In the cold of space you find the heat of suns

Thank you for the reviews. They inspire me to continue this story.

Updates for this story are now weekly. I try to update on a Friday so that readers will have something to read at the weekend.

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.

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76. Leader

Sasuke watched the blood bead and trickle down Itachi’s neck. All he had to do was press and slice. Then it would be over.

Only he knew that was a lie.

Kisame would break. He would kill himself or he would live in pieces. Sasuke was not sure which would be worse.

And Sasuke would know that he had killed someone who could not remember the deed for which was dying. This was not the Itachi who had gone over the edge and killed Mikoto-san, or the psychotic killer he had met on Farrellez, or the depressive poisoning himself with drugs. This was a man who was willing to take responsibility for at least one of the terrible things he had done. This was a stranger who reminded him of his brother.

He pulled his knife slightly away from Itachi’s neck.

“I keep your life,” he declared. “I will do with it what I will. For now, today, you may have use of it.” He looked over to Kisame. “Kisame-san, for today, will you take responsibility for his behaviour?”

“I would be pleased to do that, Sasuke-sama,” Kisame replied.

There was murmur of relief.

“Good decision, Sasuke-sama,” Kakashi told him. “Particularly since he is the one that knows where all the traps are and how to disable them. You can always kill him tomorrow.”

Sasuke loosened his hold on Itachi’s hair. “You may get up. For today, you will conduct yourself as if you are sworn to me and to Uchiha.”


Itachi rose to his feet in a single, smooth, elegant move; some things never changed. Sasuke watched Itachi walk to Kisame’s side before his attention was caught by the bobbing of small furry heads above the line of the first barricade.

“Not more of the pesky critters,” Kisame grumbled.

“They fought with me against Kabuto,” Itachi admitted. “I asked Kiba to defrost them. They are only youngsters.”

Sasuke wondered how many there were; he spotted more as Itachi led the way along the corridor. If they had fought against Kabuto that made them allies and he was beholden to them. Worse, it was obvious that they could not look after themselves; they were little more than children.

“How many of them are there?” he asked.

Itachi did not look in the least bit apologetic for landing him with them. “Thirty,” he told him.

Sasuke sighed. “Call them together,” he instructed, “so I can thank them for helping.”

Itachi studied him for a moment before nodding. “You had better meet Kiba first,” he said.


Itachi introduced him to a powerfully built young man with shaggy hair. Kiba listened as Sasuke explained that he wanted to thank the mink-human hybrids for fighting against Kabuto.

“You also, Kiba-san,” Sasuke added. “I understand you freed my brother, helped him kill Orochimaru and fought at his side. I thank you. Uchiha thanks you. We recognise and will reward your service.”

The young man just looked at him, not responding to Sasuke’s recognition of his service. “I’ll get the minkies together,” he said.


It did not take long. Sasuke kept it simple so that they would understand. Itachi promised each of them two pieces of fish at feeding time. Sasuke gave them the rest of the day to themselves and saw them look to Itachi rather than Kiba for confirmation. His heart sank; yet another complication. What would happen to Itachi’s squad of minkies if Sasuke decided that the only viable option was to kill him?


He was only three paces away from the minkies’ quarters when Naruto started asking about the babies; Sasuke was surprised he had lasted that long. Sasuke ordered Itachi to work with Gai to secure the building and then introduced Kiba to Naruto.

“Kiba-san, this is Naruto. He is my Beloved Companion and partner.”

Again, Kiba did not respond to Sasuke’s words. He was staring at Naruto’s whiskers.

“Can you show me the fox-human babies?” Naruto asked immediately.

Kiba scowled. “They will be kits,” he informed him. “They are foetuses and they will be kits.”


Sasuke tensed. Naruto hated the babies being called foetuses; his blue eyes bore into the stranger.

“The unborn kits,” Naruto compromised. “Can you show me the unborn kits?” he added.

Kiba did not move. “What do you intend to do with them?” he asked.

Naruto began to lose it. He growled. His top lip curled in a snarl. “Where are the kits?” he demanded.

Kiba growled back. He too snarled, displaying an impressive set of fangs.


It was an abrupt reminder that Kiba was another canine-human hybrid. Sasuke stepped between them.

“Naruto, please try to behave reasonably. Kiba-san, Naruto only has the best intentions towards the kits. We want to raise them as our children.”

This time Kiba responded. “As your children?” he queried. He studied Sasuke, then Naruto and then Sasuke again. “You mean it,” he observed. “He really is your partner.” He shook himself, like Naruto sometimes did. “You realise that they won’t look exactly like him?” he checked. “I mean, one has a tail and the others will probably have some fox features other than teeth and whiskers.”

So one had a tail; Sasuke could become accustomed to a child with a tail. He wondered if it would be furry.

“Tails and other foxy features are fine,” he insisted.

“Show me,” Naruto demanded.


So they went to the laboratory and Naruto spent much time viewing each kit while Kiba hovered. Sasuke and Kakashi sat in chairs that were positioned so that Sasuke could keep a close eye on Naruto. He did not want him and Kiba fighting.

“A child with a tail,” Kakashi observed.

“We knew they wouldn’t be exactly like Naruto,” Sasuke replied. He had discussed it at length with Iruka-sensei and then taken time to think the situation through. Naruto needed him to accept these children, these kits. “We wouldn’t want all six being identical, would we? We need to be able to tell them apart.”

“I can accept six small versions of Naruto,” Kakashi admitted, “even if they have furry ears and tails. Itachi is another matter.”

Sasuke sighed. “If he had been like he was on Farrellez, I would not have hesitated for a moment.”

Kakashi gave him a look that said he doubted that. “You should be thinking about Asuma and Haku,” he reminded him. “Leaving Asuma on the Oak and sending Haku on the Dart are not solutions.”

Sasuke knew that was true. Particularly Haku; he had the right to demand Itachi’s life and Sasuke could not imagine that he would forgo it. Then what would happen to the minkies? What would Kisame do?

Was it cowardly of him to delegate a decision he could not take?

Such thoughts made his guts churn. He went to find a head.


Sasuke could hear them arguing as he returned. There was no missing it, they were already shouting.

“No moving the foetuses,” Kiba insisted.

“We have mobile gestators,” Naruto countered.

“It is too risky to transfer them from one gestator to another,” Kiba told him. “It is out of the question.”

“Rin-san says it can be done safely,” Naruto argued.

“Then this Rin-san is an idiot,” Kiba replied. “They will remain here. I will look after them. They will be ready for decanting in two and a half divs. You can come back then.”

“I am not leaving my kits and Sasuke cannot stay here for two and half divs,” Naruto objected.

“They are better off with me,” Kiba told him. “I would never put my lover’s safety above theirs.”

Sasuke speeded up, rejoined them and scowled at Kakashi.

Kakashi shrugged. “There isn’t any growling yet,” he said, as if that explained his lack of intervention.


Sasuke touched Naruto’s arm to distract him, thus breaking the eye contact between them.

“Kiba-san, no one is going to move the kits unless it is safe,” he insisted. “Have you raised any fox-human hybrids before?” he asked, hoping to change the subject.

“Not fox-human,” Kiba admitted. “Lots of the minkies, but they much less human. Many bull-human hybrids. Several dog-human hybrids and cat-human hybrids. The dog-human hybrids were closest. Most clients wanted them as human as possible. You know, lots of stimulation, hitting all the developmental windows and discouraging doggy behaviour.” He turned to Naruto. “Who raised you? They did a good job. You don’t lick your balls in company or dash off chasing rabbits.”

Sasuke was pretty sure that Naruto was flexible enough to lick his own balls. He had certainly seen him...

He pulled his attention back to what Kiba was saying. Naruto hated talking about his childhood. Sasuke found his hand and squeezed it.

“I don’t know,” Naruto admitted reluctantly. “I thought I grew up on the street.”

“No,” Kiba told him. “You’d be feral. Someone worked intensively with you for at least two standards.

Sasuke was thinking through the implications of what Kiba was saying. “If we don’t raise these kits correctly, their behaviour will not be as human as yours or Naruto’s,” he checked.

Kiba nodded.

“Do they come with a manual?” Sasuke asked. He was only half joking. They did not even know how to raise human babies and this was sounding much more difficult.

“No,” Kiba answered without a smile. “We never let the dog hybrids go to clients before they were over two standards.” He looked again at Naruto. “Is it true you are a multiple? Kabuto-san thought you might be.”

“What’s a multiple?” Naruto asked in a tone that indicated that he was not sure he wanted to know.

“Hybrids are often engineered for a purpose,” Kiba explained, sounding as if he was repeating a lesson. “These hybrids have a specific behaviour triggered by a certain stimulus. Examples include berserkers or the minkies’ loyalty. Modern hybrids only have, at most, one such triggered behaviour.” He continued much more naturally. “Kabuto-san thought you were bonded to him,” he gestured towards Sasuke. “Bonding is a triggered behaviour. Do you display any others?”

Sasuke immediately thought of fluffy-soft-Naruto and growling-possessive-Naruto. From the blush on Naruto’s cheeks, he was thinking the same.

“Perhaps,” Naruto admitted. “It’s private.”

Kiba nodded. “Sexual behaviours,” he observed. “I’ve never raised a multiple. When did the triggered behaviours begin showing?”

“When I started to squirt,” Naruto admitted. “That was the first time I flipped. Went berserk,” he clarified when it was clear Kiba did not understand.

Kiba edged away. “You’re a berserker?”

“It is under control,” Naruto assured him.

“It is?” Kiba queried, obviously unconvinced.

Sasuke only half listened to Naruto explaining to Kiba about his controller. He was thinking about his and Naruto’s complete lack of expertise when it came to raising even one hybrid, never mind six.

“Offer him a job,” Kakashi whispered. “You need him. Badly. He’s your manual.”


The conversation about the controller was obviously going to take some time, so Sasuke decided to check on their progress in securing the building. Gai was confident that all was well. He also managed to slip into the conversation that Kisame and Itachi had locked themselves what appeared to be a small infirmary.

Sasuke reinforced his message that Kisame was to be trusted to guard Itachi. Then he contacted the Sakura to tell Hamaki, Terai and Fu to bring Shikamaru, Neji and Rin to join them. He also had a brief discussion with Neji about what supplies they would require for an overnight stay.


Then he returned to Naruto. Kiba had gone and Naruto was viewing the kits again. Sasuke asked him if there was a projector and was rewarded by a small smile from Naruto. Soon they were examining holoprojections of each foetus. One did, indeed, have a tail.

Sasuke was surprised at how advanced the foetuses were; apparently the gestation period was shorter and that the embryos’ development had been accelerated.

The kits’ due date was almost the same as that of the babies.

Sasuke imagined it: one day, no children; next day, nine children.

Triplets had been scary. Nonuplets was terrifying.

They were going to need help; they were going to need Kiba. He had to persuade Naruto to put his antagonism for the dog hybrid aside.

“We are going to need Kiba, dobe,” he began. “I know you are unsure about him but he’s the only person we are going to find that can tell us how to raise the kits. Also, look how protective he is of them already. And...”

Naruto interrupted him. “I know. I already asked him. He’ll come if we agree to take the minkies.”

Sasuke was relieved that Naruto had accepted Kiba; he had already realised that they were stuck with the minkies.

“We can pod them; there are pods in storage here. Kiba says we should do it soon rather than letting them bond even more closely to Itachi in case...” Naruto hesitated. “...you kill him.” He looked in hope at Sasuke. “If you do, Kiba thinks that we can transfer the minkies to you, ‘cos you smell like Itachi.”

Of all the things Itachi had done to him, saddling him with thirty minkies was probably the least objectionable. “If it proves absolutely necessary,” Sasuke conceded and was rewarded with another smile. “Now let’s have another look at the kits before I go tell Itachi that I am podding his minkies.”

They spend a quiet twenty minutes displaying the kits and then Sasuke went to talk with Itachi about the minkies. Neither brother mentioned the problem of them being loyal to Itachi when Itachi’s future was so precarious. Itachi agreed to help Kiba pod them next morning. In return, Sasuke agreed to be there at feeding time to give out the fish.


Rin, Shikamaru and Neji had arrived by the time he had finished talking to Itachi. Shikamaru had settled immediately to his tasks of stripping as much data as possible from Kabuto and Orochimaru’s systems and records. Neji was talking to Kiba under the guise of sorting out places for everyone to sleep. Rin had gone to the laboratory.


Shikamaru stopped what he was doing as soon as Sasuke appeared at the door of Kabuto’s office.

“Na-chan doesn’t look good,” he said.

Sasuke froze. Shikamaru very rarely spoke to him about Naruto; he had to be seriously concerned. It was true that Naruto had not been himself since the raid. Shikamaru was right; seeing the kits, having confirmation that they were safe, should have helped more than it had. Sasuke ran through possible reasons: the problem of moving the kits; the realisation that they knew so little about raising hybrids; having to accept Kiba; Kiba asking questions about Naruto’s childhood; the discussion about triggered behaviours; the tail as evidence that the kits may have unexpected and possibly undesirable features. The list was too long.

“I realise that the situation with Itachi is difficult for you…” Shikamaru was saying.

Sasuke cut him off. “Naruto comes first,” he insisted.

“You need to get these babies to the Oak and with the others as soon as you can,” Shikamaru recommended.

Sasuke sat down. “That was the plan,” he agreed, “but Kiba thinks we will be risking their lives by transferring them to mobile gestators.” He paused. “Imagine if we transferred them and one died.”

Shikamaru did. Sasuke saw him shudder. “I’ll look into it,” Shikamaru promised.


Next on Sasuke’s list was Rin but he walked toward the laboratory slowly, thinking about Naruto. Neji had brought tents. Sasuke would have to make sure that their tent was pitched somewhere private. Perhaps, for once, he should take advantage of his position and claim a bedroom.

Then he heard Kiba’s raised voice and speeded up. He was just in time to see Kiba shoulder Rin away from one of the gestators and adjust the settings. Rin was not happy. Her eyes were flashing. Sasuke could imagine the explosion that was about to happen.

“Rin!” he commanded.

Her eyes reluctantly came to him. “Sasuke-sama, she acknowledged. She looked back at the gestator. “The oxygen concentration was too low,” she insisted.

“Not for a fox-human hybrid,” Kiba growled. “How many canine-human hybrid foetuses have you gestated?” He moved from one gestator to the next, checking the settings.

She flushed slightly. “None, but...”

“Then leave them alone,” he ordered. “You are worse than Naruto,” he added. “He didn’t touch the controls.”

Sasuke decided to interfere before Rin’s temper took over.

“This is Rin-san, our Chief Medico,” he told Kiba. “Rin-san, this is Kiba-san. He specialises in raising hybrids.”

Kiba looked at her. “You are the one who thinks they can be transferred to mobile gestators,” he stated.

Rin bridled. “Provided we are careful and follow standard procedure they should be perfectly safe.”

“Should?” Kiba queried. “I am not interested in ‘should’. Either they will be safe or it doesn’t happen.”

Rin looked to Sasuke. He took a deep breath.

“This is Kiba-san’s laboratory and his specialisation, Rin-san,” he observed. “Kiba-san, Rin-san has a great deal of expertise and is very skilled. Please listen carefully to what she had to say. Naruto and I would very much like to be able to move the kits to the ship. We believe we can protect them better there. Perhaps you could take Rin-san to Natsuhi-san, the woman in the tank.”

“Just the woman?” Kiba asked. “What about the three young men? They are also tanked.”

Sasuke’s gut churned anew. “Which three young men?” he asked.


Sasuke picked at his food; he always had disliked standard rations, even when his gut was behaving. He reviewed the day’s outcomes. It could have been worse. The kits were alive and well. Kiba had agreed to work for them. They had a strategy for managing the minkies. The decision had been made to transfer the three unknown young men to the Oak in the hope that Rin could do something for them. Shikamaru was excited about the information he had found.

His eyes went to Itachi, who was at Kisame’s side. Was he any closer to making a decision? Perhaps; he was beginning to think about the consequences of not killing Itachi. Some of them were frightening. How he would live with himself if Itachi murdered again?

Then he saw Naruto looking from his own empty wrapper to Sasuke’s barely-touched ration. The last thing he needed was Naruto worrying about him not eating. Sasuke broke off a small piece of the food bar. He placed it into his mouth, made himself chew and forced himself to swallow. He washed the mouthful down with some water.

He reached down for another morsel, only for his fingers to close on nothing. He looked down. The wrapper was empty. He looked at Naruto, whose blue eyes were wide and innocent but whose jaw was frozen mid-chew.

Sasuke hit his arm.

Naruto responded with a small shove.

“Dobe,” Sasuke whispered.

“Teme,” Naruto mumbled around a mouthful of food bar.

There was a whole conversation in the childish exchange; a mutual recognition that times were hard but they were there for each other.

Naruto smiled. It was a little sad but it lifted Sasuke’s spirit.

Sasuke smiled back.

Naruto’s smile transformed.

Sasuke basked in its terawatt brilliance.

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