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: Aw, I want you all to read the ending, but I don't want the story to end! This has been really lovely. Thank you all so much!

Bite Me

Chapter 35: Sunlit

"I—I mean, I guess I—we haven't met properly, have we?" Naruto said, jerking his head between Sasuke and Itachi and Sasuke's parents— "I'm Naruto. That was—that was my dad, Iruka, over, uh, there—"

"Naruto," Itachi repeated—quiet and sad. The guilt was palpable, it was almost as bad as Sasuke's desperation— "I'd like to apologize. I never meant to—"

"Yeah, for the whole—uh. Mind control thing?" Naruto laughed a little. "That was weird. Can I ask—can you teleport? Like with the birds?"

"I...can transform," Itachi said slowly, "into a raven, and move quicker than I can as a human."

"So….kind of?"

"That's...yes. Are you not angry?"

"Huh? No. What?"

Itachi blinked at him.

"I attacked you."

"That's what Sas—no, you didn't!" he said. "This—this has just been a whole bunch of misundersta—you know what, just shake my hand."

He hopped past a stool, grabbed Itachi's hand, and shook it.

"Hi," he said. "I'm Naruto. I'm dating your brother."

Itachi blinked at him. His hand stayed loose and stuck, as if frozen—

"Oh," said Sasuke's mom, and Naruto—

"Uh. Or—uh," he turned back to Sasuke. "Sorry, was I not supposed to—"

"You're such an idiot," Sasuke said, shaking his head. But Naruto could see the smile he was fighting, and it made Naruto's relief flood through him—

"Listen, we should all just—start over. Let's just start over, yeah?"

An hour later, Sasuke's heart had finally started to settle. Not completely—not as it normally would be—but better. His senses were still filled with things on the verge of familiar, and the slightest chance of healing himself all the way back to human had had him holding every bit of his breath—

But Naruto laughed, and Sasuke relaxed. He coaxed his brother's shoulders down, had Sasuke's mother hiding her smile behind her hand, had his father's lips twitching in disbelief—

A blessing.

It made sense to Sasuke more and more.

"Is she here, then?" Itachi was saying, holding a different photo. "Kusanagi."

Sasuke's mother's face fell.

"No," she said softly. "She disappeared when...we did look for her, too—but with no microchip…"

"Microchip?" Naruto asked, and Sasuke moved around to stare at the—

"Our cat—Kusanagi. I didn't remember very much, but we found our veterinarian's phone number...I don't know why we didn't take more care. She—"

"Does she have a white smudge on the tip of her ear?" Sasuke asked, staring—he couldn't see it in the picture, but that looked like—it looked like—

"Yes," Itachi said. "How did you know that?"

"I have her," Sasuke said. "I have—"

"Oh my god," Naruto said, grabbing the picture, "that's why she was so obsessed with you! Sasuke, she remembered—"

"She remembered me," Sasuke finished, and Naruto let out a breathless laugh.

"You have her?" Mikoto cried. "Oh, my heart, oh—thank goodness. I—the door was left open when we awoke and I thought for sure—"

"The front door?" Sasuke asked. "What—"

"You followed me," Itachi said. "I tried to run, after...she must have followed you. But I—that's when I—"

"Bit me," Sasuke finished, finally making sense of it all. "That's why I didn't have anything when I woke up…"

"Oh," Naruto said, breathing in. He gently gave the picture back, letting Sasuke take it to put back on the shelf.

"Sasuke, I'm—"

"I don't blame you," he said, cutting off the apology before it could begin again. "I know what the...impulses are like."

Itachi looked stricken.

"I—yes. I just...wish you didn't."

"Hey," Naruto said, hopping in between them. "We've—we did good with Sasuke. Didn't we? They weren't so bad."

Sasuke looked into those blue eyes, and felt the smile pull at his lips.

"They weren't," he agreed.

"It was certainly bizarre," Mikoto agreed. "We were lucky Fugaku had access to the blood through the hospital. Through work, I mean, through his work—and only units on the verge of expiry, of course, we tried what had expired, but..."

"Made you sick?" Naruto asked.

"Yes," she agreed, turning back as Tsunade and Iruka joined them. Sasuke scanned Iruka, trying to get a hint of what he was feeling.

"Alright?" he asked, as Iruka came to him. Iruka patted Sasuke on the arm and breathed out a laugh.

"As reassured as I can be," he said. "I slacked far too much in school to be able to make sense of any of this. Although I'm not sure how much help paying attention would have been…"

"That's me every day," Naruto said, and Iruka ruffled his hair. "Can I ask—I've got—me and Sasuke have been trying to figure out how all this works for ages. D'you know it all, Tsunade?"

Tsunade's smile widened.

"Some things are mysteries to us all," she answered vaguely, and Naruto—

"Oh, come on!"

"I'm kidding, brat, get over here. Ask your questions," she laughed. "You know most of your answers are likely somewhere in this house."

"That—really? I mean, I guess…"

"I'm not sure about that," Itachi answered. "When we—the ritual was to cure disease. I don't—I can tell you I definitely didn't know the details of it. Although it's possible my parents…"

The room turned to them.

"I don't have the memories to answer you," Mikoto said, laughing softly. "But if you're asking how far a parent would go to save their child…"

Sasuke swallowed, and looked away.

"Some knowledge does get lost with time," Tsunade agreed, after a moment. "It's a delicate balance between secrecy and learning. The two of you both experienced those that would...taint it."

She turned to Itachi, and then Sasuke.

"I knew Orochimaru as a child," she explained. "Your distrust was justified."

Sasuke blinked.

"Oh," he said, her sudden departure suddenly making a lot more sense—

"And he was working with you," said Naruto, "right, Itachi?"

"Working," Itachi said, and it was stilted. "All I managed to learn was that any reversal would end with just as much strain on the body as the ritual, without the vampiric power to heal it all. I caught his notes on the healing associated with the Uzumaki family on accident. I don't think he ever meant me to see it. But then, when you said your name…"

"Ah, shit," Naruto said. "I should've taken your name, dad! I knew it."

Iruka laughed and pulled him to him again.

"One of Orochimaru's hypotheses that turned out to be correct," Tsunade said. "It wasn't the only solution available when Madara created the technique, but it's certainly our safest one at this point."

"And I—still, I apologize, Naruto—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you could've just talked to me," Naruto said, waving a hand. "You know all that now, but I get it. I know how nuts this all sounds, believe me."

He laughed, and the room grew just a little bit warmer.

"But—was that the plan?" Naruto asked. "If you did—sorry, that was mind control, right? That you were doing to try to—try to pull me all the way here?"

"I...yes," Itachi said quietly. "It's never been resisted before. I…"

"Huh. But when Sasuke tried it—it didn't feel like that at all. When we tried?"

"No, that…" Sasuke said, shifting awkwardly, "I couldn't focus on that."

"It's possible that's another difference," Itachi offered, "between the ritual and being...turned."

"Itachi is right," Tsunade said. "Although I believe with time and experience you could all master similar techniques. Disregarding the whole blood aspect, it's an incredible state of being."

"Disregarding the main part of living with it all," Sasuke muttered, and Naruto nudged him with his hip. "Why the sunlight?"

"Side effect," Tsunade answered. "Your vampirism is borrowed power from the spirits Madara dealt with. Those spirits are sensitive to sunlight."

"Oh," Naruto said. "What about—Sasuke hated white clothes. Is that—is it because of the sun, too?"

Tsunade laughed softly.

"Yes," she said, "yes it is."

"What about our memories?" Sasuke's mother asked, stepping forwards. "Another side effect?"

Tsunade inclined her head.

"Yes," she answered. "In a way. It was a trade. The ritual was part of the deal—an agreement given to those of the Uchiha bloodline. Only those of the Uchiha bloodline; it would not work on anyone else. But the turning bite was something that could be given to others, and so it asks…much more of the host."

"...I see," his mother said softly. "I suppose there had to be limits on the…transfer of this type of immortality."

"Exactly so," Tsunade said. "It takes a great toll on the body. Certainly not something just anyone could survive. Someone like Naruto would, having his healing, but it asks a great deal of the spirits' power, and they do…take. In return."

There was a pause. Sasuke breathed in the knowledge that Naruto would have been safe, could have been safe, would have survived even at Sasuke's worst—but reeled with gratitude that he had never been forced to find that out—

"What about the invitation thing?" Naruto asked, pulling him back with a gentle touch to his arm. "Like Sasuke—Sasuke couldn't enter places unless he'd been invited. What's that about?"

"Still the spirits," Tsunade answered. "Although they take it much more seriously. They cannot even speak unless asked to."

"Bizarre," said his mother's voice. "All of this—it just gets more bizarre every day."

She let out a soft, familiar laugh, and Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hand as the nostalgia rocked through him. He'd known this voice. He'd known it—

"Who are we waiting for, anyway?" Naruto asked, holding him steady. "Should I be doing something to get—get ready or something?"

Tsunade sighed, and glanced at her phone again.

"Jiraiya," she said, skimming something on it, "bastard of a man. Always late when I need him."

"Hold—wait, Jiraiya too?! He's—"

"Mhm," Tsunade answered, slipping her phone away with a small smile. "By accident. A by-product of growing up alongside myself and Orochimaru—he happened to get reasonably good with seals. Infuriatingly good with the practical applications of them...don't tell him I said that."

"Too late!"

"Jiraiya!"

"What's up, kid! And Tsunade, my beauty, I knew you always admired my—"

"Shut it," she said, slapping a hand over his face. All it did was make him laugh—a loud, booming noise that echoed through the house—

"Alright, alright," he said, "I came as fast as I could. Locked the door, too. What's happening?"

"We're giving you a floor to ruin," Tsunade said, turning to Sasuke's parents. "Which of your rooms do you care about the least?"

They ended up in the basement. Dark, unfinished, and with the most amount of space, Naruto stared as Jiraiya traced a paintbrush along the concrete, holding up the diagram whenever he looked up—

"You've gotta teach me this," he said, stepping around so he could hold the scroll without stepping on the paint. "This is so cool…"

"Your parents thought so too," Jiraiya muttered, pausing to glance before starting again. "Tsunade has their notes. Or she should, still…"

It was absentminded and thoughtful, and Naruto knew Jiraiya's mind was somewhere else, but he turned, breathing in—

"They're yours," Tsunade said, already beside him. "I've been debating giving them to you every day since we met. I only didn't because of my promise to your mother. Keep them safe, will you?"

"Of course," Naruto said, and it was quiet. "My mom...made you promise not to tell me?"

"Unless I didn't have another choice," Tsunade said. "She wanted to save any children she had from that sort of...guilt."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed softly, and Jiraiya made a small noise. "Oh—yeah, sorry, I'll—here—"

He hopped over the ink again, going to the other side so Jiraiya could check the reference again. Sasuke stayed behind him, drifting between hovering near him and hovering near his parents, but he'd gotten quieter and quieter as the night had gone on—

"Nervous?" Naruto whispered, turning to him.

"...Aren't you?" Sasuke muttered, and Naruto bit his lip.

"Uh," he said, "I'm kinda excited."

Sasuke scoffed and shook his head, and Naruto laughed.

"Did you guys decide who's going first? I doubt they're gonna make you."

"My brother and my father are still fighting about it," Sasuke replied, "and it isn't me I'm worried about."

Naruto felt himself melt a little.

"I'm gonna be fine, Sasuke," he said, feeling a bit like he could spend all night staring into Sasuke's eyes. "I'm gonna be better than fine. I've been talking all this shit about how I'd help you find your memories—"

"Naruto, up here."

"—th—uh, yeah, one sec—"

Naruto awkwardly hopped over, and Sasuke calmly moved around the circle, mirroring him.

He still looked worried.

"Fine," he mouthed over at Sasuke, and Sasuke crossed his arms. He caught somebody's eye over Naruto's shoulder—

Oh.

His dad.

Naruto snorted and shook his head. Sasuke was already moving to talk to Iruka about something—probably needing whatever he'd gotten to reassure him that Naruto would be okay. But Naruto would be! He trusted Tsunade and he trusted Jiraiya, and besides, anything that could happen to him would be worth the risk a million times over.

The real thing to be worried about would come after, because either Sasuke would forget everything that happened to him as a vampire—including how he….felt. Or he'd remember and Naruto would very quickly just become a reminder of a really horrible nightmare part of his life, and that—that—

That was something he could stress about later. Later.

Jiraiya called him again, and Naruto moved forward.

Right now, he finally had a chance to bring Sasuke back.

And that was a chance he'd always take.

It was like magic.

Sasuke watched with bated breath and Naruto's shirt in his hands, as his father and Naruto sat in the middle of the ring, black symbols marking their bodies. Naruto's spread right out from his stomach, as if they had always been a part of him—

"Breathe," Jiraiya coached him. "Find your center."

Naruto didn't react. His eyes were closed—his father's were open—and Sasuke watched, waiting for something—something—

There.

Naruto's eyes snapped open, and Sasuke's breath caught. His eyes glowed a burning yellow, his pupils changing shape to something bold and squared off, the scars on his cheeks grew thick and dark—Sasuke followed the glow as it spread from them, circling his body, enveloping him, spreading out past his head in two long flames—

Beautiful.

Sasuke had never seen anyone this beautiful.

He pushed himself up with a sunlit hand, reaching another out to help Sasuke's father to his feet—

"Okay," he said, turning to the rest of them. "I'm ready."

A/N: That's it for today! It's all end stages now, ahh! But I'm so happy you all have been liking it. Thank you all so much for being here! It's really brightened my month :)

See you tomorrow,

- Kinomi