𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐄 | sasuke uchiha

20

"N-Naruto-kun, your family have arrived..."

The Uzumaki's new wife Hinata timidly announced the arrival of his parents and brother to the blond, who had been sitting in their reception room poring over a selection of scrolls and bound volumes regarding parenting and fatherhood. As she did so, Naruto sighed and neatly stacked all of the reading material into a neat pile behind himself, waiting for them to sit down.

The Hyūga joined her husband's side on her own cushion, leaving his mother, father, and younger brother to kneel before the couple on their own prepared cushions.

"You know, you really didn't have to come all this way," said the Uzumaki as he regarded his family skeptically.

His mother, Kushina, was dressed in a pale lavender kimono with her long red hair tied up into an elaborate half up, half down hairstyle; his father Minato was dressed in an austere, black kimono, his blond bangs parted in the middle while the rest of his hair was tied back in a ponytail- and at last, there was Naruto's brother Menma, younger by one year, a carbon copy of his older brother.

"Nonsense!" exclaimed Kushina, crossly folding her arms. "Is that how you greet your parents, Naruto?!"

"You're right, I'm sorry," chuckled Naruto sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. "It's nice to see you again. All of you."

"Much better!"

"I see you've been doing some reading there," pointed out Minato, nodding at the pile of documents behind his son's back. "What about?"

"Um... just stuff," said Naruto awkwardly. Not believing his words, Kushina narrowed her eyes at her eldest son in suspicion.

"Is there something you're trying to hide from us?" she said sharply, shooting Naruto a fierce look. He paled, unable to lie to his mother anymore, and relented with a sigh.

"I'm trying to do some readings on... parenthood," he said through gritted teeth. "I can do a lot of things, but... parenting? How do I do that?"

Covering her mouth as she gasped, Kushina turned towards Hinata with bright eyes.

"Are you with child already?!"

"N-No, I'm afraid not," said Hinata shyly, a faint blush on her cheeks.

"But most likely will be soon," added Naruto, albeit with a grimace. This didn't go unnoticed by Menma, who had learned to read his brother like a book in their earlier ages.

"A-Ah, tea!" squeaked Hinata, moving forward to quickly pour tea for her in laws. "I'm sorry about that!"

Kushina smiled tenderly at the Hyūga's timid demeanour, knowing that her personality was the exact opposite of Naruto's. And that was exactly what she had hoped for.

"It's fine," said Minato kindly, nodding in appreciation as his daughter in law poured his tea. "Now, how have you two been?"

Although Naruto appeared to be present and responsive to his parents' questions about his life, his mind was far from the conversation. Ever since the consummation of his marriage with Hinata, his skin crawled at the memory of it. In his heart, he felt nothing but complete and utter guilt at betraying [Name] like that, even though to his knowledge, she was probably back in the Uchiha household performing the same procreating acts with that Sasuke guy.

Naruto and Hinata had been married for little over a month now, yet since their wedding night, he couldn't bear going through the same thing with his wife once more. He just couldn't.

"... well, if I do say so myself, Hinata, you ought to be careful with any children you bear Naruto!" laughed Kushina, looking between her two sons. "Goodness knows what a handful these two were! If your children end up with the same exuberant personalities, then good luck to both of you!"