lostmoonchild: Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad people liked Kankuro being "escorted" out of the library and Temari's voice at the whole "I think I just explained sex" comment was one of those tones that just can't be described. So now I'm snacking on ice cream (thanks to lactose pills, I can enjoy dairy products again) and updating. Here's this week's chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or "Itsy Bitsy Spider" so don't sue.
Chapter Fifty
Gaara glanced over at the child a week and a half later, watching as she played with the doll and toy fox she had brought with them to play with. He knew she had books tucked away somewhere in the office but right now she seemed to be content with entertaining herself. He was just grateful that she understood when to make herself scarce when it came to the older shinobi that were more eager to blame her for old war crimes.
The itsy, bitsy spider went up the waterspout
down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
and the itsy, bitsy spider went up the spout again.
A bright smile spread across Hisoka's face as she looked at him before turning her head towards the door when they heard a knock. "Enter." Gaara said calmly.
The redhead felt his heart pick up the pace a little as Matsuri entered the room, her brown hair mussed up from the wind that had been blowing all day. Immediately her eyes fell on Hisoka, watching as the child darted under Gaara's desk. "Lord Kazekage?" Matsuri questioned carefully.
"My goddaughter. She's Uzumaki Naruto's daughter." Gaara explained as he carefully pried Hisoka out from under the desk. "Come on. You're okay."
Matsuri resisted the urge to squeal in delight at the child's appearance. She was fairly certain she had never before seen a child that was so adorable in any village. "Hi there. I'm Matsuri." Matsuri said with a smile. "What's your name?"
"Hisoka." There was hesitation in the girl's eyes as she held onto Gaara's hand.
"That's a pretty name. How old are you, Hisoka-chan?"
The girl looked at Gaara as if asking if it were okay to say. When the redhead nodded slightly, Hisoka answered shyly, "I'm six. Almost seven."
He had never seen the girl act so shy when it came to anybody but he supposed that Matsuri could have reminded the girl of somebody she knew once. "Do you have your report?" Gaara questioned.
"Oh yes!" Matsuri's cheeks turned slightly red. "Everything was clear in the southern border."
Gaara allowed Hisoka to slip away from him and watched out of the corner of his eye as she retreated to the doll that had once belonged to Temari back when she had actually played with them before she stepped up and took over their mother's responsibilities. "That's good. I have a job for you to do if you'd be willing to accept." Gaara said calmly.
"Yes?"
"I have a meeting in two days and naturally I can't bring Hisoka along due to her fascination with important monuments and need to paint." Gaara explained, casting a wary look at the little girl that was playing without a care in the world. "Could I convince you to keep an eye on her for a couple of hours?"
Matsuri glanced over at the girl, seeing that she was acting like the doll was riding the toy fox. She wasn't sure if the child was paying any attention to them but it was clear she was paying attention to something. "Yes, of course." Matsuri responded looking slightly nervous.
Hisoka beamed at the older girl before looking at Gaara with a grin that the Kazekage recognized easily. As Kazekage, he'd better warn the kunoichi just what she had agreed to do before she learned the hard way. He wasn't eager to see if Matsuri would declare mutiny after chasing after Hisoka. "You realize that my goddaughter is Naruto's daughter and equally excitable." Gaara told the girl.
"I understand, Kazekage-sama."
Knowing that he'd have to give the woman a generous payment, the redhead offered a small nod. "Then I'll see you at eight sharp." Gaara told the woman.
Having the feeling she just agreed to something that the Academy never once thought to train their students in, Matsuri left the room with a small bow.
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
Crash! Bang!
Matsuri flinched when she heard the sound of something heavy hitting the floor and stared when she heard the sigh leave Gaara's lips. "She's excited that you're coming over to play." Gaara explained calmly. "She's been up since six this morning."
She had gotten the feeling that there would be some things that would be explained so she had come over about fifteen minutes earlier than when Gaara told her to. Now that she was there, she was almost scared to see how two hours would go. "Um, okay." Matsuri looked slightly nervous.
"Hisoka's already eaten her breakfast and around ten she'll probably want her morning snack. If my meeting goes past lunch, don't bother making anything with meat or she won't eat it." Gaara explained.
"May I ask why?"
"It's a habit of hers that Naruto found out and has been unable to break her of. We suspect that she associates meat at lunch with something that happened in Orochimaru's lair." His teal eyes stared calmly at her. "Hisoka is very active so I'd recommend letting her run around outside. Watch out or she'll attempt to use chakra to manipulate the sand or scare somebody."
Now her nervousness had returned full force. "Does that happen often?" Matsuri asked carefully.
"Every day she comes up with a new idea. Now, she has an allergy to milk so there's some lactose free milk and cheese in the fridge. There are even some lactose pills in the event she chooses a snack that might contain milk that she can take. If she has a panic attack, which is always a possibility, one trick we've learned works best is if you put a blanket over her head and hold her until she's calmed down. There's a list of techniques that Naruto and the other shinobi in Konoha discovered work quite well on the fridge."
A grunt left the woman's lips as she was suddenly tackled, her eyes widening in surprise when she saw Gaara pull Hisoka back by the back of her shirt. "Matsuri-chan's here!" Hisoka cheered happily.
"Is that really how we greet guests?" Gaara chided patiently.
Hisoka stared for a moment before grinning at the woman. "Hi, Matsuri-chan! We're gonna have lots of fun!"
Fun. Right. Was that an evil glint that had just appeared in the girl's gray eyes? No, she must have been imagining things. There was no way any kid of Naruto's could possibly be- There it was again! "Good morning, Hisoka-chan. How are you today?" Matsuri asked.
"Fine. Can we play now? I know! Let's race! Kankuro raced with me earlier today cause I had Karasu and was playing with him and Kankuro wanted him back. Then Temari raced with me cause she wanted to brush my hair."
"Your hair still hasn't been brushed." Gaara responded patiently. "I should be back in a couple of hours so behave."
"M'kay. Bye-bye! Have fun!"
"You too." Gaara briefly hugged the girl before releasing her. "Good luck."
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
How in the living hell could one child be so energetic?
Matsuri panted softly as she watched the six-year-old child spin around as if she hadn't just spent the past hour and a half running around the village. She could still see the pitying looks that came from those that had once kept an eye on the child. Maybe it was those looks that had made her more determined to keep up. "Ne, are you tired?" There was concern in Hisoka's eyes as she squatted down next to the worn out kunoichi. "Matsuri-nee-chan?" Poke. "Matsuri-nee-chan, are you tired?"
"Not at all. Just taking a breather." Matsuri responded.
Hisoka frowned slightly. "Liar. We can go inside and read a book if you want. Daddy packed my favorite story before I got sent here. I can read it to you if you want." Hisoka told her. "Ero-sennin wrote it. It's not a naughty book like Kakashi-Ji-Ji reads so it's okay."
"Are you tired?" Matsuri asked carefully.
"No, but I'm getting hungry. Can we have a snack before we read?"
"Sure."
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
Naruto sighed as he scrubbed the paint from the walls, ignoring the word "monster" painted in red. He groaned to himself when he realized that he'd be repainting walls and replacing some furniture before Hisoka was allowed to return to Konoha and wondered what she was doing in Suna right now. Probably driving some of Gaara's shinobi up a wall and "stealing" Gaara's hat so she could play Kazekage.
He wondered if Gaara had realized that Hisoka would walk on walls and the ceiling.
The blonde's heart clenched tightly for a moment before he finally took comfort in the knowledge that at least Gaara wouldn't have to put up with the vandalism. His friends in Konoha were all being targeted unless whoever was doing it wasn't feeling brave enough to take on the clans. Damn cowards going after them just for taking care of a child.
In a week and a half he knew that Sasuke would be let out of prison and felt a twinge of anxiety. Perhaps two weeks afterwards he'd call for Hisoka to return home and the most he'd be able to do was serve as the wall between his daughter and the Uchiha. "You're not even sure you want to call him your best friend anymore." Kyuubi commented calmly.
"Would you?" Naruto muttered under his breath.
"He'd have been dead before your Hokage was able to pass judgment." Kyuubi responded patiently. "You're the forgiving one and you've been teaching 'forgive but never forget' to the kit."
"And I'm kicking myself for it."
"Just take the time to decide how badly you want the Uchiha around. Then you can decide if you want to resume calling him your best friend or not."
For a moment the blonde wondered how sad it was that Kyuubi was giving him advice that had nothing to do with fighting before deciding that perhaps he was right. After all, he couldn't very well tell his daughter to do one thing only to turn around and not take his own advice. "Fine." Naruto sighed as he went to dump the dirty water out. "I'm still going to keep an eye on the bastard."
"Talking to yourself or the Kyuubi?" A voice questioned.
Naruto's body froze in surprise before turning around and seeing Sasuke leaning against a wall. "You're supposed to be in prison!" Naruto shouted.
"Good behavior. I also said that I'd attempt to get to a less homicidal state of mind when your daughter is involved. It's amazing how my last name still carries influence with the Council also."
"Get the hell out of my house!"
"Your daughter isn't here and I was told that I couldn't go within three hundred yards of your daughter."
Irritation crossed the blonde's features before he asked, "Fine. What do you want?"
Sasuke shrugged slightly in response before answering, "This apartment looks much nicer than the one you had before when we were Gennin. Did you get this place before or after your daughter came to live with you?"
While he was tempted to lie, Naruto sighed to himself. "After," he replied calmly. "So let me ask you something."
"What?"
"What in the hell did you guys do to her that convinced Hisoka that talking was bad? I mean, we've already worked through about half of the shit that happened so she doesn't react as badly if at all but I wanna know what in the hell got her thinking half the stuff she does."
Sasuke made a face that told the blonde exactly of his distain before answering, "We're going to need sake if you expect me to tell you that one."
"In that case, I'm calling everyone else over so they can hear what the fuck happened."
"Why didn't you have someone go through her memories?"
Naruto paused a moment before answering, "Because she blocked out so many that we were able to only find out some of it. One of the things we know for certain, teme, was that you were there from the beginning."
Sighing as he leaned into the couch, Sasuke's dark eyes focused calmly on Naruto's blue eyes. "Just don't forget the sake. You're going to want it." Sasuke told him. "I mean it."
Yeah, somehow he had gotten that feeling from the moment he had first stared into those haunted orbs that were his daughter's eyes. Suddenly his blue eyes hardened as he stared at the raven. "So you know, teme, I will kill you if you ever touch my daughter again."
Narrowing his eyes in response, Sasuke snorted as he responded, "Che, baka dobe."
lostmoonchild: Naturally I've got another anime trying to distract me while updates are in progress so it's getting a little distracting. For everybody who wants something to happen to Sasuke, let's just say that duck-butt-sama will get his when Akina gets her hands on him. So until next week, read and review!