Strolling Amongst Stalactites

Examine

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(What was that supposed to mean?) Kakashi thought. The ghost of a smirk on the warhawk's lips concerned him. Jiraiya found that Danzo had his ROOT agents watching Naruko. Was there more to look out for?

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"So Naruko is taking her exam ... my how time flies ... not that I'm old or anything, of course." Tsunade hummed as she leaned back with her cup of sake.

Shizune smiled, "Oh, of course ... when she graduates you should take the chance to apologize personally."

A huge tick mark appeared on Tsunade's temple, "It was their fault for not explaining fast enough."

"The first words they said were 'Naruko is safe'." Shizune said with a sweat drop on her temple.

Tsunade twitched, "They should've said they were in contact with her."

"They did," The assistant said in a singsong tone.

"Well ... they should've told me sooner." The slug sage argued, determined to be in the right here.

"You would've killed them if they talked to you without any leads to Naruko. They didn't just have leads, but they had letters and a little blood for identification. Oh and before you argue the drunk point you were mostly sober thanks to all that coffee." Shizune said with an amused smile ...

Flashback – months after the visit to Firefly Village

"Hey Shizune!" Shizune looked away from the bottle of sake she was trying to pry out of Tsunade's hand and saw Kakashi and Jiraiya walking over to them.

"Hi guys." Shizune gasped as she still refused to release the bottle and was using all her effort trying to wrestle it away from the slug sage who definitely had way too much already.

"Were's my hallow?" Tsunade slurred so badly it sounded like she said 'hallow' instead of 'hello', which is what she actually meant.

"Ummm ... Hi, Tsunade." Jiraiya said before settling the tug of war by breaking the sake bottle. He caught Shizune who lost her balance and nearly fell over before ordering a large pot of coffee. The person at the bar seemed relieved that someone stopped the super strong woman who had too much to drink. There was only silence as the ninjas sat down at the table. Shizune could tell this was important and may end badly, which is why they were waiting for the coffee to show up. Once it arrived both Kakashi and Shizune sweat dropped as the toad sage tackled the slug sage and tried to force her to drink the beverage. After four cups of coffee were forced down her gullet Jiraiya assumed it was safe to continue. "Now before I say anything else I want to make it perfectly clear that Naruko is safe. We are in contact with her and she even sent us a letter with a little drop of blood to prove it's her. She. Is. Safe. Ok?"

Tsunade scoffed as she sobered up, "She's in Konoha sooo duh." She muttered grouchily.

"Well actually, she isn't." Kakashi said and glanced at Jiraiya before continuing his explanation. "We thought that too until Jiraiya came to the village. While he was helping me get the adoption papers signed-"

Shizune squealed in delight, making Tsunade wince in pain, "You adopted Naruko!" She was giddy at the news, but her excitement was short-lived. When she noticed the sad faces of the two shinobi she frowned. "What happened?"

"I wish it worked out that way, but it didn't. Kakashi and I were working on the papers when we were caught in an explosion. When we regained consciousness we were told Naruko was captured. The second I was able to walk I left to find her. Kakashi was not allowed to leave right away, but that turned out to be a life saver." Jiraiya said as he watched Tsunade carefully for any signs of danger.