Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at /works/44731393.
Rating: Mature
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: M/M
Fandom: Naruto
Relationship: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Character: Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Tsunade (Naruto), Hatake Kakashi, Umino Iruka, Shizune (Naruto), Nara Shikamaru, Haruno Sakura
Additional Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Mpreg, complicated pregnancy, Difficult Pregnancy, Omega Uzumaki Naruto, Alpha Uchiha Sasuke, completely ignores canon, Not Canon Compliant, Not Medically Accurate, Depowered Naruto, Smut, Mother Hen Hatake Kakashi, Protective Hatake Kakashi, Adoption, Mother Hen Umino Iruka, Frottage, Slice of Life, but with ninjas, Original Child Characters, Revival of the Uchiha Clan
Language: English
Series: Part 1 of Hold On and Never Let Go
Stats: Published: 2023-02-02 Completed: 2023-04-24 Words: 66,469
Summary
Naruto cries, "Because...because I swore to let you go, Sasuke. I can't... I can't keep doing this... I can't keep dreaming of you, then wake up and you're not there,"
Or the one where Naruto lets Sasuke go, but Sasuke comes back and holds on tighter.
Notes:
I have not finished Naruto, and I haven't seen the anime in years. I just wanted like, a shit ton of angst between these two because I love them. I am stressed recently so... they became my outlet.
Naruto and Sasuke are about 23 years old. I aged them up a little bit. I know Naruto and Hinata had Boruto when they were 20. But we're not going there. Hehe.
I know Kakashi took the mantle of Hokage before Naruto turned 20, and I believe it's Kakashi who signed Sasuke's acquittal, but for angst purposes and shovel talk, Tsunade will be the hokage in the first part of this and is the one who signed it. So yeah. Kakashi will be the hokage later.
I also know that most ninja are supposed to know Taijutsu, too, but for angst purposes Naruto will be nerfed a lot and that includes being unable to do taijutsu. Kurama will be asleep for most of this.
Naruto has long hair in this. Because I like him with longer hair. Think Minato but maybe just a little bit shorter.
Chapter 1
"Naruto, it's seven thirty. Go home,"
The blond omega looks up at his alpha grandmother from the paperwork he's been working on from behind his desk. "Baa-chan, your backlog is screaming at you, and you want me to go home?"
"Yes!" says Tsunade. "Naruto, if it were up to me, you'd be on your maternity leave already!"
"It is up to you," Naruto rolled his eyes at her. "But you've got all this paperwork, and you want me to disappear for a year? I don't even have enough savings to be jobless for two weeks,"
"Idiot!" barks the hokage, "You won't be jobless. That year off is paid, brat!"
Naruto stares at her. "It is?"
"Of course it is!" she sighs. "Wait, did you really plan on working until you popped? I told you to rest!"
"Well, yeah! There's not much to do at home and I thought it wasn't going to be paid!"
"Just, go home, alright? Shizune can take your workload. If not, I'll get another part-timer. You're already big enough not to fit in the door, fuck's sake,"
"Hey!" Naruto frowns at her, accepting his fate, setting aside the paperwork, and grabbing his bag. "I'm just at 26 weeks! I'm not that fat!"
"Well," Tsunade waves her hand at him vaguely. "Too many weeks to be working pregnant is what I think." She only thinks that because she knows the complications Naruto has been going through in this pregnancy, and because she sees him like a grandson. "Look, just rest, alright, brat? You just got off medical leave without my permission. Now I'm benching you again. I'm your doctor so you listen to me. And don't you dare come in tomorrow until a year after. I'll work out the specifics,"
"People are gonna think you're playing favorites!" he hangs his bag over his shoulder, gripping tightly onto the table as he gets up.
"Who said you're my favorite?"
"I do and I'm the only one you let call you Baa-chan, 'cause you are," Naruto snarks back and childishly sticks his tongue out at her. "And my babies are gonna be your favorites, too!"
She sighs in resignation. Naruto's right though. She's going to love this child, and all Naruto's future children so much. "You've barely started this one and you're thinking of the next?"
"Of course! Can't let them grow up alone, can I?" he grins at her.
She's about to send him off when she remembers something. "Hey, I told you to move out of your apartment,"
"Look, maybe after the baby, ok? I'm still trying to save up. Maybe since you said the next year is paid, I could get ready with the diapers and use the rest for a deposit. I'm not gonna be able to do anything else other than take care of the baby anyways,"
"Naruto, you live on the second floor. Those stairs are going to be a massive risk on you as you get further along—"
"I know, alright!" Naruto scratches at his face in frustration. "I'm trying, Baa-chan, I really am. It's not like anybody else other than you is willing to give me a job. And you're pushing it already with giving me a longer leave,"
"I'm going to break everyone in his body, that Uchiha boy,"
Naruto chuckles. "I think I made my peace. I've let him go," he sighs again. "And I need to get going too. Don't work yourself too hard, Baa-chan. I'll come around tomorrow—"
"I told you—"
"—to bring you lunch! Man, you're a nagger. I'm trying to learn how to cook, okay! Yakisoba and dumplings for lunch?"
"Yes, and bring beer,"
"No beer," he sticks his tongue out at her. "Otsukaresama,"
"Otsukaresama,"
"Okay, okay, you're like, strong enough to save the village," Naruto tries to hype himself up so that he can overcome the steep stairs up to his second-floor apartment. "You can't let yourself be beaten by groceries and stairs,"
The challenge today is that he's got groceries with him, too, and it's not like, just because he's been an asset to the village, doesn't mean people have gotten over their prejudice against him and help him get up some stairs. If anything, having gotten himself pregnant by the most dangerous, former wanted missing-nin, just worsened their prejudice. Not that they know the child in him is fathered by Sasuke, it's just that, an unmated pregnant omega living alone. If that itself doesn't earn him the disgust of half the society.
He's not allowed to use any chakra or physically exert himself. The lack of support from Sasuke as his alpha is making the pregnancy difficult, even with Kurama. No scenting, physical, mental, and emotional support. Using any kind of jutsu or physical exertion causes cramps and spotting. He's bled a few times. He allowed Tsunade to block his chakra channels and prevent him from using much of it for a while until the baby arrives. No incoming and outgoing chakra for a long way to go.
The only thing he's been exerting the last few months is his brain, which he thinks has gotten too much exercise every day from all the paperwork his Baa-chan is letting rot. Well, to be fair this is the training he needs for when he becomes Hokage himself. And he does admit to himself that he has been working too much. Too much than Baa-chan actually needs; she's actually caught up on her paperwork because of him.
Naruto grabs the heavy, overflowing tote of groceries, his work-shoulder bag on the crook of his elbow, and lifts his feet up one by one up the stairs, making sure to hold tightly onto the railing, going slow and steady, making sure his foot is firmly on the step before taking another one since his balance is so off kilter a single move too fast could land him on the floor.
"Naruto?"
The familiar voice startles him, foot slipping off the next step halfway up the flight. Naruto gasps, balance of kilter because of the weight of his belly and the groceries, and braces for impact to his wrist and face.
But he's caught. A few cans roll off the tote bag, but he's caught.
He opens his eyes and in the dim light that illuminates the stairs and the hallways of the apartment complex, Naruto sees the father of the child in his womb, his alpha. "Sasuke…"