1,000 years after the War *Sasunaru*

III.

Naruto saw how Shikamaru came out of the nearest deceased building, clearly angry. After spotting the blonde, he headed to him in a fast frustrated walk.

- Naruto-

Shikamaru stopped when he saw the position the two boys were in. He raised a finger up, preparing to ask a question, but quickly decided against it and put it back down. There were things more important now.

- Naruto, look. This dude over there... his name is Gaara. He claims that there is still one asulym left that didn't send people out. According to his words, it has a decreasing population and didn't need to do that. It's far away tho, and...
- And what?

- He says that we are a bit too much and we have to leave people behind.

- What? No, we're not going then. We'll find another way.

- Yeah, thought the same, but we have no food and we eventually have to take the masks off and we don't know what will happen then, we might all die.

- How can we trust him? How does he know about that asylum?

- Of course we can't, but for now I don't see another way of us surviving.

- How far away is it?

- He said it can't take us less than a day by foot.

Naruto subconsciously placed his hand on Sasuke's leg that was still lying in his lab.

- And what if we get there and we find nothing?

- Possible, but we have to try. According to the textbooks I red, the sun is nowhere near as hot as it used to be, it gets cold as hell at night. It's already chilly af. If the radiation or the starvation don't kill us, the cold would.

- I'm not waiting anymore, are you coming or not?

Gaara was just behind Shikamaru when he said this. The dark haired flinched, as he didn't expect him, neither his cold, deep voice.
Shikamaru looked around. The group was not in a good shape. Some of them were already shivering. Panic was all around. There were others who had put up a fight with the cops and didn't look so good, but they had no choice. There was either them dying, or the whole group.
The Nara sighed and walked past the redhead, heading to a good position to make an announcement.

- Listen, everyone!

Shikamaru shouted. Everyone stopped talking and looked at him with hope.

-There is another asylum that can provide us everything we need to survive. We plan to get there before night, as it might get too cold or something can attack us. It's far away, we have to be fast. We are not taking breaks and we'll not wait for anybody. I encourage the ones who are not injured and feel fine to help the others as they can, but please prioritize your own safety.

Everyone was confused at first, doubtfull, to be more exact. They were looking around nervously to see the others' reaction, not sure if they should follow. Eventually, after not much, they started walking one by one after Gaara and his comrades. It was time for Naruto to do it too.

- Okay, I guess we doin it.

He carefully let Sasuke's leg down and crouched in front of him, his back facing the raven.

- Get on.

- Naruto... shouldn't you just leave me? It's going to be too hard.

Naruto rolled his eyes and came closer.

- We don't have time for this. Do it or we both staying here.

Sasuke had no other choice and slowly crawled on Naruto's back. He felt alwful. He didn't deserve something like this. Naruto was risking his life for someone he just met, Sasuke couldn't decide if it was heroic or simply dumb, but he surely would prefer to be just left here, where he won't be a burden to anybody.