Just written for fun.
For Caliko, for her kindness towards me and for accepting me for who I am. Thank you!
Taylor belongs to me, Kakashi and any other Naruto characters belong to Kishimoto, and Coushander and any other random characters belong to Kariko Emma = )
Into The Past
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Chapter One
Lost In The Echo
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Taylor Hatake threw a punch at the Grass ninja.
"Never ever come onto Leaf Village soil again!" she exclaimed.
The young Grass ninja smirked at the young Hatake.
"You can't stop me," he said, suddenly disappearing.
The sky grew dark while Taylor tried to figure out where the ninja went. Where did he go, she wondered. Well crap, maybe I scared him so much that he ran away...though...maybe I didn't. Oh well.
While there was still some light, she checked out the cut on her arm, which had blood gushing out of it. With nothing to stop the bleeding, for her clothes were dirty with dirt and germs and blood that was not her own, she carried on back to her house. Her first and only thought was to get back home to her father so he can help her a little with the wounds and then go turn in her mission report to Tsunade. A chilly, autumn wind blew by Taylor, sending chills down her spine and she started shivering. She grabbed her arms and allowed herself to shiver with the chilly wind. It's so cold tonight, she thought. Thunder rumbled in the distance, telling her she needed to hurry, but she didn't. She didn't hurry.
She let her tired legs carry her back to her house. As she got closer to the village, something felt odd and made her shiver even more. It was that and the cold that was making her shiver so much. Her only thought was, I wasn't bothered enough to grab my jacket? Sheesh. She clenched her fist and cursed herself. Damnit! How stupid of me to forget my jacket. When she got home, she was sure her grandfather was going to get mad at her for not being home on time (she promised to be home by six in the evening). Her father would just be upset about the fact that she didn't even put on her coat when she knew damn well the air was going to get colder as it got later into the day. In other words, after being scolded, she'll crawl under a blanket and stay there until she's warmed up.
The odd feeling grew and made her stomach churn a bit more. What was this odd feeling and why did it feel bad? Nothing looked too different, so nothing should be wrong. Perhaps it was just the searing pain in her arm that was making her feel bad. Or perhaps she's right and she was going to regret her decision to ignore her gut feeling.
Whatever it was, Taylor was unable to place it. And because she couldn't place it, it made her feel even more uneasy. Quite stomach-churning it was for her.
It began drizzling, creating a mist around her. She had to squint to see. Also, it was getting darker and darker and the thunder grew louder and louder. It was pretty hard to see without a lantern so Taylor stopped and yanked her backpack off her back and pulled out a lantern with the kanji for "Hatake" on it. Silently, she lit the lantern and slung her backpack back over her shoulder. With her tired arm, she lifted the lantern.
She waved the lantern around to get an idea of where she was. About two kilometers from the house, give or take. Her sense of distance was pretty bad, so she knew not to trust herself on how far from the house she was. Taylor looked in the direction of her house and saw two men; one with light grey, messy hair and the other with shoulder-length, black hair. Taylor thought she'd recognized the first man. He looked almost like her father from behind, until she got a closer look at him; his hair was a lot longer and this man had it tied back. She knew it was her grandfather then.
"Grandpa Sakumo?" she called. "Grandpa? What are you doing out so late? Grandpa?"
Both the grey haired man and the black-haired man stopped walking. Coushander Hatake was pretty sure it was aimed at him, so he turned around to face the girl, twenty feet away from him. Dalzen Morino did the same. They both went, "Huh?" when they saw the girl.
"And who might you be?" Cou queried.
Taylor stumbled over to him, gripping her injured arm tightly.
"Grandpa, its me, Taylor," she reminded. "What? Is there that much dirt on my face?"
She wiped her face on her good arm and didn't see as much dirt as she'd thought. Maybe the dirt was dried onto her face. No, if it was dried on her face, she would feel the rain tugging at the dirt and turning it into mud. Yuck! So she knew her face was relatively clean.
"There isn't any dirt on your face," Dalzen assured.
"Dalzen," Cou said.
"What? I'm just reassuring her," Dalzen said.
Taylor realized Coushander's voice was much deeper than her grandpa's. Or was her grandfather's voice as deep... She couldn't remember to save her life now could she? And wait... her grandfather didn't wear a robe, well very often he didn't.
"I'm not your grandfather," Coushander said. "You've got the wrong person."
She was also sure it wasn't Pervy Sage. He was dead. Unless she's starting to see ghosts... Creepy!
"Oh and miss, I would have that cut on your arm checked out," Dalzen said. "That's a lot of blood..."
She clutched the lantern and Cou nodded a bit.
"Indeed," he agreed. "You really should have that checked out."
She glanced at her scrawny arm and rubbed it gingerly.
"Oh... well, I can get my father to fix it up a bit..." Taylor sighed, walking in the direction of her house. She was almost positive that was her grandfather.
Coushander watched her, heading toward his house. Well, that was rather awkward.
"Hey, isn't that the same direction as your house?" Dalzen asked.
"Yeah... Maybe she lives close to me," Cou said. "I don't know. It is a bit curious...I've never seen her before."
They followed the strange girl to the house. Blood continued gushing from her arm, making her weak and dizzy. How much blood has she lost already? Could she have lost enough to render her unconscious? She didn't want to know and picked up the pace, soon breaking into a sprint. As soon as she was at her house, she dug out her key from her pocket. Heavily, she panted and she gripped the pants where her knees were. Hunched over, her heart raced, causing the blood to gush out even faster. She closed her eyes tightly and tried to control her breathing so she could call out for her father. Everything around her began to spin and she ended up dropping her lantern without meaning to. With a thud, the light went out. Total darkness. Shakily, Taylor tried putting her key into the keyhole but she couldn't put it in right because she was shaking so much. She even held the doorknob.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Coushander yelled, rushing through the gate that surrounded his house while Dalzen hopped right over the fence to get to the girl.
"Daddy!" she called in hopes Kakashi could hear her cry. Her knees shook with her strangely light weight on them as they tried to hold her up. A certain curse word her grandfather made frequent use of crossed her lips and she spoke, "Shit…I need...I need help...!"
"Shit…," she repeated before the world around her went dark and she began to collapse, dropping her key. She lost her tight grip on the knob as she slid down and the only emotion she felt at that moment was fear, and even that dissipated as she blacked out.
The world around her turned to total darkness and Coushander watched in horror as she collapsed. What the hell?! In a flash, Dalzen dashed behind the girl and caught her before she landed on the hard porch. Then, they sat on the ground and he grabbed her arm where the long cut was, letting her blood cover his hand. What in the hell was she doing that caused her to get a cut like that? That was the only question Dalzen had in mind. Though, from the looks of her, she's a shinobi so perhaps she was fighting.
Dalzen studied the cut and he knew that pressure needed to be applied to stop the bleeding, but how? He looked down. He could use the vest to cut off the blood flow, but how could they hold the girl and still keep it tightly wound around her arm?
"Hm, let's get her to Keiko," Coushander said.
"No, lets not and say we did, she'll bleed to death before we got her to her. We need to get her inside and stop the bleeding," Dalzen said. "I'll summon Hoshu to go and get Keiko."
"Alright then, I'll go look for the duct tape," Coushander said. "To hold your vest in place while we get her inside."
"What would you need — oh never mind, just go get it."
Coushander rushed inside and Dalzen took off his vest and he wrapped it around her arm tightly, making a make-shift tourniquet of some kind and he sat there for a moment, studying the girl's face. He'd never seen her before. She was pretty petite; she had a slender figure and a small, but rounded face. Her hands were pretty small too, and from the looks of it she was probably shorter than Kano. Also from the looks of it, she was either a pre-teen or a teen so she was a lot younger than any of them. But there was something that bothered Dalzen about the girl, and that was her silver, unruly hair. With that, she looked a lot like Coushander, but smaller and more feminine. It was a bit scary to think that she was related to him. Rather, it seemed impossible that she was related to him. No...its impossible that she's related to him, Dalzen thought. Unless she's...from the future...
To stop thinking about it, he decided to check her pulse and then summoned Hoshu, his cute little owl summon. He took a moment to write down a message for Kano that went; Need your help at Coushander's house. Little girl lost consciousness on the porch from blood loss from a nasty cut on her arm. I'll explain later — Dalzen. He folded it and handed it to Hoshu, who took the slip of paper without a sound.
"Take that to Kano," he said softly. Hoshu gave him a curt nod and flew off with it. Clutching the make-shift tourniquet tightly in his hand, Dalzen watched Hoshu silently until Coushander came back outside with a roll of duct tape that was half used.
"Thanks," he said as his friend handed him the duct tape.
Silently, he wrapped the tape tightly around his vest, which was wrapped tightly around the girl's scrawny arm.
"Alright, I think she'll be fine until Keiko gets here," he said, ripping the tape off the roll and finished wrapping her arm up. "Lets get her inside...if you don't mind."
His friend shook his head quickly. "I don't mind..."
"Good," Dalzen set the roll down, scooped up the unconscious girl and walked inside with Coushander following close behind him. He closed the door behind him and led him into an empty room, flicking the lights on.
"Set her on the bed," the elder muttered softly. Dalzen nodded and laid her down on the bed, gently setting her head on the soft pillow.
Coushander got a better look at the girl that had passed out on his porch and he furrowed his eyebrows at her. Horrifically, the girl bore great resemblance to him, which of course made Coushander wonder about her.
"I'm not the only one who noticed it?" Dalzen asked.
"No...you're not..." Coushander said.
"She looks like you," Dalzen said. "I wonder why though..."
"She's not related to me, if that's what you think," Coushander snapped.
"I wasn't suggesting that." His friend frowned. "But it does make you wonder. Perhaps she's from the future."
"Shut up, she's not related to me. And isn't time travel near impossible?" The bitter elder turned around. "Whatever...I'm going to go keep watch for Keiko. You stay with the girl in case she wakes up."
"Alright."
Coushander walked out and Dalzen was left alone with the little girl who looked like Coushander. It was so weird how she looked like him. Could she really be...? She couldn't be... She might be, actually if Dalzen was right. He looked over his shoulder when he heard the front door open and heard Kano's voice.
"Where is this little girl Dalzen was talking about?" she questioned Coushander quickly. "What is her status?"
"She's still breathing and...follow me," he responded, turning around and leading her to the room.
"I can work with that," Kano murmured.
Dalzen peeked out into the hallway and watched as Coushander and Kano walked down.
"Move," Kano said to Dalzen.
Dalzen moved out of her way as she brushed past Coushander to get to the girl. She glanced over the silver-haired girl and sat her medical bag down on the nightstand.
"I'm going to need you both to leave," Kano commanded.
"Why?" Coushander asked and stopped himself from saying, This is my house.
"Because, she's a girl. You guys are well...guys," she responded.
They stared at her.
"I have to take the girl's shirt off," she muttered hotly. "She's a girl. She has girl parts under that shirt that don't need to be seen, considering she's probably twelve. But...Coushander, she's going to need one of your shirts because I didn't think to bring one of mine. Dalzen didn't mention that her clothes were dirty. So go get one..."
"What if I refuse?" Coushander started hotly.
Kano glared at her friend.
"I will go into your room myself and yank one off its hanger."
"Just do it!" Dalzen hissed softly. "Don't argue, just do it."
Coushander frowned but he walked out without another word and headed out to his room.
"Dalzen."
"Right...right..." He bowed slightly and then left the room, going back to the living room.
Carefully, Kano pulled out her scissors and cautiously began cutting the tape off, being sure she didn't cut Dalzen's vest. Once she got the tape off, she took Dalzen's shirt off and sat it aside. I'll wash that for him. Coushander returned with the shirt.
"Here," he breathed bitterly.
"Thanks. Now go." Kano took the shirt from him.
Coushander frowned but left the room. Kano sat the shirt on the nightstand and took her scissors to the girl's shirt. First, she cut the sleeves and then cut the shirt, then pulling the shirt off. I'm sorry for cutting your shirt, she thought. She threw the cloth down on top of Dalzen's vest and studied the wounds. Hmmm..., Kano thought. She's got some pretty bad bruises there on her abdomen, and that cut...she'll need some stitches. But first thing's first, I need to clean the blood off her arm. Kano had to walk out of the room and dampen a washcloth and put soap on it so she could clean the wound. When she got back, she began scrubbing her arm clean and then adding some peroxide to clean it even more. After that, she began stitching up the girl's arm.
Coushander folded his arms, staring down the hall at the room Kano and the girl were in.
"What do we do when she wakes up?" he queried.
Dalzen looked down at his friend, folding his arms as well.
"I don't know," he said. "Perhaps we should ask where her folks are so we can take her back to them."
His bitter friends bit his lips, "What if we can't find them? I can't take her in—"
"You should," Dalzen suggested quickly. "Just until we can find them. Look, Coushander, I'm usually busy as hell so I can't keep watch over her like you can. You're free, for the most part. You're not as busy."
Coushander scowled at the thought of having to take care of a strange kid.
"We'll have to see how it all plays out," Dalzen sighed.
Kano finally finished five minutes later and then she taped up her arm, then carefully putting Taylor into the shirt Coushander brought in. She wasn't too worried about the bruises, they weren't all that bad. Taylor bothered her though, and it wasn't because she was doing anything. It was the way she looked. It was every time Kano glanced at the girl's hair, she couldn't help but think that Taylor was a Hatake like Coushander. The Hatake hair. Grey and quite unruly, as if they have a natural bed-head that could never be brushed to look nice and normal. But Kano also thought that it was impossible that she could be related to Coushander. Saru-Shin had no kids, Coushander only had a brother, and Sakumo was his only child, but even then he wasn't living with him. So who was she? When Taylor woke up, they would find the answer to that question.
Kano swallowed hard and then walked out, closing the door behind her. Thunder rumbled outside the house and they could hear the rain pound against the house.
"Maybe I'll just stay for a little while," Kano suggested. "I will make sure the girl is okay when she wakes up..."
"I should stay too," Dalzen suggested. "If she tries to attack any of us, I can keep her back. Plus...its raining like hell outside and its a thunderstorm."
"Yeah," Kano agreed. "Will you let us stay for a little while Coushander?"
Coushander nodded. He did not want to be left alone with a possibly hormonal girl that, if she was a shinobi, could kill him. Being killed by a hormonal shinobi was not really the way he wanted to die.
"Thanks," both Kano and Dalzen thanked the elder.
"Its..nothing..." Coushander said.
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Sakumo clenched the counter-top, trying to keep pressure off his injured foot while he cooked.
"Where in the hell is Taylor...," he wondered half to himself, looking at the time. "She's never late."
He stirred the pot of udon, feeling pretty worried.
"I hope she's alright," he worried.
Kakashi walked out into the hallway slowly, listening to his father ramble on to himself. Typical, he thought.
"Oi, Father what are you talking about," he wondered.
"Your daughter is late," Sakumo snapped.
"She's late?" Kakashi asked. That's not Taylor... She hates being late.
"Its past her curfew." Sakumo winced as he turned around. "Aa, you better hope she hasn't picked up on your habits because if she has, I will beat it out of her myself and then I will beat it out of you."
His response sent chills down his son's spine. Kakashi was actually frightened, and it took a lot to scare him.
"Oh man," he began to worry himself. "I should go look for her right away!"
"Kakashi, dinner is almost done," Sakumo growled and narrowed his eyes. "And do you really think I will let you out during a storm? Think again."
Kakashi felt his heart race a bit.
"Alright, alright. Geez Dad...," he said. Okay, you actually scared the hell out of me. Geez.
"If she doesn't come home by tomorrow, we'll go looking for her," Sakumo dictated, trying to stay calm.
Kakashi nodded nervously.
"Yes Father," he said.
He sighed a bit. Somedays, Kakashi felt like a child because of the way his father scolds him. But then, he remembers he has his own child and feels like an adult again...almost. It sucks living with his father, but he can't imagine leaving his father. No matter what, he's going to live with his father with his daughter. He's just scared his father would commit suicide again, even though Sakumo promised not to. Perhaps, it was just better that he and Taylor live with Sakumo.
.
"Here, we'll take turns watching over her," Dalzen suggested. "I have first shift."
"Good idea," Kano applauded him. "Yeah, you can have first shift."
Dalzen smiled and pulled out the chair that sat at the desk by the bed and sat on it backwards while Kano took to the floor. She sat up against the wall, finding it more comfortable than laying on the hardwood floor and tried to sleep. Dalzen stayed up late trying to watch over the strange girl and trying to allow Kano some extra sleep. By midnight, Dalzen was just too tired to stay awake so he woke Kano up.
"Keiko," he whispered, gently shaking her shoulder.
"Hm?" Kano opened her eyes and looked up at her friend. "Dal...zen? What time is it?"
"Almost midnight and your shift; I can't keep myself awake any longer."
"Alright," Kano sat up straight and rubbed her eyes, then standing up. She and Dalzen switched places and one of them fell asleep, the other continued to watch over Taylor. That's how it was every other hour during the night, until Dalzen's last shift.
That morning, Taylor woke up just as Kano was going back to sleep and Dalzen was watching her. Something felt strange, and she her keen sense of smell found an unfamiliar scent...no, three unfamiliar scents. She moaned softly as the pain became more obvious and opened her eyes tiredly. There was no chance of her falling back asleep. What time is it, she wondered. Why don't I smell Daddy and Grandpa and to whom do these strange scents belong? Weakly, she pulled her arm over her chest and flinched at the pain.
"Itai!" she cried under her breath. Okay and why does my arm hurt?
Dalzen, who was still trying to wake up, heard Taylor's cry of pain and watched as she attempted to stand up afterward. Of course she wakes up at the very beginning of my shift, when I'm trying to wake up, he thought tiredly.
"I see you're awake now, Miss," he stated softly.
Taylor, who was getting out of bed on the side Dalzen and Kano weren't on, jumped at the sound of his voice. Panic surged through her as she slowly moved her head to look over her shoulder and she didn't know how to react. One step forward led to her making a run for it, but before she could get out of the room, Dalzen got in front of her and held her back. Taylor tried to slip by Dalzen but he made sure she couldn't do so.
"Calm down," Dalzen demanded, holding her back.
Taylor didn't like being held back, it made her feel like a trapped animal, so she punched Dalzen as hard as she could in the stomach until he let go of her.
"Let go of me!" she cried, punching him with all her strength in the stomach one last time. The force was enough to make Dalzen finally let go of her (and was enough to even surprise the man himself), which allowed Taylor some room to rush past him in fear. Her instincts navigated her down the familiar hall, which made Taylor curious as to why it was so familiar to her. After a moment of recovering from the girl's strong (and he admits, it was strong) punch, Dalzen shook his head quickly and woke up Kano with just his voice.
"Keiko!" he yelled, waking her.
"What?" Kano groaned.
"She's awake," Dalzen ran after Taylor. "And frightened..."
"Fantastic..." Kano mumbled, sitting up.
When Taylor got into the living room, she was greeted by a man with silver hair wearing a white robe and from what she could tell was an indigo shirt underneath that robe (she could tell from the collar of the shirt). Wasn't that the same man she encountered the night before? Coushander grabbed both her wrists and held the girl in place, making her even more scared. Taylor's knees gave out from under her, but the elder was holding her up so she didn't fall to the ground and her body became rigid and stiff from her fear as she looked up into the eldest's dark eyes, which were focused on her intently as if he disapproved of her running in his house, though that was only part of what he was thinking about. The other part was how she looked reminded him of Sakumo and his older brother. Taylor couldn't break free of his intent stare, as hard as she tried. The intent stare made Taylor scared, and the predicament made her even more scared. "...Whatever are you doing, child?"
Without a word, she swallowed hard as she tried to figure out the situation. "...Well?" The elder began growing impatient and Taylor felt her heart speed up with fear as she sensed this. What do I say? Say something! But if she did say something, it wouldn't be what either of them wanted to hear.
Dalzen and Kano ran into the room and saw Taylor being held in place by Coushander, who looked up at them, his eyes narrowed.
"Missing someone?" he asked.
Kano sighed heavily and Taylor began squirming as she tried to escape, only making Coushander tighten his grip on her small wrists. Now she was even more scared and she squirmed even more, trying to get him to let go of her.
"Aah! Stop! Let go of me," she cried. "Let go of me!"
"Let her go Coushander, she's scared," Kano ordered.
Coushander looked at the girl and let her go. Instead of standing up like they had hoped she would, Taylor dropped to her knees and covered her face with her arms like she was defending herself.
"Don't hurt me!" she cried. "I'm sorry! I didn't—"
Kano crouched down beside her and grabbed her by her wrist, gently trying to bring her arms down.
"It's okay dear," she soothed. "None of us are going to hurt you. We promise."
There was a moment of a tensed silence and Dalzen crouched down beside them and Coushander followed suit. Taylor brought her hands down but Kano kept a gentle grip on her wrist.
"Who are you guys?" she queried in a strained whisper, looking up with fear as plain as day in her eyes.
"We should be asking you the same thing," Kano admitted to her gently. "What is your name?"
"You tell me your name first," Taylor demanded in a soft and polite manner, but in a cracked voice. "Then I'll tell mine."
"I'm Kano," she responded gently. "And this is Coushander." She pointed at Coushander. "And that is Dalzen." She pointed at Dalzen. "Now what's yours?"
"Taylor," she hesitated in saying her name. "Taylor Hatake."
"Taylor...Hatake?" Coushander repeated, furrowing his eyebrows. "Hatake?" Shit, Dalzen better not have been right about this.
Taylor looked at him, narrowing her eyes in a way that reminded Coushander of well, himself. Dalzen saw the scary resemblance. Everyone was actually surprised, including Dalzen, despite him mentioning that she could've been a Hatake. From the future, he also had hinted.
"Why are you surprised?" she asked quietly.
Dalzen shook his head.
"No, you can't be a Hatake," he said.
"I am," she said. "My father is Kakashi Hatake, my grandfather; Sakumotsu Hatake."
"Sakumotsu?" Coushander asked. "But he's only eight. He can't even be a father, let alone a grandfather."
"Sakumo is fifty-two," Taylor emphasized. "And he is my grandfather."
"He's eight," Dalzen said, looking at her bit puzzled. How did she know Sakumo and why was she saying he was fifty-two years old?
Taylor shook her head.
"Fifty-two!" she cried out, actually crying from the scary of the thoughts rushing through her head, not irritated at Dalzen or any of them. "Sakumo is fifty-two!"
"He's ei-" Coushander looked at the girl again. Could she...be from the future? Well, stranger things have happened.
As if she knew what Cou was thinking, she muttered, "No... Time travel is impossible...no... I can't be in the past. No..no..." She shook her head in disbelief. "I can't be in...no..." Taylor gripped her pant legs at her knees. "No..."
"But, I must be," she whispered. "What's the current Hokage?"
"Tobirama," Dalzen responded quickly.
"The Second Hokage," Taylor murmured in surprise. "But... Tsunade is the...current Hokage in my timeline. Fifth Hokage."
Taylor sighed heavily. "Shit...that does mean I'm from the future...dammit."
No one knew how to react to that.
"My father and I haven't even been born yet," she murmured despairingly after a few moments of silence. "I think he was born around the time of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi and I was born twenty years later in the same time with the Third Hokage..."
Tears streamed down her face and she rubbed her eyes.
"Now what am I going to do? I'm stuck in the past with no escape!" she cried.
No one knew what to do either. Taylor was stuck and there didn't seem to be a way of escaping, which nearly sent her into a panic and she began breathing heavily. She held back tears and whined softly.
"No, no don't cry," Kano tried to calm her down. She thought about ways of calming down a little girl like Taylor, and then began rubbing her back soothingly. "You don't need to cry. Don't cry, Taylor."
Taylor rubbed her eyes and sniffled.
"Sorry," she whispered.
"Its okay, you're just scared," Kano responded.
"I'm not supposed to show my emotions though," she whispered. "I'm a shinobi."
"You're not in front of enemies, it doesn't matter," Kano grinned.
Taylor swallowed hard and nodded, but didn't continue crying.
"Uhm..." Coushander was not sure what to say. So she's related to him? What was he to think about that? What was he to say?
"Let's get you off the ground," Kano said softly, helping Taylor stand up and then coaxing her to the couch. She was reluctant to move because she was still practically paralyzed by fear, but she let Kano walk her to the couch and let her sit down.
"We'll be right back," she whispered in a soft voice. "I need to talk to Coushander and Dalzen."
Taylor nodded.
"Yes...ma'am...," she muttered softly in acknowledgement.
The three of them walked off into the kitchen and stood where Taylor couldn't see them and they talked in lowered voices.
"What do we do with her then?" Coushander asked.
"I can go talk to Nidai," Dalzen suggested. "If I can convince him to let me train her a bit and she says here with you, she can be out of your hair for a while. She'll have a place to stay, at least, if you allow it, but she'll be gone most of the day so she's not in your hair."
"Dalzen's got a good idea," Kano said. "Coushander, please let her stay with you. She won't be in your hair much if he can convince Nidaime to let him train her for a while instead of Sakumo."
"Why should I let her stay here?"
"She might like to stay with someone she's at least related to," Dalzen said. "Neither one of you know each other, but you're family."
"He's right," Kano said. "Coushander, she's scared and confused. She's not going to be able to see her folks, you're the closest she's going to get to her family for a while, until things can get figured out."
Coushander didn't say anything, just scowled a bit.
"Please Coushander?" Kano pleaded. "I'm busier than a bee with my medical stuff and Dalzen has his own family to deal with at home."
"Coushander, even if he tells me I can't train her, I can and will take her out of your hair for a few hours if it comes to that," Dalzen suggested.
"Fine," Coushander folded his arms. "She can stay with me."
Dalzen and Kano both smiled a bit at their friend. Coushander wasn't much for people (neither was Taylor in all honesty), but something told them that he and Taylor would get along just fine.
"I suppose I'll start on breakfast then," the elder stated.
"I'll help, but first ask the girl what she would like," Kano suggested. "It might make her feel more at home if you ask her what she'd like."
"Alright..." He turned and looked at Taylor. "Uhm..."
"Taylor," Kano mentioned in a lowered voice.
"Miss...Taylor, I am going to start making breakfast...is there anything in particular you'd like?"
"Anything is fine..." the girl, with her head in between her legs, murmured in a broken voice.
Coushander looked at Kano, who shrugged.
"I'd make something sweet," she suggested.
"Alright...if you say so..." Coushander murmured. "Lets figure out what I have to make her..."
.
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