Chapter 2: The Runaway Princess

Sakura made a mental note to gather edible mushrooms later on while searching for medicinal plants on the surrounding forest.

She once again, stared at the big but empty basket sitting innocently at the food compartment. Her mentor, Tsunade, had probably eaten all of the food while she had been gone the past week in a trip to the nearby town opposite the Land of Fire to sell medicinal herbs, and have forgotten to tell either her or Shizune to go to the market and buy food. She closed the cabinet and opened the other closed one next to it, scanning over the numerous labeled jars and stopped when her eyes read 'dried laurel leaves'. She was only about to reach out for it when she heard Tsunade's voice call for her:

"Sakura, come here!"

Her eyes turned to the stairwell behind her, leading up to her mentor's room. "Now what does she need me for?"

Closing the compartment, she walked towards the stairway in a hurried pace. Her mentor does not like to wait, and she isn't really sure of what would happen if she got irritated again. The walls of the basement had just been fixed; she hoped she wouldn't need to have another one mended again.

She reached the door at the top of the stairwell and knocked three times to make sure that she would not anger Tsunade by being disrespectful. A loud 'enter' was the response to her knock. She opened the door and was greeted, to her surprise, by a smiling Tsunade. She looked at Sakura with both amusement and unhindered joy; as if she just found out that she will be having a tremendous amount of money that she would, obviously, use to sustain her gambling and alcohol vices.

"Good afternoon, Master Tsunade." She greeted, not liking the way she was smiling even though she wasn't looking at her, and she wished to whomever it was out there that it's not what she thought it is. She looked at her busy Master and examined her face.

Tsunade is a fifty two year-old woman who looked like a twenty-something girl with an enormous chest, one of her defining traits besides her very short patience reserve.

Judging from the red cheeks and partially garbled speech, she concluded that Tsunade was drunk. She was sitting behind her desk; the flat surface of the oak wood was piled up with different kinds of herbs. Books of special kinds and different sizes littered the floor in messy disarrays. She was holding a bottle of rum on her left hand, the other fumbling on the drawers of her desk. Her head whipped up to meet her eyes, then down again to get back to what she was doing. She continued to smile, and then muttered slurryly a small and whispered, 'There you are!' after retrieving a small, wooden box the size of her fist from the bottom left compartment.

"Come. Come my child, I want to show you something…" She held out her polished hands to Sakura who obliged quickly and took it, the more drunk she is, the more sensitive and easily angered she could be. She does not wish to be on the receiving end of her fury.

Sakura sat beside her and made sure to maintain a safe distance between them.

'Just in case.' She thought. Tsunade is a very moody woman due to the combined bad experiences she have had in life.

She once asked Shizune when she was still a little, innocent girl why Tsunade kept on drinking her heart out every now and then, and Shizune would explain to her about their Master's terrible and heartbreaking past.

Most of the times, Tsunade would spend the whole night locked up on her room with Shizune, weeping and seething about her tragic past. Shizune would sit there, pouring alcohol on her cup while Tsunade relayed the story of her life part by part.

Tsunade was once a princess of a faraway land that she dared not name even while in her drunken stupor. She was the only daughter of the king and Queen, when she turned eighteen; she was more than ready to rule. However, to be able to take the place of her father on the throne, she would have to marry. Although she was not in favor of that regulation, she had agreed and in no time, is already preparing for her wedding. Everything went in such a blur, and before Tsunade knew it, she was falling hard for the man who, during that time, was already her husband. She loved him so much, too much, that when her husband told her to put things on her parent's food, she did it without question. It was too late when the truth had shown itself and had slapped her right in the face. The 'things' her husband made her supply her parents everyday were poisons that degrade a person's sense of judgment and ability to perceive matters, and eventually kills brain cells. The former King and Queen went into a coma, and Tsunade confronted her husband. There, she learned that her husband had originally intended to steal the throne from them, but had resorted to doing things the easier way by marrying her instead and making her fall in-love with him to make her do his bidding.

Months passed by and the kingdom had completely fallen in the hands of a ruthless ruler. By that time, Tsunade's mother and father had already died. Not being able to take the heartbreak her husband had given her, and the pain she felt whenever she would see her people suffer, she ran away and never came back. According to Shizune, she had never heard of her past kingdom after that, and has tried not to by secluding herself and studying medicine, healing, and witchcraft. A year after running and came across a fourteen year old Shizune whose parents had been killed. She took her in, and after 5 years, took another little girl seven years of age, who is left abandoned in the middle of a raging war in small town outside the Land of Whirlpool. That little girl was her.

Tsunade held out her right hand in front of Sakura's face. Sakura looked curiously at the little box and then to her Master, repeating the process for three times before her Master decided to break the silence, "Well, what are you still doing? Open it, Sakura!"

Holding out a hesitant hand, Sakura took the small box from Tsunade's hand and carefully examined it, turning the box upside-down, she noticed that it has a carved circle underneath it. Satisfied with her observation, she turned the box upright again, took a little glance at her Master, and gently lifted the lid off.

She gasped, and her mouth dropped to form an 'o' at what she saw.

The box contained a necklace, it was made of silver, it gleamed as a stray ray of sunlight hit it. The pendant was what was really magnificent; it was circular, and decorated with three, pink colored flowers of a cherry blossom. At the middle of each flower was a sparkling, green crystal. She looked at Tsunade once more; she was still smiling at her, eyes gleaming with thrill and excitement.

"Where did you get this, Master?" She asked, curiosity and disbelief dancing on her green eyes.

Tsunade scrunched her brow; the smile disappeared on her lips and her expression became that of a confused one, "How did I get it? I'm supposed to be the one asking you that question. It's yours!"

Now it was Sakura's turn to be confused, "Mine?"

Tsunade nodded and took a long gulp at her alcohol, then wiped her mouth with the back of her right hand. "It was with you when Shizune and I found you fiven years ago."

What? "But why have you never told me about this, Master?"

Her Master just gave her a little shrug, "I guess I forgot."

Sakura gave her an incredulous look. Tsunade took another gulp, "Maybe it was left to you by your parents before they died in the war as a reminder of them when you grow up."

Sakura nodded. She never knew her parents, but she looked up at Tsunade as both a Master and a mother.

"Anyways, it's yours. Keep it." She rested her back on her seat.

"Is there anything else you wish to tell me?" She inquired, to confirm whether she should leave her Master alone now. Tsunade shook her head and signaled for her to leave. She stood up and avoided the scattered books in order to not trip. She headed for the door and opened it, and before closing it, she heard her Master yell:

"We're going to have visitors!"

Well, here goes Chapter two. I figured that I should write a background story for Tsunade and how Sakura became her student.

I'll be doing a double update. I wrote this today, and I'm still writing the next chapter, hopefully I will be able to finish it this afternoon (It's 12 noon here).

Give it reviews, yeah?

-Mina