A/N: Heh, told ya I'd be back fast! (grins) It's nice to work on Naruto-fics again.

BUT, before going on with the story… THANK YOU, from the bottom of my heart, for all those reviews! (beams, and GLOMPS) It means more than you could ever imagine to me that you're excited to see where this story is going. So thank you! (hugs again)

Okay, because there's no point in stalling any further… Let's go! (gulps) I really hope ya'll enjoy the ride.

BITE TWO: Serpent's Touch

As Sasuke had known to expect his clearly old, painfully loud bed wasn't comfortable. Perhaps that was why he still felt exhausted when Orochimaru came to wake him up and soon led him downstairs, to a rather huge room that reminded Sasuke of a chapel.

Orochimaru peered over his shoulder when sensing him stiffen. "I hope you're not uncomfortable with this. I can assure you, there's no need to be nervous."

Sasuke fought the urge to growl out loud while balling his fists. "I'm not nervous." And he really wasn't – the feeling inside him was something unfamiliar, so odd he didn't even have a proper name for it.

Orochimaru nodded, clearly believing him, then fixed his eyes straight forward again. "Let me make myself clear, I won't make you do anything against your will. But there's a certain ceremony each new student of this school must complete. Either you do it, or leave." Stood by a cabinet that was placed to a dark corner the man took out a metallic cup. He watched as the man then took a bottle and poured some liquid that looked black in the darkness, filling the cup.

Sasuke frowned, a loud alarm echoing inside his head.

Something was badly wrong, it didn't take a genius to understand as much. But for some reason he couldn't run away.

Orochimaru walked up to him with a smile that chilled him to the spine. The man held out the cup. "Calm yourself and drink this. It's nothing worse than what you've experienced before. But then again, I'm not sure if any drug could give you what this potion does." The man's teeth flashed like a white lightning. "Yes. Madara told me about your… experiments."

Sasuke shuddered, his black eyes immediately colliding with Orochimaru's dangerous snake-like ones.

It was a challenge. And he wasn't about to back down.

Taking a deep breath he grabbed the container harshly and brought it to his lips. He almost gagged at the stench that seemed to fill his mind. The odour was sickeningly sweet, almost rotten. But at the same time it was intoxicating, alluring.

He closed his eyes, breathed in the stench and gulped hungrily. Once, twice. The taste burned his mouth and throat like fire, reminded him of metal, meat and several spices. He'd never tasted anything such.

He felt dizzy once having swallowed down the last gulp, woozy enough to drop the cup. His eyes drooped as he began to feel drowsy.

Orochimaru chuckled as he staggered. "Well, you certainly were greedy." The man caught him as he stumbled forward. "Youngsters, always in such a haste… You need to let it wash over you. Let it burn your flesh."

Sasuke didn't really have any choice over the matter. Whatever the drink was it flowed through him like lava, made him feel like he'd been burned up alive. While his eyes slipped closed his mouth opened but he couldn't make a sound.

Although he was barely in the condition to hear anything Sasuke could've sworn that somewhere in the distance a door opened. He might've imagined the steps and conversation that came next. "I thought you weren't supposed to rush." The voice was filled with disapproval.

"I won't. But we both know there's only a limited amount of time left, and his body won't be able to handle being turned without this."

"I hope you know what you're doing. Because if the word of this spreads…"

Sasuke never got to hear the rest, for to him everything faded away into darkness.

And then Sasuke's eyes flew open as he woke up, his heart thumping badly out of rhythm. He felt cold and agonizingly hot at the same time, enough so to make him gasp. There seemed to be cold sweat all over him and he was trembling.

He pushed himself slowly to a sitting position, blinking a couple of times.

… the hell?

Was that all just a dream?

He groaned and brought a hand to his forehead as a headache the kind he'd never felt before began to hammer inside his skull, as though trying to rip his head apart.

The pain didn't ease at all when there was a annoyingly loud knock on the room's door. Sasuke didn't even have the chance to bark at the arrival to get lost before the door opened. A boy of his age with wild blond hair, unbelievably blue eyes and a huge, somewhat dangerous grin entered. "Well hey there. 'Bout time you wake up. You wouldn't want to be late for your first class, right?"

His left eyebrow twitched as the headache kept escalating. "Who the hell are you?" he grunt out, sounding like there'd been something stuck in his throat.

The blond's ungodly grin didn't even falter. "Naruto, one of your classmates. Now get dressed so we can get going."

Sasuke felt another bout of irritation. "Turn around and give me some fucking privacy, will you?" he grunted.

Naruto scoffed, doing as ordered. "You sure are grumpy when waking up."

"You haven't seen even half of it", he muttered darkly, then made sure Naruto was still turned away and thrust two pills into his mouth. While gulping with severe difficulty he thanked whichever deity was listening that Orochimaru hadn't taken away his painkillers. At the moment they were the only thing that kept him from committing a murder.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, waiting for a storm of nausea and dizziness to pass by, then focused on Naruto's back. "Let's go", he stated in a hollow monotone.

He felt empty and safe until Naruto peered over his shoulder, those damned blue eyes looking what felt like right inside him. For a moment he could've sworn he saw them turn into a shade of red. "Yup. Let's go", was the other's practically purred response. With that the blond began to walk, leaving behind a feeling Sasuke couldn't explain.

Sasuke frowned, unnerved and confused – exposed. He hated feeling that way.

Why was he getting the impression that he was a prey that'd just been caught?

He pulled on a jacket although they probably wouldn't be going outside before following Naruto, inwardly cursing that the drafty building was going to give him a pneumonia.

Naruto was very glad that Sasuke couldn't see his face or read his thoughts at the moment, because there was no way in hell he could've concealed what was bubbling absolutely everywhere inside him.

It was such a long time from when he'd last felt like this. It must've been in a whole another lifetime. And it made him feel uneasy.

Narrowing his eyes just a little bit he focused, so that his skin tingled.

True enough, Sasuke was something special – Sasuke's blood was special. With his careful instincts he could tell that much easily. It fascinated him.

"You're staring." Sasuke's voice – which was filled with irritation – made him shiver with surprise. "I don't know how the hell it's possible with your back turned towards me, but you're staring. Stop that."

If he'd still been able to, Naruto would've definitely blushed. "Eh… Sorry." He cleared his throat, trying to collect his straying thoughts. "Well, our first class is biology. So let's go in – all the students will be there. This school's pretty small."

Sasuke nodded and followed him, although the Uchiha didn't appear happy about it.

Their teacher – an older man with bushy white hair and twinkly black eyes – gave them a meaningful look as they entered. "So you two finally had the decency to show up." The man's eyes locked to Sasuke. "Why don't you introduce yourself, then?"

Kiba – Naruto's best friend – grinned toothily as the blond slumped to the seat next to the brunet's, dark eyes flashing. "Hard to keep your hands and teeth to yourself, eh?" The brunet glanced towards Sasuke. There seemed to be a hint of red in the boy's eyes. "'Can't blame you, though. He's something else."

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he slapped his friend's head far from gently. For the second time that day he was relieved he couldn't blush anymore. "Shut the fuck up, Inuzuka."

Kiba rubbed the part of his head he'd punched, that annoying grin never fading away.

Sasuke had always detested performances of all kind. And the situation wasn't made any more pleasant by the fact that every single one of the fifteen students was looking at him with keen, almost hungry eyes. What kind of a school was this, anyway?

Suddenly he felt like a rabbit that'd been thrown in front of a pack of starved wolves.

His voice didn't sound familiar as he began the speech he'd performed a million times when his father was still alive and they kept moving around. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha…"

Focusing on the class was excruciatingly hard for Sasuke, not least of all because his headache chose to make a comeback and he was so tired it was hard to believe he'd slept at all. Maybe he'd slept too much.

After the class he stood by a railing as the rest of the surprisingly quiet students walked past him, giving him looks he was all too aware of. To try and ignore the unwanted attention he let his gaze stray downwards to the semi-dark pits of the huge building. So many hallways and closed doors – it looked like a maze.

"So…" Naruto's voice made him shudder a little. "How was your first class?"

"Long", he muttered, massaging the bridge of his nose with two fingers. "Jiraiya sure loves his job, huh?"

Naruto snickered. "Yup. I bet he'd keep going for a full day if no one stopped him."

"Hmph." He groaned faintly as the pain inside his skull escalated. Great…

"So those Aspirins didn't help at all, eh?" Great. So it looked like Naruto had seen him take those pills.

Sasuke was about to bite out that he was just fine, that there was no point in fussing around. But unfortunately his body made up his mind.

A wave of dizziness washed over Sasuke, making everything spin around in a sickening blur of colors. For a moment he was sure he even saw stars. And then his grasp on the reality slipped for a fateful moment.

The railing broke under his weight and he fell downwards, so limp that he couldn't even try to grasp on anything.

He lost track on how long he'd been falling until there was suddenly a pair of arms holding him. His eyes – still a bit unfocused – flew open to find a rather familiar face.

There was a frown on Naruto's face as the boy held him. "Hey, are you okay?

Sasuke failed to focus on Naruto's words or worry about his condition. Because as he looked up he realized that he was three floors down from where the fall had started. There was no way Naruto, who'd been stood right beside him, should've been able to catch him.

Sasuke's eyes widened just a fraction, most likely because he was still too dizzy to really control himself. "How the hell…?" he managed. He wished he would've managed to roar at the blond to let him go but for now he had to settle with that.

Naruto grinned, and Sasuke could've sworn the boy's eyes were red. And this time he could see a pair of sharp fangs. "What did you expect of a vampire?"

For several long moments absolutely everything stilled for Sasuke. Then, very slowly, his eyes widened to a ridiculous size. "A… what?" he managed to sputter.

Naruto's eyes widened as realization dawned. "Shit…! You didn't know?"

In some other situation Sasuke might've rewarded Naruto with a snort for pointing out the obvious. But at the moment it was all going way over his head. Finally the blond realized to let him go and he took that oppurtunity, staggaring a couple of steps backwards and leaning heavily against the wall. His head was spinning.

Vampires – fucking vampires? Vampires didn't exist!

With that thought he succumbed to a fit of wrenching coughs that seemed to tear his lungs apart.

Sasuke was too worked up to notice it, but Naruto smelled and saw right away and it made his insides whirl and tingle, burn. His eyes, almost changing back to red, flashed as he noticed a couple of red drops by Sasuke's lips before the Uchiha wiped them away with a trembling hand.

Blood…?

Yes, there was no mistaking it.

Naruto frowned. For the second time since he'd been turned he felt worry – and for the second time in less than ten minutes. Such irritated and confused him. "Hey." He reached out a hand. "Are you hanging in there?"

It wasn't much of a surprise, really, that Sasuke didn't let him touch. The boy slapped his approaching hand away harshly and gave him a look that spoke louder than any words. "Don't… touch me."

Feeling extremely reluctant to do so Naruto obeyed, watched how Sasuke all but rushed away with somewhat unsteady steps. He'd never felt quite the way he did just then, not even when he was still a human.

It was amazing how weak emotions he'd thought were behind him could make him feel. It scared and incensed him.

In the end Naruto's eyes narrowed as he made the decision to direct his inner turmoil at someone who deserved it.

Orochimaru's gaze snapped up from a book when he barged into the man's office and hissed. "I thought you were supposed to find me a willing partner." He slammed the door. "So why the hell did I just find out that Sasuke didn't have a fucking clue of what I am – what this school is about?"

Completely calm, Orochimaru gestured towards the chair placed nearby. "Sit down, Naruto. Now that you've had the chance to talk there's something I'd like you to know about Sasuke."

Speeding out of the school and leaning heavily against its wall with wheezing pants, Sasuke didn't even notice that it was already night. He also had no idea of the eyes examining him from afar.

Moonlight shone on silvery blade as it was lifted against him until a harsh hand pushed it down. "Don't." A pair of eyes sharpened in the darkness. "He's not one of them."
There was a somewhat incredulous glance. "How can you know?"

"Just trust me."

There was a moment of silence. "Then what the hell is he doing there?"

A shake of head came along with shudders. "I don't know." A soft breath sounded almost like a whisper of the wind. "But we have to get him out of there, before he becomes one of them."

"Hmph." The moves were almost soundless when a person got up and took the first steps away. "Let's go. We'll have to report boss about this."

The other observer didn't manage to obey immediately. A pair of eyes lingered on Sasuke for a moment before the person also got up and left, feeling the strangest hint of reluctance.

Moonlight illuminated the departure of Neji Hyuuga.

TBC, ELLER HUR?

A/N: So now Sasuke knows, huh? (sweatdrops) But what's going on? And what's Neji's role going to be in all this?

I'm in a bit of hurry, so I've gotta start tuning out. (winces)

PLEASE, do leave a review to let me know your thoughts! And I've got chapter three already written, so if you want it it'll be out fast.

Until next time, folks – I hope I'll see you all around then!
Take care!