Chapter 2: Homesick

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry-bane!" Kushina squeaked as my wails filled up the apartment. "I'm sorry!"

Kakashi had backed away rather quickly at my tears, wincing at the loud noise. His ears were probably rather sensitive to begin with- living with Kushina hadn't dull that sense in the slightest. I heard clanging from the kitchen before I saw the telltale yellow blur of Minato hand something off to Kushina.

There was a bottle in my mouth.

Admittedly, it felt comfortable to my soft gummy mouth- which also felt weird without teeth. My instincts had the suckling reflex.

But I didn't want to be comforted. It took major willpower, but I turned my face, successfully dislodging the bottle.

I let my displeasure known.

The clear image of Kakashi face, had brought reality down on me, crashing down like the shattered pieces of a mirror, pieces of my fate scattered through my mind.

Kakashi Hatake- silver hair, green vests, and all- was the prime example of the horrors of this world. He was the epitome of a survivor, the opposite of me who just gave up. He was the wakeup call that I needed that reminded me the truth of this generation, this place where I was reincarnated in. Everything here goes wrong and nothing goes well. This generation would face not one, not two, but three Great Shinobi Wars. This generation would deal with the aftermath of the Kyuubi. This generation was one of the worst possible ones to be born in.

Even waking up from a suicide attempt and facing everyone would be preferable to being here.

Perhaps, a small part of me hoped, I'm in a coma right now and everything here was just a vivid dream.

But I knew that the chance of that was rather slim. I had felt pain and everything here was just so tangible. This was my world, until I died or woke up from this insane coma.

I'm not safe.

This realization only made me wail louder and harder. Kushina handed me off to Minato, who quickly bounced up and down while patting my back. They both looked loss and confused. I knew that Uzumakis were loud but wow, did I have a set of lungs on me!

I was going to grow up in a generation in which everyone would die, my adoptive parents, my family. In a world harsher than my last, being forced to struggle for survival as everyone falls around me. Kakashi was one of the few unfortunate to survive, dealing with the burden of killing Rin and holding the blame to Obito's death. I would fall in love with the people around me, only to lose them all over again.

That night, I was the epitome of a fussy infant. Depression clutched me like the claws of an eagle. I was swaddled and held in the arms of Minato all night, the poor ninja unable to gain a wink of sleep.

And the next few days followed similarly.

My poor sleep-deprived guardians suffered, although this situation wasn't really their fault. I think a part of me hoped that they would grow frustrated and return me to an orphanage, not giving me the chance to fall for them. I'm definitely sure my shrieks of anger had kept the entire apartment complex up, not like any neighbors would complain. Most would have pity on the fate of their beloved Yellow Flash. Only when the exhaustion of crying and wailing for hours straight did I stop my wails, settling for whines and a generally cranky temperament.

But Red and Yellow took it in a stride. At worst, they were worried that something was wrong. Tsunade came by more than once, unable to find anything wrong besides a slight tendency to chakra sensitivity. But my chakra coils weren't irritated so it didn't seem to be that. Red and Yellow seemed angry at themselves, desperate to find what was wrong with me. But how would they know that their just born infant would be traumatized and depressed by her reincarnation?

I was homesick too. This place was just so foreign. My body felt so tiny compared to my mind. I missed my previous life, my previous world, my previous parents. And the only thing I could do was blame myself for my decision to end it all. It was only suiting that my punishment would be able to suffer the same way I had made the people in my past life suffer by killing myself. Just as they had grown close and suffered from my death, my fate here would be to fall for the people around me and watch them die.

I was afraid.

There's no point.

I just want to go home...

A whimper cut the silence of the room.

It was night, the chirping of the crickets outside and the darkness of the room proved that. Red and Yellow were in the next room, both sleeping I concluded from the way their chakra felt dampened and heavy. Kakashi was in his room, but it seemed that he was awake, probably working on a mission report. He probably heard my whimpers, but didn't know I was awake because of my teeny tiny chakra.

I'm surrounded by people, yet I feel lonely.

I turned on my mattress until I was lying on my stomach rather than my side. My crib seemed so big in my perspective, the bars on the side feeling claustrophobic. Everything here was a mix of black and greys, the darkness making everything seem even more fuzzier to my blurry infant eyes. Although the blanket on me was warm, I felt cold...

I don't want to be alone.

I smushed my cheek against the mattress. Another whimper escaped and I felt Yellow stir and make its- no his way here. I frowned when I realized that I wanted him to hold me.

It's not me. It's the body. I want to be alone. I weakly defended against an imaginary person in my head.

But Minato was so warm when he picked me up...

The door creaked open, breaking the silence of the room. With great effort, I turned back to my side to face him.

"Nari~" He hummed, peering at me over the walls of my crib. "You're awake?"

Of course I am, I frowned. Then whined again for him to pick me up. He obliged, cradling me in his arms and rocked back and forth, quieting my whines as I was content with the movement.

He was warm.

Whatever. I was too tired to cry anyways.

Papa drifted out of the room, his barefoot feet didn't make a single sound. With the way we glided along the floors and the absolute silence, I felt like a ghost. Yet, it wasn't that eerie. He was so big compared to me and being surrounded by the warmth of his arms, it was comforting. It did help that his chakra was warm and bright, like a sun. Even now, with the fuzziness of sleepiness clinging to his chakra, he lit up like the sun, so much brighter and easier to pick out.

He knocked on a door and opened it. I looked blearily at the dim light escaping the room. Kakashi was using a candle to do whatever he was doing. Papa peeked his head in, one arm wrapped around me and the other to support my still rather squishy head.

"How's it going there?" The mentor said conversationally. The thumb holding my head was stroking my fuzzy hair. I closed my eyes, taking in the feeling. I heard a mumbled response from Kakashi and the telltale sound of him dropping his head on the table in frustration.

I think it says a lot about my previous life as a student that I can still recognize that sound.

Papa drifted inside shifting my position so my face was peeking over his shoulder. The shadows made the room seem weird, the contrast between dark and bright easier to process on my eyes.

"You know," Minato's chest gently rumbled from the vibration of his voice. But naturally, because I was super-duper squishy, I jiggled along. "rest is equally as important to a ninja as training."

I felt the crackling chakra of Kakashi stutter and I could tell he was sending Yellow an unimpressed look.

"It's not training," Kakashi's voice sounded weary; he must be tired. "I need to figure the fees left by..."

His voice trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. Maybe he didn't want to say his name, maybe he wasn't sure whether to address him as Sakumo or his father.

After all, his father was selfish enough to kill himself. Perhaps Sakumo didn't love him enough to stay. Or maybe, that's why he left- he loved Kakashi too much.

I blinked, thinking about my own situation. Why did I leave?

I felt Minato's hand leave my head and heard the sound of Yellow mussing up Kakashi's hair.

"You should've told me and Kushina." Yellow scolded lightly. "We could've figure it out easily."

Kakashi didn't respond, but his chakra moved in a funny way.

"Kakashi, whether you like it or not, Kushina, You, Nari, and I- we're all family. And it's okay to ask for help from family. Because that's why we're here."

Something inside me lurched at that statement, mirroring Kakashi's chakra. I felt Yellow's hold on me tighten.

"I know we can't bring him back..." And there was a mournful note in that statement. "It's too late for that. But now, all we can keep living for him."

"Sakumo would want you to be happy."

But Kakashi doesn't want to be happy.

I blinked, wondering how I knew that.

Yellow let Kakashi dwell on his words, his lulling footsteps carrying me over to the door. I waved my fist at him, dislodging the blanket that lightly covered me. Minato sighed and wrapped the blanket around me once again, giving me a look of exasperated fondness.

His eyes were so blue.

It was like the sky in the middle of April, not the pale blue of winter sky. Or maybe the blue of a pool, with sunlight glittering off the artificial miniature waves. His eyes had glints like that, even in the darkness surrounding us. It was so blue that even my blurry eyes picked up on it, because blue.

If Naruto's obsession of orange came from his parent's hair, my obsession with blue is going to come from our parent's eyes.

I winced at that thought. Minato wasn't my parent. Minato paused at my sudden twitch, before leaning me against his shoulder and walking again. I closed my eyes, slowly being lulled by the movement.

The sudden feeling of wind against my face made me open my eyes. My moments outside were rare, now that Minato had fixed up the Hiraishin so that it wasn't so motion-sickness heavy and the whiplash was negligible even to a squishy baby like me. It was easy to teleport me to my checkups and other than that, it wasn't reasonable for Red to take an infant out before my immune toughened up.

We were out on the stairs leading to our apartment- Minato was cradling me again. The smell of trees surrounded us and the crickets chirping sounded just like they did back home. The breeze was light, not cold. It felt like the end of summer...

"You probably can't see them yet," Yellow's smile was right in my face, so I couldn't miss it. "But sometimes, when I feel lonely, I come out here to watch the stars."

I hadn't expected that, but Minato seemed like the type to stargaze. Personally, stargazing had been my hobby in my past life.

I wonder if they look the same as before.

"Maybe we could make this our thing. Daughter-father bonding."

Minato missed it, but for a split second there, I smiled.

I yawned, the crust in my eyes cracking. My days have become a blur of sleep, eating, and of course, crying. There wasn't much else to do.

"Nari~"

The voice was deceptively cheery as Kushina picked me up from the crib. She must have felt my chakra stirring. I fussed, sleepy but acknowledging the hunger I felt. It was time for my bottle and I knew that crying would tire me out too much to finish the bottle.

I greedily sucked on the milk, basking in the temporary satisfaction the warm substance brought to me. It made my eyelids a bit heavy but I resisted the feeling. I hated the constant limitations of this body, the feeling of being trapped in the skin of an infant. I sucked harder on the bottle, only to realize that I had finished my meal..

Kushina burped me, her slaps were a little firmer than needed but it was okay. They didn't hurt or anything and while I was rather frail, my body absorbed the impact easily. She bathed me, the water warm and comforting, reminding me a little about the time I spent in the cushiony walls. If I closed my eyes, I could almost feel it again. After drying me off and applying baby lotion, I found myself swaddled up in my pajamas and in Kushina's arms. She had already started singing her usual lullaby.

""Nennen korori yo. Okorori yo..."

I blinked, registering Kushina's favorite lullaby for me.

It was time for sleep again.

I don't want to sleep.

Last time, it was the opposite. I didn't want to wake up, I just wanted to sleep. But this time, I knew the truth. Waking up was inevitable and would signal the passing of another day. Another step closer towards the day when they would leave me. And while I was selfish enough to leave, I didn't want to be the one abandoned. And by the time I would be old enough, capable enough to leave...

Kushina and Minato would probably already be dead.

"Denden taiko ni, Shō no fue."

For a split second, I heard it in another voice, a softer, smoother voice with a darker tone...

My old mom's voice.

I shook my head, struggling against the bindings of my swaddle. Kushina walked around the house, lights dimmed, and tried to soothe me to sleep. She held me close and bounced me up and down just as she always had, while quietly singing the song in my ear. Her voice was soft, and admittingly soothing.

Who did I leave behind?

Are they okay?

Did they even care?

The funny thing about sadness is how empty it feels. Sadness is the dull ache within the pits of my stomach, almost like the sharp hunger pangs of starvation.

It drowns you.

"Sato no miyage ni..."

Suddenly, the ripples of my sadness welled up into a wave of anger.

How dare she, my thoughts vindictive. She's not my mother!

"Nani mo-"

Kushina nearly dropped me when my whines suddenly escalated into a ear-splitting wail. She looked frazzled, unsure of what to do- just as she had done for the last few weeks at my random crying fits. Anger was swelling up within me, welling into waves as my body immediately surged with my emotions.

She is not my mother.

And then Kushina burst into tears as well.

It startled me for a moment, making me pause to observe the precipitation falling down her face. Then I joined back in.

The two of us cried, her hold on me tightening as she shook with sobs. They reeked of exhaustion, of anger, of frustration. I cried for my home, my previous life, my mistakes. I matched her tear for tear. It didn't take long before the door opened; Yellow's footsteps would have been silent even without our sobs.

Minato looked at us. His wife's body, frail and exposed as she held me, the baby Kushina was intent on keeping. He didn't say a word as he gently pried me from Kushina's arms. I watched over his shoulders, my crying finally reduced to sniffles, as he gently guiding Kushina to the bed and wrapped her in a blanket. I thought that perhaps he would take me to my room and allow Kushina to calm down. To my surprise, he went to the other side of the bed, carefully getting into the bed, under the blankets.

Kushina had already cried herself out and leaned her head on Minato's shoulder. I sniffled, my eyelids growing heavy as Minato stroked my hair.

I blinked before forcing my eyes open. My vision, which had been consistently blurry cleared. And I stared at the couple in front of me. Kushina's eyes were swollen and puffy and the dark circles under Minato's eyes were prominent. They both stared at me, wary that I would burst into tears. I blinked slowly, feeling hesitant and awkward. And something else...

I felt guilty.

Kushina's hand gently brushed my red baby soft strands away from my face. Her hand was damp from wiping her tears. I flinched at the coldness before allowing her to continue stroking my hair. I watched her hand move as it stroked my head, the size of her hand was bigger than my face. Drowsiness crept up and covered me like a blanket; my eyes closed.

I dreamed.

The world was different. The sky was white and beneath my feet was a still body of water for as far as I could see. The water beneath me felt solid, but of a consistency of really hard jello. It was almost disconcerting to see so much water without waves.

"Nari?"

The voice sounded young and familiar. But I couldn't place a finger on it.

"Hello?" I called. There was no answer.

Hesitantly, I took a step forward towards where I heard the voice.

The clean flat surface beneath my feet was broken as the ripple of my single step radiated.

"I'm right here." The voice whispered into my ear.

I jerked around, trying to find the voice.

And found myself face to face with my reflection.

Her skin was tan with a yellow undertone. Her hair thick and straight and black. Her face was chubby and her eyes with huge dark brown.

She couldn't have been older than seven.

"Sori?" I whispered. I asked, reaching my hand out to touch her hair. My hand passed right through. "Are you me?"

She shook her head, a small smile on her face. "Look at your reflection."

I peered down at the water and greeted my reflectoon.

I was pale, so different from my Previous Life. I looked like my old age, maybe 16 or 17. My hair was a fiery red, like fire. I had curves, slightly more than I had in my previous life. My body was slim, but toned- rather than the soft skinny body I had in my old life.

"You know," Sori said casually. "They won't leave you if you don't let them."

"What?" I couldn't help the anger I felt, even though I was angry at myself.

"You always give up before things have even started," Sori's eyes flashed. "You always run away."

"I don-"

"Yes you do!" She snapped. "If you didn't, you wouldn't be here in the first place."

I quieted at that. The words hurt, but I guess that's expected from somebody who used to be me.

"You can change it." Sori gestured out on the water. "Like the ripples you made."

On the horizon, I can see the faintest trace of movement, a ripple. My eyes widened.

"Your existence is going to change this world."

The next day, I knew something had changed. The brightness of the room didn't seem as muggy and crisp fresh air flowing through the window tasted of the green leaves. I blinked, surprised that I could see clearly.

Right on cue, I felt Red walk closer.

"Feeling better?" She said softly as she approached me. I yawned again and she lifted me up in her arms, holding me close to her.

"You're so tiny," she muttered. "It's hard to believe that you won't stay this way forever."

I mewed in content as I stretched inside of my swaddling. Kushina smiled and lifted me up, patting my back gently. I gurgled, my eyes glancing around wide-eyed at my nursery, which was hastily made in the few weeks after I came home.

The crib I slept in was a dark oak, the mattress high up to make taking me out easy. The mattress, I guessed, would be lowered as I grew larger. There were marks etched into the wooden that oozed of energy throughout the entire bed, like a veil or a shield. Perhaps it was made from Hashirama wood.

I felt Kakashi's chakra grow closer towards us so I turned my head to watch him enter the room. He was wearing dog patterned pajama pants and a white tank top, his mask off and his hair more relaxed without the hitiate. He stared at me warily, as expecting the cries that kept him up last night. I turned my head away.

My blanket, a fluffy yellow baby blanket was messily strewn across the white mattress. There was a mobile hanging from the side, ready to be hung up, with clouds and stars and moons. The yellow was a soft yellow. The floor was covered with soft mats, similar to futons but in pastel colors and solid. There was a wooden bookshelf on the side, crammed with books, both new and weathered. There was a wooden crate filled with toys, fluffy ninja summons, rubber kunai, plastic chains...

I'm beginning to notice a pattern.

I wiggled loose of my bindings and reached out for the toys. Kushina turned around so she could look at what I was pointing at. A grin etched across her face.

Mama is pretty.

"You wanna play?" She cooed at me. I whined, desperate for a form of entertainment.

Kakashi watched with interest, his face set on indifference but his eyes analyzing my response. Kushina walked over and placed me on the mat in front of the toys. Kakashi quietly meandering behind us.

I set my eyes determined at the toy box, reaching out-

But it was too far. I frowned, wanting to reach out for a lump that vaguely represented a cloud. I turned my head towards Kushina, only for my muscles to give out and my face to plant on the ground.

"Mmmmphhhrmmm," I whined. Gimme it. Gimme it. Kushina giggled and lifted my head up again, my neck muscles tired.

"Tummy time..." She cooed. I frowned, my body here to heavy to reach the toy. Tears of frustration gathered in my eye and I scrunched up my eyes ready to begin my wails.

"Here," Kakashi said as he brought forth a toy. It was the cloud one, the innocent smile and the classic anime sparkly eyes on his face. The moisture stopped filling my eyes and I opened my mouth.

I giggled.

They both froze, unsure of this new sound. I gurgled happily, squeezing the soft fabric of the soft cloud with my fists. It was so soft.

The corner of Kakashi's mouth twitched before he swiftly left my room. Stoic bastard. Kushina grinned, turning the crate over until I was surrounded by toys.

Rubber weapons, fake ninja wire, ninja plushies...

I looked around me, bewildered. Kushina placed the rubber kunai in my other hand, making sure to my fingers were curled around the handle.

Uhhhh...

I directed the point towards my mouth and began gumming on it.

At this point, I'm not sure if I'm in a coma right now and everything is even real or everything is real and my prodigy brain seemed to have made up an entire possible timeline. But for now, I was content with trolling these possibly fiction, possibly real characters around me.

Kakashi's face couldn't be more disappointed in my choice of teethers.

"She's a lot more babbly now."

To the adults, my endearing baby babbles were a welcome replacement to the shrieking cries of the first weeks of my life. It's simple. Happy baby = happy parents. I'm pretty sure my neighbors were happier too.

"Yeah, that's practically all she does now." Minato called from his room. A grin broke out on my face.

My days were now filled with tummy time and tickle time and reading time. There was a lot of time, now that I wasn't spending every waking hour (which was probably 4 hours a day during my first few weeks) crying and eating. Add the fact that I didn't need as much sleep, I was now at that cute baby stage where they were awake and babbling.

Or talking in an arcane language which nobody understood.

I was a baby, I was allowed my own babbly language. Even if it might have actually been a language in the past.

They might have accurately translated a few of my made up language words to Japanese. But for me, it really was a language.

I think.

Shikaku Nara eyed me uneasily, as if expecting me to burst into tears. His hold on me felt tentative, as if he was prepared to thrust me back into Minato's arms as soon as the faintest trace of trouble appeared. To be fair, I had spent the last three months doing that whenever anyone was around.

I chewed earnestly on the blade of the rubber kunai, happily looking back at Shikaku.

Hehe.

I pulled the toy out of my mouth, letting it drop on the ground. Unfortunately the lazy Nara didn't pick it up for me.

"Your hair looks like a pineapple." I said in broken English. Either my mind had conjured up an unpronounceable language or I had forgotten how to pronounce it. Whatever, it's baby babble to them. "I like pineapple."

"Isn't she adorable? She almost sounds like she's saying something." Minato peeked over at me over Shikaku's arms.

If only they knew.

At the sight of my adoptive father, I squealed. I crinkled my eyes into a smile as I accidentally slobbered over myself. The shadow-user twitched as some spit got on him. Oops.

"Can you watch her for a couple of hours?" Papa scratched the back of his head. "Kushina wants to check out a new house."

"Are you sure?" Shikaku eyed me uneasily. I grinned.

"Yeah, she hasn't thrown a fit in a while. It's hard to even believe she used to cry before. She barely does now."

The last fit had been when Papa and Mama decided to dress me up in orange. No.

"Troublesome," which was most definitely a yes. "Where's her feeding schedule?"

Oh. That. Apparently parents here were anal about baby schedules. They were ninja, after all. Details mattered and you would never knew if somebody would need to watch your kids because you're called out to the warfront or you died or something like that.

Probably the detail things. Minato is in love with paperwork. I still don't understand how that's possible.

"It's on the fridge." Minato replied cheerily, mussing up my hair affectionately. "Next feeding is in 3 hours."

Then he twisted his chakra and was gone.

I gaped openmouthed at the lack of Papa. Even with how often he used his teleporting kunai thing, I could never get used to it on my chakra sense. Shikaku sighed before turning his attention back onto me.

"Troublesome," he studied me closely. Then he did something funny. He bowed. "Please take care of me."

I blinked and stared back. His eyes were brown, like a doe. Funny, being the Nara heir, that he would have deer eyes. I wonder what color my eyes are.

"You always say everything is troublesome." I gurgled.

"Minato was right, babbling is all you do now."

And just to prove him wrong, I fell asleep.

Okay, maybe I was just a teeny tiny bit tired.

"Come on Nari." Minato coaxed. "You can do it."

I looked up at him, my head on the squishy blanket. While I was laying on my back, Minato was laying down on his stomach in front of me- which was pretty cool. We were laying down together.

Not sure why but cool.

"You can do it!" He urged again. I turned my head to the side wondering what he was talking about. Do what?

"Minato... I don't think Nari is old enough to roll yet." Kushina called from my right side. Oh, that's what he was talking about. I frowned, unable to turn around to face her. That's annoying.

"You wanna bet?" Minato hedged. Mentally, I rolled my eyes. He's such a teenage boy.

"Sure," I heard Mama giggle and my eyes darted towards the right.

I wanna see Mama.

Papa noticed my eye movement and grinned. "If she gets it today, no ramen for a week."

I paused. The smell of ramen was almost a daily occurrence in the house. It was slightly aggravating considering the fact that I couldn't have any.

"Okay, then your punishment would be that you can't use Hiraishin within the village for a week."

Papa bit his bottom lip but still nodded.

I considered this. It really didn't have any impact on me because we rarely went out.

Looks like I'm rolling today.

"Nari," Papa staged whispered. "We have to team up and beat Mama. Okay? Can you do that for me."

I gazed at him seriously before nodding. Papa beamed, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like smart baby while he patted my head. I gurgled happily.

Then, he pulled himself to his knees and shifted to my right.

Where I couldn't see him.

My bottom lip wobbled. Why'd he just leave? It was silly but I couldn't help but feel the slightest bit betrayed.

"Awww Nari. Don't cry. Papa's right here."

I tried to lift my right shoulder up, which while strenuous, wasn't impossible. My muscles though, were really working for it. And gravity wasn't doing any favor. But I was successfully able to lay on my side.

"Come on Nari! Just like that! See!"

I could see Mama leaning on the doorway, a grin on her face. She scrunched her nose.

"She has to at least get on her stomach."

Okay then.

I pushed my head forward, flailing my feet out uselessly. They weren't coordinated enough to touch the floor at the moment. But my head seemed heavy enough to tilt me in the right direction...

I lifted my head up towards the end of the roll, a proud smile etching its way up.

I DI-

And my body rolled back onto my back..

My head is too heavy to lift midroll. Okay. Got that.

Kushina giggled at my disgruntled expression. Papa glared at her.

"She's gonna get it tonight. Trust me."

I tried again.

Swing my right arm to the side. Place face down onto the blanket. Flail feet.Squirm.

I landed up, my chest trapping my left arm. Minato's smile grew... Shit, my center of gravity is off. My left arm was in the fucking way.

I lifted my head and felt myself land on my side.

Minato's grin didn't drop though. If anything, he seemed more excited.

"See! She'll get it today!"

Mama's eyes twinkled. "We'll see."

Swing my right arm to the side. Place face down onto the blanket. Push feet onto the blanket- it's too slippery. Squirm. Squirm. Wiggle...

Almost there...

I flailed my feet again, surprising myself when I found purchase on the blanket.

No ramen...

I squealed in effort as I pushed myself right side up and quickly leaned on my right arm. Hesitantly, I lifted my head up.

I did it.

And Papa lifted me up into his arms.

"YEAHH!" Minato cheered, throwing me up in the air. I screeched happily. "YOU DID IT! NARI DID IT! NARI'S THE BEST!"

Mama laughed, a broad grin on her face. She didn't seem the slightest bit upset about losing the bet, but she did look awfully proud. "Nari rolled over! She rolled over-bane! She did it!"

"This calls for a celebration!" Minato grinned, clutching me close to him. It wouldn't do to have me throw up on him from motion sickness, after all.

"Oooo. Should we go out and buy her a new toy?" Kushina was basically bouncing.

"Lots of toys."

"And lots of clothes."

"And-"

"Tadaima." Kakashi's voice echoed through the hallway, followed by the shutting door. Kushina and Minato immediately left the room, a skip in both of their steps.

Kakashi was putting on his house slippers, carrying a brown paper bag.

"Okaeri!" They beamed. The silver haired boy looked bemused at their expressions.

"Guess what, Kakashi?" Minato sounded like he was the kid talking to the adult, which was funny because it should be the other way around.

"What?" He sounded suspicious, glancing from the too broad smiles on both of his guardian's faces to my own satisfied expression. One of his eyebrows rose.

"Nari rolled on her own!" Mama exclaimed loudly- what am I saying. She yelled.

"This calls for a celebration!" Papa bounced me up and down.

Kakashi blinked, then held out the brown paper bag.

"I brought home Ichiraku because I thought you'd want a break from cooking."

Papa and Mama exchanged a look.

"Punishment starts tomorrow." They decided unanimously.

I frowned.

Cheaters.

"Food" I whined in Korean. Food."

"No, Nari. Not bap Milk."

I whined more, internally grinning of Kakashi's exasperation. The table was set and Kushina had just gone to get my own meal. Kakashi had the foresight to bring 12 bowls for Kushina, 4 for Minato, and had bought one for himself.

I, unfortunately, had to watch them eat it. And now I was starving.

"Nari~ time for 'bap" Kushina dragged out the last word, bringing in my bottle and handing it to Kakashi. I squealed, happily, grabbing for the formula, which Kakashi wisely kept away from me.

I'm really glad that I was adopted. Breastfeeding would have been pretty awkward.

Kakashi had insisted that he would feed me while Kushina and Minato ate their food. Good big brother and all. I think he just didn't feel like taking off his mask for some reason. Papa and Mama's friends have been popping by often enough that Kakashi didn't walk around unmasked that often.

"So how was your day?" Minato asked. Mama was too busy inhaling her ramen to speak. After all, she wouldn't get to eat it for an entire week after today.

I gobbled my own meal greedily. Kakashi glanced at me before changing the angle of the bottle. It wouldn't do for me to drink so fast or I might spit up on him.

"It was okay... There was a D rank babysitting mission for one of the noble's son. He's around Nari's age so it was pretty easy. I also ran into that Uchiha kid from the ninjutsu contest last year."

"Which contest was that?" Kushina asked as she changed her finished bowl for a new one. I think that was number 6.

"The one where I used that Earth jutsu you taughted me."

The atmosphere was so warm. I was almost done with my bottle, my eyelids were getting a bit heavy...

"Ahh... How did you end up seeing him again?" Minato asked.

"Well..."