A lifetime ago, I had taken my boys to their first day of kindergarten. If you had never experienced what it was like to take your child to kindergarten for the first time, let me summarize it for you.
There were tears.
Lots of them.
The wailing, the crying, the begging to please don't go away and leave them alone was a constant event happening everywhere you looked.
And that was just the mothers.
I expected to see a bunch of scared, confused kids when I reached the school but instead I was met with a line of crying mothers clinging to their children, begging the teachers not to take their babies away.
It was an... awkward experience.
Anyway, I was one of the lucky few.
Unlike most of the other kids, my boys weren't scared or upset at being left alone in a strange new place. Instead, they were excited.
Maybe it was because the boys had each other to lean on (one of the few blessings of raising twin toddlers as a single father was that I never had to worry about getting them a playmate) but I had barely managed to lead them to their new classroom before they dashed past me, rushing ahead through the open door to meet the other kids waiting inside, leaving me to stand awkwardly alone among the crying mothers who just wouldn't let their children go, and kept insisting they'd bring them back next year instead.
Even now, decades later, that memory clung to me.
Not of my boys but of the mothers. It was funny but back then I couldn't help wondering, if this was how they reacted to something like dropping their kids off to school then how would they have responded to something genuinely dangerous, like seeing their children head off to war or something?
Well today, I finally had my answer.
"-I can't believe my little baby is going on a mission. A B-rank mission! What was the Hokage thinking sending my baby on a B-rank mission out of all things?! It's far too dangerous! I'm going to have a word with-"
It took every last drop of willpower I could spare not to roll my eyes at Mio as she continued to blabber on, worry clearly etched on her face as the maternal instincts all mothers seemed to share took hold of her.
Honestly, I would have sympathized with her a lot more if we hadn't been standing here for twenty minutes.
"-Now don't forget to change often, alright? Just because you're on a mission doesn't give you an excuse to wear the same underwear every day. And your teeth! Don't-"
"Mom," I interjected, trying to cut her off her tangent before she got going but she carried on speaking as if she hadn't heard me.
I swear you'd think she was the one going on the mission from how nervous she was.
"-wash behind your ears and make sure to eat all your meals. You'll need your energy. And please, please be careful. I wouldn't know what I'd do if you got hurt. Just thinking about what might happen has me-"
"Mom," I tried once more to little avail. Mio was so overwhelmed with anxiety that she just kept pattering on like the worried mother she was.
"-And write to me every day. Every day, okay? Even if you can't find someone to deliver the letter, try. I want to know you're safe as soon and often as possible-"
Finally, having enough, I took a deep breath and yelled, "MOM!"
"What!?" She snapped, swinging her head towards me and looking my way for the first time.
In response, I held my arms wide open and deliberately put on a pleading look on my face, "What about me?"
A little further away from me, Mio was standing in front of a thoroughly flustered Naruto. She had the blonde's face cupped in her hands and had been constantly fussing over her as if she was never going to see her again. And Naruto, naturally, reacted the same she always did whenever she found herself the target of Mio's maternal instincts.
Which was to say not well at all.
The poor blonde froze stock still in my mother's hands, standing on her tiptoes, seemingly petrified as she blushed up a storm under the attention. It was actually rather heartwarming to watch. And funny. Definitely funny. Which was why I had stood by and watched it happen for the last twenty or so minutes.
To be totally frank if we didn't have an appointment to keep, I would have been happy to stand by and watch my mother fluster Naruto all day. Or at least until Naruto fainted from embarrassment. Either or, whichever happened to come first. Unfortunately, we did have an appointment to keep which meant that I had to put a stop to it before I ended up being forced to drag an unconscious Naruto across Konoha.
The sun had just started to brighten the horizon, adding the faintest hint of colours to the dark blue sky. It was the morning of our departure and my parents had come to see us off despite the ungodly early hour.
We were in the courtyard of the Hyuuga complex, dressed and ready for the mission. Except for the four of us, however, the place was deserted. Even for ninjas, rising well before dawn was a bit much. Other than the guards walking the parameter the rest of the household was either fast asleep or just in the process of waking up
Somewhere in the main house, Hanabi slept soundly in her bed. I had tried waking her up earlier for one last goodbye but to no avail. Despite my best efforts she just kept slumping limply in my arms like a rag doll whenever I tried to pick her up before finally giving up and allowing her to snuggle back into her blankets.
She did manage to mutter something that might have been 'I'll miss you' but I don't think she ever really realised I was there. I doubted she'd remember anything when she finally woke up. Neji on the other hand still hadn't returned from his own mission. He had left earlier that week with Team Gai and shouldn't be back for another few days at the earliest.
So as it was, only my parents were here to see us off.
Or at least, that had been the plan before the seriousness of the situation seemed to suddenly dawn on my mother and now she seemed keener on stopping from leaving than seeing us off.
And as amusing as it was to watch Naruto squirm under my mother's attention, we were on a time limit. So after spending an appropriate amount of time watching Naruto futility squirm under Mio's affections, time that was well spent, I decided to throw her a bone and drew my Mom's attention onto me.
I didn't want to, being fussed over like a child I technically was wasn't something I enjoyed, but if I wanted to have any hope of getting my mother's attention away from Naruto I needed to give her another target to worry over.
"Oh, my son." And sadly it worked only too well.
When Mio finally released her hold on Naruto and turned towards me, my blonde teammate didn't move. She stood rock still, remaining rooted to the spot, still standing on her tiptoes and blushing madly, looking completely out of it. It looked like she was going to need a couple of more minutes before her mind booted itself.
In the meantime, my mother had taken three long strides towards me before cupping my own face in her hands.
"My son. My only son." She repeated, kneeling down so she could look me straight in the eyes as she gently ran a thump over my cheek. Reaching up to sweep my bangs away she searched my face, her eyes radiating love and concern. "How you've grown. It felt just yesterday that you were going to the Academy for the first time, and now look at you. Your first real mission. There is so much I want to tell you, so much I need to say but I know there isn't enough time. So please, just listen to one thing I need you to hear."
Inwardly, I braced myself, preparing for the stream of well-meaning if ultimately meaningless advice that was my mother was no doubt about to bestow upon me. However, Mio surprised me.
My mother, the woman who birthed me, who had known me for my entire life since I first arrived into this world, stared straight into my eyes and pleaded.
"Please don't murder anyone."
...Huh?
The courtyard fell oddly quiet at those words.
Or maybe it was the shock kicking in.
Either unaware of my inner turmoil or actively ignoring it, Mio carried on, "You're too young to be a killer." She said, staring into my face before suddenly wrapping her arms around me and wailed, "I don't want my baby to be a murderer!"
For the next few moments, I found myself in Naruto's usual place, trapped inside my mother's arms and, though for entirely different reasons, I was too stunned rather than too embarrassed to resist.
Why was she worried about Naruto getting hurt yet she seemed more concerned about me hurting others? Shouldn't it be the other way round?
I spotted Naruto smirking at me over my mother's shoulder, having managed to shake herself out of her stupor, before picking up her bag and began to silently sneak away while I had my mother distracted.
Huh, so this was how it felt to be on this end of things.
Fortunately, I found myself rescued from my mother's unrelenting hold on me before too much time had passed when a pair of strong hands appeared and managed to gently but firmly pry Mio's grip off me.
"Now, now dear," my father, the saint he was, pulled my mother away, placing a comforting arm around her shoulders as he subtly led her away from me. "Don't worry about Hikaru. I'll talk to the boy and make sure he's ready."
"But, but-" My mother kept shooting worried glances over her shoulders back at me even as my father led her further away as if I would suddenly go on a killing spree the moment she took her eyes off me.
No seriously, what the hell Mom?
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