Nindō 0089: Responsibilities

As Hinata continued sleeping, Naruto took her up to their bedroom and tucked her into bed.

'Let's spend some time with Hima …'

With that thought, he approached Himawari's room and knocked.

"Hima, are you free?" Naruto asked through the door and immediately heard her scrambling around.

A few seconds passed without any response before the girl opened the door a quarter of the way. "What is it, Daddy?" She asked.

Naruto looked at her slightly disheveled hair and clothes and asked, "Did I wake you up?"

"Mm-mm," she shook her head. "Did you need something?"

"Wanna help me cook dinner? Hinata decided to rest."

"Oh …" Himawari raised her brow with a hint of rosiness on her cheeks. "Sure. I'll help out, Daddy. Mom must've gotten really tired."

Hearing her mumbling, Naruto had a creeping suspicion.

'I doubt it. I ensured that whatever Hinata and I did would be blocked even if she tried to use the Byakugan to see … She was probably doing something else that she shouldn't be at her age.'

He shook the thought away, not planning to invade his daughter's privacy.

"Can you still finish your homework if you help me cook?"

"Probably not …" Himawari shook her head as she paused in her steps, not yet coming out of her room.

"Do you want to do your homework or help me cook?" Naruto asked.

"… Can you let your clone do my homework? Shino sensei scolds us if we aren't punctual …" Himawari's eyes had a scheming glint.

"My daughter is getting more and more mischievous and naughty …" Naruto sighed. "Before I know it, you will tell me that I don't need to come to the academy to pick you up, and you will start returning late."

"Never," she giggled and hugged Naruto. "I will always be Tou-chan's little girl."

"I know you're doing this just to get me to do your homework," Naruto said. "But it's fine."

Naruto's clone appeared behind him. "Tell my clone about your homework and come down to help me cook."

"Daddy is the best!" She tightly hugged him before letting go. "Wait here for a bit, please," she addressed the clone.

"Your mother doesn't find out about this," Naruto warned. "If she does, it's both of us on the line. Not only will she punish you, but also me."

"Mm hm," she nodded vigorously before entering her room and closing the door behind her.

"Help her out or whatever …" Naruto said to his clone before going downstairs.

Five minutes later, Himawari came down to help Naruto.

"What do you need me to do, Daddy?" She asked, grabbing a smaller apron from a drawer under the sink and tying it around her waist.

"Help me with the veggies while I work on the stew," Naruto slid some carrots, beets, cabbage, and potatoes toward her. "Wanna do some training as well?" He asked.

"How so?" She'd just grabbed the knife after getting up on a small stool and was about to start.

"Try to use your Byakugan to see the structure of whatever you cut and try to make perfect cuts," Naruto said. "It will help you with precision."

"Sounds simple enough …"

"Just don't end up cutting a finger off. If I'm late in reacting, you will feel a lot of pain. I would hate to have to reattach my daughter's finger because of an accident."

"I suddenly don't want to cut anything …" Himawari looked at Naruto dryly.

"Fine, you can just give me company then," Naruto said. "I just want to spend some time with my daughter."

"How cheesy …" She put her tongue out of her mouth.

Naruto chuckled as he noticed Himawari start to cut the vegetables. "Beef or chicken?" He asked her as he looked at the meats in the refrigerator.

"Um … chicken, please," she said.

"All right," Naruto nodded.

As the father-daughter worked for a few minutes, Himawari broke the silence. "Do you love Mom, Daddy?"

"Very much so," Naruto said. "Why do you ask?"

"So …" Himawari was about to say something but stopped. Naruto noticed her ears reddening in the same way as Hinata's whenever Naruto teased her.

"Yes, go on."

"Nothing," she said. "I was just asking."

"Are you sure?"

"Well … So you see, I was playing around with my Byakugan today," she said. "I followed along with your instructions and noticed that you have a new thread connected to you. But it is somewhat greyed out for some reason. You'd told me that those threads represent your connection to the world, and one of them leads to Mom. Does that mean the other two lead to other important people in your life? Then why don't I and Boruto have those threads? What about this new gray one? That one directly leads to the sky."

Naruto's actions abruptly stopped in place as Himawari let out her barrage of questions.

'Ah … I did not think things through when I taught her this trick. She's never even told me that she uses it, so I'd essentially forgotten about it.'

With a cough, Naruto spoke. "One question at a time, Hima," he said. "First off, those red threads are a much more ethereal concept than just being connected to someone. I'm trying to get even stronger so that I can protect those I love from the invading Ōtsutsuki. One leads to Hinata because of my deep connection and feelings toward her. The others lead to certain tools that I am currently working with and learning about. The new gray thread, on the other hand, leads to the moon but isn't as developed as the others. Finally, the reason that you and Boruto don't have it is because you are still too young. Once your chakra develops further, you will naturally notice the connection appear."

"What about the flickering? When you were hugging Mom after I went upstairs, I noticed that the thread got brighter every once in a while. What was that about?"

Naruto's movements once again froze at his daughter's words. "Un-fucking-believable …" He mumbled silently under his breath before looking at Himawari, who had an expression of innocent curiosity on her face. "You said that the thread occasionally got brighter? How often was that occasionally?"

"I don't know … Every few minutes?" She said. "I was watching for a while, trying to figure out what you were doing. Why were you rubbing her belly? Though it seemed like you were lower."

"Yeah, we definitely need Hanabi to come with us on the trip," he spoke to himself as a drop of sweat gathered on his brow. "I was … massaging your mother. You know how she occasionally gets cramps, right? I was helping her mitigate the pain."

"Oh …" Himawari nodded as her eyes brightened. "I see. She also asks me to do that occasionally. She usually has me warm up some oil for her."

"Yeah," Naruto looked back at the stew that was cooking, and his brows furrowed in stress. "Just don't tell your mother that you noticed what we were doing. I don't want her to get embarrassed."

"Daddy's making me keep so many secrets from my Mom …" Himawari spoke in a disgruntled tone.

"You don't particularly have to," Naruto said. "It's just that you should be ready for Shino to give you some extra homework as punishment for having your father do it for you."

"I will take our special secrets to my grave," Himawari spoke solemnly. "Not another soul will ever find out about them."

Her words made Naruto laugh. "Nothing that serious," he said. "Now, let us talk about what your grandpa has taught you about using the Byakugan inside the house."

"I'm really sorry, Daddy!" Himawari was spooked. "I promise not to spy on you and Mom with my Byakugan from now on."

"Good …" Naruto trailed off as Himawari's words settled in. "From now on?"

"Oh no …"

"Hima," he spoke with a grave tone. "Do you regularly try to peek into mine and Hinata's bedroom? Tell me the truth. You know that I can tell if you're lying."

"Um …" She clasped her hands together with a guilty expression. "Sometimes ..."

"And do you try to see into the room at night when you are sleeping?"

"I tried once …" She spoke guiltily before her eyes brightened as if grasping a lifeline. "But I wasn't able to see into your room. I was completely blocked. Just like how today, I was only able to see after changing the … that frequency thing of my Byakugan."

'I was just taking precautions against the occasional curious Hyūga and Hanabi specifically in case she felt particularly curious … Who would've thought that my own daughter would inherit the voyeuristic traits of those perverts.'

Naruto's feelings were complicated at the moment and ultimately compounded into a tired sigh.

"Let's finish cooking dinner, honey. Then we need to have a serious talk about using your Byakugan. You've only recently gained control over your eyes, but it's now time for you to learn some rules."

"…" Himawari was looking down guiltily. "Am I going to be punished, Daddy?" Her pitiful tone made Naruto melt.

"No," he instantly responded and shook his head. He patted her head and reassured her with a hug. "As long as you don't tell your mother about any of this, that is. I will personally teach you about the responsibilities that come with having such a power as the Byakugan."

"Okay …" Himawari's mood was mostly solemn after their conversation.

***

If you like the story, follow it and leave a review and whatever else, it motivates me a lot. I try not to leave any mistakes in the chapters, but if you find something glaring, let me know, and I'll try to fix it.

If you want to support me, check out my Patréon. I post advanced chapters there and do weekly polls to decide the stories that I will be posting for the week. No pressure though, I'm eventually going to post my content publicly regardless.

www.patrèon.com/addyctive

(Replace the è with e)