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A Rose By Any Other Name	By : vampireunicorn Category: Naruto AU/AR > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 1316 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, and I make no money from this Fanfiction

Chapter List
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Chapter One

Naruto Uzumaki stepped off the bus in the centre of Lyfton after more than a decade away. He glanced around, looking for any changes. As usual, they were all small; a Starbucks where the old coffee shop used to be, new paving slabs and digitalised signs showing the bus times. Most of the other shops on the high-street were the same, mainly local or family run businesses, with the odd franchise here and there. The path edging the river was the same, the stone walled park, the vaguely delicious smell that came from the other side of the river; the one he could never find the source of. He had almost forgotten that smell, but now he filled his lungs with it. That, more than anything made him feel at home.

He hurried along the riverside path, suddenly desperate to get home, to see his friends and family. As a werewolf, nothing was more important to him than his pack, and as nice as his adopted pack in Canada had been, he would always be a wolf of the Senju Pack. Well, there was one thing that was more important to a wolf, and that was the reason he had been away. He was close to fifty, although like all other werewolves he looked like he was in his early twenties, and he had still not found his mate. All werewolves were born in fated pairs; the only problem was finding their other half, the one that completed them. The gods liked to play games, and often werewolves had to go on long journeys to find their mates. It was rare for mates to be born in the same country, never mind the same village or town. Naruto's father had always said that it was some sort of bizarre form of birth control for creatures who were essentially immortal. His mother tended to think that it was just one big cosmic joke. After all, werewolves might well live forever, or at least until they were killed, but a female was only fertile in the first one hundred years of life.

Either way, Naruto was still single after spending the last twelve years scouring the American continent. He was just about ready to give up, and let his mate find him. He had a suspicion that he would never find his mate, because he didn't have one; wolves mated male to female, and in all of his years, Naruto had never been attracted to a female. It had been the same for his father, or so he had thought, his mother going on and on about how she was the first and only woman that he would ever love. Naruto had thought that there was some hope for him, until his father had taken him to one side, and explained that he liked men and women equally. He had made Naruto promise to never tell his mother. She was by no means the first woman his father had been with, but he liked to let her think that she was. Thanks, dad. Minato had looked worried when Naruto had explained that this wasn't the case for him, forcing a grin, and telling him that everything would work out.

The problem was, Naruto had met other gay wolves in his travels, and none of them were mated, either. Naruto shook his head, as if he could shake all the negative thoughts away. So what if he never found his mate? Not everyone had one. Although, most of the people without mates are younger than you, his treacherous mind whispered to him.

“Shut up,” Naruto muttered to himself, his good mood at being back at home withering and dying like a leaf in the winter.

With a deep sigh he adjusted his backpack, and carried on along the road.

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He found his family home completely unchanged from when he had left, which was a bit of a surprise, as his mother was constantly modernising. His family had lived there for over one hundred years; his mother had left Japan, planning on finding her distant relative, Hashirama Senju. On the way she had found her mate, and lost two of her cousins who were travelling with her to a vampire attack. Kushina Uzumaki fit right into the vampire hating culture of Lyfton; it was the one thing in which she was completely irrational.

Naruto had been born in that house; a miracle baby, since Kushina had technically been past child bearing age. The small garden out the front, and the bigger one in the back reminded him of afternoons spent planting and tending flowers with his mother. The dull russet of the bricks was weathered, the paint on the guttering starting to flake. Naruto wondered why his mother had let the place go; she was normally so house proud.

With a shrug he pushed open the gate, frowning at the squeak, and made his way to the front door.

“Hello,” he called out as he pushed the door open; surely they remembered that he was coming back today? They were getting better at reading and replying to emails, and he had even told them his flight time. With a sigh Naruto dropped his bag in the entrance, and made his way through the house. The place was looking a little dusty, as if it hadn't been cleaned in a while, but there were signs of life; like the dirty plates left in the sink, and the golden fur on the sofa that suggested that someone had come home in wolf form and decided to just not shift back for a while. Naruto grinned to himself. He didn't know where his mum was, but she was going to kill his dad when she saw the mess he had made.

“Dad? Where are you?” Naruto called out, glancing out of the kitchen window. He rolled his eyes as he saw the golden wolf sunning himself on the back lawn. He pushed open the back door. It was a good thing that they lived in a neighbourhood populated exclusively by wolves. Even the humans who knew about them would no doubt find the sight of a giant wolf with a coat the same colour as a golden retriever’s a bit disconcerting.

The wolf looked at him, and let out a small yip before standing up. His body began to shake as he began the transition from wolf to man, and Naruto looked away. As often as he had done it himself, watching someone change from wolf to human or vice versa had always made him a little bit queasy.

When he looked back, his dad was already wrapping a towel around his waist, a broad grin on his face. “I didn't realise what time it was,” he said. “I was going to pick you up from the airport. Welcome home, son.”

He grabbed Naruto, and wrapped him in a fierce hug. Naruto grinned, holding his father tightly. It was good to be home.

He followed his dad back into the house, smiling as he rooted around the dryer for some clothing. His father had likely been in wolf form all day; his mother often said that he was more wolf than man.

“Where's mum?” Naruto asked, suddenly reminded of her absence.

Minato sighed as he slipped a t-shirt over his head. “She's gone on a vampire hunt,” he said.

“But I thought that we were at peace with them?”

“We were. Still are, technically. A rogue vampire passed through a few years back, and did some damage. Obviously the Uchiha insisted that it was nothing to do with them, and they would sort it, but a lot of the others, your mother included, didn't believe them.”

“She's been gone for years and you didn't think to tell me?”

“We didn't want to worry you. She got the bastard, anyway, and is on her way home. Or she was, but then another vampire appeared...”

Naruto sighed. His mother was bubbly, and kind, open minded and friendly, but she had an obsessive hatred of vampires. He couldn't say that he was fond of them himself, but in all his years living in Lyfton he had never had a problem with them. His mother would occasionally go on a rant about how they had killed his family, and that he should care, but mainly left the subject alone.

“She really wants to see you, though. So as soon as this one is taken care of she'll be right back.”

Naruto glanced around the house. “In that case, you'd better start tidying the place up,” he said.

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Naruto finished unpacking fairly quickly. Depressingly quickly; he really needed more stuff. He had been living on his own for years, so it was strange to be back in the family home. He supposed that he should look for a place of his own, but before he did that he wanted to decide what he did next; it would be pointless to get a place, then decide that he was going to travel again. But if he was honest with himself, he was bored of travelling. Tsunade had said that there would always be a position open at the Lyfton police station for him when he left. She had emailed him recently to reiterate this, so he knew if he stayed he had a job. It would mean not looking for his mate, but he had already sort of decided to do that.

Naruto sat down on his bed with a small sigh, wishing that he had a bit more direction. He didn't want to stop looking for his mate, but he was sure there was more to life than being mated. If he was right, and he had no mate, then he was a complete person all by himself. He could have as many lovers as he wanted; he wouldn't be bound to just one person.

A knock on the door interrupted his internal pep-talk. Before he could call out a “come in,” the door crashed open, and two bodies flew at him with a cry of: “Narutooooo!”

Naruto gasped as the air was knocked out of him, and he was pinned under the weight of his two best friends.

Kiba and Sakura were giggling like maniacs as they lay on top of him; an elbow caught him in the jaw, and someone's knee came painfully close to his groin. Naruto somehow managed to sit up and push them off of him. Werewolves were pretty tactile, but there was only so much full body contact he could take from them before it became creepy.

Kiba and Sakura were a mated pair; the lucky bastards had actually grown up together, and known they were mates from the age of five. The bond between mates was partly emotional and partly sexual, and was fully formed once the relationship was consummated. Until the consummation itself, mates were pretty much in heat for each other, which made puberty interesting for both Kiba and Sakura. Their parents had somehow managed to keep them apart for almost a year, not wanting them to mate so young. In the end, with a little help from Naruto, they had managed to get together, and the deed was done. After that, no one had seen any need to keep them apart. Naruto had always envied them, wishing that he had a partner perfect for him the way they were for each other. It was part of the reason why he had been trying so hard to find his own mate.

Sakura and Kiba sat in front of him, grinning like sharks.

“We missed you,” Sakura said. “Why did you have to stay away so long?”

Naruto shrugged. “I just wanted to make sure, you know,” he said.

A look of sympathy appeared on Sakura's face, and she pulled him into a tight hug. “I believe he's out there, somewhere,” she said.

“Or she,” Kiba added.

Sakura rolled her eyes at him. “Naruto's mate is definitely a he,” she said. “And when I'm proven right, you will pay up.”

“I can't believe you two are betting on the gender of my non-existent mate,” Naruto said.

“Naruto may be gay, but mates are always paired male to female,” Kiba said, as if he wasn't sitting right there. “There's no way he's the only gay werewolf in history, so if wolves could be paired male to male, it would have happened before, and we would have heard of it.”

“And I think it has happened, and they're just keeping quiet about it.”

Kiba rolled his eyes, and glanced at Naruto. “You know she wants to set up a gay werewolf dating site,” he said.

“Werewolves are so backwards in their heteronormativity,” Sakura said. “Look at vampires, they've been screwing anything that moves for years, regardless of gender, and it hasn't hurt them.”

“Don't let my mother hear you say that,” Naruto said. “Besides, vampires don't mate for life. And they feed off sex; when you're hungry I doubt the gender of the meal is really going to be an issue. It's completely different for us.”

“Yeah, with the woman at home taking care of the cubs. You know, female werewolves still do this? If a vampire tried to make his wife or whatever be a full time mother against her will, she'd snap his neck.”

Naruto glanced at Kiba to see if he knew the source of this rant.

“Sakura's been talking to some vampires,” he said. “It wasn't intentional, we just decided to go to a bar on the other side of the river, because why not? It's stupid to have this whole our side your side thing stopping us from going to certain parts of the town. Only it turned out this was a vampire bar...”

“They're not actually that different from us,” Sakura interjected.

Naruto held his arm's up as if to fend them off. “Hey, I'm not my mother, I don't care if you hang out with vampires,” he said. “Though I bet you'd be in so much trouble if you get caught.”

“And how stupid is that?!” Sakura exclaimed. “We used to be friends, but because of a few bad vampires everything went crazy, and we've been holding a grudge for years, and no one really knows why.”

if his mother was there, she would have a grudge list as long as his tail, but Naruto couldn't be bothered to dredge it up. In a way, he agreed with Sakura. The feud was stupid, but what could they do? Most of the werewolves felt like his mother, and he was sure that if he asked the vampires, they would say the same thing. Maybe Kiba and Sakura had found a few like minded vampires, but the rest no doubt had their fangs as firmly in the grudge as the wolves did.

“Well, this kind of brings us to why we came to see you,” Kiba said, suddenly looking awkward.

“You mean you didn't come to see me to welcome me back after years away?”

“Well, that too. But mainly it was because we...well...”

“There's a party at the Uchiha mansion tonight, and we're going to crash it,” Sakura said.

Naruto stared at her. “What?”

“There's a party at the Uchiha-”

“No, I mean why? Why would we do that? We could be killed if they find out who we are, it could start the fighting all over again.”

Sakura sighed and shook her head as if he was a slightly dull child who just couldn't understand simple maths. “Naruto, that is exactly the sort of thinking we're trying to stop. It's ridiculous to spilt a whole town by species because of something that happened a hundred years ago. We need to approach the vampires, properly. The peace treaty we have with them now is ludicrous; we should be working together. So I was thinking if you came with us, and saw how similar we are, then you could help me to petition the elders to approach the vampires again with a renewed treaty that scraps the boarders, and the segregation.”

“Also, I've heard vampire parties are hot. They have orgies and all sorts. Obviously I wouldn't participate in an orgy,” Kiba added as Sakura glared at him, “but Naruto could.”

Naruto glanced between his friends. He shouldn't, not really. It was a mistake, and they could get into a lot of trouble. If the vampires didn't kill them the other wolves might. But the risk had his blood pumping in a way it hadn't for years. They could get in trouble, but only if they got caught. Besides, he'd lived in the town all his life, apart from his years abroad, and he had never so much as crossed the river. He was curious, curious to see the vampire side of town, and maybe even find the source of the scent that had been captivating him for years.

Naruto grinned. “Ok, let's crash the party,” he said.

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Sasuke leaned against a pillar watching the party, and contemplated going to bed. Alone. He was bored; bored of the music, the alcohol, the sex. He was even bored of the taste of blood. Everything was flavoured with a frustrating ennui that made him want to curl up somewhere for a few centuries. Normally he enjoyed his parents' parties; the taste of sex and the smell of blood in the air. He would stay up until the dawn and go to bed sated, but recently he was just...bored. He could see why some vampires went on crazy killing sprees; anything to get rid of the crushing boredom of living forever and doing nothing. Maybe if he was a lesser vampire they would at least let him leave for a while, but he was an Uchiha, and Uchiha did not leave their land.

Sasuke snorted under his breath. God forbid that the werewolves finally got the territory they had been growling about for years. Not that he would ever say that, and certainly not to his father, who would go into a rage at the very mention of the word wolf. Maybe that was why his ancestors had started fighting the wolves in the first place, they were just bored.

“Sasuke.”

He turned at the sound of his name, to see Karin, Suigetsu and Juugo.

“You need to eat something,” Karin said. “If you don't fancy fucking, there are humans here, too.”

“Thanks, but I think I'll manage,” Sasuke replied, hoping they would go away. That wasn't like him, either. He had already turned them away once tonight; judging from their dishevelled states they had spent the last hour or so fucking, which was the only way vampires could feed from each other. It was also the main reason why vampires weren't monogamous, as it was quite hard to have sex and not feed. And why they were very careful when feeding off of humans. The last thing they needed was a dead human to justify the werewolves dislike of them.

Karin bit her lip, as if she was tempted to push further, but she let the other two lead her away. Sasuke sighed. He liked Karin; if nothing else, she was one of the very few vampires who could shape shift. Sasuke only knew of two others; her cousin Nagato and himself. Nagato was a bit weird, though, so if Sasuke wanted to go for a run, Karin was the one who went with him. Not that he got to that much; his father hated his ability. He always said that they risked the wolves finding out. Once, when he was high on spiked blood he had insisted that Sasuke was no better than a filthy wolf, never mind that his animal form was a black panther. Not that his father had ever seen it, or even cared to.

Sasuke sighed. He longed for the party to be over. Maybe he should just sneak away, shift into his panther form and stalk through the grounds, maybe even go beyond the grounds. Maybe he should leave and just run and run and run. But he didn't think that that would make anything better. He felt hollow inside, like he was missing something significant, and recently the feeling had become worse. And there was that strange scent; he had always thought that he could smell it because of his panther, but Karin had never been able to scent it. It had started maybe thirty or so years ago, and he noticed it whenever he went down to the river; a delicious smell, warm, and sweet, like the moonlight, but hotter. It had gone away for a while, but when Sasuke had woken up that evening and gone down to the river it was back.

And the longing to sink his fangs into it was deeper than ever. He wondered if that was what had him in a strange mood. It was probably just a bakers; he had never eaten cake, but he had been told it was good. Maybe he was just yearning after cake.

Sasuke pushed himself away from the pillar, shaking his head at his own foolishness, then paused, struck by the strange scent, but a million times stronger. Sasuke glanced around the room to see if anyone else had smelled it. No one seemed effected; no one seemed to have noticed it. Sasuke begun to wonder something, but then stopped. Frozen, his eyes met a pair of blue ones across the room, and the world seemed to stop. The thought he had had faded as if it had never been as those blue eyes and that scent pulled him in coherent thought vanished, and all he knew was want; desperate want for the man standing across the room from him.

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Naruto didn't know if it was Sakura's connections, or if vampire security really was that lax, but it was incredibly easy to get into the party; they literally walked through the front door.

Inside, Naruto immediately realised that this was unlike any party he had ever been to. Werewolf parties, by and large, were child friendly. This wasn't. There were plenty of humans present; blood donors, Naruto assumed. And they were dressed provocatively, as if to display their wares. Naruto remembered that blood was not the only source of sustenance to vampires. Obviously the humans knew this too. Several of the girls in particular had him feeling quite cold with how much they weren't wearing. The music was heavy and bassy, the sort of music that you felt pumping through your body. It wasn't too loud, vampire hearing being as acute as werewolves', but it was definitely a tangible presence.

They passed a couple who were either dancing or copulating; it could have been either, and Naruto didn't want to look to closely in case it was the latter.

“Toto, we are definitely not in Kansas any more,” Kiba murmured to him.

Sakura vanished into the crowd, obviously having found her vampire friends. “Are you ok with her being alone here?” Naruto asked.

Kiba shrugged. “She's probably safer than we are,” he replied.

“Comforting, thanks,” Naruto murmured to him. He sort of wished he hadn't come. He had almost turned back a couple of times, except the scent was back, and it was stronger. He was almost certain that it came from this house somewhere, which was slightly disturbing. Why would something he wanted so badly be in the middle of a nest of vampires?

He leaned against a pillar and scanned the room, hoping that there wasn't any obvious blood drinking going on. He paused as his eyes locked with a pair of dark ones across the room, and every thing seemed to stop. The music muted, as if he were listening to it underwater, and suddenly he was hyper aware of the pounding of his pulse. He knew this feeling, had been searching for it for his whole life, but had never thought that he would find it here.

The man standing across the room from him, wide eyed, was his mate.

Naruto had known that if he really had a mate, he would be male. He hadn't expected him to be anything other than wolf. And he doubted that his mate was a wolf, not in the middle of a group of wolf hating vampires. Any wolf who willingly did that must be a moron. Like me. Or a prisoner; his mate wasn't shackled. So maybe human? It had happened before. Not that it mattered; he was Naruto's mate, and that was all that mattered. He took a step forward, every particle of his being clamouring for him to claim his mate.

Kiba's hand on his arm stopped him. He turned and snarled at his best friend.

“Whoa! What's your problem?” Kiba demanded, backing away.

“That's my mate,” Naruto replied, before starting off again.

“Damn, I guess Sakura wins,” Kiba muttered.

Naruto didn't hear him, he was too focused on his mate.

Sakura appeared at Kiba's shoulder, nibbling on a sausage from the buffet set up for the human guests. “What do I win?” She asked.

“The bet. Naruto's mate is male.”

“Naruto's mate is here? Where?”

Kiba gestured to where the blond was about to accost the dark haired man up against the pillar at the other end of the room. “There,” he said. “The pale one...the pale one next to Naruto.”

Sakura looked where he was pointing, and blanched to a vampiric hue herself. “No, he can't be Naruto's mate.” She said.

Kiba frowned at her. “What do you mean? I thought you would be jumping up and down for joy?"

“Idiot; that is Sasuke Uchiha. He's like the closest thing to vampire royalty here, and the direct descendant of Madara. Kiba, this can't be right. He can't have a vampire mate.”
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A Rose By Any Other Name