Chapter 2
"You drove home like this?"
Naruto nodded sharply in answer to the healer's question.
Sakura Haruno shook her head but made no comment.
She was the strongest living member of her line, and had nearly been disowned recently due to her associations with vampires. Naruto had disliked the girl ever since the trial, but Sakura was an effective healer, and Naruto only turned to the best.
Naruto had been raised to ignore pain so it would not incapacitate him in a fight, and tonight those lessons proved invaluable. Both bones in his right forearm had broken when Gaara grabed his wrist and threw him into a wall; his head had hit hard enough that had he been human it would have knocked him out. Instead, he had simply drawn another knife with his left hand.
Fortunately, Gaara and his guests had all been more interested in the pleasures willingly provided by their human syophants than in fighting a vampire hunter, and had quickly lost interest in Naruto and allowed him to escape.
Naruto had been lucky. He had survived because the vampires had gotten board. That- added to the fact that he hadn't seen Itachi- grated on him.
It was almost five o'clock in the morning by the time Sakura was finished setting the arm. the healer moved on to deal with Naruto's numerous other scrapes, bruises, and minor sprains when Yondame returned from hunting and came to see his injured son. As he sized up Naruto's condition, his expression was calm, but marked with distinct disapproval.
"You were careless," Yondame chastised, after he heard the details of Naruto's night. "You went into that group unprepared, and you stayed passed midnight."
Naruto lowered his gaze, but did not allow his defiant expression to fall.
Finally Naruto spoke up, his voice sure dispite Yondame's reproach. "Itachi was there." Yondame complain all he liked about Naruto's carelessness, but if Itachi was was part of that group, then they had a lead to finding him.
"Itachi?" Yondame's voice was sharp. "You saw him?"
Naruto shook his head. "One of his prey- marked."
"That doesn't help much unless you saw the vampire himself," Yondame pointed out dryly, and Naruto set his jaw to keep from arguing. "And now we have no way f tracking him down." Naruto did not bother turning over the invitation he had received. After having teased and released the hunter they had found in their midst, the vampires would know better than to host the bash he had mistakenly been invited to.
"You're set," Sakura said in her normally quiet voice raised to interrupt the conversation. She patted the cast on Naruto's arm gently. "You'll need a week or so to heal completly, and until then I recommend that you take it easy. Okay?" the last was said with a sharp look to Yondame.
Yondame nodded. "thank you for your help, Sakura. Sorry to bother you so late."
Sakura shrugged, her fatigue visible. "No problem. I was just in the neighbourhood, at a SingleEarth hospital."
Yondame did not react to the remark, and Naruto copied his father's neutral mask. SingleEarth. The organization was growing by leaps and bounds, with humans, witches, vampires, and shapeshifters joining, all working a common cause: unite all the creatures on Earth. Though a noble goal, it was never going to work. Vampires were hunters, evil by nature, and most were incapable of containing their need for bloodshed. Even the vampires at SingleEarth, who survived by feeding on animals or willing donors, admitted that it was painful to live with out killing.
"I guess you probably won't be going to school tomorrow?" Sakura asked on her way out.
Naruto glanced to his father, but saw no sympathy. "I'll be there." No matter how hard a night Naruto had had, Yondame was not one to allow his son to slack off, not even for a few days so he could start at his new school on Monday. Naruto would start bright and early on Wednesday morining.
Naruto had been expelled from his last school for fighting on school grounds. In the process of extinguishing a vampire, some school property had been broken, and the administration had not been particularly understanding. Only some quick thinking by Naruto's brother, Deidara, had kept anyone from finding the body.
After the incident Yondame had decided to move his son away from the constant excitment of the city and into a dull Leaf Village suburb named Konoha. Sakura and her family lived there.
Yondame returned upstairs to sleep, and Sakura caught Naruto's good arm.
"I should warn you. There are a few vampires in the school." Upon Naruto's look, she added sternly, "They're harmless, and they have every right to be there. If you hurt any of them-"
"If they're harmless, I'll just ignore them. I can't afford to get kicked out of another school, anyway. Okay?" Naruto offered. Sakura nodded.
Naruto's pride, already ground into the dirt, deflated even more when the door opened again and his brother entered the house.
"Hey, little bro," Deidara greeted him. Noticing the cast, he added, "Rough night?"
Deidara, one year Naruto's senior, was almost as perfect as their father- intelligent and controlled. He had graduated last year, but was taking a semester off before starting college to train harder, and to "look out for" his little brother.
Right then Deidara's blonde hair was tousled, and he had a smear of blood on his dark blue jeans as if he had wiped a knife clean. He had obviously been fighting, and he had obviously won.
Deidara patted his brother's head as he passed toward the stairs. "Rest up. The world will survive without you for a week or so."
