"Lady Hinata, welcome." The plump woman from before answered the door.
"Hinata is fine." Hinata barely finished before she was nearly knocked over by several children running full force into her legs. Hinata set her hands on exciting heads.
"Children, do we need a lesson in basic manners?" The caregiver sighed, rubbing her temple. "Etsu told everyone you were coming to play. They were excited."
"May I come in, please?" She asked the children. They all promptly dragged her in by her robe. She tried not to giggle at the eager behavior.
She smiled back at the woman as she closed the door and gave her a look of apology. She was dragged into a large main room where she tried to listen to the children's unintelligible chatter as they all talked at once. "I can't understand when you all talk at once." She explained. "Here, let's try this." They all quieted to listen to her low voice.
She sat down on her knees. "Let's sit down." The children followed her to the floor. "Now how about we try to take turns." This didn't go over well. She listened to the children, but there were a few fights about who got to go next and talking over each other. She enjoyed their enthusiasm.
Etsu sat right next to her and held the biggest bright smile. It turned out she had gained a lot of confidence and friends since their time in the street. She informed her that she wanted to be a ninja so that her future scars were received serving the village. Hinata found it morbid, but she had honestly heard worse reasons.
The children ranged from toddlers to teenagers. The caregiver informed her that, sadly, rarely did the younger children get taken in until they got much older. The older ones got taken in as apprentices and would live with their master once they proved to have potential.
Hinata could imagine how that made them feel. But she didn't have to imagine. She knew how it felt to be only wanted when she was deemed useful, and it wasn't right.
"We do what we can, and I try to give them what they need, but we have a hard time even teaching them basic skills and keeping even manners constant when there are so many of them. They need more personalized help, and the staff I have usually had their hands full with the toddlers." She sighed as they watched the children play amongst themselves. "We have been able to hire more staff and make room for more beds since the rise in the budget, but I still have some children sharing beds, and I can't keep an eye on all of them."
"I want to help. I didn't know it was such a big problem. We don't have this problem in Konoha." Hinata tried to smile through her heartbreak to not tip the children off that she was upset.
"What happens there?" The woman asked with a tilt of her head as she continued to fold.
Hinata wasn't allowed to help with the chores though she offered. "With large clans like mine, the child would go to the next family member. If there is no family, they go to a godparent."
"What is a godparent?" The caregiver interrupted.
"Usually a friend or teammate of the parent. It's a custom I guess you don't have here. When the child is born, the parent will ask a friend to take care of the child in case something happened to them." Hinata explained.
"Oh, no, we don't have that here. That would kind of be insulting. Like dumping your responsibilities on someone else after your death." The woman huffed.
"Really? Is that how children are viewed here?" Hinata asked, taken back.
She nodded. "Do you know many orphans that grew up out of an orphanage then?"
"Naruto-kun and Sasuke-san both looked after by the third Hokage who was asked to look after them. He was sort of like a godfather, and I knew some nin and even civilian families that took in fallen nin's children." Hinata fiddled with her coat hem. "We do have a large orphanage run by the hospital that takes in children from any village affected by war, but it has a high adoption rate, especially for young children." She explained. "It's usually the older children that don't get adopted out."
They both sat in combined depression until the caregiver spoke again. "Thank you for taking the time with them. They don't get a lot of attention like that."
"Would you mind if I visited more?" Hinata asked.
"I'm certainly not going to forbid it." The woman smiled, giving her a pat on the knee. "Come anytime you want."
"I'll look into what I can to help," Hinata promised, standing up.
"To be honest, I never thought a man that looked so sour could find such a sweet woman to agree to marry him." Hinata blinked at her trying to process the comment as an insult or compliment. The woman burst out laughing.
"Gaara is very kind." Hinata defended, holding her hands up in defense.
"I mean no offense." The woman continued to laugh. "I'm sure he is a lovely husband, he's just naturally intimidating. He scares the children."
Hinata tried not to giggle. "He has an effect on people. He was intimidating to me when I first met him too." She tucked her hands back in her lap.
"I'm sure you should head back to him, it's getting late." She set aside her folding and got up. "About time for washing up and bed."
Hinata nodded and moved over to the children to tell them goodbye. Crying and begging started, but she hushed them softly. "I'll be back, promise, but you have to let me leave so I can come back." She crouched. "How about this. If you all calmly tell me goodbye and let me leave without complaint. I'll come back at the same time tomorrow. Okay?"
"Promise?" Etsu asked excitedly.
"Promise." She smiled.
"Now say your goodbyes so she can go home. I'm sure she's tired." The caregiver urged.
There was a round of goodbyes with some minor complaints that the older children tried to control so she could keep her promise. She gave a couple of hugs and waved as she left.
"You didn't come back with Temari." Gaara noted as she came in.
"She didn't tell you where I was?" Hinata wondered.
"She said you had someone to visit." He set down his paperwork to hear about it.
"Do you remember the day we went out into the village, and I played with the children?" She sat into her part of the couch, receiving a loved deprived tanuki in her lap.
"The ones that touched your face." She nodded.
"The little girl in the alley was a child you saved a few years ago from a collapsed home." She explained. "She is currently in the care of the orphanage."
"I don't remember that" He frowned in thought. "There have been many collapses."
"I'm sure you have saved many villagers that they blur, so I didn't expect you would." She hummed. "We ran into her on our way to the compound building site. I promised to come visit once we were done." She sighed. "I didn't realize how many children were in the orphanage and how understaffed they are."
"We have trouble keeping up with it." He nodded. "That's under your hands now, though. I signed off on the shift in funding." He started looking through papers to find what he was talking about.
"Oh I know that." She waved his hand to tell him not to bother. "It's just I didn't understand the difference between how orphans were perceived here compared to Konoha."
"Is it different?" He wondered.
She nodded, curling into the chair and folding her arms on the arm of the chair as the tanuki takes its sand nose into her hip. "Quite different." She explained what she had realized, and he listened, interested, especially when she had explained Naruto's situation.
"You'll be going back then?" He asked, picking back up his paperwork.
"How did you know that?" She lifted her head and blinked at him.
"You have shown interest in it." He noted. "If you find the current situation inadequate, it would be unlikely you would leave it the way it is." He blinked at her, just as confused with why she needed to ask.
She smiled, getting up to cross the room, the tanuki reluctantly leaving her lap. Gaara turned his chair, putting down his work wonder written on his face as she approached. She leaned down and planted a kiss on his forehead and curled herself around him. She could feel the confusion radiating from him.
"What did I do?" He asked, curling around her to hold her in place. She let her knees fold to put her weight on his legs.
"You're just being you." Observant, sweet, and adorable.
"I don't understand." He sighed, pressing his face into her shoulder, giving it a few lazy pecks.
"That's okay." She giggled.