After five months, here you go!

His daughter's screaming cry of "I'm going to kill you!" Was what greeted Naruto as he walked into his house.

"Oh no," He groaned, tempted to walk right back out the front door he'd just walked through, "I don't need this. Not right now."

"You'd have to catch me first, and we both know there's no way you'll be able to do that." Kori—that was a surprise—taunted, and the screech of fury that Yuka let out was so loud that it hurt his ears. The thundering stomp of running feet on the floor above filled the air, and Naruto sighed and for a moment wished that his children would just behave.

"Girls!" He called, and the running instantly stopped, "Get down here! Now!"

A minute later his two fuming daughters stomped down the stairs and faced him, jaws clenched and eyes burning.

"What's going on?" He asked tiredly, rubbing at his forehead where a headache was beginning to brew.

"Nothing." They both grit out, and Naruto really really didn't want to deal with petulant and furious teenagers. They were almost worse than nearly everything else he'd ever had to deal with.

"Kori talked to Yuka's crush without telling her, and got a date with the guy for her." Leo called down from up the stairs, "And Yuka is acting stupid about it."

"You shut your face, Leo, or I'll shut it for you!" Yuka screamed, and Naruto had to hold her back from going up and enacting her revenge.

"No you won't," Naruto told her, "Now why are you upset?"

"Because she shouldn't have done that!" The fourteen year old wailed.

"I just got tired of hearing her whine about him all the time and thought, hey, if she won't do something about him herself than I will. I was helping."

"You helped nothing!"

"Quiet!" Naruto called before they could really get going. "Now Kori, you wouldn't like it if someone did this to you, so stop being hypocritical and apologize, and don't set anyone up on a date without their permission. Yuka, don't threaten to kill your sister. She was trying to help, even if she was wrong." The two grudgingly mumbled apologies to each other, and he sighed. "Now, your mother should be back tomorrow, so I need all of you to help clean up the house, alright?" Five voices called out an affirmative, and Naruto trudged back to the kitchen to see what he could do about dinner.

Hinata was gone on her first big mission since the twins were born, and it had been a bit of a difficult transition. But Hinata was happy and it would all be easier once they had enough time to have gotten used to the changes, so there were no complaints.

Well maybe one, since the kids kind of went crazy as soon as she left, but Naruto could deal. He could totally deal. Definitely.

Dinner went fine, though at one point he had to physically stop Yuka from leaping across the table to get at Leo—they really had to speak to the two of them about stopping their ridiculous fights, and to Yuka about her anger issues. They finished tidying up after, and once everyone was in bed and quiet and he finally had time to take a minute for himself, Naruto could only fall into bed with a groan.

He couldn't wait for Hinata to get back. They were all missing her like crazy.

The next day came, but Hinata didn't,

"Dad! Come on! You're the Hokage, just send some of your troops and check things out!" Yuka told—well, really she more yelled it, but that was also her normal tone of voice—him, slamming her hands on his desk and jostling some of his papers.

"It's only been a day, Yuka. Her team checked in at all of the checkpoints and normal procedure is to allow two days before we send anyone." He muttered, trying his best to look over some boring papers about a proposed change in the trade of tea herbs with a nearby village.

"But she's your wife!"

"I know, Yuka." He grit out, running a hand roughly through his hair. The fact that Hinata was in effect missing didn't sit well with him, but if he broke the rules for her just because she was his wife then it wouldn't be fair, and if Hinata ever found out in the case that there was nothing wrong then she'd be extremely upset at the preferential treatment. So what they had to do was grit their teeth and bear it for just a little bit longer.

He definitely wasn't happy about it, though.

His children weren't either, if the way they'd all came to his office to protest together was any evidence. Yuka was the loudest and most vocal of the group, but they all had something to say about his decision and Mino was watching him somewhat judgmentally.

"That's enough." He told them, earning himself stiff silence. "Boys, you both have school, and I know you have training today Kori. And Yuki, Yuka, I thought you'd promised to help with research at the library this week?"

"Research doesn't matter!" Yuka shouted again, and Naruto gave her a stern glare in return.

"All of you, go." He demanded, using his parent voice that had them grudgingly moving. Once his office was cleared of furious children Naruto sagged back into his chair, and worried.

That night, his children were upset with him and refused to say more than the bare minimum. He'd assigned additional ANBU to keep them from leaving the village to go off and find Hinata themselves and he knew that the twins had been stopped three times, Mino and Leo once, and Kori had apparently been kept too busy by Lee to have done anything.

Once he was in bed he had to force himself to fall asleep, and he'd just barely succeeded in this when a presence hovering just outside of the doorway woke him up again, and looking over he couldn't help the sleepy quirk of a fond smile that formed on his lips.

"Hey, you want to come in?" A silent nod, and then a little body was darting to the bed and crawling beneath the covers he held up. Mino's big eyes blinked up at him, and Naruto hugged him tight because he understood what the boy was feeling without it having been put into words.

"Yeah, I miss her too." He murmured, "And you can come in too, Leo." He called out a bit louder, and a moment later the redhead was stumbling into the room and into bed.

The three of them settled down for sleep, but before that was possible two more people were marching in—well, one marched and the other followed—and crawled straight into the bed without a word. It was a tight fit then but they managed, but when Kori walked in with her comforter wrapped around her shoulders he couldn't help but to laugh.

"There's not enough room, sweetheart." He told her, and got a sleepy glare in return. She crawled up onto the foot of the bed and curled up there, asleep as soon as she got comfortable.

They managed to fall asleep like that, the six of them in one bed curled up on top of each other and finding comfort in that.

It couldn't have been more than a couple of hours later when Naruto was woken up for the last time that night, this time by practically silent giggles and the snap of a camera taking a picture.

"Hinata," He mumbled, just barely awake, "Missed you."

"I can see that." She says, her voice quiet but filled with laughter. Naruto takes a moment to look at the children sprawled on and around him, and can't help the silent laughter that shakes through his body. This happens to shake a few of the kids awake.

"Wha?" Yuki mumbles, lifting her head and looking around for a moment before latching on to Hinata. "Mom!"

Soon enough everyone was awake and talking all at once, asking questions and shouting and being all too loud for the time of night.

"Sorry I'm late," She apologized once she was given a moment to speak, "We ran across some traveling civilians who were lost and hurt and helped them here. We didn't expect it to take as long as it did."

"Send somethin' next time." Kori grumbles from her blanket cocoon.

"I will, I promise."

No one leaves to go to their own room because, as Kori hisses, "I'm comfortable." So they all shift and move and pile atop one another so that Hinata can fit. It's tight and a tiny bit uncomfortable at first, but they deal with it and eventually everyone get comfortable enough to slip back into sleep. And so they do, and despite the slight uncomfortableness and how hot it is with everyone all together, it is one of the easiest nights of sleep any of them will ever have.

So... I'm letting this story the end of the manga I had to force myself to continue to read because of how rediculous and painfully forced it all became, and after reading the last few chapters I was in such a bad mood because of how frankly aweful somethign I had once enjoyed had become. I mean, this was the thing that had gotten me into writing fanfiction and all it did was leava a bad taste in my mouth at the end. Though, the very last chapter was pretty nice, if only because of how cute all of the children were.

I wanted to write more, truthfully, because this story isn't actually done. There is so much more I wanted to add and explain and change but... I can't. There is just no inspiration or modivation and it took me long enough to force this chapter out. But if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Nearly two and a half years and it's time.

I want to thank all of you. Every single one of you are so precious to me, and it means so much that you've read my stories and shared parts of your lives with me. So thank you. Thank you so much.