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Hinata sighed as she bounced the very fussy, very colicky baby. Boruto was 6 months old now, but he almost never stopped wailing and whining. Not to mention, the child was strange in the sense he almost never slept. Hinata had always wanted two children like her and her sister, as she felt that sort of bond was very important, but after this baby she wasn’t so sure.
She placed him in his highchair just for a few moments as she took their dinner out and prepared it for the oven. Both she and Naruto had forgotten to go food-shopping. He because he seemed to not really understand you couldn’t live off of ramen alone. Herself because she’d always had servants who shopped for her families food. Having to do domestic tasks with just Naruto, who wasn’t very good at them himself had been an issue for them. They liked to joke they had “lots of love between them and no common sense.” That was true, and a cute thing to bond over while dating but it had to change now that they had their little ball of fury. Acting like adults was hard, but they were working on it. She was gonna be a great cook by the time Boruto could discern between what was good and what was bad. She’d made a resolute promise to herself on that. Right now though his screaming was reaching a pitch she was sure could shatter glass. She shoved the macaroni into the oven, trying to reread the recipe she’d printed but it was all blurring together. She was sure it was fine, going to pull the screaming baby out of his chair. He stilled when she went to hold him. Cooing happily in Hinata’s arms. The reprieve only lasted for maybe 30 seconds before he started up again. She swore he was doing it to test her.
She let out an exasperated moan, rubbing her temples with her one free(ish) hand. She brought him into the living room and sat down on her couch. The soft cushioning a welcome relief on her tired body.
Looking at the table in front of her one of the papers caught her eye. She picked up the pamphlet on her cocktail table and squinted, reading it again (She’d read it many times since she’d been given it) reverently as Boruto continued to wail. ‘Colic usually reaches its peak at 6-8 weeks after birth. Colic ends for 50% of cases around 3 months and in 90% of cases by 9 months of age.’ Boruto let out a particularly shrill wail. She sighed. It would be over soon right? It had to be. The pamphlet said so.
Their doctor, who she had seen about last week was Sakura. Sakura always seemed so…put together with medical issues. A completely different person from her friend Sakura. Dr. Haruno never had a hair out of place and always had a calm, friendly bedside manner. She just could not be rattled. Even as Hinata listened her many, many worries for how exactly Boruto was doing. Sakura always had a comforting remark and an educational response. Hinata knew it was lucky she and Naruto had such a smart friend. She didn’t usually deal with babies, but for her and Ino she had taken on their care personally. Hinata knew it was more because she was best friends with Naruto, but her and Sakura had become come quite close in their later teens, as Sakura was around almost all the time. Even right after having a baby of her own Sakura hadn’t lacked on Hinata’s care. She didn’t get much help either, as far as Hinata could see, as Sasuke spent most of his time away from Konoha. How did she do it? It must be the babies temperament. Hinata threw her head back and sighed as she bounced the screaming child on autopilot. Sakura had handed her a bunch of pamphlets at the end of her last visit, saying this was normal, and Boruto was a very healthy baby! “Easy for her to say, her baby was near perfect.” Hinata thought, irritable from lack of sleep. She hadn’t seen Sarada cry once! Inojin was a little more fussy but all the other kids seemed easier to take care of then Boruto. As if to punctuate this point the little blonde baby balled up his tiny fist around a bit of Hinata’s hair and pulled. Hard. “Oww…ow ow…Owww…please baby,” Hinata pleaded weakly as she moved his little hands away, watching as strands of her hair fell to the floor.
Hinata rubbed her head and scolded herself for such a mean thought. Sakura was her friend and her expertise helped her immensely. Besides, her own husband was out right now getting groceries. She had help. That was right, Hinata thought as a smile subconsciously appeared on her face. Naruto would be home soon.
Boruto slapped her back to reality, now swinging his arms wildly as he wailed. She sighed. She was still overtired, overworked and just wanted a nap desperately. Maybe if she just closed her eyes for a second. Just as she started dozing off despite the noise…She heard the door burst open.
“I’m back!” Naruto came crashing through the door, groceries in hand and a large smile on his face. He was practically bouncing up and down. He was always so sweet and joyful, bringing sunshine to a room, even if she was dead tired.
“You okay Naruto?” She murmured as she watched him race into the kitchen and put the groceries away. “Oh yeah! I’m awesome! They had a two for one sale on energy drinks at the store! So I got two 4 packs! Drank one! I feel amazing!”
“They good?” She called towards the kitchen. Boruto was now teething on her shirt. At least he wasn’t crying. She heard the fridge slam and Naruto ran in. He practically pounced onto the couch. “They taste pretty bad actually but I powered through it, turns out they’re super great! I’ve never had one before!”
He corrected, still smiling brightly. He’d almost hit her and the baby in his acrobatic display of flipping onto the couch. He was jittery, gesturing for him to hold the baby. A generally bad idea while he was this hyper. She shook her head. After a moment of thought she responded,
“Mmm I think he’s calming down love. let’s not risk moving him unnecessarily,”
Naruto seemed to be disappointed for a moment, and then beamed. “That’s awesome then! If the little guy is all chilled out we should go a date tonight Hinata! I have so much energy! We could go dance or train together or something! We should it would be fun! When’s the last time we did something just the two of us?” Hinata glanced at the clock. 6 pm. It was pretty short notice to find a babysitter, but the baby calming down was rare, and looking at his joyful smile it was genuinely hard to say no.
“Hmm, I’d love to, it would be nice to get out of the house even for just an hour or so…but Kiba is on a mission, it’s not fair to dump him on Kurenai when it’s so late and she has Mirai, and Shino has been studying nonstop,”
Naruto deflated for only a split second before bouncing back. “Sakura’s probably busy…Iruka’s helping Shino…I know wait! I’ll call Kakashi” Hinata reflected, on the name put forth. An image of the man reading porn on her couch was conjured up. Another one of him holding the baby like one would hold a pizza as his husband frantically attempted to correct him. Yet another of him looking at Boruto scream his little head off because his binkie had fallen out. Instead of reaching for it, he had looked at Hinata before remarking with a laugh, “He’s quite annoying isn’t he?”
“No.” Hinata said in an abnormally firm tone. Naruto sighed. “I gotta burn off some energy.” He turned around abruptly. “Speaking of burning, do you smell that?” She did smell that. That distinct smell of fire reaching her nostrils. “Oh darn it!” She exclaimed. She wanted to ooze onto the floor and disappear. She’d been distracted and overtired and she had burned the macaroni. Naruto was already on it, bolting across the house to pull it out, the smell of smoke filling the house. Maternal instincts taking over she pressed her shirt to the babies face. “Mommy’s so silly” she whispered, irritated with herself. Smoke seemed to be pouring out endlessly from the kitchen, grey tendril after grey tendril billowing outwards. Hinata’s grip around Boruto tightened and she ran out to the patio.
After a few minutes Naruto reappeared, looking slightly singed but victorious, his shirt pulled up over his nose and mouth. “Everything’s fine! I got it all fixed! Had to dump the food though, and it smells real bad in there. I’d wait to go in !” “My hero,” she replied sleepily, leaning into him. Naruto blushed and laughed a little. “It…it was nothing,” he murmured, kissing the top of her head. The baby let out a loud “Guuuu!” Naruto grinned at him. “I know buddy!” She managed to laugh weakly. “I’m so sorry Naruto,” she finally murmured, face bright red. “What a stupid thing to do…I’m so sorry.” “Nah don’t be sorry, and you’re not stupid at all Hina,” he said with a reassuring smile. “We all make mistakes ya know? You know how many times I almost burned my house down when I lived alone babe?” She looked up at him, a tiny smile on her face. “How many times?” His grin widened. “More then the times I actually started fires, but not by a huge amount,” Hinata giggled, leaning against him for a moment more. “We gotta move, or were gonna have to spend the night at someone’s house, it’s bad in there” he murmured into her hair. Images of her childhood bedroom came to mind, much bigger then her one she shared with Naruto, and a wave of genuine fear hit her. “Let’s go,” she said.
They went, jumping down off the balcony and began opening all the windows and doors to air out their home. Boruto was surprisingly manageable, seeming to enjoy the bouncing around and outdoor air, cooing and laughing through it all. When they finished she was somehow even more bone tired then when she had started. Sleeplessness was clinging to her, and if the house needed to air out it looked like she wasn’t going to going to get to a reprieve anytime soon. That’s when she noted Naruto running towards them, hands full of blankets, pillows and a baby bottle. “What’s all that?” She asked, yawning. “It’s our date! I thought of it as I was opening the windows!!” She hummed, trying to have a coherent thought that didn’t just wander off into nothingness was hard as exhaustion pulled at her.
“Wait here! Trust me Hina this is gonna be great!” She nodded and gave him a smile, utterly unable to say no to her cheerful husband despite the desire to faceplant into the grass and crash. He did that to her at the worst times.
Finally Naruto reappeared and clutched her hand. He handed Boruto the bottle which the child greedily accepted with a happy “Baba!!”. Hinata and Naruto had tried so hard to get the baby to say “Mama” or “Dada” first. They’d made a little competition out of it, that admittedly they may have gotten too into, both repeating “Momma” and “Daddy” to the petulant blonde nonstop. So they had both been pretty crestfallen when the baby decided to say “baba” or bottle as his first word. Right now however the bottle was a god send, as it was keeping him quiet and sated.
As Naruto lead her into their backyard. She could see all the blankets and pillows setup in a little nest. Naruto was gesturing over to it proudly.
“I thought we could watch just relax and watch the stars.” He looked at her hopefully, as if waiting for her approval. “That’s a wonderful idea Naruto,” She said, beaming. They swaddled the baby in a blanket of his own and placed him down on Naruto’s right, as they all laid on the blanket Naruto laid out. She could tell Boruto would fall asleep on his own now, the excitement of the day wearing on him. She laid back in Naruto’s lap, leaning back and looking up at him. He was looking at the stars. With the fairy lights she’d strung up in the backyard, it wasn’t as easy to see them as they would be without the light, but this was perfectly fine. The large constellations were still quite visible. Looking at the stars always made her think of Neji, and her mother. Were they looking down on her? She thought so, especially when the stars were out, she could feel their presence around her. She was so blessed, surrounded by loved ones, even those who passed were never really gone. As if on cue Naruto wrapped his arms around her. She wondered what he was thinking about, if the stars made him think of those past too. Instead of voicing her thoughts she leaned back and brought her hand to his face. “Sorry we didn’t get that alone time you wanted,” She murmured. He grinned tiredly, obviously the sugar high of the drink he’d had wearing off. “Ah it’s fine. This is really nice.” He leaned back into the pillows successfully pulling her down with him as he went. She slid off of his chest and snuggled into his side. Then she leaned upwards and kissed his jawline. He was so handsome. She had always thought so, even when they were younger. He looked down at her with adoration, it made her feel so loved. “You make this so easy,” He said, half to himself. She kissed him again, closer to his lips, with a trace of mischief in her smile. “I’m easy?” He laughed at that. “No!” His eyes darted back towards the sky. “You’re easy to love. You let me love you. You never push me away, I never push you away. We love each other and…It’s nice to have that…that…” He trailed off, as if he couldn’t find the exact words he wanted. Finally he looked back at her.
“I just love you Hinata.”
He said it a lot, but every time he did it made her heart soar. She shifted a little, “I love you too Naruto, so much,” she replied softly. “Your happiness means everything to me,” she said quietly, more into his shirt then directly to him. His hand was running through her dark hair. With his other hand she watched, half asleep as he pulled another blanket over the three of them. She could feel herself falling asleep, surrounded by love. The last image she registered before sleep took her fully was stars above, and a bit of his sleepy face. It had turned into a lovely night.
~
They probably were laying there for around 30 minutes before Boruto started screaming. Naruto and Hinata looked at each other and laughed. You take what you can get.