Stolen Time
Authors' Note: This is a collaboration between myself and celestia193. It's also a YAOI story. That means there will be male x male romantic pairings involved. If any of that bothers you, you might want to turn back now. For those still here, we hope you enjoy this story and reviews are always appreciated.
Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto or make any profit off of our fanfics.
Chapter 1
The doors to the bio-engineering lab swing open and a young lieutenant walks into the laboratory filled with half-moon console stations, work platforms, and no shortage of engineers working on the latest wave of bionic implants. It was sixty years since the studies resumed after the destruction of Inari, but they'd come a long way since then even without all of the knowledge lost to the fires of that explosion.
Not that Sasuke would know anything about that. Anyone who lived in that time and could remember seeing the giant fiery cloud on the horizon would be at least a hundred years old by now. Sure, he knew that he'd lost family in that attack, but it was so far removed from now that it seemed more like a legend than anything. At least, until now when he would finally get to go and see the ruins for himself.
His eyes flash red for a brief moment as he searches the lab, but dim again as he smirks and heads for the half circle of consoles stashed away next to a work platform in the corner. As usual, his brother was hard at work picking away at the programming of whatever his next design was going to be. Such a perfectionist. Sasuke had told Itachi time and time again that he would test the prototypes for him, but Itachi always insisted that they be tested and perfected first before Sasuke could have them.
Sasuke's gaze flicks to the newest programming codes as he sits on the powered down portion of the consoles. "New project?"
"More like an old one. We've been working on trying to figure out how to do regeneration modifications for as long as I've been here and well before." Itachi sighs, determination still etched into his face. Upon seeing Sasuke, however, his furrowed brows relax and he smiles. "Sadly, the technology was lost to us in Inari and we just can't seem to replicate it. Once we do though, it's going to be tremendously useful."
"Do you think there might be anything left in Inari to find that might help?" Sasuke's mission would be leaving soon. Maybe if Itachi gave him a clue about what to look for, he could bring back something that could give Itachi the clue he needed. "The radiation has finally cleared out and they've lifted the restrictions on going in and out for exploration squads. We'll finally have a chance to sift through whatever's left."
"I don't know, maybe. Honestly though, I wouldn't even be sure what to look for." Modifications was Itachi's specialty. If he didn't know what they used for regeneration, how could he possibly expect Sasuke to when his brother's vocation was so different from his own? "I hope that you find something useful, though. Be safe, and make sure to use the locater mod I gave you. No one has been there in decades. Anyone could get lost."
Sasuke rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. "I'm not sure why you expect me to get lost. The reports say that the city was flattened, there's barely anything left standing at all. I should be able to see for miles around as long as I get up onto something that fell over when the blast hit."
Itachi pokes the young man's forehead and scoffs. "I hope those reports are accurate, but it is better to exercise caution. I've only got one baby brother, Sasuke, I don't want to lose you. Even if you are a stuffed animal stealer." Yes. Itachi still remembered Sasuke 'borrowing' his favorite stuffed animal as children.
"Hn." Sasuke scoffs softly and rubs his forehead. "You're the one who let me steal it." If Itachi really hadn't wanted to share, she would have hidden it somewhere Sasuke couldn't find it, instead of just leaving it right there on his bed. "Fine, I'll be careful. But I do know how to take care of myself." He fingers the holstered gun at his hip. "And if there's anything waiting for us out there, it'll be gone in two seconds."
"Of course. I'm glad to hear it." He smiles at his brother fondly. It was hard to grasp the idea that somewhere along the way, Sasuke had grown up, and he was a lieutenant now. "I indulged you and you'll just have to indulge me by being careful. How are your modifications working?"
"The implants are working fine." They were doing fantastic, actually. Sasuke's world had never felt so alive and vibrant before he'd been outfitted with his bionic implants. "Of course, I'm still waiting for you to give me laser vision, but it sounds like that's not happening any time soon."
"You can be such a brat sometimes." Itachi rolls his eyes, but there was no malice in it. "Good. I'm glad they're up to par. Try to keep Karin and Suigetsu from killing each other or at least get out of the line of fire. Those two are absurd. You'd think they were still cadets sometimes. At least Jugo knows how to conduct himself professionally."
"I think I'll leave that to Kakashi this time." Normally, Sasuke would have to deal with their antics himself. But since they were taking two teams this time, Sasuke was more than willing to pawn off that duty onto someone else. "Kakashi decided that he wanted all six of us this time so that we could cover more ground."
"Smart move on his part." Of course, knowing Kakashi...Itachi was under no illusions what that meant. "He'll send your team out to do the legwork while he reads his romance novels."
Sasuke deadpans comically. "Of course he is. Who expects any differently?" After training under the man since he was twelve and in mock boot camps, right up into his serious academy training, Sasuke knew better than to expect Kakashi to take all but the most dangerous missions seriously.
"Precisely. I'm relieved to hear you understand what his style of leadership is. Oh, you can give these to your team if you like." He gestures to a box of chocolates. "Better than letting them go to waste." Itachi liked chocolate, but he could only eat so much and for some reason everyone thought chocolate was the best way to charm him. Once upon a time, Sasuke had endured a similar fate until his foolish little brother's temper had made most of his admirers suitably skittish.
"Naruto and Suigetsu will definitely devour them." Sasuke picks up the box and tucks it into his mission pack. "But maybe it'll help to keep them quiet while we're out there surveying." Or maybe they would just fight over it with each other and stay out of his way.
"Sounds about right. So, did they give you anymore briefings on the mission?" Itachi tilts his head, not sure if Sasuke would be allowed to say even if they did.
Sasuke hesitates for just a moment, choosing his words carefully. "They did, I went in just an hour ago for another one. It might be nothing, but if we find something, we might be bringing it here to you in the lab. More than that…" He just couldn't say without violating the mission's secretive nature. Itachi was allowed to know where he was going and vaguely what he was doing, but not the specifics, not yet.
"Sounds intriguing and perhaps a bit concerning." He watches Sasuke with wary eyes, but curiosity was at war with his more cautious instincts. "I look forward to hearing all about it one way or another."
Slowly, Sasuke locks eyes with his brother, carrying a hard, determined look in the onyx depths. "Yeah, I'm sure that you will."
They just had to find what set off the remote sensors, first.
It was obvious to see why they'd been outfitted in survival gear for this mission. Calling this place a disaster zone would be vastly understating the ruin of the massive city. Five days in and they'd barely scratched the surface.
Fortunately, scratching the surface was all they were meant to do here, because the team had split up into pairs to work on homing in on the strange energy signature that was faintly appearing on their scans. The pulsing had begun months ago, when the last of the radiation cleared out. Though Sasuke thought it was more likely that it just became visible to their scans because of the lack of interference, and because they could finally move the probes in closer.
"Pick up the pace, Loser." Was it smart for Sasuke to call their leader's son that? Probably not. Was that going to stop him? Not at all. "We're getting closer to the power fluctuations." That should mean that the two of them had wandered off in the right direction. Not that much direction existed when everything was gray and charred and it was impossible to tell where one destroyed building ended and the next began.
"Stop call me that, Bastard!" Naruto rolls his eyes as he keeps pace with Sasuke. His eyes widening at the sheer devastation. "I mean, I read about it, but seeing it in person is...spooky. I can't believe people used to live here." It was sickening to imagine people just going about their normal lives and then...nothing.
"Yeah, but it's not like we're going to run into any of them." It was like this whole place was just filled with ghosts. Not that Sasuke believed in those sorts of things, but… "Come on, let's try in the next ditch." He vaults over a fallen pillar and lands on a bare patch of scorched earth. And as expected, the readings on the scanner only get stronger and stronger. "There's got to be something intact around here."
"Y-You don't think there are actually g-ghosts here, do you?" Naruto watches Sasuke with panic growing in his baby blues eyes. "That's just kid stuff, right? Even if there were ghosts, I mean they'd wanna hang out somewhere else. Right?" He follows Sasuke, trying to shake the unnerving feeling off.
"Yeah, you're the only one who actually believes in ghost stories these days." Sasuke peers underneath some rubble as the cross into the outer ring of the city. There weren't as many tall buildings out this way, but the ones that had been here were strong and sturdy, and some of it only mostly collapsed. Small, stubborn section were still clinging to some sort of form. "Hey, Loser, I think I see a door under here." And it wasn't one that had been blown over.
Sasuke grips the edge of a piece of rubble and starts to dislodge it, despite the fact that it clearly weighed a good tonne. Eyesight, hearing, speed, strength. The beauty of the bionic implants was in the vast enhancements to performance that could be made in both ordinary and extraordinary soldiers.
"Coming!" Naruto darts over and helps Sasuke with dislodging it. "We've got this, Bastard. I wonder what it is." It could be anything. A million scenarios dance in his mind, but the blond could only hope that it wasn't a ghost.
"A hidden room, obviously." And one that looks like it might have survived the blasts. At least from the outside. Sasuke couldn't say whether or not anything inside had survived. If it were people…there was no chance that a bunker like this would have protected them. Not from starvation.
The rubble gives way, falling away from the doors built into what remained of a steel floor. Sasuke frowns as he examines the shattered lock. It didn't look like anyone had gotten in there, but whatever security measures there were were obviously long gone. Sasuke wiggles his fingers into the hand of the door. "Naruto, cover me." They couldn't be too careful.
"You got it!" Naruto nods at Sasuke, following his friend. For once, the bubbly blond had decided to go silent. A strange mixture of excitement and dread washing over him.
Sasuke yanks the door open, nearly taking it off its hinges as it bangs against the steel and concrete. A dim glow greets them, which was a surprise, and yet not. "This must be where the energy is coming from." Only one place in the city had the lights still on, and it was right down in there.
He steps down into the darkness, holding onto the wall for stability as the noise and smell of dust and ash falls away. The place was musty and a little damp, unlike the dry, hot air outside. Were they standing just above one of the old hot springs?
Pale fingers reach for a flashlight and Sasuke shines it ahead of them as he draws his gun. It was definitely a bunker, and a well-reinforced one, even if the walls were slightly cracked. It had withstood the devastation and age well. "There's definitely something down here." There had to be. There's no reason that someone would go to all the trouble of keeping the lights on down here, even through a bombing that flattened the city if there wasn't something worth protecting.
"That's...incredible. There's still electricity?" Naruto stares in awe as goosebumps form along his skin. "How...it's been decades and no one has been around to keep the lights on...?"
Sasuke blinks, then a few things click into place. "They say that Inari used to have hot springs. If this place is running its own generator off that geothermal power, then that would explain why there's still light here." And light meant investment. He shines his flashlight across the wall until he finds a control pad. One touch sets it glowing, a second nearly sparks Sasuke, but brightens the lights from a dim glow to laboratory strength lighting. And laboratory indeed…
In the center of the room sits a pod encircled by two rings of computer consoles almost perfectly intact. But that pod… "Is that a stasis pod?" Sasuke hadn't seen one like that…ever. It was completely different to all of the medical stasis pods he'd seen in the hazardous diseases wing of the hospital back home.
"Yeah. It's a stasis pod, but it's really old." Naruto's feet move of their own accord. He had to know. "Someone had to be in it, but there's no way they could be alive now...right? Still, we should at least give them a proper burial..." Well, at least that's what Naruto was planning on, until he looks into the pod. "Holy Konoha! Sasuke, Sasuke! You've gotta see this. The body is totally intact!"
"That's not possible." Sure, the pod might be intact, but there's no way that a body would have survived the radiation unless there were strong shields around it. Sasuke frowns as he looks into the pod, then he wipes away some of the moisture to look at the face of the one inside. His fingers tingle as he touches the pod, and though he successfully clears the glass, it was evident that his assumption was wrong because it was also right. "There's radiation shielding built into this pod."
Obviously someone had gone to insane lengths to protect the body inside this pod. The man inside didn't look like he was breathing, but Sasuke wasn't sure if that meant he was dead or not. For all they knew, cracking the pod open could release the most heinous smell of all time. Or it might pop out a living person instead. "We need to get a pod power source in here and lift this out and back to headquarters." There was no way that they could just leave the body here.
"Got it. I'll call in." Naruto nods, taking out his communication device. "We've got...something here. We need a pod power source device sound to our location ASAP. I can't believe I'm saying this, but we've got a body. Unknown if it's dead or alive. Physically intact at first glance. We haven't made any efforts to open the pod. Come in, HQ."
The communicator hums softly, then a woman's firm, gentle voice responds. "Alright, we'll send one your way. Be sure to update us in case there are any changes in the pod's status or in the condition of the body."
"Definitely. I still can't believe this, but there's a chance he might be alive. Slim, but still. Body appears to be male at first glance." Naruto rubs the back of his head sheepishly. "Not like we officially checked, but you know what I mean. We'll be waiting."
Sasuke barely listens as the connection cuts out, his attention still firmly focused on the man's face. Definitely a man, likely a little older than Itachi, with wild curls of ebony hair. There was something…familiar about him. It was a shame he was probably dead, but their mission was just to bring back whatever was in this room and sending off the energy signal, not escort a live subject back to headquarters. "Alright, time to pack up. Let's grab everything else and get out of here." A ship would be here within the hour with the equipment necessary to transport a pod. Once they had cleaned this place out, their job was done.
It was hard to focus on anything other than Sasuke being out at that site, but Itachi tries his best. After all, this modification would be a major breakthrough if he could manage it.
The seconds bleed into minutes and the minutes oozed into hours. Eventually, he got lost in the challenge of work and manages to shove his concerns back until he hears the sounds of familiar footsteps approaching. His brother wasn't the only one modified hearing. "You're back! How did it go?"
Sasuke's eyes flick towards his brother, his ears perked up even when still fifty feet away. But he was closing the gap quickly. "We definitely found something." He glances down at the pod now hovering off the ground between him and Kakashi. "Itachi, the team is going to take him to the medical lab. We can go to the viewing gallery to talk." He'd been cleared to talk about it. After all, there was no way that this was going to stay a secret anyway.
"Him?" Itachi couldn't believe his ears. "You found someone there?" Who would be crazy enough to go there. "Was it some child who wandered off to explore or something?" Fuck. He could only hope the radiation levels were as low as the readings indicated. Otherwise if that was the case, the kid was done for. "I'm coming." He immediately abandons his post and turns on heels to meet Sasuke in the gallery.
"No, it's not a kid." Sasuke opens the door to the gallery as the team wheels the pod into the lab. He glances at his brother who walks in opposite him, then turns his gaze onto the stasis pod being unloaded and hooked up to a new power source before being taken off the temporary one. "He's not a child, and there was definitely no wandering or accidents involved." Sasuke crosses his arms as supports are rushed in and the pod is stood upright. "It's a stasis pod, Itachi, but it's nothing like the ones we use here."
He'd never heard anything more fantastical in his life, but Itachi couldn't deny the evidence before his eyes. "I'm...amazed. That pod has to be over a century old at least. I doubt someone would hide a pod there after the blast." He stares at the pod being brought inside in awe. "Though...I suspect it's even older."
"He looks like he was only a bit older than you when someone put him in there. We're know that it's functional enough that he's still preserved in there, but even if the pod was shielded against radiation, there's not much chance that he's-" Sasuke frowns as the pod beeps once, twice, and then starts beeping rhythmically, just like a heartbeat.
"If it was protected from radiation, his body was preserved, and there was some source of power...the odds are slim, but..." Itachi swallows hard at the sound, glancing at Sasuke. "it's possible. Am I going crazy or...did you hear that? The beeping?"
"That's not possible…" They had tossed around the idea of course, but there's no way that he could still be alive in there, could he?
Sasuke shakes his head to clear it, but the increase in activity on the floor is unmistakable. One of the resident doctors races into the room and shoos the retrieval team away as she fiddles with the screen showing vital signs. Live vital signs. "You're not going crazy." Not unless they were all going crazy. "He's still alive in there." But how? He had to be at least a hundred years old, and until recently, pods weren't meant to hold occupants for nearly so long. Even now, holding a patient for over a century was…unbelievable.
"This is unbelievable." He was alive. Whoever he was, the man was alive and had been encased in a pod for at least a century. Likely more. Never before had Itachi been rendered so speechless.
But Sasuke did not suffer from such impairments. "You know that they're going to have to quarantine him and keep him comatose. He could be carrying pathogens we've never even seen before." As much as Sasuke didn't like the security measures, they were necessary and he knew very well why. "And they're going to put him through a hundred tests before they even let him wake up. If he can." There was every chance that the man was brain-dead by now.
"I know that, but the man has beaten the odds. It would be cruel if his body survived all that, but his mind did not." Itachi frowns. A thousand possibilities were whirling inside his mind. "Even if that is the case though, I cannot imagine his terror and confusion..."
"Either way, it's not going to be pretty." Sasuke couldn't even begin to fathom who this person was. He just knew that the man looked eerily familiar. And he would surely get a better look at the man once they cracked the pod open. But the medical team seemed to be ensuring that there was a secure gurney available and ready to take the man. "Why do you think he would have been put in stasis? It had to have happened before the bombs hit Inari, but how could they have known that the city was going to be destroyed? And why him?"
"Maybe we weren't aware of the full history of what happened." Itachi's brows furrow. It was a disturbing possibility, but one he couldn't overlook. "Perhaps they knew that the attack was going to happen, but not when and people were planning to wait it out? But most didn't get to their pods in time. If that's the case, there should be more pod remains...or perhaps he was put into stasis for an entirely different reason. I hope that he's...that his mind is intact. There are so many questions."
"There were no other pods." At least none that had shown up on their scanners. Sasuke had been on scanning duty when they flew over the city again. Nothing. "The energy signature coming off his pod was the one thing detectable in the city. That's what we were sent out to collect. We just didn't know that it was a pod."
"He must have been someone important. Whoever he is, the man has been in a pod for at least a hundred years. That was a lot of effort to go through to preserve a body." So, it likely wasn't a planned event for the populace to take shelter then. Still, what could justify such a reaction? "That implies his status was possibly unrelated to the attack. Perhaps he was just a wealthy person who came down with a serious condition and they wanted to freeze him until a cure could be found?"
Kakashi, down in the lab with a medical team, flashes a sign at Sasuke, one that he knew well. The teams often used hand signals while on missions when they didn't want to be heard. But in this context… Check his implants? But his implants were fine, he'd had them checked a week before they left on the mission. Everything was fine, so why would Kakashi be talking about… Shit. "He's got bionic implants? That can't be right." But the look on Kakashi's face as he nods and turns away…there was no mistaking it.
Itachi knew that sign well enough, but the implications were as disturbing as they were fascinating. Not only had the man been put in stasis for far longer than should have been possible, but he had old implants? While implants were standard in the military and increasingly common in the civilian population, they had been almost unheard of in the stasis man's day. That could mean only one thing. "The surprises just keep coming." He glances at Sasuke, knowing his little brother could read between the lines just as well as Itachi could. The man had been military.
"Yeah, it looks like we're going to have to be careful and keep him restrained." And Sasuke knew that they would be tightening security by a factor of ten just to make sure nothing happened to this man until they could get answers out of the man that the doctors were transferring from the pod to the gurney and strapping down. "They'll probably bring you in to analyze his implants." Itachi was already here, already knew. They wouldn't risk bringing in others until they had the full story.
"Most likely. Is it selfish to say that makes me happy in a way?" Itachi was just as curious as the next person. "The man is living history from a period that we know almost nothing about. There are so many things we could learn from him and honestly, he deserves a second chance at life."
"Assuming that he's an ally." Sasuke knew what would happen to him if it turned out this man was an enemy. "…He looks familiar." There was just…something about him that made Sasuke think of Itachi, of their parents, of…their extended family in general. But this man's face was not one that was in any of the old family trees.
"He was found in our territory and someone went through remarkable effort to preserve him. It doesn't look like something an enemy would do if they knew they were going to make the era uninhabitable for decades." What would be the benefit? They had no real way of knowing that the body would last that long. The technology shouldn't have lasted that long and yet, it had. "Either way, you're right. As much as it pains me to say this given what he's been through, it is always beneficial to be cautious. Many years have passed to us, but to him he still lives during a time when an active war was being waged."
"…Then we'll be prepared." And if it turned out this guy was dangerous, Sasuke would be the first one to take him out. "Come on, they'll be busy with him for a while and you won't see him for at least a week or two. Let's go get something to eat. I'm starving." Sasuke would take their cafeteria food over the rations they were eating. Travel food was nowhere near what the chefs here could cook up.
"Only you could think about food at a time like this, but you're right. They won't allow anyone to go near him for quite some time." Itachi sighs, shaking his head. The discovery of a lifetime and Sasuke was focused on his stomach? "So, we may as well get some food as you said."
"Hn." Sasuke grumbles irritably. "I guarantee that Naruto and Suigetsu are already there. We were out there scouring the place for five days and eating only travel food, of course we're hungry."
"I do have to admit our provisions are rather...unsatisfying to the cafeteria's fare and you're likely right about your comrades." Itachi shakes his head with amusement. Sasuke certainly worked with some interesting characters.
"Of course I'm right." Sasuke was a genius after all. He was supposed to be right about things. Just like how he was pretty sure that things were about to get a lot more complicated. All because of one nameless soldier pulled out of an ancient stasis pod.