Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

The Long Run	By : Sasunarufan13 Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 1939 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor make profit of it. Kishimoto owns it.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
Author's note: Long, tiring week. Thesis got finally submitted. Should have more updates ready this weekend.
Warnings: Explicit, foul language; threats of sexual assault
I hope you'll like it!
Chapter 16
Sasuke had no idea how long he stood there, staring down at the dagger. Time passed him by; it could have been just a couple of seconds, maybe several minutes. An obnoxious ringing noise filled his ears as he bent down slowly. His fingers touched the blade, his grip slippery around the blood before he got a good grip on it.
He came back to himself when a hand clamped down around his shoulder; his first instinct making him lash out. His fist already shot out before he was stopped and he drew a sharp breath when he realised Itachi stood next to him.
"This doesn't have to mean anything," Itachi said lowly, only releasing Sasuke's wrist when he shook him off.
"He would never leave the dagger behind," Sasuke said blankly. Not this one; not when it meant so much to him.
"But his body isn't here either," Itachi argued. "We haven't come across him in any of those zombie groups either. As long as we don't find his body, we have to assume that he's still alive."
"It is a rather big pool of blood," Sasori said cautiously.
"But we don't have proof that it's Naruto-kun's," Itachi said calmly. "We only know for certain that he got into a fight with somebody. Maybe he dropped the dagger after attacking them and fled. We won't know anything until we find him."
But would they find him? What could have happened that Naruto would make the decision to leave his dagger behind if this blood wasn't his? If he wasn't the one bleeding out, where was this person then?
He startled slightly when Itachi gripped his shoulders, forcing him to stare into his brother's eyes. "Naruto-kun had no idea you were still alive when he went out to look for you, but he still held faith," he spoke lowly, but intently. "He didn't give up on you, don't you give up on him now. We will look for him and we will find him, I promise. We won't leave until we get to the bottom of this."
"I appreciate being part of this suicide mission," Sasori spoke up dryly, "but do we have a plan in mind in case we run into whoever is herding these zombies like sheep? Considering Tobi's dead and Naruto's missing, I doubt this person can be reasoned with."
"Depending on what exactly we will encounter, we won't have much choice but to get rid of them," Itachi said grimly. "Given what we've seen so far, I'm not confident that leaving them alone would be a wise decision."
Sasuke took a deep breath and used a tissue to get rid of most of the blood on the dagger before he strapped it to his belt. Itachi was right; as long as they didn't know Naruto's fate for sure, there was no point in mourning him already. Naruto was strong; he'd proven that again and again by surviving for so long on the road on his own. He'd proven that by getting rid of Sakon's grip. He had gone after Sasuke when he hadn't even been certain whether he would still have been alive.
Until they actually found his body, Sasuke would refuse to believe that Naruto was dead. In the meantime he would keep the dagger safe for him.
"Well, let's go then," Sasori sighed. "No point in remaining here in the open when we don't know what we're going to encounter."
"There's a blood trail," Sasuke observed now that he was no longer caught in a stupor.
Imprints of shoes led away from the pool of blood; some smears accompanied them as if something had been dragged along. Small drops of blood were splashed here and there across the ground.
Sasuke swallowed and held his breath for a moment, forcing himself to focus. If whoever lived here had killed Naruto, surely they would have just left his body here to rot instead of dragging him away? They certainly hadn't cared about Tobi. That meant they still had a chance at finding Naruto on time.
"Still seems rather fresh," Sasori remarked, sitting down on his haunches for a moment as he studied the imprints. "They can't have left here too long ago."
"Tobi was still alive when we found him," Itachi murmured. "With such an injury, he couldn't have survived for hours."
"Well." Sasori rose up, resting a hand on one of his guns. "Guess we'll follow the trail they have so graciously left behind then."
They kept to the shadows as much as possible as they followed the trail to the edge of the square, rounding the corner on the right. Here the street was smaller; all the doors of the houses were closed. When they walked past them, the hairs in Sasuke's neck rose up when he heard the muffled groaning behind the doors. He shared a glance with Itachi, who nodded almost imperceptibly. So Sasuke hadn't just been imagining the sounds. There really were zombies trapped within those houses.
"Guess they didn't get around to unleashing them here," Sasori murmured, eyeing one of the doors critically when the wood cracked, bending just a hint. "Let's get the hell away from here before the doors give in."
The trail of blood led them straight to another square, a smaller one this time. It contained just as much destruction as the previous one; cars littered all over the square, some crashed into trees, others against each other. The municipal hall loomed in the centre; the outline against the dark grey sky a foreboding view.
There were no zombies around here.
"It's quiet," Itachi remarked from where they were hiding behind a burnt out car.
The blood trail had become too faint, but the steps seemed to lead straight to the municipal hall. The glass door was splintered; the dark entrance like a gaping hole.
Sasori grunted. "Like the calm before the storm. You think he was brought there?"
"It's our best guess," Sasuke said and pursed his lips. "Might explain why there are no zombies here."
Not even fully dead ones as if someone had taken the time to clean up any who had lingered here before.
"How do you - " Sasori cut himself off at the sound of voices approaching.
All three men instantly ducked down even further behind the car, keeping themselves as still as possible in order to avoid attracting unwanted attention. Peering through the gaps of the ruined metal, Sasuke watched how a bald headed guy and a white haired woman dressed in heavy robes made their way across the square. The woman's light coloured hair was long, flowing behind her like a waterfall, nearly melting together with the light shade of her robes. The man's shirt was torn in several places, blood darkening the cloth, and he seemed to be favouring his left side.
"My lady, forgive my impertinence," the guy said. They were getting closer, giving the small group a good look at the many scars decorating the man's head and arms.
Next to Sasuke, Sasori mouthed 'my lady', raising his eyebrows incredulously.
"But I don't understand why you did not allow me to get rid of them both," the man continued, sounding strangely anguished. "He nearly ruined all your hard work by destroying our followers!"
Sasuke's heart started beating faster. Were they talking about Naruto? They had to be talking about him, right? Did this mean Naruto was still alive?
"I know, Shin," she spoke calmly.
They stopped walking. They were just a mere few feet away from the burnt car and Sasuke started breathing shallowly, unwilling to give away even the slightest notion of their presence here.
"Normally I would have allowed you to punish him, but can't you see we have something magnificent here?" Her voice was low, but there was a strange lilt of excitement audible in it. She brushed her hands down her robes, drawing attention to the many smudges decorating the hem of them.
"Magnificent, my lady?" Shin echoed slowly, staring at her befuddled. "I am not sure … I understand."
She patted his cheek; the slapping sound echoing through the square. "That does not surprise me," she said, oddly fondly. "I will make it clear for you: he is our ticket to even more greatness."
"How so, my lady? How can he better your greatness when he murdered so many of them?"
"Precisely because he did so," she said and sighed softly. "That kind of fearlessness … It's been a long time since I last witnessed something like that. The way he so swiftly cut his way through them – he deserves nothing more than our admiration, Shin. There is one more thing which makes him more useful to us when remaining alive."
"Which is it, my lady?" he asked intrigued.
The cold smile that curled the corners of her red tinted mouth sent shivers down Sasuke's back. "Have you not noticed it, my dear Shin? He's not a wanderer. He looks too pristine to have been wandering around the earth. We will make him see the light. Once he is on our side, we will send him back to his settlement and gain more followers through that."
Why did Sasuke have the ugly feeling that turning their compound in her followers didn't necessarily mean leaving them alive?
"What if he refuses to listen to reason, though?" Shin questioned carefully. "My lady, I understand your desire for more followers, especially now that he decimated a quarter of them, but he does not look ready to acknowledge your greatness."
"We will need to give him time," she said calmly and started walking again, continuing her trek to the municipal hall. "In the case he does prove too stubborn, however, you will have my permission to punish him."
"Yes, my lady. Thank you, my lady, for being ever so gracious," he said reverently, trailing after her like some kind of overgrown, fucked up puppy.
The three men huddled behind the car remained quiet until the two had disappeared into the building, leaving behind an unsettled silence.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Sasori started slowly, his lips thin, "but did they actually create some kind of cult with … zombies?"
"Seems like it," Sasuke murmured, narrowing his eyes.
The apocalypse had made him witness quite a lot of fucked up things already, but a zombie cult led by some kind of self-made priestess? He hadn't seen that one coming. He thought he much preferred Sakon's brand of craziness over hers. At least Sakon hadn't gathered zombies like they were sheep.
And now Naruto had somehow been caught in the middle of all this. Purely because of his skills with killing zombies. If this had been any other situation, Sasuke would have enjoyed the irony of it all, but with such unhinged threats ready to try to brainwash Naruto into betraying them all, he couldn't even find a tiny shred of amusement within him. All he found was an ever growing fury, rage simmering like heat right underneath his skin; the desire to cut those two down before they could lay another finger on Naruto nearly strong enough to make him leap out and march to the building.
He had just enough presence of mind still to know that just storming in there would be fucking stupid. Not only would it put them at risk, but it would definitely put Naruto at risk and they couldn't afford that. Naruto was still alive, purely because of that crazy bitch's whim. A full frontal attack might have her deciding to get rid of Naruto straight away, not even bothering trying to convince him.
"We need to get inside, see where they are keeping Naruto-kun," Itachi said quietly; his eyes fixated on the building in front of them. "Once we've located him, we can decide what to do next. We can't act rash now, not when Naruto-kun is still alive."
"I should have just stayed home," Sasori sighed, rubbing his forehead. Casting a quick, but thorough look around them, he rose up, grabbing his gun. "All right, let's go check what our little cult is up to."
Right as Sasuke was about to follow him, Itachi stopped him, holding him back with a hand curved around Sasuke's elbow.
"Whatever we see inside, don't act before we've got a plan," Itachi warned him in a low voice; his gaze intense.
"I won't, I'm not stupid," Sasuke said irritated, jerking away from his hold. "I'm not risking Naruto's life."
"I know you're not, but we also haven't encountered a situation like this before," Itachi said quietly.
"You can thank Danzo for that," Sasuke said sarcastically and impatiently nodded his head towards the municipal hall. "Now let's go. I don't want to find out just how much time that bitch is willing to give him."
The woman and Shin were apparently quite confident that nobody would ever be able to get the jump on them. They might have made the municipal hall their base, but they hadn't made even the slightest effort to conceal their presence within it. The amount of dust which covered everything from shattered desks to the moth eaten carpets easily revealed the path the two took every time they entered here.
Then again, Sasuke mused idly as he and the two other men slowly but steadily made their way through the long winding corridors, when you apparently commandeer a miniature army of zombies, being worried about potential enemies getting the drop of you would be low on the list.
The occasional lit candle dripping wax on the floor illuminated their path and they kept their ears pricked, ready to draw weapons or hide in a room if one of them would return on their steps. They didn't encounter any zombies here. For all that they considered zombies as followers, apparently they had no need for their followers in their base.
They ended up near the basement, narrowly avoiding slipping down the narrow steps as they descend one more level. Most of the rooms here are thoroughly thrashed, though whether that was caused by zombies or by hooligans in the early days of the apocalypse was hard to tell. More candles have been lit up here; their flickering shadows lightening up old, dark red smears across the wall as if bloodied hands had dragged themselves alongside the wall. It was no longer a sight that could deeply unnerve Sasuke, but having overheard the duo, he couldn't help but wonder whether that blood had come from zombies or from other victims they had tried to convince.
A shadow flitting past the entrance of the last remaining office in the back had the three of them freezing, hunching down to melt with the shadows of broken furniture. Itachi attracted their attention, pointing at the window looking into the office. Some chairs and a desk had been upended in front of it as if at one time someone had tried to barricade themselves behind the furniture. The unspoken order to get closer and take a peek through the window had Sasuke nodding.
They crept forwards slowly, mindful of all the clutter still present on the floor, the jagged pieces of furniture strewn about. They managed to slip between the barricade and the window, peeking through the glass. The blinds in front of the window on the other end had survived for the most part, allowing them to see only slivers of what was happening inside.
The woman was circling around something, Sasuke noticed, and he narrowed his eyes. His fingers tightened around the hilt of the dagger when she walked to the side, briefly allowing him to catch sight of blond hair.
Naruto was in there.
"It's been quite a while since we last had someone new here," the woman was saying; her voice soft but clear.
Sasuke couldn't spot Shin immediately, wondering whether he was even in the room.
"Would help if you didn't immediately try to kill everyone who sets foot in this shithole," Naruto quipped coldly.
Sasuke allowed himself just two seconds of closing his eyes in relief; Naruto's voice warming him even in this precarious situation. He was still alive. He might be hurt, it was impossible to judge his injuries with the way the woman kept blocking him from sight, but he was still talking. As long as he could talk, he was okay.
She laughed; the sound high and carefree. "Hm, but that just proves that they weren't worthy to stay here," she said amused. "You, on the other hand …" She stopped in front of him. "You are more than worthy. You were magnificent out there, much grander than Shin could ever hope to be."
"Don't let your boytoy hear that," Naruto retorted derisively. "It'd break his poor little psycho heart for sure."
"You are peculiar," she told him. "You sit here, bound, yet your mouth still feels free to challenge. I could let Shin continue what he had started to do to you."
"Please do so, I hadn't finished castrating him yet," he shot back.
That only made her laugh again and she walked to the side again, revealing more of Naruto. This time Sasuke could see him strapped to a chair; his arms tied behind him. There was blood sluggishly dripping down from a cut across his forehead, a bruise already blossoming across his right cheek; dirt and blood mixing together to make him a sorry sight. Sasuke couldn't spot any other injuries, but that didn't mean anything. Naruto's jacket could be hiding more of them.
They had taken his crossbow and machete away, Sasuke noticed, and he hoped they would be able to retrieve at least the crossbow, considering its significance. He couldn't let Naruto lose even more of his family.
"You can have a glorious life here, you know," the woman said conversationally. "We'd treat you very well."
Even with the distance between them, it was hard to miss how Naruto bared his teeth at her. "I don't equate glorious with a bunch of dead bastards stuffed in houses. A bit too morbid even for me."
"Hm, I guess it would be," she said nonchalantly and crouched down next to him; her robes flowing out around her. "Because you're used to the luxuries of your settlement, aren't you?"
Naruto's face closed off. "Never been a fan of twenty questions."
She chuckled. "Oh, but this wasn't a question, my dear. You can't hide it. You stink of roots, of settlements. You're no longer a wanderer."
Naruto made a show of slowly looking around the old office. "You don't really strike me as wanderers either."
"We are free in a way you will never be if you let yourself be tied to them," she said coolly. "Those people who cling onto the silly illusion of days gone by will never make it. We are a species who are supposed to rise to the challenge, to adapt and survive! Settlements of old will not allow that."
"Yeah, I'd still prefer the old settlements over the stench of dead, thanks," Naruto said bored.
She smiled; the look on her face cold and calculating as she rose up once more. She tilted her head to the side. "Why make it harder for yourself when you can live a life of freedom here? We can use someone with your skills, someone who can so easily take control over our followers."
She bent towards him, her hand snatching out to grab his face. Naruto tried to jerk out of her grip, but she tightened it, twisting his head so that he was forced to look at her. A painful gasp escaped him before he bit down on his lip.
"You and I could be really great together," she said, almost lovingly, caressing his bruised cheek with her thumb.
The sight of it had Sasuke seeing red; the fury, temporarily abated while they had made their way through the building, flaring up once more, hot and burning.
His eyes widened when Naruto spat at her, making her rear back in surprise, releasing his face at once.
"With no respect due at all," Naruto said, grinning, "but tits and a cunt really don't do it for me. Even if they had, I've never been into cougars. Full offense meant."
"If he's trying to get himself killed," Sasori murmured underneath his breath, "he's doing a fantastic job of it."
The woman calmly wiped her face off. Whatever look she was wearing when she turned to face Naruto had him staring up defiantly at her; a sneer painted across his mouth.
"I suppose you already have a sweetheart back there, don't you," she cooed; her grin rivalled the sharpness of a shark. "Those marks in your neck … quite the possessive type, aren't they?"
Fuck. Sasuke clenched his jaw, ruthlessly pushing down the phantom sensation of Naruto's body pliant underneath his just two days ago when they had hidden themselves away in his apartment. He hadn't even thought of how much his kisses in Naruto's neck would linger, visible to everyone who bothered to look. He hadn't thought anything at all during that time, all his focus on Naruto and his body underneath him, the easy way they seemed to mould together.
Naruto kept quiet now, glaring up at her.
The next second, Naruto's howl of pain reverberated through the room before he cut it off, jerking forwards in the chair. She had her hand on his thigh and was digging her nails into a cut there, Sasuke realised sickeningly.
The injury, which had stopped bleeding up until now, re-opened again; beads of blood welling up, darkening the light coloured jeans.
"You know something?" she said sweetly, digging her fingers into his thigh even further.
Itachi grabbed Sasuke's arm, forcefully keeping him seated while the younger man raged silently.
"I've always loved the chase. It makes the reward that much sweeter when I win," she chuckled and straightened up, releasing her grip on Naruto's thigh.
He slumped forwards; a shock running through him when she grabbed him by his throat, forcing his head upwards again.
"There are more ways to break a person than physical pain alone, you know," she said calmly. "It's been so long since I last had someone … You and I, we will have plenty of time to get to know each other better."
She released his throat, touching something on his skin which had him flinching away.
"And during that time you will find that I can be just as possessive as that little sweetheart of yours."
Naruto recovered quickly. "Well, seeing as we're exchanging pleasantries," he snarked, "I feel obligated to tell you that the last person threatening me with that shit? Yeah, I fucking slit his throat. You want to know something else about me? I've always believed in equal rights for everyone, meaning," he leant forwards, smiling darkly at her, "the second you lay those claws on me? I'll tear your throat out."
She hummed, seemingly unimpressed. "A challenge never hurt anyone," she spoke and rubbed her hands down her robes, pressing the cloth flat as if she wanted to draw attention to her body. "Yes, you and I are going to have so much fun together."
"Any plan in mind already?" Sasori asked.
They ducked down when the woman drifted closer to the window, still humming to herself.
"Because if I have to listen to her yapping for any longer, I might just stop caring about not making any noise and just shoot her now."
"You shoot and we'll draw too much attention," Itachi said, but his jaw was clenched. "We don't know yet where the man is and we can't have Naruto-kun being caught in the cross-fire."
"So a way to distract her then?" Sasori suggested; his voice barely reaching above whisper level.
"Probably for the best," Itachi agreed, nodding, "but it would have to - "
"We set it on fire," Sasuke said abruptly; eyes fixated on the blinds. There was no more talking in the room, only an endless humming.
"Set fire to what?" Sasori questioned.
Sasuke turned to look at him, uncaring that for the first time Sasori actually physically recoiled. "We set the entire town on fire."
AN2: Bet you didn't see these two coming, huh?
Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.
I hope to see you all back in the next chapter! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!
Cuddles
Melissa
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The Long Run