Wow it's been a while... oh well, at least I got this chap done with. I hope to keep working on these over the summer. Who knows, maybe I'll get done by the end of this year... and maybe pigs'll fly, but I'll try my damndest! Promise!
Disclaimer: you guys know the drill....
Cry Me a Sea of Stars
"I won't run away anymore... I won't go back on my word... "
Naruto Uzumaki
"I fight for my sake only and live to love no one but myself."
Gaara of the Desert
The ship was silent as Sasuke sat at the coms, trying desperately to get a hold of his elder brother. I sat nearby, watching as with each failure his frustration only grew. Despite the siblings hating one another, they still worried. They were family after all. And the worry Itachi was causing Sasuke at the moment only served for me to hate him even more. Tsunade glanced between the two of us, piecing things together from what she'd gathered. I had the distinct feeling she'd been looking through that photo album as of late. It would explain why she kept glancing at the two of us expectantly.
Sakura was with Ino and Hinata, the two talking in hushed voices while Hinata fidgeted. Lee was nearby, watching the three as he tried to reassemble a gun. He was getting better at it, but slowly. He still had efficiency to work on. Naruto was lounging in his chair, flipping through the many porn books he usually hid under his mattress. It was amusing really, seeing as how the blond hadn't realized yet that Jiraiya was the author of said books. Speaking of the man, he was sitting nearby with Orochimaru, both thinking over possible escape routes if BLOOD did happen to corner us. They were taking every possible scenario into account.
Finally, I stood and made my way over to where Sasuke was. I could see he was getting towards his limit. His shoulders were slumped forward and his head was hung as he grumbled to himself, looking at the controls. I set a hand on his shoulder and he lifted his head, looking at me in slight question.
"What is it, Gaara?"
"You look tired, why don't you take a break, Sir?"
He shook his head. "I'm fine..."
"Sir, really. Maybe you sho-"
"You called, baby brother?" Itachi asked, his image appearing on the screen above us. I frowned and glared up at him, Sasuke blinking.
"Wow... I didn't expect that one to actually work..."
"What did you need, Sasuke?" Itachi asked, tone bored. He noted my glare and smirked to himself. I rolled my eyes.
"We found BLOOD... but we don't know where they are at the moment..." Sasuke replied, smiling sheepishly. Itachi blinked, staring at his younger brother flatly before he looked to me for explanation.
"We set off a few charges in their ship and ran...."
"YOU DID WHAT!?! YOU WERE ON BOARD THEIR SHIP!?! SASUKE!!! ARE YOU INSANE!!!?! I KNEW YOUR FIRST MATE WANTED TO KILL YOU, BUT THIS IS TOO MUCH! YOU'RE SMARTER THAN THAT!!!!!" Itachi nearly screamed. There was a crash from over the com and the entire crew flinched. Itachi was no longer on screen but hollering and a bit of destruction could be heard. Sasuke blinked, turning to look at me in slight shock. I merely shrugged and shook my head. I hadn't a clue what to say. I mean.. what can be said? Itachi, the ice queen... was throwing a temper tantrum.
Neji eventually appeared on the screen, his face completely calm despite the fact that there were now multiple voices trying to calm the Uchiha captain, who was now screaming profanities. He sighed and shifted the camera angle slightly. "Please excuse him, he hasn't had his daily coffee yet..." he muttered, tone flat. "You needed that trace on BLOOD...right?" We nodded. "I'm sending it over. It should program straight into your coordinates so you can easily keep an eye on them. Do us a favor.. next time you do something that stupid, don't tell Itachi, he'll freak and go into a spasm like he is now..." And with that, the screen went blank.
Silence hung over the ship once more, everyone still staring in silent shock at the black screen. From the looks of it, none of us knew how to react to that outburst.
"What... the hell just happened?" Jiraiya finally asked, the first one to break the silence.
"I haven't a fucking clue..." Orochimaru replied, turning back to his cards a second later. "Go fish..."
"DAMN IT!"
The coordinates came in soon enough, immediately programing into our files. Now that we had BLOOD's serial number we could find them almost anywhere. We double checked their location before judging it safe and making our way out of the current solar system. They were still there, circling the back ground of Jupiter.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Naruto had set the ship on neutral, letting us just drift for the time. It was peaceful for now, for how long was another question entirely. I sighed heavily as I sank into my chair. My entire body felt like lead. It was already a week after Shikamaru's death and I still had yet to have my real breakdown. Shaking the thought from my mind, I tried to focus on something else. The only things that came to mind were earlier memories...
-0-0-0-0-0-
The entire ship was dark as I opened my eyes. The others were asleep, that much I knew for a fact. There was no movement, none what so ever. Dan had made sure everyone had gotten onto a schedule for sleeping patterns. It was simple enough, when the clock said 11 we were supposed to be in bed, lights out, and making no noise. The wake up call followed at exactly 4 in the morning. The problem I had with this.. was I never really slept. Not well anyway. Too many night mares.
With a sigh, I stood, bare feet touching the cool metal flooring of the ship. I figured a glass of water and the darkness of the galley would do me some good. At least there I could relax and let my mind wander off.
The room, when I arrived, was completely empty. No one else was there for now and this was a good sign. Silently, I shifted around and poured myself a glass of ice water. Once done, I made my way to the table only to stop.
There, leaning on the table, was a fast asleep Shikamaru. He was the newest addition to our crew and from the looks of it, he was having some difficulty fitting in. A book lay open under his head, the pages revealing it for what it was: a mechanics manual. I couldn't help but feel slightly endeared towards the other teen. He was making an effort to pull his weight. He wanted to be apart of our family.
I set my glass down and slipped out in the hall, nearly running into Sasuke a few feet down. He paused and blinked, recognizing me in the dark. "Gaara? What are you doing up?" he asked, setting a hand on my shoulder. I offered a small smile and motioned for him to be quiet as I led him back into the kitchen. He spotted Shikamaru, recognition spreading as he smiled as well. "Well I'll be damned..."
"Should we move him?"
"Nah... leave him to sleep..." Sasuke muttered, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. I blinked at first confused before I relaxed, leaning into him.
"Looks like the group's growing... huh?"
"That it does..."
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
I sighed and shifted once more, turning to stare out one of the thickened glass windows. A nearby nebula swirled within the view of the window, casting an eerie glow into the darkened bridge. The only light was coming from the controls on the main panel, giving small readings and levels within the engine and life supports.
It was blissfully silent, the sound I reveled in. In the silence, I could be anything I wanted to be. In the silence, the world didn't exist... In the silence.... I didn't exist....
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
"Gaara... Gaara, get up..." Sasuke was shaking my shoulder slightly, trying to bring me out of the stupor induced sleep. I groaned slightly and cracked open my eyes, the raven looking down at me with a soft smile.
"Sasuke?"
"You fell asleep out here... Everyone else is in bed..." He replied, running a hand through my hair. I hummed and closed my eyes for a brief moment before sitting up. He watched me, his smile still in place.
"What time is it?" I asked, rubbing my eyes slightly before I blinked. Sasuke chuckled and wiped at my left cheek slightly.
"Still using that Kohl?" he asked, slightly amused. I blinked before offering a shrug.
"I got in the habit..." I muttered. He nodded.
"It's nearly 1 am..." he added, answering my previous question. "Come on... let's get you into a real bed..."
I nodded tiredly, getting up from my chair and following after him. He paused and waited for me at the door, wrapping an arm around my shoulders once I'd reached him. I leaned in, fidgeting slightly. I was heading to bed, of which most people would be glad of... but me... it just made me feel nervous.
Monsters haunted my dreams, monsters that I knew and could put a name to... an eerily familiar name.
"You're tense..." Sasuke stated, keeping his gaze ahead of us. I flinched.
"S-sorry..." I muttered.
"Don't be..." he fell silent for a bit before pulling me in the direction of his room. I blinked.
"Sasuke?" I asked. Hadn't he mentioned taking me to bed?
"Yes, Gaara?"
"Where are we-"
"My room... you can sleep with me tonight..."
Relief. That was all I registered as I followed him the rest of the way. With Sasuke around, I could relax.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
The loud, hollow sound of metal scraping against metal reached our ears, breaking us all from our peaceful dreams... or in my case nightmares. I shot up in the bed, Sasuke stirring beside me. A red light was blinking, reflecting into the room. It drew my gaze straight to it, pulling me from the confines of the covers and onto the cold, hard floor. That light, that wasn't a light from our ship.
"Gaara... is that what I think it is?" Sasuke asked, walking up to the large window behind me. I just stared, mouth open in shock. There, before us, was a huge ship. The sides were coated in blood, the outside being painted with the dried liquid. Bones and tanned skin hung in "decorative" fashion from the siding. Random spikes jutted out of the main hull of the ship, one of those spikes now dragging slowly against the window we were staring out of.
"Shit..." Sasuke muttered, slowly stepping over to the nearest control marker in his room. From that, he could hack into our main board and make sure we were flying silent, under the radar. We were drifting. Even better.
"Think they've noticed us?"
"No.... not yet...amazingly." we kept our voices barely a whisper, almost afraid to say anything more.
They could have been listening. With the technology today, radios could be used to pick up the faintest footstep within a ship at least seven hundred miles away. If they were using that... we were screwed. And screwed we were. The flood light blinked on, the thing pointed right at our ship.
"Shit!" Sasuke hissed, moving over to the coms. "NARUTO! GET US OUT OF HERE, NOW!"
"Isolde... surrender and do not arm yourself. If you attempt to run we will take you down." A voice growled over our own communications line. "You are being boarded...."
Fifteen minutes later found us all lined up in the bridge... at least, the pirates. Sakura, Hinata, Ino, and Lee were all hidden within the metal shelling around the walls of our ship. Now hopefully these bastards weren't that intelligent and didn't search that thoroughly.
Pein smirked from where he was watching us, Hidan at his side. BLOOD... they were a despicable crew. Kakuzu and Zetsu were snooping around with that bitch with the blue hair. I didn't bother remembering her name. Just the look of her left a bad taste in my mouth.
Nearby Sasori and Deidara stood, watching the other exits. This left one more... Tobi. The man in question was observing from the captain's chair, his mask firmly in place. But from the way he kept looking at us, I could tell he was smirking.
"Where the hell are they?" Hidan snarled, gripping his three bladed scythe a little tighter. Sasuke looked over at him slightly bored.
"Where are who?"
CRACK! A fist met jaw and Sasuke stumbled to the side slightly, struggling to stay on his feet. Tsunade grabbed my wrist, holding me in check. The look she gave me said it all... "Wait...."
"Don't play dumb with me!" Hidan sneered seconds later, watching as Sasuke wiped the blood from his jaw and winced. "You're as pathetic as that sorry excuse for a brother of yours...you're the failures of your family...."
Sasuke snarled and retaliated, grabbing a loose wrench from the control panel and slamming it into the bottom of Hidan's jaw. That was it. The rest of us moved into action, Tsunade shoving her shoulder into the chest of Pein and slamming him into a wall. Jiraiya and Orochimaru moved in as a pair, the black haired man bringing the heel of his foot around into Deidara's chest and Jiraiya attacked from the back, both taking the blond down. Naruto moved towards Tobi, a hidden dagger being drawn from his hiding place. That left Sasori.
He smirked and faced me, a familiar image of our previous fight back on Earth. I just ducked to the side, sweeping in with a butterfly knife. He side stepped the attack, spinning around for a roundhouse kick. I managed to bring the knife into and through the soul of his boot, twisting. His foot followed with my movement, the tendons snapping and his ankle breaking. Sasori's scream echoed through the room and suddenly a shoulder barreled into me from the side.
I stumbled, hitting the control panel nearest me with a solid smack. Something snapped and I could only guess they were ribs. Another hit slammed into my back and I found myself kissing the tiling of the floor. A white hot explosion of pain ripped through my head, my eyes failing me for a second before I managed to roll over and bring a booted foot into the head of my attacker. Kakuzu stumbled back, right into Tobi.
"SIR!" Pein called from where he had Sasuke pinned. "Zetsu radioed in! We have them!"
"Then let's go!" Tobi called from where he was scrambling to his feet. Sasuke snapped at Pein's hold, the taller man looking almost like he wanted to retaliate until Tobi signaled for him to follow. With a snarl, he slammed Sasuke's head into the floor and got up, backing out as well. And just like that, as fast as they had come... they were gone.
Slowly, Sasuke started to get up. Blood covered most of his face, running down onto his clothing and the floor. A scan of the others told me they weren't much better off. We looked like shit to be blunt about it.
"Damage report..." Sasuke manage to mutter through multiple winces. I shrugged, regretting the action in seconds.
"So far... we're all here..."
"What about the stow aways?" Tsunade asked, trying not to look at the rest of us.. or herself.
"I'll go che-"
"Sasuke... I'm glad we could play... but it had to end, sadly... we got our prize... all four of them. And we plan on using them... to frame you." Tobi purred over the coms once more, no image accompanying him. "You can save yourself, however... if you can manage to find us. I'm looking forward to our game of cat and mouse... tell me... are you ready to play?"
