"Blah": Talking
"Blah": Demon speaking/Inner Sakura
'Blah': Naruto's thoughts/other people's thoughts
'Blah': Harry talking to Naruto
It's about freaking time, right?! Hello my readers and reviewers, I'm very sorry to everyone that has been waiting for the next chapter to be posted, very sorry indeed. But this past summer and the subsequent months that followed have kept me busy to no end. Work has been laborious and time-consuming, due to being short on staff and a general lack of competence on behalf on my coworkers. Combine that and school starting again and my work schedule only being slightly changed, I simply did not have enough time to write anything for months on end. Despite my setbacks, I have been making a lot more money lately and I finally managed to get some writing in once I got a hang of the chaotic mess that is my schedule.
I don't think it's very much but I hope this chapter at least holds you guys over until I get to the more interesting chapters I've got planned.
In other news, I found the time to be sorted into my Ilvermorny House on Pottermore, which is Pukwudgie! I'm actually really happy about this, considering William the pukwudgie's role in the story of Ilvermorny's founding. I also found out what my Patronus is recently as well, which is a mink! I'm also quite happy about my Patronus because (oddly enough) I share a similarity in their diet, which in the case of farmed minks is usually cheese ^^ a food I can honestly say I cannot live without, heh… though, given the fact that minks are farmed for their pelts, I better stay as far away as I can from Tom Hardy :P
Azeroth44 couldn't be here for the introduction again, given the tight schedule, so let's just go on ahead with the story! But before we get to that, what about this: If you guys leave a review, how about you mention what YOUR Ilvermorny House is and maybe what your Patronus is? I would love to hear about it while I'm working on finishing up the next chapters ^^
Reviews are welcome and wanted!
Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto
Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling
Chapter 16: Seen and Unforeseen
Jiraiya and Tsunade retreated to a small bar a few blocks down the road. The two Sannin sat beside each other in silence, helping themselves to several bottles of sake at a time. The kunoichi stuck to pacing herself (slightly) with the traditional sake cups while her counterpart chugged his drink down from a tall glass, as if it were a soda pop. Jiraiya towered over Tsunade even while seated, but began to slouch to her level with his elbows resting on the table. It didn't take long for Jiraiya's cheeks to turn rosy and his eyelids drooped. For a while, the two of them didn't talk much until the tallest of the pair began to lean left and right, ogling lustfully at his old partner.
"Man," he drew out in a silly voice, "You've gotten even prettier since the last time I saw you."
Tsunade smiled and smirked back at him, "You haven't changed much at all… Not that the years have been particularly kind to your hips," she remarked, making Jiraiya to shift uncomfortably in his seat, "Let me make this clear: I still have no interest in you."
"Beotch," he scoffed in a joking way, then remarked, "While we're on the subject… I don't have the hots for you either, sweetheart," he added under his breath, "Besides, I bet under all that genjutsu, you look like a shriveled old bat…"
The kunoichi's head turned at him sharply, causing him flinch when she hissed, "What was that?!"
"Nothin'," he pouted, nonchalant as he called for another drink.
For a while longer, the two former teammates hardly spoke another word to each other. Jiraiya stared out ahead into nothingness, watching the bartender clean a few glasses or cook up radishes, waiting for the inevitable question to pop up, but Tsunade seemed to have something else on her mind. He glanced over at her and noticed she seemed shameful or guilty about something. Jiraiya could sense something was going on with her; maybe her bout with the genin brought up unpleasant memories.
"So what?" he probed, "Is he on your mind?"
Tsunade turned to him questioningly as she narrowed her eyes, "Who?"
"Naruto," he answered as he glanced back at her.
The kunoichi looked down at her drink and frowned, "Why would he?"
"Well, it was pretty immature of you back there, challenging a genin like him the way you did," he said in a more stern, clear voice, "You know there's no way he can master that jutsu in a single week," he took another sip and sighed, "I wouldn't call it much of a wager."
Tsunade had nothing more to add and kept looking down at her sake, trying not to let her former teammate's words get to her. But given the amount of alcohol she consumed, it didn't seem likely as Jiraiya insistently questioned her.
"Why are you so desperate?" he asked.
Tsunade remarked back at him, "I'm not desperate!"
Jiraiya thought he ought to back off for a bit, before he scared her off. He waited for Tsunade to calm down a bit and took the time to drink. He blinked slowly and felt the alcohol really start to kick in, causing his vision to darken slightly, his stomach felt cold and numb, his head getting heavier, as he swayed back and forth slightly to keep his balance. He held back on the rest of his glass, thinking about Naruto. Thinking about his student caused his mind to race, thinking about their mission, Naruto's safety, the ruined remains of the castle, and the terrified citizens from earlier. The Sannin grew sick of beating around the bush and raised his head high again.
"Are you planning on seeing Orochimaru again soon?" he asked bluntly.
Tsunade froze in her seat and didn't speak another word, confirming her tall, drunken companion's suspicions.
"I saw the look on Shizune's face the entire time," he mentioned, "I have no idea what sort of offer he made you but," he cleared his throat and then warned her, "don't rush into anything."
Tsunade still didn't move nor did she say much else, prompting Jiraiya to speak freely.
"You know," he started, sounding more and more serious as he seemed more sober, "Refusing to simply come back to the village and help save the life of the Hokage, our teacher… that's the kind of stuff most people, especially uptight villagers, elders and councilmen, would consider treason… If you let the old man die when you had the chance to save him, you can forget about living a free life… You'd spend the rest of your days looking over your shoulder for the ANBU, being a missing-nin and all that nasty business… Just thought I'd remind you, Tsunade," he mentioned, feigning a nonchalant tone, but then the atmosphere of the bar grew thick and tense as Jiraiya's voice shifted to a far more serious pitch, sounding almost menacing, "I know you're probably just pissed off at our teacher, I've been there before, so I can let it slide for now… But if you should ever do anything that would betray our village of Konoha, in league with Orochimaru," Tsunade glanced over at her teammate and would have flinched in fear as Jiraiya glared at her, eyes blazing with untold malice, "I'll hunt you down and I'll kill you myself."
But Tsunade was hardly fazed by the threat and scowled back in spite, "Why should I even care anymore?"
The very next second, Jiraiya's malice evaporated as if it were never there at all. He looked back out in front of him and took another sip from his glass.
"Only a complete sociopath would feel nothing for the sick or injured," he remarked, "But you were never like that," he mentioned abruptly as Tsunade's face began to darken, "You used to be the first to care about the safety and well-being of others," the taller of the two Sannin paused for a moment, reluctant to continue before the booze inebriated him enough to strike Tsunade where it hurt the most, "Even after your little brother-"
"JUST SHUT YOUR MOUTH ALREADY!"
Tsunade shrieked, so loud it even made the bartender flinch, though it didn't seem to affect Jiraiya in the slightest. The bearded bartender relaxed somewhat as Tsunade's shoulders slumped, collapsing into herself.
She soon asked; her voice filled with sorrow mixed with a hint of bitter resentment, "Why the hell did you bring that boy here?"
"Uncanny isn't it?" the big Sannin smiled as he thought back and remarked, "He's about the same age as he was, too."
Naruto settled in at a hotel near the center of town. He and Shizune checked into their respective rooms but didn't speak a word to each other. The blonde wizard retreated to his own room while Shizune found her own opposite the hall. She mentioned to Naruto that she had to prepare it for Tsunade's comfort, but the young man couldn't care less. Once inside, Naruto tossed his rucksack onto the nearest futon and sat down in the main room. While he sat there, Naruto couldn't help but feel doubtful, so he sought out Harry for guidance.
'I shouldn't made that bet. We only have a week to master this jutsu... The Sandaime's life is at risk, and the fate of the entire village hangs in the balance. Mind you, this is a jutsu I apparently have no chance of mastering even in a years time… Yeah, no pressure at all, huh?! Bloody hell! What the crap have I gotten myself into?!'
'Don't beat yourself up about it, Naruto. Besides, if worse comes to worst, we could use the Imperius Curse on Tsunade and force her to return to the village. There's a chance it could work, though as I've explained before, it can be fought. And I'm not going to put you in the way of her wrath to test her willpower. You'd get your smashed off.'
Naruto had a sort of tantrum whilst on the mattress and shouted in his mind, 'How the hell am I going to master this Rasengan-thingy?!'
Harry winced at the volume of Naruto's voice once again. He waited until the ringing in his ears faded before he weighed in.
'Guess it's just as bad as giving up if we plan ahead for failure,' the older wizard admitted before feeling more determined and confident once he thought of a helpful notion, 'We only have seven days to master this third stage. Judging by your progress so far, it would take a miracle to finish it in time. But thanks to our knowledge from the Scroll of Sealing, we ought to cut the training time significantly. '
Harry smirked as Naruto calmed down. Just as he was about to question him in a raised voice, the boy stopped. Remembering the events earlier in the gambling house, Naruto stood from his mattress and faced the window, brimming with confidence and determination.
"Then there's still a chance," he said out loud as he balled his hands into fists, "I'm not giving up yet! Grandpa is relying on me! I will master the Rasengan and I'm going to rub it in that old bat's face! You're going down, baa-chan!"
Harry couldn't help but smile and laugh a bit. Though his smile and Naruto's determined look vanished when there was a knock on the door. The blonde teenager approached with some caution and opened the door a crack to find Shizune. Opening the door a bit more, he noticed she looked terribly worried and desperate.
"Yes?" he asked, slightly annoyed but also somewhat concerned.
The dark-haired woman nodded her head and replied in quick succession, "I'm sorry to disturb you so late but I need to speak with you."
The younger genin shrugged in acceptance, "Alright, but we gotta make this quick. I need to get up early and start training first thing tomorrow."
Shizune entered the room, "That's what I wanted to talk about. I mean; there's something you really need to know about the necklace."
Naruto couldn't imagine what could be so important about that piece of jewelry apart from how much it was worth. But he decided to go along with whatever the lady had to share, as opposed to brushing her off and have her keep disturbing him until he listened.
"Sorry, but what's your name again?" he asked, realizing Tsunade had never properly introduced her at the tavern.
The tall, dark-haired woman replied with a slight, respectful bow of her head, "Shizune."
"Naruto Uzumaki," the genin offered back out of habit, "But Ero-Sennin already mentioned that earlier," the woman blinked at the name the genin used to describe Jiraiya.
Shizune brushed it aside and said, "Anyway, you see, I also wanted to talk about Lady Tsunade-"
"Don't start," the blonde genin interrupted as the respectful mention of the retired kunoichi's name caused an anger to boil inside him and he spat, "I couldn't care less about that wicked, old crone!"
"DON'T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT," Shizune abruptly shouted in defense of her mentor as her face turned hard and furious, "YOU-You don't know ANYTHING about her!"
Naruto raised his eyebrows and flinched back slightly, surprised by the older woman. But as soon as it took for her to get worked up, Shizune calmed down and adopted a more apologetic look as her face softened significantly.
"Gomenasai," she apologized, "I didn't mean to shout, but… Lady Tsunade wasn't always like that; the way she was back at the tavern… She used to be so kind, dedicated to the village, but... she's changed."
There was something about Shizune's intensity that reminded the genin of Anko, if she were more modest in nature. Naruto figured he may as well hear her out and inquired hesitantly as he sat down on the nearest futon.
"What happened to her, then?" he asked.
Shizune sat across from the genin and seemed depressed as she recounted her master's past, "She lost it all: her dreams, hopes, everything… She has little to nothing left of her old life, except the necklace and all of the memories that came with it… You have to understand: that necklace means everything to her. It's not some simple jewelry to gamble away on some silly bet."
"It was her idea, not mine," the blonde rookie couldn't stop himself from remarking.
Though Shizune took little offense to it as her tone turned more solemn and dramatic, "You still don't understand… that necklace has only ever been safe for Tsunade to wear… everyone and anyone else that has tried to wear that necklace… has died."
The new information about the necklace forced Naruto to recount one of Harry's memories in the Pensieve. The genin recalled a peculiar cursed necklace with opals used in a poorly executed plot to murder Albus Dumbledore. Remembering the memories he witnessed forced the blonde shinobi to doubt the crystal necklace he saw earlier had the same cursed properties as the one with opals. But curses came in all shapes and forms, so it could have been possible the necklace had some dark secret behind it. Naruto shrugged the thought aside as he tried to confirm if Shizune was absolutely serious.
"A cursed necklace?" he questioned.
The kunoichi nodded and sadly conveyed the sad tale behind Tsunade's fall from grace, "Long ago, Tsunade had a little brother. His name was Nawaki. He and Tsunade were very close, with their parents gone they were the only family they had left… On his twelfth birthday, she gave him the very same necklace as a gift. It belonged to their grandfather, the Shodai Hokage, and it meant the world to him to have it. Nawaki had a dream to become Hokage, too, to protect the village like his grandfather before him… But no more than a day later, tragedy struck. Nawaki was a new genin at the time and there was a war going on… Long story short, he was killed in battle and the necklace was the only thing she had left of him… She was utterly devastated… but all the more determined to protect the village than she ever was before."
This recount seemed to shock Naruto. The last detail Shizune recalled sounded nothing like the drunken woman the genin met no more than an hour ago. He became quite curious, wondering how a determined kunoichi would have ever sunk as low as he saw her.
"So… what became of Tsunade after that?" he asked.
Shizune frowned before she answered his question, "With no medics or doctors on the battlefield at the time of her brother's death, she proposed-No, she fought to advocate the need for medic-nin to be on every shinobi team in order to prevent deaths like her younger brother's. The one fellow shinobi that strongly supported her and shared her views on the matter was my uncle, Dan Katō… The two of them, together… they grew close to one another and wound up dating not long after. He also shared the same dream as Nawaki; to become Hokage, to bring change to the village, and protect the ones he loved. Tsunade gave him the necklace, hoping it would help him achieve his dreams…"
Shizune hesitated, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. The blonde genin across from her figured out what happened next
"But in the end?" he asked anyway.
The kunoichi composed herself as best she could, and said, "In the end, he was killed. Uncle Dan died of extreme blood loss on the battlefield… Lady Tsunade tried as best she could to heal him, to the very best of her unique healing abilities, but she could not save him… Ever since that battle, she was so shaken she developed a severe fear of blood and gave up practicing medicine all together… Ever since she lost him and her little brother, Lady Tsunade has been torn apart… She took me in, feeling responsible and having no other family of my own... She took on a few other students after the war, but soon lost them as well… She left Konoha with me in tow and hasn't looked back since… She… she's lost too much… She couldn't handle it and she fell apart."
Naruto couldn't help but feel sorry for the Sannin. He couldn't imagine how much she suffered through her loss and couldn't believe what terrible luck she had. It didn't seem as much a shock now, her drinking problem and gambling addiction; after all she had little to nothing left to lose. Although he felt compassion for Tsunade and understood her better than he did after their shuffle in the bar, it didn't excuse her behavior in his eyes. It felt wrong to Naruto, to see her drown herself in alcohol and insult everything Nawaki and Dan believed in and had died for. His anger came boiling back to the surface as he reflected on Tsunade's inconsiderate words from the tavern. Naruto doubted he would have done much better than her if their roles were reversed. But he was certain he would never let Iruka, Anko, the Sandaime, not even his teammates or anyone else he loved die in vain as the Sannin kept doing.
He felt more determined than ever to prove her wrong.
"So, are you going to give up the bet?" Shizune asked, hoping the tale would strike a cord in the young genin, "If you chose to go ahead with this, it could end up destroying your future."
The blonde rookie stood from his seat and it became apparent she didn't convince him as well as she had hoped.
"Fat chance," he answered and opened the door as a silent gesture for her to leave, "First thing I'm doing tomorrow is training, like I planned," Shizune stood from the futon, looking like she wanted to talk Naruto out of the bet, but then he said as polite as he could, "Please excuse me."
Shizune kept quiet and frowned fretfully as she left. Naruto closed the door behind him and focused on the task at hand.
{{Wander Snow by Jeremy Soule}}
At the crack of dawn the following morning, Naruto bundled up and set out before Jiraiya even woke up. Based on the foul smell emitting from him, the blonde rookie assumed his master must have drunk his bodyweight in liquor. If that were the case, he didn't want to be anywhere near him when he woke up. Naruto set out and found a secluded area a little outside the town wall: a deep, frozen creek filled with dead trees and boulders.
Once he settled on a rock that had a somewhat flat surface, the blonde rookie crossed his fingers, summoned as much chakra as he could, and shouted, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" the creek filled with white smoke, clearing away to reveal dozens of shadow clones.
The real Naruto stood tall on the rock and announced, "You know the drill! Practice the Rasengan and don't stop! Focus! Contain the chakra! Don't burst into smoke all at once! Burst one at a time but keep training for as long as possible! NOW GET TO IT!"
The thirty or so clones all nodded in unison. The shadow clones then spread out and moved into position, setting their sights on the trees or rocks to use as targets. The real Naruto overlooked his clones for a short time, watching them collect chakra in the palms of their hands. From the top of the rock the blonde rookie grabbed his wand and rucksack and Disapparated with a distinct crack.
When his feet hit the ground hard, Naruto hid out at another undisclosed area near Tanzaku to be alone and safe. While his clones were hard at work to accelerate his Rasengan training, Naruto focused on honing his magical skills.
{{Charms Tension by Jeremy Soule}}
He returned to the mindscape, where he and Harry worked together for hours, practicing spells and preparing for the worst if the end of the week turned sour.
The two wizards feared Orochimaru's reasons for coming to Tanzaku to see Tsunade. If the Sannin were close or returned to Tanzaku, they had to be prepared to fight him. Naruto could only hope the vile man wouldn't force him to resort to using magic in front of others again. But it felt like the only advantage he might possibly have over Orochimaru. So to prepare for such an event, Harry set up a bunch of different obstacle courses in the training room. Enchanted wooden dummies on wheels with swords attacked the genin to imitate the aberrant Sannin. Naruto focused on Shield Charms to block attacks, practicing on his nonverbal spellwork, but kept shouting, "Protego!" out of habit.
The dummies barreled after him at top speeds, to simulate the shinobi coming after him with enhanced speed. Naruto had to do a lot more dodging and rolling out of the way to avoid being slashed or stabbed. Harry had enchanted the swords to simply deliver a harmless shock to his friend upon contact, hovering in the air and making wildly unpredictable fighting patterns (based on the skirmish in the Forest of Death). It was immensely difficult for Naruto to keep up but that was precisely the point; Orochimaru (cursed or not) would be a vastly powerful opponent with a lot more knowledge and skill with a blade than Naruto would be prepared for. The best choice for him, in that scenario, would be to let Jiraiya take care of him and stay out of their way. But it didn't hurt to train and continued with his spellwork.
Once he found himself an opening to attack, the blonde wizard ducked beneath a horizontal line of shuriken and aimed his wand at the effigy, shouting, "Expulso!" blowing a smoking hole where Orochimaru's heart would be.
Back at the hotel room, hours after Naruto had gone, Jiraiya felt miserable as he arose from his futon. He couldn't recall when he had dressed himself in the blue kimono pajamas he sported, but didn't question it, as he was more concerned about his throbbing headache and churning stomach. After a break in the bathroom, taking some medicine, and drinking as much water as he could, the Sannin opened the window to take a breath of fresh air, as cold as it was outside. Jiraiya lied as he muttered under his breath, "I'm never drinking again," and noticed the bed next to his was empty and neatly folded.
"Naruto must have slipped out early this morning," he assumed and commented to no one, "Good kid. But a fool if he thinks he can master the Rasengan in a week."
Jiraiya leaned towards the window and thought about his student, concerned about Tsunade, and all the trouble that seemed to plague them both in the form of Orochimaru, Danzo, and the Akatsuki. It forced the Sannin to feel some doubt, a tinge of hopelessness, before he crushed it and chalked it all up to the hangover he blamed on his former teammate.
"Damn Tsunade," he cursed as let out a disgusting belch, "She can be a bad influence."
Elsewhere in Tanzaku, Tsunade traveled the streets without Shizune at her side. Dressed in her winter coat, she stared out ahead and thought about the man with glasses and Orochimaru. His twisted words echoed in her head as if he could speak to her through time, tempting her.
The Sannin soon found herself at a random casino, standing before a brightly flashing machine as she mindlessly wasted her money. Her eyes looked dead, or rather (to anyone else that cared to notice) lost in her own world; the flashing lights and bright colors were replaced with the intensity of Orochimaru's eyes, the desperate look on Shizune's face, the sullen look of Jiraiya from the previous night, memories of looking up at the stone faces of the Hokage, all of which ended with thoughts of Nawaki and Dan, seeing them alive and well, wearing the cursed necklace she so carelessly offered them.
Tsunade wasted another round of cash at whatever machine she found herself in front of next and repeated the pattern until sunset. Once she felt she wasted enough time there, she left and relied on her kunoichi instincts to find the blonde genin.
It didn't take her long to locate Naruto, or his shadow clone at least. She stood outside the creek and saw every dead tree and nearly every rocky surface of the area was decorated with engraved spiraling patterns. There were other areas, more recently practiced on, that had deeper depressions in the rock or wooden surface of the trees. It seemed the clones had made some progress, but nowhere close to the classic Rasengan the Sannin recognized. Only one shadow clone remained, though Tsunade was oblivious to the fact that she was looking at a shadow clone. Not that anyone could tell, as the clone's red face was drenched in sweat, panting hard as its right hand twitched in pain. Tsunade watched blankly as the clone made one last attempt to form the sphere of chakra, only to cut it short and collapse in utter exhaustion.
"I'm so… tired," the clone panted, trying not to burst yet, "I'll have… this down… I'll have this down soon, I swear!"
Tsunade stared at the genin as Kabuto's words echoed again. She remembered the bespectacled shinobi mention that in order to bring her beloved younger brother and boyfriend back to life, she would have to have two live sacrifices ready on her end at the end of the week. After she watched the clone Naruto continued panting and sweating on the frozen earth, still very much alive, she felt she had seen enough and left.
After Jiraiya recovered from his hangover, he returned to his old habits later that night and found Tsunade by herself at the same bar again. Remembering the agitation she displayed the previous night, he feared Orochimaru must have offered her something of immense value to her.
As Jiraiya sat down, he suspected the offer didn't include cash, but something of far more sentimental value to warrant her suspicious behavior, especially when she put up her precious necklace for the bet with Naruto. The Sannin figured he ought to try and figure out what it was over a few drinks.
He unapologetically looked at the necklace secured tightly between her bosoms, "You know, I never would have imagined you would have kept that necklace after all this time," he said, recounting her numerous bets in the past, "I figured you would have gambled it away long before now, but I suppose it's all you've got to remember them by, right?"
Tsunade never once looked away from her drink, barely acknowledging Jiraiya, even when he brought up such a touchy subject. She rubbed her finger around the rim of her bottle of sake, hot faced from drinking as she decided to turn the tables on her friend after he so carelessly brought up her most painful memories. There was also something she needed insight on that had been on her mind ever since Jiraiya introduced her to his new apprentice.
"Let me ask you something, Jiraiya," she fired back, "How much does Naruto know?"
Jiraiya felt his stomach drop as he froze for a moment, he hesitated to answer before he asked as if he had no idea what Tsunade was implying, "What do you mean?"
"Does he know who you really are?" she questioned with more strength to her voice, "I'm only asking because I couldn't help but notice the little detail he mentioned in his speech, about how our sensei was the one who raised him," Jiraiya remained motionless, holding his drink as his hair hid his face from view, "He called Sarutobi-sensei his grandfather and all that, I couldn't help but get a little suspicious," Jiraiya's head leaned down further, shadowing his eyes, "Based on how the two of you interacted with each other back at the tavern, you seem well-acquainted," Tsunade then turned her head to look at her teammate with a deserving anger, "But I still have my doubts."
"You're gonna have to be a little more specific, Tsunade," he said, sounding naturally nonchalant, while his face remained shadowed, "I'm not sure what exactly you're asking me here."
"Does Naruto know who you are?" she demanded coldly as her eyes narrowed at the taller Sannin, "Does he know how exactly the two of you are related?"
Jiraiya waited until the bartender left for a moment to pick up something from the backroom. As soon as he left, Jiraiya swallowed half of his entire drink in one smooth gulp.
"No," he answered with a hint of bitter defeat in his voice, "He doesn't have a clue."
Tsunade look back down at the bar and gripped the bottle of sake in her hand so hard, her raw strength made it crack as she struggled to contain her rage.
"You idiot," she hissed with poorly contained anger and insurmountable hatred, "You goddamn idiot! You never once told him?!"
Jiraiya spoke up, without quivering in fear of her ex-teammate's anger, "Keep it down, Tsunade."
"How can I?!" she questioned as she turned to look at him sharply, "You're telling me that he doesn't have a single clue that you're his-"
"I couldn't handle it, Tsunade," he blurted out firmly, his former teammate calmed down enough to let him to make his argument, Jiraiya sounding remarkably frustrated but also remorseful, "You have no idea what it was like for me after Kushina died… I tried. Believe me, Tsunade, I tried, but I… I never expected her to die… Not while I was still around," he calmed down as well and sadly recounted a very painful and difficult time of his own, "After I heard the news, I returned to the village, I attended the funeral, I mourned, and I thought I could handle the responsibilities, but… but I was wrong. I couldn't do it. So I left him in the care of our sensei. I figured he would have been able to handle it better than I could. He had the rest of his clan to help him out and he had a lot more experience in raising children than me."
"You ran away," remarked Tsunade as she hair hid her eyes from Jiraiya's view.
"I'm not proud of it," he stated clearly and then recounted as the alcohol quickly made him more somber, "Sarutobi-sensei shut me out after what I pulled. I never heard from him once in over a decade after that, not a single letter. Not that I blame him."
Tsunade glared at Jiraiya as he took a moment to drink.
"I still sent him letters, to update him on the hunt for Orochimaru and whatnot… He did, however, write back to me once, but it was more of a request than anything else. He needed me to return to Konoha to fix Naruto's seal when Orochimaru infiltrated the village during the Chunin Exams and messed with it… That was the first time I'd seen him since he was a baby."
'The Chunin Exams?' the retired kunoichi blinked, remembering what little Orochimaru told her about his condition, but then she returned to the matter at hand and asked with bitterness and resentment in her tone, "Well? Did he turn out as perfectly as you hoped?"
Jiraiya picked up on the bitterness but shrugged it off as he answered truthfully, "He turned out a lot better than I expected… I honestly thought he would be more like his mother. But he's more balanced, like an even mix between his mother and his father."
"I don't see it," Tsunade claimed when she recalled the boy's actions at the tavern, "Jiraiya, you have done some pretty stupid things, but this one takes the cake," she added, imaging what kind of life the blonde genin had been forced to endure as the kunoichi became overwhelmed with emotion and painful memories, "This beats every other stupid and selfish thing you have ever done, you know that?!"
"Like I said," the tall Sannin refilled his empty glass as he made himself clear, "I'm not proud of it… But I wasn't prepared to take care of him, Tsunade, I was never the right choice… So I left him in the care of our sensei, hoping he would do better than me," Jiraiya's cheeks started to turn rosy again after he took another generous sip from his refilled glass, then he asked his former teammate when he noticed her intensity, "But anyway, why the hell do you care so much all the sudden? I thought you asked me last night why you should even care anymore."
Tsunade couldn't think of an answer to his question. He had her cornered and the best choice for her at the moment was to say nothing and look down at her drink, looking miserable. She then mindlessly drank for the rest of the evening, contemplating her situation in silence.
Back at the hotel, outside Jiraiya and Naruto's hotel room, Shizune stood at the door with two steaming mugs on a tray. She knocked on the door and waited, looking worried as ever, until the door opened and Naruto answered. Shizune was surprised to see the genin looked utterly exhausted, like he had been drained. He wasn't covered in sweat, dirt, or bruises as she expected, worried he would have been filthy and battered after training all day. But she dismissed it, assuming he must have taken a shower or something.
"Yes?" he asked, sounding as tired as he looked, "What is it?"
The kunoichi motioned to the tray in her hands and offered with a light smile, "Hot chocolate? I figured you'd want some, after training out in the cold all day long."
In the blink of an eye, the bags under Naruto's eyes vanished and welcomed Shizune in with one of his favorite beverages. The two sat down at the coffee table in the room and drank in silence for a little while. Naruto breathed in the warm chocolate aroma as the strain from his training and the use of his shadow clones waned. Shizune watched as the tired look on Naruto's face disappeared, as if he never trained at all. The genin sighed as the sweet warmth ran down his throat and settled in his stomach.
"Made any progress on the Rasengan yet?" the kunoichi asked.
Naruto shook his head, "Some but not a lot," he returned to his cocoa, but after one sip he asked, "You're not here to try and talk me out of this bet again, are you?"
"On the contrary," she breathed, "I honestly hope you manage to pull it off."
That response caused Naruto to quirk his eyebrow and frown in confusion.
"I'm sorry I tried to discourage you earlier, Naruto," she apologized, "But I was only doing so out of concern for the fate of the necklace. The only reason why Lady Tsunade would put it on the table would be if she assumed you had no chance of winning the bet. It would be the only surefire way to break her infamous losing streak. I suppose I was letting the whole superstition get the best of me," she admitted while scratching the back of her neck, "But if you manage to win, you accepting the necklace or not, Tsunade would have to honor her end of the bargain and we could return home to Konoha. If that were to happen, she could have a better life back at the village. It would give her a chance to be the respectable kunoichi she once was: the kunoichi that children from our village learn about in school and admire, the hero I looked up to."
Naruto then asked out of the blue, hoping it would help, "Couldn't you just convince her to come back to Konoha?"
"I wish I could," she sighed, looked down at the table, "But she wouldn't listen to me."
The rookie blinked at the kunoichi and asked, "You're her friend, right? Her assistant? Apprentice? Why wouldn't she listen to you?"
"I tried," she answered, careful about what she said, "But it's a delicate situation," the kunoichi looked away as she depressingly speculated, "I suppose she's only using the wager as an excuse to give herself time to consider her options."
"Her options for what?" Naruto argued as his anger at the Sannin boiled again, "What, like, she needs time to figure out whether she wants to save the Sandaime's life or rob the village that raised her of its leader?!"
Shizune opened her mouth to say something back, but stopped and sighed. She looked down at her feet in shame, unable to bring herself to defend Tsunade. She never felt so betrayed by her mentor, after what she bared witness to at the castle. Worse yet, she was so ashamed that she lacked the strength to put her foot down and knock some sense into the Sannin she had been so devoted to.
"You shouldn't have to take that from her," Naruto blurted out of the dark when he seemed to calm down, causing Shizune to raise her head and look at him, "It's not fair of her to put you in the middle of all this crap and not have a say in anything," he crossed his arms and said, "If I were you, I wouldn't stand for it. If you really want her to have a better life or simply help the village, I would do the right thing and stand up to her. She's never going to have a better life if you don't muster up the courage to do what's right for her, even if she doesn't want to hear it," Shizune's eyes opened up slightly as the boy's words touched her, slowly inspiring a growing confidence within her, "But that's entirely up to you," he shrugged, "I don't know her as well as you do. For all I know (given what she can do to a solid road with a single finger) it's probably not a good idea."
Shizune shrugged as she allowed herself to smile, "It doesn't sound like a bad idea to me. Her life isn't going to get better staying here, I can tell you that much."
Naruto smiled back at her before returning to his hot chocolate. After a little bit of time, Shizune continued to watch the blonde genin, reminding her of a time during her earlier training days in Konoha.
"You know," she said, earning the boy's attention, "You remind me an awful lot of Kushina Uzumaki."
"My mother?" he questioned, Shizune nodded with a light smile, "Don't tell me you knew her too."
"Yes, I did," she answered, "Well, not as well as Lady Tsunade did," Naruto's eyebrows shot straight up as he stared at the kunoichi, "Kushina was one of the last students she took on before we left Konoha all those years ago."
The genin sputtered, spitting hot chocolate all across the floor in front of him, "Baa-chan was my mum's sensei?!"
"You probably wouldn't have known about it," Shizune informed him, bugged-eyed from the hot, chocolatey spit-take, before she took the liberty of cleaning the mess, "Your mother needed help in utilizing her unique chakra, so the Sandaime arranged to have her learn under the guidance of Lady Tsunade until she made chunin," Naruto helped her out in cleaning the rest of his spilt beverage while Shizune continued the tale, "Needless to say, the two of them budded heads quite a few times during their training sessions over the years," Shizune smiled warmly as she thought back to the incident at the tavern and commented, "You certainly seem to have inherited her courage, if you were bold enough to challenge her to a fight yesterday."
'More like irretrievably stupid,' Harry added, prompting Naruto to elbow him mentally.
Shizune recounted what she could remember of the red-haired kunoichi, "Kushina was younger than me and our lessons were always separate, but I remember how brave she was for a genin. Lady Tsunade couldn't help but respect her for her bravery and how determined she was to be a kunoichi. No one other than your mother ever seemed to have the guts to stand up to Lady Tsunade like she did sometimes… At least not until the other night at the tavern."
"I had no idea," Naruto sadly sighed, happy to learn how similar he was to his late mother without realizing it, but also perplexed at the fact that Tsunade was once her mentor.
"Lady Tsunade and I left Konoha on a few retreats after the Third Shinobi World War to help separate her from all the blood and conflict," Shizune added, "She did keep in contact with Kushina for some time after the war, sending her letters and whatnot," then the woman stopped, looking down at the table sadly, "But after the Kyuubi attacked the village and then Kushina died a year later in that accident, that was the final straw for her."
"That's about the time when she changed into who she is now, huh?" the genin asked, to which Shizune nodded.
Naruto then finished his hot chocolate and decided to end the night on a more optimistic note as he stretched, "I suppose I ought to keep working hard on mastering the Rasengan, then. First thing tomorrow."
"Sounds like a plan to me," the kunoichi smiled, never forgetting the boy's uplifting words from earlier.
To Be Continued…
And there we have it! It took me nearly six months, balancing non-stop work, school, and attending two weddings, but there it was! Again I'm really sorry I haven't been able to write more earlier but I hope you guys understand. I'll keep on trying to write more now that I've gotten the hang of this schedule (for the most part) and I promise some more exciting sequences when we come to the big Sannin showdown ^^
Until next time, guys! I look forward to hearing about your Ilvermorny Houses and your Patronuses in your reviews!