I don't own Naruto, but it means a lot to me.


"Again."

Splash.

"Again."

Splash.

Jiraiya pinched the bridge of his nose like it would stop the sanity from oozing out of his skull. He dug deep - down into his heart and soul - and echoed the mantras of the sage. His guiding mantras that walked him along the path of his predecessors towards ever sought enlightenment. Learning was a journey. A million step path and they'd only just started walking. Patience. Serenity. These were the keys to enlightenment. He had to stay calm.

Splash.

"Calm chakra, kid." Jiraiya guided, walking the path of peace and using slow words. Naruto's head bobbed above the river's surface like a discarded cork. The boy was drenched, head to toe sopping with long, wet hair covering his eyes and a flustered puff in his cheeks.

"You're trying to cook an egg with a Forrest fire. Low and steady - an even coating across your whole foot."

The blond beached like a whale, clawing out along the rocky shore and wringing an ocean out of his jacket. He cast his teacher a scathing, soggy glare.

"Maybe if you would quit throwing rocks at my head while I'm balancing I would be able to do it longer!"

"Your enemies won't wait for you to find your balance." Jiraiya countered, rolling his shoulders and giving sage wisdom from his sage wisdom shop. "You practice until even rocks at your head can't stop you."

The profanity laden response Naruto gave was muffled by splashing, the boy pushing his body forward and trying to find something resembling steady footing on the river's rolling surface. From his spot on land - annoyingly dry, Naruto thought - Jiraiya kept watch while he put the final logs beneath their cooking fire.

"Food will be ready, soon." He called, his voice switching from teacher to diplomat while Naruto fell, again, with a splash into the water. Shizune and Tsunade watched on, witnesses to the Sisyphean struggle from the comfort and relative dryness of the land. They had arrived after dawn, Jiraiya midway through his patience and Naruto all the way out of dry clothes. Jiraiya had given them a nod, continuing in a hushed explanation of why exactly Naruto's feet were like little cannons and how whatever the hell he had just been doing wasn't going to work. The tired and drenched boy was combative today, at war with his stupid teacher and bad analogies. Tsunade and Shizune had stayed, thankfully, quiet and non-combative.

When dealing with former teammates, non-combative constituted as a win.

"I was worried you wouldn't come." He said, flashing through hand signs until a small ball of flame left from his mouth and roared to life beneath the kindling. Tsunade recognized the old, heavily seasoned cast iron pan that Jiraiya produced from his pack as the same one they had used almost two decades prior while stuck in Cloud country for six weeks in the mountains. She hoped he cleaned it.

"I'm here." She answered, leaning back and making great efforts to keep her body relaxed and voice open. "So, let's talk."

Jiraiya nodded, his eyes glued to the flame and trying to keep his own voice open and calm. "After breakfast. I'll send the kid with Shizune and then you and I can talk.

Tsunade nodded, sifting into the silence and pulling an apple from her own pocket to kill the time. For twenty minutes, the sun chased off the last of the night while Naruto crashed and swam out and crashed and swam out. It was repetitive and peaceful in an odd sort of way. The sun above was gentle, gliding against their skin and mixing with the smell of simmering eggs and morning wind. Jiraiya continued to cook. Naruto continued to fall. Tsunade and Shizune sat, taking it all in.

"When did…" Tsunade said, gesturing vaguely to the commotion at the river. Naruto had managed to stay on two feet despite a third step that saw his leg sink to his knee. Unfortunately, the act of recovery was somehow more splashing and dramatic than just falling in would have been.

"…This start?"

Jiraiya pushed his spoon against one of the strips of meat, earning a crackling sound accompanied by a hiss of steam. "About a month ago. It was just training for the Chunnin exams, but when this is over, it will be formal training for the next few years."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, opting to not focus on the definition of the word 'this'. "You're taking another student? Full time?"

Jiraiya snorted.

"Teaching him will absolutely constitute a full time job." His words were funny, but there was a strangled sound in his throat that sounded like pain. Shizune wasn't sure if he was joking or not but whichever it was - she believed him. Tsunade said nothing, leaning on her arm and biting into her apple. Her eyes followed the cycle - get up, fall, sink, swim out. Get up, fall, sink, swim out.

"How old is Naruto?" Shizune interjected, pressing her hands together watching the symmetry of the learning process.

"Thirteen." Jiraiya replied, his head tilted as he crunched some mental math. "Though he's coming up on fourteen sometime in the near future, I think."

"You think?" Tsunade circled the question like a vulture, clutching it in her talons of 'none of this adds up' and leaving it out on a rock to dry. Jiraiya was mature, not rising to the provocation and keeping his focus wholly on the sizzle of newly added ham slices to the breakfast cooking. It was almost enough to cover the way his shoulders slumped like they'd been weighted down by rocks.

"So," Shizune continued, pushing past the silence and navigating away from the brewing conflict. "He said he was a genin. Is he on a team?"

The tension in Jiraiya's shoulders didn't release. If anything it coiled and coiled until it twisted into the ground and Shizune wondered if the man was about to jump up and take the boy and run.

"He was."

Tsunade cocked an eyebrow, taking another bite of her apple and looking ready to pounce.

"Was?"

"He's my apprentice, now. Technically, he's not on a team." Jiraiya's voice gave information without subtext. Robotic diplomacy with neither tone nor intonation, designed to state a fact and nothing more. He may as well have been telling them the color of the sky. Shizune could feel the wall, like a verbal barrier between truth and mystery. She tried knocking, again.

"What team was he on?"

"Kakashi's."

Tsunade's body straightened, the carefree posture of disinterest breaking while her eyes tracked Jiraiya's face with a scowl.

"Does Hirzuen know about this?" She asked, not even bothering to hide the incredulous tone behind her words. Jiraiya's knuckles tightened around his spoon like a vice.

"He does." Jiraiya replied. Voice and jaw clenched so tight. "We have had…words."

Tsunade's stare narrowed, a thin line drawing across her brow.

Words?

She remembered what it was like when Jiraiya had 'words' with someone.

Having 'words' for Jiraiya was a thinly veiled code for "we disagreed and came this close to kicking each other's teeth in over it". Jiraiya and Hiruzen used to have words all the time. Teacher and student, flying off the handle back when they were just some hot-shot kids playing war and there were half a million things that could have turned Jiraiya into a hair-trigger standing on a landmine. When disagreements eventually devolved into 'words', the standard MO was screaming matches that became fist-fights that they euphemistically dubbed "heavy training". "Heavy training" very much had a style, and the plot could almost always summed by the same driving acts.

Act One, Jiraiya goes in angry and spitting fire, his words on his tongue and tingling in the knuckles of his fist. Act One ends, and Act Two starts with punches that weren't pulled and training maneuvers that definitely don't fit the definition of 'friendly spar'. Act two ends, and Jiraiya leaves the "heavy training" bruised and fuming; storming off from whatever explosion had just occurred and going to find somewhere private where he could brood like he was Orochimaru.

Act Three was the resolution, Hiruzen emerging from 'words' looking completely unscathed but deeply unhappy and wondering why he puts up with these shit kids in the first place. Sensei never asked Tsunade or Orochimaru for comment on the incidents and they never did. Jiraiya was the fire, and if they weren't the recipient of his "words", they were wise enough as children to know they didn't want to be involved. Even if Hiruzen had asked for their comment, they sure as shit wouldn't have answered, anyway.

"Words." She repeated, the whole picture feeling fuzzier the more clarity she gained. Why had Jiraiya taken the boy? Pulling a ninja off an active team, Kakashi's team, without the express consent of the Hokage would certainly result in 'words', but there was more. Jiraiya said Kakashi's name like he wished he didn't know it. Even if she couldn't read Jiraiya like the back of her own hand anymore she could have felt the tension roiling beneath the sage's skin. Something was wrong in this picture. Very wrong.

"The kid." She asked, watching every uncoordinated splash like a hawk. "How is he?" Jiraiya shrugged, eggs sizzling against the sounds of the flowing water.

"Depends on what you mean. Physically, he's a monster. Uncoordinated and lacking anything that resembles finesse, but he's built like a tank and has stamina beyond anything I've ever seen. I think his chakra stores are bigger than mine and he's barely started puberty."

Shizune hugged her knees with wide eyes and a growing concern. Tsunade's eyes narrowed.

"And his mental state?"

Jiraiya brought his head back and forth, weighing the right way to answer on his tongue. "There's two sides. Loud. Brash. Obnoxious but harmless. Could stand to study and focus more than he does, but I'll be fixing that. He doesn't have a lot of friends, but he cares about the ones he has like his whole life depends on it."

A gust swept the riverbank and the cooking fire flickered. Flames whipped around the pan's edges and licked the backside of Jiraiya's hand.

"His dream is to be the Hokage."

Tsunade made a sound that bubbled in her throat thick and acrid and foul. She took another bite just to ease the taste.

"You've picked another fool, then." She concluded. Her eyes switched from camp to river with a dull sheen while Naruto tried and failed and tried and failed. And failed. And failed.

"He's not a fool."

The Slug Princess scoffed.

"He's a fool and you're worse for enabling it."

Tsunade's voice was a rope taught and fit to snap. She rounded on her teammate and her eyes pierced a hole straight through his chest and into his heart. Jiraiya met her gaze looking tired and ashamed, but his face was set as a stone and he wasn't budging.

Shizune bounced between the two feeling like an ant.

"Lord Jiraiya." She interrupted, pushing her voice through the squabble. Both Sannin turned to her like they'd forgotten she was there. "You mentioned that there were two sides to his mental state?"

Tsunade's gaze shifted back to the boy. Storming out of the river and standing again and again until he got it right. Like a fool.

"What was the other side?"

Jiraiya flipped one of the eggs, the yolk hissing as it hit the metal. His voice felt the same. Raw and burning.

"Do you remember those kids in Ame?"

Tsunade didn't realize she'd clenched her fist, but the apple in her hand plopped to the ground, cleaved in two with a resonating crack. Juice stained her fingers and trickled down her wrist as she rounded on her former teammate.

"No." She said, but it wasn't because she didn't remember. It was 'no' because this wasn't supposed to happen. What was Jiraiya even implying? That Hiruzen and Kakashi had become Hanzo? That Konoha had fostered an environment where children were left on their own, living on the scraps of a city that rejected them? That is was in any way similar?

She could remember their faces like they were standing before her because they were - they did. Every night when she closed her eyes and her dreams made their inevitable decent into nightmares. Dan and Nawaki weren't the only ghosts that haunted Tsunade's sleep, and she could see each of the Ame Three standing before her, drenched and hungry. One with loud orange hair and even louder attitude. One quiet but with eyes that made her blood cold. One little girl caught between two forces of nature.

Their eyes were big and their bodies were small and battered by the world and everything around them. Jiraiya had wanted to train them, obviously, resolving that if they could fight for themselves the war haunting them would be vanquished. Defeated like they were all knights fighting dragons and fairy tales were real. Orochimaru had been against, obviously, unmoved and unconcerned with another casualty in the war of man's hate in another village that wasn't his own.

She was the one who had caved. One look from their eyes and she had crumbled like a sheet of paper and the coward she was inside.

"They're your responsibility." she'd said, turning her back but letting Jiraiya teach children how to fight in a war.

She didn't even know where those kids were, but something in her gut rolled. She hoped their ends were swift and painless.

Tsunade shook her head, willing the image from her mind with a mixture of brute strength and guilt. Never again. That hell was gone and buried and the thought that anything like that was taking place in the world. That Konoha of all places would treat anyone, much less Minato's own son like…like…

No.

She refused.

The slug princess looked to her teammate, eyes demanding any explanation that this wasn't the case. There were bags under Jiraiya's eyes but the whites were hot and hollow. She could hear the pitter patter of raindrops in her ears. It sounded like a tidal wave.

"Ame?" Shizune whispered to herself, not understanding the word and even more confused by the shell shocked gaze the word prompted in her teacher. Tsunade rose with a force, shoving herself up and fixing a strand of blond hair out of her eyes as she stormed from the camp in a silent march to the shoreline.

"Tsunade." Jiraiya called, his eyes a warning that caught her like a net and anchor. "Don't."

Her footsteps stopped, heel crunching the earth beneath and her teeth grinding in her mouth. She tilted her head, eyes half-lidded and face weighed down by memories that felt like rain. Her lips twisted at the corners and turned down.

"Don't what, Jiraiya? Don't fix his expectations now before your incessant enabling gets another child killed?"

"Lady Tsunade!" Shizune exclaimed, blindsided by the venom in her master's words. Jiraiya's eyes darkened, but he made no effort to stop the Senju heiress as she marched towards the shore.

"Lord Jiraiya." Shizune exclaimed because this wasn't making any sense and she was so tired of things not making sense. "What was that? What is Lady Tsunade…"

Shizune rose to her feet and started walking after her master, but Jiraiya's hand clasped around her wrist and rooted her to the spot.

"Let her go." He commanded. Shizune boggled.

"What?" She hissed. "Why? She's about to pick a fight with your student! She'll break him in half."

"She won't break him." A thoughtful expression crossed his face. "She might smack him, a bit, but she won't break him."

Shizune tried to meet Jiraiya's gaze and understand because she wanted to understand why her teacher had gone from cold to inferno at the mere mention of a place. Was a single word all it took to uncork ten years of bottle up regret; was it truly that easy? Jiraiya's face held a trove of emotions as he met the young woman's gaze. She could see tired, regret. Annoyance and shame and duty and anxiety swirling like a whirlpool stretched over aging skin. But there was one that stood out, a flicker of a thought arcing out beyond the rest and that filled Shizune's heart with something more heavy than the doubt swirling in her stomach.

Shizune didn't know quite what it was, but it gave her enough pause to watch as her master approached the shoreline.


"Hey, brat!" Tsunade roared, storming up to the riverbank with purpose in her stride and a sickness in her heart. Naruto wobbled, not expecting the outburst and crashing into the river from where he'd been attempting to stand. She strode across the water without hesitation, settling off the bank while Naruto crawled back onto shore.

"I almost had it!" He groaned, golden hair shaking like a dog and water flying everywhere. "Why'd you have to go and yell like that? Threw off my concentration."

"That was your concentration? No wonder you're struggling at this."

Blue eyes narrowed and Naruto huffed a wet mop of hair out of his eyes so that this woman could witness the scathing glare he was sending her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He shot back. Tsunade made a noise that was 50% laugh, 50% scoff, and 100% pissing Naruto the hell off.

"Listen lady, I know you think you're some hot-shot 'Sannin'." Naruto made air quotes around the word to accentuate the lack of shits he gave. "But I'm trying to figure something out here. Either tell me you're coming back to fix the old man or leave me alone."

She sneered, turning up her nose so as to better look down at the boy.

"Mouthy little brat, aren't you?" Tsunade rolled her neck and Naruto could hear knuckles cracking in her hand. "You think I'm going to let my student talk to you if you speak to me in that way?"

The water shimmered, but Naruto ignored it. He was preoccupied with trying to find a way to scowl harder.

"I'm here to get you back to fix the old man." He asserted. "Jiraiya's the one making deals with you and Shizune. She seems really nice but I didn't ask for that — I'm here to either finish the mission or train."

The blond leveled a serious glare - as serious as he could while wobbling back onto the water and attempting to find his footing.

"Either come back to Konoha or let me work."

One step, two steps. Splash.

Naruto gave a literal growl in frustration as he surfaced and heard Tsunade's condescending clicks.

"I don't know why you're trying to hard." She said, and her voice sounded so apathetic and so certain in the way it dismissed that Naruto smacked the water with his hand.

"What was that?"

"You're a mess, you realize that?" Tsunade continued, floating above the rippling water without a thought. "We've been watching you fail water walking for two hours because your emotions are so volatile you couldn't control your chakra any more than you can control your emotions."

Tsunade's head turned, glancing back to shore as she continued.

"I bet you can't even do the Hiraishin right now, you're so all over the place."

"That is IT!" Naruto thrashed through the water, surging to the shore and pointing a finger back at the Sannin. "I didn't ask for your help and I definitely didn't ask for your jerk comments. Did you just come here to pick a fight?"

"I came here to give you much needed advice before you get yourself killed." She answered. "A shinobi must be calm no matter what hardship they're going through. They must be collected, cold, and calculating."

Tsunade's eyes leveled on the blond, and Naruto was left with the distinct feeling he was being looked through, not at.

"A shinobi who can't contain their emotions will bring themselves nothing but death." Her words were hammers but her voice glass. Tsunade's heart pounded, memories pulling and tearing inside her chest.

"If you can't kill your emotions, you'll never make it as a shinobi. This life takes the foolish and give back only bodies"

Naruto spit in response.

"Is that what you think, Lady?" He asked, voice dropping against the river's torrent. "That's what's causing all of this? Just because you think all shinobi need to be huge, unfeeling assholes? Talking about your home like it's a disease."

Tsunade's face tilted and a shadow crossed over her eyes. Ripples of water pushed out from beneath her feet, little waves that rolled and crashed to shore at the blonde's feet.

"Maybe I am a little messed up right now, but you're wrong. Not every ninja has to be cold and heartless even when they're hit with something that's super shitty."

A thought crossed the blond's mind, his eyes sinking to the water below.

"I have a friend who thinks like you, and I think that might be the worst part of him. I refuse to be a ninja who doesn't have feelings. Yeah, the world can suck sometimes but I'm not going to get stronger by cutting off my emotions and throwing them into a cage."

Blue eyes stared up into Tsunade's own. Defiant. Unrelenting.

"When I'm Hokage, I'll show everyone how to be a ninja with heart."

Tsunade's eyes widened, and she wasn't at the riverfront. She was standing in Konoha, right behind a little boy with sandy blond hair smiling in the autumn sun. Tsunade brought her hand to her chest as her fingers twisted the crystal in her hands.

Then, she heard explosions. Tsunade's hand gripped so hard around the crystal necklace her skin turned white.

"You're a fool, then." Her voice was forced and bitter. Heavy. "That hat is a curse. Dreaming of that job will bring you nothing but pain and misery."

Naruto audibly snarled, clenching wet fingers into wet fists and cheeks flushing red.

"Shut up…" he mumbled. Tsunade ignored him.

"Give it up, now." She continued, because this saving was life. This was what stopping this cycle meant and dammit she was going to see it through. "Save yourself the heartache and stop —"

"I said shut up!"

The water rumbled. Little ripples from the shore where Naruto stood. She doubted the boy realized he was the one making them.

"The Hokage protects the village." He grit. His breath was hot and ragged and he could feel a tinge of red pulsing at the corners of his cheeks that swelled across his face. "I get that you don't like the Hokage. Whatever. But if you ever talk bad about the Hokage again, I'll kick your ass whether you're a Sannin or not."

Naruto glared with a righteous furor. Tsunade met the gaze with something that wasn't fury, but if emotions were heat the water beneath her would be boiling.

"You couldn't lay a finger on me if you tried, brat." She replied, waving a single finger before the boy's face and accentuating that the lone, painted digit would be all she needed to smash Naruto's head into the ground and knock the fool out of him. Why did she always have to beat lessons into these kids? Why did they insist on arguing against her?

Oh, well. Better a bruised ego than a bleeding corpse.

"Give up on being the Hokage. Go and live your life and be free of the nonsense you're chasing."

"What the hell is your problem Granny?"

"My problem is idiots like you!" The words came out so hot and so fast Naruto had to take a small step back. Tsunade's aura surged, whipping dirt and dust and twenty years of hurt into the air around them.

"You're completely blind to the death race you're running because you're young and a fool. But this isn't a fairy tale. That's not how this story ends. You won't become Hokage because no one who dreams of becoming Hokage gets what they want. They suffer and die and all this blind zealotry Jiraiya and Konoha are feeding you is just going to get you killed."

Naruto could feel the heat rising in his chest, like pistons shifting into a new gear that ran low but so much hotter.

"Oh, I get it." he said, finally understanding and sinking back into his stance. "You didn't come out here to give me advice or set me on the right path. You don't even hate the Hokage."

Naruto leaned his neck back, eyes looking down and looking right back through.

"You're just a coward."

Tsunade twitched, voice low and oh so dangerous.

"What did you just say?"

"You heard me. You don't think all that shit. You're just scared and hiding behind your bullshit words."

"Choose your next words…" Tsunade's breath was jagged, little daggers masquerading as words. "Very, very carefully."

"I'm going to be Hokage." Naruto said, slow and certain.

"And you're willing to bet your life on it?"

"Absolutely." Naruto shot back. "You wanna bet me?"

Tsunade's lips turned, a dark and heavy laughter finding its way out of her throat.

"Bet you?" She shot back. "I bet you couldn't lay a single finger on me right here and now. I'd slap you away with a single finger."

Yeah. Okay, bet. Fighting words. Those were definitely fighting words. Naruto had plenty of fighting words. So many fighting words he could write a book on fighting words. He knew just what to say to put arrogant, know it all old Granny's who don't know shit about shit in their place.

In fact, he knew his four favorite fighting words by heart.

"Kage Bushin no jutsu."

There was an explosion of smoke on the riverbank. It cleared in the wind and six perfect clones emerged. They snarled.

"Talk shit, get hit!" The clones yelled in unison, breaking into formation and surging towards Tsunade. A clone sprinted left, trying to burst out over the river. Its paces were quick and steady as it burst out over the water, but a single uneven chakra surge sent it crashing into the depths with a poof. Tsunade raised a taunting eyebrow.

"Needs work." She reviewed. All five remaining Narutos glared daggers.

"Who needs water walking?" The furthest left yelled back , grabbing its nearest copy and spinning on his heels like a discus. "When you can take the fight to you!"

The clone released, and another Naruto soared over the water at breakneck speed. Tsunade had to give it to the kid, using *yourself* as a weapon was constituted as quick thinking. But as the Naruto approached, the blond Sannin shifted, shoulders rolling. The confused projectile careened right by her, missing to the right. It gave a gurgled cry as it sailed past its target, splashing into the water and disappearing in smoke.

"Not good enough." Tsunade corrected, taking a quiet step towards the shore. "You miss and you've got nowhere to go. Another mistake."

The Narutos saw a collective red, and two more clones yelled, flying out with the same strategy and poof-ing away with the same undignified grace as the clones before.

"It appears stubborn is a trait you and Jiraiya share." Tsunade noted, rising to her full height as the clones fizzled into the water. Of the three blonds remaining, a different profanity from each.

"You can't even make it out here to fight me, kid." She taunted, taking another step back onto the river and waving her arms wide. "This is a favor — you have to wake up and accept reality."

"Reality…" the prime Naruto growled through grit teeth. "Has been shitty enough, lately."

Tsunade could almost hear the cogs whirling inside the blonde's mind - creaking and rusted but moving. The two remaining clones grabbed each other's hands, dashing towards the shore as chakra surged beneath their feet. Sandals hit the water and chakra flared like a rocket. It was far, far too much chakra to steadily balance on the water; more akin to a fire hose than the delicate balance required. One clone began to wobble, the second followed but then…Tsunade's eyes widened.

Twin Naruto's, leaning on each other and brute forcing their chakra into the water beneath them. Each screamed, a battle cry as they surged forward. Sprays of river water erupted behind their feet, nothing but brute force and opposing physics keeping them afloat.

It was so stupid, it was genius.

Credit was due, but Tsunade wasn't in the mood for credit. Creative thinking didn't change things. The sound of rain and distant explosions rang in her ears and her eyes glazed. Reaching down to the water with a single finger, Tsunade raked her arm across the water. The charging Naruto's gaped, blindsided as a wall of water erupted from the woman's movement. Their precarious stance leaving them unable to turn, the remaining clones impacted the wall with a smack and disappeared beneath the tsunami.

"No more tricks, kid." Tsunade's said, turning back to where the final Naruto had stood. "This is for your own good."

The final Naruto swallowed, bowing up to his full height and facing his enemy with more presence than a child should have.

"How about people stop telling me what's good for me."

Tsunade blinked, and the Naruto on shore disappeared in a pop of smoke. Twenty meters downriver, a blond blur drenched and swimming with all his might against the current pushed with his legs and forced his torso out of the water, his left arm cocked.

The kunai left the blond's hand like a missile, whistling through the air across the water until it was half a meter from Tsunade's face. Her hands blurred, moving to grab the kunai because she was a Sannin, of course she could catch a kunai in mid-air. Naruto grinned. Perfect.

That's what he was hoping for.

He curled in the water, letting go of his surroundings and compressing his chakra into his gut. Let the river move him, focusing only in his mind for the connection. Tsunade's hand made contact, the metal missile captured against her grip. As the water pushed him further downstream, his lips stretched into a thin, determined line.

'Lay a hand on this, Granny.' He thought, feeling the connection in his mind and pooling his entire being. He let loose his spacial awareness and felt himself slip into the summon in a yellow swirl and...

Crrrkk.

There was no yellow flash. No connection.

Naruto floundered, bobbing up from the water and looking to the kunai and its holder in disbelief.

"W…What?"

Tsunade looked to the cracked blade in her hands with a mild interest.

"Huh." She muttered, turning the metal in her fingers and twisting it around her wrist with a careless flourish. "I didn't think you had the control. You actually would have been able to jump. You'd have been right here."

She held her hand out, touching the air where there was no yellow and no flash. Naruto could only stare.

"How?" he whispered

Tsunade extended her hand, the curving seal of the Hiraishin's hilt visible in her outstretched palm.

"You think I don't know this seal?" She called out. Tsunade twisted, moving the blade by its metal and swinging the seal-marked handle in the air before lobbing it with an underhand toss back to the shore where Naruto was crawling out of the water. It clanged to the ground at Naruto's feet.

"If you think this seal is magic, you're not just wrong - you'll be dead. How many times do you think I've destroyed seals like this one? Explosive tags? Genjutsu traps? Did you think no one would be able to deactivate just some ink and chakra?"

Ink and chakra. Her words pounded, battering rams to his worldview as he looked at the smeared symbols.

"It doesn't matter how special the Hiraishin is - it's all just ink and chakra."

Naruto bent down, reverently pulling the discarded kunai from the ground. His fingers were numb numb, tracing loose circles around the hilt's designs. The blackened markings inked across the handle were faded, a cracked smudge pushing the print and twisting around the blade. Intricate brushwork brought asunder. When Naruto reached out with his chakra, the kunai was as lifeless as a nearby rock.

"You don't know the first brushstroke to create that seal. You're a one trick pony who doesn't even know his trick."

Her eyes flared. Naruto swallowed, realization dawning.

"My trick, however…"

It was too late. Naruto looked up, but it only gave him time to see a blond and green blur appear to his side. Water exploded behind her footsteps. She was no yellow flash, but Naruto couldn't follow her movements all the same. A force pushed against his body - a single point, as promised - but it hit like a thunderstorm. His chest crumpled, the impact ramming into his body and rattling in his bones. One moment, he was standing. The next, he was flying like a rag doll to the center of the river. He smacked the water like a stone and skipped twice before plunging into the water below.

"Was that necessary?" Jiraiya asked, voice appearing from the air as he shuffled behind her. Tsunade made a clicking noise with her tongue and expressed no remorse.

"It's for his own good." She said, because it was and she would know. Jiraiya shook his head.

"You won't break him."

Tsunade scoffed, rolling her neck with a small crack.

"Or what, I'll answer to you?" The edge in her voice was a knife balanced on the precipice of conviction and exhaustion. How many years had they done this? Thinking they could play gods and build a future only to have reality and death rip and tear away at everything. The way Jiraiya was clinging to this, recklessly filling a child's head with lies in pursuit of what? The Will of Fire?

"Not me." Jiraiya answered. "You won't break him because he won't be broken. I told you - Naruto is special."

Tsunade's foot slammed, a surge of chakra pulverizing the rock beneath her heel as her face went dark.

"Special?" She hissed. "How many others have been special? How many fools will you march down this path? You and Hiruzen and every Hokage before you - marching like zealots down a path and you know damn well the only outcome is death."

Both ninja turned as Naruto burst back from against the rapids. His arms flailed, yelling loudly about how that was a 'cheap shot' and 'no fair' as he furiously pushed against the current. Tsunade watched as the blond drifted back to shore, aided up by Shizune who had rushed over to engage in what she could only assume was standard "post-Tsunade" triage.

"Do you want more dead bodies?" Tsunade continued, raw and low and very clearly hating the empty feeling currently coiling inside her stomach. "If you don't break those delusions he'll wind up just like them."

She turned to Jiraiya and her eyes were hot. Guilt was a heavy weight and it pressed into Jiraiya's heart with every breath he took under her gaze. But he knew that road, too. Tsunade wasn't the only ninja haunted by the mirror, and Jiraiya had more than enough skeletons in his moral conscious to meet her accusation with unflinching resolve.

"I'm not building delusions, Tsunade. This time is different."

"How." She snapped. Her fists were shaking and she looked ready to reduce everything around her to powder out of shame and frustration. "How could you possibly know this will be different?"

It was a fair question - more than fair. He'd been asking himself the same thing over and over for the past month. Jiraiya would have given anything to have not known the answer, but after sleepless nights the words came with a quick and heavy ease.

"We're survivors, Tsunade." He whispered it like a secret that he'd rather keep buried. He was a spy - he wasn't supposed to like saying the truth.

"We've spent twenty years wondering why the past never worked after we walked away from it. Why things always fell apart and we were the one's sifting through the ashes and moving on. I leave Minato, he's gone. I leave Nagato and Yuhiko and Konan, they're gone. I leave you and Orochimaru…"

Jiraiya stopped, losing his words and letting a hot breath leave in its place. Tsunade watched, numb and silent as Shizune successfully pulled the blond ashore. He's dazed and coughing up water and air but rapidly regaining his fire to come back into the ring and throw hands until he got smacked into next week. Tsunade saw the fire raging, an open furnace burning and roaring in the boys eyes and it matched the twist in her stomach.

"The thing that this time I'm not walking away." Jiraiya finished, his voice final and stone. "No matter the outcome. No more just surviving. This time I'm never giving up."

Naruto yelled something profane, earning a light smack from his dark-haired rescuer as Shizune ushered the boy out of the river and over to the breakfast fire. The boy might have defiance for days, but he was still a fourteen year old boy and was easily distracted by the promise of food. Naruto said something petulant again, likely directed at her. Shizune gave a warm laugh while Jiraiya walked back to meet the two by the fire. He pushed off a nearby log and turned, waving a beckoning hand to his teammate.

"From him." He added, and Tsunade was thirteen and staring at a stupid kid with stupid read marks under his eyes. "Or you."


"We are not here for Tsuande."

Kabuto buried the chill that ran up his arm as the dark haired man spoke. While his accomplice loomed nearby and was larger than two of him put together, something in how the smaller of the duo spoke set Kabuto's teeth on edge. An audible apathy that informed you had been weighed, measured, and found wanting.

Kabuto's pride roared. He would not be belittled, certainly not by mercenaries. Oh, to pin that arrogant voice to a wall and dissect each and every tendon of the fool that thought they were enough to judge him. He was the superior here - he was the right hand of the snake Sannin! He was…

Painted nails swirled over a cup, onyx eyes flashing red as they stared into their tea. Something in Kabuto's mind screamed.

Run.

"A wise choice, then." Kabuto stammered, burying his fear and forcing his mind to the present. "Because she's here and Lord Orochimaru needs her alive in order to complete his restoration."

Hoshigake Kisame, the Shark beneath Kiri, loomed like a tidal wave over the room. He gave a gruff laugh that sounded like thunder, leaning against a corner of the bar with his gargantuan sword wrapped behind his back and an amused smirk on his lips.

"That snake just won't die, will he?"

Kabuto's glasses flashed, a rage simmering under his skin and coiling in his blood. It was doubtless Kisame noticed. It was clear he did not care.

"Lord Orochimaru is more than capable, still." Kabuto seethed, barely restrained venom. "Konoha was merely a setback."

Kisame chuckled, a sound that felt as mocking as it did grating on Kabuto's ears.

"He can shed his skin and slither into whatever hole he wants." Kisame waved a disinterested hand and before gesturing between him and his partner. "We're just here for the kid."

Kabuto leaned back, pushing the brim of his glasses back on his face.

"Yes." Kabuto said, his brow furrowed in thought. "That was something I was bid discuss with you. Lord Orochimaru has an interest, but I confess a personal attachment. When I met Naruto-kun at the Chunnin exams I judged him to be an incompetent fool. Now, barely two months later, he's being pursued by the likes of the Akatsuki."

There was no question, but the implication lingered thick in the empty bar. Itachi paused, painted finger hovering over his spoon as he stirred his tea.

"Our interest," the Uchiha replied. "Is not your concern."

"Oh, I very much disagree." Kabuto's licked his tongue and leaned forward, pressing the question into the cloaked man. "Naruto-kun has caught my master's eye in the most compelling of ways."

"We did not find you to hear of Orochimaru's…interests." The distaste in the Uchiha's words was a warning and the ice underneath the conversation crackled. Kabuto's body froze even despite his attempts to stay in command. "This meeting is Orochimaru's warning. Do not interfere with our business, and we will not interfere with his."

Kabuto swallowed, but nodded. Orochimaru was maimed and the oaf Jiraiya was here and meddling. No matter how much his pride snarled, now was not the time to be picking fights with S-ranked ninja. Now was the time for compromise.

"Then we are agreed." Kabuto said, and silently longing for the moment he could leave this god-forsaken town and never looking into red eyes again. "We will not impede your efforts and in return you will not impede ours."

Kabuto watched as he gave his answer, the fingers in his hands coiled into fists. They had reached alignment. A compromise of convenience with mercenaries without a cause. The through made him want to spit, but this was the better arrangement for Lord Orochimaru.

From behind the bar, Kisame shifted.

"Itachi-san." He interrupted, the recurrence of his voice bringing an annoyed scowl to the sound ninja's face. "This is great and all, but how much do we buy Tsunade won't get involved in this? She's Senju, right? Konoha's in her blood."

Kabuto snorted. It was incredible how close fools could come to the truth while being oceans away.

"Tsunade has not been a Konoha shinobi since the war." He replied. "I can assure you that she won't be doing anything while there's blood involved."

Kabuto could have laughed at the poetic irony of the situation, stretching the word long and mocking over the bar. Kisame's teeth stretched into a razor-like grin that chilled Kabuto's satisfaction.

"If that's the case…" He mused, stepping from behind the bar and leering down towards his partner. "Maybe we just take her out, first. Save ourselves some trouble. Seems like a classic divide and devour."

Kisame's beaded eyes glanced towards Kabuto, a consuming smile.

"I've been itching for a good scrap."

"You'll do no such thing." Kabuto snarled. A visible hum of blue chakra surged over his hands and Kisame's eyes watched the glow like a child watches fireworks. Mesmerized. Excited. "Lord Orochimaru needs Tsunade alive. We have an arrangement and you'll do as you're told, mercenary!"

Teeth stretched, a maw of razors glistening and the smile holding them hungered.

"Itachi-san." The blue man's voice was cold and jagged. His nails raked along the bar, scoring the wood in a long and frayed groove. "Seems to me this one thinks he's a big fish because he's been swimming around sharks."

Kabuto whirled, his ankle giving a sickening crack as he barely avoided the colossal sword that tore through the seat and bar and floor like a buzz saw. He tried to swivel on his lame foot, but the force from the impact sent him careening into the nearby wall where his breath shuddered at the impact. From the wreckage, the shark man's grin was feral as patrons fled, screaming.

"Little fish." He chanted, hefting his giant sword like it was weightless as he marched through the chaos. His footsteps clacked alongside Kabuto's heart as the white haired ninja strained, trying to pull himself to his feet. The towering man blurred, and Kabuto spat a clot of blood, the hilt of the giant killer sword rammed into his stomach. The blue man hissed, voice right inside Kabuto's ears and like steam in his mind.

"Need to stay to shallow waters."

"Kisame-san." The voice was calm. Perfectly even. "That's enough."

Kabuto wheezed, his calm demeanor shattered by blinding pain and terror. A trickle of blood gushed from his mouth as the sword's hilt was slowly pulled from his stomach. The shark toothed man bit, an audible chomp, in Kabuto's ears before rising back to his full height and stepping back from the bar.

"Ma, ma." He waved a dismissive hand, reaching over the shattered bar and swiping a bottle into his fingers. He pulled the cork with jagged teeth and gave an annoyed toast to the now deserted bar.

"Me and the kid were just playing. No harm done, Itachi-san."

Kisame gave his partner a saw-toothed grin. The Uchiha remained stone, turning a half-lidded gaze back to the bleeding sound ninja.

"Inform Orochimaru that if he chooses to break our truce, he will be seen as a liability." There was something in the Uchiha's voice, a detached certainty with the way he said liability and Orochimaru. Words spoken as though fate had made the decision, Uchiha Itachi was the only one able to see it. Kabuto seethed through his bloodied gums.

"Liabilities will be eliminated."

Rising without a sound, Itachi flipped his cup and laid it flat onto what remained of the bar. He gave Kisame a glance.

"We have work to do."

The shark man nodded, beaded eyes tracing all the fragile parts of Kabuto's body as though ready to tear them with bare hands and barred teeth. With a final sneer, he ducked his head through the doorway, red clouds disappearing into the night.


Hey everyone!

Editing on a plane is fun - Lots of free time over the Atlantic. This chapter is complete, the next chapter is complete, and the final chapter of this arc is 1/2 complete!

Just a lot of feelings to hash through. Tsunade has capital B baggage and everybody else is checking some, too.

I hope you like this chapter. After fifteen years of writing fanfiction I've actually started attempting my own fiction novel, so I'm trying to use some things I learn here about flow and dialogue to make that better! As always, please feel free to leave a review!

- SillyWalk / FreeDrinks