Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, I'd screw it up anyway.

As Naruto was walking through the streets of the Village Hidden by the Rocks towards Kurotsuchi's, and now his he guessed, house with groceries, cooking supplies and a little surprise, he noticed a presence following him. Deeming it less of a priority than taking his purchases back to the house, he merely kept an eye on his pursuer, ready to create a clone if anything occurred. As he entered the house, he sensed the presence stop at the door, go around to the living room window and enter the house. Placing the groceries and cooking supplies on the kitchen bench and the surprise in one of his many pockets, he walked closer to the presence. As he reached the same room that the pursuer was currently situated, he quickly dashed and grabbed it by the neck. Seeing the identity of the pursuer, he was confused.

"Sasuke? The hell are you doing here?" Naruto asked, puzzlement easily noticeable in his voice. Sasuke merely responded with a choking sound.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. Guess I'm a little jumpy right now." Naruto said, a bit embarrassed. He rubbed his hand on the back of his head, reminding Sasuke of the times before his escape from the Leaf.

"You were essentially kidnapped by ninja of a potentially hostile nation, I sent Sakura back to Tsunade to get reinforcements while I infiltrated this village." Sasuke replied, frustration evident in his voice, most likely due to the mood of Naruto seeming to be perfectly fine.

"Oh. I never did send a letter back to the village, did I? Well, everything was fine, I just had to be... reprimanded... for a very unforeseen consequence of actions that I had... neglected to... uhhh... re...mem...ber?" Naruto said, seemingly questioning himself on the use of select words, especially the last.

"Anyway, you have to return to the Leaf with me in a week. No doubt Tsunade is worried that one of her ninja is stranded in territory currently occupied by a nation with likely animosity towards her own. Plus Orochimaru has been reported to be trying to do something, we need you back." Sasuke said, looking at Naruto.

"A week. I'll be back in a week, no earlier. Anyway, you're welcome to stay in the guest room tonight, but please either leave the village or get yourself a hotel room by...1030 tomorrow, I think. Right now I have to start cooking a cake, so unless you're thinking of helping, please leave me be for the next few hours unless there is an emergency, after I finish cooking I'll help you get set up in the guest room. Now excuse me." Naruto said with a stern look on his face, but kept fidgeting, showing his impatience. Sasuke then situated himself on the living room couch and started writing a letter, most likely addressed towards Tsunade, briefing her on the situation.

Naruto then walked towards the kitchen, fingering the object in his pocket a little nervously as he did. When he reached the kitchen, he packed away the groceries and supplies that were not needed for the cake, while pulling out the cooking supplies both from the cupboards and shopping bags that were necessary. As he started the process of baking the cake, he started to think about his current situation.

'So, Sasuke's here. Great. That's just gonna really complicate this shit. So, Granny's gonna send some ninja after me and Sasuke if he doesn't tell her everything's fine. Hopefully Kurotsuchi's calmed down a bit by then, she was never this agitated, then again, she wasn't always the most sociable person. Must have been hormones, hopefully. Then she's coming home tomorrow with the kids an-' Naruto stopped himself, even after a couple of days, it still hadn't set in that he was a father to not one, but two kids. He froze in cracking the eggs and slumped to the ground. He was too young for this! He didn't know how to be a father! He never had a role model to base it off! What was he... wait a minute. Sparking up, he realised that he had a role model, well, a couple. As he started getting back to making the cake, he thought about the different aspects of being a father he realised he had seen.

Kindness, from Iruka and the Old Man. Independence, from Kakashi, though he wasn't gonna do that for a while. Love, from the Old Man. Friendship, from Iruka. Finally, just being there, from all three of them. He renewed his pace with vigour, hoping to make the best cake ever made in the history of cakes, it was going to be a masterpiece.

After writing the letter, Sasuke left the house, calling out to Naruto that he was leaving to deliver a message, Sasuke was returning from the aviary, having henged into a civilian and using a subtle genjutsu to convince the ninja in charge of message sending and receiving that he was sending a letter to his brother in the Leaf Village. Making sure that nothing else would alert the Rock shinobi, he made sure to tell Tsunade not to reply unless absolutely necessary. As he walked along the lone dirt path back to the house, he noticed a Rock jonin behind him start walking faster towards him. Before he got very much further, the large man laid a hand on his shoulder, turned him around and asked him a question quite threateningly.

"What is your business with the house at the end of this path? I don't know you, and I doubt my daughter does either." The man asked.

"I was under the impression that the house in question belonged to, or is currently under temporary ownership of Naruto Uzumaki, a close friend of mine." Sasuke answered, calmly, but with a hint of terror lacing his voice so as to make it seem believable.

"Uzumaki? Well, it's currently under a dual ownership. Who are you anyway? I've never seen you before." The large man asked.

"My name is Haku Yuki." Sasuke replied, using the name of the opponent of his first real fight, the one that unlocked his sharingan.

"I see, well if Uzumaki can vouch for you, then everything will sort itself out. Besides, I haven't seen my daughter since before Uzumaki left last time. Let's go." The man said gruffly, still wary of this unknown man.

"Okay, let's go."

Hearing a knock at the door, Naruto took one last look at the cake in the oven and went to answer it. Expecting Sasuke, Naruto was very surprised to see Kitsuchi and an unknown man behind him.

"Oh, hello Kitsuchi, come in!" Kitsuchi then entered with the unknown man trailing behind him. Just as the man walked past, he looked at Naruto and quickly flashed his sharingan at him. Naruto understood.

"So, where's my daughter, Uzumaki?" Kitsuchi asked gruffly, not seeing a sign of Kurotsuchi in the house.

"You certainly sound a whole lot friendlier since last time we met." Naruto deadpanned, delivering a flat stare to Kurotsuchi's father.

"Well I want to know where my daughter is and who this man is." Kitsuchi replied, not becoming any happier.

"Well, here's where she is right now and that man is one of my friends that I met after I left, he's staying in the guest house. Now, you go, I'll catch up with you in a few minutes, the cake's almost done." Hearing a beeping, Naruto went back to the kitchen to finish the cake after giving Kitsuchi a piece of paper with Kurotsuchi's hospital room on it.

"Uzumaki... why is my daughter in a hospital?" Kitsuchi asked, his voice getting dangerously low.

"Just check on her, will you? I reckon she will need her father to be there." Naruto said, his voice carrying through to the doorway where Kitsuchi was standing.

"Fine, I expect you to be there within five minutes of my departure." Kitsuchi said, leaving the house.

"Five minutes? Damn, I wanted to do this without clones."

Arriving at the hospital after leaving a clone to watch the cake and put the icing on when it had cooled, Naruto was a bit nervous. Not because he would see his children again, but because of a certain someone's father. Walking through the halls and up the staircases, Naruto arrived at the door to Kurotsuchi's room and took a deep breath, exhaling, he opened the door. He expected Kitsuchi to be fuming, total understatement. Kitsuchi's face was red, his eyes like several chidori to the chest and his fists balled up and shaking. Naruto just about shit himself.

"Uzumaki... I swear to all the gods of this earth, if she so much as complains about hitting her toe on a piece of furniture you bought... you're future ends in a ditch. I am this close to killing you right now, but she seems happy, and that's saving you right now." Naruto was scared out of his mind, but his rebellious voice betrayed him, and he knew it would not end well. Luckily Kurotsuchi and the children were asleep, Kurotsuchi with a smile on her face, probably what saved him.

"Alright then, Grandpa." At that, rather than engaging Naruto in a battle, Kitsuchi let out a sigh of exhaustion. "Yeah, I am now aren't I?"

"Don't worry, you'll get to hear that a whole lot when I'm gone." Naruto said, relaxing and running a hand through his hair.

"Gone? You're leaving them?!" Kitsuchi started to really get angry.

"No. Not how you're thinking. I have to go back to the village in a week. That guy with you, he bought me some time, but I still have to go. Granny's recalling all her jonin level ninja that aren't on an A-Class or above, or any diplomatic mission. She's sending out two chunin for every jonin currently on a non-diplomatic B-Class or below mission. You get it, right? I have to leave my children because of my village. I understand why though. There have been reports of Orochimaru starting to move again. Anyway, I'll probably actually have to leave here a bit earlier than that, I'll have to stop off at Mist." Naruto then seemed to slump and looked very tired, he started to leave the hospital room as he planned to go back to the house.

"Hey, I'll take care of them while you're gone, but make sure you come back, alright? They'll need you Naruto."

"I'm not leaving yet Gramps. Besides, you'll have to come visit as well, Granny's going to have a heart attack."

The next day Kurotsuchi came home with the children at 1030. The family were very happy. Kurotsuchi didn't take kindly to the fact that Naruto had to leave so soon after the children had come home. Alas, she could do nothing. However, Naruto had kept one final surprise in store for her, she just didn't know it yet.

On the last day that Naruto was to be in the Hidden Rock, Naruto called Kurotsuchi into the dining room, she was very suspicious as there was a cake on the table. Naruto stood right in front of her and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Kurotsuchi, you are one of my most precious people, and with the birth of our children, that bond is only strengthened. I love so much, and I wanted to tell you that and make sure that everyone else knows it too. I know that you know there will be another and I am sorry for that, but still..." Naruto pulled a small velvet box out of his pocket and dropped to his knee.

"Kurotsuchi, will you marry me?" Kurotsuchi was left speechless for a moment. Then, she would not be ashamed is someone said she cried. For she did, a lot.

"Yes."

So... hi. Sorry everyone, I was going to write it earlier, like last year, but I only got 1,000 words through when I stopped. I am so very sorry about being gone for so long, but I really had some major writer's block. Anyway, I will try to update some more, but I believe that it will be a while. I'm trying to start making my chapters longer again, so I'll see if it works out, if not, just tell me. Yes, so far the story seems to be pretty docile, but I'm just trying to set the scene, even though I'm not the best at describing things. Obviously Orochimaru is going to be a big player in this part of the story, I'm hoping to make it long, but we'll see how that one goes. I'm also going to be going through previous chapters as I usually write these guys all in one go, unlike this one, and you actually have to save it to be able to use the horizontal bars. I was using a whole bunch of hyphens and they just disappeared when they were posted, so I'll fix all them now. I've got a pilot chapter for a new series up and I have some good ideas for the story, but I probably won't start writing more chapters for it after I post the pilot. Just not much time. I might be writing some more pilots and stuff, but it'll take a while so don't hold your breaths. Obviously, this story will be my main with Black Cloak being the second main. I'm tossing up some ideas with that as well, as the choices I make now with it will set up a whole plot point that should be present throughout the story. That's enough from me, this is a massive AN. See ya later! EliteThrasher98 out.