3

"Good afternoon, Hokage-sama!"

"Good afternoon," the blond nodded back with a smile.

"Hello, Hokage-sama!"

"Good afternoon," he repeated, still with the sunny smile on his lips.

"Hokage-sama! Hokage-sama!" a little girl ran around to his front and presented him with a cupped hand full of cherry blossom petals. "I want you to have them, Hokage-sama!"

He bent, clasped both of his larger hands around the girl's tiny one, and took the petals, the smile never leaving his face. "Thank you very much," he said. The girl beamed and took off the way she had come. Naruto indeed kept the petals in his hand, his smile changing from bright to gentle. Sasuke watched from the corner of his eye, hands in his pockets, silent.

He kicked his legs, his palms resting face-up on his lap, decorated with small, wilting cherry blossom petals. Sasuke stared at them thoughtfully.

"I thought you were going to eat lunch," he said after a moment.

"I can just get Konohamaru to run for Ichiraku for me back at the office," he shrugged. "I can't very well eat and hold these at the same time," he added, pointing his chin toward his open hands.

"You really intend to hold onto those?" he asked.

"Yes, I do," he smiled again. Sasuke stared at him for another minute. "I think that's your problem, Sasuke," Naruto continued.

"Problem?" Sasuke prompted, although he didn't think he had a problem.

"You don't look at the little things, but only the big ones," Naruto nodded. "You see a cherry blossom in someone's hand, but think nothing of why or how it got there. You see a child who will grow and marry to continue your name, but you don't see your son," he smiled, a bit sadly this time. "To you, Haku is the child you produced to become your heir. Hana too, but she will carry out her husband's name and not yours, so your focus is on Haku."

"That's not true," Sasuke argued, though deep down inside, he knew it was.

"Do you love your children, Sasuke?" the blond asked, staring ahead into the empty training area. "Would you give your life for them? Or would you tell yourself that you and Hinata are both young and could still have more children, were something ever to happen to them?"

Sasuke winced. He had thought exactly that several times.

"Your children respect you and love you—god knows why, because you're such a bastard—but they don't respond to you because your own feelings about them are clouded. Children sense that. They sense many things; more than you give them credit for." Naruto's sad smile returned. "Instead of asking him if he did his homework, ask him how his day went. Don't ask him if he finished it, ask if he wants to go out and play. Your son is responsible enough to know when it's time to play and when it is time to work. Hinata knows it, and doesn't push the children, and that's why they respond to her more.

"It's important to be firm with a child," he continued, "but it's also important to be open and free with them. They are seedlings which require a lot of attention: a mother's warmth to act as their sun, and a father's wisdom to act as their water, and depending on the parent, a child will flourish beautifully."

"We didn't have parents," Sasuke blurted out.

"True," the blond nodded. "But you did have them for a while, so you gained some nurturing from them. You were just left to fend for yourself earlier than usual."

"What about you?"

"I'm special," he smirked, kicking his legs again.

Sasuke gave him a bemused look. "Dobe…"

"I guess…" Naruto frowned thoughtfully, "I was a special kind of seed. One that needs extreme conditions to survive. That's the best way I can put it," he shrugged. "But this isn't about me, Sasuke, it's about Haku. Try talking to him. Show them that you love them. You do love them, don't you?"

"I…don't know," he looked away, shamefaced. "I'm…not sure what love truly is at all, at this point."

"There are many different degrees of love," Naruto gave his friend's shoulder an affectionate squeeze. "It's confusing, and for someone who was shutting out everything they felt for a good portion of their life, it must be beyond comprehension." He smiled confidently. "But you'll learn them, eventually."

"What about you?" Sasuke gestured half-heartedly, his face still turned away.

"Me?" Naruto blinked. "Well, I love my parents for the life they gave me, even though I couldn't know them. I love the Sandaime and Iruka-sensei, and I love Kakashi-sensei and Ero-senin and even baa-chan in their own ways," he shrugged. "Every degree is different. I love Sakura like she were my own sister and you…" he looked away too.

"Me too?" Sasuke asked through numb lips. He felt more than saw Naruto's bashful nod.

"You too, even though you're the worst kind of bastard," he laughed weakly.

"You said you love Sakura like a sister," the black-haired man pushed. "What am I like to you?"

"…please don't make me answer that," the blonde's confident voice now came out weak and helpless. "I told you once before, and it's pretty clear that it's a one-way thing."

"How can it be if I don't know any better?" Sasuke asked, turning to his friend. Naruto's head lifted but he could not return the gaze he felt on his neck. "You said so yourself, I'm learning. Right?" A nod from the other man. "So then, maybe I don't know how I—"

"Don't mock me," Naruto's voice was thick with something. He was shaking. "Don't pity me, either," his blue eyes finally came around to meet the other man's stare. They were red-rimmed. "Don't even continue that thought, Uchiha. Like I already said, this isn't about me, it's about your children." Naruto stood while Sasuke stayed seated, thinking about what just transpired. "Do yourself a favor," the blond said. "Go into his room when he's sleeping tonight, and see it for yourself."

"See what for myself?" Sasuke asked but Naruto didn't answer, he just began walking quickly back toward the city proper. Sasuke debated following him, but felt he had pushed the blond a little too far back there. What was he thinking, anyway? That he could possibly love Naruto? "I just don't know anything anymore," he said to himself and stood, starting his trek home.

The dark house was silent and still. Not even the wind stirred the curtains outside. He didn't have to worry about waking Hinata because they had separate rooms. He glided silently past Hana's open doorway and peeked in at her sleeping form. She lay sprawled on her back, arms stretched to her sides and one leg dangling over the side of the bed, snoring away. Sasuke watched bemusedly for a second, then continued to the next door. He looked inside (this room used to be my room, he thought belatedly) at his son. Haku's little figure was curled into a fetal position beneath the coverlet, and every so often, he shifted to his other side and moaned something in his sleep. From what Sasuke could catch, it sometimes sounded like 'mother' or 'father' and sometimes it sounded like 'lonely'. Sasuke watched. And watched. And watched. And when the first rays of dawn's light stretched across the boy's bed and touched the wall, Sasuke returned to his room, feeling a little sad and oddly…full, like he had just spent the night drinking or eating something satisfying. But the fullness was not something physical he could place and it confused him. Maybe he could talk to Naruto about it…if the blond was still agreeable to talking with him after what had happened earlier that day. For some unknown reason, he was pretty sure it wouldn't be a problem.