Chapter 4

‘She was gonna have to beat it out of him wasn’t she?’ thought Tsunade as she watched her little devil hanging upside down on a tree.

At first she had thought it was just a phase and he’d quickly lose interest but it didn’t seem to be going away. She’d have to do something about it, she refused to have her son become like that good for nothing teammate of hers.

Getting beaten nearly to death hadn’t changed Jiraiya but her little star was still young, it may work.

“Kazuki Sawani, what do you think you’re doing?” Tsunade shouted and had to repress a laugh as he lost control of his chakra and fell from the branch.

She got ready to catch him when he hit his head on one of the lower branches but he managed to right himself and grab at the tree’s trunk to slow his fall before dropping on his feet in front of her.

Holding the back of his head with both hands he crouched and gave a little whimper, then he remembered where he was and went completely white, straightening up he gave her his best puppy dog eyes “Ah, I can explain?”

Tsunade used all her ninja training to suppress the sudden desire to pinch his cheeks and maintained her stern face, after a second of staring him down she decided to leave any talk of his peeping for later, she had enough on her plate at the moment.

“What did I say about using your chakra?” She asked while tapping her feet on the ground.

“That I shouldn’t do it” he sighed and said in a long, suffering voice “But mooooom!”

Tsunade rolled her eyes at his theatrics, her son was good but she was a kunoichi, he was a thousand years too young to manipulate her even if she sometimes let him think he could.

Truth be told she no longer cared all that much about his small chakra use. Just after his first transformation she had watched him like a hawk but, after the first two months, it became clear any chakra he could manage barely had any effect on his seal.

“Alright, how about we make a deal?” She said as she lifted him into her boson and started walking home. “If you can stop using chakra for 6 months, just until you’re eight I’ll personally start teaching you”

He took some time to think about it and watch her to see if there was any give to her proposal but, eventually, nodded “Fine, I won’t use it anymore, but you better keep your word.”

She smiled, it was always good to get concessions for things she was gonna do anyway.

“It’s a promise then” this time she didn’t resist the impulse and pinched his left cheek ignoring his little hands as he tried to bat hers aside.

“Mooooom”

Hah! Who knew it would be so amusing to mess with her precocious little devil, messing with his mature image had become one of her favorite pastimes.

“Kazuki, I’m gonna have to leave for a few days” She finally told him as they passed some of the samurai guarding the castle “the Daymyo is sending me to treat one of his cousins on the land of Rice, I’ll leave by tonight and it'll take a few days at least”

“Can’t I come with you?” Her son asked out of curiosity, he seemed unconcerned about her leaving so she released a sigh of relief.

She’d hate to see him crying when she left.

“I’m gonna have to move quickly little star, I can’t take you without risking being too late”

“Alright” he nodded and smiled at her “Don’t worry I’m not a kid anymore, I can handle you leaving me for a few days”

“Oh, my son is an adult now?” She said with a smirk “I guess there’s no need for me to bring you candy every friday then?”

“Wait, let's not be hasty!” Kazuki said with a very serious tone “Those are completely unrelated things you know!”

Shaking her head Tsunade put him back into the ground and they made their way back to the house.

After lunch she left him with one of his tutors and made her way towards her laboratory.

It took barely an hour to prepare all the medicine the Daimyo was gonna need while she was absent, she then moved her experiment table out of the way and bit into her thumb until she drew blood, releasing the seal on the secret room took only a second and she was out of view before anyone could catch her in the act.

Her secret study was covered floor to ceiling with seals, being teammates with a sealmaster of Jiraya’s level she had learned a thing or two about protecting her things.

The walls themselves were filled with seal scrolls and experimental vials, most of them containing samples from her own son but, despite all her knowledge, she still hadn’t found a solution for his uncontrollable bloodline.

That she would find a solution was without question, she was the best medical ninja ever born after all, but Kazuki may not have enough time.

The rampant nature chakra in his body was adapting to any treatment or seal she used with alarming speed and it wouldn’t be long before he had another episode, certainly no more than a year.

The problem was that she had wasted too much time just learning nature chakra, years of studying under Katsuyu just to be able to sense the damn thing without turning to stone, much less being able to move while doing so.

She was nowhere near being able to use it in battle but that hadn’t been the goal anyway, at least now she could finally watch the effects it had on her son’s body and start working on a treatment.

Sitting down at her desk she started looking at her scrolls once again for some last minute inspiration she knew she wouldn’t find but it was better than thinking about who she was gonna have to deal with soon.

She had read every ninja scroll in the Senju family library and, when that hadn’t produced any result, found her grandmother’s staches and went through them as well, from sealing techniques to bloodline abilities she had read everything both of her families had left her without finding a solution.

At least she had improved her skills a little, learned some new techniques, new ways to use seals in medical treatment and reconnected a little with both sides of her family.

And finding out the shadow clone jutsu was called the paperwork jutsu by the Uzumaki was mildly amusing, the Uzumaki really had been chakra monsters.

Four hours later she held a backpack filled with copies of her jutsu library and kissed her son goodbye and left the capital. Her last minute search had been fruitless after all so she was left with an unpleasant option if she wanted to accelerate her research.

The Sun was starting to set when she felt secure enough to leave the road, dropping her Kakura’s genjutsu. She put on her old kunoichi’s gear and covered her face completely.

Channeling chakra through her body she started tree walking as fast as she could while being as careful as she could to avoid any konoha shinobi in the country.

She ran the entire night and most of the day before finding a hollow tree to sleep in, as a medical ninja she could go for weeks with barely any sleep but she wanted to be at her absolute best when she arrived at the meeting.

Another day of running and she had crossed almost the entire fire country, she dropped from a tree close to a small cliff and took a deep breath. She recognized the genjutsu placed in front of the cliff.

Tsunade’s chakra control was such that she didn’t need a seal to dispel the illusion, with a second sigh she walked inside

“Kukuku, don’t make that face Tsunade, you’re the one who called for me after all” Said the man standing in the middle of the cave “I’ll start to think you don’t want to see your old teammate.”

Orochimaru looked almost exactly as she remembered him, his pale skin and snake-like eyes filled with a calculated light as he smirked at her, he wore a long, black robe with red clouds that covered his entire body.

“You can understand why I’d be wary after what you did” She told him after making sure there was no one else with them.

“Leaving the village? Why I was only following your footsteps” he mocked, hitting a little too close to home for her liking.

“I couldn’t care less about the village” she told him letting him hear the truth in her words “It’s why you had to run that worries me”

“Following orders you mean?” Orochimaru smiled “But by all means, blame me for everything until you have to ask me for help”

Tsunade turned her face away, Orochimaru was a monster but, then again, which ninja wasn’t? Her own hands were far from clean.

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A large burst of chakra and the noise of an explosion tag in the distance came from outside the cave making Tsunade jump aside to put both her former teammate and the cave entrance in front of her, was this an ambush?

“What are you trying to do?” She glared at him while gathering her chakra, she was confident any battle between them would end in a draw but if he had help…

Orochimaru didn’t seem worried, he just smiled her way and started walking towards the cave entrance without a care in the world “Don’t worry, they’re not here for you”

She followed her former teammate as he stealthily left the cave, never daring to lose him from her view as they made their way towards the rocky area above the cave.

Far enough away to not be easily detected, hidden from view and protected by one of Orochimaru’s genjutsus they both watched as a group of shinobi from Suna fought against a single Kunoichi.

The young woman was putting up a valiant fight but it was clear she had gotten poisoned on the first exchange and was quickly being overcome by the number of shinobi against her.

“Did you arrange this?" She asked, recognizing the young woman as Pakura, one of the Suna’s current geniuses.

“Oh no, I had nothing to do with this” he laughed, his eyes glinting with equal parts greed and disdain “It seems little Pakura has become a thorn on the Kazekage’s side”

Disgusted Tsunade watched as the shinobi slowly overcame her defenses, never coming close enough for a decisive blow and slowly bleeding her to death, in anger she asked “Why are we here Orochimaru?”

“Convenience” he told her with amusement “Pakura has an interesting bloodline but I didn’t want to have to fight my partner for her, I had decided to just take her body from the grave later when your message arrived and gave me an acceptable reason to ditch him.”

Watching the man Tsunade had a shiver run down her back and a sudden desire to step away, to think she had once trusted him with her life, to think he had once been worthy of that trust. The three sannin, what a joke they had become.

“What did you want, Tsunade?” the snake sannin asked, his face becoming serious for once even if it never left the fight “what’s so important that you left your little hiding hole in the capital?”

The revelation that he knew where she was, where her son was, worried her enormously but she decided to put it out of her mind for now “I need everything you have on Nature chakra, I know you have been studying it ever since that idiot started his training”

“Hmm, I didn’t think you were interested in becoming a sage?” the snake glanced her way once more.

“I need it for a patient”

“Explain”

She briefly considered just leaving, telling the snake anything was dangerous but she really didn’t know if she could find a solution soon enough to protect her son, so she decided to take the risk.

“My patient has a condition in which his body constantly gathers nature chakra, draining chakra and sealing his coils can slow it’s progress but not stop it and I haven’t been able to find any treatment yet, I know very little about nature chakra”

“Interesting” Orochimaru mused while his focus returned to the battle as it was about to end “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to sell me the body for old time’s sake?”

“No” She denied and had to clench her hands to prevent herself from attacking him immediately.

“Yes, I didn’t think you would, what are you offering then?”

“Knowledge of several seals and jutsus from my family” she touched her pack and watched as his slit pupils focused on it for a second.

“I don’t think the Senju had any secret they didn’t gift to the village” he said, making clear he thought it utterly stupid “and I already had access to those”

“Not that family”

Now he was interested, the Uzumaki had been the greatest sealmasters in the elemental nations and she knew the Snake had not been able to acquire a lot of their techniques.

“I’ll think about it” he said with a smile that said he knew he had something over her “Hmm, it seems they’re also about to finish over there”

Looking towards the fight she saw Pakura finally about to succumb to her wounds, not willing to take any chances the Suna shinobi pelted her body with hundreds of kunai leaving the entire location filled with the things and, only then did they approach her fallen body to collect it.

Orochimaru attacked, empowering his body with chakra he jumped the distance between them in a second, tired and relaxed after their successful ambush the Shinobi didn’t stand a chance against the sannin.

With a second step he appeared above them and released a great fireball on their location instantly incinerating most of them, the few that survived were quickly killed by his sword and snakes.

Unable to take the refusal Tsunade followed him a few moments later arriving just as he had sent a few of his stronger summons after two stragglers, walking besides him as he approached his prize she continued the discussion “My grandmother’s personal notes on sealing”

“I suppose I’m feeling a little nostalgic after not seeing you for so long” he crouched on top of Pakura’s body and injected it with some liquid “Fine, you have a deal”

Dropping her backpack she pushed it towards the man and prepared to leave before giving one last glance towards the Kunoichi.

Blood had started to pool around her kunai filled body but Tsunade’s well trained eye caught all the signs, the way the blood had slowed down, the way some of her involuntary muscles were still tense, the almost imperceptible pulse of her neck vein, Pakura was still alive.

Turning her face away Tsunade took a step and then froze, damn when had she become so soft?

Releasing a long suffering sigh she turned around, this was why she had avoided any shinobi, the casual cruelty she had always struggled with and could no longer abide.

Despite how dirty it made her feel she had been able to watch the betrayal and execution of the young woman, she had accepted that Orochimaru would use her body for experimentation but, to allow him to take her alive, she wouldn’t be able to look her son in the eye anymore.

“Don’t do this Tsunade” Said Orochimaru as he observed her body struggling with indecision, despite how long they had been apart he still knew her far too well.

“Step away from her” she said and fully turned around to face him.

“And we were doing so well” he sighed while getting up and patting his coat down.

There was no need for more words, they knew each other too well for that.

For a second Tsunade stared at the kunoichi's body and considered just killing her, it would be the easier solution, why couldn’t she have just died in the ambush?

Thousands of strategies flashed through her mind, Orochimaru's greatest strength was his ninjutsu and, as close as they were, she had the advantage but she could easily lose it.

In truth any fight between them would most likely end in a draw, Orochimaru was good enough at dodging to survive a few seconds at melee range and put some distance between them.

From then on she’d chase him and he’d run while pelting her with elemental jutsus until one of them decided to just leave the fight, she was fast enough he’d never catch her and he was skilled enough to lose her if he decided to escape.

If both of them really forced the issue Tsunade was realistic enough to acknowledge she’d probably lose but, this wasn’t a situation where any of them was willing to fight to the bitter end, if she wanted to win she’d have to catch him by surprise.

They acted at the same time, the ground exploded at her feet as she flew towards the sannin before he could grab the young woman’s body and escape. He tried to jump away and form a seal but she was too fast, interrupting him and delivering a powerful punch to his face.

He hit the ground hard, sending a cloud of dust up. She followed with a heel drop which hit him with her entire power, pulverizing his chest and breaking the ground around the impact into a myriad of stone boulders, she hadn’t been fast enough.

Mouth open impossibly wide, Orochimaru corpse was left behind as an intact body escaped, slithering away with blinding speed, the new body sent a wave of snakes to delay her as it tried to grab Pàkura’s body again.

Tsunade shivered, she had almost forgotten how disgusting his jutsus could be.

With a chop of her hand she cut off the heads of the snakes even as she grabbed one of the boulders with another hand and threw it, cutting off his patch and forcing him to stop for a second or risk getting squashed.

Catching up, she punched him as hard as she could trying to end the fight before it escalated.

Orochimaru was unable to stop her or even retaliate but he was skilled enough to survive the onslaught while receiving only minimal damage, another two times he tried to disengage and grab his target only to earn a punishing blow which drove him away from the body.

He finally started retreating with her in hot pursuit, not letting him use any jutsu, unable to continue dodging the snake had to block one of her punches with his arm.

She broke it in half and capitalized on the wound, delivering a second punch to the exact same spot and ripping his arm off at the elbow, opening his guard to receive a powerful cross to his face.

Instead of dodging, the snake-like man took the blow on his forehead and used it to propel himself away from her. She was about to follow him when she noticed the small hole on the ground where he had just stood.

Turning around she watched a huge snake summon burst out of the ground right under Pakura and swallow her whole before slithering away.

Making the choice, she abandoned the sannin and dashed towards the snake catching it just before it had finished burrowing into the rocky ground.

With a powerful punch she pierced the floor and grabbed the snake’s head before pulling it out of the ground and crushing it’s head in her grip releasing the Kunoichi from within a puff of smoke.

Turning back towards her enemy she was surprised to see he hadn’t taken the chance to use any jutsu, instead he just stood there smiling while a wave of snake spread from under his sleeve to bite into his arm and drag it back into place leaving him almost completely unharmed.

“You have grown stronger, how unexpected” he complimented using his long, forked tongue to lick the blood away from his face “It seems I really won’t be able to capture her alive.”

Using the mystical palm jutsu Tsunade quickly closed Pakura’s wounds and stabilized her without turning away from her enemy, she briefly noticed the kunoichi was awake and paralized but didn’t have the time to deal with any poison in her sistem.

Having let Orochimaru get some distance between them, Tsunade knew the fight had just turned.

The snake sannin formed seals with blindingly fast speed, taking a deep breath he used Wind release: Great breakthrough releasing a large wave of wind blowing several boulders her way and lifting a giant cloud of dust in the air.

Grabbing Pakura she jumped away and let the jutsu hit her body without resistance, being on the receiving end of the jutsu felt like being hit by one of her own punches, only over her entire body.

Twisting in midair Tsunade fell back on her feet and punched out with a shout using just the shockwave to clear away the dust and reveal a giant sea of snakes of all sizes slithering towards her.

Throwing Pakura behind her Tsunade formed her own seals, spending the last years searching her family’s scrolls for a cure may not have been successful but she did learn a lot of new techniques.

She saw a flash of metal as Orochimaru’s sword flew point first towards Pakura’s heart, apparently deciding that, if he couldn’t get her alive, Tsunade would be unwilling to continue fighting with her dead.

She briefly noticed she wouldn’t have time to both defend herself from the snakes and stop the stab, good thing she didn’t have to.

Finishing her hand seals, Tsunade gathered a large amount of chakra inside her stomach and turned her head towards the side of the snake sea.

Water release: Water severing wave!

The thin, high pressure stream of water cut through the snakes with no resistance as she turned her head from one side to the other, severing them by the thousands and hitting Orochimaru himself, cutting him off at the waist and disrupting his concentration sending the sword spinning wildly behind her.

Despite the grievous wound Tsunade knew she wouldn’t be able to close the distance before he recovered, already she could see a pale hand poking out from her former teammate’s mouth.

Without moving from her place she sighed, she had been hoping she wouldn’t have to reveal too much but there was no use crying about it now.

Forming five hand seals she channeled chakra through her body into her feet before kneading it in her stomach and releasing a second attack, Water release: Water bullet technique!

Pushing his mouth open Orochimaru’s intact body barely had enough time to dodge the torrent of water she sent his way, lifting his hand he recalled the sword of kusanagi at the same time as he bit his thumb and prepared to summon.

The sword flew back aiming for her back but she just ducked under it without even moving her feet.

Tsunade watched as Orochimaru pushed his hand against the ground and caused the spread of the summoning seals for several meters around himself.

A second before the summoning was complete his eyes opened wide in surprise as the ground exploded under him disrupting the seals and releasing a wave of twisting chains all around his body.

He reacted instantly and tried to jump away but it was too late, Tsunade’s own version of the adamantine sealing chains was weak and pitiful compared to her grandmother’s but they managed to wrap the sannin completely and briefly disrupt his chakra.

She had only become able to use the fuinjutsu technique last year after months of studying Mito’s notes and she was only comparable to an elite jounin while using them but her old friend hadn’t been expecting it and that made all the difference.

At that moment, when her chains had caught him completely by surprise and managed to disrupt his chakra control, Tsunade knew she could have killed him, used her chains to rip his body apart or squeeze him to death, only the fact she still needed his research stopped her.

“Interesting” Orochimaru said from between the squeezing chains, his body relaxing on her grip “I did not know you could use the Uzumaki’s chains”

“I never had the time to learn” Tsunade confessed, her iryo ninjutsu study had always taken most of her time.

“Very well you may keep the girl but you’ll own me Tsunade, I’ll call on you three times” he told her with only his mouth still exposed, negotiating as if he hadn’t just been completely defeated “I’ll also want a copy of the adamantine sealing chains jutsu”

“One favor, you may call me one time” she answered even as she turned her back to him, the fight was over.

The huge ball of chakra chains appeared to think about it for a few moments before he answered “Two, such rare bloodline is worth at least two favors and I’ll deliver a copy of my research directly to you in the capital”

As an answer she controlled her chains and squeezed, he released a small grunt as the chains dug into his flesh before his entire body burst into hundreds of snakes which slithered between the chains.

She had given him far too much time and her chains were far too new, still filled with mistakes and incapable of fully sealing her target.

Orochimaru’s true body burst out from the ground beside the backpack filled with scrolls, grabbing his payment he sealed it into a scroll and swallowed it, then his body seemed to burn from the feet up leaving nothing behind.

Releasing her breath Tsunade dispelled her chains and stretched her limbs, turning towards her new companion she looked into her open eyes and frowned “Now what do I do with you?”