Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Sector Five	By : FlairForTheVeil Category: Naruto AU/AR > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 2291 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor its characters. Rightful ownership belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I make no profit of this fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
Chapter 15: Under Oblivion

By the time they had stopped messing around and talking to go to bed, Ino and Sakura had quietly woken them up from their mere thirty minutes of sleep. Sasuke had had barely even enough time to consider falling asleep, unlike Naruto, who had fallen asleep within five minutes.
Sasuke’s eyes burned and his nose, ears, and fingertips were numb. He and Naruto had continued to wrestle in the snow for about an hour after the blond had so stupidly taunted him. Sakura and Ino hadn’t even bothered to ask why the clean white snow was interrupted with footprints and clumps right outside of their tents.
Now Sasuke and Naruto grudgingly stood outside of their tent, listening to the summary of suspicious activity within the last two hours from the girls.
“I only heard a few sounds from the woods,” Sakura said and unloaded her rifle to hand the extra ammo to the blond. “but they were most likely from foxes or rabbits. Didn’t sound heavy enough to be a person.”
Sasuke nodded attentively and turned to Ino. “Is there anything specific that we should be on watch for?”
She cast her eyes up in thought and shook her head. “Just besides the basic footsteps and signs of ambush, you should be fine. Disassemble Katons if they roll on by. Those officials didn’t have anything under their sleeves, did they? Hunting dogs or trackers?”
“No,” Sasuke said. “The only thing about them is that they were heavily armed.”
“Nothing specific, then.”
They were debriefed and ushered to the east and west points of the camp. Sasuke realized that the camp was longer than it was wider, confined in a nearly cramped space. His boots sunk into at least six inches of snow, tossing flakes in every direction when he pulled his feet out. His bangs flew away from his forehead when an icy gust of wind blew by, bringing snowflakes into his eyes and drying them out even more than they already were. Sasuke cursed to himself. The weather out here was never neutral.
On his left shoulder was Kusanagi, shimmering with the snowflakes and gracefully sliding against his hip. On his right shoulder was his favorite rifle, clacking against the top of his boot and belt. Sasuke had a handgun in either of his pockets, both only filled with five shots. His precision didn’t call for any more than that.
Now he neared the edge of the camp, someone having had dragged a log as a choice to sit down. To Sasuke, sitting down on watch was slacking. He wouldn’t lower himself to that level. Instead he opened his stance to a broader one, cocked his rifle, and squinted his eyes into the direction that the snow was coming from. Damn it. He should have pushed Naruto this way.
In Sasuke’s tact plan, he would stand watch with his rifle. If an official or Katon were to approach the camp, he would immediately shoot the official in his legs or arms and disarm him, and in a Katon’s case, shoot it and then disassemble it. Should the official survive the shot and close in on him for hand to hand combat, Kusanagi would be unsheathed and the official would have one less limb.
Sasuke slid his hand over the lacquered wood of his rifle and smirked to himself. He had a great plan.
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Naruto stumbled over roots hidden by the snow and nearly stabbed himself in the hip with his hunting knife. Damn, he thought to himself. It sure does get rough out here.
He patted his Jericho concealed by his shirt to make sure he hadn’t hurt it. Sasuke had told him that hand to hand combat was probably his strength. He’d make sure to challenge his friend someday.
Naruto approached the west side of the camp, heavy snow hitting the back of his jacket and nestling behind his ears. He ran a hand through his hair to dislodge the clumpy flakes, freezing his ears and melting down his neck. Naruto reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a few peanuts he had snatched from the food cooler. Growing teenagers needed snacks.
Someone had put a plastic beach chair facing the woods, so he seated himself in it and twirled his Jericho in his right hand, eating out of his left. Only two hours to go, Uzumaki, he thought to himself. He wondered what Sasuke was doing.
Naruto leant back into the chair, relaxing and staring into the woods. He wondered what would happen if an official popped out of there. He envisioned himself heroically beating them up and laying them on the ground like meat in front of their camp.
In his vision, it was spring, of course. The sun provided enough light for the grass to be a luscious green and the sky a bright blue. He could see foxes weaving through the forest in the distance and hawks far above their heads. There was no more cold, no more darkness, no more of the missing members of the camp. Everyone and everything was there. Shikamaru, who Naruto had recently discovered as a cool person, was awake and had patted him on the back for his fancy job. He had already received plenty of thanks beforehand, meaty slaps on the back from everyone and some heartfelt praise from the girls. For once, Sai had looked up from his near-extinct drawing tablet and offered him a calm nod, no perverted comments to be heard for the rest of the day.
But he was only halfheartedly accepting the praise from his friends and shaking hands with a grip less firm than the one he usually had. His blue eyes skirted away from the others’ brown, green, and gray to glance across their camp and snap back to someone who had said something. Everyone and their tent had thanked him already. The bigger men of the camp were moving to disarm and pocket the officials’ weapons, dragging the bodies side by side and dumping them limply. The silver-haired man, Kimimaro, who had looked so high and mighty in his life, now looked like a tossed rag toll with blood matted in his hair and tears in his uniform. The women, who were arguably more in-touch with modern technology than the men, quickly disassembled their electronics and trackers.
Soon enough, Naruto’s small crowd had dispersed and he was left standing in the front of the camp, alone. The members milled around him as they carried on their own tasks, chatting amongst themselves and ruffling the grass under their feet. He unlaced his fingers from behind his back and walked forward, heading to the tents in which he knew he would find solace.
He quickened his steps and anticipated his arrival to the tent area, ignoring the soreness in his jaw from where he knew he had already talked too much. Chatterbox, they called him. Oh, they would know. Naruto had bent over to lift away the flap of his tent, ready to poke his head inside.
“Hey,” a deep voice called out from behind him, freezing his moments and driving him to stand straight up.
“Uh… hi!” Naruto smiled and rubbed the back of his head. He regarded Sasuke with an interested gaze, amazed by the colors he seemed to be radiating.
Sasuke tilted his head to the left, or Naruto’s right, or… his brain seemed a bit more frizzled than normal, short circuiting at a simple thought and picking up at a random one. The raven stepped a bit closer so that there was only about a foot and a half of space between them, enough for the blond to question his vision.
“So I saw what went down back there…” Sasuke cleared his throat and crossed his arms.
Naruto nodded shakily. Sasuke’s words were going in one ear and flying out the other. For some reason, the pale boy looked… vivid. His hair seemed more detailed, bluer than its normally black tone… brought out by the sun. His skin was now a healthy ivory compared to the snow-white tone that it held in the winter. Sasuke’s eyes seemed realer to Naruto. He could see the darkest brown shade they were, revealed by the rays of sun and pronounced by his fine eyebrows. Whatever Sasuke was saying took enough effort to barely reveal his straight white teeth, a product of persistent mouth washing every night before bed. His lips, thin and pink, stretched into a thin line in what could be identified as annoyance – Naruto couldn’t currently tell. Then they moved in a rhythm that he vaguely recognized as something that was spoken to him every day. What was it again? Did it start with an ‘N’?
“Naruto!” Sasuke growled, trying to get past that mist of daze currently on the blond’s face. “Naruto!”
Blue eyes slowly slid back up to his eyes, glazed over and confused. “Huh?”
The raven scrunched his nose and clenched his jaw, flexing his biceps and trying to keep his eyebrow from twitching. “I’ve been calling you for the past few minutes.”
“Oh…” Naruto sobered his expression and his Adam’s apple bobbed gently. “Uh, sorry.”
Sasuke cast his eyes to the sky in a gently role and relaxed his shoulders. “Idiot,” he murmured and shook his head. He looked back up with a content smirk on his face, a sparkle of mirth in his eyes.
Naruto immediately adopted that dumbass look on his face, Sasuke noticed. It made his lips turn up a little bit higher. “Good job.”
At that moment, Spaceship Naruto took off into space at a speed faster than light. A silly grin formed on his lips and his ears warmed up a bit. He couldn’t help but stare into eyes that he had never known to hold so much depth, that caused his jaw to barely loosen and his heartbeat pick up ever so slightly. He never realized the intellectual rarity that such a common pair of physical traits held; he never knew the intelligence and abilities of someone whose hair, skin, and eye color could be found all across this land. But there was no denying the striking handsomeness that Sasuke held with such nonchalance.
Naruto swore he felt his heartbeat in his toes. Different, he thought. There was something different about Sasuke. Had he just thought about it? He couldn’t remember. “Thanks,” the blond managed with a distant voice. “It wasn’t that hard or anything…”
Sasuke snorted, clasping his hands behind his back and allowing a small, impish smile spread on his face. “I’m sure it wasn’t, Naruto.”
The blond got a fuller view of straight teeth once again, letting both of his brows raise. “Uh…” his lip twitched a couple of times. “What?”
“I said,” Sasuke tilted his head back and let his smile diminish to a satisfactory smirk. “I’m sure it was.”
Naruto blinked heavily a few times, seeming to break out of his daze and squinting at the raven. “I didn’t ask for any attitude.”
“You left yourself open,” Sasuke shrugged and turned his back to the blond.
Naruto scoffed and crossed his arms. “How?”
He turned back to Naruto so that he was walking backwards, a brow raised and a patronizing look on his face. “Staring at me with goo-goo eyes,” Sasuke cupped his hands around his eyes like binoculars.
“What!” Naruto screeched, hoping that Sasuke couldn’t see the results of his scorching face from where he was. “I was not!”
“I’m sure you weren’t.”
Naruto growled and stomped after Sasuke’s back, his shoulders squared and his lips pursed. “Say it to my fucking face!”
Sasuke turned back around, his face aligned in a calm and calculating look. “It,” he deadpanned.
“Don’t try to outsmart me,” Naruto growled and mimed wringing the raven’s neck. “you know what I mean, you asshole.”
Sasuke elbowed him in the ribs and shushed him, chuckling to himself and aligning their steps. “I’m sure.”
Naruto rubbed his chin and looked up into the lightening sky, letting snowflakes gather on his hairline. He distantly wondered where that came from. He remembered being teased for having too much of an imagination. Maybe it was making a comeback? He blinked a few times and rolled his eyes back into his head, sighing and watching his misted breath flow away from him.
Somewhere deep in the back of his mind, Naruto wondered if he had fallen asleep. The woods looked eerie and captivating, the tops of trees and their smaller branches frozen over. He glared into the foliage, scoping for any type of movement. Silence.
Once Naruto reassured himself that he hadn’t slacked off so much to let intruders into the camp, he returned to his thoughts. Sasuke was an interesting person. He acted like he didn’t care about Naruto, yet taught him how to protect himself. He let Naruto eat food off of his plate when he needed the nutrients and vitamins so dearly. When Naruto would wake up in a sweat from a nightmare and fling blankets off of himself, Sasuke would turn over so that the dull moonlight would reveal a good half of his face before asking what his problem was. Sasuke’s face… he fiddled with his thumbs as he thought about the aristocratic features, always set in a calm façade that Naruto would have to shove himself through.
What was it about Sasuke? He was irritatingly good looking, to a point where Naruto couldn’t stop thinking about it. It made him frustrated. He was lean and almost ghastly pale, possessing a dancer’s body, but Naruto had observed his skin so much to see the ivory tones in it. The edges of Naruto’s lips tilted up when he wondered how pale his stomach would be. That thought would be saved for another time. Sasuke was graceful even when a knife was launched through his shoulder and his face contorted in pain. He could consider the most rational solution in a tough situation, stay calm under extreme stress and work until the product was perfect. Sasuke was intelligent and quick-thinking, more so than Naruto thought he could ever be. Sasuke was the poster child of an upper-class Sector kid, way out of his league. He wondered how their personalities even mixed together.
Naruto growled and clutched his head, trying to knock thoughts of the raven out of there. Why was it so horribly easy to think about his best friend? Is that what friendship comes along with? Was he supposed to be thinking about Sasuke like this? He whimpered to himself and dragged his hands down his face, sighing and letting his eyes droop to his feet.
It was alright to think that his best friend was talented and interesting and handsome, right? Was it okay to yearn for a deeper emotional connection to him? Some friends were like that, right? Girls, right? Shit, he didn’t know anything about girls. He had walked in on Sakura topless and thought she was Gaara.
Kami, he didn’t want his thoughts to take such a complicated turn. Sasuke in his mind was simple and paradoxically complicated at the same time. He didn’t know what to think of it or dare say about it. He was confused and… he threw his head back into the plastic chair, accidentally reclining it and nearly tumbling over. Now he looked at the deep purple sky that reminded him of Sasuke’s chokutō. Naruto couldn’t even tell the thoughts that were most confusing to himself to Sasuke because they were about him.
The blond slumped forward, letting his Jericho dangle between his fingers and his elbows rest on his knees. He let his droopy eyes stare into the forest, now regretting the decision to stay up to prank Sasuke. At least he got him to smile.
Naruto flinched and scowled down at his own two fingers pinching his arm. Damn. There he went again, thinking about Sasuke. Maybe he should talk to someone about it… but not anybody inside the camp at the moment. Maybe he would approach Kakashi or Jiraiya about his haunting and persistent thoughts. They were common enough to be considered abnormal, by his guessing… but what did he know?
He sighed for the umpteenth time that morning and tossed some snow onto his face. He immediately felt more awake and alert, noticing the squirrel traveling along thin branches and the shadow of an owl deeper into the woods. Its hoot echoed inside the forest, barely audible.
Naruto stood up and squared his shoulders, rearing his attention back to the forest. He couldn’t be so easily distracted, even by such a sensitive subject. He’d politely and respectively raise his middle finger to thoughts of Sasuke. He had a camp and friends in it to protect.
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On the opposite side of the camp, Sasuke rolled his shoulder in a pathetic attempt to wake it up from being in a defensive position so long. For the past three hours, he had kept his eye in the scope of the rifle and his body in the ready stance of attack. His newly unbound left shoulder protested in every which way it could.
He sighed. The only signs of life around here were the arctic foxes sneaking out from their holes and the occasional owl hoot. Sasuke guessed that there was no threat to watch for. After all, the night had passed and the sky was transitioning from lavender to pink. He quietly seated himself in the plastic chair the previous guard had left, cradling his left arm and frowning.
It had been pretty obvious that the military officials had noticed them. It wasn’t that hard not to, after all. He and Naruto had probably left footsteps leading to the –
Wait. Sasuke’s eyes focused on the flake of snow that shivered on his jeans and quickly melted away. He glanced back to the forest, where at least four inches of undisturbed snow lay in a thick blanket.
A few gears in his head turned and clicked together, his brows knotting together as he quickly stood up and yanked his gun to himself with a loud clank. Naruto and him had returned from the city at approximately seven o’clock, since the sun set shortly after. If his sense of time was accurate, the snow had begun to fall around midnight, in which Naruto had woken him up at two in the morning to start a snowball fight. They had fallen asleep at three, been woken up at four, and the sun was almost finished rising at seven A.M. Sasuke glared a bit more intensely at the snow in front of him, his nostrils flaring. No footprints. His eyes traveled along the border of the forest in his view. No footprints. Sasuke hoisted his gun and Kusanagi over his shoulder, quickening his steps away from his original location. He jogged around the premises of the camp, keeping to himself as to not scare the other guards. No footprints.
Sasuke gazed at miles and miles of clean snow, unmarred and sparkling. There were no footprints. There were no Sector officials. There was no invasion.
The corners of his mouth tilted up in what seemed like the first time in years. The snow had deterred the tracking members from their own footsteps, covering them up and switching the directions of the world. The officials must have turned back. There had practically been a blizzard. The snow had fallen straight down, without angle. Their vision was cut off to at most four feet in front of their tracking team. The officials didn’t have any evidence to follow them now. They were safe.
Sasuke’s chest swelled with pride and he immediately maneuvered on his heel to run back to the center of the camp. Naruto and his shifts were over already, anyway. Maybe even overtime. There was no point in protecting the camp anymore. The adults were most likely on their way, having collected and looted supplies for winters to come like this. Maybe they had picked up firewood as well, since the one in the center of the camp seemed to be infinitely burning until last night.
His glossy rifle and Kusanagi bounced and clanged against each other on his back, snow seeping into the gap of his boots and jeans when he lifted his foot out of the snow. His calf muscles were slightly damp, but he didn’t care. Sasuke would finally dispel the prejudice against him inside this camp, and gone would be the scrutinizing looks of Tsunade and Neji. Gaara would finally stop sitting in a tree near him and Naruto to listen in on their conversation and he could speak to Naruto with his full potential. Kami, that’s right, he had to tell Naruto, who would be bouncing off the walls to finally yell-
Sasuke’s steps suddenly slowed to a dead stop. He stared at his black boots sunken into the snow, clumps of the fluffy substance stuck to the laces. He had passed the center of the camp a long time ago. The raven blinked heavily and raised his eyes, greeted by the sight of Naruto’s back, napping in a chair about twenty feet in front of him.
He sighed and shook his head. Naruto was always doing something ridiculous. He stalked towards the blond and called his name. He didn’t stir. Sasuke grabbed his formed shoulder and jolted Naruto’s body hard enough to wake him up.
Naruto grunted the moment Sasuke shoved him forward, catching himself on the armrest and glancing up at him. The blond stood up and scrunched his eyebrows together, running a hand through his hair brushing snow off of his thighs.
“What was that for?” Naruto whined and tucked his hunting knife a bit further into its sheath.
“You were sleeping,” Sasuke deadpanned and raised an eyebrow, running his thumb under the strap of his rifle to relieve some of the weight.
“No I wasn’t,” Naruto frowned. “I was thinking really hard.”
Sasuke snorted. “Makes sense you didn’t even move when I called your name. That doesn’t happen up there a lot, does it?” he reached up to knock his fist against the blond’s forehead.
“Hey!” Naruto shouted. “For your information, I do think about things a lot. “S why I’m not dead yet.” He raised his hand, hesitated, and glanced at Sasuke. The blond shoved him to the side.
Sasuke regained his balance by heavily stepping forward only once and continuing his relaxed stroll. The blond had shoved him with his left hand to Sasuke’s right, uninjured shoulder. Rather than thinking of a reply, he was slightly moved by Naruto’s consideration – though it might have only been caused by his own provocation. Either way, it silenced Sasuke and he found it slightly… endearing.
They continued to stroll side by side for a few moments, in a comfortable silence only interrupted by their breathing and the soft crunches of snow. Sasuke jolted when he nearly forgot to tell the blond about his discovery. His chest swelled with pride once again, his words pushing on his ribcage with the urgency of breathing. If he couldn’t tell Itachi to make him proud, he’d tell Naruto. The raven planned out his whole speech and its details. Approximately two minutes, maybe running a bit overtime with Naruto’s jabber in between and his own snarky comments. First, he’d start out by asking Naruto if he had noticed any-
“The officials aren’t going to come,” Sasuke blurted. His chest immediately relaxed and his thoughts slowed down, though he cursed himself in his mind for his loose lips. Perhaps they were yet another thing that he had picked up from Naruto.
“What?” Naruto said, glancing at his friend. “Sorry, I completely spaced out. Didn’t hear what you said.”
Sasuke almost sighed in relief. “It’s okay,” he muttered and cracked his knuckles. “I was just asking you if you had seen a Katon or something.”
Naruto’s eyebrows scrunched together and he rubbed his chin with his fingers. “I was gonna say something about that. I saw nothing. Literally nothing, ‘Sas. Well, besides an owl and a few squirrels… no people or those damn robots. It was pretty cool.”
“I didn’t get anything, either. It’s weird. That leads me to the next thing I was going to talk about.” Sasuke paused, not wanting to bust out in a long lecture about his observations. “I know the officials aren’t coming because the snow covered our tracks back here. There were no footprints this morning,” he pointed to where Shino had self-assigned himself into Naruto’s old spot. “Not even animal tracks.”
The blond moved in front of Sasuke so that he was walking backwards, a blank expression meeting a skeptical one. “How d’you know they didn’t smooth the snow over or some shit?”
He almost rolled his eyes. “Then you’d see hand prints, dumbass. Fresh snow looks like fresh snow. Not that hard to figure out.”
Naruto shook his finger in the raven’s face. “No need for those extra bullets, dude. I get it.”
Sasuke hated to minimalize something he was proud of, but he guessed it would have to be like that. He didn’t want Naruto any more riled up than he already was. Maybe he would tell Ino in some grand way.
“But you think they’re not coming tonight?”
“They won’t come now or throughout the day, at least. And there’s always the possibility that they never even picked up on our tracks.”
“That’s right!” Naruto yelled and returned to Sasuke’s side. “And if they do, we’ll beat the shit outta ‘em!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sasuke grumbled, eyeing the camp quarters for a long blonde ponytail. He had to shake his head to keep himself from looking for a black bob of hair. Hopefully, Itachi would be back within the next few days to hear Sasuke’s observations and accomplishments. Maybe then his brother would stop worrying about him so much.
The raven ignored Naruto’s idle chatter in favor of craning his neck over the thin congregation of bodies near the dead bonfire. He saw a tiny, ragged white ponytail from Suigetsu and of course the mop of golden blond hair beside him, but no Ino. Sasuke double took when Akamaru stood up on his hind legs and towered over Kiba, who patted his stomach like an ape and threw his head back in raucous and prideful laughter. His left eyebrow twitched in annoyance. So much for laying low.
The group greeted Naruto and he once they passed by, telling them to stay and play a few games like Simon Says. They were just about to celebrate last night’s record of no invasion, an overwhelming amount of paper plates stacked nearly as tall as him next to a wild assortment of ice chests. Sasuke quickly rejected the offer, Naruto responding a bit more slowly to loyally stay by Sasuke’s side. This is how it was these days, he thought to himself. No Naruto or no Sasuke. “Where’s Naruto and Sasuke?” he heard being said more often. They were like a package, inseparable and undeniable. It was both a gift and a curse, but alone time around here was now dangerous.
Sasuke finally spotted Ino the farther they went into the camp, conversing with Neji and Shikamaru standing closely behind her in front of the gun barrel. It was an odd formation, as Neji and Ino were the only two talking – it was almost as if Shikamaru were guarding her. He didn’t ignore the fact that Neji’s hand was resting firmly on the .20 PMR nestled into his holder while he leant nonchalantly towards Ino with the other on the rusty artillery barrel. Shikamaru made eye contact with him and they shared a mutual look of suspicion, then nodded to Naruto. From this distance, their conversation looked casual, but as they came closer, Sasuke noticed the tense height of Neji’s shoulders and the wrinkle in between his brows. Shikamaru was clearly an unwelcome presence to him.
“Ino,” the raven called, his firm voice easily travelling to her. She turned away from Neji and cast a curious glance to the two, taking a few steps forward to meet them halfway. Neji automatically turned with her, including himself in the small circle they made. His hair was oily and his lip slightly curled when Naruto came into the circle, obviously unappreciative of his presence. Fortunately, Naruto’s attitude had hunkered down into the serious one Sasuke found very useful – it was very rare to see him ready to get down to business. His scarred face was stoic and his pale eyebrows only slightly drawn together, his back straight and shoulders squared.
“Hey, guys,” she sighed tucked a piece of her bangs behind her ear. “I was just about to go ask you for your oral reports and then sleep.”
“I think you should sleep now,” Shikamaru mumbled, glancing off into the camp and shifting his weight to one foot. The boy looked more alert than Sasuke was familiar with, maybe even a bit more impatient. He dragged his eyes away from the tan boy and back to Ino.
“Shut up. You ready to give the reports? How was it on the west side?”
“Nothing happened at all,” Naruto said. “Only sounds I heard were owl hoots and squirrels. That’s really all.”
Ino nodded and crossed her arms. “Weird they didn’t ambush then or there.” She nodded at Sasuke. “East?”
“Nothing at all, either,” he mumbled, attempting to keep his eyes glued to Ino’s icy blue ones. “I made a few important observations, though.”
Her arms immediately dropped and she leant into Sasuke. “I’m all ears. What are they? What grade would you give their importance?”
“A plus,” he said, nearly caught off guard. “It’s good news. Naruto and I came back from the city approximately from seven to eight P.M. The sun had almost finished setting then,” he glanced to Naruto for clarification, who nodded. “and we got back by the time it had finished setting to inform you.”
“I don’t think I see where you’re going,” Ino raised her eyebrow and tilted her head down.
“I’m not finished yet,” he said, vexed. “You started assigning guards by at least ten P.M. That’s three hours of a window they had to follow us, but they didn’t. The snow started falling at midnight-“
“I can root for that,” Shikamaru cut in. “Chouji woke me up from a nap then.”
Sasuke nodded. “It was already too thick to uncover our tracks by 2 A.M. At 4 in the morning, there was no suspicious activity accounted for, right?”
“Sakura and Hinata said no,” Ino wondered aloud. “What’s your point?”
“I’m getting there,” he repeated and tilted his body towards Naruto. “6 to 7 A.M. today, there were still no tracks from the officials. What I’m saying is that, even if they uncovered them, they can’t follow our tracks. They’re completely gone. The snow covered our trails and probably masked out our scents from their hounds.”
There was a heavy pause between the three that hadn’t known this information. Naruto hummed in agreement.
Ino glared at the ground, and then at Sasuke. She stared at him and he swore he could hear the gears turning and clicking in her brain as she glanced to the forest and at their feet. Her face softened only a few degrees from the unbelieving glare she had been giving the raven, now turned into an awed one. “Sasuke…” she said. A nearly vulnerable look washed over her face and she glanced to Shikamaru, whose brows were knotted as he stared at the ground.
He looked Sasuke straight in the eyes, his mouth taut and his mind working. “You’re not the only one to notice this?”
“Well…” Sasuke glanced at Naruto. “I’m the only one to notice it, but I’ve got a witness.”
The blond nodded. “I was up at those times, too.”
“And it’s not too hard to check the forest for footprints,” Sasuke added. He could feel the glare Neji was sending down to him, continuously and seriously.
Shikamaru turned to Ino again and nodded. “Sasuke,” Ino murmured, sighing in relief. “You’re a genius.”
There was that word thrown at him again. It wasn’t as satisfying as hearing it come out of his brother’s mouth was. Itachi complimenting him certainly felt better than a compliment anyone else could ever give him, for sure. At least she had believed him.
“Thank you so much,” she pulled him in for a firm, short hug that he didn’t reciprocate. “we have to tell the others now. They’ll all be so relieved. Do you want to be anonymous?”
He tossed his eyes to the side in thought and nodded. If the word were to get around, Sasuke wanted to be the one to tell Itachi. He saw Naruto raise his eyebrows in the corner of his eye and resisted sending the blond an irritated look.
Neji scoffed. “But how do we know that we can trust him?”
“Like I said,” Sasuke bit out. “It’s not too hard to check the snow for footprints.”
The boy glared at him and looked back to Ino, who had already started making her way to the center of the camp to inform the rest of the members. Neji shook his head and stomped after her, a moderate chunk of his hair getting tangled in his gun holster.
Sasuke and Naruto shared a look before rushing after her as well, Shikamaru releasing an exasperated sigh as everyone exercised once again. Seemed like he could never get a moment of peace around here these days. The boy trudged after the rest of them, his short ponytail drooping along with his shoulders.
When he got closer to the camp center, Chouji was lugging the variety of ice coolers and plastic utensils to the bonfire. There was a quiet hum of chatter among the goers. Ino was visibly confused as she glanced around the circle, making sure that Shino and Konohamaru were on guard. Sasuke watched as she set her foot on top of a sitting log and her hamstring muscle bulged when she lifted herself onto it. Ino glanced around and set two fingers in her mouth, emitting a high whistle. The chatter instantly died down as the camp members turned towards Ino, not expecting any sort of announcement.
Ino stepped down from the log and motioned for everyone to gather in an unorganized circle. “Today, I got some great news from someone,” she smiled to herself and looked into the sky, obviously resisting giving Sasuke away.
“Sasuke and Naruto came back at eight last night. Ten last night I started giving guard times,” she started and set her hands on her hips. “Midnight, the snow came down. Anyone wanna take one for the team and guess what I’m gonna say?”
Silence. Sasuke could sense the rusted gears quivering in a few members’ heads, but not yet moving. Naruto snickered to himself next to him, and the raven nudged him gently. If anyone, he counted on Sakura to figure it out first. But if things were moving at this pace around here, he wouldn’t be surprised if the dog figured it out first.
Ino rolled her eyes and continued. “Scratch that. If the Sector officials didn’t come tracking Sasuke and Naruto right after they left the city, what other change did they have? Think about it. It’s midnight, the snow’s coming down really hard, and within two hours there’s this thick ass blanket of it,” she kicked some snow to the side. “This morning and the snow in the forest is clear of footprints except for those of animals.”
A universal shock of silence fell over the group, some friends turning to each other and sending unbelieving books.
A hand went up and Shino spoke out. “Have you inspected the woods? They could be travelling by trees.”
“And with no footprints inside the camp from where they would have landed?” Ino countered, raising her eyebrows at him as he let his hand fall to the side. “Yeah. It’s all clear, guys. There’s no tracks to follow or scents to find.”
Some complicated handshakes were made among the crowd and a few sighs of relief were heard. For the most part, it remained silent and worry-free as a weight lifted off the occupants’ shoulders. Tenten advised that they should, however, still remain on guard if the officials unexpectedly passed through. It was unlikely, but they were still in the area and no risks were worth being taken.
An unspoken agreement fell upon them that it was time to celebrate. Chouji finished unstacking the ice chests from atop another, placing them in a semi –circle around what used to be the bonfire for choosing convenience and pointing out the ones he believed that had beef, chicken, or pork. Sasuke noticed that they had lined up by age, with Neji and Lee starting the line and Gaara ending it. It seemed that Chouji had taken the role of serving, as he impatiently ripped open the saran wrap cover from a packet of paper plates.
Naruto and Sasuke stood slightly away from the group, observing them with Shikamaru and Ino and patiently waiting for the ruckus to go down.
“Hey, when’s your birthday?” Naruto asked from beside him.
“You’re forgetting things easily,” Sasuke replied and shifted his weight to his left foot. “July twenty-third.”
“Ah!” Naruto smacked his palm against his forehead and shook his head. “Sorry, I’m only running on two hours of sleep…”
“And I wonder why that is,” he snapped and raised an eyebrow. Naruto simply stuck his tongue out at him and crossed his arms. Sasuke turned back to the odd formation their group had made, Chouji finally finished opening utensils and handing them to Neji. The large boy picked up a pair of metal tongs and waved them at Neji. He bent over the first red cooler and pried open the Styrofoam cover, glancing inside and furrowing his eyebrows.
“This must’ve been the beef stew from last month…” Chouji mumbled, pushing the cooler behind him and moving to the next one. Sasuke vaguely remembered Naruto shoving that exact stew down his throat, smirking when Naruto’s elbow bumped his shoulder as he scratched the back of his head.
Chouji opened the next cooler and froze when he witnessed that there was nothing in it. “I think this was the beef we finished off last week,” he said to Ino and pushed the cooler behind him again. Neji’s eye visibly twitched as he dropped his plate and leant over to the third cooler, yanking the cover open and glancing inside.
Neji reached his hand inside the cooler and let yellow sand sift through his fingers when he brought it back out. “What the hell is going on?” Neji growled, unamused when Chouji ignored him and opened the next cooler.
Chouji overturned the cooler and a mound of sand poured out from the container. He dropped the tongs and knocked over the next carrier before opening it again, quickly moving to the next one at the sight of more sand.
Naruto jogged to Chouji, gently popping out the opening of the next container and furrowing his brows at the sight of tightly-packed sand inside. The blond heaved the box up and dumped it out, a cloud of dust forming in front of him and the feet of others. “What the fuck…” he said to himself, staring at the thin sand and dropping the container. “What is this?”
Sasuke was suddenly in front of him, crouching to his right and holding his hand out. Naruto tossed Sasuke his Jericho and leaned down next to him, watching as the raven poked the sand with the butt of the gun. Next to them, Sakura had dumped even more sand clean out of the containers and the only thing that filled their ears was the loud rush of sand onto snow.
“This looks familiar…” Naruto grumbled and held a handful of the pale grains.
“It does.” Sasuke refrained from touching the stuff at all. He racked his mind to remember where he had seen this specific color and texture of sand before, scowling and glancing to the blond.
“It’s…” Naruto called out and looked up. Now they were surrounded by an odd circle of sand, at least a foot tall. “This is training sand…”
Naruto shut his eyes and a vision of hundreds of bare feet running through this exact sand filled his mind, the sky nearly white with sun above them. There were grunts of pain and hisses and curses as their sensitive heels hit the searing sand, the moment they begun to slow down and experience the pain for even longer being dreaded by all of them. Naruto barely recovered from the burns as soon as he lifted his foot out of the sand. He knew he had blisters on the bottom of his feet, he could feel the sand moving around them and throbbing each time he landed again. It was horrible. He wouldn’t be able to walk or run correctly for the next two weeks, and all his platoon were issued was a pathetic tube of burn ointment each. They were too young to understand how to use it, too innocent to take care of themselves…
“I remember,” Ino growled and kicked a container to the side, stomping in the sand and sending it flying onto Naruto’s boots. “This is fucking Sector sand.” She plopped down onto the ground beside Shikamaru, resting her face in her hands.
“What do you mean?” Shino called out, slowly approaching the rest of the group and picking up a handful of the grains. He immediately dropped it once he caught sight of dead pieces of skin.
“You weren’t in the same platoon as Naruto and I,” she explained, staring at the blond from under her hands. “They made us run through this shit in the middle of Five’s fake desert. Told us it would teach us the lessons of diligence and speed. It hurt so much…”
“I remember,” Naruto grumbled and tossed the sand to the side, standing up and shaking his leg to rid of the stuff.
Shikamaru lifted his head, a bored look in his eyes as his lips pulled taut. “They took our food.”
“Nice observation,” Neji snapped, Lee setting a hand on his shoulder and shaking his head.
“Sasuke, Naruto,” Shikamaru called and nodded his head. They both approached him slowly, watching as he bent over to tap Ino on the shoulder so she would stand up.
“It seems I found the fault in your plan of systems,” Shikamaru murmured to Sasuke and glanced to the side, making sure that nobody was eavesdropping. “Sorry to ruin the party.”
“But there was no breaking and entrance,” Naruto crossed his arms and set his face into a skeptical look. “How could this have happened?”
At that moment, Neji loomed over the four of them and butted into their conversation yet again. Shikamaru made quick and meaningful eye contact with Sasuke, an unspoken agreement coming between the two.
“What the hell is going on?” Neji growled, a vein in his forehead jutting out as he glared from Sasuke to Ino.
Shikamaru cast his eyes to the ground and pursed his lips. “Let me think.”
“Haven’t we already done enough thinking?” Ino whispered and covered her forehead with her hands. “We were five steps ahead, and they’ve still outdone us. They’re Sectors. We can’t do this…”
“Yes we can,” Naruto said firmly and set a hand on her shoulder. “We made it this far, didn’t we? What’s the point of stopping now?”
“Don’t you see, Naruto?” she growled and wrung her wrists. “They trapped us. They took our food and water. Now we’re their pet fish and they’re just tapping the glass of our bowl. We walked straight into their game…”
Sasuke froze as he heard what they were saying. Itachi? Was Itachi okay? Had he been caught by the officials? Where was he? He wished he had someone to ask where Itachi was. His brother was always by his side, ready to answer any question Sasuke had. He had gotten used to it. Itachi had spoiled him with knowledge of every and which kind. Now, standing nearly alone with his only other family member in this world having a fifty percent chance of being dead, Sasuke felt clueless. His brother had always been there for him, protecting him, watching him, and sacrificing bits and pieces of himself for Sasuke. Now Sasuke might be the only Uchiha on this planet, the other of his name being seized by a Sector he hated so much.
The other day was when Sasuke had last seen him. Be it only a few hours and being distracted by Naruto, Itachi hadn’t inquired about his whereabouts and entrusted him to stay safe. The next day, Sasuke put himself in the utmost danger without informing him. The other day might have been the last time Sasuke would ever see his brother. The other day might have been the last to get any more valuable knowledge from his brother, but he didn’t regret reading up on sexuality as the subject was too sensitive to bring up with Itachi. Itachi would have excused it and told Sasuke to focus on his iron levels, eat this, not that, and sheltered him once again.
But if that was the last time Sasuke would ever see his dear brother, he would seek revenge. It was about time someone put an end to the nonsense of the Sectors, and it would be him. The possibly last Uchiha’s name would be remembered, and it would be remembered in honor.
“They must have slipped in… what were we doing at eleven P.M. last night?” Shikamaru asked Ino, suppressing the urge to sigh at her anger.
“Guards had already been set up by then,” she replied and took a deep breath.
“Who was guarding?”
Ino reached into her back pocket and pulled out a paper, unfolding it and glancing at the guards. She tossed it to the side. “Great. That was my rough draft before everyone switched the hell around. I trusted myself to memorize it, but now I can’t. Of course this would fucking happen,” she growled.
“It’s fine,” Shikamaru patted her back and glanced to Neji. “Did you witness anyone guarding at that time?”
Neji cast his pale eyes up into the gray sky and shook his head. In the window of time it took for Neji’s eyes to move from Shikamaru to the sky, time slowed down for Sasuke and he remembered Neji yelling at them to quiet down at eleven P.M. He nudged Naruto roughly and they shared an intense look, Sasuke glancing back to Neji.
Neji was staring straight at them, going unnoticed by Shikamaru and Ino who had turned to face Naruto and Sasuke. Neji’s face had gone completely blank, his head tilted back as he looked down at them through his nostrils and his right hand on the caliber of his gun once again.
“N-no,” Naruto stuttered and snapped Sasuke out of his thoughts. The raven’s chest filled with a sensation of impending doom as he tore his eyes away from Neji and placed them on Shikamaru. The long-haired boy didn’t bother to look away from Sasuke, his stare burning the front of his neck and making Sasuke’s forehead heat up.
“Damn,” Shikamaru whispered and set his fingers on his chin. “Sasuke, it seems like your plan was somewhat of a foreshadowing of this.”
“You were right about the erasing of tracks and footprints, but not ours. If we started assigning roles at ten P.M. and the first guard was to be slacking off… the officials came in unnoticed right before the snow started to fall. The snow didn’t erase you and Naruto’s steps, but instead it erased the officials’ steps. They snuck in and out right under our noses so we couldn’t track them back. We’re being sabotaged.”
“But that must have happened in under thirty minutes,” Sasuke breathed and furrowed his eyebrows. “How…”
Shikamaru shook his head sadly, his forehead wrinkled. “Their abilities are far past what we have,” he murmured and set a hand on Ino’s shoulder again. “Assuming they have the adults in custody… we walked right into their trap.”
“But…” Naruto held out his hand and stared at Sasuke. “We can still fight, right? We can’t give up!”
“Naruto, shut up!” Ino snapped. “There’s no point in this whole ‘fighting’ business anymore! We lasted out here for ten years, and that’s all we’re going to get. Fate put this in front of us. Maybe it was Kami’s plan the whole time, but nobody’s meant to live out here. Look at us. We’re cornered with barely enough weapons to safely arm everybody. The Sectors outreach our standards. Even if we fought…”
“I think we can fight,” Sasuke agreed. “Who’s to say that they’re not in custody, my brother’s not somewhere near us, and Kabuto’s safe and strong enough to be tracking them right now?”
“All of you stayed the damn same as you were in kindergarten,” Ino grumbled and pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes. “All you guys ever wanna do is fight.”
“I was a logical child,” Sasuke put in, acknowledging that she was speaking to the other three boys.
“And you still are, Sasuke,” she said and sighed. “Thank you.”
Sasuke’s lips upturned ever so slightly and he nodded. “So now what?”
“Now,” Naruto cut in and picked his Jericho up from a pile of sand. “Now we make a plan.” He looked to Sasuke again.
“Someone go get Konohamaru,” Sasuke barked behind them, knowing that the boy was sleeping in a plastic chair not too far away. He turned his head as he counted their total population. “There’s fifteen of us, sixteen if you count that dog.”
“We’ll guard in pairs in case half gets sabotaged,” Shikamaru reasoned. “I’ll remember to assign everyone by the one they work with the best. Of course Sasuke and Naruto are fighting together, as well as Neji and Hinata. Both Sasuke and Neji fight better in long distance battles than their partners. Hinata and Naruto fight better in close distance, as Hinata and Naruto’s self-defense and attacks are complicated. Place yourselves ten feet apart from each other.”
They nodded to each other and turned back to the group, which had broken out in their own rampage. Naruto managed a loud catcall that disturbed the crowd into silence more than caught their attention.
Shikamaru stood up on a log again, placing his hands in his pockets and lazily drooping his shoulders. “Our theory was close enough to what’s actually going on. Long explanation short, the officials snuck in and out before the snow had fallen, masking their tracks. Without any food and water, there’s no means for us to survive by. Tonight, we fight. We fight in pairs I have already assigned and you’re to stand ten feet apart from each other. Understood?”
Without waiting for a proper response, Ino placed herself in front of Shikamaru and begun barking out orders. “Sakura and Sai,” she yelled. “Go get your weapons as soon as you hear your partner. Shikamaru and Chouji. Kiba and Akamaru. Tenten and Lee. Naruto and Sasuke. Hinata and Neji. Konohamaru and I. Shino and Gaara. Go!”
An unorganized rush and bumping of too many shoulders, tripping over others’ feet and curses were heard after that. Sasuke glanced over to Naruto. They were already safely armed, armed with much more than they would ever need.
“We’re going to the forest entrance of the camp,” Sasuke grabbed the blond’s wrist and tugged him along.
“What?” Naruto yelled and jogged to keep up. “But that’s where they’ll come first! Are you sure-“
“I think you’ll remember how to fight,” Sasuke yelled back and ducked his head to bear his rifle. “I’ll do all the shooting and you disarm them.”
“Eh?” Naruto unsheathed his hunting knife and stood in an uncertain position in front of the forest, glancing inside as if there were to be monsters there. “I don’t think I-“
“Stop it,” Sasuke snapped and rolled his left shoulder, sliding his foot back into a defensive position and aiming his gun into the forest. “If Itachi comes back, I need to be the first one that he sees. Stop doubting yourself. You’ll remember how to fight,” he stared at Naruto to the right of him. “just like how you did in the forest when I shot Neji.”
Naruto’s face was wiped blank when he remembered that time in the forest. Sasuke truly believed that he would remember his military knowledge? The blond squeezed the ribbed wooden hilt of his knife and shut his eyes, falling into a firm stance that didn’t allow his knife to be knocked out of his hand. “Okay.”
“Step back,” Sasuke called. “I’ll stand closer to do the immediate killing. If they get past me, you deal with them.”
“No,” Naruto shook his head. “I’m staying here with you. They’re all gonna come flooding through here, you know? You can’t be the first one they see, even if it’s just Itachi. He’s gonna wonder why in the hell you’re pointing a gun at him. We need to fight them off at the same time.”
“I-“
“We,” Naruto emphasized and held his hand out. “We’re going to do this. You don’t have to do it alone. I want to protect this camp too, and you can’t always steal the spotlight,” his intense look faded into a gentle one.
Sasuke was shocked into silence and he stared at Naruto once again, unconsciously nodding along to his calm words. He heard what Naruto was saying. The blond was right. He couldn’t try to do everything on his own. Sometimes it took teamwork, Naruto was trying to say, and Sasuke needed to learn that.
Naruto stared at him, expecting an answer to his order. Sasuke sighed and relaxed his stance a bit, swallowing roughly and ignoring the numbness in his ears. He nodded.
“Got it?” Naruto called and held out his pinky finger. Sasuke had only seen these kind of things in the playground back when he was five.
Although he sent Naruto a strange look, he nodded. “Got it,” he said and knotted his pinky finger with Naruto’s warm one.
- 15
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- 17
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Sector Five