Author's note: I hate summer heat. That's all.

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

Warnings: Minor description of needles and injections; some violence

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

I hope you'll like it!

Chapter 28

"Get out of there slowly!" Sasuke snapped, bracing his back against the fridge.

Naruto was the closest to him and immediately stepped to his side, keeping his machete ready. Itachi, Kisame and Gaara meanwhile were blocking the doorway; all three of them on guard and watching the cabinet intently.

"I'm sorry!" a weird high pitched voice squeaked out immediately and then the door fully opened, revealing –

A young girl.

The girl couldn't be older than eight, maybe nine. She was rather scrawny and dirt was smudged across her face and her faded, filthy dress. Her orange hair was tied in two large pigtails, though they looked rather askew; several strands having escaped the hair ties. Her blue eyes were huge with fear as she stood there trembling in front of them, clutching a stuffed bunny to her chest, which stared back at them with just one eye.

"I didn't mean to be bad! Nee-chan said to hide so I did!" she whimpered, tightening her grip around the bunny so much, a bit of stuffing started to leak out the seam around its neck.

"Hey there," Naruto said softly, being the first one to recover. He knelt down in front of her, keeping his machete aimed at the floor. "We didn't know you were hiding here, sorry for scaring you. I'm Naruto, this is Sasuke, and those are Gaara, Itachi and Kisame," he continued, gesturing at each one of them. "We're friends who were looking for something to help another friend of ours. What's your name?"

"… Moegi," the girl replied hesitatingly; her eyes darting back and forth between them.

"You said your nee-san told you to hide?" Naruto prodded.

She nodded, biting down on her lip.

"Can you tell us why you needed to hide? We only just arrived in this town, so we have no idea what's going on," Naruto asked, keeping his voice soft and gentle.

Sasuke wasn't so sure whether the gentle voice approach would work, but this girl was swayed by it easily, relaxing visibly – which didn't really bode well for her general survival chances. She had no idea whether either of them could be trusted, but Naruto's sweet voice had her instantly lowering her guard. That hadn't been a good thing in their old world and it definitely wasn't a good thing nowadays.

"There's a bad man outside," she answered in a hushed voice; her gaze flitting towards the window. "He's really mean and was chasing us, trying to hurt us. Nee-chan told me to hide so she could lead the bad man away."

Of course it couldn't have been a good person they had heard whistling before. That would be asking for too much from this godforsaken day.

"How long have you been hiding here, Moegi-chan?" Naruto questioned; a note of apprehension colouring his voice.

Moegi didn't notice his tone being off. She tilted her head to the left and gnawed on her lower lip as she thought about the question. She shrugged then. "Don't know how long. I know I slept for a while."

Naruto turned his head to Sasuke and they exchanged a look; Sasuke unable to complete supress a grimace, a sentiment that was obviously shared by Naruto judging by his own twisted expression.

It had to have been at least several hours since Moegi had hidden herself here in the practice, if not a day or perhaps even longer. Sasuke didn't want to be entirely pessimistic, but how likely was it that this girl's sister would still show up? With no idea just how dangerous this unknown man was, the chances for Moegi's older sister were looking quite bleak.

"Did she tell you when she would come back?" Itachi questioned.

Moegi tilted her head back to look at him. "No, just that she would be back soon. Have you seen nee-chan?"

"We haven't seen her," Kisame replied apologetically and her shoulders drooped in disappointment.

The crackling of the walkie-talkie coming to life startled them all. Sasuke snatched it out of his pocket and pushed on the button. "Yeah?"

"Did you arrive at my practice yet?" Tsunade asked. "It's been a while since you last contacted us. Are there any vaccines still left?"

Moegi's eyes widened and she regarded the walkie-talkie with something akin to awe.

"I was just about to check," Sasuke said and temporarily sheathing his katana, he turned back to the fridge and wrenched it open. The cold air hit him like a slap in the face, the bright light irritating his eyes. Squinting slightly to protect his eyes against the harsh light, he quickly checked the shelves, finding several small bottles lined up at eyelevel. "Yeah, looks like they're still fine. The generator is working still. How's it called?"

"Look for one labelled DTaP," she instructed him. "There should still be needles left in the second drawer of my desk unless the place got looted."

"Doesn't look like it was looted," Naruto remarked.

"I'll go look for a needle," Kisame announced, being the one closest to the door. He slipped out of it, sneaking back into the main office.

"Why do you need needles?" Moegi asked confused.

"Who's that?" Tsunade asked sharply, Sasuke having forgotten that he had kept the button pushed in.

"A girl we found hiding in the practice. DTaP, you said?" Sasuke muttered, turning each bottle around to read the label.

"Yes, that's the one you need. If the practice didn't get looted, there should still be one unused bottle," Tsunade replied, apparently having choosing to focus on the most pressing matter first instead of the unknown girl. "You need to take that bottle with you, because Gaara-san will need extra doses after this one."

"Right," Sasuke muttered and hummed when the sixth bottle he twisted around turned out to be the right one. "Got it."

"Found a couple of needles," Kisame announced, entering the room again, brandishing a couple of packaged needles. "So who's going to stick Gaara with them?"

"Someone who preferably knows what the hell they're doing," Gaara murmured, shuffling closer to Sasuke, who plucked the bottle out of the fridge, closing the door.

"I'll do it," Itachi decided, coming over. "We can't stay too long here. How much do I need to draw from this bottle?"

"Is somebody sick?" Moegi inquired, nibbling on the limp ear of her bunny.

"Not sick yet, this injection is going to make sure he won't get sick," Naruto answered and slowly moved to stand next to her. "Hey, I'm going to stand here, okay, I don't want to be in the way when Itachi uses the needle."

"Please do not jostle me," Itachi murmured, vaguely amused, accepting the bottle from Sasuke and one of the needles from Kisame.

"You need to draw zero point five millilitre from the bottle," Tsunade replied. "Not more, not less. Once you've got that drawn, you need to inject it in the central and thickest portion of his deltoid muscle – you know, above the armpit. Insert the needle at a ninety degree angle and do it with a quick thrust, no need to draw it out. Don't inject him too high in the shoulder because that won't be pleasant."

"Because an injection stuck too high is really the worst of my problems right now," Gaara muttered cynically.

"Gaara," Naruto said softly, but his voice carried a warning tone.

Gaara pursed his lips, but placed his crossbow on the floor, shrugging half out of his jacket so that he could push up his sleeve. "Let's get this over with."

"Sasuke, aim the torch at the bottle here," Itachi said, ripping open the package of one of the needles.

"Does he have an ouchie?" Moegi asked innocently.

"Something like that," Naruto replied vaguely.

Sasuke aimed the torch at Itachi's hand, watching him stick the needle into the bottle before carefully upending it. Slowly he drew the needle back and liquid started filling up the tube.

"Don't forget to tap against it to remove any possible air bubbles," Tsunade's voice crackled through the walkie-talkie. "He'll end up with completely other issues otherwise."

"I wasn't about to forget that," Itachi said calmly, handing the bottle back to Sasuke. He tapped several times against the needle; the sound oddly loud in the small room. "Aim the torch at his arm now. You ready, Gaara-kun?"

"I guess you can't make it more painful than the school nurse back then," Gaara grunted, keeping his sleeve lifted up. "Go on, we need to leave soon."

Itachi nodded and underneath the torch light, he brought the needle down in a ninety degree angle, injecting Gaara quickly with it. He pushed the plunger down and almost immediately afterwards removed it again, putting the cap back on it.

"All right, that's done," he announced, a tad relieved.

Even with Naruto barely visible, Sasuke could practically feel the relief blasting off him.

"Your arm might feel sore in that spot for a while," Tsunade warned.

It made Gaara snort, even as he shoved his sleeve back down and shrugged on his jacket again. "Yeah, because some soreness will feel worse than a goddamn bite."

At least there was fire back into his voice. The subdued tone he had been using in the car when he had made Sasuke swear to take care of Naruto when he died still didn't sit well with Sasuke.

"Make sure to carefully store the needles; we can't have them breaking, it's not like I'm swimming in needles here," Tsunade remarked, uttering a gusty sigh. "Keep the bottle in the cool box and get your arses back here."

"Ay ay, boss," Kisame dared to jokingly reply.

Tsunade's snort made the line crackle heavily before she cut the connection.

"Here." Naruto popped up next to Sasuke, holding out the cool box. "What are we going to do with the girl?" he asked underneath his breath.

Moegi was playing with her bunny, holding one of its paws up to make it wave at her.

"We can't leave her here," Itachi murmured, glancing at her. "Who knows if her sister will come back."

"Let's be honest, that sister is probably long gone," Gaara said bluntly, but mercifully kept his voice low enough that Moegi couldn't hear him over her own offkey humming.

"You think she'll go with us?" Sasuke asked sceptically, lifting an eyebrow as he opened the cool box and stored the vaccine bottle inside of it. "She believes her sister will come back."

Sasuke didn't want to break the girl's heart, but with how brutal the world had become – and not only because of the undead – he considered it highly unlikely that Moegi's sister would still show up. Distracting somebody shouldn't take this long – not unless something had gone wrong.

"Leaving her here means signing her death sentence," Itachi said quietly, which yes, was probably the truth, but how were they supposed to convince this girl that she was better off going with strangers than waiting for her sister here?

"Let me," Naruto said abruptly and turned around. "Moegi-chan?"

"Hm?" She stopped humming and shuffled with her feet. "What?"

"We're going to leave, but the thing is you can't stay here because it might not be safe here for that long," Naruto began and bent down again so that he was more on eyelevel with her. "We don't want you to get hurt. How about you go with us and we'll go look for your sister? That way you can both come with us to our place, what do you think?"

"I think that's okay?" she replied uncertainly, looking at all of them. "We're going to look for nee-chan now?"

"Yep, let's go," Naruto smiled and rose up again. "You got a bag with you that you need to take?"

She perked up and turned to the cabinet, sticking her head into it. "I've got my bag here!"

"All right, you take that with you and then we'll leave."

"Okay!" she chirped and shrugged on her pink backpack, adjusting the hold she had on her bunny in order to do so.

"You follow Kisame and Itachi, okay? We'll follow right behind you," Naruto said reassuringly.

She stuck out her lower lip, seemed to consider the plan before nodding slowly, trotting after the two men. Once she had left the room, Naruto released a sigh and gripped his thigh, grimacing slightly.

"You shouldn't have been bending that much," Sasuke chided him, but knew it was fruitless and picked up the cool box.

"Naruto, you know as well as we do that the sister is a lost case," Gaara said quietly, lifting his crossbow from the floor. "You're giving that girl hope for nothing."

"I know, but … we can't leave her behind and there's no way she would have left otherwise," Naruto answered, equally as quiet. "I realise we're wasting time with this, but …"

But they couldn't just do nothing. Oh sure, they could have turned their hearts into stone and just ignored the little girl, let her waste away in the cabinet waiting for a family member who would never show up again. If they did that, though, they wouldn't be any better than the undead themselves. They could still save this girl. Her sister was most likely a lost cause, but this girl still had a chance.

"You've always been too good," Gaara murmured, but he squeezed Naruto's upper arm gently. "Come on, let's go. We need to do a loop around the town, I guess."

Gaara left then and the second he was out of the door, Naruto asked, almost pensively, "I'm stupid for doing this, aren't I?"

"Then we're all stupid," Sasuke sighed and tangled their fingers together. "I wouldn't exactly call this ideal, but – she needs this type of closure."

"Not sure if you can really call it a need," Naruto muttered wearily.

It wasn't going to be pretty by any means, the moment Moegi would realise that her sister would never show up again, but she had to go through it. Maybe, just maybe her sister was still alive, hiding somewhere while awaiting the moment she could reunite with Moegi. It was a very small shot; it was still a chance that existed, though, no matter how small.

They owed it to their own humanity to at least give this a try.

"What does your sister look like?" Kisame asked, keeping his voice down.

They had locked up the car and were making their way around the town on foot. Probably not one of their best ideas, but the car would attract too much attention, especially now that they knew they weren't as alone as they had assumed they were. The unknown man was lurking around somewhere and they didn't want to make it too easy for him by painting a big target on their back in the form of them driving the car.

Sure, the car would definitely make for a quick getaway if shit hit the fan, but without knowing just what kind of weapons this man possessed, they weren't willing to take the risk yet. For all they knew, this guy was one hell of a shooter and would manage to hit the tires, leaving them completely stranded.

Moegi, who was being carried by Naruto on his back after the girl had latched onto him the second they had stepped outside, perked up and a smile brightened her face. "Nee-chan is really pretty!" she said happily; her askew pigtails swishing back and forth across her back with each step Naruto took.

Sasuke had offered to take Moegi on his back, too aware of the limp in Naruto's leg that was becoming more and more pronounced as the night dragged by. Naruto had shaken his head, however, assuring him it would be all right seeing as Moegi barely weighted anything. Given her scrawny stature, that might be true, but it was still more weight than Naruto should be carrying around right now. With the young girl having latched onto him like a monkey to its momma, however, there wasn't much he could do except keep an eye on Naruto and make sure he wouldn't start stumbling.

"Her hair is more curly than mine, but it's also orange! She has it in a bun, though," Moegi went on before releasing Naruto's neck temporarily, extending her hands to show a certain length. "And she carries a big knife! She's really good at fighting!"

"At least she's got a weapon," Gaara muttered; his eyes constantly darting around, taking stock of their surroundings. If not for the fact he was slightly favouring his other arm, one would never suspect he had become injured.

Sasuke shared a quick glance with Itachi. Sure, Moegi's sister was apparently not unarmed, but would it have helped her much? That all depended on what kind of weapons her opponent had and whether or not she had managed to surprise him.

"Moegi-chan," Itachi called out, pulling the girl's attention. "We'll do one more lap around the town, but then we're going to have to leave."

Moegi's lower lip started to tremble. "But nee-chan isn't back yet," she said in a small voice.

"I know, but we can't stay too long here. We explained why, remember?" Itachi said gently.

She bit down hard on her lip and her head dropped down before she nodded reluctantly. They had told her they could only do a couple of laps maximum around the town, seeing as it was becoming far too late and lingering here could become too dangerous. She had been rather stubborn at first up until Kisame had to handle quickly and kill two zombies in succession before they could try to take a bite out of them.

The sight of the cleaved through zombies had made Moegi change her mind somewhat. She was young but not entirely naïve apparently.

"But nee-chan will show up soon, right?" she asked hopefully.

"We'll see," was all that Naruto was willing to offer.

It was the safest answer he could give, Sasuke supposed. Neither of them had the heart to tell the girl that her sister probably wasn't alive anymore. How did you tell a kid that their sibling would never show up again? That was just too cruel, even for this world.

"Peekaboo, I see you!"

They barely had time to register the sing-song voice when something shot straight past Sasuke, nary nicking his nose, and exploded right into the wall next to him.

"Duck!" Itachi snapped and they all sprinted back behind the corner they had just turned, readying their weapons.

Moegi whimpered, burying her face in Naruto's neck while he grabbed his machete, removing it from the holster around his thigh.

"Aw, aren't we going to play? You're being bad guests," the man called out mockingly.

Naruto stiffened all of a sudden. "Gaara," he brought out, scantily moving his lips, his blue eyes wide with an alarm Sasuke hadn't even seen in the maple town, "is that …"

"Yes, it is," Gaara said grimly, cocking his crossbow.

"You know that fucker?" Kisame asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

The cynical smile suddenly gracing Gaara's lips had Sasuke's stomach twisting uncomfortably.

"Oh yes, we know him. That's dear old dad right there."

AN2: Family reunions, so much fun, right?

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.