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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
- 58
- 59
- 60
Thank you to my beta and muse, Small Fox. This story grew from a plot idea he gave me.
I am grateful to Procrastination_is_key, melissen, satterb, SunaoTsuji (five times while catching up so special thanks), Jrocklover, cynaga, disembodiedvoiceofthedying and sadie237 for reviewing after chapter 58 was posted. Readers’ feedback, support and comments mean a great deal to me. Feedback keeps me writing.
Writing is really tough at the moment, so every scrap of feedback helps enormously.

Leader
Part 7: Vendetta
59: Lost

Shikamaru knew what he should have done. He should have walked into the tiny office that the Central Civil Service maintained in Tarrasade and applied to join. That way he would have to give ten standards to the CCS rather than the rest of his life to the scientists at the Institute of Psychology on Centre One.
More importantly, Haru would be safer that way, as would his whole family. Tarrasade itself would be at less risk.

Only he could not bring himself to do it. He was too weak. He could not leave the people he loved, even though doing so would keep them safe.

Now it was too late. They were on the Elm, cutting a new route to the Far Fringe system where Uchiha was closing the net around the remains of the Akatsuki.
Everything indicated that this should be the endgame. Even if Orochimaru escaped and managed to go into long-term stasis, they still had every chance of catching Kabuto. Kabuto’s body still contained the transponder assembled from the nanobot components Shino had slipped into his drink fourteen standards before.
Maybe, if they interrogated Kabuto, they could find out what had happened to Pein.

His gaze went to Neji, who was still sleeping. When with others, Neji maintained the pretence that he was coping. Alone or with Shikamaru, he was lost, depressed, confused and exhausted.
Shikamaru did what he could. He was there, in contrast to Hinata, who was not. Fifteen standards of familiarity helped. It anchored Neji to his crew; his family. It stopped him drifting away to places in his mind where, Shikamaru knew, he had resolved never to return.
Would Hinata done differently if she had known about Neji’s past? Would appreciating his fragility have changed her decision?
Shikamaru doubted it.

He leaned over and placed a kiss on Neji’s temple. That, combined with the sounds of Shikamaru washing and dressing, would be enough to wake him.

Usually Shikamaru started each day by checking the communications that had arrived during ship’s night. This morning, like the two that had preceded it, there would be none; they were traversing a gateless system.
He hated being cut off from the data streams. Despite his determination not to dwell on it, his gaze strayed to the chronometer.
There were two hundred and fifteen minutes until they jumped into a gated system with a light speed data relay.

He headed for the galley to help Naruto with breakfast. Sasuke normally asked Neji to queen the crew when neither Iruka nor Haku was aboard. This time he had not. It was sensible, because Neji was struggling, but unfortunate, because it contributed to Neji’s feelings of inadequacy.
Instead Naruto was filling the role, even though he baulked at being given the title.
It worked; even Terai and Fu were on time for meals and did their chores when it was Naruto asking.

Naruto was cooking. Shikamaru began setting the table.
“How is he?” Naruto asked.
“Not good,” Shikamaru admitted. “It’s just beginning to sink in that he hasn’t lost Hinata because he never had her. He gave her his heart, Na-chan.”
Naruto growled. “He should have left it with you, where it was safe.”
“I never had it. Like he has never had mine.”
Blue eyes turned to him. Whiskers twitched. “Never?”
“What’s between me and Neji, it’s like what’s between you and me but with fucking added in.”
“And sharing rooms, and sleeping together in a bed, and raising a child,” Naruto pointed out.
Shikamaru wondered if Naruto was capable of understanding; his love for Sasuke was so absolute.
Naruto shook himself. “What matters is going forward. Neji is a member of this family and he needs our support.”
They were Sasuke’s words from Naruto’s mouth. Shikamaru managed not to smile. “Thanks, Na-chan.”

Hamaki, Terai and Fu appeared on time, careful to avoid any possibility of attracting Naruto’s disapproval. Shikamaru quickly grabbed a large serving platter and held it out for the contents of the pan.
Yesterday Naruto had put the food directly onto Hamaki, Terai and Fu’s plates. Shikamaru had watched them plough through portions that would have kept Kazuki or Five going.
Three pairs of eyes shone with mute gratitude as Shikamaru placed the platter on the table.

Neji arrived next: perfectly turned out; his face impassive. Shikamaru sighed, anticipating another day when Neji used up every scrap of his meagre resources pretending.
Suddenly, from nowhere, Naruto produced a tray. On it was a tea set. He added hot water to the pot and grabbed a pre-prepared bowl of yoghurt and fruit from the cool cupboard.
Tray and bowl were placed in front of Neji.
“I expect you to eat all of it,” Naruto told him. “I shall make you some toast to follow.”
Neji looked up at him in surprise. “Thank you.”
Shikamaru saw Naruto’s hand rest on Neji’s shoulder for a split second. “You are welcome.”

Asuma sauntered in and made a beeline for coffee, ignoring Naruto’s look of disapproval.
Iruka had not wanted an automated coffee machine in the galley, just as he had not wanted one on the Oak or in the kitchen in the household in Tarrasade. Sasuke had persuaded him, or possibly overruled him, by pointing out that not having a machine in the galley only meant that they sprang up all over the ship,
So it was there but behind a door that could be locked. Needless to say, it was not locked for this trip.
“How many am I making for?” Asuma asked.
Everyone other than Neji and Naruto raised a hand.
“Six then,” Asuma acknowledged, including Sasuke despite his absence.
The sounds of beans grinding and water flowing was followed by the familiar, heavenly smell. Shikamaru grabbed six coffee cups while Naruto finished making a small mountain of toast. They then settled at the table and started to eat.
Within minutes Sasuke appeared; summoned by the aroma.

They sat about the table and ate. No one spoke. Shikamaru found himself missing Haku and Iruka. Being queen of a crew was about more than feeding people.
Dwelling on who wasn’t there was a mistake. It made him think of Haru and Sumiko and the other children. He sighed.

A message in long-short that was a million times too fast for a flesh-and-blood person to detect; it had to be Sai.
Haru’s mind exploded with questions. He dismissed most of them. It did not matter how Sai had managed to make contact. All that mattered was finding him.
He wished Shi-chan was there.

He wasn’t and Haru was meant to be with Ran in the playroom supervising Sumiko and the triplets. He launched a diagnostic for the whole of Shi-chan’s level, left it running and hurried back.
Luckily no one had checked on them. He slid into the chair next to Ran, who was making a display of some of the triplet’s latest artistic offerings.
“Sai’s sent me a message,” Haru whispered.
Ran looked surprised and then suspicious. “You sure? It isn’t some pattern than will turn out to be because of a sunspot or something?”
Haru scowled at him. “Not unless the Universe is sending me a message in long-short.”
“Sorry,” Ran admitted. “It’s just that you are so desperate to find him.”
“I haven’t found him yet. All I know is that he has managed to perturb an electrical signal that I am detecting via the control unit of Shi-chan’s level.”
Ran looked blank.
“I wish Shi-chan was here,” Haru admitted.
“Take Su-chan and go back to your workshop,” Ran suggested. “I’ll tell Ir-chan that Su-chan was upset because Shika-san is staying away. That’s true. I’ll say you agreed to let her spend the morning with you, including using your simulator.”
Haru hated even the thought of it.
“It gets you out of here. Su-chan cares about Sai and she won’t interfere with you searching for him. Ir-chan and Kiba-san will be pleased with you.”
Haru reluctantly gave a tiny nod.

At least Sumiko’s sulk vanished as soon as he told her he had a lead about Sai. She hurried with him back to his workshop.
“Where is he?” she asked as soon as the door was shut.
“All I have is a signal,” Haru admitted. “I detected it via the control unit on Shi-chan’s level.”
She frowned. “He’s in Nii-san’s woods?”
“Probably on the outer surface. I am running a diagnostic. Hopefully we can work out the origin of the signal.”
“What do we do when we have done that?”
It was a good question.
“You should redirect all your probes and drones,” Sumiko told him. “Now.”
“But...”
“There aren’t any buts,” she insisted. “Do it now and think of an excuse later. That’s what Nii-san would do.” She scowled. “You’ll need to have someone who knows about Sai on the team going there to fit the rocket units. Are you going?”
“No,” Haru admitted.
“Is Ran-kun?”
“No.”
“Then Kazu-kun will have to.”
“But...”
“Haru! Sai can’t move himself. Someone will have to pick him up. Talk to Kazu-kun. Come up with a reason why he has to be on the team.”
“They are leaving tomorrow morning.”
Sumiko folded her arms and glared at him. “Then you’ll need to be quick.”

Haru had to admit that Su-chan’s detemination was impressive when she wasn't just focused on getting her own way. Before mid morning he had redirected his drones and probes, packed up his crawlers for transfer to the Silver Leaf and persuaded Kotetsu-san that checking over the outside of the level before firing up the rockets would be a sensible precaution.

Kazuki had swallowed his pride and begged Kuuya to include him in his team in order to give him a few days respite from Ryuka’s scent.
“You owe me, Haru,” he complained.
“I know,” Haru assured him.
“I mean, she might hear about what I said to Kuu-chan. I don’t want to upset her.”
Haru hadn’t thought of that. He imagined what Ran might say. “You and her are going to work together pruning the trees,” he stated cautiously.
Ka-chan twitched his whiskers. “Yes.”
“And you can’t do that until the level arrives here.”
“True.”
“So helping move the level could really be about speeding up that process, even if you told your hybrid brothers otherwise,” Haru suggested.
“Don’t make me sound too keen,” Ka-chan complained.
“I’ll try to get it just right,” Haru promised.

He went back to his workshop and gave Sumiko an update.
“Good,” she acknowledged. “What next?”
“Look at the diagnostic and see if there are any clues where he is,” Haru told her.

The data told Haru what type of component was producing the oscillation. He was pleased. It was a good first step.
Sumiko stared at the three-dimensional projection of Shi-chan’s level, trying to take in the meaning of the thousands of yellow dots scattered across its surface.
“Any of those could be where Sai is?” she asked with a quiver in her voice.
Haru was about to explain when he realised that she was on the verge of tears and settled for a pep talk. “Look Su-chan, yesterday we had no idea where he was. Now we know he is touching one of those yellow dots. Ka-chan is going on the Silver Leaf. We have tomorrow and the next day to work out where Sai is and then Ka-chan will be able to go there and pick him up.”
She managed not to cry. “I want to send Sai a message, so he knows we are coming to get him.”
“I don’t know if we can,” Haru admitted. “Why don’t we put everything we have together and send it to Shi-chan? He’s bound to have some ideas.”
Sumiko responded with an uncharacteristically sunny smile. “Yes, please, Haru-kun.”

Shi-chan had warned him that the Elm would be traversing gateless systems. Even so, it was disappointing to realise that their message would not reach the Elm until after the Silver Leaf had left the next morning.
Luckily Kiba-san, after his morning off, was back in charge of the playroom. That meant Sumiko was kept busy.

Haru sat on Ka-chan’s bed watching him pack.
“You’ve got the extra radio?” Haru had sorted an encrypted channel that would operate via the wireless interface he had installed on Shi-chan’s level.
Kazuki sighed. “Yes, and, before you remind me again, I won’t forget to switch my main radio off if I need to use it.” He looked at Haru with To-chan’s eyes. “If Sai makes it, are you really going to continue keeping him a secret?”
Haru’s gut twisted. “What do you mean, if he makes it?”
“Forget I said that bit. Are you going to keep him a secret?”
“Shi-chan kept it a secret when Sai told him,” Haru pointed out.
Kazuki shrugged. “I guess so. It seems wrong. I mean, he saved us. He deserves recognition for that. And, well, we aren’t children anymore.”
“Shi-chan isn’t a child.”
“Exactly,” Ka-chan replied.
Haru wasn’t sure what Kazuki meant by that but he decided to leave it. He held out Sai’s case.
Kazuki took it. “I’ll do my best to help rescue him,” he promised. “Like he helped rescue us.”

There was always a lengthy to do list on any newly commissioned ship. Once breakfast was over, Shikamaru had checked that Neji would be working with Sasuke and then tackled some of the more urgent wiring jobs. Going from place to place with his tool kit made him think of Haru. Doubtless there would be a message waiting for him when they reconnected.

The hole they were using was sixteen light minutes from the gate with the relay. The Elm, like all Uchiha ships, automatically linked to any data relay available, downloading any data packages addressed to them and then hacking into the data streams. Shikamaru had set his wrist chronometer to give him three minutes’ warning of when the first message would arrive.
He was walking down the corridor towards the office he was sharing with Neji as it sounded.

Neji was not at his desk; Shikamaru checked the lights over the door to the commander’s office to confirm that he was with Sasuke.
Then he settled into his chair. He missed his desk but he would always be able to make do with goggles, earpieces and a control glove.

The data packets began flooding in. It felt good. The majority were for him. He recognised a backlog of reports from the queries he had been running and communications from each of his Tennyos, including one from Sakura.
Then his heart lifted; there was a package from Haru.

Opening it proved to be a challenge; it was super-compressed and multiply encrypted. Finally he managed to unpack and decode the first of two videos; the one marked from Haru.
“I don’t know where to start,” Haru began. “First, we are doing something without telling Papa or you. We aren’t telling Papa in case he says no, but it’s all right because Kakashi-san said yes. We’re not telling you because it’s meant to be a surprise, so the others will be cross if they find out I had told you, only I have to. It’ll all make sense in a minute.
“We’re salvaging your level. Intact. Four-fifths of the trees are still alive and we think we can save about three-quarters of those.”
Shikamaru blinked back tears. It was incredibly sweet of them to do that.
“We’re going to bring it to Skyburrow and link it in. We might have to build a shell and it’ll need more solar panels.”
“Get on with it, Haru,” Su-chan complained from outside the camera’s field of view.
Shikamaru sat up. Haru and Sumiko cooperating could only mean one thing.
“Give me a chance, Su-chan. I set a wireless interface to the control unit and I found this signal and I’m sure it is from Sai.”

Shikamaru abandoned the video, unpacked all the other information and called up the plans of his level from his data array.
Yes, the message was real. He was impressed that Haru had detected it; the perturbation was so slight and its frequency so great. He was even more astonished that Sai has managed to send it without a hard-wired connection.
Part of his mind began suggesting ways it may have been possible. Best scenario was that a connector from Sai’s array had survived the explosion and, by fluke, had come into contact with a conductor connected into a circuit. Worst scenario was that Sai had become desperate enough to try sending the equivalent of sparks across the gap between him and an external conductor.
By the Lady, he hoped that Sai had not depleted his power cell doing that.

He used Haru’s diagnostic to update his simulation of the level and began modelling different ways such an oscillation could be introduced. Once that was running, he restarted Haru’s video.
“Su-chan wants us to try sending him a message.”
They must not do that. They must not do anything that would encourage Sai to reach outside his array. Shikamaru recorded a brief audio message and looked for the fastest possible route along which to send it while he compacted and encoded it.
He felt a hand on his arm.
“Not now,” he barked. He didn’t care who it was, or what they wanted. He had to get the message away. He was down to three possible routes.
He considered two more factors, identified the quickest, tagged the data packet appropriately and sent it.

That done, he checked that the modelling programme was running, rose back to the surface layer of his mind and lifted one of his goggles.
He had expected Neji. Instead it was Sasuke, who was standing with his arms folded and a less than amused expression.
“I am sorry, Sasuke-sama,” Shikamaru apologised meekly, removing his earpieces.
Sasuke sighed. “I expect it was urgent. I promised Neji I would bring you to the midmeal. I could tell him and Naruto that something came up and you are too busy.”
Shikamaru considered it but decided it would cause too many questions. They would be in this system for two days; ample time for him to consider the problem of finding Sai and get back to Haru.
His fingers flew over his interface, setting up a wireless link. He grabbed a small tablet. “A break would be great.”

Hamaki, Terai and Fu had either chosen to eat elsewhere or were still recovering from consuming Naruto’s breakfast.
Neji barely ate and did not speak except to answer direct questions. It was as if his reserves were finally depleted or, perhaps, he did not feel obliged to hide how he felt from Naruto and Sasuke.
Shikamaru noted the anxiety in Sasuke’s eyes and the droop of Naruto’s whiskers; he was not the only one worried.

After the meal, Naruto asked for Neji’s help in the closet, leaving Shikamaru and Sasuke to tidy up. Shikamaru began stacking the plates but Sasuke gestured for him to sit down.
“I think you should take Neji back to Skyburrow. The Dart will reach us tomorrow. You and Neji can accompany Asuma and Misora on its return journey.”
Shikamaru simultaneously weighed the consequences. Normally Sasuke wouldn’t consider interrogating anyone without him and Neji but, at the moment, Neji’s judgement could be suspect.
“You’ll have Inryoku,” Shikamaru pointed out. “He knows the Akatsuki and their systems backwards.”
Sasuke nodded.
“You would talk to Neji? You would tell him that this part of the operation is only about capturing them and not interrogating them, even if that’s a lie?”
“I can make it the truth,” Sasuke pointed out. “Yes. I would talk to him.”
The situation was finely balanced. Sasuke sending Neji away could damage him further or it could give him the space he needed to heal. Being with Iruka and the children would be good. Ran might be able to give them insights into the depth of his depression. Rin might be able to help, as she had before.

Then Shikamaru added in Sai and the analysis tipped. He would be with Sumiko and Haru if Sai was damaged or, worse, a mere collection of programmes and data that had lost what made it essentially Sai.
He imagined Sai fading away, leaving only a programme generating the oscillation; an automated distress call that had outlived its purpose.
He decided, “Yes, I should take Neji to Skyburrow.”
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