Inverted-

Chapter nineteen

Kakashi, Iruka, Yamato, Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, Neji and everyone else that was once friends with Naruto were all hiding in various bushes/trees nearby watching and listening to Sai and...Yuki speak to one another.

They had been scrambling all over the village trying to find the girl when they finally managed to stumble across them in the park of all places. Which was great since it meant that the girl wasn't passed out/injured/dead in a ditch somewhere like all of them had feared that she would be upon discovering her missing from the hospital.

And now that their hearts were no longer trying to leap right out of their chests in fear, they were merely sitting quietly and eavesdropping on their conversation. Trying to figure out how best to handle this bizarre new situation.

After all, it wasn't as if something like this happened to people that they knew everyday.

So naturally gathering what information- and bravery, they needed to gather that too- that they could was more ideal than simply rushing in blindly and scaring the poor girl witless. Besides, Sai seemed to be doing a good job of handling her without any sort of help or intervention so far.

And already she was proving to have the first vestiges of a developing personality. Which...was utterly fascinating to Sakura as a medical nin. Especially since the change between Naruto and her had been excruciating and she hadn't really had a chance to test the girl to see if she had any memory loss beyond who they were and such.

Right now, Yuki was asking questions about some of the stuff in Sai's art book. They weren't entirely sure what he had intended, but he pulled it out a few minutes ago and decided to show it to her and explain some stuff. Like people's names.

He had plenty of sketches of everyone in the rookie twelve, including their sensei's, the Hokage, ect... So they could only assume that he was trying to fill in any gaps that she had in her memory by telling her who they were and such.

Already he had shown her the pics of Sakura, himself, Tsunade and Kakashi as well as a few others and explained who they were and some of what they did. Which was good, they supposed. Because even if Yuki didn't have any memories of them and their bonds as friends and such- then maybe Sai's pictures and explanations would help her to feel a little bit more at ease around them.

Or at least that was what some of them fervently hoped anyways.

They must have watched the two of them for a good half hour before an Anbu showed up, startling the hell out of Yuki. If the way she suddenly flung herself over the back of the bench that she and Sai had been sitting on, and hit the ground hard enough to violently force the air from her lungs, was any indication at all.

"The Hokage is summoning you to the tower, Yuki." Sai said once the Anbu poofed himself away. The girl was still lying on the ground where she'd thrown herself and didn't seem to be moving at all.

Suddenly feeling a little bit worried that she might have actually hurt herself, Sai peeked over the back of the bench at her to check on her and heard her softly ask, "I-Is that guy gone yet?"

He nodded his head and held his hand out to help her up off of the ground as she asked, "We aren't 'poof'ing there are we?"

Sai snorted, "No. I happen to like my skin in one piece, thanks."

Yuki nodded her head soberly and merely said, "Wise decision." Sai smiled at her and took her small hand in his own and started to lead her away from the park, all while signing to the others.

She isn't a fan of appearing and disappearing, proceed with caution.

Hoping that the others wouldn't bother wasting time with questions and would just understand. After all, Yuki was born of Naruto. However was a totally separate individual. This meant that while she had no memories of them, she also didn't seem to have any of Naruto's previous knowledge of being a ninja.

Which was probably why she disliked it so much whenever someone 'poofed' into being at random.

He didn't exactly have high hopes for everyone getting the message, after all, the rookie twelve had a few dunces amongst the group. But he at least hoped that the important ones got the message anyway.

He'd hate to have Yuki have a nervous breakdown or something before he could get to know her.

Gaara, Temari, and Kankura were in Tsunade's office when Sai escorted Yuki in. All of them had been talking about what needed to be done and trying to figure out the best way to break the news of her impending union with Gaara to her. As well as maybe check her and see if she even understood what was going to happen.

If the girl showed no signs of understanding what marriage was...well, Tsunade was already running through various scenarios about what to do with her then.

Somehow she didn't think that Yuki would appreciate being locked up in an mental institution or something until she showed signs of knowing things all that much.

"Ah, Yuki-" Tsunade said as she perked up a little bit at the girl's appearance. She took a moment to look her over, checking her physically for anything that might be wrong before happily noting that she seemed fine. She was still wearing Naruto's old clothes however. And her hair looked as if it needed something done with it, but other than those things- she looked totally and utterly fine. "Did you have fun scaring the bejesus out of the hospital staff and my nins, kid?" She asked the girl in a teasing tone.

Yuki looked at her for a moment with a small frown on her pretty face before then looking curiously at Gaara and his siblings as she said, "Sorry. I wasn't trying to scare anyone ma'am." Missing the way that Tsunade's smile dropped from her face and her jaw went slack as she leaned forward in her seat.

An expression of utter shock crossing her face.

Sai looked amused, after all, barely anyone but the older and more well mannered people of the village ever referred to the woman as Ma'am. And Naruto and the word 'respect' were like two very separate things. Oh sure the boy had known what the word was and what it meant, but he very rarely used it any in regards to people higher than him in station.

So it was only natural that Tsunade would look as she currently did. Yuki had shocked her by using a term of respect for an older woman.

However Tsunade startled them all by finally shaking herself out of her funk and quickly scrambling over her desk and grabbing Yuki by the shoulders and hugging her. Yuki made a weird sound as she her face was mushed into the woman's bosom and flailed around a little bit as Tsunade held her in place and then turned to Gaara and said, "I've changed my mind Gaara, you can't have her. I mean did you hear what she said to me? I've been trying to get the people of this damned village to respect me as their Kage for ages! I actually have to threaten bodily harm to get anyone to even use respectful words with me and this little..."

She looked down at Yuki who was trying, and failing, to pry herself free of the woman's grasp. "Angel, just walks in here and calls me ma'am! Ma'am of all things! I thought that I would literally die before anyone remotely like Naruto would use such a word around me. So no, you can't have her. I'm keeping this well mannered child and raising her as my very own."

Gaara couldn't help but eye the other Kage and feel amusement at her insane rambling.

However the second that Temari and Kankuro both pointed to Yuki, whom had suddenly gone still and was just sort of hanging from Tsunade's grasp all limp-like, he couldn't help but bristle a little bit as he heard Sai said, "Uh...My lady, I think you just killed her."

"What?" Tsunade asked stupidly. After all, she wasn't doing anything that could actually hurt the girl. She was just hugging her and- oh. She thought to herself as she abruptly let the girl go and dropped her to the floor. "Oh my..."