A Whisper is the Lucifer (1/1)
My mind continues to deteriorate with nonsense like this, but, in my defence, I was watching The Batman vs Dracula while reading this really good Justice League fanfic, and bam, the first line just pops up, and I’m like stop-it’s drabble time.
Or not. 100 words became a little over 2000, and I sort of lost track of what was supposed to be going.
I think this was just me cleaning out my closet, marking off another cliche, and trying to write shorter things. Sasuke actually got kind of mean here, maybe. Then came the surprise!plot. But if there's a reference in there to the sequel of a certain movie, even though it's less than six degrees of separation from Jurassic Park, I didn't do it.
And so what if I like a fauxflirty!Sasuke seducing a fumbling Naruto? It doesn't make me a bad person.
On a more serious note, considering what I'm implying Sasuke to be, warnings for possible dubious consent issues. Not explicit, but involving Sasuke in matters of sekuhara is all so very weird to me. Like discovering BL manga for the first time all over again.
***
Characters: Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi
Rating: PG-15
Words: 2556
Summary: Hunter Naruto gets an unexpected saviour in the form of a vampire who isn't what he seems, although being hit on by a very touchy-feely vampire can never be a good thing.
“Okay, so, uh, you’re trying to tell me you don’t want my blood?”
It’s a first, he’ll admit, pretty much unheard of during his short lifetime hunting down the undead, and, rightfully so, Naruto takes the confession with an extremely tiny grain of salt. After all, even if the bastard did save him-not that he needed saving from that lowly vampire who managed to get the drop on him on his way to the convenience store, anyway-being stuck in a dark alleyway with a really, overly friendly vampire who looked ready to eat him in a totally different way entirely, this is so not how he planned to spend his Saturday night off.
And the old hag had the nerve to blame him for getting caught in these kinds of situations.
“I don’t bite,” the guy breathes, continues to loom closer, backing Naruto against the brick wall and making the space already not between them that much more apparent, “...unless you want me to.”
More confident than he actually feels, Naruto snorts, flippant, trying to smother the instinctual urge to do something-anything-to just move, because there’s a distinct disadvantage not in his favour.
No question this vampire’s powerful. He can smell it. Probably a little older, too. Even though the vampire looks somewhere around his age, the guy’s stronger and a lot faster than the vampires he normally comes across during patrol, which, considering he accidently misplaced his silver dagger somewhere ten blocks back, kind of rules out his fallback approach of taking off the guy’s head or snapping his neck.
If he plays his cards right, he can still make it out of this one alive.
Not that he doubts his abilities or his training, but he knows better than to test his limits by going off in these kinds of situations half-assed. Being part demon isn’t the same thing as being full demon.
He learned that one the hard way.
“That supposed to reassure me or something? Coming from a vampire like you leeching off innocent people and killing them for no reason. Don’t think I’m going to let you turn me, either.”
“Humans have such a...funny sense of humour.” The vampire blinks, and the two fingers walking a slow path along Naruto’s arm pause, red eyes holding a momentary surprise that quickly turns shrewd. “No, not fully human. Demon,” he says, and the word slips off his tongue like cool water hitting the back of Naruto’s throat midday in the dead of summer.
Body tense, bearing elongated teeth, Naruto snarls. He does a slight pivot on his left heel and retaliates with a right hook, but it’s immediately cut short by the punishing grip threatening to crush the bones of his wrist as his arm’s slammed hard against the brick.
Eyes wide, he bites down on the inside of his cheek, trying to hold back a cry of surprise, because shit, he wasn’t expecting the vampire to be that fast.
“My family always told me to stay away from your kind. Demons like you who turn their backs on their own.”
“Oh, you mean the kind that hunts down bad guys like you? Yeah, you should definitely watch out for us. Don’t you know it’s not safe for you out here this time of night?”
Talking. He needs to keep talking. He needs to stall to give himself more time, needs to come up with something other than running his mouth off in the hopes that the vampire will just get bored and walk off instead of deciding to infect him.
Bad enough he got found out as a demon, the sensitive subject it is for him. Of course, humans aren’t able to tell. Even most vampires wouldn’t have been able to pick up on that, the weaker fledglings at least, not if Naruto didn’t do anything to out his heritage, but this one...
Either way, doesn’t matter. Bastard’s just toying with him.
And he knows it.
Red eyes abnormally bright, somehow alive, the vampire moves impossibly closer, feigning a coy sort of amused grin. “It’s not?”
There’s a flash in those eyes that makes Naruto shiver. Under the careful watch of a piercing gaze, he finds himself held immobile, suddenly unable to move despite the fact the vampire’s already let go of his wrist. “Y-yeah, it’s, uh...” He clears his throat. “It’s real dangerous.”
If he had any doubts the vampire was toying with him before-well, that’s out of the question now, because there’s no reason that his eyes should be wandering to the vampire’s mouth, no good reason at all as to why he’s staring at the corner of a bottom lip caught behind surprisingly normal looking front teeth.
He starts a little, vaguely wondering about the distinct lack of fangs that vampires are supposed to have, but the observation’s filed away somewhere in his subconscious for later. Maybe if he was in a better state of mind-a more lucid state of mind, is Sakura’s scary inner voice nagging him inside his head-he wouldn’t be seriously considering going at it with a vampire right now.
If Kiba ever found out, he’d never live to hear the end of it. If he ever manages to make it back to the Compound in one piece. And only if Sakura doesn’t rip him a new one for worrying her so much when he does.
“Too dangerous for me?” Two fingers reach beneath Naruto’s chin, slowly lifting his head.
“Especially dangerous for you. Because the things we do to vampires like you, people like me...”
“People like you?”
“People like-people like me, yeah,” Naruto murmurs, again taken in by the temptation of lips curved into a dangerously sinful smile alluding to too many unspoken promises.
Vampire or not, even if he isn’t the typical kind of pretty or cute, Naruto can admit the guy isn’t the ugliest person in the world. If he was into vampires, that is. Or guys. Which he’s not. If he was, he wouldn’t be questioning the scope of his life choices, because he’d be too busy doing the opposite of not fighting back.
“And what do people like you do to vampires like me?”
“Things you don’t need to know about.”
“What kinds of things?”
“I don’t think I’m supposed to tell.”
The vampire gives a light hum, almost absent, allowing his hand to fall from Naruto’s chin. Beneath the dim light overhead, he still looks pale, but there’s a healthy glow to skin, nothing like the unnatural pallor vampires usually have. “If you’re not supposed to tell, then I wonder, Demon...”
Naruto’s breath comes out shallow, chest rising and falling slow. He licks his lips and swallows hard, torn between wanting to get even closer and trying to edge away from the body all but pressed up against him. “...yeah?”
“The dangerous things you do, are you willing to show me instead?”
The blatant undertone of those words colours his face bright red, a very bright red, and Naruto has to concentrate very hard not to think about the fingers trailing down his chest, since he really shouldn’t have sudden unexplainable attractions for strange vampires who just happen to make random appearances in badly-lit alleys.
There’s a part of him that feels compelled to answer, though, to spill all the secrets he knows about the underground human resistance, a persistent little pull a hazy itch in the back of his mind that makes him want to offer to do all kinds of things for the vampire and so much more, but there’s also something off about the situation that doesn’t let him give into the vampire just yet.
“You do know what I am, don’t you? I’m a Hunter. I’m supposed to bring down vampires like you.”
“...you claim you’re a Hunter,” the vampire whispers, breathes soft against Naruto’s skin, mouth only just brushing across a scarred cheek, “but do you still want to kill me?”
“I...”
“Or would you rather-”
“And you wonder why you were never allowed to run off on your own,” comes a new voice, one Naruto instantly recognises that cuts through the slight haze clouding his mind.
Eyes blood red suddenly turn dark, almost pitch black, and an annoyed expression takes over the vampire’s face.
As if he’s been snapped out of some sort of trance, Naruto blinks. Looking towards the direction of the voice, he searches the shadows for the familiar silhouette of his mentor, nothing short of mortified at being caught like a newbie when he realises the vampire still has him pinned against the wall. “Ka-Ka-Kakashi.”
Stepping into the light, Kakashi greets him with a carefree wave of his hand. “Yo.”
“I don’t need you following me.” With a harsh shove, pushing himself away from Naruto, the vampire sneers at Kakashi. “You’re not my keeper, Kakashi.”
“For all intents and purposes, I may as well be. But you’re right. No one could pay me enough for such an unfulfilling role,” Kakashi says, unfazed by the vampire’s glare. “Although when I told you to make friends with Naruto, I didn’t expect you to try to get into his pants.”
“Tch. I wasn’t trying to seduce anyone, much less a useless half-demon like him.” There’s a faint blush that spreads across the vampire’s features, which shouldn’t be possible, in fact is impossible, because vampires don’t blush. Although this guy seems perfectly fine with throwing every last shred of Naruto’s logic out the window.
Starting with how a seasoned Hunter like Kakashi is somehow on casual terms with a vampire who supposedly wasn’t trying to leech off Naruto’s blood. Or get into his pants.
“I was proving a point,” the vampire says, clipped, dark gaze narrowed. “This entire operation you’ve got running with Tsunade, this alleged Resistance, I don’t know what you think you’re going to accomplish in this war. You’re a fool if you believe your side stands any chance in hell of winning.”
Kakashi gives him a critical eye. “Then whose side do you consider yourself on?”
“My own.”
“Hold on, hold on-wait a second, let me get this straight.” Confusion having long ago replaced any sense of mortification, still wary, if not even a little angry, Naruto looks to Kakashi, pointing with his thumb back at the vampire. “You know this vampire?”
The vampire sends him a sharp look so full of vehemence that it almost makes Naruto flinch. “I’m not one of them.”
Kakashi runs a hand through grey hair, scratching the back of his head. “Ah, he’s not a vampire.”
“Okay, whatever the hell you are,” Naruto says, scowling at the so called not-vampire, “why are you being so familiar with Kakashi? And how do you even know about Tsunade?”
“None of your business.”
There’s a gleam in Kakashi’s eyes, and he does that little lopsided smile of his, the keen grin somehow still obvious despite being covered by the lower mask he always wears for no apparent reason. “It’s nice to see two of my favourite students getting along so well.”
“That’s your reaction to all of this? I was over here getting molested by some goddamn molester and you just stood there and watched? You pervert! And you!” Naruto snarls, pointing his finger at the not-vampire. “You goddamn molester, you molested me!”
Calmly inspecting the back of his hand, the not-vampire looks up and gives him this look of complete and utter disinterest. “For someone who can’t even handle himself against the weakest kind of vampire, you sure like being loud enough to draw their attention.”
Naruto clenches his fist. “Shut up, you bastard. I wasn’t-”
“As friendly as Sasuke can be,” Kakashi says, “I assure you that your virtue would have remained safely intact.”
“What do you mean virtue? Don’t treat me like I’m some kind of-”
“You’re lucky I didn’t bother to kill you.” The not-vampire-Sasuke-scoffs. “Someone who gets distracted so easily isn’t even worth the effort.”
“Sure as hell wasn’t what it looked like from where I was standing.”
“Not even if we were the last two people in the world.”
“With that kind of two-faced personality, you’re probably used to being alone, anyway.”
Red starts to trickle into dark eyes. “I wouldn’t go for a stupid idiot like you in any lifetime.”
“Reasonably speaking, Sasuke, not everyone is used to your certain...appeal,” Kakashi says, a cautious undertone to whatever he’s not saying. “You’ll have to blame your mother for that one.”
Sasuke gives Kakashi a particularly scathing glare that doesn’t do anything to affect him. “Not my fault this idiot’s so damn repressed.”
“You stuck-up bastard, I am not repressed. Don’t forget who’s the molester here. You came on to me.”
Sasuke gives Naruto a quick onceover, then he scoffs, unimpressed, like Naruto’s nothing special to see. “Like it was ever in question that I’d actually willingly subject myself to be near this scruffy-looking-”
“Who’s scruffy-looking?”
“-dim-witted, weak and pathetic half-demon, poor excuse for a Hunter.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re excused.”
“Now listen here, you prissy asshole, you’re the one who was throwing yourself all over me, practically begging me to-”
“Now, now, children.” Kakashi’s hand firmly clamped on Naruto’s shoulder holds him back from trying to pummel Sasuke into ground. “Let’s all settle down. Settle down.”
Gritting his teeth, Naruto forcibly shrugs off Kakashi’s grip. He steps back, putting a little more distance between him and Sasuke, not sure when they’d even gotten close enough for him to throw a punch. “Ch. Who is this guy really, Kakashi? You say he’s not a vampire, except he doesn’t act or smell that much different. You probably would’ve have killed him by now if he was, so what about him makes him so important to you?”
“Sasuke has his uses.” With a subtle glance at Sasuke, Kakashi sends a secretive smile towards Naruto. “For the time being, though, I’m more interested in your reaction to him.”
Naruto frowns. “What-you mean this whole thing was some sort of test or something?”
“Pin pon.” Two fingers raised near his temple, Kakashi gives him a mock salute. “And you failed. Miserably. Although considering we don’t usually come across extremely rare cases like Sasuke, it’s not your fault you were so unprepared.”
“Unprepared for what?”
“Oh, the usual suspects. This and that,” Kakashi says offhand, twice tapping the side of his cheek with one finger. “Never you mind those kinds of things now. But I suppose it really is a good thing Sasuke wasn’t trying to kill you.”
Sasuke snorts.
Ignoring the quiet insult, Naruto narrows his eyes, watching a dispassionate looking Sasuke leaning casually against the wall. He doesn’t even know how the asshole was able to affect him so much in the first place, to the point where it felt like he’d do just about anything Sasuke told him to do.
He’s never heard of anyone who was able to have that kind of seducing effect on people. But if this guy wasn’t some kind of vampire, then what the hell was he?
“Uzumaki Naruto meet Uchiha Sasuke.” Sounding too eager, Kakashi looks between them both with another one of his lopsided grins.
Naruto continues to stare, but Sasuke just crosses his arms and snorts again.
“The new recruit.”
Or not. 100 words became a little over 2000, and I sort of lost track of what was supposed to be going.
I think this was just me cleaning out my closet, marking off another cliche, and trying to write shorter things. Sasuke actually got kind of mean here, maybe. Then came the surprise!plot. But if there's a reference in there to the sequel of a certain movie, even though it's less than six degrees of separation from Jurassic Park, I didn't do it.
And so what if I like a fauxflirty!Sasuke seducing a fumbling Naruto? It doesn't make me a bad person.
On a more serious note, considering what I'm implying Sasuke to be, warnings for possible dubious consent issues. Not explicit, but involving Sasuke in matters of sekuhara is all so very weird to me. Like discovering BL manga for the first time all over again.
***
Characters: Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi
Rating: PG-15
Words: 2556
Summary: Hunter Naruto gets an unexpected saviour in the form of a vampire who isn't what he seems, although being hit on by a very touchy-feely vampire can never be a good thing.
“Okay, so, uh, you’re trying to tell me you don’t want my blood?”
It’s a first, he’ll admit, pretty much unheard of during his short lifetime hunting down the undead, and, rightfully so, Naruto takes the confession with an extremely tiny grain of salt. After all, even if the bastard did save him-not that he needed saving from that lowly vampire who managed to get the drop on him on his way to the convenience store, anyway-being stuck in a dark alleyway with a really, overly friendly vampire who looked ready to eat him in a totally different way entirely, this is so not how he planned to spend his Saturday night off.
And the old hag had the nerve to blame him for getting caught in these kinds of situations.
“I don’t bite,” the guy breathes, continues to loom closer, backing Naruto against the brick wall and making the space already not between them that much more apparent, “...unless you want me to.”
More confident than he actually feels, Naruto snorts, flippant, trying to smother the instinctual urge to do something-anything-to just move, because there’s a distinct disadvantage not in his favour.
No question this vampire’s powerful. He can smell it. Probably a little older, too. Even though the vampire looks somewhere around his age, the guy’s stronger and a lot faster than the vampires he normally comes across during patrol, which, considering he accidently misplaced his silver dagger somewhere ten blocks back, kind of rules out his fallback approach of taking off the guy’s head or snapping his neck.
If he plays his cards right, he can still make it out of this one alive.
Not that he doubts his abilities or his training, but he knows better than to test his limits by going off in these kinds of situations half-assed. Being part demon isn’t the same thing as being full demon.
He learned that one the hard way.
“That supposed to reassure me or something? Coming from a vampire like you leeching off innocent people and killing them for no reason. Don’t think I’m going to let you turn me, either.”
“Humans have such a...funny sense of humour.” The vampire blinks, and the two fingers walking a slow path along Naruto’s arm pause, red eyes holding a momentary surprise that quickly turns shrewd. “No, not fully human. Demon,” he says, and the word slips off his tongue like cool water hitting the back of Naruto’s throat midday in the dead of summer.
Body tense, bearing elongated teeth, Naruto snarls. He does a slight pivot on his left heel and retaliates with a right hook, but it’s immediately cut short by the punishing grip threatening to crush the bones of his wrist as his arm’s slammed hard against the brick.
Eyes wide, he bites down on the inside of his cheek, trying to hold back a cry of surprise, because shit, he wasn’t expecting the vampire to be that fast.
“My family always told me to stay away from your kind. Demons like you who turn their backs on their own.”
“Oh, you mean the kind that hunts down bad guys like you? Yeah, you should definitely watch out for us. Don’t you know it’s not safe for you out here this time of night?”
Talking. He needs to keep talking. He needs to stall to give himself more time, needs to come up with something other than running his mouth off in the hopes that the vampire will just get bored and walk off instead of deciding to infect him.
Bad enough he got found out as a demon, the sensitive subject it is for him. Of course, humans aren’t able to tell. Even most vampires wouldn’t have been able to pick up on that, the weaker fledglings at least, not if Naruto didn’t do anything to out his heritage, but this one...
Either way, doesn’t matter. Bastard’s just toying with him.
And he knows it.
Red eyes abnormally bright, somehow alive, the vampire moves impossibly closer, feigning a coy sort of amused grin. “It’s not?”
There’s a flash in those eyes that makes Naruto shiver. Under the careful watch of a piercing gaze, he finds himself held immobile, suddenly unable to move despite the fact the vampire’s already let go of his wrist. “Y-yeah, it’s, uh...” He clears his throat. “It’s real dangerous.”
If he had any doubts the vampire was toying with him before-well, that’s out of the question now, because there’s no reason that his eyes should be wandering to the vampire’s mouth, no good reason at all as to why he’s staring at the corner of a bottom lip caught behind surprisingly normal looking front teeth.
He starts a little, vaguely wondering about the distinct lack of fangs that vampires are supposed to have, but the observation’s filed away somewhere in his subconscious for later. Maybe if he was in a better state of mind-a more lucid state of mind, is Sakura’s scary inner voice nagging him inside his head-he wouldn’t be seriously considering going at it with a vampire right now.
If Kiba ever found out, he’d never live to hear the end of it. If he ever manages to make it back to the Compound in one piece. And only if Sakura doesn’t rip him a new one for worrying her so much when he does.
“Too dangerous for me?” Two fingers reach beneath Naruto’s chin, slowly lifting his head.
“Especially dangerous for you. Because the things we do to vampires like you, people like me...”
“People like you?”
“People like-people like me, yeah,” Naruto murmurs, again taken in by the temptation of lips curved into a dangerously sinful smile alluding to too many unspoken promises.
Vampire or not, even if he isn’t the typical kind of pretty or cute, Naruto can admit the guy isn’t the ugliest person in the world. If he was into vampires, that is. Or guys. Which he’s not. If he was, he wouldn’t be questioning the scope of his life choices, because he’d be too busy doing the opposite of not fighting back.
“And what do people like you do to vampires like me?”
“Things you don’t need to know about.”
“What kinds of things?”
“I don’t think I’m supposed to tell.”
The vampire gives a light hum, almost absent, allowing his hand to fall from Naruto’s chin. Beneath the dim light overhead, he still looks pale, but there’s a healthy glow to skin, nothing like the unnatural pallor vampires usually have. “If you’re not supposed to tell, then I wonder, Demon...”
Naruto’s breath comes out shallow, chest rising and falling slow. He licks his lips and swallows hard, torn between wanting to get even closer and trying to edge away from the body all but pressed up against him. “...yeah?”
“The dangerous things you do, are you willing to show me instead?”
The blatant undertone of those words colours his face bright red, a very bright red, and Naruto has to concentrate very hard not to think about the fingers trailing down his chest, since he really shouldn’t have sudden unexplainable attractions for strange vampires who just happen to make random appearances in badly-lit alleys.
There’s a part of him that feels compelled to answer, though, to spill all the secrets he knows about the underground human resistance, a persistent little pull a hazy itch in the back of his mind that makes him want to offer to do all kinds of things for the vampire and so much more, but there’s also something off about the situation that doesn’t let him give into the vampire just yet.
“You do know what I am, don’t you? I’m a Hunter. I’m supposed to bring down vampires like you.”
“...you claim you’re a Hunter,” the vampire whispers, breathes soft against Naruto’s skin, mouth only just brushing across a scarred cheek, “but do you still want to kill me?”
“I...”
“Or would you rather-”
“And you wonder why you were never allowed to run off on your own,” comes a new voice, one Naruto instantly recognises that cuts through the slight haze clouding his mind.
Eyes blood red suddenly turn dark, almost pitch black, and an annoyed expression takes over the vampire’s face.
As if he’s been snapped out of some sort of trance, Naruto blinks. Looking towards the direction of the voice, he searches the shadows for the familiar silhouette of his mentor, nothing short of mortified at being caught like a newbie when he realises the vampire still has him pinned against the wall. “Ka-Ka-Kakashi.”
Stepping into the light, Kakashi greets him with a carefree wave of his hand. “Yo.”
“I don’t need you following me.” With a harsh shove, pushing himself away from Naruto, the vampire sneers at Kakashi. “You’re not my keeper, Kakashi.”
“For all intents and purposes, I may as well be. But you’re right. No one could pay me enough for such an unfulfilling role,” Kakashi says, unfazed by the vampire’s glare. “Although when I told you to make friends with Naruto, I didn’t expect you to try to get into his pants.”
“Tch. I wasn’t trying to seduce anyone, much less a useless half-demon like him.” There’s a faint blush that spreads across the vampire’s features, which shouldn’t be possible, in fact is impossible, because vampires don’t blush. Although this guy seems perfectly fine with throwing every last shred of Naruto’s logic out the window.
Starting with how a seasoned Hunter like Kakashi is somehow on casual terms with a vampire who supposedly wasn’t trying to leech off Naruto’s blood. Or get into his pants.
“I was proving a point,” the vampire says, clipped, dark gaze narrowed. “This entire operation you’ve got running with Tsunade, this alleged Resistance, I don’t know what you think you’re going to accomplish in this war. You’re a fool if you believe your side stands any chance in hell of winning.”
Kakashi gives him a critical eye. “Then whose side do you consider yourself on?”
“My own.”
“Hold on, hold on-wait a second, let me get this straight.” Confusion having long ago replaced any sense of mortification, still wary, if not even a little angry, Naruto looks to Kakashi, pointing with his thumb back at the vampire. “You know this vampire?”
The vampire sends him a sharp look so full of vehemence that it almost makes Naruto flinch. “I’m not one of them.”
Kakashi runs a hand through grey hair, scratching the back of his head. “Ah, he’s not a vampire.”
“Okay, whatever the hell you are,” Naruto says, scowling at the so called not-vampire, “why are you being so familiar with Kakashi? And how do you even know about Tsunade?”
“None of your business.”
There’s a gleam in Kakashi’s eyes, and he does that little lopsided smile of his, the keen grin somehow still obvious despite being covered by the lower mask he always wears for no apparent reason. “It’s nice to see two of my favourite students getting along so well.”
“That’s your reaction to all of this? I was over here getting molested by some goddamn molester and you just stood there and watched? You pervert! And you!” Naruto snarls, pointing his finger at the not-vampire. “You goddamn molester, you molested me!”
Calmly inspecting the back of his hand, the not-vampire looks up and gives him this look of complete and utter disinterest. “For someone who can’t even handle himself against the weakest kind of vampire, you sure like being loud enough to draw their attention.”
Naruto clenches his fist. “Shut up, you bastard. I wasn’t-”
“As friendly as Sasuke can be,” Kakashi says, “I assure you that your virtue would have remained safely intact.”
“What do you mean virtue? Don’t treat me like I’m some kind of-”
“You’re lucky I didn’t bother to kill you.” The not-vampire-Sasuke-scoffs. “Someone who gets distracted so easily isn’t even worth the effort.”
“Sure as hell wasn’t what it looked like from where I was standing.”
“Not even if we were the last two people in the world.”
“With that kind of two-faced personality, you’re probably used to being alone, anyway.”
Red starts to trickle into dark eyes. “I wouldn’t go for a stupid idiot like you in any lifetime.”
“Reasonably speaking, Sasuke, not everyone is used to your certain...appeal,” Kakashi says, a cautious undertone to whatever he’s not saying. “You’ll have to blame your mother for that one.”
Sasuke gives Kakashi a particularly scathing glare that doesn’t do anything to affect him. “Not my fault this idiot’s so damn repressed.”
“You stuck-up bastard, I am not repressed. Don’t forget who’s the molester here. You came on to me.”
Sasuke gives Naruto a quick onceover, then he scoffs, unimpressed, like Naruto’s nothing special to see. “Like it was ever in question that I’d actually willingly subject myself to be near this scruffy-looking-”
“Who’s scruffy-looking?”
“-dim-witted, weak and pathetic half-demon, poor excuse for a Hunter.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re excused.”
“Now listen here, you prissy asshole, you’re the one who was throwing yourself all over me, practically begging me to-”
“Now, now, children.” Kakashi’s hand firmly clamped on Naruto’s shoulder holds him back from trying to pummel Sasuke into ground. “Let’s all settle down. Settle down.”
Gritting his teeth, Naruto forcibly shrugs off Kakashi’s grip. He steps back, putting a little more distance between him and Sasuke, not sure when they’d even gotten close enough for him to throw a punch. “Ch. Who is this guy really, Kakashi? You say he’s not a vampire, except he doesn’t act or smell that much different. You probably would’ve have killed him by now if he was, so what about him makes him so important to you?”
“Sasuke has his uses.” With a subtle glance at Sasuke, Kakashi sends a secretive smile towards Naruto. “For the time being, though, I’m more interested in your reaction to him.”
Naruto frowns. “What-you mean this whole thing was some sort of test or something?”
“Pin pon.” Two fingers raised near his temple, Kakashi gives him a mock salute. “And you failed. Miserably. Although considering we don’t usually come across extremely rare cases like Sasuke, it’s not your fault you were so unprepared.”
“Unprepared for what?”
“Oh, the usual suspects. This and that,” Kakashi says offhand, twice tapping the side of his cheek with one finger. “Never you mind those kinds of things now. But I suppose it really is a good thing Sasuke wasn’t trying to kill you.”
Sasuke snorts.
Ignoring the quiet insult, Naruto narrows his eyes, watching a dispassionate looking Sasuke leaning casually against the wall. He doesn’t even know how the asshole was able to affect him so much in the first place, to the point where it felt like he’d do just about anything Sasuke told him to do.
He’s never heard of anyone who was able to have that kind of seducing effect on people. But if this guy wasn’t some kind of vampire, then what the hell was he?
“Uzumaki Naruto meet Uchiha Sasuke.” Sounding too eager, Kakashi looks between them both with another one of his lopsided grins.
Naruto continues to stare, but Sasuke just crosses his arms and snorts again.
“The new recruit.”