lostmoonchild: Arigato, minna-san for the reviews! The weather here in South Dakota got cold and the snow finally fell so no more springtime weather. Not too bad of an idea, I think, but I could go without the wind chills. So here's this week's chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto so don't sue.
Chapter Forty
There was no place like home and as Naruto collapsed onto his comfortable bed, he knew that when Hisoka woke up she'd be determined to see which of their friends was still in the village and who was on a mission. The past four months had been pure hell with nearly two months being spent in Killer Bee's village being watched by ANBU.
Nearly a dozen times Hisoka had almost lost control from attempting to keep the chakra to herself until they left and three of those times had forced him and Killer Bee to resort to their Bijuu forms to help Nibi calm her down. He and Killer Bee had spent the next few days recovering from their injuries while Hisoka lay unconscious under ANBU watch. The last he had known, Nibi was resting within its ("According to Hisoka, Nibi's a girl." Kyuubi reminded the weary blonde.) new host completely exhausted from attempting to help.
Naruto was just grateful that Lady Mizukage had been more understanding of Hisoka's need to release the demonic chakra and hadn't raised any complaints. Once the other demons had been put inside their hosts, father and daughter had been allowed to return to Konoha. In the morning he knew Tsunade would come barging into the apartment demanding to know what in the hell had happened.
What could he tell her? That his daughter had tried to be like any other human and had managed to shift over to some demonic version of herself in the process before losing complete control? Nobody had died although Naruto knew he'd be lying if he were to say injuries had been avoided. At least seven other shinobi had been placed in the hospital and the Raikage had gotten a headache from Naruto yelling from his own hospital bed.
The blonde's eyes closed in weariness before he covered his eyes with his arm. He'd think about it in the morning. Right now he just wanted to pass out in his bed and pretend that hell hadn't almost broken loose. With a deep sigh, the blonde fell into a dreamless sleep.
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
"Stinky." Hisoka reported as she covered her nose and watched as her father cleaned out the fridge with pure disgust.
"Yeah, I kinda forgot to clean out the fridge before I booked it after you." Naruto responded with a disgusted look. "This, honey, is why we have mostly canned food and ramen. They don't rot and reproduce flesh-eating monsters in the fridge."
Hisoka wrinkled her nose and made a noise when the blonde threw away some rotting meat. "I think dead bodies look nicer than that." Hisoka told him. "Even the ones that were rotting for a month."
"You may be right, hon." Naruto tied the garbage bag and tossed it into the garbage chute, resisting the urge to flinch when he heard a very questionable noise from inside the bag. "Now to scrub the fridge. Then we'll go shopping for food."
"I don't think I wanna eat for a month." Hisoka told him.
"Rule of three. Three days without water, three weeks without food." Naruto told her. "You're a week shy."
"Damn."
"Language. I know I let you say bad words when it comes to Sasuke or the old Uchiha bastard but you still need to watch your language."
The two looked towards the door when they heard a knocking, Hisoka immediately jumping up and grabbing her stool to look. "It's Granny Tsunade!" Hisoka reported as she jumped down and pushed the stool to the side to let the Hokage in. "Hi, Granny Tsunade!"
Tsunade smiled warmly at the girl before giving the blonde a questioning look. "Do I really want to know what happened?" Tsunade questioned.
"Food apparently spawns man-eating creatures." Naruto responded. "Hi-chan, why don't you go finish throwing your clothes into the dirty laundry?"
Hisoka nodded as she darted back to her room, causing both adults to sigh when they heard the familiar thuds of her crashing into walls and doors. "So I got this interesting report from Lord Raikage regarding a loss of control." Tsunade said with a raised eyebrow. "Care to give me your version?"
"She tried to be normal, she lost control but nobody was killed. You just wanna spare me the lecture?"
"You want to tell me how in the hell she turned into a demon Hisoka?"
"She kept too much of it locked up." Naruto moved so he was sitting on the counter. "You realize that she could turn it into an attack?"
The look Tsunade gave him told the blonde that he'd better not even think of teaching his daughter how to do it. "From now on, I want her to regularly release the Bijuu's chakra. I don't care how it's done just as long as there's not a repeat. Understand me?"
"Yes, ma'am."
She thought he was being unusually respectful and a single glance into the living room revealed the small girl hiding behind a chair, watching them with a careful look. It was hard to tell what exactly the girl felt when she hid behind the chair as if thinking that she had gone unnoticed. "I realize that she was kept from releasing the chakra so the only one that's really going to get chewed out is Lord Raikage." Tsunade told him. "By the way, there's a mission for you. Swing by my office later and pick it up."
Great. He had just gotten home the night before and already he was getting missions. "Sure. I'll start hunting for a babysitter." Naruto answered with a sigh.
He waited until Tsunade had left the apartment before flopping back onto the couch. Hisoka crawled out from behind the chair and sat on her father's stomach, gray eyes meeting blue. "I'm sorry, Daddy." Hisoka told him.
"For what?"
"Being bad. I tried to be good."
Naruto's large hand cupped the side of Hisoka's head and he gave her a weary smile. "You're not bad. You just got to a place you weren't ready for, that's all. It happens to everybody at some point."
Hisoka's eyes focused on him for a moment before she asked, "Did you get to that place?"
"A few times. That was before Kyuu-chan and I started getting along."
The girl hesitated a moment before asking, "Can I tell you a secret, Daddy?"
"Sure? What's going on?"
"That wasn't the first time I did that bad thing. I did it before when the snake man had me."
Naruto sat up and stared at her, seeing the fear in her eyes. "What'cha mean? You've actually done that before?" Naruto questioned.
"It was different. He starved some dogs and let them loose on me. I don't remember what happened cause everything went black but when I woke up, the dogs were all torn up and I was covered in blood." Tears gathered in Hisoka's eyes. "I never did it again until we were taking Ni-chan back home!"
The blonde hugged his daughter tightly, murmuring soft words of comfort. "It's okay. I'm gonna figure out a way to keep you from doing all demon again."
"How?"
"When Grandpa Minato made up my seal, he made it so Kyuu-chan's chakra would work into my system so we're gonna make up a seal that does the same thing for you except it'll stop you from going crazy mad."
"But the Bijuu chakra already goes into my chakra system. Hinata and Neji are always watching like it's really interesting."
Naruto sighed softly before answering, "It is to some people, honey. Just give me some time and I'll make up something to help. Okay?"
Hisoka nodded before brightly smiling at her father. "Will you read some of Jiraiya-Ji-Ji's story to me?" Hisoka asked finally.
Imagining his godfather rolling in his grave at being called "Ji-Ji" by anybody, Naruto chuckled softly. "Honey, the proper name for Jiraiya was Ero-sennin just like we call Tsunade 'Granny Tsunade' and Orochimaru 'Snake bastard' so let's treat our elders with respect."
How exactly that was respecting her elders, Hisoka had no idea but she was pretty pleased with the idea of not having to change her ideas about people. "Okay. So will you?"
"Sure."
Moving so he was in a comfortable position, Naruto reached over and grabbed the aforementioned book as Hisoka nestled against him. Softly kissing her head, Naruto began to read.
lostmoonchild: Okay, I can actually see Jiraiya getting all excited over being called "Ji-Ji" by a kid. It's really too bad he had to die but my muse and I are arguing over if we should figure something out about it or not. By the time this story ends, we should have reached a conclusion so I'll let ya'll know then. Read and review!