Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

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
- 14
- 15
- 16
My gratitude to my beta and muse, Small Fox. This story grew from a plot idea he gave me.
Also thanks to richon, lonelylulaby, melissen, SidonieStarr, disembodiedvoiceofthedying, ShadyDarling, Dwan GreenEyedCat, blugirlami21 and sadie237 for reviewing after chapter 14 was posted and Kyle for the email. Readers’ feedback, support and comments mean a great deal to me. Feedback keeps me writing.

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Part 2: Preparations
15: Moving on

Haru burrowed under the covers, hugging his second pillow close.
It had been the best birth anniversary ever.

He had been worried that the others might want something different. Not that he had said anything; he had thought it would make him look babyish. Then, five days ago, Hoshi had said it for him.
“This is going to be the last birth anniversary we share as children. Let’s make the most of it.”

So they had and everything had been perfect: from the new tops to the tea caddy; from dancing with To-chan to picnicking in the park. They had spent the afternoon in the most fabulous simulation Shi-chan had ever created and their cake had been the biggest and gooiest ever.
Ka-chan’s head appeared over the edge of the upper bunk. He twitched his whiskers. “Happy?”
“Very,” Haru admitted.
There was a tap at their door. Ka-chan’s head vanished.
It was To-chan. “Can I come in?” he asked.
“Of course,” Kazuki answered while Haru just smiled.

To-chan said goodnight to Kazuki and then sat on the edge of Haru’s bunk. Gentle fingers combed his hair before a whiskery kiss was placed on his forehead.
“It was a wonderful birth anniversary, To-chan,” Haru whispered. “Thank you.”
To-chan smiled at him. “Thank you, Haru-chan. It has been a beautiful day. I shall remember it always. Your Papa is going to play. Do you want the door open or shut? Ka-chan does not mind.”
Ka-chan would hear it anyway. “Open please, To-chan.”
Through the open doorway he could see Papa playing and To-chan sitting beside him. The music was beautiful. His eyes closed and he drifted away.

The next morning he woke to his new life. The first thing he saw was Ka-chan pulling on one of his new shirts. He was already wearing proper long pants and soft, low boots.
It looked weird.
“Am I late?” he asked.
Kazuki smiled. “Not this time. I’m going to try to catch Kiba-san at breakfast.”

Haru had expected to fall back to sleep but he didn’t. Instead he thought about Ka-chan realising that Kiba-san might feel bad about them leaving the nursery.
Ka-chan did stuff like that these days. Maybe he always had. He had always been there for Haru.

He pulled himself out of bed, through the shower and into some clothes. All the children’s clothes had gone, so he didn’t have any other choice than to wear something different. Haku-san had asked what he wanted and he had asked for pants with loops for his belt and lots of pockets. Since he had not specified anything else, Haku-san had made everything grey or blue so it would match.
It made deciding what to wear easy; he grabbed the first pair of pants and top that he saw.
It was early; if he turned up in the kitchen people would start asking if he was all right. Instead he settled at his desk and put in his wireless earpiece.
Sai’s voice was there immediately.
“Will you move into your new room today?” he asked.
Haru understood why Sai was so eager. Both his new rooms, the one here and the one on the Oak, were fitted with projectors. Sai said that they treated him differently when his avatar was projected life-sized.
Maybe they did.
“You’ll have to ask to come in, like with Ran,” Haru reminded him.
“I shall remember,” Sai promised.
Which did not mean he would do it; Sai had started to play more with language lately.
“See that you do,” Haru replied with mock severity. “Or I’ll put a switch into the circuit, like Ran has.”
“I would prefer you not to,” Sai said.
“I know you would,” Haru admitted. “We’ll see how it goes.”

Haru didn’t want to have to resort to the switch. Kazuki had refused to have projectors in his room and, despite what Ran and Ka-chan said about Sai being unable to feel, Haru was convinced that Sai had been hurt
He had tried to explain to Sai that his relationship with Kazuki was different. They were friends. Friends decided when and where to meet and Ka-chan had decided it wasn’t in his room.
“Am I not your friend, Haru?” Sai had asked.
“Yes, but between you and me it is different,” Haru had explained. “I caused your existence. That makes us more than friends.” He had struggled to find words. “I guess that makes us family.”
Being Sai, he had persisted. “If you caused my existence, does that make you my parent?”
Haru knew that was how Ran saw it. “In a way,” he had admitted.

He found a box and started to put the most important stuff from his desk into it. First was the data crystal array that Klenn-sensei had given him, his lockbox and then his tools.
Sai’s array was already in its case. Haru slung the strap across his body so that the small satchel settled into its usual position and then clipped it to his belt.
“You should think about breakfast next,” Sai reminded him. “It was early but it soon will be late.”

The triplets had already eaten; he passed them with Kiba-san on their way to the playroom. Unusually, To-chan was still at the breakfast table. Haru went over and kissed his cheek, like To-chan did to Iruka-sensei in the morning.
It earned him a quick hug and a special smile. “Have you and Ka-chan got your move organised?” To-chan asked.
“Yes,” Haru answered and Kazuki made a confirmatory noise from further up the table.
“Well remember that you can change your mind if you decide you have made a mistake about the layout,” To-chan told him.
Haru nodded but did not say anything. He knew what To-chan meant. He and Ka-chan didn’t have a connecting door between their rooms. Yo-chan and Ya-chan did, so did Hoshi and Yuki.
It had been Kazuki’s decision and Haru had gone along with it. Ka-chan had developed this thing about privacy. Haru put it down to Kazuki being physiologically fourteen while he was more like eleven; who would want their little brother walking in on him when he was fantasising about some girl?
He imagined Kazuki wanking to images of Rin or Shizune and shuddered.
“Are you all right, Haru-chan?” To-chan asked.
Haru felt himself flushing. “I’m fine, To-chan, just thinking.”
“You could try thinking and eating,” To-chan suggested.

Yuki came through the doorway as Haru reached for the cereal. They had all wondered what Yuki would choose to wear and now they had their answer. He was wearing a patterned kimono with wide blue sash that wasn’t an obi because it didn’t have a bow at the back. Haru wondered what Papa thought about it.
The kimono had the Uchiha crest over Yuki’s heart so Haru guessed that Papa wouldn’t mind too much.
In contrast, Hoshi was dressed very simply in dark blue calf-length pants and a matching top; it didn’t look much different to what they had always worn. Her hair was pulled back from her face and plaited; probably by Yuki because there was a small flower attached to the tie at the end.
“I shall be available this morning if you need any help,” To-chan told them, “and Kiba-san will be around this afternoon. Try not to bother Haku-san too much. It would be better to make a list and see him only once.”

Long before the midmeal, everything was in its place in his new room. Haru sat at the desk. Sai’s projection was sitting on his bed. He was thinking that he ought to do something; perhaps delve into one of his project boxes, when there was an ugly buzzing that made him jump.
It was the door announcer; he would have to change the sound on that.
Sai vanished as he went to open the door.
It was Hoshi and Yuki. Yuki was pushing a trolley covered with baskets. Hoshi picked one off the trolley and handed it to him.
“Stuff for your bathroom,” she told him. “Have you got everything out of the nursery? To-chan has offered to clear it.”
“I think so,” Haru replied. “Doesn’t To-chan want any help?”
Hoshi smiled. “Papa is helping him.”
Haru understood. They would get all sentimental about it and probably end up fucking.
Yuki looked past him into the room. “It’s a bit stark, Ha-chan. What about a few pictures or a patterned bedcover? Maybe a rug?”
A rug sounded good. “Where do I get a rug?” he asked.

By the end of the morning Yuki had helped him pick out a rug, a bedcover and some cushions and made him promise to hang a display frame, like the one in Papa’s office, on one of the walls.
In return he had customised Yuki’s door announcer, followed by everyone else’s once they realised what he was doing.

The midmeal felt even stranger than his new room. They merged in with the adults, serving themselves from the side counter and taking their meals to the main table to eat it.
Kiba-san was at the children’s table with the younger children. Shi-chan had taken one of the adults chairs at the side and Haku-san the other.
There was no sign of To-chan or Papa.
Then Ran was there, taking the seat beside him, and he remembered why moving out of the nursery and the playroom was a good idea.
Ran studied him. “Let’s eat quickly. Then you can show me your room before I have to be in the infirmary.”

Showing Ran his room was fun. Ran admired the storage system around his desk, commented on the rug and talked to Sai.
“What are you going to do this afternoon?” he asked.
Haru understood the message; don’t stay in here and worry that the move isn’t going to work out. “Shi-chan said I should visit him in his office if I had time,” he admitted.
Ran nodded. “Do that. It’ll be better tomorrow. You’ll be too busy to brood.”

He pressed the door announcer to Neji-san and Shi-chan’s office and waited. The door slid open to show Neji at his desk.
“Haru-kun,” he acknowledged with something close to a full-on smile. “Shika was hoping you would drop by.”
Haru began suspecting that something was up.

Neji led the way around the screen and tapped Shi-chan’s desk to get his attention. Shi-chan pulled out his earpieces and pushed up the visor he had been wearing.
“It’s Haru-kun,” Neji said unnecessarily, given that he was standing there.
Shi-chan smiled at him. “Nice pants,” he observed. “I would like a pair like that.”
“Not a good idea, Shika,” Neji suggested. “You would never remember to empty all the pockets before you put them into the laundry basket and Haku would get cross with you.”
“Good point,” Shi-chan admitted. He took off the visor and came out through the gap in the ring of his desk. “Notice anything new?” he challenged.
Haru started with Shi-chan himself, then the desk and finally the rest of the office. There, in the corner furthest from Neji’s desk, was a door.
His heart speeded up. When they had moved In-san and En-san’s laboratory closer to Shi-chan’s new office they had left a room between. Haru had been told it was a storeroom.
“It’s your birth anniversary present. You go in first,” Shi-chan told him.

It was a laboratory for him. There was a desk and lots of projectors and even a full body simulator in one corner. It was a mess, everything had been plonked willy-nilly into the room, but it still looked awesome.
“It’s fantastic,” he told them. “Thank you.”
“Shika did all of it,” Neji replied, which explained the chaos. “This is my birth anniversary present to you.” He went to stand next to a trolley piled high with the modules that Haru had used to build the storage around the desk in his new room. “I thought you would want to have the system you were already using and you can use the trolley to transfer your stuff between here and the Oak.”
“Thank you, Neji-san,” he acknowledged.
“There’s the same set-up on the Oak,” Shi-chan told him. He coloured slightly. “Your Papa and Na-chan think the simulators are a standard model. It might be best if they continue to think that. You also might want to thank Kotetsu-san for the amount of time he put into them.”
Haru wondered what they had come up with; he was sure it would be amazing. “I’ll do that,” he promised.
There was a tinkle of bells and the light above a door in the far wall flashed.
“I told them you might be coming,” Shi-chan admitted and Haru realised that the door had to be to In-san’s laboratory.

Haru went to the door and opened it. In the doorway was a forest of fronds that folded up and curled down as soon as they felt his presence, revealing En-san and In-san carrying a large pot.
“We grew it especially for you,” En-san announced.
Haru had not been sure about any plant since one had tried to kill him, never mind one that moved. “Thank you,” he managed.
“There is a self watering system,” In-san told him, “with an indicator light that comes on when you need to top it up and we made sure it has the right chlorophyll to grow well under the station and the ship’s lights.”
“So it will grow well in Tarrasade and on the Oak,” En-san had, obliterating any hope Haru might had entertained of abandoning it when they went surveying the new systems.
In-san frowned at the small knots of greenery, which were all that remained of the large, bushy plant. “It will probably get used to you,” he suggested doubtfully.
Haru had to admit that it looked as if the plant was trying to hide.
“Of course it will,” En-san added. “Where are you going to put it, Haru-chan?”

They decided where to put the plant, at least temporarily, and then Neji made tea and offered about a tin of thin, crisp biscuits.
It was nice but Haru preferred fruit punch and Choza’s cookies.
Then In-san, En-san and Neji-san left, leaving Shi-chan to run through the specs of the simulator with him.
They were spectacular; Haru couldn’t wait to try it.

“It’ll work out, Ha-chan,” Shi-chan said when they had finished discussing the interfaces.
Haru knew he didn’t mean the simulator or the laboratory. “I know. It’s just all so different.”
“And the last time it was so different was awful and lasted far too long,” Shi-chan suggested.
Was it that? Did the litter being separated remind him of being kidnapped?
“Everyone is still here for you,” Shi-chan assured him. “A few walls and different clothes don’t change that. Now, why don’t you go and find Ran-kun or Na-chan or Kazu-kun to show him your laboratory?”
It was a good idea but Haru’s eyes strayed to the simulator.
“I’ll just have a quick go on this first,” he replied.

As soon as Shi-chan had gone next door, Haru opened a link between the Sai’s interface and the new simulator. He then stripped, thinking that he would need somewhere to hang his clothes, and climbed in.
He felt the sensor net spread across his skin and tighten. Then Sai took over and he was in.

Sai had chosen birch woods in the spring. The images and sounds were even more real than usual. There was more spring in the ground and the air smelt incredibly fresh.
“This is good,” Sai’s avatar said from beside him. “It has its own dedicated data crystal array and the processors are as good as mine.”
Haru turned and had to stop himself gawping. Sai looked real. As Haru watched, strands of his hair moved in the breeze and his chest rose and fell as if he was breathing.
Only the lack of expression gave him away. Then Sai turned towards him and smiled.
It didn’t work. It looked horribly wrong.
“Not convincing,” Sai suggested.
“Not quite,” Haru admitted. “You know how you have to think like a flesh and blood human to interact with us?”
“Yes,” Sai replied.
“You need that strand of thought to dictate your expression. And you need to do more research on how humans show their emotions in their faces and their bodies.”
“So I can pretend better,” Sai stated.
“So you can express the emotions you feel in a way we understand,” Haru insisted.
The Sai avatar looked away. “Kazuki and Ran do not believe I am capable of feeling.”
“Tronnies could feel,” Haru insisted.
“Tronnies could remember how to feel,” Sai countered.
Haru scowled at him.
“Thank you for believing in me, Haru Uchiha,” Sai acknowledged. “May I access the sensors in your new laboratory?”
Haru issued the necessary commands.
The birch woods faded away and were replaced by the laboratory. “I wanted to see it,” Sai admitted. “Could we try out different ways of organising it?”
It wasn’t exploring the limits of the new simulator but involving Sai in his everyday life was more important. “Good idea,” he agreed.

They had a good plan by the time Sai reminded him that Ran would be finishing in the infirmary. Haru stored the images, climbed out of the simulator and into his clothes.
The plant had just started to unfurl but as soon as it sensed him it curled up tightly again.

Kazuki was in the shared area. As Haru walked towards him Ka-chan flicked his ears and twitched his whiskers, asking what Haru had been up to.
“Shi-chan has given me my own laboratory,” he admitted, hoping that Ka-chan would not think him too spoiled. He might not mention the simulator, at least not yet.
Kazuki smiled. “That’s as much a present for him as for you,” he observed.
It was true in a way. “What have you been doing?” Haru asked.
“Sorted my room and checked in with Gai-sensei. He’s given me a mission you’ll have to help me with.”
After his talk with Papa, Kazuki had decided to try specialising in security. “I’d like that,” Haru replied. “What is it?”
Kazuki looked comically glum. “I have to understand In-san’s security system.”
That was a challenge; Haru didn’t fully understand it. He wasn’t sure if even Shi-chan did. “We might have to work in stages,” he admitted.
Ka-chan’s ears went back and his whiskers drooped. “Because I’m too stupid?”
Haru poked him. “No, because I don’t understand it either.”
That cheered Kazuki up and they might have talked about it some more if Ran hadn’t arrived. He sat down on the other side of Haru.
“Did you visit Shika-san?” he asked, his eyes sparkling with amusement.
“You knew!” Haru accused.
“Neji-san asked me to try to get you there this afternoon,” Ran admitted. “Do we have time for quick look before the evening meal?”

They did. The plant liked Ran and Kazuki liked the simulator. Both Ran and Ka-chan agreed that the laboratory was full of Haru-type stuff and suggested a few tweaks to the plan he and Sai had devised.
The rest of the evening was fine. The evemeal was the same as always, except that the big litter were wearing different clothes and had more to contribute to the conversation. Afterwards they hung out in Haru’s room rather than Ran’s.
Then the others left and Haru was on his own.

Haru knew he could call Sai back. Ran had always wanted Sai to leave at the same time as Haru, so Sai had transferred the behaviour to the new setting. Sai would be pleased if Haru wanted to talk for longer.
But Sai wasn’t Ka-chan. He didn’t have a physical body that could shoulder-bump or hug. He didn’t burp and he didn’t make little growly noises as he drifted off to sleep.
Haru cleaned his teeth, changed into his pyjamas and climbed into bed. He didn’t think Ka-chan would be wearing pyjamas. He would be sleeping naked, like Ran did unless Haru slept over.
It was odd to be able to see the ceiling rather than the underside of Kazuki’s bunk. He hugged his second pillow to him and quashed the urge to get his plushie from its place in his lockbox.

There was a tap at the door.
It wasn’t Ka-chan because he always scratched. “Yes?” Haru tried. If it was a hybrid he would hear. If it was someone else, Haru would get up and open the door.
It was To-chan.
“May I come in?” he asked.
Haru nodded.
To-chan slid the door shut behind him and sat on the edge of the bed. “I am feeling a bit unneeded,” he confessed. “No big litter to say goodnight to and tuck in.”
“You can tuck me in,” Haru offered.
To-chan smiled. “That’s kind of you.” He looked about the room. “This is very cosy. It’s been a big day, moving in here and getting your own laboratory. May I see it tomorrow?”
“That would be nice,” Haru agreed. “In-san and En-san gave me a plant but it doesn’t like me.”
Gentle fingers combed his hair. “It probably won’t like me either,” To-chan replied, placing a whiskery kiss on his forehead. “Why don’t you shut your eyes? If you don’t mind, I would like to stay here for a while.”
Haru shut his eyes and listened to the soothing foxy noises.
He didn’t mind at all.
- 14
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- 16
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