Author Notes : Trigger warning: this chapter contains not too graphic description of being sick. It also contains a reference to past suicidal thoughts.
Tsunade suddenly felt dizzy and nauseous when Tsubane mentioned that Shizune got her into the orphanage. Tsunade recalled the pain. The blood that almost made her faint years ago, the smallest body she's even seen. Her denial, and the guilt she felt. The drinking only got worse from remorse to the point she considered joining Dan and Nawaki. They would be so ashamed of her life.
Shizune showed the proof that the child in front of her was that baby, but Tsunade didn't want to tell her the truth. Especially now that they had to work together. It made Tsunade tremble in fear, shame. Tsubane couldn't know about her parents. She probably idealized a loving mother unlucky to die in childbirth, not an alcoholic gambler that fainted at the sight of blood. So she pretended not to know what Shizune was talking about, trying to make a quick eye contact with her assistant to lie, and shut off the discussion. At all costs. But Shizune didn't exactly understand the assignment. Feeling like she was really going to throw up, Tsunade just ran off.
She found herself on the way to the cemetery. To confide to Dan and Nawaki that she hadn't visited in years. What would they think of her? But before she could reach the place, someone called her name. Damn, she thought to herself, recognizing the Hokage's voice.
"I thought you were going to search for documents?" he asked.
"I… I had someone to… uh, visit first," she said. She didn't sound as confident as usual. In-fact, she sounded like a child trying to hide a mess. "Shizune and the kid are starting without me."
"Oh, yeah sure. You probably haven't been here in a long time." Minato said, offering a little polite smile. His smile rapidly faded away to turn into a frown. "Is everything okay, Lady Tsunade? You look shaken. Do you think my son will make it?"
Why would it have to be about your son, Tsunade thought to herself. But she had to stay polite with the village's leader. "I'm hoping so, let's not give up now that I'm here. I just…" She couldn't really tell him what was going on with her own personal life. She felt her stomach twisting. Her pale face probably had worried the man, so she decided to come clean about not being well, since she probably did not look good physically. "I think I ate something bad."
He didn't look very impressed with her lie, but offered a sympathetic smile. All Tsunade could see in her mind was Tsubane when she was a baby, covered in different fluids, and the image made Tsunade gag. She tried slowing her breathings to help her. She couldn't just puke in front of the Hokage. That would be too humiliating. She didn't know if it was because of how strongly she was fighting her rebelling stomach or the emotions of meeting Tsubane, but tears came to her eyes, and Tsunade couldn't hold them for very long.
"I'm sorry, I should go," she rushed. "It wasn't a good idea to come here instead of the Inn."
"Wait," Minato said. Tsunade silently growled. "Take the afternoon. I trust Shizune and Tsubane to help you." Stop mentioning her name, Tsunade thought, but Minato was only starting. "You know… that kid, Tsubane, Yamato suspects she's from a good clan. Do you know anything? Iruka, who had her at the academy, thought she had chakra capacities similar to Senju or Uzumaki. She's probably not the child of some random civilian."
Tsunade couldn't fight back the tears. Her stomach flipped once more, but she stopped the gag just in time. Minato was right on the spot. The great-grandchild of Uzumaki Mito and the First Hokage Senju Hashirama. Tsunade couldn't lie anymore. At least, not on this point.
"She is a relative of mine, but I couldn't raise her myself and didn't want others to know how bad of a loser I was. I took the decision to ask Shizune to bring her here, where I knew good people would train her. I couldn't tell her earlier when Tsubane asked Shizune about her birth place. She can't know. She won't understand, she's just a child. I'm not even sure I can mentor her anymore. Without feeling a mix of emotions…. But that Iruka is right about her lineage. She is a Senju, and a descendant of Uzumaki, just like me."
She almost choked on the words as she talked, but she also felt relieved. Tsunade sighed as the Hokage's immediate answer was not to ask how they were related. He simply nodded along and kept that encouraging smile, probably wanting to have the good juicy confidences. Tsunade herself was surprised by how she just confessed.
"I guess that explains how she got Wood Release, I suppose? Yamato is helping her with it, but it drains her chakra a ton, according to Arashi. I'm not going to ask any more questions about how related she is to you as I can see that just getting this information out was quite hard. But I'd still like you to mentor her regarding medical jutsu. She has the capacity to surpass you. And maybe making you proud on the way, I'm sure you need it even if you don't think you do. If you let yourself go into that state of mind regarding her."
He had read right through her, he knew how they were related, Tsunade was sure. There was no way he didn't connect the dots or at least suspected it. Namikaze Minato was too intelligent to not gather that information. Tsunade's knees almost gave out. What should she do now? She was ordered from the Hokage to mentor the child, and she needed extra help to bring Arashi back to health, because she was in the unknown. She had no clue what the boy had. To obtain what she wanted, she needed to face her guilt, her own state of mind, her feelings of failure to raise a child. But Minato was right, even if she didn't want to admit it to herself. Her heart maybe would slowly heal, knowing how good of a ninja her child was becoming. Wood release combined with medical knowledge, Tsubane would become a strong kunoichi. She'd become even stronger if Tsunade showed her how to fight in her own crush everything style. Tsubane would become a warrior who could heal Tsunade's broken heart… maybe.