Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

Chapter 71

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor The Gamer. I own nothing, really.

Chapter 71

[Tsunade]

How had this happened?

She didn't know, but she was blaming Jiraiya, of that she was sure. After all, she'd been perfectly fine before her old teammate came to "visit". Gambling and drinking was what she did and she was ok with doing that for however long she managed to live. She might not like the idea of Shizune spending her life as her friend/student/carer, but that wasn't her decision to make and she'd given up convincing the younger woman to leave long ago.

Tsunade had been living like she did for a long time, and she'd never faced a bigger problem than someone trying to get her to pay a debt in a casino or something of the sort. Trying being the operative word there, since she would be hard pressed to find a person that could actually make her do something that she didn't want to do. She almost welcomed the idiots trying to do something to her, getting to smack some fool around was fun once in a while.

She'd never had to fight someone that was actually a threat, but Jiraiya had managed to drag her into such a battle.

There she stood, in front of Shizune and facing what seemed to be a cross between a man and a shark. Even his sword looked like a strange mix between a blade and a sea monster, scaled, with a mouth and living. 'This is definitely Jiraiya's fault,' She thought to herself, eyebrows twitching.

Tsunade couldn't even expect the one that caused this to help her either, much to her annoyance. No, because the stupid pervert had to deal with his own freak wearing a black cloack with red clouds on it. An Uchiha to boot, although he had a mini-Uchiha of his own on his side, so she supposed that was good?

'How did this happen?' Tsunade wondered again, increasingly angrier as time passed and she asked herself the same thing again. She jumped back, the sharkman's sword striking the place where she had been standing a moment before.

She'd been fine, gambling - losing, but who cared? - money on a game, when suddenly Jiraiya had entered the place with not one but two brats following him around. As if he wasn't annoying enough on his own, the old bastard. At least one of them was quiet, the same couldn't be said for the blonde one though. It was like seeing a mini-version of Jiraiya.

Although, this "Naruto" also reminded her of...

The picture of a brown-haired, brown-eyed boy flashed through her mind, perpetually blushed cheeks and wide grin in place, just like he'd always looked.

Tsunade closed her eyes for a moment, pushing away that image and concentrating on her battle.

Her mind wasn't done though. It flashed back once more. This time to the conversation she'd had with her old teammate, about how their sensei was calling for her to come back, and to the letter that said teacher had sent her. They were asking her to come help heal the village that had now suffered an attack when it hadn't even completely recovered from the Kyuubi. They were, apparently, in need of her for more than even her specialization in medical techniques.

As if she would do anything for the village that had cost her almost everyone she cared about.

Tsunade's eyes widened when her opponent, probably realizing that she was more trouble than it seemed at first, changed his approach. Maybe it had been a while since she'd been an active kunoichi, but she had kept up her training, if a little less strictly than in the past. She was called a Sannin for a reason too, so she was no easy target.

The same couldn't be said about her student.

Shizune's own eyes widened when the maniac with a living sword charged at her, cackling all the while. She was good, Tsunade would proudly tell anyone, but she was not on her level and neither was she in this freak of a swordsman's. Strengthening her legs, the Sannin prepared to jump back in to intercept their attacker. Her instincts were telling her that she was late, even with all her strength, she wouldn't reach them in time.