Chapter Text
***
It had been a hard week. There'd been a particularly nasty double homicide on the outskirts of Konoha, and Fugaku had ended up leading the manhunt: Minato was more comfortable leaving the matter in Fugaku's hands than trusting it to ANBU (Danzo's influence was still too heavily felt for either of their likings). All he wants to do is shower, eat something -anything- that isn’t instant ramen, and then go to bed.
Fugaku's hopes of a peaceful evening are dashed when he walks through his living room door to see three voluptuous young women heatedly bickering, whilst his eldest son looks on with a pained expression on his face. The bickering is following a very familiar pattern, even if the voices are usually a different pitch.
Sasuke is the first (after Itachi) to notice that his father has entered the room, his habitual haughty expression firmly in place, though it is very odd to see it on the face of a young girl. Fugaku finds himself reminiscing of a time when his secondborn would have done anything to please him. Teenage Sasuke had shed his need for his father's approval around age 13 and proceeded to give approximately zero fucks (to quote Shisui) about anyone’s opinion (except Itachi of course) and whilst Fugaku is proud to some extent of the fierce independence, he misses the preventative effect Sasuke’s reluctance to upset Fugaku had had on whatever hijinks Naruto tried to initiate.
Shisui (who at 24 should know better) and Naruto stop mid-argument when they notice Sasuke is no longer berating them and turn toward Fugaku with sheepish looks on their very feminine faces.
This, Fugaku decides, is Minato’s problem, and he proceeds to turn around and leave the room, Shisui's panicked "Fugaku-Sama, I can explain" following him as he puts his shoes back on as quickly as humanly possible and flees. Inoichi owes me one, he thinks, Surely, he'll lend me his spare room for the night. He's sure the Intelligence Agent will be intelligent enough not to ask what has driven Fugaku from his own home.
These damn kids will be the death of me.
***