A/N: Hello fellow readers! I'm super excited to share this Naruhina one-shot with you all! Just for context, this story takes place a couple years after the Boruto movie. Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, or favorited my recent stories—it really means a lot!Without further delay, I hope you enjoy it :)

Longing for Home

He had an earthy smell, like fresh pine needles or even freshly cut grass; definitely not like the soft detergent that disguised the rest of their clothes. Hinata, her nose still buried in her husband, Uzumaki Naruto's, now clean sweater had closed her violet eyes. It was odd to her that his clothes never smelt like the fresh soap after being washed. But she was glad.

She smiled; she liked his smell, it reminded her of their genin days when they were first exploring all of the wilderness outside of the village for the first time. Though it sounded silly, and made her feel a little bit embarrassed, his scent reminded her of home, where she truly belonged. With a growing blush, she sighed contentedly, folded the shirt and lightly placed it in the white basket beside her, her delicate hand reaching up to unclip the next piece of clothing from the thin string above her.

Fold…

Put away…

Unclip…

Fold…

Put away…

Her nimble fingers worked quickly to put all of the clean laundry away neatly. She picked up one of her son's white shirts and gazed at it half-heartedly. He had just recently turned sixteen, and to her dismay, he was no longer her 'little boy' anymore. Slowly but surely, he was growing up and, though it seemed selfish, Hinata was saddened that one day soon he wouldn't be around anymore—that is, he'd have his own responsibilities and his own family to worry about.

She gazed up to his window at the top right corner of the house, shielding her eyes from the bright beating sun. She was beginning to feel slightly concerned; he had been sleeping since yesterday morning. After a moment of though, she brushed it off recalling the rigorous training he had endured with his mentor, Uchiha Sasuke, travelling outside of the village for the past couple of months.

She continued folding.

She and Sakura were both shocked that the male Uchiha would offer to do such a thing, take on her son as a full-time apprentice, but both of the women joked that he was only doing it in order to keep Boruto away from his precious daughter, who the Uzumaki boy seemed to have been getting a lot closer to—much to the Sasuke's utmost distaste.

She sighed a bittersweet sigh…and then, there was her own little girl, Himawari. She, like her older brother, had also started maturing at pace that seemed faster than lightning. Though she was only fourteen, she had recently become a chunin and she too started leaving the village on considerably high-level rank missions. And although her husband did everything he could to deter her from pursuing these higher level missions, a little bit of convincing and a couple 'puppy dog' looks later and the matter was settled.

He never could say no to his 'princess', the raven-haired woman mused.

She reached for the last piece of clothing, another one of Naruto's shirts, and when she unclipped it, something fell out of one of the two side pockets. Curious, she quickly folded and neatly set the shirt in the basket, before the object, currently on the ground, could blow away in the wind.

When her eyes met the deep red item laying in the soft green grass, her breath hitched and her eyes widened slightly, her chest swelling with pride and warmth.

He still kept that with him?

She picked up the familiar, still damp, holey piece of cloth and gazed at it; it was one of her many failed attempts to knit a red scarf for him. She was astonished, her heart began to soar; it had been seventeen years since then.

Oh that man—he was so goofy sometimes, Hinata giggled to herself happily as she returned the soft, red scrap to the pocket, knowing her husband would most definitely feel extremely embarrassed if he knew she had seen it.

She went inside of the house and set the full basket down by the stairs, as she heard the whistle of the kettle she had put on before going outside. She quickly rushed to the kitchen, so as not to wake her son upstairs, and poured the water into a simple brown mug, mixing in peppermint leaves for flavour.

She sat down at the kitchen table and slowly sipped the hot liquid, the refreshing mint soothing her throat. As she sat there, she couldn't help but feel a little lonely. She wished her husband didn't have to stay at work so long, but she knew better than anyone that his busy role was crucial to the success of the village, and that it was expected of him to sacrifice his personal life.

Nevertheless, she just couldn't fight the way she was feeling.

-Naruto-

Y'know, this job was not what he thought it would be, the blonde Hokage thought to himself, hastily jotting down the names of this year's genin graduates, all while assorting them into their three-man squads on his computer.

If he knew all those years ago that being Hokage would be a 'crappy desk job', he might not have pushed for it as much as he did, and stayed as a jonin—well, technically genin—he snorted in amusement as he continued typing, his eyes staying focused on the work splayed in front of him on the brightly lit screen.

Back when he was young, he simply wanted recognition as someone important to prove to all of those stupid adults that he was worth-while, that he belonged in this village just as much as anyone else. He had convinced himself that the only way to ever achieve that was to 'one-up' everyone. How, might you ask? By becoming Hokage, of course! Why did he have to be such a smart-ass? "Being the hero wasn't enough, eh?", he groaned inwardly as he slumped back in his chair and massaged the crown of his head.

Don't take this the wrong way, Naruto enjoyed his position as Hokage; the people did look up to him and he did feel important, but he never really thought about how much…work there was going to be. Book smarts weren't really his thing, ya know?

Incidentally, if that was the only thing that kind of bothered him about this job, he would've gotten used to it by now and stopped complaining years ago.

Now, the part that he absolutely couldn't stand about being Hokage…he let out a sigh of exasperation as the thought crossed his mind. Strangely, when he had originally dreamed of being the Hokage, he never imagined himself with a wife or children, being the leader was supposed to be his whole world. When he realized his love for Hinata, however, things seemed to shift and, suddenly, his family was more important to him than his 'dream'. It suddenly seemed as though being a husband, and eventually a father too, took precedent in his life and he loved it.

However, over the past several years of being the leader of Konoha, despite consistently managing to finish all of his work hours before he was supposed to leave, there was always something forcing him to stay in that boring, empty office instead of at home with his beloved wife and children; it seemed tedious, and it frustrated the blonde jinchuuriki beyond belief.

He felt as if he'd abandoned them, his family, as year after year passed and he was repeatedly presented with having to choose between them and his duties. Luckily, now that his two kids were both working ninjas, he had been seeing them on a more regular basis for mission debriefs. But his wife? Who knows how long it's been since they went out or even spent a day together at home?

He missed Hinata so much to the point where his stomach began to ache and create a sinking feeling within him while he was supposed to be working away at his desk. And while, yes, he saw her when he came home from work, it was usually so late into the night that she was probably either falling asleep or had already dozed off waiting for him.

Feeling antsy and wanting nothing more but to be with his beautiful wife right this moment, his fingers tapped rapidly on the glossy hard wood of his desk. He had to get out of here now. He closed his eyes, plotting. Maybe, he thought to himself, he could convince Shikamaru to let him leave early today the only problem was…how? Surely his cautious and high-strung advisor wouldn't just let him leave just because he wanted to.

He let out a soft humming sound as he continued to ponder and work out the logistics of his scheme. The male Uzumaki concluded that if that were ever going to happen, he'd have to at least finish today's work, he thought glancing over to the small shrinking pile of papers on his desk. With newfound motivation and vigour, he eagerly zipped through all of the piles neatly sorted on his desk. Luckily, most of it was just construction and alliance contracts that simply needed a quick signature. He snickered mischievously as his bandaged prosthetic arm reached for the final document of the, once monstrous, pile. As he scanned the final document on his desk, his eyes widened in perplexed disbelief.

"Again?!", he complained incredulously, feeling somewhat bewildered as he read through another one of Himawari's team requests to go on any available A-rank missions

She just got back! "This child will be the death of me", he groaned as he reached to rub his temples in frustration. He thought he was being extremely generous when he allowed her to go on several B-rank missions. He shook his head. In that instant, his mind was made up: there was no way he was going to let his teenage daughter, his Hima, go on such a high rank mission. This crossed the line, and as her father more than as the Hokage, he simply wouldn't allow it. Mercilessly, he was about to stamp the request as 'declined', that is, until something on the corner of the paper caught his eye.

He groaned, why did his daughter have to torture him like this? He gazed, his face looking as though he was experiencing visceral pain, at the colourful sticky note that had been smoothed to the bottom left corner of the paper. He read over the note from his daughter—which to him seemed like a personal attack on his resolve. His breath hitched, as he pictured the pouty lips and big sad eyes that he undoubtedly knew she would most definitely be using to persuade him if she herself were here right now asking him in person.

He tried his best to stay resilient, but she had used words like 'papa' and 'pretty please', as well as a few others that she knew would make him cave.

He thought of Himawari, then looked back at the adorable note again and, defeated, he gave a half-hearted sigh and approved the mission, allowing them to escort a noble from one village to the next. He was nervous because they would be passing by enemy territory but, choosing between searching after missing-nins and missions that involved travelling half-way across the country, he decided that it was the best choice for his little girl.

With her mischievously sneaky antics, which she probably inherited from himself, combined with her 'cutesy', 'good-girl' attitude, which reminded him of his wife so much, there was absolutely no way he could ever deny her. She was the only opponent who could ever make him forfeit before the real match started, besides his wife, of course.

As he placed the final document of the day into the sorting pile, he got up from his chair and stood looking out of the panoramic view of the village from his window. He continued his deliberating. He knew that just plainly asking Shikamaru to leave would cause his advisor to laugh in his face—he needed some way to really sell it to him that leaving the office was a priority…but how? He held his chin in deep thought as he contemplated his best approach.

Just then, a fateful gust of wind came in through the slightly cracked open window and hit him in such a way that he sneezed very loudly with such force that he was almost knocked back into his chair.

When he recovered however, instead of continuing with his uneventful scheming, his mischievous boyish smirk quirked up.

He had the perfect idea.

-

She began to make her way upstairs to clean up a little bit, but when she made it to her bedroom, she heard another loud knock on the front door. Much faster than she had climbed, she quickly went back downstairs and opened the door.

To her surprise, she was shocked to see that it was Shikamaru and Naruto, and her husband did not look well at all. His advisor supported him with one of his arms around his back to help him walk straight, his eyes were half-lidded as if he were going to pass out any moment, and he let out a cough or two every once in a while.

Naruto's dark-haired advisor explained to Hinata how her husband hadn't been feeling well earlier today. "Initially I was just going to brush it off as the common cold", Shikamaru strained as he helped Naruto up to where his wife was standing, supporting nearly all of the Hokage's weight before continuing, "but, when we were walking out of the Hokage's office to attend to some matters, he totally wiped out onto the floor and I thought it best to bring him home".

Politely, with a demeanor full of concern, the raven-haired woman thanked Shikamaru and replaced his arm with hers around her husband's back. She closed the door behind her with her foot, and slowly led Naruto to the living room where he could rest on the couch.

"Thanks…Hinata…" he said in a raspy voice as she wrapped him in a warm, white blanket that she had knit, on the sofa. She nodded and replied "Naruto-kun, just stay there, okay? Don't move, while I make you some tea." she waited for him to nod while she went to put the kettle back on. When she returned, his eyes were shut, and she crept over and sat on the floor beside him.

He was already looking better, she noted, as she studied his peaceful sleeping face. For the sixteen years that they've been married she had never seen him so vulnerable, like this. She sat up a bit and leaned over, cupping his cheek and gently caressing the whisker marks that were etched there with her thumb. She blushed; it didn't matter how long they'd been together, she would never be able to get over how handsome she thought her husband was.

She had missed him so much, especially this past week, she thought as she leaned in further and kissed his forehead. When she pulled away, a confused look began to form on her face.

He was…smiling?

"Good morning, Hinata-chan", he said in a regular voice, which caused Hinata to raise an eyebrow. "Naruto-kun, what's…going on?" she inquired, her mind still unable to piece together what was happening. He shrugged his shoulders with a cheeky grin on his whiskered face, "Well hime, it seems that your beauty has cured me of my illness" he replied dramatically causing the pearl-eyed woman to playfully smack his chest lightly. He chuckled softly.

She studied his face and, as her husband's cheeky grin widened almost as if he couldn't forbear it any longer, she immediately understood the situation.

"You faked being sick, didn't you?!" she gasped loudly, and the couple stared at each other silently for a few short moments before they both began to laugh.

When they finally calmed down a bit Hinata spoke, "But Naruto-kun, what about the the part about you fainting?" He took a dramatic breath and, his smile comical, replied: "Well, you see hime, along with being the strongest ninja in the village, your wonderful husband happens to be an amazing actor."

They both giggled again, Hinata imagining her silly husband purposely crashing down onto the floor in public with an audience of several of his co-workers, just to come home.

"Oh Naruto-kun…why did you go through all this trouble, just to leave work?", she asked

He sat up, leaned in and kissed his wife tenderly, ignoring the sound of the kettle screeching in the background.

"Because, I missed you, dattebayo."

Thank you for reading! Let me know what you thought :)

QueenofVitaminC