I Want Your Blood: Remake

by SmexxiAnime115

After Hinata Hyuga's family died in a tragic car crash seven years ago, she learned to take care of herself over the years. All was going well for her, she made friends that became close enough for her to call family and even discovered love. Yes, all was going well for her, until a strange voice beckoned her to an abandoned church and changed her life forever.

15. Recollection

The seven of us arrived in Konohagakure twenty-four hours later after we left the sandy city, Sunagakure. I parted ways with Gaara, the Kazekage, and I was already missing his country. We kissed each other good bye before I left and I can still feel his soft lips on mine. Every time I recall that, my face gets hot. I plan on calling him when I get home, but I can't guarantee that he'll answer since he is always so busy. Gaara said that he'll also leave his schedule open for me so I can call him or visit him whenever I like, but that'll be complicated because of my wanting to spend as much time as I possibly can with my cousin.

I found my cousin, Neji, in Sunagakure coincidentally in a convenience store on my first day in Sunagakure. He called himself Moya Minami due to the fact that he acquired amnesia from a car crash seven years ago that he survived. We both had been in the car that day, and I thought he was dead. It turned out that a vampire carried him off somewhere to feed on him because of a rumor that slayer blood can strengthen vampires. He survived because of the blood coursing through his veins, but it's still a mystery why I lived too. He and I were the only ones to survive.

Neji decided to come with me back to Konohagakure after I convinced him one last time. He met us at the airport before we were about to board the plane and still appeared to be reluctant to go. But once we arrived at the Konoha airport he seemed to be very uncomfortable and it wasn't because of the vampires. He took his time leaving the port and his skin had gotten paler the farther we got into the city. I figured he was getting sick from the ride but my gut told me otherwise.

"Are you okay?" I asked my cousin.

"My head just hurts. I'll be fine."

I smiled softly at him because he sounded sure of himself, but it didn't ease me. Something was telling me to keep a close eye on him because something was going to happen soon.

I walked beside my cousin while my other friends walked in front of us. It was when we hit Konoha Square when Neji screamed. I jolted and looked at my cousin who had dropped his suitcases. He was holding onto his head tightly and was now crouching on the ground next to me. I knelt beside him and placed a hand on his back only to have him flinch away from me.

"Neji, what's wrong?" I asked. Thankfully I sounded much calmer than I felt.

"My… My head…"

His words were strained and it was hard for me to understand him.

My gut was telling me to hold onto him, so I did. When I held him in my arms he fainted almost immediately. He was heavy so I lost my balance with him in my arms and I fell on the ground. Sasuke took him from me and Naruto grabbed his bags.

"Let's take him to the church," Sasuke said.

I stood up from the ground and said "Wait. I don't think Neji will be very comfortable waking up with… you know."

Sasuke furrowed his brows and asked "Then what do you suppose we do with him?"

"We can always bring him to Hinata's apartment," Naruto suggested. "It's better than the church, and I bet Hinata's going to want to spend time with her cousin when he wakes up."

Sasuke didn't agree with the idea, but he said "Okay" anyway.

"I'll call you later, Hinata," Sakura called out to me as Sasuke (along with Neji), Naruto, and I went off towards my house.

I smiled and waved the rest of my friends good bye.

When the four of us entered my apartment, Naruto sat Neji's luggage by my doorway and told me that he's going home because it looks like it's going to storm soon. I had been so occupied with Neji that I didn't even notice the thick, dark clouds quickly covering the blue sky that we came home to.

Sasuke laid my cousin down on my double bed as I let Naruto out. Once Naruto was gone I told Sasuke "You should go home, too. We might get a nasty storm tonight."

"Are you going to be fine with… your cousin here alone with you?" he asked.

"Yes, Sasuke." I didn't bother hiding the irritation in my voice. "I'll be fine. Neji's not going to hurt me."

Sasuke furrowed his brows at me as he made his way towards the door. "He's a slayer who knows that you are friends with vampires. There is a chance that he'll try to kill you."

"He won't. And you need to trust him or else you'll never get along."

My raven haired friend sighed heavily. "Just be careful. Okay?"

"Yeah," was all I said when I let him out, locking the door behind me.

I let out a deep breath and looked at my cousin. I slowly made my way over to him to sit beside his unconscious body. Once seated, I gently ran my fingers through his silky, dark brown hair that was longer than mine. He looked so peaceful, almost as if he was asleep. But I knew better. Neji had looked sickly on the plane and when we got closer to the Square his features had gotten poorer. If he had been feeling strange he should have said something.

I removed my fingers from his hair and felt his forehead for a fever. There was no fever, but his face was beginning to flush. And even though he had no fever, I went into the kitchen, wet a cloth with water, and placed it on his forehead. I wish that I could do more for him but, unfortunately, I had to wait until he woke up in order to find out whether he was okay or not.

I wasn't used to seeing Neji like this. He never got sick when we were kids and seeing him look so pale is odd and a little frightening. His skin is deathly pale but I'm figuring that is because of the slayer in him having vampire traits.

This is obviously more than a headache or migraine, but I have no idea as to what this could be. It could be because Neji isn't used to the environment here anymore, but getting sick from a new environment doesn't usually kick in until a day or two. We were hardly here for an hour and he has fallen ill.

Figuring that I had been hovering over Neji for long enough, I got up to check out the weather outside by looking out of the window. I drew back the curtain masking the outside world and peered out of the small window. Wind was blowing so hard that the trees were forced to dance along with the harsh rhythm of the constant gusts. And the rain was falling down so rapid and hard that the water was quickly consuming my window, veiling the ugliness taking place outside. I feel bad for the people that have to drive and walk in this.

"So he is finally remembering everything," said a voice coming from my front door.

I jumped and whipped my head around to see Haku standing in front of my closed front door. He was sopping wet from head to toe. His long, black hair (that was longer from the last time that I saw him) clung to his beautiful face and his slender body. He appeared to be unaffected from being drenched as he stared at me with his piercing, brown eyes.

Haku gave me a knowing gaze as he nodded towards Neji.

"How did you get in here?" I asked, moving away from the window and towards him.

He ignored my question and went back to my cousin. "He is remembering, Hinata. I would stay by his bedside if I were you. He is going to need you when he awakens."

I frowned at the young gypsy. Something seemed off about him. He wasn't himself and he wasn't trying to hide it. I didn't know Haku very well, but I think that he would have knocked instead of letting himself in regardless if his being here was urgent. I think that he would have even called first since he somehow has my number and-

"You can stop trying to read me, Hinata," Haku said, interrupting my thoughts. "I am not hiding anything from you. And as for me mysteriously getting inside of your home, I made a copy of your key whilst you slept at my house."

"H-How did you…?"

"That is not our concern right now," he told me with a small, sweet smile. "I told you on our first meeting that I would come visit you when I was allowed to give you some important information based on your life changing tragedy. I come bearing information regarding the car crash that took place seven years ago."

My eyes widened. "But don't I already know everything about it?"

Haku fixed me with the soul-seeing gaze that he used on me the first time I met him. He used it to reach into my memories to find out everything that I experienced during the crash that changed my, and Neji's, life. I'm guessing that he's searching for what I learned from Hisao and Hitomi when I visited Neji's home.

"You do not know everything," Haku said when the soul-seeing gaze faded. "In fact, you are missing the most important part of the story."

My heart stopped and began to ache. I clutched my chest and Haku watched me with that infamous knowing gaze that was beginning to annoy me.

"Your heart bothers you often when something upsets you, correct?" Haku asked slowly.

I hesitated. "Y-Yes, but it only began a few months ago… Why?"

He took his eyes from my chest to meet my eyes. He looked sad when he told me "Unfortunately I am not the one to tell you why… All they are allowing me to tell you is that an unexpected visitor granted you life, and the pain you feel is the result of it."

"Is that all you can tell me, Haku? That message is pretty vague."

The boy closed his eyes. He tilted his head slightly and appeared to be listening to someone whispering something to him. After a few seconds he opened his eyes again. "They say that you will meet this person soon. That is all."

I sighed and rubbed my neck after the pain in my chest suddenly disappeared. "Okay. Before we talk, do you want to wash your hair and change? I might be able to find something that doesn't look too feminine for you, but you are going to get sick if you stay in those clothes."

Haku's stunning face twisted in confusion as he cocked his head to the side and stared at me with his innocent, brown eyes. He looked down at himself and felt his clothing. The gypsy's face turned an adorable shade of pink when he noticed that he was soaked and the puddle on the floor beneath him was increasing by the minute.

"A-Anything is fine, Hinata."

I fished out a T-shirt with a pink bunny on it and gray sweat pants from the dresser by my bed in my studio-like apartment and directed Haku to the bathroom down the small hallway. Once he finished showering and changing, he sat on my sofa next to me with a tint of pink still on his face and dark locks that were dripping wet. I laughed silently to myself because he smelled like my melon scented Garnier Fructis shampoo. Even though he looked like a girl, I still found it odd for a boy to use a girl's shampoo and to wear their clothing.

"How did you not know that you were wet?" I asked as I masked all adoration I was feeling for the gypsy with a casual question.

Haku seemed to not notice that I was staring at him like he was some adorable preschooler and said "It happens sometimes. They," I couldn't help but to look up at the ceiling when Haku said "they", "tell me to do something and I go do it. In the process of completing their request, I am unaware of my surroundings until the job is done."

"That's a little rude, isn't it? You can get hurt during it if you're," I paused, trying to find the right word to use, "in a trance."

Haku shrugged his shoulders in an attempt to come off nonchalant but it failed miserably. "That is one of the prices that I have to pay. They are very hard to please once a rule is broken."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What rule?"

"I will tell you later when Sasuke is with us. I want him to know, too. Right now we need to discuss the crash."

I automatically shifted in my seat and braced myself. Whatever it was that I am missing must be big. My heart is racing and I'm nervous without even knowing whether the news is good or bad.

"There is no sense in delaying the information with unnecessary hesitation, so I am going to come out and say it," Haku said. "The crash was not an accident."

My body went stiff as all the color drained from me. "What…?"

"The crash was not an accident. It was intentional, Hinata. You already know that a vampire was driving the truck that collided with your car on the way back to Konohagakure. What you do not know is that the vampire purposely sought you and your family out to kill you all. The main target was Neji but, as you can see, that failed." Haku stared at me with a sympathetic gaze. "Hisao and Hitomi did not tell you the truth behind finding Neji. They told you that they found the vampire feeding on him not too far from the 'accident'. The truth is that the vampire died on impact with your car. It was a suicide mission given to him by his superiors. Hisao and Hitomi also said that they did not know who the police and ambulance were affiliated with when they arrived at the scene so they could not return Neji to his homeland. That was false. They knew exactly where he came from as well as the rest of the family." Haku's sympathetic gaze turned hard when I turned away from him. "They also played a part in the vampire crashing into your car. Emiko was the one who told the vampires where you would be and where you were going."

"No way," I whispered.

"There is more," Haku said, making me look at him again. "Yesterday, Neji told you that he had a vampire friend that killed his grandfather and he no longer trusts them because of that. That vampire was trying to protect Neji from his grandfather because the vampire knew about the conspiracy. The Minamis killed the vampire so that he could not tell Neji what he learned."

"But… But why did they want Neji so bad? Slayers are found everywhere, so why did they want Neji?"

"Your cousin is special. He is a cross between a human and a slayer. Neji's father, your uncle, was a human and his mother was a slayer. Yes, it is common for humans and slayers to make offspring, but Neji is a special case… His grandmother on his mother's side was a full bred slayer but his grandfather was a vampire. In the slayer world, the offspring of a slayer and a vampire is an abomination. They only say this because such creatures are the only beings in history to be stronger than slayers. The gypsies that discovered this sometime over five hundred years ago wanted to dispose of them right away, so they did. There has not been such a being since until now." Haku faced Neji again. "Hisao and Hitomi also lied to you when they said Neji screamed during the night because of nightmares. The truth is that he was remembering everything that happened, and he was calling out your name because he knew that you survived. But unfortunately Neji woke up every morning forgetting everything that he recalled. I am told that he was drugged every night before he went to bed to prevent any recollection."

"How did Neji know that I was alive? I remember him being unconscious when we were hit," I said.

"Slayers are very hard to kill. In turn, even though Neji may have appeared dead, he was alive. Daichi and Kaoru pulled him out of the car after it crashed… That is all that I am allowed to tell you for now."

"There's still more that I don't know that you can't tell me? When can you tell me this time?"

"…Whenever the unexpected visitor drops into your life again providing another message for you. That person will fill in most of the blanks and I will fill in the rest when the time comes."

I exhaled heavily, letting my head fall back against the back of the couch. All of this information that Haku bears that he is only allowed to tell "when the time comes" must be overwhelming. If it's overwhelming for me just to listen to him whenever he tells me something new, it must be exhausting to receive information and keep most of it a secret from your friends. What does it feel like to be the last gypsy? I can only assume that it must be hell.

"He is awaking," Haku told me as he walked into my kitchen and pulled out a cup from my cabinet. "Do not tell Neji what I just told you about his adoptive family. I will tell him when the time comes."

I nodded my head and got up from the couch to sit beside Neji. He began to stir immediately after I sat down as if he felt someone familiar with him there. His pale eyes shot open and found me instantly. He stared at me as if I was a ghost and slowly sat up from the bed, making the damp cloth fall from his forehead and onto his lap. He reached out, touched my face briefly with his fingertips, and pulled back as if my skin burned him. My cousin's eyes widened as he glanced down at his hand and then back up at me.

"You're not a dream…" he whispered to himself more than to me as tears filled his eyes and spilled over in mass amounts.

"No," I answered shakily as I shook my head. Tears blurred my vision when I reached out and rested a hand on Neji's warm face. My cousin placed a hand on the hand that I had on his face and rested his head into my palm. He smiled genuinely at me and more tears escaped from him.

I couldn't help myself. I pulled Neji close to me as I clasped him in my arms. I buried my face into his long hair and sobbed like I never did before. My cousin was back! I had never thought that I would be able to hear his voice again, touch him, or smell him again. This was more than I could have asked for. Not only did he piece all of the missing fragments of his lost memory together in a few hours, he also missed me just as much as I did him, if not more.

Neji pulled away from me slightly to wipe away the tears expelling from his eyes. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you," he said.

"I think I do," I replied, wiping the tears from my eyes, too.

We hugged tightly once more and I breathed in his familiar scent. Neji broke away from me when he noticed Haku leaning against the back of the couch drinking a cup of water.

"Haku?" Neji said, sounding unsure of himself. "What are you doing here?"

The young gypsy took one more sip of water before answering. "I'm a friend of Hinata's. I came because I sensed her return to Konohagakure."

"You two know each other?" I asked.

"Yes," Haku said after taking another sip of water. "The Minami family hired me often to locate nefarious vampires with magic. I also went on hunting missions frequently with Neji and Nanase during Nanase's slayer training. Neji and I also went on missions with just the two of us a few times."

Neji narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Haku. "Did you know who I was when we met?"

"Yes," he answered automatically. Haku walked over to my cousin and handed him the cup that he had been drinking from. "I know that you must be thirsty after all that you went through." When Neji took the cup Haku added "You will be even thirstier soon."

"There is more that you have to tell me?" Neji asked.

"Yes, but not yet. You will have to be patient with me on this one. I was not given information on when I am permitted to tell you. They are being very secretive as of late, which is making me quite restless."

"You look restless," my cousin said sarcastically and then took a long drink from the cup.

He gave the cup back to Haku and the gypsy drank the rest of the water. "There is more information that I have to tell the both of you, but we have to go to the church so that Sasuke, Deidara, and Naruto can know."

"It's raining outside. I don't think we'll be going anywhere anytime soon, Haku," I said.

The gypsy walked over to the window that I was peering out of earlier and he opened up the curtain enough for Neji and me to see outside. The rain had completely cleared up and a large, glowing full moon hung over us with stars just as bright as the moon lingering in dark blue sky. It looked like the storm never happened.

"Let's go," Haku said. He closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them they were glowing white. He closed them again and reopened them for us to see his brown orbs. "Naruto and Deidara are on the way and I let Sasuke know that we are coming. We should not keep them waiting."

Neji and I glanced at each other briefly before nodding our heads to Haku's demand.

We left my apartment with Haku leading the way to the church. The boys were already waiting for us in the lobby when we arrived. As soon as we got through, Deidara stood up from the loveseat and approached Haku while laughing. The blonde vampire pointed to his shirt and asked "Is this Hinata's?" Deidara turned to me while still laughing. "You wear clothes like this?"

I felt my face getting hot in both embarrassment and frustration.

"Now is not the time for joking, Deidara," Haku said, smacking the vampire's hand away from the shirt in the process. "We did not come here for games."

Deidara rubbed his hand as if it actually hurt. "Were you always this feisty? It's not cute."

Haku frowned and brushed past him to go to Sasuke. "I have something to tell you first before I get to the other piece of information that I received." Haku motioned for Neji and me to come over. When we reached him, Haku said "The voices have stopped."

Sasuke uncrossed his arms and his face softened. "That's wonderful. When? How?"

When I met Haku for the first time he had been… attacked by multiple whispers in the wind that only he could hear. They came from several directions and swallowed him until he fell unconscious. When the voices were whispering to him he was helpless and vulnerable and hadn't a clue what to do, which was very uncharacteristic for him. After he collapsed, he woke up confused in the morning with a slight, brief pain in his head.

"I discovered that the voices were a curse put on me by my ancestors," Haku said. "The reason for it was because I killed a family member, my father. In normal cases, the curse kills whoever is afflicted by it within a year or less. But since I am the last gypsy, my ancestors decided to relieve me of it. They say apparently I am too valuable to allow to die even after committing a sin. So, in order to gain their trust again, I have to follow every order they give me whether it pleases me or not. If I do not, then, as Deidara says, all hell will break loose."

"I'm glad to see that you are cured, Haku," Sasuke said, smiling as he rested a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder.

"Yes," the boy smiled back. "But now is not the time to celebrate. I come bearing some grim and… odd news."

"Our lives are based on grim and odd, Haku," Deidara said. "Whatever you have to say shouldn't really faze us."

"We will see," challenged the gypsy.

Despite Deidara claiming Haku's feistiness wasn't cute, he seemed to be enjoying it by the minute. And he proved my thoughts right with a smile when Haku challenged him.

"This involves the slayers, so pay close attention," Haku said, sitting down next to a sleepy Naruto who was still in his pajamas. We all gathered around once Haku began to say more. "An abnormal phenomenon has occurred recently all over the world. Slayers have begun killing creatures other than vampires." Everyone besides Naruto and me were shocked by this and Haku sensed our lack of emotion. He explained to us "Slayers were meant to slay vampires only. It is what we created them for and what they live for, but that has been severed by the sudden outbreak of mass murders of other creatures. I would like to say that they are malfunctioning, but we granted them freewill for their services in slaying vampires for us so they are not malfunctioning. They are doing this out of freewill."

"Well," Naruto said, "as long as they're killing evil monsters then you have nothing to worry about, right?"

"Wrong. They are killing both impure and pure creatures, which is throwing the balance between them and the others out of order. And what is even more disturbing about this is that they are not just quick kills. They let the creatures suffer by torturing them with their kryptonite, and then erase them from existence in a brutal fashion. I tried looking further into this odd phenomenon but I cannot find anything. All I know is that the murders are getting closer and closer to Konohagakure, so I figured that if I come here then I could figure out why this is happening." Haku scanned each of our faces and rested on Sasuke's as he said "I was hoping that you all would help me find out since they refuse to tell me what is going on." He then gave a not-so-innocent smile at Sasuke when he told him "I intend on staying here until we find out what is going on. That way you can assist me whenever I need help."

"Sure," Sasuke said, oblivious to Haku's flirtation. "I will help you the best that I can, Haku."

Deidara looked like he wanted to smack Sasuke. "Where's he going to sleep, Sasuke? And he didn't even bring clothes."

"I can sleep in Hinata's old room," Haku said. "And I brought a month's worth of clothing with me."

"You didn't come in here with-" Deidara stopped talking when he saw Haku lean over the arm of the sofa to drag out three large suitcases stuffed with clothes. "When the hell did you-"

"Teleportation spell." The gypsy gave the blonde vampire that soul-seeing gaze that he gave me earlier. "You have not met many gypsies in your life. Maybe things would have been different for you had you befriended that redheaded gypsy back in 1456. She certainly liked you."

For the first time, and probably the last time, Deidara looked freaked out. "I'm going home. Make sure your psychic boyfriend is locked up nice and tight tonight so that I can get a peaceful sleep, Sasuke. I can just imagine him crawling out of my closet on all fours during the night spitting out ectoplasm with a rotating head."

"Boyfriend?" Sasuke repeated. "Go home, Deidara."

The blonde vampire shrugged his shoulders and left after saying goodnight to everyone.

Naruto laughed to himself and said "It's going to be fun to watch Deidara and Haku go at each other. I think Haku is the only one to stand against his 'terror' and make him retreat."

"I have to agree," Sasuke said.

"But other than that," Naruto said as he got up from the couch and stretched. "Looks like you got your memory back, Neji."

"Yes. It returned not too long before Haku summoned everyone here."

"That's good. Does that mean you're going to attend school with us? It starts in two weeks."

Neji and I exchanged glances. We haven't had the time to decide whether Neji was going to school with us or not. It hadn't even crossed my mind but now that Naruto mentioned it, I want him to go to school with us, too, and even more so if that'll mean he won't be going back to Sunagakure to those horrible people.

"Yes," Haku said. "Neji will be attending Konoha High as a senior, and I will be attending, too, as a sophomore. But in order to do that, Neji has to tell the Hokage that he is alive." The gypsy's voice suddenly turned sharp. "Neji, if you tell the Hokage that you are alive, that means that you will no longer be able to return to the Minami family. You will have to stay here. You do not have a lot of time to decide so do it fast."

"I have already made my decision," Neji said.

I was almost afraid to ask. Almost. "What is your decision?"

Our eyes met and I knew what his choice was before he opened his mouth to say it. "I'm staying here. I will go to the Hokage tomorrow to tell him everything that happened."

"Good," Sasuke said. "I guess we will be seeing each other often then."

"Yeah."

My cousin hid his discomfort well from Sasuke and the others but I saw it right away. As soon as Sasuke spoke to him, Neji's body tensed up. I know that Neji will do everything in his power to get along with Deidara and Sasuke, but it's going to be harder to get them to actually trust each other. He'll more than likely get along with Sasuke before Deidara, but the process might take a while no matter how friendly they act towards one another. And if that's the case then we're in for a long school year.

"We should be heading home now," I said to my friends. "Neji and I have to get back on school schedule before the year starts."

"I do, too," Naruto yawned.

We said goodnight to each other before leaving the church. In a few minutes, Neji and I arrived home. We put on our pajamas before I suggested to him "You can sleep in the same bed as me if you want. The couch is a little rough and I have no futons."

"I don't mind. We used to do it when we were kids, so there's no harm in doing it now."

"Y-Yeah. I suppose." I fought back oncoming tears to tell him "I want to talk to you before we go to sleep."

My cousin sat on the edge of the bed. He removed the hair tie from his hair and let the long locks fall over his shoulders and down his back. "About what?"

I laid down on the side of the bed that was pressed against the wall. "Did you know a woman named Kurenai Yuhi?"

"Yes," he said, looking over his shoulder at me. "I met Kurenai a couple of times. A half year ago, slayers discovered her body in the ocean and proclaimed her murderer to be a vampire. Why?"

"Well, she was my teacher once. I met the vampire who killed her and he told me that she was a slayer." I didn't bother naming the vampire in fear of Neji wanting to rip Sasuke's head off and got back to what had been bothering me ever since I found out that slayers are stronger than vampires. "The vampire killed her effortlessly when she hunted him down. I was wondering if she was a slayer why did she die so easily? Aren't vampires supposed to be the prey?"

"Kurenai wasn't a slayer. Her husband, Asuma Sarutobi, was a slayer. He was killed by vampires along their child, and Kurenai acted out in revenge. She was so blinded by her hatred for vampires that she didn't even know what she was getting herself into regardless of what anyone told her. I would like to say that her death was her own fault but that would be cruel."

I should have known that Kurenai wasn't a slayer. It made perfect sense. Sasuke took her down like she was a… a human. She never stood a chance against him and I wished that she knew what she was walking into before she went out searching for death.

"Neji, I have one more question."

He laid down beside me and got comfortable after turning out the lamp on the bedside table. "Are you going to talk me to sleep?" he asked in an amused tone.

"This is the last one," I assured as I released a yawn. "What does it mean when a vampire's body temperature changes? Like from cold to warm or warm to hot?"

He laid next to me without saying anything. He stayed silent for so long that I thought he was sleeping until he finally responded. "I don't know the true answer to that. Hisao and Hitomi told me that vampires do not have emotions and they change their body temperature at will to fool their prey. They said that hot meant romantic feelings, warm for contentment and trust, and cold meant you're nothing but a meal. After meeting your vampire friends, I have second thoughts about them having no emotions. Your friends are very expressive, especially Deidara."

"I have to agree. He's just like a human, right?"

Neji shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah."

I knew immediately that scared him. He was afraid that if he got close to Deidara and Sasuke they would betray him by harming him or someone that he loves just like his vampire friend did that "betrayed" him by murdering his grandfather.

"You have nothing to worry about," I said. "They're friendly. You'll see that if you let yourself get close to them. Naruto didn't want anything to do with either of them once he found out what they were, but now he's close to both of them."

"It's harder than you think for me."

"Regardless, you will learn to trust them and they will do the same." I yawned again.

Neji smiled at me. "Goodnight, Hinata."

I returned the smile and said "Goodnight" before facing the wall to go to sleep.

Of course I didn't say anything to Neji, but I silently feared that when I woke up in the morning he wouldn't be there next to me. It took me forever to fall asleep no matter how tired I got because of how great my fear was. I even felt on his side of the bed to see if he was still there a couple of times during the night when he had long since drifted off to sleep. He was there every time I felt for him but I couldn't shake the paranoia consuming me until some point in the night Neji laced his fingers with mine and grumpily told me to go to sleep just like when we were kids. It was soon after that that I finally drifted off into a much needed slumber.