Centuries
Celestia193's Author's Note: Wow, looks like people really want Sasuke on the bottom. That…is negotiable, it just depends on where we end up going with this. There's some heavy emotional baggage involved with our not so little Uchiha. Also, we're covering Itachi's situation, as well as his connection to Sasuke, on multiple levels. So, enjoy the answers! Because we've got a flashback in this chapter. A LONG one.
Chapter 2
Los Angeles - Present Day (414 years later…)
Itachi smiles as he pours himself a glass of bloodwine. He loved the combination of the two liquids together. Separately they were wonderful, but together they were exquisite. Besides, he had to entertain himself somehow while Kakashi was on the phone.
As it would have been rude to eavesdrop, the vampire had gone to the kitchen to get a drink. The phone call must have been important because the silver haired man was whispering. Whispering meant that it was an interesting conversation.
"Itachi." Kakashi's eyes glimmer with amusement as he walks into the kitchen. "Breaking out the bloodwine already?" He was glad, of course, that Itachi had a healthy appetite for blood. It just seemed odd that he would start the day, well the night off by drinking. The night was young, and there was so much that could be done. Not that Kakashi wouldn't break out the bloodwine himself, the Italian wines were his personal favorite.
"Well I needed something to do while you were gossiping on the phone with God knows who?" He smiles playfully at the other vampire.
"Well, if you're not interested, then I guess there's no need to share any of that gossip with you." Not that Kakashi gave out secrets like candy, but he found it fun to rile up his childe.
Itachi feigns disinterest. "I never said that I wouldn't listen to any of the gossip." He shrugs casually. "Just that I was giving you your privacy. I'm quite certain that you will fully brief me on anything that you feel I need to know."
"Well, you're right about that." Kakashi's attitude sobers a little. "And there might be a couple of things that you need to know. It's good news, actually. It's about your family." Family that Itachi had told Kakashi long ago that he no longer had.
"Kakashi, I'm over seventy years old." He shakes his head. "And the only vampire in my family." The math was rather easy to do. "I don't have any living family, except for you." He smiles at Kakashi. "You are my family." And he had been so for decades.
Florida - 1969
They had done it! They had landed a man on the Moon. It was an incredible accomplishment and one that would go down in history, Itachi thought to himself as he cheered with the other scientists and engineers in the room.
At the age of twenty-five, he probably shouldn't have been there. He was though. Itachi had proven himself in record time and managed to get put on the project. The one that only a decade before had seemed nearly impossible, but that was no longer the case. Humans were no longer confined to just Earth now. They could truly reach for the stars!
"Come on! Lets go celebrate this properly!" One of the other engineers laughed. "I think that we all deserve a damn good drink after that!"
It hadn't taken long for the others to agree and before Itachi knew it, they were all at a bar. Everyone was jubilant. Their spirits had never been higher and one could almost get intoxicated off of the feeling of accomplishment alone. Though most were getting intoxicated off of far more than that.
The fact was, the astronauts could parade around all they liked, but the success of the mission was owed solely to the physicists and engineers who built and tested everything to make sure that it could all hold up to the stress of space travel. And every scientist in the bar that night knew it. They knew it so well that in addition to the sense of pride and accomplishment, and the alcohol in their systems, they were riding high on adrenaline and dopamine. It was something of a beautiful madness as they celebrated the success of the Apollo missions.
He had never felt such pride and such an adrenaline rush before. Most of the night was spent backslapping his colleagues or dancing with beautiful strangers as Itachi partook in far more alcohol than he had ever had before. It was wonderful. Until the bar had closed down and they were all tried to hail taxis for themselves without success.
Little did the unfortunate group of friends and colleagues know…they were being watched. Watched by many pairs of eyes, gleaming from within the shadows. This was their time, their time to hunt, to feed, to kill humans as they wished. And why not? They were clearly the superior species. Why not indulge in all that the night had to offer?
"Well I'm sure if we wait long enough, a cab will come back." He shook his head. "Or we'll have to walk to the gas station and call for one." At the time, Itachi hadn't been frightened.
He should have been. They ALL should have been frightened. "Hey, at least we had fun!" Their highly intoxicated astrophysicist giggled a little as he sways slightly. "We deserve it after all the crap we went through putting their damn rocket together!"
Itachi laughed and noded at that. "Yes, we most certainly do." It was just the way of things. The astronauts would be the ones most remembered by history and they would be little more than a footnote, but Itachi was happy with that. Happy to have been part of something wonderful.
Something wonderful…that came crashing down in an instant as one of the physicists fell to the ground, unable to even scream. His head rolled across the sidewalk, blood spilling from the neck, and something…no, someone, a being with glowing eyes DRINKING it!
"RUN!" That was the first word out of Itachi's mouth. "Hurry!" It was an instinct, he supposed. There was no helping the decapitated man. He was dead, but they didn't have to die tonight!
The eyes that glowed red in the darkness, a bloody scarlet filled with a lust for blood, said otherwise. "Foolish humans." A terrifying chorus of laughs echoed through the night as the beings with glowing eyes surround the fleeing, screaming humans, seizing most of them in an inhumanly powerful grip.
"Let go of them!" Itachi did the only thing he could at the moment. "Now!" He grabbed the nearest object he could find and threw it at one of the vampires. A trashcan. Perhaps, it was not the most heroic 'weapon', but it would have to do.
It bounced off the nearest vampire, startling her, but did no real damage. "So you wish to be next, boy?" She disappeared from in front of him, reappearing just behind and seizing his wrists with one hand, clasping her hand around his throat. "So brave…I'm sure that you'll taste very sweet when I drain the blood from your veins."
"W-What the hell are you?!" This wasn't normal. "Let go of me, you freak!" He raised his knee and tried to kick her in the stomach, seeing that she had him by the throat and would probably block any punches. But even that attempt failed as she immobilized his leg with one of her own.
"I am what you are taught to fear." Her dark, ebony hair shined dimly in the light of the street-lamps. "The monster in the darkness." She bared her fangs, gliding them along the curve of Itachi's neck, eyes taking in the sight of the humans all around them, dying at the hands of her comrades, bodies going limp as they were being slowly drained of their blood. After all, they were young vampires, and they needed to feed. No mortal laws would stop them. And she did so love the taste of terror in a human's blood. "I am a vampire, and you are my prey."
No, she was a very sick woman and so were her friends. "What you all are is psychotic and you should all be locked in intensive psychiatric care for treatment!" They must have sharped their teeth or something. There was no way they were actually vampires, even if the freaks were drinking blood. "Let me go!"
"Stop fussing, it will hurt less that way." As the human in her grasp struggled, she raised her foot, bringing it down on the bone of his right leg, shattering it. Pain and fear made blood taste so sweet. And so she knew, as she plunged sharp fangs into the young man's neck.
He screamed in agony as he desperately fought to get the woman off of him. "Stop it!" Itachi knew that without a shadow of a doubt, he was going to die soon, if he didn't free himself.
Her grip tightens, holding him firmly in place as the sweet taste of blood rolled over her tongue. What a foolish little human this one was, to think that he could fight a vampire. They were at the top of the food chain. And humans…well, they were almost at the bottom.
That was when three of the vampires dropped to the ground, bodies still as their heads rolled across the asphalt. Decapitated in the blink of an eye. "If I were you, I would release the child, Kitasha." A darkened figure moves in the shadows, the glint of a sword visible under the dimming lights.
His murderer's name was Kitasha, Itachi thought to himself as everything went blurry. Someone had come to rescue them, but it was too late. At least, the bitch would end up in prison though. That was something. And that was the conscious thought he had on his mind before everything went black.
Kakashi watched as the boy's body went limp. It was unfortunate, he was too late to prevent this slaughter. He'd gotten wind of a coven of baby vampires wandering around, and he'd been tracking them for days. He had hoped to catch them before they produced any more bodies, but it seemed that they had committed another slaughter. Still, their blood march would end here.
Still, he could prevent it from happening again. And honestly…four against one weren't very good odds. Not for his opponents, at least. "Whoever sired you must have been an irresponsible twat." Hadn't the devastation and horde of vampires created during the last war been enough?
"It doesn't matter who sired us." Kitasha smirked as she charged at Kakashi. "You know, I've never had vampire blood before."
"And you won't be starting now." Kakashi sidestepped the charge, cutting upwards with his katana in a single smooth slashing motion, slicing cleanly through Kitasha's arm. A newborn vampire was no match for him, and the bitch should have known that.
She screamed in agony at the loss of her limb and flew into a rage. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" Such a move wouldn't kill her, but that didn't make it any less painful.
"No, I won't." With age, came power. And Kakashi was at least three times as fast as this newborn. Fast enough that he was nothing more than a blur of black and silver, slicing through the darkness with his sword as the three other newborns lunge at him, only to meet their end by his blade. This was why newborns shouldn't challenge their elders. They more often than not…died.
While he didn't usually indulge in torturing his enemies, Kakashi would make an exception here for how Kitasha tortured the young human before he fell. Which is why the next things to go, as she lunges at him, are her legs. "You are a hundred years too early to be challenging the likes of me." He was a trained samurai. She was not.
"Bastard!" She might die today, but she would drag him straight to Hell with her! Kitasha's fangs snapped everywhere, trying to dig into him.
Kakashi pushed what's left of Kitasha to the ground, pointing his sword at her throat as she writhed there helplessly. Vampires could heal from a great many wounds, but severed limbs were another matter entirely. Magic could restore them, but they would not simply grow back on their own. "Do you have any final words?" He raised his sword, ready to end her life in an instant.
"Go to Hell!" Kitasha seethed at him. "You're a traitor to your own kind!"
"Hardly." Kakashi shook his head. "I simply take after my Sire." He struck down his enemies, whether they be mortal or immortal. "And you have gone after humans, killing left and right. "The last thing that our kind needs is a band of rippers running about. It would bring the wrath of the other magical races down upon us. And that makes YOU the traitor, not me." Kakashi twirled his sword in his hand, bringing it down on her neck, severing her head cleanly from her body. A pity. She was rather attractive, but she had wasted both her life, and her last words.
As the vampiress' blood spilled across the ground, Kakashi turns his sight onto the mangled and broken human bodies. Dead, every last one of them. Some had been ripped apart, others just drained…it was nothing short of a massacre.
He sighed and slashed his sword through the air, flicking all of the blood from it, before sheathing it. "Unfortunate…" He would have to report this immediately. That way, the mess could be cleaned up before the human authorities got involved.
That's when he heard the sound of breathing. It was faint, but it was followed by another not long after. Kakashi's eyes widened as he searched the human bodies again, looking for the source. It was the boy, the youngest of the lot. Maybe twenty-five at the very most. "He's alive." But only just. He probably didn't have long now.
Kakashi approached the barely breathing body curiously. Clearly, there were many bones broken, and the human was obviously running short on blood. Unless he got multiple transfusions in the next five minutes, he wouldn't survive long enough to have the bones set, and his skin sewn back together. And there's no way that an ambulance would arrive in time.
So, he kneeled next to the young man, brushing bloodied hair from the pale face. "…It can't be…" That was impossible. Getting a closer look at him…the human looked like…HIM. The traces were there, but only just. "Can you hear me?" He tapped the human's face in an attempt to provoke a conscious reaction. "Child, can you hear me?"
He had been drifting in a sea of blackness. The pain was gone here, until he heard a voice. Was he dead yet? He must be. Had he gone upstairs, downstairs, or was he being reincarnated? Was this all that existed after death? A sea of blackness?
Hesitantly he opened his eyes slowly. So very slowly. "Y-Yes." It barely qualified as a whisper really but maybe the other man had heard him or at least seen his lips move.
"Well, it seems that you're a strong one. I honestly expected you to be dead by now." The samurai placed a hand on the human's forehead, feeling the dropping temperature of his skin. "You don't have long now." There's silence for a moment. "But if you wish, I can save you. But in exchange, you must come with me. I will take care of you, teach you, and you will live for a very long time, be able to do whatever you want."
At this point, Itachi wasn't sure if the man was real or if he was hallucinating from blood loss. Maybe, he was a guardian angel, sent to take him to the afterlife or a clever demon trying to trick him. Though the first option seemed unlikely, if he was able to focus this much. "Y-Yes." He couldn't say more than that. The words just wouldn't come out. It was so exhausting just to keep his eyes open. Every word felt as though he were running a marathon.
"Good boy." Kakashi bit into his wrist, holding the bleeding appendage to Itachi's mouth. "Drink, and then go to sleep. You'll be well again when you wake." He stroked the boy's hair, trying to soothe the fear he sensed pouring off the child.
He normally would have repulsed or asked questions. Itachi was too tired to do so. So he drank, and he drank…
And when Kakashi was satisfied that Itachi had consumed enough blood, he pressed his fingers to Itachi's neck, and broke it in an instant with a flick of his wrist. It was what his own Sire had done for him, after the man's own 'death' had been long and drawn out. This way, the boy would feel less pain. The body would heal, but there was no need for the pain.
The boy stilled beneath him, so Kakashi removes a pendant from around his neck, pressing it like an emergency button, and letting it glow for a few moments, before tucking it back into his shirt. A group of witches would come to clean this up. It was better for all of them that the humans not know what occurred tonight.
Besides… He picks his newborn up in his arms, his vampiric strength not bothered at all by the weight, and turns towards the apartment that he had rented in Orlando. He had a home in New York, and one in Los Angeles, but they were both in the wrong corners of the country.
Hm…maybe he should look into getting a beach house in Miami. A vampire going to the beach, what an amusing thought.
A few hours later, Itachi opened his eyes and immediately wished he hadn't done that. "AHHH!" He was nearly blinded by the light from a nearby lamp and for some reason, the sound from what he was sure was a television felt so loud that it was making his ears pound. That and he could smell well everything. Including something that he would describe as a minty scent?
"It's alright, you're fine." Rough hands, but a gentle, firm touch covered Itachi's eyes, holding him down to the bed. "You're in transition, everything will be very intense to you for some time. But you're safe, that's what matters." Kakashi kept his voice low, knowing the pain firsthand of adjusting to the heightened senses. "Would you like a blindfold?"
"A blindfold would be nice." In transition? What did that mean? Had it all been real, after all? Itachi was wondering if it had been a nightmare.
Yet another trick that Kakashi had learned from his Sire, he has a dark, thin blindfold prepared, enough to block out most light, but not obscure vision completely. He wraps the cloth around Itachi's head, obscuring his eyes. "Is that better? You should be able to see, but only just." Not that it mattered, vampires were used to seeing in the dark.
It was better. "Yes, that's better." Where was he? The other man said he was somewhere safe, but that could have been anywhere.
"Good." Kakashi sat by his newborn's side, patting his head softly. "Now, are you hungry? Thirsty?"
"My throat feels like it's burning." It was a sensation that was similar to thirst, but at least a thousand times worse than any he had ever experienced before.
"Yes…that's how it starts." Kakashi sighed, shaking his head. "I don't have any bloodwine with me. I hadn't expected to have a newborn on my hands." He bit his wrist, letting the smell of blood fill the air as he holds it in front of Itachi's nose. "But this is what you need to drink."
Itachi knew that it should have repulsed him, but instead he found himself salivating and he could swear his teeth were getting longer as he sank them into the man's wrist and drank. Deeply.
The older vampire nodded, running gentle fingers through Itachi's hair. This would be a trying time for the new vampire, and it was Kakashi's duty to see the child through it. "Very good. For now, drink only from me. It will sate your thirst quicker than human blood, and it will help to teach you control. The last thing we need is you running around, killing humans like the newborns from last night."
After drinking more blood than was probably safe for a human, Itachi pulled himself away. "This is really happening?" It wasn't just a nightmare? He was drinking another man's blood and enjoying it?!
Kakashi nodded. "Yes, it is. I had much the same reaction as you when I was turned." And so had his Sire, from what he could tell. "Are you feeling better now?"
"About as well as can be expected, given the situation." He was grateful for his care, but on the inside Itachi was panicking. "You saved my life though...thank you."
"Well, sort of." Kakashi tilted his head, smiling ruefully. "You're not actually alive anymore. Your heart stopped once I broke your neck."
He was...still conscious though. "Well there's apparently a difference between being dead and dead, dead." That sounded absurd, but apparently it was true.
The silver-haired vampire chuckled. "Well, yes, there is. I think that the terms are dead, and undead." That was the lingo that the kids used these days, right? "What do you know of vampires? Save for what you learned of them last night, when you were attacked."
"Just...what I've seen in movies." Mostly horror ones. "And read in a few books." Mostly romance novels. Itachi doubted either were very accurate.
"So…essentially nothing but a few of the basics." Kakashi sighed once again, frustrated by how humans could get things so utterly wrong. So he reached over to the bedside table and dimmed the light in the room slight glow. The sunlight just barely crept around the edges of the thick curtains. It was like sitting in a dimly lit basement."There, your eyes should have settled a little, and it should be no brighter to you than walking into your bedroom and turning on a lamp. But unless you want to burn yourself to a crisp, I wouldn't suggest going to the window."
He couldn't go out in the sunlight anymore? "Is that just immediately after I turn or permanent?" That was more than a little depressing.
"Well, it lasts for a while after you turn, but it's not permanent." The child was taking this better than Kakashi expected. "You simply need time to build up an immunity to it. But it will probably take you a few years before your skin stops burning as soon as it touches you. But after the first few months, you should be in no danger of disintegrating."
"D-Disintegrating?!" That was not a word that an engineer ever wanted to hear. "You mean it would literally turn me to ash?!" Especially, not when it was being applied to THEM!
"Not if you stay out of the sun, but if you decide to go sunbathing…" Kakashi grimaced as he reached for the blindfold and slowly slid it from Itachi's eyes in the near-darkness. "Well, it wouldn't be pretty. You would be a pile of ashes in less than five seconds, you might as well throw yourself into a volcano. And you wouldn't be the first newborn to commit suicide by sunlight exposure."
Well that was good to know. "Thanks for the warning." Though Itachi had no idea what he was expected to do after that.
Kakashi examined the dark eyes that are so eerily familiar, the red glow of the bloodlust gone from them. "Tell me, what is your name, child?"
"Itachi and I'm not a child." He was twenty-five!
The samurai smirked at the young one's indignation. "It is nice to meet you, Itachi. I am Kakashi Hatake, I hail from the Aizu Domain, what you would now call eastern Japan." Itachi would likely be curious about that eventually. "I am your Sire, and you are my Childe."
Right this wasn't weird. "I'm Itachi. I hail from California, what you would know as California." Nope, not weird at all.
Kakashi chuckled and raised a hand to ruffle Itachi's hair. "Right, my apologies, I sometimes forget that I'm no longer in Edo. I was born…a very long time ago, and my English tends to be rather formal at times, after spending so long in Britain. I will try to speak in a more modern fashion."
"It's alright." He was perfectly understandable, if a little awkward. "As long as I understand the gist of what you are saying, I'm not picky." Itachi was a little embarrassed by the exchange, though.
"I see." The older vampire smiled, a little sadly. "Now, I assume that you have an apartment close by?"
"I have a house, actually." It was a relatively modest house since he was so young, but he had gotten quite the good deal on it.
Now that actually impressed Kakashi a little. "To be able to afford a house at your age is…impressive." Working for NASA must have paid very well. "But as Florida is a little on the sunny side, what would you say to moving to New York?" His brownstone was more than large enough to keep a newborn from getting into trouble.
Itachi paused. His life was here, but he was dead now. "I'd say that sounds fine to me." Did really matter where he learned how not to turn into a vicious coldblooded monster? "Just the state or were you referring to the city?"
"I have a brownstone mansion in Brooklyn. It's spelled so that I can put up barriers to keep vampires in or out." It was really just a precautionary measure, for the most part, but one could never be too safe. "So if you're worried about going on a rampage and attacking people, know that I can easily just ground you, and we can work through your rages."
"That'd probably be best for now." It stung his pride, but that didn't make it less true.
"Alright, then I'll go to pack up your things today." Kakashi was certain that he could have the entire home packed by afternoon. "We can leave once the sun sets." It was best not to linger long. "Do you have any family that I should be aware of? Someone who could walk in on me?"
"I don't have any living relatives left." He sighed and shook his head. "I'm lucky enough at the moment not to have a wife or any children either." That would have killed him all over again, if he had to leave them. "And most of my friends that would look for me were killed by those demons. It's just me."
Kakashi's heart ached a little, even if it hasn't beat in almost a century and a half. "I see…" It was a story he'd heard…even witnessed before. "…No amount of sympathy will make up for what you've lost. And for what it's worth, I know the feeling all too well." He wrapped his arms around the young man before him. "But being a 'demon' isn't so bad. It can be quite exhilarating, if you let it. And just think, you're stuck with me for the next couple of decades, at least."
"..." Itachi pauses. "Are you...hitting on me?" It sounded like he was. The new vampire had heard whispers of such things. About men who liked men (or women who liked women). Though he had never really investigated the matter thoroughly himself before.
"No, not on my childe." Kakashi chuckled at the thought. "But most newborns choose to stay close to their Sires, if given the choice. I stayed with my own Sire for the better part of eighty years."
Eighty years?! "I see. That sounds like quite a long time." He smiled a bit nervously. "You must really be fond of him."
"Yes…" Kakashi smiled at the thought of the vampire who once did the very same for him. "I am. But to a vampire, eighty years is a fairly short period of time. After all, that's less than half my life. Perhaps one day…you'll meet him."
"Maybe." Though day seemed far off to Itachi.
"Yes, that might be the case." Kakashi would not contest that he and Itachi were family, but…there was more to the story now. "I had your DNA tested by one of the witches here in Los Angeles. And…you do still have two existing relatives."
He blinks and looks at Kakashi like he was insane. "Impossible. I never had any children." He would have known.
"They're not descendants of yours." Kakashi shoots his childe a sheepish smile. "They're your ancestors. Vampires, both of them."
"Oh." Itachi blinks. "I hadn't really considered that possibility." Ancestors. The word ancestors implied these were at a minimum in his great grandparents' generation or older.
"Well, I don't blame you. After all, they're a bit…older than I am." And he was two hundred and fourteen years old, which wasn't insignificant. "The younger of the two is double my age. The elder, closer to a thousand years old."
Itachi suddenly felt a little lightheaded. "Over a thousand years old?" And the 'baby' was over 400! These two vampires would likely have no clue who he was and even if they did, he couldn't imagine they'd be interested in him.
"Something like that, though I've never personally met the man. Indra is…a difficult vampire to get a hold of at the best of times. He's ancient, by anyone's standards." But that wasn't who he was most interested in. "But…I have recently acquired a means of contacting the younger one, and I think that he would be very interested in meeting you, assuming that I reach him."
"How do you know the younger one?" Kakashi was old enough that it was rare for anyone to take him lightly, but this one made the man look like a teenager at best.
Kakashi smiles slyly. "Well, I know him because he's my Sire."
THUD! That was enough to knock Itachi right on his ass and well, the older vampire decides that was a sign that he should make the phone call. So that's exactly what he did.
An ancient chokuto flashes through the air as a young man flows through the traditional poses of a fighting style unique to the extinct Uchiha Clan of Iga and Edo. The movements are flawless, practiced, as though he had spent centuries mastering them.
A hawk mask rested on the far wall, hanging over a folded pile of black clothing. Numerous weapons sit in the glass cases, most of them untouched for decades, some, for over a century. There was no need to touch them, as no one in the house had gone to war since the fall of the Shogunate. There had been no one in the house to fight. Not until the young man had finally returned home.
On one of the benches lining the dojo, a cell-phone vibrates, easily catching the attention of the practicing youth, who glares at the phone. He had given his number to a select few people, and none of them would be calling him right now.
Putting down the sword, he walks towards the bench, flipping the phone into his hand as he frowns at the number. He recognized it. So he slides his finger across the screen, accepting the call. "How did you get this number, Kakashi?"
"Sasuke, you're my Sire." A chuckle is heard through the phone. "The bond between a Sire and their childe is unbreakable. Besides, you aren't the only one with connections."
The old vampire places his sword back in its sheath, before returning it to its rack on the wall. "Alright, you found me. Is it business again?" He hadn't heard from Kakashi in several decades. Not that he had made himself an easy vampire to find. Sasuke was rather determined not to socialize with people more than he had to, and those few times that he did, it was either business, or his 'friends' dragging him out to have some 'fun'.
The silver haired vampire shakes his head. "No. This is more personal." He smiles slyly on the other hand. "Though I guess you could say it is family business."
That was…odd, even by Kakashi standards. "Has Indra resurfaced?" His own Sire would occasionally disappear for a few decades, before reappearing in the world as a noble or aristocrat, or more recently, an extremely rich author. An ancient vampire had to find some way to spend their time. "Or have you finally found yourself a Mate?"
A Mate was something that every old vampire longed for, after they got past the bloodlust. If you were lucky, you found the perfect one for you. If you weren't…well, there was a reason that so many ancient vampires had a tendency to become apathetic, bored, uncaring, restless, lonely…and eventually find a way to self-destruct. No Sire wanted that for their childe. But it usually wasn't the childe who was in danger of it. Still, Sasuke did hold out some hope that Kakashi would find someone for himself. Someone to spend the centuries with.
"A Mate?" The other vampire laughs softly. "No. I'm still quite content to be a bachelor for the moment. No, it's more that well I suppose congratulations are in order." He pauses as he does the math. "I think you're something like a ten times great-grandfather."
Sasuke sighs, shaking his head. "I've told you already, Kakashi, I never had any 'children', apart from you. I was turned before I had the chance to marry, and I definitely didn't sire any bastard children. Besides, the last of the Uchiha Clan was wiped out nearly a hundred and fifty years ago." He knew, because he'd been the one who had tried to save them. He'd failed.
"It seems you're wrong." How could Kakashi explain this? "One of your relatives managed to flee that night during the end of the war and continued on the family line. He assumed a fake name and in those days, well no one could really prove who you were or weren't." You were who you said you were until proven otherwise. "So the line has continued under another name all this time."
It felt a little like someone had stuffed a basket of hot peppers into Sasuke's stomach. "…You're sure?" If he got his hopes up, and it turned out to be wrong, well…Sasuke didn't want to have to suffer the disappointment of such a mistake. Or relive the guilt and despair of that last bloody night.
Kakashi nods, even though Sasuke couldn't see it. "I'm positive. There is a rather strong resemblance given how many years have passed. It was difficult to trace him back to your family, but I managed it."
If it was true, which Sasuke had his reservations about, then it could only mean one thing. "A descendant of the main house, from one of my older siblings, I'd guess." If it was really true. But…something seemed wrong with what Kakashi had said. "You've tasted his blood? Is he a feeder?" Not that he disliked feeders. Some of them could be loyal and dear friends to their vampire masters. He just wasn't a vampire who indulged in their presence.
"Well DNA tests weren't all that reliable until recently. But I did manage to keep a sample of your blood. And I've tasted his blood as well, I sired him a few decades back." He had been trying to get in touch with Sasuke for quite some time, only now, he had good news to share. "It just...took me a while to get the results, and then get a hold of you."
A vampire. His 'descendant' was a vampire. "And his family?" If the unfortunate fate of their family had continued, then chances weren't very good on that front.
"I'm afraid that as far as I can tell, he is the last of your line...save for yourself and possibly Indra." Indra was, after all, Sasuke's Sire and ancestor. "I'm sorry. I have looked extensively, of course."
"It's fine." He honestly hadn't expected there to be any Uchiha left. And Sasuke was still skeptical about Kakashi's claim that his new childe was one. "I'm sure that you did your best." And there was still one elephant in the room. "I assume, since you're telling me about that, that you want me to meet him."
Kakashi smiles at that. "Well yes, that would be preferable. Though it is up to you." He wouldn't force the issue.
Meet him, and risk being disappointed, or forever living with the what if. Those were Sasuke's choices, what they really boiled down to. "I'll be there by evening." The jet lag wasn't going to be much fun, it never was, but luckily, as a vampire, Sasuke found that he recovered fairly quickly from it.
"Excellent. His name is Itachi." He had won that battle! Sasuke was going to meet him. "I'm sure that the two of you will get along marvelously."
"Sure. I'll see you soon, Kakashi." Sasuke hangs up the call, dialing another number quickly. After all, he had a flight to arrange.
