Tsukino_Mei

a shorter chapter, I considered having them together but it seems better separate.

I’d like to say that I remained elegant the whole trip, got off his back with my dignity intact and then proceeded to courteously explain the circumstances when we arrived, but that would be a blatant lie. I screamed bloody murder the whole way, and while I was busy doing my impression of a mother bird about to feed it’s chicks, he handed Naruto over to the hospital personal while one of them watched over me with concern.

After I was done removing the goop the orphanage called food from my body, I was escorted to a room inside and asked to wait. A few minutes later, the third hokage came inside and sat across from me. “Please explain what happened”

It didn’t take long to explain, since it happened so fast, though when I got to how the director said no would miss him if he disappeared, his facial expression caused me yelp. “my apologies, please continue”

“… umm, that’s pretty much it. I ran at the director to try and stop him, and when he caught my punch he froze. I took advantage of that and dragged Naruto out of there.” a concerning thought came to my mind “I’m not the reason for his injuries right?”

He shook his head with a grandfatherly smile on his face “no, no, you caused him no harm at all” I fought the tears that started to come to my eyes, as I realized that must be a lie, but he continued “but what do you mean, he froze?”

I flinched as I realized that in my panic, I said more than I should have. (“My biological age seems to be affecting my emotions, but I can trust him... right? Besides, if I lie now, I’m sure he’ll notice. I’ll just play dumb”) “ummm, he just stopped moving. It was freaky because it looked like he even stopped breathing. I didn’t care what sort of weird joke he was playing since it gave me an opportunity to get Naruto out of there”

keeping his attention focused on me he asked “what would you like to do now”

“I’ll do whatever work I need to but please, please don’t send us back to the orphanage. They were going to kick us out any day now, but now they'll probably just kill us and call it an accident”

he gave me a pointed look before sighing “We can discuss that later, for now we should deal with his injuries, as well as get you checked out for any you may have”

“I’m not injured, so can I just stay in his hospital room? He’s the only family I have.”

“He is currently being taken care of, and would certainly be sad to learn you ignored your own possible injuries to look after him. I insist, please let them examine you. I’ll make sure you can share a hospital room.”

I grudgingly agreed, allowing the nurse who was called in to escort me, but I stopped in the doorway and turned to him “I’ll hold you to that”

The moment the door shut, he quickly tapped the table twice with his index and middle finger together. Suddenly a guy with silver hair wearing a dog mask (signifying him being a member of the Anbu) appeared. “check it out” and upon that order he once again vanished.

“sigh, I’m getting too old for this”

_______________________________________________________________________