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

Chapter List
- 25
- 26
- 27
Thank you to my beta and muse, Small Fox. This story grew from a plot idea he gave me.
Also thanks to satterb, eunmook, sadie237, melissen, disembodiedvoiceofthedying and eilidhdawn for reviewing after chapter 25 was posted. Readers’ feedback, support and comments mean a great deal to me. Feedback keeps me writing.
Hits are nice. Ratings are welcome. Reviews encourage and inspire.

Leader
Part 3: Betrayal
26: Pressure

Shikamaru knew there was someone there but it wasn’t Su-chan so he ignored them. In the end whoever it was put a hand on his arm.
It wasn’t Izuna. He would have been able to tell if it was Izuna.
He reluctantly pushed up his visor. It was Konohamaru. Shikamaru had no problems reading his lips.
“You’re late.”
Shikamaru gave up and pulled out his earpieces. He glanced at the wrist chronometer Neji had given him. He was ten minutes late for the meeting.
“Shika-san,” Konohamaru pleaded. “We need you there.”

It had been six days since the Oak’s message had not arrived; the fourth day since Neji had been kidnapped. Shikamaru had spent every moment he could in the data streams. There was nothing but silence; not a whisper about either.
Izuna had taken command. There was no arguing against it. He was a full blood Uchiha who was no longer legally dead. Asuma, whom Sasuke had placed in command, was tanked. Kakashi, Sasuke’s second-in-command and parent-in-reserve to his children, would not arrive for another ten days.
Shikamaru loathed seeing Izuna in Sasuke’s place. To make it worse, every day he was there strengthened his claim.
Before he could stop it, his mind threw up possible futures in which Sasuke was absent and Izuna led Uchiha.
He pushed the rapidly diversifying pathways down and erected yet another partition to trap them. He would not think on it. There was only one possibility he would consider; Sasuke, Naruto and the children were alive but trapped in the system at the end of the route.
Just like Neji might be kidnapped but was alive and safe.

He followed Konohamaru to the small meeting room. They both bowed.
“I apologise for being late, Izuna-sama,” Shikamaru stated.
“I understand that you are distressed, Shikamaru-san,” Izuna replied but his tone implied that he was losing patience. “If you and Konohamaru-san would take your places, we will begin.”

Izuna had ordered the tables rearranged, Instead of the square that Sasuke had favoured, there was a long rectangle. Izuna sat alone at one of the short sides, defining that as the head. Konohamaru had the first seat on the long side to Izuna’s right; Shikamaru was in the similar place to Izuna’s left.
Everyone had their place. Purebred males were closest to the head of the rectangle, females next and hybrids last. There was no chair opposite Izuna.
Sumaru had no place at the table. He stood behind Izuna in a bodyguard’s traditional position.
Tenten was absent; she had been put on watch.
“Shikamaru-san,” Izuna prompted.
He launched into his report, keeping it as brief as possible. “Except from the Oak, all communication channels are open and information is flowing freely. We are in regular contact with the Dart, the Silver Leaf, the Maple and the allied crews. Both the Dart and the Maple are making good progress. There is still no information pertaining to the Oak’s silence. There is no contact from the Akatsuki and no indication of Neji’s whereabouts. Our efforts to initiate contact with the Hyuga have been ignored.”
Shikamaru watched for Izuna’s reaction to the Hyuga’s rudeness but there was none, which was odd.
“Thank you Shikamaru-san. Konohamaru-san?”
So the meeting went on. It was all very formal and stilted. There was no discussion. Izuna looked like he was sucking a lime when he called on Moegi to make her report.
He had already stopped her seeing Udon, saying that they were too shorthanded for her to leave the compound and that it was not a time for outsiders to visit.
She repeated her suggestion that Asuma could be removed from the tank and fitted with regens. Izuna overruled her, insisting that he remain in the tank until fully recovered.
“Does anyone have anything else?” Izuna asked.
There was silence. The daily briefing was over.
“Shikamaru-san, with me,” Izuna ordered.

Shikamaru had no choice but to trail after Izuna as he walked to his office. Sumaru was still with him, a silent and deadly shadow.
Once there, Izuna settled at his desk and Shikamaru reluctantly took the indicated chair. Sumaru fetched an exquisite lacquered tray bearing an elegant sake set and poured them each a cup.
Shikamaru stared at the cup; he had no intention of touching it.

The tray and sake set were new, indicating that Izuna had been to the storerooms again. Shikamaru looked about, noting the new additions to the decor; each as valuable and rare as the others.
“You may leave us, Sumaru-san. I shall not need you for the rest of the afternoon.”
Shikamaru tried not to stiffen.

“Your report was very brief, Shikamaru-san,” Izuna began. “Is there nothing else?”
Shikamaru launched into a highly detailed account of a selection of the searches he had run and a small proportion of the people he had contacted. It had the desired effect; within a few minutes Izuna had glazed over and interrupted.
“It is good to know you are so thorough, Shikamaru-san.” He activated the intercom from his desk. “This is Izuna. I require coffee in my office.”
There was no suggestion that it was a request rather than an order; no apology for the possible inconvenience caused.
Izuna settled back into his chair. “I wish to discuss the Uchiha finances.”
Shikamaru did not hesitate. “I can call up the accounts for you, Izuna-sama,” he offered.

Keitaro arrived with a flask of coffee by the time Shikamaru had activated the projector and connected an interface.
He bowed. “Do you wish me to serve it, Izuna-sama?” he asked.
“No, Keitaro-kun. Place it on the side and go.”

Shikamaru watched Keitaro leave. As the door slid shut he realised that Izuna was moving. He removed Shikamaru’s cup of sake, took it to the side and came back with a cup of coffee.
“Thank you, Izuna-sama,” Shikamaru acknowledged. He tried to recall if he had ever before seen Izuna serve anyone. He sipped the coffee; it was delicious.
“You are welcome, Shikamaru-san. The accounts?”

It was interesting to see the colour drain from Izuna’s face as he realised just how little credit remained.
“Eleven gates and eighteen planets was a large investment, Izuna-sama,” Shikamaru pointed out. “We have enough income to maintain current levels of provision.”
“No credit reserves?” Izuna queried.
“Only those shown, Izuna-sama.”

Shikamaru sipped his coffee and watched Izuna come to terms with the financial situation. Nothing could be sold without Sasuke’s ratification; not until he was officially categorised as lost.
“You have resources under your own name, Shikamaru-san,” Izuna suggested.
Shikamaru was momentarily shocked. “Yes, Izuna-sama.”
“Yet you are sworn to Uchiha,” Izuna reminded him.
Shikamaru thought quickly. Izuna had a legitimate point; technically what was his was Uchiha’s even if Sasuke had never chosen to see it that way. Hesitating would only lead to questions he really did not wish to answer. He called up the accounts he held under his own name. The amount they contained was much lower than usual; he also had used all his liquid assets purchasing his batch of gates. However, unlike Uchiha, Shikamaru’s income was vast. His credit reserves had soon started to recover.
The balance was enough to make the necessary impact.
Izuna’s eyes lit up. He flushed slightly and licked his top lip with the tip of his tongue.
Shikamaru began authorising the transfers. “Some funds will be available immediately; others may take a few days. Do you wish me to realise all the credit as Belmenth credit tokens?” That would mean that Izuna would be able to spend it and Shikamaru was interested in what he would choose to purchase.
Izuna’s gaze went to where the token reader had been built into the desk by one of the Uchiha-samas who had used it. “That would be convenient,” he admitted.
“I shall see to it, Izuna-sama.”

.

Madara did not know what to think. Shikamaru had given up a fortune without batting an eyelid. It was possible that the credit had been kept under his name merely for convenience.
Perhaps he should have waited before drugging his coffee.

Shikamaru’s behaviour was proving confusing. He had not fallen apart as Madara had anticipated. Instead he had... ...normalised. He had become a highly intelligent and extremely effective nerd with a bad habit of tardiness.
Someone he found surprisingly irritating.
When Madara had first met him there had been glimpses of so much more; Shikamaru had reminded him of his brother’s lover. Even though he preferred women, it had appealed to him to have his own version of the person Izuna had loved so much.
It was possible he had seen what he had coveted rather than what was there.

Otherwise, things were going well. There was no suggestion that the Oak had escaped the trap. Neji was with the Hyuga. Asuma was temporarily out of the way. Shikamaru had just given him enough credit to buy a good sized fleet.
The next hurdle would be Kakashi’s arrival. Madara could see no alternative to facing him down. He would put his case for leading Uchiha in Sasuke’s ‘absence’.
He was almost certain that Kakashi would concur. If he did not, ‘Izuna’ would force a challenge and then Sumaru would kill Kakashi for him. Sumaru’s code would give him no other choice.
No, it was much more likely that Kakashi would bide his time until Hikaru was old enough to claim his father’s place.
Two standards was a long time. A lot could happen within two standards.

Shikamaru was developing a rather attractive flush to his skin; the first sign of the drug taking effect. Madara reconsidered.
He already had more than he had planned. He had thought that Shikamaru would need persuading to provide him with funds. That goal achieved, he did not wish to waste Shikamaru’s artificially enhanced suggestibility, particularly as Karin had only managed to fit one tiny vial into the shuttle.
He would push and see what happened.
He stood up and walked around his desk to where Shikamaru was sitting. The coffee cup was empty, which was good.
Shikamaru’s eyes followed him; the irises reduced to mere rings around dilated pupils.
“Are you well, Shikamaru-san?” he asked.
For once Shikamaru did not have a ready answer. He looked confused, which was a definite improvement. “I’m not sure,” he admitted.
Madara took hold of his upper arm and guided him to his feet. “You will feel better sitting in a more comfortable chair,” he suggested.
Normally Shikamaru avoided being too close. The few times Madara had touched him he had twisted away. This time he leaned towards him and allowed himself to be supported. “Thank you,” he whispered.
Suddenly Madara remembered why he had been interested. He slipped an arm around Shikamaru’s waist, walked him to the couch and sat down beside him.
Inside his head be began rehearsing excuses for why he had fucked a man wearing a love-ring.

.

Shikamaru felt weird. Thinking was difficult. He had been taking stims on and off over the last five days. Drinking coffee on top was proving to have been a very bad idea.
Someone helped him to his feet. By the time they were across the room and sitting on the couch he had decided it wasn’t Neji or Na-chan or Kakashi-sensei. He wasn’t being lectured so it wasn’t Iruka-sensei.
Was it Sasuke? It felt and sounded like Sasuke. Sasuke sometimes held him when he needed comfort.

Then the hand moved. It went under his shirt and across the skin of his back. What was Sasuke doing? They were close; too close. Shikamaru could feel the other’s breath on his neck.
He went to pull away but he was pinned. The hand that had been on his back was sliding down the back of his pants. The breath on his neck was replaced by the tip of a tongue.
It wasn’t Sasuke. Sasuke would never cheat on Naruto.

In a moment of utter clarity he realised it was Izuna and was violently sick.

The side of his face and his ear exploded with pain. It cleared his mind so that he could think. Izuna’s blow had thrown him from the couch. He turned the momentum it had given him into movement across the room and towards the door.
He expected it to be locked and it was. He drew his knife.
“Don’t be stupid, Shikamaru. Put the knife away,” Izuna ordered.
Shikamaru almost laughed. As if he would go up against an Uchiha in a fight. He wouldn’t have a hope. He sprang the cover of the door controls, cut two of the wires and shorted the circuit.

The door opened and he was off, pretending not to hear Izuna’s command to return.

He was pretty sure Izuna would not follow him immediately; he had scored a direct hit with the vomit. He slowed. Where should he go? He did not want Su-chan seeing him until he had cleaned up and done something about his face.
His feet were taking him towards the infirmary, which made some kind of sense. He would be able to find something to stop his face swelling.

He had not considered that Moegi would be there. He should have, it was mid afternoon, but his mind still wasn’t working.
“Shika-san!” she exclaimed.
“I took too many stims, made myself sick and walked into a doorframe,” Shikamaru lied. “Can you sort me out?” Then, embarrassingly, he threw up again; this time on the floor.

Moegi was very professional about it. She treated his face and gave him something to control the nausea.
“Did Izuna-sama hit you?” she asked.
He looked at her directly. “No,” he lied. “And if he had, there would be nothing any of us could do about it,” he reminded her. “That is the reality of being sworn to Uchiha.”
She bit her lip. “I know.”
“Do you?” he checked, because a typed-seven genius was irreplaceable but a medico was not.
She frowned at him and nodded. “You should flush the stims from your system,” she told him, going to fetch the appropriate hypospray.
“Not here,” Shikamaru replied. “I’ll use it when I get back to my room. I’ll tell Choza I don’t feel well. He and Kiba will keep an eye on Su-chan.”
She reluctantly placed the hypospray in his outstretched hand.

Shikamaru felt safer in the crew room. Hitting on someone whose partner had been kidnapped did not fit with Izuna’s image; he was sure that Izuna would not do it when others were around. He stuck to his story about taking too many stims, which he hoped would be more convincing now that Moegi had treated his face.
Choza agreed that he should sleep and promised to make sure that Su-chan was looked after.
He wanted to sit down at the table in the kitchen. It was what he usually did when he felt lost. Seeing people come and go reminded him who he was.
Only too many of those people were absent.
He reluctantly went to his room, or rather his and Neji’s room. The shared sitting room was not so bad because Su-chan used that too. It was the bedroom that was the problem.
The bedroom and the bed that he shared with Neji.

He forced himself out of his clothes and into the shower. He was still having problems thinking and he stopped trying. The hot water washed away the muck; the vomit and Izuna’s touch.
He turned off the faucet, made a half-hearted attempt to dry himself and pulled on some pyjama pants and a comfortable top.
Then he sat down on the bed, pressed the hypospray against his neck, discarded it and lay down.
He didn’t get into the bed; he had not slept under the covers since Neji was kidnapped.

The first thing when he woke he saw was a board propped up on a chair beside the bed with Sumiko’s writing on it. It read, ‘I will be back to check on you at’ followed by six times, the first five of which were crossed out.
He checked the chronometer. It was midmorning and four minutes until the sixth time. He threw back the cover that Sumiko had draped over him and went into the bathroom.

He had dressed and was tackling his hair when Sumiko arrived.
“Taking stims is a bad idea,” she told him and then paused, waiting for Shikamaru to respond.
“I know, Su-chan,” he complied.
She made the sound of a big sigh and took the brush from him. He submitted, knowing that she would be too vigorous with the brushing because she was worried about him.
“It’s not easy finding holes using data you can get by telescope,” she informed him.
The sudden change in subject threw him for a moment. He hadn’t consciously thought about the plan for days. He had searches running, various partitions of his mind were thinking about it and the deals with the astronomers were progressing; he had Tennyo Six coordinating them. “No,” he conceded.
“Haru, Kazuki and Ran could be trapped in the system at the end of the route for a long time,” Sumiko continued.
“Yes,” he replied, cautiously.
She brushed in silence for a while. He concentrated on anticipating the tugs so that he could go with them; it was less painful that way.
She stopped brushing. “Nii-san, should you always keep a secret?” she asked.
Shikamaru hesitated before answering. “Mostly, Su-chan, but there are times when you have to tell another person. Times when telling the secret hurts fewer people than not telling.”
She studied him. “Is it true that the Centralites would never wipe your mind because you are a typed-seven genius?”
Where had that come from? “It is highly unlikely that the Centralites would mindwipe me,” he replied.
“Is it true you have to tell Sasuke-sama everything?”
This was getting interesting. “I am meant to,” he replied. “Are you asking me whether I would tell Sasuke-sama a secret that would get him mindwiped?”
Su-chan considered and then nodded.
“I would not tell Sasuke-sama a secret if knowing it was going to get him mindwiped,” he confirmed.
She looked relieved. “I have something to show you after you have eaten your breakfast.”
Shikamaru was intrigued.

Choza was in the kitchen. He gestured that Shikamaru should sit down.
“Feeling better?” he asked.
“Yes,” Shikamaru replied, which was true in one way; physically he felt less wretched. “Has Izuna-sama asked for me?”
“No because we made sure that Kono-san told him yesterday evening that you were sleeping off an overdose of stims and were unlikely to be available until tomorrow. If he asks at the briefing this afternoon, I shall say that you got up for a light meal but then went back to bed.”
“Thank you, Choza-san.”
He thought that Choza might have said more if Sumiko had not been present.

Breakfast over, Sumiko took his hand and began towing him in the direction of his and Neji’s office. Again, it was not what he had expected.
What in known space had she been up to?
But they didn’t stop in his office. She led him through into Haru’s laboratory.
“This is the best simulator,” she told him, as if that explained everything. She frowned at him. “You need to get in, Nii-san.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if we used the playroom simulators and went in together?” he queried.
“I thought so,” she admitted, “but he chose this one.”
Who was ‘he’? Haru?

He stripped and got in. He was familiar with the controls; he had tested the simulator often enough while he and Kotetsu has been working on it.
As soon as he logged on he was plunged into a near-perfect simulation of his birch woods on the Oak. Standing there was a sim of a youngster about Haru’s age. His short, straight black hair moved slightly in the simulated breeze. He was dressed in black with a strange, cropped top that left his midriff bare.
The eye contact was perfect, which was amazing.
“It is good to meet you, Shikamaru. I am Sai. It stands for Self-aware Artificial Intelligence. You helped create me.”

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