AN: This was day one of the second week of the NaruSaku fortnight I did way back when. I was in a very family feel when I did that week. As will become obvious lol.

Summary: Sakura has a surprise for Naruto, one their daughters can't wait to give him. Canon!AU.

Chapter Eighteen: NaruSaku - Family Values

'Sachi!' Sakura shouted up the stairs, leaning against the wall as she huffed out a heavy breath.

You'd think by her third pregnancy she'd have learned where her body's limits were. But no, even after doing this song and dance twice already, she still didn't know what she could and couldn't do until her body showed her. Aggressively.

Uzumaki children were a terror before they were even born she swore. Lovable, but terrors.

'Mama?' A little voice from around her ankles asked. Sakura looked down to see the curious little face, blonde hair curling adorably around her cheeks, faint whisker marks just like her father's stretching when she smiled. 'Are you okay?'

Oh well, a bit of soap and water would get that crayon off. Naruto could do that when he got home.

'Mama's fine baby,' Sakura leant down, her bump only hindering her a little more than usual as she scooped up her youngest daughter. 'Daddy's on his way home soon, your sister is just taking forever.'

She rolled her eyes dramatically and pouted, making the little girl giggle. She wrapped her arms around Sakura's neck for balance, which made her wobble slightly at the tug of tiny arms. She'd be as strong as Sakura was, no doubt about it.

Another steadying tug and Sakura had to swallow a weary groan. She wasn't too far gone but she was going to have to ask her parents for help with the girls soon. Once her bump really started getting big she wouldn't be able to pick Ichika up before too long.

And the little monster was a cuddler who loved being high up. If she didn't lift the girl, she'd climb up her legs or something.

With said toddler resting on her hip, Sakura shouted up the stairs again. 'Come on Sachi, Daddy's going to be here any minute, what are you doing up there?'

'Coming!' The high pitched voice of her eldest daughter called. A head of long pink hair appeared around the corner of the steps. 'Sorry sorry sorry. I wanted to use the drawing I did yesterday to show Daddy.'

A small green headband kept Sachi's hair out of her face, that familiar Haruno forehead on show for the world, as proud as it should. Sakura ran her fingers through her daughter's hair and smiled contently.

She'd never dreamed she'd have any children, not with the way her taste in boys had led her and the way that the world had been turning. And now she had two beautiful daughters and a third child on the way. With the most wonderful of men to give them to her.

She smiled warmly at them both and took Sachi's hand, the one holding her painting was already occupied, and led her girls into the living room. The room Naruto would automatically look for them in when he wasn't bombarded at the door.

'Do you think Daddy will like it Mama?' Sachi asked, her smile small and hopeful. Such a sweet little girl, shy but not timid. Kind and above all else, loving. 'I could always get the one I did today instead …'

They'd been so lucky with her temperament being as calm as it was. Given how young they'd been when Sachi had come along, and so new to responsibility that wasn't about killing enemy ninja, if Sachi had been anything other than angelic, she and Naruto might have decided one was enough.

Yeah, a deeply amused part of her laughed. A vision of Naruto naked in their bed with that big old grin she so dearly loved, flashed across her mind. Sure you would.

'He'll love it baby,' Sakura said with a smile, ignoring her brain, then slowly eased herself down on the sofa, somehow managing to keep Ichika from toppling away by sheer force of will.

Sachi watched her sit imperiously, a troubled thought clearly behind her bluest of blue eyes, her little mouth stuck in a worried pout.

'What's growing in there petal?' Sakura asked gently, running her hand over the eight year old's hair.

Sachi blushed at the name, and kicked her feet just a little against the carpet. 'Are you sure Daddy doesn't know about the baby? He's so clever, he might have figured it out! And the surprise would be for nothing!'

Sakura did her best not to snort. It was sweet that Sachi was still young enough to think that Naruto was as smart as she did. If you asked her, Naruto Uzumaki invented everything from gravity to why bees hummed.

It would be so heart-breaking for the girl to discover that Naruto didn't actually know everything. She hoped Sachi would be well into her teens by the time she realised that. But she sadly doubted it.

It had taken the man almost a year of not so subtle hints to realise that Sakura wanted to date him. She'd gotten so desperate that she had almost gone through with Ino's plan of just flashing the loveable dumbass.

So no, he wouldn't have figured out that their next baby was going to be the son that he had always wanted. He adored their daughters, Naruto Uzumaki was nothing if he wasn't loving, but Sakura knew he wanted a son.

He wasn't the only one.

And come hell or high water, she had promised herself she would give him one. A couple if she could manage it. She had always wanted lots of kids, always, and at least this one would be sort of planned …

Sachi, their first happy accident, had come from well … heh, her deciding to gamble with her birth control running out the day before. When they were twenty-one and figured Naruto could pull out quick enough. The eight year old in front of her right now proof that her husband's 'pull out game', as Ino charmingly put it way back when, had needed work.

Ichika's conception was somehow more embarrassing to tell people. She happened thanks to a very covert undercover mission that had them playing newlyweds. Which given how they were fresh off their actual honeymoon and still loved up to the nines, well … they'd gotten a bit too invested in the charade.

Thank God Tsunade had been too busy laughing at them to be mad that they blew their cover because Sakura had screamed Naruto's real name at the point of orgasm. In the room next to their intended target.

Who knew they were coming.

Literally!

Their son had been the only one they'd deliberately been trying for and even he wasn't entirely planned.

Date nights were always short notice and much unexpected delights and the consequences of them were equally so in this case.

They thought she was too far into her cycle to get pregnant and with them being so used to not using condoms and not pulling out … they hadn't expected it to be the time they made love when they weren't trying to make a baby that would do it. Honest.

She was meant to be getting her period the next day anyway.

The look of giddy shock on his face a week later when she'd handed him the positive pregnancy test was just as radiant as the ones before.

Though he had looked rather faint when he'd realised that meant three Uzumaki children. He'd probably actually faint if they got pregnant again. She'd have to get a picture of it.

'Girls?' Naruto's voice came suddenly, breaking her out of her memories as the door opened with a jangle of bells. 'Daddy's home!'

Ichika, who had started to doze on her shoulder perked up and looked up towards the hallway, a sleepy smile on her face at the sound of her father's voice and Sachi … who was supposed to be waiting with her painting … was already darting through the door.

Sakura laughed at the familiar 'Ooof!' of her eldest daughter colliding with her husband who never seemed to learn.

'Daddy!' the girl crowed as Naruto laughed and he lifted her up and cuddled her to his chest in a way that never failed to make Sakura's heart melt. 'Mama has a surprise for you!'

Child never could keep a secret, Sakura chuckled to herself.

'Oh?' Naruto said as he appeared in the doorway, being led by the hand, with a warm, happy smile aimed immediately at the rest of his 'girls'. 'What's Mama's surprise for me?'

Sakura smiled back and nodded to a waiting Sachi. 'Show him sweetheart.'

She lifted up the painting, which had curled into a scroll, and waited patiently for him to take it. Her blue eyes dazzling when she looked back over at Sakura quickly.

Naruto unfurled the painting and his smile grew a little more. 'Did you make this Sachi? It's wonderful!'

Sachi blushed and beamed and prodded him in the side. 'Read what it says Daddy!'

Naruto chortled, his eyes moving over the painting and then he reached the bottom, his eyes freezing on what Sakura knew was Sachi's suggestion for a name. A distinctly male name.

'Yuuto,' Naruto said quietly. He looked from Sachi, who was swaying side to side and beaming, to Sakura. 'A boy?'

Tears dared to well in her eyes as she nodded. They fell freely as Naruto's mouth split into a smile that filled his handsome face and he knelt down in front of Sakura, his head against her bump.

'We're gonna have a son Sakura-chan?' he mumbled breathlessly, opening his arms for Sachi to slink into him. He looked up. 'You're sure?'

'Yeah,' Sakura said, her fingers finding his and entwining with them snugly, the love in his squeeze so loud and whole she almost vibrated.

'We're going to have a son.'

AN: So this might give you guys some idea as to what to expect from my future NaruSaku kids. They will undoubtedly appear again. The birth order, age differences and even appearances may change but I suspect I'll use the same names.

This is why those who know me will never hear me talk about Shinachiku, Hanami or Arashi in great detail. It's nothing personal but I had my own NS kids before we even met Pein guys, I'm ooooold fandom lol.

If you would like more info about Sachi, Ichika, Yuuto and indeed any other babies they may have ... like Catholic rabbits these two ... sit tight, you will see more of the old stories I had and probably new ones too.

If there's enough interest, I may even commission some art for them. We shall see.

Until then. Happy NaruSakuMonth2022 and I hope you enjoy the rest of the stuff I have for you before May.