The Festival (IV)

Tsunade resolutely didn't look in the direction where the pictures of the former Hokage hung. Seeing her grandfather's and granduncle's carved faces had been nostalgic enough as it was. Combined with the general conflict of being in the village again after all these years that she felt even now, she had no desire to make it even worse.

"You have grown old."

"And you look like you haven't aged a day since you left. Care to tell me your secret?"

She snorted. "I don't think so." She then looked at her former sensei with a raised eyebrow when he took another puff from his pipe. "A good first step would be to stop smoking, though. Might do your health some good as well."

"Ah, alas, I can't do that." Although he said that, he put the pipe aside. "You wouldn't begrudge an old man one of the few pleasures he has left, would you?"

"You're free to do as you please," she said with a shrug. "I'm not gonna stop you if you want to land yourself into an early grave."

"At this point, it would hardly be an 'early' grave, Tsunade."

"That's not the point and you know it."

He chuckled. "Yes, yes, I know. I guess I should better look for a successor, then."

She immediately tensed up at that remark. "If you called me back because you think I-"

"No," he interrupted her gently but firmly. "I didn't do that to ask you to become Hokage, don't worry. You're hardly suitable for the job in the first place, even if we ignore your own opinion of that position."

He gave her a pointed look as if daring her to disagree, but she wouldn't give him that satisfaction. All modesty aside, she was more than qualified for the position if she ever were to make an effort, regardless of whether she liked it or not. However, that didn't mean she would ever want to become Hokage, or agree to do so if asked.

"Well, it's good that we can agree on that." She leaned back into her chair, once again relaxed. "With that out of the way, don't you want to offer me something to drink? And where is Jiraya? I would have thought that idiot would be here as well."

As if he had just waited for her to bring it up, the old man opened a drawer and took out a bottle of sake. "I hope this is still your favourite brand. It was quite expensive and I would hate to have wasted so much money."

"Money is never wasted on sake, Sensei," she said with a grin. "But I can reassure you that it's indeed still my favourite."

"Good, good." He filled two glasses. "And regarding Jiraya, well, he was supposed to be here, actually. I guess something important must have come up that keeps him away."

She snorted before drowning her glass in one go, enjoying the burning sensation of the alcohol as it ran down her throat. "We both know exactly what's keeping him. It was probably too much to ask that he had changed over the years." Though she would never admit it, the thought of him being the same old goofball she knew in her youth was somewhat reassuring.

"Usually, I would agree with you," her former sensei said with an amused expression while he sipped from his glass. "However, I think this time might be a bit different."

"Oh?"

"He planned to spend the day with his godson today, you see. Naruto tends to be somewhat clingy, so I wouldn't be surprised if he somehow convinced Jiraya to invite him for dinner or something like that. Maybe even train with him, if he was persistent enough."

She blinked. "His godson? Since when does he have a godson? No one in their right mind would entrust him with the welfare of a plant, let alone a child." Then she realized something else. "And isn't 'Naruto' the name of the main-character from Jiraya's book?" Not to forget, isn't it also an ingredient in ramen? Who would name their child after that?

"Minato always looked up to him," he replied mildly. "It shouldn't come as a surprise that he chose his sensei to be his son's godfather. You would know all that already if you had stayed in contact over the years, of course."

She ignored the second part of that comment and instead focused on the other half. "Minato...?" She suddenly jerked her head around to look stare at the picture of the Yondaime, only to regret it a moment later when she also saw her two deceased family members. She quickly turned back around. "He had a son?"

He nodded. "Indeed. I don't think I need to explain to you that this secret can't leave this room, do I?"

She nodded, still a bit stunned, even though she found it a bit stupid that Jiraya would openly spend time with the boy if his identity was meant to be a secret. "So I assume he is also-"

"He is."

"Huh, isn't that something..."

It was probably better that no one knew about either the boy's heritage or his identity as Jinchūriki. Being the granddaughter of the Shodai Hokage as well as the grandniece of the Nidaime meant that she knew a little something about all the attention family members of famous shinobi needed to endure. It would be better for him to grow up without that.

Whether being the host of the Nine-Tails would make things better or worse was everyone's guess.

She sighed before deciding to change the topic. "Anyway," she said, "that's probably not what you want to talk with me about and I doubt you just wanted to catch up. Why don't we get the unpleasant things out of the way first?"

He nodded. "That's fine with me." He then drowned the rest of his drink before leaning forward, interweaving his fingers with each other as he put them on the table. "However, I think you already know why I ordered you back, don't you?"

"I might have an idea or two," she agreed. "But I hope that I'm wrong. It would suck for you if I came all the way just to remind you that I will not come back. Ever."

"And yet here you are."

She resisted the urge to smash the table into a thousand pieces and instead refilled her glass. "We both know that this is not the same. I don't plan to stay long." She gave him a stinky look. "Besides, it's not as if you gave me much of a choice in that matter."

He tilted his head. "I would say that I'm sorry, but that would be a lie."

"So, what now? Are you gonna do the same again? Threaten me to keep me here against my will?"

Though she didn't outwardly show it, her musclestensed while she waited for his answer. Depending on what it was, she would not hesitate to jump out of the window and make a run for it. It was doubtful she would actually be able to escape, especially with Shizune in tow, but she stood a chance if she just somehow managed to get away from her former sensei. Even as out of form as she was, she was confident she could take everyone in the village aside of him and Jiraya, so she just needed to get enough distance between them and-

"I will not force you to do anything, Tsunade. Everything is alone your decision."

She didn't relax at that promise. "So you hope to convince me instead?"

Rather than to reply immediately, he looked at her for a few seconds before he visibly deflated. "There will be another war soon, Tsunade. Not today, not tomorrow, not even in the next few years if luck is on our side, but the day will come sooner than I would like. This war will be different than the last ones, and we will need every little bit of help we can get."

She snorted. "You did well enough without me during the last one, didn't you? I don't see-"

"Thousands are dead," he interrupted her. "Countless more are crippled, and everyone has lost someone."

She put her glass back on the table before she could shatter it in her grip. "Don't you dare to lecture me on lost loved ones."

"Dan and Nawaki will always be missed," he said, ignoring how she flinched at the mention of their names. "But there are countless people that are still alive and suffer, either because of their own injuries or because of the ones of their loved ones. The number of medic-nin, especially good medic-nin, has decreased ever since you left the village and-"

"And now you want me to save the day for you." She chuckled, though the sound was far from joyful. "Unfortunately, my carrier is over. Shizune was my last student and that she will remain."

She made to take her drink again, but his hand stopped her. "I remember you telling me that you want to cure all sickness in the world when you were younger. That you would find a way to heal all and every ailments and injury one day. Did you truly give up on that?"

"Dreams are foolish," she said while she felt her chair's handle crack under her left hand. "They will never come true. Thinking otherwise will only end in disappointment."

"So you're fine with letting people die that would have lived if you just helped them?"

"They wouldn't be dying if they just never became shinobi in the first place."

"Is that your excuse?" he asked. "Will you tell yourself the same once Konoha and all the other villages lie in ruins, burnt to the ground, and are erased from the map?"

"Who knows, maybe my grandfather was wrong in founding the village. The world might be better without them and their kind."

For a few seconds, he looked deep into her eyes before he sighed and leaned back, finally letting go of her hand. "In that case, I have nothing else to say."

So surprised at his sudden turnaround, she even forgot to be angry. "What? That's it? You're giving up just like that?"

"I told you that I would not force you to do anything you don't want," he said with a shake of his head. "At this point, there is nothing I can say that would make you change your mind, so there is no use in even trying."

There was no way he would let it go already, she was sure of it. Hesitantly, she reached for her glass and slowly allowed herself to relax while somewhat anxious waiting for what would come next. "So, what now?"

He hummed. "Well, I'm tired. This conversation was more exhausting than I thought, so why don't we continue this tomorrow? You will stay here for the festival, I assume?"

The fact that he didn't look disappointed at all at her answer made her even more suspicious. "I planned to, yes."

"Then why don't we three get a drink together with Jiraya and catch up for real? It's one of the few days I can get away from work and I would love to spend the time with my students."

She stopped herself from narrowing her eyes at him when she gave her consent.

There was something else going on, that much was obvious, but she didn't think it was a trap. Not really. At least not a harmful one. Maybe it would be smart to avoid whatever he was scheming, but she would lie if she said she wasn't curious. And, well, Shizune wanted to stay for the festival anyway. She deserved this treat after all the trouble Tsunade had caused her.

Who knew? Maybe she would even meet Jiraya's little godson? See whether the poor boy was already corrupted by that idiot of a teammate or if he could still be rescued.

It would be a lie if she said she wasn't looking forward to it.

________

Author's Note:

Haku is very much a girl in this fic.

However, I didn't do this because I have a certain pairing with her in mind like it's usually the case in genderswap stories. Simply put, I kept messing up the pronouns and grew tired of correcting them while editing the chapters every single time Haku had any screen time.

The long story is that I literally thought Haku was female for years. I watched the Wave Arc when I was a young child, liked it, and then didn't continue to watch Naruto for some reason until years later. Furthermore, when I ultimately did continue to watch the show, I jumped straight into the Chunin Exams Arc without rewatching the Wave Arc first. I only found out about Haku's gender relatively recently (as in 1-1/2 years ago) and still aren't used to thinking of him as a boy.

All the female!Haku fics probably didn't help either.

I hope this cleared things up! :)