Chapter 10

Father-Daughter Day

It was after noon when the blonde reached his home in Konoha. "Yeah, yeah. I get that bye~" he slammed the door, irritated. All the way, Kakashi was so excited that the blonde was getting fed up with him. What was the cause of this? Well, Naruto asked him to visit the three young Uzumaki-Uchiha for the next few days. Of course, the silver-haired man agreed immediately.

When the blonde entered the house, something did not suit him. It was quiet, too quiet for him. He took a breath and pushed the black scripts away from him. "I'm back!" he shouted his chest, smiling as he waited for a response. A moment later he heard footsteps and saw his only daughter running towards him to hug him tightly. It surprised him a bit, he was rarely at home, he had practically no time for his family, but his daughter never acted like that.

"What's wrong, princess?" he asked worriedly, hugging the girl. Her behavior really upset him, it seldom did, even though his friends said it was fairly normal for children her age. "Boruto and Kawaki left after we finished cleaning and I was left alone with mom." she began calming down in the embrace of her father. "I'm not mad at them, just..." she hesitated. The three of them, her brothers and her, for a long time noticed their mother's strange behavior, frequent going out, shopping as a gift for friends, wearing different clothes, doing less chores at home, rarely, but it happened that she did not even pay attention to the children she was so absorbed in something and neither of them knew what.

"Mom's gone too." she said finally, hiding her face. Naruto froze, not being sure if he heard it right, yes it happens, sometimes you have to leave for an urgent matter, but you don't leave your child alone at home! "When did she leave?" he asked keeping a kind of calmness, 'Hinata, she couldn't have left her alone for how long, right?' Did he doubt his wife? No, he never doubted her, but after the years he had to take care of three children himself, even he had a kind of red light in his head. "Moments after Boruto and Kawaki." The blonde had to strain his hearing, because the girl was still holding her head against him, which made her speech less understandable, but he could not believe it. He was angry, maybe he wasn't the best example of a parent, he was a shitty parent and he knew it, but for God's sake!

"Himawari, I want you to be honest." he spoke, trying to sound calm, even though his daughter knew it wasn't like that anyway, she could feel it. She pulled away slightly and looked into her father's eyes. She had the impression that the clear blue sky was just turning into a sudden storm, yet she did not look away. "How often does this happen?" he asked, looking directly into the girl's eyes. It was a thing he learned years ago, most people can't lie when you look them in the eye.

The girl was silent, once she agreed with her brothers that they would not tell their father until something happened or they would have a good proof on whatever their mother is doing. However, neither of them would have thought that their father would be specifically working from home to spend more time with them. "Usually once a week," she replied, looking down. This surprised him, once a week his wife disappeared without a word. "B-but I'm usually at the Academy at the time so it's okay." a sad smile appeared on her face, as the blonde knew him well. Not wanting to scare his daughter, he sighed to control his emotions. "How about if we spend the rest of the day alone? Just me and you, princess. " he said with a smile. He didn't want to scare her, and he had nothing better to do anyway. Besides, it's nice to spend time with someone who isn't yelling or hitting every now and then, or has some accusations against you.

"Re-really !?" The little blue-eyed girl raised her voice in surprise. She was sure that her father was about to call her mother or brothers, if they had no mission, and ordered to go home immediately, after which he would go to work himself, but she did not expect that he would come up with such a proposal. "Really." he said smiling from ear to ear, that was a really nice reaction. "This will be our father-daughter day, okay?" He didn't need to say anything else, Himawari immediately agreed and took him to her room to play together.

Time passed them slowly and calmly, the blonde was sitting on the floor and listening to his daughter's stories, about her friends, about what she had learned and what she had problems with and about how her time at the academy was going, at the same time the girl was combing her Father's hair, which were longer than they looked, reached to the man's shoulders. She didn't know her father had such long hair, not that anyone has known, because he usually pinned it in such a way that it looked cut short. Himawari tied the man's hair into two ponytails tied with pink bows. "How do you like it?" she asked excitedly, waiting for an opinion on her work while Naruto was looking at himself in the mirror. 'This is probably the moment I should start to regret my long hair,' he thought, looking at his reflection, he sincerely wanted to cry, mostly laughing. "Cute." he sent his daughter a smile, an uncertain smile, the girl just giggled and said that she was glad. "Mum rarely lets me play with her hair, so I thought I should practice more." she admitted with a smile.

"Hmm, how about if we go for a walk?" he wanted to change the subject, and besides, sitting in one place all day is not healthy, he knows it best. "Can we go get ice cream?" At first he was not convinced, given that the girl had told him to stay in what he called 'cute hairstyle'. But he agreed to whatever she wanted anyway, she was his little princess after all, how could he say no?

The evening was slowly approaching, when in the park you could hear the loud laughter of the daughter of 7 Hokage, who asked her father for a piggyback ride, the blonde, of course agreed. Himawari had to admit that it had been one of the better days in a long time. Instead of spending the day with her mother, or rather spending the day waiting for her mother or brothers, she spent the whole day playing with her father, having a lot of fun doing it. The ride ended at the fountain, where the girl said that she had enough, she was worried if the blonde was too tired. "It was very funny!" she announced with a broad smile. However, what she liked most was her father's smile, she had to admit that the blonde had a unique smile. "I'm glad."