41

It took a lot of time to calm Tsunade down. Mostly, Naruto just stood there, drawing soft circles on her back as she let it all out.

By the time Tsunade broke the hug, Naruto's shoulder was completely wet with tears and a tiny bit of snot, while his face was flushed, almost running out of breath because of the huge pillows that blocked all oxygen supply.

Tsunade greeted Jiraiya and confirmed with him the details that the village found about the Senju clan. Jiraiya went one step further and pulled out several scrolls of copies of the evidence that was found and shared it with his teammate. These scrolls contained not only evidence of the Senju clan's demise, but also of the ROOT program, the mysterious disappearance of orphans, the downfall of the Uchiha, and the suspicious sealing formulas and routes that led entry to the Land of Whirlpools and Uzushiogakure.

Jiraiya used Earth Style to clear all the various craters Naruto and Tsunade's fight caused, while Tsunade quickly packed her bags with practiced ease, and the five of them started the journey back to the village.

On the wide forest path, a young boy with golden blond hair, a middle-aged man with a wild mane of white hair, a young-looking woman with a purple diamond on her forehead, a young woman with black hair and a pink pig in her arms journeyed down the forest path, their destination, the Hidden Leaf Village.

"Hey, Tsunade. Can you teach me some Medical Ninjutsu?" Naruto asked, breaking the silence of the forest.

"I can have Shizune here teach you if you want. But medical ninjutsu is not so easy, you know. It takes a lot of chakra control. What level are you at?" Tsunade asked, dodging the responsibility of teaching personally.

"You know. I helped bring you back on the condition that you teach me all that you know about Iryojutsu. I don't want to learn from the second best, I want to learn from the best. No offense Shizune." Naruto looked at the young woman silently following the group.

"None taken."

"I don't do medical ninjutsu anymore, Naruto. But I will be happy to give you some books if that's what you wish." Tsunade avoided eye contact as she spoke.

"Sigh. Fine. But remind me, we need to do something about that phobia of yours when we get back. I have the perfect solution to it." Naruto said in barely a whisper, as they all made their way back to the village.

A few days later, the village gates appeared in front of them, and the eternal gatekeepers were stunned at the new face coming back to the village.

"Tsunade-sama?" They asked in surprise, never expecting to see the legendary medic in front of them with their own eyes.

"Yes. Now, we need to hurry up and meet the Hokage. You guys can ogle her later when she becomes the Hokage, alright." Jiraiya chuckled seeing their reactions, as they all arrived at the Hokage's office. On the way, they got many weird looks, some of them recognizing the figure walking in the middle.

"Welcome, Tsunade. It has been far too long since we last met." Hiruzen walked out from behind the desk, and hugged his student tightly, as his aged face looked at her lovingly as if looking at his own child.

"I'm back sensei," Tsunade replied with guilt in her voice, afraid to even meet the man's eyes.

"I'll see you guys later. Bye-bye." Naruto, seeing that things were about to get heavy, decided it was time for him to make his exit.

"Hiroki nii-san. I got the books from her. Here have a look." Naruto arrived back at his own home, laid out on the bed as he pulled out a small stack of medical ninjutsu books, and started reading.

"Nice job Naruto. But remember, we need more books, and the more advanced they are, the better. These are barely more detailed than the ones from the library." Hiroki scanned the books through Naruto's eyes, as books appeared in the library in the mindscape, a long list of flaws in red filling them.

"Man, this is going to take a while." Hiroki sighed as he began reading the books, attempting to resolve the flaws using his own knowledge from Madara's, Minato's, and his own knowledge.

But, the number of flaws resolved didn't make any significant dent in the books, as they still were riddled with flaws, loopholes, and inaccurate representations of various topics.

For the next few hours, Hiroki himself learned the topics, while Naruto roamed around the village, and met up with his friends and teammates.

Life was peaceful for the next two weeks.

Tsunade had officially started her training with Hiruzen, shadowing him, as he taught her all the intricacies of the job.

Naruto began learning under Hiroki once more, developing his basic medical knowledge and bringing it to higher levels.

One day, Naruto met up with his team and asked them for a favor.

"Hey, guys. I need your help with someone. Can you guys develop a strong and long enough genjutsu that will allow the victim to repeat the events on repeat all the while realizing that they are stuck in a loop?" Naruto asked the two.

"It will be hard, considering that genjutsus aren't meant to be noticed by the victim. Also, it will take a lot of power and chakra to keep it going for more than an hour in the real world. Time inside of the mind flows faster than the outside, so, an hour in the real world would equate to about 4 days." Sasuke started off.

"But that will place significant pressure on the victim's mind. What is that you want us to show them?" Yakumo asked, realizing the drawbacks of the proposed plans.

"Scenes of blood and people asking her for help from blood loss. Force her to deal with her fear of blood." Naruto explained.

Soon, the three of them cooked up a plan and went to the Hokage tower.

Knock Knock

"Come in," Hiruzen answered as Naruto, Sasuke, and Yakumo walked in and stood in front of the Hokage and the Hokage-in-training.

"Hokage-sama. Is it alright if we borrow Tsunade-sama for a little while?" Naruto asked formally, making Hiruzen look at him weirdly.

"Why so polite all of a sudden, Naruto?" Hiruzen asked in surprise, as he looked from above his half-framed glasses.

"Nothing really. I just thought to be formal since we have others present in the room as well." Naruto smiled as he pointed at Tsunade and the members of Team 7.

"Fair enough. Alright. If Tsunade's fine with it, you can have her for a while. But she has work to do, ok. Have her back in three hours. Tsunade, you ok with this?" Hiruzen asked his student, who followed the order and bowed lightly before turning around and following the three young genin.

"What is the matter, Naruto? Why did you want to see me?" Tsunade asked as they walked into the forest behind the Hokage faces.

"Nothing much aunty Tsunade. I just wanted to talk with you and go for a small walk." Naruto said as he walked with her, Tsunade holding on to his hand like a mother holding on to her child.

A while back, Tsunade insisted Naruto call her more familiarly, something about him resembling her younger brother, Nawaki. And since she was too old for him to call her Nee-san, Naruto opted for aunty. She was a bit conflicted at first but allowed it after feeling happy about having a family once more.

"Really?" Tsunade asked in suspicion, as she analyzed the boy, head to toe.

"Not really," Naruto said as he pulsed his chakra, springing the seal from his palm that was holding onto Tsunade, effectively blocking her access to her chakra.

"What the hell. Naruto?" Tsunade asked in annoyance, feeling chakra move like lead through her pathways.

"It's all for your own good. Now guys." Naruto ordered as Sasuke's eyes blazed red, and Tsunade instantly fell still, her eyes glazed over.

"Are you sure this is alright, Naruto?" Yakumo asked worriedly, as they guarded Tsunade's still body in the forest, while Naruto sat down to read a book on 'chakra as medicine'.

"She needs this. Her mind's not young anymore, so it's hard to guide changes through talking alone. We need to force it to heal itself, that is the only way for her at this age." Naruto explained as Yakumo nodded slightly and Sasuke concentrated on keeping the genjutsu ongoing.

For the next half an hour, they stayed in the forest, before Tsunade gasped out loud and looked around angrily.

"NARUTO!!!!!!"

"Alright, guys. Gotta go. Bye-bye." With a quick shunshin, naruto disappeared from the spot, as Tsunade followed him throughout the village, destroying many walls, and roads, while Naruto apologized profusely.

For the next hour or two, the village was in chaos, as ninjas went on high alert, but were ordered by the Hokage to let it be.

Naruto ended up with a huge bruise on his head, while sitting in a dogeza, rubbing the bump on his head.

"While I understand the intentions, tell me before you do this. If I find out next time you pulled a stunt like this, a few broken bones will be the least of your worries. Understand." Tsunade raged, while Naruto nodded with a small smile.

"But it did work, didn't it?" Naruto confirmed, which earned a glare from the woman.

"It did. And for that, I am not giving you too strict of a punishment.

Instead, you will be on kennel duty for the Inuzuka clan for the next four months, is that understood?" Tsunade used her position as Hokage in training and gave out his mission.

"What!!! No, please no!!!" Naruto paled, as he quickly bowed his head to the ground.

"And no shadow clones to do the job."

"NOOOOOOOOO"

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