Author's note: Oh god, I've missed the Naruto fandom. So much. I hope nothing's changed!

I've been having such a huge kick of overdone story ideas - I want to take all the cliche plots that everyone's tried, and give them my own spin. I don't mind if I'm not 100 percent original, as long as I offer something original. And I really hope you think I've delivered on that. I've spent a good deal of time making this idea of vampire-ness different from most. There's surprisingly little magic involved.

I was also, back when I started this, going through a bizarre phase of being obsessed with colour-blindness, which is why it's a rather large feature in this story. I almost called it Blind because of it.

I've been dying to get this vampire fic out into the world; I started it pre-Twilight, would you believe. Then I kind of got sad because vampires were everywhere and I worried people would think I was trying to copy Twilight, or at least metaphorically cash in on it. Then, five years later, I realised that vampires are still freaking awesome and I want mine to be uploaded for all to see.

Sorry about the dodgy prologue. Exactly zero of the other chapters have this painful description-to-dialogue ratio. I love writing dialogue.

Prologue

Back when he was alive, people called Sasuke Uchiha one of the most good-looking young men they had ever seen. While he wasn't particularly prone to giving compliments, he was more than willing to accept them. Even if he didn't show it, he took great pleasure in knowing that he had something nobody else did, something that made him special.

However, now that he was mostly invisible to human eyes, he didn't get so many compliments on his appearance. It was disappointing. But that didn't mean that he was no longer special.

He was walking along a high-end street in the very late evening, strangers occasionally passing him but never noticing him. He only gave each of them a brief glance before dismissing them from his mind. They weren't important. Humans never were. They were nothing more than an unfortunate necessity: a selfish, ignorant food source.

"Sasuke."

He flicked his gaze upwards – the voice had been quiet, but he had no trouble noticing that it came from a rooftop above him. He kept walking.

"You can't ignore me." The voice was now right behind him. "You're not supposed to be here."

Sasuke just shrugged. He wasn't feeling threatened. It was against every law they had for vampires not to fight other vampires, so he was quite safe – not that anyone could take him, anyway.

He was a vampire, but that alone wasn't enough to make him special; he was also the One, and that meant he didn't have to follow the rules. Whether the other vampires liked it or not.

"Sasuke Uchiha, if you're going to disregard the law, then so am I. I will knock you out and drag you back under if you make me."

He actually snorted at that, unable to stay composed. "Temari, a little bit of security training doesn't make you as tough as you think you are. Go home and look after your brothers, or that boyfriend you picked up. Shikamaru, right? He's a little young for you."

"I will break you." Temari's voice was full of poison. The two had never particularly been fans of each other, which was hard for her, since everybody else was a fan of Sasuke. Also difficult was the fact that she was at least four hundred years his senior, and that meant nothing to him. He just had no sense of authority, no acknowledgement for those above him.

"You can't touch me."

"What part of this don't you get? It doesn't matter how special you are, you're not allowed to kill anyone tonight. You weren't sent on any mission. If I hurt you, the Elders will back me up completely."

"Go back to your boyfriend, Temari," Sasuke said again, very scornfully. "If you were a bit more competent, you'd have realised that it's completely legal for me to be here. Look at me – I'm depleted. I haven't hunted in two years. And in an emergency, anybody's allowed up here."

He was right, of course. Sasuke always had an answer for everything. It didn't mean Temari had to like it.

"You didn't tell anyone you were coming."

"I forgot. Sue me."

Sasuke watched her seethe for a moment before she vanished into the night. He continued walking, satisfied that he was now properly alone. He was searching for a victim, a very specific sort of human: one that he felt ought to die.

Midnight came and went, and he finally found someone: a boy, no more than twenty-one, with large clothes and a heavy-looking backpack ambling along the pavement in a sleepy daze. Sasuke watched the boy carefully, coming closer, matching his pace.

His hair appeared a very light shade of grey, which Sasuke's brain instantly transposed to blonde. Colour was a benefit that only living people had, for the most part. But he had been doing this for a long time, and he knew the colours for what they really were. There were a lot of luxuries that only normal humans got to experience, but Sasuke didn't miss them. If you weighed up the good and the bad parts of being a vampire, the good clearly won out. He was powerful beyond anyone's wildest dreams, and that made the sacrifices worth it.

The blonde boy shuffled quickly along the pavement, head tilted slightly downward and expression grim. Seeing that expression convinced Sasuke that he had found his next victim. He knew from the sudden burst of anger he felt, the urge to kill not just one human, but every human and every other living thing on Earth. This boy had a grim expression because he thought his life wasn't good. Sasuke would kill him and make him appreciate life. Sasuke may not have needed colour, but he was well aware that life was better than death.

He followed the boy, only inches behind him, but his perfect predator body meant that the boy had no idea he was there. This close, Sasuke could smell the heat of the boy's blood.

Seconds left before he attacked . . . precious seconds . . . in spite of himself, he was quivering with desire. The living could never understand the rush of blood pumping through their veins the vampires craved so much. Drinking blood gave them a brilliant rush of something they didn't have otherwise: life. Blood brought them back to life. The adrenaline of being alive, even for the briefest of moments, was what kept them clutching wildly at their existence when by all natural rights they should have been gone. It was the final act of desperation, of illusion, even though Sasuke would never admit to feeling desperate.

His speed was admirable. The instant the boy approached near an alleyway, Sasuke threw out an arm and caught him by the throat. Unable to see Sasuke, the boy was unable to defend himself. They staggered off the main road down the alley, where no one could see what happened next.

"What the hell!" the boy yelled. He still couldn't see Sasuke, and everyone responded the same way to being attacked by an invisible force.

Sasuke leaned right up to the boy's ear. "Hello."

The boy obviously heard him, and freaked out completely: also what all victims did. Sasuke enjoyed taunting them. This one swung his arms around in a desperate attempt to hit him, but he missed terribly.

"Try again," Sasuke taunted.

"Just what the hell are you?" the boy hollered, panic permeating every word. "Just take whatever you want!"

He certainly gave up quickly. Oh well, they couldn't all be brave. And Sasuke was almost losing his self-control anyway, so maybe it was time to end the tussle. Sasuke wrenched the boy onto the ground and slammed his head down hard enough that he must have been seeing stars. Limp now, the boy had no defence against what was to come.

Sasuke decided to take his time as he bit down into the boy's neck. Usually it was recommended that they target the armpit or the thigh – less overt places, but still with ample blood flow – but Sasuke enjoyed the occasional theatrics of pretending to be a 'classic' vampire. Being less inclined to follow the rules, he was able to keep up with human society, learn their popular culture and societal changes. Human ideas of vampires had changed, but not much, and the level of accuracy had remained pretty much the same.

Physically, people knew exactly what vampires were like: stronger, faster than humans could ever be, ghastly pale (to those who could see them), but otherwise looking as normal as anyone.

Mentally, though, vampires were always depicted as savages, agents free of any authority but their own urges; that couldn't have been more wrong. Their hierarchy was one of the smallest and strictest in existence. They were very, very organised.

Sasuke felt the boy's blood beginning to enter his system, warming him from the inside out. It was like a healing force, trying its best to turn him human again. The more he drank, the more his body tried to replicate life: sepia tones began to worm their way into his vision, and he knew that within minutes he would be able to see in full colour again, if only for a little while. Also, his skin would have flushed, making him momentarily visible to anyone who passed them right now.

Soon, the blonde boy was virtually dead. Technically Sasuke's poison had just paralysed his movement, but without blood there wasn't much that could be done for him.

There was only one thing left for Sasuke to do, and it was the most troublesome step of the hunting process. He considered just leaving the body here to create a stir, but even he didn't want to break the rules that badly. The law said that any victim needed to be brought before the Council of Elders for a trial, to determine whether they were a suitable candidate for the conversion process – becoming a vampire themselves. Most people failed and were left to die a seizing, bloodless death. But sometimes . . . sometimes they had something the Elders wanted. Something the small vampire community needed.

Scornfully, Sasuke draped the boy over his shoulders and walked away from his crime scene. He exclusively selected the most useless victims he could find, preferring to watch them sentenced to death than to recruit them. As far as he was concerned, they didn't need more vampires. They were strong enough.

This one had nothing the vampire community needed, and it would be a pleasure to watch him die.

Author's note: This Sasuke is a bit of a brat. Well, he has spent the last three hundred years having people tell him he's Vampire Jesus. He's bound to get a swell head.