Mother's Day

A little something for Mother's Day. 

Warnings: Un-edited silliness. Not a part of AtO's established timeline, obviously. May make you feel slightly sappy.

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"Well, you could just give a gift to someone you consider motherly," Harry said with a shrug.
Naruto bit his lip in confusion. "Motherly?"
Harry nodded. But realizing that Naruto still looked confused, he recalled Mrs. Weasley's usual behaviour and said, "Someone who tries to keep you out of danger becasue they're worried you'll get hurt."
Naruto scrunched his face up in thought. "There are lots of people like that. So then Kakashi-sensei is motherly?"
Harry snorted and bit back his chuckles. "No, there's a lot more to being motherly. Like…oh! someone who cooks a lot or tells you to eat properly because you're too skinny."
"Nii-san," Naruto blinked at Harry. "I think everyone who sees you would say that. So they're all being motherly to you?"
Harry twitched but continued. "Someone who fusses over you when your injured."
Naruto blinked. "Like a medic?"
Harry hmm-ed and recalled Mrs.Weasley's scolding the twins. "But they can be scary too. Because they always know if you're up to mischief."
"Aren't all women scary?" Naruto muttered. "Even girls are scary."
"And finally I guess someone who believes in you? Someone who'd sacrifice everything to see that you succeed."
"Ah!" Naruto clapped his hands. "There's only person I can think of who's all that."
Harry blinked in surprise. "Really? Who?"
"The old hag!"
"Naruto!" Harry scolded. "You can't call the only motherly figure you know an old hag."
"Why not? Tsunade ba-chan is old."
"Tsunade…you mean the Hokage? She's your motherly figure?" Harry asked in disbelief.
Naruto nodded absently. "Should I get her a case of sake?"
"You're not getting her alcohol as a mother's day gift."
"Why not?" Naruto seemed genuinely confused "She likes to drink. Aren't gifts supposed to be something you'll love?"
"Just no! Get her something nice. She must like other things too."
"But," Naruto said, "I don't know what she likes."
"Then ask someone who knows her better."

x-x-x-x-x

Sakura quirked an eyebrow up and stared at Naruto in disbelief."You want to get Tsunade-shishou a gift for Mother's day?"
Naruto nodded.
"Tsunade-shishou?"
Naruto nodded again, shifting slightly so that he slouched in his cross-legged position.
Sakura shrugged and plucked some grass up from beside her and absently tossed them in the air. "Get her a case of sake."
Harry twitched.
"Nii-san said I shouldn't get her that. I should get her something nicer. Something else that she would like."
Sakura tapped her chin absently. "Well you can't get her any beauty products of spa treatments because she'll get insulted."
Harry frowned. "Why would she get insulted?"
"She'll think you're implying she's looking old."
Naruto nodded. "So no sake and no beauty products or spa treatments."
"Don't even bother buying clothes, because no one know her actual size. And trying to find that out..." Sakura shared a look with Naruto. And they both shuddered.
"Flowers?" Harry asked almost hesitantly.
Naruto frowned. "Isn't that too common? It won't be as special as a case of sake."
"Forget the sake!" Harry said. "What about jewellry?"
"She doesn't wear any," Sakura said as she leaned back and lay on the grass.
"Books?"
"She's the Hokage. She already has to read a lot of reports and treaties and things..." Sakura said. "Best not to get her a book."
Naruto jumped up. "All right. I've decided on what to get her…"

x-x-x-x-x

Harry glanced into the store window. "That's really pricey."
Naruto nodded. "I remembered ero-sennin talking about this stuff before. Plus I remember him saying that the old hag always wanted to try this."
Harry sighed. "Well, it seems like the best thing to get. No chance of her getting mad at you or anything. Do you have enough money for it?"
"I have half price," Naruto chuckled. "But no need to worry. I'll visit the lottery vendor in a few minutes."
Harry blinked. "Okay. So you didn't want my help to pay for this?"
Naruto shook his head. "No, I was wondering if you'll help me with something else."

x-x-x-x-x

Shizune glanced down at the bright orange box and hid her smile as she entered the Hokage's office. "Tsunade-sama, there's a gift for you."
Tsuande looked up from her scroll. "A gift?" She glanced at the orange box and twitched. "Is this a joke from the brat?"
"Tsunade-sama! Don't you know what day it is?"
Tsunade frowned. "It's not my birthday."
Shizune shoved the box onto the desk and said, "Just open it. I checked, it's not a gag gift of any kind."
"Fine!" Tsunade rolled her eyes. "I could do with a break anyway."
Shizune huffed but watched Tsunade's face carefully as she opened the box. She grinned when Tsunade's eyes widened and her mouth opened in obvious shock as she pulled up a large bottle.
"How..." Tsunade raised the bottle and pulled the paper card that hung from the strip aroung it's neck. "And it's the real thing too. How did that brat manage to buy a bottle of Hokage Sake. And why did he buy it, Shizune?"
Shizune smiled and pointedly glanced at the box.
Tsunade placed the bottle aside, glanced into the box again and pulled out an envelope. From it she pulled out a roughly made coupon book. "Mother's Day coupon book?"
Shizune stifled a chuckle as Tsuande flipped the pages.
"All these coupons are free repairs. Is that brat trying to imply something?" Tsuande said, even though there was a smile on his face.
"Naruto-kun made his cousin sign every coupon," Shizune said in amusement.
A knock interrupted them. "Tsunade-shishou?"
"Come in, Sakura!" Tsuande said as she looked through the coupons.
Sakura opened the door wide and held up a large bouquet of pink flowers. "You already got Naruto's gift then? Did he get you something other than sake?"
Tsuande quirked an eyebrow. "He told you he was getting me a gift?"
"He wanted to know what else you liked because he didn't want to get you anything too common." Sakura glanced back. "Lee, you can come in."
A large colourful bouquet filled up the doorway and Shizune smiled at the large banner within the bouquet that read 'Happy Mother's day'. Lee stumbled into the office and gingerly placed the large bouquet in front of the Hokage's desk.
"What..." Tsunade looked utterly surprised as she stared at the bouquet.
"After hearing about Naruto-kun's plan to give you a mother's day gift, I realized that I was an ungrateful person,"  Lee's eyes watered dramatically. "I should have done this after you healed me three years ago!"
Tsuande looked slightly uncomfortable. "There's no reason to feel bad..."
"And you are so merciful and understanding," Lee shouted. "As penance, I will run around Konoha the entire day telling everyone what a wonderful mother you are."
"What? That's not..." Tsunade twitched when Lee ran out of the room.
Sakura chuckled and placed her own bouquet on the table. "Happy Mother's day, shishou."
Before Tsunade could say anything there was another knock on the door.
Hours later, Shizune smiled with wide eyes as she looked around the entire room. "I've never seen the office this colourful. And so many flowers."
"Don't forget all the sake," Tsuande said with a slight roll of her eyes as she nodded to the small stick of sake cases on one side of the room. "I don't know who I should blame for all this."
Shizune grinned at Tsunade's attempts to hide her smile. "Probably Naruto-kun. And how many repair coupon books did you get?"
"I can't believe he signed all these." Tsunade chuckled at the small stack of coupon books on her desk. "That brat will go out of business with all the free repairs I can get from him." Tsuande grabbed the bottle of Hokage sake and smiled at it fondly.
"Are you going to start drinking now?"
Tsunade scoffed and made her way to the wall safe. With a drop of blood, she unsealed the safe and pushed the bottle in. "This is a special occasion sake. I better save it for when I select my successor," Tsunade said softly as she resealed the safe. "We better move these flowers to the hospital."

x-x-x-x-x

"Nii-san?"
Harry groaned. "I don't care how much money they're offering, I'm not signing anything more. Leave me alone."
"Not that. Let's go get cake, my treat for all your hard work today."

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Okay, I might have lied. There was nothing little about that.

Anyway to those of you who recognized the 'Hokage Sake'- yes, it's one of the more amusing things introduced in Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth manga.

 Mother's Day fanart (or rather just normal mother-son fanart just to add to the whole sappiness of this post)

1. About mothers and sons by sanzo-sinclaire

I just love this pic as a what-if that could have happened. There's something nice about seeing Kushina and Naruto together like this and it seems like something that would have been a common sight.







2- Happiness by dissolvedoxygen

Another what-if picture, this time for Lily and Harry. This seems like a scene that would have been a common sight too.





Anyway, that's it for today.

Polar

A Feature of Inspiring Fanart.

Because of my NaNoWriMo project, I've decided to do a feature for art that are centered around the Bleach character 'Grimmjow' - who has been fun to write alongside Team 7 these past few days. All the art here was rather inspirational in some form or the other for my writing up till now and I felt the need to thank them in my own way.

Grimmjow- The Panther King by grindpantera0219

This fanart actually gave me the plot bunny for my story ages ago. I can't quite explain why the picture gave me a plot-bunny for a crossover story, but I'm very glad it did. I would have left a comment on the page, but I don't have a dA account (even though I lurk there all the time).  So this is my thanks to the artist for inspiring me with a crazy but fun idea.



Bleach- Why tea only? by Washu-M 
Washu-M has a lot of funny comics- a lot of them with Grimmjow in them. Those comics actually made me feel a lot more comfortable about writing silly humour. More than that, the comics made me crack a smile when I got too stressed out. I definitely recommend going through Washu-M's comics for some light-hearted humour when you have some free time.



Bloody Macabre Halloween by blackstorm

As the title suggests, this is a picture of Grimmjow covered in blood. Even though he's covered in blood and looking rather insane- that's perfect because that's just how Grimmjow is- and this picture acted as a good reminder for me.

Of course, I did end up writing a lot of fighting and killing- which I have toned down- too much blood does get repetitive.



Bleach- RePantera by AkiMao

There isn't a lot of art of Grimmjow in his adjhucas form (at least I never saw any). But among the few that are there, this one really stands out to me.

It really has it's own unique mood and somehow manages to convey a different aspect of Grimmjow's attitude- and even a mixture of things, the longer you stare at it. 


I'm really finding this year's NaNoWriMo odd, not because it's fanfiction or anything like that. It's just how I seem so much more eager to write the story backwards- i.e) the ending bits first (I have the final scene done!).

I've actually noticed this happening while writing for AtO as well- I write out bits of future chapters and even the epilogue easily but when I have to work on the chapter that needs to be published next I'm find myself not able to concentrate and work on it. But I only took proper notice of it when I was writing this story.

In a way, it's nice for me as a writer- like I know for sure that I know what's happening and how I want to resolve my story.  I suppose this would work well if I'm writing a proper fiction novel (but that's not how I wrote last year's NaNoWriMo- then again I never had a proper ending for that story...)

But for fanfiction readers- it's probably very annoying since I can't really upload anything even though I'm writing so much. Future chapters will only make sense if I write out the previous chapters. 

Polar.
P.S. When I finally upload all my NaNoWriMo story's chapters online- I'll definitely do a Team 7 fanart feature!