Chapter 8

Enjoy!

Dis one has time skips, by the way.

~One Month Later~

The icy wind rushed past Natsumi as she ran through the forest with her great speed. She looked around the area, searching for that one vampire who had attacked a villager from Konoha just a month ago. So far, Natsumi had not located or spotted the man within the month. She wanted to believe that the vampire ran off onto another blood quest, but something in the man's eyes as well as his reaction that she overheard when she gave him the slip made her think that he was hiding...waiting for an opportunity to exert revenge.

Winter had began to settle in, and the dark clouds above looked it would release snow soon. The air had become more cold, with the mornings being nose-nipping cold and the afternoons chilly. The sun has started to make shorter stays in its spot in the sky, and the moon to its sweet time up with the stars at night. Since it is winter, the game in the forest will become scarce, hiding and migrating for the cold months to come. With rare game, Natsumi has to hunt as much as she can now to last throughout most of the winter without blood.

She suddenly stopped. She could smell an unknown scent in the vicinity. Natsumi ran in the direction of the new scent, but she ran a little slower, just to be safe. As she ran, she suddenly realized that she was being followed. After several minutes, she stopped and turned around and was standing before a boy. The boy was about eighteen, and he had chocolate brown and dark brown -- almost black -- eyes. He wore baggy jeans that is a little bit shredded on the knees and a dark blue shirt.

He smiled at her, showing some fangs. "Hello," he said.

"Hi..." Natsumi got in a defensive stance. She looked over the boy, trying to spot any weapons on him, and then at what was around him to see any potential weapons he could use.

"Don't be alarmed." The boy put his hands up in surrender. "I just wanted to welcome you to your new life."

"Hn." She only slightly adjusted her posture. "Well, thank you." She suddenly became suspicious, and she stared skeptically. "How long have you been watching me?"

He shrugged. "A while." When he noticed Natsumi's questioning stare, and then he smirked and commented, "It must be pretty hard to resist nibbling that husband of yours -- with the fact that you rarely drink and then being so close to him."

Natsumi felt her cheeks flaring, and a soft growl was sounding in her throat.

"It also must be hard to satisfy him if you have super-human strength, hehe, very hard in--"

"SHUT UP!" Natsumi hissed. Her eyes had turned red and her fangs were showing. "Why the hell are you here?!"

"Easy, easy. I didn't mean it like that! You see, I am a vampire too, but we both have one thing in common..." His voice turned into a growl as he said the last words. "we were both changed by the same vampire."

The kunoichi's growling ceased. She stood up straight, yet she was still ready for any unexpected move. "Who is that man, the one who changed us?"

"I don't know his name, but I do know what he looks like." The boy casually leaned back against a tree and stared at the sky starry sky. "I've been hunting him for a bit more then half a year. He made my life miserable by changing me. And then he changed you when you were clearly dead." He waited for Natsumi to join in the conversation, but since she remained silent he continued, eyes closed.

"That's another reason that I want to kill that man -- he can revive the dead by biting them and drinking even the slightlest amount of blood. I've had close encounters with him, but he always ended up getting away."

"I met him too," Natsumi said. "He looked rabid with some infection only vampires could get...maybe some ancient or new disease."

There was some silence between the two. The clouds pulled closer together, and then they began to send small snowflakes to the earth. A chilly wind blew past them, and Natsumi's hair flowed with the wind. When her scent hit the boy, his eyes snapped open. He jumped to the side and stared at the woman with disbelief.

"You are still human?!" he gasped. "How?!"

Natsumi frowned, and then stared up at the sky, snowflakes landing on her face. "I don't know really, but I am just as surprised as you are. Somehow I managed to be only part vampire..." She sighed, and the vapor from her breath became visible. "I don't know much about vampires to be honest."

"Oh..." The boy regained his composure, and then he smiled at her. "Well, my name is Vincent," he said.

"Natsumi."

"Hehe, I already knew that."

"Stalker..." She smirked at the boy's defensive facial expression. The woman looked up at the cloudy sky again, and then looked off past the trees where she had come from. "Well, nice to meet you Vincent. I have to head back now, even though I didn't catch much."

"Alright." He watched her walk away, and then notice her stop. "What is it?" he asked.

"If you're gonna be around the area, you better not harm any villager. Also, if you go by my house just to spy on me, my wolves will intervene unless you come to the door and knock asking to come in. They do not like vampires, my pack." She turned her head to give the startled boy a sly grin. "See ya."

Vincent replied after Natsumi, "I'll be outta the area to hunt. Don't worry, I don't kill humans." Once the woman disappeared with her speed, Vincent ran with his speed in the direction away from the village. Better not mess with that lady. She looked pretty damn serious about her warnings.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Natsumi entered the Niikyo-Uchiha household from the back door. She stomped her feet on the rug, getting rid of the snow that had clung to her shoes, and then headed into the kitchen. "Hey guys," she said to her family as she walked in. Everyone was at the table, a bowl of soup in front of them.

Greetings were muttered or said with relief around the table. "How was hunting?" Mayume asked as she sat in her usual eating spot on the kitchen counter.

"Scarce," replied Natsumi. She grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and filled it half-way with some chicken soup. "It started to snow." She glanced at her twin, and Mayume seemed to have received the unasked question.

"I already have my jar of dirt," she said. Mayume, being an earthbender, loved to be able to have her element with her. Winter here in Konoha can be really snow filled. The record of how much snow covered the ground was a good two meters deep. With that much water (snow) covering the ground, Mayume felt so detached from the earth. So, as tradition, she always fills a jar with dirt before the snow to keep herself from going insane from all the ice.

"Alright." Natsumi began to eat her soup. Everyone else did the same, and it was silent at the table. Only the light clanging of spoons hitting the edge of the bowl could be heard besides the occasional slurp of someone inhaling a noodle. After several minutes, Yin had finished her bowl of soup, stood up, walked over to the sink, and put her dishes away.

"You're already done eating?" Natsumi asked her daughter.

"Yeah, I'm not that hungry," Yin replied. She turned around to face her mother, and then she noticed Natsumi's eyes. "Mom, your eyes are red, the irises."

Natsumi cocked and eyebrow. "Well, I'm not in 'vampire-mode'." After a moment of thought, she concluded, "It must be because of the lack of blood."

"Does that mean I have to go to the hospital and get several packs of blood?" Mayume asked, but it was more of an offer. Natsumi shook her head at the idea.

"No. If I drink human blood, then I may get addicted and then go and a killing spree to satisfy it." Natsumi, too, finished her bowl and put the dishes away. "I'll be upstairs if you guys need me." Everyone watched her leave the room, and then they resumed eating.

"Uh...Is it just me, or is Mom getting somewhat depressed?" Nhamo asked after some silence took place.

Yang nodded. "It does look like it," he said. "Maybe this is a bad time for her to think about the issues of being a vampire..."

"It could also be an effect from having not much bood to drink," Yin added in. Mayume nodded in agreement with her niece's idea. She glanced at Sasuke, who was silent and still eating his soup.

"You okay, Sasuke?" Mayume asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied without making eye contact. Mayume stared at the man for a minute, then shrugged it off and resumed conversation with the children.

* * *

Natsumi looked at herself in the mirror, specifically staring at her eyes. They have turned to a blood red now, after about two hours since she came home. She sighed and leaned back in her chair. I'm probably going to have to stay home the whole time, just so I don't make any rash moves from thirst.She glanced into the mirror once again, and then saw that Sasuke was behind her.

"Hey," Sasuke said. He stared into the mirror with her, his face carried a hint of sadness. Natsumi could almost swear that it was a look of guilt. "Am I going to have to sleep in the other room tonight?" he asked. Every once in a while, Natsumi had sent, more of advised, him to sleep in the room next door so she wouldn't harm him. Looking at her red eyes, Sasuke could see the answer. "Don't worry about it Nat. I'll be fine sleeping in the other room; I won't be mad at you."

The woman nodded solemnly. "Yeah, you're better off in the other room," she said. She turned around in her chair and kissed her husband on the cheek. "Good night."

He smiled slightly and kissed her back. "Night." With that he left, closing the door quietly behind him, yet Natsumi could still hear it click shut and his steps going to the other bedroom. She got out of the chair and got dressed in a nightgown. Then she got into the large bed, curled up, and closed her eyes.

~Several Weeks Later~

Mayume, Yin, Nhamo, Hunter, and Yang were eating some lunch when Sasuke came in, some snow in his hair. Yin laughed at the sight, and then she helped him get the snow out of his hair that he missed when he entered the house. Mayume handed him a mug of hot chocolate while he sat down in a chair at the table.

"How was your mission?" Yang asked.

"It was fine," Sasuke answered. He took a sip of the hot chocolate. "Pretty easy, really."

Yin nodded. "I bet, for someone like you," she said with a hint of playfulness in her tone. Sasuke smirked, and she smiled at him. "Well, we were just having lunch."

"Where's Nat?" Sasuke asked. He had looked around the kitchen at least four times before asking that question. When he looked at the faces of everyone, they all looked rather worried. He felt his stomach tighten with nervousness. "What is it?"

"She locked herself in her room," Mayume said. "She left earlier to see if she could find anything to hunt. Even her wolves couldn't find any game; they left the area to another part in the Land of Fire to search for food." The woman looked into her mug of tea for a minute before continuing.

"Just about a few hours ago, she nearly bit Yin... We stopped her, of course, and when she came to...she felt horrible. She then left to her room and locked herself inside."

Yin stared at her plate of food. "We haven't heard anything from her since then, she wouldn't respond to any of us knocking or talking." She looked up and watched her father stand up and walk off to the stairs.

"Hm, maybe Dad can get through to her," Hunter said. "You know how they are." Everyone agreed and resumed eating.

* * *

Sasuke listened to the silence beyond the door of Natsumi's room. It didn't sound like she was even in there. He couldn't even hear her breathing, and his heart nearly stopped at the thought of her killing herself. While he waited for his heart to regain its usual pace, he heard a voice.

"I know you're out there Sasuke," Natsumi said. "Don't bother coming in, it's locked, and I'm not gonna open it." She was lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling. The woman had heard the man's footsteps and his breathing as well as his heartbeat. The sound of his pulse skipping a beat and restarting made her throat burn.

"Why not?" her husband asked from behind the wooden barrier. "I can easily kick this door down you know."

"I will most likely kill you, if you dare to enter."

"I know you won't Natsumi."

"Don't put so much faith in me, Sasuke." The man could her the pain in her voice. "I nearly killed our only daughter! What makes you think I can hold back against you?"

Natsumi heard him sigh, and then he answered in a softer tone: "Natsumi, you have great self-control, don't let one slip-up discourage you. Let me in." Half of her wanted to jump up and let him into her room, being perfectly fine and just talking this out, but there was another side that also wanted to let him inside, yet it wanted to lock the door behind them and then go after the blood that flowed in his veins. Natsumi shivered at the thought of killing her husband and just drinking the blood. She hated that side's thinking.

"I can't," she answered him after some silence. "I don't trust myself with you when I'm in this condition."

Sasuke thought for a moment. "All you need is blood right?" he asked. "Then you'll be stable for a while."

Natsumi immediately got his idea. "NO! I am NOT taking anyblood from you," she growled. "It will hurt Sasuke, a lot. I don't want to put you through all that. Not to mention...that I might not stop until all the, no your, blood is gone." Her voice went from a harsh growl to a quiet whisper. "I don't want to kill you, Sasuke."

"You won't kill me." Sasuke tried the doorknob, and it was indeed locked. "Natsumi, you may not trust yourself, but I trust you. Please, let me in and help you."

"I already told you, no."

"I always leave you when you need me most," he said. "I never help you when you need it, but you always helped me, you always saved me... Now it's my turn Natsumi. Let. Me. In."

Natsumi groaned, "Why are you so persistent?" Still, she got up from the bed and walked over to the door. She unlocked the door, held her breath and opened it. Sasuke was looking at her, smirking. "Well," she said while still holding her breath, "if you get really drained of blood or severely injured, it's your fault, but I will be depressed and NEVER will listen to your suggestions of donating blood to me ever again. Got it?"

The man took a breath and nodded. Natsumi smirked -- there's the fear that she was looking for. She stepped aside and let Sasuke walk inside. "Are you sure that you want to do this Sasuke?" Natsumi asked.

"Yes," Sasuke said. When his wife looked at him, he stared back, showing her that he was sure. Natsumi bit her lip, and then nodded in agreement.

'May,' Natsumi thought-spoke. 'I need you to monitor my thoughts as well as Sasuke's. If he starts to fade, let me know. If I start to lose control, run up here and stop me.'

'You got it sis,' Mayume replied. They disconnected from the conversation, and Mayume tuned into the couple's thoughts. Both were very nervous, and they also wanted to get it over with. Sitting on the living room couch, Mayume crossed her fingers and wished both of them luck.

Sasuke sat on the bed, facing the door. Natsumi sat behind him and hugged him, resting her cheek on his back. "Sasuke, if you feel any bad pain and want me to stop, then just hit me and get away. May will come in to restrain me when that happens," she said.

"Alright," Sasuke said. Natsumi released her hug, and then he took off his shirt and stayed still while his wife rested her chin on his shoulder. He felt her kiss his neck, and he somewhat relaxed at the touch. When the Uchiha felt the light prick of the half-vampire's fangs, he tensed back up. He winced slightly when the fangs sank into his flesh, but he knew that Natsumi was trying to be as gentle as she could. Sasuke remained still while his wife began to drink his blood.

Natsumi's throat started to burn a bit more as she drank Sasuke's blood. Every time she drank, the burn slowly dimmed, but it was still there. The blood tasted so good...way better than animal blood. She was about to bite deeper, but she stopped herself. This is her husband, not a rabbit that she hunted and killed just for blood. With great effort, Natsumi slowed her intake of blood to a slow, soft suck. She felt Sasuke leaning back onto her -- he was passing out. Quickly, Natsumi stopped and looked at him.

His eyes were closed, and when she checked his pulse, he was still alive. She carefully licked the bite wound, and it healed. Natsumi reached for the large bandaid on the bed-side table and put it on the bitten area of the Uchiha's neck, just in case it opened. She slowly moved from under him, and then laid him gently down on the bed. After covering him with a blanket, she walked over to the desk where her mirror was and looked into it. Her eyes were an orange shade now, and she sighed. The woman looked over to her husband, and then at herself in the mirror. There was some blood on the corner of her mouth, and she licked it. Suddenly, she felt guilty. She couldn't take care of herself at that organization and got herself killed, and now she's taking the blood of someone she loves to keep herself...sane, and alive.

This might be what she'll end up doing every winter. Natsumi didn't want that, she didn't want to feel like she was helpless and needed to be fed like this. The woman put her feet on the chair and she sat there, hugging her knees and staring at Sasuke. Eventually, she fell asleep, satisfied from the feeding.

There you go ppl, you find out the stalking shadow's identity! Vincent the vampire! (lol, alliteration [never knew that until recently XD])

Hope you guys liked the chapter.

If you ask: Where the hell is Semira? Why was she in here in the first place? Then my answer is: She's not there yet, and she'll be here soon.

R&R plz! thanks!