Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Piece by Piece, Back Together	By : Sasunarufan13 Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 8229 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor profit of it. Kishimoto owns it.

Chapter List
- 14
- 15
- 16
Author's note: I'm ridiculously proud of the fact that I still managed to finish it today. Still busy as hell, but here's the chapter at least!
Thanks to the following reviewer: smint45
Warnings: Hm, nothing special yet, I think? I don't know. I have no clue what I wrote *throws hands up*
I hope you'll like it!
15 Expanding Part 5
"You remember me, un!" Deidara laughed, looking extremely pleased with that fact for some reason.
"It's hard to forget someone who nearly blew up our shed with his chemistry project," Sasuke retorted dryly and what?
This guy nearly blew up a freaking shed? What the hell kind of chemistry project had that been? Naruto stared at him baffled, still trying to figure out how exactly this guy – an Omega he realised now that he was close enough – knew Sasuke. He'd never heard him mention a Deidara before, so how did they know each other? He didn't really look like he could be family of Sasuke – the Uchiha family seemed to be a predominantly dark haired family and this guy was a bright blond. A friend of the family perhaps?
"A minor miscalculation, un," Deidara sniffed, sounding a bit sour before he brightened up again. "The damage wasn't that widespread in the end."
"Father had to buy a new lawnmower," Sasuke deadpanned.
Deidara waved his hand. "I offered to pay for the damage!"
"Yeah, and he knew you were broke, so it's not like you could have recompensated him," Sasuke sighed. "What are you doing here actually? Last time I saw you, you were still living in the town."
"I could ask the same of you," Deidara remarked, looking around pointedly. "Where did you disappear to, un? I haven't seen you in years."
"I asked first," Sasuke said calmly, but Naruto detected a hint of coolness in his voice.
He cleared his throat, attracting the attention of the other men. "You know, it might just be me, but I'm not sure whether a store is a good place to reminisce about the past."
"I suppose you're right, er," Deidara rubbed the back of his neck and smiled awkwardly, "I just realised I didn't properly introduce myself, sorry about that. I'm Deidara; I was a friend of Itachi's. I've known Sasuke since he was just a little pipsqueak!"
"I was seven years old, that's hardly an age to call someone a pipsqueak," Sasuke said, narrowing his eyes and taking a step closer to Naruto, wrapping his arm around his waist.
It didn't escape Naruto's notice how Deidara's eyes narrowed slightly when they fell on Sasuke's arm around his waist before they switched to his rounded stomach. He could see intrigue growing in those blue eyes.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto," he introduced himself, smiling. A friend of Itachi, huh? This meeting might either turn out great or bad, depending on what would be said throughout it.
"Nice to meet you," Deidara grinned. "How did you meet Sasuke-kun?"
"He's my mate," Sasuke said before Naruto could open his mouth and both blonds were a bit stunned at the quickness of the answer.
Surprise softened into something else on Deidara's face and he smiled, "I'm glad you found someone, Sasuke-kun." He looked around then and suggested sheepishly, "Why don't you two finish your shopping and we can go somewhere else to catch up for a bit? If that's okay with you two, un?"
"Er, sounds good to me," Naruto replied, glancing at Sasuke, who nodded his agreement quietly.
"All right, I'm going to pay for my stuff and I'll meet you two outside again," Deidara grinned, waving some packages containing pens in the air.
"Well, this might, er, be interesting?" Naruto suggested, watching the other man walk out of the aisle in the direction of the cash registers.
Sasuke just hummed, a thoughtful look crossing his face.
"I'm keeping the ramen, though," Naruto said offhandedly and started pushing the cart further into the aisle.
"Damn it, Naruto, can't you at least put a couple of them back?" Sasuke sighed, following him and subtly pushing him gently out of the way so he could take over pushing the cart.
Blue eyes rolled, but Naruto let him, though he kept a sharp eye on his ramen collection in the cart. "No, they're limited editions. I need them. Itachi needs them. Do you need any more reasons?"
"You're going to use our son every time you want ramen?"
"They're called cravings, bastard, and you're partly the reason why I'm having them, so shut up and just push the cart. We still need to buy some vegetables."
"So what are you doing here?" Sasuke asked again.
After putting the groceries in the boot of the car, they'd met up with Deidara again and had decided to go to a little café around the corner, which served a broad variety of different coffees and sweet pastries and slices of fruit pies.
"You're really going to make me answer it first, huh?" Deidara smiled wryly, his hands wrapped around his iced coffee. His dark blue shirt was plastered against his chest and he wiped some sweat away from his forehead. Even with the air conditioning on, cooling off didn't happen immediately.
"I did ask you first," Sasuke pointed out calmly, but his shoulders were tense and his hand was tightly wrapped around Naruto's underneath the table.
Deidara wrinkled his nose but acquiesced with a sigh. "After you left, I didn't stay there for very long," he started, his fingers tapping restlessly against the glass. "It wasn't like I hadn't wanted to leave before; to be honest, the only reason I stayed so long in that town was because of your brother, un."
Naruto felt like that comment held more significance than Deidara made it out to be, but before he could ask, the other blond went on.
"I stayed long enough to earn a bit more money, then took off. It wasn't like I still had anything left in that town to keep me there." He shrugged. "I wandered around for a bit, stayed in a couple of hotels before ending up in this city. I took on a couple of jobs so I could get an apartment and as soon as I had enough money, I enrolled at a college here to get my degree."
"What are you doing now? Still studying?" Naruto asked curiously.
"No, I graduated two years ago, un," Deidara grinned. "I'm now teaching chemistry and art at a secondary school nearby."
"That's an … interesting combination." Naruto blinked bemused.
"Figured I would combine two of my beloved subjects," Deidara laughed and winked. "I know it's not exactly a combination that's expected, but it's fun teaching those children the beauty of art and how chemistry can even be used in that."
"Er, why would you use chemistry in art?" Naruto questioned cautiously, not sure whether he wanted to know the answer.
"Because Deidara likes to blow shit up," Sasuke interjected dryly.
"You and Itachi are the same, un," Deidara huffed, crossing his arms on the table. "No respect for my art whatsoever; it's a damn disgrace."
"Blowing up things is not art, no matter how much you insist it is."
"Whatever, I'm not here to argue with you about the intricacies of art, un," Deidara said dismissively. "I told my story; now it's your turn. Where did you disappear to? I can guess you came here to get your degree and I suppose congratulations are in order," he nodded towards Naruto's belly. "When are you due, un?"
"December," Naruto replied and automatically his hand dipped down to caress his stomach. Itachi was only slightly fussing around now, seemingly having tired himself out after having kicked Naruto's organs into submission again.
"Congrats on the baby. Do you know whether it's going to be a boy or a girl?"
"A boy."
"Nice," Deidara grinned before his gaze swivelled over towards Sasuke, who'd been watching the interaction quietly. "So, your story. Your turn now to spill the beans, Sasuke-kun."
For a couple of seconds it seemed like Sasuke wasn't going to say anything as he stared at Deidara, but then he snorted softly and rolled his shoulders. "There's nothing much to say," he said clipped. "Kakashi took me with him when he left town and we settled into another one a couple of hours away. I went to school there and now I'm here. End of story."
"I'd forgotten how succinct you Uchiha can be," Deidara groaned, rolling his eyes. "It wouldn't hurt you to expand a bit more, you know? Where did you meet Naruto-san for example?"
"In class, three years ago," Sasuke answered curtly.
"And you've been together ever since?"
"Almost, yeah," Naruto confirmed, rubbing his thumb over Sasuke's hand. "We were best friends first."
"Aw, who made the first move, un?" Deidara asked enthusiastically; his blue eyes glittering.
Naruto shared a look with Sasuke and he grinned; the corners of Sasuke's mouth lifting up a bit in response. "Well, officially it was me, I guess, because I kissed him first, but we kind of had a communication issue going on after that," Naruto waved his hand haphazardly, "and so we kind of confessed to each other at the same time after that issue was resolved."
Deidara blinked. "Well, I guess that makes at least for an original story to tell instead of just you two going on a date," he mused.
"And you?" Sasuke asked abruptly; an odd look crossing his face in a flash. "Are you seeing someone now?"
"Ah, yeah, I am actually," Deidara smiled bashfully and rubbed the back of his neck. "I met him a year ago at the club and since then we've been hanging out a lot. We made it officially five months ago. Here, I've got a picture of him, un."
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and went through his photo gallery before turning the phone around and showing them the screen. The picture which greeted them was a close up of a dark red haired guy with greyish brown eyes. He had a rather solemn looking face, but his apparel of a baggy black t-shirt and jeans combined with the small smile lingering across his mouth made him look relaxed.
The picture seemed to have been taken inside a house, because Naruto could spot a television right behind the guy while he lounged in the corner of a soft green couch.
"This is Sasori; he's an owner of several art galleries," Deidara told them and his voice was practically brimming with pride; his eyes shining with love. Clearly this Sasori guy made him very happy.
"A match made in heaven, huh?" Sasuke murmured; his eyes flickering from the screen to the blond.
Deidara's smile turned wistful for a moment before he nodded. "Yeah, I guess you could say that, un." He put his phone back into his pocket and clapped his hands. "Now, tell me: how have you been liking the city so far? Got everything planned for the baby's arrival? Wait, did you decide on a name already, un?"
"He seems like a fun guy," Naruto commented when they walked into the apartment.
They'd remained in the café for quite some hours while Deidara and Sasuke had caught up with each other – well, Deidara had done most of the talking while Sasuke had reverted to only giving basic answers, never expanding on them like the older blond had been wont to do.
Deidara seemed like a genuine nice guy, someone fun to be around with, so Naruto hadn't seen any issues in exchanging phone numbers when the time had come to part ways.
"Yeah, he's not bad. His obsession with making things explode is weird, but overall he's not bad," Sasuke agreed, which was basically a ringing endorsement coming from him.
Starting to unpack the groceries on the kitchen table, Naruto went on, "I wouldn't mind meeting up with him again. I kind of think it's funny, actually, that your brother and him were friends. Seems like befriending blonds is a family thing."
That last comment escaped him before he could think twice about it and he flushed, his hands freezing around the leek. "Sorry, I didn't mean to - "
"They weren't just friends," Sasuke said quietly.
Quickly Naruto turned around and stared at his mate, who had his back turned to him while he stacked the ramen cups into one of the cupboards. "What? What do you mean with that?" he asked baffled.
"That I'm pretty sure they were more than friends. Or at least they'd been heading that way I guess," Sasuke muttered and closed the cupboard when he was finished putting the cups away.
"They were a couple?"
"I'm not sure whether they'd made it official before Itachi died," Sasuke said contemplatively, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms. "But even if they hadn't yet, they were still heading that way."
"How do you know that? Did your brother say something?" Naruto asked curiously, forgoing emptying the rest of the grocery bag in favour of listening to Sasuke. It wasn't every day that the Alpha voluntarily offered information about his family.
Sasuke shook his head. "No, it was just in the way he tended to treat Deidara differently from the rest of the people he hung out with. That and my mother had suddenly become all too eager to leave those two alone whenever Deidara came over," he added wryly. He exhaled slowly. "Didn't take a genius to figure out why that was."
"Your mother tried to hook your brother up with his friend?" Naruto questioned amused. He had trouble imagining the sweet lady he'd seen in various pictures coming up with such a devious plan.
"What else am I supposed to think when she suddenly insisted on me keeping away from them and helping her out whenever Deidara was visiting?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"Your mother was amazing," Naruto snickered before sobering up. "You don't mind if I invite Deidara-san over?"
Sasuke hadn't seemed to mind talking with Deidara today, but it was one thing to talk to the guy once in a café after years of not having seen him and a whole other thing to potentially having him visit their apartment to hang out. Sasuke might not want to see him again now that the one connecting the both of them was gone.
There was also no guarantee that Deidara would want to visit them, considering he'd moved on with his life, but Naruto took them exchanging phone numbers as a sign that the older man wouldn't mind meeting up again.
"I don't care. The moment he tries to blow up something here, though, I'm kicking his arse out," Sasuke said mildly.
"Well, that's fair, I guess," Naruto smiled and turned back to unpack the last bag. He dared to joke, "Guess a thing for blonds runs in the family, huh?" and grinned when he heard Sasuke chuckle.
He thought bumping into Deidara might actually turn out to be a good thing for Sasuke. If nothing else, at least it would be nice to have another friend in this city.
"How's the nursery coming along?" Mum asked and parked the car neatly between two others.
"We've got nearly everything set up," Naruto told her and unbuckled his seatbelt. Silently he said goodbye to the car's air conditioning before he opened the door and instantly got attacked by a wave of heat. Eugh, he couldn't wait for autumn to finally enter the country. With it being the beginning of September, though, they were mostly likely stuck for a while still with the hot weather.
Sasuke was already waiting at his door, reaching out his hand and helping him get out of the car. Naruto wanted to tell him that despite having entered his seventh month, he was still capable of getting out of a car, but couldn't bring himself to actually do it.
The Alpha had grown more fussy as of late – something mum had assured him was normal, because his dad had been the same way when she'd been pregnant – and if helping Naruto out of the car made his protective and fussy side settle, then so be it.
"What do you still need to buy?" she questioned and adjusted her sunglasses.
Naruto and Sasuke had gone back to their place for the weekend and mum had taken the day off so that she could accompany him during his shopping for baby clothes. She'd bemoaned the fact that they didn't live closer so that she could be more involved in the nursery, but Naruto had already come across a room in his old home being set up as a second nursery for his baby, so he'd say she was already pretty involved even with the distance between them.
He could tell she was quite excited about becoming a grandmother despite her initial reservations and hadn't been able to refuse when she'd suggested taking them out shopping for baby clothes.
"The crib mainly and everything belonging in it," Naruto replied, following her onto the footway. His hand found Sasuke's and he grabbed it, tangling their fingers together. "And clothes, of course. We already got some onesies, but that's about it."
"Well, I'm going to do my duty as grandmother then and make sure my grandson has enough clothes," she smirked, clapping her hands together.
He couldn't believe he was the one saying this, but, "Don't go too crazy," he cautioned nervously. He'd read that babies grew rather quickly, so it'd be useless to have a large bunch of clothes when their son would only be able to wear those for a few months at best.
The maniacal grin that appeared after his comment didn't set him at ease at all.
"You know where mum is?" he inquired, coming to a halt next to Sasuke, who was perusing the pyjama section in the baby store.
They'd been shopping for a bit more than an hour already and Naruto could only be grateful for the fact that the shops had their air conditioning on full blast, because otherwise shopping for Itachi's clothes would have been hell. As it was, he couldn't wait to sit down and have something cold to drink, rest his burning feet a bit.
Sasuke looked up briefly and nodded towards the back of the store. "I think she went to check on the onesies. She was saying something about a cute one she'd spotted in the window before we came in here."
"We already bought ten onesies in that other store – how many onesies does she think a baby needs?" Naruto asked alarmed; his left hand resting on top of his stomach. He pressed himself as closely against Sasuke as he could, not fancying having another stranger coming up to him and cooing over his belly. Seriously, what the hell was up with that? Just because he was pregnant, that didn't give complete strangers the right to invade his personal space and try to feel his baby kick.
He swore that the next stranger reaching out with their hand would get it slapped away harshly; he didn't give a shit whether that was impolite or not. There were only a couple of people he didn't mind touching his stomach and a complete stranger was not one of them.
Sasuke snorted softly, automatically resting his arm around Naruto's back. "Guess she wants us to be prepared."
"I'm expecting one kid, not twins," Naruto grumbled and then couldn't help but coo when he spotted white pyjamas dotted with laughing suns. "Aw, this one is cute! We definitely have to get that one!"
"Whatever you say," Sasuke agreed easily, handing the set over to the blond.
When Naruto went to grab another set – a dark blue one this time which had the face of a brown bear in the middle of the shirt – Sasuke brushed a kiss against his temple and murmured, "I'm going to get a basket, okay? That way it'll be easier to carry the clothes to the counter."
Naruto hummed, his focus already shifting to a pyjama set which had the words "Daddy's Boy" stitched into a bright purple on the front.
Carrying the pyjamas over his arm, he turned around to go to the next aisle, wanting to browse through the tiny sweaters and T-shirts there, when a flash of pale blond distracted him. Turning his head around, he froze when he met pale blue eyes just a couple of feet away from him. Those eyes widened in equal shock and bright red painted lips parted in surprise.
"Uzumaki?"
There right in front of him stood Yamanaka Ino, the girl who'd done her best to make his last year at school a living hell before Sasuke had scared her into apologising. Despite returning to the town every couple of months if he managed to, he hadn't seen her since their graduation. Now she stood merely a couple of feet away; her blonde hair still long and pulled up in a high ponytail. She was dressed in black heels, a long, flowing white skirt and a black crop top, showing off her tattoo of a red rose near her right hip.
She seemed just as surprised as him to see him until her eyes landed on his clearly rounded stomach and a myriad of emotions flitted across her face before her lips puckered in a pout.
"I see you got yourself knocked up," she said rather snidely. "You dropped out of university and came crawling back to your parents?"
Her sneering comments had his proverbial hackles raised and he narrowed his eyes. "Not that it's any of your business, but no, I didn't drop out. I'm still studying and on my way to get my degree, thanks for the concern."
She scoffed, crossing her arms underneath her breasts. "Yeah, for now. Doubt you'll still be this successful once the kid's here. Where's Sasuke-kun? He still so delusional as to be with you or did he dump you? Is the kid even his?" she smirked, her eyes glinting meanly.
He stared at her, at the way she stared at him triumphantly as if she'd won something, and could only feel pity for her. How sad did one's life have to be to still try to demean someone you hadn't seen in years? To be still hooked on a guy despite the fact that he hadn't been single in years – and who hadn't even shown interest in all those years before?
"Give it up, Yamanaka, you only make yourself look like an idiot now," he said wearily, running a hand through his hair. Ignoring the outraged look on her face, he went on, "Sasuke's never going to be yours."
"We'll see about that," she sneered, taking a step closer.
"Are you blind?" he sighed exasperatedly and tugged the collar of his shirt lower, so that his Mark was in full display. "We're pretty much married to each other now. You never even had a chance with him in the first place; do yourself a favour and get over him."
Pulling herself up to her full height, her eyes flashed dangerously and she hissed, "How dare you - "
"What's going on here?"
Sasuke's cool voice rendered her speechless immediately and she gaped at him when he came to stand next to Naruto. Her arms fell to her sides and she clenched her hands into fists when Sasuke wrapped his arm around Naruto; his hand coming to rest against the side of his stomach. At his papa's touch, Itachi moved, kicking where the thumb was rubbing soothingly.
When Sasuke turned to Naruto briefly, his face softened and he held out the plastic basket. "Here, put those clothes inside."
Even as Naruto dumped the clothes inside the light blue basket, he kept one eye on Yamanaka. He didn't miss the flash of hurt in her eyes at the sight of the Alpha embracing him so intimately and couldn't help the surge of satisfaction that coursed through him. Maybe now she'd finally realising she was fighting a lost battle. She'd never had a shot with Sasuke, but obviously had refused to accept that fact.
He didn't know how he could make it more obvious that Sasuke would never be hers, though. They'd Marked each other, were bound to each other for life through that, and on top of that Naruto was expecting Sasuke's baby. He didn't think he could make it any more obvious that she should give up.
"So? What's going on here?" Sasuke asked again, his voice audibly cooler when he looked at Yamanaka.
Pressing her lips together, she shook her head sharply before plastering an obviously fake smile on her face. "Nothing, just saying hello to Uzumaki-san. Congratulations on your baby and your Marking." She swiftly whirled around and marched out of the store without buying whatever she came for in the first place.
"What happened? Did she say something?" Sasuke demanded, his eyes narrowing as he watched her practically storm out of the shop and disappear into the street.
"Nothing of importance," Naruto murmured and wrapped his hand around Sasuke's wrist, tugging him to the next aisle. "Come on, I spotted some cute sweaters and shirts I want to look at."
The brief encounter with Yamanaka was basically forgotten by the time mum joined them again in order to pay for the new haul of clothes.
"Ah, I wish you could stay longer," Mum sighed forlornly when Sasuke dumped their overnight bag in the boot of his car.
They were ready to go back to their apartment after having spent the weekend at his parents' place. Sasuke had briefly visited Kakashi during the morning, but that hadn't lasted long and the scowl he'd worn when he returned, had informed Naruto that the older man had probably delighted in teasing the hell out of Sasuke again. That guy would never grow out of that, it seemed.
"We'll be back in two weeks, remember?" Naruto said, handing over the shopping bags to Sasuke, who stashed it right next to their bag. "I have an appointment with Tsunade then."
She perked up, clasping her hands together. "That's right! Would you mind if your dad and I will be there too? Looking at our grandson on a picture just isn't the same as seeing him actually move," she said wistfully.
"I don't mind," Naruto said and glanced at Sasuke. "You?"
"As long as that pervert stays away, I don't care," Sasuke said, slamming the boot shut. "All right, we're ready to go."
"Take care," Dad smiled, hugging Naruto carefully and patting Sasuke on his back.
"Bye, sweetheart, love you," Mum grinned, kissing his cheeks before doing the same to Sasuke. She then caressed Naruto's belly softly. "And I'll see you in two weeks!"
Naruto laughed and after another round of goodbyes he got into the car, adjusting his seat a bit so that he could lie a bit flatter. He waved at his parents until Sasuke turned around the corner of the street and he could no longer see them.
"You okay?" he asked, cupping his stomach with both hands. In the few hours leading up to their departure Sasuke had been oddly silent – well, quieter than usual at least. He'd also been strangely standoffish, not touching him as much as he usually did.
Dark eyes briefly glanced at him before they focused back on the road. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
"Don't know. You just seemed a bit weird in the last couple of hours, so I thought something was wrong," Naruto said, worrying his lip between his teeth.
He racked his brain, trying to find out whether he'd accidentally said something wrong, but couldn't come up with anything. They'd discussed their classes, talked about their friends, how the nursery was set up … He couldn't find anything wrong in the conversations they'd had.
Was he missing something?
"Don't worry, I'm just a bit tired," Sasuke mumbled and reached out to squeeze the Omega's knee. "I'm not used to doing so much shopping in one day, that's all."
"Heh, yeah, when my mum gets into that mood, she's ruthless," Naruto chuckled sheepishly. "My feet have only just stopped killing me actually. You're sure nothing's wrong, though?"
"No, nothing's wrong," Sasuke gave him a quick smile. "I'm just going to be glad once we're back at our apartment so that we can rest. Your old bed didn't seem that small a few years back."
"Ah, tell me about it," Naruto sighed and started fiddling with the radio. His old bed had turned rather small now they had to take into account how they laid in it. His belly was making it quite difficult to find a good position to fall asleep in.
It made him more than happy that the bed at their apartment was a lot bigger.
It took him a while to see the pattern.
Sasuke's class schedule had undergone some changes, meaning that one day in the week he was home several hours later than Naruto. So far their schedules had aligned in the sense that neither of them had had to wait for more than an hour on the other one. With Sasuke's new schedule however, there was no point for Naruto to wait several hours for his mate's class to be over with, so one day in the week he made his way home on his own.
The first time he had to stay home alone for several hours, Sasuke basically stormed into the apartment as if something had been chasing him all the way from his class to their home. He practically latched onto Naruto for the rest of the night, his hands never straying far from Naruto's body, especially his stomach, and Naruto just rolled his eyes, figuring Sasuke's protective Alpha instincts had been going haywire for a moment now that he hadn't been able to go home with the blond.
He'd actually expected that, considering how fussy Sasuke had become over the last couple of months and he'd started a private countdown to see how long it'd take the dark haired man to get back to their apartment. Barely ten minutes, which was a personal record and made Naruto a bit worried about a potential future speed ticket. He could always ask his parents to exert their police influence and make the ticket disappear if it did exist, but you know, he'd rather not do that.
So yeah, he'd expected Sasuke to be a bit more fussy than usual. No big deal, he could handle it.
The second week mum surprised him by showing up at his doorstep.
"Mum, what are you doing here?" he asked baffled, stepping aside so that she could come in.
She shrugged, unbuttoning her jacket. She was still in her police uniform, but her badge was gone. "I had a seminary in this city, you know, the one your dad attended last year but I couldn't go because I was home sick?"
He nodded, remembering that.
"Well, I followed that seminary today and figured that considering I was here anyway, I would stop by and say hello to my son and grandson," she beamed. "That is, if you don't mind."
"Why would I mind having my mum coming over?" he grinned and jerked his head to the living room. "I'm watching a game show now, you up to watching it with me."
"Mindless television? I'm always up for that!"
That weekend they all attended his appointment at Tsunade's practice and Naruto saw mum wiping away tears when she saw her grandson kick his little feet on the screen. Tsunade reassured them that everything was both fine with Naruto and the baby and that Itachi was growing as he should.
The next appointment was scheduled for the end of October and that was when Tsunade would check whether his body had started changing to accommodate the birth. Truthfully Naruto wasn't looking forward to that particular appointment, but that was not the kind of appointment one could skip – unless they wanted to bring themselves and their baby in danger during labour.
Sasuke was again less tactile than usual afterwards, but Naruto figured that had more to do with the large amount of homework he'd been steadily working through than anything else. Besides he made up for his less than tactile hours later on when they were back at the apartment. Thoroughly made up for it, in fact, so if there was anything to be forgiven for, then Naruto had definitely forgiven him after that.
The third week of the schedule change had Deidara stopping by with a bag of presents for the baby.
"Figured I could give him a head start in appreciating art, un." He winked when Naruto unwrapped a painting set meant for children.
The set was definitely too advanced for a baby, but Naruto appreciated the gesture nonetheless, especially because Deidara wasn't obligated to buy anything for the baby.
"Nonsense, un," Deidara waved away his gratitude. "We're friends, aren't we? Besides, I'll get one Uchiha to appreciate art if it's the last thing I'll do."
Well, not like Naruto could really argue with that goal.
The fourth week had Shikamaru and Kiba joining him to study at his place. Kiba brought snacks with him and when questioned why they were suddenly studying at his apartment, Kiba told him sheepishly he was hiding from a girl he'd accidentally offended.
He wouldn't say how he'd managed to offend the girl badly enough that he needed to go into hiding momentarily, but the snacks he'd brought were amazing, so Naruto couldn't be particularly arsed to care how badly his friend had fucked up.
Two days before Naruto's birthday had Gaara suddenly showing up at his door.
That was the moment he finally realised something wasn't right.
"Don't take this the wrong way, Gaara, but what the hell are you doing here?" he asked bluntly, crossing his arms. They'd retreated to the kitchen where Naruto had just been about to brew tea to combat the slight chill outside when a knock on the door had interrupted him.
"I can't visit a friend?" Gaara asked mildly, resting his arm casually on the back of the chair. Even with the weather growing chillier by the day, the red haired Alpha was still dressed in a black T-shirt and some ripped jeans.
"Sure," Naruto agreed and narrowed his eyes slightly, "if you had the tendency to visit. We've been living here for two years and you never visited before. I can't help but think there's a reason for this sudden visit, so fess up."
"I was in the neighbourhood," Gaara replied blankly.
"Yeah, pull the other one," Naruto retorted unimpressed. "Come on, be honest. Why are you here?"
Gaara sighed and looked away for a moment, contemplating something. Silence reigned in the kitchen for a while as Naruto waited him out, wanting to know why Gaara of all people had suddenly shown up. Now that he thought about it – ever since Sasuke's schedule had changed, he'd never been alone during those days when Sasuke couldn't go home with him. Was that just coincidence or …
"Sasuke asked me to."
"What? Can you repeat that?" Naruto stared at him, wondering whether he'd misheard him. He had to, right, because there was no way –
Gaara looked at him and admitted begrudgingly, "Sasuke asked me to stay with you until he comes home."
Oh no, he fucking hadn't.
"And has he by chance asked anyone else to babysit me?" Naruto asked through gritted teeth, his hands turning into fists, his nails digging into the soft flesh of his palms.
For the first time since he knew the Alpha, Gaara looked uncomfortable. When he spoke, it was haltingly, "He might have asked some other people before he asked me, yes. But Naruto, he just wanted to - "
"No." Naruto held up his hand, cutting off whatever excuse Gaara had been about to sprout in Sasuke's defence. "Don't say another word."
His whole body trembled with supressed anger and he was starting to see red; his breathing quickening as he forced himself to stay here instead of storming out.
He and Sasuke were going to have a talk when the man came home.
AN2: Someone's in big trouble *whistles*
Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me. I hope to see you all back in the next chapter!
Cuddles
Melissa
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Piece by Piece, Back Together