Journey of the Heart

Creeps around corner with a white flag...I'm back?

Sorry for being gone for so long...and I really wanna thank all of you who've been reviewing this story even though it hasn't been updated for like a life time, I super happy that there are still people waiting for me to update, which I finaly did...so thanks guys (well prob. mostly gals) you persevered and made me get my ass in gear, so yeah...oh god I'm getting all emotional now...sob...

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto I'd probably have been brutally murdered by an angry mob for not getting on with the story by now, so I'll just shut up.

Also I wrote this in one day so it's sorta rough around the edges and it hasn't been proof read, but I wanted to get this up asap so forgive the partially bad and probably confused formulation please.

Last chapter:

Sasuke just moaned louder. Itachi moved over to him, regarding the human worriedly.

"Touch me, please!" Sasuke panted and lifted his hands to Itachi, who hesitantly took them into his. The moment they connected an electric shock buzzed through Itachi's veins, before the tension in Sasuke's body was dispelled and he slumped back onto the bed. "What the hell?!!" He exclaimed. "I, I felt like I was burning alive…what was that? What did you do to me!!?" the last part was shouted, that didn't quite fit to the hurt look in Sasuke's eyes. "I, don't know…" Sasuke stared at him. "What do you mean, you don't know? You're the vampire here!" "That's never happened before…you should go now, I think, I don't know if I can control myself at the moment." Sasuke stared at him. "Why did you do that anyways?"

"I claimed you."

"You what? What's that?"

"Sasuke, go now…here." He threw the boy a pair of pants, the ones he'd been wearing the day before, to be precise. "Sasuke gave him a half disgusted, half confused look, but pulled on the trousers and walked to the door, he turned to look at Itachi one last time, then he walked out of the room. As soon as the door had closed, Itachi sank onto the ground and leaned against the bed post. 'Oh Shaitan, what have I done…'

Chapter 8- The Escape

Sasuke stood nervously with the other slaves at the castle gates. After he'd left Itachi's room he'd nearly run into a vampire lord who'd come for the party and stayed the night. But instead of attacking him like Sasuke thought he would the vampire stopped in his tracks stared at him for a moment with hungry eyes and then turned tail and fled. Sasuke had stood there dumfounded for an entire minute that he was still alive and untouched, before he remembered he was supposed to be heading for the main gate. The entire way he'd gotten strange looks from the vampiric residents of the castle, but not one of them tried to touch him in any way, it freaked the hell out of him. 'But at least they weren't trying to gang rape me in the hallway.' He'd made it to the gate unscathed and was delighted to find both Gaara and Neji were coming too. They were now standing to his right, discussing some secret agenda in hushed voices, sending him occasional glances and then giggling stupidly…Gaara giggling was a very scary sight, especially because it actually made him look sorta cute. "What the hells so funny huh?" Sasuke asked the two giggling boys. Neji looked at him opened his mouth as if to speak but started laughing again instead. Sasuke growled at them and glared. "Sorry, sorry, it's just, I mean." That was all Neji managed before falling back into giggles. Sasuke crossed his arms and waited. Neji took a deep breath and burst out: "Why are you wearing Itachi's clothes?!" A deadly silence followed as Sasuke's eyes bulged and his face went bright red at the same time. "I, I, that's…um…that's none of your business!" Sasuke brought out finally. Neji and Gaara just burst out laughing again. "And what's with those 'love bites', talk about being possessive!" Neji pointed at Sasuke's neck. Sasuke immediately clapped a hand over the marks, only to wince at the sting when the palm of his hand collided with the open wounds. "That stupid Itachi…" He mumbled face still burning from embarrassment. "Shaitan, I wish I could just die right now…" Neji took pity on him and clapped a hand on his back. "Hey, look at the bright side, your totally getting preferential treatment now lover boy!" Sasuke stared at him, "Lover boy?! I'm not his lover!" He nearly shouted. Neji just shook his head. "Come on Sasuke, just admit that you're in love with him. We were all wrong about him, ok. Accept it as fact and get on with it!" Sasuke gapped at Neji. "I, i ii, in lll love?!" He squeaked out the last word. But before he could deny it, someone pushed past him, ramming his elbow into Sasuke's ribs on the way. Sasuke jumped and glared after him, but decided it wasn't worth making a show of it and possibly not being able to go out. The boy stopped a few feet away, and turned to glare at Sasuke again. He was short and slender with big baby blue eyes curly blond hair, and white skin, but the sour look on his face, sort of ruined the angelic thing he had going. 'What's his problem?' Before Sasuke could contemplate further, Kakashi appeared, clapping his hands for order. "Everyone, quiet down! Now, this will be an orderly affair, I don't want to hear of any problems any of you caused, alright? You represent Lord Orochimaru and Lord Itachi, do not make them regret their choice of letting you out, believe me, you will never get the chance again."

Sasuke's thoughts wandered back to earlier that morning when Itachi had bitten him. The thought alone made his legs shake and his entire body burn with longing. 'What the hell did he do to me!? I can't believe he said he doesn't know!! I mean he's the vampire and stuff! But he did look really confused, and hot…!?...I did not just think that…nope…I didn't, ok, maybe I did. Moving on…WTF is going on? Itachi's been acting really strange since yesterday, I mean the whole bath scene was just plain weird, at least that what I can remember…and this morning when he…kissed me like that, so gently. Shaitan, why, why do I want him to do it again and never stop?

…"Now please get into your groups, always stay together, especially the reds." Kakashi sent a stern glance in the blond boys direction. Sasuke blinked confusedly, 'Oops, drifted of there, what are reds?' He looked around sureptiously and noticed that everyone was wearing a colour-coded leather string around their neck. The blond boy and those standing around him all wore red. The largest amount of people wore blue, including Neji and Gaara. 5 had green and 3 had black. They were all standing in groups, though the greens and blues stood close together, the reds and the blacks stood with an obvious distance from the main group. Suddenly very nervous, finding himself not to be part of any of these groups, Sasuke started to fidgeted with the hem of Itachi's shirt, taking a small amount of comfort from the by now familiar smell. Making up his mind he made his way to the front of the crowd towards Kakashi. "Hey Kakashi! Why don't I have a colour band thingy? Did I miss something?" A wide grin spread over the overseers face as he looked down at the rude slave. "Why Sasuke-kun, your wearing yours already, any vampire could smell Itachi on you 10 miles down wind…But if you insist, Itachi did give me something just before he left…" Deigning to ignore the former comment, Sasuke watched expectantly as Kakashi rummaged through his pockets, but when he found the sought after item, Sasuke's expression changed to one of utter horror. "No fucking way am I wearing that!!" He shouted at Kakashi's amused face and made to turn and leave. But Kakashi was faster and threw the large silver dog collar around Sasuke's neck and closed the lock before the other could stop him. "Ah, it suits you wonderfully Sasuke-kun!" Kakashi grinned at the fuming slave evilly.. "I'm not a fucking dog!!! Why don't I just get a stupid leather thingy too?! This is so not fair!!!" If looks could kill Kakashi would have been a pile of ashes by then, judging by the level of intensity of Sasuke's glare.

"Well, your special Sasuke, your Itachi's exclusive property, so you get something better than an identification band. You're the only one in your category, so a band would be useless." Sasuke violently tugged at the large collar, but only succeeded in choking himself, so he gave up and contented himself with sending death glares at Kakashi, and mentally swearing at Itachi. He could have sworn to hear a surprised laugh from Itachi, but decided he must have made that up and swore at his over active imagination as well. By then everyone was staring at him with mixed reactions. Some were just plain staring, but the blacks were giving him pitying looks what really freaked Sasuke out, and the reds, especially the blond were glaring at him with loathing. Kakashi clapped his hands together recapturing the diverted attention. "Alright, now that everything is put in order lets get going." The group set into motion and they slowly left the castle behind them.

"I'm not Itachi's property, how often do I have to say that?" Sasuke mumbled belatedly. Neji just smirked beside him.

Outside the City gates

Naruto and Sakura stared up at the gigantic black gates and gulped. Naruto turned to Sakura with a determined gaze. "For Sasuke." She nodded. "For Sasuke." They pulled their capes tighter around themselves and marched through the gates into the capital.

In the city

Sasuke, Neji and Gaara had tagged along with some of their new friends after Kakashi had given each of them some spending money and telling them to return at 6 that evening. He hadn't said anything about escape attempts, because everyone knew it was useless. For some reason the thought didn't depress Sasuke as much as it was supposed to. Instead he enjoyed his new found freedom and laughed along with the others at Chouji's attempt to eat 3 burgers at once, which he somehow miraculously managed. Sasuke had never been inside a city before and he found that it was both terrifying and exciting at once. Everything was crowded and busy, people pushed and shouted and grabbed all at once. He even witnessed how a little boy snuck up to a wealthy looking vampire and stole his purse without the man even noticing he was there, that fascinated Sasuke to no end. But the greatest experience by far was that he didn't have to steal to get what he needed. He could buy what ever he wanted, and strangely enough didn't even have to do that for most of the time. For some reason people seemed to want to give him everything for free, some of them even bowed to him, which was sort of creepy, since he was only a slave. But the moment he stepped into a shop every vampiric head turned towards him, and soon after the human heads followed, fixing onto the silver collar. He scratched his neck absently, for some reason it had been tingling strangely since he'd left the castle, and the more time passed the worse it got. The scratching seemed to attract even more attention, because then people would stare at the still slightly bleeding bite would. So Sasuke tried to ignore the tingly feeling and take advantage of this strange respect he was getting. Most of the other slaves took it in stride and congratulated him on his new status, but a few sent him angry looks and separated from the group, once again making Sasuke wonder what the hell was going on that he didn't know about. The 14 people who were left in the end, decided to go to something they called karaoke and all mockingly bowed down and worshiped Sasuke for getting them in for free, since otherwise they would have had to hand over all of their combined money to do so.

3 hours later after leaving the karaoke bar, that Sasuke decided was the bane of his existence after Ino had forced him to sing a duet with her and having to listen to Kiba 'sing' for a solid 20 minutes. Sasuke followed the others through the still crowed street scratching his neck in annoyance, and watching people hurry past him. He was still amazed at how the humans and vampires lived together in one place like this . He had always thought that vampires were enslaving humans all over the world. But here everyone was the same. There were rich and poor humans and vampires alike, and they mixed in both statuses. Sasuke remembered seeing the little boy who'd robbed that rich looking vampire run back into an alleyway and pass out the money from the purse among a bunch of younger children who weren't distinguishable between human and vampire at all, until one of them opened his mouth to say something and Sasuke saw he had fangs. 'This city is so magical. No body cares if you're human or vampire. I mean, they still care about rank and social status and stuff, but you see vampires sucking up to richer humans just as much as other way around!! I mean just because I'm Itachi's slave they bowing down to me, that is seriously weird! I wonder why it's only me though, I mean the others belong to Itachi and Orochimaru as well…maybe it has something to do with that claiming thing Itachi did…' Unconsciously Sasuke's hand went up to his neck and touched the place where Itachi's fangs had pierced his skin. It still hurt a bit, but more that anything the entire area around the bite marks tingled like hell. Not tickled exactly, but more like there were invisible ants running around on his skin. It had gotten worse throughout the day and the bite marks were still raw and open because he kept scratching them, which added pain to the unpleasant mix as well, which all in all made him rather pissed at Itachi for ruining his day out with that stupid bite. 'Claim my ass, he already said he owns me, so why would he have to claim me? That stupid idiot makes no sense at…'

Sasuke's eyes widened as he stared at the pink haired head a few paces away. 'Sakura?!' In a daze Sasuke moved toward the pink haired girl, but a large group of people spilled out of an inn next to her and she disappeared in the crowd. Sasuke stopped and stared at the spot where he'd seen the pink hair. 'It couldn't have been her. What would Sakura be doing in the capital. I must be going crazy. What would I have done if it was her anyways? It's not like we can escape together or something. That would mean I'd have to leave Itachi, I can't do that…waaait, why would I not be able to do that? There's nothing holding me there, I've only known him for a few months, Sakura's been my friend my entire life! This is ridiculous, Itachi's been messing with my head way to much! Of course I'd run away if I had the chance!'

Unbeknownst to him, the rest of the group had disappeared, not noticing the missing boy, while another group, all with red bands around their necks, snuck up behind Sasuke. Still lost in thought he didn't notice them until it was too late, and he'd been grabbed, pulled into a dark side alley and pushed against a dirty brick wall. (Don't we all love clichés!) Finally realizing what was going on, Sasuke began to struggle, but there were too many hands pinning him, leaving him helpless and a little scared. "What the hell?! What are you doing?" He shouted angrily at the curly hair blond who was standing in front of him. His face contorted into an ugly grimace as he glared at Sasuke and without warning he punched him in the face. Sasuke tasted blood, but the punch had been weak, only causing him to bite his tongue by accident. He snorted and spit out the blood in his mouth. The blond fumed. "Who do you think you are you bastard! Don't think you're anything special just because Itachi-sama is being a little nice to you! He's just playing with you, he'll get board soon and then you'll end up in the pleasure quarters just like the rest of us!" Sasuke's eyes widened as he realized what the red band represented. They were Itachi's pleasure slaves, his whores. Disgust and a strange angry feeling welled up in Sasuke as he thought of the foreign smell coming of Itachi the evening before. 'So that what it was. He was having fun with them, and then he dared come and sleep in my bed!...well it wasn't my bed, but still, that fucking bastard!' Irrational tears of anger and betrayal welled up in Sasuke's eyes. 'How could I have been stupid enough to think Itachi felt anything for me other than lust. I'm sure he did the same thing with every single one of these guys, that's why they hate me so much…'

(Yeah I know, Sasuke isn't making any sense, but he's confused, hurt, and totally insecure, everybody thinks stupid things when their feeling like that!)

The blond grinned haughtily and crossed his arms together over his chest. "Itachi will get tired of you soon, like he got tired of every other toy he picked up, and then he'll come back to me, like he should."

Sasuke blinked confusedly at the blond.

"Yeah, 'Claiming' doesn't mean anything with a slave that only counts for mates!" Another boy shouted at Sasuke. 'Mates?! You do that claiming thing with your mate!!?? WTF is going on! Why would Itachi do that to me? I mean, isn't that sorta permanent? What will happen when he gets tired of me?... He'll probably kill me. This must be some sick joke to him. Make the stupid slave boy fall in love with him and then throw him away like trash…'

The blond rounded on the one who'd spoken. "Shut up you idiot! This kid here is just for fun! He hasn't slept with him, so he's playing one of his games again! He did the same thing with that last kid who thought he was special." Sasuke's eyes widened, how the hell did this kid know Itachi hadn't touched him yet? 'But he's right, I mean, he could have, but he stopped, that means he doesn't really want me, right?' Sasuke's emotions were in turmoil, he didn't even notice the tears running down his face. The blond turned to him again. "I bet he was real nice to you, gentle and all that. But he's a vampire, not a human, the only way to see if he really wants you, is if he fucks you. And he didn't, I can see it. Itachi doesn't want you. He's just playing with his food!" Sasuke stared at the blond blankly. The others words running through his head and kept repeating themselves over and over. 'Itachi doesn't want me. He doesn't want me. He doesn't want me…Oh Shaitan it hurts, it hurts so much, he doesn't want me, please make it stop!' Sasuke didn't feel the punches and the kicks being thrown at him. He didn't notice them ripping at his clothes, screaming that after they were done with him, Itachi wouldn't ever look at him again. All he heard was that voice in his head repeating itself over and over and over. 'Itachi doesn't want you. Itachi doesn't want you, he doesn't want you, he doesn't want you…' Somewhere deep in his unconsciousness he wondered why he cared so much, wondered why, if what they were saying was true, they hated him so much, wondered whether what had happened last night and this morning could really have all been an act. But all of those rational thoughts were silenced by the overwhelming feeling of betrayal and utter loneliness. The feeling of completion he'd had while around Itachi was transformed into a wide gaping hole in his chest that seemed to be ripping him apart. Black started to eat at the sides of his vision, until he was falling into nothingness.

Flashback

"Sa-Sasuke, I want you to listen to me very carefully, alright." A young boy with tears streaming down his face blinked down at his mother lying on the ash covered ground. "Mommy, it's happening, just like I saw it! Please, you can't go away! Don't leave me alone!" The woman smiled sadly and brushed away the tears from his cheek. "Sasuke, it is my time, but your father and I will always be with you. Do you remember what you told me about that vampire you always see? The one who makes you feel really happy?" The little boy nodded shakily, as his mother coughed feebly, causing a streak of blood to run out of her mouth, but she continued quickly, for fear of not being able to tell him what he needed to know. "He's your special person, like your father is for me. You have to go and find him Sasuke, he needs you, or else the bad men will take him too, do you understand?" Sasuke's eyes widened, and he bit back a whimper. "I don't want the bad men to take him!"

"Sasuke, soon your going to forget some things, you're going to think you're human for a while ok. You have to believe it, other wise they'll find you before your ready. That's why you have to forget Sasuke, forget what you learned, forget him, alright." She took Sasuke's hand into hers and kissed it lightly. "But mother, I don't want to forget him, he makes so happy, I can't forget him, I'll die if I forget him!" New tears ran down the young boys face as he stared down at his mother in denial. "It's just for a little while Sasuke, your heart won't forget him, just your head. You'll recognize him when the time comes…Sasuke promise me that you'll forget, you have to believe that you can forget, otherwise they'll take him away forever. Can you do that Sasuke?" Sasuke was still for a moment thinking over what his mother said. Then he quickly wiped away his tears and nodded. "Yes mother. I can forget him for a little while, but only a little while!" She smiled proudly at her son's bravery and with the last of her strength touched her hand to his forehead and spoke an ancient incantation. The little boy's eyes drooped and his body slowly became translucent, until he disappeared completely. Far away in another place he thought he heard his mother's voice. "I love you Sasuke, don't ever forget that."

End Flashback

Sasuke awoke to someone shaking him and shouting his name. "Sasuke, Sasuke, wake up! Come on!" 'Itachi?' "Sasuke-teme! I know your in there, we gotta get outta here!" Sasuke painfully opened his eyes, groaning at the brightness, and the sudden pain that flooded his system, telling him that he really didn't want to move, he felt like someone had run him over with a 6 horse carriage. "Arg! Leave me alone you bastard!"

"Sasuke-kun! Oh, thank god, you're ok! We finally found you!" A familiar feminine voice gushed. "Yeah, just in time to save you from being beaten to a bloody pulp too! Haha, you've become a real softy since you got caught huh, baka!"

Sasuke could finally focus on the two faces looking down at him and a stab of disappointment ran through him. "Naruto and Sakura. What are you doing here?...Where's here?"

"Don't worry Sasuke-kun, your safe here. We have a plan how to get out of the city! Soon you'll be free again!"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, we took the liberty of getting rid of your ripped clothes and the collar you were wearing. Seriously, they must have treated you like a dog to make you wear something like that! And you weren't even wearing your hood! Hope you weren't gang raped or something!" Naruto's tone was joking, but he stared down at Sasuke with concern. "They didn't did they?" Sasuke sighed. "No, no one touched me, thanks to Itachi." Twin gasps made him blink up at his two friends confusedly. "What?"

"You were with that disgusting vampire lord?!" Naruto's voice sounded both shocked and repulsed at the same time. And for some reason it offended Sasuke. "Don't call him that! Itachi's, Itachi's…" Sasuke stopped. 'Itachi's what? He's a vampire lord who imprisoned you, played with you and abandoned you for some whore! Why am I defending him? Shaitan, I'm such an idiot.' Naruto and Sakura stared at Sasuke in shock. Why was he defending his capturer? Slowly Sasuke sat up and looked around. They were in a dark, room, filled with human shadows; it all seemed strangely familiar. "Where are we?" He asked his two companions suspiciously. "We're in a slave market warehouse." Naruto said sheepishly. Sasuke whipped around and gawked at Naruto in disbelief. "What?!"

"Don't get angry, this is our way out man! The vamp who's in charge here is a total drunkard, he didn't even realize he's suddenly got three extra slaves in here, meaning he isn't gonna miss us when we leave either! He's on his way out of the city, so as soon as he's gotten us out, we're gonna run for it!" Naruto explained happily. Sakura nodded in agreement. "We even got you a new hoodie, so don't worry about being attacked." She smiled at him happily and held out the dirty piece of clothing. Sasuke stared at it, the pain in his chest intensifying. 'Just for a moment I thought I would never have to hide again…how could I have been stupid enough to think I could be happy?' A single tear ran down Sasuke's face as he reached for the hood and draped it over his head. He felt more imprisoned now, than he ever had while with Itachi. 'No, this is the way it's supposed to be. I hate vamps and they hate me. End of story.' Sasuke nodded to himself and turned to Naruto and Sakura with a grim smile. "Let's do this!" The two of them beamed at him and Sakura hugged him tightly. "We missed you so much! I'm so glad your ok, Sasuke-kun." Naruto nodded and clapped him on the back. A sudden noise made them all jump and turn to the door, someone was coming. "Quick! We gotta get on the shackles!" Naruto whispered, grabbing the end of the chain that had been lying at his feet. To it he attached what looked like a foot shackle, and then snapped that around his left leg, the lock was suspiciously missing. Sakura and Sasuke quickly followed suite, Sasuke grabbing the foot lock Sakura handed him. Not a moment later the door opened and the first fat vampire Sasuke had ever seen wobbled through the door. Sasuke stared open mouthed at the strange creature with the red face and watery eyes. 'eww…gross.' "Alllrighd ya awful lodd! On yer feed! Cuum onn, geed moovin!" the fat vampire lolled, kicking the nearest boy in the stomach. The three companions rose with the other slaves and shuffled out of the warehouse and onto the street. They walked at the end of the line, Sasuke holding his breath all the while, terrified someone would recognize him. He scratched at his neck angrily, and felt warm liquid cover his fingers. He removed his hand from his neck and stared at the blood dripping of his fingers. 'Damn, I scratched it so hard my skin is coming off. But this is really starting to hurt, it's like someone is injecting poison into me through my neck. My whole body HURTS! And it's not because of those little bruises those sissies gave me…how did Naruto and Sakura get me away from them anyways, I can't remember anything.'

They had reached the gates and then the next moment they were past them and out of the city. Agony enveloped Sasuke the minute he stepped through the gates, he stumbled and nearly fell, clawing at his chest as his heart was torn into pieces. /…Remember…Sasuke, you must remember!.../ Sasuke choked on his own moan, tearing his mouth wide open, gulping in air. 'Remember what!?' "Oh Shaitan, what's happening to me?!" He groaned, an incredible pressure was pressing on his skull, he wasn't sure if it wanted in or out. "Sasuke?!" Naruto's voice brought him back to the present, the pain dissipating as quickly as it had come. He turned to Naruto, "What?" Naruto was looking at him with alarm, almost fear. "Sasuke, why were you swearing by Shaitan? He's the Vampire god, not ours." Naruto's voice was quiet and it shook a little when he said 'Shaitan'. Sasuke stared right back at him. "I did?" Naruto nodded once. Silence befell the trio as they trudged along with the slave caravan. "It, it must be because we weren't allowed to swear by God in the city, I had to make it automatic just in case, you know, to say Shaitan, instead…?" The other two nodded slowly, but they all knew that wasn't the real answer, but it was the only acceptable one. Sasuke's hands wouldn't stop shaking for the rest of the journey, nor did they stop when the caravan made camp for the night. 'Why do I feel like I'm walking in the wrong direction? Why do I feel more and more miserable to further I get from him? I should be happy, smug even I got away from that arrogant prick this smoothly. But all I can think about is that I want to be back in that bed like this morning and never ever get up.'

"Come on Sasuke, just admit that your in love with him."

Neji's words echoed through Sasuke's head as he sat with Sakura at the edge of the camp, waiting for Naruto to return and give the 'coast clear' signal. "Hey Sakura, how do you know your in love?" He suddenly asked, without looking at her. The pink haired girl looked at him with a sad expression for a moment then answered. "Well, it's easy really. All those clichés about thinking about that person all the time, and about getting mad at them for stupid stuff, and hating them for not hating them, and for being totally and utterly confused for most of the time, and of course wanting to be near them always, and having fun around them without realizing…you know…those clichés, their all true."

Sasuke was silent for a second. "Even if you want to kill them most of the time, and they drive you crazy, and their mean to you and do lots of really stupid stuff, and make you do really stupid stuff, and then they betray you and it hurts, it hurts so bad…?" Tears ran down his face once more as he thought of the blond boys smell all over Itachi. He looked up at Sakura and jumped when he saw tears running down her face too. "Why are you crying?!" He asked worriedly, reaching out to hold her hand in his. Sakura gave him a wobbly smile and squeezed his hand. "It's nothing Sasuke, it's nothing." Sasuke looked her in the eyes for a moment longer before lowering his gaze back to the floor. Sakura watched him sadly, and knew that he was no longer the Sasuke they knew. 'He's found the place where he belongs, and we took him away from it. Oh Sasuke, why did it have to be a vampire? Couldn't you fall in love with me? I've loved you for so long, but you never noticed, and now someone's taken you away before I even had a chance…' She sniffed quietly and held onto Sasuke's hand more tightly, as if afraid he might disappear if she let go. Meanwhile Sasuke had come to the conclusion that Neji just might be slightly, just a tiny little bit right. But before that thought could solidify Naruto appeared out of the shadows and silently beckoned for them to follow. Sakura quickly let go of his hand and they rose and ran after Naruto into the woods. 'He's grown up a lot since I left…' thought Sasuke as he ran into the woods after his life time friend.

They'd run for nearly 20 minutes when they heard the first scream from the direction of the camp. The three of them froze and looked back into the direction they had come, what happened? Had someone noticed they were gone? 'No, they didn't, it would sound different.' That was when Sasuke noticed what was gone. 'My neck doesn't hurt. It doesn't even tingle like it did this morning…but I thought that was happening because I was getting further away from Itachi. It should be worse now, not…gone!' An ear-piercing howl made Sasuke yelp in surprise, the sound sending goose bumps up and down his spine, then he knew why the tingling was gone. Naruto and Sakura crowded close to Sasuke and stared into the direction the terrifying sound had come from. "He's here." Sasuke wasn't sure if he was laughing or screaming, but either way it scared the two teens beside him, because they both jumped and stared at him instead. "Who's here, Sasuke?" Naruto's voice quavered. Sasuke smiled a morbid smile. "Itachi." 'He came for me.'

"We gotta get as far away from the camp as possible. Whatever he's doing out here can't be good!" Naruto's said quietly, as if fearing the vampire might hear him. Sakura gazed at Sasuke, then turned back to Naruto and nodded. Sasuke couldn't possible be happy with that monster, it might hurt him to make him leave, but sometimes you had to be cruel to be kind. She took hold of Sasuke's arm and dragged him along after Naruto, who had started running again.

Sasuke could feel Itachi coming closer and absently he wondered why the others thought they could out run the vampire. Then again, they didn't know he was chasing them either. Sasuke could physically feel Itachi's anger, it suffocated him and pushed on him from all sides. But never in his life had Sasuke been so happy about pain. He welcomed it with all his heart, beckoning, calling it to follow. And then he was there, Sasuke hear to beat of his wings above them, as did Naruto and Sakura, who both stopped abruptly. Naruto tried to turn around and run in the other direction, but it was to late. Itachi landed right in front of them in all his glory, glossy black wings, glowing red eyes and all. Sasuke half expected him to rip all of them to shreds. But the vampire didn't move, the anger fled from his face as he watched Sasuke, leaving behind only a terrible sadness in his eyes, that made Sasuke want to hug him and make it all go away, like his mother had done for him a long time ago, when he had his visions.

Startled Sasuke straightened. 'Visions? I never had any visions. Did I?'

He turned his gaze back to Itachi and squinted at his figure in the darkness.

…a shadow, an outline a creature, just black gleaming eyes visible, burning houses, he recognized his mother screaming. Then a castle built from obsidian, an older version of himself with a red eyed man, a man with fangs, long black purple hair, and great wings, a vampire, his red eyes seemed to burn, right through Sasuke's soul…

The vision grabbed hold of Sasuke and left him weak kneed, holding onto Sakura for support. It felt as if a chain he didn't know was there, had suddenly been loosened, and the memory of his mother's last words returned to him, the memory of his vision of his special person. 'I love him.' Those three simple words filled Sasuke's mind with a glowing warmth of realization, the hole in his chest seemed to fill once again with a strong beat, that pulsed though his body, putting all of his nerves on fire, filling ever pore of his being.

"Sasuke?" Sakura's voice pierced through the ecstatic fog around his brain, and he turned to look at the girl who had been his companion and friend, taken the role of both mother and sister for so many years. "Are you going to leave us again?" Her voice was quiet, almost a whisper, but it hit Sasuke like a wall of bricks. 'I can't abandon them. Not ever, we swore we'd stay together forever, no matter what! It was always us against the world, and we always pulled through. We fought together and laughed and cried together, we helped each other get over the deaths of our families, and we made a new one. Their my family, the only one I have left…'

Sasuke slowly opened his mouth and stared at the ground in front of his feet.

"I'm sorry."

Yup I'm ending it here. I thought you guys deserved a cliffy after such a long wait right ^.^ Oh I'm sooooo eeevil!! Mwahahahahahaaaaarr!!

Wonder who Sasuke's gonna choose, ne.

Well R&R I promise I'll update quicker, I've already written the first part of the next chappy, so you'll just have to persuade me to write the rest of it!!