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A/N: Sorry that this came out a week later. But srsly, you guys are so spoiled! I keep turning out so quick and then I feel bad when I take a week. You know some authors only put out one chapter a month. Lol. But oh well. Here you are, chapter one of part 3. For those of you who want to complain about how the romance is going to happen please consider that there is still a part 3.5 and a part 4 to come. Don't worry.

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Fate's Garden

Part 3 - Inked

Chapter 1 - Gummed

Naruto felt…tired. He'd fallen asleep with his mate Ruko the night before and then he'd woken up in a new life. He'd guessed he'd passed away in his sleep. Naruto had realized quite soon after Sasuke's death that he was fine, he'd probably moved on to the next life already and if he hadn't that his father was taking care of him for the time being. He could find a way to kill himself and follow the teme into their next life but he hadn't wanted to. Naruto knew that in the grand scheme of things that this life didn't mean the most but it meant the most to him then. He didn't want to leave Ruko, and his clan just to follow some bastard that had left him far too many times. He was going to stay in that life until he either died of old age or befell some other means of death.

Well, with the way foxes aged he had remained in that life for a long time. It was true that foxes only aged one year physically for every human seven so they lived for a far longer time than humans. But they also matured faster. They grew in maturity level eleven years for every human one. By the time he died, by fox years he was eighty-two, and by human years he was four hundred and sixty-two. That was a long time. So roughly when he did the math once he'd died he had the maturity of a human should they have lived for four millennia. Or rather, he should have, Ruko told him it was likely that he hadn't matured completely as he should due to him having been once human. After all, he had stubbornly refused to follow his mate into the next life. Now even he wasn't really looking forward to seeing Sasuke again. He'd lost so much over the years; he'd been to so many funerals. By the time he was one hundred and fifty years old all the people he'd known from his human life had died. Even Konohamaru had passed on and had grandchildren by then.

He sighed, glancing around the room he'd woken up in to establish what sort of life he lived now. It was his last, supposedly. The room was small, barely big enough for the single bed, dresser and closet it contained. Next to the dresser, of all things, was a tiny bed made for a toddler. There was a lump under the blankets that appeared to be asleep. Naruto peeled the blankets off of him and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. His feet pressed easily against the cool wooden floor that was splattered with paint in all colors. He stood and walked over to the open window next to the child's bed first to gaze out at a part of Konoha he wasn't too familiar with. He recognized the hokage tower and sighed at that dream he lost so very long ago. Naruto supposed that now with his divinity it didn't really matter but how he had wanted it. It was the only thing he'd ever wanted that much in his life, his first life. But that was all gone now, it was in the past.

A soft gurgle and a yawn came from the small bed to his left. He was used to having children so he didn't really feel too awkward at having one in this life. Naruto just wondered how it would be having a human child as opposed to foxes that were booted out after a year. A small mussed head poked out from under the blankets and stared around the room. Then those eyes focused on Naruto, and he realized just then who his little companion was.

"Sasuke?" Naruto questioned, hatred momentarily forgotten in his surprise.

"Dobe," came the cute voice from an even cuter face, "how long were you in that life anyways? I had to wait forever."

"Four hundred and twenty six years."

"Why didn't you off yourself before then? Seriously, you waited out four centuries?" The voice whined, it was so high pitched and frustrated. The words coming out of that tiny cherubic mouth did not seem right. Naruto had to remind himself that this was his Sasuke, and so that toddler talking about Naruto offing himself was perfectly acceptable.

"Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Oh, I don't know, I guess I'm not used to listening to a two, maybe three year old talk about suicide so casually." Naruto smirked.

Suddenly Sasuke's small round face froze his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open.

"What?" he deadpanned.

Naruto stared around the room looking for a mirror. He frowned and headed for the door, opening it and looking back and forth down the hallway outside it.

"Follow me," Naruto motioned with one hand over his shoulder as he left the room.

The pitter patter of tiny feet followed him down the hall and into the bathroom. There were two more doors down that hall, and the first one he tried worked. Like the other room, the bathroom was small. The tiles on the floor were small and light blue, chipped in places, and extended up onto the walls until about midway. There was a shower bath combo on the wall opposite the door and a big red step stool under the sink. A bucket of bath toys rested on the corner of the tub. Naruto reached down and picked Sasuke up, against his will, and held him in front of the mirror. Sasuke glared at the mirror at first, and then inspected himself, twisting this way and that. Eventually Naruto let him stand in the sink and twirl around, inspecting his pale yellow footies. He grabbed at his chubby cheeks and poked his fat baby belly. Then he glared again and demanded to be set on the floor. Naruto obliged him easily and watched as he waddled out of the room and down the hall. He disappeared down a flight of stairs.

Naruto shrugged. It clearly wasn't the weirdest circumstance for them to have fallen into, considering their previous life and all. Sasuke wasn't dumb, he knew how to act any part should someone magically happen to be downstairs and find him walking about. Naruto chose to do some exploring of his own. He went down the hall to the second door he saw.

Behind that door was of all things, an art studio. There was paint splatters on the walls and floor and tall windows as if he just couldn't be bothered to be careful. Spare canvases were stacked against a wall and three easels were already set up with more poking out of a deep closet that had no doors. Buckets of brushes and cabinets with more paints than Naruto could possibly imagine necessary were inside. There were a few finished paintings dried and stacked up on top of each other on the right side of the room. One half finished painting was on the easel directly in front of the windows. Naruto went over to it and studied it carefully. He'd painted this. He'd painted all of these.

He left the room and went down the stairs to find Sasuke. At the bottom of the stairs there was a short hallway, at the end of it was the front door, and to the right was the entry way that led into a 

modest kitchen and the doorway to the left led into a living room. Naruto heard a clatter from the kitchen and poked his head into the room. Sasuke had managed to climb up onto the counter and was inspecting the cabinets and drawers. Naruto worried his bottom lip as he watched Sasuke lean out off of the counter to peer into the freezer. If he wasn't careful he was going to fall. Naruto strode over to the toddler and scooped him into his arms.

"What do you want?"

"Put me down dobe I could have done it myself!"

"You would've fallen and hurt yourself. That's a long ways to fall for someone your size."

"If you keep it up with those comments I'll slit my wrists right now."

Naruto rolled his eyes and opened up the freezer and looked around, "Do you want some ice cream?"

"…hn."

"Alright then."

Naruto grabbed the carton and set it on the counter while he followed slowly appearing memories to the silverware drawer. He grabbed a spoon and wedged it into the ice cream. Then he set the toddler on the floor and handed him his treat. Sasuke continued to glare at him while Naruto diligently ignored his wrath.

Waking up as a genin, only four years younger than they were in their first life, that hadn't been too bad. But suddenly finding yourself to be a two year old? Sasuke grumbled as he gummed at his spoonful of ice cream. Now, of course, he couldn't eat anything he had to chew because he didn't have enough teeth yet. He was an adult! He shouldn't have to deal with this. The dobe abruptly interrupted his thoughts with a question he hadn't really expected.

"Did you ask Yurei to kill you?"

Sasuke glanced up from the carton to see that Naruto wasn't looking at him, but was clearly waiting for an answer. He couldn't understand why Naruto would assume such a thing in the first place.

"No, of course not."

"So she just killed you for kicks?"

"I refused to be her mate and then she sent me flying into a tree!" Sasuke shouted, loathing the sound of his voice.

"She wanted to mate with you?" Naruto questioned incredulously.

"Well…"

Naruto, staring at him now, arched an eyebrow. Sasuke was preparing himself to tell the dobe about Yurei's mid sleep transformation all those years ago when there was a knock on the front door. Naruto shook his head and snatched the ice cream from Sasuke's chubby hands, chucking the spoon into the sink and putting the carton back into the freezer.

"Not a word," Naruto warned.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and watched the dobe exit the kitchen and venture down the short hallway to answer the door. He waddled over to the doorway and peered around the corner. Naruto was talking to some unfamiliar girl in messy overalls.

"So you're almost done with those paintings right?"

"Right."

"Good, you know the gallery is on Friday, Ru."

"I know, I know Yumi."

"Aw, how's mah fav kiddo?" 'Yumi' carelessly walked past Naruto to where Sasuke stood, wondering what to do.

"Mm," he grumbled as he was suddenly scooped into the arms of some person he didn't know.

"Ah, grumpy I see. Is he still having trouble sleeping, Ru? I'm telling you, you should have that checked, it's weird for kids his age."

Grumpy? Isn't that what the grandfather said? What is it with everyone calling me grumpy?! I'm just FINE! He glowered up at her from where he lay in the crook of her arm.

"Yeah, I scheduled an appointment with Dr. Hyuuga for this afternoon."

Sasuke tried to keep himself from squirming about in Yumi's arms so he could get a look at Naruto. He had a doctor's appointment, for this afternoon? Their first day in a new life and he had to go to a doctor's appointment?!

"Oh good," Yumi turned to face the dobe and passed Sasuke off to him, "I'll see you around, Ru. Later kay."

After a peck to Naruto's cheek and a ruffle of Sasuke's hair, the strange Yumi girl disappeared out the front door. The dobe sighed and set Sasuke onto the floor.

"How do you get memories that fast? That's not fair!" Sasuke whined.

"She did most of the talking; I only remembered her name and the doctor's appointment."

"Since when do you paint?"

"Since this life, I guess. There's a studio upstairs."

"I'm not going to that doctor's appointment." Sasuke crossed his arms, leaning back. This caused his baby belly to stand out more but he tried to ignore it.

"Oh yes you are. Don't make me put you in the playpen."

"Oh like I couldn't climb out."

"Not if I put a seal tag on it."

"You wouldn't dare."

Sasuke felt his shoulders droop when he realized that yes, yes Naruto would. He scuffed his pajama covered foot on the linoleum and unconsciously pouted. He hated doctors.

TBC…