Two people, dressed from head to toe in black clothing, their faces hidden through black hoods, walked up to the gates of Konoha in the night.
"Do I have to stay here?" one of them asked, a male.
"Yes, you'll be safe here while I go search for mother and father." the other said, an older male.
"But it's full of...ugh...humans."
"Mare, you must not hate them."
"But they hate us."
"You do not know that, and you mustn't judge an entire group just based on a few."
"They seem to have no trouble doing that with us."
The older male sighed and walked towards the gate. A guard appeared,"You are Ryukaze and Mare, the two The Fifth has been expecting correct?"
"Yes."
"Follow me."
They followed the guard through the empty city, into the building, and finally into Tsunade's office.
"Lady Hokage, here they are."
"Enter." Tsunade said.
Ryukaze and Mare both entered the room and removed their hoods. Ryukaze had long black hair, and pale gold eyes, while Mare's hair didn't reach his shoulder, but still hung, the front over his eyes, which were blood red.
"So, you wanted to leave your brother in our care while you went to look for you parents?" Tsunade asked.
"If you would be so kind as to do so, I would greatly be in your debt." Ryukaze said with a polite bow of his head.
"Ryu, I'm 16, I can take care of myself without the help of these people."
"As grateful as you seem, your brother doesn't share the same feelings." Tsunade said with a raised eyebrow.
"Mare, step outside for a moment please." Ryukaze asked.
Without a word or glance, Mare turned and walked out the door and closed and sat in the hall.
"You must forgive him, we haven't received good attention from people in so long, he expects it from everyone and copes with it through disdain."
"And why is it you receive such bad attention from people?"
"Because of what we are. We are..." Ryukaze closed his eyes,"we are vampires."
Tsunade, Shizune, and the guard all opened their eyes wide in surprise.
"Blood-sucking vampires?"
"If you want to call us that, yes. However, my brother is a special kind of vampire. Unlike myself, blood isn't as much a necessity for him, so he can survive on basic food and drinks."
"Why do you think he needs a safe haven?"
"If I am to find our parents, he cannot go with me because of the danger. Along with that, there are vampire hunters who are after for fear that his blood will create more vampires who will not need blood as much, and an immunity to many weaknesses we possess."
"What is he immune too?"
"He is immune to the burning of sunlight, garlic does nothing to him, silver is useless, along with any kind of crucifixes. That doesn't seem to sit well with them, or any other cretin who knows of us for that matter."
"How long do you think you'll be gone?"
"Give or take a month or two, but until then may you keep him in your care?"
Tsunade thought for a moment,"Yes, he can stay. To make sure no hunters get at him, I'll have one of my ninja squads guard him. Does that sit well with you?"
"It does, and I humbly thank you for your generosity."
"Think nothing of it, Shizune will show you and him to his room." she said waving her hand for Shizune to go.
"Right, this way." Shizune's voice quavered alittle.
Mare was leaning against the wall outside, glaring at the houses below.
"Mare, let's go, this kind lady will show you to your new room." Ryukaze said to a flustered Shizune.
"Bet she won't be so kind when you leave and she finds out what I am." Mare growled.
"Actually, I know what you are, but I don't feel any ill will towards you for it." Shizune told him.
"Not yet anyway." Mare said.
"Mare, that's enough, hold your tongue." Ryukaze said in a strict tone.
Mare went quiet, following them outside towards the apartments. They went upstairs, and Shizune pulled out a key and gave it to him.
"This is your room, you might want to mind your neighbor, he's abit loud." Shizune said.
"Oh goodie." Mare said dully.
"What'd I say about the tongue holding?" Ryukaze said.
Rolling his eyes, Mare took the keys, mumbled a "Thanks", and closed the door.
"My apologies, he's one to hold grudges."
"Don't worry, with the people around here he'll soon lose that." Shizune said.
"I shall leave him in your trust, farewell." Ryukaze stepped into the shadows and vanished.
"Um...bye?" Shizune said waving at the dark wall.
The next morning, Mare woke to a knock on his door. He opened it to see six people in the hallway.
"Mornin! I'm your new neighbor Naruto. We're all here to welcome you to the village. These here are my friends: Sakura, Sai, Choji, Ino, and Shikamaru." Naruto said happily.
Angry over his loss of sleep, Mare glared at them for a moment. His glare sent chills down their spines.
"Is that all?"
"Well, we were wondering if you'd want to get out the house and maybe go get a bite to eat?" Naruto asked uneasily.
With a short sigh Mare agreed, and putting on a shirt since he was shirtless, went out with them. He stepped out intot the sunlight, completely unharmed. As they walked through the village, he could feel the eyes of the villagers on him, and could hear their whispers.
"I hear he's a vampire..."
"Wretched creature..."
"What's he doing here?"
"I don't want my children going anywhere near that monster!"
"What was The Fifth thinking letting that...thing...in here!"
Mare was getting annoyed, but decided to ignore them, he was hungry after all. The others couldn't hear the villagers whispering, but could tell they were staring. They stopped at a restaurant to eat some breakfast, and after some hesitation from a waitress were seated.
"Sorry that our village is behaving this way Mare, they don't usually act like this." Sakura said.
"Doesn't matter, I won't be here long anyway." Mare said ordering something.
As they waited for the food, Shikamaru thought it'd be good to start conversing.
"So, Mare, where do you come from?"
"A dark place, that's all you need to know."
"Quite the charmer..." Sakura thought sarcastically.
When the food came, everyone but Naruto and Choji stared in surprise as Mare ate the food. They all began to eat eventually and noticed the rest of the customers staring their way. They looked back at Mare, who didn't seem to notice, or wanted them to believe he didn't.
"I'm tired of this." one customer said getting up and walking over to their table.
"Listen vampire, we don't like your kind here, so you'd better leave or-"
"If you're so intent on becoming my next meal then stick around and keep talking shit. If you'd rather keep your life, and your blood then BACK OFF!" Mare said savagely.
The customer hesitated, but continued his threat,"You don't scare me!"
Mare stood up, he was just as tall as the customer, and looking him straight in the eye said,"You've got three seconds to get the hell out of my face before I turn you into a raisin human."
The threat, backed up by the psychotic stare overpowered the customer, who shrunk back to his table, his back towards Mare, who continued to glare at him. Mare wiped his mouth with a napkin,"Thanks for the breakfast," he said was he walked out, pushing the waitress aside as he left.
Naruto quickly got up and went after him as Ino and Sakura began scolding the entire restaurant. Outside, Naruto caught up with him, with help from the stares of the villagers.
"Hey Mare, wait up!"
Mare looked back "What's he want now, lunch?"
Mare stopped and waited for him,"What do you want?"
"To talk."
"Sorry, I think I'm going mute for a couple of days." Mare said turning around and heading back towards his room.
"C'mon, I know how you feel about-"
"Listen human, I don't need nor do I want any of your sympathy or help! Just go away and leave me the hell alone dammit!" Mare yelled walking back to his room.
"The nerve of that human. "C'mon, I know what you feel about..." whatever he was gonna say. He knows nothing about how I feel, none of them do. They're nothing but food and enemies, don't know why Ryu left me in the care of these creatures...especially with her still out there looking for me."
He went into his room, closed the door, took of his shirt and lay in bed looking at the ceiling.
"This place, my next perpetual hellhole until Ryu comes back. Hope he comes back soon, I'm already tired of this place."
Miles away, in an old mansion, Ryukaze was thrown to the grown, his body filled with many slashes. He tried to rise, put lost too much blood to get up. He looked towards the dark figure in front of him, eyes glowing bright red through the darkness.
"Oh poor Ryukaze, coming this far just to save your parents, even though they've already been...taken care of." the figure added with a sadistic laugh.
"N-no...what...have you done to them...monster!" Ryukaze growled faintly.
"Now now dear creature, there's no need to for hostilities. I merely...showed them the light."
"Son of a bitch!" Ryukaze roared charging, his sword drawn. He stopped suddenly and dropped his sword to the ground. He looked down to see the figure's sword had impaled his stomach, but came out his left shoulder-blade.
"Ah, it seems I have your heart Ryu, something no woman was able to possess when you were younger. Oh well!" he said quickly pulling out his sword, with which was hooked at the blades, and so it also dragged out his heart. With one final look of anger and sadness, Ryukaze burst into flames, and became a pile of ash on the floor.
Mare was half asleep when his eyes snapped back open in alarm.
"What's this feeling? It feels as though...something's happened...something horrible, but what? Is it Ryu? Has something happened to him? Impossible...he's the strongest guy I know. It must be something, probably just a result of this irritating place. Wherever Ryu is, hope he hurries back to take me out of this human filled trash heap. I'd rather sleep in a cave anyway, at least there I can sleep without humans knocking on my door. I'll just wait it out, he'll come back eventually."