A/N: Yo! Rinne here! I know this is late, and you know what? I'm not even sorry it is late. You see what happened was I entered a new school, I was one of the first five boys to be allowed in in this former all girls school. You can imagine it right!? So through some dumb idea, I forget who brought it up, we decided to go peeping, we ended up being caught and we were thrown into a prison they had on campus for a month, due to an escape attempt it got extended another month, a lot of shit happened I'd rather not explain to preserve the honour of a fair maiden, but I got out and here I am!
But seriously though KiyoshixHana-san is love, KiyoshixHana-san is life.
Okay truthfully, here is a list of things I did whilst procrastinating to avoid writing this chapter:
Watch Prison School (see above for the general outline of the plot), seriously the show was incredibly funny, best thing I've ever seen.
Watched Monster Musume - that was... Wow...
Watched One Piece (and by watched, I mean WATCHED One Piece 1 to 700 and something something)
Played Dark Souls 2
The problem was, I knew what I wanted to do with this chapter, but the idea of actually writing it seemed so... tedious? Anyways, it's done now so you can all enjoy! (Hopefully)
"….Urgh…." A low, aggravated grumble resonated quietly through the master bedroom, muffled by the sandy blond hair the mouth was pressed against.
Again the phone vibrated on the bedside table, and a beady eye shot open slightly, darting to the right. His brow furrowed as he listened to the phone continued its annoying vibrating.
"Shikamaru, either turn your phone off or answer that already…" His new wife grumbled out quietly, awoken by the noise as well.
"I want it to stop… but I'm too comfortable to move… it's so troublesome…"
"Fine… I'll answer it…" She shuffled before rolling on top of him, reaching across to grab the phone. She quickly swiped the phone without looking and swallowed, getting the dry and raspy tone out of her voice. "Hello?"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Who is this?"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Okay… I'm going to hang up now creep."
"SHIKAMARU! NEED TO TALK TO SHIKAMARU-TTEBAYO!"
'ttebayo?' She thought momentarily, before she dropped the phone on the black haired man's face, before rolling across him again and curling herself up in the bedsheets. "It's Naruto."
He groaned loudly, before moving the phone to his ear. "Naruto? It's 2:30 in the morning, what the hell do you want?"
"H-HI-HIMA-HIMAWARI!"
"What about her?" He asked dryly, sitting up in his bed, looking across at the clock angrily again.
"She called…. She called me daddy!"
"Right…" Shikamaru responded slowly, judging by Naruto's deeply freaked out tone, it sounded like he hadn't taken being called dad particularly well. Still half asleep, Shikamaru smacked his lips together again, his eyes closing with drowsiness.
"Didn't you hear me, Shikamaru!? Hinata's daughter called me daddy!"
'Hinata…' His mind began clicking somewhat, memories of the woman and the brief conversation he had with her flashed through his mind. "Oh so I guess Hinata told you?"
"What?"
"What?"
"Hinata told me what, Shikamaru?"
"Troublesome…" He groaned quietly to himself, apparently, Hinata hadn't told Naruto of her paternal suspicions regarding him and her two children.
"Shikamaru?... You just went real quiet-ttebayo…."
"Listen, Naruto. Why have got so freaked out about Himawari calling you dad? I thought you were always looking forward to having kids?"
"Well I am… But, y'know… I thought… I thought that… I didn't expect these two to think of me as their dad… I thought I was just gonna be Naruto to them-ttebayo."
"Well that means you must be doing a good job with them. If that girl can call you dad, it must mean Himawari feels a bond with you, Naruto. Those two kids, they may have never really had a father figure in their lives before until you can along. Himawari must trust you a lot, enough to see you being able to fill that empty role in her life, and is that such a bad thing, Naruto?"
"Well… If you put it like that… I guess not…"
"See… Now stop overreacting and go to bed, Naruto." And with that, Shikamaru hung up. Taking no chances, this time he turned his phone off before dropping it onto his bedside table before curling back into the back of Temari again.
'Shikamaru was right… I was just overreacting… So what if Himawari sees me as a father figure… That's actually a pretty good thing…' Naruto thought to himself as he unpacked a grocery bag, during his very brief and completely controlled panic attack he had come to the conclusion that he really did not have anything nutritional in his cupboards… well for him, three ramen cups was very nutritional, however in Hinata's eyes, a mother's eyes, he guessed they probably weren't nutritional or healthy enough to give children for breakfast. And so he had dashed the small grocery store down the street, which luckily opened at six in the morning to pick up some different foods.
Cereal, check. It probably wasn't the most appealing to kids, it was just sticks of wheat, but it was high in fibre.
Toppings for said cereal, check. The blonde had never had so much fruit in his house, blueberries, apples, bananas, strawberries. He assumed they might not go for the fruit, especially Bolt, so he also picked up some chocolate spread and peanut butter, they could and the spread and microwave it and turn it into porridge right?
Milk, check. He had milk yes, but at least this milk was definitely in date and safe to give to kids. He did really tend to drink much milk at home and usually got it from work, so he was used to occasionally drinking expired milk, Bolt and Himawari weren't.
Juice, check. Orange juice, apple juice, basically whatever fruit juice the store had the highest quantity of stock of.
Naruto finished unpacking the rest of the bags, bread and butter, eggs. Before he rolled up his sleeves, put in one earphone and washed his hands, before preparing what was perhaps his most ever prepared breakfast ever.
Sunny side up eggs were cooking and toast was breading- I mean, bread was toasting, as he prepared the table, he washed all the plates and cutlery once more before laying them out on the table.
The toaster pinged and he collecting the nicely toasted bread and placed them on another plate, when the eggs were ready he did the same with them, leaving the spatula on the plate. The cooker was turned off and he moved to both of their rooms, telling each of them breakfast was ready.
He removed the earphone and moved back to the sink and was washing the frying pan when he heard the scuttling of two small feet enter the room.
"Whoa, I didn't think you had this in you geezer, I half expected some ready-made food. Like instant ramen cups or something." Bolt spoke nonchalantly, already diving to the table and loading a plate up with eggs and toast.
"I thought about it." Naruto laughed as he pulled the now soaked, but clean frying pan from the soapy water and placed it on the drying rack.
"Good morning, Tou-san."
He whipped around quickly, a panicked look on his face again as he stared down at the small Himawari, dressed still in her pink and yellow pyjamas. "Whatdidyousay?"
"I said good morning, Naruto-san." Himawari repeated with a happy smile, before taking her seat, instantly picking some of the cereal and chopped up fruit, before adding milk to the bowl.
The blond man sighed heavily, drying his hands with a towel before taking his own seat, taking some toast for himself. "So how is everything? I'll admit my cooking skills are a little rusty, and by rusty, I mean non-existent."
"It's very tasty, Naruto-san." Himawari smiled back as she continued eating her fruit filled cereal.
"Yeah, that's our dad!"
"WhatwasthatBolt?" Naruto's head whipped to the young blond boy. Who return the look with a puzzled one.
"I said, these eggs aren't half bad…" Bolt replied slowly, before looking at his younger twin sister. "Hey, Himawari, I think our old man is losing his hearing."
"WhatwasthatBolt!?"
"I said, I think the old man is losing his hearing." Bolt responded with a snarky tone. "Seriously, you should probably go see a doctor!"
Naruto breathed heavily again, rubbing his hand through his hair. 'Why do I keep mishearing things? Why do I keep panicking? Do I really think it's that bad that they might look at me as a father figure? Shikamaru said it's nothing to worry about, and he's right… but I can't help shake this feeling… that I might not be a good father figure to them… that I am gonna fail them…' He sighed again deeply, before shaking the train of thought away. "It's nice outside today, how about we go to the park and get some fresh air?"
"Yeah, sounds like fun!" Bolt grinned back in response, half a piece of toast hanging in his mouth.
"I've never been this far out the city before! Who knew this field was here!?" Bolt looked over the grassy hills with wonder.
"Yeah, over this hill is a play park, it's quite nice out here, away from the noise of the city." Naruto laughed as he watched Bolt charge up to the top of the green hill.
Bolt laughed loudly again, taking in the view all around him, grass in a fresh green colour as far as he could see. And at the bottom of the hill, as promised by Naruto was a large play park, with multiple slides and swings and other play apparatus. Instantly he sprinted down the hill towards the park.
"I think Mom would like it here…" Himawari looked around at the hill in as much wonder as Bolt.
"Well when you mom's back we will come back here, and we will bring a picnic and everything." Naruto beamed down to the blue haired girl. "Now Himawari, go play with your brother… Oh, and I'm putting you in charge, Himawari, make sure you and Bolt stay in my sight okay?"
The girl nodded excitedly before skipping down the hill towards the park to join her brother. Naruto calmly walked down the hill behind them. Laughing to himself as he watched them run around the park.
"Well if it isn't Naruto." He turned as he heard the familiar voice. He saw the raven haired man sat on a picnic blanket, with a basket next to him and a pinked haired woman's head resting on his shoulder.
"Sasuke? This is weird, this place is so bright and filled with colour, and well… you're not, to be honest I always thought you were a vampire or something-ttebayo, you never go outside during the day." Naruto looked puzzled as he stood away from the couple, opting not to fully approach them lest he interrupt them, although Sasuke did call him out.
"Hnn…" Sasuke grunted as nonchalantly as ever. "It doesn't matter if I'm a vampire or not, there's no denying that you're a loser." His black eyes pierced at Naruto, smirking victoriously as he saw Naruto's temper beginning to boil. "Naruto, this is Sakura. Sakura, Naruto." He quickly spoke to stop any comeback from Naruto.
The pink haired girl looked at him with vibrant green eyes. "So you're Naruto." She looked at him with a smile.
"Uhh… Do you know me or something?" He asked curiously, the smile she gave him indicated that she already knew some things about him. 'Pleasedon'tbeafriendofShion'sPleasedon'tbeafriendofShion'sPleasedon'tbeafriendofShion'sPleasedon'tbeafriendofShion's'
"Of course, the way Sasuke goes on about you, a part of me wonders if it should be you with your head resting on Sasuke's shoulder!" She laughed to herself, missing the looks of horror between the two men. She continued laughing as she looked at him once more. "I'm kidding! I'm a friend of Hinata's. She's… well she's said a lot about you."
"Really?" He blushed faintly. "I'm sorry it took so long to meet you. Hinata's never really introduced me to her friends, so I thought... you know, she was embarrassed about me or something."
"Oh no quite the contrary! It's actually kind of cute, I've never seen Hinata act like that before!" Sakura laughed quietly.
Naruto smiled back with a faint blush, so Hinata could well be as bad as he was, he remembered Shikamaru telling him to shut up about his new girlfriend many times.
"So Naruto, when were you gonna tell me?" Sasuke asked bluntly, almost as if to remind them he was there.
"Tell you what?" The blonde asked with a weird look.
"About the kids, you never told me you had kids?" Sasuke answered again.
"What? Oh no you got the wrong idea, Sasuke, those are Hinata's kids, the boy's Bolt & the girl is Himawari. Their pretty cute right?" Naruto laughed again, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
"I'm sure I told you about Hinata's children, Sasuke-kun?" The pink haired girl looked towards the black haired man with a confused expression.
"You did. I just didn't expect those kids with Naruto to be them. Plus, the boy looks just like you at that age Naruto… poor kid." Sasuke looked across to the playpark, with the two children in question playing happily on the swings.
"Really? You think so?" Naruto laughed nervously, turning around to face the play park as well, luckily he had turned, that way he did not see Sakura's eye twitch nervously. Of course she knew about Hinata's suspicions regarding the biological father of her children, and how her new boyfriend seemed to fit the bill for it.
"Yeah, the kid looks like you more than I look like Itachi." Sakura screamed internally at her boyfriend straight to the point words, she wanted to scream at him to shut up so he wouldn't say anything more. Based on Naruto's reaction, Hinata still hadn't addressed her suspicions with him.
Naruto looked across, directly at Bolt, seeing him grinning like a loon whilst he sat on the swings, trying to reach higher and higher. He saw the bright blue sheen in his eyes and toothy grin, how his thick blonde hair rode the wind. His face scrunched, and Naruto tilted his head to the side. "I guess… Now that I think about it, he does kinda look like me-ttebayo. I've never really thought about it befo-"
You never told me you had kids?
The boy looks just like you at that age Naruto.
Oh so I guess Hinata told you?
Goodnight, daddy.
Goodnight, daddy.
Goodnight, daddy.
Goodnight, daddy.
Goodnight, daddy.
Goodnight, daddy.
Goodnight, daddy.
Goodnight, daddy.
Goodnight, daddy.
"Hey, I don't think I've ever seen you around Konoha before!? Do you live here!?" Drunken, slurred words sprang back into his minds. Words spoke many years ago by himself, on his first ever night out for his birthday. And the person he said them to sprang into his mind, a person h had thought about a few times when he was together with Shion, but had not thought of once since meeting Hinata.
Her shy stare, laced slightly with giddiness most likely caused by the alcohol in her own hand. A faint blush across her face. Her long dark blue hair, like the night sky before the sun began to rise. Her eyes, pale and bright like the moon illuminating that same sky.
'Now that I think about it, Hinata looks a lot like that girl, but it couldn't be. Bolt and Himawari… they would have been born by then, right?' He pondered, trying to figure out the math in his head. 'They just turned seven in July, and my twenty-sixth birthday is coming up… Which means… when they were born I was still eighteen… Which means… they were born nine months… after… my…'
He looked across at the twins, and they happened to spot his stare, Himawari smiled and waved happily at him, Bolt grinned, offering him a thumbs up. His eyes widened with horror and shock. 'Eighteenth… birthday…'
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"Oh shit."