"Obaa-san!" Tsunade cried one morning when they reached the Hokage's office to find Mito seated there, reading an enormous scroll.

"Tsunade-chan," Mito greeted wearily and Tsunade noticed she looked extremely tired.

There were lines under her face, an odd sight because, despite the fact that her grandmother was over fifty, she never appeared more than thirty. The same could be said for her grandfather and grand-uncle; Tsunade admired that about them.

Mito then nodded at Orochimaru and Jiraiya.

"Jiraiya-kun, Orochimaru-kun," she said. "I suppose you have come for your first mission?"

"Why are you in the Hokage's seat?" Jiraiya asked, rather impudently.

Hiruzen shot him a disapproving look, but he was unfazed.

"Hokage-sama is out fighting in the war. I am filling in for him with administrative duties meanwhile," Mito said, frowning.

Tsunade knew her grandmother probably wanted to fight; she'd told her that a night or two ago during dinner when Tsunade had finally gotten a chance to meet her amidst all of her other meetings.

"Mito-sama, they have come for their first mission," Hiruzen said.

"Indeed," Mito nodded, picking up a scroll, and holding it out, "Team Seven, your first mission will be a D-rank mission. Your job is to capture a missing cat. A description of the cat and its details are given on the scroll. You have a time limit of two hours to complete this mission."

"..."

"..."

Tsunade and Orochimaru were both silent, feeling rather let down. Jiraiya, however, had never been one to keep quiet.

"What?" he screeched in indignation, "We're not animal-sitters! We're ninja! We want a proper mission, not some lost pet retrieval!"

Mito narrowed her eyes, and Orochimaru swiftly stepped in, taking the scroll.

"Thank you," he said softly, "We will not disappoint you."

"Jiraiya," Hiruzen chastised under his breath, "That was most insolent! Why can you not behave more like Orochimaru?"

"What, like that suck-up?" Jiraiya rolled his eyes, "Please. He can go find as many lost kittens as he wants to. I want real missions."

"Jiraiya-kun," Mito interrupted, and Tsunade noticed she seemed somewhat amused, "There are no real missions right now, except war-missions and those are all A and S-ranked which are far beyond your abilities. We're at war right now, so all escort missions have been withdrawn. D-ranks like this are your only choice."

"Meh, fine," Jiraiya grumbled, attempting to wrest the scroll away from Orochimaru who pocketed it just in time.

"You three may go," Mito dismissed them, "But Hiruzen, please stay back."

She sounded tense, and Tsunade wondered why.

"Bye, Obaa-san," she called before leaving, and Mito nodded at her.

"Finding lost cats," Jiraiya mumbled, "Ridiculous!"

As soon as they were out of earshot, both Orochimaru and Tsunade rounded on him.

"Stop being such an imbecile!" Tsunade shrieked, "Demanding missions like that! You're embarrassing us!"

"Act your age, for once," Orochimaru said haughtily, "And don't forget we're at war. These are the only possible missions for us."

"I'm only seven, you know," Jiraiya pointed out.

"Then don't act like you're three," Orochimaru retorted.

"Teme!" Jiraiya yelled.

**

Finding the cat was what took the longest, but finally, Orochimaru spotted it near some bushes. Jiraiya pounced on it, but it scratched him in the face. Tsunade followed up by trapping it in a ring of kunai, and Orochimaru managed to catch it soon after.

The creature wriggled and spat in Orochimaru's arms, and the boy looked mildly revolted. Jiraiya was glaring at the creature rather venomously, nursing his scratches, but they returned the cat to its owner, fulfilling their first ever mission.

When they went to the Hokage's office, Hiruzen was there, clad in his Jounin vest, along with five other shinobi. Tsunade recognized one of them as Torifu Akimichi-san, Tobirama ojii-san's student, and Hiruzen-sensei's teammate. He was also Kasumi's Jounin instructor.

Mito was there as well, looking exceptionally harried, and there was a general sense of agitation in the room.

"Hokage-sama," Orochimaru spoke up politely, "Hiruzen-sensei."

They both looked at the trio sharply, and Tsunade suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if something was about to go terribly wrong.

"We - completed the mission," Tsunade said hesitatingly, looking questioningly at her grandmother, and then at her teacher.

"Good," was all Mito said, her fingers rubbing at her temples.

"Good," Hiruzen echoed, though he looked rather preoccupied.

Everyone did, in fact.

"What's wrong?" Jiraiya finally asked, "I mean, I know the mission was crap, but it was our first successful mission. You could at least act a little happier, sensei!"

"I'm leaving tonight," Hiruzen suddenly announced, turning to his three Genin, "I'm being deployed on an S-rank mission to the front lines."

"What?" Jiraiya exclaimed tactlessly, "Why?"

"A war mission, you dolt," Tsunade whispered, elbowing him.

"We - understand, sensei," Orochimaru said.

"Yeah," Jiraiya nodded, cottoning on, "Yeah, we do. Good luck with that. Don't die on us."

This time both Tsunade and Orochimaru jabbed Jiraiya in the side.

"Ow!" Jiraiya yelped, "Freaks."

"I should be back in two weeks," Hiruzen said, grimacing, "I'm sorry I have to leave you in the middle of your training like this, but I'm sure you can manage D-ranks well enough without me."

"Don't worry, sensei," Tsunade assured him, despite the sinking feeling in her stomach, "We'll handle them just fine!"

"Yep," Jiraiya nodded enthusiastically, "Lost cats don't stand a chance against Tsunade-chan, Orochimaru-teme and me!"

*

*

Hiruzen-sensei and the others left that night. Tsunade didn't know why but seeing him go made something churn in her stomach like things would go terribly wrong. She didn't know much about the progress of the war; her grandmother wouldn't tell her, and she was too scared to listen to random villagers gossip about it. Civilians tended to exaggerate.

Her parents hadn't come back, and nor had her grandfather or grand-uncle. Her sensei had left, and Mito was perpetually busy with one thing or another. Tsunade had abundant D-rank missions to keep busy, but other than Jiraiya's asinine antics, these were quite tedious and boring as well.

Two weeks passed that way, and she spent most of her time with her teammates. Tsunade often found that Jiraiya's lame jokes and obnoxious comments weren't so bad when they helped take her mind off of war for even a few seconds. Orochimaru was steadily showing more and more emotion, especially aggravation around Jiraiya, though he got along amicably enough with her. Tsunade also spent some time with Kasumi and her teammates. Akako Uchiha was less hostile towards her; he seemed to have lost some of his arrogance after his clan leader Madara's defeat. A lot of his relatives and family had been deployed to fight as well.

Even after two weeks, Hiruzen didn't return, and things started going downhill. There were food cuts and rations in the village, something which annoyed Jiraiya greatly. There was an increase in civilian thefts and petty crimes since there were no ANBU or shinobi around to guard the village, all of them having been deployed to fight the war. This lead to an early curfew which Mito imposed on Tsunade; she had to be back at the Hokage Tower by six.

Every now and then they would receive news that shinobi had lost their lives in battle. Both of Sakumo Hatake's parents died, as well as Hikari Hyuuga's father and many others. Tsunade always waited with bated breath when the telegrams came, dreading that one of them would have her mother's name, or her father's. Fortunately, that didn't happen, though months passed without a word.

Then suddenly, one day when she, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru had been walking along the main road, Tsunade saw her grandmother, Mito, looking pale and extremely worried, jumping along the rooftops with great speed, accompanied by two ANBU.

Tsunade didn't get a chance to speak to her. Though she wondered why Mito suddenly left the village, how she even managed considering Hashirama had placed a jutsu to keep her safe inside it - she never quite realized what could have happened.

Three hours later Mito Senju returned, with Tobirama, Tsunade's parents, and two ANBU bearing a large box covered in white cloth.

That's when Tsunade learned that her grandfather, Hashirama Senju, the Hokage of Konoha - had been killed during the war.

Konoha was in mourning after that; or would have been, if three-fourths of its shinobi population wasn't out fighting the war. Tsunade's parents were distraught, Mito was inconsolable and had apparently fainted from shock after she was unable to heal him, and Tsunade herself broke down into tears.

"We're sorry, Tsunade-hime," Orochimaru had told her, as Jiraiya patted her back awkwardly, and the name only made her cry harder.

It was the first time Orochimaru had addressed her that way, but all the villagers used to because of her grandfather.

Hashirama Senju had been a great man; not just as Hokage, but to Tsunade, as her grandfather too. He was always full of kind words, gentle pats on her head, and encouragement. He had often spoken to Tsunade about 'the will of fire' which he believed lived in all the villagers and shinobi, giving them inner strength so they could fight for Konoha. He had fought for Konoha, and Tsunade had seen him with his Mokuton, and she had known how powerful he was. But he'd been more to her than just that; he'd told her stories at night, and he'd helped her with academy homework when her parents were out, no matter how much paperwork he had. As Hokage, he was loved to the village, but to Tsunade, he was so much more.

Tsunade bawled her lungs out for almost the entire funeral, clutching to her parents. Jiraiya and Orochimaru stood by her as well, rather awkwardly, in their black yukatas. Her grandmother Mito tried to keep a brave face, but Tsunade had seen her crying at night later on.

Tobirama himself had become uncharacteristically somber. He was no longer as jocular and carefree as before, and though Tsunade hadn't seen him crying, he seemed the worse off other than Mito after his brother Hashirama's death.

Tsunade learned that he'd been made Hokage in Hashirama's place, but there was no celebration or formal induction. They were at war, Hashirama had just died along with many other shinobi, and there was no time for that. He didn't even don the traditional Hokage attire (he'd always jokingly mocked Hashirama when he had worn it) though Tsunade noticed he'd taken to wearing Hashirama's crystal necklace.

He barely stayed in the village though. Just a day after his induction (which was two days after Hashirama's funeral) he had been deployed on the front-lines again. The war raged on, and Tobirama had told a tearful Tsunade and morose Mito that his team badly needed him. He'd hugged Mito good-bye, given Tsunade a gruff kiss on the cheek and ruffled her head, before leaving, just like that, all over again.

Nearly six months passed, and Tsunade continued to train with her teammates, without a sensei, as most of the Genin did. She didn't know much about the war other than the fact that it happened. The village was in a tense situation, and her grandmother never told her what was happening, apologetically saying the information was classified. Tsunade would hear more and more talk about 'tailed beasts'.

She and Orochimaru asked their academy sensei about these, as well as an ANBU, but they never got an answer, just stern warnings to stay away from the subject. Jiraiya never really bothered about the topic either way.

Tsunade's parents were deployed every now and then as well, leaving her and Mito alone for weeks on end. The Hokage Tower and Senju household were eerily empty. Tsunade sometimes called Orochimaru and Jiraiya home for lunch and dinner, to fill the loneliness. Mito didn't seem to mind their company when she was there, though she usually wasn't around at all.

Finally, after over a year of tense waiting, they received news that the first shinobi world war had finally come to an end. Peace had been achieved but at a high cost.

When the troops and ANBU squads started pouring in, along with Hiruzen-sensei and his team, they learned that their second Hokage, Tobirama-sama was dead as well.

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Hey Lovely Readers 💗💗💗

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Don't hesitate to let me know what you think about this chapter.

Questions:

1: What did you think of this chapter?

2:What was your favorite part of this chapter?

3: What do you hope to happen next chapter?

A\N: Like I said before to let you know what you think should happen in this rewrite. Also, like said I don't remember what happened in the old version expect a little bit of the beginning and the last chapter. So sorry if there are a lot of changes to the story.