NHRK Chapter 67

“What’s the wager?” Naruto asked, setting down his backpack to the side. He didn’t need to–he was just stalling for time, letting Tsunade stew in her anger for a bit longer.

He hadn’t come here expecting to test her like this, but for some reason, seeing Tsunade look so…defeated just pissed him off. More than that, she was dragging Shizune down with her as well in her years of constant travel.

Was she not considerate? Or was her pain so great that it blinded her?

“Give me the wine, and never show your face in front of me again,” Tsunade said.

“And if I win?”

“That won’t be happening so it's irrelevant,” Tsunade said.

A playful thought came to Naruto. He remembered doing this exact same thing with a certain snake lady.

“Oh that’s not a fair wager…Hm, how about this, if I win, you come to konoha with us, and stay there for as long as Shizune-san deems fit,” Naruto said.

Tsunade’s eyes widened for a second as her sight drifted to her equally surprised assistant. “...and why should I act according to my assistant’s whims?”

“Because it seems as if you’ve stolen years of her life away by bringing her with you,” Naruto commented.

Tsuanade looked as if someone had struck her. “Ridiculous! I didn’t–”

She couldn’t finish the sentence.

She glanced towards Shizune and found that her assistant’s eyes could not meet her own.

Immediately, an immense amount of guilt crashed down on her. Shizune had always been so kind to her, and almost like a daughter. She was so supportive in fact, that Tsunade often forgets that she has her own needs and wants in life.

‘Good Kami, what has…what has become of me?’ she thought.

It was as if she’d just snapped out of a years-long dream, a lucidity gained by the harsh words that came to her like a slap in the face.

Shizune…when was the last time she had gone out to meet friends?

Tsunade shook her head, dismissing the turmoil that went through her thoughts and concentrated on the task before her. She would address it immediately after, or as quickly as possible.

For now, she had an upstart kid to put in his place.

What was Konoha producing these days, for kids to have such arrogance in them and so little respect for those of legendary status such as she.

If she didn’t know any better, she would've thought that he had a death wish, but she suspected it was more in the lines of obtaining bragging rights for defeating a Sannin.

She would show him.

“Oh, and since I’m so heavily disadvantaged to using only one finger, perhaps you can add a kiss to that wager as well,” Naruto hummed, then he pointed to his lips, “right here, lip to lip, with tongue, for thirty seconds.”

Silence rang throughout the clearing that they had relocated to.

Both Jiraiya and Shizune were stunned.

Tsunade’s bangs covered her eyes in shadow once more.

“..hmm, actually make that a minute, a finger is a heavy handicap after all,” Naruto added.

Tsunade’s chakra flared and the ground cracked.

“No? You did say that I had no chance in the first place right?” Naruto continued to badger her, “are you too afraid to back up your words?”

Shizune immediately looked towards Jiraiya.

“He’s going to die,” She said to him.

“I agree,” the toad sage simply gulped.

‘How am I going to explain to Hiruzen about this one?

Although he’d seen the results of what the boy was able to produce during the Konoha invasion, subjugating Onoki, as well as the presence he felt during his time there, Jiraiya doubted that someone so young could take on someone like Onoki without a stroke of luck on their side. Even Itachi, one of the most talented shinobi Konoha has ever produced, would have trouble dealing with the Tsuchikage’s dust release.

Now, now was the first time that he would see what the boy could do with his very own eyes.

Still, against Tsunade, especially a pissed off Tsunade, even he would have great trouble. The kid was already lost in his eyes.

Jiraiya remembered the time he casually claimed that she would be his wife one day, even after already having two at the time.

To this day, he did not know how he managed to escape her wrath in one piece.

Tsunade finally tilted her head upwards and met his blindfolded gaze.

A picture of unmasked fury could not even begin to describe the visage that was displayed on her face.

“Do you accept?” Naruto asked.

“Clench your teeth, brat,” Tsunade growled.

“I’ll take that as an acceptance of the terms then–”

Naruto couldn’t finish his sentence as Tsunade lunged forwards and cracked her fist at him.

She met air as in a flash of yellow that briefly took her by surprise, Naruto disappeared and reappeared by where she was half a second ago.

“Rude,” he said as if he hadn’t just performed one of the most infamous jutsus in the elemental nations.

Tsunade’s eyebrows twitched. “...so you know a party trick. Good for you.”

She did not relent this time, as she dashed to him once more, before quickly changing directions to where he appeared next, before doing it again when he relocated once more.

Prior to this, they had set boundaries to the duel, a circle around them of sort that they had to be inside, not unlike the duels pre-genin had in the academy.

Thus, this gave Naruto a limited area to work with, and Tsunade had an easier time tracking him.

She was like a bulldog from the Inuzuka clan, unrelenting, untiring, fierce, and wanted his blood above all else.

Naruto would not give it to her.

He flicked his finger towards her, as if launching a speck of dust.

Tsunade flew backwards, her forward momentum not expecting the sudden punch of gravity on her torso. She let out a cough of spit…and a little bit of blood.

She stumbled on the ground before rising again, healing herself for damage immediately.

Then she saw the blood that she coughed out on her hands and froze.

Just like that, she was lost in her own world again.

A world of pain and loss, of promises unkept.

“No…” she got out.

Naruto appeared in front of her but he made no move to attack her.

Instead, he just stared. Stared as she was lost in that invisible dream. Stared as she shook slightly in place.

Both Jiraiya and Shizune motioned towards her but both found that they could not move a muscle.

“The duel isn’t over.” Naruto glared at them.

He released them from his hold and thankfully, they stopped their motion of helping Tsunade out.

Naruto waited.

And waited.

And waited.

For five minutes he simply looked at her.

The trauma of seeing the one you loved die in your arms was not easily dealt with, but Tsunade had been tormented long enough.

“Are you going to continue and let the past rule you, Tsunade Senju?” Naruto asked, lacing his voice with chakra to garner a bit of her attention. It was a subtle type of genjutsu–one he’d copied after seeing Tayuya fight his students.

Tsunade blinked out of her reverie, before meeting his now unblindfolded eyes, as he’d removed the cloth when waiting for her.

Blue met amber.

Tsunade was expecting to find scorn and pity. Instead, she found understanding, and sympathy.

“Please get up, Senju Tsunade, you are stronger than this. I know you are,” Naruto said. “Don’t you carry the dreams of both your brother and your former lover? What would they say if they saw you now?”

Those words…

Those…

Tears formed in Tsunade’s eyes, but shakily she began to rise. Her feet beneath her felt like lead, her arms felt like they were wading through currents.

Naruto watched on, as piece by piece, she rebuilt herself, her soul seeming more and more whole as time passed by. She was still stuck in place though, and seemed to need a bit more of a push.

Naruto fished something out from his shirt–a necklace, once given to him by an alternate version of Tsunade.

Tsunade’s eyes, who was looking on defiantly at him, widened the moment the green crystal came into view.

Immediately, she looked at her own chest, where her own identical crystal lay.

‘A fake?’ she thought, but as she looked at the boy’s necklace once more, the resemblance was too uncanny. She’d held on to the thing long enough to tell which one was her own from a mountain of fakes and she knew that the one before her wasn’t one.

“...How?” she got out.

“A woman gave this to me once,” Naruto said, “she placed her faith and dreams onto me, to continue forth the memories of her sibling and her partner. I…I have failed her once.”

Naruto’s eyes met Tsunade’s with a confidence that spoke volumes of his desire to help her.

“I will not fail her again.”

Naruto flashed forwards in front of her, and tapped her forehead with his finger.

Tsunade blacked out.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

When Tsunade came to, she found herself staring at a ceiling in a hotel. For a moment, she was confused about how she came to be there.

Did she black out again?

Did Shizune carry her back here like she always did?

Then, the memories came crashing down, and for a second she looked like a gaping fish as she remembered.

She was half drunk at the time, not to mention rusty…extremely rusty, but still decent enough to handle a high-jonin threat if she had to.

That boy…was not high-jonin.

She’d expected him to be an upstart Chuunin who got his arrogance from passing the chuunin exam, but it was obvious that he was far beyond that level.

Even at the state she was now, no mere run-of-the-mill shinobi could handle her, and he did so easily…

Then she remembered the wager of their bet and her cheeks grew warm in embarrassment. He wagered that she would be back in Konoha and would stay as long as Shizune wanted her to.

Then there was…

No. Now she would not do that. She could just claim that she didn’t remember it, or that she didn’t agree to the wager before the duel started…or…

Her eyes widened, seeing a loophole that she could use to get out of that wager.

She smiled to herself.

“Having fun?” a voice said from her side.

Tsunade almost backhanded whoever it was that spoke from her surprise.

It was none other than the subject of her annoyances.

The strange blond kid, wearing a blindfold once more though she could tell that he had no problems with his eyes, with whisker marked cheeks and a smile on his face that would make most ladies swoon.

She wasn’t most ladies.

She scowled. “Came to rub in your win?”

He smiled. “Came to check on you, Tsunade-baachan.”

Tsunade’s eyebrows twitched. “Do not call me that.”

Naruto chuckled. “We’ll see.”

Tsunade wanted to punch him again.

Then he leaned closer and for a moment, Tsunade was taken aback by the sudden proximity.

“What are you doing?” she asked as she backed away.

“Hm?” Naruto hummed, “Doesn’t somebody owe me a kiss?”

Tsunade pushed his face away with her palm, effectively smushing him.

“No.”

“But the wager–”

“The wager stated that I had to kiss you, on the lips, with tongue, for a minute straight.”

“Then–”

“But you forget to mention when I had to kiss you.”

Naruto froze.

“...No,” he muttered, unable to foresee that outcome.

He’d initially meant for the kiss to be a joke anyway, and while it was weird that kissing who he’d considered to be an older aunt of sorts in his past world was weird. This world’s Tsunade just seemed…slightly different.

It was strange as he took her in once again, that she seemed to be slightly younger looking than he remembered. Tsunade’s mastery of medicine and the healing arts allowed her to stay physically young, despite being in her fifties, but this was…

Whereas the Tsunade in his world looked to be in her late thirties, here she looked to be in her late twenties at most. There was something womanly about her, something that told him that she was no further past her prime than he was, and could stay this way for a long, long time.

“Semantics,” Naruto said, “a deal was a deal, dattebayo.”

Tsunade arched her eyebrow at the verbal tic, but continued to push his face away from her. “Details matter. One would think that as arrogant as you are, you would know such things.”

“Damn it,” Naruto growled as he relented. He rubbed his face, trying to get blood back into it from being smushed. “I’ll kiss you one day, just you wait.”

Naruto didn’t mind this outcome, not really. It was just that Tsunade looked so much prettier than he remembered that he was curious of what a kiss with her would be like.

The Tsunade in his old world would have killed him. This Tsunade though?

…she would still probably kill him, but it was worth a shot!

He sat back as Tsunade's eyes drew to something else. She was staring at the crystal that was hanging around his neck.

Quickly, he took off his necklace and handed it to her, much to her surprise.

“You wanted to check whether it was real, didn’t you?” Naruto offered. “Take it.”

Gingerly, Tsunade held out her hands, and as the pendant dropped on her palm, she knew without a doubt that it was indeed, the same one she had. The weight was exactly the same, and from a closer look, even the fine, minute details were the same as well.

“How?”

Naruto took a moment before he answered. “It’s…complicated.”

Tsunade narrowed her eyes at him. “...complicated, how?”

He chuckled. “Hm, tell you what. I’ll consider telling you when we get back to Konoha.”

She almost, almost wanted to force the issue, but huffed as she reluctantly complied.

So many questions she had, for a kid barely out of the academy no less.

She would be patient, and would perhaps fish the answers out of Hiruzen himself if she needed to.

“Where’s Shizune and Jiraiya?” she asked.

“Shizune’s packing your stuff, and Jiraiya’s…gone off to do research,” Naruto shamefully admitted.

Tsunade rolled her eyes. “Even with three wives, that old fool still has the gall to muck around. To think he dared ask me to marry him…”

Naruto looked amused. “I bet that was a scene.”

“I almost killed him.”

Naruto chuckled. “Anyway, how are you feeling?”

Tsunade scanned herself. “Fine.”

“Then would you be ready to start the journey back this evening?” Naruto asked.

Tsunade sighed, looked down at her palms, for some odd reason, they didn’t shake slightly anymore when she thought of her old home.

To her surprise, a bandaged hand came to rest on her own.

She met the gaze of Naruto once more, and she found warmth and understanding beyond any of that a greenhorn shinobi could give her.

“We can take our time, if you wish,” he said.

Tsunade found herself shaking her head. “...No…No I think I’ll be fine.”

Naruto nodded and stood up to leave.

“Wait,” Tsunade called out after him.

He stood in place, looking back at her quizzically.

“Why…why did you…say such things to me?” Tsunade asked, and even to her it sounded weak. It was as if she was a child, asking why something bad happened to her.

But she wanted to know.

…what did he see in her that made him goad her so? Was it because of youthful arrogance? No, it was…it was something more.

Naruto turned to her, standing upright and confident, like a mountain unmoving.

“Because I’ve waited so long to see Tsunade Senju,” he simply said, “and now…now I have.”

He gave her one final smile before he disappeared behind the door.

Tsunade could not say anything in response, but a panging ache in her heart rang through her chest. It was…beating again, as if she was finally alive once more, as if time was now finally moving forwards once again.

She…she didn’t want to cage herself with the past anymore…

With a determined expression, she opened up her palm, and with a quick slice of her finger nail, watched as the blood flowed from her palm to her wrist.

It trickled.

It bled.

It did not haunt her anymore.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

When Tsunade collected herself and went outside, she found one Naruto Hagoromo reading from a scroll, leaning on a tree.

She walked over to him, still wary of the newcomer and was unsure how she should act in front of someone so young yet so…deadly.

She did not forget their spar, and someone that young learned both Minato’s and Kushina’s closely guarded secret jutsu…

Kushina.

There was another pang of pain as she remembered the state her relative was left in.

Although taking up the Senju name, Tsunade also had Uzumaki blood in her from her grandmother, and that made her part of the same clan as Kushina.

When Tsunade had heard of the nine-tailed beast attack, she had already been out of the village.

Even then, even when half of her village was destroyed, she did not return. Her hemophobia had been at its peak then.

Now, all that remained was guilt.

Why was she being called back now and not earlier?

Had Hiruzen truly been so patient with her? Or had he been simply afraid?

Afraid…that she would defect and become a Nukenin.

Perhaps it was when they had someone other than Jiraiya that they knew could contain her that she was told to come back once again.

She eyed Naruto Hagoromo, as he introduced himself as.

Who was he, really?

And why did he look so much like Minato Namikaze?

“Are you ready?” Naruto asked.

Tsunade nodded, gesturing for him to follow her to the apartment they were temporarily staying in and where all their stuff was.

The journey was shorter than Naruto expected from the hotel room He and Jiraiya rented out to stay the night.

The apartment was old and worn, clearly a place Tsunade got for dirt cheap for her length of stay.

“Here we are,” Tsunade said as she opened the door.

To her and Naruto’s shock, however, what they found inside was luggage thrown strewn about the place in a mess.

There looked to be signs of struggle, of fighting, and worse of all…

…there was no Shizune to be found.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-