Chapter Seven: Around My Neck
Author's Notes: Even though the warningscan be found back there I would like to point out there is a lot of religious talk in this chapter. Firstly, I'm not bashing, harping, or looking down upon any religious beliefs. It's a part of my fiction and I hope you can respect that. If you feel as though you will get offended, then please, by all means, find another fiction.
Also: I know, I said I was going to be gone for ten days. I had a minute. I'm making time soon to update JRoP too. Huzzah.
Warnings/Disclaimer: Can Be Found Waaaaay Back There (In chapter one)
Chapter Seven: Around My Neck
Naruto pressed himself back so far in the chair it toppled over easily, kicking up dust from the ground that Sasuke hadn't even managed to startle. He scrambled backwards, kicking himself back as his hands carried him, looking horrified over the toppled chair at the man, or vampire, that smiled coolly at him.
Naruto's elbows bumped the wall, and he winced and hissed through his teeth before jumping when several pictures dropped to the ground and shattered loudly next to him on both sides. He continued to scramble up till he was sitting, back plated flat against the wall eyes wide and nose wrinkled with his mouth bobbing.
It took him a moment to realize, peering over the overturned chair, that Sasuke wasn't stalking after him like prey. He watched him carefully, still sitting in the chair casually, smirking cockily at him with a know-it-all look.
"You…" Naruto started in a tiny, whispering voice that sounded rather loud in the room and to his own ears, "aren't trying very hard."
Sasuke's chuckle reached Naruto's ears like daggers and he flinched, his eyes closing, and when he opened them, he found the raven hair beauty in front of him smirking, "No, I'm not."
Naruto yelled and backed up into the wall again, bumping his head with a hiss as he watched Sasuke stand up straight and take one step backward.
"Not hard at all." Naruto whispered as he rubbed at his head, mentally cheering his head didn't shed any blood.
Onyx eyes shrank into slits of a harsh glare, "Bold, aren't you? Laughing at death so open like this."
"You think this is laughing?" Naruto whispered, still frightened at the tone.
"Then," Sauske crouched, like an animal ready to spring as his tone softened, his eyes returning to a normal stare, "what are your theories, detective? As to why I'm not killing you?"
Naruto swallowed thickly, too scared to move another inch, and terrified to speak any louder, "You…can't?"
Sasuke's smirk grew slightly, into a taunting smile that made Naruto feel as though he was going to vomit and caused the color to drain from his face. Sasuke stood straight again in another moment that was faster and more eloquent than any human could ever pull off, leaving the blond blinking long golden lashes to question what he saw.
"Don't question it," Sasuke said softly, as if reading his mind, "don't question any of it. Accept it as fast as you can seeing as I'm giving you all the answers. "
Naruto nodded dumbly, his mouth hanging open before his mouth, bestowed upon him by his parents caught up with him, "Sorry the word shocked isn't in the vampire vocabulary."
Sasuke raised only one eyebrow at this sentence, "Mocking death then?"
"If you want to kill me, teme, kill me!" Naruto snapped, knowing his mom, if she could hear him now, would beat the vampire to the punch before he could even comprehend what the blond had said. A mother's anger was more terrifying than even this.
"Well, dobe, as you can see I don't want to do that yet." Sasuke said softly, kicking up Naruto's knocked chair with his heel and having it pop right up and rattle back into place.
"Wh…wait, what?" Naruto said, standing.
It felt odd, standing on unsteady legs two feet away from something that was unmistakably inhuman. His knees were giving questioning wobbles, asking for permission to give out and let him collapse, while his backbone was fighting with them every second.
The dark stare was piercing, but not as if it were going through him, as if it were trying to read him entirely. Something about it was eerie, frightening and bone chilling; but something about it was calm, patient and understanding. Naruto had a feeling it was two knocks to the head in one day that was making him feel like this. A vampire was a creature of the darkest times – a killer.
"Ask."
Naruto realized then that he had never heard such a soft but commanding tone in his life, like there was a drug laced in the melody that emitted from his lips. It was hypnotizing.
"Why…are you not killing me?" Naruto said, his blue eyes searching, though they soon suddenly found a back.
Sasuke had taken to walking away from him, and then to pacing so Naruto could see him. He looked as though he was in deep thought, but Naruto couldn't say as to why. He provoked the most obvious question for a reason, so why did he look as though he was lost. His eyes looking but never seeing, searching the floor endlessly as his boots left endless prints in the dust. He raked his fingers through his hair and Naruto felt an involuntary shiver run down his spine as he watched the action. He watched the long, slender digits pull back the curtain of the black-blue bangs before finding himself snapping out of a stupor or a trance.
"I'm not killing you for a simple reason, I can't touch you."
"Bullshit." Naruto snapped before shrinking, trying to merge with the wall, "You touched my hair, and you know, wild stab in the fucking dark here but I'm guessing you carried me here. Both from one room to this one and on my way home."
Sasuke gave a derisive chuckle, "I wouldn't be bold for long, dobe."
"I'm not being bold." Naruto whispered, watching him pace still, "I just have this issue controlling my tongue."
"Hn." Sasuke barely paused, Naruto watched his boot hover over the ground for a second or two before he continued. "Keeping asking."
"Why…?" Naruto swallowed, and he watched coal eyes flash to his throat, which made him grimace. "Uh…Why can't you touch me?"
"Reword it."
Naruto was tempted to snap again, but rolled his tongue to keep himself from lashing out. Why didn't he just come out and say everything instead of walking around the words.
"Are you not allowed to say things unless I ask?" Naruto boldly said.
"Certain things." Sasuke said, turning as he met a wall.
"Okay." Naruto nodded slowly, the shaking of his body finally starting to calm just slightly. "What…?"
Sasuke nodded.
"What happens when you touch me?"
Sasuke turned to face Naruto, his face still impassive and smooth like a marble statue that had come to life. He held out his hands, and Naruto felt himself pull in a quick breath, looking at the palms that had been burned harshly, still trying to heal.
"I can't kill you because you are protected, Naruto."
The blond stared up at him as he clasped the hands behind his back, and mentally reminded himself to ask as to how he learned his name.
"Protected? How?"
Sasuke frowned and turned away, "Your necklace."
Blue eyes instantly looked down at the small lump that was under his orange t-shirt, the lump that was always found underneath his shirt. A gift that he cherished.
A gift that now kept him alive.
"I don't under…stand…" Naruto slowed when he saw the floor boards cracking underneath Sasuke's feet as he began pacing again.
"You asked, why I can't kill you, so I'll tell you. That necklace you have in your possession, that same one that hangs around your neck protects you."
"I get that." Naruto said, his hand dipping into his shirt, and withdrawing the small crystal jewel and holding it up.
"Do you know where that necklace originates from?" Sasuke asked quietly, so quiet, Naruto had to strain his ears.
The blond looked up and his fumbling and shaking fingers and let the necklace drop, "No. It was a gift from my godmother."
"Human eyes cannot see what is imprinted on it." Sasuke said softly as he arrived at his window, gazing up at the moon, "You must look at it with something stronger than a magnifier."
"What?" Naruto grabbed at the necklace again and held it as close as possible to his left eye.
"Have you ever noticed how rough it is, though its appearance is smooth?" Sasuke leaned on the window frame and gently against the old glass window.
"What is it?" Naruto asked looking up, "What does it say?"
"Latin. Tiny inscriptions. They start with 'absit omen', 'Ad majorem Dei gloriam', and near the bottom is the last. 'Ave crux spes unica' next to the small cross that has been engraved."
Naruto peered back at the necklace with wide eyes, "This tiny thing say that? Wait! What is that? Or will like, the words hurt you or something?"
"I just spoke them." Sasuke said with a shake of his head, "One, 'absit omen' means "Let there not be an omen here". 'Ad majorem Dei gloriam' means "For the greater glory of God.", and
'Ave crux spes unica' means "Hail to the Cross, our only hope." And that is what is around your neck."
Naruto focused his eyes on Sasuke, "What does this thing mean?"
"It came from Pope Clement I." Sasuke said, evading the real question.
Naruto gawked, "Wait. That's like…A.D were talkin'."
"The necklace, yes. It is the only one of it's kind. Said to be made to be given to the one who will save mankind from something said to be unstoppable. Something unthinkable."
Naruto felt bold enough to say it, "Your kind."
"Bravo."
"So what, is this some type of holy war?" Naruto had to ask.
Sasuke shook his head, "No. Just a regular war that is happening here on earth, the humans aren't involved like you might think, and where my greatest weapon cannot be used."
"Then I can run."
Sasuke looked away from the window, actually surprised, "Excuse me?"
"If I have this, I can run." Naruto said louder now, his voice quaking, "You can't touch me! It will kill you. If you hold on, if you try to drink my blood, I understand! You can't stop me."
By the time he was standing up straight, he was found pinned against a wall by fear, a vampire inches from his face with his eyes screaming.
"Run? You don't think I can catch you? I took some injuries before for you. You don't think I won't mentally torture you till you come crawling back, no protection?"
Naruto glared, "Yeah, right."
"Your mother and father, easily distracted. Your three friends, so blind to the world around them. None of them would realize death was there till they crossed over." Sasuke whispered.
Naruto reached a daring hand up and let it hover near his face, "Don't touch them."
"Then think twice before running."
"You can't kill me anyway." Naruto said, biting back tears as he fougt away an imagine of his life as a pile of dead, rotting bodies.
"Can't?"
"Won't." Naruto changed, knowing the creature in front of him was calulating by the second how to get the necklace off, "You won't kill the one you love."
Shikamaru paused at the front door and sighed.
For once, the first time even, it wasn't because it was too troublesome. It was because he didn't know how to present the situation. A genius that didn't know how to do or explain something. Naruto had finally rubbed away from of his IQ points.
Shikamaru almost jumped when he felt a hand clap on his shoulder, but he heard Kiba sigh, and he saw Gaara reach for the door handle.
"They're waiting for us." Gaara droned on.
"Right." Shikamaru muttered.
"Stop feeling responsible." Kiba uttered, for what felt like tenth time in five minutes.
"Right."
"Hey boys."
The three looked up from the entry hall where they were currently slipping off their shoes and closing the door polietly behind them, and there in a doorway to the left a little way down the hall stood Naruto's mother.
She was in her apron, her hair spun up on her head in a large and messy bun with red tresses falling down in random places. Even from this distance they could see her puffy eyes.
"I've just been making lunch. Hurry before it gets cold."
"We aren't very hungry." Gaara said.
The three of them soon found themselves at the dining room table, cowering under the rather terrfying glare of Kushina and wondering how on earth Naruto did this for so long and made it out alive. They all looked up when they heard footsteps, and found Naruto's father walking in the room to stand next Kushina before he gave out a painfully forced smile.
"Ah, forced lunch?"
The three nodded, chuckling softly.
"Well, you might want to eat it. Or do you want to see what happens?"
The two parents smiled lightly when the three men at table started reaching for random things and piling it onto their plates or even each others, then grabbing at their silverwear and shoveling it into their mouths.
They slowly watched as Kushina walked out the room after quietly sharing a few words with Minato, and then said man took a seat at the table himself.
"You can stop."
Three forks clattered to three sepreate plates, and all of them took quick swigs of the drinks that had been prepared. Gaara grimaced – he hated milk.
"Please," Minato said wairly running a hand through his hair, "tell me what's going on."
Kiba looked over and saw that everyone was exchanging looks, and decided that he should open the floor, seeing as he was mostly familiar with Naruto's father. He knew Naruto the longest, and he knew his family the longest.
"If you really want to know Mayor, really want to know the truth, then you have to believe every single word we tell you."
Minato then looked to Gaara, who Naruto befriended next, and he gave him the same impassive, stony look that he unusually had before nodding, "You have to."
And then to Shikamaru, who seemed to come right into Naruto's life just like everyone else, "Please."
"Alright."
All three of them started pulling things out of their pockets and from under the table immediately; books, files, reports, pictures and so on leaving Minato looking from one person to the other to the table.
"We," Shikamaru began as he spread things out, "are dealing with something that shouldn't exsist."
"That's supposed to be a myth." Kiba cut in.
"That will make you think we're crazy." Gaara said.
"But," Shikamaru continued, "We have…" He winced, "Proof."
"Uh…" Minato leaned forward and nodded, "Alright."
"Vampires." They all said in unision, and before the oldest could protest, Shikamaru continued.
"Uchiha. As Mayor, you should know of their manshion that is known to the town as a landmark."
"Yes," He nodded, his blond bangs sweeping acros his forehead, "The old creepy manor."
Kiba actually smiled when he shivered and rubbed at his arms, and was reminded of Naruto when they first walked by it when they were ten.
Shikamaru laid out the old picture, "This is Itachi Uchiha."
"How old is this?" He grabbed at the picture.
"Let's just say for the sake of time it's old…" Shikamaru sighed, "We met that same Itachi Uchiha from that painting a few nights ago with your son."
"The man that was the cause for the massacure? He died over three hundr-"
"WE KNOW!" The other three shouted, making Minato lean backwards.
"Look, M…" Kiba said, ruffling his own hair, "I know this sounds crazy, but try."
"This might actually help." Shikamaru said, sliding another picture on the table.
Kiba and Gaara exchanged a look, not noticing the picture or the faces.
Minato picked it up and frowned, "How'd you get a picture of him?"
"Because this troublesome vampire thing lead me to him. He hunts them. They're like trophies to him. Crown jewels."
"He left. He was practically banished for the things he did." Minato sighed, "Keeping it that way is for the-"
"Not the best. He can help us save your son."
There was a heavy sigh while Minato tossed the picture back acorss the table, and Gaara and Kiba examined the picture as they leaned closer to the table, while Shikamaru studied the older man across from him.
"If Orochimaru can save my son…then call him."
Author's Note: The necklace, I'm going to talk more about it neck chapter. More about the two of them…you know. So calm down. But it seems like the more I want to find an end to this fiction, I add more. Shit.
