Your Depth

Flowers bloomed brilliantly and trees became lush with vibrant greens as a month and half into Spring had come and gone in almost the blink of an eye. The village was more busy than ever as Madara, Hashirama, and Tobirama worked hard to execute Naruto's idea in the best way possible. According to the trio, they decided to have another academic facility built next to the academy where talented students showing promise in the medical field would learn, as well as those interested in the field of medical science and engineering. They had originally planned to have it built near the hospital, so as to more easily facilitate the resources between the two buildings, but they choose to build it next to the academy to keep students closer together and so they could more easily commute between the two since many students would likely be moving in and out of the two facilities as the majority of the general classes would be held in the academy. Of course, other specialties existed as well, but they were mainly located within the academy building along with shinobi training.

In addition, this wasn't the only exciting news circling within the village as it was announced that they would be holding a large summer festival in celebration of the village's prosperity. Everyone was thrilled upon receiving the announcement as in the years prior because the village was still in its adolescent stage, they couldn't hold a summer festival, or any sort of festival, as they were still gathering income to build and support everyone. And now that the news of the summer festival was official, everyone in the village was in a fuss over preparing everything with only a short two month notice before the big celebration.

Naruto was over the moon with being able to experience Konoha's very first summer festival, and did his utmost in the preparation of the festivities; however, finding a way to help out wasn't as easy as it seemed. As a man, Naruto wanted to help with building the stands and clearing away some of the trees to make room for the celebration, but every time he attempted to help he was always politely turned away and ushered to instead help with making the decorations. And when he did try to help with making the decorations such as the flags, banners, lanterns, and so on, he was again turned away and essentially told to sit on the side and sip tea while everyone else did the work. He couldn't understand why no one wanted his help and treated him as if he was royalty that shouldn't get their hands dirty, and after being rejected so many times, he decided to instead follow Ayaka around for the day and help her wherever he could as she was one of the people selected to be in charge of the festival's planning committee.

"I just don't understand," Naruto said with a sigh, "I wanna be helpful too, but no one would lemme help them..."

Ayaka gave the youth an empathetic pat on the back and offered a consoling smile to the blond. "Oh, do not be so down, my dear. Just think of it as everyone caring a great deal about you and merely wants you to enjoy yourself like all the youngins."

"But I'm not a child! I'm a man, and I wanna help too! I may be on the weaker side at the moment and I'm not too good with my hands, but I think there could be other stuff I can help with!" he insisted.

Of course, Ayaka knew the kind of helpful and generous person that the blond was, but she could also see why everyone turned him away. He was the clan patriarch's precious lover that brought light and love into their leader's life, he was kind and caring towards everyone he met, and in the eyes of many because he often played with the children so much, he himself was inadvertently seen as a child as well. So, she could understand the frustration of being excluded and treated as a child.

"I know, but they mean well," and that's when an idea came to her. "Oh! How about you help me figure out what kind of activities each stall can have! There are a few written down, but I'm not very creative when it comes to games for children and such, so it would certainly lighten a bit of my load if you could think of some for me."