Work Text:
“Tou-chan…”
Naruto slowly put his newspaper down, and he looks at his little princess perched on the other side of the couch. Seeing Himawari with her lips tugged to a frown and her misty eyes almost drooping instantly had his fatherly anxiety kick in, and he placed his newspaper on the table. “C’mere, my little sunflower.” He stretched his arms open, his features edged with a worried smile. “What happened?”
Himawari gingerly crawled towards her father, and snuggled her way to his right side. As soon as Naruto wrapped his arms around her, she began spilling the beans.
“Nii-chan got angry at me today…” She said meekly, her voice muffled. “At first I got angry, and then he got angry, and then I got mad and we stopped talking.” She did her best not to cry, but her lips were already shaking. “He said I can’t play with him today and the next days as well…”
Naruto raised a brow as he sighed, letting the little details of her story sink in. Hinata and his children usually fight over petty things, but in just minutes, they would already get over it and make up, as if they did not fight at all. “W-Well, what did really happen so that Tou-chan can help?”
Himawari sniffed and blinked her tears away. “He promised me the other day that he would play with me and Mr. Bear, but a while ago he told me he didn’t want to anymore, because it’s game for little kids and that he’s not little anymore…” she rambled on, the tears forming in her eyes again. Naruto pouted, mentally making a note to talk with Boruto later. “…I got angry and I said he’s not even a big kid because he’s even shorter than Sarada nee-chan, so I called him a shorty…”
Ohhh so that’s why… Naruto almost cringed, remembering how much he hated being called short when he was still a kid. He scratched the side of his face.
“B-because of that…” she sniffed again. “Because of that, Nii-chan said I’ll never get tall and I said like he would and he really shouted and said that I can’t play with him forever!” Himawari finally cried, her hands wiping the sides of her eyes, then rubbing them, her voice strained to stutters and hiccups, which heavily reminded him of his wife. He sighed, and rubbed Himawari’s arm.
No matter how he hated to admit it, his ideas of making up with a sibling were roughly strewn from his experiences with his friends, whom he treated as his family. However, when he began weaving his relationship with Hinata, he knew that simply saying sorry and acting as if nothing have happened would never work out the problem. That was why he had to find his way out, and to make her feel how sincerely sorry he was.
“Hey, hey. Himawari,” Naruto patted Himawari’s head, and mussed her hair. “It’s true that your brother got annoyed, but don’t worry about it too much.”
Himawari faced her dad with weary eyes, her lips firmly pressed to a scowl. “But I won’t be able to play with him anymore and I don’t like that.”
Naruto flashed a reassuring grin at her, and said, “Boruto loves you! Even more than this!” He arched his arms and made a circle. “So, just hurry up and go to him and say you’re truly sorry.”
“B-but how? He won’t let me in his room…”
Himawari watched her father intently while he said, “Just trust me, and do as I say.”
-
Knock, knock
Himawari stood in front of Boruto’s room, which blared with the sign, Knock before you enter! She waited as patiently as she could, and began shifting her weight from one foot to another when she didn’t receive a response.
She knocked again. “Onii-chan…”
Still, there was no response, and Himawari felt like she was about to melt on the floor. Her face scrunched as she looked at her father, who hid himself from Boruto’s line of sight. He nodded encouragingly at her, and made a knocking sign.
Himawari nodded, her anxiety now mixed with determination. She knocked again. “I knocked, so may I enter now?” She asked innocently, a hand clutched on the top zipper of her hoodie.
She heard footsteps approach the door, and she was convinced that the footsteps were as loud as the beating in her heart.
As soon as Himawari saw the flare of blonde, her gut curled in her stomach, and she heaved to shake the tension off.
“What do you want…” Boruto asked coldly.
Himawari almost gasped, but she recalled the words of her dad.
“Boruto nii-chan…” Her eyes were cast on the floor, but she reminded herself that if she wanted toget her message across, she had to look at him eye to eye. She pulled back her tears, but as soon as she opened her eyes the second time, she squinted as a very poor attempt to stop her tears from flowing. “I’m really sorry! I was not thinking of your feelings…” she sniffed, and her eyes were blurred with tears.
“Hima–”
Himawari took her brother’s hand in hers, and she squeezed it gently. “If… if you want to stop playing with me, though…” the tears kept on coming, and snot started to peek from her nose. “I will be really sad!” She held on Boruto’s hands, teardrops pelting on his skin. “Really… really sad… because I love my brother…”
She heard someone sniffing, as well, and just when she realized that it was Boruto, she was already enveloped in his arms.
“I’m sorry too, Hima…!” Boruto’s tears were unstoppable, and his nose, too, seemed to be crying. “Big brother was… big bro was…sdoobid…” he snuggled his nose on Himawari’s shoulder, smudging the cloth with his snot, as Himawari’s was being wiped on his jacket. “I’ll nevurr say that agaiinnn…”
Seriously… Naruto watched the scene from where he stood, and decided against the urge to wrap his children in his arms. Himawari really did what he told her: to simply tell someone her real feelings, and to not hold it back if she wanted to hold his hand, or hug him if he wanted, to make her brother feel that her words really came from her heart.
Extra
“E-Eh? Naruto-kun?” Hinata immediately dropped the bags of grocery on the foyer as soon as she saw her husband. “What happened to you?”
Naruto’s lips were firmly pressed together, and he covered it with a hand, his eyes mass producing waterfalls.
“Hinadaaaa…..” he ran towards her with open arms, and she caught him in hers. “I made them make up with each other….”
Hinata rubbed Naruto’s back and patted it. “Good job, Tou-chan!”
He nodded, his snot smudging on her hoodie. “Thank you, Kaa-chan!”