Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!
Summary: Sasuke is tired. Sasuke is hungry. Sasuke is...well, hunting, now. Vampire AU, SNS, will be explicit. Two years later...it's done! New chapter will be up every day until the fic is finished!
A/N: Hey friends! Looks like it's going to be a busy week, so updates will probably all be later like this. I hope you like today's chapter!
Bite Me
Chapter 23: Hazelnut Meringue
Sasuke went to work, Sunday night (or Monday, in his mind), with a protective boyfriend about two steps behind him. Armed with his usual turtleneck and hoodie combination, bandages that were likely unnecessary but lovingly made out of Naruto's cut up old shirts, and a set of thick mittens to go alongside his thinner gloves—
Sasuke was as ready as he was for any other day.
Naruto, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck.
"Relax, moron," he muttered, pulling his hood up farther. At least there was no twinge of pain in the movement; the wounds had seemed to calm, bit by bit, with every drink Sasuke took of Naruto's blood. Still there, but...settled. Healing. Nearly healed, now, which was remarkably quick…
"I'm—I'm relaxed. I'm okay," Naruto said, and Sasuke scoffed out a small laugh. They still had a good few minutes until Sasuke would walk a few steps ahead, meaning that (with a quick glance around), Sasuke felt free to…
Naruto breathed out as Sasuke's fingers interlaced with his.
"Thanks. Yeah, I'm—whoa, what the—!"
Naruto yelped as something fluttered overhead—stopping to breathe out with his hand over his heart—
"It was an owl, scaredy-cat."
"I—asshole! I wasn't expecting it!" Naruto said, breathing out several more times— "What's an owl doing in the middle of the city anyway?"
Sasuke snorted.
"Looking for rodents, I'd imagine. Come closer."
"Sorry," Naruto muttered, obeying. "Yeah. Sorry. I'm nervous."
"I know you are. Close your eyes."
"Close my—why?"
Sasuke let his lips twitch, and Naruto huffed out a breath and made a point of stopping in place and screwing his eyes shut. Sasuke promptly pulled him along again.
"This is weird," Naruto said, arm out in front of him.
"It's a straight shot," Sasuke said. "I have you."
Naruto breathed out, a slow, soft grin spreading across his face.
"You know I trust you already, right?" he mumbled, gently wiggling Sasuke's arm as an extension of his.
Sasuke's smile widened.
"Continue to prove it, moron," Sasuke said. "Tell me the plan again."
Naruto laughed.
"Thanks, dick," he deadpanned. "Fine. You go in first, through the back. I'll hang out by that door until you guys are open properly. If anything happens, text me or come back out into the alley."
"Mm," Sasuke hummed his agreement. "I'll also find a way to keep my co-worker's mouths shut. Continue."
Naruto laughed again, holding onto Sasuke tighter as Sasuke pulled him to avoid a pothole.
"You're gonna find out what'll take the longest to make and text me it."
"We prep all the meals for the next morning. We're bound to be out of something at this point. Continue."
"Um—yeah, and then I'll order it. Or order the toughest thing, right? The, uh—"
"Hazelnut meringue."
"Hazelnut meringue! Yeah. That." He bumped his shoulder into Sasuke's a little.
"It's not the toughest," Sasuke told him. "But it's a long, slow bake. And one of our whisk attachments broke, so we may have to do it by hand. We're terrible at it."
Naruto nudged into him again.
"You're better than I'd be," he said, smiling. "Um—yeah, then I'll try to take the corner spot by the window, so I can see everything. And I take out my computer and pretend to work."
"Good. Open your eyes."
Naruto obeyed.
"Oh," he said, looking around. "Already?"
"It's not that long of a walk," Sasuke said. "But I'm changing the plan."
"You—oh? To what?"
"To you coming in. Wait in here until we open properly, and then go around."
Naruto ducked his head.
"This mean I get to finally meet your crazy co-workers?"
Sasuke huffed out a breath.
"I was trying to spare you the pain," he said, unlocking the door with the key Karin had slipped out to have made the last time they'd all been here. "Come on."
It seemed like a pretty standard kitchen. It was bigger than Naruto had expected, and pretty—clean. Sterling silver everything—cabinets and fridges and huge doors that Naruto expected led to some sort of colder place with a ton of ingredients. He oughta text a picture to Chouji, honestly, the guy would geek out over a place like this...
"Whoa! The king's the first one here? What kinda—"
"Hello, Suigetsu."
Naruto spun around, just in time to see a grey-haired man waltz in.
"My lord! And—oh! Oh—I'm so glad you're finally here," the man said, launching himself right into Naruto's personal space, "I have so many questions."
"Please unhand my boyfriend," Sasuke muttered, snatching the man's hands away. Naruto threw him a quick, teasing smile as Suigetsu held his hands up in acquiescence—
"I'm not touching," he said. "I can ask from here. Number one—is he crazy in bed?"
"I—what?"
"Be honest. He's a freak, right? How so, specifically?"
"Suigetsu."
"...He's fucking with me, isn't he?" Naruto muttered. "Is he—"
"Absolutely am. Nice to meet'cha, I'm Suigetsu—" he reached out a hand, but stopped, leaning over to a very unamused Sasuke. "I'm gonna touch him. Am I allowed to touch him, my ever-gracious king?"
Sasuke's face was stone.
"Take that as a no," he said, and Naruto bit down on his laugh.
"Suigetsu Momochi, at your service," Suigetsu said, giving a little bow, "except I'm not at your service. I'm not even at his service, as much as he'd like to thin—"
"Jesus fuck," a new voice announced, "it's too early in the morning for your fucking voice. Why are you even—ah."
The redhaired girl stopped, blinking at Naruto. Naruto gave her a little wave.
"Uh—hi! I'm Naruto! If you don't already, uh—"
"Karin," she responded, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, "Karin Kusagakure. Sasuke, what would you like of me today?"
"The usual. Wait for Juugo."
She nodded and slipped past them, much to the blatant confusion of Suigetsu—
"That's it?! Sasuke brought your archnemesis here!"
"He's not my—I don't have a crush on Sasuke!"
"Uh-huh, tell that to your—"
"Does everybody here have a crush on you?" Naruto whispered, shuffling close to Sasuke.
"Don't know, don't care," Sasuke muttered back.
Naruto laughed.
"—hair is fake as fuck."
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"For the last fucking time, my hair has literally always been this colour—"
"That's literally impossible, but sure, I believe you—"
"It's not impossible," Naruto chimed in. "My mom's hair was that colour."
Karin waved a hand in his general direction.
"Thank you!"
"Damn it, blondie, you're supposed to be on my side."
"He's not on either of your sides. Good morning, Juugo."
"Sasuke," he said, and Naruto jumped. He hadn't even noticed the guy come in, but he was goddamn huge— "Ah, Naruto. An honour to meet you."
Naruto blinked.
"Um," Naruto reached out a hand. "Thanks. Naruto Uzumaki."
"Juugo," the man said, taking it. "Just Juugo."
Naruto...nodded. He suddenly got the sense that there were a bunch of questions that you just didn't ask around here. He guessed Sasuke would really appreciate that kind of thing, to be fair—
"Good, we're here. For the duration of the day, please do not acknowledge Naruto as anything more than a customer."
Naruto nodded.
The other three blinked.
"You gonna tell us why?" Suigetsu asked.
"Shiore," Juugo answered, before Sasuke could even speak. "That man takes an interest in anything associated with Sasuke."
Naruto shifted his nervous gaze to Sasuke, who gave a quick, jerky nod.
"...Aw," Suigestu said. "You guys've got a fuckin' plan, haven't you? I can't believe you left me outta this until now!"
"You're still not included," Sasuke deadpanned.
"Let's break into the creepy freezer," Suigetsu continued, as if he hadn't heard—
"This is why you weren't included."
Karin giggled, and Naruto nudged Sasuke a little.
"We're not doing anything big," Naruto said, glancing over at Sasuke a few more times just to make sure, "just—keeping an eye on stuff. And I can't really do that if he's keeping an eye on me. Right?"
Sasuke inclined his head and turned his raised eyebrow to the rest of the group.
"Got it, boss." Suigetsu was the first one to speak. Naruto...wasn't really surprised. "Mission: snake hunt is a go!"
Karin turned on her heel and walked away. Sasuke just about did the same.
"What? He looks like a snake! You know he does—what kills snakes?"
"We're not killing anyone," Juugo muttered.
"Hawks," Sasuke offered, at just about the same time. "Now get to work."
"Only if you say it. Say it! Say Team Hawk!"
"I think Team Taka sounds better," Karin offered, giving Sasuke the smallest blushing glance. Naruto raised his eyebrows and turned to his boyfriend—
"If you manage to bake anything within the half an hour we have left," Sasuke said, "I'll call you whatever you'd like."
"You're gonna regret that!" Suigetsu called, already moving. "Hey, blondie! Over here—I've got more questions."
Sasuke sighed.
"I'm sorry," he muttered at Naruto, but Naruto only—
"Sasuke," he said, nudging closer to the stoic, impassive asshole, "you didn't tell me you had friends."
Half an hour later, Naruto had weaved his way around the building, and Sasuke found himself hovering over the door at every opportunity. The place he'd told Naruto to sit did have a reasonable view of everywhere else, yes, but more than that—
Sasuke peered through the door's small window for the thousandth time.
And there Naruto was. Sitting with his laptop open, as he'd promised. Either working on something or doing a decent enough job at pretending it. He didn't know if it was just Naruto's nerves that had him so on edge, but…
Damn it. He should have told Naruto to order something quick and get out. They'd already spent enough time on a failed meringue, but the second looked to be working. Still, it would be over an hour before it was cooked through, so...
"He's gonna be fine, boss," Suigetsu said, and Sasuke nearly jumped. Suigetsu didn't laugh, though—didn't tease, didn't smile.
"C'mon," he said, jerking his head towards the rest of kitchen. "Help me roll this all out."
Sasuke breathed out, and tore himself away.
Naruto let out a breath, letting his head roll back to massage his neck a little. Going through all his paperwork sucked without Shikamaru holding his hand through it all. He needed to do it, obviously, but ugh…
He checked his phone again. He'd texted Sasuke a couple times—just to make sure, y'know. He didn't want to distract him too much, like he tended to, but he had to do something to distract from the fact that he was looking every time a back door opened. He could pretend he was waiting for his order, he guessed, but...
Naruto heaved out a breath and tilted his computer up.
No, he was sitting and working, and that was it. Sasuke was fine. Nobody else had come in. Of course, they could come in through the same door Sasuke had used, in the back, but—
"Hello," said a voice, and Naruto's head jerked up. "I don't believe I've seen you here before."
The man reached out a hand, and Naruto breathed in.
"Um, yeah," he said, staying polite—polite, Naruto, no matter how obvious it was that this was the asshole that—
"Shiore," the man said, as if there was any room for doubt. "The owner of this café. And you are?"
And Naruto—Naruto—
"Minato," he said quickly, looking down, "Minato Namikaze."
Right? That was fine. Better than his real name, anyway, and it was one he'd remember—
"Namikaze," the man repeated, as if testing out the name. "Interesting. I'm not familiar with such a name. Have you had it long?"
The fuck?
"All my life," Naruto answered awkwardly. "Uh—"
"Ah, my apologies. I'm ever so sorry. I tend to get easily lost in the past, and something about you is...quite familiar."
Shiore's eyes dropped, ever so slightly, and Naruto…
"Y'know it's rude to stare," he said, tilting his head, "right?"
His scars. Of course it was his fucking scars. It had always been these fucking sca—
Shiore laughed. The sound sent a chill down Naruto's spine.
"You are quite correct," he said, inviting his fucking self to sit right down, "and quite intriguing. I apologize; I mean no offense. The markings along your face resemble the patterns within a family I...have studied quite extensively. Are you familiar with your heritage?"
And there it was. The bait Shiore wanted Naruto to bite on—if he hadn't been waiting for it, he might have missed it completely. Luckily it was the exact goddamn same as Sasuke's, so even an idiot like him—
"Yeah!" he said, plastering a smile on his face as he leaned back. "My grandma kept track of it all. We've got a whole album."
His parents were alive, Naruto told himself. He had a big family. He knew who everyone was. He'd gotten these scars in a—in a skiing accident, or some shit, he—
"Oh," Shiore said, with not nearly as much disappointment as Naruto wanted him to have. "A Senju?"
"What?"
(Naruto's phone went off.)
"Ah, nothing. Perhaps that was just my experience. But tell me, child, would you happen to be familiar with—"
"Sir!"
A grey-haired man with large glasses and wide eyes came running over, something stumbling and scattered about him—Naruto's phone went off again—he held it close lest the man see Sasuke's name—
"Kabuto," Shiore greeted. "I am with a customer."
"Don't mind me," Naruto bit out. He managed to keep the smile, though. That was something.
"Yes, I—my apologies," he said, eyes darting to Naruto for a brief moment, "but I'm afraid this can't wait. A...possible investment wishes to make an exchange of interest."
Shiore turned to face him fully.
"Does he?" he laughed. "Well, perhaps my luck is finally turning around."
Slitted eyes turned back to Naruto for a brief moment, something pleased and amused in glittering in them—
"Feel free to come by as often as you'd like," he said, standing. "Perhaps blessings run in your veins."
What the fuck?
"Well then. Good meeting you, Namikaze. Kabuto?"
"Of course, sir."
And they were gone. Naruto picked up his phone, but he barely had the chance to open his mouth before Sasuke—
"Your meringue," he breathed out, mouth in a thin line and eyes somewhere scattered—
"Thanks," Naruto said, slapping his laptop shut. "I'll take it to go."
Sasuke breathed in—and Naruto, ever so slightly, leaned his head towards the kitchen.
Sasuke spun around without another word.
"I'm okay, Sasuke," Naruto said, for maybe the thirtieth time. He didn't know what else to do to make Sasuke stop pacing back and forth like this—
"It's true," Suigetsu added, "and he even made snakefucker run away. What did you tell him? I wanna use it."
Naruto...breathed out a laugh. Sasuke didn't seem nearly as amused.
"He got a message about an investment or something. I don't think it was me—we just talked about my family. Or heritage, or something, I don't know. Like he was trying to find out who I was...?"
"Join the club," Karin deadpanned, kicking the oven door shut. "Is anyone going to work today other than me?"
"No," Suigetsu said. "Since when was Orochimaru interested in you?"
"Since before Sasuke got here. What did you just call him?"
"Orochimaru," Suigetsu said, flicking an almond into his mouth. "It's his real name."
Sasuke stopped pacing.
"What?" Suigestu asked, shrugging. "I did some digging ages ago. When I pretended to play ball and before he got bored of me. His real name's Orochimaru. Pretty sure he's wanted for a metric fuckton of identity fraud."
"Uh," Naruto said, turning his wide eyes on Sasuke—
"The fuck, Suigetsu?" Karin said. "You didn't feel the need to tell anyof us this?"
"You never asked! S'a good bit of blackmail," he said, shrugging. "I ain't giving that up without a good reason."
"This is a good reason?" Sasuke asked, his voice keeping steady and controlled.
Suigetsu shrugged again. Karin threw her hands up in the air.
"I have never hated you more."
"Aw," Suigetsu said, grinning, "that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
"It's strange," Juugo said, speaking for the first time, "that the manager left, too."
Naruto blinked, glancing over at Sasuke.
"It's usually just...Orochimaru," Sasuke muttered, "who comes and goes."
"Must've been a big deal," Suigetsu said. "But more importantly, does that mean we can fuck off and go home now?"
"No," Sasuke said. "The likelihood of them being gone all night is low. And we should not give any indication of anything being different than normal."
He turned around, eyeing the rest of his friends. Co-workers? Honestly, they looked more like his subordinates right about now—
"Of course," Karin said, nodding. "Let's get back to it."
"I'll keep an eye out front," Juugo offered, waiting until Sasuke's nod to go.
"Great. I'll break into the creepy freez—argh! Ah, Karin, you bitch, let go—"
"He'll be baking," Karin said. "Don't worry, Sasuke."
"Thank you, Karin," Sasuke replied, and Karin's face considerably brightened. It was gone a moment later, though, along with whatever Suigetsu muttered. She yanked him back in retaliation, and then they were gone, too.
Naruto breathed out.
"Hey," he started softly—
Sasuke pushed Naruto back, shoving them both into the small corner hidden behind the fridge.
He pressed his forehead to Naruto's.
"Hey," Naruto said again, gentler this time— "I'm okay. I'm okay—we just talked. Nothing actually happened."
"I know," Sasuke said softly, "I know."
Naruto breathed out a laugh, and let Sasuke shift to press his face to Naruto's neck. He did seem to love that spot…
"You're not fishing for a midnight snack, are you?"
Sasuke's warm breath huffed out against Naruto's neck.
"No, moron," Sasuke muttered, "I'm just—I'm listening."
Naruto gave the back of Sasuke's head a bit of a look.
"To—uh—what?"
"Your blood," Sasuke replied. "Stupid."
Naruto let out a small laugh, running a hand through Sasuke's hair.
"Geez," he said. "You're worse than I was when you got stabbed. Guess it's a nice change to have me in whatever shitstorm of a situation we've run into this time, though."
"It was you that time, too," Sasuke muttered, unmoving. "...I'm sorry for worrying you."
"You—huh?"
"Earlier. Last week."
Oh. Naruto's grin widened a little. Oh.
"And now you're the worried one, seeing how it all feels," he said, patting the back of Sasuke's turtleneck, "gotcha."
Sasuke gently headbutted Naruto's neck in answer. Naruto laughed again, shoving him back until he could grab his face and look at him properly.
"Hey. Hey—I'm fine. We're both okay. Nothing even really happened—he literally just talked to me. It was weird as hell, but he just talked."
Sasuke inclined his head, shifting his eyes away as he breathed out. He still didn't look happy, but—
"Why did he even notice you? He barely talks to customers. And you were just on your computer, I saw you, he should have—"
"You were watching me, huh?"
"That—" Sasuke twitched slightly, "that's not important. Why did he—"
"My face," Naruto said, still smiling nonetheless. "My scars—markings, whatever. Y'know how people are."
Something in Sasuke's face changed.
"What did he say?"
"The—no—nothing like that, Sasuke," Naruto said quickly, because Sasuke looked ready to be furious, "he just—they stand out. And if anything it was like he almost—recognized them. Or something. He started saying shit about studying families and stuff—I don't know. I gave him my—I told him my name was my birth dad's name, though. Minato. He didn't—I dunno if he just didn't believe me or what...he might've just been fucking with me."
Sasuke's scowl deepened.
"No," he said. "This is a pattern. Suigetsu!"
The man was around the corner in barely a second. Naruto quickly shuffled aside—
"When you pretended to play ball," Sasuke said, "what did that entail?"
"Uh," Suigetsu shrugged, "buncha questions about my family, really. He figured out I was fuckin' with him pretty quick, though. Why?"
"Family again," Sasuke muttered. "Do you know who your family is?"
Suigetsu's head tilted.
"What's it to ya?" he asked, his teeth looking especially sharp as he grinned—
"Not much," Sasuke deadpanned, "unless he found what he was looking for."
"He didn't," Suigetsu replied. "Why d'you think he's still keeping me around?"
Sasuke raised an eyebrow, but inclined his head. Suigetsu took it as the dismissal that it was apparently meant to be, and jauntily bounded away as Sasuke turned back to face Naruto.
"You okay?" Naruto asked, scanning his face. Sasuke breathed out.
"As of now," he replied. "I should be asking you. You've been awake for far too long."
Naruto laughed.
"Yeah. I'll give you that one. At least Dia didn't beat the shit outta me this morning. I think I'm appeasing her with future promises."
Sasuke snorted.
"We'll see how steady my paycheck stays. Are you tired?"
"A little," Naruto said, "and—uh, for the record, um—my paycheck is pretty stable, so—"
"I'm not going to take more from you, Naruto."
"You don't take—not this again," Naruto huffed out a breath, bouncing in place, "it's not like that. It's never like that. I just want you to know that I'm—here for you. Obviously. If anything happens, not just this."
He ducked his head, pressing his lips together as he tried to figure out a better way to actually tell all this to Sasuke. It wasn't just this, and it wasn't just for now, he—
Sasuke's hand gently squeezed Naruto's arm.
"I know," he said, a soft smile stretching his lips, "moron. Come on—Suigetsu has a nap corner he thinks I don't know about."
A/N: I don't think any of you were fooled for a second, but Shiore is the name of the ninja whose body Orochimaru takes during the chuunin exams, if you were curious!
Tomorrow's chapter will be a shorter one, but the next one after that is an absolute monster. Lots of fun stuff to come!
See you soon,
- Kinomi