Author's Notes: Ok, Im so sorry for the delay in updating but I hope this chapter makes up for it. Its not as long as I had hoped. Please let me know what you think. Its kind of drifted back towards the serious atmosphere like the first chapter.
Chapter 7
Miranda poked at her bowl of ramen. It had been a week and they still couldn't find anyone who would admit they recognized the twelve year old girl in the picture. She was starting to wonder if her feelings of comfort and familiarity were just some form of insanity she was genetically prone to. Maybe she was insane and had run away from a hospital she thought staring at her bowl through half lidded eyes. Over the week she had felt more at home in Konoha and the feeling of familiarity just seemed to grow stronger.
Naruto glanced over at his new found friend. He had noticed she had become less energetic over the last few days and reasoned that it was because they weren't having any luck helping her find out who she was. She was a spirited and friendly person who was genuine about her feelings towards others. He was also becoming attached to the dark haired girl he realized as he watched her for a few moments. Her hands were shaking slightly and she had a sheen decorating her forehead.
Sakura was genuine with her feelings towards people too. Genuinely violent and overly emotional he thought grinning to himself. But Hana didn't ignore him like Sakura did. He would always have a warm spot in his heart for the pink haired kunoichi. But there was something about Hana that made him feel better about himself. She went out of her way to talk to him and smiled at him all the time. She even liked to eat ramen with him. But today she seemed to be more than just upset about their lack of progress. She looked pale.
"Hana-chan, are you feeling ok? You haven't touched your ramen." Miranda looked up and gave him a small smile "Just thinking. Im fine." But Naruto wasn't fooled. She even had dark circles under her eyes today. He swore she had begun to look considerably worse just in the few minutes he had been watching her "Your not fine. You look like your sick. Maybe you should head back to Sakura-chans and get some rest." Miranda cringed. She didn't want to be anywhere near the flamingo girl.
They had been avoiding each other since the girl had taken her aside and accused her of trying to steal Sasuke from her. Miranda had calmly reminded her that they weren't even a couple for her steal him in the first place. This didn't make the kunoichi any less irate about the issue of coarse but she had walked away without another word and hadn't said anything since. Miranda could say she was fine with that. But she felt far from fine.
Sasuke was another enigma. Miranda was drawn to him for some reason. But she didn't feel that it was for the same reasons Sakura thought. She just couldn't shake the feeling that she knew him from somewhere. More so than anyone else she had met that week. Except for the Hyuuga kid. His eyes had fascinated her to no end and he had kindly asked her to not stare at him so much. Miranda had thought this funny. The way he squirmed under her scrutiny. Turning her head to look over at Naruto again she smiled.
Naruto was a good person. She really liked Naruto. But she had been told that the other Hyuuga, a girl by the name of Hinata...'Hinata...I like that name.' Miranda's mind began to wander and she almost forgot what she was thinking about when she caught Naruto looking at her and smiled again. She really liked Naruto. And Hinata liked Naruto. Therefore, Naruto was off limits she thought suddenly wondering why she was even thinking about Naruto in the first place. 'What was I thinking about?' Miranda felt confused and her head was foggy.
In fact she felt a little warm and dizzy and 'why was Naruto swaying on his stool like that?' she wondered staring over at him curiously. His lips were moving and he was waving his hands in front of her face but nothing seemed to be getting through to her. Not even when she slipped off the stool and hit the ground did she understand what was happening as she stared across the road at the feet of gathering people 'Why are they standing up when it feels so nice to lay down?' she thought lazily.
Naruto was off his stool and at her side in a flash, gently rolling her over. Then pulling off his jacket, tucking it under her head. Her eyes were still open but it was as if she wasn't really seeing him as he stared down into her eyes and tried to get her attention by leaning closer and saying her name again and again. "Somebody get a med-nin damn it!" he yelled feeling her forehead, his brow furrowing as he realized she was running a fever. He was about to pick her up and take her to the hospital himself when Shizune pushed through the crowd of people, Ton-Ton at her feet.
"What happened?" she asked as she began to examine the semi-conscious girl. "I don't know. She just looked sick and then she fell and now she feels like she's running a fever." Naruto spouted off nervously. Shizune looked into each of Miranda's eyes and leaned over pressing her ear to her chest, listening for a few seconds before lifting her up off the ground and heading towards he hospital. Naruto hot on her heels as they ran.
Miranda was far from confused. She could see people's faces looking down at her, see them move around her, feel their hands on her hot skin. But their voices were muffled and lost somewhere between their mouths and her ears. And somewhere in the distance she thought she heard a familiar voice calling out to her. It was far away. 'Further away than the people in the room.' she thought looking around. At the foot of the bed was Kakashi-sensei listening intently to Tsunade-sama. She felt he urge to wave at them.
But her harms felt heavy as she felt a stinging sensation and turned towards the pain to see a long clear tube running up to a bag. A couple of med-nins busied themselves around her. One she recognized from when she fell at the ramen stand. Miranda thought she looked sweet as she glanced down and smiled at her. Turning to look back down at Kakashi and Tsunade, Miranda frowned and gasped when Kakashi lifted his hitai-ate and stared at her with mismatched eyes. At least she thought she gasped. It would have been her reaction if she could think straight.
He made a face that gave Miranda the feeling things weren't going well before he tugged the forehead protector back into place, covering the strange red eye. She wanted to see it again. It fascinated her like the Hyuuga's eyes had. 'What was his name again?' Then there was Naruto pushing in between them and Tsunade's face turned red and then looked remorseful. Miranda imagined her yelling then feeling sorry for whatever she had said. It was obvious, even to her in her weakened state, that the blonde was worried.
The thought made her feel good. To know he cared enough to worry. 'You're a good person Naruto-kun.' she thought closing her eyes and letting the darkness finally take her towards the voice in the distance. That familiar voice that was both comforting and sent chills up her spine. She wished she knew what it was saying to her. Somehow she felt she did know. Somewhere behind the large locked doors she suddenly found herself standing in front of. Reaching for.
Kakashi waited for Naruto to finally calm down enough to convince him to leave before he spoke to Tsunade "Im telling you. She didn't have any chakra before. Now there is a faint trace and its growing." Tsunade had to ask again "Are you sure?" Kakashi gave her a 'Do you have to ask?' look as she quickly waved him off "Ok. Ok. Fine. But I had to ask again. Its just too hard to believe." she sighed and looked over at Miranda's unconscious form considering her for a long time before speaking again.
"No one can know. Not even your team. You understand the importance of keeping this a secret. No one has ever spontaneously developed chakra pathways before. Your either born with it or your not. And we don't even know her true identity yet." she stated as calmly as she could while rubbing her temples. Kakashi understood exactly what the Hokage was saying. If any of their enemies found out, even allies, they would want the girl for their own personal science experiment. To find out how and why. 'Who knows what they could do with that kind of knowledge.' he thought.
"Do you think she was genetically altered to produce this reaction? Perhaps triggered by something?" he asked thinking of Orochimaru and his student Kabuto. After all, they had a couple of resident shinobi who had some sort of resulting problem or gift because of the two traitors and their experiments. Tsunade didn't have to look at him to know who he was thinking of as she closed her eyes "Or perhaps she was designed as a weapon. The possibilities are endless. We need to find out as much about this girl as we possibly can before anything else happens."
"Well, I can tell you I don't think she's from Konoha. Not one person we spoke to this week admitted they recognized her or reacted to her picture in any way that would suggest they might be lying. And no she hasn't remembered anything." he added when Tsunade turned and opened her mouth. She closed it and smiled at him. "Maybe its time we force her to remember." They both looked up at Shizune slightly stunned that the good natured women would suggest such a thing.
"You mean ANBU." Kakashi's voice was quiet and his eyes glanced over to Miranda then back to Shizune. He had experience in ANBU. He understood the seriousness of their techniques. Even been a victim of some of those techniques in his younger days, as well as been the one who had used many of the unmentioned techniques on enemy shinobi. He didn't want to imagine a twelve year going through that and he was glad Tsunade didn't seem to be ready for that route just yet either.
"No. Maybe as a last resort. But I don't think we are even close to considering such a drastic method just yet." Kakashi relaxed sightly at her words. "What are we going to tell people when they realize she has chakra? Its not like we can hide it from them and at the very least, Team 7 was already told she was a civilian. They'll want to know what happened." Kakashi looked up at Tsunade as she bit her lip thinking carefully about what to do. They couldn't keep her locked up but they couldn't just let her run around Konoha without some sort of protection...or guard.
"You can tell them she had a chakra block placed on her which has obviously failed. Probably having something to do with her memory loss and that's all we know for now." Kakashi nodded and headed for the door. Shizune waited until he had gone before looking back up at Tsunade "What is going to happen to her now?" "She should be fine with Kakashi and his team so long as she doesn't leave the village. But I want ANBU watching her at all times. Just in case." Shizune nodded and turned to leave when Tsunade stopped her again "Also, everyone in this room is under orders. Hana-chan's file and anything else pertaining to her is now officially sealed."
