The Jinchuuriki Alliance || REWRITE ||

THE FIFTH HOKAGE: TSUNADE SENJU

I DO NOT OWN NARUTO

To ToriAndHolly, thank you for making me smile so much. I very much appreciate your kind (and funny) comments.

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"It's been a while... Tsunade."

His voice sounded low and gravelly, in a certain way that Naruko recognized as him trying to hold back his emotions. She instinctively moved closer to him, her hand reaching up to grasp his sleeve. She wasn't exactly sure who she was trying to comfort — herself or him. This wasn't what Naruko had in mind when she imagined meeting the famed Slug Princess Tsunade Senju, and to be frank, the amount of negativity radiating from the drunken woman was making her dizzy. Her glabella and nasion was throbbing dully in tandem, so she squeezed her eyes shut in an effort to soothe the ache. Naruko stepped behind her godfather — as if the physical barrier of his body could do anything — and leaned her forehead against his broad back. The pressure helped ease the pain, if only a little.

Jiraiya blinked as he looked behind him at the suddenly-silent teenager. "Naruko?" he prodded, gently, only receiving a sharp intake of breath at the quiet query. He frowned, concerned at the uncharacteristic behaviour. He reached down and untied her forehead protector before slipping his hand between her forehead and his back, feeling her forehead for any warmth. No fever.

"Sensory overload," Naruko finally managed to whimper out, and Jiraiya instantly understood. He almost kicked himself for not thinking of it earlier; if the Kyuubi jinchuuriki had the ability to sense negative emotions, then of course it would extend to the point of hypersensitivity. It was just their luck they caught Tsunade in one of those moods.

"Sorry," Jiraiya murmured, taking her hand and leading her over to sit on the chair. "I know it's a little too close for comfort, but you might get used to it. You can go outside if you want."

Naruko shook her head with a strained smile, and pulled out her sketchpad. Jiraiya sighed — he wasn't sure if he should be proud at her resilience or exasperated at her stubbornness and the way she just didn't know when to quit. He ignored Tsunade and Shizune's curious stares as he sat down next to Naruko and lifted his arm when she shifted so she was leaning against his chest with his arm wrapped loosely around her.

The blonde pulled out a scroll and unsealed a golden bowl — cooked brown rice topped with air-fried tofu, chopped cabbage, grated carrots, sauteed veggies, and some gravy on top. At the black-haired woman's wide-eyed look, Naruko unsealed another bowl and offered it to her with a smile. Shizune accepted it with a tentative smile.

"Damn," Jiraiya smirked, "figures you'd have a whole homemade meal for yourself when I come into a pub." He reached over to the small white sake jug and poured both himself and Tsunade a drink.

Tsunade didn't hesitate to upend the small cup, even with the prominent flush spreading across her cheeks. "It's like a reunion... all the old faces coming back at the same time," she murmured.

Jiraiya simply poured her another drink, and then swallowed his own. "You mean Orochimaru." It was a statement, not a question. "So what happened?" 

Jiraiya didn't miss the sharp look exchanged between master and apprentice before Tsunade answered, "Oh, nothing much. We said hello, and that's about it." She reached into her shirt and pulled out a deck of cards and began to shuffle them, her speed increasing as the seconds ticked by.

The Toad Sannin narrowed his eyes; so that was how she wanted to play it. He removed his arm from around Naruko, and the girl sat up and sealed away her sketchpad, seemingly catching on to the serious atmosphere.