**ATTENTION**
*PLEASE READ!*

I have altered this fic! I deleted several chapters and made changes to chapters 6 and 7, so if you're seeing this on a brand new chapter, go back and reread the last TWO chapters before reading this to know what I changed and how it'll affect the story going forward!

Also! ...I know its been ummmmmm... five... years... since I added a chapter to this so like maybe just go and reread the fic to remember what even happened at all lol im so sorry. I'm so sorry.

Despite the unfortunate outcome of their first sparring session, Nori still insisted he wanted to see more and more of his father and Sasuke fighting. He didn't remember anything after he lost control seeing Naruto covered in mud. It was a lot like when Naruto lost control over the nine-tails when he was younger. Naruto told Sasuke during one of their (now bi-weekly, at least) dinners that he tried explaining about the beasts to Nori, but had had a hard time with it.

"I mean, I was 12 when we were in the Land of Waves, and I didn't even understand it when it happened that first time. It wasn't until I left with Jiraiya that I really started to realize what was happening, and how dangerous it could be. Nori isn't even four! He was just happy he could tell me about his 'friends.' Those bastards. Don't think ive forgiven Kurama for keeping this from me. That fox is on my shit list, even if they did it to protect him."

Sasuke was trying to pay attention to him, but the images from the fight they had just before coming back to Sasuke's house were floating through his mind. They knew better than to go near anywhere with mud now, and Nori hadnt had another incident. Nori loved watching and cheering them on so much that Naruto had found time at least once a week for them to fight.

They'd been sparring so often that Sasuke's cache of images of Naruto grinning and sweating had expanded greatly. It had been bad enough just spending time with him again. He had a hard time concentrating after they'd sparred because he couldn't stop thinking about the moments when their skin would touch, and the way Naruto would look at him.

…kind of like he was looking at him now.

Sasuke caught Naruto's eye from Nori's side. Naruto was staring at him.

Those blue eyes looked away quickly, concentrating on the drawing Nori was trying to explain to him, but Sasuke saw. He felt warm; something that was also becoming more frequent in Naruto's company. Sasuke stood to go refill his water and told himself it wouldn't be long before Naruto took Nori home for the night and then he could remember their earlier fight in his room alone. Something he'd been doing far too often for his own comfort.

He returned to the living room and the scene that greeted him still made his chest ache, despite how common place it had become in his life. Naruto had moved Nori to his lap and was ticking his neck as Nori giggled and giggled and tried to get away.

"Dad!" he gasped, laughing that bird-twinkling little laugh. "Dad! Stop!"

"Noooo!" Naruto growled, making his voice deeper. "I'm the tickle monster and I have to tickle Nori fooreverrrr!"

"No! Sasuke! Save me! I'm being tickled to DEATH!"

Naruto released Nori and jumped up after him, wiggling his fingers menacingly.

"The tickle monster is gonna get you, Aonori!"

Nori half laughed, half screamed, running across the room from his father and crashing into Sasuke's legs. Sasuke smiled softly, quickly putting a hand on Nori's head and stepping in front of him to play along.

"Don't let him get me, Sasuke!" Nori said, nearly out of breath from laughter. His tiny hands were grabbing onto the fabric of Sasuke's pants and he was smiling wide. Sasuke took a mock defensive stance as Naruto crouched in approach, a glint in his eye. He was still waggling his fingers and even that was enough to make Nori squirm and giggle.

"If I can't tickle Nori," Naruto said, still in his goofy fake-deep voice, "I guess I'll just have to… tickle Sasuke!"

He leapt over to Sasuke in a flash, his fingers digging softly into the sides of Sasuke's stomach.

Sasuke hadn't expected it, and his body certainly didn't react the way he expected. He nearly jumped out of his skin. A hiss escaped him completely involuntarily. Naruto looked up at him, nearly as surprised as he was, eyes wide and gleeful that he'd gotten such a reaction.

He ignored the glare Sasuke sent him and tickled him again, moving a little higher up to his ribs. A tingle went up Sasuke's spine and he bit his lip to keep from exclaiming again. He tried to wiggle out of the way of Naruto's fingers before his face flushed and Naruto noticed, but he couldn't move much with Nori clinging onto his legs and Naruto knew it. He looked ever the wily fox as he grinned those pink whiskered cheeks and started to reach a little higher, like all he wanted was to hear Sasuke hiss again.

Sasuke was trapped, and things were looking dire until Nori decided to spare him.

"No!" he cried, leaping out from behind Sasuke's legs and straight into his father's stomach. "Sasuke I'll protect you from the tickle monster!"

Naruto let Nori tackle him and pretended to fall tragically to the floor, careful to let Nori fall on top of him so he wouldn't get hurt.

Naruto's shirt had gotten scrunched up in the fall and Nori was attempting to tickle his father's stomach in revenge as Naruto faked wailing and moaning in defeat.

Sasuke swallowed thickly, unable to tear his eyes away from Naruto's belly button and the lines of his hips that disappeared below his waistband. His cache of tantalizing memories had just gotten an upgrade.

"You've defeated me!" Naruto cried, letting his head fall to the floor.

Nori was grinning big and wide, sitting on his father's chest. The image of the two of them was almost unfairly cute. It bordered on genuinely painful.

Naruto caught his eye, face flushed with the thrill of the last several minutes. Sasuke blinked and looked away quickly before looking back at Naruto. They stared at each other for a long half-second, and Naruto's eyes were scrunched up with his smile, and his expression was soft.

And then, maybe it was just a trick of the light? Maybe Sasuke was just seeing what he wanted to see?

But before looking away and sitting up, it seemed like Naruto had glanced down, just slightly, to look at Sasuke's lips.

He sat up quickly after that, and his shirt fell back in place. Sasuke looked away, face hot, threatening to expose his thoughts.

Naruto tossed a giddy Nori into the air and caught him deftly before standing up.

"Well, we should head home, Nori," he said, clearing his throat. "I think we've bothered Sasuke enough tonight."

He was avoiding Sasuke's eyes as he quickly gathered Nori's jacket and the leftovers Sasuke always packed up for him to take home.

"Awwww," Nori said, hanging off his father's hip and looking imploringly to Sasuke.

"But I didn't get to see Muchi today! Do you tink he's okay?"

Sasuke tried smile and act like everything was normal.

"I'm sure he'll be here when you come over next time."

"Promise, Sasuke? Dad, can we come over to Sasuke's house tomorrow?"

Naruto's footsteps faltered and he looked at his son.

"Sorry, Nori. But ive got to work late tomorrow. I asked Sakura if she would watch you."

"Well," Nori said, thinking very hard. "Maybe me and Aunt Sakura can come see Sasuke tomorrow. Can we, Dad?"

Naruto hesitated again, glancing towards Sasuke, clearly unsure.

"Nori," he said. "We can't come bother Sasuke at his house every day—"

"No," Sasuke cut him off, though he was trying not to sound eager. "Sakura can bring him over tomorrow. It's okay. I haven't hung out with Sakura in a while, anyway."

Naruto turned to look at him completely this time, eyes a little wide, still a little unsure. Sasuke nodded and smiled at Nori.

"Yay! I get to see Sasuke tomorrow!" the boy cheered, and then blushed.

"Thank you for potecting me from the tickle monster, Sasuke."

"I think you protected me," Sasuke replied with another soft smile. "I'll make sure Muchi is around to play with you tomorrow."

Nori grinned with excitement and Sasuke realized that Naruto was staring very intently at him, and he didn't even look away when Sasuke caught his eye. Instead he just gave Sasuke a sad smile that Sasuke couldn't understand. He could see Naruto swallow before turning towards the door.

"Thanks for dinner, Sasuke," he said. "And thanks for, well, anyway. Just thanks, I guess."

And then they left, just like that, leaving Sasuke confused in the middle of his living room. He took a deep breath and looked around it, feeling a jumbled mess of emotions.

The walls seemed to echo with the absence of Nori and Naruto's laughter.

His house was always too quiet after the Uzumaki boys left it.

Sakura brought Nori over the next night like they'd planned. Nori wanted to show her how he could help Sasuke make dinner, and she sat at Sasuke's small kitchen table and watched as Nori stirred a pot of curry and Sasuke chopped veggies beside him. He regaled her with the story of the terrible tickle fight from the night before and Sasuke was ever grateful for his stoic personality.

"I didn't know Sasuke was ticklish!" she remarked, much too enthusiastically. Sasuke turned to glare at her. She laughed at him and Nori looked between the two of them and smiled wide because he'd said something funny.

The cat showed up just before dinner was finished, without any unusual injuries this time. Nori was so excited to see him he nearly fell off the stool he was on to be tall enough to see the stove. Sasuke was tensed and ready to catch him if he fell, even if it meant dropping the pan of vegetables he'd just finished cooking, but thankfully Nori realized his mistake and carefully climbed down the stool to run over and greet the cat.

"Oh, this is the famous Muchi I've heard so much about," Sakura said, standing and placing her hands on her hips.

Nori gathered Muchi clumsily in his arms and held him up like a trophy. Sasuke heard the cat purr from the other side of the room, despite the awkward hold the child had on him. He was a weird cat.

Sakura leaned in to scratch the cat under his chin and then took a few steps towards Sasuke to murmur so Nori, who had taken Muchi into the living room, wouldn't hear,

"He's not much to look at though, is he? Is he missing half of his ear?"

"He's a stray," Sasuke retorted, though he wasn't sure why he was defending the grimy thing. He'd said from the beginning that the cat was a sad, mangy creature.

"Why don't you get a real cat?" Sakura asked. "Kiba's girlfriend works at the shelter."

"I know Tamaki," Sasuke replied, sighing. "But I didn't want a cat. This one just appeared and I haven't been able to get rid of him. But he's not mycat."

"Sasuke!" Nori's chirpy voice carried from the other room. "Can I feed Muchi dinner?"

"You feed it?" Sakura raised her eyebrows knowingly.

Sasuke knew better than to respond. He set the food on the counter and went in to the living room to grab the cat food from the top shelf where he kept it so Nori could scoop some into Muchi's bowl. That long, whip-like tail flicked back and forth as he started eating, and Sasuke had to take Nori by the hand to get him to go back into the kitchen so they could eat their own dinner.

The boy still wasn't happy until they'd finished eating and he could run back into the living room to toss a small plastic ball around the floor and watch the cat chase after it. Sasuke offered Sakura a beer and she happily accepted, the two of them settling onto the couch watching Nori play.

Sasuke could feel Sakura's eyes on him. He took a sip of his drink and tried to ignore the fact that she clearly had something she wanted to say. She wound up blurting it out anyway, unable to help herself.

"You're really good with him, you know."

She was watching him very intently, green eyes bright and flashing. He made sure not to give anything away.

"I'm not doing anything special."

"Well, you've surprised a lot of us," she stated plainly. "How you act around him, and how much he likes you. You change your voice when you talk to him, did you know that?"

Sasuke scoffed, crossing his arms.

"No I don't."

"You do!" She giggled. "Your voice kind of goes all soft and deep. I hadn't even noticed it, but Naruto mentioned it the other day."

Sasuke's heart skipped a beat. Naruto had talked to Sakura about him? When?

"What did he say?" he asked, trying to sound casual, like it barely mattered. Something about Sakura's expression made him doubt how effective this was. She shrugged, probably mocking his failed casual demeanor. She really was too smart for her own good. At least Naruto was much worse at picking up on subtle body language cues.

"Just that you're really good at looking after Nori, and you're good at talking with him. Naruto thinks it's cute."

Cute?

He cleared his throat. He wished Sakura would stop looking at him like that, like she was one puzzle piece away from figuring him out.

"Is it so surprising that Nori likes me?"

"Well, I just don't think anyone would have pegged you as the fatherly type."

"I'm not his father."

"No," she agreed. "But you have these fatherly instincts with him. Like earlier, when you let him help with dinner, but you watched him the whole time so he wouldn't hurt himself. You're careful with him."

Sakura's expression had gotten really intense. She was staring at him in a way that almost made him uncomfortable, like she was scanning him from top to bottom. It was really starting to make him nervous. He hoped she wasn't about to try and confess to him again. That would be a nightmare.

"Sasuke…" She started, and he held a hand out to stop her.

"Sakura—"

"Do you remember what you said when we were kids? When we all got assigned to team seven?"

It threw Sasuke for a loop. That wasn't at all where he thought the conversation was leading.

"What about it?"

She finally looked away from him, blushing slightly. Not like she was embarrassed, but like she wasn't sure she actually wanted to have the conversation at all. She bit her lip.

"Remember how you said, well, about getting revenge, obviously. But the other part, you know? About reviving the Uchiha Clan?"

"Oh," he said.

"Sorry!" she was blushing hard, her face nearly pinker than her hair, and she brought her hands to the sides of her face to hide. "Nevermind! Forget I said anything!"

"What exactly are you getting at, Sakura?"

She started to laugh awkwardly, but was clearly relieved that Sasuke didn't react too much to her bringing the topic up at all.

"It's stupid!" She said, sounding more like the Sakura he'd gotten to finally be friends with after years of her being annoyingly in love with him. The Sakura he actually liked hanging out with. "Don't even worry about it, I'm being ridiculous!"

"Hn," he said, and took a sip of beer casually. He could tell she was building herself up to just come out and say it despite whatever was making her so embarrassed.

"Okay! Just hear me out! I've been thinking about… having a baby."

"With," Sasuke trailed off as she stared red-faced at him,

"…me?" he finished flatly.

She didn't answer. But she didn't deny it either.

And all the sudden Sasuke's mind was filled with thoughts of it. A kid like Nori, with dark Uchiha features. Pale skin, small little hands and feet, baby-soft hair. He didn't care about reviving the Uchiha anymore, but a baby who was his…

Sometimes Sasuke wanted to be more affectionate with Nori, to pat his head or clean his face. To hug him if he was upset or sit him on his lap while he was explaining his day. The way Naruto was with Nori.

He only resisted this impulse because he didn't feel like he was allowed to be so casually affectionate with a child who wasn't his, even if sometimes he could tell that Nori wished he would. Hinata and his guilt still hung over his head whenever he looked into those Hyuuga eyes.

But if a child was his…

He saw himself holding a swaddled baby, tossing a giggling toddler into the air, catching him and snuggling him tight. He saw a baby who looked like him, and smiled at him and called him "Dad." A little black-haired child who ran around his apartment chasing after Nori, who treated Nori like an older brother, and looked up to him, admired him, adored him—

…he never would have thought that was something he would have wanted. But the want of it ached dully inside his chest. It was the ache of someone who lost their family too young. Someone who had been alone so long that he'd gone numb to the feeling of loneliness.

He understood Naruto more all of the sudden; the way he looked at Nori, the devastation of seeing Nori in pain or danger. Nori was the family Naruto had never had.

Was it so crazy for Sasuke to want the same?

"Wow…" Sakura exhaled, very quietly. Sasuke looked up at her, blinking fast. She was watching him with a soft, awed, curious expression.

"I," she bit her lip. "I didn't think you'd actually consider it."

And then reality came rushing back in. Why did he think he could care for a child? Just because he managed to keep Nori alive for the few hours he got to spend with him?

And he hadn't been thinking about Sakura at all. In his imaginings she wasn't even there, despite the role she would have in creating this fantasy child. When he'd pictured someone being there with him it was Naruto and Nori that he saw. That wasn't fair to Sakura, and it wasn't real. There was no way it would work. It only seemed so easy because it was all in his head. When had he become a dreamer? He was supposed to be the realistic one.

Still, it was nice to think about, even just for a moment.

"It's an interesting idea," he said slowly. "But I don't think that's really what you want, Sakura."

It would be easier to make it seem like he was turning her down for her own sake. Besides, he knew that to be true. She wanted to have a child with someone who would love her, not someone who would abandon her without a second thought.

She blinked at him, her face still red, and then she started to laugh.

"Oh my gosh!" she said through her laughter. "What is wrong with me? How could I even ask you that? Am I crazy or what? I must be ovulating, or I'm about to start my period, or I've just lost my mind!"

Sasuke smiled. He knew her pretty well.

But why did he feel disappointed?

She nearly had tears in her eyes from laughing, but she'd finally caught her breath.

"I know why I keep thinking about babies. I've just being spending too much time with Nori, and Shikamaru and Temari's kids, and, well—don't tell anyone about this—"

Sasuke leveled her with a look and she laughed.

"Right, of course you won't. Well, Ino had a pregnancy scare last week and it turned out to be a false alarm, but I think I just didn't want her to beat me and be pregnant first."

"Really, Sakura?" Sasuke asked, and rolled his eyes.

She nudged his shoulder playfully.

"Oh come on, Sasuke. Like you've never done anything crazy just to get the upper hand on your rival. Say, abandoning the village to go join some freak who wants to take over your body? Sound familiar?"

He grimaced, shoving her back.

"You are never going to let that go, are you?"

"Obviously not. I still can't believe you actually considered it for a second—having a baby. I guess all this time around Nori really has changed you. I'd sort of wondered…"

She trailed off, glancing away like she was ashamed.

"What?"

"Don't be mad," she said. "I sort of wondered whether you only liked Nori because, you know, he's like a little Naruto."

Sasuke frowned.

"I don't think that anymore!" She corrected, waving her hands wildly. "I promise! Like I said earlier, you really are good with him! Honestly when I first thought about finding someone to father my child I wouldn't have even considered you, but lately you've been so much… softer, Sasuke."

"That's not a compliment," he grumbled, wondering if everyone in the village could see how soft he'd gotten. Between Naruto and Nori even he had to admit he'd started to turn to mush.

"Yes it is," she argued. "I mean, it's got to be better than how you were before. You know, when you and Naruto broke up."

He flinched, his shoulders tensing. But she just barreled on like it was nothing.

"I didn't know what to do about the two of you! You were all flat and mopey all the time, like a sad little grey cloud of angst. Like you were all that sunny before! And Naruto was this anxious, jumpy weirdo for a while. I swear no matter where we went he was always looking around to see if you would show up. And if he did see you, he was all tense like a rubber band about to snap. I mean, Kakashi had to talk me out of just trapping you two in a room together until you worked your weird shit out."

This was an interesting revelation on several fronts. The fact that Sakura had noticed his mood was troubling, but not all that surprising. She wasn't the first to comment on the sudden distance between he and Naruto.

The idea that Naruto was always looking for him, was on edge if Sasuke was around—that had to mean something. What did it mean? If that nighthad just been some drunken joke, why would it have made Naruto anxious?

The idea of Sakura trapping him and Naruto in a room together was laughable. They would have been able to get out easily. But it did make him wonder what might have happened if they'd been forced to talk about it back then. If anything would have happened differently.

He glanced at Nori and then away.

"You talked to Kakashi about me and Naruto?" Sasuke asked.

"Of course I did!" she nodded. "He knows you both as well as I do. But he said not to butt in, that you two would work it out on your own. I guess you did eventually."

Yes, eventually. After four years of awkward conversations and sleepless nights and staring at the village gates wishing he could walk through so he didn't have to see how happy Naruto was without him.

"You know," Sakura's voice had shifted, gotten more gentle. It made Sasuke nervous. "Im trying not to be nosy, but of course I've been worried for a long time. You can talk to me about it, you know?"

For a moment Sasuke really considered it. He thought about telling her everything, down to the way Naruto's gaze had made his stomach do somersaults yesterday. He thought about telling her about that night, and the day after, and how he and Naruto grew farther and father apart until Hinata was killed and they came crashing back together. He thought maybe if he explained it to her she would understand why he felt so guilty all the time, even as he was so happy that Naruto was in his life again. He thought about asking her what he should do. If he was allowed to tell Naruto how he felt. If she thought there was any way Naruto had ever felt the same. If she thought he deserved Naruto, after everything he'd done…

Instead he simply sighed, and attempted to smile at her.

"I know, Sakura. Maybe someday."

And then he bumped her playfully again and added, "And thanks. For considering me as a potential father of your child. I'm honored."

She laughed so loud that Nori was finally distracted from playing with Muchi. He ran over to them and started talking a mile a minute. He couldn't believe how light he felt, even though he didn't confess everything to her. He and Sakura had gotten closer over the years, but this felt like the first time they'd both let their walls totally down with the other person, and it hadn't been the end of the world. They could laugh it off and be okay, and normal.

It was sort of like having a sister.

Naruto yawned wide, rubbing a hand across his face to try and keep awake. He glared at the piles of plans and paperwork that was scattered haphazardly across the desk in front of him. He'd spent the entire day with the construction team going over everything, and then he'd brought it all home just to keep working. It was starting to feel like an obsession.

He knew Hinata wouldn't approve.

He glanced at the photo on the edge of the desk. In it he was grinning widely with Nori on his shoulders and Hinata at his side. It wasn't taken long before she and Nori had gone on their trip to Sunagakure. It already felt so long ago… Had it really already been half a year since she died? It still felt so fresh, but the signs of time passing were everywhere, particularly in his son.

The Nori in the photo barely resembled the Nori of now. His face had lost a lot of baby fat in the six months since she'd been gone, and though Naruto didn't usually notice these kinds of things, he could tell that Nori had gotten taller, just by a bit.

And there were the whiskers, too.

The Nori in the photo looked much more like Hinata, soft and delicate, full of nothing but love. Now Naruto couldn't help but see himself when he looked at his son. He wished he could just be proud of that, instead of haunted by it. He'd never wanted this for his son, had wished that he could have protected Nori from ever experiencing any loss at all.

"We didn't turn out so bad," Sasuke had said.

It brought the tiniest smile to Naruto's lips remembering it. There was something funny about Sasuke being the optimistic one for once, even trying to seem like he really believed it. It clearly went against Sasuke's very core to do, but he did it anyway. For Naruto. To make him feel better.

Naruto sighed, casting his eyes on the photo beside the one that made his chest hurt. It was a much older photo, and had even started to show some discoloration from the exposure to sunlight, but it always made him smile. The dumb, twelve-year-old version of himself glaring at the equally dumb twelve-year-old version of Sasuke, with Sakura grinning brightly between them, and of course Kakashi trying to keep the peace between all three. Seeing the image always made him nostalgic. How simple everything was back then.

Looking at the third photo on the desk gave him the most complex range of emotions. It was simultaneously a picture from one of the happiest moments of his life while filling him with everything from guilt to hurt to confusion and more that he couldn't even name. Probably because he wasn't that 'emotionally intelligent.' At least, according to Sakura.

It was a blurry picture from the day he finally dragged Sasuke back to the village. His arm was slung around Sasuke's shoulder, and even though Sasuke tried to act like he was leaning out of frame, the picture managed to capture something like happiness on his usually dour face. Looking at it now the two emotions battling for dominance in Naruto's heart were guilt and pity.

The pity because he couldn't help but sympathize with the version of himself in the photo, so desperately in love with the obstinate boy at his side, and so unsure of what to do about it. During that time he'd mostly just tried to ignore the feelings he'd started to have towards Sasuke, and it was relatively easy for a while. They'd both had to recover for a long while, and then there was training, and missions, and making up for all that time they were apart. But the feelings never went away, until finally they boiled over and—well, everything fell apart.

The guilt came from how happy the photo made him when he thought about Sasuke being back in his life now, and the dinners they shared, and the sparring matches they had, and the heat he'd felt just one night ago, with his ill-advised tickle fight. What had he been thinking? What was wrong with him? He knew he couldn't risk another incident like that night again, but it was like he couldn't resist. Everything Sasuke did made him forget about the rules he'd imposed on himself to maintain their relationship. He'd just wanted to keep tickling Sasuke, just to see more of his reactions, to feel the taut skin beneath his clothes.

He glared at his grinning face in the third photo and pushed the frame over so he didn't have to look at it anymore. It made him feel like he hadn't grown at all since then.

And then his eyes were drawn back to Hinata's face and he groaned, turning that frame around so the guilt didn't eat him alive.

How could he be thinking about Sasuke like that when Hinata hadn't even been gone a year? He was trash. Worse. He didn't deserve either of them. He might as well live the rest of his life a sex-less hermit. At least then he wouldn't worry about ruining the most important relationship in his life again, and the guilt of betraying Hinata might not eat him alive.

At least that photograph in the middle didn't make him feel like a piece of shit. He looked at Sakura grinning and felt envious. She didn't have to worry about ruining her friendships and betraying the people she loved.

It was as though thinking about Sakura summoned her, and he heard the front door open, followed swiftly by the pitter patter of Nori's little feet as he raced to find his dad and then Sakura's footsteps following after. He spun around in his chair in time to catch Nori as he flew into his lap. Naruto hugged him tight as Nori started explaining his evening, talking a mile a minute. Sakura was close behind, appearing in the doorway with Nori's backpack in her hands.

"Oh, there you are, Naruto," she said, like she had expected him to be in his office and was unsurprised to be proven correct. And then her eyes flashed over his desk and clearly saw the one picture frame lying flat and the other facing away, and she was only just too slow to hide her expression from him. He tried to pretend like he didn't see it and hoped she wouldn't ask. Nori was still excitedly rambling about the evening.

"I hope you aren't too jumped up to go to sleep tonight," Naruto remarked with a laugh. Nori was practically vibrating with energy. "Why don't you go brush your teeth, and then we'll read a story to help you get sleepy?"

"Okay!" Nori agreed easily. Naruto would never understand how his son was so well-behaved and agreeable. It must have come from Hinata's side, because he knew if his parents had been around to raise him they would not have had such an easy time.

"Tank you for watching me today, Aunt Sakura!" He hugged her legs and then sprinted from the room to brush his teeth.

Sakura smiled fondly after him.

"Yeah, thanks Sakura. It was a big help. My advisors have been worried all the work I'm putting into Uzushiogakure would effect my work for Konoha, so I've been trying to prove I can do both, but it does take a lot of time…"

"You had better not be overworking yourself, Naruto," Sakura chided. Naruto smiled. Hinata would always tell him the same thing.

If he was being honest with himself, he knew he was working too much. It was so different without Hinata being home with Nori all day. He never realized how much time he spent away from Nori until now. He knew he was relying on everyone to help with Nori too much, but he didn't know what else to do. Sometimes he wondered if he needed to take a break from Hokage duties so he could focus on raising his son, but when he mentioned the idea to Iruka and Kakashi they had practically shouted at him that he was being stupid, and Iruka even said he would move in with Naruto and help out if it got to be too much. The thought that everyone would go out of their way to help made him cry on the spot, so he tried not to dwell on it too much, and he was trying his hardest to prove he could do everything, even work on Uzushiogakure, even if Hinata wasn't here.

Somehow, it was Sasuke who seemed to help the most. Sasuke couldn't watch Nori all the time and it was true that Nori usually stayed the day with Iruka or Temari, but Sasuke helped him in other ways. Sasuke let him have a space to relax, and have some fun. When they sparred it was like all the pressure and weight on his shoulders vanished for a few hours, and when he and Nori ate dinners with Sasuke it felt like nothing else mattered but the people inside his apartment. Those breaks were maybe the only reason Naruto had managed to keep going despite the pressure he'd placed upon himself.

But Naruto managed to feel guilty about that, too.

"I hope Sasuke wasn't mad having people over two nights in a row," he said, trying to laugh it off.

"No way," Sakura scoffed, waving a hand at him dismissively. "He didn't seem bothered at all. You know he likes Nori anyway, and we ended up having a nice conversation…"

It made Naruto feel warm thinking about Sasuke liking Nori. Somehow he'd never thought those two separate parts of his life would fit together, work together. But they did, and so seamlessly that he wondered why he ever doubted it at all. Nori was totally gone on Sasuke; he loved everything about him, from his calm energy to his friendly cat to his cooking. He told Naruto as much on a regular basis. It might have made Naruto jealous, if he wasn't just as helpless when it came to Sasuke Uchiha as Nori was.

And Sakura was right: Sasuke liked Nori too. It had taken barely any time at all, but Sasuke had fallen to Nori's charms. Naruto could see it in his face sometimes, the careful way he'd watch Nori, and listen intently to his stories, and sometimes even smile faintly if Nori said or did something especially endearing. Naruto loved catching Sasuke in those moments. It felt like Sasuke was in a little shell and it was slowly opening, bit by bit, maybe even against his will. It reminded Naruto of those years before that night. Sasuke had been slowly opening up then, too. If only Naruto hadn't ruined it Sasuke might have actually let him in for real.

Maybe his son would succeed where he had failed. That was what kids were supposed to do, anyway.

Thinking about that night always made him depressed and he sighed heavily. Sakura had picked up the photo of team seven from all those years ago, but she glanced away from it when he sighed and she raised an eyebrow at him. He grimaced, and without realizing he was doing it turned to look towards the first photo, the one he'd turned around of him and Nori and Hinata.

Sakura turned it back around and her eyes grew sad. Naruto felt bad about that, too.

"Is everything okay, Naruto?" she asked kindly. "I know I'm more of a body healer than a heart healer, but I'll try my best if you need to talk about anything."

Naruto didn't want to burden her with his distress. She probably had her own problems to deal with, and he never offered advice for hers. He shouldn't ask any more of her than he already had… but he was never any good at taking his own advice.

"Am I moving on too fast, Sakura?" he blurted out, jumping up from his chair and pacing across the room.

"Should I be mourning her more? Am I bad person?"

She seemed surprised, and then she frowned.

"Are you being serious, Naruto?"

His lack of answer was enough. She huffed, suddenly annoyed. He knew he shouldn't have bothered her with this.

And then she smacked him hard across the back of the head.

"Don't be an idiot!" she said. "A bad person? You really think like that? And I thought Sasuke was supposed to be the angsty one!"

He rubbed the back of his head gingerly but she appeared unrepentant. She crossed her arms over her chest and suddenly Naruto saw her as the bossy little girl from his youth who was always telling him what to do.

"You're doing the farthest thing from moving on too fast!" she told him. "You're wallowing in it! That's why you're working yourself half to death, you know. Its like you think if you let yourself be happy, you're hurting her somehow."

That felt like more of physical blow than when she'd hit his head. Her words pummeled right into his chest. She was right. Of course she was.

"You've got to give yourself a break, Naruto. You aren't doing anything wrong."

"I know, but—"

"Naruto. You can't beat yourself up for the rest of your life," she said. "That's not doing anyone any good. Of course you need to take time to feel sad, and maybe it's alright to let yourself feel guilty for a while, too. But then it'll be okay if you move on and let yourself off the hook. Maybe it would even help to set a goal, and when you reach it, that's when you can start to move on?"

Naruto blinked, trying not to reveal how close he was to crying. It was exactly what he'd needed to hear, and what's more: what she said made sense. A goal? Maybe he already had something like that…

"You know," he said, laughing softly. "I think you're a pretty good heart healer, too, Sakura."

She grinned brightly, and then looked again at the photo still in her hand. The one of the four of them, from their youth. Team Seven—their little makeshift family. She stared at it, smiling fondly, and then shook her head.

"What am I gonna do with you two?"

"Who?"

"You and Sasuke!" She replied. "It's like you two want to be miserable—and drive me crazy while you're at it!"

"Miserable?" Naruto asked, suddenly distracted like a dog with a squirrel at the mention of Sasuke's name. "He's not miserable, is he?"

The thought of that made him anxious. The ever-present fear that if Sasuke was unhappy in the village and he might just decide to leave again…

Sakura looked away, biting her lip uncomfortably.

"No…" she said carefully. "Not miserable, exactly. I don't know how to explain it. He's definitely happier than he's been in years, but at the same time he feels like he's… anxious? Maybe he's just not to used to things going his way and he's worried everything is going to fall apart again."

Naruto winced. Sakura couldn't know that the last time things fell apart it was all his fault.

"You don't think," he hesitated, not wanting to say it out loud. "You don't think he's thinking about leaving again, do you?"

"Hm? No. No, I don't think so."

Naruto exhaled and smiled.

"Good."

Sakura wasn't looking at him. She was staring intently at the photo in her hand, the one of the four of them. She hadn't looked away from it for several minutes. There was a slight wrinkle in her brow from concentrating on the image, and then she blinked several times and looked quickly up to Naruto's face, then at the picture, and then at Naruto again. He saw her mouth pop open in a tiny 'o' and her eyes widened.

"Sakura? Is everything okay?"

She looked down at the photo once more and then smiled a strange smile Naruto didn't think he'd ever seen her make before. She walked over and set the photo back down on his desk.

"Yeah…" she said. Her eyes fell on the photo lying facedown on the desk, the one he'd knocked over earlier of him and Sasuke.

He couldn't explain why her picking it up and staring it at made his heart start beating fast. It was just a picture, and her expression remained blank. She stared at it for what felt like a long time to Naruto, and then she placed it beside the other two frames and walked right over to him and gave him a hug.

He didn't really know what to do. He couldn't remember the last time Sakura had hugged him, and especially not out of the blue like this. He just froze as she squeezed him tight and said,

"I love you, Naruto. I hope its not weird for me to say that, but you are really important to me. You're one of my best friends, you know? I hate seeing you so sad. I hope… well, I hope you can forgive yourself someday for what happened to Hinata. You're so good at forgiving everyone else, but you never forgive yourself. It's a little hypocritical, don't you think?"

Naruto couldn't help the tears this time, and they filled his eyes and poured over as he finally hugged her back, burying his face in her shoulder. He couldn't explain it, but it felt like hugging his mom, and that just made him cry harder.

Thankfully he'd managed to mostly dry his tears by the time Nori came back. They said goodnight to Sakura and waved at her from the doorway as she left. Before she was out of earshot she turned around and gave him a thumbs up, calling back to him,

"I'm rooting for you, Naruto!"

It made up his mind. No more hiding, no more wallowing in guilt.

He was Naruto Uzumaki, the Hokage of Konohagakure, and he needed to start acting like it!

Sasuke was supposed to receive a new mission the next morning and went in to the Hokage office excited to see Naruto. He couldn't believe he'd let so many years pass where he dreaded seeing Naruto. But even then it had been a confusing feeling: stuck somewhere between wanting to see Naruto, to remind himself that their bond was still tenuously intact as long as they were both in the village, and hating to see Naruto so happy without him. It was easier now, but sometimes it still felt like looking at Naruto made him uneasy. He was always shining too bright; it was like staring at the sun.

Sasuke was thinking about this metaphor for Naruto as the rising sun was actually reflecting off the roof of a nearby building and into his eyes. It blinded him momentarily and when he moved out of the light he nearly walked into Sakura. They were both about to walk through the door into the Hokage building.

"Long time, no see," Sakura joked. Sasuke gave her a polite smile in return.

"Are you supposed to receive a new mission today, too?" he asked.

"I didn't think so, but something must have come up because Naruto called me in early this morning. It better be good. I haven't had breakfast yet."

She grumbled this last part and they began climbing the stairs up to Naruto's office.

"If we have time before whatever these missions are, wanna get something to eat?" She asked. Sakura had never been a very good actor, and Sasuke could tell right away that she was trying to be casual about something and she was failing.

"I suppose…" he glanced over at her. "Is there any specific reason?"

"I just had something I was going to ask you, that's all."

"What—" he started to ask as they reached the door to the Hokage office and she turned the handle, but he never got to finish the question.

As soon as the door swung open they were thrown into utter chaos. There were about twenty people in the circular office; several were running back and forth with large reams of paper and others were shouting at each other, everyone looking very stressed. Shikamaru and Temari—now nearly eight months pregnant—were at the center of the chaos with Kakashi and Naruto and Tsunade. Shikamaru was talking to Naruto but as soon as Sakura and Sasuke entered the Hokage was immediately and completely distracted. He leapt towards them excitedly.

"Sakura! Sasuke! Good, you're here."

"Naruto, what the hell is going on?" Sakura asked, taking in the room and the child-like expression on Naruto's face.

"I thought a lot about what you said last night, Sakura," Naruto replied. "I've been overworking myself, trying to do too many things at once. I realized last night that it would be better if I could finish Uzushiogakure completely and get back to taking care of the Leaf, instead of trying to worry about both. So, I put together this team to go to Uzushiogakure with me and get everything done by the end of the month. We've been working out all the details, just waiting on you two to get everything going."

"You're going to Uzushiogakure again?" Sasuke asked. He wondered what Sakura could have said to spur this sudden decision.

"Yes," he nodded. "And I'm staying until it's done. Kakashi's going to watch over the village until I get back."

"We're coming with you?" Sasuke motioned to himself and Sakura. That had to be the reason they were both brought to the Hokage building that morning. Naruto must be serious if he wanted both of them.

But Naruto hesitated.

"Well, just Sakura, for now," he admitted, looking guilty at Sasuke.

"I actually have something extra to ask you, Sasuke.

"We're leaving today, if we can, and I'm leaving Nori here, with Iruka. But, well, Nori's birthday is in a week, and I already said I don't want to come back until I've finished rebuilding, so I was hoping you would bring Nori to Uzushiogakure in a week for his birthday?"

He didn't even give Sasuke a chance to process the request and answer before he clasped his hands together and added,

"Please, Sasuke? It'll be a big help. And I'd be too nervous to let anyone else travel with Nori. And Shikamaru and Temari and their kids are going to go in a week too, so you can travel with them. Will you do it?"

This time he did let Sasuke reply, and Sasuke huffed a half-laugh and crossed his arms.

"Of course I will, idiot." He didn't know why Naruto would think he'd say no to a request like that. Even if Naruto hadn't asked him he would have wanted to do it. It was sure to be scary for Nori to travel anywhere after what happened the last time, and if something activated the beasts, Sasuke was the only one who stood a chance of calming him down.

"Don't you think this is a little sudden, Naruto?" Sakura asked. "What exactly did I say last night that brought this on?"

Was it a trick of the light? Another symptom of Sasuke's overactive imagination? Or did Naruto look at him before he answered Sakura.

"It's just something I need to do," Naruto replied, eyes serious and bright with possibility.

Sasuke blinked.

Yes, Naruto was so much like the sun.