Caring for a small child was supposed to be difficult, but in the first week they found Ishoo to be amazingly easy to cater for. Almost too easy.
The child was fiercely independent; the potty had been given to the orphanage, since Ishoo much preferred to use the 2-step ladder they kept in the house to use the toilet (which made Naruto very happy). She also hated frilly clothing, preferring t-shirts and shorts (which made them both happy, since that would mean no ironing). She also made a point with sleeping with one of the 9 beasts, for which Naruto was annoyed at first, until they explained it was not only a pleasure for them to watch over her at sleep, but also extremely convenient for the parents, since it allowed them their privacy. He then agreed wholeheartedly.
However, she hated wearing shoes with a passion, and no amount of reasoning, cajoling or threatening would keep them on her feet for more than five minutes outside, after which they always mysteriously disappeared. Socks were also out of question, even inside. They tried for three whole days, and gave up on the tenth pair.
She also never, ever ate spontaneously, or complained about hunger. They were warned about it by Hinata: the girl had her preferences (mostly fruit, root vegetables and flowers, specially cauliflower; she also enjoyed milk. On the other hand, much to Sasuke's relief, she hated most sweets), but never asked for food at all, and never ate much. Hinata told them that in the orphanage they'd feed her a little bit five times a day; she was concerned that she might have had some food poisoning issue that had affected her appetite, though her growth rate was unexpectedly high.
"Hmmm, no, that´s not it. Apparently, she hasn't developed her gastric bacteria well, yet. Which is weird, and why I'm here. It can be related to the lack of hunger, though."
Sakura was looking at Ishoo's lab results, and frowning.
"What do nasty bacteria have to do with being hungry? All it ever did was make me sick." Naruto asked, while getting them tea. Sakura had come to their apartment with the results.
"We need bacteria in our bodies for digestion, vitamin absorption, and immunity, baka. However, that is usually much better established by the second year of life than in her case. Which means she should stay clear of the hospital until hers develop better; there's nothing on the lab results showing it won't fix itself up, but it's safer she grows a respectable amount of good bacteria before she's exposed to more harmful germs."
"So what do we do, give her a medicine or something?"
"No, just let nature run its course. I see that she walks without shoes, that is actually good for her. Eating non-processed food and yogurt will speed up the process, too. Besides the chakra issue and that, she's perfectly healthy."
"What chakra issue?" Sasuke let Ishoo run in and throw herself with a delighted squeal on Naruto's lap, before closing the door.
"Hi, sweetheart. Did you tire Papa out today?" Naruto nuzzled her nose and picked her up.
She nodded. "Akamaru ran too, Tou-chan!"
She then bent over to kiss Sakura. "Sakura-chan!"
Sakura kissed her and closed the folder.
"The chakra issue is that since we can't see or sense her chakra, we can't use medical jutsu on her."
Naruto hugged ishoo close. Sasuke took a breath and pulled a chair near the couch.
"So… what now?" asked Sasuke.
"So, now, we work on getting her the best immunity possible, a good vitamin regimen, and see what happens. As of now, the only thing I can say is that she can't go around breaking her bones all the time like most ninja do, because her chakra frequency makes the chakra-based healing techniques we have useless, and possibly dangerous not only to her, but to the healer as well."
"Why would it harm a healer?" Ishoo asked to get to the floor, and Naruto reluctantly let her go while asking.
"Her chakra frequency is too high for any normal human tissue to withstand. Remember when you went Kyuubi before getting better related to Kurama? His chakra burned your tissues, the only reason you didn't get horribly hurt is that Kurama healed you quickly afterwards." Naruto nodded, and Sakura continued "Turns out that while you subdued and later reasoned with Kurama you two were actually synchronizing your chakra frequencies, so when you use his chakra now, or any of the beasts', your own chakra rises in frequency to meet his. The process of synchronization changed your cells so they can adapt to the modulation."
"Now, when it comes to Ishoo, her chakra's – if that is what it really is, and yes I'm looking at you, Sasuke – frequency is so high, it's impossible for our level of understanding how to control and module our own chakra to treat her without her frequency burning our pathways for good. A healer would certainly be unable to use jutsu, any jutsu, for the rest of their life, and possibly develop neural damage or, in an extreme case, er… death."
The men looked crestfallen.
"But then, of course, we have absolutely no idea of what, if any, jutsu habilities she'll develop. What we do know now is that she's strong enough to deal with any usual threat without getting seriously injured."
It was now the end of winter, and due to Sasuke's protective hysterics about colds and whatnot, and Ishoo's adamant refusal at wearing shoes, she hadn't gone outside for a month. The child's boredom was grating on her parent's nerves. Sasuke was trying to write a report on a week-long mission, while Naruto was out at the Hokage compound with no estimate time to be off.
'Damn sneaky unsupportive asshole' Sasuke thought as he heard Ishoo's persistent, monotonous knocking on the window. The kid had been at it for the last hour and a half.
"Ishoo-chan honey, can you stop making that noise, please? Papa is working."
"I want out, Papa."
"If you go out without shoes your feet will freeze and then you'll have no feet to run around with anymore."
"No shoes."
Sasuke combed his fingers through his hair and covered his face. They had gone through this before.
"No going out then."
Ishoo blew, whined and lied back on the table. Sasuke barely had the time to move paper and pen away.
"Papa… whatchoo doing?" she asked him, her expression miserable with boredom.
"I'm writing a report telling Tsunade-sama what I did last week while I was out working."
"Hn. What's writing?"
"Oh. Writing is talking to people through paper, honey."
Her eyes widened. "You put your mouth on the paper and give it to people?"
He laughed, that one was new.
"No, I draw symbols to form words, that's called writing; and then people see the symbols and because they know what they mean, they can understand what I said to them."
"Oooh." She turned her head and looked at his partially written scroll. "If I can do that I can tell you and Tou-chan things even when I'm not with you?"
"Yeah, that's the idea. And whatever you say when you write, you can keep with the paper, so it doesn't matter if you forget about it later, because you just have to get the paper and read it, it's stored there."
"Hn."
He smiled at that. Soon she'd be calling Naruto a dobe, too.
She turned around on the table and looked at him with her face in her hands.
"Teach me, dattebayo!"