He was floating. He was floating in a dark, vast space that belonged to nobody.
He belonged to nobody.
Children will one day grow up and want their freedom. They will declare that they belong to their parents no more.
Well, he thought that was stupid. He didn't even have any parents to begin with. Those brats never did realize how damn lucky they were.
He wanted to belong to somebody.
Anybody.
He just didn't want to be alone.
-
Ancient bricks started popping out of the castle dangerously.
Iruka being in an open space, had nowhere to dash for cover as he covered his head with his hands. He wanted to get to Naruto.
" Moron." Neji muttered from behind him. "You'll die."
"Shut up."
"…This castle is ruined."
Orange spirals of air swirled all around the dark rooms of the falling castle. Everywhere was in a mess.
"NARUTO!" Iruka yelled to the crouching blonde in a corner. "NARUTO!"
"Huh?" Naruto turned around, his eyes blue and teary.
Iruka sighed. Naruto was still Naruto. He hadn't been influenced by the First yet.
"Let's get out of here." He said, holding out his hand. "Come on."
The boy nodded.
-
He closed his eyes, letting himself float freely within that dark space. He won't feel hunger. He won't feel fatigue. He won't feel anything.
He wasn't human.
And so he asks,
"Will I continue on floating forever?"
"Where shall I go from here?"
After that he thought, and decided,
"I have all the time in the world."
No one would be here. No one was ever here.
-
"I really am a monster, Iruka. That boy told me."
Iruka looked at the boy. He was crying, and yet he seemed expressionless.
"I killed those villagers."
"Correction. That monster inside you killed those villagers. It has been murdering people for centuries."
Naruto looked up.
"Why is it inside me? Why me? Are my parents monsters too?"
Iruka picked the boy up.
"No." He said roughly, hugging the now sobbing blonde close.
-
(At Iruka's and Kakashi's shared flat)
Naruto looked at the gray-haired hunter in front of him. The man looked rather peculiar. A mask and one eye.
"Are you a pirate?" He inquired curiously.
Kakashi coughed and started laughing. "No."
"Won't you get too warm wearing stuff like that?"
"Nope. I'm used to it."
Naruto blinked and turned to the tanned hunter, who was laughing his head off at the pirate remark. "Iruka?"
"It's really not that funny." Kakashi said lazily, taking out his orange book. He was, however, smiling underneath his mask.
-
He was startled by a 'bump'.
"I hit a house." He said plainly, rubbing his foot, and his eyes widening in amazement.
And it really was a house. A plain house, with a lighted room. He could see the light through the window.
"This is something different."
He opened the door and went in.
-
Naruto looked at the stake in his hands.
"This can kill vampires." He said, turning it.
"Yes." Iruka said, adjusting a bottle on his belt.
The little vampire stared at it, his hands trembling.
"The First is a vampire… So can I kill it with this?" He whispered.
"What?" Iruka didn't catch his words.
Naruto cocked his head, smiling upon hearing his guardian's voice. "My seal is located at my stomach?" He asked innocently, patting his shirt.
"Yep…" Iruka said carelessly, putting a stake into his backpack.
"… Have a good day at work." Naruto said, holding out his hand and still smiling, the stake stowed away in his pocket.
-
"Iruka." Kakashi said as the door closed. "Something horrible happened."
"What?" Iruka said, looking at the window worriedly.
"Naruto will be okay." Kakashi said urgently. "That clan has been wiped out. Itachi's clan."
"By vampires? Surely not."
"Itachi wiped them out."
Iruka stopped, shocked. "You're joking. Why? He wiped out his own clan?"
"We're going to the scene with the others to check it out. Now let's go."
-
Naruto had observed how hunters get rid of vampires.
By sticking a stake into them. And POOF! Ashes.
He took a stake and aimed it at his stomach. "I don't want to be a monster."
"…That thing is dangerous."
Naruto dropped the stake, turning sharply at the window.
"Hello."
Neji looked disgusted. "You can live in this dump? The whole place stinks of holy water."
"It doesn't stink."
Neji went into the room, holding a hand over his nose.
"Come with me."
"No."
The other vampire raised an eyebrow.
"You don't want to be a monster, do you? I can help you."
"Liar."
"I told you about the First being inside you, by the way."
Naruto stopped, glancing at the stake on the floor.
"You go first. I follow."
Neji turned. "Fine."
A hand picked up the stake on the floor before the pair was gone in a gust of wind.
-
The used-to-be-purely-innocent-and-cute dark-haired boy didn't look very cute with blood and bite marks on his neck. He had blood all over his overalls. And his expression was the worst of all.
"GO AWAY!" Sasuke yelled, clutching the sliver stake hard in his hand. "STAY AWAY FROM THAT BLOODY HOUSE!"
The house was, literally, bloody.
"Hold on, kid. You're okay."
"STAY AWAY FROM MY HOUSE!"
"Why aren't you at your house, then?" Kakashi asked. Tear-filled eyes turned to glare at him.
"Because it's disgusting. But I forbid you to go any closer. I'll kill you."
"Where are your parents?"
"I'll kill you."
"Where is Itachi?"
Sasuke threw the stake directly at Kakashi's masked face.
"SHUT UP!"
A woman went behind him and knocked him gently on the shoulder. Sasuke's eyes turned blank and closed.
"Kakashi." The woman growled warningly.
Kakashi blinked and looked at the kid. "He's been bitten by a special. We'll have to do something to slow down the vampirism effects. The slow seal, I think."
The slow seal, as subtly mentioned in the earlier chapters, are done to people who have fallen prey to specials. It has the ability to slow down the vampire effects on the person, but it also depends on the individual's willpower.
"Of course. I got my wolves to search the house." The woman wiped her forehead. Her face had two identical red marks on it.
-
He looked inside the house. It was rather strange to him.
He had been exposed to dark too long a time, he supposed. It was all white here. Startling white.
Then it suddenly turned dim. It was a pleasant shade, however. He looked around, and suddenly hoped that someone was there.
But it wasn't possible. It was only that dark space and him…
Nope. If that dark space was really empty, and open to him alone, there wouldn't be this house.
Something seemed to click. He was hopeful. It could true after all. And thus he started to walk, to call, to search.
"Someone."
-
"Why are you so interested in me?" Naruto blurted as he gulped down the bottle of blood hungrily. He hadn't been feeding for a day, and was famished.
"My family sealed the First in you." Neji said, watching his companion slurp down the red liquid messily. "But you're not a vampire by birth."
Naruto stopped, blinking, his eyes crestfallen. "I don't understand."
"The sealing of the First in you made you a vampire. But if you are rid of the First in you, you will be a normal human." Neji explained quietly, looking down at his hands.
Naruto shook his head, frowning. "That won't do. I don't understand." He repeated.
Silver eyes blinked in amusement.
"Never mind that." He got up and squinted. "Do you really like the sun so much? It's… really…detestable."
"…" The blonde pre-teen took out the stake from his pocket and viewed it.
"That's dangerous, kid." Neji said quickly, backing a step away from him upon sighting the piece of metal.
"You don't look older than me at all. So you're a kid too." Naruto protested.
"And you haven't told me about me not becoming a monster."
Neji looked at him and sighed.
"You're… not a monster. If you want to believe that you are, then you are."
Naruto put the bottle gently on the ground before speaking.
"You're not helping me at all. Now I have an idea… I'm going to stake this thing and"—
He rose up the stolen stake once again, his sentence discontinued.
"Idiot!" The other boy snarled fiercely. "Do you have a death wish? What will happen if that precious hunter-guardian of yours stick a stake through himself?"
Precious hunter –guardian? Naruto blinked.
"O-Of course he'll die." The bewildered boy said, and covered his mouth just as immediately.
"Correct." Neji squinted and groaned. "I can't stand that bright light anymore." He stood up and was gone.
Author: I'm sorry if this chapter was so longwinded… But the flashback will maybe last about another half chapter and well… -- Sorry again.