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
- 16
- 17
- 18
Author's note: So again a bit later than I wanted to, but at least I still managed to finish this part before the week is over, which is quite a feat considering I had to write the majority of the chapter today. Which is also the reason why this particular part will have at least a couple of parts *throws hands up* Because what else is new in this story, huh? *rolls eyes*
Thanks to the following reviewer: smint45
Warnings: Hm, fluff I guess? A bit of biology mentioned; breastfeeding but not overly detailed
I hope you'll like it!
17 Adjusting Part 1
"Ah damn, I told you we should have driven quicker!"
Mum's annoyed voice had him looking up and he grinned when he saw his parents entering the room. Sasuke looked up from his seat in the chair next to the bed, where he'd been cradling Itachi for the past half hour, and offered a small smile. After Naruto had fed their son, he'd handed Itachi over to Sasuke, figuring it was his turn to bond with their baby.
"We were already hitting the speed limit," Dad replied dryly. "I didn't fancy getting pulled over by our colleagues."
"We had a good reason!" she protested and waved wildly at the sleeping baby.
"Hey, mum, dad, ready to meet your grandson?" Naruto grinned, interrupting them before they could continue the argument.
"Of course we are!" she beamed and strode over to Sasuke. She cooed softly, her eyes shining, when she took her first good look at her grandson. "He looks so cute; may I hold him?"
For a couple of seconds it looked like Sasuke wouldn't hand over Itachi, his hold even tightening slightly, but then he inclined his head and stood up to carefully place Itachi in his grandmother's arms.
"Aw, look at you, so handsome," Mum awed, cradling him gently against her chest. "Come look at him, Minato, he's so perfect!"
Dad went to her and Naruto could practically see the exact moment it hit the older blond that he'd become a grandfather now. His eyes misted over and his hand was shaking a tad when he reached out to brush Itachi's cheek.
"He's perfect, indeed," he agreed thickly and sniffled.
That earnt him a light slap against his arm from mum, who wrinkled her nose and seemed to do her best not to start crying. "Eugh, don't do that. I promised myself I wouldn't cry when I hold my first grandchild for the first time."
"When did you promise that?" Dad furrowed his eyebrows; his eyes briefly flicking up to his wife before they gazed back at his grandson.
"When our son was born and my mother couldn't stop crying for a whole day," she sniffed, placing a soft kiss on Itachi's forehead.
"Oh yeah, we went through a lot of handkerchiefs back then," Dad remembered blankly and paused, watching his wife's face. He chuckled and retrieved a handkerchief from his pocket. "You want one?"
She glared at him before her sniffling became louder and then she started crying in earnest; Sasuke quickly shooting forwards to take Itachi back in his arms. As soon as her arms were empty, she threw them around dad's neck and started sobbing in his neck, while he patted her back and uttered soothing noises.
"There, there."
"I can't believe I'm a grandma now!"
Naruto watched his parents somewhat bemused and then remembered something. "Hey, did you call Kakashi yet?" he questioned curiously, pushing the pillow behind him in a better position before he laid down again.
He had only been thinking about letting his parents know when his water had broken, but hadn't thought about alerting Kakashi. Well, he'd actually assumed that Sasuke would have called him, just because he'd mentioned he would alert Naruto's parents. Kakashi didn't live that far from his parents' home, so how come he wasn't here yet? Did he get held up in traffic somehow?
Sasuke sat back down in his chair, cradling Itachi carefully against his chest. "No, I didn't."
His voice was so calm, Naruto was already nodding before he realised what Sasuke had actually said. "Wait, why not?" he asked perplexed. "Sasuke, you should have called him!"
"No, I shouldn't." Sasuke looked up to scowl at him, even as he kept stroking Itachi's cheek tenderly. "Why on earth would I call him?"
"God, not this again," Naruto moaned and dropped his head back, rubbing his hands over his face. Voice muffled, he added, "We talked about this, Sasuke. He has the right to know. You can't just keep this news from him!"
"Yes, I can. Watch me," Sasuke retorted flatly. "You're mad if you really think I'm going to let him be around Itachi. It's not up for discussion."
Blue eyes rolled and Naruto shook his head with a sigh. Turning his attention back to his parents where mum was just starting to calm down a bit, he figured he'd breach the subject again later, once Sasuke was feeling a little less on edge.
He'd heard before that Alpha would be very protective right after the birth, but really, Sasuke was being a tad stupid now. Kakashi would know better than to misbehave around Itachi. If he didn't, well, Naruto would have no trouble setting him straight about that.
'Congrats, man! We'll be over as soon as we can!'
Smiling, Naruto connected his phone to the charger and placed it on the counter. He'd texted Kiba and Shikamaru once he'd settled into their apartment again, letting them know he'd given birth and was home again.
Tsunade had examined him a few hours ago and declared him healthy enough to return home if that was what he wanted. He would see her back in six weeks for his next check-up. As soon as she had given him the green light, he'd taken a quick shower and changed into the clothes dad had been kind enough to go pick up for him. He had prepared a bag a week ago when he'd still been under the assumption that he wouldn't go into labour before his actual due date, but naturally he hadn't thought of stuffing it into Sasuke's car yet. Fortunately dad had offered to pick up the bag so that his son could have a fresh change of clothes.
Sasuke had wondered whether it wouldn't be safer for him to stay the night, just in case, but Naruto felt fine – if still rather sore between his legs, but that couldn't be helped – and he preferred sleeping in his own bed as opposed to trying to find a decent spot in the bed at Shizune's practice.
The Alpha's instinctive urge to have his mate and child safely in their home had eventually overridden Sasuke's worry about going home the same day, which Naruto was glad about, because there was no way in hell he would have stayed the night there.
"Someone texted back?" Sasuke's low voice drifted over to him and he turned around, smile widening a notch.
"Yeah, Kiba said he and Shikamaru will visit as soon as they can," he replied. "Is Itachi sleeping?"
"Yeah, out like a light for now at least," Sasuke confirmed, reaching out with his hand, wordlessly asking the blond to come closer.
Naruto obeyed silently and the corners of dark eyes wrinkled almost minuscule when a faint smile darted across his lips quickly like a little fish; long, slender fingers curling around the Omega's wrist. "I put the crib at the end of our bed, so that we won't have to go that far when he wakes up."
"Good idea," Naruto murmured and after flicking off the light in the kitchen, leaving only some kitchen appliances dimly glowing, he followed after Sasuke.
While Sasuke stepped into the adjoining bathroom, Naruto halted in front of the crib which his mate had put together with quite some swearing last month. He'd refused Naruto's help with it, stating he could do it on his own. Sasuke trying to put together a crib, all the while muttering darkly and letting out the occasional swear had been quite the amusing sight.
Looking down, he automatically smiled at the sight of his baby sleeping peacefully with his tiny hands balled into fists. He was dressed in a pure white onesie and his mouth was pursed into a little pout; his dark tuft of hair standing out starkly against the white blanket.
Overwhelmed by love all of a sudden, he braced himself against the crib and leant down, kissing Itachi's forehead, breathing in his soft baby scent. He took care to keep the kiss light enough in order not to wake him up. No doubt Itachi would wake them up in the course of the night to get either fed or have his diaper changed, but for now he was asleep and Naruto didn't want to disturb him.
Not when he laid there so angelically, so sweet, so perfect.
He was still gazing down at Itachi when arms slipped around his waist and a chin came to rest on his shoulder. "How are you feeling?" Sasuke murmured; his breath tinged with the mint scent of his toothpaste.
"A bit sore and tired," Naruto admitted, knowing there was no point in trying to hide that. "But I'm happy. I'm glad he's finally here. I mean, I did carry him around for so many months, but seeing him in his crib … It makes it all more real, you know?"
Sasuke nodded, kissing his neck. "I know, I feel the same way. You don't have any exams left, right?"
"No, today was my last one," Naruto replied and relaxed, leaning back against Sasuke. He was incredibly glad for that.
While overall his professors had been rather understanding – bar Mizuki of course – it was one thing to change his classes to online ones now that he'd given birth and a whole other thing to find a way to reschedule an exam. Fortunately he wouldn't have to worry about that now. He only had around two weeks left of online classes and then the Christmas break would be upon them. He wasn't sure how much of a fussy baby Itachi would be, but he thought he would very much appreciate the two weeks without any classes.
"I'm going to send my professors an e-mail tomorrow," he decided. No point in doing that now when it was already so late. "You've got one more exam left, huh?"
"Yeah, in two days," Sasuke answered and stepped back, his hands coming up to rest on Naruto's upper arms. "Come, let's go to bed. Who knows when Itachi will wake up; might as well catch as much sleep as we can."
"True."
They broke apart to get into the bed and after turning off the bedside lamp, the room was blanketed in darkness. The sheets rustled when they turned around and Naruto ended up cuddled against Sasuke's right side, with his head on the Alpha's shoulder and Sasuke's arm wrapped around his back.
The exhausting day finally caught up to him completely and his eyelids became heavy, sleep beckoning him. Sasuke felt wonderfully warm and he pressed his nose into his shirt for a moment, inhaling his familiar spicy scent; his body relaxing now that he was in his bed with his mate.
Lips kissing his forehead had him blinking sleepily and he smiled when Sasuke whispered, "I love you."
"I love you too," he muttered and then was out like a light, no longer able to fight against his exhaustion.
His head felt fuzzy when he woke up next and for a moment he wondered whether it was morning already. Blinking, he took note of the fact that the bedside lamp was on before a shadow was thrown over him and he yawned.
"Sasuke? It's time already?" he muttered tiredly and struggled to sit up.
"Not exactly," Sasuke answered and there was a note of amusement in his voice. "It's only half past twelve, but Itachi needs to eat."
At the mention of their baby, the last cobwebs of sleep instantly dissolved and he sat up abruptly, only now noticing that Sasuke was cradling Itachi in his arms. "I didn't hear him cry," he said alarmed and quickly undid the first buttons of his shirt. Shit, what kind of a dad was he if he didn't even wake up when his baby cried? He should have been able to hear him cry, shouldn't he?
"That's because he didn't," Sasuke said before the blond could spiral down in self-doubt. "I got him before he could start doing more than fuss a bit. I think he'll start crying any second now, though."
Indeed Itachi was starting to look red in his face, unhappy noises leaving him. Hastily pushing his shirt out of the way, Naruto took the baby over from Sasuke and placed him against his chest. Right when he was about to coax Itachi to his nipple, the little boy turned his head and immediately latched onto, sucking hungrily while he rested a small hand against his daddy's skin.
Aware of dark eyes resting on him, Naruto gingerly propped himself up against the pillows while Itachi kept on drinking eagerly. He still wasn't completely used to breastfeeding Itachi, even though he'd done it a couple of times now already. It felt a bit … odd he guessed was the right way to describe it. Odd to realise that he was still able to feed his baby with his own body, despite the fact that Itachi was no longer inside of him.
At the same time, watching his baby eat settled something in him as well. It was odd, but nice.
Keeping his voice low, he asked, "How come you were up if he wasn't crying yet? I didn't hear anything."
"I had to go to the bathroom," Sasuke replied and shrugged, though his gaze was still intent as he looked at them.
Naruto would have thought he was perturbed by the fact that he saw him breastfeeding their child – even though it was something everyone could do if they had carried a baby – but there was no disgust in those black eyes, only … Well, he wasn't sure what it was he saw, but he instinctively knew it wasn't anything bad.
"When I came back, he was just waking up and starting to fuss. I checked his diaper first, but he kept up the fussing so I figured he would want to eat," Sasuke went on and nodded at Itachi. "Seems my guess was right. I'm going to get a towel."
Naruto nodded and crossed his legs, his thumb stroking slow circles over Itachi's small shoulder. He hid another yawn and looked up when the bed dipped down again; Sasuke holding up a small towel he'd retrieved from the bathroom.
"You want to burp him or should I do it?" he questioned. Before Naruto could answer, though, he shook his head slightly and said, "I'll do it."
"Not that I complain, but I can do it as well," Naruto pointed out.
"Yeah, but I already got up a couple of times, so it's easier for me to put him back into his crib and throw the towel away," Sasuke answered lightly. "You can go back to sleep then."
"You need sleep too," Naruto remarked, but was too tired to keep arguing about it. He didn't even know why they should keep arguing about this; if Sasuke wanted to get milk thrown up on him, by all means.
After a couple more minutes Itachi decided he had enough and turned away. Naruto handed him over to Sasuke, who had already thrown the towel over his left shoulder, and while the blond buttoned up his shirt again, Sasuke started patting Itachi's back, murmuring encouragingly to him until Itachi hiccupped and spit on the towel.
Ignoring the soiled towel, Sasuke stood up and rocked Itachi back to sleep; his voice low and soothing while he slowly walked back and forth behind the bed. All the while Naruto looked at him and couldn't suppress a smile. Watching Sasuke handle Itachi so confidently, one would never guess that this was the first day he held a baby in his arms. He looked like he'd been taking care of babies his whole life and warmth filled Naruto's chest, spreading out to the pit of his belly.
God, Sasuke was just perfect.
He was still grinning like a loon when Sasuke got back into bed after putting Itachi back into his blue white crib and a black eyebrow rose up. "What are you so happy about?" the dark haired man asked bemused.
Naruto couldn't help himself and darted forwards to peck him on his lips. "Nothing, just that you're amazing," he replied and gripped Sasuke's wrists before lacing their fingers together. "You're great at this."
"Itachi was only born a couple of hours ago," Sasuke commented, looking both amused and taken aback. "You can't exactly claim I'm 'great' at this when he's not even a day old yet."
Naruto squeezed his fingers and scowled at him. "Yes, I can. You're a great papa; Itachi won't have a better one than you, I'm sure."
"You're sleep deprived," Sasuke said amused and kissed him before he could open his mouth in protest. "But fine, thank you. You're a great daddy too."
A bit offended that Sasuke was basically blaming his lack of sleep as the reason for the compliment, Naruto glowered at him – an action that got ruined when he yawned loudly.
"Go back to sleep, Naruto," Sasuke said and pushed him down, gathering him in his arms after turning off the bedside lamp.
"Fine," Naruto pouted, wriggling his knee between Sasuke's legs. Yawning again, he slung his arm around Sasuke's waist and muttered, already half-asleep again, "Just so you know, though, I mean it. And I can't wait to have more babies with you."
Sasuke trembled underneath him and Naruto thought he said something, but he didn't really hear it and sleep dragged him down once more.
"I'm surprised he left you on your own," Kiba remarked, casting a suspicious glance around the living room as if he was suspecting Sasuke to jump up from behind a couch.
Naruto snorted, adjusting his hold on Itachi. "Only because he wanted to stock up on diapers and a couple of other things." And then only because he knew you'd be here, he added silently, but saw no need to say that aloud.
Sasuke's sessions with Orochimaru were going quite well, but it would probably take some time for his overprotectiveness – heightened even more with the birth of their baby – to dissipate a bit. He was already making progress in the sense that he only activated the camera in the kitchen when they were out of the apartment or at night.
"How are you feeling now?" Shikamaru asked; his eyebrows drawn together in concern.
It was three days after Itachi was born and his two friends had finally found a moment to visit him and meet the baby. Both their exams were over now, although Shikamaru still had a paper to deliver tomorrow.
"Mostly tired," Naruto admitted wryly. "Itachi's not that fussy yet, but I still have to wake up several times in the night to feed him or change his diaper."
He had insisted on taking turns in changing Itachi's diapers, so that both of them had an equal share in doing that particular dirty job. He loved his son very much, he really did, but god, his diapers were disgusting.
His parents asked for regular updates as well, even if it was just in the form of texts or a picture. If it had been entirely up to them, Naruto was certain they would have offered to stay over at their apartment to help take care of Itachi, but their work didn't exactly allow them to do that. They'd gone home after Naruto had settled back into his apartment, but were quite eager to hear from him every day. Naruto was pretty sure they had already showed everyone at the precinct a picture of their grandson.
"Eugh, diapers," Kiba grimaced and shivered. "No offence, but I'm glad I don't have to do that. Cleaning out the kennels at home is already bad enough."
"You're going to let Hinata do that dirty job then when you two have kids?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.
While Kiba spluttered that he and Hinata were totally not ready yet to have children – "Neji will cut off my balls, dude!" – knocking on the door attracted Naruto's attention.
Shifting Itachi closer to his chest, he stood up, curious as to who could be waiting in the corridor. It couldn't be Sasuke, considering he had a key. Leaving his two friends to their bickering – well, more like Kiba was bickering, while Shikamaru just sat there, listening disinterested – he went to the door and opened it. To his great surprise both Gaara and Temari were waiting in the corridor. Temari had a plastic bag in her hands while Gaara carried a silver and green present.
"Hey, Naruto, you look good for someone who just had a baby," Temari grinned; her eyes glittering when her gaze drifted down to Itachi. She couldn't see much yet, because he had turned his face to Naruto's chest.
"Temari-san," he said startled and blinked. "I didn't expect to see you here. Hey, Gaara."
She shrugged. "I can't not come visit you; I want to see how your baby looks like! Bet he's a cutie, given who his parents are."
"Ignore her," Gaara droned. "She's had a bit too much coffee on the way here."
"Oh shut up," she huffed and slipped into the apartment before Naruto could gesture them inside.
"Right, make yourself at home," Naruto said dryly, but she was already walking to the living room after kicking off her heels.
"Sorry, Naruto, but she insisted on joining me," Gaara apologised, entering the apartment when the blond waved him inside. "I kicked her out of the car three times, but she just kept climbing back in."
"Ah, don't worry about it," Naruto chuckled, shushing Itachi when he started making fussy noises. He checked the diaper just to be sure – although he'd only changed it half an hour ago – but Itachi was probably just a tad overwhelmed with all the people inside the apartment now.
"Who's the present for?" he asked curiously after Gaara had pulled off his shoes.
Green eyes looked at the package blankly before they blinked at the Omega. "For the baby."
"That's sweet, you didn't have to do that," Naruto grinned, wondering what the other man could have bought for Itachi.
He shrugged, looking a bit awkward. "It's nothing special," he said gruffly. "Just thought I couldn't visit you emptyhanded."
"Well, come on; let's go to the living room. My friends are here as well." He led the Alpha to the room, even though he'd been here once before and probably still remembered the layout of the place.
Temari was already seated next to Shikamaru and looked up when the two men entered. "Good, let me take a look at the little pipsqueak," she grinned, holding out her arms.
"Careful with his head," Naruto cautioned, but placed Itachi in her arms nonetheless, knowing he could trust her not to drop him.
She immediately started cooing, which was admittedly a tad weird, considering that he knew her as a woman who didn't take any shit and was more likely to kick your arse and lay you out than to start simpering at you. He guessed babies had this kind of effect on even the most hardened person, though.
"Kiba, Shikamaru, this is Gaara," he introduced them. "And this is Temari, in case she was rude enough not to introduce herself."
Not even looking up from Itachi, she sniffed. "Please, of course I introduced myself. I'm not a caveman like Kankuro."
"Is he keeping the dojo open now?" Naruto questioned and sat down on the smaller couch.
After a pause Gaara sat down next to him, exchanging a nod with Naruto's friends. "Yeah, we can't shut down the place for a whole day, so he's there now. Here." He dumped the present in Naruto's lap.
The present turned out to be a dark brown teddy bear with a black belt around his thick waist and Naruto chuckled, tugging at the rounded ears. "A bear excelling in karate, huh?"
Gaara rolled his shoulders and sounded a bit bashful when he replied, "I thought it was a nice change from the regular teddy bears they usually give to children."
"True, it's very nice," Naruto agreed with a grin and waggled the bear over Itachi, whose dark blue eyes stared up at it in wonder. "Look what Gaara-jisan got for you!"
Temari snorted when Gaara made an odd, choking noise and after putting the bear on the table, he took Itachi back from her. "You want to hold him, Gaara?"
"I don't know," Gaara said slowly, eyeing Itachi as if he was a ticking time bomb.
"Come on, Gaara, surely you can handle a baby," Temari goaded him, smirking.
"Yeah, even Kiba managed not to mess up holding him," Shikamaru commented, not even flinching when he got a punch in his arm for that.
Gaara glared at his sister, but then stuck out his arms, though Naruto could see the apprehension in his eyes growing when he placed Itachi in his arms.
"Just keep your hand like this, yes like that, and your other arm like this and that's it. Now you're holding him," Naruto told him grinning; his amusement growing as he watched Gaara awkwardly hold Itachi in his arms. It was obvious the red haired man didn't have much experience with holding babies.
"He looks like Sasuke a lot," Gaara commented after studying the baby boy intently.
"Yep, he's already got the deadpan stare down and everything," Naruto snickered, letting Itachi wrap his tiny fingers around his pinkie.
"He's going to be a heartbreaker for sure," Temari smirked before her attention turned swiftly onto an unsuspecting Shikamaru. "Talking about heartbreakers – you've got a partner or are you too busy with your classes? What are you studying actually?"
"Er," Shikamaru blinked, clearly taken off guard.
That didn't happen often and Naruto quirked an eyebrow, wondering where Temari's interest suddenly came from. In all the time he'd known her, she'd never gone out of her way to chat with people. Hell, it had taken him months before he even got a greeting from her.
"I'm studying engineering," Shikamaru answered after getting his bearings again.
"Ooooh, smart guy, huh?" She whistled softly and crossed her legs; her skirt inching up a bit, revealing more of her thighs. "What made you decide to go for that?"
Bending closely to Gaara, Naruto murmured, "Is it just me or is your sister interested in my friend?"
"She might be," Gaara answered pensively. "God help your friend if she is."
Judging by the way Shikamaru sometimes flicked his gaze at her legs before he quickly looked back up again, Naruto wasn't so sure whether he would really mind if the blonde was interested in him.
The sound of a key unlocking the door had Naruto stepping into the corridor after he'd put Itachi to sleep in his crib. His friends and Temari were still here, eating snacks while chatting with each other. Or well, Kiba, Temari and Shikamaru chatted while Gaara only interjected once or twice.
"I'm back," Sasuke said, closing the door behind him. The two plastic bags around his wrist crinkled when he bent down to remove his shoes. "We got more visitors?"
"Yeah, Gaara and Temari showed up," Naruto replied and went over to take the bags. "They wanted to meet Itachi. Gaara even had a teddy bear for him."
"That's nice of him," Sasuke muttered and they shared a quick kiss. "I got more pads for you. There should be enough in the bag to last you a couple of weeks, but I can pick up more if you run out."
Naruto flushed a bit at the reminder of what he had to wear for a while now that he'd given birth. The pads were akin to the slick pads, although these were designed to absorb the blood that his body was expelling. He could expect around two to three weeks of bleeding, Tsunade had warned him, so he needed to have enough pads to deal with it.
He'd felt rather embarrassed about it, even though it was a natural reaction of his body after going through labour, but Sasuke had remained entirely unruffled about it, even offering to buy more for him on his trip to the store. Considering that this was the same guy who carried around slick pads just in case Naruto needed one, he really shouldn't be surprised that Sasuke would remain unbothered by this as well.
"Thanks," he smiled; red still stinging his cheeks.
"No problem." Sasuke quickly brushed the back of his hand against Naruto's cheek. "Where's Itachi?"
"Asleep in his crib," Naruto replied and followed him into the kitchen to put away the rest of the groceries. "Also, Temari might or might not be interested in Shikamaru. The jury's still out on that one."
That made Sasuke look up perplexed. "Wait, what the hell did I miss? I was only gone for a little while!"
Naruto snickered and went to put away the milk. "See what you miss when you're gone?"
Two days before their Christmas break, Deidara showed up.
Naruto had just finished his last assignment and had sent it through when the knock on the door alerted him that they had a visitor. He went to open it, leaving Sasuke to his studying in the kitchen.
Deidara grinned once the door swung open. "Hey, Naruto, am I disturbing you?"
"Nah, I just finished my work." Naruto waved the older Omega inside. "Sasuke's still studying, though."
"I can come back later," Deidara offered, tilting his head to the left a bit.
"It's okay, we can go sit in the living room. I think he's nearly done anyway." He turned around and walked back to the living room. "How's work going? How's Sasori-san?"
"The students are a menace like always, un," Deidara sighed, dropping down on the couch with a groan. "Teaching in the weeks close to a holiday is just a nightmare."
Naruto chuckled. "Noted."
"But with Sasori, everything's great," Deidara beamed, clasping his hands together. "He's taking me abroad for a week in two weeks to celebrate the holidays."
"Oh very nice. Any idea where he's taking you?"
Deidara wrinkled his nose. "No, he won't tell me," he pouted. "Said he was keeping that as a surprise."
"Well, at least you know you're going to another country," Naruto said and pricked his ears when he heard soft noises coming from the bedroom. "Oh give me a sec, Itachi's awake I think."
He hurried to the bedroom before Itachi could start wailing. So far he'd proven to be a rather calm baby, but when he opened his mouth … Man, his kid had quite the set of lungs in him.
"Hey there, sweetie," he murmured, picking him up. "No messy diaper?" He felt at Itachi's bottom, but the diaper felt still dry, which yes! No changing diapers at least for now!
"You're hungry?" But no, Itachi wasn't making those noises he usually made when he was hungry. After almost two weeks Naruto had started discerning the various noises and their meanings quite well already. It was still trial and error at times, but he thought he was doing pretty damn well so far, given that Itachi was just two weeks old yet and he was his first child.
"No messy diaper and not hungry. Hm, someone just wants to be awake then?" Naruto went on and smiled when Itachi blinked at him, waving his little fists around. "Come on, let's introduce you to a friend, hm? Let's see whether you can wrap him around your teeny, tiny finger too!"
Because make no mistake: his son had already wrapped his grandparents and Naruto's friends around his chubby, little finger. Even Gaara had appeared a tad smitten with him by the time he and Temari had ended their visit last week.
"Look who's here," he said in a sing-song voice, walking back into the living room.
Deidara looked up with a smile. "Ah, there he is. Did the delivery go smoothly?"
Naruto shrugged, sinking back down on the couch. "He was here in a couple of hours, so I suppose I can't complain too much."
"How are the nights?" Deidara gave him a sympathetic look.
"I'm quite tired, but I knew what I signed up for when I decided to keep him," Naruto admitted with a rueful chuckle.
Taking care of Itachi day and night on top of his studying and keeping the apartment in relative order was turning out to be a lot harder than he'd expected, but it wasn't impossible yet. Sure, he felt like he could sleep for days and every morning he had to drag himself out of his bed, but well, that was just how it was.
He couldn't really complain, though. Sasuke got up in the middle of the night as well to tend to Itachi if he needed his diaper changed, so Naruto still managed to get at least a couple of hours of sleep each night.
God, he'd really lucked out with Sasuke.
"You want to hold him?" Naruto inquired when he caught Deidara staring at Itachi with an odd look on his face.
"Oh, er, I don't know, un," he laughed uneasily, rubbing the back of his neck. "The only kids I'm around are already teenagers. I've never even held a baby."
"Well, for everything there's a first time, no?" Naruto reasoned and held out Itachi. "What do you think? Want to say hello?"
Deidara released his breath slowly, almost hissing, before he inclined his head and opened his arms. They trembled slightly, but as soon as Itachi was placed in them, they stilled and Naruto heard the older blond's breath catching.
"He's beautiful, un," Deidara said quietly, his face shielded by his long, blond hair. "He looks like Itachi."
Naruto started and glanced down at his son. He hadn't seen any baby pictures of Sasuke's older brother, but he supposed Deidara might have seen them back then. Then he remembered that Sasuke had told him he'd thought his brother and Deidara had been an item and he winced. He hadn't thought about that before offering to let Deidara hold his son.
"Are you – are you okay?" he asked hesitatingly, nibbling at his lower lip when he noticed a fine tremor going through the other man.
"Yeah, yeah, of course I am, un," Deidara said quickly, too quickly; his voice gaining a rough edge. "Just … Thinking that Itachi would probably be so smug, knowing you named his nephew after him, you know? It would definitely have got to his arrogant head." His chuckle was wet and he still wasn't looking up. He kept his head down, stroking Itachi's cheek with one finger, while Itachi gazed back at him curiously.
Naruto didn't say anything when he saw a tear falling down on Itachi's powder blue onesie, but let the other man mourn quietly for what he would never have.
If he clung to Sasuke a bit tighter that evening in bed, well, that was his business only.
AN2: So yep, this will have at least a couple of parts as well, because what else is new? *coughs*
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
- 16
- 17
- 18
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Piece by Piece, Back Together