Tsunade prepared for surgery again. This time, it was only to have Jiraiya take a look at Arashi's seal. He and Lord Fourth had chatted, and the Hokage didn't find Jiraiya suspicious at all. He seemed genuinely surprised to hear Arashi had a sealing issue. As they didn't have more time to waste, they had already lost weeks, Tsunade agreed to have Arashi do an exam.

But Tsunade hadn't seen Jiraiya since the war in which she fought alongside him and Orochimaru. Seeing the white-haired man brought back so many things. From the good moments on the same team to the dark painful ones when she lost family. Orochimaru had left to do his own not-so-ethical reaseaches, and was killed a few years back because of them.

Tsunade and Jiraiya were alone with Arashi, who was sleeping for the duration of the procedure. Minato and Kushina were expected to watch. Tsunade assumed it was more to monitor Jiraiya's reactions and claims than to watch what Tsunade was doing. The Hyuuga doctor also appeared next to Kushina, making sure nothing changed in Arashi's chakra. But as a Hyuuga, she could see through walls, so there was no need to have her next to Arashi.

Tsunade cut Arashi's stomach like the other week. Jiraiya looked somewhere else, but Tsunade needed all her concentration so she focussed on herself instead of her former teammate. She held the wound open for Jiraiya to peek at the seal.

"I understand why Minato wanted me to see it. I have to admit, it looks an awful lot like one of my doings," he whispered. He then held his shoulders up, looking straight at the window. "Minato, I swear I'm not behind this. I teached fuinjutsu to a few people. Either one of them is behind it, or they also passed their knowledge." Jiraiya looked back at the seal. "Ah, that's where the problem lies.

"What is wrong with it?" Tsunade asked. Jiraiya had tried teaching her fuinjutsu, but she wasn't very interested in it back then. But she was also a curious woman, and whatever Jiraiya would say next could be useful in the future. Maybe she should have learned fuinjutsu with him, after all. It could have helped in a medical setting, to stabilize a patient and whatnot. "You should teach me some, before you leave Konoha again."

"The seal is made to stop the chakra from circulating. It drains all his energy. Their intention was to kill Arashi." Jiraiya became silent for a minute, analyzing it further. "Wait! The seal acts like a portal, as this here indicates," he said, pointing to Tsunade a circle of different markings. "Arashi's chakra, and most likely the nine tail's as well when he tried helping, goes to whoever made this seal. I am confident I can stop it from working, and it should improve Arashi's health when I succeed."

Tsunade kept the opening as big as she could to let Jiraiya work. She watched Minato's expression instead. He seemed to be grumbling. Tsunade heard him saying he had a lot of enemies. Anyone could have made that seal and tried to put the target on Jiraiya's back.

It took an hour, but Jiraiya fixed the seal. Arashi's face was already looking less pale, and the Hyuuga ophthalmologist confirmed the chakra network was back to a normal state, that Arashi should be back to normal in a few hours.

"I'll visit him for the next few days to continue to monitor him, but it seems he'd be out of the woods," Dr Hyuuga said.

Tsunade was left alone to stitch Arashi. The Hokage's family had already left the area with Jiraiya, leaving Tsunade with her thoughts. Now that Arashi's case was over, Tsunade could return to the activities she had before she returned to Konoha. But she wasn't sure she wanted to leave the village anymore. She had told Shizune she wanted to try to stop drinking, and her old habits would come back if she left. She knew that. It had been her way of living for too long. Her drinking habit was too linked to gambling.

Also, she had other things to consider. Minato had mentioned they always needed more doctors, especially medic nins. Tsunade knew she'd have a job if she agreed to it. Tsunade had gone over her fear of blood, forced to because of Arashi's case, so nothing stopped her from staying and treating ninjas.

And there was the most important thing. Tsubane. She had abandoned her once. Tsunade didn't have the heart to leave another time. Especially now that the teen knew. Tsunade hadn't meant to tell her, but now the damage was already done, there was no turning back. They had worked together to save Arashi's life. And Tsunade wanted more than just to have Tsubane be her assistant. Maybe it was the time Tsunade became responsible. She had once wanted children, when Dan was alive. While she was not the best with teenagers, she could do it. She had to try. Tsubane deserved her family. And Tsunade deserved to have hers with her as well. All those regrets of giving her daughter up to an orphanage, there was no way she just left things this way. She had to be mature and actually care for her daughter, even after all those missed years.

Tsunade was done with Arashi and he was sent to the recovery room. When she got to the waiting area to announce it to the Uzumaki family, the Hokage was talking with Yamato and Jiraiya.

"The enemies you've met on your mission near the borders of our land, did they have any distinctive signs, headbands, anything?"

"Or a distinctive coat, maybe?" Jiraiya added. "Did they have black coats with red clouds on them?"

"Can you describe them?" Minato asked. "I have many enemies, maybe they look like ones I can recall."

"No coats like mister Jiraiya said. They seemed to be from Ame."

"No coats? Describe them to me, I have to be sure," Jiraiya said. He didn't look too happy about the enemies being from Ame. Tsunade wondered what he knew about this village that the Hokage didn't.

As Yamato, Tsubane and Sai described to their best the enemies, Jiraiya seemed relieved.

"It's not Konan, then. But she could have shown my techniques to other ninjas, maybe some that Minato faced before who seeked revenge or something. Considering Ame ninjas are trained to get to their maximum potential, it's not a far sketch to think they could have done the seal. Minato, I'll leave the village by the end of the week to investigate on Ame. I'll keep you updated by letters."

"I'll have Fugaku and Shikaku send our most trusted Anbu on it as well. Send them in the area where Yamato's team fought. They could be dangerous, and I can't risk them trying to hurt my sons again. They'll need to be killed or imprisoned."

"I'll try to talk to Konan and learn who she showed fuinjutsu to. It could help us in our research. Tsunade, are you free tonight? I feel like catching up."

Tsunade made a little smile. "Tomorrow we can hang out in a cafe. Tonight, I'm cooking for my daughter."

Jiraiya looked at her, eyes and mouth wide open, in disbelief. Tsubane seemed more unsure, Tsunade hadn't told her about the invitation yet. "Really? Since when?" she asked.

"Since now. The last time we talked just the two of us didn't end up well, I want to make up for that."

"Wait, she's your daughter?" Jiraiya said, pointing to the teen. "Arashi's teammate?"

Sai didn't show any emotion and was just looking at the interaction. Yamato frowned, looking at Tsunade and Tsubane back and forth. Tsubane nodded, a blush to her cheeks.

Tsunade left on that, returning to assess Arashi. He was waking up now, his family next to him.

"Are you in pain?"

The boy nodded, pointing up to his stomach. Of course. Tsunade didn't do miracles, he had had two surgeries in a span of a few weeks.

"You'll be put on bed rest for the remainder of the week, you need to build back some strengths. You'll be off mission for a little longer as well"

Arashi nodded. Naruto was already questioning how he felt, his energy levels and if he could talk with Kurama. Tsunade decided her patient was stable enough and left. Her duty was done now, any doctor would assess Arashi. She had someone else to care for, now.


Author's notes: I'm ending the story on this. I hope you liked it, even though it was mostly about two original characters. Arashi was created because I wanted Naruto to have a twin, and he needed another teammate with Sai, so I created Tsubane and decided it would be fun if she was the daughter of Tsunade but no one knew, so that's how I started to write this story. It also gave me a way to bring back Tsunade in the village. Then, thanks to my beta's idea, I was able to bring back Jiraiya as well.

For now, I don't plan on going after Konan. Even though the time-travel happened when they lost the fourth great war, I don't think I'll write about dealing with the Akatsuki and preventing the war from happening. But again, I started with "Saving Konoha" and "Saving Arashi" and with the idea of preventing Hizashi and the Uchiha's deaths, and the plan for the series ended up with like 10 parts, so who knows how far I'll end up going if I ever get the inspiration to write it.

The next part is the Chunin exam, which will be a little different from the previous life. Stay tuned next week!