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
- 25
- 26
- 27
Author's note: Brain is meh, but at least I managed to finish this relatively on time. It's the small things in life.
Warnings: Disturbing imagery; references to cannibalism
Brace yourself for some of the less pleasant descriptions!
Chapter 26
"Okay, whoever lives here might have considered them as intruders, but they couldn't have killed them in a less gruesome way?" Karin muttered aghast, appearing so pale she looked on the verge of passing out after she also glanced inside the room.
"This wasn't just about killing them," Sasuke said; his eyes drawn to the missing chunks of flesh and muscles in the thighs of the two dead people.
The chunks had been cut out in even squares, and the blood had poured down from the cuts, smearing their torsos and faces with their own blood. The whiteness of their thighbones was clearly visible as if the ones who had cut into them had taken care to reach all the way to the bone itself. A glance at the ceiling showed that they were literally suspended by hooks stuck through their feet. Stomach churning, Sasuke looked away, but the sight that greeted him not even two feet away from the tubs wasn't any less gruesome. A pile of mostly clean picked bones laid discarded in the corner. Around some of them – the femurs, his mind supplied – something eerily looking like meat was still stuck to the bone, like remains too clingy to be removed.
"They didn't kill these people because they were intruders," Naruto said flatly; his gaze empty as he stared at the dead. "They killed them because they needed food."
"F-food?" Karin spluttered and immediately stepped away from the door, clasping a hand across her mouth. "Are you telling me that they're cannibals?!"
Even though the words were whispered, harshly but still quiet, they seemed to echo throughout the entire corridor, bouncing from one corner to the other, letting the reality of the situation sink in even deeper.
"Why else would they be missing chunks from their bodies?" Naruto asked and looked away, grimacing heavily. "A pile of bones in the corner, them being suspended like pigs in a slaughterhouse … Don't know how else to take that."
"They're the couple from the picture," Sasuke realised as if this entire situation wasn't fucked up enough already.
"Looks like it," Naruto agreed.
"But they had a little kid in the picture," Karin whispered; her eyes widening even further.
The kid didn't appear to be in the room with his parents, but … Sasuke glanced furtively at the pile of bones. There were too many bones thrown together to really make out how many bodies had been eaten already or whether they had belonged to adults or kids.
"Guess we now know why the town is so damn empty," Naruto muttered bleakly; the knuckles of the hand holding onto his crossbow stark white. "They removed anything that could be used so that visitors to this place would be forced to follow the signs and go to this hospital. Genius really. Like a fucked up food delivery service."
"But the cars were broken down, why would they do that?" Karin asked, lowering her hand only to ball it into a fist.
"Could be because they want to prevent people from escaping town if they manage to flee before they are killed," Sasuke murmured, thinking about it.
It made sense actually. When people wouldn't find anything to eat or drink in the town itself, they would follow the signs leading to the hospital if they were desperate enough. Once here, they would be trapped by cannibals before being murdered and eaten. But while fucked beyond repair in the head, these cannibals weren't stupid either. They probably disabled the cars so that in the event their victims would manage to flee the hospital, they wouldn't be able to escape in a car. All the cars outside the town had been completely useless as well, Sasuke remembered. Anyone trying to flee would be forced to do so on foot and either collapse and be eaten by zombies or by these cannibals. There was no way to win.
"Fuck, do you think they know we're here?" Karin whispered; her eyes darting across the corridor.
"I doubt it," Naruto murmured; his own gaze sliding from door to door. "The cameras are all in the front which make sense considering that's the direction they expect people to come from. If they know we're here, they would have already cornered us, I'm sure. They're banking on the fact that people are desperate enough to follow the signs in search of food and safety." He shifted his left foot. "But they're not expecting people to already be on their guard and instead enter from the back like we did."
Sasuke was inclined to agree with Naruto. If these cannibals knew they were here, they would already have tracked them down. Their only saving grace at this point was that they hadn't entered the town with the car and that they had taken a detour to the back of the hospital in order to enter. Cameras couldn't betray what they couldn't see after all.
"Look," Karin started, her voice trembling slightly, "I really want to go get those prosthetics so that we can help Deidara-san, but if we're dealing with cannibals here … Guys, I'm not so sure about this. We don't know how many there are of them or even where exactly they are in the hospital. We don't know this place, they know the entire layout by now; we'll be fucked if they get the drop on us."
"You're right," Sasuke grimaced, turning away from the door completely. "I don't think we should risk it. There are just too many variables."
"Yeah," Naruto let out a gusty sigh. "I don't like this either. A bunch of dead bastards? Fine, no problem, we can deal with that, but even though they share the same desire for human flesh, these cannibals are still alive. They're not brainless like zombies are and they most likely have perfected their strategies to capture people by now."
He hesitated and rubbed the back of his head. "I hate breaking off this run, but …"
"It's too risky," Sasuke agreed hollowly.
Perhaps if they knew how many people they were dealing with, they could have tried figuring out a plan, but without knowing what was awaiting them … Pushing on could very well be suicide at this point. It would have been one thing if they only had to worry about a group of zombies. As Naruto had said, zombies were stupid and while dangerous when gathered in a group, if you knew what you were doing and were quick on your feet, they were fairly easy to deal with depending on the situation. They could be trapped, coaxed right into their doom, shot to death, even burnt to death. Sakon's group and the priestess, however, had shown just how dangerous people could be in comparison to the dead.
A group of cannibals who had devised an entire scheme in order to lure people to the hospital so they could eat them? Too dangerous to bet on a good outcome, especially when they had no idea just how many of them were hiding somewhere in this hospital.
He hated having to return without anything to show for it, without even something to give Deidara his arm back, but the number one rule in the compound had been since the start: never put yourself in danger for goods. Goods could be replaced or hunted down at a later date. Lives weren't replaceable. Still, even knowing that rule, knowing Deidara wouldn't blame them when they returned empty-handed, the disappointment and sense of failure was a bitter pill to swallow, especially when they had come this far already.
"We can try looking for a different hospital," Karin said quietly; the dim light in her eyes showcasing her own disappointment. "I believe Kakashi-san brought a phonebook with him during one of his runs. It's an old one naturally, but maybe we can find something in there that can give us another chance at finding a prosthetic."
"It's the only thing we can do," Naruto muttered. "We'll have to be careful when going back so that we definitely aren't picked up by their cameras, but - "
The echoing noise of footsteps leisurely descending a staircase further down the corridor had the three of them freezing instantly. They shared an alarmed look, before Naruto grabbed them by their wrists and shoved them into the room right next to the one harbouring the bodies. He closed the door behind them as quietly as he could, before he braced his body against it; Sasuke covering him on his other side. The room was so dim he could barely see anything here; the only source of light coming from the cracked window pane in the door. He felt more than saw Karin taking a few steps back before lowering herself carefully, so that she wouldn't be immediately spotted if someone happened to peek through the window.
The stench of rot and death clung to this room as well and he switched to breathing in and out of his mouth in an attempt to lessen the impact of the smell. That didn't really do much, but the pounding of his heart was loud in his ears, distracting him as he tried to listen to anything that might indicate their position had been compromised. The people – because it was definitely more than just one person – hadn't sounded like they were rushing down the stairs to get to them, but that didn't necessarily have to mean anything. The priestess had shown she liked toying with her captives; perhaps these cannibals were the same. If they were the same … He gripped his katana firmly and checked for the gun strapped to his hip. Well, he wasn't planning on making it easy for them to catch them.
"Hey, Koji, you mind if I borrow some of your cigarettes?" a man asked lightly.
"How can you call it borrowing when I won't ever see it returned?" a second man, Koji, replied cynically.
Their voices neared the room and both Sasuke and Naruto ducked away in time. Peeking from the corner of the window, Sasuke caught a glimpse of a tall, white haired man with a dark haired man walking next to him, keeping pace. They passed the room leisurely; their footsteps echoing through the corridor.
"Aw man, you know what I mean," the first man scoffed. "I ran out of cigs a month ago, have some mercy on me."
"Deepa, you only ran out of them because you decided to be a sadistic fuck and have fun with that girl," Koji sneered.
The cold chuckle following that announcement sent a chill down Sasuke's spine. "What can I say? I like my meat a bit smoked and charred," Deepa snickered. "And I saw you getting off back then, don't fucking lie to me. The least you can do is give me a cig, I'll give you two back once I find some new stash."
"You better do, because otherwise the next one who's going to be smoked, is you," Koji said darkly.
The sound of their footsteps died out, their voices turning to nothing but faint muttering before silence returned once they had presumably walked outside.
"Well, if we had any doubts about what they are, I guess this conversation confirms that," Naruto muttered; disgust heavy in his voice.
"Did they just go outside?" Karin asked worriedly, rising up to her full height again.
"Think so, which means - "
"We're screwed," Sasuke finished Naruto's answer. "There's no way we can sneak past them and there's no second door out to the back."
"Maybe the front?" she suggested, but the weakness in her voice showed she already knew that wasn't possible.
"Can't risk the cameras catching us," Naruto said, shaking his head. "We don't know whether they keep an eye on the camera all the time, but I don't want to risk getting gunned down by them either if they do happen to catch us running away."
"We can't stay here, though," she insisted and her hand briefly brushed against Sasuke's arm when she swept her arm around her. "What if they decide to come into this room later on? Or in any of the rooms here? They keep the bodies here, for fuck's sake!"
"We know that!" Sasuke said irritated. "But what do you suggest? We can't go out of the back, they'll see us right away!"
"Look, this isn't the time to start arguing," Naruto said harshly and after pressing his ear against the door, he stepped back. "The only way we can go for now is up. We try to find a room that looks the least used, stay there until tonight and then try to make a run for it."
"What if they patrol during the night?" she asked.
"Then we kill them before they can raise the alarm," Naruto said dismissively. At her little noise of surprise, he snorted derisively. "It's going to be them or us. If you can't stomach killing some creeps because of some old world morals then just leave - "
"When did I say I would have problems with that?" Her voice turned a shade cooler. "Don't presume to know what I'm thinking."
"Let's not start fighting," Sasuke said tersely. "We need to have each other's back more than ever now if we want to make it out alive here."
"Of course I'll have your backs," she muttered almost petulantly. "Just because you can be a prick sometimes doesn't mean I won't have you covered in case shit hits the fan."
Sasuke shook his head. "Come on, let's go, before they decide they're hungry."
Naruto opened the door after a quick check and slipped through the gap, Karin easily following behind him. Right before the door swung shut behind Sasuke, the room briefly was lit up by the light in the corridor. Right against the back wall a bloodied table stood with several chunks of meat resting on it, covered in something white. Salt.
They were curing human meat, fucking hell.
He doubted he would forget this particular stench of death any time soon.
They managed to make it all the way to the third floor without being caught somehow. The first floor had been buzzing with people walking around; their shadows passing every once in a while the door leading to the main staircase. Clearly they wouldn't be able to find a hiding place here. The second floor had been ruled out immediately, seeing as Sasuke had seen light shining through one of the windows here earlier.
The third floor had nobody moving around, no matter how long they waited in tense silence. It was darker here as well, no lights shining at all. They wouldn't be able to shine even if the power had been running here, because a quick look up at the ceiling informed them that all the lights had been smashed to pieces. The entire floor was covered in dust, grime, and lamp shards, making it a real hazard to cross the corridor without alarming anyone downstairs. It looked like mad people had raged about here: chairs laid shattered to pieces against the walls, some of the jagged pieces strewn carelessly on the floor; the nurses' desk had been completely hacked apart, only one part, the one attached to the wall, still remaining upright. Empty medicine boxes littered the floor behind the broken desk; the occasional bloody handprint decorating the boxes telling stories Sasuke rather would not hear.
Some of the rooms had their windows broken; a light breeze whistling through the gaps, making curtains flutter if they hadn't been torn down yet. Graffiti covered the walls of the long corridor, but many of the characters were incomprehensible. Some read for a vague plea of help; the paint trailing down towards the floor as if the person who had sprayed it on the wall hadn't been able to remain upright. It was all too easy to imagine patients trapped inside here when the apocalypse had started; how scared they must have been when zombies started to corner them when they didn't even have an idea yet of the nightmare the world had descended into. How long had they been able to survive before they surrendered to the inevitability of death? A week? Two weeks? A month? How many of them had been able to escape, how many of them had been torn apart by ravenous zombies?
The sight of a bloodied crib had all three of them standing still for a long time. It hadn't even fallen over or pushed down. The crib stood in the right corner of one of the rooms, next to a broken bedframe, its blankets messed up, looking for all the world as if it had been recently used, save for the darkened old blood stains.
They had to stop their careful search when the debris on the floor grew worse and the risk of stepping wrongly and announcing their presence became too high. They settled for one of the messier looking rooms instead to spend the night in. Dust clung in thick layers to the remains of a gurney and three toppled over nightstands. A half collapsed wardrobe made up the rest of the pathetic furniture collection in the room. Given the dusty state, they deemed it safe enough for now, because if this room was frequently often they would have spotted footsteps in the dirt.
"I can't believe we're stuck here with a bunch of fucking cannibals," Karin whispered hollowly. She sat with her back against the wall, underneath the lone window, with her legs raised up and her arms wrapped around her knees. "This was supposed to be a fairly easy run, how the hell did it go to shit this fast?"
"You can try asking the gods above, but they won't answer. Trust me, I've tried that tactic before," Naruto smiled cynically. He sat next to Sasuke, their shoulders braced against each other, while he had one leg stretched out, the other one bent. He rested his crossbow on his bent knee, keeping it aimed at the door.
"We need to make a plan," Sasuke cut in resolutely. Drowning in sorrow wouldn't help them at all now. All they could do, was do their best to get out of this place alive. "We can't stay here for too long; that's going to be too risky."
"Normally I'd say we try to discover their schedule and base our actions around that, but that might take days to accomplish and we don't have that," Naruto said, gnawing on his lower lip.
"Being on the third floor rules out escaping through the window as well," Karin piped up, rubbing her forehead.
Naruto stirred slightly; an odd look crossing his face. "Well, I have - " he cut himself off immediately, frowning heavily.
"Naruto?" Sasuke frowned as well, watching how blue eyes darted across the room.
"You hear that?" he asked, barely moving his lips.
It was only because Sasuke sat right next to him that he even caught his question. Karin furrowed her eyebrows, opening her mouth before closing it again when Sasuke rested his finger against his mouth. She nodded and they were all silent, trying to listen for whatever had caught Naruto's attention.
Sasuke was ready to dismiss it after a couple of minutes in heavy silence – the sound had probably come from one of the lower levels – when he heard it.
A quiet shuffling sound, as if whoever was moving around was trying hard not to attract any attention. The sound was so faint he wouldn't have been able to catch it if he hadn't been intently listening for it.
It seemed to be coming from the collapsed wardrobe.
Naruto met his eyes and tightening his grip on his crossbow, slowly and silently rose up on his knees before fluidly standing up. Catching on to what Naruto was planning to do, Sasuke stood up as well, equally as silent, and followed Naruto on his tiptoes to the wardrobe. By this point Karin had caught onto what was happening as well and she had a gun aimed at the wardrobe; her aim steady in spite of how pale she had turned.
Naruto lifted his hand in the air, sticking up three fingers. He lowered one. Two fingers. He lowered a second one. One finger in the air. Then he closed his fist and quickly ripped the door away thrusting it into Sasuke's direction, who caught it before it could fall on the floor. Not even one second later had Naruto aiming his crossbow in the middle of the wardrobe; his bolt drawn already.
"Get out of there slowly," he said coolly.
Sasuke expected to see any of the cannibals, someone who was trying to get the jump on them, and raised his katana, ready to slash it down before the cannibal could betray their presence.
But then the person hesitatingly crawled out of the small space; his entire form trembling viciously and Sasuke could only stare down stumped, echoing Naruto's shock.
A small boy with spiky hair, wearing a long blue scarf around his neck, sat curled up in a ball in front of them; his face hidden in his arms. Terror was practically dripping off the poor kid; he couldn't be more than five or six years old and he was covered with so much dirt it took Sasuke a bit before he realised his hair was brown and not black.
"It's just a kid," Karin sighed, almost in disbelief.
Naruto lowered his crossbow just a smidgen; the tip no longer aimed at the boy himself, but also not completely turned away either.
"What's your name?" he asked brusquely, but his tone was soft, almost compassionate.
The boy didn't move for a little while. When silence kept reigning, he peered up cautiously; his blue eyes catching the last rays of the sun. A small chip in his front tooth was visible when he opened his mouth to speak; his voice rough and crackly, as if he hadn't talked in a while.
"M-my name is – is Ko-Konohamaru," he stuttered; barely loud enough for Sasuke to hear him even though he was standing right in front of him.
Slowly Naruto knelt down in front of him and even slower he put his crossbow onto the floor. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, but didn't remark on it, choosing to keep an eye on the both of them instead. He didn't think the kid belonged to the cannibals, because if he did, he would already have started screaming, but that didn't explain where he had come from either and how long he had been here already.
Judging by how thin his wrists were and how gaunt his face looked, though … Sasuke winced.
"Hello, Konohamaru-kun, my name is Naruto," Naruto introduced himself; his tone warm even though his eyes were still set with wariness. He gestured at Sasuke. "This is Sasuke, my friend, and that girl over there, her name is Karin. How long have you been hiding here, Konohamaru-kun?"
Konohamaru started rocking back and forth; his eyes darting all over the room, never settling on them for long. "I – I don't know," he stuttered. "Mum – mum – mum said – I heard her screaming and – and then – I – she told me that – if she calls me baby then I – I had to hide some-somewhere, because she – she knows how much I hate being called a – a baby and when I heard her scream that … I – I ran away and crawled into the closet, because in the closet the – the scary people can't get to me."
Naruto looked up at Sasuke and they shared a look of pained comprehension. The woman and the man downstairs, gutted like pigs – they were this boy's parents, no doubt about it. Even underneath all the grime and the blood streaks, the boy in front of them resembled the boy in the picture.
"You did really well listening to your mum," Karin praised him, but when she tried to come closer, he flinched and she halted, a sad look briefly passing across her face.
"You did," Naruto confirmed and Konohamaru's gaze swivelled over to him immediately. "You're very brave, hiding here from the scary people downstairs. Very smart too."
Konohamaru looked away, staring down at his fingers. "Mum and dad – they're not coming back, are they?" he asked in a small voice.
The heavy resignation – a tone that shouldn't be in the voice of a boy so young – squeezed Sasuke's heart together. He sat down on his haunches in front of Konohamaru, aware of the blue-eyed gaze resting on the side of his face.
"I'm afraid not," he said softly.
"Sasuke-kun," Karin protested upset, but what was the point in lying to the kid?
If they lied and said they would return, the boy would no doubt be eager to be reunited with them. How much worse would he feel if his hope would be snatched away in the end when they had to reveal the truth after all? Better to be upfront about it instead of lying to keep him happy, when that happiness wouldn't last long anyways.
"It's okay," Konohamaru muttered to their surprise. He drew circles in the dust. "I knew mum and dad won't come back after the scary people started hurting them. I – I just …" He broke down then, big fat tears rolling down his cheeks even as he bit down harshly on his lower lip and he pressed his filthy fists into his eyes; his muted sobs heart wrenching in their quietness.
Before Karin could try to move forwards again, possibly to gather the boy in a hug, Naruto leant forwards and dragged Konohamaru into a hug, settling him down on his lap.
"Let it all out, it's okay," he muttered; his hand rubbing across Konohamaru's back. "You don't need to be strong all the time. Sometimes it's okay to cry, like now."
As if a dam fully broke. Konohamaru covered his wailing noises just in time by burying his face into Naruto's leather jacket, the one he'd taken from Gaara. If the old scent of blood disturbed the boy, he didn't react to it. All he did was cling onto Naruto with all the might he could muster in his young body while he cried his heart out for the parents he would never see again.
"This is beyond fucked up," Karin muttered, running her fingers through her hair.
Sasuke gazed down at Naruto, who remained on the grimy floor, comforting the heartbroken boy in his lap, rocking back and forth smoothly, as if he did this every day.
Maybe he had done that before, comforting little kids. With his magnetic personality Sasuke had no trouble imagining that Naruto would have been popular with the younger kids, perhaps even an older brother figure to them.
"Yeah," he finally replied, looking away from the scene to focus on the sun disappearing behind the horizon, the sky turning a deep purple as night started settling in, "it really is."
Now what?
AN2: More shit about to go down in the next chapter. Yes.
Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.
I hope to see you back in the next chapter! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!
Cuddles
Melissa
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The Long Run