NARUTO SHINDEN - PARENT AND CHILD DAY

Chapter 1: Father and daughter, dashing through Konoha

He hadn’t been able to go back home.

To be accurate, he was indeed going back home on “Parent and Child Day”, but it was so early in the morning that the sun hadn’t completely risen yet. Then, even if he had gone back home, he’d have no choice but keep sleeping until evening. One day entirely wasted.

Naruto, who was going down the deserted residential district, was staggering like a drunkard. It’s not that he had drunk sake, he was just sleepy.

«.. .ya.. .aawn.»

He let out a big yawn, and a tear leaked out of his lax lachrymal gland.

“How many days have passed since the last time I finally had some sleep?” His work, so exhausting that he wasn’t even sure of it, had lasted several days. Even though he had a hard time just looking at the documents that were there initially, when the shopkeepers came to know about the establishment of the Parent and Child Day and wanted to expose their stands, they had rushed to the Hokage residence. Despatches making reservations of the places. The procedures with them had ended just a moment ago.

When he had got ready to go back home, Shizune, who was unable to watch without doing anything, had given him a pill to keep him awake, but it smelled like an unwashed fishtank, so he passed. Thinking back now, he should have accepted it without being so picky.

Without realising that he was being sloppy because of his drowsiness, a mountain of garbage bags amassed on the roadside looked like a useful bed for napping to him, and he was even extremely jealous of a oat that was sleeping on a fence. It looked so comfortable.

According to the teachings of his master, Jiraiya, the “three vices” that spoiled the shinobi were related to alcohol, money and women.

In other words, it wasn’t a problem for him, as a shinobi, to be spoiled and to succumb to the vice of sleeping. Even if he chuckled “That’s right!” frightening the fast-asleep oat slapping his hands in front of it, it shouldn’t have been a problem for him, as a shinobi. Putting aside the fact that thinking like that was childish.

When he apologised to the oat in his mind, he could finally see his own house.

The outside looked like as if they had spread a bucket open like a fan, and put it on a two-tier cake.

There were also voices that said it was modest, considering that it was the Hokage’s private home, since he governed the village, but if he had built a luxurious house taking advantage of his wealth, he’d have been scolded by his deceased teacher with a “You’re indulging yourself in the vice of money”. But above all that, a house like that wouldn’t have suited Naruto’s taste.

«I’m home...» Naruto said in a low voice (he didn’t have the energy to emit a loud voice though) in order not to wake up his wife and children, who were probably asleep already, and opened the door of his house.

Nevertheless.

The ‘ome’ part of “I’m home...” came out unexpectedly loud. Or rather, the intonation was slightly off He put a question mark at the end of the sentence, as if it was a “Hum?”. «Himawari?»

For some reason, his daughter Himawari was sleeping in the entry way.

«Hima? Oi, are you okay?»

Since she was perfectly wrapped up in blankets, it’s not that it looked like she had fallen senseless because of an illness, but...

When he shook her shoulder, she slightly opened her small eyes.

«Ah, Papa... welcome home.»

«What are you doing in place like this?»