A/N - This story is supposed to be, at least in my minds eye, a three shot. I don't know if it'll stay that way, but expect that for now. Also: this is not a SakuNaru or SakuIta story, even though it may seem like it at first. Now that I've gone over everything that I can remember, please enjoy the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Obviously.
~x~x~x~
Sakura stared nervously at the door to Naruto's apartment, trying to figure out just how she should break the news to him. The thing was, she had offered to babysit for the nice, newlywed couple that had just moved in down the street from her. However, now her real job, working security at an esteemed business building, the Uchiha brother's, building, actually, required her to add more hours in. They needed her for some super important press-meeting. Sakura wouldn't have been pissed off if she hadn't promised to babysit; she would always accept attractive, rich men in suits with open arms. But she had promised to babysit, and now that had put her in a rather unsatisfactory spot. So here she stood, still debating if asking Naruto to fill in for her would be the best idea.
She could hear the faint roar of his TV behind the door, and she rolled her eyes and frowned, remembering why she had chosen Naruto in the first place. He had absolutely nothing to do.
Steeling her resolve, Sakura pounded her fist to the door and took a step back, crossing her arms and waiting as she heard Naruto stumble across his living room, then slam into the door as he tripped over something.
He opened the door while rubbing his face, squishing his eyes shut in annoyance. His blonde hair was wild and sticking out in all directions, and his eyes were tired and sleepy. He looked adorable. Sakura raised an eyebrow at him and once he was done rubbing his eyes with the pads of his long fingers, he looked at her.
"Oh, hey, Sakura." He said lazily, his eyelids drooping low.
"Hi, Naruto," she beamed, and stepped into his apartment, pushing him back and closing the door behind her. He stumbled over a large pillow on the floor and hit his head on the edge of his couch. Sakura ignored the string of curse words that promptly flew her way, and inspected his living room.
He had made a camp of sorts. He had about five comforters for beds sprawled on the floor, topped off with at least thirty orange pillows, all protected by the surrounding, stiff cushions of his black leather couch. He had made himself a camp. This did nothing but make her feel even less guilty about asking him to babysit. He was already making forts. He could do that at someone else's and get paid for it.
"I have a… favor," she spoke slowly, suddenly unsure of how to propose her demand to him. Because it was not a question. She was not going to ask, 'Naruto, will you please babysit this poor innocent soul for me?' No. Of course not. She was going to demand, 'Naruto, you lazy fuck, I have a job for you. Go babysit a child for me.' Yes. That sounded more like it.
Naruto's annoyed blue eyes snapped up to her in horror. "No. No way. I am not doing one of your 'favors' again, you pink-haired witch."
Sakura brushed his comment away with a quick flick of her hand. "No, it's not one of those favors, Naruto. I need you to babysit for me."
The color drained so quickly out of the blonde's face that Sakura was surprised he didn't pass out right there. He glanced around his living room from his position on the floor, looked down at himself, clad in a grease-stained white shirt and ugly cut-off gray sweat shorts. Then he glanced back up at Sakura. Back down at himself. Repeated the actions at least five more times, then proclaimed, "What?"
Sakura huffed and checked her watch, worrying her lip. "I need you to babysit. I promised this really cute couple in my neighborhood that I would, but then work called me and I have to go in, and I need someone to go babysit the poor kid, and you're not anything, and I know you're not opposed to money. I mean come on. You're already building pillow forts!"
Naruto glanced defensively at his fortress of pillowy softness. "I like pillow forts, you asshole."
"Watch your language around the child, Naruto. And, for your information, children also like pillow forts." Sakura paused. "Hey! For all we know, you could make your new best friend over there."
Naruto growled and threw a pillow from his vast collection at her. "You disgust me," he sighed, falling back into his kingdom, defeated. "What time do I have to be over there? And where the fuck is there, anyway?"
"Language. And I already wrote down all the directions and rules and set them inside your car. You have to be over there by eight. So clean your filthy self up and don't be late." Sakura shook her finger at him, and the blonde rolled his eyes.
"I really hate you Sakura," he mumbled, and she grinned happily at him.
"Oh, I know Naruto," she replied with a snicker, then slipped quickly out the door.
~x~x~x~
Sakura just barely made it in time. After she had convinced, or rather, forced, Naruto to babysit, she had dashed to her car and drove like a mad man home, the whole way checking her watch religiously. Once she had arrived there, she slipped on her all black, very sleek and sliming outfit, and had once again dashed out the door. She was just pulling into the parking lot five minutes before the first guest speaker gave their speech.
Shoving her car door open, Sakura toppled out of her car and slammed it shut, slipping her Taser into its holster on her belt, keeping a quick stride as she headed for the building. There was no one in the parking lot, and Sakura mentally cursed herself for being so incompetent. Why hadn't she had just called Naruto? It would have saved her gas and time. Shaking her head as she pushed into the building, she didn't even notice the slim, dark figure in front of her until she ran into him head-on. She was thrown to the ground and he was sprawled against the wall, looking flustered and pissed off at the same time. There was only one person who could pull off that look.
Sasuke Uchiha.
Sakura slowly got off the floor, glaring the whole way up. While the man's body, face, and bank account were all extremely attractive, his cold and arrogant attitude made her want to stick a hot fire poker into her eyeball every time she saw him. She could not stand him. Sighing and brushing herself off, she tried to continue on with her brisk pace, angry that the collision had caused her even more time. But there was a hand at her elbow, and she was yanked back.
"Why are you so fucking late?" Sasuke Uchiha hissed at her, his gorgeous face awash in the light of anger and annoyance. Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes and say, 'Language,' and instead glared and ripped her arm from his grasp.
"I had other problems to take care of," she said shortly, and set off again.
There was a rumble of frustration from behind her, but she ignored it and started walking faster. She was walking so fast, that she didn't see the second tall, slim and dark figure in front of her until she ran into him again. This time they both ended up on opposite walls, and she froze in her black boots when she saw just who exactly she had run into.
Itachi Uchiha.
The one, you know, who was her boss.
Who controlled her paycheck and basic living.
She had just crashed him into a wall because she was late.
"Fuck," she muttered and slapped an annoyed hand to her face. Just then, Sasuke caught up to them and glared at Sakura. Itachi looked startled to see his brother, and glanced curiously over at him before he addressed Sakura.
"Why are you running through the halls, security guard?"
"Because she's fucking late, that's why." Sasuke said, annoyed.
Sakura glared at him before nodding. "Yeah, I'm late. But I had to take care of something important before this. I wasn't going to be late, until I ran into both of you." She pulled her sleeve up and checked her watch. "Yep. Now I'm late."
Itachi was staring at her with a strange sort of amusement in his eyes. "I see. What was that matter?"
"Yes," Sasuke chimed in, annoyed, "what was so utterly important to be late for one of the most important press conferences of the year?"
"I had promised my neighbor that I would babysit for them, and then you guys told me I needed to come in at seven thirty, and I realized that I couldn't babysit their kid." Sakura glanced at Itachi, who was listening politely. "So I went over to my friend's house and asked him to babysit for me, but I still have no fucking clue if he even will go, but anyways, I was late because I was trying to convince him to babysit."
Itachi leaned back at the information with a small smile, then glanced over at Sasuke's disgusted face. An idea formed in his head.
"Sasuke," he asked, and the smaller raven glanced over in irritation.
"What?"
"What were you doing out here?"
"Going to take a breather? Why do you care?"
Itachi hide his smile under his fingers by placing them over his lips. "I see. So you really have nothing to do, I take it?"
"Obviously. The starter speech has nothing to do wi-"
"I have an idea." Itachi proclaimed, and Sakura's eyes latched onto Sasuke with dread. Sasuke's face paled, and Sakura was stuck by how similar Naruto's reaction had been. She hid her smile by coughing into her arm.
"Sasuke, you go and babysit this poor child and make up for some of your rather disgusting habits of skipping work," Itachi ordered, then turned to Sakura. "And you go to do your duties. You have a full pass to be late on my order. I'm sorry for our interruption."
Sakura gaped at him, then glanced over at the pale, wide-eyed Sasuke.
"Uh," she muttered, holding her hands up. "No, really that's quite alright-"
"Are you fucking insan-"
Itachi shrugged his shoulders, pointed at Sakura, then pointed down the hallway. She made a small noise of protest, handed over the babysitting information, then complied and stomped down the white hallway, leaving the two brothers staring at each other.
"You've got to be out of your mind." Sasuke seethed, clenching his fists around the piece of paper Itachi had given him.
"I'm kind," Itachi started, examining his fingernails. "And generous. Gorgeous and intelligent. A bit sick, perhaps twisted slightly. But certainly not out of my mind. That would be quite literally impossible." Itachi looked up and grinned at Sasuke, smugness pouring off him.
"You seriously cannot be considering this," Sasuke said, desperate now.
Itachi raised a fine eyebrow. "Can't I?"
"Of course not! I'm a business man, not a babysitter! I haven't been around a kid in ages, how the hell am I supposed to entertain it?"
Shrugging, Itachi started off down the hallway. "You have to figure that out, little raven. If you fail to care for this child, you are fired."
Then he disappeared down the hallway, and Sasuke was left a blinking, furious mess. What the hell had just happened?
~x~x~x~
Naruto bit his lip and looked down at himself again, making sure he at least looked a little better in his orange, close-fitting t-shirt with a black chest pocket and jeans. At least he wasn't wearing those God-awful sweat shorts he had been sporting earlier. Compared to that, anything would have been an improvement. He ran his hands through his hair a couple of times and checked himself in the mirror. His hair was nearly impossible to tame, and he had not even come close to taming his wild mass this time. All he had done was run a brush quickly through it. He coughed and got out of his car, noticing as a black SUV raced down the street at an alarming rate. Suddenly there was a loud screeching of brakes on pavement, and the black SUV stopped, reversed, and turned around.
Naruto dove out of the street just in time, narrowly avoiding being smashed into the pavement and being made into very colorful road kill. He glared at the car as it violently parked. Then the driver slammed his way out of the car, a chorus of curses, grunts, and banging noises. Naruto was still standing slightly in the middle of the street, watching the stranger angrily yank off his coat and thrust it into his car with a slam. Then he swiveled on his heel, and Naruto was momentarily caught off guard by how attractive the man was. He was all angles and dark lines and hair, wide brooding eyes and long, slim body. He was perfect.
He was staring right at Naruto.
"Why are you standing in the middle of the road?" the man asked in his deep, timber voice. Naruto told his toes to stop curling so he could retort.
"I'm not standing in the middle of the street, I'm standing slightly to the side," came Naruto's slightly childish and very flustered response.
One single eyebrow on the man's face rose in response, but he just twitched it slightly. "Are you high?"
Naruto shrugged, only slightly questioning why he was talking to a random stranger in the street at nearly eight o' clock at night while he had a baby, or a kid, to sit upon.
The man kept his eyebrow up, then turned towards the house that Naruto was going to. Frowning, Naruto glanced down at his paper, and the ink printed there clearly stated: 1356 as the house number.
Looking back up, he narrowed his eyes as the tall man made his way across the green lawn of the house. Shrugging his shoulders again, Naruto followed him.
Once they both got to the door, Sasuke turned in Naruto's direction and jumped, startled. His eyes were wide and his plump lips were open in surprise. Then they snapped shut with a click.
"Why are you following me?" He asked, flicking his bangs out of his face.
"I'm not," Naruto replied stubbornly, crossing his arms across his wide chest.
The man's dark eyes seemed to swallow him whole, then spit him out missing vital organs. "Why are you here then?" the man demanded, and Naruto stiffened.
"I'm babysitting ," Naruto relied, trying to look tough while saying the sentence. He failed.
The man's eye flickered in momentary confusion, then cleared with horrified understanding. "You're the friend Sakura thought wasn't going to end up coming?" he growled, and Naruto's eyebrows rose at the mention of his pink haired friend.
"How do you know Sakura?"
"She works for me," the man said absently, staring hard at Naruto's face.
Confusion passed over the blonde's face and stayed. "Wait. So then why are you here?"
The man was about to answer just as the door in front of them opened up, and warm light filled up the space of the deck in front of the house. A young woman smiled at them, bouncing a baby in her arms.
The blood left both the men's faces at the same time as they took in the young child swaddled in the mother's arms. The woman didn't seem to notice.
"Thank you guys so much for coming! Ken and I just haven't been able to get a date night in, like, forever." She laughed and kissed the baby's head. "You guys were smart to double-team it. Little Ryou here can be quite a handful."
That's when the baby started screaming, and when the boys started dying.
~x~x~x~
A/N - Did you enjoy the first installment? Please let me know with a review! (They inspire me to write way faster) Thanks for reading, much love,
-IC