Author: Rachel Racelis
"Are you sure it's going to be okay Tenzo?" Sakura asked her husband. "I mean Sai does not have any idea how to take care of kids. He's not exactly 'caring' and well..." Tenzo grinned. "Who else can we ask to look after them?"
"There's Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed. "Do you want Yamato to have more chance to perfect his 'Sexy no Jutsu'?" Tenzo asked his wife.
"Well no... How about Kakashi-sensei? He might be a little unwilling but eventually he'll take them in." Sakura replied. "I'm still trying to find ways to stop Yamato's new habit of reading books from the Icha Icha series short of killing Kakashi-sempai for introducing the literature to him." Yamato answered quietly.
"Well yes, there's that. I've tried to ask Kakashi-sensei about it and all he could say before he vanished was that he didn't know how to entertain kids. But are you sure Sai can handle kids? You know we can always postpone this and go some other time." Sakura asked worriedly.
Tenzo nodded his head and kissed his wife and looked at her hungrily. Sakura blushed. "If Sai can handle some Akatsukis from before. I'm sure he can take care of three boys." He answered confidently. "Besides you need some rest and you've been stressed out from work lately that you kept on having an upset stomach. Anyway I'll be sure to give you some special attention."
At this, Sakura blushed even further and hugged her husband tightly.
--
This was not my ideal day-off mission. I sighed for the enth time as I looked at the young academy student reading in one corner and his twin brothers crawling all over my apartment. Yamato-taicho told me to prevent his namesake son from reading the book that Kakashi-sensei keeps on reading and make him watch some TV or play some of the video. But if it occupies the kid, who am I to stop him?
"Why does it have to be me?" I asked Yamato-taicho the question for the second time since he called me three nights ago to this particular favor. "Well you don't have a mission..." He replied. "But I'm not experienced with kids!" Yamato-taicho simply patted my arm as his wife "the hag" Sakura kissed their kids. "You'll get the hang of it. It's just for the weekend!"
With all the speed I can muster I grabbed the stick of oil paint from Yusuke or Yoichiro, I'm not sure which is which and continued to pick up stray items on the floor that can be lethal to toddlers. "Hey Yamato! Would you mind getting the door? It's probably the delivery man with our pizza!"
I decided it was wiser to feed them pizza this first night because the bother of cooking food is not something I'd want to do as I clear up the house of things hazardous for toddlers. These items seems to be quite numerous.
The kid with his face still buried in the book opened the door. Indeed it was the pizza deliver boy. I handed Yamato the payment for the pizza and picked the toddlers up, one in each arm to place seat them on the table. Both boys grabbed my hair as I did so and refused to let go even after I sat them down. I sighed as I try to get my hair out of their fists.
"I'll never have kids..." I grumbled to myself.
--
"Sai-ojiisan?" I opened my eyes as a small voice called me. "I had a nightmare can you please sit by my while I try to sleep?" I sighed and got off my bed and walked Yamato to the room I've set up for them. He slid in the bed beside his brother and I got a chair and sat beside his bed.
Nightmares. I've had of those when I was younger, it worsened when my parents died. But they stopped a few months after my brother died. Because by then I stopped dreaming or feeling anything at all and had truly mastered the teaching of the ROOT Division. Emotions that I have buried far too deeply and until this day I'm still trying to dig them out.
"What was your nightmare about?" I asked. Yamato's eyes seemed full of unshed tears. The young academy student was struggling not to cry. "You can tell me all about them." I coaxed him. Yamato then took a deep breath.
"Death..." He took another deep breath. "Everyone's dead... Otousan, okaasan, you, Naruto-jiisan, Kakashi-jiisan and my brothers. I was all alone!" He cried out. This time he could not fight the tears. He started crying.
"The war is over Yamato and I don't think you'd ever be left alone. Your parents are strong shinobis. Naruto, Kakashi-sensei and I are strong shinobis. Even if one of us dies, you'll never be left alone. We'll make sure of it." I said patting his head and then squeezed his hand trying to comfort him.
All of us children of shinobis must have had this kind of nightmares once or twice. Death or even worse being alone is a fear shared by all, both young and old. I for one could not imagine a life without my friends. I don't think I could go back to being alone or having totally no emotions.
"No, Yamato. You'll never be alone..." I said to the now sleeping boy.
--
It was Sunday evening. The boy's bags were packed. Sai's hair resembles a bird's nest, his shirt buttons were in the wrong holes and his apartment looked as if it gone through war. Tenzo and Sakura hugged their children. Tenzo looked at him quizzically. "Did the boys give you a hard time?" He asked.
Sai merely sighed as he shrugged. "I guess I'm not that experienced with kids." He replied. Sakura flashed him a grateful smile as she fixed the boys' bags.
Despite Sai's ruffled appearance, the three boys looked well scrubbed and combed. Each were holding a bag of cookies that Sai baked for them earlier.
"See you around Sai-ojiisan!" Yamato said as he waved. The twins waved enthusiastically at him and Sai smiled a sincere smile as he watched his two friends with their kids walk to the elevator of his apartment.
"Maybe having kids is not such a bad thing at all..." He said to himself as he closed his door.