Old Friends

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~chap. 8

WARNING; WAFF, angst

"Eh? WHAT?!?! I'm not the father!! I never even saw her till tonight!" Naruto
shrieked.

Miko gazed at him sadly. "I have all I can handle with three young ones of my own. I
can't take on another. You have to take care of this child. There's no one else."
She wrapped the baby in a towel and placed it in his arms. "I am going to get my
husband to deal with the mother." She gave him a pleading look as she left.

Naruto gulped. How was this supposed to work? He knew nothing about babies. What
was Itachi going to say when he returned? His anxiety left him as he looked down into
bright blue eyes. He could do this! His heart swelled. He hoped the Uchiha would
agree; Naruto really wanted a family.

Miko followed her husband into the house. In her arms she carried several large
packages; she set them down and began to remove the contents. Bottles, little
blankets, diapers and pins all made an appearance. One even contained, when all parts
were assembled, a bassinet. Wow! Naruto hadn't even thought that far! Taking the
infant from unprotesting arms, Miko showed him how to put on diapers, and to feed the
baby. Once certain he was capable, she went home with her spouse, who had disposed of
the woman's body.

Naruto bundled the girl in a couple of the blankets, and sat down on the couch to
await Itachi's return. Soon he was asleep, a sleeping baby clasped tightly to his
chest. That's how Itachi found them.

~~~~

"NO! Uchiha, I forbid it!" Tsunade slammed her fist on her desk as she glared at the
young man. "If you go looking for him again, the council will have you declared a
missing-nin. They wanted you locked up as being too dangerous after you demolished
the training grounds. And that was over a year ago! They haven't forgotten Itachi's
betrayal, and they're afraid of you doing the same." She gave him a pleading look,
hoping he wouldn't push this, but knowing he would.

The Sharingan flared to life as Sasuke scowled at the Hokage. "The dobe is my friend.
If I went missing, he would do everything in his power to find me and bring me home.
I'm going to do the same for him." With a last, red, glare at the woman, he headed
for the door.

Tsunade waited until his hand was nearing the knob, then, "Uchiha. Send Kakashi to
me. We will see if we can find a way around the council. Dismissed." In an instant,
he was gone.

"...and you should take Sakura. She's an excellent medic-nin. She'd be an asset to
your team." Tsunade had written out a mission scroll, stating they were on a mission
to deliver an important message to Kagome-sama, a clan matriarch in the south. The
three in the room knew it was bogus, that there was no such person, but the council
didn't. The letter was, truthfully, for Naruto, asking him to come home, if they
located him. Now, they just needed a fourth member for the team and they could
depart.

"No! No way! That guy's as big a pervert as Jiraiya! He likes to stare at my ass
and makes rude comments about my...my...parts of my body," Sasuke said with a huff of
frustration, face crimson. Surely, she couldn't be serious! Just because he was
ANBU-trained, she was making him part of their team. He was an outsider; he didn't
even know Naruto. How did they know they could depend on him? That he wouldn't scare
the blond baka away?! "He's going to get in the way! If Naruto sees him, he'll
probably run. I know I would," he muttered the last under his breath.

The Hokage stood and pointed at the younger raven. "Uchiha, he's going with you and
that's final! If Sai doesn't go, none of you go! Understand!?" She sat back in her
chair, massaging her temples. She wondered for the thousandth time why she had agreed
to this job. It was nothing but a headache, both figuratively AND literally.

Sasuke huffed and crossed his arms, but in the end consented. Within the hour, the
four were ready to leave.

~~~~

Itachi stared at the scene before him; Naruto was sleeping with a baby in his arms!
What was going on?! Just then the child began to move and whimper. Naruto didn't
stir. Itachi stripped off his wet clothes, slipped into dry ones, and went to stand
in front of the couch. Before the baby could start screaming, he picked it up and
carried it to the kitchen. In the refrigerator, he found bottles of milk already made
up, so he heated some water and set one to warm. "Kuso! The little shit just peed on
me!" he ranted quietly, so not to wake his lover. He found the stack of diapers and
changed the baby. When done, the bottle was warm so he sat down and proceeded to feed
the little thing.

Naruto awoke, feeling like something was wrong, something was missing. Suddenly it
hit him; where was the baby?!

Itachi entered the sitting room to find Naruto on the floor looking under the couch.
Amused, he watched for a moment before announcing his presence. "Lose something?"

"Yeah, the baby." Naruto froze, then jumped to his feet, facing the Uchiha. "Itachi,
I...I...What are you doing with the baby?!" He stared in awe; Itachi looked so...so
natural with an infant in his arms. So right. Maybe this would work. "We had a
visitor, and she left us a present," he said, nodding at the bundle in the older man's
arms.

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "..."

Naruto sat back on the couch and began to recount the evening's events. "...then she
died. Miko-san said she couldn't take on another baby and asked us to raise it." He
stared at the floor, suddenly feeling unsure of himself. He wanted a family; even if
it wasn't his biological child, he would love it as such.

Itachi didn't say a word, didn't utter a sound.

When Naruto chanced a glance at the raven, his jaw dropped in surprise. Uchiha Itachi
was gently rocking the child in his arms, the tiniest of smiles on his face!

Ebony eyes met brilliant blue. "Uchiha Uzumaki Fushigi. That is her name, because
she is our little miracle," Itachi stated, smile widening further.

~~~~

Kakashi had his hands full. Sakura treated Sai the way she had Naruto in their genin
days. If he said something derogatory to or about Sasuke, she yelled and knocked the
crap out of him. Sasuke was finally showing emotion; unfortunately, it was anger.
Everything seemed to make him angry: stopping to rest or eat; Sakura clinging to him;
Sai's frequent comments about him PMSing all the time; even the weather, whether good
or foul. Sai...well, he was just his socially inept self. The silver-haired jounin
sighed as he once again assisted Sai to his feet, after Sakura got done with him.

They had yet to get any leads on the whereabouts of either Naruto or Itachi.

~~~~

Iruka was pacing Tsunade's office; the Godaime was becoming irritated. "Sit down,
Iruka! You're giving me a headache! I know you cared for the brat, but stressing
over it isn't going to bring him back. If he's still alive..." She was interrupted
by a muffled sob. "IF he's still ALIVE," she stated forcefully, "there will be some
news, and Kakashi and his team can check it out. Now, GO HOME!!!"

A dejected chuunin left the tower only to go to the nearest bar and get wasted.

"Tsunade-hime, do you think they can find him? I mean, he has been missing for a long
time. Naruto is not one to stay quiet; we ought to have heard some word by now."
Jiraiya was as depressed as Iruka; he had really liked the brat. The fact that the
boy was the son of his favorite student just increased his worry for the boy's safety.
"Maybe if I had told Naruto who his father was, he wouldn't have left."

"Jiraiya, there's no use beating yourself up over this. If I knew the boy, I'd
probably not have told him either. We can only hope the demon is never released."

The two sannin sat drinking sake till late in the evening. Shizune found both passed out cold the next morning, empty sake bottles all over the room.

~~~~

Fushigi was crawling toward Itachi, who was cleaning his weapons. Just as she
stretched her hand out to the shurikan, Itachi scooped her into his arms and swung her
around. In his mind, she really could be Naruto's. Both were mischievous and liked
to smile, and both had the same bright blue eyes. After having spent the last six
months raising Fushigi, Itachi was wishing for another. He had never really cared for
children prior to this, but now he wanted a houseful. If only...

~~~~

It was time for Miko and her husband to make their annual trip to the Land of the
Waves. Naruto had agreed to watch their children, saying it would give him good
training for when Fushigi got older. As they made their way north, they passed
through a small village. There was some kind of commotion in the town square, so they
went to check it out. Three men and a woman with pink hair were talking to the crowd.
It seemed that they were searching for someone. As Miko drew closer, she caught what
was being said. She stiffened in fear. These people were looking for Naruto!
Grabbing her husband by the arm, she dragged him back the way they had come. Once
free of the village, she conversed with her spouse and they decided to head back home.

"Miko-san! What are you doing back so soon? You've only been gone a week! What's
wrong?!" Naruto was very surprised to see the couple; they weren't supposed to return
for at least a month.

Miko wasted no time with small talk. "Where's Itachi-san? We must speak with you
both right away."

"Um...he's out back with your children. What is it? You're making me nervous."

Ignoring the question, Miko ran to the back door and called to Itachi to come inside.
She told her children to stay put and not leave the yard. The Uchiha entered the
house and gazed quizzically between Miko and her husband.

"We have some news. There are people looking for you, Naruto. I don't know why or
who they are, but they were in a village three days north of here," the man said
solemnly.

Fearfully, Naruto stared at their friends, then at his lover. Could it be Akatsuki?
He picked up Fushigi and held her tight, moving to stand close to the Uchiha. No one
was going to split up his family; no one!

Itachi slid an arm around the blond and asked, "What did they say? Were they wearing
black cloaks?"

Miko took a deep breath and collected her thoughts. "Well, there were four of them,
three men and a woman. I didn't see any cloaks. They were asking if anyone had seen
a young blond-haired, blue-eyed man by the name of Naruto. They said he had been
kidnapped years ago, but they were still looking for news of him. They also said he
might be travelling with a tall, black-haired man. They are searching for the two of
you, aren't they? Why? What did you do?"

Naruto looked troubled; no one had kidnapped him. "I left home without telling
anyone. Itachi was my friend when we were young and had been gone for a long time.
When he showed up, I decided I wanted to travel with him, you know. See the world.
But there are some bad men trying to find me. What did these people look like?"

Miko glanced at her husband, who shrugged and gestured for her to answer. "There was
a woman with pink hair."

"Sakura," the blond whispered.

"Then there were two young men with black hair who, now that I think about it, look a
little like you, Itachi-san. And lastly, a one-eyed man with silver hair. So, you
know who they are?"

The two men locked gazes before turning to their guests. Both nodded. Itachi spoke.
"One is my little brother. The older man is his teacher, and was once Naruto's. The woman is his teammate. I have no idea who the fourth one is, do you Naruto?"

Naruto shrugged, shaking his head. Why were Konoha nins looking for them? It's not
like he was anything special. The villagers should be glad he's gone. No Naruto, no
demon. They should be celebrating, he thought bitterly, not trying to locate him.

The four decided it would be safest if no one mentioned the two's presence in the
village. Miko gathered her family, and she and her husband went to speak to the town
leaders.

~~~~

Two men in black cloaks with red clouds walked through a large town. It was two days'
walk west of where their prey called home.



+++++++++++
A/N: Didn't like how this turned out. May change it later.