Prologue--
The third hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, gazed over his desk at his former student who had just returned to the leaf village after a decade to take care of some minor buisness that would break all of her remaining ties with Konaha. He lightly massaged his temples and let out an exasperated sigh.
"Tsunade, this is the fifth time today you have visited me. Please, just take up your complaints with someone else; my paperwork stack isn't getting any shorter." He said, sounding and looking older than he had in years.
"This, Sarutobi, is not a complaint!" The sannin slammed her hands onto the old man's desk, which collapsed, making paperwork fly everywhere. "So cut your crap! You know what happened, don't you?!" She accused, glaring pointedly at her previous sensei. The third hokage blinked a few time, wondering what it was that made her so angry. His eyes slowly narrowed- this was just a prank on him, wasn't it?
"What happened that is so bad you just had to knock all of my sorted paper work off of the desk?" The third boomed, trying to get his anger under control, but failing miserably.
"Naruko! You can't tell me you don't know-- I just met her earlier today, yes, but I know she is as innocent of crime as you or I! I just found her in an alleyway- she was beaten until half dead by the village folk, just because of that damned Kyuubi that your apprentice sealed inside of her!" Tsunade was beyond furious; she felt that if she took one punch at the old man she could kill him, and it was very tempting to do so at the moment.
"W-What?! Your joking- the villagers wouldn't do that! They consider Naruko a hero! They always tell me so, all the ninja's ask them for me!" The hokage looked aghast, which just made Tsunade angrier.
"I won't allow it! I won't let your blindness to cause another in this village to wind up dead, or like me!" Tsunade said, close to tears. The hokage looked at her in amazement- she never broke down like this. No one normal would get this emotional over something that couldn't be true. Then he knew what she was doing- acting- this was still just part of a big joke.
"Tsunade, just to prove that your life wasn't all that great, you can't just make up lies about a hero in this land that your grandfather held dear, as do I!" The third said, placing a hand on his old student's shoulder.
"WHAT?! What are you trying to say- if I didn't save the 'hero' of your village then she would have just died!" Tsunade said, throwing her sensei's hand off of her shoulder. She was far past out raged- far past furious. The old man had just stepped over the line- talking about all of this as if it was all about her.
"Tsunade, calm down. This joke had gone too far-"
"That's it! Naruko is coming with me to train for becoming a ninja. I'll bring her back when we both feel the time is right!" Tsunade interrupted, and with those words, she was gone.