Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

He slumped further into his seat. He exhaled loudly and eyed his stationary foe with a scowl. He would be here all night. Again. He had sent Shikamaru home. Between the two of them, one should be home with his family. Unlike the shadow manipulator's wife, his wife was far more understanding and forgiving. She let him get away with way too much in his opinion. Not that he would ever tell her that.

He grabbed a sheet from the top. A small sigh escaped his mouth as he did so. His stomach grumbled loudly but he ignored it. It would have to wait until after he was done. Dinner would be his reward for finishing his work. His eyes scanned the page. His messy scrawl filled the page. Another request for something or the other. Another approval. He yawned loudly. He blinked to refocus his eyes. The village was doing well. The village and its people were thriving. Peace has been kind to Konoha. To them all. Prosperity meant growth and growth meant more paperwork for him.

It was mind-numbingly boring. Truth be told. If anyone asked him, Sasuke got the better end of the deal. He got to be out and about having adventures while he was saddled with the paperwork. The Uchiha got all the excitement while he got all the responsibility. No one asked him though and he was not at liberty to admit it to anyone. It would have to be another thing he kept just to himself.

Despite his internal grumblings and itching for action, he had to admit that peace was a good thing. It was good for the village. It was good for them all. The children of the village had stability. And he wanted nothing more than that to continue. He wanted to shield them all from the hardships of war as long as he could. He would protect their innocence at all costs.

His brows furrowed together. The familiar chakra signature headed his way caught him off guard. Her footsteps stopped outside his door. The sound of her knock reverberated off the walls of his office. He licked his lips to moisten them.

He cleared his throat. "Come in." He inwardly winced at his tone. He grinned at her. It had been a while since they last saw each other. Too long. It looked like she was growing out her hair again. It was well past her shoulders.

"Sakura-chan. What can I do for you?" The smile never left his face.

He watched as one broke across hers. "Actually I'm here to help you."

His curiosity grew even more. He could tell that something was weighing on her. He did not need to rely on his abilities for that. He could see it clearly in her eyes. His brows shot up before he could stop himself. She crossed her arms in response.

"You should probably make it to one family dinner this week. Figured I could help you with some of your paperwork." She caught him off guard. Her words did not match her energy.

She wanted something. That much he knew. Years of interacting with Sakura had taught him that if she was to open up it would be on her terms. She would tell him what was on her mind when she wanted to and not a moment sooner. He could see the growing agitation coming off of her almost in waves; it was building.

"What about Sadara?" He asked as he leaned back in his chair. It made a creaking sound as he did so. It was old but he could not bring himself to replace it. It was the same chair Kakashi used. He was sentimental that way. His pen never moved. It had stopped mid-air the moment he had sensed her on the other side of the door. He looked at her closely for clues to the real reason she was here. She gave him nothing.

"She's still at the sleepover at ChoCho's." Her voice sounded distant, almost hollow. Like she was not all completely here. She was in her head again. She went there often. It used to bother him when he was younger. He used to be jealous of the world she seemed to set off to and leave him behind. But like much else about her, he had learned to accept it. It was just part of who she was. He could feel her impatience in earnest now.

"Do you want my help or not?"

He was not naive. He knew nothing in life was free. Everything came with a cost. But he was in no position to turn down help. He would take it. His eyes shone with hope from the possibility that he would be leaving his office before midnight for the first time this week. She was his hero.

"Yes please!" He cut the stack of papers into a third and eagerly held it out for her. He pretended not to notice the painstaking lengths she went to avoid making contact with him.

"Those there are waiting for approval. Look through them and hand me any that need signing. I trust your judgment."

He did. If anyone loved Konoha as much as him it was her. Because of Sakura, he had one less thing to worry about. The hospital was in her very capable hands as were the medical classes at the academy. She worried enough about them so he did not have to. His ears registered her settling down behind him in the window seat. He returned his attention to the smaller stack in front of him. He poured himself over the next round that awaited him with revitalized energy.

It was small but it was enough. He liked spending time with his old teammates. Moments like this were too scarce to squander. She had sought him out for whatever reason willingly. She wanted to spend time with him. He would take what he could get. In the past, he would have felt the need to fill the silence with his ramblings about something or the other. But he had come to appreciate the stillness and letting the moment just be. The sounds of her breathing and pen scratching on paper brought him ease. He was content to sit it in.

"Sasuke-kun wants another baby."

The sound of her voice filling the air caused him to straighten every bit as much as her words did. The inner feeling of peace was gone just as the silence was broken. He froze. There it was. The true reason for her visit. It must have really been weighing on her for her to bring it up so easily.

He pushed back the churning in his stomach. He willed his voice to come across as indifferent. He could not risk thinking about the ramifications of her statement. That would be a mistake.

"How do you feel about that?" He was back to filling out the paperwork. He fought a frown from forming on his face at the slight slight tremble of his hand. He closed his eyes and took a small breath.

A silence blanketed them again. She had retreated once more back into her mind. He inwardly cursed. Her doing so gave him time to be pulled by his thoughts. To sit with the feelings he did not want to. Jiraiya had always drilled into him to learn from his mistakes so that he would not repeat them. The Sannin did not want him to follow in his footsteps. Naruto witnessed up close the agony of unrequited love and how it could consume one's whole life if one were not careful. Jiraiya was a cautionary tale. He learned from it.

So he went against his nindo for the first and last time. He gave up. He gave up on her. You cannot force someone to love you. She did not see him in that way. She only had eyes for Sasuke. Despite anything Naruto did. She all but pushed him towards another. So he moved on. He got married. He was the first one to do so in their age group much to the surprise of everyone. He had to commit to someone and he had to do it before he lost his nerve. Before his whole life was more or less behind him. Before he turned into Jiraiya 2.0 in earnest.

And it had been fine. It was almost easy. Sakura had left to travel with Sasuke right around the time Hinata and him were expecting their first child. He did not even know they had gotten married and had a baby until they came back. It had been a shock but like everything else he had taken it in stride. There was no buildup. It was just a fact. He did not have to witness her pregnancy. It was out of sight and out of mind. But things were different now. That would not be the case now. She was head medic and while they did not see each other often, they certainly saw each other more than once every other month. It would be impossible to ignore.

His pen punched through the sheet. He continued on. If they had another baby he would have to find a replacement for her while she took maternity leave. He knew what he was doing. He was trying to force himself to focus on a tiny detail to avoid dwelling on the big picture. Focusing on logistics kept him from focusing on his feelings, from the knot in his stomach. He supposed Shizune could do it. He trusted her. But he would be lying to himself if it was even remotely on the same level as his trust in Sakura. Shizune could hold down the fort just fine, she might even excel in it but he would not have the same level of ease. No, he would have to worry about it until Sakura got back.

'If she came back.'

If Sasuke was serious about restoring his clan maybe this would be just the beginning. He ignored the way his stomach flipped.

Mercifully her sigh broke him out of his torment. He turned to face her. She was making it a point to avoid looking at him. Her expression was unreadable. But he felt the apprehension as she did. She was going to admit to him what she probably had not even admitted to herself.

"I can't do it again. I can't raise a baby alone, again."

The tightness moved to his heart. She sounded so tired, so defeated in the moment. It only fueled his guilt at the sense of relief her admission brought him.

"You must think I'm incredibly selfish." His eyes followed the movements of her hand as she moved the paper to one of the piles in front of her. She clearly had a system in place.

He hated seeing her like this. He sighed deeply. Maybe things were not as peaceful as he thought. They all kept things to themselves that they did not share with others. It only increased the burden. She was lightening hers and maybe it was his turn to do so as well.

"I really don't have a leg to stand on. I'm barely home. I don't spend as much time with the kids as I should." He paused. His voice took on a reflective edge to it. "And then I overcompensate. I let them get away with pretty much anything out of guilt." It was true.

Growing up there was a hole in his heart. His loneliness, his not having a family, was a constant presence. He wanted nothing more than to have a family. To have people that loved him and that he loved. He hated going home to an empty house. His house was never a home when he was younger. A home was made by people, by loved ones, by family. And now here he was with a home, with loved ones, with a family and he was still alone. He was away from them. He had come a long way. So much had changed but some things were still different.

The distance between him and his son grew by the day it seemed like. They did not understand each other. He tried his hardest to see the world from his son's perspective. He tried to acknowledge his feelings. But it was hard. Growing up Naruto had nothing. He did not have parents. He did not have siblings. He was always alone. It was not until Iruka entered his life that he realized what it felt like to have someone worry about him. His son had all of that. He had a mother, a father, and a sister. He even had an aunt and pseudo-uncle in Konohamaru. He had so much. He had everything.

But so did he, Naruto supposed. Never did he picture his life turning out like this. He had everything waiting for him so why was he not rushing to go home? Why was he still here? Why was he in the company of his old teammate and not his family? Maybe that was not fair. She was family too. She was a part of his first family, his oldest family. His childhood family. The family that had been there for him. The one he found along the way.

He felt guilt for it all. And from her presence here, he was not the only one. She ran a hand through her hair. He could almost hear what she was thinking. She was probably imagining cutting it shorter again. He wished she wouldn't. He liked it on the longer side. It reminded him of a simpler time back in the beginning. That was what he told himself. The truth was her hair reminded him of his mother's hair when she grew it out long. She reminded him so much of her. He would never admit it out loud.

"Funny how it turned out huh?" The distant edge was back in her tone. He turned in his chair. He briefly scanned the partial sentence he had left behind. He took a second to remember his train of thought before he finished transcribing it.

Time passed before he heard her shuffle behind him. She came into his line of sight when she was in front of his desk.

"These need signatures." She handed him the top of her stack. He grabbed them from her. He signed the sheets one by one and set them on top of his own signed 'approved' pile.

"These I felt could go either way so you should probably take a look at them."

He took the three sheets of paper from her. He quickly scanned them. He signed two and the last one in the reject pile.

"These had mistakes that need to be corrected before they are resubmitted."

She was always more strict than him. Fewer proposals would pass if she was in the chair instead of him. He moved the stack to a new pile on his desk. His system was simpler than hers. He simply moved those with mistakes directly into the reject pile.

"And these are no good." He added the rest to the reject pile.

He grabbed half of the ever-shrinking stack in front of him and handed it to her. She took it and left his view. An orange glow covered the room. They would be done soon at the rate they were going. Sakura was making very quick work of it all. She needed to teach him her secret. Or just offer to help out more frequently. It was much more enjoyable with her around. He heard a popping sound that only came from cracking joints. It was her signal that she was done. Sakura always stretched after finishing a long or difficult task. Maybe she did not even realize it was a quirk of hers.

It did not take long for her to round over to the front of his desk again. They repeated the handoff in the same order. He signed what she approved. He looked through the 'maybes', signed what was needed, and moved the rest to reject. He stretched his arms over his head. A yawn escaped his lips before he could fight it back. He brought the heel of his hands to his eyes. He felt rejuvenated. They were finally done.

"Thanks to you Sakura-chan I can just catch the tail end of dinner." He sprung up to his feet. His joints clicked loudly. He looked at her.

She would be going to an empty house he realized. That was not something Sakura was used to. She had parents growing up. And now she had her daughter. But tonight she did not and that did not sit well with him.

"You're welcome to join us. Hinata always makes way too much." A small part of him acknowledged that he should have at least checked with his wife before inviting someone to dinner. But he figured she would make an exception for Sakura. They all loved her. She was the perfect house guest. She even tried to clean the dishes she used. And Hinata never argued with him, not even when she probably should.

"I have leftovers in the fridge." She was lying. He knew it but he also knew when to press his luck. Now was not one of those times.

"If you're sure?" Despite knowing everything he could not leave well enough alone. He could not help himself. He cared about her. He would always care about her. She was hurting and it was clear to him even if she was trying to hide it from the world, from herself. He slipped into his jacket.

"I'm sure." The smile she directed at him was tight. He recognized it. He understood the pain behind it.

"Goodnight Sakura-chan. Thanks again for your help. You're a real lifesaver!" He spared her one final glance over his shoulder as he moved towards the door. He was moving with speed. With purpose out of necessity. If he stood another minute in the room with her and the feelings rolling off of her, he would lose his appetite and his resolve.

They had both made their choice. They had their commitments. He had to leave now otherwise he would not make it in time to see his family at the table despite their efforts.

He pushed the image of a blond-haired boy with green eyes and a pink-haired girl with blue eyes from his mind. He had to go to his real family. He did not have the bandwidth to think about the family that plagued his mind and his heart.

He could not help himself from looking back at her as he flew across rooftops. His eyes caught the way her shoulders were hunched over. He turned his head and ignored the pain in his chest. He hurt when she did. They chose their paths and they had to live with it. There was no point in dwelling on it any longer. It would be yet another unresolved issue between them. Both were too stubborn and hurt to be the first to bring it up. So neither would.

A/N: That's all folks. Ugh. They would have been so fun together. Still bitter on how the show I grew up with ended. Thank you all for taking the time to read this story. Reading your feedback is really fun so if you feel so inclined please let me know what you think! Thanks!