Sasuke pressed his back against a pillar, the cold cement soothing to his wounds. He held his breath, keeping as silent as possible. Hurried footsteps in the corridor grew louder, filling the otherwise silent hallway. It wasn't long before voices followed.

"How could he have escaped?" Orochimaru's aggravated voice reverberated throughout the hall. "That shouldn't be possible."

"I don't know," Kabuto replied. "I'm looking into it. At least he won't leave without Uzumaki."

"But the longer he's free, the more troublesome he'll become. Capture him, now."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama."

Sasuke waited until they turned the corner before moving in the opposite direction. The hideout had been much bigger than he had thought. Just like the lab in the Hakkado mountains, this laboratory was filled with twists and turns with many, many doors. Everything was old and run down but had gone through a cleaning recently as there was no thick layer of dust. It had to be another one of Orochimaru's abandoned laboratories. He had no idea where to start looking for Uzumaki. It was too risky to follow his captors when he could barely run let alone fight.

He navigated the maze by keeping left at every intersection. After the third turn and still no end in sight, the faint sound of talking drifted around the corner. Cursing he scanned the area, spotting a door to his immediate right. He entered, closing it quickly behind him, and listened carefully.

Whoever was in the hall passed, the footsteps not changing speed as they went by. Whoever it was had not seen or noticed him. Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief.

"Who are you?"

Sasuke's grip on the doorknob tightened. He had not noticed or felt anyone in the room when he had entered. He did not move, waiting to see what the other occupant would do. He had not attacked him, nor did Sasuke hear a weapon being drawn.

Slowly, he turned around, staying within reach of the door in case he needed to escape.

A young, Japanese man sitting on a cot, stared at him with a childlike curiosity. He was sitting calmly, hands in his lap. The room was bare, lacking anything, even a window. Just a cot with a thin cotton blanket.

He wasn't human. He wasn't a vampire either. He wasn't anything recognizable, just like Yukina-hime. As much as Sasuke craved blood, his instincts didn't direct him towards the man.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. Though stoic, the man came off as purely curious and not at all panicked or hostile.

"I'm looking for someone," Sasuke chose his words carefully. "Looks about my age. Have you seen him?"

The man's eyebrows drew together in thought then smoothed out as he responded. "No. I am confined to this room unless my master calls for me."

"I see." The use of the word 'master' put Sasuke on edge. There were only two people in the building as far as Sasuke could tell, and either being this thing's master would not be good. The best he could do was say his goodbyes now and keep looking now that the person who had walked by the room before had passed.

As he turned, the man shot up from his seat, reaching out towards him like an uncertain child. His hand shook, then he slowly closed it, bringing it back to his side, unsure if he should speak.

"Did you need something?" Sasuke asked. The sudden movement had caught him by surprise. It hammered in how vulnerable he was by his slow reaction to it, knowing he would have been dead had the man truly meant him harm.

"I… I am looking for someone too. Perhaps we could search together?"

The proposal may have seemed sincere, but could Sasuke take that chance? If this man was anything like Yukina-hime, if he somehow retained his sense of self, he could prove to be an ally? Or he could lead him into a trap.

Upon seeing, Sasuke's hesitation, the man added, "I could call my master if you'd like."

Sasuke didn't comment, but his eyes did narrow in a glare. There was a hint of emotion in the man's eyes that had seeped in during the comment, brightening his face dramatically with a familiar note of mischief. "Or, if you prefer, I could keep this between us."

Pure blackmail. This thing was not like Yukina-hime after all. He had a semblance of control. Personality. It wasn't buried under another's will, but that only made the man even more of a threat than before.

"What should I call you?" Sasuke asked, unable to go against him without increasing his problems.

The man smiled. It was stiff as if his muscles hadn't been used in decades. "Orochimaru-sama calls me Experiment 4303, but you can call me Namikaze, Minato."

Dark eyes widened in surprise. Unconsciously, Sasuke straightened, wondering how presentable he looked. Now that the man had said something, there was a strong resemblance between them. The only strong difference was the calmer demeanor and that Minato was obviously mixed with a foreigner. His skin was a tad lighter and his eyes rounder than the average Japanese man. "We should hurry. Do you know where their main laboratory is?"

"I believe I can. Um, what should I call you?"

"… Sasuke." Father or not, he wasn't going to chance that Namikaze recognized his full name.

"Very well, Sasuke-san, let's go look for your missing person." With another smile, much more natural this time, he opened the door. "I'll be in your care."

Orochimaru scowled, watching Kabuto type away at the computer. The constant clicking on the keyboard grated on his nerves as each second passed, confirming what he already knew deep down. "What is taking so long?" he hissed.

Kabuto frowned, checking the camera monitors filled with static. "We've lost control of all the security systems. We've definitely been hacked."

"That's impossible. They'd have to know we were here to even…" If possible, Orochimaru's scowl deepened. His anger turned to fury. "That bastard betrayed us."

"What should we do?"

What should they do indeed? "Take Mina-chan and locate Uchiha. He shouldn't be able to get far."

Kabuto didn't need to be told twice. He was out of his chair before Orochimaru finished his instructions. Orochimaru on the other hand sat down, folding his hands in thought. Naruto couldn't have wandered far either, and he posed a much higher threat than Uchiha. He would be too drugged out to even know what was reality. With the experimental serum, he was essentially a walking volatile weapon.

Naruto was too valuable to lose. He'd take care of Naruto himself.

Minato led Sasuke down a series of corridors, walking at a slow pace. Sasuke couldn't distinguish between this corridor or the last several, listening for any sound, watching for any movement that were not their own. Enough time had passed that his senses were improving. He heard no one, sensed no one. Whether that was a good thing or bad thing was yet to be determined. Minato could still be leading him into a trap.

"Sasuke-san, if I may, you are an immortal, yes?"

Sasuke glanced at Minato from the corner of his eyes, not changing his pace. Minato didn't either, nor did he show any signs of being on edge or readying an attack. "Are you a hunter?"

"Hunter?" Minato repeated as if unfamiliar with the word. His lips downturned just slightly. "Yes… though I was never fond of that word. At least, I do not recall if I ever was. My memory is… hazy to say the least. My recollection is limited.

"And one of your recollections is that you are searching for someone?" Sasuke asked, looking straight ahead, but he was assessing everything they passed if he needed a weapon or escape. Though his chance of fighting or fleeing from this man was unlikely even if he only held a fraction of his original power.

"Yes. A young child. I cannot remember his name."

"Why would a hunter want to help me?" Sasuke was slowly putting distance between them.

Minato either did not notice or just decided not to comment on it, answering with a slight tilt of his head. "I have no reason to hate immortals. Life is a circle of give and take. Hunt and being hunted. If animals have their hunters, so do humans. Why hate a creature who is trying to live their life? My issue lies with how they some go about it. The ones who use their roles as hunters as an excuse to kill for fun and sport, those who take joy in prolonging the pain and torture of their victims and spread death more than necessary."

"Sounds like you remember more than a few things."

Minato chuckled with stoicism, but with each passing moment, the stoic, lifeless body was changing, blurring the lines between alive and dead further. What Sasuke could have called a reanimated corpse, a zombie, was regaining its life. His emotions were becoming more apparent and open, and his movements were no longer as stiff and spiritless as when they had first met. The person of who Minato once was taking shape. There was a brightness to him, one Sasuke saw similarly in Naruto whenever Naruto was happy, excited, or even sometimes sad. A kindness that stemmed from empathy towards others.

But what would happen once his memory returned? Would his stance against immortals change?

"I do remember my wife," He finally said. "I have not mentioned this to my master yet. She was quite special," he said wistfully. "Beautiful, intelligent, and strong. She did not see the world as others did. She was outspoken, some would say loud, and would often speak of things others did not want to hear even as a child. She had a way of seeing things from others' perspectives. Why should we condemn others to death because they wish to live? To eat, to add numbers to their already long and lonely existence so they can have a family? We do not have that right to judge and be executioners. There is a difference between defending oneself and seeking genocide. An antelope may fight, but it does not seek to kill all that prey upon it nor does the lion wish to kill all antelope though their death is needed for it to live. To attempt to disturb that balance is asking for destruction of both."

"Many would not share that view unless they were one of us." And that was true. Sasuke had met many hunters during his lifetime. He had killed many and watched them kill just as much. Few showed compassion towards immortals, just hatred. Many hunters had personal grudges, family members who were killed and it was understandable, but rather than the individual who killed them, the hatred extended to every one of his kind because they knew another human would die for a vampire to sustain itself.

The idea of balance itself was taught to him by his brother, Itachi, when he was young and human. As he grew older, he heard older vampires talk about it as well. A lot of the council members spoke of it. The council never sought a fight with the hunters and negotiated because of the idea of balance, hunting their own kind who attempted to disturb that balance.

The way the older vampires spoke, and thought were different. Though they had no tolerance for those who challenged them, they seemed to have a patience towards humans, one they did not even have for their own kind, treating them as infants who did not know better, but also not explaining things because they knew the humans were too young understand. It was one of the reasons why the oldest and strongest of vampires just seemed to remove themselves from society after a certain age, choosing to observe rather than participate. They had seen all, observed all, lived all, Watching others learn and fight seemed to be not only be their source of entertainment but ensured that they did not tip the balance themselves with their power.

"I suppose not," Minato agreed. "Tell me, Sasuke-san, you appear to be a young immortal, but have you found a permanent lover yet?"

The question caught Sasuke off guard, causing him to trip. Minato immediately covered the distance that had been growing between them to help. Embarrassed and slightly annoyed at his own weakness, Sasuke reluctantly answered. "I have had many lovers in my life. I couldn't claim that they have changed my outlook on the world. If anything, they had only made the world bleaker, not better."

"I may be out of turn to say this, but the right person can be the balance in one's own life. My wife was everything I was not. She introduced ideas I had never considered and provided strength when I had none. She was the one who changed my ideas about immortals and taught me about their role and their purpose. You are still young in your immortal life, you may not have found them yet, but I believe that you will."

What Minato spoke of was not lovers, Sasuke realized, but mates. Immortals often did not speak about mates, finding the topic something to be protected, but as Minato spoke, Naruto's smiling face entered Sasuke's mind. The way Naruto would sulk or throw a bad insult his way, the way Naruto would urge him to act younger than he was and show Sasuke glimpses of a childhood he had lost.

Sasuke's face softened as he thought of him as worry renewed in his chest. He had to find Naruto and protect him.

"Perhaps there is already someone in mind," the man gently teased.

Sasuke did not answer, instinctually already safeguarding the information. If Naruto truly was his mate, he would die before ever telling anyone himself. A mate was the greatest strength, but also the greatest weakness. He may have been tired, but he hadn't lost his mind. He supposed he was fortunate he hadn't shown signs of being too territorial over his mate yet, but they had not completed the bond yet. He would have likely been more agitated by the questioning if he was.

Mate business aside, he had no intention of telling Minato his potential mate was his son. Sasuke had bee hiding his sexual orientation for nearly a hundred fifty years, so much so, he no longer actively thought about it as it came second nature to do so. Though times were changing, old habits were hard to break, and he still did not trust this hunter.

"Is there anyone else here besides your master and his assistant?" Sasuke asked, changing the subject. They had been walking for a while, and they had not run into another person. He understood the lab had been abandoned but they would have found out he was missing by now.

"Not that I'm aware of. There were others like me, but they are no longer staying here."

Then were they both with Uzumaki then? That was problematic. He'd need a distraction. "Are we almost there?"

"Almost where?" A deep voice interjected. The voice sent a sliver of instinctual fear down Sasuke's spine, and he almost fell to one knee. Not because of his weakened state, but because it felt like it was the only thing to do in the presence of such power.

There was no out lash of chakra. In fact, other than the voice, there was no presence whatsoever, not even the sound of footsteps. That was how much presence the voice had.

The urge to bow his head, almost was enough to keep Sasuke from turning and meeting the eyes of the person who had spoken. Scraping together his scattered will, he turned.

He was met with a man with animalistic red irises with a vertical slit. His nails were black and sharpened like claws. The man was tall, bordering 195 cm, yet had a slim muscular build. His feet lacked shoes or socks, showing that even his toenails were sharpened. The lab coat and pants were too small and tight on his frame. The long fiery red hair was braided, draping over his shoulder, but its texture and thickness closely resembled animal fur.

The man had his arms crossed, smirking at them, revealing two white fangs. His stance was casual, but something about it gave off the sense that the creature before Sasuke thought of himself as superior.

"I've been looking for you, Uchiha," he said, taking several steps closer. Each step, Sasuke had the urge to kneel. The chakra that had once been restrained to hide this creature's presence was leaked. Only for an instant. In that instant, he could no longer fight it, and he bowed his head. "Oops," he said mockingly. "Slipped."

That little "slip" had nearly made Sasuke crumble in fear and obedience. How could such presence exist in the mortal plane?

It was the pants that tipped Sasuke off to his identity. It was the same sweatpants Naruto had been wearing before he was taken. The rest just clicked. Why the chakra, even if powerful, was familiar.

"Kurama…sama," Sasuke struggled to maintain his politeness as worry started to take the forefront of his thoughts, "what, if I may ask, happened to Uzumaki."

"'sama'? Don't change your speech for my account. I wouldn't want to wound your fragile pride," he smirked.

He was clearly looking down on him, and Sasuke gritted his teeth at the mocking tone, but his instincts prevented him from acting further.

"Kurama-sama?" Minato took a step back, his left hand disappearing into his sleeve.

Lazily, Kurama turned his gaze to Minato. "Minato. Thought you were dead." He took a sniff. "Well, I suppose you still are."

"What happened to him?" Sasuke repeated his question more forcefully, bordering rudeness.

"Don't worry, lover boy. He's safe. I couldn't take him over now if I wanted to. He is nowhere near strong enough."

"Why'd you take over?" Sasuke was quickly losing his patience. His concern over Naruto was overpowering his natural instincts to submit.

"Yes, why?" Minato joined in. His slowly relaxed behavior from before was replaced with the cold persona of a man about to attack.

"You're being a bit too familiar, aren't you boy?" Kurama's voice dropped to threatening levels, making Sasuke once again fight the instinct to kneel in his presence.

Minato had no qualms about it, not backing down. "My son, why is he here?"

Kurama did not lose his casual posture, but he gave off a threatening presence, not liking the potential challenge Minato was presenting. "That man who calls himself a scientist got his hands on him again, why else?" Kurama glanced at Sasuke. "The seal your brother placed on me broke the moment Naruto's heart gave out."

Uzumaki's heart had stopped. Anger that rivaled his hatred for his brother boiled in Sasuke's veins. Uzumaki had almost been taken away from him, over some experiment. What if the lord hadn't taken over? Uzumaki would have been dead, and someone else would have been taken from his world.

"The master did this?" Minato's own face grew dark.

"I was hoping I'd find you after running into that human. I have a few gifts I'd like to bestow on him for treating me so well," a foxlike smile stretched on his face. "It's too bad."

"No. We stay and eliminate him for good." No one was going to get away with hurting Uzumaki.

"As much as I'd love to watch an infant like you try to play war, I promised the kit I'd get you out safe. I can't do that if I'm too busy protecting you."

"I don't need protection," he snapped.

"Sure, you don't," Kurama replied. "As for you," he directed his gaze at Minato once again, eyes narrowing. "It's been centuries since I've seen the reanimation technique, though yours is different. A mixture of chakra techniques and science. None have ever retained a consciousness. Not for this long."

"What are you talking about," Minato asked. His voice remained steady, not trusting him. "Where is my son?"

"Though not perfect," Kurama commented. "I bet he doesn't even know what year it is."

Minato's lips thinned but he did not say anything.

"Come, Uchiha. The sooner we leave this piss pot, the better."

"I'm not leaving until that man is dead." Sasuke was smart enough to keep his eyes down this time. He planted his feet, letting Kurama know he had no plans on leaving quite yet. This was his chance to rid himself and Uzumaki of a problem while avenging Uzumaki for all his childhood suffering.

"Is that right?" Kurama drawled. Kurama's power flared, lashing out angrily, before curling back to the owner and vanishing. Sasuke's legs shook. "How do you plan to do that? Without fresh blood in your system, you're as helpless as a baby deer barely able to stand. You'd risk your life and Naruto's based on a vengeance that isn't yet yours to claim? Because the last time I checked, he wasn't yours. Not yet."

Kurama turned to Minato. "Can you lead us out of here or not?"

Minato nodded, but he was no longer smiles. "If I lead you out of here. Let me speak to him."

"I'll think about it." He gestured down the hall. "After you."

Minato took the lead, picking up from his previously leisure pace for their escape. Sasuke followed next then Kurama taking the rear.

With Naruto safe for the moment, Sasuke's mind was beginning to wander, the hunger he had previously ignored taking a deep root, clouding his mind. He wanted to taste Naruto again. He couldn't sense him with Kurama in control. In a way, not being able to see or touch him was making his desire to have Uzumaki rise.

He had no desire to change where his thoughts had led him. It acted as motivation, a goal to make his heavy feet move.

They were led to two large metal doors, which Minato opened, leading them into the dark inside. When the doors closed, there was no source of light, blinding everyone in the room. "There should be a lever on the opposite wall. Kurama, could you get it?"

"Why can't you?" Kurama asked, agitated.

"My feet. They won't move," Minato's voice drifted to them in the dark. "I don't think I can go past this point."

Growling, Kurama moved across the room. Sasuke couldn't track him without sight or sound, but he did hear a lever being pulled followed by the following sounds of rattling chains and metal hitting metal as well as a loud curse from the lord.

The lights turned on, temporarily blinding Sasuke who raised his hand to block it. Once his sensitive sight recovered. He noticed the large, white tiled room, the cage that had fallen around Kurama, and Orochimaru standing in the corner, smiling at his new catch.

"My, my, I didn't expect that to work so well," Orochimaru said, almost laughing. "Thank you, Minato-kun for following your part so well."

"No, this isn't right." Panic was written on Minato's face. "This was supposed to be an exit."

"Of course, you did, I have you programmed to follow my orders, no matter what lie you had to tell yourself in order to do it."

Minato's face twisted in anguish at what he had just done, placing his face in his hand. He looked devastated that even Sasuke thought twice about blaming him, but he had also expected this to a degree.

"Don't be too hard on yourself. I did promise I'd help you find your son. Now thanks to you, you can be here together forever."

"Do you really think a mere cage can hold me?" Kurama asked amused. "Humans may have come a long way, but they have grown foolish as well." Kurama's chakra extended like thin tentacles, wrapping around the bars. He frowned when nothing happened.

"We aren't as foolish as you think. That's what makes humans so deadly. Mina-chan, subdue the vampire lord for me."

"No," Minato said with defiance.

Orochimaru chuckled until it quickly cut off, no longer amused. "My mistake. It wasn't a request. Kabuto, control him."

In the corner, where Sasuke hadn't looked, Kabuto was kneeling with a spirit board in front of him, his hands forming the symbol for tiger. Chanting something under his breath.

Minato went ridged and his eyes lost the spark they once had. Sasuke, distanced himself from Minato immediately at the change, trying to keep Orochimaru and Minato in his sights, hastily running through his limited options.

"You know you really piss me off," Kurama growled, glaring at Orochimaru. The chakra around him grew heavier, denser, enough to become visible to even a normal human's eye. The tentacles took further shape, growing thicker and taking the form of what looked to be bushy fox tales. There were four, two wrapped around each bar. "You cannot hold me," he said, the metal beginning to bend, slowly but surely.

"It was never meant to hold you," Orochimaru said. "Just slow you down."

Minato disappeared, dust swirling from where he once stood only to reappear before Kurama's cage, hand crackling with lightning.

Kurama moved two of his tails to deflect the attack, absorbing the electricity into his translucent tails. He had opened the bars far enough to slip through, so he released his other two tails as well.

"You're as annoying as I remember," Kurama smirked. "I've been itching for a fight" With a straight arm and a palm facing Minato, chakra gathered and condensed into the size of a golf ball, glowing brightly to the point it was blinding to look at it.

It only took a moment for everyone in the room to realize what he was doing as the chakra condensed tighter and tighter. Minato threw a shuriken, putting distance between them. The tails easily deflected it. As the tail pulled back, the ball of chakra quickly expanded, causing an explosion that not only took out the rest of the cage but everything that was in its way, including the wall ten feet away.

There was no time to revel in the destruction. Minato had appeared beside him, another kunai in his hand.

"You and that stupid technique," Kurama growled, jumping out of the way as Minato swiped the blade at him. Kurama jumped through the hole in the wall, Minato following him without a moment's hesitation, leaving Orochimaru and Sasuke alone.

"It seems that fight will take a while. I admit I had expected Naruto-kun to be powerful after my experiment, but I never expected to see the lord himself." Orochimaru brushed off the dirt that had gotten on his clothes from the explosion. He had been forced to dodge the blast as well. "When I found out, I was certain he would take off without you." His smile was slimy enough to make a snake's skin crawl. "You must mean a lot to Naruto-kun."

"Then you know you have no chance of living if you get in his way." Sasuke kept track of every movement, noting that Orochimaru was blocking his way to escape.

Orochimaru clicked his tongue. "On the contrary, now is the perfect time to attack if any. His power may be enormous, but without his own body, his power is weakened. However, if Naruto-kun was a full vampire, he may be able to contain the raw power that the seventh lord holds. As that is not the case, there's no reason to worry."

He had to keep him talking. Sasuke could feel his chakra stirring, he just needed some time. "Why bother with experiments at all? What do you hope to gain?

Orochimaru's eyes glittered at the question. "Did you know that vampires and those who can manipulate their life force share a common ancestry?"

Sasuke's eyebrows drew together as he recalled his dream. "Someone once proposed the idea to me."

"It is quite fascinating really. You see, when a vampire bites someone, they are essentially inserting a virus into the bloodstream of the victim. With sufficient blood loss, the virus becomes active and slowly rewrites the DNA of the human, turning them into one of your kind. Humans who control chakra share similar DNA strands only found in vampires while normal humans do not have the DNA at all. The DNA tends to act as junk DNA and remains inactive until they are turned. These humans become more powerful vampires than the ones who did not have the strands before. Your family would be a prime example of that.

"I want to awaken these strands and have the powers and immortality of a vampire without the dependency of blood, to be stronger than human or vampire."

"What does Naruto have to do with this," Sasuke asked. Just a little more time.

"Humans are exceptional creatures. They are the most adaptable species ever to live. A human can become a vampire, a ghoul, even a demon. The hosts are the most unique type of humans. They are nearly perfectly human but can access their lord's power. They have the potential to have the perfect balance of power. Akira-chan is the closest I've ever come to achieving that perfect hybrid, but I was unable to curve his dependency on blood and bring out his full power."

Sasuke snorted. "Fool. You're playing with fire." Feeling his chakra flowing adequately throughout his body once again. Hidden in his palm, he manipulated the wind, inserting his chakra into it, making it sharp and deadly as it spun. "And completely self-absorbed."

"Perhaps," the scientist tilted his head in agreement. "I don't mind talking about my work even if it gives you time to recover. You and I both know that without feeding, you will continue to be weak. You are no threat."

"You are right. I am weakened at this moment." Wind was swirling around his hand. "But I will not lose to a man that is nothing but dirt underneath my shoe."

"Arrogant," he said with a scoff. "Just like your brother."

"What would you know about my brother?" Sasuke growled.

"Better than you would expect. I plan to make him my experiment one day if given the chance. He's been a thorn in my side. Nothing compared to you, I'm sure. You're nothing but his pawn."

"I'm no one's pawn," he growled through a clenched jaw.

Orochimaru's cold laugh echoed throughout the room. "Really? Do you know how much of your life has been controlled by him until this point? Everything is to your brother's will. Even you being here is to your brother's design. Even if I am just a pawn to him as much as it annoys me."

"We'll see about that." Sasuke threw the wind swirling around his hand like a disk, aiming at Orochimaru.

Orochimaru side-stepped the attack, raising an eyebrow at the weak attack. The disk sliced through the pipe behind him as easy as a knife through butter. Sasuke followed up with another attack, a swift blade of air, faster than the last.

Orochimaru pulled out a sutra between his fingers. The symbol for barrier written on it. Sasuke's attack deflected upwards, and that was okay. Sasuke may have been aiming for the pipes a second time, but florescent lights would do. The attack deflected, hitting the lightbulbs above them. The spark from above ignited the gas.

Sasuke brought his arms up to protect himself from the explosion. Orochimaru was caught in the center of it. That should have been it. Before he had to cover his eyes from the light and heat, he saw Orochimaru's body go up in flames, his body flung forward from the force.

Yet before his eyes, what should have been a corpse was moving. The charred skin fell off in chunks, underneath a layer of slime and untouched skin. Orochimaru's creepy smile cracked the blackened face, falling off to reveal the perfectly fine skin underneath it.

During the entire process, Sasuke was cursing, trying to recover his chakra. Those two attacks alone cost him most of what he had gathered since escaping, and there was no weapon he could use.

In no time, Orochimaru was standing before him, completely healed, the slime coating having hardened from the air and flaking off.

The fight had just started, and Sasuke already knew that this fight was not going to end well.

Kurama gritted his teeth in annoyance as he blocked another attack with his tails. It wasn't that he was buying time or hadn't had a chance to attack. He had. Multiple times. He had blown Minato away several times with his chakra attack, taking out several supporting pillars at the same time. The problem was Minato kept coming back, his blown away parts pulling itself back together for the man to continue his barrage of attacks.

Minato had quickly learned to use that to his advantage as well. No longer careful in his fighting, he went all out without worrying about any harm to his body, making him much deadlier than when he was alive.

To complicate matters, Kurama only had partial access to his chakra. The more he tapped into his powers, the more damage to Naruto's body it did. Though more suitable with the partial transformation, he was still alive and human. His true power was more than any human body could take, even at half power. As the fight dragged on, he was drawing more and more power.

Minato was fast, as fast as the lightning he used. His chakra manifesting into electricity and allowing him to zip from one place to another as long as there was metal nearby. If there was no metal, all he had to do was through a kunai or shuriken. It made him unpredictable and difficult to counter.

Each blow Kurama blocked with his tails were also becoming problematic in the long run. While his tails were physical enough to interact in the physical world, they were essentially in between physical and spiritual forms. It was like trying to grab a ghost. Kurama's will gave them the power to interact with things, but essentially, they were just chakra. The electricity it absorbed from each blow were interrupting the flow, making them feel numb, and the reaction time was slowing. He had started off with four tails and was now down to two in order to put his remaining power into them and overcome the numbing effect Minato was injecting into his chakra.

With Minato able to get behind Kurama with ease, Kurama had taken a few direct hits. Minato's attack disrupted the chakra flowing through his body as well as the normal damage one received from being electrocuted.

Kurama healed himself each time, but as he repeatedly pulled more and more of his true power out to use, the strain on Naruto's body increased. What he wouldn't give to ditch his prison and tear this human from the inside out.

He searched for a weakness, any weakness that he could exploit, but Minato was dead. He had left this world. There was no core that he could detect or find to destroy, and he did not know what manner of science or enchantment kept him alive. He could not even be sure killing Kabuto or Orochimaru would be enough. The best he could do was kill the puppet master and hope that the order would break.

Kurama blocked the kick aimed at his head, clenching his teeth through the pain as electricity ran through his body, already in the middle of a counter kick. Before the kick could connect, Minato had disappeared, reappearing next to a fallen pipe. "That technique is beginning to annoy me," he growled.

Minato gave no indication that he understood what Kurama had said, not that Kurama expected him to. Besides fighting, nothing would distract the hunter. It would not be easy to get back to Kabuto, not with Minato blocking the way. It seemed he would have to rely on Uchiha to take care of Orochimaru and Kabuto first.

Kurama smiled bitterly as he blocked another attack. If that was the case, he was screwed.

Why was it ever since he met Naruto, he was the one bleeding out?

Sasuke glanced at the splatters of blood on the floor. His blood. Considering how little he had to begin with, it was more than he cared to lose. His body was covered with slashes from a sword Orochimaru had pulled out soon after the battle began. Sasuke had disarmed him, but with the cost of his left leg, nearly cut through to the bone.

Orochimaru on the other hand was healing as fast as an immortal, maybe faster. He wasn't on the level Yukina-hime was, nowhere close, but this was an uphill battle. The way it was going, Sasuke was going to lose. His wounds weren't healing, and his chakra wasn't recovering. His hunger was clouding his thoughts, and his stomach twisted with excruciating pain in hunger.

"What's wrong, Sasuke-chan? Hungry?"

Sasuke growled, not trusting himself to speak. To be more accurate, he couldn't, not anymore. He was aware that his movements were becoming less of a trained fighter and more like a starving predator. The mad scientist was looking more like lunch than an enemy. His fangs had extended during the fight, and he could no longer retract them.

"Yeah?" Orochimaru said in mock interest. "Then you don't mind if we wrap this up, do you?"

Sasuke saw movement in the shadows of the room. It distracted him from Orochimaru's next attack. Another sutra was held up, one that read wind. Sasuke's own attack from earlier was directed right back at him, a strong gale that swept Sasuke off his feet.

He flew across the room. His back hit the ground with a resounding crack. He barely felt the pain in his haze.

Hungry.

Need food.

Hunt. Kill. Devour.

Sasuke's irises became but a thin rim as his pupils dilated. A growl came from deep within his chest, and he bared his teeth. But he could not sit up, his lower back broken. He could move his arm, but that was all. A shadow caught his attention briefly but not for long. Orochimaru approached, a snug smile on his lips. He kneeled beside Sasuke's broken body.

"You can't even think anymore, can you? I don't blame you, pain from deadman's blood, hunger eating away at you. Can you even remember why you escaped in the first place?" His eyes bore into Sasuke who snapped his teeth at him. "This state of yours is the only thing keeping you going with a completely broken body. The instinct to feed."

What was he saying? Orochimaru's words may as well been an annoying buzz in his ear. Sasuke's eyes could only focus on the pulsing vein in his throat. The balm to the fire inside him was so close. He could grab him, but it would not subdue his prey long enough to sink his teeth into the fragile flesh.

Reach out to your left.

The command startled him awake just briefly, just enough for Sasuke to register the words, but not who said them. Instinctively, he did as he was told.

He didn't need to reach far to find it. Something was underneath the palm of his hand. As Orochimaru lifted him off the ground, probably to take him back to his cell, Sasuke plunged the dagger straight into the center of Orochimaru's chest. Orochimaru dropped him, but Sasuke would not allow his prey to escape, tightening his grip on Orochimaru's clothes and making him fall with him. Now within his reach, Sasuke sank his teeth into the pale flesh. It was not a neat bite nor was it carefully placed. The bite ripped open the flesh, covering his mouth and front in blood, cutting into the jugular and windpipe.

The blood flowed into his mouth, and he drank greedily, not caring that most of the blood was dripping past his mouth. He ignored the fact the blood tasted strange and revolting. He vaguely picked up the gargling noises that came from Orochimaru as blood filled his mouth. He only bit down harder to silence him and make the blood flow faster. As soon as his back injury healed, he flipped their positions so he was on top.

It wasn't enough. He needed so much more blood than this fleshy blood sack could provide. Something was wrong with the blood. He sensed that, but he kept guzzling. Orochimaru's struggles had long since stopped, but as he finished, his eyes were searching for another target. More. He needed more blood.

His eyes landed on Kabuto.

Kurama walked back to where he had parted with Uchiha. In the middle of an attack, Minato had suddenly stopped, and changed direction, heading back towards the others. It was only a guess, but he assumed that Uchiha was causing more damage than they had anticipated. Minato was out of sight quickly. With his lightning step, there was no chance Kurama could keep up, at least not in this form.

When he reached the room, Minato was nowhere to be seen. His scent had only made it halfway until it changed direction without warning. Kurama had decided to continue on to check on Uchiha. It was clearly unneeded.

Kurama looked upon the carnage with indifference. Orochimaru lay dead in blood-soaked clothing, his throat ripped out. Kabuto on the other hand was torn to shreds, barely recognizable. It was as if Uchiha had grown impatient waiting for the blood and just tore him open with his bare hands.

Uchiha was leaning over him, hands, mouth, and clothes drenched in the red liquid. His eyes were wild and crazed.

Kurama's lip twitched in disgust. "I can't believe you drank that shit. Are you an imbecile?"

The response he received was Uchiha lunging at him.

Kurama evaded the attack, striking him hard at the base of his neck. This wasn't even a predator anymore. His movements were too wild and aggressive. Orochimaru barely qualified as human with the number of alterations he had made to himself and the foreign bodies he had injected himself with. Things that were made specifically to interact with vampire DNA.

Uchiha fell, but he did not stop his assault. There was no thought in his movements. His attacks were simple and straightforward, making them easy to evade and counter. Growling himself, Kurama quickly grew impatient with the child trying to attack him in such a reckless manner. With his next counter, he hit hard enough to make Uchiha's skull cave in. Uchiha's body crashed into the ground, not moving.

"Why do I bother with these brats," he muttered. He threw the unconscious vampire over his shoulder. He'd find some humans to help clear the bad blood out of Uchiha's system, but he couldn't help but become irritated at how he ended up playing babysitter. He was one of the seven vampire lords meant to be feared and obeyed. "Where the hell did I go wrong with my life to end up like this?"

Kicking aside Kabuto's body, and marching through a pool of blood, Kurama made a slight detour to step on Orochimaru's face. It provided some satisfaction, he just wished he was the one to finish him off.

As he left the room, he noticed the dagger sticking out of Orochimaru's body. Eyebrows rose in recognition and surprise, events finally clicking together in place. So, the little Uchiha had a little help. Unexpected, but useful.

Sparing no more time, Kurama left the room, following Minato's scent to the exit.