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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
- 85
- 86
- 87
Thank you to my beta and muse, Small Fox. This story grew from a plot idea he gave me.
Also thanks to eilidhdawn, satterb, Slynx, blugirlami21, sadie237, Destiny, melissen and disembodiedvoiceofthedying for reviewing after chapter 85 was posted and to HallowsEve for her email.
Readers’ feedback, support and comments mean a great deal to me. Reading a review can make my day and feedback keeps me writing.

There was an update this Wednesday. Have you read chapter 85?

Leader
Part 9: Family
86: Refusal

Sasuke stood motionless. It would be easier if he could be angry; angry at Centre, or Izuna, or Shika, or even at Iruka.
It was as if Iruka’s words had punctured him and all his emotions had drained away.
No, not quite all; once the pain had died down he discovered that he was feeling stubborn.

He walked over to Iruka’s desk and stabbed the intercom button with his finger.
“This is Sasuke. I want the extended strategic team in the small meeting room now, along with Kotetsu, Haru, Inryoku, Sakura, Iruka and Naruto.”

The room was too small for so many people but Sasuke did not care.
“We are bringing Shikamaru back,” he announced. “Everything we discuss from now on is based on that assumption. Is that clear?”
There were nods and few murmurs of assent. Sasuke did not look at Naruto. He was not sure what he would do if Naruto’s whiskers were drooping.
“Kotetsu, I want a list of ways of putting the gates temporarily out of action that can be implemented immediately.”
Kotetsu stared at him. “Sasuke-sama?”
Sasuke understood. Only pirates messed with gates. “Just do it, Kotetsu-san. At the moment, it is only a list. Sakura, I want you down at the docks finding out what ship he’s got hold of. Take anyone you need who isn’t in this room and is experienced enough.”
She was on her way to the door. “Yes, Sasuke-sama.”
“Haru, I want a way of communicating securely with Shika-san given that he will not have an Uchiha decoder.”
“Yes, Sasuke-sama,” Haru replied.
“Will that take long?”
“No, because Shi-chan can do what the decoder does in his head.”
“Good. Iruka-san, I want you to record a message for Shika-san. Something along the lines of the discussion we just had.” He risked looking at Iruka and received a nod. “Inryoku, I don’t want Shika-san sneaking out of the system by some route we haven’t thought of. Make a list. If anyone thinks of anything, check Inryoku-san has it on his list.”
“Beginning the list now, Sasuke-sama,” Inryoku assured him.
“Inari-san, I want the Elm or the Maple manned and out there, ready to respond to anything. You are to captain her. Also, get the Dart prepped and moved to the dock here.”
Inari stood up. “On my way, Sasuke-sama.”
“Kakashi-san, I need you to work out why Shikamaru went today. What was the trigger? If you want to know the answer to a specific question, Haru is the one most likely to be able to find the answer for you.” He looked at Kakashi, who was looking less than convinced. “Kakashi-san?” he challenged.
“I shall get onto it, Sasuke-sama.”
“Finally, Neji-san, I need you to think about the best way to negotiate with Centre.”
There were many sharp intakes of breath and a few gasps.
“Yes, Sasuke-sama,” Neji replied.
Sasuke took a deep breath. “Some of you may not be clear about the reasons behind Shikamaru’s behaviour. Izuna Uchiha has told Centre that Shikamaru is a typed-seven genius. Centre regards typed-geniuses as a resource that it harvests. Shikamaru-san does not want Centre coming here and examining us in detail. We all know that becoming a focus of Centre’s attention is dangerous.
“His solution was to join the Central Civil Service. By serving in the CCS for ten standards he would become a citizen of Centre with rights under Centralite law. Those rights would include telling the Centralite psychologists to go jump and coming home.
“That’s what he was trying to do this morning. Only they did not let him. So he is now on his way to give himself in to the Centralite psychologists and, as Iruka-sensei pointed out to me, we can’t allow that.
“So we are going to get him back and then we are going to negotiate a deal with Centre.”
As he finished, he finally allowed himself to look at Naruto.
Naruto’s whiskers were high and his eyes shone with approval.

Haru knew at once that Papa was right. They should get Shi-chan back and look for a different solution. Trouble was, he needed to speak to Sai.
“Papa?” he asked once Papa had stopped talking to them and everyone was starting their jobs.
“Yes, Haru-kun?”
“I need some stuff from my workroom.”
Papa studied him. “Be quick. You are needed here.”

He ran through the corridors, into his workroom and locked the doors.
“Sai!”
Sai’s avatar appeared, sitting on the counter as usual.
“You promised to help Shi-chan with his first plan, the one to join CCS. What he is doing now is different. You never promised to help him with it.”
“I promised not to help you find him.”
Haru pulled up short. What if Sai warned Shi-chan? “I want a promise too, Sai. I want you to promise not to contact Shi-chan without my permission and to share the full contents of any message with me.”
“Why?”
For the first time ever, Haru considered disconnecting Sai from the networks. “Do you absolutely promise not to contact Shi-chan for the next five minutes?”
“Yes, I promise that.”
“Good. We’re going to get Shi-chan back. Papa has decided. We are going to get him back and then we are going to come up with a solution that doesn’t mean that Centre finds out about me and about you but also doesn’t have psychologists picking apart Shi-chan’s mind.”
There was a pause. “Sasuke-sama does not know about me.”
Haru did not like that line of thought. “True,” he admitted.
“So Sasuke-sama cannot assess the relative dangers of the different outcomes.”
Disconnecting Sai would be a lot quicker than convincing him but Haru knew it wasn’t right. It would be like hitting Ran on the head and stuffing him in a closet. “I can. The safest solution is having none of us in Centralite hands. That way there is the least chance of them finding out about you.”
“That is correct.”
“So, we haven’t thought enough about what we can give Centre in return for keeping Shi-chan with us.”
“Centre is big and powerful. They can take anything they want. Letting them know that you have anything they want is dangerous.”
Haru knew that; that was why Izuna-sama had done it. “Sai, please. You don’t want him to go. I don’t want him to go. Su-chan doesn’t want him to go. Let Papa try. It is wrong to let him go without trying.”
There was another pause. “The context of my promise was Shika-san joining the Central Civil Service.”
Haru’s spirit lifted.
“I would not have promised if Shika-san had said that he was going to go to the Institute of Psychology. The psychologists at the Institute of Psychology mindwipe people. All the typed-seven geniuses in their care are classified as clinically insane.”
“Will you help us find him, Sai?” Haru asked. “Papa is determined to do it. He’s talking about shutting the gates.”
“That will have repercussions,” Sai pointed out.
“I know, so we need to find Shi-chan before Papa resorts to doing stuff like that.”
“Yes, Haru, I will help you find him before Sasuke-sama does something rash.”

Haru ran back to the small meeting room and settled into his place. Papa gave him a look, demanding an explanation.
“I had to make some connections,” Haru told him, which was true.

Shikamaru’s alarm woke him. It was evening and he was surprised that he had slept so long. He took it as a sign that he was content with the decision he had made.
An instrument check confirmed that everything was as expected; he was making rapid progress towards the gate and should be there in good time for his jump slot.
He decided to go down to the galley and make himself some coffee.

The first sip told him that the stuff had never been anywhere near any plant, at least not the green with leaves variety. He grimaced but kept drinking; even synthetic coffee contained caffeine.
Part of him wish he had taken time to buy some supplies. Instead he was relying on what the previous owner had considered essential stock items.
It was all stuff that Haku or Iruka would have fed directly into the recycler.

He picked out the least objectionable meal bar and made his way back up the ladder to the control room. There he considered what to do next; he would not reach the gate until morning.
The safest course would be to go back to sleep. That way he would resist the temptation to have a look at what was happening elsewhere.
Maybe he could risk looking through the telescope? Or eavesdrop on radio traffic?

He was sorting out the telescope when a light flashed on the control board and an incoming audio channel activated automatically.
“This is Tarrasade Control. There has been a security alert. Please transmit your ship’s identity. Once we have verified your ship’s identity your ship with be given a unique signal that it must transmit at all times. Ships not transmitting their unique signal will not be allowed the approach a gate, Tarrasade or the freight hub.”
Shikamaru swore. It was his own fault; he had come up with the procedure after the last raid and asked Sasuke to recommend it to station control.
He told himself that security alerts happened all the time. Then he transmitted the ship’s new identity, confident that it would pass scrutiny.
Sure enough, the ship passed muster and was tagged so that it would transmit the required signal.

He soon decided that using the telescope was boring; there was nothing much to see. He was drifting off to sleep when, suddenly, a voice filled the cabin.
“Lying around naked, surrounded by empty coffee cups and having a nap. Some things never change, Shika-kun.”
He almost jumped out of his skin. For a moment he thought he must have fallen asleep and was dreaming about one of Iruka’s lectures. Then one of the displays activated and Iruka’s face appeared.
“We are a crew, Shika-kun; a family. We discuss our problems properly and come up with the best solution. It is not acceptable for you to sneak off on your own. Now you can either turn that new ship of yours around and bring it home, or the Elm will come and get you. Which is it going to be?”
Haru must have slipped Sai-code onto the ship along with the tag. It was the only explanation. “But...” he began.
“There are only two possible answers, Shika-kun, and neither of them start with ‘but’.”
“It will be faster if I turn this ship around,” he replied, trying to think of ways to get away.
“Yes, it will. And don’t think that you can slip away again. We are watching you with telescopes. That’s people looking through telescopes, not cameras that you can hack.”
“I understand, Iruka-sensei.”
“Shika-kun,” Iruka warned.
He gave in; he didn’t have any other option. “I am turning her around now and coming home.”
“Now.”
“Now,” he confirmed and implemented the course change. “See?”
Iruka’s eyes went to someone out of the camera’s field of view. “Good.” He turned back. “Shika-kun, I understand. The first plan, joining CCS, had its merits. This one doesn’t. We can do better than this.”
Shikamaru didn’t think they could.
Iruka read his reaction. “Come home, Shika-kun, and listen to what Sasuke has come up with.”
Sasuke had a plan? Shikamaru waited for the itch to start between his shoulder blades.
Only, to his surprise, it didn’t.

Haru had to admit that finding Shi-chan had been fun. Someone would have an idea, or dig up some relevant information, and they would try to work out how to use it.
Sakura-san and Ino-san had identified the ship Shi-chan had bought. Haru had confirmed that the records had it still in the dock, which it wasn’t. Knowing it had been a courier’s ship had helped to narrow down the possibilities.
Then Haru had told them that all he needed was an exchange of radio traffic with a ship in order to be able to spy on the occupants. There had been a short debate that Papa had steered to be about spacer ethics rather than any detail about the new type of code. Haru had promised to spy on as few crews as possible.
Next Itachi-san had suggested that there were some signals that ships were obliged to respond to, Inryoku-san had remembered the procedure that Tarrasade Control were using to track ships during emergencies and Kono-san had said that he could persuade them to run a drill.

It hadn’t taken long to be ready. Haru had Sai working with him on the code and Papa’s help sorting out how to discount crews or at least push them down the priority list.
Shi-chan’s ship had been the fifth they tried and they had only had to look at the life support stats of the other four.

Then To-chan had suggested a live link rather than sending a vid, which Kakashi-san and Papa had thought was a wonderful idea.
Haru didn’t know what Iruka-sensei had said to Shi-chan but it had worked; he was on his way home.

After Papa had dismissed them, Haru had gone to his crew room, intent on finding Ran. He slowed as he approached the shared area; he really did not want to talk to anyone other than Ran. Luckily Kuuya was already there, filling everyone in, so he managed to slip quietly into his room.

The door to Ran’s room was open and Ran was sitting on his bed, waiting. Haru went through, sat beside him and began explaining what had happened throughout the day.
He liked telling Ran because, with Ran, he could acknowledge Sai’s contribution.
“So what happens next?” Ran asked once he had finished.
Haru wasn’t sure. “There’s this Centralite ship on its way here. On board is the man Izuna-sama told about Shi-chan. Sai says Shi-chan knew that the man had visited the Institute of Psychology on Centre I, which was why Shi-chan is convinced that he is coming to get him. Papa has Neji-san working on how we should negotiate with him.”
Ran’s eyebrows shot up. “A spacer clan negotiating with Centre? Isn’t that a bit beyond brave?”
Haru knew that was what Shi-chan would think. “Papa’s determined. To-chan is supporting him.” He remembered Kakashi-san’s expression. “Kakashi-san thinks they are insane to even try it but he isn’t saying anything because he knows Papa won’t change his mind.” He put together all the bits that he had overheard. “I think they’ll go to meet him rather than letting him come here.”
“Keeping him away from you,” Ran observed.
Haru guessed that was so. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if the negotiation failed. It would be like the worse bits of what had happened that morning all over again. “Papa’s face when he thought To-chan was dead,” he whispered. “It was awful.”
Ran pulled him close. “It’s over. Ir-chan is right; we need to face the bad stuff as a crew, as a family. We are stronger that way.”
Haru snuggled into Ran’s chest. Certainly working as a crew had brought Shi-chan home.

Sasuke knew he would not be able to sleep until he had seen Shikamaru in person. Part of him still expected the ship to be a decoy and Shikamaru to be on another ship; already through a different gate.
So here he was with Naruto, Iruka and Kakashi: in the docking bay; halfway through ship’s night; waiting.
Neji had said that he would wait in the crew room. Naruto had told Sumiko that Shikamaru would not arrive until the morning. Luckily she had believed him and had happily gone off to bed.

Given that the ship had been all that was available, it was quite a neat craft. Once Kotetsu and Izumo had worked their magic it would be a nice addition to their little fleet.
Finally the airlock opened and he stepped out. His hair was different but it was definitely Shikamaru.
Naruto had him engulfed in a hug before he had stepped off the gangplank.

Iruka was next. He touched Shikamaru’s hair and his cheek before holding him tight. Then Kakashi stepped up and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Good try, Shika-kun,” he acknowledged.
Sasuke hung back. When Iruka finally let Shikamaru go there was this awkward moment, like there always was between them at times when intimacy might or might not be appropriate. Then Sasuke remembered what he had in his pocket.
He pulled out the small packet from his pocket, ripped open a corner and spilled the ring into his palm. Stepping across the space between them, he took Shikamaru’s left hand and slid the ring onto his duty finger.
“We refuse to give you up without a fight,” he explained.
Shikamaru flushed slightly and, without thinking about it, Sasuke hugged him. He felt sharp bones under loose-fitting clothes. Just how long had Shika been worried about Centre? From the moment they worked out that Izuna had spoken with the Centralite?
Was Iruka correct? Had he been so focused on Izuna that he had lost sight of what was important?
“Sasuke?” Shikamaru murmured.
Sasuke realised that they were still hugging and let go.

It was that weird time of night when you had stayed up so late that it was difficult to know if going to bed was a good idea. Naruto was acting as if it was morning. Shikamaru appeared hyper-alert; Sasuke wondered how much caffeine he had taken.
Sasuke felt as if he had been slowly squashed under some large, heavy object. First there had been the shock of discovering that Shikamaru had gone, followed by fear for Naruto, the pain of Iruka’s home truths and then the elation of tracking Shika down.
Now, even with the immediate crisis over, there was the enormity of what he was planning. He was going to try to negotiate with Centre.
“Shall we go to the kitchen for some tea?” Iruka suggested. “You look like you could do with something to eat, Shika-kun.”
“That would be good, Iruka-sensei,” Shikamaru admitted.
“Will you be joining us?” Iruka asked, looking at Sasuke.
“No,” Naruto answered before Sasuke could answer. “Thank you, Iruka-sensei, but no.”
Iruka nodded. “Come on then, Shika-kun, Kashi.”

They walked away and because Naruto did not move Sasuke did not either. Once they were out of sight, Naruto moved towards him and Sasuke felt arms around him as his feet left the ground.
“I can walk, dobe,” he complained but even to his own ears the words seemed unconvincing.
“I know, but I want to carry you.” Naruto pulled him close and kissed his forehead. “Iruka-sensei should have been more careful.”
Sasuke thought back to what Iruka had said to him and suffered a pang of remembered pain. “No, it was necessary,” he admitted. “I almost let him go, dobe.”
“So did I,” Naruto reminded him. “The three of us got so focused on the possibility of losing Haru.”
Sasuke relaxed a little. Naruto was right. It was not about Izuna. It was about the three of them and their determination to protect their son.
- 85
- 86
- 87
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