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Pretty Pranksters Part I

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Seeing all Uchihas at the dining table together was rare these days. Sarada ran the village as hokage and the boys enjoyed their late teenage years. Hence, the parents were left together, almost the same as they were before the first child was born.

Still, Sakura missed her children. She was used to the loud obnoxious boys, always arguing about something. It became so heated that Sasuke joined them, too, sometimes, not being able to stand all the testosterone radiating from them. Heck, even only with Sarada it was lively at home, when Sakura and her daughter lived alone. Now, there was only Sasuke, but he never talked too much. With his growing years – he was 53 now – Sasuke became even more grumpier than before, and was tired out more easily. His tolerance for loud noises decreased, too, so that Sakura had to be cautious about the volume of her voice and the amount of words that escaped her mouth.

It was so boring.

Today was such a day, too. Her and Sasuke eating dinner together. The boys promised to come, but were late again. Sasuke´s patience faded, and Sakura had no other choice than to start preparing the table before he grew too grumpy.

Her husband started to eat about five minutes ago, but Sakura didn´t even touch her food. Sasuke noticed this long ago, and tried to stay oblivious to that, but he couldn´t ignore it anymore.

He sighed, looking at her.

"You don´t eat."

Sakura didn´t hear him, her head bent down, looking in the distance.

"Sakura."

Still no reaction. Sasuke knew what was on her mind, of course. He sighed again and stroked her head, to which Sakura reacted immediately, turning her head to him.

"Sakura. Start eating. The idiots will come sooner or later."

Now it was Sakura´s turn to sigh.

"Mouu, I know Sasuke-kun. But don´t you miss them, too? I do. Is it too much to ask them to appear on time for once?"

"Don´t hold your hopes up high. They probably do stupid annoying things now. It´s better that they aren´t here. They only would give us headaches."

Sakura knitted her eyebrows together, jumping up on her chair.

"I can´t believe you, Sasuke! They are our children, not some nuisances!"

"You threw them out yesterday, when they came home, drunk."

Sakura puffed her cheeks out in embarrassment.

"But still…"

"But they are your boys. And you can´t stand the fact that they will leave this house one day, leaving you only with me, the grumpy, boring old husband I´ve become."

Sakura´s eyes widened at that. How does he know? Did he listened to one of my talks with Ino?

"I-No!"

Sasuke chuckled at that. "Stupid. I know you better than anyone Sakura."

Sakura looked away, embarrassed.

"You don´t talk so much yourself anymore, you know. You can´t blame only me for the silence."

"Hmph! That´s only because you can´t stand loud noises anymore."

"No. It´s because you´re tired yourself now. As much as your seal helps you looking young, you can´t hide your actual age."

Sakura stiffened, feeling the urge to blow a hole in her husband´s head with her fists.

"You-! I can´t believe you just told me I´m old!"

"Sakura. We are. Accept it."

Sasuke´s wife stayed still. He sighed.

"I know it´s hard. I can´t believe it myself sometimes. But we have to deal with it. It´s how nature goes."

There was no response from his wife still. But he knew how he could make her laugh again.

"You remember the time I found my first grey hair? You said I was sulking for one week but I dismissed it."

Sakura couldn´t hold back her laugh. She pointed accusingly at her husband.

"Ha! So you do admit it!"

"Tch. It´s not like I can run away from it."

Husband and wife finally smiled at each other.

"I´m sorry, Sasuke-kun. You´re right. It´s still hard to believe. I only want to spend as much time with my children as possible before they go. It´s like they are giving me energy when they´re with me."

"I know what you mean."

Both parents went through various memories inside their heads.

"But Sasuke-kun, when you finally hand your office over to someone else and I can take a break from the hospital, let´s enjoy our time together, ne?"

"Sakura. Sousuke is 15 years-old. We have at least five years to go with him."

Sakura groaned out loud. "With how it looks, he will stay at home for a much longer time."

Sousuke was the topic of conversation for a long time now between them. He didn´t have many friends. Aside from them, his brothers and Kohaku, he didn´t have much of social contacts. There were only his teammates left, but they didn´t come along since day one, especially because Sousuke was younger than them, graduating from the academy at an early age, thanks to his abilities. He spent much time with his nephew, Ko-Eiji, training him because he clearly enjoyed his role as an uncle. But all those things weren´t bad at all, because the young man might have not had many friends, but a handful he was very close with and he was happy with that.

It wasn´t that Sousuke was much of a rebellious type. He did as he was told by his parents, being a very obedient young man indeed. Of course, he had his moments, his hormones controlling his brain because of puberty.

He was very intelligent, inheriting all the right traits from his parents. He would be jonin in a few years for sure.

What worried his parents – more Sakura than Sasuke, to be honest – was the fact that Sousuke had a special issue with women. He was an Uchiha after all. Since he was born, all people swooned over him. It was the same with the twins, but not as extreme as it was with the youngest. Sousuke was attracted to them physically, no doubt about that. But he only made fun of them, teasing them (which Sakura loathed to no end, remembering a certain Charasuke). It happened only a few times, since Sousuke never showed much interest in them anyway.

To cut a long story short, Sakura was worried that her son might never end up with a partner, because he would never, ever accept a woman that would swoon over him (especially because he was very stubborn like a certain other Uchiha male). And to find a woman who wouldn´t notice her son´s handsome looks had to be blind. Which would mean-

"Sakura, you´re thinking too much into it."

The woman was pulled out of her musings. She gave Sasuke a worried look, not knowing what to say. Sakura knew that Sasuke understood her anyway without saying something. A look in the eye was enough to understand each other´s thoughts and feelings when it came to them.

Sasuke spoke up.

"He´s only 15 years-old anyway. Give him some time."

"Sasuke, all of our children showed love interests before they were that age. Seizo with Kohaku, Saizo with the girl from snow, and even Sarada with Boruto-"

"What?!"

"-Yes, darling, and it´s too late to give me a dirty look because of that. They are married and have kids now."

Sasuke still didn´t look pleased, but Sakura didn´t pay him any Attention, either.

"What I wanted to say is; this phenomenon of strong love somehow runs in the family, you know, starting with us or your ancestor- Sasuke! I´m worried for the future of your son and you start eating?!"

"The food is getting cold."

"You-!"

With a loud ´bang´ the parents heard the outer door swung open and collide with the wall in the main hall. Other than that, very loud laughter could be heard as well.

"I swear if they are drunk again at this hour, I´m going to let them kiss the mud in the training grounds."

Sasuke sweatdropped at his wife´s behaviour.

Sasuke hurried after his wife, taking her hand, before she could enter the main hall.

"Let me deal with them today. You sit down and relax."

Sakura let herself fall on her chair with a huff. Sasuke gave her one last glance, ordering her to relax again, and hurriedly walked away after receiving a very angry glare that could match one of his father´s.

As he entered the hall, Sasuke saw a glimpse of Sousuke slamming his bedroom door shut after him, and turned towards the entry door, seeing his older sons – now 19 years-old – laughing their lungs out.

The father sighed wearily, knowing that something totally annoying was awaiting him.

"What´s so funny?"

The tone of his voice was definitely not amused. But the twins couldn´t care any less, too much consumed in their delight.

"You should have seen his face!" Saizo burst out loud between laughter. "I pranked him so hard that his face became all red!"

Sasuke sighed. Of course, Konoha´s pink prankster had to pull out something like that again. No wonder he earned himself that name after spending so much time with the Uzumakis. As the father wanted to tell them to shut the laughter down, he felt a not so pleasant chakra behind him.

Oh, shoot.

"What exactly did you do to my baby?"

That was something Sasuke definitely wanted to avoid. Sakura was most protective of their youngest and very angry after their heated conversation earlier. This was her chance to relax like she wanted to. And if she referred to Sousuke as ´her baby´ in this kind of situation, Sasuke was sure all hell would break loose if he didn´t do anything fast.

But, he was 53-years-old now, and he really didn´t have the energy to deal with it anymore.

"Sakura, I think it´s time to let them kiss the mud in the training grounds. Let them deal with the damage later." Sasuke turned around to walk. "And I´ll see after Sousuke."

Sakura cracked her knuckles.

"Hai."

Saizo and Seizo looked like white marble statues by now.

Saizo didn´t dare to open his mouth knowing his fault, not like his other brother. "B-but I didn´t prank Soke! It was all Saizo´s idea!"

Sakura smirked and chuckled darkly. "I know. But I could hear your laughter from the kitchen, too." Seizo´s mouth shut.

Her smile faded immediately. "You have three minutes to go before I start moving."

She didn´t need to tell them twice.

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Fin.