Chapter Text
Sasuke knocked on the doors, and the kennel master opened him, staring at him with wide eyes. Then he noticed unconscious Naruto, who was draped over the horse's back. Sasuke couldn't had left the mercenary knocked out in that temple. Even if no-one had bothered them while they had been staying there.
"You have to take care of him," he muttered, and the kennel master slowly nodded his head.
"You can't come in if I won't invite you, right?" the man questioned, backing out into the room. A pack of dogs - six of them, all tall and big - was cowering in the far corner of the room, whimpering and barking.
"I can't," he assured the man. He didn't have time for this. He just needed to leave Naruto in his care and move forward. He had fed on the blonde - mostly because he didn't want to be followed by him. "Take him from me," he ushered the kennel master.
"You don't remember me, do you?" the man asked, finally lifting Naruto from the horse, and draping him over his shoulders in a rather awkward piggy ride position. "You used to be a really cute kid," he added. "You used to come to the kennel and play with my dogs. One time, you said you wanted to become a kennel master yourself," he said, letting out a strained laugh. "And now you come here to bring even more sorrow," he uttered, shaking his head. "Let it go. Whatever you want to do, it's not a good idea."
"Danzou framed my family, stripping them off everything they had," Sasuke protested.
"He didn't frame them," the kennel master answered. "Danzou might be not the nicest man out there but he's a legalist. And you were supposed to be dead. Coming here after all these years when we're finally rebuilding," he paused and sighed, "that's just cruel. You owe these people peace. If you hurt Danzou, everything will be ruined. Just like you've ruined this boy," he stated, gesturing to Naruto. "It's your fault that he's wanted, isn't it?"
Sasuke frowned at the accusation. It wasn't his fault.
"It's his fault," he grunted. "I've never asked him to follow me."
"You're still a selfish brat," the kennel master replied, his eyes cold. "It's a real shame that you weren't more like Itachi. Your brother was capable of sacrifice-"
"My brother murdered my whole family," Sasuke growled.
"Because he wanted to protect you. These lands, these people - they needed someone who would take care of them. But you didn't. You've set your mind on killing the person, who's saved your from untimely death - because, honestly, everyone would've died either way."
"What are you talking about?" the vampire questioned, trying to take a step into the man's house. He couldn't. The kennel master smirked at him, evidently feeling safe with the invisible barrier separating them.
"Your family wanted to overthrow the Fire Lord," he answered. "That's treason. Their little rebellion would had been crushed. These lands would had been turned into a cemetery. Your brother saved this place and saved you as the rightful heir. But you've never pulled your head out of your ass-"
Sasuke glared at the man, his arms shaking. So he had killed the wrong person back then. This time he would fix his mistake.
"This already is a cemetery," he hissed, and walked away. He'd already wasted enough time. Now he had to find a way to get inside of the castle. He needed someone, who would invite him.
Naruto woke up, his whole body aching. He felt drained. Then he suddenly remembered the last conversation he had had with Sasuke, and sat up, looking around frantically. He wasn't in the temple anymore. He was in the kennel. A dog was licking his foot. He was naked, covered only by bandages, buried under a heap of blankets. He heard someone click their tongue, and turned his head towards the source of the noise. It was Kakashi.
"What am I doing here?" he asked dumbfounded. He glanced at the open window. It was already day.
"Sasuke's brought you here. But it seems that he's worked really hard on making you useless for fight," the man muttered, sitting on a stool next to the bed. Naruto almost forgot how great beds were.
"Where is he?" he asked, ready to stand up and find the idiot before it would be too late but Kakashi stopped him, grabbing his arms, and putting him back into the bed.
"I don't know. You shouldn't have brought him here," he complained, handing Naruto a cup with hot wine in it. The blonde downed it in one go. He missed the wine, and all the other conveniences he had been lacking while on the road. But he knew he would had missed Sasuke more.
"You don't know?!," he yelled at the man, and jumped out of the bed, searching for his clothes. He had to find Sasuke. His eyes caught a glimpse of a black smudge on his hand. It had to be writing once but now it was just a stain. He turned his head at Kakashi, and shoved the hand into his face. "What did it say?!" he inquired, hoping that it would be a clue on how to find the vampire.
"It was nice knowing you," the kennel master replied in a dull tone. Naruto shook his head, blinking away the tears that threatened to escape his eyes. "I've contacted a friend of mine - she would accept you as her entourage. She's an envoy, so you would be granted full immunity. You would just have to travel a lot but that's what you're doing already, so-"
"I don't want to," Naruto growled at him, putting on his undergarments and hoses. He needed to get out of there as soon as possible.
"This might be your only chance," Kakashi grunted, scratching a dog behind its ear. "She's here, and she's one of the fun envoys. You would've enjoyed her company. She drinks a lot, though, so you-"
"I don't care," the blonde snapped at him, dressing in his tunic. "Where's Sasuke?"
"Forget about him. He's probably he will be dead. And he should be dead. If you wanted to keep him as your pet, then bringing him here was the worst idea you've ever had-"
"He's a person," Naruto hissed. He hated Kakashi for how right he was about bringing the vampire back to the place that killed him. He should had known better. He should had lied to him, told him that he'd never heard anything about Uchihas, kept him away from all of this. Even if it wasn't what Sasuke wanted. The blonde clenched his fists. The vampire should had never saved him. Naruto should had died there, killed by the ghouls, eaten by them and forgotten to the world.
"He's a vampire," Kakashi hissed back. "The moment monsters will be considered persons will be the exact moment when this world will collapse. There's a reason why they aren't. They kill people, and, Naruto, you should know this best - you've used to slay them," he whined, rubbing his temple. "Seriously, what's happened to you? You used to be so smart-"
"Apparently I'm stupid now," he barked. One of the dogs growled at him. It seemed that they didn't like when someone was shouting at their master. "Do you have any idea where he might had went to?" he questioned. Kakashi shrugged his shoulders.
"If someone catches you, it will be over," he muttered. "I won't be able to help you."
"I know," Naruto replied, feeling somewhat guilty. He had never meant to upset the man.
He went outside, surprised to see the horse tied outside. He hid his face behind a hood, wondering where the vampire disappeared. Sasuke had said he needed to see Danzou. Naruto hummed. The man was probably in his castle - but not necessarily. Danzou was just a governor so he could had been sent wherever. The blonde smiled bitterly. If he had Sasuke with him, tracking down Sasuke wouldn't be a problem. Fucking irony.
Everything went well at the beginning. Sasuke knew he would had been recognized instantly by virtually anyone who was from here, so he tracked down a man, whose scent seemed foreign. The man smelled like incense and spices, not like mud and rotting plants. The smell of the bog lingered on everyone, even Naruto had started to smell like it. Sasuke had spied on that man, and learned that he was a servant to an envoy, who was visiting the castle. That seemed like a good opportunity. Many people would be there - many people whom castle guards wouldn't know. So he followed that man from the inn he was visiting and on his way to the castle - really, whoever called that thing a castle, was quite full of themselves because it was a glorified tower at best - when the man stopped to take a leak in some nearby bushes.
And that was everything Sasuke needed. He sneaked in behind the man, waited for him to finish - after all he didn't want any stains on his new clothes - and snapped his neck. He was still full from feeding on Naruto but he regretted that he wouldn't be able to drink more. This man was well fed, so his blood had to taste great.
Naruto's had changed - it wasn't as thick and sweet anymore; it seemed far less nutritious. That was to be expected - the man was constantly tired and his diet wasn't the healthiest. Not to mention that he had been feeding a vampire for quite some time now. Sasuke clutched his fists. He hoped that at least now Naruto would be able to be free again. He shouldn't had allowed him to follow him.
Sasuke undressed the corpse, and threw it into a muddy river. It floated but there was a chance that it would be taken away with the current, what would give Sasuke more time. The loose clothes fitted him. The fabric was pleasantly soft, of a much better quality than the one of which his previous garments were made. He eyed his old tunic. It had been sewn back by Naruto so many times... And their blood had mixed in it. Sasuke frowned and tossed it away. He wouldn't live long enough to need it as a souvenir.
And now he had just a couple of hours to get into the castle and kill Danzou before it would dawn.
Naruto went near the castle. The ground was rather boggy, and that probably explained the small size of the building. It served just for defense. Even some of the buildings which would be normally in it, were placed in the outskirts- such as Kakashi's kennel. He saw a glimpse of familiar fabric at the riverbank- he had recognized it even when it was darkened from water. He ran up to it, and grabbed it in shaky hands. It didn't seem damaged - if he was to guess, he would had said that the vampire had dumped it himself, and hadn't been stripped off of it.
He needed to get inside but the gate was the only entrance. And there were guards on the walls, watching for any suspicious activity. Naruto cursed. Then he took a closer look at the river. There was a chance that the castle sewage system was linked to it. He wrinkled his nose in disgust. Well, what needed to be done, needed to be done.
Sasuke approached the gate, where two guardsmen stood, pretending to be drunk. He hoped that the garments smelled of alcohol strongly enough to fool them.
"I'm back," he slurred, draping himself over one of them. The man pushed him away, laughing. It seemed that they were used to that kind of behavior. "Will you let me in?" he pleaded, drawling the last word. He just needed to hear a "yes." That was all he was asking for.
"Sure, buddy," a guard snorted. "When is Lady Tsunade coming back?"
Sasuke tensed. He didn't know. He would had preferred to enter the castle as sneakily as it was only possible but he had already received an invitation so if he needed to, he could just kill these two men.
"I have no idea," he laughed back, pretending that he couldn't stand straight.
The guards snickered with him, and opened the gate. Well, that went better than expected. Sasuke trudged in, swaying from side to side to stay in character. He had no idea where he should go from there. He saw a group of people - other servants, he realized in horror - exiting some doors to take a piss. The whole courtyard smelled of urine. Sasuke didn't know whether it was something normal when so many people were living in such a small closed off space or not but it was definitely unpleasant. The village in which he had spent the first two years after becoming a vampire smelled much better.
He walked past them, and went into a room they had just exited. It was a kitchen. Naruto would had probably loved it. It was filled with eggs, flour, meat, onion, apples, pears and wheat grain. Some dry herbs were hanging close to the ceiling but Sasuke had problems with recognizing them - smells were mixed in together, too strong to tell him anything useful. He hanged his head low, and entered a corridor. Now he would just have to find Danzou's bedroom.
He checked almost each and every room, and grabbed some linen towels just to make himself look as if he had a purpose. He ditched them soon after he noticed that people were giving him funny looks. It seemed that Lady Tsunade's servants - whoever she was - weren't as useful as the other ones. He climbed up stairs, focusing his nose. Some rooms smelled empty - walls and tapestries damp from never using the fireplace to keep them dry, and some were evidently inhabited.
There were ones, in which scents of a few people's were mixed together - and Sasuke doubted that Danzou would be in one of them. He would need to look for ones, in which there would be only one person's smell - or two. Sasuke walked slowly, taking in as much air, as he could. It had been confusing at first but he was slowly getting the hang of it, assessing every room much quicker than he would had expected himself to be able to.
Then he came to an abrupt halt. The room to his left smelled like firewood, and it seemed that only one person was living in it. What was more, the adjacent rooms also weren't damp but nobody was living in them, so, whoever slept in this particular one, was important enough to make those men waste wood. And this particular region didn't have too much wood to start with. Naruto had told him that people used to harvest peat in here but it seemed that this industry had been abandoned - probably due to the lack of work force.
Two guards stood in front of it, glaring at Sasuke. They had already noticed him but Sasuke knew that the person who slept in that particular room was inside. If he was wrong, then he was screwed. If he was, however, lucky, then this whole trip was far more fruitful that he had anticipated it to be.
The vampire sucked in a breath, feeling for his dagger. He would need to be quick and quiet to not alarm the rest of the castle. And that definitely wasn't something he was good at. He unsheathed his dagger in one swift motion, and cut one of the guards' throats open. Blood gushed out of it, and the man started to cough. The other one didn't have time to scream as Sasuke stabbed him under the chin, reaching straight to his brain. He fell limp on the floor, and Sasuke turned on his heel, snapping the other guard's neck. He eyed the damages. He wasn't exactly quiet, so the person inside probably already knew about him. The corridor was bathed in blood, and there was no point in hiding the bodies - even if the empty rooms seemed like a good place to do it. Especially since the person could escape while he would be doing it.
He flung the doors opened, and entered the room. He knew that the person was standing right in front of him, so he walked in sideways, not presenting any vital points to the man. He glared at his opponent, who was sitting on a chair, looking fairly relaxed, with a crossbow in his arms. He seemed young, too young to be a governor of anything. Sasuke cursed under his breath, and charged at the man, who just clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction, and sent a bolt right into his knee, turning him immobile. Then the man loaded another one, and aimed into Sasuke's shoulder, making him drop his dagger. The brunette fell on his knees.
"Now, what do we have here?" the man smiled in a nasty way, and approached Sasuke. He grabbed his chin with his long strong fingers, and forced the vampire to look him into his black empty eyes. He looked somewhat like Sasuke but he was definitely better groomed. Then the man smirked when he saw Sasuke flinch in pain as his body began to regenerate - and failed in doing so completely due to the bolts that were still sticking out of knee and shoulder. "A vampire," he chuckled, stood up, and kicked Sasuke in the face, breaking his jaw. Then he watched as the bones in his face were healing back, apparently bedazzled by the show. Sasuke spit out a tooth. A new one was already forming, and the pain was excruciating. "A vampire from here," he mused, studying Sasuke's face. "I guess Lord Danzou would love to have a talk with you," he concluded, fracturing Sasuke's jaw again.
Naruto finally found himself in the place, where all the refuse was coming from. He was careful to not step into any of it. It was truly disgusting in there, and had he eaten anything, he would be throwing up constantly. But, since had had only some hot wine in his stomach, he was just dry heaving every now and then. And he was more than relieved when he finally reached the end of his journey. He was quite certain that there was no amount of hot water that would make him feel clean again.
He climbed up the wall, and lifted the wooden lid. He finally got in. Still, it was barely evening, so he would have to avoid people. He hoped he didn't smell as bad as he thought he did - but that was probably impossible. His shoes were covered in shit. Naruto glared at them, and, eventually, decided to ditch them. Walking barefooted seemed much more pleasant.
He walked out from the toilets, trying to be as quiet as it was humanly possible, and listening for any noise. But then he heard it.
An inhuman scream resonated in the corridor, and Naruto's heart got crushed. It was Sasuke. And he was in pain but he was also alive. The blonde rushed towards the source of it, constantly reminding himself that he couldn't run, that he shouldn't run. He needed to be smart about this. He needed to find a way to save the vampire.
And then they would walk away from here, as far as it would be only possible. And they would settle down somewhere. Somewhere, where people wouldn't bother them. And Sasuke would finally get better, he had to get better eventually. He would calm down, and they could stargaze again, and there won't be anyone, who could hurt either of them again.
"I didn't even need to find you myself," Danzou said quietly, sitting more comfortably on his chair, and watching a part of Sasuke's face melting off. Sasuke was lying on a floor in a dungeon, all of his limbs chained. He was unable to move, and the man, who had caught him, was standing next to the little barred window, covering and uncovering it every now and then, making Sasuke's body burn and regenerate, burn and regenerate, burn and regenarate-
And Sasuke was certain that this was his entire life. That there was nothing but this pain - the pain of being destroyed, and the pain of being rebuilt. The sunlight felt as if someone poured liquid metal on him. It was heavy and burning, and it consumed his entire body, promising him death - slow and painful but death, and there was nothing Sasuke wanted more than death. Regeneration felt even worse - a thousand of glass shards cutting through his skin and organs from the inside, pushing out, falling out, scattering around the floor, and Sasuke hoped that at one point there won't be any more glass shards in him, it had to be over soon, there was no way that he could still be regenerating, he had to die, to finally stop feeling because feeling was the most horrifying thing. He wanted to be numb, lifeless, finished.
"Let him regenerate completely," Danzou ordered the young man, who grunted something in reply, and left the window covered. And for a short moment Sasuke hoped that it was finally over, that he would be free of this pain. "It's actually really helpful. I've had some problems since your body was never found, and there was no way to prove that you've been a part of it all. Some nobles would had preferred it if the original heir remained here," he whispered. "But look at yourself, you've came back here as a vampire," he said in an amused tone. "We're going to have a public execution. And then I won't have to worry about you coming back anytime soon."
Sasuke nodded his head. He just wanted to die. It didn't matter if it was an execution or how public it was.
"But I wonder who did this to you," he muttered, approaching Sasuke, and showing him the crystal. "Did you escape from some scholar? Because, well, legally, they still own you, and since you're not a person anymore, I can't just damage someone's property," he said. "So please, tell me, who is your rightful owner?"
"Your lordship, if he has that thing, then the person is probably already dead," the young man grunted. "Besides, your lordship can just pay fine if they ever show up-"
"I'm fully aware of that," Danzou muttered in response. "But I need to prove that I have been trying to find the owner."
"There's none," Sasuke croaked, his lips chapped, and throat dry. "He died, and I escaped."
"Who was it then?" the man questioned, and Sasuke sucked in a breath when the sunlight hit him again because he didn't answer immediately.
"Gaara," he whispered. He knew that the man was dead, and that he had died fairly recently. Probably after Sasuke had killed himself.
"Gaara?" Danzou repeated the name. "Gaara, brother of the Sand Lord? How did he even find you?" he chuckled, and, judging from the noises, sat back on his chair. He had trouble walking, and was using a cane to support himself. "On the other hand, he did travel around here... Well, I can accept that. Write this into the report," he ordered some servant, who had kept quiet during the entire torture session. Sasuke heard some scribbling. He hoped that Naruto received his final message.
"My brother," he rasped. Sasuke just wanted to learn why he had killed everyone. "Why did he-"
"That was the deal with the Fire Lord," Danzou replied. "He kills off his entire treacherous family, and disappears to not anger other nobles, leaving you as the heir and me as your guardian. A perfect plan," he mused. "Although not in concordance with the statutes," he added in a stern voice. "And believe me that the nobles won't be too happy when they'll hear about it," he concluded, standing up, and getting ready to leave.
Sasuke heard a crossbow being fired, and a body hitting the floor. The smell of blood nearly drove him crazy. He needed it, he needed it so badly-
"Thank you, Sai," Danzou whispered. "You can tell Ibiki that he can have his fun now. I'll leave the crystal to him. I wouldn't want our guest to die because of some lousy scholar."
He left, and Sasuke hoped that he would be left alone. That Danzou would just return to him when he'd decide that the time had came, and give Sasuke death - whatever death. Slow, fast, merciful or painful - it didn't matter. The only thing Sasuke wanted was to be free of it the pain.
When Ibiki came, Sasuke learned that he would had given everything to have Sai and Danzou back.
Naruto ran into the room, almost tripping on a dead body that was lying on the ground. Then his eyes widened in horror. A tall, well built man was standing above Sasuke, who was plastered on the floor, his eyes mad and shifty, his body pierced with bolts, his skin partially melted off - and Naruto noticed that it wasn't regenerating anymore. And the day had ended two hours before. Whatever they had done to Sasuke, they had hurt him enough times to use all the blood he had drank from Naruto less than twenty four hours ago.
The blonde charged at the man, who was too surprised to react properly. He probably felt safe with the guards standing in front of the cell but he didn't realize that Sasuke's screams muffled other noises perfectly. Naruto sliced through the torturer's chest with his cutlass, leaving a gaping wound. Sasuke's nostrils flared, and his eyes darkened with bloodlust. Naruto knocked out the man, and shoved his neck into the vampire's mouth. He needed to eat. Naruto couldn't escape with him while he was like that.
"Where are the keys to the chains?" Naruto asked, searching the torturer. He found the crystal in the man's satchel. It was just pure luck that it wasn't destroyed while they were fighting. "Sasuke, where are the keys-"
He stopped mid-sentence as the vampire screamed again. His skin started to regrow. Naruto grabbed the torturer's corpse, and shoved it aside. He remembered that Sasuke had told him that he couldn't feed on the blood of dead beings. And he had never seen him do so.
"Sasuke, keys," he repeated. They needed to get out of there quickly. The vampire wasn't reacting to his name. He had always reacted to his name - no matter how pissed off he had been. Naruto grabbed the bolts that were stuck in his body, and pulled them out together with pieces of flesh. Sasuke screamed again. It seemed as if he had never stopped screaming. "Fuck, what have they done to you," he whispered in terror. The vampire hissed at him, showing off his teeth. Naruto jumped back, trying to find a way to unchain the man. Finally, he found the keys hanging on the belt of one of the dead guards.
He returned to the cell, and opened the binds that kept Sasuke chained. He gasped in shock when the man immediately jumped on him, ready to attack him. He stared at the vampire, who was baring his fangs at him. The black eyes were bloodshot and mad. They were glassy, almost dead. Sasuke snarled at him, letting out a guttural growl. The blonde kept him at a distance with his straightened arms and bent knees, ignoring the pain the vampire was inflicting on him by squeezing his limbs.
"Please, let me know if you're still there," Naruto pleaded in a quiet whimper, trying to keep himself from sobbing.
The vampire freed himself from his grasp, and pressed against him, pushing him further into the ground. Naruto reacted instinctively, hitting the man in the temple with the hilt of his cutlass. Sasuke frowned but remained conscious, an incomprehensible scream of hurt escaping his chapped lips. His hand reached out for Naruto's weapon, and the blonde threw it away. When the vampire moved to get it, Naruto caught him by his hair, and pushed him down, kneeling on his back to trap him under his weight.
"Sasuke," he whispered, his voice heated with emotions. The brunette didn't react to his name, and blue eyes welled up with hot, stingy tears. He doubled over the vampire, pressing his forehead to the man's tensed back, and listening to his heartbeat. Sasuke used his hesitation, and got on all fours, making Naruto fall down. The blonde blankly stared at his hand in which he was holding a strand of black hair. The vampire leaned over him, his hands grabbing Naruto's neck. Naruto coughed up, wheezing for air.
It was the end.
He reached for the crystal. It was unpleasantly cold in touch. Just like Sasuke's hands. The vampire removed one of them, and bit into Naruto's neck, tearing it apart, and leaving a gushing wound.
"I'm glad I've met you," Naruto wanted to say but his vocal cords didn't obey, letting him produce only a quiet groan. Sasuke's teeth dug into his flesh. The blonde winced in pain, and lifted his numb arm, his fingers brushing through black, blood drenched hair. "You shouldn't have saved me," he wanted to add. His mind was slowly drifting away but he forced himself to stay conscious. The crystal burnt his hand, reminding him of his last duty as a mercenary.
Tears finally flew from his eyes, and down his temples, landing in the pool of warm blood. He squeezed the crystal, feeling its walls break under his touch. Something filled his hand, and he didn't know if it was his own blood or something from the crystal. He didn't want to know. His sight was misted by tears, so he blinked them away. He had to watch. Averting his gaze would be a mercy to him but he couldn't let Sasuke die alone.
The vampire winced in pain, as the mark on his neck doubled in size, dark blotches appearing around his throat, eating through his skin, tearing his cords and veins, breaking his spine, dissecting his head from the rest of the body. Naruto glared at it in terror, fighting the urge to throw up, his lifeless fingers pressing the head to the neck, hoping that the process will somehow reverse itself. His violent sobbing resonated in the cell, dying down only after his mind left his body together with his blood.
Naruto blinked, trying to adjust his eyes to darkness. He was in some foreign room, and the air was filled with the smell of fresh blood. He was lying on ground, his body inexplicably light. Something heavy was resting on him, so he sat up and looked down at a headless corpse, which fell on the ground next to him when he had shifted his position. His fingers were still twirled into black hair. He lifted the head, and stared into its empty eyes.
He had no idea who the man was.