Hope With Hidden Reason Chapter 4: Hugs, Cuddles, Squeals and Uchihas?, a naruto fanfic

Wow guys I'm aliiiive :D

Finally(!!!) the next chapter is here. I hope this lives up to expectations, I made it a lot longer than any other chapter so far. The delay was due to a mix of having lots of work and also due to a huge bout of writing constipation. I somehow lost the ability to write anything decent at all for a few weeks My ability returned though, I've worked hard on this in the past few days! I've also been working on other fics and making the plot of this more detailed and better thought out. Those who read 'Oe Word Is All it Takes', the next chapter will be written now that this one is out of the way.

If aybody needs a reminder of the end of the last chapter, they had just been accepted for adoption and were picking the baby up.

I really hope you enjoy :)

Chapter Four - Hugs, cuddles, squeals and...Uchihas?!

Sat in the driver's seat of his car on the road back to home, Sasuke was smiling. For the past ten minutes of his drive he had been flicking his gaze from the other fluorescent cars and tarmac to gaze at his family in the back seats. Naruto, after much debate and several frowns of 'are you sure?' had allowed Sasuke to drive. Since they had left the centre, his excited neurotic state had left him and been replaced with a calm and tender one in which he deemed it safe to operate vehicles. They had bundled the infant into the borrowed car seat (they hadn't installed their own yet), and the blonde had decided to sit in the back next to her. Sasuke had watched in the rear view mirrors, the baby was asleep, tiny lips parted in a soft 'o' shape and Naruto was holding her hand gently, staring with a content and loving smile at the child. After five minutes or so he was asleep too, head resting on the top of the seat, being watched by the smiling Uchiha, who took note of how his lovers face would illuminate every few seconds as they passed routine lamp posts. On the way here, he had wanted the car journey to barely last minutes, but sat here now, looking at his small yet precious family snoring in the hazy light of the car, he couldn't care if it lasted forever.

The smell of coffee was thick in the air in the kitchen of number five, Marina Crescent. Yellow morning light mixed in with the aroma and cast a very morning-like feel to the room. A young man, Iruka Umino, sat at the table, looking over a newspaper idly while the coffee brewed. As his eyes flitted over the small and uniform text he frowned at all the bad news, did anything good happen these days? It was all 'Brutal gang attack!' and 'Teen faces prosecution!' or 'Murderer jailed!' and 'Crime rates soar!' His eyes searched for a more positive headline...'Wakeboarding weasel!' was the best the paper had to offer him. He closed it with a sniff and poured himself a mug of coffee.

"Why do you buy a newspaper if you're just going to frown at the headlines and close it again?"

He looked over the rim of his steaming mug to a man with floppy silver hair and a lazy voice. Kakashi Hatake looked sleepy and carefree...he always looked sleepy and carefree. Iruka sighed.

"You have to know what's going on in the world...why do you still read those books every day when you've read them a million times and know what happens already?" He replied, raising his eyebrow at the novel in the other's hands.

"They are so good that they can be read over and over, you need some entertainment when the newspapers have headlines like those." The silver-haired man explained, not once had he looked up from the pages of his book.

"I suppose." The owner of the house mused, taking a sip of the caffeinated liquid and gasping when it scolded his tongue. He glared as the novel-reading man chuckled; not quite believing the excuse for the laugh was that the story was currently at an amusing section. He rushed to the sink to nurse the tongue with cold water, fuming at his own carelessness, this seemed to happen nearly every morning and he still went and drank the coffee straight away!

Stood by the sink and feeling the numbing sensation the cold water was having on his tongue, Iruka admired the morning to calm himself down. The sound of birds could be heard coming through the glass window over the sink, early-morning sunshine warmly spilling through. The man watched amused as a tabby cat attempted to catch one of the birds on the lawn of his small yet lavish garden, the smaller creatures always a good few inches out of reach of the young paws. It darted off into the hedges as the birds grew tired of the game of chase and Iruka was reminded he would have to water the garden today or Naruto would be over later, poking round it and complaining that his greenery was too dry.

He jumped when the phone rang from the hall, snapping him and his settled smile out of peacefulness. For the first time Kakashi looked up from the novel, only one eye reaching Iruka's at the sink's, the other concealed by the wild hair.

"It won't be for me." He excused and the coffee scolded adult sighed, putting his water down to go pick up the phone. Yeah, the man at the table was right but he could have at least offered to go get it...

Iruka and Kakashi were housemates and friends. Iruka was a teacher at a local school and had lived in this house for several years. When his adoptive son had begun his relationship with Sasuke, Kakashi had evidently met the man. He had worked on the police force for several years and had lived alone a few streets away from Iruka. Having no family, he was used to solitude, though once Sasuke had started a relationship he had been mixing more with Naruto and Iruka. Naruto had been unhappy that Kakashi was living alone and insisted Iruka was also lonely after he'd moved out (something Iruka objected strongly to) and he'd suggested the two live as housemates. Kakashi had shrugged off the idea at first but a few months ago he decided living with somebody couldn't be all that bad and moved in with the younger man. He found the move amusing. Iruka was neat, slightly childish, caring and easily annoyed - he could see where Naruto got his quick temper from. He guessed he enjoyed poking at that temper, which was why he didn't answer the phone this particular morning. Iruka had given him one of those looks where you sigh with your expression and strode into the hall.

"Hello?" Iruka spoke when he pressed the phone to his ear, examining the tip of his tongue in the mirror hung on the wall of the hallway. A younger male voice answered loudly. "Oh hello Naruto!"

Curiously the silver-haired man, still at the table latched onto the conversation, of course continuing to read at the same time he was a good multi-tasker. Naruto didn't ring this early usually, this meant something had happened, which meant it could concern Naruto's partner, which meant it could concern him. Of course Naruto would ring before Sasuke ever thought to. He skim-read as his friend's voice continued.

"Yeah, I woke up about a half hour ago...yeah Kakashi's up too...nothing much, just getting ready for work...haha yeah...mhmm...are you okay, you sound excited over something? You haven't been drinking coffee have you?"

A smile crossed the face of the man listening from the table at the irony of the question.

"Okay, what is it?...yeah.................mhmm....hm...yeah-wait, what?"

There was a long pause in the hallway and the book in the kitchen was set down on the table by Kakashi, this sounded juicy...he listened more carefully.

"Y-you...Naruto is this a joke?! It's not very funny!...b-but when...why...stop messing around!"

There was another pause and some sighing, where the eavesdropping man decided Naruto must be arguing his case over whatever he'd done. There was another long break of silence form Iruka before he said something in a worrying tone, he must have had his hand over his mouth in shock as the voice was also muffled.

"Oh my god...you're being serious aren't you?"

There was a small pause and then a heavy thud, Kakashi frowned, turning before he hurried out of the kitchen. "Iruka?" He called before he rounded the doorframe and his mouth fell open a little in confusion when he saw his friend lying on the floor, out cold. Naruto's voice could be heard coming from the phone, shouting Iruka's name.

---

In a house a short while away, Naruto was shouting down the phone after his guardian had suddenly disappeared. After some failed attempts of catching the man's attention he shot a horrified look at his partner, who was sat on the couch.

"Sasuke!" He gasped "I think I killed him!"

Sasuke raised his eyebrows and submitted to his sarcastic side.

"What did you do that for?"

Naruto squeaked and grabbed his head in panic. He had never really grasped the concept of sarcasm, it was Sasuke's most deadly weapon.

"I didn't mean to! I think I scared him! He's not talking! What do I do!?" He jumped up and down impatiently and only stopped when a cry was heard coming from upstairs.

"You're on a roll today; you woke the baby up too." Sasuke commented, standing to go retrieve the crying infant, smirking secretly when Naruto groaned.

"The baby too!?" He hissed and swore, picking up the phone again. "Iruka! Iruka! Irukaaaaa!"

---

"Hey...Iruka?" Kakashi crouched and poked his housemate in the face firmly and after no reply he shrugged and picked up the phone. "Naruto?" He winced at the volume the blonde used to reply.

"Kakashi! Oh my god is Iruka okay!? Did I kill him!?"

"Calm down Naruto he's...currently unavailable...but he's okay."

"Phew...wait, what's 'currently unavailable'!?"

Kakashi sighed and found a comfier position against the wall, next to the phone table. "He passed out, what did you say to him?"

On the other end of the line Naruto fiddled with the thread on the arm of the sofa and looked around for Sasuke, who hadn't come back downstairs yet. "Umm...Sasuke wanted to tell you but he's...upstairs at the minute. Is Iruka really okay?"

Kakashi looked at the man lay on the floor and told Naruto to hang on a second. Silently he went back to the kitchen and filled the glass the man had been using before with fresh water, returning in under ten seconds. With a still blank face he tipped the glass and watched as the water hit his friend, who seemed to flinch and then realise what was happening and jump upwards with a shriek. Kakashi almost regretted his decision at the murderous look he received but it was short lived when Iruka seemed to remember to reason he had been covered in water.

"Naruto!" He gasped and scrambled round for the phone, picking it up off the floor where Kakashi had set it and thrusting it to his ear, shouting his sons name again.

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the man's voice, quickly apologising for shocking him.

"Naruto! How can you just spring that on me!? How did this happen so quickly!? Why didn't you tell me you were going to do it?! Why did you do it more specifically!? How long did you even consider this decision as a couple!? It's only been a couple of days since we last spoke! This kind of thing doesn't happen that quick! Have you been keeping this secret all this time?! How long Naruto!? How long?!"

The blonde massaged his temples on the other end of the line and tried to put his brain back together before he attempted to answer all those questions in order. He realised it wasn't going to happen when he forgot even the first one and just mumbled a 'what?' into the phone, instantly regretting it when it set Iruka off again with new questions. "Look...it's just...calm-Iruka!...Would you just-...IRUKA!"

Watching and listening to the scene in front of him, Kakashi was now even more intrigued, wondering what Naruto and Sasuke had done. He had several thoughts: they had married, they had moved away, they had adopted. All three of these didn't sound like things Sasuke and Naruto would do. Sasuke wouldn't marry yet and certainly not adopt and Naruto wouldn't move away. Then again this was Iruka...they could have done something as simple as gotten a cat or a new job...

"Of course I'm happy for you!" The younger man whined. "It's just...sudden that's all! Why didn't you say something!?"

"I would have but things have gone so quickly for us that we didn't even consider anybody else yet...we were really tired and busy trying to make this happen. Seriously it has happened in just a couple of days." Naruto explained, turning when he heard the return of Sasuke, holding a sleepy baby in his magic cry-stopping arms. "Hey, put Kakashi on will you?"

The silver haired man watched as his housemate sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly before sliding down the wall and handing the phone to him. "Honestly..." He mumbled. "Nothing they do should surprise me anymore..."

Kakashi took the phone curiously; glad he would finally be filled in on whatever news Iruka had been told. On the other end, Sasuke handed the baby to Naruto and smirked when she began crying again before he took the phone.

"Kakashi?"

"Yes."

"We have some news."

Kakashi had to admit he was surprised. Out of all the things he had been theorising, adoption had been one of the last on the list. Though, when Sasuke explained the reason it seemed more believable. He hadn't exactly told Kakashi everything Choza had said but the silver-haired man suspected it had to do with Itachi. Sasuke wasn't letting onto much, he never did, but Kakashi could tell he had a strong attachment to the child. He could tell from the way he had proudly described the way they had sped up the process and how he could feel the smile in his voice and the enthusiasm it carried. He hadn't sounded this genuinely happy about anything in a long time. So, instead of being overly dramatic and shocked like his friend, he simply gave Sasuke what he needed deep down, reassurance he'd done a good thing.

"Congratulations." He smiled when Sasuke finished the story, Sasuke didn't reply, there was a pause and Kakashi knew he had smiled. "Would you like me to explain to Iruka?" the brunette piped up at this.

"Explain what!? Did they tell you all the answers and not me?!"

Sasuke heard Iruka from his end of the line and told Kakashi it would probably be best but stopped him before he tried to say goodbyes.

"We want everybody to see her...tomorrow night, at our house."

"Okay, we'll be there." Kakashi told him, before they finished up the conversation. Iruka and Naruto spoke at the same time the moment the phones were hung up.

"What did he say?!"

I look down into the face of the baby in my arms and I'm smiling. She has feather textured hair that falls in a gentle frame around her face and tiny ears. Her eyes are large, deep and the colour of a rich 70% coca chocolate bar. Her nose is tiny, her lips miniature, everything about her is small and precious. Her scent is soft and newborn and I inhale it proudly, as I have done every day I've had her in my arms...that has been three days but there is more to come. Her fingers curl around one of mine and I feel the warmth radiate through me. She is mine, in my arms, I can do whatever I want to her. I want to love her. I want her to have what I never had. I won't be my brother, I won't run away. I want to give her love from two parents.

I turn as I hear you calling me from the kitchen, you have ramen in your hand and I smile to myself. You can make all the ramen in the world but can't sterilise bottles. You'll learn, I suppose, slowly. You ask me how the baby is and I look into her eyes. I can see myself in them, and that's how I always want it to be. I turn back to you after you insult me and fall onto the couch by my side, you're there for a second before you run up again, swearing because you forgot your chopsticks. I watch you turn round again yelling 'got them!' with a grin on your face.

"Moron." I sigh.

I never wanted to fall in love with you. I'm so glad I did.

Sasuke kissed Naruto's cheek and rose from the sofa carrying their baby, not seeing the inquisitive look the blonde gave him as he touched his own scarred face lightly and stared after the raven. He slurped his noodles and coughed as the juice burnt his throat a little.

"What was that for?" He asked, bemused by the sudden un-Sasuke type affection. The raven didn't turn around, just held the baby to his chest with one arm while he prepared a bottle with the other. "He's a housewife already..." Naruto giggled to himself under his breath as the Uchiha turned for a second with a docile expression.

"I need a reason now do I?" He sighed, waiting for the milk to heat up and walking back to the couch with it. "Oh, and I heard that." He added, squirting the bottle at Naruto, who shrieked as milk covered his face.

"EEK! Sasuke that's hot!" He put down his ramen cup and wiped his face roughly with his sleeve.

"Hm...guess that means the milk isn't ready yet. Thanks for letting me know." The raven smirked, sitting down and putting the bottle on the coffee table. Naruto glared at him and licked his lips, face contorting after he did.

"That tastes gross...how does she drink it all day and night?!"

"She's a baby, they're not fussy, Naruto. You probably used to drink the stuff too."

The blonde grabbed his ramen pot and held his chopsticks in his mouth, thoughtfully, before spitting them out and smiling as he stirred the pot with them.

"Yeah...when Iruka adopted me though, he got my juice cup and put his leftover ramen broth in it, then all I would drink was ramen broth or milk."

"Wow, how things have changed." Sasuke smirked, looking to the noodle pot in his partner's hands. Naruto's diet was made up mostly of ramen and milk. The blonde gave him a tactful look and laid the pot down to cool, resting his hands behind his head while he looked at the infant cuddled into Sasuke's chest. "How long do you think it will be before she can eat ramen?" He mused aloud.

"She will not be addicted to ramen like you...and she can't even eat solid food for another five months or so anyway." Sasuke answered with a disapproving expression.

Naruto snorted and leaned over to gaze at the child, smiling sadly. "I'm glad she gets to grow up here and not in an orphanage."

Sasuke lowered his eyes and felt a pang of sadness for them both, for them all. Each had shared the same unfortunate past. He raised an arm and laid it round Naruto's shoulders, pulling him down onto him so he was cuddled into the side of the Uchiha's chest that the baby wasn't occupying.

"What are you doing?" The blonde mumbled, voice muffled by Sasuke's clothes and ribcage, his voice vibrated in the man's chest and when he replied it went deep into his lovers skull.

"Hugging you."

The blonde smiled secretly and fiddled with Sasuke's T-shirt before wrapping his arm around his lover's lower stomach.

"The baby's making you soft." He sighed.

"No its not, I just have two babies to look after." Sasuke argued; smiling at the two he was cuddling. Once smelt of talc and newborns, the other smelt of ramen and bubble-bath.

"I'm not a baby!" Naruto whined.

"Yeah you are; you're my baby."

"Soft bastard..."

"Stupid idiot."

"I love you."

"...I love you too."

Naruto laughed quietly and let his hands wander about the bottom of Sasuke's T-shirt; fingers slid underneath it and pulled it up a little, revealing a flat stomach. Naruto grinned and lowered his lips to kiss it softly, liking how his lover's skin tensed at the touch.

"Hey don't kiss me there...I'm holding our kid." The Uchiha flapped, flicking the blonde mop of hair on his stomach firmly, the occupant of the blonde mess rising with a disgruntled expression before it softened as he held his arms out towards the baby. Sasuke wrinkled his nose and reluctantly handed her to him. He could have held her all day long and never grew tired of her.

The blonde smiled widely as he took her, telling Sasuke to stop fussing when he tried to explain how to hold her properly – he'd already told him about eight times already. He held her under the arms, in the air, her legs curling upwards as baby's legs did. She peered down at him with large curious chocolate eyes and bunched her fists. He grinned toothily at the infant and brought her down to his face, where she tried to grab his cheeks in her tiny hands.

"Oooooh Sasuke she's so cute!" He squeaked, rubbing noses with her and giggling when she smiled and showed all her gums. Sasuke was smiling at the sight, Naruto looked so natural with her, the blonde had a certain gift for caring for things. Whether that be a plant, an animal or a baby he was the same, his methods were messy, carefree and imperfect but they were loving, forgiving and rewarding. Sasuke could picture their lives a while in the future, the baby, who by this point would be around seven years old, whining for cookies. Sasuke would say no because she'd already had two and wasn't allowed another, their clever daughter would then ask her other father, who would go to give in but receive the Uchiha glare of doom and refuse their daughter a cookie too. Sasuke would turn his back with satisfaction and miss Naruto secretly handing their daughter a cookie and telling her not to tell Sasuke. This would happen several times a week. He couldn't wait.

The raven picked up the warm bottle and tested the temperature, deeming it safe he handed the bottle to his partner who gave him a surprised look. The blonde took it meekly and looked confused.

"Naruto, you put it in her mouth." Sasuke sighed and received a pouty glare.

"I know what to do!" He insisted and put the bottle to his daughter's lips, grinning in relief when she began to suckle it contently. "This is easy!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and lay back on the couch for a brief rest, he'd not slept very well that night, afraid that he'd wake up to find his baby gone or to find it had just been a dream and he was waking up alone entangled in sheets and smelling of unwashed hair and coffee as he had been doing for weeks now. In fact he'd woken to quite the opposite; he was warmly entangled into his snoring partner and could hear a soft snuffling coming from the cot next to their bed. On closer inspection he'd found their daughter awake already and beginning to stir with hunger and boredom. His life was far from perfect but this morning it felt like it could be.

"Wait!" Sasuke started, eyes snapping open as he jumped over the back of the couch and into his office. Naruto, who had seen this sudden and odd display of activity for quite a while now, did not ask, just rolled his eyes at his daughter.

"Got an idea?" The blonde called, hearing shuffling of papers and pens. Inside the office, Sasuke picked a notepad from his organised shelf and laid his pen to the blank paper, only to stop, come down from his sudden high and sigh to himself.

"No...it was nothing." He grumbled, head falling onto the desk. Like I could write that...

"To you it was nothing, to anybody else that was like the release of Harry Potter or something!" Naruto snorted. "Hey, do I wind her now?"

Black eyes darted to his desk clock. "Yeah." He answered and fiddled with the corner of a page. His sketchbooks were messy, one of the few things he could stand being messy. When his brain cooperated, it projected a torrent of skilled plots, sketches and characters onto the pages. Occasionally inspiration would strike and he'd rush to the paper but in the last few months they had often been false alarms, he would deem his sudden ideas silly and the paper would go hungry.

A rattling of keys signalled the daily visit from Sakura, though this time the jangling was much more lively and they heard her shouting. She usually shouted anyway, they had given her a house key and she was allowed to let herself inside but after the last time she walked in without warning she wasn't quick to do it again. She claimed she was still mentally scarred. Her voice today was high and excitable and Sasuke prepared himself for the bear hug and the squeal, the latter he heard as soon as the sound of the door shutting finished.

"Sakura-Chan!" His partner smiled as their friend walked into the living room with her hands over her mouth.

"You got her!" She smiled with a shocked sort of tone to her voice. Sasuke came to stand in the doorway lazily watching the scene with a rare smile.

"We got her." He said and she turned to him with a motherly smile.

"Oh guys, I'm so happy for you..." She whispered, walking to embrace Sasuke, who for once gave the hug some genuine care, before she walked to constrict Naruto too.

"Here! Hold her!" Naruto squeaked as if it were the best idea in the world and held their daughter in the air towards Sakura, who took the baby and cuddled it into her chest. Sasuke twitched as it had become a natural reflex but he did not protest – Sakura was one of the few people he trusted. She kissed the infant on the head lightly and took the bottle from Naruto when he held it out, sitting on the couch to continue her feeding.

"She's lovely..." She gasped. "Who else knows?"

"Only Iruka and Kakashi so far, we plan on telling Jiraiya and Tsunade and surprising everybody else. Temari and Shika knew we were adopting but they don't know we've got her yet." Sasuke explained.

"When are you telling everybody else?"

"Tomorrow night, I've invited everybody over."

Naruto gasped as Sasuke predicted. "Not only is the bastard attending a social gathering...but he's organising one!?"

The raven rolled his eyes and removed himself from the door frame to join his family on the sofa, smacking Naruto across the back of the head as he went. "Don't swear in front of our daughter." He said, before flopping down on the couch. Sakura rolled her eyes, used to their old married couple antics by now.

That night came as a welcome blessing for Naruto, exhausted from the new duties of fatherhood, or motherhood, it may as well have been with the way Sasuke was treating him. After Sakura had left, the afternoon had consisted of feeding, changing, entertaining and allowing the baby to sleep. All four of these activities would have been more fun were it not for Sasuke's neurotic overly protective aura looming over his shoulder. There had been two occasions where Naruto had tried to take a swipe at him, only to end up throwing himself from the sofa because the Uchiha was too quick. The blonde found it annoyingly typical that Sasuke could be the embarrassing mother and yet some strong cunning genius at the same time.

With all the new activity that had took place that day, the sun flew past almost and it was night before they knew it, time for the baby to sleep...again.

"Sasuke," Naruto began as they switched off the lights and made their way upstairs.

"Hm?"

"How long is it gonna be before she does something other than eat, sleep and crap?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes at the question and opened their bedroom door carefully as he held the baby in his other arm. "You've got at least another few months of it."

Naruto groaned and watched as the infant was lovingly laid in her basket by her crazily cautious parent, flinging his bright green T-shirt off into a random corner of the room (sure to be picked up by Sasuke later and put in the washing basket). He crawled onto the bed and looked into the cot on the other side, smiling when he saw the tiny sleeping face soundly snoring away. "It's weird, I know she's ours but it doesn't feel like it yet, kinda..." He mused, gaining a slightly concerned or pensive look from his partner. He rolled onto his back and looked up at the raven. "I guess you have to get used to these things right?"

Sasuke seemed to think for a moment before a small smile graced his lips. "I suppose so." He answered, stretching before he pulled off his own clothes and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Naruto rolled again to look at the baby, running his fingers along the top of her thick black fuzzy hair and murmuring 'you smell good'.

"Hey..."

The blonde turned as he heard his partner and saw a threatening expression on his face, as if he was saying 'wake her and I'll kill you'. Naruto never took much notice of these kind of expressions anymore, not unless they were really serious or made during a time when he was lacking coffee and sleep. Right now, when his lover was stood in only a pair of dark boxers with a smouldering expression he was quite happy. "Hey sexy." He grinned and received an irked eyebrow from the raven, who crawled into bed and curled under the covers. Naruto switched out the little light on his bedside table and cuddled into Sasuke's chest, he smelt faintly of the baby. The blonde was ecstatic Sasuke was sleeping in the bed with him again, for a while he'd gone to bed alone and not noticed Sasuke coming up (that was if he came up) in the early hours of the morning. The weekend had been nice, where they would go to bed together after tucking the baby in and wake up together. He liked having Sasuke as the first thing he saw in the morning, no matter what level of murder was in his eyes – Sasuke was not a morning person. The only quality time they had really spent in their bed before this week was mainly because Sasuke had emerged from his office, frustrated and raunchy, and dragged the blonde up to the bedroom to rid himself of the distraction. That was if they even made it that far, the sofa or even the floor seemed to have been far enough on some occasions, and there was that one time on the stairs...his back still sort of hurt from that. He liked being in their bed now, just cuddling, Sasuke seemed to have been pretty affectionate in the past few days thanks to the baby girl.

"Hey, Sex-uke?" Naruto whispered against his partner's ribcage, smirking when he heard the annoyed growl.

"Don't call me that."

Naruto looked upwards, mischievous smirk on his face and wound his fingers into raven hair; Sasuke already had his lips open for when they would connect a few seconds after. Two pairs connected softly and Sasuke moved his arm to wrap it around the back of Naruto's head, keeping him close. It was Naruto who deepened the kiss, rolling over on top of his partner and slipping his tongue into the moist opening he was so interested in. Sasuke responded by enthusiastically joining it with his, cupping Naruto's cheeks tenderly, feeling the darker-skinned hands running along his chest. His body arched on its own slightly when the fingers ran down over his boxers to his thighs and the man on top of him smirked into the kiss, suddenly taken over by his hormones. He moved his mouth down to the raven's throat, hearing a sigh when their lips broke contact and a small throaty noise when he clamped his onto Sasuke's neck. He moved them down again, nibbling at the milky white collarbone and licking a line down the middle of his chest, enjoying the small accidental sounds slipping from his lover's mouth. He pushed the covers down a little and kissed his way down the silky abdomen, taking in the forming scents and feeling fingers press his skull as they trailed through his hair. His tongue left its cavern to trace wet circles around Sasuke's navel and he bit softly underneath it, sucking his way down a little harder, a slightly more needy moan reached his ears and he grinned, blowing on the hot skin just above the rim of the black boxers his face was almost pressed up against. After a moment's thought he slipped his tongue just underneath the elastic and ran his fingers up the inside of a pale thigh, hearing Sasuke hitch his breath in anticipation. The suspense lasted a second before Naruto gave up teasing and mouthed the front of his boxers hungrily, feeling the body underneath him shudder.

"Hah! Ah...ahh...stop it! Stop...stop..." The raven suddenly gasped, pushing the blonde head up and receiving a confused and slightly offended look. They stared at each other for a few moments, Sasuke took in the flushed face and the lustful eyes of his lover, the soft panting...god he looked sexy...but...he looked at the cot next to them and sighed. "Not tonight." He said quietly, trying to sit up and hearing a whine.

"But why!? You never stop me!"

"Its...it's not you I just...I don't feel like it today, I'm tired." Sasuke excused, pulling the covers back up and avoiding Naruto's gaze as he dejectedly crawled back beside him, grumbling under his breath. "You didn't sound like you didn't want it a few seconds ago..."

Sasuke looked down a little in embarrassment; he knew they hadn't been spending enough quality time together the past month but... "I'm sorry, another night, okay?" He watched blue eyes peek up at him and some of the awkwardness left his face, how did this man go from sexy to adorable in a few seconds? And why on earth was he thinking about him using words like sexy and adorable anyway? It was the baby's fault...

"Fine." Naruto sighed, trying to sound upset but Sasuke knew he was forgiven, smiling when he was snuggled back into, already feeling sleepy when the steady streams of breath began to float over his chest. "Oh...and you're uke next time too."

The smile left his face. Yeah, in your dreams Naruto...in your dreams...

"WAAAAAAAH!"

A groan as emitted from both the men's mouths as their child broke the steady quiet of their snuggling. Sasuke got up to settle her, snapping at the blonde who was sitting up with a disgruntled face as he did. "See what you did!"

The look changed to one of shock and sarcasm. "Me!" He hissed, then pouted, humour behind his glum face as he sat back against the headboard. "I wasn't the one waking her up with all the whimpering..."

Sasuke glared through the darkness, rocking the child and trying to be gentle in his embarrassment. "I...do...not...whimper..." He growled, making Naruto grin, suddenly playful again as he adopted a mocking voice and sat up to pose in a provocative manner.

"Ooooh Naruto! Ahhhhh Naruto don't stop! Ohhh goddd ahhhh-UGH!" He grunted as a pillow flew from a pale hand and smacked him in the face.

The warehouse echoed in the darkness of the newly set sun, soft clicks sounded in a steady rhythm as feet travelled along a rusty corridor towards the room they would soon find themselves in. The owner of the feet stopped in front of a metal door and ran his fingers over the handle softly.

"Let the bloodshed begin, hn." He pushed the door open and a crowd of people gazed at him, he gave them a nod of acknowledgment.

"Deidara, glad you could finally join us." A man with flame coloured hair said tonelessly, watching as Deidara took a seat in the room, casually. His eyes narrowed as he was scolded by a red haired teenager with a dangerous air about him.

"I hate waiting for people, Deidara..."

"Well I apologise, senpai." He sighed stretching out in his chair and staring at the ceiling, admiring the sharp angles of the metal rafters."I had some trouble shaking off some of those undercover guys they set out to sniff around my base office...bastards got what was coming to them, hn."

"I hope you didn't do anything that would alert them of our hideout, Deidara?" The flame haired man asked, face suddenly one of concern. Deidara chuckled in a sadistic manner.

"Of course not, Leader, there's nothing of them left to tell anybody about the incident...I will need a new base unit however..."

The impatient teenager from before sighed as the other members of the group set themselves in a circle for the meeting. "There is no need for them now anyway."

"Oh?"

"I will explain, now we are all present." Pain announced; standing and bringing the organisation to attention. "Today Akatsuki gathers all together, for the first time in seven years, the reason: the biggest goal since the assassination of the Ayaki village leader." A mutual silence ran through the room as Pain got serious. "We are to assassinate a much more vulnerable target, whose family members have already been eradicated, however," Pein's peculiar eyes narrowed slightly as he pinned a picture to a corkboard. "We have new problems." He moved aside and the Akatsuki turned to look at a particular member with jet black hair. "Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha."

"Homo pricks...I can't wait to show them divine judgement!" Hidan spat, running a finger along the curved blade in his hands.

"They adopted the child yesterday, normally adoption of the child would not be a problem, however these two have particular contacts that can get in our way. Both have guardians and close friends in one of the few police organisations that can come anywhere close to us. We must work around that force and around past contacts; they know a few dangerous people, such as Gaara and Jiraiya..." The flame haired man stopped for a moment and pinned a picture of an older man up on the board, with a little more yet barely noticeable emotion than the others had seen in a long time. "Not to mention the two themselves. From inspection we can see Uzumaki is well capable of taking care of himself and is not to be underestimated, and the Uchiha..." His eyes along with many others turned once again to the dark haired man hidden away at the back of the group. "He poses some personal problems that must be taken into consideration, Itachi."

The Uchiha remained as quiet and calculating as ever, dark eyes considered those around him and he nodded once.

"From here on, the plan comes into place, we split into our pairs, we gather information and we put that information into action. This current goal is working towards Kakuzu's objective and as Akatsuki we work towards members goals. There is no choice in the matter and poor work is not tolerated, we all understand our current mission, we start for real, tomorrow."

Akatsuki nodded as one and stood to travel to their respected rooms in the hideout, all apart from one. Itachi, stayed in the cool silence of the room, aftermath of murderous intent fleeting away and taking the excitement with it to leave an empty feeling. He stepped towards the board and let his eyes rest on a particular photograph. His brother did not stare back at him; the younger Uchiha's eyes were focused on the second, who he had his arms wrapped around, much brighter person in the picture, who was kissing his forehead. Itachi sighed inside the high collar of his long cloak.

"It seems we'll see each other soon, little brother."

Tomorrow brought a flurry of business with it for Sasuke and Naruto, the party the two men had planned to celebrate their adoption was approaching and they were trying to organise things along with tending to the baby - something that happened in between Sasuke running in and out of his office all day when ideas struck him. Naruto didn't complain, this weekend he's actually seen Sasuke most of the time rather than being on his own while his lover lived in the one very organised room.

Two weeks ago

"Sasuke...come to bed, please?" Naruto begged, hesitating around the office doorway, watching as Sasuke stared down defeated at a blank sheet of paper. His hair was matted and there were dark circles around his eyes. He'd not come to bed in three nights. Naruto had worked up the courage to ask now, after a few mumbles and jokey complaints in the week, however he was still nervous. Sasuke was in a world of his own these past few days and it was scaring him a little. Not Sasuke himself, he could be smacked out of it, no not him, but, their relationship. It seemed the more Sasuke had deteriorated, so had they...

"Later." He mumbled, rubbing his temples.

Naruto flinched, growing more impatient and fearful at the same time. His partner did not sound like himself. "Sasuke, please? You'll fall asleep at your desk again and-"

"Later!"

"I miss you!"

Sasuke shushed as Naruto lost his cool and shouted, stepping into the room a little more. "I miss you okay?! You've been in here for days and ignored me, I know it's important and you don't want me involved but you can at least look at me!"

The raven slowly stole a glance at the man in the doorway, face relaxing a little in regret when he saw his face was flushed as if he'd been crying. The blonde looked away and sighed, pulling the door closed as he began to leave. "You know what, forget it, I'm going to bed." It shut sharply and Sasuke flinched, hearing Naruto walk upstairs.

The blonde threw himself into bed and under the covers, sniffling quietly and bunching himself up when he heard the bedroom door slowly open. Sasuke shuffled in beside him and wrapped his arms around the bundle that was Naruto.

"I'm sorry." He whispered and the blonde sighed, not budging. "Naru? Please, I'm sorry for shouting." He nuzzled his nose into his lover's neck and the blonde sighed at the mention of his pet name, rolling onto his other side to curl into the chest he loved so much. His Sasuke was back.

"I'm sorry too." He replied, sharing a kiss lightly and enjoying the feel of Sasuke running his fingers through his blonde hair. He honestly hadn't meant to shout like that when he knew Sasuke was under stress but he'd missed this too much and he was worried about him.

"Hey..."

"Hm?"

"I've missed you too."

Naruto smiled, giving the raven a comforting squeeze, affection was not rare from Sasuke but it wasn't frequent either and it wasn't usually this sappy, he was grateful. "I know." He mumbled into pale skin, kissing the part his breath had just touched.

Sasuke was sat on the couch; as usual he was cradling the baby, bouncing her lightly to create a smile on her face. Sasuke looked a lot happier lately. Naruto watched from the kitchen with his own smile set in place, he climbed down from the bar stool and walked over to his family, laying his head down on the raven's shoulder, admiring the view down the front of his black dress shirt.

"You know another good thing about this baby business...?" He began, snuggling into Sasuke further as he put an arm round his shoulder.

"Hm?"

"I actually get to see you."

Sasuke paused before sighing and pulling the blonde closer, laying his lips onto the top of the mop of hair to kiss his skull. The three of them sat there as a picture, Naruto in one arm, the baby in the other. Naruto sat still for a few minutes before whining (Sasuke was surprised he'd managed a few minutes at all). "You're doing it again..."

"Doing what?"

"Treating me like the baby." Naruto mumbled, trying to push away but Sasuke smiled and pulled him back.

"How many times have I told you – you are a baby."

Naruto continued to argue, much to his partner's amusement, until there was the first knock at the door. "Yay people!" He squeaked and Sasuke glared when he felt the baby jump slightly in his arm in shock, he looked at her worriedly but she looked more amused than upset. "Actually, you're more like a hyperactive four year old than a baby when I think about it." He mused aloud, knowing Naruto couldn't hear him anymore. He'd already bounded towards the door in excitement.

"Oh god it's the girls...prepare for squealing!" He shouted to Sasuke, who groaned quietly and ran his fingers through his daughter's gravity defying hair to make it more tufty and cute. It wasn't that he enjoyed squealing girls and babies...but girls squealing over his baby; was a different matter, he was already a very proud father. "Hey, come in!" In the next second Naruto was dived upon, yelping in surprise in the middle of a whir of blonde and pink hair. "H-Hey Ino, Sakura-Chan!" They kept hold of him in a tight hug, through the hair he could just make out Hinata looking concerned and Kiba laughing at him. "Hey, guys come on, there's enough of me for all the ladies, don't fight!" He joked, breaking them off so he could breathe and moving to hug Hinata and smack Kiba in the back for not holding them back.

"Come on man, where's the fun in holding them back!?" The canine looking man answered, walking in with Hinata as everybody took off their coats and shoes. "What's the big surprise for then? These two," He motioned at Sakura and Ino. "Haven't been able to keep still all the way here!"

"You told her!?" Naruto gasped at Sakura, who adopted a defensive presence.

"I had to! She wasn't going to come because she was working so I had to give her a good reason to skip work!" She argued and Naruto laughed.

"Well I hope you don't get in trouble with the hospital."

Ino snorted. "Nah, don't worry, Sakura talked to Tsunade for me, it's a shame she couldn't come, considering."

"Yeah, I've told her though and I'm sure Sakura will have told her all about it haha." Naruto shrugged.

"Considering what?! Told her what?! What are we here for?!" Kiba asked impatiently, Hinata gave everybody a sympathetic look. Naruto was about to put him out of his misery when a sudden squeak from the baby did it for him. "What the heck was that?!" Kiba exclaimed, trying to look into the living room but only seeing Sasuke, who waved. Hinata clasped her hands to her mouth.

"Was that a baby, Naruto-Kun?"

"A baby, what, you babysitting?" Kiba asked and the females, excluding the more patient Hinata, sighed and shook their heads. Naruto snorted.

"I guess you could call it 'long-term babysitting!'"

The confused look remained. "Long...term...?"

It was all too much for Ino. "Kiba! They've had a baby, how stupid can you get!? Hinata how do you put up with him?" She pinched the bridge of her nose as the dark haired girl giggled.

"I'm used to it I guess."

Kiba was currently wearing a half disgusted, half curious face and they stared at him, almost hearing cogs clicking, knowing what he was trying to figure out. "Kiba don't kill yourself trying to figure out how two guys had a baby - It's called adoption!"

Sasuke took this as his cue to walk over, carrying the amused child in his arms towards a crowd of three excited people and one still slightly confused one. Hinata gasped and smiled, walking forwards to take a batter look, as did Ino. The baby stared at them in awe, then reached out a tiny hand which it wrapped around Hinata's finger. "She's beautiful." The girl whispered. "How long have you been planning this?"

"Heh...a couple of days." Naruto answered and received a ludicrous look. "Hey I know it sounds crazy but it's true, it's all his fault." He motioned at Sasuke.

"You amaze me." Sakura sighed. "Let's all go sit down, I can't wait until everybody sees her!"

"Geez, anybody would think she was yours with your attitude!" Naruto laughed and received a violent yet loving smack to the back of the head.

They began making their way towards the sofas before they realised a presence was not among them and turned to see Kiba still stood by the door looking dumfounded.

"Dude, you okay?" Naruto asked and he snapped out of it.

"Y-you guys adopted!?"

"Yes!" They all shouted in unison and he flinched, walking over.

"Geez, no need to be that snappy..."

For the next few minutes they told their story, explaining how they stayed up all night to make the adoption process as quick as possible and how they pulled a few strings. Naruto went into detail about the baby's little quirks and how she would snore in her sleep and how Sasuke was a bastard for having magic arms and how it took him an hour to sterilise a bottle. The four guests (though Sakura was more like a permanent attachment to the household sometimes) listened and hummed, laughed and 'awwed' at all the right parts until that silence came when Naruto's string of things to tell began to thin out. Sasuke laughed slightly, commenting on how he'd just explained their extended weekend in ten minutes and asking everybody if they even understood him. They nodded and laughed, coming forward to hold her, Hinata went first and for the first time Kiba showed some interest, he seemed to have finally gotten over the shock. The canine man crouched in front of Hinata and let the child grab onto his fingers, commenting on how small she was and receiving sarcastic looks which went unnoticed.

"But guys...why this all of a sudden, I mean...it's not exactly something I'd ever expect you to do, that's why it confused me." He asked, still poking around the baby's outstretched fingers. Sasuke and Naruto looked to each other and the blonde went to talk but was stopped by his partner's hand.

"She...she's like us." He began and Naruto widened his eyes, not expecting Sasuke to actually open up, he looked at the raven curiously as he continued. "She's Haku and Zabuza's baby but...she's lost her whole family. We couldn't just leave her to grow up alone." He told them, not once breaking eye contact with the baby in Hinata's arms. 'Plus, my brother caused her family's deaths and it's up to me to make things right...' He added in his thoughts, Naruto could read his mind and ran his hand over Sasuke's reassuringly. Their eyes met and they smiled, as did the others, Sakura moving forward to hug him.

"You guys did a good thing for her." She whispered, hugging Naruto too.

"WAAAAAAH!"

"Oh!" Hinata gasped as the baby suddenly cried, Naruto didn't miss the flinch in the man next to him and poked fun at it, earning a glare.

"Don't worry, she does that a lot, it's okay when you have Sasuke's magic arms!" Naruto reassured, coming to take the baby off the dark-haired girl attempting to hush the infant. The others looked at him, confused as he walked over to the raven, who was whining at him to stop being stupid. However the minute Sasuke wrapped his arms around the child and cuddled it, she stopped her cries and everybody laughed. "See, he acts like it's stupid but he's really a smug bastard..." The blonde pouted, jealous of Sasuke's special motherly skill. "Ooh the door!" Happily he ran to the front door again as the others rolled their eyes, Naruto's antics were always entertaining, just give him some alcohol and he was twice as funny, he always provided some good memories at Christmas.

"Good evening, Naruto." Spoke a red-haired man as the door was opened. He was pale skinned with pale eyes in the centre of thick dark circles. His face wore a passive smile and his body wore a red, high-necked top with black jeans. He stood with three others, a taller girl in a casual dress, holding a baby and wearing a wry look, who hit her husband on the head when his face remained on the cloudy sky instead of lowering to greet the household. He grumbled under his breath and was laughed at by the fourth member of the group, a tall man with shaggy brown hair and a grin on his face.

"Hey guys!" He nodded to the red head, "Gaara." He smiled, and then shared a bruising man-hug with Gaara's older brother, Kankuro the shaggy haired man. The sharp, cool woman with a soft centre he knew as Temari kissed him on the cheek and her husband, Shikamaru, waved a lazy 'hey'.

Their encounter with the child was much less eventful, Temari and Shikamaru already knew due to the car seat incident, they had guessed what this was about. Gaara was never a loud kind of person and simply congratulated them and Kankuro showed his soft side when he took the child and cooed at it playfully, but not before he had ran to Kiba and gave him a far more violent man-hug than the one he had shared with Naruto. What was more amusing was the encounter between Shogi and the new baby, both infants looked at each other curiously, the baby girl was held out by Sakura, whilst Temari sat Shogi opposite the younger child. Shogi reached out a small hand and tried to grab his new friend but his sharp mother kept him at a distance. Her boy had inherited her tough-love like attitude even at this age, he adored anybody he met but would waste no time smacking them in the head should they bore him or annoy him, something Temari could see the boy doing throughout his future older life too. Annoyed at the restraint, Shogi began uttering the warning squeals of tears but before he could, the younger baby also waved her arms out in front of herself and made contact with the baby boy opposite her. Shogi squeaked in delight and the two sets of parents shared a laugh, even Shikamaru taking a keen interest. The man was lazy but when anything concerned his son, he never displayed that sort of attitude.

Next to arrive was Lee, who had needed to stay behind writing some reports for work, his arrival was far more entertaining than the last. He came in calmly, saw the baby, then burst out into a torrent of loud monologues all of which spoke of 'youth' and 'blossoming'. The baby watched with as much of a shocked expression a baby could manage and then smiled at the loud, bright individual. Sasuke laughed at her view of the man and let him hold her, albeit under supervision, but Sakura told him to stop worrying and made him go and get drinks. Apparently he had to learn to trust people. He wasn't happy. He looked over his shoulder worriedly as he made everybody a drink and each time he received a glare from the pink haired girl until he finally sighed and got on with his assigned task, telling himself the baby was fine. Which she was, Sasuke just suffered the new-father feeling of paranoia. Sakura was the only person that could get away with bossing him around in his own house, the woman had her ways. He looked over at her, noticing she was now watching Lee with the baby, smiling in a proud sort of way as she traced patterns on her abdomen subconsciously. Sasuke's lips tugged up at the corners and he laid the drinks on a tray, walking back towards his group of friends. As he handed out the drinks, the door went again and this time he answered it, while Naruto was busy bragging about their child to Lee.

Neji and TenTen stood to greet them; Neji wore a calm smile, looking as meditative as ever, while TenTen smiled in her usual enthusiastic way.

"Hyuuga." Sasuke said in a cool manner and Neji narrowed his eyes, before both men smirked and the false curtness between them was lost. They had a small rivalry going - Neji had kicked his ass a few times in martial arts school that Sasuke used to go to and that Neji and TenTen ran. "This isn't the usual get together, I have to warn you, we have a surprise."

"A surprise?" TenTen asked curiously, Neji tried to look over Sasuke's shoulder but all he saw was Naruto bounding towards the door haphazardly, shouting 'HEY!' as he went. Eventually he reached them and flew into Sasuke, who made a strange strangled noise and blushed slightly as he lost his cool, trying to smack the blonde off him, but tanned arms had found their way tightly around his shoulders.

"Come and see the baby!" He exclaimed impatiently and both the new guests wondered if Naruto had been drinking.

"He's not drunk, he's been hyperactive all day..." Sasuke sighed as he read the minds of his friends, giving into the tight hold on him. "And he just spoilt my surprise."

"Uchiha..." Neji began after a few seconds pause. "You've never been very good at joking..."

"Likewise." They smirked at each other again.

"But I get the feeling this is serious."

"How clever of you."

"Neji Neji Neji Neji!" Naruto chanted, impatience growing worse, he ducked under his partners arm and grabbed the other dark haired man, trying to drag him inside. "Come and see! Come and see!" Sasuke smiled as Neji was also embarrassed by Naruto's antics and watched him be pulled inside and towards the living room. TenTen still stood where she was, looking thoroughly confused but all became clear when they had both met the new arrival a few minutes later. Their first encounter was much like everybody else's, shocked at first but instantly drawn in to the chocolate eyes of the baby girl and she was being bounced by TenTen five minutes later.

"Who are we still waiting for?" Naruto asked when he grew tired of the lack of arrivals.

"Shino couldn't come could he? He's working abroad. Iruka and Kakashi were coming around now, Iruka had papers to mark and Kakashi...I'll be surprised if he's here before midnight. Jiraiya is due about now too." Sasuke told him, on cue, the doorbell rang and the blonde's face split into a large grin. He'd been excited about his friends meeting the new baby but not nearly as excited as he was for his guardians. Sasuke excused himself and followed Naruto to the door, holding their child, and stopped the excitable male form throwing it open, instead he opened it to avoid somebody ending up in casualty.

"The Gallant Jiraiya has arrived! How are you guys doing?! And-oh...who's this?" Boomed a large, white-haired man as soon as the door was open, stopping when he noticed the baby staring at him and turning his showy voice to curiousness.

"Take a guess!" Naruto grinned, hopping from foot to foot with excitement. Sasuke congratulated himself on deciding he was the one who would hold the child. Jiraiya looked at the child quizzically, crouching to get a better look at her, she stared back, wide-eyed.

"Well it isn't Shogi-kun, considering this is a little lady, I assume, from the pink dress she's wearing? You minding someone else's kid?"

"You could say that! We ad-"

Sasuke smacked a hand over Naruto's barely contained mouth quickly and rolled his eyes at the lack of self control he was witnessing. "Take a closer look." He sighed, holding the baby in the air under her arms. She dangled comfortably, unnerved by the position due to the gentle magic hands encircling her tiny torso. Jiraiya squinted as the baby took a closer look at him, her legs still bending in a very foetal like manner. She was only very young but Sasuke had taken many close looks at her and there was no doubting her true parents. She had Haku's large chocolate eyes and her hair was very alike to the way her father's had been, yet softer and fluffier. Her lips were full and pink like her mothers and her eyes full of life like Zabuza's had been. Jiraiya seemed to be putting her appearance together in his head, Sasuke hoped he would hurry and figure it out before Naruto burst next to him.

"Oho!" He gasped suddenly, making the baby jolt in Sasuke's arms but she remained silent, if only a little startled. "She isn't!?" He whispered in surprise, a little quieter when the baby's eyes widened in uncertainty. "Haku and Zabuza's?"

Naruto attempted to talk again but Sasuke kicked him as his arms were occupied, the blonde whined and glared at his lover, who paid him no attention and sucked the child back into his warm chest. Jiraiya seemed to be trying to figure out a connection between the baby, the invitation and Naruto's excitement and Sasuke, no longer being able to take the aura of confusion and excitement around him all at once, put both men out of their misery. "We adopted her a couple of days ago."

Jiraiya's mouth fell open in shock before he closed it again and waved his arms around, pointing at Sasuke partly disgruntled, partly confused and mostly dumbfounded – the Uchiha couldn't help but notice the alikeness between Naruto and his older guardian. "Wait, wait, wait a second! Sasuke Uchiha adopted a baby?!" The raven in question let his face fall into a flat expression, everybody he'd told had said something like that, did it really seem that unlikely for him to do something kind or caring once in a while?

"It was his idea!" Naruto squealed, pointing at the raven excitedly, as if he couldn't believe it either. Sasuke was getting a little peeved at all the jabs at his usual coldness and pointed fingers.

"Okay okay I get it, I'm usually a heartless cretin, thanks, can we please move on?" He grumbled and elbowed his lover when he tried to go into a rant about how he never meant to suggest he was heartless and that he was in fact quite the opposite due to many reasons Sasuke didn't want to discuss at this present moment in front of Jiraiya, stood on their doorstep. "Meet your new...granddaughter or...great granddaughter or whatever you want her to be." Sasuke announced, holding out the child to the man, who looked nervous but took her in his arms. Jiraiya was very similar to Naruto in many ways, which was why Sasuke deep down fully trusted him with their daughter and was proud to have him as one of her guardians.

"Haha you're a great grandfather now?! All these years calling you 'old pervert' and now you really are old!" Naruto laughed as they made their way inside, sniggered at by Kiba as Naruto commented loudly on his guardian's new family status.

"How many times have I told you to not call me old pervert in front of people!?" Jiraiya hissed, then thought about the title. "I wouldn't have really considered me your grandfather anyway, I don't feel old enough...I've always been a godfather. I suppose Iruka has taken the 'grandfather' title already? Where is he anyway?"

"Not here yet, should be soon, along with Kakashi." Sasuke told him.

"Ah good, I have a new book to give to him." The man announced, waggling his fingers in the infants face, she watched them move in front of her in a childlike daze. Sasuke groaned at the news.

"Don't...he'll be more excited over that than the baby."

"Of course he won't!" The white haired man argued. "And he's a 'grandfather' too isn't he? That's two slots taken!"

"Don't worry," Naruto began to reassure; the room looked to him as he spoke up with a proud smile. "She can just call you 'old pervert' too."

"SHE MOST CERTAINLY WILL NOT!"

A knock from the door interrupted the loud laughter that ran throughout the room from Naruto's suggestion. Naruto ran to open it, followed by narrow eyes as Jiraiya asked Sasuke if Iruka and Kakashi already knew about her.

"Yeah, we rang them yesterday, Naruto wanted to surprise you though, we thought we'd ring Iruka first, in case he had a heart attack in front of everybody if we surprised him now." The raven looked up with a smirk as he saw his and Naruto's adoptive fathers stroll into the living area, well, Kakashi strolled. Iruka seemed to be having difficulty putting one foot in front of the other. Sasuke grimaced and decided he'd better get this over with quickly. Jiraiya handed him the baby and he walked over to their guardians.

"That's her?" Iruka squeaked as Sasuke neared, pointing to the pink bundle in his arms, the raven nodded and Kakashi moved over to them curiously. He then positioned himself behind Iruka as Sasuke gingerly held out their child for Iruka to take. The room seemed to hold their breath, all very aware of Iruka's neurotic and easily provoked emotions. Sasuke was on edge himself, ready to lunge out and grab his daughter, should Naruto's father pass out on them again, Kakashi was prepared for that too and was ready behind his house mate. Naruto for once was quiet, which was...well...a miracle. The brunette's shaky arms took hold of the baby and he looked down at the child, face in the same expression of nervousness as it had been the whole time he had been here (and according to Kakashi the same since the phone call a day earlier). They all paused, waiting for Iruka's reaction, Kakashi taking his job seriously and even holding his arms out in case of the expected collapse; many years of police work did that to a person's carefulness. Iruka rocked the baby once, Sasuke flinched, twice, Naruto began to smile, and then he looked up with a new expression of awe and confusion, one Sasuke had seen many times in the past couple of days...if he says one thing about me-

"I still can't believe Sasuke adopted!"

"AGAIN?! Does everybody seem to think I'm incapable of love?!"

It was a while later that everybody had settled into the cosy house, sprawled out on the sofas and the floor together. The house was fairly small, it didn't need to be huge as only Sasuke and Naruto had ever lived there until now, though everybody had managed to find a spot in the living room. Sakura was comfortably sat in Lee's lap on the couch, Hinata was curled up to Kiba on the smaller chair, Temari sat and watched her husband and Ino entertaining Shogi on the floor. Laughing with Kiba, on a chair pulled in from the kitchen, was Kankuro, watched by his younger brother from a chair on the other side of the living space beside Naruto. The blonde was proudly discussing his new father skills with Jiraiya and Iruka while Sasuke sighed at his adoptive father, who was joining into random conversation whilst reading the book Jiraiya had surprised him with. Everybody had got talking, mainly about the baby but that led onto conversation about recent events and gossip and situations. They used to all gather a lot, all getting together for somebody's birthday when they could or having barbecues in summer. However, with autumn fading into winter, they hadn't met up in a while and everybody was busy catching up with the friends that they didn't talk to every day. More than once a mention of the baby's name had come into conversation and each time Sasuke would grimace, guilty that the perfect name he was searching for hadn't cropped up yet.

"How about Akiko?" Ino suddenly piped from across the room and Sasuke gave the name a moment's thought. After learning they were looking for the right name, people had been suggesting different ones all night to them. Some were very nice names but Sasuke just knew that when the right one came along that he'd know straight away.

"Akiko's a nice name!" Naruto enthused, looking thoughtful. "It means 'autumn child' doesn't it? We did get her in Autumn Sasuke, it sounds nice and it makes sense!"

"Yes, it's a nice name...but...it's not the name." Sasuke decided, shrugging his shoulders as he watched Naruto carry the baby over to play with Shogi, who had taken quite a liking to the infant.

"Well I hope 'the' name comes along soon...we can't just keep calling her 'the baby'."

"I know." With another sigh, the raven stood, offering everybody another drink and travelling to the kitchen with his orders. He stood contemplating names at the counter for a few moments, stirring the tea that Hinata had asked for, when out of habit he turned to glance back at his daughter, jumping out of his skin and spilling the hot tea onto his hand when Kakashi turned out to be stood less than arms length away from him silently.

"Ack!" He gasped, waving his hand around madly and running to the tap when the burn did not lessen, shooting his guardian a dirty look as he turned to the sink. "What the fuck Kakashi?! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?! I move for one fucking second and you sneak up behind me like a fucking ninja and burn my hand! What the hell did you do that for!? Shit that hurt..."

"I'd keep it under the water longer Sasuke-Kun...burns keep cooking under the skin for a while." The silver haired man simply said, ignoring his son's ranting and the second dirty look he was given. Sasuke wet a cloth with cold water to shut his guardian up and wrapped it on his hand, turning with a sigh. "What?"

"Glad to see you've calmed down." Kakashi smiled, enjoying the rolling of the Uchiha's eyes, ah he was so easily riled up, just like Iruka. "I just came to help you carry drinks."

"Oh." Sasuke glanced at the man, he'd been expecting something more than that.

"Why, did you want to talk?" Kakashi mused aloud.

"No...I just thought...never mind. You can help make a new cup of tea seeing as you made me spill most of this one." Sasuke mumbled, emptying the spilt cup into the sink and drying it off. Kakashi went about the task, suspiciously watched by the younger man in the kitchen, though no ulterior motive came and Sasuke was surprised when he found all the drinks made with Kakashi ready to help him carry them.

"You look lost, Sasuke-Kun, are you sure you didn't want to talk about something?" Kakashi hummed in a concerned tone of voice, Sasuke looked away quickly, putting the cups onto trays.

"No I already said I didn't...I thought you did..."

"I just mentioned I was here to carry drinks, however you seem to be troubled about something so maybe you were the one who really wanted to talk and are using me as an excuse due lack of social skills."

Sasuke mentally eye-twitched. Lack of...social...grrr...

"You're doing that thing aren't you!?" He exclaimed, Kakashi feigned shock.

"What thing, Sasuke-Kun?"

"That...that thing!" He babbled, "Where you come over and start a conversation about one thing and then somehow you make me talk about other things without me realising!" He'd never really known how Kakashi did 'the thing'. Kakashi just had a way of getting people to talk about things they would usually keep to themselves and worry about. Sasuke had never really been a social person and often kept worries and thoughts to himself during childhood, Kakashi was very good at making him talk without him realising. However with age the raven gained experience and was always waiting for Kakashi to use 'the thing' to make him speak. Despite the fact he could sense it being used, he still ended up talking and it utterly baffled him.

"I am not using any technique to make you speak, however you are speaking and I am replying to your accusations so I would say we are having a conversation fuelled by you." Kakashi insisted happily and Sasuke groaned frustrated.

"Sneaky bastard..." He huffed under his breath, "You want me to talk about the baby, right?"

Kakashi folded his arms and leaned back against the breakfast bar. "I already said I just came here to help you with drinks, and you have just brought the baby into conversation so I'd say you were talking about the baby so if you wish I will also talk about the baby and then yes it would be a conversation about the baby, brought on by you."

Sasuke just let his face fall to exasperation. "I hate you."

"Now now, don't say that. What were you saying about the baby?" Kakashi smiled, Sasuke sniffed and looked awkward, staring at the tiles on the kitchen wall. He'd never really been good at these sort of conversations. Family ones...ones that involved his feelings...

"I wasn't saying anything." He grumbled, and then his features softened a little. "But...she's...nice though, isn't she?"

"She's very nice. You seem to be very protective of her."

Sasuke looked over the man's shoulder and saw Naruto bouncing their daughter up and down in one arm with Shogi on the other. Both babies were smiling, Shogi squealing in delight as their parents laughed at the innocence. Without realising it, smile snuck up on Sasuke and embedded itself onto his lips.

"It's nice to see you smiling again, Sasuke-Kun."

The raven started as he realised the pissed off look he was meant to be displaying had been wiped out by the sneaky smile caused by his daughter. Since when had Sasuke Uchiha got all gooey over babies, jeez next he'd be cooing over little puppies...

No, let's not get carried away...

Once his pissed off expression was back, Sasuke looked his parent in the eye that wasn't covered by fringe and shrugged before looking away again, picking at the counter top and trying to concentrate on the patterns in the marble work.

"You appear to be fidgeting, Sasuke."

"I'm not!" He shot, sharply drawing his hand back from the counter and tucking his arms into a defensive cross. He couldn't understand why this conversation felt so awkward, Kakashi didn't seem to feel like it was, why just him?

Kakashi stared at his son, backing himself into a dark corner where his emotions were almost unreachable; he decided he may as well just go for it. "Now I wonder why you'd be fidgeting, maybe you think you rushed into adoption too fast?"

Sasuke shot him a glare and Kakashi kept his smile in his thoughts, that was easier than he'd thought. "I do not think that." The raven growled. "I wouldn't have pushed it quicker if I wasn't definite about my decision."

"Well I wouldn't blame you if you got a little caught up and confused, it was a very quick choice to make in such a short time."

"I didn't get confused! I knew I wanted her and I didn't care what anybody else thought. Or what they think now for that matter..."

Kakashi mused about how to continue, leave it too long and Sasuke would realise he was letting things slip and go silent for the night, too quick however and the wrong thing slipped out, he'd get angry and do the same. "What does Naruto think?"

Sasuke flinched and turned away from his guardian, laying his elbow on the marble top and resting his head in his hand. Kakashi stiffened, wondering if the man had realised, but relaxed when he tried to talk, voice coming out a lot quieter and reminiscent of his inner bundle of worry.

"Naruto is...he...Naruto loves her too." Sasuke answered nervously, annoyed that Kakashi was making him feel this way. The man always drew out worries from inside his chest that he didn't even know he had until they spurted out of his mouth and into the open air. He kept everything locked up, that way it couldn't hurt him, or so he thought. However worries were worries and despite the lock up, they were still there inside him. He used to ignore them for as long as possible and hope they would disintegrate, however, they would just build up and explode inside him and he'd end up in a childish rage, a complete mess. Kakashi always tried to draw them out prematurely and Sasuke hated it when they began to surface in conversation, it made him feel guilty, light headed and anxious, weak feelings that he didn't like to associate with himself. He's rather ignore them to the point he didn't even realise they were there, only appearing in nightmares deep on his subconscious, ones that Naruto never got told about, and yet another reason Sasuke kept himself awake for hours into the night.

"Yes, Naruto does appear to love her, though he must have been shocked when you told him." Kakashi said quietly, aware of his son's nervousness.

"Hm...he was." Sasuke agreed, remembering how Naruto thought he was joking for a while. When Naruto had heard about her though, he'd automatically agreed.

What if he hadn't though? You would have still adopted her straight away, right? Are you sure he's not just acting like he's happy for your sake?

The raven shut his eyes and began pushing the automatic thoughts into a corner. God he hated this, where had they come from all of a sudden...from inside a cage in his chest that appeared the minute he'd learnt about the baby, that's where.

"Though I'm sure he's happy now, he's always happy if you are. You seem to be happier though Sasuke-Kun. Naruto tells me you aren't keeping yourself in your office like you used to. Glad to hear you aren't worrying about your job as much." Kakashi continued quickly, aware of what Sasuke was doing, shutting himself off, not if he could help it...

I am worrying about my job...I've hardly been trying to write...what if I can't. What if I can't get enough money and sustain the income...what if it affects Naruto and the baby...should I have adopted her in this situation? What if I ruin everything? Sasuke's thoughts hit him one after the other, feeling a short pang in his chest with each one that ran through his head. "What if I've ruined everything?" The question came as a whisper so quiet that had Kakashi not trained his ears to pick up tiny sounds vital for his job in the police force; he would not have heard them. Sasuke was half hoping the man wouldn't but somewhere inside he knew he would have.

"Now Sasuke," The man began, smiling when his son began to open up. "How have you ruined anything? You and Naruto seem to be very happy with your new baby."

"For now!" Sasuke snapped, not able to cover the worry in his tone. "What about a couple of months or years from now when I haven't been able to write a thing and we can't afford to live like we used to?! What if Naruto leaves because I've fucked everything up and takes her with him!? I forced him into adoption and I'm forcing him into another job and I can't even control my own career..."

Kakashi sighed with a small smile, finally getting to hear his son's worries, Sasuke was noticeably frustrated, maybe shocked at his own confessions. As a child the raven used to lock himself in the bathroom and refuse to come out. Kakashi had to try every technique, often spending hours outside the bathroom door, many spent in silence, just trying to get the boy to talk. When he was eventually let inside, the boy was always found curled into a ball in the bath tub, head tucked into his knees. Kakashi would sit on the edge of the tub and listen to the Sasuke's muffled confessions begin to come out. It was a lot harder when he was a child, he was in the dark void he'd created for himself almost all the time due to the recent suffering he'd experienced with his family. It was a lot harder but Kakashi always managed to get the boy to lift his head , face bone dry, for a young child, Sasuke seldom cried, he always said crying was for babies. When he'd look up at Kakashi though and the man stretched out his arms for Sasuke to crawl into, the boy couldn't help the tears that escaped from his eyes and flooded his face. For the next half hour, Kakashi would have the young boy crying on his shoulder as he carried him around, consoling him gently until he fell asleep out of exhaustion and let the man tuck him into bed. Free of the pent up anxiety, Sasuke always appeared noticeably happier the next day. The raven was now twenty five but Kakashi still consoled him and still managed to pull out that inner crying child from the adult, it was all part of being a father. "Sasuke," The older man said gently. "Naruto loves you, he would do anything for you and would be grateful as long as he has you happy and in his life. For the past few weeks he's been upset because he's had to see you hurting yourself and in the past few days he's been relieved because you are the happiest you've been in a long time. He would never leave you." Sasuke's shoulders loosened up slightly but he remained facing away. "As for your job, Sasuke everybody has trouble at some point in their lives and trouble is sorted out one way or another, it's just the way life is. If anything, this adoption seems to have helped you, it's made you happy and if being happy means taking a few more weeks out of writing then that's what you do. And not that it's going to happen but should you begin to get lost then you have a whole load of people here who will not think any less of you. Naruto will still love you, your daughter will still adore you and you will still manage because you're a family now. Besides, don't think for one second me and Iruka won't help you out, I'm always going to be here for you and Iruka see's you as part of the family too and he won't let you go to ruin."

Kakashi quietened and watched as the raven slowly re-adjusted himself, first taking his head from his hands and then straightening up to stare out of the window. The silver-haired man watched the back of his son and stood quietly, letting a smile grace his lips. "I'm proud of you for saving that baby, you know, and I know, that you're going to figure another manga out and it's going to be the best one yet because that's what you do. You stumble along the way but you always manage to come out better than you were, I have faith in you." It took a few more seconds but finally Sasuke turned back to face him and just like he did as a child, he raised his head with the same lost expression and looked his father in the eye. The raven did not cry anymore and there was no rushing to Kakashi to become a permanent attachment for the next half hour, however, he did give a nod and shuffled his feet awkwardly. They had not done this in a long time so he wasn't sure what to do. "I love you, you know that."

That shocked him, the raven looked up and locked his obsidian eyes with silver ones, Kakashi would always say that to him as a child when he got upset and for a second, he felt the child within him stirring in his stomach. "Yeah." He mumbled, a little embarrassed, he was not used to saying 'I love you' to anybody but Naruto. He hadn't said it to Kakashi in a long time. "I..." He coughed oddly. "...you too."

Kakashi smiled, Sasuke even saying that much meant a lot and it didn't come easy. He took a step forward automatically and so did Sasuke, both wondering if they were moving in for a handshake or a hug. Kakashi, thinking a hug would be all too much, went in with the handshake and the pat on the back, Sasuke, thinking he would let Kakashi have his family moment, actually decided to go for a quick hug and both decisions ended up causing the men to awkwardly collide and hesitate when they came to put forward their actions. Kakashi almost jabbed his son in the stomach, who opened his arms, then noticed Kakashi's hand and tried to put them down quickly, but Kakashi noticed and opened his arms as Sasuke out his down. There was a few more seconds of confusion before both men let out an exasperated laugh and grabbed each other in a tight hug, grinning at their own mishap. "Thanks." Sasuke whispered and Kakashi squeezed the younger man, patting him on the head to let him know it was okay. Their moment lasted another couple of seconds before both guys became embarrassed at the display of affection and coughed awkwardly, breaking apart and both mumbling nonsense about drinks and keeping people waiting, though both had placid smiles on their faces.

"Take your time!" Sakura gasped in fake annoyance when Sasuke handed her the drink she'd asked for, though she winked to let him know she'd seen his and Kakashi's talk and or hug. Sasuke bit the inside of his cheek awkwardly and coughed before passing Ino her drink, shooting a wry smirk at Sakura's rolling eyes.

"Pass us a tray." Naruto commanded and Sasuke warned him out of habit to not spill it before handing it to him, the blonde pulled a tongue before taking his drink off and handing the others theirs. Gaara's was the last one on the tray and he handed the red-head his green tea, before motioning for him to follow. "Here, bring it with you - I wanna show you the baby's room."

Gaara nodded silently before standing and following Naruto up the stairs towards the little girl's room. Those left in the living room watched curiously as the two men left.

"Where are they off to?" Kankuro asked and Sasuke smiled as he saw the last of Gaara go out of sight.

"Naruto's just having a talk with Gaara." The raven told him and looked at Sakura thoughtfully, who blinked back at him with a questionable look. "I need to talk to you too, come on." He said and stood, Sakura shrugged, leaving the baby with Temari, and took her drink with her as they walked to the back of the house and out of the back door.

---

In the baby's bedroom Naruto was pointing out all the various little decorations and cuddly toys to his friend as the latter stood and appreciated them all, sipping tea quietly. Gaara's eyes followed the blonde blur around the room, blinking as his friend zipped from item to item, commenting and laughing. Naruto was an inspiration to him, he was bright, happy, blunt, beautiful. His eyes and his voice and his rash ways always brought out the best in people somehow. Somebody could be wishing their life away and Naruto would come along, a total stranger, and turn everything upside down to the point that person would be gasping for breath and clinging to the life they tried to throw away. Naruto connected to people, showed them their faults, forgave them and handed them a second chance. When people refused his help, like Sasuke, when he had run away. He chased them down again and again until they were the person they'd always had the potential to be. He breathed light and life into everything, he was a beautiful person with a deep, kind heart and what's more, he understood Gaara.

"And this is her favourite, Sasuke wasn't going to let me buy it, the tight bastard, but I managed to get him to let me. Then he said I looked like it! He's weird sometimes..." Naruto piped, startling Gaara slightly when a soft orange object was place into his arms. Pale green eyes looked down at the object, which turned out to be a plush fox. He placed his tea on the changing table and traced the whiskers on the fox plush before looking up at Naruto, who was widely smiling at him. He decided Sasuke was right, Naruto did bear resemblance somewhat to a fox, there were similar features, his scars did not help. Gaara raised a hand and caused Naruto to blink confusedly when his pale hands traces the faint lines on his cheeks with a hit of a pained expression. "Gaara?" He questioned, and the boy removed his hands, handing back the plush.

"She is very lucky." The red haired man said calmly, glancing around the room and back to Naruto, holding the orange fox.

"Hmm..." Naruto hummed, looking down at the floor and picking at the ears of the fox. "I'm glad we adopted her, she won't ever have to grow up in an orphanage, we both know how much they suck, huh?"

Gaara watched the blonde as he smiled sadly at the floor, before the expression was switched off and the bright cheerful one was back. "Well she has us now and we're a family so everything is fine!" He chirped, nodding at his own statement proudly, he was always trying to be happy, not liking to show the part of him that still felt pain.

"You can show it." Gaara told him quietly and the man frowned in confusion.

"Show what?" He asked.

"This." Gaara said, taking the blonde's hand and placing it to the scars on his cheeks. "The pain. I know it anyway."

Blue eyes softened and he lowered Gaara's hand, squeezing it and smiling at the man "Thanks, Gaara." He whispered, before letting the hand go and genuinely he felt better. Every time he showed pain, Gaara would take his hand, it was always something they had done and something that they had carried with them from their childhood.

Naruto had been at an orphanage since the day he was born. His father was highly respected in the village he had lived in and was a member of the police force, however he was shot by an escaped murderer he and his team had been trying to capture. On the night his mother went into labour, there were severe complications, her uterus had ruptured and caused severe internal and external bleeding. It was sudden and unexpected and the doctors tried their best to save both mother and child, however the mother died from losing too much blood and Naruto was just barely saved by some miracle. After that he had been raised in the orphanages, and he had hated every second of it.

When he was very young, the carers wouldn't tell him about his parents. They told him his father had been a police man and that his mother had died but he never knew it was due to his birth. The news was kept from him under advice of child psychologists who thought telling him that when he was so young would only make him feel guilty and damage him. The news was never kept from the rest of the world however and the other children used to stay far away from him. They were young and didn't understand much about uterine rupture, in fact they didn't even know that was why his mother died. All they knew was that his mum died because she tried to give birth to Naruto and the avoided him like the plague, fearing that they too would die if they got too close. Rumours only intensified when they learned his father had died the same night as his mother. Everybody used to say he was cursed, children called him 'monster', the older ones spat at him, bullied him and stole his things. The orphanage only had a few carers at the time so their attention had to be divided among all of the children and despite the fact Naruto craved attention and love, it was never given to him. He suffered a cruel lonely childhood and at the age of five he began trying to gain people's attention by different means. Instead of trying to be nice, he'd be loud and disruptive. He would play up in every class and start fights and cause trouble. It was the only time people would look at him and acknowledge he was there, even if it was for different reasons than he'd wanted.

He found Gaara when the boy was transferred over to Naruto's orphanage from one in another city. The rumour of a new child spread quickly through the dorms of the large building and Naruto watched from his window on Gaara's first day. What he saw was a small red-headed child emerging onto the school yard at break time and not one child would come anywhere near him. They followed but kept a few metres distance at all time. The boy sat on the swings and rocked himself as the other kids stood round and shouted things at him, whispering to each other maliciously. Curiously Naruto ran downstairs and out into the yard, the children scattered when he came near. The blonde moved to the swing set beside the red haired boy and peered at him without hesitation. The red head glared back and Naruto tipped his head.

"Who are you?" He asked, looking closer at the boy, he was a little shorter than him, had dark circles round his pale green eyes like a racoon and shaggy new-brick coloured hair that fell around his face. He did not answer for several minutes, as if he wasn't used to talking.

"Sabaku Gaara."

"Why will nobody touch you?"

"I'm a monster." The young red head watched for the blonde's reaction, he had been surprised there was a child brave enough to come and talk to him, though when he asked who he was he guessed he didn't know anything about him. When he told Naruto that he was a monster he waited for a reaction similar to the other children's, a look of disgust or fear, a taunt, a hasty retreat. The little blonde before him however...smiled.

"Me too." He said

From that day on Naruto stuck to Gaara like glue and when the carers tried to tell the blonde that Gaara was 'special' and had problems, Naruto took no notice, everybody here had problems. When they told him Gaara sometimes couldn't control what he did and hurt people, it only encouraged him to try and help the boy. He was just so excited that he'd finally found somebody who shared the same curse as him, who knew how it felt to be called monster and to be avoided and hated.

One day, Gaara hurt another child, Naruto wasn't there at first, he'd come out for break early after being sent to the head masters office again and decided he didn't want to go. On the yard he ran towards the red hair that he saw, but stopped when he saw the boy fall to his knees and a girl lying on the ground unconscious.

"Gaara...Gaara! Gaara what happened?!" He screamed, running towards the boy, noticing he had blood on his hands and stopping sharply. "Gaara! Did you hurt her?!"

"I told you I'm a monster!" The red head screamed, it was the first time Naruto had heard the boy use a voice as fierce as that, he clutched his head and began screaming. Naruto began to panic, not knowing what to do.

"Stop it!" He shouted, not liking the sound of his friend's screaming, he didn't sound like Gaara, it sounded like someone who was being hurt. "Stop it! Stop it!" Gaara raised his fists to hit the girl again. "STOP IT!" Naruto screamed, diving on the boy and hitting him as hard as he could. The red head rolled away and looked shocked before he ran to hit the blonde, soon they were fighting, punching and kicking and tearing any part of each other they could.

The teachers and carers found them mid fight when the break bell rang and the incident lead too mass hysteria. Children began screaming when they saw the girl and the two of them fighting the teachers rushed into pull them apart but they clung to each other and kept trying to kick and bite.

"Why are you helping her!?" Gaara screamed. "She called us monster! She spat at you!"

"Because she's a person!" Naruto choked back as they were finally broken apart and held captive, facing each other. "She doesn't know any better! If you hurt them you are the monster that they say you are! I DON'T WANT TO BE A MONSTER!"

Gaara stared as the blonde was dragged away to be cleaned up and talked to he was pulled the opposite way and teachers kept all the other children back while they phoned for an ambulance.

After that day, Gaara was transferred away again and despite the incident between them, Naruto was miserable. He'd finally found somebody like him and now he was gone.

"I want to see Gaara." He told the carers, repeatedly, for a month, until finally they agreed he could have a visit. Naruto didn't sleep the night before he went to see Gaara, he was too excited. Ever since the children learnt Naruto had stopped Gaara hurting the girl, they were less mean, still cruel, but it wasn't as intense. He knew Gaara wouldn't be the same; he wanted to know he was okay.

When they got to the special orphanage, Naruto ignored his carer who was trying to take him to reception and ran straight round the side of the building to the playground, where sure enough, sat rocking slowly on a swing, was the red head that he'd missed so much.

"Gaara!" He yelled happily and ran towards the boy, who looked up in shock when he recognised the voice. He stopped just before the swing and punched the boy in the shoulder. Gaara blinked a few times before raising a fist and punching Naruto back, softly and the blonde grinned, then felt his jaw drop when Gaara smiled. Gaara never smiled.

"I don't like being a monster." He said simply and the blonde practically beamed.

---

"Heheh, remember when we were kids and that one time I came to your centre and we swapped identities for a day." Naruto laughed softly as he and Gaara stood in the centre of the baby's bedroom.

"Yes, you made my hair blonde with yellow poster paint." The red head replied and Naruto giggled mischievously.

"And you painted black round my eyes! That reminds me, how are you sleeping these days?" Gaara had been an insomniac since he was four years old, and it caused the dark circles around his eyes.

"Better." He answered with a smile.

"Hm...good..." Naruto began, scratching the back of his neck out of nervous habit. "So, I brought you up here to tell you um...wow I'm bad at this sort of thing."

"You were bad at a lot of things but managed them in your own way." Gaara mentioned and Naruto thought for a moment.

"I guess..." He mumbled. "Like the hand thing, sort of our way of shaking hands or hugging?" Gaara nodded in agreement. "Well...it's sort of why I called you up here. You're like a brother to me, you always have been since our orphanage days and so...well...jeez..." He sighed, shuffling his feet and taking a breath. "You're family to me and you've helped me a lot and we want you to be her godfather." He finished, looking up once he'd got his point out. Gaara was smiling when he regained eye-contact and he raised a hand vertically in the air. Naruto grinned and lifted his own hand, pressing their palms together firmly.

"I would love to be her godfather." He told the blonde, and for a moment they were seven and they were beaming at each other on a swing set.

---

Outside on a bench, Sakura and Sasuke sat close, sharing the heat of each other and the steaming tea cups to fight back at the biting late autumn-early winter chill that was settling. This season was going to be a cold one, but none of the elements could touch the pink haired woman as she received the news from her raven friend. Her cheeks were flushed a soft pink in both temperature and pride.

"Godmother?" She smiled admiringly, "Of course I will!" She hastily placed her teacup on the cold wooden bench beside her and pulled Sasuke into a tight hug. The raven only sighed and held her to him, hugs were never something he'd indulged in but with Sakura they were inescapable and with her, they were comforting. She was like a sister to him, or a mother to him and Naruto depending on how childish they were acting. They would be lost without her, she was family. Finally the hug lessened and they went back to staring out at the garden, tucking their knees up onto the bench to escape the dropping temperature. Sasuke felt like a teenager again, when he'd sit on the wall behind the library at school and smoke in secret, glaring at anybody who walked past. A few details had changed, he did not smoke anymore and he didn't feel much like glaring.

He'd met Sakura in college, she was doing sciences and medicine, he was doing arts and English. At first he hated her, she was infatuated with him and he'd spend all year attempting to get her to leave him alone, rejecting her repeatedly. It ended one Christmas when Sasuke grew tired of college and quit, moving with Kakashi to the city, escaping her advances. Fate however is unforgiving and who was to know he would end up in love with her best friend? In fact, even before that, he'd broke his arm and ended up with her as his assistant nurse, Tsunade had been his main nurse. What was funny was Tsunade was Naruto's Godfather's best friend and Sakura's mentor and almost second mother, and this was even before he'd ran into Naruto in the publishers and glared at him for the first time. It was a very small, messed up but lovable world that he lived in. By then, Sakura had grown up and accepted that he did not want her affections, when he met Naruto, their lives merged again and now she was the sister-mother figure he'd lost all those years ago. "Who else have you guys chosen?"

Sasuke snapped out of his nostalgia and shook fallen leaves from his hair, shivering at the sudden realisation of cold before he grabbed his tea and settled again. "Naruto is asking Gaara."

"Aww, that's nice, those two have always been close haven't they." It was more of a statement than a question as she remembered a younger version of Gaara and Naruto from primary school.

"I mean, Lee is technically a godfather too if you two are married and all but...I decided it was easier telling you, well, because..."

"Because Lee would run round the garden yelling something about the glorious protection of youth, I get it." Sakura grinned, finishing his sentence for him, he laughed in agreement. "Don't worry, I know he's crazy."

"He's a good man." Sasuke disagreed and Sakura looked to him questioningly, it was unusual for Sasuke to be openly approving or complimentive of the people who knew him. "He'd make a good father, let's go back inside, it's getting colder."

It was one comment in that sentence that got Sakura's attention in particular and she narrowed her eyes in suspicion of her friend, who was stood holding open the back door for her with a smile on his face. She stood and strolled past him, ruffling his hair to annoy him as she did. "Yes, it is rather...chilly." She winked and he nodded knowingly as they went back inside.

Naruto and Gaara were back downstairs, Sasuke noticed when they returned, the redhead was holding his new goddaughter, stroking her black fluffy hair with his pale hand. Naruto was watching proudly.

"I'll tell Lee when we get home, save you the excitement." Sakura laughed in a whisper as they went back to their places, Sasuke leaning on the sofa next to Gaara and nodding at him with his arms folded.

"Thank you." Gaara said, Sasuke understanding and smiling at the man.

"No problem."

NRGGHHHHHHHHHHH

Many sets of eyes turned to look at a startled blonde, who looked at his abdomen accusingly.

"Dude..." Kiba began with irked brows, "Was that your stomach?"

"Heh, guess it's time to eat!" The blonde laughed, nodding apologetically with a hand behind his head.

---

The rest of the night sailed by with an air of both nostalgic memories and new beginnings. The group sat together and ate a takeaway, laughed at the television, at each other and at the snoring coming from the two babies in their prams, one louder than the other despite being smaller. For Sasuke this was a dream come true. Yes he'd had friends and he had Naruto but adopting seemed to have been the glue that pulled everything together and set it in stone, the tiny threadwork of the bigger masterpiece. Sat around him, laughing, cuddling, snoozing (Shikamaru, like father like son) and eating, were his family. Before Naruto, he'd avoided anything familiar to a family feeling, the pain of losing his own proved too difficult and he could not put his faith in another and lose it. After Naruto, all these people had appeared and he just couldn't push them away, he didn't want to anymore. His faith in family had slowly been building up through the relationship and adopting the beautiful little girl he had just proved to him that he deserved a second chance. If he couldn't protect the first family, he was going to do things right the second time round, there was no way he was ever letting these people go.

He was strangely sad when they left the house to return to their own that Sunday night, the normal feeling of gladness that the house would be quieter again didn't come and instead a feeling of emptiness washed over him when all the conversation and laughter disappeared. Though, not for long, as the tiny snores from the little girl curled into his arm, reached his ears, and the sigh from his lover danced across his neck. The emptiness became a feeling of being whole, being part of something he'd been yearning for and missing all this time. He wouldn't let anything break this, not this time.

"Let's go to bed." The raven whispered, kissing the man behind him slowly before they switched off the TV and the lights and began their ascent to the bedroom.

Safely inside the familiar room, the baby was laid in her basket, the floor was littered with clothes and the bed was soon filled with two warm bodies that soon entwined together into one form, each half murmuring an affectionate 'goodnight' to the other. For the third time that week, Sasuke slept without nightmares.

To say Sasuke was confused the next morning was an understatement. He was almost certain...no definite...that somebody was...licking him.

Now it was too heavy to be a dog or a cat...unless it was a very fat dog or cat...but they did not own a dog or a cat and anyway if they did it would not be fat. If it was a dog or a cat then he was not in his own bed and he was sure he was in his own bed because he had gone to sleep in his own bed last night...or so he remembered...unless he had gotten drunk last night and somehow ended up in the garden. Though, he couldn't remember drinking that much...and if he had then the dog better had get the fuck out of his garden!

"Mmmhoutt!" He mumbled, making perfect Uchiha logic in his own mind, which was not quite ready to get up and face the world at this minute. He felt something run over his stomach, it felt like fingers...wait, dogs didn't have fingers, what kind of dog was this?! One that giggles apparently, as the sound reached his awakening ears. Okay whoever was doing this was pissing him off. "Stop...laughing..." He sighed, still half asleep but quickly gaining consciousness, even more so when the fingers on his abdomen trailed lower and came to a halt on his underwear. The baffled Uchiha wondered if he were dreaming, it would have explained a lot. He decided it was definitely a person, if a dog was doing this then it was a pretty sick twisted dream...

Above the Uchiha, Naruto laughed to himself quietly, watching as his lovers face unknowingly displayed signs of confusion, relaxation and - he gave the front of his underwear a gentle squeeze - yep, there was the sex face he found so adorable. "Haha, you're so cute when you're asleep." The blonde chuckled, lowering his mouth to his lovers face and kissing random places lightly, sometimes trailing his tongue along the pale skin. He knew Sasuke would probably get mad if he woke up, but oh well, he may as well have his fun while he could. Plus, Sasuke was unpredictable, he might wake up and be quite the opposite of mad.

Inside the awakening Uchiha mind, Sasuke's logical thinking was disappearing as he began to feel more of the sensations tantalising his sensitive body. He decided he rather liked this dream, though it was a shame it wasn't a real tongue licking the inside of his lips or real teeth nipping at them, or a real hand delving into his underwear greedily or-WOAH that was definitely real blood rushing to his groin though. Wait a second...there was only one logical explanation for this...it wasn't a dream...and there was only one culprit...

"Naruto."

"Yes, Sex-uke?" The blonde chirped, Sasuke didn't even try opening his eyes, he could imagine the man kneeling over him with a stupid triumphant expression anyway. How long had Naruto been molesting him in his sleep? That was pretty sneaky!

"I'm awake." The raven stated unamusedly, to make Naruto quite aware he knew what the man was doing.

"I can see that." The blonde replied in a sultry voice, squeezing Sasuke's package to emphasise his point.

Sasuke shuddered but managed to hold in the moan that wanted to escape his lips. Naruto laughed evilly and fell forward, kissing the man's neck as Sasuke finally opened his eyes to a mix of sunlight and hair the colour of sunlight. "Naruto?" He sighed, "By any chance are you horny?"

"Maaaaaaaaybe..." Came the reply and Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Get off."

"Trying to."

"Naruto! That's not what I meant!"

"Huhuhuhuhuh...."

The raven growled, there was no reasoning when he was like this, it took a practical approach. He sat up, pushing the blonde off him and pinning his arms down to stop them wandering. Blue eyes stared up at him as the man they belonged to pouted like a child, it would have looked innocently adorable if it were not for the lust in his eyes and the tent in his boxers. "Stop it." Sasuke commanded firmly.

"Pleeeeeease?" He whined and Sasuke shook his head.

"No."

"Not even a quickie?!"

"No."

"Blow job?"

"No!"

"Make out?!"

"...no!"

"KISS?!"

Sasuke looked down at the pleasing man and sighed lowering his head to kiss him quickly, denying access to the eager tongue that tried to slip between his lips. He pulled back and switched their position so they were lying on their sides, Sasuke behind Naruto, still holding his hands. "Now stop it." He heard Naruto 'Hmph!' unhappily and bit the blonde on the shoulder.

"OW! What was that for!?"

"For molesting me and waking me up."

"Bastard..." Naruto mumbled and tried to turn around, growing angry when Sasuke restrained him. "I'm not gonna try anything! Let me go!" Reluctantly the raven let his partner go and watched as he turned onto his other side and cuddled into his chest, pulling the covers up around them, cosily. "I don't want to go to work!" He whined and Sasuke felt himself smirk.

"You don't have to, I rang in yesterday." He felt Naruto pull his head back.

"Really!? Thanks Sasuke! I needed a few days off!" He exclaimed, settling back down.

Ah, he's going to hate me.

"You can't go back to sleep."

"Why not? The baby isn't awake yet."

"You have to be."

"Why? I'll just make her bottle when I get up."

"You have a job interview."

The pause that followed was...tense. Sasuke felt a little guilty but kept a straight face when Naruto pulled back from him and glared.

"What do you mean -job interview?" He growled.

"Today at nine am...you have to be at the garden centre in the superstore for a job interview that I signed you up for." The raven watched for the blonde's reaction, the glare only intensified.

"I already have a job!"

"Yeah, well...about that..."

"Sasuke." Naruto looked livid. "What did you do?"

Were the raven not an Uchiha, he would have gulped in fear, however he was an Uchiha, so he just explained calmly. "I rang Karin yesterday and told her that you would not be working there anymore. So technically...I quit your job for you."

"Y-you...I don't...quit m-my..." The blonde stuttered and Sasuke couldn't help it, the smirk was returning, he felt a little guilty and he knew Naruto was going to be furious, but the stuttering mess before him was hilarious. "YOU WHAT?!" The smirk grew when Naruto removed himself from the bed and stood looking angry and shocked, on the carpet. "You can't just do that! You didn't even ask me! I can't believe you would-ARE YOU LAUGHING!?"

Sasuke was a little shocked himself, but he couldn't stop the small chuckles escaping his mouth, he felt guilty now, he really did, especially when Naruto continued to tell him off and then storm round the room frustratedly finding something to wear. Ever since he had talked to Kakashi yesterday, he'd been reassured that Naruto loved him and he knew that even if the blonde got angry, he'd forgive him soon enough. It was that giddy realisation along with the happiness he'd felt yesterday and the general amusement he got from riling his partner up, that caused him to stop giggling and begin laughing loudly, unable to control himself.

"I can't believe you're laughing at me Sasuke! Fuck, sometimes you make me so angry! Since when do you laugh anyway!? You're supposed to get angry back and shout at me and try and word your way out of trouble!" Naruto ranted, highly confused by his partners laughing. "This isn't how we usually act! You're confusing me! This isn't how it works!" There were tears running down Sasuke's face now as he struggled to breathe for laughing. "You're messing with the system!" The raven snorted loudly and Naruto, humiliated, stormed out of the room, shouting from the landing in anger, finally waking the snoring baby. "MESSING WITH THE SYSTEM!"

Sasuke feared he would die laughing.

Ah, poor Naruto :'D

I really hope you liked it, theres only one way I will know if you did or not and that is reviews! I did not recieve as many as I'd hoped in the last chapter so I hope I recieve more with this one. They really are helpful for motivation and bettering ideas and writing technique, please even if its only a few words, review :)

Oh and by the way, I am from England and therefore I may say some thigns that people from other places wont get such as 'Junior school' becuase our school system is different form those in say, America. I go off how we say things so if theres some things and you're thinking 'what the heck is that?' Just ask haha

No baby name yet! Don't worry, you will find out eventually! Other things will become clear as time goes on, Akatsuki will be making moves and also my crappy introduction to other characters lives and histories will get better xD"

Anyway, yes, please review and don't miss the next chapter!

Kat