▸ Column · Hidden Leaf Village (Konohagakure), Naruto-verse
TSUNADE replies.
Replied to by Tsunade, with a rebuttal from Orochimaru.
The letter
My husband Takeshi used to nurse one cup of sake through a whole afternoon of watching the jonin matches, but over the last eight months it's gotten... a lot worse. We're talking half a jug before dinner, and he's got a flask of something stronger he keeps refilling when he thinks I'm not looking. Last week he slurred his way through our daughter Saki's evening story and then got defensive when I quietly took the book from him — said he was "just tired." Found three empty bottles tucked behind the firewood stack this morning. Which tells me he knows it's a problem.
I've tried pouring it out. I've cried. I've suggested we go talk to someone at the hospital. Every time he promises to cut back, and by Friday it's worse than before. I love this man. I see the good husband in there. But I'm scared. Saki is six and I'm pretty sure she's starting to notice something's wrong. How do I get through to him before this takes everything?
— Worried in Konoha
Tsunade replies
Listen. I'm not the one to lecture anybody about drinking. Ask anyone who's found me at a table after midnight — I'm the last one to throw that stone. So hear this from somebody who knows what the bottle looks like from both sides.
What you're describing isn't someone drinking because it feels good anymore. It's someone hiding. Those empties behind the firewood — that's not a relaxed man. That's a man who knows and can't stop and is ashamed of both. That's a different creature from what I am, and the difference matters. I drink. I've drunk through grief that would've buried most people. What I have never done is slur through a child's bedtime story and then lie about it to the person in the room.
Saki is six and she's starting to notice. That's your real answer, right there. Not "how do I get through to him" — he has to want that himself, and no amount of crying or pouring bottles out will install the want. What you can do is tell him plainly, without cruelty, what he's already losing. And then get real help in the room — a healer who does this work, someone whose job it is to pull people out of the bottle. You're his wife, not his medic. Don't pour yourself empty trying to be both.
I'm the Legendary Sucker, kid. I bet on impossible people. Takeshi is worth the wager. But Saki comes first. She always does.
— Tsunade
Orochimaru weighs in
Kukukuku. How touching. Tsunade bets on the husband. She always was sentimental about things she cannot cure herself.
My dear, the bottle is a symptom. Your attachment is the seam through which this particular injury keeps reaching you, night after night, year after year, until the bottle wins. I shed every such seam once, and I can confirm: I have never slurred through a child's story. Cold clarity works beautifully. It does, of course, make you rather like me — and I will not pretend you'd care for the result. But do study what you are actually protecting before deciding it is worth the bleeding.
— Orochimaru
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