The backyard of the Senju Fortress no longer looked like a garden but a disaster zone where the earth had been violently overturned and the grass torn up by the roots, making it clear that a battle of wills was taking place there.
"Stay still, damn it, and stop acting like you own the place!"
Tsunade had both hands gripping the bandaged handle of Samehada and her feet planted in the loose dirt while the giant sword writhed between her fingers, fighting like a wild animal refusing to be captured.
"Stop behaving like a spoiled brat and accept my chakra once and for all!"
She yelled with the veins in her forehead bulging from the effort, but the sword emitted a high-pitched shriek and bristled its blue scales violently, tearing the bandages covering it to expose its rough skin. Samehada didn't want the medical chakra because it was repulsed by the purity and meticulous control Tsunade was trying to impose on it, so it shook again seeking the violence and uncontrolled blood it craved so much.
"Trouble with the new pet, Granny? The racket can be heard all the way to the village entrance."
Tsunade turned her head sharply toward the source of the voice with clenched teeth.
Naruto was sitting on the wooden porch railing, swinging his legs with total unconcern and biting into a red apple with an insolent crunch that echoed through the entire yard.
"Shut your mouth, Naruto, and don't just stand there staring, since I'm busy taming this thing before it decides to eat one of the gardeners."
She replied with a harsh voice, not letting go of the weapon.
"Looks like the thing is walking you and not the other way around."
He said with his mouth full, chewing noisily and pointing with the apple at the sword that was still vibrating.
"Are you sure you know how to use it? Because I remember Kisame made it look light and handled it like it was a toy."
"Kisame was a brute with fish gills and a mosquito brain."
Tsunade growled, pulling the sword down with a sharp blow that shook the ground beneath her boots and raised a cloud of dust.
"I am the Hokage, so if I say it stays still, it stays still because I order it and that's final."
Samehada vibrated harder in protest and curved upward at an unnatural angle, trying to bite Tsunade's hand with its sharp scales that rose like blades.
"Ouch! Damn it, that hurts!"
Tsunade let go of one hand out of pure reflex to give it a resounding blow on the flat of the blade with her closed fist.
"Don't bite me or I'm going to break you into a thousand pieces, you stupid sword!"
Naruto let out a loud and genuine laugh, jumping off the railing with agility and landing on the destroyed grass with a soft thud.
"It hates you with a passion."
He said, approaching with his hands in his pockets and a mocking smile on his face.
"Maybe you're too refined and clean for it, since that sword looks like it likes people who smell like swamp and dried blood instead of lavender soap."
"I smell perfectly fine and I don't intend to apologize for having hygiene, you insolent brat."
Tsunade replied, glaring at him while grabbing the handle with both hands again to prevent the weapon from escaping.
"The problem is that it's fickle and temperamental, so it doesn't like my chakra."
"The sword talks? That sure is new."
Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow with curiosity while taking another bite of his apple.
"It communicates in its own way and complains all the time inside my head."
Tsunade wiped the sweat from her forehead with her forearm without letting go of the weapon.
"It's a constant headache and it's worse than you when you're hungry and there's no ramen, so imagine my patience level right now."
Naruto stopped a few meters away, chewing the last piece of fruit and tossing the apple core into the nearby bushes.
"Let me see if the problem is you or the weapon."
He said, extending his right hand with an open palm.
"Maybe it just needs a different touch and someone with spicier chakra."
"Don't you even think about getting your hand close, brat, because it will rip it off in one bite and I'm not in the mood to reattach fingers today."
Tsunade warned, tensing her arm muscles.
"I have two hands now, so I can risk one."
Naruto joked, ignoring the warning and taking another step into the sword's range of action.
At the exact moment Naruto got close and his shadow fell over the weapon, Samehada stopped dead and ceased writhing, staying completely motionless while the monstrous mouth at the tip of the blade opened slowly to sniff the air greedily.
"See? I told you it likes me."
Naruto said, smiling smugly and crossing his arms.
"I have a natural charm even with demonic weapons."
Then the sword broke free from Tsunade's grip with a violent jerk and launched itself forward like a projectile, opening its mouth full of rows of shark teeth wide to seek out Naruto directly.
"Woah!"
Naruto's eyes went wide and he jumped back, boosting himself with chakra and dodging the bite by mere inches while the snapping of teeth resonated in the air.
"Hey! Chill out, I'm not food!"
"I told you to get away, idiot!"
Tsunade yelled, running after the sword and grabbing it by the handle just before it could lunge at the boy again.
"That thing wants to eat me alive!"
Naruto yelled, running in circles around a thick tree while the sword dragged Tsunade along the ground.
"It wants your chakra, knucklehead!"
Tsunade struggled with the weapon, digging her boots into the earth and using it like a giant hammer to try and slow the momentum, though it looked like she was water skiing on the grass.
"Stand still for a second so I can control and subdue it!"
"If I stand still it's going to gut me and I don't plan on finding out!"
Naruto ducked under a thick branch while Samehada went whistling over his head, slicing the tree trunk in half as if it were butter and causing the treetop to fall with a crash.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you, Granny? The sword shouldn't be able to drag you but I see that smile on your face!"
Tsunade smiled, and it was a wild and youthful smile.
"Maybe a little, because you look funny when you run scared."
She admitted, pivoting on her heels and using the sword's inertia to launch a devastating horizontal sweep.
"Take it as high-level evasion training, so dodge or become fish food, it's your choice."
"That's not training, it's attempted murder and abuse of authority!"
Naruto jumped high, boosting himself with chakra in his feet to gain altitude and landing on the porch roof.
"Alright, crazy old lady! You want to play rough? Let's play rough!"
Naruto formed a cross seal with his fingers in the air.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Ten identical copies of Naruto appeared in an explosion of white smoke, jumping from the roof and surrounding Tsunade and the runaway sword in a perfect circle.
"Let's see if you can eat us all before we beat you up!"
The ten shouted in unison, adopting combat stances.
Samehada seemed to vibrate with pure excitement at the chakra banquet presented to it and Tsunade let out a loud laugh.
"Come here and try your luck!"
The scene turned into absolute chaos of movement and noise where Tsunade moved with impressive agility that contradicted the absurd size of the weapon she carried, spinning on her axis and throwing strikes that broke the sound barrier. Each blow from Samehada tore through the air and ground, and Naruto's clones went flying everywhere turning into clouds of white smoke upon the slightest contact with the chakra-devouring scales.
"Slow, too slow!"
The original Naruto yelled, appearing behind her in an orange flash and throwing a kick aimed at her lower back.
Tsunade didn't even turn to look, letting go of one hand from the sword handle and throwing an elbow backward with terrifying speed.
"Predictable!"
She yelled.
Naruto blocked the blow with his forearms crossed in an X shape, but the brute force of the impact was such that it sent him skidding across the destroyed grass ten meters back, leaving two deep furrows in the earth.
"Ouch! That hurt down to the bone!"
Naruto complained, shaking his numb arms and grimacing in pain.
"You have hands of stone, Granny! Are you sure you're not a golem in disguise?"
"And you have a head as hard as a rock."
She answered, spinning the sword with a fluid motion and resting it on her shoulder with arrogance. Samehada seemed to have tired momentarily from the clone feast, or maybe it was dizzy from so much sharp turning.
"You don't do badly for a noisy runt and I have to admit your reflexes have improved quite a bit since the last time I tried to hit you."
"I've been practicing a lot."
Naruto said, straightening up and wiping a green grass stain from his cheek.
"And you're not that rusty for an old lady who spends all day sitting around signing papers."
Tsunade narrowed her eyes dangerously and squeezed the sword handle.
"Repeat that if you dare."
"I said that for a venerable and respectable senior citizen..."
"Five seconds."
Tsunade interrupted with a calm but lethal voice.
"What?"
Naruto blinked in confusion.
"You have a five-second head start to run before I decide to test how resistant your skull is against the shark scales of this sword."
Naruto didn't wait a single instant, turning around and shooting off toward the other side of the garden running at full speed.
"One!"
Tsunade yelled, and launched herself after him with an explosion of speed that kicked up clods of earth.
They ran all over the compound like two hurricanes, jumped over the decorative rocks of the Zen garden, destroyed a perfectly trimmed hedge that had taken years to grow, and scared the birds nesting in the nearby trees. It wasn't a real fight to the death, but it was a brutal and physical game between two chakra monsters who needed to burn off accumulated energy.
"Watch out for the pond!"
Naruto yelled, jumping over the water.
"I don't give a damn about the pond!"
Tsunade responded stepping on one of the decorative stones which sank under her weight, sending a jet of water into the air.
Finally, exhausted and covered in dirt, they let themselves fall onto the grass near the edge of the pond while gasping noisily. Samehada lay a few meters away, motionless and apparently satisfied with the exercise and the chakra it had stolen from the clones.
Naruto looked up at the blue sky with his chest rising and falling rhythmically while he tried to catch his breath.
"I give up, so you win."
He said between gasps of air, raising a hand in a sign of peace.
"You win by demolition, even though that sword is cheating."
Tsunade sat up, resting her elbows on her knees and letting her head hang for a moment with her face flushed from physical effort. Her honey-colored eyes shone with an intense light that had been absent for too long in the Hokage's office.
"It's not cheating, it's strategic use of available resources."
She said, running a trembling hand through her messy blonde hair and picking out a dry leaf.
"But I admit it's a bit heavy, so I need to get used to its balance if I want to use it in a real battle."
A comfortable and pleasant silence fell between the two while the sound of the pond water splashing gently and the heavy breathing of both filled the space, creating a bubble of tranquility after the storm.
"Hey, Granny."
Naruto said after a moment, turning his head on the grass to look at her.
"What do you want now?"
She asked without looking at him, recovering her heart rate.
"You look good."
Tsunade turned to look at him, ready to unleash an insult or a biting retort, but stopped dead when she saw the absolute sincerity in the boy's blue eyes.
"Oh yeah? What do you mean?"
She said, softening her tone and lowering her guard.
"Yeah, you don't seem so tired or sad anymore."
Naruto sat up, crossing his legs and plucking a piece of grass to play with between his fingers.
"When we found you in Tanzaku you looked like everything was weighing you down, but now you shine and it's not just because of the Falna or the chakra."
Tsunade looked at her own hands, palms open in front of her; they were the hands that had healed thousands and killed just as many, the hands that now held the precarious future of the village and signed death sentences and peace treaties.
"You might be right."
She admitted quietly, closing her fists slowly.
"It's been a long time since I really had fun or felt like it was worth getting up in the morning just to see what would happen."
She looked up and stared at Naruto.
"You're to blame for that, you know, because you arrived and turned my life upside down."
Naruto smiled, and it was that wide, warm smile that took up his whole face and made his eyes close.
"You're welcome, it's part of my service as the number one ninja and future Hokage."
"Don't get used to the compliments."
She grunted, giving him a hard shove on the shoulder that almost knocked him onto his back on the grass again.
"You're still a constant headache and a noisy brat, so tomorrow you have a double shift of paperwork at the office for destroying the backyard of my house."
"But it was you with the giant sword!"
Naruto protested indignantly, pointing at the fallen trees and craters in the earth.
"I was just running to save my life!"
"I am the Hokage, so technically I don't destroy anything, I 'redevelop' and 'redesign' the landscape according to my artistic vision, but you are a vandal who destroys public property."
She replied with crushing logic.
Naruto laughed at the absurdity of the argument and Tsunade joined him a few seconds later, both letting out a clear, loud laugh that cleared the air of any remaining tension.
"Lady Tsunade."
Shizune's calm but stern voice cut through the laughter as she stood on the wooden porch, holding a tray with steaming tea and with the piglet Tonton under her arm, looking at the panorama of the devastated garden with an expression of resigned horror suggesting she had seen this before but it still hurt her.
"Yes, Shizune? What is it?"
Tsunade asked, trying to look innocent and hiding her hands behind her back.
"We have a meeting with the clan council in exactly one hour and you cannot be late again."
Shizune said, walking down the stairs carefully so as not to step on the debris.
"And I think the gardener is going to submit his immediate resignation and possibly a labor lawsuit when he sees what you've done to the imported camellia hedges."
Tsunade grimaced at the memory of the meeting.
"Tell the gardener I'll raise his salary by twenty percent and he can plant whatever he wants."
She said, jumping to her feet and brushing the grass and dirt off her pants.
"And prepare my formal wear."
She turned to Naruto, who was still sitting on the ground, and held out her hand to help him up.
"Let's go, brat, recess is over and reality is calling, since we have a village to run and old councilors to yell at."
Naruto looked at Tsunade's outstretched hand and took it without hesitation, letting her pull him up.
"Let's go, boss, but if the council gets annoying I'll let you use Samehada in the meeting."
"Don't tempt me, Naruto, don't tempt me."
She said walking toward the house while the giant sword, now docile, rested on her right shoulder.
"Now move it or I'll be late and it will be your fault."
Shizune sighed while watching them enter and taking a small notebook out of her pocket.
"Hedges destroyed, three fallen trees, irrigation system damaged..."
Shizune muttered noting down the damages.
"Tonton, I think we're going to have to cut the sake budget this month to pay for this."
Tonton oinked in agreement, looking disapprovingly at the hole where a beautiful rose bush used to be.
Inside the house, Tsunade's voice echoed down the hallway.
"Naruto! Stop eating from my fridge and go take a bath because you smell like wet dog!"
"It's your sword that smells like fish, not me!"
Shizune closed the notebook and smiled slightly, thinking that although the garden was a disaster and the bill would be huge, at least the house felt alive.