Disclaimer: I own nothing but the writing and whatever you don't recognize from Naruto.

Notes: Where y'all find out that this is an even bigger cliché than you assumed. POV changes in every chapter. Just read carefully. :)

Also, apologies for both the late update and for those who don't like POV switches. I think this is a more effective way to tell all sides of the story (i.e. why delay a revelation that is pretty obvious and pretend it's surprising when the amnesiac finally gets it?), but I completely understand.

More of the "unique" characteristics of the vampires in this alternate universe is revealed here.

Chapter 2 – Just a Warning

The music was deafening.

Every beat throbbed like a living pulse through the walls, jolting both hearts in my chest. Not the world's most pleasant feeling, I'll admit, but after a long day, a nightclub was the best place for a quick meal. It wasn't unlike a fast food restaurant in that respect, with the added bonus – or downside, if you were bored – of mostly safe hunting. Werewolves didn't tend to frequent noisy places packed with people, because their dulled senses made them feel insecure. The last time one had walked in was seven years ago, when I had taken Itachi out to hunt his own meals in the night scene for the first time.

"So, what do you do for a living?" asked the blonde who had just slid onto the bar stool next to mine. Her skirt showed off unusually long legs that ended in five-inch stilettos, not that she had seemed to need the height. Powder-blue eyes met mine with bold interest.

Normally, I had no complaints when dinner walked right up to me, although I hadn't even turned on the charm yet. Tonight of all nights, though, I wanted some time to myself first. So I laughed, watching the girl's confident expression waver. "Just a thought, sweetheart – go back to the entrance and get yourself a stamp."

She recoiled. "H-how did you know?"

I had to concede that she hid it better than most underage clubbers, but she also cracked too easily on the first guess. "You rub the back of your hand too often, as if you're grateful something isn't there. You look around with a wide smile when you think no one's watching – and as delightful as this place is, no one's that delighted just to get in." She looked more and more crestfallen as I talked, until I added, "And, ah, I've had to buy some flowers from your mother's shop before, and the resemblance's pretty obvious between her and her teenage daughter, Yamanaka Ino."

"Oh."

I smiled, tilting my head to indicate her exit. "You might want to be more careful about choosing your target. It might help if you hadn't picked a police officer."

The girl looked more than a little embarrassed now, scooting off the stool as if it burned her. Three feet away, though, she marched back with the air of someone who had resolved to ask a question, no matter the cost to her dignity. "What's your name?"

"Officer Shisui," I said obligingly. "You want to take my name down?"

"You don't look like a cop."

"That offends me."

Returning my grin, she left the nightclub looking much happier.

"That was very nice of you, officer," remarked the bartender with a sly smile. Kurenai was a fairly attractive human, with long, wavy black hair and sweeping lashes. Although she had given me and some of my relatives appreciative glances before, there was always an element of restraint. She had a good instinct for self-preservation, and I was fond enough of her to leave her off the wine list.

"I'm off-duty. I would have let her go on principle." Teasing the girl was only a bonus.

"I heard a policeman is never off-duty." She glanced at the doorway as another group of people walked in. In another thirty minutes, Hokage would be at its peak hour, and Kurenai would have no time to chat.

"This one is," I retorted, giving her a rakish smile.

She smiled, but warned me, "I have a boyfriend now."

"He's never off-duty, is he?"

Kurenai sighed. "Maybe for one or two hours this week, he will be." She had told me, on a previous occasion, that Asuma worked at the Konoha General Hospital. "Good thing I also keep crazy hours, huh?"

I nodded, nursing the drink I had yet to actually taste.

"Well, I'll stop bothering you with my babbling. If I don't talk to you again, have a good one, Shisui." She took an order from another newcomer to the bar and got to work. Alone in the crowd of humans, I thought of how I would carry out my uncle's latest orders. Keep an eye on him. I'm giving him another chance, but he needs watching. You'll do it, Shisui. You're closest to him after his brother, and Itachi's too protective of Sasuke not to notice that kind of scrutiny from him. But you – you can make any excuse to drop by.

Ever since the shit show that had been the last great offensive thirteen years ago, Fugaku and the rest of the Uchiha elders had changed tack in favor of caution. Where Itachi had been blooded at around six or seven, Sasuke, his little brother, hadn't been allowed to hunt for his own meals until he turned ten.

If the werewolves had tamed themselves to blend in with the far more numerous human society, the Uchiha went straight for the important positions. Fully half of the city police force was staffed by vampires in our lineage, and we had made significant headway in the Konoha government as well. Recently, a clandestine project had begun for the rehabilitation of individuals who had proven dangerous to the peace. To the human public, that meant providing counseling and other resources for sex offenders, law breakers, etcetera. In reality, it entailed kidnapping young werewolves, shooting them up in repeated sessions with a powerful, amnesia-inducing drug, and creating fake lives for them. Inuzuka Kiba, a not particularly bright werewolf who spent his school days brawling, had fallen into our hands like a heaven-sent gift. His sister, Hana, had been roped in a little differently, but it was all thanks to her brother.

Oh, if she had her memory, she would be pissed.

It made me smirk to think of the promise she had made the first time we'd met, thirteen years ago.

It would not have been a good day for any werewolf who crossed my path. The day before, I had lost everyone in my immediate family; other Uchiha had lost a limb here, an eye there. So when I saw the werewolf staggering around at two a.m. with blood streaming from his throat, I didn't think twice.

He paused next to a closed shop front. His fingers smeared blood across the glass over the display; he'd traveled a good distance, given that, in the district where most of the fighting took place, the shops all had protective metal coverings. It was obvious that he was all but done in, with little energy to shift form. Suddenly, he lifted his head and growled from the back of his throat.

I stepped out of the shadows, sharing a smirk with my younger cousin. "Well, Itachi, now we know why werewolves travel in packs… they stumble right into their deaths when walking alone." In a more carrying voice, I said, "Looks like some restaurant put out his trash a day early. Don't you know there's a war going on?" My laugh rang out in the stagnant, pre-dawn quiet.

"He's not alone," said Itachi.

The werewolf shifted, and now I could see a small arm and a little face peeking through the gap between his body and the wall. "Little ticks." His eyes glowed, scornful as they met our scarlet. "You're outside of your 'safe zone,' too."

"Safe zone?" I repeated. "When you and those filthy humans have just burned out one of our havens! You're mad if you think you'll be safe anywhere, ever again."

"I have good friends among those humans you call 'filth.' I shall never have friends among unworthy, despicable monsters like vampires."

"You're the murderer here, you self-righteous prick!"

"Don't talk to my dad like that!" snarled the little werewolf. Her young voice was shrill with anger.

Itachi and I crossed the street at a leisurely pace. "Murderer," I said. "My father's blood is on your teeth. My mother's blood on your claws. Did you stop to think the woman whose throat you tore out had a son? Did you ever imagine where your daughter might be in the future?"

And in a movement as quick as a scorpion's strike, I lunged, yanked the werewolf child from behind her hopelessly injured father, and withdrew to where Itachi was standing.

The wounded man stared, aghast. I knew how it must have looked to him – as if my image had blinked and, by some horrific miracle, reappeared on the second beat with his hands clasped around the child's neck. I could see some of what he was feeling on his contorted face, and I grinned wider.

"What's the best way to kill a little werewolf puppy?" I mused. The little captive clawed at my hands, annoying me into giving her a punch in the midsection that made her curl up like a prawn.

A snarl ripped out of her father's throat. "Let her be! She's too young. She was never on the raid."

I increased pressure on the base of the girl's neck until she whimpered. "Why is she traveling with you?"

The werewolf was silent. Meanwhile, Itachi, who would have been of a height with the little werewolf if she were on her feet, stalked around to observe her. Her eyes darted suspiciously to his face, unable to turn her head. At this, her father snapped, "Get away from her, you foul little parasite!"

As if my cousin would have listened. I laughed. "Answer my question, and then try asking politely. Maybe he'll consider it."

The werewolf struggled to speak past his hate. "She was bringing me home. I was attacked just after the raid, and she found me."

"Oh, so you were there," I said in mock surprise. "Excellent! You can lead us home, too," I told the werewolf I had caught, shaking her for good effect. She winced but didn't cry out again, even when my nails broke her skin.

"Take me in for questioning. Try your luck with me! My daughter knows nothing of our battle plans. She's not of age."

I rolled my eyes. "As if I'd let this one go when she keeps you wrapped around my finger."

"Go ahead, kill me!" The little werewolf threw at me.

"No!" Her father took a half-step forward, freezing when my cousin's eyes snapped to him. Itachi had always had uncanny eyes. The werewolf leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.

"I'm worthless," said the one dangling from my grip. "As long as my little brother's alive, you don't have anything to hold over us. He's going to rip you apart!"

I narrowed my eyes, adopting a serious voice. "You're only… seven?"

"Eight!"

I feigned bemusement. "And your little brother is…?"

"He won't always be little, you moron!"

I raised her even higher. She snapped her teeth at me. "You're right. I should kill you right now before you get any –"

There was a roar of wind. Something huge and black surged forward – the werewolf, with ravening jaws and sharp yellow teeth bearing down on us. I sidestepped, yanking the little one along, knowing that my cousin would take care of it. The giant wolf landed one step to the right and behind us. Then, with hardly a sigh, he collapsed on his side.

The little one screamed. "Dad!" She renewed her writhing to escape.

"Shut up, you." I nodded to Itachi. "Nice work."

"He was already dying."

The little werewolf subsided, glaring. "What's your name?" she demanded.

"Shisui, why?"

"My name is Inuzuka. Inuzuka Hana."

"Well, this is pleasant in it? You're more polite than your old man. But I don't really care what your name is."

Hana's lips lifted from her teeth. "You will. I'm going to kill you, Mr. Shisui."

The transformation happened so fast that I only thought I felt the fluid melding of cloth and skin into a thick pelt too slippery to hold. As I lost my grip, her head whipped around and sank several vicious teeth into my palm. Swearing, I watched the grey shape disappear down an alley. "Shit! Shit, that was…" She'd moved so fast that it was like there had been three of her. "What the hell, Itachi, why didn't you do something?"

"She was telling the truth."

Sometimes I didn't understand my cousin at all. Sucking the blood from the puncture marks, I noted resentfully that I needed to hunt again. "Huh?" At least the older werewolf was accounted for, but as Itachi had pointed out, he'd have died anyway. It was highly unsatisfying.

"She has a little brother."

I groaned in exasperation. "And that inspired your sympathy? Look, Itachi, this'll come back to haunt us."

Itachi was looking down the street as if his eyes could pierce through brick and shadow. "I'm counting on it."

Two days before Itachi was to leave for his farce of a honeymoon, or what was really a trial run of the rehabilitation project, I dropped by his flat, ostensibly to deliver some last minute directions from Fugaku. It was nothing he hadn't heard before, and as I rattled them off from where I lounged on his couch – Hana had gone to the bathroom – Itachi cut me off.

"I don't like what you're doing."

Itachi was generally a bit harder to rile than this, even if it was easier than most people thought. I tossed his TV remote up and down, watching the motion. "Do you think she's put on weight already? I did see her finish off two lunch specials by herself, and you know how Ichiraku's beef bowl is." I glanced up. "I could stop buying her food, if that's what you want."

"You're not doing anyone a favor," he said, catching the remote before it reached my hands on its descent. He set it on the TV table, so that I would have to get up for it.

"How so? I'm embracing our little project, while you're being the most awkward newly-wed ever to grace this earth." When he glared at me – not even at a quarter of the power he could manage, but enough to convey his ire – I held up my hands. "All right."

"How much before you think you've paid her back for biting your hand when she was eight?" Itachi asked quietly.

Brushing past him to the kitchen area, I considered my next words. "You know, Itachi, I'm just here as a friend." Out of curiosity, I checked the fridge. There wasn't much in there, nor in the freezer; certainly none of the blood bags that humans always seem to think we'd store for emergencies. Preserved blood had already lost what we needed out of it, if the artificially-added anticoagulants didn't already make that clear. There was, however, a lot of ice and a pitcher of tea, presumably for Hana. The summer heat wave didn't affect us as badly, but I was sure Hana and the rest of her pack – none of whom she had contacted yet, according to Inabi and Yakumi – were suffering.

"I know Father is keeping an eye on me."

I straightened, closing the fridge door. Did he realize that I was one of the main surveillance detail? "Yeah, surprising, right?" I snorted. "You can't blame him, though. You haven't exactly tried to smooth things over." In case that sounded too accusing, I came around the low partition and conceded, "Granted, you haven't done anything crazy for seven years. This is your last test, you see."

He looked at me for a moment, then nodded. "And you are part of it." I didn't deny it. "Get out, Shisui. I'll see you… after."

I saluted him, turning on my heel. "Yeah. Tell Hana I wish you both a… safe trip." Itachi knew he was under surveillance.

He just didn't know how many pairs of eyes were watching.