Took me forever to bring this next chapter not only because of other fics at work, but because I went back to rewatch Hellsing (not Ultimate OVA) for some help. It had been months since I'd seen either of them. Episode one where we first see Alucard shooting his target comes to mind as well as the famous line "It's the kind of night that makes me want to have a bite to drink." Hats off to Crispin Freeman! :D

Composition by Brunuhville.

Chapter Two

Breathing Winter

The target was confirmed, as he hid in the shadows of the unsuspecting's flat. The arms was loaded and ready to go. He sat in the long chair, the weapon lowered to his side, for now.

Even locked and waiting, he would keep his eyes opened and lit in the darkness.

He was a patient man who lived for centuries, still appeared young as ever - but during the day, if you even looked him in the eyes, you would see many things that he carried with him. If you thought life was wonderful, he believed otherwise. Humans wanted to live forever, but it was wishful thinking. Even if you were granted that dream, the blissful moment of achievement would be short-lived, and you were shouldered with a great burden that would one day catch up to you. You would wish that you were dead, and even so, it would not be easy to find another to kill you, if you were too great a coward to take your own life.

Some vampires were suicidal, but half of them were too cowardly to end their own long-lasting lives. Eternal damnation aside, you could always have the option of making amends - without getting killed by human hunters or fellow bloodsuckers who didn't share your change of heart.

His case was one such example.

Years of being imprisoned by one of the oldest hunting clans, their final descendent - one of few - existing today. The one he served faithfully and on his own will, for going on his own long enough was no longer satisfactory, as all options had run out. Tonight he was on assignment, activity quiet on this night save for one. In the good times, I would tear a pig to shreds for putting himself against an innocent young woman or even a child. Or another human who did not deserve his repulsive tricks.

Tonight, this one was in the same category, but it was a female. And one of his own kind.

Her unsuspecting prey was a wealthy man looking for a good time, having any woman he wanted, and choosing to make the foolish mistake of bringing her back to his apartment. She was strikingly beautiful, with her long ravenesque hair glistening down her back, her exposed legs covered with fishnets. Her bangs covered her eyes, but her lips were red as the poisoned apple. Shrugging off the coat, she exposed more that should have been left to the imagination, the dress midnight as her hair, and stopping above the thighs but still covering what drew a man's attention as did the ripe curves of her chest. She was the definition of elegant but fatal, to bring a man down further than his knees. She was a creature of the night, a femme fatale.

Her date offered another drink, but she sniffed and turned her head halfway to him. "Why do I need another waste of precious liquid...when we can just skip right to the best part?" she asked slyly, her voice low and husky. "That is why I am here, is it not?" Her small, red tongue slipped out to briefly lick at her lips.

The man chuckled. He was silver-haired, spectacled and middle-aged, apparently a divorcee or had never been wed, for there was no ring on his finger. Only that meant nothing; he could also be hiding his wedding band, as men would. Beasts. "Indeed. And your straightforwardness makes me want to skip right to the best part, as you say, that is on my knees and starting with your fine legs, your plump ass, and to your breasts. To feel every inch of your exquisite body, but tenderness is reserved for younger gentleman. Beauty like yours lights up the night..."

You fool, you do not know what THAT is you are dealing with.

He had to act now.

A foot covered by heavy but slim black leather placed itself on the polished tiled floor, getting the owner's attention. "Who is that?" the man demanded. "Who are you and what are you doing in my home?"

His response was cool, soft and flat. Velvet entered the air in a soft breath that eased the most hardened of stone by a small comfort. "Senju Organization is where I am from - and why I am here," he replied, raising the lowered arms and pointing it at the target. The foolish human protested in horror, believing it must have been for him, whereas the seductive raven remained silent and unsurprised.

"Out of my way, human," the wielder of the powerful handgun ordered, "unless you want to become a miserable living dead."

The poor fool didn't seem to understand, or was that simply fear causing his thoughts to scramble? At least he had common sense to gather his wits and leap away just as the finger on the trigger pulled to release the bullet on the target's forehead.

Her golden eyes were revealed in frozen shock as she fell backwards and landed in smoke that flared about her. Dead. The empty bullet case scattered across the floor. The body disintegrated into gray ash. Finally, the man who brought her back seemed to piece it together as what he believed had only been a story was real before his eyes. "V-vamp..." he sputtered, on the verge of crying like a child.

Satisfied, the shooter stood up and stared down at the wretch without a blink. Red eyes glowed bright as the blood moon in its time. "Yes, human...a vampire. It's a pity you can never tell until it's too late." He then exited out the window in a flash just as reinforcements arrived to clear the scene. Safely on the rooftop of the complex - this fella had the topmost penthouse - he put a finger to tap the button for his earpiece, notifying his superior that he accomplished the task.

"Target has been eliminated."

"Excellent," came the static reply.

~o~

The helicopter touched down on the penthouse where the crime scene took place. The corpse was naught but ash. Autopsies were out of the question, but DNA samples remained behind for them to take. A live vampire in capture was a gift to behold, as her grandfather used to say, and would benefit use to the family with the right amount of pressure to keep him or her in place.

Just like the one in the cellar when she was still a younger woman, after Hashirama passed away. Her great-uncle was next to go. Her life was riddled with losing precious loved ones after him and her grandfather.

Her younger brother.

Her lover.

Right after him, her dear friend who was an independent hunter of his own - and they were both taught by the same man who had also been so by Hashirama and Tobirama Senju - nearly was offed by one of the undead, when she had to make him leave and settle down from the supernatural decay. She hated herself for doing that to him, but it was short-lived, as they knew personal feelings couldn't be allowed to get in the way. He had to be kept safe from all of this. If any vampires or demons were to come for him, he would know what to do.

He was a wonderful comfort for losing the one whose heart she had, and who had hers, but after she ordered his leave for his own sake, she discovered she was pregnant. This frightened her, and she had never been so frightened in the longest time, that she knew she couldn't keep the baby with the lifestyle she was living. She didn't want it to grow up in her environment, within her walls, although because her son was half-Senju, he had to be safely raised by someone she knew and trusted well. None other than his father, her dearest friend.

But then, years later, her child died along with his wife. Leaving their children orphaned. And she never even met her grandchildren, only heard about them in the letters her ex sent on occasion.

Within the Senju, loved ones and friends died for the greater cause. They were all as cursed as the monsters they destroyed.

The organization used secretive military force to handle the fiends out there, although compared to the Dark Ages and medieval times, these things became more...scientifically advanced besides being simply bitten by another vampire, and demons were sometimes placed into human hosts. It would take great efforts to make host stronger than the incubate within, but rarely for the two to function in harmony as a whole.

Tsunade Senju despised many of the monsters that ran amok, others organized to attempt takeover of the world. Her family's empire was global wide, but home was here in Konoha, Japan.

Why were there vampires in Japanese society in contrast to the mythology? There was not one trace except in media, beginning in the fifties when she was still a young child herself. Besides the point. These bastards exist. They come in from the outside and spread infectious blood, sometimes our own go outside and then bring it back. That is all the explanation.

One of them had, six centuries ago, been one of her kind, and her grandfather had feared, respected and commanded him. He was caught in between this side and the other, but chose to wish for the eradication of his own kind, except a handful of certain. But the vampire under her thumb had no real friends like she.

Although she envied him a little. He had a sibling who lived while she lost hers. But she still had living relatives whom she hadn't seen in a long time. And one of them she asked for him to keep an eye on this night after he took care of the new bloodsucking target tonight.

~o~

The skies were black, but they were always red to his vision as it appeared so to others. Centuries ago, when he died and returned, the night was always the same to him: the color of blood, surrounded a moon which circulated with gold and cream in one, like the gilded walls and ceilings of his lord whom he served.

The night was ever young, as the people in the streets. Couples hanging off each other, groups of friends going to the clubs, and others leaving the fun to head home for the night or to their significant others' places. Humanity was ever dissolving. Not all, but half these young lives wasted on meaningless pleasure of the flesh, drugs and drinks, you name it. Destroying their bodies inside and slowly working their way to the outside.

Winter was the harshest time, in his opinion, as it was cold and death in one. It looked beautiful, but what was so beautiful about death?

The middle of December - specifically the date, as he could imagine the significance on the one he had been asked to sneak a glance once in a while on his superior's orders. The woman kept him out of her personal affairs, but he could peer into her soul as he would every other human. His mission complete, he was allowed to roam tonight, as silent watcher and protector, and if he so much as defected against the code engraved in his flesh, he would be electroshocked and out for an entire month, even drained of his feeding in the duration. Although such drastic measures were reserved if it was an innocent; it was a chain to keep him from going on a frenzy. Nobody could read his mind, but they had means to find out his activities one way or the other. He was their lapdog, after all.

Lapdog.

Once, he was his own man. Then, as a monster with the appearance of his former self, he let himself be tied to humans who eviscerated creatures of the night - like himself.

The cold wind picked up, brushing against his skin which he hardly felt, as the temperature was the same to him: everything was warm. Whereas he was cold to any human touch. His heart no longer beat, for no living blood flowed through his veins except that which he consumed.

He was one with the winter. He could survive without his heavy, long black coat which touched his ankles, but if anyone saw him without, they would look and think twice. He was supposed to keep himself blended with the crowd. If he were to socialize with them in the daylight, he would need the prescribed injections that he took twice. Vampires burned in the daytime without what he had.

However, the Senju Organization created this cure solely for him. It could NOT fall into the wrong hands.

His frozen veins thrummed with the need of a winter animal in the vicinity. Although, his nostrils picked up a smell that wasn't what he needed, but it was something very familiar that was so sweet and so unwanted that he could not afford an unnecessary interference. He had not had vampire companions - or even a TRUE friend - for millennium, thus had no need for one now with his line of work, if you could call it that.

The smell had creamy vanilla, the heart bearing rose petals and freesia, based with musky wood.

He was across one side of the street alone while SHE was there with a group of her friends - people she still loved who were alive - and bundled for the cold of night. They were leaving none other than their record label of Higeki-tekina ai, a symbol of coming together based on personal issues and/or tragedies. He saw a close-knit group in spite of two losses they had within a year, although one was gripped with anger and the other emotional within yet smiling as if nothing was wrong.

He was speaking, of course, of the two women of the group. One of whom was what Tsunade-sama wished for him to seek on her behalf. He saw some of his mistress in the girl, whose eyes were bright and blue as the daytime, her long hair pale and gold, and carrying a large notepad beneath one arm. She was an artist, something very simple but gifted. It was almost hard to believe that a relative of the almighty Tsunade Senju was a painter, sketchbook artist and singer. But the woman seemed to be very proud of those accomplishments, hiding it with a firm mask and authorative tone.

He had to keep his distance. One of them - especially her - would notice they were being watched. Stalked, even. But he shrouded himself within the shadows, calling them his allies. He tailed them to the local barbeque grill, the smells making his bowels roll over each other. But it was overruled by the slowly fading aroma of the girl with the sketchbook, who went in after her blonde friend with the four pigtails and hard teal eyes, then followed by both the two young men, the chubbier more excited to eat than the rest. He chuckled with amusement to himself.

Despite his initial disdain over the sensation her scent provided him, he did fancy it as a breath of fresh spring air amid this Siberian environment.

For some strange reason, Japan has no vampires in their mythology, but in the media, they started showing up around the 50s.

So, in here, the Senju family are in place of the Hellsing Organization. And Itachi willingly lets himself become a pawn, true to canon. Elements of Hellsing are definitely used in here, but not all the way.

Itachi watching Hanaru and her friends. Some might call that stalking, but Tsunade did ask this. Review and stay tuned.