Shades of Grey

Chapter 4

"What have you done?" Tsunade demanded as she finally saw Sakura's eyes flutter open.

"What I had to do to save him." Sakura kept her eyes on the ceiling above her; she was not sure if she could bear to look upon her surrogate mother right now.

"I should have known when you started asking Jiraiya to teach you all that he knew about seals." The Hokage slumped into a chair next to her apprentice.

"It wasn't just Jiraiya," Sakura admitted "there was Yamato, a sand elder who actually assisted in the sealing of Shukaku, and it couldn't have been done without knowing how to sustain him which I learned from Lady Chiyo."

"Sakura, I hope that you realize the danger that you have put us all in." Tsunade sternly chided. "What if your seal doesn't hold; what if Akatsuki gets their hands on you?"

"My seal will hold." Sakura assured. "With my level of chakra control it should hold better than Naruto's. So far as Akatsuki is concerned, I am a medic nin. I am just as good at taking life with nothing but my hand as I am at saving it. If it ever happens, I assure you that the Kyuubi will not fall into their hands. In reality, things are better this way."

Tsunade knew that what her student had said was true. She had carefully studied the delicate looking seal that wrapped around the arm opposite her ANBU tattoo. It looked like branches and her name sake flower gently etched upon her. To be so small and elegant, it was strong. With her student's level of chakra control it should hold. However, to hear her speak so easily about the possibility of taking her life if she landed in enemy hands was troubling.

"And what if the demon drives you insane?" The blonde woman's eyes locked on her pupil's. "That is one of the many reasons that tailed beasts have traditionally been sealed in infants."

"I think I will be fine." The young woman smirked. "I've had a lifetime of arguing with my own inner. What is one more? Besides we're shinobi; none of us are truly sane."

"Sakura I am going to have to banish you now. The council voted that the jinchuriki must go." Tsunade had more sorrow in her voice than Sakura had ever heard it hold.

"I knew that." She assured. "I didn't plan on having to use as much of my life source to keep Naruto with us. I had planned on leaving immediately. May I stay just until morning?"

"Of course." The Hokage could not keep her voice from cracking. She viewed the girl before her as more than a student. They were so very alike in so many ways. It was easy to see in her the daughter that she never had. "Please Sakura, just tell me why."

"Because they always saved me." Sakura explained as her own voice waivered. "The village needs Naruto; he has to be the next Hokage. He will change the world. More than that, I could not lose them. It would have been too much. This was my only way to save them; to for once protect them."

In a very non-Hokage like moment Tsunade hugged Sakura to her. She had such a great feeling of loss knowing that come morning she would have to let her go forever, but she could not bring herself to be angry. No; thinking of her own past and how she had failed to save those that she was closest to she had never been prouder to call the girl her protégé, her legacy, her daughter.