Prologue

Tsunade Senju was not having a good time, ever since the anniversary of Dan and Nawaki's death three months ago she had been having the worst luck on all of her betting, not that she had ever had good luck but this was especially bad.

Worse she could barely drink a little sake before she started getting nauseous and even her chakra control was less than perfect from time to time. She really shouldn't have gone on that week long drinking binge but completing 35 years and realizing she had finally wasted away the entire Senju fortune deserved a party, even if she couldn't remember how it went.

She sighed heavily and laid her head against the little table "Ugh I think it's time"

"What time Tsunade-sama?" asked her apprentice, the little girl was barely 12 but was quite useful to have around even if she did have to avoid her sometimes when she wanted to go at it a little harder.

"Time to diagnose myself Shizune" she mumbled and grabbed for her sake again.

"What?" came the confused response "Should I practice on you master?"

Giving up the sake since it was just beyond the reach of her arm Tsunade turned her face away from the confused girl and banged it against the table.

Despite being the best medical ninja on the world bar none Tsunade really didn't like using medical jutsus on herself, she didn't like to see all the little problems that her lifestyle had started accumulating, how her body had long started deteriorating from lack of practice and, most of all, how it was older than it should be thanks to the use of her ultimate healing jutsu, she may be 35 but her body was almost a decade older.

And to think she had commemorated so much the creation of her seal only to find out much later how it aged her body after each use, creation rebirth had seemed like such perfect technique too.

She should have known she could have nothing good in this life.

With an enormous effort of will Tsunade ignored her aching head and pushed her body forward inch by inch her fingers grabbing desperately finally touching the superficie of the bottle, finally she grabbed it and released a triumphant smile, then she shook the bottle and saw it was empty "Gods' damn it!"

"Tsunade-sama can I help you?" Shizune bowed towards her and, in a fit of rage, Tsunade threw the bottle at her.

She had enough sense to throw it slightly to the side and make sure she missed the girl but still immediately regretted her actions when the girl ran away from the room in fear.

Letting herself fall back on the table she sighed "Good, maybe now she'l understand how unworthy I am as a master"

Laying there with her head on the table Tsunade wanted nothing more than to go out and gamble a little, it was one of the few things that still gave her joy in this life. When she could pretend to forget about everything else and remember the good times, but her money had completely run out.

"Perhaps I should go and find some fat noble that needs healing" she mused. Before she abandoned the ninja life there were always those kinds of missions available, one fatass or another about to die from heart disease and wanted a quick fix but she just… didn't feel like it.

Betting places also lent money right? She remembered a few times seeing players in other tables getting loans. Perhaps she should get one, she had already exhausted the senju fortune, perhaps it's time to start putting it in debt?

Not like there is any other Senju alive to do anything about it after all.

Great, now she's back to thinking about her nonexistent family again. That's what she gets for running out of sake in the middle of the day.

Getting up she decided to change clothes and go out to get some more sake, she didn't have betting money but she did keep some ryo sealed away in a scroll for emergencies.

She was sober, it was an emergency.

Putting on a clean shirt she frowned at her belly, damn when did she start to get fat? She supposed even her physique starts to deteriorate when she's not exercised for years, she couldn't even remember the last time she went for a run or practiced her moves.

An hour later she was back in her hotel room, having drained an entire bottle and starting to get a buzz while drinking the second, unfortunately she had also started to get nauseous.

"Alright I guess this is enough procrastinating" She really didn't want to practice medical ninjutsu, she barely taught Shizune and only because she'd feel even worse if the little girl continued following her for nothing.

Draining her sake cup she closed her eyes and channeled chakra into her diagnose jutsu, it was time to see what exactly was wrong with her body. With her luck her creation rebirth Jutsu had caused cancer to fill her body and it was only now spreading.

Then she spit everything out all over the room and froze in place, she really was sick if she couldn't even perform a diagnostic jutsu right.

She did it again. The result didn't change "AHHHHHH!"

Little Shizune burst through the door with a kunai in each hand "Tsunade-sama!"

"What do you think you're doing you stupid girl" Tsunade screamed again while hitting the top of the gennin's head "If an enemy could make me scream you should run not charge in here like an idiot!"

"Yes Tsunade-sama" she pouted while cradling the top of her head then looked at her suspiciously "Why did you scream?"

"Nothing" she hurried to say while doing a third diagnosis jutsu with no change, she was quickly becoming very sober.

Oh god she had been drinking constantly for three months now, and it had to have been three months ago. It was the only time she drank so much she didn't remember.

Howcould this happen? She always took precautions!

Almost pleadingly she sent a prayer to the gods and made yet another diagnosis but there was no mistake… better yet there was a huge, long lasting, mistake, she was pregnant.

For a while after Dan's death and her deflection she had started sleeping around a lot but a combination of it always being unfulfilling, not being as good as drinking in making her forget things and waking up to find Shizune cleaning her after a particularly eventful encounter had made her stop.

After that it had been more than four years since she had any relationships, there was simply no need to use any form of prevention jutsu.

Damn she must have been so drunk she didn't even use the cleansing jutsu afterward, what was she going to do.

"Sensei are you alright?" came Shizune's soft voice as she laid a small little hand over her arm. Looking down she was surprised to discover her vision had become blurry, she was crying.

"No" What was she gonna do, her body was too old, too wounded, her mind too unstable she couldn't be a mother, what was she gonna do "No I don't think I am"

Then she collapsed to her knees and started crying for real while a small, confused, gennin tried to console her.

_________________________________________________________________________

A month and a half latter Tsunade nursed a cup of warm tea and waited in a small out of the way coffee shop just outside the land of fire's capital city, it wasn't the most well served place but she had spent a whole week making sure no ninja was going to be anywhere near the place.

She had very briefly considered going back to Konoha. She was sure her sensei would welcome her with open arms and even allow her to open her long dreamed clinic,if only she could get over her fear.

She knew the idea simply wasn't viable, before long the village would come calling requiring just one mission, just another assassination, just one more battle…

She also absolutely refused to allow her son to become another sacrifice for that cursed village, and thats what was gonna happen if she went back, he would go into that damned academy, be feed that far too effective will of fire line and became yet another dead name to be written on those ridiculous rocks like everyone else she had ever loved.

No she couldn't go back but she also couldn't continue like she was, traveling the nations with a single gennin who most village's considered utterly dispensable was one thing, doing so with her own newborn baby with all her enemies knowing was another.

She needed help so she reached out for all her safest contacts.

She did think of asking for help from her former teammates but, Jiraya was a damn pervert and far too loyal to the village, he wouldn't keep her son a secret from their sensei and, while Tsunade hated to admit it, what the hokage knew the elders did too.

Her other teammate was also out of the question, Orochimaru had started to become strange after she left the village.

At the surface he appeared to have handled the war and the killing better than her but Tsunade knew better, she had seen the signs. The snake had been breaking even before she left and she couldn't think it would have gotten better without her and Jiraya there to help him.

Then there were the rumors that sensei had refused to make him Hokage and was favoring Jiraya's own apprentice… no Tsunade couldn't trust anyone in the village.

If she couldn't find help under the Senju name she would have to do it with the other part of her heritage.

Tsunade, granddaughter of Hashirama Senju couldn't trust the village her own clan had founded but Tsunade, granddaughter of Mito Uzumaki may have options.

Uzushiogakure may have been gone for years now and the Uzumaki are either dead or scattered to the wind but they were a noble clan and she was technically a princess.

"Good evening Tsunade-hime, it's good to see you again" came the voice from an older gentleman who had arrived.

"Hiken-san you honor me" Tsunade said while getting up and bowing.

"Nonsense, I still remember when you were little and your grandmother would bring you into the city to play with my son" Hiken said and motioned her to sit down "there's no need for you to bow"

They both sat down and waited for Hiken's coffee to arrive, Tsunade was trying to find out how to start talking and Hiken was too used to serving the daimio and other nobles, he wasn't going to interrupt her thoughts.

"How is the climate in the capital with this war?" she finally asked to start the conversation.

"The daimio isn't happy of course, he always hates losing ninja and the amount of sabotage in trade has started to hit his coffers hard but, for the most part, life in the capital isn't affected" the man said and took a sip of his coffee before meeting Tsunade's eyes "Why are you asking, do you wish to return to your village?"

"No, the Ninja's life isn't for me anymore" she confessed and watched his reaction, the man didn't seem surprised or sad but, as a politician, he was naturally hard to read even for a ninja "I lost too much to this life already"

"A true pity" the man mused "The Senju and Uzumaki were such noble clans, your granduncle was almost made a noble himself before Hashirama died and he had to become hokage, nobody ever through both clans would ever come to an end"

"That's why I have come" Tsunade decided to stop wasting time "The continuation of my noble line"

"Hmmm?" the old man widened his eyes, showing his surprise for the first time "you want to enter the Daimyo's court then, make the uzumaki a noble clan of the land of fire?"

"Yes Hiken-san"

"The daimio will certainly be happy with such thing Tsunade-hime" He said and started to smile, the daimyo was a frivolous man but he always appreciated talent, if he could bring her into his court he would certainly gain a lot of favor from the man "I'm certain that we can find a fitting samurai for you to continue your family line, are you looking for a political match or a competent administrator for the senju and uzumaki assets?"

"No it's…" Tsunade was incredibly embarrassed, as a main member of an important ninja clan she had never needed to be trained for the less… desirable missions a kunoichi could get and talking about her sex life with a friend of her grandfather was not her idea of a good time, then she shook her embarassement and continued on "No I already have a heir to the family line, a husband would only complicate the problem"

"You mean…"

"I'm pregnant Hiken-san" She confessed and hid her face behind her tea.

"Well.. Ahem" he had to take a few seconds to recover after choking on his coffee "that would make it both easier and harder for you in the court"

"How so? I thought it would make it much harder with the other nobles"

"Well yes… but the daimio himself isn't concervative at all" the man confessed "I suspect he will be much happier knowing your bloodline was secure than if you were married but still to produce a child"

Tsunade released a breath, she suspected from the intelligence she had managed to gather but hearing it directly from his most trusted councilor made all the difference "And if I have to remain hidden while my child grows?"

"Hmm" the man thought and scratched at his beard "It would require me to present things with the right words but I do believe I could convince the man, he would enjoy knowing something even his hokage didn't"

"Thank you Hiken-san"

"In truth I should be thanking you Hime-sama" the man released a laugh "Your presence will put the daimyo in a wonderful mood"

_________________________________________________________________________

It took her another month to adapt her permanent transformation jutsu to alter her appearance into that of a black haired, smaller woman of 25 years under the name of Kakura Sawani.

Shizune herself wasn't that well known and, after letting her hair grow and painting it blonde, together with the generous application of makeup, she ended up looking nothing like her original self, after a few years she would grow up and could stop pretending since nobody would know who she was, she took the name Yugai Sawani.

Her move to the daimio court went over well as the daimio decided to make her his personal physician, he had a great time pretending to be deadly sick in order to make her a minor noble when she healed him.

Participating into the court's intrigues was incredibly annoying but Tsunade decided to play into her bossy medic persona, it wasn't very hard.

As her pregnancy progressed she grew more irrational, prone to lashing out causing even the daimyo to avoid her, the chief of the daimyo's guard was informed of her true name but even the twelve guardian ninja were confused at her rise to importance in the court, many of them spending days investigating her.

Thankfully Shizune was too embarrassed around the powerful ninja and was never left alone with one of them for long enough to give herself away and Tsunade, despite being out of practice, was still a far better ninja than any two of them put together.

She particularly enjoyed bothering Young Azuma, taking more and more pleasure in embarrassing her sensei's grandson.

After a few months the noble court grew used to the irascible young healer who would take a pound of flesh out of any noble that tried to approach her, she didn't try to gather influence or power and, despite having the daimyo's ear, only used it to get rid of those nobles who tried to pressure her so she was mostly left alone.

The daimyo's own wife also knew of her true identity since the rumor that she was pregnant with his child spread around like fire but, despite being a shallow glutton with a perchant for animal cruelty, she was still a powerful politician in her own right and enjoyed keeping the secret. They even became somewhat friends.

Tsunade gave birth to a healthy, brown haired boy at the end of the year, she was attended by Shizune and the daimyo's other medics, her powerful physique meant she could have done things herself but she was glad she could let herself feel the pain of childbirth.

Suffice to say her young apprentice was the only one not traumatized by the experience.

Holding the little boy in her arms Tsunade allowed herself to smile for the first time in a decade as she kissed its forehead and named him Kazuki Senju, known as Kazuki Sawani for a time, she'd make sure the boy would have the peace she couldn't in her life.