Lotus Of The Leaf ~Book One~

Chapter 45! Tsunade; Ren's Dearest Aunt

~*****~

We arrived at the ruins of the castle, looking around in shock. "So, what happened?" Naruto asks. "It's like a typhoon hit it."

"Yeah..." Jiraiya hums.

"Run! Run for your lives!" A man screams, followed by the screams of other civilians in the area.

"Hey! You there!" Jiraiya calls, and a man stopped. "What's going on?! Tell me; What are you running from!"

"If you're smart, you'll run too! There's a monster up there!"

"A monster?" I hum.

"Now, just calm down. What kind of monster?" Jiraiya asks. "What do you mean?"

"A snake! A huge snake! It crushed the castle without even trying!" An intense shiver of fear flew through my body, and I had to grasp my arms in an attempt to calm myself.

"Wait- How big a snake?! Hey! Our village was attacked by one, too!" Naruto called out to the guy as he ran away. "Wait! Don't go! I know something about big snakes!"

"Naruto, Ren, come on!" Jiraiya orders. Naruto hums in confusion as Jiraiya takes a look at my shaken form. I shook my head. "This could be the same snake. I'd like a closer look at this monster. Ren, are you up for this?" Jiraiya asks, and I nod dutifully.

~*****~

We ran along the tile roof tops until we came upon a section of wall that had been broken down, away from the castle. Jiraiya jumped off, and landed besides the debris. "Looks like we're too late." Jiraiya commented as Naruto and I jumped down.

"Did the snake do this too?" Naruto asked.

"Let's go, guys." Jiraiya orders and starts to walk off.

"Huh?"

"We're not gonna find Tsunade here." Jiraiya simply says.

"Not again, I was hoping you'd forgotten about her." Naruto grumbles. We searched the town for Tsunade for hours before Naruto even spoke again. "This is getting ridiculous. I'm starting to think this old lady doesn't even exist." Naruto complained. I didn't blame him. I was getting fed up with all the dead ends we've been hitting. And it was getting pretty late.

"Hm..." Jiraiya hums as he looks over at a building. "Well, in the meantime, we'll get a bite to eat in here." He says.

"Master Jiraiya, this is a tavern." I snapped, glaring at the senile old man.

"Yeah, so what?" He asked, looking at the two of us. Naruto shared a similar look of anger.

"You trying to be a bad influence on us?" Naruto asked. "Hello! We're underage!"

"You idiot, nobody is making you do anything, all right. Just have a snack and stay out of the grownups way." Jiraiya retorts before walking into the tavern. 

"If we're just lookin to eat-" Naruto is drowned out by a man welcoming us at the entrance.

"Why don't we just go to a place that doesn't crawl with drunkards?" I ask.

"When will you two learn? This is just the sort of place where you can pick up information." Jiraiya snaps. He looks out above the linings and borders, and spots something that makes him squint with a hum. Then, out of nowhere, he points towards the person of topic, and screams. "Tsunade!"

"Huh?!" Naruto and I screech.

"Jiraiya! What the-- Why are you here?" She bellows.

"Finally, I've been looking everywhere for you. Oh, should have known you'd be in here." Jiraiya says as he walks towards her. I look at Naruto before following after.