I in no way claim ownership of the characters/places/etc of the rather expansive Naruto/Shippuden/Boruto universe. All I claim ownership to is my OC for this story, Kōmorimaru.

No profit is gained by the writing of this story, it's strictly for fun like all of my other works.

This story is going to be rated M for general stuff later on.

The Savage Sage

Ch I

*FLASHBACK*

The cloaked figure alighted from branch to branch, its speed not even giving the snow a chance to be disturbed. It had to move quickly to avoid detection by its prey. Finally coming to a stop on a thick branch surrounded by other snow covered limbs, it waited for the target of its hunt to come along. There was no need to bother concealing its chakra, its reserves were nearly depleted as it was.

As its prey approached from the snow covered path below, the cloaked figure dropped down, tackling the man to the ground with surprising ease. Though he struggled, the assailant effortlessly pinned him down and sank a pair of long fangs into his neck. Slowly, the man's struggles began to cease as the cloaked attacker fed on him.

When one final breath left the poor victim, his assailant released him and stood. Chakra reserves restored once more, the figure looked down at the corpse with mourning in its yellow eyes. Rolling back a sleeve of its ragged clothing, it exposed row upon row of tally marks carved into its pale flesh. It pulled a kunai from the depths of its cloak and slowly drew the razor sharp tip along that exposed flesh to make a fresh scar. "Damn you, brother," it whispered.

"This makes the third one in the last six months," the fox masked ANBU ninja said as he crouched beside the corpse.

"Same way as the others, then?" the owl masked one asked.

"Yeah. Completely drained of his chakra through two puncture wounds on the neck." It had taken a lot of research to make that connection with the first two bodies. The medic-nins had finally picked up traces of lingering chakra around the wounds. How there was chakra after death... they still didn't know.

The third member of the squad, wearing a cat mask, knelt down by the body. "What I want to know is where is all the blood? Wounds like this should have made one hell of an arterial gush. The snow around the body should be crimson. Our boots should be soaked in blood right now. But, all I see are two trickles around the wounds. Is the attacker drinking blood as well or something?"

"No," Fox said with a shake of their head. "According to the autopsy reports, a powerful coagulant is injected into the victims during the attacks. No doubt this is so they don't die of blood loss before all their chakra is removed."

Owl leaned against a tree, casually tossing a kunai up and down. "What bothers me is that we have no way of telling which way the killer went, again. Apart from the obvious struggle right here, there's no sign that anyone other than the victim was here. No footprints in the snow besides his, no snow shifted in the trees or twigs snapped, not even residual traces of chakra to follow." To leave so little trace, this killer had to be a very skilled ninja, or at least a master of removing their presence from a scene.

"It is frustrating," Fox agreed, hefting the corpse over a shoulder. No need to bother with dignity, the deceased in question was actually a bandit listed in the Bingo Book. "But, until we find more evidence for a proper lead, there is nothing for it. Come on, let's get back to the village and hand this guy over to the medic-nins."

The mysterious assailant was in fact a master of masking its presence. It had to be, or Death would have found it ages agao as penance for the way it was forced to live. As soon as the ANBU were far enough away that it could no longer smell their chakras that made its fangs sharpen in hunger, the vampire (for want of a better word) launched itself from the branch where it had awaited its earlier meal. Chakra focused in the soles of its feet kept it atop the snow as it ran in the direction the ANBU had gone, not a footprint left behind. It figured that wherever they were going might offer it a warm place to hide for the night.

When the outer walls of the village where the ANBU had come from were just coming into view, the vampire ducked into the forest and headed away from the front gate. It couldn't afford to be seen. This was the first time it had attempted to enter the village since it had come to this area, but it couldn't take another night out in the cold and the snow. Approaching the treeline, it stopped just within earshot of the guards at the gate to listen to their conversation a bit.

The two guards in question were ANBU as well. Due to the vampire's recent feedings, the leaders of the village had beefed up security around the entrances to the village and increased patrols around the walls. "Did you see body they just hauled in?" the one in the tiger mask asked his partner.

"Yeah. Said they found it out on patrol, totally drained like all the others," his partner, sporting a spider mask, replied. "What the hell kind of psycho could be doing this? How the hell do you even drain chakra like that?"

"No idea. It's gotten bad enough that who or whatever is doing this has been placed in the Bingo Book with an A ranking. Gotta tell ya, I had a hell of a time trying to explain to my kids why our vacation to Sunagakure had to be cancelled without spilling the beans. The higher ups want to keep this hush-hush for as long as they can. Easy enough for the time being since none of the victims have been found within the village or even within line-of-sight of it." After looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was looking, Tiger lifted the bottom of his mask so he could have a cigarette.

"You know you're not supposed to take off your mask while we're on duty," Spider chided, earning him a middle finger from Tiger.

Tuning the guards out, the vampire moved further away from them and looked around to make sure no patrol was coming before it shot towards the wall. It began to scale up the sheer vertical wall by channeling the stolen chakra into its hands and feet. But, it had to be conservative with how much it used. The more chakra it used, the sooner it would have to feed. When it reached the top of the wall and looked out over the village, recognition hit it like a ton of bricks. It hadn't been here in so long. It was home. "Konohagakure," it rasped out, eyes brimming with tears. Had its travels actually brought it home after all these years?

Dropping down into the village, it stuck to the shadows and took a moment to get its bearings. Though it had no idea how many years had passed, it knew these streets like the back of its hand. The fun thing about ninja villages? They very rarely changed anything significant. And there was one place it needed to go before finding somewhere to hide for the night. Within the village was a park, and that park had a small patch of woods where it had made some of the only happy memories from its childhood that it could still recall.

Perhaps it would be able to see some children playing there. Oh, it would have to stay hidden of course if there actually was anyone around, but it had such fun memories of those woods that it simply could not resist the temptation. As the woods were not far from its current location, it jumped up to the nearest roof and ran towards its destination, fortunately without being spotted by any of the villagers or worse, ANBU. The moment it arrived at the woods, it masked its presence once more and found a sturdy branch to rest on and soak things in.

That brief respite was cut short when it heard a scuffle on the path below. It looked down to see a few young boys picking on a girl with purple hair and pale blue eyes. As one might expect, the boys had the young lady in tears. The vampire was about to break its own rules and intervene when a rather loud newcomer entered the fray. A boy about the same age as the girl, with spiky blonde hair and ocean blue eyes, charged in, taking on the bullies. Though the youth wound up being punched right into the snow after a failed clone jutsu attempt, it did get the bullies to leave. Such a fearless child this was. A born protector.

The vampire shifted its position slightly to get a better view of the aftermath as the boy accepted the girl's thanks and took off. By the look on the girl's face, the monster would call it love at first sight, if it had had any experience with such emotions. It hadn't, at least not within what it could recall of its life. Running and survival were all it had known for so long that just living or enjoying even a moment had never been an option for as long as it could remember. It didn't feel lonely often, because it honestly couldn't remember if it knew what it was missing out on.

Wanting to observe the blonde more, it took off after him, moving silently among the branches of the trees. The child only ran until he was out of sight of the little girl before he stopped. That big, friendly grin on the boy's face faded and his eyes fell to looking at the snow. It knew that look all too well, one of utter loneliness and loss. It liked to believe that at some point, it had been close enough to someone to have felt that itself, if only for proof that it was once connected to people. Clearly, this child, this brave child, had no family to go home to. No one to hold him in their arms and praise his bravery. He might not even have a home of any sort, like the vampire.

Something inside called to the monster, making it want to go down and tell the boy it would be alright. But, it had no experience with offering comfort in such matters. In its life, it was never alright, never got better. Despite that, an idea for the one comfort it could provide the child came when it heard his stomach growling. Reaching into its cloak, it pulled out a loaf of bread it had stolen from a sleeping traveler a few days ago. The bread was a little stale, but the cold air had prevented the growth of any mold. While the vampire did require draining chakra to survive, it needed proper food as well.

Dropping down from the tree, it paused when the boy jumped back in surprise. Holding up its free hand to show it meant no harm, it moved closer and held out the bread as further placation. As it got closer to the boy, who's big blue eyes were now locked onto that bread, the vampire sensed something odd in him. Not only did the boy have what smelled like an almost limitless reserve of hunger inducing chakra within his body, but there was a second chakra presence as well. Something dark, something primal, powerful, and angry.

Stopping just before the young blonde, the being knelt down and held out the bread once more. When those blue eyes shifted to its yellow ones for confirmation, it nodded. The boy's wonder at being offered something like this had him silent, an utter miracle to anyone who knew him. With that little bit of encouragement and assurance from this mysterious benefactor, the boy's hands shot out and took hold of the bread. Flashing it a broad smile of thanks, the boy was off like a shot towards town and wherever he was staying.

"Such a good boy," the vampire rasped softly.

*FLASHBACK*

Kōmorimaru opened his piercing yellow eyes, roused from sleep as the memory slowly faded to the back of its mind. He looked down at his hands, banded with leather across the palms while exposing long, pale fingers and jet black fingernails. Why had that chance encounter from so long ago invaded his dreams? Normally, all he dreamed of was the faces of those he'd killed to survive, asking of him why. Still, he wasn't looking the gift horse in its mouth. It was one of the few good memories he had left. Since that day, his life had been much as it always had been, surviving.

Maybe this dream was a sign. A call to return home once more. No doubt much had changed since he'd last visited. Perhaps he'd even be able to see the boy again, possibly even people he'd known when he was the blonde's age at that encounter. There were still a few such faces he could recall. Kōmorimaru only hoped he'd recognize them now. It would be nice to see how everyone had developed since he'd become this wretched monster. Not that he could ever let them see him, of course. That was the true curse of this twisted existence: having to lurk in the shadows and merely survive while watching the world live around him.

Unbidden, that boy's face flashed into his mind once more, further cementing Kōmorimaru's decision to return home. He looked off in the general direction of Konohagakure and nodded to himself. "One last time."

Author's Note: Here we are folks, at the start of another glorious adventure conjured up by yours truly. And of course, another one of my OCs. I seem to have a limitless supply of these guys, don't I? I'm sure you avid readers can guess who this one's connected to, family-wise, with ease. You have a lack of backstory outside his life before becoming a ninja for that one.

Now as for the title, well you won't find out the reason behind that for a chapter or two, I'm thinking. These first three chapters or so will take place mostly as flashbacks on Kōmorimaru's part. By the way, the first part of his name means "bat" in Japanese. My little way of playing on his vampiric nature.

As ever, faithful readers, I look forward to seeing your comments and opinions on this chapter, so long as it's not a flame.