Cherry Blossom Promise
Words: 917
@narutoccw2022
For: @shinobimagpie who is always helping me come up with amazing idea’s and listening to me ramble about my fics 💜💜💜
A moment of peace.
No Jiraiya screaming in her ear about beautiful women, or Orochimaru muttering under their breath about things she’s certain she should not ask for clarification about.
Just her, Dan and a nice little picnic under the biggest cherry blossom tree in all of Konoha. A tree Tsunade knew well, having watched her grandmother tenderly planting it in the ground in her favourite resting spot.
“One day,” her grandmother promised as she guided her hands to bunch up some dirt over the saplings' roots. “This will be a tree big enough to sit under, and you’ll be able to spend your days sitting here. Maybe you’ll even have a moment to spare to remember me.”
Her grandmother was right. Here she was almost twenty years later standing under that same tree, staring up at the beautiful cherry blossoms blooming on the branches, and all she could think about was the woman who had sat by her bedside singing when she was scared, or stood behind her and taught her how to mix ingredients perfectly into a wonderful dish.
She was so caught up in her memories that she forgot who she was with.
“Earth to Tsunade,” Dan flicked her against the forehead, chuckling when she glared at him. “So you are still in there.”
Rubbing the offending area, she huffed. “I like your kisses better,” she muttered under her breath. “Besides, it’s not like you can blame me.”
“I know, I know,” his laughter was infectious. A brilliant sound in a world so full of terrible noises. “This tree’s important to you. That’s why I thought it would be nice to have a picnic here.”
A picnic with the perfect view, in her opinion. With Dan in the forefront and the cherry blossoms perfectly framing him in a picture she would love to commit to memory.
A moment she never wanted to lose.
“Just the two of hs,” she smiled at the thought. No teammates to come crashing in to ruin their fun. “You told Sakumo-“
“He’s training with Jiraiya,” Dan assured her. “When I told him my plan he agreed to distract the most likely person to interrupt us.” A Perfect plan. She knew she could count on the Hatake to have her back.
“So it really is just the two of us,” with that confirmed, she slid in close to Dan’s side and laid her head on his shoulder. Something she would refrain from doing if they were expecting anyone else. “Some peace and quiet for once.”
“Just once,” Dan chuckled. “As a treat.”
The worst part was he wasn’t even wrong. With Jiraiya as her teammate, ‘peace’ wasn’t something she got often. It was only in a select few places where she could find a momentary escape from the loud brashness of her friend.
Dan’s company was one of those places.
“You know,” tilting her head back, she stared up at the tree above them and watched as a single petal separated from the flower and floated down, landing on top of Dan’s head. “Pink is a good colour on you.”
“It is, hmm?” Taking the hint, he reached up and searched his head until he found that lone petal, plucking it from his long silver hair and holding it out in front of himself. “Huh.”
“What is it?”
“Oh, nothing,” he moved the petal just in front of her face, still staring at it. “Just thinking.”
“About?”
Lowering the petal, he grinned. “About how much more beautiful you are than any flower I have ever seen.”
Heat rises through her neck into her cheeks. “I-'' unable to process his words, she reverted to standard operating procedure when dealing with embarrassment and punched him in the arm. She had enough control to keep from releasing chakra into the punch, meaning he wasn’t sent flying into the air, but it was still hard enough that Dan cringed away from her.
“Oww,” he complained, rubbing the affected area as if it would make the pain fade. “You know, I need this arm in working condition for my next mission.”
“I’ll heal it,” she promised, a mere mutter under her breath that he barely caught. “Just like I always do.”
“Well, I supposed I’m lucky that way,” tilting his head back he stared up into the sky. “I got the best medical ninja in the world to fall in love with me.”
“The slug princess,” she winked, using the nickname that the old puppeteer from Suna had given her. A nickname she found she loved a lot more than she was supposed to. “Are you sure that’s what you want in your life?”
Reaching out towards her, he threaded his fingers into her hair and pulled her in close, pressing a kiss against her forehead.
“Absolutely,” he whispered against her skin. “I can’t imagine my life without you by my side, Tsunade.”
Cheesy. Clearly, he had been spending too much time with Sakumo, he was picking up those dorky habits of his.
“Forever?”
“Forever and after.” He promised, smiling that bright handsome smile she loved so much.
“I’ll hold you to that, Dan Katō.”
Here, under the cherry blossom tree, she had helped her grandmother plant, Tsunade saw her future unfolding in front of her. A future with Dan by her side, and many more dates under this same tree.
Maybe one day, if she was lucky, they would marry here. Then her grandmother would have front row seats to that bright, beautiful future.