Chapter Text
Caring for Kagami together is easier than Izuna thought.
Sure, it was heartbreaking to watch when the pup fully awoke, only to realise his mother was nowhere to be seen nor was he in his own nest in his house with familiar scents to soothe him.
“Shh,” Tobirama whispered as he gently rocked Kagami in his arms. The pup clings to him for dear life. “It’s okay, you’re okay, Kagami. Everything will be alright, you’ll see.”
“W-Where’s mo-mmy?” The boy asks, hipcupping.
“Do you remember the fire in your home?”
Kagami nods.
“Your mom and you were hurt. I took her to the healers to help her.” Tobirama quietly explains, looking softly at him. “She’s doing well and should wake up soon. As soon as the storm passes, I’ll take you to see her. How does that sound?”
“I wanna see her.”
“Then we will, you just have to be patient. Can you do that for me? Be a good pup and wait a bit?”
Kagami nods.
“Do you remember how the fire in your house started, Kagami?”
That makes the pup start crying again. Tobirama rocks him and waits until he slowly calms down.
“I…I wanted to practice.” He murmurs sadly. “Mommy was cooking. I fell and- I didn’t want to! I swear! But the fire-” Ah. That explains a lot. “Mommy saved me. I hurt her.” Kagami cries. “I’m bad-”
“Shh, none of that, sweet boy,” Tobirama interrupts, “it was an accident. Yes, you should have practiced something else or waited but I’m sure your mom won’t be mad at you.”
Kagami sniffs, “I’m so sorry.”
“I know.” Tobirama says, kissing his forehead. “But I’m glad you’re okay.”
Izuna is sitting beside them, watching the entire scene unfold. He comes closer and kisses Kagami’s forehead too, “we’ll take you to see her when the storm is over,” he reinforces, “I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you.”
“And she would want her pup to be happy, right Izuna?”
“Right.” he smiles reassuringly at Kagami.
“So we’ll do lots of fun things while we wait to go visit her.” Tobirama says. “And then you’ll tell her all about it, okay?”
“Okay.”
Tobirama nudges his nose with Kagami’s and the boy lets out a wet laugh. This is how Izuna knows everything will be alright.
-.-
Tobirama has experience from when he was an older brother and from being a teacher in his own clan so he has no shortage of ideas when it comes to indoor activities to entertain a pup full of energy.
It’s fun because there’s nothing else to do, and watching how Tobirama is careful and gentle with Kagami only ever makes Izuna daydream about the day when they’ll have their own pups. Not to mention that is a good practice for him too.
Each activity is a surprise along with how much Tobirama is actually carrying around inside his seals. Like right now his Senju is setting out brushes and coloured inks.
He freezes up for a moment when a brush and a large sheet of paper is offered to him.
He blinks once before taking it. “Draw three random lines on the page.” Tobirama demonstrates on his own with vivid blue dye. Izuna frowns down at his red ink, and feeling silly, does so.
All of Tobirama's other games so far have had some fun element of training, from tag to the floor is lava, even some weird card counting games.
This just feels like scribbling. He looks across to Kagami’s where three yellow lines stretch across the pages.
“Good,” Tobirama says and reaches over to the sand timer next to him. “Now we switch pages and then will have five minutes to create something from it. And if we feel like it we can switch again after it for another five minutes.”
Tobirama held his sheet out to him and he held his out to Kagami while looking at the elegant wave swirls. It reminded him of the water Tobirama calls upon. Of the whirlpool of Uzushio he'd heard about. But how was his red ink meant to show that on a drawing?
He glanced over and saw Tobirama’s brush moving across the page leaving green in its wake. Green. Looking again he could see where the blue ink had gone over yellow, changing it into green.
He looked down at the swirling lines and grinned.
“It's time.”
It's only shinobi training that keeps him from jumping or dragging his brush across the page.
He looks up at Tobirama who almost looks amused and then across at Kagami with his hands covered in orange and yellow. Then down at the art he had created.
“Oh, that looks awesome.”
Kagami nodded. “Yes, it's the sky over the training ground. Look here, this is you and Tobirama-sensei helping me.”
He nodded, not quite seeing how the blobs of yellow, orange and red were them, but nodding all the same.
“You did a good job. Well done on using those red lines to help you,” Tobirama says, reaching forward to hover his fingers over parts of it as he broke down what he liked.
It gave him a moment to look over Tobirama’s and his jaw dropped. How Tobirama had used the limited colours to make a blue toned forest was unbelievable, there were hints of animals hidden in the foliage and sunlight streaming in through the leaves.
His sharingan flicked on without him really meaning to and he looked up in time to see red eyes flick away. He takes in the tension in the man's limbs and pulls his chakra back.
“Sorry, it's just.” He gestures at the painting. “It's incredible how you were able to paint it in such a short time”
Red eyes look back at him, “I'm a seal master.”
He looked back at all three artworks, so that had been the point of all this. He grins a challenge. “Next time Kagami is painting for me. He gave you a good starting point.”
Meaning he could try his best to give Tobirama as little to work with as possible. Tobirama narrowed his eyes slightly before nodding. Always the silent one, his mate.
Spending days like this with his mate and their not quite pup - Izuna could get used to it.
-.-
To be continued…