Present.
"I don't think it's a good idea to go see them." Neji insisted, crossing his arms, annoyed.
"I told you not to come with me." Naruto growled as he unlocked a door. "You're the one who beat me up and then let me walk out."
"I knew you'd end up leaving, so there was no point in me keeping watch over you. It was easier to just follow you from the get-go."
"Whatever." Naruto muttered. His jaw still hurt from when Neji had clocked him in the face. Luckily, all of his injuries had healed by now. He was still pissed off that Neji had beaten him, though.
The two of them walked down a long flight of stairs towards the basement of an old, abandoned house. Well, abandoned save for the three captives they had there. The Sabaku siblings. They were special vampires with the ability to know the whereabouts of every other vampire on the planet. This was useful, because it allowed them to always know which part of town had the highest concentration of vampires. Of course, it was hard to gain their cooperation. But then again, threatening them with starvation worked, too.
"I smell visitors." a voice echoed up the stairwell. "One stinks of human flesh."
"Must be Naruto."
"And the souled one."
"I hate him."
"Hello to you, too, filth." Neji snapped as they got to the bottom of the stairs.
Temari—the eldest—was lounging on a loveseat across the room, a book held limply in one hand since her eyes were now focused on the door. Kankurou was sitting on the floor in front of a television with a controller in his hand, a game-cube in front of him. He was playing what appeared to be the newest version of Crash Bandicoot. Gaara—the youngest—was sitting at the table in the corner. He held a makeshift doll that looked freakishly similar to Kakashi, needles protruding from the figure. Naruto could understand since it was Kakashi who'd trapped them down here.
"What brings you to our humble home?" Temari asked with a fake-smile. "Come to deliver more blood? We're running low."
"You eat too much." Neji hissed.
"Gotta do something to pass the time." she replied before returning to her book.
Neji went to take a step towards her, but Naruto held him back. He pulled his bag off his shoulder and opened it, pulling out a second bag that he dropped on the floor near Kankurou. The vampire opened it and grinned.
"Oh, A positive. Good stuff. You must want something big to give us anything other than O."
"I need information, and you're going to give it to me." Naruto informed them.
"Or what?" Gaara asked monotonously.
"Well, you talk, or I'll just shoot you." Naruto pulled out his gun and pulled back the hammer.
"And how do we know that if we tell you what you want to know, you won't just dust us anyway?" Temari demanded with a sigh.
"Because knowing you, you'll lie, and I'll have to come back to beat you up and get the truth." Naruto replied dryly.
"He does have a point." Kankurou insisted, blood dribbling down from the corner of his mouth due to him having already opened a bottle of blood.
"What is it this time?" Temari sighed.
"Arashi Uzumaki." All three stopped whatever they were doing, looking at him as if he were insane. "Do I stutter?"
"We can't give you that." Kankurou insisted, shaking his head. "No way."
"And why's that?" Neji inquired, crossing his arms.
"Are you fucking serious?" Kakurou demanded. "If we tell you, he'll know it was us and come find us. If he does, we'll be dead meat."
"And if you don't tell me right now, you'll be dead meat." Naruto narrowed his eyes. "At least you have a chance with Arashi, seeing as how he doesn't know where you are. I, on the other hand, am very well acquainted with where you live."
The siblings shared a look before sighing. Temari was the first to speak. "I don't care how much you're tortured over there, Uzumaki, but whatever happens, you didn't hear this from us."
"Where is he?" Naruto demanded.
"You're sure?" Tsunade demanded.
"He was standing right in front of me when he did it." Sasuke growled as he touched his bandaged chest. "Yes, I'm sure."
"Did he turn?"
"For the fiftieth time, no." The Uchiha was getting incredibly irritated. Was the woman dense? Yes, Naruto was the one who'd hit him and no, he hadn't turned. Why was that so hard to believe?! Maybe because even you find it hard to believe Naruto did this.
"I can't believe Iruka's dead." Kakashi whispered. "He was—Naruto was so close to him. He always seemed like the type of person who could take care of himself." Kakashi buried his face in his hands. "This is all my fault."
"This is no one's fault other than Arashi's." Sakura insisted, rubbing Kakashi's shoulder.
The elevator doors opened, Ino, Shikamaru and Hinata exiting it. "We couldn't find them."
"Dammit!" Kakashi hollered, kicking his desk. "Fuck, Naruto!"
"Can you blame him?" Tsunade whispered as she continued to wrap Sasuke's ribs. "Iruka meant the world to him."
"Still! For him to be so irresponsible and to—" Kakashi cut himself off, growling instead as he began to pace. Sakura watched him, pressing her lips together.
Ino walked over to Chouji, who was sitting on the couch with a laptop, typing away. She came up beside him and noticed he had a blueprint map of the city, and he was searching it sector by sector for—she actually wasn't quite sure.
"What are you doing?" she asked him.
"Looking for a house large enough to hold vampires in a part of town mostly sheltered from the sun."
"Find any?" she asked hopefully.
"One." Chouji sighed before looking at her. "This place." He motioned around them and Ino felt her hope fade. Things were looking bad.
"What's going to happen?" All turned to Sasuke as he asked this, his eyes on the ground. "When Naruto meets up with Arashi and his vampires, and they catch him—what are they going to do to him?"
"They'll wait for him to turn." Hinata whispered. "They know he won't cooperate with them for any reason, so they're going to force him to turn."
"But how would they do that?" Ino demanded. "I mean, if they want him to be a day-walking vampire, it's not like they can just bite him. That'll defeat the purpose."
"He has attacks." Sakura rubbed her face with both hands. "Once a month, usually. He goes into a stage between vampire and human. We've managed to keep him from actually turning, but with nothing to ground him, he'll turn without a way for us to reverse the process."
"So what do we do, sit here and wait for him to turn into a vampire?" Sasuke snapped.
"You are going to bed." Tsunade ordered, narrowing her eyes. "You can't do anything in the shape you're in."
"But—"
"No buts, Uchiha." Tsunade snapped. "Sakura, take him to his room and make sure he stays there. You won't help Naruto at all if you can't even move." She turned to Kakashi. "When was their last transfusion?"
"A few days ago."
"Good." She turned back to Sasuke. "You'll be healed up within two or three days, then. After that, you can start looking for him. But until that rib of yours is healed, you stay in bed, or so help me, I'll make it so you can never be hard again."
Sasuke stared at her. "You can—do that?"
"Oh yes." Tsunade crossed her arms. "So you damn well better listen, or your little sexual encounters with Naruto are going to suck. Sakura." She turned and walked towards Kakashi as the rosette went to Sasuke's side and helped him stand. She led him to the elevator as Tsunade stopped beside Kakashi, who was now seated in his chair with his hands clasped together.
"It's Naruto." Tsunade whispered to Kakashi, placing her hand on his shoulder. "We all know him. He's strong. He may not beat them, but he'll escape. He'll be just fine."
Naruto slammed into the wall hard, crying out in pain before falling to the ground. He had to admit, running into the house head-on with only one souled vampire as backup—probably not the best idea he'd had all year.
He just hadn't known all of Arashi's men were so strong. One on one, the only two he'd ever been afraid of—really been afraid of—were Itachi and Kisame. But now, with all of them together like this, they were... amazing. It was the only word Naruto could find to describe them. They were absolutely incredible. So strong, and they worked so well as a team it made Naruto's team look like a bunch of disorganized school girls trying to perform a complicated ballet piece.
Naruto jumped back to his feet to rejoin the fight, incredibly pissed off that he'd run out of UV rounds. All he had now was a few stakes and his crossbow, which was taking quite the beating since he kept getting thrown around before he even had time to aim.
The way things were going—in Naruto's opinion, it was like they weren't even trying to fight. It was like they were mocking him and Neji, acting as if they were truly concerned for their lives, when they knew they could kill them both in a second.
"Enough." Naruto's head snapped up and he growled as he saw Arashi looking down at him from the second level, a smile on his face.
The second he spoke, two of the Akatsuki members had Naruto by either arm, pushing him to his knees and wrenching his arms up his back. He grunted in pain and struggled against their holds, but they were too strong. He looked up to tell Neji to run, seeing him still fighting valiantly across the room.
Neji turned to look at Naruto, and a stake slammed through his chest from the back, the point protruding out of the front of his shirt. He stared down at it in shock as Naruto's eyes widened with fear.
"Neji!" he hollered. The raven looked up at him for barely a second before he turned to ash. "No!"
Naruto struggled wildly, managing to get one of the vampires to let him go, but the other held him tightly. "Neji! Neji!" Naruto felt tears in his eyes as the scene replayed itself in his head over and over again. His mind flashed back and forth between Iruka and Neji as he began to shake before slumping heavily forward on the floor, his face pressed into the wood as he cried.
He hadn't wanted Neji to come with him. He'd known he wouldn't be killed, but Neji wouldn't be that lucky. He shouldn't have come at all. This was all his fault. Iruka. Neji. Everything. His very existence was making others suffer. He just wanted to die.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Arashi walked slowly down the stairs as Sasori and Tobi adjusted their hold on the sobbing Naruto, who was lying flat on his stomach on the floor. "For you to actually come here with another—I'm disappointed. I was sure you would have more sense."
"I hate you..." Naruto sobbed, his voice coming out much higher than usual as he continued to cry. "I hate you!"
"Now, that's not a very nice thing to say to your father." Arashi bent down beside Naruto, brushing some blond strand out of his eyes. "Shh, there, there. It'll be all right. In a week or two, you won't even remember what happened here."
He looked at Sasori and nodded before standing. The redhead pulled Naruto to his feet, Tobi helping him. The blond was dead-weight between them, hanging limply as they held his arms. He couldn't even support himself anymore; he was shaking so badly that if Arashi didn't know any better, he'd have thought Naruto had hypothermia.
"Take him to our old base. Put him in one of the cells in the basement." Arashi ordered, smirking. "If he stays here, he'll drive us insane with his screaming." He tilted his head slightly. "Itachi."
"Yes?" The Uchiha came up beside him.
"You'll be in charge of checking up on him. I want to know the second he turns."
"Of course." Itachi turned and grinned at Naruto. "Nothing would make me happier than delivering that news to you—and my brother."
Arashi laughed as Tobi and Sasori dragged the blond hybrid out of the room, his lower lip quivering.
"Sasuke..."
The phone rang in the Uchiha mansion. It rang a second time. Then a third. Someone finally answered on the fourth.
"Hello?" Sakura inquired down the line as she moved back towards the window with the cordless phone. She glanced out at Kakashi who was wrestling with Sasuke, trying to drag the raven back inside to bed.
"Sakura, it's Tsunade."
The rosette stiffened, her eyes widening in horror. She remembered the other woman couldn't see her and only betrayed her panic on her face, her words coming out calmly.
"Oh, hi. Are you calling me into work?"
"No, I was just wondering if Naruto had come home yet."
Sakura bit her lip, recalling the conversation she'd had with Kakashi earlier.
"Don't tell her he's not back." Kakashi ordered her.
"We can't just lie to her, she'll find out!"
"We'll have to find him before she does, then." the grey-haired man replied. "Sakura—you don't understand what Naruto means to her. Because of Jiraiya—it's just... please, you can't tell her he's not back. We'll find him, we will. We just need time. I don't want her to worry. We can't afford another Sasuke right now."
"Sakura?"
"Oh, sorry." The rosette snapped herself out of her thoughts. "Kakashi distracted me." she forced a laugh. It was half the truth. "Yes, Naruto's back." Sakura lied, hoping the tone of her voice wouldn't inform the woman of that fact. She still didn't think it was a good idea lying to her.
"Well, put the brat on the phone, I want to give him a piece of my mind for what he did to Sasuke."
"He's sleeping." Sakura insisted. "He was exhausted." She looked out the window and saw Sasuke on his knees, crying into Kakashi's chest as the older man held him tightly. Tears sprang to Sakura's eyes "I'll have him call you in the morning." She hung up before bringing one hand to her face. What were they going to do?
Three Weeks Later.
"You're sure?" Sasuke growled as he grabbed the front of Gaara's shirt.
"Easy, human, or you won't be standing anymore." Gaara hissed.
"Try it." Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at the redhead. He and Hinata had come with Sasuke as backup, but so far, the raven had been doing all the talking.
"But how do you know it's even Naruto?" Sasuke demanded.
"Am I speaking too fast for your human brain to follow?" Gaara growled, losing his patience. He shoved Sasuke away from him and cracked his neck before falling back down on the loveseat he'd been occupying when they'd entered. Temari and Kankurou were still asleep in their rooms, and Gaara wished he'd stayed in bed, as well. Better yet, he just shouldn't have informed them of Naruto's whereabouts, but then, he would just get killed or something.
That, and even though he didn't want to admit it, he kind of missed the blond hybrid.
"Apparently so, because last I checked, you tracked vampires." Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
"Which is precisely the problem." Gaara was getting impatient with these idiots. Neji would've understood in a second—but Neji was dead, so he was left explaining. "Your little boyfriend won't be human for much longer."
"What?" Hinata whispered.
"What are you talking about?" Sasuke growled.
"Arashi's sole purpose for having Naruto is to have a sunlight-resistant vampire. Naruto is more human than vampire, but because of his lack of food for the past few weeks, he's slowly losing himself to his vampire-self. I'll give him another five hours, six at the most."
"And then?" Sasuke's hands were shaking.
"And then, he won't be Naruto anymore. Not the one you know."
"Where is he?" Sasuke demanded, taking a step forward.
"It might already be too late for him, the process is irreversible."
Sasuke was in front of Gaara again, lifting him off his seat and slamming him into the nearest wall, a gun's barrel pressed into the redhead's chin, facing upwards.
"Sasuke—" Shikamaru held his hand out to Hinata. This was something they couldn't get involved in.
"I. Said. Where. Is. He?"
Gaara looked at the anger and hatred in Sasuke's eyes, but beneath that he saw fear and concern. Worry. Would he lose the only person who'd ever mattered to him since his parents died? Gaara averted his eyes.
"All right, I'll tell you where he is." the redhead said before looking back at Sasuke. "But you didn't hear it from me."
Sasuke ran as fast as he could, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. He'd known it was a bad idea coming straight there without backup, ditching Shikamaru and Hinata at the Sabaku's place, but he didn't have time to go home. He didn't have time to call for backup. He needed to get to Naruto, and he needed to get to him now.
The raven bolted into the old house, looking around as the floor creaked ominously beneath his feet. Gaara had said Itachi usually came to check up on Naruto in half-hour intervals. Sasuke estimated twenty minutes, maximum.
He ran towards the closest hallway and slammed open the first door. It was a room. He continued down the corridor, slamming open doors until he opened one that had stairs leading down into the basement. He flew down them three at a time, jumping the last five steps, his knees jarring. He turned and continued to run, seeing cell after cell on his left. Naruto was in the last one.
Sasuke pulled back the lock of Naruto's cell and ran into it, bending down in front of his semi-conscious lover.
"Naruto? Naruto, can you hear me? Hey!" He slapped his cheek, hard. Naruto's eyes opened and he stared at Sasuke groggily.
"Sas..." He trailed off as he stared, then his eyes focused a little more and he jerked away from him. "No! Stay away from me! The bloodlust—it's coming!"
"Naruto—"
"No! You don't understand!" Naruto began to breathe hard. "I'm too weak. You won't-you won't be able to bring me back!"
"That's not true." Sasuke insisted as he moved closer. "I need to get you out of here."
"You can't!" Naruto screamed, beginning to panic as he felt the Need clawing in his stomach. "Get away from me! Please!"
"Naru—" The blond let out a pained cry before he started to seize.
Sasuke ran to him and jumped onto him, sitting on his chest and holding the blond's face between his hands. Naruto's hands came up to grab at Sasuke's thighs, the raven wincing as Naruto's nails dug into his skin.
"Naruto, listen to me." Sasuke ordered sternly as he stared at the red eyes before him. "Listen! Focus on me! Focus on my voice! Don't let it control you! Fight it! I know you can do it, please!"
Naruto was panting hard and Sasuke could see the red recede before bleeding back into his eyes again. This time wasn't like the other times. This time, Naruto had nothing in his system that could ground him as a human and stop the transformation. He was going to turn, and there was nothing Sasuke could do about it.
"Dammit, Naruto!" Sasuke hollered in his face. "If you think you can still fuck me when you're a vampire, think again! Don't make me kill you! Fight it, you moron!"
Naruto let out a groan and clenched his eyes shut as he continued to seize. After a few more seconds, the seizing stopped and he opened his eyes. They were still fairly red, but the blue was back. The fangs hadn't left, either.
"That was a dangerous game." Naruto panted.
"We have no time to talk." Sasuke insisted as he got off the blond and pulled him into a sitting position. "You need blood, and you need it now, otherwise you're going to turn, and I can't let that happen."
"I don't see any blood supplies around here, do you?" Naruto snapped.
Sasuke ignored the idiotic question as he pulled off his turtleneck shirt, exposing his neck, shoulders and arms; he was wearing a muscle-shirt underneath it. Naruto just stared at him, confused.
"What do you call me?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
"You're in-fucking-sane!" Naruto hollered at him, feeling the Need return. "I'd rather turn and be killed by you than drink your blood!"
"Well, tough shit, because even if you do turn, I won't kill you! So you either do this willingly and retain your human soul, or you turn and do it unwillingly and kill me!"
Sasuke and Naruto glared at each other for a long while, but the raven could see the red beginning to bleed into the other's eyes again. He could see the way Naruto was trying to stop his hands from shaking. They had no time for arguments.
The Uchiha grabbed Naruto by the back of the head and forced it towards his neck, craning his head to the side to allow Naruto more access. He was scared, he wouldn't deny it, but he was not losing Naruto. Not now, not ever!
"Do it." he whispered.
"I can't." Naruto whispered back, shaking even more. He was going to start seizing, soon.
"You have to."
Naruto swallowed hard as his vampire eyes stared at Sasuke's rapidly beating pulse. He didn't want to do this, but he also didn't want to kill Sasuke, and if he turned, that was exactly what he was going to do. He couldn't let that happen.
With a shaky breath, Naruto opened his mouth and brought his teeth to Sasuke's jugular, pausing above it to steel himself. He'd only ever drunk the warm blood of a human once before, and it had been all those years ago when Kakashi had forced him to drink from his wrist. Belatedly, Naruto wished he'd thought of that sooner, because the wrist wasn't as scary as the neck. But, he was out of time.
The hybrid sank his teeth into Sasuke's neck and immediately felt the blood beginning to flow from the two puncture wounds. He pulled his teeth out and covered the wounds with his mouth, sucking at the blood and swallowing it as it filled his mouth.
Sasuke grit his teeth and clenched his eyes shut as Naruto finally obeyed him. He gripped the blond's shoulders tightly as the pain made itself known. It hurt. God, did it ever fucking hurt! He'd never thought it would be this painful! It made sex without lube seem like a fucking massage!
Naruto's heart began to beat faster as the blood slid easily down his throat. He brought his hand up to place it at the back of the Uchiha's neck, pulling him closer. Jesus, his blood tasted divine! Naruto didn't know what it was about Sasuke, but his blood was like a drug. It tasted so sweet, and yet at the same time, so bitter. It was amazing, and Naruto knew he'd had enough, but he couldn't stop himself from drinking more.
Sasuke himself gripped Naruto's shoulders more tightly, digging his nails into the blond's skin. Surely he'd had enough and they could get the fuck out of here?! "Naruto." He swallowed hard, his voice having come out almost like a whisper. "Naruto, that's enough."
The blond heard the words Sasuke was saying, but from his ears to his brain, the words shifted and didn't register. He knew that Sasuke was trying to get him to stop, but at the same time, he wasn't aware of it.
"Naruto, stop." Sasuke pushed against Naruto's shoulders with both hands, trying to pull his neck away from Naruto's mouth, but the blond's hand against his neck stopped him from pulling away. "Naruto! Stop! Naruto!"
The blond didn't listen; he didn't stop.
Naruto couldn't even hear him anymore.