Naruto raised his eyes from the child psychology book to stare at his 11-month-old son.

"Don't you dare." He told him.

Boruto stopped pressing the colorful buttons ons his little musical table and looked at him, confused. "Huh?"

The Uzumaki family was reunited on Hinata and Naruto's bedroom. Boruto was playing on the floor and Naruto was lying on their bed trying kill time with one of Hinata's bedside books as she packed for their summer vacations.

Hinata stopped her frantic work. "Don't do that! You're going to make him think he can't play with his toys!" She warned her husband then smiled to the baby. "Come on, sweetie! Play the pretty song for mommy!"

Boruto laughed at her and started pressing the musical buttons again. Naruto turned the gaze to his wife, who already had resumed her work.

"Don't lead him on!" He said.

She frowned. "What?"

Naruto waved the book at her. "This thing says that Boruto will develop sexual interest on you."

"Not for the next two or three years." Hinata reminded him.

The blonde man shrugged. "I'm already warning him in advance."

"You know that's just one of the theories for child's sexuality development, right?"

"Yeah, yeah." Then gazing at Boruto: "Don't choose that theory."

Hinata laughed. She wasn't really a child psychology enthusiast. Her sudden interest had appeared when Boruto said his first word.

Unlike other kids, his first wasn't "mama", nor "papa", nor "food". His very first word was "grandpa". That alone wouldn't be quite a shock, after all, Hiashi would pamper and dote on his first grandchild like there was no tomorrow. The thing was that Boruto said that pointing not at Hiashi but at Yondaime's face carved into the the Mountain and then he kept staring at the horizon like he was in deep thoughts.

After that, Hinata couldn't help but wonder what was passing on her baby's mind, hence the book. In the end, the book wasn't helpful at all and still filled her head with weird doubts about her own childhood. Note to self: She thought take that book to a Book Exchange.

Naruto closed the book and watched his wife place carefully a variety of things inside large bags.

"Hinata, I thought we were going to the beach for a week, didn't know we were moving out." He joked.

"It's our first time with Boruto at the beach, I want to be sure nothing is lacking." She explained, closing the last suitcase. "And I'm done! Let's get going?"

Seeing Hinata smiling so openly, Naruto felt the corners of his mouth go up as well.

"You're really thrilled about this, aren't ya?" He spoke as he got up. Hinata just nodded enthusiastically, like a little kid. Naruto reached out to caress her cheek.

"Sasuke-kun was such a sweetheart to lend us his beach house, wasn't him?"

"Uh…"

"Mama!" Boruto called.

The moment was so gone.

"Oh, he must be hungry." She said, unbuttoning her dress a bit.

As Hinata ran to pick their baby up, Naruto narrowed his eyes at his son.

"You're totally pushing it."

The house was very Uchiha-like. It was all Naruto could think when the small family got there. The beach house had a clean yet elegant design, fine, but not fancy. If Sasuke was a house, he would look like exactly like that.

He was about to comment that with his wife when she said:

"This place is so beautiful! Look at that house! I love it!"

"Hinata!" Shouted Naruto's kage bunshin that had run in front of them with the luggage. "The door doesn't open! Can I rasengan it down?"

Hinata smiled. "Sasuke-kun told me there's some hand seals we have to do to open it. Just a second." She turned to the real Naruto. "Let's go?"

Naruto just nodded and followed Hinata, letting the weird feeling he was having to show up on his face a bit.

He wasn't actually happy for being there.

No, it wasn't like he didn't enjoy to spend some alone time with his beautiful wife and his son. It wasn't like he wasn't craving for a time off work, especially after he'd started to work as Kakashi's "assistant" - actually, he was more like an intern - aside from the missions assigned to him. Not that he disliked beaches in anyway.

But Naruto couldn't help but feel a bitter taste on his mouth as he watched Hinata to walk happily to Sasuke's beach house, to open the door as Sasuke had taught her to do so and being so joyful for being in the place to which Sasuke had invited her to go.

The thought of Hinata being connected to Sasuke in any way was poison on his brain.

Differently from the time when Sakura had convinced herself that Hinata and Sasuke were having an affair, Naruto knew that it wasn't happening but lately he was thinking that it could happen. He blamed Sakura for that.

A few weeks before, she and Sasuke had come over for dinner. But, because Naruto had distracted Hinata when she should be cooking, the food wasn't ready when they got there. Sasuke offered help, Sakura and Naruto sat on living room with Sarada and Boruto and watched their spouses as they worked.

"I feel a bit useless." Sakura stated.

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan." Naruto put a hand on her shoulder. "We all like you better far from kitchen."

She shrugged his hand away, royally pissed. "I'M A LOT BETTER NOW, GEEZ!"

Naruto laughed and raised his hand in a gesture of surrender. His fried eyed him for a scones then turned back to Sasuke and Hinata. She raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, don't you think that Sasuke and Hinata make a beautiful couple?"

Naruto widened his eyes. "Excuse me?"

"No, I don't mean anything weird by that, it's just… Look at them!"

Naruto did. For a second, he wondered if Sasuke and Hinata were shooting a movie about the perfect domestic life: they were smiling softly as they moved coordinately on their cooking, talking about something that made them laugh from time to time. He almost waited for the logo of whatever they were selling to appear, interrupting the scene.

"See what I'm talking about?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke was the one who answered. "What are you talking about?" He asked, raising his eyes from the vegetables he was cutting. "You two are looking at us like there's something on our faces."

"Oh, we were just commenting that you two make a cute couple." Sakura answered, shamelessly.

Hinata's cheeks got burning red and, for some reason, Naruto felt the urge to hide her face away from Sasuke. That was how she would blush for him, not for the thought of being together with Sasuke. His old friend didn't help. He nodded to his wife's answer and said:

"Yeah, I could see that happening."

Three pairs of eyes questioned his seriousness. Sasuke raised his hands to comfort them.

"No, not like that." He sighed. "I meant… Think about it: if my family and I had lived the lives we were supposed to live, don't you guys think it would be very plausible to think that my father and Hinata's would arrange our marriage? Since none of us is the chosen heir, there would be no harm in us marrying a person of an equally noble clan and we would definitely produce very strong offspring." Sasuke turned to Hinata. "Can you imagine what doujutsu would be result from sharingan and byakugan?"

Hinata gave it a thought then nodded. "Yeah, I can see my father being seduced by something like that."

Sasuke, Hinata and Sakura let the matter rest but Naruto just couldn't. That thought made him realize that Sasuke would be a much better husband for Hinata than him. Sasuke wouldn't be so stupid to not realize Hinata's feelings for twelve years. He had domestic skills. He had a beach house. They did look good together and Naruto had never seen his best friend smile so much like when he was around Hinata. Sasuke and Hinata even looked alike: dark hair, white skin, silent, pretty, both of them had doujutsu, good cooks…

Sasuke was more suited to Hinata no matter from where he looked at it.

It doesn't matter. Naruto thought to himself, coming back to the present where he and his wife were picking a bedroom in Sasuke's beach house. Hinata is mine. She loves me.

Only because she met you first. Another voice on his head - not Kurama - answered. If Sasuke had helped her with the mean kids that day, she would love him. And he certainly wouldn't have his ass kicked.

Naruto? Now it was Kurama.

Yes?

Your teenage girl thoughts are giving me a headache.

Mind your own business!

The fox chuckled. As you wish… Do you need a fresh tampon?

Shut up!

But Naruto was glad. Kurama's teasing had taken his mind off those unproductive thoughts. He and Hinata were now at a big and elegant room, coated with hardwood, that had a big bed with white duvets. His wife was at the balcony that overlooked the blue sea, she looked at him over her shoulder with an amazed expression and a beautiful smile. He grabbed their camera from his pocket and took a picture of her.

"Amazing, isn't it?" She said. Naruto agreed. "Want me to move so you can capture the view better?"

He smiled and moved closer to her. "I wasn't trying to capture the landscape."

The already expected pink tone colored her cheeks as she moved her glance back to the shore. "Silly." She took a breath and then tried looking at him again. "What do you think? Can we stay on this bedroom?"

"Yesh!" Boruto answered. His parents laughed. Naruto raised the baby up to face him.

"You know she was talking to me, right, buddy?"

Boruto limited himself to smile and reach out. "Dada."

Naruto chuckled and replaced him on his arms. "Yes, bribe me. I know what you're doing."

Hinata smiled as she walked back to the bedroom. "This place is perfect. I must return the favor to Sasuke-kun somehow."

The good mood that had filled him was gone. Why did Hinata picked those words so badly? Naruto went back to the bedroom and threw himself on the bed, staring angrily to the ceiling.

Seeing her husband face to become stern again, Hinata clapped her hands once.

"It would be a waste to stay inside with such a beautiful beach waiting for us out there. Let's change and go for a swim?" She invited, trying to cheer him up.

Naruto gave a poor excuse for a smile. "I think I wanna rest first. You two go and have fun. I know this little guy is dying to go take a dip." Boruto sat up on his dad's belly and reached out to his mother to prove his words.

Hinata took their son on her arms. "Okay, we will go first then. Go meet us when you feel rested."

"Sure thing." Naruto answered, turning her back towards her.

She sighed and rushed to her suitcase to find hers and Boruto's bathing suits. Hinata dressed him and herself up then applied sunscreen. She announced to Naruto that they were going down as she grabbed her beach bag. He didn't say anything, but she was sure he was awake.

Trying to keep her spirits up, she walked out the house and assembled the beach umbrella and a towel where she left her stuff. The problem was more serious than she had thought.

Naruto had been in such a bad mood for a while now. At first, she assumed he was tired with the sudden increase of his workload, but then she realized the mood swings usually happened when he was home, regardless of the time or day of the week. That could only mean there was something she was doing to make him mad. It didn't take her long to realize that it was more frequent when she was talking to or about Sasuke. So that was it. Jealousy.

She never thought her friendship with Sasuke could hurt Naruto so much or she would never have become closer to him.

Hinata should have known better. Sasuke was Naruto's best friend and, more than that, their destinies had been entwined through generations. He surely didn't want someone so special to him to waste the time they could spend together with her instead. She was stealing his best friend from him.

When Hinata figured that out, she started to plan how she could fix the situation. Should she talk to Naruto? To Sasuke? She knew she was too coward to do that. Well, she still could fix the problem by keeping her distance from Sasuke. But how she would do that? By not talking to him? But what if he talked to her first? Should she just ignore it? Wouldn't that be just too rude? Truth to be told, she didn't want that.

Sasuke wasn't a very social person... Well, neither was she, but the point was that the only people Sasuke was seen alone - and comfortable - with was Naruto, Sakura and her. Sakura and Naruto were pretty busy people so, if it weren't for her, Sasuke would spend most of his time off work alone.

And it wasn't just that, Hinata enjoyed his company a lot and he was friend she had come to value. After all, Sasuke had access to a part of the person she loved the most that she didn't have. He knew the core of a Naruto that Hinata didn't even know it existed. It was fascinating to hear someone that shared such a background with her husband to talk about him. Hinata didn't want to give that up.

But then again, it wasn't like she had a choice. If her being friends with Sasuke was making Naruto think she was stealing his best friend from him and that was making him sad, as a wife, the only thing she could do in such a situation was brush Sasuke off.

"Mama." Boruto cried out, taping her face.

She came back from her mental wanderings with a gasp. She and her baby were sitting on the towel on the sand.

"Oh, I'm sorry, honey, you are longing for the sea, aren't you?" She got up. "Come, let's get you on the water."

Naruto could see his wife and son finally getting in the water from the position he was lying on the bed. That image had him smiling, even in such a bad mood. It was one of those moments when he would feel his feeling for his family weight on him, overwhelming him. He loved them more than his soul. The sentiment he had for those two people in matching swimsuits wasn't like those he had for anyone or anything else. Probably, that was what made him be so lost when it came to deal with his feelings.

By now, Naruto had faced a quite considerable amount of fearsome people undeterred, but the thought of Hinata leaving him, the mere thought that someone - anyone - could steal her from his arms pinned him. That's so not his style.

He sat on the bed, watching Hinata show her most heartwarming smile as she placed Boruto down in the water. Their son sat on the sand, laughed, and then splashed around, just like he did in the bathtub.

Naruto wished he could share that moment too.

And why can't I? He asked himself.

He couldn't come up with a single reason.

Naruto nodded to himself, dressed his also matching swimsuit up and ran to meet his family.

At the same time, Hinata felt a nice and familiar clutch on her heart. She looked at Boruto and took him in her arms.

"Daddy is coming." She told him.

Not more than ten seconds later, she sensed her husband's lips on the bare skin of her shoulder and his arms around her waist. Hinata smiled and looked at him over her shoulder.

"Hi." Was her greeting.

Naruto limited himself to smirk and inhale her scent deeply, not taking his face away from her.

"I love you." He exhaled.

"I love you too." She answered honestly.

The jinchūriki was about to say something more but Boruto chimed in by stretching his small arms towards his father urgently.

"Dada!" He called out. Naruto placed him in one arm and kept holding Hinata's waist with the other.

"Hey, buddy, are you having fun with mommy?"

Boruto answered by holding Naruto's face with his both hands and then saying:

"I -ove dada."

Naruto smiled. "I love you too, son."

Hinata glared at them with narrowed eyes. "It's the first time he says he loves anyone."

"Jealous?" He teased.

"Very much."

Naruto brought his face really close to hers. "Welcome to the club." He gave her a quick peck on the lips. "Now, come! Let's put him in the water and see to whom Boruto will swim!"

They spent a very nice afternoon playing in the sea and, after Boruto was fed and then was fast asleep, Naruto and Hinata chilled on the sand, under the beach umbrella. He was caressing his son's hair lightly as he hummed him a song while Hinata watched a soft crab dig a hole in thw sand.

"It's a pretty song." She spoke.

"Isn't it? Sakura-chan and Sasuke also sings this to their baby to make her sleep. I don't remember the lyrics, though, but just hum seems to be working."

Hinata smiled. "I can't imagine Sasuke-kun singing."

That made her husband chuckle. "Me neither. But Sakura-chan says he does, so…" Naruto shrugged.

She took a deep breath. It felt like that was the right time to bring the subject up.

"Naruto-kun."

"Yes?"

"When you were mad before… it was about Sasuke-kun and I, wasn't it?"

He sniggered uncomfortably. "Oh, you noticed that."

"I'm sorry!" Hinata rushed to say. "I should've done something about it. I suspected you were sad about it, but I… I'm so sorry."

Naruto also breathed deeply. "Don't apologize. It's not your fault that I felt like that."

"It is! I've alway knew that Sasuke-kun is your best friend and that you two have desynchronized schedules, so I should know that, if I'm friends with him, consequently you two won't have so much time to spend together."

That made Naruto frown. "What?"

"I'm guilty for reducing…"

"No, no." Naruto shook his hands to interrupt her. "I mean, you think I was jealous of Sasuke?"

Hinata leaned her head to the side and showed a confused expression. "Well, aren't you? You feel like I'm taking him away from you."

Naruto interrupted her once more by bursting out in laughter. Hinata kept watching him laugh, with no understanding of the situation whatsoever.

"Hinata," Naruto started to say, trying to catch his breath "I'm not jealous of him, it's you I'm afraid to lose to Sasuke or so-and-so."

"Oh." She said, feeling a heat completely unrelated with the sun to fill her face. "But you don't… I don't know what to say."

He laid down on the sand and stared at the pink sunset sky. "There's nothing to say. Deep down, I know I'm being stupid. It's just that I keep remembering that conversation we had over dinner, when Sakura-chan pointed out that you two would make a nice couple and I can't help but think that it is true. But then I started to think that you would be a great wife to any man, so if one day you find someone who's in love with you and decide to leave me, what will I do? That is not a fight I can win with my strength."

Naruto dig his hand in the sand to pick a handful of sand grains, then pulled it up to watch them ran through his taut fingers. Because she knew he wasn't over, Hinata just waited him to resume the talk.

"Then again, it's not like I want you to stay away from Sasuke. I actually like that you two get along so well. And I certainly don't want you to become a secluded, won't-leave-the-house-alone woman, like a Daimyo's wife… See what I'm talking about? I don't want you to change anything but I feel a bit bothered by the way things are. God, I am talking like a teenage girl."

Hinata laughed and crawled closer to Naruto to lie down beside him.

"Naruto-kun, I love only you."

"I know that, but I…"

"I'm not finished." She barged in.

"Oops, sorry."

The young woman smiled. "As I was saying, I have always loved only you and, from the looks of things, that doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon, so rest assured." Naruto opened his mouth but she placed her index finger on his lips to shush him. "Not done yet. I was thinking of saying that is also ludicrously unlikely that Sasuke-kun would ever fall for me considering he is happily married and had a lovely baby girl just a few months ago, but since what is really bothering you is the thought of me leaving you, all I have to say is… well, come on!"

Hinata sat up to stare at him from above. "I mean, how can you even think that? I've fought or twelve years to make my feelings for you reach you, why the hell I would give up on you now that you're finally mine?!" She waved her wedding ring on his face. "Forever!" Her chest was going up and down with every bated breath. "And don't give me that 'you can make any man happy' crap! Why would I want to make anyone else happy when the only one who can make me happy it's you?"

Naruto was aghast. He felt so touched by Hinata's declaration of love - a very angry one, but a declaration of love nevertheless - that he didn't know what to do next. The only thing that came out of his lips was:

"You've just said 'crap'."

She averted her eyes. "I don't have the time to feel self conscious about it now. But I hope you have understood the message."

Her husband opened his arms. "C'mere."

Hinata laid down again, this time on his chest. "Please, don't doubt my feelings for you."

"I won't, sorry." Naruto started to caress her hair and crooned the same song he was humming to Boruto before.

Hinata chuckled a bit and nuzzled her head on his shoulder, taking his free hand on hers. A few moments later he called her name, she answered with a hum.

"I -ove you." He stated playfully.

She pressed his hand tighter. "I -ove you too."