The mission went by smoothly and easily. I was home before dinner, just like I promised Sakura, and got smothered in kisses and hugs from Akira as soon as I stepped foot in the door. After pulling myself away from Akira, I traveled to the bathroom to take a quick shower while Sakura was preparing dinner. I had gotten some tiny splinters on my ring and index fingers on my right hand when messing with the wood to rebuild the building on the mission. I pulled them out without a flinch and just covered the small wounds with band-Aids. It was no big deal.
I got dressed in some comfortable night pants and a white t-shirt. I couldn't help but look at the muscles that showed through the tight shirt in my mirror. I didn't mean to be conceited, but I was pretty buff. I guess all those missions and ninja training would do it to you.
After I tried my hair and soothed out some tangles, I made my way into the living room where Akiyo and Akira were sitting quietly, doing homework on the couch. Well, Akira was drawing, but Akiyo was doing homework. Akira smiled at me when I walked into the room, but Akiyo stayed focused on his papers.
"Daddy, see what im drawing?" Akira asked waving the small white paper in the air. I walked over and took the paper gently from her and saw that she had drawn our whole family. Me, Sakura, Akiyo and herself. Then I noticed another small human on the side of the paper.
"Who's this?" I asked pointing to the small human.
"Daddy! That's Onari!" Akira shouted stabbing her finger at the small human baby on the corner of the paper. I smiled.
"Oh. I should have known that." I said. Akira crossed her arms and smiled.
"Daddy doesn't even know his own son." she said laughing. I laughed too and ruffled her magenta hair. I sat down next in the middle of her and Akiyo. She crawled onto my lap and rested her head on my shoulder. I was used to this whenever I sat on the couch, she usually did it.
"Dad," Akiyo said bringing my attention to him. I looked over, but he was still concentrated on his homework. "When release for a genjutsu doesn't work, what is another way you can break it?" he asked looking at me this time.
"Well, if you have a teammate, they can channel their chakra into your body, therefore breaking the jutsu." I said answering the obvious question. "But if your alone, you can't really do anything at all."
"Alright, thanks." Akiyo said writing something down on the paper he was working on.
"Why? Is that a question on your homework?" I asked trying to make conversation with the boy.
"Yeah." he answered quietly.
"They didn't talk about it in class?"
"Well, a little. But I forgot." Akiyo admitted.
"Ah," I said nodding.
"Daddy, guess what I learned in school!" Akira shouted happily. I looked down at her.
"What?" I asked curiously.
"I learned about the clone jutsu!" She exclaimed. "I think we're gonna start practicing it!"
I smiled at her. "That's great, Akira."
"Yeah I know!" she said happily. She started bouncing. "Im so happy!"
"Sasuke," Sakura called from the kitchen. I looked in her direction, as if she was standing there looking at me. "Will you come help me set the table?"
"Yeah." I called back. Akira frowned but crawled off of my lap. She scooted to the side of the couch as I stood up. Akira sighed from beside me and took out a folded piece of paper and began coloring on it with the crayons that laid all over the coffee table.
I walked into the kitchen to see Sakura stirring a large pot on the stove and making tea at the same time. Women are incredible beings, aren't they?
She was still wearing her hospital uniform, but with an apron tied to her. Her big stomach that held my son was just in front of her, calm as could be. Onari hardly ever kicked her. Akira never did, or from what I knew. Akiyo used to all the time, from what she told me. Funny how that works.
I walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her enlarged stomach. I kissed her cheek as she smiled. "Hey, baby." she said happily.
"Hey," I said holding her for a moment. I watched her stir the big pot of noodles in front of me. I noticed they were soba noodles. "Soba? You hardly ever make soba." I pointed out squeezing her into a half hug.
She looked at me. "Well, sometimes I do. Tonight just seemed like a good night. I was in the cooking mood." she smiled showing her drop dead gorgeous smile.
"Works for me." I said kissing her lips. I let her go and calmly walked over to the cabinet, that held our family eating bowls. I reached into a drawer and got out everyone a pair of chopsticks as well. I set them all around the table quickly, then got some cups to put the hot tea in. I laid napkins by everyone's bowls and just like that, the table was set.
Sakura turned around to take a break from stirring. She smiled. "Your always quick at setting the table."
"Well, I am a ninja." I said giving her a smile in return. Sakura sighed a sigh like a school girl seeing a hot guy for the first time. She nodded.
"You're my ninja," she said being flirtatious. I laughed. She looked at me then at the table. Then her gaze met my hands. She gasped. "Your hurt?" she asked.
I looked down at my hand to see the band-Aids I had covered the splinter wounds with. I looked up at her and waved my hand in the air as if I were swatting at a fly.
"No, its nothing. Just a few splinter wounds." I said simply, smoothly.
"Honey, those could get infected." she said approaching me. She took my right hand into hers and removed the band-Aids, revealing small wounds.
I raised an eyebrow to her. "Sakura, its fine. Don't worry about it."
"Well, they don't look serious but I can heal them for you." she said.
"Don't use your chakra on stupid things like this." I said rolling my eyes. But she ignored me as green chakra came to the palms of her hand. She held my right hand with her left, and used her right hand to heal the small wounds. They went away instantly.
She looked at the band-Aids that had some blood stains on them. She raised her eyebrow to me. "They might be small but they were still bleeding."
"I told you, its no big deal. But thank you." I said pulling my hand out of hers.
She smiled. "No problem." then she turned around and returned to her pot of soba noodles. "Call the kids in here." she ordered. I obeyed and stepped to the kitchen doorway.
"C'mon guys, time to eat." I said. Akira jumped up immediately, while it took Akiyo a second to stop from doing his homework. But he was always like this. Akira ran past me and sat in the wooden chair that she usually sat in. She was bouncing, just like normal. Akiyo trailed in after her, sitting in his usual chair as well.
"Oh, boy, oh boy!" Akira screamed in joy. "What's for dinner?"
"Akira, lower your voice," Sakura said turning to her. She was holding the pot with a pot handle and she had a plastic spoon in her left hand. "We're having soba noodles and rice." She said answering Akira's question.
"We almost never have soba!" Akira shouted. "Is this a special day or something?"
"No, I just decided to cook it." Sakura said smiling. She reached down and filled Akira's bowl with the noodles, then went around filling everyones dish. As soon as she filled mine, I sat down silently. I looked over at Akiyo, who was just as calm and content as could be, waiting for his rice.
Sakura filled everyones little bowl with rice and everyones cup with hot tea. Then she sat down and sighed, relieved her cooking was done. "Go ahead guys, you may eat now." she said smiling.
"Yay!" Akira exclaimed, digging into her soba. She almost used her hands, but Sakura gave her a warning look, telling her she needed to act like a little lady. Akira stopped then and ate with manners. I smiled.
"So, how was your day, sweetie?" Sakura asked looking at Akiyo. Akiyo looked at her, chewing some noodles quietly with his mouth closed.
"It was normal." he answered taking a drink of his tea.
"Learn anything?" she asked. Akiyo nodded.
"We learned some things about substitution and genjutsu. But really, we are just trying to review for the genin exams next week." Akiyo said turning his gaze to me. "It appears we are going to be tested on the clone jutsu." he said.
I laughed. "Get Naruto to help you out with that one."
"Sasuke!" Sakura snapped. "Stop it." she said, her eyebrows lowered.
"Sorry." I said smiling, holding back another laugh. Sakura looked at Akiyo and smiled a fake smile.
"You'll do fine, honey." she said patting his hand that was on the table next to his bowl. She looked over at Akira. "And how was your day, honey?"
"We might be learning the clone jutsu!" She exclaimed. "And daddy's gonna take me to get ice cream!"
Sakura shot a glance at me. "Really?" she asked.
"Yeah! For leaving on a mission!" she sang.
"Oh I see, well don't you think it would be nice to take Akiyo too?" Sakura asked Akira, but the question was directed to me.
"Uh, do you want to go, Akiyo?" I asked looking at him. Akiyo shook his head while slurping up some noodles.
"I have homework to do." Akiyo said after swallowing the mouth full.
"Oh, C'mon sweetie, you work so hard on homework all day. And it would take the whole night, just about thirty minutes." Sakura said trying to change his mind. He shook his head.
"No, thank you." he said taking a drink of tea.
"Well, okay," Sakura said, her expression saddening. "If you change your mind, just let us know."
I laughed to try to lighten up the mood. "Wow, Akiyo. I've never met a kid who doesn't like ice cream."
"I do like it, I just don't want any." Akiyo said finishing his bowl of rice. "But thanks for offering."
"Well, alright." I said stuffing some soba in my own mouth. Sakura sighed and began eating her own food.
The rest of the dinner was rather silent, except for some comments Akira made about her schooling. Sakura was pretty interested, but I just kept looking at how calm Akiyo was. And the more I looked at him, the more I thought about what Naruto said. Should Akiyo know?
After dinner, I told Akira to go and put on a jacket since it got a little chilly after dark. Akiyo retreated back to his homework, declining another offer I gave to him. Sakura cleared the table and began washing dishes. I grabbed a rag and helped her by wiping off some counters.
"How was your day?" I asked, breaking a silence.
"It was good. We had a lot of patients today." Sakura said sighing. "I'll be glad when I can lay back and relax. But how was your mission?" she asked turning the question around.
"It was alright." I answered simply. "Shikamaru and Ino are annoying, though."
"You think everyone is annoying." Sakura said with humor in her tone. I smiled.
"I guess that's true."
"Is Mai still sick?" Sakura asked. "Havent seen her in the hospital for a week."
"As far as I know," I said wiping some flour off of the counter. " But I think I heard them talking about how she is getting better."
"Well good. Akira misses her." Sakura said.
"Yeah." I agreed.
"I was surprised that Akiyo didn't want ice cream." Sakura said placing a clean dish in the drying rack. She picked up another dish and began to clean it.
"I'm not. The kid is always absorbed in his homework, he doesn't know how to have fun." I said placing the rag into the soapy water. "He should be being a kid, not always school strict."
"He just wants to be a good ninja when he gets older," Sakura said defending him. "You were school strict too when you were his age."
"But I was different," I said feeling my body tense up a little. "He's actually normal."
"You were normal too, you just had stuff going on." Sakura said, her voice straining a little.
"Yeah, but that doesn't matter." I said automatically wanting to change the subject. "I wish Akiyo would take it easy a little. He reminds me too much of Itachi..." I said whispering that vermins name.
"Sasuke." Sakura whispered in a warning tone. "We told each other never to say his name in this house." she said pointing her finger at me.
"I know, I know." I said. "But...Naruto brought up a point before I left the office to go on my mission today."
"Really? What point?" Sakura said talking normal again.
"He said...he said we should tell Akiyo the truth." I said getting quieter and quieter. Sakura dropped her dish back in the soapy water and turned to me, dragging her large stomach with her. Her mouth dropped open.
"No! No way! What is he thinking? How could he ever suggest that!?" Sakura asked, her face turning a light red.
"He said he would find out eventually," I said sighing. "At first, I was like 'no way' either. But then I was thinking...and he will someday, Sakura."
"No he won't!" Sakura yelled in a whisper. "Its been hidden this long, it can remain hidden! He doesn't have to know!"
"Sakura, when he gets old enough, he will find out. There is no way around it. Everyone knows that I am not his real father besides himself and Akira. Everyone else knows!" I exclaimed. "Maybe we should at least mention Itachi's name..."
"No, Sasuke." Sakura said turning to the sink and sighing. "He doesn't have to know. We should leave it alone." she picked up the dish quietly and started washing it again. I knew by the look on her face, that the conversation was over.
"Daddy, daddy!" Akira screamed running in the room. She shocked me at first, but I turned around to look at her, wearing her blue uchiha jacket that Hinata made for her, just like she made my shirt. "Are we ready to go?!" she exclaimed happily.
I sighed. "Yes."
She took my hand and began leading me out of the small kitchen. "Yay!" she screamed. "I want two scoops of blueberry and vanilla! Or, maybe I could have three scoops of vanilla, blueberry and chocolate! Or, daddy! I could even have four..." Akira rambled on, pulling me through the living room.
I glanced at Akiyo as I slipped on a jacket of my own. "Akiyo, last chance." I said. Akiyo didnt look at me, he just continued to do his homework.
"No thanks, Dad." he answered, jotting down some words on his paper.
I sighed. "Alright." I said. Then Akira led me out the door, as I closed the door behind me.