To Have a Mother [Slow Updates]

Episode Thirteen: The Forehead Poke

The next morning, the sun burning Naruto eyes awoke him from a well-rested slumber. His gaze fell on the sleeping woman beside him as a smile found his lips. He kissed her head and decided to allow her to sleep in while he made breakfast. It was the least he could do after she'd done so well to take care of him last night.

As he got up, Naruto finally took the time to realize that his apartment was spotless. He remembered Akari mentioned something about cleaning and doing laundry, but she really went all out. All of his clothes were clean and folded neatly in his drawers. The garbage he'd previously been shoving into the corner was gone. In the kitchen, all the dishes were washed and put into their respective cabinets. Even the bathroom seemed to have been disinfected to the last tile and no longer harbored its foul odor.

Suddenly, Naruto felt his cheeks grow warm. He felt somewhat embarrassed that Akari had taken his responsibility to clean up his messy apartment. He didn't feel happy knowing she was in his underwear drawer either. Nonetheless, he was grateful everything was clean and wanted to keep it that way so that her hard work would not be in vain. Especially because it had not even been a week since she was hospitalized. Naruto opened the refrigerator which, thanks to Akari, was fully restocked. He grabbed the eggs, knowing it was the one thing he couldn't mess up.

Soon enough, Akari noticed Naruto's absence in the bed and got up to look for him. She stopped short, her eyes widening in amusement at the adorable sight before her. Naruto, wearing her apron, his tongue sticking out in concentration as he flipped over the eggs in the pan. The table was already set for two with fresh flowers from outside in the centerpiece vase.

"Good morning, my little love."

"Good morning, Akari!" Naruto exclaimed as he brought the eggs to the table and pulled out a chair for her. "I made breakfast for you, see?"

"What a little gentlemen! Come here." Akari gushed as he pushed her in. She tugged him closer by the apron and pecked his cheek. "The apron does say to kiss the chef."

"Oh, yeah," he chuckled, removing the apron and sitting down. "It's really big on me. You're ridiculously tall for a lady, you know that? N-Not that it's a bad thing!"

"Six feet, I know!" Akari laughed, unoffended, and pat his head, "I'm an inch taller than Kakashi and I know he's pouty about it. The Enomotos were just giants, Naruto. My whole family was like this."

"I'm only 4'9''," Naruto whined. "I want to be tall like you!"

"You're still little, sweetheart," Akari told him, beginning to eat. "I'm sure you'll grow big and strong soon enough."

"I guess..."

"Anyway, are you feeling better today?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry, I think I was just really tired and stressed yesterday."

Akari shook her head. "You don't have to justify your bad days. It was probably building up for a while and you had to let it out. We'll take it easily today during training."

Naruto hummed happily as he ate his eggs. "Yeah."

"Okay," the jōnin said, standing up. "I'll start packing you a bento."

Naruto's eyes widened as he remembered the bento box Akari had given him before he left for his mission. A soft smile crept on his lips as he also recalled the endearing note she'd left him as well. He remembered Sasuke's reaction to the bento box as well.

Sasuke, out of more than clear envy, rolled his eyes and said, "She really does mother you, doesn't she?"

Naruto knitted his eyebrows as broke his chopsticks, pointing one of them to him. "You know, if you wanted a bento box and a note so badly, you should've just asked. Akari would've given you one, too."