AN: Damn life getting in the way all the time making me forget to make this story catch up to dA. I'll try to upload the next one tomorrow. (For those interested, there are 79 chapters written so far, so 2 more left to go... reviews will probably make me remind to upload those haha OTL...

Chapter 77: Try to raise a kid yourself...

Sakura gave her son a scolding look. He was climbing on the couch again while she told him like a hundred times already not to that. He merely gave her a big grin and tested his mothers patient by using the couch as climbing rack once more. His mischievous behavior started annoy Sakura a lot. And since he wasn't listening again, she picked him up and placed him on the stairs. Told him he had to stay there until she said he was allowed to come off and wanted to leave hadn't it been for the knocking on the door. She opened it and found Sasuke. Since Naruto hadn't looked at his cursed seal yet, he still didn't have access to his chakra. Something he himself had requested, afraid something like what happened at the chunin exam might happen again. So he hadn't been on missions, but instead had spent his time apologizing once more to Sakura about what he did, babysit Takashi and right... apologizing.

Sakura sighed relieved when she saw his face. He gave her a grin and got inside. Today he would watch over Takashi again, since her parents were out and about. He found the little devil on the stairs, sulking but keeping an eye on his mother. The two left the boy alone and went to the kitchen. "You okay?" Sasuke asked as she sat down. She looked rather exhausted. "Tired. Tired of Takashi testing..." Her patience, and even at that very moment because he quickly passed the two young adults exclaiming he was off the stairs. Which sure wasn't a wise thing to do. Sighing Sakura stood up, but Sasuke was quicker and had already grabbed the boy. He placed him back on the stairs first step. Told him to stay there until his mother allowed him to leave and left.

The first time he did this, which was a couple of days ago, Takashi had been so astounded about it that he stayed on the stairs. Which was no longer the case. The moment Sasuke got back in the kitchen, the boy ran off again. Grumbling a little Sasuke once again went after the boy. It went on like that for ten more minutes before Takashi finally gave up and stayed on the stairs. When a minute had passed Sakura went over to him while Sasuke looked at the clock. He sulked about the fact she had to leave in five minutes now. He had hoped by coming somewhat early, he would have some time to be just with her.

He looked over to the pink haired as he heard Takashi saying sorry and hugging his mother. Then the child blasted off to play with his toys that had scattered around the living room. Since Sasuke started babysitting him often, he started to understand what Sakura meant with 'try to raise a kid yourself'. He had his hands full, there wasn't one moment he could do something for himself.

Sakura walked over to Sasuke. Since he was focused on Takashi he was shocked when he suddenly felt her kissing his cheek. He looked over to her. "Good luck with him. I really appreciate that you look after him." "You know very well why," he whispered back, "he's also my son." Sakura smiled at him.

Sasuke tried very hard not to just pull her in a hug and kiss her. It wasn't like they were really together as a couple. Not like Naruto and Hinata. Sure there was something going on, but he still felt really terrible about the things he had done to Sakura. And Sakura seemed to rather insecure about what to really do with her feelings. There had been times where they kissed, but Sasuke was never the one to make the first move. He was too afraid to lose her.

He knew he had to do something, make some sort of move. Twirling around each other like they had been wasn't the best thing to do, but for the time being it was fine.

Sakura kissed her son goodbye and then left for her work at the hospital. Sasuke waved her goodbye, watching her until she was out of sight, with his mind somewhere on cloud nine because of the kiss on his cheek which he now was holding with one hand. Takashi waved her goodbye as well but had enough of it after a few seconds. After that he looked up to his babysitter who wasn't exactly paying attention to him.

"Why you have red face?" he asked him. Sasuke immediately looked down alarmed. "I don't," he blurted, which was the first thing that came to his mind. "Red face! Red face!" Takashi laughed as he dashed off to the living room. Sasuke closed the door with a sigh. This was going to be a long day. He sat down on the couch and watched some tv while Takashi played with blocks behind the couch. Suddenly he was leaning on the back looking at Sasuke.

"Hey, your mother said you're not allowed to use the couch as a climbing rack," Sasuke commented. "But I'm not climbing." Sasuke looked over the edge and saw he built himself a tower of blocks to stand on, though it didn't seem very stable. "That's dangerous, you might fall." "No, I won't," was Takashi simple reply as he had a big grin on his face and watched Sasuke.

Sasuke looked away and sighed. This child...

"Are you gonna be my daddy?"

Sasuke almost jumped and rapidly looked at the boy who was looking back with an innocent face. "Wh-why are you asking that?" "Mommy kisses you." Sasuke had no idea how Sakura kissing him made him the boy's father... although he actually really was. The logic behind it was beyond him.

He grabbed the boy and pulled him over the back of the couch and then placed him next to him. "Just because she kisses me, doesn't mean..." "But mommy never EVER kissed anyone. Even though a lot of men tried. And they were all ignoring me as much as they could."

Sasuke stared at the boy. Realizing he was growing up fast. It wouldn't be long before he would go to school. For sure he would soon realize that he actually looked a lot like him. He let out a long sigh pondering over what to do. He wanted to tell the boy, but he wasn't sure if he should. Maybe he should ask Sakura first?

"If mommy marries you, do I have to call you daddy?" An image of Sakura in a white dress and white bird flying around suddenly hit him. Blushing furiously he buried his face in his knees. Takashi simply watched him with a confused face.

Naruto leaned against his front door so Hinata was unable to leave. "Naruto-kun," she started, but he shook his head. He didn't want to let her leave. Not after last night. Okay they didn't go all the way, which made him feel somewhat miserable, but still... Having her leave already didn't feel right.

Tsu was to school. Naruto had pretended to be asleep when she came in to say she was off. Normally he would be the first on to be awake. With her gone he felt a little bit more at ease, considering the thoughts he had been having and really REALLY wanted to do with Hinata right now. "Naruto-kun, I have to go home," she mumbled. She had been avoiding his eyes all day.

"You said you didn't have a mission," he protested softly as he stepped forward closing the distance between them. "That's true..." "You have something clan related to do?" Hinata shook her head. Naruto leaned in so his mouth was right next to her ear. "Then stay," he whispered softly, giving the girl shivers. He started playing with her hair and softly nibbled her ear. "I... I can't," she mumbled. Naruto made her look up, gave her a soft smirk and then kissed her. He pulled away shortly after that, staring at her shocked face. "Hinata-chan, it's fine." "But last night I..." "I don't want to push you in things you're not ready for yet, I told you before." She looked away. "But I was the one who started it," she said in a whisper. Naruto chuckled a little, "it was the heat of the moment." Hinata's started blushing at this comment, if she hadn't been already from what she just had said.

Seeing he was no longer covering the door, she decided to make her escape and try to figure herself out at home. However Naruto had been faster and grabbed her wrist.

"No escaping, I'm not done yet." As soon as he said that, he realized how perverted it had sounded and started to blush as much as Hinata who was staring at the floor. Last night she had pretty much turned Naruto on that he lost control of himself and pretty much jumped her. At first it seemed like she was okay with it, that was until he decided to get completely naked. Sure there had been one time where they saw each other completely naked, but to Hinata it was still something that was hard to cope with. As a reflex almost she had used gentle fist on him, causing him to fall of the bed and get back to his senses. After that the rest of the evening was rather awkward in which they both kept on apologizing to each other. Eventually falling asleep in the other's arms.

It was quite obvious to Naruto why she was trying to escape now. But he didn't want her to go. Currently he desperately needed her. Not for what she was thinking of, although he wouldn't mind that either. Kami, he wanted that! But she clearly wasn't ready.

He pressed her against the front door.

What he needed was her presence around him. Her comfort that would make the sadness go away a bit more. Like she had done the night before. With what happened to Amaya's father, his own loss had been crawling back up. He thought he was finally could accept Jiraiya's decision, yesterday proved that thought was wrong. He still disagreed with Jiraiya going after Akatsuki alone. After it seemed she was staying he had hugged her and told her what happened earlier on as he had started to cry again. Blaming himself he hadn't seen something was wrong Amaya earlier. How in the world it ended up in the two of them almost having sex he still wasn't sure of though...