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Shizune was sitting cross legged on top of a tree her favorite one, a maple tree whose leaves were turning orange, as autumn was just around the corner. The sunny days would soon be gone… and so would Shizune. Her sensei, Tsunade, had informed her that on the first day of autumn, the two of them would begin a journey across the lands of the world.
This didn’t bother Shizune at all. She liked Konoha, but to her, a true home was wherever her loved ones were. And her sensei was the last one she had left.
Her wandering mind weakened her meditation, right, she was meditating. Her mind had to be cleared of thoughts.
The previous day, she and Tsunade had trained nonstop, leaving Shizune’s body exhausted. Non the less, this training was to become a great warrior! because at the end of it, she will become a great ninja and protect her sensei. That is Shizune ninja way, to become strong so she can protect her loved ones.
Suddenly, she felt a shift in the air. Opening her eyes, she found herself face to face with the pervert sannin's student, Minato Namikaze, who smiled at her before sitting beside her on the same branch.
"Am I disturbing you?" he asked, looking at her with those piercing blue eyes of his.
"I'm meditating," she stated plainly, hoping he’d realize the answer to his own question.
She watched him subtly with her eyes as he kicked the air and admired the view from their perch.
"Do you mind if I stay here for a bit?" he asked. His tone was calm, it often was, and she liked that about him. He was an educated and respectful young shinobi. Shizune could easily imagine him as a political figure one day, with all his charm and intellect.
She gave a small nod and closed her eyes again.
But her mind couldn’t focus not with the sound of his breathing. It was uneven, like he had just run several kilometers without stopping.
She turned to face him, and now that she took a better look, it did look like he’d just run quite a distance. Tilting her head, she looked at him questioningly, though she didn’t utter a word.
He noticed her gaze and turned toward her. “I just escaped Anko.”
Shizune’s eyes widened. Not Anko Mitarashi… Please let it be another Anko. “You don’t mean Mitarashi, right?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
Minato looked at her and nodded seriously.
“Since those three are together, she wants us to be together too…” he muttered, his voice dull with dread.
Anko Mitarashi was a menace. That girl had Orochimaru as a sensei , the most menacing of them all. Anko had some kind of hyper everything: always talking, jumping, and doing whatever she wanted. Fun, if you were trying to get in trouble easily.
Shizune still remembered their days at the Academy, when Anko made the girls’ bathroom overflow. She was punished by being forced to clean the entire school for a week. Luckily, Kurenai had lent her a hand; otherwise, the school might have somehow caught on fire with water.
The Sannin would sometimes go out together, and when that happened, they usually gave their teams an assignment. For Shizune, it was usually reading or meditating; for Minato and his teammates, training while a toad monitored them; and for Anko, it was gathering herbs or other similar tasks.
Shizune frowned and looked at the blonde. “Why aren’t you with your teammates?”
His eyes darkened. “She got them. I was lucky enough to escape.”
Shizune gulped. Those poor two… By now, they were probably test subjects in some underground lab.
“What are you two talking about?” a voice behind them made Shizune lose her balance; she would have fallen if Minato hadn’t caught her.
The duo turned their heads slowly to see behind them the very girl where all evil took root.
“H-hi, Anko…” Shizune mumbled as the other girl crouched between them.
“Wanna do something? I’m bored as hell,” she said, somehow looking at both of them at the same time, sending a chill down the genins' spines. She was as creepy as Orochimaru.
There wasn’t much time to respond, she took both of their hands and jumped down from the branch. Shizune landed face first, of course, while Minato landed on his feet gracefully, untouched.
Anko laughed at Shizune’s fall. “That was the funniest fall I’ve ever seen!”
Shizune was usually a calm girl her sensei would confirm it. But right now, she really wanted to punch Anko in that stupid face of hers.
Sensing the rising urge to commit murder by Shizune, Minato stepped in. “What would you like to do, Anko?”
Anko was still laughing. It took her a few seconds to calm down and return to a somewhat neutral state.
“Behind the Hokage's heads, it’s rumored there’s a storage full of chocolate. Apparently, the Hokage keeps it for his two kids.”
That sounded unbelievable. Shizune knew Asuma, and he wasn’t that into chocolate, not enough to justify a whole vault. As for his older sibling… who knew, maybe? Shizune did hear that they just started going out with someone
“I don’t believe that,” Minato said.
Shizune, now standing next to him, nodded. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
“Who cares? Something has to be behind those faces. Let’s go see what,” Anko encouraged but that only made the two step further back.
“Yeah, no. Our senseis actually assigned us things to do,” Shizune said, turning away, followed by Minato.
But she soon found herself on the ground, straddled by Anko, whose eyes had darkened with rage.
“Don’t you dare insult my sensei!” she yelled.
“Or what? You’ll make a snake eat me?”
“You bitch!” Anko’s fist nearly hit Shizune; thankfully, Minato caught it just in time.
He stared deeply into Anko’s eyes, seeing something Shizune perhaps couldn’t. He helped both girls back to their feet and turned to Shizune.
“I’m going with her. Wanna come?” he asked, his smile even brighter than before.
Shizune had to double take. She shook her head.
He made puppy eyes she shook her head.
He promised money she shook her head.
He offered training still no.
He offered the new volume of her favorite book saga and she finally gave in.
Five minutes later, she wondered why she hadn’t just waited an extra month for the book to arrive. Minato had gotten it on a mission in the capital, lucky him.
When they arrived at the site, it was pitch dark. Minato used a jutsu to produce a small flame in his hand. The darker the place got, the closer they stuck together, until they were all practically clinging to Minato, who was holding onto Anko with his free hand.
At the end of the tunnel beneath the Hokage’s heads, they found a chest.
“I can’t believe it. The chocolate thing was true,” Shizune muttered.
“Obviously,” Anko smirked, approaching the chest and opening it.
It was funny, they had all genuinely expected chocolate. But inside were… paper bombs. Lots of them.
The trio leaned in. “Huh?”
“Why would they store this here?” Anko asked, kneeling down for a closer look.
“Hey, be careful,” Minato said, placing his hand on her shoulder. His other hand — the one holding fire — brushed against the bombs.
A moment of silence. Then: panic.
The trio ran as fast as they could, Anko screaming a string of profanities and curses against the gods.
A thunderous explosion ripped through the tunnel. The shockwave slammed into them, hurling them bodily out of the entrance in a cloud of smoke and dust.
They crashed onto the grass outside, rolling over each other in a tangle of limbs.
Above them, the Hokage monument shuddered. The face of the Third Hokage cracked, chunks of stone tumbling down.
They lay gasping on the ground.
Shizune was the first to get up, coughing, shaking dust from her hair. She pulled Anko to her feet. “We have to go. NOW.”
Minato was still on the ground, dizzy. “Wait a moment… my head hurts.”
Shizune looked at him in panic. “If Tsunade sensei finds us here, your head will be the least of your concerns.”
Without another word, she hoisted him onto her shoulder, and she and Anko ran back to the tree hand in hand.
Back under the maple tree, Shizune laid Minato down in the shadows and used a basic medical jutsu she had recently learned. She and Anko blocked his view, which is why the trio got the scare of their lives when the Sannin appeared behind them, with a scoff from Jiraiya.
They turned, forcing awkward smiles at their mentors.
Anko was the first to speak, trying to sound innocent. “Whoa, sensei… did you see that?”
But Orochimaru’s glare silenced her instantly.
Shizune wanted to smirk thinking it was the first time she’d ever seen Anko go quiet but all she could do was keep her eyes on the ground to avoid seeing Tsunade’s furious face.
Minato just lay there, still dizzy, blinking at the three mentors in front of him.
“You three are in so much trouble,” Tsunade said, placing her hands on her hips.
“Anko, I assigned you a task. But instead, you made the Hokage’s head blow up,” Orochimaru added in his usual calm but creepy tone.
“But sensei! The tasks were too easy, I finished them immediately!” Anko protested.
Something flashed in Orochimaru’s eyes that made Shizune uneasy. She didn't like the guy, he was off in some way.
“No talking back!” Tsunade barked, then turned to Minato. “And for the love of the gods, why does he look half dead?”
“He kind of hit his head when we ran out,” Shizune said quietly.
Tsunade sighed and moved to heal Minato. The two girls were left with the older men. One glared silently. The other began a lecture on how disappointed he was.
“Wait… where are Minato’s teammates?” Jiraiya asked.
Anko blushed, embarrassed. “Oh, right… they’re still tied up on that tree.”
The two Sannin stared at her in complete silence.
Orochimaru didn’t even need to speak, Their look alone sent Anko running off to free them gennins.
Shizune, watching her go, turned to Jiraiya. “How did you guys know it was us?”
Jiraiya ruffled her hair. “Wanna know a secret, Shizune?” He grinned.
Shizune leaned in to hear.
“When we were not much older than you three… we did the same thing. With the Second Hokage's head,” he said, smiling.
Her cheeks flushed. She looked at him in awe. “Why were the paper bombs even there?”
“They were old stuff that we hided so that we could skip training,” Tsunade answered, finishing her healing. “They should’ve been deactivated by now, though.”
Orochimaru handed Minato a piece of chocolate. “Here.”