Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Midnight Passing ❯ Challenge 10 ( Chapter 10 )

Title: Midnight Passing
Author: scottishfae
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: Jiraiya/Tsunade
Challenge #: 10
Rating: M
Summary: Every person passes through another's life leaving behind a distinct fingerprint that molds them into who they will eventually become (series of oneshots/drabbles) Yaoi/Shonen-Ai, Het

A series of One-Shots according to the 20Loves Challenge. Each one-shot is mildly related to each other by one repeating character or another.

 

This is the last one of this arc.  I'll be stopping the 20loves challenge for a brief break and then I'll pick it back up for another new arc later.  Thanks to everyone who reviewed.  I love you all!

All Normal Disclaimers Apply

 

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Tsunade sat on her plush couch sipping her tea.  She smiled around her cup as she watched the man in front of her. Jiraiya sat on the opposite couch excitedly going through all that had he and Naruto had done during the past day.  Said blond had passed out in Tsunade's only spare room in her expensive suite apartment.  The two men were just like kids as they made up for lost time.  They still had a lot of problems to work out, but things were looking up.

 

"So have you told him about your 'work' yet?"  Tsunade said.

 

She sat her cup down  on the coffee table that separated the two adults.

 

"Not yet."

 

"Scared?"

 

Jiraiya puffed up at the insult.  "Of course now, it simply hasn't come up yet."

 

"Probably because you're avoiding it."

 

"And why should I do that?  I'm proud of what I do."

 

Tsunade stood and walked into her kitchen.  "Maybe so but that doesn't mean Naruto will be.  He does have a very moral conscience, you know.  Writing and producing porn--in whatever form-- is going to be disgusting to him." She said from the kitchen.

 

"Always so easy to condemn.  You just don't understand."

 

Tsunade snorted, putting the kettle back on the eye to boil.  She felt more tea was needed.  "Explain to me then, what I don't understand."

 

She was standing in the doorway leaning against the frame so that she could see him.  He was sitting back against the couch both arms at his sides, propped against the back of the couch, and his legs spread comfortably apart.  "My work is my dream and has been since I was a child."

 

"Your dream?"

 

"Yes, come on Tsunade, don't you dream?" 

 

The kettle began to whistle startling them both.  She walked into the kitchen, out of his view, and started making her tea.  She had left her cup in the living room and instead pulled out a new one. 

 

"Well?" Jiraiya said.

 

"Well what?"

 

"Do you dream?"

 

Tsunade grasped the edge of the counter as if it was her only lifeline.  "No."

 

"What?  How can you not dream?"

 

She pushed away from the counter and made her way back into the living room, tea in hand.  "When you left, I stopped dreaming."

 

The room was overtaken by a heavy silence.  "Why?"

 

"Because," she said. "You were my dream."

 

Jiraiya opened his mouth to speak but wasn't quite sure what to say.  He sat up, his body coming together awkwardly, as he gathered his thoughts.  "Tsunade."

 

"Please don't start.  I don't want any of your pity responses."

 

"Who said I going to give you pity?  Who said I wasn't going to apologize for being a jackass all these years and confess my un-dieing love?"

 

Tsunade finished her tea in a frustrated gulp.  She grabbed both cups and stood to bring them into the kitchen. 

 

"I know that's a lie," she said over her shoulder.  "Because it just isn't your style."

 

She placed both cups into the kitchen and turned the water on to let the warm spray wash over the cups.  The tan liquid mixed with the clear until it overflowed and ran down the drain.   She watched it, leaning against the counter with her upper body, hands on either side of her grasping the counter's edge.

 

"I'm sorry."

 

The soft whisper in her ear made her jump.  Behind her a warm body came flush against her, holding her to the counter with one arm next to hers and another grasped around her waist.

 

"For what?"

 

"For being a jackass, for being stubborn and oblivious, and for leaving you behind."

 

"Don't say that," she said.

 

Jiraiya buried his face in her long blond hair.  He gently turned her around using his arm around her waist. 

 

"Tsunade," he moved his hand from the counter to lift up her face so he could look into her eyes.  "I love you."

 

There was a silence, pleasant and warm, before she violently pushed him away.  Jiraiya was thrown against the opposite counter with a loud thud. 

 

"You pervert.  You're still getting the couch."

 

Jiriaya didn't miss a beat and began the argument of where he was to sleep.  With Naruto in the spare room, it was either Tsuande's room or the couch.  "Oh come on, just for tonight."

 

"No!"

 

"But the couch is too small."

 

"Well lose some weight then."

 

"I'm big boned!"

 

Tsunade snorted.  "No such thing."

 

The two smiled at each other.  The familiar banter made them both comfortable and at ease.  She sighed, though it was overly dramatic and staged.  Her smiled was still present and the look present in her eyes made her seem thirty years younger. "Just for tonight."

 

His eyes widened.  "Really?"

 

"You get the floor."

 

"What? No.  I want to share the bed.  I'm too old for the floor."

 

"You sure don't act like it.  Floor or couch, your choice."

 

The two continued their argument into the bedroom.  Their feelings were clear enough to each other and that was all that was important.  They both knew that Jiraiya's current presence was only temporary and soon his 'work' and his own nomadic urges, would cause him to up and leave again.  And once again Tsunade would be left behind.

 

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Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I love you all. And don't forget to leave me a review telling me what you think of this last scene and the whole arc in general.