His Little Lady
Disclaimer: I own nothing and this idea just popped into my head when I was writing the Father's Day chapter of Lights in the Fridge.
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A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman, he turns her back again."-Enid Bagnold
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"Papa!"
Naruto turned at the familiar voice, squatting down next to his daughter. She had her mother's pale skin and blue-black hair, but had the sapphire eyes and bright nature of her father. She was currently wearing something (for once) not-dirty. It was a clean white blouse with slightly puffy sleeves; the ones that she said the princesses wore that had soft, pink designs on it. She wore a darker pink skirt, "like Sleeping Beauty!" she'd said when she'd first seen it.
"What is it, May?" he asked. Her full name was Amaya Hyuuga Uzumaki, but, as she had proudly declared one day, it was "Too grown-up sounding" and simply went by May.
"Papa, can you make me look like a princess?" she asked, using the Bambi eyes.
Once upon a time, he would have groaned at the thought and at the fact that she was using his infamous Bambi eyes on him, but now he merely smiled and took her much smaller hand in his and simply stated, "Sure."
So, he took her to the bathroom and sat down on the edge of the bathtub and took the blow-dryer and the comb, Amaya standing between his legs. Naruto carefully, so as not to hurt her, undid the (still slightly wet) braids that Hinata had so painstakingly done this morning and gently began to comb through the dark locks, blow-drying as he went. Sometimes, he would quickly blow the hot air in her face, making May giggle and hunch her shoulder to try and get away.
When he was done, he hoisted May up onto the counter so she could see herself. She grinned big, like her dad, and said, "Thank you, papa!"
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It was nineteen years later that Amaya was proudly showing her parents the plain, silver band on her finger. Hinata laughed, tears running down her face and hugged her daughter tight, and Naruto, while exuberant and happy for May, was sad that his little girl had grown up. Her face was still the same pale, her hair the same darkness, now pulled up into a simple ponytail and her eyes were currently swimming with tears of joy were precisely the same shade of blue, but she wasn't his little girl. She was engaged and was leaving. With a heavy heart, he hugged his not-so-little girl close, not trusting himself to speak.
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The day of the wedding, Amaya knocked on her dad's door and called softly, "Papa?" before opening the door.
Naruto looked at her curiously, looking, in her opinion, very much like the man she had seen in her parent's wedding pictures. He wore black slacks, and a white dress shirt, not yet having put on the tie and jacket. His blonde hair was combed semi-neatly( it had yet to be proven that it could lie flat) and his cerulean eyes, so like her own, were shining with several emotions.
"What's up, May?" he asked as she drew closer.
"Papa, can you make me feel like a princess again?"
Naruto grinned and gently took her hand and led her to the bathroom, grabbing the old black and white hair-dryer and sitting comfortably on the edge of the bathtub, May now having to kneel for her to be the right height. He took out the ponytail with the same careful movements, and began to drag the brush through her thick hair. When he was done, he rested his chin on her head and watched her from the mirror. "Ya know, I can't make you a princes again."
Amaya turned and looked at him with the same inquisitive expression that had graced his face and hour earlier. He smiled sadly down at her, "You're a queen now."