Chapter 2: Chapter 2
I don't own Naruto
Naruto's Baby Chapter 2
"Chunin Exams! Chunin Exams!" Naruto chirped as he spun around his room and flopped on his bed in a joyful laugh. Earlier that day, he had just received the news that he could participate in the chunin exams, and Naruto was excited to show what all he's made of.
Ai was in her highchair, gnawing on a rubber ball that Naruto had let her play with for the time being.
Naruto laid on the bed and stared at the application form in his hands, and sighed once he calmed down. "The chunin exams. It's a big deal." He sat up and looked at the infant. He went over to her and knelt down a bit, and pet her head softly, "Soon, your daddy will be a chunin, and it will be smooth sailing to being the Hokage after that," he said. He unlocked the tray that held the girl in place and picked her up, "yeppers Ai. I'll be Hokage."
He put her on the ground and walked a bit away, kneeling down, "come on Ai," he said, "you need some training as well, and that is why you'll be crawling to me right now," he clapped his hands, "come on baby, come to daddy!" He said, and Ai merely sat and clapped her hands. Naruto laughed and stopped, "come on baby, come to daddy," he said, and when Ai remained where she was, Naruto sighed "Ai, like this," he said and got on his hands and knees and began crawling around and making the girl laugh at his antics.
"Naruto," it was Iruka's voice as he had opened the front door and saw Naruto crawling on the ground and looking silly. Naruto froze in place, "hey Iruka-sensei," he said and stood up, "you're just in time for training."
"Really? And how are you training?" Iruka asked as he walked in casually.
"I'm not, Ai is," Naruto chimed as he pointed to the infant who was more interested in her foot then crawling at the moment. The baby was holding her leg up and on her back, trying to reach her foot in her mouth as though it was once of her chew toys. Iruka gave a soft chuckle, "looks like she's more interested in other things at the moment," he sat down and had a container for him and smiled, "let's chow down on some Ichiraku Ramen," he offered. Naruto wasn't one to turn down good ramen, so he sat down and grabbed a pair of chopsticks. Iruka gave him his container of Ramen, and as Naruto began to chow down, Iruka looked over at the infant, "how has Ai been doing? She's gotten bigger since the last time I saw her."
Naruto looked over with some noodles hanging out his mouth and said, "not really. You saw her last week, and you watched her while I was on the extended mission not that long ago," he said.
"I mean, she's growing up fast," Iruka said, and Naruto finished his ramen, "I know. She's doubled her size since birth. Renshi told me she's growing at the right pace, but I think it's too slow," he said, and Iruka raised an eyebrow at the comment. "Too slow?"
"Yeah. I mean, Ai is small, but if she were older, she could walk around and take care of herself, it would help me a lot, especially in the mornings," Naruto said. Iruka frowned at that, "you know if you need help, you can come to Kakashi or me, especially me. You know I would help."
Naruto put down his chopsticks and sighed, "I know, and that's why I want to do everything," Naruto said, "I want to spend as much time as I can with her."
Iruka frown and cleared his throat, "I actually came over to talk to you about something," he said, and Naruto stiffen a bit, "what?"
"I heard you're taking the chunin exams," Iruka started, "and the chunin exams can be…brutal, to say the least. They'll get harder the longer you take them, so here's the thing. I'm willing to watch Ai over this week and while you're taking your exam, which will take longer than a week," Iruka said, "so we need to make some arrangements now."
Naruto thought for a moment, pushing away his remaining ramen away from him and said, "the exam starts on July first, so that gives me a week doesn't it to be with my child," he said and looked over, seeing the girl crawling over to his chair. She looked at him with big onyx eyes and a broad smile. Naruto smiled and leaned down and picked her up when she was close. He sat the girl on his lap, and she reached out to get the bowl of ramen, though Naruto was more concern with talking to Iruka, "I can drop her off on June thirtieth and then pick her up whenever I'm done with the exams," he said.
Iruka couldn't tell Naruto what there was to the exam since he didn't know. It changed every year. What he did know was that Naruto wouldn't be able to see his child for a while. "All I know is that if you take the exams, you wouldn't see Ai for a while."
Naruto looked a bit uneasy, but he nodded silently, "I managed to do a long-term mission, so I think I can do some exams quickly enough."
Iruka looked at the infant in Naruto's lap and thought to himself, for her sake, I hope you can as well.
The next morning, Naruto didn't have to meet with his teammates. He was glad because this meant he had the day to spend with his child. He got up like normal, the routine of taking care of Ai before he walked out in his female form. He walked out with Ai in her sling and headed to the park.
The easy way to get to the park was walking along a particular path through the village. He felt confident since he was in his jutsu after all. No one recognized him as a woman.
As Naruto walked, he overheard some familiar voices. "Can't we go for some barbecue?" He smiled, seeing Choji, Shikamaru, and Ino in their group. He was about to run over and greet them, but he didn't. He remembered that he wasn't Naruto Uzumaki, blonde twelve-year-old, but rather Natsuko Umino, in public, just an ordinary woman with a baby in her sling. He couldn't just run over and greet his friends with a smile. He looked down at the girl in his arms, who was contently sucking on her fist mindlessly. Naruto wished he could go over and be his old self with Ai. No pretenses. No façade to be displayed. He wanted his child to know that it was okay to be out and be herself. Unlike him, who had to pretend to be a woman so that he could be out in public with his child.
Maybe one day, it will be easier.
Naruto turned around and accidently bumped into someone. He stumbled a bit but didn't fall over, "I'm sorry," he said and saw a ninja he didn't recognize. She didn't look friendly either. Long black hair, thick lips, and an uneasy demeanor. The hat she wore bore the village of the rain symbol on it. However, the shinobi merely shrugged it off, "it's fine," she began to walk passed him, "but next time, perhaps you should watch where you're going, you wouldn't want to endanger your child would you, huh Naruto?"
Naruto's eyes widen, and when Naruto turned to question the woman, she was gone.
Paranoia took over as Naruto looked around, holding his child close to him protectively. Someone knew his secret. Someone from outside the village. He looked at Ai once more, seeing her innocent face looking back at him made him relax a little, but he was still very uneasy.
Little did Naruto know, there were two people now watching over him. The shinobi with long black hair, and a leaf ninja with gray hair and glasses, "be especially helpful to that one Kabuto," Orochimaru said, still in disguise, "after all, he has a child to look after. We wouldn't want the baby to be without her mommy now would we?"
"Yes my lord," Kabuto said as he wrote down this information and would be adding it to Naruto's ninja-information card.
Weakness: His child.
Naruto had taken many pictures that day of his child playing at the park. Swinging and even going down the slide with her, Naruto would dare say that he had a great day with his daughter. Hearing her laugh made his worried fade away.
Soon, the sun was setting, and he had to take Ai home. He put her back in the sling, and the girl was cranky. Naruto hushed his child, "it's okay baby, we're going him, and you can have a bottle," he said. She had drunk up a lot of milk that day, and the baby bag was nearly empty. As he was beginning to walk back home, he heard his name.
"NARUTO!"
He turned just in time to miss Sakura's hit that was heading to him. He clutched to Ai tightly and fell on his bottom. Ai's cries were loud, and while she wasn't hurt, the incident did scare her. Naruto had poofed out of his jutsu and looked up in fear as Sakura looked like she wanted to murder him for some reason.
The girl had seen Naruto in his sexy jutsu and angrily wanted him out of it. Why would be in a woman's form anyways? She hadn't seen the baby or else, she wouldn't have thought it was Naruto in a jutsu at all.
Naruto felt his heart skip a beat, but because his crush was in front of him, but because she had tried to attack him while he was holding his child.
"Why do you have a baby?" She asked as she looked down at Naruto, who was holding the crying infant. Naruto snapped out of his shock to get up and try to calm his crying baby. "Shush Ai, it's okay, You're not hurt," he whispered as she paced around a bit to calm her. Sakura looked disturbed, "did you kidnap that baby?"
Naruto looked at Sakura bitterly, "she's my daughter."
"Just how twisted are you?" Sakura asked. "You really think that you're this baby's father? That's messed up Naruto! Really screwed up!" Naruto tried to ignore her words to comfort his child, but Ai just kept crying. "Just give her back to her mother, and she'll be fine," Sakura scoffed carelessly.
Naruto gritted his teeth and tried to ignore her once more. "Shush baby, I'm here," he said.
Sakura reached out and pulled the child from her sling, "you're doing it wrong," she said, and Naruto's eyes widen as Sakura tried to hush the crying baby she knew nothing about. Ai's cries intensified, and she even began pushing away from Sakura. To Ai, Sakura was a stranger and Naruto hearing her screams even louder made him angry. "SAKURA SHE'S MINE!" He shouted and snatched his child from the pink haired girl.
Naruto backed away several paces and dug in his baby bag, something he dropped when he fell over and pulled out a pacifier for his child. He placed it in her mouth, and Ai fell silent. Her eyes, which were once filled with tears, slowly closed in content. Naruto sighed and kissed her forehead, glad she was unharmed. Then he turned his head to Sakura, who watched with a frighten expression on her face, "…how?"
Naruto straightened up and said, "that's none of your business, you don't deserve to know," he said and walked away from his teammate and held his child. Naruto looked defeated. She had snatched Ai from his arms. Was it that easy to do that? It reminded him that he needed to train harder.
So that no one could ever do that again.