Chapter Three: Slug Queen and Vampire King

In Konoha's underground prison, a well-endowed blonde woman in green peered through the window in the door of a prison cell. She stared for a moment, an expression of disbelief crossing her face. Then she glared at one of the ANBU flanking the door.

"Explain to me why this prisoner is not restrained, and where the hell he got the armchair and the wine?" she fumed, reacting with irritation to seeing Alucard reclining in a comfortable-looking tall-backed chair with a glass of ruby liquid in his hand. His red cloak hung over the back of the chair and his crimson flak jacket and black clothes made him look like a dark reflection of a Leaf shinobi.

The ANBU exchanged a harried glance. "We've tried, Tsunade-sama; everything from ropes and chains to seals and binding jutsu. He just slips out of them like he's made of smoke! We have no idea where he's been getting the drinks and furniture. We've tried removing them, but they just reappear."

Ignoring the chilling implications of a prisoner able to ignore binding jutsus and summon things through five levels of barriers, Tsunade turned and glanced at Morino Ibiki's scarred visage. "What have you gotten out of him?"

Looking even grimmer than usual, Ibiki shrugged. "He says his name is Alucard, and he has freely shared information about himself, the nature of the threat this 'Morfion' poses, and his version of what happened to the Hyuuga girl and the Inuzuka boy. His story about being a vampire is ludicrous, but I can't explain his abilities either. There isn't a bit of chakra in him, but he's slipperier than Orochimaru and we can't quantify his abilities; he wears ninja garb, but we've never encountered jutsu like his and he insists it's not jutsu at all, but his power as a vampire."

Ibiki sighed and rubbed face in his hands. "He's been very consistent about what he's offered, and we haven't gotten anything else out of him. He won't tell us where he's from or who he works for. He just laughed when we tried torturing information out of him and regenerated as fast as we hurt him. Aoba screamed for half an hour and is now in a coma after trying to enter his mind, and I'm not sending another mental ninjutsu specialist into his head until I have a better handle on how he's resisting them."

"What about Shino Aburame?" Tsunade asked.

"Still being debriefed by my people and going out of his mind worrying about his teammates. His story doesn't contradict Alucard's, but he was unconscious for part of the fight, and he confirmed that this guy tried to stop him from bringing Hinata and Kiba back to the village. He told Shino that we couldn't help them. For all we know Alucard here could be this Fen guy who attacked them using a disguising ability. It's convenient that he drove off the other 'vampire' when no one was looking."

Tsunade sighed. "As outlandish as his claim to be a vampire is, I'm inclined to believe it simply because I don't have another explanation for why Kiba and Hinata are still alive." Seeing Ibiki's surprise, she elaborated. "Neither of them is breathing or has a pulse and there's no chakra in them, but they're awake and coherent, which they shouldn't be since they're both clinically dead. There's no jutsu that could do this. Even Orochimaru's Reincarnation ability requires chakra. Whatever's keeping those two alive now, it's not something I can quantify." Glancing at the cell, Tsunade squared her shoulders. "Open it up. I need to talk to him."

The masked ANBU exchanged a look. "Tsunade-sama-" one began, cut off when her fist made a crater in the concrete wall beside his head.

"Open the door," she said with deceptive gentleness.

Alucard glanced up from his contemplation when the door to the room opened, and a beautiful and irritated-looking blonde with an impressive bust walked into the room. "Ah, a new visitor. How can I help you?" She smacked the full cup from his hand, propelling it into the wall with impressive force, breaking a few of his fingers for good measure. "So this isn't a social call, I take it."

Tsunade gave him a fake, deadly smile. "What did you do to my people?"

Alucard shrugged slowly. "Are we talking about the dog boy and the purple haired girl, or the fellow who entered my mind? If it's the latter, he'll recover in a few days, and in my defense I did warn him repeatedly that he wouldn't like what he found in here," Alucard said, tapping one long finger on his temple.

Tsunade growled and grabbed a handful of Alucard's jacket, half-hauling him out of his seat. "Kiba and Hinata. What did you do to them?"

Alucard gave her a toothy grin, his eyes going wide and glinting with feral light. "I saved those two young ninja from eternal slavery to a monster far older and meaner than myself. They were doomed to become vampires from the moment their attacker drained them. I gave them my blood to make them my children instead of Morfion's, an act of mercy for which you should be thanking me profusely if you care as much about them as your demeanor indicates."

Tsunade let go of his jacket with a look of disgust. "You're asking us to take an awful lot on faith. Tell me where you're from."

Alucard straightened his jacket, looking amused. "I have declined to answer that question because the answer would have no meaning to you." Alucard rose to his feet in one sinuous motion, eyes burning darkly as he stared at Tsunade. The door opened, and the ANBU stepped inside to back her up, wary.

"The answer you and your cohorts want is that I'm from another Hidden Village, seeking to gain some petty advantage in your never-ending game of thrust and parry with the other happy little mercenary tribes of this world," Alucard said with disgust plain on his face and in his voice. "I am here because your ceaseless conflicts have resurrected an evil that was safely sealed away and forced me to come here to clean up the mess you just created. Tell me, did you even understand what you were doing when you killed the last of the Uchiha clan and broke the seal on Morfion's prison?"

Tsunade's eyes narrowed, recalling Naruto and Sakura's report of the unknown seal carved into Uchiha Madara's body, the one that had dissipated with his death. "I'm the one asking the questions here," Tsunade grated.

Alucard was preparing a retort when he paused, his eyes leaving Tsunade to look up and to the left, seeming to stare through a blank patch of wall. Tsunade felt a chill run through her bones when she realized that he was staring in the exact direction of the hospital room Hinata and Kiba were in, five floors up and half a kilometer away. "No more questions," Alucard said calmly. "I've tolerated your games and your disregard of my warnings because I didn't have anything better to do tonight. I told your comrades that it was dangerous to separate me from the fledglings when they are so newly turned, and now some of 'your people' are going to die for your paranoia unless I go save them. Again." Cutting off the biting tirade, Alucard lifted his red cloak from his chair and slipped it over his shoulders.

"You're not leaving this room," Tsunade warned.

"Try and stop me," Alucard replied with a bare-fanged grin. He swirled his cloak, and a wave of blackness poured from beneath it, swallowing Tsunade, Ibiki and the ANBU guards before they could react.

Ino Yamanaka tried not to frown as she examined Hinata Hyuuga, who sat on the edge of a hospital bed dressed in a patient's gown. The whole situation was beyond weird. Hinata and Kiba, who was sitting on the next bed over, had been brought in with no heartbeat and the core body temperatures of corpses. But before Ino could even start to determine the cause of her friends' deaths, both of them had woken up and started moving around. That's when the ANBU who brought them in called reinforcements. There were two of them in the examination room, and another four outside.

Ino's first suspicion was that someone had used Orochimaru's resurrection jutsu on Hinata and Kiba, but that theory had fallen apart quickly. Victims of the resurrection jutsu still had chakra, but Hinata and Kiba's bodies were both empty of chakra like the corpses that they medically resembled, save for the fact that they weren't dead.

Ino glanced at Hinata's eyes. "Still no luck turning it off?" The veins around Hinata's eyes were protruding, typical for the activation of her Byakugan, and they'd been that way since she was brought in.

Hinata shook her head. "No. I can still see everything." For some reason her Byakugan had been stuck "on" since she woke up. The purple-haired kunoichi pressed a hand to her stomach, looking faintly embarrassed. "I'm sorry to ask Ino, but could we have something to eat if this is going to go much longer?"

Kiba growled in agreement. "I'm starving too, and where's Akamaru?"

Ino nodded, glancing at one of the ANBU, who knocked on the door and sent word for some food to be delivered. "Akamaru has some broken ribs, Kiba. Your sister Hana is taking care of him and you should be able to see him soon."

"So what's wrong with us?" Hinata asked.

Ino paused, struggling for words. I have no idea, she admitted to herself, but she couldn't tell Hinata that. She couldn't say that by every medical measure both of them should be dead should be dead, and she'd been hearing disturbing things from the ANBU, both about Shino's debriefing and the mystery prisoner that the Hokage was interrogating. "I'm not sure yet," she told Hinata. "I'd like to get Tsunade-sama's opinion."

Hinata nodded, licking her lips nervously, and Ino noticed something odd. "Open your mouth, will you?" When Hinata complied, Ino examined her fellow kunoichi's incisors with a frown. They looked longer than she remembered, almost as long as Kiba's. Walking over to Kiba, she checked the dog ninja's teeth, ignoring his scowl. Kiba's incisors, which had already been elongated due to his Inuzuka blood, were now fangs menacing enough to do a snake proud. Picking up a set of medical calipers, Ino took a measurement and made a note of it. She wasn't sure what it meant, but Tsunade would want to know.

Returning to Hinata, Ino was measuring her teeth when her hand slipped as she was adjusting the calipers. Her finger brushed against Hinata's incisor, which was sharper than a razor. It sliced her skin, and blood welled up from the cut.

Only war-honed ninja reflexes saved Ino from what came next. Hinata inhaled sharply as the scent of fresh blood hit her. The purple-haired woman's pale Hyuuga eyes turned red in an instant, and Ino was barely able to snatch her hand away before Hinata's teeth snapped shut where her fingers had been. Hinata blurred into motion, faster than Ino had ever seen the other woman move, tackling her to the floor. The medical ninja's wide eyes registered that Hinata's teeth had gotten even longer, and then her arm was against Hinata's throat, warding her off as the other kunoichi lunged and tried to bite her again. Hinata's eyes were feral, and she actually hissed in frustration.

After a moment of shock, the two ANBU in the room sprang into action, grabbing Hinata and wrestling her off of Ino. Then one of the pair went down with a startled yell as Kiba barreled into him, his own eyes red and a terrifying set of fangs filling his mouth. Kiba bit deep into the neck of the ANBU, the blinked as he found his teeth tearing into a log. The ANBU appeared behind Kiba and grabbed him from behind. The dog ninja snarled and threw himself backward, slamming the ANBU between his body and the wall. Meanwhile, Hinata attacked the other ANBU, who hissed in pain as Hinata's fingers, suddenly tipped by surprisingly sharp claws, tore through the tough material of his jacket and raked his torso, drawing blood that only seemed to inflame the red-eyed Hyuuga further.

As Ino jumped to her feet the door burst open and the four ANBU outside rushed into the room, weapons drawn. The whole thing looked ready to turn into a general melee when a cloud of darkness exploded out of thin air in the middle of the room, spinning and expanding. Kunai hurled into it were deflected harmlessly. The cloud filled most of the room and then collapsed. The ANBU faltered as they saw Tsunade, Ibiki and two more of their number, looking disoriented and arrayed around the red-cloaked stranger who called himself Alucard.

Seeing a threat to the Hokage, the ANBU launched a barrage of kunai, shuriken and offensive ninjutsu at Alucard, as well as Hinata and Kiba. Frowning, Alucard blurred into motion. He hurled his red cloak at Kiba, which wrapped itself around the dog ninja, somehow deflecting the barrage of metal, fire and lighting directed at him. Alucard himself was hit with a number of attacks, but seemed to be unfazed by them, instead grabbing Hinata and placing his body between her and the attackers. In seconds his back looked like a pincushion of hurled weapons, there were smoking holes in his body from fire jutsu, and electricity played up and down his body. One of his arms was hanging limp, the other had been blown off entirely, and his legs were so riddled with injuries that it seemed impossible that he could still stand.

Tsunade and Ino both gasped in shock with Alucard not only stayed on his feet but turned to face them with a bloody grin, placing himself between Hinata and Kiba and the ANBU. Ino was the first to notice that Alucard's presence had changed Ino and Kiba; their eyes were still red, but there was something more than hunger behind them now; both looked shocked and aware of themselves, staring at Alucard. Hinata's hands and their teeth were normal again.

"How quickly you turn on your own," Alucard growled, shadows swirling around his body and regenerating his wounds as his cloak unwrapped itself from Kiba and returned to him. A small arsenal of kunai and shuriken clattered to the floor around him as they were pushed out of his body. Noting the ANBU preparing another attack, he sighed. "You get one attack for free. Do it again and you'll find out what happens when my patience reaches its limit. If you force me to I will remove the fledglings from this environment before your paranoia and ignorance causes them harm."

Tsunade held up a hand, eyes narrowed, and the ANBU halted, though their weapons remained ready. "I can't let you take my people from the village," she said calmly.

"You couldn't stop me," Alucard replied with a toothy grin. "But more to the point, I can't let you harm these two, and even if you don't mean to, you will end up harming them if you don't listen to me. You ninja train to control and utilize your chakra; vampires are no different. These two need time and instruction to master their vampiric nature or they will remain a threat to themselves and others. I'm the only one who's going to be able to do that. Every other vampire in this world right now is your enemy."

Alucard and Tsunade glared at each other, sparks practically flying between the two, and the others in the room drew back, cowed by the dominant presences of the vampire and the Hokage. Tsunade looked away first, glancing at the pair behind Alucard. "Hinata. Kiba. Can you understand me?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," both echoed.

"You are not to leave the village without my permission, with or without this man, am I clear?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," they repeated.

Tsunade smirked at Alucard. "They're my people, not yours."

Alucard raised an eyebrow. "I see. Who in your village will the fledglings be feeding from, then?" Tsunade blinked, and he sighed. "They attacked their allies just now because without my presence as their creator to sustain them they need blood to live, as all vampires do. So I ask again, who will be donating their blood to these two? Who will be preventing them from losing control and killing whoever you allow them to bite? Who will teach them to fight without losing control of their instincts, and defend themselves without chakra to fuel the abilities they've practiced all their lives?" Tsunade didn't answer immediately, listening to quiet reports from the ANBU about what had happened before their arrival and from Ino about Hinata and Kiba's condition.

"Who are you?" Kiba asked Alucard quietly. "I feel like… I know you, somehow." Hinata nodded in agreement.

I am Alucard. I saved you from becoming the slaves of the one who attacked you by making you my children. Kiba and Hinata exchanged a wide-eyed look as Alucard's voice echoed silently in their minds. I know you have a lot of questions and you're confused, but I will explain everything to you once your Hokage is convinced I'm not a threat. For now, just know that you've been given a great deal of power, and I can teach you to use it for those good of those you care for.

Kiba and Hinata had lived in the world of shinobi all their lives, where trust for anyone outside the village was hard to come by, but both of them could feel that this stranger was telling the truth. They were linked. More than that, as soon as he had appeared, the red haze had receded and they'd been able to think again, still shaken by remembering what they had done. The dreadful hunger was reduced, too.

"I'll concede that what you've told us may be true… vampire," Tsunade conceded. "But none of it explains why we should trust you."

Alucard spread his hands inoffensively. "I could have left at any time, but I didn't. Your barriers and abilities based on chakra don't affect me. I could take these fledglings far away from you, but I won't because this is their home and they want to protect it. I don't expect you to trust me overnight, but you're not giving me a chance at all. You really do need my help. In the weeks and months ahead you'll have more proof than you ever wanted that vampires are terribly real. They will spread over this land like a plague, and you ninja will be their primary targets. With the exception of the three of us in this room, all of them will be like Fen; aggressive, feral, and completely under the sway of Morfion, a monster whose only goal is to wipe out human life. All I ask is for a chance to earn your trust."

Tsunade mulled over that. "Then you'll follow my orders?"

Alucard grinned. "You do remind me of Integra, but unfortunately I can't swear fealty to you. All of your nations and villages need to hear what I have to say, without being suspicious that I'm serving one faction's interest over another. While I'm in your territory I'll abide by your rules, but I'm not here to participate in your internal conflicts; I'd prefer to see them stop entirely, at least until Morfion and his brood are driven back."

Tsunade's lips twitched as she fought a smile. "Good luck with that. You'll teach these two how to... be vampires?" she said, nodding to Kiba and Hinata.

"Of course."

Tsunade nodded. "All right. First thing's first. If you're taking care of these two, you get to explain their condition to their families." Again the Hokage had to fight a smile, wondering how smug the vampire Alucard would be after facing the Hyuuga and the Inuzuka.

Alucard looked at Tsunade suspiciously for a moment. She'd ceded that last part a bit too easily. Shrugging, Alucard turned to his progeny as the ANBU filed out of the room. "You're both eager to visit your families. Let's go."

"Wait," Tsunade said. "Take Ino with you." The blonde medical jounin looked at Tsunade with some surprise and trepidation. "She'll act as my representative when you talk to the clans. Otherwise they may be upset enough by Hinata and Kiba's condition to attack you. Ino's not vulnerable to mental suggestion, so they'll take her word that this is my will."

Alucard could sense from his progeny's sudden trepidation that this was the truth, so he nodded. Extending a hand, he handed his red cloak to Ino. "Wear this."

Ino took it. "Why?"

"A vampire's hunting instincts are based on human scent. The cloak will mask your scent with mine. It will make being near you easier for Kiba and Hinata while they learn to control their instincts." Alucard's words reminded the pair of the painful hunger they had experienced before he arrived. "For the moment I'm sustaining them directly with my own power, but their bodies still hunger, so wear it for their sakes." Nodding, Ino wrapped the cloak around her shoulders, though she left the hood down.

Satisfied, Alucard turned to Hinata. "Visualize the entrance to your home," he said softly, stepping up in front of her, his hand falling on her shoulder. Hinata blinked, then nodded and closed her eyes bringing to mind the gates of the Hyuuga compound. The two fledgling vampires and the medical ninja flinched as the cloud of blackness enveloped them. When it faded, they were gone.

Tsunade sighed, pressing a palm to her forehead. "It was enough of a pain when Minato was doing that. This will be… interesting." Tsunade headed for her office. As badly as she wanted to go find a bottle of sake, it would have to wait. She had a lot of letters to write (or at least make Shizune write) to allies, and a village council that was going to want answers. "Wonder if the vampire would just bite all of them for me…" she mused, but then shook her head. He'd said he wanted to stay out of village politics, so probably not.