Chapter Text
Naruto felt a hand smack his face early in the morning. The blonde groaned and opened his eyes, seeing a dark blonde child sleeping next to him. The girl was six years old and wearing a light blue nightgown. She was sleeping so peacefully and yet sprawled out, with her arms stretched out and a leg over his leg.
“Ai? When did you sneak into my bed?” Naruto asked as he looked at his clock and saw it was 6 in the morning. He groaned and sat up. He gently shook her up, and the girl grumbled incoherently before she turned to her side and remained asleep.
Naruto sighed and lifted the girl and crawled out of bed. He walked into the hall and opened the door to his right, revealing a beautiful children’s room. It was a “welcome home” gift from his friends as they were happy Naruto was reunited with his child. The walls were white but there were some cute wall hangings with rabbits in the art and she had a bed that was probably a little bigger than she needed but she would grow into it with pink covers and pillows. His friends were also generous enough to help Naruto buy things kids liked such as toys.
He laid the girl down and pulled the blanket up to the her chest, and looked around for a stuffed animal companion before setting eyes on a hand-stitched brown rabbit — a gift from Iruka.
He laid the toy next to Ai and the girl seemed to sense the presence of the toy since she turned and hugged it close to her.
Naruto smiled and let out a yawn, going back to bed himself. He’d been up all night reading and he only had a few hours of shut-eye. So he was going back to bed.
Ever since Ai moved back to the village, Naruto thought he was being too clingy with the girl, at least she wouldn’t react to his hugs and kisses as well as he thought she would, but he always had to have some contact with the girl. Handholding and carrying in one form or another.
But Ai was also being a tad clingy herself. She never complained when she was being carried or held hands, and she had a habit of crawling into bed with him to sleep. Naruto had been reading some parenting books since he was out of the game a bit and one of the things he read about was that co-sleeping was a big no-no, especially for younger children. He remembered reading something similar when Ai was a baby and he always made sure she was in her crib and the worse he’d ever done was bring the crib next to his bed.
Now, Ai was purposely crawling into his bed after he’d fallen asleep.
As Naruto got back into his bed, he tried to fall asleep, but he soon heard the door open and a sleepy child walked in. She immediately began to crawl into bed but Naruto was quick to shut it down. “No Ai,” he said as she was on the bed. “Go back to your room. You sleep in there.”
Ai lowered her head a bit, looking uneasy. “I don’t like sleeping by myself,” she admitted.
“I know it’s hard but it’s for the best,” Naruto said and was ready to get up but Ai got off the bed. She was upset but she didn’t cry. Naruto hadn’t seen her cry since she’d been let out of the hospital. She’d been holding in a lot of her emotions and before he could say or ask something, the girl ran out of the room and slammed the door shut.
Naruto sighed. He was warned how tough this was going to be.
Naruto looked at his child with concern. No six-year-old should have bags under their eyes. So why did Ai? He was making her some breakfast when the girl sat at the table quietly. She avoided eye contact and Naruto didn’t like this development. Maybe she was just tired?
“Ai, do you still take naps?” Naruto asked causally as he finished his first pancake. He was expanding his menu and having a child gave him an excuse to do that. Making different foods. So today was pancakes with eggs.
“Only babies need naps,” Ai said with a quiet voice, still avoiding looking at Naruto.
“Well if you wanna take one today, you can tell me,” he said. “I’m just going to be reading some more boring materials for most of the day at the academy. So maybe you wanna come and see the ninja academy?”
Ai nodded obediently. She had nothing better to do. As it was, she was on Naruto’s schedule and she was often bored when he went to go study.
Naruto made a few pancakes and eggs and handed his child a plate. “Let me know if they’re good Ai,” Naruto said with a smile.
Ai looked at the food and began to push the plate away. “I’m not hungry,” she said but a loud growl contradicted that.
Naruto smiled still but his eyebrow was twitching. “What’s wrong? You didn’t even try it,” he said.
“I don’t wanna eat,” Ai stated firmly and she tried to get up from the table but Naruto wouldn’t let her leave. “Nope! You’re staying here and you’re going to eat breakfast,” Naruto insisted.
Ai moaned a bit but she began to eat. The child looked miserable as she did. The blonde parent sighed and asked, “What’s wrong with it?”
“I don’t taste anything,” Ai admitted.
That was an eye-opener. Naruto grabbed his fork and cut a bit off for himself to taste. It was a decent pancake and he could taste the syrup just fine. He looked at Ai, “I can taste it just fine. Now finish up and we can get ready for the day,” Naruto said.
Ai’s lips quivered as she forced herself to take another bite.
“Can I go see Daddy?” Ai asked innocently as she was walking with Naruto. They were holding hands, on their way to the ninja academy and Naruto frowned. “No Ai. Remember what I said? Your Daddy is in trouble and part of his punishment is not seeing you,” Naruto reiterated. Honestly, he wished she would stop asking about Sasuke. To the blonde, she sounded almost as bad as Sakura. It was as though Ai was obsessed with the man. ‘Where’s Daddy’ ‘I wanna see Daddy’ ‘Can I see Daddy?’ It crawled under his skin.
But he knew Ai was raised by him — even if Sasuke stole her away, he did raise her.
“Ai,” Naruto spoke and looked at the girl. He saw how sad she was. He sighed and asked, “what were some of the things you and your daddy did together?”
It was the first time since trying ramen that the girl had a spark in her eyes. “Daddy is amazing! He would dress me and train me. Oh and he would tuck me in and snuggle with me at night and tell me stories and take me everywhere he went!”
Naruto was genuinely surprised. Sasuke didn’t sound like a bad dad after all. But that was out of content. Naruto knew Sasuke couldn’t shield her from some horrible things while in the darkness. Maybe she just doesn’t remember them?
“Did Daddy ever hurt you?” Naruto asked.
“No! Daddy protected me! Always!” Ai raved. “He’s the best daddy in the world.”
Naruto faltered a bit and wish he knew how to connect to his child. Maybe sharing stories would help? “Well ya know, your Daddy was a member of my team when I was younger.”
Ai’s onyx eyes sparkled with excitement. “Really?! What was he like?!”
“Well, your father was popular with the students. He was so cool — I kinda hated him for it,” Naruto began telling her. “Lots of girls liked him.”
Ai heard that and remembered how Karin would try to cling to her Daddy and make her mad. She stuck her tongue out, “yuck!”
Naruto laughed a bit. “Yeah, girls can be annoying when they get like that.”
Ai froze and looked at Naruto. He only continued, “I hope you never go through a phase like that. Having crushes on boys! I don’t think I could handle it!”
Ai blinked and lowered her head. Something about what he said became internalized within her. Girls are annoying when they like boys…well then, maybe she didn’t like boys! Or anyone for that mattered. She just needed her father. He was her hero after all! Her number one!
Ai let go of Naruto’s and he noticed. He tried to reach for her hand again, but she held her hands together in front of her as they walked. She kept her head down. So Naruto reached from behind and picked her up.
“I’m not a little kid anymore. I don’t need to be carried,” she pouted.
Naruto only laughed, “just enjoy it while it still happens. One day, you being carried around will just stop and you won’t realize it until many years go by,” Naruto said. That was something he’d learned the hard way because of Ai’s kidnapping.
Ai wrapped her arms and legs around him and held on. She didn’t want to let go and truthfully, she just wanted to be held and comforted. Naruto wasn’t the best at giving her hugs, but she’ll take what she could get at the moment.
Besides, he did smell nice and that comforted her.
Just as Ai was starting to feel at ease, she could hear some people squealing. “It’s Uzumaki Naruto!”
“The Hero of the World!”
“He’s so handsome!”
“So cool!”
Naruto stopped and paused to look at the girls. He put Ai down and they ran to him, all gushing about.
Ai felt annoyed as she was being more and more pushed away by these strange girls.
The child turned her heel and began walking away with her hands on her hips! Girls were so annoying! She didn’t want to be like that!
Naruto tried to politely tell the group of girls that he was a little busy and noticed that Ai went missing again. He growled and said, “sorry but I have to find my daughter!” He said and went looking for Ai.