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Leader	By : mannahpierce Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 2163 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: This story has some of Masashi Kishimoto's characters from Naruto in a universe of my own devising. I do not own Naruto. I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 101
- 102
- 103
Thank you to my beta and muse, Small Fox. This story grew from a plot idea he gave me.
Also thanks to SidonieStarr, satterb, dark40, Moonmoore, eunmook, Aflyingmonkey, Maiki, sadie237, Destiny, melissen, for reviewing after chapter 101 was posted. Readers’ feedback, support and comments mean a great deal to me. Feedback keeps me writing.

Every message, review or comment is treasured.

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Part 10: Endgame
102: Sources

Sasuke stared at the monitor. There was no doubt who Yukie Fujikaze was describing, whether she realised it or not.
“But he’s dead,” he whispered.
“Could he have faked his death?” Kakashi asked.
“Who?” Neji demanded.
“Madara Uchiha,” Kakashi answered.
The name sent a shudder down Sasuke’s spine. Every Uchiha child grew up with stories of Izuna and Madara Uchiha. They represented the light and the dark side of the clan.
No matter how badly a male full blood Uchihas behaved, it always paled into insignificance when compared to Madara Uchiha. He had strangled his brother’s beloved and pinned the crime on another. He had forced Izuna to slit the throat of an innocent man, his closest friend, in the killing square.
Was he really going to let a man like Madara Uchiha lead an expedition of starry-eyed youngsters to found a new Uchiha clan?
“If we can prove he is Madara Uchiha we can kill him,” Kakashi declared with certainty.
Sasuke turned to Neji. “What about no one believing us?”
Neji gave a small smile. “Believe me, the resurrected Izuna Uchiha turning out to be his evil brother is a story people would be all too willing to believe.” He paused for a moment. “Of course a confession would make it a lot easier.”
“We mustn’t get ahead of ourselves,” Kakashi pointed out. “She could be wrong. Also, I can’t see how proving he is Madara is going to be any easier than proving he isn’t Izuna.”
Neji’s eyes had gone to the monitor and Sasuke remembered that Shikamaru was still talking to Yukie Fujikaze.
“I urge you to be cautious, Yukie-san,” Shikamaru was saying. “Izuna-sama has his goal within his grasp. He may not react well to something that threatens his plans.”
That was a massive understatement. Sasuke studied Yukie Fujikaze for her reaction.
She smiled. “So I cannot tempt you away from the official Uchiha line, Shikamaru-san, or persuade you to suggest who the man we know as Izuna Uchiha may be?”
So she did not know that she had described Madara.
“She’s lying,” Neji told them. “She is confident that she knows who he is.” He turned to Sasuke. “Are you sure we should not be more open with her? It might stop her doing something rash.”
Sasuke was not sure. Confiding in someone who was not Uchiha went against the grain and, anyway, it might make matters better rather than worse.
Shikamaru was replying. “I am sworn to Uchiha,” he reminded her. “I will make some calls. Expect to be contacted very soon.”
“That should hold her,” Kakashi suggested. “She’s a journalist and he’s offering her a new source.”
Sasuke hoped so. He looked to Neji, who hesitated for a moment and then nodded.
He watched with half an eye and listened with half an ear while Shikamaru wound the meeting up and escorted her to the door where Fu was waiting.
Sasuke activated the link to Shikamaru’s earpiece. “My office, Shika-san.” Then he turned to the others. “Meet you there; I am going via Haru’s workroom.”
The sooner Haru started checking if Izuna was Madara the better.

Haru had given up trying to work in the simulator; he kept going to sleep.
“A short nap would make it easier for you to concentrate,” Sai informed him. His projected avatar was perched on Haru’s workbench.
Haru decided not to answer. He knew he wasn’t a short nap person. If he went to sleep he would not wake up until the next morning.
“Ran would tell you to get some rest,” Sai added.
Ran was in Sublevel C helping at the clinic. With the younger children podded, he had been available and Dan had specifically asked for him.
Usually Iruka-sensei would have said no, because Ran didn’t have his knife, but the clinic was a secure environment and Dan promised to only allow Ran to be with tanked patients.
Haru was determined to keep going until Ran was back this veering. “I’ll be fine. I’ll go get a coffee soon.”
“Sumiko-chan says coffee is...”
The door announcer sounded and Sai’s avatar vanished mid sentence. They did it that way because most of the big litter would use the announcer but then walk right in.
Even Hoshi only counted to ten.
The door stayed shut, so it wasn’t Hoshi. Haru opened it from his desk.
It was Papa. “Haru-chan,” he hinted.
Haru flushed, he had left Papa standing on the threshold of the open doorway.
“Please come in,” he replied quickly. He gestured towards the chair Shi-chan usually sat in.
Papa sat down. “You look tired, Ha-chan. None of us got much sleep last night. You could always have a nap.”
Haru decided not to explain that naps did not work for him. He settled for what he hoped was a cooperative nod.
“Someone...” Papa hesitated and then went on. “Someone has suggested that the person we know as Izuna Uchiha may be Madara Uchiha.”
Madara Uchiha? Madara Uchiha was dead. Bits of his body had been found after his spacecraft had been destroyed.
“I would like you to specifically exclude this possibility.”
Haru dragged his mind away from Madara Uchiha stories and onto the problem.
“It is urgent, Haru-kun,” Papa continued. “The person making this suggestion is a reporter. We need to be ready with a response if she goes public with it.”
The reporter had to be Yukie Fujikaze. “I will get onto it, Papa,” Haru promised.
“And, for now, please only discuss this with me or Shika-san.”
That wouldn’t work; Haru opened his mouth to object.
Papa frowned. “Is there a problem with that?”
“There may be,” Haru admitted. “Haku-san helps me find stuff in the household storerooms to test. It could take me ages without asking him.”
Papa sighed. “You may ask Haku-san for his assistance. I shall have a quick word with him now before I go into my meeting. Haru, this is merely a possibility that an outsider has raised and that we must address.”
“I understand, Papa,” Haru assured him.
Once Papa had gone Haru’s mind started racing. It was so obviously not ‘merely a possibility’. Papa had said that to stop him getting worked up about the thought of Izuna-sama really being Madara Uchiha.
“Sai?” he queried.
“Yes, Haru?” Sai answered via his earpiece.
“Did you hear that?”
“No. I decided that it was a private discussion between you and Sasuke-sama.”
“Good decision,” Haru acknowledged. “We have to exclude the possibility that Izuna-sama is not his brother Madara. Oh, and you can only mention it to me and Shi-chan.”
“It is not something I would discuss with Sumiko-chan,” Sai informed him. “I shall not mention it to Ran or to Kazuki when he regains consciousness. Were Madara and Izuna monozygotic twins?”
“What? No.”
“Good, then the probability that their genetic profiles are the same is extremely low. Do we have any genetic material that is known to originate from Madara Uchiha?”
Suddenly Haru thought about his conversation with Asuma-san, when Asuma-san had told him about Papa’s father giving Itachi-san Madara’s knife.
“Maybe,” he replied.
Haru was outside Haku-san’s office before Papa had finished speaking with him. At least that was Haru assumed from the red ‘busy’ indicator above Haku-san’s door.
Sure enough the door opened and Papa strode out. Seeing Haru he stopped and turned back.
“Haru-kun is here to see you, Haku-san.”
Haku-san’s voice came through the open doorway. “Already? Come in, Haku-kun.”
Haku-san already knew that he needed things that might have belonged to Madara Uchiha, but he did not know Asuma-san’s story about the knife. When Haru told him he frowned.
“Itachi carries a knife that Kisame gave him.”
That made sense to Haru. Itachi-san didn’t want to carry a knife that reminded him of his father. “Do you think he still has the other knife?”
Haku-san stood up, which meant Haru did too. “Kisame will know.” He checked the rotas. “He should have finished helping repair all the doors he broke. He will be in the elite fighters’ baths. Let’s go.”
Haru had not expected to be invited along. He had thought that he would go back to his workroom and Haku-san would talk to Itachi-san about the knife. Instead they were on their way to the elite fighters’ territory; somewhere Haru only went on the rare occasions that he had a specific duty that took him there.
It was obviously not a no-go area to Haku-san, which made sense since Haku-san was queen of the elite fighters’ crew room.
Kisame-san was in the largest of the baths, which was more like a small swimming pool than a bath. He seemed to be about to say something but then he spotted Haru and stopped.
“Haru-kun,” he acknowledged.
Haru bowed politely. “Kisame-san.”
Haku-san gave a cut down version of the story Asuma-san had told. Kisame-san was scowling before it was half-told, which was more than a bit scary. He surged up from the water, waded to the edge of the pool and climbed the steps.
Haru tried not to stare but not look away either. Kisame-san was huge, blue and scaly all over; literally all over.
Haku-san handed him a robe.
“He has never used the knife,” Kisame-san stated.
“That’s good,” Haru pointed out. “There’ll be more chance of finding Madara Uchiha’s genetic material on it.”
“It is in his lockbox. Also it occurs to me that Fugaku-kyou knew where to find the knife. Maybe there is a container in the storeroom that contains Madara Uchiha’s belongings.”
“I’ll get onto that,” Haku-san declared. “Perhaps you can ask Itachi to join me once you have talked to him about the knife.”
Haku-san swept away, leaving Haru with Kisame-san.
“I must speak with Itachi alone, Haru-san. Do you know how to use the DNA harvesting nanobots?”
Haru nodded.
“Then I suggest you go down to the infirmary and see if you can sweet-talk Rin-san into letting you use the facility. I shall bring you the knife.”
Haru set off for the infirmary, trying to think of ways to ‘sweet-talk’ Rin-san. Usually he would not even try, he would either get Shi-chan to do it or talk to Dan-san. Neither of those was a runner today; Dan was at the clinic in Sublevel C and Shi-chan would be in the meeting with Papa. Then there was the problem that he could not tell Rin-san why he needed to harvest DNA now.
It was as difficult as he had imagined.
“Are you in need of a medico?” she asked as soon as she spotted him.
“No,” he admitted.
“Then go away.”
He took a deep breath. “I need to harvest some DNA.”
She scowled at him. “It is out of the question. I do not know how you could even suggest it.”
“But...”
“No, Haru. You know how busy everyone is. I am the only person on duty here. I do not have time to supervise you using the facilities. Go away.”
He stood his ground. “Papa has asked me to check something. I need to take a fresh sample.”
“Then you will have to ask Sasuke-sama to make the request.”
“He’s in a meeting. Please, Rin-san, it is urgent.”
“Then Shikamaru-san. I do not even have the time to argue with you, Haru. Go away.”
Haru was about to say that Shi-chan was in the meeting too but Rin-san was walking away into her office. What did he do now? Too late he realised that he should have spoken to Iruka-sensei first. Iruka-sensei would have accepted how urgent it was without asking questions and even Rin-san had to do what Iruka-sensei said.
Then the door behind him opened. For a split moment he thought it was Rin-san reinforcing her order for him to leave but the Itachi-san entered with Kisame-san behind him. Itachi-san was carrying a box; presumably his lockbox.
“Are you ready, Haru-kun?” Itachi-san asked.
He was about to respond when Rin-san re-emerged from her office. Haru knew that Rin-san disliked him but at least she had never looked at him in the way she was looking at Itachi-san.
“Rin-san,” Kisame-san rumbled.
She pulled her eyes away from Itachi-san. “Kisame-san,” she acknowledged.
“This is urgent, Rin-san,” Kisame-san explained. He bowed. “I apologise that it is not possible for us to explain why without Sasuke-sama’s permission.”
Haru wasn’t sure if he had ever seen Kisame-san bow to anyone other than Papa. Apparently Rin-san thought the same because she flushed and nodded.
Then she went into her office and shut the door, like she would prefer to pretend that they weren’t there.
Haru had never harvested DNA on his own. He told himself that was because Rin-san insisted that he was supervised rather than him not knowing what to do.
He asked Itachi-san to put on gloves and transfer the knife to the isolation box. Once it was inside, the three of them stood staring at it.
“I will try not to damage it, Itachi-san,” Haru promised. “I’ll do exactly what Shi-chan did with Papa’s knife and that wasn’t damaged at all.”
Itachi-san shook himself. “You can completely destroy it for all I care.” He looked to Kisame-san. “I am going to help Haku search the storerooms.”
“I shall accompany you,” Kisame-san replied.
It was easier once they had left because Haru felt more confident without anyone watching him. He repeated what Shi-chan had done with Papa’s knife, using the manipulators to wrap all but the hilt in a nanobot-proof covering. He then studied the containers, wondering which to use.
“A bag will work best,” Rin-san said from a few paces behind him.
Haru managed not to jump too much.
“Use a bag with a self-sealing injection point. Then you can evacuate most of the air before injecting the nanobots. They’ll work better that way.”
He followed her advice, putting the knife into the bag, pumping out the air and injecting the nanobots onto the hilt at six positions spaced across the surface.
“That is Madara Uchiha’s knife,” she observed as he was finishing and using the manipulators to replace the injector in its holder. “Obito told me the story of Fugaku-sama giving it to Itachi on his fourteenth birth anniversary.”
Haru knew that Rin had been in a crew with Kakashi and Obito Uchiha. “Papa asked me not to talk about it,” he explained.
She frowned but then nodded. “Your father is a deeply honourable man. That may occasionally put him at a disadvantage but it makes him who he is and a leader anyone should be proud to follow. You should leave the nanobots for twenty minutes.”
Haru had been going to leave them for longer, just to make sure, but no one knew more about nanobots than Rin-san. “Thank you for your help.”
She gave the smallest nod. “Why don’t you visit your oto-san? I will help you transfer the nanobots to the DNA sequencer in twenty minutes time.”
Haru was about to ask how To-chan’s treatment was going but he stopped himself. Rin-san would never discuss a patient’s treatment with anyone other than their designated next of kin or Papa.
“His and Kiba-san’s treatments were finished today,” Rin-san volunteered. “The extra three days tanked is to mend the damage the virus had done and to make sure they recover fully.
Visiting To-chan when he was tanked reminded Haru of when he was younger. After a few minutes he put his hand against the transparent wall of the tank and leaned his forehead against the surface.
“Get better soon, To-chan, Papa needs you,” he whispered.
“Haru?”
It was Ran. “You’re back!”
“Just in,” Ran replied. “I was going to help Dan-san restock the kits for tomorrow but Rin-san said you were here and Dan-san told me I could go.” He came over and gave Haru a hug. “You look like you are about to give out.”
Haru hugged back before studying Ran’s eyes. “You look like you took a stim,” he accused.
“Dan-san gave me one. We all took one. Tired medicos make errors. I’ve got the antidote to take later.”
“Maybe he’d give me one,” Haru said hopefully.
“Not a chance,” Ran told him.
With Ran to keep him company, the twenty minutes were soon up. Rin-san gave him some useful tips as he collected the nanobots, transferred them to a vial and placed it in the sequencer.
“You’ll have your results by morning,” Rin-san told him.
“Thank you for your help, Rin-san,” Haru said, really meaning it. He had learnt a lot.
“You are welcome, Haru-kun.” She looked at the chronometer on the wall. “If we all hurry we will be in time for the evening meal.”

Iruka had suggested that everyone should be at the evening meal. Sasuke had agreed, asking Shino to organise interfaces that were hardwired to the control room for those on duty to use.
Repairing the wireless networks was going to have to wait a few days. It was not a priority when compared to making the structure safe and fulfilling their other commitments.
“Are you going to tell everyone?” Kakashi asked as they walked towards the kitchen.
Sasuke considered. “How many people do you think already know or suspect?”
“You, me, Shikamaru, Neji, Haru, Haku, Kisame, Itachi, probably Rin and there is no way I am not telling Iruka. You should definitely tell Ino. She’ll be working with him again tomorrow.”
“I have told Iruka-sensei,” Sasuke admitted. “Yes, I shall tell everyone else but I will word it conservatively. It is the ideal opportunity with all the children still podded.”
He waited until they were all at the table. They obviously expected him to say something; Choza had put the food in insulated serving dishes and no one had touched them.
“It has been a long and taxing day,” Sasuke began. “Everyone has responded magnificently. In one way we were lucky, because no one was injured or worse and the damage is relatively slight.
“In another way this has been a truly terrible day. What I share with you now must remain, for now, confidential and kept within the clan.
“At least three, and therefore probably all five bombs, were planted by someone from within the Uchiha compound. The purpose of the bombing appears to have been to cover the killing of the Orochimaru print.” He took a deep breath. “We suspect that Izuna-sama arranged the attack to prevent the print telling us that the man we know as Izuna Uchiha is not Izuna Uchiha.”
He paused for a moment, waiting for the information to sink in. In truth, none of those around the table seemed surprised.
“We are investigating the matter further. Our problem at the moment is that we have much evidence that he is Izuna Uchiha and little beyond suspicion that he is not. Therefore, for now, we will act as if he is, indeed, Izuna Uchiha.”
He was tempted to leave it there but Kakashi nodded slightly, encouraging him to continue.
“However, based on information we received this afternoon, we are trying to exclude the possibility that he is actually Madara Uchiha.”
There were a number of gasps. Asuma struck the table with his fist and Terai gave vent to a sting of curses, some of which made Sasuke flinch.
Hoshi’s eyes were almost circular; Sasuke hoped it was because of Madara’s name and not Terai’s language.
“Are you going to drag the imposter to the killing square and slit his throat, Sasuke-sama?” Hamaki asked.
“Only if we can prove he is Madara Uchiha,” Sasuke admitted. “If the situation remains uncertain, we have no choice but to continue to treat him as Izuna-sama.”
“Slitting Izuna Uchiha’s throat is not acceptable,” Fu pointed out. “Even if he has proven to be...”
Sasuke tensed. Even after all he had done, if he was Izuna Uchiha criticism was unacceptable.
“...different than the stories suggested,” Fu finished.
“Well put, Fu-san,” Sasuke praised.
Silence followed, which was broken by Choza.
“I can’t see how not eating and letting good food go to waste is going to help,” he pointed out.
“I agree,” Sasuke added. “Let’s eat.”
- 101
- 102
- 103
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