The quietness of the office would have been nice but the cloaked figure in the back gave her the chills.
The woman who sat behind the desk had motioned towards the seat. She then clicked out the office while calling something back to her, her heels echoing away, and left the girl alone.
Her eyes flickered back to the figure at the back of the room. She didn't know what it was.
I had some form of strange face, coloured in red and white.
She then began to wonder why there was so much white in this place, all they seemed to do was make it look duller than it had to be.
Still looking at the thing, she realised that it didn't seem to move.
Rising from her seat, she slowly approached it and stood face to face (well more like face to chest due to her small size) with the strange thing.
Her hand reached out to poke its face to see if it was alive when before she could blink, it had captured her wrist in its large, gloved hand.
She audibly inhaled and snatched her wrist back.
The thing simply pointed back to seat and snapped something at her.
Gingerly she slumped back and threw herself into the chair.
Nobody was any fun around here.
She pulled at the collar of the itchy jumper she was in (she had been given a pair of panties, general size training bra, trousers that had to be folded up at the bottom and secured with a hair tie at the waist and an oversized scratchy jumper which she had taken an instant dislike to) and sighed.
When Tsunade returned, she found the girl where she was left so presumed there was no hassles while she was gone.
She sat back down at the seat and eyed up the girl in front of her.
It didn't take long for Shizune to make an appearance and Kakashi arrived soon after.
Turning towards the man, Shizune gave him a bright smile.
"On time for once, Hatake? I'm impressed."
He averted his eyes and Tsunade scoffed.
"Don't look too pleased, I told him this meeting was two hours ago."
Not that either had really expected anything different from the poor man who ran a hand through his hair and shrugged.
"Naruto got stuck down a well, you're lucky I got him out so quick."
Both woman rolled their eyes.
"So", Tsunade looked almost pained, "naked girl turns up, has no understanding of plain Japanese and doesn't even know her name. Further experience has shown that she lacks a belly button and everything in her body seems strangely new."
Yep. That pretty much covered it.
The girl just looked ahead. A sweet smile on her face.
"I think the best way to go about this is find her someone to live with, preferably you, Shizune. I trust you to care for her and I trust you to try to keep this in the dark for now. I will look into the best and quickest ways to teach her speech because we can't move forward while she doesn't even understand us. I will gift you will money to buy her clothes and necessities and we will create some fake details for her during the mean time. I want both of you to look out for her and please, keep her out of trouble."
Everyone slightly reddened at the memory of the bar.
Tsunade scribbled on blank document, then spared a glance at each face.
"Until we know her real name, she will go by the name Arina. She is 18 years old and is a family friend of Shizune so has came over to stay after the death of her father. Try to keep her from people until she is less...prominent and remember: We still don't know if she can be trusted."
A nod from both ended the conversation.
Shizune had left the girl on the couch, awkwardly handing her some kids books before giving a quick wave and disappearing out the door, closing it behind her, she Walked away but soon spun round and hobbled back to the door awkwardly.
She stuck her key in the door feeling slightly guilty.
'Just incase,' she told herself.
Arina flicked through the books, studying the alphabet books and word books, with the button controlled audio help.
She felt a fire of determination. She understood that these would help her understand.
She crossed her legs, sitting on the ground by the low table.
She opened the first book, eyes ablaze and face serious.
Shizune came through the door, bags up each arm, and used her foot to shut it behind her.
Her eyes scanned the room before landing on the figure of the other girl. She was hunched over a book and the rest were scattered around her.
Looking up to see Shizune had arrived, the girl offered a smile.
She picked the book up and held it out to the woman, asking for help.
Over the course of the next few weeks Shizune would help her study if she wasn't working.
Sometimes she would wake up during the night needing water and when she came into the living room, Arina would be sitting up in her couch bed with the lamp on reading them on her own.
Her lips would move silently as her eyes lay on the page, rapidly scanning each word.
Although she would try to convince the girl to put them down and go to sleep but she knew she was powerless when it came to this girl's willpower.
As much as she hated to admit it, we was deeply impressed. Sometimes Arina would go to the Hokage's office with a book in hand and open the door, going to the couch at the back and silently go over the book.
Tsunade didn't mind, if anything she found it rather endearing more than anything else.
After a while she began to notice how the books became more complicated. She had moved onto simple kids books with bold type and pictures adorning each page. Soon she moved onto ordinary books.
Apparently the fierce practice had paid off for one day when Arina had wandered into the office and sat on the couch.
She turned to look out the window.
"It's very sunny."
Tsunade's eyes bulged and her hand stopped scribbling.
She looked to the girl who still gazed out the window.
Her voice had been dreamy and distant. She spoke with confidence but remained gentle.
She turned towards Tsunade with a smile on her face.
"You are very pretty."
the woman smirked
'I could get used to this girl...'
"So..." She started, "you have learned a lot?"
The girl looked down and smiled.
"I tried very hard," she looked to the roof, "there's a lot to learn."
The Hokage hummed in agreement, studying the girl.
"Do you remember anything?"
"No." The girl frowned.
"They are there but I can't..."
"It's okay, take your time."
"Thank you."
"I think you caught on but we have you to do us a favour. Until we sort things out, I need you to do a bit of pretending. This," she handed her a sheet of paper, "is who you are in the mean time."
The girl looked down at the paper and nodded.
"Sure." Again she smiled.
She stood up to leave before spinning on her heals.
"Please. I'm so bored, can I go out into the streets and meet people?" Her look was pleading.
Tsunade thought for a moment before sighing.
"Make sure you remember that," she pointed to the paper, "and of course."
The girl gasped happily before running out the office.
She stared at her reflection, her black hair had been tied into a high ponytail and she wore the black issued trousers that had been poorly bandaged at the appropriate points (she had used the various pictures from 'The Adventure of Jou The Jōnin' as a reference) and wore a dark blue tshirt along with the black issued sandals. She picked up the Konoha headband that Shizune had brought her previously and tied it around her neck. She stared into her own eyes and repeated "my name is Arina, I am 18 years old and I moved from Tea country to stay with Shizune who was a family friend after my father passed away" she nodded once before grabbing the small purse of money and making her way outside.
A/N: things are starting to take off now, huh? And I think I'm going to add in any songs or things I read while writing or any things that I relate to the chapters.
I'll leave you to figure out if it has a connection *cackles*
Dreams - Leighton Meester