Mikoto and Kushina watched from afar as their little baby boys interacted. All of five and eight months old both, they sat on the carpet laid out for them in the lawn. To Kushina and Minato's relief Naruto had grown up healthy despite his premature birth. Now he sat there having a very intense baby conversation with little Sasuke, it seemed. My how quickly they grew, the two mothers mused.
Naruto picked up his feeding bottle and gently pushed it into Sasuke's hands. Sasuke gently pushed it back to Naruto, looking at him meaningfully. Naruto did not seem satisfied so he tried once again to hand it to Sasuke. This went on for a bit until Sasuke finally took the bottle from Naruto and tried to push it into Naruto's mouth. And then he lightly pulled Naruto's cheek, almost fondly.
This had become something of a daily ritual. Both tended to try and share their bottles of milk with each other. Kushina wondered what they thought they were expressing by it. Or maybe it was just the adults who didn't understand.
Ever since those two had been put together they'd been inseparable. Mikoto remembered the first time the two families had taken a picture together. The two boys had kept trying to leap off their parents arms to get to each other. They had the picture taken in just about the same way. Time and time again, the two mothers would look at the picture and coo and giggle at their sons. They wondered if the two boys' connection would continue to hold.
Naruto and Sasuke met their first play mate aside from each other at the age of two. Little Sakura was introduced to the two on an evening when Konoha was having their annual festival. The parents wanted a little time on their own so, leaving Itachi and Kyuubi at their friends' place, they assigned a baby sitter for the three 2 year olds.
When little Sakura first toddled unsteadily through the door of the playroom at the Namikaze home, both Naruto and Sasuke fell in love at first sight. Haruno Mai, Mikoto and Kushina watched as Sasuke cleared the floor for her and Naruto held her hand as the two sat down. They awwwed at the scene. The doorbell went off just then and Kushina left to open the door for the sitter.
"Their food is on the kitchen table. You'll just need to heat it a bit and give it to them in about a couple of hours. Don't let them have anything after that. Naruto will demand for candy. Don't let him have any. Put them to bed at 8 and you'll be done for the day ok?" Kushina rattled off. The young boy just nodded. Kushina smiled. Before turning to leave, however, she looked at him, "Kakashi I know you're a brilliant student and Jonin already, Minato wouldn't have recommended you if he didn't have absolute faith in you but I still have to ask, are you sure you'll be ok?"
The 19 year old's expression barely changed but he answered with a curt, "Yes Ma'am."
Kushina nodded, appeased, and then left.
Kakashi turned to the three babies seated on the carpet playing with the toys. He was trained by the Hokage, Namikaze Minato, he was the 'Prodigy', he knew this would be cake walk.
He was so wrong.
The three toddlers were angelic for all of fifteen minutes. After that all hell broke loose. Naruto and Sakura began a tug of war over a pink bunny, screaming biting and yelling all at the same time. While Kakashi tried to separate them he noticed Sasuke ripping out the artificial butterfly attached to Sakura's carelessly discarded hair clip, and chew on it with curiosity. He just about managed to battle it out of Sasuke's tight baby fist (who said babies were fragile? This one could take on a full fledged jonin) when he found Naruto's baby teeth firmly sunk into Sakura's tiny little finger, who was currently howling out her misery. Deciding that the children were now hungry, he tied the protesting little devils to the cribs and quickly heated their food.
It got quiet for a bit. When he returned with the food he found that Sakura and Naruto wriggling out of their bonds while Sasuke had already freed himself and was now attempting to jump off the ledge. He grabbed the three and set them on the table with their food. It was not so simple to get them to eat, however. They tried to feed each other, they tried to feed Kakashi, Sakura even threw a fit until Kakashi accepted a spoon full, they tossed the food around, they flicked it at each other, Kakashi got a face full.
After dinner, they seemed to have double the energy they had before. They ran around, attempted to climb various cabinets, grabbed his kunai bag, howled when it was taken away, tried collectively to pull down him mask, howled some more when he wouldn't allow it. It wasn't until after 9 30 that Kakashi was finally able to put them to bed, only because they were drained out by then. Kakashi heaved a sigh of relief. It was only a half an hour later that the parents returned and Kakashi dashed out of there, after hastily bidding goodnight. He swore he'd sell his balls to Orochimaru for experimentation before he ever had to deal with the three hellions again.
"Do you know what these dolls do Sasu chan?" Itachi asked evilly, holding a figurine that looked like Sasuke and Naruto in his hand. Beside Sasuke, Naruto looked like he was about to cry. Sasuke held his hand firmly and glared at Itachi with all his might. "I can hurt you with this doll," Itachi's grin got more maniacal. Kyuubi desperately held in his laughter, determined not to give them away. "Whatever I do to this doll will happen to you," Itachi's voice got low.
"No!" Sasuke retaliated, glaring back at Itachi.
"Oh yes Sasuke! It does happen!" Itachi continued sadistically. "Shall I show you? I'll burn Naruto doll's hair off. Lets see if anything happens to Naruto shall we?"
Naruto whimpered. "No!" Sasuke yelled launching himself at Itachi and trying to wrestle the doll out of his hands. Itachi pushed him aside and took off with the dolls, Kyuubi at his tail. The two of them hid and watched Itachi's two year old brother furiously rip black wool from one of his stuff toys and try to attach it to another doll's head, presumably making an Itachi replica. Both the seven year olds were silently having a laughing riot as they hi fived and continued to watch their siblings' attempt at revenge. Sasuke was busy pushing pins into the Itachi look-a-like when the main door was thrown open and Minato and Fugaku as good as rampaged in. Itachi and Kyuubi scarpered.
"No I cant do what you're asking me to do Fugaku, Tsunade, Jiraiya and Orochimaru will never agree!" Minato yelled as he walked in.
"Minato don't give me that excuse, the elders will agree to whatever you think is right, you know that!" Fugaku thundered, "You just don't want to give the Uchiha any more power."
"Yes I don't, Fugaku! The police force has enough power as it is, you can't abuse your power over me as your friend and force me to make a decision for the village!"
"I am NOT trying to influence you Minato how dare you even suggest that!"
"Then why don't you trust me? Do you think I'm the kind of guy who would do that Fugaku? I'm your best friend, why the hell would I try to thwart your clan? Don't you believe in me?"
Fugaku looked away, disgruntled.
"I'll take the decision I think is best for everyone, Fugaku, and I need you to back me up on that, I can't do this without you," Minato pleaded.
"Fine," Fugaku replied grudgingly. Minato smiled a little as they walked into the play room, relieved that Fugaku had calmed down. He was incredibly stubborn at time, but not unreasonable, so Minato didn't mind. Unfortunately at that moment Fugaku slipped on a carelessly strewn toy and his temper flared again.
"Sasuke, learn to keep you toys in one place," he thundered again, frightening the little boy.
"Don't yell at him! He's a baby, he doesn't know better!" Minato yelled at him.
"He's an Uchiha! He will learn as he is expected to!" Fugaku yelled back as he picked Sasuke up.
"He's a child first! Stop trying to vent your frustration over our fight on him!" Minato growled, picking Naruto up while challenging Fugaku. "What's that in his hand?" he asked before Fugaku could reply. "Is..is that a voodoo doll?" Minato exclaimed.
"It's just a doll," Fugaku tsked irritably.
"Just a doll! Fugaku aren't you even concerned about where he picked up something like that? Do you know what kind of impact it can have on his thinking?" Minato questioned, exasperated, "This is your problem, you never realize the potential for disaster and you always undermine it."
"Oh now you're saying that the problem is not with my clan but with me? You know what Namikaze I don't need you I can deal with my own problems." Fugaku shouted.
Minato was furious. How dare he say he didn't need Minato! "Fine, have it your way then, get out!"
"Fine!" Fugaku yelled and stormed out as Minato entered his study and slammed the door shut.