Disclaimer: I still don't own it.

Tsunade wasn't a timid woman, she was known for being brash and quick to use her fists and if she were forced to, she'd admit she was a little vain. Even as a young girl, she was friends with the boys more than the girls, and as a young woman, she could gamble and drink with the best of them—timidity just wasn't in her nature.

And yet that is exactly what she was now as she entered the stark white hospital room. The man lying prone in the bed didn't look anything like the Sarutobi she knew. What skin peeked through the covers and hospital gown was deathly pale, his bright white hair was lackluster and the stillness of the room felt as if Death himself was standing in the room.

And maybe he is…Tsunade thought as she slowly approached the bed. If it wasn't for the slight breathing, she would have assumed the Sandaime was dead, but instead he continued to sleep so deeply no one could reach him.

"It's been over a month since he used the jutsu that placed him in a coma." Her old teammate said, stepping further into the room. He had gone to the hospital for his injuries and discovered from there what the Sandaime had attempted, he had quickly send word to Tsunade so that she could examine him. If there was anyone who knew medical ninjitsu, it was his blonde haired teammate. "From what I can tell, the jutsu wasn't completely successful, but it did seal enough of the Kyuubi's chakra away that it can't take over like it did before. If he had been completely successful, he probably wouldn't have made it himself. The jutsu he used is Forbidden and only to be used on the most notorious of ninjas that we need alive."

"He tried to use it to seal only one chakra away instead of both, didn't he?" Tsunade asked, running a hand down a pale, cold arm.

Jiraiya silently nodded.

"But why? Wouldn't it have been better to just seal both? Then there would be no danger from the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki!" She yelled, tears in the corners of her eyes as she turned to look at Jiraiya. "Why… why didn't he wait for us?"

"He might not have thought he had a choice."

"There is always a choice." She groused, turning back to the prone man. This man, her sensei was so dear to her. The rest of her family was dead and other than her teammates and Shinzune, Sarutobi was the only other person she cared about.

"Tsunade, do you think you can help him?"

The new Hokage was silent as she stared at the Sandaime intensely—not with the eyes of a student or comrade anymore, but with the eyes of a medic-nin. A medic-nin's job wasn't just to assess damage and heal seen and unseen injuries, but also assess whether the ninja could be saved. Wasting valuable time, energy and supplies on a ninja who was not going to make it was stupid and could cost the rest of the team their lives.

Touching her pointer and middle finger to Sarutobi's forehead, she focused on his chakra so she could map out any internal injuries, but there was no chakra to be found. Gasping, she pulled back, frowning at the prone figure. "I can't sense his chakra."

"But that would mean he's dead, right? But he's breathing!" Jiraiya protested, stepping closer to them.

Tsunade began touching different chakra points, looking for any signs and finally found just the slightest flutter at his chest. Sighing a breath of relief, she focused harder on that one spot and tried to trace the chakra from this one point, but the chakra was only in his chest, there was no chakra anywhere else in his body. "This isn't good. His chakra is barely there and it's not replenishing itself as it should. I'm not sure yet if the jutsu he did possibly caused his chakra gates to collapse or if something else is going on, but at least at this point, he's remaining steady and I have some time to research what exactly he did."

"Well, he's waited a month, I'm sure he can wait until after Naruto passes the genin exams."

"If he passes the genin exams." Tsunade interjected. "I'm not passing him if he can't control his chakra and keep the Kyuubi's chakra suppressed."

Jiraiya grinned and slung an arm around her shoulders. "I guarantee you this kid'll surprise you."

Tsunade allowed the arm to stay there, a soft smile on her lips, until she felt something squeeze her breast. That smile quickly turned into a scowl and a low growl was all the warning Jiraiya had before a fist came swinging towards him. Yelping, he quickly substituted a chair, that was swiftly demolished into a heap of toothpicks, for where he was standing and escaped out the window before Tsunade could try to punch him again. Scaling the wall, he hid beneath an alcove and waited with baited breath to see if Tsunade would follow him.

Thinking about the busty blonde woman, he couldn't help but heckle as he remembered how soft and supple that breast felt beneath his fingers. His nose started bleeding as he began thinking about how big and round her breasts were and wondered what they would feel like without the impeding barrier of cloth.

That was his last thought before a very powerful kick sent him flying with bits of wood and cement pelting him. Jiraiya looked up as he plummeted towards the ground at the woman standing in the middle of a large hole in the side of the hospital—where he had just seconds ago been standing. Her piercing green eyes glared at him as she crossed her arms beneath her ample breasts. Grinning, he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled "It was worth it!" as he fell the ten stories to the ground.

Tsunade tsk'd and turned away from hole to head towards the Uchiha Complex. He may survive the fall, but he was a dead man walking.

Kitsune stood rigid before the group of humans approaching him. Beside him stood Silver Moon and Raven Hair, their confidence and fearlessness causing him to remain where he was even though he wanted to run and hide. Foxes were scavengers and while certainly they would hunt at times for sport, in the face of such a multitude of enemies, they'd run and hide.

"It's okay, Kitsune." Silver Moon murmured, patting his head gently. "Just remember what we've been working on and you can come with Sasuke."

Silver Moon had been relentless with him for the past two nights, teaching him the weird hand signs that made something happen when he focused on his chakra. He still didn't understand what exactly chakra was, but he knew how to find it within him when he needed to, though that dark, insidious chakra was there too if he reached too deeply.

They all kept telling him that if he could do what Silver Moon showed him that he could go with Raven Hair whenever Silver Moon and Raven Hair left. He had sworn himself as Raven Hair's shield and he could do that better if he was with Raven Hair more often. He knew that doing what Silver Moon did was important to Raven Hair, though he didn't understand why, something about chuus or nins or something, it didn't seem important at the time, but now staring at the humans coming towards him, he wished he knew why.

He could see some familiar faces in the human herd—Ill One, White Eyes, Porcupine Head and Scarred Porcupine Head were there—and even though he couldn't see them, he could smell Scar Nose and Masked Bird. The thought of Masked Bird had a growl reverberating in his throat and Raven Hair glanced at him curiously.

In the lead was a blonde human with larger lumps than Ill One and a green…coat, that's what the humans called them…that fell to her knees. Kitsune frowned at the human as she came closer, she looked young, but her scent certainly wasn't of a young woman. As she neared even more, he breathed deep and sorted through the variety of scents that overwhelmed the area—no doubt, the slight smell of death was stronger on her than she looked.

"Wrong." He whispered, pulling on Silver Moon`s sleeve. Once he had the man's attention, Kitsune pointed to the blonde woman and shook his head. "Wrong…not…fresh." He said, uncertain of how to explain what was wrong.

Silver Moon followed his gaze and suddenly erupted into laughter. "Not fresh?"

Another appeared next to Silver Moon, causing Kitsune to jerk back and hiss. "Ha ha ha! Not fresh, I can attest that 'fresh' is one thing Tsunade is!"

Kitsune wasn't used to the humans who would suddenly appear and disappear; he just didn't understand how it worked and the others—save Silver Moon—knew not to appear suddenly unless they wanted to possibly lose a limb. Peering at the tall human, he recognized him as the man who made Kyuubi go away. Pointing at the tall man surrounded by white hair, he looked to Silver Moon. "Who?"

"This is—"

"Who? Who? You don't remember me?" The man raged, "I am the Legendary Great Ninja of the Hidden Leaf! The sexy, irresistible Sannin who no woman can deny…Jiraiya!"

"Pervert." Raven-Hair murmured, voice thick with disgust. "How can a Sannin be such a pervert?"

Kitsune frowned, staring at the strange red marks on the man's face. He approached him cautiously and sniffed around him, wrinkling his nose at the strong arousal that rolled off the man. Kitsune looked up at the man and then followed his gaze, seeing the four young human women giggling and huddling close to each other as they came closer. Kitsune looked up at the sun, wondering how the human women were cold in such heat, but humans were weird and he found that human women were even weirder. "P-perv…Sann." Kitsune muttered, nodding his head in agreement with Raven-Hair even though he didn't understand the words.

"What?" The pervert screeched, face going red with anger. "You brat! Come here." He lunged at the blonde boy, but Kitsune nimbly leapt backwards, dodging the man's outstretched hands. The roundhouse kick that followed almost took him by surprise, but Kitsune was able to block just in time and quickly scrambled back from the man, growling menacingly at him. "I said come here!" The Sannin shouted, jumping towards the young foxling, but once more Kitsune slipped beneath his attacks as if he were a skilled jounin instead of a lowly genin.

Suddenly the attacks became quicker and Kitsune was finding it hard to follow the man's movements. If not for his instincts, he was sure he'd be dead by now. Blocking once more, he quickly tried to retreat again as was his nature as a scavenger, but the white haired man refused to let him escape and a well-placed punch had Kitsune's head snapping back with a sickening sound.

Yet the sound that followed was chilling to all those present. A deep rumble like thunder filled the meadow, growing in size and volume until many of the younger ninjas were covering their ears in pain and fear. It continued until the rumble was a roar of anger and Kitsune snapped his head back to the direction of the Sannin. Chakra built up until it was visible to the eye, red and dark, and lashing out at the older man.

"Shit!" The Sannin shouted, jumping back and just missing the claw-like chakra that crashed into the ground, leaving ten foot gashes where he had once stood. Eyes wide, Jiraiya lay sprawled on the ground long enough to ogle the sizzling grass before he felt that immense chakra gathering again and he scrambled to his feet. He caught movement in his peripheral vision, but the blonde was unmoving before him and he made the mistake of assuming it was allies. He recognized the same chakra signature too late and found himself being attacked from all sides while the strange blonde child remained before him.

While, being a Sannin, he was able to avoid almost all the attacks, one clone was able to land a punch square to his chest, forcing the breath from his lungs and pushing him back several feet. "Kage Bunshin?" He wheezed in shock, "But that's a jonin level jutsu!"

"Jiraiya-sama!" A voice called, appearing beside him with kunai drawn. "Are you okay?" The masked hunter-nin asked him.

Rolling his shoulders, Jiraiya cracked his neck to the side and waved the hunter-nin away, "It's going to take a lot more than that to get the best of me."

"But this is the Kyu—"

"No, this isn't." He interrupted, staring straight into enraged, but clear, blue eyes. "I've met the Kyuubi no Kitsune and this is not the demon, just a child pissed off at an old man."

"This is pissed off?" The hunter-nin gaped. The scrawny blonde child barely looked to be a threat, but the killing intent rolling off the small body told a different story.

Laughing, Jiraiya clapped the masked ninja's shoulder, "I don't think he even wants to kill me, just show me who he thinks is the boss. It's fun!" He grinned, shoving the hunter-nin away and turning his full attention once more to the prospective genin, "Now then, come on kiddo, show me what you've got!"

Tsunade watched from the side lines as the two clashed once more, red chakra exploding from the small tan body and yet to her expert eyes, it was sloppy and while in large quantities, the damage it did wasn't nearly on par. The child used much more chakra than he needed to, which meant he'd tire much more quickly, but then again, the Kyuubi's chakra did change everything. Did demons, who are pure chakra, tire from too much use? Or was it an infinite amount? If it was…the next question would be could the child's body take an infinite amount of chakra or would he burn up first?

Crossing her arms, she watched the two with calculating eyes. She knew she should call it off, but she also knew the child, Naruto, wouldn't listen in this state. And while part of her didn't care, the other part of her remembered her promise to Jiraiya, that she wouldn't become Hokage unless she was certain she wouldn't put him to death. While that, of course, had slipped her mind when she had taken the job (damn drinking game), she certainly remembered it now and she refused to go back on her promise. Jiraiya could certainly handle himself when he wanted to and he had survived multiple beatings all the way back to Konoha, so he certainly should be able to beat a slip of a child who wasn't even a genin.

And yet…it was obvious the child was skilled. She couldn't deny it as she watched Naruto slip beneath the Frog Sannin's defenses and land another deft punch to his sternum. It was obvious the child had figured out his weakest spot and was using it to the best of his abilities. Though it was the only place he was able to land a punch on, anywhere else and Jiraiya was able to block and parry with ease and extreme skill.

Sasuke and Kakashi watched from the sidelines on the other side of the field and much closer than the rest of the village. They knew Kitsune was still in control in the fluid and semi-human movements he was making and it didn't look like he was losing control, but somehow he had found a way to manifest the Kyuubi's chakra or, as Kakashi pondered, was it that the Kyuubi was biding his time to break through? He thought he had been told that the Kyuubi's chakra had been cut off, but there was no mistaking that the red chakra was from the Kyuubi.

"Why isn't Hokage-sama intervening?" Sasuke asked, eyes narrowed as he watched Kitsune summersault away from Sannin and duck beneath a green sludge-like mass (1). The mass missed its intended target and hit the ground, sticking to every blade of grass it could reach.

Kakashi shrugged, his stance bored and relaxed, but Sasuke could see how his gaze never once left the two before them. Regardless of how he looked on the outside, he was worried about the blonde and ready to intervene if necessary. "I'm sure the Hokage will stop it before anyone is hurt." He murmured, watching as Jiraiya sprinted towards Kitsune with a warrior's call.

Surprisingly, Kitsune held his ground, his small and wiry frame taunt as red chakra swirled around him. The two locked fists with a flash of chakra, causing those closest to jump back with surprise. A collective gasp went through the crowd as a cloud of dust blocked their sight and Tsunade quickly dashed forward, only to find two Anbu in front of her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She yelled, enraged.

"We apologize Hokage-sama, but we can't let you endanger yourself by interfering with the Kyuubi ampoule." The zebra masked Anbu murmured above the sounds of cracking and smashing behind them.

"I was chosen to be the Hokage because the village recognized me as the strongest ninja. Now," she growled while rolling up her sleeve, "get out of my way."

The two Anbu glanced at each other and with a bow moved away just as the dust finally began to settle. Tsunade strode forward just in time to see Jiraiya stuck in his own toad oil at the feet and biting his thumb to swipe his blood across an open scroll. Four seals later, a large red toad appeared to his right and looked around curiously.

"Jiraiya, why have you summoned me?" The toad asked, adjusting the sword that hung around his large belly, his black jacket rustling slightly with the wind. "And why is the little blonde thing staring at me like that?"

"He's the enemy, attack him Gamabunta!" Jiraiya ordered, uselessly trying to dislodge his legs from the toad oil.

"Wha…? He's the enemy?" He asked, pointing at the small, frozen blonde who stared wide eyed at the gigantic toad before him. "The little twerp?"

"Yes! Can't you see I'm stuck here?"

"In your own attack." Gamabunta deadpanned, "How exactly did that happen?"

"Who cares how it happened, just attack the brat!" Jiraiya screamed, pointing wildly at Kitsune who was slowly moving away from the large amphibian.

"Hmmm…" The toad boss stared at the small blonde human. Those blue eyes were full of fear and wonder, but there was an intelligence in them, a calculating that surprised him. "Fine, but you owe me for calling me here for such a shrimp." Gamabunta reared back, sucking in breath and readying himself to launch Teppodama.

"ENOUGH!" Tsunade yelled, storming onto the battlefield, causing the Oyabun to sputter and Jiraiya to flinch. Kitsune immediately hissed and readied himself for an attack, his awe forgotten. "Honestly, conjuring up Gamabunta was just overkill, no matter how skilled the potential genin may be. This was just supposed to be a simple test, but because you're such a pervert, this became a full on brawl. Honestly!" She huffed, throwing her hands in the hair, "Sometimes I wonder how old you really are."

Even Gamabunta shrunk back. He knew the slug sannin well and even he was wary of her strength. "I was only—"

"You know how Jiraiya is, Bunta! Come on, look at the kid," she cried, pointing at the utterly confused blonde who was now crouched on the ground and sniffing at the toad oil near him, "and you were going to shoot a water bullet at him?"

"Ah…" He puffed his pipe and glared at Jiraiya, "You owe me." Then with a puff of smoke, the toad boss was gone.

Kitsune jumped and bound over to where the remnants of smoke were dissipating into the air, but no matter how much he sniffed around, he couldn't find a whiff of the toad except in that one spot. He growled and glanced at Silver-Moon, it was the same thing he did and still, Kitsune didn't understand it.

"This proves it, the child is too dangerous. Absolutely no way he can ever be allowed to become a genin." Utanane rasped, Danzo following close behind her.

Tsunade quirked an eyebrow, "And why is that?"

"You saw the red chakra, you know what that means."

"Yes, I do, but there is no doubt that he is a skilled genin and will make a great addition to our ranks."

"You cannot actually be—"

"Yes, I actually am." Tsunade smiled, turning to the blonde who was watching the exchange guardedly, his body still ready for battle. Slowly, she approached the child, watching as fear, curiosity and uncertainty flashed in those azure eyes. Crouching down, she smiled brightly, "Hi, I'm Tsunade and you're our newest genin."

Dhampir

Page 7

8/27/20

Note: Holy shit I have a new chapter written! It's only been...forever and a day! This story has still been on my mind for a long time, but things got too hectic. Hell, I don't even know if anyone is left to read it. Still not positive where it's going, but hopefully it'll continue ^_^