Don't Mess With a Namikaze

Chapter 7

It was one of the nights that her mind was being exceptionally mean to her and she woke up practically sobbing from a nightmare. She angrily wiped her tears away but they just kept coming. All of a sudden, she felt so lonely, scared, and alone. She didn't want to be alone. She grabbed the stuffed animals that Minato had bought her and hugged them tightly. After a few minutes of the tears not stopping and the fears not going away she decided that they just weren't helping tonight. Her eyes drifted to the wall that separated her room from Minato's. Should she? The eighteen-year-old in her mind said absolutely not, to just tough through it and try and go back to sleep. The seven-year-old part of her brain was screaming for someone to comfort her. The seven-year-old won. She grabbed the stuffed rabbit, which had become her favorite between the two, and hopped out of bed. She very slowly walked out of her room and towards Minato's. She paused for a moment in front of Minato's cracked door. He never fully closed it, always leaving it open about halfway just in case.

Kagome tip-toed into Minato's room and very slowly approached the bed. Apprehension grew in her mind as she got closer to the large bed. This was ridiculous, why was she doing this? That didn't stop her, however. She came to a stop at the edge of the bed and slowly reached up to tug on Minato's arm.

Minato woke up with a start as he felt a pull on his arm. He blearily looked over to see Kagome standing there with a miserable expression on her face. Tears were pooled in her eyes and her cheeks were wet from her previous tears. She was clutching her stuffed rabbit like it was a lifeline. Minato was immediately fully alert, "Kagome what's wrong?" They had dropped the suffixes a few weeks ago.

"I'm sorry, I don't know why I woke you up." She said and she suddenly looked like she was regretting her decision.

Minato sat up and started attempting to dry her face, the new tears didn't help much however, "Nonsense I don't mind at all. Really, what's wrong?"

"I just had a nightmare," Kagome whispered as she looked down at the floor.

Minato frowned slightly; he had noticed her recent mental state but didn't know what to do. She would disconnect from reality for a while before coming back with a sad look on her face. It had seemed like she was going to start making friends her age until she suddenly started avoiding other kids like the plague. He didn't want to push her, that always made her start pulling away which was the opposite of what he wanted. However, if this kept up, he would have to start doing something. Whatever was going on was obviously not healthy. It looked like it was starting to affect her sleep as well now too.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Minato cautiously asked.

Kagome bit her lip as more tears spilled over, "I just miss them all so much." She answered after a moment of silence.

Minato's eyes went wide in realization. The loss of her village was finally starting to get to her. He had thought that she had been taking the loss of everything and everyone she had ever known a bit too well. She had thrown herself into books to learn new things, all to keep her mind off of the waiting torment. This was the stage that he had been dreading when he decided to take her in. He was fully familiar with the loss of family and loved ones, he was the last of this clan. He had lost one person after another for years. She had lost everyone at once, which was much more of a blow though.

"Oh Kagome, come here." He reached down and picked her up before sitting her on his lap. He gave her the best hug he could as she cried into his shoulder. She clung onto him and he let her, he would willingly be the rock she very clearly needed at the moment. He wasn't able to do much, but this was the least he could do. After a good ten minutes, her crying finally died down a bit, the sobbing transitioning to hiccups, "Do you want to sleep with me for the rest of the night?" he asked quietly.