The Shadow's Fox

Chapter 8

Another chapter is here for your reading enjoyment. This chapter will be a cute one on top of some... drama? Not sure if that's what you call it, but a conflict kind of happens... I'll just let you guys read it for yourself, but a certain character comes back in this chapter.

Enjoy

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Naruto walked into the living room and smiled at his son. He was going to be one year old tomorrow. He couldn't believe how big he's gotten, and how smart the kid turned out to be. The little boy looked up from the page he was coloring on. "Hi, mama."

"Hey, baby," he said as he walked up and looked down at the paper. All he saw was a bunch of scribbles, but knew there had to be some meaning behind them. "What are you drawing?"

"Mama," Shikadai said as he held up the paper.

"You're drawing me?" Naruto asked, then smiled. "I look good."

Shikadai snickered and went back to scribbling on the paper.

"Hey. We need to go get a few more things for your birthday party tomorrow."

Shikadai looked up at him and cocked his head. "Bir... bir..." he frowned.

"Birthday," Naruto repeated, stressing the 'th' sound. Shikadai had picked up a few more words, just like Yoshino said he would, but he only said words that he could pronounce correctly.

"Bir-th-day," Shikadai said.

"That's it! You got it," Naruto said happily.

Shikadai beamed. "Birthday," he said again, as if he didn't want to forget how to say it, then frowned. "What birthday?"

Naruto chuckled. His son may be able to say words after figuring them out, but he still has a lot of work to do on sentence structure. "A birthday is a special day. It is the day you were brought into this world."

Shikadai just looked at him confused.

"I guess it's a little hard to explain to you right now," Naruto said, then put his hand on his chin and thought. "I know. A birthday is a special day that we celebrate you being here. We have a party."

"Par-ty?" Shikadai asked.

Naruto chuckled. Everything about birthdays and parties were completely new for Shikadai, so he had no idea how to explain it to someone without them actually knowing a little bit. "Sorry. I'm not really good at explaining this. Your dad is a lot better at this stuff."

Shikadai still looked at him confused.

Naruto smiled and held out his hand. "Come on."

Shikadai took Naruto's hand and stood up, following his mother to the door, then got their shoes on and headed out. Shikadai jumped up and down as they walked, never letting go of Naruto's hand, and Naruto just chuckled at him.

They stopped by a few shops and got a couple more things for the party, then started to make their way to Yoshino's where the party was going to be held, but froze when he saw a woman walking toward them. His breathing quickened and he quickly scooped Shikadai up in his arms, confusing the poor boy.

"Mama?" Shikadai asked, fear in his voice at the way Naruto was acting.

"You," the woman said as she and the leaf shinobi he didn't recognize stopped in front of him.

"Temari," Naruto said and took a step back. "What are you doing here?" He knew that the Leaf and Sand villages were on better terms now that they were allies, but he still didn't like the idea of the woman that hurt Shikamaru being in the village.