Nindō: Dominion

Once Naruto brought Boruto back into the train, he tucked him in bed beside Himawari. Then, he quickly slipped to the Anbu carriage and instructed them to take care of the aftermath of his two large-scale jutsu that shook quite a bit of the surroundings. The initial blast had already startled them quite a bit, but they quickly noticed how it was the Hokage who was responsible for them, at which point they left things alone.

With that taken care of, Naruto returned to the main carriage where Hinata and Hanabi were.

"I hope that both of you are finished with your talk," he said as he stepped through the door. "I'd rather not sit on the roof all alone."

"Did you put Boruto to bed, Naruto-kun?" Hinata turned around from her seat and looked at him.

"Yep. Now, Hanabi, if you would be so kind as to move to the other side, that would be great. I want to sit beside my wife."

"I refuse, Brother-in-law," Hanabi turned and stuck her tongue out at him. "You spend all this time with my Onee-chan. I want to spend some time with her as well. You will have to pick me up from my seat if you want me to move."

Naruto sighed. "Suit yourself," he slipped into the seat opposite them and faced Hinata. "Tell me if you want to sit with me, okay? I'll pick Hanabi up and move her away."

Hanabi grunted at him and hugged her sister. "She's mine. You can't have her."

"Sure," Naruto nonchalantly shrugged, leaning against the window and looking at the scenic views that passed by.

"What, no retort?" Hanabi said. "Come on, talk to me. Do you miss your wife that much? How about I sit with you so you don't feel left out?"

"I'd rather sit with my wife."

"Nope," Hanabi refused. "Your only options are to either sit by yourself or to sit with me."

"Everything all right, Naruto-kun? You seem distracted," Hinata interjected.

"It's all fine. I was just talking to Boruto, and he gave me some things to think about," his words were a partial truth since he was actually examining the connection that he had with Boruto. It was the same as what he had with Hinata, Sarada, and Karin, with no visible differences for now. He was now considering whether to seal a tailed beast into Boruto or not. Looking at Sarada's exponential improvements with her assimilation with Matatabi's chakra, she was sure to quickly surpass Boruto by a wide margin. Taking into account Mitsuki's Sage Mode, Boruto would be left the weakest member of Team 7 by a pretty wide margin without some kind of an unfair advantage. He needed a solution if he didn't want that to happen.

Suddenly, he felt some weight against his arm and saw Hanabi sitting beside him with an intense expression as she looked at him.

"Don't worry about him," she reassured him. "He's a sensible, if occasionally rash, kid. He knows what to do and has the drive to fully invest himself in that. So trust me when I say that Boruto will be perfectly fine."

"Thanks," Naruto gave her a slightly appreciative smile. "Now, if you would just scoot a little, I'll slip on over to my wife's side, she looks cold."

"Shut up, brother-in-law," Hanabi slapped his shoulder. "I've decided to sit with you for the time being. You should feel lucky to have such an opportunity to spend quality time with your sister-in-law. Maybe I'll put in a good word with my Onee-chan."

Hinata leaned back in her seat and looked at the two with a smile on her face. She was enjoying her sister's antics and how she was teasing Naruto.

"You want something from me, don't you?" Naruto looked at Hanabi pointedly.

"Do you think so lowly of me?" She huffed and crossed her arms.

"You definitely want me to buy you something," he was convinced. "How expensive is it?"

"Brother-in-law is slandering me, Onee-chan," Hanabi cried out. "He's looking for ulterior motives in my pure and innocent actions …"

"Naruto-kun," Hinata played along for once. "Don't be mean to Hanabi …"

"And here I thought that Hinata would've scolded you when I went away," Naruto sighed. "Instead, you two seem to have decided to gang up on me."

"Boo hoo, your wife is supporting your beautiful sister-in-law in teasing you," Hanabi said apathetically. "The tragedy."

"Well, when you say it like that …" Naruto shook his head. "Fine. Tell me, Hanabi, what do you want to do when we reach our destination?"

"That's the spirit," Hanabi scooted closer to him and wrapped her arm around his shoulder in an awkward position due to her slightly short stature compared to him. "I remember hearing something about a suite, right? That means a private bath …"

"It does," he nodded. "We will have a private bath that is directly connected to their hot spring."

"After such a long journey, we will all have to spend some time there, then …"

Now that she had started, it didn't seem like Hanabi was planning to stop speaking any time soon. She had the entire trip's itinerary mapped out in her mind and laid it all on Naruto and Hinata.

…

"Of course …" Naruto sighed when Hanabi started nodding off in the middle of her speech mere minutes after she'd started speaking.

"And then … we'll go to …" Leaning her head on his shoulder, she fell asleep.

"What do you think the chances are that she was just as excited as the kids and also didn't sleep the whole night?" Naruto asked Hinata.

"Pretty high," she said with amusement in her eyes. "But that's not the reason she fell asleep."

"So she did it to spite me?" Naruto asked.

"Like you don't know …" Hinata said with a pointed look in his direction. "You know how much she admires you. Naturally, she would fall asleep when she's with someone she feels safe around."

"Yeah, let me put her to bed …"

"Don't," Hinata stopped him as he was about to shift Hanabi's position. "Look at how comfortable she is. She's not like Hima. If you move her too much, she'll wake up. Let her rest in her comfortable place for a while."

Naruto looked at Hinata and sighed helplessly. "You really are ganging up on me with her today," he shifted Hanabi so that she would be more comfortable and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, allowing her to lean on him more comfortably while holding her close. "Happy?"

"Good," Hinata nodded in satisfaction. "Now, all that remains is to take a picture of this moment and let her tease you with it."

"What could she possibly have bribed you with …" Naruto said, speechless at his wife's words.

"Not telling~," Hinata said with a mischievous laugh. "I'm just happy that my sister is so comfortable for once. I can tell you, she doesn't even have this peaceful expression while sleeping at home. So make sure she's comfortable."

"Fine," Naruto shook his head in defeat. "Do you have any specific things that you want to do while we are there? Everyone's already said their piece … except you."

"And you," Hinata said. "I can't help but notice that you had Hanabi and Hima tell you what they wanted to do without sharing your own plans."

"I just want to spend time with my family," Naruto said. "Even if it includes this bubbly airhead." He brushed his palm along Hanabi's arm.

"Well … There is something that I want to do," Hinata had a scheming smile on her face. "But I won't tell you what. Not until you tell me about the thing that has been bothering you for the past few days. It's like you're going through some kind of crisis and are keeping it all to yourself. Hell, I'm pretty sure that your internal crisis played a major part in your motivation to make this trip happen. So tell me, what's really going on, Naruto?"

"Not hearing my usual honorific when you say my name makes it sound weird," he said with a smile. "I'll tell you when we get there. Promise."

"You look guilty … Why are you guilty, Naruto-kun? Did you do something that you shouldn't have?" Hinata's worry was clearly visible on her face. "Did you make some sort of deal with the Ōtsutsuki that would end up hurting the village? I promise you, even if you abandon the village, I will love you just as much. Just … don't bottle your emotions up, my love. Not in front of me."

Hearing Hinata's words had the opposite effect that she wanted on Naruto. Instead of making him feel better, it only made him feel worse about his decisions. As he got closer to actually coming clean with his wife, it only got harder for him to actually say the words.

"It's not that, Hinata," he extended his free hand and held it out for her to grab. "I can take care of whatever the world throws at me. As long as I have you by my side."

Hinata responded with a reassuring smile full of concern as she tightly held his hand.

"You will always have me by your side."

***

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