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Glue between the Cracks	By : Sasunarufan13 Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 4116 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor make profit of it. Kishimoto owns it.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
Author's note: Many apologies for the delay! I finally got around to finishing this chapter now that my exams are over and I figured out how to proceed exactly with this particular chapter.
Thanks to the following reviewer: Niremi
Warnings: Some drama mostly, nothing too bad
I hope you'll like it!
Chapter 3
October rolling into the country left him with a gap in between work assignments and after debating over it for a little while, he decided to test the waters and go visit Sasuke and Naruto. He and his brother had been exchanging texts for a little over a week now, none of them too intrusive, both of them still being cautious, but the reception of his messages had him tentatively believing that perhaps him coming over for a visit wouldn't end in a door being slammed shut in his face.
There was one thing he hadn't considered on his way to the couple's apartment: that they might perhaps already have plans for the day.
He was brought up short by the sight of Sasuke dumping a duffel bag into the boot of his car with Naruto ready to hand over another one. The blond man was the first one to take notice of him and he looked rather taken aback for a couple of seconds before pleasant surprise coloured his face. Well, that was at least a better reaction than annoyance at him visiting them unexpectedly.
"Hey, Itachi! I didn't know you were coming over," Naruto greeted him, making Sasuke turn around surprised.
"Oh hi, did I miss a message?" Sasuke patted his pockets and pulled out his phone to check.
Itachi shook his head, smiling wryly. "No, this was more a surprise visit but I guess that's the downside of a surprise visit: I didn't realise you might have made plans."
"Oh yeah, we're going to visit my parents, because they want to celebrate my birthday," Naruto told him, handing over the bag to Sasuke when the latter made a beckoning motion.
"It's your birthday today?"
"Yesterday actually, but we both were too busy with classes to make the drive," Naruto told him, shrugging. "Considering it's the weekend now, we have the time to make the drive."
"Happy belated birthday," Itachi wished him, making the Omega grin.
"Thanks." He tilted his head to the left slightly, giving Itachi an odd contemplative look while Sasuke slammed the boot shut. "Hey, why don't you come with us?"
"With you? To visit your parents?" Itachi asked blankly, thinking the offer quite strange.
"Yeah, why not?" Naruto shrugged, even as Sasuke turned to look at him oddly as well. "Now that I think about it, we haven't told them yet that you're still alive and seeing as you're Sasuke's family, you're bound to meet eventually anyway. It'd be stupid to keep you and my parents apart for the rest of our lives, so they might as well meet you now. If you and Sasuke are okay with that, of course." He looked questioningly at both of them.
Itachi nodded, a bit apprehensively. "Sure, I'm okay with it, as long as you and Sasuke don't mind me joining you."
Naruto was right: if Sasuke was as close to Naruto's parents as these visits implied, Itachi would have to get to know Naruto's parents eventually if only to make celebrating birthdays – like his unborn nephew's birthday for example – easier in the future. There was no sense in staying away from them, but …
"How much do they know about me?" he questioned cautiously. If Sasuke never mentioned him, explaining his sudden appearance would be rather easy.
"Pretty much everything I knew back then," Sasuke replied. "That you'd died together with my parents when those people broke into our house."
Raising an eyebrow, the older Alpha looked at Naruto. "So you're just going to spring the presence of someone they think is dead on your parents without warning them?" he questioned dubiously.
"Well, even if we just told them now and waited to introduce you, they would be asking why you hadn't joined us in the first place," Naruto defended himself with a huff, crossing his arms.
"True," Sasuke agreed thoughtfully. "They might not want to believe us without actual proof anyway, so it's easier if you're coming with us."
"Well, I guess I'm joining you then," Itachi agreed hesitatingly, still not entirely sure of this particular visit. How were Naruto's parents going to react once they found out that the brother of their son-in-law wasn't as dead as they had been led to believe?
"We're going to have to make a stop at your place then," Sasuke informed him. "We're staying for the weekend at their place, so you need to grab some of your stuff."
"If you don't mind stopping there first," Itachi agreed easily, figuring he might as well go along with this.
It would beat staying in his apartment, waiting for a new assignment to be send through at least.
They had been driving for half an hour when Itachi remembered a crucial detail. "Where am I going to sleep actually?"
Considering that Naruto was pregnant, he thought it safe to assume that his little brother would be sharing a room with his mate. Did they have an extra spare room or a couch he could sleep on during the night?
"Oh." Naruto sounded like he had belatedly realised something.
"Oh what?" Itachi narrowed his eyes slightly. Through the rear view mirror, he caught Sasuke smirking.
"Well, erm, we don't have an extra room," Naruto explained sheepishly, twisting around in his seat to look apologetically at the older man in the backseat. "Would you maybe mind taking the couch or so?"
"I know a better place," Sasuke announced calmly.
"There's no hotel in the town," Naruto reminded him, sitting properly in his seat again when Sasuke clucked his tongue and tapped his thigh.
"Oh, I know," Sasuke said lightly. "That's why I figured he can spend the night at Kakashi's place instead. It's been a while since you two last saw each other, right?"
"Sure," Itachi replied slowly, not really minding having to sleep at Kakashi's house, but … "I'm just not certain if he's going to be okay with me staying at his place."
"Oh, he will be okay with it," Sasuke stated confidently and smiled thinly. "It's the least he can do for us after all."
Oh man, he didn't want to be in Kakashi's shoes when Sasuke got a hold of him. Obviously the younger Alpha still wasn't happy with Kakashi's minor involvement in Itachi's plans.
Masking a grimace, he decided to change the subject. "What kind of job do your parents have, Naruto-kun?"
It would be handy to have some knowledge about the pair already, if only to make having conversations with them easier. Especially given he would have to explain first why he wasn't dead after all. Not that he would tell them what exactly he'd been up to these past eight years; that wouldn't exactly give them a good impression of him.
"They're both police officers!" Naruto answered brightly; pride shining through both his voice and his face.
Police officers.
Splendid.
Even if he hadn't been informed about the type of relation between the couple and Naruto, it was very obvious whose son the blond Omega was. His looks were an obvious mixture of his father's and mother's, but even with Itachi's limited exposure to them, it was becoming clear that Naruto had inherited most of his mother's personality.
When they had explained how Itachi had managed to survive the attack – he left out most of the unsavoury things he'd been forced to do these past eight years – Kushina had reprimanded him for not informing his brother sooner. The reprimand had left Itachi feeling more amused than really offended, because the similarities between mother and son were uncanny.
Aside from the awkward start when Itachi had done his best to explain where he'd been all these years without revealing too much of the world he'd spent his time in, it was good to see how accepted Sasuke was by the couple. Kushina had bestowed an equally tight hug on his brother as she had on her own son, before she'd started cooing at Naruto's belly. Minato had greeted Sasuke warmly as well, drawing him into a conversation about his classes once he and his wife had finished getting to know Itachi a bit better.
It was a relief to find out that Sasuke had found a new warm family. Minato and Kushina would never be able to replace their own parents, but it was good to know that Sasuke still had some sort of parental figures in his life. Not that at his age he was still in desperate need of a parental figure, but …
He was refilling his glass with water, contemplating what he would do in the event that Kakashi wasn't home – he had mentioned wanting to lie low to escape Sasuke's wrath – when Minato walked into the kitchen, carrying two empty glasses.
"You doing okay?" the older man asked friendly, putting the glasses down on the counter.
Itachi blinked, a bit thrown off by the odd question. "Yes, shouldn't I ask you that? Seeing as you believed I was dead for some years before showing up at your doorstep."
Minato sighed, leaning against the counter next to him and crossing his arms. "It's still a bit surreal," he admitted wryly. "I think it will take us a bit to get used to this. Not that I'm not glad that Sasuke-kun still has his brother!"
"No, I get it," Itachi nodded, "Honestly, it still feels a bit surreal to me as well. After all these years … To tell the truth, sometimes I wasn't certain whether I would ever get to see my brother again. To still have that chance … It takes some time getting used to that."
He still experienced nights in which he woke up, uncertain whether he'd been dreaming reuniting with his brother or not. After so many years on his own, it took time getting used to having his younger brother around again. Whenever he feared it had all just been a dream, he'd grab his phone and reassure himself by scrolling through the texts he'd exchanged with Sasuke.
"Yeah," Minato said quietly and Itachi couldn't help but tense up slightly at the shrewd look the blond man threw him. "You didn't just lay low all these years, did you?" he said knowingly; his blue eyes darkening slightly.
Itachi was quiet for a moment, before reluctantly answering, "No, I didn't."
Minato nodded, looking like Itachi had confirmed his suspicions. "I'm not going to pry, my wife won't either, but I need to know one thing: is there any chance that either my son, my grandson or Sasuke-kun will have problems in the future because of what you did?" he questioned in a low voice; the fingers of his right hand twitching slightly.
"No, they're completely safe," Itachi answered confidently. "I wouldn't have returned if I hadn't got ri-…" He abruptly stopped talking when Minato's hand shot up in the air, cutting him off.
"No, I don't need to hear anything what you did during these years," Minato said curtly.
Stiffly, Itachi retorted, "I couldn't let them get away with what they have done."
The other man shook his head. "I get that, I really do. But I'm still a cop and I will be obligated to turn you in if I – or Kushina – ever hear something specific about what you did. Don't give me a reason to haul you into the precinct, because I don't want to do that."
"You don't mind that I did something?" Itachi asked suspiciously, narrowing his eyes slightly. That wasn't really the reaction he had expected.
A part of him had realised that he wouldn't be able to get away with half-truths given that the both of them worked with the police, but he hadn't expected Minato to be so upfront about what he suspected Itachi had done. He definitely hadn't expected the older Alpha to be okay with what he'd done to avenge his family.
"Don't mind …" Minato rolled his shoulders, grimacing. "I understand why you did it. It's not up to me to decide whether you should have done it or not. You were the one who lost your family through such a brutal manner, I didn't. Hell knows what I would do if someone hurt or god forbid killed my wife or my son." He was silent for a moment, staring blankly at the window.
He shook his head again and sighed. "As long as I don't hear any specifics, I'm more than fine with pretending to believe that story you fed me and Kushina."
"Even though you work for the police?"
Minato shrugged almost laconically. "As I said: as long as I don't hear any specifics, I'm not obliged to turn you in. I'm going to assume that nothing can be traced back to you?"
Silently Itachi shook his head. He'd been meticulous in finishing his business without leaving a trace behind. Even if he had for some reason missed a detail, Nagato would have taken care of it by now.
"Then as far as I'm concerned, you're as innocent as Sasuke-kun is," Minato smiled faintly. "I wouldn't have even brought this up if I didn't want to make certain that neither Naruto nor Sasuke-kun would land into trouble."
"If I even had the slightest suspicion someone could still raise trouble, I wouldn't have returned. I would never bring my brother or his mate in danger like that," Itachi reassured him.
Minato nodded and clasped his shoulder briefly. "You're a good man, Itachi-san," he said softly; his eyes having lost that hard edge, replaced by warmth. "I'm glad you and Sasuke-kun still have each other."
"Yeah," Itachi murmured, turning to look in the direction of the living room where he could hear Sasuke chuckling and Naruto laughing. "I'm really glad too."
"So, all in all, they took it quite well then," Kakashi surmised, filling his tumbler with whiskey again.
"As well as could be expected I suppose," Itachi agreed; his hand resting around his own glass of whiskey. He'd never really developed the taste for it that Kakashi had.
"Well, Naruto-kun's parents aren't hauling you to the precinct, so I'd say they took it pretty well," Kakashi chuckled, leaning back in his chair. He wrinkled his nose. "You think Sasuke's still mad at me?"
"He wasn't really happy with you when he found out you'd kept the truth from him," Itachi replied honestly and Kakashi's grimace grew. "I'm not sure how he really feels about you now, though."
"Guess I'll lay low for a little while longer then," Kakashi muttered petulantly, swishing the amber coloured liquid around in his glass.
Crossing his legs and settling more comfortably on the couch, Itachi remarked amused, "You afraid of my little brother, Kakashi?"
His friend huffed and pointed accusingly at him. "You Uchiha have all some goddamn temper when you get mad. I'd rather not fancy getting caught up in that storm, thanks."
Itachi smiled amused, shaking his head.
Both men were quite for a little while; the soft rain pitter-pattering against the windows and the roof the only sound disturbing the silence.
"I'm glad you got out of it," Kakashi admitted after a while; for once not jesting. "I didn't know which thought was worse: that you wouldn't make it in the end or that that world would get to keep you."
"It might have," Itachi murmured, recalling Nagato's offer. Remembering the rush, the thrill he'd sometimes experienced when he'd managed to pull off a particularly risky assignment.
He could recall all too well how elated he'd felt with every victory, the secret pride welling up inside him whenever Nagato had praised him for his quick thinking. The heady feeling of the admiration many in Nagato's employment had showered him with, impressed by his wits in spite of his young age.
He could have climbed up to become Nagato's direct right hand, he knew. Perhaps even take over his position one day when the older man was ready to retire. It had been within his grasp; all he had to do was to reach out and he would have had it.
He could have had it all – but it would have meant nothing without his brother.
"If I didn't have Sasuke still," he concluded and Kakashi cocked his head slightly to the right. "If they had taken my brother away from me as well … You might have never seen me again."
Kakashi inclined his head, appearing like he'd expected that answer. "I'd say I'm surprised by that answer, but I'm not." He raised his glass in a mock salute. "Well, here's to you leaving that world behind you."
Here's to me indeed, Itachi thought, bumping their glasses together.
Otouto 06.12 p.m.
Can you come over? I want to discuss something with you
The text he received on Wednesday from Sasuke had him furrowing his eyebrows slightly, trying to figure out just what exactly the other man wanted to discuss with him. Something about his past still? Although he didn't think it would take Sasuke this long to start that particular topic again.
Rereading the text for a second time, he checked the clock, noticing it was a bit past six o'clock. He'd been working the entire day on his latest assignment; he guessed he could take a break now.
Give me around fifteen minutes, he texted back and saved his work file before shutting off his laptop. He dumped his empty mug in the sink, making a mental note to wash it later, and grabbed an energy bar to keep him going until he had a chance to eat a proper dinner. He didn't have a clue how long the conversation with Sasuke would take, nor was presumptuous enough to assume that he would have dinner at his brother's place, so an energy bar would have to do for now.
A quick check out of the window informed him he would need to take an umbrella with him, the rain practically streaming down the windowpanes. At least the rainy weather ensured that he wouldn't be dodging people left and right on the footpaths; most people having sought out shelter somewhere inside the moment the rain worsened.
He arrived with half a minute to spare, his hands reddened from the cold and he took a couple of seconds to stretch his fingers, getting some warmth back into the poor digits. A guy leaving the apartment building nodded at him and held open the door, allowing Itachi to get inside before braving the stormy weather himself.
He shook his head at the young man's callousness, his umbrella dripping droplets across the shiny floor as he made his way to the staircase. Even if this was a relatively safe neighbourhood – and he had no doubt it was, because he'd done his research on it – who would just allow a stranger to get into a building without knowing for certain whether they even lived there? What if Itachi had been planning a crime?
Well, he thought a tad wearily, I suppose that's the difference between someone like him and someone like me who lived in an entirely different world for some years.
Perhaps there was something to be said about the innocence of youth.
Sasuke surprised him by already opening the door before he even had the chance to open it and then remembered the camera he'd seen near the front door during his first visit. Right, his brother probably had seen him arriving.
"Hey, you wanted to talk to me?" Itachi looked at him questioningly, stepping inside the apartment and removing his coat and his shoes, putting his umbrella in the designed stand for now.
He grew a bit concerned when he took a closer look at Sasuke's face and noticed how pale and withdrawn he looked. "Are you okay?"
At the same moment Sasuke opened his mouth, a male voice could be heard asking from the vicinity of the living room, "So when's your next check-up, un?"
It was a very familiar voice, one he would recognise everywhere even after not having heard it for so many years. A voice which never failed to send his heart racing, belonging to the only other person he'd regretted leaving behind.
A boy, no, a man, he was no longer a boy, he never thought he would see again. Someone he'd given up before things could have grown deeper.
A man who still sent his heart racing even now, eight years later.
His heartbeat thudding loudly in his ear, he marched to the living room, guided by the painfully familiar voice, before he could even think twice, before he could stop to consider the ramifications of what he was about to do.
He stopped abruptly in the doorway, transfixed by the sight greeting him. A sight he had never expected to see again, one which he'd given up the moment he'd left the hospital.
There he was.
His blond hair, those beautiful locks which Itachi had loved to play with, had grown even longer, held back in a high ponytail with a sideways fringe covering his left eye. He had remained slender, but his shoulders had grown a tad broader and his scent …
Dear lord, his scent had grown even more enticing after all these years, something Itachi hadn't thought was possible. The hint of apple blossom had grown even more pronounced, wrapped up in warm cinnamon with just the slightest touch of vanilla.
His scent had always been alluring, but now it seemed to practically blast off of him, leaving Itachi helpless but to inhale greedily, filling his nose and lungs with the smell he had yearned for, for so many years.
He was laughing, that sound still as inviting and melodious as Itachi remembered it being when they'd been a lot younger, and then he looked up casually, away from Naruto and –
Straight at Itachi.
Sky blue eyes widened, growing nearly as big as saucers, practically popping out of their sockets and then he shot up, barking, "WHAT THE FUCK?!"
Naruto whipped around, saw Itachi standing there, and winced, covering his mouth with his right hand. "Shit, we were going to tell you about him."
"OH? WHEN THE HELL WERE YOU GOING TO TELL ME THAT GUY CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD?!" Deidara yelled hysterically, pointing with a trembling finger at Itachi. "How are you – are you even fucking real, un?"
Itachi raised his hands in the air, feeling Sasuke come up behind him. "I'm real, Deidara," he spoke calmly, even though his heart was thudding so madly, he was certain the other man could hear it from across the room. "I'm not dead."
That only made Deidara laugh hysterically for some reason and he took some steps back, increasing the distance between them. He ran his hands down his face, muttering something to himself.
"Look, Deidara-kun, I know this is weird," Naruto hedged, standing up and reaching out with his hand. "But I swear that Sasuke and I didn't mean to keep this from you. We were - "
Deidara held up his hand, silencing him at once. "You and you," he pointed at Naruto and over Itachi's shoulder at Sasuke, "you're going to leave me and that guy alone. We're going to have a little chat with each other." He sounded incredibly calm now, almost cold; his face wiped clean of every emotion.
It left Itachi feeling a bit uneasy; Deidara had always been one to wear his heart on his sleeve. He'd often joked that he was extra expressive to pick up Itachi's slack.
"Erm, this is our apartment, so it's bit weird to – I'm going, I'm going!" Naruto squeaked when Deidara turned the full force of his narrow eyed glare on him and he practically rushed to the door, squeezing past Itachi when he stepped aside.
"Good luck," Sasuke muttered behind him and there was the sound of two pairs of footsteps disappearing further into the hallway, followed by a door quietly falling shut.
Looking at the glare Deidara levelled him with, Itachi thought despondently that he was probably going to need the luck.
A lot.
AN2: Man, I feel like I'm really putting Itachi through the wringer in this story LOL It's going to get better for him in the future, though! He just has to weather this storm first *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
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Glue between the Cracks