Disclaimer-I do not own Naruto or Vampure Knight which themes come from for this story.
Authornote-Yo! My sis found my flash drive! Now I can finally begin updating this story! I guess this is a very good Christmas week for all ya as I managed to update three stories and put up a one-shot. Well, review if you like and have a Merry Christmas everybody!
Ch.2 "Past Shadows"
"My lady? My lady? Where are you?" A raven hair five year boy called out while going through some woods during the night. Oddly, he had no problem seeing in the dark.
"My lady-ACK!"
"Oops... Sorry..." The boy groaned as the five year old blond hair girl wearing a red dress got off of him. "Why were you calling me, brother?"
"My lady... You really need to stop running away from the manner and climbing trees...More for my safety than yours." The boy sighed, dusting himself off. "Also, your father is calling you."
"...Please stop calling me 'lady.'" The boy looked at the girl with confusion. "You are my brother and that makes father both of our father. I don't like it when you act like a slave, brother."
"...I know you don't, but I can't." The boy sighed. "I was born after you, and so I have been condemned to be your servant."
"But, Haruto!" The boy sweated as the girl pouted with tears. "I hate it! I don't believe in destiny and fate! I just want you to be my brother, not my servant!"
"I know..." The boy named Haruto sighed. "If fate was real, I would have probably been your brother, but, for our kind, fate and destiny, be real or not, is cursed..." Haruto sighed before his eyes widen when the blond hair sister of his kissed him on the forehead.
"I don't care. Be our blood cursed or blessed, you can make your own choices!" The girl smiled.
'Yet, I can't because I care for you, sister...' Haruto let out a sigh with a smile as his sister ran towards the household.
"..." Itachi sat up in his bed, looking at the sun coming up. 'Odd... This time was a new dream... Haruto?' That was the name of the boy he was always as.
"Hmm..." Itachi rubbed his throat. "I'm thirsty..." Itachi got up and yawned. He wondered what his dreams meant especially since he has been getting different versions from the one he always had since he saw the blond hair girl a month ago. 'I wonder... Maybe that girl was my sister in a past life?...It may sound weird, but it all I have to go by for now.'
Itachi looked out his window and grimaced at the sunrise. 'Even though light was supposed to be of pure and innocence, it always exposed the dark sins of the people who called themselves light-walkers as well as my kind.' Itachi's eyes turned blood red for a second before they turned back to onyx and his eyes widen in surprise.
"Huh? What the?...That was strange..." Itachi shook his head, feeling even thirstier than before. Maybe he needed a vacation... But he knew that would never happen, so he got dress and headed downstairs to start his day.
"Such lovely works of art!" Naruto smirked as she noticed several people looking at her artwork. Only within a month, she had become a famous artist which kept the council in Konoha from bothering her. However, she was amazed at what really made her famous.
"Aw! So cute!" Naruto sweated as several people looked at the stuff animals she made. They were of unique making as she never liked normal dolls as they were all the same. Her dolls were unique, mysterious, and sometimes gothic. But it was her style and taste, and it seemed her customers like it enough that she was able to buy a place and made it her studio and home.
'However, I had found nothing to help me... Maybe I should check the police reports for any "vampire" like killings...' Naruto let out a sigh. She wanted to save what bottled blood she had left, so she needed to start hunting for blood soon.
"..." Naruto looked out the window. "Maybe I should do some work in the forest. It is such a nice day." Naruto smiled a somber smile. In the past, she never had seen the sun except at sunrise and sundown. She was always bathe in moonlight, never sunlight. She had to wear sunscreen because the sun's rays would just make her skin feel like it was burning and she even gotten sun burnt a little before. However, there were many beautiful things that could only be seen in sunlight as well as the same for moonlight and she wanted to see it all.
"Kage Bushin no Jutsu." Naruto made a clone. "Watch the studio. I will be back around sunset..." Naruto picked up an art bag and waved goodbye to the clone that nodded. Naruto couldn't use black magic in fear of attracting unwanted attention, but she was lucky to have jutsu to replace it.
Eight year old Uchiha Sasuke grimaced as the last bell for his classes rang. He ran out like the rest of the students, but he wasn't going to head home.
'I'm so far behind my brother!' Sasuke brooded. He was already eight years old, but his brother had already been a Gennin for a year and activated his Sharingan at that age. He had been training so hard, but wasn't even close to Itachi. Sasuke was drifting farther apart from everyone and becoming more in his brother's shadow. The only one who even sees Sasuke is Itachi, who deeply cares for him, but was always busy. Sasuke wasn't a fool. He could see that his parents were using his brother, which was why he wanted to catch up to his brother. He wanted to take some of the load off his brother's shoulders.
"Huh!" Sasuke froze as he found someone sitting on his secret training ground. He glared at the blond hair person who had a canvas on a stand in the middle of his training ground.
"Hey!" The blond turned around and Sasuke was shocked as he was looking at a blue-eyed, blond hair version of his brother except the blond was wearing strange clothing. "Get out of here! This is my training ground!"
"...I don't see any body's name on it, so it has to be everyone's then." Sasuke's face became red with fury before he saw some of what the blond was painting. Curiosity over came all his emotions and he tried to look at it.
"Huh? It's just a bunch of ravens..." Sasuke pouted as he saw the unfinished painting had ravens on it. "Wait, aren't ravens black?" Sasuke asked, seeing the birds had blue, green, and purple highlights in their dark feathers.
"No... They may appear black in the shadows, but in light, be it sunlight or moonlight, they have this beautiful luster of green, purple, or even blue depending on which kind of raven... There are some with pure black feathers, but I never seen those before."
"Why are you painting ravens when there are none around?" Sasuke asked, annoyed that the blond was using his space for something so stupid.
"You are wrong... Look up..." Sasuke looked at where the blond pointed to and saw several nests with ravens in them. "My otouto loved ravens. He was always surrounded by them when he was alone and his hair was the same color as their feathers."
"You're little brother?" Sasuke asked in confusion. He didn't know the blond had a brother... Maybe he was a grade above or below him. "What's your brother's name? How old is he?"
"Huh?...Oh, I'm sorry..." The blond sighed. "My little brother is gone... He died a long time ago when we were separated... His name was Haruto..."
"What kind of name is Haruto? Doesn't it mean spring?" Sasuke asked before he realized he had just disrespected the dead.
"Yeah... He was named that to match my name... Naruto." Naruto looked at Sasuke. She never expected to meet the counter-part of her best friend of an alternate reality like this. However, she is quite relieved that this Sasuke was still full of life and himself. "It also can mean 'remote person' which he was always like. He was distant with everyone but me."
"Do you regret your brother dying?" Sasuke spoke what he thought and covered his mouth when he finished the sentence.
"Yes... Ironically, even though I don't believe in things like fate, we were two pitifully destined twins torn apart by adult reasons. Sometimes I wished I was the one who had died and he was the one living... We promised to protect each other, but thanks to adults, we were torn apart before we could even keep our promise to each other." Naruto sighed.
"Boy, you don't get sad about anything..." Sasuke sweated at the fact the blond still had a strange aura of mystery and cheerfulness around him.
"Well, there is no point of grieving... My brother would not want me to grieve, but want me to live on along with the rest of my family, though I could never truly call them that." Naruto smiled at Sasuke. "But, even if this place is your training ground, sometimes even a ninja needs to slow down and smell the roses."
"I don't need that! I need to train to catch up to my brother!" Sasuke shouted.
"... Baka!" Sasuke gripped his head when Naruto hit it. "Become your own ninja! Forget what others say and become your own person! Your own image! No matter how much they want you to be someone else, you cannot take on someone else's roles." Naruto sighed as Sasuke looked at her.
"How can you say that! You don't even know me!" Sasuke puffed his cheeks out.
"Because, if you keep going down the path you are currently going down, you will become a monster." Sasuke looked at Naruto with confusion. "Power has the ability to corrupt people. As you gain strength, you must learn the knowledge that will allow you to control it without being corrupted. Different people can do this at different rates of time. If you push yourself too far, either the power will kill you, control you, or you will become a power hungry monster inside a human skin."
"Yeah, right... You don't even-ACK!" Sasuke gapped as he saw an earth jutsu turn one side of the training ground into a bunch of earth spikes.
"I do know jutsu... I just learned them as a back-up to what I usually use in fighting since even an artist like myself needs to protect myself." Naruto sighed before paling at the strangest sight she had ever seen.
"Please be my sensei!" Sasuke asked with his eyes big and filled with sparkles.
'...Creepy...' Naruto let out a sigh. "Fine... But, you shall have to earn my respect before I teach you any jutsu... Well start with basic stuff like taijutsu and stuff to make it easier to use jutsu." Naruto glared at Sasuke as he pouted at Naruto. "Don't. In order to learn the more advance stuff, you must first learn the basics to figure them out. However, they probably don't even teach you this kind of stuff in the academy... We'll start training tomorrow."
"Aw! But I want to train now!" Sasuke groaned.
"You are... There is more to being a ninja than just fighting. Sometimes, all you need to train the mental parts of the battle and missions, is as simple as art." Naruto smirked as Sasuke cocked his head.
Uchiha Madara was a powerful ninja who was one of the founders of Konoha. He fought against the First Hokage, trying to make Konoha his and failed.
"... Zetsu...Report..." Uchiha Madara sat on a throne in the darkness of a cave, the candlelight reflecting his blood red armor and blood red Sharingan. His long raven hair hanging loosely as his pale skin gave him the appearance of a cursed beauty and oddly suited him.
"There seems to be a sudden appearance of a new Uzumaki in Konoha.." Both sides of a man that was half white and half black and with a Venus fly trap coming off his shoulders. He was wearing a black cape with red clouds.
"A new Uzumaki?" Madara asked in confusion. "I thought Uzumaki Kushina was the only Uzumaki left..." Madara knew, however, Kushina would not want to be his. She would kill him in his sleep. But, he needed an Uzumaki to take over the Whirlpool Kingdom. Not a soul knows what happened, but the villagers suddenly gotten a horrible sickness after one of the royal family was killed including the royal family and everyone fled before a barrier formed over the Kingdom and the edict was left only a Uzumaki of true royal blood may break the barrier and the Kingdom will forever flourish.
"Yes... I thought so to... But, that's why I watched this new Uzumaki for a while before reporting." Zetsu let out a sigh. "Deidara and Sasori would like this man. He is an artist and in the last month became pretty famous with his paintings and stuff dolls. However, he only spends the latter half of the day awake and half the night awake. He has strange behavior like putting sunscreen on even when staying indoors and is very mannered in etiquette I never seen before."
"I see..." Madara pondered. Sure, this new Uzumaki was a male, but if he captured Uzumaki Kushina and this male Uzumaki and had them reestablish the Uzumaki clan, then he could raised their children to befit his goals. "So what is this Uzumaki's name?"
"His name is Uzumaki Naruto... He has blond hair, blue eyes, very pale skin, and these strange scars on his cheeks. He also wears strange clothing you would only find in the movies on old times." Zetsu grumbled.
"Blond hair?" Madara blinked. He thought true Uzumaki had red hair. "Well, then we will capture him first. But, now, we have other things to attend to like getting the money to start up a kingdom." Madara lost his desire to take over Konoha, especially seeing how his clan has turned. So, now, he was going to revive Whirlpool Kingdom and rule it as its king. But, he did wonder about this blond. Maybe fate was working for him and brought this answer to him? He did not know, but now he had two targets to snatch from Konoha, and one was not Kushina as he would have to wait for the perfect time to snatch her up.
"So, you're Naruto!" Naruto flinched at the high pitch voice of Uzumaki Kushina as the red hair, green-eyed woman with tanned skin hugged her. "I always thought I was the only one left after my family died!"
"Well... Seeing our appearances... I have to guess we are distant relatives." Naruto sighed. She wasn't expect to meet another Uzumaki, but she got a small answer to many questions as she could sense a small amount of vampire blood, not enough to even call Kushina one-thirty fourth, but it was there and it was the blood of her family in Kushina.
'So, some did escape the massacre.' Naruto smirked. She now had a family member, even though technically she was Kushina's ancestor.
"Wow... You're pretty good with art..." Kushina looked at Naruto's paintings. "But, aren't they a bit dark and sad?"
"Some are supposed to be that... Others are happy... Look..." Naruto pointed at a dark painting with people in simple dress dancing in the moon light. "This one is supposed to show the joys night can bring."
"I see... You like using dark colors instead of bright colors, hence your style." Kushina sighed. She was not good in this kind of subject. She was a tomboy and one for outside, not inside stuff.
"Yes... You're not really good with art, huh?" Kushina froze as Naruto hit the mark. "Don't worry. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses... I'm just glad your side managed to get the genetic disorder out of your systems."
"Genetic disorder?" Kushina asked.
"Yes... It's actually a disorder that causes many of my side, including myself, to be hypersensitive to many things like sound and sight. Our skin is the most sensitive as it will actual sunburn indoors if I even sit in sunlight for twenty minutes, but it goes away really quickly. Many of our clan only was awake at night because of that. It's because this genetic disorder that makes us able to heal much faster since he can develop new cells without worry."
"Kind of sound like vampire to me..." Kushina shivered.
"Which was why how your family was separated from mine. Long ago, our clan also discovered we can heal others by letting them drink our blood or licking their wounds. Many began to see us as vampires and attacked the main household. Our clan separated and shattered to survive... My side stuck to the clan's old traditions and kept our clan's origin alive while yours must have forgotten and made a new Uzumaki clan. But, we are still the last on both sides." Naruto comically cried.
"I see... So, where have you been all this time, Naruto?" Kushina asked, wanting to know about the blond.
"Hiding, moving one place to another. Even though we were forgotten, my part of the clan feared for our lives to the point we kept to the oldest of our traditions of inbreeding with each other... My mother and father were actually brother and sister."
"Isn't that... wrong?" Kushina moved away from Naruto.
"Usually, yes, but it has been in the family for as long as it has been around. Either, brothers and sisters marry or they become servants to each other... I was hoping to use the loop of in that to marry my twin sibling who was forced into being my servant to break that bond, but he died before we could do it." Naruto sighed.
"So, either way is technically wrong and you must choose the lesser of the two evils... Sucks... I'm glad of my side now." Kushina groaned before seeing the clock. "I'm sorry. But I have to leave."
"No worries. I understand..." Naruto sighed as the red hair woman left. "But, it is quite sad to enjoy the moonlight alone." Naruto sighed, glad she managed to get a small meal in before Kushina came.
"Huh!" Naruto's eyes widen as a suddenly feeling of dread came over her body. 'What the heck?' Naruto opened the door to her porch and sniffed the air for her eyes to widen. 'It can't be! How is this possible!' Naruto thought as she turned into a large bat and flew off. She knew the scent of blood currently in the air all too well, even though the person belonging to the scent betrayed her.
"Agh..." A thirteen year old girl panted hard as she gripped a tree to stand you. "Hack.." The girl covered her mouth as blood dripped past his lips. Blood covering her pale skin while her dark clothing was all ripped up while her short, although long enough to reach her shoulders fell into her blurred onyx eyes.
"...N-Naruto... I'm so...sorry..." The girl collapsed to the ground, her sight blurring. She could never image everything ending like this. 'He...must hate my guts for trying to kill him... He'll probably kill me the instant he sees me...'
"What the?" The raven hair girl looked up to see a shadowy figure similar to someone she knew. "...Heh... I guess I'll never get my revenge now..."
"...Don't even think of it anymore...Sasuke..." The girl's eyes widen as the voice wasn't of who she thought it was, but relaxed when the person helped her up to her knees. "But, do you wish to live, Sasuke?"
"...Why?... Naruto probably wants to kill me after what all I did to him... I was his best friend and I tried to kill him to get the Mangekyou Sharingan... He must hate me with all his will... And would just laugh at me if he knew I tried to escape Orochimaru's grip after seeing he wasn't worth the power." The girl panted, feeling very weak. She deserved to die right then and now. She betrayed her friends and was just as guilty as her brother that killed her clan.
"...You're not hated, Sasuke... There are times people can't see what they have done till after it is done..." The figure put a hand on the girl's cheek.
"But, I've done a great sin!" The girl cried. "I'm tainted with darkness... I'm a monster..." The girl wept, but stopped when she found the figure holding her chin up.
"...So what, 'Teme.'" The girl's eyes widen as her onyx eyes looked into a pair of sapphire ones. "I'm been in darkness my whole life." The girl gasped in surprise when the figure long fangs bite into her neck and her screams were blocked by a bloody wrist.
"...Ah..." The girl grunted, collapsing to the ground in pain when the figure took out the fangs. The figure picked the girl up.
"Don't worry... You'll be well soon enough..." The figure disappeared in a mass of bats with the girl.
Endnote:I hoped you enjoy this chapter and enjoy the holidays!