Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

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
- 86
- 87
- 88
Thank you to my beta and muse, Small Fox. This story grew from a plot idea he gave me.
Also thanks to eunmook, satterb, SunaoTsuji, blugirlami21, sadie237 and melissen for reviewing after chapter 86 was posted. Readers’ feedback, support and comments mean a great deal to me.
Feedback keeps me writing. Reading a review can make my day.

Author’s note
There have been some questions about Centre from readers, so I put together answers to frequently asked questions, which you can read at the end of this chapter.

Leader
Part 9: Family
87: Friend

The Elm had set off a day and a night after Shi-chan had come home; Papa had decided that it was better to intercept the Centralite ship well away from Tarrasade.
Inari-san was captain with Tayuya-san, Kuu-chan, Yo-chan and Ya-chan as crew. Hamaki-san, Terai-san and Fu-san had been included as security. Helping Papa prepare for the negotiation were Neji-san, Kakashi-san, Iruka-sensei, To-chan and Shi-chan himself.

It was difficult for those left behind and with every day that passed it got harder. Haru wished he could hide with Ran in Ran’s room. He wanted to stay there until Papa sent word.
Only he couldn’t. For a start, Ran wasn’t in his room. Ran was helping Kiba-san in the playroom. He returned to the crew room each evening utterly exhausted. Apparently Sumiko was acting out, which was not surprising given that no one knew if Shi-chan was coming back or not. Takara and Teruko were behaving as they always did when To-chan wasn’t about; looking angelic but causing trouble. Then, just to finish it off, Tsuneo had found out about Shi-chan and was not happy.
It had turned out that Tsu-chan’s behaviour could make Takara’s and Sumiko’s look exemplary.
Kiba-san was doing a lot of growling.

So Haru was hiding in his workroom instead of Ran’s room, hoping that if no one saw him they would not think of sending him to the playroom. In truth, he was a bit of a loose end. He was used to working hard on Shi-chan’s list and, before that, on finding connections in the database.
He tried calling Sai, but he was busy. Haru guessed he was with Su-chan.

He thought about starting a new project, perhaps going to find Kotetsu-san to talk about robots for exploring planets, but his heart was not in it.
He wanted Shi-chan to come back so much. Just thinking about it made him want to cry.

Then the intercom clicked. Haru tensed. He knew it was not going to be good news.
“This is Haku. All trainees and junior members of crew who are not on watch or performing essential duties are to come to the large meeting room immediately.”
Haru moved. Based on Haku-san’s tone of voice, being last in would not be good.

He wasn’t first but he certainly wasn’t last. Hikaru was and, given the way Haku-san looked at him, he was going to be in receipt of one of Haku-san’s infamous reprimands.
“So you decided to join us, Hikaru-kun? And where were you that it took you so long to respond?”
To Haru’s surprise, Hikaru went bright red.
Haku-san fixed him with a look. “I want an answer, Hikaru-kun, and I had better not discover later that you have lied to me.”
Hikaru mumbled something.
“Speak up, Hikaru-kun.”
“I was in one of the simulators, Haku-san,” Hikaru admitted.

Haru was just glad it wasn’t him. Haku-san’s expression said it all. Hikaru looked like he was going to curl up and turn into a pile of ash.

Then Haku-san turned to the rest of them.
“When a crew is stretched, you are meant to step up. I am ashamed of some of you. Hands up anyone who has volunteered for extra duties or helped out when it wasn’t their turn.”
Yuki, Hoshi and Isaribi raised a hand. Ran couldn’t because he wasn’t there. Five was also absent; Haru guessed he was on watch.
“The rest of you need to buck up and it is going to start now.” Haku-san took a deep breath. “The playroom is out of action.”
Haru wondered what Tsuneo had done; maybe something like the chlorine incident.
“I have decided that you are on childcare duty for the rest of the day. Kazuki, you get Tsuneo. Keizo, you get Shou. Ryuu, you get Nagato.”
Haru shuddered. He would get Sumiko, Takara or Aiko. He didn’t know which of the three would be worst. On balance, he decided that he wanted Aiko least because that meant changing diapers.
“Ryuka; Naomi. Ayame; Teruko. Hikaru; Takara. Keitaro; Mai. Please pick up your charges from the kitchen now. Haru, please remain behind, I need to speak with you.”

Haru could hear Hoshi proposing a play day in the park as they headed out the door.
“Haku-san?” he queried.
Haku-san sighed. “Sumiko is in a bit of a state. I do not think she should be left on her own and I would like you to spend time with her. I do not want you thinking I am punishing you. The sad truth is that her relationship with you, as poor as it is, is better than with anyone else available.”
“She likes Ran,” Haru pointed out, not because he was trying to avoid his responsibilities but because it was true.
Haku-san sighed again. “Ran-kun has taken a mild sedative and gone to lie down in his room.”
“What? Ran’s ill?” Haru wanted to go to him.
“Please let him sleep. No, he is not ill. He is tired and, as you can imagine, when the children get worked up it is particularly hard on him.” Haku-san fixed him with a look. “Haru-kun, if Shika-san does not come back you will have to be a big brother to Sumiko.”
Haru blinked back tears. “I know.”
“Good. She ran into her room. You can begin by checking that she is all right.”

Instead Haru started with Sai. He activated his earpiece, throat mike and wireless interface.
“Sai?”
This time Sai responded immediately. “Yes, Haru.”
“How’s Su-chan?”
“I do not know. She has switched off my access to her rooms and she is not wearing an earpiece.”
Haru frowned. “I didn’t think there was a switch.”
There was a short pause. “She disconnected the sensors and the projectors. Thank you for insisting on looking after my array. I think she would have pulled out my wires.”
“She was that cross with you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She accused me of ignoring her. Please go and check on her.”

Haru was already at the crew room. He knocked on the door to the sitting room Shi-chan and Su-chan shared. There wasn’t a response but he had not expected one. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and went in.
“Su-chan?” he tried, knocking on the door of her bedroom.
“Go away!”
It was a hopeful start. At least she was answering “Come out and talk to me.” He cast about for what else to say. “I’ll make tea.”
“Is Sai with you?”
“He’s linked to me,” Haru admitted.
“Send him away. I don’t want him here. I never want to talk to him again.”

He stepped away from the door.
“Sai, maybe, for now, I should talk to Su-chan alone.”
“I understand,” Sai replied. “I did not mean to upset her.”
“I know that. We’ll talk later.”

He walked into the kitchenette, put the water to boil and went back to Su-chan’s door.
“He’s gone, Su-chan. I’ve put the kettle on.”
She cracked open the door and peered at him through the gap. “I don’t like tea.”
“Fruit juice?” Haru offered; he could always get some from the kitchen.
She nodded.

There was some in the cool box in the kitchenette. He turned the water heater off and poured them both a cup.
When he returned she was sitting down. Haru gave her one of the cups and looked about. It was pretty obvious where Shi-chan usually sat so he took one of the other seats.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he tried.
She sniffed. “He should have been keeping me company. He knows I’m worried about Nii-san. Instead he was off being her.”
Haru was lost.
She scowled at him. “You don’t know.”
“Know what?”
“He’s Hikaru’s girlfriend.”

Haru gasped, inhaling the fruit juice. He choked and started coughing. Once he had finished, Sumiko was standing in front of him holding out a damped towel.
“What?” he croaked, accepting the towel and cleaning himself up.
“Sai is Hikaru’s girlfriend. Or boyfriend. Hikaru can’t make his mind up.”
Various thoughts converged. It was like having different voices in his head. One of them was working out how it had happened: Hikaru was using Shi-chan’s simulator and Sai must have been intrigued. Another was blaming himself because Sai had not actually been breaking the rules; he was allowed to use his code in the two simulators. A third was panicking because the mess could lead to people finding out about Sai. The fourth was saying that Hikaru would never forgive him if he found out the truth.
“You’ve gone a funny colour,” Su-chan observed.
“It’s partly my fault,” Haru admitted. “I should have told Sai not to have anything to do with the simulator while Hi-chan was using it. I never thought to and I guess Shi-chan didn’t either. Su-chan, Hi-chan doesn’t think his girlfriend or boyfriend is real. He thinks it’s just a simulation.”
She scowled at him again. “Sai knows it’s real. Sai prefers to spend time fucking with Hikaru than with me.”

He really didn’t know where to start but Haru knew he had to try.
“Look, Su-chan, Sai isn’t good at people-stuff. I know he didn’t mean to upset you. He already told me that. Do you want me to talk to him and find out what happened?”
“No. He knew I was worried about Nii-san but he was with Hikaru when I needed him.”
“So he made a mistake. People do. Nobody is perfect. Not even Sai.” He could see he was making no impression. “Part of loving people is being willing to forgive them, Su-chan.”

That was apparently the wrong thing to say because she threw her cup at his head. He managed to dodge the missile but was soaked by the juice; she hadn’t drunk much of it. He heard her bedroom door slam.
At least he still had the towel.

He tried but she wouldn’t come out again. In the end, he decided to go change; the fruit juice had left him sticky.
Haku-san was in the kitchen. He called Haru over.
“Not a complete success, I see,” he observed.
Haru imagined he looked a bit of a mess. “We did talk a bit before she threw her drink over me,” Haru replied. He didn’t mention her throwing the cup. Haku-san would consider that dangerous and would intervene. “I thought I would give her thirty minutes before having another go.”
Haku-san considered and then nodded. “A good plan. Thank you for trying, Haru-kun.”

Haru called Sai as soon as he was in his room. The usual projected avatar appeared, perched on Haru’s desk.
“You are agitated,” Sai observed.
“Yes, I am agitated. You should never have interacted with another person. Never. You are a secret, Sai. It has to remain that way. Shi-chan agrees.”
“Hikaru believes it is a simulation,” Sai pointed out.
“Show me,” Haru ordered.
“These projectors are not of an appropriate standard,” Sai argued.
“As close as you can get with this kit. Now, Sai.”

The avatar was replaced by a slim young woman. She had long, golden hair and unlikely violet eyes. She was beautiful.
“I studied everything I could find about human beauty,” she told him in a warm, melodious voice that was nothing like Sai’s. “Then I adapted the avatar according to Hikaru’s reaction.”
“And the male version?” Haru asked.
It was surprisingly similar but, to Haru, much more attractive.
He pulled himself together. “If Hi-chan ever stops thinking with his penis he’ll realise that simulations are never that good.” Another thought occurred to him. “It has to end, Sai. What if he falls in love with you?”
“That is unlikely,” Sai replied. “He is only interested in fucking and all I do is tell him how wonderful he is.”
Haru could see Hikaru falling in love with that.
“It stops, Sai. You build some ordinary simulations, the type Shi-chan could write, based on these characters. You make them so they run with ordinary code and you do not have to guide them.”
There was a pause before Sai replied. “They will not be as responsive.”
“It will have to do, Sai.”
“He will be able to tell the difference.”
“I’ll worry about that,” Haru insisted. Why was Sai being so stubborn? “Tell me you haven’t fallen in love with him, Sai.”
The golden-haired figure went back to being Sai. “Thank you, Haru Uchiha.”
Haru was lost. “Why?”
“For thinking I could fall in love with someone. Hikaru is interesting. I have learned a lot. However, no, I do not love him. I do not know if I am capable of love.”

Haru shut his eyes for a moment. Had he said everything?
“You promise you will build the ordinary simulations and not to interact with Hikaru or anyone else other than me, Su-chan, Shi-chan, Ran or Ka-chan.”
“Never?”
“Until I give you permission.” He thought about it. “Or in a dire emergency when someone’s life is in danger.”
“I promise.”
“Good.” Haru took a deep breath. “Now, Su-chan.”

Sai might struggle to give a convincing smile but he could look sad.
“She is upset.”
“Very,” Haru confirmed. “You chose a really bad time to let her down, Sai. She is terrified that Shi-chan won’t come back. She needed you and you weren’t there.”
“Both the simulation and being with Su-chan need all my attention. I cannot do both. I asked Sumiko-chan if I should stop the simulation and she said ‘be with Hikaru if that’s what you want’.”
The perfect imitation of Sumiko speaking would have been funny at any other time. “Sai, you were meant to say that you did not want to be with Hikaru if she needed you.”
“I was?”
“You were.”
“Be with Hikaru did not mean be with Hikaru?”
“No.”
“I should have prioritised the second part of the sentence?”
“Yes. Or you should have ignored what she was saying and thought about the situation. Who needs you more, Hikaru or Sumiko?”
“Hikaru was about to achieve orgasm,” Sai pointed out. “Perhaps his immediate need was greater.”

Haru had not wanted to know that. “Sai, Su-chan is a little girl whose biggest fear is being abandoned because the two people she loved most died. The person she now loves more than anyone else in the world may never come back to her. You are the person she loves most next to Shi-chan. She needed you.”
“Oh.”
Haru was beginning to worry that Ran was right; perhaps Sai was unable to make such judgements because he was incapable of feeing emotions.
“Will Sumiko-chan ever talk to me again?”
The truth was, Haru did not know. “I am sure you can make it up to her. Start sorting out the mess with Hikaru and I will do what I can. Be available if I call you.”

He had a quick shower to wash the dried fruit juice out of his hair and dressed in clean clothes. He did consider, for a moment, knocking on the door to Ran’s room but decided against it. As Haku-san said, Ran needed to rest.
Also, he might say something Haru didn’t want to hear, like weakening the bond between Sumiko and Sai was a good thing.

Then it was back to Su-chan and Shi-chan’s sitting room. He knocked on Sumiko’s door.
“It’s Haru. I’ve talked with Sai. He is sad. He knows he mucked up and upset you. He got muddled up because you didn’t talk straight to him. You know how literal he is.”
There was silence. Haru decided to give it two minutes and timed it on his chronometer because he knew that it would feel like much longer than that.
At one hundred and two seconds the door opened a little. Sumiko looked at him through the crack. She looked awful; her eyes were almost swollen shut with crying.
“I still don’t want to talk to him.”
“Fine. Come out and talk to me.” He cast about for something they could do together. “Wash your face, brush your hair, put on yellow clothes and I’ll take you to the park for a picnic.”
She sniffed. “Don’t be silly. I don’t wear yellow anymore.”
“Pink?” Haru guessed.
“I’ll be out in a minute,” she told him.

It was more than a minute but Haru didn’t mind. When she appeared her eyes looked a bit better and she was wearing a mottled green dress with green leggings.
“That’s pretty,” he told her. He had planned to say it anyway but it was easy because she looked nice.
She held out a brush to him. “Nii-san helps me with my hair and it’s got into a mess because he isn’t here.”
Haru could see that. The back was all tangled. He accepted the brush with trepidation. “I’m not good with long hair,” he admitted. He imagined Sumiko’s reaction if he made it worse. “Why don’t we see if anyone else is available? Maybe Yuki or Hoshi?”
She considered. “Have you ever brushed long hair?”
“No.”
He could see her thinking about what it might be like. “Fine.”

Haku-san spotted them as soon as they emerged. Haru felt Sumiko’s reaction. He knew she was on the edge of fleeing back into her bedroom.
“Su-chan needs help with her hair,” he announced. “We were going to look for Yuki.”
Haku-san smiled at them. It was a bit of a shock but Sumiko seemed to like it.
“Come here and I will do it.”

Once they were sitting at the kitchen table with cups of fruit juice and cookies, Haku-san went to get what he referred to as his equipment.
Haru only ever used a comb so a tray full of pretty objects was not what he expected. There were two combs, two brushes, a mirror with a handle, a jar of hair clips and a spray bottle. They were all decorated with stylised enamel flowers and they all matched, even the tray.
It was clever of Haku-san. Sumiko was fascinated, as she always was by beautiful things.

Haku-san sprayed Su-chan’s hair with some stuff that loosened the tangles. Then he started combing it through.
“We will need some ribbons, Su-chan. Can Haru get those for you?”
She considered, scowling slightly, but then nodded.

Haru had never been in Su-chan’s bedroom before. He guessed it was normally neat but that was before she had opened all the access panels and yanked out every wire she could find.
He sighed. He did not have time to mend it now. Instead he went to where she had said the ribbons were and picked out all the ones that looked like they might match her dress. He was about to leave again when he spotted some gold hair clips with butterflies.

The selection earned him another smile from Haku-san. Haru watched, intrigued, as Haku-san wove ribbons through Sumiko’s hair and secured the resulting arrangement with clips before adding the butterflies. A few practiced tweaks and her face was softened by small curls, matching the cascade of loose ringlets down her back.
“It’s really pretty,” Haru assured her. He caught the beginning of a frown. “For special occasions,” he added quickly. “The way Shi-chan does it for every day is just fine.”
She relaxed and actually smiled.
Haku-san gave him an approving nod.
As they were about to leave for the park with a small basket of food, Haku-san touched his arm. “Today, Haru-kun, you remind me of your Papa,” he whispered.

Sumiko was a bit peeved when she realised that the other children were in the park as well but she recovered quickly. They sat in one of the smaller tree houses, away from where everyone else was playing.
Once they had finished eating, Haru had another go.
“Sai got it wrong. He knows that now. You said ‘be with Hikaru’ and he never got past that bit to consider the ‘if’ that came afterwards.”
She sniffed. “He prefers Hikaru to me.”
“No he doesn’t. Really he doesn’t. He got interesting in making the simulation. It was a challenge for him.” A thought occurred to him. “He was probably using it as an opportunity to improve his skills.”
“She is very pretty.”
Haru hadn’t realised that Sai had shown Su-chan the ‘girlfriend’. He shrugged. “I guess so. She must be what Hikaru thinks of as pretty.”
“I will never be pretty like that. Or pretty like Ino-san and Sakura-san.”
Haru was quickly getting out of his depth. “Sorry, Su-chan, I don’t understand why you would want to be like anyone else. You are fine the way you are.”
“People don’t like me.”
He almost said that being pretty wouldn’t stop her being annoying and difficult but stopped himself. “Do you like Takara?”
Sumiko frowned at him. “No.”
“Is she pretty?”
The frown deepened into a scowl. “Yes.”
“So being pretty doesn’t make people like you.” He pushed the basket towards her. “Do you want another cake?”
“No, I prefer the strawberries,” she replied, taking another one. “I shall give Sai another chance,” she decided. “Everyone makes mistakes.”
“Good. Do you want me to mend the wiring in your room? We could do that next.”
She nodded.

She had literally pulled every wire loose, so it took most of the afternoon to check each one and redo all the broken or compromised connections. To Haru’s surprise she was willing to sit with him and hand him each tool as he needed it. Maybe it was something she would have done with Shi-chan.
Finally they had finished.
“Do you want to call Sai?” he asked. He had checked with her a number of times during the afternoon, she could have talked to him using a mike and earpiece, but she had said no.
“Yes,” she decided. “Sai!”
He appeared at once, sitting on the other bed. “I am sorry, Sumiko-chan.”
“I forgive you,” she announced. “Don’t do something like that again.”
Sai smiled. “Thank you Sumiko-chan.”

As Haru crept from the room, leaving them talking, he realised that Sai’s smile for Su-chan had been in no way perfect, it was a little lopsided, but it had been very real.

.

Author’s note
There have been some questions about Centre from readers, so I put together the following.

FAQs about Centre

What is Centre?
Centre is the centre of known space. It is currently the dominant human civilisation and has been so for over a hundred thousand standards. Known space was defined by Centralite explorers, known as Space Hoppers, and developed by the Colonial Service.

How does Centre relate to the rest of known space?
Modern Centre is very defined. It is five systems, linked by gates. Beyond Centre are the Borders, which consist of many more systems. Beyond the Borders is the Fringe. Beyond the Fringe is the Far Fringe.
The control that Centre chooses to exert over the Borders and the Fringe is limited. The principle is that enough control is exerted so that life in Centre is not affected by what goes on in the Borders and the Fringe. This means that more control is exerted over the Borders, which are closer, that the Fringe.

Who lives in Centre?
Inhabitants of Centre, Centralites, are mostly Residents. To be a Resident, a person must adhere to the Centralite Code, which defines acceptable behaviour. If a person displays behaviour that is not acceptable, he or she had to agree to personality modification (‘conditioning’) or he or she will be exiled. Aberrant behaviour is unacceptable and, if judged to be a hazard to others, leads to the individual ‘going under the helmet’ and being partially or totally mindwiped.
A tiny proportion of Centralites are citizens. To be a citizen, a person must have served a term, ten standards, in the Central Civil Service. All positions of power in Centre are held by citizens. All decisions are made by them.
The population of Residents is held steady by controlling immigration and breeding.

What is the Central Civil Service?
The Central Civil Service, or CCS, is the organisation that runs Centre. Those currently serving their ten standard terms are called Servants. Those who choose to stay in the CCS after the ten standard term are called Citizen Servants and are the most powerful people in Centre. Servants wear blue. Citizen Servants wear black.
All citizens receive a pension that means that they can afford to live in Centre with full health benefits, including age retard. At any time, a citizen can exchange his or her pension for a lump sum and choose voluntary exile.
To become a Servant, a person must excel on the CCS entrance examination and survive the training. Applications are accepted from any purebred human (no hybrids); origin does not matter. Over half the current Servants are from the Borders or the Fringe.

How does the CCS operate?
A small amount of CCS activity involves running, supplying and policing Centre. The majority of its activity is about ensuring that nothing happening in the Borders or the Fringe impacts on Centralite life.
To do this they require the means to eliminate anything considered to be a threat. So far, all threats have been eliminated. Known examples include everything up to and including multi-system empires. Usually, threats do not get that large because they are identified early and dealt with by CCS fringe agents, who are highly skilled Servants or Citizen Servants.

What is it about Centre and typed-geniuses?
Once all aberrant and unacceptable behaviour was defined and eliminated, Centralite psychologists woke up to the fact that geniuses had become few and far between. Genius, by its very nature, was different enough to generate unacceptable behaviours.
So they started testing children. If a child was considered a genius, the conditioning he or she received was limited. As long as aberrant behaviour was eliminated, unacceptable behaviour was tolerated in a genius.
Over centuries, the concept of typed-geniuses emerged. These were the geniuses among geniuses. In a typed-genius, aberrant behaviour is tolerated. However, they are placed in the care of the Institute of Psychology on Centre I.
Then someone noticed a correlation. Most of the incidents in the Border or the Fringe requiring CCS attention had a genius involved in their inception. The worst ones were often caused by a typed-genius. This was usually, but not always, a typed-five.
So, to save resources, typed-geniuses are harvested.

What was before Centre?
Before Centre there were other dominant civilisations, but only traces of those remain. (There is more about this in my profile under ‘The World of Mannah Pierce’.)

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