Strolling Amongst Stalactites

The Watchers

Last Time:

The ROOT leader frowned, "Up his training." He said and the agent left after a bow. If Sasuke was going to complete their plans he'd have to be able to repel a sage and any who wish to defy them by the time he graduates ...

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Shizune deadpanned as she saw an excited Tsunade order a seventh cup of coffee, "I know you don't want to smell like alcohol when you meet her, but maybe you shouldn't drink anymore coffee-"

"Is that her?!" Tsunade exclaimed as she leapt to her feet, nearly knocking the outdoor cafe table over in her caffeine powered eagerness. Her body sagged sadly as she only saw Jiraiya and Kakashi headed down the road towards them. "Oh ... it's just you two. Have you heard from Naruko yet?" She asked, getting a giggle from Shizune who found the slug sage's eagerness quite funny. Tsunade was so determined to be there for Naruko that the second she heard the villagers were frequently drunk during the abuse she stopped drinking entirely. It was all so she wouldn't trigger any bad memories ...

Jiraiya pouted, "That's mean, Tsunade. Didn't you miss me? How about a hug?!" He grinned pervertedly while eyeing her breasts and doing groping motions with his hands.

"No!" The medic snapped and began beating the toad sage into the ground.

"Oh dear." Shizune chuckled sheepishly as she sipped her tea. "Don't beat him too much, Lady Tsunade! We don't want any delays to stop us from having all the bonding time we can with-" she noticed Kakashi put a finger to his lips and got the hint,"her! You want as much fun together as possible, right?"

"Ok!" Tsunade yelled and simply knocked the pervert out, but she was almost bouncing in place from the caffeine.

Kakashi chuckled nervously, "That got her to behave." He whispered playfully to Shizune. "Kurama, by the way, is checking into a hotel. Her sensei thought it'd be wise to have a room in case we found any Whirlpool items that can't be easily popped out and into a different scroll."

'Kurama, huh." Shizune smiled. "Isn't that great, Lady Tsunade?! We'll see Kurama soon!"

"And her teammates, sensei, mother and cousin!" Kakashi chimed in.

"Cousin?" Shizune asked curiously.

Kakashi nodded, "Small world. It just so happens one of the people Kurama helped save in her first mission got to chatting and let slip that she comes from the same clan. Kurama, of course, invited her along. That's a nice surprise, right?" He winced as he realized Tsunade didn't seem to share in the joy.

The slug sage didn't betray any emotion and just stared at Kakashi seriously despite the insanely dilated pupils, "How is she?"

"She's doing very well." Kakashi said softly, though the dilated eyes did unnerve him. "They thought of everything, even covering," Kakashi tapped his cheeks indicating that he meant that the birth marks on Naruko's cheeks were covered. "She's sweet and strong and well taken care of ... I still wish she didn't have to kill in her first mission, bu-"

Tsunade grabbed Kakashi by the neck and started wringing it, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN KILLED?!"

Shizune quickly started shushing the slug sage who was attracting attention from the others both in and outside the cafe, "Please be quiet, Lady Tsunade. We shouldn't be talking about these things in public."

"She's right." Tsunade flinched when a very tall and muscular woman grabbed her wrists and actually made her release her grip on Kakashi with just a press of a couple acupuncture points. "I'm Barb, Kurama's sensei. Why don't we continue this on our walk to Whirlpool?"