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
- 35
- 36
- 37
Thank you to my beta and muse, Small Fox. This story grew from a plot idea he gave me.
Also thanks to Dawn, sadie237 (twice, thank you), liby318, melissen, eunmook and disembodiedvoiceofthedying for reviewing after chapter 35 was posted. Readers’ feedback, support and comments mean a great deal to me. Feedback keeps me writing.

I am afraid we will have to move to a once a week posting for the next month. I am finding the writing difficult and I now only have one chapter in hand. Posting will be on a Saturday until further notice.
At the moment I am posting ‘Jason’ under Originals. This is a study of spacer life that I wrote a number of years ago. ‘Jason’ is being posted on a Thursday.
If you want to be contacted when a posting is made for either story, send me an email on mannahpierce@ntlworld.com.

Leader
Part 5: Regroup
36: Messages

It made sense for Sasuke and Naruto to use the Orochimaru print’s quarters but it was not easy. It was difficult not to dwell on the atrocities that may have been perpetrated there.
Naruto had cleared the rooms and insisted on scrubbing every surface. Replacement fittings had been scavenged from the rest of the ship. The result was sparse and simple, but reassuringly fresh.

While Naruto had been sanitising their quarters, Sasuke had copied the ship’s data banks, protected the basic control programmes and purged the system. Then he had installed as many Uchiha programmes as possible, using the Blossom as a model.
Incoming and outgoing communications would be relayed via the Blossom’s hardwired cryptographic system.

When they jumped back through the hole they discovered that the Dart had already arrived. Inari and Tayuya had investigated the blocked hole and were preparing to follow the T1 mothership.
There was a huge backlog of communications. Sasuke withdrew to his office to view the one marked as the highest priority.

Shikamaru’s holoimage showed that he had dropped weight; a sure sign of stress.
“Sasuke-sama. Most urgent is deciding how much information we want to try to get to those who are trapped. My recommendation is that we send everything they may be able to made use of, trusting our encryption and methods for clandestine transmission. Please review the information, adding and removing anything you judge necessary. Your authorisation will trigger encryption, compression and transmission.”
Sasuke wondered how in known space Shika intended to get the information though the blocked hole. However such questions could wait; when Shikamaru said ‘most urgent’ he meant it.
The information began to unfold. Sasuke’s heartbeat quickened. Shika had found another hole, although he did not know if it could be jumped. The message he proposed sending included its location and the earliest time the Maple could arrive there.
If the Akatsuki intercepted and decoded the information the rescue attempt would fail. On the other hand, Itachi knowing what they were planning could be a massive advantage.
Second guessing Shika would get him nowhere. Sasuke selected ‘include’ and moved on.
He authorised each of the other sections. Then, at the end, he recorded his message. “Yoshimi, Akemi and Rin were not on the T1 mothership when it jumped out of the system. Neither was the Orochimaru print. I am thinking of each one of you and I know you all have the resourcefulness and tenacity to thwart the Akatsuki’s plans until we are reunited. Ka-chan, Kuu-chan, Ha-chan and Yo-chan, your To-chan and I send you our love.”

The message was completed, authorised and sent to Inari. Sending it triggered the next part of Shikamaru’s message.
His holoimage looked apologetic. “Sorry if I rushed you, but a copy of that message has to reach one of the ships going to the second hole before she goes out of contact. More about that later. There are some things I need to tell you.”
Sasuke did not like the sound of that, nor the look in Shikamaru’s eyes.
“First, there’s a leak and I have irrefutable evidence that it is from Tarrasade. Asuma-san and I decided to act as if the Akatsuki planted bugs in the household during the last raid. Undetectable bugs. We recommend that any information being sent to Tarrasade should be heavily censored. If something sensitive has to be sent, it should be encrypted in a way that only Asuma-san can decode.”
It did not make sense. Did Shika think there were bugs or not?
“Second, the Akatsuki didn’t just attack the Oak. Izuna-sama attended a concert at the Arts Complex. Neji, Asuma, Tenten and, of course, Sumaru were with him. There was an attack. Asuma was badly injured. Neji was kidnapped.”
Neji had been kidnapped? By whom? Why?
“I’ve got him back,” Shikamaru added hastily, “but that’s one of the things I don’t want to tell those in Tarrasade because of the leak. The Akatsuki think they gave him over to the Hyuga but they didn’t. They gave him to Hinata, who delivered him back to me. And Asuma is out of the tank and back in charge, which is great because Izuna-sama’s leadership style is light-standards away from yours.”
Izuna had taken over in Tarrasade when Asuma was tanked? The thought of that did not sit well.
Neither did he like the way Shika was jumping from one subject to another; there was something amiss.
“I’ve done some stuff that I would usually check with you first. I borrowed a ship, the Renaissance, from Garner-san. I am sheltering Hinata. My plan uses three of my Tennyos and means at least two of them will find out about the minigates.
“So here it is. The plan. I hope you like it because Kakashi-san and I have already started putting it into motion.”

Sasuke studied it. Shikamaru had found a route for the Maple to the second hole.
It was harsh, twenty-two jumps in thirty days. Plus, once they got there, the hole might not be jumpable.
Shikamaru’s solution was to get his Tennyos, with their faster ships, to scout the route and investigate the hole. That way Kakashi could abort the mission if the hole proved impossible to jump.
One Tennyo would go ahead at full speed and check the hole. If it could be jumped, she would launch a probe to transmit the message he had just approved before jumping back.
The other Tennyo would lay a minigate sting along part of the route, so that information could be relayed back to the Maple.

Sasuke found a fresh piece of paper and uncapped his pen. He made a neat title, ‘Cons’. Under it he wrote ‘Too frequent jumps for Maple’ and ‘Far too frequent jumps for Tennyos’. Below that he wrote ‘Maple out of contact’. There were too many holes along the route to consider minigating all of them.
A little more thought and he added, ‘Will Akatsuki detect Tennyo Four checking hole?’ and ‘Does launching a transmitter increase the risk of detection?’.
They were small reservations. As usual, Shikamaru had achieved the impossible.
Sasuke thanked the Lady that Haru had thought of scanning the system in the midst of a battle and that Itachi had insisted on a data dump from the Oak to each of the ships.
Shikamaru had used that data to find the second hole.

He moved onto the second part of the plan. Shikamaru wanted the Dart to monitor the blocked hole while the T1 mothership picked up the Silver Leaf.
Sasuke did not like the idea of missing any chance, however remote, to jump into the blocked system. On the other hand, he followed Shikamaru’s argument that they needed to muster their forces for any attack. He sighed and activated the intercom.
“This is Sasuke. We are going to pick up the Silver Leaf. Set a course for the hole. Maximum sustainable velocity.”
A reply was immediate. “This is Hoshi. New course set and accelerating.”

Of course there was more to the plan than that; this was Shikamaru.
The minigate across the blocked hole had engaged, which meant it could be used as a monitoring device; it would generate a tiny jump field as soon as the hole had opened. In addition, a super-compressed version of the message he had authorised would be constantly transmitted by this side of the minigate. If the jump field was established for even a moment, the message would get through.
He scanned the rest: there was a third hole in the blocked system but it was useless because they could not work out where it led; Tennyo One would arrive with them in two days’ time; the Renaissance was due five days after.
Sasuke was relieved; he was convinced that he needed to speak with Shikamaru face-to-face.

The other messages could wait. He activated the intercom. “This is Sasuke. Naruto, please could you join me?”
Naruto was there within a minute.

Sasuke outlined the plan and then played the parts of the message where Shikamaru was speaking. Naruto studied the image, his whiskers twitching.
“Something is wrong,” Sasuke hinted. “Other than Neji being kidnapped,” he added.
Naruto’s gaze moved from the holoimage; Sasuke was transfixed by his beloved’s eyes.
“I am sworn to you and not Uchiha,” Naruto began.
It was not what Sasuke had expected. He felt himself stiffen.
“Someone sworn to Uchiha cannot criticise a full-blood Uchiha.”
It was about Izuna? “Tell me,” he demanded.
“Izuna Uchiha behaves differently according to the people he is with. For example, he has been trying to seduce Shi-chan.”
It was a ridiculous suggestion. Sasuke opened his mouth to deny it.
Thankfully, the words died before they passed his lips. Had he really been about to say that he believed Izuna over Naruto and Shika?
“Sasuke, he is not what he seems,” Naruto said softly. “He is not the man that the legends describe. He has been very careful to allow you to see only what you expected.”
Sasuke’s mind was racing. It settled on one unpalatable fact. Izuna had tried to take Shikamaru from him.
He found himself smiling.
“Teme?” Naruto queried.
“He thinks Shika can be controlled.”
Naruto frowned at him. “Men like him destroy what is denied them.”
It was like a bucket of cold water in the face. “Naruto?” he queried.
“He is a bad man,” Naruto insisted. “I should have said it before but he is your family and family is dear to you. I thought ‘What harm can he do?’ but I was wrong.”
Sasuke struggled past his emotions. Beyond being two-faced, what harm could Izuna do? According to the spacer code, he did not even exist. “People who have been declared dead have no rights. Technically he is not a full-blood Uchiha.”
“You haven’t been through all your messages.”
“No. There were strategic decisions to be made and then I got worried about Shika.”
“Izuna Uchiha was never declared dead. That reporter Karin found out.”
Sasuke’s mouth dried. It changed everything. Izuna Uchiha was no longer a fossil who was dependent on Uchiha’s benevolence. He was a rival.
A rival who had made a grab for Uchiha as soon as Sasuke was out of the picture.
Naruto was smiling. Sasuke raised a brow.
“I thought you might yield to him,” Naruto admitted. “He is the great Izuna Uchiha and sometime I wonder if you want to be Uchiha-sama.”
Give up the clan leadership? Sasuke had dreamt of it, but only when he was sure that one of his children would do a better job of it than he could manage.
Not to a stranger, even if it was the great Izuna Uchiha. Certainly not to a man whose leadership style, according to Shika, was light-standards from his own.
“Never,” he declared.
“Good,” Naruto confirmed. “We get our people back, deal with the Akatsuki and then you put Izuna Uchiha in his place.”

A soft ping alerted Shikamaru to a message bearing Sasuke’s signature. He warned Sai and stopped the simulation.
“Tonight?” Sai asked.
“Tonight,” Shikamaru confirmed. He had told Neji that he was using the interfaces in the simulator to check and refine the plan. The truth was that the plan was as polished as it could be given the available information.
He and Sai were working on new ways to visualise data. It was exhilarating.
“No eavesdropping, Sai-kun.”
“I understand, Shikamaru-san. It is private between you and Sasuke-sama.”

He stayed in the simulator, telling himself that it was more convenient. Taking a deep breath, he decompressed, decoded and opened the message.
The holoimage was a little off; the camera at Sasuke’s end had been poor and the simulator was using guesswork to upgrade it.
It made Sasuke look like an actor in a holovid series; his hair was too blue, his eyes too velvety and his skin was like porcelain.
“I have let you down, Shika, and I am sorry.”
The voice was spot on. Sasuke could have been in the room with him.
“I allowed my preconceptions about Izuna get in the way. I should have realised that the legend was just that, a legend. When you get here, we will talk about it.”
Shikamaru’s overwhelming response was relief. Sasuke’s eyes had been opened, probably by Na-chan.
“Excellent work with the plan. I am working on preparing the T1 mothership in case we get a chance to jump the hole. I know that Kakashi will be doing the same with the Maple.”
Shikamaru wondered if Sasuke had received Kakashi’s latest message. The Ninken had managed to reach the system where the Maple’s route next crossed a shipping lane.
If all went well, they would pick up the Electron at the next crossing point. When the Maple jumped the second hole she would be carrying six ships: the Ninken, the Electron, the Arrow, the Bolt and the Tennyos’ two ships, the Kichijoten and the Marishiten.
Sasuke was continuing. “Our bad news is that Yoshimi, Rin and Akemi weren’t on the T1 mothership so we know the Orochimaru print has hostages.”
He shuddered, remembering the other Orochimaru print with Itachi.
“We are on our way to collect the Silver Leaf and preparing to welcome Tennyo One. Unless you tell us otherwise, Naruto and I will continue to act as if she is employed by Chaaruzu-san, who has asked her and the other Tennyos to work with Uchiha.
“We are looking forward to your arrival. Naruto says a special thank you for thinking of bringing Kiba because it means that we might be able to unpod the triplets. We haven’t even retrieved them yet, in case we get a chance to jump the hole.
“A data package including all the information we could glean from the T1 mothership is attached.
“Look after yourself, Shika. We will talk in five days’ time.”

Shikamaru felt so much better. All the futures where Sasuke trusted Izuna had fizzled away. He thought of jumping out of the simulator to tell Neji but then remembered that Hinata would be there.
Instead he began dissecting the data Sasuke had harvested from the T1 mothership and integrating the pieces into his intelligence on the Akatsuki.

Another, different, alarm; it was time for the midday meal.

He ate his meal, listened to Sumiko telling him about her morning and watched Neji.
There was no missing the bond between him and Hinata. Shikamaru had studied them for the last five days and he was now sure that there was more than friendship between them. It was as if Neji found Hinata mesmerising; he could barely drag his eyes away.
This time Shikamaru knew it wasn’t his imagination. Even Kiba had commented on it. As for Sumiko, Shikamaru had begun surreptitiously searching her pockets for weapons.
Thinking about Su-chan reminded him that hiding from the issue wasn’t a feasible option.
“There was a message from Sasuke-sama,” he stated.
It was enough to capture Neji’s attention.
“Can I speak to you one-to-one after the meal?” he asked, knowing that Neji would think he wanted to discuss the message’s contents.
“Of course,” Neji replied.

Hinata left, followed by Kiba and Sumiko.
“We’re going to talk here?” Neji asked, puzzled.
“Yes,” Shikamaru answered and plunged in. “I see how you look at Hinata. I understand. I mean, we always knew that it might happen. You know what Su-chan says, we were rings but not rings-and-forever.”
Neji stared at him in shock, which was unexpected. “Shika?”
“You think you might love her,” Shikamaru whispered.
There was silence. Shikamaru watched as Neji flushed. He looked flustered and a little embarrassed. It was rather sweet; like a youngster in love.
Shikamaru pulled the ring from his heart finger and placed it on the table. “We will always be family. I cannot imagine us not being friends. I will always love you, even if that love is expressed in a different way. It’s because we are friends and because I love you that I am offering to release you.”

Neji stared at the ring on the table. When his gaze finally rose, Shikamaru knew he was going to accept.
“Remember, no jumping into bed with Hinata without asking Sasuke-sama’s permission,” he added. It was part tease and part warning.
The flush deepened to a blush. “I wouldn’t. I barely know her.”
“Well now you can court her.”
Neji took a deep breath and then exhaled. “I accept your offer. However, I suggest you put the ring back on until we have spoken to Su-chan.”
Shikamaru imagined the scene if Sumiko spotted the missing rings before they had spoken to her. He picked up the ring and slipped it back on his finger. “I’ll go and get her.”

Su-chan knew it was serious as soon as the words “Neji and I need to talk with you” passed his lips.
She held his hand as they walked to the galley together. Once they had sat down she looked from him to Neji and then back.
“I don’t want you to split up,” she complained.
Shikamaru braced himself for a rocky ride. “Sumiko, this time you don’t get a say. You get to be the first person we tell. We’re still family. Neji and I will remain friends. We still love each other, but it’ll be a different type of love.”
Her face contorted into a scowl. “It’s because of Her.”
“Hinata-san’s arrival has only precipitated it,” Shikamaru insisted. “You must not blame Hinata-san. I expect you to be polite to her.”
Suddenly the scowl vanished. “You promise not to let Izuna-sama fuck you?”
Shikamaru could feel Neji stiffen and was careful not to catch his gaze. “I promise. I do not like Izuna-sama that way.”
Sumiko settled. “Good. I will try to be polite to Hinata-san but I refuse to like her.”
“Thank you, Su-chan,” Neji replied.
“You must move to the spare bedroom in the suite,” Sumiko insisted. “And you’re no longer allowed to go in and out of my room because you aren’t Nii-san’s lover.”
Shikamaru glared at her. Banning Neji from her room was nothing to do with them splitting up; she wanted projectors like Haru’s.
“I understand,” Neji agreed.
There was a silence that Sumiko broke. “Who goes first?”
Shikamaru looked at her.
“You have to give the rings back,” she reminded him.
“I will,” Neji volunteered. He slid Shikamaru’s love ring off and placed it on the table. “Thank you, Shika. It has been amazing and I can never thank you enough for everything you have done for me. I will always love you and I hope we will always be friends.”
It was coming home to Shikamaru what he had done. Maybe he should have fought but it was too late. He took off Neji’s ring for the second time. “Friends forever. You are a member of my family and I love you. Thank you for being there for me and helping me grow up.”
Neji’s fingertips closed on the silver ring, as they had closed on the Go piece so long ago. He stood up. “I’ll go move my things. I shall see you at the evening meal.”
Shikamaru watched him walk away.

“I hate that you let him go,” Su-chan announced as soon as Neji was out of earshot. “I hate Her. I am being nice about it for Ne-chan’s sake.”
“And for projectors,” Shikamaru suggested.
She didn’t look even the slightest bit guilty.
“I’ll switch them off if you behave badly. That includes being anything other than pleasant to Hinata-san.”
Sumiko considered and then nodded. “Deal.”
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