he grows older."

"It'll be useful for going into town and back as well." Shizune grinned. "Just put one tag in the back room of a small building in town and another back in the mansion and… pop! Instant movement."

"Might be an idea to install a platform with fake seals on it." Tsunade mused. "Make them look complicated enough and no-one will suspect it's really a small tag that does it. Include a few light-seals for dramatic effect and it'll look cool as anything."

"Put a tag in the Senju mansion and you'll be able to visit Konoha whenever you like." Shizune added, then she grinned. "How many tags do you think Minato left around Konoha?"

Tsunade shrugged. "Probably quite a few. Now, using them is another problem. The old lecher tried and failed to learn it."

Shizune frowned. "Interesting. We both know that it couldn't be his chakra control that was the issue since Jiraiya-sama is capable of Sage-mode… blood-lock perhaps?"

"We'll find out back at the mansion." Tsunade shrugged as she ducked under a branch growing at just the wrong height. "I hope the scrolls explain the damned technique. I don't want to spark the lecher's curiosity by asking him about the Hiraishin."

"That could be a problem." Shizune agreed.