Disclaimer: nothing is mine
Leeches
Chapter one
The webcam flickered into life, focusing in on a haggard looking young man sitting behind the expensive looking desk. The man had untamed blonde hair, three asymmetrical scars on each cheek and ice-chip blue eyes.
The muffled sound of pounding and cat like hissing filters into the room through the thick door. An agonized scream rings out and the blonde man jumps visibly.
"Oh God, Neji" someone begins to cry in dry racking sobs.
The blonde man collects himself and looks off-screen:
"How much time we got Kiba?" he asks gruffly.
A voice answers unintelligibly but the man nods anyway.
"Okay," he rests his forearms on the desk and leans forward, eyes boring into the camera, "We don't have much time so I'll make this fast. My name is Naruto Uzumaki and you need to forget EVERYTHING you think you know about vampires. These leeches don't sparkle or brood and they sure as hell won't climb a damn tree with you. That's all crap, same with a lot of the 'defensive' measures. Silver won't save you, garlic just pisses them off, and a cross is only a fifty-fifty shot to keep you from becoming a parasite's juice pouch. These things are nature's tanks, the top predators. Unless you can sever the connection with the brain or destroy the heart beyond repair, they're gonna keep getting up and trying to floss with your veins.
See, my uncle was an occult scholar, specializing in uh, what's it called? Vampire lore, I guess. Whenever one of those 'ghost town' stories popped up (and they pop up a lot more than you think) where an entire town disappears practically overnight, he'd always drag me out there with him to investigate. And back then, I thought he was just as crazy as you probably think I am right about now. But then…well, my town began to pull a 'Salems Lot…"
"Well I'm not a vampire
But I feel like one
Sometimes I sleep all day
Because I hate the sunlight
My hands are always shaking
Body's always aching
And the dark is when I feed"
A tan hand shot out from underneath the cocoon of orange blankets and began to scramble around his headboard, trying to locate the phone that was disrupting his valuable sleep time. Finally he found it, turned it to silent, and threw it blindly across the room. There was a peaceful sigh from the mass of blankets as the room descended into silence once again. But the silence didn't last long, five minutes later the door was opened by a man with vivid red hair and thick black framed glasses.
"Naruto," he called, leaning against the doorframe.
No response from the mass of blankets
"Naruto" he tried again.
More silence.
With a sigh the man walked over to the bed and pulled the entire cocoon onto the floor with one strong yank.
"WAAH, What the hell!" the recently displaced teen shot upright and looked around frantically. When he saw the smile on his uncle's face, he scowled.
"What was that for Uncle Kyu?" he pouted, brushing a lock of blonde hair out of his eyes.
"Oh, just thought I should let you know you're twenty minutes late to school" he smiled innocently.
There was a brief silence while Naruto digested this, and then—
"WAAH, I gotta go, I gotta go!" he bounced to his feet and ran out of his bedroom, stopping only to grab his battered messenger bag from its spot by the door.
Ten minutes later Naruto was really regretting his decision not to get anything to eat or changing into warmer clothes for that matter. October really wasn't the time of year to only be wearing a pair of pajama pants and a wife beater.
"Not that I don't look good" he smirked and looked at his reflection in the plate window of the store he was passing. 'Hey that's weird I thought this store was abandoned'
For as long as he could remember the windows had been dusty and the door chained shut. Now though the windows were sparkling clean and inviting, despite the dark curtains that were pulled shut behind them. The door had been unchained, cleaned, and a small placard with the word Akatsuki written on it was stuck to the middle of it.
'Akatsuki, huh?' he inspected the store front a little more, trying to find any indication of what the store might sell. Finding none, he glanced around and then shrugged, ' well, I'm already late another ten minutes isn't gonna kill me.' With that in mind he pulled open the door and stepped inside.
The first thing that Naruto thought was that Akatsuki was some kind of used book store. It was barely lit by soft yellow lights and three of the four walls were covered in bookshelves that went from floor-to-ceiling. Small display cases littered the room and were filled with old books, some of them so old that they would probably turn to dust if you handled them wrong. The fourth wall however threw him for a loop. It looked like an occult junk store shoved into one bookshelf. Tarot cards, Ouija boards, shrunken heads, amulets, talismans, gemstones, and things that Naruto didn't even recognize mingled and were crammed together.
'Christ, Uncle Kyu would wet his pants in here'
He walked up to the wall and fingered a small amber talisman hanging there. It was almost hypnotizing; there was a small red shape that looked almost like an eye in there. And when you twisted the talisman the eye almost seemed to follow you.
"Can I help you?" a soft deep voice asked suddenly, inches away from Naruto's ear.
A/N: just a small chapter to see how this story would go over. if you review the story shall continue, if not…well, I'll take it down I suppose.
Thanks for reading,
Othersideofthemirror.