Chapter 12

When Sasuke first heard the sounds in the kitchen and knew they weren't the sounds of Sakura and Kenji, he frowned. Already it had become part of his life to hear Kenji's high-pitched squeal and Sakura's laughter at the morning antics of her son. But then, on second thought, maybe it was just Sakura in the kitchen.

With a wicked grin on his face, he got out of bed wearing only the bottom of his pajamas and sauntered into the kitchen. Then, to his pure disgust, he found it was Hiro in there, puttering around with the knobs on the stove.

"Expecting someone else?" he asked, one eyebrow raised as he looked Sasuke up and down, noting his bare chest.

Sasuke returned to his bedroom to pull on jeans and a shirt before he spoke to his chef. "What are you doing here at this hour?" Sasuke growled as he sat down at the table and ran his hand over his unshaven face. "And how did you get in here?"

"I'm trying to work this powerless range, and you told Hinata that there was a key under the mat, remember? And, besides, it's after nine in the morning. And what were you doing last night to make you sleep so late?" Hiro asked with a lascivious little smirk.

"I remember telling Hyuga where the key was, not you," Sasuke said pointedly, ignoring Hiro's insinuations.

Hiro was unperturbed. "She's not really your type, is she?"

"Hyuga?" Sasuke asked, his voice filled with horror.

"No, her." Hiro nodded toward Sakura's bedroom door.

"You could be fired, you know," Sasuke said, glaring at the little man.

Silently, Hiro turned to a porcelain bowl on the counter behind him, lifted the lid and held it under Sasuke's nose.

In reply, Sasuke just grunted and looked toward the overhead cabinet that held the dishes. Within seconds he was eating double forkfuls. How was Hiro able to always find the best produce no matter where he was? Sasuke was willing to bet that these lusciously ripe tomatoes didn't come from the local supermarket. On the other hand, based on what the last few days had cost him, he thought it best not to ask where the tomatoes had come from.

"I really am thinking of starting a baby food business," Hiro said seriously. "Maybe you can advise me in what I should do to get started in my own business."

It was on the tip of Sasuke's tongue to tell him to forget it, because to help Hiro meant that he'd lose him as his personal chef. Instead, Sasuke acted as though his mouth were too full to talk. Some part of his conscience said, "Coward!" but the tomatoes won over his higher moral values.

"Of course I guess everything depends on Kenji," Hiro was saying. "Do all babies have such educated palettes?"

Here Sasuke was on safe ground. "Kenji is unique in all the world, one of a kind. Speaking of which . . ." He trailed off as he listened silently for a moment, then rose and went to Sakura's bedroom door, opened it, and tiptoed inside. Minutes later he came out with a sleepy-looking Kenji and a clean diaper.

"I didn't hear anything," Hiro said. "You must have great ears."

"When you get to be a—" Sasuke didn't say "father," as he meant to, but stopped himself. "Get to be a man of experience," he finished, "you learn to listen for things."

But Hiro wasn't listening to a word his employer said, because his wide-eyed interest was on the fact that Sasuke had thrown a dish towel down on the kitchen table and was changing the baby as though he'd done it all his life. All Hiro could think was that this was a man who had everything done for him. His clothes were chosen and purchased for him by his valet, his car was driven for him, meals cooked for him, and anything that was left over, his secretary did for him.

Hiro recovered himself enough to smile at the baby. "And how do you like strawberries, young gentleman?" Kenji's reply was a toothy grin, but Hiro's reward was when Kenji grabbed the crepes with both hands and sucked and chewed until there was nothing but sauce on his hands. And on his arms, face, hair, and even up his nose.

"How utterly gratifying," Hiro said, standing back and watching Sasuke clean Kenji with a warm cloth. "He is without prejudice. Without preconceived ideas. His culinary gusto is the purest form of praise."

"Or criticism," Sasuke said, annoyed that Hiro was still hinting that he wanted to start his own business.

"Afraid of losing me?" Hiro asked, one eyebrow arched, knowing exactly what was in his employer's mind.

Sasuke was saved from answering by a pounding on the front door. As he went to open it, Kenji draped over his arm, Sakura came out of the bedroom, a ratty old robe over her nightgown and blinking sleepily. "What's going on?" she asked.

When Sasuke opened the door, he was shoved aside by a thin blonde man who was followed by two other thin young men and one woman who were carrying huge boxes, plastic cloths slung over their arms. All four of them wore nothing but black, lots of black, layers of it. And all of them had hair bleached to an unnatural blondness that stuck out at all angles from their heads.

"You must be the one," the first man, who was carrying nothing, said as he pointed at Sakura. "Oh, 'un, I can see why I was told to come early. That must be your natural color of hair. What was God thinking when He did that to you? And, where did you get that robe? All right, boys, you can see what we have to do. Set up here and there, and over there."

He turned, looked Sasuke up and down, and said, "And who are you, un?"

"No one," Sasuke said emphatically, then tossed a look at Sakura. "Kenji and I are going out."

Sakura gave him a look that begged him to take her with him, but Sasuke had no pity. Heartlessly, he grabbed jackets for him and Kenji, then was out the front door before it closed. When he'd told Hyuga to have someone do a makeover, he'd meant maybe hair rollers for half an hour and a little eye shadow. Sakura possessed natural beauty; she didn't need the help of an army of beauticians to prepare for a party.

For all that Sasuke pretended to leave the house because of the arrival of the makeover people, the truth was that he was glad to have Kenji to himself for a while. It was amazing how important the adoration of a child could make you feel, he thought. And it was even more amazing the lengths that a person would go to to entertain a child.

Sasuke knew that he had a whole morning before Kenji would have to nurse again, so he had the baby to himself for hours. The carriage was in the back of the car, so he drove to the tiny downtown of Konoha and parked. Since Kenji was still in his pajamas, the first thing he had to do was buy him something to wear.

"Haven't I seen you somewhere before?" the man who owned the Konoha Emporium said, squinting at Sasuke. Since the man had served Sasuke, Naruto, and their father hundreds of times while the boys were growing up, he should remember him.

"Mmmmm," was all Sasuke said as he put the baby overalls and T-shirt down on the counter along with a snowsuit for a two-year-old. It would be too big for Kenji now, but it was the best-looking one they had, and Kenji did have his pride.

"I'm sure I know you," the man was saying. "I never forget a face. Did you come with them city people this mornin' to do up Sakura's face?"

"I need diapers for a twenty-pound kid," Sasuke said, starting to take out his credit card, then paying instead with cash. He didn't want the man to read his name on the card. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to come to Konoha; he should have gone to the mall.

"It'll come to me," the man said. "I know it will."

Sasuke didn't say anything, but put his hand through the handles of the plastic bags, then wheeled Kenji out of the store. That was a close one, he thought as he pushed Kenji back toward the car. But the encounter had taken him back in time to when he lived in Konoha, and now he could see the place with the eyes of an adult, an adult who had traveled all over the world.

The town was dying, he thought, looking at peeling paint and faded signs. The little grocery store where his father had shopped twice a week and where Sasuke had stolen candy once had a broken pane of glass in front. He had stolen only once in his life. His father had found out and had taken Sasuke back to the store. Attempting to teach Sasuke not to steal again, his father had arranged for him to sweep the store's wooden floors and wait on customers for two weeks.

It was during those two weeks that Sasuke got his first taste of business and had loved it. He found that the more enthusiastic he was, the more he believed in a product, the more he could sell. At the end of the two weeks both he and the store owner regretted having to part company.

The Konoha dime store windows looked as though they hadn't been washed in years. The Laundromat was disgusting.

Dying, he thought. The malls and the larger cities had killed poor little Konoha.

By the time Sasuke reached his car, he was feeling quite bad about the place, as he did have a few good memories there, in spite of what he told Naruto. Thinking of whom, he wondered why his brother would want to go through med school, then move back to this funeral-waiting-to-happen of a town.

Sasuke got into the car, turned on the ignition, waited awhile until the car was warm, then got into the back with Kenji and proceeded to dress him in his new clothes. "Well, you won't have to live here," he said to Kenji, then halted for a moment as he thought about what he was saying.

There would be Naruto to consider, of course, but Sasuke figured he could talk his brother 'round. Naruto couldn't possibly love Sakura more than he, Sasuke, did. And no man on earth loved Kenji more than he did. So of course they'd spend their lives together.

"Want to go live with me in Suna?" Sasuke asked the silent baby as he chewed on the laces of his new shoes. "I'll buy you a big house out in the country, and you can have your own pony. Would you like that?"

Sasuke finished dressing the baby, put him in his car seat, then headed for the clean, homogenized mall. Since it was Christmas Eve, there were few shoppers, so he and Kenji could stroll at their leisure and look in all the windows. But Sasuke saw nothing as he thought about what he wanted to do.

It wasn't difficult to see what the last few days had meant to him. Kenji and Sakura were now as much a part of his life as breathing, and he wanted them with him always. He'd buy a huge country house within commuting distance from Suna and Sakura and Kenji could live there. Sakura would never have to worry about cooking or cleaning again, as Sasuke would make sure that they were taken care of.

And they would be there when he got home, just waiting for him. And their presence would make life easier, he thought. He'd return from long, hard days at the office and there would be Sakura with oatmeal on her chin and Kenji in her arms.

On impulse, he stopped in an art store and bought Sakura a huge box of art supplies: watercolors, chalk, pencils, and six dozen sketchbooks of the finest quality paper they had.

"Either somebody likes to draw or you're tryin' to get a girl into bed with you," the clerk, who looked to be all of seventeen, said as he rang up the sale.

"Just give me the slip to sign," Sasuke snapped.

"Aren't you in the Christmas spirit?" the young man said, undaunted by Sasuke's scowl.

After he left the art store, he passed a jewelry store, and as though a hand pulled him inside, he entered. "Do you have engagement rings?" he asked, then was horrified to hear his voice crack. He cleared his throat. "I mean—"

"That's all right," the man said, smiling. "It happens all the time. Now, if you'll just step over here."

Sasuke glanced down at the tray of diamond solitaires in front of him with contempt, then back up at the man. "You have a vault in this store?"

"Oh, I see, you're interested in our security system," the man said nervously, and from the way his hand was hidden under the counter, he looked as though he were about to push a button and summon the police.

"I want to see some of the rings you have in the vault."

"I see."

Sasuke could tell that the stupid little man didn't see at all. "I want to buy something much nicer than any of these. I want to buy something expensive. Understand?"

It took the man a moment to stop blinking, but when he did, he grinned in a way that Sasuke found quite annoying, but the next moment he scurried into the back, and twenty minutes later Sasuke left the store with a tiny box in his trouser's pocket.

Sasuke took Kenji back home at noon to allow him to nurse. Neither male recognized Sakura at first, as her head was covered with pieces of aluminum foil. Kenji looked as though he were about to cry as he always did with strangers, but Sakura's arms felt familiar, so he settled down.

"How adorable," one of the thin young men said with sarcasm, his lip curled in distaste as Sakura nursed Kenji, every inch of her flesh hidden from view.

"Don't hit him, Mr. Uchiha," Sakura said without looking up.

At that, the young man looked at Sasuke with such interest that he went into the kitchen, but Hiro was still there, and now he was cooking lunch for the whole lot of them. Finally, Sasuke went into his room and called Hyuga.

As was becoming a habit with her, she took a long time to get to the phone. He told her he wanted her to call a realtor in the surrounding areas around Suna and fax him details of estates for sale. "Something suitable for a baby," he said. "And, Hyuga, I hope I don't have to tell you to mention this to no one, especially my little brother."

"No, you don't have to tell me that," she said, and Sasuke wasn't sure, but he thought he heard anger in her voice. And, oddly, she hung up before he did.

Sasuke took Kenji out to lunch. They shared a huge steak, butternut squash, and tiny green beans with almonds—and Sasuke had them grind the almonds so he could share them with Kenji. When that wasn't enough, they had crème brûlée, with burnt sugar on top and raspberries on the bottom.

After the meal, Kenji slept in his stroller while Sasuke bought more gifts for everyone. He bought things for Naruto, for his father, for Sakura (a new bathrobe and four cotton nightgowns that buttoned from neck to hem), and, on impulse, something for Hyuga. He got her a pen-and-pencil set. When he saw a cookware store, he bought Hiro something the clerk assured him was unique: tiny ice cream molds in the shape of various fruits. For Kenji he bought a set of hand puppets and a bubble gun that ran on batteries and produced huge, glorious soap bubbles.

Feeling quite proud of himself, Sasuke headed home with a car full of gaudily wrapped packages.

When he entered the house, a tired, fussy Kenji in his arms, Sakura stood there in all her glory, the product of many hours of work—and Sasuke didn't like what he saw. She looked beautiful in the long red column of satin that was the dress. It was rather plain, strapless, tight about Sakura's prodigious bosom, then opening to a pleat in front and flowing to the floor.

She was gorgeous, true, but she looked too much like all the women he had dated for so many years. This was a woman who didn't need any man; she could have them all if she wanted them. And she was a woman who knew she was beautiful. She had to know it if she looked like that.

Looking at Sasuke's face, Sakura laughed. "You don't like it, do you?"

"Sure. It's fine. You're a knockout," he said without expression.

"Meow," said one of the thin men. "Jealous, are we?"

Sasuke gave the man a quelling look, but the thin hairdresser just turned away, laughing.

"It doesn't matter," Sakura said, but her voice said that it did matter and that she was hurt by Sasuke's lack of enthusiasm. "Naruto's the one who counts, since I'm going with him."

"Ooooh, the kitten has claws," the thin man said.

"Ike!" snapped the head hairdresser. "Shut up. Let the lovebirds alone."

At that Sakura laughed, but Sasuke put Kenji on the floor, then went to plop down heavily on the old sofa in the living room. Everyone else was in the kitchen, either eating or cleaning up and putting supplies away. Sakura followed her son and Sasuke into the living room.

"Why don't you like it?" she asked, standing before him.

Sasuke had a newspaper in front of his face and didn't put it down. "I don't know where you got that idea. I told you that you look great. What else do you want?"

"For you to look at me and say that. Why are you angry with me?" There were almost tears in her voice.

Sasuke put the newspaper down (it was three weeks old anyway) and looked up at her. "You look great, really, you do. It's just that I think you look better the way you are naturally." He thought that would appease her, but it didn't, and he watched her frown, then turn away to look at Kenji as he sat on the floor chewing on a small cardboard box.

"He'll bite off a piece and choke on it," Sakura said, letting Sasuke know that he wasn't being a very good nanny. Lifting her heavy satin skirt, she strode out of the room, leaving Sasuke to wonder what he had done wrong.

"Women," Sasuke said to Kenji, who looked up and gave him a grin that showed all four of his teeth.

Thirty minutes later Naruto arrived with a flat velvet box, a dozen white roses, and Sasuke's limo. "I knew what the dress looked like," Naruto was saying, "but then everyone everywhere knew what the dress looked like, and, well, Dad and I thought pearls might look nice with it. They aren't real, but they look good."

With that, he opened the box and revealed a six-strand choker with a clasp of carved jade surrounded by diamonds. And Sasuke knew very well that the pearls and the diamonds were quite real. And, he had no doubt what Naruto had paid for them.

"I've never seen anything so beautiful," Sakura gasped.

"They're nothing compared to you," Naruto answered, and Sasuke had to repress a groan.

But maybe he didn't do well at repressing it, because Sakura said, "Don't mind him. He's been like that since he got back. I think he believes I should wear a straw hat and calico."

"It's his image of Konoha," Naruto answered, speaking about Sasuke as though he weren't standing there and glaring at the two of them.

"And we should be attending a hayride, not a ball," Sakura said, laughing.

Naruto held out his arm as though they were square-dancing and Sakura took it. "Now claim your partner and do the Strutter's Walk," he said, sounding like a square dance caller.

"Yee haw!" Sakura kicked the back of her skirt out of the way as she followed Naruto around the room.

"All right, that's enough," Sasuke said, grimacing at the two of them. "You've had your fun, now get out of here."

"We should go, Naruto," Sakura said. "I'll probably fall asleep by nine o'clock."

"Not while I 'm with you, you won't," Naruto said mischievously as he leered down the front of her gown.

"The only thing you're going to get there is dinner."

"I'm a hungry man," Naruto answered, making Sakura giggle.

"I think that 'man' is the key word here," Sasuke said ominously. "You need to remember that Sakura is a mother and that she needs—"

"You are not my father," Sakura snapped, "and I don't need to be told—"

"I'm ready, how about you?" Naruto said loudly. "And the limo is waiting. Shall we go?"

Once they were in the car and Sakura was staring out the window, Naruto said, "What was that all about?"

"What was what about?"

Naruto gave her a look that told her she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"I don't know. Mr. Uchiha and I have gotten along beautifully, but ever since the hairdressers arrived this morning, he's been insufferable. He stomped around like a bear and made the whole staff, who were so nice to me, run and hide in the kitchen. Hiro says the most devastating things about him, and—"

"Like what? What does Hiro say?"

"That Mr. Uchiha once walked past a cow and immediately turned it into frozen steaks. But he also says that Mr. Uchiha can boil a kettle of water by looking at it. And, oh, other things. I don't understand why Mr. Uchiha's been so nice these last days, but today he's so awful. If the people who came today are gay, shouldn't Mr. Uchiha be nice to them since he's gay too?"

"It doesn't always work that way," Naruto said, but he could hardly speak because of the effort it took not to laugh. "Ah, what else did Hiro have to say?"

Sakura looked at Naruto, blinking for a moment. "Oh, you mean, like that Mr. Uchiha doesn't sweat, doesn't excrete anything, if you know what I mean." She turned away for a moment to hide her red face. "That Hiro really does have a wicked tongue."

Naruto was about to burst with laughter. "And what about women? Surely Hiro must have said something about Sasuke's women."

"You mean his men, don't you?"

"Yeah, sure. Whatever. What did Hiro say?"

"Marble goddesses. Hiro said that if a woman, ah, burped around him, Mr. Uchiha would die of apoplexy. But, Naruto, that's not true. Last night Mr. Uchiha helped me get rid of a migraine. He stayed with me for a very long time, rubbing my temples until I fell asleep."

"He did what? I think you should tell me everything."

When Sakura finished, Naruto was looking at her in astonishment. "I've never heard of Sasuke doing anything like that. He's . . ."

"He's a very unusual man, is what he is," Sakura said, "and I can't figure him out at all. I just trust Kenji's judgment and Kenji adores him. And I think Mr. Uchiha adores Kenji too."