Chapter Fourteen
Hima's Question
Prompt: Pain Arc
On a quiet, sunny Wednesday afternoon, the Seventh Hokage sat relaxed and content in the nook of his living room couch, tucked beneath the soft weight of his wife, lovingly petting the hard swell of the internal crib housing his twin boys.
Fresh from the shower following a hard day's work, stomach full of his Hinata's drool-worthy cooking, he'd settled in to watch a popular dram that had a very firm grip on wife's tumultuous emotions.
"So wait, did this guy fake his own death, or is that the evil twin?" he asked, eyes squinted in concentrated confusion, big hands stroking her belly.
She shook her head, her dark hair rubbing against his chest as she giggled in his lap, "neither, Naruto-kun, that's their long lost sibling."
He squinted again, brain crisscrossing to make sense of the moving parts, "but he looks just like the other one."
"Yes," she confirmed, snickering, "that's because they were triplets separated at birth."
His blonde brows crashed together, bottom lip falling into a pout, "so he's not the evil one? That makes no sense because he's trying to blow up a hospital, dattebayo."
"He is the evil one," Hinata said, bumping her fingers together as she added cheekily, "but he's the evil triplet not the evil twin ..."
Brow twitching, Naruto snagged the cute little button nose of his smart mouthed life partner between his fingers, grinning as the move added a piggy snort to her laughter, "you're splittin' hairs on purpose. Twins, triplet, quaddroplets, whatever! They all got the same face, and one of em's evil."
"Quadruplets," she nasally corrected as another piggy giggle bubbled from her throat.
"Are you really gonna keep going?!" he cackled, gently tugging her nose in punishment, "keep it up and you're gonna sound like a little piglet forever!"
"Fwoggy Fwiends!" a choirs of high pitched shouts exploded down the hall along side little feet.
Releasing his minx of a wife's nose, he returning his hand to the swell of her tummy as he watched his two youngest boys raced down the hall, Haruto holding a unfortunately familiar DVD case in his hand.
Froggy Friends.
The bane of every Konoha parent.
One of, if not the most popular kids show in the village that never got any less obnoxious each time he was forced to sit through it.
He could only assume both Kawaki and Boruto were watching television in the respective rooms having finally severed enough time in their grounding phased to get their TV privileges back, otherwise the two toddlers would have settled down to watch their godforsaken show in one the rooms they shared with the older boys.
"Fwoggy Fwiends!" Haruto shouted again, jumping up and down beside the couch, DVD held high over his flaming red head.
Maruto bounced in place on his little legs, doing that funny little baby bop all toddlers seemingly institutionally knew how to do, clapping his hands and chanting "fwoggy fwends!" right along side his brother.
Naruto exhaled a silent breath of exasperation, pouting when his wife stroked his arm in shared sympathy.
Hinata could tolerate it a lot longer than him, though he wasn't surprised, her patience had always been legendary.
Still, he needed a few minutes to cope.
"Your mother and I are watching our show," he informed the excited toddlers,"once it's over, we'll put Froggy Friends on for you and your brother."
"Kay," Maruto nodded before inviting himself to the domestic bliss huddle on the couch.
Hinata opened her arms for the little boy, lifting him up with the help of her husband, settling him nearly atop her belly in the grove her left side and the couch created.
"Awwwwww," Haruto pouted, turning wounded puppy dog eyes on his mother, "but I wanna watch it now, mama."
"Haruto," Naruto called, eyes and voice a low grade warning.
Naruto knew his short-tempered boy was gearing up for an afternoon toddler tantrum the moment he got a glimpse of the mutinous expression on his face.
Blue eyes already sparking, bottom lip jutting out in defiance.
Naruto knew that look all to well.
He was too much like his older brother, and way too much like his father had been as a child.
"Haruto," his mother called next, hand extended out to her redheaded baby, "come cuddle with mama."
With the efficiency of a wash cloth, his wife wiped that rebellious look right off their child's face, a more melancholy pleading expression painting his baby face.
"Don't want cuddies mama," the boy whined, holding up the colorful DVD case like she hadn't seen it the first time, "want moobie,"
"But mama wants cuddles, she only got one from her little man today," his wife insisted, "mama's sad without her cuddles."
Thin shoulders slumping, a hilarious mimicry of Boruto's 'mama defeated me' exasperated sigh leaving his chest, her designated 'little man' sat the DVD on the floor, mumbling a stretched out, "okayyyy," as he shuffled over to his awaiting mother.
He was definitely too much like his father.
Absolute putty in Hinata's hands.
Naruto chuckled, helping Haruto up to his wife's other side, half lying atop Naruto's abdomen.
Getting more comfortable deeper in his nook, Naruto stroked his hardheaded son's tiny back with his thumb as their combined weight settled into him.
Half an hour later, their show was over and Naruto was three minutes into pure torture.
He'd wanted grab Hinata and exit stage left the moment he put it on, but the boys insisted they needed to watch this move for the seven thousandth time along side with them.
His brain was starting to numb out though, so he was grateful for that.
However, luck was on his side.
An angel saved him from his torment.
"I'm home!"
"In here Hima!" he called out desperately.
Hinata paused the show with a subtle giggle.
Haruto popped up from his place besides his parents, eyes rapt on the hallway to watch his sister enter.
Naruto's little Princess skipped through the archway, smiling brightly and lighting up the room.
He held out a hand to her, scooping her into his side and the pile against his chest, laying a huge loving kiss to her crown as he gave her a one armed hug.
"Hima!" Haruto called, raising his arms to her.
Dipping down, Hima wrapped her arms around the young boy, smooching his pudgy cheeks with loud, exaggerated smacks.
His giggle rang out as she pulled back, her own mirth trilling from her lips.
"Hi mama," she greeted next, grinning cheekily at her mother.
"Welcome home, sweetheart," Hinata replied, her own smile vibrant.
"Maruuuuuu," Hima called, poking her quietly little brother in the side.
Maruto's answering giggle was as sweet as his brother's.
"And hello to you too little brothers I haven't met yet," Hima told her mother's extended belly, pressing a gentle kiss to the hardened mound.
Having greeted more than half the family, Hima turned to her father.
"Papa, do you know about the Pain Era?"
"Huh?" he asked, thrown off guard by the sudden question.
"Uh huh, when me and Inojin were at the park, some of the bigger kids were talking about it and pretending to you," she shared excitedly, "they said you beat him all by yourself and that it was the first time you saved the village!"
"The Pain Era, huh," Naruto parroted, a plethora of emotions rising to the surface, "guess it makes sense to call it that. Pain or rather, Nagato was the nuke-nin that destroyed the village when I was a teenager. He was the strongest person I'd ever gone against at the time, but I wouldn't say I beat him alone, there were many comrades that helped stop him."
Ever the sensitive empath, Hima's excited little face lost it's brightness as realization dawned, "wasn't...wasn't that the bad man that sent Grandpa Jiraiya to heaven?"
"Yes," he confirmed gravely.
"Oh..." she whispered, gaze dropping shamefully to her feet, "I'm sorry, papa, I didn't remember until just now..."
Hearted and humbled as he always by his only daughter's capacity for compassion, he chucked her chin with a smile, drawing her attention back to him.
"Ya know, mama saved papa that day, and it was actually the first time she told me that she loved me," Naruto admitted bashfully, tapping his rapidly pinking cheek as he spoke.
Like the sun parting dark skies, his daughter's face lit up, "really!?" she turned to her mother, "did you really mama?!"
Hinata nodded, smiling sweetly, though she blushed just as sweet.
"And then you two fell in love?" Hima continued, eyes wide with rising happiness.
Naruto blinked, an uncomfortable burn rising along his nape, "uh, well, not exactly...I never...uh replied to her confession at the-"
"What do you mean you never responded," Boruto barked across the room.
"Where'd you come from?" Naruto asked.
"Heard Hima come in, dattebasa! Answer the question old man! You never answered mom?!"
"Uh, not at the tim-"
"You never told her you love her, papa?" Hima gasped, horrified.
"Huh?" Naruto sputtered, "no, I-"
"Papa doesn't wub mama?" Haruto whined, bottom lip trembling.
Maruto looked over at his brother, and whether or not he fully understood what had been said or not, he too started lip wobbling.
Before he knew it, every child of his under the age of five erupted into tears.
Even the twins beneath his hand churned with what he could only assume to be fetal outrage. He didn't even want to begin to wonder what that meant if they truly could sense the emotions in the room to that extent.
He had his hands more than full with the children outside his wife's womb.
"N-No, that's not it," Naruto bumbled over the loud crying, " Maruto, Haruto, Hima, Boruto, papa lo-"
"How could you not love mom, dad!" Boruto jumped in, ready to go to bat for his sweet mother, "mom's like the most sweetest most prettiest girl in the world, dattebasa!"
"Mom's kind to everyone," Kawaki put in, when the hell he'd strolled in, Naruto had no clue, "and she spoils you all the time!"
"Cooking and cleaning," Boruto listed.
"Doing your laundry and ironing your cloak," Kawaki continued.
"And whenever you're super busy and can't have lunch with her, she brought it to you before Auntie Sakura put her on bed rest!" Hima injected.
"She gibs papa biggggg smoochie all the time!" a teary eyed, snot dribbling Haruto put in.
A brief silence rolled in, and as one, his children's heads turned to the quietest member of their family, their gazes expectant, looking for the last piece of reinforcements to speak up.
Put on the spot, the dark haired boy blinked like an owl, his wet eyes moving from one sibling to another before he squared his itty bitty shoulders and finally forced, "a-an...and she lubs papa!"
His voice was the loudest their ever heard, his tear-stained cheeks burning as though he was embarrassed by its volume.
"That's right, Maruto!" Boruto cheered proudly, ruffling the shy boy's head before turning to glare at his father, "divorce that mean old man, mom!" Boruto insisted, grabbing his flustered but amused mother's hand, "we'll get our own house and all of us will get jobs until we're old enough to take mission, and take care of you ourselves!"
His children all nodded in agreement of Boruto's master plan.
"Woah, woah, you guys have got it all wrong, dattebayo! Papa does love mama! I just didn't know it until I got older, and when I did, I confessed to her properly!" he shouted, grabbing his wife and peppering her face with smacking kisses until she erupted into giggles, his own lips curled, and he could help laying a slightly longer smooch on her plump lips, his eyes softening as he pulled back and stared into her sparkling eyes, "see. I love mama, more than anything!"
"Bleh! Get a room dad!" Boruto fake gagged.
"Bleh, bleh, bleh," Haruto mimicked, though it was clear he didn't know why, big brother was doing it and that was good enough reason for him, "get a woom, papa!"
Boruto rolled his eyes at his little copycat, but good-naturedly ruffled the little boy's hair, muttering, "pipe down pipsqueak."
Haruto grabbed his brother's bigger hand with both of his, pouty face glaring as he declared, "I not pipsweek, I'm big boy!"
"You're a tiny little pipsqueak," Boruto laughed.
Next thing they knew, Haruto jumped on the older boy, wrestling around in an effort to prove he was a big boy.
Naruto sighed, shaking his head at their antics.
He opened his mouth to tell them knock it off but Haruto beat him to it, hopping off his big brother onto the floor.
"What's wrong, buddy?" Naruto asked, concerned with the abrupt stop.
"I gotta go potty, dattebana!" Haruto whined, holding his bottom and doing the 'gotta go potty' dance the Uzumaki children were famous for.
"Then go potty!" Boruto huffed, "what are you standing around here for?"
Haruto sprinted to his potty and Naruto shook his head as the room erupting into laughter.
UFUFUFUFUF
Slice of life Blank Period-Boruto era just won't leave me aloneeeeee, this was NOT what I was supposed to be writing right now, nor was it what I was gonna write for this topic, but here it is. No apologies, lmao. Hope you enjoyed because I did!
Laters!
~Sessakag