Unplanned

Naruto

14

"Dad! DAD!"

A door somewhere slams open and Naruto grumbles into the crook of his arm. His son's excited voice has interrupted the exceedingly pleasant dream he was having involving Hinata and an international ramen festival.

"Go away, Boruto," he mutters groggily. "Wake me in... um... never."

He reaches out blindly to try to find his pillow, or a blanket to pull over his head, but his fingers encounter only reams of paper.

Damn it, did I fall asleep reading memos in bed again? Naruto wondered dimly.

"Lord Seventh – you have a visitor, it seems."

Shikamaru's voice is both amused and exasperated.

It takes a second before the implications hit Naruto – Shit! At work, not home in bed! – and he jumps up straight, slapping his face to ensure he hasn't drooled over anything important.

"I'm totally working!" he cries, staring wildly between his son and his advisor. "I'm just – um – brainstorming!"

"Sure you are," Shikamaru sighs. "Have even gotten through the files the orphanage sent over?"

"Um... not yet... they're next on the list, I was just –"

"Hey, who cares about that!" Boruto yells. "Dad, you don't have time for that right now!"

"Kid, we've been over this," Shikamaru groans. "Your father has to finish certain things before he can come up. I thought we'd come to an agreement –"

"Screw agreements, Dad needs to go to the hospital now because Aunt Sakura's having the baby," Boruto snaps.

Naruto jumps to his feet. "It's coming now?"

"Yeah! And Sasuke-sensei said if you're not there for this one, he'll kill you."

"Bastard," Naruto mutters, but he's grinning. The only thing Sasuke behaves like a normal person about is his kids. "All right, let me just –"

"And Aunt Sakura said if you send a clone, she'll castrate you and stuff your dangly bits down your throat," Boruto continues. Naruto's fingers freeze in the process of performing his clone justu.

Naruto feels the blood run from his face and Shikamaru shoots his son a sharp look. "Did she actually say that?"

"Word for word," the boy promises. "So hurry up and get to the hospital!"

There's a poof! and Boruto disappears.

"He's come a long way," Shikamaru notes, staring at the spot once occupied by the teenager. "To be able to produce a clone and send it off on its own? He'll probably never manage as many as you do, but still..."

"That's my boy," Naruto grins as he reaches for his long white coat.

"Wait – you still haven't finished –"

"And if I stay and finish, I'll be sending you to explain to Sakura why I'm not there," Naruto threatens.

This time it's Shikamaru who looks slightly panicked, before he sighs. "Oh, go on."

Naruto races out of the office, barely even catching his advisor muttering, "Geez, you'd think this was the first baby ever born in the Leaf..."

While Shikamaru has a point, the birth of Sasuke and Sakura's child is a special occasion. It's the first that a child of their original genin team is being born, and every single one of them is there to celebrate.