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Chapter 2: The Path into Darkness
I have always feared the dark,
The dark, an unfamiliar territory,
Mysterious and forbidding,
Yet somehow, calling out to me.
I was afraid of being alone,
But I was always alone,
Abandoned and forgotten,
Like lost memories of old.
Alone in the dark,
Those were the times that I hated the most,
Drowning in my own fear and despair,
I longed for the key to unlock my shackles.
Then, I met you,
A shadow in the night that lures its prey,
I realized that we were both alike,
Alone, and left in darkness.
Since then,
I have longed to see you again,
I fear you,
Yet I long to hold you.
For you were the key,
Freeing me from the loneliness in the night,
I have vowed to myself,
To win your heart,
You have won many games,
But I long to defeat you,
The stakes are high,
But my heart tells me to walk this path.
The path of forbidden desire,
Into the depths of darkness,
Where I might lose myself,
Suspended in your temptation.
Unwilling to show his fear, Naruto stiffened but didn't try to run. The figure chuckled slightly and licked the blond's earlobe. A tremor was sent down Naruto's spine, but it wasn't from fear this time. Pleased that he had gotten his desired effect, the figure raked his teeth over the smooth skin at the back of Naruto's neck., causing Naruto to shiver again.
"Back off," Naruto threatened, his voice unsteady. The figure tightened his arms around Naruto, as if to mock him.
"Don't forget your place..." he whispered seductively. "I'm the one in control here..."
"Uchiha Sasuke..." the figure whispered. "Remember that... I'll see you again... Uzumaki Naruto..." And with that, he was gone. Naruto wrapped his arms around himself, suddenly feeling cold.
'He may be a vampire... a creature of darkness... but his body is really warm... and soft...' Naruto blushed slightly at the thought.
"Uchiha Sasuke, huh..." he said out loud. "I... I want to see you again too..."
"Tadaima!" Naruto called out in a rather forlorn voice. Entering his room, Naruto threw himself down onto the bed and curled up into the ball, hoping to ward off the horrible feeling of loneliness. He had long realized that no one would ever be there to welcome him home, no one to scold him because he returned late... but he kept on hoping. Hoping that perhaps, just perhaps, someone would be there for him one day, someone to welcome him home, to kiss him and scold him for being late... Someone... someone like Uchiha Sasuke...
A faint blush dusted Naruto's cheeks as he thought of the vampire yet again. How he wished that he could see him right now... Naruto knew that it was dangerous, but he couldn't help himself. He had never felt this sort of feeling with anyone else before, and much as he wanted to stop it, or ignore it, he couldn't bring himself to. Naruto had always been an emotional person, wearing his feelings on his sleeve and showing it freely. Sasuke was the complete opposite, and yet Naruto could see through the cracks of his mask. He knew that underneath all that, Sasuke was just as lonely as he was...
Perhaps some would think of it as ridiculous – Heck, Naruto had only met him twice! They had only exchanged a few sentences, and they knew nothing about each other. But somehow, Naruto felt like he had known Sasuke all his life...
Naruto could remember yesterday night all too clearly. He could remember seeing Ayaka's crumpled body on the ground, seeing the dark figure that stood over her menacingly. When Sasuke had looked up, Naruto found that he couldn't look away from those captivating onyx eyes. Naruto had seen passion and lust reflected in the twin jewels, and yet behind that, there was something else...
Sadness. While it was very well concealed, Naruto had seen a flash of regret and sadness in those eyes. It was only for a second, but that was enough for Naruto. Enough for him to know that Sasuke was hurting inside, just like Naruto was.
'Sasuke...'
Naruto quickly made his way through the forest.
'Dammit, how could I have been so careless?' he scolded himself as he continued to hurry through the forest. Naruto had been helping his former teacher, Iruka, carry out research on a certain area in the forest. Because Naruto had been such in a hurry to leave, he had completely forgotten about the equipment that he was supposed to bring home. Which was also the reason why he was hurrying through the forest at one o'clock in the morning.
'Iruka will have my neck if the equipment gets stolen!' Naruto soon reached his destination, and heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that all the equipment was untouched. The blond packed up the equipment and was about to leave when he suddenly felt a presence behind him. He whipped around to find himself face to face with a tall, bulky man.
"Hey kid, drop that equipment right now if you don't want to get hurt," the man threatened, cracking his knuckles. Naruto backed away slightly but refused to put down the equipment.
'I can't just let this stuff get stolen like that!' Naruto continued backing away, and gasped when his back came in contact with a tree. He frantically looked for a way to run, but the entire area was covered with bushes, making it impossible to run with all the heavy equipment in his hands. The only available path was blocked by the man, who was currently advancing on Naruto menacingly.
"Last chance, kid. Are you going to put it down or not?" Naruto shook his head, glaring back at the man defiantly. The man suddenly gave a chilling laugh and held up his hand. Suddenly four other men emerged from behind the bushes. Naruto's eyes widened. He may have been able to fight one or two, but five? That was way too much for him to handle, not to mention that they were all big and hefty.
The five men advanced on Naruto slowly, and Naruto, not knowing what to do, darted away in the opposite direction, hoping to get away. However, luck wasn't on his side, and one of them managed to catch hold of him.
"Trying to run?" the man snarled at the scared blond. He pushed Naruto to the ground roughly, causing Naruto to drop the equipment he was holding. The man smiled cruelly and punched Naruto in the face, before picking him up by the collar and whispering into his ear.
"You'll regret not listening to us just now, brat," he hissed, before motioning for the other four men to come over. They proceeded to hit at the blond mercilessly, laughing whenever Naruto let out a cry or a whimper. Naruto curled up into a ball, biting his lip in order to stop himself from screaming. He would never let the men have the satisfaction of seeing him scream out loud.
"Oh, so we have a tough one, don't we?" one of the men sneered at Naruto. "Well, then that just makes it all the more fun. You won't be quite so tough once we finish with you." He raised his hand, and Naruto braced himself for the hit that was sure to come. When he didn't feel anything ,he opened his eyes, surprised. He could vaguely see a tall figure standing in front of him, but his vision was too blurry to identify the person. His eyes widened as he recognized the familiar scent.
"Sasuke..." he whispered, before darkness overtook him, and he knew no more after that.
Sasuke easily caught the man's fist as it was coming down to hit the blond. His eyes narrowed dangerously.
"No one dares to hit what's mine," he said angrily through clenched teeth. The man's eyes widened in surprise for a second at the dangerous tone in Sasuke's voice, but recovered quickly. He turned around for help but was shocked to see that the other men were crumpled on the ground, presumably unconscious.
"Well, it looks like there's another brat," he said, laughing. "Don't worry," he said, his entire demeanor changing. "When I'm finished with you, that pretty little face of yours won't be recognizable anymore." With that, he swung his fist at Sasuke. Sasuke smirked and allowed the fist to come into contact with his face. The man gasped when he saw what had happened.
"Wha.. impossible..." the man muttered as his eyes scanned Sasuke's face. The skin was pale and flawless, and it looked like he had never been hit at all. However, he never seemed to learn his lesson.
"Well, guess I just didn't hit hard enough," he said. "Well, I'll have to hit harder, I guess."
"Pathetic human..." Sasuke murmured softly. "What makes you think that you can even touch me?" Realization suddenly dawned onto the man and he stared at Sasuke in fear.
"You're... you're..." he muttered, but never got to finish. Sasuke was behind him in a flash, twisting the man's arms cruelly.
"A little slow on catching on, aren't we?" he murmured softly into the man's ear. "But it's too late now. I don't think that anyone here will ever live to tell the incident, will they?" The man cried out in fear as Sasuke's words sank into his mind.
"NO!" The night was suddenly filled with pained screams as Sasuke cruelly crushed the man's arm in his iron grip.
"Oh, and don't call me a brat," he whispered into the man's ear. "Because I'm 1000 years older than you are."
The silence of the night was once again broken by tortured screams.
"Mmm.." Naruto mumbled as he slowly stirred. Bright sunlight hit his eyes and he instinctively raised his hands to shield his eyes from the offending rays of light.
'What am I doing here?' Naruto wondered, looking around curiously. Noticing the blood stains nearby, he suddenly recognized the area.
'This is the place where I first met Sasuke...' He suddenly noticed the equipment he had tried so hard to protect next to him. Everything that had happened last night came back to him in a flash.
'Sasuke protected me...' Naruto didn't know why, but there was a warm feeling in his chest at the thought of Sasuke protecting him. Perhaps it was simply because no one had ever bothered to do that before, but he couldn't help but feel that there was something more...
"Naruto!" Naruto glanced up as he saw Iruka running towards him. He raised up his arms in a greeting and tried to get up. Iruka was by his side in a heartbeat.
"Are you alright?" he asked anxiously. Naruto nodded, feeling guilty that he had to worry Iruka like that. Iruka examined his face carefully.
"What happened?" he exclaimed, touching one of the bruises on Naruto's face and quickly apologizing when said boy flinched in pain.
"Oh, umm... when I went to fetch the equipment, these thugs surrounded me and wanted me to give up the equipment, but I wouldn't, so..." Naruto trailed off, not wanting to give away Sasuke's identity to anyone. Iruka glared at him angrily.
"You should have just given up the equipment! What if something had happened to you instead?" Naruto laughed sheepishly. While he was guilty for making Iruka worry, he was also glad that Iruka cared enough to worry about him. It was nice to know that someone was there for you.
"Iruka-san!" one of Iruka's workers, Ebisu, called out to him. Iruka looked up in surprise.
"Is something wrong?" Ebisu nodded. He looked very shocked, thus perking Naruto's curiosity. Naruto got up and looked at the place where Ebisu was pointing at. He gasped in horror and covered his mouth.
'Sasuke... you did that, didn't you...?' Iruka came over, and covered his mouth as well. There lay the bodies of five men, all sprawled in awkward positions. The most gruesome sight was the man who had his mouth open in a silent 'O' of horror. His arms appeared to have been crushed brutally, and his backbone and neck were obviously broken. Yet, what scared Naruto the most, was that all the blood had been drained from the men's bodies...
Naruto slowly stepped forward, touching the man's arm, and recoiled as he came in contact with the cold skin. He glanced at the small piece of paper, his palm hiding it from other people.
"Meet me tomorrow... at the place where you first met me. You know that you want to...
Your darkest desire"
'So it WAS you...' Any tiny hope which was inside Naruto had completely died out. Sasuke had done it. Sasuke had done it. He was the one who had tortured those men, and probably enjoyed himself while doing it.
'Sasuke... SASUKE!' Naruto let out a cry of anguish, and he turned around immediately, running for all he was worth.
'How could you do this to them? I know they were bad, but no one deserved that kind of treatmen!' Tears began to leak from Naruto's eyes as he recalled all the victims he had seen. First Ayaka, then those four men...
'Who will be next, Sasuke? Will it be me?'
End chapter 2
kawaii kitsune-kun: That's it for this chapter! I wrote it by the way. Oh, and to that reviewer who asked us to "knock it off with this yaoi crap", I'm sorry to disappoint you, but we won't. I clearly remember placing a shounen-ai warning in the summary, and another one for boyxboy relationships in the prologue. So sorry, I don't really know what you're so angry about, because you had no reason to read it if you don't like yaoi. And I've never read Anne Rice's books, but I'm honored that I reminded of someone of her descriptions.