Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. However, anyone who's reading this story has the right to punch me for taking so long to update it.

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It was a little after midnight when Naruto heard the opening and closing of the front door. From his position, lazily reclined on the large, leather sofa that sat in front of the television, the blonde made a pathetic attempt to look behind him, towards the archway that lead to the hallway to see who had just walked in. He ended up just leaning his head on the back of the couch, ear pressing into the cool material. He smirked when Sasuke walked into the room, squinting, one hand held in front of his face, protecting his eyes.

"For God's sake, Naruto, why do you have so many lights on?" Sasuke growled, wincing as the light from the television momentarily became brighter.

"Because this house is so damn gloomy," Naruto said, a bored tone lacing his voice. He watched Sasuke walk quickly over to the light switches. "I don't understand why you walk around all night in the dark." Sasuke flicked the switches downwards. The room was instantly enveloped in darkness, with only the ominous light from the television dancing off the objects in the room.

Sasuke, also noticing the loud volume of the TV, glanced suddenly at Naruto's hand, in which he held the remote tightly, and moved towards it. Noticing the movement, Naruto clutched the remote to his chest tightly, as though he were hanging on to something more precious than his own life.

"No." Naruto said sternly, before continuing in a whine. "Oh, come on, Sasuke! You always have the TV at that stupid volume! It might as well be muted! I can't hear a damn thing!" Naruto watched as Sasuke stopped for a moment before disappearing from his position in front of Naruto, only to reappear next to the blonde and tug the remote from his hands effortlessly. Sasuke changed the channel and the volume before handing the remote back to the blonde and walking towards the kitchen, apparently satisfied with what he had just accomplished.

"My house, my rules," he stated mockingly as he practically floated past the blonde. He disappeared through the doorway and into the kitchen.

'Your house, huh...' Naruto thought. He made a short humming noise. 'So why am I still here?'

It had been over three weeks since Sasuke had bitten him in the park and still he was told he was not allowed to return to his apartment. Apparently, from what Naruto had gathered, as he was 'changing' it was safer to keep him away from people at night. It was a precautionary measure and Naruto could understand their concern to some extent, but it had been one week since his longer, pointed canines had emerged from his gums –reminding him unwelcomingly of being a child and having his adult teeth push past the baby ones – and two weeks since his eyes had started to occasionally change colour – from its usual deep azure blue into a light red and back again. He had yet to like dark spaces and develop pale skin and dark eyes though, which were apparently must-haves in the vampire community (or maybe Naruto just assumed that, he wasn't sure. He had stopped listening about half way through Itachi telling him the details) but he had been growing and changing steadily with no signs of being a danger to himself or to anyone else.

Through the past three weeks, his school life had remained surprisingly normal after his sudden and mysterious disappearance. His newfound friends, surprisingly concerned about his well being on his return, pried very little into the questions he didn't want to answer and gave him the benefit of the doubt. He was able to subtly slip back into the school routine that, without Sasuke's interference, he would have been able to comfortably settle into weeks before, and found the entire school experience much more enjoyable than he previously thought he would, now that he wasn't constantly on his toes about the whereabouts of Sasuke or vampires. At school, there were no signs of bloodlust, of any sudden urges to jump on someone and suck on their neck, nothing. Everything felt more normal than Naruto had ever experienced before, as ironic as that was.

However, Naruto did find the Uchiha hard to be around at school and attempted to keep a distance between them at all times. Although this didn't stop Sasuke staring at him hungrily from time to time, making him lose his train of thought when he happened to catch him doing it, it did help the blonde remain relatively composed when around his classmates and kept them in the dark about his and Sasuke's relationship.

…But what was his and Sasuke's relationship, anyway?

Naruto shook his head, dismissing the thought. He didn't know if he wanted to know the answer to that. He knew that Sasuke liked his blood, that much was true. He had also mentioned something about 'soul mates', but the blonde had heard that line used on many others before as a means of getting their way; who was to say this was any different? The thought depressed him so he locked it away, for now. Sasuke had been well behaved as of late – no sudden ambushes out of the bathroom or anything of the sort – so Naruto wasn't going to push him to talk about something so trivial when things were going well. Nevertheless, the lack of ambushes did leave Naruto wondering if the Uchiha was already bored of his blood…

Naruto slouched down further into the sofa, not bothering to change the channel back, and yelled toward the kitchen. "You know, if you taught me how to do that...thing," He heard a small beep, like that from a microwave, from the kitchen, "you know, that fast moving thing? Then maybe we could have a real fight, instead of you just cheating your way out of versing me." He looked up at Sasuke calmly, who was now behind him with his forearms leaning on the back of the couch, one arm on either side of the blonde head. Naruto had become accustomed to Sasuke's ability of moving so quickly, so he was no longer surprised by Sasuke's random appearances and disappearances.

There was a black ceramic mug in Sasuke right hand and Naruto, even with his inferior nocturnal eyesight, could see the steam rising from it, dancing and curling before evaporating completely. The smell from the mug wasn't entirely unappetising, but it wasn't appealing either. Naruto closed his eyes, inhaling the scent of the warm liquid and sighed, out of habit rather than out of a need to exhale.

"Whose blood is that?" Naruto asked, unable to contain his curiosity.

Sasuke shrugged and took a small sip from the mug before holding it in front of the blonde, leaning across Naruto's shoulders.

"Does it matter?"

Naruto thought for a moment. "I suppose not," he lied.

"Would you like some?" Sasuke asked seriously, the ends of his hair grazing Naruto's neck softly.

Naruto opened his eyes, glanced to the right of him at Sasuke and then down to the mug, examining its contents. Even without being able to see it properly, he had still been able to identify it by the smell and texture of the liquid. He grimaced slightly, though less than usual, and shook his head slowly.

"Still can't stomach the stuff," he said, half smiling. Sasuke shrugged and brought the mug back to his lips. Naruto watched the light from the television move on Sasuke's Adam's apple as he tilted his head back to take a large gulp.

That was the only undoubtedly strange thing with Naruto's transformation; he had no bloodlust. Over the three weeks of his living at Sasuke's there had been several occasions where he had tried to indulge in blood as Sasuke did, when Sasuke did, but it was futile.

The first of such occasions happened only a couple of days after Naruto's returning to school. He had mentioned that he was thirsty, and they were certain of what would satisfy that thrust. So, after showing Naruto the large supply of blood packs, bottles, and even cans – where they managed to get cans Naruto didn't know and didn't ask – filled with the liquid, they gave one of the packs, being the smallest of the options, to Naruto. The blonde remembered feeling revolted by the sight of that amount of blood and couldn't help the nagging feeling that this crimson liquid was suppose to be inside someone's body, keeping them alive. For a moment, he couldn't help feeling a sudden sense that everything around him was held in an unbelievably deafening silence. He pushed his hand to his chest and realised, as if for the first time, that he felt nothing. His heartbeat had gone, his circulation had stopped and, it wasn't until that moment that he fully realised his inability to really breathe.

Naruto had brought the pack to his lips hesitantly. Both Sasuke and Itachi's eyes had watched him in anticipation, their pupils dilated and their iris's stained a dark crimson. Naruto couldn't shake the feeling the situation was somehow a thrill for the Uchiha's. Had they the ability to breath, Naruto felt they would have been holding in an exhale for a painfully long time as they waited.

Naruto tipped the open blood pack upwards.

The instant the blood touched Naruto's tongue he gagged, violently and uncontrollably. He dropped the blood pack, the liquid oozing out as it hit the floor, and ran for the sink in the kitchen, hands covering his mouth. He leant his shoulders over the sink, hunching them, and slumped his head. He threw up. Naruto kept his eyes closed to avoid seeing the usually perfect silver sink covered in the contents of his stomach as he continued to cough roughly with his head in the sink.

Revolting. The blonde had never tasted anything so foul, and he had drunk milk that was well past its use by date. Naruto had tasted blood when he was human – a scratch here and there that he would suck on in the hopes of the saliva forcing it to heal faster – and he remembered it tasting like metal, leaving a metallic after taste in his mouth that lasted only a few minutes.

This was nothing like that.

This was the essence of putridity, of nausea, of disgust. It had a texture that stuck to the roof of Naruto's mouth. It clung there and curled around his tonsils, forcing him to choke as his mouth attempted to force the intruder out. There was nothing more repulsive then this taste, this texture, this liquid.

After a few moments, Naruto finally stopped coughing. He slumped against the kitchen counter, panting out of habit from having been coughing for such a long period of time. His back still facing the Uchiha's, neither of which had said anything during the blonde's ordeal, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and let out a single cough for good measure.

He felt a hand on the small of his back and it was only then that he remembered that breathing was a luxury, no longer a necessity, and stopped panting. He glanced over his shoulder and met Sasuke's gaze. The boys' dark eyebrows were furrowed in what was either concern or confusion. Maybe it was both, Naruto didn't know. The blonde looked back down at the sink, grimacing as he looked at the mess he had made, and turned on the tap swiftly. He cupped his hands under the water and sipped the water from his hands. He gargled, spat and turned off the tap quickly before turning around slowly to face Sasuke and Itachi. He looked at them both for a moment, studying their facial features for signs of a reaction. Itachi's features were smooth and without worry. His eyes were more narrow than usual but his eyes remained free of any negative emotion. Sasuke, however, was unable to mask his look of concern as his eyes shifted back and forth between Naruto's blue ones. The sides of his mouth were tugged down slightly.

Bringing his hand up to scratch the back of his head, Naruto shifted his eyes to the floor in embarrassment. He noticed the discarded blood pack still lying on the floor and had to look up again as a feeling of nausea crept into his stomach from simply looking at it.

He grinned half-heartedly. "Um…" he said, "That was gross."

Sasuke let out a dry laugh from beside him. Naruto glanced at him.

"What?" Naruto asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Sasuke gazed at him, his face once again void of almost all emotion. "Understatement."

Any attempts made after that were done with strictly medicine sized doses, in an attempt to avoid any more mess than necessary, and Naruto took them as though they were a shot of alcohol, forcing himself to do something that was suppose to be 'instinctual' and turning it into a chore. He didn't have to do it often, only when one of the Uchiha's noticed a slight change in his demeanour – such as slightly slitted pupils, red tinted iris's, more obvious or protruding canines, or simply just a less Naruto-esque personality. Nothing drastic had taken place to lead them to believe Naruto was in any urgent need to drink blood, and it seemed that, although the Uchiha's themselves needed blood in order to remain mobile and docile, Naruto was perfectly content eating and drinking as he did when he was human in order to get his sustenance.

That was until a boy named Gaara joined their class.

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A/N: Well...where should I start?

It's been over a year (I think?) since I last updated this story and for that I am story. That's just life, i don't really have an excuse for it. I also just lost my...edge for this story because I couldn't figure out where it was going, not to mention that whenever I read over it I see so many mistakes that I just want to delet it. But then I realised that that was part of what made this story mine from the beginning, and I don't think I want to change it after all. I mean, if so many people R&R'd it as I was writing it before then it mustn't be ALL bad, right? SO, even though I started re-writing this story completely...I think I'm going to just finish this one instead. :) I know a few people have completely forgotten about this story but...well, I guess it's here to stay. :) I just hope I haven't pissed too many people off. I suppose a few people should probably thank Broken Sexed Up Bloody Kitten for getting me off my butt and actually continuing this. Thank you for pestering me, I realise how good it was now.

I'm going to give it my all this time around, I promise. Please help me continue and complete According to Season! :)

P.s: Don't worry, this is still sasunaru. Even though I'm bringing Gaara into the mix doesn't mean I'm going to do anything with them. Or will I? I guess we'll see. ;)