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.

45. The boy

The boy woke. Today was the day. He took a deep breath, calmed himself and began his training routine: forty-seven minutes of precise and measured movements followed by seventeen minutes of mediation and eleven minutes of prayer. In better times he would have followed with a hot shower and breakfast. Instead he cleaned himself as best he could and ate the second to last of the ration bars. He had kept back one set of good, clean clothes. He hung them ready and dressed in fatigues.

Then he visited with his mother, sitting by the tank, telling her about the day before and discussing the day to come.

“Today he will be here,” he reminded her. “I should have never doubted you.”

He had doubted. He had thought she had slipped into insanity that day they had watched the interview. He had seen how besotted she was by the dark haired Uchiha and his pet. To the boy they had looked too pretty and their words had been concerned with trivia. She had insisted on going to a library, recording a message tape and sending it. It was true that this Uchiha had power and wealth. He would have warriors who served him.

He had been sure she was lying when she said the Uchiha had responded. Even so, he had promised before she yielded to the tank’s soothing embrace. Once he had given his word he was committed to travelling towards Tarrasade. He knew they did not have the resources to arrive; the Snow Willow would become their coffin.

But the Uchiha had reached out to him. There had been a series of light speed messages. The Snow Willow’s fees for jumps were paid. Finally a Mulligan drive ship had been dispatched to collect him.

“I should have trusted you, Mother,” he admitted. “What I saw as weakness, you recognised as munificence. I am a knife. What does a knife understand of the man who yields it? It not the place of a knife to question. It is the place of the knife to remain sharp and not to snap. It is the place of the knife to cut and to stab.”

As the appointed time approached he dressed. He checked his collar. Each weapon was donned carefully.

They pressured the bay and he cycled the airlock. In the bay was a warrior with an artificial right eye and a non-fighter. They were dressed in uniforms similar to the ones the Uchiha and his pet had worn in the interview. The one with the artificial eye introduced himself as Asuma, the man who had been communicating with him. The other, who had strange pale eyes, was introduced as Neji. When Asuma had finished speaking he looked at him. The boy looked back. Asuma shook his head and signalled him to follow.


Sasuke had expected a lad like Konohamaru not this warrior boy carved from flint. Neji's fingers had been weaving warning signals as he and Asuma approached. Sasuke wondered if the boy could use all the weapons he carried; he gave the impression that he could. Naruto's tension was palpable.


The boy struggled to reconcile the pet on the couch with the spectacular warrior at the Uchiha’s side. If this was the standard of Sasuke Uchiha’s knives then he would be one. He thanked his mother and her judgement. He knelt in front of the Uchiha and spoke.

“I am Sumaru, son of Natsuhi and Hotarubi. I offer myself as one of Sasuke Uchiha’s knives.”


Sasuke’s mind raced. Any plans they had discussed were in tatters. He recalled the woman’s words, “He is not a monster…”. Even so, he was dangerous enough to raise the hairs on the nape of Sasuke’s neck and to have both Naruto and Neji on full alert. The boy’s gaze was unblinking, he was definitely predator rather than prey. Sasuke recognised that this was a moment for unfettered Uchiha arrogance.

“I am Sasuke Uchiha. I have promised your mother that I will consider your offer of service. You need to prove yourself worthy.” He looked down his nose at the boy. “I expect unquestioning obedience from those I am considering for service.”

He wondered if the boy could yield. For a horrible moment, Sasuke wondered if they would have to kill him. The boy considered and then spoke.

“I, Sumaru, son of Natsuhi and Hotarubi, give my word that I will obey Sasuke Uchiha while he considers whether to accept my service.”

Sasuke felt Naruto relax one small notch. He turned to the others. “Get a packing crate long enough to take that sword,” he ordered.


Asuma sent four of them out with instructions to return in five minutes. After about two, Terai returned with a suitably sized crate. Sasuke indicated that he should place it in front of the boy.

“All your weapons go into the crate,” he ordered.

As Sasuke had suspected, there were a lot of them. Not that he doubted that the boy could kill with his hands, but his body was still that of a child and that should limit what he could do.

“Close it up and place it at the side of the room,” he instructed. The boy obeyed. “No one will touch it other than you. It will be safe where it is until you are given a place to put it.”

Sasuke gestured Rin forward. “This is Rin. She is our medico. Do you require her services for yourself or for another?”

There was a flash of pain in the boy’s eyes. It was the first chink Sasuke had seen.

“Yes,” he admitted.


The Snow Willow was impossibly small: little more than a drive, a control room and a cabin. Sasuke and Naruto stood in the control room while Rin and the boy were in the cabin. Sasuke was acutely aware that the cabin contained both bunks and tank. Finally Rin came to the hatchway.

“The tank is keeping her from dying,” she said carefully. “I think it would be best to move the entire tank to the infirmary on the Oak. The move will need planning and careful implementation, so we should not attempt it today. Sumaru has given me permission to copy their medical records, which I will look through. I have persuaded Sumaru that he does not need to stay with his mother tonight.”

Sasuke hoped his eyes signalled the depth of his gratitude. “Thank you, Rin-san,” he said. Once Rin had left he called the boy to him.

“It would be best if you stayed with us on the Sakura tonight,” Sasuke told him, “but I will not order you to do so. You can stay here if you wish. However, if you stay here you will have to reseal the ship so that we can depressurise the bay.”

The boy looked through the hatchway into the cabin. “I will come with you to the Sakura,” he decided.

Sasuke nodded. “Bring anything you need with the exception of more weapons,” he instructed.


He took the boy directly to his office and asked Kakashi and Iruka to join them there in ten minutes. He sat at his desk with the boy seated on the far side. Naruto lurked.

“I do not know the code by which you live,” Sasuke began, “I realise it will be different from ours. I am going to give you some orders. Some may be unnecessary, but I do not know enough about you to know which are necessary and which are not.

“Firstly, no killing. That applies without exception. If killing must be done others will do it. Secondly, no attacking anyone unless it is during training. Even then, no maiming or major injury. If you are forced to defend yourself outside of training, which is unlikely, you will use the minimum force. The same applies if you are defending someone sworn to Uchiha or Asuma and Kurenai’s children, who are too young to be sworn. Thirdly, you will cause no physical harm to another or to yourself unless in training or in defence. Is all that clear?”

The boy nodded.

“The correct response is ‘Yes, Sasuke-sama.’,” Naruto told him.

“Yes, Sasuke-sama,” the boy repeated.

Sasuke noticed that he accepted the correction from Naruto without hesitation; that was hopeful.

“Next, you must not lie to me. You can refuse to answer but you must not lie. Do you accept that?”

This time the boy paused before saying, “Yes, Sasuke-sama.”

“Sumaru, how old are you?” Sasuke asked.

He looked away and Sasuke could tell he was considering refusing to answer. Then he decided. “I am twelve standards, Sasuke-sama.”

Sasuke found himself relieved. The boy was small for his age. It could have been worse. “Our age of consent for sexual interactions is fourteen standards. No such interactions for you. Is this a problem?”

The boy blinked. “No, Sasuke-sama.”

“Do you have any experience of this type?” Sasuke asked him.

He actually blushed. “No, Sasuke-sama.”

Sasuke was relieved; he had learnt from Naruto and from Haku that fucking children was distressingly common. “I am pleased to hear that, Sumaru, although not surprised. I am sure that your mother protected you when you were younger.”

The boy’s chin came up. “Before she became too sick, my mother was a great warrior. Both my mother and my father were great warriors.”

That was interesting. “Then it is good that you should wish to follow in their footsteps,” Sasuke acknowledged.


Naruto moved towards the door and Sasuke assumed he had heard Iruka and Kakashi approaching. “Being disrespectful to Iruka-sensei is unacceptable,” Naruto told the boy. “You give up your seat to him and if you do not know how to be polite you are silent.”

Sumaru was immediately on his feet and moving away from the chair. Sasuke was interested that Naruto felt it necessary to support Iruka. Perhaps the boy would struggle to obey anyone he did not see as alpha.

“Sumaru, this is Kakashi, who is captain of the Sakura, and Iruka, who is queen of my crew and who runs my household. Kakashi-san and Iruka-san stand in the place of my parents who died when I was a child. An order from one of them is an order from me. Is that clear, Sumaru?”

“Yes, Sasuke-sama,” the boy replied.

“Iruka-sensei, Sumaru is only twelve standards but there is no doubt in my mind that the crew room is the right place for him. Please make sure that everyone knows he is off limits.”


Sumaru quickly decided to think of Iruka as a woman. He was partnered with Kakashi, who was a warrior, and Sasuke-sama had said that he stood in the place of his mother. Once he started thinking of him as a woman Sumaru did not resent the enquiries about his health and the offers of assistance. It also helped him remember to be suitably polite. Sumaru imagined Naruto’s wrath if he was disrespectful; that also reminded him that being polite was important.

He was given a bunk with curtains around it and a locker. Iruka showed him the heads and the showers. The showers locked, so Sumaru decided that he could risk using one of them before the evening meal. He undressed and redressed in the shower, which was large enough to have one end that remained dry. Everything about the shower was satisfying. It was clean, the water was hot and there were blowers. He had not been so clean in a long time.

The evening meal was confusing but the food was good. The youngest one, Konohamaru, repeatedly tried to talk with him but Sumaru did not respond. Once the meal was over he chose to stay in his bunk. It was comfortable there and private.


Next morning he went looking for a place other than the crew room in which to train. Iruka was in the galley with Konohamaru. He stood in the doorway.

“Good morning, Sumaru-kun. Can I help you?” Iruka asked. “Do you want breakfast?”

“Good morning, Iruka-san. I must train before breakfast,” the boy replied.

Iruka responded by going into the crew room and waking Kakashi. Kakashi and Naruto, who appeared from nowhere, escorted Sumaru to a training room they called a gym. There they watched him train.

“This is how you start each morning?” Naruto asked when he was finished. Kakashi had left when he started meditating.

“Yes,” Sumaru answered him.

“Then you must rise earlier,” Naruto told him. “You cannot expect Iruka-sensei to extend breakfast to accommodate you.”


The boy, Naruto and Kakashi were absent when Sasuke awakened, showered and found his way to the galley.

“Sumaru-kun said that he must train before breakfast,” Iruka explained.

Rin appeared and sat down at the table. Iruka made no move to feed her, so Sasuke assumed that she had already eaten and was there to talk. Then Kakashi joined them.

“Naruto is with him,” he reassured Sasuke, accepting a cup of coffee from Iruka. “He does a fifty minute training routine every morning. Then he mediates. He was still meditating when I left.”

“There is something strange about their physiology,” Rin warned. “There are all the signs that they are from an isolated and limited gene pool, like Neji, but it is more than that. Their genomes are completely human but their blood shows evidence of non-human genes in their bodies, indicating the presence of another organism. It could be an infection or a parasite or a symbiote. Also, those collars they both wear contain technology. I would like to put him through a full medical examination, Sasuke-sama.”

“And I would like to test his combat limits,” Kakashi admitted. “From what I saw this morning, the sooner we know what we are dealing with the better.”

Sasuke looked to Iruka, who sighed. “I am just happy he obeys me and does not ignore me.” He frowned. “He is very polite to me.”

“Naruto told him to be polite to you,” Sasuke admitted. “He hesitates to obey anyone, even me. The exception is Naruto.”

Kakashi nodded. “Naruto is the best fighter among us. The boy will look to him.” He smiled slightly. “And he is Naruto.”

Sasuke considered. “Rin-san, concentrate on his mother today. I promise to order him to submit to a full medical within a handful of days. Kakashi-sensei, we must concentrate on inspecting the Oak this morning, but you can test him out this afternoon. I agree that we should know what he can do.”


They used the new gym on the Oak because it was large enough to accommodate everyone. Kakashi started the session with some sparring between the elite fighters.

Sasuke watched the boy. He was interested in the sparring but became almost animated when he realised that the older elite fighters could raise their performance to a higher level. He actually asked two questions.

“How do they do that? Why don’t they do it all the time?”

“The implant in the eye socket links to the nervous system,” Sasuke answered him. “Their bodies cannot stand the stress of using it constantly. Some of them suffer more from the side effects than others. Also, it is not necessary for them to function at that level the whole time and it is always good to have a surprise for one’s opponent.”

The boy nodded and went back to watching.

Then, to inaugurate the new gym, Kakashi allowed Naruto his favourite treat of fighting Hamaki, Terai and Fu. Sumaru was utterly fascinated. His skin was flushed with excitement. Sasuke realised how pretty he could be, almost a Haku level of prettiness.

“This is Naruto’s first level?” he asked.

“Naruto has no need for a second level,” Sasuke told him, “and I refuse to let him use any enhancements with side effects.”

The boy’s eyes were shining. His eyes were fixed on the fighting. “No, you love him too much for that,” he said.

Sasuke doubted that Sumaru even realised that he had voiced his thoughts.


Those fighting ended up in the traditional pile of bodies and laughter. Kakashi looked towards Sumaru. “Your turn, little knife,” he said.

The boy looked at Kakashi in surprise. He took off his boots and his outer clothing before walking into the centre of the space.

“I have two levels,” he admitted. “Like you with your artificial eye.”

Kakashi nodded. “We start with your unenhanced level,” he instructed.


The boy was good. Considering his size and the fact he had a boy’s strength rather than an adult’s, he was amazing. However, Kakashi dealt with him easily. Sumaru was nowhere near as good as Naruto had been that first time. His reflexes and speed were fast, but only humanly fast.

Kakashi signalled for him to stop. There was appreciative stomps and whistles from the other fighters. Sumaru looked pleased.

“Tell me about this enhancement,” Kakashi ordered him.

Sumaru pointed at his collar. “I activate this. It is like your implant.” His gaze dropped. “I cannot fully control it yet. I need more practice.”

Kakashi frowned. “Does it have side effects?” he asked.

The boy nodded. “But I can activate it for a set time,” he suggested. “Five minutes?”

“One minute,” Kakashi decided. “No longer.” He looked to Naruto, who nodded and readied himself.


Sumaru touched his collar. The radiation alarms blared and the hatches slammed shut. The boy transformed into blur that went straight for Naruto. He hit. Naruto went berserk, snarled, began a biting attack and was dropped by his controller. Kakashi dived towards the fray, followed by Asuma and then Gai, who had paused to activate his implant.

It was one of the longest minutes in Sasuke’s life. To Sumaru’s credit, he stopped attacking as soon as Naruto dropped, only to lose control completely when Kakashi and then Asuma hit him. He was winning when Gai tackled the boy and rolled away with him. That fight was remarkably equal.

Then it was over. The boy went still and boneless. The sirens stopped. Gai stood up and deactivated his implant. Kakashi went to the boy, who was already sitting up. Sasuke went to Naruto, who remained unconscious.

The boy looked across at Sasuke reproachfully. “You said he did not have a second level,” he complained. “You should have told me he was a berserker and, worse, that he has a controller that protects others and leaves him exposed. I could have hurt him.”

Sasuke stroked Naruto’s hair. It helped calm his jangling nerves. “You are right, Sumaru-kun,” he admitted. “I apologise.”

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