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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
- 59
- 60
- 61
Thank you to my beta and muse, Small Fox. This story grew from a plot idea he gave me.
Also thanks to SunaoTsuji, Prettypurpletiger, satterb, Procrastination_is_key, Jrocklover, melissen, disembodiedvoiceofthedying and sadie237 for reviewing after chapter 59 was posted.
Readers’ feedback, support and comments mean a great deal to me. Feedback keeps me writing. Reviews encourage and inspire.

I have added a post to the long-standing but little-used dedicated thread in the forum. This is to discuss something that has been raised by more than one reader.
http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/topic/21106-the-world-of-mannah-pierce/
Please read and feel free to reply. Or leave a review – reviews are awesome!

Leader
Part 7: Vendetta
60: Location

That night Haru kept thinking of everything that could do wrong. Perhaps he wouldn’t be able to pinpoint Sai’s position. What if Sai’s array became dislodged from Shi-chan’s level and drifted away before they found him?
Even if they located him, would Kazuki be able to find an excuse to go to there? And if he did, what if Sai was badly damaged? There were no such things as tanks and medicos for Artificial Intelligences.
The potential problems swirled around his head, getting in the way of him doing anything useful, like getting some sleep.

At least he didn’t have to wake up to be at the docking bay to see the Silver Leaf off.
“You have to locate him before we finish fitting the rocket units,” Kazuki reminded him in a fierce whisper. “You aren’t going to do that if you are too exhausted to think.” He turned to Ran, his ears twitching and his tail thrashing with agitation.
“I’ll talk some sense into him,” Ran promised. “Safe travelling.”
“Safe travelling,” Haru echoed.
Then Ka-chan was through the Silver Leaf’s airlock and out of sight.

They walked back towards the crew room.
“You told Ir-chan that you were going to spend today sorting out how to check over Shika-san’s level with your drones and crawlers?”
Haru nodded.
“Then I suggest you go straight to your workshop, because if he spots you he’ll want to know what is wrong. I’ll remind him what you are doing.”

Haru brought up the projection showing Shi-chan’s level covered in yellow dots and stared at it. He did not have a clue how to narrow down Sai’s location.
He decided to concentrate on the drones and the crawlers; if the worst came to it, the whole surface would have to be checked. The sooner he sorted out a search pattern the better.

It didn’t take long. Haru relaxed a little; each time a drone arrived it would begin scanning the surface and sending back video images. Those images would be compared automatically to the schematics for Shi-chan’s level and any variations would be highlighted for his inspection.
Letting go, even for a moment, proved to be a very bad idea. His limbs felt heavy and his eyelids kept drooping. After catching himself on the edge of falling forward, he decided he be better off putting his head down for a moment or two.

“Have you found him?” a voice demanded in his ear.
Haru startled awake. It was Su-chan.
“Have you?” she repeated.
“No,” he admitted.
“You were sleeping. How could you?”
Haru told himself that she was upset. He also resolved to build a lock for his door that only let Ran in; or at least one that kept Su-chan out.
“The drones are looking,” he insisted. He called up the programme. Two drones had arrived and begun sending back images. There were twenty-seven anomalies for him to check. He flicked through them.
None of them were where a piece of wreckage had impacted on the surface, never mind that piece of wreckage being or containing Sai.
“They’ve just started,” he said quickly.
Su-chan blinked back tears and nodded. “I want to send Sai a message, so he knows we are coming to get him.”

Haru had hoped she had given up on that idea. He had thought of ways of doing it but he there were downsides to most of the methods he had come up with. Even the ones that seemed harmless might not be. He didn’t have enough information to make a judgement.
“We should wait until we hear back from Shi-chan.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to hurt Sai by mistake. He may be damaged. A high enough voltage for him to detect might be enough to damage him further.”
“I don’t understand,” she complained.
Haru could feel himself losing it. “I am not going to zap Sai just to make you feel better.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth he regretted them
“I hate you, Haru Uchiha,” she yelled and was halfway to the door before Haru realised that it wasn’t going to open in time. He dived after her, intending to grab her before she could hurt herself, but she managed to dodge his grasp and slip through the widening gap.

Haru allowed the door to shut and sat back down at his desk. He could not settle. He kept thinking about Su-chan’s tears and how mean he had been.
Finally he gave up and went looking for her. She was her rooms and, to his surprise, Ran was with her. They were cleaning her shower.
“Su-chan isn’t used to living alone,” Ran told him, with a smile for Sumiko. “I told Kiba-san I would give her a hand.”
“Ran-kun lived on his own when he was nine,” Su-chan told him.
Haru sat on the chair in Su-chan’s bedroom; there wasn’t room in the shower for three. “I remember,” he replied. “Are you feeling better?” he asked, cautiously.
She sniffed. “Yes. Ran says we should concentrate on finding Sai. He thinks sending Sai a message is a bad idea because it might raise his hopes when he still had to wait until Kazu-kun can pick him up.”
Haru resolved to thank Ran later.

Being with Ran settled both him and Sumiko. They had their midmeal together and then Su-chan was content to go to the playroom for the afternoon. Haru returned to his workshop and settled down to check the anomalies.
There was still no sign of anything that could be Sai.
It was almost too peaceful. “Just me and you,” he told the plant, which curled its fronds defensively at the sound of his voice.
Then, as if on cue, there was a peep from the interface he was using, signalling an incoming message.

Haru braced himself for disappointment. It was three-quarters of a day too early to be a reply from Shi-chan. It was probably from someone else, or a message from Shi-chan that had crossed with his.
To his amazement it was both from Shi-chan and a reply. It had been bounced through eighteen data relays; tagged in a way that ensured that it would jump the queue at every one.
Haru made a note of the tags. Not that he would use them unless it was incredibly urgent.

He decompressed and decoded the message. It was audio only.
“This is Shikamaru. Haru, don’t try to make contact with Sai. For all we know he could be damaged or he could have depleted his power cell to dangerously low levels making that oscillation.”
Haru swallowed. He had not thought about Sai’s power cell; it was meant to last for standards.
“More soon,” Shi-chan promised. “I think we can locate him by setting up an interference pattern.”

It was a great idea; Haru was onto it immediately. If he set up other oscillations, he could see how they interfered with Sai’s. By analysing the patterns, he might be able to pin down the origin of Sai’s oscillation.
He was still modelling various possibilities when Ran came to fetch him for his evemeal.

He and Ran were on clean-up duty after the meal. They recycled the waste, loaded the dishes into the cleaner and scrubbed the surfaces.
“My room?” Ran suggested once they were finished.
“Can we go to my workshop?” Haru asked. “I’m making real progress since I got Shi-chan’s message.”
Ran nodded. “For a while, but you must sleep tonight,” he warned.

The results from the modelling were clear. Haru was pretty sure of what to do but after Shi-chan’s warning he was wary of making an error that would hurt Sai.
Then a ping announced the arrival of another message from Shi-chan. It outlined an approach that was essentially the same as the one he had been developing.
After a few more tweaks, Haru was ready to try it only for Ran to stop him.
“Maybe you should sleep on it.”
Haru frowned at him.
“How long is it going to take?” Ran asked.
“Only a few minutes.”
“And how long will it take to analyse the results?”
“I can’t tell,” Haru admitted. “Maybe a while.”
“So if you collect the data tonight, you’ll lay awake all night thinking about it.”
“But...”
“And, if you sleep on it, you can check over what you are planning to do in the morning with fresh eyes.”
Haru had to admit Ran had a point there. “I won’t be able to sleep,” he complained.
“Stay with me,” Ran suggested.

Haru was silent. He hadn’t slept over in Ran’s room since Ran had turned fourteen. He remembered being on the Sakura, huddled against Ran in his bunk; desperate for some comfort.
“Or not,” Ran added.
“I want to,” Haru replied hastily. “But what about Kiba-san? And Iruka-sensei?”
Ran shrugged. “I’ll say you fell asleep and I didn’t have the heart to wake you. They probably won’t check like Naruto-san would.”

It felt a bit awkward at first. Haru told himself that it was because they knew they were doing something they shouldn’t. They kept their clothes on, because that made the ‘Haru fell asleep’ excuse more believable. Ran lay down on the bed first, on his side. Then Haru lay down next to him and Ran pulled a cover over them.
Ran put an arm around Haru’s waist and Haru shifted backwards until his back was against Ran’s chest.

It was nice. Haru started telling Ran about Ka-chan; that he was worried about what Ryuka would think of him going on the Silver Leaf.
“He wants me to talk to Ryuka, but I’m scared I’ll say something wrong,” Haru admitted.
Ran gave him a squeeze. “You’ll do fine. At least Kazu-kun is going to give her a chance.”
Haru guessed that he agreed, even though the thought of Ryuka being Ka-chan’s partner was weird.

Maybe it would never happen. Perhaps Ryuka and Ka-chan would decide they disliked each other.
“You don’t think we could be like them?” Haru asked.
“Like Kazu-kun and Ryuka?” Ran checked.
“Yeah.”
“In what way?” Ran queried.
“I mean, facing the possibility of having one without the other. They fancy each other like crazy but they don’t know if they like each other. We know we like each other...” he trailed off.

Ran sighed. “You are impossible Haru Uchiha. You can create a problem out of nothing.”
“But...”
“I think Sasuke-sama is seriously sexy.”
“Ran!” Haru complained.
“And Shika-san’s arse is something else.”
Haru squirmed. “Eeeeww! I want to wash my ears out.”
“So given who your genetic parents are, I don’t think there’ll be a problem from my end. Were you trying to tell me that you didn’t think you could fancy me?”
“No!”
“Then shut up and go to sleep,” Ran ordered, with a hug to soften the message.

At the last minute, Sasuke decided to go to the docking bay to meet the Dart. Asuma was already there, presumably to greet Misora. To Sasuke’s surprise, Shikamaru was there too.
He wondered if Shika was there to meet Kakashi; if he was, Sasuke would have to wait his turn.

He need not have worried. Asuma left with Misora and Shikamaru with the Zetsus, leaving him and Kakashi alone.
“You aren’t training enough,” Kakashi complained before they had even exchanged greetings.
Sasuke had tried, but it was difficult to be so single-minded when there was no daily routine. “Perhaps you should train Naruto to train me. Naruto is always with me.”
Kakashi’s eyes communicated his approval that Sasuke had accepted the criticism. “Sasuke-sama.”
“Kakashi-sensei.” Sasuke had to tell him; he could not wait any longer. “Shika’s found an inconsistency in the Uchiha clan charter amendments. You know that the definition of Uchiha has changed over the centuries?”
Kakashi nodded.
“If the kits swear to Uchiha when they are fourteen, they count as Uchiha according to the older definition.”
“Yes, but the clan charter was amended so that only full blood Uchihas count,” Kakashi pointed out.
Sasuke smiled. “It was amended to say that only full blood Uchihas can vote to amend the clan charter. It was never amended to say that only full blood Uchihas can challenge for the leadership.”

Suddenly they were hugging. It reminded Sasuke of how much he had changed physically. Unless Kakashi had his implant activated, Sasuke was much stronger. Unable to resist, Sasuke squeezed.
Kakashi grunted. “Sasu-kun,” he complained.
Sasuke let up.
“This development does not get you out of training,” Kakashi told him.
“I know, Kakashi-sensei. We still have to make it until the kits turn fourteen. Even then, I will always be first in line.”
“Izuna-sama does not know,” Kakashi checked.
“No. Itachi is looking forward to telling him when the time comes.”

On the way to the commander’s office the conversation turned to the Akatsuki.
“All the intelligence says that this is one of the last bases, if not the last,” Sasuke began.
“Orochimaru will be gone by the time we get there,” Kakashi pointed out. “The only issue is whether Kabuto will go with him or be left behind to delay us.”
Sasuke had already thought that through. “On balance, I think he will leave Kabuto behind as a rearguard. He cannot trust his hybrids or even his prints but Kabuto has always been loyal. Both Konan and Kotohime say he is utterly devoted to Orochimaru.”
“But Kabuto will not know the details of how or where Orochimaru goes into stasis.”
Sasuke nodded.

The thought of Orochimaru escaping was enough to silence them both for a few moments. Kakashi recovered first.
“What do you intend to do with them when you catch them?”
Sasuke had not discussed that with anyone, not even Naruto. “If I catch Kabuto and Orochimaru I would like to drag them back to Tarrasade and slit their throats in the Killing Square.” He sighed. “Only I can’t, because Izuna will challenge me.”
“You could pod them, interrogate them at your leisure, wait for the kits to turn fourteen and then drag them back to Tarrasade.”
Sasuke smiled. “Sounds good.”
“What about Pein?”
“I wouldn’t do that to Konan and Nagato,” Sasuke admitted. “If he’s alive, which I doubt, I’ll give him a better death than that.”

Once they were in the office, settled into two of the comfortable chairs, Sasuke tackled the subject of Neji. Kakashi would accept that Neji was too upset to function but Sasuke did not think he would accept the Zetsus as a substitute for Shikamaru.
“Shika and Neji will be accompanying Asuma back to Skyburrow,” Sasuke stated.
Kakashi did not reply immediately. Sasuke waited for him to suggest that Shikamaru stayed.
“That bad?” Kakashi queried.
Sasuke relaxed. “Yes. Neji believed Hinata when she said she loved him.”
“Maybe it was true,” Kakashi suggested. “Maybe love wasn’t enough.”
Sasuke struggled with that. For him, love made everything else enough.

Haru slipped out of Ran’s room and into his own early next morning. At breakfast, when Iruka-sensei asked what he had planned for the day, he explained that he was partway through the survey and wanted to finish it before Kuuya’s team arrived to fit the rocket units.
It worked; Iruka-sensei was content that he should spend another morning in his workshop.
Sumiko was trapped in the playroom with Kiba-san. Ran was on watch and then on duty; unavailable until the midmeal.

Once at his desk, Haru went over his plan. It still seemed sound and he could not see how it could hurt Sai, so he implemented it, generating a series of oscillations originating at different points.
He watched as the data come in. There was a pattern, he was sure of it. After twelve minutes he had everything he needed. He checked it for quality and settled down to the analysis.

By the end of the morning he had it; the thousands of yellow dots had been reduced to twelve and they were all in the same area. He suppressed his excitement and redirected one of the drones that had arrived. Hopefully it could get visual confirmation.
He was just about to close down and head for the kitchen when his door opened and Sumiko came in.
He definitely needed a lock.

Before she could ask he activated the projection showing the cluster of yellow dots. She stared at it for a few moments and then rushed at him for a hug.
It was weird but kind of nice.

He didn’t feel so good when he returned to his desk after the midmeal and examined the images from the drone. He couldn’t see Sai’s array. What he could see was where something had impacted; burying itself into the structure.
Haru told himself that if Sai had survived the destruction of the Linden, hitting Shi-chan’s level shouldn’t have been a problem.
Even so, he didn’t show the images to Su-chan.

He couldn’t think of anything else he could do for Sai so he decided to go back to looking over Shi-chan’s level for damage. He had just started when his door announcer sounded.
He opened the door from his desk. It was Ryuka and he belatedly remembered that they had a mathematics lesson scheduled.
At least it was a distraction from worrying about Sai.

The good thing about teaching Ryuka was that she called a halt when she couldn’t take any more in. The bad thing was that she couldn’t concentrate for very long and she liked to talk once they had finished.
“Kazuki went on the Silver Leaf to avoid me, didn’t he?” she asked.
Haru had not expecting her to be so direct. He scrabbled about for a suitable response. “He’s looking forward to pruning the trees with you,” he gabbled.
“Yes, in the big, open space where there is lots of air moving about. I talked to Kiba-san. He explained about pheromones. He thinks that Kazuki has fixated on my scent.”
Haru didn’t know what to say.
“Rin-san can change my scent,” Ryuka told him.

It was a really bad idea. What if Rin-san had been able to stop To-chan bonding to Papa? It would have been terrible. Would Kazuki ever fall for anyone else? Would he always be looking for the female that smelled like Ryuka had?
“Maybe that’s a bit radical,” he suggested. “I mean, what if you wanted to change it back again and it went wrong? Perhaps we should just get Ka-chan nose plugs. Then the two of you could find out if you like each other or not.”
Ryuka stared at him for a moment and then she laughed. She darted forward and kissed the end of his nose. Then she was on her way out the door. “Thank you, Haru-kun,” she called over her shoulder.
He didn’t stop blushing for ages.

The rest of the afternoon went quickly; Ran would be finishing his duty in the infirmary soon and Haru decided to walk down there to meet him.
He waited outside; well aware that Rin-san didn’t like him being in the infirmary unless he was receiving treatment. Every so often the doors would start opening and his hopes would be raised, but it was always someone other than Ran.

The next time they opened it was Isaribi. “Rin-san would like to see you, Haru-kun,” she told him.
Haru immediately wondered if something was wrong. It couldn’t be Ran. If it was Ran, Rin-san would ask to see Iruka-sensei, not him.

Rin-san was sitting in her office with her feet on a footstool. “Haru-kun, come here,” she ordered in a tone of voice that made it clear he had done something wrong.
At least Dan-san was there, which should stop Rin-san from getting really angry.
He approached warily, racking his mind for what it could be. Maybe she’d realised that stims were missing and was blaming him rather than Hi-chan.
“Rin-chan,” Dan warned gently.
“No, I want to know what he said to her,” Rin insisted.
Who was ‘her’?
“Ryuka-kun tells me she is turning down the treatment I recommended because you advised against it.”

Suddenly it all made sense. Haru didn’t blame Ryuka for mentioning him. She didn’t know Rin-san, so she couldn’t know that you had to be careful how you put things.
On the other hand, he wasn’t going to apologise for what he had said.
“Answer me!” Rin-san demanded.
He pointed towards the baby-bump. “At the start, lots of people thought about your baby as a problem.”
Rin-san scowled at him.
“Only she isn’t,” Haru added quickly. “She’s a blessing. I suggested Ryuka wait and check her problem wasn’t really a blessing before she got rid of it.”
Rin-san opened her mouth and then closed it again.
Dan-san chuckled. “He’s got you there, Rin-chan.” He stood up. “I’ll see Haru-kun out.”

He waited until they were out of earshot. “Carrying the baby is making her a bit short with people,” he explained.
In Haru’s eyes, all that had happened was that Rin-san had stopped being uncharacteristically nice.
“She needs to rest more,” Dan-san continued. “Here’s Ran. Why don’t the two of you be off now?”

There was still some time until the evemeal, so they decided to go back to Haru’s workshop and try the radio link to Kazuki. Hopefully the Silver Leaf was close enough to Shi-chan’s level that Kazuki’s radio could receive and transmit via the wireless interface.
On the way, Ran told Haru about his day and Haru told Ran about his conversations with Ryuka and Rin-san.

Kazuki replied almost immediately; tapping the microphone. Haru automatically decoded the long-short; he was moving to somewhere where their conversation couldn’t be overheard by their hybrid brothers.
He must have had the radio activated and an earpiece in; waiting for Haru to contact him.
Finally words rather than taps came from the speaker. “This is Kazuki. What’s the latest? You found him yet, Ha-chan?”
Haru filled him in, including giving him Sai’s location. “Do you think you’ll be able to find an excuse to go there?” he concluded.
“No problem.” Kazuki assured him. “I’ve told Kuuya that you suggested that I check out any damaged areas. He’s happy with that because I was a late addition to the team, so I am only back-up for those fitting the rocket units. He’s given me a video camera and a radio that you can link to via the wireless interface.”
That was a relief; Haru had been fretting about how to get Sai to Ka-chan. He should have remembered that Kazuki could talk almost anyone into almost anything. “Thanks Ka-chan. When will you be going out and onto the surface?”
“Tomorrow morning. Haru, but it’ll be another four days before I can bring him home to you.”
Haru swallowed; he had known that but hearing it from someone else brought home how hard waiting was going to be.
“Ran, you there?” Kazuki asked.
“I’m here,” Ran replied.
“Look after him. Make sure he gets some sleep and keep him busy. Suggest to Iruka-san that he looks after Ta-chan and Te-chan. That’ll distract him.”
“Ka-chan!” Haru complained.
Ran smiled. “I might do that.”
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