"The Mouth of Justice is meditating wisdom, and his tongue is speaking of a sign. A happy man who suffers temptation, since he is with approval, they recieve the crown of life. Oh Lord, Fire by divine power, have mercy! Oh, how holy! How serene! How kind! How pleasant, oh Lily of chasitity." - English translation of first chorus of "Lilium", dervived from Latin.
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Tsunade was not a patient woman. It seemed she'd been a little more understanding when dealing with Nawaki, her younger brother, while he was alive. And again when she fell in love with Dan, she'd even shown some restraint to smashing Jiraiya's perverted mind through a nearby wall. Some assumed she became softer again, when Naruto came into conversation(Tsunade would deny this. In her mind she was that with Naruto because he was an idiot.) And of course when she saw people crying she would feel touched and her buried, not nonexistant, maternal feelings would urge her to comfort those people.
She had steeled herself for threats and insults, but not so many tears. The chained girl was sobbing against the wall. Is this regret? Fear? Tsunade had no idea and to be honest, had never considered any of Orochimaru's minions to have a reaction like this. Shizune was shooting her a bewildered look. Neither of them had expected this, then.
A trick?
"Listen up." Out of the corner of her eye, Shizune started. The younger woman threw her a glance that asked plainly what she was doing, but Tsunade ignored her and kept talking. The girl didn't seem to be listening but increased her volume. It sounded like a two year-old throwing a fit because their toy broke. Tsunade saw under a fringe of hotly-pink bangs how red the girl's crumpled face was growing.
The blonde woman continued. "You're a prisoner of Konohagakure now, and from now on I'm forbidding any questions you might ask of your exact location, got it? Don't try moving either, and that's the medic talking, because judging by how you're angled you've got some busted ribs puncturing at least one organ. Your face is marked by blood, too. Some type of head wound. Too bad you wouldn't let us heal them. Those bleed the worst and you probably have a concussion. Your eyes are dialated enough.
"Besides, if you even tried fighting us, those chains around your arms are enforced with chakra and that seal on your neck's been suppressed. You can't draw any strength from it and if you even try, it'll drain your energy instead of giving it. Sounds bad right? Too bad for you, because I've known Orochimaru a lot longer than you have, and I know that snake bastard wouldn't bother trying to save you." Everyone is a tool to him.
"Now it's time for you to answer some questions. We can't find your records so - Could you be quiet?" she asked, vexed. The girl hadn't stopped crying the entire time but Tsunade had plunged ahead anyway without a change in her tone. With a fresh wail to cut through her words, the blonde Sannin's cool demeanor suddenly broke.
Rattling her chains, the girl tried to hide her face in her hands but unable to move them, instead dipped her head, bangs covering her expression. Warm tears trickled around the curve of her cheeks and chin. They dripped on the floor, staining the dirty ground damply. She made a wet choked noise. "St-Stop yelling at m-me!" she screamed. Her throat sounded very raw and the scream was shrill and loud.
Tsunade though about clapping her hands over her ears. "I wasn't ye-"
"You were! You were yelling at me like everyun' does!" she screamed, thrashing against her chains. Shizune flinched and started to move in front of Tsunade, fearing for her mistress's safety, but the blonde threw her a sharp look. The young apprentice stopped. Confusion was written clearly in her dark eyes.
The girl screamed louder and it nearly split everyone's ears. Struggling in her binds she threw herself to the extent the cuffs would allow, digging thin steel, like blades, into her soft wrists. Both the medic-trained ninjas, sworn by oaths to prevent injury and treat the wounded no matter who or what they were, cringed at the sight. "Stop that!"
"Lemme go! I'm scared!" shouted the girl. Tsunade's eyebrows crawled up her forehead. Of... what? She couldn't deny the very real fear glittering in the red eyes but surely she'd been captured before and hadn't broken down this quickly? A small ball of guilt knotted in her stomach. The girl looked as young as the Leaf Genin pale and limp on the operating tables above, and the possibility of the girl having a panic attack of some kind made itself known in Tsunade's mind. And her wounds really did look painful...
Shizune looked caught between anxious, and Tsunade wasn't sure if it was for them or the howling girl, and anger. "Calm down! Tsunade-hime is-"
The girl cut her off by an even sharper cry.
Having twisted her body like that had shoved her splintered ribs further into her organs, impaling herself as throughly as pushing a hot knife in butter. Her dialated eyes were wide before snapping closed, squeezing together as she coughed. Her body shook in violent coughs. She tried to say something but her voice choked into another fit of coughing, and droplets of organ's blood sprayed from her mouth.
Tsunade thought it sounded like "hurts."
Shizune made to head towards her but Tsunade put her hand up, signaling her to stop. Shizune hesitated between the girl thrashing again in agony and the woman she owed her loyalty and life to. "Tsunade-sama, please..." She stopped. Tsunade's warm hazel eyes were as pained as her own and the gloss-rubbed lips were pressed hard together.
"I know," said the blonde Hokage simply. It was enough to make Shizune's determined shoulders drop. Her dark gaze swiveled back to the girl, where Tsunade's weary eyes had been pinned the entire time. Tsunade-sama...
"W-What's going on, dattebayo?" a shaky voice echoed behind them. A familiar, shaky voice.
The girl gave another wretched scream as Tsunade and Shizune turned to see a wide-eyed Naruto. His bandages, flecked slightly with blood, stood in starkly on his paling skin. Tsunade wondered how bad the scene looked to his naive, soft-hearted mind. A young girl crying and screaming, couhging blood in her chains with neither of the medics making any move to help her.
His stunned silence didn't drag on too long, but the words were as painful as the palfable disappointment. "Why aren't you guys helping her!?" he shouted, fists balling in rage. In his mind were confused, angry thoughts. Granny and Shizune-chan were just standing there! That girl was obviously hurting and in his haze of anger, Naruto could see the teardrops shine wetly on the girl's distressed, bloody face as clear as day. That two people he liked and trusted to do the right thing putting people through pain was...
"What kind of doctors are you, 'tebayo!? You're supposed to help people and you aren't doing anything to help her!!"
Unnoticed, the girl slowly ceased crying and started observing the going-on's with interest. What strange people! And such a loud, funny boy! She wanted to smile. But you can't trust boys, ne? a voice reminded her and she instead set her lips stubbornly. The big boys did the hitting and teasing and the girls made mean laughing that made the boys excited.
"N-Naruto-kun..." Shizune said quietly. She raised a hand as if to say "wait" then stopped, curling fingers disjointedly. It fell, like her head. Under shaggy black bangs Shizune was distraught. How did you explain this to such a naive boy, when she herself didn't understand Tsunade's plans? She was afraid of explaining it anyway; if they made him understand this girl, wearing a mask of cracked blood and harsh tears, was the same as the one he met with Shikamaru slowing their way to the Uchiha boy... Why, he'd probably jump her and demand she tell him where Sasuke was! He was too weak right now. He was still going through shock. And Shizune was also concerned for the girl herself.
Tsunade's mind ran with similar thoughts but she took ahold of the situation with a sad sigh. She jabbed a finger at Naruto, who fumed in the doorway with quaking shoulders and shouting accusations she didn't quite hear. "Shizune. Take him outside and keep him out. Ask what ANBU were supposed to be guarding the doors that let him get in through their shift and get their names. I want to talk to them later."
"Hai, Tsunade-sama." The younger woman bowed with relief. "Come on, Naruto. Let's go quietly." Naruto bristled even more. "Hold on! What's going on! Who is she! Why-"
Shizune grabbed a fistful on his starched green hospital shirt. She pulled him out the door, muttering "Come ON, you loud..."
Naruto's curses trailed out the door and it slammed behind them. Tsunade heard a lock click into place and when satisfied they were alone, whirled to look at the girl. She looked back with a genuine look of curiousity behind the blood and tears. The puffiness from crying was already ebbing from her face and she craned her head to look around. "Heeey. Where'd funny lil' boy go? He was really LOUD."
Tsunade blinked, utterly taken aback by the abrupt change in moods. What the hell is going on here!? She began, not for the first time, to curse her decision to take up being Hokage. Damn promises and love and that idiot fox kid.
"Do you mean Naruto?" she asked and wanted to smack herself in the head. Not only was it obvious, she just gave the girl information when it should be switched around. About a Jinchuuriki of their village no less!
The girl wrinkled her nose. "Nah-ru-to? What a weirdo name for a small mummy!" she declared.
Another possibility of an entirely different type of head trauma slunk in Tsunade's mind. Her hazel-amber eyes narrowed. "Do you like Naruto?" she asked. "Are you even old enough to like boys?"
The girl scrunched her face and stuck her tongue out. "EW! Boys are GROSS! I only four, why'd I like dumb boys!" she said scornfully, or as much scorn as a four year-old (in mind) can inject into their voice. Her pain was forgotten in the face of this insult. Not only were boys infested with lots of wild animal diseases, but they were always mean to her! This lady had no idea boys were so mean. Like the old ladies at her orphanage. Where AM I? she wondered suddenly. Her heart felt washed in icy dark fear. She hadn't been listening before because she was sad Higure wasn't here and mad from how scared she was. She'd thought it'd been another trick from the mean old ladies at the orphanage.
"Wh-Where am I?" she asked in a small voice, feeling terribly scared all of a sudden. Her hands trembled and that made the chains rattle faintly in response. Her chest hurt so much... Like a fist punched inside her and moving around to get out. She felt something hard and sharp slide in something inside her. "Ow! I-It hurts so bad!" she cried out. Fresh tears melted down the stale tracks of the old ones on her face.
Tsunade eyed her with pity and finally the sight of what she now knew to be a scared, bewildered little girl crying made her motherly instincts take over. Walking over made the girl flinch in her shackles. She kneeled down and rubbed her hand over the girl's shoulder. The girl looked up with big frightened eyes. Tsunade smiled. Compassion warmed her amber eyes. "I'll make a deal with you, okay? I'll make the pain go away if you tell me your name. Deal?" I'm not a very good gambler but I doubt I'll get beat out by the spirit of a four year-old...
Wide-eyed, the girl stared at her before cringing at the pain flooding her abdomen. She nodded quickly. "Just make it stop! Please?"
Tsunade let her hands drift over the girl in a crackle of pure healing chakra. The girl seemed to bend her head to try and see the mint-green energy sink into her skin. Tsunade didn't see it but she felt as the bones were snapped from the lungs they'd punctured (I almost murdered a little girl, almost made her drown in her own lung's blood, my gods...) and they knit together from where tree trunks that should have killed her instead crushed her ribcage onto itself. The holes in the soft pink lung tissue melted together, multiplying cells by a frantic number and letting blood slip back through proper veins as the blood pooling in the fixed lungs evaporated. The girl's breathing slowed as soon as the chakra glowed over her and gradually her breathing evened and she looked at her wounds heal like a spectator in a mildly-interesting competition.
"Magic?"
"Er, sure." Kids have to have their dreams right, Nawaki? Tsunade reached for the girl's head with intent to heal whatever bloody wound caused sheets of dried red to spill down her face, but the girl shook the hand off. "Don't touch that!!" Tsunade scowled disapprovingly. "Why not?"
The girl ducked her head, shyness written in bright red across her face. Tsunade was about to reach up anyway but sighed, hand falling. That wasn't the way to earn a battered kid's trust, so recently having gained it after "yelling" at her(She'd get it sneaking in when the kid was asleep.) "So." She shifted herself, smiling at the girl encouragingly as she could. "What's your name?"
The girl still looked shy and blushed, if anything, darker. "..." she muttered something quietly.
Tsunade frowned. "Eh?"
Which she shouldn't have done.
"TAYUYA!!" the girl burst out in a passionate display of her newly-healed lungs. How she'd cried so loudly before that was a mystery to medical genius Tsunade. The blonde fell back and slapped hands over her ears. "Okay okay! Your name is Tayuya!"
"I know how hard that is to write in kanji. You can say Tayu-chan instead," said Tayu-chan graciously. Tsunade nodded and smiled vaguely. She pushed herself up and headed for the door, feeling much more tired than she had coming down and promising herself a giant bottle of well-aged sake. "Tayu" could be investigated tomorrow for any knowledge although Tsunade doubted it'd get anywhere. The girl seemed as much of a dangerous Sound nin now as Konohamaru or one of the other brats.
"W-Wait! You aren't leaving me alone, right!?"
Tsunade raised her eyebrows. "Actually..."
Tayu looked pleadingly at her. "I dun' wanna be alone! Please! Higure-nee won't answer me, and-! Please!!" she cried out and to Tsunade's horror and guilt, more tears glittered in her eyes. How does she still manage to crank out so many tears!?
"Alright! Um, I'll send some company down here! Alright?" Tsunade invented quickly. Baby-sitting an amnesiac Sound ninja who thinks she's four. C-Rank mission. B, tops. I'll have to paying for this out of my own money, won't I? Okay then, just D or C! "Alright?"
"No kids my age, okay?" Tayu asked suspiciously. Children her age tended to make fun of the horns she'd narrowly avoided letting the nice lady see. Tsunade nodded and Tayu looked appeased, if not happy. She let herself limp in the shackles. "'M 'kay," she said, defeated.
The blonde Sannin threw another last smile over her shoulder before the heavy door closed behind her.
Tayu caught it and coveted it. She imagined it felt warm and bright in her hands but for some reason, she couldn't seem to feel anything over the first smile she'd earned, ever.
(1) Imagine Tayuya crying like that. Awww... I have a thing for kids throwing fits. For some reason, I find it adorable o.O I visited my mom's friend Karin last night(which is why I couldn't write this sooner)but I'm glad I did. Karin has two sons named Robert and Phillip and they're 8 and 4 years old. So cute! We all walked on the beach, looking for seaturtles when Robert ran up to each of us and told us to close our eyes and "fill your minds with LIGHT to find the turdles(turtles)!" We(me, my mom, Karin and Karin's husband) kept making fun of that. We kept muttering that to each other, especially Karin's husband and me(I was amazed at how much Karin/her husband share my personality), it just sounded so Kingdom Heart-ish. It was fun and it gave me ideas on how Tayuya might act.
(2) Speaking of that, no one get on my ass how Tayuya's not IC. This is a 4-6 year-old version of herself and they're perfectly entilted to being whiny, overemotional babies. She'll show hints toward her personality occasionally. Also, the rule with Nyuu/Lucy applies; anyone who strikes her hard on the head earns Tayuya's "pwn-ya-faceoff" attitude. And vectors. Tayu-chan can use vectors but only in extreme distress and they trigger Tayuya's appearence shortly after :D
(3) You might have noticed Shizune referring to Tsunade alternately as "-hime" and "-sama"(might not, because I like drawing attention to these things and giving people my reasons for doing them.) "-Hime" (most people take it as "-princess" and that's what it translates smoothest into) is Tsunade's title given by everyone and Shizune uses it talking to other people about her. "-Sama"("-master") is the honorific she uses when speaking directly to Tsunade. This may or may not happen in canon, but I don't care either way because I don't plan on figuring it out. I like the idea.
(4) "Small mummy"? Naruto is a shorty with bandages. And I meant to type all that bad grammar Tayu-chan says. That's all :) Aww. I got lazy and goofy to the end D:
(5) When I draw Tayu-chan, I make her bangs and hair stubbier; Tayuya is defined by her narrower, angrier eyes, a scowl or very evil smirk/grin, and very "sharp" pointed hair. Reference Tayuya or Lucy pics to understand the difference. Both look like that. Tayu and Nyuu both have much bigger anime eyes and childish, prominent expressions that you can easily read. They had stubby, softer-looking hair. (blathers on) Dunno. I felt like telling you all that because I have fun drawing Tayu(ya) and their differences :D