Oh dear god, Sarutobi thought in despair. Would this day and it's seemingly endless supply of surprises ever end? He wondered as he quickly tried to blank his panicked expression and stood up and said in as calm a tone as he could considering how upset he was, "Good timing you four- I need someone to take these two to the hospital. Any volunteers?" And waited for someone to ask what had happened as he thought up a cover story to keep the four from figuring out Naru was the one responsible for Shota and Mejin's wounds.

The only real issue here was he wasn't sure he could use some sort of mind jutsu to manipulate them into believing that the girl was harmless.

Mainly because he didn't know just when they had gotten there and how much they had seen. And tampering with their memories to try and erase anything that they might have seen Naru do was out of the question since Asuma was his son (and would never forgive- let alone trust him again if he did) and Kurenai and Kakashi were both so problematic when it came to genjutsu and other mind jutsu that they were both practically immune to them.

So one wrong move there and the two would not only storm his office within five minutes of leaving, but they'd turn on him like wild animals and attack. And that wasn't particularly something that he would enjoy, he was sure of it.

Finally after a heartbeat or so, someone spoke up (Kurenai, Kakashi, Gai- he wasn't sure and he didn't really care) and he nearly sighed in relief again when he quickly explained that he had been playing hide and seek with Naru and the two had come out of nowhere and attacked her, forcing the child to fight back. Which was why they were in such a bad way and Naru was covered in blood and looking from him to the group of jounin curiously.

Gai sighed and moved forward, breaking away from the group so that he could go over to the men- passing Naru who glared at the man's back and peeled her lips back from her teeth in a silent snarl- evidentially hoping that the two injured men would be left to bleed to death, and picked the two up carefully and after exchanging a look with the others (one that obviously said 'tell me everything later') he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Leaving Sarutobi to stare down the other three jounin as Naru huffed a little bit and crossed her arms over her chest and stood there waiting for someone to say something. Deciding to break the strained silence, he clapped his hands together and forced himself to smile at the three remaining jounin and asked, "So... What did the four of you need so urgently that you had to come see me at this hour?"

Asuma narrowed his eyes at his father and walked forward slowly as he stared unblinkingly at Naru. Taking note of her appearance, the color of her hair and eyes, her age, her height... This isn't good, Sarutobi thought as his finally spoke.

"I heard a funny little rumor that I had a niece. And being the loving son that I am-" Sarutobi had to hold back the urge to cringe at his son's tone. He just sounded so- so pissed. He didn't think he'd ever heard Asuma use such a tone when speaking to him before. "I thought that I would come to you...father, and see if any of those little rumors are true," Again Asuma gave Naru a long lingering look and then glanced back at him. His dark eyes practically smoldering with temper as he said in a gentler, deceptively coaxing tone. "Well? Is it true? Do I have a niece?"

At which point the elder reached out blindly and grabbed Naru and practically thrust her into Asuma's arms and started babbling almost incoherently, "Here. Her name is Naru. She just turned seven years old. She's your late brother's daughter. I only recently found out about her and went to find her. She was living alone in a village not far from here due to the fact that her mother died several years ago. So I brought her here where she could be raised by her family-" He ran out of breath at that point because Asuma was staring at him like he was insane.

And perhaps he was. Lord knew Naru could easily drive anyone mad.

He stood there huffing as Asuma opened and closed his mouth several times, his expression one of utter shock and disbelief. His younger brother had only been fifteen when he had died! How was it possible that he had fathered a child?! He wondered as he searched his father's expression for a moment trying to find any hints of a lie and found nothing but worry and uncertainty in his expression.

Why? He wondered as he glanced down at the little girl in his arms. She had her head tipped back and was staring at him with wide violet colored eyes that were nothing like his late brothers... So why- why did he have the sense that his father was worried he wouldn't accept the child as a part of their family? He didn't understand.

Did his father really think that he wouldn't accept a child that had been born to his brother and some unknown woman if said child really was his niece? But then- he had no real proof that the girl was or wasn't his niece by blood. Now did he? Gritting his teeth for a moment he stared down at the child's small blood spattered face and felt torn between laughing at the absurdity of the situation and crying.

But in the end he managed to tamp down on most of his curiosity and his questions and managed a weak smile for the girl as a thought finally hit him. It wasn't entirely unheard of for bastard children to be born to his family. After all, he himself had been one for several years before his father had married his mother.

And just because the child's parents were gone meant nothing. Not really.

All it really meant was- he had a niece.