Disclaimer: I do not claim all of Naruto's characters, they belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Except my other character, they're mine.
a person 56: Thank you for review and enjoy the show!
"Here. Don't lose it, you idiot."
Naruto took the plastified pass Sasuke had just given him so he could get into the Uchiha District and gazed down at it. "I can't believe I'm stuck here for six weeks."
"Just get out as fast as you can. Maybe you'll get a week or so to visit Hiroshima."
"I'll try." There was clear hopelessness in Naruto's voice, though, and the gang could tell he was really upset over the fact that they were all going to spend time with their families while he was stuck in this big academy.
"Naruto," Sakura sweetly said, handing him a little box, "I bought you this so you wouldn't feel alone."
Naruto opened the box, to find a little medal. He opened it and saw a picture of the whole gang, one half on the left side and one half on the right. Half of his body was on the left and half was on the right, cos the picture was torn in two so it could fit.
"Thanks, Sakura!"
He was much happier now and when everyone left in seperate cars with seperate parents who came to collect them and ask them about their grades and classes and teachers and friends and rooms and all that, he just smiled and watched them all go. One by one, they left him there.
Sasuke was the last to go, since Itachi still had to gather some things in his classroom. When he came out and unlocked the door to their limo, Sasuke grinned at Naruto as a last goodbye and Naruto punched his shoulder playfully.
"Don't kill yourself," Sasuke said.
"Don't kill your brother," Naruto returned.
"Are you ready, Sasuke?"
"Yes, Itachi-sama."
"Just Itachi now."
And Naruto watched as his last and best friend left as well. The black limo that rolled down the rocky road made little noise and he had to pin his ears on the sound to get it clear.
"Naru-kun?"
Naruto turned around, shocked. "You-you're still here?"
"Yes. I've got a little appartment, but this academy is much cosier and warmer, don't you think?" Yamato asked.
"I wouldn't know.."
"Come. Let's go inside, it's cold out here."
"It's so weird. We call it Summer Vacation, but it's actually Winter."
"Cos you're vampires. The humans call it the Christmas Holidays. You guys call it Summer Vacation cos you can go out during the day most of the time."
"I won't be.."
"N'aw, come on, cheer up. If you keep it up the whole time, I'll let you drink my blood on the last day."
"I'm sure I won't be missing out on anything if I don't."
"But I'm sure you're shaking to know what it tastes like."
"Nah."
"Ouch, that hurts!"
"No, it doesn't."
"What's up? You're all gloomy."
"Am I..?"
"Yup. Oh, I know! You miss your buddies!"
"Buddies?"
"Yeah, your friends!"
"Right."
"Well come on in, then! I'm sure you'll be happy to hear you're not the only one who's left here."
"Who else is?"
"Well, Kakashi-senpai is still here cos he's got to help with teaching the ones who stay here, and Sora-kun is here, too!"
"THAT BASTARD?!"
"Huh?"
"I SWEAR IF THERE'S ONE THING I COULD WIPE OFF THIS EARTH TO NEVER RETURN, IT WOULD BE HIM! No, I did NOT say the problem of our ozone layer, or nuclear energy or the filth in our air! I said HIM!"
"Alright, alright, so you don't like him."
"I think it's a little more than that!"
"Well, I think you should lay more eggs in your basket. Try to accept him for who he is."
"Didn't you see him?! He's like my opposite! He can't even last five minutes without insulting somebody! How can you ask of me to accept him?!"
"Well, if you try, I'm sure it'll get you bonus points or something like that."
"Bonus points? Sorry, Yamato-taichou, but it doesn't work that way around here."
"But I'm sure you'll get rewarded for it in some way."
"Karma-lover much?"
"Well, I do believe in new chances and trying your best to accept something you'd rather not."
"That's right... you... you used to be human for a while, isn't that true?"
"Yes, it is."
"So... It didn't work out, did it?"
"Nope."
"Kakashi-sama said some freaky dude did it to you during some experiment. Who was it?"
"Naru-kun, you shouldn't worry about things you needn't worry about!" Yamato replied, smiling brightly. "Why don't you focus on getting good grades during the vacation for now?"
"Yamato-taichou.." Naruto muttered as his second Mentor started walking away.
The brunette turned around. "Hm?"
"You..I.. I'm looking forward to tasting your blood at the end of the chrismas holidays."
Yamato smiled, but didn't say anything as Naruto quickly walked by him and made his way into the academy as fast as he could, so as to hide away further suspicion of his kindness. He didn't want Yamato to know he felt bad for him. He didn't want him to know, because he also understood that vampires usually don't like it when people feel bad for them about anything.
Once upstairs in the Men's Dorm, Naruto stood as still as a board, almost as though he were paralyzed. There was a girl.. in the vampire's West Wing... A human girl. Standing at his bed. It took a while before he noticed, but he then saw the two bitemarks in her neck and realized they were his.
-R-
"So, Sora, you are aware that you are not allowed to bite a human, not even outside the academy walls, once you sign this contract? If you do, we will punish you severely, and do not even hesitate to believe it will be fysically and mentally painful. You will go through excruitiating madness and you will lose all hope of getting a degree or studying another subject. Which means you will probably get nowhere in life. However, when the school-days are over, you are allowed to do as you please, but be aware that the police will capture you if you try anything stupid. We are to remind you that there are banquets in certain districts of Japan as well. Furthermore, if you hadn't noticed yet, we sell plasma-packs in the school and every vampire student receives three boxes of blood-pills for free at the start of the semester. You can buy more at the Front-Desk. Any questions?"
"Can I buy any real blood anywhere?"
"You can buy vampire blood."
"I heard Uzumaki Naruto is filling plasma packs. Can I buy his blood?"
"...You can."
"That's all, thank you."
"Alright, sign here. And here. Now here. And finally; here. You are free to settle into your dorm in the West Wing. Oh, and, let it be clear that you are not allowed to go the East Wing and you are not allowed to visit the Human Corridors, either."
"Yes, m'am."
"Very well, then."
Sora quickly bowed and thumped his fist on his chest, waiting for Tsunade's headnod so he could leave. He slowly shut the door behind himself when she did, and headed straight for the lab in the underground, bills and coins hot and ready in his pocket.
-R-
"Yes?"
"Uzumaki Naruto..." the brunette human said, voice soft, yet thorough. She turned around and Naruto could see her one eye was covered behind an eye-patch. "You..cursed me."
"Huh?"
"I can not live like this."
"What are you talking about?!"
-R-
"Kakashi-senpai, are these really his tests?"
"They are."
"Really? He's rather dumb, isn't he?"
"Rather? I think that's a very nice way to say it."
"Hahaha! Senpai sure isn't nice to Naruto-kun, is he?"
"Ah, so you're the one who put him on the line of thought."
"Excuse me?"
"He came to me the other day, telling me you were nicer to him than I am."
"I can assure you I had nothing to do with that. But if he said it, it must be the truth. And that's pretty cool, since I don't know him as long as you do."
"You're proud of yourself, aren't you?"
"I sure am!"
"Hm." Kakashi lightly smirked behind his mask. "Here, mister niceguy." He handed Yamato another stack of failed Math-tests. "I'm sure your lovely charge shall please you again."
"Aaaagh!" Yamato groaned.
-R-
"You cursed me the day you put those fangs into my skin."
"What're you going on about? Did I hurt you?"
She slowly reached up to pull the eyepatch off. Naruto stepped back in horror and pure shock. The white of her right eye was a greyish black and the iris was silver. Inside of the silver lining was a darker black which indicated the pupil.
"What-what is that?"
"You failed to turn me into a vampire. Now I am cursed."
"That isn't supposed to happen! What's wrong with your eye?!"
"It improved. Yet it is causing me a huge strain on my body. I can see what you see, but I do not have the power and strength inside of me, the power a human has, to control it. You must turn me into a vampire."
Naruto was actually amazed by the way she stayed so calm and explained things to him without getting hysterical. She wasn't crying and she wasn't hitting him with this new power of hers. She was just standing there, talking like a normal...human being.
"I'll help you. I'll do anything I can. Please, I didn't mean to do that to you!"
"Don't talk like that. You were different the day you bit me."
"I was different, because-"
"Because my blood intimidated you. So what now? You don't want my blood anymore?"
"No, that's not it, I just-"
"Then turn me into a vampire. Take my blood into your body and give me yours."
"Shouldn't we go to Tsunade-sama first?"
"You'll get expelled if we do."
"But I'll get expelled if I turn you into a vampire, as well!"
"She doesn't have to find out." Suddenly, her voice was hollow and gasping. "Please!" she cried, clinging to his body. "Please, just end the pain!"
Naruto couldn't stand the guilt anymore and bent over with her in his arms. He gently pulled some strands of hair out of her face and used his healing powers to ease her mind. Slowly, he dragged the soft parts of his fangs over her skin and smiled as she did, baring his teeth and letting her wait in anticipation, before fluttering his lips and going straight for her throat.
-R-
"Senpaaaai," Yamato groaned, stretching out and cracked his back. "Let's take a break! His stupidity is tiring me out!"
"Alright. Very well."
"You know, I've always wanted to see the whole building!"
"Then see it tomorrow. You've got six weeks to go sight-seeing as much as you want."
"But I want to see it noooow."
"How old are you? Three?"
"Just show me around, I swear I'll teach him Geography and Ethics like no teacher can!"
"Fine. If you can bring his grade up five points, I'll show you around."
"Five?!"
"Make it six."
"SIX?"
"You wanna go seven?"
"No, no.. six is good."
"Let's go then."
-R-
Satisfied and whistling, Sora walked through the underground with a plasma-pack underneath his arm. He was saving it to see the look on Naruto's face when he realized he was drinking his blood through a tube as though it were a cocktail with a straw. He decided he would make the desired "aahhh" sound as he finished it and grinned mischievously as he saw Naruto going crazy inside his head.
-R-
"This is the West Wing. That's where the vampire guys stay."
"Naruto stays here, too?"
"Yes."
"Which room number?"
"Two twenty-eight."
"Senpai, how is it you know the number so well? Do you visit him often?" Yamato was trying to make the silverhaired vampire blush, or at least react, but he just shook his head.
"No, not at all, actually."
"Do you think he's inside?"
"Perhaps."
"Let's go in!" Yamato chimed.
Kakashi sighed and covered his eye in shame. "You really are weird."
-R-
Sora was on his way outside when he was suddenly stopped by a boy with reddish brown hair and sparkling dark green eyes. He thought it was a vampire, but the boy eyed the plasma pack and then seemed somewhat disgusted, so he figured he wasn't. The boy stopped in front of him and handed him an envelope.
"I was to give you this," he said, before walking away again.
-R-
Naruto's teeth were just a fraction of a milimeter away from the girl's beautiful, smooth, pale neck, when he suddenly felt an extremely painful impact on his chest and he smacked against the wall on the other side of the room. He opened his eyes to find Kakashi still in the stance he was when he'd flung him across the room, and Yamato at the girl's side, trying to figure out what was going on.
"I told you..." the silverhaired vampire spoke up, straightening himself again, "that I wouldn't hesitate to kill you, if you ever bit another human being. Those words were not truthful enough for you? Did you not believe me?"
"She needed my help," Naruto replied, words bitter and venomous, almost as though he was actually disappointed that he couldn't turn her into a vampire.
"Your help? So this isn't about you and your oh-so-unquenchable hunger, then?"
"No, it isn't. It's about her and her curse. The curse I gave her. Take a look at her eye, if you don't believe me."
"Kakashi-senpai, it's true. Though I wouldn't call it a curse. She's one of the ones who turn themselves into vampires when they are bitten and are too weak to remain human."
"Then do it," Kakashi replied.
"No!" Naruto growled, making his way over to her, "you can not! I must do this!"
But his first Mentor already had his forearm against his throat and he was smacked right back against the wall. "What, you think it's fun to turn humans into vampires? Is that it?"
"No." Naruto didn't want to admit that he wanted to know what it felt like, and that he wanted to know if he would bond with this girl or not. He, himself, had never been turned into a vampire, for he is a pureblood. But this girl... Perhaps he could feel what she felt when his blood coursed through her veins.
"Come," Kakashi ordered, tightly wrapping his fingers around his charges upper arm and dragging him out of the room against the blonde's will.
"No!" the girl shrieked. "Let him! I need the one that marked me!"
"You don't need anything of the sort. Don't talk about things you don't even understand. Yamato can turn you into a vampire just as well. If that life seems more glamorous to you, then, by all means, turn into one of us, so you can suffer the same pain we do. Grow to live to a certain age and then seize to live a normal life, just so you can go through eternity with a pack of monsters. If that is what you want, then allow Yamato to assist you."
"I do not want this... but I must. I cannot live like this!"
"You sure as hell can, you're just too ashamed to show your friends that eye. If it's the fucking eye you're worried about, then I'm sure Yamato can heal it for you. And if it's the bond you worry about, you and Naruto don't have it yet. You can go on with your normal, human life. You don't need to do this at all."
"I want this," she replied.
Kakashi sighed. "Then go right ahead. Uzumaki," he inquired his head to the door and pulled the blonde along again.
Once the older vampire shut the door behind himself, Naruto jerked himself away from his Mentor and glared at him. "Why?" he demanded.
"Becoming a vampire is not a pretty thing. You don't want to see it."
"How would you know? She was supposed to be changed by me!"
"You sound like an infant. Grow up, Uzumaki. And learn to respect your Mentor's demands."
"If I am to grow up, then I must learn how to turn a human into a vampire."
"No, you mustn't. This is not some basic skill you need to learn."
"Then at least I should help her in some way. Or jus! It's my fault she's in this situation, after all."
"Yamato will take care of it."
"But what if something happens? What if something goes wrong?"
"Naruto," Kakashi sighed, "this is not something you want to see."
"How would you know?!"
"I know. That's enough."
"You can't possibly know what I want and don't want to see. Oh and, by the way, I want to see this."
"Well, you know what they say; curiosity killed the rat."
"Isn't it the cat?"
"It certainly is. I just figured the rat suited you more. Now get moving, Uzumaki. It's about time you went to Math."
"Kakashi-sama..."
"Hm?"
"You called be 'Naruto', before."
Naruto was already walking away when Kakashi was making up some kind of excuse.