R&R

Makings of War, Rise of the Dead

Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto or any of the Anime/Movies that might show up here.

Note: Knowledge of Hellsing Ultimate would be very helpful to understand the beginning of this story(although I'll try to explain as much as possible throughout)

Part 00: The Uchiha Massacre

Perhaps he should have seen it as a stroke of luck, a burden that fate had decided to remove from his shoulders, blood that he wouldn't have to spill. But as he looked at the scene displayed before him, he knew blood would still be on his hands.

All around him, stood the members of his clan.

But this was not the proud Uchiha Clan that garnered so much infamy among the Village Hidden in the Leaf. No, these were mere caskets of what had become of them. The odor of rotting flesh and death permeated the air around him, and had this not been a smell he had long ago gotten used to in the life that he led, it would have been enough to cause him to empty the contents of his stomach.

His hand lay ready at his side, poised to retrieve the weapons from his pouch, while his body also laid coiled, ready to act at the slightest indication of attack from the rotten corpses that had become of his clan. He didn't linger on their faces, who showed the remnants of those he had grown up around, who had smiled at him just that very morning. He didn't even look for the faces of his parents, because he already knew there was no other alternative than that they were already dead.

There was only one member that he cared to find, and he knew that he wasn't here.

"They were nothing but traitors, you know."

He did not manage to sense the figure that now stood behind him, and he frowned at the familiar voice. As he turned to face the figure, keenly aware of the dead bodies that still surrounded him, he was faced with a masked man. His mask had a single circular opening over his right eye, and if he had still been human, the shadow of night might have prevented him from actually seeing even that part of his face. The mask must have been white at first, but was now almost completely covered by the crimson of blood that stained the rest of the man's clothes and body.

"But you already know that, don't you, Itachi Uchiha?" the man continued, and Itachi could only look at him with stoic eyes that hid the turmoil that reigned within.

"I must thank you, for giving me the honor of eliminating your clan."

Itachi watched as the man moved, but rather than move toward him, he moved towards one of the corpses that stood near him, placing a finger underneath the jaw of the body that had once been a man and tilting his head upwards.

"What did you do?" Itachi asked calmly, his eyes never straying from the man.

The man chuckled darkly, his body shaking from the simple action.

"They certainly served as filling meal, considering their way of living. You see, they are nothing but mindless puppets now, hungry perhaps, yet more loyal than they ever were when they were alive. This is what happens to impure souls when they are bitten… by a vampire."

Itachi narrowed his eyes on the man at the new but not unexpected information. And if he himself had not just seen the members of his clan rise from the dead, he would not have believed it.

"Don't worry Itachi, I saved you a bite to drink."

Suddenly the bodies of the reanimated Uchiha bodies moved away, as if by a silent command on the behalf of the man, and the bodies parted to reveal the forms of his own mother and father. Unlike the rest of the corpses, Itachi could steal hear their heartbeat, and he knew they were very much alive. Yet their eyes seemed to be glazed over and unfocused, as if they were under a spell.

"It seems only fitting that you be the ones to end their lives, and I know a new fledgling vampire is weak without drinking blood. You have yet to know what fresh blood tastes like, do you?"

Itachi tensed ever so slightly as he caught on to the intentions of this man. He watched as he moved over to the body of his father and handed him a kunai.

"Now, your son must be hungry. It's been a couple of days since I turned him into a vampire after all. Why don't you make a decent cut on your neck and give him something to drink?"

Itachi watched as his father accepted the knife, and without so much as a hesitation created a deep but not fatal slit on his throat. Almost immediately the smell of the blood that seeped from the wound assaulted his senses, overpowering even the smell of death around him that made Itachi's mind almost go blank as a foreign carnal hunger invaded his entire being. Before he was even aware of his actions, he had taken a step forward towards his father, and it was as if all he could see was the blood that was now trailing down his throat and onto his robe.

"This is the curse of being a vampire. The insatiable need for blood that becomes the source of your undead life. As a new vampire, the hunger that you experience is unlike any hunger you ever experienced as a human being, and only with time will you be able to control this hunger."

The words of the man hardly registered in his hazy mind, and only through the sheer will and natural talent that he was known to possess did he manage to reign in the foreign hunger he had never experienced before.

"I'm sure you, who was willing to kill your clan, has the conscious to feed from your parents."

He was wrong, Itachi knew. Feeding from his parents was not something he wanted to do, regardless of the hunger that urged him to take the steps needed to close the distance and lap at the blood flowing from his father. In this battle, his rationality and ideals were winning, the ideals that told him he did not deserve to satiate his hunger through his parents.

But then something unexpected happened, and it was as if his father's eyes cleared and he retained some form of lucidity.

"It's okay, son. I know why you are doing this. If I am to die tonight, and be turned into another of these creatures, I would prefer that it is by your own doing."

Itachi's eyes widened, and as he turned to see his mother, he saw that she too had become lucid, and rather than stare at him with fear, she sported a smile on her face as her reflected a combination of adoration and resignation.

"He's right Itachi. You're our son, and we will always love you, regardless of what has happened here tonight."

For what seemed to be the first time since he had set out to complete this mission, it was as if he remembered who he was outside his duty. He remembered that he was a son, and that these were the parents that has raised him, despite their different philosophies. For the first time, the sorrow that he had staved off flooded his heart and reminded him of the humanity he had given up when he had accepted this mission.

He closed his eyes, fighting off the tears that he didn't know vampires were capable off. It seemed like such a human action now, but he also knew that he had to remain strong in the face of his parents the man that had made him into what he now was.

So he nodded, and took the steps that were needed to close the distance between himself and his parents. It felt almost effortless, to sink his new vampire fangs into his father's throat, in what must be instinctual of his new way of living. As the blood flooded into his mouth, Itachi wished that it did not have to feel so euphoric, to drink the essence of life as it quieted and roused that hunger at the same time, as his body wanted to drink more and more.

"I'm proud of you… Itachi."

He could feel the life draining out of his father as he drank his blood, but what amazed him was what happened the more he drank. It was as if he was seeing his father's life through his blood, it was as if his very memories were flooding into him along with the blood that he was drinking.

And suddenly he understood.

He understood the actions of his father, the pressures and decisions that he had to undertake. And though he still disagreed and knew that there could have been a different way, he understood. It was almost enough to cause him to choke on the blood that he was drinking, but before long he had drained the very life out of him, and as the body crumpled to the ground, he forced himself to turn towards his mother.

The experience that he had just undergone was almost enough to make him question the actions he had just taken, but his rational side told him that it was too late. That it was better to continue his mission and save his mother the burden of living after the incidents that had occurred.

"Forgive me, mother," he whispered as he held her one last time, and dug his fangs into her waiting neck as well. She held him back, hugging him close as her own life-force began to leave her.

"Take care of Sasuke…" she whispered, and Itachi reaffirmed his promise to do just that.

It was even harder to experience his mother's memories, to feel the unconditional love that she held for him, that remained even as he stood here, draining her of her life. This time he couldn't stop the tears from falling, crimson beads staining his cheeks as he felt his mother's hold on him loosen and fall as he finally took her life as well. More than ever he questioned his actions, and wished that things could have turned out differently.

He watched in silent horror as his own parents joined the reanimated corpses in their state of death, and found himself disgusted with his actions. They deserved better than this form of perverse form of death… they deserved peace.

But right now, all he could do was continue his mission.

"What will you do now?" he asked.

The man paused, and merely looked at him for a few seconds.

"It's not what I will do, but what you will do from here on out Itachi. Those that dared to address themselves as Uchiha are undeserving of such a title. Their death was inevitable, and again, I am thankful that you have allowed me the pleasure of sucking the blood right out of them and ending their pitiful lives. To kill the people that betrayed my master…"

The man then pulled out a tanto that was strapped on his back, and in one swift movement, decapitated the same corpse he had previously touched. The body fell to the ground, blood that remained spilling from the neck and head onto the concrete ground beneath.

"The proper way to kill these ghouls is by cutting off their heads. Now, I'm quite aware that your baby brother is heading home right this minute, and as promised, he will be spared the fate that the rest of these corpses have suffered. I suggest you kill off these corpses before their hunger leads them to feed on innocent victims."

Itachi frowned, not pleased with the fact that these creatures posed a threat to the village he was trying to protect, nor the way that he spoke of his clan members as.

The man chuckled once more.

"Don't look so put off Itachi, I can't do all the work."

Itachi knew that he had no choice but to still take his weapons and put these creatures to death. Somehow, it seemed like an easier task to kill already dead corpses than it would have been to kill them when they had been alive, as had been the case with his parents. Still, he was grateful that he had managed to have one last meaningful exchange with his them.

"Very well," he said.

The man stood straight and sheathed his tanto, before turning his back to Itachi, the single hole in the mask revealing a single red eye that stared back at him in the light of the moon.

"When you finish, I'll find you once you're outside the village. Don't keep me waiting for too long."

Faster than even his trained eye could follow, the man jumped onto one of the roofs of the houses that lined the streets of the Uchiha compound, and seemed to meld and disappear into the shadows as he did so. Calmly, Itachi returned his gaze to the bodies around him, before taking out his kunai knives and setting out to do the task he had prepared himself to do before he even knew of the existence of vampires and walking corpses.

He had known something was wrong the moment he reached the gates of the compound. It was nothing more than an instinct and the stillness of the air that told him that something was very, very wrong. It was simply to quiet, too dark. He could hear the nighttime breeze in the air, and not a single light was lit within the compound. His heart began to pound, and apprehension filled his small heart as he didn't hesitate in running into the compound.

Too soon he came across the sight he feared the most as he rounded a corner to another street. Signs of a struggle, kunai and shuriken embedded into the walls of the buildings, blood on the ground, but even worse… the sight and stench of dead bodies. It was a smell he had never before encountered, a smell that caused him to stumble and fall on his knees as it overpowered his young senses. Suddenly he felt nauseous, and before he could help it he turned to the side and emptied the contents of his stomach on the ground beside him. His body shook as he tried to regain his senses and keep from letting the smell overcome him again.

He had to get up… he had to find his family. Surely they had to be alive…

So on shaking legs he stood up, and blocked out the sights around him as he focused on getting to his home.

And that's when he saw him.

He stood among the fallen bodies, bloodied kunai in his hand. He looked as he did on any other day, yet at the same time, he didn't. Sasuke watched in silent horror at the brother he had idolized for so long. The brother that he had never thought could do any wrongs in life, the brother that he looked forward to seeing every day when he came home in the hopes that he might be willing to spare some of his precious time on someone as insignificant as him.

But this…

Never in his entire young life did he ever expect to come across such a sight. The sight of his fellow clan members on the ground, and his dear brother standing over them. For an irrational second Sasuke tried to reason that this couldn't be what it looked like. That his brother must have been a survivor, and that he had managed to defeat whoever else it was that had just killed all these people. That he was the hero, like he had always been in his eyes.

But all it took to shatter that illusion was to look at his brother's face, and the expression that marred his features.

When he looked at his face, it was a stranger that he saw. As he looked at the hard and cold eyes that seemed to chill him to the very bones, Sasuke knew that this was not the brother that he greeted whenever he returned home from a mission. No, this was someone he had never known to exist. Rather than feel a flutter of adoration at seeing his elder brother, Sasuke was filled with fear and apprehension like he had never experienced before.

He took shaky and hesitant steps forward as his mind seemed go blank, and a single word played over and over again in his mind like a mantra.

"Brother…" he said, his throat suddenly dry, his tongue heavy, "Why…"

His tone was pleading and desperate, with a hint of fear. His legs suddenly felt like they were made of lead, and each step he took forward felt like it drained his already exhausted body. But still he moved forward, not knowing why he was approaching the one responsible for the deaths that had just occurred. Did he think that if he somehow managed to get close enough, this might turn out to be an illusion that would shatter?

But the closer he approached, the clearer the look in his brother's eyes became, and he knew that he would never be able to imagine something as real as this.

"Please brother… tell me you didn't do this."

His brother only regarded him with those piercing cold eyes, and Sasuke finally halted in his approach, suddenly too tired to move any further.

"Foolish little brother, clinging onto the ideal I led you to believe."

It felt as if dam broke, and Sasuke's previously numb body was flooded with emotions. Betrayal, disbelief, sorrow. All of these emotions flooding and wrapping around his young heart in a way that caused him to feel a pain like never before. How could this be the brother he had loved so dearly? Slowly, he fell to his knees.

"Why brother, why did you do this?"

Suddenly, his brother threw a shuriken at him, a shuriken that Sasuke didn't even register until it grazed his shoulder and he felt a sharp pain. It was then that Itachi closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, Sasuke gasped at the red hue that replaced his dark obsidian.

"To test my new abilities…"

Sasuke looked at his brother with confusion in his wide eyes.

"New… abilities. What are you talking about?!"

His brother continued to stare at him with those empty dark eyes, and Sasuke suddenly found himself trembling.

"There is more to this life than you know, little brother. Certain powers that only some know exist… powers that have made me stronger than ever before."

Sasuke's trembling continued, as he became acutely aware of the murderous intent in the air. But despite his brother's response, Sasuke still couldn't understand. Why did it have to be his family? What powers did he want to test? Why were his eyes red? What kind of powers did he acquire?

Would he kill him too?

Yes. He would.

At the realization, panic suddenly rose within his system. The instinct to flee overpowered his mind, and before he realized it, his panicked body rose from the ground and scrambled to run away from the figure of his brother.

I don't want to die… I don't want to die…

The thought repeated over and over in his mind, his feet carrying him forward as fast as they could. But it was no use. He stopped when he saw that his brother had gotten in front of him, and fear once more rooted him to the spot as tears ran down his face.

"Foolish litte brother… look at you. Running like a cornered animal. You're not even worth killing…"

Sasuke shuttered, and the tears continued to flow as he looked at the overbearing figure of his brother, his mind still overcome with panic.

"If you want to kill me, despise me, hate me, and live in an unsightly way… run, run, and cling to life. And someday, if you are able to match my power, face me. Prove to me that letting you live served a worthy purpose."

What… what was he asking of him? Why? Why let him live? But before he could even consider his brother's words…

His world went black.

"Has everything been executed according to plan?"

Itachi knelt before the Third Hokage, whose back was turned away from him as he watched the bright moon in the night sky.

"Affirmative. The Uchiha Clan is no more."

The Hokage turned and faced the young boy, the boy that was not even a boy anymore. It was so easy to forget that he was hardly a teenager, with everything that he had done for the village. And already he had asked so much of him… to do things no boy should ever have to do.

"And have you affirmed yourself with the vampire?"

Itachi looked up, meeting the strong gaze of the elderly man.

"Yes. Now that I have been turned into a vampire, I will be joining the Akatsuki once I leave the village as an official missing nin."

The Hokage nodded, a sense of guilt making itself known in his heart at the thought of complicating the life of one of the most loyal ninja his village had produced despite the circumstances of his life. It was enough to make him wish things could have been done differently, and that no blood had to be spilled and a precious humanity lost to the darkness.

"You have done this village a great service Itachi. You have given up more than any other ninja that has ever been under me, and for that I apologize. However, now you know of the danger that lurks in the darkness. Vampires are a very real threat, and the organization of the Akatsuki and its vampire members cannot be ignored. You will continue to serve as our spy and report on their activities, and in return, you have my word that Sasuke will be taken care of."

Itachi nodded, glad that he had heard these words from none other than the Hokage himself, who was the only one he could truly trust to do as he said.

"Thank you, sir. I will continue to do what I can in order for Konoha to remain safe and at peace."

The Hokage smiled and looked at the boy fondly.

"You are the only one who could have taken on this burden Itachi."

Itachi said nothing as he merely held the Hokage's gaze.

The Hokage let out a sigh.

"I am sorry that things couldn't turn out differently."

Itachi looked into the eyes of the man that had played a hand in the plan that included the murdering of his clan, his turning into a vampire, and the life he would lead serving in a vampire organization. Yet despite all that, he could not seem to be angry at him, nor resentful. He knew that this was what it had come down to, and he was just glad that this man was the leader of the village he treasured. The village he hoped his brother would learn to treasure as well, despite the tragedy he had just put him through.

"As am I," he said, before turning and disappearing into the night.

The Realist: Well, the idea of this story went from "Ooh, we should write a Naruto fanfiction in a zombie apocalypse!" And due to my overactive imagination, it somehow turned into a crossover with Hellsing Ultimate, High School of the Dead(wayyy later on), and I Am Legend(somewhere in between). We might or might not include other zombie fandoms depending on how this goes. I have a very complex plot that is mainly based around Naruto and Hellsing at this moment, and more will be revealed as the story progresses. I'm mainly just curious at how much interest this story gets, and then I want to see how well and smoothly I can bring all these fandoms together.

QUESTION: Under what category should this kind of story be posted? Should I post it under crossover, or because its mostly Naruto centered, would leaving it under Naruto alone be okay? I'm very unfamiliar with guidelines, so some help would be appreciated.

Anyways, I'm really curious on what you guys think! I love Itachi, and I think his story is so tragic. So I really wanted to write this chapter(and he plays an important role in plot). Besides, Itachi as a vampire... mmmm. Oh wait, dang it, he's like fourteen forever now.

Well like I said in the summary, Naruto is a vampire in this story too, but slightly different(more on that later!).

I have most of the next chapter typed up already, so leave a review and let me know if you think this is worth reading on :)