Nindō 0039: Keeping his Promise

"Are you finally free, Tou-chan?" Himawari asked as Naruto picked her up from the academy to walk her home. "You said that you would be free to teach me on Friday, it's Friday already."

"Yes, yes, my daughter. I've specifically freed up my schedule to teach you that jutsu that you are so interested in," Naruto said. "After lunch, I'll take you to the training ground and we can practice."

"Can't we do it now?" Himawari asked.

"What about the food that your kaa-chan cooked for us? She'll be sad, right?" Naruto said. "What if she decides that she won't cook for you anymore?"

"Home it is," Himawari nodded mechanically, making Naruto laugh.

"That's my good girl," He patted her head as she pouted.

"You're messing up my hair."

"I'll fix it for you after lunch, don't worry. You want to sit on Tou-chan's shoulders?" Naruto asked.

"No, I'm not a little girl, Tou-chan."

"You'll always be my little girl, Hima," Naruto said. "Even if you are growing up …" He showed a lamenting expression.

"Fine, fine, I'll get up on your shoulders. But only if you feed me."

"Done," Naruto smiled, shaking his head. "Even though I'm the one losing out here."

Himawari smiled cutely as Naruto squatted to let her climb up on his shoulders. He held on to her legs as she looked around. "I'm so tall …" She said.

Soon enough, they got home where Naruto made well on his promise of feeding Himawari. Once they were done, Naruto kissed Hinata goodbye and took Himawari to the training grounds.

…

"Tou-chan," Himawari said.

"What is it, honey?" Naruto said with an indulgent tone.

"Can we get ice cream on the way? The ones that you got me for my birthday."

"Sure we can get some. There's a store on the way to the grounds."

"Thank you."

"Anything for you."

"Tou-chan."

"Mhm?"

"Nothing."

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing … What do you think about long hair?"

"I think my Hima would look beautiful if she had either long hair or short hair."

"That's not what I asked."

"Do you want to lengthen your hair? Go for it. I think you would look beautiful."

"I was thinking to style it like Hanabi-nee-chan."

"That's going to take a while. At least a year or two, and that's if you use certain chakra enhancement procedures to make sure that your hair keeps constant growth."

"I'm going to do that. Mhm … Can I climb up on your shoulders again?"

"Whatever my Hima wishes."

"Tou-chan."

"What is it?"

"Should I call you Dad instead of Tou-chan? The others in my class refer to their parents as mom and dad …"

"It's your choice, honey. Personally, though, I feel that you sound cuter when you call me Tou-chan."

"Okay, Tou-chan … Dad … Tou-chan … Daddy … Tou-chan." Naruto couldn't help but laugh as he heard Himawari continue to try to refer to him in different ways to get a feel for it.

…

The father-daughter duo got some ice cream and finally reached the training ground where Himawari got off of Naruto's shoulders.

"Are you finally going to tell me how to differentiate between your shadow clones?" The girl asked.

"Activate your Byakugan, Hima," Naruto said, making a hand sign and creating multiple clones of himself.

The girl nodded and closed her eyes before opening them. Veins protruded out of her skin surrounding her eyes as she looked at him. "Now what, Tou-chan?"

"Do you see my chakra pathways?" Naruto asked.

"I do," She nodded. "All of your clones share the same pathway, I can't differentiate any of them."

"Now don't resist as my clone imbues its chakra in you. Form the seals that I tell you to and allow your chakra to naturally move along your body." Naruto said as Himawari nodded. Naruto's clone then came up behind her and put his hand on her back before sending his chakra into her body.

"It's so warm …" She hummed comfortably.

"Focus, Hima. What I'm about to do is going to allow you to be much more sensitive to the presence of chakra all around you, okay?" Naruto said.

"I don't get it." She said.

"Focus, form the Ox seal," Naruto's clone said from beside Himawari as she followed his directions. "Do you see the difference?"

"What–what is this overwhelming chakra?" Himawari asked, trembling as she felt an immensely heavy chakra all around her. No matter how far she looked, she noticed that that chakra was omnipresent.

"Form the Dragon seal this time, quickly before you are overwhelmed," Naruto said, calming Himawari down as the immense overbearing presence around her disappeared. "I made you attune the sensor frequency of your Byakugan to be able to see natural energy. What you saw was the omnipresent energy that belongs to our planet itself."

"Ohh … It's the energy that allows you to use Sage Mode, right?" Himawari asked.

"It is, did you see how your chakra moved?" Naruto asked. "Let's first train you to get you to attune your frequency to natural energy. Then we'll move to the next level. Form the Ox seal again, and focus on how I'm making your chakra move. We will keep going until you can perform this frequency change without my intervention."

Himawari nodded and formed the seal once again. She was quick to return things to the way they were with the Dragon seal but still made sure to focus on how her chakra was moving. "Can I absorb this energy, Tou-chan?" Himawari asked after casting the seal once again which allowed her to see natural energy.

"No," Naruto said quickly. "Don't even try it. Otherwise, you'll turn into a statue. Natural energy is an extremely heavy energy. One that will overwhelm you completely unless you are able to form a balance by making it work together with your own chakra. If it takes over, then you are going to turn into stone."

Himawari felt a shiver go down her spine, "I don't want to do it anymore, Tou-chan …" She said after casting the Dragon seal to revert the frequency to natural.

"Don't be so worried, your Tou-chan's here with you, right?" Himawari nodded as she constantly felt Naruto's warm chakra flow through her body, making her feel giddy. "I won't let anything happen to you. Now make the Ox seal again."

Himawari continued for the next half hour, constantly making the Ox seal and reverting before repeating the process. By the end, Naruto was doing nothing more than supplying his chakra to her to allow her to keep her Byakugan active for longer.

The next thing he told her was to examine the flow of natural energy as his clones absorbed it in certain manners. He tested how well she could see the presence and movements of natural energy before dispelling his clones and pulling his chakra back from her.

The girl instantly collapsed on the ground, panting as if she'd just run multiple laps around the village. "I'm tired, Tou-chan. You said you were going to teach me to find out the real you from your clones …" She complained while taking constant breaths and banging her fist on the grass.

"That comes next, my lovely Hima," Naruto said in a loving tone and pulled his daughter into his lap, letting her lean on him. "Now that you've mastered sensing natural energy, you're already halfway done. I will teach you another seal to cast after the Ox seal and then you will be able to tune your Byakugan's vision to easily distinguish between my clones and me."

"Mm …" She didn't have the energy to speak anymore.

Another half hour passed before Himawari recovered with Naruto's pampering and reactivated her Byakugan. Naruto made his clones and had her cast the seal to allow her to view natural energy. His clone then infused his chakra in her before getting her to make the snake seal.

Her vision instantly changed. Instead of the overwhelmingly omnipresent natural energy, she saw essentially nothing other than the faint silhouettes of Naruto and his shadow clones. One of those silhouettes instantly stood out.

"What are those three strings, Tou-chan?" Himawari asked as she saw one of the silhouettes with three red strings emerging from him and going off into the sky.

"These strings represent something very special, my daughter," Naruto said. "Once you get older, I will explain everything to you in a way that you will understand the significance behind them. For now, you can think of them as your Tou-chan's connection to this world."

"Tou-chan's connection to this world …" Himawari trailed off thoughtfully, focusing on the strings.

"Come now, cast the Dragon seal and focus on the movement of chakra. It's the same seal but the chakra is moving differently, you see? Memorize that. We are going to spend the next hour getting you proficient in changing the frequency of your Byakugan's vision."

…

Naruto took Himawari home only after the sun had completely set. The girl was completely exhausted and was already asleep as Naruto's clone carried her home in his arms.

As for the real him, he made his way to his office, for the daily evening meetup with his lovely disciple. These days, she loved telling him about her day and spending time with him. He even got her to help out with his paperwork for an hour before she went home.

[I had thought that you would put that mark on your daughter today.]

[Not yet, Kurama. It puts pressure on the soul that I'm not sure if Hima is ready for just yet. I would rather wait for a few years and put the mark on her once she's ready.]

[What was that whole thing with changing the frequency of the Byakugan? I've never heard anything about that. Also, what were those red strings your daughter was talking about.]

[Those chakra strings represent my connection to those holding my Dominion mark. The clones don't have them.]

Naruto deliberately didn't answer Kurama's first question, making the fox snort as it went back to sleep.

***

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