Okay~~~so I've been exercising this idea for several weeks now...I started it a couple of weeks ago, and long story short, it didn't turn out quite the way I planned it...so I let it simmer in my head for a little while and thus, here is the result! I hope you enjoy it, and please, please, please, tell me what you think of it so I can decide whether or not to continue it (I mean, I'll probably continue it, but if y'all don't it that much, I'll focus more of my energy on my other fics...so yeah...) Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, or any of its characters. All rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

Generate a report of last month's budget analysis to be compared to this month's budget, create a report detailing the differences to be sent to the hire-ups for approval to be faxed to the Hardman & Myers, phone Hardman & Myers' chief of marketing to discuss the terms of their business proposal to be discussed during next week's meeting, put in a request off for a dentist appointment for Friday, September 12th, call the dentists' office to reschedule the appointment for the twelfth, and review notes from last week's conference call to be discussed during Thursday's meeting.

These were just some of the things on Itachi Uchiha's to-do list for today.

"Smile, Itachi!" Kisame encouraged him. "You look like you're being tortured over there."

Sharing lunch with his co-worker was not one of them. "That's because I am." Itachi responded. "Remind me why we couldn't have eaten in the office again?"

Kisame shook his head and cracked an amused smile. "Because if we'd eaten at the office, I wouldn't have been able to spend as much time talking to you!"

"What is there to talk about? My life revolves around my work; you of all people should know that." Itachi answered. What don't you understand?

Just then, the tiny chime above the doorway jingled, signaling the entrance of a customer, and what sounded like several small children.

"Mommy, I need to go pottyyyyyy." A little boy whined as he clung to his very pregnant mother's yoga pants.

"I know, sweetie, I know." His mother cooed, smoothing down his platinum blonde hair.

Behind her trailed another boy who looked to be a year or two older than the other, and a sour-faced little girl with a ponytail.

"Poke!" The older boy said, jabbing a finger into his sister's shoulder.

"Christopher! I said stop poking me!" She wailed.

"Christopher, honey, stop poking your sister." His mother sighed, and shooed the two in the direction of the bathrooms as best as she could with the youngest boy wrapped around her leg.

"But mommmm, I'm just playing poker; get it? Poke-her?" He joked.

"I don't care what it is, just stop it, you hear me?"

"Mommy, I can't hold it in any longer!" The youngest wailed.

The mother, visibly flustered and probably running on very few hours of sleep, took the boy's hand in her own (as well as she could given the size of her pregnant belly), and herded the brood in the direction of the women's bathroom.

"I'm not going in there!" The older boy protested. "It's for girls!"

"Well I'm not leaving you out here alone, so go." The mother ordered, and shooed him inside.

"I don't wanna go in there, it's for girls!" Sasuke complained. "I wanna go with Itachi!"

Mikoto gave her eldest son a sympathetic look, but before she could open her mouth to say anything, Itachi stood up and reached out to take Sasuke's hand in his own. "Come on, Sasuke, let's go to the boys' bathroom."

Itachi smiled at the memory the scene in front of them evoked. "Poor thing." He whispered.

"She's in over her head." Kisame stated and took a long sip of his soda. "Oh well. That's what she gets for having so many kids."

"Maybe they're meeting their father for lunch here." Itachi suggested.

"Meeting him?" Kisame scoffed. "They should've waited until he was along to help!" He said and leaned back in his chair.

Itachi hummed in agreement and took a sip of his own drink. "Are you finished eating yet?"

Caught red handed, Kisame shifted in his chair so that he was facing forward and took a bite of his sandwich. "No, why?"

Itachi groaned. "Well either hurry up and finish it or pack it up for later on because I, unlike you, have a million things to do still today." Out of the corner of his eye, the youngest girl burst out from the bathroom, with her older brother chasing after her.

"Unlike you, I don't have the metabolism of a thirty-five year old and need to pace myself. If I don't, I'll—Itachi?" He asked when he realized that Itachi was not sitting across from him anymore.

He glanced outside where Itachi was yanking two of the small children they saw earlier out of the street as a car horn blared.

He glanced outside to see Itachi yanking two small children – the ones he recognized from earlier – out of the street just as a car soared past them, blaring its horn. Beside him, the children's pregnant mother came waddling as fast as she could with her younger boy struggling to keep up with her.

Outside, the mother pulled a tearful girl and pouting boy into her embrace. "Oh my gosh, thank you so much, sir!" She sobbed.

"It's nothing." Itachi said, passing off his heroic feat off as if he went around saving children's lives every day of the week.

Dislodging her children from the crook of her neck, she reached into her pocket bag. "How much were your meals? I'll pay for them both." She offered.

Itachi shook his head. "There's no need for that; you have enough on your plate as it is." He said and averted his gaze to where the oldest boy was arguing with his sister.

"It's your fault, Christopher!"

"Is not!" He argued back.

"Both of you, enough!" The mother shouted and turned to face Itachi again. "Are you sure?"

Itachi nodded and extended a hand to help her up off the ground. "Keep it."

-8-8-8-

"—and the next thing I know, you're in the middle of the street like some kind of Superman!" Kisame exclaimed on their way back to the office, recounting the details of Itachi's five minutes of fame.

"If I hadn't stepped in, they could've been killed." Itachi explained. "I can't imagine how the mother would feel if that happened, let alone the little brother." If Itachi had died in such a manner, what would have become of their family? And of Sasuke? He shook the thought from his head, refusing to give any more thought to the issue.

"Have you ever thought about having any kids, Itachi?"

Itachi raised a skeptical brow. "Me? No."

"Why not? You'd make a terrific parent, after what you did with those kids today." Kisame said.

"I did what any other human being would do." He said. "And if you haven't noticed, I don't possess the organs required to even have children."

"Really? I would've never guessed, what with those child-bearing hips of yours!" Kisame joked. "There's several ways to have children! A one-night stand gone wrong,"

Itachi cringed. "Pass."

"Marriage,"

"I'm not seeing anyone right now."

"Adoption," Kisame said, counting the different methods on his fingertips.

"Too much of a time commitment."

"Surrogacy so that the kid has your genes too,"

"Kisame, look, I don't have the time for such a huge commitment right now and I'm not sure that I ever will."

"Kidnapping is free." Kisame suggested.

"I'm not going to kidnap somebody's child." Itachi sighed. "If I wanted to have a baby, I should've settled down a long time ago. And while surrogacy and adoption are valid options, a child deserves to be brought up in a home with two loving parents, not one lonely, workaholic of a parent."

"You're not lonely when you have Uncle Kisame!" Kisame beamed and roughly clapped Itachi on the back. "And it's your fault you're such a workaholic."

Itachi shook his head and opened the glass doors to their office building. "I wouldn't be such a workaholic if I didn't go out to lunch instead of finishing my work." He said and immediately realized the error in his logic.

"Spoken like a true workaholic, Itachi." Kisame mused.

-8-8-8-

"I never really knew Sakura," Itachi stated at his brother and sister-in-law's memorial service on September twelfth, "but I always heard about her, starting when her and my brother were in grade school. Sasuke used to come home and tell me all sorts of stories of this 'annoying girl' in his class who always followed him around at recess and I couldn't help but smile. And all throughout middle school and high school, I'd hear the same stories: 'she's so annoying, why won't she leave me alone?' he'd grumble. I don't know how it happened, but sometime during their time at college, his feelings had changed and her dreams had come true and shortly afterwards, we gained a new addition to the family." Itachi said, meeting eyes with a timid girl with red glasses holding onto a woman Itachi vaguely recognized as Sakura's mother. "Since their relationship was blooming, I told myself that I'd sit down with this woman who, after so many years of chasing after my little brother, managed to capture his heart. Little did I know that they would move across the country for Sasuke's job and I would never get the opportunity, something I have come to regret.

But even more so, I regret not spending enough time with my little brother Sasuke, when he was alive. So many times, he would run up to me and plead 'big brother, big brother, play hide and seek with me!' or 'let's play tag, big brother!' and I always told him 'later, Sasuke,' or 'not now.'" He said and looked up to meet the saddened faces of his family and Sakura and Sasuke's friends. "His untimely death has made me realize the more important things in life. No matter how busy we are, nothing in life is guaranteed. Had I known that Sasuke and Sakura would die at the age of thirty, I would've taken time off to fly out and visit them." Itachi sighed. "I'd give anything to catch up with Sasuke again, to ask about his job, to see how he's doing, and sit down with Sakura for five, ten minutes at least." He forced a quivering smile. "I suppose that will have to wait until we meet again." He said and stepped away from the podium.

"Oh honey, that was beautiful!" His mother gushed after the ceremony.

Itachi, almost a foot taller than her now, smiled and moved to embrace her in his arms where she promptly fell to pieces and cried into his suit jacket. Itachi remained silent and simply held her there when his father came into view.

"Nice speech, son." He said, giving Itachi a tiny embrace over his weeping wife.

"Thanks." Itachi said. "How are you holding up?"

Fugaku shrugged. "I've been doing fairly well but as you can see, your brother's death has hit your mother hard."

Itachi nodded. Mikoto was still sobbing into his shirt, muttering something about "reckless driving."

On the edge of his vision, Itachi noticed a couple approaching him.

"That was nice, what you said about our daughter." Mebuki Haruno said.

At the sound of Mebuki's voice, Mikoto immediately pulled away from her son and attempted to collect herself in the presence of Sakura's parents.

"Thank you." Itachi politely replied. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"As are we." Mebuki said, reaching out to give Itachi a hug. Her husband nodded in agreement and gave Itachi a tight hug after his wife had let go of him.

"Sarada," Kizashi said, nudging the puffy-eyed child forward, "why don't you say hi to your uncle?"

"Hi." Sarada said, but remained glued to Kizashi's hip.

Kizashi smiled. "She's still a little upset. These past few days have been really hard for her." He explained.

Itachi smiled and offed a small wave in Sarada's direction, chuckling when she ducked behind Kizashi.

"Hi there!" Mikoto cooed, unable to resist greeting the young girl.

"I assume you haven't been made aware of Sakura and Sasuke's decision regarding Sarada?" Mebuki asked him.

Itachi shook his head. "I was not, no. Why?"

Mebuki glanced at Kizashi, deferring the answer to her husband. "It would seem that Sakura and Sasuke, wanted you to be the one to care for Sarada should anything ever happen to them."

"What?" Sarada exclaimed. "I wanna live with you, grandma and grandpa!"

Kizashi knelt down to look Sarada directly in the eyes and smiled. "Sarada, honey. I know Itachi's a stranger to you, but he's young. He'll live way longer than grandma and I will. You don't want to take care of us when we're old and senile, do you?"

Sarada violently shook her head. "I don't care! I don't want to live with somebody I don't know! Uncle or not! I wanna live with you guys, grandpa!" She cried.

Kizashi pulled her into his arms and rubbed soothing circles into her back. "There, there, it's okay. I know this is a lot, but we're still trying to figure everything out, all right? Nothing is said and done yet."

In an attempt to escape the unpleasant atmosphere that had overcome them, Itachi glanced at Mebuki, whose mouth was drawn into a tight line. "I agree with her." She muttered under her breath.

"Let's give them a moment." Fugaku whispered into Mikoto's ear.

Mikoto looked up at her husband with pleading eyes and nodded submissively as he led her to a table housing the refreshments. Itachi followed, unwilling to burden Mebuki and Kizashi as they dealt with Sarada's raw emotions.

"I don't know why Sasuke thought this was a good idea." Fugaku uttered when they reached the refreshments table.

"I know Itachi hasn't seen her since she was a baby, but he's still her uncle." Mikoto said.

"It's not about how long it's been, Mikoto, it's about the fact that Itachi doesn't have time to take on such a heavy burden." Fugaku argued, pouring himself a drink from the plastic water dispenser.

Caught in between not only his in-laws and his parents, but his father and mother, Itachi pulled out his phone to check for any e-mails he could dismiss while he listened to them bicker back and forth. He was surprised to find that, in addition to eight new e-mails, he'd received a text message from Kisame.

'How are you holding up?' The message read.

Mikoto glared at her husband. "Sarada is not a burden, Fugaku! And besides, Itachi can handle such a great responsibility, can't you, honey?"

Itachi shrugged in response to his mother's question and typed back a response. 'Fine.'

"Didn't you hear her? She doesn't even want to live with him! He's a complete stranger to her! Sasuke erred when he decided that Sarada should live with someone she met when she was only a few days old! And Itachi has a career to focus on. He doesn't have time to babysit his brother's mista—"

'Remember, im hot for you' His next text read and was quickly followed with the correction '*here. i meant to say im here for you, not hot for you.'

"Weren't you listening to what Kizashi said?" Mikoto asked.

"What does he have to do with anything? We're talking about Itachi! Not Kizashi!"

"Kizashi told us that he and Mebuki won't live forever. What is Sarada supposed to do if they die unexpectedly? Where will she go then?" Mikoto asked and caressed her husband's shoulders. "Sarada has had enough tragedy and heartbreak to deal with. Sasuke wouldn't have named Itachi to be Sarada's guardian if it wasn't in her best interests."

'Thanks.' Itachi smiled at his co-worker's awkward text messaging skills. Itachi himself didn't text that often, but when he did, he made sure that it contained what he intended to say as to avoid embarrassing messages such as this one. Still, it managed to bring a much needed smile to Itachi's face in times such as these.

As soon as he pressed the "send" button, he pushed his phone back into the pocket of his trousers and attempted to ease his way back into his parent's discussion.

Fugaku frowned. "He obviously didn't consider her best interests when he decided to have her, that's for sure."

"Fugaku!" Mikoto hissed and slapped his shoulder. "Don't say such things at your son's funeral! It's disrespectful!"

Those e-mails were probably important. Itachi thought to himself and pulled his phone from his pocket once more. Hopefully they'll work everything out by the time I'm finished.

But the reality of the situation was that they would not reach an agreement by the time Itachi was finished reading and responding to e-mails. They wouldn't come to an agreement in the car, or once they got home, or the next day, or even the next week. As far as Sarada's welfare was concerned, Fugaku and Mikoto would most likely never reach a unified consensus.

Mebuki and Kizashi Haruno, on the other hand, were the exact opposite. Kizashi, like Mikoto, believed that Itachi was the right choice for Sarada's guardian whereas Mebuki, like Fugaku, thought herself and Kizashi to be better candidates.

Either way, the decision was up to Itachi, who was caught in the middle.

1. I didn't put any research into the first paragraph (I know, The Secret Sal, you're shocked) because, quite frankly, writing fanfiction is not my job (I wish it was, lol) but it ain't. Therefore, if I don't feel like putting research into my craft, then I don't feel like it.

2. I did research legal guardianship (because it's a major aspect of the story and I wanted it to be accurate). If you want to know all the legal details about that, PM me, and I'll describe the process for you.

3. I can't remember the last time I've been to a funeral, so hopefully the funeral segment was true to life.

4. What did y'all think of the way I've portrayed the characters? (Like, was Kisame too bubbly? Did Itachi's dry sense of humor seem out of place? What did you think about Mikoto, Fugaku, Mebuki and Kizashi? (I have never written Mebuki or Kizashi before, so this was a first))

5. PM me with any questions! Or leave a review with questions! I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability!

6. Check out my profile page for story updates (I'll tell you if I'm stuck on a chapter, or whatever the hell I'm up to in regards to the story's progress)

Please review your thoughts! Reviews make me happy and help me to update faster! (And did I mention that they make me happy?)

Until next time~

Sasori33-001