lostmoonchild: Thanks for the reviews, minna-san! This is probably one of the strangest things I've ever done seeing as Naruto's actually stopping and thinking about what he's doing and teaching Hisoka-chan. So far I don't see him having a relationship with anybody right away (even if he were to have a relationship, I'm not sure whether I want the relationship to be with another guy or a girl) so that's still up in the air. Anyway, here's the chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto so don't sue.
Chapter Eight
"Target exhibits growing confidence."
"…is growing increasingly more active."
"…shows mental capacities are stabilizing and is potentially a prodigy."
"…voices her needs and wants through sign language."
"…is well cared for. For continuation of progress, remaining with Uzumaki Naruto is recommended."
Tsunade read through each of the reports that had been handed in to her regarding the past week's activities from various shinobi that had been watching the girl and Naruto, Anko and Ibiki's reports regarding mental stability, and the medical reports. It seemed as though Naruto truly was giving the still mute girl the means to survive and the strength to overcome what had been done.
Copies of her physicals as well as therapy sessions from the past two months had been given to her and Tsunade couldn't help but be impressed although it was becoming worrisome that the Kyuubi's chakra was working its way through the little girl's own chakra system. She knew that one's chakra tended to rub off onto others but this was ridiculous. There was just no way that the average human could possibly have a Bijuu's chakra within their own systems without getting poisoned by it. The only people that seemed to be immune were the Jinchuuriki themselves but as far as she knew, only two were still alive. The idea that the Kyuubi's chakra was just rubbing off onto the girl was impossible. If it was Naruto's natural chakra, she wouldn't have been concerned. Maybe now it was time for a little visit.
Tucking the reports back into a folder, Tsunade got up and left her office knowing full well where the blonde and little girl would be at that exact moment.
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
Crackers, orange slices, and celery with peanut butter on it. Naruto couldn't help but wonder why Hisoka seemed to avoid meat when it came to lunch but had no problems eating it for supper or even during breakfast if they were having sausage or bacon. Had something happened or was she just convinced that meat couldn't be eaten with lunch?
The blonde gave a soft groan as he picked a box up and set it on the worn couch, blue eyes glancing over to the half-eaten lunch that sat next to his ramen on the coffee table. While he was pleased that he didn't have to worry about her ripping off his ramen, he still found himself reaching for ramen when meals rolled around only to get a disapproving look. As long as the ramen was beef and had mushrooms in it, Naruto noted, Hisoka would eat it but wouldn't inhale it like he could.
Ramen, it seemed, just wasn't her idea of a decent meal. Fruits and vegetables seemed to be her favorite although he was beginning to suspect that milk wasn't agreeing with Hisoka's stomach. It seemed like every time she drank milk or even ate anything with milk in it, she'd have her head in the toilet shortly after.
Naruto wrinkled his nose slightly at the memory of what that lactose free milk tasted like and wondered how his ward could handle the taste. If he didn't keep an eye on her then she'd down the entire carton within an hour instead of trying to make the carton last a week. If he didn't buy the milk, the smell of normal milk would make her feel sick enough that she needed to leave the room or else she would be sick.
A knock on the door caught the blonde's attention and he put the picture he had been taking out back into the box before going to answer the door. "Baa-chan? What are you doing here?" Naruto questioned.
"I'm here to see for myself how Hisoka's doing." Tsunade told him. "Two months of hearing only reports and not seeing the results for myself will do that to a person."
It had been two months already? He could have sworn that he had taken care of her for less time. "Yeah, sure. Hisoka-chan!" Naruto called before explaining, "She's fixing up her room."
Tsunade watched out of the corner of her eye as Hisoka ran into the living room, her dark hair pulled back into a braid. The older woman inwardly groaned when she realized that the girl was wearing a light orange dress, silently hoping that she wouldn't develop Naruto's "fashion" sense. "Hello, Hisoka." Tsunade said with a pleasant smile.
Hisoka smiled brightly at her before waving. "Water please." Hisoka signed to Naruto, her lips moving in sync with her request.
"Go ahead. Cups are still in the box." Naruto told her.
Tsunade watched as the girl jumped into the kitchen, wondering if this really was the same timid child that she had seen only two months ago. The girl had clearly shot up by about three or so inches and looked as if she had indeed gained weight. Even her personality seemed to change for the better since she was at least communicating with one way that Naruto could understand. "She seems happy." Tsunade commented to Naruto.
"Yeah. Just watch out or she'll start hiding stuff just to make you stay with her." Naruto advised her. "Couple days ago she hid my kunai thinking that I'd ditch her if I had them. Once I found them, we both went off to the training grounds."
"How'd she respond to that?"
"Fairly well. We had to explain that we weren't really fighting."
The Hokage watched as the little girl in question came back into the living room and gave a bright smile again before wrinkling her nose when she saw the ramen cup. Tsunade watched with amusement as the girl gave Naruto a scolding look before reaching and taking a bite of her celery. "Hisoka, may I see your room?" Tsunade questioned.
Why was she asking? Didn't the Hokage just have to say that she was going to look around and nobody would complain? Why would she ask for permission? Looking slightly confused, Hisoka nodded slightly and set her cup down on the coffee table before leading Tsunade to her room.
It was clear to the older woman that Hisoka was growing comfortable with moving away from Naruto when others were around. She remembered the first time she had seen the girl conscious, how she would cling to Naruto and refuse to let him out of her sight. Now it seemed like she knew that Naruto wouldn't leave her.
Tsunade looked around the room and stared at the dresser, seeing small foxes dancing across the drawers. There was a bookcase tucked into a corner with a small chair that the girl could easily curl up in nearby, telling her that the girl liked to read a variety of books. Across the room was her bed and Tsunade nearly smiled when she saw a toy fox sitting near the pillows on the girl's bed. "You like foxes?" Tsunade questioned pleasantly.
Hisoka nodded as she took the toy into her arms and held it tightly. She pointed towards the living room as if to tell her that Naruto had given it to her. "I see. Foxes are nice. They're very cunning which is good and also mischievous."
She knew that mischievous fit Naruto since she had heard the stories that his friends would tell. Some of them made Naruto blush although Hisoka was fairly certain that he was more proud of his actions than embarrassed and was probably just making a blush to make her think that he was actually embarrassed about the whole thing. He may have been a good caregiver but he was really bad at pretending not to be embarrassed about stuff like that.
Hisoka watched as Tsunade sat down on the bed, wondering what the older woman was going to do. "Hisoka, I want to ask you some questions. They'll be yes or no so you can either shake or nod your head." Tsunade explained. "Is that okay?"
Slowly she nodded, wondering why Tsunade was even bothering to ask if it was okay. She listened to the questions, answering them as honestly as she could. Was she happy with Naruto? Did he have her on some kind of schedule? She really didn't understand why the woman wanted to know this stuff but Naruto always did tell her to tell the truth.
As she asked the little girl questions, Tsunade could see that there was no thoughts of lying in Hisoka's gray eyes. Clearly Naruto was doing something right when it came to taking care of the girl by himself and was even managing to make ends meet. "Thanks, Hisoka. I'm going to go talk to Naruto now so thank you for showing me your room. It's very nice." Tsunade said pleasantly.
She watched as Hisoka smiled brightly before carrying the stuffed fox over to the small chair and setting it down as she went back to moving her books onto the shelf. It was compulsive and it seemed like she was trying to reassure herself that everything was okay. "So is everything up to your standards?" Naruto questioned.
"On her end, yes. She's doing better than what I could have dared to expect. I just want to make sure that everything's okay on your end."
Wasn't it a social worker's job to make sure that things were okay? "Go ahead." Naruto said with a small shrug. "Can I get you anything?"
He knew that Hisoka would sooner or later come out just to listen in and he didn't want to chance her listening in now and not hearing him offer Tsunade anything to drink. That was one thing he always made sure she understood about when they had guests. "No, I'll be going back to the office after this." Tsunade told him as she sat down. "So how's she been doing? The main complaints about her before were bed wetting, thumb sucking, clinginess, etcetera. There was more complaints about her than there were compliments."
Naruto frowned slightly as he answered, "Well, she's naturally been having nightmares but they've been going down. Last night I think was the first night she's ever not woken me up wanting to sleep next to me."
"Anything else?"
"Those pull-ups that kids wear at night work wonders." The blonde nearly laughed at the look of surprise on Tsunade's face. It was almost as if she hadn't been expecting him to have a few guesses at how to handle some of the situations that he had willingly signed up for. "The thumb sucking pretty much stopped since she's got that toy fox. She calls him San but since she got him, she's been keeping her thumb from her mouth and hasn't been so clingy when she's got him."
Something told her that Naruto only knew this because he had been down this road once before. "How about Sasuke? Did you tell her that you and he used to be teammates?" Tsunade asked softly.
Tsunade watched as Naruto's entire body stiffened slightly in response, telling her that he hadn't told her. "I don't know if Hisoka can handle knowing just yet. Some of her nightmares are about Sasuke and I don't want her to think that I'm going to let Sasuke hurt her again."
"Listen, that girl adores you and there's really nothing you can do that will make her stop. She's going to find out sooner or later and odds are if she doesn't hear it from you first, someone's going to say something and it's not going to be gentle."
It was clear to her that Naruto did care for the girl but he needed to realize that not everybody was going to keep their mouths shut. She already knew that people weren't being really quiet about their whispers and had a feeling that Hisoka had already heard the demon comments. Sooner or later Hisoka would hear about Sasuke being teammates with Naruto and Sakura and the way she'd hear it wouldn't be gentle. "Baa-chan, I don't know if I can." Naruto told her.
"She'll find out one way or another, Naruto. The question is how will she find out?"
lostmoonchild: That was the main thing that my brain wondered as I worked on this chapter so when I went to work on the next chapter, well, it took about half a dozen times but I did get the next chapter done. Now I'm gonna finish adding notes to my other stories then I'm off to work so ja ne!