CHAPTER 03
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Time: 15 days post the birth of Naruto
Konoha Relief Camp
During the long years between the Juubi's resurrection and Kurama's mad scheme to travel into the past, Tsunade had struggled along with her family and team to stay one step ahead of the Juubi.
During this period, she had deal with wounds both physical, mental and spiritual inflicted on the survivors by either the Juubi whenever they ran into it or the endless army of zetsu that were eating every bit of chakra they could sink their roots into.
It was a terrible time to be a combat-medic. Not only were you having to fight off creatures that shrugged off all but the most precise or powerful chakra attacks but you also had to protect and heal your patients while an army of sentient plants tried to eat you. Sterile environments were few and far between even when you were out of combat, as their settlements were little more than badly together hovels of scrap materials or inside deep caves.
Neither of which she could call sterile environments, and the difficulty was further compounded by the lack of proper medical manufacturing.
All they could do during those long dark years was scavenge every village, town and city for any medical supplies or harvest medicinal plants directly from the forests. The former was extremely dangerous due to the presence of zetsu clones or worse. The latter resulted in diminishing returns as they needed to strip the land completely and growing them took long enough for the Juubi or zetsu clones to find their settlements and forcing them on the run again.
There were days when Tsunade wanted to wipe out the entire Uchiha clan for birthing two insipid fools who were not strong enough to live with their grief nor weak enough to give up and die.
The only positive outcome of the disastrous future was giving Tsunade greater experience and skill in managing limited(read:zero) resources, screaming patients and an increased arsenal of medical techniques.
Experience that had come in handy during the past week.
Once Hiruzen had been convinced that she would be staying in Konoha for the foreseeable future, he had explained the Council would take time to convene over her guardian application, given the circumstances. To keep her occupied, he had given her carte blanche to take over the medical relief camps created in the aftermath of Kurama's rampage.
Not that she needed Hiruzen's permission or help for it. She was perfectly capable of knocking a couple of heads together until the so-called medical staff were jumping on command, but it did help keep the blood loss to a minimum.
Shizune had been admirable in organizing the disparate relief sections into a coherent chain of command, but this was not yet the same that had revolutionized Konoha's logistics and was falling behind in a few areas.
As such, Tsunade had stepped to take over the trauma and ICU sections of the medical camps, which allowed Shizune to truly focus on overall administration of the camp.
But that did not prevent stupid people from interrupting her job at the worst possible moment.
"Do you know who I am!?"
Like the little brat who was making demands of her while she was trying to stabilize a shinobi who was in chakra shock due to the corrosive chakra of Kurama eating his insides.
"The Council will hear about this."
Tsunade had to take great care to pull the corrosive chakra out of the man's chakra pathways. She could not afford a single mistake here. Kurama's chakra was unforgiving and even a single mistake would end the man's shinobi career permanently.
"Are you even listening to me, you bitch?"
Draining the last of Kurama's chakra by channelling it into her Yin Seal, Tsunade felt the fatigue of the past three days of sleepless work catch up to her.
Taking a deep breath to fortify herself, Tsunade finally turned to the idiot who was still yelling but had, mercifully for him, never interrupted her. "If you're not a patient or don't have a family member admitted to the relief camps, get out."
The brat's face turned a lovely shade of puce. "You refused to heal my brother."
Tsunade wanted to throw the fool through the roof, but it would be a waste of perfectly good chakra and time. Resources better spent on her patients. "All your brother had was a basic compound fracture. Any one of the medics here could have taken care of it, so I just directed him to them. His arm is as good as new."
The brat, some fool from the Hyuuga main house, started screaming. "You didn't even examine him. You could have-"
Tsunade decided she could waste a little time and effort now to save greater effort later. A flick to the chin and the fool was on the floor, alive but unconscious. "You." She pointed to a medic. "Strap him to a pole outside and load him up with enough sedative to keep him out for a week."
The rookie balked. "But that would be dangerous to him."
"I heal the damage once I'm in a good mood. Now get to it, rookie."
Tsunade did not even bother to watch the rookie. "Nono." The captain of the Medic corps almost jumped up. The girl had yet to grow a backbone around her. "The nine-tails chakra has been extracted from his system. The critical organs are scarred but he will live. Keep him on regulators and supplements for the next three weeks. And keep him sedated for the next week. Otherwise, the pain will send him into shock."
"By your order, Tsunade-sama." Nono bowed low.
Turning an assessing eye to the camp, Tsunade found everything looked to be in order. The patients appeared to be well on the path to recovery. She had stabilized the most critical cases and the doctors, medics and supplementary staff were competent enough to not kill their charges.
All in all, the situation was looking to progress well. The medical staff knew better than to deviate from her orders but there were always a few patients who believed they knew better, which inevitably resulted in wasting more resources on the idiots.
Realizing there she had nothing else to serve as a distraction, Tsunade began walking out of the makeshift hospital and towards the meeting she had bene putting off for the past hour.
It was the worst of this time-travel business. She was either surrounded by inconsequential idiots, soon-to-be future corpses, dangerously incompetent fools, or ghosts of her once-family.
Retiring to the small tent serving as her office, Tsunade ignored the man seated before her desk and started on the paperwork.
"Anybody who thought you mellowed over the years are getting a very rude shock, Princess."
Tsunade needed a second to process that voice and the notion that her old friend was now alive. Luckily, Ino's emotion dampening techniques reduced it to an eye-blink. "If they don't want to be turned into test dummies, then they should have learned not be assholes."
"I think the lesson sunk in after you put that Hyuuga brat in bed."
Tsunade looked up at a Jiraiya who wore a very nice smile. She could clearly see the grief hiding underneath and had to suppress the guilt of not being able to save Minato and Kushina. "You look like Gamabunta stepped on you a few dozen times."
Jiraiya sniffed. "You look like you forgot sleep is a thing normal people do."
"Unlike an old toad, I can hold myself."
"Those shadow clones you scattered around the camp are certainly proving it."
Tsunade realized Jiraiya was fishing for information. The man could never stop himself from poking at anything interested him. "How are you doing, Jiraiya?"
Jiraiya seemed to deflate at the question. "…No idea, Princess. No idea at all."
Tsunade wanted to punch her old friend. Jiraiya could be extremely perceptive of the people around him yet so blind to his own feelings. "Have you seen your godson yet?"
"How did you know that? Minato wanted to keep it a secret."
"Sensei gave me the details."
"Yeah. Sensei told me you were planning to stay in the village now."
Tsunade sighed. Classic Jiraiya. Always deflect an uncomfortable topic with by trying to make the other person uncomfortable. "Yes. Now, stop deflecting, Jiraiya. Have you seen Naruto?"
Jiraiya seemed to mumble under his breath.
Tsunade wanted to smack Jiraiya over the head. "Speak up, damn it!"
"…I don't think I can."
"It doesn't matter what you think, Jiraiya. Minato and Kushina trusted you to take care of him if something happened."
Tsunade leaned towards her old friend. "And guess what? That something happened, and you need to step up."
"Why do you care so much, Tsunade?" Jiraiya snapped.
"Because you are going to fail him." Tsunade knew Jiraiya was only speaking from grief, but she needed to prevent him from repeating her mistakes. "Just like I failed everyone I ever loved."
Jiraiya appeared to be on the backfoot. "Tsunade…"
"It took me years to find my way back home, Jiraiya, and even now, I have to struggle to not run." Tsunade shuddered at the long, dark years spent in a desperate run for survival. There were moments where she just wanted to take Naruto and leave this continent but that was a coward's path and she had promised her son and Kurama she would be better.
"I could work to the bone for a thousand years and it won't make up for abandoning my home. I wasted years of Shizune's life, having her be dragged around on my pity parade." Tsunade would never, ever be able to express how truly grateful she was to Shizune. "So, if you are going to repeat my mistakes for some idea of well-intentioned idiocy, the Shinigami have mercy on you because I won't."
Jiraiya seemed at a loss for words.
Tsunade reigned in her temper. This was Naruto's godfather, and she needed the man to be part of his life. Which meant she had to not drive him away. Her tone softened with emapthy "Your student trusted you with his legacy, Jiraiya. The least you could do is take care of him."
Jiraiya wiped at suspiciously red eyes. "When did you get so eloquent, Princess?"
Tsunade sniffed. "I always was. You were just too boorish to get it."
Jiraiya wore a smile that looked more genuine. "I resent that…" He seemed to deflate at the end of his statement. "Sensei told me you wanted to take custody of Na- of Minato's kid."
Tsunade sighed. It was going to take weeks to convince Jiraiya if he was struggling to speak Naruto's name. "It's not much but I figured that helping Naruto would make up for leaving Kushina without any family." It never would but she could give Naruto a good life.
"You know he's the Nine-tails Jinchuuriki, right?" Jiraiya pointed out in deprecating humor. "The Council might object to the Senju clan taking custody of Konoha's strongest weapon."
Even though she knew he did not mean it that way, Tsunade struggled to not punch Jiraiya for calling her son a weapon. "They can try and fail, yes."
Jiraiya blinked at the words. The man seemed to be hearing from the words than she did. "You're serious about this."
Tsunade was starting to get irritated by the scepticism. "Do you want a contract written out!?"
"I never expected you to-" Jiraiya shook his head. "…I'm willing to agree to a shared custody."
"Are you going to stay with Naruto?"
Jiraiya looked to be in pain at the query. "I'm not in any shape to be a proper godfather right now. But I know Naruto will be in good hands."
"As long as you make regular visits. You are not dumping all your responsibilities on me without doing you share."
"But-"
"Either you agree, or I'll fight for full custody and cut you out entirely." Tsunade threatened. "Don't push me on this, Jiraiya."
Jiraiya appeared to struggle with the answer. "…Alright. Do you have a deal to deal with the Council?"
"It's already in play."
Jiraiya looked confused. "What…" He stared at the tent. "That's why you took over the relief camps." He seemed very surprised. "Shadow Clones. Leading the relief camps. Teaching new techniques to the medical staff."
"If you get near a point, make it."
"Many of the survivors would be disabled for life if you hadn't regrown their limbs, Tsunade. The Council will literally fall over themselves to give-"
Tsunade smiled. "Not bad for a washed-out drunk, huh?"
Jiraiya laughed. "If this is what you can do in a week, I can't wait to see what comes next."
Tsunade smiled. Jiraiya was right. He had no idea at all.
Neither did the rest of the Elemental Nations.
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A/N: Tsunade has started to put her plans in motions. There are going to be plenty of obstacles in her path as the people react to her actions, causing ripples that could invalidate her future, but she did have a Nara's help to plan contingencies.
