Hello my dearlings! How are you upon this magnificent morn?
Really? That's cool.
This one is for one of my newest dears leeniejs who asked:
"Can we see what happens when Hinata gets sick for a little while and Naruto has to balance being Hokage and taking care of so many kids on his own? Maybe when they are all really little and they all need to be watched over and care for all hours of the day and night?"
So when she (look at me, once again predicting gender. I bet I'm wrong. Again.) said this, I gots me a little idea and had to write this out. It got a bit away from me (of course, why would I have control of my own story?), but I like it pretty well.
Okie-Dokie then, let's get this show on the road peoples!
Naruto yawned widely as he started up the stairs of the porch, wondering at how he could go for hours without rest on a mission without becoming tired but feel positively exhausted after only half a day of paperwork. It was only papers and ink -boring that they were- and there wasn't any physical activity like there had been when he used to race through trees or fight off the enemy, so really, being able to sit in that chair and just calmly sign trade agreements and mission reports should have been like a type of vacation from all the running around he used to do. He should feel invigorated, energetic even, and he should be able to feel like he could take on whatever came his way.
Oh God, he was tired.
Opening the front door Naruto slid off the coat that declared him as Hokage and kicked the door shut, grinning widely and tiredly as he waited to see who would come for him first this time.
"Daddy!" Two voices cheerily shouted, the light stomping of small feet hurriedly approaching sounding loudly just before two matching girls in their long nightgowns ran out from the living room to him, hugging him tightly as if they hadn't seen him in weeks instead of just that morning.
Laughing at them as they began to tell him about their day, Naruto playfully scooped up the two seven year olds and put a delightedly squealing girl on each shoulder, grinning as he felt a little bit of his tiredness recede. Walking into the living room Naruto found his wife curled up on the couch with a dozing Leo in her lap, the baby sleeping in the cradle swing beside them.
"Hey." Hinata murmured quietly, the red headed boy in her lap blinking his dark blue eyes sleepily at his father.
"Hey there." Naruto replied happily, keeping a tight hold on the still giggling girls as he swooped down for his welcome home kiss, pulling back to put his daughters down and to pick up Leo when he held out his arms.
"Hey buddy, how are you?" Naruto asked, the red head giving a grin that resembled his, though even sleepier.
"Fine. Not tired." He said even as his eyelids drooped lower and lower as if drawn by a magnet. Naruto looked at the visibly weary boy and grinned, taking in his tussled and wildly spiking hair, the face that was going lax with just the tiniest bit of drool on his cheek from where he had been sleeping a few minutes before and the green pajamas he wore with the hopping frogs going across the top, which had rolled up over his still baby fattened stomach just enough to reveal the little outie belly button.
"Of course not." Naruto agreed, sitting down with the boy in his lap. "Why would you be?"
"'Dunno." The boy slurred, his head dropping to his father's chest.
"Maybe because it's past your bedtime." Hinata said as she stood up, glancing at the still sleeping Mino one last time before turning to her other children. "Come on, it's time for all of you to get to bed."
"But Mom," Yuka started, a definite whine to her voice, "Leo got to stay up!"
"Until your father got home, yes. That was the deal we all made, and now that he's here it's time for all of you to get to bed." Hinata reminded her, her voice soft but stern. She reached out for her eldest son and though he went into her arms willingly it wasn't without one last slurring protest of "Not tired."
"Up to bed, and knock on your sister's door and tell her to come down here to say good-night to your father." Hinata commanded the twins, ushering them upstairs after they had kissed their father on the cheek and wished him a good night, leaving Naruto to stay with the baby and relax for a few minutes, almost nodding off at how calming it was to be back home.
After everyone had said their good-nights and had been tucked into bed Hinata settled back down on the couch with a sigh, closing her eyes and sinking gratefully into the comfortable cushions, feeling as if she never wanted to move from her spot ever again. Naruto glanced over at her, taking in her tired appearance and the faint half moons that rested beneath her closed eyes with concern.
"You okay?" He asked her quietly, and she smiled and nodded in answer, shifting a bit so that her head rested comfortably on his shoulder.
"Mmm... Yes. Busy day. How was yours?"
"Paperwork. Lots and lots of boring paperwork. I think that if I close my eyes I'll start seeing policies and pay rates on the back of my eyelids." Hinata laughed like he had wanted her to, and then got up with a groan far too soon for his liking.
"I saved some dinner for you, so it just needs to be warmed up for a minute." She said, moving to go get it before he could do so himself. When she came back in with an absurdly large bowl of homemade ramen in her hands, Naruto's smile couldn't have gotten any bigger.
"Since I knew you'd be working a bit late tonight I made this for you, and there's some more in the fridge if you want to warm it up before you go in tomorrow." Hinata told him, holding back her laughter as he stared at her and the food as if she were giving him the most priceless jewels in the world.
"You're amazing, and I don't think that I've ever loved you more." He told her before happily digging in. It still wasn't as good as Ichiraku's but it was incredible and there were times he swore his wife was perfect. When he told her so -not the part about it not being as good as Ichiraku's, though, he wanted to go to sleep in his own bed- she laughed and waved him off before curling up in the corner of the couch, falling asleep before she even realized she was tired enough to do so.
Once he was finished with his food Naruto looked over to thank Hinata again, only to find her peacefully sleeping, breathing shallowly looking even paler than she had a few minutes ago. Naruto felt a pang of guilt over just how tired she was, and determined to get done with his work early the next day -or just burn it- so that he could get home and give her a break from their kids so she could get a bit of rest and relaxation.
He silently crept over to the hanging crib to pull Mino out of it, whispering a wordless prayer of thanks that his youngest was the quietest and most well mannered baby in the world. Mino just blearily opened his wide eyes to stare at him for an unfocused moment when he was jostled before simply blinking and and closing his eyes, falling back asleep as Naruto went upstairs to put him in his crib in the room that the two boys shared. He quickly checked on Leo, saving the boy from falling out of the bed and onto his head by rolling him back into place. Somehow the boy had turned himself sideways with his head and shoulders and one arm hanging off of the side of the bed, just a breath away from falling and perhaps even breaking something.
He shuffled back downstairs and went to his wife's side, crouching down beside and saying her name quietly to wake her up enough so that it would be easier to get her to bed. When her tired eyes met his he placed a kiss to her forehead and lifted her up, carrying her upstairs as she fell back asleep in his arms much as Mino had, and he couldn't figure if it was because her trust in him was so deep or because she was so tired that she seemed almost weighed down by it.
Once upstairs he quickly and effortlessly stripped her without rousing her before slipping one of the nightgowns she preferred over her head, laying her down and tucking her in before changing into his own sleepwear. Getting in bed with her Naruto glanced at the clock, noting with some amusement that it was only nine, and then fell into a blissful and weary sleep.
The sounds of retching and gagging coming from the bathroom were what woke him a handful of hours later. Quickly getting up Naruto hurried to the bathroom, looking in to find his wife on the floor with her head above the bowl of the toilet as she gagged and tried to valiantly keep the long strands of her hair back as she did so. Naruto was quickly at her side, gathering her hair in his hand and soothingly rubbing her back, remembering this routine from the bouts of morning sickness Hinata had went through with Kori.
Of course the thought of morning sickness made him freeze up, and he had to remind himself that Mino was only three months old and that it was impossible. Absolutely impossible. After all, a baby required sex, and even after she had healed up and had gotten the okay from the doctor they were both too tired to even really think about doing anything other than sleep once they both had a quiet moment together.
He loved his children, but dear God they did not need another one.
"Hey, 'Nata, you okay?" He asked, concerned and a great deal worried.
"Y-Yeah." She managed before gagging again and throwing up even more. After her stomach was finally empty Naruto helped her to stand and get to the sink after flushing the toilet, handing her the washrag he had dampened so that she could wipe her mouth.
Naruto cleaned everything up while Hinata went back into the bedroom to lay back down in bed, trying not to move too much in case it would upset her stomach, worried about not reacting in time and then getting sick all over the rug or worse, all over her lovely bedsheets. Naruto came back into the room and gingerly sat on the edge of her side of the bed, brushing her hair back away from her forehead, his eyebrows knitting together at the feeling of just how warm she was.
Petting her hair a little, he was unsure about what exactly he was supposed to do after checking her forehead, and he had only known to do that from seeing her doing it to the kids when they said that they felt bad. He'd never been sick himself due to Kurama's influence, and the times that the kids had gotten sick Hinata had mainly taken charge and he had mostly just cleaned up or bought what she had told him to.
He should probably just ask her what to do. That would make everything better.
"Do you need anything? What should I do?"
"No, I don't need anything." She murmured, closing her eyes to try and catch the solace of sleep to get away from the queasy unease that coiled her stomach, "I'll be better in the morning. I just need to get a bit of sleep."
Suddenly the sounds of crying crackled through the baby monitor that was perched on the side table and both heads snapped towards it, Hinata almost groaning at how much worse the sharp movement made everything.
"Just... Go take care of Mino, please. I don't think I could walk down there without throwing up on the poor thing."
Finally having a direction Naruto nodded and jumped up, hurrying down to the boys' room and to the baby. After checking and finding that he was just wet and then changing him, all he had to do was set him back into the crib before he fell right back to sleep, making his father wonder why his other four children hadn't been able to be so easy. He checked to make sure that Leo hadn't been woken up from the crying, and it didn't surprise him in the least that he hadn't since nothing could wake the red head short of an explosion of epic proportions going off at the foot of his bed. And even that was questionable.
Hurrying back into the bedroom he noted with relief that his wife had gone right back to sleep, and taking that as a sign that everything would definitely be alright he snuggled in right at her side.
After years of waking up in the familiar snare of Naruto's arms, Hinata had developed a certain way of getting out of the hold with ease and finesse without waking the man. It took a minute, but it was doable.
But when she woke up to the feeling of her stomach revolting against her, she knew that she didn't have that precious minute.
If it had been a threat Naruto would have instantly sensed it and she would have been free before a thought would have had the time to flit through her mind, but since there was no one and nothing in the room other than herself, Naruto really felt no reason to get up when he first felt Hinata stirring at the edge of his consciousness.
It wasn't until she had kicked him in the shin -hard- in her quest to be free that he even bothered to start to open his eyes.
"Hina- AH!" Naruto shouted as the pain of his wife's surprisingly sharp elbow accidentally connecting with his nose -again, hard- as she struggled free, and then with shock and a bit of pain he watched her nearly fall out of bed, catch herself, and then run as quick as she ever had into the bathroom for a repeat of what had happened just a couple of hours before.
Holding his nose and limping just the tiniest bit -seriously, it had hurt- He made his way to his wife to once again uselessly check in on her.
"Hina?" He asked, though with the way he was holding his nose it came out as "Hida"
"I'm not-" She retched, "I'm not feeling any better." She managed uselessly. Naruto nodded and picked a hair-tie of hers out of the dish on the sink, pulling the heavy and interfering length of it back into a low tail.
"I see that." Naruto managed, reaching forward to place his hand on her head again, nearly cursing when it seemed to almost scorch his hand.
"I... I can't be sick. I -Ugh- It's a busy day and the kids have a lot -Ack!- a lot to do. I cannot be sick." She managed, holding out for just long enough before finally throwing up again, though this time it was just the acid that made her throat burn and feel raw and made her feel even more miserable than before.
"Don't worry about all of that!" Naruto declared when her heaving had finally calmed down for a moment, taking his hand away from his still throbbing nose, "I can take care of everything!"
Hinata blinked at her husband for a moment before realizing that he was being completely serious, "What about your work?"
"I'll make a clone and send him to do it. Heck, I'll send two clones." He told her, brushing her bangs back as he watched her in concern. She really didn't look good. She was too pale, the smudges of color beneath her eyes had darkened and had gained weight, and her whole body just seemed to be slumping in on itself, begging for mercy and rest.
"Do you want me to call Sakura?" He asked her, and she shook her head before groaning at how her head throbbed in protest to the movement.
"No, I'm sure that I'll be better once I get some sleep." She took a shuddering breath, "Are you sure that you can take care of everything?" She asked, and he nodded. "Okay. Kori has a day school trip, so you have to get her up and make sure that she's packed and at the school by seven. I promised-" She paused to gag into the toilet again, though there was no longer anything else to throw up, "I-I promised to take the girl's to the library, so you'll have to do that too. And then Leo will want to go to the playground, but you won't have any time for that so you'll have to say no, and then the grocery shopping needs to be done today."
"Alright, alright, I got it. Now let's get you back into bed." He said, helping her to get up and then crawl back in between the covers, falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
He took a breath and thought back over the list she had given him. It didn't sound that bad, and he could probably get it done early enough that he could get back home and get everything settled in time to maybe get some rest himself. An easy day with his family would probably be a good break from work.
When he looked over at the glowing screen of the clock and saw that it was nearly six he decided to go ahead and wake Kori up so that they'd have plenty of time to get her to the school.
He didn't exactly know how difficult it was going to be.
When he walked up to her bed she was sleeping peacefully and innocently, curled into a loose ball in the middle of the bed. Reaching down he shook her shoulder, smiling slightly at just how sweet she looked.
That was when her fist came out and connected to his still slightly sore nose.
He stepped back from the sheer force of the hit, and as he stopped himself from cursing he glared down at the form of his daughter and realized with shock that she was still sleeping.
How the hell was she still sleeping? She had just punched him!
"Kori." He said, growling when she didn't even twitch. "Kori, get up." He moved forward to try and shake her awake again, this time blocking the punch she threw at him and then the kick that she directed far too close to an area she had no business kicking near for comfort.
"Kori!" He shouted as the girl sat up, slowly opening her eyes to stare straight ahead at the far wall with a dead gaze. Before Naruto could say anything more to the girl she slipped out of bed and shuffled out of the room and across the hall to the bathroom, closing the door quietly behind her.
Naruto stood in the middle of the bedroom staring after his daughter, trying to figure out if he should march over to the bathroom and demand answers or just... well, he didn't really know.
Figuring that he'd better go and fix breakfast before doing something stupid like waking the whole house -thus making Hinata question whether he'd be able to last the day without her- Naruto went downstairs and started peering into cupboards to try and figure out what his eldest would want to eat that was relatively fast. He was reaching for a box of cereal that he remembered Kori liking when a pair of voices piped up behind him.
"Mom always makes us Saturday breakfast."
"Yeah."
Turning he saw the three middle children and he could only sigh. They were looking at him questioningly, expectantly, and he knew that there were going to be a lot of questions he didn't have the time to answer.
"Your mother is sick, so I'm going to stay home and do all the stuff she does today. No, we can't go and bother her or check up on her," He said, expecting the question as Yuka opened her mouth, "And it won't be the same but we'll just have to deal, okay?" He asked, the three of them nodding in answer.
"Alright then, let's see what we can make for breakfast!" Naruto said, the children cheering happily in answer.
He couldn't do anything big or fancy like Hinata did, and he especially couldn't do multiple dishes, so he'd need something relatively fast and easy. Glancing into the cupboard Naruto spotted the box of pancake mix, and knew that it would be perfect. There were even instructions on the side.
"How about," He said, grabbing the box and flipping it. "Waffles? We have a waffle maker, right?" He asked, and the two eldest girls nodded as Leo got up into his seat.
Naruto was mixing together the batter when he glanced at the kitchen clock and noted that it was six thirty and he hadn't heard a peep out of Kori since she had attacked him and then had closed herself into the bathroom, and then it occurred to him that he had better get Mino downstairs so that he wouldn't bother Hinata if he woke up.
He hurried into the living room to grab the cradle swing and drop it into the kitchen, telling one of the twins -he didn't really notice which, though he hoped it was the more responsible Yuki- to stir the batter while he ran upstairs to grab the baby and check on Kori.
Taking a breath he shifted the quietly grunting Mino in his arms to knock on the bathroom door, taking another bracing breath to open said door when no answer came.
He barely had the time to block the first that was aimed for his throat.
Holding a baby and trying to fight of your daughter who was apparently on some type of crazy drugs was incredibly difficult, especially when you were trying not to hurt said daughter, so he had to take a couple hits in his shoulder and arm.
He had no idea what Lee had been teaching the girl in their little training sessions, but they were going to definitely have to have a talk.
Finally having enough of it Naruto grabbed her ankle when she came in for another kick and threw her across the hall and into her bedroom. He heard the thud of her body hitting the wall and could only wince, knowing for certain that Hinata was going to kill him if he had damaged either their oldest or their wall.
Peeking into the bedroom, Naruto watched as the blonde pushed her hair out of her slightly less bleary eyes, looking around in dull confusion.
"Whu'?" She managed to garble, and Naruto decided to push the fighting out of his mind and instead focus on this hopeful moment of lucidity.
"Kori! We only have," He glanced at her clock and nearly choked in shock, "Ten minutes to get to your school! Hurry up and get dressed!" He didn't wait for her to nod and just ran out of the room, jumping down to the first floor from the landing and then dashing into the kitchen to push the baby into the arms of one of the twins before racing right back to where his daughter was sluggishly tugging on the last of her clothes.
He grabbed her pack from beside the door and noted that Hinata had thankfully packed it the day before -God, he loved that woman- and then grabbed Kori, slinging them both over his shoulder as he once again skipped the stairs in favor of the faster way.
"I have to take Kori to school! Don't do anything your mother would say no to and don't bother your mother either. And be good!" Naruto told his other children as he hurried for the door.
"What about breakfast?" Yuki asked him, struggling to get Mino into the cradle swing the way he was supposed to go in. Naruto paused and turned on his heel, lunging for the cupboard and grabbing two boxes of energy and granola bars before disappearing out the door before the other children could blink.
"I meant for us." Yuki sighed. Yuka nodded and then looked at the batter she was getting tired of stirring before an idea occurred to her.
"Hey, we could just keep on making the waffles."
"But we don't know how and we're not allowed to cook."
"The box has instructions and it's not cooking if we don't use the stove. It's... waffle making." Yuka declared, to which her twin nodded. After all, what could go wrong if they had instructions?
Naruto ran as fast as he could and managed to get to the school just in time, though the few seconds he had left certainly didn't give him any breathing room.
"Okay." Naruto said, setting Kori down and shoving her pack and the boxes of food into her arms. "Have fun and don't do anything... stupid. Like hitting people. Okay?" The blonde girl blinked, her drowsy eyes still not completely clear as she peered at her surroundings, but she still slowly nodded.
"Great! I'll see you later then." He said, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead before turning and jumping up to the roofs so that he could race back home before his other children had the time to do anything overly destructive.
Kori blinked a few times before looking down at the boxes of granola and energy bars in her arms, and with a shrug she opened one, pulled out a bar, and started eating it. Turning to the huddled group of tweens and teachers who were staring at her, having watched the entire thing with shock, she glanced over them with steadily clearing eyes and then held the boxes of bars closer as a sudden thought occurred to her.
"Mine." She managed to garble, glaring at the group distrustfully as they gaped at her.
Naruto didn't really know what to expect when he got home having left his children on their own, though it hadn't even been half an hour yet. Fire, though he prayed for the brief thought to not be true, was a definite contender. A flood was less likely, and he could only hope that they hadn't bothered Hinata.
Thankfully, none of those thins had happened.
And sadly, something else had.
The waffle maker was plugged into the wall and steam was coming from it, batter oozing out from the closed sides and down to the already liberally batter-smeared counter. Eggshells were scattered over said counter, along with bowls and spoons and... Oh good God, was that the entire box of mix overturned all over the floor?
"What happened in here?!" He managed to gasp once his shock had marginally passed, hurrying to get a broom from the closet so he could start cleaning up the mess that the typhoon his children were had created.
"...We made waffles." Yuka hesitantly said, cutting the waffle that she had on her plate.
"And a mess." Naruto snapped, wondering how the hell he would ever return the kitchen to how it had been before his children had decided to completely destroy it.
"Sorry, but we were hungry and you left before you could make them yourself so we decided to. And then we had to mix more mix because we ran out of the first batch." Yuka defended, wondering at why her waffles were lumpy and had little balls of the batter mix unlike her mother's perfectly made ones.
"Fine, yeah, my bad." Naruto muttered, realizing that a great deal of the entire situation was his fault. Most of it, really, because he should have realized that leaving three hungry children who too often got "bright ideas" alone would surely lead to disaster.
It took him over an hour to clean up everything and keep track of the children and feed Mino (who he had completely forgotten until he had actually tripped over the little thing; it was freaky how quiet the baby was, especially when surrounded by the others). Once that was done Naruto tried sitting down, just for a minute, but apparently such a thing wasn't allowed because this was when one of the ANBU made his appearance.
"Yes, Monkey, what is it?" Naruto asked wearily once he had sensed the man. A sudden and devious idea hit him to shove his children onto the ANBU for a couple of hours so that he could get some rest and properly take care of Hinata , and he was Hokage after all, he could do it if he wanted to. But, sadly, not only did he want to keep his promise to Hinata that he would take care of everything, he also wanted to keep his ANBU from retiring and making his work even more difficult.
Damn. Work.
"Eri sent you?" Naruto asked on a jaw cracking yawn, his body whining in protest as he sat up from his slump.
"Yes Hokage-sama." The ANBU answered, and Naruto nodded before making the hand signs, two of his clones popping up in front of him when he was done.
"Go with the ANBU." Naruto muttered as he waved them away, all three of them wincing at the yelling and then the crash that came out of the other room. The two clone Narutos got out of there really quickly after that.
With a sigh Naruto walked into the other room to see a broken vase on the ground -thank God there hadn't been any flowers or water in it- and two very guilty children standing by it.
"Wha-" Was all he could get out before they exploded.
"Leo was acting stupid-"
"No I wasn't!"
"And he wouldn't leave me alone or go up to his room, because he's stupid-"
"Nuh-uh! I just wanted to color Mommy a picture with you and you said that coloring was for babies! I'm not a baby and I ain't stupid, and you pushed me into the table!"
"Ain't isn't a word, stupid. And coloring is to for babies!"
"Nuh-uh! Nuh-uh!"
"Yeah it is, ask Daddy!" Yuka shouted, turning to their weary father with a victorious expression, her younger brother near tears, his bottom lip quivering.
"Coloring is not for babies." He told the girl, the smirk on her face dropping, "And your brother is not stupid,Yuka, and I do not want to hear you call him that again."
"Yes Daddy." She whispered, glaring down at the carpet resentfully.
"And you shouldn't push him either. Because you did you broke a vase and now I have to go buy a new on, and just because you're bigger doesn't mean you should bully him. Leo, I'll color with you, okay?" The boy smiled brightly and nodded, his tears disappearing.
Twenty minutes after cleaning up the shards of the vase (it was the ugly one they had gotten as a wedding present from someone in the Hyuuga clan, so he really wasn't that upset about it) and sending Yuka up to her room to sulk Naruto was sitting next to his fiery haired son in front of the coffee table, thick crayons and blank paper scattered over the surface as they made their pictures.
"Daddy?" Naruto turned to look at the more reasonable and sweeter of the twins. "When are we going to the library?"
With a sigh Naruto remembered that Hinata had said something about that, and he got to his feet. "As soon as everyone's ready, I guess." He said, only expecting it to take a good ten, twenty minutes. It never went over that when Hinata got them ready so he wasn't really expecting anything different.
How wrong he was.
Leo was easy to dress since Naruto only had to tug a t-shirt over his head and pull a pair of shorts up, and then hand him his sandals since the boy was insistent on knowing how to do it himself. Mino was even easier since all he took was a onsie and an already mostly packed baby bag, and then he was ready to be put in his stroller. He'd hoped that since the girls were older they'd be more self sufficient, but once again he found out that he was wrong. He was always wrong.
"Yuka, why can't you wear this shirt?" He asked her, holding up a pink T-shirt that he thought was really cute, especially with the little kitten on it. Thinking about it, he remembered that he'd actually bought her the shirt, and had been particularly proud of the find.
"Because, it's pink and the cat is weird. I don't even know where that came from." She said, her nose wrinkled in disgust.
Well, there went his nice feeling ego.
Currently standing in front of the girls' closet they were trying to find a shirt for Yuka to wear because apparently the thirty shirts they had already been through hadn't been good enough, and dear lord they were about to go through them again.
"Here!" Naruto said, his hand diving into the dresser drawer desperately and pulling out a random blue tanktop. "Just wear this!"
The girl shrugged and took it, slipping it on, but then saying something about shoes she turned back to the closet, leaving her father to pull out his hair and restrain himself from screaming.
"Can you do my hair, Daddy?" Turning to Yuki, Naruto nearly tackled the child. She was dressed and had her shoes on, and she was asking him to something he could easily and enjoyably do.
"Of course." He said, taking the hair ties and brush from her, setting down on the closest bed and pulling her so that she sat between his legs. "What do you want?"
Tilting her head she thought it over for a moment, before nodding as she came to a decision. "Pigtails." She told him, pointing to two high points on her head so that he'd know where to put them. A few minutes later Naruto was calmer and was smiling, and the girl's long hair was done to perfection.
"Daddy!" Leo cried as he hobbled into the shoe, one foot mysteriously bare while the other was in his sandal. "I can't find my shoe!"
There went the smile.
"You had it just a minute ago! And how did you only lose one of them?" The boy shrugged.
"Dunno." He said, half hopping, over to his father, "But I can't find it. Find it Daddy."
With a sigh Naruto lightly pushed Yuki off of the bed and started to get up. He could just tell that this little search was going to be fun and long. "Okay, fi-"
"No! First you have to do my hair too, Daddy!" Yuka shouted, plopping herself down on the spot where her sister had previously sat. Naruto wanted to growl or shout or curse, or just do anything to get rid of some of his frustration but he held himself back, reminding himself that not only were they children -his children- but that Yuka was also kind of right. It wasn't fair for him to do Yuki's hair and not hers.
"Leo," He sighed, "I'll help you look for it right after I do Yuka's hair. Why don't you and Yuki go brush your teeth first so that we can go soon, okay?" Because he happened to know that they would take just long enough for him to fix Yuka's hair, and that Yuki would keep Leo from making a mess. On that thought, he hadn't brushed his teeth yet.
He hadn't even ate yet.
The two marched out and down the hall to the bathroom, leaving Naruto vulnerable to the demands of his daughter -no, I want that braided and pulled back; no Daddy, you're doing it wrong; Daddy, you're pulling my hair!
When he was finally done with her he sent her to the bathroom, which Leo was thankfully stepping out of so there wouldn't be a fight. He started down the stairs to go on the quest for Leo's shoe -seriously, he'd had it maybe five minutes before he lost it- but halfway down his foot snagged on something and he tripped, beginning to tumble down the stairs.
Thankfully -and mostly due to training and instincts- he managed to catch himself on the banister and flip himself over, landing on the first floor with only a bruised knee.
Cursing under his breath and rubbing the spot as his quick healing played it's hand and took the initial sting out of it, Naruto lightly limped over and looked up the stairs to see what had tripped him.
Well, he had found Leo's shoe.
"Leo! Girls! Come on!" The three of them scrambled down the stairs with the grace and the volume of a stampeding herd of cattle, and with a sigh he could only usher them out the door and grab Mino -who was resting quietly in his stroller- and the baby bag, making their way out of the house and down the path to the village.
Walking at a slow but steady pace, it should have only taken them fifteen minutes, tops, to come out the other side of the path. But he had obviously been too naïve because with his children he was finding that absolutely nothing would keep them on track.
Yuki and Yuka found some flowers, so they obviously had to run off the track and pick them, though he couldn't say anything to that since they said they were getting them for Hinata. And then Leo found a rock, although according to him it was a special rock, so he slipped it into his pocket along with who knows how many pebbles- and why the boy wanted rocks, he had no clue.
Mino started to make a fuss about halfway down -about the same time that Yuka and Leo started to try and beat each other at tree climbing while Yuki just sat by and plucked at the grass- and knowing that there had to be a reason for him to act that way Naruto stopped and found that the boy was wet.
Laying down a little blanket on the ground, Naruto started changing him only to be interrupted by Yuki pulling at the back of his shirt.
"Daddy," She said, and when he glanced at her he saw the girl lightly crossing her legs and holding on to the front of her shirt with both hands, wriggling in a very distinctive way, "I have to pee."
Shit. "Why didn't you go at home?" Naruto asked as he wrestled with the suddenly squirmy Mino.
"I didn't have to go at home." The girl said, blinking her big powder blue eyes at him, "But I have to go now."
"Well, go behind a tree or something." Naruto growled out, glaring at the little fastening on Mino's onsie that just wouldn't fasten. This comment earned him a gasp from the other twin and a silent watery eyed plea from the one behind him.
"She cant do that! She's a girl!" Yuka practically shouted, to which Leo grinned at her competitively.
"Well, I'm a boy, so I can and I'm gonna!" The red head declared, dashing out behind a tree and leaving his father to hang his head as he wondered what the hell was wrong with his children. How could they make peeing into a competition?
"Yuki, Yuka," He managed once the disbelief had passed, "You're wanting to be kunoichi, right?" He asked them, looking up to see the two girls nodding their heads. "Well, do you really think that they're going to have bathrooms that they stop at on missions?" The girls thought about it for a moment before dejectedly shaking their heads and mumbling their 'no's.
"Umm..." Yuki hesitantly looked towards the trees as if something were about to jump out and attack her. "Daddy, can you come with me?"
With a sigh Naruto shoved to his feet, leaving Mino lying on the blanket for a moment -it wasn't like he was going to get up and walk away- before heading towards the tree line with Yuki, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure that Yuka hadn't gotten another one of her bright ideas and had randomly disappeared.
According to his daughter they had to go far enough into the trees so that they couldn't see the road -just in case anyone could possibly be watching- and then Naruto had to back up about ten feet and then turn around and close his eyes. It was during this process that Yuka showed up, dashing past him and declaring that she had to pee too -really, he had to wonder at what their bathroom at home was for- and telling him not to peek.
They hurried back to where the stroller, Mino, and hopefully Leo were waiting for them, and once they got there Naruto tried to count to ten, remembering hearing somewhere that it helped with controlling anger.
It didn't.
"UZUMAKI LEO, WHY ARE YOU POKING YOUR BROTHER WITH A STICK?!" He boomed as his patience cracked, making all of his children jump back, especially his oldest son who was for some unknown reason poking Mino with a branch he had probably found while wandering around to get back after his bathroom break.
"I dunno." The boy managed, his eyes filling with tears after his father's loud and scary outburst. "I wanted to see if he wanted it."
Naruto didn't bother asking what a three month old would want with a stick. He just shook his head, told him not to do it again, and slipped Mino back into the stroller where the aggravated baby immediately calmed down. Apparently, he hadn't liked getting poked with a stick. Go figure.
They made the rest of the walk in a sulking silence, and Naruto began to breath easier once they started up the walk to the library. It was the library, how much trouble could his kids actually get in, really?
He really needed to stop assuming these things.
Leo, getting over the shock of his father's outburst, went with his father to the kids corner so that he could play with the train set and the blocks they had lain out there. He even tried to apologize to Mino by putting some blocks in the stroller with the now sleeping baby. It was adorable and sweet, and Naruto only turned long enough to look at the book Yuki had decided to show him about foxes, but it was more than enough time. When he turned back it was to see Leo at the very top of the shelf, leaning out to try and grab the stuffed dragon that hung from the ceiling.
"Leo!" He shouted as ten years of his life were suddenly and painfully scared from him, the boy leaning out just a bit further... just abit further... reaching just a bit farther until he snagged the toy.
And that was when he leaned out just a bit too far and slipped.
"LEO!" Naruto shouted as the boy dangled so far up off of the floor. So far. Too far. Supported only by the three thin and straining strings that held the toy aloft. Acting as quick as he ever had Naruto jumped up and balanced on one of the shelves with a single foot held on by chakra, reaching out, hoping that he'd be fast enough to save them both the pain of tiny broken bones or worse.
The strings snapped free from the ceiling, the extra weight too much for them to bear, and Leo fell, his wide eyes not completely understanding.
But thankfully the fall landed him into his father's secure arms, the man jumping down to the ground and holding the boy desperately close before jerking him back to send him the most fear filled and glaring look he had ever had.
"Don't you ever do anything like that again! Do you understand?" The boy jerkily nodded, tears starting up from the fear now that the actual event had passed, and Naruto pulled him close again.
He didn't think that he had ever been more scared than in that moment where his son had been suspended in the air.
Looking up he saw a slack jawed librarian, and he was quick to make apologies as he stood, Leo clinging to his neck like a burr. In the middle of his apology to the very understanding elderly librarian he was interrupted by sudden shouting, and he could do nothing more than hang his head in shame as he recognized one of the voices.
Both he and the little librarian walked around the shelves blocking their way and looked towards the circulation desk where one of the librarians was apparently about to get into a brawl with a matching set of two familiar little girls.
Walking up to them, his hold on Leo and his restraint firm, Naruto could only hope that the didn't get kicked out of the library. He really didn't want to go home and explain that to Hinata.
"Girls," He interrupted, three sets of eyes snapping to him as he stepped forward. "What's going on here?"
"She won't let us check out our books!" Yuka declared, glaring at the librarian like she wanted to attack her while Yuki nodded and glared, looked like she wanted to cry from the aggravation. Looking at the sizable little pile of books the two girls had accumulated, Naruto tried to figure out why they were even bothering to fight over books and then act like they were defending everything they believed in while doing so.
"Um..." Naruto managed, looking towards the librarian and hoping for an answer as to why they weren't allowed to check out books when they were in fact in a library.
"They can only check out seven books apiece, Hokage-sama." The woman growled, "I have explained this to them each time they have come here and yet they always get the rules bended just because they are who they are. I do not feel like allowing this to happen again."
Naruto nodded before glancing down, wondering if the two girls had even realized that they were holding their position as the Hokage's children over the heads of others to use as a tool. And even if they didn't, it was still wrong for them to be allowed the special allowances regardless.
"I understand," He said, and he saw a brief flash of victory flash over Yuka's face as she smirked, believing that her father was going to side with them and make the woman give them their books. "And I have to ask you to keep restraining them," The look fell, "They don't need the special treatment, so thanks for taking care of it." The woman nodded before turning with her nose in the air, flouncing off to catalog books or something to that nature while leaving the brave Hokage to the mercy of his daughters.
"Daddy! How could you?" Yuka gasped, thinking about all of the books that she and her sister would now have to leave behind.
"Yuka, no one else is allowed to take out all of those books, so why should you? Just pick out your favorites and check out the rest some other time." He told her, and the seven year old pouted but assented.
Naruto slumped in relief as the girls began to pick through the little mountain they had managed to scavenge. He'd averted yet another crisis, and seeing how much the girls enjoyed the library (other than the librarian who refused to follow their orders), Naruto thought about maybe taking the girls down to the Yondaime's library that had been found a few months ago. They might like it.
Now, all they had to do was get out of here and they were home free.
"Who's baby is this?!"
Damn it.
"Daddy, can we go to the playground?" Leo begged as they passed by the brightly colored play equipment.
Remembering that Hinata had told him to remain firm and just say no, Naruto shook his head.
"Sorry Buddy, but we don't have the time. We need to grab some groceries." The little boy pouted and looked back at the nearly sparkling sight.
"Please? Please? Please Daddy?" The other two looked back at him with a similar plea on their faces and Naruto could only give in.
"Alright, alright. Fifteen minutes, got it?" The boy ran of with a whoop of joy, the girls racing after him as they fought to get to the swing-set first. Naruto maneuvered the stroller onto a concrete path that led to a pair of benches, and he sat down with a weary sigh. He had thought that he had been tired last night but nothing could ever compare with how tired he was right then and there, sitting on a plastic park bench. And the day wasn't even over with yet.
He decided to go ahead and take care of Mino now that he had a minute, changing him again and then feeding him one of the bottles that were nestled safely in the baby bag, apologizing to the boy for forgetting him.
About twenty minutes later Naruto situated the baby back in the stroller, standing up and stretching out the kinks that those few deceptively comfortable moments of rest had given him. "Kids!" He called, watching as dozens of little eyes snapped towards him. "Ah... Yuki! Yuka! Leo! Time to go." There, that got the other kids to turn away.
The girls came slowly, apparently having found a friend they were having fun with, but they came and they only looked a little worse for wear, some flyaway hairs having come loose and some mulch bits sticking to their knees and hands.
Leo, however, looked as if her had fought some kind of wild battle with nature. There was mulch sticking to not only the skin of his knees and hands but also both of his legs and arms, even more covering his clothes to battle with the fresh dirt and grass stains. There were bits of it in his hair along with blades of grass, and a leaf was sticking out of the wild mass like a crown. The boy grinned, the scratches on his arms and face standing out against the filth, and he raced towards them as if his appearance was normal.
Okay, so he shouldn't have gone to the park.
Shaking his head Naruto merely turned and started back up the path, not even bothering to attempt to clean the boy up with the wet wipes Hinata kept in the baby bag. It just really wasn't even worth the effort.
"Come on," He said, praying for the day to just get over with, "We need to go get some groceries." And then home. Beautiful, peaceful home.
"I'm hungry." Leo declared.
Of course he was.
The other two were quick to say the same and Naruto just turned to go to the nearest source of food, which was apparently a kushiyaki stand. After ordering they continued to walk towards the grocery store, and Naruto looked down just in time to see some of the juices from Min's meat drip down his chin and onto his shirt to further ruin it and add to the image of him being some child raised in the wilderness.
He didn't bother to react to the glances he and his son got for the boy looking that way, he just walked into the grocery store and grabbed a cart, giving it to the girls to push while Leo held on to the side and "guarded" it -Naruto was surprised and ecstatic to find that this ploy of keeping his children all in one place actually worked.
They got the basics of what Naruto knew for sure that they needed and then he just sort of winged it, looking around for something that would hopefully help Hinata, but nothing on the shelves screamed out "FEED THIS TO YOUR SICK WIFE AND SHE'LL FEEL 10X BETTER!"
Becoming somewhat desperate, especially when he saw that the kids were starting to get antsy, he turned and saw a woman with a vest that claimed her as an employee to the place and Naruto just barely stopped himself from tackling the woman and begging.
"Do you know what helps sick people? Like eating and stuff?" He asked before the woman could get the first syllable of her "May I help you?" speech out. She blinked, but seeing the stress and tiredness in his eyes and the disarray of his children, she obviously took pity on him, not recognizing him for who he was.
"Well, salt is good, like pretzel sticks and crackers. And ginger-ale is supposed to help too. Chicken noodle soup is a big one, and toast works pretty well too." She told him gently, and Naruto almost cried. He could do those things. He could absolutely do those things.
Finally, after twenty more minutes of searching for the things she had instructed him to get and then standing in the checkout line, Naruto was heading home, tugging the now lagging kids with him.
As soon as they were home Naruto put the groceries up and then he stripped Leo, throwing his clothes into the washer and the boy into the bath, scrubbing him until all of the dirt that had previously been on him was staining the water. Then it was releasing him to play, reading a book to the girls and Mino, and then fixing some of the soup he had gotten for everyone (thankfully there were instructions). When he pulled Leo's clothes out from the washer -which he had hoped would get rid of the evidence of the very bad decision he had made; it didn't- he found rocks of all assorted shapes and sizes scattered about, lodged in the little holes that lined the tumbler.
Deciding that banging his head against the wall hadn't worked, Naruto just turned and left the laundry room dejectedly.
After settling everyone into their rooms and telling them to just go to bed when it was time Naruto shuffled into his and Hinata's bedroom, tray in hand.
Hinata was laying back in bed with a bag a pretzels at her hip, nibbling on them as she flipped through one of the books that she had squirreled away for a rainy day, looking much more relaxed and healthier, the dark bags underneath her eyes now almost completely gone and her natural flush once again painting her cheeks. She looked up when she heard him and smiled, marking her place in the book.
"I brought you soup." Naruto moaned, setting the tray on her lap and then crawling into the bed beside her, nearly whimpering at how wonderfully good it felt to finally be laying down.
"Thank you, Naruto." She said, laughing lightly at his antics. "I've been a little hungry since I haven't thrown up in a couple of hours, plus my temperature has gone down so I'll probably be ready to get back into things tomorrow."
"That's great. Perfect. Really." He turned his head to look at his wife as she carefully sipped at the hot soup. "You know, you're absolutely amazing." He told her, watching as her smile grew and her cheeks flushed a bit deeper.
"How were the kids?" Hinata asked, and Naruto could only close his eyes so that she couldn't see the horror in them.
Heavy moments of silence passed in which Hinata stared at him questioningly before Naruto could finally answer without his voice cracking or wining.
"Is... Is it like that everyday? Do you deal with that every day?"
Hinata laughed again at how dramatic he was being. "Naruto, I won't be able to answer if you don't tell me what happened."
"Well... Kori attacked me, the other three destroyed the kitchen, Yuka and Leo broke your vase, Yuka couldn't decide what to wear, Leo lost his shoe and then I tripped on it on the stairs, Yuka and Yuki had to use the bathroom outside and Leo poked Mino with a stick; Leo fell off of a stuffed dragon, Yuka and Yuki got in a fight with a librarian, and I kind of forgot Mino -but I got him! Don't worry. I took the kids to the park -you really need to give more warning to a person than just to not do it, Hinata- and now the washing machine looks like it tried to eat a pissed off boulder."
Hinata could do nothing more than blink at him before covering her mouth, trying not to laugh at his predicament since she could see how obviously distressed he was but she was failing horribly, choking gurgles of laughs slipping past her guard. Finally giving in to it she dropped her hand and laughed until she had to wipe at the tears that pricked her eyes.
"O-Oh, it isn't always that bad." She finally managed to say, "Kori is always violent when she wakes up and you bother her. She doesn't even realize she's doing it, so you just need to know how to restrain her a bit. I'm usually in the kitchen when the kids are in there, so there's no destroying only because I stop it. I'll just clean out the washer, but you always need to check Leo's pockets because he always sticks little things -like rocks- in there. Everything else sounds pretty normal, though you'll have to explain the story about the dragon to me later." Naruto nodded and sighed as he finally, finally, started to relax.
And this was when his two clones dispelled.
An entire days worth of paperwork, meetings and dull talks -multiplied by two- rushed into is mind like a suffocating and disorienting tidal wave. Page after mind-numbing page of paper filled with monotone words flashed before his eyes at once until all he could see was the stark white of the paper and a smear of black ink that trailed along the surface in a complex and impossible maze.
Groaning, Naruto didn't even try to open his eyes in an attempt to dispel the vision, already feeling the throb of the migraine that would, as soon as he opened his eyes, leave him feeling like his skull was being hollowed out with a dull and rusted hot poker.
"Naruto?" He heard the soft murmur of his wife's voice and instinctively turned towards her for comfort, groaning at the soothing touch of her hand as it pet his hair. "Naruto, what's wrong?"
Hearing the concern in her voice Naruto swallowed a few times in an attempt to get the dry sandpaper that was his throat to work, managing after two or three tries. "Work... Clones." He croaked out, actually whimpering in thanks as Hinata sat aside her tray and sat his head in the newly vacated spot on her lap.
"You poor baby." She crooned, and Naruto made a sound of agreement in the back of his sore throat. He felt bad for having her doing all this for him while she was still sick, but the way he felt left him no room to argue.
They sat there like that for a few minutes before Hinata finally asked in an effort to get Naruto's mind off of his pain, "Did Kori have fun on her school trip? I remember that she was really excited about it." Naruto groaned again, though this time it wasn't from his more than painful migraine.
"Son of a bitch."
In the village, in front of the school
Kori looked up at the dark sky and figured that she should probably start going home. Her mother and father had told her to never walk around with out someone after dark, but she had fallen asleep in one of the classrooms when they had gotten back from their day trip earlier and hadn't woken up until just now.
But for some reason no one had come to get her or search for her earlier. Maybe they had forgotten?
Figuring that it would probably be best to just wait so she didn't get in trouble, Kori settled back on the tired little swing and started tracing pictures on the stars.
Someone would come to find her.
Eventually.
And there we go!
The food they were eating (Kushiyaki) is grilled meat on a skewer, which sounds delicious and like shish kabobs and now I want a shish kabob (or kushiyaki. either or.) One with chicken and onion and pepper and mushrooms and shrimp and Mmmmm...
Well, now look what you've made me do.
I also managed to answer a comment from my little systemman (who I'm thinking is a man. Just a little feeling I'm getting) that went:
"I am surprised that Naruto doesn't use Kage Bushins to free more time to spend with his family. Since their memories return to him when they are dispelled it would make things easier."
And yeah, it would be easier, but the thing is that all of their memories get returned to him. Naruto doesn't really seem like someone who would have a natural talent for paper work (he'd probably rather burn it than do it), so I see headaches and tiredness abundant. Add in a clone with a rush of memories coming at your head like a bat to a pinata and you've got yourself a migraine, my friend.
Okay! I've been neglecting saying hello to my new sweet hearts, so here we go (if you're on here and I have already mentioned you before, I either forgot or think you're extra special):
odraudekire, Thank you my dear! You're comment helped a bit with the anxiety.
adiosToreador, Ahahahaha! A supporter! Thank you!
mightysmart97, You're such a sweetie, making me blush with your kid words. I'll get on your idea as soon as possible, sweet little dear one.
Pandatron, Thank you, and I do have fun writing these, and it just brightens up my day when lovely people like yourself tell me that they enjoy my writing as much as I do. And I do have a lot of ideas pertaining to Kurama and Naruto's relationship, so I'll write something just for you one day ;P
X-Venom, Thank you for the Mino love! I agree the poisoning was a bit... much, but Mino understood that it wouldn't do any permanent damage to his siblings and he also knew that it would be the perfect way to get back at them and get them to stop. All of the ruckus was starting to annoy him. And I'll definitely write more of Mino and Kaya because I love them so much.
Also, to my old sweetie Hektols: Love the new picture! It's so cute!
Things new with me: Getting ready for prom, getting ready for my AP test, trying to get my mom's party for my graduation together (it's more for her than for me. She wants a party, I don't, so I'm an excuse), reading T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland (This poem is astoundingly complex and long. I love it, it is so cool). Also thinking about wearing shorts now that it had started to warm up.
Oh Great Gatsby! This is my 90th actual chapter! We're almost to 100!
See you soon!