77 Chapter 75: Tsunade

"So that's what happened..."

To think that Orochimaru would be so badly injured after his battle against the third Hokage made his mind think of a few things.

Until that moment, while they were walking up the stairs, Naruto was telling Toru everything that happened in this last month that he was together with Jiraiya in the search for Tsunade "The legendary loser".

He was quite surprised to hear that Kabuto was on Orochimaru's side, considering that the latter helped Naruto's team to pass the second test of the chunin exams. But this was obviously Orochimaru's plan to measure both Sasuke's skills and Toru's abilities.

"It was difficult, but thanks to this super cool jutsu I learned from Ero-sennin, I was able to make it out alive."

"It was called Rasengan, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it's very powerful, although it cost me a lot to learn it."

The Rasengan, a jutsu that concentrates chakra into a sphere capable of causing great damage against the target it is used on. The chakra spins inside this sphere, giving it more destructive power, something very similar to Toru's "Shakuton: Netsu hōkai-zai", but unlike the Rasengan, Toru's jutsu only shapes Shakuton, turning it into a sphere the size of a volleyball. This is different from the Rasengan, whose power lies in the pure chakra that rotates inside the sphere.

It should be noted that this is still an incomplete jutsu, although neither Naruto nor Toru have any way of knowing that.

"I think you should keep your jutsu secret, you shouldn't tell everyone, this may reveal your weaknesses to enemies."

Hearing this from Toru caused Naruto to fall silent. It was true that he was going around bragging about his new jutsu, so his grey-eyed friend was right.

'Now that I remember... I don't know what kind of power Toru's eyes have, but as far as I know, he's never told anyone.'

Every ninja should keep his abilities hidden, only using them when necessary. Toru always kept this in mind, after all, a little personal information being revealed could result in tragedy.

Ninjutsu, taijutsu, dojutsu, ninja techniques must always be hidden, that is what makes a ninja a true ninja.

"Hm, I guess it can't be helped..."

He noticed the thoughtful expression Naruto had, so he closed the subject with these words, something that made the whiskered boy sigh in relief.

"For the time being-"

Stepping through the door that led inside the mansion, Toru was unable to continue speaking, as his face bounced off two strange, soft lumps.

Those lumps, which looked like pillows, were springy enough to make Toru's face give a little bounce on them.

"W...what is this?"

Toru looked closely at these two large "pillows" that were in front of his face. The shape they were somewhat strange, as they were strangely perfect, like two water balloons which were the same size. There was no imperfection whatsoever, it was simply something that could not be explained just by looking at it.

This aroused his curiosity, which led him to reach out to do some research on this strange phenomenon.

Squeezing one of these "pillows" with his fingers, Toru felt strangely different from normal, as if something was forcing him to keep his hand there.

'Hm... what a strange thing...'

He squeezed his hand tightly as he felt the softness this 'pillow' provided. Every time he squeezed his hand, he could feel his fingers sinking into this mysterious softness, moreover, this gave off a slight scent of sake.

'This smell...'

Toru brought his face a little closer.

Besides the smell of sake, there was also a scent much like that of the paper leaves of an old book.

Possibly he was imagining things, but, judging by the expression on Naruto's face, Toru could sense that he was somehow doing something wrong. This didn't matter much to him, though.

However, after a second, he looked up and met the beautiful face of a woman.

She had white skin, bright brown eyes accompanied by long silky blonde hair that reached down to her waist, with shoulder-length bangs framing both sides of her face, as well as having her hair held in two drooping ponytails. This beautiful woman wore a large green jacket that reached her knees, on the back was embroidered the kanji "Kake [Gamble]" inside a red circle.

Underneath the large green jacket, the woman had a gray sleeveless kimono style shirt, which looked tight to her body thanks to the blue sash that matched her pants, of course, this gray shirt had the neckline a little open, making her breasts protrude from that place.

Seeing this didn't seem to matter to Toru though, as he looked down again, continuing his "investigation" which looked more like the scene of a perverted child staring at this woman's breasts while squeezing them with one hand.

"How can they be so big?" he asked himself as he continued to wrap himself in this softness.

"Because they are a gift from heaven. Now, if you keep touching me, rest assured that your face will end up buried in the ground..." He looked at Toru dismissively, waiting for that boy to pull away a little.

Obviously, Toru felt that his life was in danger, so with a long sigh of disappointment, he slowly let go of this woman's chest, to a second later take a step back, staying next to Naruto, who seemed to have seen a ghost, as he had an expression of relief and fear on his face.

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention, so it was an accident."

"Hm... well, if that's how you consider it, I guess I don't have a problem with that."

The woman folded her arms as she looked at Toru.

For a moment, she saw something strange about this black-haired, silver-eyed boy, something that seemed strangely familiar, yet she couldn't quite manage to remember. It was as if this thought was stuck in her mind when she saw this boy's face.

On the other hand, Naruto tried to explain to Toru that he was about to be brutally beaten, although he didn't care much about that.

"Tsunade-sama, I've been looking for you everywhere. We have to go, the elders are waiting."

A young woman's voice was heard.

She had short black hair, her eyes, like her hair, were also black in color. She was wearing a black kimono with white borders and also, strangely enough, she was carrying a small pink piggy in her arms, this piggy was wearing a red dress, she also had a white pearl necklace around her neck.

"Ha~ Alright, I'm coming..."

Tsunade replied tiredly as she walked in some direction next to the short-haired girl.

"Hm... she left..."

Toru looked down the hallway with an expressionless face.

"Wait... Tsunade no Obāchan!"

Naruto shouted as he realized that the woman who would be the next Hokage had disappeared without even realizing she existed. This, at least for Naruto, was a very bad thing, as he couldn't wait that long until he found her again so he could demand that she heal the wounds Sasuke suffered during Itachi's return.

"He also left..."

Somehow, Toru was left all alone in the hallway, but this was short lived, as Naruto appeared again, but this time he looked depressed, he was walking as if his arms were weighing him down.

"Why did they have to take me out like that? I just wanted to talk to Obāchan..."

Toru heard Naruto's mutterings and quickly realized the situation. If the new Hokage is a woman, well it was obvious that the woman whose breasts he had squeezed was that person.

'At least excuse me...'

He shook his head as he watched his friend suffer in silence.

-Minutes later-'

It had been a while since Toru had met the fifth Hokage or as that black-haired girl called her, Tsunade-sama.

Right now he, along with Naruto, was waiting at the entrance of the mansion, waiting for Tsunade to come out.

The seconds passed, one after another.

Toru folded his arms while looking at the clouds in the sky. At the same time, Naruto was pacing back and forth, as if he was having an anxiety attack due to the boredom he felt. Well, he's a kid whose energy surpasses anyone else's, so it was normal for him to feel that way.

'Ha~ I'm wasting my time... I thought this would only last a few minutes, but it's already been over an hour since I met Naruto. Had I known, I would have refused to accompany him. I guess you can't go back in time, decisions can't be changed.'

It felt a bit boring being in this place, looking at the clouds, in complete silence while Naruto suffered the pain of boredom as he paced back and forth.

But, suddenly, the voice of two women approaching the door was heard.

Toru could recognize these voices, even if he had only heard them once, after all, he always had a good memory.

"Those old geezers are always so boring, at least now I can look for a bar where they serve good hot sake."

"Don't do that, Tsunade-sama. We have a lot of things to do while we prepare for the ceremony."

"Ha~ I'm regretting this."

"Tsunade-sama..."

Naruto's gaze changed the instant he realized who had passed through that door. He quickly extended his arm, pointing his index finger at Tsunade.

"Hey, aren't you forgetting something!"

Naruto's sudden shout made Toru raise an eyebrow curiously.

"Forgetting something?"

"Yes! You promised you'd heal Kakashi-sensei's wounds, Sasuke's and the guy with the big eyebrows!"

"Oh, that's right!"

"Don't give me that, hurry up!"

Naruto started yelling at Tsunade as if it was something normal, this made Toru more curious, as apparently these two knew each other very well, at least it could be seen that Tsunade knew Naruto.

"Oh, Naruto and Toru."

Adding some cool mind to this explosive formula, Shikamaru appeared next to a man who was strangely similar to him, no, it was the opposite, Shikamaru looked like that man, after all, that man is his father.

"Eh, Shikamaru?"

"What are you two doing here?"

"I should be asking you the same thing."

Naruto noticed this boy's presence, so he put aside what he was doing to talk to him a bit.

"Well my father, for some reason, dragged me here."

"Hm... that's strange."

"Yeah, I know. And you? Why are you here?" With his hands in his pockets, Shikamaru looked at Toru and asked.

"I was just accompanying Naruto..."

He closed his eyes and answered with a sigh. He couldn't say anything else, as he literally said the reason why he's in that place.

Shikamaru seemed to understand Toru's brief explanation, as he didn't ask anything else again.

"It's been a long time, Tsunade-sama."

Shikamaru's father, Shikaku, bowed his head slightly as he greeted Tsunade.

"Ohh, I remember you. You are the son of the Nara clan. Have you taken good care of the deer? Deer horns are always good for making medicine."

"Yes, we've taken care of that..."

Tsunade had a smile on her face, she seemed to somehow remember that boy with the eccentric personality, who had now become a man with a wife and child.

"Hey, Naruto, who's that girl who thinks she's so important?"

"It's the Fifth Hokage."

"What?"

"And it's not a girl, it's an old woman in her fifties..."

Naruto muttered at Shikamaru's hatred, which got a reaction he might expect from anyone.

'So she's... an old woman then?'

Toru listened to what Naruto had said. This left him a little surprised and with some questions in his head.

"Well, we'll talk later."

Raising her hand as she walked down the stairs, Tsunade gave a small sigh as she thought about what will happen next.

"Well, we're off to the hospital. See you, Shikamaru. Toru, don't stay behind."

As quickly as Tsunade started down the stairs, Naruto jumped up and quickly arrived at her side.

"See ya" Toru said before disappearing into thin air.

This made Shikamaru feel more tired than usual, however, all this wasn't over as his father approached him.

***

"Naruto, who is that boy over there?"

"Oh, he's a friend..."

Shizune, that's what the short-haired girl's name was, looked at Naruto as she asked a question in a low voice.

The whiskered boy answered right away with a smile, something that made this girl feel curious about him, since, ever since they met at the entrance of the Hokage Mansion, the silver-eyed boy didn't say a single word.

Until now, Toru had only walked behind everyone with an emotionless face.

On the other hand, Tsunade watched Toru slyly as she tried to remember where she had seen that boy's face, however, she could not recall it.

"Ha~ we're here."

Clearing the bad thoughts from her mind, Tsunade looked at the large building that everyone knew as the Konoha Hospital. She took a big breath of air, making her chest seem to be squeezed between her shirt, and then entered the place.

***

The hallways were long, with white walls at every place. There were dozens of doors leading to the rooms of the wounded and sick.

Tsunade felt a little uncomfortable being in this place, but soon regained her composure and continued walking with her head held high.

Toru saw this with a small glint in his right eye.

This was her mind at work, analyzing the person in front of her.

'This is the Fifth Hokage...'

With his hands in his pockets, Toru followed Naruto's footsteps in complete silence, until at last they reached the room of the first person to be healed by Tsunade's miraculous powers.

'Uchiha Sasuke...'

Looking at the stamp pasted on the door with the name of his childhood friend, Toru closed his eyes and entered the room next to Naruto and Tsunade.

_______

Author's note: Ha~ it's been a long time since I started this fanfic, I still can't believe that volume 1 is about to end. There are a lot of things I have planned for the future, but well, tell me what do you think about the development of this story, did it go well, did I manage to fix the mess I made at the beginning of the story?