Chapter 72 Ghost of past

It had been a very long time since Tsunade had to push herself, a long time since she had last been in a fight where she couldn't just blow through the opposition. She had forgotten what it was like, the danger, the excitement, the fear of facing something that was on par with you. Given her age she was pleased to see that her body still could match up in a fight like the one that had started not long ago.

Sure she felt certain aches and pains she didn't when she had been younger and in her prime. Her body was only slightly slower but only so that most likely was the only one that could tell. She was still quick enough to dodge attacks, to see them coming and to give back with enough force of her fists to show Orochimaru that she hadn't lost her touch.

But Orochimaru didn't show any signs of having slowed down over the years, a bit annoying for her but workable. The young man however was a different manner, her old teammate did most of the attacks but then he would come in whenever he saw any kind of weakness.

Just like at this moment the young man came at her from behind, she twisted her upper body as she tried to backhand the boy's head off. Kabuto however was ready as he ducked and ran by her, one of his hands started to glow blue with chakra as he touched her leg and arm as he passed by her with a grin on his face. Tsunade didn't notice anything wrong at first, until she tried to move her left leg but her right leg moved instead. She tripped confused what happened, her medical mind going through possible things like a concussion but dismissed it as she hadn't received any head injury.

Orochimaru kicked her in the chest sending her flying and landing on her back. She tried to get up but it was like her body wasn't acting like it normally would. She only managed to get into s sitting position as she tried to work it out. Her mind quickly came to the conclusion that her nervous system had been switched up. She could feel all her limbs but thinking about moving her left arm seemed to make her right one move. Her neural impulses from her brain to her muscles had been switched around and the only way to do that was through medical ninjutsu.

Looking at the white haired teen she understood a lot more about him, that kind of advanced move wasn't something a novice could do. For someone that young to be able to use this kind of technique in a battle condition wasn't easy.

"Looks like she figured it out," Kabuto pushed up his glasses slightly as she caught Tsunade glaring right at him. From how she was studying him he had guessed that she now knew what he had done, it was to be expected of the great Tsunade whose medical ninjutsu was unrivaled. Even his skills he knew paled in comparison but he wasn't some first year student either. He had spent years learning from his 'father' who had been a medical ninja.

Well to be honest he never considered that man his 'father', his real parents had died that day at the battle of Kikyo Pass when Konoha had killed a group a enemy ninja. His parents had been a part of that, many thought he had been too young to remember but he still remembered that day. He remembered being under the dead body of his real father and the hatred for the Leaf village.

How appropriate that they were going to destroy one of the great ninjas of Konoha but also one of the greatest medical minds in the world as well.

Kabuto also wanted to show his master that his faith in him was not misplaced. He ran forward to attack while she was weakened. It came as a great surprise to him when she suddenly in the last moment used her right hand and managed to land a hit on him. The power of her fist was like nothing else as he was quite literally blown away from her. He landed onto the soft earth with a loud thud as he slowly tried to get up. His whole body hurt from that blow, every nerve was screaming out as he tried to calm his mind and allow his body to heal from the damage.

Using his medical knowledge he pours his chakra into his nervous system to help fix the problem but it would still take time to fully heal.

"How were you able to still move?" He forced out as he got up on shaky legs.

Tsunade stood without a problem grinning. "I'll admit that was a good idea on anyone else that would have worked. But who do you think came up with that technique? I know how it works and how to use my chakra to send my neural impulses back to the way they are. I know every inch of how my body works and how the human body works in general. Techniques like that might catch me by surprise for a moment but not for long."

"Now let me show you another technique that I'm more famous for." She raised her leg high up nearly straight up as she brought it down into the ground as the force of the impact split the ground forcing the two men across from her to jump out of the way.

Orochimaru laughed with a large grin on his face. "Good there's that old fire of yours."

"I'll show you more than just my fire," she told him.

Orochimaru was about to reply when he heard something coming from his sharp ears. He could sense a presence coming and he wasn't even attempting to hide. He noticed that Kabuto and Tsunade suddenly noticed something as well. It wasn't long until a large toad leapt among them slamming down into the ground with a huge amount of force.

"Thanks for the ride," Jiraiya told the large yellow toad as he and everyone got off. He dispelled the frog as soon as everyone was safe. This wasn't a combat type anyway he had called this toad as it was for fast travel given he was one of the greatest jumpers among the toad summons.

"What are you lot doing here?" Tsunade asked them slightly annoyed that Jiraiya would bring genin of all things into this. Didn't he understand how dangerous this fight could get?

"Well I heard there was an old team reunion and I guess my invite got lost," Jiraiya countered back. "Plus I couldn't leave the kids unsupervised."

"I was doing fine on my own," Tsunade told him.

"Well I have to admit I wasn't expecting you old friend," Orochimaru chuckled not at all put off by his arrival. "And you brought your own students, seems fitting as I brought one of my own."

"Hello again Naruto-kun," Kabuto grinned at the genin team.

"You jerk, my dad told me that you were nothing more than a traitor!" Naruto shouted out at him as his friends glared at the glasses wearing teen. They had actually liked him at first when they had met him but learning the truth of his alliances all three of them were giving looks that could kill.

"Traitor?" Kabuto acting hurt by that. "I'm no traitor, you have to be loyal first to be a traitor and I was never loyal to the village that destroyed my family."

"Yes it was so nice to meet someone whose hatred for the village matched my own," Orochimaru added in.

"Face it 'old friend' you've lost," Jiraiya said to Orochimaru. "We got you outnumbered."

Orochimaru chuckled, "I suppose you are correct about that one at least for the moment. You see I had a surprise in store just in case things went so wrong that I needed help or if she actually did choose to come with me. Well maybe I'll show you something special I had planned now." He bit his thumbs to draw blood and quickly went through a series of hand seals.

Jiraiya was able to follow them to know that they were some kind of summoning but something seemed off about it. He knew that Orochimaru could summon snakes but this wasn't that kind of summons, it seemed slightly different. As his hands hit the ground the black inked seals appeared on the ground as suddenly two large wooden coffins appeared.

Now Jiraiya had an idea of what was going on and he wished he had figured it out sooner to stop him. He had no idea who was in those caskets but whoever they were they couldn't be good.

The lids opened and fell and Jiraiya's eyes widened at the sight. Tsunade who was behind him, he heard her struggle to hold a horrible cry back in her throat at the sight. This was the worst possible thing to happen for her and Jiraiya once again cursed their old friend. Standing in the two coffins was a young man and a young boy, they were Dan, Tsunade's old lover and her little brother Nawaki.

"No..." Tsunade could only just whisper it out as the two bodies opened their eyes and just looking at them they seemed just like how she remembered them but she knew this was wrong. They were dead and should be a peace but as the eyes opened it was like a dagger had been plunged into her heart.

Both resurrected males walked out of their caskets.

"Bastard," Jiraiya muttered knowing this wasn't the kind of thing that Tsunade should see.

"Well is that any way to talk to me after I made this great family reunion?" Orochimaru asked him. "Well no matter, I had planned to use them anyway since I did take the time when I was back home to gather the material for this now you two why don't you say hello to everyone."

"I'm sorry about this," Dan spoke for the first time. "But we have to do what he says even if we don't want to." With that he and Nawaki charged forward.

The genins decided to take this one as the adults were unsure what to do for a split second. Tsunade wasn't sure she could bring herself to fight with the two, for Shizune she was rooted in place seeing her long dead uncle again as Jiraiya couldn't afford to take his eyes off Orochimaru. When the genin jumped in he went after Orochimaru as Shizune quickly went after Kabuto.

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke attacked the two resurrected dead with their weapons. Although the dead ninja fought back Nawaki being a genin didn't have as much skill as Dan did. So it was Sasuke that managed to slice his sword into Nawaki who looked surprised. This boy wasn't much older than he was but he had moved so fast. As soon as Sasuke took his sword out of the body it began to heal.

Naruto and Sakura combined their attacks on Dan although the older man was a lot more skilled than Nawaki. He had been a fully trained ninja for years and had seen a war before being killed in said war. He had seen more battles and fights than all of Team 7 combined at the moment.

Naruto soon found himself kicked to the ground as Sakura tried her tonfa only to miss and had been counter attacked.

"Okay this isn't going well," Sakura said as she put her tonfa into a guard position.

"Man this sucks," Naruto muttered as he looked to see that Sasuke was still fighting the one that was their own age. He could see that Jiraiya and Tsunade had started a battle with Orochimaru, from what he could see it was a battle like he hadn't seen and he kind of wished he would watch. The two Sannin were going up against the third one and they seemed that they were going all out.

But he had to quickly focus back into his own fight as Dan rushed towards him. Naruto jumped back to avoid the attacks as the man pulled out a kunai to attack. Naruto used the family sword to deflect the blows but the guy was fast and good.

"You're not bad for someone your age," Dan told him. "Sorry for doing this but I have no choice."

"That's not exactly a comfort!" Naruto shouted out trying to keep ahead of the man. "You know what, screw this!" he made a bunch of shadow clones and attacked the man head on from all sides. He figured this would at least slow the man down. Although the wounds seemed to heal almost as fast as Naruto's clones could inflict them. Plus the man was slowly getting rid of the clones one by one.

"I might need a new plan soon," Naruto muttered trying to think of how to deal with someone that was already dead and couldn't be hurt or killed.

Shizune attacked Kabuto as she pulled back her sleeve as the device she kept hidden there full of automated firing blades. She pulled on the firing line as they launched at the traitor. He pulled out a kunai as he managed to knocked all the blades out of the air. Despite his age his skills she found were above what she expected. Kabuto moved in close to start attacking with his kunai as she managed to move and dodge.

This was something she was waiting for as she inhaled and felt the chakra into her lungs go into the special poison she kept in them. She exhaled as a large amount of poison gas was released from her mouth. She tried to aim it into the boy's face but it seemed that he was ready for something like that dodging away from the gas.

The problem with her jutsu was that when she sent the gas out she couldn't see because the gas would sometimes obscure her field of vision. Kabuto had used that to his advantage to sneak out of her line of sight.

Kabuto saw that Tsunade and Jiraiya was giving Orochimaru trouble, he couldn't do anything about Jiraiya but Tsunade was another matter. He had read all kinds of reports on certain people and he knew what Tsunade suffered from. He ran into the battle as he made a cut on his palm, he flexed his hand to make sure that he had enough blood cupped in it before he ran at Tsunade.

She saw him coming and was prepared for an attack but when he threw the blood at her it splattered over her. When Tsunade realized what was on her she just froze, she couldn't move as her mind went to a halt. The horror kept coming back to her even as Kabuto kicked her across the field.

"Tsunade!" Jiraiya called out seeing the blood on her knowing that she was frozen up.

"You're looking in the wrong direction," Orochimaru told him as he attacked Jiraiya.

"Lady Tsunade!" Shizune had been following Kabuto but he had had too much of a lead. She rushed as fast as she could to get to her master's side. Kabuto took advantage of this as he pulled out a small smoke bomb and threw it in her direction. She immediately closed her eyes, mouth and held her breath knowing full well the kinds of trouble smoke could have on the human body.

That is until she felt a burning sensation on her skin and came out of the smoke crying out in shock and in pain as her body slumped to the ground. That smoke had some kind of toxin in it, her medical mind quickly raced as she reached for her medical supplies she kept on her body. She had several anti-toxins but she just hoped that whatever she had would work. But she could look up in horror as Kabuto started to attack Tsunade over and over again. She force her hand to work as her body was slowly going numb, not a good sign for her as she felt her fingertips touch her anti-toxin supplies.

"Granny!" Naruto saw that Kabuto was going for a killing blow by this point. He left Sakura and Sasuke to deal with their enemies leaving a good supply of clones with them to help them out since he was closest to her. Naruto moved as fast as possible to reach her in time, to help out he threw out a shuriken from his pouch on his belt, he was hoping the weapon would give him more time.

Thankfully it did as he took the time to deflect it as he ran at the man thrusting his sword out at him. He really thought that he managed to get in a good shot, until Kabuto sidestepped it just enough for the blade to just pass his body within a hair's breath of his body.

He saw Kabuto's smile before he slammed the ring part of the kunai into his wrist hitting the nerves his hands instantly opened dropping the weapon as Kabuto then used his free hand to punch him in the face.

"Well I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in such an attack. Aren't you the one the keeps talking about being Hokage?" Kabuto asked him with an evil smirk on his face. "Then again maybe it's better you just die here, such a stupid dream. I nearly laughed when I heard that you proclaimed that you would be Hokage, you? You have to realise that such a foolish dream has taken the lives of so many, what makes you think you can do it?"

"You should learn that dreams are for children and in the real world you can never attain such things." Kabuto readied his blade as the boy slowly got up. "You should just lay there and die, it would make everything so much easier on you."

"Shut up!" Naruto yelled out. "I will be Hokage! I don't care what you think or anyone else, I plan on getting strong enough to become Hokage and protect the village. I love the village and I plan on defending it with my life, for my family, for my friends and for everyone that means something to me I will do anything to protect them all!"

"To be Hokage means to protect everything that's important for you!"

Tsunade heard all of this as echoes of the past came back.

"I love this village so I'm going to be Hokage."

That had been her little brother when he first proclaimed his dream.

"I want to protect everyone."

That had been Dan when she had decided on giving him her necklace. For a split second she saw both of them in Naruto but there was something more in him, there was this fire in him that they hadn't had when they proclaimed their dream. She hadn't seen this kind of fire in...it was so long when was it? Then it hit her, she hadn't seen this since her grandfather would talk about the village, when her grand uncle would talk about being Hokage, to even when the Third had talked to her about what it meant to be a ninja of the Hidden Leaf.

They all had that special fire in them, the Will of Fire to be exact.

Naruto formed a seal and made a clone as he ran at him as she knew that rushing head on like that would be suicide. She cried out for him to stop but then she stopped as she saw something strange. The clone was doing something with the real Naruto's open palm and suddenly energy started to form. She couldn't believe her eyes as slowly the rasengan formed.

'That's impossible...he's only a genin he shouldn't be able to pull something like that off!'

But he was as Kabuto was taken by surprise he was about to move away when he felt something grab his leg. He looked down in surprise as another shadow clone had come out of the ground. One of Naruto's clones had gone with the original as a secret plan of attack. He had gone through the ground to come up and surprise Kabuto. The other clone when he had finished helping the original, this clone grabbed Kabuto's other arm.

"This is my will to be Hokage!" Naruto shouted out as he rammed it into the boy's chest. "Rasengan!"

Kabuto had underestimated the boy as he felt the jutsu trying to tear his inside apart, he pumped as much chakra as he could to heal the injuries as they happened but the force of the impact was forcing him back. He put just enough chakra into his free hand and managed to use a chakra scalpel. He felt it cut into his insides knowing he was going for vital areas.

He yelled out at the jutsu took him a few yards away as he fell into his back the force catching the two clones dispelling them. He landed on his back unable to move from the pain in his body. His shirt was ripped and his chest looked horrible as he gasped for air. He was had never felt such pain but thanks to certain techniques was kept alive but he was unable to move.

He did manage to laugh out painfully as he slowly managed to turn his head to look at the boy's body hit the ground. "So much for your will to be Hokage."

Tsunade saw the boy fall and something inside of her broke, she couldn't let it happen again. She forgot the blood, she forgot the horrors as she saw this single boy she had barely known show her something that she had forgotten about. Shown her something that her Grandfather and everyone that followed him had embodied, she would not let this flame go out.

She quickly went to his side turning him over and placing her hands on his chest as she began a quick check to see what was wrong with her medical chakra. She could feel the damaged and it was amazing the boy was still alive.

"No..not again, I won't let someone die on my watch again, not like this." She told herself as she worked as hard as she could to repair the damage she could feel inside of the boy. She was not going to fail again and as she saw the blood on her arms she didn't feel the fear anymore. Whatever chains had held her down were suddenly gone from her mind as she did what she had dedicated her life to doing.

Saving fellow ninja of the Leaf, protecting them and making sure they could go back to the village that they all loved.

Jiraiya took a moment to look over the battlefield, the genins were having trouble with the two dead ninja, Naruto was down as Tsunade was actually healing him, Shizune was getting back up apparently from something that had happened to her and Orochimaru was still fresh in this fight. He had to turn this around but looking where everyone was positioned he was hoping to get rid of a few pieces in one go. He started with the hand seals yelling at Sakura and Sasuke to jump out of the way.

He hoped the kids didn't get stuck in this jutsu.

Jiraiya placed his hands on the ground as suddenly a large part of the ground turned into swampland. It was a jutsu that was great for capturing people. The two dead enemies were luckily caught as Naruto's clone stayed to hold the two as they also were taken by the jutsu. Orochimaru however had seen it coming and jumped freely out of the way. Jiraiya knew it was a gamble but he had to try at least this freed up the kids.

Orochimaru scowled slightly as the fight was not going the way he was hoping. Kabuto had been actually taken out and Jiraiya had managed to get his two resurrected ninja were now stuck in swamp water of all things. He could see them struggle but from how fast they were sinking they weren't getting out anytime soon.

Now that Tsunade had somehow gotten up even while now covered in blood things weren't going well for him. Now he saw both of his old teammates facing him ready to go, in a one-on-one he was sure he could take either of them but two-on-one he wasn't that confident. The battle was over he could admit that but maybe it wouldn't be a total loss.

Tsunade was working on the Jinchuriki boy, Kabuto must have did something to him and whatever it was Orochimaru figured that Kabuto had done something serious. If the boy did died that would hinder Akatsuki's plans for him and the others like him. Well it wasn't a total loss then if that happened, now he just needed to take Kabuto and leave and with that boy down he doubted Jiraiya would leave. Plus there was the fact that his two resurrected pawns would still be left behind.

"I have to admit this day was looking up at first," Orochimaru told Jiraiya. "I had hoped to harm the Leaf in another way but it looks like fortune isn't with me today."

"Planning on slithering off then?" Jiraiya didn't want to let him leave if he did there was no telling whenever they would get a chance like this again. They could take Orochimaru out right here and right now, he was too dangerous an enemy to let go.

"I've had my fun and there is always another day," He grinned as he raised his arms as two large purple snakes came out from the sleeves. They opened their mouths as Jiraiya was expecting some kind of venom attack or for them to bite him. He didn't expect a large amount of purple smoke to come out of both snakes.

Jiraiya was about to rush through the smoke in a blind charge, yes it was insane to attack a target he couldn't find but he figured that Orochimaru was already moving to run off. Although he halted just in time when his eyes noticed the grass was starting to turn brown where the smoke hit. His mind screamed out poison gas as he quickly jumped back just before hitting the smoke. He wished he knew wind jutsu but it just wasn't his element, he had no talent for that type. He looked to see that the smoke was covering a large area but he ran to the right anyway to get around it.

Although he knew he might be too late he had to try but by the time he cleared the poison smoke as it started to dissipate he saw that Orochimaru was gone. When the smoke was completely gone he noticed that while everyone was focused on Naruto the boy he had hit with the rasengan was gone as well. Jiraiya mentally cursed, he would have to have a plan for that jutsu in their next conflict and he planned on not letting Orochimaru run amok forever.

He hurried back to Naruto who looked a little worse for wear as the others were gathered around him.

He didn't ask how he was doing she would just get annoyed with him and tell him to shut up so she could concentrate anyway. The others were gathered around although he did notice that Shizune and Sasuke had noticed Kabuto's disappearance as well but said nothing figuring that there wasn't much to say anyway.

Tsunade was giving everything she had she wouldn't see another life die not on her watch. Thankfully it looked like she was getting help from the boy's prisoner. His body was barely holding together, if it had been anyone else then Kabuto's attack would have killed them. Naruto's unique healing traits allowed for the boy to survive but it was still close too close. She stopped her treatment when she was confident that she was done.

For a moment there was nothing until Naruto groaned as his eyes flickered open.

"Welcome back gaki," Jiraiya told him honestly relieved to see the boy was okay. Although he knew that if anyone would help him it was Tsunade, but he had still been worried. After all, all of his apprentices were dead now and a part of him worried that Naruto might joined that list.

"My chest hurts," Naruto groaned out.

"Not surprising given what I had to fix in there," Tsunade felt a sense of accomplishment, this was the first person she had saved in years and she was surprised how good it felt. But as she stood up she couldn't ignore it anymore as she walked over to the swamp that was holding two people that she had loved most in life. They were up to their torso in the swamp but where still struggling.

The Naruto clones had run out of charka and had dispelled nearly after the jutsu had been cast.

Despite their circumstances Dan looked up at her and smiled, "It was nice to see you again my love."

"Dan...I'm sorry...I tried..." tears filled her eyes looking at the man she had loved and had died in front of her.

"It's okay I know you did your best," Dan looked at them all now. "I can see that the next generation will make a great impact on the world." His eyes landed on Naruto. "You truly have the will of fire in you from what I saw."

"Heh, of course I plan on being Hokage one day you know," Naruto proclaimed even while being held up by his teammates.

"Hokage huh," Dan smiled at him. "Perhaps you might be able to do it where I failed."

"Couldn't we just keep you around?" Tsunade knew it was wrong but she had them both back again. She didn't want to lose them again. But she knew that this wasn't going to last she just had to ask.

"I'm sorry sis," her little brother looked at her sadly. "But if we weren't stuck in this we would still be attacking. I don't want to hurt any of you but if you let us go, we'll just keep on attacking until your dead."

Tsunade felt her heart in her throat as she closed her eyes and nodded.

"It was nice seeing you again sis," he told her smiling. "Also sorry for dying I just wanted to make you proud of me. I love you sis and I hope you're taking care of Grandpa's village for me."

Tsunade swallowed as she nodded her head. "I'll miss you."

"I know but it looks like you're not alone," Nawaki told her seeing everyone around her.

Dan looked to Jiraiya as the man looked so much older but he knew that time was short. All this time his body was working on trying to get out and they couldn't let this go on for too long. He knew that the man cared for Tsunade and he needed to know someone was watching over her. He could still remember the last time he had seen her, in the rain crying over his body.

"Jiraiya, look after her for me." He told the old ninja.

"You got it."

Dan looked to Tsunade," Look after yourself and the village my love, Shizune you've grown into a fine woman, sorry I couldn't have been there to watch it."

"Thank you uncle," Shizune wiped the tears in her eyes.

"Goodbye," Tsunade told him as she closed her eyes. She couldn't watch this, couldn't watch them disappear again. Jiraiya completed a few hand seals as the swamp started to get deeper pulling the two into its depths. Two figured who have been brought back to life had finally said their goodbyes that they couldn't have in life. They sunk down into the dark depths deep into the earth where they would be forever sealed.

Tsunade rose up on her legs as she looked out over the area that would forever hold two of the most precious people in her heart. Her heart was filled with rage towards Orochimaru, sadness over losing them again, but she found a bit of peace there as well. She never got to say goodbye to them before and now she had this chance.

"So what now?" Jiraiya asked her.

Tsunade was quiet as she thought about everything before answering. "I think I've had enough fun, it's time for me to go home."

Jiraiya despite himself grinned, "So that means you'll take up the old man's job then? Besides, the brat won our bet in the end."

"Well I can't leave it to you now could I?" she told him as she looked at everyone else. "I guess we'll have to patch you kids up, it will be good training for you Sakura if you really want to learn medical jutsu since Shizune keeps talking about it."

Jiraiya knew that she was hurting and just pushing the pain away for later but there was a light in her eyes that he hadn't seen in years. For a moment it was like the old Tsunade he knew was finally back. Feeling a few aches in his body he was glad this mission was over and they could go home. Taking one last look at the swamp he gave a small nod to his head towards those poor souls. He didn't want to do something like this but there was no choice they didn't know how to undo the jutsu, maybe one day he would find a way.

At any rate it was time to go home.

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Next up chapter 10: Home Again