One day, as Katsuro and Mito were eating together, a loud voice stormed in.
"Granny! I'm back!" A 10 year old Tsunade returned from her long mission after 3 weeks to find a 5 year old pretty boy with long white hair and green eyes at her table.
"Who's this little brat?"
"Welcome back, Tsunade," Mito said, "This is Katsuro, son of Hana and Raito - he will be living with me now."
"Heehhhh… living with you? What if he's a weird pervert, like Jiraiya? I come over here a lot, you know grandma!"
Katsuro's eye twitched upon hearing that, especially from someone who looked barely older than himself. "I'm not interested in little kids like you."
"What did you say, you brat? You wouldn't know a lady if you saw one!"
As Tsunade and Katsuro went back and forth, Mito looked fondly at the scene of the two orphans fighting, a smile slowly brightening her face. Eventually, Tsunade went to hit Katsuro's head and to her surprise found him dodge it.
"How dare you dodge, come here and fight me!"
Mito, lightly chuckling at the scene, said, "Are you sure you want that Tsunade? You might lose."
"Huh? Are you serious right now Grandma? I've been doing missions for 4 years! There is no way I'll lose to a tiny brat still in the academy. He probably doesn't even know how to perform the clone Jutsu."
Katsuro's eye twitched again, "Let's have a bet then - if I win you have to kneel down and apologise to me!"
Tsunade smirked, "You want me to kneel to you? I knew you were a pervert."
Katsuro blushed sightly, "You…! You know that's not what I meant, maybe YOU'RE the pervert with these wild thoughts."
Tsunade snorted, "Hmph … fine then! If I win, you have to give me 20,000 ryo to clear my gambling debt."
Katsuro scowled, "Gambling and you're barely even older than me! And 20,000 in debt because of it…"
A few minutes later, Katsuro faced Tsunade, with Mito overseeing from the side and made the seal of confrontation. making the seal of confrontation.
Immediately, Tsunade rushed at Katsuro, seeking to end the fight immediately. Katsuro dodged, easily, but was shocked to see the crater that formed in the ground.
Definitely cannot let her hit me, he thought, wiping sweat off his brow.
Making hand signs, Katsuro used Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu, surprising Tsunade with the size of the fireball, formed by an academy student, that threatened to swallow and burn her. As a talented and experienced shinobi in her own right, Tsunade dodged and countered, bursting with extreme speed to try to strike Katsuro. She landed the punch but 'Katsuro' popped in a burst of smoke.
"A shadow clone?" she muttered, somewhat shocked again at the boy's ability. Before Tsundae even had time to look around, she was pulled underground with Katsuro using Earth style: Headhunter Jutsu. Katsuro rose from the ground, looking down at Tsunade and grinned.
"Looks like I win!" he boasted. "Are you sure you've been doing missions for 4 years? You might need to go back to the Acad-" Before he could finish his sentence, the ground exploded as Tsunade broke free with an furious expression, punching him in the face and sending him flying through a tree - but not before he managed to counter with a kick towards the left of her face which she, while caught off guard, blocked with her left arm.
Despite seemingly winning the exchange, Tsunade glanced down at her left arm from the pain and grimaces.
Katsuro gets up, despite the damage he suffers, with a strong physique - exceptional even among the Senju clan, held back only by his age. As he goes to draw his short sword from his back and launch at Tsunade, he hears Mito. "Let's end this here before the yard is destroyed even more."
"Tch!"
"I clearly win!" Tsunade expressed smugly, despite inwardly being shocked at his strength.
"No you don't, the fight wasn't done yet!"
"So what, I was holding back!"
"So was I!"
"How could a little academy brat like you even hold back?"
Before it could escalate again, Mito intervened, "Let's end this as a draw, but yes, Tsunade, he was holding back." Mito gives Katsuro a knowing look hinting at something beyond the surface, a secret between grandmother and grandson.
The pair of Tsunade and Katsuro initially started rough, with them butting heads whenever they came across each other. But theIR relationship improved when Tsunade lost her mother to childbirth. They had an understanding between each other, as children who had lost far too much at such a young age and sought comfort in this familiarity. Konoha's next few years passed relatively uneventfully - a surprise many, including Katsuro, were grateful for. His days were quite monotonous, filled with training but also spending time with his family which now also seemed to include Tsunade. Mito would often look between the two with a cunning gleam in her eye seemingly plotting something as they fussed over Tsunade's baby brother Nawaki. But more importantly, she was happy that the both of them could help each other heal from their respective wounds. That being said, Katsuro didn't dare slack off. The scars of the loss of his parents remained fresh, no matter how much time had passed. People had often told him many things to cope with being an orphan.
"It's not your fault, you were just a child."
"They died with honour, doing their duty as shinobi."
"They would want you to move on."
Sweet, idealistic, maybe even kind words, but utterly useless. The truth was that regardless of his age, if he had the means - the power - to save his parents, he could have, and that simple truth had kept him awake every night ever since that day. The sealing lessons from Granny Mito were extremely useful, yes, but were they enough? Enough to destroy those who had killed his parents? Enough to make sure that not a single person Katsuro cared about would never have to shed a drop of blood? No, not a chance.
The Academy was also useless. What was the point in learning Jutsu that he already knew? No, Katsuro needed to learn more.
That's why on those countless nights that he couldn't sleep, he found himself digging into the Senju clan archives (with Granny Mito's permission of course), researching, learning, practicing Jutsus most had never heard of, from scrolls most had never even seen - but there was too much to learn, and not enough time.
AN: If you would like to view up to 20 chapters ahead, and would also like to support me, please visit my P@TR30N, at pa tr eon.com / GhidorahWriter (remove the spaces). Also, if you like the story so far, please remember to vote for the fic by voting with power stones, so we'll be able to continue uploading daily! Thanks for reading!