Well, after the darkness that was my last prompt I figured I would try something shorter, lighter and fluffier. I hope you will still enjoy it.


"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

'Kurama'


4-year-old Boruto was staring at the little baby that was currently sleeping in his crib…

She had taken over the attention of his parents, the attention of their friends, she had taken (some of) his old toys, and now she was sleeping soundly in the place where he used to sleep right next to them.

Meanwhile, he had to sleep someplace strange that his parents named "your room" which was filled with his stuff and lie in a bed that was currently too big for him to feel comfortable in. There were times when he would wake up and nobody would be there to comfort him…

...and it was all her fault!

"I know what your game is…" he told the little creature.

It all clicked the other day when his father was playing with her.

"Oh! Your father is hurt, Himawari!" he said with a smile. "You better heal him!"

The little baby just munched on his shirt and rubbed her face on it.

"Yes! I can feel my strength returning! You truly are Konoha's strongest Kunoichi!"

Little Boruto was feeling a bit left out and he couldn't help but notice the word that his father had just said.

"Daddy, what is a 'kunoichi'?"

"A kunoichi is a shinobi, like pappa, except she is a woman."

"What's a 'woman'?"

Naruto was stumped. How would be go about explaining this sort of thing to a four-year old?

"Err… you know… like your mother… and aunt Kurenai…"

"Like aunt Kurenai?"

"Uh… yeah…"

Little Boruto's mind went back to the last time his parents left him with aunt Kurenai. Apparently, they had to go to a place called a "hoss-pee-tall" and they had to leave him there for a few hours.

Little Boruto loved going to aunt Kurenai.

He liked going to aunt Hanabi and going on walks with grandpa Hiashi, but aunt Kurenai and auntie Mirai were much more fun to be around. They always played some interesting stuff with him and last time aunt Kurenai showed him a very interesting genjutsu which involved a cat chasing a mouse around a house.

He always wondered how the mouse could hold the frying pan in its hand and hit the cat…

His auntie Kurenai had explained to him what a "genjutsu" was. It was her making him see something that wasn't real, and that originated from her imagination. Genjutsu were commonly used to captivate and confuse "enemies" (he didn't know what the word meant, he would have to ask pappa later), but they could be used for fun too.

When he saw little Himawari handle his father, putting her little arms around him and tickling him, he finally got it…

...little Himawari was casting a genjutsu on both his mama and his papa. She was winning them over and taking his parents love away from him…

He walked over to his father.

"Daddy… Do you love Himawari more than me now?"

Naruto looked at his four-year-old son curiously. He wondered what brought that on. Sure, he paid some extra attention to Himawari, she was less than a year old after all, but it's not like he neglected Boruto. He still took him out for walks, he still played ninja with him, he still read him bedtime stories.

"No! Of course not! Just because I am paying a little more attention to your little sister doesn't mean that I stopped loving you!"

"Really?"

Naruto gestured to his son to come closer.

"Boruto, do you see the fingers on my hand?"

"Yeah…"

"If I bite this finger it's going to hurt right?"

"Yeah…"

"And if I bite that finger it's still going to hurt, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Both fingers hurt the same, both fingers are a part of me. Himawari and you are both parts of me, you are both my children. How can I possibly love you more than your little sister?"

"I don't get it…"

The father sighed. He had read the finger parable in one of Sai's books about parenting. It was supposed to be one of the standard answers he was supposed to give when a child asks if you love their sibling more than them. The book hadn't explained anything more than that though.

"Look, I love you and your sister equally and nothing will change that, all right?"

"All right…" the little boy had said…

...but he knew the truth. His father was under a genjutsu casted by his little sister. He was currently under its influence and he wasn't making any sense because of it.

"Who's a cute little baby? You are a cute little baby! Yes, you! Goochi-goochie-goo!"

The little baby giggled making his father go into hysterics. She had complete and utter control over him. She played with him…

...the way he used to play with him…

Boruto didn't utter a word to anybody for about a week. Himawari had completely taken over his parent's lives with her crying and her giggling and her pooping. It was like he didn't exist at all for them. They played with him, they read him stories, but he didn't say a word back to them the entire time.

What was the point? They were completely under Himawari's control after all…

He kept looking at the sleeping baby.

"I know what your game is, and just so you know, I don't like you at all…"

Little Himawari opened up her eyes and looked at him. And then she started wailing.

"Hmph! Looks like you don't like me at all either. Good."

"Nonsense, Boruto! Himawari doesn't have a sense of 'like' and 'dislike' yet, it's just her feeding time."

He turned around to see his mother rush inside the room and pick up little Himawari. She lowered her blouse and started breastfeeding her. The baby calmed down almost immediately.

Boruto turned around to leave the room.

"No Boruto, stay. I want you to see something."

"What?"

"Look at your little sister."

Boruto looked at the little baby as she gorged herself on her mother's milk. She looked so peaceful, so calm, so content.

"Little Hima doesn't have a 'game' she's playing. She is just a little baby. She can't take care of herself and she needs us to take care of her. That's all there is to it."

"So, she is not a kunoichi?"

"No, she is too small to even walk, where did you get that idea?"

"Well, when dad plays with her, he calls her that."

"Dad is dad, I guess. It's his style of play, he likes to be silly and pretend."

The baby finished eating and Hinata wiped her breast and upped her blouse once more.

"Say, Boruto, would do something for me?"

"What, mom?"

"Hold little Hima for me."

"M-me? Hold her?"

Hinata placed the baby's head right next to Boruto's and held it against him.

"Put your right arm like this to hold her head steady and hold her body like this."

He felt something really weird when he held her. Something warm and fuzzy.

'Oh, no!' he thought 'I am falling under the genjutsu's influence too!'

Hinata tapped the baby on its back lightly until it burped. Little Hima then rubbed her little face against Boruto and started suckling on his neck, filling it with baby saliva.

"Ew! Gross!"

"Heheh! It seems like little Hima likes you a lot Boruto."

Boruto felt the warm, fuzzy feeling get stronger. This wasn't a genjutsu, this was something else. Something completely different. It felt soft and it felt nice.

"You haven't had a chance to hold your sister until now, have you Boruto?"

He decided to give up. To give in to that warm, fuzzy feeling that was overtaking him. He held little Himawari's head carefully and looked at her smiling face.

He couldn't resist the urge to give her a little kiss on the cheeks.

His mother was wrong. His sister was indeed the strongest Kunoichi in all of Konoha. She managed to win him over without even saying a word to him, just by being herself. And he would gladly go to the ends of the earth just to keep her smiling.


One year later

Naruto smiled as he saw Boruto and Himawari happily playing with each other. Little Boruto was holding little Hima's hand and guiding her through her first steps. She placed her on top of his special toy bike, the bike that his parent's had originally brought for him and pushed her forward.

Little Hima was too small for her feet to reach the petals but she could steer quite nicely…

...better than Boruto at that age at least.

The father allowed himself a moment to relax and enjoy the spectacle in front of kids were incredibly cute and he enjoyed spending time with them.

Him… with kids… who would have ever thought?

The stress of the past week started catching up on him and he started feeling sleepy…

'Kurama? Could you do me a favor?'

'Tell me the favor first.'

'I need to rest a bit, could you look after the kids for me for an hour or so?'

'With pleasure.'

Naruto nodded off and started sleeping.

He was woken up by a sharp pain on his hand.

"OUCH! WHAT THE HECK?!"

He noticed that two of his fingers were bitten. He looked downwards to see Boruto and Himawari smiling at him.

"What's the big idea here? Why did you bite me?"

"We just wanted to see who you love the best, so we bit your fingers at the same time to see whose bite hurts the most."

"Whose bite hurts the most?"

"Yeah, the one whose bite hurts the most is the one you love the best. So, which bite hurts more?"

Naruto took a look at his fingers. They were both beginning to swell.

"They both hurt pretty badly, geez!"

He made a dash towards the kitchen and started looking for the first aid kit.

"Looks like pappa really loves us equally, Hima!"

The little baby girl nodded and gave her brother a tiny thumbs up.

Meanwhile Naruto had found the first aid kit and started applying some antiseptic on his fingers. It stung!

He turned his attention to Kurama who was currently laughing in the mindscape.

'You actually let them do this to me? You were supposed to look after them!'

'They weren't endangering their lives and I thought that it was cute."

'You thought that it was cute?'

'Hey, I may be a chakra entity that has fought and killed countless of shinobi, but even I can't resist a cute baby's smile.'

The father started applying some bandages.

'Aren't you supposed to heal me?'

'Nah, I think I am going to let you carry your children's "love" a little bit more.'

'You are going to pay for this! I don't know how but you will!'

The fox bijuu snickered and disappeared in the mindscape while Naruto stared blankly at his bandaged fingers…

...One of these days he was going to have a word with Sai about those books he had given him.