Chapter Seventeen: Brothers and Sisters

“Oh, yes,” were Yukio’s first words. “He definitely got out all on his own.”

Mina only nodded silently, her eyes wide and cautious.

I laughed and spit on him. “What the fu—”

“Now, now, Sasuke,” he interrupted, waggling his finger and grinning like a moron, “You know I don’t like it when you swear.” He absently wiped my spit from his face and rubbed it onto his pants.

“Go to hell.” I scowled.

Yukio shook his head slowly. “Did you enjoy the coffin? A work a genius, if I do say so myself. It took a lot of really, really hard work to get it right. So, did you like it, Sasuke? Huh?”

“Fuck you.”

“Now you’re just lashing out Sasuke. Very mature.” He motioned briefly with his hand and Mina scurried from the room. “I know you’re still somewhat disoriented—”

I cut him off with a laugh.

“But,” he continued, glaring at me, “That’s really no excuse for your behavior. I remember when Mina came out of her coffin, she was just as calm as she’s been every day since I found and sired her.” He tapped his lips thoughtfully. “Then again, Jiro tried to kill everyone he came in contact with for a month.”

“What, exactly, was the point of that?” I asked, holding back another laugh, though I couldn’t say what it was at.

“Many things, you silly goose! First, it’s a test. You have to prove your worth before you join my secret clan. It’s also a form of self-realization. Many have told me I’m not as subtle with the imagery as I think I am,”

“I’ll say.”

“But they get the point at least.” He shot me a petulant little glare and continued. “Third, it exercises my control over you. Can’t have you forgetting that, my little Sasuke.” He grinned broadly, and I laughed.

He seemed surprised at that, but I guess I never really laughed much before. It was hard to remember, sort of fuzzy. My clearest memories were in that coffin, but I could feel everything else slowly coming into focus.

“Of course I laughed, Yukio.” I told him, responding to the surprise on his face. “You’ve controlled my every decision since we met, and you know that better than I do.”

I’d never thought of that before saying it, but it was true. Even the decisions I thought were mine, he had manipulated out of me. He attacked Naruto to make me let down my guard so he could attack me (I wondered briefly when I had figured that, but moved on without an answer). He wanted me to go home, so I would eventually hurt someone and lose my village’s trust. He outright forced me to join him. He made me sire a teenage boy and then leave him behind. He manipulated me into killing Itachi so I could let go of the Uchiha clan. In the same act, he led me to drink of Chiyo and accept my nature as a vampire. He led me into the basement, knowing I couldn’t handle it, and knowing that I couldn’t kill him for it either. He planned that I’d want to return home. Then, he shoved me in a coffin, and as soon as I woke, I scrambled to his room.

I laughed again, doubling myself over. Oh, yes, I had lost control of my own life for over a year. And I hadn’t even noticed. Oh, I had known he was watching, monitoring my every move, but I never would have guessed he had anticipated them, even created them. Yukio made me look a fool so easily. It was the greatest joke of my life, even better than Itachi’s (Yes, yes, kill my brother; why did he want so badly for me to avenge the clan he killed anyway?).

Yukio grinned. I suspected my hysteria was part of his plan as well, but I simply couldn’t stop. I was weak, pathetic, short-sighted, oblivious, and so like putty in his hands. I deserved whatever he had planned, if simply because I could not see it, even now, after finally grasping the control he held over me. I called him a bastard and sat down before my laughter made me fall.

“Well I must say, I’m not disappointed with this outcome. You’ve always lacked a sense of humor.” He grinned, and I couldn’t bring myself to hit him. Not yet anyway.

“Tell me then,” I said, finally over the fit of laughter. “What the fuck was the point in that? And don’t tell me it’s because dancing trees are pretty.”

“Well,” he pointed as Mina reentered the room, followed by other vampires. “They are, you know, very pretty. But the point is that I gave you three choices: end up like my sire Jack, end up like my childe Jiro, or end up like me. In your crazy little coffin dream, you chose me.”

I thought he’d cheated. “Well the other paths both led to pretty obvious dying sort of ends.”

“Exactly! Because if you chose either of those,” and here his grin flashed widely, “I’d kill you.”

“Thanks a lot, asshole.” I looked over at the vampires who had followed Mina into the room. I vaguely recognized them as some of Yukio’s strongest childer, but I didn’t know more than that.

“You’re very welcome, you ungrateful brat. Anyway! We’re all together now. This, Sasuke, is my clan.” He spread his arms to include everyone in the room. “I call it ‘Lucky.’ Because I feel like it, so don’t ask.”

“Wouldn’t want the answer anyway. Too crazy.” I leaned against the wall and studied them. They all seemed a bit stiff, and I wondered if there was more to the “initiation” that taking a crack-out nap in a coffin. Knowing Yukio, definitely.

He stood thoughtfully for a moment before shrugging. “You’re probably right. No matter. Last week it was ‘Hamtastic’ anyway. Don’t worry, I’ll always tell you when the name changes!”

I stared at him, completely at a loss for words.

“You are still surprisingly boring, Sasuke. We’ll have to work on that.” The he motioned to one of the vampires, and he stepped forward. “You know, Sasuke, that blood is power and life—especially to us because we have a greater ability to harness it.” He paused until I nodded. “It’s not just the blood of the living that gives us strength. We can also draw from each other.”

His childer produced a dagger and a goblet from within his coat. Yukio cut the younger vampires wrist and blood poured into the waiting goblet. The wound healed almost as soon as it was made though, so very little blood escaped.

Normally, blood smelled… good. The scent was appetizing. It made me want to drink. This smelled dusty, old, and more than a little putrid. I shied away from it.

“Oh calm down. It hardly hurts.” Yukio scolded as he moved from vampire to vampire, collecting a small amount of blood from each. Finally, he came to me.

“Tell me, Sasuke. Do you want to go home?”

“Yes.”

“Why? Because you expect them to welcome you with open arms?”

“I’m not that naïve, Yukio. They may not have driven me out yet when you came, but they would have eventually, and now they won’t likely take me back. No, I don’t want to go home for sentimental crap. I want to hurt them.” I had lied to Yukio before. I wasn’t now.

He nodded and took my wrist. Like he said, the thin slice hardly hurt at all. And it healed in seconds. Still, I noticed he didn’t put his own blood in with the others.

“Now Sasuke,” he said softly, with an eerily calm expression, “drink.”

He held the noxious goblet to my lips, and I drank. It tasted like it smelled, and it burned going down. But once I drank, I became… aware of the other vampires. It was a sense not like the usual five. It was closer to sensing someone’s chakra. Only I also had a vague sense of their emotions on top of their locations and states of health.

I only noticed the sense was dim when one of them suddenly flared. I recognized it as Mina. She had just drunk from the same goblet. This extra sense obviously had something to do with sharing each others’ blood.

She cocked her head at me and approached, leaning over in her typical, cleavage-revealing way. “That’s not how I expected you to feel, Sasuke. I thought… maybe something more violent. You’ve always seemed so dark and mysterious. Now I know you’re just confused. And maybe gay since you feel absolutely nothing after staring down the front of my dress.”

“Not gay, Mina. I just like my women classy.”

She rolled her eyes and wandered off. I sensed the others dispersing as well, but I didn’t bother to look at them.

“Eventually, you’ll get to know them all.” Yukio said and plopped to the ground beside me. “For now it’s enough that you know they’re your brothers and sisters, even more than most of my childer are.”

“You know, Yukio, you’ve got too damn many kids.” Everyone I saw any more was either his childe, or dinner. And speaking of dinner, I was starving.

“Well, there’s a high mortality rate, so I try to keep a few spares around.” He chuckled softly. I felt no urge to join him.

I stood and brushed myself off. When he asked where I was going, I just answered, “Hunting.”