Uchiha Toshiko woke up on a dusty floor, before rolling over and letting out a groan.

She was killed by a random Root shinobi. After Madara, it had to be a no name Root shinobi.

That was just pathetic.

It wasn't the time to feel sorry for herself though.

Toshiko got up and decided to continue her self appointed mission to get Tsunade back to Konoha. It would be a lot harder since she didn't have the tragic backstory of 'being kidnapped and forced to become an emotionless child soldier' anymore, but she'd do the best with what she had.

She left the village again by jumping off the northern wall, and made a mental note about that hole in security. It really shouldn't be thus easy to get out of a ninja village.

Toshiko had no idea of Tsunade's actual whereabouts and her search was largely based on visiting her usual haunts that she had observed when she had travelled with her lives ago, and keeping an ear for any news of Legendary Sucker. Her patience bore fruit two months into her search when she found Tsunade in a small gambling town near the border of Land of Rivers.

Tsunade was not impressed at seeing her.

"How old are you, three? Are they recruiting children in diapers now?" She asked her incredulously.

"I'm five, Tsunade-sama. And I'm not a ninja." Toshiko answered.

Tsunade scoffed at that. "If you're not a ninja, kid, then I'm not drunk. I can sense your chakra signature, it's larger a few Jonin I've met, and I've a feeling you're suppressing it."

Toshiko grimaced at that. Tsunade was the one who had taught her the technique to hide the strength of her chakra reserves, which were now, after so many lives, perhaps comparable to Hoshigaki Kisame, the tailless biju.

"I admit I'm more advanced than kids my she, I haven't even the attended the academy yet." The 'yet' part of the statement was what prevented it from being a lie. She had never attended academy before this period in time.

"What is a pre-academy Uchiha brat doing here then?"

"I've come here to ask you to come back to Konoha and take up the position of Godaime Hokage." Toshiko proclaimed.

Tsunade burst out laughing at that. While Toshiko had expected that, it still put in perspective the enormity of the task she had set for herself. She had travelled with Tsunade for years and knew her complete reluctance of ever returning to Konoha, let alone become the Hokage. But Naruto had somehow achieved it. She didn't know how since she had been kidnapped by Orochimaru by that point, but he had done it. It was possible.

"Tsunade-sama, Konoha needs a new Hokage. Sandaime-sama had retired for a reason. He took up the hat once again after Yondaime-sama's death, but...."

"And why should I care about all that? I've left Konoha, for good. Why do you care about it, anyway? You're just a kid, nit even a ninja, according to you." Tsunade interupted.

"I care because I wish to become Hokage one day." She said with as much conviction as she could. "But I can't do that now, and I want Konoha to be standing by the time I'm ready to defend it."

Tsunade only rolled her eyes at that. "Go back home, kid. This is above your pay grade."

"Konoha administration has been segregating the Uchiha. Kids have been going missing- orphans, clan kids. The new Kyuubi container, who is just an infant, is being demonised and vilified by the villagers." Toshiko recounted. She wished she could talk about Root, but realistically had no way of knowing about that.

Tsunade hesitated a bit. "It's not my problem, kid. I don't care about Konoha."

"But Konoha is your home, isn't it? When there's is a problem in your home you fix it, not run away." Toshiko felt a bit hypocritical, giving that spiel, but ploughed on. "It was your grandfather that had the dream of building Konoha, your granduncle who developed ideas that made Konoha into what it is today. Amd you were the one who revolutionalized medicine in Konoha. I think you're lying when you say that you don't care about Konoha."

Tsunade glared at her. Toshiko had associated that glare with a punch coming a second later, but Tsunade just stomped her foot and walked away. Probably, didn't want to hit a five year old.

Well, it looked like Plan 'Be Like Naruto Part 1: Impassioned Speech' had failed.It was time for Part 2.

Toshiko found Tsunade the next day, in a bar, drinking, at noon. Shizune was there with her, probably for damage control.

"You're here again? Don't you have parents?" Tsunade slurred.

"They have been dead for a while. I'd been living with my grandmother. She died the day I set out from Konoha to search for you." Toshiko answered, truthfully.

"What? You left Konoha alone?" Shizune asked, worriedly. "Tsunade-sama, you didn't tell me that."

"What do you want brat? I already told you I'm not going back to Konoha." Tsunade glared at Toshiko.

"I'm here to make a bet."

"What bet?" Tsunade asked, intrigued.

"I bet that I'll learn any of your techniques in a week. If I do, you'll come back to Konoha with me and become the Godaime Hokage."

"Hah." Tsunade laughed. "And what about when you lose? Do you have anything comparable to bet?"

"My eyes." Toshiko answered, activating her Sharingan. "I have awakened my Mangekyou Sharingan, which grants me the ability of teleportation. You can take my eyes of I'm unable to learn the jutsu."

"I'm not going to take a kid's eyes." Tsunade replied, horrified.

"Then, I'll come with you then. I'll use the eyes whenever you're in need of the teleportation technique." Toshiko offered.

Tsunade looked at her contemplatively.

"Tsunade-sama, you are not actually considering this, are you? She's just a kid." Shizune asked.

"I think we know that she's not just a kid." Tsunade murmured. " All right, brat. I'll agree to these terms. You'll have to learn my yin seal, in a week. Think you're up for it?"

"Tsunade-sama!"

"Quite, Shizune. Well, brat?"

"Bring it on." Toshiko accepted.

"I felt your chakra when you activated your Sharingan. You have almost perfect chakra control, so you are not going to be in any danger. To form a yin seal, you have to send a steady flow of chakra towards the tenkutsu in your forehead. I've done this with tiny trickle of chakra over the years. But with your reserves, you can manage to send twelve streams simultaneously. If you do that twenty four seven, for the next week, you might be able to gain the yin seal. We'll meet here next week to see if we're going back to Konoha or not, okay?" Tsunade asked, completely sober.

Shizune was still looking at her shishou, horrified.

"Okay, I'll see you next week then, Godaime-sama." Toshiko answered, turning to leave the bar. Tsunade didn't reply. Toshiko didn't let that bother her. She had work to do.

The next week was hell. She wasn't exaggerating. It was worse than root training. Toshiko spent the next seven days suiting crossed legged, meditating and sending continuous streams of chakra from all twenty one tenkutsu of her body towards her forehead. She knew she was overdoing it, but she couldn't take any chances. By the end of seven days, she was chakra exhausted, sleep deprived but was a proud wielder of the yin seal, right in the middle of her forehead.

She wasted no time in running to the bar where she had made the bet with Tsunade.

"I won." She whooped coming to a stop in front of Tsunade, barely keeping herself from falling face down.

"You didn't. You're a day late." Tsunade said, raising an unimpressed eyebrow.

"I'm not. You said seven days." Toshiko protested.

"And it's the eighth day."

"But..." Toshiko was ashamed to say that she felt her eyes moisten and lower lip wobble.

"Oh, don't start crying now. We're going to Konoha. Shizune is packing our stuff now." Tsunade grumbled.

Toshiko looked her wide eyed. "We are?"

"Yes. When you weren't here yesterday, I went looking for you and well,.... We'd have gone to Konoha even if you hadn't succeeded. Good job on that, by the way." Tsunade actually gave her a smile.

"Thank you." Toshiko replied, automatically. She was still shocked at succeeding. And ,perhaps, in actual medical shock too.

"Why don't you rest for some time? It'll be a while before we leave." Tsunade asked, picking up on her exhaustion.

"That's a good idea." Toshiko agreed, passing out in the bar counter.

The next thing she knew was the sound off wood creaking and Tsunade's shout of, "Sensei, I'm here to take your hat."

The actual talks of succession between the Sandaime and Tsunade might have been a bit more detailed, but Toshiko was passed off to Shizune and promptly sent out of the Hokage office, when the next moment Tsunade noticed that she was awake.

Oh, and she also had been made Tsunade's apprentice.

Soon enough, Tsunade's inauguration as the Fifth Hokage took place to the general excitement and approval of the populace. Toshiko didn't know what the reactions of the Uchiha clan were, since Tsunade had apparently talked to Uchiha Fugaku taken Toshiko's gaurdianship under master-apprentice sanctions.

She was also enrolled into the academy, since not doing so would be showing favouritism.

Toshiko wasn't surprised when she found herself in Itachi's class. He was sitting there, in the back of the class like a good ninja, with the rest of the students giving him a wide berth. He appeared unaffected, but Toshiko knew his tells. His rigid back and tightly help shoulders gave away his discomfort.

It had been a long time since she had seen Itachi, but the last time she done so, he was her friend, who had cared enough for her to develop the Mangekyou Sharingan at her death.

She walked up to his desk and sat down next to him. "Hello, I'm Uchiha Toshiko." She introduced herself.

"I'm Uchiha Itachi." Itachi replied. "You're Hokage-sama's apprentice?"

"I am." Toshiko answered. "How did you know about that?" The seal on her forehead was a big giveaway.

"That's very impressive." Itachi told her. "You must be very strong."

"I get by." Toshiko shrugged, with false modesty, when the chunnin instructor called the class to order.

The lecture was boring as hell all in itself, but when you're hearing it for the fourth time? Toshiko couldn't wait to get out of the academy. Tsunade, however, insisted that she had to stay there for atleast a year.

Thankfully, Itachi was there to make things interesting. Toshiko and him had been quick to become good friends, probably hastened by her familiarity with him. They studied together and sparred, and for once Toshiko was the one winning most of the time. Itachi, of course, took it as a challenge, and continued to improve further.

Another change was Tsunade's adoption of Uzumaki Naruto, on the grounds of Tsunade's grandmother being an Uzumaki. Toshiko was greatly relieved by that. Tsunade would not let anybody treat her adopted son unfairly.

In fact, Tsunade implemented quite a lot of changes in the village, solving some of the problems Toshiko hadn't even noticed before, like the understaffing of the hospital or the old fashioned academy curriculum. Tsunade introduced the system of internships into various departments in the village, so that genin corps didn't remain the only option for the genin failing their Jonin sensei's test. Even the Uchiha were coming around and quit their grumbling about another Senju Hokage.

The only thing that Toshiko had been hoping for Tsunade to solve, which she hadn't gotten round to yet, was the mystery of missing children a.k.a. Root. She couldn't shake off the thought that Fu, Shinki, Katsu, Kinoe and dozens of other children were going through hellish training right now, when there she was goofing off and eating dango with Itachi.

It wasn't Tsunade's fault, of course. Danzo was a crafty old man. He wouldn't be careless enough to leave any clues leading to him.

Maybe, Toshiko should lend a hand to help expose Root.

Right. It was time to get kidnapped. The only problem was that no matter how many times she strolled alone in the north forest, no Root ninja even tried to kidnap her. Perhaps, she was now considered an high risk target, being the Hokage's apprentice.

After a few days, Toshiko abandoned that plan and simply sneaked to the base that she had been held in, to see if it was still operational. She remembered the hidden way Kinoe had led her to get out of the base quietly. It appeared that security still hadn't been improved there. Toshiko was successful in confirming the operationality of the base, and quickly went to her shishou with that information.

"A secret army of children?" Tsunade looked at her incredulously. "How did you even find that place?"

"I followed a suspicious ANBU." She answered.

"And what made you categorise that ANBU as suspicious?"

"He was wearing the Hound mask." She didn't need to elaborate further. Everyone knew who Hound was and how recognisable he tended to be.

Tsunade was finally convinced of the seriousness of the situation. That didn't stop her from being angry at Toshiko. "And you decided to follow him all on your own? Do you even possess a shred of self preservation?" She shouted.

"I was careful the whole time. I teleported out if there as soon as I thought that I could get caught." Toshiko defended herself.

It didn't mollify Tsunade. She demanded the location of the base and basically told Toshiko she was grounded.

It didn't prevent Toshiko to hear about the fallout from the events set in motion. Itachi was a wonderful source of gossip, especially since Fugaku didn't have any qaulms about telling his son about the ongoings of the clan council meetings.

The kidnapped children had been discovered and only a few of them had been diagnosed socially fit enough to be returned to normal life. The rest had been either sent to join the normal ANBU forces or (those still loyal to Danzo) sent to the Konoha prison.

Danzo had been charged with treason and bloodline theft and executed. The Sandaime had tried to intervene on his former teammate's behalf, but he had been outvoted. Fugaku had been satisfied with the punishment and impressed with the Godaime.

Perhaps this would be enough to prevent any plans of the coup from gaining traction. The Uchiha had been slowly reintegrated in the village and the bias against them was firmly countered. Toshiko's position as the Hokage's apprentice and her work at the hospital also had helped in increasing the clan's reputation.

The next hurdle in Toshiko's life came with the arrival of Uchiha Shisui.

"Wow, Itachi, I can't believe you're friends with Hokage-sama's apprentice." Shisui suddenly appeared one day, when she as sparring with Itachi. "Hey, Toshiko-chan, is that really a yin seal on your forehead? And is it true that you were the one that convinced Tsunade-sama to return to Konoha and take the hat?"

Toshiko actually stilled in discomfort and very carefully did not meet Shisui's eyes. "Yes, Shisui-san, it's true. Please, excuse me, I'm already late for my lessons with shishou." She wasn't ashamed to admit that she fled.

The next day, Itachi tried asking her about her problem with Shisui. Toshiko didn't want to lie, therefore she told him that it was personal. She told herself that his hurt expression at that answer didn't bother her.

Life continued on. Toshiko graduated academy in one year, like Itachi, though she wasn't put on a team. She continued her lessons on medical techniques and strength augmentation with Tsunade, learned to work with Katsyu, worked at the hospital and started going on missions with other teams.

It was the first time that Toshiko was actually did missions as a genin on jounin track. However, after a month of D ranks, the novelty quickly wore off.

It was her work at the hospital that she loved the most. Kabuto was still there, but Toshiko had no evidence of him being anything other than a loyal genin, so she had to tolerate him. She was careful though. She didn't want to get kidnapped again.

Years passed and despite being shuffled from team to team, and spending majority of her time in the hospital and administrative buildings, Toshiko managed to become chunnin and eventually jonin. Her unorthodox work load, and the tasks set to her by Tsunade led her to assume that the Godaime was grooming her as her successor.

The realisation brought back the train of thought that had inspired her to try to become Hokage in the first place. She had to make sure that Konoha is prepared for the Fourth Shinobi War and Madara.

But, first, she had to take care of another problem.

"No." Tsunade responded to her suggestion of sending a hunter nin sqaud after Orochimaru.

She hadn't forgotten that Orochimaru had invaded Konoha along with the Sand village and killed the Sandaime. Neither had she forgotten the two times he had kidnapped her and forced his cursed seal on her.

Orochimaru was an enemy of Konoha. It was in Konoha's best interests for him to be deader than nails. Toshiko didn't understand why Tsunade was objecting to it.

"Why not?" She asked.

"Orochimaru is currently not causing any problems for us. Sending a hunter nin sqaud after him would accomplish nothing more than a dead hunter nin sqaud." Tsunade said.

"Then send someone who is strong enough to defeat him." Toshiko countered.

"Oh? Someone like you? You think you're strong enough to defeat one of the legendary sannin?" The Hokage raised an eyebrow.

"Me and Itachi. Send us together. We can handle him. I'll use Kamui for us to escape if it doesn't go well." She suggested.

Tsunade regarded the suggestion for a few moments. "Fine. Take your boyfriend snake hunting You do need a few S ranked missions on your record, if you're going to be the Rokudaime."

"He's not my boyfriend." Toshiko answered, trying not to react to the confirmation that Tsunade was indeed grooming her to be her successor.

Itachi was not thrilled at the news of their new mission. "I had promised Sasuke that I would be their for his graduation."

"What are going to do at his graduation? It's not like there is a ceremony." Toshiko asked. "Besides you'll be making the world a safer place for him when he finally goes out for missions as a genin."

"Fine." Itachi sighed. "Do you have a plan?"

"Nope. We're winging it."

And 'wing it' they did. Toshiko didn't have any clues to where Orochimaru might be, except for the fact that he had been a member of the Akatsuki at some point and had supposedly founded a village named 'Sound'. None of the facts were something she could use to track him.

So, they used the old fashioned method of 'asking'. They asked about him at bounty centres, drug dealers, brothels and everywhere else they could. Itachi wanted to use disguises but Toshiko asked him not too. She knew that Orochimaru was after the Sharingan. Two strong Uchiha inquiring about him, wouldn't be something he'd ignore.

After one month of traveling and information gathering, her diabolical plan worked. They were travelling toward the border of Rice Country, when Toshiko sensed a huge chakra source moving towards them at a high speed. Both of them jumped away, and saw a devastating wind attack impact on the place where they'd just been standing.

"Ku ku ku. Atleast, you aren't as pathetic at dodging as you're at information gathering." Orochimaru commented.

"We got you here, didn't we?" Toshiko responded, before punching the ground causing it to erupt into craters.

Orochimaru dodged, but Itachi took the moment to trap him into a genjutsu. Orochimaru fell down unconscious, and Toshiko looked at him increduously.

"That's it? Isn't he supposed to be S rank?" She asked.

"He is." Itachi responded innocently. "I just used a really strong genjutsu."

"Really?" She asked, suddenly glad that Itachi was on her side.

"We should finish him. The genjutsu won't hold out for long." He simply stated, as if he hadn't brought down a sannin with a 'really strong genjutsu'.

"Alright. I'll take care of that." Toshiko answered, moving forwards. She was not fond of killing, but making sure that the bastard didn't get up again, gave her a sweet feeling of satisfaction. She sealed the head to presented as proof for Tsunade.

Kabuto disappeared from the hospital on the day the news of Orochimaru's death by her and Itachi's hand, was announced.

Now, Toshiko's focus was on preparing for the fourth shinobi war and Madara. Her main advantage was the fact that Madara was dead and he'd be brought back by the jutsu that was described in detail in the scroll of sealing that was sitting innocently in the Hokage's office.

"The Edo-tensei?" Tsunade looked at her sympathetically. "Toshiko, I know sometimes the loss of a loved one becomes unbearable, but this jutsu isn't the answer."

"What? No, no. No! You've got it all wrong. I don't want to use it, I just want to study it in case it's ever used against us." Toshiko tried to explain.

"The jutsu created by my granduncle? Currently written down only in the highly secure scroll of sealing? Used against us?"

"Yes, yes and yes."

Tsunade put her hand over her forehead. "Why the sudden interest in the jutsu? You don't even know fuinjutsu."

"Sure, I do. There's plenty of sealing in medical jutsu." Toshiko protested.

Tsunade scoffed. "That isn't even one percent of what fuinjutsu masters can do. Jiraiya was the sealing expert on our team, not me."

"Do you think he'd agree to teach me?" Toshiko asked, grimacing. It was important that she figure out a counter to the edo tensei. If it meant that she'd have to willingly spend time with the most perverted man on the elemental nations, then so be it.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at that. "I see you're actually quite committed to this. Fine, I'll ask Jiraiya to take you on as a student."

Jiraiya was even more irritating than Toshiko had expected him to be. He frequently left her to spy on hotsprings, rarely explained anything and was completely disinterested in her as a student.

"Maybe you're not as much of a genius as Tsunade thinks you are." He commented one day, watching her struggle with a simple storage seal.

Toshiko glared at him. Ofcourse she wasn't a genius. The only reason that she was able to get what Tsunade taught her, on the first try, because she had already learnt most of it, multiple times.

"I can see you're not even really interested in fuinjutsu. Why are you doing this, unless of course you wanted to be near my charming personality?" He stared at her lecherously.

"I want to learn how to counter the edo tensei." She bit out.

"The edo tensei?" He asked, baffled. "Why on earth would you want to learn that?"

"I don't want to learn the edo tensei. I want to learn how to counter it." She repeated. "Can you help me or not?"

"It would be decades before you're at the level where you can create a seal like that on your own." Jiraiya said. "So, I'll save both of us the pain and create the counter seal for you."

Toshiko blinked at him, thinking she had misheard. "Really? You will?"

"Ha, of course. The Great Jiraiya has only one weakness, he can't say no to a pretty woman."

Toshiko was so grateful that she even resisted the urge to punch him in the face.

Jiraiya indeed delieverd on his promise and provided Toshiko with the seal in a year. She practiced it obsessively until she put apply it with a touch.

Toshiko had been so focused on the threat of Madara and edo tensei, that she had forgotten about the Akatsuki. She was reminded about them painfully, when Konoha was attacked by Pain.

She hadn't known anything about it (it seemed Konoha had kept a few cards close at the Kage Summit), and therefore was not even remotely prepared for it. She was so stupid. There must have been a reason for Tsunade to fall into a coma, leading to Danzo attending the summit.

Pain was there to capture Naruto, who was at Mt. Myoboku learning sage arts. Jiraiya had been the one who had battled Pain in Ame and left a vague hint with the toads which did nothing to help Toshiko at the moment. It didn't matter if 'the real one wasn't there', because the unreal ones were doing a lot of damage themselves.

They were destroying the village infrastructure, asking every passersby about Naruro's whereabouts and killing them mercilessly when they failed to reply to his satisfaction.

Toshiko came across Itachi fighting two of them simultaneously and moved to help.

"Use one of your strong genjutsu." She shouted, throwing a fireball at her opponent.

"It apparently doesn't work against the Rinnegan." Itachi replied, ducking a thrown sword, before abruptly being pulled back into it.

"Itachi!" Toshiko shrieked, as watched his entire abdomen being ripped open. She quickly activated her Mangekyou and transported both of them to the Kamui dimension.

Itachi was still alive but wouldn't be for much longer. Toshiko quickly started healing him, but as his muscles started being sewn together, Itachi gently pushed her hands away.

"Toshiko, you need to go back." He murmured, weakly.

"Are you crazy? You're dying!"

"I'm not the only one. Konoha needs you more right now." He informed her.

Toshiko realised that he was right. Itachi was her friend, but he was only one person. She couldn't prioritise him over others.

She quickly finished a patch job, and regrettably exited the Kamui dimension. She was shocked to find herself in a barren ground instead of the area she had left. It took her a moment to realise that it was the same area. Pain had destroyed it in the time Toshiko had spent healing Itachi.

An exhausted Tsunade was at the edge of the clearing, talking to one of the Paths of Pain Toshiko saw the moment he moved to attack her and used her Mangekyou to send Tsunade to the Kamui dimension. It turned out to be unnecessary as that was when Naruto appeared and destroyed the path with his Rasenshuriken.

Toshiko let out a wince at seeing that attack in action.

"Hey, Nee-chan. You focus on the injured. I'll show this guy the strength of Konoha, ne?" The blonde asked her, sending her a smile.

Toshiko nodded, retreated back. "Beat his ass, Naruto."

She summoned Katsyu and released her Yin seal. There were hundreds of injured, the slug summon was going to need a lot of chakra.

"Toshiko-chan, stop channelling so much chakra. You'll exhaust it." Katsyu protested.

"Just heal the injured, Katsyu. I've got a lot of chakra, I'll manage."

Naruto did keep up his end of the deal and not only ended up defeating Pain but also convinced him to use his Rinnegan to bring back from dead all those he had killed.

Toshiko stood up, intending to welcome him back and congratulate him, but her legs didn't co-operate. She was suddenly able to feel the cold that had seeped into her body. She tried to use her chakra to heal whatever was wrong with her only to come up blank.

She was chakra exhausted. No, she was beyond chakra exhausted, she thought, as she felt her heart giving away.

The world swam before her eyes as she fell down on the ground. She cursed herself as she realised that she couldn't even release Itachi and Tsunade from the Kamui dimension.