From Wells and Scrolls
Written for HalfBlackWolfDemon for the prompt: "Special Summoning Technique"
Tsunade sighed and rubbed her tired eyes, chafing the already raw sclera. It was far too late at night, and she was far too sober to be dealing with a problem like this. The pale dark-haired woman laying in front of her on one of her hospital beds that she was sure would be needed in the morning given the way most missions outside of Konohagakure went was unconscious. Had been, apparently, for a good three hours if what Sakura reported was correct. Honestly, could she not send Team Seven on some mission to some remote part of the world without them coming back with some mess on their hands?
They were worse than Jiraiya—at least he had the decency to come back with women, booze, and...other things... She still wondered if he had that nasty itch when he died.
Though, she mused, it could be much worse. At least they only came back with a woman who, though mysterious, would not be bringing death to Konoha and its people. Summons were a tricky business, but at least when they came from another world, they came alone.
"Go over what happened one more time. And tell me you were at least thinking enough to bring the scroll with you." She directed her statement at Naruto, as he had gabbed out the story first in haphazard bits, and—as this was Naruto—she had no doubts this situation was all his doing.
"Don't look at me! I didn't do it—ttebayo. Sakura-chan did."
She raised an eyebrow at this while crossing her arms and pinning the entirety of Team Seven with her best "fess up already" look. Though Sakura did look guilty and punch Naruto in the head a little too quickly, this entire situation still had Naruto's name all over it. Sasuke and Sai glanced at each other, the former rolling his eyes.
"Ow! Sonova—why'd you hit me so hard, Sakura-chan!" Naruto nursed his new lump on his head, and Tsunade fought off the urge to follow the Uchiha's lead and roll her eyes.
After so many years, she knew this stalling technique far too well. Thankfully, so did the Uchiha.
"Because you're a moron, loser," Sasuke interrupted. "As he said earlier, we were on our way back. And because the idiot drank all his water within minutes of us leaving Suna, he demanded we stop at a nearby well. Just like his luck with directions, it was a dry well—"
"—Fuck you, you bastard—"
"—Yet he didn't believe it. So he jumped in."
Such briefings were what came with the package known as Team Seven. It still surprised Tsunade how well she was able to navigate such blatant antagonism between its members without forgetting what Sasuke was saying. She felt as if she finally understood why Sarutobi always smoked at these kind of things. And why his tobacco budget doubled after Team Seven became genin.
"At the bottom, he found this scroll," Sakura said, handing over the summoning scroll in question. "We knew it wasn't like other summoning scrolls, and... Well..."
"You wanted to try it out," Tsunade finished. Yep, definitely had Naruto's machinations all over it. "Why did you do it, Sakura? I expected this out of Naruto, or, hell, even Uchiha or Sai."
"M'n'Sasuke already have summons—ttebayo," Naruto said, and for once in the past hour showed off his intelligence.
Sai shrugged. "I don't think I have enough chakra required to make a successful summon."
Yet Sakura only looked away and tugged at the hem of her shirt. Had this summon been an animal and not a human, Tsunade would not care. Her actions said more than words could, and she knew how Sakura must feel as she had been the girl who could not catch up to her male teammates for years as well.
Instead of pressing her more for answers, she opened the scroll to see what it contained and just what kind of summon this was supposed to be. She glanced up at Naruto for only a second with a sly smile. "That still doesn't explain why you smell and look like you crawled out of a gutter in the red light district after a night of hard partying."
And she liked to think she knew more than a thing or two about those kinds of nights.
She could hear Naruto sputter—the beginnings of a long and loud tirade, she was more than sure—as his teammates and friends tried—and failed—to hide their laughter.
"She opened her eyes only once, once she was successfully summoned. Upon seeing Naruto's face, she had the urge to vomit. And proceeded to do so."
"Screw you, too, Sai! You're just jealous you don't have my looks!"
Even she had to smile at their bantering. To anyone who did not know this team or what they had been through the past five years, it would seem like they hated each other with a passion. Yet, she had been there throughout everything they had gone through the past five years, and she could hear the undertones to their quips. Teasing, tormenting, berating, cursing—all were their ways of showing affection to each other because that was simply the relationship they all had. And hell had no fury like theirs against anyone outside their group who said those things to one of them.
Yet the words on the scroll fast removed her smile. She just knew this was not going to be something easily fixed.
And, at the same time, she could honestly say this situation did not even make the top five on her list of strange and/or horrible things to happen in and/or around Konohagakure involving Naruto. Hell, it just barely cracked the top twenty. She did not know what this said about either Konoha, Naruto, herself or her luck, or even if it was good or bad given that she had only been Hokage for the last five years.
"Naruto, Uchiha... Did neither of you learn the different between Kuchiyose no Jutsu and Gyaku Kuchiyose no Jutsu?"
Naruto's look was so blank that it looked unnatural when he only blinked at her. Sasuke stiffened.
And she could only shake her head. Honestly, what did they learn from her teammates and their summons? How to use their ninja skills for everything they should not?
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu is the typical summoning technique. It's used by us to summon those we've made a pact with from their world. Gyaku Kuchiyose no Jutsu is a summoning technique that was specifically designed to be used by summons to summon their summoner."
Sakura paled, catching onto her meaning.
"So... What is that supposed to mean?" Naruto scratched his head; even though she had condensed the explanation as much as she could, it still went pretty much over his head.
"It's not meant to be used by humans," Sakura said.
"Exactly. I bet the sister scroll to this one is in her world. How, or why, this scroll is in ours is a mystery I don't think we'll ever figure out."
"If that's the case, Tsunade-sama," Sai said, "why would it drag her into this world? Should it not be able to do that?"
She shook her head. "I honestly don't know. I've never heard of something like this happening before, and I don't think it has either." Tsunade sighed once more and looked to the woman possibly stuck in their world forever now. "She should wake in the morning, or before then. Sakura, I expect you to take care of her, since you did summon her. Even if I know it was Naruto's idea to do it."
"Of course," Sakura said, glaring at Naruto. Tsunade had a feeling she was going to rope Naruto into helping her out, if that look on her face was anything to go by.
All she knew is that she was in definite need of a cup of hot sake if she was going to survive not only explaining to the council this situation, but trying to figure out the mess of paperwork this was going to be.
Like it? Love it? Hate it? Abhor it? Let me know; I promise I don't bite!