It was dark outside. Naruto Uzumaki did not like the dark. He hated it and everything associated with it. He hated watching scary movies, he hated vampire stories, he hated taking his trash out... If it was dark, he hated it. Everyone thought he was scared, and he was of course, but it was not so much fear that caused him to hate the dark as much as it was what came out in the dark. He grew up in a crazy house and he had been taught since he took that first step, not to be alone in the dark. Well, some people (being the majority of his school and apartment building) thought he was weird and went out of their way to ignore him; he had no friends, had no one, to walk with at night when he was coming home, or when he took the trash out. He heard so many stories growing up of what happened in the dark that of course he would hate it.

He had no clue at all what had compelled him to leave his building and walk to the small cafe a few blocks away. He did not have the slightest clue as to why he would willingly leave his house all alone at eleven o'clock at night. There was just something in his gut telling him that he needed to go to that cafe, darkness be darned. It was not hunger or thirst, but something else. He had been raised to trust his gut, and he knew that depsite the dark shadows surrounding him that he needed to get a cup of coffee. If his qoute-un-qoute father found out that he had been outside alone so late, his gut would never bother him again, not would his lungs. He would not even need them anymore.

"Okay, stomach," he said, pulling his bright orange jacket closer against his shivering frame, "This better be good."

TLA

Sasuke growled as he hit another blonde-haired man in the mouth. The man fell down like a little girl. Sasuke laughed, his black eyes shining. He enjoyed making people hurt, it was one of the only things that could make him smile. That, and a fresh sushi roll with a bottle of sake. Sake was a marvelous drink, along with vodka. Now that was was a drink. Too bad he couldn't get drunk; he would have washed himself away by now if he could.

"Come on, girls," he said in a deep mocking tone, "I'd like to find an actual challenge tonight." He managed to get a little more fight out of the remaining Daimons surrounding him, but not much. Within five minutes, all twelve of them were dust. He longed for the days that his fellow Dark-Hunters talked about online, the days when Daimons were worthy oppenents and not just some soul-sucking wimps.

It was against the rules for Dark-Hunters to meet face to face, their powers drained around others of their kind, but that was why the Squires started the Dark-Hunter website. Dark-Hunters everywhere could join the site and talk with each other. Sasuke didn't talk to anyone, he didn't want friends, but he read the others' stuff regardless. He wouldn't make friends with any of them, and the stories they had about him were quite comical, but he couldn't just isolate himself from everything, allthough he had tried. Acheron had informed him that if he continued he would turn him into a Shade himself. The head Dark-Hunter was not someone you wanted to dispute.

Under Ash's orders he'd began looking at the website, reading posts and what-not. It wasn't until he came across one some Irish Hunter had written about Sasuke that he started really paying attention to the website. Apparently, he was the devil-incarnate. He hated everyone and was a gigantic bastard who liked to kick puppies. He'd almost laughed aloud when he read that. Why would he mess up his boots by kicking a puppy? And he did hate everyone, but he didn't 'take pleasure in the torture of watching Daimons suck the soul from someone before killing them'. There were so many stories about him that it had taken him days to read them all. No one liked him and they treated him like they had once treated Zarek of Moesia, a once-believed-to-be rogue vampire who liked drinking human blood. The only facts about him he saw were the details of his family's murder, his Were half, and his hatred for most everyone. He almost joined the website so many times and greet everyone with something idiotic like "Howdy" or "What's up?", simply to see their reactions, but he thought it was definitely better that everyone want to keep their distance from him. His brother had told him that the only way to kill him would be to kill the one person he loved most; he would give himself the option. He would not attain any power, no matter how strong, in any way his brother told him to. He would grow strong and kill Itachi himself, without the help of a heartless power.

"Get away from me!"

Sasuke froze at the sudden yell. The voice sounded scared, really scared. He felt the odd feeling inside his chest that alerted him to the presence of a Daimon. He sheathed his black-bladed katana and brushed off his already immaculate black leather jacket. Maybe this new bunch of Daimons would put up a good fight.

TLA

Naruto whirled around as more and more men surrounded him. He knew he shouldn't have left his house. He should have stayed inside and ignored his gut feeling like he normally tried to do. He was going to die! He was going to die and no one would miss him! Well, his family would miss him, but it wasn't a very big one. Why couldn't he be a normal twenty-one year old? Whose gut only told him he was hungry? Why did he have to be the freak whose gut told him to go outside in the dark and get himself killed? And why were all of the men surrounding him blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and extremely gorgeous?

Wait... Blonde creeps with blue eyes that were sexy and deadly... They were some of the nightmares he'd been raised to avoid since he was little. Holy crap! He was scared of the dark because he'd heard the stories and believed them, but he didn't actually think they were real! He'd believed they were real, but then came to his senses when he was fifteen. The fear had never left, but he stopped thinking terrible thoughts of every good looking blonde he saw walking around... He was blonde with blue eyes for crying out loud! Now he was going to die! Why was he such a freak? Why were his bedtime stories real?

One of the men surrounding him grabbed his arm. "Get away from me!" he yelled, wrenching his arm away from the man. The man laughed, his pearly white fangs showing. "This one's as lovely as our women, yet he has a delicious smelling soul..."

"Sounds like fun," another blonde man said, to a chorus of agreenments.

Naruto wanted to fall into the earth and disappear. It wasn't bad enough that he was a freak with no friends? Fate just had to add this crap to his plate? Really?

"Go find someone else to play with, creepy vampire guys," he said somewhat weakly. "I have important friends."

"Sure you do," the grabby man replied.

Naruto felt a tad bit of anger. Okay, he knew he was lying but did this blonde man really have to call him out on it? Couldn't he just kill him while letting him believe not everyone thought he was a complete loser? "Okay, vampire guy thing," he said, stronger then before, "Why don't you leave me the hell alone?" He pushed the man for some insane reason; the man preceeded to scream as if he were in excruciating agony. Naruto jumped back and bumped into one of the other men, who also screamed when Naruto touched him. What the hell? The men looked at him strangely, with fear in their eyes. What was going on?

"What'd you do to them?" a more angry then scared blonde yelled, rushing to the sides of the two screamers.

Naruto just stared, dumbfounded. What had he done? He wasn't angry anymore, he was scared again. He had hurt them and didn't even know how. Could he hurt people he liked too, without knowing it?

"Don't just stand there!" the grabby one yelled, seemingly all better, "Get him!" With those words, all of the men jumped at once. Naruto was frozen with fear, his eyes clenched shut, waiting to feel fangs pushing through his flesh. After a moment had gone by without any pain, he opened his eyes.

Standing before him, and at least a foot taller than him, was a man with dark hair, like raven feathers. From what Naruto could see he had pale skin that glowed somewhat in the dim light. He was covered by a long leather jacket, wicked looking black biker-boots, and he wore sword sheaths on his back, two of them. They were as black as the rest of his attire, as were he midnight eyes.

"Wouldn't you rather play with someone your own size?" the dark stranger asked in a voice just as dark as his clothes. It wasn't evil though; it was deep and... caressing. The stranger unsheathed one of his swords, which Naruto now saw was a katana, and took one confident step towards the blonde men who had backed away. They may have backed away, but it didn't look like they were going to retreat. The stranger smirked at them. "Entertain me," he instructed.

Naruto watched, enthralled, as the battle began. It was seven blonde men against one incredibly good-looking raven-haired stranger. The stranger didn't miss a beat when all seven of the men charged him. Naruto didn't think it was fair, but they didn't seem to mind. The stranger didn't even move before he took out two of the men. Five steps later and two more fell to his katana. None of the blondes could lay even a finger on him. If the stranger was this deadly with one of his katana, it must have been amazing to see him use both. It couldn't have been five minutes and all of the seven men had been cut down, and, to Naruto's surprise, turned to dust. They WERE vampires!

Naruto's knees wobbled so he lowered himself to the ground and sat down heavily. He sighed and ran his fingers through his spikey blonde hair.

"What did you do to them?"

TLA

Sasuke examined the blonde before him. He could see him almost perfectly, despite the time of night and shabby streetlights. Spikey blonde hair, big blue eyes, tan skin, scars on his cheeks that oddly resembled whiskers... and full... tasty looking lips... Sasuke shook his head. No. He would not find this incredibly beautiful boy, beautiful. He waited impatiently for an answer. "Well? What'd you do? Taser or something?"

The blonde looked up at him. Sasuke momentarily thought he felt the long since-stopped-heart in his chest thud sporadically. The blonde's eyes weren't blue, they were sapphire, like jewels... "I don't know what happened."

Sasuke pushed the odd thoughts in his head out again, sheathing his katana. "You shouldn't be walking around by yourself at this time of night. Go home and forget the nightmares you've seen." He began to walk away.

"Wait." A soft hand grabbed his own. He froze; the last person to hold his hand had been...

He pulled his hand free. He didn't reply, but he did turn around.

"Thank you for saving me." The blonde smiled brightly.

Sasuke felt his dead heart beat again. He pulled some sunglasses from one of his many jacket pockets and put them on despite the lack of bright light. "Your jacket is hurting my eyes." Considering that a good enough reply, he turned and disappeared.

TLA

"Naruto?" a deep voice questioned. Naruto felt the commanding presence that he would recognize anywhere and spun around, pushing the oddly disappearing stranger from his thoughts for now. "What are you doing outside this late?"

The blonde smiled and pounced on the other man. "Akri!" he yelled, laughing.

SasunaruTLA: Bet you thought I'd never update this one huh? I'm sorry! :D Please forgive me! YAY!

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