go the fuck to sleep
A new mother has come to the office of the Hokage with the strangest request: she cannot remember the nursery rhyme that her mother sang to her as a child, and her newborn will not go to sleep. The mother hums a bit, as though trying to spark a memory, and mumbles, on helpful repeat: “One for sorrow, two for joy…” The reason this request is being given such credence? No one else can seem to remember it either, despite the deeply-ingrained instinct to respond to it. Dig deep through the static in your mind, jog your memory, and help get this newborn and mother some much needed rest. (Ninjutsu +1) (starter for @ofsands)
It was one thing to understand the rhythm of the song, the patterns of sounds strung together in something classic and tender, but when presented with the child, the gentle reverberations of the melody that rumbled from his chest did nothing to soothe the maelstrom of caterwaul. A pinch formed in his brow at the sound, washed out and drowning out every other attempt at calm.
The mother looked at him sympathetically, but she too looked paler around the edges, a creature that only faintly suggested at existing and if blown over would crumple to dust.
“You are kind to offer, I know you’re almost there,” she said, and it was the least true anyone had ever been with him.
Tobirama grimaced down at the bundle in his arms, not so willing to give up - not merely for her sake, or his own, or their poor neighbors. When he looked down at the screwed up face, at the leak of salty tears down chubby cheeks, he could not help but see any number of faces, brothers who had never made it past screaming.
“I had hoped,” the mother continued, as though attempting to pierce through the veil of noise, “that Hokage-sama might have something in her repertoire to allow him to be still - some sort of jutsu…”
Her voice cracked in tandem with her smile, and she pressed her face into the cup of her hands.
“Sorry, I know it’s terrible, to want Hokage-sama to perform jutsu on my baby just so that I can get some sleep, it’s just been…”
“We will find something,” he promised, tone curt and eyes hard, steeling himself as much for battle as he had during the final siege of his life. It did not bear mentioning that he, too, had the great repertoire of a kage - not when he could not even rock a child to sleep.
There was a baby screaming, and it wasn't stopping.
Temari tried to ignore it. All things considered, she wasn't the type to deal with kids. She didn't know if she would ever be, but right now, she was too young to even consider it.
She went to get breakfast, and the baby cried. She went to run errands, it was still crying. Hours passed, and it was still crying. There had to be a way to shut it up - humanely. She had no interest in harming it.
Some man was already trying to coax the baby: perhaps it was the child's father? From the way it screamed, Temari doubted it. She watched the pair try to coax the baby to sleep, or to at least stop crying. She heard the melody of the song, and she's back in that turtle again. She's a child again.
She knew this song. She couldn't explain it then, nor now, only that she did.
She approached the pair slowly. She was going to regret this. Temari was going to embarrass herself. She held out her arms anyway to take the baby.
"Can I try?" Anything to stop the crying. The two people before her seemed sick of it, weary enough to topple at a slight breeze. The baby seemed like it was only alive to scream, at this point. Better to embarrass herself than to hear that for even another second.
