In the cold of space you find the heat of suns

Thank you for the reviews. They are very much appreciated.

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.

57. Hybrids

On the sixth day, when Gaara had awoken from hibernation, Naruto meet Temari in the bay where Gaara’s ship, the Gourd, was docked.

“Where is Sasuke-san?” she had asked on her arrival.

Naruto had not mentioned Sasuke. “He is busy,” Naruto admitted.

Temari frowned. “Perhaps Shikamaru?” she queried. “Gaara will not like it if you break the pattern. There are two of us so there must be two of you.”

Shikamaru was occupied working on the plan to rid Kaze of the slavers and fussing over Neji. Naruto sighed. “Can’t we both have a half share of you? He as your brother and me as your ally?”

Temari offered him an unconvincing smile. “That would be a clever solution, Naruto-san, but Gaara would see it as you stealing half of his sister. Stealing from Gaara is not wise.”

Naruto was struck by a sudden idea. “Does it have to be my lover or my best friend?” he asked. “Will any crewmate be acceptable?”

Temari considered. “You have made it clear that your crew is more family than crew. I believe that any crew member would be acceptable.”


Kisame was in the crew room. He had watched Sumaru’s morning training, had breakfast and spent a ridiculous amount of time in the bath; he derived great pleasure from being in the water. He heard someone approaching at great speed and watched Naruto skid to a halt; it took him the length of the galley to do so. A perfectly timed jump brought him across the threshold into Haku’s crew room.

“Kisame-san, are you busy?” he asked.


Gaara was beside Temari by the time they made it back to the docking bay. Temari’s eyes widened as she saw whom Naruto had chosen. Even Gaara reacted, if a slight stiffening of his posture could be considered a reaction. Naruto performed a round of introductions and described his plan.

“Shikamaru says that the best place to start is my gun turret on the Sakura because it has built in diagnostic systems,” he explained.


Naruto demonstrated his gun turret and suggested that Gaara try it. Gaara did not move. Temari said nothing.

“May I try, Naruto-san?” Kisame asked. “Is the chair large enough for me?”

Naruto nodded. “It adjusts. Ibiki can use it,” He reached over and set the chair to maximum.


Five minutes later Kisame was in heaven. Chair, guns and simulations adapted no matter how fast he wanted to move. The turret was like an extension of his body. If this was an example of Shikamaru could do, Kisame was a convert. After another few minutes he reluctantly stopped.

“You should try it, Gaara-san,” he said.

To Naruto’s relief, Gaara decided to follow the sharkman’s example. His approach was very different, slow and gradual, but after ten minutes he had built up to similar speeds as Kisame and Naruto. There was an intensity in his face that Naruto had not seen before. He looked at Temari, who was watching her brother with something akin to affection rather than the usual wariness. After about thirty minutes, Gaara slowed and stopped.

“I want one of these on my ship,” he stated. “I must also be able to control the ship while I am in it.”

“Shikamaru will work out how,” Naruto promised. “It may take time to design what you need and build it,” he warned.

Gaara considered. “I understand,” he replied.


They moved onto the stand-alone simulators and investigated the limits of Kisame and Gaara’s piloting skills. Naruto watched Gaara’s eyes become brighter and brighter as he realised what it would be like if his one man ship could move and fight as suggested by the simulators.

“Gaara,” Temari warned.

Some of the brightness died. It made Naruto sad to see it go.

“I must go back to my ship,” Gaara stated, “before I behave inappropriately.”

“We have group training this afternoon,” Naruto told him. “Join us. The Silver Leaf’s crew is joining us. Temari will be there.”

Temari went absolutely rigid and Naruto wondered what he had said that was so wrong.

“That would be unwise,” Gaara told him. “I do not fight except to kill.”

There was silence. Naruto could not imagine not training. If he had never trained he would be only a fraction of the fighter he was now. “Could you watch?” he suggested.

“I have watched Temari and Kankuro train,” Gaara admitted. “I will attend and watch you train. Temari, you will fetch me and escort me to this training.”


Gaara walked back to his ship, accompanied as far as the docking bay by Temari.

Using the gun turret and the simulators had been involving. For a moment, Gaara had forgotten. He had lost focus. There had been texture. He could not afford texture. Texture was dangerous. Texture became unevenness. Unevenness became highs and lows. In the lows Gaara might lose himself. In the highs he would lose control.

He valued Temari’s warning.

It was easier in his ship. On the ship it was silent. It was smooth and hard. It was colourless and dull. The scrubbers kept the air scent-free.

Naruto.

Naruto was a canine-human hybrid.

Naruto should be like him.

Naruto was nothing like him.

Naruto lived in the highs. Naruto did not lose control.

Gaara lowered the temperature; being colder made him sluggish. When he was sluggish it was easier not to think and it was easier not to feel.


“Gaara constantly worries about losing control,” Kisame said when both Temari and Gaara were well beyond earshot.

Naruto considered. “Do you think he is a berserker like me? Or maybe he has a bad temper. I have that too.”

Kisame smiled. “I find that difficult to imagine, Naruto-san,” he admitted. “As a canine-human hybrid I would expect him to be more emotional, as you are. Perhaps he had learned to suppress his emotions. That is rarely advisable in an emotional individual.”

Naruto thought of Sasuke and agreed. His stomach rumbled. “Food,” he suggested.

Kisame grinned, showing pointed teeth. “Food,” he agreed.


There were too early for the midday meal but Naruto managed to wheedle a large bowl of snacks out of Choza and invited Kisame into his crew room to share them. They chatted easily, soon coming around to the subject of Sumaru.

“Thank you for showing interest in Sumaru-kun. I have not spent enough time with him lately,” Naruto confessed.

Kisame smiled. “Your babies,” he observed.

Naruto felt himself colour. “Yes,” he replied.

“Not genetically yours,” Kisame checked. “Surely even Rin could not manage that.”

“No. They are little Uchihas. I asked for two boys and a girl. I left it to Sasuke to make the other decisions.” He smiled. “Perhaps they will all look like Sasuke.”

Kisame wondered if they would look like Itachi.

“Do you want to see the nursery?” Naruto asked and then looked away in embarrassment. “Of course you do not. I am sorry.”

Kisame leaned over and patted him on the knee. “It would be a honour to see the den you are building for your kits. Naruto-san,” he assured him.


Instead of accessing the nursery from the crew room, as Kisame had expected, Naruto took them through the room he shared with Sasuke. This was a room that Kisame was interested in seeing. Except for the Uchiha crest on the wall, it was little different from the room Haku had assigned him; more lived in, and definitely more colourful, but the same size and shape. That Sasuke did not see any need for a more imposing room was, in itself, impressive.

The nursery was a cosy, warm, soft cave; very much the den Kisame had suggested. Angled drapes had divided the room and changed its shape. There were no vertical or horizontal surfaces; Kisame could not see a right angle. Away from the doors, against two of the walls, there was a large platform covered with a deep mattress. Kisame could see three oval depressions, presumably for the gestators, and a long, sinuous, Naruto-sized indentation.

“Rin wants them to stay in the infirmary until they are born,” Naruto told him. “They do not belong in the infirmary. They belong here.”

Kisame thought of Itachi in the sterile, soulless side room and agreed. “I am sure you will persuade her, Naruto-san.”

Naruto’s whiskers drooped. “She has them, I do not,” he admitted.


Kisame decided that there was time to visit Itachi before the midday meal. He took with him the items he had collected from their ship, along with a small table and a chair that Haku had found for him. He was telling Itachi about Gaara when Rin put her head into the side room, obviously wondering to whom he was talking.

“I decided to follow Suma-kun’s example,” Kisame explained.

Rin’s expression communicated her exasperation although she was too prudent to voice it.

“It makes us feel better, Rin-san,” Kisame chided her.

Rin coloured and acknowledged his point with a slight nod.

Kisame doubted she would ever change; she was Rin. He thought of Naruto’s drooping whiskers and the three empty depressions in the mattress.

“You should see the nursery Naruto-san has built,” Kisame suggested. Her reaction told him that she had not seen it and had no intention of doing so. Sometimes Rin had to be forced see life from others’ points of view. “It is almost time for the midmeal,” he observed. “You will see the nursery before the midmeal,” he told her and took her hand.


Rin was shocked to feel Kisame’s hand on hers but she did not try to pull away. She knew Kisame well enough to know that resistance was pointless; only Itachi or a order from a superior could make Kisame do anything. He stood up and she resigned herself to accompanying him to the crew room. She was thankful that he shortened his step so she did not have to skip.

“Rin-san wishes to see the nursery,” Kisame announced as they entered the galley.

Naruto had been speaking with Iruka. He looked at them in surprise and at Rin with some resentment. Rin felt momentarily guilty, but dismissed it as weakness. The foetuses were better off in the infirmary.

The nursery was shock; so completely different than anything she could have imagined. She found herself staring at the mattress with its three unoccupied hollows only to have her view blocked as Naruto moved between her and the platform. It was almost as if the gestators were already there and he was protecting them. With creeping and growing discomfort, Rin realised that Naruto saw her as a threat to his children.

That one thought changed everything; the foetuses became Naruto’s babies. Rin finally understood Naruto’s attitude. In his eyes, she was the unreasonable and obsessive medico who was stopping Naruto’s babies being in the nursery, where they belonged.

“I will fetch the fourth gestator, so that we can begin testing the monitoring and control systems,” she told him.

Naruto blinked at her. His whiskers twitched.

“They belong here,” she admitted. “The babies belong here, with you.”

And he smiled at her.

Rin had seen Naruto smile many times but it had never been at her, for her. It was stunning. It touched the core of her being. It made her warm. For the first time, Rin had an inkling of why Sasuke adored him.


Naruto desperately wanted to tell Sasuke. He lay in wait to drag him into their room as he walked through the crew room on his way to the galley.

“You look happy, dobe,” Sasuke said as he allowed himself to be captured.

“Rin said yes,” Naruto told him. “About the babies coming home.”

Sasuke hugged him. “That is wonderful. How did you persuade her?”

Naruto was not sure. “Kisame-san made her look at the nursery.”

Sasuke nodded. “No one could look at the nursery and not appreciate how much you love them,” he replied.

Naruto had not seen it that way; the nursery was as the nursery should be.


The midday meal was one of those ordinary events that became special. Kurenai and the children were there; Akemi and Misora were fascinated by Kisame, who allowed them to feel his skin and ask questions about being a sharkman. Naruto and Sasuke sat next to each other, their legs pressed together, sharing Naruto’s contentment that the nursery would soon be occupied. Shikamaru was looking after Neji, who was still a little disconnected after his abnormally long sleep. Fu and Terai were recovering from one of their occasional spats; Hamaki was watching them chat happily with undisguised relief. Konohamaru was teasing Haku by following Kisame’s lead and calling him princess. They were close to finishing eating when Shino spoke up.

“I have something to ask,” he stated.

The others were alerted by his formal tone. “Please proceed, Shino-san,” Iruka encouraged.

Shino flushed. “I ask permission to be intimate with someone who is not crew,” he said quickly.

There was silence, followed by a number of bawdy comments that were cut off by as the speakers were reminded that there were children present. They waited.

“Anko-san,” Shino admitted.

“The Silver Crew will be leaving us soon,” Iruka observed. “Is it wise to become more closely involved with someone who is leaving?”

Asuma, Ibiki and Gai rolled their eyes at the thought of turning down such an opportunity merely because it had limited longevity.

“That is up to Shino-san,” Kakashi reminded them. “I am sure he has thought it through. Are there any objectors?”

There were not.

“You must bring Anko-san here,” Iruka insisted.

“Shino-san and Anko-san must be left to do what suits them best,” Kakashi reminded Iruka gently but firmly.

Iruka sniffed. “Perhaps Anko-san could join us for the evening meal one day,” he conceded.


Shino was keen on Rin’s suggestion that they test the monitoring and control systems in the nursery directly after the meal; he could seen Iruka laying in wait for him. Naruto placed the fourth gestator in one of the hollows, activated the simulation function and plumbed it into the water supply coming up into the hollow from below the platform.

“You know how they work?” Rin asked Naruto.

Naruto scowled at her. “I have studied. I have passed all the assessments. You know this.”

“I know it,” she conceded. “Where do you intend storing the shells?” she asked, referring to the protective covering into which each gestator would be placed if moving it became necessary.

“There are compartments under the platform,” Naruto told her. “Also places for the carrying harnesses and other supplies.”

“We will have to run some drills,” Rin observed. “In an emergency, any member of the crew must know what to do.”

Naruto nodded. “How goes it, Shino-san?”

Shino tilted his tablet so that they all see the screen. “Looking good, Naruto-san,” he confirmed.


Kisame, Naruto and Sumaru were first to training later that afternoon; it had been Kisame’s suggestion that the three of them spend time together. Naruto and Sumaru were practicing landings, which involved Kisame boosting Naruto or Sumaru into the air. By the time the others started to arrive Sumaru was watching and Naruto was combining his jump with Kisame’s boost to attain spectacular heights. With so much time aloft, Naruto had begun adding somersaults and twists.

Between attempts he was bouncing up and down, laughing with delight.


Gaara watched Naruto jump and fly and twist and laugh.

Naruto.

Naruto was a canine-human hybrid.

Gaara was a canine-human hybrid.

Naruto was nothing like him.

Could he be like Naruto?

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