Well, Halloween was a blast in the simplest terms. XD Red wine, popcorn balls, the trick or treaters, and great horror classics. Evening dinner consisted of fresh onion soup and brewed tea. :P

Big scare recently: my profile had been tampered with that I had to rewrite it, I couldn't see my docs - even though I tried uploading an existing one, at first believing it was hacked and taken, only to find it was still there - and written on my profile was "I Support Critics United". (demon rage) But all seems well. Good thing all my fics were exactly as I left them.

All of this happened when there was bot PM spam regarding fraud beta readers who would plagiarize your work. Problem was resolved, thank God. :D

Composition by Adrian von Ziegler.

Chapter Seventeen

Accursed Existence

His brother was supervising the training of Yūgao Uzuki and her soldiers - perhaps more than Hatake and Yamato, because he was undead and knew more about their vulnerabilities. Even going far as to dare them to come at him...but Sasuke was known to make nothing easy for anyone.

The elder Uchiha brother disapproved of his choice to even come here and "join" the organization when he knew how much the younger spited them for imprisoning his brother who risked everything for him and the country - and the world itself - but here he was. And he said he was doing this only for Itachi as well as the humans in the streets.

Sakura had no trouble following him here. "Where he goes, I go," she said once with a twinkling smile.

They were given a room similar to his own, and that also meant they would be given the injections in the event of time so that they wouldn't have to worry about the sun. Sasuke refused it because he felt that accepting something from "the enemy" was owing them something. He changed his mind, because his wife convinced him. How amusing was it that his woman could only sway him like that?

Here Itachi was now, when the sun was hidden behind the clouds yet again, on his first dose and the second needle in the inner pockets of his trench coat, and on the hunt for the one who was behind the creations of the freak hybrids - who happened to be waiting to see him personally up in the northwest. It was destined and they both knew it.

After all these years, it had to come to an end, but he hadn't yet defeated the one who changed his life for eternity.

Itachi waited long enough to see him again and finish him off one day. But today wasn't going to be the day, it seemed. There he stood, also dressed in a long black coat but without the high collar. Hair black as midnight, wild like a lion's mane, skin crystalline as the snow surrounding them, and the features unmistakably Uchiha. Red eyes glowed with the tomoe interlocking in a circle around a single black dot.

He let his own swirl into the pinwheel in greeting along with his words which were as cold as the landscape, the atmosphere and their bodies inside to out.

"It's been a long time...Madara."

~o~

"How did it feel to see them again?" Hanaru asked when they were back home, the reunions haunting on both of them. As soon as they got back, she knew she had to start cooking something to help ensure one of them wasn't going crazy. I know I'm not. She tried her best to not burn the rice and vegetables on the stove, or even let the miso boil over from the pot. Her voice miraculously sounded normal, but inside she felt like her entire system was empty save for her heart and rolling stomach which battled against each other.

Temari was looking out the window rather than sitting down, her back to the Uzumaki. "How could...how could all of this be true?" she finally managed, still looking out the window, at their town and the deathly white it was currently engulfed in. "Vampires...zombies...demons."

So she knew everything now from their visit up in the southern mountains. Because Hinata was the persuader that she was, filled in the truth of the first of the list - and demonstrating by showing her fangs which ultimately changed the appearance from harmless fairy to ravenous fiend. That sent Temari on the verge of fainting - which was a real first for her - until Gaara helped her stand and urged her to get a hold of herself.

"Well, they do," Hanaru said now, returning to being the voice of reason. "I've experienced them while you were away. One night Itachi saved me from one of them, after I went out with the boys for just a movie..."

Her friend turned her face only halfway around. "If that's true, then I'm surprised you haven't gotten a thirst for blood, if you haven't been bitten." That eye bulged when she mentioned the one who had been her best friend and roommate's shadowy protector all this time.

"That Itachi...he's one of them, isn't he?"

Hanaru nodded. "Yes. And so is...Sasuke Uchiha."

Temari scoffed, turning all the way around to look at her, arms folded across her chest. "Why does that not surprise me? I didn't even like him because of his attitude, but I could have sworn there might have been something else. He really did a damned good job keeping our brothers from us both, didn't he?" she sneered.

Grimacing, turning off the fire from all of the food, Hanaru answered as she turned all the way around. "He did."

The other blonde shook her head. "I still can't believe everything, even what I just saw. And both our brothers...they have monsters in them. I was so happy to see Gaara again, at least have one brother back, but then I learn THIS! Soon after they were each taken away from us, on their birthdays..." She trailed off then and there, reeling in what Hanaru was thinking of just now, biting her lip and nodding.

Someone summoned monsters - the legendary Nine-Tailed Fox and One-Tailed Raccoon Dog - to seal them into Naruto and Gaara, but neither know why he would do this, but the description they told us: a man who looked almost like Itachi, had red eyes and was so intimidating that he wasn't to be questioned.

His name: Madara Uchiha.

Uchiha...

No one knew who he was or even heard whispers about him, and Itachi wasn't there to provide his intel. Although it seemed the Hyuuga clan knew everything as much as he would. Hinata's cousin, Neji, who was one of the best spies in the region, filled in.

"No one knows how old he is really, but he's an ancient ancestor of the Uchiha clan, who were once a samurai clan in the warring era. In human life, he lived on the battlefield as if it were his life's purpose, but that was how it operated for his people as well as ours in those days. My father sacrificed his life to protect me and all of us." Neji had paused to glance over to both his cousins. Both looked down with their eyes only, at the floor and nothing in particular.

Then announced the arrival of Hiashi Hyuuga himself, the current patriarch of what was left of one of the few, oldest vampire families who were also once human. He looked no different than his nephew and both daughters, but Hinata seemed to be the only one with raven hair while the others' were dark chocolate with silver streaks; she must have gotten it on her mother's side or something. His demeanor was cold, strict even, but those eyes amplified it. Somehow Hanaru wasn't afraid of him, because her grandmother entrusted her own grandson and his best friend to these "people".

"The Hyuuga and Uchiha have long been at each other's throats," Hiashi had said, "and I recall fighting many times against the man. But then one day, sometime before the Sakoku Edict, severely forbidding our people from leaving the country as well as preventing foreigners from coming in, he vanished without a trace."

So, Itachi and Sasuke came from a warrior clan, but they were the last ones existing today, and not human. There was also this one to speak of.

Now she got to wonder: did this man turn his own descendants into vampires? That was something she would ask Itachi herself, just between them.

Right now, at the present: "But at least we know they're fine," Hanaru told her distressed friend, going over and taking her in for an embrace. Laughing and holding back a hiccup at the same time, Temari agreed with her.

However, it was at that moment that something struck within her like a bolt of lightning, sending her entire body into a chain reaction like a power generator coming to life. The pictures were very clear, coming to life before her eyes, and she wasn't even sure if they were happening right now or if they would...

Tsunade...Grandma.

"Hana, what's wrong?" Temari asked, letting her go and looking her over, seeing how her body had become frigid as a statue within moments. Pulling together temporarily, Hanaru answered.

"We have...we have to go back to Senju Headquarters. Let's call my grandfather and see if he can help."

~o~

The night had fallen, the moon in its last quarter stage, when she was returning back to her office, but then Shizune had just gotten back. She'd had Hanaru and her friend returned home after finally being allowed to see their brothers; her aide said that it was a mixed reaction, but Temari Sabaku had been the most in denial, though seemed to be leaning towards believing some of it.

Madara Uchiha was behind the abductions of both Naruto and Gaara, but why would he do such a thing to them?! He was even more slippery than a snake every time Itachi would find him only for the fight to end without one of them dead. He was ancient, older than Itachi.

And the one who changed him. Saved him from death.

"There's a visitor here to see you. She asked if she could be picked up on the way and brought here. Her vehicle broke down all the way up to the mountains just to see you."

Tsunade felt her lips draw back with infuriation. How could her niece figure and trusted aide be so stupid to let someone come into their secured establishment all the way up here - unless it was someone they knew, and it was a she. Could it be Hanaru...no wait, her granddaughter had no vehicle of her own yet. Then who -?

"It's Asami-san."

Asami...

Where had she heard that name? Somehow, her brain was in a fuzz, until her attention landed on the figure who appeared before them both. Long dark hair half-held up by invisible pins, revealing a jaw a bit too angular for a female, and dressed in an olive green dress trimmed with soft fur that matched honey amber eyes - just like her own. Looking into them brought you into another place while keeping you as you were, which explained the strange buzzing of her mind and body.

"Asami...Senju," Tsunade finally uttered.

The other woman smiled most seductively. Her voice was soft as grass in the wind. "It's been a long time, Tsunade...dear nee-chan."

"Thank you, Shizune. We'll be going to my office," she told the raven-haired woman who nodded, pursing her lips and saying she would let no one in while they had sisterly time to catch up on.

"You really should have called before you came all the way out here, and you said your car broke down," Tsunade stated as she got to work on the last of the paperwork for the night before she would need her tea. That meant she would get to offer her sister whom she hadn't seen in a long time; if she said so herself, Asami was the more rebellious in the Senju family. Tsunade was the oldest, then came this dark-haired beauty who shared her eyes, and finally Nawaki - whom she never got to see shortly before he died, or had time to come to the funeral.

And hadn't been there when Grandfather and great-uncle Tobirama both died.

"You're right," Asami answered as she knelt before the older woman's desk. This Tsunade had a chance to look over, seeing the masterpiece created to keep herself so young, similar to herself. "I should have, but I confess I was in a hurry to get here, dear Tsunade. I sometimes get so lonely up where I am, in Shimo, despite its frosted beauty. You could have come and visited any time if you weren't so busy..."

A mild headache began to form between her eyes. Tsunade reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose. Why do I feel so...? "You can stay here then, tonight, and I can have a room ready for you," she said in spite of herself.

~o~

"So you finally know about it," Jiraiya said when they were all in his car and driving to the airport, where he said he had a friend waiting for them to fly them to the northern mountains. "Doesn't surprise me, but it's nothing you won't be able to handle, except early on it's difficult. Happens in your mom's side of the family, and that makes you the last and the latest, kiddo." He forced a smile that she knew hid major concern - but didn't he and Tsunade also know this would happen sooner or later? She was a Senju no matter the old woman keeping her at bay.

Hanaru chose to not acknowledge what he said. "I feel that something is not right," she said, looking ahead, feeling Temari shift forward in the backseat. "I saw Grandma Tsunade -" Still felt a little weird to call her that, or maybe not. "- with a woman in green and fur, with dark hair and amber eyes...but I don't know who she is. Does that sound familiar, Grandpa?"

He frowned, white brows creasing together. "Sort of. But we never knew anyone personally who matches that description..." Then he stopped and his eyes widened. "Oh, no, we have to hurry." And with that, he picked up the speed when they were safely away from the town's limits and outside the district.

"What the hell does that mean? The old lady in danger?" Temari asked, huffing as she was slammed backwards into her seat.

"Precisely, and more if we don't hurry," Jiraiya answered.

~o~

She must have fallen asleep at some point, cursing herself for this turn of events when she had a guest!

However, coming to, Tsunade noticed that she was in Asami's embrace - and saw the gleam in those eyes that mirrored her own. What the...what is happening?

Her mind was hazy as she found herself leaned back against the chair she was in. She tried to move, but found she couldn't. Something was keeping her in place with invisible shackles, and her mental will was suppressed so tightly that she found herself fighting against the bars. She could only watch what was happening. Asami's hands went for her tunic and pushed aside the green shrug she always wore outside, revealing the snugging bra that outlined her large breasts.

"What are you...doing?" Tsunade mumbled, becoming even more disturbed that her own sister was doing this to her...no, wait, that was it. She hissed and cursed at herself for not realizing it, for letting herself fall into her trap. This action - this risqué act - was not something someone of blood relation would do on anyone. Those hands continued to move about, and she fought to hold her breath against the pleasure that came over.

"I knew something was wrong. You evil...bitch." Tsunade seethed when her right breast was exposed, and a delicate, slimy red tongue snaked out to lick at the nipple, causing it to harden. "How DARE you do this to me?!"

It was then that her fogged memory was jogged. Asami...yes, that name rang a bell now. When she received no answer, she decided to play along, antagonize her while she was in grave danger. "Tell me, did you come here hoping for a...loving reunion with Itachi?" Tsunade managed with a smirk that finally got that tongue to stop its work.

This bitch...this whore of the night...she was Itachi Uchiha's first mate before she betrayed and abandoned him. Or was it the other way around? Her servant loathed divulging his personal life, but he did confide about his second who was murdered by someone who served her great-grandfather. This was before he gave himself up for servitude, even to protect his brother who accidentally killed a Senju soldier but didn't drink the blood.

"Is that it?" she challenged when she had the amber-eyed raven's attention again. "Petty revenge?"

A tight smirk crossed over full lips - and then there was pain.

Blood splashed across her skin, having come from her abdomen, where there was a thin, long but painful gash. Asami's single forefinger, sharp as a deadly needle, had done the deed. Tsunade gritted her teeth and took a few, deep breaths to alleviate the stinging just a little bit.

"You are only half-right, Tsunade-kun," the woman purred, licking her exposed, sharp teeth. "Revenge it is...but not what you think. But it's because your pet killed the one I shared my blood and undead heart with, while you yourself finished off his brother..."

The Kokoro brothers...

She'd just said that Taro, the elder whom Itachi fought, was her mate. She was here because of obvious vengeance. I just damned knew it; damn it all, why and how did I let my guard down?

In midst of the red pain, she recalled how Shizune didn't seem to suspect anything, nor even the fact there NEVER was a sister named Asami to begin with. How could she forget that Itachi briefed the bitch had the gift of none other than hypnosis? That explained it all.

"Ahhh...your blood is so delicious, Tsunade," Asami said, sighing as she licked up the rivers, making her body shiver with delight against her will. "As is your smell...mmm, I detect a powerhouse of musk and flowers, for a woman of great dominance...but of course I don't intend to drain you of every drop. I was ordered -" By the Akatsuki leader. "- to not make you into a mindless slave too quickly. But I think I could just now take care of that..."

Red flashed before her eyes at the same time as two large spikes and several smaller ones penetrated her skin, where her main jugular was...

...and it was then that the alarm went off for the one who wasn't too far away from here.

~o~

The memory of meeting with Madara once again haunted him since his return that late afternoon. It had been ages since they stood before each other, whenever there was a real conflict and they would cross paths, always leaving to their separate sides unharmed.

Today, it seemed, they were just here to talk. For now.

"Still the Senju's lapdog, I see," Madara Uchiha had noted, smiling with amusement. "While I, on the other hand, have busied myself with something that has taken long enough to plan. Something that will give us all the fun to have - but also to cleanse this world once and for all."

There it was: he was back to finally overthrow the human race, just as he suspected. But he'd always known, back when he was still this master bloodsucker's pupil. That madman's vision was something he would never attune for; he was content protecting humanity, having only a fraction or so left in him that he still kept after a few centuries of being a vampire.

"What tricks do you have up your sleeve this time?" Itachi had challenged, pulling out his Crow, not intending to kill, but to get the ancient man to talk, only for the other to chuckle at the show.

"If I tell you, would you waste your precious time filling my flesh with your blessed bullets, Itachi?"

"Believe me, tempting as it is, I could - but I'm not going to just yet. Not until you tell me."

That smile was still there. "Then I'm afraid that I'll have to disappoint you, but I'll congratulate you for your efforts against the Kokoro brothers; of course that Shiro would have destroyed all the fun if he exposed everything...and it doesn't surprise me he let it slip the organization. Time is going to come sooner than planned, but it's not like it will occur today or tomorrow," Madara had said matter-of-factly.

So...you did send those two freaks. Madara had read his thoughts through his eyes. "I did, but why did I not send forth the brand new creations? In progress with testing as you have figured out. Why waste a valuable new resource for something petty as ravaging your sanctuary...when something far grander is in play?" He bared his sharpened fangs, which gleamed despite there being little light to reflect.

"Just tell your human leash that perhaps the eve of the spring solstice could be the perfect time, but no sooner."

That was all he said before he was gone in a puff of black smoke at the same time the sun was starting to come out. Itachi could only watch him go, disgusted but pleased he finally got another result, which was none other than the date. When he returned to headquarters and reported this to Tsunade, she'd growled through her teeth.

"He gets away once more. Damn it, there's been very little good news lately." She then sighed. "Oh, well, no matter. At least we have more than enough time for preparation..."

And in the meantime, he retired to his chambers for the evening - only to eventually learn from Sasuke that he was heading out, because of a call from none other than Jiraiya. "He said that he has his granddaughter and her friend with him, and that the girl had a troubling vision regarding your mistress," was all Sasuke said before he was gone in a flash of lightning.

He had crows as his means of transformation and transportation in one, Madara's was smoke, and Sasuke was lightning. Every vampire had their own.

Now, in midst of feeding himself from the bottle of blood wine that was one of the four he had left until next week for new shipping, he was overcome by that blaring of red that was triggered when something happened to -

A flurry of pink flower petals materialized in the room, and his sister-in-law appeared. She looked frazzled, which meant that...

His train of thought stopped there for good when he felt the fluctuations in the air, and his Sharingan saw them. Humans are affected by this, but not our kind. He felt his eyes widen as he understood why Sakura appeared.

She's here.

Itachi dropped the empty glass, lingering blood drops inside, and it shattered across hard tile. "Come on, where could she be?" he hissed as they stalked out together. There could only be the two of them against HER, and he was ready to finish her off once and for all.

Tsunade was in danger, and she was being held in her office by that female...the one who betrayed his heart. The one who he didn't have in himself to return the emotions because it was forced onto him, and when he finally came around, she used him. Tonight was going to be payback once and for all.

He must have sent her here. It's not a coincidence after those two.

There was a commotion downstairs, and he assessed it briefly but capturing it all: Jiraiya and Sasuke arrived with the girls, but they were confronted by Shizune who ended up under the effects of the powerful genjutsu. But they could take care of themselves - and pray they wouldn't kill Shizune.

"Sasuke said Hanaru saw this would happen," he told Sakura when they finally arrived outside the head's private space. "But no time to even explain!"

"Not surprised. Stay back!" Sakura then raised her fist and when it connected with the plaster and wood, smoke filled their visions, and the material was on the inside of the office. When the debris cleared, there was a sight which involved not just the blood - the sweet musk of the woman he protected as he guarded her granddaughter - but the degrading acts that made Itachi's rage break out into a tidal wave of a vengeance.

"What...have...you...DONE?!"

Sakoku Edict of 1635: "Issued to bar Japanese people from leaving Japan and barring Europeans from entering, on pain of death. It instituted strict penalties for the practice of Catholicism and severely restricted foreign trade."

Shimogakure (霜隠れの里) is the hidden village located in the Land of Frost. It's located in ninja!verse between Lightning and Hot Water Lands. The people evacuated during the Fourth Great War. In "Itachi Shinden: Book of Dark Night", Shimo failed to discuss an alliance with Konoha, resulting in Frost Shinobi killing their comrades as well as Itachi, Kakashi, Tenzo/Yamato and Sugaru eliminating them.

Hope the wait was worth it. Review please. :D