Author's note: Maximum ten chapters, nothing more for sure. This won't turn into another The Long Run, trust me.

Thanks to the following reviewers: solitare1; Iraheta 127; Richon; 666snoopy; leighd1314

Warnings: Some zombie trouble

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto owns it.

I hope you'll like it!

Part 4

"Should we try escaping through the window?" Sasuke suggested, but it was a half-baked suggestion at best.

They would have to break the window first and then manage to be quick enough to crawl through it before the zombies could turn around and try to get them. All that was in the assumption that they would even manage to break the window before the undead broke down the door.

Naruto walked a few aisles back to check the window in the front. When he returned to Sasuke, he shook his head. "They're pressing up against the window as well. No way to get out through there even if we managed to break the glass without them catching us."

Not a surprise, that. Sasuke sighed and glanced back at the group of zombies still smashing their heads against the door. "You think they'll lose interest if we stay hidden?"

"Nah man, once those fuckers are honed in on someone they won't lose interest," Naruto said grimly and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Learnt that the hard way unfortunately."

"Our only option is to hide then," Sasuke surmised and honed in on the door in between two shelves that he had taken notice of earlier.

The wooden door in question was rather scuffed, showing quite some wear and tear near the bottom. It had a small round window in the middle, which had become quite grimy through the years. Sasuke hadn't taken a look inside yet, but assumed this had to be some kind of office. They could hide in there and with a bit of luck – though he didn't dare to hope too much – there might even be another exit leading outside.

Naruto followed his line of sight and raised an eyebrow. "Well, it's worth a shot, I guess," he muttered and went to it immediately. "Better than just staying here waiting for those ugly fucks to beat down the door."

It took some wiggling of the doorknob, but Naruto managed to open the door by ramming his shoulder against the wood while at the same time viciously juggling the doorknob. It made quite some noise with the hinges screeching in protest, but at this point noise wasn't really a concern anymore. They had already been spotted by the undead group outside; some extra noise wouldn't really matter anymore.

"God damn, did this belong to a hoarder?" Naruto exclaimed quietly when he shoved something out of the way.

Sasuke followed him into the room and immediately understood Naruto's reaction. Everywhere he looked there was nothing but boxes upon boxes upon boxes. Where there weren't any boxes, there were garbage bags filled to the brim with things Sasuke didn't even want to contemplate and piles of yellowed magazines. The air was incredibly stale and just one look around showed that there was no other door leading outside. They would essentially be stuck here like sardines in a can, but –

The sound of the front door cracking warningly made the decision for them. Naruto hopped over a couple of boxes, giving Sasuke enough space to fully enter the room and turn around to close the door. He started shoving boxes in front of it quickly, Naruto helping by piling them up on top of each other. The boxes weren't terribly heavy, but hopefully they would act as a temporary barrier. At least until they had figured out just how the fuck they were going to get out of here without being bitten.

Even with several boxes piled on top of each other, though, they didn't have much room to move around and so they were forced to remain standing in one spot, pressed rather closely together. With the door closed and the only window of it small and grimy, Sasuke couldn't really see Naruto very well, but he could smell him, especially this close against him. There was the Alpha scent of course, which he had come to recognise as the generic one produced by the blockers. Most blockers only produced a generic scent as tailoring each of them would be too costly and the majority of the people using these blockers weren't planning on getting into too close contact with other people anyway.

When Sasuke concentrated on Naruto's scent more intensely, however, he thought he could pick up a vague hint of his actual Omega scent. It was something faintly citrus like, he discerned, with a hint of sweet flowers. It wasn't unpleasant at all and he had to stop himself from inhaling more deeply. He mentally slapped himself; what the hell was he doing, concentrating on Naruto's natural scent when they had a horde of zombies to deal with?

"They broke through," Naruto murmured; his warm breath caressing Sasuke's cheek.

Yeah, they had. Sasuke listened how the front door cracked loudly several times before the horrendous, low groaning noise of the zombies gurgling filled the pharmacy. They shuffled through the shop, bumping against the shelves by the sound of several bottles and boxes crashing to the floor. A shadow passed in front of the office; the darkened window momentarily turning even darker. Both Sasuke and Naruto held their breath at the same time as the zombie slowly shuffled past; its gurgling breath hair rising even after all these years.

"Got any idea on how to get out of here?" Naruto whispered.

"Can't see shit," Sasuke whispered back as he looked around, only catching vague outlines of boxes and bags in the room. "I know there's no door that we can use."

"No windows either – wait," Naruto cut himself off and he turned around so that his back was towards Sasuke, forcing the Alpha to lean back a bit or get bashed in the chest by the backpack. "Can you hand me my torch? It's in the front pocket of my bag."

"You've seen something?" Sasuke wondered and slowly, carefully unzipped the front pocket, trying to remain as quiet as possible. He rummaged around in it until his fingers bumped against something cold and cylinder-like.

He handed it over to Naruto, figuring that had to be the torch. He was correct; a quiet 'click' and a thin yellowish beam of light appeared, dancing over boxes before Naruto steadied his grip. He swung the beam across the wall until it landed on a narrow window high up near the ceiling.

Sasuke studied the window with some scepticism. It looked barely wide enough to let someone through; he doubted he would be able to fit through it even if he could have reached it.

"How much can you lift?" Naruto asked lightly, keeping the torch aimed at the window.

Sasuke realised immediately why he asked that question and raised an eyebrow. "You think you can fit through that?" he questioned sceptically.

"My shoulders are less broad than yours," Naruto replied and shrugged. "I can give it a try at least."

"So what's the plan then?"

"Well, it all depends on how much you trust me," Naruto said airily.

"How so?" Sasuke asked, unable to hide his suspicion.

"Neither of us can reach that window on our own so you would have to give me a boost," Naruto started to explain, sweeping the torch from one end of the window to the next. "Thing is, while I can probably fit through it, I doubt you can. My plan is to lure them away, or at least the majority of them so that you can escape through the door."

"That's a dangerous plan," Sasuke instantly riposted.

Luring away a group of zombies while not knowing how big it was exactly sounded more like a planned suicide instead of a rescue attempt.

"But it's the only plan we have," Naruto insisted. "Unless you think the others will notice our shitty situation soon?"

Sasuke pressed his lips together. It hadn't been that long ago since they had parted ways with Itachi and Tenten. They wouldn't have any reason to start looking for them yet. On top of that they didn't know Sasuke and Naruto had decided to raid a pharmacy first. The mass of zombies might give away their location but that was only if Itachi or Tenten decided to go looking for them.

"Thought so," Naruto said in response to Sasuke's silence.

"You'd be risking your life," Sasuke remarked, feeling the need to point that out even though that should be obvious.

"Never mind the danger, I think the most important question now is: do you trust me enough to help me with this plan or not?" Naruto asked and turned his head to look at him, though with how dark it was, it was questionable just how much Naruto could really see. "And with that I mean, do you trust me enough not to leave you stranded here?"

That was a very good question, wasn't it? Did he trust Naruto enough to help him get out of here while he himself remained stuck in this room until the zombies disappeared? Did he have any choice? If he refused to help, they would be stuck in this room for gods knew how long and that was if the zombies didn't manage to break down this door as well. They shouldn't be able to, but Sasuke could hear them slowly grouping together near the office as if they were aware that two living humans were hiding inside. Maybe the undead could smell them, who the fuck knew.

So it was a choice between trusting Naruto enough to get him outside and hope he kept to the plan of luring the horde away or remain stuck here for gods knew how long in what would most likely be very uncomfortable silence.

"You know I would understand it if you don't trust me enough yet to pull off this plan," Naruto said awfully lightly. "I prefer honesty in that case."

Sasuke heaved a huge sigh. "You leave me behind and I get bitten, I will hunt your arse down," he promised.

Naruto surprised him by chuckling; his body lightly shaking against Sasuke. "Fair enough. So how about that lifting?"

Somehow Naruto was able to squeeze through the window once he managed to figure out how to unlock it. It said a lot of how skinny he truly was and Sasuke spent a moment wondering whether they shouldn't start giving Naruto a bigger portion because he was pretty certain the Omega shouldn't have been able to fit through that window either if he had been a normal weight.

Once he boosted Naruto up, the blond managed to wriggle through the open window with a lot of muted cursing. His legs hung suspended in the air for a moment, his right foot nearly clipping Sasuke in his ear, before he pulled himself up completely, disappearing out of view. A couple of seconds later, his hand appeared through the gap again, making a beckoning gesture. Sasuke bent down and grabbed Naruto's backpack, which he had to take off in order to fit through the window. He rose up on his tiptoes and held up the bag to Naruto, who snatched it quickly.

"I'm going to lure them away now. Try not to die in the meantime, I don't want your pissed off brother after my arse," Naruto whispered to him.

"I'll do my best," Sasuke replied dryly.

He received a thumb's up in return before Naruto's footsteps retreated and faded away rapidly.

This was either going to work, end in someone's death or betrayal. Sasuke dearly hoped it would be the first possibility, because he preferred being alive and having Naruto betray him in the end would suck considering the amount of time they had spent together. He doubted Naruto would actually leave him behind, but he couldn't help but be a bit nervous nonetheless as he moved back to the middle of the room, using touch to avoid tripping over a box or a bag.

This would be the first time he had to solely rely on Naruto to get him out of a dangerous situation and he hoped he wouldn't come to regret that. He came to a halt behind the barrier of boxes again and retrieved his katana out of its sheath just in case. The zombies were now gathered right in front of the office, pressing themselves up against the door which led credence to Sasuke's theory that they might be able to smell him. Or perhaps at some subconscious level they were aware that Sasuke had to be inside here because he hadn't been able to escape the pharmacy before they showed up? He dearly hoped that wasn't the case, because the last thing they needed was for these undead bastards to actually still have a form of subconsciousness.

He couldn't hear much above the groaning and gurgling of the dead, but he thought he could pick up the faint sound of some sort of ruckus going on outside. It sounded like something was … banging against metal? Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows and shifted his left foot to brace himself, tightening his grip around the katana.

Whatever was going on outside – Naruto starting the distraction? – it agitated the zombies in front of the office and they started slamming themselves against the door, making Sasuke flinch instinctively when the wood groaned dangerously. The boxes started to wobble slightly, making him eye them in concern. The boxes weren't that heavy to begin with, which was why he and Naruto had piled so many on top and in front of each other. If they toppled over now …

The door actually bent slightly; the throaty groaning sounding a tad louder. Sasuke's heart started beating quicker in response and he raised his katana, preparing to stab the second the door gave in and the first zombie shoved himself through.

Suddenly they all stopped. Their agitated moaning grew even louder and worse if that was even possible, but Sasuke quickly realised they were moving away from the door instead of towards it. More items crashed to the floor in the pharmacy, but the horde was moving away from the office; their shadows no longer blocking the window.

Sasuke had a moment to breathe out in relief before Itachi's unexpected voice rang out, "Sasuke? You here?"

"Yeah, in here!" Sasuke called back quickly and not wanting to waste time he just shoved and kicked the boxes out of the way enough so that he could stumble out of the office. "What are you doing here?"

Itachi rushed over to him, spending just a couple of seconds to stab a straggling zombie in her head. "You okay?" he demanded hurriedly, inspecting Sasuke for any potential injuries.

"I'm fine," Sasuke reassured him. "How did you find me?"

"Naruto told me you were stuck in the office here," Itachi explained, taking a step back now that he was satisfied Sasuke was unharmed. "He was luring the group away, but wasn't sure whether all the zombies had left."

"He's still luring them away?" Sasuke demanded; worry spiking immediately.

Itachi shook his head, however. "Tenten and he are killing them off now. He sent me here to make sure they were all gone. What happened?"

"We got surprised by that group," Sasuke sighed and sheathed his katana for now. He trusted his brother that Naruto and Tenten would be able to handle that group on their own; he wouldn't have left them on their own if that hadn't been the case. "Naruto and I couldn't do anything else but hide in that office, but we had no idea how long we would be stuck there. Naruto found a window and he managed to get through it so that he could lure them away."

"You couldn't fit through the window?" Itachi questioned as they quickly left the pharmacy.

"No, my shoulders were too broad," Sasuke answered. "Naruto managed to squeeze through it, though it was a tight fit."

He grabbed his katana again when he caught sight of three zombies, but relaxed when Tenten stabbed one zombified teenager through his head. Naruto took care of the remaining two, stabbing the first one through her temple before swiftly whirling around and ramming his dagger in the zombie's forehead. In total ten zombies were now strewn around on the ground and Sasuke couldn't help but be impressed that Naruto not only had had the balls to lure away so many, but that he and Tenten had managed to take care of them on their own.

"Did I manage to get them all?" Naruto asked, slightly out of breath, when he spotted Sasuke and Itachi.

"Just one left over," Itachi replied. "You realise your plan could have gone seriously wrong, I hope?"

"Well, it's not like we had plenty of options," Naruto sighed and ran his fingers through his hair before grimacing when he realised it was splattered with blood. "It was either trying this out or be stuck in that room for who knew how long and running the risk they would break down the door after all."

"I don't know whether to consider you insane or cool for pulling this shit," Tenten told him, cleaning her own hands on her jeans.

"I guess I could be both," Naruto snorted and rolled his shoulders. "Do we still have time to check out the other shops?"

"After this, I think it's better if we stop for today and return later," Itachi said dryly. "I don't think it would be smart to tempt fate a second time."

Naruto shrugged. "Suit yourself."

As they made their way back to the car, Sasuke fell into step with Naruto, who glanced at him questioningly.

"Thanks for not letting me rot there," Sasuke murmured, smiling faintly.

Naruto quirked a quick smile, so quick Sasuke almost didn't catch it. "Thanks for trusting that I wouldn't leave you behind and skip town."

"After all this time, I think you've earnt my trust," Sasuke said quietly.

At the very least Naruto had definitely proven himself today. The few doubts that had festered within Sasuke were completely silent now.

Naruto ducked his head; his cheeks turning slightly pink. He cleared his throat. "Glad to hear that."

"You haven't told the rest the truth about my nature."

Sasuke twitched in surprise and turned his head. Naruto stood behind him, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jacket. He had his hood pulled up to shield his face from the drizzle which had started a few minutes ago. The dagger strapped to his thigh gleamed slightly in the lantern that had been put on the ground in the corner of the shelter.

Evening had fallen an hour ago and it was Sasuke's turn to keep watch first. He hadn't expected Naruto to seek him out tonight, least of all to bring up that.

Sasuke blinked up at him, shielding his eyes so that the rain wouldn't hit them. "Why would I have? It's your business and I promised I wouldn't tell them if you didn't want me to," he reminded him.

Naruto shrugged and looked away, seemingly finding great interest in the fence that surrounded their camp. "I know you did, but that doesn't have to mean anything," he said rather jaded. "Your group seems pretty open about everything from what I've seen."

"We learnt the hard way that most secrets aren't worth keeping," Sasuke said and rubbed his forehead.

Most secrets were meaningless in the face of a zombie apocalypse. It was better to be as truthful as possible even when it came to things that appeared inane. That didn't mean nobody was entitled to privacy anymore, though.

"But this is still your business. If you don't want anybody to know, I'm not planning on telling them," Sasuke added.

It wasn't as if Naruto's secret could be dangerous; at most it might make people feel somewhat slighted that he had misled them about his true nature, but in the end his nature didn't change anything.

"What brought this on?" he asked curiously.

"I don't know," Naruto muttered and removed his hands from his pockets to start picking at his nails. "I guess I just started thinking about it after Itachi was so quick to believe me when I told him where you were."

Sasuke frowned. "You think he only believed you because he thinks you're an Alpha?" He wasn't certain whether to feel offended on his brother's behalf or not. "Itachi doesn't care about that kind of thing, you know. Alpha, Beta, Omega, he would have believed you no matter your nature."

"Yeah, I suppose he isn't the type to give a shit about that," Naruto sighed and pursed his lips. "Still, I would have thought you would have at least told your brother about me. You're as thick as thieves from what I've been told."

"Doesn't mean I don't know when to keep my mouth shut," Sasuke retorted and eyed the other one carefully. "What's really on your mind?"

"Is it that obvious?" Naruto smiled wryly.

"Just a guess." Sasuke shrugged. "You sound like you're beating around the bush for something and you haven't brought up your nature before tonight, so … What's up?"

"It's stupid," Naruto instantly tried to wave it off, but Sasuke wasn't having any of that.

"It can't be that stupid if it brought you out here in the rain," he refuted. "I promise I won't laugh, if that's what you want to hear."

Naruto snorted quietly and looked away again. "It's nothing, it's just …" He hesitated and bit down his lower lip.

A part of Sasuke absently remarked that Naruto's mouth still appeared somewhat red from the spicy ramen he had eaten earlier tonight.

"That whole thing at the town earlier today, it got me thinking," Naruto continued and stuffed his hands into his pockets again. He was decidedly not looking at Sasuke when he said, "I realised it had been a while since … since I last had someone relying on me like that. I've been on my own for so long that … I don't know, man," he sighed. "I guess it felt … weird to have someone depending on me like that again."

Sasuke was quiet for a moment as he tried to think of what to say. Even though Naruto had been here for weeks already, he only sporadically let something slip about his past. It appeared that Sasuke was the main recipient of the few times he did grow chatty, because he had discreetly asked around and none of the others, not even Itachi, got anything more than some shallow talk out of the blond. It had Sasuke wondering why that was. Out of the two of them, Itachi had always appeared the most approachable and people tended to be more at ease around him, quicker to take him into confidence. Sasuke wasn't a dick to others, but it had become clear years ago that Itachi was just considered easier to talk to than him.

Which made Naruto's bouts of chattiness around Sasuke all the more interesting, seeing as Sasuke seemed to be the sole recipient.

"For what it's worth," he murmured, "it's been a while since I last had to rely on someone like that."

The last time had to have been Kisame during a run that had nearly gone awry and that one had been more than a year ago.

"Both our first times then, huh?" Naruto joked, but his smile was somewhat off.

"You can make your home here, you know," Sasuke said and blue eyes swivelled to him in surprise. "I've noticed you tend to keep yourself to the side, but you can have your home here with us if you want. Well, as much of a home as you can call this," he added wryly, gesturing towards the group of houses that could have been the start of a new town before everything had gone to shit.

"This your way of saying I'm already mooching of you guys, so might as well make it official?" Naruto snorted, but his eyes were gleaming a bit with amusement.

"If you were really mooching of us, I think you would have gained more weight by now," Sasuke scoffed.

Naruto clucked his tongue. "Again with the weight jokes, bastard, you've got anything else up your s- holy shit!"

Something – a bird, a bat? – flew right past Naruto, making him trip over his own feet. Sasuke shot forwards and snatched Naruto by his jacket to keep him from hitting the ground. He misjudged his own strength, however, and instead of falling backwards, Naruto stumbled forwards and landed on Sasuke's lap, nearly crushing some very important bits before the blond managed to readjust himself hastily. While he had managed to avoid the most sensitive area, he still managed to knee Sasuke in the stomach briefly, leaving the Alpha slightly winded.

Naruto's hands landed on Sasuke's shoulders, using them to brace himself and sit up; his eyes wide and his face red.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" he whispered. "Are you okay? I didn't hit your dick, did I?"

"I'm fine," Sasuke managed to bring out once he got his breathing under control. "You really do need more meat on those bones, though. At least your knees. You can stab someone with those."

"Natural weapons, who wouldn't like that?" Naruto quipped back. "In my defence, I didn't expect you to grab me like that."

"I didn't expect you to trip like that either. I wanted to prevent you getting your head smashed in by the ground," Sasuke retorted. "You know it would have been really embarrassing if you got done in by a small animal of all things, right?"

"Bastard," Naruto scoffed and only then seemed to realise he was still grasping Sasuke's shoulders. He snatched them back, colouring a deeper red; a blush which intensified when he further realised that he was also still seated on Sasuke's lap. "Sorry, I didn't think - "

He was too quick in getting up and stumbled again, making Sasuke shot up from his chair and grab him by his elbows this time to keep him upright.

"Did Deidara get you to drink some of that beer or so?" he demanded, because this was just getting ridiculous.

"No, dickhead, I just haven't been sleeping well these past couple of nights and I guess that came back to bite me in the …" Naruto trailed off when he looked up, straight into Sasuke's eyes.

Blue eyes locked onto black ones and Sasuke instantly became aware of just how close they were standing to each other. There was barely any space between them; he still was grasping Naruto by his elbows while the blond man had his hands in return resting on Sasuke's arms. The slight drizzle made it look as if tiny diamonds had nestled onto Naruto's eyelashes, a non-sensical part of Sasuke noted, until Naruto blinked.

"Sasuke?"

His name was spoken quietly, questioningly.

He really should let go now, now that he was certain that Naruto would remain standing, but for some reason his hands refused to cooperate.

Instead his fingers tightened around Naruto's elbows. Naruto's hands curled more firmly around his arms in return. Those blue eyes were suddenly a lot closer, so close that their mouths might …

Touch.

AN2: Will they, won't they? Guess you'll have to stay tuned to find out in the next chapter :)

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

I hope to see you all back in the next chapter! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!

Cuddles

Melissa

P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.