VAMP chapter 11. The plan is now taking effect.

Chapter 11: Falling upwards and in.

"I don't know what to do."

"Well, think of something."

"Do you have any idea how hard that is? To come up with something and make it believable?"

There was a sigh from the other side of the line, "I do know that."

Shikaku glared at the wall, "listen, Kisame. I've got one of my best Slayer squads digging up info on anything I can use," he heard the unasked question and replied, "it's Raptor's group. He's always had good insight."

Kisame was quiet. Shikaku furrowed his brows, "so when's the Prince coming? You've been confident enough to convince me to do this."

"Soon. He's coming soon. Just trust me on this, Shikaku. I know this better than you do."

Shikaku sighed, "you do. Alright. Well, I'll be waiting," his office door opened and a Slayer poked his head in. Shikaku nodded at him, "I've got to go. I'll talk to you... later, I suppose."

"Hn," Kisame hung up. Shikaku looked up at the excited Slayer as he came to a stop at the desk, "I hope you have good news for me."

The young man tosses a folder onto the desk, "that's about a week's worth of info. There was a myth a while back that there was a disease in human blood that came and went. Like an airborne disease; except it only affected the Vampires. Got them real sick."

Shikaku stared at him and nodded for him to continue, "so we could bring back the myth. There are Vampires out there that can make themselves sick. If the Prince approves of this idea he can rally those few up. And," he pushed the folder toward Shikaku, "there were some Vampires who really got sick. Like, an honest sickness from drinking human blood. That's why I didn't give this to you till now; I wanted to make sure my info was accurate."

Shikaku slowly allowed himself to smile as he picked up the folder, "a week's worth? I'll look through this and show it to the Prince when he decides to come."

The Slayer nodded and Shikaku asked, "what's your name?"

"Jonathan."

"Codename?"

"Ruthless."

"Ruthless?" Shikaku repeated, surprised. Ruthless smiled sheepishly, "if you see me on the battlefield..."

"Ah. Right. Well, good work," Shikaku waved the folder at him, "I'll dig into this now."

Ruthless grinned and exited the office. After the door closed Shikaku released a heavy sigh. He flapped the folder in his hand before opening it.

Most of the contents were old newspaper reports and a few magazine clips. All of them looked very old and Shikaku's eyes widened as he realized just how much work Ruthless probably went to.

'To find all this info... in a week... I can only imagine how hard it must have been to dig up all these old papers. Some of there are from... no, all of them are from Suna...' he gazed up at the ceiling in contemplation.

'Vampires... living in a hot and sunny place like that. Must be highly nocturnal...'

As he brought his eyes back to his desk he spotted a black wisp coiling near a corner. He took a shuddering breath before lifting his eyes to the tall, cloaked figure before the desk.

"You're here."

--

"Is it like this?"

"Nope."

"You didn't even look!"

Hidan turned his head, looking at her with raised eyebrows. Konan's face was flushed a light pink and she glared at him. He leaned toward her to look at her math work.

"You missed a step. And you got the wrong answer because of that," he informed her, tapping her work. Konan glared at the page and Hidan went back to nibbling on his hash brown.

"... I want some of that."

He quirked an eyebrow at her and touched one of his finger's to her lips, "I want some of that."

She blushed furiously and returned to her work, muttering something about him being unreasonable. He was halfway done with his food when one of her dainty hands coiled around his wrist. She tugged weakly and he started laughing.

"I waaant some! Gimme!"

He stole a kiss from her before setting the hash brown down – right on top of her work. She screeched, half in anger and half in glee, snatching up the oily, fried potato and gobbling it up. Hidan watched her in amusement, "I swear, you are so damn funny sometimes."

She glared at him and pointed to the oil stain on her work while grumbling, "your fault."

He rolled his eyes and stared out the window, "sure thing, babe."

Five minutes later and Hidan listened in satisfaction as she sighed and gave up on her math work, shoving it back into her bag, "I don't see why you refuse to help me until our tutoring session. Gawds, you are such a weird boyfriend."

"Boyfriend huh?"

Hidan froze and stood – Konan jumped nearly a foot into the air - glaring at Pein, "yeah, boyfriend. Get lost."

Pein lowered his head, gazing dangerously at Hidan. Hidan wrapped an arm around Konan's shoulders and bared his fangs, releasing a short hiss. As expected, Pein backed off, wary of Hidan's glimmering fangs.

"So be it," he growled before stalking off. Hidan stared after him; he didn't like how that sounded.

'Sounds like he's talking to Konan, not me. What the hell's up with that?'

"Konan? What's that supposed to mean?" he asked as they left McDonald's. She shook her head from side to side, hugging her bag to her chest, "n-nothing."

Hidan narrowed his eyes at her, "oh, it's totally something. Come on, Konan. Talk to me."

She turned abruptly and buried her face in his chest.

"Can we go somewhere else?" he heard her say from somewhere in the vicinity of his chest. He nodded to no one in particular and hoisted her onto his back before rocketing off toward his home. How he wished he knew how to transport like Kisame and Zetsu did.

'And Tobi. For gawds sake, even Tobi knows how to fucking transport. Ugh.'

Hidan reached his home in record timing, bounding through the doors, up the stairs and into his room. He set Konan on the desk and she immediately began crying against his shoulder.

"Wha-!? Hey, baby, what's wrong? What the hell did he mean by that, seriously?"

"H-he threatened that s-s-something would h-happen to my m-mother if I s-s-started dating you..."

Hidan was silent for several minutes, slowly processing this information while Konan sobbed against him. His anger exploded from his mouth in the sound of a ferocious snarl.

"That bastard! If he so much as lays a fucking finger on Anko I'll – I'll -"

He stormed away from the desk and snatched up his phone. Konan stared at him in mild surprise, tears sliding down her cheeks.

"Come on, come on... one of you pick up..."

There was a click and then, "yeah?"

"Hey, I need you two to do me a big favor."

A pause and then, "and what might that be?"

"It concerns guarding someone."

"Get down to it Hidan; my patience grows thin."

Hidan smirked and then instructed, "guard Anko Mitarashi like your life depends on it – starting now – and contact Kisame if Pein or anyone else shows up. You heard me. Hop to it, seriously."

There was a brief laugh from the other side, "will do. We'll head over there as soon as I finish getting dressed."

Hidan laughed lightly, "alright. But, seriously, take care."

"Of course. C'ya."

"See ya," Hidan set his phone back down and approached Konan again. He brought her head to his shoulder and wrapped his arms securely around her.

"Anko's gonna' be in good fucking hands, Konan. And you... you'll be in mine."

--

Shikaku watched in anticipation as the Prince thought the plan over. He'd explained everything, adding a few details and making it absolutely clear that the "sick" Vampires – so they were called – participate in making the supposed myth a reality.

The Prince leaned back in his seat, "sounds like a great idea. So how many are you saying I should gather?"

Shikaku was thoughtful, "I was thinking that maybe you should rally up fifteen or twenty. It's up to them whether or not they want to get sick on the spot."

"And where do they go after that? Also, what if the human calls an ambulance? The doctors will know right away that the sick Vampire is pretending."

"... then they'll have to leave the human and get sick somewhere a Vampire will find them. Like their partner."

A smile was beginning to show itself on both men's lips.

"Sounds like a great idea. That means I'll either be getting thirty or forty pairs involved."

"The more, the better. This can't happen too soon though... hm... what time would be good?"

The Prince laughed, "can't have them all getting sick at the same time, you know. I'll just tell them that the next time they bite a human is when they get sick."

"You know, that's a really good plan. And then I'll arrange for them to be sent into the forest. You guys can – what? - whip up a village for yourselves in a day or two?"

"More like a town, but yeah. Won't take us too long. Even without me there."

"Excellent. So say a week after all the sick Vampires are out of Konoha I make the announcement for all the Vampires to be sent out of the city. And a week after that we get you guys on the trains and out to this little town?"

"Sounds good. Yes, this is a good plan," this Prince closed his brilliant eyes, listening, "it will be just in time too. As soon as the Slayers from Fugaku's brigade hear this they'll calm down. But there may still be a revolt from them, in the future," he got up to leave and then remembered something.

"When will you be bringing us back, then?"

"... six months later?"

The Prince was silent, "... yes, that's a good amount of time. Six months... perfect."

The Prince flashed Shikaku a toothy grin and then he disappeared, leaving Shikaku to relax against his desk in relief.

... MWAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!! Oh gee. I wonder what Pein's going to do hm? And... do you know who Hidan called? ;P