Chapter 6: Master and Student (Respect)

If you truly want to be respected by people you love, you must prove to them that you can survive without them.

-Michael Bassey Johnson

Tsunade blankly stared out of the window of the Hokage office. Her paperwork lay forgotten in a pile to be checked and approved or rejected.

A week already went by since the council meeting and she still has yet to come up with an excuse to let the council allow Naruto to stay in Konoha or even stop imprisoning him. She hasn't heard from Sakura in a while but she does know that Sakura is still recovering in the hospital. Naruto was probably out training and under surveillance with Kakashi and the remaining members of team 7.

Her time was up and she had nothing to protect Naruto from the council. Tsunade stands from her chair and walks closer to the window. Children were out and about playing with each other without a care in the world. Innocent civilians. That thought ran through her head every time she looked out that window.

"Tsunade-sama! A scroll from the Raikage." She sighed and received the scroll from her loyal assistant.

Tsunade unrolls the scroll her sharp honey brown eyes running over every word at least twice. She couldn't believe what she was reading and it would solve her current predicament. "Shizune this is going to shut the council up about Naruto. Call a meeting!"

Shizune scurries away to summon the council members but not before catching a glimpse of a smile and spark in Tsunade's eyes that hasn't been there in a long time. She turns in her chair to look up at the bright sun beaming down upon her village.

The smile from her face was instantly wiped away when a large dust cloud came from the training grounds. She knew exactly what or shall she say who caused it. A certain bedridden patient of hers was up and about aiming for power.

Tsunade opens the window and jumps from building to building heading to the dust cloud. Once she arrived standing in the middle of a large crater was her very own student panting and clutching her still sore ribs. Beside her appeared one of her most trusted Jounin and leader of team 7.

"Sakura you're supposed to be in the hospital." Tsunade walks over to her and bends down to ease her ribs. "You can't just be up and about doing whatever you want."

Sakura stares down at her hands angrily clenching her fist. "It's not enough." The green chakra from Tsunade fades away once she saw fit that Sakura was ok. "I can't sit back and let him get ahead of me. So why are you holding me in that hospital like a prisoner!?" Sakura jerks away from Tsunade's touch looking at her with accusing green eyes. Her eyes were narrowed, rigid, cold, hard. In that moment, Tsunade knew she was already far away. Kakashi makes his presence known as he closes his book.

"I'll train Sakura." With impassive obsidian eyes, he looks down at his student. The scars stuck out like a sore thumb. It was his first time seeing her since the incident busy with Naruto. He felt guilty and his confession to Naruto in the hospital only made the guilt unbearable.

Kakashi's expression lighten up and like a child, he pets her head. "Tell me Sakura do you know your chakra affinity?" Sakura calms down and shakes her head no.

Kakashi pulls out a small square piece of paper from his pouch. He gives it to Sakura and explains what it was she was holding. "In your hand is chakra paper ninjas use this paper to find out what affinity someone has. The paper is made from a special type of tree the paper reacts to the slightest hint of chakra. Fire the paper will catch fire then turn to ash. Wind the paper will split in half. Lightning the paper will wrinkle. Earth the paper will turn to dirt and crumble. Last but not least water the paper becomes damp. Try it." Kakashi does his infamous close eye smile to ease her reluctance. Sakura looks toward Tsunade for her to confirm the new information she learned. She nods confirming the information.

Sakura takes a deep breath and pumps a small amount of chakra into the small piece of paper. The three didn't have to wait long as the paper dampens. Sakura was astonished she thought that maybe she would get earth or even fire since fire seemed more common in Konoha. "Water. Luckily I know quite a bit about the water affinity and so does Yamato. We'll start tomorrow but for now, rest up Sakura." Kakashi disappears only leaving behind a cloud of smoke where he once stood.

"Come on Sakura let's get you back to the hospital." Sakura stands up brushing the hand that Tsunade held out aside.

"How long are you going to play these games?" Tsunade was finally fed up with Sakura's cold shoulder and temper tantrums. She continues walking away from her master without a single word said nor glance back.

"Alright, Sakura you want to fight so bad fight me. Let all of your anger and frustration out on me but I won't hold back." Tsunade gets into a stance prepared to defend herself and fight back. Sakura stops where she stood her body shaking with rage directed at everyone. Tsunade would soon know that the Sakura in front of her was not the same Sakura she taught.

Sakura turns around to face her mentor with an impassive expression. Her, eyes remain cold, like nothing in this world could melt them. Even though she looked calm on the outside her mind was like a whirling ocean filled with bitterness, regret, guilt, and anger. "Fine."

Tsunade didn't want to hurt her much but she has to knock her down a peg or two. The wind blew through both of the ladies' hair covering their vision momentarily. Once their vision was clear Sakura blink once and Tsunade was giving her a barrage of well-aimed punches. If she was even a second late with her dodging she could possibly be out of the fight.

She needed some space to recollect herself and think of something to do. Her eyes looked furiously for an opening she can go for but none was open. Sakura backs off but that was just what Tsunade wanted. With just a stomp of her heel, the ground beneath her was crumbling apart.

The rational side of Sakura knew she was in over her head but the angry side wouldn't admit it. Sakura stumble and just barely caught her feet in time to dodge a fist by an inch.

Sakura swept her legs to try and trip Tsunade but she was just too quick. "I'm ashamed to even call you my student." Sakura yells, this time, throwing her own barrage of chakra infused punches each being dodged effortlessly. "Your mind is so cluttered you're not thinking of the consequences of going head first into a fight."

Sakura in her own fury didn't see the punch aimed for her stomach as a counter from Tsunade. The hit in the gut made her cough up spit and her body go flying through as least 12 trees. Her vision was a blur and she took a moment to assess whether she was ok to still fight. She healed her ribs for a minute which was all the time she was given since her master was falling from the sky above her with a foot ready to end the fight.

She rolls to the side and where her body use to be was another huge crater. Unfortunately, she was caught in the after effect of the attack and sent rolling across the ground like a rag. Sakura coughed and shook her head getting the dirt and dust from her hair. "Tsk, I'm ashamed to be killed by someone as weak as you."

"Leave me the hell alone." Sakura snarls. She gets up on shaky legs holding her ribs. Tsunade knew that she was weak there and aimed straight for it hoping to end the fight quick.

Tsunade observed her student from up in a tree it was obvious that Sakura was distracted by something in her head. As bad as she would feel about fighting someone mentally unstable later she was having fun now.

"Let's end this Sakura." Tsunade lands behind her ready to deal the finishing blow. Sakura turns just in time to intercept it. To Tsunade's surprise, Sakura lashes out and catches her fist with her own chakra infused hand.

She had enough time to see the amount emotion Sakura portrayed in her eyes. Sakura cocks her first back and aims for her face. It was as if everything was in slow motion but she was frozen in place. Sorrows and unimaginable pain swam around in her deep green irises. Next thing she knew she was the one being sent flying her blood trailing behind her splattered on the forest floor. "You're holding back! I don't want this fight to drag on to unnecessary lengths." Tsunade gets up and using the blood from her face she goes through hand signs pretty quickly. When she was done with her hand signs she slams her palm on the ground and out comes Katsuyu her summoned slug.

"Katsuyu use you zesshi nensan." Tsunade orders her slug summon. Since Sakura won't use her full strength She'll just force her too.

"Hai Tsunade-sama." Katsuyu spits out brown colored acid melting away the trees in the area.

Sakura was busy dodging for her life even if a drop of acid gets on her skin and possibly bone, will melt away. Sakura didn't think that the fight would turn that serious. She had to think of something to get rid of Katsuyu first before going after her master.

Sakura clenches her head trying to think of a way to counter the slug and acid. She snaps her eyes open when a dangerous idea crosses her mind. Sakura does the hand sign she's seen Naruto do plenty of time. "Kage bunshin no jutsu." Two clones of Sakura appear on each side of Sakura. She wanted one to go straight at the slug and herself and another clone are to go around the side of it using the trees to cover them. Sakura gave the signal to her clone at the same time to attack the slug. On the count of 3, they attacked the slug together with chakra infused punches.

The original Sakura makes another clone throw her to the top where Tsunade was falling since the slug poofed away. Sakura activated her chakra scalpel using them as a blade. Tsunade saw out of the corner of her eyes pink fast approaching with green glowing hands. Tsunade couldn't dodge in the air but she could shift her body so that Sakura's chakra scalpel doesn't do anything life threatening.

Sakura holds her arm out in front of her aiming for her stomach. Her chakra scalpel didn't exactly go where it was supposed to instead it cut through her shoulder. For a minute she thought she had the upper hand but that changed when a sharp pain shot through her body. Evidently Tsunade grabs ahold of her arm and using her enhanced strength break her arm. A cry out of pain escape pass her lips that she was sure everyone in Konoha could hear it. Tsunade not only did that but she turned them around in the air so Sakura could take in the impact of the fall.

Tsunade pants and begin to heal her torn and bloody shoulder. A whimper came from behind her and that's when it hit her that she did all of that damage to her own student. They fought as if they were enemies Tsunade even flipped her kill switch. Tsunade slowly turns around to see her student standing up looking as if just a small push will knock her down. Her sobs were stifled at first as she attempted to hide her pain, then overcome by a spasm she broke down entirely. Her arm was angled weirdly indicating that it was broken and she was hunched over a bit and breathing heavily. She saw how hard Sakura was trying to get enough air most likely her ribs punctured her lungs.

"Sakura stop." Tsunade pleads with her student who was like a daughter to her. "I acknowledge your strength." Sakura slowly makes her way over to Tsunade one step at a time even though it was obvious that the pain was winning. The beads of water started falling down one after another, without a sign of stopping.

"I-I h-ha-have t-to w-wi-win." It was amazing that she could still even speak and her determination was truly astounding.

"I-you win Sakura I give up." Sakura looked as if she was going to say something but instead her eyes roll to the back of her head and she faints. Tsunade quickly catches the pinkette being careful not to do any more damage to her student. "You're a stubborn pink haired girl but you have my respect Sakura you're ready now. Rest easy."

X

I hope I'm making it seem like Sakura is losing her shit. Instead of being sad Sakura decides to be angry instead. Maybe one day I'll have a chapter that doesn't have Sakura crying.

I wasn't planning on making this chapter short but it felt right to end the chapter off right there with Sakura earning respect from her Shishou. For the first time since writing fight scenes, I actually enjoyed writing it.