Disclaimer- :insert something witty here about K. Masashi owning them and me wanting to:
Naruto walked over the broken door that led into the basement suite the Sabakus lived in. Sasuke followed behind him as the blond walked in further, his eyes on the ground. There was a pile of ash there.
"Kankurou." he whispered, able to tell even from just that. He continued into the room, seeing ash by the far wall, knowing it was Temari. By the table in the corner was another pile of ash. Gaara.
Naruto couldn't understand why, exactly, but his chest constricted when he saw the piles of ash. The Sabakus weren't friends or anything, but he'd liked them—sort of. It was a complicated relationship, and he certainly didn't think they deserved to die. They always pretended they hated it down there, but Naruto knew they actually didn't. He forgotten to lock the door once, and hadn't returned for about a month. They'd still been there.
"Guess we know how Arashi found us." Sasuke whispered, shoving his hands in his pockets uncomfortably. He never liked the Sabakus, but Naruto seemed upset, so he tried not to make any scathing remarks.
"Yeah." the blond whispered before turning and heading back towards the door. "Good thing we already know where he is."
Sasuke grabbed Naruto's arm as the blond went to pass him. "You're kidding, right?"
"What?"
"Naruto, you're not going back there."
"Yes I am, but this time, I'll bring backup." he insisted as he pulled free and started climbing the stairs again.
"Naruto, this is insane! You can't just—"
"What?" Naruto rounded on Sasuke, the raven pausing on the steps so as not to run into him. "I can't want to pay him back for turning Kiba? I can't want to rip out his intestines for what he did to Iruka? To Neji? To them?!" He motioned the room they'd just exited. "Our friends are dying, and we're not doing anything about it. This has to stop! What if Sakura is next? What if you are?!" Naruto forced himself to stop there, breathing hard and clenching his fists. "You don't understand—I need to get rid of him once and for all. I can't have him hovering over me my entire life. I'll go insane."
Sasuke stared at Naruto for a long while before sighing. "We'll see what the others say."
"Okay." Naruto turned and continued up the stairs. They exited at the top and headed back towards the car. Naruto got behind the wheel first, Sasuke sitting down beside him and slamming the door. The blond stared at his hands, resting peacefully on the wheel, and then turned to Sasuke. The raven was staring out the front window.
Before he could stop himself, Naruto reached over with one hand, turning the raven's head to face him, and kissed him. Sasuke returned the kiss immediately, turning his body more towards Naruto as his right hand came up to rest on Naruto's left bicep, the blond's left hand caressing Sasuke's cheek.
Tongues came out, both battling for dominance which Sasuke eventually conceded to, allowing the blond to plunder his mouth, relearning every single part of the raven's orifice. Once he was done, his tongue retreated, inviting Sasuke to do the same. The raven ran his tongue along the blond's teeth, slipping it into the other's mouth. He wanted to climb into Naruto's lap and grind against him, since the blond had so kindly given him a raging hard-on, but there wasn't enough space.
After a few more minutes of making out, Sasuke pulled away, breathing hard as he stared into Naruto's face, his eyes hazy with lust. Naruto's own eyes opened slowly, the blond caressing Sasuke's cheek again.
"I think tonight—we'll have another night off. Tonight will be a night for everyone to relish time with their loved ones."
"Agreed." Sasuke panted. "But you're not dying on me, Uzumaki. Your angel promised me."
Naruto smirked. "Don't worry, she'd never let me down."
"Storm the Akatsuki base? Are you insane?" Shikamaru asked lazily, lying back on the couch.
"Wasn't that your goal to begin with?" Naruto demanded. "I thought you wanted to be rid of them."
"Well, yeah." The vampire shrugged. "But that was definitely before we found out how freakishly strong they are."
"Haven't you ever lost someone?" Kakashi whispered, shocking everyone out of their argument. They turned to look at him, the man sitting in his chair with his arms crossed, staring at the floor. "Haven't you ever lost a loved one to the vampires? A mother? Father? Brother, sister, lover, friend... someone?" He looked up at Shikamaru then. "Because we have. Akatsuki has taken one of these things from us. My best friend, Naruto's mother, and Sakura's sister, Shayera. Our good friend, Kiba. Naruto's second father, Iruka. Hinata's cousin and our good friend, Neji. And now, the Sabakus. We can't keep losing people to the Akatsuki, or else—you'll wake up one morning, and find yourself all alone, not because everyone around you died of old age, but because they became somebody's food. Is that really what you want?"
Shikamaru said nothing, merely staring at the other man.
"We're not going to force you." Naruto informed. "I'm just saying that—I'm going tomorrow night at sundown, and whoever wants to come with me is welcome to. Tonight we have off."
"But we had last night off." Sakura insisted. Naruto smiled sadly.
"Tonight is the night we spend with those we cherish, lest we never see them again come dawn after our battle tomorrow."
"Right." Ino whispered. "So we spend tonight and tomorrow with our loved ones, and then it's off to war?"
Naruto turned to her with a sad smile.
"I guess you could call it that. Life just happened to deal us a bad card, but we're stuck playing the game until the end."
The blond took Sasuke's hand in his and headed towards the stairs, the raven following. Everyone thought about what he said as they all retired to their rooms with loved ones, Hinata and Chouji being the only two to retire alone.
"All right." Kakashi said as they all stood in front of the large house that housed the Akatsuki. He clenched his fists before turning to the others. "Once we go in there, there's no backing out. You have to decide right here and now whether or not you want to do this. This is your last chance to back out."
"They killed Neji." Hinata said in a dangerous voice. "I'm going to kill them in return."
"We've been wanting to get rid of this threat for a while, so we're going in there." Shikamaru agreed, one arm around Ino's shoulders, both recalling their long discussion from the previous night. Neither wanted to continue living in fear of the Akatsuki.
"No point in asking us to back out." Sakura grinned, motioning herself, Naruto and Sasuke. "We started this with you, and we're gonna end it."
"I'm killing that fucker once and for all." Naruto growled, the others wincing at his use of a swear word. "Kiba, Iruka, Neji—and the Sabakus. No way, he's going to die tonight, or I'll claw my way back from heaven and hell to get his ass to die."
"Fair enough." Kakashi offered him a weak smile. "All of you—be careful in there. I don't want to lose anyone else to them. Kiba, Iruka and Neji were enough."
They all nodded and Kakashi nodded back. He told them all where to enter from and all of them went on their way. Ino and Shikamaru headed in the same direction, undoubtedly wanting to share a final moment together, just in case. Sasuke and Naruto just started making out on the spot before Naruto pulled away and headed around the house, Sasuke doing the same but around the other side. Hinata had disappeared on her own as Sakura walked up to Kakashi. She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. He hugged her back.
"Be careful in there."
"You, too." he whispered. "I don't want to lose you."
Sakura pulled away and leaned up, kissing him briefly before pulling away. She didn't want to give him a long, lingering kiss because it would mean she thought one of them wasn't going to make it. But they were going to make it. They would be fine!
Kakashi watched her walk away from him before turning to the house. He was walking through the front door. It was the most dangerous approach, but he didn't want anyone else being in that much danger. Taking a deep breath, he walked up to the door and inched it open. He knew it wouldn't be locked. He peeked inside, but saw no one. Good start, at least.
The man entered the house, closing the door silently behind him as he made his way down the corridor, his MP7 in hand. He pressed himself against the wall as he inched towards the end of the corridor. Kakashi snuck a glance around the corner before he cried out when the back of his shirt was pulled and he was thrown across the hallway, crying out as he slammed into a table before falling to the ground, his gun flying away from him.
"Hello, Kakashi." The grey-haired man looked up to see an enraged Arashi heading towards him, his eyes red and his fangs protruding from between his lips due to their length.
Kakashi struggled to crawl backwards, distancing himself from Arashi so he could get to his feet, but the vampire wouldn't let him. He grabbed the front of Kakashi's collar and lifted him off the ground, throwing him into a set of double doors on his left. The human flew into them, cracking the wood and causing the doors to slam open. He slid across the floor with a groan, shaking his head.
"I've been waiting a long time for this, Hatake." Arashi walked into the room after him as the other struggled to get back to his feet. Arashi's force when he'd thrown him around was enough to break all the bones in his body. He was surprised none had.
"You stole Naruto from me." He kicked Kakashi in the stomach, sending him sliding across the floor to slam into the wall. The human groaned before spitting, blood mixed in with his saliva.
"You stole Shayera from me, so I guess it makes us even." he ground out as he struggled to sit up, leaning back against the wall. Shit, even with Naruto's blood in his veins he was no match for Arashi. This whole 'storming the hideout' thing was a bad idea.
The vampire walked up to Kakashi and grabbed him by the troat, lifting him to his feet before pressing him against the wall. "You're going to regret having come here." he said as he froze Kakashi in place with his eyes. "You're going to wish you'd never tread upon my domain."
He grabbed the collar of Kakashi's shirt between his hands and ripped the shirt clean in half, letting the material fall to the ground before grabbing Kakashi's hair, forcing his head to the side, and sinking his teeth into the other's neck.
Kakashi screamed in agony, but could do nothing to fight Arashi off. Jesus, this wasn't supposed to start out like this! This wasn't supposed to happen! Make it stop! Kakashi was panicking. Things were going wrong from the get-go. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen!
Help me...
Sasuke bolted down the corridor with Itachi hot on his tail. It was like he'd known Sasuke was coming. It was as if the Akatsuki had known all along that they were planning on entering their base. It was almost as if they'd even known who would be entering from where. To think they had a spy in their group scared Sasuke, but he knew it wasn't that. They'd found out some other way.
The raven fired over his shoulder, but his brother always did have quick reflexes, and he dodged every single shot. It was starting to frustrate and scare him. Itachi was going to catch up to him, and this time, he wouldn't have the vampire option—not that he'd want to turn into one of those blood-suckers, anyway. But still, this time, he was going to die.
He cried out as his knees were tackled and he fell forward, kicking himself free and scrambling back to his feet, grabbing his fallen gun as he ran. Jesus H fucking Christ, this was not how we'd planned this! Sasuke turned a corner, slamming into the wall in his haste before continuing hurriedly, trying vainly to escape from Itachi.
He was tackled again from behind, slamming into a wooden door, which was already ajar. The two of them slid into the large room, Sasuke crying out as he slammed into a desk. Itachi just stood up and grinned as he blocked the only exit.
The younger Uchiha growled as he got to his feet, aiming his gun and firing until he ran out of bullets. Itachi dodged every single one. "Why, dammit?! Why?!" he hollered as he released the tab that held the magazine and let it fall to the ground, grabbing another with shaking hands and snapping it into place.
"Why what, little brother?" Itachi grinned. "Why am I so much better than you?" He rushed forward, grabbing the barrel of the gun and holding it away from himself as Sasuke grunted, trying to pull it back towards Itachi. The elder brother grinned. "It's because you're weak."
"Fuck you!" Sasuke hollered as he let the gun go and grabbed a stake. He slammed it down towards Itachi's chest, only to have the other block the wood with his arm, imbedding it deep within his flesh. He kicked Sasuke in the chest, sending him crashing backwards into the wall.
The raven screamed in pain before looking down. Itachi had thrown the stake back at him, the piece of wood embedding itself in his left thigh. With a glare at his brother, he pulled it out before falling to his knees, his hands shaking both from the pain, and from anger.
Why? Why was Itachi so much better than him? Why couldn't he ever win against him? How had he become so amazing at everything? This had nothing to do with being a vampire, Itachi had always been better. Always would be better.
But Sasuke couldn't lose. He didn't want Naruto to worry about him. He wanted to be able to go home with the blond and feel proud of his achievement; of having finally killed his brother and paid the bastard back for what he'd done to their family.
It didn't look like that would be happening. Every time Sasuke lunged at him, he was thrown back into a wall. Every time he fired at him, Itachi dodged. Everything he did was in vain. Nothing was working against his elder brother.
Eventually, Itachi just got bored, as he often did. He slapped away Sasuke's pitiful excuse for a weapon and pinned his younger brother to the wall, caressing his cheek as he panted, shaking. "It's been fun, Sasuke, it really has, and I'm going to miss you—but I've grown rather tired of you." He brought his face down closer to Sasuke's neck as the raven's eyes widened and he struggled to move, but he was already under Itachi's control. The elder Uchiha inhaled deeply beside Sasuke's neck. "Did you know that your family has the best tasting blood in the world? It's going to be boring for me after I finish you off."
Sasuke was waiting for the same pain he'd experienced when Naruto had bitten him just a few days ago, but he'd forgotten that Naruto didn't know how to put people under. Itachi bit into his flesh and began drinking greedily, the taste of his brother's blood flowing down his throat. When Sasuke began to slide down slightly, Itachi let him, following him down with his lips still against his neck, continuing to suck the life out of him.
The younger Uchiha was going to die, and he knew it. No one was coming to save him this time. There would be no Kiba and Naruto coming to his rescue. There would be no blood transfusion to bring him back. This time, he was truly going to die, and a tear trekked down his cheek as he thought of how he'd spent his last seconds with Naruto. No 'I love you' or anything. They'd just kissed, and then parted ways. At least I don't have to worry about Naruto, Sasuke thought as he struggled to make his hand move, bringing it to his bleeding leg. He has his angel. His angel will protect him. Will always protect him...
With his hand shaking, Sasuke brought his bloody finger up towards his left forearm. He wrote the letter 'I' on his arm before drawing a heart underneath. His vision began to fade as he brought his finger back towards the blood on his leg, getting more blood on it before bringing it back to his arm. He wrote the letter 'U' right underneath the heart before adding an 'N' a little further down. He went back for some more blood, barely able to see now as found it harder and harder to breathe. He added an 'A' and 'R' before heading back towards the blood. He only got half of the 'U' done before his eyes slipped shut and his hand fell to his side, the message only half-finished.
I love you, Naruto.