The heavy curtains of the Hokage's office shut out every ray of sunlight.
The air was so thick with the stench of cheap tobacco and mildewed paperwork that it could almost be cut with a knife.
Hiruzen was rewarding his own "diligent service to Konoha" by staring so hard into his crystal ball that his eyes seemed welded to it.
His face was flushed, drool glistened at the corner of his mouth.
The mighty Third Hokage looked less like a leader and more like a senile old pervert.
"Hokage-sama."
At the voice, Hiruzen jerked upright, snatching the crystal ball out of sight, his expression snapping into feigned composure.
A masked ANBU emerged soundlessly from the shadowed corner, dropping to one knee. Beneath the tanuki patterned mask, his voice was flat and emotionless.
"Danzō-sama has sent a second encrypted dispatch from the Ame front."
He set a wax sealed Root scroll on the desk. "Contents: When will Tsunade return? Suna's counterattack is intensifying. The medical corps is gravely undermanned."
The moment Hiruzen heard "Danzō's message," the brief ease in his brow vanished, knotting tight again.
"The messenger from Danzō-sama has already requested an audience three times," the ANBU continued evenly. "Additionally, we have confirmed Tsunade-sama's current location, she is at the gambling house by the village gates."
A pause. "Eyewitnesses report she is, losing heavily."
Bang.
Hiruzen's fist crashed down on the desk. Ink splattered from the jar, spattering the casualty list from the Suna front like fresh blood.
"Damn it. Does she think the Hokage's office is her personal bank? Shinobi are bleeding out on the front lines, and she's wasting her days at the dice table."
The ANBU stiffened imperceptibly.
Hiruzen took several sharp breaths, forcing his blood pressure back down.
He had recalled her to the village to let her see Mito one last time, to stabilize the Jinchūriki transfer, to be the failsafe in case something went wrong.
With Kushina's seal only days old, the Nine Tails was like a live explosive tag with the pin half pulled. Keeping Tsunade nearby was pure insurance.
But that reckless girl, she really thought this was vacation time.
Meanwhile, Danzō was at the Ame front sticking his neck out, demanding medics, three messages in a single day, and she was gambling.
Hiruzen raked both hands through his thinning hair in exasperation.
He had dumped all his biggest headaches, Kushina, Ryo, and even Uchiha Mikoto, onto Tsunade's newly formed Eighth Squad. It was partly necessity, partly a petty bit of payback to watch his strong willed student squirm under the weight.
And now, she had simply vanished into leisure.
"Go," he barked through clenched teeth, jabbing a finger at the ANBU. "Drag that reckless brat here, now."
The Gambling House, Lucky Cat Pavilion
The gold painted sign gleamed above the reek of sweat, liquor, cheap perfume, and half spoiled food.
Dice clattered, coins rang, voices rose in cheers and curses, a roaring chaos of greed.
In the VIP corner, Tsunade had one foot propped on a stool, her crimson Gamble cloak hanging open to reveal a tight scarlet bustier beneath.
The small mountain of chips before her was collapsing in an avalanche of defeat.
"Two points, small," the dealer intoned, face blank.
"Damn it." Tsunade slammed the table, sending chips scattering. Without even looking, she slapped her last two gold coins onto big. "Again. I refuse to believe my luck is that rotten."
The oily faced pit boss sidled up, rubbing his hands together, wearing a servile smile that could not hide his calculating eyes.
"Tsunade-sama, perhaps you should rest a bit? About that loan from last time, "
"Quit yapping," she snapped, her glare sharp enough to cut steel. "I am about to win it all back. Roll."
The pit boss flinched, swallowing whatever he had meant to say about her previous debts.
No one with half a brain argued with this woman. And with that generous fool Jiraiya always footing the bill, why risk his life? Better to treat it as buying peace of mind.
Half an hour later, the last fifty ryō chip was swept away by the dealer's bamboo rake.
The table before Tsunade gleamed empty.
"Rotten luck." She surged to her feet, knocking over the stool behind her. Her golden hair, tangled from hours of frustration, flared as she clawed through it. Her eyes, red rimmed from fatigue and anger, burned like a cornered lioness's.
The pit boss appeared again like a ghost, holding out a thin scroll sealed with a tiny Uchiha fan emblem. His voice was all caution.
"Tsunade-sama, this came from the Hokage's office earlier, about your Eighth Squad's task assignment and team confirmation, "
Already seething, Tsunade snatched the scroll, crumpled it into a ball, and shoved it into her bulging, and completely empty, coin purse.
"Got it. Now get lost." She kicked aside a chair, shouldered past the gawking gamblers, and stormed out of the hall, the floor trembling under her boots.
Her head pounded with a single thought. Win it back.
Find somewhere to win it all back.
Damn that stingy old man, takes forever to approve funding.
And those stupid team rosters, what do they have to do with me anyway?
Senju Compound, Late Afternoon
The courtyard basked in the lazy orange glow of sunset. Nawaki lay sprawled under the veranda.
He had just been dragged out by Ryo for chakra control training. His best attempt at Water Bullet had been cleaved apart by a casual sword wave, not even splashing Ryo's pant leg. The humiliation still burned.
"Why, " he muttered at a fallen leaf, fists clenching till his nails bit deep. "Grandma's last words were for me to prepare for missions. Am I really going to spend my life splashing water at logs? I am a Senju. I belong on the battlefield."
Then he remembered how the Second Hokage Tobirama had died, and his defiance sank into dull self pity.
He punched the post beside him, shaking down a sprinkle of dust. "Useless."
He flopped over, muffling his voice in his arm. "Ryo is a monster, and I am, just the leftover nobody, "
"Nawaki-sama. Nawaki-sama."
A young attendant sprinted into the courtyard, gasping. "Order from the Hokage. Tsunade-sama is to report to him immediately."
Nawaki blinked, still half dazed. "Who? My sister? Now?"
"Yes. And, Hokage-sama is very angry. Something about Danzō-sama, "
Before he could process that, the sharp clack of high heels struck the stone path outside, rapid and furious.
Tsunade strode into the courtyard, sunlight gilding her silhouette in gold and flame. Her face all but said, I am in a terrible mood, do not test me.
Dark rings bruised the skin beneath her eyes. Her red robe was stained with wine and grease, her hair a disheveled halo of wrath. The air around her shimmered with raw temper.
Nawaki swallowed hard. The word Sis reached his throat, and wisely stayed there.
Hokage's Office, Moments Later
Bang.
The door slammed open.
"Old man. You haunting me now? Trying to rush me into the grave?" she bellowed before even stepping inside.
"People dying at the front, so what? I am on standby guarding Kushina, are I not? That is real work. I have fought half my life, can I not blow off steam without you losing your mind? I did not wreck your house. If Danzō is that desperate, let him haul the wounded back himself."
Hiruzen's face turned blacker than soot. The sight of her outfit, and hearing her shout Kushina's name, was like salt rubbed into the wound left by Homura and Koharu's earlier complaints.
He slammed a palm on the desk so hard the pen holder jumped.
"Tsunade." His voice rumbled like a volcano on the verge of eruption. "Do you even understand what you are saying?"
He rounded the desk, jabbing a finger at her nose.
"What was Mito-sama's dying wish? You. She wanted you to carry on after her, not to gamble away the Senju name and drag your teacher's face through the mud. You are the Princess of Konoha, not some thug collecting debts in the street."
The blast of authority made her instinctively step back. "I, "
"Save it." Hiruzen thundered on. "Uzumaki Kushina is the village's keystone. The Nine Tails' transfer was days ago. That thing is not a kitten, it is a bomb. You of all people know how unstable that seal is. I left you here so if anything went wrong, you could stop the bleeding and save lives. That is your duty. That is what is at stake."
He thrust a finger toward the window.
"That out there, the village, is what I am breaking my back to protect. Not your dice cup."
He drew a long breath, forcing his fury into a colder edge.
"And yet," he said with a bitter smirk, "you were the one who slammed my desk demanding Uchiha Mikoto be placed under you. The squad list has been on your desk for days. You think being captain means doing nothing? Or are you scared now? Think I set you up to fail? Waiting to watch you crash and burn?"
The words hit like hammer blows.
Scared? Cannot handle it?
The taunt seared through her pride, burning away hesitation.
Who was she afraid of? Him? Failure? Not a chance.
Her hand went to her waist, the purse there hard and lumpy. She remembered the forgotten scroll inside.
With a snarl, she yanked it out, half crumpled and stained with sake and grease. The Senju and Hokage seals were nearly rubbed away.
"Nonsense," she shot back. "A good squad? You mean a pile of headaches you dumped on me."
She tore it open, paper rasped under her hands.
Her eyes flicked over the print. Team Eight, Captain, Tsunade. Members, Kamiyama Ryo, Uzumaki Kushina, Uchiha Mikoto,
At Kushina's name, her rage stuttered.
Mito's dying eyes flashed across her memory, clear, pleading.
"Kushina, out of the village? Over my dead body." she roared. "You want the Nine Tails running loose for fun? Not happening."
Hiruzen folded his arms, cool again. "Kushina is exempt. She will stay here to recover."
Tsunade's fingers whitened around the scroll. Two names left.
Ryo, the walking weapon.
Mikoto, an Uchiha political figurehead.
A team too small to qualify.
Then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Nawaki, hovering in the doorway, dirty from training, eyes wide with unspoken longing.
That same look he had worn every time she had packed for a mission.
Grandmother gone, his hunger to prove himself had only grown.
The afternoon's memory, his crushed expression under Ryo's effortless victory, rose unbidden.
Hiruzen's goading still rang in her ears. Scared? Cannot handle it?
The Senju were not cowards.
They did not coddle their own like fragile glass.
If she and Ryo could not protect one brat, they might as well quit and plant potatoes.
Tsunade snatched the crooked pen from Hiruzen's desk and, without ink, stabbed it across the scroll's blank backside.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
She slashed through Uzumaki Kushina, nearly tearing the paper, then scrawled four new characters in rough strokes, Senju Nawaki.
"Here." She slapped the scroll into her brother's face.
He caught it reflexively, the paper sticking to his cheek. Pulling it away, he blinked, and when he saw his name in the roster, his eyes bulged like lanterns.
Tsunade did not even glance at him. She barked to the waiting servant at the door,
"Take that roster to Personnel, now."
Her shout drowned out Nawaki's strangled "Huh?" that came from pure disbelief.
"And inform Uchiha Mikoto, assemble at the village gate before dawn tomorrow."
Her gaze snapped back to Nawaki, still frozen like a statue. "Listen up, brat. If you do not want me carrying your crying carcass on the battlefield while Suna nail your legs to the dirt, you had better get moving. Train that sorry excuse for chakra control till you can at least walk without blowing yourself up."
She jabbed a finger at his nose, each word sharp as an icicle. "Tomorrow. Before sunrise. One second late, and you can spend the rest of your life guarding the courtyard."
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)