Iteration

‘Iteration’ is part of the space saga that began with ‘In the cold of space you find the heat of suns’ and continues in ‘Tales in Tarrasade’.

I would like to thank those who have left a review or sent an email (my email address is in my profile). I read all feedback very carefully and take it into account as the story moves forward. Feedback also makes it easier for me to keep writing – it makes you readers more real to me.

Thanks to Small Fox for being my beta. For this story he has also been my muse, suggesting a number of the ideas that have evolved to create this arc.

Apologies if the characters have grown differently in their new environment.

This is posted in the Naruto/Sasuke section because it is part of a Naru/Sasu/Naru space saga. However, it does feature many other pairings (and a few threesomes). Apologies to those who are expecting Naruto/Sasuke or Sasuke/Naruto every chapter.

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Chapter three: The Warren

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Konohamaru had been pleased when Inari had lost his cool and shouted. That was before he realised that Inari had intervened at the perfect time, when the argument had been escalating to a point where he and Tayuya were becoming nasty.

He sighed. Inari was a natural leader. He was Kakashi-san’s choice. As well as leading being his talent, Inari worked hard at it and he cared about the people for whom he was responsible.

It was time that Konohamaru accepted the inevitability of Inari leading and him following, as Tayuya had done.

Later that day, while they were eating, Konohamaru apologised for the lazy decision that had led to them putting the hydroponics in the laboratory and Tayuya followed up by explaining that she could have used the figures for individuals’ food consumption rather than the standard formula. Even Sumaru said that he should have pointed out the note before Kisame-san had put half the remaining vegetables in a stir-fry.

Konohamaru could see that Inari was wracking his brain for something to offer so that he could share the blame. He tensed. He waited for Inari to apologise for a mistake he had not made, perhaps for shouting, or for not realising that one of them was making an error, or for breaking the clothes cleaner when Konohamaru was almost certain it had been Itachi.

If he did any of those things, Konohamaru was going to want to strangle him.

Instead he raked his hair with his fingers in a gesture that was pure Inari and said, “I think we are going to make an awesome team.”

The use of one of Naruto’s favourite words made them all smile.


After they had cleaned and tidied the galley, they lay about in the shared area of the crew room. Sumaru was stretched out on the floor and Tayuya was sprawled on one of the couches. She looked good; even Konohamaru, who was decidedly male-only, could see that. He studied Inari, who was sitting on the couch opposite her, searching for some outward sign of the attraction he knew Inari felt for her. There was none.

He wanted to lie on the couch with his head in Inari’s lap. Given how ill-advised that would be, he considered presenting his feet and demanding a foot rub. Instead he sat just close enough to him that their knees touched. Inari smiled at him.

By the Lady, Inari was attractive when he smiled. Konohamaru found himself rethinking an old thought, that he was the luckiest of the four of them because he had three good-looking people to look when each of them only had two. Sumaru was downright gorgeous; Konohamaru might be tempted if he did not know what he was like.


Docking at the station was a challenge because they had never done it before for real. They occupied the three chairs in the control room; Inari as captain, Tayuya pilot and Konohamaru on communications. Their success left them on a high that continued as they prepared to walk the station.

Konohamaru took a few deep breaths, very aware that Itachi’s gaze would be on them. He did not think Itachi or Kisame-san would be impressed by overly bright, excited eyes.

Tayuya was making a good job of disguising her figure and had found a particularly unattractive hat with which to cover her hair. Konohamaru finished dressing, strapped on his knife and went to check on Sumaru.

Sumaru had, as usual, thrown on the first garments that came to hand. Like most of his clothes they were too small.

“You need to change,” Konohamaru told him. “Go find some of the new clothes Iruka-sensei had made for you,” he ordered.

Sumaru scowled at him.

Konohamaru decided it was time to try and get a few truths through Sumaru’s thick skull. “If you wear those pants every man we meet will want to fuck you.”

Sumaru flushed bright scarlet. He dashed off to find his baggiest clothes.


Kisame-san and Itachi looked them over and nodded approvingly. After they had exited the ship Kisame stood guard and Itachi watched over Inari’s shoulder as he secured the ship. Inari finished and turned to them.

“We walk,” he announced.

Konohamaru had to admit that Inari looked good. He played the captain’s role well. He, like Itachi, had dressed to draw eyes away Sumaru and Tayuya.

Kisame was suitably terrifying. Another crew would be insane to challenge them.


Once clear of the docks and out of spacer territory, Konohamaru saw that Shikamaru-san had been correct; there were a lot of hybrids. Some were close to purebred in appearance and, like Kiba, could only be recognised as hybrids by the way they moved. In contrast, many were more exotic than Kisame-san.

As always with hybrids, there were individuals who functioned and others who did not. Most of the high performing hybrids seemed to be serving purebreds as bodyguards or courtesans. Konohamaru guessed they were owned, like Kiba had been owned.

The less fortunate slunk about. He spotted some of them collecting and sorting rubbish. A few of them were begging. Down one of the alleys, Konohamaru spotted a group of feral children, most of whom were oddly formed or moved strangely.

“The laboratory has to be on the station,” Inari observed. “No one would pay for low functioning hybrids to be imported.”

“Some of the purebreds and a few of the hybrids are wearing blue ribbons,” Tayuya pointed out. “But they are integrated into their clothes so they are less noticeable, as if they don’t want them to be too obvious.”

Konohamaru watched for a while and saw what she meant. One catwoman had a blue ribbon around her neck. The man who walked with her on his arm had blue buttons that did not match his waistcoat. Some of the couriers, who dashed though the corridors on roller skates, had a blue ribbon edging on their company badges.


They came across a market and paused to look over some of the stalls. Kisame bought a doll. Konohamaru noticed how the stallholder glanced at Itachi, almost as if expecting confirmation that the transaction was permitted.


Inari decided that they could risk visiting a bar that had a ‘spacers welcome’ sign displayed. It was morning, so very quiet, and they had no problem occupying the strategically best-placed table. Inari ordered a pitcher of a fruity non-alcoholic drink and a platter of the local tasties.

They had been nibbling tasties and watching the locals go by for about fifteen minutes when three men entered. Each wore a similar jacket bearing the same badge. The trio approached their table.

“Have you got a permit for that?” the shortest asked, nodding towards Kisame.

Konohamaru tensed. He half expected Itachi to slice open the man’s throat.

Inari looked through the man rather than at him. “We are a visiting spacer crew,” he stated.

The man and his two companions puffed themselves up and tried to look threatening. “All hybrids need a permit,” he insisted.

Inari focused on him as if seeing him for the first time. “We are a visiting spacer crew. I strongly recommend that you go away.”

The man, who obviously had poor survival instincts, sniffed. He took a tablet from his belt. “What are your ship and your allegiance, if any?” he asked.

“The Silver Leaf,” Inari answered. Konohamaru saw him lift a finger.

Itachi leaned forward slightly. “Uchiha,” he added. His voice dripped with menace.

Then Kisame smiled at them and they left, quickly.


Once they had gone the bartender brought them another pitcher and platter.

“We did not order another,” Inari pointed out.

“On the house,” he replied. “You really Uchiha?”

Inari nodded.

The man turned the lapel of his jacket, revealing a scrap of blue ribbon pinned underneath. Inari gestured towards an unoccupied chair.

The bartender glanced towards the window and shook his head. He wiped their table and then the one next to theirs. “You ever speak to Naruto-san?” he asked.

Inari nodded again.

“You tell him that if there was ever a place that needed his attention it’s the Warren. We used to be good people. No one cared if someone was purebred or hybrid. We only cared if they were decent. Then the old hybrid engineer died and his daughter, she’s got no standards. Now we have squads of thugs beating hybrid children to death like vermin and no one stops them.”

“I shall give him your message,” Inari promised him.

“Good,” the bartender acknowledged. “You take care. There are dozens of squads like that one.”

“We go back to the ship,” Inari decided once the bartender had moved away. “Once we are there we will re-evaluate the situation.”


They moved at their usual pace; moving too fast or too slow attracted attention.

“We are being followed,” Itachi told them within a few minutes of leaving the bar.

“We keep moving,” Inari ordered.

Then, out of nowhere, a little girl with whiskers ran up to Kisame. He stopped. Konohamaru heard Itachi curse and Inari swear but Inari signalled that they should halt.

The child thrust a battered object towards Kisame. “For Naruto-san,” she told him.

Kisame took the gift and looked at it as if expecting it to explode. They watched the child vanish down a side corridor.

“Move!” Inari ordered.


By the time they crossed the boundary into spacer territory Konohamaru’s nerves were jangling and he was jumping at everything. He wondered if Inari and Tayuya felt the same.

“That was bizarre,” Itachi observed.

Kisame looked at the object, which appeared to have started life as a spoon and then served as a doll. “How did she know we were Uchiha?” he asked.

“We told the official and the bartender,” Inari reminded them. “The bartender was pro-hybrid. Perhaps the child is his. Maybe she followed us from the bar.”

Itachi frowned. “It is amazing that Naruto-san making that one short appeal on behalf of the HDL could have had such an effect and in such a short time. We are way out in the Far Fringe here. Imagine if this is being repeated across known space.”

“The place for these discussions is back at the ship, not here,” Kisame reminded them, tucking the spoon doll into his jacket.

Konohamaru looked about. The corridors here were almost deserted, in contrast to those beyond the boundary. There was the odd group of stevedores and the occasional cleaner but they had yet to see another crew. The station followed standards ship’s time and it was still morning. Few spacer crews were active in the mornings.

Inari nodded. “To the ship,” he agreed.


The other crew were loitering at the junction between the corridor and the spur to their ship. It was only when Kisame and Itachi stiffened that Konohamaru realised that it was the traditional location for a challenge. Inari slowed, signalling that they should halt.

There were many of them, eight adults and a youngster. The youngster was tethered by a collar and leash to one of the men. Konohamaru bristled; that was not how a decent crew treated their cat. He studied the lad; he was small and thin with a bruised face and a swollen bottom lip.

One of the men stepped out into the corridor. The others formed up behind him. The one holding the leash yanked it harshly and the cat was dragged into position.

“We, the crew of the Hellion, challenge for your cat,” the leader announced.

Konohamaru imagined giving them Sumaru and what would happen once Sumaru activated his symbiote. They would have the shock of their suddenly brief lives.


Inari sighed but proceeded with the inevitable. “We are the crew of the Silver Leaf. I am Inari, the captain. Our spokesperson is Itachi. Our champion is Kisame.”

“Our names are immaterial,” the man replied. “We need a new cat. Ours is wearing out. Our champion will beat yours. Hybrids look scary but they are lumbering monsters with little skill.”

Konohamaru wondered if they were addicts. That might explain their stupidity if not their ignorance. Kisame was, without doubt, the most famous spacer fighter in known space. The fact that none of the other crew had recognised his name made Konohamaru realise how far out into the Fringe they were.

Itachi stepped forward. “I am Itachi, spokesperson for the Silver Leaf. We demand to see your reparations.”

The captain took the leash from the man holding it and dragged the boy forward. “Our cat. There may be some use left in him but we prefer the look of yours.”

“And your champion?” Itachi queried.

A tall, well-muscled, athletic man stepped forward. He drew a knife for each hand and he looked as if he knew how to use them.


The fight lasted only seconds. There was a blur, the sound of the man’s spine snapping and then Kisame punched one of the man’s own knives through his eye socket deep into his brain. He dropped the body onto the floor.


There was silence.

“We will take our reparations,” Itachi reminded them. He walked forward and held out his hand for the leash.

One of the others moved.

“I wouldn’t,” Itachi warned him without taking his eyes off the leader. “Not if any of you wish to live out this day.”

The leader handed over the leash. Itachi waited for him to step back and then gripped the youngster’s elbow to guide him back to the others.

Konohamaru saw the lad flinch as Itachi touched him.

They waited for the other crew to pick up the body and move away before completing their journey.


Neither the lad nor the spoon set off the alarms when swept by the scanners in the airlock, which was a good start. Once inside, Inari gestured that they should all go into the closest available space, which was Itachi and Kisame’s gym. The lad stood, the end of the leash hanging down and just resting on the floor. Inari stood in front of him, about four paces away. Everyone else fanned out.

“We are the crew of the Silver Leaf,” Inari began. “I am Inari. These are Konohamaru, Tayuya and Sumaru, Itachi and Kisame. What is your name?”

The lad blinked slowly. Konohamaru wondered if he was in shock. “I am Ranmaru,” he admitted.

“Tayuya and Konohamaru are going to take you to the infirmary,” Inari told him. “They are going to put you in a tank. Do you know what a tank is?”

The lad, Ranmaru, nodded.

“The tank has a dia-doc,” Inari explained. “It will work out where you are hurt and start your body healing. When you wake up you will feel better. We will talk more then.” He paused. “May I take the leash off the collar?” he asked.

Ranmaru considered and then nodded.

Inari walked towards the lad, who looked as if he had to force himself to stand still rather than fleeing. Konohamaru watched as Inari unclipped the leash from the collar.

“May I take off the collar?” he asked.

“It doesn’t come off,” Ranmaru told him.

Inari stepped back. “Tayuya will cut it off in the infirmary,” he assured him. “Sumaru will show you the way.”

Sumaru started out the door and Ranmaru followed. Inari took the opportunity to snatch a few words with Tayuya and Konohamaru.

“Get what information you can but don’t push too hard,” he told them. “Use your eyes. Once he is under, I want a full report. Keep Sumaru in the room, just in case.”

Konohamaru nodded. It was right for Inari to be cautious. Even so, he couldn’t imagine Ranmaru being a danger to anyone.


They soon caught up, Ranmaru was climbing the ladder very slowly. Sumaru kept disappearing and then coming back, checking where he had got to.

“It isn’t far,” Konohamaru assured him. “Just that next level up.”

He did not know if what he said helped or not, but the lad climbed a little less slowly.

Konohamaru wondered what Inari was saying to Kisame-san and Itachi.


They finally made it into the infirmary. Konohamaru decided to give Ranmaru a choice. He knew that offering people a choice was a way of making them feel as if they had some control over their lives. Ranmaru struck him as someone who did not get to make many, if any, decisions for himself.

“We can give you a hypospray,” he began. “It will make you sleep. We would then put you in the tank. Or you can take off your clothes and climb into the tank and then we will give you the hypospray. Which would you prefer?”

There was silence. Konohamaru hoped that Ranmaru was thinking. He did not look like he was thinking. He looked like he was about to keel over.

“Hypospray now, please,” the lad whispered.

Konohamaru watched Tayuya preparing the hypospray and guessing the dose. He hoped she would give too much rather than too little because what mattered now was knocking Ranmaru out quickly; the tank would deal with any excess.

She stepped towards him and Konohamaru watched Ranmaru flinch. It was a pattern. He flinched whenever anyone came close to him. Tayuya smiled apologetically and reached forward to press the hypospray against his neck.

Konohamaru caught him as he crumpled.


They lay Ranmaru on the examination bed. Tayuya fingered the collar, it seemed to be thick leather, and began searching through the drawers for a tool with which to cut it. Konohamaru studied the lad’s face. There was a multicoloured bruise across one cheekbone and his bottom lip had been split. One eye socket was yellow; the aftermath of a black eye.

“Be useful,” Tayuya told him. “Start taking off his clothes.”

It was, as Konohamaru had feared, horrific. There were the bruises left by men’s fingers and thumbs. It was too easy to imagine cruelly strong hands grasping his hips and shoulders. Across his back, rump and thighs there were welts left by a belt or strap.

Tayuya finally managed to saw through the collar. Pulling it away exposed a ring of scabs, bruises and sores. She sighed.

“Put him on his front, Kono-kun,” she said in a sad, knowing voice that Konohamaru had never heard her use before.

He watched, transfixed, as she moved his thighs apart and then spread his buttocks with gentle hands to expose his battered, bruised and torn anus.

“Find a rectal regenerator,” she ordered, “and some lube.”


Once they were done, and the youngster was safe in the embrace of the tank’s green gel, Tayuya turned to him. Her eyes smouldered with rage.

“We should have killed every one of them,” she hissed. “Even that would have been generous. Death is too good for them.”

Konohamaru did not know what he thought or how he felt. He found himself ashamed of his upbringing; so protected and privileged. He had moved smoothly from his grandfather’s household into Sasuke’s crew, always surrounded by men who would kill anyone who even threatened to mistreat him. He had no great talent to offer, like Shikamaru, nor experience of the outside world, like Haku. He had not even needed a refuge and a family. He was Uchiha because Sasuke had owed his grandfather.

He imagined being Ranmaru and shuddered.

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