Swishing Hair

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.


"Oh, no no no no. No, Sarada, no."

"Ba ba ba!"

"Well, give it a try then."

"Ba ba ba ba ba!"

"I won't let you have it until you catch it yourself."

It was December and snowing outside when he had to babysit Sarada at Sakura's request. From what he understood between the pinky's hurried babble an hour ago, Sasuke was currently at Iwagakure for a mission and her Yamanaka friend was suddenly in labor. All that being said, she had to leave her dishes and asked someone to take care of her daughter.

She explained to him that she had tried to contact her parents only to find out they were having a vacation outside the village, and Naruto and Kakashi were busy. She was planning to ask her parents-in-law too, but they were not answering her calls as well (Itachi then told her that they were having a date together). And so, she had no choice but to drop Sarada at his house. Not that he had a problem with it, anyway. He actually enjoyed babysitting his niece.

At almost eight-month old, Sarada was quite an active baby. For the past ten minutes, the girl had been trying to grab his ponytail and played with it. Of course Itachi did not mind, yet he loved seeing her determination and efforts in having a handful of the raven locks. So he shook his head from side to side while his niece was giving her best shot to catch it.

"Uhn!" for the umpteenth time, Sarada stretched her little arms out over his left shoulder, but Itachi managed to swish his hair to the right before she could catch it. She pouted and disappointment was clear in her 'ba ba ba's as she started to search for the locks again.

Still, although Sarada was so desperate to have his hair, Itachi kept on teasing her to the point where she stopped. She proceeded to seat on his laps and stared at him longingly. "You give up?" Itachi asked her.

Sarada gave no response, glueing her gaze into him.

"Don't you want to have it?"

She remained silent.

"Sarada."

And that's when his niece began to whimper, her lips trembling slightly.

Oh shit.

Making a hurt face, Sarada parted her mouth to send a big loud cry. The girl clutched at her uncle's navy blue shirt, demanding him that she wanted the weird swaying thing behind his head. She wanted to know what it was, to grab it and to feel it, and perhaps shove the thing inside her mouth. "Am mwa mwa mwam!" she protested between her cries.

On the other side, panicking, Itachi swiftly reached for his ponytail and presented it to Sarada. "H-Here you go!" he blurted out in fright. "Don't cry, Sarada, please! You can have it, okay? Uncle is so sorry. Here!" he cued as he waited for a sign from his niece.

Blinking twice, Sarada was quick to calm herself down. She took the hair and amused herself with it, confusion written over her face. "Ya ya ya ya!" she clapped, tangling the black strings between her fingers and started to yank it in a playful manner.

Itachi sighed, guilty for being a bad, bad uncle. Yet, he was relieved that his niece was so easy to please (unlike baby Sasuke who, he remembered, had to be given a bottle of milk when he was upset). "Thank goodness," he murmured to himself. At least, now he could escape Sakura's wrath and Sasuke's disappointment. Next time, he promised, he would let Sarada do whatever she wanted with his hair.

Little did he know though, Sarada was faking her cry the whole time before.


Author's Note:

Thank you for all the reviews! You guys are so amazing! This chapter is quite short, but I hope all of you are fine with it... Until next time!