Demon Hunters

On the inside Sasuke was in a slight state of panic; Naruto was touching his hand – a gesture the Uchiha had not been expecting. But on the outside Sasuke remained as impassive as ever. A little voice in his head kept insisting that something was wrong; he should not be thinking that a small touch was a big deal. And somehow, to him, it was. He liked how Naruto’s warmth seemed to warm him all the way to his bones; and this (of course) confused the Uchiha further. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been touched like this; with reassurance. It seemed like another lifetime ago. Sasuke was treading in unknown territory now.



The raven could only come to one conclusion: something was definitely wrong with him.



Naruto noticed the strange look that passed over the Uchiha’s face, and let his hand that he had placed on top of Sasuke’s drop.



“Is something wrong, Sasuke?” Naruto asked.



Before Sasuke could answer, the bell rang signaling the end of lunch. For both Sasuke and Naruto the class after lunch was gym.



“We should probably head to class,” The raven-haired boy said, dismissing Naruto’s earlier question as he turned towards the boy’s locker room (conveniently located next to the gym).



Naruto paused; unmoving. Sasuke noticed that Naruto wasn’t following him and he turned back.



“Hurry up, dobe, we have to get to class.”



Even though Sasuke had called him “dobe” again the name was losing its spiteful edge. It was as if Sasuke was calling him “dobe” not because he actually meant it, but rather as a friendly nickname. This thought brought a small amount of happiness to the blond; nicknames were things used between friends. And even though he’d probably lie if asked, he did want to be Sasuke’s friend.



“Why hurry, bastard? We’re already late for class,” Naruto said smiling at his new discovery.



“Hn.”



Sasuke turned and began to walk towards the locker room once more.



When both boys had changed and headed into the gym for class, their teacher, Gai-sensei, scolded them about the value of punctuality. He then went on and on about the beauty of youth and being careless of time, blah, blah, blah… Gai-sensei’s lecture seemed to drag on forever, and both Sasuke and Naruto were dying for a reprieve. After about fifteen minutes, both boys had effectively tuned their teacher out.



…



After school, Naruto met up with Haku, as per their agreement, in the main hallway. After the halls were mostly cleared, both boys headed towards the back of the school to get to the park.



“What happened with you and the Uchiha?” Haku asked, unable to contain his curiosity.



“Hm? Oh, well we talked…” Naruto trailed off.



The blond remembered the troubled look that Sasuke had after their talk; the look had stayed on the Uchiha’s face for the remainder of the day.



“Naruto, is everything all right?”



“Yeah. I’m totally fine, Haku,” Naruto smiled.



Naruto knew that Haku could tell he was lying, but he also knew the brunette wouldn’t push the issue either. It wasn’t that Naruto didn’t trust Haku; he trusted the brunette with his life. But there were some things that he’d never shared with Haku; mainly the events that had led to his parent’s deaths and the period of time after, when he had wandered the streets alone. They weren’t pleasant memories, and Naruto did his best to avoid revisiting them unless it was absolutely necessary. He felt bad that Haku worried so much about him.



“So, do you know what we should be looking for, Haku?” Naruto asked, abruptly changing topic.



“Yes. Last period I went and did some more online research; I noticed in the autopsy reports that both girls had one consistent injury.”



“Which was?” Naruto prompted.



“Both of the victims had two parallel puncture marks to their necks.”



“Do you think we could be dealing with a vampire?” Naruto asked.



“Somehow I doubt it. Vampires tend to move from town to town, not feeling secure in their surroundings for too long. If this were the case, the body count wouldn’t have been this high. Also, vampires generally like to seduce their victims. The brutality in these cases doesn’t seem vampire-like. I know there have been some cases where vampires mutilate victims, but that’s generally a mass amount of bodies. These seem too targeted,” Haku trailed off.



“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Naruto said thoughtfully, “Is there anything else you were able to find out?”



“Well,” Haku said with a smile, “I was able to access some files on both girls, and it turns out that both had a few major organs missing.



“That’s disgusting,” Naruto said, making a face, ”By the way, Haku, where did you say you got this information from?”



Haku said nothing, a small smile playing at his lips.



“Oh look, we’re here. Let’s start looking for anything out of the ordinary. Maybe start with the bridge the girls were found under? Let’s begin our investigation there,” the brunette said casually.



Haku said he would cover the east side of the park, leaving Naruto to check the west.



“Hey, Haku! You never answered my question,” Naruto hollered.



Haku raised a hand and waved it lazily.



“Call me when you’re done checking your side of the park, Naru-chan.”



After wandering the park for two hours searching for a clue to anything, Naruto found himself no better off than when they’d started. Naruto was starting to think that the bridge didn’t even exist. The blond sighed and pulled out his cell phone; he held down the three button on the cell’s keypad. He wanted to call Haku and see if he’d had better luck.



Ring. Ring. Ring.



“Hello? Naru-chan, that you?” Haku asked.



“Yeah, it’s me. I can’t find anything over here,” Naruto grumbled, “I hope your search was more successful than mine.”



“Mine was much the same. I can’t even find a stream, let alone a bridge.”



Naruto and Haku both heaved a sigh.



“If that’s it can we go home now? I’m getting really hungry, and looking for a non-existent bridge is getting boring.”



“All right, Naru-chan. Meet me at the edge of the park and then we’ll go home,” Haku chuckled.



“Okay,” Naruto said, and hung up the phone.



…



“Sasuke,” a low voice summoned the raven-haired youth. With a small puff of smoke the Uchiha appeared.



“Hn,” said the slightly disgruntled boy.



“I need you to spy on my little Naruto today. He and his partner seem to be trying to look for clues on what happened to those mutilated girls...” the man trailed off, twirling his long black hair around his index finger.



Sasuke’s eye involuntarily twitched when the man had said, “my little Naruto,” luckily that went unnoticed.



The man continued with a sneer; “Let’s make sure they don’t find what they’re looking for.”



“Yes, Master,” Sasuke almost chocked on the words as they left his throat. He hated this man.



“Why are you still here? Leave!”



He really hated this man; silently, Sasuke disappeared with another small puff of smoke.



…



“Haku? Haku, are you there?” Naruto questioned.



There was no reply.



“He must still be making his way over here,” the blond muttered to himself.



A slight rustling sound came from the brush behind Naruto. Upon hearing this, the blond immediately tensed, preparing to attack if necessary



“Dobe? What are you doing here?” asked a familiar voice.



Turning around quickly, Naruto came face to face with the raven-haired Uchiha. It was well past six o` clock and the sun was setting early due to the fact that it was wintertime. Naruto was stunned. Sasuke had come towards him in the same direction as the setting sun, and the light from behind masked the raven-haired teen’s handsome features leaving only a black silhouette. Sasuke resembled a fierce, dark angel.



“Dobe?”



Naruto was quickly pulled out of his stupor, and answered the Uchiha with an unintelligible; “Huh?”



“I asked what you were doing here. It’s well past time for students to be home,” the Uchiha said with a smirk.



Not that he didn’t know already, but Sasuke thought it best to keep that little bit of information to himself.



“Oh, well, Haku and I were looking around for a nice place to, um… Have a picnic! Yeah, and he and I got separated and now we’re supposed to meet back up here to go home and eat,” Naruto smiled brightly.



“Oh,” Sasuke started, but was interrupted when Naruto’s cell phone began to ring.



Looking down to the pocket where he kept his phone, Naruto pulled it out and answered.



“Hello? Yeah… No, that’s fine. I understand… Okay, bye.”



The Uchiha stood there quietly as Naruto hung up the phone, and then began to curse.



“Can you believe that guy? Leaving me here because his boyfriend called and wanted to have dinner with him! Augh! I swear they should just screw each other already and get it over with!” The blond ranted, more to himself than to Sasuke. Sasuke couldn’t contain his smirk at the blonde’s comment, but tried to cover it up with a cough anyway.



“Was that Haku?” Sasuke asked.



“Yeah,” the blond boy grumbled.



“So, I guess that means that you no longer have anyone to eat dinner with?”



“Seems like it.”



“Hn…” Sasuke trailed off, seeming to think about something, “Well, then how about you have dinner with me?”











-----TBC-----



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