Stuffed Toys, Romantic Signals and

Speculations of an Uzumaki

Sakura was strolling alongside a limping Naruto on crutches, while pushing a baby carriage, with a sleeping Sasuke drooling onto the security blanket next to him. The weather was very nice out, spring being at it's fullest a day in the end of April. A brisk wind played with Sakura's hair, making her bring a hand to pull it behind her ear.

"Now I know why most mothers cut their hair when they have a baby. It simply takes two hands!" Sakura said, smiling at Naruto. He was slightly out of breath, having a small amount of difficulty walking, and Sakura slowed down further to match his pace, and while walking couldn't help but eye his flexing muscles, each time he took a step on the crutches.

"I like your hair the way it looks, so I think it'd be a shame to cut of more of your beautiful locks." Naruto said, a smile playing over his lips. "You're such a charmer!" Sakura said, laughing heartedly, "Would you like a break, we can sit on the bench over there," She said, pointing to a bench facing the lake, under a Cherry blossom tree, "I think Sasuke's waking up soon too."

Naruto sat on the bench, resting the crutches by the back of the bench, while Sakura lifted Sasuke up, surrounding him in a blanket, before taking a seat next to Naruto, who had his arm stretched along the back of the bench, thus almost having his arm around her.

Naruto looked at Sakura, she had her face turned downward looking at Sasuke's sleeping face, where a small trace of drool ran off his chin. He noticed she was slightly dark under her eyes. "Rough night?" Sakura looking up, bewildered at him. "Oh does it show much? Well it was his first night after all, but he woke up twice, first time needing to be cuddled over teething pains, and the other time, because he needed a diaper change." Naruto couldn't help a small grin over the last part.

No matter how old, Sasuke was Sasuke, and he was supposed to be strong and fearless. However now that he was returned to toddlerhood, he was none of that, and Naruto just couldn't help but laugh, at his friend's misfortune. He knew it might as well could have been himself, but he also knew that since Sasuke had returned to the village, he wasn't regarded the same way as Naruto.

It had been over three years, since the war had ended, and Naruto had succeeded in bringing Sasuke home, though it had taken both of them a few months to recuperate from the fight, where both of them had been badly injured.

The village was practically rebuild, and it was as beautiful as ever. A lot of the blueprints from the old village, that had been stored at the mountain, had been used to rebuild to rebuild the village, however a lot of changes had been made as well, such as the Uchiha district, that had been reduced drastically. Now it was only a small lake, that connected to the stream that ran to the lake inside of Konoha, the old clan graveyard, and the main house, which was largely the same as before.

All the other grounds had been sold by Sasuke to the village to expand it. Since his return, Sasuke had done a lot in order to prove himself to belong, but the villagers did not trust him any longer. If Naruto or Sakura were not around, none of their old friends would hang out with him. Naruto and Sasuke had been out a lot with the other guys to drink, but whenever Naruto would pass out drunk, or go home, Sasuke would leave as well.

The village leaders had decided that Sasuke wasn't to leave the village, without an Anbu squad tracing behind him, which resulted in leaving many smaller solo missions to Sasuke, that were way beneath his dignity. Naruto knew that the moment this "mission" to test the new medical jutsu had arrived, the elders had jumped on it, insisting on Sasuke for the job.

Naruto couldn't admit he wasn't on some level enjoying seeing Sasuke in this state, it was much better than seeing him, being degraded to look for lost pets in the village, and it also brought them closer as a team. Naruto's broken leg came around at the opportune time, seeing as both his teammates were occupied. Not that it would normally hold Naruto back.

Naruto had already ranked jounin, and was now reaching an age of 21. He was ranked as one of the best ninjas in the village, even better than Kakashi, and Tsunade had talked about letting him take over, when she felt like retiring in a couple of years. Naruto was usually out of the village on solo missions, but once in awhile he was sent out with Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi, which he enjoyed.

Sai had been taken off team Kakashi a long time ago. In the absence of his former master, Tsunade had asked Sai to take over, on the request of the elders, which she for once hadn't fought them on. She liked having a friend of Naruto being the one to pull the strings, if it was absolutely necessary to have someone back there at all, which her council assured her of. Yamato had also been pulled from the team, to help the rebuilding process of the village

But despite all the changes through the years, today, Naruto was simply enjoy a quiet day in the spring filled weather, with his best friend, and his dear friend. Or so he thought.

After Sakura had lifted Sasuke out of the baby carriage he had fluttered his eyes open, though he hadn't quite awoken. He was very slowly coming to, and the cuddling, and the warmth and the blanket, wasn't helping in getting him woken up. However slowly he was becoming more and more aware.

It annoyed him how easy he was to get to fall asleep. After he had awoken that morning Sakura had dressed, and fed him and let him be in his playpen. There he had tried to stand up and doing some exercises to help him get stronger, and after little over an hour, Sakura had returned with the news of them taking a walk to the park inside Konoha to meet up with Naruto and spend the day.

Sasuke had tried protesting, and threw a small tantrum (He knew it, but damn did he hate to admit it)and it was at this point that Sakura had chosen to tell him that he was going to nap in the baby carriage on the way there. Again throwing threats and screams, he hadn't believed he would fall asleep for hours, but after getting dressed a little warmer, and being placed in the carriage, he was already out like a light.

But now he was awake again, and not happy. He felt very confined in the blanket, a feeling he didn't enjoy and so he began squirming. Sakura noticed Sasuke was awake, as she had almost drifted off herself sitting there, with Naruto being so unnaturally quiet. When he had begun wiggling, she stood up, unwrapped the blanket and spread it out of the grass in front of the bench, and then placed Sasuke on top.

Sakura went back to the carriage and came back with a small stuffed dog. "Here Sasuke you can play with this, or try biting, if you still hurt." Sakura said offering the stuffed toy. At first Sasuke was reluctant to take it, but when she offered the idea of biting it, he gladly accepted it. He was still hurting a bit, and was a little tired of having his hands in his mouth all the time, not to mention all the drool that came with it.

Naruto looked with mild amusement when he saw the interaction and then with a lot more amusement when Sasuke started biting the stuffed toy. He really looked like a baby acting like that. After giving Sasuke something to occupy himself with, she returned to her seat, this time leaning up against Naruto, shutting her eyes.

She trusted Naruto would keep an eye on Sasuke, while she rested a for a bit, after all Sasuke had had the chance to sleep on their walk here, while she had been the one walking. When Sakura leaned on him, Naruto looked down on her with a content smile.

After gnawing on the stuffed dog for a while, Sasuke turned around to face his teammates who had grown rather quiet, only to be met by an odd sight. Naruto quietly staring off into the distance, having a content look on his face, while Sakura was dosing up against his chest. Sasuke slowly pulled the stuffed toy away from his mouth, his eyes fully captivated by his teammates.

After a few minutes Sakura awoke, looking happy, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, before snuggling up against his chest even further, and Naruto leaving his head rest on hers, while having one of his arms embrace her.

It was at this moment Sasuke's body chose the perfect time to disrupt the peace. Sasuke was immediately disgusted, and annoyed that his two friends, were too occupied to notice his distress, before his body switched to automatic, and he started crying.

Naruto and Sakura were pulled from their moment together when they heard the baby's crying. They both shifted their eyes to Sasuke, and it took a moment before they comprehended what to do. "Oh he's properly just hungry, I'll go check." Sakura said, slipping out of Naruto's tight embrace, sitting on the blanket in front of Sasuke, it was first when she was this close that she smelled the matter.

She stood up, and walked over to the carriage to get the diaper bag. All the while Sasuke was left sobbing, sitting in his dirty diaper, while having an annoyed Uzumaki staring him down. It wasn't like Naruto honestly blamed Sasuke for having ruined their moment, but it wasn't like he could do anything about him anyway, so he ending up staring at the baby crying his heart out.

Soon Sakura returned, placing an extra cloth over the blanket, laying Sasuke on top of it, and started undressing him. She had to remove the over shirt since he was wearing trouser belts, and then removing his pants, and finally opening the one piece that he had been wearing underneath it all. She didn't need to remove his shoes and socks to pull his pants off.

Finally Sakura opened the diaper removing as much waste as possible. Then she cleaned him up with a few pre-moist baby wipes, and then laying him on top of a clean diaper, and powdering him up, and tapping the diaper. She then redressed him, cleaned up the supplies, placing them in the diaper bag again, and went over to the trashcan to throw out the diaper.

During the changing Sasuke had at some point stopped crying, and when Sakura had moved to throw out the diaper, he had resulted to sniffling. Naruto had watched the diaper changing session with a mild interest, having no clue how to do so after all. He had been surprised that as soon as she had begun Sasuke had quieted down. "So you really only cry to draw attention?" Sasuke looked at Naruto with his tear streaked face, and puffy eyes, feeling a small temporary hate towards the other.

"It's not my fault!" Sasuke shrieked, trying to defend himself, Naruto clearly taking up the challenge Sasuke was throwing at him. At this point Sakura returned, feeling the little sparkles of a fight in the air. "Hey you guys, how about we get a snack, I packed something for us to eat!"

Truthfully, at the beginning she had only packed for Sasuke, knowing he needed a lot of small meals, but then she thought that Naruto might turn a little jealous, if she hadn't packed anything for him. She had wanted to avoid packing an entire lunch, so she had packed green tea, and two onigiri* for herself and Naruto, and a bottle of milk, with a small onigiri for Sasuke.

After she had brought it out and poured the tea for herself and Naruto, she sat down on the blanket, to help Sasuke drink the milk, since the bottle being too heavy for him. After a little milk, Sasuke gestured for Sakura to lower the bottle, and she then offered the small onigiri to Sasuke. She kept her seat on the blanket and started on her own onigiri.

Naruto felt slight disappointment from Sakura, when she hadn't come to sit next to him again, but was comforted by the knowledge of Sasuke needing her help. He wanted to join them on the ground, but knew that with his leg it would only be more difficult. So he ended up taking Sakura's eye contact, and they both sat staring at each other for a minute before Sasuke seemed to choke on a bit of rice, and Sakura's attention was drawn from Naruto.

Again Naruto felt a bit sad at having his cherry blossoms attention ripped away. When Sakura had saved Sasuke, she started eating her onigiri again. Slowly Naruto leaned forward, close to her face, where he reached forward and picked a rice grain that had strayed to her cheek, and placed it in his own mouth. She let out a small girlish giggle, winking at him. "Ah Naruto, you're too greedy!"

Okay so this chapter contained a lot! ;D There was the entire explanation with the time that this story is supposed to take place, plus a nice little outing!

Did you guys like it? I'd like to introduce more scenarios with different happenings, so what would happen with our little trio? I'd love it if you guys had any funny ideas, or situations, or alike, that you'd like to see in the story!

Well then until next time!

*Onigiri – a Japanese rice ball

Ps. Sorry it's been so long, I lost the document on my extern hard disk, but found it and posted it finally! ;D