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Pride and Joy

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"I don't sound like that!" Boruto squeals. He presses play again and blows a raspberry at that part of the video as Himawari laughs even harder. "Papa did something to the camera!"

"No way I didn't." Naruto puts away the digital camera (wouldn't want them staring at screens this much too soon) and rumples his son's sweaty hair under his kigurumi hood. "That's just how you roar, kid."

"But it's squeaky! I am not squeaky! I'm a big boy!"

By this time, Himawari is out of breath. She's between babyhood and toddlerhood, and in her best moods, the former is much more obvious. Naruto breathes deep to the rhythm of his hands rubbing her back, lowers her lion head hood, and presses her face to his chest to encourage her. A distant yet intimately close voice whines in his ear about how it's two in the goddamn morning, Naruto, and the point of getting up for a crying child in the night is to console them right back to sleep, not "cheering them up" by putting yourself and them in matching lion onesies and waking their even more rambunctious older brother to dress him up too, do face paint, and then have roaring lessons where, poor Hinata, your wife is going bonkers when she comes back, roaring lessons where you teach them to scream properly. Naruto, what are you doing. Put your children back to bed. We've been running on four hours of sleep as it is. Naruto. Naruto.

"I'd been practicing, Papa," Boruto promises with a pout. "I have. So I should sound BIG like you sounded BIG, right NOW."

"I know, buddy," Naruto says out loud while shushing the sleepy rumbling inside him no one else can hear. "I've been here all ten minutes since we started, and practicing takes a lot longer than that. I think you're a lot better than we started, though, so why don't we concentrate on focusing our energy for now?"

"Hima-chan should... but I'm not tired yet!"

"Saving up your strength before trying again is part of working hard." This boy is too much like him, so impatient. So Naruto places Himawari next to her brother on the rug, clears, and remembers to pull his own lion hood down over his eyes. Without using chakra, he roars from the pit of his stomach.

"See? I got could do that because I've been keeping quiet, guiding you softly all this time," he grins through his little girl's giggling applause and her brother's gaping awe. "Tell you what. Papa knows a special brew to soothe your throats. We'll rest up-"

"No, focus-!" Boruto yells. "Focus," he corrects himself with a whisper. "Not rest."

"-Focus saving energy, have a drink, and try again." And to make sure Himawari had recovered from her laughing fit, asks "Himawari, you wanna make ginger brew with me?" but she's already wrapped her arms around his neck before he finished.

Himawari sings baby-babble Disney into Papa's shoulder as he puts the kettle on and chops ginger. He feels a headache coming and takes ibuprofen. His wife is on a weekender with Kurenai-sensei (poor Kiba and Shino stuck at home to stop Mirai from blowing up the place—funnier now that she is eight and not younger...) which means Naruto will have his children all to himself for two blissful, exhausting days. He sees them every day at breakfast and asleep at night before he turns in himself. He misses them. Very soon, they cannot both fit on their father's lap at the same time anymore.

"Sweepy tea?" Himawari asks when he toys with the box of chamomile.

"Hmm. Papa's thinking about it."

Naruto flicks off the flame, puts a little bit of sugar to soothe the spicy ginger in their mugs. They'll have sore throats and aching bellies tomorrow if this goes on, but up until then, they'll be happy. Naruto should really put them to sleep. He really wants to spend all his waking moments with them. If they stay up now, he doesn't know if he could deal with their surefire bad moods tomorrow, but he would stay up all night if it meant being together with them now. Then again, he's crawled through hell to get these days off, and he should probably spend at least some of it asleep...

"Hima don't wanna sweep. Hima don't dweam of Papa that way."

"Papa!" Boruto whisper shouts by his hip, tugging on his onesie tail. Naruto's almost impressed; that was the longest his son's been able to hold a lotus position in absolute silence so far. "I just remembered. I'll be Simba when I grow up, but Himawawi can't be Nala because I can't marry her because Sarada and I promised!"

"Then Himawari can be just Hima, and Sarada-chan can be Nala. But we'll have to ask Sasuke-jisan's permission first. Won't you, baby? Will you give up being Nala and be Hima, the Great and Terrible, instead?"

"Not gweatentewbo. Hima's just Papa's wion."

He sets her on her highchair getting too small for her too fast, and Boruto crawls up into his lap as he settles down. Naruto blows on their spoonfuls of sugary ginger brew to feed them until it cools enough to drink.

"Hima is Papa's wion! Papa's! Niichan, listen!"

"Uh, baby, didn't we say-"

"Aaaaaaaaah!" Himawari shrieks.

"Raaaaaaaah!" Boruto echoes.

"AAAAAAAAA- heehee, Papa looks funny. Dyow eaws huwt, Papa?"

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

"Kiiids," Naruto snickers, cringes. "We were supposed to try again after finishing our drinks, yeah?"

But Boruto was up on the table already, beating his chest and middle, yelling hoarse, working his sister into an unprecedented competitive frenzy. Naruto almost laughs at how he needs another pill already. This is the life he's always wanted, he's never been happier, but there was only so much noise their large estate could contain, their poor neighbors, and no way to overpower his children by just talking. He thinks hard about the kindest thing to say (well, dang: he's turning into his wife, but that's probably for the best), clears his throat, and takes a deep breath.

And then something snaps—the old, familiar fever down his veins and a monster's rage deep in his belly, harsh on his breath never meant for the wrath of a beast, deafening against the two o' clock stillness.

There is silence before the children start to wail.

"KURAMA!" Naruto barks. "What the hell was that for?!"

The voice behind his eyes sniggers harder. Should've just went back to bed, Papa. If you're forcing me to stay up with you and your brats, I'm dragging you all down with me.

"Aww, screw your killjoy a... r... se." He watches his nearly-hysterical brood for a while and, sighing, cradles them both to his heart. He wants to cry tears of joy and laugh, just as much as he wants to pass out. Instead he coos at them: that was Kurama-jichan, don't listen to him, he's just fooling around, no I'm not mad, of course I'm not mad, Papa loves you very much, and Kurama-jichan too...

For better or worse, they're going to be here all night. And Naruto is going to love every second of it.