Sasuke gives the foreman, Yamaguchi Satoshi, a timeline of two weeks when they go inspect the property. He doesn't ask for a re-quote when receives the price for the repair of the house and the gates to be installed on the premises two days after they inspected the property. He does eye Yamaguchi a little as he speaks with Kaede.
"Sato-san, I am putting my trust in you and Kaede-san that this will go smoothly," Sasuke glances over to the civilian beta who had introduced himself as Yamaguchi Satoshi. "That includes your foreman working honestly," he doesn't mean to threaten, but he won't be tolerating being swindled from a small amount of money and getting saddled with a low quality, dilapidated house, unsafe for a new mother and an infant.
Hiroki nods. "I'll handle every purchase myself, Uchiha-san,"
"Both the house and the gates will be repaired and built concurrently, and I expect the gate to be finished together with the house so that my mate's parents and I can seal and ward the property. It doesn't matter how many people you need to get this done. The more people, the faster you finish it, right?"
"In general, yes," answers Hiroki. "We'll strive to finish it in that time frame,"
"Again, this repair and construction will not stop with the house and the gates. For now, gate the house around the perimeter I've set. This gate will be dismantled in the future when we've settled, and reconstructed around a bigger cut of the land,"
"This seems like a long contract,"
"It will be long and fruitful for you and your foreman for years if you satisfy our needs, yes,"
Hiroki's eyes widen. Years? So he doesn't question it and says yes. "Hai,"
The construction starts the next day.
"Kaede-san," Sasuke calls for her attention when he visits again a few days later. "Good morning,"
"Uchiha-sama, good morning," she greets, approaching him right outside her home where he's waiting and bows.
Sasuke hands her a piece of paper. "These are the things we already have for the child. Anything that isn't on this list that you might think we may need, please acquire it together with all the appliances and furniture. My mate isn't in a good enough condition to go shopping, so I'm leaving it all to you,"
"For a boy or a girl?"
"Neutral, if you would,"
"And the crest?"
"On everything,"
"Understood."
After working three weeks with Sasuke, one week at their own apartment, Kakashi feels a little more relaxed with the boy. Now they're back at the Hatake residence and Iruka is back at the academy, and Naruto again is left to his own devices which kind of worries Kakashi a little bit since he's alone at the apartment, but he and Sasuke won't be away too long anyway.
Kakashi almost feels the remnants of empty nest again, having lived with Naruto and Sasuke for a week. He's especially excited when he brings over some bento he and Naruto were experimenting on for lunch, or any other food or trinkets Naruto gives to Sasuke to bring to his parents, with little notes from Naruto.
Sasuke and Kakashi talk about how they're going to use the land he bought, that he and Naruto have already discussed names and that they're not telling anybody yet.
"It's not something dumb, is it?" Kakashi asks as they share a bottle of good sake after a particularly bad morning of intense document review.
These three weeks, they were creating process improvements and if Sasuke's being completely honest, he has no idea what's going on and maybe Naruto has more input than he does. He mentions it, but Kakashi shoots him down and says Naruto doesn't need to be thinking about anything else other than resting and growing his grandchild, so the two of them will have to suck it up.
Sasuke doesn't know how to receive the word 'grandchild' from Kakashi.
"I was actually surprised Naruto picked such nice names," Sasuke downs the dish of alcohol.
Kakashi pauses. "Names?"
"Mm," Sasuke nods. "Four names." There were a lot more names in that notebook, but four stood out to Naruto.
"Four?" he repeats, eyes wide. "That doesn't mean he wants four kids, does he?"
"No, it does,"
"Four?!"
"Yes,"
Kakashi sets the dish down. "How do you even handle four kids?"
"We're a team. It will be okay. If he asks me for three more children, I won't deny him, but he must be sure about his health foremost,"
"Huh," Kakashi hums. "Four kids," that's going to be a handful. "How is he?"
"Getting better," answers Sasuke. "He misses working at the tower and worries about the Godaime's paperwork constantly,"
A pause.
"Sasuke,"
"Hai?"
"Ask me,"
Sasuke knows exactly what he's meant to ask. He fixes his posture and his sitting position on the zabuton, places his hand on the tatami, and bows, then returns from it a moment later. "I would like to formally ask for Naruto's hand in marriage, Hatake-dono,"
Kakashi hums, looking up at the pictures on the walls, of Naruto growing up and more moments their little self-made family, and takes a while to answer.
Sasuke's heart is pounding, ready to take another rejection.
"On the day I take the hat, I want you to find the drunkard who told Naruto I touched him,"
Sasuke takes a few seconds to absorb the words. That's not what he expects Kakashi would say, but then he realizes… what Naruto has been going through. Kakashi knows.
Kakashi scoffs, downing another dish of sake. "Zenbu shitteru," I know everything.
"Sou ka," I see.
"I've waited long enough. This will be your first assignment," Kakashi pours him a dish of sake, as if this instruction is to be sealed with a drink between a future father-in-law and son-in-law. This is already an abuse of power and for family, Kakashi might just continue abusing it. "I trust you can be discreet?" (*)
"Hai,"
"Find him and everything about him. Look, don't touch, don't engage, no jutsus. Ruin his life from the shadows,"
"Ryoukai shita." Understood. (**)
"On the battlefield, even when hurt, Naruto can heal and fight back. But Naruto doesn't and won't fight back when hurt with words. The heart doesn't always heal. Naruto's heart is cracked glass and crystal, Sasuke. Don't let it crumble and shatter further. I trust you'll care for him,"
"Hai."
"Good." Kakashi raises his dish and Sasuke follows. "Uchiha-dono,"
Sasuke's surprised by the formality. Kakashi is addressing him as a clan head.
"Ore no musuko Naruto ni konyaku omedetou gozaimasu. Kanpai!" Congratulations on your engagement to my son, Naruto. Cheers!
"Kanpai,"
They both down the sake.
It's like a huge thorn is pulled out of Sasuke's chest.
"Visit the memorial," Kakashi tells him.
Sasuke doesn't need to be told what he needs to do there. "Hai."
Kakashi and Iruka are also over a lot for lunch after Kakashi and Sasuke review documents, since Naruto's emergency visit to the hospital, bringing either homemade food or takeout that Naruto likes. Sasuke doesn't believe that Kakashi is actually a good cook.
"What else did you think I used the Sharingan for?"
"Hey, Naruto," Sasuke says after a while, when lunch is done and Kakashi and Iruka have left, and Naruto takes over washing the dishes, and Sasuke deposits the plates in the cupboard after drying them. He's been pondering upon this question, but it seems too rude to ask them directly, and it suddenly popped back up in his mind again when Kakashi arrived with Naruto's adoption papers. He's been meaning to ask Naruto.
"Hm?"
"Why don't Iruka-san and Kakashi-san have children?"
"Oh," Naruto hands a plate to Sasuke. "Iruka-sensei doesn't have his uterus anymore,"
Sasuke expected some other reason. Maybe they didn't want kids? Or some other reason people married to their jobs would say. But the truth is something he didn't expect. "What? Why?"
"Iruka-sensei went on a mission and came back injured," he finishes up, turns off the water, and dries his hands. "I was thirteen probably. Baa-chan said he got stabbed with something that is meant to mutilate the victim if the weapon is withdrawn from the body. It nearly missed Iruka-sensei's spine by a hairline and destroyed his uterus; Baa-chan couldn't heal it, and even if she did it would be too scarred to actually carry. There'd be no point in healing it and leaving it in, so she took it out. She said she left the ovaries in to help retain hormones and keep sensei from going into a worse kind of premature menopause. He still has heats, but they're more of fevers and only last a day, and he's mentioned doesn't get the need to be knotted. I don't really ask about it, so I don't know what they do for each other when they get their heat and rut,"
Sasuke figures it's also probably why they're so protective of Naruto. Maybe they didn't want surrogacy. They saw Naruto enough as their own. "That's… horrible,"
"It's… our job," Naruto cups his belly. "And they've never mentioned children before, with Kakashi-sensei busy with us, then being declared the next Hokage, and Iruka-sensei becoming headmaster. I guess it wasn't really in their plans either…"
Naruto thinks he would've liked siblings. He would've thought of and loved them as siblings even if those children didn't think of him the same. But he's also thought that Iruka and Kakashi might not have loved him as much or give him as much attention as they do if they had their own children, since both his teachers had only been forced to teach him because he was put in their care. They may have thought they were obligated to care for him since the Sandaime ordered them to.
He is a jinchuuriki; a weapon before he is a person. A shinobi before anything else. How awful. To be obligated to fight whenever, wherever the Hokage says. His body is not his own because he belongs to the village, to fight for it whatever the cost. It is the baby's because he has to care for himself so that the baby can be born safely. And also… maybe Sasuke's. To hold, to love, to do with as he pleases.
When Sasuke decides to go to the memorial one morning at dawn, just as the sun is breaking through the horizon, he catches Kakashi there.
"Sensei," Kakashi says to the stone as Sasuke approaches. "I'd like to introduce you to Uchiha Sasuke, one of Obito's cousins. Sasuke, these were Naruto's parents, Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina," (4)
"Good morning, Namikaze-san, Uzumaki-san," Sasuke bows.
He's spent days and days reading whatever he can find on clan etiquette ever since he got back, sneaking some reading from the library while he borrowed baby books for Naruto. He'll try his best to follow them, but since he and Naruto had done it the wrong way around, he'd have to make do with excessive bowing and respect to the family alpha of the omega he intends bite and marry. Besides, Naruto didn't belong to a living koseki, clan, or a family alpha before, so he didn't see the point of going the right way about it with courtship when he and Naruto started seeing each other. Not that Sasuke knew anything about what the right way was.
It's not that he expects Kakashi to know what should or shouldn't be done since Kakashi is the lone member of his clan himself (maybe Kakashi had done the same thing Sasuke is about to do at the memorial, since he can see Iruka's surname on the stone) but Sasuke has always been a bit of a sucker as a clan child himself, wanting to follow these traditions. He doesn't want Kakashi to antagonize him further, because even if he's willing to just abduct Naruto and bite him, he would never do that against Naruto's will, and if Naruto wants or expects a clan child like Sasuke to behave accordingly, even though Naruto doesn't know how clan etiquette goes, he will do it. Besides, Naruto will find out anyway since he's marrying into a prominent clan. He and Naruto will have to teach this to their children.
"Hajimemashite," starts Sasuke. It's nice to meet you. "Namikaze-san, Uzumaki-san, thank you for the gift of your son. Hatake-dono and Iruka-san has done a great service to you, the world, and Naruto himself, by raising your son into a fine young man, and a great and powerful shinobi. I am here to let you know that Hatake-dono has given me permission to propose to your son. I love him, and it would be my honor to love and take care of him and spend the rest of my life with him. We are about to have a child, and I am grateful that we have Hatake-dono and his mate to have as grandparents in your stead. We hope to see you next when our child is born,"
"You might know Sasuke from a very different point in time, Sensei," says Kakashi after a beat, "But I trust him to take care of our Naruto,"
Sasuke bows, because that's what expected of him, even if Kakashi doesn't know it. Then he gets an idea. "Hatake-dono,"
"Hm?"
"Naruto and I have done things a little… out of order, and I'm grateful to have your permission to marry Naruto, but after the child is born, even with the engagement established, I would like to still go through with the courtship until the marriage. Will you allow it?"
"Maa," Kakashi rubs his mask covered chin thoughtfully. "It doesn't actually matter anymore since you've got permission to marry, but if you feel like it will let Naruto experience what it's like to marry into a clan and the whirlwind excitement of courtship, then be my guest. I'm sure Naruto will appreciate it,"
Sasuke nods. "Hai. Thank you, Hatake-dono,"
(*) In some manga I've read depicting yakuza families, deals within the family are sealed with a dish of sake. A deal made with drink of sake is unbreakable.
(**) Sasuke says 了解した (ryoukai shita) instead of わかりみした (wakarimashita) which both mean "I understand." But 了解した (ryoukai shita) is more of like a soldier-like curt manner, because Sasuke is a shinobi accepting instructions. It's like, "roger" or "copy."
(4) Sasuke and Obito I believe are only from the same ancestor/progenitor, doesn't necessarily mean they are cousins nor are they related. However, in large clans/families like the Uchiha (or for example, the Soumas in Furuba), everybody who shares the same last name within the clan, unless they know they are directly related through parents, aunts and uncles, or siblings, are all considered itoko (cousins). There is no other Japanese word for it.
thank you so much for reading!