route_1065 | Only One Thing to Do

Entry tags:

tsunade | naruto

Only One Thing to Do

Who: Tsunade and Jiraiya; CLOSED
Where: Ekruteak City
When: 11/27, about dusk
Summary: Two ninja, weird place shifting, the obvious answer is alcohol, right?
Rating: Uhh. PG-13
Log:
Things of this nature weren't terribly uncommon when you come from a place where horrible things and ridiculous improbable things happen on an almost frequent basis. Thus the place shifting hadn't, inititally, bothered Tsunade. It made travel quicker, that was always something, right?

Though until her bearings were straight it was probably in her best interest to have remained where she was, keeping note of her Chansey and Caterpie's locations and making sure they didn't wander off in the middle of the day on her or something as equally ridiculous. Not that it particularly had mattered once her and Jiraiya had begun to start into the stash of sake that they still had after Jiraiya's birthday, there had been no way in hell for them to drink all of it in the first place.

Thus, a good several hours they were still on the stash, though it'd probably be gone once this day/night was actually over. For now, however, Tsunade was more content to just kind of relax in the town, even if it would lead to a rather nasty hangover in the morning.

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Jiraiya didn't care about the hangovers; the one after his birthday had been worth it and he was sure this one would be too. He'd had so many regrets as he'd sunk to the bottom and now that he was here, well, he was going to live and do as much as he could. He had so many regrets and he was drinking with one of them right now.

Tsunade was so beautiful, even when she wasn't hiding behind that false age--not that she did anything but punch him in the face for suggesting that, of course, but that was just one more of her charms. He'd admired her ever since they were children, but he was pretty sure he'd never actually communicated it well enough. Well, he would! He just had to get his wits together. And drink more. He looked at her downing her cup. Yeah, he definitely needed a few more drinks first.

He was completely unaware, of course, that he was staring with a faintly kicked puppy expression.

It wasn't only him that had regrets, there were a few about in her own mind, though that was one of the reasons she'd turned to drinking lately. They'd slowly been creeping back up on her, threatening to turn her mind away from the peaceful-like nature that this place tended to offer. She had no obligations here other than to keep her team in shape and to keep them from being harmed or anything else. Caring for two instead of a whole village's worth was a lot easier than anything else and offered less chance for something bad to happen. Deaths happened, that was a natural part of the shinobi lifestyle, but there were so many things that could've been avoided but ended up not being avoided.

A small frown crossed her lips for just a moment, attention shifting from the bottle to her companion. That expression, on the other hand, got a soft snort from her. She certainly wasn't unaware of his intentions towards her or anything, but there was just that whole... wall of communication thing that never really ever went away. Not that she'd ever really admit to that fact, instead covering it up in whatever way was necessary.

"Why're you looking at me like that?"

"I can't help but be captivated by your beauty!" He grinned at her, more of a leer really, and refilled her cup. That wasn't entirely true, though her looks were a part of it. He was captivated by her fire, her strength of will, her compassion for others, her intelligence--he could go on all night. He could compose songs to her good qualities!

...He wasn't drunk enough for that yet, which was probably a good thing, because his poetry wasn't nearly as good as his prose. He raised his cup in a toast instead, crowing, "To Princess Tsunade, the ravishingly beautiful Godaime Hokage!"

An age-old answer, really. In regards she merely rolled her eyes, though the frown turned into a tiny bit of a grin. Despite the fact she found his comments a little less than amusing, it was still nice to at least hear them, even if she figured they were a bit more stock-worthy than anything else. But it was the familiarity part of it that made it quite a bit worth it.

"Idiot, there's no reason to be toasting me like that," Her voice wasn't terribly forceful on the subject, half-heartedly raising her cup in return.

"If we're going to do that, why don't we remember that this place actually thinks you're useful alive, hm?" Not that she didn't agree with that decision, but that was going to remain unspoken for now.

"There's every reason to be toasting you," he returned, with a casual air. His responses may have seemed like stock ones, but they had never not been true. Well, not since he'd finally decided that annoying her wouldn't work as well as compliment her. He'd only been half wrong, even.

Her next comment sobered him, relatively speaking. It felt strange to have gone to his death with acceptance and suddenly be alive again here. Here with her. Maybe it was some divine sign that he should do what he'd never had the courage to try before? "Maybe this place just knew you were missing me."

"There's not a single reason," she quickly replied, frowning a good bit more at him. She knew his responses weren't false, that much she'd learned a good many years back. But it was still kind of weird to hear compliments she couldn't really deny with any kind of authenticity behind it. ... As far as annoying and complimenting, both ended to violence, but complimenting at least got her anger to dull down quicker.

It was worth a try, wasn't it? A second chance, the divines certainly seemed to be pointing towards that. Tsunade shifted a little bit at the comment, looking back down at her cup for just a minute or two.

"Maybe so. It was weird thinking that out of the three of us, I was the only one left."

He stared at his empty cup, watching the last drop slide around the bowl, for a few minutes before speaking. "I didn't want to leave you behind. It was the last thing I wanted. I just-- I failed. Again."

That was a depressing subject he never wanted to bring up with her, ever. He took a deep breath before refilling their cups and trying to laugh it off. He was still sober enough to realize it sounded flat.

In return she remained just as quiet, ignoring the eventually refilled cup there. It was a sore subject, yes, but to hear him speak like that was a bit of a sore spot to begin with. "No, you didn't. He's gone for good, Konoha's rebuilding, but he's gone. I'd say it was a success."

Even if there had been deaths throughout it all, it was still something of a success. At least it left one less dangerous threat to the village and the people and that was what mattered in the long run, for the most part.

"But, ah, enough about that, hm?"

"At least I got the message out. I wish I could have done more." Jiraiya held back a sigh. She was right; he shouldn't feel guilty about it.

"Let's talk about more important things!" He grinned at her suggestively; that was always a sure way to get the subject changed.

"You did more than enough, more than we could've asked for." In the end it all ended up in the best shape, that was what mattered, didn't it?

... The grin, however, returned a frown in his direction. "Like what? Even drinking I'm not above hitting you, you know~"

"Well, we haven't gotten to explore the new town yet! We should do that, no? I bet the sights are even better under the sunset." It wasn't the best suggestion, but it was the safer one. Jiraiya didn't want to get punched yet; the night was still young!

"I suppose it'd be a good idea to do that, not that this town really looks that large." With that she shifted around to awkwardly stand up, getting up was the problem, walking wasn't that big of a deal.

Taking a moment or two she stretched, getting out a few knots in her back that threatened to be rather obnoxious. "Let's get going then."

Jiraiya grinned, and picked up more than enough sake to keep them supplied while on their tour. "I'm ready when you are. Which way should we explore first? Those towers looked interesting!"

Even as drunk as he already was, he was steady on his feet. It would take a lot to start effecting his balance.

"I'm sure the towers'll be a great first stop," she replied, grinning a bit at him as she took careful note of just how much he had picked up of the sake. Good, a nice supply, that would keep them amused for a good chunk of time while on this ridiculous little tour.

"We should do the burned one first while there's still some light, no?" Jiraiya hands her one of the jugs, having abandoned his cup in favor of just drinking out of the bottle. It meant he was drinking more than otherwise, but what was the night for, if not for sake and good company?

"Probably. Less likely to have any kind of light source at night." Gladly she took the jug, pausing a moment to take a rather large drink from it. Worked better that way, of course. "Maybe figure out some lore or see if this teleporting junk has something to do with it."

"Let's hope we don't disturb any mystical guardians or anything, no?" Was his response to that, as he set off toward the tower with a familiar swagger.

"I highly doubt we'll be that unlucky to do so." Well, actually, now that she mentioned it something stupid would probably happen. In return she just sort of rolled her eyes, heading on after him without another word for now.

Jiraiya was thinking the same thing, "We've probably jinxed ourselves! But, what a dump."

He frowned at the burned out husk that used to be a tower. There was enough of the structure left to tell that it used to be a tower, but he doubted there was more than the ground floor left of it. "I wonder why they haven't rebuilt it..."

"Probably because it's not cost effective or something like that." She replied, moving away from him a bit to investigate what she could. Holes she was luckily sober enough to avoid, at least.

"Or they just don't have the time to demolish it, I guess. Or there's some ridiculous story that goes with this place." Probably the latter, if she had to take a guess about it. Though it wasn't much to look at, story or not.

He was truthfully hoping for something more exciting than some old ruins with holes in the floor. "There's not much here at all. If there is a story to the place, we'd have to ask the locals."

He took another deep drink, finishing that jug, and turned around for the door. "Let's go see the other one! That one's still standing at least."

Of course, that's their luck, to end up somewhere boring. "I don't feel like talking to the locals, so I think I'll pass on figuring the story out." Maybe later when she has nothing else to do, but for now it was just a destroyed disgusting building that was falling apart.

Pausing for a moment she grinned, heading after him to nudge his side with her shoulder once she caught back up to him. "By all means, it should have something interesting if it's still up and running."

He laughed as they walked, taking a swig of one of the other jugs. Hmm, they were getting low already. The other tower wasn't far, but there was what looked like guards stationed near the entrance. Guards in familiar robes. "Huh, will you look at that! There obviously are hiding something."

He stopped there though. Obviously they needed to break in, and that required a plan.

Obviously was certainly the word as she was thinking the exact same thing. It was no fun if they were kept out of it, so clearly the answer was to get in there.

"Obviously. You have any ideas, Jiraiya?~ I'm sure we could get in there easily by using shinobi tactics, but that's no fun." Really, if they didn't know it was happening, then it wasn't fun when they got caught, of course!

"Well," he drawled, only slurring a little, "the extra set of clothes I was given is exactly the same as what they're wearing."

He paused a minute to take another deep drag of his jug. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Oh-hoh~ Of course he'd get something useful like that. She couldn't help the grin, crossing her arms a little and sloshing what little was left in the bottle while she was doing so.

"A little infiltration in disguise?"

Jiraiya laughed, maybe a little loudly, and then he ducked further into the cover of the bushes. "Of course! One of their noble brothers needs to lead the devout young lady right to the top. Surely they'll understand these important spiritual matters!"

Without any further delay he ducked behind the bush to change clothes and switch over important items--like his Pokéballs.

Proooobably not, but whatever floated his strange little boat and whatever worked, really. Her grin didn't fade as she made sure to shift her stuff a little to not look like an obvious trainer, at least. As well as fixing her clothing to not look overtly ridiculous.

"Then let's hope this works, it shouldn't be that difficult. The natives in this place don't strike me as the most intelligent sort."

Jiraiya came out of the bush a second later, looking very much like one of the sages, except for his mane of white hair, but he wasn't going to go that far, even drunk. He even bent over to walk like an old man for effect and patted Tsunade's arm. All to get into character, really. "Come along, child."

With a casual kick he made sure the rest of his belongings were well hidden under the bush before stepping out onto the path to the guards.

It took a whole lot of her will to keep from just busting out laughing, this was solidifying her comment a while back about him needing a walker. It was nice, really, to think that she could get him to do stupid things like that just because it seemed like a good idea at the time. But it was far more amusing than the alternative, of course.

Though she didn't say anything else, just kind of following at his side there and just holding back any expression other than just a bit of a dorky smile of sorts. Priests were rather dumb, she thought, so this shouldn't be too hard to make them think she was just some kind of weird devoted person.

And out they went towards the poor sages guarding the tower. Jiraiya was trying his hardest not to smirk; this would be easy as ...something that was easy! It slipped his mind at the moment.

The sages, meanwhile, were giving them both slightly weirded out looks. They didn't know this old sage with white hair or the woman. Jiraiya just fixed them with what he thought was a gentle smile. "Good evening, brothers! This devout young lady wishes to climb the sacred tower."

It was a fail proof plan, really! Or so she thought, the looks they were giving them was kind of telling her otherwise. She couldn't help a small giggle at the fact, it took a lot to really weird anyone out as far as she knew, but, well.

"If that isn't a problem," she added, trying to keep her voice at a level and soft tone.

Yeah, no, the sages weren't fooled at all. They gave each other some worried looks and then the head of their little group stepped forward. "I'm sorry, brother, but we can't make exceptions for anyone who doesn't have the badge of Ecruteak's Gym."

"But--" Jiraiya frowned. This wasn't working; maybe it was time for the backup plan. He glanced over at Tsunade, who was double for a second.

Dammit. Well, plan B was always a better idea in the first place. A small bit of a nod was made in his direction, just smiling away despite herself. Without another word she kind of reached out to one of the sages, quickly pulling on the ridiculous robe thing to undo it. In the process letting go of Jiraiya's arm and bolting the fuck away.

Sorry, Jiji, you're on your own with angry sages.

"Dammit, Tsunade! The tower's that way!" Jiraiya, of course, was assuming that plan B was make a bolt for the tower not--

Uh-oh. Angry sages indeed! They were closing in so Jiraiya did the first thing that came to mind. He snatched the beads from one of them and lobbed them to the top of the nearest tree and then grabbed the tie holding another's robe closed. With a yank it came loose and Jiraiya had even angrier sages to deal with.

... Maybe Tsunade had the right idea after all. "Tsunade, get back here!"

Edited 2010-11-29 02:35 (UTC)

That was exactly the reason she was running! She knew doing that would piss them off and she knew better than to stick around and let them catch her, that was just stupid.

Laughing while she was running, catching Jiraiya's words behind her as she did. "Make me! You can deal with them yourself!" She called behind her, deciding that running and not stopping until getting to a safe spot was the best bet. Sometimes you just had to depend on your partner to be able to handle themselves.

Oh no she didn't! Jiraiya wasn't about to let her get away. Of course, he was a fit ninja and the sages were just sages, so even drunk--he didn't stumble much at all, really--he could outrun them and catch up with Tsunade.

"Get back here! What happened to teamwork!"

Unfortunately, the sages weren't giving up yet. It would be a merry chase through Ecruteak before they were safe.

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Only One Thing to Do

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