Kittens

A/N: Sakura brought home more kittens than expected, and Sasuke is not amused.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Sakura or Sasuke, though I love them dearly!

When Sasuke agreed that they could have a pet, he only meant one. He thought one was enough, but apparently Sakura had other ideas.

"Aw, but Sasuke-kun, look at how cute they are!" she'd cooed, cuddling at least three kittens in her arms. He blanched, eyebrows pulling together, and obviously not pleased.

"Our deal was one pet, not three," he replied, as stubborn as ever. Truthfully, Sasuke liked cats. They were independent and kept to themselves most times, and he could tolerate that, but three of them meant more work, and between work and school, amongst other things, he didn't know how they were going to manage to take care of them.

"Well, it's too late anyway. I already told the lady I'd take all three of them," Sakura puffed out her cheeks slightly. "Besides, she was already packing everything up when I left. She's probably not even there anymore to give them back. So, I guess we're stuck with them."

Sasuke couldn't stop himself from groaning. "Give the others to Naruto or something," he suggested, but he knew that Sakura wouldn't do it.

"Oh please, like Naruto would know how to take care of an animal. He can hardly take care of himself."

Sasuke wasn't pleased, but said nothing else about the matter. Sakura pouted at him, moving to set the kittens down on the apartment floor, and moved over to him. Her arms stretched out, and encircled his frame, pressing her chin to his chest to look up at him.

"Just give them a chance. I'm sure they'll grow on you."

"Tch," was his reply as he refused to look at her. Despite her hugging him, he kept his arms crossed. He was acting a bit childish about the matter, but he didn't care.

Sakura let out a defeated sigh before pulling back from him. "Well, I promised Ino I'd help her shop for a birthday for Sai since it's coming up soon. I shouldn't be out too late, see you later." She leaned back in to briefly peck his cheek before gathering up some of her things and heading out the door.

Sasuke jumped slightly as he felt something clawing at his bare foot. He grumbled as he looked down to see an orange and white kitten batting at it playfully. He quickly shooed the feline away and moved over to the couch to sit down.

Turning on the TV, he starting flipping through the channels, unable to find anything to hold his interest for very long. He let out a low sigh as he leaned against the armrest, laying his head in his hand. He settled on a rerun of Hell's Kitchen, but hardly paid it any mind, zoning out rather quickly, and brooding over the fact that there were three rambunctious kittens running around the apartment and getting into things that they shouldn't.

As if on cue, an ear-piercing scratching sound tore him out of his thoughts, and he quickly leaned forward to see the same orange and white kitten from before trying to sharpen its claws on the edge of the couch like its own personal scratching post.

Reaching over, he grabbed the kitten, placing it in his lap and glaring down at it wordlessly. It stared back up at him, unblinking. An unspoken staring contest had ensued, and it lasted for only about a minute before a crashing sound could be heard. It made Sasuke jump in his skin, and he tore his gaze away from the kitten in his lap. What that was, couldn't be good.

Rising to his feet, the Uchiha cradled the kitten in one of his hands as he went in search of the noise. Sure enough, as he made his way onto the scene, he noticed a broken vase given to them as a gift from Mebuki to help furnish their new apartment. It was shattered into a million pieces with water spilled out all over the floor and flowers wilted and torn.

Glancing up, Sasuke saw the culprit padding it's way across the countertop, and over to the sink, curiously inspecting it.

Stepping carefully over the mess, Sasuke reached for the other kitten—a pure black one—and scooped it up in his free hand. Grumbling could be heard under his breath as he moved to step out of the kitchen, mindful of the mess, and return to the livingroom to set the two kittens back down on the couch.

In the background, he could hear Gordon Ramsey yell, "What the bloody hell are you doing?!" and he wondered the same thing. What the bloody hell was he doing? He was stuck here having to babysit three kittens, as well as having to clean up an otherwise avoidable mess because of one of them.

He had just finished mopping up the last of the water and swept one more time just to be safe, before he realized that he'd only found two of the kittens and there was still a third one left to be found.

"Dammit," he huffed, putting the mop and broom away before going on the search. He eventually found the last kitten when he felt it pawing at his toes from under the bed. Sucking his teeth, he lowered himself to the ground and reached under the bed for the kitten, only to then retract his hand upon being scratched. He cursed under his breath and tried again, but missed.

After a while of trial and error, he eventually got an advantage as the kitten had gotten a bit too close to one of the edges. Grasping the tiny thing in his hand, he pulled it out from under bed. If he had to guess, it was probably the runt. It was smaller than the other two and pure white save for a small splotch of black on its nose. It also seemed to be the most troublesome one, at least at the moment.

Rising back up to his feet, Sasuke tucked the kitten under his arm and exited the bedroom, closing the door behind him to ensure that none of the others could get in there.

Upon returning to the livingroom, the other two kittens had, unsurprisingly, vanished, resulting in yet another groan from the Uchiha. He was hating this already. Just what had he done in a previous life to deserve this? He'd never know.

So, trudging through the livingroom, he started searching again. He found the black kitten tearing up the shower curtain in the bathroom and snatched it up.

"Tch, great." They were going to have to buy a new one now, on top of having to buy a new vase for any flowers Sakura might want to keep around. Already these creatures were becoming more trouble than they were worth. Sasuke was starting to believe that Naruto was better company than these felines, and that was saying something.

It took him a while, but he finally found the orange and white kitten squeezed in behind the couch, gnawing and scratching at one of the wooden legs. Maybe he could sand it down later if it looked bad enough. It was still unnecessary work that could've been avoided if Sakura hadn't brought all three of them home, and that's what irked Sasuke the most.

Ten minutes and a shirt full of cat hair later, and Sasuke was laid out of the couch with the kittens all curled up next to him. They'd all three originally been laying on the couch next to him, but ended up scattering to different places a short time later.

With Sasuke turning onto his back and listening to more of Gordon Ramsey yelling, one of the kittens crawled up and curled into a ball onto his chest, while another nestled itself into his hair, and the other spread out across his legs. Sasuke was too exhausted to bother trying to move them and ended up passing out like that.

By the time Sakura got home, she was greeted by the adorable sight and couldn't stop herself from taking a picture of it. Stifling her giggles, she disappeared from the room and returned again with a thin blanket. She spread it out over him and decided not to stir him, leaning down to press a light kiss to her boyfriend's forehead. Besides, the scene was just too cute for her to bring herself to disrupt. She never knew when she'd get another opportunity to see Sasuke doing something this cute again.