The directions for Otafuku Gai were accurate, and it was, indeed, the first town that they saw in the direction they'd flown in. Signum eyed the scroll had given them… They'd mutually agreed it was best for Signum to do the talking and delivery, since she could keep calm while Vita's already short temper was on an especially short fuse due to stress.
To say that it was an impressive town, given the technology level of the rest of the world, would be saying the least they could say. It was a sprawling metropolis at odds with even the comparatively modern Konohagakure. It was also one of three such cities in the Fire Country, one of the others being the Capital of Fire Country. While nowhere near the level that the Knights had witnessed in TSAB controlled worlds, it was nevertheless a very stark contrast with most other villages, towns and cities in this world.
There were enough high rise buildings that it was unfeasible to search from the sky.
However, it was almost certain that the Hokage's agent was very good, and he seemed to be informed about them. They'd need some way to call attention to themselves, but something that wouldn't cause a wide panic. The easiest way would be to fly somewhere where they were highly visible, which would lead to the Hokage's agent, hopefully, contacting them.
If the man was informed about their capabilities, then he'd know they were the only people who could fly under their own power known to exist in the world. And so they did exactly that. At the same time, they wandered about the, ahem, entertainment centers of the city. If they would be noticed anywhere, it'd be in the places with a high concentration of people.
They'd been wandering around for fifteen minutes, now, but hadn't yet heard even a peep from any Konoha shinobi. For some reason, every shinobi in this world proudly displayed their affiliation to a village, or at least made it fairly obvious and clear that they were ninja in some way, so it'd be pretty easy to spot a ninja calling them out. There was one, but he was from another village and also incredibly drunk. It was unlikely that was the Hokage's agent.
It'd be a stroke of luck that they'd just so happen to stumble upon Tsunade. Good or bad luck, however, remained to be said, since the woman appeared to be… quite drunk and rowdy. They'd flown close to a large gathering of people near one of the larger and more well lit casinos, which had quite a few decorations around it. The people were forming a massive circle, trying to peek over each other's heads, as a commotion took place in the middle of a circle.
With the vantage point they gained from the air, it was easy to get a bird's eye view on the events that were going on.
A woman in an olive green tunic with a darker green hakama thrown over it and dark pants was holding a man dressed in a very expensive looking suit by the ankle, waving him about like he were made of paper. "See! This is what you get for throwing me, the great Senju Tsunade, out of this piece of shit casino!" she shouted, tossing away the bouncer like he were yesterday's old rags.
The man flew into a pile of other large men.
"Hah! Thinking a bunch of failed genin could do shit to me," the woman said, "now what are all you fuckers looking at? This isn't a spectacle, so get the hell out of my way before I use your bodies to wipe the floor like these bozos!"
To say that she was drunk and irate would be an understatement, apparently.
Approaching her in this state would be… less than productive, at best. However, if one were to ask Signum or Vita what they thought they were far past caring about such a thing. Even if angering the woman was an opportunity, they couldn't quite waste time in pleasantries. Before the crowd even had a chance to disperse in terror, Signum and Vita dove down.
"You must be Senju Tsunade," Signum stated, blandly.
"Yeah, because I didn't just shout my name," Tsunade said. "Shizune, where the hell are you? Bring me a bottle of sake," she shouted, looking at nowhere in particular, but extending her right hand.
A mousy looking young woman walked into the ring the crowd had made, holding a pig in her hands. "Don't you think you've had enough, Tsunade-sama?" the young woman asked.
So, that completed the set. And… while Tsunade's breasts had been described as impressive, that certainly didn't do them any real justice. Even Signum felt a little self conscious when compared to Tsunade's impressive knockers.
"I'll have had enough when I'm no longer conscious enough to remember how to rearrange faces with my toes, as it is I'm just barely drunk enough to think ninja can fly." Tsunade replied. "Now, either you two are very, very rich and can afford me, or you've got something actually important to tell me."
"Something very important, yes," Signum continued, just as blandly, trying to keep perfectly calm. She could hear Vita grinding her teeth beside her. "I have something for you from the Hokage."
"Huh. Did the old fart remember he's three months late for my birthday?" she said, snorting. "Tell him I'm not interested."
"I'm afraid we aren't asking for you to take it," Signum said.
"So? What are you going to do about it?" Tsunade said, cracking her neck and knuckles.
Signum lifted the scroll she was carrying in her right hand and promptly threw it at Tsunade, who caught it with practiced ease.
She opened and read it. "Hah. As if I'm gonna be convinced by this bluff," Tsunade said, shaking her head. "You can tell the old man that he can't intimidate me like this—"
"So that's a no, then?" Vita asked, speaking for the first time since they'd landed.
"Of course it's a no, brat," Tsunade said, rolling her eyes. "Your apprentice's kinda du—"
Tsunade was forced to stop herself and actually jump back when what appeared to be a mallet appeared in the girl's hand and, in a move so swift it might as well have been instant, it was swung with such speed and force as to almost catch Tsunade off guard. "What the hel—"
"We're not giving you a choice. You're returning to Konoha with us, whether you like it or not," Vita said, taking a step back and swinging Graf Eisen around a couple of times. In a flash, her casual clothes were gone, and she was wearing her barrier jacket. Signum wasn't far behind. "Now we can do this the easy and peaceful way, or I can break both your legs and carry you all the way there."
"Your medical expertise is needed. You might be the only one who can save our mistress. For this reason, we cannot allow you to just walk away," Signum said, shaking her head.
"Tch, you've got some serious mental issues, if you think for a second that two nobodies can intimidate me," Tsunade said, "come on, then, I will show you why people still shit themselves when they see me on the warpath," she said, taking a rather loose stance, closer to that of a brawler than a supposedly experienced and legendary fighter.
Vita noticed that Tsunade was about to attack and quickly leaped into the sky, avoiding her fist, only to see Tsunade drive it through the paved street and punch a crater into it. That was some serious strength, if she could do it with her bare hands. But of course, the Knight of the Iron Hammer was hardly deterred by such a display, and as soon as Tsunade was open, she flew back into striking distance, swinging Graf Eisen.
Despite the fact that the woman was clearly unused to fighting someone at her level of speed, Tsunade was good enough to avoid Graf Eisen a second time. Pressing the attack, Vita swung again, ignoring Tsunade's fist as it crashed into her side. The hammer struck Tsunade in the side of the head, which sent her flying.
Unfortunately, it also sent Vita flying from the impact, and while Tsunade had a grip on the ground to steady herself and not go too far, Vita had been in mid air, which meant she had no such thing, so she went quite a bit high up and away from the impact.
Signum took advantage of the moment and, deciding that it was best to reduce the number of enemies, she struck against Shizune, using Laevateinn's flat side to strike at the young woman. She seemed to twist in anticipation, but was unable to completely avoid the attack, owing to the pig she had been holding merely a moment ago. Shizune seemed to draw something from within the folds of her kimono, but Signum was not going to waste the initiative, and such, she once more used Laevateinn's flat side to strike at her, this time hitting the wrist of the hand that had gone to retrieve whatever item it was, possibly breaking the wrist.
A single movement had Laevateinn's tip resting against the hollow of her throat. While Shizune would only take a glancing cut due to the way Signum was holding the blade, it'd still be a wounded throat. Suffice to say, it wasn't a wound she wanted to have, and it was still life threatening to anyone who's not a medic nin of her skill level or above.
"Tsunade-sama," Shizune shouted, though she didn't dare move lest the sword user holding her at sword point consider it a threatening move.
"What the hell, Shizune, I leave you alone for two seconds, and you get captured," Tsunade said, gritting her teeth. "Once I'm done tearing these two pairs of new assholes, I'll step up your combat training. You're clearly not as good as I thought you were," she said.
"You're not as good as you think you are, either!" Vita's voice came from above, as she swung Graf Eisen down so fast and hard that it forced Tsunade to block instead of dodge, putting both her arms forward to catch the suddenly massive hammerhead. She grunted in effort, however, she wasn't ready for the four metallic spheres that seemed to have come out of nowhere, and so they smashed into her unprotected back.
Vita grinned as Tsunade lost her grip, and Graf Eisen continued on the way down, smashing her against the paved street and burying her body in it.
She removed the hammer, to find that Tsunade had barely managed to put both her arms up to block the hammerhead itself from hitting her. She didn't seem to have taken that much damage.
"Not so hot now, are you!?" Vita yelled. "You'll be coming with us, whether you like it or not!"
Tsunade growled. "There's no way I'm going back to that cursed village!"
"I don't think you understand. My mistress is currently lying on a bed, we're not sure if she will ever wake up again, and the only person who may have the ability to fix her is you. I don't care about your business with Konoha, nor does the Hokage. You are being ordered to return solely for this one job, and you're then free to go once more," Signum explained, voice calm and level.
"Pft. Does he think I'm his errand dog or something? No, if I cave now, then he'll start calling me every time he has a back ache. I'm sure that noble girl can find someone else to heal her," Tsunade shouted, picking herself up from the floor. "I barely even felt that, little girl. So you better have something better in store if you want to force me to do anything."
Vita's eyes narrowed. "I'm just getting started, you old hag," she said, pointing the now normal-sized Graf Eisen at Tsunade. She took a few cartridges from one of her pockets and put them into the hammer's slot, slowly, deliberately taking care. Showing how little of a threat she thought Tsunade was. A classic insult.
"Well, well, well. I don't know whether you've got massive balls, or you're the dumbest pair of Hunter Nin I've seen," Tsunade said. "But if you want to get your faces caved in that badly, I will gladly oblige," she added. "You've managed to get me to be serious. Leave Shizune out of this, and let's make this a bet."
"A bet, hm?" Signum asked, lowering Laevateinn. "If we win, you will come with us. If you lose, we will allow you to go."
Tsunade laughed. "There's no way I can lose against you two!" she said, this time taking much more… correct, for lack of a better term, stance. Instead of looking like a drunken brawler who couldn't even do unpredictability right, now she looked like a brawler who'd spent decades honing his style into something unique and deadly.
"You will not win," Signum said.
"For her sake, we can't lose!" Vita yelled.
"Besides, while I'm not sure if she could take you two, I'm perfectly confident she can't take all of us," a new voice said.
However, there was nobody it could come from, causing Vita and Signum to blink and look for the source of the voice, readying themselves.
"Urgh, it had to be him of all people," Tsunade said, nearly growling out her words.
"Answering the desires of maidens everywhere, the gallant sage arrives! I am Jiraiya of Mount Myoboku!"
There was a rush of smoke and leaves, and Jiraiya, a fairly tall man with spiky white hair and a frankly ridiculous get up, appeared in front of Tsunade, who growled. "What are you doing here, Jiraiya? Are you sure you want to enforce the old monkey's command? We're already on poor terms as is. Didn't think you wanted to put the final nail in your coffin."
Jiraiya shook his head. "My goddaughter is in critical condition and you're the only one who can help her, Tsunade."
"So what? So many people could use my help. What makes her so special?" Tsunade asked.
"You know who she is, Tsunade. But it doesn't matter who she is. What matters is that an innocent little girl is dying in a horribly painful way, and you have the power to prevent it," Jiraiya explained.
"What do I care? It's just another corpse Konoha has trampled on…" Tsunade said, bitterly.
"That's it, I can't take it anymore!" Vita roared, snapping into motion, swinging Graf Eisen as she flew at Tsunade.