Chapter 52.4- One Thousand Hands

She kept running, moving like her life depended on it, because it did.

“Can you call for help?” Orochimaru asked now. She’d told him about her Grandmother’s seal before, the insurance the Uzumaki matriarch had given her before allowing her to be sent here to war. It was probably some sort of apology for so obviously favoring Shori over her. If only Mito knew that Tsunade couldn’t really care less. She had learned very early on that no one could compete with Shori when their family’s affection was the prize to be won.

Even with all his antics, Granduncle had still favoured him. And when she was younger, an angry part of her had concluded that it was because of what lay between his legs, but that had been proven wrong in the most conclusive manner there was. Nawaki, another boy, was born to the family, and it seemed that no one really cared. She wondered what it was about her most annoying cousin that drew so much affection from people who should have disregarded him on account of his terrible personality. Nonetheless, he was still the favoured one and she was left with the scraps.

Thinking about it now made it seem like ’twas something she regretted. It wasn’t. She was grateful for Shori. Shori had meant she didn’t have to see the disappointment on Granduncle Tobi’s face when she took too long to learn an A-rank jutsu from the element that was the exact oppposte to her natural affinity, or even worse the casual way Grandmother Mito would cluck if she failed to understand and deconstruct a seal on the first try. Tryhard, that was what Jiraiya called him.

She would have agreed, but she knew that Shori did very little trying as a matter of fact. It was more or less all natural talent. People couldn’t understand what it was like to watch a prodigy grow in real time.Shori had caught up with her own fuinjutsu knowledge before he was even old enough to be let out of the house without a guard and nanny. He had learned the ninjutsu she’d spent months on in a matter of days, become the youngest since Uncle Tobi himself to become an adult by Senju standard. He wasn’t even out of his teen years when he. Began to be strong enough to punch in the same weight class as her team. And from what she had heard of his fight with the Second Raikage— he had only gotten stronger since then. But this wasn’t about him. She had something he didn’t now.

“We need to get closer to the village” She said through gritted teeth, continuing to run.

“Of course we do” He snarked. She could see the way his worry over Jiraiya’s state turned him into someone else. How could she tell him that Jiraiya was going to die, and there was nothing they could do about it. Nothing at all. She scowled, feeling tears rear in her eyes.