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
- 2
- 3
- 4
Author's note: We're slowly getting more and more action here!
Warnings: Some zombie gore, what else is new?
I hope you'll like this part!
Chapter 3
"Oh my god, I missed you so much!"
Sasuke snorted, thumbing the loops of his jeans while he watched Naruto almost cuddle his machete and his dagger before patting his bag lovingly. "You need some time alone there?"
"Hey man, can't help it if I missed my weapons, all right," Naruto defended himself with a small pout, strapping the dagger quickly around his thigh. "These have kept me safe for nearly three years; I felt bloody naked having to walk around without them."
"Well, the Board has decided that you're safe enough to have your weapons back," Sasuke informed him.
Father would have been the one to return them, but he'd been held back by some of the Board, who wanted to discuss possibly extending the compound. Sasuke had no idea how they would go about extending the place without attracting a damn horde of zombies with all the noise, but he'd leave it up to father to deal with that.
"Glad for that," Naruto huffed, sounding slightly amused. He then tilted his head to the left, forgoing petting his bag in favour of studying Sasuke with slightly narrowed eyes.
"What?" Sasuke eyed him in return.
"Hm, don't know who's in charge of keeping up the wall maintenance," Naruto started, waving lazily at the wall behind Sasuke, but his eyes were sharp. "But whoever it is, should know that the part of the wall behind the fields? Yeah, that one's ready to croak any time now."
"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked, frowning. They had enforced all the walls, including the one behind the field. Had that part become damaged somehow?
Naruto beckoned him to follow and he did, pressing his lips together. The blond led him all the way behind the fields, barely sparing Iruka a nod when they passed him. The part of the wall Naruto brought him to was right behind the shed in which they kept all the gardening tools.
"Noticed it last night when I was gathering the tools," Naruto explained, resting his hand against the wall before he brought his ear against it. "Listen."
Somewhat confused, Sasuke nevertheless stepped closer to the wall and pressed his ear against it; the rough texture scraping his cheek. He heard it almost as soon as his ear was against the wall and he froze; his mouth parting to breathe out quietly.
Naruto watched him, nodding when he saw realisation flitting across Sasuke's face. "Yeah, they sound a hell of a lot closer here compared to the rest, huh?" he said darkly.
They shouldn't be able to hear them. The walls had been enforced so much, layer after layer, the sounds should be muffled at best, save for the parts closest to the sides of the gates where they couldn't risk enforcing more without damaging the tall gates themselves. Yet with his ear pressed against the wall, he could hear a zombie growling on the other side as if there weren't multiple layers between them. The noise was so loud, sounded so close, Sasuke's hand had already flung behind his back to snatch his katana before he realised there was no immediate danger.
Yet.
"Shit," was his eloquent comment.
"Yeah, figured you might want to know," Naruto smiled humourlessly, taking a few steps away from the wall. "I wouldn't have really bothered with it, but I've seen those suckers take down entire fucking professional military grade fencing, man. They might be mindless but if enough of them gather, this wall is going to topple like it's made out of paper."
"Maybe that earthquake of a few months ago messed with the foundation," Sasuke muttered distractedly, staring at the wall. It hadn't been a major earthquake, no real cause for concern, but they had definitely felt it at the time. "Shit, we should have checked the walls after that."
"Nah, no need to blame yourself." Naruto shrugged. "I don't think you'd noticed anything back then, shit like this degrades over time. I'd say it's not an alarming level yet, but at the same time I wouldn't wait too long anymore either to fix this shit."
Sasuke side-eyed him. "Thanks for telling me."
The blond man shrugged again, linking his hands behind his head. Were it not for the machete plastered to his side and his dagger strapped to his thigh, he'd look like he was just relaxing and having a nice chat.
"Mah, the jury's still out on whether I trust you lot, but that doesn't mean I'm eager to see this place get overrun by dead fuckers either." He turned around, started walking away. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some fish to gut apparently."
"Yeah," Sasuke said distractedly and spun around.
He needed to find Yamato now, so they could fix this problem before it could get worse. The last thing they needed was one of their major defences against those dead bastards collapsing because they'd reacted too late.
For all that Naruto kept to himself mostly and his claims that he wasn't sure yet whether he could trust them – which was ironic, considering he was the new arrival and people here had more cause to distrust him than he them – he actually fit into their little community quite well.
Not that Sasuke was specifically keeping an eye out for him – that was impossible with his guard shifts, supply runs and helping father oversee any decision that needed to be made – but it was pretty hard to ignore Naruto once he was in your field of vision. There was the blond hair of course – still bright and unruly, looking perpetually as if he'd either just rolled out of bed or had been running his fingers through it constantly – but for all that the man tried to blend in with the shadows, keep himself in the background, there was this undeniable energy thrumming around him. The type of energy that had Sasuke gravitating towards him without even realising it; burning curiosity for the man who could joke around like zombies weren't a thing one minute, only to turn reticent the next, putting up walls around him that were even higher than the actual ones surrounding the compound, spurring him on, having him seek out the other man during the brief moments he saw him.
"He's fitting in well, don't you think?" Itachi remarked, coming to stand next to Sasuke.
"What?" Sasuke was only half focused on the conversation, most of his attention aimed at the maps Karin had brought him. This week he was back on the roster for a supply run and he was trying to figure out how far to go and most importantly: with whom.
That normally wouldn't have been a problem, because the teams were decided two weeks in advance, but Kiba had managed to injure himself when checking his own damn traps in the woods and Ino had taken over multiple guard shifts in the past week, leaving her unable to join him as well. She'd barely been able to remain upright when she'd apologised to Sasuke for having to miss out on the supply run; her exhaustion would be a complete liability, especially if they needed to go out as far as he feared they would have.
Shikamaru and Karin were out, each of them having their own duties this week; same for the others. If he couldn't find at least one other person soon, the run for this week was fucked. A week without a supply run wouldn't necessarily put them in danger, but they were inching closer and closer into winter and the more supplies they could find, the better.
"Naruto-kun," Itachi spoke, attracting Sasuke's attention at once. "He's fitting in well."
"Already that close with him?" Sasuke snorted at the affectionate suffix.
"Just as close as you are to him, no?"
That made the younger man frown. "What the hell are you on about?"
Itachi smiled faintly, resting a hand on his hip. "Couldn't help but notice that you've been talking a lot to him."
"Not that much," Sasuke instantly denied. "Besides, wasn't aware we couldn't talk to the guy."
"Never said you couldn't," Itachi said calmly. "Just interesting that you're willing to talk to him without it having to be about duties."
"Now you're making me sound like I'm a dick to everyone else," Sasuke sighed, punching his brother half-heartedly in his arm.
"Not a dick," Itachi smiled; his eyes sparkling lightly. "Just not a people person – unless it's Naruto-kun apparently. I'm glad you could become friends with him."
"We're not friends," Sasuke sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Even during a goddamn zombie apocalypse it figured his brother would still be hung up about Sasuke having friends. He'd always had shrewd priorities. "At best he tolerates me. Pretty sure he still doesn't trust us even though he's been here for four weeks now."
Itachi hummed contemplatively. "Well, I'd say he seems to trust you just fine considering he makes an effort to talk to you."
"Is there a point to this or are you just trying to annoy me, because you've got nothing better to do?" Sasuke asked exasperatedly, barely restraining himself from punching his brother again.
He had to remind himself that he was twenty-one and thus too old now to get wound up by his brother's bullshit. But goddamn if Itachi's cryptic bullshitting didn't annoy the hell out of him sometimes.
Itachi shook his head, dropping the topic finally. Instead he turned to the maps, studying them intently. "You found someone to back you up yet?"
"No, not yet," Sasuke muttered, grimacing. "Everyone else has their own tasks this week; it's a bitch trying to see who can switch with whom."
"Why not take Naruto-kun with you?"
Sasuke was waiting for the punchline of the joke, but when Itachi just stared back at him blankly, he scoffed, crossing his arms. "Are you serious now?"
"Yes, I'm serious." Itachi raised an eyebrow. "Why not? You need at least one other person with you while you're out there and Naruto-kun seems more than capable enough to me, given how long he survived out there. He's got no fixed jobs either and I've heard he's been antsy about getting outside the walls again."
"He wants to leave?" For some reason that thought made Sasuke frown and he darted a glance at the aforementioned man, who was helping old Tanaka fold her laundry, smiling at whatever she was telling him.
Not that they could force him to stay, at best only urge him to keep quiet about their location, but why would he want to leave when this might have been the first time in three years that he didn't have to fear for his life on a daily basis?
"That, I don't know for certain, but it doesn't surprise me that he wants to go outside again," Itachi said pensively. "He's probably feeling cooped up after having been on the road for so long. So why not take him? You won't be alone, the run can go on, and Naruto-kun will have the chance to see something else but the walls again."
"Sure, I guess," Sasuke said slowly, resting his thumb against his mouth. "But is the Board okay with that? They're not fond of letting newcomers join the supply runs so soon."
Itachi shrugged. "Not like we have much of a choice now unless we want to cancel the run. Besides, I have the impression that Naruto-kun would be the most suitable to join you if you're going on such a long run."
"So you're trusting him with me?" This time it was Sasuke raising an eyebrow.
Itachi had never been fond of letting newcomers join Sasuke on a run so soon. Even though they were both adults, Itachi still had the urge to protect his little brother from any harm, in spite of the fact that Sasuke was more than capable of taking care of himself.
Itachi clasped his shoulder, squeezing it gently. "If you seek him out on your own volition that much, he can't be bad," he smiled; oddly not a hint of teasing visible. "I'll inform father of it; you tell Naruto-kun about the plan."
"Who says father is going to agree?"
"He will," Itachi said calmly and strode off before Sasuke could call him out on his confidence.
The annoying thing was: Itachi had never once been wrong in his life. He did have a point, though: Naruto was the only one who could fill in the gap without causing issues with the roster and his time on the road made him arguably one of the best fighters. He had joined Kiba during some of his hunts and Kiba, hard to impress on any day, had had awe in his voice when he'd told the Board how efficiently Naruto had dealt with some zombies who'd targeted them. Rather bloody, but quick and efficient and none of the zombies had ever got close to any of their people. They could use someone with his skills during supply runs in case the plan got dicked to hell.
He sighed and glanced down at the accumulated maps one more time before he rolled them up again and walked over to Naruto, who was currently waving off Tanaka's offer to get him some tea.
"No, thank you, I'm all right," he was saying, inching away from her. The smile on his face was bland, but polite enough.
"Naruto, can I talk to you for a sec?" Sasuke grabbed his attention and while the other man lifted an eyebrow, clearly bemused, he offered Tanaka one last wave before following Sasuke back to the table.
"What's up?" he asked curiously; his gaze briefly landing on the maps in Sasuke's hand.
"You know how we do weekly supply runs here?" At Naruto's nod, Sasuke continued, "Well, the ones I was supposed to do the run with this week are both unavailable and everyone else is stuck with their assignments."
Naruto looked a bit befuddled for a moment before understanding lit up his eyes briefly. He smirked. "And now you've got no other choice than to take the risk and take the newbie with you, huh? That desperate?"
"Not desperate." Sasuke rolled his eyes and on a whim he smacked one of the maps against Naruto's arm, which elicited a short but surprised chuckle. "After considering it, you might actually be the best person to join me. We need to cross a larger distance than before and judging by what Kiba told the Board, you're not too shabby with your machete and dagger."
"Please don't hurt yourself by giving an actual compliment," Naruto said dryly.
The dark haired man ignored him. "So you're up for joining me on the supply run this Thursday? We leave at eight in the morning, but we'll need to stay there overnight. The trip there will take too long for us to make it back within one day."
Not if they did a thorough sweep of the town anyways. There was a mall there and Sasuke was hoping to find some baby related supplies amongst all the other stuff on their list. Entering a mall nowadays came with the added risk of encountering the dead, of course, but the payoff might be worth it if they could find enough.
"Well, I'm always up for not seeing the walls every day," Naruto said idly and crossed his hands behind his head; a gesture he fairly often did, Sasuke had noticed. His blue eyes were both sharp and jaded when he asked, "Question is, do you trust me around you?"
Sasuke quirked an eyebrow. "I could ask the same of you, you know? You trust me to cover your back, Mister 'I don't trust anyone in this town and you can't make me'?"
"I trust that I can slit your throat if you try to pull some bullshit," Naruto smiled thinly before a speculative glint shimmered in his eyes. "And I think you can trust your own skills if I happen to try something."
Sasuke blinked slowly. "So we agree to trust that we won't try to kill each other, because the fight would be pointless?"
The blond man snorted; at once the tension between them – minimal, but it had been there – subsided. "Yeah, exactly. You want me with you on the supply run, fine by me. Gives me a chance to do something else aside from digging my hands through animal guts." He shrugged and walked away. "See you this Thursday."
"Yeah," Sasuke said slowly, watching him walk away. "See you then."
"You're sure about this?" Father asked mildly, looking on as Sasuke stuffed the last bag into the back of the van.
He had packed two bags with food and bottles of water, enough to last them four days if shit turned sideways after all. He hoped it wouldn't, but it was better to be prepared nowadays and he didn't know enough about the place to be certain that they could hunt if needed.
"You're the one who approved it, remember?" Sasuke reminded him and jumped down, leaving the van open in case Naruto had packed a bag. "Having second thoughts?"
"No," Father said, crossing his arms. "Naruto-san has proven himself since he's arrived and Itachi told me you're vouching for him."
"I'm not …" Sasuke sighed and groaned, pressing the heels of his palms briefly against his eyes, cursing his brother. Goddamn that bastard. "Look, don't know what exactly Itachi's told you, but he's right about one thing: out of everyone here, Naruto is probably the most suitable one to join me."
The older man nodded. "I realised that as well. I don't think I've ever seen Kiba-san so impressed." His mouth twitched a bit before he sobered up and he clasped Sasuke's left shoulder. "Stay safe, all right? We've been doing so well on the losses, I don't want to break that streak." His tone was vaguely humorous, but his eyes were deadly serious when he caught Sasuke's eyes.
Sasuke covered his hand, squeezing it firmly once. "You know me, I don't give them a chance to get to me."
"Hate to break up the emotional scene and all that, but we ready to go?"
Naruto's voice startled Sasuke into stepping back and he whipped his head around to stare at the other man; his heart quickening in fright. Fuck, how could one person be so damn silent? There was some gravel covering the ground here; he should have heard him approach them.
"That all you taking with you?" Father asked, raising an eyebrow.
Sasuke could understand his confusion. Naruto was only carrying his by now familiar dagger, his machete and he also had a gun tucked behind his waistband. He wasn't carrying anything else, though; only a thick jacket to protect him against the cold, harsh wind. His nose was already started to turn a cherry red and absently Sasuke thought they should find a scarf for him.
"Yeah, of course," Naruto replied non-puzzled. "That's all I need."
"You didn't think of bringing food?" Sasuke asked sceptically. Not that it was necessary with the food he had packed, but he would have thought that would have been a given when he'd told Naruto to pack for a two day trip.
The blond shrugged, making his way to the front of the van. "I prefer having protection with me over food. Besides, not the first time I go a couple of days without food, I'll be fine." With that, he opened the door and jumped into the van, slamming it shut behind him. At least he was in the passenger seat and not behind the wheel.
Both Uchiha stared at the front of the van. Father sighed, rubbing a hand over his cheek. "Make sure he eats as well. Don't care that he's used to it; he's not going to risk your life by damn fainting from hunger."
"I'll make sure of it," Sasuke promised and closed the back of the van. "I'll see you in a few days. Tell Itachi he's full of it."
Father snorted; his eyes lightening up a bit. "Yes, of course. Be safe."
Before getting behind the wheel, Sasuke raised his hand towards the gate and waved once with four fingers. The sign that the gates needed to open so he could drive through. They did, rolling smoothly to the right, allowing just a big enough opening for him to squeeze the van through. The second he was outside, the gates shut again and then they were off; the road stretching out endlessly in front of them.
Sasuke opened his mouth, but when he glanced to his side, Naruto was lying with his head against the window; his eyes closed and his right hand resting on his dagger. Sasuke wasn't entirely certain whether the man was actually really asleep; it seemed impossible for someone to fall asleep that quickly when he wasn't even in a comfortable bed, but Sasuke understood the hint well enough.
No chatting then. Fine with him; he had no problems with that. He sat more comfortably in his seat; his hands relaxing slightly around the steering wheel when they left the compound behind.
Settling in for six hours of hopefully peaceful silence.
At the three hour mark they briefly stopped at the side of the road to stretch their legs and drink some water. Well, Sasuke drank and then pushed the bottle into Naruto's hands, leaving him with no choice but to accept it.
"How much further do you think?" Naruto asked, taking small sips from the bottle.
"If we can keep up this tempo, I'd say less than three hours?" Sasuke estimated and peered up at the sky. The sky was lightly overcast, but it didn't look like it was about to rain any time soon. All they had to worry about when it came to weather related crap was the harsh wind.
They stood on an open stretch of road, some dozen cars piled up on the other side, a couple of them just a few feet away from them, and the wind had free reign to howl around them, letting them feel exactly how cold it had become by now.
"Can I see the map?"
"Sure." Sasuke briefly ducked into the van to grab the map, spreading it open against the side of the vehicle to shield them at least somewhat from the merciless wind. "Think we're right about here." He circled their position on the map and then drew his finger upwards. "And we need to go here."
"That leads us straight past some woods." Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly, studying the map. "You said that this is the first time you attempt such a long trip?"
"Yeah, don't got much of a choice anymore. All the places around us are picked clean," Sasuke muttered, scowling. That was to be expected of course, three years into this shit, but it was still annoying nevertheless.
"What if someone set up camp there already?" Naruto tilted his head to the right. "Malls aren't exactly common in small, off the grid places, you know."
"Well, that's the risk we unfortunately have to take." Sasuke frowned, staring at the map. "We'll leave the van a mile away from the place, check it out and if it's safe we'll drive the van into the town."
"And if it isn't safe?" Naruto looked at him expectantly.
"Then we try to sneak around and grab whatever the hell we find," Sasuke stated frankly. "If someone tries to stop us, well, you know what to do then."
Instead of being horrified at the implication – not that Sasuke had really expected that, given what Naruto had told Itachi about his killings – the blond man merely nodded in agreement. "Let's go then. Best if we get there before it becomes too dark if we still want to scout."
Right as Sasuke finished folding the map, irritated at how the howling wind made it almost impossible to hear anything else, Naruto had his machete and in a flash slashed it down.
Zombie blood and gore sprayed across Sasuke's stunned face and his mouth dropped when he stumbled back, staring at the zombie who'd been about to take a bite out of him. The zombie he hadn't heard approaching because of the goddamn fucking wind. The zombie who gurgled lowly one more time before he crumbled to the ground; his head sliced neatly in two, the halves drooping to each side, his brain splatting wetly on the asphalt, a victim to gravity.
Calmly Naruto shook off the remaining gore from his machete, checked behind the van and clucked his tongue. "Best get back in the van, I'm spotting a group of five more fuckers making their way over here and where there's five of them, there's bound to be more."
"I didn't even hear him." He hadn't meant for the other man to hear him, upset at himself that he'd been so fucking careless, and jumped when Naruto slapped his shoulder, his fingers digging into his muscle.
"Considering you had your back to him and the wind's been howling like crazy around us, that doesn't surprise me. Hell, I only saw him because I was facing the right direction. Fucker must have been hiding behind one of those cars," Naruto said flatly. His eyes warmed just the tiniest bit when he caught Sasuke's gaze. "Don't beat yourself up over it, nobody's perfect. 'Sides, that's why you have me here. To have your back, remember? Now come on, let's get going before we get more unpleasant visitors."
Chancing a look behind him, Sasuke acknowledged they had to leave immediately. A group of zombies was stumbling in their general direction and Sasuke wasn't in the mood to deal with them.
"Here." A small towel hit Sasuke smackdab in his face when he took place behind the wheel again.
"While you still look crazy hot even with blood on your face, that shit stinks and I finally got used to not smelling zombie shit again," Naruto drawled, resting his feet on the dashboard. "Be a dear and clean yourself off, all right?"
Absurdly, that almost coquettish sounding demand shocked Sasuke into laughing; Naruto joining him soon, throwing his head back. His laugh sounded amazingly light for someone who acted so jaded at times
They were still snickering when Sasuke drove off.
AN2: I am having so much fun writing this particular universe, it's unreal. I got several great scenes planned, hope you'll stick with me until the end of this!
Here's another little sneakpeek of the next chapter:
"Motherfucker!" Naruto cursed as the dead swiftly surrounded them, pouring from every goddamn opening it seemed like.
"So far our luck," Sasuke muttered darkly and swung his katana straight into the head of the nearest zombie before it could try to take a bite out of him.
He had the vague idea of cutting their way through the dead to their van and get the hell out of here, but no matter how many zombies they killed, more and more seemed to stream out of every fucking corner. It took all his focus to keep slashing and stabbing, blowing out several zombies' brains when they got a bit too close for comfort. Fuck the noise, not like being silent would help them much now.
"Fucking shit!"
The cut off yelp somewhere behind him had Sasuke whirling around instantly, something akin to panic bubbling up in the pit of his stomach when he saw Naruto falling down, toppling over a dented garbage bin. A zombie – a guy with stringy black hair and a gaping hole in his back, showing parts of his spine – stumbled towards him, eager for a bite now that his prey was down.
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