Fanning His Flames

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Chapter 14

Had it already been fifteen years since their wedding? According to the calendar, it had. Though it had all flown by in the blink of an eye.

Of course, there were other ways of measuring the years that had gone by. If Sasuke's mind couldn't quite process how quickly the sands of time were sliding through all their fingers, the fact their eldest child was graduating the Academy today would have done it.

She wasn't alone, of course. A couple dozen classmates had graduated with the feisty blonde who in some ways was the perfect blend of both her parents and yet, still managed to be uniquely...Kana. She was however, towards the end of the line. Damn alphabetical order could be annoying sometimes.

"Your sister is going to be called next." Sasuke smiles down at two of their youngest children. Yuuma and Daiki were still too young to even be enrolled in the Academy yet, but they wanted to be there for Kana's graduation. They also both thought that his back and shoulders were prime real estate. Some things, never changed, Sasuke mused. In another lifetime, he had once been the same way with Itachi. "So, let's get you a better view." He swiftly hoists the three-year-olds onto their respective favorite shoulder with Yuuma taking the left and Daiki the right. Why they had favorite shoulders, Sasuke would never understand. A shoulder was a shoulder, but he digressed.

"Whee!" Daiki squirms happily as he sits up and stares out over the crowd. "Kana!" He raises his tiny hand and points towards the gathered students. There were so many, and so cool!

"Will we be ninja too, Daddy?" Yuuma's fingers curl into his father's hair as he stares out across the crowd with wide eyes. "Like Sissy?"

Sasuke smiles. He was half tempted to grow his hair out longer like Madara's. Just so Yuuma and Daiki would have a 'blanket' of sorts. "Yes, you will. In a couple years, you two will start the Academy. Just like all your other brothers and sisters."

Gaara was presenting the headbands. The red head smiles half in exasperation and half with pride. "Kana Uchiha." Probably because he knew what was going to happen next, Sasuke muses.

Well, perhaps not exactly what would happen next, but Sasuke knew that Gaara knew Kana well enough to realize that she would pull something. She'd inherited her mother's blonde hair, fashion sense, and feisty nature. Gods and Goddesses help him, but Sasuke was pretty sure she was also well on her way to inheriting her mother's figure as well. He was going to have to terrify every preteen and teenage boy in the Five Nations soon, but that was a matter for another day.

"I'm here, Uncle Kazekage!" Kana smiles as she Flickers into his view. While she had Temari's hair, her facial features were distinctly Uchiha. Her eyes were identical to Sasuke's. Or should he say Itachi's thanks to the transplant? She'd also inherited his ivory white skin...something that never failed to amuse the Loser since Kana lived in a desert. Oh and of course his fire affinity.

"I love her, but she's just as much a show off as her mother." Sasuke chuckles as their other children watch the spectacle in awe. Some of them clapping, other's laughing, and giggling. Well, eventually they'd outgrow the giggles. Maybe. They were still young. There was still time. Sasuke at least hoped his sons would outgrow it anyway. That could get awkward and wonderful, he was on another parental tangent inside his head again.

"I wish you'd choose to address me either formally or informally instead of this strange mixture. Was it really necessary to Fire Flicker in front of everyone when you were only ten feet away?" Gaara shakes his head as he places the headband on her. "Never mind. I already know the answer to that." His eyes lock on Temari. "She's just like her mother."

Temari chuckles at the spectacle as she holds their youngest in her arms. "He says that like it's a bad thing to have a little dramatic flair." They'd only managed to bring the three youngest along to the ceremony, though only because their older siblings were too quick to be caught and had disappeared to go play hours ago. Not that she could blame them, of course. It was hard for kids to sit still.

But she was incredibly proud of her eldest daughter. And one day, Nozomi was probably going to follow in her elder sister's footsteps and become a great kunoichi. Of course, that did mean that she was going to need to grow out of toddling around and wearing diapers. But that could wait. For now, Temari was content with carrying about their smallest toddler in her arms. She looked so much like Sasuke, all except for the soft teal of her eyes. Their boys, though, apart from the dark raven hair they both sported, the rest of them was all her. Not that it was going to stop any of them from growing up destined to break hearts left and right.

"It does take some getting used to, but such things do have a way of making life more interesting." Sasuke kisses her cheek. He couldn't help, but smirk at the look on the boys' face. "Believe me, you'll want to kiss a beautiful woman someday." It had taken Sasuke awhile to focus on anything other than his ill fated quest for revenge, but eventually...well, he had eight children with Temari. The math spoke for itself.

"Daddy kissed Mommy." Yuuma burrows his red-cheeked face into his papa's hair as his littlest sister waves her little fists and coos.

"So gross!" Despite his daddy's words, Daiki makes a face. His big brothers had told him about all the girls that tried to kiss them. It was gross and kinda scary. But his Mommy and Daddy liked it and he didn't understand why. It was so weird.

Kana laughs as she bows to Gaara before bounding over to her family. "I'm finally official!" She twirls around and shows off her headband proudly.

"Yes, you're officially a ninja now." Though she was, as Temari was rather proud to say, at least at the level of a chunin already. After all, having two geniuses for parents gave one a leg up on the competition when it came to her exams. Kana hadn't gotten less than a ninety percent score on a single exam, and she never failed any of the practical tests either. Her academic record was as impressive as Temari's own. "Do you know what that means?"

"Uh huh. Papa's going to teach me how to Summon Aoda and Garuda." She beams at her mother. "That way, Minato can stop bragging that he has a Summon and I don't. Besides, hawks and snakes are cooler than toads. They're kinda gross, but I guess they get the job done."

Sasuke wasn't sure whether to smirk at his daughter's assessment or roll his eyes at the fact Naruto had already taught his son how to summon giant toads. "Well, that's one small part of being a ninja, but accurate." He was fairly certain Temari had something else in mind, but it was Kana's graduation and if that was what she wanted to focus on...let her.

Temari sighs and shakes her head. "Yes, because you picked a bird and a snake over being able to summon a giant weasel." Why was it that Kamatari got no love from her children? He wasn't THAT scary. In fact, he was downright adorable.

"Kamatari is cute and all, but I think Ren wants him." Kana shrugs, trying to feign a sense of casualness. Sasuke knew that move. His daughter was hopeful that she hadn't really hurt Temari's feelings, but wouldn't say as much.

"But no, remember that you're going to get assigned to a team soon, which means that you'll have to learn how to get along with your teammates, no matter how annoying they might be."

"Yes, I know that teamwork is important. Never mind the fact that Papa tried to kill most of his teammates multiple times." She giggles. "I'll try to play nicely."

Teal eyes gleam with mischief. "Yes, and I've met every single one of them. Only one hasn't made me want to smack them at some point." Temari's gaze travels over to her own brothers. "And of course, I'm the one who got stuck with siblings for teammates."

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" Kankuro and Gaara both shoot Temari incredulous glances.

"Just that I love you both, but sometimes we could have done with a few less opportunities to express that." Especially when Gaara was still not in his right mind. But those days were long past now. "No one wants to be exposed to their siblings all hours of the day once they hit puberty."

"You'll find out what that is when you're older." Sasuke sighs. Already knowing that their younger children would want to know what puberty was. Fortunately, they'd already had that talk with Kana. So that was one awkward conversation down. Probably 6-7 more to go. There was a decent chance they could just have that discussion with their twins both present at once and minimize the number of times that dreadful conversation had to occur.

"Aw…" Daiki pouts and tugs on his daddy's hair. "But Kana got to know! Why can't we know too? Why do we gotta wait? We're smart!"

"You have to wait because it doesn't matter how smart you are." Temari boops her son on the nose. "Trust me, you don't want to know that yet. It's even more gross than when your Daddy kisses me."

"Ugh…kisses…blegh." Daiki crinkles his nose in his toddler disgust. "Kisses are evil."

"You're very smart, but you're just not old enough. You have to be...taller." It wasn't a lie. It just wasn't everything. For their purposes though, it was a sufficient explanation in Sasuke's mind. "And one day, you'll probably change your mind about kisses."

"Nu-uh!" Daiki makes a face and sticks out his tongue. "And I'll be tall, you'll see! I'll be taller than you, Daddy, and then you can ride on my shoulder!"

Sasuke blinks. He didn't now how to respond to that. "I suppose we'll have to see what happened, but that's very nice of you to offer." Adorable in a highly impractical way. It would never happen. Still, who was he to crush whatever...eccentric dreams dwelt in the hearts of toddlers?

"Daddy…" Yuuma tugs softly on his daddy's hair. "Wanna go home…" He was shy on the best of days, and this many people made him a little uncomfortable. But it was better to be off the ground on his daddy's shoulder than on the ground where he couldn't see through all the giant legs.

Sasuke smiles. Once upon a time, he had been the same way as Yuuma. Only it had been Itachi he clung to when overloaded. "Yeah. We can go home. The ceremony is over anyway." The last student had been called. Someone actually had a surname that started with Z. Sasuke couldn't remember when the last time that had happened. Zabuza had a first name that started with Z, but a last name?

"Okay." Yuuma smiles into his daddy's hair. "Can we invite Aoda for dinner?" He loved that snake so much and loved cuddles with the giant snake almost as much as cuddles with his daddy, especially when the giant snake was sitting in the sun and soaking up all the warmth like a big scaly blanket.

"Of course, we can." Sasuke smiles at the toddler before calling out to the rest of their family. "Let's head back."

Four heads of black and blond hair race through the crowd as their small army of sons jump down from one of the buildings adjacent to the academy schoolyard. And in the lead is their second oldest, Ren, his dark eyes gleaming out from behind equally dark hair, both with a tint of blue to them. The ten-year-old slides to a smooth stop in the sand, a smirk plastered to his face. "You're done with the boring stuff now?"

Sasuke snorts in amusement. "I hope you'll find your own graduation more entertaining in a couple years." He pokes his eldest son's forehead affectionately. "Your academic and physical test skills are exceptional, but you've got less patience than Daiki and Yuuma."

Ren rolls his eyes and goes to stand next to his mother and poke Nozomi's cheek, eliciting a happy burble from his little sister. "Yuuma's got tons of patience. He managed to make it through the entire thing before wanting to go home." If this had been a year ago, Yuuma would have started crying after five minutes exposed to this many people.

"Yes, you should follow his example when it comes to patience." Sasuke watches the interactions with a smile. "And he'll likely benefit by imitating your boldness...to a degree." Gods and Goddesses help them all, there was definitely at least a little Temari in all their children. He loved his wife with all his heart, but Sasuke wasn't sure that the world was ready for when their children reached adulthood. Oh well, they'd have to adjust.

"Sasuke, relax." Temari presses a kiss to Sasuke's cheek and smiles. "Everything's going to be fine. Bold is good. And Yuuma will be fine. You're not much of a people person and you turned out alright."

"That's mostly because I have you, but I know they will be. They're Sand Villagers." He smiles at his wife.

"And so are you, sweetheart." Temari's eyes glimmer with teasing humor as she frees up an arm for their five-year-old. "Remember that, because if you decide to go running off somewhere, you'll have a small army chasing after you."

"Yes, I'd say it's in my best interest not to forget that." He chuckles. "A terrifying army the likes of which would have even Madara quivering in fear." Particularly, when any of them threw a tantrum. How his eardrums had ever survived in tact was a mystery during their terrible twos.

"A terrifying flaming army with tempers and abilities to match." Temari's steps leave imprints in the sand as she walks, but only for a moment before being trampled by several pairs of much smaller feet. The sound of five pairs of feet trampling down the sand behind her was a sound that she had grown to love dearly over the years.

"Exactly. I guess we should count ourselves lucky that none of them inherited the red haired genes in your family." Sasuke smirks at her, unable to resist teasing her. "I hear red heads have even worse tempers than blondes."

"And you've met Gaara." His was the most terrifying red-headed temper that Temari has ever seen. "We'll teach them to control the flames of their temper. Don't worry. After all, none of them have successfully burned down the house yet."

"Not for a lack of trying." Sasuke snorts. "I wouldn't trade them or you for the world, though. I promised Aoda I'd let him 'train' with them. That, and it is about dinner time anyway."

"Alright, then we'll let them fan their flames later." Temari surprises Sasuke with another kiss, prompting a rather disgusted groan from several of their boys.

"Yeah." Sasuke returns the kiss and smirks, finding their groans delightfully entertaining.

Temari laughs and drops her voice suggestively, but not too suggestively. "And maybe later, I can fan yours."

"You always do." The smirk never weavers. "I think you're the only one who could have talked me into staying somewhere back then. I'm glad you did."

"Yeah." A gentle warmth spreads all through Temari's chest as a tiny hand squeezes hers. "I'm glad I did too."