"I have been instructed to say that you will be officially declared a missing-nin and a bounty placed upon you if that was your response," Chihiro says from the side of the table. "And that there is no more room for special treatment in times such as these."

"Does Danzo seriously think he can threaten me? You want to fight, little girl?"

Sugira stands.

"Don't threaten my teammate."

...Naruto elbows Sasuke.

"What's beating up a chuunin going to do? Danzo's in the Leaf, not here, and he's not going to give a damn what anyone who isn't Hokage says."

She snorts. "You're not very good at being the carrot, brat."

"I do not wish to fight you. The Sannin were instrumental in Konoha's victory in the Second and Third War. However, it is true that you ought not to continue as a member of the Leaf while performing none of the duties expected of others."

"Hokage's a position for suckers, and Sarutobi's let the village fall to rot."

"Then fix it. All the Hokage who've died... They sacrificed themselves for something. And that thing wasn't perfect, but they did far more than some old drunk drowning herself in her cups."

"Oh, fuck you too. Not a single damn one of them died for anything lasting, and I wouldn't mourn for a second if Sarutobi'd followed. Why the hell should they throw away their lives for one battle in a war that won't end?"

"Peace is for the living," he says, quietly. "Self sacrifice is needed, sometimes, but what they built matters more. The villages changed things for the better. Your grandfather changed things. You... Do you even care about all the lives destroyed in these stupid wars?"

She scowls, thunderously. 

"You can't run forever," Jiraiya says, quietly. "The past always catches up to you eventually."

"Like you're one to talk."

"I'm not running, Tsunade. Never was."

"Could've fooled me. You do remember ditching us after Nawaki died?"

"Those orphans... I had a chance to help. To do something good. A legacy I could be proud of. Chances like that, chances like this don't come around that often."

"And you ended up with nothing to show for it."

"It's always a gamble."

"I only gamble money."

"You can't win if you don't risk anything you value."

"You know, I scored big right before you showed up. Always seem to when stuff's going to shit."

"Real life doesn't work like that. You can't just keep hitting the same slot machine, convincing yourself that as long as you're losing small you're not losing big. We make our own luck."

"And I don't care if you become Hokage or not. I'm going to, someday, and my team and I will fix everything the generations before us couldn't. My dream is peace. And I refuse to believe that's not yours, too."

"'Hokage' is a dream for idiots who die young."

"Then step up, and stop that."

"You wrote a proposal, once. That each team of four should have at least one field medic. It was rejected on the basis that would be too much effort."

"I read that entire proposal. It would have saved a lot of lives, and could have been made to work. Changes like that? Those are made at the top."

"I don't want to lead anyone, either. I want to support my team. I want to save lives. You wouldn't have become a medic if you didn't feel the same, would you?"

"You're trying to become a medic, aren't you. You ever had an ally die under your hands because you just weren't good enough, boy?"