Months After

It had been quite a month of wedding preparations that it stressed the couple to wed so much, they had to take a few breaks from work. Well, that wasn't the only thing. Naruto and Hinata had been witnessing delivery trucks drive by the apartment and thousands of flowers would have been brought to the couple's front door as if like it was some sort of embellishment. Jasmines and white peonies were arranged into adorable petite bouquets and centre pieces. The scent of flowers filled the halls got the old lady down the corridor sneezing from allergies.

Naruto and Hinata had been individually helping Sakura and Sasuke with their wedding preparations in hand. Since after having got their own suits and dresses picked, Hinata and Naruto grabbed the opportunity to ease the engaged couple's stress by getting the trivial errands done. Hinata, for a week now, had been checking on the flower arrangements and settling with the florists as to where to place them on the vent. If not that, she had been checking on the invites and the amount of people who were coming. It felt like the whole town knew Sasuke and Sakura as two large families came to visit the couple. Naruto, on the other hand, assisted on the choice of food for the people with the weird tastes, the vegans and then he handled the uptight food tasting in place of Sasuke who had to deal with an urgent meeting at that time.

Today, in fact, Hinata and Sakura's close friend, Ino, had dropped by a shop downtown to get Sakura into a bridal gown, the last thing they had to fulfil in their list of preparations. The funny thing was, Sakura's mother, Mebuki, had already managed with the bridemaids dresses not too long ago but had completely forgotten about her daughter's dress until recently. Mebuki, herself, did come along too, in great expectations of what her own daughter would pick.

"I'm so nervous," Sakura's voice was heard behind the doors of the changing room. We heard the shuffles and ruffles of her dress in between the chatters of the ladies who came to help her change. Ino, beside Hinata, was busy tapping away on her phone and updating her social media about the current situation. Sakura's mother, however, was pacing left and right, just as worried about the wedding as her daughter. She was definitely the only child they had treasured and having Mebuki to put in all her time and effort to come over from the far side of the city to visit her daughter said a lot.

"I think I've found the one," Hinata heard Sakura say as the whole group of ladies watched the doors to the changing room flung open. Sakura was then welcomed into the room where everyone else was, staring at all of her in awe, no matter that she had a messy bun on and an exhausted expression she wore on her face.

"Wow," were the only words that left Ino's lips. Hinata just smiled endearingly for her friend while Mebuki nodded proudly.

The dress was the finest and most entrancing anyone had ever seen. It was simply beautiful and it fit Sakura's form and when she had moved around it, the chiffon that flowed down from her waist followed prettily as she swayed. A layer of bodice crisscrossed on Sakura's top figure and was then topped with a single thick layer of pearls and diamonds that was bridged on the edge on her top. She looked simply stunning.

"It's a little pricey but," Sakura twirled in her dress in full content, "But the whole wedding isn't cheap either."

The whole lot of ladies laughed in unison before Sakura had gotten out of her well picked dress to purchase it. She had a smile on her face, excited for her own wedding that was just around the corner. A botanic wedding where the two of them would stand inside the gazebo and surrounded with thousands of flowers with a small lake where the swans frolic, to be wedded off by her own tutor and friend, Tsunade, and then exiting the gazebo by walking over a carpet of petals before getting driven on a rented white Audi decorated with only a few gold ribbons and a bouquet of flowers on the top of the hood.

What an extravagant wedding it would be.

"So, how was today?"

"Sakura found the most beautiful dress," Hinata said in a sleepy voice.

Hinata took the last amount of energy she had and turned over to her side on the couch, seeing Naruto lying right beside her and wearing an extremely exhausted expression. He had been working for three nights straight without a decent amount of sleep as Naruto's company customer had recently being demanding quite an amount of things from their supplier company. As the sales manager, Naruto had been doing nothing but tirelessly working all day and finally, it was the end of that season. Naruto was going back home on the usual 6PM. There hadn't been a call for him to work overtime again. It was a rough month for both Naruto and Hinata as they didn't expect to juggle between work and helping out with Sakura and Sasuke's wedding. Other than that, they were relieved they finally had the time to rest.

"Their wedding is this Saturday, in three more days," Hinata reminded both Naruto and herself as they stared into the television screen. Cupcake Wars were the only thing they stopped switching channels for yet, it didn't sparked their interest to immerse themselves into being focused to watch it. They were just inwardly elated that it wasn't another the channel wasn't on cartoon network or Disney channel. They had quite a bit of it when Minori had been over and following each channel.

Speaking of which, the apartment had been quiet ever since then, despite Hinata coming over every other day of the week. As much as Naruto had wanted to say that Minori hadn't been using up the technology in his house and raising his electricity bills, Naruto missed the kid. For a month now, Minori was scheduled to move into an orphanage with the other kids within the city area. The orphanage was located by the edge of where the school districts were and was quite further than where Naruto lived. It was hard to see Minori not living under the same building. He couldn't let go of the fact that the kid wouldn't be greeting him every morning with a loud demand for cereal and how the kid would always scream in excitement over the sound of helicopters and jet planes passing over the cityscape.

"I miss the little guy," Naruto expressed his deep thoughts.

"Remember what we said before we let him leave?" Hinata placed her head over Naruto's shoulder, "We'll see him again. We promised him."

"Yeah," Naruto breathed out the word as he thought about the time Sakura was explaining about the changes were happening. As much as he knew that Sakura wanted to keep Minori as long as she could if she had that power but, it was impossible to keep a child that wasn't under anyone's guardian for so long. Especially when Minori was involved under such a case that his name, having to be hoarded care under the a lawyer who had handled his case and knew about every single detail because it would bring out suspicion event though Minori's assets and will were frozen until the age of 18.

It was just so difficult to grasp the fact that Minori won't be under Naruto's wing. He did promise that he'll take care of him when he first met Minori. Wasn't he breaking that promise already?

"You're thinking of him again, huh?" Hinata's eyes wandered over Naruto's only to return her with a short glance and smile. There was nothing to say to ease him because to Naruto, Minori was someone he could care for. But under the so many circumstances he was involved in, it must have been hard multitasking with concerning his responsibility over Minori.

"It's okay," Hinata heard Naruto say as his gaze wandered back to the television before he switched it off, "Time for dinner at Sakura's then."

The four of them agreed to eat back in Sasuke's apartment for dinner again.

It's been awhile after all the fiasco on the wedding and every single case file that led up to Minori that the four of them met up just to indulge in Sakura's homemade food or actually sat down together to talk. They were all so busy from all the activities that they were involved in that they forgot to just sit down for a second.

A bunch of salad had been tossed into the middle of the wooden table as an appetiser, topped with more cherry tomatoes than Naruto ever remembered Sakura's recipe had ever had. And when she placed another plate in front of them, this time it was a heavy plate full of fried fish and her self-proclaimed healthy French fries. Sasuke didn't hesitate on pulling his hand out to grab a bunch of her food, without waiting for Sakura to come by his side and simply carried on snagging on the salad. And when Sakura had returned to the table after checking on the steak, she didn't waver in slapping Sasuke's hand.

"This is why I added more tomatoes than usual," Sakura complained while Naruto laughed a little too loud, hearing the couple bicker again. It was nice to see them back to their usual selves compared to them running around the halls and screaming each other of their comparison towards who was more exhausted, but hey, that was over.

"Well," Sasuke said in between munching on his salad, "It just means your cooking isn't bad."

After another few minutes of tiny squabbles among them while Hinata and Naruto had simply laughed at the both of them, Sakura finally took the steak she had been preparing out and settled it on the middle of the table. The ravenous smell made Naruto unwilling to be patient enough to grab his utensils and take the first piece of meat. Hinata didn't take seconds to do the same either.

Living with Naruto for a few nights probably got her confidence to not hold back when it comes to food. She grabbed hold of the sirloin that had been cooked medium rare. If it weren't for how she sliced the meat that impressed her but also when she had tasted them.

"It's no wonder Sasuke was getting married to you," Naruto boldly stated his thoughts to Sakura, leaving him two hard kicks on his shin under the table. It was no surprise who it came from. HInata had simply sighed.

"By the way, we didn't say this but we wanted to thank you for all the help you gave us during this whole prep," Sakura said as she continued cutting on her own meat, having Sasuke to stare on her plate, wondering whether she needed any help at all. Sakura was already about two months pregnant and she made it look like abs than having a baby. It was good timing to get married too, because by then, they wouldn't have a dress to fit her.

The both of them were praying for a boy yet it was hard to find out the baby's gender. They had saying they wanted to call their baby with an interesting foreign name but Naruto declined their idea. He had once joked with Hinata that if the couple hadn't gotten their screws tightened, they might name their child with a " " in the beginning. It was just one of the many jokes Hinata and Naruto swear not to tell their friends. But in the end, Sakura said she gave the honour to name their first child to Sasuke's father, who had been religiously calling to ask how his soon to be grandchild was going.

"You're welcome," Hinata smiled while Naruto just chomped on his meat with a smile, trying his best to swallow.

There was a long silence after that. They didn't speak but simply indulged their faces on the food in front of them. Strange, the atmosphere was heavy. It might have been because it was awkward to them that they hadn't spoken and met up like this for a long while but it could have been because they had quite an argument over the adoption of Minori in the few weeks to see the boy off.

It was just three weeks before Sakura and Sasuke had started to hasten and rush with their wedding preparations. By that time, there was a call for Minori to come back with the other children in the orphanage and had to packed up by then. Sakura, however, had an interest in keeping Minori as her own but Sasuke had quite second thoughts about it.

At that point of time, Sasuke disclosed the information to his close buddy, Naruto, which didn't turn out contented at all. Naruto made a fuss about how he didn't see the thrill in saying goodbye to the young boy or even the pleasant feeling that Minori to change his last name to an Uchiha if adopted. He didn't like the idea of Minori officially under the wing of Sasuke and Sakura. He just couldn't agree with it. His disarray towards all Sakura's decisions wasn't kept quiet as Naruto told her upfront how he didn't like any of it. And for a while now, even though the four of them had been busy with helping each other on the weddings, hadn't given closure to whatever that related with Minori. They didn't want to take the energy they didn't have to put up another argument.

But Sasuke really wanted to bring it up as soon as he could so there would have been closure between them.

"About Minori, we did want to put him under our name but," Sasuke droned as he ate in between bites, "But no matter what desire as putting him as part of our own family, the choice is still Minori's and we can't force that."

Sakura was silent, a very indifferent expression laid on her face, as if what Sasuke was bringing up wasn't new to her. It must have been all the arguments that flew between her and her soon-to-be-husband wasn't only about the wedding.

"And I think his choice isn't us," Sakura finally smiled towards her two friends. It was a genuine and radiant kind smile that she finally took the words Sasuke said in. As much as Sakura thought about the good for Minori and how Sasuke loved being with Minori, it just wasn't going to be enough for the boy.

"He said he'd wait for the both of you," Sakura beamed, "And I think he made the right choice."

Because who could understand Minori other than Naruto…?

They were the two that clicked the first time they met. The both of them were always inseparable. When one was away, they would always think of each other and worry countlessly. And Hinata…? Oh, that boy was so open about her feelings when he was with her. He was the one who opened up about how loved the things he love and the things he didn't like. He was close to her heart and Hinata was the one to take her under her wing unconditionally.

So, really, Minori had made the right choice and that didn't make Sakura any more upset because she agreed.

"Please take care of Minori, yeah?" Sasuke smirked before he watched Naruto and Hinata smile at each other, their eyes locked as both of their eyes were filled with tears.

A/N: Hi guys I would be posting chapter by chapter by every month instead. I am trying to focus on my work and so on so thank you for being patient! I have already changed my username from HeirOfStars to Hitais instead. Thank you for the understanding and hope all of you enjoyed this short chapter.