Jiraiya didn't know whether bringing Naruto on this trip had been a mistake or his greatest idea yet, but he knew that he couldn't let the boy fail. It wasn't just about getting Tsunade to be the next Great God-on-Earth, even if he really did need that to happen, but it was also about his role as a teacher and Naruto's future as a student, and Tsunade's future as a person. His former bandmate needed the boy to succeed here; she needed to believe in something again. That boy needed his dreams.

Plus, he was, at this point, a student of Jiraiya's, and the prophecy had been about as clear as a prophecy could be. Tishtrya's greatest offspring on the Middle-World would raise up a child of the Gods who would either save or destroy the world; Jiraiya had no children of his own, and none of his former students had turned out anything worthwhile in the end, with four exceptions. Minato was dead, having saved the Village but hardly the 'world,' Nagato died without even that to his name, and Konan and Yahiko were Deviants, not Scions, (on top of the fact they died with Nagato).

At this point, either the prophecy held some indiscernible alternate meaning that wouldn't make sense until it already happened and they had the benefit of hindsight (hardly unlikely, considering how prophecies tended to work), or it was Naruto.

Thus, he took a more proactive approach in getting the boy to understand the second Boon of Stars than he had previously. It wasn't really that difficult compared to 'Perfect Timing,' at least for someone who had already managed to get the first one down, but he feared the boy's impatience when he learned what 'Sense Age' did. A lot of younger Scions who learned Stars (which weren't many, to be honest, but enough for a pattern to emerge), thought it was kind of useless, even skipping it outright, and to be fair to them it kind of was outside of very specific situations, but Jiraiya didn't trust the boy's ability to figure out 'Aurora,' and certainly not any of the more difficult Boons, in any reasonable amount of time, so 'Sense Age' is what he focused on.

"The test for the second Boon is quite simple. How old is the hourglass?"

Naruto was a bit miffed to still be focusing on the damn thing, but he went along with his sensei's bizarre question and stared at it. Then stared at it some more. Then scrunched his eyes together to stare at it even harder.

Then, finally, he looked up to Jiraiya and shouted, "how in the cold depths of the Underworld am I supposed to know that?"

"If we had more time, I would ask you to examine the metal, learn about rust and tarnish, look to see the wear and tear around it, then do some research, but that kind of intellectual rigor is quite frankly a bit above someone like you, so we'll skip straight to the supernatural stuff."

He walked Naruto through channeling his Ichor in the same way he did for Perfect Timing, but then spreading it out, not seeing the current passage of time but moving it so that the past time was available to his sight…the boy was extremely lost extremely quickly.

"Okay, new approach," Jiraiya tried before Naruto could start whining again. "You said that you were able to figure out Perfect Timing because you had an enlightenment about how time itself worked, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well, just telling you the answer to enlightenment-based revelations rarely works, or the Kue-Jin would dominate us all,"

"what?"

"An irrelevancy, ignore it for now, but let's try an important question. I asked you earlier how old the hourglass was, right? What does that actually mean?"

"Well, it's how long the hourglass has been around, isn't it?"

"Do you mean that it just popped into existence at some point?"

"Huh, no, it was, well, a bunch of stuff, like metal and sand and all that, before then, I guess."

"So shouldn't the age of that metal and sand and such count toward its own age?"

Naruto's face scrunched in confusion, even harder than before. "Does it? Do I have to know that too?"

"If you don't, then you have to tell me why you don't, and I can't just give you an answer. It will do you far more good, at least in terms of applying your understanding toward manipulating supernatural energy, if you figure it out for yourself."

--

Sakura felt really stupid right now. While Jiraiya and Naruto were training, she had tried to imitate their exercises, not to learn Stars but to try out War. From what she gathered listening to and observing Naruto's training, he was going through a bunch of puzzles and riddles that revealed a deeper understanding of the philosophy behind the Purview, and thus helped him shape his Ichor in an instinctive way to use the Purview's Boons. It was a simple, yet brilliant concept, and she tried her hand at making up her own exercises.

Setting up a chess board, she challenged herself to take a cut whenever one of her pieces got taken out; this would simulate 'war,' and make it dangerous. Plus, since she was playing against herself, she had to be brave; Sakura had to make moves that would have been strategically sound in a normal chess match knowing that they would sacrifice pieces and thus get her hurt. She knew that the standard 'first Boon' for War Purview users was 'Blessing of Bravery,' which allowed one to transfer one's own courage to another, so understanding courage in addition to warfare generally should have given her a leg-up.

Instead, it just her covered in little cuts. If she were any closer to learning the War Purview, it wasn't apparent in any way. Sitting back and sighing, she found herself surprised by the fact that it matched up with another sigh.

Turning her head, she noticed that woman who travelled with Tsunade, Shizune she thought, looking utterly exhausted. When the two saw each other, Shizune's expression turned from frustration to curiosity. "What are you doing?"

"If you promise not to make fun of me for my ignorance, I was trying to see if I could create an exercise to teach me the War Purview."

Shizune quickly looked over the chess board, saw the girl's cuts, and immediately pieced together her thought process. "While I don't know War, I can tell you that you're on the right track, but ultimately missing the mark. You're still choosing when you get hurt; a real warrior's courage is about going into situations where you know you can be hurt, but ultimately may or may not. It would probably work after a while if you were playing against someone."

Sakura's expression brightened. "Would you-"

"I guess, but I have to ask why you're learning War anyways?"

"Well, I'm already good with Health and Justice, and I want to get better, but lately I've been feeling like the medic and the distraction for my bandmates. I want to learn something that gives me more of an edge in combat, something a little flashier than Melee Arete, which I can't really do either but I work on that during my normal training anyways. And well, War is Associated with my Divine Mother."

"Arete, huh? Dodekatheon then. And if you're mother is Associated with War then I'm guessing Athena. Aren't her children more suited to being strategists anyways? Why don't you just focus on what you're good at? The Gods know we could use more Health Purview experts."

Sakura frowned. "I guess that I just want to be able to do something new. I know that it's a little selfish, but I want to show the others that I'm getting new powers too, learning new things, becoming more varied. And, I kind of want something that's my thing, you know?"

"I mean, War isn't exactly an uncommon Purview. If you really want to study something rare, then learn a special Purview. Half the Village is afraid of them," Shizune snorted, clearly not holding those with such opinions in high regard.

"Mystery, Prophecy, and Magic? But those aren't taught at the Academy…" her own objection turned into its greatest argument in favor of the idea. "But who would teach me? I don't really understand them even on a conceptual level."

"I know Magic," Shizune pointed out before she realized that she was inadvertently committing herself to something she almost certainly didn't have time for. "Even if it gets me banned from casinos and Lady Tsunade won't let me 'mess with Fate Strands' anywhere near her, I'd say that I'm actually pretty good with it. Of course, Magic is Associated with Dian Cecht, and not with Athena, so it would be easier for me, but you seem like a smart girl. I wasn't kidding earlier when I said the chess plan might actually have worked."

--

Tsunade spent the entire day, after mixing up a poison that wouldn't be blocked by Stamina Knacks, steeling herself. She kept her expression neutral. She shut down her doubts. When she stomped back to where she was currently staying, even Shizune couldn't tell that something was wrong.

The Minor God stared at the Demigod and the Lesser Hero who were currently throwing dice on the ground. A brief part of her was amused that 'miss please stop gambling and think of your finances for once' was apparently playing dice with a child, especially with how frustrated said child sounded, but then she listened to Shizune's instructions and realized that her little handmaiden was teaching the brat how to use the Magic Purview.

That…felt odd. It reminded Tsunade of when she was a Lesser Hero, learning from Guide Sarutobi. Then, she thought on all those she trained in the Health Purview, trying to save the Village from its own stubbornness...what am I doing? No, it was time to stifle all doubts. She just had to take care of Jiraiya, fix Orochimaru, and then…what? See them again? Gamble a bit more? Drink a bit more?

"Remember, in spite of its name the Magic Purview could easily be called the 'Luck Purview.' Or, perhaps more accurately, the 'Fate Purview.' Understand the parts of the world that are out of your control, that are pre-ordained but can be changed, and change them. It's just as much a matter of will as it is chance and fate. Understand that, and you'll understand Magic. Understand choice and destiny, and how they aren't as contradictory as one might think, and you'll understand Magic."

Choice and destiny. Luck and will. Thinking on those things bothered Tsunade, but she wouldn't admit it, even to herself. Luck had screwed her over more times than she could count, and that was before she got addicted to gambling, so why shouldn't she choose this for herself? It was her will, after all, wasn't it?

Leaving the two to continue their little lesson, she ran into Jiraiya, who himself was cooling off after an apparently frustrating training session with that Naruto brat, and invited him to go drinking with her. They both looked like they could use it, after all.

"So, the legendary Sankami. This is where we ended up after all of it," Jiraiya noted as they each downed a shot glass, "drinking our worries away in a podunk bar in a podunk town that I'd never have heard of it weren't for me trying to find you. Not the ending I would have imagined."

Tsunade snorted. "And what ending did you imagine? Us in a palace? The only way to get one of those is to get political power, and the only way to get political power is to screw people over."

Downing a second shot glass, she looked around at the 'podunk town.' "Honestly, this isn't so bad. Lots of mortals live like this, after all, and I don't think that they're lesser than us. Not at all. In fact, I'd say they're better in many ways. They don't have to be murderers to be respected."

Jiraiya looked at her askance. "Don't pretend you'd prefer the mortal life. You love the power that being a Scion grants you. You love being at the center of things, when it doesn't kill you. As much as you'll never admit it, I think that deep down you love fighting for a cause. Believing in something, giving your life for it, you still want to under all that alcohol and squalor."

She didn't immediately answer him. Did she feel that way, in spite of her myriad misgivings? As much as she hated what happened to her half-brother, didn't she hate the fact that he died without all those silly dreams fulfilled more than his actual death? Didn't she want to be proven wrong? "How much progress has that Naruto brat made? If he can prove me wrong, then I'll admit to it."

"By saying that you'll admit to it, you're already-"

"I don't know, Jiraiya. I really don't know what I want from life anymore. Do I want to see that kid fail and save him from his own delusions, or do I want to see him succeed, and show me that all my bitterness, all my anger, all my pain, was just the silly coping of a miserable old woman?" She downed a third glass. "I don't know."

"Yeah, maybe there's something to be said for not giving up."

"You gave up on Orochimaru," she pointed out. When he winced, she clarified, "not that you were wrong to. He was too far gone for the redemption arc you dreamed up for him, but that's why you can't sit here and lecture me on staying positive all the time. You've been forced to give things up, to take the smart route, before, don't pretend otherwise."

"But I never gave up on myself the way you did."

The two glared at one another.

Tsunade thought it was a line too far, but she also got it. For all that he gave into his lusts, for all the times he turned to vice to deal with the pain, he still sort of tried to fight for the Village. To fight for that ridiculous cause and that nonsensical prophecy of his. To do…something for the world surrounding him. Rather than try to fight the accusation, she returned to reminiscing.

"I had a crush on him, you know. Orochimaru. Before he was…well, him."

"I know, I hated it. I thought he was the biggest obstacle keeping me from wooing you and forcing you to finally reveal your undying love for me."

She laughed. "You always were delusional." Sighing, she downed yet another glass. "Do you know how angry I was when you were made my bandmate? I thought that you were worthless, that you were going to bring Orochimaru and me down, but you proved yourself, in the end you turned out to be far better than him." She thought on the same drunken escapades he had just condemned. "Far better than both of us, really. How did you manage that?"

"Tishtrya's Scions are doomed to fight for lost causes," he answered, smirking. "But I'm not sure if the competition is over just yet. I think one of the Sankami still has it in her to beat me."

Laying her head on his shoulder, she informed him that he truly was a great friend. While he faked some good-natured indignance about being friend-zoned, she slipped the poison into his drink. Most wouldn't have been able to get it past his notice. Even she wouldn't, were he properly looking. Alas, he trusted her, and like with so many Scions, so many Supernatural Men, so many people in general, that turned out to be his biggest mistake.

With Jiraiya out of commission, slumping to the ground in an untenable slumber, she snuck off, fully aware that there was nothing Shizune or the two brats could do to stop her.

--

The Death Purview. The Health Purview. The Spell of Life. Finally, a sacrifice, with either the Magic Purview or the Itzli Purview to connect it with the ritual. Those were the four things Orochimaru needed to perform a resurrection to Tsunade's satisfaction. While he had stolen or pieced together the third a long enough time ago, Sarutobi's little trick drained him of the power to fulfill the remainder; he had the Purviews, and the technical knowledge of how the proper Boons would work, but not the raw power. It was frustrating, but not enough to stop him.

He knew full well that he could still do it for a short time, more than long enough to convince his desperate former companion that it could be made permanent if she would just use the Samsara Boon he theorized could exist but couldn't use thanks to not being born from some Hindu…he had no doubt that it would work (it was his plan, after all), but the human heart, even with the wisdom of the Gods inscribed upon it, was frail and prone to illogical decisions. Jiraiya's idiocy could still be his undoing, so it was with a little more relief than he would admit to later that he saw Tsunade climbing up a nearby hill, alone and looking ready to see his supposed proof.

Well, then, everything had worked out, and now it was time for the show.

When Tsunade saw her former bandmate, the two merely nodded at one another. No more words needed to be said. Orochimaru shouted a lot of gibberish in Nahuatl, and then two glowing lights formed into the shapes of her fiancee and her half-brother. Tsunade stared at them. It wasn't proof of anything. They kind of looked like wraiths, in fact, if she bothered to take in the details, but she couldn't believe how they affected her after all this time. She knew how desperate she was to see them again, but now…she merely slumped forward, tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

"I can't make it last long, not right now," Orochimaru explained. "But if you could heal the wounds Guide Sarutobi gave me, then you could have them back."

She would've said yes. She would've gladly gone along with the whole ordeal, if they had looked at her. Instead, they stared downward. Beneath where they were summoned, two hastily constructed mounds were made, almost like they were covering fresh corpses.

"What are those?" She forced herself to ask him.

"Just the remnants of some sacrifices made to accommodate the spell," he dismissed, "some large animals, no one will miss them."

The mounds were definitely the size and shape of a human being. Tsunade began to understand something at that moment; even if they came back to life, neither of those two would accept her as she was now. Or if they did, it was only proof that they weren't really back, but simply fulfilling a silly fantasy of hers. Shizune was right; this was beneath her. But then she looked at the two, and she couldn't bring herself to do the right thing. Not just yet.

Even if it was a silly fantasy, a cheap pantomime, was that really worse than continuing on like this? Looking to the mound, more convinced by the second that it was not a large animal of any sort, she also remembered that this wasn't just about her anymore. But then, when had it ever been? Why should she suffer for others…yes, it was true that they wouldn't accept what she had become. For that reason alone, she should…ahhhh!

--

Jiraiya appreciated Tsunade's brilliance even more than he appreciated her generous bust, even if she would never believe it. He fully understood that the poison she used could get straight past his Stamina Knacks, and this sudden recovery he experienced was only temporary. Out of options, he rushed to Shizune, hoping against hope that the apprentice didn't approve of her master's actions, and tried to let her know what happened before passing out again. From the young woman's screams, the message was successfully delivered.

Somehow, Shizune managed to convince Naruto and Sakura to take Jiraiya's slumped over form on her back as the three of them went to where she suspected Tsunade's location to be.

Sakura was a little bothered by what she saw on that hill; there was Tsunade, looking like she was going through a mental health crisis, and there was a pale, almost reptilian man grinning at her, dressed in clothing that the World-That-Was would have called 'Aztec.' This, she started to fear, was the man that killed the Great God-on-Earth. This was Orochimaru, the last of the Sankami, and she started to suspect that he might be even worse than the other two.

"Who is that guy?" Naruto wondered beside her.

"Orochi-" Jiraiya gasped out.

Shizune finished Jiraiya's statement, confirming Sakura's fears and getting Naruto fired up.

"Then what in the cold depths of the Underworld are we doing sitting around here for? Let's beat this guy up and avenge the Great God-on-Earth!"

Preparing to charge forward without waiting for either of the other three to discuss a plan, he saw something that gave him pause. Not an ordinary occurrence for one such as him. "Hey, is that Kabuto?" He wondered. "That guy was so helpful during the Rank Exams, but then why is he standing next to this Orochi-whatsit?"

Stifling a grimace and trying his best to look confident, Orochimaru forced out a laugh at the kid's mispronunciation of his name and hoped that Tsunade would hurry it up.

"Well, it looks like we have company. An old friend of mine and two friends of our dearly beloved Sasuke. Tell me, how is he adjusting to my gift?"

Naruto shouted something about him being a 'bastard' and ran forward with his knives, prompting Kabuto to perform some silly little acrobatic maneuvers to get within range of the kid and shout "Guardian Purview: Unseen Shield" before simply smirking as the boy ran into an invisible wall, which devolved into some rather unprofessional laughter as he struck and struck again to no avail.

Orochimaru saw Tsunade look towards the fight (hardly a fight at this point, honestly, it would be over as soon as Kabuto started trying), with a familiar look. That…wasn't good.

"None of these children have to die," he informed her. "Our good friend Jiraiya doesn't have to die," so concerned was he with keeping her on his good side that he didn't even bother to bring up the fact that he might very well die by her hands from the current look of him, "just come along with me and we can avoid any unnecessary bloodshed."

Shizune had a small, wrist-mounted crossbow, apparently an invention of her own design, while Sakura had a spear drawn, ready to move in once she had an idea of what was she moving in to. Did she sign her death warrant and go for the Sankami? Did she try to help Naruto with the weird boy who'd always given her an uneasy feeling? Was…Tsunade an enemy here? The woman certainly wasn't helping.

"What are you hoping to accomplish?" She screamed at what should be their most powerful ally with Jiraiya out of commission.

Tsunade stared at everything surrounding her, seemingly overwhelmed. "You don't understand," she whimpered, "what I've lost to the past."

"Maybe I don't," Sakura answered, "but I understand what you can do for the future." Acting on impulse, she shouted out, "you've neglected your duties, you used your pain to justify your selfishness, and you tried to betray everything you hold dear for a shadow." Tsunade tried to get angry, shouting out "listen here, brat-" but before she could finish Sakura intoned "Justice Purview: Guilt Apparitions."

Naruto was very frustrated right now. He couldn't see what was blocking his attacks, just that something was between himself and Kabuto, probably summoned by that Boon he shouted out a few seconds ago. Something that was mere seconds old was thwarting him, just because it was empowered by someone so much older…all that nonsense Jiraiya had tried to get him to focus on regarding the flow of time and what age actually made him think about such useless things, until he wondered if they were really so useless. Maybe, if he knew how old everything around him was, he would see the thing that was only seconds old, and thus he could find its weak spots…"Stars Purview: Sense Age!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.

Did he need to know how old all the materials that went into creating an hourglass were in order to understand how the old the hourglass itself was? No, because it wasn't an hourglass yet. At some point, a specific moment in time, they all changed, became something new in the eyes of humanity, and thus something new in the perceived flow of time. Whether the hints Jiraiya had given him earlier finally clicked or the desperation of the situation guided him forward, Naruto suddenly understood not only this but how to apply it to his Ichor.

He now knew that a barrier, just a few seconds old, was surrounding Kabuto and fading rapidly. Its age was limited; it didn't have long in the world. Suspecting that Kabuto knew this perfectly well and was waiting for the right moment to strike, Naruto prepared himself, holding his knives in the right formation, and shouting "Stars Purview: Perfect Timing" right as the barrier started to weaken, to form small holes for just a second or two.

Tsunade, in theory, should have more than enough power from her Legend to resist a Hero-level Boon like Guilt Apparitions used by a Lesser Hero. Had she seriously been trying, she probably would have.

As it was, she saw the wraiths Orochimaru had conjured, saw how they twisted, sneering at her, her much-too-young half-brother drinking himself to death with the same alcohol she preferred, her fiancee betting their wedding ring on a game of cards he was certain to lose. She saw it all around her, betting halls where lives were put on the line, the lives of the Villagers she had abandoned, the lives of everyone in Clan Deva. She could barely bring herself to demand Sakura make it stop, and was certain that it wouldn't matter if she did. Tsunade hated everything that she was seeing. But she also needed to see it.

Only one thing could wrench her away from this dark mirror surrounding her, and that was the sound of that idealistic brat from earlier shouting out the names of two Stars Boons and using them perfectly. It turned out that, once again, the Legendary Sucker had lost a bet. Somehow, she felt that Shizune would be a little less angry about this one's results.

"Fertility Purview: Accelerate Growth," Kabuto sneered through the bloody cut Naruto's knives managed to leave on his face before he noticed what the boy was doing, tossing down some thorn-covered vines and sending them shooting upward as they expanded in size.

As the boy was forced back, he pulled out a scroll. "I guess I should have done this earlier," Naruto muttered to himself before channeling Ichor into it and bringing forth two horses.

Orochimaru, amused by the fact that Kabuto's showboating got him so badly injured, decided to offer a little assistance and used his own Creature Follower Scroll to bring a snake twice the size of a man and a Quetzal almost as large as one into the field. Two who hopefully didn't notice his diminished state, and wouldn't question why he wasn't performing his usual trick of combining them to recreate his father. Ordering them to assist Kabuto, he turned back to Tsunade.

"You're not going to be overly difficult just because these Lesser Heroes came to judge you, are you? They don't know what you've been through."

Tsunade stared at the hallucinations reminding her of everything she'd done wrong in her life. She stared at Naruto, the kid she'd looked down on, as he tried to make things right. She stared at Sakura, the girl who had the audacity to not only judge her but do so with a Boon. She stared at Shizune, the woman who never abandoned her, no matter how many reasons she had to do so. Finally, she stared back at the fading wraiths, more pathetic than ever even without the distortions from Guilt Apparitions.

Forcing herself to stand up, Tsunade ran her fingers over the ivory jewelry, made from the tusks of her Divine Father, that she kept around her neck. Although she had enough Ichor control to use Purviews without a Birthright, this one allowed her to keep in contact with her rather large Animal Companion at all times, so she held onto it.

"Animal (elephant) Purview: Animal Communication," she murmured. It was time to get in the fight.