CHAPTER 1: WAR

SASUKE

Something's there. I can't see it against the pitch darkness of the night, but something's coming towards us, and I know it. Call it a sixth sense, or intuition. My crew members call it paranoia, but they don't complain too much when my paranoia saves their asses.I like to think of it as a sign of experience, but who knows? Maybe it's a sign that I'm losing it.

Everyone loses something in war.

My second-in-command-Naruto-can feel it too, though. He's thumbing the silver cross that he carries around with him for luck, and reaching for the binoculars perched against the watch station. I've always scoffed at him for believing in superstition, but he knows I've got my own charm tucked away against my chest.

We've all got things that keep us going. Mine's from a girl.

Her name's Sakura. I called her baby, back in the old world, before the war. But we're in the sphere now; there are three things I know about myself in the new world.

One, I'm the leader of a band of pirates with a bounty as big as the sphere on our heads. Two, I hate myself for letting go a girl that made me want to live. Even if it was for her sake. And three, I really hate myself, because I don't even know if she's alive.

"Do you reckon it's another one from Oto- scouts?" Naruto growls. "Fuckers must be gettin' desperate sendin' spies down here."

I grunt in reply. Could be a spy unit, could be anything. Might even be a supply carrier from Oto, tryna steal water from civilian forces. It won't be the first time they've taken everything and left a town to starve. The sector we're in is a civilian zone, not even farmland, but the bastards might be getting desperate after we blew up two of their major food ports. I smirk.

They don't know these sectors like we do though; this is pirate land.

"Don't engage," I tell Naruto, who's already radioing in the rest of the crew on night watch. "Wait for my signal. Shikamaru, you receiving?" The radio's crackly from the shitty service on the hill, but it does the job.

"Roger that, Commander. We've got an Oto ship, model 347, approaching sector 72."

Model 347. Those are warships. Large and steel-plated, fitted with machine guns and cannons on either side like ribbed daggers. It's a long way away from the battlefield. What're warships doing out here in civilian land?

"Naruto." He looks at me from the binoculars. "Naruto, they know."

His eyes widen fractionally, before they narrow into slits. Because it's happened again. Someone's ratted out that the most wanted pirates in the sphere are using this tranquil block of land as a base for operations. And they're gonna gun it down. They're gonna kill everyone. Civilians be damned. "Goddammit!" I snarl. "We've got a mole on us. Shikamaru, you reading? Get the civilians outta here. Land our airship at the port. Naruto, alert the team, we're evacuating. Call the siren."

There's a shuffle in the town below, as the siren, a high-pitched screech designed to preclude death itself, goes off. "Commander." I look back as I'm packing up the weaponry and personnel. Naruto almost never addresses me as commander, as much as I address him as my right-hand man. It's implicit, and I don't like overusing words. My eyes are questioning, but he looks away, begins lighting up a stack of files filled with sensitive intel. Double agents, allies, battle plans; the like.

Everything goes up in crackling flames.

"Team 6. Have they-" He stops. Then murmurs, "Never mind, must be paranoid."

I shift my attention back to the gated exit and begin knocking down the steel plate. "Dobe, there ain't time. Let's get the hell outta here. Shikamaru, you reading?"

"Rodger, Commander. I've landed at Port Angel. Team Gai are rounding up the last civilians, I've got nearly everyone in the carrier."

"Status on Oto?"

"Approaching the archipelago, we have five minutes' max before interception. I'll need to leave in two minutes if we don't wanna engage."

"Rodger, leave in two minutes. We can't engage with civilians on board. Over." Shikamaru doesn't reply, he must be wondering about our status- Team 7- but he doesn't question me.

"Let's move out!" I yell to Naruto, who grabs a gun and tosses me my revolver. Then we run.

We're down the steps of the watchtower in seconds, across the bridge and through the town. Years of living on the run make you especially good at it. The first shots ring, deafening against the quiet of the night. They're miles away, but Oto ships always have good long-range attacks. That's how they do it; destroy, retreat.

Never getting close enough to be caught in the wreckage.

Bastards.

A second round of shots rain down; canons this time. The harbours destroyed. The main village too. Something in me stirs, but I ignore it. Now isn't the time to feel sentimental, when you're gunning it down the south side of a sleepy little village that's now wide awake with war and hellfire. The town blurs in the corner of my vision, and my senses are clouded by the siren, the canons, the bits of shrapnel raining down on us like hell on Earth. Except not really, because there is no Earth anymore. Just blocks of floating land, and pieces of a world we used to live in. There's a massive shift in the island as the harbour fractures off the peninsula, drifting away.

Ain't it funny how even when everything's broken, there's still room for it to break some more.

"Naruto! Radio Team Gai and get status of the evacuation."

Everything is noise; deafening and everywhere, but all I hear is silence. I whip around.

"Naruto!"

There's no reply, nothing from my radio either. Naruto's nowhere to be seen. We must've lost each other ages ago.

Shit. Under the light of the town going up in ashes, I can see something approaching. It's a distance away, but I've always had good sight. Good eyes, someone used to tell me. So, I see them before they see me. Soldiers; Oto's dirty workers. The major war mongers never go to war zones. They just release their bombs from above in their airships, activate the machine guns, load the cannons.

I grit my teeth and do a quick scan across the platoon. There's a whole army, decked in steel with nothing to live for except hardwired instructions to destroy circuited into their brain-dead minds. I reach for a grenade from my weapon sack. There ain't no way I can win this, but Naruto's here and I don't leave my men behind. They haven't noticed me, yet. But there's nowhere to hide on a terrain as flat as this.

It rings in my head that tonight might be the night that I die.

In the back of my mind, I see green eyes; bright and shiny, wet with tears, begging me to stay. A pink haired girl; gorgeous and breathless screaming at me on a chilly night in the middle of nowhere. It reminds me why I need to stay alive.

"Commander, what's your status? We've evacuated. We're preparing for take-off."

It's Shikamaru. "Rodger. Go forward." There's a pause.

"Go forward, Shikamaru," I say again, harder this time. "That's an order." Shikamaru's my head strategist, but I'm still commander.

There's another pause, but it's shorter. "Rodger that, preparing for take-off." There's another crackle, then the line goes dead.

I'm alone.

I count four rows of enemy soldiers, as they approach, ten in each row. Forty in total. They're decked in steel, marching down the dunes like a wave. I have fifteen rounds of ammo. Five grenades. And I've always been proud of my battle skill, but even I don't like those odds. Behind me, I can hear the ship taking off, engine's roaring. For a moment, I think the Oto ship has intercepted it, but there's only the sound of an engine revving, before the Konoha 12 weaves through the cluster of islands and disappears in the night. I smirk as Oto gets lost behind among the islands, inexpertly weaving through the sectors.

This is our land.

"Sasuke." The voice is crackly, almost unintelligible, but I hear it all the same.

"Is that you, dobe? Where the fuck are you?"

"Not telling."

I nearly drop the radio. "What the fuck?" I growl.

"Not telling, cos you'll come get me if I tell you. And you need to get outta here, man."

I snarl into the radio. "Fuckin' hell, this ain't the time to be playin' games, Naruto! Tell me where the hell you are!"

The soldiers are approaching in a row. They're a couple hundred meters away now, but while you'd think it'd be easy moving through flat terrain, it isn't. Not when there's fires blazing down across the bridge, flaring up in dry, grassy patches. Their armour, steel-capped, makes them twice as big and heavy. I'll only be within their hit range if they come a bit closer. But I'm a lot faster than them. If I can get to the weaponry over the cliff, I might be able to take them down, round back and grab Naruto. There's a small incline over the cliff, hidden by a sheath of weeds. We can hide there; plan the next move.

We could survive.

I scan the area. The side bridge through to the main town's been bombed. The only way I can get through back into town to find him is to cross through the terrain, which means engaging with the army. Nearly impossible. In the corner of my eye, I can see the Oto ship approaching the island again. Good. Shikamaru must've lost 'em.

"Do you remember when we joined the rebellion, teme?" It's Naruto again. He sounds wistful, so painfully poignant beyond his years as if we're still sittin' on top of the watch tower reminiscing about the past. It's so different from the man I'm used to, I'd scoff, if the ground wasn't exploding beneath me.

"Naruto..." I growl.

I grip the radio tightly and sprint, cinders brushing against my skin. Above me, I can see the Oto ship rounding on the field. They're too high up to lock on me, but they know I'm here. I can imagine the smug smirk on the captain's face. Sasuke Uchiha, ringleader of one of the most notorious pirate gangs in all of the sphere, cornered. They're not opening fire. They don't want me to die. There are worse things than death, and they've got 'em all planned for me. Too bad for them, though.

I never go down that easy.

There's a chuckle over the radio, but I can tell he's breathing heavily. Like he's been hit. "I remember the first time we joined the rebellion. Our first mission as Team 7. I know you miss her."

The radio's crackling, almost about to die, but I grip it and roar into it. "Goddamit, Naruto! Stop fuckin' around. Tell me where you are! This is an order!"

He continues as if I hadn't spoken. "I know you miss her, Sasuke. I know you miss your girl." Naruto says again. There's another pause.

I stiffen at the mention of her. My girl.

Behind me, a canon goes off; the entire port rips up in flames. In front of me, the army starts firing a round of shrapnel. They've noticed me now, but their aims dodgy because they can't pin me down. I shoot a few rings to take some of 'em down, but I've only got so much ammo, and my aim ain't perfect when the ground's tilted and I'm tryna dodge rounds and the only light I got is from the fires blazing behind me. I don't know if I can make it to the weaponry.

Maybe this is it.

The radio crackles to life again, increasingly less intelligible as Naruto voice drawls on.

"I promised that I'd bring you back to her." The radio croaks, heaving its last breath. Naruto's message barely comes through as less than a whisper, but I hear it, louder than the ricochet of bullets surrounding me.

"So that's what I'm gonna do."

"Naruto, you listen to me, tell me where you are! That's an order!" But the radio's dead. I slam it against the ground.

It explodes into pieces as the sound of a canon whistles against the wind and destroys the platoon firing at me.

"Bet ya didn't expect that, eh, teme?" The voice is loud, but it's also sheathed in pain. Naruto's been hit. Maybe when we got separated. Maybe just now.

There's a single pause before the Oto ship opens fire. They can't pinpoint me, but they've got a lock on Naruto's position because of the canon.

"Get down! DOWN!" I roar across the field, as shrapnel rains down. It's fire and bullets; the only noise I can hear is the resolve of the machine guns warring down on us from above. But there's a sudden shift; the shrapnel's not being blasted at us, anymore. It's being blasted above.

Across the ground, a shadow dulls the spark of the flames.

It's the airship. Mine. The Konoha 12.

There's a moment of pure war, as the ships fire at each other. The sound fills all of my senses, round after round, but it's nothing I've never heard before. The Konoha 12's winning. Oto's being forced back.

But for what? Maine-quiet town of lobster back in the old world- is destroyed. Across the terrain, Naruto's either dead or alive. Is this what I'm fightin' for? How much has to be destroyed before we win? But you don't get too many moments to think when you're in war. There's another exchange of fire, before Konoha 12 dives down, hovering above me. A straggly ladder falls down from the engine hatch.

"You didn't really think we'd leave without you, did you, Commanders?"

It's Shikamaru. A lazy drawl on his face, as he leans over the hatch, squinting to see me, but his eyes widen when he realises I'm alone.

"Where's Naruto?" He yells against the wind.

"Across the terrain."

"Status?"

I pause. Something in me feels guilty; stirring against my chest. "Unknown."

Shikamaru's eyes widen. Above us, Oto opens fire again. "Sasuke, we've gotta go. There ain't time! There ain't fuckin' time."

"I'm not goin' Shikamaru," I grunt. "I'm not leavin' any of my men behind." And it's stupid; not what you'd expect from Commander Uchiha-heartless and cold-but I'm clinging to a hope that my best friend's alive. We've all gotta hold on to something, right?

"Sasuke!" Shikamaru yells. "Get on the goddamn ship!"

But I'm not gonna leave Naruto 'cos he's alive. I'll kick his ass if he isn't.

"Get the ship outta here!" I snarl. "Head to Cairo, find Gaara, Suna's set up base there!" Another round of shots fire above me; we haven't been hit yet, but Oto's holding ground. There's no time left. "That's an order, Nara!"

"Sasuke!" Shikamaru growls.

I can imagine the snarl etched into his face, but I'm already sprinting across the terrain. The field's blazing, almost as red as the sky, and I can feel the heat of the flames scorching against my skin. The smoke's chokin' me, burnin' me, but I gotta get tp Naruto. And I'm not a quitter, but it can't get worse than this, I think. So maybe this isn't hell on Earth.

Maybe this is just hell.

I make it through, though. Naruto's crumpled form is moulded against the dirt, sunken into a short ledge over the crumbled steps leading up to the main town; I do a rough analysis. Six bullet wounds, though it's hard to make out with all the blood and the blurry vision. There could be more. He's alive though. Barely. I fling him over my shoulder and think of the options. The town church, the major's house, the local clinic. Places with medical supplies and security systems I can rig while I plan the next move.

"Uchiha, if you've got Naruto, grab the ladder and get the fuck on." It's Neji. I can see the rest of Team Gai leaning over the engine hatch as well, rolling down the string ladder.

"Hyuuga, thought I ordered you all to get outta here," I say, but I grab onto the ladder and try to ignore the warmth I can feel leaking over my left shoulder. Blood.

TenTen replies, pulling us up on the ladder. "You didn't seriously think we'd leave without you guys, did you?" There's the sound of another cannon, whistling against the wind, and the sound of its impact -against us or Oto, I can't tell- before Neji slides the hatch shut on the blazing ground beneath us, and the ringing of war dies down. TenTen and Lee smile at me. Neji looks stoic as usual. But their faces all turn grim when they see Naruto; the standard green army uniform he's wearing has turned a shade of mottled brown. "Get him to the OR, I need to command the ship," I tell them, and they immediately rush forward and heave a limp Naruto down the deck halls.

He looks half dead, but Naruto wouldn't die. Not him.

I rub the ring tied tightly against my chest and hope not.

Shikamaru's weaving through the cluster of islands near Maine; the quiet little village we'd been staying in till now. I can see the whole island up in flames, sections of it eroded away. I guess the war's managed to leave its mark on even the most remote part of the sphere; doesn't leave anything unscathed.

"Uchiha." I can see Shikamaru's smirk in the reflection of the radar. "You look like you should get a check-in yourself."

"Hn," I grunt and slink into the control station operator. "Status on the Oto airship?"

"They retreated. Couldn't handle the heat. Cowards." There's a pause.

"How's Naruto?" Shikamaru asks.

"They took him to OR. We've got a mole on board." Shikamaru shifts sharply towards me.

"Shit," he breathes, slumping against his operator. "I can't imagine anyone..."

"Two times in a row, we've been found," I reply, gripping the navigators tightly. "This ain't a coincidence, I'm startin' an investigation in the morning."

Shikamaru nods. He still looks disbelieving, but there's a look of calculation in his eye that tells me he's already narrowing down the subjects, breaking down any suspicious incidents. I slide out of the operator and set the auto-pilot on a route to Port Head.

"So I suppose we won't be meetin' up with Gaara, anymore," Shikamaru says when he reads the sudden change of course on the computer system overhead.

"Not with a mole on board," I reply, pacing the control room. "Put it on autopilot and have our teams go on night watch, today. Teams we trust."

"Rodger that, Sasuke," he replies with a smirk. Shikamaru never calls me commander, unless the situation's serious. None of 'em do, really. It's become a way of telling when somethin's wrong. Still, I slit my eyes as I'm exiting the centre. "I'll page Team Gai and Team 6," Shikamaru continues.

I turn around sharply. "Who's on Team 6?"

Shikamaru eyes me strangely. "Kiba, Shino and Haku."

I turn around again. All members that had proven their dedication to the Konoha 12. Still, the memory of Naruto's odd words, while we were escaping the watchtower, is enough to put me on the edge. "Switch 'em out with another team." Shikamaru's face frowns in confusion; probably he's friends with 'em. But I can't take any second chances when my right-hand man's got holes in his sides, and I've got a base of operations blown to shreds.

"Alright," he replies finally. Shikamaru may question me, but he trusts my judgement implicitly. "There aren't any other team available, we're missing medics cos' of the civilians."

I frown. "Alright; let Team Gai handle it."

"Rodger that, commander."

So I'm commander again.

The personal rooms are up on the top deck. Mine's a little way away from the side, commander's perks, it's the biggest. I turn the shower to scorching hot and watch the water run down the drain brown, with traces of red. I've got a few bruised ribs, a grazed thigh and a grazed cheek, but other than that, I'm alright. Eyeing the little pendant dangling from my neck, I smirk.

Maybe it really does bring luck. But then I think of Naruto. My second-in-command, shot up to hell, clutching his little silver cross in his hand, slick with blood, and the smirk slips off my face. There ain't a thing called luck at war. I slip on a clean uniform-everything is done in uniform at war, even sleep- and slip down the decks to the OR. I don't forget to lock the five keypads on my door behind me.

The OR on ship is a makeshift operation room tucked away from the rest of the place in the hull. It's got a curtain for privacy, and the smell of rubbing alcohol in the air and it's not an OR, but it's as close as we can get on here. There's a wooden sign hanging over the curtain when I get there.

In operation.

"Commander Uchiha." A soft voice breaks out from the silence. It's one of the doctors, draped in a white lab coat and blue gloves. The nametag reads Hinata, and I nod at her.

"Commander Uzumaki sustained eight gunshot wounds. Some of them went straight through. We removed four that were lodged in his chest and ribs." It sounds odd for her to be talking about the gory details of surgery when her voice is gentle and she's got docility written all over her face, but there's a strange determined edge to her demeanour. Like she's fighting for somethin'.

She continues gently, "We're still operating, so you'll have to excuse me. I just thought you might like to know his condition."

I don't reply. Just nod, and try to swallow the numbness building up in me. She gives me a little nod, then returns through the draped curtains and disappears. I try not to look behind the curtain, but I see it anyway. My right-hand man, laid out against the shifty table, looking as dead as a person can be. I've never been squeamish, but I have to swallow hard at the bile rising in my throat. I sit outside, in the makeshift waiting room with a couple of fold out chairs, before they roll him out on a stretcher and into one of the emergency rooms-what used to be a row of offices.

I see the same doctor again as I approach the room. She smiles as I come, and I nod at her.

"He's still under anaesthesia," she says in that same quiet voice, that doesn't suit the blood splattered coat she's wearing. "But he'll be alright."

I nod and murmur my thanks-a very quiet grunt- as she walks away to attend to some civilians who got injured between the ceasefire. I don't go in the room. I stand outside. He's got an oxygen mask secured to his face, and ten different instruments beeping around him. But there's no blood anymore, he's in a standard white patient's gown and the beep of his heart monitor pulses, so I know he'll be okay. I drop the silver cross next to his pillow and walk out.

It glimmers underneath the light of his heart monitor.

I make a few more rounds around the ship before heading back to the dorm rooms. My body aches all over, but I don't collapse onto the bed. Instead, I lay out my writing tools, an expensive set of pens and paper. It's always the most trivial, basic things that go first in war. We don't get letters much around here; it's too risky to trust anyone with our location. It's kept us notoriously difficult to track, but it comes at a price. Nearly everyone on board succumbs to some degree of isolation. We've all got secret ways of connecting with the outside world. This is mine. A few letters every month, stamped to Bern-a tiny little Switzerland port-and I never expect a reply. But I write it, anyway.

Outside, the ship breaks above the cloud cover. The only small, circular window above my writing station shows endless shades of black and grey, sharp and clear away from the cloud fog.

I scoff.

50 000 feet above ground, but we're as far from Heaven as we can get.

Sakura Haruno

230 Vista Drive

Bern, SW 4131

Hope you've been keepin' your nose out of trouble, baby. The dobe got shot on our last mission, but he's got a thick skin. He's okay. I know you ain't happy, baby, but I need you in Bern, stayin' safe, you hear me? Stay out of trouble, alright?

When this is all over, I'll come pick you up. We'll go anywhere you want, like we said.

Sasuke.

END OF CHAPTER ONE: WAR

NEXT CHAPTER: RECOVERY

Hi there! If you're reading this, then I guess it means you've read through the first chapter of this story! Thanks! :) This story was inspired by a TV series I used to revere, called Skyland. It's loosely based on that, but other than the premises of the Earth being shattered into blocks, everything else will be Naruto related. I'm on school break right now, so I'll try to upload the next chapter by tomorrow night. I'm working on it right now. :) Anyway, feel free to leave any feedback or a review; constructive criticism, thoughts, suggestions, my grammar's not that great, so if you catch onto anything that's a bit dodgy, I'd be really happy to hear it. Anyway, hope you stick around for the next chapter!

Stella x