I think this is probably my favorite chapter so far. Finally we get to see some plot action! I'm still slightly unsure about the ending of the chapter but I'm not sure how to edit it and it's not really integral to the plot so... -shrug-

Chapter 6

Naruto spat out his mouthful of toothpaste before bearing his teeth at the mirror. Satisfied that they were as clean as they could be he replaced his toothbrush and left the bathroom for his bedroom. The outfit he had picked out to wear was laid out neatly on his bed so that he could now change into it.

An impossibly wide grin was plastered on Naruto's face the entire time he was changing. The idea of going on a proper date with Gaara was making him deliriously happy. It was the sort of thing regular couples did and, even though Naruto enjoyed the fact that Gaara was not a normal person, the blond still wanted to be normal. He'd never really been normal before so it would hopefully be a pleasant change.

Naruto checked his watch and the sky outside. The sun was setting – time to head out. Naruto grabbed his favourite pair of trainers and was tying the laces when he was found by Iruka. The older man looked Naruto over with a knowing look. "Are you sure you're just going out for pizza with friends? You look more like you're going on a date."

Naruto grinned as he also took in his appearance. Gaara had said not to wear anything formal but Naruto didn't want to look too casual so he had on his best pair of jeans with a light blue button-down shirt that he hadn't tucked in. His hair was also tamer than usual, though still spiky.

"You caught me, I am going on a date," Naruto admitted with a slightly too obvious hint of pride.

"So who's the lucky girl? Anyone I know?" Iruka inquired playfully.

"It's Haku actually," Naruto said, looking downwards to partly hide his blush. "You see we've been friends for awhile and it only seemed natural to see if perhaps there was a little more than friendship between us."

"Oh," said Iruka, slightly surprised by Naruto's answer. "So this date is to…test the boundaries of your friendship?"

Naruto nodded. He then frowned anxiously. "You're alright with this right?"

Iruka hurriedly shoved a smile onto his face. "Yes, of course I am, Haku's a very nice boy. I was just wondering about Sasuke – won't he feel left out if you two are together? Three's a crowd, as the old saying goes."

Naruto grinned carelessly. "Sasuke will be fine; he has his fangirls if he ever gets lonely."

Iruka snorted at the image. "Well have a nice time then. When can I expect you to be back by?"

"Don't know, not too late I don't think. I'll be back before you go to bed unless you decide to go at some ridiculously early time. Anyway, I better be going or I'll miss my bus – I'm meeting Haku at this restaurant we decided we'd like to eat at."

Iruka watched Naruto shrug into his orange and black jacket. "Naruto." Iruka waited until the blond turned to look at him, hand hovering over his wallet and keys. "Next time, don't lie to me about where you're going alright?"

Naruto flashed Iruka a wide grin over his shoulder. "Technically it wasn't a lie as I probably will end up having pizza with a friend. But I do promise I won't lie again."

"Thank you," Iruka said quietly. Then, as Naruto headed for the front door, "Have fun on your date!"

"I will!" Naruto replied right before he closed the door with a soft click. He sighed as he realized that was another promise he wouldn't be able to keep. Shoving his hands deep into his pockets Naruto set off towards the bus stop.

The plan was that Naruto would take the bus to Gaara's apartment where he would then be escorted to the place they would be dining that evening. Meanwhile Haku would tell his parents that he was going on a date with Naruto and meet Zabuza so that they could have their own secret date. It was an excellent plan that Naruto was very proud of because he was the one who had devised it. Even Sasuke had been impressed by Naruto's stroke of brilliance. As long as they weren't seen by anyone who would automatically tell their guardians that they were with a tall, dark, handsome stranger instead of each other then they were fine.

It was dark when Naruto arrived at Gaara's apartment. His knock to the door was immediately answered by a sexily dressed vampire. Gaara's black jeans were tight-fitting and his black shirt was unbuttoned enough to give Naruto a teasing glimpse of Gaara's chest.

While Naruto drooled Gaara locked up. The vampire smirked as the blond shook himself out of it. The redhead looped his arm around Naruto's waist and led him out of the apartment block into the restaurant district. Naruto tried hard to guess which one Gaara had picked as they wound their way through the streets but eventually failed. He only noticed the small, almost café like, restaurant once Gaara had guided him towards it. They were warmly welcomed by the woman at the door and led (by request from Gaara) to a quiet corner at the back where they wouldn't be disturbed by the few other patrons.

Naruto took his seat and opened up the menu. He scanned the list of foods until he found the ramen section. Naruto grinned, his mind already made up. He closed the menu and looked up to see Gaara watching him closely. Still grinning Naruto asked, "Have you decided?"

Gaara continued to stare for a moment before turning his attention back to his own menu. Moments later the waitress arrived at their table, pen poised and ready over her notebook. "Would you like to order your drinks?"

"A bottle of the house red please," Gaara said without looking up.

The waitress jotted down the order before asking, "Anything else? Would you like to order your meals now or when I come with your drinks?"

"I'll have a coke and miso ramen," Naruto said politely.

Gaara looked up from his menu curiously. "You don't need to order the cheapest dish just because I'm paying you know."

"I'm not, I just want ramen," replied Naruto. "And what do you mean you're paying? I thought we'd be splitting the bill?"

Gaara ignored Naruto in favour of informing the waitress he wanted a steak – rare. He waited until the waitress was out of earshot before asking, "Isn't it customary for the one who asked the other person out on the date to pay?"

"I didn't think it was," Naruto said frowning. "And anyway, you pay for my drinks all the time at Club Secret so it isn't fair for me to ask you to pay for me tonight as well."

"You're not asking – I'm offering," answered Gaara sternly.

"Well I'm not accepting your offer," Naruto said defiantly.

"Do you have a job?" Gaara asked out of the blue.

"Don't change the subject!" Naruto said fiercely, noticing the jump just before he won the argument.

Gaara glared. "Just answer the question."

Grumbling to himself Naruto replied, "No."

"Don't you think it is logical for the one who has a job and gets paid more money than he knows what to do with to pay the bill than the one who has no job or disposable income?"

"I guess," Naruto answered grudgingly.

"Then it is settled: you will allow me to buy you dinner."

"What?! I never agreed to that!"

"You just admitted that it was logical for me to pay for dinner instead of you."

"Yeah but that doesn't mean that I want to do the logical thing does it?"

Gaara growled lightly. "You are impossible."

Naruto smiled smugly. "I know."

It was at that moment the waitress arrived with their drinks. As she laid out the cutlery for their meal the two sat in silence. Only once she was gone did Naruto restart the conversation between them.

"So tell me a bit more about yourself."

"What do you want to know?" Gaara asked as he pulled the bottle of wine from the cooler it had been placed in.

"I don't know. Where are you from? Do you have any family? Do you have any hobbies or weird interests?"

"I read a lot."

"I don't, I haven't really got the patience to sit still for hours staring at tiny writing." When Gaara didn't immediately reply Naruto decided he needed to prompt him. "Well that's something on your hobbies so how about you now tell me something about your family?"

Gaara looked away. "I don't want to talk about my past."

Naruto blinked in surprise. "Why not?"

Gaara flashed him a glare before looking away again. "The past is in the past and it does not do well to dwell on such things."

Naruto squinted at him. "Is that in a book? It sounds like a poem – like Shakespeare."

The corner of Gaara's mouth flickered up into a smirk. "It's not Shakespeare."

After that the redhead was silent. Sensing that he wasn't going to get any more out of Gaara Naruto began a monologue about himself. Usually when he started talking about himself or started sharing his opinions on things people would either tell him to shut up or blank him entirely. It was quite reassuring to Naruto when Gaara did neither of these. He put up the façade of being disinterested but he still managed to nod in all the right places and never once did he take his eyes off Naruto. He carefully watched the way Naruto's lips formed every word, the way his expression changed to mimic his tone, the way his hands sometimes moved to emphasise his point. It was actually quite interesting watching Naruto talk as every word seemed to be filled with the passion of his convictions. He'd make a very good public speaker, Gaara noted idly as he sat back to allow the waitress to place his steak in-front of him.

Naruto rubbed his hands together in eager anticipation as the bowl of ramen was placed before him. He picked up his chopsticks and shouted, "Thank you!" to the waitress as she left them to their meal.

Gaara watched with avid fascination as Naruto inhaled more than ate his ramen. He had never seen a human attack their food with such fervour. It was almost like watching a train crash – it was a horrifying sight but he couldn't seem to tear his eyes away.

It took Naruto a few minutes to realize Gaara was staring. When he did he paused in his frantic eating. With noodles still hanging from his mouth he asked, "What?"

"Your eating habits truly are disgusting; I've seen wild animals with more etiquette when attacking their prey."

Naruto frowned as he sucked up his noodles. "I'm not that bad." The look Gaara gave him clearly showed that he was. "Well, okay, maybe I do get a little too excited when I have ramen but it's ramen, the most awesome invention ever!"

Gaara didn't look entirely convinced by Naruto's statement. "I think the invention of modern medicine has been much more beneficial to society than ramen."

"Well I disagree!" Naruto countered before he began to put across his case on why ramen really was the greatest invention ever. Gaara listened intently, openly scoffing at some of Naruto's points. This only infuriated Naruto and made his speech even more impassioned.

By the time Naruto had run out of ideas for his argument Gaara had finished his meal. He leaned back with his wine and watched Naruto down his coke to sooth what must have been a now sore throat. The blond then belched loudly, making many of the other patrons turn to look. He smiled sheepishly at them before returning to inhaling his ramen.

It didn't take long for Naruto to finish his meal. He let out a satisfied sigh and leaned back in his chair, grinning benignly at Gaara. "Now what?"

"Wine?" Gaara asked, indicating the bottle next to him.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were against giving alcoholic drinks to minors?"

"A glass of wine won't push you over the legal limit," Gaara replied offhandedly. He then smirked, adding, "Unless you're a real lightweight."

Sensing the challenge in Gaara's words Naruto grabbed the other wine glass on the table and said, "Hit me."

The two spent the rest of the evening drinking wine and listening to Naruto talk. The blond liked having a captive audience, even if it consisted of only one, and fully enjoyed his time at the small restaurant. He was in such a good mood that he pretended he didn't notice Gaara paying for both of them when they finally decided that Naruto needed to go home.

As they walked down the nearly deserted streets Naruto surreptitiously joined his hand with Gaara's. The vampire went a step further and interlaced their fingers. Naruto smiled to himself, absently resting his head on Gaara's shoulder as they waited to cross a road. "I had a really nice time tonight."

Gaara nodded, silent as the traffic light turned from red to green. They crossed the road and turned left towards the bus station. The large building was still bright and inviting, though there were less people than there were during the day. The commuters walked about with a much more relaxed ease seeing as they had nowhere to rush off to. It was with the same relaxed ease that Naruto and Gaara moved to where the bus times were displayed.

"When is your bus coming?" Gaara asked, his eyes scanning the routes displayed.

Naruto looked from the clock overhead to the board. "Not for another hour," he answered.

"It would be quicker to walk," Gaara commented as he gazed around the station.

"Yeah but it isn't really safe to be walking on some of these streets at night."

It took Naruto a minute to realise that Gaara was giving him the 'are you really that stupid' look. "I'm a vampire with superhuman strength – I can easily snap the neck of anyone who tries to mug you."

Naruto released an embarrassed chuckle before realising what Gaara was implying. "But you live back in the centre – it wouldn't be fair to make you walk all the way to my house and then retrace your steps."

Gaara easily brushed his worries aside. "I have super speed and am not tired that easily so do not concern yourself with such things."

"Well if you're sure…"

Gaara didn't answer as he started towards the exit; he merely glanced over his shoulder to make sure Naruto was following. The blond soon caught up to him, rejoining their hands as they exchanged the still lively city centre for the dead suburbs. There was nobody else on the street at this time; the only signs of life they saw were the cats that fled from the roads as the odd car passed them by.

As they walked Naruto once again began to talk about whatever came into his head. Gaara listened intently as normal while still maintaining a certain level of vigilance. For all he knew there was someone lurking in the shadows just waiting for him to drop his guard so that they could pounce. Gaara knew that it was unlikely there would be anyone as most of those who preyed on the weak (for money or for blood) were drawn to heart of the city. Still, there could be a newcomer in town who was hungry and couldn't wait to find his prey in the darkest of the back alleys. Gaara was pretty sure he'd be able to take whoever it was in a fair fight but the advantage of surprise could easily tilt the scales. It was better to be safe than sorry.

It was because thoughts such as these were running through his head that when Naruto abruptly stopped talking and moving Gaara tensed defensively. His sharp eyes darted about in search of the threat Naruto had seen but found none.

Gaara turned to question Naruto's behaviour and found that the blond was staring at a pair of wrought iron gates that were held together by a heavy chain and padlock. "What's wrong?" he asked when the blond continued to stare.

"I forgot that this route led past the cemetery," Naruto answered distractedly. He then furrowed his brows in thought, finally turning to look at Gaara. "Do you think you could get us over those gates?"

Gaara regarded the gates which were much greater in height than him and were topped with decoratively deadly spikes. "Easily."

Before Naruto could blink Gaara had swept him off his feet, run towards the brick wall next to the gates and (carrying the blond bridal-style) jumped up onto the apex of the wall before jumping back down to land gracefully on the other side. It had happened so quickly that Naruto was moderately disorientated when he was put back onto his feet. He stumbled slightly, grabbing onto Gaara for support. The vampire held him close, making sure he had regained his balance before allowing him free of his arms.

Naruto looked around the graveyard but was unable to see anything beyond the range of the streetlamps' light. Beyond that there was utter darkness as the cemetery was off-limits after dark. If he wanted to get to the place he wanted he'd have to do it by memory alone. That was alright though – he knew this route well. He'd walked along this path on the day of the funeral as well as the numerous visits afterwards. The emotional pain he had been in when he had walked along this path had forever etched the wretched route into his memory so that he would never forget it.

Naruto took Gaara's hand and used the light available to move to the main path. Gaara allowed himself to be lead into what for a human must be pitch black. He wondered if Naruto had lost his mind seeing as the teen was trying to take him somewhere when he was, effectively, blind. Gaara didn't voice his concerns though. His keen vampire eyes could see Naruto's face. It was burdened with a deep sadness that Gaara had never imagined he would see on the face of such a usually joyous person. Naruto was obviously intent on taking him somewhere even though it caused him great pain to do so. For now Gaara would follow without protest; he would wait as patiently as possible for Naruto's explanation.

The clouds were grey and threatening rain. Every face surrounding the open grave was stony as the onlookers fought back tears. He stood at the front with Iruka knelt beside him, his small frame wracked with sobs. He watched as the coffins of his loved ones were lowered into the ground forever. Then he was lead away from this place of misery back towards the gates that loomed like giants over his childish form. He counted every grave that he passed, wanting to remember the exact place where they were hiding because they couldn't be gone – they couldn't possibly be gone- they were just pretending. When he returned the game would be over and they'd embrace him like they always did when one of their pranks upset him.

Naruto stopped and turned to the grave at the side of the path. This was the one and (just like every other time he had visited) he waited for them to appear and say they were sorry for playing this horrid joke on him. When nothing happened he felt his childish hope once again cruelly extinguished by reality. They were gone and they were never coming back.

"I know you didn't want to meet my step-father but I thought you might want to meet my real parents," Naruto said after standing before the place he was sure the grave was for a few minutes of absolute silence. He held his hand out to the headstone and said, "Gaara, meet my mom and dad. Mom, Dad, this is Gaara – he's a vampire and my boyfriend."

Gaara squinted at the elaborate writing on the stone. 'Here lies husband and wife: Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki; devoted parents and pillars of the community.'

Gaara did a double-take of the first name on the stone. Minato Namikaze. It couldn't be – it wasn't possible. He knew that name for all the wrong reasons. That name was famous among the vampire community. Naruto must have got the wrong grave, an easy thing to do in the dark. "Minato Namikaze was your father?"

"Yes. For some reason my mother kept her second name and gave it to me," Naruto said, wistfully remembering his mother's laughter and his father's proud smile.

Gaara stared at the blond in horror. "You're Namikaze's son?"

Hearing the disbelief in Gaara's voice Naruto turned to look at the place he thought the vampire's face was located. "Did you know my father?"

"All vampires know of Namikaze. He was a Vampire Hunter who slaughtered many of my kind. He was a dangerous man that gained many enemies quickly. He…" Gaara trailed off, tensing with fear as his mind connected all the dots.

Meanwhile Naruto was left standing dumbstruck. His father had been a vampire hunter? He had never known that. His father had killed vampires – had killed people like Gaara. That couldn't possibly be true could it? His father had been much too kind-hearted to kill anyone. Gaara must have confused his father with someone else. He quickly told Gaara that – told him that he was wrong about his father. He wanted to scream at Gaara, to make him stop spewing these lies. He managed to contain his screams but the tears still fell. Being near his parent's grave always made him overly emotional.

Gaara waited until Naruto had finished his short outburst before gripping both of the teen's shoulders and making sure he was looking directly into Gaara's eyes. "Naruto, I am taking you back to your apartment right now." Gaara drew on his hidden power so that his words were laced with hypnotic persuasion. He didn't want to waste time arguing with the blond because now that he realized Naruto was in danger Gaara wanted to get him out of the graveyard as quickly as possible before trouble arrived.

Naruto's anxiety was calmed slightly by Gaara's words. The words seemed to wash over him like the waves of the ocean, hinting that if he listened he would be taken somewhere he wanted to be. Even though he wanted to ask about his father he could wait until they were wherever Gaara wanted them to be.

Gaara felt Naruto's shoulders relax under his hands. He breathed a sigh of relief and was about to pick Naruto up when he felt it. At one time the presence had been comforting but now it only filled him with dread. He had been a fool to organize this date with Naruto. He had brought the boy out into the open, had offered him up to this predator. He had been an idiot and not taken the matter seriously enough. He only hoped Naruto wouldn't pay for his mistakes.

The crunch of a breaking twig was his way of announcing himself. Gaara turned around to see Deidara a few feet away from him. The blond smirked, his hands casually shoved into the pockets of his coat as he approached. "Long time no see Gaara."

Gaara snarled at him. "I thought I told you to stay away from me."

"No, you said never to call you again; there's a big difference between calling and seeing, hmm?"

Gaara's posture was slowly becoming more of a crouch as he readied himself to pounce. He was not going to let Deidara hurt Naruto. He had broken the spell he had woven over the blond human and hoped that when his wits returned Naruto would run while Gaara fought off Deidara. Then again, Naruto wasn't known for taking the sensible option. Gaara just hoped the teen wouldn't do something utterly stupid while a mentally unstable vampire who was out for revenge was present.

"If you don't leave right now I swear I'll rip out all of your organs while you're still breathing and feed them to you," Gaara hissed, malice etched deep into his voice.

"Sorry baby but I can't leave when I have unfinished business to attend to."

It was at that point that Naruto plucked up the courage to ask the obvious question. "Gaara, what's going on?"

Both vampires turned to face him. Naruto couldn't see their stares but he definitely could feel them. Then a hand reached out to tightly grasp his. He felt Gaara move to his side, his hand squeezing Naruto's reassuringly while he manoeuvred himself so that he was blocking Deidara's view of the human teen.

Deidara noticed Gaara's movements and sneered at the redhead. "How disgusting. You know who he is – who his father is – and yet you try to protect him when any decent vampire would have ripped out his heart. Disgusting."

"I don't care what you think; if you don't leave right now then I'll make this cemetery your resting place," Gaara hissed venomously.

Deidara chuckled, seemingly amused by Gaara's words. "I'm not intimidated by you Gaara. Normally I might not be as strong as you but tonight you have a handicap. That filthy human is going to stop you fighting to your full ability as you'll be too worried about his safety to go all out. Besides that, I doubt you want him to see your other face, hmm? I bet if he saw your inner vampire he'd abandon you and become a Hunter just like his father." Deidara's tone suddenly became hypnotic, soothing. "If you protect the boy you'll only end up getting hurt. I don't want to see you hurt, Gaara, I want you to be happy. Let me kill him so that we can move on. Once he's dead things can go back to being like they use to be. We'll be together again – we'll be happy. Don't you want that?"

"No," was Gaara's curt reply.

Deidara frowned, not liking Gaara's answer. "I know our relationship wasn't perfect-"

"You're damn right it wasn't. And do you know why? Because you loved the person you thought I was instead of the real me. Things haven't changed as far as I'm concerned and I refuse to indulge you in your pathetic fantasies. Now get out of my life before I really lose my temper."

Deidara clenched his fists in anger, the blue-grey colour of his eyes slowly melting into bloody red. "This is all the human's fault – he's turned you against me! He's poisoned your mind with lies in order to hurt me more. I'm going to make him pay; I'm going to make him writhe in agony and beg for death before I send him to hell."

With that Deidara lunged at Naruto. Gaara intercepted him, bringing him down onto the hard earth where they began to grapple. As he tried to subdue the blond trying desperately to escape him, Gaara noticed that Naruto was still standing less than a meter away from them. With a growl Gaara shouted, "Run!" hoping desperately that Naruto would listen to him for once.

Since Naruto was only human and didn't have excellent night-vision he was unable to see the struggle going on between the two vampires. He could hear it though; the grunts and the growls easily punctured the silence of the night. He was entranced by the sounds of the battle he couldn't see and was completely unaware of the threat to his safety until Gaara's shout shook him out of his stupor.

As realisation struck Naruto's fight-or-flight instincts were activated. His fear made him want to run away from the unseen menace that threatened him but he couldn't leave Gaara to fight the monster on his own; if only he could see what was happening he'd know how he could help.

Naruto's dilemma was soon ended when Deidara gained the upper hand. Straddling Gaara's waist Deidara dealt the other vampire a blow that left Gaara stunned. Taking the opening, Deidara dived for Naruto, knocking the boy to the floor. Naruto instantly began to kick wildly in order to try and repel the monster. The teen might as well not have bothered seeing as Deidara hardly felt any of the blows. Deidara reached out to deal his own damage and would have succeeded if Gaara hadn't pulled him off Naruto and into a chokehold.

Naruto hurriedly scrabbled away from the violent sounds, his heart beating madly. Through the darkness he could see a pair of amber eyes with star shaped pupils staring at him. A new type of fear spread through him as the white of Gaara's fangs flashed through the darkness. This wasn't the fear of the unknown or the fear that came from being unable to help a friend, this was the stab of pure terror one felt when they faced something that was the embodiment of darkness and evil.

The guttural growl Gaara released made Naruto's mind go blank with panic. "Leave. Now!"

This time Naruto didn't resist the urge to run. He stumbled wildly between the graves, tripping repeatedly over stones and potholes. Every time he fell down the teen immediately picked himself back up again and continued running. He didn't know what had happened to Gaara but he knew that it was a bad time to be around him right now. Those cruel amber eyes kept appearing in Naruto's mind, spurring him on towards the exit.

Naruto wasn't sure for how long he had been running when he reached a wall that was too high to climb. Pressing his palms against the cold bricks he carefully followed the wall along the perimeter of the cemetery in hope that he would come across a way out.

After a few minutes of following the wall without success Naruto began to panic again. He sped up his pace to almost a run, praying desperately that he would find a way out soon.

Naruto's prayers were answered shortly in the form of a tree that grew not that far away from the wall. With a large amount of difficulty Naruto climbed the tree and from there jumped onto the top of the wall. He precariously moved his body so that it dangled on the street side of the wall. Then he dropped down to the pavement as carefully as possible, letting out a relieved breath now that he was out of the way of immediate harm.

Allowing himself a few minutes to recuperate Naruto pressed his back against the wall and slid down into a crouch. His mind buzzed with questions and worries that demanded attention. What should he do now? Should he stay here or go home? If he stayed here Deidara might be able to find him. But if he went home and he was followed then he'd be putting Iruka at risk, something Naruto was adamant he wouldn't do.

Naruto looked up and down the street. He recognised the street name that was illuminated by a nearby light. From here it wasn't that long a walk until he was home. Gaara had told him to run and he was probably expecting him to go home. If he was where Gaara expected him to be then the vampire would be able to contact him and tell him that he was alright and perhaps answer a few of Naruto's questions. With that in mind Naruto pushed himself to his feet, setting off warily down the street.

The next few minutes were tense as Naruto kept to the best lit parts of the footpath. His ears strained for sound as his eyes darted about for any sign of movement. He knew he was exposed and vulnerable and didn't like it but didn't see how he could change that fact so he carried on regardless.

Finally Naruto reached his apartment building. It was with great relief that he made his way up those stairs, along the corridor, and into his home. He wandered through to the living room, stopping when he spotted Iruka. Naruto's guardian looked from Naruto to his watch then back again disapprovingly. "What time do you call this?" was Iruka's rhetorical question.

Naruto searched for a convincing lie but his mad panic earlier had drained him of all his energy. He couldn't come up with a lie so he told the truth. "I was coming home when I passed the cemetery. I went to visit their graves…"

The disapproving look instantly vanished from Iruka's face, quickly replaced by one of concern. "Are you alright Naruto?"

Iruka's concern stirred something in Naruto and he suddenly felt like he was about to cry. Iruka sensed the change and rushed over to hug the distressed blond. Naruto accepted the embrace without words, trying with all his might to hold back the tears which threatened to flow.

"It's alright Naruto, I understand," Iruka whispered soothingly. "There's nothing wrong with mourning your parents' death. It's alright to cry."

They stood like that in silence for a few more minutes, Naruto gripping tightly to Iruka's shirt as he fought to regain control. He'd promised himself a long time ago that he wouldn't cry in front of Iruka; only in private would he ever shed tears for his dearly departed parents.

Iruka let the blond go after awhile, guiding him towards a chair. He gently indicated Naruto should take off his shoes and coat. Naruto obliged and handed them over so Iruka could put them away. Once that task was done Iruka returned to Naruto's side. "Is there anything you want to tell me Naruto?" Naruto shook his head without saying anything. "Is there anything I can get you?" Another shake. "Do you just want to go to bed?" A nod. "Alright then. If you do want anything, if you need an ear to listen, I'll be here for you. You know that right?" Naruto nodded, forcing a smile onto his face. Iruka helplessly returned the strained smile. "Well, goodnight then."

"Goodnight," Naruto replied, sharing with Iruka a final embrace before he went to bed.

Once Naruto was within the safety of his bed, his duvet wrapped around him snugly, he began to wonder where Gaara was. Had he won the fight with Deidara? Was he right now on his way over here to meet Naruto? Or had he been defeated and was now being tortured by the other vampire?

That last thought made Naruto's blood run cold. If it turned out that he had fled like a coward and left Gaara to his fate then Naruto would hate himself forever. It shouldn't have mattered that Gaara's eyes had changed colour. Gaara was Naruto's boyfriend and only the lowest kind of scum abandoned the ones they cared about when they were in need of help. Even if Naruto would have been next to useless he should have stayed. If Gaara died out there, all alone except for the remains of the deceased, then Naruto would truly never forgive himself.

With thoughts like these swimming through his head it was a long time before Naruto collapsed into the world of dreamless sleep.

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