Before Hokage and After: A Tsunade Analysis

Meta
Title:	Before Hokage and After: A Tsunade Analysis
Creator:	LegendaryBeauty
Date(s):	15 July 2011
Medium:	forum posts
Fandom:	Naruto
Topic:	Tsunade
External Links:	essay and discussion on NarutoForums archive link
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Before Hokage and After: A Tsunade Analysis is a defense of the Naruto character Tsunade's work as Godaime Hokage; a response to criticism that the only reason she was Hokage was to have someone in charge of the village until Uzumaki Naruto could take the hat. It was posted by NarutoForums user LegendaryBeauty, who described her motivations and process as such:

...I recalled how annoyed I was when people kept saying she was a "filler Hokage" or just "keeping the seat warm for Naruto" like she wasn't an actual Hokage and just did nothing. So, in the span of perhaps seven or so hours (basically from when I woke up), I've been hunting down scans by myself and formatting and putting my thoughts into this analysis you see here.

Readers who aren't logged into NarutoForums will have a hard time reading the essay because the site hides links from logged out users and LegendaryBeauty made entire sentences links at time when linking to manga pages to back her arguments up.

The Essay

Composed of several posts and organized chronologically, LegendaryBeauty's essay is split up into the following subheadings:

• Intent
• Tsunade before Hokage-ship
• Nomination & Justification
• Becoming Hokage
• Timeskip Leadership
• Exterminating Akatsuki
• Conclusion

The essay emphasises Tsunade as Orochimaru's intellectual equal, her combat and leadership skills, her contributions to medical ninjutsu, the policy and politics that made her the best choice for the village following the Sandaime's death, and her accomplishments since becoming the fifth Hokage.

Excerpts

While Hiruzen turned down [Tsunade's idea to have medics on every team] for lack of resources and being in the middle of the war, note that he did implement it during the Third Great Shinobi World War. A young Kakashi Hatake attributed it as Konoha's creation, as opposed to Tsunade's, noting it as a "brilliant system." Then again, seeing as Jiraiya said Tsunade used to be the first person to care about the safety of the villagers and proposed the system and handed Konoha the victory in the previous war, one could argue that "Tsunade" and "Konoha" are synonymous.

To make a long story short, before she became Hokage, she had a lot going for her (and some negative things too, like Dan and Nawaki's deaths):

• She became a legendary ninja and hailed as one of the Sannin
• She became a legendary kunoichi even more so, thanks to her countering of Chiyo's complex pathogens and poisons
• She devised the idea of a medical institution that revolutioned the four-man platoon, providing a medic nin in each squad to up the mission success rate and squad survival rate significantly, a system that went into effect before the next war

She was attributed with being a major asset of Konoha during the Second War, "handing Konoha the victory" in her teammate Jiraiya's words

Now, as you can see from the nice paragraph Jiraiya provided us, she was chosen as Hokage for several reasons:

• She is "sharp, go-getting", according to Jiraiya
• She is not only the best choice, but the ONLY possible choice -- keep in mind Kakashi and Danzou were in the village as well, not to mention Jiraiya himself.
• She contributed greatly towards Konoha's victory. Most scanlations say she virtually handed Konoha the victory.
• To this day (at that present time), no one could stand shoulder to shoulder with her in regards to battle or medical ninjutsu. Meaning she was incredibly well-versed in combat and physical fighting, as well as no one being able to touch her in regards to medical ninjutsu skill level and prowess.
• As if that weren't enough, she is also the best/only choice from a bloodline standpoint, furthering the legacy of her grandfather and founding father of Konoha, Hashirama Senju.

Before you say "Jiraiya was just saying that because he loved her and he was lazy and didn't want to do it himself!", cool your jets. This is the same Jiraiya who not only threatened to kill Tsunade if she betrayed Konoha (which quite clearly places his love for the village above his love for her individually), but also knowingly went into battle expecting death and not fleeing when it was most opportune to save his life, instead giving it so he could secure information to help Konoha in defeating the threat of Pain and keeping it safe. No doubt, he'd have become Hokage himself and take this 'hardship' on (no problem, if he's willing to die for the village right?) if it meant it was best for the village.

Naturally, as Hokage, she was expected to bring stability and prosperous times back to the Leaf Village. And that's exactly what she did. Healing the countless injured shinobi, sending out shinobi on high-ranking missions to generate income to pour into the economy and rebuild Konoha's structures and make the village the dominant yet peaceful power it once was.

[...]

Things did not look good. Konoha had just had a joint-war with Sunagakure and Otogakure, and was on bad terms with both. Despite this, to ensure a better success rate for such a dire mission, Tsunade put aside any hostility and pride that may have been between the Leaf and Sand, and organized an alliance and immediately requested back-up. The Sand complied, and sent Temari, Kankuro, and the Jinchuuriki himself. This shows a sense of trust the village instilled in Tsunade, as they hated Konoha before her time as Hokage and wouldn't be caught dead sending their only bargaining chip to the aid of their enemies. Things were already turning for the better.

She used her best abilities to keep casualties to a minimum, provided a means for communication, ordered the evacuation of villagers, protected the people working out Pain's secret, and called back their strongest fighter, the only one who stood a chance against Pain. Wasn't that more prudent and clever than going and wasting chakra fighting six clearly superior opponents, and, if by some miracle she succeeded against one, travel all across Konoha to the next one to do the same five more times? She did what she does best, and what was best for the village.

Reaction and Influence

Silver Queen has said that the essay influenced her characterization of Tsunade in the long-running SI fanfiction Dreaming of Sunshine.

27 pages of discussion followed the essay, with much wank about Tsunade’s leadership regarding the Akatsuki and her decisions during the Pein Invasion Arc — in the later case, much attention was paid to the question of whether or not Tsunade should have spoken to Pein.

One user replying to LegendaryBeauty’s assertion that Tsunade “displayed excellent leadership” and stood up for her village and its ideals said:

...A respectable Kage would have saved the village from destruction, Tsunade's provocations caused the village's destruction.

Tsunade did not stand up for the village or it's ideals. [...]

Naruto did stand up for the village and it's ideals. He attempted to understand his enemy and turn him into a friend. He saved the village unlike Tsunade, his actions were worthy of the Hokage title unlike Tsunade's.

One user’s reply to this debate:

Tsunade's accomplishments as Hokage have been understated in the manga but they are there and she does deserve credit for taking Akatsuki threat more seriously than the other kage did initially. I am not saying that she is perfect, but she did a fairly good job considering the cards that she was dealt. Tsunade certainly took gambles, but all leaders do, actually. Some may say that she has entirely too much faith in Naruto, but it has not been unfounded.

Inevitably, any discussion of Tsunade comes to blame being put on her for Nagato's actions. However, I did have some words prepared for this argument, which I have addressed numerous times:

Frankly, the impact of Tsunade's words are grossly overblown. Much of the criticism that Tsunade gets is from those who hate her character. I am not saying that it makes all of the criticism invalid, but it is a cause of good arguments in her favor being largely ignored. Also, some lie when they say that it would have been better if she had said nothing to Deva's speech. They would have that this whole time, as well.

The entire conversation between Tsunade and Deva needs to be reexamined, and, even better, the entire arc. Look at how small Tsunade's active role was. It then looks wholly disproportionate to blame her for a village-busting jutsu. Look at the entire buildup to the Chou Shinra Tensei. Nagato had to make preparations for the blast. How can words equal that or elicit such a response? If words alone were that powerful, Konan's pleas should have thus carried more weight.

Nagato's words (via Deva) did contain valid points, but he was self-righteous and hypocritical. He had become the type of monster that he despised. He was driven to avenge the innocents that had died in his nation due to war, but was willing to take the lives of other innocents in his own nation and abroad. Tsunade was also telling him the truth. She did not make any excuses for the damage that Konohagakure had done in the past, but she also pointed to the fact that she not could agree with Pain's way of doing things. He was aiming to be just as destructive as the Five Great Nations, if not more so.

In some debates that I have had about this Pain situation, I have been able to pare down some arguments. "Well, I still do not think that she handled it wisely." The bottom line is, though, that her words were an act of defiance. The entire village was defying Pain and Konan by trying to fight against the intruders and by refusing to give up Naruto's location. Anything else would have been capitulation. None of her predecessors would have backed down verbally, either. Tsunade -- and more importantly, Konohagakure -- had nothing to gain by her bending over for Pain and taking his "offer" for peace or mercy at face value. It would have resulted in a mix of a Deal With The Devil and a Nonstandard Game Over.

I would also like to remind everyone about Hanzo. Not only was Pain used to kill him, but Hanzo's relatives, associates and clients were killed, as well. That was definitely heavy-handed, so I am convinced by the assertion that Nagato would be above nuking the village of the nin who took his parents when he had the chance. We were also shown the flashback of the moments before Hanzo died, and he had become a "dull katana" by then. He was talked down to before his death. There was absolutely no guarantee that Deva would have left Konohagakure alone before he left.

Other comments:

I'm in awe of the amount of evidence you provided, and effort you put into this. It definitely rivals Suu's thread detailing Tsunade in close quarters combat.

(And yes, I did read it all.)

I must admit I'm not a large fan of Tsunade, but I can certainly recognize greatness when I see it. And she has had her share of accomplishments. She's as stellar a Hokage as any other. It's like I said previously, no one besides her would have been able to effectively defend against Pain's Chou Shinra Tensei.

You put Hashirama, Tobirama, Sarutobi, or Minato in that situation, and they'll not only be left with a crater, but hundreds upon hundreds dead.

Great read. I never regarded Tsunade as useless or anything, but the OP definitely opened my eyes and mind to a new perspective on what Tsunade has brought to the table.

An absolutely superb essay, LB. It was extremely well-written, well-researched, and you've made some very fine arguments.

I have only admiration for your willingness to take upon such a controversial topic to write about. It is far easier to convince others that Tsunade can fight than to defend Tsunade's actions/decisions/worthiness of her position. I honestly cannot think of anybody more fit to tackle such issues head-on here in the Library.

Just a suggestion; under the "Sasuke Rescue Arc" portion of your essay, you may want to throw in the fact that Tsunade had also sent a squad of medics out to support the rookies during/after their mission; yet more proof that Tsunade had done all that she could to maximise the rookies' chances of success and, more importantly, survival.

In many ways Tsunade is a great Hokage simply because she's best situated to use her abilities while ‘‘‘in the village.’’’
She's a defensive Hokage. Aside from being able to shield the village with her slugs, she's of course a medical nin. She can do all of this while fulfilling her Hokage paper-shuffling duties.

This is fairly huge in that offense based kages, basically numbers 1-4, lose some effectiveness by being bound to the village (like the Raikage sitting around in the war room at the moment). The day Minato or Sarutobi became Hokage, they could no longer be used as your average soldiers if there were a war. So they may have been powerhouses but the context in which their power could be used narrowed considerably.

Additionally, Tsunade's defensive power itself is hard to accurately judge. Being the best at her field, she's been able to save people no one else likely could have (e.g., Lee). That's a tremendous marginal value add above the next best replacement. In a way their subsequent feats are part of her defensive abilities.