Chapter 13: Nindō 0013: Birthday Girl (2/2)
'I should've thought this through before deciding to use the moment as a confidence-boosting exercise for Himawari. Though, in hindsight, it's more Ino's problem than mine. She's the one putting her chest in my face …'
Naruto sat on the seat as Ino fixed Himawari's flower in his daughter's hair, putting it up with hair clips. He'd initially thought that the blonde woman would come up from behind to put the flower in Himawari's hair, but she seemed to have had other plans. She directly came up to him and stood in front of him before telling him to lean forward.
Not thinking much, he leaned forward, but Ino did the same, almost brushing her chest against his cheek as he raised a brow. He didn't react, expecting her to step back, but she didn't do that. Completely ignoring the inappropriateness of the situation, she started fixing the flower in Himawari's hair. At some point, she leaned further forward, essentially pressing her chest on his face. It didn't take a genius to realize what Ino was doing. The Naruto from eternities past might have acted differently, maybe even reprimanding Ino for her actions, but the current Naruto? He understood that Ino was most likely doing this as a way to express that she wanted something from him. Something that, under normal circumstances, he would refuse without a second thought and she was willing to use sexual favors to convince him otherwise.
He didn't react to her actions, pretending as if he didn't notice anything, allowing Ino to continue fixing the flower in Himawari's hair. She made far more contact with him than what would be considered normal among friends. Her arm would brush against his ear for longer than necessary, her breasts would occasionally rub on his face, and she even had her leg extended forward, touching his thigh with her knee for pretty much the whole duration. Eventually, she did pull back, allowing Naruto to notice the suppressed hints of embarrassment on the woman's face.
'I don't have any memory of her having the kind of problem that would require her to seduce me like this,' Naruto thought, narrowing his eyes at her expression. She looked down, realizing that her target had caught on to the very blatant hints that she was giving him. Her awkward body language told him she was most likely somewhat desperate for whatever she wanted from him and was doing this as a sort of last resort.
"How does it look, Himawari?" After that knowing look, Naruto seemed to completely ignore the situation with Ino.
"Aunt Ino, is there a mirror here?" The birthday girl asked, pulling Ino out of her reverie.
"Y-yes. I have a small one in my purse," She said before pulling out a small hand mirror from her purse, "How does it look?" She asked, trying to pretend that there was nothing weird about the situation.
"It's amazing!" The girl exclaimed with sparkling eyes that seemed to calm Ino down somewhat.
"Also," The woman spoke, "you don't have to worry about it falling out of your hair. I put in the clips in a way that it will only come off if you take off the clips. You can ask your mother for help with that."
"Mm hm," Himawari nodded, "Thank you, Aunt Ino."
Naruto also stood up, holding onto Himawari's legs so that she wouldn't fall from his movement, "We should get going, Ino. See you later."
"O-okay," She replied with a light smile, "You should come by sometime. Buy some flowers for your wife. I know what kind Hinata likes the most."
"I'll take you up on that offer," Naruto said with a knowing smile. "You can count on it." With those words, he left the shop, bending a little to make sure that Himawari wouldn't hurt her head.
"This flower looks so good, Tou-chan," Himawari exclaimed.
"It should," Naruto said, "this is a blue orchid. We don't find it anywhere near Konoha, so Ino must've had a batch imported from the Land of Water. This flower that she gifted you is actually very expensive."
"Really?" Himawari spoke.
"Yeah," Naruto nodded, "So thank her when you see her again, okay?"
"Okay, Tou-chan," She nodded, "Where are we going next?"
…
Naruto spent the rest of the day going around Konoha with Himawari, making sure that she was able to enjoy her time with him to the fullest.
"All right, what gift do you want from your Tou-chan?" Naruto asked Himawari. "How about a huge teddy bear that's one size larger than your biggest one."
The girl giggled, "It won't even be able to fit into our house, Tou-chan," She said.
"Who am I?" Naruto asked rhetorically. "I'm your father, I can do anything. Just tell me if you want the teddy or not, You'll find it inside your room when we get back home."
"I want it," Himawari said excitedly, "but you aren't allowed to skimp out on your promise to teach me the jutsu to recognize your shadow clones. You still have to teach me that."
"Don't you worry, I haven't forgotten my promise," Naruto said, "But we can only do that after the Chunin exams. I'm going to be very busy in the coming days and won't be able to teach it to you so quickly."
"As long as you remember to teach it to me," Himawari said. "Are we going to go home now?" She asked.
"Yeah," Naruto said with a nod, "unless there's something else that you want to do?"
"There is one more thing," Himawari spoke with a yawn. "Can we pick up Onii-chan on the way home?"
"Sure, we can do that. They should already be done with the day's missions, so we'll probably find them at the square with that burger place that Boruto likes so much," Naruto said as Himawari hummed happily.
As Naruto approached the square, he noticed the three young genin that he and Himawari were looking for. At the same time, his eyes also caught another figure standing on the balcony of a high building. Clad in a white lab coat, the chubby man was looking at Boruto and his two teammates with a look of success. 'This Katasuke …' Naruto snorted, aware of the man's predicament. Still, he wasn't planning to empathize with him. The scientist was going to cause more trouble later on.
Soon, Naruto was in earshot of the trio's conversation, able to make it out despite the hubbub of the traffic filling the market area.
"If all three of us don't sign up, then none of us can participate," Sarada spoke, agitated, "You have to fill out the form, Boruto."
'Didn't he say that he had already agreed to participate during dinner yesterday?'
"Yeah, I'll do it later," The blonde shrugged her words off, making Sarada grunt in annoyance.
"Hey," She grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to stop in his tracks, "think about it," She said, "We can use this competition to show Seventh-sama how amazing the three of us are. I'm sure he would love to see us give our everything in the competition."
Boruto didn't respond for a few seconds as if deep in thought, "Tsk," He clicked his tongue, "Okay, already. You want me to take part with you guys, right? I'll do it," He said. "Help me fill out the form."
The three of them found a bench and sat down as Sarada continued speaking, "I understand that his neglect may hurt you, but your father's pretty amazing. Shouldn't you be a little more understanding?"
"Well, what about yours?" Boruto asked, "I remember my dad saying that your father is like the Other Hokage."
"At least yours is in the village and you get to see him occasionally," Sarada said. "Mine is never even there. The first time he met me he thought I was an enemy ninja. Pointed his sword right at my throat." She hid her bitterness behind a dry slightly sarcastic tone.
Hearing the words of their teammate, Boruto and Mitsuki's eyes met as the white-haired one spoke, "My parent has also told me that Sarada's father is the only one in the village who can rival Seventh-sama in combat ability."
"Really?!" Boruto's head whipped to Mitsuki instantly.
"At least that's what my parent told me," Mitsuki said, not that confident in his words. He'd attended the ninja academy in Konoha, where there was no mention of Sasuke, whereas Naruto's name as the strongest shinobi of the generation was lauded around everywhere. It was understandable that he wasn't very confident in his words.
"Who are your parents?" Sarada had another curiosity, "I don't think I've even seen them. They weren't even present for your graduation."
Before the trio's conversation could continue, Himawari's exclaim sounded out, "Onii-chan!" Sitting atop Naruto's shoulders, she waved her arm at her brother. "It's my birthday today, remember? Let's go home."
The three turned to look at Himawari, only to see the Hokage himself standing close to them.
"Seventh-sama," Both Mitsuki and Sarada greeted respectfully, standing up from their positions.
"Coming, Hima," Boruto, on the other hand, didn't bother to show his father even a modicum of respect. "Old man, it seems that you saw the light and decided to spend time with Hima on her birthday."
"Contrary to what you think, Boruto," Naruto smiled, "I do care for and love my family very much. Hinata, Hima and even you are all very important to me, even if I don't show it at times."
"What are you saying?" Boruto was quick to get embarrassed like a shy virgin at his father's genuine expression of love and stood up from his seat. "I'll be off, guys," He said to his teammates before jogging toward Naruto and Himawari.
"See you tomorrow," Mitsuki waved at him as Sarada hesitated to say something to Naruto.
'Should I ask him?'
As the girl was going through a dilemma, she heard Naruto's voice in her ear as if he'd spoken while standing right beside her, [I'm expecting to see you in my office in an hour, Sarada. You can help me out with some paperwork.] The young kunoichi's head whipped around, only to see nothing while Naruto was still walking away from her along with Himawari.
"Mitsuki, did you hear anything?" She asked, feeling a chill in the back of her neck.
"What? No," He told her as Sarada's gaze focused on Naruto's back.
'How weird…'
***
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