He doubted that Tsunade would be very pleased, but there was little that he could do about that. His job was to stop, catch and deal with the bad guy that had hurt such a fragile and innocent looking girl. And though he hated to admit it, he would despose of her attacker with a smile on his face.

In his opinion, anyone who attacked an defencless woman deserved to die screaming.

"Tsunade-sama, I need your help to find a place for a young woman to stay." Ibiki said as he stood in front of the woman's desk a short time later. Tsunade looked up from her paper work and frowned at him.

"Is she the young woman that I heard was attacked earlier today?"

"Yes. Her apartment door was shattered, her windows are in pieces. She was hurt but the most serious wound that I could see was a deep cut on her arm, she had to have thirty stitches and will likely have a scar."

"That sucks. Alright what's her name?"

"Rissa Megan Uzumaki." Ibiki answered as she started to reach for a file and froze as she heard the girl's name, all the color draining from her face as she turned to look at him.

"Did you say, Rissa Uzumaki?" Tsunade asked stupidly, her heart stuttering in her chest. Rissa? Her sweet little gaki Rissa had been attacked?

Ibiki frowned and nodded his head as the woman jumped to her feet swearing. "Jesus christ! Why didn't you say something sooner? Shizune! I'm going to the hospital, prepair a guest room for Rissa to stay in." Tsunade said as Shizune came running through the door to tell her about her adopted sister's most recent brush with death before looking at Ibiki, shrugging and running back out of the room as Tsunade stomped across the room and out the door leaving Ibiki to stare after her wondering what was going on.

He followed the Hokage to the hospital and into Rissa's room where she stood at the foot of the girl's bed as Rissa; whom had been drugged earlier by the doctor to keep her calm opened her eyes.

"Gaki? Honey are you okay?" Tsunade asked as she walked around the bed and took Rissa's hand as she lifted it and reached for her. Ibiki watched the exchange with intrest. The fact that the Hokage knew the girl would make her a priority case. He was'nt sure if he was happy or sad about that as he watched Tsunade hug the girl and start kissing her cheeks and forehead.

She still could'nt talk but she tried. She tried to tell Tsunade about the man who had tried to kill her because she was so close to the woman, tried to warn her that her life was in danger, but nothing came out and tomorrow might be too late.

The one who had attacked her had been someone that the council had hired to kill Tsunade, apparently they didn't like such a cheeky woman being in a place of power. Tsunade refused to listen to them about anything, refused to turn a blind eye to the trouble that they caused, and refused to do as they told her to do like a good little pawn. If Rissa had still been a shinobi she would have killed the man for what he was planning to do to her Baa-chan.

But after the Sasuke incident she had retired as a shinobi, fearing that if she didn't the job might become so stressful that she would lose her mind. And with Kakashi, Iruka, Sakura, Gai, Lee, Shikamaru and several others had found a very good job in a nice store down town from where she lived. She liked it well enough, it helped her pay the bills but if her friends didn't occasionally come to see her and take her out she would have gone mad by now. Even Kakashi swung by six or seven times a week to see her.

Mainly because he was like Shikamaru, and Neji. All of them had started watching her very closely, deep down they were afraid that she would up and leave the village for some reason or another. Frankly she was suprised that none of them were beating down her hospital door by now looking for her.

Tsunade pulled back a bit to look at the girl's face, she was pale but other wise alright as far as the woman could see. "You must have been so scared...my poor, poor gaki." Tsunade cooed to her as if she were a small child. But she was wrong. Rissa had made peace with the fact that she might die at any time of the day or night long ago, she was'nt scared of dying like many people might think. The truth of the matter was she was'nt scared of much of anything anymore.

So when she had gone home and found the assassin in her living room, she had been mildly suprised. Not enough to hinder her movements as she had dived behind her couch for cover and grabbed a thing of kunai and shiriken that she kept hidden under the couch.

"Rissa honey, I can see your trying to tell me something, is something wrong with your voice?" Tsuande asked suddenly as she kept trying to speak while thinking in frustration. That sorry bastad must have damaged my vocal cords, because the damn things won't work.

Tsunade frowned and checked Rissa's neck for a second, the girl tipped her head back just enough for her to be able to examin her vocal cords before frowning. Rissa's vocal cords had been frozen by some weird sort of jutsu. She could still use them but only for a little bit before the jutsu started eating away at them. Damn. Just what had Rissa gotten herself caught up in? Tsunade wondered as she tried to release the jutsu but could'nt and only ended up hurting Rissa if the way her body tensed, jerked and her moth opened in a silent cry was any indication. Damn, damn, damn.

"Ibiki, if I keep her in the tower would you stay close by and watch her when she moves around the village?" Tsunade asked as she stopped trying to release the jutsu, she had no desire to hurt the girl further. Rissa blinked back tears as she curled up on her side, she knew that Tsunade was just trying to help her but that fucking hurt.

"My lady?"

"I'm sorry Ibiki I know it's a difficult thing to ask but I think that you are the only person that I trust to protect her until the one responsible is caught. The one who hurt her has placed a jutsu of some sort on her vocal cords, she can still use them though I would'nt suggest it. And since she can no longer use her voice..."

"She can't call for help if she needs it." Ibiki said as he finished Tsunade's sentance, the woman nodded her head and looked at the girl.

"Alright, I'm in my lady." Ibiki said as he let his eyes flicker to the girl on the bed. She was such a cute little thing he doubted she would be much trouble.

He had no idea what he was setting himself up for.