"You might still be able to become Hokage, if Mariko is able to reason with Jiraiya... You'd be good at it."

"I'd be terrible at it. I'm selfish, a drunkard, temperamental, undiplomatic... But I realize that Konoha's currently low on options. All of the Fourth's students are dead, as are all of Jiraiya's except now Mariko."

"Konoha doesn't currently have a Hokage?" Dan asks.

Tsunade shakes her head. "There was a Fourth, but he died twelve years ago. Sarutobi-sensei stepped back up, but died himself about a month ago." She is not telling him about Orochimaru's part in that, she doesn't want him to think she's a monster. She's already self-recriminating enough.

"Jiraiya had also refused the position, last I heard. I doubt he's one to walk back on that... But Konoha has other options. Nara Shikaku, Akimichi Chouza, Maito Gai, at least one of the current Twelve Guardian Ninjas... None of them ideal, but Konoha hasn't had an ideal leader since the First."

"Konoha can solve its own problems," she says, crossing her arms. "Besides, in a few more years the current crop will be old enough... That Mariko seemed to have potential. At least determination. And I still owe her a forfeit."

They think on that, calling up Rian's memories of their year-mates. "There's some potential among the up and coming generation, yes... Though the thought of Mariko as Hokage is oddly chilling." She'd have to learn a lot about diplomacy, for one thing.

"Heh. She's got the right spirit, though."

Dan looks over at Tsunade, then. "I still can't wrap my head around you having left Konoha behind. But... I'll follow you, and try to make a difference for the better, wherever we end up."

She goes solemn. "Sound might be good, then, I haven't been making any difference at all since you... since you died, just accruing debt and making more work for myself healing my liver."

They nod. "There's still a lot of difference to be made in that village, too. Anyways... I suspect Jiraiya will be done arguing, soon. Do you want to go ahead and bring back Nawaki, or wait?"

"...Wait, likely. For all that I want to see him again now, I don't want to have to explain to him why we're fighting Jiraiya..."

"Okay - seriously, why would you fight Jiraiya - he likes you! He's your teammate!" Dan says.

Tsunade shifts. "I - Said that I healed Orochimaru's arms. And that he's a missing-nin. Jiraiya is rather firmly convinced he's going to destroy Konoha."

Dan goes pale and whirls to face Orochimaru.

They hold up their hands. "I won't. Admittedly, Jiraiya's paranoia has some basis - the old Orochimaru would have - but I resonated recently, with a Konoha shinobi. I find myself... Disliking the village less than I used to."

Dan makes a strangled sound. "It's - this is just - so much to take in - "

Tsunade nods and wraps an arm around him. "There's a lot more we haven't told you yet, either... We should get moving, though." She looks at Orochimaru - and at Kabuto and the other sacrifice, who is still standing there silently. "I'm assuming no one in Sound has the chakra needed to summon us?"

They shake their head. (Summoning shinobi or samurai is much, much harder than summoning civilians like the sacrifices, who barely have a chakra network to speak of).

"So we're leaving, then?"

She nods. "Lead the way... Dan, do you mind staying in Sound for now - "

He sighs. "No, not really, it's not like we have many better options at this point."

She squeezes him, then turns back to Orochimaru. "I don't think we'll stick around, but Sound's fine while we're all getting our feet back under us. Lead the way."

"Alright."

He gestures to Kabuto to carry the sacrifice (he should learn her name, but Rian already knows it, so), then they're off.

Chihiro, on the other hand, stays behind. The cat-summons tilts her head and twitches her whiskers, 'feeling' the location of Mariko and that Jiraiya - still where they were. She pads back in that general direction, not bothering to put on much speed, until she's in sight of the two. She hunkers down under some grass, hopefully so they won't see her, and settles in to wait.

Shortly after her summoner's group leaves her range, Mariko storms off, rather theatrically.

Jiraiya starts running in the direction Orochimaru had gone.

Once he's out of sight, Chihiro wriggles out of her hiding place and bounds off after Mariko.

Who hasn't gone far, just beyond the ridge, where she turned and sat to wait.

"Hey, cat," she says. "Sorry I don't have anything for you. How's Rian?"

"Summoner's doing well! Tall summoner was grouchy for a bit because their arms hurt, but small summoner gives me a lot of chicken in cream! Small summoner is working really hard, a lot of people are listening to them now. They like it, I think."

"That's good." Mariko smiles. "So, what brings you here over to my rock?"

"Right!" Chihiro chirps, then bites her paw and places it on the ground, channeling chakra into it. A massive, ornate scroll, with white ends and a dark blue middle, decorated with cats around the brim and an Uchiha fan over the flap, appears in a small cloud of smoke. "The cats of Odoriba Mountain would like to extend to you, Uzumaki Mariko, an invitation to sign our summoning scroll!"

Mariko blinks in shock, then: "That'll make messages with Rian easier..."

Chihiro nods. "Exactly! Summoner requested this, we talked it over, and decided we'd be willing to accept you as a summoner, too."

"I'll be honored," Mariko responds after a few moments. "So... What do I do? I still haven't signed that toad contract of Jiraiya's..."

Chihiro walks her through the process, then through practicing summon Sen, then she takes the summons scroll and dismisses herself as she feels Jiraiya returning.

Mariko talks briefly and stiltedly with Jiraiya - he's planning on letting Konoha know what happened, Tsunade will probably be declared a missing-nin, maybe Shizune too.

He doesn't really acknowledge her incredibly hard work in mastering the Hiraishin, so she withdraws from him, spending time either on her own working on the notes for the Edo Tensei, or taking walks, just not thinking.

Two days after the debacle with Tsunade, she feels the woman entering her range proper, where it's easier for her to tell apart unfamiliar signatures (her range for 'familiar' currently enables tracking them across the country; she's been almost painfully aware of her team). Mariko shifts her walk, taking off towards the woman's location, and landing in front of her.

Tsunade is alone, leaning against a tree.

"Hey, brat," she says.

"Tsunade. How've you been?" she asks, somewhat awkwardly.

"Well enough, we'll be bringing back my brother soon. I hope you didn't get in too much trouble with Jiraiya?"

She shakes her head. "He seems to have convinced himself I'm just misguided, not malicious..."

"That's good at least. As for why I'm here... I believe I owe you a forfeit. That was impressive, mastering both the shadow clone and the Hiraishin like you did."

She shrugs uncomfortably. "It's just math..." she mutters.

"You're better at it than most." And she solemnly removes her necklace, placing it around Mariko's neck. "Don't let that fire in you die out, and you'll make a good Hokage some day."

Mariko nods and smiles and definitely doesn't have to blink back tears. "I'll try my hardest, to continue those dreams... And someday there'll be peace. With Sound, and with everyone."

"It'll be a hard road ahead of you."