Chapter 6

"Kawaki, Himawari, dinner's ready so go wash your hands." Mrs. Uzumaki said.

Kawaki and Himawari both went to the bathroom and washed their hands. Kawaki was just drying his and Himawari was just rubbing soap all over her hands when someone came in the front door.

"I'm home!" Boruto yelled, opening the door and walking in. He'd returned just in time for dinner.

Mrs. Uzumaki went out to greet him. "Welcome home, Boruto! Dinner's on the table, so go wash your hands."

Himawari hurried to finish rinsing her hands before hopping off the stool.

"Are you done? I want say hi to big brother!" she exclaimed, reaching up at him for the hand towel.

"Yeah, here." He replied, handing it to her. "Why?"

"Why?" Himawari echoed, blinking in surprise. "Because he's my big brother and I love him!"

Boruto walked in and Himwari's face lit up.

"Welcome home, big brother!" she exclaimed, hugging him.

"Hi, Hima!" Boruto replied, hugging her back, his face lighting up with happiness at seeing his little sister. "Did you have a good day today?"

"Uh-huh! I got to play with Eho and Yuina today at school, it was lots of fun!" she answered, chattering away at Boruto while he washed his hands. "We played ninja today, and guess what? Eho's grandpa is teaching him hand signs already!"

Hand signs?

"Woah, really?" Boruto replied, rinsing the soap off and reaching for the towel. "So he's going to go to the Academy, then?"

"Uh-huh. Eho wants to be a ninja, but I'm not sure yet."

What do hand signs have to do with being a ninja?

Reluctantly, he followed the Uzumaki siblings into the kitchen and sat at the table. He would have preferred to go back to Naruto's office, but he didn't think it would be allowed. He was expected to eat, even if he didn't want to.

"Oden!" Boruto cheered when he sat down and saw what was in the pot on the table. "Thanks, mom!"

"Kawaki, everyone will be eating out of the same pot." Mrs. Uzumaki said as she filled her bowl. "It's okay."

"It's going to be alright, Kawaki. Eat as much as you like." Naruto added, looking at the boy with deep concern.

I guess compared to them its abnormal. Their kids have eaten at minimum five times not including snacks in the past two days. By comparison, my can of juice, bag of chips, and cup of ramen for the past entire two days is almost nothing.

He watched cautiously as the family fill their bowls with oden and their plates with onigiri. Hunger gnawed at his stomach just watching them all.

"Mom, can you pass the onigiri?"

"Delicious! Hinata, your oden is really good!"

"Well, if you came home to eat more often, you'd know that, huh dad?"

His many childhood memories of being denied dinner or having it taken away pushed at the back of his mind, reminding him that he needed to eat whenever he got the chance.

Maybe it really is safe? They're all eating from the same pot. Even the onigiri is probably safe, I didn't see any communication between them as to which ones to avoid.

"Mom worked hard on this, you know. Are you not gonna eat again?" Boruto asked over a bite of vegetables and fishcake. "Cause if not, I'm going to eat your portion."

He growled at the younger boy and grabbed his chopsticks, mind made up, and hurried to fill his bowl with a variety of everything in the pot. Fish cakes, fish balls, daikon radish, potatoes, and cabbage all got piled in his bowl until it couldn't hold anymore.

"Would you like some onigiri, Kawaki?" Mrs. Uzumaki asked, gesturing to the serving plate of onigiri.

"Uh, sure." He replied, and she picked the plate up so he could select one and put it on his plate.

She smiled warmly at him, and he scoffed and quickly looked away, turning his attention back to dinner.

Tentatively, he stuck a bite of the soup in his mouth and chewed it, contemplatively. "This is really good!" he exclaimed. He ate with fervor after that, trying to eat as much as he could stomach while he had safe food in front of him.

"So you're actually going to eat this time?" Boruto asked, watching as he piled food into his mouth then went back for more.

"You don't have to rush, Kawaki. There's plenty for everyone." Mrs. Uzumaki said, looking up at him from her own dinner.

"Yeah! Big brother won't actually eat everything." Himawari added. "We made extra so there's lots!"

"Ah." He grunted rather than reply to either one of them. Getting food in his stomach came first. It was just a very enjoyable bonus that it tasted this good. Everything he'd had so far since getting out of Kara's hands had been absolutely delicious.

He ate as much as he could but in the end he got full much quicker than he'd liked. He tried to keep eating, but he just couldn't take another bite so he had to stop eating. He downed the glass of water when he was done, knowing it wasn't poisoned because he'd watched Himawari fill everyone's glasses up and take them to the table without interruption.

"Did you get enough to eat, Kawaki?" Mrs. Uzumaki asked when he brought his dishes into the kitchen to be washed.

"Yeah." He replied. It still felt weird having someone else do things for him, like washing the dishes.

"What a relief." Naruto said, coming over with the pot of leftovers. "I was getting really worried about you not eating."

"Tch. You just don't want your bait to die." He replied, watching as Naruto put the remaining Oden into another container with a lid and then put that in the fridge. "Don't worry, it takes a lot more than starvation to kill me."

"That's not true, I really do care about you." Naruto replied, "There's just enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow, too, okay?"

"Ah." He replied, noncommittally, as he walked back over to the kotatsu to relax. Himawari was already there. To his relief, it looked like she had just finished up her vocabulary homework and was moving on to the other one she'd started before dinner.

What did she say this was? Math, that's right.

Boruto had left the room after eating and, given the sound of running water through pipes in the wall, he had hopped in the bath. For the most part, everyone sat at the kotatsu and talked after dinner. He stayed silent, watching the unfamiliar exchange as parents and child talked and laughed and enjoyed each other's company. It was a completely unfamiliar feeling, what Himawari seemed to have with her parents. Eventually Boruto came down to join them and sat down with a video game at the kotatsu, insisting that his room was too cold and that's the only reason he was downstairs.

A long while passed, and eventually it was time for something else equally unfamiliar: a normal family night time routine. Boruto did what he wanted for the most part he just had to be in his room and quiet by the time Himawari went to bed so she could sleep. Himawari, however, had a strict nighttime routine.

"Himawari, bath time!" Mrs. Uzumaki said, walking back into the room.

"Okay!" Himawari replied, following her mother off to the bathroom.

He just watched them go, confused, but not wanting to ask either. He remembered this all from last night. Himawari had to take a bath and put pajamas on and brush her teeth every night.

Why does any of this matter so much?

Naruto saw his expression. "Weird, huh? I never understood it as a kid either cause I never had anyone that cared to teach me things like that. Iruka-sensei at the Academy took me under his wing when I got moved into his class."

He watched Naruto, considering.

I never knew he had a background like that. Wonder why Iruka did that, though?

"I'm just fine as I am." He retorted.

"Yeah, but you could do better. I want you to brush your teeth and take shower when Himawari is done, okay?" Naruto replied. "I can show you how to brush your teeth if you need me to, there's no shame in it. Iruka-sensei taught me how."

"Fine." He replied.

I still don't see the point.

Kawaki went to bed feeling refreshed and rejuvenated that night. He got to eat dinner and he was clean and he couldn't remember the last time that happened all in one night. He still had a hard time falling asleep.

Someone could be watching the window just waiting for me to fall asleep. They'd get to me before the Hokage could get in here.

In the end, the combination of stress, exhaustion and the warm comfort of the bed finally dragged him down to sleep hours later in the dead of the night.

While Kawaki was struggling to fall asleep, Naruto and Hinata were up watching tv and talking.

"I'm so relieved he finally ate today!" Hinata said.

"Me, too! I was getting really worried about him." Naruto replied. "Maybe you can grab some ramen for him tomorrow? He seemed to really like it."

"Yes, I will. He still doesn't trust us enough to eat my cooking. Which is fine, of course, I just don't want him to go hungry." Hinata replied.

"Yeah, me neither. He needs to keep his strength up, and not just for his own health." Naruto replied. "Kara could show up and come after him anytime and he won't be in any shape to fight if he's been avoiding meals."

Author's Note:

This chapter just didn't want to write itself, so sorry if its not quite up to par. I apologize for the slow pace, but tbh I'm stalling so the anime can catch up to the manga a bit. I don't want to spoil anyone. Where the anime's at now, there just isn't much room to work with. Fair warning though, I'm only following the manga up to a certain point then it'll be AU cause I just don't want to turn Kawaki bad or whatever happens. I'm only on volume 10. I'm open to suggestions and ideas, of course!