Daddy's Girl
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Chapter Three
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It was amazing how long Taylor managed to stay asleep through the boat-ride into Seiun and into the "Fortress", as Miwaku called it because he thought it was badass to call his place a fortress. She eventually woke up, around nine in the morning, an hour after they had gotten there. The guy that had kidnapped her had brought her in.
"I have that kid you saw with that group out there coming in from Konoha," he told Miwaku.
"Ah, bring her in and lay her down."
Nodding, he laid her down on a bed that was made, like it was waiting for someone to sleep on it. He laid her down on the bed and pulled up the covers to her shoulder, and watched her sleep.
"She's a cute one," Miwaku smiled.
"Yeah," his partner-in-crime agreed.
"I wish I had kids."
"I do too..." the partner-in-crime, Kimura, sighed.
"Maybe one day, one of us will have the pleasure of having kids," Miwaku turned around and left.
The five-year-old woke up an hour later with the tiny thumb in her mouth and she opened her eyes, taking it out and rubbing it on her shirt. Then, she sat up and looked around and found Miwaku finishing up the fish for breakfast. Then, he started making the plates while Taylor watched.
"Morning little one," he smiled.
"M-Morning? W-Who are you?" She looked around, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"I'm Miwaku, no need to be scared of me," he smiled at the girl gently.
"Where's my daddy and my grandpa?" she asked.
"I'm sure they'll be here soon."
"Oh...okay..."
Taylor was nervous. She was in a strange place with strange people, and who could blame the five-year-old?
"Come eat, please?" Miwaku gestured for the girl to come eat with him.
Obediently, Taylor nodded and walked over and sat down. But, with much reluctance too. Taylor was definitely nervous.
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Very late in the day, Kakashi's team and Sakumo made it to the Land of Galaxies, but the problem then was to find where Miwaku was.
"I smell Taylor on this trail," Sakumo said, pointing.
"Yeah, let's follow that..." Kakashi agreed with his father. "I have a bad feeling that he took Taylor..."
"Same..." Sakumo lead the way and they continued the search for the lost girl.
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Miwaku was teaching Taylor about poisons and potions, but Taylor showed no interest in it. Taylor had always avoided stuff like that, considering most of what he was making was poisons.
"I don't like poisons," she told him. "They smell really bad and the smell makes me feel really sick to my tummy."
"But this is a potion which counteracts poisons and makes the victim feel better," Miwaku explained.
"S-So it's a...a..." she tried to remember the term. "An antidote?"
"Ah, very good! Yes, indeed."
Taylor still had no interest. She still tried to back away from it but Miwaku was not planning on letting her out of his sight, which kinda irritated Taylor a bit. But, she didn't say anything. Instead, she held it inside and dealt with it.
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About thirty minutes later, Kakashi's team and Sakumo got to the place.
"Taylor is definitely in there," Kakashi said. "I can smell her."
"Me too," Sakumo agreed. "Let's see what we can do to retrieve her."
"You sneak around back," Kakashi told him. "And we'll follow you."
"Good plan," Sakumo nodded and started heading around back.
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Kimura saw them through the window and groaned.
"Ah! I have to tell him."
He dashed out to find Miwaku and found him and the girl in the room for making the potions and poisons.
"Do you want to learn anything else?" Miwaku asked Taylor.
She shook her head quickly.
"No! I don't wanna learn anymore," she groaned. "I don't like poisons and potions."
"Boss, they're here!" Kimura exclaimed.
"Ah, just in time then..."
Sakumo opened the backdoor and they went inside and they followed Sakumo out to the room.
"Give me back my granddaughter!" Sakumo demanded.
Miwaku picked up Taylor and held her.
"EEK!" Taylor was surprised.
"Stay back! I don't want to hurt anyone," he told Sakumo.
Taylor did not like being held the way she was.
"Graaandpaaaa," she whined. "Daaaaady...!"
"Give me my granddaughter back," Sakumo pleaded. "No one will get hurt if you just hand her over."
"What can we do to get my daughter back?" Kakashi asked.
"You guys to leave and not return," Miwaku answered.
"Like hell I'm leaving without my child," Kakashi growled. "And it's my mission to arrest you for murder."
Taylor started crying. The room was too tense for the girl, she was being held in a bad way and she was just plain scared.
"Murder? Who did I murder?"
"Someone important in our village..." Kakashi told him who it was.
"I don't know who that is," Miwaku frowned. "Are you sure you have the right person? I'm being hunted for my poisons, not murder."
"I'm positive," Kakashi growled. "Just give me my daughter back! We'll let you go if you hand her over."
Guy shot a glance at Kakashi like, what are you thinking, Kakashi?! Kakashi ignored Guy's expression because he had a plan.
Miwaku looked at the uncomfortable girl and then sat her down, letting her run over to her grandfather in tears. Sakumo picked her up and held her gently, in a way she liked. Not being held like you're a human shield kinda way. Despite being held in a nicer way, she was still crying. But this time, from something completely different. Her insides were beginning to hurt and she was feeling very feverish.
"There, you can have your kid back," Miwaku sighed.
"Thank you..." Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief.
Sakumo held her and noticed something on her arm...like a puncture wound from a needle.
"What the..." he held her arm and smelled the wound. "Kakashi, smell this wound and tell me if you smell something other than blood?"
Kakashi leaned over and took a sniff.
"What is that?" he asked.
"Smells like poison," Sakumo answered, looking up at the guy.
Kakashi looked up too.
"You bastard! You poisoned my child!" he exclaimed.
Sakumo hugged Taylor.
"I'll take her to a hospital," he said.
"Yeah, go do that while I take care of this son of a..." he looked at his child, not really needing to hear curse words. "Erm, yeah. Just go take her to the hospital."
"On it," Sakumo ran off with Taylor to the nearest hospital.
Kakashi glared at Miwaku.
"Why? Why my little girl?" he asked.
"Because, she's easy prey," Miwaku shrugged. "A five-year-old is pretty easy to catch, they don't really question you and if they do they take whatever answer you give them and not question the answer."
Kakashi punched him.
"She's just five!" he exclaimed. "You bastard!"
"And she's easy prey. You need to keep better watch over her," Miwaku told him.
Kakashi knew that.
"At least I try to keep watch over her!" he exclaimed. "I might not succeed, but I at least try. Try having a sneaky little girl who's as clever as you are in some ways."
And they got into it.
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Taylor clutched Sakumo's vest tightly, crying.
"It's okay Taylor, it's okay," Sakumo tried to soothe her.
The grandfather had to ask a passerby where the hospital was.
"Excuse me, could you point me to a hospital? My...granddaughter was poisoned and I need to get her to the hospital..."
"Over there," they pointed.
"Thank you," Sakumo bowed and dashed off with Taylor and he ran into the hospital. "Help, my granddaughter was poisoned!" he told the person up front.
The nurse looked up and stood up immediately.
"I'll take you to an empty room," she said.
"Thank you!" Sakumo caressed the five-year-old girl in his arms and followed the nurse to a room to try and get Taylor better.
"Here," the nurse pointed to the room. "I'll have a doctor here in a moment to examine her so we can give her proper treatment."
"Thank you," Sakumo bowed, going inside.
He sat down on the bed with Taylor and tried to calm her down. Taylor was crying too hard to tell him what was wrong, but given how hot she felt in his arms, he knew something bad was in her system and it needed to be taken out soon. A nurse came in and took her temperature and documented her symptoms, then she pulled in a medical nin to start removing the poisons from Taylor's system.
"I need her laying flat on her back," the nin said.
Sakumo obey and laid her down on the bed, flat on her back.
"Taylor, stop crying," he pleaded. "You need to stay still."
They all had to wait for her to calm down, which took a good five minutes or so, but she was still trembling a bit but it was as close to still as they could possibly get her. Sakumo had never seen Taylor cry so hard, not even when she was being picked on in school. It even made when she was sick as a baby pale in comparison to this cry. He had never seen it. That poison had to have been messing up her emotions because she would not cry that hard. Sakumo stood beside her, holding her hand to keep her comforted and he watched the medic nin literally take out the poison with medical skills Sakumo couldn't even begin to describe on his own.
"Everything is going to be alright," he promised the five-year-old. "I promise. The medic ninja will not let you die. Alright?"
Taylor tried to nod, but she passed out from the high fever.
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Kakashi slid back and stood up straight.
"Give up," he demanded Miwaku. "Now."
"I give," Miwaku said. "I give!"
"Good. Inoichi, arrest him," Kakashi ordered.
"My pleasure," Inoichi whipped out a pair of handcuffs and bent down to cuff the criminal. "Miwaku Komichimura, you are under arrest for the murder of Hoshi Ito and the attempted murder of Taylor Hatake." He forced the weakened man up onto his feet. "Anything you say can and..."
Inoichi's voice trailed off as he dragged him out of the house and Kakashi sighed heavily.
"Go to your daughter," Shikaku told Kakashi. "She needs you."
The Hatake looked up at his friend and his rival.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
Both Shikaku and Guy nodded.
"Of course," Guy said.
"We've got it from here," Shikaku said.
"And your daughter was hurt," Guy said. "If I had a daughter, I'd want to be there for her too...to make sure she's okay."
Kakashi smiled a bit behind his mask.
"Thank you guys," he said, bowing. "Thank you..."
"It's nothing, man," Guy grinned.
"Go on," Shikaku gestured for him to go ahead. "I hope she's well now."
"Thank you," Kakashi bowed again and dashed out to find the hospital his daughter was at.
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He had to ask several people if they had seen which way his father went for the hospital.
"Have you seen a tall man — about my height — with long silver hair holding a little girl in a silky, red shirt and black pants?" he had asked a few people, who pointed in the direction they saw them. "Thank you!" and he would dash in that direction, until he found the hospital. When he got there, he asked the person at the front where his daughter was.
"What was your daughter's name?" she asked.
"Taylor. Taylor Hatake."
"Hatake...?" she looked down at the list. "Ah..." she gave him the room number and that's the way he went.
"Taylor?" he ran into the room.
Sakumo sat there, beside the bed, stroking her silky, silver hair, humming a song for her.
"Dad?"
He looked up and smiled.
"Kakashi...She's gonna have a fever for the next few hours and some aches and pains...but..." he smiled. "She's going to be fine."
Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh that's great news," he sighed. "I'm so glad she's okay."
"But...they want her here for a few more hours," Sakumo added. "Just to be safe."
"That's fine," Kakashi said. "I want to make sure she's okay before we take her home, since we'll be spending about a day or two trying to get back to Konoha."
Sakumo smiled.
"That's good."
Kakashi looked down at his daughter and he put his hand on her cheek.
"I'm glad you're okay," he smiled.
Taylor smiled a little in her sleep.
Once Taylor got her clean bill of health, Kakashi and Sakumo returned home and enjoyed the two-week summer vacation with her.
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"Daddy's Girl"
By Taylor Hatake