Obi Land

Forsaken
1:Beginning . 2:Proof . 3:Blood . 4:Thinking . 5:Training . 6:Hate . 7:Master . 8:Hunt . 9:Kyo

Chapter One: Beginning

I stare into the shadows, seeking even the slightest glimmer of light through the darkness. I try to step forward, only slightly, but find I cannot move. Something wraps around my neck and squeezes painfully. Only… when I reach for it, my hands find only air. Then I realized I didn't move my arms.

I fall towards the ground below my feet. But there is no ground; there is nothing beneath me. I'm not even sure I have feet. Blood seems to seep through my skin, but that's impossible. I must be covered in wounds. …I'm going to bleed to death soon. Wait… I'm not bleeding. I have no body to bleed. I don't exist.

Where am I?

I wake, my eyes flying open as I nearly leap into a sitting position. The pale blue sheets, damp with sweat, move forward with me, already twisted around my body. I sit bent over, panting heavily as I wait for myself to calm down. From a comfortable green chair beside the bed, Kakashi waits as well.

They don't let me sleep alone anymore. They don't trust me anymore. Then again… did they ever really trust me? I doubt it. Except for the girls, they had to have trusted me, unless all that stalking was so they could spy on me… No. None of them are that great at acting.

I know why I'm watched as well as they do. I know why Kakashi watches me most of the time as well as any one else here. Yet… they still try to hide it. They all try to make it seem as though I were not being watched, followed, guarded, constantly. I never understood how they expected to deceive me.

I was only sixteen when it happened. Tsunade sent my team on an odd mission; a small village reported that what they called "vampires" had plagued them for the past few weeks. We all thought we would fight a group of rogue ninja who found tormenting villagers amusing.

We arrived at the village late at night, after walking though most of the day, and then half the night as well. Kakashi found a small, quaint inn where we could stay the night. Sakura liked it, called it cozy; Naruto liked it, it had ramen; Kakashi found it suitable for resting in. And I, I was annoyed with the whole little "cozy" place. It was far too comforting, far too quaint, far too nice and homely. It made even me feel like curling up in the large red armchairs in front of the crude little fireplace with a mug of hot coco.

Naruto, Sakura and I did just that. The coco had marshmallows at first, but they were small and melted quickly. We hadn't finished our first mug when our silver haired jounin informed us that the supposed "vampires" were outside at that very moment wreaking havoc on some poor little villagers. Sakura complained… a lot; she liked hot coco. Naruto bragged about how badly he planned to beat those shinobi. I was glad to get out of the inn.

I saw six of them, all dark clothed and pale skinned. Most wore leather, all wore black cloaks. One had a coat underneath. There was one in two shirts, a red button up and a black T-shirt. He was the one who tried to attack Naruto. We had already killed three of them, only to have four more appear… somehow. He had red eyes and long white fangs. He was going to turn those fangs red in Naruto's neck.

I couldn't very well let him do that, now could I?

I leapt in front of Naruto at the last instant before the vampire hit him. Rather than Naruto's soft, tanned neck, his fangs were thrust into mine. I tried with all the strength… I had to get away from him. Naruto tried to help me too… at least until my eyes dimmed.

Afterwards I awoke in a bed; I wasn't sure whose. Looking around I saw nothing to give me any clue as to where I was and who had brought me there. It was a fairly simple room. There was a bed with crisp white sheets, obviously, a light-wooded chest of drawers, a bookshelf filled with a messy array of books and scrolls, and two white doors, one of which probably led to a closet.

The farther door opened and Sakura walked in. Her eyes widened slightly in shock, in amazement, in… fear. She smelled of fear too. "Kakashi-sensei!" She cried in her somehow even more annoyingly high-pitched voice. "Sasuke-kun's awake!!!!!!" She quickly ran out of the room without closing the door, but all I saw of the hall was the opposite wall, with cherry brown paneling.

I tried to stand, but a hand pushed me back down by my chest. Looking up, I found Kakashi hovering over me, his visible eye testing me somehow. I stared back up at him, my expression blank.

As I sat there a medical ninja I though was named Jasun walked in. "You should lie down, Sasuke." He showed no emotion whatsoever, but I could smell, I could feel his unease. Something disturbed him, something about me. I didn't lie down. "Lie down." Now he spoke forcefully, making it an order, one to be obeyed. Ignoring it would be dangerous.

I didn't lie down.

I tilted my head a little to the left. "Why?" My voice sounded different, deeper, softer. I sounded almost as though I were toying with something. But why shouldn't I? I was.

His head jerked towards me angrily. I had seen Jasun in the hospital before, it wasn't like him to overreact like this. What was wrong? He held a needle close to him, obviously ready to inject me with whatever was in it if I attempted anything. Something really had him freaked out.

"Sasuke, you should do as Jason says. He's a doctor, you're sick. See, it makes sense." Kakashi spoke calmingly, trying to sooth me.

Jason then. I almost remembered. "I don't feel sick." I spoke in the same tone of voice as before, this time looking up at Kakashi.

"Sometimes, sick people don't feel sick. You can't always tell by yourself, Sasuke."

"I'm not sick." I sounded more… demanding this time.

Jason took a step towards me, but Kakashi stopped him with a small wave of his hand. "Yes, you are. And you need Jason here to help you get better."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You just want to keep me here as long as you can because you're afraid!" Now my voice sounded like ice. "You're afraid of what the vampire did to me, aren't you, sensei?"

Kakashi shook his head. "They weren't vampires, Sasuke."

"Not all of them."

His eye widened slightly for a moment, but then he shook his head and repeated his earlier statement.

"That one was, Kakashi, and he bit me. You're scared." I smirked. "You're afraid he made me one of them."

"I don't believe in-"

"Yes you do. If you didn't, then why would you reek of fear?" I snarled.

Jason looked as though he were about to panic and stick himself with that needle. He moved towards me again. Kakashi motioned for him to back away again, but the medic ignored him. Before the needle had made it all the way to my arm, Kakashi pushed him back, and someone else entered the room and restrained him. Naruto grinned from where he was hanging onto Jason. "So…you're up."

"Yeah." Short simple, and somehow still in that…new voice.

His eyes widened at the sound of my voice. At the way I sounded almost mocking, almost as though I were holding a string just out of a kitten's reach…and enjoying it.

Tsunade chose that moment to walk in. "Sasuke…we thought you were dead."

"I was." I think my statement more than my voice bothered Tsunade.

"Are you saying you rose from the dead?"

"No."

"Then what?"

I didn't answer. Instead, I smiled. I saw Naruto glaring suspiciously. He obviously though I was an imposter of some kind. Sakura watched from the door, frightened, partially shielding herself behind it. I think I liked it.

Chapter Two: Proof

They tried to prove in whatever way they could that I was indeed, still human. For some reason showing off my shiny new fangs just didn't work. Tsunade grabbed my wrist and dragged me towards the back door. Sakura flinched as we passed; I smirked.

The sun hurt, but I didn't burst into flames. Naruto was the only one to notice, or to admit to noticing, that I flinched.

Neji looked triumphant. "See, you're not a vampire." He almost smirked at me.

I shifted uncomfortably in the bright sunlight and shielded my eyes; it hurt them too. "Can we go inside now?"

Neji fumed at being ignored, but Kakashi smiled and led me in, right passed a mirror. Sakura shrieked. The others came running and stopped dead when they arrived. I turned around.

There was no reflection in the mirror.

Tsunade grabbed a cross necklace from a table she was standing by. I stared as she walked towards me, not at her, but at what she was holding. Would it hurt me? Instead of shoving it at me the way I'd expected her to, the Hokage held it up in front of me.

I reached out slowly and gripped the cross in my left hand. There was a hissing sound and the smell of something burning. Threads of smoke rose from my hand as everyone gaped. I yanked my hand back, hissing.

Sakura, Neji, and Tsunade flinched, Naruto growled angrily, and Kakashi looked at my hand. I glared at Naruto. Neji readied his seemingly ever-present needle; only he couldn't seem to decide who needed it more, Naruto or me.

I'm fairly sure everyone was as relieved as myself when Tsunade took the thing from him. "Go home Neji. And send Hinata over when you get there." Tsunade spoke softly. I don't think anyone had expected Neji to become so jumpy. I know I expected more from him. Hinata didn't take long in arriving; they must have both decided to run the whole way. Tsunade had still sat me down on the couch and begun to perform basic medical tests. Needless to say, she wasn't too thrilled with the results.

I had no pulse. I was breathing, but didn't actually need to. My body temperature was that of…well, a dead guy. She took a few blood samples that she could stare intently at and test later.

Hinata was informed of my medical situation before knowing that I was fully capable of speech and movement. No wonder she thought it so strange that Hokage-sama wasn't attempting to get my heart beating.

The poor girl nearly dropped dead when she saw me. Naruto helped her to stand, but once she got over my being a vampire she did amazingly well. I guess everyone learned which Hyuuga would be able to handle more as a doctor.

The two of them tried everything they could and even left me with Naruto so they could go do medical whatevers to a sample of my blood.

He didn't say much. Instead the loud ninja just stared at me accusingly. I stared back, almost smiling, but in a mean way. I tilted my head when he looked down at his hands. "You…you idiot!"

"What are you calling me an idiot for, Dead-last?" I used the tone he was accustomed to hearing in my voice. I hadn't even known I still could.

"You let that thing bite you, WHAT ELSE?" He stood in front of me. I could smell miso ramen on his breath.

"To save you." I spoke more quietly that time, looking down at my own hands.

"You're not supposed to save me, Sasuke." He sat back down and mumbled something about owing him ramen.

"And you're not supposed to care, Naruto."

We would have sat in silence if Kakashi hadn't chosen to let us know he'd been listening. "Well, I guess you're a couple of disobedient little brats then, aren't you?" I could tell he was smiling without even looking.

"I'm not a brat! I'm a great ninja and someday I'll be Hokage!" Why, oh why did Naruto always feel that had to be yelled?

"Stop standing on the couch, Dead-last." I spoke like old Sasuke again.

"Oh…uh…yea…RAMEN!" He ran off, probably to get ramen.

I saw Kakashi smile through his mask at how Naruto could still act so much like a kid at sixteen. "We figured you would be needing something to eat…or drink in your case." Kakashi said, handing over a thermos that smelled of…pigs.

I scrunched up my nose when I opened it. "It smells…bad."

"Plug your nose." Kakashi must have been secretly laughing at me.

I plugged my nose and gulped down the thick liquid. Somehow, I still managed to make a face at the aftertaste. Wouldn't one expect the blood of a pig to taste more like pork, or bacon, or some kind of pig product?

Kakashi grinned. "That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

"Yes, actually, it was." I was desperately trying to clean my tongue of the taste.

"One more thing."

"What?"

Kakashi hesitated. "Well…from what we can find you wouldn't have a erm…well you're a vampire and all…. I mean…you did die…and…"

"I have no soul, right?"

"That's what we're thinking, yea."

"Is there a way to check?"

"Tsunade-sama and Hinata-chan are checking up on that now. They somehow got Shikamaru to help them too… Is that stuff really that bad?" He motioned as I began to actually rub my tongue with my hands in order to get rid of the taste.

"I think it's just the aftertaste…" I grimaced.

"Aren't vampires supposed to like blood?"

"I think just human blood…" Kakashi took a step back. "Sorry," I said, "That's not how I meant it."

"I know. It just caught me by surprise is all." He scratched at the back of his neck. "I'm supposed to keep you here tonight so you don't leave or anything."

"Were you supposed to tell me that?"

"No." He smiled. "But I didn't think lying to you would do any good."

"Not really, no."

"Just don't…bite me or anything, okay?"

"Sure. Just make sure I get fed."

"You sound like you're a pet."

"Pets and prisoners are very different, sensei."

It was four years ago and somehow I slept the same way I did tonight, even down to the nightmare I had before waking. It was at the same time too… It always is.

Chapter Three: Blood

I awoke to the stench of another thermos of pig's blood. My favorite. I grimaced after only a few swallows and set it aside. Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru, Hinata, and I were ordered to sit on the couch so Tsunade could make a speech. I'm fairly sure everyone there could at least guess what she was about to say.

"Well, after waaay too much research, we found that Sasuke has no soul! Don't worry though, he probably can't enter anyone's house without being invited-" She would have continued, but…

Naruto has always had a big mouth. "Probably?"

"Yes, we haven't tested it yet."

"Oh."

"Anyway. He is medically dead, but is still able to move and function almost as though her were still a living being. He can survive in sunlight, so I guess that one's not true. But he doesn't have a reflection, and crosses seem to sting a little."

"A lot." I added.

"A lot then. I guess there's not much we can do, but keep him supplied with animal's blood, so he keeps away from humans, and send him home. I'm sure we can find something for you to do around here." Naruto grinned, probably thinking of completely pointless things to suggest. "For now Naruto will be watching you and is to report to me whenever he can get someone else to keep an eye on you, Sasuke-kun."

That must've been quite a mouthful.

"But Tsunade!!!!!!" Naruto could never be trusted to just SHUT-UP. "Why do I have to watch Sasuke? He's the one who got himself…vampired?"

"Idiot." Then again, I could never pass up an opportunity to insult Naruto.

"You two are so troublesome. Why don't you just…chill or something." Shikamaru sounded fairly annoyed with us. He looked it too.

Tsunade ahemed. "You're watching him, Naruto-kun."

Naruto sighed, whined, and said he'd only do it if she bought him ramen. For some unknown reason, she agreed. They decided they might as well take me too. Once outside I realized I'd been staying at Kakashi's house. No wonder he was the one watching me.

Naruto lived in a fairly small, single room apartment. I was ordered to sleep on the couch. We lived together, without killing each other, for a month. I had taken to sleeping in and staying up late; Naruto had been scared at first but had become accustomed to it by the end of the month.

I didn't have any more weird dreams, but I doubt waking up to the smell of ramen every day was much worse. Naruto had been assigned small missions that I could tag along on during that time. Nothing big was given to him though. Guarding me was technically a mission anyway.

It just happened to be a Thursday when it began. Thursday… the day I became a vampire. I managed to drink my pig's blood, or as Naruto insisted on calling it: 'piggy's bloodies'. I didn't feel full or disgusted as I usually did though, and I couldn't figure out why.

I then began to hear a thumping sound of some kind. "Do you hear that?" I asked Naruto, who was sitting silently across from me at the table. The thumping got louder.

"Hear what?" He asked, giving me the 'either Sasuke's imagining things or using his super vampy hearing again' look. You'd think it'd take more than one look to say all that. I would anyway.

"That… thumping sound…" I glared at him; it was so loud! How could that idiot not hear it?!

"I don't hear anything, Sasuke." He glared back.

I stared at his neck.

"I think I should…go." I said hurriedly, standing up a little too quickly.

"Oh, no you don't!" Naruto leapt over the table to grab my arm.

The thumping was louder. I realized what it was. The thumping I was hearing was the beating of Naruto's heart.

"Let. Me. Go. Naruto." I spoke forcefully, glaring at him with eyes I knew were red, but not Sharingan.

"I can't let you go anywhere, stupid."

"You have to!"

"Why? What could be so important that it could justify my letting you out of my sight?"

Naruto may have acted like a kid a lot, but he never did fail a mission.

"I…" His heart got louder. "Just… just lemme go." I squeezed my eyes shut.

"I can't."

"Sorry."

"For what?"

"For this… Naruto-kun."

I bent down, sinking my fangs into his soft neck. Hot, red liquid seeped into my mouth. It didn't taste bad; in fact, it was the best thing I'd ever had! I drank my first human blood hungrily, almost forgetting who I was, who Naruto was. I almost forgot.

At the last instant I could before killing Naruto, I pulled back, my mouth still filled with his blood. I looked anywhere but at him, as I helped the blonde to the couch. After he was settled, I grabbed his phone and called the hospital. Needless to say, they weren't very pleased with what I told them.

Tsunade wouldn't let me stay with him. She wouldn't let me stay with anyone. She shoved me in an empty cell, saying she'd take care of me once she was sure Naruto was okay. I sat down on the cold hard stone floor and waited.

I sat there for three days. I didn't move, I didn't eat, I didn't drink, I didn't speak, I didn't even sleep. I sat, nothing more, nothing less, for the three days it took the Hokage to show. The cold of the stone would have seeped into my being, if the cold of my being had not seeped into the floor first. Either way, I was freezing, tired, hungry, and in a very bad mood.

"Sasuke." She said, her voice nearly as cold as mine. "You bit Naruto."

I nodded my head slightly.

"And you drank his blood."

I nodded.

"So you've proved that all vampires are blood thirsty monsters and that you can not be trusted with any human!"

I didn't nod. I did give her an icy cold stare though.

"What, you think I'm wrong?"

"I stopped."

"He's critical."

"But not dead."

"You think that makes it alright?"

"No, I think that makes him still living. Can't say the same for myself though." I could hear her heart beating rapidly. I could hear my heart's silence echoing within my chest.

"Don't make this a pity party, Vampire." She said the last word with disgust and contempt in her voice.

"I'm not; there's no party here, Hokage-sama. Just a dead guy and an old hag, what kind of party is that?" I looked at the floor; my eyes were wet.

"Don't even try feeling sorry for yourself, Vampire. We let you live, hoping part of who you once were had survived. And that it was a large enough part to keep you from killing any of us. We were wrong, and now we'll take care of it the way we should have in the first place. That is, if everyone agrees." She mumbled the last sentence, but I heard it clearly anyway.

"And how would that be?"

"We'll finish killing you." She stormed out of the room, obviously enraged by my actions.

Chapter Four: Thinking

I don't know what she did after leaving me, how long Naruto was actually in the hospital, or even if Tsunade had been right about me. What I do know is that I began to suspect they were attempting to starve me to death. I stayed a week longer after she left. I sat a week longer than I should have had to. I had a whole week to contemplate my sorry little existence where I couldn't even be the one thing my entire life had been about.

I could no longer be a shinobi. My ninja days had ended that night in that little village with the cozy inn. I knew I didn't like that place. I knew there was no obvious reason for it, but I couldn't stand that place. Maybe I'd known beforehand, maybe on some level, I'd known that I would die that night.

Too much thinking wasn't good for anyone. That was why Shikamaru lost himself in the clouds, why Naruto hollered and ran around, why Chouji ate, why girls chased boys, why Kakashi read, why Itachi killed, why I lost myself completely in my training to be a powerful ninja. Thinking was in fact, bad for people.

So, I sat in the stone cell I'd been thrown in, and I thought.

I thought about how my father had never been proud of me, how I had wanted his acknowledgement as much as Naruto wants Konoha's acknowledgement. I thought about how Itachi had once been kind, and about how he had killed my family. I thought about becoming part of Team Seven. I thought about Haku and Zabuza. I thought about Gaara and Lee and Neji and Kabuto. I thought about Orochimaru and the curse seal. I thought about attempting to leave Konoha. I thought about Naruto bringing me back. I thought about Sakura's tears, and Naruto's eyes, and Kakashi's hidden smile. I thought about my own coldness towards my comrades. I thought about how weak I truly was. I thought about what I'd done to Naruto.

What I'd done… It couldn't have been that bad, right? To become a vampire you both have to have a great deal of your blood drained, and drink the blood of another vampire. So… he was okay. He just needed more blood to replace what I'd taken… what I'd stolen. I remembered the light fading from his eyes, and how much more beautiful they looked with it than without.

I'd spent my whole life wanting to take revenge on the one who had harmed the people I cared about, only to harm another person I cared about with my own hands, or, in this case, fangs. I was the biggest hypocrite that ever dared walk the Earth.

As I sat thinking, a light appeared, blinding me long enough for someone to enter my cell. I looked up, after blinking my sight back, and saw Kakashi standing before me, frowning through his mask. He was angry and… disappointed.

"I told them not to kill you." His voice was flat, but he didn't appear to have any second thoughts about keeping me alive.

"Why?" Then again, there was always the possibility that I'd be better off dead.

"I don't understand how, but you're still you."

My eyes went red again. Just red. Red eyes with slit pupils. "How can I still be me?"

His frown deepened. "Because you still think like Uchiha Sasuke, you question everything I say like Uchiha Sasuke, and even thought you don't always sound like him, you definitely do when you're around Naruto, which makes you even more Uchiha Sasuke."

I looked away, my eyes black again. "But I have fangs, unlike Uchiha Sasuke, and a demon's eyes, and sunlight hurts, and crosses burn, and I have no way of even knowing what I look like anymore because I have no reflection to look at. I have no living parts, my organs don't function, I don't need to breath, my heart no longer beats, and my soul is gone. So, how can I still be Uchiha Sasuke?"

He looked down at me. "Because you want to be him."

I look down at the floor. "But I can't. Uchiha Sasuke wouldn't have killed Naruto… not any more anyway."

He grabbed me by my shirt, lifted me to my feet. "Come on, Not Uchiha Sasuke, we need to get home before someone sneaks in and steals my book." He smiled through his mask, but he wasn't smiling inside.

'Stupid book.' I thought, following Kakashi home.

I ended up in the same room I'd stayed at the night when I first woke after the attack. Kakashi's room was across the hall, but he spent most of the night watching me rather than sleeping. He'd given me some blood to drink, and I was thankful to find that it disgusted me the way it usually had.

Funny, I hadn't known that I could still be thankful…

I went to bed exhausted, but I somehow managed to thrash and turn and sweat and scream in my sleep. It's odd how I can do things in my sleep that I'm too tired to do when awake. Kakashi was sitting beside me when I nearly leapt after waking. I was panting; he was watching; we were waiting.

I lay back down, only to finally be disturbed by Kakashi's quiet voice. "Have you had that dream before?"

"Yea…" I mumbled, drained.

"When?"

"The first night after…"

"…It was the same one?"

"Yea."

"Have you had it any other times?"

"No."

"What… what's it about, Sasuke-kun?"

"Nothing…"

"It has to be about some-"

"No, it's about nothing. There's nothing there, no light, no feeling, no movement, no people, no animals, no environment, no me, no body, no consciousness, no existence. Nothing."

He looked thoughtful with his one visible eye. "That's an interesting thing to dream about."

"Interesting?" I laughed. It wasn't a happy laugh, but it was instead a dark, sarcastic laugh. The kind of laugh one would make when saying Orochimaru was worth reasoning with.

"What do you think it is then?"

I closed my eyes and rested my head back against the pillow. "Terrifying."

The next morning Kakashi brought me before the Hokage. She looked down at me, obviously wishing Kakashi hadn't done whatever it was he'd done to keep me from being killed.

She kept her voice from holding any emotion when she spoke. "Uchiha Sasuke, you were charged with the attempted murder of Uzumaki Naruto, but not being alive yourself, we are unable to determine at this time in what way it is appropriate in which to punish you."

I hadn't tried to kill anyone, but I kept my mouth shut.

Tsunade took a deep breath before continuing. "Until such time as we are able to decide how you should be punished for your crime, you will stay with Hatake Kakashi, who has offered both your place to stay and your current partial living."

So, he'd told them that I was a dead guy, so it would get confusing. Heh. I guess I'd never realized how devious my sensei could be till then.

Chapter Five: Training

After we left I had expected Kakashi to take me back to his place where I would do absolutely nothing all day long as I had most of the time at Naruto's. So, naturally, I sent him a questioning look when we turned right instead of left. He just looked down at me, his eye curving into what most people would know to be a smile as the material of his mask stretched, showing that his mouth was smiling as well.

I followed him silently, focusing more on staying out of the bright sunlight as much as possible than on where we were going. When the silver haired jounin stopped in front of me, I looked around, seeing the familiar trees and stone of where he had first tested Naruto, Sakura, and myself.

"Stay here for a minute." He said, and began walking away.

I cocked my head, but did as he said. It wasn't like I'd find out what he was doing by disobeying. …Sometimes I really was too curious for my own good.

As I watched him, Kakashi darted behind a tree, up it, and into a nearby tree, almost too fast for me to see. Once there, he threw a number of shuriken at me. I smirked. So, he was trying to test me? I not only caught all three shuriken with one hand, the left one, but also threw them back, straight at him.

"Very good." I heard him say from… behind me.

I spun around ready for an attack of some kind, but he just stood there with his stupid barely visible smile. "What was that about?" I asked, glaring at him.

"Tsunade-sama accidentally let it slip that vampires had their own strength. I wanted to see some of it. It's really a shame that you can't use chakra anymore though…"

"Yea… uh, what exactly are you talking about?"

"Which thing?"

"All of it…"

Kakashi looked confused for a moment, but then he got the a-light-just-went-off-in-my-head look. "Oh, yea, you're the one person who never got to read up on vampires, huh?" He sweatdropped slightly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, you're a dead soulless guy, so you can no longer convert stamina into chakra, but you are a vampire. So you have more stamina than you would have before, as well as more speed and strength than a living human would naturally have. And I'm pretty sure your senses have been heightened as well."

"Oh…" I was a little disappointed. No chakra meant no Sharingan, and the Sharingan had been a major strength of mine for four years. At least there were a few upsides.

"So," The jounin said, "You wanna try training?"

I tilted my head to the other side. "Sure."

And he was gone.

I moved as quickly as I could, which actually was faster than I remembered, into a hidden (and well shadowed) area. From there I tried to determine my former sensei's location. I couldn't see him, or hear him, but his scent was coming from to the left and back. He was cloaking his chakra so I would not feel it, but I could somehow still feel him. Once I was aware of his general position in comparison to mine, the beating of his heart further helped me to find him.

Once I knew where he was hiding, I threw a few kunai I had kept with me, and moved on to another area in which to hide. I caught a kunai aimed at my head, and moved into a slightly more open area since I could no longer hide from him. This time, I found him more quickly, and threw his weapon back at him.

He jumped down from his perch in a nearby tree and stood in front of me. "Sooo, I'm guessing I don't get to read my book?" His eye curved up again.

I cocked my head to the left. "Guess not."

Rather than waiting for me, he charged head-on, taking me by surprise. I blocked a kick to me head, and tossed him away, but Kakashi spun in the air and landed gracefully on his feet. He even decided to bow after landing.

While he was bent over, I rushed at him and jammed a knee into his gut. He looked pained, but managed to punch me so he could regain his composure. He smiled. "Am I allowed to find something out too?" He asked cheerfully.

"Go ahead."

The jounin pulled up his forehead protector, revealing his Sharingan. "Let's see if this thing works against the undead."

I smirked.

I attacked him using taijutsu techniques since they didn't require any chakra. He kept up easily, but seemed to be expecting me to move with a certain timing, and was repeatedly hit because of that. I gave him a confused look and leapt back.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked, bent over in preparation for a renewed attack.

"I guess I was just expecting you to fight the same way you did before?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Before you would fight with a rhythm, which really wasn't a great thing since it made you slightly easier to predict. But it also lent you the strength of being able to work with others because they would know how to time their attacks. But… you seem to have lost that."

"Oh…" I hadn't been aware that I'd fought 'with a rhythm' before.

"You never even noticed did you?" He sweatdropped slightly.

"No."

Kakashi prepared to run at me again, but his stomach growled loudly and he fell over, looking more like Naruto than I would have expected him to be able to. "I guess we should take a lunch break." He said.

"Sure."

I just sat and stared at nothing while Kakashi ate, and he kept shooting me strange why-aren't-you-eating-anything glances. I think I was getting pretty close to comparing him with my mother. He finished and we resumed our training.

Hours later he held up his hand to stop me from attacking him. "Sasuke-kun, it's getting too dark to see. Which means… DINNER! Let's go. Naruto lost a bet last week and he's buying me ramen!"

I could see fine, but I chose not to bother telling him. Instead, I opted for the even more obvious reaction. "…Naruto...?"

He looked confused for a few seconds, but then he got the oh-yea look again, causing me to wonder how these people had so many looks, especially when all you could see of their faces was occasionally one eye. "He's fine. The kyuubi helped him heal up, and they even found someone with the right blood type who was willing to share. You didn't do any more than hurt him a bit and make him mad… REALLY mad."

"Yea. Pissed Naruto usually wants to bite my head off."

He seemed to think that was funny. "Just don't bite him back this time, okay?"

I glared at him, and we went off to see Naruto.

Chapter Six: Hate

I was barely through Naruto's door before he had me slammed against the wall and thoroughly threatened. He glared at me angrily for a few seconds before letting me go and walking over to Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei," He whined, looking as pathetic as he was capable of. "Why'd you have to bring that?"

At the tone of Naruto's voice, Kakashi and Lee, who must have been in on the bet as well, looked shocked, nearly to the point of falling off their chairs. I ignored him and sat down on the opposite side of the room.

"Naruto-kun…" Kakashi began, but Naruto cut him off before he could get any farther.

"No, Kakashi-sensei. Don't even try telling me that Sasuke is still a 'person'. He's not. He's a monster, not a cute harmless one like me, but a monster who tries to kill the people who trust him!" Naruto snarled, glaring at me as he spoke to the jounin.

Kakashi just sighed. Somehow Lee was either speechless, or had resisted the urge to start spouting something that none of us would care about or understand. It was more likely the former than the latter.

"Naruto-kun, I wasn't going to tell you that Sasuke-kun is still a person. I thought you, of all people, would understand that. But, I was trying to tell you that he didn't bite you intentionally."

"Yea, right. He knew he was gonna before he even did it!"

"What?" Lee finally spoke up. "How could you know that? Sasuke would have tried to avoid biting you if he'd known, wouldn't he?" Lee looked confused. I guess talking like a sane person was difficult for him.

"Well… he tried to leave and told me to let go of him after I stopped him…" Naruto obviously didn't like remembering that I had tried to keep from biting him. "But he could have stopped himself if he'd really wanted to!"

"I doubt it." Kakashi said. "It was new to him; he had no idea how to fight it, or even that he could fight it."

When exactly did Kakashi become an expert in Sasuke 101?

The blonde just sat and glared at him for a while. Then he muttered something, but I doubt anyone could tell what it was. The two sitting with him asked what it was he'd said, but he only repeated it a little louder, just loud enough for me to hear it with my 'super vampy hearing'.

Naruto had said, "He said 'Sorry…'."

They asked again, but Naruto refused to repeat it. Then he hid it by enthusiastically digging into his bowl of ramen. Kakashi shook his head, sighing slightly, and mimicked the younger ninja. Lee ate his looking somehow determined. The again, maybe that was just his eyebrows playing tricks on me?

Afterwards Kakashi and I went home, and Naruto glared at me 'till we were out of sight. Lee had been a bit confused, but he had met up with Gai, who he would undoubtedly ask for advice.

Once at Kakashi's house, I suddenly found myself pushed onto the couch, with the silver haired man looked down at me. I didn't even bother moving into a more comfortable position, but I instead stared up at him, waiting.

"What did he say?"

"What?" I asked, sounding more confused than I was.

"What Lee-kun and I couldn't hear. What was it?"

"Oh." I thought about saying I hadn't heard him, after all, I had been even further from him than the other two. "He said that… I'd said sorry."

He seemed surprised. "He did?"

"Yes."

"You heard right?"

"Yes."

"So he doesn't hate you as much as he made us think!"

I blinked. "How's that work?"

"Naruto led us to believe that he hated you more than anything else, but if that was true, he would never have said that." His eye curved up and Kakashi made a peace sign at me.

"Whatever."

I had the nightmare again that night. Kakashi had tried to determine why I was having that particular nightmare repeatedly. I would have told myself that I'd get used to it, that eventually it'd be like every other nightmare I'd ever had, but I knew better. This was one of those things people weren't even consciously afraid of, but it was also one that people, including myself, would always be afraid of.

I awoke the next morning to breakfast followed by training. We broke for lunch, and continued training till nightfall. The two of us then returned to Kakashi's house and our very different versions of dinner. This schedule went on every singe day for who really knows how long.

At some point, somewhere between three and seven months later, Kakashi took me to see the Hokage after breakfast. For some reason, I actually felt as though I were about to be judged and that it was important. I think others might have described it as being "nervous" or having "butterflies in my stomach".

We passed through the door to find a great many people, both important and not, standing in the room with Tsunade, awaiting our arrival. Looking around I saw Naruto glaring at me, Sakura quivering in a chair, and Shikamaru staring boredly at the ceiling. Just about everyone I'd ever spoken to was in that room, staring pointedly either at or away from me. Kakashi led me to a point directly in front of the woman Konoha called its leader. She looked angrily resigned, or resignedly angry, either one.

The room grew quiet as I reached it's front, opposite the door I'd come in through. Kakashi stood quietly beside me, trying his best to stay as emotionless as myself. He seemed to get worse at it each time he tried.

Tsunade drew herself up to her full height, which wasn't quite as tall as Kakashi or myself, and took a deep breath, preparing for the speech she was about to give most of Konoha. "Uchiha Sasuke, charged with the attempted murder of Uzumaki Naruto, has been found not guilty due to temporary loss of control or sanity, probably both. He will be permitted to resume his duties as a citizen of Konohagakure, but will be living with Hatake Kakashi until further notice. If he attempts to murder another, without orders that is, then he will be sentenced to death, no matter what his mental state happens to be. Until such time as we can be certain of his self-restraint, he will be guarded at all times. Also, we will be searching for a way to return his soul to his body. Anyone is welcome to help." She let out her breath, appearing to be a balloon as it deflates after being blown up.

Kakashi grinned down at me, his eye curved so much that I was tempted to tell him it'd get stuck like that.

Chapter Seven: Master

Once at his house, Kakashi suggested that we somehow celebrate my newly gained freedom. I tried to tell him, repeatedly, that it was a stupid idea; I hadn't even liked parties when I was alive, but Kakashi could be nearly as stubborn as Naruto and Lee together when he wanted to.

"Come on, Sasuke-kun! You should be happier that they aren't killing you!" He sounded both happy and annoyed, which is really hard to pull off.

"I'm living on a technicality, sensei. And it isn't even a good one." I glared at him, but Kakashi was so accustomed to it that he didn't even blink.

"Fine." When he said that, I was so relieved I nearly let myself want to smile. "We'll forget about celebrating your freedom."

"Thanks." I should have known he didn't sound disappointed enough.

"Instead, we'll celebrate your seventeenth birthday. It's tomorrow, right?"

"What?" Since when was it even July?

"July 23rd is your birthday, right?" He asked, digging out a piece of paper that probably had special dates written on it. "…Yea…" I hadn't even realized it'd been that long…

Kakashi looked annoyed… in an oddly humorous way. "You're spacing out, Sasuke-kun."

"Whatever." I went to what had become my room and lay down on what had become my bed.

I didn't see him again until the next day, but from the moment he woke me up, I could tell he had plotted something.

"Heya, Sasuke-kun!" Kakashi grinned through his mask rather suspiciously. "Get dressed already; it's time for your party." He was still grinning.

Kakashi left my room so I could change. I dressed quickly, but as soon as I was done, I slipped out the window instead of going out to meet him. I knew a place where I could relax and spend the day in peace.

I was a small clearing in the forest containing what could only pass as a lake because the water was just deep enough not to completely evaporate at any point during the year. The water was still and cool, and always gave me the illusion of being clean even if I had already brushed my foot across a fish or strange underwater plant. It was always quiet there, without being the eerie silence of an empty building. My footsteps didn't echo, and there was no reason to feel uncomfortable making a sound because my voice would seem to blend itself into the calm, natural silence of the clearing. I could always see the light of the sun, but even when it was directly overhead, it never blinded me, never got in my eyes, never hurt my skin. When I was there, the presence of someone following me was always harmless, nearly non-existent. I didn't have to worry about anything or anyone.

But when I arrived, it was nothing like that. Kakashi had obviously known I would attempt an escape, and he moved the party to the very place he knew I would escape to. The usually motionless water was being splashed and thrown around. My silence had been invaded by a deafening bombardment of excruciatingly harsh noise that not only failed to flow as my silence had, but it jarred my eardrums and left me feeling as though I had been beaten repeatedly over the head with a particularly large bat. Faced with this onslaught in the only place I had been able to find peace, I did the only thing I could possibly have done at the time.

I ran.

My spontaneous running, however, did me no good. I didn't even make it back to the house before Kakashi had grabbed me and dragged me back to the hideous defilement of my sanctuary. Most of the people I knew were there, and so were a few who I'd never met in my life. They all looked happy as they played around loudly and actually spilled punch in the lake! I was ready to kill them all just for that. Then I saw someone who shouldn't have been there at all. Naruto.

He was innocently playing something that looked like a cross between Duck, Duck, Goose and Hide and Seek with Sakura, Hinata, and Konohamaru's group. I forgot what everyone else was doing, even Kiba spilling more punch into my lake, to just stare in wonder. Naruto shouldn't have come. Did Kakashi even tell him who's Birthday they were celebrating? If he had known, Naruto wouldn't have come, would he?

I decided he wouldn't have when I saw the glare he sent my way as soon as Kakashi dragged me into the clearing. He continued playing his game, but Sakura immediately came over squealing a particularly loud "Sasuke-kun!" into me poor ear. Then, being as how no girl can see another being annoying without joining in, Ino ran over and did the same thing, except for the fact that she nearly knocked me into a tree when she jumped me. Then Sakura had to jump her to keep her from jumping me, and I did run into the tree. I was eventually saved from loud high-pitched shrieks so annoying I couldn't even tell what the girls were saying when Kakashi dragged me away with the excuse of presents.

Everyone there had apparently brought something of little to no importance that they expected me to keep and treasure as an amazing and priceless birthday gift. I immediately decided to throw most of it away as soon as I was home. Kakashi had given me new copies of his perverted books, which I would have burned except that He would then give Tsunade a good reason to have me killed. Sakura gave me something I think was a hand made Sasuke-bear, and some rock-hard brownies. Everyone else gave me just as random things, but the worst one had to be the dog biscuit from Kiba and Akamaru. Naruto gave me nothing.

I was then forced to eat a large amount of cake with far too much sugar to be edible. By the time I began spitting it in Kakashi's face instead of eating it, he had already decided on making me swim a race for what he termed "fun." He dragged me over and threw me out over the water so I would land in the middle of the lake before I had even figured out why a race would be fun. I will give him some credit though, and assume he never knew about the kunai far too conveniently flying towards the same spot. I took the fact that he fell in the lake as soon as he saw it as proof. I, having my "amazing" vampire skills, caught the kunai, threw it back, and fell in the lake. Note the falling in the lake that would NEVER have happened if I was a ninja. Walking on water was one of many skills I greatly missed. Once I had resurfaced, I found that I had hit my attacker, but he was still standing at the edge of the lake.

It was especially odd looking since the kunai was protruding from his unusually pale neck.

The younger ninjas had already run to take cover and the older ones were all ready to fight, but I just stared at him from in the lake. He was tall, dark haired, and red eyed. Based on the kunai and fangs that showed up when he grinned, I guessed that he was a vampire. Why he was there, though, I couldn't guess.

"What do you want?" I knew I didn't sound quite as threatening as I probably should have tried to be, but I really didn't care either way. He just continued grinning down at me. "What?" This time I did sound angry, but he just widened his grin.

"Come."

It was nothing more than a single, harmless, meaning less word, but I found myself unable to disobey it. I tried with all my might not to pull each arm forward and then back in a swimming motion. I repeatedly told my legs to stop kicking. None of it did any good though.

"Who are you?" I stood, dripping, in front of him.

He grinned.

I suddenly desperately hated that grin. I wanted to wipe it off his face, and if I found myself unable to do so and had to simply remove his entire head, I was okay with that too. I lunged at him, ready to tear his head off with my bare hands since I didn't have any weapons with me at the time. As I was running towards him I almost forget that I couldn't use chakra anymore, but I stopped myself from attempting a jutsu just in time to avoid looking like an idiot.

"Stop."

I froze. I just stopped, just like he said and found myself unable to move towards him any more. "What the hell…?"

"Your name is Sasuke, correct?"

I spat on him.

"Am I right?"

"No." I answered angrily.

"Then what is it?"

"Leave me alone before I rip your esophagus out with my mind."

"Sasuke it is then." He smiled. "I am Yukio, but you, Sasuke-kun, will be calling me Master for some time."

Everyone did the annoying and dramatic gasping in unison thing that I've always found to be a bit annoying even when I'm forced to participate in it. I believe I simply looked more annoying than I ever had in my life up to that point. "Hell no."

"Sasuke-kun, you shouldn't be disobedient to your master, especially not when he came all this way to get you. Most vampires show up on their master's doorstep soon after they awaken, but I guess you weren't as good a choice as I though you would be." He sighed disappointedly. "You're going to have to train longer than most. That really is unfortunate considering how much you obviously hate anyone having authority over you."

"What the hell are you talking about?" My annoyance deepened.

False tears welled in his eyes. "You mean you don't even know that much? Oh, what kind of pathetic vampire have I created that doesn't even want to eat something better than a pig." I decided that were he alive, this Yukio would fit in particularly well in Konoha. "With the exception of the demon over there…" He motioned to Naruto. "which is pretty sad, Sasuke-kun. Most vampires would choose even pig's blood over demon's blood. That's what happens with you ninjas though. You all get funny in the head and do crazy things." He sighed again. "That's why we were attacking normal villagers, duh." Then he began to grin again. "Anyways! We'd better get going before you miss your first hunt! It'll be great! Especially since you've already done a little bit of training-I can tell because you're strong enough to back talk me- so you should actually be able to catch a good one."

"A good what?" Kakashi asked.

"Meal of course! And since we're vampires that would mean a good human. I could send him after one of you, but that's supposed to wait till after his training, unless he really wants you dead for this party thing that is…?" He looked at me questioningly. "Well?" He asked when I said nothing.

"If I wanted them dead, they already would be."

For some reason, not a single ninja seemed completely happy with the way I had phrased that.

Chapter Eight: Hunt

"Well, let's get going then." He flashed that maddening grin of his.

I hissed. "No."

He sighed. "Sasuke, you really are becoming annoying. We need to leave now. If we take much longer it will be too late, and then what will I do." He faked a sob. "I'll be all alone in the world. No friends, no family, nothing… Come to think of it, I won't be much different than you are now." He grinned. "Man that really sucks." Yukio began walking away from me. "Come on."

"No." I was moving forward anyway. "Stop that already!" I half snarled, half screamed at him.

We both stopped moving at the same time. "Well, if you would just come on your own, I never would've had to do that." His eyes looked wide and innocent. "I really did give you a choice between the two."

Everyone stared with the uncomprehending look I've found to be far too common in Konoha.

Kakashi stepped forward slight, reaching his hand out from across the clearing. "Sasuke-kun, what exactly is going on?"

"He's going off with his own kind." When Naruto spoke, he sounded a bit too happy for my taste.

"Naruto!" Kakashi was angry. I was a little glad to see that he cared enough about me to bother, but… I also knew it was a reflex. Naruto does something bad, Kakashi yells. Iruka's the same way. Most adults who've been near him for a prolonged period of time are.

"It's true." Naruto was just as angry. "And I think we should let him go. We already know that thing doesn't belong here! He can't, won't, and shouldn't! Let him go."

In a flash, Kakashi was across the clearing, and he punched Naruto square in the face. The blonde stood up, spitting blood, and growled at him. "What's wrong with you?!" I don't know which one yelled that. Maybe both of them did. It doesn't matter.

"Now, now." Yukio spoke up calmly. "Why don't you all just stop fighting. It's never fun when one of us has to leave on a bad note."

"You're right," Kakashi smiled through his mask. "Naruto and I shouldn't be fighting." He abruptly stopped smiling, and glared at the vampire. "We should all be fighting you." With than he began to run at Yukio, his Chidori already activated.

When the vampire dodged, Kakashi rammed his fist into a tree instead. Then, many of the others joined him in attacking Yukio. Naruto growled and left, and Konohamaru looked confused before following him. Most of the people I didn't know left too, but other than them, everyone attacked. I almost smiled.

Before anyone could reach him, the stupid vampire was suddenly gone. I heard him say, "Hurry up Sasuke-kun," softly, but when I looked around, no one else seemed to have noticed. "It's time to go."

I left.

I didn't know where I was going, but I knew he was making me go there. When I saw him again, Yukio was grinning as he stood in front of a small cave. "We can sleep here until night." I didn't at all like the idea of curling up beside him in a cave, but he didn't give me any choice in the matter.

Right after sunset, he woke me up and we walked away from Konoha. I remembered when I had left somewhere around four or five years earlier, when I left to join Orochimaru and wondered if they would allow me to return a second time.

The first place he brought me to was a fairly small village. I doubted any ninja had ever even visited that village for more than a day's time, much less lived there. He stood beside me grinning as we watched the lights go out in the small houses. After all the windows were dark, a boy close to my age moved from where he had been chopping logs to enter his house. When he saw us, he began walking over, probably to ask if we needed a place to stay. I never found out.

"Hunt." Yukio wasn't grinning anymore. He was serious, but he didn't force me. He wanted me to kill the boy all on my own.

"No." I wasn't going to give him what he wanted.

"Why?" He asked, his voice lined with trace amounts of anger. "Aren't you hungry?"

"I don't feel like it."

He grinned again. "Well I doubt you feel like starving to death, Sasuke-kun. And I won't be giving you old animal blood."

I was hungry, and he knew it as well as I did. I hadn't eaten since the night before, and it was beginning to catch up to me. Yukio could read me as easily as if he had known me my entire life and would continue to know me for the rest of. That would be far too long for me though. Despite this, I could somehow tell that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to escape from him. I wanted to start by not killing the boy still walking slowly towards us from down the street.

"Hunt." He said, his voice more forceful this time, but still not controlling. He still wanted me to hunt of my own free will.

And I did.

My hunger somehow managed to overcome my will to defy Yukio, and I rushed at the boy, biting his neck before I could think enough to convince myself not to. I knew I would, and I knew I should, but I wanted to eat.

When I had finished, I wiped my mouth and snarled at myself as though I were a wild animal. I had no conscience, no will power, and definitely no self control. I was as good as the animal I found myself seeing myself as, the animal I saw Yukio as.

I realized though, that I would never be able to become anything else. Change is an ability awarded to humans, so that they may repent for what they were foolish enough to do in the past. I rarely took advantage of this ability in my life, and I would never have it again now that I was dead. I would spend the rest of my unnaturally long life as a mindless beast who would follow Yukio's orders as a dog does his master's, without a second thought.

We traveled the rest of the night, and rested during the day. We continued this for the next three or four days, and then Yukio brought me into a large, seemingly abandoned building. Inside I was introduced to a group of others such as myself, none of which gave me their names. There was one who showed me where I was to sleep, but after that I never saw him again.

The next night was when my training began. Yukio brought me out and taught me what I had been unable to teach myself. He tested what I had learned, and criticized what I had learned wrong. We didn't stop until the next morning, when I once again feasted on the blood of a living human and went to bed.

The next few months passed in much the same way. I trained all night, either with Yukio himself or with someone a bit closer to my level, ate once every night or two, and slept through the harsh bright hours of the day. Not much changed, and I began to doubt that there was much of anything to change. I wasn't bored though. I didn't allow myself to think enough to feel much of anything.

Chapter Nine: Kyo

"Did you think I wouldn't notice?" Yukio glared down at me, rage burning behind his blood red eyes. "I know everything about you, Sasuke-kun, everything. And I damn well noticed."

I tried not to look him in the eye, and tried to hide it from him. "I did nothing."

Yukio snarled. "Technically." At least he wasn't grinning, though I realized months ago that Yukio's wrath was far worse than his amusement, regardless of which one annoyed me more. "But I saw you feed, Sasuke. I saw you feed on scoundrels and drunks, on the worthless scum who no one would even consider missing."

I flinched. I had tried hard to hide that, especially from Yukio. It took all of my strength to hold on to my identity as a shinobi, and to fight my new one as a monster. The only way I found to express it to myself was to avoid killing innocents.

"You're not a ninja any more." Yukio spoke softly. When he saw the surprise in my eyes, he continued. "You know by now that I can read your thoughts; you can hide nothing from me, Sasuke, so stop trying. You aren't a ninja anymore, you're a vampire. Act like it. Yes, you lost you chakra and your soul, but you gained powers no mere shinobi could ever possess. Use them." He took a small drink from a ceramic mug he always kept at his desk. "You are not Uchiha Sasuke any more. And if I have to take even the name from you to make you accept that, I will." He put the mug down with enough force to crack it and send water splashing over the sides. "Now. You're going to leave behind your little ninja game and obey my orders."

I glared at him, letting my eyes burn red, but said nothing. I stood with his back straight and defiant, but cursed myself for lacking the courage to tell Yukio what I thought. It didn't matter that Yukio already knew. It didn't lessen my cowardice the slightest bit. Without warning, my vision began to blur, and Yukio's room faded. Rather than disappearing, it became something else. A boy. He stood, proud and moody, with bright orange hair and brown-red eyes. In his right hand he held a bag, and he wore school uniform. I thought he was a little older than I was when Yukio sired me, but I couldn't be sure.

"You will kill him." Yukio's voice broke through the image he created in my mind. The room stood before me again, a tussled bed in one corner, a window with deep red curtains in the center of the wall opposite it, and a large desk of dark wood with a cracked ceramic mug. And Yukio. "And you will sire him."

I turned to leave the room, refusing to force anyone to share the fate Yukio had forced on me. I would never-Burning. I saw familiar buildings and forest from his home. Faces I knew well, contorted by fear as my friends tried frantically to put out the fires consuming Konoha. Burned and burning corpses littered the streets; lay in houses where they had failed to escape. When the image faded, I stood trembling, with my fist clenched so tightly the nails bit into my skin and drew blood. I licked the blood from my palms automatically, and knew I could never let Yukio destroy my home. Yes, I thought at him, Konoha is my home. Not this place. I would do it. I would kill this boy. I had no choice.

Yukio brought me to the place, a wooded area near a large family's estate, where he hid himself from the boy's eyes, and left the rest to me. The boy sat on the log of a fallen tree, muttering to himself confused and dejected. "I'm so stupid!" I glided towards him from behind and sat on the log so silently he never noticed. "What did she mean?" He glanced up from his hands, which had held his face before, and saw me sitting beside him. Jumping in surprise, he shouted, "What are you doing here?"

I looked at him levelly, and let no emotion show on my face. "What are you doing here?" I knew I was stalling, and Yukio knew it too; I could feel my sire's impatience.

"Sitting on a log; what's it look like?" Annoyance showed on the redhead's face and in his voice. I turned away from him and said nothing. "Hey, don't just ignore me!" He made a fist and shook it at me. When I made no response, he lowered his fist. "Who are you anyway?"

Turning towards him again, I said softly, "I am eternal despair."

"What do you mean by that?"

I stood, no longer able to hide the sorrow I felt. "This…" I grabbed the boy's shoulders, pulled him close and bit into his neck. When he passed out from loss of blood, I sliced expertly through My own wrist and held it to the boy's mouth.

He drank hungrily, and I saw the boy's life flash before my eyes as though it were my own. His name was Kyo, and he came from a large family, a cursed family. A girl had sent him to the woods in confusion, a kind and happy girl with eyes full of sunshine, soft brown hair, and smile that could brighten even the darkest of Kyo's days: Tohru. Kyo loved her. I had never felt love like that before. I loved my family before Itachi murdered them, and I loved Itachi once, and I loved my friends. But Kyo's love was different. I couldn't explain it, and I couldn't understand it, so I stopped trying. I let Kyo's body drop to the ground, and moved to stand nearer Yukio.

"Good. Now we just have to wait for him to wake." Yukio smiled triumphantly down at me, and glared at him with icy cold hatred.

I waited a few days before showing himself to Kyo again. He was mumbling to himself in the woods again. "What the heck happened to me?" He turned towards me, and I sat down silently, watching him. "What the fuck did you do to me?"

Steadily, I gazed at him, forcing myself not to leave or look away. "I… changed you." I had no idea how to tell Kyo that I had forced him into the ranks of the forsaken, and away from the one he loved.

Kyo glared at me. "I figured that out."

I cocked his head slightly. Sure you did, you smart ass. "Then how are you different?

Confusion and uncertainty shone in Kyo's eyes. "Well… Why should I answer you?" He didn't know.

Annoyed, I tried to say something the idiot would understand. "Because you suck, and I don't."

Kyo growled deep in his throat and charged at me, his fists ready to fly, but the I deftly caught his arm, swung him around and threw him into the trunk of a tree. Kyo scrambled to his feet and ran at me, but I flicked him between the eyes and avoided every attack. The new vampire growled, readying himself for another attack.

"Calm down, Kyo." I made my voice firm and commanding, without taking the decision from the taller boy.

Kyo stopped in confusion. "How do you know my name?"

I wasn't ready yet to tell him that I knew everything about him because when I sire him, I formed a bond between us that gave me great power over him and left him a broken and damned being without a soul. "Missing posters." The lie tasted weak on my tongue.

He stumbled and fell to his face. "Missing posters? Like when you lose a dog?" The anger in his voice smothered his confusion.

"Yes."

"Yes what?"

What kind of a moron was he? "Yes, like when you lose a dog."

He clenched his fists. "Don't call me a dog." I wondered if the comparison made him think of the man who turned into a dog, Shigure, but I chose not to look. I wasn't Yukio, and I would let this boy live his own life, as much of it as he had left anyway.

"I didn't." He called himself a dog, not me.

"Yes you did."

"Moron."

"Hey!" In annoyance, I ignored him. Kyo turned away from me. "This isn't getting anywhere." He began to walk away from me, his shoulders tensed in anger.

To his back, I said, "You're dead."

He froze. When he spoke it was with sarcasm, but I could hear the touch of uncertainty behind his words. "Yeah, right."

"Have you eaten?"

"No…" I could tell he answered reluctantly. He should have been starving, but Kyo was just fine.

"Do you really think you're still alive?"

Kyo shook his head like he wanted to clear it. "I don't know."

I moved to stand in front of him. Looking him in the eyes, I spoke as clearly as I could. "You're dead. I killed you."

"You're crazy." He wouldn't believe me, even though he knew already it was true.

I pulled out one of my kunai and trust it into his heart. I pulled it out. "You're dead."