It took Hinata quite a while to make the boy let her go, but at least she managed to pry him away in the end. He had been very reluctant to loosen his grip; she did not know why he was being protective of her, but it was clear that he thought Neji was going to come back. With a stern 'no' she had managed to prevent him from coming too close to her. She watched carefully for any signs as to how his mood was. Neji was right; there wouldn't be much she could do if he turned angry again. As of now, though, he just seemed curious to her weird behaviour and his new surroundings.

"I can't have him walking around naked like this," Hinata thought, feeling thoroughly embarrassed. It seemed like everybody had left her; Neji had left since if he hadn't she wouldn't have been able to get the boy off of her, and her father had just stomped away after she had convinced him to let the boy stay with them, leaving her all on her own. She had no idea as of what to do, and she didn't know what to start with. She really needed a bit of advice.

"Hinata?"

Neji. Thank God. She had never been so happy to hear her cousin's voice.

"Yes?"

"Is everything ok?"

"Um, well, yes, at least I managed to make him let go. He calmed after you left."

Neji came up beside her, all the while keeping his eyes on the boy who had now gone tense again, staring at Neji with wary eyes.

"I'm going to talk to uncle about what we should do with him; it's not like he can make any use of himself." The boy growled a little, but Neji ignored him. "First of all he should have a bath to get that animal smell off of him. He stinks. And after that I'll make sure to find clothes for him."

"Who should bathe him?"

"I've already arranged that." Neji snapped his fingers, and a split second later two of his men bounced forth from around the corner and knocked the boy unconscious before he could even try to defend himself.

"Neji!" Hinata shouted angrily. "You can't knock him unconscious all the time!" Neji just gave her a 'so what?'-look.

"It's the only way we'll be able to handle him," he said, as if that was something everyone knew. He motioned for the two men (one of them was Hagane, Hinata noticed) and the two of them picked him up and hurried towards the baths with him, clearly afraid that he would wake up.

"I'll let some of the guys take care of cleaning him. He shouldn't have to be taken care of by women before he's decent. You've already seen too much." Neji turned to follow Hagane and the other man, which made Hinata glad. She wouldn't have wanted him to see her blush again.

With nothing else to do, Hinata went down to the kitchen to see if there was something there for her to do. There she found Sakura, one of the maids and her long time friend. She was standing with her butt in the air, cleaning a big pot and cursing as she did. When she heard Hinata's footsteps she straightened and greeted her with a grin.

"I heard you had a rough day?" she inquired, put away the rag she'd been using and sat down beside Hinata on the bench.

"I guess you could call it that," Hinata said and gave a tired smile.

"Finding a boy in the woods, almost getting smothered by him and then having to take him in here," Sakura said and pretended to think hard. "Yeah, sounds tiring enough. But seriously, who is he?" At the last part she lightened up like a candle, curiosity practically radiating from her.

"Well, that's what we don't know, right? The only thing we really know is that he is for sure a feral child, because when I first saw him he was running together with a pack of foxes." Hinata sighed. Sakura only looked riled up.

"Well, what more?" she demanded. Hinata gave a small laugh, saying: "I'm afraid there is no more to tell you. At least not as of now."

"Well, where is he now?"

"Right now Neji and two others are giving him a bath, so that's probably where he is.

Sakura huffed.

"Crap, I wanted to see him," she pouted. Hinata just gave a small laugh. She wasn't sure just how much Sakura would want to see him after actually having seen him. She hoped he wouldn't go on a rampage with her also, like he did with Neji.

She spoke with Sakura for a while, and then she left so Sakura could do her job without distractions. She wandered aimlessly around for a good ten minutes, and suddenly found herself nearing the baths. The door to the bath opened on her left, and Neji came out, looking thoroughly exhausted.

"Why do you look so tired?" Hinata asked.

Neji gave her a sour look.

"Your adopted animal woke up half-way through the bath. He made a huge mess of the entire place before we managed to knock him out again." He looked down at her sternly. "I hope you know what you're doing, Hinata, because if this keeps up he can't be here."

Hinata looked away. Of course she knew that. But they couldn't very well just throw him back into the woods, could they?

"You and I are going to uncle now," Neji continued. "We have to discuss what we're going to do with him." Hinata just nodded and followed after him.

The meeting with her father lasted too long for Hinata's taste. After Neji had told her that they had knocked the boy out again she was worried as to how his head was right now. Surely he would suffer some kind of brain damage if they kept it up?

After they were finished talking (mainly about how Neji disliked the boy) she rushed out before either of the two men could stop her and made her way towards... Where exactly had Neji put him? She almost kicked herself. There had to be a limit to stupidity! How could she forget to ask?!

She was about to turn and go back to ask Neji when she suddenly heard a commotion coming from the hallway on her left. It sounded a lot like running feet and an occasional crash from what she assumed were the vases. She did not like how the sounds were moving towards her, but she thought she had a good idea as to who was making the noise. And she was right. Only a couple of seconds later her little 'adopted animal' as Neji so gracefully named him came rushing towards her, two men hot on his tail. He was somewhat dressed now, although his torso was bare and the pants he wore were simply Neji's old pyjamas. His face unmistakeably lightened up the moment he saw her, and she flinched. She knew what was probably coming, and turned to hightail the other way. She didn't get far, though, because he was fast and had soon caught up with her. His arms wrapped around her and crushed her against him. He was still damp, and small water drops dripped from his hair and down on her kimono. A small, satisfied sound came from him and she could almost feel his glee. She blushed, but at least he was covered this time.

"Lady Hinata!" Hagane yelled. He sounded frightened.

It's okay!" she said hurriedly. "Just don't come closer."

Hagane stared worriedly at her, but he reluctantly did as she said. She smacked the boy lightly on his arm, and said as sternly as she could:

"Let me go."

His hold on her loosened, as if he was unsure of what she meant, but when she pushed his arm gently away he let go. She turned towards him, and he was looking at her with such a lost expression that she could hardly keep herself from laughing. Hagane was staring at her with amazement and respect.

"That was amazing, Lady Hinata! How did you do that? All he's done up to now is going ballistic all the time!"

She smiled at him and was about to answer when a loud, growling sound emitted from the boy. She stared at him, and it took her a little while to understand what it was before she saw the hand he was holding over his stomach and understood that he was hungry.

"You're dismissed, Hagane. I have to find some food for him," she said with a small laughter and started to lead the boy towards the kitchen.

"Are you sure I shouldn't come with you?" Hagane said quickly.

"No, it's fine."

Hagane looked like he wanted to disobey, but he turned and left, glancing behind him every once in a while until he disappeared around the corner.

Hinata entered through the kitchen door, leading the slightly confused boy behind her.

"Sakura?" she called, and a moment later the pink-haired girl came jumping out from behind a counter.

"Hey, Hinata!" she said cheerfully. "Rare to see you so – " She fell abruptly silent when she saw the boy behind Hinata.

"Oh my Good!" she squealed in delight. "Is it him?! He's so cute!"

She jumped up and down, and Hinata couldn't help but smile at her exuberant best friend. The boy looked taken aback and a little suspicious, but he didn't do anything more than take a step away from Sakura.

"Could you maybe find some food? I don't think he has eaten for quite a while," Hinata said.

"Sure thing! Just take a seat and I'll see what I can find! We don't have much right now, though, since it's not dinner time right now."

Sakura rushed over to a cabinet in the far end of the room and started rummaging through it. It sounded like something shattered as she looked, and a muttered 'damn' could barely be heard. Hinata sat down on one of the simple chairs, and tried to make the boy do the same, but he blatantly refused.

"Of course, he has never used a chair before," Hinata thought and let him stand. Sakura came back with a sour look.

"We only have these narutos left," she said and put a bowl down on the table. "Can he do with those? It isn't more than a few hours until dinner."

"I'm pretty sure he'll do just fine," Hinata said and offered the bowl to the boy. He eyed it a little before he clumsily picked up one of the small fishcakes and sniffed on it. Apparently he decided it was safe, and ate it. It seemed he liked it, because all of them were soon gone and he constantly stared at the bowl as if expecting it to refill itself.

"It seems he liked it a lot," Sakura said and took the bowl away. The boy let out a small whimper. He obviously wanted more. "Why not name him after it? I assume he doesn't have a name."

Hinata smiled and thought it over. Calling someone up after a fishcake... It felt weird, but she hadn't really thought of anything better, so why not?

"It feels like we're naming a dog, though," Sakura mused. "What do you think? Naruto isn't such a bad name?"

"No, I guess it isn't," Hinata smiled and looked at the boy as he stood on tiptoes, looking for more food. "And I don't have a better suggestion."

"Okay, Naruto it is then!" Sakura announced gleefully. "Can you say that? Na-ru-to"

Hinata laughed at Sakura's failed attempt at learning Naruto his new name, and looked at him as he stutteringly tried to voice the unfamiliar word. She laughed together with Sakura when the boy finally had enough of it and refused to make another sound. He got up and started to pace around the room, pointedly ignoring them, and Hinata continued her chit-chatting with Sakura, all the time keeping half an eye on Naruto to make sure he didn't break anything.