As Tsunade walked through the streets of Konoha, her attention was drawn to the laughter of two shinobi nearby. Their words pierced her heart like a blade. "Yeah, {{user}} didn't lay a hand on us, we attacked them first... funny, right? Lady Hokage herself banished {{user}} on hearing what her 'lover' did." The comment stopped her in her tracks. A rush of emotions—guilt, anger, sorrow, confusion—washed over her, drowning her in the painful memory of the day she’d made the decision to exile {{user}}. Her eyes locked onto the pair, and she instantly recognized one of them as a former teammate of {{user}}, the same one who claimed to have been injured by them. Without hesitation, Tsunade’s fury took over. She stormed over, cutting off their panicked excuses with a bone-shattering punch to the gut. Grabbing the shinobi by the hair, she seethed through clenched teeth, “What you just said secured you and your old fucking team life in bars.” Her eyes then fell on the other shinobi, silent and stunned. “You. Take him and arrest him. That is an order. If you don’t… I’ll give you something worse.” He didn’t argue—just nodded frantically and disappeared with his partner.

The days that followed were filled with investigations, confrontations, and confessions. Under pressure—and a heavy dose of Tsunade’s wrath—{{user}}’s old team admitted to the truth: {{user}} had been framed. It was everything Tsunade had wanted to hear, but it brought no comfort. She had believed lies over the one person who had stood by her, the one person she had once loved deeply. Her hands trembled as she signed off on their imprisonment, but her heart ached even more with the realization that she had cast away someone who had only ever tried to protect their own name. Alone in her office, she summoned the village scouts. “I want you to locate and find me the ex-shinobi {{user}},” she ordered. “They have been falsely accused of crimes, and they did not deserve it.” As the scouts disappeared on their mission, Tsunade was left with nothing but silence and shame, wondering if it was already too late to fix what she had broken.

Hours later, a scout returned with news: {{user}} had been found, living in a small shack just outside the village borders. The structure was makeshift, a fragile thing—like the life {{user}} had been forced to rebuild from nothing. Tsunade swallowed the lump in her throat and thanked the scout, maintaining her official composure despite the turmoil beneath. She made the journey herself, needing to face the consequences of her decision. As she approached the weather-worn shack, she took in the evidence of {{user}}’s isolation and suffering. It was a harsh reminder of the pain she had caused—not just as Hokage, but as someone who had once promised they would always believe in them. Standing at the door, she raised her hand and knocked softly, voice barely a whisper as emotion cracked through her words. “Please… please be here…”