Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

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
- 34
- 35
- 36
Thank you to my beta and muse, Small Fox. This story grew from a plot idea he gave me.
Also thanks to Niëlaro, eunmook, Dawn, melissen, cynaga and disembodiedvoiceofthedying for reviewing after chapter 34 was posted. Readers’ feedback, support and comments mean a great deal to me.

Leader
Part 4: Parry
35: Hazards

Then they were off. Riki-san was on point with Kazuki. Dan-san and Kuuya were the rearguard. Between were Haru, Ran and Haku-san.
They emerged from the burrow into the morning mist. Around them were what Haru had come to recognise as the tribe’s fields and gardens.
Riki-san headed towards the sunrise, towards the wilderness. The others followed.
Haru found himself hesitating. Ran turned back and smiled at him.
He smiled back and began walking.

Haru tried to ignore all the strange sights, sounds, noises and smells and concentrated on keeping up. It was a struggle. The trail was rarely travelled; merely a path where the vegetation was less tall and less dense.
He wasn’t used to walking across such uneven terrain. Each step was different; his foot would slip, or go into a puddle, or strike a projection that jarred his leg and left the sole of his foot aching.
He envied Gamariki his boots of crocodile leather.

Gamariki, or rather Riki-san, was setting a demanding pace. Apparently their only hope of survival was to reach a burrow he knew of and prepare it for occupation before nightfall. Haru understood the message; he had to keep up. Every minute lost reduced their chance of survival.
As so often in the past, he was the slowest and the weakest; the liability.

Dan-san insisted on regular breaks, despite Riki-san’s obvious agitation. During the third, Haru could see the two of them off to one side having a whispered discussion.
“What are they saying, Ka-chan?” he asked.
Kazuki tried to get away with a shrug but Haru glared at him.
“They’re discussing options,” Ka-chan admitted. “Some of us could go ahead and prepare the burrow, but that would leave those travelling slower less protected. Riki-san knows a shortcut but we’ll have to punt along a waterway.”
“Punt?” Haru queried.
“Flat bottomed boats, pushed along by long pole,” Kazuki explained.

Dan-san had obviously dismissed the option of splitting the party because when they set off again in was in a different direction. There was no trail. Riki-san went first, using his huge knife to cut a tunnel through the vegetation. The rest of them followed in single file.
Haru was behind Kazuki, who kept up a commentary about the terrain. “Low branch. Puddle you can walk through. Tree root, trip hazard, step over. Mud. Deep hole, you’ll need to jump it.”
It helped.
“Snake!” Kazuki yelled and turned into wildly flailing mass of limbs. Before anyone else could react, Haru saw a snake-shaped object flying through the air, obviously thrown by Ka-chan. “It dropped on me,” he complained.
“You quick are,” Riki-san acknowledged. “Good is. Snake poison bite.”
Haru shuddered; glad that the snake had messed up and chosen Ka-chan rather than him.

They couldn’t have a break while cutting their own path. Haru concentrated harder, told himself his nanobots would remove the cramp-inducing lactic acid from his muscles and pushed on through the pain.
He stumbled. Kuuya caught his elbow from behind and stopped him falling.
“I tripped,” Haru lied. Kuu-chan looked at him in disbelief but said nothing.

They set off again but Haru knew he could not last much longer. He thought about asking Riki-san about how long until they reached the river or at least a trail but could not spare the breath.
Then there was a gasp and a thud from behind him. Haru stopped and spun about. He knew it was Ran; he had recognised the voice.
He pushed past Kuuya. Ran was on his hands and knees with Haku-san crouched beside him.
“I can do it,” he was saying.
“No you can’t,” Haku-san replied. “Neither can Haru.” He looked at Dan-san.
“Ran is heavier,” Dan-san observed.
“I Ran carry,” Riki-san volunteered. “Better to carry. Faster.”

They swiftly redistributed loads and changed order. Kuuya was behind Riki-san, who led carrying Ran. In the middle was Haku-san followed by Dan-san and Haru. Kazuki brought up the rear.
Haru clung on, making it as easy as possible for Dan-san to carry him piggy-back.
It was much quicker; Haru resolved to be more honest about his limitations in the future.

Finally they broke out of cover onto the riverbank. There was a small wooden wharf with four punts tethered to it. Each was big enough for two of the large Gama hunters. Kazuki ran past him, heading towards the closest.
“Care!” Riki-san warned. “Snakes! Poison slugs!”

Kazuki and Kuuya helped Riki-san clear the wildlife out of one of the punts while Haku-san handed out food bars.

According to Riki-san, the most important things were to make sure that the punt stayed right side up and to stay inside.
If there was a giant snake they were doomed as it would loop about the punt and squeeze it until it splintered. Riki-san did not think there was a giant snake because there were so many crocodiles.
Haru had not noticed the crocs until Kazuki and Kuuya pointed them out. They were motionless and very well camouflaged.
Once you knew where to look they were everywhere.

Apparently the river was too shallow for a really big crocodile. None of the river crocodiles were big enough to have jaws that could snap the punt in two.

Haru conceded that lots of medium and small crocs were better than a giant snake or a massive crocodile. If they were lucky, the crocs would decide to ignore them. They would continue to bask on the riverbanks, enjoying the pale sunlight.
If Lady Luck did not smile on them, a croc would ram the punt. If that happened, the others were likely to join in.

Riki-san kept emphasising that they must stay in the punt. If they went into the water there would be more than crocodiles to worry about; snakes, poison worms and fish with teeth that hunted in packs.

Each punt had two long poles in holders along each side, four paddles and a club. Kazuki and Kuuya had downed five food bars each and were assembling two laser rifles.
Riki-san frowned. “What?” he asked, pointing.
“Weapons,” Dan-san told him.
“Show,” Riki-san demanded.

Kazuki was finished first. He shot a hole through a tree trunk. Riki-san leaned down and looked through the small smoking tunnel. He pursed his lips and nodded.
“This good is. Riki point. You shoot.”

They set off. Haru, Ran and Haku-san were in the bottom of the punt. Riki stood at the back with one of the poles. Dan-san knelt at the front with a paddle. Kazuki sat on the crosspiece closest to Riki-san facing forwards; Kuuya on the one behind Dan-san facing backwards.
Haku-san had claimed the club.

It was eerily quiet as they glided along. The only sound was the ‘plish’ as the pole went into the water and the even softer ‘plash’ as it came out.
It was restful; Haru could feel his eyes closing.
“You and Ran-kun should get some sleep,” Haku whispered. “Then you will be of more use when we are preparing the burrow.”
Ran nodded. He curled up; being able to sleep anywhere and on anything was an ability Ran had developed living feral.
Haru lay down beside him. The bottom of the punt was hard. He kept thinking about there only being a few finger-widths of wood between him and the snakes, the poison worms and the fish with teeth. He knew he wouldn’t sleep but perhaps he could rest.

He was startled awake and sat bolt upright.
“Duck!” Kazuki yelped.
He did and Haku-san’s club whistled past the top of his head, sweeping something silvery out of the air. Haru watched it fall into the water.
No one had said that the fish with teeth jumped. He could see five of them, two dead and three snapping, in the bottom of the punt. One was trying to gnaw through Ran’s suit; luckily it had not picked his hand or his face.

Haru pulled his suit gloves out of the pocket on this thigh and put them on. Then he closed his helmet and started grabbing fish.
Haku-san put down the club and followed his example.

Kuu-chan and Ka-chan left them to it; laser rifles were not the kind of weapon you pointed towards the wooden vessel you were travelling in. Riki-san kept punting. Dan-san used the paddle to bat away the odd one that tried jumping in at the front rather than the side. Ran, amazingly, did not wake up.
At first the fish jumped in more quickly than they could clear them but slowly the influx slowed and, finally, Haku-san tossed the last one over the side and pushed back his helmet.
Haru followed his example. Then he looked at Ran sleeping peacefully in the bottom of the punt and could not help but smile.
“Uh-oh.”
It was Kuuya. “I think the crocs have noticed us,” he warned.
Haru’s smile died.

He stared at the water, trying to work out which shapes were floating vegetation and which were crocodiles zeroing in on them.
“What’s wrong?” Ran queried, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
Haru realised that he must be a lot more worried by crocs than snapping fish; it was his fear that had woken Ran.
“Crocs,” he admitted.

Then Riki-san pointed out the first crocodile they should kill and they discovered that the laser rifles weren’t as effective as they would have liked. Crocodile hide was remarkably thick and, unlike the tree trunk, the croc did not stay still. At first all Kazuki did was make long cauterised channels that annoyed the crocodile rather than slowing it. Finally, when it was almost on them, it reared up in pain and Kuuya managed to get a clear shot at its more vulnerable throat.

Dan-san began muttering under his breath and Haku-san paled. Ran was scanning the river.
“There are a lot of them moving towards us,” he admitted.
Haru decided not to look. Instead he thought through what was in the packs. The laser pistols were weaker versions of the rifles. The dart guns were useless; they wouldn’t penetrate the crocodiles’ hide. Gas grenades were ineffective in the open air and he had no idea if the gas would affect reptiles.
A grenade was a good idea though. He tipped out one of the packs and began cobbling together something with a ten second delay that could be thrown.
He had no idea how much explosive to use and there wasn’t enough time to think it through; he decided on the same amount as he would use for a shaped charge to blow a hole in a bulkhead.

He glanced up and around. Kuuya and Kazuki had worked out the best way to use the laser rifles; they were going for the eyes and then the throat but incapacitating each croc was taking far too much time. Riki-san had handed his spear to Haku-san and Ran was passing the spare pole to Dan-san.
Dan-san had activated his implant.

Haru went back to work. The punt was pushed sideways as the first crocodile hit it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Haku-san stabbing at its eyes with the spear. Dan-san thrust his pole downwards again and again.
“Under! Under!” Riki-san warned and Haru realised that he meant that the crocs would swim under the punt and try to turn it over.
He closed the cover, clipped it into place and then pulled at Kazuki’s leg.
“What?” Ka-chan snarled, sparing him the briefest look.
“Explosive grenade,” he explained. “Ten second delay.”
Dan-san heard him and glanced back. He risked taking a hand off the pole and pointed some way behind them. “There, Ka-chan. Midstream.”
Kazuki dropped his laser rifle so it dangled from its strap. “Prime,” he ordered, holding out his hand.
Haru set the timer and placed it in Ka-chan’s palm.
“Grenade!” Kazuki yelled as he threw.

At least Riki-san caught on and copied Dan-san when he shoved his pole into its holder and joined the rest of them huddling in the bottom of the punt.
Haru clung to Ran, hoping that the explosion would not capsize them.

There was a deep, low thud, followed by water and debris raining down on them. Haru was hit on the back; a dead fish slipped off his hunched shoulders and dropped into the bottom of the punt.
Then the wave hit them. Haru tensed, expecting them to capsize, but it carried the punt along rather than tipping it over.
He now understood why Dan-san had told Ka-chan to put the grenade midstream.

Haru peered cautiously over the edge, half-expecting to see a writhing mass of furious, snapping crocodiles. Instead the river was calm; he could not spot even one pair of eyes.
Riki-san was scanning the surroundings. “Good. Crocodiles to bed go.”
He had a bizarre image of the crocodiles climbing into bunks before he realised that Riki-san meant the bed of the river.

Everyone took up their positions. Riki-san soon had them drifting along. Ka-chan and Kuu-chan sat on the crosspieces and checked over their rifles. Haku-san began repacking the stuff Haru had emptied out. Dan-san deactivated his implant while Ran prepared a hypospray to help him deal with the side-effects.
Haru picked out the components he would need to make two more grenades before Haku-san packed them away.
Ran handed the hypospray to Dan-san and then moved towards the fish.
“Fish keep,” Riki-san told him. “Food. Raw eat.”

They reached a deeper part of the river; Riki-san stayed at the back and used the pole like a rudder while Kazuki, Kuuya, Dan-san and Haku-san sat on the crosspieces and paddled.
Haru finished assembling the grenades while Ran cut the fish’s flesh into thin slices and handed them around.
It was good; Haru recognised it as one of the foods Riki-san had served them back at the burrow.

The sun was almost at its height when they began punting up a smaller channel. When it was too shallow for them to make it any further, Riki-san and Dan-san jumped over the front and pulled it up onto the bank.
Then it was packs on and they were off, heading across the marsh to higher ground.

For some reason it was easier than the morning’s trek. Haru wondered if it was the terrain or because he was still on a high after their escape from the crocodiles.

They reached the abandoned burrow in the early afternoon. It was small; a single chamber accessed by a short, curved tunnel.
Kuuya and Kazuki donned their gloves, closed their helmets and began clearing out the wildlife under Riki-san’s direction. Haru worked with Dan-san establishing a perimeter. Ran and Haku-san mixed the goo the Gama used to coat the inside of the walls in the hope of repelling insects, worms, slugs and snakes.
Perimeter established, Haru stared at the smelly, green goo than Ran was stirring and wondered how it would dry before nightfall.
It did not have to; Riki-san mixed a small bowlful at a time with a powder and then had only a few minutes to get it onto the walls before it set. Haru watched, fascinated; it had to be a natural polymerisation reaction and it produced something akin to a plastic.
“Odd child you are,” Riki-san observed as he spread the goo with a thick piece of crocodile leather. “I odd child was. You worse.” He smiled. “You better?”
Haru smiled back. He wondered if a young Riki had not fitted into the slot assigned to him. “Everything is interesting,” he suggested.
“Everything interesting is,” Riki-san agreed.

By late afternoon they were sitting outside the burrow entrance, eating their meal and waiting for the coating to cure. Dan-san was wearing a display strapped to his forearm; it would warn him if the outer perimeter was breached. Kazuki gobbled his food and then curled up, finally exhausted. Haru sat back to back with Ran, each supporting the other.
“We made it,” Haru observed.
“Thanks to you,” Ran replied.
Haru flushed. “Everyone played their part.”
“A good team,” Ran concurred.

They went into the burrow well before nightfall, blocking the corridor with two barriers and a sensor net. It was a tight fit. Ran was next to a wall, making it unlikely that he would form empathic links with anyone other than Haru. Haru was between Ran and Kazuki.
Sleep came easily; it had been a long, exhausting day.

The next day went well. Haru and Ran slept late. By the time they woke, Riki-san and Haku-san had detailed plans of how to turn the tiny burrow into a long-term home. As soon as Haru and Ran were outside eating breakfast, Riki-san, Kuuya and Kazuki were digging out sleeping alcoves and coating them with the green goo.
Dan-san had spent the first half of the morning building a water-collection system. Ran helped Haku-san unpack what they might need over the next few days and repack the rest. Haru set up the receiver/recorder.
According to Dan-san, there was nothing new in the exchanges between Orochimaru and Itachi-san. Haru found the local radio traffic more worrying; having discovered the toad-hybrids, the nekos seemed determined to harass them.

That night a huge snake crossed the perimeter and tried to push its way into the burrow but Dan-san fried its head using a laser rifle.
Of all the local food he had tried, Haru decided he liked baked snake best.

Another day and everyone but Haru was fed up with snake. Riki-san decided that it was time to teach some of them to fish.
There was the inevitable argument about who should be included in the expedition. Haru made a token request to be included but he knew it was hopeless. After a while it looked like Kuuya and Kazuki would go with Riki-san and everyone else would stay.
Then Haku-san raised an objection. “I am not sure that is a good idea.”
They all looked at him.
“Kuu-kun and Kazu-kun can be a bit headstrong,” he pointed out.
Haru had to admit that Haku-san had a point. Riki-san was far too nice to cope with Kazuki when he got carried away.
“Dan-san should go,” Haku-san suggested. “You will only be away for part of the afternoon. We are safe here. If the worst comes to the worst, we will go into the burrow and guard the entrance with a laser rifle.

They were on the verge of leaving, Dan-san had even given Haru the monitor for the perimeter and the sensor net, when Kazuki changed his mind and decided to stay.
He stood watching them disappear among the bushes and stunted trees. His tail was low, his ears were slightly back and his whiskers drooped.
“Why didn’t you go, Kazu-kun?” Ran asked.
Kazuki just shook his head and disappeared into the burrow.
Haru sighed. “It’s because of me. He could go if Dan-san stayed, maybe even if Kuu-chan stayed, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave me with just you and Haku-san.”
Ran frowned. “I can’t decide if that’s rather sweet or an insult.”

They sat outside the entrance to the burrow, enjoying what passed for sunshine on a planet where the sky was always cloudy. Haku-san was sewing. Ran was making up more of one of Riki-san’s salves to supplement their medical supplies. Haru was decoding the latest Akatsuki radio traffic; they had finally got around to changing their encryption.
Ka-chan was still inside; brooding.
A light flashed on the monitor fastened about Haru’s forearm.
“Outer perimeter breach,” he announced.

Haku-san immediately folded up his sewing and signalled that they should move inside. Haru picked up the receiver/recorder. Ran pilled his stuff into the mixing bowl.
Kazuki, alerted by Haru’s announcement, emerged from the burrow and stood motionless with pricked ears; sniffing the air.
Haru paused at the entrance, expecting to be told it was a snake or maybe a croc.
Ka-chan’s whiskers twitched. “Toad hybrid mixed with some not-quite-like Five and others a bit like Kamatari.”
Haru’s gut twisted.
It was nekos and minkies with a toad hybrid guide.
- 34
- 35
- 36
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Leader