"Wait a moment... Are... are you Tsunade?"
Naruto's question hung in the casino's thick air, soaking up all the noise. The murmurs died. The dice stopped rolling. Even the clinking of chips seemed to freeze. All eyes, those of the players, the dealer, the manager Taro and his goons, a horrified Shizune, were fixed on the blonde woman.
SHIT! was the only eloquent thought that crossed Tsunade's mind. DAMN SHIZUNE AND HER BIG MOUTH! ALWAYS THE SAME! YEARS KEEPING A LOW PROFILE, AND THIS IDIOT RUINS EVERYTHING FOR A FEW STUPID DEBT COLLECTORS!
She tried to save the situation. Her brain, trained in deception and evasion, fell back on absolute denial. She burst into a nervous, shrill laugh, so fake that even Tonton seemed to wince.
"Tsunade? HAHAHA!" Her laugh echoed unnaturally in the silence. "What a great joke, kid! Of course I'm not! This girl," she said, grabbing Shizune by the arm with a force that made her squeal, "is always confusing me with that legendary old gambler! I must have a really common face! Let's go, Shizune, we're in a hurry!"
She tried to drag her apprentice toward the exit, praying no one noticed the panic in her eyes.
"But Tsunade-sama!" Shizune whimpered, completely overwhelmed by the situation and not getting the hint. "The Kurosakis said if I didn't pay by dawn, they'd cut off your legs and...!"
"SHUT UP!" Tsunade hissed through her teeth, her smile now a terrifying grimace.
It was too late. Naruto stared at her, his eyes wide as saucers, initial disbelief replaced by absolute certainty. It was her! The Ramen Granny, the woman with the flying finger, was the legendary Sannin they were looking for!
Tsunade saw the understanding on his face. She saw manager Taro smile with malice. She saw the goons begin to block the exits. She was trapped. And all because of some orange brat and an incompetent apprentice. She made a drastic decision. The only one left: chaos.
With a roar of frustration and a speed no one expected, she grabbed the edge of the nearest heavy roulette table. She flipped it with an effort that barely tensed the muscles in her arms.
The table, with its chips, money, and the metal wheel itself, went flying. The impact against the low ceiling was deafening. Chips, bills, dust, and pieces of wood rained down on the crowd. Screams. Confusion. People ducking for cover or scrambling for the falling money. Manager Taro shouted incomprehensible orders.
In the midst of the pandemonium, Tsunade acted with lightning precision. She grabbed the canvas bag where she'd stuffed her winnings. She would never leave that behind! She slung it over her shoulder, grabbed Shizune by the collar of her dress like a sack of potatoes, and dragged her toward a back door only she knew.
"THIS WAY, QUICKLY!" she yelled over the noise, disappearing into the darkness.
Naruto took a second to react. The chaos was total. People running, screaming, chips flying... and Tsunade was escaping!
IT'S HER! IT'S TSUNADE! THE RAMEN GRANNY IS THE LEGENDARY SANNIN WE NEED TO SAVE SASUKE! AND SHE'S GETTING AWAY AGAIN! NO WAY! SHE ALWAYS GETS AWAY! I HAVE TO STOP HER! KAKASHI-SENSEI IS GOING TO SKIN ME ALIVE IF I LOSE HER NOW THAT I'VE FOUND HER!
Without a second thought, he dove after them. He dodged a casino guard who tried to grab him, vaulted over an overturned table, and pushed his way through the crowd fighting for the lost chips.
"WAIT!" he shouted, his voice barely audible over the uproar. "GRANNY TSUNADE! DON'T GO!"
He burst through the back door just in time to see Tsunade, and a Shizune who looked about to vomit, disappear at the end of a dark alley. The chase was on.
The night streets of Tanzaku were a bustling labyrinth. Red lanterns lit up steaming food stalls. Shrill music poured from crowded bars. The smell of alcohol, spices, and the crowd mixed in the air. And through it all, three figures ran as if their lives depended on it.
Tsunade was in the lead, moving with a speed and agility that belied her supposed age and her love for sake. She knew the city like the back of her hand. She turned down alleys that seemed to go nowhere, jumped over abandoned merchant carts, and used the pushes of the nighttime crowd as improvised shields. Her goal was clear: to lose the damn fluorescent orange brat on her tail.
"Faster, Shizune!" she panted, not looking back.
Behind her, Shizune tried to keep up, an almost impossible task while carrying a Tonton who was squealing in pure panic. She stumbled, bumped into people, and apologized frantically as she went.
"Sorry! So sorry! Medical emergency! Excuse me, please! Pardon me!"
And behind them, Naruto followed with unstoppable determination. He didn't have Tsunade's elegance, but he made up for it with pure stubbornness and surprising speed. When he lost sight of Tsunade in the crowd, he just leaped to the rooftops, running over the sloped tiles with surprising agility. When she ducked into an alley that was too narrow, he ran along the walls. He plowed through the crowds, an orange blur pushing everyone aside, shouting at the top of his lungs.
"MOVE ASIDE, PLEASE! SUPER SECRET S-RANK MISSION! HOKAGE EMERGENCY!"
People moved, more out of shock than anything else. He crashed through fruit stands, knocked over clotheslines, but he never, ever lost sight of her for more than a few seconds.
From a rooftop, he saw Tsunade turn sharply into a crowded night market.
"Damn it!" Tsunade shouted back, her voice barely audible over the din. "Leave me alone, you damn tadpole! Go home!"
"Not until you promise to help my friend!" Naruto replied, leaping from one roof to another with astonishing precision. "And stop running, Granny! It's not good for your back!"
"Tsunade-sama, please, slower!" Shizune begged, her face pale and sweaty. "I'm going to be sick! And Tonton is getting dizzy!"
"OINK! OINK! OINK!" the pig confirmed, sounding genuinely distressed.
Tsunade ignored the pleas and plunged into the heart of the market, dodging people and stalls with incredible skill. Shizune tried to follow, her eyes fixed on her master's back. She didn't see the box of rotten fish someone had left in the middle of the aisle.
Her foot slipped on the slimy surface. She lost her balance with a choked cry. Her arms flailed. And Tonton, the poor pig, was launched from her arms in a perfect arc, flying over the heads of the crowd, squealing in pure porcine panic.
Naruto, who was about to jump from a rooftop to cut them off, saw the scene.
A FLYING PIG! he thought, his brain pausing for a second at the absurdity of the image. THAT'S NEW! CAN YOU EAT IT? No, wait, it belongs to the weird lady who's screaming. Seems important to her. Damn it! I have to catch it!
In a reflex, he changed his trajectory in mid-air. He dove, dodging an awning and a few surprised heads, and caught Tonton just before he landed spectacularly in a stall of giant pickles. He landed in a crouch in the middle of the aisle, the pig squealing and squirming under his arm.
Shizune ran toward him, stumbling, her face pale with horror.
"TONTON!" she screamed, snatching the pig from Naruto and hugging him with a force that made the animal let out an even sharper squeal. "Oh, thank goodness! You're okay! You're alive!"
She turned to Naruto, her eyes filled with tears of relief.
"Thank you, kid, thank you so much! I don't know what I would have done if anything had happened to him! Tsunade-sama would have killed me!"
Naruto stood up, a little dazed. "Uh... you're welcome. I guess."
But the brief porcine interlude had been costly. He looked up and saw Tsunade's figure disappearing at the end of the crowded street. She had gained precious seconds.
Damn it! She's getting away! Naruto thought, watching the blonde ponytail disappear. I can't lose her now! Think, Naruto, think! She knows the alleys, but I know the roofs! A shortcut! There has to be a shortcut!
Instead of trying to follow her through the dense market crowd, he leaped again, launching himself toward the nearest roof. He ran at full speed over the tiles, his sandals barely making a sound. He saw the street Tsunade had disappeared down. He saw where she was heading. And he saw a narrow, dark alley just ahead, one that looked like a shortcut.
He calculated the trajectory, Tsunade's speed, his own. It was risky. If he miscalculated, he'd slam into a wall. But he had no other choice.
He jumped.
He flew through the night air, an orange blur against the moon. He landed with a dull thud in the middle of the narrow, dark alley. He got to his feet just in time to hear hurried footsteps approaching.
Tsunade and Shizune ran into the alley... only to stop short. At the far end, about ten yards away, was a high, impassable brick wall. It was a dead end.
And blocking the only entrance, standing with his arms crossed and an expression of absolute stubbornness, was Naruto.
Tsunade stopped, panting slightly from the run. She turned slowly. Her face no longer showed panic. Just a cold fury and monumental exasperation. Shizune hid shyly behind her, clutching Tonton tightly to her chest.
"Damn it, kid," Tsunade said, her voice dangerously low, a restrained hiss. "You're stickier than molasses and louder than an entire summer festival. Don't you understand 'no'? Don't you understand 'leave me alone'?"
She took a step toward him, her aura heavy and threatening.
"GET LOST!"
Naruto didn't back down. Despite the pressure radiating from her, despite the fear twisting in his stomach from the memory of the one-finger flick, he held his ground. The humor was completely gone from his face. He was dirty from the chase, sweaty, out of breath, but his blue eyes shone with unshakable determination.
"No," he said, his voice serious, almost trembling with restrained emotion. "I'm not leaving."
Tsunade let out a dangerous, disbelieving laugh. "And what are you going to do? Force me? You? After what you saw?"
"No," Naruto repeated. He took another step, closing the distance between them. "I'm going to ask for your help."
He looked her directly in the eyes, without flinching.
"You're Tsunade. One of the Sannin. They say you're the best medical ninja in the world.
My friend... my teammate, Sasuke, was attacked. We were in the Land of Waves... it was an ambush. He was hit with several senbon trying to save our friend, Sakura.
He's... he's stuck. He's somewhere between life and death.
Sakura... she did something. She woke up some kind of miraculous medical ability. It's keeping him alive, it's the only thing keeping him alive, but it's not letting him heal completely, either. The doctors here don't know what to do.
They said only you can help him. That only you have the knowledge to fix this."
He took another step, so close now he could almost feel the heat radiating from her.
"Please," he begged, and the word came out raw, stripped of pride. "Granny Tsunade... You have to come with me. You have to come back to Konoha. You have to save him."
******
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