notes: typos fixed! (12/28/2018)

rating: K

disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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9. alphabet

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"Okay, Sarada-chan, the letter 'r' stands for—"

"—Rabbit."

"Yes—" Naruto pauses, abruptly, quick and fumbling at the unasked for answer. "SASUKE, DON'T INTERRUPT ME!"

Four year-old Sarada blinks as she looks between her Papa and Uncle Naruto bickering in front of her and tilts her head to the side. "So Papa, the letter 'r' stands for 'rabbit'?"

Sasuke issues a nod, one that Sarada recognizes to be the nod that no one could go against—not even Uncle Naruto, the Nanadaime. "Yes."

Scoffing, Naruto had taken a liken to giving the evil eye out to her Papa because Sarada remembered that Mama said that they liked fighting a lot. She'd always wondered how bad the fights would get. "Why 'rabbit' when it could be—"

Sasuke rubs his temple when an aggravating feeling made his vein pop. "For the last time, idiot, she is not putting down 'ramen' for her project." Let him be damned if he allowed such a stupid idiot influence his own child. Hokage or not, he still knew Naruto as the bumbling fool he'd grown up with who always needed to pee in the forest when girls were present and felt validated over every Ichiraku coupon he got.

"BUT RAMEN STARTS WITH THE LETTER 'R'!" Naruto bangs his fist on the table when he narrows his eyes at Sasuke. "How is that invalid? Or do you really just not like ramen? I got a bone to pick with you for that, still!"

"You're just hungry right now, huh, idiot?" He never forgot those old days where the blond idiot badgered him, morning till noon, about grabbing a bowl of ramen from Ichiraku's. Sasuke is actually quite indifferent to it, but he cannot stand to eat it every day, every second—the fool doesn't understand that regular people liked different food.

Naruto growls, but did not reach to—probably—strangle Sasuke since a befuddled Sarada still sits in the room. "One day... I'll get you back for this..." Calling him an idiot and belittling ramen! Talk about rude! And in front of his own daughter! Even Sakura would've agreed to, at least, one bowl before she'd knock him on the head for annoying her too much.

Promptly ignoring him, Sasuke pats Sarada's head, his eyes showing approval when he sees her drawing a rabbit on a small, handmade booklet. "So have you decided what to put for letter 's' yet, salad?"

"Don't call me that, Papa," Sarada automatically sighs, cradling her chin in one resting palm and sighs. "I was thinking of putting a sunflower for letter 's.'"

"Good choice." Sasuke nods as Naruto flashes her a friendly, warm smile and a thumbs up. He could tell the idiot was still vexed about earlier—the most prominent piece of proof being his twitching eyebrow.

Sarada starts to drift to her thoughts. "I like sunflowers, Papa. They seem so sunny, warm, and pleasant. And, they remind of Uncle Naruto."

Naruto, flattered and forgetting his troubles, crushes Sarada in a bear hug, ruffling her little head of hair with his bubbly eyes and melting heart. Sasuke makes some mental notes to himself as he stares at the sunflower Sarada had drawn.