Chapter Text
Family is what we make it.
~~~
It’s a little-known or, to be more accurate, an almost entirely unknown fact that Naruto absolutely adores babies.
It’s not a secret really, not in the sense that he’s purposely keeping it from anyone. It's just one of those hundred, thousand, little facts about him that no one’s ever asked about. A little detail that no one’s paid any attention to or bothered to consider his stance on.
But the fact remains that he really does love babies, has been fascinated by them ever since he was little.
Their soft skin, the sweet-milk-new-growth scent of them, the way they’re all so precious and small.
Anything and everything about them has always grabbed him by the heart and refused to let go.
For older children Naruto tends to take things on a case-by-case basis but babies?
Babies, in Naruto’s opinion, are all universally perfect.
He can even pinpoint exactly when that fascination had started for him.
Himari-nee-chan had started working at the Gilded Lotus not too long after Naruto had moved into his apartment after the winter that he still does his best not to remember.
The day he’d met her Naruto was sitting on his balcony, fiddling with the little vine plant he’d rescued off someone’s doorstep the day before. A flash of color below had caught his attention and when he looked down he saw her duck into the alley beside his building.
Even from so high up he’d been able to hear her crying, had been able to hear and unable to ignore the desperate, heaving sobs she’d been trying so hard to choke down.
She’d startled so badly when he’d slid down the drainpipe and landed in the alley only a few feet away from her that he hadn’t been able to bite back his giggle.
“Nee-chan’s too pretty to cry,” Naruto had said, hands clasped behind his back as he rocked back and forth on his heels. “Want me to beat someone up for you?”
She had honestly been beautiful too.
With her dark pink hair, delicate-looking purple kimono, and slightly smudged makeup around her watery green eyes she’d been one of the prettiest women Naruto had ever seen.
When she’d just stared at him for a moment and then given him a watery little laugh instead of sneering, or picking up one of the loose bottles in the alley and tossing it at him, she’d instantly become the prettiest woman he’d ever seen.
Naruto isn’t ashamed to admit that he’d latched onto her pretty hard after that day.
He’d ended up crouched there in that alley for a solid half hour nattering at her about any and everything he could think of, more than a little in love with the fact that she’d actually listened to him.
When she’d eventually had to leave, Naruto had followed her all the way back to the Gilded Lotus. He’d slinked in and out of alleys as he trailed her as stealthily as he could, before eventually being chased off by the door guard after she’d finally gone inside.
Naruto had, of course, come back the next day, a gift to cheer the nice nee-chan up in hand.
It had taken a solid half hour before the door guard had finally been willing to call for her to come see him.
Clear-eyed and perfectly made up, she’d stared down at him and the sheaf of poorly made onigiri he’d held out towards her and even at that age he’d been able to see something in her abruptly soften.
In hindsight, Naruto knows that she probably hadn’t liked him all that much in the beginning. He’d been loud and messy, half-starved in more ways than one, practically reeking of desperation. Looking back there’d been times when he’d caught her looking at him with what he now knows was disgust or pity in her expression.
But in the moment, in those brief couple of years, she’d been kinder to him than anyone else in his life.
She’d always talked to him when they saw each other and had even taken to ruffling his hair whenever they met. She’d eventually been the one to take him aside and explain to him how to properly bathe step by step when he’d kept turning up with matted hair.
She’d even let him sleep in the closet of her room during another particularly bad winter when the landlord had cut the power to his apartment. She’d snuck him in through her window every night for months, had even made him a little nest of blankets in the bottom of the closet and slipped him bits of food from the kitchen or her own meals whenever possible.
Eventually, she’d even let him spend time with her in her room instead of just hiding in the closet. Had let him brush her hair and help her put salve on her bruises too. She’d even taken the time to teach him how to sew in the low light of the early morning hours when most of Konoha was sleeping and she wasn’t busy.
It’d been a good winter overall in Naruto’s opinion, well worth the things he’d seen and heard from the depths of her closet. Well worth the nights he’d spent curled into a ball with his nose buried in the sleeve of one of her old yukatas and his hands clamped over his ears.
Even with the way his chest and stomach would both ache when she’d cry sometimes, makeup smeared and arms wrapped around herself, once it was just the two of them together in her room.
None of that had mattered to Naruto though because she’d been the closest thing he’d had to a friend for the longest time.
And then, when he was eight or so, Himari-nee-chan had fallen pregnant and Naruto had fallen in love for the first time in his life.
He hadn’t understood what she’d told him, not at first. Hadn’t understood anything about babies or where, exactly, they came from or how they were made.
She had fixed that though. Had explained it all to him in a way that made so many of the things he’d seen and heard through the slates of her closet door make so much more sense.
After that, once he’d understood, Naruto had been captivated by the fact that she was growing an entire baby inside of her.
She’d laughed at him every time he’d said that but she’d also let him feel her ever-expanding stomach, had let him press his ear against the heavy curve once she got so big moving was hard on her.
He’d gone to see her practically every day after classes, always with something in hand. From more onigiri, something that she’d finally helped him learn to make correctly, to the ginger candy he’d swiped from the market when her stomach had been unsettled for weeks on end.
Until one day the door guard, Seki-san, had tried to turn him away, tried to tell him that he couldn’t see her that day because the baby was coming.
Which was something that Naruto had absolutely refused to miss.
In the end, Naruto had climbed in through her window again only to find himself in the middle of a hive of activity. He’d promptly refused to allow himself to be shooed away even when one of the other girls had taken the broom to him.
Watching Himari-nee-chan give birth had been terrifying and gross but the end result?
The end result was worth it.
Because, once it was all done and over, once she’d stopped screaming and been cleaned up and the other girls had all bustled away, Himari-nee-chan had motioned him closer and Naruto had found himself staring down at the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his entire life.
The baby had been so small, all red-faced and kind of scrunchy, but the sight of it had made something in Naruto’s chest feel like it was shattering apart.
With his wispy green hair and tiny pointy nose, little Masahiro had been perfect and Naruto had been instantly obsessed.
Naruto had practically moved back in during the weeks Himari-nee-chan was given to rest and recover. Had set up camp in her room and refused to leave to the point that even Akane-san, the mother of the house with her narrowed eyes and long nails, had finally rolled her eyes and ordered the others to leave him be.
He’d learned about babies there at Himari-nee-chan’s side. Had learned to hold and clean and feed little Hiro-chan. Had found himself delighted with every single thing the baby did no matter how loud or smelly or weird it was.
He’d spent every free moment he’d had there beside the two of them, learning and helping and basking in being allowed to do both.
Something about Hiro-chan, something about his scent, his sounds, the way he felt tucked into the warm safety of Naruto’s arms, had set Naruto’s brain on fire.
Naruto had started saving every single scrap of money he could get his hands on and had been driven to sleep directly beneath the window in Himari-nee-chan’s room. He’d even found himself unable to relax unless he cleaned the room from top to bottom himself at least once a week.
Something he hadn’t been about to name back then had driven Naruto to protect and provide as best he could and in ways he’d barely understood.
But it had all somehow paid off in the end because Himari-nee-chan had let him stay.
Eventually, when Himari-nee-chan had started working again, Naruto had even been allowed to watch Hiro-chan on his own.
He’d had to stay inside the Lotus of course, hadn’t been allowed to take Hiro-chan back to his apartment no matter how much he’d wanted to, but it’d still been good.
Akane-san had even granted him a little corner in the kitchens, near one of the stoves and atop a mound of the old flour and rice sacks, to curl up with the baby.
It was soft and warm and Naruto had passed the time by whispering stories into the sweet curve of Hiro-chan’s little ear.
Naruto had been sure to tell him all about the kinds of things they’d do together once he was older. All the games they’d play together and the things Naruto would actually get to show him since Hiro-chan would never run away from him. About how, one day Naruto would be a shinobi and he’d be able to buy him all the warm blankets and soft dolls he could ever want.
Spending that time with Hiro-chan and Himari-nee-san both had been, Naruto had been unable to keep from thinking at the time, a lot like what he’d thought having a family might feel like.
And for those nine months, Naruto’s life was good.
Was honey-milk sweet and new-growth soft.
But then it all came crashing down.
Naruto had gone straight to the side door of the Lotus after classes like he always did but Kaori, the kitchen girl who liked to take the broom to him whenever possible, had turned white at the sight of him.
And then, for the first time in months, she’d tried to turn him away.
He’d argued of course, and then attempted to go for the window just like he used to, but Seki-san had actually caught him before he could scale the side of the building again.
Eventually, Naruto ended up face-to-face with Akane-san again.
“Go home, brat,” she’d told him, face bone white and eyes damp.
“Not gonna,” Naruto had argued, arms crossed over his chest and chin tilted up defiantly.
The slap had caught him by surprise, had sent his head jerking to the side so quickly that his neck had actually hurt for a split second before a long familiar warmth had soothed it away.
“Go home,” her voice had been like stone. “Don’t come back here again. I should have never allow-”
“Himari-ne-,” Naruto had started to argue, cutting her off.
“Is dead,” Akane-san had cut him off, one shaking hand lifting her pipe up towards her face. “The babe too. So don’t you ever come back.”
At that moment, with those few words, Naruto’s entire world had been destroyed.
He’d screamed and fought of course, and still couldn’t really remember everything he’d practically howled at Akane-san that day, but it had all been for nothing.
When it was all said and done Seki-san had carried him back outside, hands surprisingly gentle for a man who was normally so gruff, and left him in an alley a few buildings over with orders to “go home kid, ain’t nothing for you at that place no more”.
Naruto had stayed there in that alley, body shaking with sobs, for the longest time before he’d managed to finally drag himself back to his rundown and achingly lonely apartment.
Afterward, it had taken a solid two months of being run off by a still surprisingly gentle Seki-san, of skipping classes to watch every window and door he could for any sign of Himari-nee-chan or Hiro-chan, before Naruto had finally started accepting that it was true, that they were both gone.
That something had happened and he would never get to see them again. Would never hold Hiro-chan again or help Himari-nee-chan with her hair.
He would never get the chance to keep all of the promises he’d made both of them
Naruto’s world had crashed down around him all over again and he hadn’t had the strength to fight it that time.
Instead, Naruto had curled up in his apartment beneath his ragged orange blanket and just … stopped.
He’d huddled there atop his thin mattress, clutching at all he had left of Hiro-chan and Himari-nee-chan, as he did his best not to shake completely apart at the seams.
Because, once it was all said and done, that really was all he had left of them besides his memories. Just a hair ribbon and the baby blanket that he’d spent many a night watching Himari-nee-chan stitch while she’d been pregnant.
They’d been tucked away in the sack of his things, the few bits of clothes and like he’d left behind, that Seki-san had given him a few days into trying to claw his way back inside the Lotus.
The sight of them, the smell, had almost broken Naruto.
So, in the end, Naruto had refused to leave his apartment until he’d been literally dragged outside by an ANBU and forcefully sent back to the Academy.
Even then it’d taken him longer to bounce most of the way back.
Naruto had loved his Himari-nee-chan and his Hiro-chan desperately and losing them had almost torn him apart.
He’d ended up coping best by throwing himself into his pranks and his attempts at training but he’d missed them with an ache like he was being actively torn apart for months and months. Had slept with that ribbon and baby blanket clutched close until the scent they’d both carried had long since faded and he’d had to pack them away to keep them from getting damaged and worn.
A part of Naruto still misses them though, still wonders what Himari-nee-chan would think of him now or what Hiro-chan would look like all these years later. If he’d be a shinobi by now, if Naruto would have been able to help him train, help him learn and grow strong from the beginning.
Still wonders if there was anything he could have done or, on his darker days, if it was somehow his fault.
Whenever he thinks about the way Akane-san had looked, the words she’d almost said, Naruto thinks it might have been somehow. Thinks that never knowing one way or the other might be kinder than knowing the truth.
At the core of all those thoughts though is the fact that, even after all these years, Naruto still loves them both. Will always love them even if he’s never told anyone else about them.
They’d been his and then they’d been gone and Naruto will never forget them.
And, in the end, those months by Himari-nee-chan’s side and Hiro-chan and his perfection were the spark that ignited Naruto’s love for babies.
A love that he’s never really been able to openly express again.
When he was younger, both before and after Himari-nee-chan and Hiro-chan, parents in public would pull kids his age away from him like he was diseased. And no one would ever willingly let him get within scenting distance of the younger kids, not to mention actually interact with them.
Naruto had only made the mistake of attempting to get close to a mother and her newborn at the park once when he was younger.
It had been after Hiro-chan and Naruto had been so happy and eager to see another baby but …
Well.
Needless to say, it wasn’t something he’d ever done again no matter how much he’d wanted to.
Even now that they’re all older, now that things have settled and everyone looks at him differently, now that he can go into stores and visit the markets and attend festivals and just do everything he’d always fantasized about as a kid, that distance between him and all things baby is something that hasn’t really changed.
Whenever the topic of babies and families comes up, it’s just one of those conversations he’s still regularly excluded from. Not out of any real intent to be hateful, but more because everyone else is always so certain that they already know what his opinion on the subject is going to be.
Because, no matter how much has changed, some part of Naruto will, apparently, always be that same loud, rough idiot he used to be in the heads and hearts of the people he loves.
It stings a little, Naruto’s willing to admit that to himself and Kurama, but he doesn’t focus on it, doesn’t bother to muster up the energy to complain about it.
It’s a small hurt after all and he has far fewer of those to deal with these days than he used to.
Still, with all of that taken into account, it’s perfectly understandable in Naruto’s opinion that he goes a little bit insane when Sakura gets pregnant.
~~~
Sasuke’s gone again and Kakashi is busy in the Tower as he tends to be these days so it’s just the two of them out on a training field for the kind of spar they don’t get to have all that often these days.
Naruto’s been a bit bored lately, with nothing much to do but whatever Kakashi needs of him, and Sakura’s been especially agitated too so it’s long overdue.
They’re just about to get started, Sakura’s gloves are in place and Naruto’s left his jacket on a nearby branch, when the wind shifts and Naruto freezes.
The mint-earth-petal scent of Sakura is as familiar as his own these days but now there’s something more to it. A familiar note that Naruto immediately latches onto, a lushness that immediately lights his brain on fire.
“Woah!” Naruto yelps, flinging himself out of the way of Sakura’s opening strike and throwing his arms up in surrender. “I can’t fight you like this!”
“Naruto,” Sakura grits out as she pulls her fist out of the crater she’d made, “what the hell?”
“We can’t do this,” Naruto insists, already moving to snatch his jacket back up and shove his arms through the sleeves.
“We’ve been planning this all month,” Sakura huffs, irritation plain on her face, her fists propped on her hips. “Why’re you trying to back out now?”
“I could hurt you!” Naruto darts closer to her, reaching out to snatch up one of her hands. “You can’t ask me to do that. You gotta be more careful.”
He ducks down to avoid the swing she takes at his head without really thinking about it, hands still gentle where he’s cradling one of hers.
“What in the fuck is wrong with you!?” Sakura practically roars at him. “What? Do you think I’m fragile now or something? Can’t keep up with your dumb ass anymore? Huh? Is that it?”
“You are fragile right now,” Naruto insists, finally dropping her hand and hopping back a few steps to avoid her next few strikes. “You can’t really expect me to fight you like this can you?”
“I’m going to murder you,” Sakura seethes as she bends down, her fingers digging deep into the ground and chakra surging.
“I just don’t want to hurt the baby!” Naruto tells her cheerfully, mind already half occupied with thoughts of all the things he’s going to need to do.
Honestly, Sakura’s temper has always been bad but her moods lately make a lot more sense now. Himari-nee-chan had been pretty even-tempered but even she’d thrown an entire tea set at him once when he’d called her fat a month or two before Hiro-chan had been born. He’d meant it in a good way, had been fascinated with how her already curvy form had softened even further, but it had apparently been the wrong thing to say.
He’ll have to be sure to remember that complimenting Sakura on her future softness probably won’t be welcome either even though he still doesn’t really understand why.
It’s a good thing, Naruto knows it is, that extra weight, it’s proof that things are right.
So, needless to say, Naruto knows he’s going to have to be prepared to weather all kinds of storms where Sakura is concerned now that he knows what’s going on.
But if there’s going to be a baby at the end?
Then it will all be worth it.
Across from him, Sakura freezes, face going slack with shock.
“W-What?” She splutters, hands still buried in the ground. “Baby? What baby?”
“I wonder if they’ll have your hair? I really hope so, it’ll be so pretty,” Naruto prattles on, already tugging his wallet from his pocket to check how much money he has on him even though it’s not really something he ever loses track of. He needs to go buy those ginger candies, like an entire crate of them maybe, and some of that raspberry tea he remembers Himari-nee-chan drinking by the barrel back in the beginning.
“Naruto.”
Then he needs to start cleaning and fixing things up and there are seals to lay and toys and blankets and all kinds of other things to buy or find or make.
Naruto practically vibrates in place.
“Naruto.”
There’s just so much to do and not enough time.
“I’ll get Kakashi to send Sasuke a message so he can come back home,” Naruto announces, finally unable to contain himself any longer.
He’s off like a kunai toward the Hokage Tower in the next second, Sakura left gaping behind him.
There’s going to be a baby.
~~~
Naruto practically throws himself through Kakashi’s window, rolling to a stop and springing to his feet only to lunge across the desk and grab Kakashi’s hands in his own.
It warms a part of him that Kakashi lets him, doesn’t do anything but sit there and stare at him blandly.
“We’re going to have a baby,” Naruto announces with what even he can recognize as a manic sort of cheer.
A pause.
Kakashi just stares at him harder.
“I feel like we skipped a few steps for that, Naruto,” Kakashi finally answers. “A lot of steps actually. Repeatedly. Over an extended period of time.”
Naruto grips his hands tighter and just keeps vibrating, half certain that if he opens his mouth a scream of pure joy might come out.
“Didn’t we?” Kakashi actually looks kind of worried now, eyes slightly wider than usual. “I feel like that’s something I’d remember. And if I didn’t I’m pretty sure Minato-sensei would come back to life again and kill me dead. Again. Or Kushina. Actually on second thought, definitely Kushina. I’d get Minato-sensei if I was lucky and I rarely am.”
“Wait, what? Why?” Naruto asks, Kakashi’s rambling finally getting through to him. “Why would they be upset?”
Another pause.
Kakashi clenches his eyes closed for a second and sighs so deeply Naruto’s kind of surprised something doesn’t crack.
“I can’t believe I’m about to ask this,” he mutters seemingly to himself.
Naruto’s honestly mystified even though Kurama seems to be having the time of his life from the way he’s practically howling with laughter in the back of his mind.
“Naruto,” Kakashi seems to brace himself, “are you, are you pregnant?”
Naruto stalls out, brain abruptly broken and spiraling off into an entirely different direction.
‘We’ll talk about kits later if you want’, Kurama huffs in the back of his mind, amusement heavy in his tone, ‘for now answer your wolf before he has a panic attack’.
Naruto blinks back to himself, brushing Kurama’s description of Kakashi aside just like he has since he’d started using it shortly after the war.
“Not yet,” Naruto finally answers because now that the idea’s in his mind he knows it’s not gonna leave any time soon, “but Kurama said we’ll talk about that later.”
Kakashi makes a little choked-off wheezing noise.
“I’m talking about Sakura,” Naruto clarifies, and just like that he’s back to vibrating. “She’s gonna have a baby.”
“Oh thank the Sage,” Kakashi mutters, deflating just a bit, forehead pressing down on their clasped hands before he straightens back up.
“So you need to send a message to the bastard,” Naruto plows on. “Get him back here before I send a toad after him. Because we’re having a baby.”
“Maa,” Kakashi huffs at him, seemingly content to let Naruto shake their clasped hands up and down in the air between them, “Naruto you do know that unless you have something else mind-breaking to tell me then it’s not actually your baby right?”
“Sensei, I’m not stupid,” Naruto whines, “of course it’s not just mine, it’s ours.”
Because as far as Naruto is concerned it is.
It’s theirs in the same way that Hiro-chan had been his because Himari-nee-chan had been his.
Team Seven belongs to Team Seven, belongs to Naruto, and so the baby does too.
He’s not sure what’s not clear about that.
Honestly, Naruto would have thought Kakashi of all people would understand.
The door slamming open cuts off whatever else Kakashi is obviously gearing up to say.
“Naruto,” Sakura grits out as she stalks into the room, “you’ve got some explaining to do.”
“Sakura,” Kakashi raises their still clasped hands up and gives them a weird little wiggle in her direction, “I hear congratulations are in order.”
“I’m not pregnant,” Sakura outright growls, “no matter what the idiot says.”
“Yes, you are,” Naruto can’t help but cut in.
“No,” Sakura grits back, “I’m not.”
“You could always go get tested just to be sure,” Kakashi points out.
“I’m the medic here and it’s my body,” Sakura protests, “so even if I was pregnant, which I’m not, how in the hell would you know before me?”
“Chakra scans and blood tests,” Kakashi interjects in the background, “so simple, so useful with how they tend to take place somewhere that’s not my office.”
“Can smell it,” Naruto answers easily enough.
Sakura and Kakashi both kind of just stop.
“I didn’t know your nose was that sensitive,” Sakura stares at him like she’s never seen him before for some reason.
“That would have opened up an entirely new avenue of training when you were younger,” Kakashi points out, something just a bit exasperated in his expression.
“Always been able to smell good,” Naruto shifts his shoulders, just a bit uncomfortable. “Got in a lot of trouble at the Academy for it. Girls didn’t like it and the sensei would get mad.”
“I remember that,” Sakura says slowly, brows furrowed. “You used to comment on all kinds of embarrassing stuff. We thought you were just being gross but you stopped doing it so we all figured you’d learned your lesson.”
“Didn’t know everyone else couldn’t smell like that,” Naruto admits. “Learned not to say anything about the stuff I could smell after a while. Kiba never really got in trouble though so I figured it was just because it was me.”
The three of them are silent for a moment.
Kakashi’s hands tighten around Naruto’s own.
“Sakura,” Kakashi finally says, one hand untangling from Naruto’s, “come here.”
Sakura makes her way closer to his desk without having to be asked twice, leaning forward across the surface when Kakashi gestures her closer.
Kakashi reaches his free hand up to tug his mask down just past his nose. And then he leans forward and takes a deep breath.
He pulls back after a few moments, fixes his mask, and then gives his hand back to Naruto who goes right back to clutching it without a second thought.
“Get tested,” Kakashi tells her, eyes already crinkling in a soft sort of humor, “you know better than to bet against Naruto.”
~~~
“Congratulations,” Shizune says softly, chakra already fading from her hands.
“I’m going to have a baby,” Sakura whispers, tears already welling up in her eyes.
“That’s what I’ve been saying the entire time,” Naruto throws his hands up into the air from where he’s sitting on the edge of Kakashi’s desk.
But he still catches Sakura in his arms when she throws herself at him, laughing and crying all at the same time.
~~~
Once she’s calmed down a bit and Kakashi has agreed to send off a message to Sasuke, Sakura leaves the Tower to go see her parents.
They all know it could take some time to find Sasuke given how on the move he tends to stay when he’s out wandering. Still, Naruto vows that if they haven’t heard from him in a few weeks then he’ll either send out a toad anyway or leave and track the bastard down himself.
Naruto stays for a while longer though to keep rambling on towards an indulgent Kakashi who, once Naruto finally lets him go so he can pace around the room, just watches him, eyes soft and chin propped up on one fist.
Eventually, Naruto can’t stand it anymore and practically throws himself back out the window and directly towards the market.
He ends up actually buying an entire crate of ginger candies, two tins of ginger cookies, and about a dozen boxes of raspberry tea in his initial rush through the stalls and stores before he zips back toward Sakura and Sasuke’s house.
He picks the lock, makes a mental note to draw up a few heavy-duty blood seals to replace them with, and makes his way towards the kitchen.
He leaves his offerings on the counter, topped with two clones disguised as extra large, frilly orange bows.
Now, he knows, the real work needs to begin.
~~~
‘You know,’ Kurama pipes up around the time that Naruto’s halfway through a shielding seal array that he plans to etch into the floorboards of the baby’s room and he has a few dozen clones loudly and enthusiastically deep-cleaning his entire apartment, ‘your wolf was right, this isn’t actually your kit.’
“Didn’t think I’d have to explain it to you,” Naruto grumbles as his brush keeps swirling across the paper.
‘I understand your urges and instincts in general,’ Kurama clarifies. ‘But you’re denning like you’ll be bringing it home with us.’
Naruto freezes, and then abruptly shivers just a bit in unexpected delight.
“Do you think they’d let me?” He can’t help but ask breathlessly, something longing and greedy rearing its head inside of him. “I watched Hiro-chan and I was a lot smaller back then. I could even bring them here this time, maybe even set up a whole spot for them.”
Naruto trails off, another few clones popping into existence to lunge forward and start rearranging his furniture into the best, most defensible layout he can think of.
‘Who,’ Kurama asks slowly, ‘is Hiro-chan?’
The question startles Naruto, has him reeling in confusion for a moment, because how does Kurama not remember Hiro-chan?
But then he gets it.
He’d been nine or so when Himari-nee-chan and Hiro-chan had died.
Kurama had still been asleep in the depths of the seal then, not yet awake and active.
And Naruto, so used to Kurama being entwined in all of the most important parts of his life, had never thought to mention either of them to his best friend.
So, brush once again dancing across the paper, Naruto starts talking.
He tells Kurama the entire thing from start to finish, all of the joyful and heartbreaking parts included.
And then he keeps talking.
Goes on about things he wants to do for and with this new baby.
Things that he’s thought of since the war, new and unique experiences that are possible for him now that never would have been before.
Things he’d dreamed about for Hiro-chan but never got the chance to see through.
But it’s different now, Naruto knows.
He’s older now and so much stronger than he was as a kid. He has money now too, more than he had once ever dreamed of having, and he’s no longer being chased out of the market or stores on the regular.
And, most importantly of all, Sakura and Sasuke are his.
There should be nothing to stop Naruto from spoiling this baby.
No one is going to chase him away from this baby and no one is going to hurt it or Sakura.
Because Sakura is strong all on her own, and Naruto knows that Sasuke and Kakashi specifically, and all of the others in general, would also protect them if necessary.
But there’s also the fact that there’s no one that Naruto could not, would not, destroy before they ever got close enough to hurt either of them.
This time Naruto is going to be there, he’s going to make sure that this baby is safe.
This time he’s going to keep them both.
~~~
Sakura’s pregnancy progresses right on schedule but, to Naruto, it seems to practically crawl by.
Maybe it’s because he was so young at the time but Himari-nee-chan’s had seemed to happen in the blink of an eye.
Despite that Naruto’s been taking nonstop joy in the entire situation.
He’d finished the deep clean on his apartment in a handful of hours that first day, had drawn up the first dozen or so seals for Sakura and Sasuke’s house, and then had set out again to scurry around the village and start actually gathering supplies.
Now Naruto’s place is as spotless as it can possibly be, everything is reinforced with his highest-level security seals, and he has an ever-growing stack of sealing scrolls filled with the things that catch his eye whenever he goes to the market or leaves the village settled in the corner.
He’s even managed to wear Sakura down enough to stop throwing things at him whenever he shows up at the hospital with lunch for her or she comes home to find him and an army of clones cleaning her house yet again.
He’s pretty sure it’s her way of saying ‘thank you’ because once her morning sickness had kicked in she’d started smelling like ginger on a near-constant basis.
Plus he’s already replaced the cookies he’d bought her twice.
Naruto’s next step is, of course, to worm his way into Kakashi’s apartment to clean and secure it as well. Kakashi’s wily though and keeps giving him the slip whenever he tries. Keeps distracting him with conversation or occasionally a spar, or legit just running away whenever he sees Naruto heading in his direction outside of the Tower.
Which, of course, normally leads to Naruto chasing him around the village and then the two of them eating at Ichiraku somehow.
It’s a work in progress.
Besides, despite the open door, or window as is sometimes the case, policy he tends to take towards Sasuke and Sakura’s house, breaking into Kakashi’s apartment instead of being invited and welcomed inside doesn’t hold any actual appeal to Naruto.
Naruto wants to be given access to Kakashi’s space instead of taking it.
Something that always sets Kurama to snickering for some reason.
Still, everything is, in Naruto’s opinion, going fantastically.
Which means, of course, the problems all start when Sasuke returns almost a month after that day in Kakashi’s office.
Or, to be more accurate, the problems start when Sasuke returns and then doesn’t stay.