Welcome to my new little project! Here I will be writing short stories about our lovely little Uchiha family. Most of these stories will be unrelated unless I think up an idea that needs more than one chapter. Regularity of updates will vary, depending on my inspiration to write as well as the time I have to actually sit down and flesh out my ideas.

"Come on, Sarada, say, Mama!"

A blink.

"Mama!"

Two blinks.

"Ma-ma!"

A blink and a gurgle.

Sasuke watched his wife sigh in defeat.

Their daughter, Sarada was nearly a year-old and at the age when most infants start to say their first word. Once Sakura became aware of this after Ino's son, who was only a few months older than Sarada, had already uttered his first word, she had been attempting non-stop to try and coax at least one word out of their daughter. However, her efforts were proving to be in vain. After spending countless hours each day trying to get their baby girl to say her first word, Sarada only continued to emit nonsensical sounds, gurgles and giggles and each day that went by without Sarada saying anything, left Sakura feeling more and more dejected.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was not all that fussed on whether Sarada spoke her first word in another day or in another month and therefore did not understand why his wife was so obsessed with getting Sarada to talk. Although, Sakura said that she just thinks it would be nice to hear Sarada talk, Sasuke had an underlying suspicion that it had something to do with the fact that Ino's son had already said his first word while Sarada had yet to say anything. Although the two women were good friends and their relationship was a lot less hostile than it was when they were genin, Sasuke knew that there was still a lingering rivalry between the two, just like there was between Naruto and himself.

"You just don't want to talk do you?" Sakura said in a deflated voice as she watched her daughter play with some building blocks on the carpet.

"She'll talk when she's ready to." Sasuke said from where he was leaning on the wall behind Sakura.

Sakura pouted childishly. "But I want her to talk now."

"Hn. I always thought being patient was something that you were exceptionally good at, but perhaps I was wrong?"

Sakura turned to look at him over her shoulder. "Of course I'm a very patient woman, Sasuke-kun. I waited for you all these years didn't I?" She smirked.

"Hn." She had him there.

Sarada's mouth opened wide in a yawn as she rubbed her chubby little hands over her eyes. Sakura took that as a signal that it was time for Sarada's nap and lifted the sleepy little girl into her arms and stood up from the floor and carried her over to Sasuke.

"Say good night to Papa." Sakura said to Sarada.

Sarada looked up at Sasuke with sleepy black eyes identical to his own and reached a small hand out to him. Sasuke took the little hand in his and held it gently a small smile on his face as he gazed down at his daughter.

"Sleep well, Sarada." Sasuke said softly as he leaned in to press a gentle kiss to the baby's forehead, making her smile.

After that, Sasuke let go of his daughter's hand and watched as Sakura carried her out of the living room and into the hallway, towards her nursery.

Sakura had left early in the morning to begin her shift at the hospital. She wouldn't be back until two in the afternoon, leaving Sasuke until then to spend the day with Sarada.

He got an early start to the day, when he was awakened by the sound of Sarada's cries from across the hall. With a tired moan, Sasuke lifted the covers off of him and sat up, rubbing at his eyes. He took a quick glance at the alarm clock on his bedside table and saw that it was only 6:30am. He walked into Sarada's nursery to find his daughter standing up in her crib, her chubby cheeks flushed red and stained with tears. Once she saw Sasuke approaching however, her loud wailing quietened down to hiccups and whimpers as she held her arms up to Sasuke, signalling that she wanted to be picked up.

With his single arm, Sasuke managed to lift his daughter with ease from her crib and hold her comfortably against his bare chest, which she snuggled into contentedly.

By the time Sasuke carried her into the kitchen, her cries had completely subsided, although her little body still shook with the occasional hiccup. It appeared that all his daughter had wanted was for someone to hold her.

Sasuke sauntered into the living room and sat down on the leather couch with Sarada still cuddled up against his chest.

He looked down at the mop of black hair under his chin and the pudgy little fist clenching and unclenching as the child began to drift off to sleep again, her little body rising and falling gently against Sasuke's own, as she breathed in and out.

Like most times, Sasuke was captivated by this little creature that was his own flesh and blood. Even after all this time he still found it hard to fathom that someone like him was capable of creating something so pure and innocent like this child. Or that he could be capable of loving anyone as much as he loved Sarada.

It was a different sort of love than the one he felt towards Sakura or the one he had felt towards his parents and brother. It was one that he now supposed was solely reserved for one's own child.

It wasn't long before Sasuke became so lost in his thoughts, that they carried him off to sleep.

Later on that day found Sasuke sitting on the back porch, eating his lunch (a tomato and lettuce sandwich) while he watched Sarada play with a few of her toys on the blanket, Sasuke had set out for her in a shady patch of grass. Once he had finished his sandwich, Sasuke stood up and walked over to where Sarada was playing. She paused in her playing when she saw Sasuke standing in front of her. She smiled up at him, showing a pink mouth with only two teeth, and held out one of her toys to him.

Sasuke knelt down and took the toy from his daughter. Incidentally, the toy that Sarada had given him was his old green dinosaur plushie that used to be his favourite toy when he was a kid and had now given it to Sarada. Watching Sarada babble and giggle while she played with her toys was amusing to Sasuke, so he decided to make himself comfortable by crossing his legs on the blanket and just watching Sarada while she played and occasionally took toys from her when she handed them to him.

Eventually Sarada dropped the stuffed bunny rabbit and panda she was playing with and crawled over to Sasuke. She pushed some of the toys that he had accumulated off of his lap with what sounded like an irritated grumble as if she didn't like the toys being there, before she climbed up onto her father's lap herself. Sasuke helped his daughter get situated in his lap, so that she was sitting up and facing him, her eyes trained on his face.

"Hm?"

"A-baa?" Sarada reached out her hand touched his nose. "Oooh."

Sasuke smiled one of those rare smiles of his and gently tugged his daughter's hand away from his nose when he started to pinch it almost painfully, as if she didn't understand what it was and why it was stuck on her father's face.

"Aah ... Pa... Pa."

Sasuke froze. Did he just hear what he thought he heard? Had Sarada meant to say that? Or was it simply just more of her nonsensical babbling and it had just sounded like she had called him...

"Papa."

This time Sasuke couldn't stop the look of shock that completely overtook his face, making his jaw go slack and his mouth fall open as he stared at his daughter who beamed up at him.

"Sarada... Did you just...?"

Sarada slapped her little hand over Sasuke's mouth cutting him off. "Pa... Pa. Papa!"

Her first word.

Sarada had just said her first word.

And it was him. He was his daughter's first word.

A sense of happiness and affection appeared in his chest and spread through out his entire body and the source of this feeling was this little girl sitting in his lap and looking up at him with so much adoration. She adored him.

Sasuke couldn't have stopped the smile that spread across his face, even if there was a kunai pressed against his throat. Feeling an overwhelming burst of affection, Sasuke wrapped his lone arm around his daughter's little body and leaned down to press a kiss to Sarada's forehead, making her giggle.

The sound of the back door being opened drew Sasuke attention away from his daughter and he looked over his shoulder to see Sakura walking stepping out onto the veranda.

"I was wondering where you two had gotten off to." She said as she approached them. "I wasn't expecting to find you out here."

"Hn. Well it's a nice day out." Sasuke replied. "Welcome home."

Sakura smiled, kneeling down to place a kiss to Sasuke's cheek and then Sarada's. "It's good to be home. So did anything interesting happen while I was away?"

Sasuke hesitated for a moment before responding. "No, not really."

Sakura had been desperate to get Sarada to say "Mama" for her first word, so he could only imagine what her reaction might be if she found out that Sarada's first had been...

"Papa."

They froze.

Damn.

"Sasuke-kun..." Sakura spoke after a moment's silence. "Did Sarada just say her first word?"

Hope you all enjoyed the first chapter for Uchiha Family Anthology.

Please don't forget to leave a review and tell me what you think :)

I'll fix any mistakes a made later.