Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto

Piece of the Puzzle

Chapter 15: Past Regrets and Future Hope

Present day, Uzumaki household…

"Say, how would you like to know what your aunts and uncles were like as kids?" Naruto asked his children.

Getting eager nods in reply, Naruto continued his storytelling.

"I remember this one time, it was your grandma Sakura and grandpa Sasuke's wedding anniversary. They planned an entire romantic day out on the town. So, your mother and I volunteered to watch her younger siblings for them while they gave their staff the day off. As I recall, it was a pretty interesting day…"

Thirteen years ago, Uchiha household…

The day was August first, and it was Sakura and Sasuke's fourteenth wedding anniversary. They were married shortly after his eighteenth birthday, as Sasuke was eager to complete his lifelong ambition of restoring his clan. After a brief honeymoon, they returned to see the woman they selected to be the surrogate mother for their first child. Nine months later, Momo was born.

Sasuke himself was oddly insistent that their first child be a girl. Sakura, who was looking forward to having a daughter as well, employed a procedure to filter Sasuke's genetic material during the artificial insemination process that would maximize their chances of having a girl. Unlike what most thought, that was the only time they used such a method. The genders of their children alternating between boy and girl each time was a sheer coincidence.

While August first was special for Sakura and Sasuke, for their children, with the exception of Momo this particular year, it was just another ordinary day. While her younger brothers and sisters were going about their usual routines, at present Momo was readying herself for spending the day with Naruto…and her siblings.

Since Momo was expecting a relatively quiet day at home, the pink haired girl had changed her appearance to match that of one of her role models, her grandmother Uchiha Mikoto. She was wearing a simple dress and apron with her hair in its usual bun, giving her a nice homemaker look. She decided against wearing her goggles and forehead protector as today she was not a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village, but someone taking care of her family. Settling on her look, Momo began making her plans for the day.

'Okay, I need to make sure my imprudent little sisters don't get any ideas about my man while my foolish little brothers behave and don't embarrass me in front of Naruto.'

As of late, Momo had developed a jealousy streak concerning Naruto and other females, no matter who they were. In the few moments they were able to spend any time together Momo had taken to glaring at anyone female who even looked at Naruto, and on occasion would eye her mother's battle axes thoughtfully. Most of the women thought it was adorable that Momo would consider herself competition for Naruto's affections.

Those women were not much competition either. Naruto spent most of his time training or taking missions in preparation for the day he would become the Seventh Hokage. Thus his interactions with the members of the opposite sex were limited to those he was friends with, like the surviving members of his generation of shinobi, who had all moved on and were married with families of their own. As for those under his command, he was unable to pursue a relationship with them due to new laws prohibiting fraternization among team-mates.

That only left Momo as the female he spent the most time with, improbably giving her the best odds overall. Out of all the children of those in Naruto's generation, though soon Momo would no longer be considered a child, and in some eyes was not as she was a chunin and was of the age of consent for the region, Momo was the one Naruto had connected to the most. Whether that deep connection was due to her being his former team-mates' daughter, or because of a deeper reason was unknown.

Some believed it was because the bond Naruto had with Momo was the one he should have had with her parents. While they were team-mates and depended on each other to save their lives, as well as the potential they had to become a great team, their personal issues kept all of them from becoming too close. Naruto's crush on Sakura and his rivalry with Sasuke kept him from developing a friendship between them as was the case with the other teams in Naruto's generation.

As Naruto was a friendly, if somewhat obnoxious child, though he grew better with time, he had an easy time making friends, even amongst those who were once his enemies. In time, there were many who considered Naruto a friend, but none of them were as close to him as Momo had become.

As for Momo herself, she was now a thirteen year old adolescent, and in addition to her duties as a chunin of the Hidden Leaf Village, she now had to deal with her teenage hormones and a voice in her head that seemed to be quite fixated on Naruto.

'We get to spend the day with Naruto! We'll cook him dinner and show him what a great cook we are! Then he'll be all ours!' The inner voice spoke to Momo.

Worried she was losing her sanity, Momo sought advice from her mother. Sakura merely assured her that it was normal for females in or descended from the Haruno clan, and would fade over time. That did little to reassure her, as the inner voice was quite out of the ordinary at times.

'After dinner, we can make him a sundae with whipped cream, sprinkles, hot fudge and cherries topped on a peach, if you know what I mean.' The inner voice spoke again.

Luckily Momo did not understand what it meant, leaving her greatly confused at times.

'Aren't sundaes supposed to have the toppings on ice cream? We don't have any peach flavoured ice cream.' Momo thought, missing the point.

Putting aside the strange ideas of her inner voice, Momo had to admit some of its ideas had merit.

'Cooking for Naruto does sound like a good idea. I'll have to make enough for my siblings as well. Hmm, Naruto could help with that, and I can personally make him something special.'

A knock on her door broke Momo out of her thoughts of preparing a possibly romantic meal for her one true love.

"Momo dear, Naruto is here." Sakura said, looking forward to her own special day with her one true love.

"Coming mother." Momo replied, just as eager to be with Naruto all day as Sakura was to be with Sasuke.

The two pink haired females then left to meet the most important men in their lives.

For their anniversary, Sakura and Sasuke had an entire romantic day planned. To make it easier on Naruto and Momo, her siblings who were too young for the shinobi academy would be left with their godmothers. The household staff was also given the day off, so Naruto and Momo would have to pick up the slack. Otherwise, they had the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon to themselves, as Naruto still had an early meeting with Kakashi and had not arrived until after breakfast. That only left him enough time for Sakura to go over the ground rules and introduce him to the rest of her children. Naruto and Momo were in the living room where Sakura was in the process of doing just that.

"Supper is already made; you just need to warm it up. No, it is not ramen," Sakura said, looking at Naruto, "or tsukemen," she said, looking at Momo next, who looked forlorn for a moment.

'I could still make Naruto a great dessert to show him what a good wife I would be. Maybe a nice peach cobbler…' Momo thought, remembering her inner voice's earlier suggestion.

"Be sure to put the kids to bed at their bedtime." Sakura continued. "I don't want them staying up late. Make sure they brush their teeth and wash themselves before going to bed as well."

"We will mother." Momo replied.

"Don't worry; this'll be a piece of cake." Naruto declared boldly.

"Sure it will." Sakura said, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes at Naruto's confident tone. "Wait until you two have kids of your own, then try telling me raising them is a piece of cake." She joked, leaving the implication of them having children together hanging in the air.

Naruto did not seem to get it, but Momo did. She gave Naruto a glance, but his expression was that of his usual cheerful grin.

"Nah, it'll be years before I'm ready to have any kids of my own. You'll probably be a grandmother by then." Naruto said, referring to Sakura, and not realizing the potential irony in his statement.

Sakura did realize it, and let out a slight laugh.

"I'm still too young to be a grandmother." She said, giving Momo a look of warning that Naruto did not notice.

While he was a very powerful shinobi and showed incredible insight on the battlefield, in many areas, Naruto still had a lot to learn. The nuances of being in a relationship and common knowledge possessed by those who had a family were among them. Through contact with Momo and her family, Naruto was slowly beginning to learn about it and would figure it all out in time.

"Okay then, since that was everything, and while we're on the topic of children, it's time I introduced you to your charges for the day." Sakura said, speaking directly to Naruto.

While he was close to Momo, Naruto had been too busy to get to know her siblings and had only seen them in passing. Today he would spend more time with them than he had in all the time since meeting Momo; the day he considered his second life began.

In short order, Sakura had left the room and returned with five children, the rest of the family she had with Sasuke. One by one, she had them line up and introduce themselves to Naruto.

The first one in line was a boy who looked quite similar to Sasuke in terms of physical appearance, but that was the end of the resemblance. Whereas Sasuke dressed in dark colours, the boy sported a mix of yellow, orange and red. In particular, he wore a yellow jacket with red and orange flame embroidery.

"I'm Arashi." The boy said. "Did you really once paint the Hokage monument in broad daylight?" He asked Naruto suddenly, putting the youthful man on the spot.

"Uh, yeah, I did." Naruto admitted, slightly embarrassed about his past ways.

"That is awesome!" Arashi declared. "I wish I could have done something like that, but after my last prank I got an ANBU team assigned to watch me at all times while I'm at the academy. Something about causing a lot of property damage and light charges of arson, I wasn't really paying attention."

Naruto just blinked, as Arashi did not meet his expectations at all.

'Sasuke's son is a prankster like I used to be? Huh, how about that.'

Due to his musings, Naruto missed Sakura scolding Arashi.

"Sorry about Arashi. He just needs the right outlet for his boredom." Sakura explained. "I'm sure you'll be a good influence on him to get him to stop playing pranks and find a more constructive hobby."

Naruto nodded in understanding, as unlike romance, this was something he understood all too well.

'Arashi is probably bored at the academy because he's too skilled, given who his parents are. Playing pranks are his way of keeping those skills sharp. I guess Momo's parents wanted to wait until they were sure I'd be a good influence and not make him worse before we met. Have we really fallen that far apart?'

Naruto took a quick glance at Momo, who looked towards him as well once she felt his eyes on her, gave him a slight smile, and then turned back to her mother and siblings.

'Momo doesn't seem to mind my past. She must think I'd be a good influence too. I'm glad it doesn't bother her.'

Naruto had no idea why the thought of Momo being disappointed in him or being a bad influence on children worried him; the thought never crossed his mind.

"Alright, moving along now." Sakura said as she continued the introductions, ushering her next child forward.

A girl stepped forward this time. Like her older sister and mother, she had pink hair. Unlike Sakura though, it was long like Momo's had become, but kept down. Her complexion was different from them, as her skin looked almost grey in the light. She wore a blue shirt and skirt with a matching cloak and hood, which was down at the moment.

"I'm Suika." She said, before returning to stand with her siblings.

Once again Naruto just blinked, as another of Sakura and Sasuke's kids did not live up to his expectations.

'I thought she'd be more like Momo and their mother, but she seems more like their father.'

Sakura however just repressed another sigh.

"Don't think bad of Suika. She acts distant like her father, but she's just shy like I used to be." Sakura explained.

"Mother…" Suika said in response with a slight pink tinge to her cheeks.

Once again, Naruto caught on.

'I get it; Suika is just shy like her mother was before she met Mrs. Yamanaka. I guess she wants me to help her open up more. I'll have to see what I can do.'

The next child, knowing it was his turn, eagerly stepped forward. He was dressed quite similarly to Uchiha Obito; a blue shirt and pants with orange detailing. The only thing missing were the goggles, although he could always borrow Momo's to complete the look.

"My name is Uchiha Shippo and I'm going to be Hokage someday, you can count on it!" The boy declared.

The absolute gob smacked look on Naruto's face upon hearing the boy's introduction was so priceless Sakura took a picture.

"Nice, I just need to get that framed and I have the perfect bonus anniversary present for Sasuke." Sakura said.

Meanwhile, Naruto was still trying to comprehend the actions of another of Sakura and Sasuke's offspring.

'The boys look like their father, but so far they act more like I used to. What happened, did their parents try to get them to be like me so they wouldn't turn out like their father? Actually, that may be what happened. If so, I guess they want me to help make sure they turn out okay like I did for their father.'

While Naruto was pondering how to be a good role model for his former team-mates' sons, Sakura slipped next to him and started whispering in his ear, ignoring the jealous look Momo was brazen enough to give her.

"Shippo also has a bit of a crush on a girl who's just not interested in him. Would you mind talking to him about it? You're better suited for dealing with something like this than his father."

Naruto gave a slight nod in reply. Some might have viewed Sakura's request as cruel given how he once had a crush on her, but Naruto was over that, having come to recognize his feelings for her as childish crush and nothing more. In time, he would move onto feelings of true love with someone he never expected to fall for, just like Shippo would someday as well.

'Oh boy, this is going to be tricky. I wonder if this will be just as hard when I have kids someday. At least I could always ask Momo for help.' Naruto thought, thinking of Momo as just a friend who could lend a hand and not the potential mother of his children, yet.

As his turn was done, Shippo took his place with his siblings, signalling the next of them to step forward and introduce themselves. This time a girl stepped forward. As with her sisters, she had pink hair and dark eyes. She was dressed in a black kimono that looked quite nice on her, creating a unique contrast with her hair.

"I'm Hikari. You can't have any of the inarizushi. It's mine, all mine!" She said, referring to the leftover brown bag sushi from the previous night.

Finally Sakura did sigh at the antics of her youngest daughter.

"Hikari is still in her mine phase and has a bit of a jealousy streak if she sees someone with something she wants. Don't worry about it; she'll grow out of it someday, hopefully." Sakura once again whispered to Naruto.

When Hikari moved back to her siblings, the final child stepped forward. This one, like Arashi and Shippo, looked more like Sasuke than Sakura, but was closer in appearance to their grandmother Mikoto than their father. The child had long dark hair and wore a pretty pink kimono, which made for an unusual sight next to Hikari.

"My name is Fuyuki. It is a pleasure to meet you." The child said politely with more developed language skills than Naruto expected a three year-old to have.

"It's not all that surprising," Sakura explained as if she could read Naruto's mind, "he does have good genetics and has been taught at an advanced level since he was born. Also, before you ask, yes, Fuyuki is a boy. He always cried when we dressed him in boy's clothes but never when he let him wear his sisters' old clothes. Finally we gave up and let him dress as he liked."

As before, Naruto nodded along with Sakura's explanation of her children's quirks. This time, he had a little smile of his own.

'Arashi and Shippo must have been influenced by their father to be more like me, but I can see Fuyuki is more like Haku. I guess I wasn't the only one changed by him, or at least not the only one to carry on his memory.'

Now that the introductions were done, the kids were ready to go.

"Alright, it's time for us to go. I'll take the kids and drop Fuyuki and Hikari off with their godparents and the others at the shinobi academy. You two have a good time." Sakura said as she and her youngest son and daughter made their way out. "Just not too good a time." She said silently to herself once out of the house.

"So, what do we do now?" Naruto asked Momo once they were alone.

Pausing to think, Momo heard her inner voice give a suggestion.

'Show him around the house. You can make a stop by our room, and let him enter our private space.' The voice said to Momo.

Once again, she failed to notice the innuendo entirely.

"We don't need to start on the household chores right away. I can show you around the house, or the rest of the district." Momo said.

"That sounds good." Naruto answered with a nod. "I've been here a few times before but I've never had a chance to look around much. Why don't you give me a tour of the house first?"

For the next few minutes, Momo showed Naruto around her family's manor.

"I think I remember your father having this place remodelled before he and your mother moved in. I know he always wanted to restore his clan, so he'd need a big family and space for them." Naruto commented during the tour.

"I'm glad I get my own room. I don't think I could stand having to share one with my imprudent little sisters or worse, my foolish little brothers." Momo said, voicing her gratefulness to her father for his foresight.

"Still, it must be nice having siblings. Despite how it sounds, I bet you guys are really close." Naruto said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

'I forgot Naruto was an orphan.' Momo thought guiltily, feeling bad she might have reminded Naruto of his lonely childhood. 'He seems so happy and normal it's hard to tell sometimes.'

"Don't worry about it; I got over being an orphan some time after your parents got together." Naruto said to relieve Momo of her guilt. "I know my parents really loved me, so now I'm just looking forward to the day when I'm ready to become a parent."

That relieved Momo, who resumed her tour. When they made it to the bedrooms, she pointed out how they were colour coded by Sakura for her children; pink for the girls and blue for the boys. After pointing out to Naruto each of her sibling rooms, Momo led him to her own room.

"This is my bedroom." She said with a slight blush at the thought of a man like Naruto seeing or even being in her bedroom.

To Momo's surprising relief, rather than enter, Naruto merely leaned in from the doorway to see the inside of her room. It was rather Spartan for a young girl, but normal for a shinobi. A bed, framed by a nightstand at each side, was against the wall to the left of the window. Its only outstanding features were pink sheets and an orange fox plushy on a pillow. Sales of items like that had increased as the pain of the losses from the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon's attack faded and Naruto rose to greatness. A small and neatly kept desk was against the opposite wall of the room. There was no closet to conserve space, but a pair of dressers which seemed large enough to hold plenty of clothing were placed to the left of the door, which faced the window.

"You've got a lot of plants in here." Naruto commented, as his own interest in gardening made them stand out to him.

"Those are my bonsai trees." Momo replied, reminding Naruto of her hobby.

They were covering a shelf each on the two bookcases framing Momo's desk. The remaining shelves had books about bonsai care, gardening, medicine and strangely, a few fiction novels about forbidden romance between a young woman and an older man.

After an incident with her diary being found by Arashi when Momo was younger, she learned that he went for the obvious hiding places for it, where it was, instead of checking the bookshelf, which he ignored. Learning from this, as a substitute for hiding them, Momo kept her romance novels spread out among the other books, which were grouped by type, hiding them in plain sight. Instead of peering close and learning what they were, most people quickly skimmed past them in favour of noting the topics of the clustered books.

It seemed to work, as Naruto paid no attention to any of them with their real contents hard to determine from their seemingly random placement and ambiguous names. Momo made sure to find romance novels whose titles did not give away the plot, but rather made a clever statement. Because of this, there was the added bonus that observers may think the romance novels were part of the books there were placed beside. Something titled How Does Your Garden Grow could be interpreted to be about growing medicinal herbs and not given a second glance.

"Alright, so what's next on the tour?" Naruto asked, satisfied with what he had seen.

"I don't think my parents would like it if we looked in their room." Momo stated. "Would you like to see the other homes my parents set aside for me and my siblings now?" She asked.

"Sure." Naruto answered with a shrug. "Let's go."

They then headed out, to the dismay of Momo's inner voice.

'No! You were supposed to show him into our room like in chapter eighteen of How to Trim a Young Bush where…'

Momo ignored the inner voice, noting it was odd how the inner voice knew what happened in that chapter when she thought she skipped over its seemingly mature content.

Having left her home in the care of her daughter and former team-mate and then dropped her children off for the day, Sakura made her way to Team Seven's old meeting spot. There she would meet up with her other team-mate turned husband, Sasuke.

'I still can't believe that as of today, it has been fourteen years that we've been married.' Sakura thought as she reflected on their years together. 'It wasn't easy at first, and we have some tense moments sometimes, but it was worth it.'

Soon enough Sakura had made it to the bridge where the defunct team seven awaited their formerly tardy instructor's arrival. She had arrived before Sasuke for once, leading Sakura to continue her reminiscence.

'I remember how Sasuke would always be here first, and when I made it, I'd talk to him and ask if he wanted to go out with me. Sasuke would just grunt and look away from me. I used to think he was being cool and aloof. I was so stupid.'

For a moment, Sakura lowered her head in shame over her childish actions.

'I was so selfish and shallow back then. I was always trying to get Sasuke to be my boyfriend when I should have just tried to be his friend. He had lost his entire family and wouldn't risk losing anyone else until he brought Itachi to justice.'

The sound of approaching footsteps brought Sakura out of her introspection. She turned to their source and saw Sasuke walking up to her with a bouquet of flowers.

"I brought you some roses," he said as he handed the bouquet to Sakura, "one for every year we've been married."

"They're lovely." Sakura replied, taking in their aroma as she held them in her arms.

"Shall we get going?" Sasuke asked as he held out his hand for his wife.

"Yes, let's." Sakura said, taking her husbands hand in her own.

As Sakura followed Sasuke's lead, a bouquet of roses in one hand and the love of her life in another she remembered her earlier thoughts.

'I may have wasted my childhood trying to get together with you,' Sakura thought as she stole a glance at her husband, 'but I'm with you now. We will never have those years back, but I have the rest of my life to make it up to you.'

Sakura did not know it, but Sasuke's thoughts were quite similar to her own.

'What a fool I was. You were devoted to me and willing to not only sacrifice your closest bond, but join me in leaving the village, risking becoming a wanted criminal just to be with me. I only thought you cared about my looks or that I was an Uchiha. I could not have been more wrong. You really did love me. You even called off your friendship with Yamanaka because you knew it would be ruined once we got together. You wanted to leave with me because you knew how much it would hurt to lose me. I know all too well what it's like to lose someone you love.'

Although Sasuke did not speak his mind much, it did not mean his mind was not active. Ever since the day he lost all those he cared about, he had started bottling up him emotions. It took the years of efforts from not only Sakura, but even Naruto and eventually the children Sasuke had with Sakura to help him let out and deal with those emotions, like his guilt. Just as Sakura felt guilty for her actions as a child, so did Sasuke.

'I was such a coward. It was the fear of losing anyone and everyone I cared about again that turned me down that dark path. I could have had friends and even a lover from the very beginning but I was too consumed by my ambition. I only cared about anything that could support getting my vengeance and thought of anything that deterred me from it as an annoyance. That single-minded obsession almost cost me everything.'

As they strolled along, Sakura would point out various places and their significance to them, like the restaurant they went to for their third date. Sasuke nodded along, still engrossed in his thoughts.

'If it was not for you staying devoted and proving you truly loved me, I might have been consumed by the darkness and become beyond saving. You saved me Sakura and for that I am eternally grateful. Even more, you gave me back the family I lost. I don't deserve you, so I'll spend the rest of our lives to make myself worthy of you.'

The past is something that cannot be changed. All anyone can really do is learn from their mistakes and move on. The future however, it is what one makes of it.

On the other side of the Hidden Leaf Village, Naruto and Momo were now standing outside the house next door to the Uchiha manor, having stopped there as part of Momo's tour of the estates.

"This house will be mine someday, when I get married and have a family of my own." She said, pointing it out to Naruto, who let out a whistle in it's appreciation.

"It's a nice place. The guy you end up marrying will be a lucky man."

'He is.' Momo thought as she gazed at the man she hoped to share her future home with.

Since the house was still locked down and awaiting the day its future owners would make it their own, Naruto continued to follow Momo on her tour around the small neighbourhood Sasuke kept for his own clan. Not before long they were finished.

"So what should we do now?" Naruto asked his tour guide.

Momo paused a bit before answering, as if expecting something, like a sudden growling noise.

"Would you like to get brunch first? Mother already made supper, but I can make us a nice meal before we start our chores." She said eagerly, hoping to impress Naruto with her homemaking skills.

"Sounds great. I had some instant ramen earlier and that was it. Say, your mother only said we couldn't have ramen or tsukemen for supper, didn't she?" Naruto asked with a mischievous look.

"That's right, she did." Momo answered with a giggle.

"Alright, so let's go then." Naruto said as they did just that.

While one pink haired woman was vowing to make up for her past, a pink haired girl was now looking forward to her future. Just as Sakura had to wait for Sasuke to put his family's spirits to rest and deal with the issues their loss had left him with, so too would Momo have to wait for Naruto to recognize her as a woman someday when she became one. For both of them, mother and daughter, if it meant they would get to spend the rest of their lives with the man they each truly loved, that wait was worth it.

As Naruto and Momo were about to have brunch, Sakura and Sasuke were settling in for a break as well. They had stopped at the same tea house they went to for their first date.

"Do you remember that day?" Sakura asked Sasuke once they had quenched their thirst on the bitter drink. "We couldn't decide on where to go so we just ended up having tea."

Sakura wanted to go to a new restaurant that served dango as their specialty but Sasuke, who disliked sweets, wanted to have a more filling meal at the local Korean barbeque restaurant. Sakura, who was never a big eater even after she became Tsunade's apprentice, though she did stop dieting and ate healthier, disliked spicy food. Ultimately they agreed to have tea as a compromise and would indulge in their preferences later.

"Hn." Sasuke said in reply.

A grunt may not have been a very romantic reply, but Sakura, who knew Sasuke always had trouble expressing himself, could tell what her husband was really feeling. His posture was relaxed, showing he felt safe enough to let down his guard around her. At the mention of their first date, his lips turned up ever so slightly into a smile as he replied. What really set Sakura's heart a flutter was how Sasuke never took his eyes off her even as he sipped his tea, showing she was all that mattered to him.

"Do you remember the first time you told me you loved me?" Sakura asked as she laughed at the memory.

"I remember." Sasuke replied as he held back his own laughs.

"You finally said you loved me instead of just saying 'Hn'". Sakura said as she did her best impression of Sasuke's typical grunt. "I was so freaked out I tried my best to dispel the illusion I was convinced I was caught in. Then when you started laughing I was convinced you had been replaced by an impostor."

Sakura was laughing more openly now, but Sasuke, ever the professional shinobi, kept his calm, though he did find it funny as well.

"It's okay though." Sakura said once her amusement was under control. "That was the day I learned 'Hn' is Uchiha for I love you."

Sakura's emerald eyes were now gazing into Sasuke's own onyx orbs. Both were feeling the same emotion, one as they always had and the other as they learned to feel over time.

"I love you."

"Hn too."

Sakura and Sasuke may not have been too hungry but Naruto and Momo were. While her parents were enjoying a relaxing day she had a lot of hard work around the house to look forward to so Momo had cooked a lot of ramen and tsukemen for herself and Naruto using the ingredients he kept on him. A few years of experience in taking field missions had taught him to be prepared at all times, thus he was able to enjoy the cooking skills Hinata had imparted to Momo as they enjoyed a nice meal in her family's dining room. She had made ramen for him before but now she had several more months of experience in preparing the noodle dish that made a significant difference.

"This ramen is so good! You're a really good cook Momo!" He said while helping himself to her homemade ramen.

"Thank you Naruto." Momo said with a slight blush, still unable to control doing so whenever he complimented her.

"I mean it. You'll make some guy very lucky someday, believe it!"

That first accolade had made Momo blush a bit but the next, a genuine recognition of her homemaking skills, had left her completely red-faced.

'Naruto thinks we're a great cook! We're one step closer to making him all ours!' Inner Momo called out triumphantly to her outer self. 'Now get in there and give him something he'll really like the taste of!'

Unfortunately Momo was too embarrassed to act on her inner self's suggestion.

"Hn." She squeaked out, unable to say much else under the circumstances.

"Ah Momo, you're my best friend too." Naruto said, misinterpreting what she meant.

Putting down his chopsticks and moving from his seat across from Momo at the table to her side, Naruto pulled her into a one-armed hug, causing her to snuggle into his chest to hide her blushing countenance.

'Momo is kind of cute like this. It's weird how normally she's a strong kunoichi but shows a different side when it's just us. I kind of like it.' Naruto thought of his young friend.

Momo was too engrossed in enjoying their closeness to think, but Inner Momo had ideas of her own.

'Now's your chance! While we're close, steal a kiss! I bet it'll taste like ramen!' Inner Momo suggested.

The real Momo was still too embarrassed to do what the voice in her head said, which was probably for the best, as Naruto had already moved back to his seat.

'Nooo! You missed out on some hot, ramen flavoured smooches! How could you!' Inner Momo vented at her outer self.

Unaware of Momo's inner self berating her host but completely aware of how extolling her cooking embarrassed her, Naruto decided to change the topic to something she would be more comfortable with. It was a little quirk Naruto and Momo had developed that gave them the ability to know how the other was feeling and what to do to if they were feeling bad.

"So what kinds of bonsai did you have? Are they artificial or do you grow them yourself?" He asked her.

"I use artificial trees. I don't have the time to maintain live trees." Momo explained, finding her voice again.

The topic stayed on Momo's bonsai for a bit. Her discomfort was soon forgotten once she was explaining more about her hobby. Through his own experience with caring for houseplants, Naruto was able to add to the discussion as well, giving suggestions on how to make time to care for live trees of her own. Soon, their meal and conversation was over, leading way to work-time.

"Well, I suppose it's time we started on the household chores. Why don't we start with the gardening? I'm really good at it, believe it!" Naruto said.

"I like it too. It's nice and relaxing." Momo responded.

"I know, isn't it? It's great that we think alike." Naruto said as they began the first of their many chores.

Momo did not answer him, but silently revelled in the many connections that they had.

It was now lunchtime in the Village Hidden in the Leaves. As the many children of the village exited the various schools for lunch and play, Sakura and Sasuke watched them go on their way from a park bench. Sasuke sat upright, so Sakura snuggled into his left side, with one of his arms wrapped protectively around her. They were both silent, content with merely enjoying the other's presence. As they continued to observe the many children, Sasuke broke their silence.

"Do you think we should have another child?" He asked Sakura, who gave him a stern look in response. "Right, sorry, I don't know what I was thinking."

"I think we've had enough children anyway." Sakura replied. "I do love them though, they make life interesting and I can't imagine my life without them, but at some point I'd like to move on from being a working mother raising her children and be a retired grandmother doting on her grandchildren while asking her children why they don't visit more despite living right next door."

"You're right." Sasuke acquiesced to his wife's statement. "I'd think I'd like to move on to being a retired grandfather someday too. It would be nice to see a lot of grandchildren someday. It would make me feel like the Uchiha really were a clan once more."

"Humph, look at us, talking about having grandchildren while we're still young. We've got young children of our own, we should focus on them right now." Sakura said, to which Sasuke nodded in reply.

"They certainly are worth it, aren't they?" He asked her.

"Yes, they are."

As Naruto and Momo would soon find out, the other children of Sasuke and Sakura were quite a handful.

For Naruto and Momo, it was now late in the afternoon and their chores had been completed, so they were taking a much needed break. They were more mentally exhausted from performing them, as Momo directed Naruto's many shadow clones and he felt all of their combined mental fatigue when he dispelled them and gained their memories. At the moment, the two were collapsed next to each other on a couch in the Uchiha's living room.

"So much for my theory that what one of me can do in an hour, one hundred of me can do in less then a minute." Naruto lamented.

"If you had taken more D-rank missions when you were a genin, you'd know that already." Momo said, her affections for Naruto not blinding her to his shortcomings.

Unbeknownst to Naruto and possibly Momo as well, while he was being distracted by their conversation, Momo was slowly moving closer to him and into snuggling range.

"It's not like I was allowed to use shadow clones on D-rank missions." Naruto countered. "Still, I can't believe those useless chores had a point."

"They're for building teamwork among new genin teams, while doing public relations. By helping the ordinary citizens of the village, we're showing that we're more than child soldiers." Momo said, explaining what she had been taught in the academy and as a genin.

"I know, but I'm too old to be doing D-rank missions."

"You're still young. You look like a handsome young man." Momo replied, her mental fatigue or possibly another factor making her say things she normally would not.

"Thanks Momo." Naruto said, smiling at the compliment. "I guess I've still got another sixty or seventy years in me thanks to my Uzumaki vitality, so I'll be around for a while still."

"Mmm." Was all that came out of Momo, who was now right next to him.

'Naruto's so warm, and I can hear his heartbeat.' She thought as she moved her arms around him.

"Huh, hey, Momo?" Naruto asked the soon to be peacefully sleeping girl on his chest.

'What are you doing?' Inner Momo asked her outward psyche. 'We're almost right on top of Naruto and you're going to sleep?'

"Just five more minutes." Momo said, ignoring the efforts of Naruto and her inner self to spurn her into other actions.

"Uh, Momo, I'm not entirely comfortable with you cuddling into me like this." Naruto said, fearful of what might happen if someone were to walk in at the moment.

Naruto may have been okay with just giving Momo a hug, but at the moment she was practically sitting in his lap with her arms around him. Luckily for him, the grandfather clock striking three o'clock broke Momo from her daze.

"Come on now, we only have fifteen minutes before we have to get your siblings from the daycare and the academy." Naruto said as he pulled himself from Momo's grip and got up.

"Alright." Momo responded as she reluctantly got up as well.

'Nooooo! Naruto was right where we want him and you were too tired to do anything about it?' Inner Momo complained. 'Let me take over and I'll get him!'

Once again, Momo ignored her inner voice. This time she was too tired to listen. Popping a soldier pill to regain some strength, and thankful that the inner voice was done ranting now, she and Naruto headed out to retrieve her siblings, unaware of just what would happen.

Present Day, Uzumaki household…

"And that was how I learned the true meaning of Christmas. Wait, what were we talking about again?"

At some point, Naruto had trailed off during his storytelling and switched from telling his children about the day he and their mother watched their aunts and uncles for the day while their grandparents celebrated their anniversary and told the tale of his first Christmas. That however, is a story for another time.

"I know, I wrote a book about how your mother and I got together. I've got a copy in the den, so I'll go get it. It's an edited account to make it age appropriate, but it should help me remember what really happened."

Forming a shadow clone to observe his children, as Naruto would not leave them alone for a second, he ran off to the den.

"What did real daddy mean by edited?" Himeko asked the copy of her father.

"Yeah, and what does age appropriate mean?" Hayao asked next.

"Well you see…" The shadow clone began, cursing its creator for leaving him in this position.

While Hayao and Himeko interrogated the shadow clone of their father, taking advantage of their cuteness and its unwillingness to harm them, Naruto was looking through his den. After a quick look at his bookshelf and mentally thanking Momo for organizing it for him, Naruto pulled out the book he wrote based on their unusual romance.

'The Fruits of Our Love, by Uzumaki Naruto.'

After hearing that a traditional first anniversary present was paper and fresh off the success of The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya, Naruto decided to write a book based on his and Momo's relationship. He had not originally planned to publish it, but after Momo edited it to eliminate any content she preferred kept private, she convinced him to publish the book. The original manuscript was kept by Momo, who still read it from time to time. Gazing around the den for a moment, Naruto noted some of its contents.

'There's the bonsai tree Momo made for me.' He thought, looking at the artificial tree, which was on a shelf of the bookcase. 'It took me a while to understand its meaning, and the meaning of the others.'

A pair of formal upright style bonsai were on the shelf as well, on each side of the one made by Momo's gift. They were actually made by Momo and Naruto after she showed him how to do so once they were married. Once they were done, she explained how they represented a product of their love and that by working together they could create something beautiful. Naruto agreed it was a nice sentiment. That was when Momo told him she was pregnant with their first child.

'Should I tell the kids about that or are they too young?' Naruto thought as he leafed through The Fruits of Our Love. 'I know,' he thought as he stopped at chapter seventeen, 'I can tell them about the year I became Hokage, their mother became a jonin, and we became more than friends. That'll be later though. I still need to tell them what really happened, according to the book anyway, on their grandparents' anniversary.'

Settling on what to tell his children about next, Naruto went back into the living room to see them. Upon entering the room, he found Hayao and Himeko had pinned down his shadow clone and were tickling it into submission. The real Naruto cleared his throat, gaining his children's attention and freeing his shadow clone. Now free, the shadow clone was mentally dispelled by Naruto, who was slightly concerned about how much power his family had over him.

'I rule the military which leads the village. At home though, my wife and kids rule over me.' He thought, reminding himself of an old quote he read once. 'I know Momo is aware of that, but I hope the kids don't catch on.'

Seeing that their father was back, Hayao and Himeko settled back down into their previous positions. Naruto did so as well, looking up the relevant chapter from his book before resuming his storytelling.

"I should have brought this out from the beginning. Luckily I remembered most of it. Anyway, this is sort of what really happened that day." Naruto said. "Hey, if I knew I'd write a book about it someday I'd have kept notes." He said when his children gave him a weird look. "Okay, the day was August first and it was…"

Author's note: Sorry for taking so long to get this done. I had a really hard time writing this chapter. The Sasu/Saku parts were the hardest for me to write. I kept getting distracted while writing them. Eventually I worked out the majority of them recently once I got the right inspiration.

I wanted this to be done on August 1st, as it would have been released on Sakura and Sasuke's anniversary, but it wasn't anywhere near complete. Instead it ended up being posted on Naruto's birthday. How about that.

Then there was the issue of the OC children. Originally I planned the chapter to be about them and Naruto and Momo's efforts to watch them for a day, showing what their family life would be like with their own kids someday. The Naruto/Momo and Sasuke/Sakura comparisons just took over the chapter.

I also took some time off to work on a side-story aimed at creating profiles for each of the Uchiha Brats to save on exposition in this chapter. Eventually I settled on just doing a brief introduction for each one and making them more prominent in the next chapter, which includes material that was originally meant to be part of this one, before the word count began to exceed 7000 words.

That said, if anyone is interested in seeing that side-story, despite it being just exposition about OC's and a little story about each one, I'll try to finish it. I'm sure Sasuke/Sakura fans would be curious about how each of their kids turns out, and Momo gets her own chapter too. It shows some nice insights into the relationship between not only her and Naruto, but him and her parents.

There's a funny story behind the use of the title How Does Your Garden Grow in this story. That's the actual title of a children's book, but the story behind how I ended up using it is NSFW.

According to xkcd comic 898: Chain of Command, Themistocles once said this: "Athens rules all Greece; I control Athens; my wife controls me; and my infant son controls her." Basically, his infant son rules all of Greece. That's the quote Naruto was thinking of.