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
- 17
- 18
- 19
Author's note: A bit earlier than usual, yay! It's progress of sorts *coughs*
Thanks to the following reviewer: smint45
Warnings: some time skips; short implied mature content; smidgen of angst I guess? Not sure what to call that part to be honest
I hope you'll like it!
18 Adjusting Part 2
"You got everything packed?" Sasuke appeared in the doorway of their bedroom; a cup of coffee in one hand.
"Yeah, I packed two bags for Itachi and two for us," Naruto confirmed, struggling with the zipper a bit before he finally managed to close it completely. "Mum already texted me that she's gone to the store to pick up diapers, so at least we won't run out of that."
"We still got clothes left in your room too, no?" Sasuke wandered into the room and sank down on the bed, casting a quick glance in the crib.
Itachi was sleeping peacefully after having had a bout of crying before drinking some milk. His cheeks were still stained reddish, but that was the only sign that betrayed he'd been upset earlier.
"Yeah, we do, though whether or not they'll still fit me is a whole other question," Naruto muttered, carefully lowering the last bag against the wall. The last thing he wanted was to startle Itachi awake if he accidentally dropped the bag too loud.
"It's not like you gained that much weight during your pregnancy," Sasuke instantly countered.
Naruto decided to let it go, not in the mood to start a whole discussion on how he looked like. He preferred avoiding the mirror for at least a couple of months, that was all he had to say about this matter.
"You know when you're going to get your marks?" he asked instead, flopping down on the bed next to his mate.
"Should be somewhere this afternoon," Sasuke grunted, taking another sip from his coffee before putting it on the nightstand. "You?"
"Late afternoon or so," Naruto muttered and pursed his lips at the ceiling. He wasn't really looking forwards to getting his marks. He knew he'd done well on most of his exams, but the one he was most worried about was Mizuki's class.
He hadn't thought about the professor after leaving the aula and rushing to Shizune, but now his stomach cramped up at the thought of how he'd left the exam. Mizuki had had it out for him since the moment he'd informed the man he was pregnant; would that reflect in any way in his marks for that class? He knew he had done well enough to pass it, but Mizuki had seemed almost doggedly determined to find any excuse to fail him.
God, he couldn't repeat that class for yet another semester.
"You look worried," Sasuke murmured, lying down beside him, his head propped up on his hand. "I thought your exams had gone well?"
Naruto hesitated, wondering whether he should tell him about Mizuki, knowing how protective Sasuke tended to become at times. His marks would definitely suffer if his mate got into an altercation with one of his professors – no matter how much he would have loved to see Sasuke having a go at the bastard.
He decided to alter the truth a little bit. "Just a bit worried about my last exam. I couldn't really concentrate well during my contractions, so I don't know how well I did on that one. I really don't want to repeat that class, though," he sighed. "Another semester with that prick might actually drive me insane."
"And we don't want that," Sasuke smirked before adding absently, "I wouldn't worry too much about that class. I'm sure you did fine, even with everything that was going on."
"I hope so. I'm going to throw a fit if I find out that I failed that one," Naruto said darkly, rubbing his hands over his face.
"I'm sure it'll be fine," Sasuke assured him and leant over to peck his lips. "You packed all the presents too?"
Grateful for the change in subject – his stomach did uncomfortable summersaults whenever the thought of his marks crossed his mind – he answered, "Yeah, I put them in the blue bag underneath some of our clothes. I already gave Deidara his present when he was here two days ago."
He still felt a bit guilty for not having remembered on time that Deidara had been dating Sasuke's older brother before he'd been murdered. He'd just wanted to let him meet their baby, not having realised that his chosen name might call up sad memories. Deidara had seemed to have recovered by the time he'd left their apartment with his Christmas gift – promising to give them theirs once they were back from visiting Naruto's parents – but Naruto could have smacked himself for his stupidity.
"When do you want to leave tomorrow?" Sasuke asked; his hand coming to rest on the blond's hip.
Naruto shrugged. "I don't know, maybe eight or so? Itachi will wake us up early anyway to eat."
"Sounds good to me."
He made Sasuke check his marks, because all his nerves instantly disappeared once he saw the e-mail with his results popping up in his mailbox.
"Seriously?" Sasuke looked at him unimpressed. "It's just your results; you can check it yourself."
His own were great; there had been no reason to assume he would have done less well on any of his classes, given how smart he was.
Pulling Itachi back up against his shoulder after having finished changing his diaper, Naruto turned his head to scowl at the dark haired man. "Yes, seriously. I don't want to check them – you check them!"
"Naruto," Sasuke sighed, but shut up when an accusing finger was pointed at him.
"I pushed your kid out of me, the least you can do is check my marks!"
"That doesn't even – whatever, I'll check them."
Sasuke's eye-roll was so unnecessary if you asked Naruto. Tense, he watched like a hawk how Sasuke pulled his laptop closer to him and selected the e-mail Naruto hadn't been able to convince himself to open. Dark eyes slowly slid down and his blank face combined with his silence made Naruto nervous.
"And? How badly did I mess up?" he asked tersely, adjusting his hold on Itachi when the baby fussed.
Sasuke looked up and raised an eyebrow. "You passed all your classes, congratulations," he said dryly.
"Wait, seriously?!" Naruto shot towards him and leant down to stare at his screen. A pair of hands came up to take Itachi over from him and as soon as his arms were empty, he dropped down on the bed and dragged the laptop on his lap, staring at the screen in disbelief.
"I passed all my classes," he mumbled, eyes widening as he took in the good marks. They weren't as high as Sasuke's, but they were definitely high enough to be proud of. "I even passed Mizuki's class!"
Sure, that one was one of the lower grades he'd received, but he'd still passed it!
"Of course you did – there was no reason you wouldn't pass," Sasuke said absentmindedly, smiling when Itachi huffed and curled his hand into a fist.
Suspicion started nagging at him and Naruto furrowed his eyebrows, glancing at the Alpha from the corner of his eye. "Say, you wouldn't have something to do with this, do you?" he asked warily. Sasuke had been way too confident that he would pass this class, despite the fact that he'd admitted that near the end, he'd just been guessing because the pain had started to become too much.
Sasuke stood up and walked to the door. "Why would I have something to do with that? I've got better things to do than to get into a row with one of your professors," he answered calmly and nodded at the phone on the nightstand. "Why don't you call your parents with the good news? Otherwise they'll just blow up your phone with texts anyway."
"We're going to see them tomorrow, so I don't see the point in texting them now about it," Naruto muttered, but regardless of his argument, he still snatched his phone up so he could compose his message. "And you really didn't have anything to do with this? At all?"
"How could I have when I don't know what exactly happened?" Sasuke questioned affably before stepping out of the room. "I'm going to check what we can have for dinner."
"Sure thing." Naruto glanced back at the screen, sliding the tip of his tongue against the back of his teeth. It was true that Sasuke didn't know all the details of what kind of a jerk Mizuki had been …
Ah well, what did it matter? He'd passed the class and now he would never have to see that arsehole's face again! That was all that mattered!
The winter break went by with a lot of good food and naturally a lot of presents. Naruto's parents were obviously very excited to celebrate their grandson's first Christmas, because they'd gone slightly overboard with the amount of presents they'd bought for him. They would need a whole new bag just to take everything with them to the apartment.
Kakashi finally met Itachi two days after Christmas. True to his word, Sasuke had utterly refused to give the older Alpha a call to tell him the news about their baby, so Naruto had done it in the end much to his own exasperation. Kakashi had taken it quite well, more amused than offended that he was the last person to know about Itachi.
Naruto took Itachi and a very unwilling Sasuke to visit Kakashi at his place where the latter was quite enthusiastic to meet the newest Uchiha – albeit from a short distance, because Sasuke refused to hand over the baby, glaring at Kakashi whenever the man made an attempt to come closer.
Naturally that only made Kakashi more determined to do just that and Naruto was hard pressed to tell which man was acting the most childish. He'd long since given up on understanding the dynamics between the two Alpha, but man, it would be nice if they both could behave just this once.
The end of January had him visiting Tsunade again for his scheduled check-up.
"How are you feeling?" Tsunade asked, smiling amused when Itachi babbled something non-sensical from his spot in Sasuke's arms.
He was dressed in a dark blue onesie and his blue eyes were roving around the room, blinking at the sharp light.
"Tired," Naruto answered bluntly, hiding a yawn behind his hand. Itachi had been crying almost the entire night and had only managed to fall asleep near dawn. It was a good thing it was Saturday, so neither of them had had to get up early.
She inclined her head in understanding. "Apart from that? Any particular soreness or pain that's out of the ordinary?"
"Nope, just a bit tender down there still, but that's normal, right?" He looked at her questioningly, fiddling with the tassels of his scarf. The cloth itself was still a bit damp from that snow that had fallen on it.
"That's perfectly normal," she confirmed, typing something quickly. "It's just your body slowly changing back to your pre-pregnancy state. You'll probably feel tender for a couple of more weeks still, but normally over a month, you shouldn't be bothered by it anymore."
"That's good to know," he muttered. It wasn't like he was in any real pain, but he could practically feel his body changing once more. He would be glad once all the lingering aches were finally gone.
"All right, ready for the examination?" She looked at him expectantly, resting her hands on the desk.
He wrinkled his nose and shrugged off his jacket, throwing his scarf over the back of his chair. "Not really, but I don't really have a choice, do I?" he grumbled and stood up. "Let's get this over and done with."
She rolled her eyes and stood up as well. "You're always such a joy to work with."
He bared his teeth at her. "Glad you recognise that." He whirled around and pointed a finger at Sasuke. "You know the drill: no peeking."
"I saw you give birth," Sasuke droned, letting Itachi clasp his tiny fingers around his index finger. "I don't see why you're still - "
"Nuh uh, you're staying here with Itachi and you won't peek!" Naruto stated, glowering at him until dark eyes rolled and Sasuke nodded.
"Yes, fine, I'll stay here," he said exasperatedly; his leather jacket crinkling a bit when he shifted in his chair.
"I admire your patience, kid," Tsunade said and shook her head. "Don't know how he hasn't driven you insane yet."
"Please," Naruto scoffed and made his way to the curtain to change out of his clothes behind it. "I'm a fu-freaking delight and you know it."
"I'm not even going to respond to that," she snorted.
Casually he flipped her the bird before he disappeared behind the curtain to get rid of his jeans and his underwear. Even with his socks still on, the coldness of the metal stirrups was hard to ignore when he rested his feet in it and he grimaced, hoping the examination would be over quickly.
"All right, brat," she said and plunked down on the stool, snapping her gloves on, "I'm going to check whether you're healing as you should. It might be a bit uncomfortable, but I'll be careful. Let me know if you're in any pain, okay?"
"Yep, sure," he muttered, resting his hands on his stomach and twirling his thumbs around each other while he stared at the brightly lit ceiling.
He concentrated on the noises Itachi was making and Sasuke's soft murmuring to distract himself while Tsunade bent between his legs and carefully started examining him. He still couldn't help but tense up when two fingers breached him, but he just took a deep breath and forced himself to relax. The quicker she could do this, the quicker he could put on his clothes again. He really didn't like being on display like this, even though she'd helped him give birth and this was less embarrassing than that had been.
"You're cleared, brat," she announced, pushing her stool away from the examination table. She removed her gloves and disposed of them in the small bin. "Everything is healing well; you've got nothing to worry about."
"Thank god for that," he muttered and awkwardly slipped off the table while she returned to her desk.
Once he was fully dressed again, he sank back in his chair and hugged Itachi close to his chest when Sasuke handed him over silently.
"So I don't have any other examinations to go through, right?" he asked, just to be certain.
She shook her head, typing the information in his file. "No, you don't have any other examinations planned after this, unless you suddenly start feeling unwell. The next check-up with me will be when you want to go back on suppressants," she replied, peering at her screen.
"But I can only take those again when I stop breastfeeding, no?" He thought his mum had warned him about that a while ago.
"Yeah, you have to completely stop breastfeeding before you can go back on your suppressants," she confirmed, leaning back in her chair. "Can't have your milk be filled with those hormones. That said, there's nothing keeping you from having some fun in the meantime if you're up for it," she smirked; her eyes glittering when Naruto made an odd choking noise. "You just have to make sure you use condoms of course, unless you want another baby so soon, in which case I fully reserve the right to judge you."
Ignoring his cheeks heating up, Naruto rolled his eyes and cupped the back of Itachi's head. "I love Itachi, but I'm definitely not ready for another baby so soon."
"Good to know the lack of sleep isn't affecting your common sense," she smiled satisfied before waving her hand. "Anyway, should you want to have some fun, nothing's stopping you. You're fully cleared for that type of activities. Just you know, make sure you use the right entrance." Her smirk was downright evil now.
"You're evil and horrible and I don't even know why I still go to you," Naruto informed her darkly.
She just cackled in response, because she was an evil hag like that.
"I finally got Itachi to sleep," Naruto sighed and dropped down on the couch, rubbing both his hands through his hair quickly. "He definitely wasn't in the mood to sleep, let me tell you that."
"I heard," Sasuke murmured, frowning at the notebook on his lap. "I was planning on taking over when he stopped crying."
"I think he cried himself to sleep," Naruto muttered and peeked at the page. "You're writing the grocery list?"
"Yeah, you wanted to go on Monday, right?"
"Yep, they're going to have some pretty good sales then," Naruto confirmed and stretched his arms with a soft groan. "You put ramen on the list already?"
Sasuke's hand paused above the paper before he wrote something down and the blond smiled satisfied.
"Anything else?" Sasuke inquired, showing the list.
"Nah, I think you've got everything on it," Naruto said, grabbing the remote to turn on the television. Now that Itachi was asleep, he hoped to catch up to some shows. "And if not, we'll probably remember it once we're in the store anyway."
Sasuke hummed before asking casually, "You want me to add condoms to the list for when we're both in the mood?"
Naruto choked on his own spit and started coughing, thumping his chest. "The hell, Sasuke?" he brought out in a hoarse voice, staring at him incredulously.
"You were acting weird the whole drive back," Sasuke said, putting the notebook on the table. "I'm guessing it had to do with what Tsunade told us at the end, right?"
"I wasn't acting weird," Naruto mumbled, scowling at the television.
"Yes, you were," Sasuke countered calmly. "You were more quiet than usual. Tell me why she got you rattled now? It's not like this is the first time she referred to our sex life."
"I'm not rattled, I'm just …" Naruto breathed out slowly, annoyance filling him and he rubbed his cheeks harshly. Refusing to look at the other man, he muttered, "It's just that – I'm not really in the mood for sex. I'm tired the whole damn time, I'm sore and I might not look like a whale anymore, but I'm still fat."
"You're not fat, Naruto. You're already slimming down," Sasuke interrupted him, frowning. "Even if you did keep the weight, though, I'd still find you attr-"
"I feel fat then," Naruto snapped annoyed, whipping his head around to glare at him. "And that doesn't really get me in the mood to fuck! Plus I don't trust condoms on their own. I know they're safe, but what if one breaks? Then I'll probably end up pregnant again and the last thing we need is another baby! I love Itachi, I really do, but I can't handle another baby now! I rather wait until I'm back on my suppressants, because then at least I know I'll be safe if I don't fuck up again and - "
"Hey, hey, it's fine," Sasuke said and pulled him against him, wrapping his arms around him. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. You know I would never push you."
"I know that," Naruto muttered; his voice muffled against Sasuke's shoulder. His hands crept around Sasuke's waist to clutch at his sweater. "It's not that I don't want to, but I'm too tired and I want to be back on my suppressants before we have sex. But that might take some months still and that doesn't mean that you won't get in the mood, so I'm sor-"
"Don't apologise," Sasuke cut him off sharply and pushed him away gently to look at him. "Never apologise for something like that. If you don't want it, you don't want it. You never have to apologise for that."
"I know, I know." Naruto took a shuddering breath, embarrassed at himself for behaving like this. He knew Sasuke would never push him, but just because he wasn't in the mood, that didn't mean Sasuke wouldn't get in the mood eventually, right?
"Besides, I can always use my hand if it comes to that," Sasuke added dryly, smiling when that made Naruto laugh startled.
"Sorry, don't know why I suddenly started freaking out like this," Naruto sighed when he'd stopped laughing. He pricked his ears, but he couldn't hear any crying, so Itachi must still be asleep.
When he saw Sasuke opening his mouth, he warned sharply, "Don't even think of telling me it's hormones, because I swear to god I will punch you."
Kiba had made the mistake of wisely claiming that Naruto's frustration with the microwave last week had everything to do with his hormones running rampant and had been clocked in the head by one of Naruto's textbooks in response. No, his frustration had had fuck all to do with hormones and everything to do with the fact that the microwave had been behaving like a piece of shit.
Sasuke raised his hands up in the air with an amused huff. "I wasn't going to say anything like that."
Blue eyes narrowed at him suspiciously, before Naruto harrumphed and plastered himself against the Alpha's side, pulling his arm around his shoulders. "Good, because I'd hate to punch you," he sniffed, draping his own arm across Sasuke's – very firm, absolutely not flabby – stomach.
"Good to hear," Sasuke said amused and then they settled in to watch the show Naruto had clicked on, enjoying the quiet moment now that Itachi was fast asleep.
When the commercials started, Naruto stirred and mumbled, his fingers slipping underneath a thick sweater to rest on warm skin, "You know, I might not feel up to actual sex yet, but I still got hands and a mouth that I'd be happy to use."
Sasuke's body shook underneath him with silent laughter. "I'll keep that offer in mind."
Naruto grinned and threw his leg over Sasuke's. "You do that."
Naruto made good on his offer a couple of days later when he woke up with Sasuke's erection pressing against his arse. The Alpha was still soundly asleep, obviously still tired from waking up a couple of times when Itachi had started crying.
Grinning mischievously, Naruto carefully handled Sasuke on his back and slipped underneath the sheets. Pulling the shorts down, he didn't waste any time and took him in his mouth completely, swallowing once the tip brushed the back of his throat. That had a shock running through the body underneath him and hands buried themselves in his hair when he set about sucking the Alpha off quickly.
He knew they didn't have that much time – Itachi could wake up any minute now – so he threw in all the tricks he'd learnt throughout their years together and was rewarded for that by low groans and bit off curses while fingers tightened and relaxed in equal measure around blond strands.
It didn't take long for Sasuke to come down his throat with his name being hissed through clenched teeth and after swallowing it, he sat up, licking his lips before wiping the back of his hand across his mouth. Smugness filled him at the sight of a heavily breathing Sasuke, whose cheeks were flushed and pupils were still dilated. He'd done that; he was the cause of that look on his Alpha's face.
Dark eyes glowed when Sasuke beckoned him closer and Naruto smirked, leaning down to kiss him.
Until Itachi started crying, letting them know he needed food now.
Well, at least it was only a kiss he'd interrupted; that was less frustrating than the alternative, Naruto considered as he unbuttoned his shirt so he could feed Itachi.
And hell, it was good to know he could still drive Sasuke crazy with his mouth alone.
"Sure, sounds great," Naruto agreed, waiting for the light to turn green. "If Sasori-san is okay with us bringing Itachi along. I don't want to leave him with someone else yet."
"Perfectly understandable, un," Deidara said on the other end of the line. "Don't worry about Sasori; he's okay with you bringing Itachi-kun. And even if he wasn't, he knows better than to argue with me about it."
Naruto chuckled, caressing fine black hair when Itachi muttered something. He was carrying the baby against his chest in a sling, finding that easier than to push a pram. Besides, the place where he was going to wasn't easily accessible with a pram anyway.
"If he's got a problem with Itachi-kun being there, he can talk to me about it, un," Deidara said flippantly.
Naruto shook his head and crossed the street when the light turned green. After the first meeting, Deidara had turned out to be completely smitten with little Itachi, often bringing presents for him when he visited them. Honestly at times Naruto wondered whether Deidara was visiting to see them or to see Itachi. It was hard to tell sometimes.
"I'll let Sasuke know you invited us," Naruto said, side-stepping a puddle from last night's raining bout. "I'm sure he'll agree to go."
"Let me know whether you can come, no pressure if you can't, I understand, un," Deidara replied and then cursed softly. "My break's over. I'll talk to you later, un."
"Yep, bye!" Naruto hung up and went around the corner, slipping his phone into the pocket of his jacket. He'd left it unzipped of course, because he was carrying Itachi in a sling, but it helped to give him some protection against the wind. So far March hadn't seem very willing to slowly turn into spring.
Soon his university building came into view and he quickened his pace, casting a wary glance at the grey sky. He might have to wait for Sasuke's class to be over with if it started raining heavily. Normally he wouldn't be at the university today as all his classes were online ones, but his internet connection was iffy and he needed to hand in his paper today or risk losing two points for tardiness.
With his internet connection showing no immediate signs of improving and stabilising, he'd opted for printing out his paper and delivering it to the professor herself so that he would still be on time.
After handing in his paper, he stepped out into the hallway again, glad that his professor hadn't been difficult about it. She didn't strike him as a ruthless teacher, but Itachi's presence had probably helped him a bit, because he'd basically seen her soften up once she'd laid eyes on him.
"You wrap everyone around your little finger, hm?" he said, brushing a kiss on top of Itachi's head. He got some sort of "Bah!" sound in response and he snickered.
"Well, don't you make the adorable pair together?"
His head shot up at the vaguely familiar female voice and he blinked when a red haired girl halted in front of him. Her glasses slipped down for a second before she pushed them back up and she smiled friendly at him.
"Ah, you're the one who got me out of the aula back then!" he realised suddenly, blushing when he couldn't immediately recall her name. "Sorry, your name has slipped my mind," he admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.
She smiled and adjusted her bag on her shoulder. "No worries, I'm Karin. You're Naruto-kun, right? Sasuke-kun's mate."
"That's me," he confirmed; his cheeks reddening further at the verbal acknowledgment of the bond between him and Sasuke. At the same time he was pleasantly surprised to hear her say that without sneering. Usually girls tended to be rather pissed off at him when they realised he was the one who'd captured their precious Sasuke-kun's heart.
"How are you doing?" she asked, smiling when Itachi blew a spit bubble. "Your baby is adorable, by the way. So cute!"
"Thanks," he smiled, relaxing now that he didn't have to worry about defending himself against a crazy fangirl. Sasuke still had those way too much for his liking. "I'm fine. Itachi's not waking us up that often anymore during the night." His grin widened when he recalled how jealous mum had been about that. Apparently he'd kept them up for nearly his entire first year; Itachi must take after Sasuke in that regard, probably. Too bad he couldn't ask Sasuke's family about that anymore.
"He doesn't?" She seemed genuinely taken aback by that and he stared at her bemused.
"No, I mean, he does still wake us up a few times, but it's not as bad as before anymore," he replied slowly. "Why?"
"Oh, er," she fiddled with the gemstone on her necklace, "it's just that I've heard from Suigetsu – you know, that idiot who brought Sasuke-kun to you when you were in labour – that Sasuke-kun has nearly fallen asleep a couple of times in class. We just figured it was because the baby was keeping you two awake."
His frown deepened as his confusion grew. Sasuke had nearly fallen asleep in his classes? He hadn't mentioned any of that to him.
"No, Itachi's been rather good about that," he answered absently; his mind no longer with the conversation as he tried to figure out what was going on. "Thanks for telling me this. I'm going to insist on taking up more shifts in the night if Sasuke's nearly falling asleep."
"Ah, I don't want to cause any arguments between you two," she said nervously, biting down on her lip. "I thought you knew about it already."
"No, I didn't, but I appreciate you telling me this. Sasuke's a bit too noble sometimes," he replied; his smile thinner than he wanted it to be.
Why hadn't Sasuke told him about this? Why did he need to hear from someone else, someone he wasn't even that close to, that Sasuke was almost falling asleep in his classes? Was the sleep deprivation of the past months only hitting him just now? Why couldn't he just have said something about it? Naruto would have taken more night shifts if he'd known!
"Well, I've got a class now, but it was great seeing you again," she said and checked her watch. "You've got a very cute baby!"
"Thanks." He watched her hurry away; her footsteps echoing until they faded out when she rounded the corner.
He then turned around and made his way to the exit. He had some investigating to do.
He should have known.
He wanted to slap himself for not having seen this coming sooner. With Sasuke's history of being too protective, how could he have not expected this to happen?
Because Sasuke was still following sessions with Orochimaru and he had been improving in the last couple of months. That wasn't an excuse for him to not have seen this coming. He knew all too well how Sasuke's past had shaped him, he still had the proof of it hanging in the kitchen and near the front door – this was on him.
Sasuke was indeed sleep deprived – but not because Itachi's crying kept him awake at night. No.
He was tired because he kept getting up several times in the night to check on Itachi in the other room.
They had moved Itachi to his nursery two weeks ago now that they didn't need to get up so many times at night to tend to him. Naturally they had a baby monitor in the room so that they would know when he needed them, but they didn't have to get up every hour anymore.
At least Naruto didn't. Sasuke, on the other hand, did, even when it was clear Itachi was still asleep and didn't need them.
Naruto hadn't realised at first what Sasuke was doing. After his conversation with Karin, he'd gone back home and had pretended not to know anything when Sasuke had returned home an hour later. But he'd started paying attention at night, wanting to know what was causing Sasuke to be so sleep deprived when it couldn't be Itachi.
The first night he'd felt Sasuke leave the bed around one o'clock, but hadn't thought much of it, assuming he went to get a glass of water. Sasuke hadn't stayed away for long either. Two hours later they'd both been awake when Itachi had started crying. Nothing out of the ordinary there.
At five o'clock Sasuke had got up again, stayed away for a little while before coming back to bed.
Naruto had written it off as a restless night at first, assuming it was because of a paper that Sasuke was having trouble writing.
But the next night it happened again. The third night as well. Same during the fourth and the fifth night.
Either Sasuke was one very thirsty guy at night or he was doing something else during those moments he was gone.
On the sixth night when Sasuke had got up again, Naruto had quietly followed him. Sasuke had gone straight to the nursery and for a moment Naruto had wondered whether he'd somehow managed to miss their son calling out for them. But no, when Naruto had peeked inside the room, Itachi had still been fast asleep. He'd watched Sasuke stand next to the crib for a while, his face hidden within the shadows, but it had been clear he'd been watching Itachi.
A few hours later Sasuke had got up again and Naruto had trailed him to the nursery once more. Yet again there had been no sign whatsoever that Itachi had cried out. Sasuke had again just stood there for a while, looking at their baby, before he'd gone back to bed.
The seventh night had followed the same pattern. Sasuke got out of bed multiple times at night just to check up on Itachi, even when it was clear that the boy was just sleeping.
Naruto didn't need to ask why; he thought he knew. Sasuke wanted, no, needed to see with his own eyes that Itachi was okay, even though only a thin wall separated both their rooms and they would know immediately if something was wrong. The desire to check that Itachi was okay was the same desire which had prompted him to sic people on Naruto back when he'd still been pregnant and would have been alone at home otherwise.
Naruto understood. He got it, okay? He understood being protective about Itachi, wanting to ensure he was okay. But he couldn't allow this to go on any longer. If Sasuke kept this up, he would either really fall asleep in class or would just collapse from pure exhaustion – neither option appealed to Naruto.
Convincing Sasuke to cease checking on Itachi so many times would be difficult, though – unless Naruto had something that could soothe the dark haired man's worries.
Which he now did. He opened the box that had just arrived and nodded when he saw the object safely encased within Styrofoam. He thought this would be the best way to convince Sasuke to curb his worrying.
He just needed to wait until Sasuke got home to show it to him.
"What's that?" Sasuke stared blankly at the small monitor Naruto showed him.
"It's connected to one in Itachi's nursery," Naruto said and pressed on the ON button. The screen flickered to life, showing the empty crib and part of the room. "This way we can check on Itachi during the night without having to leave our bed. What do you think?"
Sasuke's face contorted with a range of emotions, his fingers twitching and tensing while he stared at the screen. He looked angry for a few seconds, before that melted away and a vague look of shame crossed his face before that got shut down as well.
"That – that seems handy," he eventually brought out; his eyes flicking upwards to Naruto's face.
"Yeah, it does seem handy, hm?" Naruto beamed, placing the monitor on the table for now. "With the baby monitor and this screen, we can both hear and see him if he needs us now. Nice, huh?"
Sasuke gave him a jerky nod before he abruptly tugged him against his body and kissed him. "Thanks," he whispered; his arms tightening around the blond a bit.
Naruto nodded, hugging him back. "No problem," he said simply.
Sasuke knew he knew about his nightly worries and that the screen was Naruto's way of helping him out. Sasuke was still working on the issues stemming from his past, but if a small screen could offer him some peace of mind – and more sleep – Naruto was all for it.
What was an extra monitoring device if it meant Sasuke would be more at ease?
Some might call it catering to his worries, but Naruto didn't care about that. He was confident that the monitor would eventually be stored back into its box once Sasuke felt comfortable enough. In the meantime Sasuke could be more at ease.
That was all that counted.
"You're ready for your third year to start?" Mum asked smiling, curling her legs next to her.
"Yes and no," Naruto admitted truthfully and shook his head laughing. "I mean, I can't wait for the third year to start, but it's weird to realise that this time next year I'll have graduated, you know?"
Mum hummed and nodded. "Yeah, I get what you mean. I felt exactly the same when I was still studying," she told him and took a couple of sips from her iced tea. "I'm proud of you, Naruto. You passed this year with good marks even though you're a full time parent now as well." She squeezed his knee and her eyes shone with both pride and love.
"Well, I've got a great example," he smiled cheekily at her and leant across to hug her.
"Naruto." Sasuke appeared in front of the couch, holding out Itachi to him. The baby was dressed in blue trousers, which mimicked jeans, with a light green shirt and a little jacket on top; the zipper of it hiding the shirt from view.
"What?"
"He needs his diaper changed," Sasuke informed him, wrinkling his nose.
"It's your turn!" Naruto argued immediately, scowling over Itachi's head at him. "I did it a few hours ago, remember?"
"I know, but Kakashi's calling me again and I need to pick up, otherwise he just keeps bothering me," Sasuke sighed aggravatedly.
"Eugh, fine, but you owe me two changing turns now," Naruto warned him and took Itachi over from him. "All right, let's get you all clean again while your papa deals with the old man, okay?"
Itachi giggled and smacked his hand against his chest. Well, at least someone was happy about changing a diaper.
Humming to himself, Naruto went to the nursery his parents had set up and laid Itachi down on the changing table, retrieving a new diaper from the bag.
"Let's see how messy your diaper is now, hm?" Naruto said and pulled a face at Itachi, making him giggle louder. "First, let's get you out of this jacket, though, because it's getting quite warm, isn't it?"
He lowered the zipper and was about to lift up Itachi to pull the jacket off of him completely when dark letters on the shirt caught his attention. "Hey, this isn't the shirt I put on you this morning," Naruto said surprised and reached out to straighten the shirt a bit so that he could read whatever was pressed on it. When had he even bought this one? He couldn't remember ever purchasing this shirt. Maybe it'd been a present from his parents or Deidara; that'd make sense.
Then he read the text on the shirt and his brain instantly short circuited; his mouth dropping open in shock.
There, printed across Itachi's small chest in bright blue letters, was "Please Marry My Papa".
And when Naruto turned around in shock, Sasuke was there, on the floor on one knee, holding out a small box to him. A golden ring with a thin line of sapphires in the middle glinted back at him.
He'd never seen black eyes so intense as now when Sasuke asked, "And? Do you want to marry me, Naruto?"
Holy shit.
AN2: *hums* Holy shit indeed.
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 third part of "Adjusting"!
Cuddles
Melissa
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Piece by Piece, Back Together