A/N- :panic panic panic: I HAVE A MIDTERM TOMORROW AND I FOUND OUT LAST NIGHT CLOSE TO MIDNIGHT:panic panic panic: Do I know anything? No... But I did spew out a chapter for y'all :P I love you THAT much. Excuse me while I go panic elsewhere...

Disclaimer: My brain has run out of witty things to say because it can't see past its PANIC, so they're K. Masashi's.

Present.

Neji and Naruto walked towards a large, decrepit house, looking around. Naruto hadn't been allowed to bring his gun, because it would be too dangerous for him to be caught with it, but he still had his cross underneath his shirt. As long as no vampires came too close to him, everything should be fine.

"That's the guy." Neji said in a low voice as they neared the house, a vampire standing on the front porch with his arms crossed. He narrowed his eyes as he saw Neji approach.

"I don't remember inviting him." He jerked his head in Naruto's direction.

"He's with me." Neji insisted as he stopped at the base of the stairs. "Newly turned, I need to help him out."

The vampire jumped off the porch and walked up to Naruto, standing closer than the blond would've liked, considering his cross would alert the vampire that he wasn't one of them. "He doesn't smell like a vampire."

Neji stiffened, but looked at Naruto. "Show him."

Naruto nodded before turning back to the vampire. He stared at him as red slowly bled into his eyes, making the vampire smirk. You couldn't fake that.

"All right, he's legit. Come on in." He turned and trudged back up the steps, walking trough the open front door as Naruto forced the red out of his eyes and followed the vampire up the steps, Neji right behind him.

"When are you going to tell Kakashi that you can do that at will?" he asked the blond as they entered the house.

"Hopefully, I'll never have to." he replied.

He didn't like having to lie to Kakashi, but he didn't want the man to worry. And honestly, Naruto didn't want to think about it. It scared him that he might be turning more and more into a vampire as the days passed. What if one day he just suddenly woke up and was a vampire? Would he kill Sasuke sleeping peacefully beside him? His stomach clenched as he thought about it. He didn't want to hurt Sasuke, not ever, for any reason.

"Well, gents." The vampire turned and motioned a large room. "Take your pick."

Naruto and Neji looked into the room. There were a dozen people just lying around on the ground. Some had needles still sticking in their arms while others were just staring blankly at the opposite wall, laughing to themselves. Only four of them had a vampire latched to their necks, and none of them looked up when they entered the room.

"We're here to check it out for tonight." Neji informed the guy as Naruto walked into the room, looking around at all the junkies. Did they even understand what they were doing to themselves? Destroying their lives—he just didn't get it. "Don't want to get infected with bad blood."

"Understandable." the vampire replied as he watched Naruto.

The blond stopped beside a male vampire feeding on a female junkie. He crouched down in front of them, inspecting the girl's eyes. They were glazed over and she was groaning every once in a while, her hand twitching. She didn't seem to be in pain. Then again, vampires could control the feelings of the ones they fed on.

"Do they know what's happening?" he asked the vampire.

"No." He walked up behind Naruto, making the blond feel uneasy. He didn't like having a vampire standing so close to him. "They're too off their rocker to notice it. When they wake up, they feel weak but attribute it to the drugs since we cover our tracks."

"Right..." Naruto stood and took a step to the side to get away from the vampire. He felt uneasy with how he was looking at him. As if he knew something about him that he shouldn't. Did he know who Naruto really was? Had this all been a trick set up by Arashi? God Naruto hoped not. He didn't have any weapons, after all. He was beginning to regret having come here.

Sasuke glared down at the house from the building a few streets away. He was looking through a pair of binoculars, but once Neji and Naruto had entered the house, they didn't help him in the slightest. He let out a frustrated growl before jumping and almost dropping the binoculars.

"You know," he turned to glare at Sakura as the girl spoke, sitting down on the ledge beside him, "he's going to be mad knowing you didn't listen and stay home."

"As if I listen to anything he says." Sasuke bit back before looking through the binoculars again.

"Why are you so worried?" She sighed. "This is Naruto! He can take care of himself and you damn well know it."

"Last I checked, I was allowed to worry about him." Sasuke snapped. "What are you doing here?"

"Kakashi sent me." She sighed. "He was worried about Naruto."

"So he's allowed to be, but I'm not?"

"He listened to Naruto, didn't he?" Sakura rolled her eyes. "Naruto told him not to follow, so he sent me instead. If you'd have been smart, you would've done the same thing."

"Thanks, but I don't trust anyone when it comes to Naruto. Not even you."

"Mm hm." Sakura sighed as she glanced at the house.

"Why didn't he tell you not to come?" He turned to her. She smirked back at him.

"Because he knows I'll tell him he can't boss me around."

"Right." he grunted back.

"So, how goes it?"

"Can't tell, they're inside." Sasuke muttered, getting annoyed. It had been ten minutes. Should he head over there? Ten minutes was a long time. Naruto didn't have any weapons, either. Maybe it would be best if he and Sakura went down there. They were vampires, after all.

Just as Sasuke was about to head on down, the door opened and Neji and Naruto emerged. They spoke to a vampire for a few seconds before waving and heading away from the house. Sasuke could only assume that meant Naruto was satisfied they weren't a danger. He growled. Vampires were vampires, dammit!

"He's making a mistake."

"Why is it so hard for you to believe that even vampires without souls can be kind?" Sakura snapped, annoyed.

The only answer Sasuke gave was pulling down his shirt collar, exposing his collarbone. He had a scar there from when a vampire had ripped at his flesh. "You tell me that Kiba was nice when he did this to me. His friend."

"Kiba's a different case—"

"No he's not." Sasuke interrupted. "He was turned, and he went evil. When you're a vampire, you don't control yourself anymore. If I turned into a vampire, I would kill Naruto; that's just how it is."

The raven turned and headed back towards the door that would lead down to the top floor of the building so he could take the elevator back down. Sakura followed him without a word. She knew there was no point in arguing with him, Sasuke always had to be right. If the world was flat, than by damn, it was flat. That's how Sasuke was. Even if he had proof that it wasn't true, he was always right. Sakura sometimes wondered how Naruto could put up with it. She'd have killed Sasuke by now.

Sasuke and Sakura got back to the house only about a minute or so before Naruto and Neji. The raven had been lucky Naruto hadn't caught him outside, or he would've been furious. It wouldn't have mattered, though, because Sasuke himself was just as angry.

When the hybrid and vampire entered the basement, Kakashi turned away from the porn on his computer, waiting to see what they had to say. "Well?"

"Well nothing." Naruto shrugged. "I don't think they're doing anything wrong."

"Bullshit." Sasuke snapped.

"Sasuke—" Sakura attempted to interrupt him, but he would have none of it.

"They're vampires! Vampires are cold, ruthless killers with no mercy. They care about nothing and no one and would rather rip out your throat and drain your blood into a glass than think twice about what they're doing! All vampires are like that, no exceptions!"

Neji growled as he launched himself at Sasuke wrapping one hand around the raven's throat and slamming him into the wall, holding him there as he growled in his face. Naruto appeared beside them a second later.

"Neji." His voice sounded dangerous, which was the only reason the vampire let go, turning and stalking back towards the elevator.

Sasuke rubbed his neck before glaring at the floor. It wasn't that he didn't like Neji, it was just—Neji was a vampire, too, and soul or not, vampires were killers.

"You can't keep doing that to him." Naruto whispered. "It's not fair."

"Like hell it's not fair." Sasuke snapped. "He killed just as many people as any other vampire before he got his soul back!"

"So now you're going to punish all vampires?" Sakura inquired. "You do know that includes Naruto, right?"

"Sakura." Naruto turned to her, narrowing his eyes. "We've all had a stressful night, but it's still four hours to sunup. Get your shit together, we're going back out there."

Naruto hated nights like this. The nights where everyone was so high strung they were all at each other's throats. They didn't happen often, but the lack of sleep and constant adrenaline did that to a group of people.

When Sasuke went to follow Naruto into the elevator, the blond shut the doors before he could enter, sighing as he leaned back against the wall. He wanted to hunt alone right now. He didn't want to be with Sasuke, because all he would do was argue with him about how they should kill the vampires going to the junkie house. Naruto seriously saw no problem with it, and he wasn't going to punish a bunch of soulless vampires when they weren't even killing anyone!

The blond made his way outside of the house before Sasuke had a chance to follow. He got into his car and headed out towards a random sector, not really caring where he ended up, as long as he was out and fighting. Once he reached a promising area, he got out of the car and started walking down the street.

He paused as a scent invaded his olfactory system. It was a scent he recognized, which caused him to look around. He was in the west end, which was the most rundown part of town—also the most heavily inhabited by vampires.

He continued to look around, trying to identify which way the smell was coming from. He knew the smell so well, because it was something he was quite used to. After all, it was only a matter of time before a specific smell ingrained itself into people's minds. Florists knew what specific flowers smelled like, because they were around them so often.

And Naruto—he knew the smell of death.

The blond walked towards the rundown house to his left and slowly climbed the porch steps. He drew his gun, holding it expertly with both hands as he inched towards the door slowly. He stepped up beside it, pressing his back against the wall. The smell was stronger, now, and he tried the knob. The door creaked open and he winced, but there was nothing he could do.

When nothing jumped out at him right away, he carefully walked into the dark house, his vampiric eyes able to see in the darkness that surrounded him. Bodies littered the floor around him, some so old they were just bones, while others were much newer. Some were still decomposing, the stench so horrible Naruto gagged and almost lost his dinner.

He inched towards the closest body that seemed fairly new, bending down beside it as he shot a glance around to ensure nothing moved. Holstering his gun, he looked back down, brushing the long hair out of the person's face. The sight that greeted him made him wince. The girl was only about twelve or thirteen. It was obviously a vampire attack, because the bite marks in her neck hadn't been covered up. Why should they when the bodies were all dumped in here.

The blond's head snapped up as the door—which had closed behind him—slammed open, two vampires laughing together as they walked into the house. Naruto stood, and both noticed the movement, turning to look at him. One of them had a dead woman over his shoulder.

"Well lookie here, Bruce." The vampire holding the dead woman let her fall to the ground beside the door. She hit the floor like a sack of potatoes, unmoving. Naruto's fists clenched as he watched the two vampires walk towards him, one of them licking his lips.

"You made a mistake coming in here, blondie." the one named Bruce informed.

"I think you made a mistake coming in here while I was still present." Naruto insisted as he looked them both up and down. They were old, of that he was certain, but he couldn't establish whether or not he would need his gun, or just a stake.

"Oh, Mr. Tough Guy. D'ya hear that, Stan? He thinks we're the ones who made a mistake." Bruce laughed.

"Do you even know what you've walked into, little boy?" Stan smirked.

"It looks to me like a place where sadistic vampires, such as yourselves, dump the dead bodies of your prey."

"Didja hear that, Bruce? He said vampires." Stan grinned.

"I'm going to guess you're a hunter." Bruce looked Naruto up and down as he and Stan came to stand in front of him. "I always heard you were the best blood. Those who live around death taste like it."

"Death tastes good?" Naruto asked as he narrowed his eyes.

"So I've heard." Stan suddenly flickered and he appeared again behind Naruto, informing the blond that he was at least a couple hundred years old. He tilted Naruto's head to the side, exposing his neck.

"Think fast." he whispered in the blond's ear.

"Sure." Naruto drew his gun, aimed at Bruce, and pulled the trigger. The vampire in front of him screamed before turning to dust.

"Bruce!" Stan hollered before wrenching Naruto's head further, causing the blond to wince. "What the fuck?! Why weren't you put under?!"

"Please refrain from swearing around me; I don't like it very much."

"Shut the fuck up!" Stan hollered. "Tell me how you did that!"

"Well, did you want me to shut up or tell you? Really, you're pretty indecisive." Naruto sighed.

Stan spun him around and slammed him against the wall, red bleeding into his eyes as he hissed in Naruto's face. The blond didn't react. Really, a smart vampire would've disarmed me. Naruto raised his gun and fired into Stan's chest, turning him to dust.

"For a bunch of oldies, they were kind of stupid." Naruto muttered as he replaced his gun. He looked back down at the little girl and sighed. There was nothing he could do.

The blond figured he should probably burn down the house. He doubted Stan and Bruce were the only two using that house as a body dump. So, walking outside, Naruto fished his pack of matches out of his pocket. It was his last-option emergency back-up plan. If all else failed, he could always light vampires on fire.

The house was old, and most of it was made out of wood, so it was easy for it to catch once he got a couple of dry leaves burning around the house. He hurried away so as not to attract attention, and by the time he'd reached his car again, the house was in flames. He sat down on his hood and watched as it burned, a few bums and prostitutes running out of nearby houses and yelling for someone to call the fire department. Naruto did so on his cell phone, but only because he didn't think those other people deserved to have their houses burned down because of him.

As he hung up with the fire department, someone sat down on the hood beside him. He already knew who it was before they'd even sat down. He had smelled her perfume.

Sakura sighed as she leaned back, watching the house burn with Naruto. The two were silent for a long while, Naruto playing with the phone in his hand.

"Stop." Sakura said simply, breaking their silence.

"Stop what?" Naruto whispered.

Sakura sighed and sat up more, pulling Naruto to her chest and hugging him tightly. "Baby, I know how you think." she whispered as she ran one hand up and down his back. "You think everything always happens because of you. World War I did not happen because of you. The Titanic sinking did not happen because of you. Consequently, this did not happen because of you." (1)

"Too many people are dying." he whispered against her shoulder. "It's like—no matter how many we kill, ten more of them pop up to greet us. This is a never-ending war. We'll never win."

"Don't give up hope just yet." Sakura insisted as she pulled away and hit his cheek lightly. "What would Shayera think?"

Naruto laughed slightly, shaking his had. Sakura kissed his cheek before sliding off the hood. "Come on, we should head back to your sector."

Naruto nodded, also sliding off the hood and getting behind the wheel. Sakura sat down beside him. "Where's your bike?"

"I left it with Ino. I saw you heading in this direction and thought you might like some company. You only ever head over here when you've got something on your mind." Naruto said nothing as he started the car. "Is it Sasuke?"

"We're all just really high-strung right now." Naruto whispered. "I think we need a few days off, but we don't get very many of those with our jobs. Both night and day ones."

"Amen." Sakura sighed.

Sasuke opened the door to the bedroom he shared with Naruto, looking in as his lover pulled off his shirt, the angel tattoo glinting in the light due to the sweat on the tanned body before him. He walked into the room, closing the door behind him. Naruto didn't turn around.

"I'm sorry about before." Sasuke said.

"Yeah, me too."

"You didn't do anything." Sasuke sighed, raking his hand through his hair. "I apologized to Neji, too."

"Did he have a heart attack?" Naruto joked as he turned to offer his lover a smile.

"Just about." The Uchiha laughed as he walked further into the room, pulling off his own shirt.

"You're covered in dirt, where were you?" Naruto asked as he watched the brown dust fall from Sasuke's clothing onto the floor. They were going to have to vacuum, but it beat having blood on the carpet. He hated it when they had to get blood out of the carpets.

"I got knocked down near a construction site. I kind of feel bad for the workers because they're going to wonder how dust got into their cement mixer." Sasuke laughed as he sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled off his combat boots. Naruto hit him across the back of the head lightly.

"Moron, why'd you go and sit down on the bed! Now we're going to have to wash the covers!"

"Stop complaining, you sound like a wimp." Sasuke smirked.

"Oh, I sound like a wimp, do I?" Naruto grinned as he moved in front of Sasuke. He pushed his chest, causing the raven to lie on his back on the bed. Naruto bent down and pulled off Sasuke's other boot before yanking the raven's pants off.

Sasuke bit his bottom lip as he looked up at Naruto, the blond smirking as he stood and started undoing his belt. "We'll see who's the wimp in a few minutes, Uchiha."

"Is that a threat, Uzumaki?" Sasuke grinned.

"Aw, hell no!" Both looked at their door. "If you two are going to have sex, keep it the fuck down, I'm on call tomorrow!"

"Sorry, Sakura!" both called before glancing at each other.

"Lock the door?" Sasuke asked.

"She'll forgive us." Naruto grinned before running to the door and locking it.

(1) NO, this is NOT NaruSaku! Next chapter explains all.