A few hours later they had cleaned up breakfast and finished painting Kagome's new room, it was now a nice shade of green. They were now heading out into town to do the promised grocery shopping. Kagome side-eyed Minato briefly, he had been acting shifty all morning. She could tell he had something planned, but she had no idea what it could be. She didn't know him nearly long enough to know any of his tells. She had only met him yesterday afternoon. She was keeping her concerns on the down-low for the moment though. Right now, she was focusing on learning what was where. She needed to get to a point where she wasn't constantly lost. At the very least she needed to know how to get back to Minato's house. She didn't think of it of her house, not yet at least. They had been walking around for about twenty minutes, not buying anything quite yet. Minato was just pointing out where things were to her. Suddenly, something caught her eye. A smile split her face and she jogged away from Minato without even thinking.
"Inoichi-san!" Kagome greeted happily as she hugged him. She considered Inoichi her first friend in this world. They had gotten along really well when he came to visit her at the hospital.
Inoichi laughed and patted her head happily, "Well, hello Kagome-chan. It's nice to see you out of the hospital. Where is your guardian though, you're supposed to be with someone, remember?" He knew that this part was going to be hard for her, she was used to being pretty independent. She was used to looking after people, not being looked after.
A blush flushed across her face as she looked around, she had forgotten that she needed to stick close to him. When she saw the head of bright blond hair, she pointed at him, "Oh, he's over there. I honestly thought he would have noticed me walking away from him. Situational awareness and all that." Kagome deadpanned. Weren't ninjas supposed to notice everything around them?
Inoichi chuckled in amusement as he watched Minato look around frantically for his missing charge, "Don't hold it against him, he's not used to having to consciously keep track of someone. So, you got put with Minato huh?" he asked as he started leading Kagome back to her new guardian.
"You know him?" Kagome asked as she followed Inoichi back towards Minato, "In your opinion, what is he like?"
Inoichi looked down at Kagome seriously, she was pretty much asking if the person she got settled with was a good person. That was easy enough to answer at least, "He's pretty much an all-around good guy. He tries to help people out as much as he can. His moral compass is about as good as yours is. He can have a bit of a playful streak; he was quite the prankster when he was in school." A devious smirk crossed his lips as he remembered some of Kagome's memories, "He also has a huge crush on a certain red-head beauty."
Self-proclaimed matchmaker Kagome smiled deviously as well, oh yeah her and Inoichi were going to get along just fine, "Is that so? Who is this mystery lady?"
"Her name is Kushina Uzumaki. She's a loudmouth with a fiery temper. She can be a bit scary at times, but other than that she's usually pretty nice. He's had a crush on her for years, but she's being pretty stubborn about it. Not that she hates his attention, he isn't pushing himself on her. I just don't think she realizes he's completely serious about his feelings. Perhaps she needs a push from Minato's new adorable little sister."
Kagome blushed and scowled at the same time, "We aren't siblings, we literally just met yesterday."
"Yeah, and how quickly did you mentally add your feudal friends into your family? A couple of weeks after you met them? I give you by the end of the month before you start calling Minato Nii-san." He teased. To most it would probably seem like he was being mean to a kid ten years younger than him, however knowing Kagome has the mindset of an eighteen-year-old he didn't bother holding anything back.
Kagome punched him playfully, but still kinda meaning it, "You suck."
Inoichi laughed as they finally caught up with the nearly frantic blond, "You've seemed to have lost something Minato."
Minato spun around to see an amused looking Inoichi and slightly sulky Kagome. Minato let out a sigh of relief, he grabbed her shoulders with a serious look on his face, "You have to stick with me Kagome-chan, or at the very least let me know you're going somewhere. You scared me."
"Sorry, Minato-san. I saw Inoichi-san and wanted to say hi." Kagome mumbled looking down at the ground. It was weird being scolded. Usually, she was the one doing the scolding, mostly to Inuyasha if she was being honest.
Minato looked between the two with a calculating look on his face, "You two know each other?"
Kagome nodded eagerly, "Yeah, Inoichi-san was the one to do my mind walk so I could stay here. He continued to visit me after that. Talking to him is really fun. He has so many interesting things to say." Kagome said trying to amplify her childish tone, then her smile got a darker hint to it, "Especially about my new guardian, and a certain red-head."
A blush brightened his cheeks as his eyes grew wide, "Inoichi!"
Inoichi whistled innocently, "I have no idea what she's talking about."
Minato still looked slightly flustered but an idea flourished in his mind, "Oh, hey! Actually, you have pretty good timing Inoichi. I have a few errands that I need to get done. I should have got them done yesterday before I picked up Kagome-chan, but I was a bit eager to actually get her home. It'll be pretty boring, so do you think you could watch her for a few hours?" he looked at his watch, it was almost ten o'clock, "If you could bring her back home around two, that should give me plenty of time to finish everything up."
Kagome glared at him; he was trying to get rid of her already? Wasn't he supposed to be responsible? She crossed her arms irritably, "What about grocery shopping?"
Minato rubbed the back of his head with one arm while digging out his wallet with the other, this kid's glare was scary. Almost as scary as Kushina's, "Inoichi can show you some of the grocery stores around here before he brings you back home. Thanks, Inoichi." Minato shouted before tossing his wallet at Kagome and disappearing in a burst of leaves.
Kagome deadpanned, "Really?"
Inoichi was silent for a moment before slowly saying, "Well, I guess I'm watching you now."
Kagome sighed, "If it wasn't mandatory that someone keeps an eye on me, I would say don't worry about it. But, since I've pretty much just started my probation, sorry about this. I hope I won't ruin any plans you might have had. If you had something planned, I can just tag along and be a silent shadow or something."
Inoichi shook his head, "No, it's fine, really. I was just planning on visiting one of my team members today. Our team hasn't been sent on a mission together recently and I want to make sure he hasn't lazy'd himself to death."
"Lazy'd?" Kagome asked amused, following Inoichi through the crowd.
"Yeah, Shikaku can be insanely lazy. If he could get away with just laying down on the couch all day and do nothing, he'd definitely do it."
"How did someone like that manage to become a ninja?" Kagome asked curiously. Did they just let anyone with enough chakra become a ninja?
"Almost all of the Nara's have a lazy streak to them. Most Nara's have above average intelligence so their brains are always working overtime. Downtime helps rest their brains, but some take it to the extreme. Like Shikaku." Inoichi explained.
Kagome nodded in understanding, that made more sense at least. Then her brain turned curious remembering something she had read in one of the books, "So, teams in Konoha consist of three men squads, Right?"
"Yup."
"So, who's your other team member?" she asked, wanting to learn more about her new friend.
"Choza Akimichi, he's a very loyal man with a big heart and even larger stomach. Both Shikaku and Choza are my best friends, have been since we were little. Most teams tend to break up somewhat once all the members reach chunin level. We still try to go out on team missions as much as possible. Our families have always been close. Our team is the fifteenth generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation."
Kagome frowned slightly as confusion filled her, "Ino-Shika-Cho? You named it after your first names? So, does that mean the Yamanaka's will always have a kid with Ino in the name and so on?"
Inoichi looked flustered for a moment but didn't get a chance to answer as other things popped up in Kagome's mind.
"Wait, wait, wait... do your families like, try and have kids around the same time then? So, they can be on the same team together? What if the kids don't even like each other? What if one of the clans fail to have a kid at the same time as the other two? How does Ino-Shika-Cho even work?" Kagome shot off question after question.
Inoichi stopped in the middle of the street as he watched in morbid fascination at all the questions leaking from Kagome. Honestly, he didn't really know how to answer most of those. In the end, he just shrugged, "I guess we just always happen to have kids within the same year. It's not like it's planned or anything, or at least I don't think it is. Purely coincidence. The kids of the head families of our clans have always been put on a team together, it's just tradition by this point. Our family jutsu's just work really well together."
Kagome shook her head, trying to forget all the unanswered questions. The whole Ino-Shika-Cho thing seemed a bit sketchy, but whatever. Time to move onto a different topic, "So, um... Shikaku-san won't mind a seven-year-old tagging along with you?"
"Naw, Shikaku is pretty cool about everything. I've told him about my visits with you and I think I've piqued his curiosity." He saw her questioning gaze and quickly clarified, "Don't worry I didn't tell him anything about your past, nothing past the cover story anyway. Though he probably saw past that with how smart he is. He hasn't called me out on it yet at least. Though if you did want someone else in the village to know, just so you'd have another person you didn't have to hide yourself with, Shikaku would be a very good choice. He doesn't judge someone at first glance, he takes time to form his own opinion of them. He can also keep a secret better than anyone else I know."
Kagome hummed in thought, "I'll think about it. Obviously, I want to meet him first. But if you trust him then I'll consider it." They walked in silence for a bit before an idea popped in her head, "Hey Inoichi-san do you think I could try something when we get to your friend's house?"
"What do you want to try?" Inoichi asked.
"I was able to see my chakra pool last night, but I have nothing to compare mine to. So, I have no idea if my pool is large or small. I'm pretty sure I would have enough to make jutsu's but on the other hand, I have no idea, and I don't know any jutsu to even try with. If you're okay with it, I'd like to check your chakra pool and compare it to mine. I know a chakra pool probably grows with age, but I'd at least have something else to compare it to." Kagome asked.
Inoichi thought for a moment, "What would I have to do, and what would you do?"
"Nothing much, you would just have to sit still. I'd push my Ki into you a bit so I'd be able to see your chakra system, you won't feel it at all. It's an advanced technique evolved from being able to see auras. Kikyo taught me how to do that." Kagome explained. Kikyo was best at the soul part of being a Miko, seeing auras and manipulating her energy. Kagome, on the other hand, leaned more naturally towards healing. Towards the end, they were coaching each other on their respective talents.
Inoichi shrugged, "Sure, I don't mind. How are you going to explain to Shikaku what you're doing, if you don't plan on telling him the truth? Not everybody can simply see the chakra system. The Hyuga clan and that is only because of their kekkei-genkai."
"Well, I have to make up something for my Ki anyway. Why not say it's one of those kekkei-genkai things? I don't have a fancy name for it or anything yet, but it would seem believable enough."
"Hmm. That could work. You would have to think of a name for it though. All kekkei-genkai have names."
"I'll think about it. Maybe your friend could think of something good for it. You said he's really smart right. Maybe he could think of something that would fit for it." Kagome propositioned.
"You would have to explain everything your supposed kekkei-genkai would be able to do," Inoichi said.
"That's not a problem. Even if I don't decide to tell your friend the truth, I can tell him everything I can do with my Ki and pass it off as a kekkei-genkai I didn't know I had until I got here and learned what a kekkei-genkai was." She put an innocent look on her face, "In my village, there were just some people who could do things others couldn't. We didn't know what it was, but it didn't really bother us much."
Inoichi laughed, "How is it sometimes you are a masterful liar and other times one look at your face and it's obvious that your lying?"
Kagome shrugged, "I don't know. I don't particularly like lying so I try to do it as little as possible. I've seen way too many things escalate way more than they should have just because someone was keeping something from someone else. I hated lying to my friends in Tokyo, but it wasn't like they would believe me even if I told them the truth. They'd have just thought I had gone crazy, or it was a side effect of one of the crazy illnesses my grandfather gave me."
Inoichi chuckled, "Yeah, those were funny."
"They were not!" Kagome shouted, "They were so embarrassing, especially when Hojo would bring those stupid gift baskets."
"Pretty sure your grandfather simply gave symptoms he had to get free product."
"Yeah, he would've made Miroku proud." Kagome chuckled thinking of her con-artist friend.
Inoichi sighed, "Anyway, let's get your grocery shopping out of the way. We can store anything perishable in Shikaku's fridge. I can show you the shops that usually have pretty good deals." Kagome nodded in agreement.
Nearly the next hour was spent with Inoichi showing Kagome a few of the best shops to get the cheapest and best quality product. Kagome bought everything that she thought they would need for the house for the next week or so. She had made a personal pact not to spend much of Minato's money for herself; however, he had ticked her off. How dare he ditch her on someone else the first full day he has her. So, if she spent a bit more on groceries than needed who was she to say. She was only seven and wasn't the best at rationing money after all. That's what he gets for leaving her with his wallet.
Inoichi watched warily as Kagome's eyes glinted angrily as she shoved some more stuff she didn't really need into the grocery basket. Minato better have a really good excuse, because he had pushed one of Kagome's buttons to really set her off. Minato was going to have to learn to be a suck-up to his new little sister because if he didn't, he was going to have a hard time in the near future.
By the time they made it through the Nara district and to Shikaku's house Inoichi was exhausted. He was weighed down with so many bags that his arms felt like they were about to break off. Kagome had bought enough food to feed an army, though he knew that she wouldn't let any of it go to waste. Since neither of them had a free hand to knock Inoichi kicked at Shikaku's door and kept at it so he wouldn't simply ignore it. After about a minute of no answer, Inoichi rolled his eyes.
"Shikaku get off your lazy ass and open up the door, I want to put these bags down already," Inoichi shouted out.
From within he heard his friend's muttered, "Ugh, how troublesome." Though finally the door was finally opened. Shikaku's eyebrow rose slightly as he caught sight of the short kid slightly behind the blond. He immediately made the correct connection; this was the kid from the hospital that had caught his friend's attention.
"Why are you making so much noise?" Shikaku drawled.
"Ugh, just let us past. Kagome-chan went overtime on the grocery shopping. We need to commandeer your fridge for a few hours before I'm supposed to bring her home. Thanks." He said breezing past Shikaku towards where he knew the kitchen was.
Kagome bowed politely, "Sorry for the intrusion."
Shikaku lazily waved a hand at the overly polite child, "Naw don't worry about it." He grabbed a couple of bags from her to lighten her load. She looked like she was buckling under the weight.
"Ah, thank you," Kagome said surprised. She didn't think he would have taken any bags from her, not with how lazy Inoichi claimed he was.
Shikaku hummed in acknowledgment as he led the kid to his kitchen. He didn't know what the two were doing here, or how Inoichi came to being in charge of her, but it didn't really matter to him. If they wanted him to know they would tell him or he could figure it out piece by piece by context clues. Inoichi was good at keeping things to himself, but they have been friends forever and because of that he could be easy to read at times.
"So, what's with all the groceries?" Shikaku asked as he placed the bags on his table.
"My guardian, Minato-san, had nothing in the house and was about to take me grocery shopping when he dumped me on Inoichi-san. I didn't know what Minato-san liked so I got a bit of everything." She said innocently, but the fire in her eyes said differently.
Shikaku shared a look with Inoichi, that didn't sound like something Minato would do. But the casual shrug Inoichi gave said the kid wasn't lying. So, what was Minato planning that he needed to do away from his new charge? Also, it was interesting the Hokage decided to put the mystery kid with Minato Namikaze. Very interesting choice.
They spent the next few minutes rearranging Shikaku's sparse fridge, which Kagome had frowned at and immediately made the decision to 'accidentally' leave some of her newly boughten food here. Then Inoichi grabbed Kagome's hand and dragged her towards the living room, "We can do your test in here Kagome-chan."
"Test? What test?" Shikaku asked slowly following behind the two.
"Kagome-chan has a kekkei genkai and she has been trying out the things she can do with it," Inoichi said.
"In my village, there were a few people who could do the same things I could, some were better at some things than others but we were all able to do the same basic things. We were able to create barriers, see auras, heal people, and purify curses. The thing is we didn't know about was kekkei genkai's or chakra really. We called chakra, Ki, and people who had the kekkei genkai were called priestesses or monks. So, after I got here and learned about everything, I used my aura reading ability to look within myself to search for my own chakra. I was eventually able to find it, but I would like to see someone else's so I can compare it to my own." Kagome explained to him.
"Ya don't mind if I watch do you?" Shikaku asked carefully.
"Not at all," Kagome reassured him as quickly as she could. She knew he was just worried about her hurting his friend, either on purpose or not.
Shikaku plopped himself down across the couch while Inoichi and Kagome sat across from each other on the floor.
It took her a few minutes but she was finally able to focus enough on Inoichi's energy to start following his chakra system. She was right about it getting larger due to age, even the veins of chakra were larger than her own. She carefully followed them down to finally see his chakra pool. Inoichi's was definitely larger than her own... but not as much as she thought it was going to be. She studied it a bit longer before she started pulling out, her mind whirling. Was the size of a person's soul somehow related to the amount of chakra they could produce? Was that why she almost had the same sized pool as a person ten years older than herself? Or, was it because she used to be eighteen years old?
She would have to think about this more later, but at least she knew that she had plenty of chakra to create jutsu. She could become a kunoichi. She wasn't really sure why she was so determined to be able to become a kunoichi, other than she was used to a life of adventure and fighting. Just pretending to be a kid again and starting her life over sounded... wrong. She liked protecting people, fighting for what is right. Just becoming a civilian again almost seemed like she was throwing away all of her trials in the feudal era, and she refused to do that. She would not become a useless damsel in distress ever again. She was sure that she would find people she would want to protect once again. She wanted to become strong enough to protect those future people. Plus, if she ever did get the chance to go back to her family, then, she would be even more capable of holding her own.
Shikaku watched carefully as the two sat down on the ground across for each other. For a few minutes, nothing happened, but then a faint pink glow started forming around the kid. That lasted a few more minutes before the glow disappeared and both the kid and Inoichi opened their eyes. He watched Inoichi smile at the kid.
"Did you find what you were looking for Kagome-chan?" Inoichi asked curiously.
"Yeah, it gave me more to think about though. Thanks for letting me look Inoichi-san." Kagome said slowly.
Inoichi frowned slightly at Kagome's serious face before an idea blossomed in his mind. He clapped his hands excitedly, "Let's do something fun. Kagome's been stuck inside just reading since she got here, so let's do something."
Kagome's eyes brightened, "Really?"
Shikaku looked at the two of them and sighed, "Sorry, I'll have to rain check on this. I'm on feeding duty this week. I should probably head out now actually."
"Feeding duty?" Kagome asked curiously.
"The Nara clan takes care of a herd of deer. We feed them daily and brush them weekly." Shikaku explained as he slowly stood up.
"Deer?" Kagome asked excitedly, she loved animals.
An idea popped in Inoichi's mind, "Why don't we join you? Kagome-chan loves nature and animals, and you'll get a few extra hands to help you out on your chores. Right Kagome-chan?"
"Definitely! Can we please go see the deer?"
Shikaku hesitated for a moment, "I don't know... usually, I don't mind, but the fawns were born just a few weeks ago and they are still a bit aggressively protective."
Kagome nodded in understanding, "I won't go close to them if they don't let me. It'll still be cool just to watch them. Really." She had traveled with a herd of deer demons for a little over a week once after she got separated from her group. Again. She had learned a lot about deer and how they think in that week. She knew better than to approach any kind of animal, especially ones with babies when they did not want you around. However, if you were patient and calm you could usually get pretty close. Plus, she had learned if she expanded her aura to envelope them slightly, they would get the hint that she meant them no harm. "Please?" she asked again hopefully.
Shikaku sighed in defeat, "Fine, but if I say leave you leave. Got it?"
Kagome nodded quickly, "Got it!"
Inoichi jumped up and hooked an arm through each of theirs, "This is going to be fun. Let's go, to the deer." He cheered as he started leading them to where he knew the herd would be.