Disclaimer: Ok so how many times do I have to say this. I do not own Naruto. . . or the pink haired Banshee Alley Cat.

Hubby: The story Rose. . .get on with the story.

Disclaimer: Hold your horses.

Hubby: We don't own any of those either.

Disclaimer: Huh? (sweatdrops)

Hubby: (sighs) Just type the next chapter before I tell them how long you've made them wait for it

Disclaimer: Ooook. . . On with the story

Chapter Twelve: Sakura's Lesson

The next day passed in much the same manner as the previous one. Tsunade sent the message as instructed to Hiashi and they arranged for Hinata to come by and go to the cabin with her when she left the tower for the day. Hinata herself stopped by to confirm the time Tsunade thought she'd finish for the day before heading out for training with her teammates.

Then she had to fend off an angry visit by Koharu from the council. Apparently she had gone by the prison expecting to see Naruto but found he wasn't there as she had ordered him to be. Spitting and snarling she demanded to know where the boy was so she herself could send someone to arrest him personally. Tsunade refused to tell her and reitterated that she had no intention of arresting the boy after what she had learned about that old mission. Then she kicked the esteemed councilwoman out of her office stating that she had more important work to get done on behalf of the village than stand around exchanging hot sir with an old bitty like her. On her way out of the office, Koharu had bemoaned the fact that the office of the Hokage wasn't what it used to be. Tsunade knew what she really meant was the new Hokage wasn't the push-over Sarutobi had been. In Tsunade's opinion any day that started out with that ol'battleaxe whining was gonna be a great day.

After Koharu left Danzo stopped by. He didn't really say much but then again he was just fishing for information. She knew he really just wanted to find anything that might point to where they were hiding Naruto. But she smirked inwardly knowing he'd find nothing in her office to point him in the right direction.She chatted pleasantly with him as if she had no idea of his ulterior motive and waited for him to leave. he did after about ten minutes. She idly wondered why he really wanted to find Naruto so bad. There had been a time when Danzo had believed the boy to be the best weapon Konoha had in it's arsenal and she wasn't sure that he didn't still hold that point of view.

Next, she called in Iruka and told him Naruto wanted to see him. She explained how Naruto behaved now and begged him not to upset the boy with things he didn't remember. She also made sure to let him know he was the first person Naruto wanted to see just for himself. It had the desired effect, as she literally could see the poor teacher go into his protective mode.

After Iruka had run off to gather some things he thought might interest Naruto, she sent for her lovely apprentice. TSunade had listened to complaints from the hospital staff about Sakura's overbearing arrogance and had just assumed the girl would outgrow it. However after she had read over the reports filed at the time of the mission six years ago and then listened to the recollections of everyone on the mission itself and added to Naruto own very explicit descriptive words of her, Tsunade no longer held to the "it's just a stage" theory. She now believeed the once desperate biddable weak girl was an overpowering egotistical bitch.

Sakura had heard people were being allowed to see Naruto now once they were called to Tsunade's office. She didn't understand why the shy little heiress and Iruka should have gotten in ahead of her but maybe they'd been there for something else. She came bouncing in full of glee because she'd just known she was still the most important girl in town to him. Of course he'd want to see her and when she had him alone she could tell him exactly what she thought of him for upsetting everyone the way he had. "So when can I see him? Where's he at? I'll go visit him now."

Tsunade quickly burst her bubble by telling her, "Naruto doesn't wish to see you. I called you here to tell you to stay away from him. It would be very bad for you to come into contact with him right now."

"Nani? But. . . why?" Sakura was stunned. How could she be hearing this? Of course he wanted to see her. She was one of his most important people. The most important of his important people as a matter of fact. This was unbelievable. She had to be hearing wrong.

She came back to the conversation in time to hear Tsunade saying, "To give you an idea what I mean, he called you a bitch in heat. He has made it very clear that if he ever sees you again it will be too soon. Just what did you do to him?"

"He's lying. Of course he wants to see me. He loves me and I'll clean his clock for him for calling me that." She fumed for a minute. The strange thing was she never doubted he'd said that at all. He was a rude uncouth person after all. He always had been.

"No, Sakura. He doesn't. I don't know that he ever loved you. What I do know is, he hates you passionately now. He tried to accept you for who you were. He saw the real you flaws and all. He saw your shallowness but accepted it anyway. he saw the selfishness, the greed but he accepted them also. And how did you repay him? You abandoned him. No matter how hard he tried to help you, to be there for you, to give you strength, you turned on him. You betrayed him. You gave credit for his strength to others who didn't deserve it or want it. You gave his credit for good ideas to others whenever you could. You denied him anything that might mean acceptance as a human being preferring to see him as sub-human. And that I can't forgive. Or forget. As for the name he called you, I think it fits perfectly."

"Huh? Why does it matter that I didn't return his feeble affections? He had nothing to offer one of my status and talent. You yourself showed me my true potential. All he ever did was hold me back by focusing Kakashi-sensei, and later Yamato-sensei's, attention on himself because of his poor control. He even had Sasuke-kun focused on trying to help him rather than gaining more power to defeat his brother. That's why Sasuke-kun left me. He needed to go find a different trainer since Kakashi-sensei didn't have time to train him." She totally blew off the growing anger in Tsunade's expression as she spelled out her little fantasy. "He was just a stupid attention grabbing baka who held back our team from day one. If not for him Sasuke-kun would have aced those chunnin exams the first time we took them but no Naruto-baka had to go picking fights with a Sannin."

"But I taught him the error of his ways after he failed to keep his promise and bring Sasuke-kun home again. That was just the final straw and someone needed to teach him some manners. Not like anyone else was ever going to. You don't make promises you don't intend to keep." She growled as she smashed the fist of one hand into the glove of her other, which Tsunade had noticed she had on as she came through the door. Normally Sakura didn't wear her gloves unless she was ready to fight. Now as she listened to the girl rant she wondered if her intention to visit Naruto hadn't been to hurt him instead.

"He honestly thought I'd believe he had tried to convince Sasuke-kun to return. He lied. He gave me his word to do everything in his power to return my Sasuke-kun but he didn't. All he had to do was promise Sasuke-kun he'd never again take our Sensei's attention away from him but he couldn't make that promise. He was too selfish to do that. Too selfish to give up what he had no right to anyway. My Sasuke-kun needed that training because he does have the will to kill if necessary. But Naruto-Baka doesn't. Always talking big and making promises he can't keep. Talking about how he's gonna prove everybody wrong. But he's the one that's wrong." She took a deep breath and reigned in her anger just to finish up in a calmer voice, "So I don't see why what he wants matters at all. He's just a traitor to the village. Why can't you see that? He was gone for six years. But you will ignore it cause it's him who did it. Who knows what he was doing during that time."

Tsunade took a minute to gather her own rage under tight control. She didn't want to hurt the girl. Not physically at least. Well she did, but that wasn't her purpose in calling the little tramp here now. How could she have been so blind? She had honestly thought the girl just needed a reason to believe in her own strength to stop holding her team back. But when had the girl gotten so full of herself? How had she missed it?

When she finally felt in control enough to speak she said, "That garbage you just spouted is why you abandoned your team? Refused to use the healing I taught you for those who were entitled to receive it?" She breathed through her nose rapidly and noisely for a few minutes whilse sparks shot from her brown eyes. "You disgust me. I don't know who you are anymore but I know this. . .this thing standing in front of me right now is not the same girl I agreed to train. As a student, I refuse to teach you anything else. You have taken my teachings and twisted them to suit your own wishes and that is not what I agreed to. You are no longer my student."

"As for the traitor in our midst, I think you are sadly mistaken. You called him a traitor but the only traitor I see is standing in front of me. For you are the only one on that mission who did not appear to have the best interest of the team or the village at heart while completing the mission you were given. You are the one who hurt your own teammate in a hasty explosion of your own power in an attempt to feed your libido. You are the one that rushed ahead of the team in a manner that could have gotten the whole team killed or captured. That makes you one of two things. Either a traitor who knew she would not be attacked because she was working with the enemy or a fool. Which title do you prefer. Fool? or Traitor? I think either one fits."

"You abandoned a ninja loyal to this village. Even Kakashi admitted it was Naruto who killed Kabuto and I know exactly how hard that man was to kill. But it didn't even occur to you that he might be in need of assistance. That was your job and you didn't offer anything but harsh words. Even Sasuke said he kept trying to go back for Naruto. But not you. You didn't even spare him a thought."

"And why should I have? That Baka has always pulled through before. It's not like he couldn't have caught up to us if he wanted to. We weren't moving all that fast. Besides Kakashi-Sensei said he was dead."

Tsunade was around her desk before she realized she was moving. Her hand flew out an made contact with Sakura's face, leaving behind a slightly swollen angry red mark that was really gonna hurt in about an hour. "We do NOT ever leave our dead behind. Especially ones like Naruto. So even if he had died, which he obviously didn't, he should have been brought back if his remains were not destroyed on the spot."

"I told you when I accepted you for medical nin training exactly what the position entailed. You agreed to those terms. You've broken them. Consider yourself a genin and if you ever abandon your team again, it better be because you had no other choice or I will bust you so low that you will wish I had killed you. You failed to do the job you were sent along to do. You were the TEAM medic and you failed them. All of the team was failed by you. So for now you will do genin work until you can remember what it means to be a part of a team. No ninja ever really stands alone, Girl," she sneered. "Therefore have fun remembering you used to be important to me and to him." Tsunade turned her back and walked back around her desk.

She took a deep breath and softened her tone. "He called you Sasuke's whore and personally I think he was right. You are behaving like nothing but a bitch in heat. And he is not the first to have said something of the like. Until you can get yourself straightened out, I don't wish to see you again. Now get out of my office."

Sakura was shaken to her core. "But Shuishi. . ."

Tsunade pointed a quivering finger towards the door. "You can leave on your own two feet or I can help you out. Your choice." she started cracking her knuckles and Sakura gulped as she got the point. Her Sensei never joked about beating someone up. Tsunade had turned every word she'd said against her. She'd painted her out to be lower than the lowest. In stunned shock Sakura left the tower.