Naruto really didn't like the looks Saizou was giving Moka. They reminded him of bad times fighting Orochimaru in the forest of death and fighting the sound four on the retrieval mission they did for Sasuke.
The group of four friends was walking through the hallway with many people in the hallway gawking at them.
"Wow look at the boys, they're so hot."
"Yeah, but what's that normal-looking guy doing with them."
"The blond is totally my type."
"I like the black-haired boy better."
"Moka-san! Marry me!"
"I've never seen such a hottie!"
"Those guys that are with Moka need to die!"
"That girl walking with those guys is so lucky."
Those were just a few sentences that the group heard while walking along. Sasuke had gone back to writing in his notebook, a feature that the girls thought was endearing.
The brunette from earlier walked up to the group. "You are called Akashiya Moka are you not? I'm your classmate Komiya Saizou!"
The onlookers watched in shock while Saizou approached Moka. "Why's a beautiful lady like yourself, associating with nerds like these?"
Saizou picked Sasuke up by his collar, expecting the boy to squirm around. But he didn't get what he wanted. When he was picked up, he used it as an opportunity to flip in mid-air the same way Rock Lee had done against Gaara in the Chunin exams, and ax kicks Saizou in the head and forces his face to hit the floor, cracking it in a spiderweb-like pattern.
"Naruto." Sasuke threw the notebook he was writing in at Naruto. "Hold onto that, it's a hassle to fight with."
Naruto sighed and threw the book back. "It's not worth our time to beat him up. Let's just go."
Moka went and bowed respectively to Saizou who was lifting his bloody face off the ground. "Sorry, I'm having fun with them right now!"She proceeded to pull Naruto, Sasuke, and Tsukune by their shirts to the stairway nearby.
"Why'd you stop me dobe?"
"Teme, I was helping you. I know you could beat him, but there was a teacher just around the corner. You were just too absorbed in your little scuffle to notice."
"Hn."
"Don't swear at me teme!"
"Hn."
Tsukune turned to Moka. "Did you understand anything that Sasuke just said?"
"Nope!"
"Why'd you help us out like that? I'm just a normal guy and Naruto and Sasuke look like they are pretty capable."
"Because we're friends of course!" The bubbly pink-haired girl smiled. "Me and Naruto are also on bloodsucking terms..." She said shyly.
Tsukune sweatdropped at this. 'Wow.'
Naruto soon got out of his talk with Sasuke. "Thanks Moka-chan, I don't think it would've been easy for me to get the time out of there."
"You know Naruto, you have grade A blood. It was much better than any of the blood I've drunk from blood transfusion packs."
"Am I food or something?"
"You're the first person whose blood I sucked directly, and I'll never forget that feeling."
"Okay lovebirds, let's just get through the rest of the day." Sasuke started walking to his and Naruto's next class.
"Bye Tsukune, Moka-chan. Let's meet again during lunch and at the end of the day." Naruto followed his friend to their next class and the two talked until they made it to the door.
~~~~~~~~~~
Before they knew it, it was lunchtime. Naruto and Sasuke arrived late because of a little argument they had in the hallway, so Tsukune and Moka were already sitting at a table.
The blond grabbed his food and headed over to where they were seated. Sure he got many invitations from girls to join them, but he turned them all down the same way Sasuke refused to do anything with his fangirls back in Konoha. Pretending that he couldn't hear them.
"Hey guys! How's the day been?"
"I'm almost out of energy." Tsukune was having major trouble with all of his classes, it was surprisingly hard to focus on school when you were just trying to keep your head on your shoulders.
"It's been great! I've had either Tsukune or you and Sasuke in all of my classes so far! I was just wondering if you and Sasuke have every class together?"
That was when Sasuke sat down next to Naruto. "Of course we have every class together, he is my young master after all."
The cover story they had crafted was basically perfect. It would be strange if they had every class together and there wasn't some sort of connection besides being best friends. So Mikogami had come up with the idea of Sasuke being Naruto's bodyguard, especially since most vampires considered themselves noble, and having a bodyguard even if they didn't need one was common.
"I told Baa-chan that I didn't need one, but she still insisted. That was one of the reasons he was mad at Saizou since after doing something to Sasuke, he would most likely go to me. But he's still my best friend, bodyguard or not."
Moka nodded. "I'm sure she's just worried for you."
"Yeah I think so too," Tsukune said. But just who was his Baa-chan that he would need a bodyguard? No, the real question is who was Naruto?
The group finished lunch and went out to the courtyard to get drinks at the vending machine.
"Moka, Tsukune what do you want? My treat." Naruto stood at the machine while the others sat on a bench.
"Are you sure? You don't have to." Tsukune didn't want to put any burdens onto his new friends.
"Like I said, my treat. So?"
Moka barely pondered the question before answering. "Tomato juice, please."
"I'll take a cola if they have any."
"Oi, what about me dobe?"
"You have your salary, I think you can afford a few drinks. It's not like I don't buy them for you all the time."
"Hn."
Naruto quickly put the money in and gave everyone what they wanted, even Sasuke.
Tsukune noticed something about the others drinks though. "Why do you three all have tomato juice? Is it a vampire thing?"
Naruto nervously laughed. "Yeah, I guess it is. For me, it helps keep my bloodthirst to a manageable level. Otherwise, I'd be going after everyone's necks. And the funny thing is, I've never drunk blood once in my life due to an especially strong seal keeping my powers at bay. But now that it's been released, tomato juice is the best I can manage for now."
"It's about the same with me. Even though we're sealed, vampires need blood. But we can substitute it with tomato juice, eventually, though, we have to drink blood." Moka continued with the explanation.
"Well then, what about you Sasuke? You said that Naruto found another of his kind, meaning you aren't a vampire."
"I just like tomatoes." He leisurely went back to drinking his juice and writing something down in his notebook.
"Well, I'm not sure when I'll first drink blood, but I hope it's something I can't resist." Naruto leaned back against the bench. "I just came out of a coma recently. My vampire blood broke the seal holding back to heal me. I under for a few years and during that time, I learned everything about my situation through something in the seal."
"..."
"I had to leave most of my friends behind, except Sasuke and my former classmate Sakura. But I'm not even sure the rest would still consider me a friend." A small but genuine smile came on his face. "That's why I'm so happy that you're willing to be my friends."
"Naruto..."
"Sorry for making it awkward. Let's just head back to class." When Naruto walked past Moka, her rosary glowed bright red for a second and stopped when he passed.
The rest stood up. "I'm glad to be your friend as well Naruto!" Moka then ran up and attached herself to his arm and walked with him."
Tsukune looked on with a bit of jealousy, and Sasuke noticed. "Don't worry man, you'll get a girl eventually. Naruto just had really bad luck with people all of his life, so this is the accumulation of all of the good luck he never had." He patted his friend on the shoulder before putting his arm around Tsukune's shoulder and following the two vampires.
~~~~~~~~~~
Classes were over, and it was time to visit the dorms. The large building could be described with multiple words, but creepy was the first word that came to Tsukune's mind.
Moka smiled happily. "Such a cool building, it's full of dignity and character!"
"NO WAY?! WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!"
"You don't like it Tsukune? Even though you're a Yōkai? Speaking of which, what kind of Yōkai are you?"
Naruto swooped in to save his friend. "I think his tastes are more attuned to the human world. He's lived there all of his life, so it must be that. And we're not supposed to reveal our true forms to anyone, remember?"
'Thank you so much, Naruto! I'll never forget this favor for as long as I live!' He thought with a relieved look on his face.
"Anyways Moka-san, I can't think of you Naruto and Sasuke as anything but human. Are you really Yōkai?"
"Like I mentioned when we first met, right now I look pretty human but...y'see if I take this rosary on my chest off, I'll become the real thing. An evil and scary vampire. Rosaries have the effect of sealing off a vampire's power. Since being in my original form would cause conflict, I put this rosary on myself to keep my powers sealed."
"What about you Naruto? I don't see any rosary on you?"
Naruto sighed and started unbuttoning his blazer and shirt, much to Tsukune and Moka's surprise. "Wait! Why are you undoing your shirt?!"
Naruto laughed a bit. "To show you my seal." He finished and opened it to reveal his athletic body. A six-pack at fifteen, Tsukune was jealous. But when they looked they could see two things on his chest.
On the right-hand side, a stab wound scar about the size of someone's first with smaller burn scars coming from it.
On the left, there was intricate kanji in the shape of a rosary. It had a circle of kanji surrounding it that rose and fell in time with his breathing.
"This seal was made by my father to activate and deactivate vampire blood. If I want to, I can release this seal but because of school rules, I keep it on."
Sure, Moka and Tsukune were interested in the seal, but what caught their attention was the dark scar that contrasted Naruto's pale skin. After all, they were only fifteen.
"What about that scar Naruto?" Moka asked because Tsukune was too scared to do it. He didn't want to accidentally offend Naruto.
"Oh, that." He glanced over to Sasuke who was looking away in guilt. Deciding it was best for both of them that their friends didn't know, Naruto buttoned up his shirt and blazer. Then readjusted his tie so that it was loose again. "I don't really want to talk about that."
"Oh! Sorry for probing too much." Moka did a quick bow.
"No, it's fine. I'll tell you guys about it later."
Not wanting the situation to be awkward again, Tsukune turned to Sasuke. "How about you? What's stopping your powers, or are you able to stay in your human form naturally?"
Sasuke pulled his shirt and showed his neck to them. There was three tomoe arranged together on the left side of his neck.
"This seals it. I can unseal my power freely without going out of control due to Naruto over there. I used to become sinister when I deactivated it, but ever since he sealed it I can use my true form without much problem."
That was true. During the three months waiting and recovery process, they found out two things about the cursed seal.
One, it was just a jumbled mess of multiple shoddy seals that would kill whoever they were attached to if removed wrong.
And two. It worked through three main seals. All of the others were there to influence a user's mind to be faithful to Orochimaru and compel them to join him.
The there mains seals were these. The one on the highest level of the three contained a transformation seal. Probably what allowed the second level of the cursed seal to change the user's form so drastically. The one in the middle contained nature chakra. Or more specifically, the DNA of someone who could invoke major changes in their body differently than Sage mode did when drawing in nature chakra.
And last but definitely not least, the second DNA level. This species didn't have the DNA of a human or animal, it was Yōkai DNA. After sending it to Mikogami, they got a reply that it was Kishin DNA, the same kind of Yōkai that he was. It reacted differently for everyone, which was why the forms the curse marks gave were so varied. In the case of Sasuke's curse mark, when it was activated, it changed his DNA from fully human, to 80% Kishin 20% human.
It was likely that Sasuke's seal had a higher concentration of Kishin DNA to make it even more powerful and entice him further, but it didn't really matter. What did was getting the persuasion seals broken, and getting Orochimaru's chakra that mixed with nature chakra out.
When Jiraiya consulted Naruto about this, he thought of forcing the Nature chakra out of the seal by replacing it with nature chakra from Jiraiya's Sage Mode. And if Orochimaru's chakra needed a substitute, Naruto would put some of his youki into the seal to replace it.
After a six-hour-long process, they were able to force Orochimaru's chakra and the nature chakra in the seal out, and replace it with the nature chakra permeating the air. It was needed for Naruto to replace Orochimaru's chakra with his youki to keep Sasuke from dying, but everything worked out in the end. And since it was Naruto's youki in the seal instead of Orochimaru's chakra, Naruto was able to easily disable all of the persuasion seals.
Because of that, Sasuke's thoughts about leaving the village to go to Orochimaru which was in the back of his mind vanished, and he immediately felt indebted to Naruto. Since he not only found a way to remove the bad parts of the seal, while potentially powering it up via his youki, made Sasuke one step closer to avenging his clan and finding out why Itachi did it.
In other words, he was closer to Naruto than he had been to Itachi. While Itachi had pushed him away. Naruto brought him in and made him feel like family.
~~~~~~~~~~
It had been a good day for the blond teen. Not only did he have friends, but he also found that he could be completely honest and real with them. It was better than the experiences he had in Konoha.
When he got into his new dorm, he jumped onto the bed immediately and let the fatigue slowly fade away.
Had he made the right decision in telling them a bit about himself? He put it off and decided to take a nap, a luxury he hadn't been able to do at school yet because of how busy it was.
Naruto closed his eyes and faded into the dark abyss that was sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~
Naruto opened his eyes to see himself back in Konoha. The sky was clear, and there wasn't a cloud in sight. Memories of the previous day came to him in a flash. It was the day he was going to take Moka to try Ramen for the first time.
The silver-haired girl had heard him ramble about how it was the food of the gods on multiple occasions, but never tried it herself.
Walking through the street he received many glares, but couldn't care less. After meeting Moka, almost every day was fun. The pleasure of having kept a friend for so long was new for Naruto. And he planned to savor it.
The six-year-old traveled to their treehouse in the forest after making sure no one was following him. At the base of the tree, there she was, waiting for him.
His best friend of nearly one year stood with a smile on her once stoic face. It was something he saw often now. It wasn't a smirk, it was a real smile. Moka had been very reserved with her facial expressions when Naruto first met her. She was either serious or smirking. But after warming up to Naruto, he had seen everything. From surprised to happy. The only one he hadn't seen was fear.
"Moka!" Naruto ran up to the vampiress and hugged her. Another benefit of being friends with her for so long.
"Naruto." She said it with a cute smile.
"Are you ready to finally try ramen?!"
"Yes! Just like I said yesterday, I'll gladly try the food you speak so highly of."
For some reason, Naruto felt in control of this memory, but he wasn't. It was just that what he wanted to do matched exactly with what his former self wanted to do.
He got her hand and ran to Ichiraku's, his favorite place in all of Konoha. "Teuchi-ojisan! Ayame-nee-chan! I brought someone who hasn't ever tried ramen!" He ran into the stall, and the father and daughter duo looked at the girl with him in shock.
"Then what would you like to try?" Teuchi was the first to come back to his senses after hearing what Naruto said.
"I'll try the same thing that Naruto always gets."
The children sat at the stall and within a few minutes, two bowls of ramen were in front of them. "Two tonkotsu ramen with extra naruto ready to eat."
Just from smelling the aroma, Moka was starting to drool a bit. 'It smells so good!'
The two broke their chopsticks and put their hands together. "Itadakimasu." The two said before digging in.
Naruto waited to take his first bite until Moka did.
Moka slowly brought the chopsticks now holding noodles to her lips and took a bite. The flavors were amazing! She wondered how long the stock had been simmering because you could taste each ingredient, but everything complimented each other. She had the same face Naruto had when eating ramen, pure happiness.
"It seems he's brought another person over to the ramen religion, right Ayame?" Teuchi joked around with his daughter while the kids ate up their ramen. Naruto was on his fourteenth bowl and Moka on her twelfth.
"Thanks, Teuchi-ojisan." Naruto put the money for his and Moka's ramen on the table but it was pushed back to him.
"Keep the money Naruto. Just having you around is good enough." Teuchi said with a smile.
"Thanks, ojisan."
They left feeling quite content with himself, being full after a good meal and good company.
"Ne, Moka." Naruto had taken to dropping the honorifics completely and just calling her by her name about a month ago.
"Yeah, Naruto?"
"Can I tell you something about myself? I've kept it a secret for so long. So can I just get it off my chest?"
"Go ahead."
"Moka, I'-"
~~~~~~~~~~
Naruto's memory was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Dobe! We're gonna be late so get your sorry ass out of bed!"
He looked at the alarm clock resting on his bedside table. "Shit!" The blond jumped up and out of bed and got changed quickly. He brushed his teeth just as fast before heading out the door without eating breakfast.
Sasuke was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed when Naruto left his room, but once he saw Naruto, he started walking to the main school building.
On their way there, they saw Saizou say something to Tsukune and punch a wall with a transformed hand, making it crumble.
Naruto wasn't happy with this, so he walked up to Saizou. "Oh, you two little shits saved me the trouble of going to find you. Stay away from Akashiya Moka if you know what's good for you, she's gonna be my girl."
Naruto's hair shadowed his eyes. "You know, I hate arrogant bitches like you. And that comment about molesting pretty girls yesterday kinda pissed me off. So I'm going to let off some steam." He reared his fist back and punched forward, aimed directly for Saizou's midsection.
Just as the punch was about to connect, Sasuke grabbed Naruto's fist with his left hand. The impact caused a shockwave that everyone could feel.
"Dobe, calm down. You were really about to kill him just then, weren't you?"
Naruto looked up at the two, hair no longer covering his eyes. "No, I was just gonna send him to the hospital for a long time." Sasuke and Saizou stared into his crimson eyes with two very different reactions.
Saizou instinctively took a step back. But Sasuke activated his Sharingan and stared right back at Naruto. Naruto's eyes returned to blue and Sasuke's to black.
"Fine, you win Sasuke." He looked past his friend and at Saizou. "But if you ever threaten any of my friends again, I swear you'll regret it."
"T-Tough words for someone who was stopped so easily. I'll do what I want." Saizou walked away, disregarding Naruto's threat and Tsukune looked on in awe.
'He's so strong! But I can't stay here. If I got into a fight with anyone, I might die.' "Thanks for standing up for me Naruto!" Tsukune did a quick bow and waited for all of the other students to leave. "But I don't think I can attend school here anymore."
That was when Moka arrived. "Hi everyone!"
"Oh, hi Moka. I have something I need to tell you all. This school is too scary for me! I think I'm going to attend a human school." Tsukune had both of his bags with him, his schoolbag and luggage.
Before Naruto could intervene, Moka objected. "No way! You can't go off to some human school! I hate humans."
"Bad choice of words." Was all Naruto muttered under his breath.
'What?!' Tsukune thought.
"You know...I...went to a human school up through middle school. I was isolated. None of those humans believed in Yōkai, so I started thinking I was weird. That I was different from everyone, that'd be better if I wasn't there. That'd be better if I disappeared. It was so hard for me." She smiled widely. "But you Naruto and Sasuke all said I was all right even though you know I'm a vampire, and so this is the first time in my life where I haven't been alone. So you can't go Tsukune."
"Moka-san! If I told you I was one of those humans you hate...would you still stop me?"
"Huh?"
"I'm human, Moka-san. I am human! Through some sort of mistake, I ended up here! I'm different from you all!"
"There's no way a human could be here!"
He took a step towards her and she stepped back.
"That look on your face after you found out I was human... That's right, I shouldn't even be here right now." The brunette started running away and Moka grabbed his shoulder.
"Let go! You hate humans right?!" He shook her off and continued running.
"Sasuke. You stay here with Moka. I'm going to get Tsukune." This time, before Moka could object and go herself, Naruto disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
~~~~~~~~~~
Tsukune arrived near the cliff that overlooked red water. There was a bus stop and he was just in time to not miss the only bus of the month.
It pulled up to the stop and the driver had a cigar in his hand as he pressed the button to open the door.
"So it seems you ran away kid. I had a feeling you would do that. Get on." The creepy bus driver motioned for Tsukune to get on, the cigar still in his hand.
Tsukune was about to get in when a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He turned to see Naruto behind him, and even the bus driver looked a little surprised.
"Don't leave the Academy, please. I've known since our first homeroom that you were human, but you're a chill guy, so I don't care. And Moka-chan really does care for you. So you should come back. If anything, just stay close to me and Sasuke if anything bad happens. Please for my sake and Moka-chan's"
~~~~~~~~~~
"Where's the blond boy? I wanted some revenge against him but I guess he isn't here. You'll have to do for now."
Saizou had come back for Moka. When he saw Moka he transformed into his true form which was just his entire body getting bigger and more grotesque. Then he engaged in combat with Sasuke.
Sasuke was currently on the ropes. His left wrist was broken from back when he grabbed Naruto's punch, so he couldn't weave hand signs. The only thing is could do was match Saizou's attacks with his own to stop him for now. His broken wrist also stopped him from concentrating.
Saizou knew he couldn't win normally and went for Moka. He guessed that Sasuke would stop the attack himself. And he was right. Sasuke was swatted to the side and crashed into a tree.
Normally, even with a broken wrist, he'd be able to take down Saizou. But Naruto was serious when he said he planned on sending Saizou to the hospital for quite some time. Naruto had been planning on using his youki to mess up all of Saizou's internal organs. He only managed to tone down the damage he was going to deal a little before his fist connected with Sasuke's hand.
"Fuck. That punch messed me up. And getting slammed into a tree isn't helping." He shakily stood up clutching his stomach before coughing up blood. "Holy shit Naruto. What were you planning to do to that guy? Even I'm coughing up blood, that dude would be almost dead right now if that hit."
Saizou shouted in victory and went to go and pick up Moka. Right as he was about to a swirl of leaves appeared along with Naruto and Tsukune.
Without saying a word, Naruto punched Saizou in the stomach, sending him flying back a few feet.
"Moka-chan, would you want a shot at beating him up?"
"But I'm not strong enough?"
"Don't worry about that and just start walking."
Saizou stood up slowly while Moka approached him. "So, are you finally realizing that I'm better than those dweebs!"
Naruto took her rosary off as she walked, making her stand in front of him as she transformed. "What? The rosary?!"
A reddish-purple aura came off of Moka, scaring Saizou with the raw power of her youki.
Soon, a girl with silver hair stood in Moka's place.
"A vampire?! Even so, I'll beat you and take you!"
The silver-haired girl rushed forward and kicked Saizou in the face, sending him flying even further than Naruto's punch and making him crash through multiple trees. "Know your place!"
The girl's voice was also different from Moka's. As she turned around, her sharp blood-red eyes with cat-like slits came into contact with Naruto's ocean blue eyes.
"It's been a while, Naruto..."