In the cold of space you find the heat of suns

Thank you for the reviews, they are much appreciated.

Apologies if the characters have grown differently in their new environment

Spacer crews travel the Far Borders and the Fringe of occupied space, trading. Spacing is an ancient and honourable profession carved out by millenniums. Most spacers start out as fourteen-year-old boys seeking a future. Few survive a decade spacing.

24. Running

Life with Haku was better than life without him. Sasuke knew that. He kept the unattached male members of the crew in a permanent state of sexual satisfaction. He was unpredictable and funny: everyone waited each morning to see his latest outfit. His guerrilla campaign against Iruka’s rules was hilarious, particularly as Iruka only knew a fraction of what was actually happening. He even turned out to have a remarkable range of dirty fighting skills: Iruka was training him as a knife fighter.

The only problem was that Haku hated him and made sure Sasuke knew it. He was a master of behaviours that seemed only a little amiss to others but which wounded Sasuke deeply. He would flirt with Naruto, describing it as training because Naruto was as immune to it as a punch bag was to a blow. Sasuke knew that it was ridiculous that he reacted to it, so he hid his reaction. The more he hid it, the more Haku flirted. Then there were the small, barbed comments, usually about how lucky he was to have Naruto and how little he deserved him. Haku still never used Sasuke’s name. Sasuke knew that, in Haku’s head, he was still ‘Itachi-san’s brother’. Whenever the situation between them improved, or worsened to the point that it might be exposed, Haku would turn up dressed as a younger version of Sasuke, which made everyone collapse with laughter but served to remind Sasuke why Haku hated him and why he had to endure it.

Sasuke knew he was the only member of the crew who hoped that Zabuza would be at Tarrasade. Their schedule had Tarrasade a third of a standard away.

They had dropped to planet called Chanx, seeking one of the people on their list. Unexpectedly, the planet had a new and thriving trade in an innovative light speed communicator. Six ships contacted them between the jump gate and the planet, each offering more than the last for their berth. Despite having accepted that trading was not a priority, Tsunade was twitching. She argued that not buying a hold full of communicators made them look suspicious, so they arranged some meetings and set off to keep them.

A third of the way to the first meeting Kakashi made the decision to return to the ship and lift. The city, probably the whole planet, was infested with media. There were huge holoprojections above every street, most of them running local news. There were cameras everywhere. Chanx has become a planet they needed to avoid. A few blunt words from Jiraiya reminded Tsunade of their priorities and they turned for home.

They were halfway home when the story broke on one channel and was quickly picked up by the others: the Uchiha name had that effect. They had the name of the ship, most of the crew list and were predicting Sasuke’s looks at sixteen standards from illicit holos that had been taken when he was at school on Elleton. The resulting image was uncannily accurate, so it was not surprising that the computers found moving images of them within minutes and that the presenters were promising that live coverage would soon follow. One commentator pointed out that Sasuke was cat rather than crew, which was swiftly followed with a garbled explanation of challenges and raids. Another was speculating on just how big a ransom a kidnapper could demand.

Then the images were live and the shouting, pointing and running began. Sasuke concentrated on staying close to Naruto and Naruto to Kakashi. Sasuke looked up at the projections and realised for the first time that being protected by two such distinctive looking men could be a problem. Naruto’s hair was like a beacon and the combination of Kakashi’s hair colour and eye patch was little better.

Gunfire: the crowd transformed into a mob and a laser hit Naruto. He roared, snarled and dropped. Sasuke reached for him but a surge of people carried him away. Then a hand gripped his decisively and a familiar voice said, “Crouch and run, it’s your only chance. Leave Naruto to Kakashi.”

Haku led the way, weaving through the crowd, occasionally punching or kicking someone who blocked their path. Sasuke followed, head down, bent forward. The crowd thinned. Sasuke risked a glance up through his hair to the projections. They were still focused on Kakashi. He and Ibiki were standing over Naruto’s body, striking at anyone who attacked them. They made it to an alley just as one of the presenters pointed out that Sasuke was no longer visible. Haku pulled him into the deepest of the doorways and produced a small, sharp knife with which he attacked the shoulder seams of Sasuke’s jacket, ripping away the arms to expose the light blue, fuller sleeves of his shirt. A few minutes later their clothes and hair looked significantly different. Haku grabbed Sasuke’s arm. “Look as if you are protecting me and getting me away from the riot,” he commanded.

They passed four people without incident. “It’ll only work until someone suggests we may have changed our appearance.” Haku told him. “Then everyone will start looking at our faces. We need an empty house or shop or apartment to find better disguises.”

Sasuke’s brain finally started to work. “Empty places may be alarmed. The technology level is too high.”

Haku looked surprised, then nodded. “Good,” he encouraged.

“Maybe an open shop? Large enough to be a bit anonymous. Hopefully everyone will be watching coverage of the riot. It’s that or an occupied house.”

“Both,” Haku decided. “We’ll pick a house, knock out and tie up the occupants. Then I’ll take the gold credits you have hidden somewhere and go shopping for disguises. I’ll scout at the same time.”

“What if the occupants have guns?” asked Sasuke.

“Sasuke, I’ve seen you fight. You don’t need Naruto to protect you. You can cope with some fat old guy with a gun.”

“You used my name.”

“I needed you to pay attention. This looks like apartments. It looks rundown enough that any security won’t be working.”

“Right. Let’s do it. No killing anyone, Haku.”

Getting through the door went as planned but the man behind it was young rather than old and he knew how to fight. Luckily his advantage of being on home territory and having a knife did not outweigh Sasuke’s greater skill and Haku operating as a distraction. As they bound his gagged body to a chair, Sasuke could not shake the impression that he looked familiar. He finished tying the knots as Haku looked around the apartment.

“Not much here,” he admitted. “I’ll have to go shopping.”

Sasuke nodded, took off one of his boots and removed three gold credits from the heel. He added half the change from his belt purse and displayed it to Haku. “Enough?” he asked.

“Enough,” Haku confirmed. He cocked his head. “Hasn’t it even crossed your mind that I might be going to betray you?”

Sasuke scowled at him. “Stop playing mind games, Haku, this isn’t the time.”

“I want an answer,” Haku demanded.

“No, I do not second guess the people I trust, which includes all my crewmates, even the ones who hate me.”

“I don’t hate you,” Haku admitted. “I hate him. I can’t get to him but I can get to you.”

Sasuke sighed. “Haku, hurting me doesn’t hurt him.”

“It would if he knew. He loves you. His beloved little brother. I should know. I had to listen to him prattle on and on about it. Nice, kind big brother when I was dressed up like you. Sadistic bastard when I was me.”

Sasuke blinked. “He never fucked you when you were playing me? Or abused you?”

Haku scowled at him. “No. Not unless you count overindulgence as abuse. By the Lady, you must have liked chocolate when you were little. There were times when I thought I would throw up if I even had to see another thing made from chocolate. Sasuke, are you listening to me? I am telling you that I hurt you to get back at Itachi-san. I have managed to separate you from the rest of the crew and I am the only one who knows where you are. I could walk out of here and sell you to the highest bidder.”

“You won’t,” Sasuke told him.

Haku shook his head and headed for the door.

The man tied to the chair was looking at him.

“He won’t,” Sasuke assured him. “He’s just being Haku.” He pulled up a chair and sat opposite the man. “I am very sorry about this. Something happened, and Haku and I got separated from our crew. We have to make our way back and we can’t afford to trust any outsiders. It’s just your bad luck that we chose your apartment. I’ll arrange a credit transfer once we’re back, big enough for you to get a better place. You might not want to stay here after we violated it.” Sasuke leaned forward. The man really did remind him of someone.

He moved the light from the other side of the room so that it cast more light on the man’s face. He was younger than Sasuke had thought, probably about Shikamaru’s age. His hair was very dark and very straight and cropped about two fingers’ width from his scalp in a truly appalling haircut. His skin was very pale and his eyes were unmatched. One was brown and Sasuke could see that it contained a coloured contact lens. The other was a pale shade of lavender-grey.

“You’re a Hyuga,” he accused.

The young man flushed pink and shook his head. That reaction alone was enough to convince Sasuke he was correct. “So if I went and studied the street and the doorway to this building and the stairway and the landing outside this aparment I would not find the subtle marks that made us choose this apartment rather than another? That ‘bring good luck to your door’ ritual you all use?”

The young man was very, very still.

Sasuke thought fast. A Hyuga on his own, with his hair hacked off and coloured contact lenses, eking out an existance in a crappy apartment. Something had gone very wrong. Hyugas only spaced on Hyuga ships. Otherwise they stayed on Hyuga planets. It was possible to hire a Hyuga, provided one was rich enough, but their primary loyalty was always to their race. Decision made, he looked the young man directly in his strange, lavender-grey eyes. “I know about Hyuga for two reasons. Firstly, there was a Hyuga on my father’s staff when I was a child. Secondly, there were a few Hyuga at the school I briefly attended, one of whom I got to know.” He leaned forward and pulled down the man’s gag.

“I am not Hyuga,” the young man stated. “The Hyuga have no claim on me.”

This was becoming more and more interesting. “You never took the oath of loyalty?” he checked.

“No.”

That meant his break with the Hyuga went back to before he reached adolescence. “So you were never trained?”

The young man hesitated. “I never completed formal training.”

So someone had trained him. The hairs on the back of Sasuke’s neck stood up. An unsworn Hyuga; what a prize. He caught a hint of the young man’s reaction. Damn Hyuga and their ability to read every subtlety of human behaviour. It was like having someone in your head. “All those childhood tales,” he admitted. “You know. The ones y… …the Hyuga put out so that rich powerful people don’t hesistate to sign away chunks of their fortunes away just to have a Hyuga in their household for a couple of years. Add in that I am a spacer, so always after the best deal, and I can’t help but be interested.”

The young man smiled slightly. “An admirable save,” he observed.

Sasuke waited.

“Your crewmate, Haku. He is conflicted.”

“I know.”

“I know you know. The way you handled him, the utter faith you displayed to him, no Hyuga could have advised a better course.” The young man looked at him. “You have been raised to lead. Probably from birth.”

Sasuke remembered what Jiraiya had told him. “From one and one third standards pre-conception,” he admitted.

The young man’s lips quirked slightly into the most fleeting of smiles. “It was still a risk, letting him go alone.”

“I know.” This was the moment, Sasuke recognised it. “My name is Sasuke. I am Sasuke Uchiha.”

The young man’s eyes widened slightly at the name. “I am Neji,” he replied.