Naruto's bid for attention caught her by surprise and all she could do was stare for a moment. And when she did finally react, she started to laugh. And laugh. And laugh some more. She nearly missed his request, but eventually wiped away a tear of mirth before reaching out to gently pry the mask from her son's grip.

"Come on, Naruto, let that go. There we go! What a good boy."

Mask released, she stood up and took the baby back in her arms. He seemed pleased to have his mother's attention again and grabbed at some of her long hair. She took it in stride as he flailed his arms, laughing and tugging on her hair as she went to get something else for him to wave around. After a minute of careful persuasion, she got him to trade her hair for his drum rattle.

"Sorry about that, even this young he really likes grabbing things."

And yet... some of the laughter was still clinging to her voice.