A warm, amber glow filtered through the bedroom drapes, filling the room with early morning light. Blond hair was barely visible from under the thick blankets. When the alarm clock blared, a hand emerged, flailing around in an attempted to hit the off button. It took a few attempts, with a few muttered curses when the appendage missed and hit the dresser instead before it finally turned off. "Uchiha?" Naruto mumbled with a sleep filled voice.
No response.
With a low groan, the blankets shifted, and the teen emerged. His eyes drifted to the empty spot next to him. It wasn't even warm. Uchiha had been missing for a while then.
Disappointed and a bit angry, Naruto hauled himself out of bed which was hard to do. It was the nicest bed he'd ever laid on, and it was so warm. Shoving aside the desire to continue to curl up and enjoy the warmth and softness of the bed, he got up to ready for the day.
The apartment was quiet, and Naruto was beginning to assume Uchiha had left when he found him at the dining room table typing away on his computer. "You didn't sleep again, bastard. What, are you afraid of me now that I can kick your ass?" He smirked, waiting for Uchiha's retort.
"That's right," was his lame reply.
Unsatisfied, Naruto frowned. Uchiha didn't even look up from his computer. "What's wrong, Uchiha?"
"Nothing." The short rude replies were definitely Uchiha's trademark, but the lack of emotion was not. The chair moved back as Uchiha stood, closing his laptop in the process. "I have some business to take care of. I'll be back by nightfall."
"You're leaving?" He asked in disbelief. He just came back, and Uchiha was just going to up and leave again.
"I have to find my brother and everything you gave me is written in Latin. I have to see someone to translate it."
"I can come with you and hel─"
"No," Uchiha interrupted coldly. There was a look in his eyes that Naruto could not translate. All he could say was that he didn't like it. It was too distant. "I have to go."
Naruto was left standing alone trying to figure out what happened. Uchiha had been like this for a couple of days now, cold and impersonal. Was the incident in the gym really that embarrassing? If it was Naruto, he would have been mortified, but Uchiha had always seemed confident and above embarrassment. What could he do to assure him that he didn't mind? That they could pretend it didn't happen.
He sighed heavily, pulling out the phone Gaara had given him. It only had one number on it. He dialed. "Hey, Gaara. I'm coming over."
Yamato cursed, dropping the folder onto his desk. Rubbing both hands over his face in frustration, he sighed. It had been over three weeks since his suspect escaped, and the police were nowhere near gaining any leads as to what happened. The only person who may have been able to help demystify the attack in Beppu had up and disappeared. Worse yet, the evidence at the crime scene seemed to have up and walked away and the higher-ups didn't seem to care, and he was ordered to stop and leave everything to the S.I.U.
It was in Yamato's nature to follow through on his cases, so against orders, he followed the S.I.U's progress on the case. To his frustration and dismay, they were putting no effort into discovering the truth. It was coming across as a major coverup.
"Day not going well?"
"Please tell me you have something." Yamato removed his hands from his face to look at his partner who inappropriately sat on his desk, her skirt riding up. His eyes lingered on her legs for a second before looking away. Anko was an attractive woman but at times she was too forward.
"Just some missing tapes from the interrogation room. Separate from the official ones," Anko said, handing him a flash drive. "It appears there was a camera in the room that was scheduled to be removed 3 months ago but was missed. There's no record of these tapes existing. I think it will help."
Yamato put the flash drive into his computer and pulled up the file saved to it. It was a video of the interrogation. Anko must have only saved what she thought was relevant because the video started at the end. He watched himself leave the room.
Uzumaki, Naruto looked upset, but it didn't look like he was making any attempts to escape. He looked resigned to his situation. That was when a man with short curly hair walked in, wearing standard police attire. He had never seen this man before at the precinct.
"Hello, Uzumaki-san. I did not expect for us to meet again so soon," The man's smooth voice crackled over the speakers.
"Itachi," Uzumaki responded. He was surprised and, by the way he instinctively shifted away, he feared him.
"It is an honor that you remembered me. But please forgive me for I must cut the greeting short. If you would, please follow me."
"I'm not going anywhere with you," Uzumaki said defiantly. "I'm staying right here."
Who was this cop? Yamato had no recollection of seeing him go to the interrogation room, and he had to have walked past both him and Anko in order to enter the room. If he showed this tape to his superior, it would only incriminate himself and his partner.
The man then started talking nonsense, about ghouls and eating himself and Anko. By the calm delivery, the officer clearly believed what he was saying as did Uzumaki as he replied. "Do you always have to threaten me?"
"It is not my pleasure to do so. If you would cooperate the first time, it would be unneeded." Itachi held open the door. "Of course, if you prefer, I can also drag you out by force."
The kid looked hesitant to leave but followed him out all the same.
"The kid was forced to leave," Yamato muttered, leaning back in his chair.
"That's not the only strange thing. I checked into this cop after seeing this tape, asking around about him. No one remembered seeing them even though he'd have to have gone past several people to exit the building. I also had a friend of mine dig into our databases and found several files deleted. He said that there was barely any evidence that those files existed at all. He did recover one file, an employee picture of that guy."
So the cop was an official employee or someone hacked the system long enough to just let him slip in and out. The latter seemed more plausible since no one remembered seeing him. If he had worked there, surely someone would have known him.
"He's going to be difficult to track. No one knows his face, and we don't even have a name," Anko slid off his desk.
"No, we do have a name." Yamato rewound the video and played it again. "Itachi," the teen had said. "Itachi is the only name we have, but we should get something with the picture too."
"Won't be easy to find him," Anko said, but she had an insanely bright smile on her face. "This is going to be fun."
"Don't let your bad habit take over, Anko-san. Run his face through the recognition software."
Taking the flash drive from his computer without ejecting it first, she said, "Already on it."
Annoyed he was unable to save the video first before she left, he realized it was probably for the best. He didn't know why the higher ups were covering up this incident, but he intended to find out.
He closed his eyes, trying to remember the video as clearly as he could. How could anyone get into the building and leave with little to no evidence? He had to have interacted with someone to get this far in. Was someone lying? He did mention an accomplice, perhaps they assisted in getting him into the station.
And that talk about ghouls as if they were real. The man had to be a raving lunatic. That's what he wanted to think, but Uzumaki had said something similar about vampires. Was the connection there? Some new cult that was brewing, seeking new members? And what about the body of that model who went missing from the ambulance? Was that to help foster the idea of the undead?
The deeper he went into this case, the less it made sense. Was it wise to keep digging when his superiors were giving up on it?
Glancing at the picture on his desk, he knew the answer to that question. While Anko investigated their new lead, he was going to look into what happened to the missing body.
The room was dim, and the smell of rotten blood filled the air. As the torches were lit, lighting the inner sanctum of the Immortal Council, a part of Sakura wished they stayed in the dark. It was better than looking at the carnage that filled the chamber.
The chamber was old, made of stone and earth. The large circular room was held up by 10 very large pillars, each with ancient writing. Hieroglyphics, Sanskrit, Babylonian, normally to see such rare and intact findings would be fascinating if not for the modern décor. The large modern business table in the center, recess lighting─ that was currently not working─ embedded in the stone. A section of the hieroglyphic pillar was ripped out of the wall in order to install a giant TV. There was even a part of the wall that was carved out to house what looked like a very old and large computer.
Bodies of the council members were amidst a sea of blood, long since dried and soaked into the ground. Their bodies were twisted and dismembered. It was still baffling how anyone could have gotten into the inner sanctum undetected. The location until now had been a secret to only the members and the guards who watched it.
The creatures who had the task of guarding the sanctum were not all corporeal, and they loved the kill─ vampires, humans, demons, they were all the same to them. Without proper clearance, they wouldn't hesitate to rip any intruder to shreds, both body and soul. Just walking down the path to the sanctum with Sasori made Sakura shiver in fear and not look away from the path she was walking because she felt a presence following her, hanging just off her shoulder the entire way.
Sakura stepped further into the room, watching her travel companion Sasori walk in without hesitation. Her two guards stood on either side of her, a protective measure should Sasori turn on her.
Sasori however seemed undisturbed seeing his former comrades, already getting to work and picking up a mummified head. Without gloves, he stuck his fingers into its mouth.
Bodies of dead vampires shriveled up to their true age, appearing mummified, and the bodies were just as fragile. The older the vampire, the closer to resembling dust they became. The fact Sasori was handling the bodies so roughly made her wonder if he even cared, cementing her belief that vampires were soulless creatures.
Sasori removed his fingers, testing the residue left behind, smelling it, testing the elasticity. "Fascinating," he said, looking intrigued.
"What's fascinating about dead bodies," Sakura muttered, placing her kit onto the table.
"You can leave if you want. I have no use for children playing doctor. I need a scientist," he responded, tilting the head he had in his hands and gently pulling down the jaw to see down the throat.
"I am Tsunade-sensei's best student. I am not a child," she protested.
Sasori's eyes flickered over to her than looked back at the body he was inspecting as if dismissing her abilities. What did he know? She had been studying medicine for over 10 years. If she were to take a test in the human world, she could qualify as a doctor. In addition, she didn't learn her abilities in a classroom but from real world experience.
"Meaningless if you don't have the curiosity to put what you've learned to good use." Sasori turned the head to check the severed wound. "Immortal bodies are fascinating. By all scientific means, their bodies should be dead, but they aren't. There is an agent that keeps an immortal's living tissue in a form of stasis, slowing down their time, and once the body dies, so does the agent, and time fast-forwards to their true age, keeping the world's balance and order. After so many years, I have been unable to unlock that mystery, but rarely do I have the chance to inspect prime subjects like these."
"Well, you can't examine them well in this light. At least wait until we carry them out of here."
"Don't you wonder why the amount of humans who can use manipulate their life force is dwindling?" Sasori asked.
Sakura's hands stilled. "Why? Do you know?"
"No," he said, placing the head down and standing. "But a real scientist would have already asked and started to look into it."
"I don't want to hear lectures from a creature like you."
Sasori didn't answer, instead frowning as he glanced at the bodies.
"What is it?" She asked unable to help her curiosity at the sudden change in his demeanor.
"Deidara's body… I can't find it."
"Gaaraaaa, I'm bored," Uzumaki said for probably the tenth time today. He had his feet propped up on the wall as his head hung off the edge of the seat, watching Gaara at his desk working.
Unfortunately, Uchiha's attitude had not improved the past few days, and in response to Uchiha's constant absence, Uzumaki had paid a visit to him almost every day, defeating the purpose of sending him to an apartment in the first place. He cared for Uzumaki, very dearly, but he was driving him up a wall.
"Don't you have video games or something?" When Gaara didn't answer him after a couple of seconds, he said again, "Hey, are you ignoring me?"
If only it was so simple to ignore him. He stopped typing and answered him. "As I said before, I don't own anything like that. If you want it, order it, and I will pay for it."
"Stop trying to buy me everything, and what are you doing that takes multiple days anyway."
Gaara didn't answer, trying to finish his message to his representative. He had just finished when a large crash came from Uzumaki's direction and he inhaled deeply trying to keep his emotions under control.
"Uzumaki, why are you not with Uchiha." All he received were a few mumbled replies. "Well?"
"The bastard's been avoiding me." Uzumaki righted himself, swinging his legs down to the floor grimacing at the mess he made. He had accidentally kicked down a large picture frame. Bending down, he attempted to pick up the pieces.
Still, hearing that Uchiha was avoiding Uzumaki was surprising. Could he have been wrong about Uchiha's intentions? "What happened?"
The words about the incident tumbled out quickly and clumsily. Gaara somehow managed to decode the story despite that. Gaara's lips twitched as he struggled to hide his amusement at the story. It seemed even with Uchiha's age, there were still remnants of his teenage self of not being able to handle his feelings. "Wait it out. He'll be back to his arrogant self soon enough."
"I hope so," Uzumaki through the larger pieces of glass into the trash can. His response sounded lackluster, almost depressed. "Do you have a broom?"
Gaara made a gamble on Uchiha. A gamble that Uchiha's feelings were genuine. A gamble that Uzumaki was willing to open up to him. Normally, if someone left Uzumaki or drew away, Uzumaki would act like it didn't bother him. Smile, laugh, and not talk about it, even going so far as making excuses for them. He hadn't done that with Uchiha. His avoidance was really bothering him.
He really only wanted to manipulate Uchiha's feelings in order to have him protect Uzumaki to his fullest, but if Uzumaki felt the same way….
"How do you feel about Uchiha?"
A long silence stretched, and Gaara was back to work before he got his answer. "I don't hate him." It was a faint reply, but it was clear enough for him to hear. Enough was said.
"Professor Nara will see you now," the secretary said, being overly flirty with him. She had been sending him flirtatious looks since he had arrived. If Sasuke hadn't needed the professor's help, he would have left long ago.
Entering the office, he wasn't surprised to see how much he looked like his son, Nara Shikamaru. He was older and had a distinctive scar on the right side of his face, resembling claw marks, though there were only two marks instead of four. It gave him a more dangerous appearance, but his slouched posture said anything but. "Professor Nara," he greeted.
"Japanese is fine. I miss hearing it." The man lit a cigarette in his office though there were several signs throughout the building saying it was not allowed. "Not many people here speak it."
Professor Nara was a hunter. Just as his son was, but a retired one. Leaving his son with the head title, he went off to become a professor of a university in Rome. He was well respected with many degrees, and before coming to Japan, he had sat in on some of his lectures on Japanese history and literature. Japan had grown large the past 100 years he had been away, and he needed a way to catch up on the history quickly as well as the more modern way of speaking. When it came to learning, he was more old-fashioned, preferring the classroom to the internet, though the world wide web served its purposes as well.
His outdated Japanese along with Nara's previous profession made him stick out like a flashing neon sign. Instead of trying to kill him, Nara pulled him aside trying to find out his motive. Professor Nara was probably the only hunter Sasuke respected. He was willing to listen first and determine the situation for himself. Just like now.
"Have you translated the pages I sent you?"
His rude and straight-to-the-point question had the professor frowning. "Yeah, I was able to translate most of it, but it seems to be a code. Without the key to break it, it will be nearly impossible." He walked over to his desk and showed the papers skewed about.
Sasuke took it upon himself to sift through the copies of the files and the translations. It looked familiar. "Do you have a Bible?"
Professor Nara raised an eyebrow. "Are we in Rome?"
Sasuke hid his impatience with a polite smile, "Nara-sensei, if you could get me a copy please?"
Blowing out a puff of smoke, he moved to get a stack of Bibles. "I have them in Latin, Italian, and English. I'll assume you'll want English," he said the last dryly.
"If you please."
The book was tossed to him which Sasuke caught with one hand. Sure enough, after looking up the first code, he confirmed that the Bible was the key.
"How'd you know?" Nara asked, looking over his shoulder as Sasuke translated the codes of the first page. Nara may have been cold to him, but knowledge and a chance to learn always won out over distrust of immortals.
"My brother and I moved to Europe when we were young. That's when we were introduced to Christianity. We never converted, but we had to learn to blend into society back then. If you weren't Christian, then you were a barbarian in need of guidance or a heathen. Naturally, being Asian was already a hindrance, being Buddhist would have only made it worse.
"Itachi is a once-in-a-lifetime genius. He can remember any book he has ever read and recite them by memory after one read through. Since we were banned from speaking anything other languages other than English or French, we used a code to communicate when we didn't want anyone else to hear. It wasn't strange if we were carrying a Bible with us, making it a convenient key that hid in plain sight."
After his brother's betrayal, he had burned all his copies of the Bible. That raised hell with the neighbors. They tried to hang him.
Translating the first page, it made little sense. There were business transactions with and against a man named Orochimaru. Was that the same Orochimaru that Gaara had mentioned.
Professor Nara put out his cigarette in the ashtray on his desk and sat across from him. "Give me the things you translate; I'll try to put them in a more coherent order."
Sasuke smirked. "Your leader might get upset that you're helping me."
"Tsunade-san will get over it, but when an unchecked vampire like your brother is loose, that takes priority over personal pride." He cracked open his Latin Bible.
"More hunters should share your ideal," he commented, but he was grateful for his help. This was going to take a couple of days.
"Don't get too comfortable. I'll still kill you if I think you're up to something."
Sasuke just smiled politely. "Of course, Nara-sensei."
Why did everything have to be white? He hated that color. Being the only thing he saw day after day, he felt like he was losing himself. He missed color. He missed his grandpa. He missed his daddy. Why hadn't they come for him like they promised? Was he really a bad boy like that man said?
The small child held his breath, forcing down the nausea that kept surfacing every few minutes. He didn't like whatever that mean man gave him to drink, and he didn't like the shots either. They always made him sick or hurt.
Small, thin arms pulled his legs closer, trying to offer himself just a bit more comfort. Daddy said he would come. He promised. He never broke his promise. He just had to wait like a good boy until he came.
A feral cry broke through the otherwise silent room. The child shivered at the sound and slowly lifted his head from his ball. There was a clear plastic cage across from his. His friend, a small red-headed child, cried and writhed in pain.
He looked away, unable to watch, rocking himself back and forth in his corner. Taking a shaky breath, he spoke loud enough for the other child to hear him in between his screams. "It's okay. My daddy will come soon. We'll be out of here in no time." He was proud that his voice came out more soothing than he felt. He was terrified he was going to hurt again like that too.
"I'm scared," the small red-headed child said before pain ripped through him again, causing him to scream until his voice cracked.
Should he try to tell his friend another story? That always seemed to calm him down, but two men came before a story could even pop into his head to tell. They wore the familiar white coats, one holding a gun. At the sight of them, fear grabbed hold of the child, making him quiver and rock himself once more.
Quickly the screams turned into deep vicious growls, followed by a loud dull thunk echoing throughout the corridor. Then another.
"He's breaking through the bars," the man with the gun said, there was panic in his voice. He must have been new.
"Put him down before he breaks out. We can't have another incident." This man's voice made the child scuttle back farther into his corner. He didn't like the man with the long black hair. He always looked at him weird and always hurt him.
The man with the gun aimed towards the cage where the redhead child was and took a single shot. The shot was muted and not loud like a real gunshot. They must have put his friend to sleep unlike the other kids who used to be here with him.
"Gaara," The child whispered, not wanting to draw attention to himself.
The growls died down and quiet once again fell.
"The experiment seems to have been successful in this one," the long-haired man turned to look at him, causing the child to futilely try to escape further back, hampered by the wall already at his back. "He has resisted the demon's power." The man's voice turned gleeful and the child feared for what that meant. "Give him another dose."
"Sir, he's already maxed out on the dosage. If we give him another one, he could die."
"Are you questioning me?" the man hissed.
"N-no, sir!" The man with the tranquilizer gun stuttered, hurrying to change the dart.
"The boy will be fine. He's a strong one to be able to resist the power. He's a descendant after all."
The man with the gun came to the transparent door, opening it but not entering any further. He aimed the gun at the child.
The child, gripped his arms until it hurt, refusing to look up. He felt the slight sting of the dart in his shoulder. He didn't bother to remove it. The contents spread like wild fire, running through his veins and spreading to his organs and intensifying in his stomach. He was going to die. He was going to die here. It felt like he was liquifying inside out. He couldn't take it. No matter how much he wanted to say how much it hurt, he couldn't, his screams keeping both his mouth and lungs occupied.
Naruto was shaken awake, vaguely aware of an inhuman scream piercing his ears. Who was screaming, he wondered. It took a moment longer to recognize Gaara and Uchiha standing over him in concern, holding down his body and to realize it was him screaming and making that frightful noise.
Upon realizing, his screams died quickly. Gaara and Uchiha held on a little longer until they were certain he was awake before letting him go. Neither bothered asking if he was okay, which Naruto was grateful for. He wasn't sure he could lie as he usually did. The dream had felt so real as did the pain. All he wanted to do was hold Gaara close, and he didn't understand why.
"What were you dreaming about?" Gaara asked.
Naruto sat up to buy himself time, but the dream was already vague and disappearing from his memory. He tried to recall, but it was like trying to grab a hold of smoke and it slipped through his fingers. "I remember white… and I think you were in it." He tried to grasp any other details, but there were gone as if they never existed. He wasn't sure if he wanted to remember. His body was still shivering from phantom pains, his limbs even twitching at odd times. "I'm sorry," he choked out. "That's it."
Gaara didn't push any further, and Naruto could have cried in relief. He didn't want to remember. Not right now.
"I will bring you something to help with your throat." Gaara got up from the bed, sharing a meaningful glance at Uchiha before leaving.
With the two of them alone, Naruto tried to think of something witty to say about him finally coming back. He was too rattled to come up with anything, settling for the uncomfortable silence. Surprisingly, it was Uchiha who made the first move, his pale hand touching his cheek and wiping away the tears he didn't know he had.
A few more tears fell. He wanted to say he was scared out of his mind. He wanted to hide for allowing someone to see him this weak. But he craved human contact. Uchiha already saw him like this, what's a bit more. He put his head onto Uchiha's shoulder, letting few more tears fall. "I thought you were mad at me," he whispered, his voice surprisingly steady.
"Why would you think that?" Uchiha asked, just as quietly, putting an arm around his shoulders, hiding their tremors.
"You've been avoiding me." The contact was soothing, causing the last of his nightmare tremors to fade. Uchiha may have been holding him like a child after a nightmare, but Naruto was thankful for it. He couldn't bear to be alone after feeling something like that.
"Idiot," he muttered into his hair. "Go back to sleep." I'll be right here, was left unsaid. Naruto started to drift off again as fatigue took over. He fell asleep thinking how safe and warm he felt in Uchiha's arms.