lostmoonchild: Thanks for the reviews! I would have left the update until tomorrow since I'm tired (up at four and I swear it wasn't to watch the royal wedding on tv) but I woulda woken up in the middle of the night with my brain demanding that I update if I tried to leave it until tomorrow so yeah.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto so don't sue.
Chapter Three
She liked this place. It was dark but it was comforting. Everything was okay here and there wasn't any reason to be afraid.
"With the magical sword and shield, the prince fought the evil dragon. The dragon roared and lowered its head to eat him but with a single swing of the magical sword, the prince took off the dragon's head."
She knew that voice. Hisoka looked around the darkness before starting to walk towards the direction of Naruto's voice as he told her about the prince that walked up the stairs to the tallest tower to find the princess that lay sleeping for a hundred years. How long had she been in this darkness?
"He stared at the sleeping princess for a moment, his breath still as he stared at her. Kneeling next to her, he gave her a soft kiss and- Ugh! How can people seriously read this crap to their kids?"
A giggle left her lips, echoing around her. "Naruto!" She knew that voice too. It belonged to that pink-haired lady. Sakura.
The girl paused a moment when she saw a light ahead. Something told her to go towards the light but still she was afraid. She liked the darkness and the comfort it offered. Couldn't she just stay here? "It's been two days since she was brought out of that coma. Shouldn't she be awake by now?" Hisoka frowned slightly. Naruto was worried? Why?
"Sometimes it just takes a while."
Deciding that she didn't want Naruto to be worried about her, Hisoka gathered her courage and walked into the light.
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
The relief that had showed on Naruto's face when he saw that she was awake was a greater comfort than the darkness that had so soothingly held her. "Good afternoon." Naruto said with a bright smile. "How are you feeling?"
Gray eyes slowly blinked as she watched Sakura work, staring softly at the medic before focusing on the machines. "This shows your heartbeat." Sakura explained. "It lets us see how your heart's doing and it's looking a lot better."
The last time Sakura had said that was just before her chest started to hurt and she was pulled into the empty and cold darkness. Hisoka stared at Sakura before looking at Naruto and offering him a bright smile. "I'm guessing you're feeling a lot better now." Naruto commented lightly, his smile growing brighter when he saw her nod in confirmation. "Do you know where you are right now?"
Hisoka's smile faded and she shook her head in response. She knew she was in a bed and it looked like it would hold only one person comfortably. Nothing other than her stomach hurt but that was more of an itch than anything else although she wasn't entirely sure she liked the needles that were in her arm. "You're in the hospital. You were hurt very badly and needed to have an operation done." Sakura explained gently.
Panic immediately showed on the child's features before she looked under her hospital gown and stared at the cut over her stomach. What had they done to her? Did they put something in her just to see what would happen? "It's okay." Naruto said quickly. "They were fixing the injury you got when Sasuke hit you."
Panicked gray eyes met blue and immediately Naruto could see the absolute terror reflecting in her eyes. What else had Sasuke done? Surely all that fear didn't come from just one hit. Just what else had that teme done?
As he held onto Hisoka's tiny hand, he could see that it would be a while before she was comfortable around anybody whose abilities were focused in their eyes. If Kakashi showed his Sharingan eye around her then he'd possibly be associated with Sasuke if he weren't already associated with someone that had caused her harm. Sai was already associated with Sasuke due to their somewhat similar appearances so there was a chance that she would never trust him.
Sakura watched the scene before her with a solemn expression. It hurt her to know that the one person she had once had a crush on had hurt an innocent child for no reason. From her reactions at the mere mention of the Uchiha, he had done so much more to her than just taken a Chidori to her. "I need to let Tsunade know that Hisoka's awake. She wanted to check on her personally due to where you found her, Naruto." Sakura told the blonde.
"Sure. I'll get her settled back down."
Hisoka watched as Sakura left the room before giving the blonde a confused look when he lightly tapped her wrist. "When baa-chan gets here, Hi-Hi, you should tell her everything that they did. She'll make sure they don't get away with it." Naruto told her.
The look in her eyes told him that she didn't want to. She was afraid of what they'd do when they realized that she had told. There also a look in her eyes that told Naruto that she didn't believe that anybody would do anything. "You tried to tell someone before." Naruto said softly.
Tears spilled from Hisoka's eyes as she nodded, wrapping her thin arms around herself. From her reaction, it was safe to assume that no one had even attempted to help. They had all just looked the other way and let it continue even when it was being done in front of them. "Hisoka." Immediately her tear-filled eyes looked at him and saw the understanding look that no one could have done unless they had once been through the same thing.
Hope started to grow within her as Hisoka saw the look in the blonde's eyes. He understood. Naruto had been in her situation once and he knew what it was like. He'd make everything okay no matter what it took. They couldn't hurt her now that Naruto was there to keep her safe.
Wiping her tears from her cheeks, she gave him a small smile that was quickly returned. "I told baa-chan that I want to take care of you." Naruto told her. "It's not gonna be easy to get everyone on the council to agree but hopefully by the time you can leave the hospital you'll be able to come home with me."
Hisoka nodded slightly and stared when she heard the door open. She could feel her heart racing in her chest as a blonde woman entered the room followed by a man that seemed to look grumpy about something. "Baa-chan! How come you brought Ibiki?" Naruto demanded.
"Don't start, Gaki!"
Hisoka grabbed Naruto's hand and held on tightly, clearly afraid of the two strangers. She felt Naruto squeeze her hand in comfort and heard him tell her that they were okay. "That's Grandma Tsunade and that's Ibiki." Naruto told her. "I don't know why Ibiki's here though."
"I'm observing." Ibiki told the blonde simply.
"How are you feeling, Hisoka?" Tsunade questioned as she began checking over the girl's vitals. "Does anything hurt?"
Hisoka pointed to her stomach and made a face that told the older woman that the girl wasn't happy about the surgery. "It was necessary." Naruto reminded the girl. "That injury that Sasuke gave you was slowly killing you."
She pouted slightly before watching Ibiki with great distrust. "Does your incision hurt?" Tsunade questioned patiently. "On a scale from one to ten with one being no pain, does the incision hurt?"
After a few moments, Hisoka shook her head as she turned her hands so her palms were face up. She knew from the other people that had been captured by Orochimaru and used in experiments that she didn't know what other children were supposed to know. "You don't know how to count?" Tsunade guessed.
Hisoka shook her head, watching as Naruto began holding up fingers and silently giggled when he started making faces while mouthing the numbers. Tsunade sighed when she saw what the blonde was doing and lightly hit him on the head. "Knock it off, gaki." Tsunade told him. "You're the one that's going to be teaching her the basics while she's here so you might as well start thinking of how you're going to teach her."
"So I'll get to take her home with me when she can leave?"
"That's still being decided."
Ibiki watched the girl's reaction to Tsunade's reply and could see plainly that she wanted to be with Naruto. Her entire body language screamed that she was afraid but she was more afraid of what would happen if she were to attempt to escape from the hospital. From how she flinched when Tsunade began checking the incision, it was clear that she associated a doctor's touch with pain.
He knew that he had done some horrible things just to get a confession out of a captive but he had never done anything to anybody that wasn't a shinobi. Children offered information rather easily depending on how trusting they were. "Hisoka, can you push your foot against my hand? Push as hard as you can." Tsunade told her.
Cooperation in her eyes meant that she wouldn't be hurt as badly. When the Hokage's examination was done, confusion showed in the girl's eyes when the blanket was placed over her again. "You're healing nicely and I expect that once you get to a more desirable weight you'll be able to be discharged and placed with someone." Tsunade told her before looking at Naruto. "You make sure that you're here during meals since I'm being told that Hisoka refuses to eat when you're not here."
Her body language reflected both embarrassment and pride despite her fear. It was almost amusing that she felt some triumph despite consequences. As he followed Tsunade out of the room it was clear that she was still worried. "Well?" Tsunade questioned.
"Scared but willing to cooperate. I'll need to watch her more to be absolutely positive that she's not a threat."
"Make sure you give your reports directly to me. I don't need to tell you how easy it'd be for Orochimaru to use a child as a weapon."
"Understood."
She just hoped that the girl was nothing more than one of Orochimaru's unfortunate victims.
lostmoonchild: Next chapters will be a bit lighter so that'll be good. Um, I'm probably going to go to bed so I'll see you guys again next week. Ja ne and read and review!