So, hey guys! I was going to write you a note in the last chapter but my internet was not co-operating and it was the middle of the night so when the chapter worked I just posted it, haha. Also, that was the first time I posted on this site so I didn't really know how it worked (still don't to some degree).

I answered the comments, except those who left a comment as a guest since I can't PM you, but I don't know if that's the way I'm supposed to answer? Anyway, if you didn't get an answer tell me because I always make a point to answer the comments :)

To the guest commenters(well all of you who read and followed and favourited and commented, haha); Thank you! I'm really glad you liked it! This got a lot more response than I thought it would.

Okay, I'll stop before I start going off on a completely different topic than I should.

So, I hope you'll like this chapter as well! And excuse the mistakes! English isn't my first language and I haven't proofread properly!

02. The Friend of a Friend's Friend and a Not So Unknown Stranger

"I can't believe I quit!" Naruto groaned and slumped over the table he and two of his friends, Kiba and Shikamaru, were sitting at in their usual fast-food restaurant close to their university. "Even if my boss is an ass I need that job! I can't pay for my course books or rent or anything without it! I'm such a moron!"

"You are," Kiba agreed through a mouthful of fries from beside him, glancing up from his hamburger plate.

"I really thought that was something we'd already established," Shikamaru added without even bothering to tear his eyes away from his phone to look across the table at Naruto and be any sort of consoling friend.

Naruto sent them both a scathing glare. Not that they were looking or caring anyway.

"Jeez, kick a guy when he's down, why don't you?" he grumbled, pressing his forehead against the plastic tabletop.

His two friends ignored him and he looked up through his fringe to see them quite literally not giving a fuck; one continuing to eat without a bother in the world and the other reading something on his phone with a small frown.

"What am I gonna do!" he exclaimed loudly in frustration to get their attention and finally made them look at him properly.

"Seriously Naruto," Shikamaru sighed and put his phone down, picking up the coke he had bought and taking a sip. "You're twenty-two and should be able to take proper responsibility of your life, right? Why are you moping around without even trying barely two days after you quit your job when nothing has stopped you from moving forward before? Even when our economics teacher said you definitely would fail the course you still pulled through in the end."

Naruto wrinkled his nose. Shikamaru was right; he wasn't usually one to sit still, neither was he one to give up easily. But hadn't he been taking responsibility for himself his entire life? The orphanage wasn't much to cheer for in that department, especially since he was the oldest child there for the larger part of his childhood, and he had moved away to another city when he was sixteen – meaning he had actually started to take responsibility for his life a lot earlier than normal teens.

None of his current friends (aka Kiba, Shikamaru and Choji) knew that though. He didn't want to put a burden on them by telling his story and he definitely didn't want them pitying him. The only one who knew – apart from the kids he had grown up with in the orphanage – was his only friend from childhood, Gaara. And he hadn't seen him ever since he moved from the small town he previously had lived in to attend the one collage in the entire country that would give him free tuition because he was an orphan.

"You might be in luck, though," Kiba said suddenly and Naruto perked up, watching his friend expectantly. He grinned at him. "How are you with kids?"

Naruto frowned, puzzled.

"Well… okay, I guess…" he said hesitantly. Judging by his life so far, he was not all that bad at looking after children. "I mean, I like them and they seem to like me so… why? Do you need a babysitter or something? Wait," Naruto gasped, "you have a kid?!"

"No!" Kiba said, looking at him as if he was an idiot and Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "I think a friend of mine knows another friend who used to help this single parent with his kid," he continued. "She said that her friend had to leave due to family circumstances and that she had been trying to find another person to take her place while she was gone. Is that something you'd be interested in?"

"Mm," Naruto hummed in thought, snatching a few fries off Kiba's plate and leaning back in his seat. "Isn't the pay kind of low for that sort of job though? I'm not sure it will cover my living expenses."

Kiba's grin widened and he looked like he was sitting on some really juicy information. Naruto and Shikamaru exchanged a glance and a raised eyebrow.

"From what I hear, this person is pretty well off and would probably pay you double the amount you earned in that stationary shop."

Naruto's jaw dropped. If that was true, his life would get so infinitely easier! He wouldn't have to live paycheck to paycheck anymore!

"Really?!" he asked in astonishment and Kiba nodded. "Okay then! How do I get this job?"

"Dunno," he shrugged. "My friend told me the father was pretty suspicious of new people being near his daughter, so I think the previous nanny or whatever would need to tell him to hire you. I can ask my friend for that nanny's number so you can ask her more about it if you want?"

"Yes please!" Naruto all but yelled, turning a few heads in the restaurant. He ignored them and leaned over his friend as he took his phone out.

Kiba pushed his face away playfully.

"Take it easy, dude," he laughed. "I won't be able to message her if you block my view."

Naruto pulled an ugly grimace at him and snatched a few more fries, earning a punch to his shoulder. Shikamaru watched them disinterestedly for a moment before picking up his phone again to continue what he had been doing earlier.

A few minutes later Naruto was staring at a new phone number in his contact list, the person it belonged to named Sakura Haruno. He fiddled with the buttons nervously – his phone wasn't as fancy as Kiba's or Shikamaru's touch-screen ones since he couldn't afford anything as expensive as that – while absentmindedly listening to his two friends talking about some new video game before sighing and locking the screen, putting it in his back pocket. He would call this Sakura person when he got home.

"I wanna go to the park!" Emi yelled from somewhere upstairs and Sasuke, who happened to be in the kitchen at that moment, filling a glass with water, nearly dropped it at the sudden shout. "The park, daddy! Let's go!"

Sasuke rubbed his forehead tiredly, waiting for his daughter to run down the steps and storm into the kitchen while taking a sip from the glass. She quickly made her way around the mahogany dinner table in the middle of the room and latched herself onto his leg like a koala, staring up at him with puppy eyes.

"Please?" she asked sweetly and Sasuke couldn't help the small twitch of his lips at her attempt to act cute (and succeeding quite well).

He was well aware of why she wanted to go to the park. She had been pestering him about it for a week now – ever since she had met that blond man. That was really all Sasuke remembered about the person his daughter had seemed to take an immense liking to; his sunny blond hair. Granted, he had been so worried about Emi that he had barely noticed anything apart from that she wasn't hurt and that someone was standing with her.

"Emi, it's six in the evening and I'm about to start dinner," he reasoned as he pried her off his leg and knelt down to her eye level. "We can go some other time, okay?"

"But what if Na-chan is there alone?" she asked fearfully.

Sasuke didn't know why his daughter believed the blond man ('Na-chan' as she called him since she apparently didn't remember his full name) practically lived in the park, but she was always so very worried that he was alone.

"I'm sure he has a home, princess, and that he's there right now," he reassured her, like he had every time this past week, caressing her hair.

Emi pursed her mouth and puffed her cheeks in dissatisfaction.

"I wanted him to do my hair too…" she mumbled.

"Emi," Sasuke sighed. "How many times have I told you not to trust strangers so easily? Remember the last time you did? You were almost kidnapped!"

Emi squirmed a little where she stood, looking down at her feet guiltily. Sasuke didn't like reminding her of that incident at all; but he had to, in order to get his message across.

It had been almost half a year ago Emi had nearly been kidnapped. A woman had found her playing outside on the lawn to the daycare center and had talked to her every day over the wooden fence surrounding the outside area for about a week, telling her stories of her daughter and family. Then one day she had convinced Emi to come with her to meet her 'weak and sick' daughter, which Emi oh so reminded her of. Sasuke didn't know how she had known Emi was his daughter, but she had clearly wanted to take her as hostage in order to get money.

Luckily, both Itachi and Sasuke were supposed to pick Emi up together that day and they had arrived just in time to see how the woman dragged a struggling Emi to her car. Itachi immediately manhandled the woman – quite roughly without any sort of remorse since she was trying to hurt his 'precious little niece' – to keep her from escaping while Sasuke gathered a shaken and shocked Emi in his arms before calling the police. After that, and after stopping Itachi from tearing the daycare center apart in anger, Sasuke had moved his daughter to the high security daycare she was now in.

"But daddy and Tachi saved me before the woman pushed me in the car," she argued, albeit weakly. She knew what his answer would be. They had had this conversation many times before.

"I know, but we can't always be there to keep you out of trouble," he picked her up and sat her on the counter. "And we don't know anything about this 'Na-chan', so it would be best if we stayed away from the park for a while."

"He's not bad," Emi mumbled stubbornly.

Sasuke decided not to answer her as he moved over to the fridge and took out some vegetables for the stew he was going to make for their dinner.

Even if he wanted to always make Emi happy, it was still better to be safe than sorry.

Naruto twisted the paper wrapper from the straw he used in his orange juice nervously while glancing around the small café he was in, his gaze travelling over the happily chatting customers picking at their muffins or sipping whatever they had ordered from their cups. When he caught himself starting to rip the paper to pieces he let it go and picked up his glass of juice for something else to occupy his hands with, looking out the window he was sitting next to in a lone corner to watch the people passing outside on the street absentmindedly.

He was supposed to meet the friend of Kiba's friend – Sakura. They had agreed to meet, one and a half week after he had gotten her number and called her, to have a little job interview. She had been out of town for a while but was supposed to come back today to run some errands and they both had thought it was a good time since she was already there and thus neither she nor Naruto would have to take time off to travel to wherever the other was.

She was late, however, and Naruto was starting to worry he had gotten the time, date or place wrong.

He sighed and pulled out his phone, checking if he had any messages he might have missed. When he found nothing in his inbox he let out another sigh and went back to staring out the window, trying to stay calm.

"Excuse me," a female voice suddenly said beside him and he snapped his head in the direction it had come from. "Are you by any chance Naruto Uzumaki?"

His eyes widened slightly as they fell upon soft pink colored hair, which surrounded a heart shaped face with piercing green eyes watching him curiously. She was very pretty – much prettier than he had imagined when she had told him to look for a girl with pink hair when he asked how he would find her. He had thought she would be some hippie, but her skinny jeans and white blouse kind of contradicted that along with the fact that her hair was shoulder length in a longer version of a bob cut, making her look like a very professional secretary or business woman.

When he noticed the playful twinkle in her eyes he realized he had been staring and stood up so fast his chair turned over. She raised her eyebrows in amusement and he laughed embarrassedly, holding out his hand for her to shake.

"Yeah, that's me," he smiled in greeting – although a little belatedly. "You must be Sakura Haruno?"

"Correct," she smiled back as she took his hand and shook it once.

Naruto noted she hadn't ordered anything and gestured towards the counter.

"Would you like something to drink or…?"

She shook her head as she took the seat opposite him.

"I just ate lunch," she explained and took out a pen and notebook from her bag, putting it neatly on the table in front of her.

Naruto nodded and bent down to pick his chair up, sitting down again and clasping his hands in his lap to keep from fiddling with the things in front of him while he waited for her to settle.

After she had put her bag away and brushed something off her side of the table, she proceeded to watch him for a moment more in silence, her gaze travelling up and down before locking eyes with him, looking calculating.

"So, Naruto, why exactly would you like this job?" she asked without any preamble, her smile gone and her tone deadly serious.

Naruto swallowed nervously and couldn't help fiddling with his fingers under the table.

"Well…" he said slowly. "I honestly just need a job and my previous boss was kind of a dick. My friend Kiba, the guy your friend knows, told me you were looking for someone to help your former employer and I grew up taking care of kids so I thought it'd be a good place to work."

Naruto had never been to a job interview before, since his boss in the stationary shop had only cared if he could count and lift boxes, and he was quite sure he wasn't doing a very good job of presenting himself properly. Still, Sakura took diligent, neat notes of everything he said.

"And do you know who my former employer is?" she asked, looking up at him again as if she was trying to see through him.

Naruto blinked. Was that a common question in job interviews?

"No," he answered truthfully. "I have no clue and I don't really care. I'm taking care of the child, so I just need to know he's the father right?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly and he wondered what was wrong with what he had said, his heart sinking in his chest a little.

"Do you read daily news papers?" she questioned suddenly and Naruto frowned, shaking his head. "Industrial magazines?" Another shake. "Entertainment? Do you watch TV?"

"No," he said in confusion.

He couldn't afford a TV and even if he had one, he sure as hell didn't have the money to pay for all the channels.

"I'm sorry, but is that part of the requirement for this job? To read magazines or watch TV? Because I don't particularly like reading that sort of thing or watch TV. I mean, I can read children's books and normal books, and I know how to operate a TV, but magazines…" He shrugged.

Sakura continued staring at him, although she looked a lot more thoughtful than calculating at the moment. Then she grinned and put her pen down.

"You know what, I think I'll take that offer of a drink," she said, "and let's talk about other stuff."

"Uh, sure?" Naruto answered uncertainly, not at all understanding the sudden change in her attitude.

Once Sakura had gotten an iced tea and they began talking normally about hobbies and life in general, Naruto started to relax, feeling more at ease with how well the conversation seemed to flow compared to the previous questions fired at him. He performed much better under casual circumstances and Sakura seemed nice enough, although she also seemed very protective of this father and child she had been taking care of, as she didn't want to reveal their names herself – which was quite understandable since she had practically lived with them for three years.

Maybe job interviews weren't that bad after all, Naruto found himself thinking as Sakura laughed heartily at his story about how he had been accused of being a pedophile about a week and a half ago.

Sasuke!

I found you someone who can take my place until I get back! I have met him and talked to him a few times over the phone and he seems like a really nice person. He's good friends with one of my closest friend's friend. I know you said you could handle taking care of Emi by yourself, but I also know you usually take on a lot more than you can manage so I really think you should give him a chance! He seems to know a bit about children too!

I gave him your address and told him to drop by Friday at six pm, since I know both you and Emi are there then!

Be nice!

Love,

Sakura.

P.S. He really doesn't seem to know who you are either, so I believe you won't have to deal with any fake behavior from him! But I didn't reveal your name, as requested.

Sasuke stared at the message on his computer screen, rubbing his forehead with one hand while drumming the fingers of his other against the oak table in his home office.

He had read through the e-mail from his childhood friend over and over ever since he had gotten it, trying to find some kind of clue as to what the person Sakura had met wanted from him. Nothing in what she had said stood out, however, and he was now sitting and waiting for the arrival of this – apparently nice – person to question him in person.

He looked through the e-mail again, his eyes narrowing slightly at the last sentence, and he scoffed. He had yet to see the day someone tried to be his friend without any ulterior motives (except Sakura, that is) and he sure as hell didn't believe this person didn't know who he was. He had been in countless interviews, both on TV and in magazines, and unless the person Sakura was talking about had been living under a rock, he was most likely lying.

He trusted his friend, however, and would at least meet the guy to judge him for himself.

He glanced at the clock, noting it was five minutes to six, and rose from his quite comfortable chair heavily, making his way across the hall to the kitchen to put on some hot water for tea or coffee in case the guest would want some.

To his surprise, the doorbell rang just as he passed the front door in the hallway on his way to the kitchen. He came to a stop, turning his head to stare at the door dumbly, for a moment completely forgetting what that sound meant. Then the doorbell rang again and he frowned, making his way over to let the guest in.

His initial surprise skyrocketed when the door swung open to reveal a young man with sky-blue eyes widening in apparent surprise as well, a sunny blond mop of hair falling into them. A quite familiar sunny blond mop of hair.

Naruto had been quite prepared for the ridiculously large houses in the neighborhood the address he had gotten from Sakura was in. He had also been prepared to walk a bit, since the busses didn't go further than two blocks away from where he needed to be – probably since every single person living in this area at least had one car in their household. He had even been prepared for the guard post at the beginning of the only street leading into the neighborhood, easily passing it with a small note from Sakura while glancing around timidly, feeling extremely out of place.

What he absolutely hadn't been prepared for, however, was the very good-looking father whose daughter he had encountered a little over two weeks ago to open the door to the house he was supposed meet his employer in.

He had imagined all sorts of different looking fathers as he made his way up the long – too long, in his opinion – driveway and towards the white, large two story house. First, he had concluded that the father didn't have any green fingers whatsoever since the garden at the front was very simple, a few wild flowers growing here and there in the well kept grass and what looked like an apple tree to the right of the driveway, but otherwise nothing much.

Second, all he really knew about the man was that he was well off. Knowing this, he sincerely hoped the father wasn't some bald, irate businessman who spoiled his daughter rotten.

Naruto could work with this turn of events though, he thought as he stared at the utterly surprised looking but still extremely handsome man whose daughter he'd had the pleasure of meeting.

It took a moment for Naruto to remember how to breathe, but when he did he couldn't help the short, incredulous laugh that left him. The father seemed incredulous as he felt and they stood staring at each other for a moment, neither finding anything to say.

A small, excited gasp made them tear their eyes away from each other and look behind the dark haired man to see Emi skipping up to the door, smiling brightly.

"Na-chan! You found me!" she greeted cheerfully and latched onto his leg. "Can I have more candy?"

Naruto laughed nervously, glancing at the now completely expressionless father before digging out a few caramels for the girl.

"Yeah sure," he smiled and gave them to her. "Here."

She giggled happily as she grabbed all of them and looked up at him with a smile that outshone the sun.

"And! And!" she continued, so excited she was jumping in place. "Can-"

"Emi," the father interrupted warningly and both of them looked at him. "What did I tell you about accepting things from strangers?"

Emi stilled and frowned at him confusedly.

"But… Na-chan isn't a stranger…"

The man gave her a tight smile.

"Maybe," he relented. Then he rubbed his forehead tiredly before squatting down to Emi's level. "Listen, princess, me and…"

He looked up at Naruto for his name and he cleared his throat awkwardly, having been stupidly grinning at the nickname the father had given his daughter. It was very cute but somehow it didn't seem to fit the dark haired man's image to utter such endearments.

"Naruto," he filled in after gathering himself and the man gave a small nod in acknowledgment.

"Me and Naruto need to discuss a few things, so can you go to your room for a while?" he asked his daughter.

She frowned at him, clearly displeased, but nodded anyway, sullenly trudging over to the staircase that was in located opposite the door and out of sight. The two in the hallway watched her go in silence until they heard a door upstairs open and close.

"Is this some sort of scheme of yours?" the dark haired man said as soon as Emi was out of earshot and Naruto started.

"Wha-"

"You want something from me and my daughter, don't you?" He rounded on him, taking a threatening step forward and making Naruto shrink back slightly. "This is too much of a coincidence, don't you think?"

"Whoa, chill dude," Naruto muttered and tried to compose himself so that he wouldn't look as intimidated as he felt.

"My name is not 'dude'," the man growled. "It's Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke."

"Well then, Uchiha Sasuke," Naruto said and enough courage to put his hand out. "It is very nice to officially meet you. I'm Naruto Uzumaki."

Sasuke stared at him in cautious disbelief, as if he was waiting for him to explode or laugh or something equally mental – he really didn't know what. His gaze shifted to Naruto's outstretched hand, looking like it was offending him in some way. Naruto flexed his fingers slightly before giving up on the whole 'handshaking' thing and slowly lowered his arm again.

"Naruto Uzumaki," Sasuke repeated slowly after a few seconds, as if to test the feel of his name on his tongue, and Naruto felt himself straighten up a bit in response. "Why should I trust you?"

"Right," he said sheepishly. "Sakura mentioned you were not a trusting kind of person."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed dangerously and Naruto cleared his throat.

"Well, to start off, I looked after Emi when she was lost."

"Which proves what, exactly?"

"That I mean her no harm?" Naruto answered, although it came out as a question. Then he sighed. "Look, man, I really couldn't care less what you think of me, but from what Sakura told me you need help with your daughter and I have enough free time to actually do it. I grew up taking care of children and Emi seems to like me so the only thing you should be worrying about is if I want to stay or not, which is not what I would like, what with the way you're acting at the moment."

They fell into silence again while watching each other thoughtfully, a clock somewhere ticking away the seconds. Sasuke looked like he was in the process of x-raying him, taking him apart to see into his very soul and Naruto tried not to show how nervous that made him as he stared right back at him.

It looked like Sasuke was debating with himself what he should do with Naruto. He didn't know why he had to be debating in the first place, but Naruto was sure he was good enough at taking care of children and now that he knew it was Emi he was supposed to look after he felt kind of relieved. He liked the little, energetic girl, even if her father seemed to think every single person on the planet was a spawn of Satan.

Finally, Sasuke seemed to make his decision and he let out a heavy sigh.

"Fine," he said tiredly and Naruto gave him a small smile. "I expect you to be here in the mornings to help me prepare Emi for daycare since I often run late and I want you to pick her up as well in the afternoons so she doesn't have to wait until they nearly close. If you don't have a driver's license I will arrange for a driver to take you both to where you need to be. However, I do expect you to know how to cook and the basic medical knowledge, such as bandaging a sprain or cleaning a scrap or wound. Am I clear?"

"Crystal," Naruto answered without missing a beat.

"Do you have any questions?"

"Well, I go to college so I would need to study at times while looking after Emi…" Naruto said uncertainly, not sure how Sasuke would react.

He simply nodded, however, and pointed behind him.

"You can use either the living room or the kitchen," he said, but a small frown appeared on his forehead. "How old are you?"

"Uh, twenty-two," Naruto answered, afraid his age would be some sort of problem.

He looked him up and down thoughtfully before lifting his shoulders in an almost miniscule shrug and motioning for Naruto to follow with a small wave of his hand, another softer sigh leaving his lips.

"I'll show you the house then, Naruto," he said and Naruto couldn't help liking how his name sounded in Sasuke's voice.

This could get a little tricky.