Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Demons In Hiding ❯ Chapter 2

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

long awaited second chapter! By the by, Everyone Has Their Demons will be on hold, I’ve reached a brick wall, and the equipment to knock it down isn’t here yet…

Well, I think I’ll thank all of those that have reviewed at the end of the chapter, so if you’ve reviewed for the first chapter, and it was before this one, expect to see the name you used!

Disclaimer: I don’t own it, if I did, Sasuke would never have left. Instead, him and Neji would be fighting over Naruto, like they are now.

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Naruto’s face flushed a bright red, now he wanted to bolt due to his inability to come up with a good answer. Luckily for him, Neji managed to get past Itachi, thinking that Sasuke was about to turn Naruto into a vampire, and had shown up in the rose garden in less than half a second afterwards.

“Uchiha Sasuke! What are you doing out here with Naruto!?” He had run straight to the middle of the rose garden, since that’s where all the family’s mates were given their first and last blood exchange.

“I was having a conversation with Naruto. What’s it to you, Hyuuga?” Sasuke asked in a rather cold voice, his hand tightened painfully on Naruto’s own.

Naruto winced at the grip and Sasuke noticed out of the side of his eye. When he realized why Naruto was in pain, he loosened his grip, not enough to let the boy run, but enough to make it so that Naruto wasn’t in pain.

“What were you talking about?” Neji decided to be half civil to the Uchiha, since Naruto would most likely favor him more if he were nice. He had unclenched his fists and stood in a rather relaxed stance, though Sasuke knew that the Hyuuga could have him pinned in a matter of seconds. The Hyuuga knew the same went for Sasuke.

“Nothing, I just wanted to show him the rose garden. That, and I told him that I loved him. Something wrong with that?” Sasuke continued with his icy voice and stare. Naruto watched the exchange quietly, figuring that it would be better if he were to stay out of it.

“Yes, there is. I love him, and you can’t have him.” The Hyuuga noticed that Naruto’s already wide eyes grew wider from shock. Neji didn’t know what Naruto was thinking, but he knew that he had just managed to cause a lot of thoughts that were contradicting themselves to run through Naruto’s mind.
Sasuke wasn’t at all shocked at this piece of information, but he was still a little weary of it. What if Naruto chose Neji over him? He knew that he’d have to respect the blonde’s wishes, but he’d die, not that he really could, if that were to happen. How would he be able to live if he knew that the boy that he’d loved since they were young didn’t love him, but his rival?! So, Sasuke did the only thing he could think of to do. He stood up, walked to Neji’s side, and faced Naruto. “Naruto, which one of us do you love more?”

Neji stared at Sasuke; the boy had a reasonable thought in his head afterwards. Though, the same thoughts were running through his own head as were the Uchiha’s. What if Naruto chose Sasuke over himself? Would he be able to live with that? He might, just might, be able to live with it, but he wasn’t too sure on that thought.

Naruto’s mouth opened and closed several times before he followed his instincts. He stood up, and before either vampire could say anything, he had managed to start running and leave the rose garden behind. If Sasuke and Neji hadn’t been so shocked, they would have followed Naruto, but as they couldn’t think straight at the moment, Naruto had gotten pretty far ahead.

When the two vampire’s senses came back, they took off running, both in the same direction. Sasuke was ahead of Neji, but only by a small fraction. They were having trouble following Naruto’s physical form, the sun had set, and though vampires had excellent night vision, it was hard to see a person through buildings. So, they both slowed to an almost stop, thinking the same thing.

The next building they came across they climbed up it, quickly, and started to look out over the city. They could no longer see the blonde-haired boy that they loved so much.
“Sasuke, you know him best. Where does he like to hang out?” Neji asked, knowing the answer before Sasuke said it.

“I don’t know. Him and me aren’t really that close. I mean, he’s taken me a Sakura to several of his favorite places, but that’s nothing. I mean, why would he hide where I know to find him?” Sasuke said in a rather annoyed voice and a snort from Neji was his response.

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait ‘til later. Come on, we’re wasting time out here. I’ve got a bunch of homework and a test to study for.” Neji’s tone of voice was a little bit irritated. Sasuke sighed and followed his rival, knowing that what he had said held true for the both of them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~

Naruto had run all the way to his ‘father’s’ house, Iruka. There he had pounded on the door until a sleepy Iruka opened the door, a just-as-tired Kakashi-sensei stood behind him. When Iruka saw Naruto in such a panicked and worried state he became immediately alert. “Kakashi, put some tea on. Naruto, follow me into the living room.”

Oblivious to his half-dressed state, he didn’t have a shirt on; Iruka guided Naruto to the living room. A similarly dressed, and just as alert, Kakashi went to go brew tea.

“Naruto, what’s got you so worried?” To Iruka, Naruto looked about to cry, and the boy was. It was something that only some one who had been around the boy could tell. When Naruto’s lower lip was pulled between his teeth and his eyes darted from side to side one would think that he was anxious, or something along those lines. Really the boy was biting back tears and looking to see if any one around him was looking at him before he started to cry.

Silent tears fell from his eyes as he brought up a hand to his mouth. “Iruka, I panicked, and ran, and now I don’t know what to do. My thoughts are jumbled and I can’t think. Not to mention I’ve not been getting much sleep lately and my brain’s already fuzzy!” His tears were silent, but his voice was wobbly with unchecked emotions.

“Calm down, Naruto. Tell me what happened. Start from the beginning.” Iruka put a reassuring hand on Naruto’s shoulder and the boy slowed his rapidly falling tears. At that moment a worried looking Kakashi walked into the room. Kakashi was also a father figure to Naruto. Iruka and Kakashi had been together for most of his life, and their relationship was well known. He held three cups of warm tea.

Iruka took his cup from Kakashi and the scarecrow held out the other cup to Naruto. ((Kakashi’s name means scarecrow in English. Iruka’s means dolphin. For those of you who don’t know…)) Kakashi took a sip of his and Naruto did as well, instantly calming down.

“Well, um, I guess it started a few months back. Neji and Sasuke had suddenly been paying a lot of attention to me. I figured that then they were just being friends. I found out differently today.” He took another sip, and lowered the cup to see shocked looks on Iruka and Kakashi’s faces.

“Today, at lunch, we were outside. Sasuke, Sakura, and I. Our study hall is after that, and so we stayed out there. Neji’s teacher got sick, and he had a study hall, so he went outside too. Sakura went to go do something, I forget what, anyway, and he walked up to Sasuke and me. I was currently lying out in the sun, Sasuke was in the shadows, but he went over to lie next to me when Neji came out.

“I told Neji that he could sit next to me. Next think I know, Sasuke and Neji are both trying to get as close as they can to me. I freaked and ran, my excuse being that I had to use the bathroom.

“Then I went to Sasuke’s house. I had promised to help him with the chores in return for his help on the homework the night before. After dinner with his family he took me out to the rose gardens and told me that he loved me. After that, Neji ran through the rose bushes and told me that he loved me. Then they asked me whom I loved more and I ran. I ended up here.” He had told the long story in a short a time as possible, without any details to his dreams at all. Iruka and Kakashi didn’t know that when he was asleep in their classes he was dreaming of, well, doing it with the two boys.

Iruka looked sympathetic towards Naruto. Kakashi, however, busted up laughing. He’d never been in this situation before. Iruka had told him that he loved him, yes, but he had already known the answer before his dolphin told him. Iruka rapped him on the head.

“Well, Naruto, I’m sure you’re in quite the predicament. I suggest you sleep on it. Take a few days off from school. I’ll bring you your homework and help you out with it. When you’re feeling up to it, you should confront those two boys and tell them whom you love the most.” Iruka said with a gentle smile, Kakashi was nursing a small bump behind him.

Naruto smiled, his foggy brain had become less foggy. “Oh, wait, Sasuke knows where I live. What’ll I do if he comes over?!” Yeah, he started to freak out again. “Or Neji? Sasuke’s bound to take Neji with him!”

Kakashi, who had felt it the right time to step in, voiced his opinion on the new issue. “You can stay in the guest bedroom. We’ll prepare it and you can fall asleep there. Stay here for a while. I’m sure we still have some Ramen packets left over from your last visit, so don’t worry about lunch. Sasuke and Neji may know where we live, but they can’t get in with out a key. So, as long as you lock the doors, you’ll be safe and sound here.”

Naruto beamed at him and turned to Iruka. “Is that alright?” He asked, and at a nod from his ‘father’, Naruto surged forward and hugged them both at the same time.

“Ok, Ok, Naruto, let go!” Iruka said in a laughing manner. When Naruto got up and off of him, Iruka and Kakashi stood up, both of them had been knocked to the ground, and started to the guest room. “It’ll be ready in a few minutes, Naruto. Sleep in as long as you want. I’ll tell the school you caught a cold swimming outside again.” Iruka said as he and Kakashi pulled out covers, sheets, and the fluffiest pillows you’ve ever seen. They then walked into the guest room, next to theirs, and knew that if Naruto was staying, they couldn’t have any ‘fun’ for a while.

Naruto stood up and started to take care of the cups. He hated feeling useless and thought that it was the least he could do in return for Kakashi and Iruka’s kindness. Almost just after he finished the cups, Iruka and Kakashi walked out of the room and smiled at him. “It’s all yours! Now, we’re off to bed. Anything you need will be picked up, dealt with, in the morning. I’ll bring over some clothing and pajamas for you to wear, and we’ll both have a talk with Sasuke and Neji tomorrow about them giving you some space.”

Naruto smiled and went into the guest room. He closed the door and looked at the rather plain, but neat and tidy room. The bed in the middle had light orange sheets and covers with white pillows. He noticed that the canopy of white and orange heavy pieces of cloth was still up. Naruto loved the canopy. He walked over the windows, which had orange hangings up in them, and opened the window. Due to the lack of screen, the night air came in fresh, without that smell the screens always had. He would turn off the lights and crawl into the bed, close the canopy and sleep with the cool night air flowing around him, carrying that fresh smell that only the night had.

Naruto did just that and was out in seconds; the covers weren’t even pulled up over him.

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Due to Iruka’s mother marrying the Shinjiri’s after his father’s death, Iruka knew /exactly/ what it meant to be a partner with one from those three families, and his worry was evident on his face. Kakashi knew something was wrong immediately and set Iruka down on the bed, the dolphin too lost in his own thoughts to do much on his own.

“Iruka, what’s wrong?” Worry was evident in Kakashi’s voice as he said this. The scarecrow sat down next Iruka, who had buried his face in his hands.

“Kakashi, I’m scared for Naruto. You don’t know the Uchiha’s and the Hyuuga’s like I do. It’s a curse, in a way, to fall in love with one of those two families. If they love Naruto enough, they’ll do something unspeakable to the poor boy. I don’t think he knows it yet, either.” His voice was barely above a whisper.

“What will they do? If they break his heart, then they’ll hear from me. I don’t want any harm to come to Naruto at all.” Kakashi said with a determined voice. Him and Iruka felt like Naruto was a son, which would explain the orange theme for his room.

“They’ll make him a vampire. He won’t get a say in the manner. They’ll just, turn him. Force him to drink their blood after they’ve taken his.” Kakashi resisted the urge to laugh.

“Come on, Iruka, you know that vampires aren’t real.” When he received a shake of the head, he lost all the color in his face. “Are they?”

Iruka looked at him, hopelessness in his eyes. “Yes, they are. That entire family is made up of vampires. They’re powerful too. If they want Naruto badly enough, they’ll take him. No one can stop them, not even Naruto. I’m afraid that they are really in love with Naruto. What are we supposed to do then? My mother married another of their families, the Shinjiri, and she was turned into a vampire and forced to live at that house.”

Kakashi hugged his love and kissed him on the forehead. “It’s ok. Just get some sleep. We’ll think this out in the morning, when we can think.” He knew that Iruka was probably an emotional mess over this piece of information. Kakashi pulled Iruka down on the bed with him and pulled the covers over them, turning off the bedside lamp that they had turned on in order to leave the room safely. In a matter of minutes Iruka had fallen asleep, and Kakashi followed him closely to the realm of dreams.

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Naruto had slept wonderfully that morning. With no dreams about the two boys to bother him, he had woken refreshed. His odd dream about running in circles in order to get to be the fastest person at his school forgotten.

He walked over to the window and closed it. The orange shaped clock on the bedside table said that it was 10, the face being the middle of the orange. He sighed and looked at the pile of clothing that his ‘fathers’ had set out for him. His bag was lying on its side, half opened. Naruto dressed quickly and went into the kitchen for a quick and small breakfast, since lunch was so close.

He ended up making two pieces of toast and covering one with butter and the other with peanut butter, being unable to choose from the two toppings. Naruto all but shoved the two-piece of toast down his throat and poured himself a glass of non-expired milk, which he drank just as quickly.

He then walked to the bathroom, where he stripped off his clothes and started a bath. A shower was too quick, and didn’t relax you, and Iruka had told him to relax. So, after the almost boiling hot water was done pouring into the tub, he lowered himself down into the almost-too-hot water and sighed in contentment.

Sure, a normal person would have all but died from the temperature, but Naruto wasn’t exactly a ‘normal’ person. He then started to contemplate whom he should choose to go out with. The seer knew that he didn’t have forever to figure it out, and if he waited too long, Sasuke and Neji might get impatient or Iruka and Kakashi might throw him out, even though he knew the latter was unlikely to happen.

They had begged him to stay with them when he told them that he was going to be on his own in an apartment close to the city. He had declined and gone off to live by himself. Naruto had said that it was a cruel world, and some were thrown into the harshness before they were supposed to. The two adults looked on worriedly, but nodded none-the-less.

Well, he didn’t really want an impatient Sasuke or Neji pounding on the door, trying to get him to open it. Of course, that might just happen extremely soon. The boys were impatient to begin with. If they were forced to wait for a decision to be passed, they might just make Naruto choose right then and there.

Naruto thought long and hard over this, but came to no conclusion. ‘I guess I’ll just have to tell them that…’ He thought as he poured some bath oil into the water and moved it around lazily with an arm, watching as the oil slowly colored the water a light orange. Orange Blossoms, that’s what it smelled like. ((Ha ha, read on for his thought!))

Sighing, he laid back against the back of the tub, letting the near-boiling water swirl around him, easing the ach that last night’s run had caused. He hummed a little tune under his breath as the steam and warm water lulled him. Naruto didn’t exactly fall asleep, but it wasn’t like he was awake, either. It was a limbo of sorts. Half asleep, half awake, and his conscious floated above everything.

The feeling was nice, and he liked it. The darkness that surrounded him was warm, not cold like the shadows. Though, he was suddenly jarred from this pleasurable feeling when pounding on the door, followed by insistent voices of the two he was thinking about just prier to him falling into that limbo. Sighing, he pulled the plug and towel dried off enough so that he could get his clothing on.

Still slightly wet, but now dressed in a black, silky-looking T-shirt that reached his knees and showed his chest due to the large size, and rather baggy jeans, that felt like they’d fall off his hips at any given moment, Naruto walked towards the door. Under this, he wore black boxers, the same material as his shirt.

“Hold your horses, I’m coming!” He shouted, as the pounding had started to give him a massive head ach.

Opening the door, but only as much as the chain lock would let him, Naruto looked at Sasuke and Neji, both were panting. “What time is it?” He asked in a rather annoyed voice, both boys looked slightly hurt at his tone.

“It’s just after school let out, I drove us over.” Neji spoke up in his rather calm voice. “I’m sorry for bothering you Naruto, but I was worried about you. You weren’t in school, so I thought you had gotten sick or something along those lines.”

Neji received an icy glared. “You don’t need to say it like that. We both thought the same thing, Naruto. Are you ok?” Sasuke had muttered the first quietly, so Naruto couldn’t hear him.

“I’m fine. I have something to tell you two.” He closed the door, which got confused looks from both of the boys on the door step, before they herd the chain lock come undone and realized that Naruto was unlocking the door. “Come in.” Naruto stood to the side, opening the door as he did so.

“Follow me. I’ll make us some tea.” Of course, Sasuke and Neji wrinkled their noses at this, but Naruto’s back was to them, so he didn’t see.

“Sit down.” Naruto realized that he was using very few words, must be because his nervousness was over-riding his system at the moment. Yes, nervous, he didn’t know how Neji or Sasuke would react to what he had figured out just this morning.

Instead of objecting, or asking questions, Neji and Sasuke sat down at the metal skeleton of a table with a glass top. Their chairs were made of the same black-painted metal and they had black leather cushions on the seats, the backs were black skeletons with metal bars going up them. They looked at the place mats, black and white checkered pattern, reminding them of chessboards.

Naruto prepared the tea in silence, unaware of the slow, and painful, death he was putting his guests through. The two boys were dying to know what Naruto wanted to talk to them about, and they’d give anything for the boy to talk.

Finally, Naruto carried three cups of tea to the boys. He handed one cup to each of them, and kept one for himself. Naruto sat down, the furthest, but still equal, distance from each of them possible. He took a sip of his tea and sighed. “Ok, my decision is that, I can’t decide on either of you two. You’ll have to work it out on your own.”

Sasuke was in panic mode. ‘How can we possibly work this out on our own? A fight, contest, what?’ He thought as he kept his face as blank and stoic as ever.

Neji was just calm. He had already figured out the answer to this dilemma, and knew exactly what he was to do, but before he could say anything, there was a knock on the door. Three knocks, and then the door opened.

“Naruto, we’re home!” Iruka called from the doorway. Iruka took off his coat and started to walk towards the kitchen, Kakashi following right behind him.

Naruto panicked and pushed Sasuke and Neji, who were both holding their mugs of tea, into the closest closet. He turned around, a mug of tea in his hands, just before Iruka and Kakashi walked into the kitchen.

The couple found Naruto leaning against the closet, which held the cleaning supplies for the house, with a mug of still warm tea in his hands. “Naruto, how was your day?” Iruka asked as he walked over and hugged his ‘son’.

“It was nice, I took a warm bath, fell asleep during it, and got out to drink some tea.” The proof was his hands, which were still slightly pruned.

“Only you could fall asleep where you could drown.” Kakashi said in a lazy drawl from the kitchen doorway, preferring to stay back some and observe the situation.

“Hey, don’t say that, Kakashi! It was a warm and comfortable bath, and I was sore from running all night long!” Naruto complained loudly, Iruka letting him go from the loud noise that filled his ear.

Kakashi just smirked. Iruka looked at him and a chastising way.

“Well, Naruto, we’ve brought you your homework for today, along with a treat.” Iruka held up a chunk of chocolate, dark chocolate from the looks of it. Naruto knew instantly that it was flavored with orange extract.

((I’ve made him an orange freak… Oh, well, you can’t really blame me. He always wears that color. I figured that if he weren’t just addicted to Ramen, then he’d also be addicted to oranges. Plus, oranges smell good, and they are a nice shape *I like round things. *, and they are a nice color, and they taste good. *Dang, that’s a lot of ‘ands’…*))

“Thank you, Iruka!” Naruto glomped his teacher/father, causing him to stumble backwards slightly.

“Naruto, be careful, I need his ass to be in perfect condition. I want to have some fun tonight.” Kakashi said in a whining voice, knowing that it would humiliate both boys, causing them to turn bright red. It worked.

Naruto and Iruka both resembled a tomato at the moment, and Kakashi loved it. He loved embarrassing his koi, and it just was a lot more fun when Naruto was there to mirror him.

“Kakashi!” Iruka said in slight annoyance and embarrassment. His reply was a laugh.

Naruto sat down at the table and started to munch on his chocolate. ‘I can’t let them into the cleaning closet; they’ll find Sasuke and Neji in there! They might get the wrong idea…’

Iruka set about picking out things for dinner. He was going to make beef stew, but he wanted to know if he had enough ingredients to do so. Kakashi shrugged and plopped all of Naruto’s books down on the table. Naruto groaned in annoyance.

“Here, Naruto. While Iruka sets about making dinner, I’ll help you with your homework.” He said with a smile as he opened Naruto’s Algebra 2 book. “Now, you’ve got to do page 250, problems 15-60, the odds.”

“How are you supposed to help me? Iruka’s my math teacher.” Naruto whined.

“Do you want some cheese with that whine? Get over it. I’m helping you, while my dolphin makes dinner.” At Kakashi’s statement, Iruka dropped the potatoes, and ended up having to pick them up. This caused Kakashi to stare at the nice view of his lover’s bottom, until Naruto kicked him under the table.

((I wouldn’t know what people do in Algebra 2, I don’t take that class. That’s next year. No, I’m not a sophomore, I’m a freshman, and I took Algebra 1 in my 8th year. I was advanced.))

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In the Closet~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Uchiha! Get your hand out of my face!” Neji hissed as quietly as possible.

“Then you get off my foot!” Sasuke hissed back.

When they had been pushed in rather roughly, they had landed in a heap on the floor. They were still currently trying to untangle themselves. Sasuke had landed under Neji, so if the closet were opened now, they’d be accused of ‘doing’ something they shouldn’t.

“Do you know what’s going on?” Neji asked once he managed to get off of Sasuke and Sasuke had stood up by the door. Sasuke held up a finger and put his eye to the keyhole.

“No, hold on, I’m opening a link.” He immediately opened a telepathic link to Iruka’s mind, after trying to enter Naruto’s and failing miserably.

As soon as he could see through Iruka’s eyes, he started to whisper what was going on in the kitchen. No, the man wasn’t aware of him, and he wasn’t controlling him. The only thing that was happening was that Sasuke could now see through Iruka’s eyes.

“Looks like Iruka-sensei is making dinner. Kakashi-sensei is trying, and failing miserably, to help Naruto with his Algebra 2. I wonder if he’ll give up soon… Naruto is eating orange flavored dark chocolate. I can smell the orange from here.” No doubt Neji could smell it too, but Sasuke was just spouting off what he saw.

The vampire race is truly remarkable, which is why the three families are the only three families on this continent. They can invade other’s minds, take over their senses, and make them do things if even if the human doesn’t want to. Their ability to memorize information in an instant, to out-run the fastest animal, and even most machines, the ability to lift even a small car with ease. It’s all amazing. However, this is a limit. They have to drink blood to replenish any used energy, and they can’t control all humans, seers are the exception.

“Sasuke, be careful. We don’t need you losing control and biting one of Naruto’s guardians, or worse yet, Naruto himself. Here, let me take over.” Neji said and then taped into Sasuke’s open line with ease, Sasuke backed away.

The black-haired vampire slid to the floor, panting. It was very hard to control someone, especially if you skipped a meal and haven’t eaten for over a day. Yes, he was tired, and pretty much drained. Neji would have to take over for a while. He’d just sit here and listen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In the Kitchen~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Naruto, I give up. Have some one else help you out with this tomorrow. You don’t seem to be paying attention to what I’m saying at all.” Kakashi said in slight annoyance. Iruka laughed under his breath.

“Ok, boys, dinner is almost ready. Clear the table.” Iruka had long since started dinner. It had been a few hours since they had gotten home.

Iruka had taken over for Kakashi, but after a while, Iruka had to start dinner, so Kakashi started to try to help Naruto, again. A losing battle, of course. He just didn’t understand the homework.

Iruka turned off the burner, the broth bubbled happily around the potatoes, onions, carrots, and chunks of beef. So, it was a little dull, so what? It was tasty, and the three in the room knew it. They all three loved Iruka’s beef stew, since Naruto didn’t like green beans or peas, and putting celery in made Kakashi wince with each swallow.

Iruka then carried a little stand over to the table and then put the pot down, just as the timer went off. He had started rice, and had started bread. If Naruto had looked hard enough that morning he would have seen the loaves rising. Iruka went over to the rice cooker and emptied the contents into a large bowl, putting a wooden, almost flat, spoon on top of the bowl. He then took the bowl over to the table and pulled out the bread.

Iruka cut the bread into thick slices and pulled out some butter. He placed the bread and butter on the table next to the rice and beef stew as Naruto and Kakashi cleared the table of the blonde’s homework. Naruto stood up and put his chocolate in the freezer while Kakashi set the table.

When every one had sat back down, they all three chimed the same word at the same time. “Itadakimasu*!” They then broke their chopsticks apart and started to load up on food. Their small bowl was filled with rice, their plate with raised edges ((Not quite a bowl, but not a plate either…)) was filled with the stew, and the small plate to their right held a piece of bread with butter on it, all three food items still warm.

“So, Naruto, have you decided yet?” Kakashi asked as he took a bite of potato, after blowing on it to cool it down.

Naruto shook his head. “I don’t know who to choose. It’s too hard.” He sighed and took a bite out of his bread, waiting for the stew to cool down some more before he was going to eat it.

Iruka nodded. “I understand. Naruto, you can take as much time, as you need to, just don’t take too much time. It’s hard to be on the waiting end. If you wait too long, the one you turn down will be broken. Also, you’ll fall behind in your homework. I don’t think that we could help you out there.”

Naruto nodded and started on his stew. The rest of the meal was eaten in silence. Naruto eating more food than both adults put together. If there was a horse and cow there, and you added them to the equation, I’m sure Naruto would still win.

“Well, we’re off to bed. Right, Iruka-chan?” ((Ha! I know, I know, the honorific ‘chan’ is for girls, but Iruka is the ‘girl’ in this relationship, so he’s Iruka-chan to Kakashi.)) Kakashi said, smirking at Iruka’s blush.

“No, I’m going to clean up. You can go to bed. We can’t leave Naruto to clean up.” Iruka said as he started to put the dirty dishes in the sink. Due to Naruto eating so much, the dishes were all empty, there wasn’t even any bread left.

Naruto sighed. “I’ll stay up and try to do my home work.” He pulled his history homework up onto the table.

“Ok, Naruto-kun. I’ll be in bed, Iruka-chan.” Iruka was still a little mad at Kakashi; he despised being called ‘Iruka-chan’, but said nothing of it, since Kakashi wasn’t likely to listen anyway.

Iruka sighed and started to clean the dishes. Naruto was being awfully quiet at the moment. He managed to make it halfway through the dishes before Naruto finally spoke.

“Ne, Iruka, what am I supposed to do? I can’t decide which one I like most. How am I supposed to decide?” He asked as he fiddled with his pencil.

“You look deep into your heart, Naruto. If you still can’t find the answer, than it’s best to turn both of them down. It’ll be better for you, and them, if you do. You can’t draw this thing out for forever. Like I said earlier, you’ll just break them if you turn them down after making them wait for so long.” Iruka said as he finished up another dish.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right, Iruka. I’ll sleep on it, for one more night. If I can’t decide by then, I’ll turn them both down.” He sighed as he closed up his textbook.

“Thanks, Iruka. You’ve been a big help to me. I think I’ll go to bed.” He then walked out of the room, leaving his books by the kitchen table

Iruka just chuckled under his breath and finished the dishes. When he was done, he crawled into bed with Kakashi, who had fallen asleep moments after his head hit the pillow. “Good night, koibito.” Kakashi’s arm fell over his waist as soon as the sleeping man felt the other’s presence near him.

Iruka laughed under his breath again before snuggling up against Kakashi and falling asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In the Closet~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I think that they all left…” Neji muttered under his breath. He had seen Kakashi and Naruto leave, and then saw the way to Kakashi and Iruka’s bedroom, so he assumed that Iruka had gone to bed too. “Do you think that Naruto forgot we were in here?” Neji asked Sasuke, who shrugged in response.

However, moments after he had said that, Naruto opened the closet door. He had been waiting in his room, quietly, for Iruka to go to bed. Then the seer had snuck back into the kitchen, not bothering with the lights, the moon supplied enough light through the windows, and had opened the closet door.

“Sorry about that, I don’t know why I shoved you in there. Come on out, but be quiet. Kakashi’s a light sleeper.” Naruto whispered, just above hearing levels.

“That’s all right, Naruto. I forgive you.” Bother vampires said this at the same time, though Sasuke said it with more meaning that Neji. Naruto didn’t notice it, but Neji was using a slightly monotone voice. Sasuke noticed it, and looked at the Hyuuga in an odd way.

“Well, I think that you two should go home. Come back tomorrow at about 5 PM, we can talk then. If you come back over right after school, than Kakashi and Iruka will be a little suspicious of you two and not let you back in here. Iruka will probably chase you out of his house.” Naruto laughed quietly and he led the two vampires through the house and out to the front door.

“See you two tomorrow. I’ll be back in school the day after.” He then pushed them outside and closed the door quietly.

Sasuke and Neji frowned at having been treated so rudely. Of course, neither vampire disagreed with being outside so soon, it was better since they could then go eat. So, after walking down the pathway leading from the house, they took separate paths, both going off to find a meal and then go home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In the House~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naruto sighed as he made his way back to his room. With out bothering with the lights, he opened his window, closed his canopy curtains, and lie down on the bed. His thoughts raced for hours that night.

‘Who should I choose? Who is the better person? Who do I love more? Which one should I choose?!’ His thoughts repeated themselves over and over until about 5AM, at which time the sleep fairy gave mercy to the tired teen and granted him a dreamless sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Noon~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~

Naruto woke up groggily, the air in his room smelled like it would during the day. It wasn’t until minutes later that he realized that it was noon and he jumped out of bed. He hadn’t even changed into his pajamas, he had just fallen asleep. That wasn’t good.

So, Naruto made his way to the bathroom and took a 5-minute shower. After that was accomplished, he towel-dried his hair and made his way back to his temporary room. Naruto then got dressed in a pair of orange shorts and a white T-shirt. It was abnormally hot this afternoon, and he wasn’t about to roast himself alive in his own room.

After he was dressed and his hair was standing on end, again, Naruto made his way into the kitchen. Five cups of Ramen in his hands. He pulled the kettle out of the cabinet and started to heat the water up. Of course, this would only make three of his five ramen cups, so he’d have to fill it back up with water and cook the other two while he ate the first three.

When the steam gushed out of the kettle Naruto pulled it off the stove and quickly poured the boiling water into the cups, pulling the paper covering back over the top, and then put more water into the still-hot kettle and put it back on the burner.

Naruto took out a pair of chopsticks from a slid-out door and cried out, “Itadakimasu!” before he started on his first cup of ramen. After the first cup was done, he decided to eat this one slowly, he herd the steam pout out of the kettle, accompanied by that amazingly annoying, high-pitched whistle sound. He poured the water into the remaining two cups and pulled the paper covering over top the cup openings.

He then started on his second and third cup. By the time he was finished with those two, his other Ramen cups were almost completely cooked through. He just had to wait one more minute. So, instead of sitting around doing nothing, he threw away his first three cups of ramen. Then, he started on his last two cups of ramen.

When he was completely full, Naruto sighed in content and looked at the clock. ‘Oh, well I might as well as get something done.’

See, since Naruto was a child, and all the adults hated him, he’d sometimes get bullied by kids his own age or up, just because their parents hated him. So, his father started him in martial arts training. Naruto had taken to practicing outside of the dojo as well as in the dojo itself. He only had class three days a week, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. So, on his days off, he practiced in his spare time. Naruto hadn’t been able to practice for a while, and a lot as been on his mind.

So, he walked outside to the back yard. His ‘fathers’ had a whole arsenal of weapons, all wooden of course, even the throwing stars and swords. Even so, Naruto could practice with them properly.

Naruto picked up a sword and started his swordsmanship practice. ((A katana and a sword are slightly different. Swords are meant to be wielded with both hands, so you can normally only use one. A katana, however, can be used with one or both hands, so you can use one or two. Just as a rapier is different than both. I really wish that people would understand this.)) He held a wooden sword, yes, but a sword none-the-less. Naruto was still deadly with weapons, and his fists.

“Ahhh… It feels sooooooo good to be holding one of these again.” He said as he flopped down on the ground after his vigorous training.

He looked at the time and decided that two hours of training was good enough. So, Naruto put the sword on the rack to the right of the door and walked inside. He went into the bathroom and took a cold shower; the hot sun had burned his skin, and got dressed in white shirts and a light orange T-shirt.

Naruto managed to finish just before his ‘fathers’ came home. Iruka and Kakashi followed the same procedure as yesterday. Iruka got out the ingredients and Kakashi sat down to help him with his homework.

“Hay, Kakashi, Iruka, is it ok if I invite Sasuke, Neji, and Sakura over to help me with my homework? I really need help, and you two don’t explain it right.” Naruto asked in his ‘Pity me, I need help’ tone of voice.

Iruka chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, it’s ok. What time, Naruto?” He asked as he pulled out the chicken. He planned on making chicken noodle soup, and if Naruto was going to have to make more food than he had planned.

“How about five?” Naruto asked as he flipped between two pages of his history book, trying to decide on which page would have the better resource material.

“Five sounds great. I’ll have dinner done by 5:30.” He said as he returned to the stove to continue cooking.

Naruto stood up and walked over to the phone. He dialed Sasuke’s number and let the phone ring. “Sasuke? It’s Naruto. Can you come over to Iruka’s house to help me out with my homework, please?” He added in a whiny voice.

“Sure.” Came the stoic and rather cold voice. Of course, Sasuke always acted like that, even to him. “What time?”

“Be here by 5PM, I’m inviting Sakura and Neji as well.” Naruto said in a happy voice.

“I’ll be there.” Then a ‘click’ sounded on the other end, courtesy of Sasuke hanging up on Naruto.

“Well, that was a nice ‘goodbye’.” Naruto said in a slightly dry tone of voice as he hung up the phone and dialed Sakura’s number.

The phone rang once and then Sakura picked up. When Naruto said hello, there was a squeal of happiness on the other line. “I’m sooooooo glad you’re alright, Naruto! You are ok, right?” Her shrill voice on the other end made Naruto’s head ring.

“Yeah, Sakura, I’m alright. Don’t worry about it. Hey, can you come over today, about 5PM, and help me with my homework with Sasuke and Neji?” He managed to get in after Sakura stopped asking if he’s ok.

Sakura paused and considered this. “Of course, Naruto. I’d be happy to help you out! Though, you’ll owe me big time after wards.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll do some chore or something to make it up to you.” His price for Sasuke’s help would be great, and he was sure that Sakura’s price wouldn’t be any smaller. Neji’s, well, Neji just might take pity on his poor soul and let him off easy.

“Ok, well, see you then, Naruto!” Sakura said and hung up shortly after, not giving Naruto time to say good-bye as well.

“Well, that was just as rude as the last…” He muttered under his breath as he hung up the phone and dialed the last number.

“Neji? This is Naruto. I have a favor to ask of you.” Naruto said in a rather careful voice. He didn’t want to have to do more chores than necessary.

“Yes, Naruto?” Neji’s calm and cool voice replied.

“Well, I’m behind in homework, and Iruka and Kakashi are too stupid to know how to explain it to me.” At this he received two glares, one from each occupant of the room. “Would you mind coming over at 5PM with Sasuke and Sakura?”

As much as Neji hated being near Sasuke, this meant that he could be near Naruto. Then, he could tell Naruto what he meant to tell him yesterday, but was so rudely interrupted. “I don’t mind at all. Well, I’ll see you then, Naruto. Good-bye.”

This time, Naruto managed to reply. “Good-bye, Neji!” Then Neji hung up.

“Finally! I was able to say good-bye to some one!” Naruto exclaimed in annoyance as he hung up the phone. Iruka and Kakashi just laughed under their breath.

“Naruto, dinner will be ready by 5: PM, that should give you and your friends enough time to get something into that brain of yours. Also, would you mind helping me out since you’ve nothing to do until then?” Iruka asked from the stove.

Naruto nodded and walked over. He then started to chop up some of the vegetables that Iruka needed to make the chicken noodle soup.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~At 5~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Naruto! Would you get the door? I’m busy!” Shouted Iruka from the stove. Kakashi had gone off to read one of his ‘dirty’ books. ((We all know that ‘dirty’ is too weak a word for those books…))

“Sure!” Naruto called back from the living room. He had herd the knocking and had already stood up to let the people who would be at the door in.

When he opened the door Sakura tackled him. She squeezed the life out of him in a friendly hug. “Naruto! I was worried about you! I thought you had died or something!” Sakura shouted as Naruto managed to pry the all-but-hysterical girl off of him.

“Yes, Sakura, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. I don’t die easily.” Sasuke was about to kill Sakura for touching that which was ‘his’.

Sasuke was also thinking that he could prove the boy wrong in a heart beat, but decided it would be better if he left the fact out that if Naruto went out with him that the boy would ultimately become a vampire. Sasuke had no doubt in his mind that Naruto would choose him over ‘that’ Hyuuga. He was, after all, the superior vampire. No way would he lose to the Hyuuga. Plus, he could kill the Hyuuga in a second, or so he thinks, if Naruto were to choose Neji over himself. That’d clear up the problem easily, right?

“Well, Naruto, shall we start?” Neji asked from behind Sasuke and Sakura. He decided that it was best to put some one between him and Sakura if Naruto had suddenly caught a cold or something along those lines. Sakura was like a mother to Naruto, or an older sister, and her ability to worry over the boy, and fawn over Sasuke, never ceased to amaze them.

Neji had once found the pink-haired girl’s locker full of pictures of Sasuke. He had decided that it’d be better if the girl were to forget she had all those pictures. So, he erased her memory of those pictures, along with any one who had seen the pictures, and had thrown them away. Amazingly enough, Naruto had seen the pictures, but still remembered them. Neji had yet to figure out why Naruto still remembered those pictures.

Naruto nodded and stood to the side. “Come on it! Find a comfy seat in the living room, I’ll go get tea.” He pointed to the living room door, mostly for Neji since the other two had been there before, and had disappeared into the kitchen.

“Iruka, I need tea, and quickly.” Naruto said as he looked around for something to boil water in.

Iruka handed him a pitcher of freshly made tea and Naruto took it gratefully. He then picked up a plate that had cakes, four plates, and four cups on it. Naruto idly wondered if Iruka had planned this whole thing out, but brushed it away quickly and walked into the living room, the door had been left open.

The T.V. was turned off, much to Naruto’s dismay, and his textbooks lay open. Sakura was reading, Sasuke and Neji sat on each end of the couch. Apparently they had planned this out in advanced, as his grammar and history book, Sakura’s forte, lay forgotten at the end of the table, and his Science and Math books were open. His other subjects didn’t need a textbook, so he didn’t have any others.

“Ok, Naruto, Neji’s going to help you with Science, Sasuke with Math, and I’m going to help you with grammar and history.” Sakura said without looking up from her book.

Naruto nodded grimly and set the tray down. Sakura absent-mindedly picked up a cake and started to munch on it. There were four cakes, one for each of them, since dinner was so soon.

“Ok, dobe, time to get to work.” Sasuke used the insulting word that he hadn’t used for quite a while. Naruto wondered silently if something were wrong with him.

Neji and Sasuke opened up a telepathic link, unknown to Naruto, and started a conversation with each other. ((I’ll use ~text~ for what they think to each other and the traditional “text” for what they say out loud.))

~Why don’t we just try to copy the information to him through telepathy? ~ Neji asked as he flipped open to a Science page and asked Naruto to recite the first 30 elements, the amount of protons, neutrons, and electrons they had, their symbol, and what their average mass number was.

~We can’t do that with Sakura here. Plus, I’ve tried that already. It doesn’t work. You’d be lucky if you stayed conscious. Trust me, you don’t want to go diving in his mind. It’s like a minefield in there or something. I was knocked out once when I tried to erase his memory of something that had happened. ~ Meaning the ‘kiss’ that Shikamaru made them have.

Sasuke just sat back in his seat and waited for those two to get done. Unfortunately, Naruto knew Hydrogen and Helium, which was it. So, Neji had started to help him study for the rest of the elements. ((There is /no/ way in hell that I’m typing that out. It’d take forever, and you’d probably get annoyed with me.))

~I noticed that too. Remember those pictures that Sakura had of you? Naruto still remembers them, even though I tried to erase his memory. I have stronger psychic powers than he does. Do you know why he still remembers them? I can’t figure it out! ~ Neji’s mental voice became slightly frustrated. He had spent days thinking on this, and had come up with nothing. So why the blonde still remembered what happened was beyond him.

~Yeah, I noticed that too. I still can’t believe she had all those pictures of me. I mean, really! How did she get pictures of me while I was undressing for gym class?!~ Sasuke shuddered mentally, and looked to the door way as Iruka walked into the room.

“Ok, boys, dinner’s done. Come and get it!” He shouted and was almost run over by Naruto, who was all too eager to get to the kitchen to eat.

~Well, looks like we’ll have to ‘eat’ again. I hate doing this. The sooner dinner is over, the better. ~ Sasuke grumbled to Neji as the three left in the living room stood up, Sakura putting a book mark in her book to keep her place.

The dinner went relatively good. Naruto choked down most of the food, while every one managed to get enough to fill them.

The chicken noodle soup was good, and when put with butter and rice balls, the meal was wonderful! However, Naruto had wished that it had lasted longer. The entire time every one kept quiet, and every time he tried to strike up a conversation to keep things going slow, he’d get a glare from Sasuke or Neji, who obviously wanted dinner to be over with, ‘now’. Kakashi and Iruka noticed this, and sent each other unnoticed uneasy glances.

“Ok, Naruto, I’m going to help you with your English and History right now, so I can go home. Neji and Sasuke can camp out here, but I want to leave sometime tonight.” Sakura said in a business like way as she stood up from her place at the table.

Naruto groaned and sent Kakashi and Iruka a plea for help by glance, which was brutally ignored.

Sakura then dragged Naruto to his doom.

Sasuke and Neji stood up. “Thank you, Iruka and Kakashi-sensei, that was a good meal.” Both of them said in a rather monotone voice.

Iruka sighed and nodded at Kakashi’s questioning glance. “Ok, boys, follow me.” Kakashi said as he stood up. Iruka started to clear the table off, and Neji and Sasuke followed Kakashi with confused looks on their faces.

Kakashi dragged them to a library, which Naruto obviously didn’t know, nor care, about. He locked the door behind him, and both vampires sent each other uneasy glances.“I know that you both love Naruto, but you’re putting him under a lot of strain at the moment. Also, I’ve got something to ask you, and I want the honest truth. You know I’ll be able to tell that you’re lying.” Kakashi said the last in a rather menacing way.

Both boys nodded, letting Kakashi know that they understood.

“Well, I want to know ‘what’ you plan on doing with Naruto once one of you start to go out with him. You know exactly what I mean, since I know you’re both vampires.” Yes, this got two very surprised and confused looks from the two boys across from him.

“How did you know?” Neji was the first to regain his composure, Sasuke wasn’t far behind him. “Yeah, how did you figure it out?”

:”Well, Iruka told me. His mother married into the Shinjiri family, and he never heard from her again. Except one time, in which she told him that she had become a vampire and was forced to live at the Shinjiri household, with out him. Now, are you going to try and turn Naruto into a vampire?” Kakashi asked in a rather menacing tone of voice.

“It’s tradition.” They both said this in a mechanical tone of voice. Neither boy would want to turn their ball of sunshine into a vampire, but it was tradition and they had to do it.

“No, you’ll not decide for him. If he wants to become a vampire you may turn him, but you’d better explain to him exactly what it means. I mean /exactly/ what it means. No half-truths or lies to make him want to become a vampire. I want the full, up-front, honest truth. Got it?” Kakashi asked.

Both boys opened their mouths to speak in protest, but at a warning glare from their teacher, they closed them again and nodded soundlessly.

“Good! Now then, I must go help my dolphin with his chores. You may go back to Naruto.” Kakashi unlocked the door and walked back to the kitchen to help out Iruka.

“What was that all about? Why would we have to do what he says?” Sasuke asked in a rather annoyed voice. He’d rather just do what tradition says that they were to do. He was certain that his blonde wouldn’t want to become a vampire.

Neji was thinking the exact same thing. With a shrug, he left the room to navigate his way back to the living room.

After waiting a few seconds, Sasuke left the library. He managed to make it back from the living room in time to see Sakura leave.

‘Finally! Now all I have to do is wait for Neji to leave and I can ‘convince’ my blonde dobe to become ‘my’ boyfriend, and /not/ Neji’s!’ Sasuke thought in a menacing way and walked into the living room.

When he sat down at the table, he scooted closer to Naruto. “By the way, Naruto, have you come to a decision yet?” Sasuke asked as he started to straighten papers.

Before Naruto could open his mouth, Neji intervened. “I have something to say.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you to tress, Kikilo Lea, loveless101 *I’ve got to watch that Anime and read that manga…*, DragonKeeperMihiru, randomHime, and last, but certainly not least, fLcL_Ffx_lovr. Thanks to your reviews, I was able to keep on writing! I hope that I get more, and tell your friends about this series! I’d appreciate more readers!

Ha ha! I’m leaving it there! Yes, I realize I’m ‘one’ day over my deadline, but I wasn’t home yesterday to put this chapter up, so don’t kill me! I wanted to put it up yesterday, but I had to go to a friends. I just got back, and I decided to add this little bit before I put it up. To explain, you know?
Well, I ‘hope’ that I’ll get the next chapter done in two weeks, hopefully sooner, but maybe later. It depends on what pops up.

Later!