In the cold of space you find the heat of suns

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.

25. Here

Naruto woke in the infirmary knowing that something was very wrong. He remembered a searing pain in his shoulder, flipping and his collar felling him. The last thing he remembered were strangers coming between him and Sasuke.

He sat bolt upright. “Sasuke! Where’s Sasuke?”

Iruka jumped from the stool on which he had been sitting. “Naru-kun, try to be calm.”

Iruka-sensei wouldn’t be sitting with him unless it was something bad. “Is he hurt?” Naruto demanded. “Is he de…?” he could not bring himself to say it.

“We don’t know,” Iruka admitted. “We lost him and Haku.”

Naruto stared at him. They had brought home his unconscious body but not Sasuke? He heard himself growling.

“Naruto!” Iruka’s voice was like a slap but Naruto was in no mood to accept it. He was up, prowling, and as soon as he was upright he knew they were in space. Purebred humans might not be able to tell the difference between the ship’s grav and a planet’s pull, but Naruto could.

“We lifted without him?” he snarled, not caring that Iruka was backing away from him.

“We didn’t have a choice, Naruto.”

Naruto was out of the door and seeking Kakashi.

Kakashi had seen Naruto berserk but never angry. Fury tensed the youngster’s whole body and boiled below the surface of his eyes. Kakashi fingered the activator in his pocket, loath to use it but prepared.

Naruto listened to their explanation and watched the video Shino had captured. He was forced to accept that they had made the best of a bad choice. Better them in space with Sasuke lost in the city than Sasuke lost in the city and the ship destroyed along with everyone in it. The port authorities had stopped being reasonable when the mob breached the perimeter.

They had no chance of being allowed to land again until the media frenzy died down. That was not going to happen soon. The media were fixated on finding Sasuke Uchiha, whom they were convinced was hiding in the city.

It took a direct order form the Captain for Naruto to return to the infirmary. He was fitted with another supergen, albeit only a limpet. At least Rin kept her mouth shut; Naruto was in no mood to talk. All he could think of was how wrong it felt to be separate from Sasuke when his every instinct was to protect him.

He could do nothing. None of his skills were relevant. He found himself in the crew room without remembering walking there. Iruka was watching him from the galley but Naruto refused to accept even the smallest sliver of comfort. He went toward his, their, bunk but the smell of Sasuke was too much for him to bear. There were few places where he could be certain to be left alone. He chose the shower.

He was here and Sasuke was there. Sasuke was in danger and Naruto was stuck in orbit. At best he was alone or with Haku and hiding. Worst… …there were too many options. A loose cat claimed by a crew and used. Taken by kidnappers. Passed on from group to group as currency. Pulled apart by a mob. Killed because someone wanted the notoriety of killing the last Uchiha.

He could not even die for him. He had to be with him to die for him.


Shikamaru had been helping Shino monitor the media but the constant repetition of trivia had worn through his tolerance. He checked on Rin in the infirmary and found her doing unnecessary maintenance on one of the tanks. Ibiki was running security checks. People were taking refuge in routine tasks to distract them from frustration. If Sasuke were here he would be scrubbing something. There again, if Sasuke were here they would be gathered in the galley discussing one more near miss of many. Shikamaru wasn’t good at routine, for distraction purposes or otherwise. He reluctantly made his way to the crew room to find Iruka pacing in the galley, frantic about Naruto, who had been in the shower for eighty minutes.

“He won’t come out, Shika-kun,” Iruka told him. “He won’t open the door and he won’t answer me. I can hear the shower running.”

Shikamaru squeezed his arm. “You go to Kakashi. He needs you to be there for him.”

Iruka hesitated for a moment and then nodded.

Shikamaru didn’t try calling through the door; Naruto was even less likely to answer him than he was Iruka. A few minutes work and the lock yielded. He opened the door cautiously.

Naruto was standing with his hands braced against the opposite wall, head down, with the water pounding on the nape of his neck. Shikamaru swallowed. Naruto had changed hugely from the cute, compact fox-box who had bounced into their lives. Before him was a broad back, narrow hips and long, elegant limbs. Golden hair shone against tan skin: the lightest of sheens on his upper body but more pronounced on his legs and across the taut curves of his rump.

“Na-chan?” Shikamaru queried. “Naruto?” He stepped into the shower, reached forward, touched skin…

…and faced death. Slammed into the wall, pinned and with Naruto’s fangs on his neck.

Shikamaru felt the points breaking his skin before Naruto froze and inhaled. “Shi-chan?”

Naruto opened his jaws, pulled back his head and crashed into reality. Shikamaru’s skin was completely colourless, even his lips. Blood trickled from four puncture wounds on his neck. Naruto could smell the scent of fresh urine. He had nearly killed his best friend. He slowly released his hold and guided Shikamaru’s collapse to the floor. Naruto propped him against the wall and crouched facing him, a hand on his friend’s leg. He waited. Slowly a touch of colour returned to Shikamaru’s lips. His breathing settled.

“Na-chan,” he said, “turn off the shower.”

Naruto sprang to obey. When he returned to Shikamaru’s side, his friend was trying, but failing, to undo the fastenings of his clothes. Naruto’s hands hovered as his eyes begged permission. Shikamaru nodded. Naruto quickly and efficiently stripped off the wet clothes. Carefully, he washed the blood and piss from Shikamaru’s skin.

The sensation of the sponge on his skin and the warmth of the water helped. Shikamaru’s body was slowly coming back from a place he never wished to visit again, a place where his mind no longer worked because of the terror. He watched the enigma that was Naruto, so gentle and so violent, so caring and so lethal. This was his best friend. He refused to be frightened of his best friend. He lifted a hand, willing it not to tremble, and stroked the wet, fur-like, hair. Naruto paused and those amazing blue eyes looked at him, mutely thanking him.

Naruto felt a touch on his hair. He risked looking at his friend’s face and marvelled at Shikamaru’s confident affection. He had not lost his best friend. Shikamaru was awesome.

A quick trip to the closet yielded a suitably thick, fluffy robe. Naruto wrapped Shikamaru securely and then lifted him.

Shikamaru knew it would be better if he were walking. It would mean fewer questions. On the other hand, he doubted his legs would support him or that Naruto would agree that he should try. It proved to be scarily comforting to be held and carried by someone that strong; it was like being a child again. As he had many times, Shikamaru marvelled that anyone, even Sasuke, could cope with being Naruto’s lover.

They were lucky; the crew room was empty. Naruto helped Shikamaru climb into his bunk and then accepted his invitation to stay. He sat, cross-legged, at the end of the bunk and watched at his friend. The friend he had so nearly lost.

“Stop thinking, Na-chan,” Shikamaru advised.

Naruto stared at him with huge, child-like eyes. “I almost killed you.”

“I know, but you didn’t. You stopped. I should have known better than to come up behind you, ‘specially when you were in such a state.”

That reminded Naruto of Sasuke. Shikamaru watched him begin to crumble.

“Do you think so little of him?” Shikamaru demanded.

Naruto stiffened at the challenge in Shikamaru’s tone.

“He’s not some incapable child, Naruto. He’s intelligent, and tough, and one of the most highly trained adolescents in existence.”

Naruto knew that was true, but Sasuke was his mate. He needed to protect his mate. He tried to be more logical. Shikamaru was right, Sasuke would think his way out of the situation. He would use the resources available to him; resources like Haku. “I hope that Haku is with him,” he said.

Shikamaru sighed. Naruto needed to see past his over protectiveness and recognise Sasuke’s strength. As for Haku, “I am not sure I am with you on that, Na-chan,” he admitted.

“But Haku is streetwise, and Sasuke isn’t.”

Shikamaru pulled back. This was not the time to tell Naruto that Haku hated Sasuke. At least Sasuke knew Haku hated him, there was some comfort in that. “My money is on Sasuke, not Haku,” Shikamaru insisted. “Sasuke will bring them home.”

Naruto watched Shikamaru sleep. It hurt, because Shikamaru believed in Sasuke more than he did. It hurt, because he had almost killed his best friend. It hurt, because he should be watching Sasuke. It hurt, because this was the worst day of his life. It hurt, because he was here and Sasuke was there.