Word Count: 300.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

People said I learned everything from Tsunade, how to heal, how to fight, how to kill. They thought that because Tsunade was my master, I had learned everything from her and that I couldn't learn anything from anyone else.

Well, I suppose they can be excused for believing that, but they are wrong, because like everyone else, they are forgetting that what Chiyo taught me was just as important, and possibly more profound.

Chiyo was a sad old woman, bowed by age, but unbowed by grief. She may have been upwards of seventy years old, but she could still fight with the best of them and she clearly has a chip on her shoulder. She had the wisdom of ages, to teach me many things in the short time I knew her.

There was one thing Tsunade was never able to teach me: trust. She couldn't teach it to me because she didn't have it herself and she wasn't willing to give it to anyone. Chiyo was likewise distrustful of everyone around her, but in a situation where Tsunade would have insisted upon going it alone, Chiyo allowed someone to help her.

Chiyo taught me what Tsunade never could, to let go. I always wanted to be in control of every situation because I knew the folly of giving my power over to someone else, but Chiyo taught me that the right person won't abuse what you have given them and will give it back once they are done with it.

Chiyo used me, manipulating me as she would one of her puppets, because I couldn't do it alone. I taught myself to trust her, and the day she didn't let me fall was the day I began to trust again to let other people help me fight my fights.