Author's note: I am so sorry for the wait! I've stepped away from this story longer than I intended to! I'm sorry! Please don't be mad! I've kind of reached a point where I have to be kind of careful on how I continue and have come up a bit dry. I had half of this chapter already written before today and finally found the inspiration to continue. Let me know what you guys think! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and made up characters! :D

Warnings: None really, just language.

Word Count: 6,175

"U-um," Sakura mumbles, bowing at the waist. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Tsunade, I'm Sakura Haruno."

Tsunade and Shizune, sitting down in a dango shop, both look up when Sakura, Naruto and Jiraiya entered the little building and walk up to the two newcomers to the Leaf. Tsunade looks Sakura up and down slowly, chewing on the dango slowly before she swallows it and narrows her eyes more in understanding rather than anger while her faithful assistant tilts her head thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Tsunade says, looking passed Sakura to Jiraiya. But not before she catches the sight of the younger version of her cousin's son. The boy who looked exactly like his father. Her eyebrows twitch a bit and she frowns a bit before looking to Jiraiya. "What did you say?"

The long white haired man grins. "Well, I have a favor to ask of you. Could you take this beautiful young lady on as an apprentice? At least train her until the finals. Trust me, she desperately needs it. And word through the grapevine," he leans in close, his face mere inches away from Tsunade's. He blatantly ignores the annoyed look that crosses Tsunade's face. "Is," Jiraiya continues, "that she has perfect chakra control and learns quickly. You're type of girl, I'd dare say, Tsunade-hime."

Tsunade glares at him, annoyed. "I think I should be the one to decide that. But what about you, girlie? What do you want?"

Sakura blinks in surprise, raising from her bow. A bright red blush colors her cheeks. "I want..." she glances over at Naruto and Kakashi, and in her mind's eye, beside them she can see Sasuke. The fourth and final member of their team. The only one who couldn't be here right now, because he's in the hospital. Because of Orochimaru, he's not with them. He bit Sasuke on the neck and that strange mark had appeared.

Her jade green eyes slide back over to Tsunade. "I want to be able to look out for my teammates and sensei. I want to be able to do something that can protect them from whatever I can. I want..." Sakura lowers her gaze, clenching her fists tightly. She thinks back during the second portion of the exam, how she ultimately needed the help of Ino and her team, Sasuke, and then Lee and at the end the remainder of his team to be able to battle off three people. And then against Ino in the one-on-one battles in the preliminary. If she hadn't started training more seriously in the weeks leading up to the exam, the outcomes of all of this would have been different.

She raises her gaze once more, keeping her fists clenched as she locked eyes with Tsunade's cool brown ones. "I want to no longer be a burden on my team. I want to be able to help contribute to the team as a whole and not have to make them worry so much. I want to be able to use my strengths to keep us and others alive. I want to be strong, Lady Tsunade. I want to be a true Kunoichi of the Hidden Leaf. I want to help embody the Will of Fire but most of all, above everything else, I want to be able to protect my teammates and my village. That is what I want, Lady Tsunade."

Naruto stares at Sakura with wide blue eyes, seeing the pink haired girl in a new light. Something really did change in the girl over the course of the exam. If Naruto had to guess, it was that time when he was out cold in the forest of death. When he and Sasuke were alone momentarily as Sakura went to get more water for them, he managed to asked his best friend what had happened. At first, Sasuke wasn't too forthcoming about what happened and not even he knew everything that happened, but he finally spilled about the mark on his neck and how he lost control of himself for a bit and when he came to, Sakura was all beaten up and crying. That made Sasuke scoff, a mixture of annoyed and angry.

If Naruto was anyone else who didn't know Sasuke as good as he did, they would think that Sasuke was mad at Sakura. But Naruto knew, she was their teammate and she got herself beaten bloody trying to defend them. Sasuke was never much for like getting help to begin with, but to learn that their weakest teammate was beaten up for their sake? He didn't like it at all. Not because Sakura was a girl, but because all four of them - that includes Kakashi - knew that Sakura was the weakest link and none of them put a lot of time to grow the overall strength of the group except for the few weeks leading up to the exam, and that was just barely enough to get Sakura to pass. And now she's paying for it.

"Desire," Tsunade says, staring up at Sakura, "is nice and all, but if you want to be my student, you need dedication. You need to not look at this training as a form of training, but as the steady molding of a lifestyle. If you want to learn medical ninjutsu, then there are those all around the world. If you want to be a medical shinobi that can save just as easily as she can kill, than I will take you on. But this isn't a month long training and to be honest, I don't care if you pass the chunin exams this time around. I'm in it for the long run. I will train you until you can learn no more. Are you as invested as I am?"

Sakura nods, squaring her shoulders. She mentally prepared to throw herself in this all the way. "Yes, I am, Lady Tsunade."

Tsunade sizes her up for a long moment, probably trying to see if Sakura was just bullshitting her or not. After a long moment and a bit of baited breath on both Sakura and Naruto's part, who was equally nervous for his female teammate's sake, until Tsunade smiles faintly. "Then meet me at Konoha General tomorrow morning at seven and we'll get started."

Sakura blinks in surprise, not at all sure she heard the Senju Princess correctly, but then Naruto cheers loudly and throws his arms around her shoulders, shaking her and congratulating her that she finally realized that she did hear Tsunade right. Sakura bows again, as much as she could with Naruto hanging off of her, and says her thanks over and over again.

Naruto's hand wraps around Sakura's tightly. "Come on, Sakura, let's go tell Sasuke!"

Sakura closes her hand around Naruto's and nods. "Uh, right." She doubted that he would be awake, but she would like to see him. And together the two ran from the dango shop, yelling out their farewells to the foursome left behind.

"Ah, what it's like to be young again, eh, Tsunade?" Jiraiya laughs, sitting down next to her. She gives him a dry look, sipping some tea, but doesn't shoo him away. Kakashi bows to the blond sannin.

"Thank you, Lady Tsunade, for taking on Sakura as a student, she won't let you down," Kakashi says, and he believes it. Sakura was gifted, when offered the attention. It brings Kakashi a bit of shame that he couldn't give her the attention to she deserved, but he is happy that she can now get that. And from such a legend, too!

Tsunade hums, nodding to Kakashi. He bids his farewell to the other three before disappearing in a poof of smoke. Her mind traveling to the short blond haired boy that was definitely a splitting image of Minato. His cheeks were a bit rounder, three whisker-like birthmarks on both cheeks and his big bug eyes come from his mother, other than that, the boy looked just like Minato. That was Kunshina's son.

Just seeing the boy made Tsunade's heart throb, both from pain and from hope. Once again, like a masochist, she continues to seek out those to love knowing that when they die, it will only destroy her more. In a way, she wished that she would be able to talk more with Naruto, learn about the boy that her cousin bore, but Tsunade just wasn't quite ready to open that wound just yet.

She knows she owes Naruto a lot. A lot more than she wants to admit. But now just wasn't the time. Perhaps she'll be able to make it up to him someday, but just not yet. Another just not yet.

They let Sakura and Naruto in to see Sasuke, who was still sleeping. He was on a breathing tub and there was wrapping around his eyes, but that didn't deter Naruto in the slightest from walking over to his best friend and taking his hand. And he just began talking. Sakura sat back quietly and listened to Naruto talk about everything that happened after his round, who all made it through and who they were fighting. He told Sasuke about Hinata and her cousin Neji's battle and how upset he was about their friend being treated that way.

He talked about Sakura too. And it took Sakura a moment to realize that while he was blabbering on to his unconscious best friend, Naruto must have forgotten that Sakura was even there. He told Sasuke how proud he was of Sakura and how he knew she would be great in the finals - not as great as himself, he had joked, laughing to himself, but still great enough to make it to chunin - and that they would all be able to make it to chunin together and be the best team out there. Sakura doubted they'd be the best team out there, but Naruto's enthusiasm was contagious and did fill her with hope.

Naruto moved on to talk about training when Sakura finally stood up. Over an hour had passed since they arrived and Sakura decided to herself that she would come back and visit Sasuke again later before he left. For now, it was Naruto's time with his best friend. For as long as Sakura can remember, those two have been together always by each other's side.

They fit so well together and even though the conversation was one-sided, Sakura could just somehow tell that Sasuke was more relaxed than before. Like Naruto's presence alone was enough to ease Sasuke's vulnerabilities. Like the bandages around his eyes and the breathing tube down his throat. It's almost like none of that matters with Naruto by Sasuke's side. So long as they are together, nothing else matters.

With that in mind, the pink haired girl slipped from the room, so quietly, Naruto didn't remember she was suppose to be there until long after she was gone.

Keeping good on her word, Sakura returned to visit Sasuke the next day. Sometime during the night he had awoken and insisted on getting the breathing tube out of his throat, but his eyes were still wrapped up. He looked over at the sound of her opening the door and stepping in. He listens to the sound of her footsteps as they draw near but Sakura could guess he didn't know who was there.

"Hey Sasuke-kun," Sakura says, keeping a few feet away. Her hands folded neatly in front of her, not moving to take a seat in case he didn't want company at the moment. His head tilts a little at the sound of her voice.

"Sakura?" He says, sounding slightly unsure.

"Mmhm," she hums, taking that as a good sign to step closer to the bed and sit down in the chair next to it. "How are you feeling? I hope you don't mind me being here."

"No..." Sasuke says slowly, tilting his head slightly as if trying to locate her without the use of his eyes. "It's fine that you're here. I'm okay. Bored, but okay."

Sakura smiles, crossing her legs a bit, relaxing. "When do, um, the bandages come off?"

Sasuke lets out a long drawn out sigh, reaching up with one hand to touch the sterile white wrapping around his eyes. "Later on today, if I'm lucky, but I was told not to get my hopes up."

Sakura reaches up and tugs at the bottom of her now short hair, still trying to get used to how short it is. "Is your... um... is your sharingan okay...? I mean, I didn't know that your eyes were hurt at all..." She watches his face carefully, making sure she's not treading on a rocky subject. But he doesn't seem to be all that upset about the switch of conversation.

"There isn't really anything wrong. I just overused it when I'm not used to it and caused unneeded strain on it. Lady Tsunade just insisted that I get it properly looked after since it and I are still maturing." He shrugs his shoulders. "I'm the last of my bloodline, they want to make sure I'm as healthy as I can be. Whatever."

Sakura blinks a few times, wondering if she should respond to that. It seems like a sort of out of character thing for him to say, but as soon as the thought crossed her mind, another one made the same trek. What if Sasuke was becoming more comfortable with Sakura and was able to speak a little more openly and that's why it seemed out of character. Sakura had just never seen this side of Sasuke before.

After a moment of silence, Sakura finally said, "We came to visit you yesterday..."

Sasuke nods. "Yeah, I started having weird dreams about the exam. That usually only happens when Naruto talks to me."

A laugh escapes Sakura, she brings her hands up to cover her mouth to try and smother it. Sasuke turns his head in her direction at the sound of that, face as neutral as it can be with the bandages around his eyes. "Sorry, sorry," Sakura says waving her hands around. "I guess I just figured that was probably the norm for you, huh?"

Sasuke makes an amused noise. "You can say that again," he mumbles.

They fall into another lapse of silence. Sakura looks around the plain sterile room and then out the window next to Sasuke's bed. It's a bright and sunny day out and Sakura kind of wished that Sasuke could have seen it.

"Naruto will probably be back sometime today," Sakura says, dropping her hand back onto her lap.

Sasuke nods slowly, turning his head toward the window. "Yeah, he will. He's loyal like that."

Sakura feels the corners of her lips lift a bit at that. As soon as Sasuke said it, Sakura knew it was true. "Yeah," she says softly, thinking about how he was just as happy for her as she was for herself getting accepted by Tsunade as a student. "He is, isn't he?"

There was no need for a response, so Sasuke didn't offer her one to fill the silence, but this time it was a comfortable silence. One where both of them could be lost in their thoughts.

This morning was her first day of training with Lady Tsunade. She spent the entire day learning about medical ninjutsu in theory and how it differs from normal ninjutsu. Tsunade gave Sakura homework to memorize all the bones in the human body along with major arteries and veins to learn by the end of the week. Those were the specifics that Lady Tsunade asked for, Sakura is going to do all she can and learn all she can with the time she has. Sakura's already been working so hard trying to please her new master and absorb all the information she can. In her free time, even right now, Sakura has clones at home, sitting around her bedroom, working on meditation and chakra control.

Not a single moment it going to be wasted in this next month.

Tsunade showed Sakura how the movements of chakra differed in the body when one was trying to heal someone as opposed to preparing to use any other sort of jutsu. The slug princess did seem pleased at Sakura's excellent level of chakra control but was a little put off by the low levels. Sakura assured her that she had a lot worse in the beginning and that she was already dedicating a lot of time to rectifying her own previous negligence to her own shinobi prowess. Sakura is learning, slowly but surely, that she didn't take anything in the shinobi world as seriously as she should have.

And that was all because she was focusing on Sasuke. And yet ironically, or maybe not so much when Sakura thinks on it now, he was the one that helped wake her up. If he hadn't said those hurtful, albeit not untrue things about her the day they graduated, Sakura would have probably never noticed the vast valley of separation between her abilities and Naruto's and Sasuke's. It was an eye opener.

A painful one. But an eye opener nonetheless.

"When will you be out of the hospital?" Sakura asks, uncrossing her legs.

"As soon as I get the bandages off, which my luck is going to be tomorrow," Sasuke sighs, seemingly resigned to his bad luck.

Sakura nods slowly, even though Sasuke couldn't see that. "Good luck in your training, Sasuke-kun."

"Yeah," Sasuke says, turning back to face Sakura. "Uh, you too..." he sounds uncertain.

Sakura smiles faintly. "Thanks. I've only got one month to become a respectable shinobi in society." Sakura laughs thinly. "But at least I've got the chance to try and prove myself. So I can't ask for anything else." Her smile becomes a little more genuine. "I just want you to get better and for all of us to kick some serious butt in the finals."

Sasuke nods slowly reaching up to rub his neck, as if it were sore. "Yeah," he says. "I'm sure we'll all be fine."

Sakura looks over at the time and notes that her break is almost over and she stands up. "I'd better go. I've got to get back to training. I'm sure Naruto will stop by again today to see how you're doing." Sasuke nods, but doesn't respond. He tilts his head slightly, dropping his hand back onto his lap, and listens to Sakura walk across the room to the door. The door opens, a pause as Sakura turns back around to look at Sasuke before turning back around and heading out the door, closing it softly.

Sakura stands outside of Sasuke's hospital door for an entire minute. Just standing there thinking about how it's already the first day into the month and she's already started to change so much, both on her view of herself and how she views others. Especially Sasuke and Naruto. In the weeks leading up to the beginning of the exam, she began seeing both of them very differently. Naruto was still annoying, but not in the way he used to be. And if she actually took a moment to listen to what he was saying, he was funny at times. And Sasuke was actually a very expressive person, mostly around Naruto, but more with his body than with words. Little looks he gives, a slight gesture here or there spoke volumes.

"Another tadpole?" Naruto squawks waving his hands around wildly. "I'm gonna die of blood loss sooner than I'm going to figure out how to summon something that's not..." he gestures toward the tiny wiggling baby toad, "that."

"You'll get it, just keep trying," Jiraiya mumbles, working hard to decode another of Minato's many hidden messages scattered throughout his entire house. He's found the codex to some pieces of works in his many different libraries and all his scattered clues, hoping that Minato half way through this whole 'coding' process he went through stopped being so complex, but Jiraiya knows his student well enough that nothing gets half done if Minato has anything to say about it.

Naruto groans loudly, falling back onto his back as the tadpole pops out of existence like all the ones that came before it that Naruto accidently summoned, much to his chagrin. Jiraiya spares a glance over at the flustered blond, feeling the corners of his lips quirk up slightly in amusement. He watches the young blond roll around on the ground before pushing himself back onto his butt and trying again.

Jiraiya turns away and continues trying to decode yet another of Minato's many hidden messages in his house. Jiraiya was thoroughly impressed with his beloved student in how organized and in-depth all of his research was. Jiraiya had no idea Minato was interested in so many different subjects. One of his offices on the second floor of his house was dedicated completely to the creation of new jutsu. Fortunately, Minato had a varied interest in the different chakra natures and most of the jutsu revolved around neutral chakra, like the Rasengan, that could be used by anyone. Unfortunately, a good portion of his ideas were only half finished and most of the end aspirations died with him.

Another library that Naruto told Jiraiya about in the cellar, separate from the basement with a door leading into the kitchen, was filled with theories on improving overall growth of the shinobi populous using the Shadow Clone training method. Minato also head an entire office, his uppermost office on the top floor of his house, is dedicated to plans on expansions of the village and improvements to the Academy curriculum and things of the like. Those were sent to the Third to review and see if he would like to implement any of them.

Jiraiya pauses for a moment to hear Naruto groan loudly in frustration at yet another failed attempt at summoning a toad. Jiraiya laughs, shaking his head in amusement. Naruto can't seem to pick this up nearly as easily as his dad did, but he has a butt ton more chakra than his dad so that he can make as many mistakes as he wants to and not have to worry about it as much.

Jiraiya shakes his head and continues working on decoding the next piece of information. So far this seems to be information regarding the First Great Shinobi war. It's about the tactics and the original movements. Most of it is still coded so Jiraiya has no idea what exactly is so important about this information, but works diligently to figure that out. Minato did show an odd interest in the past wars but Jiraiya always chalked it up to the fact that he grew up in war and was always adamant about taking steps to prevent future wars.

But in recent discoveries Jiraiya is not so sure what to think anymore. Jiraiya would love to have believed that he knew Minato pretty well, but much to his chagrin, it appears as though he knew next to nothing about the boy and that makes him feel sad.

"Dammit!" Naruto groans, throwing himself back onto the ground and stares up at the sky. "Why is this so hard?"

Jiraiya finally puts the things he was working on away and stands up. "Alright, kid, come with me. Let's raise the stakes a bit." Naruto tilts his head a bit in confusion but follows, the most recent tadpole popping out of existence.

Sasuke was let out of the hospital. He quickly went home to change into his usual attire and stocks up on all of his supplies before heading out to look for his wayward sensei, getting in some training for himself. Kakashi accepted Sasuke and immediately takes him outside to the village to begin their training, especially since they are having a few days disadvantage compared to the rest of the finalists.

Sakura returned to training with Tsunade, showing her the Shadow Clone method Naruto and Sasuke taught her, which Tsunade saw as a splendid idea. By the time that Sakura was training with Tsunade, all of her 13 of her clones were working on meditation to build up her chakra supplies while Sakura's physical self is working on trying to heal the fish Tsunade keeps putting in front of her.

While Naruto just barely survived being tossed into a deep crevice in the earth by his mentor, managed to summon the Toad Chief Gamabunta, who put up quite the fuss at being summoned. Jiraiya returns to his decoding while Naruto fights for his life trying to hold onto the rampaging giant red toad, still not sure why Minato had to go through the trouble of coding this information of the First Great Shinobi war, but he's eager to find out.

All three spend almost the entire month away from one another, focusing on their training as hard as they can. All of them and their sensei's utilizing the Shadow Clone training method to speed up their training. It was about half way through their training month, that Sakura realized that Tsunade has a strong fear of blood. Shizune explained to Sakura, when she took over Sakura's training to help her mentor out, that Tsunade's haemophobia stems from the death of her little brother, Nowaki, and her lover, Shizune's uncle, Dan.

Sakura spent a great portion of the second half of her training in the hospital shadowing Shizune and Tsunade. She found a great passion in the medical field and learning Tsunade's destructive fist style of fighting. Sakura focused a lot on her chakra control as soon as she hit 20 clones so that her control over her medical ninjutsu didn't suffer.

Kakashi taught Sasuke his signature jutsu, the Chidori, and worked hard on his speed. It helped both Sakura and Sasuke immensely when Naruto convinced Jiraiya to give them the weighted seals to help improve their training without cumbersome weights on. It helped Sasuke get his speed up to where he needed it relatively quickly and allowed him and Kakashi to focus on increasing Sasuke's affinity for his lightning style chakra to further increase the power of his lightning style jutsu overall.

Naruto, just barely faster than Sakura, who was the slowest of their team, took up the weighted seals well. With his sheer will and determination pushed him to focus on building up his speed and, per Jiraiya's recommendation, his agility. He's going to need it if he's going up against a Hyuga. Jiraiya had no doubt that Naruto could take quite the hits, even from a Hyuga, but he made a point to beat it into Naruto how essential it was to not get hit.

Just like Sakura. Tsunade was adamant about two things. One being that a medical shinobi is a medical shinobi first. She focuses on healing her allies, and even the enemies in special situations, first. When Tsunade said that, Sakura could only speculate what she meant. And none of it made sense to her. She could understand that a medical shinobi was meant to heal and protect her allies, but her enemies? Tsunade didn't elaborate, only telling her that there is a moment in every medical shinobi's life when they have to make that difficult choice.

The second thing was that the thing that most medical shinobi forget, is the shinobi part of their job. While being a medic is not just a job, but a way of life, there was also the need to protect herself. Sakura's life was even more essential than before because any one average medical shinobi can save about a dozen lives on the battlefield. Someone of Tsunade's caliber could save almost, if not more, than a hundred people on the battlefield. They've got to defend themselves, hence Tsunade's emphasis on speed, to avoid attacks and strength, to destroy anyone that came too close.

Finally, the day has come for the finals. Over the three days prior to the finals, delegates from all over the Land of Fire and from other allied countries started to arrive in Konohagakure no Sato for the event. The day of, at seven-thirty, the participants started to arrive. Out of those in Team Seven, Sakura is the first to show up.

Per Tsunade's advice, Sakura changed up her clothing style to be more toward efficiency. Away with the long red dress that she used to wear for an altered version which was the same red but a crop top, revealing a smooth, slightly worked out, flat stomach. With a white trim around her stomach, around her collar, including the very minute V-neck, and the edges of her short sleeves. Just below her clavicles is the Haruno family symbol. The she's wearing a red skirt, split up both sides to the white trim around her waist and lining the perimeter of the front and back of her skirt flaps. Her normal green spandex pants with black Shinobi heels, similar to Tsunade's.

The next in Team Seven to show up is Naruto. He's still got on the bright orange pants but he's dropped the jacket in favor of just a simple black shirt with the Uzumaki clan symbol on his back. His normal blue cloth for his headband was changed out for a long black one that trails behind him as he walks. It matches the black of his new black sandals.

He's got a huge smile on his face that only gets larger when he spots Sakura, he breaks into a sprint over to her. On a whim, Sakura opens her arms in greeting which seems like it was the right idea because Naruto comes flying into her arms, nearly knocking her over. He squeezes her tightly before pulling away practically glowing.

"Can you believe it, Sakura-chan? We're here!" Naruto yells, practically bouncing.

"Yeah," Sakura says, smiling. "It's... really scary, but exciting too."

Naruto nods briskly, looking around at the other partisipants as they arrive. His eyes land on a certain pineapple headed boy and runs for him. About five steps away, Shikamaru noticed the footsteps and turned to see what was happening, only for a look of horror to cross his face.

"No, no, no, no, no-" Shikamaru says, holding his hands out between them, taking a few quick steps back but Naruto is too fast, throwing himself at the brown haired boy, knocking them both over.

"Shikamaru, I love you!" Naruto yells, squeezing the lazy genius tightly.

Shikamaru groans loudly in pain. "Oh Kami, please kill me." He tries to pry the excited blond off of him. Sakura giggles, having followed Naruto over to her old classmate. She looks up at the filling stadium, noting that people were watching.

"Shino," Shikamaru wheezes, reaching out a free hand toward the Aburame, "help me!"

"Sorry, Shikamaru," Shino says, hands stuffed into his pockets, "but in doing that would incur Naruto's dangerous affections upon myself and I must focus for my match."

"Then please, tell that demon of a woman I call mom that her cooking was always sub-par at best. And that I love Choji's parents more," Shikamaru gasps, still trying to separate himself from Naruto.

"That's horrible, Shikamaru," Naruto says, finally letting the Nara go. "Seriously dude, dick move."

Shikamaru shrugs, rolling his shoulder a bit to ease the pain of being pinned down.

"Naruto!"

The blond turns at the sound of his name, scanning the area until his eyes land on the short blond haired Sanin standing by the edge of the stadium. His lock with hers and he points to himself wondering if she was the one to call for him. She nods and crooks her finger, beckoning him over to her. He complies, running over to her side.

"What's up?" He asks, eyes wide.

"We didn't get a lot of time to talk since I got here," Tsunade says, crossing her arms under her voluptuous bosom, pushing it up a bit. "I just wanted to make a wager with you."

Naruto's eyebrows shoot up to his hairline. "Oh?"

"Jiraiya tells me you want to become Hokage, is that true?" Tsunade asks, looking down at the boy that looks so much like Minato but has all of Kushina's expressions.

Naruto brightens up. "Yes! And I'm going to become the best one yet, even better than my old man!"

Tsunade's small smile is a sad, melancholic one. In her mind's eye she can see both Nawaki and Dan, both smiling and saying the same, "I want to become Hokage!" that she comes to associate with those that will die in her life. In her heart, she prays that this boy will be the one to break the cycle. He will be the one that ends up achieving his dream and continues to reign long after Tsunade's gone.

"Good," Tsunade says, after a moment of just staring at him. "So how about a bet?"

Naruto looks pumped. "Sure! What are we betting on? Oh! Is it that necklace? 'Cause I'd really like that!"

Tsunade's heart hurts even more at the prospect of parting once more with her cursed necklace but swallows it, trying to keep her smile from wavering too much. "Alright, fine. If you can win this battle, I'll give you this necklace."

Naruto beams, his entire body now shaking with excitement. "Oh, I can't wait! Prepare to part with that necklace, Lady Tsunade, because that's going to be mine, soon enough!"

Tsunade nods slowly, feeling a tightness in her gut. If only he had asked for anything else but the necklace. But she had been neglecting him for the past thirteen years, she really had no room denying him anything. "Very well," she says, lowering her arms to her side. "Win this match and I'll give you my necklace. Good luck, Naruto Uzumaki."

"Thanks!" Naruto says, turning around and quickly running back over to his friends, spotting a newly arrived Haku and making a beeline for her. Tsunade watches in silence as Naruto tries to jump onto the back of the long black haired kunoichi, only for her to smoothly step out of the way to avoid him at the last minute, letting the boy hit the ground hard.

Tsunade smiles a bit to herself, really relishing in how Kushina-like the act was, before making her way up into the stadium stands to find her seat with Shizune. She's not surprised that on the other side of the empty seat reserved for the blond was none other than her illustrious teammate, Jiraiya.

"Hey, Tsunade-hime," Jiraiya says, waving in greeting. "Are you excited for the matches?"

Tsunade nods, lowering herself between Shizune and Jiraiya, accepting Tonton onto her lap, placing a comforting hand onto the pink pig's back. "I suppose. How do you think Naruto will do?"

"Pretty good," Jiraiya says confidently. "He may not be the sharpest kunai in the bunch like his old man, but he does have fierce determination and let's face it," Jiraiya laughs, "the kid can take an ass kicking."

"Just like his mother," Tsunade murmurs, turning her gaze to the arena, following the spastic movements of the blond with her eyes.

"What about your girl? How do you think she'll do?" Jiraiya asks, crossing his ankles and stretching his long legs out as much as he can.

Tsunade smiles faintly, a hint of pride in her eyes. "She may not be the most skilled here, but she'll be a spectacle. I'm actually looking forward to seeing how she'll fair. I hear Haku is a more assassin type Shinobi."

Jiraiya grunts. "Little good that'll do him in this sort of situation."

"Not if he uses the Hidden Mist Jutsu," Shizune points out, crossing her own ankles but holding them neatly beneath her seat.

Tsunade nods while Jiraiya hums in agreement.

"Either way," Jiraiya says, "today is going to be an interesting one."

For the Reviewers:

1. Nono: Quite...

2. BlackandWhiteGirl: Thank you so much for the review! I hope the explanation wasn't too hard to follow. And yes, they did meet. Thanks for pointing that out. XD

3. Myrddin Emrys The Third: Thanks for the review! Did you now? Good! Haha! 8D

4. JanusGodOfPossibilities: Such a wonderful score! Thank you! Yep, you never know if you're going to get any answers. XD We will never know, will we? You know, unless you keep reading! I have a nasty habit of accidently giving the answers away. *shrugs*

5. Meck Viking: Sorry, bruh. We may never know. XD

6. maxridelover: It does, doesn't. Minato, you shady fuck. XD

7. SilverDreamsCA: Quite... Quite...

8. FliscentFiretail: I know! And a bit of Japanese that I recognize! o.o Yes, I'd be inclined to agree, what a troublesome man. Thank you! I'm happy that someone enjoys seeing Madara's life before it gets fucked up again. Poor him. I feel so bad for him. Thank you again. Sorry for the late update!

9. UnknownUnseenUnheard: I've never played Assassin's Creed, only watched my brother play a bit of it, so I wouldn't really know. I don't know how to answer that without giving anything away, sorry! It does, doesn't it? Minato's a slippery one. Yes, I wonder what roll Orochimaru is going to play! XD Thanks for the review! Sorry for the wait!

10. Titokhan: Well, I'm glad you started now. :D Thank you very much! Thank you very much, I really like this Minato, though I do apologize for all the mystery. ^_^' You are very observant and I am so glad that you pointed all of that out! I just love it when people speculate on what will happen next because more often than not they may be on the right page, or heading for the right idea! Thank you so much for the review, I enjoyed reading it!

11. Guest: I know, sorry. I'm glad you like it though, haha!

12. Diamondera: I'm so sorry for the wait! I try, so I'm sorry if it seems a little sloppy! Thanks for liking it so far, though! I know people are probably going to have to go back and reread the previous chapter because it took me so long. Sorry!

13. SilverWhiteDragon: *cowers* What was that noise? Thanks for the review!

14. AkaiArashi1: I'm so happy to hear that! ^_^ Oh no, the story isn't over yet! Far from it, actually. This story is going to be a long one! It'll probably have a sequel, I think. Yeah, at the rate this story is going, a sequel may be the only way to get the full experience. *shrugs* But for now, the story continues! Well, it's been forever for a lot of people, but pretty quick update for you, huh? Well, thanks for the review!