Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. And for very good reason.
Sing a seducer's song, my love
Entice stars to my side
Sasuke opens his eyes to feel himself moving. Throat constricting, he looks down. The feeling of lowering is natural, soothing. His back sags forward a little, and he has to force himself to remain in control. His feet, bare, walk beneath him over nothing. Or, at least it appears as nothing. Chagrined, he turns his gaze about, groaning slightly as he straightens. The sound echoes.
Arouse the Moon, my love
Request her scion
Black. The world is black.
Kiss away the stars now, my love
so it's just you and I?
Eyes widening, Sasuke forces his heels to buckle backwards. His feet refuse to comply. His unused force sends him tumbling forward, unbalanced. But some invisible force grips his chest; he blinks, and he's standing straight again, walking. He grabs his breast where the invisible hands had just grabbed him; they burn cold, as if frosted. He voices a grimace, and it's then that he can hear further sound. He listens.
Darkness, let her dress encircle you
Succumb.
Faint music whispers in his ears, caressing his skin and sending chilled sensations through his spine. Sasuke breathes hallowly, the sound echoing in an enticing song. He looks about, seeing nothing in the distance but a transparent black. The same darkness hazes before and behind him, above and below. Or was it darkness?
My love, shower yourself in her kisses, her severe grasp
shut cause and reason, caress
With no white, what was black? His eyes begin to tear. Maybe it was all light. All white, all black. All. Wasn't it all the same?
Scream a lover's scream, love
sequins surround, you cry,
And he starts to fall down. Sasuke yells in alarm, reaching above. Above or below? Was he falling up? Why not falling left? He looks around, grasping the air wildly. No, nothing mattered. He sees colors swirling beneath his feet, far beneath. Shaking his head, Sasuke shuts his eyes, brings his hands to his side and falls.
my love?
Naruto is acutely aware of the two servants huddled together in the corner. But he's too preoccupied to ponder the prospect of servants for his entranced gaze sticks fast to the beautiful man before him. Even his tired eyelids pause in their drooping.
Uchiha Itachi leans against the brown, wooden doorframe from which he'd just arrived bearing no expression at all. Naruto, across the room, can't even find the concentrated point of his gaze, the directed light in those dark, consuming eyes. The blonde sinks farther into his armchair, that seems to warm itself with an eerie, inner fire. Naruto struggles in the worn cushion.
"Is there anything in this world, Naruto, that astounds you?" Itachi asks suddenly, his eyes still not moving.
Feeling his stomach flip ecstatically, Naruto swallows and lowers his hot face. "Um--er--Yeah, I mean, you know," he mumbles, "vacuum-packed ramen. Shikamaru explained that to me a while ago, and it really amazed me, but, you know, I guess you don't know who Shikamaru is, but he's pretty--er--astounding himself considering he's the--"
"I see," cuts in Itachi. Naruto blushes, noticing then that he was rambling. Itachi continues with concealed care, "And why does it astound you?"
"Oh." Realizing then how stupid the prospect of instant noodles sounded, Naruto mutters low chides to himself before continuing. "I guess--um--because I never really--uh--I don't know. I never, er, th-thought about it," he says this all at lightning speed, shooting the words past the giant lump in his throat.
"And it being that you'd never thought about it made the idea," Itachi pauses, and it's then finally that he looks at Naruto. The blonde turns an extreme shade of red. Itachi reiterates, motioning for Naruto to complete the sentence. "It made the idea..."
"Unknown!" the blonde shoots the word like a spark as lifeline. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees one of the servants give him a reproving glance for the outburst.
"Precisely," replies Itachi. His eyes cool slightly, assuming an open, if not approachable, gaze. "It is the unattained knowledge that sparks the most longing, in humans," he concedes, "and creatures alike."
"Er--Yeah," Naruto coughs. He'd never really thought about it. Cheeks burning in shame, Naruto sinks further into the cushions. Feeling a bit more comfortable he squeaks, "Um." Keeping his eyes on Itachi, he senses no intention of interrupting. "Well, when you say 'creatures' then do you mean what you and Hinata and S-Sasuke are?"
Sasuke! Naruto remembers his friend's ghastly state, not quite grasping the moment he'd forgotten. He opens his mouth to ask more, but a reproachful voice from inside him cuts him off, Shut up for once and listen! Piqued, Naruto complies.
Itachi is regarding him with slight amusement now, his eyes smiling. "I see my brother has informed you thus far."
"He said you were immortal," says Naruto in what he hopes is a bold tone.
"Ah, is that all he said?"
The question puts Naruto off balance. What else was there to say? Rustily, he nods.
Naruto sees Itachi's gaze darken, and he's vaguely aware of the servants behind him scuffling nervously. However, he pays scant attention to this and keeps his eyes fixed on the older Uchiha. He remembers with a sudden pang what Sasuke had said about his brother. "So someone has to come and pass judgement on you." Only then would he be allowed to leave, Naruto remembers. Sasuke had not mentioned the alternative.
"You can't tell anyone about anything." Sure, I can keep a secret, Naruto thinks to himself. He suppresses a gulp.
What kind of secret?
Anxiously, Naruto looks at the now-frowning Itachi. Shoving away an impulsive inquiry of what his smile would look like, Naruto doesn't have to wonder if this man is capable of permanently silencing an annoying blonde runt. Beautiful, yes. Itachi is the most alluring person he's ever seen, but there is an even more alluring resolve in him. Entrancing as it was, Naruto has to wonder, would this resolve end up working in the blonde's favor?
Why hadn't he thought of any of this before? He feels cold chills of sweat form at his forehead, and he shakes his head, licking his lips before speaking. His own words echoe in his head now. "Then who's this bastard I have to suck up to?" He feels acutely embaressed now, but his thoughts are suddenly interrupted.
"By the look on your face, I gather you've realized the world you've stumbled into," Itachi says, his gaze appearing unfocused yet again. His tone is grim.
Naruto swallows his thoughts in a rather painful gulp. For an unspoken reason, his face is too shamed to look up. "I-I want to know things."
Well, that was resolute.
But despite Naruto's fears, Itachi's face softens with amusement again. "'Things'?" he repeats, actually smiling now. "Very well, I'll enlighten you with 'things'."
Naruto feels his mouth ajar in a dumb expression, but that inner voice in him forces him to shut up.
"I trust that you don't know how exactly we uphold our everlasting lives," Itachi says softly. He does not look at Naruto as he speaks, nor does he wait for a reply. "Our sustenance is blood."
"Y-You--" Naruto face is deathly pale, a color resembling that of Sasuke's limp body. "You're vampires!"
"Such a vile term. There now, that's the most alarming of all 'things'," Itachi continues dismissively. "You're dealing well enough."
"'W-Well'?" demands Naruto, though his voice is meek again. His regurgitated fear seems to age him before servants' eyes. Wary, they are ready to constrain any mad attempts to escape.
However, Naruto stays still in his seat, save for anxious tremors. His eyes are wide with horror. "Th-That means Hinata--She's killed people. S-Sa-Sasuke--He's kill--" It's too much for the blonde, and he crumbles into the chair.
At the mention of killing, Itachi's eyes grow cold. "So living is a sin?" he admonishes in a controlled tone.
"What's a little hunger?" Naruto doesn't mean to shout, but his voice is faintly hysterical. "You don't have to kill--"
"Who are you, boy, to decide what have and do not have to do?" Itachi asks.
"I--" Eyes sagging, Naruto stairs at his feet.
Itachi waits patiently for a reply but continues calmly when it's clear he won't be receiving one. "We kill to maintain the thin tendons of control on ourselves. Yes, we are born in bloodlust; as infants, we fight viciously from our mothers' wombs, and those are our births," Itachi considers, looking across the room at the dark window. "If the blood requirement is denied, we lose control of ourselves, and kill on a rogue-like binge. When we're rogues, we can't hesitate to harm those around us. When we've control of ourselves is a completely different matter."
"So you're justifying killing..." faintly, Naruto's voice trails. Oddly, he feels...calm.
"Nothing of the sort," Itachi says softly.
Naruto rubs his throbbing temple. It's a lot to take in.
"So do you only--er--eat bad guys?" asks Naruto glumly.
Itachi's eyes sharpen. "Are you now saying that some lives outvalue others?"
Staring open-mouthed at the charming vampire before him, Naruto can only gape in an expression similar to that of a fish's. So instead of answering he simply stares. And continues to stare.
Charm. That had to be a reason he was suddenly appeased. His arguments had died on his dry lips, and the view he'd had just moments ago seems blotted and faraway. There was some reason to all this. Some.
"Fine," Naruto says weakly. "Why can't you drink an animal's blood? Get a big, juicy cow..."
"Again you are assigning values to life. But anyhow, it boils our innards," answers Itachi simply. "We can't tolerate a lot of it, otherwise we turn into rogues."
"Oh." Naruto's dumbstruck again. In fact, he feels compelled to just keep sitting there with his mouth open, so the world could know how burnt his brain is. "So how are you immortal?" he starts quickly, picking the first thing from his mind.
"The clock ticks," Itachi says. "A couple of years makes no difference in the way we mark age. It is the decades that matter. Human lives fade and dwindle. They make the most of everything. We live to relish in our impulses but sudden urges hold nothing for us. For us, they'll always be tomorrow," he finishes in a lower tone.
"What if you held your breath for an hour? Wouldn't you--erm--die?"
One of the servants answers, apparently thinking the question unworthy of his master's attention. "We don't need to breathe."
"Oh," he says again. No breathing? Well, that was an odd thought. "What if you got stabbed in the back?" Naruto asks again.
"We can only be stabbed by rhyzite," the second servant says lowly. Slowly, they reveal a red-flashed knife from their pocket. "Or our own fangs."
Naruto's eyes widen with wonder, and he leans forward, only to have the servant shove the weapon back in one of their pouches. "Alright, how about fire?" the blonde asks, licking his lips.
"It doesn't harm us," the same servant answers. The first servant narrows his eyes, obviously annoyed.
"Okay, fine," Naruto says, not noticing. "How about garlic--"
"If you'd pardon me, Uzumaku Naruto," Itachi says, his voice overpowering Naruto's not in volume but in something else unsaid. "But there is more I have to say to you." Again, he doesn't wait for the blonde's reply. "My brother Sasuke requested with utmost sincerity that you live."
Fuck yeah. Ten points for grumpy. "G-Great," Naruto starts uncertainly.
"As you might have noticed when you were caught in that dispute the other day, we are at a place close to war with other coven-like groups for the moment. They consist of people similar to the rogues I mentioned previously," Itachi goes on, but Naruto is suddenly very aware of those smoldering eyes upon him. So you can see, it would be quite trying to see our kind suddenly exposed among the frantic humans that are your people."
"Oh, I get it." Uneasily, the blonde grins. "Won't tell anyone, no I won't. You know, 'mom's the word'."
"'Mum'," the glaring servant scoffs.
Naruto jabs his finger in the air. "Whatever!"
"I thank you for understanding, Naruto," Itachi pronounces quietly, turning to leave. "For we both know that failure to keep your word could lead to unfortunate circumstances. Good night."
Announcements: So I was thinking about proceeding to the next day, but I figured this chapter was taking a rather uneventful track...so better to start out new next time. I apologize if this one seems short as well!
