finally || naruto and tsunade

i

An illusion. A trick. A lie.

She was fake, and never before had she ever regretted her special transformation technique that made her look like a young woman in her prime.

She had noticed it two years ago, right before the start of the war. She had come out of her coma with him on her mind, left over from the many dreams she had of him during her time unconscious. She had made so many excuses at the time that they almost made her laugh.

Her dreams while comatose? A simple byproduct of him showing up right at the moment she needed him the most, ready and able to save the village from a monster.

Her thoughts of him the moment she awoke? Simply leftover from her dreams.

And... the way he looked at her, the way he got so close when he saw her up and okay? The way his eyes seemed to light up more than the others? A trick her brain played on her, still fuzzy from the chakra exhaustion she had suffered.

Yes. A simple trick. None of it was real, and none of it meant what she had thought.

| Finally |

The next time she noticed it was during the war.

Naruto and Killer B had escaped from the island they were confined on. They had agreed – reluctantly, on her half – that the only two Jinchuuriki would stay out of the war, hidden away so that their enemies couldn't complete their goal.

Tsunade wasn't even surprised when they received reports of Naruto and the Kumo Jinchuuriki breaking through the wards. They didn't know Naruto like she did, not even the Kazekage. She knew that he wouldn't sit by while so many put their lives at risk on his behalf.

That wasn't the kind of man Uzumaki Naruto was.

Man...

When had she begun to think of him as a man?

Regardless of what she tried to tell herself, tried to make herself believe, that look was in those azure orbs once again when they found her form. She had only seen that look from two people in her entire life.

The first was from Dan, the man she loved and lost what seems like a lifetime ago.

The second was her teammate and friend, Jiraiya.

The latter had only looked at her like that after several years, after she returned to the village as the Godaime Hokage. He had only looked at her with perverted eyes before that.

But now... now a man she was four times older than looked at her that way, with eyes filled of a gentle fondness and caring that made her heart flutter, and she had no idea why. They had always been close. He had reminded her of Nawaki and Dan so greatly that she unconsciously attached herself to him nearly instantly. But the relation had always been strictly platonic. He had been a child when they first met, a loudmouthed brat, really. Platonic was all there could have been between them then.

But then he left for nearly three years, and returned a more mature, strong young man. He could still get on her nerves, of course, but that's what the dynamic of their relationship was based on.

So when? When had that changed? When had he started looking at her like a woman and not some old lady to shout at and be silly with?

The moment she had appeared in front of him, the Raikage at her side, she had seen his eyes, still blue even though he was encased in orange-gold fire, looking at her with something more than familial love. His whole face lit up, like just seeing her was enough to give him courage.

It had made her stomach float.

With that look, how could she not have sided with him? How could the Raikage expect her to sit aside and watch him try to hurt him? How could the large, dark-skinned man not expect her to put her faith in Naruto's words of confidence?