Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
So I went back to make grammar corrections to my chapters and well…I accidentally replaced chapter 2 with chapter 1's corrected file. Thus, I had to rewrite chapter 2. I wrote it so long ago I don't really remember everything that happened so there probably will be a difference in content. I'll upload the 3rd chapter within a week. Enjoy!
Vampire Cat
Chapter 2:Deception
Flip. Flip. Flip. The sound of pages in a book being flipped greeted Naruto's wakening consciousness. Sakura was sitting at a small table in front of his bed, flipping through a thick book.
"Oh, Naruto, you're awake now? How are you feeling?" Sakura inquire.
"Sak…ura!!!" He jumped from the bed in a panic, shielding his neck with his hands. A mistake as the blood rushed to his head, causing him to nearly go unconscious once more.
"What's with that reaction?" Sakura roared, throwing books in his direction. A rogue book missed him and was embedded in the wall next to the door.
Glass and tea went every. A young maid collapsed on the floor, her head having been nearly nailed by Sakura's over-powered throw.
"I'm sorry!" Sakura rushed to the maid's side.
"The second time I've ever had a near death experience…" The maid whispered through her daze.
The maid was dressed in a pure white kimono and her hair was pulled up out of her lovely young face.
"Pretty…" Naruto mumbled.
"How bold…" Sakura replied angrily.
"I didn't mean…!"
"Right." She cut him off. A metaphorical spear was driven into Naruto's body.
Meanwhile, the maid had begun to clear up the broken teacups.
"Let me, it's my fault they broke anyways." Sakura began to help.
"I'd be in trouble if the Feudal Lady knew I was keeping you from work by having you do my job. Please, continue working and I'll return with more tea." She scurried off (probably relieved to be away from Sakura's pro right arm).
Naruto glanced at the open book on the table. The title read, "Nekomata: The Bakeneko." (Monster Cat)
"Oh that reminds me!" He looks back to Sakura and makes a terrified face.
"What?" She grumbles annoyed.
"Let me see your mouth Sakura-chan." Before she could react he had an index finger in each corner of her mouth, pulling it wide to attempt to reveal the fangs from before.
"Get off me!" She slammed her with her powerful fists.
"Ok…I believe it's the real Sakura-chan." He wheezed painfully.
"Of course it is! You've been so weird since we found you Naruto… What happened to you?" She sounded half worried.
Naruto wasn't sure what he had seen himself. He couldn't get the image of Sakura's face, his blood dripping from the corners of her grinning face. Maybe it was a dream? He touched his next at the "dream" and noticed the bandages. 'There's no doubting it. That was real.'
"Naruto…" Sakura said worried. "Tell me what happened."
"You bit me."
Sakura stared at him, shocked.
"But, it wasn't you was it." He strained to remember the other details, his head aching. "A cat! There was a cat! It had two tails!"
He stopped suddenly. "That book." He began to read its pages.
Sakura merely looked on, puzzled.
"This! Sakura look!" He pointed to a paragraph in the book.
It read; Cats that are allowed to grow their tails long, or reach the age of 13 are capable of becoming a Bakeneko. These ghost cats have many supernatural abilities including shape shifting, corpse reanimation, size manipulation, upright walking, and ghostly fireballs. Once the tail of Bakeneko is allowed to fork into two, it becomes a Nekomata and becomes capable of magic manipulation in humans.
"You see?" Naruto asked. "This is what I saw!"
She stared at him as though he had an octopus sitting upon his head. "Are you nuts? That's just an old myth."
"Maybe you're right…I must be going insane." He placed the book back in its spot on the table just as the maid reentered with new teacups.
"Sorry to disturb you again, but the Samoru are about to begin their shift tonight. I thought you might want to know and prepare." Sakura thanked her. The maid noticed the book on the table, "You're looking into legends?"
"Well, it was filed in the royalty's history so I thought it might be worth looking at." Sakura replied.
"I see, that legend came around about the time of Lady Takara, you may want to look into her if it'd help any. I can't promise anything."
"Oh thank you for the tip." Sakura said, a bit confused by the sudden suggestion.
"If I can be of any help, please just summon me." She turned and left.
"Humph. What a weird girl. Naruto, hurry up and finish your tea. It's time for work."
"Where's Kiba?"
"Already down there, he was doing additional research."
He sighed with defeat and followed after her.
"Yo Sakura, Naruto!" Kiba was already seated in the large room. Akamaru was curled around him. They took seats on the floor next to him.
"So, you guys would be the special ninjas the lord sent for huh. You kids think you can do better than the lord's own guards?" A man towered over them.
"Well no wonder they fall asleep All his guards are old men." Naruto insulted the man.
"Why you!" The Samoru's face turned red. "I bet you'll be fallen asleep within the first hour! There aint nothing natural about the sleep that occurs here. Just you wait."
"I bet my own manliness that I'll be the last one up!" Naruto crowed.
"You gotta be a man to bet your manliness." The Samoru laughed.
"Well…!" The entrance of the Feudal Lord cut Naruto's statement short.
He stood there, his sickly body hutched over. Eyes were sunken into his eye sockets and darkened by many ringlets of sleepless nights. He gazed out over the many guards and then quietly made his way to his bed, a doctor and the Feudal Lady assisting him.
"Do your best for your lord tonight." Lady Cho announced to the men before leaving the room with the doctor. The lights were turned out and the darkness engulfed the audience.
After a few minutes, the trio's eyes adjusted to the dark. They could make out the frame of the large bed and the frail lord who lay upon it. He breathed softly with sleep.
It was well into the night before men began to doze, slumping slightly against one another or slowly lowering to the floor.
It was now early morning, around one or so and Naruto felt a pressure against his shoulder. He looked down into Sakura's sleeping face.
'Cute!' He thought to himself. His face turned red from the feeling of her slumbering body.
He looked around the room and noticed that all the men were slumbering softly. He finally realized just how tired he was. The sudden urge to curl up with Sakura became unbearable. He gently laid he against Akamaru and took a kunai from his pocket.
With one deep breath, he plunged the tip into his thigh. The feeling of sleep suddenly leapt from his back and he was once again, wide-awake. Every now and then the sleep would return and he'd chase it away with a twist of the kunai.
After some time went by, he noticed the door to the room creak open and the spotted cat from before entered. It crept in the room cautiously, sniffing at the air. It suddenly froze, sniffed, and set its eyes on Naruto.
A sudden swing of sleep crashed down on him even harder than before. The cat swished its tail aggravated. It crept toward Naruto and as it neared sleep became more and more difficult to resist.
A menacing, toothy grin crossed the cat's face, its fangs glowing in the moonlight.
With one desperate lung, Naruto swung at the cat. His kunai sliced across its shoulder.
The cat screeched and darted from the room. Almost instantly, the Samoru began to awaken.
"Naruto!" Sakura cried. His thigh was coated in blood.
"I'm alright." He glanced towards the Feudal Lord whom was still sleeping peacefully.
From then on, none of the men felt the tantalizing embrace of sleep anymore. In the morning, the lord rose with surprise.
In what seemed like years, he had slept for a whole night.