She's The Girl All The Bad Guys Want

Orochimaru's Experiment

Chapter 7


It was late in the morning the next time Akita awoke. She stretched in the bed before opening her eyes, immediately shooting up in the bed upon realizing she wasn't in their little cabin.

"Good Morning," came a cheerful greeting. Looking over, Akita's eyes rested upon an elderly man. He was sitting across the room, wearing white and red robes with a matching hat. He wore a peaceful smile on his face as he watched her.

"Hi..." She said hesitently. Spotting Pluu next to her, she grabbed him and hugged him close. Looking around, she realized this was some kind of doctor's office. "Is this a doctor's office?" She asked.

"You're in the hospital. You gave us quite the shock and scare yesterday," The old man said. Akita turned back to look at him, confused.

"What's a hospital?" She asked. The old man couldn't hide his surprise.

"Well... You clearly know what a doctor's office is. A hospital is a bit more intensive. People go to the doctor when they are ill or need something and they only stay for a visit. A hospital is where people go when they get really sick. They can stay for hours, days, or even longer if needed. The doctors at a hospital work all day and night to make sure everyone is okay," The old man explained.

"Oh... Did I get sick?" Akita asked. The old man nodded.

"You gave us quite the scare. When one of my men found you, you collapsed. Do you know what hypothermia is?" He asked.

"It's where you get too cold," Akita stated.

"Correct! Well, my dear, you were very cold and had hypothermia and you were very tired. So, you were brought here so the doctors could help you. How are you feeling today?" He asked. Akita looked down, contemplative.

"I'm okay. I think I'm hungry," She said.

"Well, I'll send for your doctor. She'll want to look at you and then she can order you some food," The old man said as he stood and started for the door. Akita watched him go as she tried to remember getting sick. She remembered being at their cabin, and then mom said they had to go... Something went wrong. Taka said they were coming, but Akita didn't know who. Her mom had sent her on her own... to Konoha! Just then, the old man returned with a young woman.

"This is Konoha?" She asked urgently. She had a vague, dream-like recollection of reading the stars and being in Konoha, but she couldn't be sure. The old man nodded.

"Yes, my dear. You are in Konohagakure and I am the current Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen," The man said. "This is doctor Ito. She's been helping oversee your care since you arrived. She's going to look you over now, alright?" Akita nodded her understanding and consent before the lady started checking her eyes, taking her temperature, and all kinds of other things. "Now, last night you told the nurses your name is Akita. Is that right?" Hiruzen asked.

"That's right! Shiori Akita," Akita stated as the nurse began recording everything on a clipboard.

"Can you tell me how old you are?" Hiruzen asked.

"I just turned nine a couple weeks ago!"

"Well, you're certainly very grownup!" Hiruzen said with a smile and a chuckle. He was so friendly. Akita like him so far and he had an aura around him that just set her at ease. He felt safe. "Can you tell me how you got here?"

"I swam and then I walked," Akita said in a very matter-of-fact tone.

"You...swam?" Hiruzen asked, shocked at what the girl was saying.

"Uh huh! Momma and I lived in an abandoned cottage. It was on a canyon with a river up north. There was danger so Momma had me run by swimming with the current downstream and then running to Konoha! But... I think I got tired. I don't remember much after climbing out of the river... I don't remember making it to Konoha... I just woke up here," Akita explained.

"How long did you live in the cottage?" Hiruzen asked.

"I don't know. A couple months, maybe? We stayed through spring and summer, I know."

"What about before the cottage? Where did you live then?"

"We moved around a lot. We'd stay somewhere for a couple weeks and then move on to another place. It's been like that for a long time..." Akita explained.

"And where is your mother?" Hiruzen asked. Akita thought about it for a moment, blinked a few times, and looked up at him.

"I don't know... She didn't come with me," Akita said quietly, starting to feel scared. "I need to go. I need to find her." She started to try to climb out of the bed, when Dr. Ito stopped her.

"Whoa sweetie, you're not going anywhere. You're still sick. Just relax," Dr. Ito told her.

"I can send some of my shinobi out to look for your mother," Hiruzen interjected. Akita slumped in the bed.

"Really? They'll find her?" She asked.

"They'll certainly try and Konoha shinobi always give their best," Hiruzen reasured the girl.

"Now, what would you like for breakfast?" Dr. Ito asked while handing her a hospital menu. Akita stared at it for a moment.

"I can't read all of this..." Akita said. "I don't know those words." This suprised Dr. Ito and Hiruzen.

"Okay... Well, tell me what kind of food you normally eat and I'll see what we have," Dr. Ito said, taking the menu back.

"We would eat meat and make stews a lot. Maya and Taka were good hunters," Akita started.

"Who's Maya and Taka?" Dr. Ito interrupted.

"Our companions. Taka belonged to Momma, Maya belongs to me. I don't know where Maya is, either. But they would hunt deer and stuff, and Momma would skin it and stuff and dry it out to make jerky or stew later. There were some vegetables too. Some of the bushes nearby had wild berry patches that were safe to eat. We were able to get bread... we had to steal it sometimes. Momma couldn't take any work to make money because then the bad men could find us," Akita explained.

"Bad men?" Hiruzen asked.

"I don't remember his name. He lead the village I was born in, but... he was mean. He would hurt us. He never hurt me, my mom wouldn't allow it and she was good enough to earn his favor. But a lot of the other kids didn't have parents at all, so if he wanted to hurt them, he could. When we left, Momma told me not to say his name anymore. Now, it's been so long that I forgot it. But he had cruel eyes..." Akita trailed off, clenching the blanket.

"Okay. Well, I'll send up soup for you and later, I'm going to send some other special doctors up to see you and check you over for a few things. But for now, we'll get you some soup and I'll tell them to get you some jello!" Dr. Ito said cheerfully, trying to distract the child from the bad memories.

"What's jello?" Akita asked, her head shooting up.

"A yummy, jiggly dessert. Now, stay here and rest and talk to Lord Hokage," Dr. Ito said as she headed out.

"Now, perhaps you can tell me a few more things. I'm curious about the kunai you had with you. And about how you managed to completely deplete your chakra," Hiruzen inquired.

"Momma taught me to use chakra like her. I had just started school at the shinobi academy when we left and Momma wanted me to keep practicing. She taught me how to throw a kunai so I could hunt and run up trees. That's how I swam so fast. I used my chakra while swimming to be faster. And I can henge so no one would recognize us when we had to sneak into towns to steal stuff. I know it was wrong, but Momma said it was needed..." Akita told him.

"I see. That's a hard situation to be in. I'm sure your mother was doing her best to take care of you," Hiruzen said gently. From what he could tell, by listening through the eyes of a child, something happened that made her mother feel they were in danger. It sounded like they were in one of the bad villages, perhaps one of the nations currently going through a civil war. If he had to guess, her mother chose to defect to protect her child. Hiruzen couldn't fault her for that. The land of water had bloodline purges recently. If they were caught up in something like that, he could understand her choice to defect and stay hidden. "So, tell me more about how you've been living."
"Well, lately we've been living in the cottage. But, before that, we moved around a lot...


Two days later, Akita sat in the hospital bed as the Hokage returned with several other adults. The past couple days, several specialists had come in to visit with Akita. There was one man who had her read a lot of short stories aloud. Another woman who just chatted with her and took a lot of notes. She had asked questions about growing up and the bad man and what he had done to her. Now, the Hokage had come to visit her again, with several people he introduced as his ninja, and he brought a large pin board with a very large map of the elemental nations.

"So, Akita, do you think you can show us on this map where you've been? Anything you can remember will help us try to find your mother," Hiruzen asked Akita. Akita pushed herself off the bed and walked over to the board, no longer hindered by an IV. She looked at the map for a moment before growling and stomping over to her bag.

"Not on that, I can't! That's too big," She grumbled as she pulled out her worn map and star chart. She stomped over to the board and pinned her map and star chart next to the larger map. She grabbed a red marker and stepped back to look at all three maps. "Now, let's see... I don't even need the stars to know the cottage was around here," She said as she circled a spot up river on the larger map. Then, she turned to her star chart and her map. "I remember a time when we camped in the desert. I loved it. The sky was so clear and you could see everything. We camped under a ledge that hid most of the light from our campfire so no one would see us. I remember looking at the stars every night as I fell asleep. I think... that was around here." She circled another spot, this time in wind country. And so it went. Akita would do her best to remember what the stars looked like, track that location through her star chart and map, and then circle the area on the large map for the Hokage. Eventually, she had several spots circled along with several tidbits she remembered about that spot. Hiruzen had been numbering Akita's circles and one of the shinobi have been making notes of what Akita remembered. Akita didn't realize just how useful those tidbits would be to the shinobi.

"I can't remember anymore," Akita said after looking at the maps for a few minutes. "Mom taught me how to find my way, but it took me a while. I remember a place that was hard for me to walk through. There were a lot of rivers there and it made the place kind of muddy. And I remember one time we camped in a place that had lots of rocks and canyons, but wasn't the desert. I got really confused there. Everything looked the same..." Akita said as she slumped. Hiruzen put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Do not fret, Akita. Everything you've remembered is very helpful. This will go a long way towards finding your mom and tracking where you came from," Hiruzen reasured her. Akita looked up at him.

"You sure?" She asked. Hiruzen smiled at her and turned her around to look at the shinobi around the room. Some were standing, some leaned against the wall, two sat in chairs studying the map.

"These fine men and women are shinobi of Konohagakure. The will of fire drives them in their missions. If there is anything to find, they will find it," Hiruzen told her. All of them, while not moving, somehow appeared to stand or sit straighter with pride. Akita looked at them all, and smiled with hope.


AN: So, I'm a few hours late this week. Missed my self-imposed Saturday deadline by an hour. It's been a busy week. Went on a vacation to go see the solar eclipse, got a cold from hell that I'm still fighting, and today we actually spent the day at a Renaissance Festival. It was amazing. But, the busy schedule the last two weeks means I didn't keep up on my writing and I just finished this. I spell checked and I proof read a few times, so I hope I didn't miss anything.

So, yes. Akita has woken up. She met with a person to evaluate her reading level and a child psychiatrist for potential abuse. Now, they're trying to find her mom. We're starting to get some momentum in the story again! Woo!

See you all next week!