Sasori sat his 4 year old son, Saki, on his lap.
"What did you learn at school today Saki? Anything interesting?" Sasori asked, smiling. It was almost a routine for him, and he never expected much more than a new math problem. He never thought he'd hear this until at least 3rd grade.
"Well," Saki began importantly, "We learned about place value,"
"Oh really?"
"Yup, the one's and the ten's places."
"How many zero's are in the ten's place?"
"One!" Saki exclaimed proudly.
"Good! Anything else?"
"Well, teacher told us that there were bigger numbers than thousands, things like millions, and, and billions!" Saki shouted.
"Shhh, Uncle Kakuzu is asleep. Do you know how many zero's are in a billion?" Sasori asked, not at all expecting an answer.
"Is there nine?"
"Wow, you learn fast."
"Teacher said that too! Hey, dad?"
"Yes, Saki?"
"How much is in a billion?"
"Well, let's think. What happens when you get in trouble?"
"I get time-outs…" Saki Grumbled.
"Correct. Now, you don't get in trouble a lot. What if you had to take One-Billion time-out's?"
Saki's eyes widened. He hated time-out's! Having to sit for five minutes in a corner was bad enough, but ONE BILLION TIMES!!! His mind couldn't comprehend it.
"Wow…"Saki breathed.
"That's a long time, huh. If you had to have One-Billion time-out's, five minute's each, it would take," Sasori did a quick calculation, "9513 years, you know that?"
"What!?!?" Saki couldn't believe it. He had thought it would only take maybe a week, let alone a year!
"Yup," said Sasori, "What's something that you like?"
Saki thought for a minute.
"Cats," He said finally, "I like cats."
"Good choice. A cat is about twenty-three centimeters, right?"
"Yes." Saki remembered a report he did on cats once. They had indeed been 23 centimeters tall (Though Saki had more enjoyed petting the cats ).
"If you had 1 billion cats and stacked them on top of each other, it would be about 230,000 Kilometers tall."
"Is that big?"
"Very big, so big, it would almost reach the moon, give or take a few thousand miles."
"Daddy!" Saki gave him a playful shove.
"What? I only speak the truth."
"What ever…"
"What else do you like?"
"Ummm…Books. Thick Books, like the big kids. The pages feel not fake."
"Ok. How tall are they?"
"They look about, 20 centimeters?"
"Alright. If you stacked a billion of them top to bottom, it would reach about 200,000 Kilometers. Not as far as cats, though."
"That's good."
"Why?" Sasori asked, confused.
"I don't want the cat's feelings to be hurt."
Sasori laughed. Typical Saki, not wanting to hurt anything.
"Anything else?"
"CD's. Tobi let's me borrow his CD's all the time."
"What do you listen to?" Sasori asked suspiciously.
"Usually, Simple Plan and Linkin Park. But sometimes I'll listen to Disturbed."
Sasori made a mental note to tell Tobi not to give Saki any more metal music.
"Ok, So CD's are 2 millimeters thick. If you stacked a billion CD's on top of each other, it would reach a mere 2,000 kilometers."
"Awww, I was hoping for it to be farther." Saki said forlornly.
"Hey, one last one before bed, Okay? Let's do pillows."
"Yes, Yes!!! How high would a billion of my pillows go?" Saki yawned and stretched widely.
"Well," Sasori spoke softly, "a billion pillows would reach to the height of 130,000 kilometers. But you know what?"
"What?" Saki asked sleepily.
"If there were a billion of you," He kissed his son's forehead, "I wouldn't stack them up." Sasori flicked off the light, and whispered to Saki. "I would read each one a story, tuck them all in, and kiss them all good night, One by one. Sleep well, Saki."
Wasn't that sweet! It gives you the warm fuzzies inside. I was really thankful when I realized that after the math, I got to do a creative writing paper. I hope you will do more of these!!! Saki Akasuna, OUT!!!
(P.S. My Nickname is Saki. This is actually Leah. Proof? XDD ^_^ 3 My signature.) Love you both, Miss Ervin, Mr. Davis!!!