Naruto 700: Bolt

Read from left to right.

(Naruto ending spoilers, but also not)

Well-being of children is extremely super most important to 6th co-Hokage Naruto and 5th Kazekage Gaara. This is reflected in their policies as kage as well as volunteer work outside it, and after lots of careful consideration and overcoming anxieties about what their own childhoods do and don’t mean for their capability to be good parents themselves, children of their own are also part of their plans for the future of their family. They are already co-parents with several of their datefriends (such as Hinata, and Neji, whose nth cousin turned little sibling, Himawari, understandably views them more as parental figures due to the big age difference. And Lee, who has by now found and of course taken under their wing the next bushy-brows), but they’re not any child’s primary guardians, so it’s still a big step.

The kid says to call them Bolt. Naruto thinks it’s awesome the two of them even have the last two syllables of their names in common. Whether their name was Bolt before hearing Naruto’s name isn’t brought up because it’s not like that would matter in whether it’s their real name. Bolt lives in an orphanage for now, but they’re not actually an orphan. In any case, they’re not going back to their birth parents.
Though Naruto is a bit nervous to introduce Gaara and the kid they kind of already imprinted on behind Gaara’s back, Gaara makes sure Bolt knows they are welcome and wanted and heard, and both of them never stop making sure their child knows that, even while they’re still getting used to each other. Naruto and Gaara never just assume Bolt wouldn’t be able to understand something, and always do their best to take what they communicate into consideration. And Bolt communicates a lot, and all the time and quite loudly, but notices things like how Naruto lowers their voice when talking to or around Gaara, and does the same. Bolt needs help staying focused a lot of the time, and Naruto and Gaara know how to provide that because it’s the same for Naruto and they’ve learned together ways to deal with that.

Bolt doesn’t actually grow up to be a kage, or for that matter a ninja (which people don’t nowadays start seriously training for until they’re old enough to make the decision themselves while knowing the risks), but that’s okay, they find something else that makes them happy, and Naruto and Gaara are happy for them.

*Seven kages, because Naruto shares the Hokage title with Sakura (Tsunade stayed in office until they were ready for the job), and also there’s the Amekage. Kakashi retired from ninjaing as soon as the war ended. Gai still hasn’t.

**Naruto and Gaara only technically live in different villages after Naruto learns the Flying Thunder God technique. Gaara wears one of the seals as a necklace.

Special thanks to this post.

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I drew some comics to deal with the saturation of suddenly!cishetness, and the amount of both problems and potential glossed over in favor of it, which... seem to be obligatory for epilogues to popular fantasy stories about teenagers fighting a war, possibly as a product of authors wanting to show their characters being happy in the end but authors of a certain generation having trouble coming up with any other definition of happiness.

This is part two, part one is here, and part three is here.

Originally posted to tumblr here, please reblog instead of reposting.