Luna Blood

Chapter 5: Shards of Shatterball

Disclaimer: No Characters belong to me

"Watch out!" a voice called as soon as Naruto followed Hakkai into the game room. A large round object sped toward the Kitsune who dodged after cursing under his breath.

"Careful!" Hakkai scolded the players who were hovering above. All participates in the game wore bandanas, some red, some blue to determine teams. The room was rounded, with bleacher like seats hiding under thick plastic shelters. The ceiling was unreasonably high, its walls containing windows boarded up with thick wood planks. The players sped down to Naruto to check on him.

"Hey Naruto you OK?" Kyo wore a red bandana over his head. Naruto grumbled but nodded.

"What the hell was that?" the Kitsune asked. A tall vampire (with stronger build then many in the room) made a nervous noise. He had long blonde hair and apologetic blue eyes; he walked over to a corner of the room and picked up a round glass ball.

"I think….it was me?" the blonde whimpered nervously, Naruto twitched uneasily at his arm muscles. "I'm sorry Naruto"

"God Gourry, watch where you shoot!" Duo snapped, he then leaned closer to Naruto and said in a lower voice. "The guy's immensely strong but not that bright"

"I said I was sorry" Gourry shot back.. Apparently he had good ears too.

"Hey, that's your ball!" Naruto cried at the glass sphere in Gourry's grip.

"Yeah" Gourry beamed seeing that Naruto quickly changed the subject. "Too bad you can't fly, the game would be fun to play otherwise" his massive wings flapped a few times as he spoke, creating a strong breeze in the room.

"Oh? How do you play?" Naruto questioned, his eyes seeing some injuries on the other player's arms.

"We should go into the spectator's seats before we go on" Hakkai suggested. Naruto agreed; so after Hakkai nodded to the other players to continue, he took him back to the side so they can watch under cover. "The point of the game is to gain more points than the opposite team when the time limit is up." He gestured to an end of the room having a large clock counting down to zero. "The team takes turns to try to shoot the Shatterball to the goal, starting at the bottom each time, they have 5 minutes per turn"

"Where's the goal?" Naruto darted his eyes, for a net of some sort.

"There" Hakkai pointed up, way up to a hole at the very top of the ceiling, already covered with dents and scratches.

"WHAT?" He squeaked at the goal that was nearly impossible to reach. "But the goal's only THAT big? And what the hell's up with the ball? It's solid GLASS"

"Yes, it's to train our energy control" Hakkai explained with a calm face. Naruto scowled; he didn't believe him, despite this he continued. "The dense surface of the ball makes it difficult to manage, you must hit it hard in order to make it fly anywhere"

"I guess that makes sense" Naruto nodded, imagining what kind of force they used..

"Ah but there's a catch, you see cuts on the player's hands I assume?" Hakkai added. Naruto nodded, many of them did have some kind of injury, primarily on their hands and arms. "If you hit the ball with too much force, parts of it will break off, it can either help or hurt your team" The players zoomed above them, striking the Shatterball to each other using whatever part of their body that they can. Some preferred to kick it like a soccer ball, some struck it as if it was a volleyball, and still other's threw it around like a baseball. "The previous hits, make cuts into the Shatterball, creating injuries for other players, like slicing yourself with a glass shard for an example… that's why it's important to balance your hits and to make it into the goal as fast as possible" Hakkai went on. Naruto realized that this was true as he saw Duo wince a little, hitting the ball back up to Heero. "It takes a lot of teamwork and communication to get the Shatterball into it's goal, which is why telepathy is used primarily in this game, of course if a skilled mage is on the opposite team, he could very well hear their thoughts." Naruto admired the thrill and danger of the game, by now he wished he had his own pair of wings so he could participate himself. "One of the most vital moments is the actual shot to the Goal, if one is to miss, the ball itself will shatter into a million pieces, hurting everyone on the field, until restoring itself to its original shape"

Naruto continued to observe the game. The players sped around the tall ceiling space, some hovering near the ground in case the Shatterball was to head in their direction. "Can you listen to what they're saying?"

Hakkai nodded and paused, closing his eyes for a bit. "Right now… Kyo's team, the Red Team, want to hit the ball to Hiei, who is already near the top, but he's being watched over by Duo and Heero who're circling around him" Naruto looked up. Hiei did seem a bit agitated, realizing two players in blue followed his every move. "But the Red Team knows that Heero and Duo cooperate better than others, so they're letting Luffy and Zoro, fly equally close to him, in case Heero and Duo plan to take him down"

"Taking him down?" Naruto wondered aloud.

"Yes, just touching your toes to the ground is enough to get him out of the game, so knocking him hard enough to the floor would eliminate him from play" Hakkai nodded. "But if you want that player back, you must pull him back up to the top to touch the Goal above"

"All of this? Who the hell's keeping track?" Naruto had hard time following the action of the game himself. Hakkai pointed to Shikamaru and Kakashi standing near the bottom, apparently not doing anything but keeping an eye over the players. "Only those two?" Hakkai then pointed back up to the near top. Two identical twins, each having neat sandy colored hair and delicate blue eyes kept an equally focused watch on the game below; they calmly floated there with arms folded.

"Amiboshi and Suboshi have good eyes, so it's alright" Hakkai laughed "I played referee a couple of times too, got pummeled by the Shatterball" The Kitsune winced, this time imagining what it would feel like if he REALLY got hit by the ball.

"Looks like loads of fun" Naruto beamed gazing at the figures, each concentrated to get a goal in their post. "Hey, if I had wings, do you think I'd be able to play?"

"I don't see why not" Hakkai agreed with a gentle smile. "I mean you ARE the Great Thief Kitsune so I don't see the harm in some training"

Naruto was about to go on about how cool it seemed to play a great game of Shatterball, when the Game Room door opened.

"Who's there-OH SHIT!" Kyo turned to the door then immediately snapped his head back to the goal, as the Shatterball missed its target. The sphere burst into a rain of glass shards, pouring onto the vampires who shielded themselves with their large bat wings. Naruto shrunk back, the glass shards looked a lot tougher than what Naruto was normally accustomed to and it startled him that the Shatterball really did stay true to its name. After the last piece reached the floor, they shot back to each other like an instant replay of an assembling puzzle. The Shatterball was in its original state again. "Dammit!"

"Sorry, my bad!" Luffy called out from the near top. "I guess I missed!" But everyone's attention was at the figure at the doorway, who also had some wounds in his wing sheltered over his head. When the wing moved aside, Naruto (and many others in the room) coughed nervously.

Sasuke stood there silent, his wing now fanning itself from the injuries. No one dare spoke, not even Shikamaru and Kakashi who were normally the choice men to calm him down. Seeing this, Sasuke approached Naruto, who still sat with Hakkai at the spectator seats.

"Um… Master…" Hakkai trembled at his expression, which appeared stolid. Sasuke made a careless glance to Naruto and sniffed at him a couple of times. Naruto scooted away, nearly climbing onto Hakkai's body. Sasuke made a sick smirk and turned to the other men outside.

"So…. about 15 of you disobeyed me…" Sasuke said this in a chilled voice, making the other members of the Clan shiver uncontrollably. "Didn't I say not to lay a hand on him, until I said so?" Some nervously coughed out a 'Yessir' but many still remained uncomfortably silent. The Master's eyes then fell onto two more occupants of the spectator seats. "Mythos and Fakir… rare to see you guys out of the Health Room" The two sat close to each other and Mythos made a startled noise at Sasuke; he curled into Fakir's body. Sasuke approached the couple; Fakir wrapped an arm around Mythos, holding him tight. "Naruto's blood tastes sweeter than anything else you've ever tasted….right?" his ivory fingers crawled under Mythos' trembling chin.

"Please Master, he really needed the blood," Fakir pleaded apologetically. Sasuke did not answer him, to this Fakir changed his expression to a serious tone. "Shall I be punished in his place?"

"Hmph, you boys love doing that for each other… how cute" Sasuke scoffed, feeling Mythos smooth face for a while longer before rudely smacking him with a neat swipe of his palm.

"Please sir!" Shikamaru ran up to Sasuke in an attempt to restrain him.

"Shut up!" the Master only made a swipe of his wing and Shikamaru was sent flying back into some other vamps. "Mythos…you took Naruto's blood without permission, now down on your- AAAH!" Sasuke wailed at an impact at his head. He turned around, and to his dismay saw that a shoe lay behind him. This was more than what the Master could handle, his elegant eyes turned a raging red. "Who the hell threw that?" No answer. Most of the vampires did not see who threw the shoe at their leader, but they were kind of glad that Mythos was momentarily spared. "…. So no one is stepping forward…. ALL OF YOU WILL SWALLOW GLASS!" The Shatterball broke again, this time the shards much longer and pointed than the regular crystals. It seemed Sasuke was serious as the shards zoomed dangerously for everyone's mouth.

"Enough of this BULLSHIT!" Shrieked a voice before anyone was able to taste glass. The shards stopped in midair and Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the Kitsune who was missing a shoe. "I let them have it, so you deal with ME"

To Sasuke, this was a rare moment of real defiance towards him. And it was a curious deal; he was not used to this behavior. "It's my blood, so I can distribute it how I want to… like this" Naruto sped towards Fakir. And held onto his free arm.

"What the-" Fakir made a surprised jump at the Kitsune. "What are you-"

"Blood" Naruto answered bluntly tilting his neck. "You're thirsty" Fakir did not move. The blonde then said under his breath. "You're gonna play along or what?" Fakir's eyes wandered down to Naruto's flesh. Finally with a sigh, he leaned forward holding him close.

"Excuse" Fakir whispered before biting onto his neck. Naruto gave a sly smirk to Sasuke as the vampire absorbed as much blood as he could, his tongue pressing against the piercings harder than usual.

"See? As I want to," Naruto grinned as Fakir stopped, kissing him on his neck and drawing back, with heavily satisfied breaths. Sasuke noticed something hauntingly different this time. Fakir's eyes had a mystic haze, as if he experienced something truly pleasurable. His body slouched over Naruto, who pushed him to Mythos with a joking laugh.

"…you…" Sasuke growled through clenched teeth and fists. "How dare you-"

"That's right" Naruto beamed. "NO ONE messes with me, even with this 'deal' you put on my neck" He turned to Fakir, who curled up with Mythos. "The blood tasted good didn't it?" The youth nodded back, not saying a single word. At this, Sasuke sensed an aura from Naruto as his Kitsune eyes narrowed back to him. The blonde beauty meant something else now.

"What…are you?" Sasuke hissed, with only a tiny trace of a gulp. "I really mean it this time" At this point, the clan was having a few second thoughts on who to be really scared of, especially at Naruto's answer with his red eyes and eldritch laughter.

"THE Kitsune…" he said in a low, empty voice. "I warned you all"

To be continued