Inoichi dragged them through a brunch of houses and to a partially fenced off area of the woods. There was a medium-sized shed that was locked up that Shikaku approached. He pulled a key out of a pouch attached to his leg, unlocked it and disappeared inside. She heard him rummaging around inside of it before he started to address her directly.
"For now, Kagome-chan I want you to stay behind the fences. Once I start filling the bins the herd will start making their way over. Until we are sure the deer are okay with you, I want to make sure that you'll be safe."
Kagome pouted slightly but nodded in understanding, "Alright Shikaku-san, I promise." Shikaku nodded back to her and she watched him start to fill the few food bins. Shikaku and Inoichi started talking between themselves, unconsciously paying less attention to Kagome herself.
Kagome turned her attention to the deer that were slowly starting to show up in the small clearing. She cooed as she saw the fawns staggering after their mothers. They were so young yet that they still had a bit of trouble walking. The fact that the fawns were here said a lot about the Nara's. The deer felt safe enough to bring their young along. Most left their young in a single spot until they were steady enough on their feet. When she saw the dominant buck exit the tree line, a mischievous smirk appeared on her face. That single buck was her barrier between her cuddling with the baby deer. Well, it looks like it was time to cheat a little. Unknown and unnoticed to the two people supposed to be watching her, she expanded her aura just a tad to get the attention of the leader of the herd.
She smiled slightly when she saw the deer turned his attention to her, it was working. She made sure her aura didn't have any hostility in it at all. As the buck left his sentinel position and started making his way over to her, she glanced at the two older boys. They weren't even glancing in her direction, perfect. They were busy filling the last bin with the oats and cut-up apples. Good, they wouldn't notice until it was too late. Kagome climbed over the fence as quickly and quietly as she could.
The buck leaned down and sniffed her slightly, before slightly nuzzling her face and giving her a small lick on the cheek. He then started corralling her towards the rest of the herd. A huge grin split her face as soon as she got into the middle of the herd. She plopped herself onto the ground and started petting and cuddling the fawns. She let out a few quiet giggles as the adult females started licking her face and arms, their tongues tickling her. Kagome didn't care about anything else at that moment besides being lavished in attention by the deer.
It took a few minutes before either Inoichi or Shikaku noticed that something was wrong. Shikaku frowned in confusion, "Why aren't they coming to get their food?"
Inoichi shrugged as he glanced over to where they had left Kagome and his eyes went wide in a slight panic, "Where is Kagome-chan?"
Shikaku quickly glanced around before his eyes caught sight of the kid's pink shirt in the middle of the herd of deer, "Uh... just who is this kid Inoichi?" he asked in a slightly shocked tone. Honestly, how did she even get over there?
"What do you mea..." he stopped when he followed Shikaku's gaze. He broke out in laughter as he saw Kagome currently being licked to death by the herd that usually didn't like outsiders, "Oh yeah, Kagome-chan's a special one. That's for sure."
Kagome looked up when she heard her name and sent a large smile towards the two boys, "They like me!" she giggled out as she hugged a fawn closer to her.
Inoichi sighed in fondness, "Why don't you bring them over here so they can eat Kagome-chan." Shikaku glanced at his friend out of the corner of his eye. How was he so fond of the kid already?
"Kay." She sang out as she got up. The dominant buck followed close behind her, butting her shoulder lightly with his head. Like he was asking her where she was going. Kagome giggled again as she petted his neck softly, "Come on mister deer, I'm sure you guys are hungry." She led them to the food bins and they finally took their attention off of her and started eating. Since the fawns were still too young to eat anything other than milk they lingered around Kagome, basking in her attention.
Shikaku was speechless, he had never, NEVER, seen the herd take to someone like that before. The dominant buck was even asking for her attention. The mothers were completely fine with Kagome petting their young as they ate. Trusting Kagome to watch over them. They had been nearly aggressive with the normal Nara's who had been watching over the herd for years who was this kid?
They stayed with the deer for another hour or so, since they didn't really have anything else to do. In the end, Shikaku had ended up having to rescue Kagome from the herd because they started trying to take her with them back into the woods. Kagome giggled happily from her position on Shikaku's back as they made their way back to his house. She had jumped onto his back when he rescued her from the herd and just hadn't seen a reason to get off.
"That was fun." Kagome grinned.
As they made it back to Shikaku's house they ended up just sitting outside on his porch. They didn't do much other than talk until it was time to head back to Minato's. A while later they re-packed her groceries Kagome leaving a few of the least perishable groceries behind for Shikaku.
She liked Shikaku, but she wanted to get to know him a bit more before she decided to tell him the truth or not. She was interested in making him her friend, however. She paused in both thought and walking after Inoichi, she needed to find more people her current age So far, she had only met people fifteen years old or older. While she was totally fine having older friends, most would probably think it weird. She shook her head and started after Inoichi once again. That was a problem for a later time. As Inoichi and herself walked back towards Minato's house they talked a bit more about ninja and kunoichi in general. Kagome was excited for when she could start trying to take it easy for the next month, so she probably shouldn't try anything until after that.
As Inoichi walked Kagome through the Namikaze district he didn't hide the fact he was looking around. He hadn't been in the Namikaze district since before Minato's dad died. Not a lot visually had changed, Minato still paid genin squads to clean and keep up the other houses just like his dad had done. However, the mood of the clan district was completely different. This place used to be full of life and excitement, even when it was just Minato and his dad. The district just seemed dead now. Kagome would definitely be good for this place. She wouldn't let an obviously loved place like this stay so sad. She had done wonders for Sango's old village in their sparse free time. Easily remembering which house was Minato's he directed them through the homes.
Inoichi ran into the same problem as at Shikaku's house of not having a free hand to knock. So, he kicked lightly at the door hoping that Minato would hear them.
Minato opened the door with an excited yet nervous smile. He really hoped that Kagome liked what he had done. He knew she would be mad, but he hoped she would get over it quickly. When he saw how laden down, they both were with bags his eyes went wide. He quickly made a few shadow clones and directed them to grab all of the bags from both of them and put them away.
"Thank you for watching her on such short notice. It shouldn't happen again." Minato said earnestly.
Inoichi smiled at him, "Oh, it was no problem. I don't mind at all. Anytime you need a babysitter and I'm not on a mission don't hesitate to ask."
Kagome elbowed his sharply and eyed him with a baby glare, "I am not a baby and do not need to be watched."
Inoichi chuckled, "Whatever you say Kagome-chan." He ruffled her hair briefly before starting to walk away with a wave, ignoring Kagome's squawk of protest, "I should get going, see you two later."
Kagome waved goodbye to her friend before turning to Minato. She watched him carefully, his aura was all over the place. Jumping from anxious, to excitement, to nervousness, only to repeat the cycle. He was definitely up to something. Inuyasha's aura would do something similar when he did something, he wasn't sure she would agree with. They just stood there staring at each other for a bit before Minato took the lead.
He cleared his throat nervously, "Uh, Kagome-chan... there is something I want to show you. Follow me, please."
Kagome followed after Minato apprehensively, the feeling only grew when the closer they got to her room. The closer they got the more she narrowed her eyes. He better have not done what she was beginning to suspect. When he stopped right outside of her closed bedroom door, a door she clearly remembered keeping open to let the paint smell dissipate, she turned a full-powered glare at her new guardian. Minato turned and looked down at Kagome and had to hide the slight flinch; her glare was a scary thing, especially for someone so young. It was then that he knew that she knew what he had done, and she was already not happy about it. He simply gestured to her room, too nervous to actually speak.
Kagome slowly opened the door, praying that everything was as they had left it before leaving the house. It was not. Almost every single thing had been replaced, it didn't even look like the same room anymore. Her carpet was now a light crème and all of the furniture had been replaced with newer things, most of them a lighter wood color. If she had to guess just by looking at them, she would say they were made out of maple wood, but she wasn't an expert or anything. The small bookcase they had gotten the previous day was being used as a bedside table and had a few random trinkets on the shelves, along with a clock and table lamp. There was a tall bookcase in the corner of her room with about a dozen or so books starting a collection on the sparse shelves. She glanced at her closet and saw it was slightly fuller than it had been this morning, which meant he had boughten her even more clothes. She noticed a few things that had caught her eye yesterday in the markets but had breezed past simply because she didn't need them. There were a few small plants scattered across the room as well. The room was gorgeous now, it wasn't far off from what she had planned for it in the long run. However...
Kagome seethed. She was furious; completely, absolutely, utterly furious. Which kinda sucked since her day had been going rather well. Sure, she had started kinda ticked at Minato for ditching her but she had mostly gotten over that once she got to Shikaku's house.
"I didn't ask of any of this." She managed to grit out, desperately trying not to lose her temper. Honestly how much did all of this cost? How long would it take to pay him back for it?
"I know you didn't, and that right there is the reason that you deserve it so much. You are such a sweet kid, I can tell even from the little time I've spent with you. You've just lost everything and you've been keeping up such a brave front. You deserve something that is just yours, even if it's just a room." Minato said with honest sincerity in his voice. To tell the truth he had wanted to do more but had held himself back.
Kagome's mind went into overdrive, maybe she could retaliate somehow. Maybe move into a different room, or just move everything out of her room. She didn't need any of this stuff, the things that had been in the room before would have been just fine. So why did he go against her clear wishes? She didn't really know why she was so against him getting her things. Normally she wouldn't really mind one way or another. Her group of friends would get stuff for each other all of the time. Maybe it was because she didn't have the ability to do it for herself at the moment. She was now too young to do much. It was beyond annoying and it was starting to irritate her. She was too short to reach things that would've easily been within her reach before, nobody took her seriously, and everyone was underestimating her. All because she was seven years old again. Rationally she knew she was just taking out her frustration on Minato, but her mind wasn't really thinking rationally right now. Her mind had the emotional capacity of a normal seven-year-old. Which made her angry as well. She felt tears start welling up in her eyes, tears of frustration.
"You're such a jerk." Kagome cried out before spinning around and marching back towards the living room. She knew she couldn't leave the house without Minato, and her room was out of the question for the moment so, for now, she would have to go to the living room to sulk. She would try to calm down by herself, get her temper under control, hopefully, Minato would get the hint and leave her alone for a while. She knew she had a bit of a temper, but she didn't remember her temper being quite this bad when she was younger. So, she probably had the same temper as her eighteen-year-old self but with no ability to emotionally control it. Great.
Minato sighed as he watched her march off, little girls were difficult. He focused on her chakra signature to make sure she wasn't going to leave the house and was glad she had enough foresight to remember her restrictions. He felt her settle into his living room and gave a little nod of agreement, that was a good place to camp out for a while. He could easily avoid that area of his house for a bit while she ran herself through her temper tantrum. Honestly, why was she so angry about it. He had been expecting her to be a little mad, but not that full blown-out anger. He always saw kids out on the street begging their parents for everything and anything. So why did he end up taking in the one kid that hated getting something?
He wasn't going to undo all of his hard work though, he firmly believed she deserved a good room to call her own. Somewhere she can go to feel safe or settle down in after a long day. She would simply have to get used to it. This was something that he was going to be holding his ground firmly on. For now, he would give her some space and time to cool off. He had a good amount of practice with hot-headed ladies dealing with Kushina. With a soft sigh he grabbed a few scrolls to read through, he was in the middle of working on a new jutsu. While Kagome was cooling down, he would have plenty of time to get a jump start on his project. He had a lot of details to iron out on it yet.
The rest of the day passed pretty quickly. Minato made a small supper that they spent intense silence. Kagome chewed her food like it had personally offended her and Minato had watched her warily, half expecting her to bite herself accidentally in her anger. Kagome had only left her spot in the living room to eat and the moment she was done she went right back to her spot and continued trying to calm down. She just couldn't shake the anger and that in itself was frustrating her which only made it worse.
Minato let out a long yawn as he stretched his muscles. He glanced at the clock on the wall and his eyes went wide, it was way past midnight! How had time passed so quickly? How in the world had it gotten so late? He stood up and made his way into the living room to check on his charge as he still felt her chakra signature from within. He peered in and a small frown appeared on his face. Kagome was sound asleep on the couch. She had at some point changed into her pajamas, so her falling asleep on the couch was a conscious decision. Was she trying to get back at him by simply not sleeping in the room at all? He sighed in frustration as he made his way to her room. In there he grabbed one of the new blankets he had gotten her off the foot of her bed, and the stuffed rabbit after a second thought. He walked back to the living room and gently put the rabbit next to her before covering her up. He watched her almost immediately snuggle into the rabbit. That made a small smile appear at the sheer cuteness she radiated, but it quickly disappeared.
He rubbed a hand through his hair as he made his way to his room. He really knew nothing about his ward, that would have to change as soon as possible. Once she got done being mad at him, they would have to sit down and get to know each other. She knew as much about him as he knew about her. Perhaps if he had waited to renovate her bedroom until he knew more about her then she wouldn't currently be sleeping on the couch. He had just been so excited to do something for her. He threw himself onto his bed with a groan. Did he screw something up permanently? Ugh, how was he supposed to know? He never had any siblings, and he had managed to avoid most of the babysitting D-rank jobs as a genin. He really didn't know much about kids. Tomorrow. He would try to make this better tomorrow.
Kagome woke up with the sun like normal, slowly and slightly confused about her whereabouts. It took her a moment to remember that she had chosen to sleep on the couch last night. when she had gotten tired enough to fall asleep, she had run into a slight problem. She didn't want to sleep in the room that was the main cause of her anger and frustration. Not yet at least. While she wasn't as mad as she had been originally, she didn't want to accept the room quite yet. She had thought thigs through during her sulking. If she just moved into a different room Minato could easily transfer all the stuff into any room she chose. Especially with the clones, he could apparently make. She had been impressed with that and couldn't wait to see if she could do that herself. If she were to move the things out of her room when Minato wasn't looking, he would just move them back in. So, if her room wasn't an option, and picking a different room wasn't either, her only good option would be a neutral place he couldn't change into a bedroom for her. Like the living room.
She had peaked into the kitchen at Minato only to see him completely engrossed in some scrolls spread across the table. He had such a deep look of concentration on his face that she decided to leave him alone. She didn't want to bother him. She made her way into her room just to change into her pajamas, of which she had plenty to choose from now. Sleeping on the couch wouldn't be too bad. It was a pretty comfortable couch and she was used to sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag. Compared to that anything would seem magically comfortable.
What she didn't remember having as she fell asleep last night was the blanket and stuffed animal. A small frown tugged at her lips; Minato must have tucked her in before he went to bed last night. That was very nice of him, especially with how mean she had been to him yesterday. Speaking of yesterday, her anger has calmed down significantly. She really wasn't sure what had set her off so badly, she knew he was just trying to be nice. Trying to help her, which she did appreciate. Her brain was at war with itself. On one hand, rationally, she knew there was nothing to be angry about and she just say thank you and just be done with it. On the other hand, her emotions were fluctuating so much she almost couldn't keep up with them, but they mostly wanted to settle on frustration. Either with Minato or her own situation, she wasn't sure.
With a quiet sigh, she gathered up the blanket and bunny before heading towards her room. She needed to get dressed for the day, then maybe she would make breakfast again. Step one in her I'm sorry I'm an emotional child who is acting like a little brat peace treaty. She got dressed in a simple, light blue, play kimono with a pair of gray shorts underneath. She folded up the blanket as best as she could with it being so much bigger than her and placed it on the corner of her bed and then placed the bunny next to the stuffed puppy by her pillows.
She exited her room and peeked into Minato's room, who had left his door left about half-open. He was sprawled across his bed, snoring slightly. She giggled softly as to not wake him up before heading down the hall. As she entered the kitchen, she mentally went through all of the ingredients she had picked up yesterday. With a nod to herself, she pulled the kitchen chair in front of the counter next to the stove and started preparing a more traditional breakfast. She started thinking things over as she prepared the meal on autopilot. Minato was only fifteen, the age she had started her adventure. While he was probably more mature with being a shinobi and all, he was still a kid himself. He probably just wanted to do something as a gesture of kindness. An offering of friendship, and what did she do but shove it back at him in a terrible way. She sucked. She really needed to get a handle on her new emotional state as soon as possible. She had always had a bit of a temper, but it usually wasn't this bad. At least not to anyone that wasn't Inuyasha. He always seemed to know exactly which buttons to pick to push her patience over the edge. Perhaps it had just been a bit too much for her at once. She had gone from an independent teenager to a useless child practically overnight. Having to depend on someone else was going to be a challenge for her, or at least to this extreme extent. Sure, she had depended on her friends in the past. But that had been more mutual dependency, they all helped look out for each other.
Kagome knew she was going to lose this battle. That she would eventually give in to the new room and accept it. Accepting the room, however, in her mind was equivalent to accepting that she was no longer the one that took care of herself. Accepting the room, and everything else attached to it, meant that Minato would truly be in charge of her. And that truly scared her. She hadn't been that dependent on someone else since she was fifteen before she fell into the well and the few months afterword. After a few months of being a stupid damsel in distress and being kidnapped countless times Kagome had had enough and started changing herself. To stop being a completely useless idiot who depended on Inuyasha for absolutely everything. It was then she had decided to change herself for the better, and never look back to her old self. Accepting her fate in this new world was like going back on everything she worked hard for, her well-fought independence. It was going to be a hard pill to swallow, but she knew she would have to eventually. The sooner the better or it would only fester and make her even more bitter about it. However, she would need just a bit more time. She could manage sleeping on the couch for a few more days. It was a pretty comfy couch.
She finished up making breakfast and laid it out on the table. She figured it was time to wake up Minato, but as she looked up, she saw him leaning silently against the doorway watching her.
Kagome froze in place as a light blush crossed her face, she quickly looked away, "I made breakfast." She mumbled out. Hoping he would notice the unsaid, I'm sorry.
Minato didn't do anything for a minute, which made Kagome start fidgeting slightly. Minato but a smirk on his face and ruffled her hair, "Thanks kiddo, it looks great."
Kagome looked up at him with wide eyes, he wasn't mad at her? Her attitude yesterday had been less than stellar.
Breakfast was a quiet event but at least it wasn't as painfully awkward as yesterday's supper. Starting today she would try her best to be less of a brat, but that didn't mean that she had to accept the room as of yet. To pass the day away she grabbed the book about medical ninjutsu to read. While she wasn't as angry anymore, she didn't want to risk reigniting her anger again so she would take the day easy by herself simply reading.