“Huh.” Naruto smiled. “All right! Himawari!”
“Yeah! Thanks! …Um, Uncle Dog Man.” Himawari grinned, too.
“Heh! ’Sall good,” Kiba flashed a smile, not at all put off by the title she gave him. “I got Akamaru to carry it, so should be here so—Oh! Speak of the devil!” He turned just as Akamaru and Akemaru appeared together from the sea of people.
“There ya go! The eagerly awaited Thunder Burger!” Kiba thrust a hand into the paper bag, “Normally, I don’t feed ’em junk food, but this burger’s got no additives. My dogs just love ’em—Hey! This is a Thunder Burger bag?! What happened to Kuraa-ma?! Tch! There’s even the change in here!”
“Hey, Kiba,” Naruto muttered, uneasily. “Over there…”
A man in a hood was hurrying away from the scene, back through the crowd the dogs had just come out of. In his hand was a paper bag with a train symbol printed on it.
“Oi! No way!” Kiba yelped. “You’re kidding me? Someone switched bags on you?! Akemaru?! Dammit. It’s ’cause I haven’t fed you since the morn—”
“Kiba!” Naruto took Himawari off his back and thrust her toward Kiba, along with all the things they were carrying. “Hang onto Himawari!”
“Hang onto her?!” Kiba gaped at the Hokage. “Hey!”
Naruto shot after the man in the crowd. Catching sight of this, the man abruptly quickened his pace, nimbly dancing past the throngs. This, added to the fact that he had tricked Akemaru (no matter how hungry the dog might have been), sealed it for Naruto: this guy was a ninja.
“Hey!” Naruto yelled. “Hold it right there!”
There wasn’t a ninja in Konoha he didn’t know, and the man had to have been aware of this. He pulled his hood tighter around his face to keep from being seen and started to run, indifferent to the people he bashed into in his haste.
“Hngh!” Naruto simply couldn’t be as rough with the people of Konoha, and he felt compelled to stop and help passersby back to their feet as he gave chase. The man gradually pulled away from him.
This day…
He hadn’t been able to do anything for Himawari. In the end, he’d done nothing but get her hopes up and then dash them to the ground. Kiba had been the one to get ahold of the Kuraa-ma the man ahead was making off with. Naruto had to at least get the thing back.
But not only had he not slept in who knew how long, he’d spent the day running around Konoha, meaning his stamina and chakra were both at rock bottom. Even if he tried a teleportation jutsu, it would probably get him nowhere, just like the doppelgangers that morning.
I don’t want to make a huge commotion in the middle of the village, but desperate times!
“Kurama!” Naruto turned his mind inward and spoke to Nine Tails. “Sorry, but couldja help me out here? Oi, Kurama?!”
“I don’t want to,” came the somewhat petulant reply.
“W-why not?!”
“It’s your fault for calling me a baby. And Shukaku? Of all things, that you would mistake me for that tanuki. And now you’re talking to me in that tone?”
“No, no, I’m not trying to—I mean, I’m in a serious fix here! Himawari’s…”
“All the more reason.”
“What?”
“What I’m saying is, you can’t rely on me. You have to work this out yourself. If you’re not going to go all out for your daughter, then when will you? Idiot.”
Naruto couldn’t say anything to that. “Heh heh.” He brought his mind back to reality. “Yeah, I guess he’s got a point.”
He already knew that Kurama was right. He had to get that Kuraa-ma with his own strength. It was just a battle of willpower and stamina now. He ran intently after the man as he wondered, How far have I run anyway?
The man slowed when he turned into a deserted alley. It seemed less like his strength was giving out and more like he was resigning himself to his fate somehow, as though he couldn’t allow himself to flee any further.
“Gotchaaaa!” Naruto shouted and leaped at the man’s back. He pushed him down onto the road and quickly peeled back the hood. Just as he’d expected, the man was a Konoha genin, one who Naruto had ordered to look into things in the borderlands.
Pinned to the ground, the man gritted his teeth and intently avoided Naruto’s eyes. The man had never caused any trouble before. So why was he getting his hands dirty with petty theft?
“Daddy?”
Naruto heard a child’s voice, and a boy tottered out from the alley.
“W-why are you out here?! It’s okay. I’m okay, so just wait inside!” The man’s voice was shaking. Naruto quickly understood the relationship between the pair from the agitation in the man’s voice.
There didn’t seem to be any need to hold him down, so he released the man on the ground. “What’s going on here?”
The answer came not from the man, but from behind Naruto.
“Looks like he wanted to get a Kuraa-ma for his kid no matter what he had to do. Just like you.” It was Kiba. When had he caught up? Beside him, Himawari sat across Akamaru’s back.
Naruto turned back to the man before him, gaze probing him for the truth of this.
“My sincerest apologies!” The man sat up and pressed his forehead to the ground. “My son wanted one so desperately, so all I could think about was how to get it. I looked everywhere, but I couldn’t find any, and then just as the sun was setting, I heard Kiba. Something just came over me…”
Sobbing, the man explained that he was always away from the village patrolling the edges of the country. And then finally, he had a day off. When he saw his son for the first time in far too long, the boy had timidly pleaded for a Nine Tails Kuraa-ma.
Naruto listened silently to the man’s story. He had only wanted to make his child happy, and Naruto understood that feeling painfully well. But he had crossed a line that should never have been crossed. He had to be punished for the crime of theft, and in front of his son, of all things. Maybe he should at least send the boy away before he did anything.