"Ugh…"
Anko slowly opened her eyes, adjusting to the light as she tried to find out where she was. It was obvious she was in a room on some kind of bed, and judging by the swaying the room was making she was in a boat. She was just about to sit up, when a voice called out to her.
"I'm glad to see you awake," turning to the voice she saw Naruto writing in a folder. Writing for a few more seconds he snapped the folder shut, and looked at her with a smile. "You've been out of it for awhile now, how do you feel?"
For one of the few times in her life Anko smiled, "I feel good…"
Naruto looked at her for a moment with a raised eyebrow, noticing that she seemed much more calm then before. He shrugged it off, whatever it was was not any of his business, "that's good to hear. Anyway we should be reaching Hi No Kuni (fire country) in a few hours; you might as well get some more shut eye." Anko nodded as Naruto stood up and left the room, no longer finding a need to be in there now that he knew Anko would be alright.
As the door closed behind the blond, Anko shut her eyes again. Smiling as she had one last thought before falling asleep again, I left him by my own choice, it was my decision…
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Naruto frowned as he gave his report to Tsunade, listing off what had happened during the mission in chronological order. The moment he had entered the room he had noticed that something was different; something felt 'off' would be the best way to describe it. Aside from the obvious fact that Tsunade had not thrown anything at him for calling her baa-chan, which was definitely an oddity in and of itself, there was something else that seemed wrong. The busty Hokage also refused to even look him in the eye, again that was something that had never happened before; even when the woman was angry at him.
"… and so I was hoping that you would be able to find some way to help Isaribi here," Naruto gesture to the scaly teenage girl as he finished his report. "I figured since you're one of the best medics around you would be able to find some way to get rid of her scales…"
"Very well," Tsunade said, still looking down at her paperwork and refusing to meet his eyes. "If you come into the hospital tomorrow at noon, I'll be able to check you over and see what I can do. Ok Isaribi-san?"
"That's fine Hokage-Sama," Isaribi said with a small bow and hopeful look.
"In the meantime I'll have Shizune help you find a place to stay, after I check you over and see what I can do about your 'scaly' problem you can decide whether you want to stay here in the leaf or leave. Shizune!" Tsunade called out, getting the woman to walk in through the door.
"Yes Tsunade-Sama?" Shizune asked as she looked at her boss.
"I want you to help Isaribi-san here find a hotel for the night; Naruto has told me that he will be paying so you don't need to worry about cash." Tsunade said as she filled in a few papers and gave them to the dark brown haired woman. Said woman bowed and gestured for Isaribi to follow her, the fish girl looked over at Naruto and seeing his encourage nod left with Shizune.
The other three ninja left after them, now that the report was over, leaving just Naruto and Tsunade. For a moment Naruto said nothing before deciding to take the plunge, "Tsunade is something wrong?"
Tsunade hid her wince at being called by her name, Naruto only ever called her Tsunade when he was being serious or heartfelt; she knew which one it was right now. "No, nothing's wrong. Why do you ask?" Tsunade asked as she continued working.
"Well aside from the fact that you did not try to throw something at me, for calling you baa-chan. You also refuse to look at me, instead opting to do work, which you always complain about doing." Naruto answered as he crossed his arms, waiting for the woman to answer him.
"Nothing's wrong," Tsunade said again, putting on her poker face as she looked at him. "I'm just a little tired is all, and I want to get this work done before I get another batch."
Naruto's frown deepened as he tried to figure out what could be wrong with the woman he thought of as a mother/grandmother. "Did you get the results of my Kekkei Genkai test?" Naruto asked. His eyes narrowed when he saw the small display of emotion that flitted across her eyes, it was not much, in fact Naruto was sure that most others would have missed it. However Naruto was an expert on reading people through their eyes, and he knew the emotion she had displayed. Guilt. Now the question was what could she be feeling guilty about.
"… Your test did come in," Tsunade said eventually, bringing her eyes back to her papers so she did not have to look at him.
After several seconds of not getting an answer, Naruto began to get impatient. "And?"
Tsunade resisted the urge to bite her lip as she looked back up at him, keeping on her best poker face so he would not see her guilt. "It came up positive; your ability to combine two elements to create sub elements is a bloodline."
"Do you know who I got it from?" asked Naruto.
"The strand with your bloodline was found in the DNA that you got from your father," Tsunade answered quickly.
Naruto closed his eyes for a few moments before speaking again, "do you know why I have it and he didn't?"
Tsunade sighed as she spoke, "I can only assume that the Kyuubi's chakra may have somehow jumpstarted your bloodline, it has been theorized that all bloodlines came from them so…"
Naruto nodded, "and you're sure you're alright?"
"Of course, as I said I'm just a little tired from all this work," Tsunade answered.
Naruto looked at the woman for a moment longer, he knew she was lying. One of Naruto's abilities was that he always knew when someone was lying, and he knew right now that Tsunade was hiding something from him. Yet he knew that he could not question her, or demand answers since she was the Hokage. For now he simply nodded his head, "I can see how it would be tiring, I guess I'll leave you too it baa-chan." with that Naruto disappeared in a swirl of water.
As Tsunade looked at the spot where Naruto had been a single tear ran down her cheek.
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