When music melts the heart

Hey minna,

I'm so terribly sorry that you had to wait this long for the next chapter, but life got a little hectic around here the last couple of months. Good news though I'm working on the next chappie already.

I hope you'll forgive me and enjoy this short chapter.
As always I would really appreciate reviews.

Enjoy.


Chapter 15

Itachi was lying on his back with Naruto’s head on his chest when he was woken up by a very bubbly and happy Hiroki, who had climbed in bed next to him and had began to silently whisper in the raven’s ear to wake him.

He opened his eyes to look at the alarm clock and saw it was eight thirty. When he felt something small and warm press against his side he looked down to find his son cuddled up to him and he wrapped arm around the boy. He smiled to the boy looking up at him and said; “Good morning Hiroki.”

“Good morning Tousan,” the boy said nestling himself in his father’s arm.

“Did you sleep well last night,” the raven asked him.

“Yes Tousan, I woke only once,” Hiroki told his father proudly.

“I’m glad to hear that chibi,” his father said smiling. “What would you say if we tried to wake up chichi?” Itachi asked his son with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Hiroki nodded his head eagerly, knowing his Tousan was up to something.

“I want you to go to his other side and then we’ll both give him butterfly kisses on his cheeks till he wakes up,” the raven said with a smirk.

Hiroki got up and walked over to the other side of the bed and climbed in very carefully as to not wake up his chichi too soon. When he was “in position” Itachi gave him a wink and they both started kissing the blonde very softly on his cheeks.

Naruto felt something tickle his cheeks; he turned his head hoping it would stop. The tickling sensation moved from his cheeks to his forehead and he swatted at it with his hand. He turned his head back and felt it go back to his cheeks. He swatted at whatever was bugging him with both hands.

The assault on his cheeks stopped for a moment and then returned full force. He groaned and swatted at the assailants again and turned on his side again. When that only resulted in another assault on his forehead and exposed cheek he forced his eyes open to see what had pestered him out of his beautiful ramen and Itachi filled dreams.

He came eye to eye with a grinning boy who kept giving butterfly kisses to his forehead. He slightly turned his head to see that his other assailant, who was still giving butterfly kisses to his exposed cheek, was his beautiful raven.

“Not fair, the two of you ganging up on me,” he said with a sleepy pout.

“Good morning chichi,“ his boy said happily giving his chichi a wet sounding kiss on his forehead.

“Good morning koi,” Itachi said. Naruto turned his head enough so the raven could kiss him on the lips.

“Good morning to you too, even though I was rudely awakened from my dreams,” the blonde said feigning the disappointing tone.

“What were you dreaming about chichi?” Hiroki asked curious.

“I was dreaming about…,” he said taking a deep breath through his nose to tease them a bit by stalling, when a whiff off something hit his nose. He shot up in sitting position and sniffed again making sure he smelled it. “RAMEN,” he shouted jumping out of bed and pulling on the first sweatpants he could grab faster than Itachi and Hiroki could say Ichiraku.

“I swear your chichi can smell that stuff from a mile away,” Itachi said shaking his head a little. The two looked at each other and shrugged.

“Could you give me a pair of sweats from that first drawer Hiroki?” The raven didn’t want to get out of bed in his birthday suit in front of his son. Hiroki handed him the sweats and he pulled them on under the covers. Then he got out of bed and together they followed the blonde to where apparently his breakfast was located.

Sasuke had ordered the cooking staff to make everyone’s favourite for breakfast that morning. He thought it would be a nice start of the day for the newly engaged couple and their soon-to-officially-be son.

He knew Hiroki had gone to his parent’s bedroom to wake them up for breakfast. Everything was just put out on the dining room table and he was just sitting down to wait for the rest to show up, when a blur off blond and grey caught his eye.

‘Damn he’s fast when it comes to ramen,’ was the only thing the younger raven could think.

Noticing that the blonde was wearing a pair of sweatpants that were too big for him, they had to be Itachi’s, he commented smirking: “Jeez dobe, couldn’t you at least have dressed properly before storming in here.”

“Shut it teme, I could never keep ramen waiting,” the blonde replied, plopping down on the seat were the bowl of his precious ramen was placed. He was just about to dig in when Itachi and Hiroki walked into the dining room.

The raven was smirking knowing the blonde had on his sweats, which made Naruto look at him suspiciously. “What?” the blonde asked a little miffed.

“Koi you do realize that you are wearing my sweatpants, don’t you?” Itachi asked him almost innocently.

Naruto looked down at his pants and started blushing, his hand shot to his neck rubbing it. “Eh he he eh, oops,” he said sheepishly.

“You’re funny chichi,” Hiroki said giggling at his chichi’s antics. Naruto just stuck out his tongue to the boy, but really had to control the urge to give the Uchiha’s the finger, it wouldn’t be appropriate with Hiroki around. Thus he opted to simply ignore the smirking men.

Itachi noted that all of their favourite breakfast were on the table and looked over to his otouto, quirking a brow. “I see the cooking staff has done their best to please us. I don’t suppose you had anything to do with this?” he asked the younger raven.

Sasuke just smirked then continued to eat his own breakfast.

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It was about two that afternoon when the doorbell rang, announcing some unexpected guests. Naruto had been walking through the main entry hall when he hear the ring and opened the door. He was surprised to see Suigetsu, Juugo and Karin standing there.

“Hey guys, come in. I’ll give the teme a holler that you’re here,” Naruto said stepping aside to let the threesome in.

“We’re not here to see Sasuke, we came to give you a birthday present, even though it’s a day late,” Karin said. “It seems that pea brain over here forgot to mention to us that your birthday was yesterday,” she said scowling at Suigetsu.

“Well I think it’s very thoughtful of you anyway. Would you like to have some coffee or something?” The blonde asked them.

“We just came to drop off the gift, we don’t want to intrude,” Juugo said, a small smile played on his lips.

“You’re not intruding, besides it would be very bad mannered from me to send you away without offering you any hospitality in return for your thoughtfulness. Itachi and the teme would be sure to remind me of that for the next months, when they find out,” Naruto said pulling a face at his last comment.

Karin and Suigetsu snickered at that and Juugo just smirked. Naruto showed them to the living room and was pleasantly surprised to find Itachi and Hiroki there as well. The raven was sitting on the couch reading a file with his arm wrapped around his son, who was cuddled close to him and reading one of the books Naruto had bought for him.

When Naruto and his guests entered the living room Itachi closed the file he was reading and put it in a drawer of the coffee-table. Hiroki was too engrossed in his book to notice the visitors or his chichi.

“What a pleasant surprise,” Itachi said as a way off greeting the threesome.

“They came to bring me a birthday gift,” the blonde said smiling brightly.

Hiroki decided to look up from his book when he heard his chichi’s voice. He dropped his book immediately when he saw the threesome standing next to the blonde. He jumped from his Touan’s hold and almost propelled himself into Juugo.

“Juugo, Karin, Suigetsu, I missed you,” the little boy said joyfully. He let go off Juugo to go over to Karin and give her a sounding kiss on her cheek, she in turn gave the boy a kiss back and ruffled his hair. He walked to Suigetsu and stuck out his hand; the older male grabbed him and hoisted him up on his hip, then ruffled his hair.

Naruto and Itachi looked fondly at the display off affection from all three towards their son. It never ceased to amaze the raven how his boy knew to win over the hearts of those he came in contact with, but that same went for his fiancé.

Itachi asked one of the maids to bring them coffee and other preferred drinks, while Naruto offered them a seat. Karin and Suigetsu sat down on the couch opposite to the blonde and the raven, after Suigetsu put the boy down, while Juugo opted like usual to sit on the ground close to the coffee table. The tall man sat Indian style and Hiroki placed himself on his lap unabashed, sitting on the ground with his legs dangling over Juugo’s and resting his back against the broad chest.

Sasuke showed up just as the drinks arrived and joined the little gathering. They all watched amused how Hiroki told Juugo all about the story he was reading in a very animated way. Juugo in turn listened very interested to his storytelling.

Naruto was serving everyone their drinks when suddenly Karin squealed if her life depended on it. The blonde was so startled he dropped the glass of lemonade he had for Hiroki. Itachi immediately covered his ears, Sasuke raised a fine brow and Juugo, Suigetsu and Hiroki looked at her, their expression clearly asking WHAT!?

“OH MY GOSH, is that what I think it is?” She asked excitedly while gripping the blonde’s hand and bringing it close to her face.

“Eehh, if you think it’s an engagement ring, then yeah it is,” Naruto said rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. Karin squealed some more and jumped up to hug the blonde and congratulate him. She turned to Itachi and bowed congratulating him as well. Juugo and Suigetsu opted to stay seated, but gave their congrats to the newly engaged couple.

For the next thirty minutes four men and a small boy repeatedly groaned and snickered as they listened and watched the blonde suffer through a purple haired girl’s squealing and gushing over the upcoming wedding.

Suddenly Karin got serious and started asking questions about arrangements and if they had considered if they wanted a small wedding or a huge one. Itachi took note off the almost professional way she thought off things that would have slipped both their minds completely.

Maybe it would be a good idea to ask the girl to play the role of wedding-planner. It would make things a lot easier for them. He would have to talk to Naruto about that of course, but he knew the blonde would agree.

After some more wedding talk, Juugo reminded Karin that she still had to give Naruto his present, so she pulled it out of her bag and with slightly pink tinted cheeks she gave it to the blonde.

Naruto opened the little box she gave him, inside was a silver necklace with a violin pendant. He smiled brightly at the three friends. “Thank you, it’s beautiful.”

“When we saw it, we were reminded of that time you played for us,” Karin explained, while putting the necklace around the blonde’s neck.

They talked for another hour or so before Karin said they should leave. Juugo invited Sasuke to join them for pizza and looking at his aniki he decided to give the three sometime alone. He accepted the invitation and Naruto joked about him going on a date. Little did the blonde know he struck a cord with that joke in both Sasuke and Juugo.

So the four friends left the mansion for pizza and a movie and the little family of three moved back inside for a night together.

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Itachi had talked to Naruto about asking Karin to help plan the wedding and both agreed that she would be very suited for the job. So the Wednesday morning after the three had visited, the blonde went to Sasuke to ask if he by any chance knew how to contact the purple haired woman.

“Hey teme, do you have Karin’s phone number?” The blonde asked walking into the raven’s room without knocking.

“Dobe, ever heard of knocking?” the raven countered.

“Whatever. Well do you?” Naruto asked, bouncing impatiently from one foot to the other.

“Do I what?” Sasuke was greatly enjoying his little game of annoy the dobe.

“Oh for the love of Ramen, do you have Karin’s phone number?” Naruto practically snarled at the raven. He was impatient by nature and having to wait till the teme was ready to answer him was testing his little bit off patience.

“Jeez Usuratonkachi what crawled up your ass and died?” Sasuke asked smirking deviously.

“Just stop being a bastard for five minutes and give me the damn number, will ya?” Naruto sighed.

“Fine, but what do you need it for anyway?” the raven asked with a bored voice, trying to hide his curiosity from the blonde.

“I was thinking about writing her a letter,” the blonde said sarcastically, just to get back at the raven.

“Whatever dobe,” Sasuke said hoping to bait the blonde into telling him, while handing him a note with the number on it.

“Thanks teme, see you later.” The blonde practically skipped out off the room enjoying his little victory over his best friend.

He walked to Itachi’s study slash home office and wandered in to make the phone call. He dialled the number on the piece of paper and waited till it was answered.

“Moshi moshi, Karin speaking.”

“Hey Karin, this is Naruto. I wanted to ask you something, is this a convenient time?”

“Sure blondie, what did you want to ask?”

“Well Itachi and me we’re wondering if you would consider helping us with planning the wedding? We both witnessed your organizing skills when we were busy with Hiroki’s bedroom and after our talk about the wedding last time, Itachi and I decided to ask you as our wedding-planner.” Naruto really hoped she would say yes. He might not have known her for very long, but he would rather have her as their planner then some stranger.

“Wow Naruto, are you serious? I would love to help you guys. I think we should meet soon to discuss what you two have in mind for your wedding,” Karin said getting more and more excited, but not in a fan girl kind of way.

“That sounds like a good idea, how about next Saturday? You could come over for lunch and we could discuss things after that. Let’s say one o’clock,” Naruto suggested happily. He couldn’t wait to start planning with Karin.

“Okay, sounds good to me. I’ll see you guys Saturday then,” she said while scribbling the appointment down on a piece of paper.

“Okay, see you Saturday. Oh and Karin, thanks.”

“You’re welcome blondie, bye bye.”

“Bye Karin,” Naruto hang up the phone and with a big goofy grin plastered on his face he walked to the music room to gather his things for his weekly play in the park.


TBC