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: Aaand we're off! Lots of answers finally coming your way. I'm excited to see what you all think!

Bite Me

Chapter 34: Blessing

Iruka insisted that he come too. For one, it was dark and late and they had only just gotten out of danger—for two, he was Naruto's father and that meant they were family and by god he would stand by his family's side—and for three, he was the only one out of the three of them that actually owned a car, so—

Right.

Alright.

Sasuke had watched as Iruka whispered something quick and fierce to Kakashi, pressing a key into his hand—watched as Kakashi promised to lock up and reassured them all his phone was fully charged—watched Naruto offer the small jar of cooked garlic and water to his father—watched everyone else remain happily oblivious as they stepped out into the cold—

It bit at his skin, but Sasuke's blood burned hot.

And a part of him wanted to say no. A part of him thought he should say no—should insist that Naruto and Iruka stay behind, that it was dangerous—even more than he was—and that Sasuke should go alone. The smartest thing to do was to go alone. If there were more of them—if there were other vampires, which was more likely than ever before, Iruka and Naruto were both human, so—then—

Naruto squeezed his hand.

Sasuke breathed out.

He couldn't. He knew he couldn't. He was barely hoping. Barely moving forwards. And there was a chance—a strong one—that all he would be walking into was his own nightmare. The one he'd had and over; bodies on a hardwood floor, panic in his heart, scream in his throat, Sasuke—

No.

No, Sasuke couldn't do this alone.

"Um," Naruto said, as they turned into the streets of a suburb. "It's—it'll be on the left. I used to—this was the place that I—"

Sasuke looked over at him.

Naruto ran his free hand through his hair, and let it rest against the window.

"The place I'd go," he finished finally, "when I ran away."

Iruka made a small noise, and Sasuke...breathed in. Breathed in twice more, as his mind reeled—as his eyes unfocused, blurring his view of Naruto...blurring the window behind him. His mind was drifting into something, catching onto something—

"Most of the time, anyway. I did—I told you about the guy I'd—um, play with through the fence—"

—familiar.

"The one I didn't see—the ninja one."

A fence was behind Naruto's head. Blurring together, but Sasuke looked at it and could feel the stones. Could feel the thickness, the uneven bumps and small gritty holes—he looked at it and knew it would be too tall to climb, knew the pattern twisted along the top in ornate black metal, cool to the touch but sharp at the top—

"He used to always call me—"

Sasuke stared at the fence, and let what he knew lead his tongue.

"Usuratonkachi."

Naruto's eyes snapped to his.

"We're here," Iruka said, slowing the car to a stop. "On the left...there's a car in the driveway."

So there was. Sasuke noted it distantly, vaguely, as his seatbelt snapped back into place behind him. He was on the verge of it all, pushing through the wall in his head. Clawing through it with bare hands on a dirt wall. He could feel a life on the other side—and he hoped, hoped, hoped it was his—

Naruto opened his door, and Sasuke stepped out of the car.

The road was familiar. The gravel driveway, the place where the brick ended and the fence began—the deep black door, the sturdy steps up to it...Sasuke looked at this house, and felt something like the way he had when he'd been staring at an old, repurposed art building.

Some part of him was here.

"Hang—watch your feet," Naruto whispered, catching him by the arm as a frog hopped out in front of him. It passed, disappearing into the bushes, and Naruto let go—

Sasuke caught the hand before it could leave him.

And he knew it was likely that no one would answer. It was even more likely that a stranger would—a false alarm, someone Sasuke never knew, suspicious and hostile at the late-night strangers on their doorstep—

But Sasuke couldn't wait. Sasuke couldn't pause, Sasuke couldn't sleep on this or call ahead or gather any more information because this was—this was here. He was here. He was on a doorstep, he'd been carrying around a ripped, beat up piece of paper and he'd finally found the rest of the book it might have been torn from—

And so he knocked.

It was a lonely night.

Cold, quiet—not unusual, but sad all the same. They had been living in stifling, tragic silence ever since they'd awoken.

A life she didn't remember.

A husband she didn't recognize.

Photographs of children, of herself, of all of them together…

No children here.

Mikoto breathed out, and stared through the window. The backyard had grown dormant for the winter. What had been empty was now filled with snow...the overgrown plants now small, in their brittle, fragile sleep.

Mikoto wanted to sleep, too.

She sighed again and stood. It was late, and her head was as dim as the lights. Dark and flickering. When she woke up to a sunrise, she'd have hope for a new day, but tonight, she…

Something knocked.

Mikoto looked up, staring into the darkness. Had she imagined the noise? No. But—

She moved across the hall, to the window that sat over the driveway—a car. An unfamiliar car, at this hour? With figures on their doorstep…

Mikoto let her vision sharpen. Her fangs grew in her mouth and she scanned over the figures again...heads downturned, bundled in the winter. Her senses could not feel the blood through these walls…

Hm.

She let them fade, and moved to the door. Down the steps, hurried but not nervous. She held no fear in his unusual heart of hers. And the small hole in the door would let her scan the faces a…gain...

She tore the door open.

"My son," she breathed, staring. His eyes were the same. His nose and his cheeks and the way he stared—she had pictures of him as a baby, staring up like that, her son—she'd have known it even if she'd never seen him in her life—

But she didn't—she couldn't—

"My son," she said again, and it hurt, "why don't I remember my son—"

Her eyes burned, and she caught her breath, stepping back from the cold—

"I—please," she said, "come in. Out of the cold. Fugaku! Fuga—Fu—"

Her voice caught and cracked, and she cleared it as she pushed the door shut. Her husband rushed down, but froze, the same as she had, seeing the face they'd both started to think of as a ghost—

"Sasuke," he breathed out, and Mikoto's tears broke free.

A hand pushed her son forwards—gently, hesitantly, he stepped to them—

She threw her arms around her broken family, and sobbed.

They'd been looking for him. After they'd awoken on a cold floor, no memories, strange patterns and writings all around them, they'd pieced together their lives bit by shattered bit and then—

"We tried," she said. "Everything was a dead end. Phone numbers that led to nowhere—only phones left inside this house. Contacts that hadn't seen you, wallets and cards that no one ever came to claim, accounts no one used, no school had seen you in years. Work was just the same—your brother disa—"

"My brother?" Sasuke said, his mind snapping back to—

"—ppeared—yes. Yes, he disappeared the same time as you—his name is Itachi, he is older by six years, I have—"

She fled from the room for barely a second, coming back with a worn, wooden picture frame in hand—

Sasuke breathed out. They were smiling, somewhere—somewhere together, somewhere public, surrounded by food and lights and...warmth. But Sasuke didn't let himself dwell on his smile, because the man that had his hand on Sasuke's shoulder—

"Have you—you haven't found him?"

"No," she said, "no, we haven't—not—"

"But he remembered," Sasuke said, turning to a wide-eyed Naruto. "He knew my name. He—"

"You've seen him?" Fugaku asked, stepping forwards—

"Yes," Sasuke said. "Tonight. He attacked Naruto."

"To be fair," Naruto said, "he tried to hypnotize me into following him, he didn't attack me until I started fighting ba—"

"There is no difference there."

"There is!"

The door clicked open.

"Wh—"

"Ah, it's unlocked," said a familiar voice. "I thought I might have heard you, Naruto."

"Tsunade?!" Naruto yelped. "What are you—uh. Th—"

He stopped.

Sasuke moved in front of him.

And Naruto breathed in, as if to protest—

"I'm sorry," said the man. Said Sasuke's brother, standing beside Tsunade, his eyes as wide and scared as the last time he'd seen them— "I never meant…"

He bowed his head.

A gust of wind blew in the cold—blew in the snow, but Sasuke stood firm, swallowing against the lump in his throat, staring at the familiar face—he really—he really looked like him, like them, like the picture, like Sasuke, but—

"Listen," Tsunade said, "we're going to come in, and I'm going to explain everything. Sound good?"

There was a pause.

"What—how are you going to—what are you even doing here?!"

"That'll be part of the explanation, brat."

"I—come in," Mikoto said, moving forwards. "You can—"

Tsunade moved forwards, closing the door behind them. He watched his parents move forward, but he stayed back—Itachi looked up and met his eye—

"Congratulations on beating us here," Tsunade said. "How'd you figure it out?"

"We found Sasuke's name," Naruto replied, soft and quiet. "What—uh—"

Tsunade let out a breath, and blew some hair out of her face.

"Hm," she said, flicking her fingers back and forth as if getting the feeling back into them. "I didn't tell you how I knew your parents, did I?"

"I thought you knew them through Jiraiya."

She flicked her fingers again.

"I knew your mother."

She turned to face him, and Sasuke moved closer to Naruto, who stepped back, bumping into Iruka—

"Why didn't you—"

"Because this knowledge is a blessing and a curse," she said, "and your mother tended to think of it as the latter."

Naruto breathed in, but Iruka put a hand on his shoulder. It made him step back, made him bump back against Sasuke—Tsunade looked at him, at his father, at Sasuke, at his brother—

And sighed.

"You bear a blessing of fortune, child," she said, tapping the back of her fingers against his cheeks. "Of good luck, and all that comes with it."

Naruto stared.

"...What?"

"It runs in the Uzumaki family. In markings of the fox spirit it was given by. Do you have any other unexplained symbols on your skin?"

"I—yeah," Naruto said, glancing over at Sasuke as if he'd know— "on my—uh, my stomach."

He paused, before he hesitantly bunched up his shirt. Sasuke surreptitiously moved closer to him.

"It's a swirl—or something, um," Naruto said. "I don't—"

"Not a swirl," Tsunade said. "That's a seal."

"A—what?"

"An indication that the blessing was accepted. In your case, fortune."

Naruto looked back between Sasuke and Tsunade.

"Like…luck?"

Tsunade inclined her head.

"I," Naruto started, shaking his head, "I really don't think—I'm not—lucky. I've never been—I mean, sometimes, now, but if you look at my whole—"

"Not yourself," Tsunade said. "It does not affect you. But you might find that those around you tend to feel…blessed by something."

Naruto's eyes tentatively flickered to Sasuke's, but his gaze didn't hold. Sasuke suddenly felt—

"By Naruto," Sasuke said, and it was in protest. "My life is made better by him and who he is, not by any seal or blessing—"

"And what is the difference?" Tsunade asked. "Is your heart not yours? Your skin not a part of you?"

"That's—that's not—"

"I know. And you are, on some level, correct—Naruto is still Naruto, and this changes very little. It's a fickle blessing. As foxes tend to be," she said, laughing softly. "Unless some very, very specific conditions are met—"

She glanced up, and Sasuke followed her gaze to his brother.

"—it cannot be controlled."

Naruto glanced up, between them.

"Oh," he said softly. "...That's why my mom hated it, huh?"

"Yes. I'm sorry for keeping it from you, Naruto. I knew she…I saw her blame herself," she said, "if anything went wrong. Over and over again. As if her blessing wasn't strong enough."

Naruto stared down at the floorboards.

"Which is bullshit, Naruto, look at me," she said, stepping forwards. "You give a blessing of good fortune to those around you. The world does the rest. Luck still has its nature, no matter who it's tied to."

Iruka wrapped his arms around Naruto's chest and kissed the top of his head. Naruto heaved out a breath and seemed to shake himself, meeting Sasuke's eye again—

"Okay?" she asked, and Naruto nodded. Sasuke still wasn't sure he believed it, and he wasn't sure Naruto did either, but—

"There is more," Tsunade offered, "if it would help you to recognize those. Fortune is your main blessing, but you may also tend to be quick to heal, have a natural resistance to hypnotic states, or enter a sort of...state, when particularly angry…"

Naruto's head jerked up.

"Ah," Tsunade said. "You alright, kid?"

"I was—I was fine. Sasuke—"

"Naruto glowed red. That night, I thought I imagined—is that what that was?"

"Yes," she said with a sigh, "yes, that would be it. What on earth have you two been up to…"

"We stopped some people trying to rob a kid," Naruto said, and Iruka made a noise— "sorry, dad. Uh—"

"Lucky for the child that you showed up when you did," Tsunade pointed out, and Naruto huffed out a breath.

"Fine," he said, "fine, I don't—I don't really get it, but it doesn't—okay. Sure. Is Sasuke the same? A blessing, like that?"

"Yes and no," Tsunade answered, stepping back again. "You are correct in that the Uchihas are an old family, like the Uzumakis. Like my family, the Senjus, too. No, I don't keep the name. Recognition tends to be more trouble than it's worth. But I digress..."

She breathed out and moved forwards, looking around the home.

"Somewhere in this house is a series of...documents. Books, notes—I've never seen them myself, but I know what was written," she sighed. "They are authored by Madara Uchiha, the man that...made an agreement. It was more of a deal than a blessing, based around Madara's search for health. Cures for disease...gifts of eternal life. Only for members of his bloodline, mind you."

She turned to them and waved a hand.

"As you can see, he found what he sought."

Sasuke breathed out.

"Oh," he said, finally getting his answer. Among many—all of the questions in his head jumped all at once, jumbling together in a mess of something that left him speechless—

"I need to sit down," he muttered finally. "Right, so vampirism runs in our family. Is there an explanation for why we have no memory?"

"You have no memory," Tsunade said, "as do your parents. Itachi, however…"

Sasuke turned, and his brother met his eyes.

"Yes," he said, and it sounded strained. "I remember everything."

It had been a nightmare.

It still was, really. It haunted him every day. Every step Itachi took was weighed down, every beat of his heart painful and throbbing. He lived a life of guilt, regret, and blood.

So much blood.

"It's a ritual," he said, closing his eyes, "that Madara developed. Painted symbols in a ring I didn't wholly understand. As far as I know, it's a ritual to...cure disease. Any disease."

He opened his eyes again.

"Including mine."

His family shifted around him. He saw the stirrings of something—the way Sasuke stared at him as if searching, as if he didn't recognize him, but he could—somewhere in his head, surely, Itachi still lived—

"I was sick," he repeated, turning to his parents, "and you were desperate. I don't think any of us anticipated…"

He couldn't finish it. It was too much—too vivid, too real in his head. They'd survived—thank god they'd survived—but, in that moment, with the blood on his hands, in his mouth—

He'd stood in the middle of a room, and known he had killed them.

"I'm sure you've all experienced it yourselves," Tsuande said, taking pity on him, "the way an instinct can take hold of you. Madara sought eternal life, but even the greatest power comes with its limitations. Vampirism was always meant to heal, and that instinct can take…a great hold on you."

"Madness," Itachi said. "It felt like madness."

"And yet it wasn't," she said, and Itachi swallowed, "for if it was, your family would be dead, not turned."

He breathed out.

"Instinct," she repeated, but Itachi only turned his head away. "In that moment, it took over. That one in particular is meant to do so. If you haven't felt it—the bite to turn is not the same as to drink. There is a particular, desperate instinct that was meant as a last resort—with several conditions that needed to be met. Love. Pain. I don't imagine Madara meant it to be triggered so easily, but it is. Intensely so."

Itachi didn't look up.

"It was meant to save the life of a loved one, quickly and instinctively," she continued, "but what it ended up doing was more of…giving them a new one. And so although the ritual to turn a vampire does not harm memory—"

"Turning a human into a vampire through a bite does," Itachi finished. "So, again, I...apologize. I have done this to you all."

Tsunade breathed out, but Itachi only kept his head bowed. She may have believed in forgiveness for him, but even the greatest forgiveness had its limits.

Itachi had surpassed them long ago.

"At any rate, he's been searching for help ever since," Tsunade said. "Found some that were more prone to hinder, but we got there in the end. He nearly did enough on his own, really."

Itachi focused on his breathing again. He'd returned soon after he'd left. Whether to turn himself in, give his family a proper burial, check on Kusanagi, all of the above—

But a light had come on, and Itachi had stared, unbreathing, as his mother walked out into the garden.

Unharmed.

"I didn't know about the memories," he said quietly, "I thought Sasuke was here. I was only going to return when I had a solution to—to what I had done—"

"Which we have," Tsunade said. "There is a reversal. Madara covered his bases well. Unfortunately, the only way to return to human, unscathed, is by harnessing the unhindered power of an Uzumaki. Fortune includes good health, after all."

She turned to the Uzumaki, and Itachi felt the apology on his tongue again.

"Okay," he said, and Itachi's head snapped up. "Okay—what do I do?"

"Hold—" said the older man, stepping in front of the blonde—

"For now?" Tsunade replied. "Wait. I'm calling in a favour."

"Hold on—!" said the older man again. "Good. Okay, good, we're waiting—I'd like to see a copy of this ritual before Naruto does or agrees to anything."

"I'll sketch it out for you," Tsunade said. "Come with me."

"Okay. Impulsive child," he muttered, touching a hand to the Uzumaki's shoulder as he passed by. He followed Tsunade to the other room—

And then there was only silence.

Silence, Itachi, and all the people he'd hurt.

A/N: That's it for now! More answers coming tomorrow, but it was so cool to see you all piecing things together. You all picked up on so many hints, it was so hard not to be like "yes! That's it! You've called it!" hahaha. Thank you all so much! I know we've still got some time to go, but I just want to say this has been a blast, and so worth all the work over the past few years. I'm so excited to see how it will feel to be read all at once, too! So - those of you reading in the future, when this fic is all done, let me know ;) But for now -

See you tomorrow,

- Kinomi