4. The Hidden Storm

A double hammer fist sent the King of Vampires into the ground. It might not have been visible, but Dracula could feel the imprints left behind on the enchanted steel of his armor.

"Not bad, human." He stood back up, brushing away the dust and debris on his cloak. "I actually felt that."

"Funny thing," Naruto smirked. "I'm not even trying."

He could tell the human wasn't lying. There was an ease to his movements that told of the strength of a warrior. Fast, powerful, precise. He took hits head on and returned them with monstrous strength. He could still feel his internal organs repairing themselves.

Truly monstrous.

"And what was a man like you doing in the wilderness of Styria?"

Naruto shrugged. "Just passing the time, watching the world go by."

Even as they spoke, they traded blows. No magic. That had been the only stipulation of the spar. Everything else was fair game. Perhaps that had been foolish of him, Dracula decided.

Every punch and claw swipe he sent at the human were blocked - blocked! - or diverted. It shouldn't have been possible! It appeared so ungainly, yet there were no openings for him to take advantage of, while every opening he had was exploited.

His thoughts were reinforced by a kick slamming into his exposed side. Blood poured from his mouth as organs ruptured and stitched themselves back together. He retreated as quickly as he struck.

"An interesting martial art you wield, Naruto." He lunged closer, his swipe doing little to harm the man aside from slightly tearing into his jacket.

"A couple of old toads taught me." Yet again, not a lie. "You're not so bad yourself, big guy. Just not a lot of technique."

The point was proven when Naruto deflected a punch. In the blink of an eye, Naruto had stepped into his guard. An arm looped up past his before swinging the young man up onto his shoulders. Thighs of solid iron wrapped themselves around his head. Moving with the momentum of his opponent, Dracula found himself thrown to the ground once more, pulverizing the cobblestone beneath him to dust. He rolled away just in time, as a punch from the human left a fist-sized hole where he had just been. [1]

"Such strength," Dracula muttered, eyeing Naruto with interest. "Perhaps you weren't quite as human as I was led to believe."

"My people always considered ourselves human," Naruto shrugged. "We're just not as weak as modern humans."

"Interesting."

They clashed over a dozen more times that night, only stopping when the light of the Sun bathed the world in twilight. He watched as the redheaded Sister fussed over him.

"How are you still alive?"

"Because I'm awesome?"

"You just fought against the most powerful vampire in the world!"

"Eh. I've fought better." Naruto shrugged. "He's just tough because of his regeneration. He's strong, but he's not that strong."

"I resent that, human."

"And I resent your doom-and-gloom decor," Naruto shot back. "There's not a lick of orange in this place!"

x-x-x-x-x

"Hey," Naruto whispered softly to Carmilla. "Do you trust me?"

Carmilla didn't know what to say to that. Of all the things he was capable of, was that even a question she could truthfully answer? He could, quite easily, force her into this suicidal experiment. But he didn't.

Standing in one of Dracula's studies, one Naruto had commandeered and renovated, for a lack of a better term, to suit the needs of his experiment. And by that, she meant he'd punched a hole straight through the reinforced brick and mortar with his bare hands, letting in a stream of sunlight into the room.

"Does it matter?" Carmilla hissed, eyeing the sunlight with obvious fear, hidden beneath a thin veneer of anger.

"It does." He gently took her chin, guiding her eyes back to his. "If you don't want to, you don't have to."

Crystal blue eyes widened ever so slightly before turning back towards the rays of sunlight. Damn it all. She didn't know how he did it, but she wanted to trust him, to trust in this mad scheme of his. Had she not known better, she would've thought this to be some sort of magic influence, swaying her thoughts to align with his intentions.

"Fine," she hissed. "I'll do it."

"Give it a quick once through," he advised. "Then go slower after every pass."

She nodded, already intending to do just that. Her lips pressed into a thin line as she stepped closer to the deadly beam. All the while, Naruto held her hand and stood by her side.

"When I said 'anything you want,' becoming a test subject was the furthest thing from my mind," she whispered.

She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. Right. No more stalling.

"See? Wasn't so bad, was it?"

Carmilla blinked, swiping her hand across the beam, again. Over and over, she repeated the action, each time taking longer than the last to cross the beam.

"It… it works! That stupid seal you painted on me actually works!"

She held her hand in the beam, completely surprised by the lack of smoke or pain, only an unpleasant heat. As the minutes went by, she was forced to take her hand away from the light, hissing as it had left her skin slightly red. Her natural pallor returned a second after, her skin once again cool to the touch.

"A very useful magic," Dracula commented.

"It's… that's…!" Lenore was speechless.

"Still not as good as my Armor," Striga scoffed.

"Duh~," Naruto mocked. "It's a prototype. I wasn't even sure it was going to last for so long!"

Carmilla gasped when Naruto's hand settled onto the small of her back. A sensation similar to that of goosebumps tingled along her skin right where she knew he'd painted that strange seal.

"Never thought one of your backless dresses would come in handy," Naruto quipped. "Back to the drawing board!" For the first time since she'd met him, Naruto seemed almost driven. "I can't wait to get this thing working properly, ya know!"

They followed after him into the kitchen, where the vampiric staff bowed towards their Lord and his guests.

"I could help you if you'd like? With your seal, I mean," Lenore offered.

"Nah. It's fine, Lenore-chan!" There it was again. That strange little syllable he tacked onto the end of their names. "Besides, it's bed time for you guys." As if on cue, the shortest of Styria's Queens yawned. "See? Now, shoo. Bedtime."

x-x-x-x-x

Dracula didn't sleep. There was too much on his mind for restful slumber. So, he sought concrete evidence to support his thoughts in his library. He thought of all that would match the subject of his query. A man capable of regeneration. Supernatural strength and speed. Possessing something akin to magic, and yet not magic. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack but the presence of Styria's mystery blond human had sparked something in his memory.

Throughout the history that was marked down within his library, there were countless myths and legends that would fulfil some portion of the criteria at hand, yet not all of them quite fit. From Jesus of Nazareth to the Nordic Thor, there were many that were close, but not quite what he was looking for. The most unique thing about him was the ability to clone, so he'd searched through the library for any stories of people or creatures that could duplicate themselves.

Nothing. He found nothing. Yet, something still called out to him, urging him to rediscover whatever memory that had been sparked.

Just when he was about to give up, he found something. An ancient scroll, one that appeared ready to fall apart in his hands, sitting in one of the deepest alcoves of his library. It was written in a language he couldn't read, one whose swoops and lines reminded him of the languages of the Orient, but one need not be able to read to take in the image depicted on the scroll.

Beside several lines of unreadable script was a painting of a young man. Brilliant blond hair. Bright blue eyes. Whiskered cheeks. Undoubtedly, it was him, the young man he'd traded blows with and was currently in his castle.

But how could that be? Dracula's eyes furrowed. According to the Commander of Styria, he was human. His blood, in spite of its invigorating qualities, was definitely human. He appeared human enough and behaved very much like a human.

Perhaps one of his contacts from the far east would be able to answer his questions. With a path in mind, he made for his chambers, scroll in hand. His claws etched the necessary runes onto the scrying mirror with haste. This was a mystery that intrigued him and he could not wait to get to the bottom of it.

"Chō."

"Lord Dracula!" The Japanese vampire queen bowed. "How may I be of service to you, my lord?"

"I have a mystery I require assistance unraveling."

"If it is within my power, then I will help you however I can, my lord." The vampiress's eyes widened when he held up the scroll he'd found. Her lips pulled into a smile, eyes narrowing in amusement. "And that is your mystery, my lord? An old wives' tale?"

"A tale?" Dracula asked, brows furrowed. "Explain."

"The story is of a young man, the one depicted in the painting. Throughout all of Japan's history, there have been tales of a young man with blond hair, blue eyes and whiskered cheeks who lived on the edges of civilization. He would never live among the people, preferring to keep to himself, though he would not hesitate to help those he came across or those who came across him."

"I see," he murmured, recalling how the Queens of Styria had met the blond. "And what of the text?"

"A… a love letter, my lord." Just when he thought he'd heard enough, Chō continued. "A mournful one."

"How so?"

"It speaks of his sorrow, of the burden he carried, though what that burden may be, it does not say." Chō's eyes scanned across the text. "Although he appears young, his eyes tell a different tale, like looking into the eyes of an immortal."

"And does this man have a name?"

"Though the legends have been lost to time and the stories themselves retold far too many times to count, the one in the scroll is referred to as the Hidden Storm."

"Storm?"

"Either a moniker or a pet name, my lord." Chō shook her head. "Without further context, the name itself could be anything from Arashi which literally means 'storm' to Raiden as a reference to the Shinto God of Thunder."

"What about 'Naruto?'"

"Or Naruto," Chō nodded, "meaning 'maelstrom.'"

That made Dracula's eyes narrow. It was a small lead but a lead nonetheless. Whoever Naruto was, he had come from the Orient, some region of Japan.

"Chō, I have further needs of your services."

"Your will be done, my liege."

[1] If you want to visualize what the move Naruto pulled on Dracula looks like, go (re)watch the fight between Kakashi and Obito. I can't stop thinking about it while writing this chapter so in it went. Like damn. Obito really did Kakashi dirty with that move.