This is just a quick little idea I had. It corresponds with another story of mine, "Their Fate", but you don't have to read that for this to make sense.
I've always wanted a tree house...
"If I had a million dollars, I'd build a tree fort in our yard.
If I had a million dollars, you could help, it wouldn't be that hard."
Barenaked Ladies
"Daddy, I'm bored!"
Sasuke lowered his book to glance over the top of it when he felt two small hands slap onto knees and heard his six-year old daughter's voice. Her onyx eyes, much like his mother's had been, were shining as she grinned up at him. Sasuke reached out a hand and brushed her thick black curls out of her face.
"Well, what do you want to do?" Sasuke asked calmly. It was just him and Leiji for the day. The very pregnant Sakura had taken their two-year old son, Hideki, out for the day; to spend a little time with him before the newest addition of their family arrived.
Leiji placed a small hand on her chin and scrunched up her face, thinking hard. "I don't know," she finally admitted.
Sasuke, who was not used to being alone with just Leiji, thought as well. "I could read to you," he finally suggested.
"Boring," Leiji replied.
"We could go to the pier and work on the fireball jutsu some more," Sasuke tried again.
"But we just did that this morning," Leiji protested, her voice turning whiny.
"All right, all right," Sasuke said as she climbed up to sit on his lap. He shifted to set his book down and glanced outside at the large oak tree in their backyard. A single wooden swing hung from one of its larger branches, but maybe the tree was just strong enough for…
"How about we build a tree house?"
"A tree house?" Leiji cried excitedly, bouncing off of Sasuke's lap while grasping his wrist in an attempt to tug him off of the couch. "Let's build a tree house, daddy! C'mon, let's build a tree house!"
"Okay, okay!" Sasuke snickered lightly as he righted himself.
"How do we start?" Leiji asked eagerly.
"We'll need boards, and a lot of them," Sasuke said thoughtfully.
"Then let's go get them!" Leiji declared, taking her father by the wrist once more and dragging him outside. "We need to go to the hardware store, right?"
"Right," Sasuke agreed, reaching for his wallet before his unusually energetic daughter slammed the front door shut.
Once Leiji had successfully succeeded in dragging her father halfway across Konoha to the nearest hardware store, she let go of his wrist and burst inside the doors, running to the back where she knew the boards would stored. "Hurry up, dad!" she called as she made her way to the back.
"Got quite the energetic one on your hands, eh?" an employee asked as Sasuke walked past, making no hurry to catch up to his daughter. He knew she'd be waiting impatiently for him.
"No kidding," Sasuke muttered as he brushed past. When he finally made it to the back of the store, Leiji was attempting to pull a large board that was leaning against the wall toward her. "Hey, hey, hey!" Sasuke snapped, alarmed. His hand shot out just as the board began to topple over and placed it back against the wall. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Building a tree house!" Leiji said, as though it were obvious.
Sasuke's eye twitched in irritation. "I can see that, but why don't you let me handle carrying the boards?"
"Okay," Leiji replied with a shrug, stepping back to allow Sasuke to grab all the boards he needed.
It took several trips to and from the hardware store to get all the boards Sasuke thought they would need, along with several packages of nails to refill his nail gun with. Finally, father and daughter stood in the backyard of the Uchiha home, staring at the large pile of boards.
"How do we start?" Leiji asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Like this," Sasuke explained, as he grabbed two boards and his nail gun. "Stand back," he warned her as he stapled the boards together.
"Can I try?" Leiji asked innocently, reaching for the nail gun.
"No," Sasuke replied, pulling the gun out of her reach. "How about you, uh," he struggled to think of a task for her, "hand me the boards?"
"Okay," Leiji said with a bright grin, happy to be helping.
One by one, the boards were nailed together, and every once in a while, Sasuke would climb the tree and attach the larger pieces. Hours passed, and when the sun hung low in the sky, bathing the grass in late evening yellow light, Sasuke declared the tree house finished.
He and his daughter stared up at their handiwork. Small wooden boards were nailed to the tree, creating a ladder up to the tree house. The door was wide with a window on either side, made up with extra window glass Sasuke had found in the storage shed. The door was an actual door as well, which swung open to reveal a carpeted floor, made with spare carpeting also found in the shed. There were two more windows on the back wall, and on the other two walls hung a few pieces of Leiji and Hideki's artwork. Sunlight was streaming through the back windows, washing the white carpet in yellow light.
"It's all done," Leiji said happily, grinning from ear-to-ear.
"Not quite," Sasuke said, and Leiji looked up at him in surprise. "It still needs a name," he explained, motioning to one piece of board that was left over. A paint brush and a can of white paint sat next to it.
Leiji placed a finger on her chin, thinking. Suddenly a stroke of genius hit her. "The Uchiha Fortress!" she declared. "We have to call it 'The Uchiha Fortress'!"
"That's a good name," Sasuke commented as he carefully printed the letters on the board, "a strong name, like the tree house itself."
"And like you," Leiji added, smiling.
Sasuke smirked at the compliment. He then got to his feet, climbed up to the house, and used the nail gun to fasten the sign firmly above the door.
Moments later, Sasuke and Leiji sat in the threshold of the tree house door, feet dangling, with a bowl of cherry tomatoes to split between them.
They noticed the back door of the house slide open and Sakura, who was very round in the stomach area, along with Hideki made their way into the back yard.
"When did this get here?" Sakura asked in surprised, staring up at the new addition to their back yard.
"Me and Daddy built it today," Leiji called down.
"What a great idea!" Sakura said excitedly, admiring the wonderfully built tree house.
"So cool!" Hideki added.
As her mother and younger brother admired the new tree house, Leiji turned to glance at her father. "Daddy, how long do you think this tree house will last?" she asked.
Sasuke looked up, admiring the stars that had just started to peek out of the twilight. "I don't know," he admitted. "With luck, forever."
"Good," Leiji said with a smile, resting her head on Sasuke's shoulder. "I know it will. It is a fortress after all!"
"Yes, it is," Sasuke agreed, resting his chin atop his daughter's head. "And it always will be."