may our battles bring us honour,
may our victories bring us strength.

- - -

Though my little outburst had put him a bit on edge, Orochimaru had excitedly agreed to a race to the sandpit. 

We were on our way to becoming friends, and though he hadn't vocalized it yet, I assumed from his actions Orochimaru thought we already were. I wasn't exactly sure how felt about it, being friends with Orochimaru that is. I knew he was innocent at this time but it still left a bitter taste in my mouth, like I was doing something terribly wrong. It was why I was hesitant to call him a friend. It felt like I was about to admit to some sort of crime to myself, maybe later on when the revelation that I was playing with Orochimaru like I was his school mate wasn't so fresh and shocking I would be able to dwell more about the label I would put on our relationship; friends was a scary term but acquaintance didn't feel right.

The sandpit, though incredibly crowded on the side the Senju trio was located, was surprisingly fun to play in. I had long jumped into it, beating Orochimaru by doing so and grinning wickedly at the boy who looked shocked that he'd lost.

Playing in the sandpit brought back memories; the feeling of burning hot sand beneath my feet as I rushed to the cool water, making sandcastles and burying my uncle's body under the sand. 

"What do you two think you're doing?"

Tsunade's voice was a bossy sort of thing, the voice you'd expect Dolores Umbridge to have had when she was a child.

Entitled, and prissy, and rude.

"Do you have eyes?" I hummed, ushering Orochimaru to continue his sand castle making with a wave of my hand.

"What kind of question is that?" Tsunade snapped unhappily, hands on her hips as she scowled down at me, "Of course I have eyes!"

"Then use them," I snapped back, narrowing my eyes slightly and waving my hand, "We're playing because you don't own the sand." 

"Yes, I do!"

"No, you don't."

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"My Ojiisan is the Hokage!" Tsunade screamed with her hands balled into fists, "You have to listen to me, I own this sandbox so you need to leave!"

"What are you gonna do," I scoffed, standing to my feet, my own fists balled in righteous, toddler emotional range fueled anger, "Make me?"

Orochimaru had shifted to try and stand between us, hands up as he tried to diffuse the fight budding between us. Hashirama and Tobirama were intensely watching at this point, Hashirama lips were drawn in disappointment, not expecting Tsunade's behaviour to be so out of hand.

Tsunade, to the toddler's credit, hesitated for a moment before she rose her fists in a way that was probably mimicking the way she saw people train in the Senju compound; "I'm a Senju, you're just some dumb civvie, you're gonna get out of my sandbox or I'm gonna make you."

"Yeah, and how are you going to do that huh?"

"My Ojiisan is the Hokage which means if you fight back he'll arrest you."

I tilted my head to the side, a surprised laugh escaping me, "Okay, and? Why would I care? Hokage-sama wouldn't be able to arrest me because you'll have attacked me first; me a, like you said, civilian child while you're from a shinobi clan." I jabbed my finger into her chest, unamused with her mindset, "You can't do something bad, get in trouble from it, and think someone is always gonna save you."

Tsunade's eyes narrowed dangerously and before I could blink I was socked in the face with a meaty toddler fist. Without a single ounce of hesitation, I punched her back sending her stumbling back into the sand, tears in the corners of her eyes while I stared down at her unimpressed, "Did you seriously just punch me? I honestly thought I was like, motivating you to realize you're acting like an entitled brat." 

"I'm not a brat!" Tsunade snapped back, tears still in her eyes as she stood up on her feet, "M'not."

"Could've fooled me," I replied dryly, watching the toddler with thinly veiled disappointment. So I wasn't that great at Talk no Jutsu, sue me I'm two.

"I'm gonna find my Ojiisan," Tsunade hissed vindictively, "And then you'll regret not listening to me."

"But I wasn't being mean," I replied crossing my arms as if to further express how unamused I was with the blonde girl, "You're the one being mean, Orochimaru and I just wanted to play."

Tsunade took a threatening, as much as a toddler could be threatening that is, step forwards obviously ready to strike again, "You're just a big talking civvie you—"

"Stop it!"

Blinking in surprise Tsunade and I both turned to look at Orochimaru who'd gone red in the face, whether from annoyance, embarrassment or anger it was unclear, either way, the boy was clearly done listening to their fight.

"What?"

"I said," Orochimaru said evenly, glaring at Tsunade unwaveringly, "Stop it. You're both fighting and it's making everything not fun.  If you don't want to play with us go back to the other side of the sandpit because Aoi and I are having fun over here."

"Well, I didn't say you could!"

"And we didn't ask permission, you do not own the sandpit" I snapped back, saying the last part slowly.

"It's a public park," Orochimaru agreed, "So you can sit down, apologize to Aoi and make sandcastles with us or you can go back to Hokage-sama and leave us alone."

Orochimaru grabbed my hand and led us to the farthest side of the sandpit, his rubber ball tucked under his arm. It was a strange sort of thing, how nice Orochimaru was in comparison to what he would be when he was older, how much of a brat Tsunade was in comparison to the woman she would one day become. 

We played together quietly for nearly ten minutes before Tsunade approached us again, a frown on her face and her hands balled tightly into fists. Orochimaru and I stared at her with unamused expressions, while she bowed stiffly, "I'm sorry for hitting you and being mean, you guys weren't acting like everyone else and I was curious about why but I don't know how to make friends so being mean is how I talk to everyone."

"So," Orochimaru said warily if only a bit hopeful, "You want to friends?"

Tsunade straightened from her bow and nodded, nudging some of the sand below her feet with a pout on her face, "You guys just weren't like, fawning over me so I wanted to know why you were different and then you turned out to be kind of cool so..."

"Apology not accepted," I deadpanned.

"What!?" She spluttered, eyes wide with hurt written across her face, "But I apologized! I bowed!"

I shrugged casually, "You punched me in the face, you'll have to be nice every time we play for me to ever forgive you."

"You punched me back!" Tsunade whined before my words registered, "Every time we play?"

"Unless the sandpit is suddenly beneath you, your highness."

Tsunade grinned a bit, sitting down in the sand and beginning to build her own sandcastle, "Don't call me that." 

I gave her a lazy grin, "Sorry your highness, I don't answer to you, unfortunately."

Tsunade pout was half a smile and I sighed a bit, maybe being a child again wasn't so bad. I mean, got to punch an entitled toddler and I didn't even get in trouble! That was peak main character vibes in my book.

- - -

AN: this just in, two toddlers are facing off in the sandpit; place your bets now folks!

This has been edited!! Entitled children suck and there's no way Tsunade 'The Senju Princess' wasn't an entitled brat. Luckily Aoi is here to knock some sense into her. I would never actually hurt a child btw, I just couldn't get the image of two toddlers going at it out of my head and was like,, hmmm what if I just... and then we got that scene above lol.