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’. There is also a one-shot ‘Silver Leaf Tales: Tying the knot’.

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.

Thank you to those readers who have written a review and particular thanks to randrinawilson, The Horseman of Death, v, Prism0467, meow-ku,, jalana, kanazerosukenaru, sadie237, gingitsune, cynaga and richon who reviewed chapter 49.

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 fifty: Acquiescence

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As soon as Sasuke set the Dart’s colours to parley the static fell away.

“We acknowledge your request for parley,” the harsh voice stated. “We are terminating operations on the planetary surface. Warn your people to distance themselves from our fighters and our flyers. Order your ships not to fire on us or attempt to board. Use open channels and unencrypted communications. If you deviate from this, we will kill a child.”

Sasuke ensured they were recording all incoming data, selected a frequency and opened a channel. “This is Sasuke. We are in parley. I repeat, we are in parley. Move away from the enemy fighters and the enemy flyers on the ground. This is a direct order. It is urgent. Ensure that those without radios also move away. Do not fire on the enemy. Do not attempt to board enemy ships. I repeat, we are in parley.”

The enemy did not wait for anyone to acknowledge the order; the static was back.


Sasuke began analysing the data he had collected. He relayed the results to Naruto’s station. Naruto was silent; Sasuke knew he strongly disagreed with the decision to parley.

An enemy ship was in orbit. Of the five flyers at Shikamaru’s position, four were still at the location and one was heading towards their ship. The pair of flyers that had come from Shino and Anko’s position was midway between the surface and the ship.

As he watched one of the pair exploded.

Sasuke heard himself moan. That flyer could contain Yasushi or Yoshimi. He did not think it did, but it could.

He understood the message; they were suicide kidnappers, as those in Tarrasade had been suicide assassins.


As well as the observational data, there were reports from members of the crew that had been transmitted during the gap in the interference.

Asuma was taking the Oak to block the only hole in the system that a ship without an improver could use. Kakashi was commanding the Sakura with a skeleton crew that included Hamaki, Terai and Fu. Both ships were now displaying colours to indicate parley.

There were messages from those on the ground with radios. Some were more coherent than others, but it was obvious that all the groups with children were under attack.

There was nothing from Anko or Neji.

He shut his eyes and begged Lady Luck that Shino, Anko and Neji were alive. It looked as if he had been correct; Yasushi, Yoshimi, Kazuki and Haru had been taken. The extra flyers at Shikamaru’s position indicated that he had been their primary target.

He did not wipe away the tears that ran down his cheeks. They had been so very careless.

He set the parley colours to flash, signalling a request for detailed negotiations.


The static ceased. The voice was back. “We have ceased operations on the surface. None of your ships will land. You are free to use your flyers within the planetary atmosphere to gather your people together and dispense medical aid. If a flyer attempts to leave the atmosphere a child will be killed. No more ships will undock from your mother ship. Your mother ship and the other ship, the Sakura, will not fire on our ship or flyers, or attempt to board us, or leave the system, or block our communications. If you do any of these things a child will be killed. The next communication will be in between three hundred minutes and five hundred minutes time. You have thirty seconds to issue orders.”

Sasuke took a deep breath. “This is Sasuke. Muster on secondary frequencies. Signal on emergency frequency if you are in need of medical assistance. Gai, send flyers to each of the sites and assemble at the designated location. Anko’s and Neji’s locations are priorities. Only attack the enemy to defend. Flyers are not to leave the atmosphere. Sakura, come into orbit. Oak, continue to the useable hole. Operate within the parameters the enemy had set. These are my orders.”


He flipped off the transmitter as the static recommenced and set a course away from the planet. “Naruto, please check the muster,” he said and then began analysing first the data he had collected and then any messages crew members had sent. As before, he relayed the results of the analysis to Naruto’s display.

“Shino, Anko, Neji, Shikamaru, Haru, Kazuki, Yoshimi and Yasushi are not reported as present. All others are accounted for,” Naruto told him.

So Kuuya, Keizo, Hikaru, Ryuu, Hoshi and Yuki were safe; it should have been a relief but it did not mitigate Sasuke’s sick feeling of dread.

“That wasn’t a negotiation, teme,” Naruto complained. “You are just doing what they are telling you.”

“For now,” Sasuke admitted. “My father would have considered anyone captured already dead. He would have destroyed their ship and every one of their flyers.”

Naruto flinched.

“They are like him. They blew up a flyer and its crew just to drive home the point that they will kill the children. They will destroy all their flyers and all their men who have not yet left the surface just to protect against the possibility that we will use them as a cover to approach their ship. We are not like that, Naruto. Yes, it makes us vulnerable. Even so, it is what makes us what we are,” Sasuke reminded him.

Naruto was stubbornly silent. He refused to look in Sasuke’s direction.

“This way we may get some of the children back,” Sasuke suggested. “True, they will have Shikamaru but they want him alive, not dead or incapacitated.” He took a deep breath. “I think they will keep Haru so that they have a way of forcing Shika to work for them.”

Naruto turned and snarled at him. Sasuke looked him in the eye and refused to cower. Then Naruto was out of his seat and had disappeared down the ladder.

Sasuke listened to the growling and howling while he wept.

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Shikamaru moved slowly and smoothly. Nothing about his behaviour would suggest he was a threat. He did not resist as they pushed him into the flyer. He stood still while they unbound him and sat him in the chair. He did not resist as they fastened his wrists to the armrests.

Inside, part of his mind observed, analysed and synthesised. Another section planned on how to pass information to Sasuke when they required him to record a message or, more challenging, talk over the radio. A third went over and over the possibilities that did not lead to Haru and Kazuki being kidnapped; the outcomes that did not include Neji being dead.

The flyer was not attacked. That implied that the kidnappers had some of the children or that Sasuke believed they did.

There was something odd about the fighters; Shikamaru wished he was a fraction as skilled as Neji at observing human behaviour.


They docked with a spacecraft in less than three hundred minutes. Shikamaru guessed it had been hiding on one of the moons while the flyers had to have been on the planet’s surface.

Had they know they were coming? If so, how? If not, how long had they been waiting for them?

He was released from the chair and his hands were rebound behind his back. Then he was escorted from the ship.

There were more fighters in the docking bay.

One piece of the puzzle clicked; they were clones. There were only six different people, all male, but they were repeated. He looked about; each six operated as a squad with the short one as the leader.


His wrists were freed and he was pushed into a cabin. The hatch closed behind him. Then all levels of his mind were pulled into the present as two small bodies hit him.

“Shika-san! Shika-san!” two voices squealed.

He crouched down and pulled Yoshimi and Yasushi to him. He held them tightly. They had obviously been crying and were starting again.

“There were two flyers and lots of men...” Yoshimi told him.

“...who shot Shino-san and Anko-san...” Yasushi continued.

“...with darts,” finished Yoshimi.

Darts implied tranquilisers. Hope suddenly burned within him; perhaps Neji was alive. Maybe they had avoided killing so that Sasuke would believe them when they said that they would not kill the hostages. They had slaughtered Ranmaru; without other evidence Sasuke would consider them cold-blooded murderers.

There was a bunk. He sat on it with his back against the bulkhead; Yo-chan under his right arm and Ya-chan under his left. He decided to tell them one of their favourite stories.


He was about halfway through when the hatch began to open. Kazuki shot through the gap, leapt across the room and hit him in the chest. Shikamaru’s hand went automatically to his ears, fondling them. Kazuki burrowed closer making tiny whimpering noises.

Framed by the hatchway was Haru. He looked calm and dignified; very much an Uchiha in the face of the enemy. He walked in and turned to watch the men as they closed the hatch.

Then he turned and dashed towards Shikamaru and his brothers.


During their hug Haru whispered directly into his ear. “They did not kill Neji-san. We children are hostages. They are like the AHB.”

Shikamaru understood the message. Exactly how Haru knew about the Anti-Hybrid Brigade was beyond him but he was proud that Haru had found a way of telling him about the enemy’s attitude to hybrids without scaring the kits.

“Lots of their flyers haven’t come back,” he added. “They are annoyed but not upset. The person in charge is called Deva but I don’t think he is the leader. They don’t know how much Ka-chan can hear. They think children don’t understand. I am pretending to be clever like Hi-chan rather than clever like me.”

Then, information delivered, Haru snuggled down into the huddle while Shikamaru completed the story.


Once it was finished, Shikamaru made a nest for them in the bunk and told them to sleep. He sat at one end and watched them, wishing that they were anywhere near as safe as he made them feel.


He missed his array but he would have to function without it; he began dividing his thoughts to run in parallel.

One part considered the consequences of his abduction. The time had passed for his daily check-in. By now an automated signal would be travelling along a string of mini-gates. Once it hit the data streams it would fragment and spread. He was confident that the wider consequences of the abduction, those he had planned, would be implemented more quickly than those their enemy intended.

Then again, he had been certain that the planet was safe.

He refused to dwell on the error. It was data, as were all the observations he and the children had made. They were added to what he already knew, to be churned in one of the deep recesses of his mind.

He shut his eyes and refused to hear; it was easier to think that way.

He really had become too reliant on his array.


Kazuki’s growl alerted him to the door opening. It was one of the short men who led the squads.

“You come with me,” he ordered. “The child and the hybrids stay here.”

Haru was still sleeping. Three pairs of blue eyes were watching for his reaction. He smiled his reassurance.

“You look after each other,” he whispered. “I shall be back soon,” he added.


He was taken escorted along passage to another cabin. Inside was a red-haired man at a desk. Shikamaru was pushed into a chair. Restraints were fastened around his wrists and ankles.

“You are Shikamaru,” the man began.

“Yes,” Shikamaru confirmed.

“I am Deva,” the man told him.

“Yes,” Shikamaru replied.

Confusion flashed across the man’s face. Shikamaru saw that he considered querying the unexpected reply but thought better of it.

“If you wish to save the children you will cooperate,” Deva warned.

“I understand,” Shikamaru confirmed.

“The boy, Haru, he is your son,” Deva stated.

“I am his genetic parent,” Shikamaru agreed; the information had been registered with Haru’s birth. He decided to push slightly. “Sasuke-sama loves all his children and believes them all to be of equal value.”

“Which is useful,” Deva confirmed, “because we will not hesitate to kill the hybrids.”

Shikamaru took that to mean that they would hesitate to kill Haru. That made protecting Yoshimi, Yasushi and Kazuki his priority. “If you kill one of his hybrid children, Sasuke-sama will think you will kill Haru or kill me. He already considers you murderers for what you did to Ranmaru.”

Deva’s expression was one of superiority, which confirmed Shikamaru’s assumption that these people had sent Ranmaru and implied that he knew something that Shikamaru did not. Shikamaru decided to take a risk.

“Even if Ranmaru was a clone, even if your fighters are clones, even if you are a clone, Sasuke-sama regards each of you as a sentient, feeling and valuable individual,” Shikamaru told him. “As do I,” he added.

Bull's-eye; the sudden vulnerability in Deva’s eyes confirmed his deduction and a potential weakness in the way the enemy operated.

“You will be silent unless answering a question or obeying an order,” Deva retorted. He took a deep breath, obviously steadying himself. “You will record a message for us to relay to Sasuke Uchiha.”

That was good. “I will record your message,” Shikamaru agreed. If his opportunities to speak were going to be limited, he would have to take every opportunity that was offered. “If you want to convince him, it should include visuals of me with the children,” he added.

Deva smiled slightly. “We already have those,” he replied.

So they had a camera in the cabin where he and the children were being kept; it was useful to have that confirmed.


They were going to send video as well as audio, which was excellent. They even projected a script for him to read, which meant he could concentrate on delivering the long-short message he had planned.

He deliberately did not think about the content of the message he was delivering on the enemy’s behalf, in case it should distract him from his task. Once he did, his heart sank. It was a clever plan. It would work.

“Please may I make a request?” he asked when the recording was complete.

Deva considered and then nodded.

“I do not believe that you and your leader are gratuitously cruel,” he began. “I am sure you would treat even a pet kindly. Please do not scare Yoshimi and Yasushi and Kazuki. There is no need for them to be frightened. You said in the message that they would be podded. Allow me to pod them and I will ensure that they cooperate.” His voice shook; he could not have stopped it even if he had wanted to. “They may die. Please allow what may be their last moments to be comforting and with someone who loves them.”

It hit home; Shikamaru could tell.

“Very well,” Deva agreed. “It will be easier and have a more predictable outcome if they are calm,” he added, as if he required justification for the decision. “Haru will also be podded. You may be with him.”

Shikamaru’s gut clenched. Were they podding Haru to use him as a further deterrent?


There were five pods in the room, four child-sized and one for an adult. Shikamaru realised that he too would be podded, presumably for transport.

He stroked Kazuki’s ears and smiled reassuringly at the other three. It would help that they had been podded during the operation in the Warren. He lifted Kazuki into the pod.

“Lie down,” he instructed. He kissed his forehead. “When you wake up you will be with your To-chan and your Papa and Kiba-san,” he promised.

Kazuki looked back at him with utter trust in his Naruto-blue eyes.

Shikamaru shut the lid. The pod whirred into action. Kazuki would be unconscious within seconds.

He did the same with Yasushi and Yoshimi. Then it was Haru’s turn.

“You don’t know what will happen,” Haru observed as he lay down.

Shikamaru could not lie to him. “When you wake up I believe either I will be there or your To-chan and your Papa will be there,” he told him.

Haru looked at him. “You are not going to get to go home,” he stated. “I may not get to go home.”

Shikamaru kissed his forehead. “Yes,” he admitted. “I love you, Haru-chan.”

“I love you too,” Haru replied. “It will be fine if I wake up with you rather than To-chan and Papa,” he lied.

Shikamaru appreciated the gesture. “Good night, Haru-chan,” he whispered and shut the lid.

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