Author's note: Somehow I actually managed to finish this chapter before midnight! :O Is this the start to a more normal updating schedule for this story? Probably not, but hey, at least I managed it this time!

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

Warnings: Hm, nothing in particular I think

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

I hope you'll like it!

Chapter 34

His guard shift was rather uneventful that afternoon. He started it right before lunch with a couple of people he didn't know that well, so the time on top of the walls was mostly spent in silence while the others talked quietly amongst themselves. It wasn't surprising in the least to overhear them discussing Yua's scream earlier this morning and whether she really had been that startled by some zombies as the rumour started to go around. Fortunately they didn't bother Sasuke about it; something he appreciated. He wasn't interested in the slightest in gossiping and father had been quite clear that he wanted to keep Danzo's death quiet for a while longer; at least until they were relatively certain about what had happened to the old bastard.

Sasuke very much doubted they could keep it quiet for longer than a week at best because even with Danzo's severe unpopularity people were bound to take notice of his absence eventually and would start asking questions.

One hour into his shift had a group returning which had been sent out earlier in the morning to deal with some straggling zombies, which most likely had been attracted by Yua's scream. Their clothes were splattered in muck and zombie blood, but they were in high spirits, making it clear that they hadn't suffered any losses or bites. They were quickly let inside; the gates rolling shut behind them.

Straggling zombies weren't that odd, especially not when they had certainly been attracted by noise, but it was imperative that they kept an eye out for them. They could deal with small groups of them as long as a big herd wouldn't form, so Sasuke kept a sharp eye on their surroundings. They always had to have their wits about them, but they would definitely have to be on guard for at least the next few days. They had to ensure that Yua's screaming wouldn't attract a whole herd of them.

During the late afternoon Anko replaced him, seeing as the one he had changed shifts with had had a short shift planned. They shared a nod with each other before he walked down the scaffold, figuring he would make a stop at his house first before returning to Naruto's and Gaara's apartment. In case he ended up spending the night there again, he would need a change of clothes.

"… the blueprints." Sasuke arrived home at the tail-end of father's comment, confusing him.

Blueprints? Of what? The compound?

"Weren't you the one in charge of them back when this compound was being built?" Hiashi asked.

His presence at his home made Sasuke lift an eyebrow. Father normally held the meetings with the Board members in their official meeting room. Sasuke couldn't even recall ever having seen any of the members here before – so why were they here now?

"Yes, but obviously someone went behind my back," Father replied irritated.

Behind his back? His eyebrows drawn together, Sasuke knocked on the doorjamb of the living room, seeing father seated in the armchair with Hiashi and Yoshino on the couch. Chiyo was absent, but Itachi was here; his older brother carrying a frown of his own and having his arms crossed.

"What's going on here?" Sasuke inquired, pausing in the doorway.

"Did the shift go well?" Itachi asked in return, relaxing only a fraction when Sasuke nodded in confirmation.

"The group dealing with those stragglers came back safely and we didn't spot others so far," he answered. "What's this about blueprints, though?"

"Chiyo informed us that Danzo apparently went regularly outside the walls for a walk during the night," Yoshino explained; her pinched look clearly displaying what she thought of that. "Which is probably the reason why he was outside last night."

So that meant nobody had lured him out? Was his death an accident after all? He hadn't exactly been the youngest anymore, so a simple tumble ending in a nasty fall would have done him in. But regularly leaving the walls? How regularly had this been and how was it possible none of the guards had ever mentioned seeing Danzo leave? Even as a member of the Board there was no way the guards would have opened the gate simply because Danzo wanted to walk outside the walls. Especially not at night.

"How often did he go outside the walls then?" Sasuke asked warily.

Some of his guard shifts had taken place at night, but he couldn't remember ever having seen Danzo showing up in order to leave the compound. Had it been mere coincidence that Danzo had never shown up during Sasuke's guard shifts?

"At least four times a week, if not more often," Hiashi answered; his lips thin. "Chiyo only knew of a couple of times, she said, but she suspected that he went out more because she often heard him leave his apartment during the night."

"And she didn't mention this sooner, because?" Sasuke asked irritated.

The fact that someone regularly left the compound, especially a member of the Board, should have been mentioned much earlier than today! Especially after the whole shitfest that Orochimaru and Kabuto had caused!

"Frankly, I suspect she was hoping he would run into zombies and get eaten by them," Yoshino remarked dryly. "She didn't really appear that torn up about his death."

"I know we're not supposed to talk ill of the dead, but honestly? I can't blame her for hoping that," Hiashi mumbled, rubbing his forehead.

For just a couple of seconds dark amusement flashed across father's face.

"Why did the guards open the gates for him, though?" Sasuke frowned, bracing his shoulder against the doorframe. "Did he pay them off?"

"That's the thing," Itachi spoke up with a grimace. "He didn't use the gates. I questioned people about it and they assured me that nobody leaves the walls at night unless there's a specific reason. Until we showed up early this morning, the guards hadn't seen anybody aside from Kiba-san's team. They weren't lying; I know that for sure."

"How did he manage to get out-" Sasuke trailed off. Father's comment he had overheard when arriving home suddenly started making sense. "Wait, he made some sort of secret exit?"

"Looks like it, yes," Father replied grimly, folding his hands together. "If the gates didn't open for him yet he was still able to leave the walls, that means he must have had a secret exit somewhere."

"Do you believe the blueprints will reveal the hidden exit?" Yoshino inquired doubtfully. "You were in charge of them, right? Didn't you notice an extra addition back then?"

"I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but if he waited until the compound was finished or almost finished entirely, it would have been easy to adjust the blueprints without me knowing about it," Father answered darkly. "My guess is that he managed to convince somebody to add the extra exit after he'd realised that the gates wouldn't open for anybody without an actual purpose outside."

"So he compromised the safety of the compound and everybody inside just to have his nightly walks," Sasuke concluded, pursing his lips.

If he hadn't already loathed Danzo so much for nearly getting Naruto and Gaara killed on top of being the indirect cause of Tobi's death, surely this information would have made him start hating the bastard. What if outsiders had seen him leave the compound through this exit? What if they decided to take advantage of this knowledge? They had been fortunate so far that this exit hadn't been discovered by anybody with bad intentions! How fucking arrogant had Danzo been that he had deemed his nightly walks more important than the safety of everybody inside the walls?

"It appears so," Father agreed sourly. "We need to find out where this secret exit is located. So far it doesn't look like anybody else knows about it, but just in case someone did actually kill him, I'm not about to take any chances with it."

"I thought you'd said there weren't any signs of struggle?" Hiashi quirked an eyebrow.

"It's possible someone could have targeted him from inside the woods," Itachi clarified and rolled his shoulders. "If there's indeed another person involved, they only appear to have had beef with Danzo himself because Kiba-san's group returned without any problems."

"They could still be targeting the compound," Yoshino said and puckered her mouth in a thoughtful frown. "Danzo died during the night while Kiba-san's group left during the early morning hours. Killing someone under the cover of night is much easier than trying to commit murder during the day after all. Less witnesses at the very least to begin with."

"That could be possible," Itachi allowed, "but that would then imply that someone waited the entire night, risking attacks by zombies, simply on the off chance that someone would leave the walls? Seems a bit farfetched."

"Zombies are walking around like the dead have any business doing so," she retorted dryly. "Stranger shit than that can happen, I'm sure, including someone with enough patience to wait to strike."

"If that's the case, we'll have more guards on the wall facing the forest tonight," Father decided contemplatively. "They can use binoculars with night vision – Kakashi-san found some of those during one of his runs."

"That's probably the best we can do, I guess," Hiashi muttered and leant back against the couch, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"In the meantime we have to find out where Danzo had this secret exit made," Father went on; his face darkening. "The last thing we need is for either an outsider to discover it or for someone else in the compound to start making use of it, thereby putting us all at risk."

"That's the thing, though: if we ask others for help, they might try to take advantage of the exit," Yoshino cautioned, crossing her legs. The black skirt she wore had faded in several spots as if she had spilt bleach on the material. "I don't want to think ill of our people, but we have quite some young people here who might think it would be a 'thrill' to leave the walls at night."

Sasuke suppressed his snort barely. Yes, it wouldn't surprise him at all if that was what some of them would do if they found the exit. Even nearly four years into this apocalypse, some people remained stubbornly stupid. More than one person had already found themselves banned from joining the runs because they had put the lives of their teammates at risk by acting like a complete idiot in front of the undead. A hidden exit leading straight outside the walls? Those idiots would be drawn to that like moths to a flame, no doubt.

"We have to keep it to ourselves," Father agreed. "First thing that needs to be done, is find the blueprints and check if anything was added to them or find anything that can point us to the location of this exit. Once we find it, we need to block it off completely depending on where it is."

"The blueprints should either be at Danzo's apartment or Yamato-san's, right?" Itachi said, tilting his head to the left. "Yamato-san was the one in charge when we built the compound."

"Would he have given in to Danzo's demand?" Hiashi asked doubtfully.

"Depends on what Danzo might have told him," Itachi replied clipped.

Considering Yamato's good nature and Danzo's ability to charm others like the goddamn snake he had been, it wouldn't shock Sasuke if Yamato had indeed been convinced to add a secret exit. Danzo could be very convincing when he had wanted to be. That ability was after all how he had got onto the Board.

"Perhaps it's better if we divide the tasks?" Yoshino suggested thoughtfully. "Some of us can search for the blueprints while the others try to find the exit. That might be faster than trying to find the blueprints first."

"Sounds good to me." Father nodded in agreement. "How should we divide this?"

"Naruto, Gaara and I could go look for the blueprints," Sasuke offered, staying calm even when both Yoshino and Hiashi raised very sceptical eyebrows. "You know they won't go blab about the exit to others - "

Hell, other people save for Sasuke could count themselves lucky if they received a greeting from either Naruto or Gaara, let alone that the two men would spread rumours around about the hidden exit. Perhaps even more than they knew, did Naruto and Gaara realise how important it was to have a secure place.

"And if we don't give at least Naruto something to do, he might actually annoy Tsunade enough that she will explode," Sasuke finished and grimaced.

"Wasn't he supposed to rest for a week?" Itachi quirked an eyebrow, looking vaguely amused.

Yeah, it was easy for him to be amused when he wasn't the one subjected to hearing Naruto complain about his inability to do anything every time he was near him. It wasn't that Sasuke didn't understand how he felt. He probably would grow antsy as well if he wasn't allowed to do anything; at the same time he also understood Tsunade's concerns. If that cut reopened – for the third time! – Naruto would be back to square one or even worse and it wasn't as if he knew how to take it easy. If he could help search for the blueprints, that would work as a distraction and it would be something he could do without straining his thigh too much yet.

"Supposed to, yeah, but he isn't exactly happy about it," Sasuke said curtly before turning to father. "What do you think, father? Would it be okay if Naruto and Gaara help us?"

Father nodded contemplatively. "They know Danzo's dead, so them knowing about the secret exit won't hurt. They have helped us out so often already, I know we can trust them with this."

Yoshino still seemed a bit dubious, but didn't protest the decision. "When will we inform the others that Danzo is dead? They are going to start asking questions eventually."

"In a few days when we can be relatively certain that we aren't being targeted," Father said. "Informing them now might lead to unnecessary panic. We'll increase the amount of guards for the next couple of nights and have some patrolling the streets as well. If someone did discover the exit, we'll know soon enough, I suppose."

"The others might ask questions about the increase in guards," Hiashi pointed out; his eyebrows pinched. "No doubt they'll want to know why we suddenly have more guards patrolling the walls and the streets."

"That's easy enough to explain," Itachi said and shrugged. "We'll tell them it's because we're worried the scream might attract a horde and enough people need to be on standby in case something happens."

Hiashi considered that before slowly nodding. "I guess that would work. At the very least it will buy us some time to figure out whether Danzo had just an unlucky fall or someone actually did kill him from a distance."

"So we're in agreement then?" Father regarded them; his gaze flitting from one person to the other. "We'll increase the amount of guards during the next couple of nights. In the meantime we'll search for the blueprints and the hidden exit."

"Sounds good to me," Hiashi said. "There's no other way to handle this, I think."

"I agree as well," Yoshino said and ran her fingers through her hair, sighing. "I know it's rude to say, but I hope he just fell and died from that instead of somebody targeting us."

"I didn't spot any signs of a struggle and there weren't any objects around him that indicated it had been thrown at him to push him out of balance, so it does seem he merely fell," Father said and glanced at Sasuke. "Sasuke, why don't you, Naruto-san and Gaara-san go take a look in Yamato-san's home? It shouldn't be emptied yet."

Considering Yamato had joined their group without any family to call his own, it wasn't surprising that his stuff was still at his house. Naruto and Gaara had so far been the last ones to join the compound, so there hadn't been any urgent reason yet to empty out his house.

Sasuke inclined his head and straightened up. "I'll go tell them now."

At least Naruto would be happy to have something to do that didn't involve him staring at the ceiling.

"I am wasting away."

That monotonous comment greeted Sasuke when he entered the apartment.

Rolling his eyes, he followed the toneless voice to the couch where Naruto was lying as star fished as he could with the limited space available. Gaara sat curled up on the armchair, looking quite amused. Sasuke leant over the back of the couch, waiting until blue eyes found his.

"You're not wasting away; you are instead suffering from dramaqueenitis," Sasuke said dryly and snorted when Naruto scowled at him offended while Gaara smirked. "So I assume Tsunade wasn't exactly open to your suggestion of taking up new assignments?"

"Not exactly," Gaara replied; his smirk widening.

"That old hag enjoys my misery too much," Naruto mumbled darkly. "Don't know why she became a doctor when she's as sadistic as they come. I got no clue what the pervert ever saw in her; his imagination was probably a lot nicer than reality."

"Well, he did write fiction," Gaara commented; his green eyes glittering.

"She's looking out for you," Sasuke chided.

"She's taking pleasure in my agony," Naruto shot back, pouting.

Sasuke sighed and shook his head. "If you'd stop being a drama queen for one minute, I have something to tell you that might cheer you up."

Naruto squinted up at him. "Are you going to defend my honour against the evil witch?" he asked hopefully.

"What honour?" both Sasuke and Gaara questioned at the same time.

Naruto flipped off Gaara and tried to swat Sasuke, but he easily stepped out of the way, sharing a quick smile with the red haired man.

"I don't know why I even hang out with you two if you think this lowly of me," Naruto complained, huffing, and sat up.

"I don't know about Gaara, but as for me, I guess it's because you love being fucked and I'm the only one you tolerate enough to do so," Sasuke replied lightly, walking around the couch to sit down next to Naruto.

"That's more than I needed to hear," Gaara groused.

Naruto ignored him, musing aloud, "True, true, you do have your uses." He eyed the jacket Sasuke hadn't taken off yet. "So what kind of happy news do you come bearing? This shit better be fucking amazing to make up for the crushing blow I was dealt with today."

"Father found out Danzo left the compound through a secret exit," Sasuke announced, smirking when Naruto's face lit up with interest. Gaara sat up straighter; his face neutral. "I thought you might be interested in that. Apparently Chiyo had caught him leaving a few times and afterwards she kept hearing him leave his apartment up to four times a week."

Naruto frowned, raising one leg on the couch to bend it so he could lace his fingers around his knee. "If she knew about this exit, then why didn't she inform you guys about that sooner? I don't know about you, but that seems like a rather important titbit to keep hidden from you all."

"Seems like she was hoping he'd get eaten by zombies."

"Ah." Naruto paused, mulling it over before shrugging. "Well, that's understandable. Guess she doesn't know where the exit is, though?"

"No, that's something we have to find out soon before someone else might come across it," Sasuke answered. "The Board is keeping it quiet for now while some of them will look for the exit to block it off. The others will search for the blueprints in case the exit is too well hidden. So basically we're hoping that Danzo was arrogant enough to have the proof of it written down."

"Who are the others?" Naruto asked, a bit dubiously.

"You, me and Gaara," Sasuke clarified. "We'll go to Yamato's house and search for the blueprints there – if you're feeling up to it," he added, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't bother looking for the blueprints," Gaara said unexpectedly; his face unreadable.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes slightly. "And why not?"

"Because I know where the exit is."

Sasuke could only stare at Gaara at that bold admission. The other man stared back frankly, as if he hadn't just admitted to something outrageous. Sasuke shifted his gaze from the red haired man to Naruto, whose face suddenly adopted a neutral look.

"You knew about this?" Sasuke pressed his lips tightly together.

"Gaara told me about it after you'd gone to your guard shift," Naruto admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "We didn't think others knew about it as well."

"And how did you find out about it?" Sasuke asked Gaara coolly and couldn't help but grow suspicious.

There could only be one way Gaara knew about the hidden exit: because he had followed Danzo when the latter had used it. After all it was only because Danzo had died, leading to Chiyo admitting she had heard him leaving before, that they even had realised Danzo would have had to use a hidden exit in order to leave the compound without anybody being the wiser. If Gaara had followed Danzo, did that mean he was the one who –

"Because I decided to follow him during the night," Gaara answered calmly. "I had kept my eye on him since we came back and I discovered him leaving his home last night. So I followed him."

He said it oh so calmly but when Sasuke remembered how brutal Gaara had been when killing his own father or how he and Naruto had admitted to murdering an entire group after those men had tried to assault Naruto – or hell, how he and Naruto had taken care of Sakon's group – Sasuke very much doubted that Gaara had only innocently followed Danzo. The fact that he had gone as far as tracking Danzo said enough.

"What did you do?" Sasuke demanded, tensing up.

Gaara raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think I did more than following him?"

"Because I've seen the way you react to threats," Sasuke replied flatly.

And Danzo had definitely been considered a big threat – big enough to make Gaara act before father had even officially announced what was going to happen with Danzo after his betrayal.

Gaara smiled crookedly, inclining his head. "Touché. I didn't do much, though. I followed him through the tunnel, outside the walls and that's when he finally noticed I had been behind him this entire time. He got startled by that so badly, he tripped and fell, bashing his head against a rock."

"He tripped and fell," Sasuke echoed in disbelief.

That was all that had really happened? The same man who had viciously killed his own father had done nothing at all to the man who had sent him and his best friend off to die? Somehow that was really hard to believe.

"He tripped and fell," Gaara repeated calmly, looking completely unbothered.

"You don't believe him?" Naruto asked neutrally, but his eyes were flashing in warning.

Sasuke might be his boyfriend, but Gaara was still his best friend – no doubt any offense aimed at Gaara would be taken as an offense to Naruto.

"Forgive me for being sceptic after the way I saw how you and Gaara take care of threats," Sasuke smiled thinly. "If he really just tripped and fell, why didn't you mention anything when we found him this morning?"

"I didn't think you would want a lot of people to know about this secret exit," Gaara claimed and shrugged. "Inuzuka's group was there and I don't care how much you preach trust in this place – people talk. And they especially like to talk when they shouldn't."

"Okay, fine, I guess that's understandable," Sasuke acquiesced begrudgingly, because it was hard to counter that argument when that was the exact same argument the Board was using to keep the exit a secret from anybody else. "But why didn't you say anything when we got back inside?"

"You want the honest truth?" Gaara asked flatly.

"That would be great, yeah," Sasuke said, equally as flat.

"Because while I do trust you, I'm not too sure yet about anybody else in this place," Gaara said bluntly. "If I told them I was the last person to see that son of a bitch, what do you think they would have assumed immediately?"

"They would have heard you out," Sasuke insisted, but well, the truth was that the Board would have grown suspicious of Gaara immediately.

Not that Sasuke was any different; he had grown suspicious as well after Gaara had admitted to knowing about the exit, but wasn't that normal? Again, he had seen with his own eyes just how vicious Gaara and Naruto could be if they felt threatened! And here Gaara was, telling him he had followed Danzo through his secret exit – a tunnel even? Shit, this was just growing worse and worse – of course his first reaction had been to suspect that Gaara had something to do with Danzo's death. Would he have blamed him for killing Danzo? No, far from it, because it was something he had been wanting to do ever since finding out what that fucker had planned. Still, that didn't mean Gaara's actions couldn't be considered incredibly suspicious.

"Before or after locking me up somewhere?" Gaara shot back unimpressed before sighing. "Whatever, doesn't matter anymore. What are you going to do now? You're going to tattletale on me?"

"What are we, six?" Sasuke asked sourly, startling a bit when a warm hand closed around his. He glanced at it before looking up, locking eyes with Naruto, whose features had considerably softened by now. He shook his head. "I don't think there's any point in telling them about this. It's nice to know this wasn't an outsider's job at least, but whether or not Danzo really tripped or you pushed him – doesn't matter. The end result stays the same and that's that we're rid of him."

"So you're not going to tell the Board about this?" Naruto asked; his thumb caressing the back of Sasuke's hand.

Sasuke took a deep breath. "I have to tell father, if only because he needs to be reassured that nobody is going to try to attack the compound." When Gaara narrowed his eyes, opening his mouth, Sasuke tacked on, "He's the one who put together this compound in the first place, he has the right to know that we're still safe. He won't accuse you of anything and the rest of the Board won't need to know about this if I ask him to keep quiet about it."

While the other Board members might feel at least morally compelled to interrogate Gaara about the fact that he had been the last one to see Danzo alive, father wouldn't ask a lot of questions, Sasuke was certain. In that aspect, father was akin to Naruto and Gaara: a threat had to be eliminated and there was no point in feeling guilty about it afterwards.

"Fine, I guess," Gaara muttered after a tense pause.

"We need to block off the tunnel now that we're sure there is a hidden exit," Sasuke said, returning to the original conversation. "Before you show us where it is, we'll have to go to Yamato's house and look for the blueprints there."

"Why would we need to do that if Gaara knows where the exit is?" Naruto frowned; his thumb pausing.

"Because we need proof anyways for the rest of the Board," Sasuke answered. "Not to mention it'd be good to know just how many secret exits Danzo had let built in case he wasn't happy with just one."

Naruto scrunched up his nose. "He definitely had looked greedy enough to have multiple of them."

"We're going to the house now then?" Gaara asked, rising up from the armchair.

"Yeah, the sooner we've checked there, the better," Sasuke replied and stood up as well, followed by Naruto.

"Won't people become suspicious if we just go into his house like that?" Naruto inquired, stretching his back before following Sasuke to the door; Gaara behind him like a shadow.

"No, I very much doubt they'll even pay a lot of attention to us to begin with," Sasuke answered. Most people kept to their own business to begin with and it was nearly dinner time anyways. "They won't ask questions; if they notice us, they'll just assume it has something to do with an order of father."

"Ah, I guess being the leader's son comes with perks." Naruto nodded sagely, snickering when Sasuke rolled his eyes and slapped his shoulder, while the corners of Gaara's mouth quirked up slightly.

"Come on, we've got a job to do."

The faster they could put this whole exit shit behind them, the better in his opinion.

AN2: Was it really just an unlucky fall or did Gaara do more than he lets on? Who knows? Well, Gaara does.

Just in case people have missed it: I did update Of Silver Linings and Blue Yonder a while ago if people are still interested in that fic.

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.