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
- 3
- 4
- 5
Author's note: You know at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if this story ends up being ten chapters or so. Hope you're ready for however long it takes to finish this!
Warnings: Violence; injury
I hope you'll like this chapter!
Chapter 4
Eerie silence blanketed the town when they sneaked into the place. The buildings here blocked the wind for the most part, but that didn't exactly make it more comfortable to walk around here. Sasuke didn't know which sound he dreaded more: that of the groaning, gurgling dead or the utter absence of sound, where it felt like even the air was being sucked out. Silence didn't always mean safety anymore. Silence could also be the harbinger of a group of people about to jump them or take them under fire.
They kept to the right side of the street for now, their backs against the walls as they slowly made their way deeper and deeper into the town. Some stores had their doors busted in; through one of them a dead zombie dropped towards the ground, as if someone had forcefully shoved him through the wood – or the zombie had tried to crawl out after someone before meeting his final end. In this world everything was possible.
"How about we climb onto one of the roofs?" Naruto murmured; his shoulder pressed against Sasuke's so that his voice wouldn't carry over to potentially other people roaming around here. "Might be useful, such an advantage point. At the very least, we won't have to walk through the entire town."
Sasuke thought about it for a bit and then nodded, seeing the sense in it. The houses weren't particularly tall here, nor was there a building that really stood out, but any height would help them out in checking their surroundings easier. It might also give them a good estimation of how far the mall exactly was.
They tested a couple of closed doors; the fourth one Naruto tested opened without too much effort and he slipped inside, Sasuke following right behind him. Both men stood still in the dark hallway for a moment, pricking their ears for any unusual sound.
"The door shut tight?" Naruto questioned.
"Yeah, why, what are - "
Swiftly Naruto pushed a lonely vase off the table. It toppled over the edge and shattered apart on the tiled floor; the noise almost ringing in Sasuke's ears, his heart beating quicker in response to his surprise.
He stared at Naruto when the man cocked his head to the side and announced after a short moment, "Well, looks like we're alone here. If there was a dead bastard here, they'd be greeting us by now."
A huff of disbelief escaped Sasuke as he followed him upstairs. "Could have fucking warned me," he muttered darkly. "You pull that kind of shit often?"
Naruto threw him a quick grin over his shoulder. "Fastest way to find out whether any of the dead are inside. Checking the rooms would take too long and that could still lead to nasty surprises. This way we're already prepared if they come to us."
Sasuke supposed that made sense, but still, a bit of a warning would have been fucking appreciated.
The first floor had only two rooms; one appeared to have been a study, a desk and a bookcase visible from the open doorway, and the other contained a lonely futon and empty drawers strewn across the room.
"Looks like the owner grabbed everything and got the hell out of the dodge when shit hit the fan," Naruto remarked after a quick, but thorough check of the room. "Nothing left save for the futon and that one smells highly questionable, so I'm not going to take it with me."
"You got an idea how to get on top of the roof?" Sasuke asked after realised this house only had two floors and no attic they could use to check the town.
"Hm." Naruto walked back into the old bedroom and looked out of the window. He opened it and looked up; biting his lip. "There's a ledge here. I can use that to push myself off and onto the roof. Should be doable."
"You're not going to break your neck like that?" Sasuke asked sceptically, drawing closer to him so he could look out of the window as well. He frowned at the lack of decent wiggle room. If Naruto took one wrong step, he could make one hell of a nasty fall. Especially because, Sasuke frowned, the previous owner had apparently been trying to wait out the apocalypse in his home and had planted several spikes in the garden.
Spikes which were still firmly aimed upwards and which looked way too sharp for comfort.
"Nah, I've climbed in worse conditions," Naruto said dismissively. "Just be ready to cover my arse in case shit hits the fan, all right?"
"Sure, just as long as you can keep your arse whole and don't get it spiked through if you do slip off the roof," Sasuke retorted dryly, pulling out his own gun. His katana was strapped to his back as always, but he'd taken some of his guns as well, because a katana, while deadly and quick, was only good in close quarters. In case of an ambush from the rooftops, his katana wouldn't be able to do much.
Naruto surprised him by grinning before he swung his body out of the window, hopping onto the ledge. "Knew this wasn't one-sided between us and you do appreciate my butt." He winked.
"You're an idiot," Sasuke snorted, but couldn't help but feel somewhat uneasy as he watched Naruto stretch out, hovering precariously on the ledge as he grabbed onto the gutters.
He pulled himself up, using the nearest wall to brace his feet against it and then there was a light thump above Sasuke when the blond landed onto the roof. He heard nothing else anymore after that and he kept watch from the window, looking out for anything that might betray the presence of someone else. So far only some birds seemed to accompany them here, twittering quietly in one of the trees behind the fenced garden. A whole row of trees was planted behind these houses and Sasuke thought he could see the roof of a school on the other side of it. He wondered whether they should stop there and see if there was anything useful to scavenge. There might still be bandages or some medicine left behind.
The gutters protesting alerted him to the fact that Naruto was getting off the roof and he spent a second wondering how the hell the guy was going to manage getting down when there was nothing decent to hold on to, but somehow Naruto succeeded in lowering himself down enough so that his feet touched the ledge again. The second he was down, he basically swung his body inside and closed the window again.
"See, told you I could do it, not a single scratch," he said airily, but when he turned to look at Sasuke, his gaze was serious. "Couldn't see anything immediately suspicious, but this town is quite big and has got a shit ton of buildings, so who knows what might be in those."
"You think we should risk bringing the van here?" Driving into the town might attract attention if there were indeed other people hiding here, but on the other hand if they landed into trouble, they would be able to make a quicker getaway.
Naruto nibbled on his lower lip; his fingers rubbing almost absently over the handle of his machete. "I'd say we take the risk," he replied eventually. "If we do get caught, we'll be quicker with the car instead of trying to make it on foot."
"All right, let's go back." Hopefully the rest of their hunt would go as smoothly as the start of it.
They found the local mall after driving around for half an hour. The shattered doors and glass strewn about made it abundantly clear that they weren't the first ones to try their luck here, but whoever had been here before hadn't grabbed everything. They dodged a couple of zombies, ignored the pile of rotting zombies smashed to pieces on the ground floor – yeah, people definitely had been here before – and systematically went through every store that looked interesting.
They managed to fill three large sport bags with clothes they looted from two clothing stores and a fourth bag with some kids clothes Sasuke had discovered in the back of a third store. After stuffing those bags in the back of their van, they returned to the mall and for once luck was on their side because the first floor harboured a baby supply store.
"You want to go in here?" Naruto asked surprised when Sasuke made short work of two zombies blocking the doorway.
"Yeah, got orders to collect as many baby supplies as we can."
"Someone's pregnant then?"
"Yep."
"All right, let's see what we can find then."
Clearly whoever had been here before them hadn't been terribly interested in baby stuff, because the store was still fairly stocked. They cleared one table and collected everything on there that might seem useful. Five boxes of disposable diapers, two containing reusable ones. Eight cans of formula and a full box of empty bottles. A stack of crawlers and mini jumpsuits and sweaters with some shoes in pastel colours.
While Naruto brought their haul to the van, Sasuke walked through the store, eyeing the bigger supplies such as cribs, chairs and carriers. There were some strollers left, but he thought those wouldn't be useful in the event they had to run. Trying to flee from zombies with a stroller didn't seem like such a good idea.
"Van's filled up to nearly a third already," Naruto announced when he returned from dumping the clothes in their vehicle. He spotted Sasuke in front of the cribs. "We're taking some of those with us?"
Sasuke frowned, tilting his head to the left. "Maybe two of each? We'll have to save room for other supplies too."
While still disassembled, the boxes would also take up space and if their luck held on and they found food or medical supplies he didn't want to have to return to the store to dump some stuff.
"Sounds good to me."
They had to kill a couple of zombies, but they found several boxes with canned food in the lonely supermarket. Every single food item in the store in fact had been crammed in the storage room which made Sasuke assume that at one point someone had been camping out here. Looking at the streaks of dried blood smeared across the tiles and the walls, however, this person – or people – were no longer around to prevent them from taking the boxes with them.
"Oh man, even coffee still," Naruto sighed, shaking the can back and forth. Some blood was smudged across his cheek from where he'd rammed his dagger into a zombie's forehead.
"You a coffee fan?"
"Never really was, but if you need to keep watch an entire night, this stuff sure does help," Naruto said lightly. "Hell, there's even cereals left here."
"One's loss is another one's gain," Sasuke mumbled, checking behind the counter to see if there was anything stashed there. Only some gum but he took them anyways, adding them to their pile.
All the weapons from actual guns to simple kitchen knives had been already looted, which was a disappointment, he wasn't going to lie, but they had still found quite a bit of stuff and they took care to check every zombie for any weapons they might still have. Not like those dead fuckers would still have a use of them anyways.
They checked the school next, but only managed to score some bandages and some scissors. There might have been something useful in the teacher's lounge, but one look through the dusty window had made both of them decide to return to their van. Someone – maybe a teacher themselves – had taken care to lock up zombies in the teacher's lounge. There had to be around twenty stuck in there, some still kids, and neither Sasuke nor Naruto were eager to try to take them on. No sense in courting danger when it wasn't necessary.
"Always thought empty schools were creepy as fuck," Naruto muttered as they hurried back to the van, checking their surroundings.
"I wouldn't exactly call this one empty with twenty zombies stuck in a room," Sasuke said dryly, sliding behind the wheel.
Naruto snorted, rolling his shoulders. "You know what I mean." He checked his watch. "We've got around two more hours maybe before the sun sets. You want to check out some of the houses?"
"Why not?" Sasuke decided, driving off the parking lot. "Maybe our luck will hold."
Their luck didn't hold. Far from it.
Sasuke had parked the van on the side of the road, between a couple of deserted ones. The plan was to check the houses in the block here, bunk down somewhere for the night and tomorrow they'd leave. The van was nearly filled to the brim already, so there was no point in staying here for much longer anyways.
The plan had been a good one – up until a gate next to one of the houses broke down, a swarm of dead fuckers having gathered somehow; their weight and insistent pushing too much for the thin iron gate.
"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.
His skull was blasted apart before he could bend down.
Dodging some zombies Sasuke hurried to Naruto, grabbing his wrist the second he was next to him and hauled him up. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm – MOTHER DICK!" Naruto practically howled when he settled his weight on his left foot. "That shit hurts, fuck!"
Fuck, he'd probably twisted it when he fell down. Fucking fantastic.
Sasuke cut down three more zombies and hastily looked around, spotting the small apartment building across the street. It was the only place that didn't have zombies swarming in front of it and their only chance to get out of this nightmare alive.
"This is going to hurt like hell," Sasuke warned and Naruto's head swivelled towards him for a second before he turned around and stabbed a dead woman through her forehead. "But the second I clear the path in front of me, we need to run to that apartment building. That's our only chance to get out of here. Think you can handle it?"
"'S not really the question whether I can handle it, don't got a choice," Naruto retorted grimly and so swift it was hard to imagine he was hurt, he whirled around and shot four zombies in succession.
But Sasuke saw him grimacing, saw the sweat beading across his forehead, noticed the way he tried to favour his right leg while still keeping his balance. At best his ankle was only twisted. At worst it was broken. If that was the case … They'd deal with it later.
"Get ready!"
Swinging his katana in a wide arc around him offered them the small opening he'd been aiming for. They made a mad dash towards the building, dodging several of those fuckers, and –
Slammed straight into the closed door. Immediately Sasuke started trying to kick in the door. It was wooden, there was some mould, it had to fucking give at one point! Behind him Naruto was shooting their dead pursuers, switching over to his machete when his bullets ran out.
"Should have fucking brought my crossbow," he muttered and then raised his voice. "Hey, any day now, Sasuke, please!"
"I'm fucking trying!" Sasuke snarled back and took a couple of steps back before he forcefully slammed his shoulder into the door.
Pain instantly exploded in his shoulder, making him see stars, but the constant barrage of kicks and now his shoulder did the trick. The door slammed open, he stumbled inside, able to regain his balance before his face met the floor. He grabbed Naruto by his jacket, dragged him inside and slammed the door shut. A quick look around showed a heavy closet blocking the staircase. There were straight marks across the floor; someone had probably used the closet to block the door at one point.
Trying to ignore the little voice that said that apparently blocking the door hadn't done much for the previous occupants, Sasuke rushed to the closet and pulled it away from the stairs, putting all his weight behind it to push it against the door. Naruto was leaning against the door at the moment, the wooden frame creaking dangerously as the undead tried to get inside and the second the closet was so close it nearly hit his face, Naruto ducked away and helped Sasuke push it against the door.
By the time they had managed that, shoving a couch from the nearest apartment in front of it for good measure, sweat was dripping off their faces and they were panting like mad; Sasuke's lungs and muscles screaming from the heavy lifting he'd been forced to do so soon after swinging his katana around.
"We need to go up," Naruto whispered wearily. He was leaning heavily against the wall; a pained grimace twisting his features. "Staying here will only wind those fuckers up even more. We can barricade ourselves somewhere upstairs and hopefully they'll lose interest soon."
Sasuke tried not to think what would happen if they didn't lose interest.
"Come on, you can lean on me," he said instead, returning his katana to its sheath and his gun behind the waistband of his trousers. After moving the shoulder bag from his right to his left, he held out his arm to Naruto.
For a second it looked like Naruto was about to protest; his eyes narrowed, his mouth twisted, but then his breath escaped him in a long rush and he nodded, allowing Sasuke to put his arm around his waist and let his own arm rest around Sasuke's shoulder.
Absurdly, Sasuke got the mental image of a skittish cat: wanting care, but refusing to go near people to get it. He was expecting sharp claws any moment now, but it was clear Naruto had to use all his energy to hobble upstairs, leaving him with no steam to hiss like a cat with wounded pride.
Their journey to the third floor was painfully slow, the sound of the dead gurgling and snarling and groaning right outside eerie background noise as they took step by step. Naruto looked ready to drop by the time they shuffled into one of the few remaining apartments which door hadn't been busted in. A quick check revealed no undead people and after guiding Naruto to the couch, Sasuke hurried to shove a table against the door, placing both of the nightstands retrieved from the bedroom on top of it. It wouldn't do much if the large herd managed to get upstairs, but it would give them some warning at least.
He dumped the bag against the kitchen counter, ignored how his legs felt like damn rubber now that the adrenaline burst was slowly fading away, and made his way to Naruto, who'd dumped his weapons next to him on the couch. He was leaning back into a pillow, rubbing his hands across his face.
"Guess this is why they say you should never be greedy," he muttered, half muffled behind his hands.
Sasuke snorted and leant his katana against the side of the couch. "Let me take a look at your foot now."
"Don't bother with it, I'll be - "
"Shut up and let me take a look at it, you're so pale you look like you're going to drop dead any moment now," Sasuke snapped and started unlacing Naruto's boot before he could form a reply.
Naruto tried to kick him away, but that only resulted in hurting himself even further, the absolute moron that he was, and it was a very petulant blond who let him check his ankle after he'd dropped the boot on the floor and had rolled his sock down.
The sight of the angrily swollen ankle made him wince.
"How bad is it?" Naruto inquired; his tone resigned.
Keeping his touch as light as possible, Sasuke carefully checked his ankle; the hotness of the skin impossible to ignore against his finger pads. "It doesn't feel broken," he said. "But it doesn't look like a light sprain either. The running probably didn't help. We'll have to stay the night here at the very least; tomorrow I'll check it again."
"No way we can't just sneak out and fight our way into the van?"
Sasuke rose up and walked over to the window facing the street. He grimaced when he looked down, caught sight of their van. "No, it's practically drowning in zombies right now. Even if your ankle had been okay, there's no way we would have been able to fight our way through so many."
No unless they had a severe death wish.
"So what? We're stuck here now?" Naruto scowled, crossing his arms.
"For the time being at least," Sasuke replied. "We'll have to wait them out, no other way around it."
Rummaging around in the tiny bathroom resulted in finding a couple of towels, one of which he soaked in water. Thank god he had got into the habit of always carrying some food and water bottles with him. The majority of their water and food was stuck in the van, but they should be able to hold out for at least a couple of days with the supplies in his bag.
"It's not exactly ice, but it'll have to do," he sighed, wrapping the soaked towel around Naruto's ankle.
The man hissed quietly, but helped Sasuke arrange his body until he was lying stretched out on the couch; his twisted ankle resting on the arm.
"At least the amount of zombies will prevent any visitors from ransacking our van," he muttered, splashing a second towel with some water so he could wipe off most of the zombie blood and gunk off his face and his jacket; handing the third towel to Naruto for him to do the same.
"Thank the gods for apocalyptic guard dogs," Naruto smiled cynically.
Sasuke snorted quietly and made his way into the kitchen. He wasn't expecting to find much, but it gave him something to do at least.
"How come you refuse to get close to anyone in the compound?"
It had become dark by now; the only light in the apartment coming from the moon spilling through the gaps in the ratty curtains. For all the shit that had occurred after they'd made their way into the centre, they had got lucky with the kitchen of this apartment. Dried soup packages and a battery operated kettle – with still working batteries, holy fuck! – were going to provide them dinner tonight. A feast in apocalyptic times.
"Hm? What are you on about?" Naruto frowned, turning his head to stare at him. He was still lying prone on the couch, waiting for the kettle to finish warming up.
Sasuke was sitting down on the only remaining armchair. "I never see you with anyone," he explained and shrugged. He knew it was hypocritical coming from him when he wasn't a people person either, but, "you strike me as the kind of person who loves being around people."
"I do, huh?" Vague amusement coloured Naruto's voice. "Well, maybe before the world turned to shit, but now there's no point in getting close to others."
"Afraid of getting attached?" Sasuke asked neutrally, looking from the kettle to Naruto. He couldn't really blame him for that, given the world they were living in now, but …
The blond man rubbed his forehead absently. "Partly, I guess," he mumbled and shrugged half-heartedly. "My friend and I, we tried to join groups a couple of times since the world ended. Unfortunately they weren't all so happy to work and live happily ever after together like yours." It almost sounded like a sneer; blue eyes focused on the darkened ceiling.
"Life without bonds is courting death," Sasuke murmured.
Naruto blinked, staring at him. "Where did that come from?"
"Something mother used to say," Sasuke answered. He could still easily hear her voice, the smile in it as she told him that. The way her face would be all soft and kind as she ran delicate fingers through his hair. "Whenever I would go to her and complain about whatever stunt my brother had pulled that day, saying I'd much rather be alone, she would tell me that. Said there would come a day when I would realise what it means and that I would be happy that I had my brother then."
He snorted quietly, rubbing his nose. "Guess she turned out to be right. For all that he can annoy me, I'm glad I have my brother still." He glanced at the other man. "I think a lot of people wouldn't mind getting to know you better."
Naruto's chuckle was dry, brittle almost. Dark. "Yeah, well, I ain't interested in getting to know them. Your compound might not be all that shit, but that doesn't mean I'm going to start making friends."
"You don't have to do everything alone, you know," Sasuke said. He didn't know why he was continuing this conversation, didn't understand why he was pushing the other man when he himself knew all too well how annoying it could be when someone tried to pull you out of your comfort zone. "There's no shame relying on others sometimes. Nothing wrong with getting closer to other people. You try to do everything yourself, try to rely only on yourself and you're going to break eventually. Nobody is built to be truly alone."
"That another nugget of wisdom your mother left you?" Naruto asked wryly.
"No." Sasuke stood up when the kettle clicked, announcing it was done heating up the water. "That's something I had to discover myself after the world fell. All I'm saying is, if you need someone, I'm here. Even if it's just to listen. Doesn't matter. Nobody should be alone now."
He'd expected a quip, a scornful retort, maybe. Naruto reminding him he wasn't here to make friends.
"Why?" was the only thing he asked instead.
"Because everyone needs someone at least," Sasuke replied simply.
The blond remained silent and they drank their soup in a fragile but peaceful silence.
AN2: I actually looked up whether there are battery operated kettles in existence. There are. The more you know when looking up shit for zombie fics, I guess.
Have another little sneakpeek!:
Clothes rustled quietly when Naruto turned to lie down on his side. "Thanks, by the way," he murmured; his warm breath hitting Sasuke in the vicinity of his cheek. He must be facing him then. "For killing that zombie before it could eat me."
Sasuke wondered how long ago it had been for the other one that he was able to thank someone for helping him with the undead. Probably for a long time and something in him twisted at that realisation.
"Yeah well, thank you for saving my arse when I was trying to kick down the door," he muttered, rubbing his shoulder in a reflex. It was still aching somewhat; it would probably leave a nasty bruise behind, but as long as he didn't think about it, he would be able to ignore the pain. Naruto's ankle was more fucked up than his shoulder at any rate.
"It is a nice arse," Naruto said solemnly before snickering quietly. "But you need to gain more strength in your legs, dude."
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 in the next part again! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!
Cuddles
Melissa
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The Long Run