Chapter Text
It was a nice morning, the birds were chirping outside their windows. Time to start a new day.
Sakumo stretched languidly on their warm bed before turning and smiled. His wife was still sleeping, body heavy with their newest child. She needed the rest, so he planned to make breakfast for them. His wife has taken a liking to sweet food with her pregnancy, so he planned to make some waffles today. His pup didn’t like sweet things, but he would bear it because he knew his mother craved for sweets….
A loud explosion shattered the nice morning.
Sakumo groaned.
“Sa...Sakumo? What’s…?” Kaori groggily asked, awakened by the loud noise.
“Get back to sleep, love. I’ll handle this.” Sakumo kissed her forehead and pulled the blanket to cover her cheek. She murmured her love for him before falling back to sleep.
Sakumo sighed and put on his shirt before walking out of their room.
The kitchen looked like a warzone. Kushina was standing in front of a blackened stove, with Minato standing behind her, hands making the seals for water jutsu. The whole kitchen was wet. Kakashi was standing, head to toe covered with uncooked eggs. Tenzou was clutching his elder brother’s shirt, hands covered in something red which suspiciously smelled like tomato ketchup. Obito was beside Kushina, hands still making the seal for Katon fireball jutsu. Shisui was behind him, mouth still munching on something suspiciously of Kaori’s secret marshmallow stash.
A typical morning in the Hatake compound, it seemed.
“...I’ll let you deal with your broods, Hatake.” Orochimaru deadpanned and shunshin-ed, leaving Sakumo as the only adult authority in the room.
Damn that sneaky Snake! He left Sakumo alone to face the kids!
“It’s not what it looks like…” Kushina grinned as she pulled the burnt pan. “We are making waffles for Kaori-san!”
“And omelette, Tou-chan.” Kakashi added.
“I helped.” Tenzou quipped and wiped his hands onto his shirt (“Noooo” Sakumo silently writhed, because it meant more laundry).
“My katon can cook the waffle quicker!” Obito added with a wide grin, while Shisui (still munching) nodded behind his older brother.
“We are sorry to wake you up, Sakumo-san. We will clean it up,” Minato, the responsible child, apologised. It seemed he had produced the Suiton jutsu to extinguish the overexcited katon.
“...It’s alright, Minato-kun.” Sakumo sighed and clapped his hands. “Alright, all the pups under ten years old please go and clean yourself. Minato-kun, can you please help them? Kushina-chan, let’s clean up all this mess.”
“OK, Tou-chan” “OK, Sakumo-san” Most of them chorused.
“I am ten!” Shisui chirped when Minato manhandled him, refusing to leave the kitchen.
“Nope, you’re three!” Kushina added cheerfully while Minato herded the litter to the bathroom.
Sakumo smiled at them and patted Kushina’s hair. She grinned.
“Right. Let’s do this with no explosion, can we?”
Breakfast was finally ready. There were cups of tea, stacks of waffles, toasts and omelets on the table with bottles of syrups and tomato ketchup and chocolate sauce and sweet bean paste. Sakumo was glad Kaori persuaded him to buy another table. There were more people in the Hatake pack now.
The seatings were as follow: Sakumo on the head of the table, while Kakashi on Sakumo’s right side with Kinoe beside him, Minato sat between Kinoe and Shisui (he was the self-appointed babysitter for the youngest of the litter) while Obito sat beside his brother with Kushina on his other side.
It was a far cry from two years ago, where it was only Kakashi and him sitting quietly while eating take away food.
Kaori came out from the bathroom, slowly waddling while keeping her back up. She had back-ache because of the final semester pregnancy, and their child was ready to pop up any time now. Sakumo was torn between happy and worried. Happy because they were having another one, while worried because the last time they had a child (i.e. Kakashi), her health deteriorated afterward and almost died on the table. Even now, she looked tired and pale, even though she had been sleeping and eating more.
“Morning,” she smiled, and a chorus of greetings came from the table. Sakumo rose and guided her towards the chair on his left, and Kaori squeezed his hand as a thank you.
“So, who burned the kitchen this time?” she asked, smiling.
The whole table fell silent. Everybody suddenly busied themselves with their food.
“Thank you for the breakfast, it looks good,” she added, and the children started to raise their voice, recommending what they did-- Kakashi pushed the omelette while Kinoe added a dash of ketchup on top of the egg; Obito pushed the waffles and gave it a generous touch of syrup, while Shisui added a few marshmallows on top. Sakumo noticed how Kaori twitched when she saw the marshmallow--Sakumo vowed to buy another bag soon.
His wife thanked all of them and dug in. Sakumo returned to his own meal, watching the chaos in disinterest.
“I’ll buy you another bag of marshmallow, Kaori.” he whispered. “Don’t fret.”
Kaori turned to him and blushed. “...Thank you, Hubby. You are the best.”
“Next time you adopt, please consult me first.” Sakumo huffed, “I need to better fireproof the kitchen and increase our food budget.”
“Oh don’t you worry, dear.” Kaori smiled serenely, “I can budget properly. The boarding house is doing really well this season and I am planning to publish a new book very soon.”
Sakumo huffed and returned to his omelette. Minato, the model child, was the second addition after Kinoe. He was suddenly there when Sakumo returned home after the weird mission. He was a bright, respectful genius; a good role model for all the others--well, if they wanted. But they mostly looked toward Kushina for guidance, much to Sakumo’s sorrow.
Kushina came next -- Minato brought her one day, and Kaori adopted her after the second visit. She was living alone too, with no clan to fall back, which was why Sakumo didn’t think twice before accepting his wife’s sudden adoption like always. But since she came, the compound saw more explosions and incidental burning; but luckily the young woman was very adept on fuuinjutsu. She put some seals around the compound to minimise explosion damages and also added better security for the compound.
Kami knows how much Sakumo loved Kushina for it--Kaori’s tendencies to challenge authoritative figures with their own shinobi armies was bad for Sakumo’s blood pressure.
Kakashi brought Obito next--it seemed he followed his mother’s tendency to adopt strays--because Obito’s grandmother had passed away and the poor kid didn’t know what to do. Kaori, being Kaori, immediately adopted him into the litter, fought the Uchiha Clan Head for it, and succeeded somehow. Obito became Sakumo’s next child.
Huh. Maybe Sakumo needed to start numbering his children. There were too many now and he might lose them if they all ran amok in the village.
And Shisui came because Obito was there--Sakumo returned from a short mission after Obito’s adoption, and found another Uchiha baby on the floor, playing (luckily rubber) kunai with Kinoe. Kaori looked at him sheepishly (surprise! Another one!) while keeping her prominent baby bump between her and Sakumo, so Sakumo wouldn’t get angry at her (not that he could anyway). The little hellion was cute, except for the fact that he liked to ransack the fridge. He also knew everyone’s secret snack stashes--which irked Kaori because of the similarity between her cravings and Shisui’s love for sugar.
Orochimaru, that damn snake, returned from wherever he went and joined the table.
“Kaori-san, I brought you some more marshmallows.” he smiled. “And dango for everyone.”
The whole table (sans Minato, because he was the responsible one) cheered. Meanwhile, Sakumo bristled. Orochimaru always one upped him! He had planned to be Kaori’s hero by buying her new supply of marshmallow, but Orochimaru beat him to it. And the damn snake added more sugar to the kids’ meal. They would be hell to take care for the rest of the day!
Sakumo already noticed how Obito and Kakashi’s eyes were filled with glee and energy from all the sugar. Kinoe and Shisui were fighting over green dango, and Minato tried to separate them with no avail. Kushina asked Kaori for permission to buy Ichiraku ramen for everyone, which Kaori quickly agreed to. Sakumo pouted. They had been eating ramen (although it was delicious) for four lunches a week! He wanted fish, damn it!
Sakumo pouted further when he saw Kaori kiss Orochimaru’s cheek for reward. She winked at him before letting Orochimaru sit next to her.
“Don’t pout, husband. I’ll make you some grilled fish for dinner.” she whispered. Sakumo accepted his wife’s peace offering in grace after five minutes of additional pouting.
The table was fully filled and the pack was complete.
Sakumo wondered when that happened, why the Hatake compound suddenly became so full and loud. Yet he wouldn’t exchange them for anything else.
This was his pack and he loved them all.