“Himawari,” Naruto murmured as he put a hand on her shaking shoulders. “Sorry. I should’ve double-checked. I was just in a panic.”
The small hands that had been wiping tears away stopped suddenly to reveal eyes that were swollen and bright red from crying. Naruto didn’t look away, but instead carefully held her gaze.
“I’ll get one.”
“What?” Himawari asked in reply.
“A Kuraa-ma,” he said. “And I’m not talking about next time here. No way. I’ll get one today. Believe it.”
She hung her head for a moment, but finally nodded and rubbed her eyes before flashing him a shy smile. Naruto figured that was enough. Just so long as she wasn’t crying.
“What d’you wanna do? You’re not actually going to exercise your Hokage privileges, are you?”
Naruto laughed off Kiba’s question. “I don’t have any privileges that are that convenient. They started sales on Family Day, so that must mean they ramped production just for today. I’ll just use my shadow doppelgangers to go around to every single store.”
“Shadow doppelgangers, huh?” Kiba snorted. “You stink like you’re exhausted after a mission. You still got enough in you for doppelgangers?”
“I’m just sleep deprived is all. Art of Multiple Shadow Clones!” White smoke puffed up around them as Naruto wove the signs to produce…two clones. Several hundredths of what he usually managed. He froze, fingers still crossed, and broke into a cold sweat.
“There’s just two of ’em. You said ‘multiple.’ You’re making me roll my eyes over here.” Kiba flicked each doppelganger on the forehead. There was a shredding sound, and then they vanished.
“Ah?!” Naruto cried.
“Idiot. Doppelgangers aren’t gonna do you any good. Today’s basically a festival. All that’s gonna happen is they’ll get knocked around by the crowd and disappear. That’s it,” Kiba asserted. “How ’bout I give you a hand? My nose doesn’t work in the shops, either, but I can pick up on the Kuraa-ma. I just need to find the scent trail of the red earth and dandelions used in the ink, and it’ll all be good.”
When he saw that Naruto was baffled by the sudden proposal, Kiba said, “Don’t get the wrong idea. I don’t care either way if your stock goes down, but I’m not gonna sleep too good after the girl cried on us like that. I know I said ‘no hard feelings’ before, but…it’s like…when she’s crying like that, it’s a little…” He scratched his cheek awkwardly. “Listen. I’ll go look in the new town. You take the old town. If you find Kuraa-ma first, then get into Sage Mode and come—Oh, in your condition, that’s prob’ly a no-go. Well, I’ll come join you when I feel like it. Don’t go anywhere with extra weird smells.”
“Okay.” Naruto nodded.
“Awright. C’mon, guys!” Kiba headed toward Hokage Rock, Akamaru and Akemaru trailing behind him.
Naruto watched until he disappeared into the thronging crowd and then crouched down, back turned toward Himawari. “Woh-kay. Should we get going, too?”
“Yeah!” She scrambled eagerly onto his back.
It was just like Kiba said: kids grew up way faster than their parents realized. He was sure she’d been lighter the last time he’d given her a piggyback—another thing you don’t notice when you see each other every day. But did Kiba’s words really apply to Naruto now? Lately, he barely saw Himawari every other day.
No.
He had to do what he could for her now, not just look back on the past. With resolve in his heart, Naruto started to run.
“You got any Nine Tails? Kuraa-ma?!” Naruto yelled as he flew into the first place he saw, the twenty-four-hour general store.
The sales clerk gaped at the sudden appearance of the Seventh Hokage.
“Oh! Daddy, over there! There’s lots of them!”
“Really?!” He turned his eyes to a shelf by the cash register. And indeed, he saw eggs that looked like the real thing on display. “They’re all Shukaa-ku, huh?”
“They are.” The clerk nodded.
As far as he could see, each and every one of them was a tanuki. He actually felt a little bad for the toy, which was clearly not selling at all. And why were so many Sunagakure toys being sold in Konohagakure to begin with? He was starting to suspect that the things hadn’t sold at all in the other village and now were being passed along to his town.
“Might be funny to buy a bunch and send ’em to Gaara,” he mused.
“Gaara?” his daughter asked.
“A friend in Sunagakure. When we were kids, he was aaaalways with Shukaku—I mean, Shukaa-ku. When he and Shukaa-ku got separated, it was a whole thing in and of itself.”
“Was he lonely after the tanuki was gone?” Himawari wondered. “He must have really loved it.”
“Nah, not quite. Woh-kay! Next store!” With the same force that he had entered the shop with, Naruto dashed out of the general store.
“Kuraa-ma? That toy that’s all the rage lately? Nope, don’t have it. Actually, let me ask you, did you really think we’d have it? As you can well see, this is a flower shop.”
He’d gone into Yamanaka Flowers along the way because he had nothing to lose by giving it a try. The shop was run by Yamanaka Ino, one of his classmates from the academy, and while flowers of all hues and colors greeted them, there was not a single toy in sight.
“Yeah, I guess not.” Naruto sighed. “What’s Sai up to, anyway?”
“He’s out with Inojin. I can give him a message if you needed something.”
“Nah, it’s nothing like that. Sorry to bug you at work.” Naruto waved a hand.
“It’s fine. Oh, Naruto! Wait! Hang on!” Ino stopped him and pulled out one of the many flowers lining the walls. “Here, for you, Himawari.” She handed Himawari a sunflower—a himawari—in full bloom.
“Wow! Thanks, Auntie!” she responded joyfully. She’d been shy with Kiba, but perhaps the gift of a flower bearing her own name helped her to let her guard down now.
“Ooh, calling me ‘Auntie’! Maybe I’ll just give you one more as a bonus!” And another sunflower did indeed join its companion in Himawari’s hand.
The girl was even more thrilled, and she waved enthusiastically as Ino saw them off.
“I know you just got them and all, but you can’t hang onto your old dad if you’ve got those flowers in your hands. How about we drop by the house first and leave them there?” Naruto suggested.