Chapter 10

Jiraiya slowly awoke with a heavy hazy feeling lingering about him. The last thing he remembered was the ultimatum he'd delivered to Tsunade and then…nothing. He struggled to open his eyes and was becoming increasingly aware of the pain he was in. It was then he realized his eyes were bandaged and judging by the smell of antiseptic that hung in the air he had to be in the hospital. 'What the hell happened' he wondered in a panic while trying to mentally categorize the injuries he felt. All he wanted was to get up and demand someone explain what the hell was going on. One moment he was waiting for Tsunade's answer and the next… 'Oh God, Tsunade, what if something happened to her?' A sudden hysterical fear gripped him when he tried to move his right arm and realized that it was tied down to the bed. When he attempted to move the left, despair set in, he couldn't feel it.

'What the fuck is going on' he wondered desperately wanting to scream, but the intubation tube that was hooked up to the ventilator prevented it. His flailing in the bed caused enough ruckus to alert a passing nurse in the hall. Quickly she screamed for a doctor to hurry fearing the white haired Sannin might hurt himself in his panicked state. The doctor and three nurses rushed into the room while a fourth flew to alert the Godaime that her teammate had finally awoken.

Fierce, earth shattering strides alerted the medical staff of the Hokage's arrival. Bursting through the door as they were taking him off the ventilator, red manicured fingers waved everyone out of her way. Nothing would stop her from being the first thing he saw when they removed the bandages from eyes. With a shaking hand she reached down and gently pulled back the tape. He had been thrashing about as they removed the tubes, but stilled the moment she touched him. "Tsu…Tsu" he tried to rasp out.

"Shhhhh…" she breathed trying to stop his attempt to speak as she ran her finger down the crimson line on his cheek in soothing gesture to try and calm him. She feared taking the bandages off knowing how confused and disoriented he was going to be. Nearly six months had passed since they found him at the bottom of the god forsaken lake in Ame. Four ANBU ended up in the hospital when they tried to prevent her from leaving the village for her own safety. After she deciphered the message Jiraiya's toad had brought she became frantic screaming so loud most of the village had heard.

Shizune came barreling into her mentor's office fearing the worst. Tsunade immediately ordered for all of her elite jounin and every ANBU that was available. The massive number of shinobi in the Godaime's office was almost staggering. Honey colored eyes steeled themselves as she quickly explained what the emergency was. No one had taken particular notice of the toad sage's absence as it wasn't unusual for him to disappear for up to years at a time. Although a couple of the keener jounin in the village had noticed him sticking closer to home these days and speculated that it probably had something to do with a certain big chested blonde who had recently come to power. They were all more than stunned that he had gone alone to Amegakure to single handedly take on the leader of the Akatski. It was at this point that Pa toad, Jiraiya's mentor in the sage arts, alerted them to the fact that they had precious little time if they wanted to find him alive.

Everyone was to leave immediately, the village would be locked down in a state of emergency as all the elite powers were going on a search and destroy mission. It was at this moment that Tsunade wished she hadn't allowed Kakashi and Yamato to lead Naruto, Sakura, Sai, Hinata, Shino, and Kiba on another wild goose chase after Sasuke. Yamato's cool head and skill would be a great asset and she could have left Kakashi in charge in her absence because Hokage or not she was going after Jiraiya. As it was if something were to happen to her he was slated as her successor, as Naruto was far too young for the position despite her faith in the boy. 'Although', she thought 'It's probably better Naruto isn't here, if they didn't make it on time…' she instantly shook her head free of that train of thought, they had to make it. Unfortunately for their blond leader they didn't quite leave immediately as ordered. The crowd spent the better part of five minutes trying to argue with her that the village needed its leader. Angrily she shouted that Jiraiya needed her and Hokage or not she would put anyone who got in her way in the hospital.

"Four down…" she taunted over four groaning bodies "Anyone else? Then stop wasting time that fortress needs to be searched, all evidence retrieved, and the building destroyed. If you come across anyone bring them back alive. Now get out of my office unless you wanted every bone in your body shattered!!" With wide eyes they all backed down. "Ibiki" she yelled into the crown looking for her best interrogator before it dispersed. "Hai, Tsunade-Sama" he responded wearily.

"You're in charge while we're gone" she informed the scarred interrogator "I can't imagine anyone would want to fuck with a sadistic son of bitch like you" Said man had a look on his face somewhere between surprise at the Hokage's uncharacteristic use extreme profanity and pride at the compliment he was sure was buried somewhere in that statement. After briefly wishing Shizune good luck she turned to the three people remaining in her office; Ibiki, Genma, and Gai and silently stalked past them to her desk where she proceeded to tear it apart. Desk drawers were torn out and papers were scattered until the slug princess found the scroll she was searching for. Her grandfather had shown it to her when she was a little girl and she desperately ransacked the archives looking for it for days after Jiraiya left fearing she would need it.

"Hokage-Sama what is in that scroll, and why haven't we left yet. Surely if we don't go soon Jiraiya-Sama's flame of life shall extinguish itself forever" Gai exclaimed in his usual ridiculous flourish. The Godaime rolled her eyes and proceeded to explain that it was a retrieval scroll while quickly completing the necessary seals to activate it and that it utilized the person whom they were searching for's DNA.

"Do we even have any of his DNA?" Ibiki asked incredulously while studying the intricate and aged scroll. Tsunade simply nodded her head towards the toad at her side and simply stated the note written on its back was in Jiraiya's blood. A three point seal had been drawn in the center of the scroll and the Hokage instructed Gai and Genma to cut the tip of their right thumbs and place it on one of the three points.

"On the count of three" she commanded as she dragged her hand down the toad's back. They all placed their thumbs down and Tsunade simultaneously placed her bloodied left hand in the center. Almost instantly they were standing in a barren fortress next to a lake. The Godaime rolled up the scroll and placed it with what looked like a vial in her pocket.

"What's in the vial Tsunade-Sama? Genma asked while nervously rolling the senbon around his mouth. The blonde bombshell simple replied that it was their way home. Turning to Pa toad she wearily asked where her best friend was. The toad glumly pointed to the darkened lake. Genma and Gai hardly had a moment to process this information before the Hokage was dropping her jacket and kicking off her heels diving in. The darkness and cold was foreboding and she feared that it was already too late as she swam further into the abyss. Allowing her chakra to flow into her hands making them glow green she spotted a large figure on the lake bed. Surfacing for a quick breath she yelled for the other to take cover and again allowed the chakra to run into her hands as she slammed them onto the water's surface causing a small tidal wave exposing the lakes bottom. Dropping quickly she leapt onto to Jiraiya's prone figure and clung fiercely as the water crashed back down. The4 force with which the water came down catapulted them up almost breaking the surface. Kicking with all her might she hauled the toad Sennin's dead weight above the water line. The two elites came running across the water's surface when the saw there leader surface and helped carry the unconscious man back to shore.

Almost falling apart at the sight of his pallid skin Tsunade knew she needed to reign herself in if she was going to save her oldest friend. With practiced ease she slipped into medic mode and promptly began CPR after finding him with no pulse. Desperately she wanted to get him back to the hospital and away from this place fearing they would be caught at any moment. If they were caught and a battle ensued she would have no chance in hell of saving him, or any of them for that matter. Thirty compressions, two breaths, and a cracked sternum later he coughed up the water in his lungs but did not awaken. As quickly as possible she cauterized the stump that was his left arm. Tsunade flinched visibly knowing this was all her fault his career was over he would now forcibly need to retire. Both jounin turned away upon seeing this, trying to keep their eyes from watering, this was a man they revered as kids as one of the mighty Sannin. Tsunade moved to the stab wound in his shoulder hoping to stem off the shock for the enormous amount of blood he had lost. She had to stabilize him before she could even dream of moving him.

Konoha's beautiful green beast felt helpless watching his fearless leader try to save her precious person. Tears started to flow unchecked as he muttered something about "The power of love". Genma rolled his eyes as he anxiously looked around. The lecherous playboy feared whoever did this to Jiraiya-Sama catching them and killing them as well. "Tsunade-Sama is there anything we can do in order to speed this along, I have a really bad feeling." A blond eyebrow lifted and the Godaime had to do her best to keep her legendary temper under control.

"As soon as I heal his lungs a little more we can get back, anymore and I'll be out of chakra" ten minutes and a couple sighs of relief later they were slamming their fingers back down onto the scroll.