She found him in the sun room, of course, sprawled on his back in the middle of the wide sun patch, face turned up toward the skylight, heart to heart with the baby. Naruto's large fingers were gripped tightly by two tiny hands, and he wriggled them around as he told a story that had neither beginning nor end. It was, she decided after a few minutes, about a baby fox and a baby raven and a baby bunny, having various unbearably cute adventures.
It was adorable. It made her want to go aww.
She scowled and put her hands on her hips instead.
"Uzumaki Naruto, if you think you're going to avoid helping us like that..."
He gave her puppy eyes that Kiba would have been jealous of. "But the foxlet couldn't sleep..."
"Right. It's probably time for a meal then." She speared him with a warning glare as she picked up the baby. "Now get up and go help Sasuke. He's not going to do it all on his own."
"... I'm allergic to dust?"
"Naruto, I've been inside your apartment."
He sighed and got on his feet gracefully. "Fine, fine. Later, foxlet."
He nuzzled the baby's soft hair, cooing back, until Sakura pursed her lips.
"I'm going, I'm going. Mommy is so mean, isn't she?"
"You should be ashamed. Giving such a bad example to your child -- don't ever grow up to be like daddy, you," she added in a softened tone, hiding an amused smile as Naruto pretended to fall dead of heart attack.
"So cruel!"
"OI dumbass!! Move it!"
Sasuke appeared at the door. His bare chest was streaked with dirt and he wore rubber gloves, and held a mop as if he knew a dozen different ways to kill someone with it. Naruto grimaced at him, putting his hands on the child's ears. The baby giggled, and Naruto spared a brief smile before turning to glare down his opponent again.
"Hey! Don't talk like that around the baby!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes and moved the wet mop from hand to hand, secretly enjoying the way Naruto kept it in sight warily. "Moron, it's not as if what I said was going to register."
"Yeah, well, maybe you should start censoring yourself now. Get into the habit, you know."
"And maybe you should start pulling your weight, dead-last, and stop slacking off."
"Hey! I'm not slacking off! I was doing an important job, maybe the most important of all!"
Sasuke and Sakura snorted disbelievingly in perfect unison.
Sasuke hooked Naruto's neck with the broom and pulled him sharply toward the door. "Move your ass, slowpoke. That's still the couch to move back in place."
"And you can wash the windows," Sakura added. "-- though on second thought, maybe Sasuke should do that."
"Hey! I can so wash windows!"
Sasuke eyed him, unconvinced. He arched an eyebrow slowly, deliberately. Naruto fumed.
"Prove it."
The two young men disappeared in the corridor.
Sakura laughed softly as she went to the kitchen, the baby cooing up at her. "Yes, your fathers are so immature, aren't they."
In the distance, she could hear taunts and crashes, and was very glad that
they had decided to replace most of the old furniture anyway.