Chapter Text
After a grueling ten hours of pushing, Boruto Uzumaki was born on the twenty-seventh of March at exactly eight thirty-three in the evening.
Never again, Hinata told herself. Chunin exams? That, she could do. A-rank missions? No problem. Fighting in a literal war? Been there. But childbirth? It was uncharted territory. Hinata let out a soft whimper. Her body ached, her hair was in her face, and everyone - everyone was staring.
Well, maybe she didn't mind that last bit.
Her father looked proud. Hanabi squeezed her hand. Kurenai sobbed into Kakashi's shoulder. Her teammates were there, too, crying in the back of the room.
Sakura stood beside Sasuke, both watching anxiously. She met the couple's gaze. Hinata grinned as the Uchiha woman placed a hand on her own stomach. You're next, she told her without needing to use words. Sakura grinned back.
Then, she looked to Naruto, who looked back at her with such endearment. Such love. Tears spilled out of his eyes when he smiled at her, then he laughed. It was an ethereal sound. She decided at that moment that there was no one and nothing as beautiful as him.
Except... there was.
When Shizune gently placed her newborn baby into her arms, Hinata cried. Hard. He was beautiful.
She felt many things swell inside her chest as she held her son for the first time. Happiness. Warmth. Pride. Love. Oh, she was going to give this boy so much love.
And when Naruto cupped her - their - son's cheek, Hinata knew that he was thinking the exact same thing.
"So," Kakashi was the first person to speak after a minute or two of silently listening to the child's soft cries. "Does he have a name?"
"Boruto." Hinata said with absolute certainty. The smile on her face was unwavering. "Boruto Uzumaki."
At just eight months old, everyone had already figured out which parent Boruto grow up to remind people of. He was a loud, bubbly kid and it amused Naruto to no end.
He had originally thought that all babies were sunshine and giggles, but one night of babysitting Sasuke's daughter, Sarada, made him realize otherwise.
"She's just like you!" Naruto had said to Sasuke accusingly as he handed the small girl to her father.
"Thanks?"
"That wasn't a compliment! Seriously, the girl is so silent. Do you know how many times I had to go and check to see if she was even alive?"
"Some kids are just naturally quiet. And you should've been doing that anyway. " Sasuke gave Naruto a blank look. "Remind me to never let you babysit my kid again-"
"Rude!"
So yeah, maybe not all babies were like as happy-go-lucky as Boruto. But he was loud in everything he did. He was always smiling. He was always laughing. And it was contagious.
There just was something about watching your child grow that elicited a feeling Naruto couldn't begin to explain. Albeit Boruto was still only eight months old, his bright personality shone through.
Naruto pressed a kiss against Boruto's forehead and left the room, leaving the baby to sleep and eventually returning to bed with Hinata.
He loved his kid. So, so much.
And that's why it hurt. By God, it hurt.
BORUTO UZUMAKI MISSING
The news spread quickly.
Boruto Uzumaki was kidnapped on the sixth of December. Nobody knew exactly when.
Kakashi had wasted no time in calling upon the best tracking squads to lead search parties. He sent the ANBU to the outskirts of Konoha, had the Military Police Force on the scene, and prompted the other four Kage to keep an eye out for the kid in their own respective villages.
They searched all day, searched all night, then did it all again the next day. It was a vicious cycle. Days became weeks. And ever so slowly, weeks became months.
The search parties grew smaller by the day. They couldn't find Boruto so they sure as hell weren't going find whoever took him. People were losing hope. They had no leads, no possible suspects, no evidence, nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Nothing, nothing, nothing .
How did someone get into the house without anyone noticing? Why didn't Boruto cry for help? How could there be nothing? Everyone left something behind.
A belonging, a hair, a fingerprint, a smell, a chakra signature, maybe?
Because everybody had a chakra signature. Everybody had one.
Whoever took Boruto didn't-
Shut up. Shutupshutupshutup.
It had been a hard and depressing four months for both Naruto and Hinata.
Boruto's first birthday eventually came around. Hinata did not get out of bed. Naruto spent the entire day searching.
She did nothing. He found nothing.
It was a few months later that Naruto and Hinata felt that they owed it to their son - and everyone else, of course - to get their shit back together.
"This has to stop." Hinata cried into the fabric of Naruto's shirt. She had her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. "We can't keep doing this."
Just like the day she gave birth to Boruto, she cried. Hard. It was her first time crying since the day he was abducted. It broke Naruto.
"I'm sorry." Was all he could say to her.
After that night, they began to pick up the pieces that they had been left in. Recovery was a long and fragile thing, but eventually, they were together again.
Still not whole, though. They couldn't be whole. Not until Boruto came home.
Nearly a year after Boruto's disappearance, Naruto - who had just recently been appointed to be the Seventh Hokage - had a heart attack. And no, not a heart attack heart attack, but the kind of heart attack where his wife thought it was a good idea to casually tell him at Ichiraku Ramen that she's...
"...three and a half weeks pregnant, by the way."
What.
They both go silent awfully fast and Naruto knows what Hinata is thinking about. Who she's thinking about. Because, God, he was thinking about him too.
It hurt. It was always hurting.
But they were healing.
"No, this is good. This is good for us, Hinata." He caressed her face, and with a genuine smile - something that hadn't seen the light of day in a long time - he pulled his wife close.
"I'm happy for us." He told her. And he meant it.
"Me too."
HIMAWARI UZUMAKI: DAUGHTER OF THE SEVENTH HOKAGE
It was all over the news.
Himawari Uzumaki was born on the first of August at exactly seven fifty-two in the morning.
The moment was bittersweet for her parents, but oh, how they loved her.
At night, they told her bedtime stories about a boy named Boruto. When she was four, she asked if Boruto was real. That's a story for another time, Naruto had said to her in response.
It was when she was eleven, and going through the photo albums, that Himawari stumbled across an old photo of her mother in the hospital, cradling a newborn baby.
"This one is different," She said to Hinata, eyeing the picture curiously. "You showed me the pictures of the day I was born before. How come I don't remember seeing this one?"
"That's because..." Hinata grabbed the photo tentatively and flipped it around. The comment on the backside - which had been written by Kakashi, if she remembered correctly - was old and faded.
'3.27 - Congratulations Naruto, Hinata! So proud of the both of you! Welcome to parenthood, it's about time ;)'
"Mom?"
"When daddy comes home from work, we'll tell you a long story." Hinata gently placed the photo down and gave Himawari a tight-lipped smile. "You remember Boruto, right?"