Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, Sasuke, or any of the characters. Please don't sue. Though if we own the series, Karin would be the first one to die.
Warnings: Shounen ai, yaoi, ooc-ness, bad grammar, bad writing style, and a little bit of shota.
Ages:
Itachi- 218 years old, looks like about 20-21.
Kakashi- 263 years old, looks like about 25-26.
Sai- 162 years old, which means he's allowed to hunt humans. He looks about 16.
Sasuke- 153 years old, looks about 15.
Naruto- 8 years old.
Iruka- 25 years old.
"Talking"
Thinking
By the way, there will a bit more shota in this chapter. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
The bright sun rays that streamed inside the window and through the curtains weren't enough to wake the sleeping eight-year-old. The poor boy could hardly go back to sleep after all the excitement that his nocturnal guest had brought. And even as the sun rose higher and its sun rays shone furiously on Naruto's small, rounded face, it wasn't sufficient to cease his newer batch of dreams of his porcelain-skinned visitor. His smirk was somewhat visible in the darkness, onyx pools shinning with such tenderness that Naruto knew was only possible in his dream.
As the boy slept, he silently stirred and changed his position so he lay on his side. He nuzzled the pillow under him and curled himself into a ball, which is exactly the position his father found him this morning.
Iruka silently crept up inside the room, wearing a face full of mischief in his normally serious face. His brown eyes lit up at how easy this would be. Naruto didn't even twitch when he came in. The scarred man grinned; it's been a while since he's done this.
When Iruka had first taken Naruto in when he was only three years old, Naruto mistrusted of him, and constantly let him know by playing tricks and pranks on his new father. Iruka figured that it was the only way the blonde could express his feelings towards himself and hardly ever did anything to stop him. After so many days of finding plastic spiders on his bed and finding fake blood on himself when he woke up, Iruka had had enough and decided to prank Naruto back.
When morning came, the young boy found his whiskered face full of doodles and other markings. But instead of crying or yelling at Iruka like the man had expected him to do, Naruto grinned happily and started laughing.
It was then that Iruka realized that the pranks Naruto had pulled on him since he was a toddler were not because Naruto mistrusted of him, but because he was grateful to be taken in when no one else wanted him. Iruka slowly began to understand his personally as he grew more comfortable around him.
Right now, Iruka was tempted to prank his son by tipping a glass of cold water on the boy's pants, making him think he had an accident. Iruka chuckled, that would be a little too cruel to do to a kid, even if the kid was a huge prankster as Naruto. Besides, the weather was starting to get cooler, and he didn't want his son to get sick and miss school.
Instead, he nudged Naruto gently, "Naruto, wake up. You're going to be late, which means I'll be late for work." Iruka nudged his son again, eliciting soft mumbles and groans.
"Come on Naruto! If I'm late for my job then I'll get fired. I won't be able to make money and we'll be forced to sleep on the streets, eating whatever we can get from the trashcans!" Iruka said in mock grief and sighed dramatically.
When he received no reactions from the snoozing boy, he quickly added with more force. "And you won't be able to eat ramen anymore!"
At that Naruto sat up, moaning dazedly, all of his thoughts incoherent from the lack of sleep.
"I'm awake, Iruka!"
"Good, if you weren't, I would've thrown cold water on you!" the pony-tailed man said with a wicked glint in his eyes.
Naruto shivered, almost as if he could feel the frigid water on him; Iruka has done that in the past. It wasn't a pleasant way to wake up in the morning at all. He pushed the bedcovers aside, and after some more grumbling he got dressed.
Iruka smiled as Naruto started getting ready. He ruffled the boy's hair and walked over to the door. "Hurry up now, school starts in thirty minutes."
Naruto nodded and smiled as honestly as he could. Once he was dressed, he went over to make his bed.
Yawning, he stepped out of his room to the bathroom to brush his teeth and for the regular morning necessities.
"Why does school had to start so early in the morning?" he sleepily asked his reflection in the bathroom mirror. "Arg! I look terrible; I hope Kurenai-sensei doesn't notice the bags. She'll tell Iruka and if he finds out then…"
He thought of all possibilities.
"Let's see, Iruka will get worried and assume I still get nightmares, and probably will want me to go to a psychiatrist, or worse he'll sleep in the same room as me like when I was little and if that happens then…" he hesitated not sure he wanted to know.
"Sasuke…" he paused at thinking of the strange guy. "He said he'll come back tonight. And if Iruka's there then he'll leave and won't come back." Naruto's lips trembled at the possibility.
What if he doesn't come tonight? He didn't exactly say he would. What if I'm too tired to wake up and he decides to leave, and I don't even notice?
Naruto jerked out of his thoughts. Why did he care if the weird guy didn't come and visit him anyway? Sure, Sasuke was strange and he had weird eyes that turned bloody red and fangs sprung out when he was mad. But, he was also the only friend he had that didn't flinch when he introduced himself as an Uzumaki. But maybe he has never heard of that infamous name.
Still, the older guy was also very handsome and Naruto doubted a guy as pretty as him could harm anyone at all. And the best part was that he also had wings like the angels in the stories Iruka read him before going to bed. Okay, so his wings were charcoal black instead of a pure white like in the stories, but it certainly made Sasuke look even prettier, he thought with a smile.
With his body now filled with unrepressed joy, Naruto left the bathroom after finishing brushing his teeth and vainly combing his hair. The blond spikes going everywhere despite the constant brushing almost as if they shared his enthusiasm.
He ran down the stairs two at a time with newfound eagerness towards the kitchen where his father was making breakfast.
Unable to conceal his hunger any longer, the young blond boy raced towards the kitchen and sat on one of the chairs next to the kitchen table.
"Smells great Iruka!" Naruto smiled happily as the pony-tailed man sat a plate of steamy, delicious food consisting of pancakes and bacon in front of him.
Ruffling affectionately the boy's messy hair, Iruka sat across from his son to eat his own breakfast.
The happy silence was interrupted as Naruto yawned, with bits of chewed food showing.
Iruka grimaced. "What kind of manners is that Naruto?!" The older man shook his head, waving a scolding finger at him.
"Aw, but Iruka," he whined. "I've been living with you since I was still in diapers, I'm sure I've done worse things." Finishing his breakfast, the eight year old climbed off his chair to take the dishes to the sink.
The brunet did not answer, but he did smile at some of the memories about a little blond toddler who loved flickering, splattering and throwing his food whenever Iruka would try to feed him his green bean puree.
Once done, Naruto turned around to smile at his dad but lowered his ocean-blue eyes instead, as Iruka suddenly turned serious when he glanced at his face.
"Naruto, did you have trouble sleeping last night?" Iruka's voice sounded both worried and pensive at the same time, which probably meant that a serious talk would come up. "Did you have another nightmare?"
Naruto's grin faltered a little. "No, I didn't sleep that well." Hurriedly he added, "But not because of a nightmare, I was just- worried about school." Naruto mentally smacked himself at the inadequate response, but he couldn't think of anything else when his father watched him with a disbelieving stare.
Luckily Iruka seemed to buy it. "Alright then, if you want to talk, don't hesitate to find me, even if we're at school, okay?" he said with his eyes closed as he smiled gently.
Naruto nodded and smiled back, hopping his smile didn't look as fake as it felt.
I can't tell him about Sasuke, can't I? I mean Iruka wouldn't tell anyone as long as he thinks Sasuke's my friend. I don't need to tell him that he comes through the window or that he only comes at night. No, I can't do that to Sasuke. Besides it's a secret, our secret!
He wanted nothing more than to have Sasuke trust him, and he might be furious if he told his secret to his dad. There was no way he was going to let Sasuke go. Thankfully, Naruto didn't need to elaborate anymore about his thoughts to Iruka and spoil the secret. The said man was too distracted grading last minute papers before going to school.
After a couple of quiet minutes, Iruka cringed as he looked at the clock on the wall. "We need to go if we want to make it on time."
Both of them finished getting ready and left their two-story house and hastily walked to the school which was just a few blocks away. They strolled in calm silence, at least until Naruto challenged his father to a race.
"Naruto, it's too early to play around don't you think?"
"Aw come on, Iruka! It'll be fun, unless you're afraid of losing!" Naruto grinned at his dad playfully.
The man reluctantly accepted and ended up laughing when he beat his son. Naruto then, pouted and puffed his cheeks.
Iruka laughed at his son's expression. "Don't worry Naru-kun, one day when you're a little older you'll be able to outrun me, in fact, you'll be able to outrun everyone in the neighborhood!"
Naruto frowned. "But mostly everyone in the neighborhood is as old as you!"
With an eye twitching, Iruka responded, "I'm not old Naruto, I'm only 25!"
Laughing, the young boy ran the rest of the way to the Academy obviously mocking his father.
Despite the mocking laughter, Iruka smiled softly, he was really proud of Naruto. He may not be the top of the class, but he was definitely determined or probably stubborn. Because of that, he hardly gave up, even in school.
Speaking of school, Naruto's cheerful face fell and instead frowned sadly as they arrived at the building, but made an effort to smile at his dad. Iruka smiled back and with a final comforting pat on the soft tresses of hair, the teacher dropped the reluctant boy off at the third-grade classroom.
The teacher hurriedly walked next door to his own class where his rowdy first graders were waiting for him to arrive, and were probably causing a huge ruckus judging by the squealing and happy screams from the classroom.
Almost immediately, a swell of sadness filled the eight-year-old as he watched Iruka walk away. He hated to be alone more than anything; yet he was always alone no matter where he went. At home, Iruka spent most of his time cleaning the house, shopping for groceries, grading papers from his first graders or working overtime to pay the bills. Naruto would of course, miss him terribly and wished he had his caring father or someone to spend time with.
"Naruto-kun, why don't you take a seat? We're about to play a fun game." A polite voice interrupted his thoughts before he could go on any further.
Turning around to face the speaker, Naruto came face to face with his teacher, Kurenai-sensei. She was a nice yet fair teacher that always seemed to be in a good mood, especially now that she became engaged with the P.E. teacher Azuma-sensei.
She nudged Naruto towards the tables at the back of the classroom, her long brown skirt swishing as she walked back to her place in front of the class.
Naruto, meanwhile, hesitated as he saw all of the tables occupied.
Although Naruto had been attending to Konoha Academy for almost three weeks, he hasn't been able to make any real friends. Hardly anyone wanted to talk to the new kid and the very few kids that did speak to him only talked to him about where he was from and never stuck long enough for Naruto to make friends.
Naruto half-smiled to some of the students as he passed by them, trying to find for the least crowded table. Some of them smiled back, while others just stared.
Naruto walked over to the table at the very far corner, occupied by only four students. Naruto had met them of course but never talked to them before.
The closets boy was Kiba with strange marking on his cheeks. The boy next to him was Shikamaru, the laziest yet the smartest kid in class. Lee was sitting next to him. He had a bowl-cut hair and thick, bushy eyebrows; he was also the son of the sixth-grade teacher, Gai-sensei. And everyday he would wear a green article of clothing and compose some sort of speech about youth and love. And finally the farthest kid was Chouji, the big but gentle kid who had an obsession with food and hated been called fat or oversized.
Naruto flashed a grin at them, those four were always together and were probably the friendliest in the entire class, well most of them, he thought. Kiba always tried to pick fights with him no matter how friendly he was to him.
Shyly, but still grinning, Naruto sat on an empty chair between Chouji and Lee, who returned the smile two-fold with blinding sparkles.
"Good Morning! How are you this fine day? I, Rock Lee, and my friends are honored that you have decided to join us today aren't we guys?" The boy with the green short-sleeved shirt said animatedly at Naruto before facing his friends.
Chouji politely smiled, Shikamaru just yawned, and Kiba glared at the newest member of their group.
Naruto smiled more confidently. "Hey, thanks!" He mentally sighed in relief, maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all.
Kurenai-sensei clapped her hands to bring all the kids attention. "Okay class, we shall begin with our game!" The kids cheered, just about anything was better than spending the day listening to lectures and taking notes.
"This is how you play the game. First, I'm going to put a letter of the alphabet on the board. When I say you can start, you will all write as many words that start with that letter on one sheet of paper."
Some of the kids like Lee, glowed with excitement as she continued to explain the rules. Of course, most of these kids were A-straight students, who appreciated anything that involved learning.
"Remember class, this is all about teamwork! Everybody must cooperate, which means I expect to see different handwritings!"
A few other kids groaned across the room, they expected to just sit there while others in their table did the writing. Other students didn't care either way.
"One more thing, this word must be something that you are thinking about, you know, the first thing that comes to your mind. You will have thirty seconds!"
Kurenai-sensei began writing a big bold T on the board.
"Okay everybody, when I say start, one of you will write their word and pass the paper to the next person, and so on. I'll give you half a minute to come up with as many words as possible. The winning table gets to skip the spelling quiz tomorrow! Good luck! On your marks, get set, go!"
Everyone hurried to write down their word. Lee was up first, with watering eyes (tears of happiness) and a sparkly smile, he legibly and neatly wrote True Love while looking at the next table where the team's captain, a girl with bright pink hair sat. He totally ignored the fact that he wrote more than one word.
Shikamaru was up next; lazily he scribbled Troublesome and passed it to Kiba, since this activity could hardly be considered a game if it was this boring.
The shaggy-haired boy messily wrote Tired as a truthful characteristic of himself. He ran all the way to school this morning since he was late and right now would've preferred to sleep than anything else. As soon as he was done he slid the paper over to Chouji.
Chouji, of course, had nothing on his mind but a hot, steamy bowl of marinated chicken with teriyaki sauce and fried noodles. So right then, he hungrily wrote Teriyaki, wiping the trail of drool that started to accumulate on a corner of his mouth.
"There you go Naruto!" The heavy boy passed the paper full of scribbles to an uneasy Naruto. He immediately froze, with only ten seconds left, the blond boy couldn't think of a word that started with a T. To make everything worse, all of his teammates looked straight at him waiting for him to write down his word. He wasn't good at spelling to begin with and he didn't have much time left.
"Hurry up already!" Kiba demanded.
But Naruto couldn't follow up with his order.
"Time's up! Now let me get your papers and count the words that are spelled correctly."
After a couple of minutes of reading, she gave a satisfactory sigh at her students' work.
"Well, it seems like there was a tie between Lee's table and Sakura's table. To be able to prize the winners we must play again, with a new letter of course!"
Most students moaned in annoyance. Although the idea of skipping tomorrow's spelling quiz sounded great, they still hated how they were pressured by their teammates to hurry up. Among those students was Naruto.
Kurenai-sensei went over to the board. "This time, I'll give you a harder one, okay?"
She then took another piece of chalk and wrote a big letter K on the board.
"Ready, set, GO!"
Lee and Sakura, the team leaders, began scribbling again with speed, producing scratching sounds.
Sakura's team tried to suck up to their teacher by writing Kurenai on their paper, and some others ended up writing their own names as well.
Lee, however, had recently finished a book about Feudal Japan of nearly 600 pages. Inspired by it, he neatly wrote Katana. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at this. The genius boy decided to pay tribute to that and follow his example. So he wrote Kunai under the first word.
Kiba nervously watched as Shikamaru wrote with lazy, slow strokes and before Shikamaru could finish the I, Kiba snatched it and began to think of words. But as time was running out, he quickly wrote his own name and practically threw the piece paper at Chouji.
"Here," he said with impatience.
Luckily, Chouji had been expecting it. He slowly but neatly wrote ketchup and swiftly passed it to Naruto.
Blushing, the blond boy thought of all the words that he knew but like last time, he either couldn't think of any or didn't knew how to spell them.
What word starts with the letter K?
Time slowly ticked by as Naruto looked around the classroom for something that would trigger his memory.
"We're going to lose if you don't hurry up!" A very petulant Kiba thumped the table.
Lee smiled cheerfully. "It's not about losing or wining, Kiba-kun, it's about practicing your spelling skills," he said in a patient tone.
Kiba huffed and crossed his arms. "Whatever, I don't want to do tomorrow's quiz though!"
Naruto ignored his teammates' argument as best as he could. In the end, he released a defeated sigh when Kurenai-sensei called time.
After picking the papers of the last round, she quickly read through all the scribbles and chicken scratches.
"Guys, you should've known that names of people don't count," she said while looking at Kiba (and a few others) who blushed and sank low into his seat.
"Well Lee's table had three answers, while Sakura's table had four correctly spelled words. So Sakura's table gets to skip tomorrow's quiz!"
Different noises like cheers and booing filled the classroom. Very few of the losers at least had the decency to clap for the meritorious team. Naruto, however, stayed silently aware of Kiba's hard gaze on him.
Kiba ignored the noise and finally spoke up. "This is your fault!" he said accusingly.
Startled, Naruto glared back. "My fault? You wrote your own name on the paper!"
Kiba flushed at the comment, but recovered quickly after blinking a couple of times. "Yeah well, at least I tried, you didn't even write anything!" He childishly stuck his tongue out.
Sensing trouble, Chouji brought up his hands to calm the two glaring boys. "It's okay, you guys! No need to argue about this!" Chouji started to say but was interrupted as Kiba turned on him.
"Shut up!" Kiba retorted. "That Shino guy is on Sakura's table and now because of him," he said, pointing at Naruto, "we have to do the quiz tomorrow while that stupid Shino guy and the other rich kids don't!"
Shikamaru stepped up to defend his lifetime true friend. "You still don't need to blame Chouji. It's not his fault," he said calmly.
Kiba huffed again and looked away.
Naruto, who was quiet the entire time, shifted his gaze on the winning table. Kiba was right; the kids were of the high class, judging by their costumed tailored clothes and well groomed hair. They were six of them in total.
The closest one was a girl with nicely done hair buns on each side of her head. Her name was Tenten and even though she was a girl, she could easily beat up a boy. And according to the last one, she could also make them weep and bawl.
Next to her was a boy wearing a big grey coat, though it was quite warm in the room. He wore sunglasses inside the building due to his eyes been sensitive to any type of light. Naruto guessed that this guy was Shino, since Kiba had been shooting glares at the oblivious boy. Naruto wondered what a quiet boy like him could do to Kiba to piss him off.
Not a lot, I'm guessing. Naruto rolled his eyes at the petulant brown-haired boy a seat away from him.
Next were the three exchanged students from Suna, a town just a few hours from Konoha. The three of them, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro, were triples. Although, they hardly looked related, much less like siblings.
And last but not least, Naruto's gaze settled on the team's leader, a pretty pink-haired girl with nice, soft, pale skin and beautiful sea-green eyes. Naruto felt him self blushing when the girl's face turned to look at him when she felt his gaze. Looking away quickly, he was thankful that Kurenai-sensei started the day's lessons and the pink-haired girl shifted her eyes on her instead of him.
Once class was over, the children all pushed their way to leave the classroom as if there was a fire. Naruto waited until the crowd left before walking next door to wait for Iruka. He didn't have to wait long. Pretty soon, a huge crowd of obnoxious, shrieking children stampeded out of the classroom. Although it was the end of the day, most kids still ran like they were being chased by the boogieman himself, with the exception of a few.
Outside in the courtyard, Naruto spotted Shikamaru and the others all walking out to the gates of the school to wait for their respective parents to pick them up.
Noticing the familiar faces, Naruto smiled at them. "Bye you guys!" the blond boy waved goodbye at them.
Chouji and Lee waved back while Shikamaru just nodded. Kiba narrowed his eyes and stomped off, motioning for the others to follow him. Chouji and Lee smiled apologetically and followed with Shikamaru trailing after them at his own pace.
Naruto's smile disappeared. Their attitude towards him hurt, but it was expected. Hardly anyone stayed his friend longer than a week.
And now just because I couldn't think of a few words, I lost four potential friends?
"Are you ready to go Naruto?" Iruka interrupted gently behind him. Naruto moved his gaze from the four retreating kids to stare at his father and nodded silently.
--
"… And after the prince married the beautiful princess, they rode away in his stallion to his kingdom and lived happily ever after." Iruka closed the thick book of fairy tales announcing it was time for the blue-eyed boy to go to bed.
Naruto scrunched up his nose. "But Iruka! It's barely nine!" He opened his blue eyes wide making sure to add tears as he stared at his father. He expertly added the pouting trick as well.
Iruka nearly opened his mouth to give in, but caught himself at the last minute. "Absolutely not! Just because you don't have school tomorrow doesn't mean you can stay up late, it is not healthy for you," he reprimanded the still pouting boy and motioned him to climb inside the covers.
Iruka leaned in to kiss his forehead and pat his hair as he tenderly tucked him in.
Naruto's lips slowly curved into a bright smile. "Good night, Iruka," he happily whispered.
"Good night, Naruto. Don't hesitate to call me if you need anything, okay?"
Naruto nodded sleepily.
Iruka smiled and slowly closed the bedroom door, leaving the room to merge with the shadows. The only light was coming from the moon and the slit under the door. But naturally, that is not enough comforting light for a normal eight year-old.
Naruto was already feeling better as he snuggled to his pillow.
This is really cool! Not only its Friday, which means no school! But Iruka might also make some ramen tomorrow! And may be Sasuke will come too!
Excitedly now, the boy began thinking of things he would talk about with his new friend when he arrived. He wondered if he'll be able to see his beautiful and stunning black wings, and his pretty yet indifferent face. The blonde was perhaps a little too excited, for he decided to stay awake and wait for the brunet to show up.
But minute after minute, hour after hour, the boy kept looking at his bedside clock; once reading 9:00 o'clock now read close to 12:00. The window balcony remained opened, but nothing but the wind invited itself in. There was no brunet, no handsome young man, no angel.
Brokenhearted, the little blonde allowed his eyes close in disappointment, and fell asleep facing towards the window.
--
Sasuke's eye twitched as Kakashi flipped a page of his bright orange books. His silver-haired tutor was supposed to teach him, yet the older vampire had not done anything except sit on his desk and read his perverted books since the class started. They hadn't done anything at all the whole day!
At first, Sasuke had thought that the masked man was just messing with him and would start the lessons as soon as he saw Sasuke sitting patiently in front of him. After a couple of hours of waiting though, Sasuke concluded that Kakashi was either very good at ignoring him or was disappointed and mad at him for ditching him at the human city when he wasn't supposed to.
Terrified that Kakashi would tell Itachi of his misbehavior, the youngest Uchiha stayed where he was, fully prepared to get an earful from Kakashi and his brother. Instead, Kakashi neither spoke nor turned his attention from his precious book. Perhaps that was the scarecrow's way of warning him to stay away from humans until he was of age. Or perhaps those damn books were just too good to put down.
Sasuke gritted his teeth painfully. He absolutely hated when he was told what to do or not to do. He felt like doing the exact opposite of Kakashi's possible warnings, just to satisfy the rebellious feeling in his head.
Throughout the day and part of the night, the young vampire felt eager to see the human boy again and take in his delicious scent of honey with a tinge of orange flowers on full bloom.
Sighing as he realized that Kakashi wasn't about to tutor him anytime soon, he stood up from his chair and left the room as quietly as possible.
The silver-haired vampire peered up from his book, troubled gray eyes staring at the now closed door. He went back to his book and ruefully whispered, "Be careful."
Without even a second thought of hesitation, Sasuke headed out of the Uchiha Manor the same way he did the day before. This time, he didn't bother being as careful. His brother went out hunting, and he was sure he wouldn't be coming back anytime soon. He usually liked to play with his food for while before completely draining them of their blood. Shuddering in disgust, the young Uchiha exited the manor.
Once outside, Sasuke looked up at the moon and calculated its position.
It's close to one in the morning, so the boy is probably asleep by now.
But if that was the case, then he would abandon the idea and not disturb him. If he doesn't lose control and aggressively attacked the boy that is.
--
Sasuke stood completely immobilized outside the balcony, staring from the semi-closed curtains. His assumptions were right; the young human was sleeping soundly. However, instead of retreating like he had planned, he crept closer and quietly entered through the balcony door.
His black, polished shoes didn't even make a sound as he came nearer the bed in the middle of the room. Though, the floor wasn't so cooperative since it was covered with small toys and figures that easily crunched or squeaked if he stepped on them.
Nearly stepping in another small animal figure like last time, the raven-haired took a deep breath. That proved to be the wrong thing to do. He gasped quickly as the boy's sent entered rapidly into his lungs.
Alarms started going off in his head when he inhaled the boy's delicious smell. He almost groaned at loud at the malicious and perverted thoughts that came to his head after the scent filled his nose. It was already messing with his head and he was only here a few seconds.
Light-headed, he edged closer to the bed and reached out to touch a whiskered cheek, admiring how soft it was. Without warning, the sleeping Naruto stirred and shifted. As a result, Sasuke became paralyzed with dread. The boy may have been more used to Sasuke, but the black-haired vampire still didn't want to frighten him. Humans were so unpredictable, as Kakashi always said during his lessons.
Feeling braver, Sasuke roamed his fingertips over a small nose, closed eyelids, cute chubby cheeks, and all the way down to soft half parted lips. His oversized pajamas were riding low on his torso, exposing a tanned, small shoulder and a collar bone, exciting the vampire even more.
Sasuke gulped a mouthful of air, he was sure that if he had a heart, it would've accelerated at the glowing tan skin beneath his own pale fingers.
Snap out of it, he is just a child, a human child no less!
Reluctantly, the vampire moved away from the sleeping figure. He didn't leave the room though; after all, he did promise the boy to visit him.
Perhaps I should wake him up?
He grabbed Naruto gently by the shoulders and shook him until he opened his eyes. The heat radiating from his skin, kind of surprised the vampire. Compared to his icy skin, the boy's was burning.
Naruto immediately went into defense mode, or at least as defensive as a half-asleep Naruto could get. "Wha? Iruka your eyes turned a different color," he said dazedly.
Annoyed, Sasuke shook him harder. "It's me you dunce, you told me to come tonight, didn't you?"
Naruto tiredly squinted his sleepy eyes, staring at black irritated ones instead or Iruka's soft chocolate brown. He sat up in alarm nearly bumping his head with the older guy's.
"Sasuke?" he said hesitantly, almost as if speaking any louder would make the illusion disappear.
The vampire stayed silent but nodded, inwardly thrilled at how the boy's heartbeat quickened erratically at his response.
Naruto gave him an ecstatic smile that threatened to break his face in half. "Sasuke, it is you!" he said in confirmation before throwing himself at the clueless Uchiha and latched his small arms around his neck.
Sasuke nearly gasped as a gust of that tempting smell hit him full in the face, so to speak. If it wasn't because he had plenty of self control, he would've pierced the boy's soft skin with his fangs and lick mercilessly the dripping blood coming from the wound.
His arms hanged loosely at his sides as he waited tensely for the child to let go.
When he felt that the hug was not returned, Naruto reluctantly let go, giving the other a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I guess I really need that," he said, trying to mask his disappointed look.
Sasuke looked away. "Hn."
He wasn't exactly aware about human greetings or how to respond to them. The only times he has been hugged was by his mother and by Itachi, who used to embrace him with his wings during vampire attacks as a child.
The next few seconds were filled with awkward silence, neither of them staring directly at each other.
Sighing, Sasuke stood up from his place on the bed. "I must get going."
Naruto's mood deflated in an instant. "What? But you just got here!"
"And now I'm leaving."
Naruto's hurt eyes filled with tears, but stubbornly refused to let them fall. He furiously rubbed them to avoid crying in front of company. Although right now, he felt that nothing would be able to stop them. He had been able to keep them in check all this morning at school and after school. Now it seemed his tears had won, as they silently ran down the contours of his cheeks.
Sasuke swore under his breath, he maybe he a heartless bastard, but he didn't want the brat to cry for a reason as stupid as this. He approached the boy and with the tip of his fingers, he cleared away the tears.
He patted the blond tresses awkwardly. "Don't cry Naruto, I'll stay," he said so soft Naruto had to strain his ears to hear it.
The boy's emotions did a completely unexpected 180 degree turn.
Naruto let out a loud whoop. Wincing, Sasuke perked up his ears incase the other sleeping human in the house woke up. But all he could hear was the steady heartbeats of a grown human, as well as light breathing. Satisfied he wasn't in any danger of been found, Sasuke gave an irritated glare at the boy. But seeing that Naruto blushed and cutely covered his mouth with his hand, Sasuke's anger drifted away.
"No need to be so loud you dimwit, do you want to get us caught?" Sasuke smirked as Naruto shook his head furiously. "Then keep quiet you idiot."
Naruto opened his mouth to apologize, but then he thought of what the other just said. "Hey, why do you have to insult me and call me all these names you… you- you stupid head!"
The vampire smirked. "Is that the best you got, dumbass?" he taunted, fully enjoying the bantering.
Sasuke nearly laughed at the expressions coming and going on Naruto's face. He idly named them as they did. Anger, embarrassment, annoyance, and finally settled into frustration.
The young boy snarled, surprising the both of them. "Shut up you bastard!"
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the insult, completely caught off guard, and judging by the other's wide eyed expression, he was also stunned.
Better do something before he starts thinking I'm going to punish him or something.
Sasuke smirked at the dejected boy, showing him his white fangs to add to the effect. "What do you want to do then, dobe?"
The teasing worked instantaneously. Naruto snapped his head up to look at the smirking Sasuke, and tried his best to give him his own version of a glare.
"You jerk! Don't call me that." The child thought for a minute.
I could show him around my room and the rest of the house. Or we could make some midnight snacks 'cause I do feel hungry, but what if Iruka wakes up?
Finally, after a few seconds of thinking, he smiled warmly as he was struck with a better idea. Turning back to Sasuke, who had long since made himself comfortable on the small bed, Naruto finally spoke and pointed with his finger at a curious Sasuke.
"So then, can you play with me now?"
Another long chapter done! I should probably explain that we did some research, and we found out that both ramen and ketchup were indeed invented by the late 1800's, which of course, fits in our story nicely.
You guys are probably awfully mad at us for not updating sooner, but believe me, we have been trying to update a long time ago! Thankfully, Sachi and I have split the work more evenly now, and things should start going a lot faster now. Not to mention we are back to school, which means we will start writing more often than paying attention in Calculus and Chemistry class! I mean seriously, who pays attention in those classes?!
Like we said before, DON'T YOU DARE loose faith on us! We are not the type of authors who will give up on their stories at all (Unless Kishimoto-sama suddenly decides to end the Naruto Shippuuden series like J.K Rowling, and we would be forced to commit suicide). But anyways… Please accept our apologies! We'll try to update all of our stories eventually, just please be patient!
Please continue to review as well! It certainly makes us feel a lot better to know people actually appreciate our works. Just don't flame! Sachi is very emotional! We wanna hear what you guys gotta say and we will try to answer any of your questions or concerns as best as we can!
-Iemitsu-Sachi