| [Dec. 27th, 2013|06:17 am] |
“‘kay,” Naruto said agreeably, and actually stood still while he was sluiced, looking at the lion-dog, still on Kakashi’s hand, and the dragon now circling his head. There was a brief moment of upset when Minato washed out his hair—Naruto’s constant bath fear was getting soap in his eyes—but he recovered and ran, wet and gleaming, to wrestle with the wooden lid covering the large soaking tub.
Minato stayed crouched for just a moment, looking at the dried reddish-brown rims under his fingernails.
It hit Kakashi too, every now and then, what his hands had done before he picked Naruto up with them. Usually followed by the brief, ugly thought that Naruto’s neck was so fragile, and it would barely take a thoughtless slip…
He straightened up and clapped a hand on Minato’s shoulder, giving it a brief squeeze, and tugged his former teacher up. Minato barely needed the nudge; once he made it to his feet, his usual clarity snapped back into place, and he moved to rescue the soaking tub and Naruto from each other. When the tub was uncovered, water steaming gently, Naruto flung himself in with gleeful abandon, splashing a miniature tidal wave across the tiled floor.
Minato settled himself down, resting against the side, and watched his son play.
“Butterflies!” Naruto demanded, after a few minutes.
Kakashi obliged, and Minato immediately outdid him with a magnificent bubble phoenix that spread its wings and refracted the light into a hundred splintered rainbows. Kakashi returned fire with a small long-legged horse galloping over the the bath surface, foamy mane streaming. Minato counter-attacked with an elephant that threw back its trunk and trumpeted a stream of bubbles at the ceiling. Kakashi was starting to get the beginnings of a headache from fine-tuning his chakra down to a minute level after a night of attempting to peel Katsuko’s face off with it, but he created a pair of dogs that tumbled and play-wrestled, chasing each other around Naruto’s head. And Minato won the day with a perfect miniature Gamabunta, which reduced Naruto to fits of laughter.
“Show off,” Kakashi said, letting the jutsu go.
Minato grinned at him, glowing with victory, but some of the shine peeled off when a familiar knock came at the door.
Turtle, the usual morning ANBU guard, stuck her head in. She didn’t react to the—in fairness, quite standard—display of naked, frolicking child and exhausted Hokage. “Five minute school warning,” she said. |
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