Adopted: Book 1 Refracted Sand [REWRITING]

Adopted Ch. 63 Suna's Best

"Ri! It's Ri!"

Three kids pounced on Ritsu and he stood steady to their weight as one hung onto his shoulders and the other two swung on his arms.

"Hey, you little rascals!" Ritsu spun around in place and made them shriek with laughter.

Akira stood watching from the doorway as the children disembarked from Ritsu and pushed him into the house.

"You never visit anymore!" The only girl, Naoko, pouted up at him, tugging on his arm. She had the same soft brown hair as Akira while she had inherited their father's blue eyes while Akira had his mother's golden brown.

"We missed you!" Hiraku said near Ritsu's other arm.

Hiraku and his brother Nitori were the only one out of the five siblings to inherit their father's curly black hair. Hiraku's bright blue eyes were only brighter because of his dark complexion and hair. Nitori had already relieved Ritsu of his things, hanging his coat on the rack and locking the door.

"I missed you guys too. I hope you've been behaving for your big brothers."

"Yeah, right," Akira sighed in a long suffering way.

"We have!" the three of them said indignantly.

"Alright, alright. Get off of him." Akira started to guide Ritsu down the hall. "Come on, let's hang out in my room."

"You always hog Ri, aniki!" The kids were following close to their feet and the group all fell into Akira's room. "Let us talk to him too."

"Maybe if you go get your chores done you can have more time to hang out with Ri-chan."

The kids all clambered out of the room.

Ritsu chuckled as he settled himself on the floor and Akira closed the door after his siblings with a tired sigh. "They've grown so much! How did that happen?"

"Kids grow fast," Akira said, sitting down across from him.

"This place hasn't changed much though. Oh, yeah." Ritsu handed him the parcel he'd brought. "From my parents."

"Your mum's basbousa! I've been craving these since forever! And your dad's homemade beer!" Akira suddenly grew quiet. "I hope the kids didn't hear. There wouldn't be a single bite left after they get to it."

"Not like you don't spoil them and let them have all of it anyway."

"You're right." Akira smiled. "It'll be nice to have the beer."

Ritsu had missed being over at Akira's. He'd grown up at their place just as much as his own home. He remembered helping Akira with chores so that they could go out and play sooner. Most had been regular house chores but then Akira started to do some odd end jobs like sewing the buttons onto shirts and painting doll faces for local businesses to make a few extra bucks. He remembered how annoyed he'd been when Akira had been better at sewing buttons than he had, and making heated bets about sewing the most buttons the quickest which he'd always lose. He'd bought Akira a lot of ice cream back in the day as a result.

"Hey," Ritsu said, spotting a sack filled with these same shirts and pulling one out, "I bet I can beat you now."

"When you're so out of practice?" Akira mocked, "You sure think highly of yourself, Ri-chan."

Ritsu's eye twitched. "I bet a pop!"

"You sure are frugal with how high your salary is, five stripe genin."

"Five pops!"

Akira already had a needle threaded and ready. "You're on."

Half an hour later, all of the shirts had buttons on them, Akira was five pops richer, and Ritsu had a bloody thumb. Akira skipped past Ritsu's defeated form to get the first aid kit down the hall.