Tsunade thought that the abandoned burning wreckage in the plants aisle was a pretty good sign that Jiraiya had been through here not too long ago. She nodded to her companion, who still remained oh-so nameless. He smiled, and it was a nice smile, and we were all sad that he had died. They continued on.

It became clearer and more apparent that they were, in fact, heading in the right direction. Oh, there were many clues to tip them off, but the biggest was the helpless screams of "PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWN! KABUTO MAKE HIM PUT ME DOWN!" That, and the sound of a plethora of children cheering.

They finally turned from the one big aisle onto the other big aisle, and saw up ahead, the unique sight of Kabuto and Jiraiya fighting over a toy robot within a massive ring of children shouting and placing bets. Tsunade sighed.

She waded through the children and ripped the robot from the two. The arms broke off, one in each of the combatant's hands, and the robot screamed something like "not agaaaaain!" The children booed, and began to melt into the nearby toy aisles.

"I was going to wiiin!" Jiraiya wailed. "I woulda finally woooon!" He chucked the arm angrily at the floor and flopped down in a sobbing heap.

Tsunade ignored him, turning to the employee. "Here," she said, handing the armless robot over. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to let him out of my sight. Since he broke it, you can bill the Hokage's office for the toy."

Kabuto took the robot, stooping to retrieve the other arm. He straightened and his glasses flashed—but Yondaime stepped in.

"I'll pay for it. I was here to buy a birthday present, anyway, and this would be perfect." With a kind smile, he took all the pieces of RoboOro (who was still crying to himself), and walked off.

Kabuto was not about to let on that he'd had a part in transforming the nefarious criminal into his current immortal body, so he shrugged and went back to work.

Tsunade stood alone except for the bawling hermit on the floor next to her. But her peace was broken as Naruto bounded up, Iruka trailing behind.

"Tsunade-obaasan!" he hollered, "What are you doing in the toys with Ero-sennin 'tebayo!"

"Naruto!" Iruka scolded, coming up, "Sorry, Tsunade-sama, Jiraiya-sama. It's nice to see you today." He smiled a nice teachery smile, and adjusted the bag of dog food he was carrying.

"Iruka-sensei's going to buy me a birthday present, DATTEBAYO!" Naruto happily proclaimed. Iruka-sensei kept smiling, but more in a pained sort of way.

"I see you two are having a good time, but this baby and I were just leaving." She kicked Jiraiya a little to emphasize, and he slid quite a few feet away, still crying something about winning.

But then something caught her attention. "Oi," she started, looking around. "Where's Orochimaru?"

NEXT CHAPTER: EPILOGUE