Hey! This is a new oneshot! It's based on the song Cinderella by Steven Curtis Chapman.
Haha, do you guys see a trend in my oneshots? I've been thinking about doing requests for anyone who wants a fic based on a song and/or a pairing. Yeah, so feel free to PM me if you have any suggestions.
Really have to thank Shiroi Hoshi for helping me with this one. Thanks so much for the help with the names and jap translations! What would I do without you -dramatic sigh!-
I don't own Naruto.
Enjoy. I would love it if some of you guys reviewed :)
"Tadaima."
He had just gotten back from a mission, an A-rank mission to be more specific. And to say that he was hurting all over with exhaustion would be an understatement. His limbs felt so heavy, it was as if bags of dried concrete were attached to them. It wouldn't even come as a surprise to him if they stopped functioning and dropped off his body. He couldn't even remember smelling as bad as he did. If he could, he would have gladly dropped everything and collapsed onto the living room floor into a deep slumber right there and then. Unfortunately, he knew somewhere in the back of his weary brain that Hinata would absolutely not allow it.
Besides, he still had yet to write and submit the mission report.
"Okaeri otousan," He heard his young daughter, Shizuka call out with a mouth full of toothpaste as she peeked out of her mother's room with a toothbrush in one hand.
He grinned back in response despite feeling so drained mentally and physically he could faint if he willed himself to. Grabbing a pen and a piece of paper along the way, Naruto dragged his feet to the small wooden table in the middle of the room.
"Shizuka-chan, you know what to do," Hinata chided her daughter as she was about to take her turn to use the shower. "Go get your father something cooling to drink!"
"Yes okaa-san," The young girl replied before scampering off into the kitchen. She filled a glass of cold water to the brim and a slam could be heard as she shut the fridge door. Shizuka made her way over to the table slowly, careful not to spill a single drop of water onto the pristine marble flooring. After placing the cup precisely in the middle of the table, Shizuka observed her father trying his best to concentrate on the task at hand, but failing miserably when he nodded off for the nth time.
Giggling to herself, she got up and started doing the complicated dance routine she had been perfecting ever since that morning. She did a series of swirls and twirls before prancing off to where her dad was once again snoozing softly and tugged at his arm. Naruto awoke with a jerk.
"Otousan, help me practice my dance!"
"But otousan still has stuff to do," Naruto mumbled drowsily, "maybe tomorrow okay, Shizu-chan?"
"Please!" His daughter pleaded dramatically, "I've been invited to a party at the castle tonight. I need to practice if not no prince will ever want to marry me!"
Amused at the extent of her imagination, he ruffled the dark blue hair she had inherited from her mother. Finally he got up from his seat and took both her chubby hands in his. The pair danced along to the Shizuka's tuneless humming. Upon hearing Shizuka's tinkling peals of laughter, Naruto immediately forgot about his throbbing head and aching bones. Chuckling along, he lifted her into his arms abruptly, emitting a screech from her as she trashed about in his secure embrace.
"This isn't part of my dance routine!" Shizuka-chan squealed with a little frustration.
"Aww Cinderella," Naruto sticked his tongue out at her and whined playfully. "Won't you give me a chance to do my routine too?"
"Fine," the little girl pouted. Soon her eyelids drooped and her lips formed an 'O' as she stretched her arms out above her head and yawned.
Planting a kiss on her forehead, Naruto continued to sway and spin and rock her to sleep when she placed her head on his shoulder and drifted off to dreamland.
"Welcome home, Naruto." The fruity scent of shower gel followed as Hinata whispered with a serene smile, her short hair tousled and damp from just being towel dried. She took Shizuka from his arms and put her to bed.
He stood on the spot and wondered for a while when he would ever get the chance to spend time with his daughter again. She was only five and she was already lacking the regularity of a father figure in her life so many of her peers in school received daily. It had been ages since he had last seen her because of the number of missions he had been assigned these past few weeks. Shaking himself out of the slight trance and sighing, he reluctantly picked his papers off from where they had fallen on the floor and continued writing.
The clock strikes midnight and once again we're back to reality.
"So," Naruto began casually one morning just as he was about to leave the house, "who are you going to prom with?"
"Just some friends," Shizuka stared down at her breakfast and muttered quickly, shovelling spoonful after spoonful of cereal into her mouth.
"Shizu-chan," Naruto made sure he had his daughter's attention before clearing his throat and awkwardly probing on. "Any specific male friend I should be aware of?"
His eyes narrowed the instant he caught sight of a rose tint colouring Shizuka's cheeks. He couldn't help being a little nervous whenever his daughter interacted with any male. She, like her mother, was too beautiful for her own good.
He knew the way he was reacting was exactly the way typical fathers in clichéd novels did. But she couldn't blame him for reacting this way; it was just his fatherly instincts acting up. At least he wasn't as bad as Lee. It was rumoured that he had a technique for making sure every poor boy that he knew was interested in his darling Hanako possessed the spirit of youth. And that was making sure they had the endurance for doing two thousand push ups and five hundred laps around the village. Considering that he knew Lee on a personal basis, that rumour was probably true.
Catching her father's eye, she knew there was no avoiding the question now. "Alright, I'm going with a male friend, Kouji-kun and a few other friends."
His frown only deepened, "you didn't tell me you had a boyfriend."
"That's cause he's NOT my boyfriend!" Her cheeks reddened even more in embarrassment, leave it to her father to jump to such stupid conclusions. Knowing her father was only being concerned, she tried to get a grip on her nerves and sound reassuring, "don't worry otousan, he's nice I promise. Even you'd be impressed."
"We'll see." Came his grim reply, and he strode out the front door.
"Why don't you show us your dress tonight; your father would love that." Hinata said encouragingly and smiled at her daughter. Shizuka could tell that her mother had zero intention of getting more information out of her about her male friend. It was at times like these Shizuka truly felt grateful that she Hinata was her mother.
The atmosphere was tense that evening as the family sat down to have dinner together. Hinata sat in between her husband and daughter, exasperated at how a simple conversation could still affect them eight hours later.
"Shizuka-chan, you haven't shown your father what you're wearing to prom yet," Hinata hinted just as the young lady was about to leave the table. She stared at Naruto meaningfully, but it took a while for him to notice.
"Yeah Shizu-chan, why haven't I seen it yet," Naruto said hurriedly but warmly, nevertheless with a dash of stiffness in his voice as he recalled the contents of what his daughter had told him.
Beaming at her father's mostly positive reaction, Shizuka practically skipped to her room. Hinata forced a sulking Naruto to clear the table and do the dishes, while she followed her daughter into her room to help her put on the gown. No one could tell from her calm and collected exterior, but Hinata was just as excited as her daughter about the prom if not even more.
"Ready otousan," Shizuka asked. Apprehension was only barely noticeable in the way her voice cracked slightly. What if her father didn't like the dress? What if he didn't approve of her wearing it?
Without waiting for any answer, Hinata pulled a stumbling Shizuka out into the living room. Shizuka kept her eyes on the ground as she twirled in circle slowly. Her gown was pale pink and sleeveless. It reached all the way down to her ankles and flared out just beneath her knees as she spun. Sequins on the hem of the dress caught and reflected light from the surroundings, giving her dress an elegant yet fairy-tale feel to it. And when she stopped spinning, one could clearly see that the dress flowed softly down her frame like a waterfall, complementing her slim silhouette. She had missed the mixture of surprise and pride that shone in her father's eyes.
"Do you even know how to dance yet?" Her father teased jokingly. Walking up to a relieved and slightly bemused daughter, he bowed and extended his hand to Shizuka, "may I have this dance, Shizu-chan?"
Hinata turned the radio on. She felt tears threaten to fall and giggles threaten to escape her as she watched them stumbling and struggling to place their footing. Her husband, who knew the least bit about anything related to dancing, was trying to give his daughter advice on a non-existing spinning technique.
The goofy personality both of them shared began to show when Naruto and Shizuka eventually gave up trying to dance properly and started inventing their own weird dance moves instead. They flailed their arms around wildly and lost all their inhibitions as the music switched to a faster tempo. Hinata was bursting in huge bouts of laughter so profusely by this time that it was no effort at all for Shizuka and Naruto to pull her along into the huge dancing mess.
"You have to learn to let go," Hinata said a few hours later when they were already in bed.
"It's hard; she's the only child we have and she's already sixteen." Naruto sighed softly. "How are you able to see her grow up and drift further away from us and not do anything about it?"
"Because I understand how she'd feel if we restrict her," Hinata spoke slowly, hoping her husband, no matter how dense he was, would understand the message she was trying convey to him without hurting his feelings. Smiling as a memory from the past crept up from the crevices of her mind, she mumbled one last thing before her lids slid shut.
"Remember how I felt when my entire clan didn't approve of us dating?"
He remembered the day his daughter first brought her boyfriend, Kouji home to meet her mother and him like it was yesterday. He also remembered the day his daughter's boyfriend asked both of them for permission to wed his one and only Shizu-chan. It wasn't one of the easiest decisions he made in his lifetime, but of course he agreed.
As much as he hated the feeling of putting his daughter's happiness and comfort in somebody else's hands, he had to admit that the way Kouji looked at her reminded him too much of how he felt about his wife. It was when he first saw Kouji gazing at his daughter with so much endearment and love that he became absolutely certain that their relationship was one that would surely be able to withstand even the toughest times that were to come in their married years.
"Otousan, okaasan, tadaima," Shizuka stepped into the house with a bounce in her step and a huge grin spreading across her features. It was already past dinner time and she had just come home from a dinner with Kouji and his parents, who were both in town for a few days. Unable to contain her excitement any longer, she plopped herself down on the couch beside her parents.
"Hello Shizuka-chan, did you have a good time?" Hinata looked up from a book she had been reading and asked wearily. Age had finally caught up with her these past few years and she often didn't feel as energetic as she used to. That however did not stop her from being the best mother and wife that her daughter and her husband could ever wish for.
"Yes okaa-san."
"I expect we're about to hear about some more wedding plans." Naruto looked up from the newspaper he was scrutinizing and added with a dramatic sigh. His is tone of voice was lined with a dash of exasperation.
Already used to the way in which her father showed his affection, Shizuka smiled and nodded enthusiastically. Taking it as an invitation to begin, she started telling her parents all they had planned so far. The wedding was to be held in their family's backyard. It was big enough to hold a dozen rows of chairs. And it was easier, more practical, and definitely cheaper than renting an expensive ballroom. They would invite a few friends and relatives, nothing too fancy. Just the way Shizuka, her mother, and her mother-in-law to-be liked. The young couple had also agreed to let a close friend of Naruto and Hinata, Ino Yamanaka and her team at the flower shop take charge of all the decorations that day.
"Otousan," Remembering one last thing, Shizuka turned to her father and said suddenly, "You know, there's going to be a father-daughter dance too."
"Really," Naruto was pleasantly surprised. He hadn't expected the young people of today to follow the old wedding customs of his generation.
"Of course, I have a dad don't I?" Shizuka stated the obvious. Nudging her father in his side gently, she asked, "Want to practice with me?"
"Oh Shizu-chan, you know I'm not as young as I used to be," the old man chuckled, appreciating that his daughter still thought of him while planning what was to be the best day of her life. "Besides its way past my bedtime and I'm tired."
"But otousan, the wedding's only six months away and we need the practice." Shizuka turned to her mother for support, "Okaa-san don't you agree?"
"Go on Naruto, dance with your daughter." Hinata shoved her stubborn husband off his seat gently, "Who knows, maybe the last time you get this chance will be on her wedding day."
With help from his daughter, Naruto got onto his aching feet and stepped into his Shizu-chan's warm embrace. He could feel the pressure of tears starting to build up at the corners of his eyes. But no he wouldn't cry, not in front of his daughter and certainly not six months before her wedding. Sure it was appropriate for fathers to tear a little at their daughter's weddings, but even at fifty-nine he still had his masculinity to protect. Sniffing a little, Naruto blinked his tears away.
Had twenty-three years really pass that fast? Or had he forgotten to stop what he was doing every now and then to appreciate what a wonderful family he had. If given the chance, he would gladly have gone back into the past and make up for the times he failed to be a good father.
Even though his daughter hadn't mentioned it yet, he knew she would soon move away after the wedding. Kouji was from the sand village and it was always the bride that would move to the groom's village and live there as his wife. Naruto and Hinata didn't know when they would see her again after the wedding and both of them dreaded the thought of a home without the bubbly presence of their daughter. The only sources of comfort he could find in this situation were that his daughter would be truly happy and that Gaara was still the Kazekage of the sand village. Naruto knew could trust Gaara and his siblings to keep an eye on Shizu-chan for him, no matter how busy they were.
Placing his chin on the top of Shizu-chan's head, he looked at Hinata and immediately knew that she was thinking the exact same thoughts as him. Their only daughter would be gone soon and they could only hope that she would write to them and visit them as much as she could. He would spend the next six months carefully, making certain that every moment with his daughter was a new memory to hold on to and treasure.
It was then that Naruto finally allowed a single tear to fall down his cheek.