The Boy

Chapter 2: Good start

 "I called you a bastard!" Minochi shouted this time out of fear. It showed even more when his little hands were grasping on to his seat belt.

"See that wasn't so hard now was it...?" Sasuke's grin on his face faded when he noticed the boy's demeanor. He reached over and ruffled his hair like he'd seen in TV shows.

"Quit it!" Minochi stammered out and tapped Sasuke's hand with his own small ones.

Sasuke awkwardly stopped, guessing he'd over stepped some boundary.

"My bad." Sasuke apologized with a self-conscious shrug.

 "You're not really good at this, are you?" Minochi asked. An amused smile played his lips upon seeing how uncomfortable Sasuke was now.

"I'm not really a kid person." Sasuke let out that already obvious detail about himself.

"I see, but how come?" Minochi asked, not sure why he didn't like kids.

"Well I was never raised to bring up a family I guess. It was always business with my father. Family was the last thing to ever come up." Sasuke said as he leaned back in his seat remembering his not so love filled childhood.

"Oh...well I guess we'll have to work on that." Minochi patted the man on his arm for assurance.

"Really now?" Sasuke looked over to see the confident child nodding.

"Sure!"

"Thanks, um are you hungry? Would ramen be okay?" Sasuke asked with a smile as he made a left down a street. He guessed the boy might have Naruto's taste.

"Sometimes, but daddy eats them too much. I actually like rice, sushi and tomatoes. Oh, dad makes this rice ramen bowl with tomatoes slices that is sooo goooodd!" Minochi reminisced.

"Maybe, hey how old are you?" Sasuke slowed down to prepare pull into the driveway that led up to the mansion gate.

"I'm," Minochi counted by bringing a digit to his lips each time "this many years old!"

Sasuke pulled up to the control pad and typed in the code for the large gates to open. He looked back over at Minochi to see him holding up one of his open palms.

"5 years old huh? You look 3," he said more to himself.

Minochi shrugged while the gate creaked open. He was always reminded how small he was for his age and how different. Whenever that happened he'd think of what Naruto told him.  'You don't need the world to love you. All you need is me.'

At that time it was only Naruto and him against the world until he got older and wanted to know about his apparent father.

 The engine dying down snapped him out his thoughts.

 Azure orbs widened at the sight of the mansion. It looked almost like a mini haunted castle from one of his story books, but it was so dark. He pressed his face against the window to get a better look.

Gray concrete walls seemed to darken from being in the silhouette of the moon.  Two towering pillars at the entrance to the door with blazing torches lighted the way like in olden times. Obviously synthetic grass that showed no sign of potential life made the place look deader. The owner of such a place appeared to hate windows since there were only two in view.

"Your home is creepy." the little boy took a big gulp once the car stopped in front of the garage.

"It keeps people away."

"I see." Minochi was thinking about staying in the car for the night.

"Do I have to go inside?"

"Yes, come on." Sasuke got out of the car with a smirk on his lips. He didn't like scaring people it just came naturally.

That night they unpacked the little boy's things into his guest room. Sasuke did find the card in Minochi's soaked hoodie. It was kind of ruined due to the juice incident but Sasuke kept it on his nightstand for later while the hoodie washed.

They actually ended up having a decent dinner, being take out of course, at the table in the kitchen. There they discussed how Naruto set up the whole thing. "So 5 years old is the limit to travel by yourself, I get that.  But who brought you here to me and how did they know where I'd be? I could of been off today."

Minochi ate his fries and chicken nuggets all at once, shrugging at the man. "Yuh ahn mah da-"

"Don't speak with your mouth full." Sasuke still smiled, reminded of his ex even more in this kid. 

The boy giggled and gulped, getting another two sticks and nugget ready to go. "My dad said that you like business work. You like it so much that your face is everywhere online."

"Okay, but how did you get here?"

"I took a taxi. The lady was nice. She's a friend of my dad!" Minochi nibbled on a fry, blinking his eyes at his shocked father. "Wah?"

"She still could of kidnapped you!"

"But I didn't need a nap? I slept on the plane." So his dad should have nothing worry about but he looked even more distraught. 

'What the fu-?!'  Sasuke didn't have a good father figure either but at least he learned how to survive off of it. He touched his forehead and massaged it, thinking, 'Naruto is not that stupid to put this boy's life in danger like this.'  He prayed so at least. "I understand Naruto isn't feeling well supposedly but, was he a little too out of it when he sent you here? This doesn't sound safe is all for you to and- Something could of happened to you, Minochi."

At that, the child slowly sunk in his seat. "Dad is... not well and he actually didn't want me to come here." He started sniffling a little because he'd pestered the blond probably to much. His dad still took every precaution he could to make sure he made it. The guy who flew the plane was a friend of his father's like the taxi lady waiting for him. For some reason, Naruto was really embarrassed when he tried to explain how he knew them so he just called them friends. Maybe those same 'friends'  can help bring Naruto here... or perhaps his other dad could. "C-Can you send for him?"

"Hm, I'll try calling him tomorrow after work to see if he wants to come up. Till then, never travel alone by yourself again. I don't care who he knows." Sasuke groaned and massaged his temple again, sure those people were ex-lovers. He considered just going to surprise visit the blond wanderer he thought was avoiding him on purpose. The second his cell beeped, he checked it right away, withdrawing him from the child. Their talk was short lived  now because he had to type up a report of sorts to type up.

So he sent the boy away to get cleaned up on his own while he worked. Unfortunately, he ended up falling asleep at his work station without checking on the child at all.