Part 3 – "What the Hell Year Is It"
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Tsunade left the hospital through the west exit — no ANBU in sight, no one trailing her. That was a good sign… .
The air outside was warm, humid, but not oppressive. Late summer.
The street was full — vendors, children, shinobi. Nothing remarkable. No missing limbs, no funeral parades. Peace-time.
She walked briskly toward the Senju compound, tucked near the north edge of the village, across from where the Uchiha district would one day be isolated. Her sandals tapped against stone, and for a moment, it felt like the weight of the world wasn't digging into her spine.. ohhhh Smaller at least
The compound gates were sealed but untouched.
It was quiet.
She placed her palm on the engraved crest — a spiral maple leaf bordered by four strokes — and pulsed chakra.
It answered.The gate creaked open.
Inside was everything she remembered: the koi pond Hashirama built in a drunken bet with Tobirama, the wooden walkway where she broke her toe fighting barefoot, the training field Nawaki never got to master.
Empty. But intact.
She walked past the old war masks and dusty scrolls and entered her quarters.
Clean.
She stepped inside. The wood smelled of oil and old sun. No scent of blood or sake or medicated salve. No signs of anyone living here regularly.
She found her old desk tucked under the window. Same drawers. Same scratchy wood grain.Inside: mission records, old notebooks, a copy of the Shinobi Code of Conduct she once used as a coaster.
Then she saw it — the calendar.
Pinned to the inside cover of a mission ledger, next to a slightly dried inkbrush.
She pulled it free.
Year: 43 After Founding (AF)Month: Early Harvest Moon
Tsunade's fingers curled around the paper.
That was two years before the Second Shinobi War began.
Two years before Nawaki died.Two years before Dan's heart stopped in the mud.Two years before everything crumbled.
She let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
She'd always assumed if she got the chance to go back — really go back — she'd land during the war. Or right before Naruto's birth. Or just in time to stop Orochimaru's first defection.
But no.
She was back before all of it.
Which meant she didn't need to race the future.
She could outwalk it.
She sat down, spread the calendar flat, and began mapping every major event from memory:
- Nawaki's mission to the southern border
- Dan's proposal to Hiruzen
- Orochimaru's first human experiment
- Jiraiya's solo travel north
- ROOT's first mobilization
- Kirigakure's descent into the Bloody Mist
- The Uzumaki's last sealed vault
- The first signs of chakra destabilization that would eventually awaken Kaguya's prison
And the one she feared most:
- The moment the shinobi world stopped being a culture of warriors… and became a farm for gods.
Tsunade sat very still.
Then she turned the calendar over, flipped to the back, and slowly drew a spiral with a stroke of ink. At the center, she marked 43 AF.
Then she began drawing outward. Rings. Years.
She sat with it a long time.
Then she stood. Found a fresh sheet. Drew the Senju crest at the top.
Time to start drafting the world again.