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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
- 54
- 55
- 56
Thank you to my beta and muse, Small Fox. This story grew from a plot idea he gave me.
Also thanks to Slynx, satterb, sadie237, eunmook, disembodiedvoiceofthedying, Prettypurpletiger and melissen for reviewing after chapter 54 was posted. Readers’ feedback, support and comments mean a great deal to me. Feedback keeps me writing.

Please read the author’s note at the end.

Hits are nice. Ratings are welcome. Reviews encourage and inspire.

Leader
Part 7: Vendetta
55: Assumptions

The Lancet had brought Rin-san and Akemi back to Skyburrow. Akemi was tanked. No one talked about what was wrong with him in front of Haru or the other youngsters but, from what they had overheard, the Orochimaru print had done awful things to him. Haru preferred not to ask too many questions.
Rin-san looked like Rin-san only her face was fuller and she had a bump with the baby inside. Haru tried not to stare but he had never seen a pregnant woman before. It didn’t help that he couldn’t help thinking it was his fault.

Dan-san and Rin-san had their rooms in the second of the four crew rooms. Haru was on duty in the kitchen with Keizo, helping Keitaro make the midday meal. They weren’t a very effective team at the best of times but Haru’s attention kept going to the doorway through which he could see the shared area of Rin-san’s crew room. Rin-san and Dan-san were sitting on one of the couches.
Dan-san had his hand on the baby bump. He and Rin-san were talking.

Suddenly Tsuneo shot through the door from the crew room where To-chan, Papa and the triplets had their rooms. He stopped halfway across the kitchen, frowning at the table.
“It isn’t ready,” he pointed out.
Haru had not realised that they were that far behind. They hadn’t even got the table set and Kiba-san was approaching with Teruko, Takara and Sumiko.
“There’s Rin-san with the baby,” Tsu-chan announced, starting towards the doorway.

Keizo dropped what he was doing and ran to intercept. He managed to scoop up Tsuneo before he could cross the threshold.
“What do you know about entering other people’s crew rooms?” Keizo asked him.
“I was going to visit the baby,” Tsuneo told him.
“Tsu-chan?” Keizo insisted.
“I have to ask permission,” Tsuneo admitted. He lifted himself up by pushing on Kei-chan’s shoulders. “Can I come in Dan-san?”
Haru’s gaze went back to Rin-san and Dan-san. They didn’t seem too upset by the intrusion. In fact, Dan-san got to his feet and helped Rin-san up.
“We’ll come to you, Tsu-chan,” Dan-san replied.

Suddenly everything was happening at once. Dan-san and Rin-san were coming in one doorway and Kiba-san and the rest of the children through another. Keitaro had allowed the soup to boil over. Keizo was pulling a chair out for Rin-san and Tsuneo was dashing about getting in everyone’s way.
“Tsuneo-chan!” Kiba-san growled.
He came to a stop next to Rin-san. “Can I touch the baby?” he asked.
There was silence.
“Of course you can, Tsu-chan,” Rin-san replied. “Make your hand flat and put it here. Be careful.”
Haru found himself wondering if it was a Rin-san clone rather than Rin-san; he couldn’t remember her being so nice.

Next Takara and Teruko were crowding around, asking if they could touch the baby too.
“Is it a girl-baby or a boy-baby?” Takara asked.
Rin-san smiled; now Haru was convinced she was a clone. “It’s a girl.”
Tsuneo looked a bit disappointed but rallied. “What are you going to call her?”
“We haven’t decided yet,” Rin-san admitted. “Su-chan, would you like to feel the baby?”
Sumiko shook her head. “I’ll set the table.”
“Thank you, Su-chan,” Kiba-san acknowledged from over by the stove, where he was rescuing their meal.
Teruko looked puzzled. “I thought babies came from gestators.”
“Not all of them,” Dan-san replied. “All babies grew like this before the first gestators were made.”
“I grew inside my Ma,” Su-chan announced. “So did Nii-san.”
“And me,” Keitaro added, who was much happier helping Kiba-san than being in charge. “And Akemi and Misora.”

Soon the table was set, the children’s chairs had been placed at the table and people were taking their places. Haru stayed where he was, at the counter. He had run out of tasks to do so he was rearranging the fruit in a bowl.
Kiba-san came over, laid a hand on his shoulder and guided him over to the table. As they approached, Rin-san caught his eye.
Haru managed a tiny nod of acknowledgement.

As usual, most people ate faster than he did. Kiba-san and the children left, followed by Rin-san and Dan-san. Haru was relieved that she had gone but feeling better made him feel guilty.
The other youngsters started to arrive. Ran slipped into the adjacent seat.
“What’s wrong?” he asked immediately.
Haru shook his head. Ran scowled at him. “Later,” Haru pleaded and Ran decided to accept it.

Then, just as he was finishing, Dan-san came back into the kitchen, walked up behind him and leaned over.
“Rin would like a word. Maybe as soon as you finish eating?”
Haru nodded; even though that was the last thing he wanted to do.
He wished To-chan was there.
Ran waited until Dan-san had gone. “Do you want me to come with you?”
Haru did, but Rin-san had not asked for Ran. He shook his head. “I’ll be fine.”

Rin-san and Dan-san had three rooms and the one Dan-san showed him into was arranged as a sitting room. Rin-san was in a comfortable looking chair with her feet up on a footstool.
“Haru-kun,” she acknowledged.
“Rin-san,” he whispered.
She indicated a chair and he sat down.
“Three different people have either hinted or told me outright that you think what the Orochimaru print did to me was your fault. It wasn’t. Orochimaru is obsessed with living forever but his prints know that is impossible for them. So this...” She placed a hand on her bump. “...is that print’s bid for immortality. Threatening you was just one of his sadistic games.”
That was what Ran kept telling him; Orochimaru would have done it anyway.

He found himself staring at the bump and at Rin-san’s hand protecting it.
“What about the baby?” he heard himself ask.
“What do you mean by that?” Rin-san demanded. She sounded much more like Rin-san; Haru was actually pleased that she was being sharp with him.
“Rin-chan,” Dan-san said quietly.
“Well I am fed up with it,” Rin-san complained. “Shizune had barely finished checking me over and people were offering to raise my baby for me. Offering to adopt her now, or adopt her later, or arrange for her to be adopted on the other side of known space.”
Haru had thought about offering to adopt the baby when he was old enough; he was glad he had kept his mouth shut.
“She’s my baby.”
“Our baby,” Dan-san corrected her.
“Our baby,” she agreed. “One of new Uchiha’s lessons is that it’s parenting that matters, not genetics.”
Haru was impressed by her determination but this was Orochimaru. What if the baby looked like him? What if being a sadistic megalomaniac was inherited?
Rin-san was scowling at him. “Look at your father.”
“Rin-chan,” Dan-san warned.
Haru stiffened; what about Papa?
“What do you know about your grandfather?” Rin-san asked.
More than he should, like he always did. Haru decided to face what Rin-san was suggesting head-on. “Papa turned out well even though his father was...” He took a deep breath. “...a sadistic megalomaniac like Orochimaru.”
“Haru!” Dan-san was genuinely shocked.
“You’ll have to do as good a job as Papa’s mother,” Haru reminded her, “but Dan-san and the rest of us will help.”
Rin-san studied him for a moment and then nodded. “Thank you, Haru. I shall try.”

Dan-san saw him out of the room and went with him into the shared area, closing the door behind him.
“I wish I could say it wasn’t true about your grandfather but I can’t.”
Haru nodded. “I understand what Rin-san was saying. If Papa’s father had not been what he was, new Uchiha wouldn’t exist. In a way the baby is like that.” He considered. “It’s a compliment really. Even Orochimaru trusts us with his child. Like Pein did.”
Dan-san smiled. “That is a nice way of thinking about it, Haru-kun.”

Ran was waiting for him in the kitchen. He had one look at Haru, gave a little smile and got up to collect two of Choza’s cookies.
“We’ve got twenty minutes before the meeting Hikaru’s holding to discuss salvaging Shika-san’s level. Let’s go to my room.”
Haru nodded.
As soon as they walked into their crew room, Kazuki’s door opened.
“You all right?” he asked Haru.
Ran raised the cookies. “We’re going to my room. Why don’t you get yourself a cookie and join us?”

Haru would have preferred a bit of time with Ran alone but maybe Ka-chan needed the company; he was still recovering from his moment of madness with Ryuka.
They sat on the bed, leaving the chair for Kazuki. He was there within a minute with three cookies, one in his mouth and one in either hand. He slid the door close behind him with his foot, sat down, balanced the two extra cookies on his knee and rescued what was left of the one he had been holding in his mouth.
“How did it go with Rin-san?” he mumbled around a mouthful of cookie.
“Fine. She and Dan-san are going to raise the baby. She says that it was nothing to do with me; the Orochimaru print would have done it anyway.
Ran sighed but managed not to comment.
“Ran and I have been telling you that every day for half a standard,” Ka-chan pointed out for him. “Good for Rin-san,” he added. “Being able to separate the bad stuff from the baby.”
“How are you?” Ran asked cautiously.
Kazuki’s ears dipped. “Fine. Papa and To-chan sent me a vid. They were cross about the fighting but understanding about the... ...other.”
Kazuki had showed Haru the video message. They had both been impressed that Papa was so calm.
“You do understand about not telling anyone,” Ka-chan added.
“Of course,” Ran assured him. “As if I would. And I’ll be careful to make sure that Ryuka doesn’t guess I know.”
“Thanks,” Kazuki acknowledged and went back to eating his cookies. Haru decided to follow his example.

Iruka-sensei and Kiba-san had agreed that as few people as possible should know that it had been more than a fight. Haru and Misora had promised to tell no one and, hopefully, Tsuneo had been persuaded that they had only been ‘wrestling’.
It had been Kazuki who had decided to tell Ran.
“How do you feel about her?” Ran asked.
Haru almost choked on his cookie. Ka-chan looked at Ran with suspicion. “What do you mean?”
“Well, there’s obviously a huge physical attraction between you,” Ran pointed out.

Haru watched Kazuki struggle to find a response. Ran was an empath. If there was something between Ka-chan and Ryuka, he would know.
“You mean all the time?” Haru asked in little more than a whisper. “Not just when they are fighting?”
Ran glanced at him and then looked back to Kazuki. “Forget it,” he suggested.
“No. I want to talk about it. I think.” He gave a double yelp, followed by a soft whine. “She smells so good.”
“Have you talked to Kiba-san about it?” Ran asked.

Kazuki’s ears went back and his whiskers drooped. “Kiba-san thinks he’s failed every time we don’t behave like purebreds.”
“Naruto-san doesn’t always behave like a purebred,” Ran pointed out. “Kiba-san wants you to be happy. He loves you. Talk to him. I’ll try and help.”
“How?” Haru asked, intrigued.
“I’ll drop a few hints to Choza-san next time I’m helping him. Then he’ll pick up on things that Kiba-san says to him.”
“What about Ryuka? Does she like you as much?” Haru asked.
“I don’t like her,” Ka-chan objected. “That’s the problem.”
“You don’t know her,” Ran insisted. “She’s probably not that easy to get to know. Growing up in her own, not in a litter, she’s probably got all kinds of defence mechanisms.”

That made sense to Haru. “Like her titties,” he suggested only to have Kazuki growl at him, which was a bit of a shock.
“What about her titties?” he demanded, glowering.
“Kazu-kun!” Ran chided him.
Haru hastened to explain. “Our first mathematics lesson. When she’d had enough, she distracted me by asking me why I didn’t like her titties.”
“You don’t like them?” Kazuki checked.
“Ka-chan!” Haru objected. “Of course not. You have to get this under control. What are you going to do when she starts flirting with Ry-chan or Kuu-chan?”
Kazuki was on his feet pacing and growling at the mere thought of it.
“Maybe this is a form of berserk,” Haru suggested. “You have to speak to Kiba-san.”
Ka-chan shook his head. “I’ll see you at the meeting. I think I’d better go to the gym first.”

Haru sat staring at the place Kazuki had last been: imagining Ka-chan fighting with Ry-chan or Kuu-chan; the best part of his cookie forgotten in his hand.
“Are you thinking what I am thinking?” Ran asked once Kazuki was out of earshot.
“I hope not,” Haru replied.
Ran hesitated but then spoke. “What if they bonded?”
The thought of that was a thousand times worse than Kazuki fighting with Ryuu or Kuuya. “Ka-chan doesn’t have triggered behaviours,” he insisted.
“No, Kazuki has never displayed any triggered behaviours before this. You brought up that this could be a type of berserk.”

He was still thinking about it when they got to the meeting. Kazuki wasn’t there yet. They took two adjacent places at the table and waited for Hikaru to start.
Ka-chan arrived just as Hi-chan had activated the projector. He gave an apologetic ear dip and took one of the few remaining seats.

Hikaru set out his plan to salvage Shi-chan’s level. First they had to do a survey, so that they had enough information to develop the detail of the plan.
This time Haru wanted to be on the mission rather than at the control centre that Hi-chan was planning to set up in Skyburrow. He began constructing an argument to use when everyone started suggesting that he stay behind.
“Although there is something to be said for going and having a quick look,” Hikaru was saying, “I think it makes more sense to send a team that can implement whatever first steps are necessary. That means flexibility and that means including Haru. Anyone got any bright ideas how we persuade Papa?”
Haru’s thought processes skidded to a stop. Hikaru wanted to include him?
“Yes, set off before he comes back,” Kuuya suggested. “Persuading Kakashi-san and Iruka-san will be a lot easier.”

It was exciting. Kakashi-san was remarkably easy to persuade and Iruka-sensei said it would do Haru good. By the next day he was consulting with Izumo-san and Kotetsu-san and compiling lists.
He was in his laboratory packing tools when the door opened.
It was Sumiko.
“You are meant to use the announcer,” he reminded her.
She jutted her chin out. “Have you given up on Sai?” she demanded.
He looked about. He could understand why she would think that. He put down the tool he was holding. “No, come over here and I’ll show you what I’ve got.”

He showed her all of it: the model of the explosion, its aftermath and the subsequent movement of the pieces since; the failed attempts to activate the transponder Shi-chan had fused to the outside of Sai’s box; the two hundred and fifteen probes of various types; the detailed search patterns; how he had followed up every hopeful reading only for each one to lead nowhere.
“I’ll keep at it,” he finished. “For standards if necessary.”
She sniffed. “You promise?”
“I promise.”
She studied the map he had projected. “What if he’s inside something else? Like when you search for something and it turns out it’s inside a pocket, so you missed it.”
“The probes tag every bit of wreckage and we’re bringing in every piece,” he assured her. “Leaving junk out there is a bad idea even if we didn’t want to recycle it.” He brought up some images of the module they were using as a warehouse. “I send crawlers over every one. It’s meant to be collecting data so each piece is catalogued correctly, but it’s actually checking for Sai.”
“But there are places you haven’t looked and there are pieces of junk that haven’t been brought in yet,” Sumiko checked.
“Yes. Every minute of every day probes are searching and crawlers are checking.”
Su-chan considered and then nodded. “Good.”

Haru thought that she would go then but she didn’t. She stood there, studying him, as if she was trying to make a decision.
“Su-chan?” he queried.
“You and I share secrets,” she suggested.
“We share the secret of Sai,” Haru agreed, cautiously.
“Nii-san sent me a vid. He wanted to tell me something before I heard it from anyone else. He does that. Only he said not to tell anyone yet.”

He suppressed the urge to tell her that she should keep her mouth shut; after all, she was only nine.
“Only I’m cross and I want to talk about it,” she added.
He gave in. “Go on then.”
“Hinata-san isn’t coming back. She and the baby are going to live on her home planet.”
“Hyuga,” Haru whispered automatically. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. It is good, because I hate her, but bad, because I won’t be able to use my projectors when we find Sai.”
“You won’t?” Haru queried, still thinking about why Hinata-san would do such a thing. Had Neji-san told her to leave? Had Papa?
“No, because Nii-san will take Ne-chan back.”
Maybe Neji-san had gone back to Shi-chan and that was why Hinata-san was leaving. “Did Shi-chan say he and Neji-san were back together?”
“No,” Su-chan admitted. “But Ne-chan is upset about Hinata-san leaving and Nii-san is soft.”
Neji-san being upset knocked out a lot of possibilities.
Sumiko’s chin came up again. “Ne-chan chose Hinata-san over Nii-san. If someone left me, I would never forgive him.”
Haru could imagine. There again, Su-chan had lost her Ma and her Pa so she was possessive. Rather like Papa; which was an interesting thought.
“I am sure Shi-chan will talk to you before letting Neji-san move back in.”
He could see her thinking about it. “Good. I’ll say no.” She headed towards the door. “Thank you, Ha-chan.”
Haru stared at where she had been, wondering what he had done.

Author’s note
It is one of my busy times of the year at work, so there isn’t as much time as I would like for writing. That means I have fallen behind and I am now writing just ahead of posting; this chapter was finished literally on the day it was posted. If it wasn’t for my wonderful beta, who turned it around in less than an hour, it would not have been posted on time.
I prefer a chapter to lie fallow for few days in case I have to change something. For example there was a small continuity error in the chapter I posted a week ago, which meant I had go back and alter it after it was posted, which feels very unprofessional.
So we are going back to Saturday-only posting for a while. I cannot tell for how long.
Apologies.
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