Tsunade reluctantly sat down across from Hiruzen, already dreading the conversation she knew was coming. She had no interest in whatever request the old man was about to make, especially if it involved dragging her back into Konoha's politics.
"Old man, I've told you plenty of times - I won't become Hokage." For a very brief moment, there was a fire in Tsunade's eyes. "I didn't even want the Senju clan head position, and now you're trying to push something even worse onto me." She wasn't about to let him ease into it. Better to shut it down immediately.
Hiruzen sighed, tapping the ash from his pipe. "Orochimaru has betrayed Konoha." His voice was heavier than usual, his eyes shadowed. "He's a rogue ninja now."
Hiruzen paused, studying Tsunade's face, searching for any sign that she had already heard the news. But her reaction told him everything - she was completely in the dark.
'How is it possible that someone of your influence hasn't heard about this yet?' Disappointment settled deep in his chest. His disciples, once so promising, had drifted too far from Konoha's core.
But at that moment, Tsunade remained oblivious to his thoughts and even if she had known, she wouldn't have cared.
Tsunade froze. For a moment, she thought she had misheard.
"The Anbu found his lab," Hiruzen continued. "I confronted him myself, but he sacrificed one of his subordinates and fled. You should have seen what he was doing there, Tsunade. The experiments. The bodies. Many of his victims were from Konoha… some of them were children."
Tsunade clenched her fists beneath the table. She hadn't heard a single whisper of this, and the fact that such a massive betrayal had slipped past her notice struck her hard. It made her feel disconnected - like she wasn't just away from Konoha, but completely detached from the reality of it.
She had always known Orochimaru was twisted, but hearing it outright like this? That he had been conducting inhuman experiments on their own people, on children? It was worse than hearing he had died.
"For how long?" she asked, her voice quieter than before.
Hiruzen shook his head. "We don't know exactly. But at least a few years. We're still going through his documents, trying to piece together what he was after." He sighed again, setting down his pipe. "But that's not why I called you here."
Tsunade kept looking into the distance. "I know."
"I'm growing old, Tsunade," Hiruzen admitted. "If I were in my prime, I wouldn't have let Orochimaru escape. I would have seen through him before it got this far." He met her gaze, and there was something unsettlingly raw in his expression. "I've been asking you and Jiraiya to take over for so long, but neither of you have stepped up. But now, Konoha needs you. Our young shinobi need you. If you had been Hokage, maybe those children wouldn't have been sacrificed in Orochimaru's experiments. Maybe the Hyuga wouldn't resent us for my decision to avoid war with Kumo at the cost of sacrificing Hizashi."
Tsunade's lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to cut in, but Hiruzen raised a hand. He wasn't done.
"Danzo is becoming harder to control. He believes I'm too soft for this seat, that he should be Hokage, and what's worse - he's starting to gain supporters."
The first part was true, but the second was a lie. However, Tsunade was too caught off guard to question it. She had never developed the habit of being on guard against Hiruzen, and in her current state, it worked.
She simply accepted his words as fact.
She had been isolated for years, drowning in grief, shutting herself off from the world. Hiruzen had given her space, respecting her pain, allowing her to heal on her own terms. But it was clear now - Tsunade wasn't moving forward. And Konoha could no longer afford to wait for her to be ready.
Hiruzen needed her to step up. Now.
"Sensei," she began, and the moment the word left her lips, Hiruzen knew he had made her budge.
Switching from "old man" to "sensei" meant her walls were cracking, even if just a little.
"I can't be Hokage," she continued, shaking her head. "I'll do whatever I can to help, but that… it's too much. I'm not ready. I've been on the sidelines for too long." She exhaled, frustration and helplessness lacing her words. "I promised Itarama I'd take over as clan head when I returned. I can't do both. I am not ready for that."
In that moment, she looked utterly lost, and Hiruzen felt his resolve waver.
For a brief second, sympathy and guilt pressed against him - guilt for pushing her, for exploiting her grief, for twisting the truth to manipulate her. But he also knew something else:
'Konoha needs a Hokage.'
Not an old man whose best days were behind him. Not a relic clinging to power out of necessity. Konoha needed new blood - strong, fierce, and willing to do whatever it took to protect the village. And Tsunade… Tsunade could be that Hokage.
"Tsunade," he said, his tone was more firm now. "I gave you years to grieve, to heal, to move forward, but you haven't. Maybe what you need isn't more time… but a reason. A purpose. Maybe you need to fight for something again, to care about something more than your losses." His voice softened just a bit. "And right now, Konoha needs you."
It wasn't the most eloquent plea, but he didn't need eloquence - he needed her. And he knew Tsunade cared. No matter how much she buried herself in gambling and drinking, no matter how much she tried to run, she had never stopped caring.
Her family, her loved ones, they had given their lives for Konoha. And Senju and Konoha were inseparable.
For a long moment, she said nothing, her fingers curling into a fist.
"…Fine," she muttered at last, though her voice lacked conviction. "I'll compromise. I'll convince Jiraiya." She exhaled sharply, rubbing her temples. "If I can get him to take the hat, then that's that. If not…" she sighed, resigned, "then we'll figure something else out."
She knew she had a high chance of persuading Jiraiya. And if she succeeded, she could slip away again, back into seclusion, back into grief, back into the comfort of distance.
For now, that was her escape plan.
And Hiruzen, regardless of what Tsunade thought, knew that he had won.
<<<>>>
The day before Hiruzen's discussion with Tsunade, the final match of the round was about to begin - Kasai Mizuki vs. Saburashi Suzuka.
Mizuki stood in the center of the arena, her opponent directly in front of her. Suzuka, slightly shorter than Mizuki, held a massive war fan, an unmistakable symbol of her wind-release fighting style. Unfortunately for her, the wind was one of the worst possible match-ups against Scorch Release.
"Are you ready?" the judge asked.
Both kunoichi nodded.
The moment the judge flickered away, Mizuki sprang into action.
"Scorch Release: Scorch Ball."
A searing orb of intense heat materialized beside her before launching toward Suzuka. The Suna kunoichi reacted instantly, leaping into the air to avoid the impact. But before she could even process what happened, Mizuki was already beside her, wakizashi in hand, swinging without hesitation.
Unlike Akane, Mizuki wasn't particularly strong in close combat, but thanks to her speed and the oppressive heat of her Scorch Release, she could still hold her own. And against an opponent who clearly specialized in long-range combat, close-quarters fighting was the best strategy.
'Why is she fighting like this?' Suzuka was thrown off. Mizuki had played a distance game in her previous fights - what changed?
Still, Suzuka wasn't out of options. She kicked her fan up, blocking Mizuki's slash, and flickered backward to regain space. Or at least, she tried to. Mizuki refused to let up, pressing the attack relentlessly, waiting for an opening.
And then she got it.
Mizuki's next strike forced Suzuka to block in a way that momentarily obscured her vision. That split-second was all Mizuki needed.
Hand seals. Clone. Flicker away.
By the time Suzuka regained sight of her opponent, Mizuki was about to flicker, but a clone was already charging toward her.
'A trap.'
She immediately remembered Mizuki's clone strategy from her earlier match. And if that wasn't bad enough, Akane had pulled a similar move against Toji. Takimura shinobi clearly had a habit of turning clones into walking bombs.
Suzuka swung her fan. A violent gust of wind, laced with razor-like currents, shredded the clone before it could reach her.
For a split second, she felt relief.
Then she saw them.
Three Scorch Balls closing in, cutting off her escape.
Mizuki's face remained completely devoid of emotions as she analyzed her opponent's movements, her mind constantly working.
'If I could create two or three more, I'd be confident this would finish her off. But three at a time is still my limit.'
Still, she wasn't complaining. The fight was exhilarating, and more than anything - Mizuki was finally seeing the results of her hard work.
It took Suzuka a tremendous amount of effort to dodge the Scorch Balls, she had no way to block them. Even a slight graze would be far worse than getting hit by regular fire techniques.
Unlike standard Fire Release, which burned over time, Scorch Release inflicted instantaneous damage, evaporating water from whatever it touched. The sheer destructiveness of it made Mizuki's attacks incredibly dangerous, and Suzuka knew she couldn't afford even the smallest mistake.
Forced to use more chakra than she wanted, Suzuka relied on bursts of Wind Release to slightly alter the trajectory of Mizuki's attacks - just enough to create an opening for her to evade. But at this rate, she wouldn't last much longer.
'First, she rushes in like a close-quarters fighter, then she takes advantage of a single second of distraction to make a clone and retreat, which I thought was her move, but that was just another bait. And all of it was just to set up her real attack...' Suzuka clenched her teeth. 'She's terrifying.'
The sense of helplessness was setting in, making it harder to push forward.
Mizuki, meanwhile, wasn't standing idle. She flickered forward, closing the distance again, but this time, instead of attacking with her blade, she hurled a Scorch Ball point-blank.
Suzuka, already demoralized and drained, failed to react in time. Her war fan took the full brunt of the attack. The fabric instantly disintegrated, transforming it into a useless metal frame.
Suzuka let go of the destroyed weapon and tried to retreat, but Mizuki was already on her. This time, she attacked with her wakizashi, forcing Suzuka to draw a kunai in defense. But the difference in reach was overwhelming. With every clash, Mizuki's advantage grew.
Suzuka was barely keeping up. Then, her foot slipped.
In a fight this close, losing balance was the end.
She stumbled backward, hitting the ground, and in that instant, she knew - it was over.
She had no room to recover, no time to mount a counterattack.
Suzuka let out a sharp breath, frustration and disappointment evident on her face. "I surrender."
Mizuki blinked down at her opponent for a moment, then extended a hand.
"You fought well. Don't feel down," she said simply.
Suzuka took Mizuki's hand and stood, still feeling the sting of defeat, but Mizuki had already turned away, walking toward the exit.
"The winner is Mizuki Kasai from Takimura Village!" the judge declared, as the crowd erupted into applause.
<<<>>>
Later that day, the matchups for the next round of fights were officially announced:
*Hyūga Yuki vs. Ishigane Akatsuchi
*Takime Kaoru vs. Senju Toji
*Kasai Mizuki vs. Uchiha Itachi
With only six participants remaining, the tension in the tournament had reached its peak. The matchups had everyone talking - Yuki and Akatsuchi's fight promised a clash of precision and endurance, Kaoru was up against the chakra monster Toji, and Mizuki had drawn the worst possible opponent - Itachi Uchiha himself.
A two-day break was granted to allow the participants to recover, heal their injuries, and prepare for the most difficult battles yet. For some, it was a chance to strategize, train, or refine their techniques. For Kaoru, however, this break meant something else entirely - he'd be hearing from Fugaku and Itachi.
**
A/N -
Tsunade saying she'll convince Jiraiya doesn't necessarily mean it's going to happen, but I'm considering it. The sooner I diverge from canon, the sooner I gain more freedom to craft completely new events. That said, I haven't made a final decision yet. We'll see how things unfold.
Character Notes:
Jiraiya - Pervy Sage - "Somewhere out there, Jiraiya is blissfully unaware that people are making life-changing decisions for him while he's probably just researching 'plot' at a bathhouse."
Tsunade - Big Gambler - "I said I'd convince Jiraiya. That doesn't mean I will. That just means I bought myself time to vanish again."
**