Title: Killing Loneliness
Pairings: ItaNaru Sasu?
Warnings: Let's see…we have yaoi and vampires and blood play oh my! Plus some probable OOCness…it just happens okay…oh and some swearing, yep definitely swearing. And cutting though it is very minimal.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor do I claim to own them. So please draw some more yaoi fanservice Kishimoto. That one SasuSai panel was not enough.
A/N:
Ruki: Shadows and Twi are out of it right now due to a recent cold, so it's just me talking to you this time. I like this chapter greatly but one scene in here seems a little too familiar to Possession. I need to stop sending Naruto into alleys. Anyways I love the title to this chapter. It is a sentiment that I think every fanfiction author should understand. I would like all the readers to think over the title or at least keep it in mind while they read the chapter.
IMPORTANT READ FIRST: Okay normally I translate the Japanese I use at the end of the chapter but this particular word needs to be translated and explained at the beginning of the chapter. It is essential to the understanding of the story and it is a word that will be used a lot in this story.
Katahou: companion (one of a pair). I am using this word because of its personal connotations for me. For me it bears the connotations of a single thing belonging with one other single thing, like two pieces meant to be together and never apart. I believe that this word fits the meaning I'm trying to convey.
Shadows: Start the damn story already Ruki…I wanna go to bed…
Ruki: Ok…here's chapter i of Killing Loneliness…
Chapter IWords Hold Power
If I/turn my back I'm defenseless
And to go on blindly seems senseless
If I hide my pride and let it all go on/then they'll
Take from me till everything is gone
Forgotten, by Linkin Park
I woke up to the blaring noise of my alarm clock. My hand automatically stretched out to turn off the annoying device. Out of habit I clenched my raggedy old blanket closer to my body trying to find some warmth.
Except, I wasn't cold.
And what was covering me wasn't my blanket.
I shot up instantly, the coat that had been covering me pooling at my waist. My mind was still groggy as I tried to remember what happened last night. I looked at the strange coat hoping it would bring answers, but it didn't. My mind replayed the events of last night since I had gotten home like a poorly made home video. I had gotten home. I had dropped my bag on the couch like normal, taken off my coat and shirt like normal, went into my bathroom to do my nightly routine like normal, got interrupted by a strange, sexy man drinking my blood from my nightly cut like nor- wait what?!
Okay that last thing was definitely not normal. I tried to remember what happened after that but couldn't. I checked myself over to see what, if anything had happened to me. My pants were still on and my ass didn't hurt so I hadn't been raped. No new bruises and the one I had come home with was already a sickly yellow. It was when I looked at my arm that I was shocked; not from what I saw but from what I didn't see. The cut from last night wasn't there among the pale white scars that covered my arm.
'Yo Kyu, did you heal last night's cut?'
'Now why would I do that? I only healed your bruise. The cut was courtesy of the vampire from last night.'
'Vampire? I thought they didn't exist.'
'Kit if a demon like me can exist then I'm pretty sure vampires can exist. Now stop dawdling and get ready or you're going to be late.'
"Shit." I scrambled around my room wrapping my arms back up to hide the scars that Kyuubi wouldn't heal and grabbed the first long-sleeved shirt I could find. I threw the stranger's coat on not wasting time finding my own amongst the clutter on the floor, grabbed my bag off the couch in the living room, and took an apple off of the counter in the kitchen. I rushed out the door, locking it quickly behind me, and dashed down the street.
I ran through the city toward the university library where I worked as a junior librarian. It wasn't the highest-paying job out there but it was the best job I could get. At least there I had some respect and the working conditions were good, plus it paid enough for me to survive. I dashed through the doors of the library and up the steps to the director's office. I dashed in not bothering to knock.
"I'm here," I panted, out of breath from running.
"Gaki, you're late," stated the blonde-haired woman who sat on a black leather couch set against the wall to my left. Her hazel eyes looked over me probably taking in my disheveled appearance. There was a small, recognizable flask of sake in her hand that she chose at that moment to take a sip from. My eye twitched.
"Well at least I'm not drinking at eight in the morning while on the job Tsunade-obaa-chan!" I shouted accusingly with an added finger point. I saw her own eye twitch in response.
"Why you – "
"The kid's right," interrupted the white-haired old man behind the desk. "The university doctor shouldn't be drinking on the job and he is only a minute late." Jiraiya gave that large grin of his.
"Hmph," was all Tsunade said in reply though she did reluctantly relinquish her sake. "Nice coat, though it seems a bit too big on you."
"Yeah," I had forgotten I was wearing the vampire's coat. I had no way to explain my acquisition of it so I decided to joke about it to lessen their suspicion. I quickly slapped on a cheesy smile. "Heh, maybe I'll grow into it."
"I'd like to see that!" Jiraiya said before laughing loudly. Even Tsunade joined in a little.
"Well I'd better go back to work," Tsunade sighed before standing up. "Probably got a couple of snot-nosed kids waiting for me to excuse them from class because they got a hangover." She was about to pass by me when she suddenly stopped. "Naruto, you look a little pale. Is everything okay?"
"Everything's fine," I quickly lied. Like hell they would believe that a vampire had sucked my blood. "It's probably 'cause I haven't seen the sun in weeks."
"Yeah you're probably right." She smiled at me before leaving the office.
"So ero-sennin, what's my job for today?" I knew Jiraiya hated it when I called him that but he was a pervert and he did have some hermit-like qualities.
"Well gaki, the archival room hasn't been sorted out in a few years," he said with an evil smirk. "Why don't you go show them some care and put them back in order?"
Outwardly I groaned but inwardly I was excited. The archival room was where the oldest books were stored. Many dated back hundreds of years. It would be a long job that would probably last about a week, but it would be worth it to look through those old tomes. I left Jiraiya's office after getting the key to the room from him and headed to the back of the library.
As soon as I got to the room I set my bag on a nearby chair and slipped off the coat. As I draped it over the back of the chair, I noticed a small symbol on the back just below the collar. It was a red and white mark that resembled an uchiwa (1). It looked like a clan symbol. Maybe I would find something about it while I was in the archival room.
I set to work, sorting out books and putting them back into their proper places. It was sometimes hard to do, since some books didn't have a title on the outside and some didn't even have a title on the inside and had to be sorted by their contents. Near the end of my shift I found another old tome without a title on the cover. Opening it to its title page my eyes grew wide at one of the illustrations. It was the same symbol as on the coat. But that wasn't all, for also on the page were three faded kanji that read kyuuketsuki – vampire.
I flipped through the pages of the book trying to find out more about the strange symbol. I nearly dropped the book when I flipped it to a random page. There staring back at me from the yellowed paper of the book with piercing crimson eyes was the man from last night. His name according to the kana underneath the portrait was Uchiha Itachi.
"Naruto!" Jiraiya's voice snapped me out of my trance. "We're closing up early! A blizzard's on the way!"
"Okay! I'll be out in a sec!" I closed the book and snuck it into my bag. I needed to look at this book more closely. As I slipped on the coat I finally noticed the overwhelming scent of lilies and water. You would think a vampire's coat would smell like blood. I grabbed my bag and headed for the front of the library, handing Jiraiya the key on my way out.
I clutched the coat closer to my body as I stepped outside to face winter's chill. I looked at the sky where the telltale clouds were gathering into a storm front. Wanting to get home quickly I decided to take a shortcut through the mostly deserted back streets and alleyways of the city. That probably wasn't the best choice I could've made.
I turned into an alleyway behind one of the city's more filthier bars. I stopped in my tracks as I saw a group about three men lounging around the back door playing with the knives they used to mug the unsuspecting and helpless dunks that stumbled outside. I watched as their eyes turned predatory as they spotted me and saw who I was. And then I saw those mouths of theirs turn into ugly sneers and smirks as they began to speak.
"Well lookie here. Seems like the monster took a wrong turn."
"Nah, it did it on purpose. It obviously wants a beating."
"We should indulge the demon then and give it the pain it so wants."
I stood there, like a deer caught in the headlights of the truck that was about to run it over and effectively end its life. I could faintly hear Kyuubi screaming at me to run but my legs wouldn't move. It was those words. Those words, calling me 'monster', 'demon', and 'it', that caused the pain that would never leave me long after they were gone were what had my feet stuck in the light layer of new white snow that covered the dark black asphalt underneath. All I could do was watch those men with their smirks and sneers and predatory eyes approach me, knives at the ready.
As soon as I was in striking distance they pounced – punching, stabbing, kicking whatever they could get at. And I did nothing to stop them. My mouth opened to scream as they painfully dragged their knives through my skin, shredding my clothes and the coat in the process. But no sound came out of my mouth to prove that I was in agonizing pain that Kyuubi, who was focusing on minimizing the bleeding from the knife wounds, could not numb. After a few more stabs and a blow to the head they let me crumple to the ground in a bloody heap. They each spat on me and left, content with their work.
As I laid there in the white snow that was slowly being tainted red by my blood, I felt Kyuubi's panic as he struggled to stop the bleeding. I was slowly bleeding out from wounds too much for Kyuubi to handle. I was going to die. I should have been panicked or worried, hell even frightened…but I wasn't. Something was soothing me. What was it? A smell. The smell of lilies and water. Weird that the scent of a vampire that I had barely seen and had only said one sentence to me could be soothing me as I lay dying.
'How strange,' I thought as my vision darkened from the blood loss. 'I think I wanted to see him again.'
Like some cruel joke, the last image my eyes sent to my brain as my heartbeat slowed even more was that of two crimson eyes staring at me with concern. And then there was nothing but black.
'Guess I got to see those eyes one last time. Maybe I'll see them again in hell.'
I felt a piercing pain and then…nothing.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
I jumped from rooftop to rooftop trying to calm down. I was frustrated and confused, something so rare and foreign for me. The storm in my mind matched the one brewing above my head. I didn't know what to fucking do and it aggravated the hell out of me.
-/-/-Flashback-/-/-
I had been pacing in my room when Sasuke had come in. I had seen his face go from impassive to worried immediately after he had noticed I was pacing. Me pacing meant I was agitated and that usually meant I was unfed or had just had to deal with either Orochimaru or Madara.
"You're agitated." He stated simply. "I thought you fed."
"I did." It was true. I had fed.
"Then why the pacing?" He asked with an inquisitive eyebrow.
"I can't get him out of my damn head," I growled with frustration. Images of the blonde kept showing up in front of my mind's eye and that plea from him kept haunting my hearing.
"Who?" I guess I was both lucky and cursed to have a brother who was brave enough to ask me questions while I was in this state.
"The one I fed from!" Oh god! What was this feeling? My bloodlust was sated and yet I still hungered.
"You're in love, aniki." Sasuke stated it like a fact with no hint of self-doubt in his voice. "You've found your koi (2), your kataho."
The look on my face must have been one of disbelief and shock for when Sasuke spoke next his voice was nothing but serious.
"I know you probably don't believe me but what I say is true. I know that because it was the same way with me. I fed from him and left only to be plagued by the memories. It didn't stop until I had marked him and taken him back with me. Tell me, aniki, did the blood of the one you fed from last night call out to you above all others? Did it make you do something rash to obtain it? Was just the taste and feel of his blood so exquisite that you wanted to suck him dry?"
All I could do was nod, the word 'yes' not being able to form on my tounge.
"Then that has confirmed what I said is true. What you do about this is entirely up to you aniki." With that he had left my room probably to go back to his kataho. I had left only a minute later.
-/-/-end flashback-/-/-
So here I was jumping over rooftops trying to decide what to do. My body wanted to go and mark the boy before one of the other vampires in my territory decided to take a bite. My mind was still trying to process everything that Sasuke had said. Those words he said – koi, kataho – held so much power to beings like us and he had used them as if he was saying the simplest truth in the world and I was the only one who didn't know. I felt like an idiot and not at all like the cool, collected vampire lord I usually was.
As I was jumping to another roof, my nose picked up a scent that I recognized. It was the blonde from yesterday. I paused on the rooftop, unable to decide on what I should do about the blonde while he was close. Then his scent grew stronger and more metallic. And then my sensitive ears picked up a sound like a scream but it was unusual and distorted. My mind put all the information my sense gathered into a single thought.
'Someone is attacking him, making him bleed in agony.'
I followed that scent as fast as I could. I wasn't thinking, couldn't think. All I knew was that I had to go save him from whatever was hurting him.
I turned into an alleyway and felt like I wanted to vomit at the sight before my eyes. There in the fresh snow lay the bleeding and battered body of the blonde. His blood was pouring out, staining the shreds of what were his clothes and the white snow beneath him a dark crimson. A simple tan bag lay at his feet unharmed and unstained unlike its owner. And there barely noticeable amid this gory scene was the strained rising and falling of his chest.
I was suddenly at his side, checking his wounds. Something was trying to heal these wounds that should have killed him long before I got here, but the blood loss from the numerous wounds was making the healing futile. I felt like I needed to help, to make sure this boy lived but what could I do?
It didn't stop until I had marked him…
Sasuke's words flashed through my mind. Of course, the mark! A vampire's mark sped up a human's ability to produce blood and healed their wounds faster to prevent the vampire from draining then dry while feeding. Essentially the mark could be used to prevent the blonde from bleeding out and help whatever was healing his wounds.
As I bent over, determined to use the mark to save him I looked at his face and found two azure eyes looking back at me. I couldn't help but look at them. Then I saw them dim and heard his heartbeat slow. I acted quickly finding the juncture where his neck and shoulder met and bit down. His body flinched slightly as I injected the marking serum into his body and then went eerily still. I drew back as soon as I could, doubt surfacing in my mind that I had acted too late. But then the sound of even breathing and a steady heartbeat reached my ears. I sighed in relief before I started checking his wounds.
I was shocked to find them all already half-healed and had stopped bleeding. Even if I had marked him he shouldn't be healing this fast. I carefully picked him up, slinging the bag that had been at his feet over my shoulder. I jumped back to the rooftops determined to get him home before the blizzard hit with all of nature's fury.
While I was practically flying over the rooftops I realized that a calm had descended over me, something I hadn't felt for hundreds of years. Had the blonde in my arms done this it me? It seemed strange that this human could do this to me even though he was unconscious after being on the brink of death. Well, until I was absolutely sure if this blonde was my kataho, my koi, he wouldn't be leaving my side.
K.I.L.L.I.N.G.L.O.N.E.L.I.N.E.S.S.W.O.R.D.S.H.O.L.D.P.O.W.E.R.-E.N.D.-
A/N:
(1) a non-folding paper fan
Ruki: So how did you like it? I didn't like the flashback part. It kinda came out rushed and it wasn't very good in my opinion. Well hopefully Twi and Shadows won't be out of it next chapter so it will come out better. Review people! It's what keeps me wanting to write.
CONTEST: The first person to correctly guess who Sasuke is paired up with gets a oneshot written by me with the yaoi pairing of their choice. Leave your answer in your review but hurry because the answer will be revealed next chapter!
Shadows: ugh…and due to popular demand Possession will be updated before Loyalties…once we recover enough to write it…
Twi: and find time to write it with all the homework we keep getting…damn IB classes…
Ruki: Well…until next time….zzzzzz