Author's note: It's going to be a bumpy ride - prepare yourselves :)

Thanks to the following reviewers: 666snoopy; Richon; solitare1; Ellasauras

Warnings: Angst

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

I hope you'll like it!

Chapter 27

"Why are you still standing there? Let's get the hell out of …" Kisame trailed off when he came close enough to spot the bitemark. "Shit," was his eloquent reaction.

Itachi shouldered his way past him; his face tightening when he noticed the bleeding bitemark on Gaara's arm. "What bit you?" he demanded, taking charge of the situation immediately.

A light shock went through Sasuke and he quickly glanced at the dead bodies of both the zombies and the dogs. Right, Gaara had killed both zombies and dogs – but which one had been the one to bite him?

"Don't know," Gaara muttered; the hand holding his crossbow shaking lightly. "It happened all so fast, I didn't see which fucker managed it. I was busy trying to kill them before they could rip my throat out."

"Sasuke, contact father and tell him to go to Tsunade," Itachi ordered out of the blue. "We'll describe the bite to her and hopefully she can tell which one bit Gaara-kun."

They all tensed up when the gurgling of zombies sounded closer, echoing through the alley. Sasuke turned his head, pressing his lips together when he saw a group of zombies sluggishly approaching the entrance of the alley. Of course those shitheads wouldn't leave them alone even now, goddamn it.

"Guess we'll have to – "

Before Kisame could finish his suggestion, though, Naruto suddenly shot past Sasuke and aimed straight for the zombies.

"Naruto, wait a fucking - " Sasuke's breathing hitched in surprise when Naruto started hacking and slashing like a man possessed.

One by one the zombies fell down; some with their skulls cleaved in two, others with their heads rolling away from their bodies, their jaws gnashing wildly still. Naruto's face was utterly blank and he almost moved robotically as he killed every zombie that was stupid enough to approach the alley.

"I'll go help him before he gets bitten as well," Kisame muttered and quickly went to join Naruto; his huge frame blocking off the rest of the alley, ensuring that none of the undead could sneak past.

"I'll take Naruto's pl-" Sasuke started to say, too worried about Naruto's injured leg, but Gaara shook his head and slashed his hand through the air.

"If you want to get accidentally attacked by him, sure, be my guest," he said listlessly. "He's pissed; he won't listen to reason now."

"He's fucking in-"

"Sasuke, contact father," Itachi interrupted him and took over the torch, bringing it closer to the bitemark. "We can't afford to lose more time. Kisame will make sure nothing will happen to Naruto-kun."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, but grabbed the walkie-talkie, activating it. He would just have to trust that Kisame could both take care of the zombies and make sure that Naruto wouldn't get himself killed like the reckless idiot he was.

"Father?"

The line crackled slightly. "Sasuke?"

"We need Tsunade's help immediately. Can you go to her?" Sasuke asked, watching how Itachi studied the bitemark.

The frown on his brother's forehead increased the longer he examined the bite, which couldn't be a good thing.

"I can, but what happened?" Father questioned warily. The line crackled again when he presumably got up, followed by the muffled sound of his footsteps. A door happened and quickly closed again.

"Gaara got bitten," Sasuke admitted; his other hand tightening around the hilt of his katana. "But we have no idea whether he got bit by a zombie or a dog."

"Fuck." Father's reaction was almost too quiet to be picked up by the walkie-talkie, distorted by the line.

"Don't know why you're even bothering trying to figure out which fucker bit me," Gaara muttered wearily. "I'm fucked either way."

"If it's a dog, we can take care of the injury," Itachi stated unruffled. "We've got medical supplies with us."

"That is if the dog wasn't infected with rabies," Gaara smiled thinly but his eyes were dull. "Good luck trying to figure out whether it was, though. I doubt you've got a lab with high-tech hidden in the compound."

It was something Sasuke hadn't wanted to consider. A dog's bite should have been the better option of the two, but what if the dog had had rabies? Gaara would die either way then, because there was no cure for rabies. There was only a vaccine and that –

"When did you get your last vaccine?" Itachi questioned, still remaining composed.

Behind them the groaning of the zombies kept being cut off as Naruto and Kisame slashed and stabbed each one of them.

"When I was five," Gaara answered flatly. "So fucked, am I right?"

Considering the vaccine against tetanus tended to protect for around ten years … This really wasn't good. Not when it had been so long ago since Gaara had received the vaccine. Sasuke didn't dare to look behind him where Naruto was still furiously killing off zombies. If Naruto lost Gaara as well … He had no idea how the blond man would react and he was afraid to find out. Naruto had already lost so many people – was he about to lose his best friend as well?

When he looked at Gaara, he saw the same fear buried deeply within his eyes and he bit down hard on the inside of his cheek. So Danzo was going to succeed after all, wasn't he? They had managed to rescue Naruto on time, but too late for Gaara. How fucking unfair was this? They had rushed here as quickly as they could and right before they would have found Gaara, they had been too late. If they had just been a couple of seconds quicker, if Sasuke had listened to his gut feeling earlier and had sent another team after Gaara …

Many what ifs, but it all boiled down to this: they were too late.

"What happened exactly?" Tsunade's voice suddenly came through the walkie-talkie.

Father must have informed her that it was an emergency, because she only sounded alert and business-like, not pissed off as Sasuke had expected given the late hour.

"Gaara-kun got bitten, but we need to figure out whether it was by a zombie or a dog," Itachi explained. "It happened too fast for him to see which one did it. If I describe the bite to you, do you think you can figure out which one it was?"

A gusty sigh caused the line to crackle for a couple of seconds. "I can try, but I can't promise anything," she warned.

"The bite itself is rather round and the holes of the teeth seem more oval shaped?" Itachi tried to describe. "Slightly rectangular, but mostly oval. They are quite deep as well, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything."

Considering zombies didn't exercise any restraint when biting people, no, the depth of the holes didn't really mean anything in this case.

There was silence on the other end until Tsunade spoke slowly, "I'm inclined to say that it probably was a dog which bit him. I have treated dog bites in the past and your description sounds like the ones I've treated."

"Great, so I won't be dying from a zombie but from rabies probably," Gaara muttered. "I guess it's a special way to go nowadays, lucky me."

"You got the vaccine when you were a kid?" she asked.

"When I was five. Pretty sure that protection is worth shit now," he replied flatly.

"There is …" she trailed off, uncharacteristically uncertain.

"There is what?" Sasuke demanded immediately. If there was even the slightest chance that they could still save Gaara, they would have to jump on it. The symptoms of rabies didn't appear immediately from what he knew, but Gaara would only have a couple of weeks to a couple of months at best left if they didn't do anything.

"I still had a stock of vaccines in my old practice," she replied after a loaded pause. "The backup generator might still be running. If it is still running, then the vaccines should still be good to use. One of them is for tetanus. You give him a shot now and grab a couple of others with you for the future jabs and he should be fine. Unless you want to bank on the dog not carrying any rabies."

Sasuke locked eyes with Itachi immediately. They couldn't risk trusting that the dogs hadn't been rabid; that was a chance they simply couldn't take, not when they didn't have the equipment to test for it. But if those vaccines in Tsunade's old practice were still usable …

"You going to tell me that those vaccines are still usable even several years into this shit apocalypse?" Gaara asked sceptically.

"I can't promise anything," she replied and sighed again. "But it's the best solution I can offer you. I don't want to be a bitch, but your options are really limited now. Either you're lucky and the dog didn't have rabies, you're extremely lucky and become one of the very few to survive rabies, or you're fucked and you'll die for sure if you don't try the vaccine route."

"I don't like these options," Gaara muttered.

"It's all I can offer," she retorted. "If the vaccines are still safe, you can put the others in a special cool box. I should still have two of them in my old practice, unless they got stolen, but frankly I wouldn't know what the hell people could do with medically specialised cool boxes."

"So if the vaccines are still cold, Gaara will be good to go?"

Sasuke couldn't help but jump in surprise when Naruto suddenly popped up next to him; his blue eyes wild, energy practically crackling around him. Craning his neck, Sasuke saw that Kisame was easily taking care of the few straggling zombies which explained why Naruto had abandoned his wild killing spree.

"Yes, but make sure to disinfect the wound as well," Tsunade advised, not sounding surprised at all at hearing Naruto out of the blue. "You don't want to survive possible rabies only to get done in by an infection of all things."

"That would be quite embarrassing," Gaara mumbled, sounding morbidly amused.

"All right, thanks, baa-chan," Naruto said quickly, making a move to disconnect but Tsunade spoke again.

"And you, brat, make sure you rest that leg of yours. If you undo my work all because you're being reckless, I will give you a reason to stay put," she threatened.

"Your bedside manners can use some improvement, baa-chan," Naruto quipped and stuffed the walkie-talkie back into Sasuke's pocket. "Come on, you heard the old hag. We need to leave now. You still know the way to her old practice?"

Itachi nodded. "It should take us around an hour, maybe an hour and a half to get there."

"Better get going then," Naruto muttered and his hand made a jerky movement as if he wanted to reach out and grab Gaara's hand but hesitated.

Gaara didn't have the same reservations and grabbed Naruto's wrist, squeezing it. "What the fuck happened to your leg?" he demanded, narrowing his eyes.

"A fucked up cult leader with perfect manicure happened, that's what," Naruto replied lightly. "I'll tell you the rest later, now we have to focus on making sure you won't die."

"Kisame, how's the situation?" Itachi asked, handing the torch back to Sasuke.

"Just a couple, but we can make it through them without a problem," Kisame called back confidently.

"Let's go then," Sasuke said, shutting off the torch.

Gaara lifted his crossbow in a proper position, following after Naruto who left the alley first; his limp more pronounced now. It had Sasuke frowning, but there wasn't anything he could do about that now. Naruto was definitely not in the mood to be fussed over right now – not that he ever was in the mood for it to begin with – and they couldn't afford to waste time with arguing. At least they were returning to the car straight away instead of making a detour.

While Kisame led the way, knocking away any zombie stupid enough to get within his sword's reach, Sasuke and Itachi brought up the rear; a silent agreement between the three of them to keep the two injured men in the middle. Naruto had his bloodied machete ready but his free hand was clutching Gaara's sleeve and the almost childish gesture had Sasuke's chest squeezing uncomfortably.

"Do you think those vaccines will still be good?" he asked quietly, not wanting either Gaara or Naruto to overhear him.

He didn't want to be the pessimistic one, but how high were the chances that those vaccines had remained in a good state in these last couple of years? Their entire plan hinged on the vaccines still remaining cold enough to be useable; one backup generator could mean the difference between Gaara surviving or him succumbing to rabies. Sasuke couldn't say he liked their odds.

Itachi inhaled deeply before releasing his breath slowly. "I don't know, Sasuke," he replied softly. "All we can do is hope they are still there."

The only source of light was provided by the car's headlights, cutting their way through the darkness. The road was less damaged, the drive smoother, but the atmosphere inside the vehicle was tenser than before.

Naruto was slumped with his back against the door, his legs stretched out across both Gaara's and Sasuke's laps; his machete resting on his lap and his crossbow on the floor. He had fallen asleep a little while ago; the combination of his injuries, the fighting and his medication having kicked in until he could no longer fight against it. The tips of his fingers rested against Gaara's sleeve as if even in his sleep he wanted to be sure that his best friend wouldn't disappear.

Itachi and Kisame were quietly discussing something amongst themselves; their voices nothing but a buzz in Sasuke's ears as he stared outside, seeing nothing but pure darkness, occasionally broken up whenever the moon managed to peek through the heavy clouds. It started to rain; a drizzle first before the raindrops became more audible, a steady rhythm against the windows and on the roof.

"Hey."

Gaara's quiet voice had Sasuke resurfacing from the daze he had fallen into. He blinked and turned his head, regarding the red haired man curiously. Gaara had been rather quiet after Naruto had finished disinfecting the bitemark, looking for all intents and purposes as if he wasn't injured at all.

"What?" Sasuke asked, his voice equally as quiet, when Gaara didn't continue.

"I need you to swear me something," Gaara murmured; his gaze drifting over to Naruto for a moment before he looked at Sasuke again.

For some reason Sasuke got the feeling he wouldn't like whatever Gaara was going to say next. "Swear what?" he asked flatly.

"Swear that you'll take care of Naruto when I'm not here anymore."

And yes, there it was. Sasuke definitely did not like where this conversation was going.

"Don't start that crap," he said warningly and green eyes narrowed slightly. "Not with that whole 'when' bullshit. You're going to be just fine, don't be stupid."

"I know you're not the optimistic type, Sasuke," Gaara said calmly and Sasuke clenched his jaw. "So you know there is a good chance we'll get there at Tsunade's practice only for the vaccines to be useless. And if that dog had indeed rabies, I'm a goner. I will hang on as long as I can, but if there isn't a vaccine …" he trailed off and his eyes slid over to Naruto again; his facial features visibly softening in the torch light Sasuke kept in his lap.

"Naruto isn't a kid who needs to be treated with gloves," Sasuke reminded him, but Gaara snorted silently.

"No, he's not," he agreed easily. "But you weren't there when he lost his parents. He was completely gone, no better than one of the undead, Sasuke," he said bluntly.

Sasuke grimaced; his fingers tightening around the small torch.

"It felt like I was dragging a corpse around with me," Gaara continued and while his words were cool, almost standoffish, his voice wavered just the tiniest bit, proving he wasn't as unaffected as he wanted to come across. "It took weeks before he came back to me. I'm the last tie he has to his past. If I'm gone, I'm not sure how he'll react. What he'll do. I don't …" He paused, swallowed audibly, before going on, "That's why you need to swear to me that you'll take care of him, no matter what will happen. If I die, I want to know he can count on you."

"There was never any question about that," Sasuke said sharply, but inhaled deeply. "But if you really need to hear it verbally, fine. I swear I'll take care of him. But there is still a chance you can get the vaccine. The chances aren't lost yet."

"I suppose they aren't," Gaara murmured and his smile was crooked, off. It melted away completely and his gaze was firmly trained at the front when he added, "But when I do … die – I need you to be the one to do it."

A light shock went through Sasuke before he could fully compose himself. "What."

"I know this is asking a lot of you," Gaara muttered and he glanced at Sasuke before his gaze dropped down to his lap. "Trust me, I know, but – I don't want Naruto to be the one to do it. He won't – he shouldn't have to do it."

Sasuke bit down hard on the inside of his cheek. He understood why Gaara was telling him this. The other man was right, Sasuke wasn't exactly an optimistic person and he knew there was a possibility that this drive would turn out to be completely useless. In the worst case scenario Gaara might actually end up dying from rabies if they couldn't get a vaccine. To prevent the dead from coming back, one needed to stab their brain – that was what Gaara was asking him to do. If Gaara ended up dying, he wanted Sasuke to be the one to put him down completely. Sasuke understood why Gaara didn't want Naruto to be the one who had to do it but –

"Why me?" he asked.

"Because out of all the people I know, I trust you the most," Gaara murmured.

Sasuke had no idea what to say to that and so silence descended between them once more. It should probably make him happy, hearing that Gaara did trust him, especially considering how distrustful he and Naruto had been for so long, but …

He wished the revelation hadn't happened in these circumstances.

They took the reckless decision to drive the car all the way to Tsunade's former practice. It was a huge risk, given how much time had passed since they had last been here. For all they knew, a group could have taken over the town and they might not take kindly to strangers showing up in the middle of the night.

The streets were deserted, however; only the occasional straggling zombie a sign that the town wasn't completely empty. The moon had won the battle with the clouds, but it was still raining; puddles forming around dead zombies. These dead zombies looked almost completely decomposed, showing that they had been here for a while already, but Sasuke couldn't help but be on guard as they turned corners and slalomed around burnt out vehicles.

"Looks like looters had their fun here," Naruto mumbled.

He had woken up around twenty minutes ago and was studying their surroundings with the same amount of suspicion they all shared.

"Hm, must have happened after we left here," Itachi remarked, narrowing his eyes when the street abruptly narrowed, due to two vans having collapsed sideways on each side of the road, blocking it partly. He slowed down until a near crawl, managing to squeeze their car between the two vans without touching either of them.

As Sasuke took in the shattered windows and kicked in doors of the shops they passed, his stomach twisted uncomfortably and he pressed his lips together. If the stores already looked this ransacked, had anything in Tsunade's practice survived? From what he could recall, her practice hadn't looked outwardly like a doctor's office, but that wouldn't keep people out. When you were searching for supplies every building was a potential jackpot, no matter what their previous use had been.

"We're here," Kisame remarked while the car slowed down to a stop.

They took a moment to study the building, remaining inside the car.

"Doesn't look like they tried to ransack this place," Naruto said uncertainly.

"It is rather on the outskirts," Gaara commented, leaning forwards.

"I don't see people around, so we'll just have to go for it, I guess," Sasuke said, but clicked off the torch just in case.

"Let's go," Itachi murmured.

As quiet as a ghost they stepped out of the car, taking care to close the doors as silently as possible. They could leave the doors open and make a potential escape easier, but at the same time if there were other people around, they could use the open doors to steal the car. Sasuke preferred not to be stranded here. While they had a walkie-talkie and could use it to call in backup, he didn't want to wait for help to arrive.

They squeezed their way past the iron wrought gate. It was left ajar, something Sasuke remembered from the last time they had been here. They had left in a hurry and not having anticipated needing to come back ever, neither of them had bothered closing the gate behind them. Weed was overtaking the tiles, squeezing between the thin gaps and brushing against their legs. Kisame tested the door; the knob easily giving away underneath his touch.

"Should it be that easy still to open the door?" he asked warily.

"Probably not, but do we have much choice?" Naruto retorted curtly; his hand resting on the machete strapped to his thigh.

Sasuke would have preferred it if Naruto had stayed in the car to rest more, but considering they were here in order to help Gaara he didn't really expect Naruto to stay behind.

"I suppose not," Kisame grimaced and pushed the door further open. He paused in the door, his posture tense, but after listening for a moment he walked further into the house, beckoning them to follow.

One by one they stepped inside, Sasuke as last one and he closed the door behind them. Their car was a huge giveaway of their presence to anyone passing by, but he wasn't about to make it easier for any potential enemy by leaving the door open.

"Anybody knows where we need to go?" Naruto whispered.

"The back," Itachi replied. "Her office was there, so I think it's safe to assume the vaccines need to be there as well."

As they walked deeper into the house, Sasuke's torch their only source of light, they picked up a low humming noise. It was constant, almost buzzing and Sasuke shared a look with Naruto.

"The generator?" Naruto guessed.

"Hopefully," Gaara muttered. "If it's something else, it might be time to start worrying."

They arrived at the office and Itachi pushed open the door. The curtains had been left open, allowing for moonlight to freely spill into the room. It was almost surreal how orderly everything still looked. The desk was still in its place with files neatly placed in the corner. A laptop – the battery long dead by now, no doubt – was closed, left in the middle of the desk with a pencase put on top of it. Cabinets still lined the walls; one of the drawers was open, revealing a bunch of bandages. Tsunade's chair was neatly pushed underneath the desk and in front of it two other chairs still stood.

There was a second door on the right to the desk – didn't that lead to some kind of storage room? Sasuke was pretty certain Tsunade had retrieved medical supplies from there when they had first encountered her.

"Doesn't look like we're going to find vaccines in here," Naruto muttered after quickly going through all the drawers.

"The cabinets are either medical files or general medical supplies," Gaara mentioned, closing the last drawer of the last cabinet. "Let's go check - "

"Hush," Kisame said suddenly, turning as still as a statue where he stood near the window. He had been checking one of the cabinets there, but now he stood frozen, tense.

"You hear it too?" Itachi asked grimly.

Sasuke frowned, catching Naruto's confused look and Gaara's frown. Right as he opened his mouth to ask what they were hearing, he heard it too.

Whistling.

Instantly they all ducked down, out of sight of the window.

"Can't just one fucking thing go right for once today?" Naruto hissed, pissed off. "I guess it'd be too much to hope that this person might be decent?"

"It's not something I would bank on at least," Kisame murmured, cocking his head to the right. "Sounds like they are turning away from the street?"

"Sounds like it," Itachi replied, barely moving his mouth. "They didn't see the car – yet. We can't stay too long here anymore. I'd rather not find out how hospitable this person is."

"We've got one more room to check," Sasuke said and crawled towards the second door.

He couldn't hear the whistling anymore, but he felt safer lower to the ground than upright now. The less attention they drew, the better.

He reached up and fumbled in the dark for the doorknob, grasping it tightly once his fingers brushed against the cold metal. He tested it, but it gave away easily underneath his touch; not even the slightest creak. Dealing with easy doors should make him relieved, but all it did was put him even more on edge, especially now that he knew at least one other person was walking around here. Had this person made Tsunade's old practice their new home? It would explain why the doors opened without the slightest issue still, even after several years of supposedly having been left closed.

The window in this room was a lot smaller and partly hidden behind a curtain, forcing him to use his torch after all. He quickly shone it around him, rising up and stepping aside so that the others could follow him. There was indeed a small generator humming away underneath the window, which meant that at the very least there was still power here. Now they only needed to find the fridge in which the vaccines were kept.

"I found a cool box!" Naruto said hushed, but his excitement was palpable when he held up a box into the air, having retrieved it from the left corner.

"And I found the fridge here," Sasuke announced, finding it wedged between a tall cabinet and the wall next to the window. In spite of everything, he couldn't help but grow slightly excited as well. The generator was still on, so the fridge had been receiving power all this time. That meant the vaccines had to be safe still, no? "Any of you have any idea how the vaccine is called? I don't want to grab the - "

Something creaked behind him. He whirled around, raising his katana immediately; his heartbeat quickening. Right across from him, the door of a wooden cabinet stood ajar.

Revealing eyes staring at him.

AN2: Realistically the chances of vaccines still being useable after such a long time are probably nihil, but if the Walking Dead can get away with still having gas in vehicles years down the zombie apocalypse road, I can get away with this!

Also two canon characters will be making their debut 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.