The Undesired Second Chance

Chapter 39: The Good Doctor

Shizune glanced around the cheap room they had booked at one of the local inns. It was a simple layout: two beds, an old radiator that looked like it probably wouldn't work, and a single lamp tucked into the corner. The pale blue paint was peeling in some places, but other than that, the walls seemed to be in good condition and the window was still in one piece. All in all, it was a good deal.

Also, a certain person was conspicuously absent.

"Tsunade-sensei," she murmured to herself, quietly irked, as she set down the piglet she had been holding.

Tonton sniffed around the room for a moment, then oinked in agreement.

It would seem that her mentor had already hit the town, no doubt making a beeline for the local bars and gambling dens.

Allowing herself a quiet sigh, Shizune pinched the bridge of her nose. Although she had only just turned eleven years old, sometimes she felt like, between herself and her mentor, she had to be the responsible one.

She had been traveling with Tsunade-sensei for a few years now—they had left Konoha shortly after she had graduated from the Academy—and she loved the adventure of wandering from place to place, learning medical justu from her mentor.

That said, there were some... downsides.

Namely, learning how to run damage control for Tsunade-sensei.

In the first few months they had been traveling, it hadn't been much of a problem. Her teacher had spent some evenings drinking when they were in a town, sure, but that wasn't too bad. They never traveled very far from Konoha either, only stopping at small towns barely a day away at civilian speeds.

Shizune had the impression that, despite her claims otherwise, her teacher was reluctant to leave the village behind. It was as if she were still caught by some invisible thread. It would only be a matter of time before it snapped, of course, but the thread was wrapped around her neck: until it broke she was just choking herself.

Maybe that was why Tsunade-sensei had retreated into bars more and more lately, whittling their money away on games and bets.

"You stay and watch the room, Tonton." She got an affirmative oink. "I'll be back as soon as I find her."

Closing the door to their inn room and locking it with a click, Shizune sighed again and refocused on the matter at hand: finding Tsunade-sensei. If she left her alone for too long, her mentor was likely to lose most of the money they had earned in the past week to one unlucky game of cards.

"Oh, dear child," the innkeeper said, when she asked how to get to the sketchier parts of town. "I'm not sure that's safe..."

"I'll be fine," Shizune replied, biting back her annoyance at being treated like a kid—she was a shinobi! "I just need to find my auntie before it gets too late."

She would never call her mentor that in-person, of course, even though it was basically the truth: it would bring up too many sad memories. They were mentor and apprentice, teacher and student... but using the family angle did seem to work more often than not when dealing with civilians.

Having that card up her sleeve was particularly useful when it came to actually prying her mentor away from the game table. Playing up an implied family dynamic really worked to get the other gamblers on her side, using the power of peer-pressure to get Tsunade-sensei to leave.

Of course, the worried-kid trick wouldn't work forever. She was growing up, after all, and at some point she'd need to figure out a new method.

Well, that was an issue to deal with at some other time.