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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
- 91
- 92
- 93
Thank you to my beta and muse, Small Fox. This story grew from a plot idea he gave me.
Also thanks to SunaoTsuji, LenaSaturn, Lurker, eunmook, satterb, sadie237 and melissen for reviewing after chapter 91 was posted. Readers’ feedback, support and comments mean a great deal to me. Feedback keeps me writing.
Each review is treasured.

Apologies, I posted the wrong version of this chapter and it was up for about 15 minutes before I realsied it.

Leader
Part 10: Endgame
92: Realisation

Shikamaru’s amber tally had reached one thousand six hundred and eighty three. It represented the number of stasis places he had managed to acquire. The blue figure, seven hundred and nineteen, was the number he actually had in Tarrasade at the moment; the others were on their way.
He glanced up to where he had the media feeds playing. Most of the channels were playing Yukie Fujikaze’s interview with Sasuke and Izuna at regular intervals. Applications to be included in Izuna Uchiha venture were pouring in and sales of purple hair tint had quadrupled.
There was no suggestion of any hybrids becoming sick and no announcement from the AHB. Shikamaru tried not to listen to the small voice in his head telling him that the crisis may have been aborted; it was far too early for that.

He decided to saunter down to the infirmary; Rin wouldn’t report to Sasuke until she was certain of her finding, but he could probably get an update out of her.

Dan wasn’t there, which was good; if Ran was stressed Dan would try to keep him away. Now all Shikamaru needed was one more bit of luck; if Rin was in the biohazard containment laboratory he would not be able to speak with her.
She was in her office. He leaned on the doorjamb and waited for her to notice him. When she did, she sighed.
“Shika-san.”
“Rin-san. How bad?”
“I have not completed my investigation.”
“Please, Rin. You know how my brain works. The sooner I start thinking about things the better.”
She sighed again. “It’s a virus. In-vitro testing suggests that it will only infect cells with canine genes.”
“So purebreds and other hybrids cannot carry it?”
“Only on their clothes and their skin. Simple decontamination procedures should deal with that.”
It was good news; it meant that Sasuke, Neji, Kakashi and Sumaru could rejoin the rest of the crew. Once they could be sure of keeping the virus out, Naruto and the others could be allowed out of biomedical containment.
“I am working on a way of testing for its presence in blood,” Rin continued. “I should have a version with Moegi-san by station’s noon. A test that works on individuals with nanobots will take a bit longer.”
Shikamaru understood that; the nanobots would be removing the virus and its products from the blood.
“You could help by working up my computer model of how the virus would progress once the infection was underway.”
“You should have asked me before,” Shikamaru complained.
“We only just finished sequencing the virus’ genetic material.” Rin turned back to her console. “I’ll send you all the data I have.”

To Madara’s surprise, his offices in Uchiha headquarters were exactly as he had left them. He settled at his desk. Neji stood to one side with a tablet. Kimimaro lurked at the other side of the room, his eyes fixed on the Hyuga.
“The household is in lockdown until we have identified the active agent in the bioweapon,” Neji explained. “That means that only a limited number of Uchiha personnel are available. Gai-san and Terai-san could go with you to pack and clear your office and your apartment in Prime.”
“It is not urgent,” Madara assured him. “I packed the precious items from each and had the crates couriered to secure storage. I shall arrange to have them delivered.”
Neji moved onto the next item on his list. “Obviously you will wish to recruit staff but Ino-san has volunteered to act as your liaison with Sasuke-sama. She is also willing to assist you with the task of recruiting suitable staff.”
He suppressed a pang of disappointment. Even knowing that she had betrayed him, he would have preferred Sakura. “That is appreciated.”
“I will send her a message,” Neji assured him. “She will be with you soon. Please could you provide her with an office on this floor.”
It was not a request; Ino would be there as Sasuke’s representative rather than as Madara’s employee. He gave a small nod and Neji continued.
“Shino-san tells me that there have been four thousand, two hundred and eleven inquiries about applying for a place on the expedition. That was by midmorning. Doubtless there are many more by now. There have been occasions when we have had similar numbers of inquiries. Would you like me to speak to Ino-san about our experience?”
“That would be appreciated.”
“I shall do so.” Neji deactivated the tablet and put it into the inner pocket of his jacket.
Madara decided to push; he needed to explore the limits of Sasuke’s hospitality. “Would it is possible to consult with Shikamaru-san about the expedition?”
Neji froze momentarily. “No that will not be possible.” He bowed. “Izuna-sama,” he acknowledged and left.
Madara watched him leave. So they were still jumpy about Shikamaru. Maybe Centre had been closer to taking him away that Bettencourt’s tape had suggested.
It was a pleasant thought.

Sasuke deactivated the link to Rin. On balance, he was relieved. It was bad news that the agent was real, a virus, and that it infected people with canine genes. On the other hand, it felt better knowing than not knowing. Also Rin was sure than people without canine genes could not carry the virus. That meant that he could be with Naruto once he had been through decontamination.

The door announcer sounded. Its unfamiliar tone was yet another reminder of his exile from Naruto and the children.
He opened the door. It was Neji. He looked odd. He entered, stood in front of the desk Sasuke was using and bowed.
“I apologise, Sasuke-sama. I spoke on your behalf when I had no right to do so.”
Sasuke recalled that Neji had been due to meet with Izuna. “I am sure that you used your best judgement, Neji-san, but perhaps you should sit down.”
Neji ignored the suggestion. “He asked if he could consult with Shika and I said no. I can’t stand the thought of Shika being in the same room as him. Not after all that has happened.”

Sasuke realised that Neji was agitated, possibly even upset. “Sit, Neji,” he ordered.
Neji moved a chair from the side of the room and sat on it.
“You will not have to deal with Izuna-sama once there is free movement in and out of the household,” Sasuke assured him. “It will go back to being Itachi’s responsibility.”
“It is not me I am worried about, Sasuke-sama.”
“Well I am,” Sasuke insisted. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I understand that events suggest that Izuna-sama planned to dispose of you and to take Shikamaru for himself. I understand that events suggest that, when this failed, he came up with plans to dispose of Shikamaru.”
“Sasuke-sama...” Neji objected.
“No, Neji. Let me finish. We cannot dwell on what the events suggest. We have to concentrate on creating a future where Izuna-sama will be on this way to the other side of known space, never to return.”
Neji relaxed slightly. “Yes, Sasuke-sama.”
“I agree with you about Shika-san. Although we will need his expertise to ensure that we get Izuna-sama on his way as quickly as possible, there is absolutely no reason that Shika should ever be in the same room as him.”
“You will tell Shika that?” Neji checked.
“I shall. If he is difficult about it, I shall ask Naruto to speak to him.”
“Thank you, Sasuke-sama.

The decontamination procedure was lengthy and tiresome but Sasuke did not complain. At least he had an audio link to Naruto.
“I could spend the night with you,” he suggested. Rin had given him a choice; after decontamination he could go into bio-containment with Naruto or rejoin the household.
“Don’t be a teme, teme,” Naruto complained. He sighed. “I would love to spend the night with you but I want you to put the Ta-chan, Te-chan and Tsu-chan to bed. They have had enough disruption lately.”
Sasuke knew he was right. The triplets’ world rotated around Naruto and Kiba was always there for them. “It won’t be long. Rin will soon have a test for the virus that works on someone with nanobots.”
“Is there any word from Moegi-san?”
Moegi was already testing the canine hybrids in Sublevel C. “Not as far as I know,” Sasuke admitted.
“And no announcement from the AHB,” Naruto observed. “Maybe it will all come to nothing.”
Sasuke hoped so.

He was released just in time for the evemeal. Making the table smaller did not make the absences any less obvious. Kisame and Five had been informed they would be unaffected by the virus but Five had asked to remain with Yuki. Asuma, Gai, Terai, Sumaru, Sakura and Ino were staying at headquarters. Kakashi, like Sasuke, had gone though decom and was sitting next Iruka.
Sasuke imagined their knees pressed together under the table and yearned for Naruto.

Once the meal was over, Sasuke supervised the triplets’ bath time. He looked around the bathroom, recalling the chaos the big litter had caused on a daily basis. Nowadays it was a lot quieter. Takara and Teruko were sharing one tub while Tsuneo splashed in one of the others. Sasuke stayed more for the comfort of being with them than because they needed him.
“Papa, can we get out now?” Takara asked.
“As long as you have washed everywhere and rinsed your hair with fresh water,” Sasuke replied. “Whose turn is it to wash down the tub?”
“Mine, Papa,” Teruko answered.
“Then you come to have your hair sorted, Ta-chan,” Sasuke suggested, moving over to the blowers.

He sprayed a little conditioner into Takara’s hair and then combed it through. Unlike Hoshi, Takara and Teruko had wanted long hair, ‘like Haku-san’, since they were little. Kiba had agreed when they had turned six, provided it was usually plaited.
“Can you dry it for yourself?” Sasuke asked.
“Of course, Papa,” Takara answered and switched on the blowers.

The two girls were in their pyjamas with their dried hair loosely plaited before Tsu-chan was even out of the tub. Sasuke told them to go to their bedroom and went back to see what Tsu-chan was up to.
He was entirely too quiet; usually bath time with Tsuneo was a lively affair. Sasuke pulled the stool up to the bath.
Naruto’s eyes gazed up at him. “Are To-chan and Kiba-san going to die, Papa?”
Sasuke grabbed a towel and lifted him out of the tub and onto his lap. Usually he complained about such treatment, ‘I’m not a baby, Papa’, but not today. Today he needed his Papa’s arms around him.
“Rin-san is just being cautious. She wants to make sure they don’t get sick.”
“Will they die if they get sick?”
It was on the tip of Sasuke’s tongue to say no, but something stopped him. “We don’t know anything about the virus yet, Tsu-chan, but Rin-san is a great medico and I am sure that she will make them better if they do get sick. Which they probably won’t,” he added quickly.
“Good,” Tsuneo replied but his gaze was fixed to a point on the ceiling and was blinking back tears.
“Tsu-chan?” Sasuke queried.
Tsuneo hesitated; Sasuke could see him deciding if he would admit what he was thinking. Finally he spoke. “I asked Lady Luck to bring Shi-chan back and I keep thinking that, maybe, she’s going to take To-chan or Kiba-san instead.”
Sasuke hugged him close. “That’s not the way chance works, Tsu-chan. One thing does not affect the other.”
“You are sure?”
“I am sure. Now let’s get you dry.” He started rubbing with the towel only for Tsuneo to look at him as if he was crazy.
“Papa, I’m still soapy.”
Sasuke stopped. “So you are.” He pulled himself together. “You rinse yourself and then get yourself dry. I’ll clean out the tub for you.”
Tsuneo managed a smile. “Thanks Papa.”

When they rejoined the girls, Teruko was reading and Takara was curled up on her bed, already half asleep. Sasuke decided to forgo the story he had intended to tell and just play his biwa for them.
Sometimes it was easier to allow the music to speak for him.

Shikamaru had started panicking even before the computer model was complete. He recognised the signs; the deeper layers of his mind had worked out what the simulation would tell them and it was not good news. He kept working; telling himself that Naruto and the others were safe because they had been in biomedical containment from before the virus was released.

There was still some work to do but he decided to go to the evening meal. He lost less time just attending than fighting with Sumiko or Iruka about it.
Sasuke and Kakashi were back. Their skin had the pink tinge of the thoroughly scrubbed; a consequence of going through decontamination. Neji was not with them; he was staying at headquarters in case Izuna caused trouble.
The conversation was painful. All the adults around the table were trying to behave as if the missing people were merely elsewhere, which just made their absence more obvious. Shikamaru was relieved when Sasuke gave up and took the triplets off to bed.

Sumiko assured him that she would be fine with Sai so he returned to his and Neji’s office to work on the simulation. He inputted the last few data sets, checked a few of the algorithms, took a deep breath and set it running.
Even with every parameter set favourably, the best outcome included death. For a hybrid with as many canine genes as Naruto, that death was particularly unpleasant. The most frequent outcome was being delivered from excruciating pain and horrific hallucinations by drowning when the lungs filled with fluid.

He was running it yet again, hoping for the slightest suggestion of a different outcome, when Rin turned up. Seeing her at the door was a shock. In the sixteen standards they had worked together she had never come to him; he had always gone to her.
“Have you got the simulation working?” she asked. “We need it.”
He nodded. “It’s working.” Something must have happened.
“All the hybrids Moegi have tested have the virus,” she told him. “They have elevated temperatures, increased pulse rates and their respiratory systems are becoming compromised. How many days from infection do those symptoms occur?”
The answer bubbled up from a lower layer of his mind even before he consulted the model. It sparked a cascade of thoughts that reached a point and then began dividing.
“Shikamaru!” Rin insisted.
He pulled himself back to the present and used the symptoms to interrogate the model. “Five to eight days, depending on the individual.” Panic gripped him. Five days ago Naruto had not been in biomedical containment. Five days ago they had not even known that the AHB had a bioweapon.
Had the virus got into the household?

Rin had plucked the interface from his hands and was running queries. He watched as most of the colour drained from her face.
“Three days is not long enough,” she muttered. “There is no way we can find an effective treatment within three days.”
“They start dying in three days time?” he heard himself ask.
“The first ones get past the point of no return in three days,” she clarified.
“I am arranging places in stasis,” he told her. He looked at the display of his chronometer for the latest blue tally. “Nine hundred and sixty three in Tarrasade at this time.”
Rin stared at him for a moment. “Good,” she acknowledged.
“Will having nanobots stop it?” he asked.
She scowled at him. “No. It would slow up the rate of accumulation of damage. Non-targeted nanobots will not be a feasible mass treatment.”
“I didn’t mean that.”
That earned him another scowl.
He made himself say it. “The virus was released much earlier than we thought. It is possible that canine hybrids from the household were exposed.”
Rin nodded. “Yes, I am still struggling to apply the blood test to individuals with nanobots. There would be no virus in their blood. We may have to take biopsies.”
“Wouldn’t there be an upsurge of nanobots tasked with neutralising and clearing virus particles?” Shikamaru asked.
“That would not give us specific confirmation,” Rin objected. She frowned again and Shikamaru waited for her to catch up. “It would suggest those who may require a biopsy.” She turned and headed for the door. “Please arrange for me to have access to the stimulation from the infirmary.” She looked back. “Persuading hybrids who have no reason to believe what we are saying into stasis may prove difficult. If we have to wait until the first ones die, it will be too late for many of the others.”

Shikamaru watched her go and shuddered. Being objective and refusing to become emotionally involved might make Rin a better medico but he would never be comfortable with it. He arranged the access she had requested and then sat for a moment with aspects of the situation churning between the layers of his mind. Then he pulled himself together and returned to the task of increasing the blue tally of places in stasis.

A flashing indicator; Naruto’s channel. Shikamaru swallowed. He had nothing but bad news to share with him. The best scenario was that only those outside the household were dying. The worst...
No, he would not think about that.
He opened the channel. “Na-chan.”
“I expect you’ve heard.”
“Heard what?”
“Don’t try being vague, Shi-chan. I’ve spoken to Udon-san. I know that all the canine hybrids in Sublevel C are testing positive. That includes most of the carers in the orphanage.”
Kiba visited the orphanage regularly; Shikamaru felt sick.
“Shi-chan?”
“I’d heard about the positive test results,” he admitted.
“What about the simulation? Is it finished?”
“I’m still working on it,” Shikamaru lied. “I have to go, Na-chan. Lots to do. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Shi...”

Shikamaru cut the link and laid his forehead on the desk. He should be using the simulation to look for a treatment or a cure but he knew Rin was working on that and he was so tired.
It wasn’t fair. Every time they made progress there was another barrier in the way; another problem to solve. They had appeased Centre and come up with a way of getting rid of Izuna but now there was this.
One moment he was congratulating himself for coming up with a way of extending Naruto’s lifespan and the next it was all pointless because all it would take was one virus particle and...
There was a sob and Shikamaru realised it was him.
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