Changes

Chapter 25: Pain Appears

Chapter 25: Pain Appears

Naruto was currently looking over the toad's privacy and barrier seals that they had set up to make sure that their seals would work as intended. 2 weeks had passed after Fukasaku had asked Naruto to stop by to help setup their seals, and the toads had finished earlier than they expected.

"Everything looks fine here geezer sage."

"Alright, thanks for looking over them Naruto-boy. Now I won't keep you any longer, so you can head on back to Konoha now. Just be sure to leave one of your kunai here so you can teleport here if needed."

Naruto nodded his head as he reached into his pouch and pulled out one of his FTG marked kunai and handed it to the elder toad. After a few moments of chatting with the toad, he teleported back home in time to see his little girl drinking tea with Hinata. When the two saw that he was there, Hinata smiled warmly to Naruto while Yoko launched herself into her dad's arms. Naruto's large and happy smile faltered for a brief second when his eyes landed on Yoko, but he held his daughter tightly.

"Hey you two, sorry I took longer than I expected."

"No no, it's fine. Yoko, why don't you go get changed so we can head out to the park?"

"We're going to the park? Alright! Let me change really quickly!"

As the two adoptive parents watched their daughter run into her room, Hinata turned around and spoke to Naruto. "What's wrong honey?"

Naruto smiled at his girlfriend's affectionate way she addressed him. "Yeah... It's just a nightmare I had while I was sleeping."

Hinata frowned and reached up to caress his face and brushed one of his bangs behind his ear. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Naruto let a small sad smile across his face before shaking his head. "I'd rather not. I want to forget that nightmare forever." The Uzumaki's smile turned into a warm one before he lowered his head to kiss his girlfriend just in time for Yoko to come back.

"Ewwww. Daddy and mommy are kissing."

Naruto chuckled at his daughter's antics before he separated from Hinata and bent down to pick up Yoko. "Are you ready to go to the park?"

"Yes! Let's go alreadyyyy!"

The family of three made their way to the park, and when they arrived they were interrupted after 15 minutes.

"Naruto!"

The blonde turned around to see his pink-haired teammate running towards him. "Sakura? What's up? Is something wrong?"

When the girl came close, she shook her head and spoke in a hushed tone so only he and Hinata could hear. "We have news on Sasuke. Lady Tsunade asked me to tell you about it and to ask if you wanted to participate on the mission."

Naruto felt a twinge of searing anger at the boy's name, but he forced himself to calm down. He knew how his teammate felt for their last team member and he had to admit that he missed him deep down. 'He was starting to warm up to the team until he got the curse mark after all.' He took a deep sigh and faced Sakura in the eye.

"I'll participate in the mission if Granny Tsunade wants me to. I want to ask him a couple of questions myself."

Sakura let out a small breath she didn't realize she was holding and gave Naruto a small smile as she nodded. "Okay, I'll tell Lady Tsunade. But go ahead and pack your stuff just in case she agrees. We don't know how long he'll stay in that town if he hasn't already left, so we have to move quickly."

Naruto nodded and sent a shadow clone to the apartment to gather his things while he stayed behind with his daughter and girlfriend. After an hour of chasing Yoko around, pushing her on the swings, or just watching her run around and having fun, the three went back towards Naruto's apartment. Naruto ended up having to carry his daughter when they were halfway towards his apartment. When they entered, Naruto placed her into his bed and quietly exited the room.