A.N: I still don't own Naruto, but I do own the fanfictions that I write for the series. Please do not steal or alter my work. It's taken me forever to write some of them.

One could usually find Tsunade either sleeping over a stack of paperwork, or holed up in the Hokage's Library pouring her heart out into studying to find the cure to a new poison or some other way to use her medical ninjutsu. Other times you could find her walking down the hallways of Konoha's Hospital with Shizune or Sakura at her side going over recent admits that required her attention. That was when a fire would be found in Tsunade's eyes. While she loathed the paperwork that came with being Hokage, she was the most sympathetic and loving woman that lived within Konoha's vast walls. She was always so precise. Almost too precise.

Sakura

The room smelled of death, but then again, so did the entire hospital. Death, sickness, disease. It was all the same. But this room had other scents. While it did smell of death, it also had the faint smells of sweat and lavender perfume. Lifting my head from the chart in my hands, my eyes laid upon Lady Tsunade, who was standing over the latest admit that required her attention. Her brows were knitted together in concentration as she kept a steady flow of chakra flowing to her hands. The woman lying on the bed let out a hard breath as she closed her eyes, body tensing with her latest contraction. Shizune was perched at the end of the bed, awaiting the arrival of the child the woman was bearing. The father was nowhere to be seen when the woman stumbled in through the doors after she had been in labor for almost five hours.

I had been there, and when Shizune heard the woman mention how long she'd been in labor, she was instantly worried and told me to find Lady Tsunade. The look of question that passed over my face was replaced with worry when I saw the woman up close. Blood covered the lower portion of her maternity dress, staining the light blue fabric a rust color, her skin was as pale as fresh fallen snow and sweat was dripping down her face. I think what scared me the most was how her body shook as soon as she felt a new contraction rip through her abdomen. She almost fell to the floor with Shizune as the contraction fully set in.

"Sakura! Find Lady Tsunade NOW!"

I ran. The buildings passed by in a blur as I ran to the Hokage Mansion, my legs pumping as I forced myself to run through the halls, up the stairs and towards her office. Without so much as stopping to knock, I threw myself into her office and fell to my knees on the floor.

"Sakura? What in the world is going on?"

"Lady... Tsunade..." I couldn't even breathe as I shuddered with my lack of oxygen.

"Easy Sakura. Breathe and then explain."
"There's... No... Time for me to stop." I replied as I looked up to her eyes.

I slowly brought myself back to my feet and caught my breath. In short time, I lifted my head and looked around the room at the faces of new Genin that were reporting in from a recent mission. Lady Tsunade looked at me expectantly, her eyes holding a spark of curiosity as I found myself lost in her gaze once more. I straightened and looked back to her eyes.

"A woman has come to the hospital, alone, and only after five hours of labor."

Her eyes changed expression as I spoke, and finally took a look of shock when I completed the sentence.

"What of her husband? Where was he?"
"We don't know. All that matters is she is in labor, bleeding profusely and potentially dying."

"We need to hurry then. How long ago did she come in?"

"About a half-hour ago."

She looked back to the Jounin adviser, who nodded and escorted his team from the room. As they left, the lone female of the group looked worried and nervous. Her eyes gave her away. I looked to the Jounin as I left, who nodded his head gravely. This little girl with fear in her eyes was the daughter of the woman in the hospital. As Lady Tsunade and I ran down the halls and back to the street, the little girl followed closely behind us. I could hear the sounds of her footfalls on the wooden floors of the Mansion. I stopped briefly, scooped the girl up in my arms, and ran next to Lady Tsunade once more towards the hospital.

The little girl looked at me, eyes full of fear and tears that had yet to spill over. I only held her tighter in my arms, and then she began to cry into my shoulder. I looked over to Lady Tsunade, who looked sadly at the small girl in my arms. She turned her head back to the road and set her sights upon the hospital, a fire burning deep within her eyes.

Now, that fire is still present, if not more noticeable than it was before. I looked back to the chart and wrote down the time of the contraction and the length of time that it lasted. The woman, Suzuki was her first name, cried out in pain as her hand gripped the railing on the hospital bed. Her knuckles turned white as her grip tightened on the railing. I cast my eyes away from her pained facial features and over to the wall clock, timing the contraction as it ripped through her body.

"Sakura... Go and check on the Genin."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama." I replied as I walked from the room.

Stepping into the hallway, I let the stress fall from my shoulders. Walking towards the lobby, I thought back to Suzuki's face as Lady Tsunade asked me to check on Suzuki's daughter. She looked more fearful for her shinobi daughter than for herself. Not an uncommon sight with shinobi families. Even my own mother fears for my safety, regardless of if I'm within the village walls or not. As I walked into the lobby, the girl was sitting over by a window, eyes cast towards the sky; she didn't even notice me. I walked to her side and placed my hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump slightly by being off guard. She looked up and saw my eyes, and she was instantly worried once more.

"How is my mother? Is she okay? What about the baby?"

"It's okay. Your mother is alright for now. The baby has not come yet."

She breathed and I could see the fear just wash away from her expression, but her shoulders never slacked and her eyes held determination in them. I looked at her fondly because she reminded me of Naruto; always looking so fierce with eyes full of determination regardless of the situation.

"By the way, what's your name? I never got the chance to ask."

"Oh, my name is Maya... Hanou Maya."

"You know... I'm not supposed to do this, but come with me."

I stood up from the windowsill and held my hand out to her. She took it and stood next to me, following closely at my side as I walked back towards her mother's room. I cracked the door and stuck my head inside, noting that Suzuki was still going through her difficult delivery and that Lady Tsunade looked about ready to collapse with the overuse of her chakra. Shizune was the one to notice me and looked at me curiously for a moment. I gave her a look, turned my head to Suzuki, and then looked back to Shizune. She understood right away.

"Lady Tsunade, let me switch with you." She said as she stood from the foot of the bed and eased her way to Suzuki's abdomen.

Tsunade-sama didn't have any dispute over the matter and gladly took the seat at the end of the bed. I pushed the door further open and slipped inside, pulling Maya in with me. At the click of the door, Suzuki finally turned her head towards me, and gasped at the sight of her daughter standing next to me, clutching my hand in hers.

"... Maya..." She gasped out as she looked into her daughter's eyes.

"Mom..."

She moved from my side and was at her mother's in a mere instant, grasping her mother's trembling hand in her own and holding on for dear life itself. Such was the usual life of a shinobi. Tsunade-sama looked over at me, and I merely returned her questioning glance with my own look of reassurance. Suzuki breathed a sigh of relief as she held her daughter's hand in her own.

"Thank... You..." She said as she looked up to me.

"It seems that she's the only reassurance that you need. Maybe now we can get the little one to come out."

"Hopefully..."

Tsunade-sama checked Suzuki and noted that she was near ten centimeters in dilation, Shizune was pushing healing chakra into Suzuki's body, Maya was holding her hand and talking to her, keeping her mother awake and conscious. I walked up next to Suzuki and gently rolled her to a forty-five degree angle to begin massaging her hips and lower back, helping the child to push through the cervix and down the birth canal. Twenty minutes later, Lady Tsunade pulled my arm and moved from the foot of the bed to Suzuki's other side, leaving me to catch the child as it was born. She, too, began pushing healing chakra into Suzuki's body, and as they did this together, the child began to crown.

"Suzuki-san, the baby is crowning. You can push now." I said as I positioned myself to help the child.

Her body instantly tensed with the next contraction, and she fought through the pain to help her child release itself from her womb. With each painful push, the baby moved further and further down the birth canal and closer towards me. As soon as I could see the shoulders, I made my move and gently grasped the base of the baby's neck in my left hand and moved my right hand in to find the child's back. Using very careful and well timed movements, I finally pulled the child from Suzuki's body and instantly cut the cord and cleaned the child off. I smiled happily at the small bundle in my arms.

"Congratulations Suzuki-san, you have a son."

"A... Son? Oh Kami, he's precious..." She sighed as I laid her newborn son on her chest.

Her arms wrapped around him as she held him close to her chest, his cries falling to mere whimpers in the moment that he found his mother's warm embrace. Maya looked at the tiny bundle in her mother's arms with curiosity. It was the first time that she'd ever seen a newborn, let alone witness a birth herself. This brought a revelation to her on the career path that she wanted to follow as a shinobi. She looked to Tsunade-sama and cleared her throat.

"Um... Lady Tsunade? Can I ask you something?"

"What is it Maya?"

"Well, um... Will you... Will you teach me medical jutsu?"

Her blue eyes locked with Lady Tsunade's honey ones, and it took all of ten seconds for Lady Tsunade to give in to the pleading look on Maya's face. With her hand on her hip, Lady Tsunade smiled at the young girl before her. Kneeling down on one knee, she took one of Maya's hands in her own smooth grasp and looked into her eyes.

"Maya, it would be an honor to train you. But I won't go easy on you."

"Trust me Maya. She isn't as kind when it comes to training as she is right now." I said with a chuckle.

"I'm prepared for that. I... I want to be able to protect everyone."

"You know... That sounds faintly like one Naruto Uzumaki."

"It certainly does Lady Tsunade. It certainly does."

"Regardless, I will take you as my charge Maya, so long as it's okay with your mother."

Suzuki looked on from the bed, a smile on her face as she listened to the conversation. She nodded her head and gave Maya her blessing to learn from Lady Tsunade. Maya's smile could have lit the village and still have plenty of light left over to reach all the way out to Suna with how excited she was. I was just as excited for her as I was when I was her age about to train with Lady Tsunade.

"So Suzuki-san. What are you going to name him?" I asked as I looked to the other woman once again.

"I'm naming him after his father... Hanou Raiku."

My mind clicked. That name. He'd been in the hospital after a particularly dangerous mission that had already taken the lives of two other shinobi. He would later die of his injuries in the hospital. That was just three months ago, and it never occurred to me that this woman lying in the hospital bed was his widow, let alone his pregnant widow who had just given birth to their son. I felt sorrow start to set in as I remembered the man who died before my very eyes.

Sometimes... My memories always are a little too precise.