Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!

"Are you sure you don't need... some kind of maintenance."

"I am fine." 2B stated to the nun who was approaching her with a new "Core". For 4 months she had been blending in as a worker at a church run home for orphans, because her Pod informed her that young children needed to interact with other young children to develop social skills. It was hard to find a place willing to take in a boy with little to no documentation, and an android that didn't have a serial code and was such a low number.

The church took them in for the moment though.

"My dear, it is nothing to be ashamed of. Many of the androids who work for us need replacement cores, we get some cores as donations." The nun tried to push a new model's core unit towards her, which would serve as a battery for an android that would be low on power. She had unlimited power, in that she would never in her lifetime need a replacement core. The box protecting her core stone was pretty much impossible to destroy.

She couldn't exactly explain that though.

2B glanced at some of the androids who were working at nuns, many of which had been tossed aside when newer models of their model types came out. Some had broken parts, due to the inferior way they were created, and had been just thrown away by humans. That was the obvious outcome though, but since they were thinking and feeling beings, the church had taken in broken androids and would try to repair them. It didn't really wore too well in some cases, so it wasn't odd to see an android dressed like a nun with her face covered completely in bandages since her skin was damaged and showed the machinery underneath.

Or those with bandages wrapped around arms or legs, due to the same reasons, being that there was nowhere to get the parts they needed to get replaced.

"Think of the children... what about your young friend, he would be sad if you powered down and lost all your memories."

"I'll be fine, my core was replaced recently." 2B lied as she pushed the core away from her. She almost didn't even want to touch such inferior product with her ungloved hand. It was a disgrace to the excellence that she was built with. She heard the sounds of children playing, and heard a familiar laugh of her young charge. He was playing with a girl about his age with long blond hair just like him, but bright and cheerful green eyes. "Which girl is that?" 2B asked.

"Asia Argento, she was discovered to have the Twilight Healing sacred gear, but the government stated we can't allow her to use her Sacred Gear on the public until after she has passed her exams to prove she won't misuse her power."

"I see..." 2B frowned.

That was stupid.

She had it logged in her memory that Twilight Healing was PURELY a healing type supernatural power, and thus could not be used to harm humanity. There should be no reason to place such harsh restrictions on a young girl, and she should be allowed to use that power to help humanity. She almost had a duty to do it, but once Sacred Gears became public knowledge, the Church couldn't put forth people with those abilities and have them use their powers to help freely anymore.

The girl that could have become a Saint, was instead forced to study and take tests just so that she could use her God given abilities.

"She's the only girl who would play with him... the other kids are scared of him, he's had such a tough time fitting in. It's the scars on his face. Children can be so cruel at times, even when you teach them not to judge by appearance."

"Yes, humans can truly be cruel at times." 2B didn't disagree with the nun's statement in the slightest. She had seen the worst of humanity in her years traveling the world, and this was the first time that Naruto had ever been able to make a friend due to how other children tended to avoid him. Parents often told their children to avoid Naruto, simply due to the fact that she was with him. 2B glanced at the nun when she felt the woman touch her hair. "Do you require something?" 2B asked as she turned her head.

"Nothing... I'm just surprised, your hair is so different than the other androids I've seen. I don't think I've ever seen a machine as pretty as you are dear, or one so... so... free willed."

"I see, thank you for the compliment. I have my duties to attend to." 2B started to walk towards Naruto, before she grabbed him by the wrist when he was about to tag the girl he was playing with. "It's time for you to study, you've played enough for now." 2B stated as she started to walk with Naruto's wrist in her grasp.

"I don't wanna study, I wanna play some more."

"No, you've played enough today. You can play when you're done studying. You're been struggling with learning to read in Italian." 2B stated, not accepting his refusal to study. She had to force him to study every language in the countries where they lived, and while he did catch on fast, he had been struggling with Italian. He didn't have an automatic translation function in his head like she did, so he actually needed to learn languages so that he could communicate with others.

He had only learned 11 languages so far, which wasn't nearly enough since she planned on moving again the second it seemed like one of her sibling androids was about to show up. She wanted to get him started on his next language as soon as possible to make the transition as easy as possible.

"Can I study too?" The little girl he was playing with, Asia, asked as she grabbed onto 2B's dress and looked up at her.

"No, it isn't my duty to see that you are educated. You may ask another-"

"If you don't let her study with me, I'm not going to study!" Naruto shouted at her with tiny childlike anger, which left her stunned for a moment. She looked down at the young children, and saw that they were sticking together. She thought about the best method, because if Naruto was going to absolutely refuse to study, then she couldn't just force him.

This was also a first.

He had never in his life ever refused an order from her before, but he seemed extremely upset to be given an order. She felt anger stir within her at being refused, but she tempered it when she remembered what she had researched. Young children went through phases where they wanted to test the boundaries they had with adults, they also went through phases where they were extremely self-centered.

She could try punishment.

Punish him for disobeying her, but he was sticking up for a fellow human, and she didn't want to punish him for standing up for somebody. As selfish as he was being, he was also doing something good by advocating for somebody else's wellbeing. She didn't want to punish him and teach him that standing up for others would lead to him being punished, but at the same time she didn't want him to grow up thinking that he was always going to get what he wanted by throwing a fit.

She was angry, proud, and conflicted on what path she needed to take.

"I see... then, lets compromise. You will study with me, and after you are done studying with me, you will review what you learned by teaching it to this child." 2B decided that the best course of action was to teach her young charge about reaching a compromise. As long as he didn't get his way by throwing a tantrum, and she didn't have to punish him for standing up for somebody, this was a fine course of action.

"No, I want to study with Asia!"

"Stop throwing a tantrum right now, there is no benefit to you to do this. You can study with her, after I am done teaching you. That girl does has not studied as much as you have, and will hold back your progress. Stop and think of how you're acting. Do you want to humiliate this girl by studying something she doesn't understand?" 2B pulled his arm up enough to make him stand still so that she could look down into his eyes. She didn't like the tears gathering at the edges of his eyes, but she needed to get him to calm down enough to see how irrational he was being.

If he just stopped, calmed down, and listened then he would realize that he was throwing a tantrum over nothing.

The stern voice she took actually worked, and got him to listen, so she lowered his arm without letting go of it.

"... Okay."

"Very good, I'm happy you understand now. Now, why don't you want to study?" 2B leaned down and she looked into his eyes with a bit more sympathy for him now that he had calmed down.

"... It doesn't make sense... I don't understand the math... or the science... or the alchemy stuff."

"Nonsense, that is why you're learning, because you don't understand. We only just started high school level material. I've been told that when youe father was your age, that he could already do ace college exams." 2B had been forcing him to study since he was old enough to speak.

It wasn't like he ever had friends to play with, and studying was a productive use of his time. So she made him study languages, and when he was sleeping she had Pod play study videos to him while he slept. She had researched rumors of humans listening to videos in their sleep to help them learn, and she found that it worked. He was struggling with high school level subjects though.

He was 7 years old.

He was too old to be stuggling with subjects on par with high school level studies, not when his parents were both geniuses. It was sad that he didn't seem to have inherited that natural genius. Thankful for him though that she wouldn't allow him to fall that far behind them, and made sure to always be on the lookout for ways to make sure that he learned the stuff he needed to learn.

"It doesn't make sense though. I've never understand it."

"Well, I will make sure you get it. Still..." 2B glanced at the girl, who couldn't understand a thing they were saying since they switched to Japanese instead of Italian to speak. She was just confused, but listening to them with stars in her eyes at the different language they were speaking. "There is nothing you can't do when you set your mind to it. So, I never want to hear you say you've never be able to do something. Now say goodbye to the girl, and come with me." 2B stood up and allowed her hand to leave Naruto's wrist.

"Bye Asia."

"I'll see you later!"

-Later-

'Now that I look at it, I don't really understand everything he's studying either. When he goes to sleep tonight, I'll be sure to study as well. It seems my knowledge is incomplete.' 2B stood back and watched as Naruto was getting his daily lessons, with her Pod being the one to teach those lessons to him since she was unable to.

She was a machine, but her AI was so complicated that she was pretty much human when it came to how her mind worked. Since she lacked the ability to connect to the internet and gain knowledge that way, she needed to actually read things and memorize them. At the same time, all she needed to do was look at a page in order to memorize it and learn it.

"Can I finish studying?"

"... Yes, you may finish studying. It is almost dinner, and the nuns would be upset with me if I kept you from eating." 2B nodded her head as she picked up the mock test that Naruto had finished. He got up and ran out of the room, before she showed the test to her Pod. "Analyze the test, and tell me how his grade."

"He has scored 77/100, his score would be considered a passing grade."

"Only 77/100... he made 23 mistakes on a 100 question test. That is... acceptable for now. Still, I want you to create explain his mistakes to him while he sleeps tonight. I believe he can do better than this." 2B stated with a small smile on her face as she looked at the test in her hand. It covered many high school level subjects. While he wasn't a genius like his parents, he was willing to put forth a lot of effort as long as he was given some kind of motivation.

"Are you proud of your son?"

"Do not call him my son. I will not have even you disrespect his parents like that. That boy is an orphan, his parents are dead, and I am his caretaker. It is not my duty to take the place of his mother." 2B snapped at her Pod.

"You love him, and want what is best for him... do you believe his parents would be upset if you acted like his mother."

"I have no right to take the place of his mother. I killed his father, and mutilated his mother. I'm a coward." 2B looked down at the palm of her hand. "... He would never forgive me if he knew their blood was on my hands. He doens't even know his parents names... because I'm too afraid of the day he asks me why I didn't protect them. One day, that boy will hate me... and when that day comes, I have to make sure he is a man who has surpassed his parents... so that when he destroys me, he can survive without me there to guide him." 2B stated as she looked at the invisible sword in her hand.

She felt a sword at her neck, though the sword wasn't real.

One day, she expected that Naruto would hate her for what she did, and what she failed to do. She expected that he would destroy her, and she wanted to make sure that once she was destroyed, that he would be able to stand on his own two feet without her.

"Do you really, truly expect him to hate you?"

"... Yes... because I have committed the most grave sin against him."

-That Night-

2B ran her hand through Naruto's hair.

'Do you really, truly expect him to hate you?'

'... I love you...' 2B thought the greatest sin that she could never utter to him. She had never once told him in his life that she loved him, that she considered him her most precious person. She had caused him to live a miserable life, but her guilt over his parents deaths would never allow her to speak those words to him. Her greatest sin was that she couldn't say those words and make him feel loved. She had tried to save it, but the words never came out of her mouth.

She wasn't trying to make him hate her.

She wasn't trying to make him angry, but she understood that he had every right to hate her. He knew that she knew who his parents were, but she refused to tell him who they were. If he told people who his parents were, they would have to abandon everything and run. He was a child, and children didn't think long term about what they said. She just couldn't trust he wouldn't blab about his parents to others to try and make people like him. She also didn't want to make him miserable by forcing him to study, but he couldn't attend school like a normal kid. She didn't want him to get attached to normal kids, just to break his heart because he would never get to say goodbye to his friends when he left them behind.

She was crying.

'You have every right to hate me, because I'm the coward you can't even make you feel loved.'

"2B..."

2B took her hand out of his hair when she woke him up.

"Go to sleep, a child like you needs good sleep to function properly. I have heard that humans find comfort in their sleep when their heads are stroked."

"Tell me... a story."

"I... don't have a story to tell you, I apologize. I'll research children's stories tomorrow, so that I may tell you a story then." 2B apologized for her lack of children's story to tell. She just continued to rub the top of his head.

"That's... okay... zzzzzzz."

'I wish nothing more than to be loved by you, and to tell you how loved you are... but that is not a right I have. Creators... why did you give me the ability to feel these emotions. After years, I still don't understand what purpose they serve.' 2B felt a small hand on top of her thigh as the child hugged her closely, she smiled and placed a hand on his back. '... it hurts, but even though I don't understand these emotions... I feel like I would be missing something if I didn't have them. Is this what it means to be human, to forever struggle against human nature.'

She laid down next to the child, closed her eyes.

She didn't require sleep.

She drifted off to sleep anyway.

She had a pleasant dream.

Chapter End!
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