Holy Hot Tamales! It's been a while. Gotta say though, it feels good to be back in business on FFN. I'm currently getting over the swine flu, and I'm pretty sure God sent me an epiphany. He said write, and thus I will do it!

Yeah, being caged in my bedroom for a solid three days really made me remember why I loved to write in the first place. It really can take us places, can't it?

Sigh…I love you all my loyal reviewers. Thanks for putting up with me. In your honor, I've been posting a slew of new fanfics that I've had on the backburner…aka Sweet Disease (it's gonna get pretty dark), and Displaced Future (a much more funnier yaoi). I really do look forward to your reviews, even if I don't always reply back.

Disclaimer: Like I've said before, I wouldn't be a poor college student if I owned Naruto.

Mood Music for this chapter: You Found Me, by The Fray

*On with the show! I dedicate this chapter to all the Izzy fanfic fans out there (insert rock star yell. You guys are my motivation…

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(Chapter 3)

"That's the thing with magic. You've got to know it's still here, all around us, or it just stays invisible for you."

-Charles de Lint,

Celtic folk musician and story teller

If Naruto had been drinking, he would've thought for sure that he had an awful hangover. He groaned at the slight movement to his head. The scary reality was that he didn't drink. In the village, there was no alcohol. It was a luxury to all the other creatures outside the walls. What happened? Ugh… He blinked several times. A beige color surrounded him, and a few empty beds were across from his. I'm in some kind of makeshift tent. His hand tentatively slid down his neck, a casual gesture, and stopped at a rough, bandage that was tapped to the side of his neck.

"Shit," was all he could manage. Heaving himself up out of the bed, he stumbled to grasp a small mirror on the bedside table. The bandage was indeed real. That's proof then. The events from last night flooded into his mind, the frighteningly beautiful man, the scary wilderness…those teeth…I didn't imagine it. He hadn't realized how anxious he was getting. His hands were growing sweaty, and he forced himself to put down the compact mirror.

"Breathe, Naruto, breathe." He ran a hand shakily through his hair. You've been in worse. He tried to concentrate. First off, gotta find out where I'm at, and what the hell happened.

Once calm, it was easy for him to pick up on the oddly charming yet stern voices filtering in from an attached room of the tent. He shuffled towards the voices. Scathingly, he realized that he was wearing satin, vanilla pajamas. He could only hope that he was among friends, and not others like the weird vampire from last night. He took care to stay behind the curtain, as he peeked around.

His heart sunk, and hope dashed as he immediately noticed that same vampire from last night. He was standing emotionless beside a very pale girl, both attentive to their leader. Naruto cringed at the memory of the eerie man who had decided to take a bite out of him.

Everyone appeared to be occupied and Naruto suddenly got the feeling of a child sitting in on his dad's important business meeting. Maps and books in an odd language were spread out across the tables. Naruto hated staring, but he failed to resist the urge. The men and women in the room were all so…different and strange from anyone he'd ever known in the village. He watched the three people who appeared to be directing the others. Each one was tall with strange color hair and incredibly pale skin. The man in the middle, appeared to be the leader. There was something so strange about his eyes. They were practically see through, not white cloth drenched in water.

Even more odd, was that they were talking, but Naruto could only hear a murmur of what exactly they were saying. However he was caught off guard with his observations, by the man standing beside the leader of the trio. No…it can't be. The old pineapple hairdo that he hadn't seen in over four months. Slumped stature, though taller than Naruto had remembered and fairer skin. Even so, it was unmistakably him. It had to be.

"Shika-"

Before Naruto could even finish his sentence or make any move to acknowledge his presence, his seemingly long lost friend was before him only a few people away and, in the time that he had looked down to fix his wayward shoelace, there he was standing, once again taller than Naruto had remembered, but just as cool and calm as always.

"…maru!"

A brief minute passed that had Naruto flabbergasted at the familiar face in a sea of strangers, before he threw arms around Shikamaru. From the time Naruto had been exhiled from the Hidden village…no from the second that snake Orochimaru had stepped foot on his sacred homeland life had begun to quickly unravel for him. Only three months ago, life had been simple, and while he knew the threat of the creatures from the outside was real, the thought that he might actually see one, Hell almost be killed by one, never never crossed his mind.

Naruto hated admitting when he needed someone. Ino had told him once it was a major flaw of his. But this was one blessing that he had wanted, and would gladly fess up too. Forgetting his man pride for a few minutes, Naruto hugged Shikamaru in relief.

"Hey you. Long time, no see."

Naruto couldn't hold back the rumble of laughter at his friend's typically unoriginal and, well, "Shikamaru" response. Naruto finally released his friend, eager to converse with him.

"Where the hell have you been? You've been declared dead in the village! And speaking of, the new leader is nothing short of despicta-"

"Naruto!"

He quit his ranting at his friend's serious expression. Those brown eyes weren't looking at Naruto at all, but at the remanants of people left in the room. The two Naruto had pointed out as the leaders were both staring intently at him, and he could've sworn they weren't blinking. The tallest man, who had been giving orders earlier, made shivers go up Naruto's spine. He felt the urge to look into his eyes. He might have too, had Shikamaru not grabbed his shoulders and steered him outside of the tent.

Once outside and alone, Shikamaru turned to Naruto. He rested a rather cool head on his forehead.

"You should have stayed in bed, idiot." Naruto puffed out his chest. He didn't need any insults right now.

"I'm fine. Stop dodging my questions. Honestly, where have you been…and who are they?"

Shikamaru seemed to realize something. He sighed.

"They…are a specialized group under the direct order of the Vampire King."

Wheels were beginning to tick inside his head. Pieces of his best friend's disappearance were falling into place….and it made him cringe.

"It's not just coniencidence you're here then."

Somewhere he already knew the answer, but he still hoped that the dark eyes boring into him would show some sign of denial. An understanding was met as the silence surpassed between the two.

"Who did it?" Shikamaru sighed. He hadn't wanted his childhood friend finding about his transformation like this.

"Oh you know who. The high and mighty Lord of Konoha."

"Figures." It was bitter statement. Drained from the emotional and physical challenges life had thrown at him these past few days, had Naruto slumped against the wall. This was the pinnacle of all that had happened. Apparently this conspiracy had been going on for much longer than he had begun to think.

Shikamaru was at his side in a second. A little regretful at all he had revealed.

"Naruto, you need to go back to bed-

"Why? What's the point?"

His blonde head of hair was turned away from Shikamaru. His body was feeling incredibly weak, but he desperately wanted answers. Shikamaru keyed in on his stress, and plopped down beside his friend. If he passed out during their conversation, than so be it.

"Remember when Sarutobi passed away? Well I was there the night he died-working on an important project of his. All the staff was supposed to have been gone for the night, but Sarutobi must have known something was going to happen…because he instructed me to stay in the bottom quarters of the house, and not to leave until morning.

At the time, I thought he was just trying to rid me of my laziness…it would be so like him to do that."

Shikamaru had pulled out a cigarette, lighting it. Still turned away, Naruto couldn't help but to hold back a small smile at the reminiscing of their village's former leader.

"The project Sarutobi had been working on was detailed research of our people-well your people now. He was in the middle of a developing a theory as to why the vampires pursued the last of the humans so vigorously and relentlessly. Think about it…there are hundreds of ways for vampires to feed. You don't need just humans…there are witches, half-humans, demons...we can even feed off each other-"

Naruto rose an eyebrow at this, daring to interrupt Shikamaru. For some reason he couldn't stop the serious question from rolling out of his mouth.

"Have you done it before? Bitten someone?"

"That's the beside the point."

Naruto turned his head sharply, wincing slightly from the wound on his neck. Blue eyes burned into Shikamaru's.

"No it's not. Have you?"

Shikamaru rested his head on his hand. This time it was him who turned away from his friend's honest eyes.

"Yes, alright. But it's not like I wanted to. You have to understand, Naruto, that I don't have a choice. To live, I have to drink some type of blood. Right now, I'm having a battle inside my own mind about whether or not I should drink from you. You wanted information, and I'm giving it to you, so can we please get back to the point?"

Shikamaru had never been one to raise his voice. In fact out of all the time Naruto had known him, he'd never heard the normally bored tone raise above a loud whisper. To see him so riled up made Naruto's hush and his stresses quieten. He had wanted to know. He didn't want things to be different between him and Shikamaru, but now…

He mimicked Shikamaru's scrunched form, and ran a tan hand through tangled blonde hair. This was Shikamaru. He trusted him. That shouldn't change because of this. He summoned his voice, willing his frustration and small amount of fear to disappear.

"Sorry, you've been through more than me, sounds like. You were saying?"

Shikamaru continued, but remained turned from Naruto. The smoke from his cig filtering between them.

"Basically, Sarutobi's theory was that the outside atmosphere-it's magical contents-would one day merge with the cells of the villagers. This merger could cause some kind of creation of newfound magic. The problem-"

He took a suspenseful pause, taking a long drag from his cigarette. Naruto hanging onto his every word.

"Since when did you start smoking? Get on with it."

"The problem is that this build up could only be triggered by something else. Oh, say for instance a vampire or werewolf bite. Obviously Sarutobi wasn't the only one who figured this out…I'm sure Orochimaru was thinking along the same lines, but the old man was two steps ahead of him. He entrusted his completed notes to an acquataince on the outside of the village walls-a man I've been searching for."

Naruto kept his dizzy head between his arms. This was all so much. How long had such a conspiracy been taking place right under the other villagers' noses? Naruto could barely believe that he, clumsy and normal as he was, contain some inch of magical residue. Months…years…when had Sarutobi first began to come to such a powerful realization?

"But wait? What happened to you?"

"When he busted into the old man's house, I,foolishly disobeyed Sarutobi's orders, and rushed upstairs to find Orochimaru and Sarutobi furiously arguing. That's when things get fuzzy on my part. I remember…yelling…I punched that snake at least once…then something painful, like a poisonous bug biting me on the neck."

Naruto uncounciously reached up to his own patched up vampire bite. He watched his friend's face glaze over at the fuzzy memory. How hard it must've been for him. Shikamaru was only lost in the past briefly, before switching subjects off him himself.

"But that's all I know or rather what I can remember. That trader left me for dead out in the woods. I struggled. It was hard, especially for someone as lazy as me. The best way for me to help you, my former people, was to join up with the vampires. I'm determined to work my way up until I can be advisor to the king."

Naruto touched his friend's arm, very touched by how far he was willing to go for the sake of his village. From what Naruto had learnt, most humans lost their minds, and all other emotions after being turned by a vampire. It was like being reborn both physically and mentally.

"You're still a part of the village. Being a vampire, doesn't change that."

He shrugged off Naruto's hand, as if it burned him. Even his eyes have changed. Though still brown, they were jaded, and haunting. It's almost like I can feel his pain.

"I can't live in the sun, and I require blood to survive. It's not even an option. I'd rather…I hope that Ino and Chouji never find out what I've become. I'd rather them think I was dead."

The truth in that statement rattled Naruto. He had no parents. No blood relatives. His friends were his family. Forgetting about his friend's new strength, he fruitlessly punched him in the chest. He didn't even budge.

"We're going to the biggest concentrated area of night creatures, the Dark Kingdom…you realize that right? It's no coincidence your with us either."

"Yeah, I bet I know who I'm going to be seeing. The jackass who's has yet to let up on conquering the village-" Shikamaru placed a hand over his mouth before he could continue, effectively shushing him.

"You can't talk about the king like that. We're his soldiers, and as such everyone here is very loyal to him. Be patient. I'll find a way to protect you. I may be a vampire now, but I haven't forgotten where I'm from." He squirmed out of his hold. Naruto could see the other vampires breaking from whatever briefing they were having. Each one was paying him special attention. He lowered his voice.

"Still though, it doesn't change the fact that I'll be meeting the one person our clan has talked about, the vampire who pursued us nightly. I'll have to face Uchiha Saskue whether I like it or not."

Shikamaru pinched his nose in irritation. "You really haven't changed since I left. Never afraid of anything. You're treating this as if it were a dare, rather than a bet where your life is on the line."

Naruto patted his friend on the back. A new found confidence was blooming inside of him. This was his way of helping the village. By damn, I'll convince Sasuke to leave us alone, and get rid of Orochimaru. He flashed Shikamaru his trademark grin.

"Never known you to worry so much. Besides how can I turn down a challenge like that?"

****

Sasuke leaned forward on the railing overlooking the city, his city. It was beautiful this time of day when night had reached its potential. The lights were a glow, and the streets were crowded. He watched as his fellow vampires came and went. Most were completely loyal to him, and in turn he would protect this place. They came and went steadily. Some with their lovers. Others with their families. He sneered. What a beautiful lie that is. He clacked his diamond rings on the railing.

He wondered what his traitorous brother was doing right now. His thoughts drifted to whether or not the great Itachi had figured out what his younger brother already had. If he knew how to tap into such great power.

He contemplated how he would kill him when they met again.

A small black, bird that he knew very well as a messenger from his team of troops landed softly on one poised hand. Perfect timing. The little animal made but a few sounds, that he understood completely. He wrapped his elegant fingers around the animal. In his steel grip, it collapsed into a ball of warm ink, dripping from his nails.

Tomorrow, huh? For the first time that night, he was interested in his concubine.

"Sugeitsu…come here." He had selected a boy tonight after having grown tired of Sakura's greedy touches.

"Yes, my Lord."

From the shadows, a tall man with shimmering white hair, stepped towards the king. Happy to finally be requested by his master. Sasuke allowed himself to be caressed by the man. He felt harsh kisses upon his collarbone. As his excitement built at the new information, he sunk his fangs eagerly into Sugeitsu's neck.

Tomorrow they arrive with a weapon that not even Itachi has touched.

***

AN:

So….whaddaya think? I know it's a lot of info, and buildup, but it'll be worth it. It is necessary for the plot I have in mind. Next chapter will be the fated confrontation. Now please push that review button??? Pretty please?