Title: Ketsueki, Fukushuu, to Daisuki (Blood, Revenge, and Love)

Summary: Blood and revenge had been the only addictions high school junior Sasuke Uchiha had, but it seemed that the teenage vampire had discovered another even more serious addiction in the form of Naruto Uzumaki. (Sasunaru) (AU) (Title: Blood, Revenge, and Love)

A/N: Hi there! Yes, it's me, again. I haven't magically disappeared, so no worries, I've come with another update! (…sorry for the epic wait…) And will there be actual SasuNaruSasu? Well, sort of. No mush and fluff yet, though. All in good time, my impatient friends. XD

Anyways, while I run from my angry readers for putting off the SasuNaruSasu goodness, I present to you…

Shameless Advertising: Once you finish this chappie, hurry on over to my profile and read my newest possibly multi-chaptered fic, Synchronized, along with all it's companion fics. See? I did have a reason for this less-than-satisfactory chapter! I was writing NaruSasu fluff elsewhere!

And now, something you won't think is annoying (maybe?): Do you have a story idea or plot bunny you want to see written by someone other than yourself? If it's sasunaru, then I'm your girl. Just PM me or leave a review with the idea and/or prompt, and I may or may not write it up, depending on whether or not I like it or not, but I probably will anyway.

Disclaimer: Konnichiwa, minna! Watashi wa Atomic Jello desu (try to figure this much Japanese out on your own! If you do, I have Sasuke-shaped cookies waiting)! Wo bu jiao Kishimoto Masashi. (Chinese this time. A Naruto-themed cupcake, anyone?) Wo fei chang xi huan SasuNaru, ke shi Naruto bu shi wo de. (I'll be nice and translate this: I love Sasunaru A LOT, but Naruto isn't mine.)

Beta: The amazing MikoGoddess who I don't deserve at all. I can't thank her enough for picking up my slack.

Key:

Thoughts

Kyuubi

"Speaking a foreign language (Japanese)"

First POV: Sasuke

Ketsueki, Fukushuu, to Daisuki

Chapter Three

Rivalry

Naruto Uzumaki didn't really know what he was doing in Easy Everyday Phrases in Multiple Foreign Languages. It sounded like some sort of do-it-yourself book that taught dysfunctional families foreign languages in the hopes that it would bring then closer together. But, EEPMFL was a class, and he was close to failing even though it was only his second day.

The reason? Sasuke Uchiha, of course. Naruto couldn't help but stare at the other boy, darkly handsome and strangely beautiful as he sat two desks down, looking lazily attentive, his elbows braced against the table, fingers forming a steeple as he rested his lips against his folded hands, eyes hooded.

"Now, repeat after me," their professor, Sarutobi-sensei, said, looking like he'd much rather be smoking in the parking lot then teaching a bunch of uninterested teenagers how to say simple phrases. "Ohayo gozaimasu. Good Morning."

"Ohayou gozaimasu. Good Morning," the class echoed just as dully. Geez… not even out teacher wants to be here. I though this was some elite prep school. Naruto's eyes were once again drawn to Sasuke. His voice was the loudest, the rather awkward Japanese syllables rolling smoothly off his tongue, velvety and oddly… sexy. Dear God! What am I doing, thinking these things in class! Naruto mentally bashed his head against a concrete wall. He would've done it literally it he hadn't been loathe to die a sixteen-year-old virgin with far too many unanswered questions.

"Konnichiwa. Hello." Asuma was picking at his nails. Wasn't he supposed to be setting an example? He was just slouching against the white board that remained pristine and un-written-upon, picking at his cigarette-stained fingers, dreaming nicotine-addiction-induced dreams. Naruto robotically opened his mouth and duplicated the sounds, his mind racing around in circles, attempting to concentrate on anything but Sasuke.

"Ii otenki desu ne. It's fine weather today." Asuma had graduated to fiddling with his admittedly cool-looking leather jacket which he had obviously smuggled in because the school accepted no less than impeccably pressed suits to be worn by its employees. Asuma looked rather strange and out of place in a white dress shirt that was rumpled and coffee stained, his leather jacket, a boring navy tie, beaten-up loafers that looked like they'd seen better days before they'd been put through a food processor on puree, and ill-fitting grey slacks that looked like they'd been dragged out of an old chest and freed from a pile of moth balls. They weren't even creased. Oh, the horror!

Naruto withheld a snigger. Asuma-sensei was one of his favorite teachers precisely because of his rumpled and lazy exterior. He was all the good things about Kakashi without the bad. "Ii otenki desu ne. It's fine weather today." He repeated obediently, continuing his study of Asuma. Anything to distract him from thoughts of Sasuke.

"Kawaii inu desu ne. That's a cute dog." Asuma was zipping and unzipping his jacket now. Naruto couldn't help but wonder how Asuma had managed to get a job at a school with standards as high as Konoha High School. Even though it was a public school, it had teachers worthy of college professor status.

World renowned and all that shit, Naruto reflected lazily as he opened his mouth to repeat the phrase and translation.

"Sumimasen. Excuse me; sorry." Asuma had shoved his big, rough hands into his pockets and was pacing across the room under the pretense of making sure everyone was participating, but Naruto had a feeling his foot was just falling asleep.

"Sumimasen. Excuse me; sorry," Naruto echoed dully, flicking lint off of his neat uniform.

Come to think of it, a lot of the new teachers didn't seem like Konoha High quality, not that he knew what that was since he was new too, but, still… Wasn't it kind of weird that Kakashi (he was in no way on par with the other teachers: the man rarely showed up before the half bell) and Sasuke arrived at the same time as the other strange, unprofessional teachers like Genma (a pervert who had already established a reputation for himself, somehow turning Calculus into the most perverted thing on Earth and beyond), Raidou (not too bad, but he didn't seem to know his subject, History) and Gai (the man was certifiably insane!)?

And that could only mean one thing: those people were the fellow vampires Kakashi had talked about.

Only habit kept Naruto from forgetting to say "Chikaku no eki wa doko desuka. Where is the nearest train station?" as Asuma passed by, checking to make sure his class hadn't become the undead overnight. His new revelation was mind boggling: he was being taught by a group of centuries-old vampires?

"Chikaku no toire wa doko desuka? Where is the nearest bathroom?" Asuma didn't look particularly vampire-like, but then again, none of the vampires did. They had unnaturally flawless white skin, yes, but that wasn't an enormous rarity. They were all unnaturally good-looking (to the possible exception of Gai, because there was no way those eyebrows were going to be considered attractive anytime soon) and moved with a strange grace…

"Chikaku no koban wa doko desuka? Where is the nearest police box?" Naruto couldn't help but look to Sasuke as he repeated the new phrase. The Uchiha looked dignified and the most vampire-like of the group: dark hair, ivory skin… But it was just so hard to believe that the beautiful teenager and laid-back teacher were vampires.

"Chikaku no koshudenwa wa doko desuka? Where is the nearest public telephone?" Naruto let that one fly right over his head. How could he tell the vampires from the people? For all he knew, Iruka was a vampire, the lunch lady who gave him extra pudding every time he smiled and said, "Good morning, Pam," was a vampire, the nice old man at his favorite ramen stand was a vampire…

"Chikaku no shokuji ga dekiru tokoro wa doko desuka? Is there a place to dine nearby?" What if his whole life had been a lie? The people he thought were humans were all vampires, lying and tricking him, sucking the blood of humans come nightfall…

"Arigatou gozaimasu. Thank you very much." How did he tell who was who? How did he know what was a lie and what wasn't? Who was he?

"Matane. See you later." I'm a vampire... Naruto thought, and it was then that it truly sunk in. I'm a blood-sucking beast… who the hell is Naruto Uzumaki? Who is the real me?

You, kit, are Naruto Uzumaki. What more do you need?

There was a voice.

A voice in his head.

The voice of a demon.

It was all Naruto could do to keep himself from screaming.

I never much liked the rain. The rain means loneliness and despair and desolation and death…

When I went through a fit of juvenile, teenage rebellion around the time I turned thirty eight, I ran away to Seattle, the rainy city. It was after that issue that we - Kakashi, Genma, Raidou, Gai, Asuma and I - relocated to Europe. I told Kakashi that I was tired of blood pills and the occasional fresh kill (always animals, never a human) and I was tired of our way of life. I told him I hated the peace and wanted excitement (at the time, we had yet to begin hunting other, uncontrolled vampires), but I said it all in a way that was meant to wound.

Kakashi, of course, let me go. He knew I needed to figure it out on my own, and I did. It was unbelievably painful, preying on humans. I, of course, fed off of criminals. I told myself that, by killing off murderers and thieves, I was doing the city a service, but I couldn't get away from the fact that, even if the crime rates were going down, I was still taking human life. When the debt of all my crimes was too much, I went crawling back to Kakashi.

He took me back like the brother he never had.

That period of life was one of the worst. I didn't have the excuse of being newborn to cover for my wildness, nor could I say that I had any reason to be unhappy with life with my little family. I don't remember much of it, because I have a feeling Kakashi searched my memories and erased the particularly horrible ones, but I do remember the rain, and the blood, and the screams, and the rush of unbelievable, dizzying power I felt feeding off of human blood.

Now I know what makes Akatsuki strong.

Human blood.

The second the bell rang, Naruto bolted, snagging Sasuke's arm on his way out and dragging the taller boy out after him. "What the hell, dobe?" Sasuke demanded, his eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"There's a voice in my head, Sasuke!" Naruto practically shouted, shaking the other boy. "What the hell is up with that?"

"Something like that has a nice, simple name," Sasuke said calmly. "You're bat-shit insane," he finished with a smirk.

"Teme!" Naruto shouted angrily. "That's not funny. The voice, it isn't mine! It's the voice of a demon!"

"And why, pray tell, would you know what a demon sounds like?" Sasuke asked evenly, because it was impossible that the Kyuubi had come out already. That wasn't supposed to happen for another two years. That was why they had waited so long to come to Naruto's aid.

"TV, but that's beside the point. It isn't my voice!" Naruto shouted, on the brink of whining. Why wouldn't Sasuke just accept that something was wrong?

Suddenly, Sasuke's dark sapphire eyes turned serious. "It's impossible that the nine-tailed fox has awoken," he said, softly and quickly and intensely. "That's not supposed to happen until you reach manhood at eighteen."

"Yeah, but isn't this thing, like, thousands of years old?" Naruto asked. "In the old days, sixteen is when a boy becomes a man."

Sasuke's eyes widened. Damn it to hell and back… the dobe's got a point… "Fine, let's just say that this really is the Kyuubi. We can't do anything right now. Kakashi's in the middle of casting a protective jutsu on our," Sasuke winced at the word. He hated the thought of rooming with the blonde dobe the second Kakashi finished preparations, "room. It'll have to wait until we get home after soccer tryouts. Well, that is if they don't get rained out." Sasuke glanced disdainfully out the window, taking in the dull grey sheets of water rolling down from the roiling grey storm clouds.

"You're kidding me, right?" Naruto asked. "You want me to stay put while this… thing is living in my brain, talking to me?"

"Yeah, just about," Sasuke smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. "It's not like there are any other options, usuratonkachi."

"Stop calling me that, damn it!"

"See?" Sasuke asked, making his way to the cafeteria, warding off his fangirls with a cold, hard glare. "If you have the energy to complain about rightfully given insults, you have the energy to make it through the rest of the school day."

"Your logic is screwed up," Naruto hissed angrily.

"But it works," Sasuke said with a shrug and a self-confident smirk.

"For you, maybe," Naruto muttered, but followed Sasuke into the lunch line anyway as girls swooned left and right. Damn genetics… Naruto thought bitterly, why the hell does Sasuke-teme get all the girls?

He's hot, that's why.

Naruto jumped in shock. Sasuke gave him a 'what the hell are you doing, idiot?' look.

"That demon thing just talked to me," Naruto hissed, deciding that leaving out the part about said demon calling Sasuke hot would be the smart thing to do. This thing was, like, his conscience or inner self or something weird like that, right? Wait… did that mean his inner self thought Sasuke was hot? No, Naruto knew Sasuke was hot, he just wasn't going to admit it to anyone else anytime soon.

Sasuke shrugged as if talking demons was an everyday occurrence, and Naruto wanted to slug him. "Just see if you can make it through the rest of the day, dobe," Sasuke said in a disinterested tone, making his way over to a corner table with his lunch. "Kakashi'll figure it out."

No one would've been able to guess that Inner Sasuke was screaming "Armageddon!" at the top of his lungs even though Outter Sasuke was perfectly calm and impassive, but such is the Uchiha Way.

Naruto struggled to keep from pouting as he stared out the window, watching the rain fall in truckloads. Damn… I was looking forward to showing up teme… Naruto sighed and looked to Sasuke, maneuvering the roads with practiced ease even though the speedometer's neon orange arrow was inching it's way over 120 mph.

"Holy shit!" Naruto shouted at Sasuke, a mixture of fear and adrenaline at their speed whirring though him. "Slow down, Sasuke!"

"We're fine," Sasuke said with a shrug, taking a sharp, recklessly fast left that had Naruto gasping for breath as he was strangled by his seatbelt.

"No we're not!" Naruto screamed, wanting to shake the reckless brunette behind the wheel. "When we become a Nissan pretzel around a street lamp, you can probably walk away, but what the hell will I do?!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Vampires aren't super heroes, dobe. We're not indestructible."

"Are you saying that you'd actually get hurt in a high-speed car crash?" Naruto asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Don't find answers where there are none, Usuratonkachi. I'd be fine, but that doesn't mean I'm impossible to kill," Sasuke said, infuriatingly smug, and Naruto could practically hear Sasuke's smirk.

"Jeez, can you read minds too?" The blonde demanded, attempting to stare the brunette down, which was pretty hard, considering Sasuke was (thankfully) keeping his eyes on the road.

Sasuke smirked, turning to face Naruto ("Watch where the hell you're going, Sasuke!). "Maybe," he said, enjoying Naruto's indignant expression.

"That's not an answer, bastard!" Naruto cried, forcefully grabbing Sasuke's chin and directing his line of sight towards the water-logged road.

"Well, you'll just have to find out, now won't you?" Sasuke said, pulling into a long, winding drive after a series of back roads.

"Where are we?" Naruto asked, looking around. The long driveway was flanked by tall, imposing trees, the rain letting up as the dense foliage kept out the water. The entire drive felt cold and imposing in the dank half-light.

"I wouldn't exactly call it a home, since home is where the heart is, after all, and mine seems to be missing in action," Sasuke said with an almost scornful twist of his lips. "But, this is the house I share with Kakashi, Genma, Raidou, Gai and Asuma."

"Ha, so I was right!" He shouted triumphantly. "They are vampires!"

"…Thanks for sharing, dobe," Sasuke drawled dryly, pulling up to an equally imposing house. It was built with dark grey stone bricks and was probably as close as Naruto was ever going to get to a medieval castle in Konoha. It looked to be around three stories high and was surrounded by a meticulously kept lawn and, to Naruto's disappointment, there was no alligator-infested moat in sight. Sasuke drove into what looked like an eight-car garage, parked his sleek sports car, and got out. Naruto glowered for a few moments, muttering about bad manners and rude bastards, before following Sasuke into the mansion.

Through the front doors was a rich, plush red carpet that felt three feet deep. Naruto wanted to kick off his shoes and sink into it, but that would be bad manners, and, of course, Naruto prided himself in being polite, unlike someone. The carpet split into two, leading up a double staircase that circled around to meet and become one staircase once again halfway up to the second floor. The entrance hall could be viewed from the second floor since it was open for viewing, a railing the only thing keeping the second floor separate from the entrance hall. It was light and airy, sunlight streaming in through the enormous windows.

"Whoa, this is one fancy house," Naruto commented, stroking the polished wood banister as they walked up the stairs.

Sasuke smirked superiorly. "You've seen nothing yet, usuratonkachi." Sasuke wandered down a long, sun-washed corridor as he called out Kakashi's name.

A thump and a muffled oath sounded from a room three doors down. "Damn it… I have to re-draw that rune now."

Sasuke sighed, cracking open the door. "What did you do?" He demanded, sounding weary and resigned, as if used to Kakashi's clumsiness.

"…I sat on it." Kakashi said, looking like a kicked puppy.

"Before or after you cast the spell?" Sasuke didn't look surprised at all.

"After…" He mumbled reluctantly.

The brunette sighed testily. "Let me do it," he grumbled, stooping down to scoop up a jar of sand, pinching some in his long white fingers before sprinkling it over the floorboards to form a strange design. Sasuke pulled out a dagger he, apparently, kept strapped to the inside of his belt, nicking his finger and letting the blood drip down. The rune glowed brilliantly for a split second before disappearing like it had never been there at all.

"That's so weird. What does drawing a symbol and dripping blood on it have to do with anything?" Naruto asked, stepping into the room.

"It's a protection spell, usuratonkachi. It only works with vampire blood, of course." Sasuke said, looking the room over dispassionately. It was plainly furnished with two twin beds on either side of the room. The room was blandly decorated with a blue and white theme, and looked tacky and boring. Sasuke wrinkled his nose. He hated such… ordinariness.

Since, of course, he and Naruto were both far from the norm.

"You will be sleeping here with Sasuke from now on, Naruto. Iruka will be coming over tonight with your belongings, since it is no longer safe for you to stay home without any protection," Kakashi informed the blonde boy. "Once the Kyuubi awakens within you, you'll be targeted by rogue vampires far and wide. The Organization should be sending us backup…"

"Organization?" Sasuke looked surprised.

"Yes, even the Organization has decided that Naruto's safety is a matter of the utmost importance," Kakashi nodded sagely.

"Would someone care to fill me in?" Naruto asked testily. He was met with two pairs ofdark, unreadable eyes.

"Get comfortable, dobe. This may take a while."

A/N: Oh… epic fail. That was horrible. Shorter than usual, too, I think. But, please, bear with me and review.