Chapter One

Himawari was folding her arms defiantly, turning her head this way and that, avoiding Naruto's attempt at giving her a kiss on the cheek. "C'mon! Daddy wants a kiss!"

"NO!" she cried, sticking out her bottom lip and dodging his face again. "You're not the real Papa!"

Hinata sighed and scratched her head. "I told you she doesn't like shadow clones."

"I know." He stepped back and turned wide eyes on his wife. "But it doesn't hurt to try every now again! Can I at least get a kiss from you?"

"NO!" Himawari shrieked, jumping out of the kitchen chair and kicking him in the leg.

"Oi!" Naruto jumped back in surprise.

"Mama would cheat on the real Papa if she kissed you!" she wailed, smacking his leg continuously. "Get out, get out, get out!"

His whiskered face fell as his daughter thrashed, so he nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Hinata knelt by the child's side and held her wrists. "Himawari," she said softly, "that was mean. You hurt Papa's feelings."

"That wasn't Papa!" the girl insisted, blinking rapidly to fight the tears building in her bright blue eyes.

"Of course it's Papa! It's just another version of him. When the original is at work, he sends different versions of himself to spend time with us." Hinata gave her an encouraging smile. "I love all the versions of Papa! So shouldn't you love all the versions of him too?"

She shook her head. "No. I only like the original."

Hinata sighed and straightened up, letting her daughter scamper off to her room. The girl was only seven, but she was already able to tell the difference between shadow clones and the real thing. The only problem was getting her to go along with playing with them.

Himawari hummed to herself and closed the door behind her, skipping around her bedroom and picking up various toys and putting them into the colored bin, just as her Mama taught her. She didn't have a lot of toys. Naruto and Hinata had given up trying to get her new things, as Himawari only wanted to play with the teddies she'd sewn with Hinata's help and her tea set given to her by Kurenai. The other toys were hand-me-downs from her brother that she pulled out every once in a while, who were all named during the period of Bolt's experimentation with insults.

The girl stopped in her tracks and stared at Bolt's old ninja doll in her hands. "I didn't play with Butthead today," she said. "Why are you out of your house?"

"I'm sorry! Your dollies are so cute! I couldn't help myself!"

Himawari jumped at the voice and whirled to get a look at the source. In the corner by her bed stood a pale girl no older than Bolt's age, with chocolate brown hair and soft blue eyes. They stared at each other for a moment, before Himawari opened her mouth and started screaming bloody murder.

"STRANGER DANGER! STRANGER DANGER! HELP!"

As she shrieked, the girl gasped and rushed to her side, and made every attempt to calm her down. "Shhh! I'm sorry! I didn't think you could hear me!"

Himawari shoved her away. "KIDNAPPER! KIDNAPPER!"

Hinata burst into the room, her byakugan activated as she scooped the girl into her arms. "Who goes there?" she barked, her motherly instincts overshadowing her usual timidity and giving her a scarier aura. She scanned the room quickly, preparing to have Himawari run before fighting off the intruder, but she saw nothing. Which was strange, because she had arrived so fast, no one would have had the time to escape.

Yet Himawari insisted the person was there. "She's right there, Mama! Beat her up! She was gonna hurt me!"

Hinata looked in the direction of the girl's outstretched finger, but no one was there. "I don't see anything, sweetie." But she was still wary. And deciding to not take the chance that the intruder was somehow able to disguise themselves so that only Himawari could see them, she left the house and took her daughter shopping for the day until Naruto got off work.

Later that night, Hinata checked the perimeter of the house and yard with her activated eyes, and Naruto searched every corner of Himawari's room for any lingering presence of a person in his toad sage form.

In the living room, Bolt hugged his sister close, darting his eyes fiercely around for any sign of a ninja who wanted to hurt her. He held a kunai in front of them at the ready.

Naruto emerged from the bedroom, grumbling about the audacity anyone would have to break into the Hokage's home. Hinata came through the backdoor in the kitchen and met up with him in the living room. "Anything?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Nothing. No sign of anyone breaking and entering. I hate to accuse our little girl of lying, but what if it was for attention?"

A disheartened expression flashed across the woman's face as she glanced at their children seated on the couch. "It could be," she whispered, "I mean, Bolt is constantly painting all over the stone faces after school. Himawari is very smart for her age. She very well could have-" Her voice broke, prompting Naruto to pull her into a warm embrace.

"I am trying so hard," he said into her ear. "But the work keeps piling up. It's my fault. Don't bring this on yourself, Hinata. She wants me to pay attention to her, and I can't do that enough."

From the sofa, Himawari was staring at her parents, wondering why they couldn't see the girl clutching onto Hinata's leg, tears streaming down her face.

And then it hit her. Despite her parents' visual prowess and Bolt's extensive training, Himawari was the only one able to see the girl.