Nindō 0012: Birthday Girl (1/2)

Naruto currently had three main shadow clones doing his work, one of them was at the office to take care of the usual day-to-day tasks. Another, he had sent on an expedition to the Land of Whirlpools with a map to Uzushiogakure. As for the third, that one's job was the most troublesome of the lot. This one had to make more shadow clones and coordinate the large number of miscellaneous tasks that the clones would be doing. These were tasks that were either below even the threshold of D-rank missions or if the person who posted the job didn't have the money to issue a mission.

As for Naruto's real body, he was out with Himawari. The girl was sitting on his shoulders with her legs hanging from each side of his head as she held on to his hair like reigns.

"Tou-chan, can you take me to see what Boruto is doing?" Himawari asked. "I want to see him fight."

"Let me remember if I gave Team Konohamaru any combat-based missions today," Naruto said as he made a hand sign, it flared the chakra that was connected to his clone that was in the Hokage's office. The clone understood what was going on and created another clone before dispelling himself, sending Naruto his memory of the day until now.

"So, can we go?" Himawari asked as she felt Naruto stirring.

"I don't think there's anything to see right now. They're just going to be doing D-rank missions today. If you want to see Boruto running around to catch cats then we could go."

"No, that's boring," Himawari said. "Can't you give his team an emergency mission or something?"

Naruto burst out laughing, "My Hima was never so entitled, was she? You know I won't do such a thing."

"I know," The girl stuck out her tongue, leaning forward and resting her chin on Naruto's head as she wrapped her arms around his face. "I was just trying to see how far Tou-chan would go to indulge me."

"I will go as far as you want, Hima," Naruto said, "as long as your demands are reasonable."

"That doesn't mean anything." The girl said poutily and pulled her head back up, feeling that resting her chin on Naruto's head was uncomfortable on her back. "Let's start with ice cream, then."

"Whatever you say," Naruto nodded, moving toward the ice cream stall. "I'll take you to my favorite ice cream place. I don't usually get to eat that ice cream."

Before Himawari could answer, Naruto took a turn and quickly moved with determined steps, already sure of where he wanted to go. "Wee~" The daughter, on the other hand, merely laughed as she felt the wind on her face as it blew her hair back.

Eventually, the father-daughter duo found themselves in front of an ice cream shop, "Can I get a Kayoiau Kokoro popsicle?" Naruto said, handing some money to the shopkeeper.

"Please, Seventh-sama. I can't accept this …" It took Naruto a few seconds of convincing before the man accepted his money and started fishing for the popsicle in the freezer.

"Connecting Hearts …" Himawari spoke, "Why is the ice cream called that, Tou-chan? Shouldn't it be named according to the flavor?"

Naruto smiled at his daughter's question, "You'll see when we get the popsicle."

"Here you go, Seventh-sama." The man handed Naruto the wrapped popsicle.

"You aren't eating, Tou-chan?" Himawari saw that Naruto had only bought a single popsicle.

"Patience my daughter," Naruto said, patting Himawari's leg. He then tore open the popsicle wrapper, showcasing the two connected popsicles. Throwing away the wrapper, he addressed Himawari once again while splitting the two popsicles into two, "This is why I only got a single one." He raised his arm to allow Himawari to take the popsicle.

"Mm," She hummed after licking it, "it's good."

"I'm glad," Naruto said, taking a lick of his popsicle. "Back when I was training with your grandpa Jiraya, he would bring me one of these whenever I was too tired of training. He always amped me up about how my progress was very good and that I should keep going no matter what."

"Grandpa Jiraya," Himawari said, "he's the man with the white hair with whom you have a picture in the living room, right?"

"Yes," Naruto nodded, "as you know, your Grandpa Minato and Grandma Kushina were lost to us shortly after I was born. They had designated Jiraya-sensei as my godfather as a precautionary measure. And while he was mostly absent, he did look over me. In his own way."

"What's a godfather?" Himawari asked. "Do I have one?"

Naruto laughed at her words, but answered nonetheless, "A godfather is someone very close to both parents who will act as the guardian of the child in case the parents are unavailable for any reason," He explained. "And no, you don't have a godfather. But you do have a godmother. Your aunt Hanabi. She's both yours and your brother's godmother. And unlike Ero-sennin, she's going to be there to take care of you two in case we aren't there."

"Ero-sennin?" Himawari asked, "Which pervert are you talking about? And how can a perverted person be a sage?"

Naruto stuttered, "I'll tell you about it some other time," He said. "Finish your ice cream quickly, okay."

"Fine," Himawari said, focusing on the ice cream, "Grandpa Jiraya was one of the three Sannin, right?" She asked, recalling something. "Just like Granny Tsunade and Mister Orochimaru."

"Yes," Naruto nodded, "They taught you about them in the academy, right?"

"Yes," Himawari nodded, "Grandpa Jiraya wrote many books, too, right?" Before Naruto could panic, she continued, "Shino sensei recently taught us the Tale of the Gutsy Ninja. I was really surprised to hear that the main character in that story is called Naruto."

Naruto's panic morphed into a fond smile as he recalled the only story written by his sensei that he would ever allow Himawari to read, "Shino did well, deciding to teach you guys that story."

"Is that character based on you, Tou-chan?" Himawari asked. "The Naruto in the story."

"Quite the opposite actually, Hima," Naruto said with a reminiscing laugh, "My Nindō was inspired by that story. It was published before I was even born." As Naruto continued reminiscing about his past, he felt a chilled sensation touch the top of his head, causing his entire body to shiver. "Hima, eat it quickly or get down. Your ice cream is dripping on my head!"

The girl laughed hard at Naruto's exclaim as he tried to get her to eat it faster as more and more drops of her ice cream continued to fall in his hair.

"You guys are having fun, I see," Naruto heard a familiar voice that made him turn his head around. As the woman's blonde tuft of hair came into view, he smiled. He didn't realize that while talking to Himawari about Jiraya, he'd inadvertently made his way over to the Yamanaka Flower Shop.

"Ino, good morning," He greeted while making a hand sign. It caused a cold breeze to pass by, making Himawari shiver, and almost dropping her ice cream, but it served its purpose.

"It froze over …" Himawari realized, widening her eyes in wonder.

"Morning, Hokage-sama," Ino said slightly teasingly, waving her arm at him, "any special occasion today?" She asked him. "I don't usually see you so carefree."

Before Naruto could smile wryly at Ino's words, Himawari interjected, "It's my birthday, Aunt Ino," She said. "Tou-chan promised to spend the whole day with me."

"Really?" Ino said with a wide smile on her face. "Happy birthday, Himawari-chan. How old are you now?" She asked approaching Naruto and Himawari.

"Thank you, Aunt Ino," She said, "and I'm ten today."

"You're already so old," She smiled, "How about you come into the shop? Your aunt will give you a small gift." As she said the words, she grasped Naruto's arm and pulled him lightly.

"Tou-chan," Himawari said, patting Naruto's head, "Let's go."

"Fine," Naruto smiled indulgently as he followed along with Ino and came to the entrance of her shop. "Lower your head, Hima," He said, bending forward himself to make sure that Himawari wouldn't hit her head on the top of the doorframe as he entered Ino's shop. A mixture of multiple fragrances hit his nose, making him smile as he heard Himawari exclaiming about how fragrant the shop was.

"You can choose any one of the flowers here, Himawari-chan," Ino said with a smile, continuing to hold on to Naruto's arm, making him raise a brow. "I'll gift it to you."

"You really don't need to, Ino," Naruto said, trying not to take advantage of his friend.

"Nonsense," She said, lightly tracing her fingernail on his forearm, "As her aunt, it's my responsibility to give her a nice gift for her birthday. Come, you can look around, I have a huge variety of flowers."

"Thanks," Naruto said as he followed along with his daughter's whims, letting her go around the shop smelling all of them so that she could choose the one she liked the best. Ino stuck close to the duo for the entire time, explaining to Himawari about each of the flowers that the girl looked at.

Eventually, she did choose a flower that she liked, "I like that blue one the best. It smells nice and the color is the same as Tou-chan's eyes," Himawari said, prompting both Ino and Naruto to burst out laughing.

"As you wish, Himawari-chan," Ino said, "Do you want to wear this blue orchid in your hair or take it home to plant it?"

"I want to wear it in my hair," Himawari said excitedly, not aware that she had that option as well.

"All right, come on down from your father's shoulders, I'll fix it in your hair with clips so that it doesn't fall out," Ino said, grabbing a box from behind her counter along with a single blue orchid.

Himawari murmured to herself, "I don't want to get off …" Her words made Naruto smile.

"Then ask Ino to do it while you stay seated on my shoulders," He told her.

"Can I?" She asked him.

"Of course, I'm sure she won't mind. Just be confident yet polite, okay?" Naruto smiled, as he heard Himawari take a breath before she opened her mouth.

"Aunt Ino, can you let me stay on Tou-chan's shoulders while you put the flower in my hair?" She asked.

Ino noticed Naruto's look and realized that he was trying to get Himawari to be more confident with his and showed a smile to the little girl, "Of course, Himawari-chan. Naruto can sit on this chair while I put the flower in your hair."

"Thank you!" Himawari exclaimed happily.

***

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