Naruto ain't mine. w00t.

-

-

Kiba shouldered his heavy load and sighed as he darted through the forest, Akamaru at his heels as always. No one else seemed to care what hey did with the girl, so he was forced to put her where she was most likely to be found by other humans. Which meant he had to leave the, forest, albeit briefly, for the first time in his life. Already he was starting to regret not just ignoring her. With almost all her energy drained by that leech, she was a deadweight.

Hesitantly, he stepped out of the thick trees, scenting nervously. Maybe he could put her down right here? No, she'd probably die before some wanderer spotted her. Growling under his breath, he headed for the nearest village, which was luckily only about a half-mile away.

Once on the outskirts of the village he started to look for a safe spot to set her down, when he heard a soft gasp. Whirling to his right, he saw a young female vampire staring at him in shock. Shit. He dropped the girl roughly and tried to make a break for it, but cold hands yanked him back by his collar. Akamaru yelped as something hit him in the back of his head.

-

Sunlight pierced Sasuke's eyelids, making him slit them open angrily. Have to find a more shaded spot next time…

Sasuke suddenly realized he was strangely, comfortably warm. Something, no, some things that were furry were on top of him. And there was something extremely warm at his back, too. He had a sudden, sinking feeling, then he abruptly sat upright, shedding startled foxes and making Naruto wake up. They blinked at each other.

"Eyaaaagh! I was touching you!"

While Naruto made loud gagging noises, Sasuke remembered why he was here. And what he had to do. He groaned.

"Dobe," he snapped, "let's go."

"Don't call me that!"

After Naruto led him safely through the foxes, they reached the barrier that encircled the hollow. With a shock, Sasuke realized that, while it was strong on the outside, it was more than twice as strong on the inside. Someone was trying to keep something in…?

"You got through it, right? Right? I never figured out how." Naruto grinned cheerfully at him, in a way that hurt Sasuke's eyes. He turned back to the barrier, activating his Sharinagan.

The invisible wall sparkled faintly blue with his enhanced sight, and he began scanning it for weaknesses.

"Sasuke? What're you doing?"

Sasuke turned his Sharinagan eyes on Naruto, and the blonde gasped, staring at the swirls of red in his formerly black eyes. Sasuke saw his furiously roiling chakara and winced. He was hungry… and it looked so good… Maybe he could spare a little…

Naruto blinked. For some reason, Sasuke's weird eyes were making him kind of sleepy… and why was he staring at him with such a hungry expression!

Sasuke quickly cut off his Sharinagan before he jumped the other boy. Naruto blinked some more, coming fully out of the trance Sasuke's eyes had induced. Then jumped away from him.

"You… you wanted to suck my blood, didn't you!" Sasuke's eyebrow twitched.

"Vampires don't suck blood, idiot. Not anymore."

"Eh?"

"There are simpler ways to consume chakara, dobe."

"Like what?" Naruto asked, temporarily forgetting to get angry.

Sasuke shrugged. "Through contact. It just takes a little more effort."

"Huhhh…" Naruto thought this one over while Sasuke watched one of the foxes, which were still following them around. It sniffed around the barrier for a moment before easily jumping through.

Wait… Sasuke switched on his Sharinagan to confirm it. There was a hole the size of a bush in it, near the ground. He smirked, readying his chakara, then ducked into it, forcing it wider with his energy.

"Dobe, there's a hole, come on!"

Naruto, jarred out of his thoughts, eeped and ran through, followed by a stream of foxes. Sasuke glared at them.

"Ok, ok! I'm finally out! YOOOOOSH!"

Sasuke winced at the blonde's victory cry. Naruto was practically jumping up and down in place, and his grin was so large it was forcing his eyes shut.

"Where we going, teme?"

Sasuke scowled and turned in the direction of the nearest village he could sense.

For awhile they walked side-by-side in silence, though the blonde boy was practically bursting with spastic energy. Foxes milled around them, staying just in the edges of Sasuke's vision, and darting away whenever he tried to glare at them.

It was going to be a long, long journey out of the forest.

-

Timet was a vast continent, with terrain of all types scattered across it.

To the east, there was the huge forest that the wer tribes claimed as theirs, dark and gnarled and treacherous. A single road ran through it, and by mutual agreement the wers left the humans traveling it alone, and the humans never left the path. Any vampire, however, who set foot into the almost-jungle risked having his throat ripped out within a few seconds, courtesy of the long animosity between the two species. Vampires might associate and often breed with humans, and wers might occasionally do the same, but they would never touch each other.A wide, deep river flowed through the great plains surrounding the forest. Gigantic mountains jutted in the snowy north, and a large desert shimmered with heat in the west and south. Small, misty islands dotted the coast.

There were four great villages in Timet- and another rumored to be hidden on an island somewhere.

In the great desert was the village of the Sand, known for it's fierce, independent people, and where wers, vampires, and humans alike walked the streets.

Three villages lay around the forest, and it was once thought that they had all been connected as one, great, village of the Leaf long ago, but they were all so different in principals that this was dismissed as farce.

On the north edge of the forest was the village of the Sound, called so because of it's inhabitants love of music. A market was held every new moon, and they were friendly with their wer neighbors.

To the west of the forest lay a village controlled by vampires, and part-vampires, with a chakara toll exacted from the humans in exchange for their continued prosperity and protection. The great, ancient Hyuuga clan of vampires ruled here.

To the south was the village of Konoha, populated only by humans. A few years ago, their territory had been decimated twice- first by a supposed 'mad, giant wer' that many had called an epidemic, and again by a mysterious slaughter of the vampires that once ruled there, the Uchiha clan. Wastland where their great mansion had once stood lay to the west.

In Konoha, where inhabitants were mainly human, it was believed that mankind was the only 'safe' race, and contact with wers or vampires was shunted. Anyone with a trace of vampire blood was to be hunted down and dealt with.

-

Once again, Sasuke was forced to sleep through the night when the blonde insisted they stop after sunset. And little fox eyes glittered so menacingly at him that he decided to postpone his plans to ditch the idiot until the next night.

Once again, he somehow found himself buried in a pile of foxes and snoring boy upon waking up the next morning. After the spitting and cursing was over with, they continued on, walking on opposite sides of the road.

-

I kinda don't like this chapter… Oh well. Reveiws!

-SailorComet: Yeah, you caught me, I was in a hurry at the end. Well, someday I'll go back and fix it… Thanks much for your critique!

-fReAk PeAk: Know what? I have know clue if there are even pairings at all here! But if it does turn out yoai, I hope you won't desert for something like that- after all, this story's genre is not romance. Thanks for your review!

-Tsugath: No clue if there are even going to be pairings, but you can be hopeful if you want. Yeah, Sasuke just makes a really good vampire, doesn't he?