The Hope of the Senju Clan

Disclaimer: I do not and will not ever own Naruto!

It was late in the evening and the sun was slowly setting in the west, casting its lingering glow onto the land lucky enough to feel its retreating warmth. Two figures could be seen traveling along the road that lead from the border of Kawa no Kuni (River Country) to Tanzaku Gai, a small but lively town that was a fair distance from Konoha.

One of the figures was a tall male standing about six foot four. He seemed to be in his early forties or so, although he carried himself as someone half that age. He had extremely long and spiky white hair tied into a pony tail along with two shoulder-length bangs that framed both sides of his face. Red lines ran down from underneath his eyes to his jawline and a unique head protector with the kanji of 'oil' was emblazoned across the metallic object firmly rested upon his forehead.

This man was Jiraiya, the famed Toad Sage of the Densetsu no Sannin (Legendary Three Ninja), a former student of Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage (Third Hokage), Shinobi no Kami (God of Ninja) and the Professor. Jiraiya is also the author of the popular adult fiction book series called Icha Icha and is a self-proclaimed super-pervert.

The man walking next to him was roughly five foot eleven and looked to be in his early to mid-twenties. He wore the standard Konoha ninja uniform, a green flak jacket appropriate for his rank along with a short-sleeved and high-collared white coat with red flames adorning the edges that reached just past his knees. He had bright blue eyes and spiky blond hair with bangs that stretched down to chin-length and surrounded both sides of his face. He was considered quite handsome by the female populace of his native village and even beyond that, to the point that some instances of infatuation came from his physical appearance alone.

This man was Namikaze Minato, the famed Konoha no Kiiroi Senkō (Konoha's Yellow Flash), Yondaime Hokage (Fourth Hokage), and former student of Jiraiya.

The two famous shinobi were on their way back to Konoha after successfully negotiating and signing an alliance with Sunagakure no Sato (Village Hidden in the Sand) and its leader the Yondaime Kazekage (Fourth Kazekage).

Normally, it would be considered strange for a Kage of any village to be travelling in such a small party since, whenever it was suitable, he would be accompanied by at least a squad of Anbu or other shinobi of jōnin level.

However, this obviously wasn't just any normal travelling duo.

With both being kage level shinobi, the thought of even planning to attack them when they were together would be seen as complete lunacy by a majority of the strongest fighters out there in the Elemental Nations. They were both considered among the strongest in their own respective generations, maybe even the strongest depending on who was asked, and would only be stronger as a cohesive unit made up by a longtime teacher and student.

In short, a protective detail was virtually unnecessary since an attack on the two was practically suicide.

"Well, Minato, at least we made it to Tanzaku Gai. Guess we won't have to sleep out on the forest floor tonight," Jiraiya spoke jokingly with a smile and a slight nudge to his pupil's side.

Minato let out a small chuckle. "I suppose you're right," he replied before looking a little wistful. "And even with the Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique) to travel faster, I'd rather take a little time to relax and stay away from the paperwork back home. Celebrating a new alliance by checking into a nice hotel and going to a bar in the town sounds like a perfect excuse, doesn't it?" The blond nudged back good-naturedly.

"Now you're talking!" the Toad Sage exclaimed in enthusiasm. Sake sounded perfect at the moment. "Hell, we might even get you lucky tonight," he said cheekily as he smacked Minato on the back, making the blonde slightly buckle in his steps.

Soon enough the two shinobi found an adequate hotel and booked a room immediately after entering the decently sized gambling village. It wasn't that much longer after that that they went to the best bar near their hotel and unexpectedly met up with a familiar face enjoying her own free time.

The person they found in the bar was a woman with blond hair, of which was tied into a long ponytail that reached down to her lower hip with chin-length strands framing both sides of her face, a diamond shaped mark imprinted on her forehead and striking brown eyes. If she were standing she'd be about five foot four with a frame that was covered by a green haori with a kanji for 'gamble' on it. Underneath her robe was a sleeveless grey kimono shirt along a dark obi around her waist and matching her short pants. However, her most prominent features were her extremely sizable breasts (which were about one hundred and six centimeters according to Jiraiya's keen intellect). She's what most individuals would consider extremely attractive.

The Toad Sage's eyes lit up in pleased recognition. "Hime! My, it's been awhile! I didn't expect to see you here tonight!"

The woman that Jiraiya called out to was none other than Senju Tsunade, the Slug Princess and only female member of the Densetsu no Sannin. Along with being the last living member of the Senju Clan she was also the granddaughter of Senju Hashirama, the Shodai Hokage (First Hokage) and grandniece of Senju Tobirama, the Nidaime Hokage (Second Hokage). With her aforementioned role in the Densetsu no Sannin, having the Sandaime Hokare as a teacher along with Jiraiya went without saying. Besides those bigger facts about herself, she was also credited by most as being the most beautiful woman in the world, which was of no surprise to those who have gazed upon her. It was also thanks to her efforts in healing and curing poisons that Konoha was even able to win the Second Great Shinobi World War, earning her the title of being the greatest Iryo-nin (Medical-nin) in the Elemental Nations.

When Tsunade turned to see who called to her the woman expected to see a debt collector. However, she was instead greeted to the sight of her old teammate Jiraiya and his former student and current Hokage, Namikaze Minato.

"Jiraiya, Minato! What are you two doing here?" asked Tsunade as she set down her saucer of sake and turned around on her barstool.

"Minato and I just arrived in town just a little while ago. We just trekked through Kawa from Suna after negotiating an alliance between Suna and Konoha." replied Jiraiya with an almost hidden smile.

The famed medic noticed the corner of his mouth twitch upwards. "So I take it that the discussions went well since you're here? Celebrating, maybe?" queried the Slug Princess.

"Yeah, they ended fine, great, actually. Although the whole process was tough thanks to the Yondaime Kazekage. He kept on trying to make the alliance favor Suna more instead of making it equal to both villages. It also didn't help that he made several snide remarks about Konoha being too soft and weak," replied Minato with a frown.

He didn't like the Yondaime Kazekage much. He often found him to be a rather cold and uncaring individual, especially with the way he ignored or passed off his pregnant wife, three-year-old daughter and two-year-old son as if they meant little to him.

It was at this point that Minato finally noticed the young teenage girl who was quietly sitting next to Tsunade. The girl in question looked to be about fifteen and was holding a little piglet in her arms. Her name was Shizune, Tsunade's apprentice and the niece of the female Senju's late lover, Katō Dan, a renowned Shinobi of Konoha.

When Minato saw her, he greeted the raven-haired adolescent kindly, causing a slight red tint to appear on her cheeks. Quickly trying to shake it off, she then bowed and greeted him respectfully by referring to him as 'Hokage-sama.' Minato merely brushed off the official reception and told her to call him Minato, not by his title since they weren't currently in Konoha and he wasn't in the mood to be too business-like. This only caused Shizune to blush deeper at being able to call probably the strongest shinobi alive in such a familiar way.

The two males then went to sit down next to their new company with Minato sitting in-between both of the older shinobi. Once both were secured on their own barstools Tsunade continued the conversation.

"So, who's looking after the village while you're away? Please tell me you didn't leave the village in the care of those old fossils Koharu, Homura, Danzō or anyone else on the council?" she asked. She never did like those three power hungry old farts, what with them acting like they knew better than everyone else no matter the situation, and would often try to usurp the authority of others, especially the Hokage's if they didn't agree with his decision. While they couldn't officially do anything, they could definitely bring on the guilt and play on people's emotions to get the rest of the council to change their minds. Danzō was reputably exceptional at doing so.

"Nah, we left sensei in charge until we get back," said the white-haired male.

Tsunade nodded absently while twirling her saucer. "So, Minato how is life being Hokage?" she asked before taking a savory sip of her sake.

The younger blond clicked his toungue in an exasperated fashion. "Hard! Especially with all the paperwork I have to do and all the meetings I have to attend with the council. It doesn't leave me any time for a social life either," replied Minato as he took a sip of his own freshly ordered alcohol.

"What about that cute little redhead Anbu girl from Uzushiogakure (Village Hidden by Whirling Tides) you were seeing? Kushina, wasn't that her name?" Jiraiya inquired with his chin being held by a calloused hand.

"It kind of didn't work out. I wanted to start a family with her, but two years ago she told me that she wanted to focus more on her career rather than having a relationship," Minato answered with a heavy sigh.

"Sorry to hear that, brat," Jiraiya said regretfully. He personally thought they were doing well, but sometimes it just wasn't meant to be.

Minato only brushed Jiraiya off, saying that it was okay and that he was over her anyway at this point.

"So…" drawled a now slightly tipsy Tsunade, "I guess that means that you're back on the market for all those eligible ladies out there who want to be the next Mrs. Namikaze," she finished with a smirk.

"I guess you could say that, and would you be among those ladies Tsunade-hime?" asked Minato with a small and playful smirk as he took another sip of sake.

"Ha! You wish, brat," laughed Tsunade as she took another large sip of sake from her saucer before refilling it.

Over the next four hours the three talked about all kinds of various topics, switching back and forth from what came to mind in relation to Konoha and just about anything about the world in general. Not much of what was discussed would be remembered due to everyone's mental state being affected by the continuous alcohol intake, but they were enjoying themselves nonetheless.

Of course, the young medical apprentice wasn't one to dabble in such activities for very long, mostly because it wasn't her thing and somebody had to be the rational and coherent one between her and sensei. That's why Shizune had left two and a half hours prior to take care of the piglet at her own shared hotel room before turning in for the night. As she left the bar's doors she could only hope that the three would behave themselves since sticky situations weren't afraid to rear their ugly heads into the lives of eccentric shinobi, especially of those where alcohol was involved.

Just past the four hour mark Jiraiya had passed out drunk on the bar counter with drool leaking carelessly from the corner of his mouth. Tsunade and Minato continued to talk with one another, however, and easily ignored the snoring and drooling Toad Sage. As they talked they continued to down more sake, becoming so intoxicated that the two Kage level shinobi began to flirt with one another.

"Y'know, T-Tsunade, I had the…biggest crush on you when…I was a genin," Minato slurred, wobbling a bit even in a seated position.

Tsunade snickered slightly with an immediate hiccup following. "Well, I'm honored, Minato-kun." Tsunade replied in the same fashion.

The two continued to flirt back and forth like this until Tsunade suddenly said, "Maybe we can have our own little party…back at my room…to celebrate Konoha's new alliance with Suna," giggled a fully inebriated Tsunade like a little school girl.

"Lead the way, hime," said the equally intoxicated Hokage.

Soon enough, the two drunken shinobi staggered away from the bar, leaving the passed out Jiraiya to his lonesome as he let out a few lecherous giggles from an apparent dream he was having. He would later be promptly thrown out on the street soon after they left when the bartender decided to close up.

The two blonds reached Tsunade's room at the same hotel where Minato and Jiraiya were staying at and entered the room. The instant the door was closed they quickly and drunkenly began removing each other's clothing and proceeded to 'examine' one another in a disorderly yet heated passion.

For most of the night moans, grunts and giggling could be heard coming from Tsunade's room, sounds that didn't quell until very late into the night.

-Next morning in Tsunade's room-

Late the next morning, Tsunade slowly woke up with a groan due to the massive hangover that she was currently feeling and the light blaring from the sun in her eyes, prompting her to turn over on the bed and face away from the window.

"Oooooh…my head…that's the last time I celebrate with Jiraiya and Minato like that," thought the weary Tsunade.

After a little stretching and trying to blink away any mental and physical blurriness she froze and came to a stark realization.

She was naked.

Then she heard a groan next to her.

Ever so slowly she turned her head to the space on the bed to her right. Trepidation quickly filled her gut more and more with every fraction of a second that went by in the process until her brown eyes gazed at the bare back of a man with spiky blond hair.

The reaction was instantaneous.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed Tsunade as she jumped out of the bed and pulled the bed covers with her to cover her modesty. As soon as she pulled the blanket, the man next to her jerked over the side and fell off the bed, crashing onto the floor and causing him to groan again, this time in even more pain than his own previous and quickly interrupted hazy awakening.

After a quick moment or so the mystery man slowly sat up from the other side of the bed, holding his head from the painful hangover he was sporting and from the large bump that was forming on his head after hitting the unforgiving bedroom floor.

It was as the man's head peeked over the mattress that Tsunade realized who the man was.

"Minato?!" Tsunade shouted.

Minato cringed at Tsunade's loud voice, easily increasing the throbbing pain in his head. It was when he gained his bearings and looked at Tsunade's shocked face that a confused look swept across his visage.

"Tsunade, what are you doing here in my room?" he bluntly asked.

"Your room?! This is my room, you idiot! I should be the one asking that, not you! Not to mention why are you naked in my bed?!" exclaimed Tsunade and she pointed at him angrily with a shaking finger.

"Huh?" sounded Minato as he looked down at himself and saw that he was indeed naked as a jaybird. Upon realizing this the young man's face turned bright red before he quickly grabbed a nearby pillow to hastily cover 'little Minato.'

"W-what happened last night? The last thing I can remember is the two of us drinking and talking while sensei was passed out!" Minato groaned as he held his head from the lingering pain.

"The last thing I remember was…" Tsunade drawled as she tried to remember what had exactly happened. When the memory hit her their activities came back in a series of fast flashbacks, making the female Sannin suddenly turn bright red in embarrassment just like her fellow blond.

Weirdly enough, as Minato watched Tsunade's face turning various shades of red, he too began to remember what they did last night, causing him to blush even brighter than before if that was even impossible

Quickly enough, an angry Tsunade focused all of her attention at Minato and pointed accusingly at him.

"You damn bastard! You took advantage of me when I was too drunk to think straight!"

Minato broke out of his momentary embarrassment. "Me?! I wasn't the one who was flirting like a hormonal fangirl at the bar! You were the one who started it all!" Minato retorted defensively.

"Don't you dare try and blame me! You admitted it yourself that you had a thing for me since your genin days last night! That's why you decided to take advantage of me when I was vulnerable!"

"Hey now, I wasn't the one who invited me into your room! It was all your idea to come here, so if there was anyone who was taken advantage of, it was me! You had your way with me like some doctor and patient roleplay in the bedsheets against my will!"

For the next ten minutes the two continued to try and place the blame on one another, but eventually they reluctantly agreed that it was both of their faults. It wasn't long at all that they then hurriedly got dressed and decided that they would keep what happened a secret between the two of them, especially from a certain super pervert they both knew. If Jiraiya ever found out he would never let either of them live it down and would most likely become another installment in his next book.

After a few minutes, Minato quickly left Tsunade's room and decided to head back to his own on a lower floor, hoping that Jiraiya hadn't woken up yet. That is, if his sensei made it back.

Just as he was about to open the door an all too familiar voice cried out to him.

"Hey, Minato!"

When Minato turned around he saw his sensei coming towards him from the stairs leading to the ground floor of the hotel.

Jiraiya continued. "Glad to see that you're up! I figured you'd still be sleeping like a stone from all the fun last night. You were about to come look for me, weren't you?" Jiraiya asked as he came up to the blond.

"Uh…yeah! That's right, sensei," Minato let out nervously while secretly and immensely glad that Jiraiya apparently didn't make it back to see that he was absent from their shared room.

The Toad Sage's face then gained a skeptical and semi-serious impression. "It seems that I was left passed out in the bar by myself. I was even thrown out on the street where I just so happened to wake up a little bit ago," Jiraiya narrowed his eyes at the young Hokage, "so why didn't you bring me back to our room last night?"

"Well…uh…you see…the thing was…um..." stuttered out a nervous Minato as he tried to come up with a believable excuse, and failing quite miserably at that if his facial expression alone was anything to go by.

It was at this time that Jiraiya detected a certain scent coming from the young man's person.

"Minato, what's that smell coming from you?" Jiraiya closed in uncomfortably close and began to sniff his clothes. "Is that perfume?" He asked curiously.

Minato began to get even more nervous as he silently cursed himself for not showering. It was extremely easy to deduce that he must've gotten some of Tsunade's perfume on his clothing when they were becoming 'familiar' with each other. He knew that if his sensei recognized the smell he would quickly understand what happened last night, something that Minato was confident would end his time among the land of the living.

To only affirm Minato's growing fears, a knowing and very perverted smirk appeared on the Toad Sage's face.

"Listen, sensei, I can explain..." began Minato as he tried to dig up anything from his reliable intellect to get him out of this situation.

"What's there to explain?!" Jiraiya exclaimed with a surprising amount of gusto. "You got lucky with some hot young lady from the bar last night, didn't you, brat?" he asked with his smirk growing in confidence.

"Huh?" was Minato's intelligent response, not expecting this sort of response from the older man.

Well, maybe in hindsight it shouldn't be all too surprising.

"Come on, Minato, I can smell the perfume coming off your clothes! There's no need to hide your manly triumph! If you had just told me that from the start, I would have understood. So who is she? Was it that smoking hot barmaid that winked at you last night when she served us our drinks? Or was it one of those sexy young ladies at the nearby table who were eyeing you? Come on, you can tell me!" probed the massively grinning Jiraiya as he nudged his elbow into Minato's side proudly, wanting to hear all the details for his next book.

"Uh, yeah, you're right, sensei! I guess I can't hide anything from you." Minato responded after a moment before letting out a silent yet huge sigh of relief. Jiraiya was getting a little too close for comfort there.

"So are you going to tell me all about how it was or who you were with?" Jiraiya continued to nudge Minato even more, hoping to get as much details as possible and grinning like the pervert he proudly was.

Deciding to change the subject quickly, Minato acted fast. "Maybe later, sensei. How about we get going? If we leave now, we can reach Konoha before nightfall."

Minato took the initiative by heading towards the stairs where Jiraiya thankfully followed. As they walked down the steps Jiraiya, in his full-fledged super pervert mode, followed closely behind him trying to get any juicy information.

"Come on, brat! You gotta give me something! Is she a blond, a brunette, maybe even another redhead? Is she a moaner or a screamer? At least tell me if I know her! Come on, at least give me that!" Jiraiya pleaded.

Minato just ignored his sensei's wishes, all the while thinking, "If only you knew, sensei. If only you knew…"

-One months later-

Tsunade was lying down on a bed in a hotel that she and Shizune have been staying at for a while, with the latter using medical ninjutsu to run a medical scan on her master. The medical apprentice's hand was resting above Tsunade's navel and sending sends small pulses of chakra to examine any irregularities. She was doing this not only because her abilities were critically need right now, but also because she was the only one that Tsunade trusted without question.

After Shizune finished her scan on Tsunade, she confirmed what Tsunade believed when she realized that she missed her period…

She was pregnant.

Tsunade bolted up from her laying position and quickly started to put on her clothes back on.

"When I find that bastard, I'm going to kill him, revive him and then kill him again!" Tsunade angrily raged in her mind, her face obviously conveying the roaring emotions without even trying to hide them.

"Shizune, get ready to leave. We're heading for Konoha," Tsunade ordered heatedly.

This of course shocked her apprentice, but it wasn't due to her master speaking in such a way at her. It was because she had said that they were going to Konoha, the very place Tsunade swore she would never step foot in again.

"B-b-b-b-but w-w-w-why, sensei?" stammered a shocked Shizune as she hurriedly tried to get her things in order.

"Because I'm going to kill the father of my child for knocking me up!" Tsunade replied angrily while finally storming out of the room for her sporadic homecoming.