When Darkness Falls Epilogue

It had been four months since the Ops Team had arrived and met their demise. Madara and Hashirama had decided to bring the two teams together as one family. It helped greatly with the transitions of two of the members.

Itachi and Hidan had lost their lives during the battle and Kisame and Kakuzu had taken drastic measures to bring them back. Instead of hunting vampires they were now the things they hunted. Itachi was having difficulty accepting his new life while Hidan was on cloud 9.

He had begged Kakuzu to show him all the neat vampire tricks and picked up on them quickly. Much to some of the members dismay. He really liked sneaking around and pulling pranks. He had been good as an Akatsuki member but as a vampire he kicked ass.

Deidara had suffered slight memory loss due to his hit to the head. His wrist had healed okay but his brain was damaged goods. At times he would throw things out there that made no sense to anyone but Sasori. At least someone knew what he was talking about.

"Itachi you need to eat something." Kisame begged. Itachi looked at the wall and ignored his lover. Kisame sighed. This was really becoming a problem. Being an Akatsuki member and killing vampires was Itachi's destiny and now to be a vampire was too much for his psyche. Kisame turned to leave the room.

"Kisame, thank you for worrying about me. I just don't know if I can do it or not. Drinking blood is a forbidden thing to the Akatsuki. It is the reason we rid the world of your kind. OUR kind." Itachi said grudgingly. Kisame nodded and continued to the door.

Itachi was off the bed in a flash. He grabbed Kisame's arm and stopped him from leaving. Kisame turned and took the smaller male into his arms. He kissed Itachi's forehead and held him against him. "Will you help me?" Itachi asked softly. Kisame smiled and nodded. Itachi walked over to the cup that sat on the table by the bed.

He picked it up and looked at the contents. The blood was crimson red and thick. Itachi grimaced. Kisame took the cup and covered it with his hand. "Don't think about what it is. Think of it as something you love. Close your eyes and imagine what it can be." Kisame instructed. Itachi looked skeptical.

He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. He loved the taste of cinnamon. He tried to imagine what it tasted like and then without thinking too much about it he took the cup from Kisame and put it to his lips. The taste of cinnamon and….chocolate? touched his tongue. He looked at Kisame in surprise.

Kisame smiled broadly. "I read your thoughts one day while we were, uh hum, you know and you were thinking about cinnamon tea also your breath smelled like chocolate. So I took a chance and added both of them to your meal." Kisame beamed. Itachi smiled at his lover. He set the cup on the table and climbed into Kisame's lap. "I love you so much, Kisame. Thank you for saving my life." He said softly and kissed Kisame on the lips.

Kisame was floating on air at that moment. He was so happy that Itachi didn't hate him for turning him. "I love you too, my angel. I would never have been able to live without you so no thanks needed." Kisame said. Itachi smiled and picked up the cup again. He put it up to his lips and took a long drink. It made his mouth water and he downed it quickly. He hadn't eaten in four months except when Kisame made him feed from him which was only twice.

Kisame grabbed the cup and left to get more blood for Itachi. Itachi lay back on the bed and waited. As long as he was with Kisame he could find a way to adapt to this life he now faced. Kisame came back a moment later with a bigger glass full of the gooey goodness mixed with cinnamon and chocolate. Itachi greedily emptied the contents once more. He felt much better and he lay down and patted the bed next to him. Kisame immediately lay down next to him. They slept the day away and for the first time in four months they were both happy.

Pein and Konan sat by the pool. She had gone through some grueling therapy to get her leg back to its normal strength. The poison had attacked the muscle and left it weak. Pein had brought her to the pool every morning. He would make her swim five laps at first back and forth and then increased it to ten then fifteen as her leg got stronger. She had sworn she hated him at first. As the time went on and her leg healed she was grateful to him.

They now sat at the side of the pool both wet from a swim. She had increased her laps to twenty today and she was ecstatic. She still got a little bit wobbly at times and she was sure she could overcome that with time. Pein was now massaging the muscles in her calf and working out the tightness in her thigh. An ugly purple scar ran horizontal up her thigh and the scar tissue had made the scar thick and stand out from her skin. Pein closed his eyes as the anger began to consume him as it always did when he sent hat scar and what had nearly cost him his world.

He finished rubbing down the muscle and then looked up at her face. She was smiling at him. He wasn't sure how she could smile when she was scarred and left having to work her ass off to regain control over her once strong powerful legs. She was smiling none the less. He smiled back event though he was angry. She reached out and ran her fingers through his hair. He leaned into her touch. She moved closer and sat against him. He wrapped his arms around her and they stared at the water of the pool. This was another perfect day to her.

Sasuke and Sai sat in the living room on the couch. Sai was holding Sasuke in his lap while Sasuke had his head on Sai's shoulder. The scar across Sasuke's neck was visible against pale skin. Sai looked at the scar everyday to remind him what was important to him. Sasuke waved it off as just another Akatsuki moment. Sai was perturbed. He wanted to make the scar disappear and make the memories of that day disappear as well.

Sasuke had been heartbroken when Itachi had been turned into a vampire. He had hated Kisame with a passion at first. Sai had done everything he could think of to get Sasuke to come to terms with it. Sasuke thought that losing his brother altogether would have been easier to deal with until nightmares of it plagued his sleep and his mind. He woke with screams of terror and shaking uncontrollably. Sai would comfort him the best he could but Sasuke would always get up and go work out in the training room.

Itachi had finally gone to see him one night in the training room. Sasuke was sweaty and breathing hard from his overly mind numbing workouts. Itachi had simply stood by and watched him at first. Sasuke had stopped kicking and punching the workout dummy. Sasuke walked over to it and grabbed it around the neck and whispered raggedly "Thank you Kisame." Itachi had been taken aback by the words and had stepped back about to leave.

Sasuke turned and was shocked to see Itachi standing there. Sasuke looked at Itachi for an eternity. He took in every detail of his face and his hair and his structure. Itachi was now a vampire but he was still and would always be Sasuke's Aniki. Sasuke walked over to Itachi and tiredly hugged him. Itachi hugged him back. Of course he hadn't eaten since he had been turned in three weeks and Sasuke was smelling rather good at the moment. Sasuke not pushing his luck released Itachi.

Sasuke smiled softly at him and left the training room. He went back to His and Sai's bed and crawled beneath the covers. Sai was awake and held out his arms which Sasuke gladly crawled into. There were no more nightmares after that night and he had given up his hatred of Kisame. He now found that as selfish as it was, he would rather have Itachi here as a vampire then not here at all. Sai held Sasuke closer as they seemed to melt into each other. They were content.

Zetsu and Tobi sat in the garden on the bench. Zetsu held a rose in his hand. Tobi had admired them from the moment he seen them. Tobi stared at the white rose now and breathed a sigh of awe. Zetsu knew how to make flowers even more beautiful than they originally were. The white rose his lover held was breathtaking. Zetsu smiled in appreciation. He handed the rose to Tobi. Tobi held it to his nose and inhaled the aroma.

His nostrils were tantalized by the roses wonderful sent. His head swan with a euphoria. Zetsu watched Tobi and just stared at the boy who had turned his life around and in such a wonderful way. "This rose is so beautiful Zetsu. This whole garden is like a wonderland." He said softly. Zetsu grabbed Tobi and pulled him onto his lap. "You my pet are the most beautiful flower in the whole garden." Zetsu whispered in his ear.

Tobi shivered and blushed. He looked at Zetsu and their eyes locked. They drifted absently towards each other until their lips touched. Zetsu slid his tongue into Tobi's mouth and Tobi moaned in bliss. Zetsu chuckled lightly at how easy it was to please Tobi and he picked up the raven. He carried him to a patch of grass covered in wild flowers and laid Tobi gently in the center of them. Hands roamed as clothes were shed and needs were met in silence. The white rose lay on the ground next to the entangled lovers. Its beauty was enhanced by the erotic scene before it.

Sasori and Deidara sat on their bed. Deidara was sitting against the headboard of the bed and Sasori was lying with his head on Deidara's lap. "Happy birthday, Danna un." Deidara said. Sasori looked up at Deidara. He smiled. "Thank you, Dei but my birthday is in two months." He said sadly. Deidara looked confused for a moment. "Oh right, Danna. Sorry, un." He said ashamed of himself for forgetting that. Sasori took his face in his hands.

"You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for. I am here to help you through the rough patches, okay?" He asked firmly. Deidara smiled and then nodded. "Thank you Danna, un. I don't know what I would do without you, un." He smiled and went back to stroking Sasori's red locks. Sasori smiled and lay his head back in Deidara's lap. The room was comfortably quiet. "I should be getting home, un. It will be dark and I hate being out after dark because that is when the vampires come after you, un." Deidara said seriously.

Sasori sighed a little. "Deidara, baby you are already home. Remember you moved in here with me after the battle?" He asked, searching Deidara's face for confirmation of this fact. Deidara frowned. He couldn't remember that. He looked at Sasori in sadness and a tear slipped down his cheek. He shook his head and Sasori was there to hold him while he cried. Hashirama and Madara were looking for some type of treatment for him but it seemed hopeless.

They had told Sasori that turning him might be the only solution to the problem. Sasori refused to do that not knowing if that would work or not. Deidara's stomach rumbled. He looked at Sasori and grinned a little. Sasori smiled and lifted up to let him get up to go eat. Deidara crawled off the bed and was headed across the room when he all of a sudden collapsed on the floor. Sasori was at this side and trying to wake him. There was no response.

He yelled for help and Madara and Hashirama were there in a flash. Madara scooped up Deidara and took him to their medical wing of the mansion. Madara had spent three months putting the wing together for his members that were still human. He laid Deidara on the table and grabbed his stethoscope. He pressed it to Deidara's chest. His heart was steady and all seemed good in his body, which meant the trouble was in his head.

Madara set up a CT Scan and placed Deidara onto the table. He looked at Deidara's body from top to bottom. He could see the fractures to his bones he had sustained as an Akatsuki member and the break in his wrist from the battle. He moved up to his head and gasped. A large mass was present in the frontal lobe of his brain. It had grown over the past four months. They had done a CT Scan after the battle and there hadn't been any signs of anything at all. Now a large tumor like mass was pressing against his brain.

Hashirama studied it closely. "We need to do surgery and remove that if we can." He said to Madara. Madara nodded and sighed. He didn't like the idea of cutting into his member's brain but he also didn't like the size of the tumor. They prepped the operating table and began the procedures of anesthesia and cleaning the area to be operated on. Madara and Hashirama worked fast but efficiently. They opened up Deidara's skull and were faced with the massive tumor. Hashirama cut the top half of the tumor away and then assessed his options.

The tumor was right over the memory lobe. Hashirama carefully cut the mass away and at last the tumor was gone. They had successfully removed every bit of it. They only hoped that they had saved Deidara's memory lobe from damage. They closed him back up and placed him in the recovery room. Madara had gone through medical training and studied all fields. That is not to say he was a neurologist. He was simply a team leader with a little knowledge in all fields.

Two hours later Deidara awoke. His head ached and his eyes burned. He kept them closed and tried to drown out the beeping sound around him. Sasori was next to him in a flash. He released the morphine into Deidara's system and smiled at the blonde. The pain ebbed away as the morphine took hold. Deidara opened his eyes and smiled at Sasori. "What happened, un?" He asked groggily. "You collapsed and Hashirama and Madara had to do brain surgery to remove a massive tumor from your brain.

They got it all and they say that it was putting pressure on your memory lobe. If they managed to fix it you shouldn't have anymore memory problems. Deidara smiled and nodded. That would be the best thing ever. Sasori crawled onto the bed with Deidara and Deidara welcomed it. They cuddled together and drifted toward sleep. "Hey Danna, I still have to turn over my keys to my apartment. The land lady will be pissed if I kept them." He said tiredly. Sasori smiled in glee. The surgery was a success. "We will get that taken care of soon. For now just sleep okay?" He asked. Deidara mumbled an 'I love you' and a 'goodnight' to Sasori. Sasori was too damn happy to sleep.

Kakuzu and Hidan were in the library. Kakuzu was reading or trying to while Hidan bugged him continuously to teach him something new. Kakuzu had been all to happy to teach him at first but now his thirst for learning vampire tricks and trades was a little annoying. Hidan sat on a table and continually interrupted Kakuzu. Sighing in frustration he closed his book and looked at Hidan with annoyance.

Hidan smirked as Kakuzu glared at him. Hidan jumped off the table and went to Kakuzu's chair. He climbed in the miser's lap and gave him a cute look. Kakuzu sighed in exasperation. He grabbed the zealot and pulled him into a kiss. As much as he wanted to be mad at the silver haired boy he just couldn't hold the anger. He kissed him passionately and immediately the zealot surrendered. He pressed his body closer to Kakuzu's as they kissed and kissed. There was no need for air to stop them so they deepened the kiss as much as they could in the confines of the chair.

Kakuzu picked up Hidan and carried him over to the table. Now that they were both vampires the rougher it was the better they liked it. Clothes were ripped to shreds and fingernails dug until blood seeped from flesh. Biting each other was a new kind of turn on that neither could deny. The table was cleared off of any books and the act of mating took a violent turn to make them even more desperate. It was like something you would see on the discovery channel only better.

Once finished they lay against each other on the table and sweat coated both of their bodies. Hidan smiled at Kakuzu and he smiled back. Hidan cuddled into Kakuzu's chest. "So now will you teach me something new?" Hidan asked. Kakuzu growled. The damn zealot never gave up on anything. Hidan gave Kakuzu a uke-ish look and Kakuzu sighed in defeat. He stood and grabbed Hidan's hand. He pulled him from the table and began to teach him a greater form of telepathy. Hidan grinned from ear to ear.

Hashirama and Madara lay in bed that night. They had made love twice and they were now just talking. They had managed to overcome a battle and tragedy and rebirth and a successful brain surgery. Risky but successful. They wondered what else might try to pop up on them. It really didn't matter because they would fight and win every time. Madara closed his eyes and Hashirama ran his fingers threw his black hair. Madara sighed in contentment.

When darkness falls things aren't what they seem

but put them against this family, they are an unbeatable team.