Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Leader	By : mannahpierce Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 2164 -:- 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
- 38
- 39
- 40
Thank you to my beta and muse, Small Fox. This story grew from a plot idea he gave me.

Last chapter I commented that I was finding writing difficult and some feedback at this time would be very welcome. I am so very grateful for the response from readers. I have struggled to write a chapter per week lately and this week I have managed three.
Thank you! Particular thanks to maliya, Procrastination_is_key, v, satterb, rek12, VillageFox, Prism0467, Ash, Rhionae, sadie237, Slynx, melissen, cynaga, disembodiedvoiceofthedying and superflaj for reviewing after chapter 38 was posted and also to the readers who contacted me by email.
Hits are nice. Ratings are welcome. Reviews encourage and inspire.

I am posting this chapter a day early because I will not be available this week to make the posting at the usual time.

Leader
Part 5: Regroup
39: Paused

Madara had discovered that there was a difference between knowing that his attempt to seize control had failed and accepting it.
He still found himself overcome by surges of fury. He would never forgive Orochimaru for trusting such a crucial mission to one of his prints.

However, he was resolved to concentrate on the future rather than the past; it was essential that he make as much progress as possible while Sasuke Uchiha’s attention was elsewhere.
He allowed himself a small smile. With some of his children trapped in a system with no navigable holes and others on a ship heading for Orochimaru, Sasuke Uchiha was unlikely to be thinking about what was happening back in Tarrasade.

‘Izuna’ now had his own offices in Uchiha headquarters. He had purchased a shuttle and had a ship on order. He was recruiting his own staff.
Madara would have liked to establish a completely separate household within the compound but he was not ready to give up his apartment with its direct link to Karin.
Building his public profile was the priority. He was giving a series of interviews about life a millennium ago. He had joined various influential organisations and committees.
Sasuke had always shunned publicity. Madara, as Izuna, embraced it.

He had decided that he needed someone other than Sumaru at his side. The young man was handsome and his manners were immaculate but he made ordinary people uncomfortable. Having spent considerable time studying current modes and fashions, Madara had concluded that he required a beautiful young woman as his assistant.
Recruiting had security implications so he had to consult with Asuma. Madara summoned him to his office, hoping it would annoy him, but the big man was his usual good-natured self.
“If you want them to be able to work within Uchiha headquarters they will need to pass a level two check,” Asuma warned him.
It was a reasonable stipulation but it would exclude anyone with even a wisp of a connection to the Akatsuki.
“Are you going to use an agency to produce the shortlist?” Asuma asked.
Madara had not got that far but it was a good idea; he would be deluged by applications if he advertised. “Yes,” he decided.
For once Asuma looked serious. “May I have the name of the agency? I would like to put forward someone’s name.”

Madara was intrigued. It could not be an attempt to plant someone because Asuma was being so overt with his request.
“Asuma-san?” he queried.
“There is a young woman. Her father was one of the elite fighters. Her mother was a courtesan. As you may know, until Sasuke-sama became clan leader elite fighters were not allowed to have children. The mother was brave enough to face Fugaku-kyou, to say that one of the Uchiha fighters was the father and to submit to a paternity test.
“If the child had been a boy he would have been raised by Uchiha as a fighter. As it was female, the baby was given over to the Sisterhood.”
His interest was piqued. The Sisterhood was older than Tarrasade; older than Uchiha. Only those who were phenomenally rich had the option of eroding their fortune by visiting one of the Sisterhood’s palaces of pleasure. “The girl did not reach the required standard?”
Asuma shrugged. “Perhaps. Perhaps she chose to leave. As is traditional, the Sisterhood told her who paid for her education so she came to Tarrasade. As Sasuke-sama is not here, I saw her.”
Madara very much wanted to meet someone who had been educated by the Sisterhood; even someone who had not made the grade. “If she passes the level two security check I shall interview her.”
Asuma bowed. “Thank you, Izuna-sama.”

When the agency’s recommendations arrived, Madara found himself in the unexpected position of being spoilt for choice. There were several highly qualified candidates, all of whom met the criteria and none of whom had failed the level two security check.
He would start by interviewing two; the young woman educated by the Sisterhood and one other.
Each of the agency’s choices had a great deal to recommend her.
He had specified a female whose colouring contrasted to his own. Most of the agency’s recommendations were blond-haired and blue-eyed. There were two redheads. One had strawberry hair and emerald eyes.
What type of woman would choose two such obviously unnatural colours?
He decided to find out.

Decision made, he moved his attention to other matters. There was still no response from the Hyuga. Karin’s attempts to reach her contact had failed. As Madara no longer spoke on behalf of Uchiha, he was unable to contact Hinata directly.
Even though his scheme for selling Neji to the Hyuga was stalled, he was convinced that the strategy had been sound. So much so that he intended to repeat it.
If he could not have Shikamaru then neither would Sasuke.
His problem was dealing with Centre. Every spacer knew that attracting Centre’s attention was foolhardy. The safe course would be to tell Centre about Shikamaru without expecting anything in return. The Centralites would acquire the typed-seven genius they valued so highly. At worst Sasuke would be weakened and at best he would waste time and resources on futile attempts to get Shikamaru back.
Only it was tempting to try for more. Centre was so, so rich.

Shikamaru put the final touches to the communication for Itachi and sent it to Sasuke for approval.
They had concentrated on the Sakura and on their plan to jump the Linden through the hole. There were a few promising leads about the mindnet but they needed more research.
“Tomorrow we will work on the Orochimaru simulation,” Sai stated.
“Not today?” Shikamaru queried; it was only mid afternoon.
“No. You would work better after a break, Shikamaru-san. Sumiko would enjoy a session in the simulator.”
Sai was right, but Shikamaru did not want to socialise. It was fine when Neji was alone, but watching him being so attentive to Hinata was proving difficult to take. He sighed. He would have to get over it; the best outcome for everyone would be Hinata staying and swearing to Sasuke.
“Kiba-san is on the Linden interrogating minkies,” Sai reminded him. “Haru’s To-chan is with the triplets.”
Spending some time with Na-chan was an excellent idea.

Tsu-chan showed him his latest drawing and explained the wonderfully imaginative world it represented while Na-chan played with Takara and Teruko.
It made Shikamaru yearn for all this to be over. He wanted to be in the nursery in Tarrasade telling children stories.
He wanted Haru home, even if he was too old for stories.

Naruto persuaded Te-chan and Ta-chan to join Tsu-chan drawing pictures by suggesting that their Papa needed some artwork for his office.
“Su-chan?” he queried.
“In the simulator,” Shikamaru admitted, tensing for the usual argument; both Kiba and Neji thought Sumiko was far too fond of playing in the simulator.
Naruto just twitched his whiskers. “She is much happier.”
Shikamaru relaxed. Naruto was right. Sumiko liked her close family unit being just him, her and Sai. She appreciated the extra freedom she had now that Neji was not regulating their lives. Thinking about it, she had taken on some of Neji’s role, making sure Shikamaru slept, ate and had a supply of clean clothes.
“Shi-chan?”
“I am getting there.”
Naruto smiled, lighting up the room. “Good. What do you want to talk about?”
Shikamaru looked at the triplets. They were absorbed in creating their pictures. He would speak softly, in a voice only Naruto could hear. “Klenn was right. I should never have sworn to Uchiha.”
For a moment Naruto did not reply and Shikamaru wondered if he had stepped over a line he had not known was there.
“There is no going back,” Naruto replied.
Naruto was right. The vow bound him. The only way out was the one Itachi had found for Kisame; becoming an individual Uchiha’s beloved overrode the oath to Uchiha.
There were only two adult Uchihas. Sasuke had his beloved and as for Izuna; Shikamaru shuddered.
“Izuna,” he explained.
Naruto’s eyes narrowed. “What did he do to you?”
“Nothing happened,” Shikamaru insisted. If he told Naruto that Izuna had tried to rape him, Naruto would rip Izuna’s head off. “He was persistent but he gave up in the end.”
“Sasuke must remain Uchiha-sama,” Naruto murmured.
Various pieces slotted together in Shikamaru’s mind. “Izuna is building a position where he can claim the clan leadership.”
Naruto did not reply immediately. Instead he watched his children. Shikamaru wondered if he was imagining their future if Izuna was Uchiha-sama.
His response, when it came, was unexpected. “Sasuke is unlikely to win a hand-to-hand combat.”
Naruto was right. It could come down to that. Whoever had the better claim, the other could challenge.
“Can you make him a better fighter?” Shikamaru asked.
“It does not come naturally to him,” Naruto admitted. “He is not a killer.” He sighed. “It would be much better if it did not come to that.”
Shikamaru’s mind exploded with possibilities, most of which he dismissed; Sasuke would never agree to anything dishonourable.
“I shall think about it,” he promised. “Once we have our people back.”
Naruto nodded. “Once we have our people back and we have crushed the Akatsuki.”
Shikamaru did not know if they could wait that long.

Sasuke was pleased; interrogating the nekos and minkies had been encouraging.
Handling the nekos had been easy; Naruto had treated them with respect and negotiated with the leader of the group. They had been willing to give up all the information they had, which was not much, in return for some start-up funds and a future far away from Orochimaru and the Akatsuki.
They were not willing to fight against Orochimaru. Naruto thought it was more about not wanting to fight the other nekos than personal loyalty to Orochimaru.
They were repodded and moved into storage on the Silver Leaf.

The minkies were potentially trickier because they were creatures of instinct and emotion. Sasuke decided to start with old-old-red-eight and his partner old-old-red-nineteen. They were in one room. Sasuke and Neji were in another, observing via cameras and microphones.
The two old minkies sat close together holding hands, which Sasuke found far sweeter than he would have been willing to admit.
When Kiba walked in their eyes and mouths went completely circular.

Kiba remembered their names, which was amazing considering how long ago it was and how many batches of minkies Kiba had raised. Old-old-red-eight was Pip and old-old-red-nineteen was Cott.
They fell over themselves to answer his questions and it turned out that they knew far more than the nekos. Sasuke decided that Orochimaru thought them far less intelligent than they actually were, so he was less guarded around them.
When Kiba suggested unpodding the sixty-strong squadron, Pip shook his head. He said that those minkies were young and hot-headed and fresh out of training. They expected to jump into their fighters and shoot at targets. Explaining the situation would take some time and Pip was not sure how they would react.
Sasuke remembered the young minkies on Jewel. Given time, he was sure that they could refocus the minkies’ loyalty.
He could imagine Kuuya leading a squadron of minkies.
For now he would follow Pip’s suggestion and keep them podded. They would be moved to the Silver Leaf’s storage hold in case they ended up sacrificing the Linden.

He activated the link to Kiba’s earpiece. “I think we will leave interrogating the other four older minkies until tomorrow.”
Kiba looked toward one of the cameras and nodded.
“Sasuke-sama?” Neji queried.
“Yes, Neji-san.”
“It might be useful to run the Orochimaru simulation Shika-san is preparing past these two.”
Sasuke noticed that ‘Shika’ had become ‘Shika-san’. “How do you think they would respond to being taken to the Renaissance?”
“I think they would be overwhelmed,” Neji replied.
Sasuke decided that maybe they deserved it.

Kiba was less sure but Sasuke was too taken by the idea to abandon it. The minkies huddled together on the shuttle and froze in shock when they saw their accommodation.
It was the smallest of the guest apartments; designed for a single occupant but huge to two minkies accustomed to living at close quarters with a large group.
“I shall bring you some food,” Kiba told them. “I expect you to keep the rooms nice. Don’t leave without permission.”
Cott pulled himself together enough to nod.

Pleased with himself, Sasuke headed for Naruto and the triplets. Neji excused himself, presumably going to find Hinata.
Sasuke was still uncertain that he had done the right thing in giving Neji permission to pursue the relationship. Maybe it would have been wiser to make him wait.

Shikamaru was with Naruto. Actually he was playing a make-believe game with the children while Naruto watched. Sasuke sat beside his beloved and tried to catch up with what appeared to be an interactive story.
The children loved playing their roles while Shikamaru acted all the other parts.
It was good to see Shikamaru enjoying himself.

He decided to stop trying to follow the story in favour of filling Naruto in with what had happened.
“You gave a pair of minkies a guest apartment?” he queried.
“Why not? They deserved it,” Sasuke replied.
Naruto pulled him close and kissed the top of his head. “You can be such a softy.”
Sasuke scowled at him but did not pull away.
Then the story ended with a dramatic death scene from Tsuneo, who was playing the baddy, and, at Shikamaru’s suggestion, the triplets rushed over to show him the pictures they had made for his office.

He and Naruto supervised the triplets' evemeal, followed by bath time and bedtime. Tsuneo asked for a song rather than a story, so Naruto went to get the biwa Shikamaru had brought for him.
There was one for him and one for Hoshi. Sasuke knew that Shikamaru had been careful to choose the best two out of those in the household storerooms, testing each one to find those least likely to upset Naruto or the other hybrids.
He opened the case, lifted it out and tuned it. It was a nice instrument with a good sound.
But it wasn’t his mother’s biwa; that was lost forever.

It was both pleasurable and painful. There was music, but not the music that spoke to him so deeply. He was with his beloved and his children, but it reminded him that four of his children were in danger; three of them in the hands of a monster.
He sat next to Tsuneo’s bed watching him sleep.
He loved each of them so much.

Kazuki waited a few minutes after lights-out before slipping from his bunk into Haru’s.
It was weird being in total darkness. Normally there was some light, even during ship’s night. Haru guessed it was one of Orochimaru’s ways of reminding them that he was in control. He was saying ‘I can steal one of your senses’.
It wasn’t a good thought. Haru didn’t doubt for a moment that Orochimaru would blind someone if the idea took his fancy; or chop off a hand, or a tongue, or castrate one of them.
The only reason he was being reasonable was because he was working on Yo-chan. He could not afford to leave any permanent marks on them because Yoshimi would react badly.

Haru was sure that Orochimaru was watching them. He was bound to have infra red cameras and microphones planted in the bunkroom.
That meant he did not mind Kazuki moving to Haru’s bunk each night. Thinking about it, Orochimaru probably wanted them to be as close as possible, so that he could control each of them by threatening to hurt the other.

He lay on his side and snuggled back against Ka-chan’s chest. The position was comfortable and familiar but the important thing was that it gave them the contact they needed to have conversations in long-short.
Kazuki’s fingers moved in Haru’s left palm. Haru used his right hand to stroke Ka-chan’s tail.
They began with the usual argument.
“Do more,” Kazuki coded.
“No,” Haru replied.
“How long?”
“Itachi or Papa will come.”
“Sure?”
The problem was that Haru wasn’t sure. Perhaps Papa would never work out a way of jumping back into the system. Maybe Itachi-san was barely clinging to survival; unable to even think about a rescue.
“Yes,” he lied. It was essential to keep Ka-chan from doing anything. Haku-san was putting his life on the line every day to distract Orochimaru’s attention. Yoshimi, even if he did not know it, was sacrificing his personality tiny piece by tiny piece. Every day that they all survived was a triumph.
But Kazuki could not see it that way. Haru didn’t blame him. It was hard. He did not know which was worse, watching Yoshimi becoming a stranger or when Haku-san’s determination to appear normal faltered.
This morning had been bad. It was obvious that Haku-san was in pain; all his usual grace had gone. Haru had been able to see bruises through the concealing cosmetics.
How long could he last? Who would Orochimaru choose next?
The obvious choice was Ran. He was the oldest. Yoshimi was less likely to react badly if he found out. Orochimaru had already made comments about empaths being exceptional at fulfilling others’ sexual desires.
The thought of it made Haru want to throw up.
“Haru?”
Ka-chan’s touches were gentle, so they would not wake him if he had fallen asleep. “Still awake,” he confirmed. “Must be ready,” he added.
“Are ready,” Kazuki reminded him.
Their plan was to react if something happened. They would use their superior knowledge of the Sakura’s systems to hole up and defend their position.
“Want to rip his throat out,” Ka-chan admitted.
“Me too.”
There was a very faint rumble in Kazuki’s chest; suppressed laughter at the thought of Haru attacking anyone, never mind with his teeth.
“Sleep,” Kazuki suggested.
“Sleep,” Haru agreed.
- 38
- 39
- 40
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