Author's note: Tired as hell and I got a vet appointment in the morning, but have this at least!

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

Warnings: Violence; gore

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

I hope you'll like it!

Chapter 26

"I don't want your injury to get worse," Sasuke insisted.

If father was perturbed by Naruto's less than subtle threat, he managed to cover it well, simply frowning as he stared at the map.

"It's just a cut," Naruto said dismissively. "It's not that deep and the worst thing that might happen is that it reopens and I bleed a bit, so what? If that town Gaara got sent to is anything like the one we just left behind, Gaara is in deep shit. I know you have to know better than to think I'll just leave my best friend behind, Sasuke."

"I could - " Sasuke started, but Naruto wasn't having any of it.

"You're not in the position to negotiate," he said bluntly. "You can try to keep me here, but I'll just end up following you anyways. Like I said, it's up to you to decide how bloody things will get before I go after Gaara."

Naruto wasn't fucking around. If Sasuke was stupid enough to call his bluff, Naruto would no doubt go straight to Danzo, kill him, and then still go after Sasuke and the others. While Sasuke didn't give a single shit about Danzo, he didn't want Naruto to put himself into potential danger either by going after Danzo alone. Danzo might be old, but that didn't mean they had to underestimate him – especially after how ruthless he had proven himself to be, sending three people straight to their death without a shred of remorse.

"Fine, but you're going to stay with me the entire time and you're not going to be the one driving," Sasuke acquiesced begrudgingly and when it looked like Naruto was about to protest, he added, "I really doubt Gaara would want you to put yourself at risk if that risk can be avoided."

Naruto scowled, but didn't disagree.

"Take Itachi and Kisame with you," Father said; his eyes dark. "We have no idea how dangerous that town is, so it's better to take people with you who know how to fight well."

"You're okay with Kisame knowing about Danzo?" Sasuke asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

Father shrugged and pursed his lips. "Considering how high the chances are that Danzo is indeed behind this, people will eventually know about this. I'll tell Kisame to join you. You go tell Itachi to get ready."

He walked to the door. "Load up on enough weapons and ammunition. You can take the jeep; Anko fixed it this afternoon. And don't forget to take a walkie-talkie with you. They should be able to cover the distance still."

"You have walkie-talkies?" Naruto asked bemused, already picking up the bag from the table.

"A couple, but we don't want to rely on them too much," Sasuke replied. Most of the time silence was their best weapon after all, so walkie-talkies were only used when they thought the situation necessitated it – like for example going to a completely unknown, most likely dangerous, town in the middle of the night. "You got enough bolts and bullets?"

"This bag contains everything," Naruto said, patting it. "Let's go; the longer we dawdle the worse things might get for Gaara."

Father touched Sasuke's shoulder on his way outside. "Let me know when you arrive at the town. After that I want an update every half hour, even if it's just a short 'we're still alive'. I doubt this town is much safer than the maple one."

"We will," Sasuke promised. "We'll go get Itachi now and prepare the jeep."

"I'll send Kisame to you and I'll inform the guards to open the gate," Father murmured and left first.

"Will your brother be up to yet another rescue mission?" Naruto asked, grimacing only slightly when they started descended the staircase.

"He's not the one who got injured," Sasuke said pointedly.

"No, but he already went with you to save my butt," Naruto retorted, clutching the railing tightly. "Can't say I would blame him if he doesn't want to risk his life again."

"If you think Itachi will let me go alone, you don't know him very well," Sasuke said ruefully. "Besides, aside from Kisame, he's one of the strongest fighters we have. We might need him if shit hits the fan badly. Deidara's a strong fighter too, but well …" He trailed off, knowing it was unnecessary to finish that sentence.

While Deidara was recovering, him only having one working arm left would put him at too much risk, especially if this town happened to be overrun by zombies as well.

"I'm sorry for dragging you all in this," Naruto muttered as they made their way outside, making a beeline for Sasuke's home.

"Hey, this isn't your fault," Sasuke said sharply and Naruto glanced at him startled. "This is on Danzo only. Nobody said he had to be an utter and complete son of a bitch, but he decided to betray us. Of course we'll help you get Gaara back; we're not letting you do this alone."

"Thanks, and sorry – for you know, kind of threatening you," Naruto muttered almost inaudibly, not looking at Sasuke.

"Well, you threatened Danzo only so …" Sasuke shrugged lightly and they turned around the corner. "And the only reason why I'm taking you with us now instead of letting you go after Danzo is because I don't trust that fucker at all anymore. I don't want to think what else he has up his sleeve if you went to confront him on your own."

"I've been up against worse people than an old douchebag," Naruto mumbled.

From what he and Gaara had told Sasuke so far, Sasuke had no doubt about that. Still – "Maybe, but I still didn't want to take the risk," Sasuke replied. "We'll deal with that arsehole later. First, we'll get Gaara back."

"Yeah." Naruto took a deep breath; determination replacing the winces of pain. "Let's go."

"So a recap, just to make sure I've got it right," Kisame started as they watched the gates slowly roll back. "Danzo is heavily suspected of being a traitor after his poor pride was wounded and he sent both Naruto and Gaara apparently to dangerous towns in order to get them killed. In the process of doing so Tobi actually did get killed. You got Naruto back, but Gaara might still be fucked. I got it all?"

"Basically, yeah," Sasuke said wearily and rubbed his forehead.

The back of the jeep was stuffed full with bags filled to the brim with weapons and ammunition with some other bags containing food and water. All of it was hidden underneath a black canvas. The best case scenario had them not needing the food and water at all and only the bare minimum of their weapons, but after the shitstorm that the maple town had been Sasuke didn't dare to trust their luck. Better to have a bunch of supplies with them and not need them than to arrive them practically barehanded and be screwed.

"Taking into account how dangerous that maple town was," Kisame continued while Itachi drove through the narrow gap, leaving the compound once again, "there is a good chance this town will be fucked up as well. So we might or might not be driving to our own doom at this moment?"

"Probably," Naruto droned.

He and Sasuke were seated in the back so that Naruto could stretch out his leg and rest as much as possible before they would arrive at the town. He was rather subdued, so unlike his normal sharp self, but Sasuke couldn't blame him for that. He wouldn't exactly be in the best of moods either if he had discovered that his brother had been sent to a potentially dangerous place on purpose.

"All right, sounds like fun," Kisame said lightly and rolled his shoulders. "It's been a little while since I last was able to let loose. Now's a good time as any."

"Sorry for dragging you along," Itachi murmured.

Even though just a couple of hours ago he had been running around in that maple town, setting everything on fire, he still looked sharp as if he had been resting for several days now. If he was dead tired he did a very good job of hiding it.

"You need a good fighter in case shit hits the fan, I get it," Kisame said and braced his elbow against the bottom of the window. "I wasn't going to say no. What's going to happen to Danzo anyways?"

"That's something father and the rest of the Board will decide on, I suppose," Itachi replied and added grimly, "Whatever they decide, he's not going to get away with this."

"I'd be worried if he was," Kisame snorted. "Well, let's get this road trip started. At least the jeep's comfortable."

Sasuke snorted quietly, feeling Naruto's fingers twitch against his. A comfortable jeep – truly it was the small things in life, he suppose.

The road they had to take in order to reach the town wasn't exactly the best. There were more potholes than actual road and debris was strewn about, forcing Itachi to do his best to swerve the jeep around chipped stone and shattered glass.

"This road is utter shit," Kisame uttered what they were all no doubt thinking.

"Think the army got a tad too enthusiastic?" Naruto commented idly. Both his legs were resting across Sasuke's lap and his hand laid near the bandaged cut in this thigh.

"Has to be," Sasuke mumbled, bracing his arm against the window when the jeep drove over a pothole that couldn't be avoided. "Or someone got their hands on explosives or some shit."

They had travelled around quite a bit already during their runs, but Sasuke could honestly say that this road was one of the worst they had driven over so far. It didn't help matters naturally that it was already night and almost pitch black; the moon having trouble breaking through the layer of clouds. The beams of the jeep's front lights cut like a knife through the darkness; the only source of light around them. Sometimes they passed a small group of zombies clustered near the sides of the road but by the time they stirred and started moving, the jeep was already way out of their reach.

"Looks more like the army did this," Itachi said contemplatively.

Kisame had offered to take over the driving once they reached the midway point, but Itachi had waved off the offer, explaining it would only delay them further. He was already pushing the jeep to its limit with the speed, which was probably the only reason why Naruto hadn't snapped yet. The blond man grew tenser and tenser the closer they got to the town and all Sasuke could do was hold his hand and rub the back of it soothingly with his thumb.

He himself was trying to remain as calm as possible, but that was difficult when the maple town was still too fresh in his mind. At least with the previous town they had had some sort of idea of what to expect. Had it been more gruesome in reality? Yes, but they had had some idea at least of what they were getting themselves into when they had gone after Naruto. This town, however, was a complete mystery. Sasuke had no clue how dangerous it was exactly and if so, what exactly the dangers were. Was the danger simply comprised out of a bunch of dead fucks? That could be doable then. If the danger presented itself in the form of actual living human beings, though …

One insane cult had been more than enough already.

"Doubt it did much," Kisame said critically. "Not to shit on them, but they really had had no idea what the fuck they were doing back then."

Loud, sharp barking had Sasuke instantly sitting up and staring out of the window. When he squinted, he thought he could make out the shapes of dogs running parallel with the vehicle under the cover of the trees. One of them jumped onto the road, showing how emaciated it looked – and how dangerous. Its eyes seemed to glow and drool dripped from its sharp fangs when it bared its mouth. It threw its head back, yowling viciously.

"Eugh, can't say I'm a fan of that," Kisame muttered, staring out of his own window with his eyes narrowed.

"You don't seem to have any issues with Inuzuka-san's dogs, though," Itachi commented, but even his shoulders were slightly more tense; proof that he wasn't entirely comfortable with the appearance of the dogs either.

"That's because I know they're safe," Kisame retorted and scoffed, jerking his thumb at the dogs. "Those, though? They act like they've got rabies or some shit, I don't know. If they belong to somebody, that person clearly isn't feeding them crap."

"It's been a while since I last saw dogs in the wild," Naruto muttered. "If they don't stop yapping soon, they'll attract the undead fuckers."

"Better them than us," Kisame muttered darkly, slumping back into his seat when they left the last barking dog behind.

It was stupid to feel so unsettled by dogs barking, Sasuke acknowledged, sinking back in his own seat, especially when they dealt with the undead on a nearly daily basis. But there was something about that deep snarling, that vicious look in those glowing eyes, that long drawn out howling that had his stomach churning. Perhaps it was because he was so used to the docile nature of Inuzuka's dogs – docile at least towards the living; the same couldn't be said of the dead – that the viciousness of the wild dogs unsettled him. With the world having gone to shit, though, a lot of animals had turned savage.

Kisame was checking the map with the aid of a little torch when Sasuke focused back on the others instead of the dogs he could still hear howling in the distance.

"Looks like we're almost there," Kisame muttered when they passed an old rusted road sign.

The metal pole was dented in the middle, making it lean heavily to the right while its sign almost brushed the ground with one corner. Three dead bodies surrounded the collapsed pole and when Sasuke concentrated he thought he could see the shreds of a rope tying all three of them to the pole. Only one of the three still had a complete head; the other two had their heads bashed in so badly the darkness wasn't even an excuse to not recognise whether they had been male or female. The one not smashed to bits raised their head when the jeep drove past, but they had already turned the corner before the zombie could do so much as lift its head.

"Okay, I want to preface this by saying that I completely understand the urge to get there as soon as possible," Kisame started out of the blue and turned around in his seat, looking at Naruto who lifted an eyebrow at him. "But we need to make a decision here: are we going to drive the jeep all the way into the town? Or will we hide it somewhere and sneak into the town on foot."

"A large part of me wants to drive all the way into the town, but," Naruto took a deep breath, "I know that would be too dangerous when we don't know what we'll find, so … We'll hide the jeep and we'll go on foot."

"Will you manage?" Sasuke asked quietly.

Truthfully for Naruto's leg it would be better if they could drive the jeep all the way into the town and look for Gaara that way, but as everybody realised: doing so might actually be even more dangerous. If there were other people present, they might attack the jeep before Sasuke or the others could even spot them. If the jeep got too damaged to keep driving, they would really be in deep shit then. Going on foot wasn't that much safer, but at the very least they would have the jeep to fall back on and sneaking around would go a lot easier that way.

"I'll be fine," Naruto said curtly and took something from his pocket. He popped it into his mouth and threw his head back, swallowing harshly.

"Was that a painkiller?" Sasuke questioned befuddled.

"A strong one," Naruto confirmed. "Should tie me over long enough to find Gaara and get the hell out of there again."

Dosing himself like that didn't sound like such a great idea, but Sasuke knew better than to protest. Naruto was so on edge he was like a tightly wound up coil and it wouldn't take more than one wrong word to set him off, Sasuke was sure. He didn't want to fight with Naruto, not now, not over this, so he kept quiet, silently hoping that Naruto wasn't actually overdosing himself. God, Tsunade would kill him if he managed to overdose himself on medication.

"You'll need to hide the jeep as closely to the town as possible, though," Kisame commented, looking back at the map.

"I know," Itachi sighed. "How much longer do you reckon?"

"At this speed? I'd say another ten minutes, give or take unless the army really decided to go all Godzilla on the road."

They knew they were close to the town when they drove past a broken mascot. The fur of it was long ago and the costume itself was ripped in several places and stained with blood and dirt in others, making it difficult to piece together what it had once been. A rabbit, maybe? A bear? Sasuke couldn't tell.

When Itachi nodded at him through the rearview mirror, Sasuke grabbed the walkie-talkie and activated it. "We're at the town." He released the button, awaiting father's reply.

"Okay, keep your guards up.'

"Will do," Sasuke promised and shut off the walkie-talkie, stuffing it in the pocket of his jacket.

"Let's take as many weapons with us as we can," Itachi murmured and parked the jeep behind the crumpled remains of a couple of cars which had crashed into each other a while ago.

One of the drivers was still inside, Sasuke noticed when he got out of the jeep and his ears picked up the gurgling moans of the zombie. It reached out a rotted hand towards him, but couldn't do much but paw weakly at the ground, not close enough to actually grab Sasuke's ankle. Sasuke paid the zombie no mind and walked to the back of the jeep, grabbing his katana first before snatching two guns and several rounds of ammunition, stuffing them into his satchel. He strapped a blade to his hip and stepped back, watching Kisame retrieve his giant sword. It was almost as long as Sasuke was tall and very broad – and very sharp. Sasuke had seen the older man cutting zombies in half with it as if they were mere tissues. The sheer size of it should have made it impossible to handle, but Kisame made it look effortlessly every time.

"The fuck does that thing come from?" Naruto asked taken aback. "Did you rob a museum or so? What the hell, man!"

"Not a museum," Kisame grinned and patted his sword lovingly. "Just a heirloom that my family has been passing through from generation to generation."

Naruto looked like he wanted to say something but in the end he just shook his head. "Well, hey, whatever floats your boat, I guess."

They sneaked away from the jeep, using the cover of the trees and piled up cars to get closer to the houses. Sasuke was in the lead and he cursed when a zombie suddenly popped up from behind the corner of the first house. The undead girl had half of her head caved in, parts of her brain missing, and Sasuke swiftly put an end to her, driving his blade into what rested of her forehead. Before she fully dropped down to the ground, a second one popped up, ready to take her place.

"Looks like a party to me," Naruto said critically, brandishing his machete.

Everywhere they looked, zombies were staggering towards them; their soulless eyes trained on the four living men. Their gurgling and rattling breaths went up a pitch as if they were excited at the prospect of a new meal.

"I swear to god, if this is another fucking cult," Naruto muttered before cleaving the head in of an elderly dead guy, kicking him away to free his machete.

Sasuke spared a moment to think how the fuck Danzo had known this town would be filled with zombies, but then he leaped into action and started stabbing every zombie unfortunate enough to land in his path. Naruto stuck closely to him, guarding his back, while Kisame was whistling, swinging his long sword around. Zombies ended up cut in two, crawling across the ground before they would either get crushed underneath Kisame's boot or have the sharp tip of his sword driven straight into their head. Itachi was basically like a shadow, flitting everywhere, leaving a trail of dead zombies behind.

The zombies tried to crowd them, but their long range weapons made it easier to keep them at a distance. Sasuke had no idea just how many zombies were here, but his brain shut down and he worked on autopilot now, stabbing and slashing and cutting until one by one the zombies fell down, never to get back up again.

"There's the bike!" Naruto suddenly blurted out, pointing behind Sasuke.

Sasuke whirled around and after driving his katana through a young man's head, making the zombie zag down, he spotted it too: the bike was propped up against the wall of a shop and the gleaming metal was proof that it didn't belong to this town itself. If it had belonged to someone of the town here, it wouldn't look so clean anymore – and it wouldn't have a couple of bolts discarded near it.

"Nii-san, Kisame," Sasuke warned and they all hurried towards the bike, Sasuke kicking away two zombies on their way there.

"That's definitely one of our bikes," Itachi murmured, ramming a blade in a dark haired woman's head, whose scalp was hanging of nearly completely, revealing her skull.

"So if the bike's here, where's the kid?" Kisame questioned grimly. He took a couple of steps away from the bike and swung his sword in a wide arch around himself, catching several zombies with the sharp blade. The sword cut through them like butter, sending them tumbling to the ground in several parts.

"Gaara would try to hole up somewhere if he couldn't use zombie guts to disguise himself," Naruto muttered, looking almost feverish as he quickly looked around. "There's no zombie with his guts ripped open, so Gaara probably didn't have the chance to cover himself with them."

Kisame looked like he wanted to ask something, but Sasuke shook his head. Now was definitely not the time to explain that Naruto and Gaara used zombie guts to disguise themselves.

"You're his best friend; is there any kind of building he would have picked out?" Itachi asked.

"He probably went - "

Naruto froze and right when Sasuke wanted to ask what was wrong, he picked up the sound as well: bolts whizzing.

It was faint, almost inaudible over the loud, aggravating moaning of the zombies, but it was unmistakenly the sound of bolts being drawn back and released.

"Naruto! God damn it!" Sasuke cursed when Naruto suddenly broke out in a run, sprinting towards an alley across the street.

Clearly the painkiller was incredible, fuck! He ran after him, aware of Itachi and Kisame following closely behind. With most zombies having been killed by them, the road was relatively empty – for now at least. Sasuke caught up to Naruto right as the man slipped into the alley and it took every last bit of restraint he had not to throw the other man against the wall to cuss him out.

"Are you fucking insane?" he bit out. "I told you to stay near me! What the hell was that, huh?!"

But Naruto wasn't listening to him. He ran deeper into the alley, looking like a man possessed, and Sasuke couldn't do anything else but follow him, keeping an eye on their surroundings because Naruto sure as fuck wasn't doing it!

"Naruto?"

Gaara's scratchy voice caught Sasuke so off guard that he almost ran straight into Naruto's back when the blond man abruptly stopped running. He steadied himself with his hands around Naruto's forearms, breathing a sigh of relief, feeling Naruto shudder in his hold as the blond took several deep gulps; a shaky chuckle escaping him. Thank fuck Gaara was still alive. If he had died, Sasuke didn't even dare to imagine how Naruto would have reacted.

"Sasuke?" Itachi called out.

"Yeah, we found him!" Sasuke grabbed a small torch and clicked on the button, activating it. He aimed the light at Gaara. "Glad to see you in - "

His breathing hitched at the same moment Naruto turned into stone in front of him. Gaara was leaning against the wall, his jeans splattered with gore and blood, red streaks covering his face, nearly blending in with his hair. In front of him five zombies laid dead, each with a bolt firmly embedded in their heads. There were even two dead dogs, Sasuke dimly noticed. Gaara had his crossbow lowered to the ground and with his free hand he was clutching his arm, where his sleeve was ripped.

The torch beam slipped towards his arm, blood trickling through his fingers. When Gaara's hand slipped away, it revealed the mark.

A bite mark.

AN2: I told some of you that Gaara would show up again :) Here he is :)

(Naruto wanted to ask Kisame if he was compensating for something with that sword, but thought the timing wasn't right for that by the way)

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.