The next day Aceso was tending to Kurenai and Asuma they had both gotten injured when they went to the prison last night. She was replacing the bandage on Kurenai's forehead. She glanced to the side to see Tsunade standing at the doorway, Aceso nodded and she walked in.

" I underestimated them," Tsunade admitted as she walked on and Asuma sat up. " Forgive me."

" Not at all," Asuma dismissed. " I brought it on myself. Let my guard down. I wasn't expecting all of the prisoners to have broken out."

" And if that weren't bad enough, all the prison guards were taken hostage," Kurenai added. " What happened after we were knocked out?" Tsunade shook her head. " This wasn't any random occurrence. There was obvious planning behind it. They knew what they were doing."

" With that many inmates running around it was pandemonium in there," Asuma explained. " He must have used the chaos to escape. Mizuki, the damn traitor." There was a thud and the flew open, three medical corp members were holding back Naruto.

 " Grandma Tsunade!" Naruto grunted as he tried to get free. " Come on, tell the truth! Orochimaru's behind all this! That's why you sent Kurenai and Asuma, right?"

" Huh?" Aceso asked as she looked at the three, they remained silent.

" Fine, forget I said anything," Naruto grunted angrily.

" Let him go," Tsunade ordered.

" Yes, ma'am," a medical corp guy said as he let go of Naruto and stood up. The rest followed and Naruto took off running.

" Continue up here, I will go off after Naruto," Tsunade ordered.

" Yes, ma'am," Aceso nodded. She did as she was told and worked diligently, after that she went to help other patients, and helped Sakura with her training, before going to the Hokage office, it was getting late. Aceso just set down the medical papers of the day on her desk when the door opened and someone informed her a medical place was attacked.

" What?" Aceso gasped.

" The Nara clan's research lab came under attack?" Tsunade asked.

" Yes, ma'am," the person confirmed. " We just received a dispatch from them a short while ago. According to this, the insurgent's physical characteristics match those of Mizuki's."

" Mizuki's?" Tsunade stammered. " It was a clever move targeting the Nara clan's institute. Not only is there a bundle of narcotics stored on-site, there's practically no security since it's holed up in the mountains." The Jonin had walked over to the desk.

" What was stolen?" Aceso asked. She had been up in the mountains to institute, she had to bring back medicine on a special occasion and bring ingredients up there.

" Well, the Nara go to great lengths to keep track of every substance they use. They were able to determine what was missing immediately," Jonin explained as he put the paper in front of Tsunade on the desk.

" Oh, uh, good work," Tsunade said after some silence. " Thank you. That's all. You can go."

" Yes, ma'am," the Jonin said before leaving. Tsunade ordered Aceso to grab a book, she did as she was told and the moment she put it on the desk, Tsunade opened it to a specific page.

" Well, I'm not taking any chances," Tsunade said. " There's not a whole lot I can do until I've figured out what his objective is. "

" As for the materials?" Aceso.

" Well, even if the materials don't tell me, there may still be a way of getting to the bottom of this," Tsunade hoped.

" Perhaps, the proportions of the formula, or the order in which they're blended," Aceso suggested as Tsunade flipped the page. 

" Good thinking," Tsunade nodded. They worked all night, it started to storm, then there was a knock on the door. " We're busy now!"

" I have an update for on the prison break," a man informed.

" Very well, then," Tsunade huffed as she leaned back in her chair. " Enter."

" Yes, ma'am," the man said as he came into the room. " We've just finished rounding up the inmates, Lady Hokage. They're all accounted for, with the exception of three. Mizuki, Fujin, and Raijin.

" Good work," Lady Tsunade complimented. 

" The investigation is still ongoing," the jonin reported. " We're trying to tack them down at the moment. And actually, one of the men we captured said something that has me concerned, ma'am."

" Concerned?" Aceso asked as the lightning flashed.

" Yes," the jonin confirmed. " Apparently he saw the three men running off together."

" Fujin and Raijin fleeing with Mizuki?" Tsunade asked. She stood up angrily. " Oh, hell!"  More lightning flashed.

" Lady Tsunade?" the jonin asked.

" We're heading out," Tsunade informed.

" Wh-where are you going?" the jonin asked.

" There's no need for you to come," Lady Tsunade assured. " If what this man says is true, the team I sent out won't be able to handle this situation on their own." The thunder let a big crackled and a big bolt of lightning lit up the sky. The two then set out to go help out the team that Lady Tsunade sent out. It was day by the time they got there, and as they got closer. Aceso could see that Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino were trying to hold two big guys, they were probably Fujin and Raijin. She saw Ino fall to her knees, the others all seemed to let go as well, they had run out of chakra. Lady Tsunade looked at Aceso, and she nodded. They stopped at a tree, Aceso put her hands up in a Jutsu, her eyes glowed green, and she held up her hand. A green glowing box formed around the two preventing them from taking steps forward toward the others. The two began to take inside the box.

" What the heck is this?" Raijin demanded.  " My body is frozen and we are trapped."

" I can't even move an inch," Fujin complained.

" What?" Shikamaru gasped. " Paralysis genjutsu and...that green box."

" Looks like we made it just in time," Tsunade said. They gasped and looked up at them. " You held them long enough. Good work, Shikamaru, Ino, Choji. Now leave the rest to me." 

" The--Fifth Hokage?" Shikamaru stammered.

" Aceso?" Ino breathed. " I don't believe it. Lady Hokage showed up in person? "

" Lady Tsunade and Doctor Matsuba?"  asked. Aceso released her jutsu as Tsunade jumped and flipped down onto the ground.

" I'm sorry I found out about this so late," Tsunade apologized. The two brothers trembled more at the sight of her. " But I wouldn't have imagined these two morons were somehow involved with Mizuki."

" Man, the Hokage," Shikamaru breathed.

" Thank goodness she's here," Ino said as Tsunade walked over to the two. Aceso jumped down and went over to Ino.

" I can't move," Fujin grunted.

" Well, well," Tsunade breathed as she walked over. " Fujin and Raijin. We run into each other in the darnedest of places, don't we?"

" Yeah," Raijin sweated.

" Uh, hi," Fujin sweated. " How you been, Tsunade?"

" I hope you have a good explanation for what you're doing here," Tsunade wished. She flicked them both and they flew back crashing into trees.

" She's so strong," Ino noted.

" More like she's so scary," Choji corrected.

" Now, then. Isn't there something you should say?"

" We're sorry," Raijin apologized. " We're sorry."

" Please forgive us," Fujin begged. " We won't do it again." The kids all grouped as Tsunade talked to the two escaped prisoners. Aceso checking for injuries on all three and restoring their chakra.

" You're telling me the only reason you obeyed Mizuki was because he promised you that there was a feast waiting at Orochimaru's place?" Tsunade questioned.

" Yeah, we're so sorry," the two apologized.

" We had no chance against those two," Ino said. " They're such high leveled ninja."

" I wonder what happened to make those oafs so scared of Tsunade?" Choji asked.

" Good question," Aceso agreed as she looked back at her.

" I don't even want to imagine what she might have done," Shikamaru groaned.

" Come on," Tsunade scolded. " Even you two shouldn't fall for such obvious bait." She looked back at the others. " Ok, everybody. Mizuki's heading up into those mountains. Naruto and Iruka are probably with him. You three rest up a little more, and then we'll get going after them."

" But wait, aren't you forgetting about something?" Shikamaru asked. " I mean, what are we going to do with them?"

" Oh, you don't need to worry about them anymore," Tsunade assured.

" No?" Aceso asked.

" They'll know what'll happen to them if they cause us any more trouble," Tsunade answered. 

" So what are they going to do?" Aceso asked.

" I've decided to let them go home on their own," Tsunade answered. She looked back at them. " Now, Fujin, Raijin--to be 100% clear, if you are one minute late, you get no dinner."

" Yes, ma'am," the two understood.

" Come on bro," Fujin said as they stood up. " We can't just stand here. " Let's hurry back to prison before we're too late."

" We gotta get back for dinner," Raijin agreed.

" Dinner!" Fujin cheered, and the two then took off in a blast.

 " Dinner! Dinner!" The two chanted all the way back.

" Amazing," Aceso breathed.

" Those guys sure can hustle," Shikamaru noted.

" Well, if a person doesn't get a proper dinner, he could die," Choji explained.

" Um, that's only true for you, Choji," Ino corrected.

" Shouldn't be back training people?" Shikamaru asked Aceso.

" Sakura is doing fine," Aceso informed. " I'm sure I could leave her alone for a bit."

" Speaking of training, is the medical corps on their way?" Tsunade asked.

" They should be meeting us up in the mountains," Aceso answered. Soon they took off towards the mountains. They got there Naruto and Iruka stood beside someone that was vomiting.

" Just as I suspected," Tsunade said.

" Grandma Tsunadef!" Naruto breathed as they looked over at them.  " Little sister!"

" Lady Hokage?" Iruka asked.

" His body's cellular structure is disintegrating," Aceso explained,

" You little bast--what have you done to me?" Mizuki demanded, he looked like he was about to run to ash.

" It's not Naruto's fault," Tsunade corrected. " This is caused by the formula you took."

" What?" Mizuki gasped. " That's impossible."

" You're getting a taste of your own medicine," Tsunade said. " You see, that potion wasn't fully developed yet." They went back to the cave, Aceso was starting to treat Mizuki when the medical corps showed up.

" The last prisoner has been recaptured, ma'am," one of them reported. " And we looked after Shizune. She was injured quite badly, but there's no threat to her life."

" I see," Tsunade said. " Thanks for your hard work."

" That's good news, huh?" Naruto asked. " It's nice to hear Shizune's gonna be OK."

" Orochimaru probably discovered that potion by accident while he was trying to develop some illegal jutsu. All we know is that that substance absorbs the DNA of animals and combines it with some human genome. It draws huge primal power out of the body, but it only lasts a short while," Tsunade explained.

" As it works, it puts an incredible strain on the host's body cells--stress that far exceeds the limits of the human body," Aceso added. " It's too dangerous for anyone to use."

" But why would Mizuki do that?" Iruka asked.

" I don't know all the details of his involvement," Tsunade admitted. " It's safe to assume Mizuki and Orochimaru had joined forces at some point. However--"

" Now that bond is broken," Iruka concluded.

" Yes," Tsunade agreed. " Sadly for Mizuki, Orochimaru only used him as a plaything. It was all a joke to him, letting his ally march off with some useless potion. But Mizuki is one lucky guy. An average shinobi would have certainly lost his life."

" It's all pretty unfortunate, isn't it?" Iruka asked.

" Actually, I kind of had a feeling it was gonna end this way," Naruto admitted.

" Did you really?" Iruka asked.

" But I can't quit after one setback," Naruto said. " I'm gonna keep searching for clues until I can find Sasuke." They walked over to Aceso and Tsubaki.

" Tsubaki, I--" Iruka began.

" Don't you dare pity me, Iruka," Mizuki threatened.

" You shouldn't speak," Aceso warned.

" Next time we meet, I promise I'll take you down, and the little squirt, too," Mizuki threatened.

" I'm sorry, but there's no way," Iruka apologized. " While you were pursuing your selfish dream, Naruto's been at work honing his ninja skills. There's no way you can catch up with him now."

" Mizuki can never go back to being a shinobi again," Tsubaki said as he groaned.

" And you, Tsubaki?" Iruka asked.

" I'm thinking about starting a new life as well," Tsubaki admitted. She turned to him. " But before that, I must atone for all of the trouble I caused the village."

" Ah, what a beautiful sunset," Tsunade complimented as she looked out at the land. " Well, let's get back to the village." They all began a peaceful walk to the village, Pakkun was on Aceso's shoulder, he was too lazy to walk the rest of the way.

" All right," Iruka smiled as he stopped walking. " Since you, all did such a terrific job today, I'm gonna treat you guys to a meal at Ichiraku Ramen."

" No way!" Naruto gasped. " You're so awesome, Iruka sensei!"

" I want a big slice of barbecued pork," Pakkun informed.

" I want all three kinds of ramen noodles--butter, soy sauce, and miso," Choji informed.

" Hold on, Iruka," Tsunade began. " Before that, you need to get Naruto to the Leaf Village Hospital."

" Why? " Naruto whined. " I told you I feel OK."

" Don't argue with me," Tsunade warned.

" Feeling okay isn't the same as physically being ok," Aceso said.

" Lady Tsunade!" A voice shouted, and they looked to see Sakura running towards them. " I did it! I mastered the first level!" Tsunade and Aceso looked at each other, then at Sakura, and smiled.

" Hey!" Naruto yelled as he waved his hand. " Sakura, over here!"