Composition by Derek and Brandon Fiechter.

Chapter Five

Moonlit Dust

Undressing in the middle of the living room, especially in front of the window where someone could be peeking through, wasn't a smart decision, but nobody was passing by, and there were no lights on in the windows across the street. But why did she still have that damned feeling...?

You're just imagining things, Hanaru.

With Temari passed out, she had the flat to herself for the rest of the night. And somehow, the house seemed colder than usual, so she picked up her clothes and rushed into the direction of her room, dropping them on the edge of the bed and finding the drawer in her dresser which had her collection of undergarments and sleepwear besides her favorite nightgown. Temari would need that help, but she would be there soon. Hanaru eventually found her charcoal drawstring hoodie and blue flannels, hanging her blouse in the closet, folding her jeans up and placing them in the drawer, and depositing her underwear into the laundry basket which would be taken downstairs tomorrow. She returned to her friend's room, immediately getting to work on undressing the other woman.

Eventually, Temari was down to her black sports bra and white briefs. It was nothing she didn't see before, either. The brassiere itself was gone, the breasts gently falling out, but Hanaru paid them no mind as she brought forth a pair of black and white plaid pajamas to dress the other girl in, tucking her in for the night.

The black-finished fireplace was electric, unlike the old days in her grandfather's place. She missed that thing, but this was close enough as it could be, and she could change the temperature if she wanted to with the thermostat, and it could go up to fifteen hundred watts of heat. The flames were painted on the double doors, the lights flashing from within like real fire. Soon the area was warm with the cozy feel of home at night.

Now she could just enjoy the rest of the night before bed, and hopefully try to forget that man in the black trench coat.

Hanaru sat down on the recliner before the television with her dango box in her lap, the news showing nothing in particular - but then one such headline caught her attention and made her hold in her dessert. It was a good thing her stomach was strong over things that weren't physically in front of her, unlike THIS.

"...family found butchered in home. Blood on walls and floors, written with sacrilegious obscenities in every form."

"What the hell is wrong with people today?" she hissed, shaking her head.

~o~

The snowfall began five days later, marking the calendar ten days before one of the most sacred holidays in the entire world. He was asleep that day, but he was told that it was likely to become a snowstorm that would last well into the holidays coming up.

He saw nothing beautiful in the snow, nothing but its meaning. The humans saw it as a calm beauty, pristine and crystalline like a painting they were living in. But the truth was as brutal as it was in the world of kabuki and noh theatre.

Snow was the end of the seasons of growth, as in life there was suffering and death. Food was gathered beforehand, but for those who didn't do the job, they endured tremendously. Hunting was a means, but not every starving man, woman or child was fortunate. Here in the East, the color white symbolized death and mourning. The snow falling and deepening was tragic, continuing until the first warmth of spring would come and melt the covered grounds, hence a new beginning and the end of the hardships.

A never-ending cycle of life and death, then renewal.

The season was living death, like he was.

The day was devoid of any activity, unlike the night. He was free to roam if he saw fit, but very few times he could go out at this time even if he was injected with his gene-enhanced sunscreen. He needed his rest, but today he did not feel like it.

Sometimes Tsunade would ask him to just keep watch on her granddaughter this way. But if only there was a way he could just stay completely away from the girl. He'd stayed a distance from her for the longest time, from before her brother vanished, but now something was changing. And if he told his mistress, she would do more than have his head. Though her granddaughter never knew her, the woman would still want to protect her family no matter what. A feeling he knew too well.

The murder of the family occurred the same night Hanaru and her friend went home safely. Those inscriptions on the wall scrawled in blood that was left behind, the interior walls of the home shot through at random perhaps for the fun of it. The perpetrators had not yet been found, and in the last few days, there was no further activity of the sort. There was no prediction if this could be the work of a vampire or a mere homicidal human - yet.

The police kept the area sealed away until further notice. Itachi considered slipping in to examine the traces himself, if only Tsunade would permit it. She considered, but there was very little to work with besides the fact there could be one or two together.

Even if this WAS a vampiric act, then some of them weren't what they used to be, and that meant order and cleaning up your messes so no fingers were pointed to you. And when left alone with no one to train them, their wild side was uncontrollable. When he told this to Tsunade, she'd simply glared at him over her brandy glass. "I don't recall asking your opinion, Itachi," she'd said coldly. However, she was agreeing with him.

When he tried to speak to Sasuke about this, his younger brother gave him the same icy treatment. "What's within the police force stays within," he said, earning a hand to the throat from the elder. Sakura was not there to witness.

"This is your aniki you are speaking to, vampire or not. This could be one of our own, but a wild newborn without someone to keep them on the leash." Red and black eyes flared, and the other's did the same. But his trauma was nothing compared to the older brother who committed more unspeakable acts than the younger ever would. Sasuke never killed unless it was true scum who deserved it. He never had been forced to kill a loved one. And his transformation of Sakura on her deathbed never caused his Mangekyo to awaken.

Sasuke had shifted himself out of his brother's grasp, turning himself into a puff of smoke and then reappearing behind Itachi, making the elder smirk. His words were this: "Of course it could be vampires' work, but even our eyes can't see everything, nii-san." Just you most of all, otouto. "We're doing everything we can. And even if I did figure it out before my superiors and coworkers, they would need solid proof rather than just my word."

He couldn't be more right. Modern days as these were, physical evidence was vital as it had been when you presented the head of your enemy before your high-caliber.

Now today, he saw Hanaru and Temari leave their flat that morning, when the clouds were gray, the white flakes coming down softly and touching the ground to stick and more to follow. Both appeared to have resolved whatever differences must have happened days ago.

He followed them, turning into the murder of crows and tailing them in the sky, reforming his human shape atop the building that was their studio, and he could smell cigarette smoke that belonged to their manager, a chain smoker who lost an arm in the war. In the morning Asuma Sarutobi would always wait for the girls, and his habits were something his wife would utterly disapprove of. Even smoking around their daughter.

By the looks of it, Hanaru must have a new sketch to show her boys, and Temari was even smirking, possibly encouraging her.

Itachi stretched his senses to hear what the girls were saying as soon as they got off their bus stop before reaching their studio. "The man in red...but things were different this time. He was against moonlight and some dust..." Hanaru sounded flustered when she explained what could only be her newest draft. Itachi had to frown at her blush as well as her friend's joke that it was a "literal fantasy", and that her "dream man" had taken a new form.

The Uchiha vampire let his brow soften, but he wondered: Just who exactly is this "man in red" she speaks of?

Unless...

The wind picked up and brushed over his face, making his bangs whip over his eyes, side to side. He closed his eyes and gained a faint idea but needed to see with his own two eyes as full confirmation.

~o~

Just when you thought the dreams couldn't change, but she was certain that the same man was in the vision she saw, and it was just as vivid as the painting that she was now in the process of bringing to life in time for the eve of the new year.

Now this dream came to life that she wasted no time getting on paper since two nights ago.

The man's silhouette against moonlight which penetrated through the dark forest, which was also lit with dust that came from fairies and pixies - his body turned halfway so she could see his muscular torso as well as half his bare buttocks without being overtly graphic, and his groin area skillfully covered by his thigh. Thinking about him in such a way made her cheeks burn so much she thought she was in the oven. Her belly twitched and connected to the lower most part of her body.

She tried to hide it from Temari, of course, but as always, she was found out and became the butt of more inappropriate talk, and this time she would have more legendary nosebleeds to clean after. But the first one came first.

The next morning after that night, her friend didn't want to talk, because she really wanted to murder someone. Hanaru could take a little violence, but on second thought, talking wasn't a good idea after all.

When she and Temari got off the bus today, the pigtailed woman was still sniggering. "Same man, different image...are you sure that you're not developing some new form of insanity with this face?"

That caused her to feel so amused and annoyed at the same time. What her friend was saying was that this man in her dreams was her way of dealing with Naruto being gone while Temari's anger was the same as ever. This was the "healthy" mechanism while she had nothing. "Don't tell me this is the same as ever," she said under her breath.

"Oh, nothing like that. I'm still just saying he's your wishful thinking - the guy that should be real enough for you, just like I got Shikamaru."

Here we go again. Setting me up.

"It won't really happen," Hanaru said just as they approached the studio where Asuma was still smoking. Seeing him made her remember the next morning when she called him and told him what happened, resulting in him sighing on the other end of the mobile line, giving permission to have Temari at home only for the day - but just as she thought, they had to talk with the boys regarding this behavior.

"What are we going to do about Temari?"

"Well, we talked last night," Shikamaru had said of Hanaru and himself. "Think maybe that, after the New Year, we could talk to her about getting some anger management and therapy whether she likes it or not."

Choji had been visibly worried even though he concurred. "That also means we might be shattering her trust, guys. That scares me more than her going as far as to commit suicide," he'd said as he drank down his canned coffee.

Hanaru had sat down with the boys when she answered. "Believe me, that could happen, but we know what is best. We do this because we care, even if it's a big step with a fifty-fifty on either side."

All in all, they decided that they would help Temari - or TRY - after the New Year started, following the gallery opening of the Aka no Otoko. She was so excited it wasn't even funny, but she couldn't help but feel nervous. There would be a positive reaction, but she was scared of what the negative would be and tried not to think about it. They loved her rose art when this place first opened.

Though if this one went well, she had good reason to worry about the new piece she intended to call mūnraitodasuto - or "moonlit dust".

Or better: the man in the moonlit dust.

Same man, different scenario.

Five days later, the snowfall began and was said to probably last well into the holidays. The first white Christmas in years. But the problems that could come would be icy roads and blizzards. It was also around this time that Asuma finally brought up the horrible news about the family that was murdered in their home, and the macabre display left behind. The police didn't find fingerprints, DNA samples - nothing. What the hell is going on now with our town?

It was when evening fell on that next day when she and Temari didn't speak of the previous night that Jiraiya phoned her and asked her if she heard. "I did, Grandpa," she recalled saying when she answered the call, and he exhaled.

"But whoever it is has done an entire family. Can't be too safe in times like these. More dangerous than it used to be, Hanaru. Just make sure you are always with Temari or the group. Can't have what happened to..." He'd stopped then and there, and she knew who he was talking about. Jiraiya might as well be shaking his head before he changed the subject, and brought up the one thing that they would end up enjoying with just each other now that Naruto was gone.

No, as far as I am concerned, my brother has to be out there. Gaara couldn't be found, but I'm sure Naruto must be. I don't care if I am wasting my time. Somehow I can still FEEL it...

Back to the present. Jiraiya changed the topic like she said. "Look forward to seeing you for Christmas."

Tsunade saying she didn't ask his opinion regarding the latest vampire murders - thanks to Hellsing episode 2. XD And as for those murders...give an idea where that also came from?

Now I am sure you are wondering when the future ItaHana will meet. Wait and see... ;)

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