High Stakes

Sorry it's taken me so long to update. I won't make excuses. Bad me. But I'm back now! Now back to kinky vampires.
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/blah/-mental conversation

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Naruto woke up with the worst headache he could remember having. He grabbed his head, thinking it might possibly stop the throbbing. “I don’t think I went out and drank last night.” He mumbled to himself.

“I think the larger concern is being drunk from.”

Naruto jolted up in bed and quickly looked around him and spotted a figure in the corner of the dark room, only lit by the pale light of the moon. “Who are you?”

“I am the master of this house, I think the proper question is, who are you, and why are you in my wife’s bed?”

Naruto groaned and lay back down. He had no answers. Hell, he didn’t even understand the questions.

He heard the shadow growl, and it sent a shiver down his body.

“I believe I asked you a question.”

Naruto sighed and stood up. This had to be part of his dreams. They had all felt so real lately, he could not tell the difference. He stepped closer to the shadow, ignoring his instincts that told him to run. “Why are you hiding in the shadows?”

“There’s no light in here, it’s nothing but shadows.”

Naruto reached a hand out and brushed it up against soft warm skin. He felt the person recoil from his touch, but at least he could make out the person now. He had wild black hair, even blacker eyes, and skin so pale it must have never seen the sun.

“I uh…” Suddenly, Naruto’s mouth felt dry. He felt his body break out in sweat, whether it was from fear or something deeper, he couldn’t tell.

“Your name?” The voice was smooth and demanding.

Naruto brought his hand up to his body, it hadn’t forgotten the feel of the stranger’s body. “It’s Naru…uh, Kyu…I don’t know anymore.”

Suddenly two hands shot out and grabbed his shoulders, spun him about, and slammed him into the wall. Naruto winced and then looked up at the dark onyx eyes.

“You are the most frustrating person I’ve ever met.”

Naruto gave a wary smile, “I don’t handle being thrown around very well. Let me go.” He wasn’t about to let another man push him around. He had come to that resolve when he was eating food through a tube.

“I don’t listen to orders.”

Naruto didn’t feel guilty when he brought his leg up and managed to connect with the stranger’s prized possession. Immediately the hands fell from his body, and Naruto took the opportunity to run to the other side of the room as the man crumpled to the ground. It was amusing how even a very smooth and dignified man fell just the same as any slob.

He heard a feral growl that made his skin grow hot. It was definitely an erotic sound. Naruto grabbed the lamp off the table and held it out in front of him like a sword, just as the man had managed to stand up again.

“You’ll pay for that.”

Naruto swung the lamp once for practice, “Just try me.” And suddenly Naruto had a bright idea. The lamp was still plugged in, so he turned it on, shining it on the person. Naruto sucked in a breath; it looked just like the man in his dreams. “What’s your name?” He muttered.

“Sasuke.” The man muttered as he tried shielding his eyes from the light. “Will you put the lamp down?”

“You’d like that wouldn’t you.”

“I do like my vision. But I won’t attack you. So put it down.”

Naruto sighed and set the lamp back on the table. He looked up and noticed that Sasuke took a step forward and winced. Maybe he had hit him a little too hard. “I did warn you.”

“Indeed.”

Just then the door opened, flooding the room with light. Temari stared wide eyed at the two boys and then sighed. “Naruto, you aren’t supposed to be awake yet.”

Naruto jumped slightly, “What? Did you just call me Naruto?”

She rolled her eyes, “That is your name isn’t it?”

Naruto scowled, he had already blown his cover.

The dark haired man snickered, “I see he’s about as forthcoming with you as he is with me. But since you seem to be the only one who knows this boy’s name, why don’t you explain his presence?”

Temari tried giving her most smoothing smile and turned towards her husband, “This is Naruto. I met him while I was in the park last night. He was having trouble at his job, so I offered him a guard job here.” She turned towards Naruto, “But as soon as we arrived here, you collapsed at the doorway. So I brought you up to my room to recuperate.”

Naruto scratched the back of his head, “I don’t remember any of that. All I remember was walking through the park and…” He sighed, “But you’re right. I don’t think I can go back to my job.”

Sasuke stepped up towards Temari and gave her a look that clearly stated he didn’t believe her story, before he left her room.

Temari shut the door behind him and grabbed Naruto’s hand. “I’m so sorry you had to meet him without me. He didn’t hurt you did he?”

Naruto pulled his hand away, “He didn’t seem that bad.”

Temari sighed, “You really don’t remember anything?”

“When I try to think about last night, I get a headache.”

Temari scowled. She had used mind control on several humans before, and none of them had been affected as badly as Naruto seemed to be. It was strange. It was if he was unconsciously fighting off her mind control, which would explain his head aches. She would have to be careful with this human.

“Oh, Naruto!” She fell to her knees and began to cry, and was pleased to know crocodile tears wasn’t a skill she had lost over the centuries.

Naruto knelt down beside her and put a comforting arm around her, “What’s wrong?”

“That…that was my husband, Sasuke. Isn’t he frightening? I’m so scared. I know he’s going to try to kill me, just like he tried to kill my brother. You said you would help me, and now you can’t even remember.” She sniffled for good measure.

Kiba’s words filled his head, and he felt like kicking himself, he had done it again. He had gotten himself involved in something he shouldn’t have, all because he was too damned nice.

“I’m sorry, Naruto. I can’t hold you to your words from the night before. If you want to leave, I understand.”

Naruto sighed, “What do you want me to do?”

“Help me find my brother, and find some incriminating evidence in my husband’s chamber, proving it was him that tried to have my brother murdered.”

“How do I do that?”

“I’ll give you day time guard duty. My husband is never around during the day, so all you need to do is sneak into his room and find something.”

“If he’s never around during the day time then wouldn’t it make more sense if you were in his room?”

“I…uh…I can’t get out around during the day, and I can’t trust anyone that works here. Please, Naruto.”

“Okay.”

“Great. I’ll show you to your room.”

“But I have a house.”

“You’ll be safer here. Plus, the job requires living on the grounds. You start as soon as the sun rises and you are to be in your room before the sun sets. The night guards aren’t very nice, and they don’t take kindly to people they don’t recognize. So it would be best if you just stay in your room. There’s a bathroom in there, and we have room service, so anything you need can be brought to you.”

“Safer?”

Temari cocked her head to the side, “Well you mentioned your stalking ex boyfriend. Even if he found you here, he could never get to you.”

Naruto gave her a fake smile. He was sure he would never tell anyone he just met about his crazy ex boyfriend. But maybe after being attacked by that weird guy in the morgue, and all the other stresses he had been through, he broke down and talked to someone besides Kiba.

“I’ll show you to your room. Your alarm has already been set. And when you wake up, find Kakashi, he’s the leader of the day guards, he’ll show you around. I’ll come visit you tomorrow night. Let me know if you find anything.”

“Ah…okay.”

Before Naruto could say anything else, she grabbed him by the hand and led him to his new bedroom.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Gaara watched as Temari and Naruto disappeared into the hallway. He jumped down from the tree and began to walk away. “How the hell did she find him?” He had been planning on leaving his second bite on the boy, but he couldn’t do anything to him while he was in the same house with Sasuke. Luckily though, he had seen there interaction. What had seemed so obvious to Gaara, Sasuke hadn’t picked up on at all. The only reason he had let the boy live was the fact that Naruto was a Beloved. And the second he bit into the boy’s neck he knew the boy belonged to Sasuke.

He smirked, that’s how he would get to Sasuke. He’d steal his beloved. Normally, he wouldn’t go through such lengths. He’d just challenge him, but after the attack, he decided the high route wasn’t the way to go. If Sasuke wanted to play cheap, Gaara would too.

He stopped outside the mansion’s gates and looked inside. Usually one bite wasn’t enough to control a Beloved, but a connection between them had been made, maybe he could call out to Naruto and make him come to him. Asking Temari for help was out of the question. If Sasuke got wind of it, he could demand answers from her, and she would have to tell him.

Tomorrow he would call for Naruto, and when he woke up for the night, Naruto would be waiting for him. Waiting to be taken.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Naruto couldn’t fall asleep. So much had happened just in the hour he had been awake. His entire life had changed, again. He wasn’t sure how many times he could do this. It was hard enough to pretend that having to move cities, quit a job he really loved, and change his name didn’t bother him. But it did. He had spent almost every night while he was recouping jumping at every little sound. Finally, he got over it. He had made the idea of working in a morgue, living in a little shit hole, and going by Kyuubi work for him. And now it was changing again. At least he had his name back though.

Naruto rolled over onto this back. On top over everything else, he couldn’t forget Temari’s husband. Sasuke had a dangerous aura, but it didn’t scare him. If anything it almost seemed to make him more alluring. But obviously Sasuke was straight. After all he was married to Temari. Not to mention he might be a murderer. Naruto could never fall in love with a murderer.

The alarm went off. Naruto sighed and turned off the alarm. A new day, a new life. He moaned and got out of bed. The alarm had been set for thirty minutes before his shift began. So he had time to take a shower and get ready. His clothes had been set out for him, and there was a towel folded in the chair for him. He grabbed it and headed for his bathroom.

He stepped inside of it, closed the door and started the water.

“/Naruto./”

Naruto jumped and turned around. But nobody was there. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the freaking walls talked to me. Not after all the weird stuff I’ve seen.”

“/Naruto./”

Naruto turned back towards the tub. “What, does water talk now?”

“/Come to me./”

“Of course. I’m planning on taking a shower.” He answered the running water.

“/Come to me tonight./”

Naruto froze; suddenly he knew exactly what was talking to him. It was that psycho who had bit him. Like hell he was going to go to that bastard. The voice disappeared. Naruto shook his head and jumped into the shower, completely forgetting the command.

A strange building that he had never seen before filled his vision, and suddenly he had a horrible urge to go there. Maybe he could go after his shift ended.