I've noticed something in my writing. Whatever character I'm writing in the scene, whatever one I'm narrating for I write how they think. Like, with Boruto I noticed that I don't use complicated words and I over-exaggerate and on things he doesn't know, I, as the writer, don't know that either.

Is that weird? I have no idea.

Anyway, there's the gushy thank you notes at the end of the chapter, so with that being said, enjoy the Last Chapter!

….

It had been snowing nonstop the entire day.

At first it started with just a small dusting- the first snow of the year- and then it just kept coming. For most of the day he got to play in it, making the biggest snowman he could, one even as big as him! The snow angels were quickly covered back up with snow, and the fort he built to protect him from the snowballs that his best friend kept throwing at him was surely buried by now.

He wondered if the whole castle was going to get buried.

Would Dad find his way home still if home was covered in snow? What if he couldn't find them until spring? He would have to protect Mom and the baby himself until Dad could get back inside.

It was a tough job for a two year old, but he would do it.

Boruto turned to his back in his bed, wondering if Mom was okay right now. He didn't know how late it was, but it was past his bedtime. He had slept a whole lot after Mom tucked him in. He had a full day of playing with Sarada in the snow.

But now he just couldn't go back to sleep.

The wind was howling outside, causing a whistling through one of the windows in his room. He typically didn't mind when the wind did it, it reminded him of when his Mom would sing to him on a rare occasion. But this was much harsher than normal, nothing warm and happy about it. Not like Mom at all.

He stuck his hand outside of his warm blanket, feeling how cold the air was. It wasn't too bad, but it definitely felt nicer under the blanket.

"Wonder if Mom's cold too…" he mumbled, holding his hand up.

He decided to go check.

The hallways always were bigger at night, but Boruto could never figure out why. The ceilings were taller, the hall itself was wider and longer than when Mom or Dad would walk him anywhere. Maybe it was because they were with him that it didn't feel so big. Or perhaps that the lights weren't dimmed so much you could barely see during the day. Maybe that was it.

Boruto was glad that he didn't have to walk very far to Mom and Dad's room.

He reached his hands up as high, getting the best grip on the handle that he could. Only recently had he been tall enough to grab them on his own.

He carefully opened the door, trying not to make a sound. He saw Mom sitting up in bed, reading with the table lamp on next to her. Her short hair was tucked neatly behind her ear, her eyes focused on what she was reading in front of her.

'She hasn't seen me yet.' He thought

Little did he know, of course she saw him.

He closed the door softly behind him, tip-toeing his very quietest over to the bed, pausing every time she flipped a page. He wished he had put on his socks, or maybe even his lion slippers before leaving his room. The floor was cold and the walk to the bed from the door was at least as long as… well, it was just long.

Slowly he made it to the rug that poked out from under their bed, relieved for the warm feeling under his feet. He might have sighed a bit too loud, since he saw Mom raise an eyebrow. He froze completely, waiting for almost an entire minute before her expression changed back to normal.

He took the last few steps extra careful, pausing before he spoke.

"… Mom?" he asked quietly.

Hinata put her book to the side, looking around the room in confusion.

"Now where did that come from?" she asked, expecting an answer.

Boruto laughed before repeating himself.

"Moooom!" he said again, this time more confident.

Hinata turned her head down towards him, smiling.

"Ah! How did you get there?" she asked, turning her body more towards him.

He giggled. "I snuck in and you didn' even see me.'

She nodded at him.

"You're right, I completely didn't." she lied. "But I have to ask, what are you doing out of bed?"

Boruto's expression changed from smiles to shy all in a few seconds. He put his hands behind his back, looking down at the floor.

"Well, I was wondrin' if you were cold… or the baby… so I came to check." He told her honestly.

She raised her eyebrows with her "o"

"Well, the baby isn't very cold." She told him confidently, putting a hand on her rather rounded stomach. "But... I think Mom could use some extra warmth."

His face changes back to smiles as he ran/bounced to the other side of the bed. He climbs up, crawling over next to her arm. She has the blanket already pulled away from her, letting him slide in.

She turns over to the lamp, turning it off for the night. She makes note of what time it is, 10:30, before turning back over to her son.

"You know, Dad's going to be home in a few hours." She tells him, letting him snuggle against her side.

She sees him pout slightly.

"What if we get buried in snow? Think Dad'll still find us?" he voiced his concerns.

Hinata couldn't help but laugh lightly at his worry.

"Don't you worry, your Dad promised he'd come home tonight, right?" she asked.

Boruto nodded his head.

"Then he'll come home tonight." She told him confidently.

Boruto smiled at her answer, knowing dad doesn't break his promises.

But then his face turned sour again, much to his mother's confusion.

"You think… he'll be mad that I'm sleeping in his spot?" Boruto asked.

Hinata thought for a minute before giving her response.

"If he is, he can just sleep in your bed." She joked, knowing he wouldn't be. But still, it was enough to get a smile out of her son. She loved those.

"I love you, Mom." Boruto softly said, rubbing his head against her arm.

"I love you too." She sweetly replied.

…..

It was early in the morning before Naruto got back in. Maybe around 2:30. By the time he returned his horse, filled out a report on what happened, ate something- he was too tired to remember what he even grabbed- and worked his way up to their bedroom, almost an hour more had passed.

But he still opened the door slowly, making sure not to wake Hinata if she was asleep. He closed the door softly, walking cautiously over to the wardrobe to change his clothes. They were completely damp from the melted snow, making him colder than he wanted to be.

He had finally gotten another pair of sweatpants, confident that Hinata wasn't going to steal them this time- she hated the color. He quickly put those on, digging a bit more to find a plain white shirt. Immediately he felt better in dry clothes.

He slowly made his way over to the bed, lifting the blanket before climbing in.

He was glad that he looked more carefully before just laying down and wrapping his arms around his wife. He might not have noticed the little boy lying next to her… where he wanted to be. He put his knee in the bed, deciding he was just going to lay next to his son instead. After all, the two of them looked too cute together for him to want to move apart.

If Hinata hadn't of woken up, he would have just stayed there the entire night.

"Welcome back…" she mumbled sweetly at him, turning the best she could.

"Is this what I miss every time I'm gone?" he asked, gesturing to her and Boruto.

She smiled at him.

"How was…" she yawned. "Your thing?" she asked quietly. He knew she wasn't completely conscious.

He laughed at her mid-sentence yawn- very quietly.

"The meeting was fine, nothing too important came up, but nothing bad either." He explained.

"And Sasuke?" she asked.

This was Sasuke's first lone assignment with Naruto. They had been on three others before that, but they had others with them. This time it was just the two of them. While it started out strange and awkward- neither not knowing what to say to each other, in the end they were having conversations. Naruto would talk about really anything that would come to mind like he normally would, and Sasuke would simply comment on them, but it was a start.

He had proven himself to be an asset though. He could hear so far away and was incredible at not being seen. The speed at which assignments could be completed nearly tripled just from him alone. He never questioned anything, he never talked back, and he just nodded and accepted what he was asked to do. They found it rather strange at first, him just accepting what they told him to do, especially considering what happened to Sasuke.

Tsunade was the one that answered that for them.

He trusted Naruto.

Someone that put so much of his reputation and even life on the line for him, someone who gave him a chance again even though he had absolutely no reason to, he trusted that.

Naruto sighed contently.

"He was just fine." He answered honestly.

He carefully scooped Boruto into his arms, maneuvering him to the other side of the bed.

He mumbled. "Dad really… came home…"

Naruto placed him gently against the bed, making sure he had a pillow under his small head and plenty of blanket.

"Of course I did." He whispered.

He saw Boruto smile as he took to his new spot nicely.

The thought crossed his mind as to why they didn't do this every night.

"Have you slept at all yet?" Hinata yawned again, moving her body closer to his. For someone who was just outside in the cold for hours he was already so warm.

He let out his own yawn, relaxing into the bed.

"Not yet…"

Naruto put his arm out and like instinct Hinata moved her body into his own, her head resting on his shoulder.

"Then maybe you should…" she mumbled, drifting further back to sleep. This spot was by far the most comfy she knew of, and sleep always accompanied it.

He smiled at her drowsy state.

"Well then…" he started, leaning his head closer to hers. He placed his lips gently on her forehead, feeling how warm she was.

"Goodnight"

She smiled at his kiss, but leaned her head up to meet his lips before he drew them away. It had been almost a week since she had seen him last, and she wanted a proper kiss goodnight. They held each other together, keeping the distance between them nonexistent.

They pulled away slow, keeping themselves close to each other.

"Goodnight."

…..

I cannot believe I wrote something… this long.

If I had the time and drive to go back through and make like a, a remastered version then I would. There's a lot of things that didn't develop quite like I wanted, there was a lot of things that I wished I developed more. I would add, remove, and replace a lot of different, small things. The longer we continued the more I branched off from what the characters would have done canonically, and what I would imagine the characters I developed doing. I would have developed more characters, given more time to specific scenes- that kind of thing. I know the story isn't near perfect, but I've been working on it what feels nonstop since October. And here we are, 51 chapters and just about a full 4 months later. That's just… insane. I mean this story is just shy of 200,000 words! It never felt like I was ever writing that much, I just was writing what I was feeling.

I'm glad you all were along for the ride and while I probably won't write too much in the near future since I have a few other projects I'm wanting to work on, surely this isn't the last thing I do.

So, for all of you who have been reading since day one, wow, thank you, you don't know how much I appreciate each and every one of you. If you came here somewhere in the middle, then I'm glad the story kept you coming back for more. That you saw there was more chapters and just kept going.

If you reading this years from now after all of this is done then I am so so so glad you took the time to read through all 52 chapters. I hope you got something out of it, that you felt the emotions that I tried to portray, and I hope you truly enjoyed it.

And as always, please favorite, follow, comment, review, give kudos, whatever you want to do. Thank you all so much. – Ellen