Chapter One
The fact that anyone was ringing the doorbell should have made Sasuke suspicious, should have been enough to do more than result in the casual but short-lived raised eyebrow. Never mind the fact that it was a perfectly good doorbell. The few people who knew where he lived were more prone to banging on the door repeatedly or walking in unannounced than actually making use of said doorbell.
He wasn't expecting company. Not that he wanted it, either, but unless Naruto somehow forgot his key—which Sasuke highly doubted because he knew Naruto wasn't that absentminded—he couldn't imagine anyone going out of their way to find what could possibly pass as a small house hidden somewhere near the outer edge of Konoha. More importantly, because Naruto wasn't here and probably wouldn't be back from his scouting mission until this afternoon, Sasuke saw no reason to have his carefully planned morning interrupted.
He could count on one hand the number of people who hadn't shunned him completely after he returned to the village. An exaggeration maybe, being that more than a few years had passed, but there weren't many people who made contact with him on their own free will. Coincidentally, those who did were the ones who thought he was socially inept. Of course, since he was trying to be productive, he felt the situation warranted his apparent lack of ability to socialise. Though, he did admit there wasn't much left for him to do. Just those lesson plans Iruka wanted him to look over and the scroll Kakashi had given him yesterday.
Nonetheless, Sasuke pushed aside the small pile of papers on his desk, notes on the scroll stacked neatly and separate from the folder Iruka had given him. He took off his glasses, placing them in their case before standing up and walking out of the room.
The doorbell rang again, and Sasuke felt his minor irritation at being interrupted begin to ebb away. He was alert now, something nagging at him in the back of his mind and putting him on edge. Gaze hardened, he approached the door cautiously. His abilities weren't exactly up to par, but he could still sense it, a faint trace of chakra that was vaguely familiar.
He opened the door when the doorbell rang for a third time, frowning when he found no one on the other side. There was a sudden spike in the amount of chakra he sensed, nothing too high, but it was followed by a soft whine. Sasuke followed the sound, lowering his head slowly and nearly falling out at the sight in front of him.
It was a kid.
Judging by what he could see, it was a kid who couldn't have been more than two or three, dressed in a plain white shirt and white shorts he seemed to have yet to grow into. The clothes had seen better days, stained with what Sasuke was presuming to be dirt. The kid's sandals were smudged, too, traces of blue somewhat noticeable through a nearly dried coat of mud. If the kid had been running through mud recently, miraculously, the hat he was wearing was clean. One of those winter fleece hats, it was a mostly white cap with a wide black band around the bottom and matching black ears on top of it—a type of character hat Sasuke had seen some of Iruka's students wearing before.
The kid's head was bowed so Sasuke wasn't able to place a face, but the kid didn't look like anyone in Iruka's classes. Not that anyone came to mind who would actually know where Sasuke lived. At a loss for words, reluctantly, Sasuke stayed silent. The kid was silent in return, shyly putting his arms behind his back and digging the heel of his right sandal into the porch.
However, Sasuke nearly recoiled when the kid turned his head to the side. He still couldn't fully see the kid's face but was able to catch a glimpse of hair peeking from beneath the kid's hat. Something akin to dread rose in the pit of his stomach. That familiar chakra he'd felt earlier, he couldn't ignore it now. The sensation felt heavy in the back of Sasuke's mind, a sharp pull that made him feel he was missing something important. But there was no mistaking that familiar mop of blond hair when the kid finally raised his head and the hat fell to the ground. Wide eyes stared at Sasuke, large and just as disturbing as the recognisable marks on the kid's cheeks.
Naruto, Sasuke wanted to say, but the name wouldn't come. His mouth wouldn't move, his body refusing to comply, and his thoughts too jumbled to actually do anything but stare at the kid in front of him.
Unexpectedly, the kid began to pout, expression unsure as his small hands reached to tug on Sasuke's pants. His eyes narrowed, nose scrunched as if he was trying to assess whose pant leg he was tugging. Mouth ajar, the initial curiosity quickly turned into surprise, and the broad grin was Sasuke's only warning before the kid launched himself at him.
Not prepared for the extra weight, Sasuke stumbled. He caught the kid on impulse but almost dropped him when the kid actually spoke. If the kid noticed, he didn't say anything, instead settling on repeating the three words that shook Sasuke out of his stupor.
"I'm home, Sasuke."
He almost managed to say it this time, say the only name that was coming to mind because he could feel his mouth opening, but Sasuke didn't think it was good for anything intelligible aside from the slight choking sound coming from the back of his throat. Blinking was only slightly more intelligible, and it seemed all Sasuke could do was blink when he felt the kid clinging to his arms, using them to pull himself up and closer to Sasuke.
Sasuke wanted to make some kind of reaction, but nothing could come close to expressing the sheer sense of disbelief as to why he was currently holding a smaller version of Naruto in his arms.
Maybe it was why the kid knew his name, but it really wasn't that much of a reassuring thought. Or maybe it was the giggle, expressing a one-sided familiarity and comfortable ease that did more than scare Sasuke. There was a slight sense of panic beginning to creep into his stomach, an unconscious reaction that was more difficult to push away than he wanted to admit.
But it couldn't…
This kid wasn't Naruto. Never mind that something like this was impossible, it was just…not possible. True, Naruto was expected to be back today, yet even if something did happen with Naruto, it was highly unlikely that he'd find out like this. He knew he wouldn't have been the first to find out anyway, but still...a miniature Naruto roaming free? Sasuke highly doubted the sight would have gone unnoticed, which made him even more wary that the kid had found him with seemingly no problems.
No, the differences—as subtle as they were—Sasuke could see them. The kid's face was a little slimmer, the bridge of his nose a little smaller, but Sasuke wasn't sure how much credence those features were considering he was still a kid. He had the same shade of blond hair, although it was less unruly. His eyes were darker, much more so than the bright blue Sasuke was used to seeing. They were almost dark enough to be black, and the more Sasuke stared into them, the easier it was to see his face in those eyes.
Put off by the sight of his reflection, Sasuke discontinued the train of thought.
The kid, more intuitive that Sasuke would have liked, put his arm around Sasuke's neck. His mouth was opened slightly, baring two sharp front teeth as he watched Sasuke in concern, his stare unwavering.
"Sasuke..." the kid said softly, and Sasuke mentally berated himself for even thinking this kid could have been Naruto. The chakra he'd felt earlier, that he now knew to be from the kid, did remind him of Naruto, but it wasn't Naruto. As deranged as Sasuke thought it made him sound, it didn't feel like Naruto. However, it didn't feel unfamiliar, either and was making the situation that much harder to take in.
The kid called his name again, and Sasuke swallowed.
Regardless of what was happening, even if he was probably just seeing things due to lack of sleep, Sasuke knew he couldn't simply ignore the kid. Good or bad, his conscious wouldn't let him, and he could only hope he could get the situation resolved before Naruto came back.
If he did at all.
...
As soon as he closed the door behind him, Naruto took off his mask and flung it somewhere in the general vicinity of the couch. He hobbled toward the back of the house on one foot, attempting to remove the shoe he hadn't already taken off and barely managing not to fall over.
"Sasuke," he called out, voice muffled as he struggled to pull his shirt over his head. "I'm back."
The rest of his clothes were quick to follow, leaving behind a trail of a month's worth of dirt and grime that Sasuke would undoubtedly act prissy about later. But Naruto was tired, sweaty, and a young man who hadn't had sex in a long time. After he was done, Sasuke would probably forget about it anyway.
He grinned when he saw the bathroom light on, a gleam in his eyes at the thought of Sasuke waiting on him with a nice warm bath. Not that it was something Sasuke would normally do. The extent to which Sasuke showed his concern when Naruto came back from a mission was saved for the bedroom, which Naruto really didn't mind. But after a long day, Naruto had done the gesture enough for Sasuke in hopes that one day Sasuke would willingly return the favour.
He rubbed his hands together eagerly, preparing for a display that always made Sasuke roll his eyes. Licking his lips, he began to turn the handle. A smile lit his face when he found it was unlocked, saving him the hassle of trying to pick the lock like he'd tried and failed to do last time.
The grin on his face now somewhat feral, he opened the door abruptly, ready to make a dramatic entrance showcasing himself naked in his full glory—only to back away at the sight of Sasuke sitting on his knees and leaning against the side of the tub, giving a bath to a kid. It was a sight to see in itself but would have been far less disturbing if the kid didn't look like a mirror image of Naruto from about twenty years ago.
His first reaction was to blink. Obviously, hallucinating was a sign that he wasn't getting enough sleep. Although Naruto couldn't say he felt particularly tired now, and the doppelganger was still there. Apparently, the doppelganger was real, too. Real enough to make a high pitched noise that echoed off the walls and effectively took Naruto out of his momentary trance.
Another shriek followed, definitely lower in pitch than the kid's, and despite the fact that Sasuke had yet to open his mouth, Naruto didn't want to admit said shriek was in fact his.
Quickly, he crossed his legs and covered his crotch with one hand, suddenly modest as he reached for a dark blue towel from the towel rack. The kid, for no reason Naruto could come up with, looked as surprised as (if not more than) Naruto felt, splashing water all over the floor as he clambered onto Sasuke. Clinging to Sasuke like a lifeline, his chubby arms were wrapped tightly around Sasuke's neck, and his wet body was pressed against Sasuke's chest.
Sasuke, Naruto noted with some frustration, was the only one who seemed to be taking the whole thing in stride, as if he'd been expecting the reactions.
"What the...what the hell, Sasuke? What is that?"
"Why don't you tell me?" Sasuke said calmly, surprisingly calm for someone who had a kid that looked like Naruto hanging on to him for dear life. But the kid seemed to be settling down, no longer screaming, and Sasuke was able to put him back into the tub.
Naruto was taken back when he saw the kid fisting the side of Sasuke's shirt. He pursed his lips at Naruto in distaste, like Naruto was a threat to the kid and Sasuke, and there was something particularly upsetting about watching a younger version of himself acting so damn territorial.
"Well," Sasuke said, using a washcloth to rinse a residual trail of soapsuds off the kid's back.
"Well what? You think I had something to do with this?"
Sasuke looked at the kid and then Naruto. "He sure as hell doesn't look like me."
"You can't think that…that it's mine, can you?" Naruto asked in a somewhat panicky voice, which he couldn't exactly hide since he was panicking at the fact there was a kid in his tub and one he couldn't remember helping to conceive. "I mean, yeah, there were a few girls before you—you know, not that I wasn't still thinking about you, really, only not like that—but I swear there wasn't anything serious enough for something like…like this."
With the exception of a snort, Sasuke remained silent and turned his attention back to the kid, who no longer seemed concerned with Naruto's presence, too preoccupied with trying to make a bar of soap float in the water.
Reflecting on his poor choice of words, Naruto thought it better to change to subject before he dug himself into a deeper hole. Now wasn't the time to bring his very much intact fidelity into the conversation, especially when there was no reason to make Sasuke question it in the first place.
"And—and it's not one of my shadow clones," Naruto continued. "They look like me now…not like this. I don't even remember what I looked like then. Plus, I wasn't even here, Sasuke. I just got back today and…" he trailed off, lines appearing on his forehead as he frowned then narrowed his eyes at Sasuke.
"What?"
"You bastard, you got pregnant." Naruto pointed a shaky finger at Sasuke, gripping the towel around his waist with his other hand. "And you didn't tell me."
Sasuke turned from the kid to stare at Naruto, looking as horrified as Naruto felt. "Dumbass," he whispered harshly, the disbelief clear in his voice. With the back of his arm, he wiped the soapy water dripping down the side of his face. "When would I even—you know men can't get pregnant."
Rationally, Naruto knew it didn't make sense before it even came out of his mouth, but it didn't stop him from trying to impart some kind of reason to the situation, regardless of how ridiculous it sounded. A brief lapse of common sense, which he admitted he was still guilty of having from time to time. But at this point, he was almost ready to believe anything that could explain the kid.
"But, but..." Naruto started, refusing to believe he sounded like he was whining, "he looks just like me."
"I couldn't help but notice," Sasuke drawled.
Confused and failing to come up with any kind of reasonable explanation, Naruto sighed. "Okay, you claim you're smart. Tell me if you have anything better."
"I don't," Sasuke said, reaching over the side of the tub to let the water out. One hand steady against the kid's back, he motioned for Naruto to give him the towel draped over the edge of the sink. "He's the one who found me."
Naruto frowned again, this time more alert as he handed Sasuke the towel. He and Sasuke both had plenty of reasons to be wary when strange things happened. Konoha and neighbouring villages had been pretty quiet for a while but only because relations were so tense. Things were shaky at best, and conflict seemed unavoidable. The kid looked harmless, but that didn't mean he was. Because the kid couldn't have been more than three or four, it only made sense that someone else was involved. The question was who, and more importantly, what purpose would sending out a kid that looked like Naruto serve?
"What do you mean," Naruto said, "found you?"
"The doorbell rang a few times, I opened the door, and there he was. Someone either dropped him off or somehow he knew where we live." Sasuke paused, taking a moment to sigh again. "He called this place home, Naruto."
"As in the house in the middle of nowhere no one is supposed to really know about? This place?"
"Yes, here."
Naruto reflected out loud, "I guess that narrows the options of where he came from then."
"I don't know. He recognised me."
"You mean…?"
"He knew my name."
On cue, the kid started to giggle, calling out Sasuke's name with a large smile on his face. He nodded his head and made a small noise in agreement when Sasuke asked if he was ready to get out, and Naruto could only watch the scene with uncertainty as the kid extended his arms to Sasuke. Supposedly, they just met, so why did they seem so comfortable around each other?
"Come on." Putting his hands under the kid's arms, Sasuke grunted and lifted him out of the tub. He placed him on the bathmat and covered the small body with the towel Naruto had given him. The kid began to wriggle in the towel as Sasuke dried him off, still wearing that same smile, which was beginning to look too familiar for Naruto's comfort.
"Maybe it's some kind of trick," Naruto said, trying to convince himself more than Sasuke. Now that the initial shock was beginning to wear off, he could think more clearly, although it didn't make the situation less surreal. "Unless you could, I can't sense anything strange, but…I think we should go to Tsunade about this."
"We are." Sasuke motioned for the kid to lift his arms and wrapped the towel around him, gathering an edge and tucking it inside the front to hold it in place. "I only gave him a bath because he was dirty, and I didn't want…" Sasuke cut himself off and shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Just know he already brought dirt inside the house, and because I don't want to know where you threw your clothes this time, you'll clean that up—"
Naruto couldn't help the somewhat horror-stricken look on his face. "What do you mean? Now?"
"—when we get back from seeing Tsunade," Sasuke continued, ignoring Naruto. "We need to figure out what's going on."
"If the old hag didn't have something to do with it," Naruto mumbled, watching Sasuke walk toward the door with the kid in tow. The kid turned his head to look at Naruto, scrunching his nose in a gesture that would have been cute if Naruto didn't think it was strange staring at a younger version of himself. Turning back around, the kid adjusted the towel wrapped around his chest with one hand and reached out to grab Sasuke's hand with the other.
"Are you really that okay with this?" Naruto asked sharply.
Sasuke stilled under the threshold, the kid stopping, too and tightening his hold of Sasuke's hand. It took him seemingly forever to speak, and the lingering silence in between made Naruto feel uncomfortable.
"I'm not."
Naruto didn't believe it, and the lack of conviction in Sasuke's voice didn't help Sasuke's cause. Although Sasuke could barely hold a conversation on his own with people his own age, apparently he had a knack for kids from the time spent working under Iruka. He still wasn't the easiest person to get to know and hadn't changed much from when he was younger, but it was amazing and frightening how kids seemed to flock to him.
In the beginning, Sasuke might not have had much of a choice, yet he hadn't pushed the kids away, either. Or in Naruto's case, put them off completely. Maybe it was because they didn't know about Sasuke, or, despite what their parents told them, the kids Sasuke worked with were too young to understand. But this was something completely different, and Naruto was ready to admit it scared him that Sasuke wasn't exactly protesting the idea of a little Naruto running around.
"It's not the same as working with Iruka-sensei's kids, you know."
"I never said it was," Sasuke said. The kid was tugging on his hand, trying to pull him through the door, and Naruto couldn't say it looked like Sasuke was trying to resist.
"We don't even know where he came from, what he is—"
"The point is he's here now, and we're going to have to deal with it," Sasuke said firmly.
Resigned, Naruto groaned. It seemed like Sasuke wasn't going to give him much of a choice in the matter. Honestly, he wouldn't have expected anything less. "Fine, just let me get cleaned and changed first, all right," he called out after Sasuke and the kid disappeared into the hall.
This really wasn't the welcome home he'd been looking forward to.
...
Apparently, Sasuke's earlier suspicions about the kid proved to be right after all. The kid wasn't Naruto, nor was he seemingly the result of something Naruto did, which Sasuke was only partially grateful for. At least if Naruto was behind it, he'd have a better idea of what they were dealing with. For all he knew, the kid was a distraction and part of some plot to catch them off guard. Sasuke and Naruto both had their share of enemies, Naruto more than Sasuke in last few years, but Sasuke couldn't think of anyone who would go through something like this just to get their attention.
He originally planned on seeing Tsunade before Naruto came back, but the kid was dirty, hungry, and Sasuke didn't feel like facing any wild accusations of child neglect or Tsunade calling him incompetent for not being able to take care of a kid. Though, it probably wouldn't have mattered either way.
Tsunade may have spared his life after he returned to the village, yet aside from civil necessities and a questionable obligation to Konoha, Sasuke was still on shaky ground with her. He didn't mull over his relationship with Tsunade too much because he didn't know how she felt about him, but it seemed their only reason for getting along was Naruto, and it was easier for her to be more openly critical of Sasuke when Naruto wasn't involved. If he deserved it, he wasn't sure and couldn't bring himself to care anymore than he did at the moment.
With Naruto in the bathroom, it was almost noon by the time Sasuke managed to get kid dried and dressed. The clothes the kid was wearing were too dirty to wear again, but it wasn't as if he had clothes the kid's size conveniently lying around. Since he didn't have anything that would fit, he was forced to make do with what he had. The outfit was makeshift at best, and Sasuke did what he could to make the kid look somewhat decent.
Licking his lips in concentration, Sasuke tied the excess material of one of his black t-shirts into a knot and tucked it into the back of the kid's orange pants, periodically taking the time to fix the rolled up sleeves that kept coming undone. The pants were actually a pair of Naruto's old shorts rolled up to the kid's waist. The elastic band was folded over three times to ensure the pants wouldn't fall off, but the kid had to keep pulling them back up as they drooped to one side.
When he stepped back to admire his…work, the kid looked at him with a grateful smile.
"Finished," the kid said, and Sasuke responded with an involuntary twitch of his mouth.
The kid held out his arms and began to turn around excitedly, which only served to make Sasuke reluctant to acknowledge the fact that he had dressed the kid. He could still see material from the too big pair of Naruto's yellow and blue boxers sticking out from the back and silently wondered if a belt would make a difference at this point.
When Naruto finally came out of the bathroom and found them in the living room, he apparently had trouble holding back any kind of laughter when he saw the kid. Not wanting to deal with the possibility of a crying kid—he wouldn't admit it had something to do with his pride, as well—Sasuke was more than happy to help Naruto in the form of throwing one of Naruto's shoes at him. Unfortunately, the shoe missed as Naruto ducked into their room, but the attempt managed to quell the laughter.
The kid looked in the direction Naruto went then looked at Sasuke. "Sasuke…?"
"It's fine." Sasuke tried to smile, tried to put on some kind of expression to let the kid know nothing was wrong with what he was wearing, but he was finding it more difficult trying to convince himself. At least he hadn't let the kid near a mirror. Sasuke felt bad enough, and Naruto's reaction wasn't helping.
"Naruto's just…"
"Silly?"
"Yes." Sasuke sighed in relief, not wanting to explain why Naruto was laughing at the kid. "He's just—"
"Okay," the kid said, not waiting for Sasuke to finish. Bare feet softly tapping against the hardwood floor, he ran the short distance from the living room to the entryway and grabbed his sandals. Walking back toward the living room, he stopped in front of Sasuke and lifted the shoes above his head. "Help me?"
Glad the kid was able to redirect his attention elsewhere, Sasuke kneeled down and put himself at eye level with the kid. "Put them on the floor first."
"Un." Nodding, the kid gently placed the shoes down.
"After we finish putting your shoes on, we can go," Sasuke said, pausing when he heard footsteps coming from behind him. "Are you almost ready yet?" he called out to Naruto.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming. Let me put this towel back and find a shirt to put on," Naruto said, eyes closed as he dried his hair with a towel. "Manage to find anything else about the brat?"
"Don't call him that."
"Like it's any better to call him kid."
Sasuke snorted but knew he couldn't say anything about it. Partly because calling the kid, kid, really wasn't that much of an improvement. But to Naruto, brat was probably a term of endearment, stemmed from his relationship with Tsunade Sasuke didn't want to understand.
Naruto rolled his eyes, grabbing a shirt draped across the back of the couch. "What else am I supposed to call him? My name's already taken."
Sasuke eyed the shirt in Naruto's hand. "Is that clean?"
"I'm clean," was Naruto's retort, his voice fading as he headed back toward the bedroom.
Sasuke sucked his teeth, quickly deeming the matter of whether or not the shirt was clean a lost cause. He turned his attention back toward the kid, who was waiting for Sasuke to him with his shoes.
"Right foot, first," Sasuke said, holding out a shoe for the kid to step into. He cleaned the sandals earlier, and the blue previously covered with dirt was now visible. They still looked more than a little worn but would do for now considering his and Naruto's sandals were obviously too big for the kid.
The kid placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, leaning on Sasuke for balance. "This one?"
"Your other right," Sasuke corrected, gently tapping the kid's right leg with his finger when the kid tried to put his left foot in the sandal.
The kid stared at his feet as Sasuke made sure his foot was fully situated in the shoe. "Oh."
"Now your left foot."
"My left foot." With a grin, the kid nodded at Sasuke, clearly pleased he was now able to distinguish between his left and right. Sasuke returned the grin with something that was more akin to a grimace. It was a little too awkward.
No matter how he tried to rationalise it, Sasuke couldn't get over the fact that the kid looked so much like Naruto. Although Sasuke couldn't remember Naruto being like this, behaving how the kid was now. Either Sasuke was too young to remember at the time, too old to not forget, or maybe he never really paid attention at all.
It wasn't that he thought Naruto had a fling with someone else. Sasuke wasn't that insecure about his relationship with Naruto, not anymore. Even if that were true, it wouldn't explain how the kid knew about Sasuke, was comfortable enough to jump into his arms at first sight, and why he didn't extend the same kind of forwardness to Naruto.
By outward appearances, the kid looked harmless, Sasuke wanted to think. But the fact remained that somehow, this kid, this smaller version of Naruto who wasn't Naruto, knew Sasuke's name and where he lived but nothing else. Not his name, not his age, not where he was—there was something wrong about the kid, something unnatural, and while the kid seemed innocuous on the surface, there was no telling what his presence truly meant. Until then, Sasuke couldn't really pinpoint what felt off about the situation.
"Sasuke…"
"Mm?" Sasuke said distractedly, trying to help the kid's heel in the shoe.
"Thank you," the kid said, eyes closed and smile wide. "I like Sasuke."
Sasuke raised his head slowly. "You like me?"
The kid cocked his head to the side, narrowing his eyes in concentration before he looked at Sasuke again. He nodded in confirmation with a serious look on his face. "Yes, but Sasuke…"
Sasuke knew he had to approach this carefully. While the kid did seem to like him, he wasn't one to talk about himself, which was odd when Sasuke usually had the opposite effect around kids. He'd only met the kid an hour ago, but he still couldn't decide how much the kid was aware of and what he knew. Most of the questions Sasuke asked would be answered with a smile, Sasuke's name, or an attempt to engage Sasuke in a conversation about something else that caught the kid's interest at that moment. Some of it Sasuke could excuse with the kid having a short attention span, but he was beginning to suspect the kid was purposely being evasive.
"I…" The kid bit his lip, looking to Sasuke nervously and shaking his head.
Reaching out to pull on Sasuke's jacket, the kid closed the distance between them, standing on his toes and wrapping an arm around Sasuke. He looked at Sasuke with an unsettling amount of unease. "I'm scared," he whispered.
Sasuke blinked. He paused for a moment before leaning down closer to the kid, their cheeks nearly touching. "Scared of what?" he asked, voice just as soft in hopes of encouraging the kid.
"I don't want to…Sasuke's not—" But the kid didn't finish, removing his arm from around Sasuke and jumping back when Naruto came in the living room. He retreated behind Sasuke, pressing his lips together and carefully watching Naruto.
"Ready to go?" Naruto asked, oblivious to conversation that almost took place.
"Make sure you lock the door," was Sasuke's flat reply. He ignored Naruto's frown and conveyed as much annoyance as he could with a single glance. Even though he knew it wasn't Naruto's fault, it was obvious that whatever secret the kid wanted to share, he didn't want to do so when Naruto was in the room, and Sasuke didn't know if the kid was going to feel comfortable enough to open up again.
Sasuke took the kid's hand, leading him to the door and leaving Naruto standing behind them.
"What'd I do this time?"
...
"Can't say I expected to see you back so soon—not when you were so eager to get away from me," Tsunade said, decidedly more composed than when Naruto first arrived.
She stared at the kid in Sasuke's lap, gaze travelling to Sasuke and again settling on the kid. While Naruto was laughing about the kid's clothes earlier, he really hoped she didn't say anything about them now. Somehow, he knew Sasuke would find a way to blame it on him, and really, there were more important things to worry about than what the kid was wearing.
"It's not like I wanted to be back here, either, you know," Naruto said. "I saw enough of your mug this morning."
"The feeling is mutual, brat," Tsunade said half-heartedly in agreement. "But what could have possibly happened since the last time I saw you?"
"Well, it's kind of obvious at this point, don't you think?"
"It's obvious that something did happen, but what's even more obvious is that you think I had anything to do with it."
Naruto offered her a somewhat apologetic smile. After leaving the house, he'd gone ahead of Sasuke and the kid, partly because Sasuke was upset with him for reasons he didn't understand and partly because his imagination had run away with him while he was taking a shower. He'd ended up barging into Tsunade's office, accusing her of being behind some maniacal revenge scheme to make little Naruto clones to drive him crazy in return for all the times he'd called Tsunade an old hag and made fun of her biological clock, which Naruto may or may not have called obsolete…more than once.
The resulting level of disbelief was an interesting sight to see on Tsunade's face, and it wasn't until Sasuke and the kid walked in did Tsunade manage to come up with some kind of response to Naruto's accusation: a noticeably large vein on her forehead and a few choice words that surprised even Naruto.
When Sasuke arrived, he'd refused to look at Naruto, which Naruto figured was probably because he left without him. Instead, he'd made eye contact with Tsunade, silently daring her to say anything about the kid who had yet to let go of Sasuke's hand. He'd somehow managed to keep a straight face when she returned the gaze with veiled interest, watching the kid.
The kid stared at Tsunade but quickly lost interest when Sasuke took a seat in the chair beside Naruto. He climbed on Sasuke's lap, using Sasuke's shirt to pull himself up, and rested his head on Sasuke's shoulder.
The interaction between Sasuke and the kid came off as alarmingly normal, yet undeniably abnormal to anyone watching, and Naruto was grateful he wasn't the only one who thought so.
Tsunade sat back in her chair. She crossed her arms and shrugged her shoulders. "Believe it or not, I have more important things to do with my time than tamper with your lives."
Naruto knew she was being evasive, neither denying nor admitting to anything, and he wouldn't put it past her to have at least some kind idea of what was going on. Apart from the initial shock of Naruto's outburst and the slight hesitation after actually seeing the cause of his outburst, she was irritatingly calm about the whole thing.
"But wouldn't you be the one to know about these things?" Naruto eyed Tsunade suspiciously and caught Sasuke doing the same.
"Not necessarily," she said, attention turning to Sasuke and the kid moving around on Sasuke's lap. "But how do you fall into this, Uchiha?"
Tsunade's voice was light, amused and slightly suggestive. Naruto and Sasuke hadn't said anything to her about their relationship directly, more than satisfied to let her come to her own conclusions. Honestly, he thought she already knew. He and Sasuke may have only been living together for a couple of months so far, but whatever it was between them now, that had been building for as long as Naruto could remember. However, regardless if Tsunade knew about it or not, it seemed she wanted one of them to acknowledge it in front of her.
"Does it matter?" Naruto asked.
With a sly smile, Tsunade said, "Seeing how a kid that looks like you is practically joined at the hip with Uchiha, it could."
"I don't think this is the time to go into that," Naruto said, aware she had already made up her mind about his relationship with Sasuke.
"Maybe another time then," Tsunade said, somewhat thoughtfully.
"Well?" Naruto urged.
"Well what?" Tsunade said. "Tell me how you found him."
"He came to me," Sasuke said, and Naruto was glad he wouldn't have to try to explain it to Tsunade. "He rang the doorbell, told me he was home, and said my name."
"Knew where you lived and your name," Tsunade said. "All of this happened this morning?"
Naruto nodded his head. "Yeah. That's when Sasuke met him. I didn't meet him until after I came home."
"And apparently he won't let go of you, Uchiha?"
"Something like that," Sasuke said.
"Why would I expect otherwise," Tsunade said evenly, although it wasn't enough to distract Naruto from the lingering uneasiness in her eyes. She caught his questioning gaze but dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "So he looks like you. Maybe you're looking at the wrong woman."
Immediately, Naruto became flustered, stuttering reassurances to Sasuke about no there being no woman other than Sasuke, which he quickly took back because Sasuke was far from a woman. He couldn't help it. Maybe it was because that now he had Sasuke and didn't want to lose him, like he had so many times before, but it was a knee-jerk reaction. Anytime there was a possible threat to their relationship, Naruto would fall into the same pattern of hurried thinking, like what he said when he first found out about the kid and his attempts to assure Sasuke the kid wasn't his then, either.
Rolling his eyes, Sasuke tried to pull his hand out of Naruto's in favour of adjusting the kid on his lap. The kid was playing with Sasuke's hair, yanking him in one direction, while Naruto, seemingly unable to let go of Sasuke's hand, was yanking him in the other.
Impressively, Tsunade's expression remained blank, although a bead of a sweat did find its way down the side of her face. "No mother?"
Naruto let go of Sasuke's hand and sat up in his chair. "Even if there was a mother—which there's not," he added quickly, sending a side glance to Sasuke, "not to mention…"
Naruto gently rubbed his thumb against the kid's cheek, proving the marks similar to Naruto's own were real. "Hold still for a second, okay," he said, the kid pulling away until Naruto finally removed his hand.
"Don't make him cry again, idiot."
"I barely touched him, Sasuke." Naruto made a noise in irritation at Sasuke and pointed to the marks on the kid's cheeks. "Happen to know anyone with that kind of birthmark running in the family? Because I seriously doubt that's hereditary."
Tsunade raised her eyebrows, apparently at a loss for words. She looked like she doubted the possibility herself, but then there was a flash of recognition in her eyes. It could have been nothing at all, but Naruto didn't dismiss it.
"I'll have to give him a full examination," Tsunade said, "but have either of you…?"
Naruto shook his head. "We couldn't sense anything strange. Just a regular kid that looks like…looks like me."
"Well, while you're here." Tsunade looked at Sasuke. "You received the scroll assigned to you, I'm assuming?"
"Yes."
"What scroll?" Naruto asked, looking between Tsunade and Sasuke in confusion. He didn't appreciate being left out. While he wasn't completely sure when it came to Sasuke's feelings toward Tsunade, he was sure Tsunade didn't dislike Sasuke. She cared…in her own special way, but it was still questionable territory for those two. They were similar in some ways, too many ways if Naruto thought about it, and maybe that's why there always seemed to be a strain between them.
Ignoring Naruto, Tsunade relaxed her chair, noticeably less tense than she was a few minutes ago.
Naruto wanted to ask her more about the scroll but knew she wouldn't answer. He'd have to corner Sasuke later. "So you're not going to do anything about the kid?"
"What do you want me to do?"
"I…I don't know," Naruto admitted grudgingly. "Something?"
"Right now, I can't think of anywhere he could go. And since Uchiha has experience, I don't see why the kid can't stay with the two of you. I'll look the kid over, but for the time being there's nothing...precarious about your situation as far as I'm concerned. Despite what you may think, I'm assuming you can handle the responsibility until further notice?"
Naruto opened his mouth, about to protest, but closed it when he realised he didn't know what to say.
First impressions aside, he wasn't ready for an unexpected responsibility like this, but it wasn't as if Naruto wanted to throw the kid out, either. He wouldn't abandon him unless they didn't have an option. He knew firsthand what that was like, to grow up alone, and while he wasn't comfortable with the idea of the kid living with them, he couldn't imagine letting anyone else go through what he did when there was a way he could prevent it.
Naruto looked at Sasuke. "Well?"
Sasuke closed his eyes, sighed, and then opened them again to look at Naruto.
Naruto turned back to Tsunade. "It's not like we have much of a choice, is it?"
"That's up to you," Tsunade said. "However, you'd both probably be better off if you let as few people know about this as possible."
Mirroring Sasuke's earlier actions, Naruto sighed. "How long is this examination going to take?"
"Depends on how long you're willing to wait."
"That long, huh?"
Tsunade didn't comment but stood from her desk, slowly making her way to stand in front of Sasuke and the kid. "Are you going to let me hold him?"
Silent, if not hesitant, Sasuke complied. Naruto wanted to say that the kid wouldn't let go of Sasuke, but, to his surprise, when Tsunade held out her hands, the kid didn't seem too troubled by the thought of being taken away from Sasuke and let Tsunade hold him without complaint.
"Let's see here…" Tsunade sat on top of her desk, mindful of the scrolls surrounding her as she placed the kid on her lap. "Have you already checked him for any seals, anything that stands out?"
"Sasuke gave him a bath, and I…" Naruto licked his lips, not quite wanting to relive that moment in the bathroom when he first met the kid. "That is to say—"
"Yes," Sasuke said, saving Naruto from having to explain how he met the kid. "We didn't find anything."
"I don't sense anything, either," Tsunade said. "The most worrisome thing is having a pint-sized version of Naruto with Naruto's abilities. Although if it wasn't for his appearance, I wouldn't have known any better.
"So far nothing seems out of the ordinary," she murmured, more to herself than to Naruto and Sasuke. "If that's the case, he's just a kid, probably around two or three. Chakra seems normal for someone his age, maybe even on the lower end…"
Naruto looked at Tsunade, somehow taking offense at the comment, but she spoke again before he could say something about it.
"If there's anything else there," Tsunade continued, "for now, I can't tell."
"And as far as you can tell?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto looked at Sasuke strangely, following his gaze to Tsunade, who seemed to be carefully blank regarding the question. He wanted to break the growing tension, but it fell apart on its own when Tsunade hissed in pain.
Looking away, Sasuke covered his face, and Naruto winced at seeing what made Tsunade cry out. The kid was fondling one of her breasts, small hands squeezing the soft flesh as he wore a broad and shameless smile that was hard to ignore.
While Naruto didn't claim the kid as his own, he couldn't escape the fact that the kid looked like him, which was why he couldn't help but feel some kind of responsibility for the kid's actions. But especially when it was something Naruto used to and maybe sometimes secretly still thought about doing, he felt guilty all the same, and it was one of those moments when he wished the ground would swallow him whole. Even Sasuke's cheeks were somewhat red in embarrassment.
Patiently, more so than Naruto thought possible given the situation, Tsunade pried the kid's hand away from her breast, giving a pointed look to Naruto. "Well, as far as I can tell" she said dryly, "the brat is definitely yours."