15. The Bags of Candy and The Reoccurring Calls

The sound of the door unlocking and opening made it over to Sasuke, who was busy pouring water into the coffee machine. It was barely audible above the chattering and laughter of the three children in from the living room. He would have told them to play upstairs in Emi's room had it not been for Naruto, who was currently studying there. He had offered him his office so he could be comfortable at a desk and undisturbed by all the people coming to the house that day instead of sitting on the living room floor, though he seemed to like it.

Sasuke made his way out of the kitchen to meet Itachi, who smiled at him as he stepped inside, two overstuffed grocery bags in his hands.

"Hello there, little brother!" he greeted. "Guess who I found on the way here!"

Sasuke frowned and opened his mouth to ask, but didn't get a sound out before his brother stepped aside. Then there was a flurry of pink and he suddenly had his arms full with his best friend.

"Sakura," he said, astonished. "What are you doing here?"

Sakura pulled back to punch him in the arm, though she was grinning. Sasuke let out a small, dissatisfied sound and rubbed the throbbing spot.

"What kind of way is that to greet the childhood friend you haven't seen in a while?" she admonished.

Sasuke snorted and she grinned at him.

"How have you been?" he asked as both she and Itachi took off their shoes and jackets. "How is your family?"

Sakura's smile fell and she sighed.

"Dad had to stay at the hospital for a while," she told him. "But they say he's recovering well. Mom is still worried out of her mind, though. As am I."

"I'm sorry," Sasuke said and put a hand on her shoulder.

She smiled softly at him and led the way to the kitchen after smacking Itachi's shoulder. Itachi narrowed his eyes at her, which she readily ignored.

"Your brother here bumped into me at the supermarket," she told Sasuke as they followed. "He was shoving all the candy he could find into a basket and nearly knocked me out with it when he turned around to leave."

Sasuke frowned, only then noticing the colorful packets sticking out of the bags.

"I thought the kids would want some," Itachi said with a shrug. "I didn't buy that much."

"He bought the whole store," Sakura huffed and shook her head. "If you're going to get them high on sugar you'll have to take responsibility and entertain them for hours all by yourself. I'm not getting involved in that. Do you know how hyper kids get on sugar?"

"I accept your challenge," Itachi retorted as he dumped the bags on the table, looking way too confident.

Sasuke doubted his brother knew what he was getting himself into, for once. The only thing Itachi actually lacked knowledge in was childcare, and Sasuke thought he could learn by tries and tribulations at this point because he clearly had no idea what he had just agreed to. And, just like Sakura, Sasuke certainly wasn't going to attempt entertaining children stuffed full of sugar. Itachi could handle that one all by himself. He was doing this to himself after all.

"I was just putting on some coffee," Sasuke said and made his way back to the coffee machine. "Would you like some?"

Both of them nodded and settled down by the table. Sakura ruffled through the bags, inspecting the candy Itachi had bought, while Itachi pulled out a chocolate bar from one of them and opened it to take a bite. Sasuke poured more water into the coffee machine and turned it on before bringing out three cups.

"By the way," Itachi said after another bite of chocolate. "Where's our royal highness, the queen, this fine day? Not home?"

Sakura looked up from the bag of gummy bears she was turning in her hands and at him, clearly confused.

"The queen?" she asked and turned to Sasuke. "Who?"

Sasuke heaved a heavy sigh and shot a scowl at his brother.

"It's stupid," he muttered. "Itachi's humor is as bad as ever and Naruto has the misfortune of being his punch line at the moment."

Sakura shook her head with an amused expression.

"Oh. Yeah, we all know how fun that is," she chuckled and Itachi leveled her with an unimpressed look. Sakura smirked at him knowingly, tapping her jaw, before turning back to Sasuke. "How is Naruto, by the way? Is everything going all right? Is he here today?"

Sasuke smiled.

"Everything's good," he said and Sakura looked satisfied. "He's studying at the moment in my office. He has exams soon."

Sakura blinked at him and Sasuke raised his eyebrows.

"What?" he asked.

She shook her head and glanced at Itachi.

"Nothing," she said. "I'm glad you get along, is all."

Itachi grinned and popped the last bit of chocolate into his mouth just as Emi decided to enter the kitchen.

"Daddy–," she began but cut off when she noticed the new guests. "Saku-nee-chan!"

She ran over and jumped into Sakura's arms. Sakura laughed and hugged her tightly.

"Hello, Emi," she said and kissed her cheek.

"I missed you!" Emi exclaimed, beaming.

Sakura stroked her hair.

"I missed you too, honey," she said. "How's school going? Have you started reading yet?"

"Yes!" Emi said, so exited she practically vibrated. "I'm practicing every day with daddy and pa–"

She broke off and turned wide eyes on Sasuke, prompting Sakura to turn and frown at him. Itachi tired to hide a laugh behind his hand and Sasuke rubbed the side of his face tiredly.

Of course this would come up, how could it not? He just hadn't figured out how he was going to tell people he trusted about Naruto's and his relationship. And, as always, Emi was the one to speed things along. Not that he had a problem with Sakura knowing, she was his best friend after all.

It looked like Sakura was about to question Emi's abrupt stop, but Emi's friends called for her from the living room and she clearly deemed the conversation not important enough to continue as she perked up a little and looked back to the living room.

"Coming!" she called to them and slid from Sakura's lap.

She ran over to Itachi's open arms to give him a hug before she made her way to Sasuke and pulled at his hand. He crouched down to her level.

"Yes, Emi?" he asked and pushed the hair that had come loose from her braid out of her face.

"Daddy, Saku-nee-chan isn't bad," Emi tried to whisper, but it was still loud enough for everyone in the kitchen to hear.

Sasuke smiled a little.

"No, she is not," he agreed.

Emi gave a satisfied nod only to turn around and run back to her friends, leaving the three of them to stare after her without continuing her cut off sentence.

"What just happened?" Sakura asked, confusion clear in her drawn eyebrows. "What did she mean 'I'm not bad'?"

"Well," Sasuke began and he could feel his face warming a little. He cleared his throat, stalling as he tried to find the right words.

Sakura stared at him, her eyes astonished and wide, and Itachi was chuckling to himself. She glanced between them, looking utterly confused.

"What am I missing here?"

Silence fell for a few moments while Sasuke racked his brain for a good way to start the conversation. Sakura and Itachi watched him; one frowning and the other grinning. Sasuke didn't know why it was so hard to just simply say he liked Naruto, a lot.

But somehow that didn't feel right, because he didn't just like Naruto a lot, he could see a future with him and that was a little too intimate to put into words when he hadn't even told Naruto that.

"Emi likes calling Naruto papa," Itachi kindly explained when Sasuke failed to even begin a sentence, shooting Sakura a pointed look.

She stared at him blankly for a moment before a light seemed to turn on in her head and her eyes snapped to Sasuke.

"Oh my god!" she breathed. "You and Naruto?"

Sasuke nodded and tried to bite back the smile tugging at his lips but found he couldn't. It felt good to hear Naruto coupled together with him like that. Sakura's jaw fell open and Itachi chortled another laugh. Then she snapped it shut again and laughed as well.

"Wow," she said. "I mean, it's great! I just never expected something like this could happen!"

Sasuke shrugged and turned to check on the coffee machine's progress. Sakura laughed again.

"Look at you!" she chuckled. "Being all smiley and embarrassed."

Sasuke wrinkled his nose at the cups, but still the smile wouldn't go away.

"So why was she concerned about me being a bad person?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke assumed she had asked Itachi because it was he who answered before Sasuke could open his mouth or turn back around.

"I actually don't know," he said. "Why is she so concerned about bad people, Sasuke?"

"You know how most people are," Sasuke said without turning around, keeping an eye on the coffee machine. "Naruto and I don't want her to get hurt, so we've told her she shouldn't call him papa in public because there might be bad people out there. She's very cautious about it, it would seem, though not very subtle."

Itachi hummed.

"Wow, so you guys are kind of serious if you allow Emi to call Naruto papa," Sakura said.

Sasuke's heart skipped a beat and his breath caught. She really hit her head on the nail there.

"I am," he said softly, mostly to himself.

"What was that?" Itachi asked.

Sasuke threw a glance over his shoulder and shook his head.

"Nothing," he said and poured coffee into the mugs before bringing them over to the table.

He wasn't ready yet to let the world know just how serious he was becoming about Naruto.

Naruto rubbed his face tiredly, wrinkling his nose as his cold fingers ran over his skin.

It was becoming chillier now as summer was almost over and he had also been sitting still for a long time, which always made him cold. He had goose bumps on his arms and his toes were freezing as well. He wiggled them a little before he pushed his book away and scooted Sasuke's desk chair back to stand up with a stretch. His spine popped in a satisfying way and he rolled his shoulders, deciding to take a break and go to his room to find a sweater to put on.

He hadn't moved his clothes, though he was sleeping in Sasuke's room now. He didn't want to impose on his space and they had yet to talk more about what they wanted out of their relationship. Sadly, they were both quite busy at the moment. Not that Sasuke wasn't always busy, but Naruto's mid terms didn't really help their alone time either.

As he passed Sasuke's room he heard the faint sounds of ringing and came to a halt. At first he dismissed it for what it was; a ringing phone. But then his imagination began running and soon he was nearly convinced there was a burglar hiding in Sasuke's room. He had seen a similar thing on a TV-show Kiba had forced him to watch, and for some reason it had stuck with him.

Taking a deep, steadying breath, he moved to the door silently. The phone had stopped ringing, but he still put an ear to the door to listen. There was no sound on the other side and he gathered his courage before he turned the handle and shoved the door open.

The room was dark and seemingly empty. Naruto switched on the light and swept his eyes over the room. He couldn't find anything amiss, so he determinedly entered the room to look through it as well as the connecting bathroom and wardrobe.

When he still came up with nothing, he began laughing at himself. Of course no one had broken in. This was the most secure neighborhood in the country. He wasn't sure why he even had a bad feeling from the beginning.

The ringing began again and he let out a small yelp before spinning around towards the bed. He spotted Sasuke's phone on the bedside table lighting up and moving a little as it vibrated along with the tones it emitted. Hesitating for a second, he cautiously approached it and checked the caller ID.

Unknown.

Of course. No wonder he had gotten bad vibes about the ringing.

He stared at the phone until it went silent and then he picked it up. Unknown had called Sasuke seven times in the past two hours. Cold heaviness settled in Naruto's stomach and he swallowed harshly. Something was not right about this.

"Naruto?"

His heart shot up his throat and he nearly dropped the phone but managed to juggle it and catch it again before he turned to the doorway where Sasuke was standing, eyebrows raised.

"Oh, hey," Naruto said. "I didn't notice you there."

Sasuke walked up to him and glanced down at the phone in his hands.

"What are you doing?"

Naruto bit his lip and handed him the phone.

"I was on my way to get a sweater when I heard it ringing," he explained as Sasuke took it. "You have seven missed calls."

Sasuke hummed but didn't unlock the screen to look, instead moving to put it back on the bedside table.

"From unknown," Naruto elaborated.

Sasuke stilled and he looked up at him. Then he sighed.

"For heaven's sake," he muttered and picked up his phone again. "When will they get the hint?"

Naruto smiled weakly, but still there was cold heaviness in his stomach.

"I'm not really tech savvy, but they can't track your phone right?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke glared at his screen as he looked through his missed calls.

"No," he grumbled. "Not unless I answer."

"Oh," Naruto said. "That's a relief."

Sasuke looked up at him and studied his face for a moment. Then he turned his phone off and put it away. Naruto watched him, worrying his bottom lip. When Sasuke turned back to him he tried to smile, but he was afraid it looked more like a grimace. Sasuke reached out to run his thumb over his lip.

"You have to stop biting your lip," he murmured. "You're going to hurt yourself."

Naruto grabbed his and pressed a kiss to his palm.

"I just have a bad feeling about this," he whispered.

Sasuke cupped the back of his head and pulled him in to give him a kiss.

"I do too," he said as he pulled away. He grabbed Naruto's hand and pulled him out the door. "Let's just forget it for now. There is someone here who wants to meet you."

"Really?" Naruto said in confusion and frowned as he let himself be dragged down the stairs.

It couldn't be any of his friends because they wouldn't be able to get into the neighborhood, and he didn't really know anyone else. He knew Itachi was coming, but it wasn't as if he never saw the guy.

"Who is it?" he asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

Sasuke opened mouth to answer but closed it again as another voice spoke up.

"Hello, Naruto."

Naruto looked over to the kitchen entryway. A pink haired woman stood there, smiling widely, and it took him a moment to remember her name was Sakura.

"Hi," he answered and quickly let go of Sasuke's hand, his face warming. "Nice to meet you again."

Her smile widened and she walked over to pull him into a hug. After an awkward moment of hesitation and a nervous glance at Sasuke, who nodded at him, he hugged her back.

"I heard you've taken good care of Emi," she said as she pulled back. She linked her arm with his and led him into the kitchen. "I'm glad I chose you for the job, if what I'm hearing is true."

Naruto blushed a little at the praise, but didn't get the chance to thank her as Itachi butted into the conversation.

"Your highness, I'm so glad you could join us," he said and Naruto shot him a scathing look.

"Please stop."

Itachi laughed and picked up two plastic bags, which had been lying on the counter. They looked stuffed full of candy and Naruto sincerely hoped he wouldn't give all of it to the kids in the living room. Naruto really didn't have the energy to take care of children pumped full of sugar.

"I'll go entertain the children," Itachi announced and shook the bags a little, confirming his fears. "I'm going to become the most awesome uncle ever. This'll make me Emi's favorite."

Naruto opened his mouth to tell Itachi to not give them all that candy but was interrupted by Sasuke.

"She doesn't have any other uncle," he said from the entrance. "In case you've forgotten, I'm your only sibling."

Itachi chose to ignore him, save for the hair ruffle he gave Sasuke on his way past him, and Sakura chuckled.

Naruto didn't quite understand why Sasuke wasn't stopping his brother from committing a grave mistake but he met Sasuke's suffering look with an exasperated one of his own. It seemed they both wanted Itachi to tone down on the teasing, especially now when they both were stressed.

He realized that was just why Sasuke was letting Itachi feed the kids all that candy. He was planning on letting him deal with the children on his own.

"You already have the couple telepathy down?" Sakura asked as she sat down in one of the chairs at the table, startling Naruto out of it. "You guys really are serious."

Naruto blinked at her, his heart skipping a few beats. Did she know? Was she even supposed to know? Or had he just made a big mess of things?

"Um…" he began eloquently. "I–I'm not sure–"

"Don't worry," she interrupted his half explanation. "I already know and I think it's great!"

Naruto glanced at Sasuke. He shrugged and sat down across from Sakura.

"You… you do?" Naruto asked and sat down beside Sasuke.

Sakura glanced between them, grinning.

"Yes," she said. "It seems you make Sasuke happy. You should have seen him earlier when we talked about you, blushing and whatnot. I guess he decided to go get you so he could escape for a minute."

Naruto's eyes widened and he turned to stare at Sasuke, who was glowering at Sakura.

"Really?"

Sakura nodded, shooting a smirk at Sasuke. He narrowed his eyes at her and she waggled her eyebrows before turning back to Naruto.

"I have great stories to tell you about him," she said conspiratorially. "I've been waiting my entire life for someone to tell them to, but Sasuke's only permanent relationship was with that ex-wife of his and she wasn't really the type of person I wanted to hang out with."

"Sakura," Sasuke warned.

"I've known him since we were four," she continued, not listening. "Ask me anything you want and I have the answer for you!"

Naruto couldn't help the smile spreading on his lips and looked at Sasuke, who frowned at him.

"You want to hear her embarrass me?" he asked and Naruto had to bite his lip to not laugh at the obvious worry in his voice.

He didn't trust himself enough to speak, so he nodded and Sasuke heaved a heavy sigh.

"Fine," he said, standing up. "I will not subject myself to it, however."

Sakura laughed as they watched him leave the kitchen. When they were fully alone, she sobered up a little and leaned forward on her forearms.

"First and foremost," she said, keeping her gaze locked with Naruto's.

He sat a little straighter and leaned forward as well.

"Yes?"

"If I ever hear you have hurt either Sasuke or Emi, I will hunt you down and beat you to the ground," she said, her voice even and low. Naruto blinked, a sudden sense of déjà vu washing over him. "I do believe you are a good person, but people tend to become greedy in the face of fame and wealth."

Naruto smiled softly and nodded.

"What?" Sakura asked, smiling faintly herself.

"Nothing," he said. "I just had this same conversation with Itachi not long ago."

She laughed a little.

"Well, we both have made a promise to protect them at any cost," she said. "And Itachi said you would as well. I just need to let you know what's coming if you don't."

"I understand," Naruto said. "But I wouldn't dream of hurting them. They're too important to me. They're my first real family."

Sakura reached out and grabbed his hand.

"I know," she said. "Which is why I have faith in you."

Naruto smiled at her and she squeezed his hand before pulling back.

"Now," she said and grinned impishly. "What do you want to know?"

Naruto laughed.

Not that long and not really edited well, but I hope you liked it anyway? :) And prepare yourselves, because soon things are happening ;D

Anyhoo, see you in the next chapter!