Hey guys, Power and Mar here. Long time no see.

Sorry this isn't what you guys expected and both of us being on the receiving end of the stories and we know it sucks.

First of all we wanted to thank all of you guys for staying with us in this almost 3 year journey. Both Power and Me (Mar) love this story to pieces, but the reality is that work and studies had make very difficult for us to continue even try posting semi frequently

But you have been nothing but supportive and loving with this story so, we guessed you guys deserved a little acknowledgement and maybe even some closure with this story. So we thought we might give you guys an idea of where the story was going and how it was going to end.

As you all know, Tsunade time traveled back in time to her teenage years, more specifically the summer she turned 18, that happened to be the time the war started in the timeline we had to literally make up, because it is very unclear how the timeline works in Naruto. We built Mito as a raunchy woman with an iron fist and a heart of gold. Orochimaru is midway an existential crisis and Sarutobi isn't as good of a person as we were led to believe

Tsunade was going to be a pivotal person in changing the outcome of the events that came in canon, making her have a happier life and maybe making some of our Konoha team happier too.

And if you are reading this part you have been pranked really hard.

Chapter 9 is down

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CHAPTER 9 LET'S GOOOOOO


For Tsunade, sleep that night came without any dreams, the tiredness of both the physical training and the mental exertion of dealing with Mito's ultimatum making sure of it. So, it was a pleasant surprise when she was woken up by a delicious smell coming from downstairs, instead of the usual manhandling from her grandmother.

Rolling over, she turned her gaze towards the window and was met with a peculiar sight. She found herself squinting against bright sunlight streaming through the window. While she peacefully slept, the morning had already come and gone. The grogginess of sleep was immediately replaced by a combination of shock, guilt, and of course, disappointment at herself. When something as small as waking up on time could be so difficult, her ambitious plans felt impossible in comparison.

There was nothing more to be done and lamenting the lost morning would only cause more valuable time to trickle away. Tsunade forced herself upright, and then focused on the pleasant smell. Even in her half-asleep state, she immediately knew where it was coming from. Tsunade almost jumped out of her bed and ran out of her room, towards the kitchen downstairs.

"Just in time for breakfast, brat." Mito drily remarked, not taking her eyes off the stove

"Not a brat, remember?"

"Until you can wake yourself up on time, you'll always be a brat."

Not wishing to argue, Tsunade dug into the breakfast. Well, more like lunch judging by the hour.

Almost shivering in anticipation, she picked up the chopsticks and slowly prodded at the slow-cooked chicken,rice and beans. It was something she'd tried to make before, to mixed results. Maybe it was her imperfect memory, or maybe it was just her lack of cooking skill, but the food never quite ended up right.

"Are you gonna eat the thing or just stare at it?" Mito asked, plating some of the food for herself.

Tsunade couldn't help but examine it. All of her previous efforts just looked wrong from the get-go. 'But this one..' Tsunade thought to herself as she took her first taste. Predictably, her grandmother did not disappoint. '...It's perfect,'. It almost brought tears to her eyes - the explosion of flavors, perfect the combination of savory chicken, puffy rice and hearty beans felt in her mouth.

The recipe had originally been an accident. Like a lot of Tsunade's childhood memories, this one also started with her throwing a tantrum. She wanted her beef and rice, and she wanted it now. Not willing to leave a cranky Tsunade alone in the house, Mito just substituted the beef for chicken and added beans to fill it out. What resulted was a culinary miracle. Not learning that recipe -deceptively simple though it seemed - was one of the biggest regrets of her life.

On the other side of the table, Mito stared at her with no small amount of curiosity.

"What?" Tsunade defended herself from whatever judgmental thoughts her grandma had going on in her head. "It's really good, alright."

"If this caused you to audibly moan…" Mito started, and Tsunade immediately dreaded what was probably coming. "We really need to teach you how to cook for yourself."

Sagging back in her chair, Tsunade let out a sign of relief. She wasn't going to have to deal with her grandmother talking about her sex life. Some things were too much for even the former Hokage to handle.

"You must be so loud, kiddo. If you are going to do that everytime, keep it out of the house."

Yup, there it was. She had too much faith in that old hag. Tsunade let out an inarticulate groan and tried to ignore her grandma. Any other time, she'd have tried to argue, but right now, the food took priority. Far too soon, the food was finished and Tsunade was staring forlornly at the empty plate. Such a beautiful, yet transient, experience.

"Oh stop pouting, brat. There's more of everything in the stove" An exasperated Mito got and started piling up second helpings on her plate. Seconds later, Tsunade was happily gobbling down a second helping while Mito tried her best to ignore the moans.

When the food was finished, Tsunade's sleep-induced grogginess was replaced by food-induced grogginess. Mito, on the other hand, looked as dignified as ever, despite having eaten enough food for a battalion. Too tired to voice a complaint about how unfair it was, Tsunade leant back and closed her eyes.

Her rest was short-lived, however, as her grandma slammed a bento box on the table in front of her, shocking her alert. "I need to clean up now, and you need to get lost. Go and give this to that friend you put in the hospital."

"He's not in the hospital." Tsunade tried to defend, but it only came out as a confused-sounding groan.

"I don't care if he's in his house, the hospital, or the morgue. Go and deliver this to him. Or if you're too tired, would you rather set the schedules when loud moans are permitted in the house?"

Tsunade was scrambling out of her seat and towards the door before Mito could even finish her sentence.

"You forgot the bento." Mito pointed out, before tossing the box in her general direction. Tsunade managed to grab it in midair, cursing her grandmother's unorthodox training methods.

"And Tsun-chan?"

Tsunade stopped on the kitchen threshold, wary of more flying objects.

"If I'm going to have to teach you to cook properly, be back in time to help with dinner."

"Got it!" Tsunade responded, before turning away from her grandma to hide the giant smile on her face. She knew it was childish, but being able to replicate all her favorite dishes felt like a dream come true after living off takeout for half of her adult life.

"He's probably too injured to do whatever it is that you do at his place anyway." Mito added.

'She couldn't leave it at that, can she?' Not willing to suffer her grandma's innuendos more than she already did, Tsunade slammed the door behind her and ran.


Tsunade rediscovered that a normal 10 minute sprint took a fair bit longer with a full stomach. There was just something about her grandmother's cooking that made her want to return to the bed and sleep off the fullness. 'But that way lies danger.' Tsunade thought. Since Mito clearly wanted to punish her for waking up late, not pissing her off further was the smart thing to do.

Jiraiya's place was an inconspicuous apartment that was annoyingly hard to find based on her old memories. Nothing about that place made it seem like someone with an eccentric personality lived there. Of course, she knew Jiraiya better than anyone else so it didn't surprise her that a skilled spy would have a place that didn't stand out.

As soon as she knocked on the door, Tsunade heard frantic shuffling from inside. Before she could contemplate what it was, she was greeted by Jiraiya, clothed in nothing but a pair of boxers. If he wasn't injured, she would have shoved him inside using her super strength. Unfortunately, she had to make do with telling him to put a goddamn shirt on.

"C'mon, Hime, I was alone in my own house." Jiraiya whined, "Plus it's hard to put a shirt on without the use of one arm." He tried fruitlessly to get his injured arm inside a sleeve, as if to illustrate his point.

Tsunade sighed, not willing to admit that he was right. She had nobody to blame but herself for Jiraiya opening the door in his underwear.

"Let me help you with that." Tsunade offered through gritted teeth. She took his hand between her thumb and forefinger and guided the arm-hole over his injured arm.

"Y'know," smirked Jiraiya. "My fantasies were more about you taking your clothes off, not putting them on me, but I can make do with this."

Tsunade managed to resist the urge to whack him right on his injured arm but made a mental note to get back at him once he's healed."Don't push your luck, or you might end up with no working arms." said Tsunade, leaving the bento on the tiny kitchen counter.

She went through his drawers and settled on one of his white undershirts, easy enough to not make both of them battle too much with getting it on.

"Come here" Tsunade said. Once he was in close distance she motioned him to duck enough for her to pass his head through the hole. Once the shirt was on, he raised his head, eyes staring at hers and a subtle smile playing on his face. All of a sudden, Tsunade realized how close his face was to hers, and an involuntary blush took over her face.

She took a second to compose herself, otherwise Jiraiya would never let her live this down. Next, she went behind him and guided his non-injured arm, which easily went through the armhole. The easy part done, Tsunade then slowly guided the other arm, watching out for any winces or signs of pain. Luckily, the fabric of the shirt was stretchy enough to make the process more or less painless for Jiraiya. With both sleeves in, she reached out from behind him and pulled the shirt down to his waist.

Standing in his room with her arms around him and their bodies so close to each other, Tsunade felt a sudden urge to let the moment go on and bask in the warmth of the feelings it evoked. At the moment, she felt like she could pull him closer together, and then fall together until all of her problems disappear forever. Instead, Tsunade let go of him and let the moment pass, feeling like she betrayed herself in some way.

"There," she said, herr voice a little tighter than it should be, "Now you look decent enough to open the door to visitors."

Jiraiya muttered something about 'my own house' and 'human rights' before plopping down on the bed.

Now that Jiraiya looked relatively decent, Tsunade decided to have a look around and see how he was living. Aside from a few unwashed dishes, everything looked surprisingly neat. Of course, the state of his arm made her wonder how much use the kitchen even got.

"Did you get lunch yet?" Tsunade asked. "What are you eating these days anway? I hope it's not just instant ramen."

"Nah, mostly canned stuff or ramen from a stand nearby. Want to head out and grab something to eat?"

"Forget about ramen, I've got something better." She pointed to the bento that she'd placed on the table.

"C'mon, I don't want to take your lunch, Hime." said Jiraiya. "It doesn't seem enough for two anyway. Let's go grab some ramen. "

"I just had enough food to feed a small village, so I'll pass." That was only a partial truth. Mito's cooking was good enough that she'd gladly eat some more, no matter how full she was feeling just minutes ago. "Unless you want to piss off my grandma, I'd suggest you eat more and talk less."

The threat of her grandma was more than strong enough to convince Jiraiya. Within seconds, he was inhaling it like he hadn't tasted food in years. "S'good!" Jiraiya yelled out, slamming the empty bento down on the table. Tsunade was pleasantly surprised that he waited until his mouth was no longer full to shout that.

"Not that you're not in danger of starving to death anymore, let's look at that hand of yours." Her much-practiced physician tone would hear no arguments.

Since it had been her who got carried away, she had made sure to at least leave the fracture healed. When she first assessed his injury, she had already gone through a lot of her reserves during their sparring session. The inflammation hadn't been her priority when healing, and while the bone was fine, the surrounding tissue was still swollen, warm to the touch, and likely painful.

Passing down her chakra infused hands down his arm now, she could make sure to heal everything. It was a quick fix - nothing too major and even less when she had done it many times

"I always knew you had a magic touch, Hime." Jiraiya smiled, flexing and rotating his hand. "Lemme pay you back with my magic touch."

"Don't make me throw you through the wall, idiot." Despite the words, Tsunade's tone was fond. Everyone who knew Jiraiya could attest to the fact that he was a stubborn and annoying pervert who could never keep his mouth shut. But for Tsunade, it was different, at least this time. Jiraiya was also an endless stream of positivity and inspiration, and he always believed in her even when she didn't believe in herself.

Even with all the spy missions he did, he was the type to be vocal about what he wants. If he said he was willing to give up everything to get together with her, Tsunade knew he meant it with all his heart. In the ambiguous world of shinobi where everyone has their own agenda, Jiraiya was a welcome reprieve. A person who Tsunade could count on, who was always waiting for her no matter how much she tried to run away from that part of herself.

Right until the end…

Jiraiya suddenly poked her in the cheek, bringing her out of her thoughts. "You need to stop getting stuck inside your head, Hime. Easy way to get killed in battle."

Despite all of Jiraiya's aforementioned positive qualities, it was still really annoying when he was right.

"Just thinking about what to cook for dinner." Tsunade waved off his concerns. "Grandma is officially tutoring me in cooking, so it's serious business."

"Damn scary is what it is." Jiraiya slowly got up from the floor before stretching both arms. It seemed like he could hardly wait to get back into the action.

"I guess she can decide what to teach me." Jiraiya let out a wordless noise of agreement as he continued his stretching exercises. She watched as he expertly went through the routine, seeming completely combat-ready despite being too injured to put on a shirt by himself only a few minutes ago.

"Anyway," Tsunade interrupted before the silence could go on any longer. "I'll head out and get some training done. You stay in and rest."

Jiraiya gave her an unconvincing thumbs up, before continuing to stretch some more. Shaking her head with no small amount of fondness, Tsunade headed for the door.


Tsunade had barely made her way out of the apartment building before an ANBU stopped in front of her and handed her a scroll. She didn't have to open the contents to know that it was from the Hokage's office. After years of being the Hokage, it was a strange feeling for her to be on the other side.

She sighed as she opened it, recognizing Hiruzen's familiar scrawl. While the man himself tried to maintain a dignified and elegant image, his handwriting was anything but – looking more like a hastily scribbled letter from a child rather than an official summons.

She was asked to report to training ground 27 for some unspecified reason, but Tsunade could hazard a guess that it had to do with the war looming on the horizon.

'There goes my plan to stay in and learn to cook better.' As petty as it was, she couldn't help but feel a tinge of disappointment at being forced to miss some time with her grandmother. In her past life, she'd happily thrown herself into being a ninja and it wasn't until Mito had died that she realized just how little time they've been spending together in her final years. By that time, it was too late to do anything. Now, she resolves to make up for this lost time later.

While the scroll didn't specify a time, it was an unwritten rule that any task ordered by the Hokage is to be carried out as soon as possible. And that meant rushing through the rooftops instead of a leisurely stroll like she preferred. A couple of minutes later, Tsunade was out of the main village area and near the training grounds. To her surprise, the place was almost full, with shinobi of all ranks and ages practicing all over the place.

Putting the thoughts of kids fighting in the war out of her mind, she made her way to training ground 27 which sat near the outskirts of the training area. It had always been Sarutobi's favorite training ground since it was far enough that nobody could see him smoke his pipe and tell his students to practice by themselves. Of course, the team was more than happy to have that freedom and this became the place where her team got most of their training done.

An ugly feeling welledd up in her stomach when she finally got a clear view of the training ground. A bunch of kids that looked just about old enough to be genin were going through various exercises. In the corner of the ground, she could make out a very familiar figure slouching against a tree, seemingly keeping an eye on the kids.

"You decided to show up, I see." Orochimaru slowly approached her once she landed on the training ground.

"Hokage orders." Tsunade said as she took out the scroll before quickly shoving it back in. "I'm here against my will." She finished as she took a seat next to him.

"Aren't we all." Orochimaru muttered, before eyeing the kids. "Except for these idiots, I suppose. They think they'll be heroes."

Tsunade felt a pang of sadness at his words as her mind produced an image of a young boy running around saying the same thing.

With Orochimaru, she used to often wonder if he was trying to hurt others or if he was unintentionally being caustic. Time would prove the latter theory less likely, but if Tsunade wanted to get anything done, she couldn't really afford to discount potential resources just because of what might happen.

She took a second to control her breathing before responding. "Why are these kids under your… our wing now?"

She knew Sarutobi well enough by now, the guy always did things for a reason and wasting a valuable resource like Orochimaru on some random kids wasn't at all like him.

"The dark haired one there is a Uchiha with a lot of potential. The one with the face tattoos is the unusual case of an Inuzuka with brains and the blonde is a Raiton prodigy"

"I see… do you think they're good enough to get through the war?"

Orochimaru shrugged, seemingly unbothered by the possibility of the kids not making it. "Perhaps. They might make it out based on their current level. Still, Sarutobi wants us to make sure they do." He made quotation marks in the air with his hands. " 'Too valuable' in the future for them to be wasted in war."

Tsunade nodded before taking a closer look at the prospective shinobi in front of them. All three were navigating an obstacle course, and as soon as they finished, they'd go back to the beginning and repeat it again. By any normal metric, the exercise didn't make much sense at all.

Orochimaru noticed her staring and answered the question that was on her lips. "I am trying to see how long it will take for them to give up and complain. Truth be told, I was expecting the Inuzuka to stop after the first ten minutes."

Tsunade didn't quite know what to make of his unorthodox teaching methods, but she had to admit that it wasn't a bad way to filter out the ones who were too impatient to be ready for war. "And what will you do if they complain?" Tsunade asked.

"Have them repeat this all night." The amusement in his voice was clear. "They need to learn that they won't have the option to simply give up once the war starts."

"Isn't it convenient that you don't have to do any work this way?" Tsunade commented after a few more seconds of silence.

Orochimaru just smiled wider in response but didn't deny the accusation. It was moments like these that made dealing with Orochimaru so annoying. Even when he was right, he'd go about things in the most annoying way possible. Nobody, not even his closest friends could tell if he was intentionally being difficult or just naturally an asshole.

"I'm sure Sarutobi-sensei will be happy to know all about your innovative new teaching plan." Tsunade gave him a stern look that had been molded by years of her experience as the Hokage. "He might even give you more kids to take care of."

"Always the teacher's pet." He answered with a strangely petulant expression on his face. To her surprise, he quietly started walking towards the group of kids. Tsunade looked on with no little bewilderment as he signaled them to stop and started lecturing them about how they just 'passed' his test.

Orochimaru was notoriously stubborn in the best of days, so she hadn't expected her implied threat to work. Or was it just her memories of his future crimes changing the way she saw him even now?

Tsunade joined the group, still unsure what to make of a young Orochimaru. Regardless, the least she could do for these kids was to teach them enough to survive their first week in the war.

"For the next part of the training, you will be facing off against each other in a spar." As soon as Orochimaru uttered these words, Tsunade could see the faces of all the kids light up.

"But this will no longer be like your spars in the school playground." Orochimaru continued. "I will be teaching you to survive in a war, and that means you won't be using any of your regular weapons or tools."

All the kids looked aghast at his declaration, and if the stakes weren't this high, it would almost be cute. The Uchiha piped up. "Wait, I've been training with this sword since I was-"

"I do not care if you were born holding that sword. I will not have students that throw tantrums like a child deprived of his favorite toy."

The Uchiha kid looked suitably admonished and the Inuzuka let out a shameless laugh at his teammate being chewed out. "I told ya, you won't stand a chance if you can't do Taijutsu like we can."

"Inuzuka, that also means you'll fight without your dog."

Orochimaru interrupted the boy's outraged shout and continued, "A war isn't like your little spars at the academy. It is chaotic beyond what you could imagine, and if you can't adjust to something as simple as losing your weapon, you'll die – it's as simple as that."

"Hey! Aiken is not a weapon, he's my friend!"

"Friend?" Orochimaru scoffed. "We are Shinobi. We are all weapons to be wielded by the village. And if you can't fend for yourself when separated from your so-called friend, both of you are going to end up dead."

And that was the Orochimaru that she knew and hated. Do anything to survive, step over everyone else's bodies, and be prepared to sacrifice anything. Suddenly, she realized that her nails were digging into the palm of her hands and forced herself to relax.

"Let's say your dog gets injured, Inuzuka." Orochimaru continued, "Are you fine with being useless in a fight and letting it die?"

The kid visibly paled at his words and Orochimaru smiled even wider, as if enjoying the effect he was having. The kid muttered something under his breath, suddenly looking a lot more childish. Orochimaru quietly stared at him, watching him squirm and fidget nervously under the weight of the question.

"And you," he turned to the Uchiha, "Are you going to simply lay down and die if your little sword breaks? Do you three want to continue playing with your toys or do you want to survive in this war?"

Looking a lot more docile now, two of the kids answered with a quick "yes sir" while the Inuzuka muttered something a lot more rude. Tsunade couldn't help but chuckle at the absurd sight of a young kid cursing at the person who'd grow up to become an infamous Nukenin. The old Orochimaru would have instantly made an example of him, but this one simply made a sour expression before moving on.

In her mind, she knew that her old teammate hadn't done any of the heinous crimes yet. Still, it didn't change how badly he'd hurt her and others in the future, and it was unfair that she now had nowhere for all that anger to go. Even as she watched him acting harmless and interacting with the kids, there was a part of her that wished he'd reveal something to prove that he was already evil, beyond saving from the start. Anything that would give her an excuse to grab the bastard and slam him into the ground repeatedly, until all her rage was spent.

Tsunade sat down under the shade of the tree and watched the training session. Her teammate instructed the kids to discard the weapons, tools, or jutsus they'd gotten used to. The kids were far from happy about having to give up all of their trump cards but Tsunade couldn't deny that they would need to be more versatile to survive the war. Even then, who knows if they would make it anyway, when far stronger shinobi had fallen. Her morbid thoughts must have seeped into her expression because Orochimaru was suddenly looking at her with amusement writ on his face. While he wasn't evil enough to chop up kids for his science experiments yet, her teammate always took pleasure in other people's discomfort.

She decided to speak up, "Why are you like that?" annoyance clear in her voice.

Orochimaru's face morphed into a look of pure confusion and he simply stared at her – as if the question was too far fetched for him to even consider. The expression went as quickly as it came and he had his usual smug mask on. "If you keep asking strange questions like that, they might just give you another month of leave for insanity."

"That's just more sleep time for me. But seriously, why?"

"Perhaps you should ask yourself why you aren't like me? Why do you still insist on holding on to sentiment, your naive fantasies?" There was a tinge of bitterness in his voice. "At this point, you really should know better."

She couldn't really blame him, she once was as jaded as him. Knowing things really would turn out kinda alright in the end might have helped make her less cynical. "Plenty of people have gone through worse things than we have." Tsunade answered, hoping to channel that air of wisdom a Hokage is supposed to have. "But you don't see them constantly being a pain in the ass for everyone else."

"My apologies." Orochimaru answered, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Now I see the error of my ways. I will teach the kids to be nice instead of teaching them to be strong."

"Sarcasm is not a pretty look on you, Oreo-chan."

"No, you are right," he continued, "Nice and well-mannered kids have such a great track record of survival, right?"

The implication was pretty clear. Yet another instance of Orochimaru trying to hurt her when pushed about his awful behavior. This time by throwing Nawaki's death at her face.

Her 17 year old self would have most likely punched his face inside, her 54 year old self was still very close to punch his face inside for the comment. But with age, one learns restraint. Despite her impressive self-control, Tsunade knew from her experience as the Hokage that she couldn't let a smug little twerp like Orochimaru get away with insulting her. The response just had to be more measured than a punch to the face, usually at least. "You talk a lot for someone with fewer missions under your belt than me or Jiraiya." Tsunade tried not to let her anger seep into her tone, but she wasn't sure if she was successful.

Orochimaru scowled. "Congratulations on completing more chores than me. It doesn't change the facts, you're just too sheltered to see it."

"Sheltered? You were raised by your parents while I grew up watching my entire family die one by one. And how many wars have you fought in that you get to lecture me or Jiraiya about life? You're just an amateur who's too afraid to face reality and–"

Before Tsunade could finish unloading onto her teammate, Orochimaru turned around and started walking away from her.

"So you can give it but not take it then, huh?" She knew it was pretty petty from her side, but words were all she had to throw at him.

Those words must have done something because Orochimaru stopped in his tracks before turning around to face her. The way he glared at her, no other emotion visible on his face, she could believe that this person would grow up to become the infamous Snake Sannin. Yet, there was a part of her that reveled in it, that wished he'd cross the line – show her proof of his evil nature so she'd have an excuse to stamp him into the dirt.

"Just like a little brat who can talk big but can't take an explosive tag, I suppose?" As soon as those words left Orochimaru's mouth, his face soured. Maybe it was regret, but Tsunade didn't care.

In a flash, she was in front of him "You really shouldn't have said that." her voice dangerously low as the full training ground faded into the background. "That's low, even for a scumbag like you."

"And your people shouldn't have filled up a child's head with grandiose tales of heroics until he decides to go kill himself under my watch."

"You fucking failed to protect him! And now you want to blame a kid for dying-"

"The brat made a lot of mistakes, most of them were listening to you. But that day… It wasn't a mistake, he chose to throw his life away." His tone was eerily calm but there was something uneasy in his eyes as he spoke

"Threw his life away!?" Before he could react, she reached out and grabbed his neck, feeling a dim sense of satisfaction when his face turned into a scared grimace. "Does that lie help you sleep at night, you little worm?"

"T-they… didn't even… show… you... the… report." He managed to wheeze out despite her attempts to wring him. She never saw the report, and once she was Hokage, she never had the guts to look into the incident.

"Keep talking." Her grip on his neck loosened but only barely.

"Strange, isn't it? Someone steps on a trap landmine and the face gets disfigured when the legs are intact. How many cases like that have you seen?"

Between all the grieving, she never had the time to think about the details, the little things that seemed to not make sense. Even now, his words were awakening the deep ache in her heart that she'd been trying to forget recently.

"For your own sake, I hope you're going somewhere with this." Tsunade warned, letting her nails bite into his skin.

"Okay, here's a fun story for you. A team of six Iwa nin are on a recon mission, far away from home. Suddenly, these idiots run into a small team from Konoha. Not a big deal, right? Well, this team has a kid that's from a very important family and Iwa is just itching to get their hands on him. One thing led to another and by the end, we had seven corpses to lug back home."

"He… he was assassinated by Iwa?" The cogs on her head were turning at overdrive speed, all those things that never seemed to fit, finally making some sense

"They weren't good enough to pull that off but your brother wanted to be the hero." He practically spit out the last word. "The kid threw himself in front of an attack meant for a teammate. He was midway to counter a Jutsu, the bastard changed the target last minute and I think you can guess where the bullseye was."

A gasp was all she could let out, her grip finally leaving Orochimaru's neck. Her knees buckled below her as the information sank in.

The shock, the hurt, betrayal. She spent 38 years of her life carrying the pain of losing Nawaki. All the comments people secretly made mocking his death. Like a finger on an open sore.

"His dreams, his family, you, he threw all that away just to play hero. And to thank him for his bravery, the great village of Konoha suppressed the report so you'll remember him as a gormless moron who stepped on a trap." It was clear that Orochimaru was beyond answering her questions and was just ranting to let out his hidden frustrations. If Tsunade wasn't so overwhelmed she might have even joined him in his anger.

For a few seconds Tsunade stood there, trying to take in a deep breath, yet the air felt so thin and scarce she could barely fill her lungs. Pain and grief were things she'd been dealing with, but this was different.

And then there was something she didn't expect in the concoction of emotions. Relief.

Relief of knowing Nawaki was a great ninja, relief of getting some truth in a world full of deceit, even the selfish part of her feeling relief of knowing she taught him enough to not fall for a trap

And with that, she could breathe again. Slowly, little by little, until she finally gained enough control over her body to pick herself off the ground.

Orochimaru was still staring at her with an expression that she'd never seen on him before – Was that pity?

Even if it was, was that really all he had to offer her at this moment? Whatever it was, one thing that Tsunade did know was that any reaction she offered to this worm would be a waste of her energy and time.

She turned around and walked away from the training ground. The more she walked, the more she found herself drowning in the newfound well of emotions, until she was walking in a daze.

She let her feet guide her out of the bustle of Konoha and towards the quiet of the Senju forest. So many thoughts were running through her overwhelmed mind that even the familiar trees near her home couldn't make her feel anything but numb.

As if running on autopilot, she dimly felt her hands opening the door and her feet crossing the living room. She heard a person say something, a distant part of her mind realizing it's Mito, but the words seemed like white noise in her head.

It wasn't until she felt her grandmother's arms around her that the weight of the revelation fell on her. The barrier broke, tears flowed and finally she could let out the sobs she had been holding on


Qué paso, te asustaste?

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS! POWER AND MAR OUT