Turning point: Chapter 5

:Kindness:

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Tayuya held her arm over her eyes, the morning sun bearing down on her as she stepped outside. She'd gone through a long and boring process on her way out and had filled out at least twenty different forms, but with it all done she was able to take a proper walk on her own. She rubbed her eyes a little as they adjusted from being indoors for several days to being out in the sun again, even though her room had been fairly bright it was much different outside. she looked around at the street she'd been looking over from her window and decided to take a stroll through what seemed to be the already fairly busy market district. As she walked, Tayuya noticed that she was getting an annoying amount of strange looks from people. Whether it was because of her unusual outfit or if they knew she was from the sound she didn't know, but it was starting to get on her nerves. She was about to turn and yell at one of them when she was prematurely silenced by a tug on her clothes, looking down revealed it to be a small boy; looking only around five and sniffling close to tears. He tugged again to try and get a response and was rewarded by a poke on the forehead from the irritated redhead.

"What is it kid? You want something from me?"

She spoke with no real regard to sympathy as he looked up at her with teary eyes.

"M-miss? My.. mommy is gone... I can't find her".

Tayuya looked around at the people staring who quickly went back to what they were doing before she replied.

"Well I'm not your mom kid, what do you want me to do? You want me to pull her out of nowhere?"

The boy looked up at her as if he thought she was being serious which caused her to let out an exasperated sigh.

"You want me to help you look for her don't you."

She looked down at the boy who nodded and with another sigh she took his hand and started off down the street.

For the first few minutes Tayuya was relying on the boy to recognize his mother and point her out, but after a half hour of aimlessly wandering around and receiving more strange looks she finally lost her patience and stopped to kneel down next to the boy.

"Ok, I need you to stop sniveling for a minute and tell me what she looks like."

She wasn't making any effort to hide her frustration as she frowned at him, eventually he spoke up.

"She's tall and has black hair and green eyes and wears a blue dress and-"

Tayuya cut him off with her finger on his lips before standing up again. She looked around briefly for anyone matching that description, when it was clear the woman wasn't around here she decided to go with plan B. Grabbing the boy by his waist she jumped up to the rooftops to get a better view, no sooner had she stopped moving she found herself instantly surrounded by Anbu. The village's secret operations force and extremely high class ninja all brandishing weapons in her direction.

Tayuya found herself almost stumbling back in surprise at this aggressive move and tried to keep an eye on all of them so not to be caught off guard.

"What the hell is this? What's going on?"

She asked angrily, the Anbu seemed expressionless with their white masks on and simply held their position. One of them straightened up a little and spoke.

"You just got discharged from our village's hospital and already you're trying to abduct a child? You must be out of your mind."

Finally Tayuya understood the situation and frowned again.

"Abduct? Think again asshole, I'm trying to help him find his mom. Even I wouldn't stoop so low to take someone's kid."

The boy had been clinging to her leg the whole time as the Anbu looked at each other, the speaker motioned with his hand and the others nodded and withdrew, disappearing into seemingly thin air. The remaining Anbu then took a step forward and knelt down, holding out his hand to the boy.

"I'll get him back to his parents, you need to head to the Hokage's office. Lady Tsunade wanted to speak with you as soon as you got out."

Tayuya looked down at the boy who looked back up at her, she gave him a nod as well as a little nudge on his back. The boy nodded back and reluctantly let go of her to take the Anbu's hand, with that both of them disappeared in a flash and Tayuya was left alone on the rooftop. Turning her head towards the largest building in the village, a huge red mansion with the symbol for 'fire' on the front, Tayuya thought to herself.

"Well, if they've got the Anbu watching me then I should probably be a little more careful. I don't wanna get myself killed over something dumb."

With that she jumped from rooftop to rooftop, heading for the Hokage's mansion.

Less than two minutes after arriving she was sent to meet with the Hokage, the last time she'd been here the Hokage had been a decrepit old man that Orochimaru inevitably killed. Wondering what kind of ninja they'd got to replace him she knocked on the door to the office.

"Enter."

A woman's voice, a familiar voice that she couldn't quite place. Tayuya turned the handle and opened the door. The light from the large windows on the opposite side of the room illuminated it well, the room was relatively tidy but cluttered with papers at the same time, several sets of drawers, bookshelves and filing cabinets lined the walls either side of the main focus of the room; the Hokage's desk. Covered in piles of papers and files, the desk made it look like the Hokage was very busy. And sat right behind it was the busty doctor, her hands together in front of her mouth with her elbows resting on the desk. Her assistant, a frail looking woman with short black hair and a black kimono carrying a small pig in a red jacket; stood beside the desk and simply watched Tayuya as she stepped inside.

"I've been expecting you, you're looking much better than yesterday."

The Hokage gave a small smile as she spoke, keeping a friendly tone but still having her air of authority on her words.

"Temari stopped by and told us you'd be willing to share intelligence on the sound village in exchange for safety and a place to live."

Tayuya was a little taken aback but didn't show it much.

"Bitch, she made the choice for me then. I'll have to get her back for this."

As irritated as she was she answered calmly.

"Yeah, I know that I can't go back to the sound even if I wanted to. So I'd appreciate if you could find some place for me to stay."

The Hokage nodded and pulled a sheet of paper from the pile on the right of her desk, writing a few things on it before going through Tayuya's personal details with her. After a slight questioning of her personality and skills, the Hokage finally handed Tayuya her own shinobi ID form and told her to bring it back with her when she had a photo for it.

The next three hours were spent with Tayuya's interrogation on the sound village, not wanting to pointlessly get herself into any more trouble she simply told them everything she knew and the interrogation team kept non-hostile. When they eventually let her go and she walked outside again it was already afternoon, she walked for a while until she made it back outside the Hokage's mansion and stared up at it.

"Look mommy, there she is!"

Tayuya turned her head to see the boy from earlier and his mother, exactly as he described her except she was wearing a green dress. She couldn't help but roll her eyes as they approached, the woman smiled as they reached her.

"Maki tells me you tried to help him find me earlier, I lost him in the crowd I'm afraid. Such a little adventurer."

She smiled down at her son who grinned back up at her, before pulling a small pouch from her bag.

"Here, it's not much but I want to thank you for taking care of him."

Tayuya looked at her like she was crazy for a moment, before shaking her head.

"Nah, it's alright. I didn't really do anything, those Anbu were the ones who brought him back to you right?"

The woman nodded, keeping the same friendly smile.

"Yes, but Maki said that he didn't feel scared while he was with you. He doesn't do very well on his own, but he told me that you were very kind to him."

Tayuya's eyes widened slightly at this and she struggled to find any words to say that wouldn't make her look stupid, figuring it would be easier to simply accept this kindness; she carefully took the pouch and looked inside. There had to be at least 1000 Ryo in it, before she could say anything else Maki lunged at her with a hug to which she responded by awkwardly patting his head. The boy smiled up at her and hopped back over to his mother who thanked Tayuya again and set off with her son down the street they had come from.

Spending some of the money she had received from the woman, Tayuya bought herself some food and a cool drink. It was no suna heat but it was still a very hot day, she poured some of her water over her head in attempt to cool herself down and sighed in relief. She ate her small meal on the way back towards the mansion to have her photo taken, her long red hair drying quickly in the heat and leaving her with something of an untamed style by the time she got back there. She took a few minutes to fix herself before entering the photographer's room, even without the make-up that the other girls her age wore she was still a very good looking girl and her picture caught that side of her. Though she did give the best 'bad girl' smirk she could muster. Once done in the photography room, Tayuya pasted her picture on her form; signed it and took it back up to the Hokage's office to finish the process.

Knocking on the door, she waited a few seconds for a response.

"Enter."

Pushing the door open she stepped inside. This time as she was entering however, another ninja moved towards the door past her. The two glanced at each other as they passed and both their eyes widened, the boy passing her was the same pain in the ass that she'd fought back in the forest. As he turned from the door to confirm it was really her, Tayuya kicked the door with her foot and slammed it in his face. She couldn't help but snicker quietly and continued to hand her form to the Hokage.

"Here's the finished form you wanted."

She said as she stood idly while the busty woman read over everything to check it was all filled in correctly, after a minute or two she opened a drawer behind her desk and stood up as she pulled something out. Walking around the desk to stand next to Tayuya she asked her to hold out her hands, she then placed a headband with the leaf insignia on its metal plate in the girl's palms.

"Congratulations Tayuya. As fifth Hokage Tsunade, I hereby pronounce you a shinobi of the hidden leaf."

Tayuya couldn't help but feel just a little bit of pride welling up in her chest as she was presented her headband and even shot the Hokage a smile too, with the formalities over she was dismissed to take the rest of the day easy and she left the building. As she was walking away from the mansion she heard Tsunade call out to her from her office window.

"Don't forget this!"

She shouted as Tayuya turned to catch a small metal object being tossed to her from up high.

Tayuya looked down at the key Tsunade had given her, checking the note from her hospital room she asked around for the location of the address on it until she found it nearly an hour later. It was a simple looking house on the edge of the village, not particularly elaborate but not too shabby either. Making her way up to the door she carefully unlocked it and stepped inside, it was getting close to evening now so she switched the lights on after shutting the door behind herself. The interior was pretty simple, all the furnishings and utilities were basic but did their jobs and she had everything she needed. Tayuya walked around the empty house to get herself used to it's layout, eventually returning to the kitchen downstairs. As she poured herself a glass of water she noticed something on the table in the next room. She walked slowly through and found a glass vase with a single red rose, the same as the one left in her hospital room. Next to it was a long, rectangular box with a note under it. Tayuya picked the box up curiously and read the note which simply read.

"Forgive me but I had to make it up to you."

Raising an eyebrow slightly, Tayuya opened the box and looked inside. A smile more genuine than the one she gave back at the mansion crossed her lips as she removed the brand new metal flute from it's box, looking over it in her hands; the redhead decided she would ease up a little the next time she met a certain blonde girl.

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Whew, sorry about the delay on this one folks, travelling and stuff going on ^^;

I really hope people are enjoying this story, please don't hesitate to let me know what you think.