Hello my lovlies! That's right, another chapter has been gifted to you from the most wonderful and delightful me!
Please, hold your applause.
This one is for my new little darling BeInfinitexx (Hello there!) who asked:
"how do the Uzumaki kids act when they have to make public appearances with their dad or when he makes speeches and they have to be present? Is everything hectic or are they angels? Do the kids like the limelight?"
And here is my answer!
Hinata sighed as she tried to comb her eldest son's hair into something a little less... wild. It was even worse than Naruto's little spikes, thick and uncontrollable in a way that Naruto's had never dared to be, the vibrant red color just adding to the air of pure wildness that seemed to surround the child. Really, it was almost comical how fitting the boy's name was.
"Moooom." The boy finally whined after valiantly sitting through almost three minutes of his mother's torture silently. With another sigh Hinata gave up and allowed the boy to dash away, holding his newly earned freedom close as he went to the other side of the room to do something that Hinata dearly hoped wouldn't ruin his nice outfit.
"Mom," Hinata turned to see Yuki, her pale formal kimono and up-swept hair making her the perfect picture of a little lady, though the light grimace on her face somewhat sullied the image. "My obi is loose. Can you fix it for me?"
Hinata moved behind the girl and began to efficiently fix the garment as the other twin came up beside her, shoving her hair behind her ear as she watched.
"I could have done it for you, you know." Yuka huffed, tugging at the sleeves of her red kimono. "I don't see why you had to come over here and bother Mom when I was right there." Yuki rolled her eyes at her and smacked at her hands for her to stop fidgeting.
"Because you always get it too tight." She said, smiling over her shoulder at her mother in thanks before grabbing her twin and tugging her to sit over on one of the couches, trying to keep her and Leo apart until the ceremony was over with, a personal mission bestowed on her by her mother so that there wouldn't be any bloodshed or fighting to ruin the day.
Hinata turned again and was met with the sight of her ever silent youngest standing beside her, looking up at her with his steady white eyes. Hinata crouched down and smoothed her hand over Mino's hair, smiling at the boy gently.
"Did you need something too?" She asked and the boy shook his head, his gaze never breaking from hers in a way that unnerved most of the people that dealt with the five year old.
"I think Daddy does though." He said, and Hinata looked over the boy's shoulder to see that her husband did seem to be in some state of distress if the way his face was scrunched up was telling. With a sigh and a nod she moved past the boy to get to Naruto, sitting on the arm of his chair to study the paper he was focused on.
Seeing nothing but a rough outline of what she guessed his speech was supposed to be Hinata ran her fingers soothingly through his hair, making the man close his eyes and lean slightly into her touch.
"Is anything wrong, Naruto?" She asked quietly. Naruto looked up at her concerned face with a twisted smile that was halfway to a grimace, holding up the paper in his hand.
"I'm having some trouble reading this and it's getting kind of annoying." He told her, watching her face as she leaned in a bit more to take another look at the paper. Hinata blinked and then looked over at her husband, watching him steadily as her lips lightly twitched at the corners with humor and the slightest bit of annoyance.
"Naruto, this is your handwriting." She said and the blonde headed Hokage slumped back in his seat in defeat, sighing heavily.
"I know." He grumbled and Hinata just shook her head at him, beginning to run her fingers through his hair again.
"Why don't you have your assistant type it up for you so that you can actually read it?" Naruto closed his eyes and snorted, relaxing as he was soothed by her touch.
"The last time I tried that it was all pink and squiggly and it had butterflies and flowers all over it. I looked stupid holding it and I couldn't even read it." Hinata felt her lips begin to curve at the amusement she found in her poor husband's troubles and made sure to hide any trace of the emotion from her voice when she spoke.
"It will be fine, you don't need the paper anyway. After all, whenever you get out there you always just say whatever you feel like no matter what and it always turns out wonderful." Naruto opened his eyes to smile up at her thankfully, squeezing her hand lightly before jumping up and crumpling the paper into a ball and throwing it across the room and into the trash.
"Hey, Leo!" He shouted as he made his way to his son, easily leaving behind whatever slight worries might have been bothering him earlier as he went to find out what his son was doing so that he could pass the time before the ceremony began.
Hinata smiled at the sweet scene of her family, all dressed up and pretty, and she was still smiling as she called out to the person who was currently trying their best to sneak past her.
"I don't know where you've been or what you think you're doing, but you are well over an hour late and there is no way I could be so blind as to not notice." She turned her head to direct her smile towards the hidden form of her eldest, her eyes raking over the girl as she stepped out into the open.
"Mom, I have a good reason for being late." Kori began, but her mother's bland look managed to stop her.
"I'm sure you do, but I have to wonder how you're going to use that same excuse for you not being dressed in the kimono I had set out for you." Hinata sighed at the look her daughter sent her and glanced over the girl's regular ninja wear with disappointment, though she supposed it was better than sweatpants and a T-shirt.
"Ah... Sorry. But you know that that wouldn't have worked out, I look terrible in a kimono." Hinata rolled her eyes, something she had long ago picked up from her children and husband, and grabbed the teenager's arm, tugging her over to the couch so that she could keep an eye on her as if she was going to just disappear –something that wasn't really that farfetched.
"You only think that because you hate them. Now tell me why you're late." She demanded and Kori smiled nervously as she tried to think of something, practically jumping for joy when they were told that it was time for the speech.
"Oh, well, sorry Mom, maybe later." Kori said, hopping over to her siblings quickly. They made their way out to the balcony and lined up a bit off to the side, Hinata standing proudly and elegantly behind them. The crowd below them cheered and then Naruto started his speech, all of the children immediately zoning out though they showed it to different degrees.
Kori stared off into the crowd gathered below, glancing over all of the deceptively little looking people and smiling when she saw someone she recognized and they waved. Yuki attempted to watch and listen to her father but eventually her mind wandered and she ended up staring off into space, thinking over some of the scrolls she and Yuka had recently gone over together while said twin was engaging in a little war of the words with the elder of their two brothers, the youngest actually looking like he was the only one other than their mother who was paying attention.
"Do you hear that?" Leo hissed, earning a sharp sideways glare from his sister.
"What? All I hear is your stupid voice." She hissed back.
"My voice isn't stupid, and there's some sort of buzzing, like a pest." He blinked and then smirked at the girl beside him. "Oh, never mind, that's just you and your annoying face."
"Oh yeah, that one really hurt. Really, I wonder why they didn't just let the four intelligent children out here."
"Because they thought it might have hurt your feelings."
"Oh, so you think that I'm the stupid one? Please. I'm not the one that thinks he's something special because he has sharp kunai, and you should reevaluate that since those kunai are the only sharp thing about you."
"Oh no, I know that I'm not the stupid one since it takes a certain type of stupid for someone to giggle like a little girl and write Kurosaki Sho's name all over one of the pages in their notebook." He grinned wickedly when the girl gasped, smirking out at the crowd like he wasn't currently trying his best to torture his sister.
"With little hearts." He added, and Yuka's face flushed a shade of red that was reminiscent of her mother's younger days before sending her brother a glare that would have slain a lesser person on the spot.
"I am sooo going to kill you." She hissed, her hands forming deadly claws that she was about to use on her brother regardless of the citizens that stood below them watching, but her mother's hard grip on her shoulder stopped her.
"Would you both please act like the children your father and I tried to raise? I know it's terribly difficult to pretend that you actually like each other for more than a few seconds, but you currently have hundreds of people watching you and thinking that you are two perfectly happy and sweet children. There is no need to show them the truth, so if you could I'd really appreciate it if the two of you would just stop acting like yourselves for a moment."
She smiled sweetly down at the two, but the children could see the threat that lay beneath the sugary sweetness of her tone.
"Yes ma'am." They both said, immediately adopting similar innocent and polite smiles as they turned to look forward, pinching each other under the cover of the sleeves of their kimonos.
Kori sighed and shifted her weight from foot to foot, zoning out since she had technically been through all of this a million times before. Her mother keeping it all together and managing to fix everything as if she was some kind of a magician, her father's on the spot speech that somehow managed to actually sound like it had been prepared for him by someone who knew what they were doing, and even Yuka and Leo's arguments. All of it had become so redundant that she just didn't pay attention anymore.
Anyways, she could always just ask Mino if anything important had happened.
Haha!
Also, if anyone has read in the past week or so, chapter 30 was accidently a double post of another chapter. This error has been fixed if you wish to go back.
Bye!