Project Logos

Project Logos

Part 1, Chapter 3

A/N: Thank you to justdancing, Mikinyet, and Dragon for reviewing, they put me in a good mood, and motivated me to actually go through the trouble of posting up here again. as always, reviewing makes a happy author, and a happy author updates faster, but i was in an especially bad mood last time, and now i feel better. Thanks Guys! ^.^


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Shika was working on rebuilding a communicator set in one of the basement rooms. He liked the basement rooms more, they were cool and dark, and there were no windows, no one to distract him from his task. The pieces to the communicator were strewn across the table in front of him, little pieces of metal and plastic mixed with small micro computer chips and little screws.

He was rather enjoying the near silence, the slight rumble of the building's generators like white noise in his ears, as he hummed softly to himself. It was a tune his mother used to sing to him as she rocked him to sleep, and it always calmed him down, though he would deny it wholeheartedly if anyone brought it up. Luckily no one else was there to hear him.

His quiet little world was infiltrated then, by a rather insistent and loud knock on the door. He sighed, putting down the micro welder he had in his hand, and pushing away the little bits spread before him. He said a silent prayer that it wasn't Sakura at the door. She could talk forever, and not once really convey any important information to him.

When the door whirred open though, it was neither of them. It was a rather breathless Lee, looking grim but still altogether too pleased with himself. Shika got worried then, Lee never came down here unless he needed something, and Lee wasn't one who needed things often, as self sufficient as he tried to be. Shika gave him a questioning look, standing from the stool he'd been perched on.

"There was some hoodlum trying to break in the first level windows of the building. I have subdued him, but I think you might want to take a look, see what he wanted when he wakes up." Shika's face wrinkled up in slight confusion. Why would anyone be trying to break in here. There wasn't anything of value, especially not on the first level. No one was stupid enough to put valuable things on the first level anyways.

Lee turned to leave, still spouting details of the encounter, but Shika wasn't listening, he was calculating in his head. He couldn't think of a reason anyone would want to break into their building. They had proximity alarms set up for the back window and all of the first level, because no one really went down there much. Mostly it was a storage place: records, hydroponic supplies, raw materials. Nothing that was worth much to the average person.

He shook his head as they stepped into the stairwell, it was probably just some desperate kid, strung out on street drugs and looking for something, anything, he could move for his next hit. But there was also a possibility, lurking in the back of Shika's mind, that there were other possibilities, that maybe they'd been found, and that would make this person someone important, to them at least, especially in light of their latest hit.

It was still probably just a hired kid, but there was always the possibility that it would be someone or something else, and that made it 10 times as dangerous, for both of them.

X

Naruto was having the time of his life. He'd discovered how to work the doors this morning, when Sakura left, and all three of the girls had been quite amused at his initial glee. In the lab, all of the doors had been locked, and they hadn't really ever been allowed out except for when they were needed in another lab for some sort of test. Sakura had told him that the two of them could go anywhere they wanted, they weren't prisoners or anything, but had also advised the two of them that leaving the building probably wasn't the best idea, they wouldn't exactly blend into a crowd very well.

Gaara had nodded solemnly in the corner, and Naruto had promised he wouldn't go outside. He did spend the rest of the morning exploring the rest of the building, at least the second level floor of it. He'd found the kitchen somewhere around lunch time, mostly by the delicious smells wafting from it, and had sat there with the girls, Hinata scratching behind his ear just the way he liked.

He'd told them about the lab, answered their questions about the tests and the like, about the layout as well. He didn't know enough about the people who worked there for the team to figure out who they were, mostly just first names and a couple of lab titles. It wasn't much to go on, but it was something.

X

Shika raised an eyebrow. His head was starting to hurt now. He glanced at Lee, then at the unconscious body spread out on a bench in one of the only rooms in the building that locked from the outside. He started at the boy, his breathing shallow but steady, before his gaze flitted back to Lee. He gave an exasperated sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose between two fingers.

"And you don't know who he is?" His voice was laden with sarcasm, but it seemed to be lost on his companion, who just solemnly shook his head, arms still crossed in front of him. Shika sighed for what seemed to him to be the millionth time that day.

"Lee, this is Sasuke Uchiha. He's the second in line to head the Uchiha corporations when Fugaku steps down, a fleet of corporations that includes Logos." Lee looked at him blankly for a second. Then the boy's round eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open. Shika massaged his temples with one of his hands, using the other to lean on the wall. "Yes, now you understand why he might have been trying to break in here.

"We have to figure out how much he knows, and who sent him here. For now, I'd put up some extra security precautions if I were you, just to be safe. I'd say there's a pretty good chance he wasn't sent here by the company, why would they send one of the two Uchiha heirs on a little mission like this, where the possibility of danger would be quite high? That wouldn't make sense. I would also bet they probably don't have the information for our whereabouts themselves either, they would have either stopped the Uchiha brat or taken us out by now..."

Shika rambled on, mostly mumbling to himself, thinking out loud, but Lee still listened intently. Well, he looked like he was listening intently at least, really he was halfway paying attention, halfway looking over the prone form on the bench. He noticed it when he looked: the pale skin against the dark hair, the delicate bone structure, the weight of the shoulders, it was all familiar in a forgettably aristocratic kind of way, like he'd seen it many many times in passing, but never very much.

His attention snapped back to Shika when the boy sprung from the wall, heading back towards his workshop. Lee shrugged, setting the keypad on the door to let people in, but require a key card to get back out, and headed off the the basement once again, intent on tightening their security, just in case.

X

Sasuke's head was pounding when he came to, and he groaned as he slowly felt every ache in his body spring to life. There was an oddly comfortably warm sensation though, something soft and wet and hot on the back of his neck, stroking the aching flesh their lightly, easing the pain a little. He relaxed into it, trying to remember where he was and why he hurt so much.

His eyes sprang open when it came back to him. He remembered following Neji, going down to the lower levels, finding the building, and he cursed himself for his own shortsightedness, for his actions then. He should have waited, should have gone to Logos and gotten backup, told Itachi what he knew. Sasuke sighed.

The warm sensation paused a second, before returning. Sasuke whipped his head around, and came face to face with wide, clear blue eyes. He felt his heart skip a little, skittering like sparks from a fire for a single moment before he recovered. The golden ears took a little longer, and he couldn't form any words, couldn't make his mouth work. The boy staring down at him cocked his head to the side, looking a little lost in thought.

"You look a lot like Ita-nissan." The boy broke out into a smile then, a smile so wide his eyes fell closed. He kept it up for awhile then, and Sasuke's brain was slow to process this new information, too caught up in the dazzling smile. Then it hit him.

"Wait, do you mean Itachi? How do you know Itachi?" The blond boy was still smiling.

"Ita-ni was in charge of us, it the lab. He always took care of us, even if it sometimes hurt..." The blond boy's smile faltered a little bit there, and it distracted Sasuke again, watching the way the grin shrunk a little, the way something else crept into the boy's eyes. He shook his head for a second, trying to clear it and think, he knew this was important.

"Wait? So you're from the lab? Did you help those people break in?" The blonde shook his head a little, his smile sad then.

"No, no. They found us when we were inside, and let us out. Ita-ni never let us out, and it's nice out here. Gaara says we can go somewhere else in a couple days, but I don't want Ita-ni to worry about us. Will you tell him we're okay ... if you ever see him." Sasuke started at this. Was this boy one of the things his brother had done down there in the labs? Sasuke's mind warred back and forth, bouncing between pride that his brother had made something like this, something so beautiful and such a seemingly smooth fusion, and an aghast sense of indignation that his brother would do something like this in the first place. It was a little too close to playing god for Sasuke's taste.

Still, there was that little jump of hope in his heart that this was what his brother was looking for, if Sasuke were to bring this boy back, Itachi would be thrilled. Itachi would have to respect him then. He smiled at the thought. Still, something inside of him hurt a little, he'd seen the hollowness that the mention of the labs brought to him.

Still, in his mind Itachi came first, he had to, Itachi was blood and that was thicker than anything the blond might have.

Sasuke's thoughts were interrupted by the swish of the door opening, and Sasuke's head whipped around to face the sound. He saw a red headed boy, much like the blond one on top of him now, only he wasn't as captivating. In fact, the glare he shot Sasuke right then made him wish he never had to see this boy again. The red head didn't spare much time for Sasuke though, turning to the other boy almost immediately.

"Naruto, they're looking for you upstairs. It's almost time for some food, and they want to discuss out future." The blond boy, who now had a name in Sasuke's mind, smiled at the other boy widely. He sprang off of Sasuke, heading to the open door without a backwards glance. He stilled halfway through the doorway though, looking back once, with a broad smile, and waving to Sasuke. The dark haired boy could feel his heart skip at that. He was frozen to the spot by the red head's glare again then, he shivered slightly at it's intensity.

"You're an Uchiha." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Sasuke still nodded though, watching the red head get closer and closer. "Does anyone know you're here?" Sasuke shook his head, his first impulse was to tell the truth, as he somehow got the distinct impression that it might save him from being beaten within an inch of his life. His eyes widened when the possible implications of this set in though, and he tried to scuttled backwards, falling from the bench he had been laying on. The red head smiled.

"I won't hurt you, little Uchiha, if you promise me not to reveal our current location. I can't go back to the labs, and I will not have anyone dragging Naruto back either, poor boy is far too trusting. Besides, I've grown rather ... close with the kid." The red head's smile was a little leering then, and it made Sasuke want to punch him, and shiver once again at the same time. Thanks to the late arrival of his Uchiha pride he did neither, he merely collected himself from the ground and returned to his bench, sitting this time. He nodded, calculating in his head the probability that this fierce looking boy would actually let him go.

The red head just turned away though, walking self satisfactorily out of the room, pushing the door close button on his way by. Sasuke sprung up then to follow him, but found it locked.

X

It was pitch black and dead night before Sasuke saw another human again. It was Shika this time, hair pulled out of his face in the usual tight ponytail. The boy looked grim, and was holding a small display unit in his hand. Sasuke had been asleep, he was wakened by the noise of the door, and was trying his best to look at this new visitor with a detached disinterest, instead of the sad puppy look he'd been wearing earlier. Shika just grunted, walking close to the boy, and pushing the display in his face.

"Can you show me, on this map, where we are right now?" Sasuke stared blankly at a map of the city on the screen. He'd never been good with maps, he navigated better by landmarks and an innate sense of direction. He shook his head.

"How did you get here?" Sasuke paused, looking up at him in a rather resigned manner now. He figured it wouldn't hurt to tell the truth.

"I followed the Hyuuga." Shika raised an eyebrow at that. Shaking his head slightly, he took a couple steps back. He turned for a second, when he'd reached the door, pulling a key card from his pocket.

"We'll let you go in the morning, but we're going to have to take some precautions. We can't have you going home and telling your brother where we are after all. That would greatly handicap our organization." He turned back then, opening the door and stepping out. "Goodnight I guess."

And before Sasuke could say anything to that, the boy was gone and he was alone once more.

X

Naruto happily munched on a plate of steamed buns in one corner of the little kitchen. He was seated on the floor, back against the wall, with the plate set between his outstretched, spread legs. He still didn't quite have the hang of sitting at tables, granted he could do it, but it was uncomfortably new to him still. In the labs he hadn't had any tables, and he only sat in chairs when they were doing some special test on him, and those usually hurt. So he sat on the floor.

Gaara watched him from across the room, sitting at the table with a rather perturbed Shika, having a hushed conversation. Gaara answered every question the boy had about the labs, everything he could remember, everything he'd figured out. There was a lot more there than what Naruto had told them, most of it conjecture on Gaara's part, but conjecture that Shika couldn't disprove really.

Hinata sat across from them, supposedly listening, and fiddling with the chopsticks in her hands, and darting glances at the adorable blond on the floor. He had wondered into the kitchen about an hour ago, and started poking around. Hinata had asked if he was hungry and he'd just beamed at her, with that wide hypnotic smile, and she'd offered to make him buns.

She'd managed to find a can of anko all the way at the back of one of the cupboards, and she'd made do, mixing the flour and water, setting up the steamer, and in about 45 minutes she'd had a tray of steamed buns, each one small and white and spongy, almost perfectly symmetrical in form.

And now she watched, in small glimpses, those buns disappearing into the delightfully cute little mouth of the blond across the room, watching as a little dollop of the deep red filling ran down the boy's tan chin, threatening to fall to the floor until he wiped it away with the back of his hand, oblivious to his little audience. It was Shika's voice that pulled her back to the conversation, and she flew around, blushing deeply at being caught. The way Shika shook his head knowingly, and the predatory smirk that shown in Gaara's eyes didn't help the matter.

"As I was saying-" Shika didn't bother to hide the hint of annoyance creeping into his voice, which Hinata noted glumly, "-We have discussed the matter at length, and decided it's probably best that the boys here stay on for a little while, until they can make other arrangements. We'll be letting the Uchiha go tomorrow at dawn though, I don't think he could get back here on his own, I think we'll be safe but just in case we should keep up the extra security and you two-" He sent a meaningful look to Gaara, who met his eyes calmly, but with an undercurrent of defensive hostility still, "- should lay low, probably stay away from the windows. If anything should go wrong, we have four different exits, and we can evacuate the team, and you two, in five minutes tops. We have other organizations locally that would provide us with a place to go."

They both nodded then, and Shika got up with a grunt, pushing back his chair and heading for the door. He turned when he reached it, letting his eyes rest on each person in the room in turn.

"I trust you can all find your way to bed on your own?" They nodded, and he left, muttering under his breath about the tiresome nature of their situation.

X

Sasuke was woken with a start the next morning, much earlier than he would have liked, but there wasn't much he could do about it. The figures that entered his room were wearing black, all tightly fitting and smooth, easy to move in he noted, exactly like in the pictures. There were two guys and two girls, from what he could tell, and he was about to question what they were doing here, and if he could go home yet when he felt the sharp burn of something on his neck, his arm reflexively moving to clutch at the sudden pain, but his world snapped to darkness before his hand reached it's target

X

When Sasuke woke up again, he was in a taxi, the boy who had come to him yesterday seated beside him. His head was pounding, and there was a sore spot on his neck. He rubbed it, wincing in the pain this caused, and letting his hand fall to his lap again. He looked out at the buildings flying past, the sunlight slipping between them strobing in his face and causing his headache to worsen. He resolved to take an aspirin or two when he reached wherever the hell they were going.

The taxi slowed to a stop, and he opened his eyes, that had squinted shut against the sun somewhere before. He recognized the building they were in front of immediately, the shining planes of the logos building reflecting the bright sunlight into his eyes, causing him to wince again. He looked over at the boy expectantly, and Shika nodded. He stepped shakily from the cab and turned away from it, faintly registering the hiss and squeak of ancient hydraulics as the door slid shut behind him.

The cab sped off behind him and he didn't bother to turn back around. He just wanted to get inside the building, talk to Itachi, tell him what he had seen, as much as he remembered. He doubted he could find his way back to the little base of operations he'd been in, but he could describe the building pretty well, and the general area it was in, not too far from the base of Logos really.

He felt a smile slip onto his face as he neared the shining glass doors of the building on the wide concrete pedestrian thoroughfare. He looked down at the city beneath him as he walked, one hand sliding along the smooth metal surface of the safety rail, painted a dull black. It was warming under the morning sun. He looked at the display on his watch, the numbers flashing 8:27. He snorted slightly, knowing Itachi probably wouldn't be in yet, but with recent events he just might be.

It was a bitter voice in his head that whispered that his brother was probably more worried over the disappearance of his beloved little experiments than he would be over Sasuke's own little episode. He wanted to hate those two boys, they seemed to be the only thing Itachi paid attention to. The memory of blue eyes and a wide, contagious smile burned through that though, leaving him with only a smoldering resentment and little flecks of jealous awe. He wasn't too sure now though exactly who it was he was jealous of.

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A/N: so, Good? Bad? Ugly? Read, Review, and Let Me Know!! ^.^