Naruto 1. First Impressions

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any patented brands mentioned in this fic.

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**First Impressions **

"Target sighted."

The spandex-clad slayer muffled his voice with a palm around his mouthpiece and kept a steady gaze towards the makeshift fire. Four still silhouettes sat around it, their shadows on the ground mimicking that of the tombstones around them. The flickering flames were the only sources of light that night, and the bright spot's contrast against the stark darkness of the new moon had attracted the slayer squad's attention. "It looks like they haven't sensed us yet."

"Look at them," another voice hissed. "So pathetic they have to rely on newly-buried corpses for blood. They must be young ones; the older vampires usually hunt alone."

"So… our usual attack formation?"

"Yeah, that should be more than enough for _these_ low-lifes. Let's get 'em good!"

Sakura rolled her eyes at her fellow hunters' eagerness. "How can you guys be so energetic about this? It's two in the morning and the vampires aren't strong. Their aura is practically nonexistent. This is such a dull hunting session."

"What do you mean? Of course we should be psyched- four steps closer to making Konoha a vamp-free zone."

She snorted. Naruto's melodramatic side always showed during hunt sessions.

"You guys ready?" Lee asked.

"All set here," she murmured while fingering her ammo in a container strapped on her back.

"YOSH!" Lee screamed, forgetting to damper his volume. "I'll make Gai-sensei proud!"

"Shut up!" The other two hissed at him simultaneously. "They'll hear you!"

Too late.

Four pairs of gleaming red eyes swerved towards the bushes where Lee and Naruto were crouched so fast that Sakura could have sworn at least two of them just got whiplash.

If vampires could get whiplash. Could they? …Moving on.

The vampires audibly sniffed the air, and Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the display. They couldn't sense human aura, and they had to rely on smell? Pathetic.

"Humans," one hissed. All of them grinned. The unspoken term rang through the air.

Blood.

And then, before the hunters could execute their plan of jumping out and taking the vampires by surprise, they pounced.

Having used this particular offensive pattern several times in the past, Naruto and Lee each engaged two vampires in a battle. The key to the whole attack was that their sniper, Sakura, remained hidden during the battle to shoot at the vampires while Naruto and Lee provided ample distraction. And remain hidden she did as she crouched on her tree branch, searching for an opening.

Kunai gleaming orange in the firelight clashed with armguards and daggers that the vampires had produced. The reflections off the weapons were blinding, but the sparks allowed her to see the battle locations clearer.

None of the vampires had noticed her yet, so that was her cue to _make_ them notice her. She reached behind her with her right hand to snatch an arrow out of the quiver strapped to her back. Her left hand clutched her sleek silver crossbow, which she loaded with an arrow and aimed towards Lee's opponent.

Wait, Lee's _opponent_?

That was strange; she could have sworn he was fighting two. She didn't see any dramatic bursts of flames yet, as was custom when a vampire perished, so Lee had yet to kill one.

Maybe the vampire defected to Naruto's battle.

She turned towards his direction. Nope. The firelight only showed three individuals where he was battling- Naruto himself and two pale vampires. She couldn't get a clear look though; all three were moving so fast.

Assuming that the missing vampire was escaping, she swept the area, and located his flare of chakra further away from the fire, closer to Lee's battle. Strangely, he wasn't moving. Just… observing.

She grinned. Surely he wasn't so cocky that he'd risk his life (er. Unlife?) to watch a simple battle? Vampires sure were getting arrogant these days- maybe Naruto was right.

She lifted her loaded crossbow, and aimed at his heart. Cocking the arrow, she let it fly.

The targeted vampire heard the whistle of a projectile flying towards him, before he actually saw it. Sidestepping just in time the vampire avoided a potentially lethal hit. The blessed arrow missed its intended mark, his ribcage, and grazed his left arm instead.

The wound it tore was small, but it distracted him and, momentarily, his actual aura was unmasked. Startled, he vanished into the darkness of the maze of tombstones.

Sakura, surprised that dodged the arrow, paled at the burst of energy released in the moments he let his guard down. Immediately, she loaded her crossbow again and backed up against the tree, to avoid an ambush. She knew that as soon as the vampire tended his wound, he'd be back for blood. Her blood.

"Sakura, Naruto, do you copy?" Lee whispered into the microphone attached to the headset on his ears. "I just felt a huge burst of chakra two kilometers west from where I'm standing."

"Copy that," Sakura whispered back shakily. "That was the vampire that hung back from fighting. I must have surprised him with my attack- he dropped his guard and revealed his true chakra." This was bad. This particular vampire was way stronger then what they'd expected. Tonight was only supposed to be light hunting with young vampires. If they'd known that they would be facing an experienced one, they would have bought heavier artillery and more slayers.

"Are the others are masking their aura, too?" Lee asked.

"No, I just finished one off easily. The strong one must have been hiding among the weak for strange some reason." Naruto joined the three-way radio conversation.

"Well what now?"

"Keep your guard up. He's fast." Sakura prepared herself.

* * *

Sasuke hissed with pain as he landed on top of a tombstone away from the battle. 

How could he have been so careless? He knew exactly how. He stereotyped that weak slayers go after weak vampires, so he had dropped his guard. When the hunters attacked, he'd never expected to actually be seen, so he'd stuck around to watch the battle. What a mistake _that_ had been.

Sasuke stuck out his forearm in front of him, and in the moon's glow he could see that it was glistening with liquid. Blood from his recent kill was leaking through the wound.

The slayer had used a blessed arrow. Damn, those wounds take long to heal.

He snorted at himself. He was getting soft, not fighting enough. It was just a small wound, not enough to deter him in battle and definitely not enough to kill him.

Nonetheless, his ego howled for revenge at the stupid slayer. Although the wound wasn't life threatening, it would cause him inconvenience. He would need to find a healer to fully close the tear and would need to feed more often until the wound healed to maintain his blood level.

He ripped a strip of cloth from the hem of his shirt and wrapped it around his arm. He tied and tightened the makeshift tourniquet with his teeth, then teleported back to the battlefield.

He materialized in front of the sniper on the branch and felt the palpable surprise of the human.

The first move Sasuke made was to rip the headset off the slayer; he wanted no distractions in the form of back-up. Then, wasting no time, he lunged for the jugular. The slayer swung around him and backed up a few steps, tethering on the tip of the tree branch. Then he braced his hands and knees against the branch, probably readying a jump for the ground.

Sasuke flipped around the crouching slayer and gracefully pushed him off the tree branch. He jumped down after the falling human and landed next to him. Sasuke pinned him down on the floor with his forearm, and the slayer gasped and writhed, to shake him off. Sasuke reached out with his other hand to press down his chest, but instead of feeling a flat plane under his palm, he felt something soft…

"PERVERT!" a shrill and obviously feminine voice rang from the body under him reverberating through the silent night.

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A/N: I really don't want to spend the story introducing their universe, so my explanations will be sparse after this chapter. If theres anything you don't understand, feel free to ask. 


	2. Life Endangered

**Author's Crap: **Yes! Ladies and Gentlemen, she is _back_. After a half-year break, inspiration has struck (more like boredom). So... here's dedication to everyone who reviewed and everyone who alerted but didn't review.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or Limp Bizkit.

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Life Endangered

Naruto held the phone as far away from his ear as possible. Ten thousand curses on the vampire who groped Sakura 'cause now she was bitching to _him_. Like it was his fault the leech mistaken her for a guy.

"-and _then _the coward teleports away. I wanna rip his dead heart out, cook it into stew and force feed it to him! That BASTARD-"

Naruto's abused ear and heavy eyelids were telling him that an hour of Sakura's complaining was fifty-nine minutes too long. He kept trying to get a word in about the late time, and how they had school tomorrow, but she was like a freaking steam engine. She just kept going and going- honestly, she must have broken some kind of record for the most threats used in one phone call.

Naruto tried again. "Ah, Sakura-chan maybe you could save this for tomorrow?" The silence on the other end of the phone was like the moment of quiet right before the nuclear bomb hits the ground. He jabbed the disconnect button before Mt. Haruno blew its top and tried not to think of the next day.

* * *

Sakura fumed in bed. 

He hung up on her. He fucking hung up on her right in the middle of her perfectly delivered vampire-castration/murder/torture/all of the above-speech.

She slammed the phone back onto its receiver and slid under the covers. Her hand throbbed from being released from its hour-long phone-gripping position. Her arm stung where the vampire punched her. Her shoulder had a laceration where he ripped a piece of her shirt off. And lastly her b-… lets not go there.

She stared out her window into the night and silently swore that if she ever saw the offending leech again, she was going to punch him so hard his mother would feel it.

* * *

Sasuke sneezed. Rubbing his nose, he returned to brooding. 

For the first time in his life, someone other then his master had physically hurt him. Usually, slayers didn't even come close to touching him- especially not female slayers. Sure, the gender-confusion thing threw him a little off but he still shouldn't't have let his guard down.

He looked at the slit on his arm that still had not healed and swore that he would hunt the slayer down and fix his mistake- namely, letting her live. What he didn't know was that she was making the same vow to him that very second.

* * *

Sakura threw her book bag on her couch and plopped down. Rummaging for her remote, she turned on the T.V. 

It had been two eventless school days since the graveyard incidence and she had yet to break her vow- it's just that she hadn't't found him yet. Said vampire was ruling her mind's every waking moment and the people in her life were beginning to notice. In school, her teachers scolded her for her inattentiveness. Her parents complained that she was calling them less.

Her friends though, especially Naruto and Lee, knew what was wrong and commented that revenge was taking over her life. They even got their Squad Captain to force her to take a vacation for the next few nights.

"_You can't let a personal grudge against one vampire affect your work,_" Sakura mimicked Captain Kakashi with a ridiculously high voice. So what if she was slaying bit more brutality? It's not like she was taking her grudge against that _one perverted vampire who deserved a fate worse then death_ out on others. Besides, the undead all go the same place when they die anyway… but if they are _un_dead when they live doesn't that mean they're half dead already? So when they die they'd be un_live_?

...She was too bored.

Today was her second night off and she still had nothing to do. Because of her usual slayer activities, she had few extracurriculars. Hinata, her roommate and healer, was working part-time at a local vet clinic, so there was no one to talk to either.

Sakura decided to get some fresh air; there was nothing good on T.V anyway. She grabbed a jacket and her keys and walked outside into the hallway shared by the three other occupants of her floor. After climbing down four flights of stairs, she leaned into a relaxed position and walked.

"Hey Sakura nee-san!" a boy yelled from behind. She turned around to see a familiar face running towards her and waited until the boy ran up to her. "Where ya going?" the boy asked. He looked around her, "and where's Naruto nii-san? You're supposed to always be with him- isn't he your boyfriend?" Konohamaru's eyes turned wide at the thought of the forbidden topic.

Sakura cringed slightly, but in good humor. It was true that Naruto and her were seen more with each other than without. "Hey, Konohamaru. I don't know where Naruto is, and I'm taking a walk," she replied. "Do you want to come along?"

"Nah, I have to run some errands for Okaa-san. See you later!"

"Oh, later then," Sakura continued walking when she realized she missed a question. "For the record," she shouted at Konohamaru's diminishing back, "He is _not_ my boyfriend."

Ah, the cliché denial line that is used in most dramas (and fanfictions) to date.

That kid was always looking up to Naruto- he was one of the few who showed her slayer partner respect. Sakura continued her way out of the neighborhood, entering the outskirts of town. She kept walking until she realized she was at her favorite place in town- the railroad tracks. Other people her age might enjoy loosening up at Starbucks or local clubs but she preferred the smell of air pollution and metal to coffee beans and sweat. She sat down on a nearby rock and closed her eyes with contentment.

She loved to get away from the bustle of her busy town and felt at peace with bright tiger lilies on one side and long winding tracks on the other. She laid back on her rock and let her mind drift away.

* * *

Sasuke tightened the bandage on his arm over the burning cut that was hurting more and more by day. Whatever kind of water that arrow was purified in; it was one hell of an annoyance. His stomach sent out a wave of nausea reminding him he needed to feed. 

He paid these minor pains no attention; they would be taken care of after he killed the slayer. He grabbed the piece of cloth he had ripped from the slayer's shirt while sparring and smirked wickedly. Today was the day that he corrected his mistake.

He teleported from his flat to a richly decorated greeting hall.

He paid the plush carpet, authentic paintings, and breathtaking view of Paris no attention though. In his opinion, such materialism in a vampire was embarrassing. Anyone with an extended life and supernatural abilities could make money, but few showed it off like Kiba.

"Enjoying my little brother's personally designed hall? I think it reflects his personality a lot, actually." A woman with red markings on her face materialized behind Sasuke.

"Hana," Sasuke greeted while fingering the cloth. "Is Kiba in his room? I need a favor."

"He's upstairs playing with his dog. What do you need from him?"

Sasuke disappeared before she could ask.

Sasuke materialized in front of Kiba's door and knocked. "Dog-breath, open the door. I need some help."

It was common courtesy not to materialize in another vampire's private territory, but since Kiba shared the mansion with his sister (who opened the front hall to all guests) only Kiba's room was technically "private".

The door opened to a rather feral face. The sounds of bad guitar rifting and a wild voice belching out 'move in and move out, hands up now hands down' were amplified. "Yeah, you definitely need help, but I'm no shrink. You might wanna go pro." Kiba smiled at his brilliant comeback.

"I need you to track the owner of this," Sasuke said bluntly, holding out the cloth.

"What, no please and thank you? You were raised with better manners."

Sasuke scowled slightly. "Just do it. You owe me a favor anyway from that dog-pound accident."

Kiba's snide expression turned defensive as he stepped into the hall. "Hey, it wasn't my fault that they all escaped! I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time-"

"-and somehow you ended up in court with a dire need of a lawyer. Anyway, just track it." Sasuke shoved the scrap of fabric at Kiba.

Kiba reeled slightly from the force of Sasuke's push. "Jeez, aggressive much?" he muttered and handed the black scrap to Akamaru. The dog sniffed it and barked.

Kiba nodded at Sasuke and all three disappeared from the room. The sounds of nu-metal fell into the background and Kiba's decorated hall melted into the darkness.

Sasuke followed Kiba's aura and landed on a set of railroad tracks. He adjusted his weight on the tracks, and masked his aura. The sky here was much darker than in Paris due to time zones and the two vampires' senses were increased ten-fold in the dark. Sasuke picked up on the slayer's aura immediately.

"Thanks, you can go now." Sasuke dictated, wanting to dismiss Kiba as soon as possible. There was going to be a murder tonight and Sasuke didn't intend on sharing any of the blood. The slayer's life belonged to him- he held blood claim.

Kiba at him with curious eyes that widened slightly at Sasuke's wicked smirk. He wasn't going to be told twice though. With a "Whatever dude", Akamaru and Kiba vanished.

Sasuke walked down the railroad, one foot in front of another and hands in pockets, towards the slayer's spiritual energy. With his sharp eyesight, he spotted her sprawled on a rock one o'clock north. She was asleep, but he preferred not to take chances.

After glancing around and making sure there were no night strollers around, he transformed into a small wolf pup. Attention-grabbing, he knew, but practical. His arm throbbed, and he ignored it. He stalked towards her almost gloating with taste of revenge.

He would correct his little mistake. He would destroy the thing that hurt him. He would destroy his weaknesses.

Sasuke closed in on the girl on the rock on all fours until he was only a few meters away from her rock. He could hear a distant rumbling in the background behind him and feel a acerbic pain on his arm but he paid them no attention. He could only think of the satisfaction he would have when her sweet slayer blood filled his hungry belly. He bent his front paws to pounce and extended his claws when a blinding burst of pain racked through his body from the gash on his arm. It pounded through his empty veins fueled by his hunger and paralyzed his legs, forcing him on his stomach.

The rumbling was getting louder now, and Sasuke realized that it was a train coming straight for him. He tried to roll off the tracks, but he couldn't shift his weight due to the paralysis. Another excruciating wave of pain and he was near unconscious. Bracing himself and tensing his body, Sasuke utilized his vampiric line of defense. He hardened his muscles and braced for impact.

The impact came with the suddenness of a blade sinking into flesh. Sasuke was unconscious before the rebound that sent his body flying off the tracks.

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**AN:** Ooh, the suspense (insert music)! Will Sasuke live? Will Sakura wake up? When will their relationship _finally_ start? Will I finally break my Bubble Tea addiction? Find out in the next chapter! … Uh, not the Bubble Tea thing. Reviews and constructive feedback and plot bunnies welcome. 


	3. Bite Back

**Bite Back**

Stirring slightly, Sakura rolled over on her bolder and winced. Her position was awkward to say the least, with half her torso flat on the bolder, and her legs dangling off. Having maintained the position for so long, her stomach felt uncomfortably stretched.

She swore to herself she would never sleep like that again. Wistfully, she stretched and climbed off her rock. Judging by the rapidly darkening sky, it was time to go home.

Hearing her knees crack as she stood up, she adopted slower gait. It was breezy, and she wrapped her jacket tighter around herself. She trudged back towards the street that led into town, staring at the sky above absently.

She felt her foot nudge something. Looking down, she saw a patch of fur. She recoiled slightly at the sight of the roadkill. Poor thing, it was probably hit by a train.

She was about to continue her way home when she saw the pseudo- dead animal stir slightly. Incredulous, she took a closer look. It was a dark grey in color, almost black, and she could make out a pointed snout. Her gaze traveled down the powerful neck to the chest, and she started in surprise when it rose with shallow breath.

Alarmed, Sakura dug into her pockets for her gloves. Snapping them on, she ignored all the warnings flashing through her mind (Germs! Maggots! Rabies!) and shoveled the dog onto her arms. Then she sprinted towards home, praying that Hinata hadn't taken a double shift.

* * *

"-stabilized. It'll be fine after a few days- a medical miracle you can say."

"Thank God I didn't step on it. I though it was roadkill..."

Sasuke heard their voices before he saw them. Resisting the impulse to roll onto his back (and off the stomach that was _killing_ him), he kept his eyes closed and checked his body for injuries. Surprisingly, there were none. He was only sore.

He flinched a little when the door shut with a thud. He felt one presence leave the vicinity, and the other enter his room.

"Now, what am I going to do with you?"

Sasuke started when he heard her voice, thinking that she could sense his consciousness. He tensed, preparing to spring at the possible attacker. She was drawing closer. He could tell by the concentrating smell of slayer blood.

"You poor thing, getting hit by a train... I wonder who owns you." Sasuke, too tense to really hear what she was saying, measured her steps. He relaxed when he felt her move away.

He flickered open one bleary eye to her back, and swiveled an ear lazily. She was rummaging through her drawers.

Suddenly, she swerved. "Oh, you're awake." Sasuke, realizing it was too late to fake sleep, slid into the suspicious temperament of a street dog. He would take the opportunity to assess his situation.

"Here, let me feel that arm of yours." The girl, who supported a head of startling pink hair that he hadn't noticed in the dim light of the graveyard, lifted him up with relative ease. Sasuke felt her lift his front paw and squeeze at his leg bone. Reflexively, he swiped at her hand, pleased when he drew blood.

She hissed. "Ow! Why you ungrateful..." She trailed off as she got up from the bed, dropping Sasuke in the process.

Then, she seemed to realize something. "Hey, what exactly are you? You seem too big to be a street dog."

She lunged at him again, but this time Sasuke was prepared. He leaped off the bed, soaring through her outstretched arms and making a beeline (dog-line?) for the door. Too bad he didn't see her pivoting the bed, so he smacked into her leg.

She pinned him down with her torso on the bed, grunting. Sasuke, dizzy from the impromptu aerobatics and her stifling scent of magic, relaxed. His stomach started to ached again.

He flinched when she abruptly pulled back his upper lip, baring his canine.

"Whoa! Your teeth are huge! You must be a wolf or a cross-breed." She shook her head to herself. "Let this be a lesson to you, Sakura. Never pick up stray animals off the street. They won't always be runaway house pets."

Using her hand to push herself back up, she hissed when the scratch marks opened again.

"I've should get this sanitized."

Sasuke, who was still sprawled on the bed, watched her exit.

* * *

Sakura muttered to herself as she left her room, making sure to shut the door. She didn't want a wolf rummaging through her kitchen, or her bedroom for that matter, but that couldn't be helped. Honestly, what was she thinking, bringing a stray _wolf _into her house.

She was only glad that Hinata was an accepting roommate who tolerated her late-night hunts, obscene groceries, hoards of laundry, and now apparently, bringing wild animals home.

She pushed the door to the bathroom open with her good hand, and opened the cabinet behind her mirror. She found the bottle of rubbing alcohol almost immediately because Hinata had just used it on the stray canine. Sakura plucked out an oversized band-aid and a cotton pad.

While pouring alcohol on the pad, she glanced out the bathroom at her bedroom door. It was shut. Good.

She snapped the lid back on and returned the bottle to the cabinet. Then, gritting her teeth, she sanitized the scratch marks with the cotton pad. When the stinging subsided, she opened and applied the adhesive bandage.

After cleaning up after herself, she exited the bathroom and picked up a sweatshirt she had hazardously thrown on the floor that morning. Sakura walked back towards her room, mentally listing things that needed to be taken care of before she turned in for the night.

Laundry in basket, check. Heater turned to 70 degrees, check. Keys in basket near door, check. Strange man on her bed, check. Windows closed-

Wait a second. She backtracked.

Since when was there a guy sitting on her bed? Where was the wolf.

It was when she walked into her bedroom that it hit her- the immense, suffocatingly dark aura.

The dog was a vampire shapeshifter.

Immediately, alarms went off in her head. Only strong vampires could bear to be in slayer territory, and only the strongest of the strong could shapeshift and suppress aura.

She darted towards her crossbow on the desk, manuvering around her bed.

The man moved faster than she could blink. Before she had taken even a step, he was in front of her. He slammed the door shut and pinned her against it.

Sakura, drawing magic to her fists, prepared to punch the vampire into the next millennium when he swiped up her wrists with one hand and pinned them above her head in a ridiculous position.

Sakura glared up defiantly into her captor's face, and briefly felt her breath hitch at his beauty.

Midnight-colored strands of hair fell around his face in a raggedy manner. His eyes were of the deepest cobalt, rimmed with black. High cheekbones swept into a aristocratic nose. His chin was pointed, and Sakura knew without looking that the rest of his being was perfect too.

So perfect, in fact, that he couldn't possibly be human.

Sakura, regaining her wit in a second, felt all of her slayer training rush through her head. Aim for the stomach and the head. Avoid hand-to-hand combat. Well, the stomach thing she could do, but hand-to-hand at this point was a given. With this in mind, she swung her back her leg, preparing to knee him in the solar plexus.

He maneuvered around her and pressed flatly against her in a moment, hindering all movement.

He grinned down at her, and even with their close distance, she could feel no breath fanning her face.

It only further served as a reminder that no matter now beautiful this man was, he was not human.

After all, he probably caught half of his prey flaunting his attractiveness.

* * *

Sasuke felt absolutely exhilarated.

Finally, he had that little nuisance of a slayer, the one who had been taunting him for so long in his mind, pinned helplessly against a wall. He could feel her smaller, warmer form press against his front, could feel her blood pulsing a mile a minute under the pad of his thumb.

Yes, her blood, _her blood_.

Just the scent of the sweet liquid drove him mad with hunger, and standing as close as he was to her, Sasuke felt intoxicated.

He couldn't think straight as he lowered his jaws towards the pale, trembling skin of her neck. It looked so thin, so breakable. His fangs dripped with poison at the thought, enough to be fatal.

She squirmed viciously when she realized this, that she might die by his hand on that day. He merely tightened his hold over her wrists and used the hand gripping her throat to pull her chin aside.

One lunge, one scoop of his neck, one clashing of his jaws and that beautiful, red liquid would fill him. He would savor the taste, and the dull throbbing in his stomach would finally cease.

Sasuke pressed his lips to her jugular in a mock kiss. Opening his jaws, he scraped his fangs against her neck. Not harsh enough to draw blood, but forceful enough to still Sakura mid-thrash.

"What- what are you doing?" She stammered. "You can't drink me. My blood's poisonous." She shook in his grip.

Sasuke scoffed. Poor little hunter, too young to have any real experience with the business.

He considered informing her that slayer blood was only poisonous to those too weak to obtain it, just to see the terrified look in her eyes. He wanted to see that hope and that false sense of bravado vanish, wanted to feel her knees tremble.

Leaning into her hair that was inebriating him with it's scent, he whispered ghosts of words into her ear.

"It's over, little slayer. I've got you."

* * *

**A/N: **Yeah! Finally getting somewhere! To all those who put Lamiaphobia on alert, sorry it's been so long. You've probably forgotten what this story is about. XD By the way, is any one else hating this site's new formatting software? I want my old Documents section back, damn it.


	4. Wake

**Wake**

A thick aura dampered her senses, smothering until everything in the scope of her vision hazed over. The bedside lamp visible to her over the top of his shoulder slipped in and out of focus. The room tilted dangerously. She felt sick, like a sailor on a raft in the middle of a stormy sea. Overcome by nausea, Sakura squeezed her eyes shut.

Her heart raced, against her wishes. She was a deer staring down the barrel of the hunter's rifle. Ironically, the tattoo on her back implied the opposite.

Waiting for him to attack was nerve wrecking. Her eyes were still shut, but she didn't want to see.

She hated this. The awful feeling of anticipation mixed with fear settled unpleasantly somewhere in the pit of her stomach, every muscle in her body straining to fight back. The worst part wasn't even the fear.

Guilt and anger, insitgated by her impending death, burned unpleasantly in the back of her throat. She wanted to be strong and stand up for her beliefs. But in the end, she was just another meal, another blood bag for a leech to drain, exactly like the hundreds of other girls before her.

Dying like this was going against her mentor's teaching, the woman who'd never back down, even when faced with the most impossible adversary. What would she think of her student who couldn't even look death in the eye?

_Coward_. The word rang unpleasantly in Sakura's head. How would she face her friends, her family? What would they say, what would Naruto think, knowing that she'd died, yellow faced and honorless? Her slayer tattoo suddenly burned, and a toxic mixture of determination and adrenalin pumped through her veins.

She _had_ to live. This was life or death. Sakura recalled her vow to kill him. He was just another vampire, she told herself. Another bloodsucker for her to strike down. She breathed to calm herself. It didn't matter that the chances of her overpowering him was about as likely as the sun turning green. The important thing, she'd learned, was trying.

The light was a little disorienting when she opened her eyes, but she quickly blinked it away. When her vision cleared, she reaching out and gripped his arms that caged her in. Summoning every ounce of strength, she shoved him back.

He fell back easily, but recovered even faster. Determined not to be trapped against the wall, Sakura stepped around him. His arms shot out and gripped her in place, and she looked up to see him meeting her gaze.

His were easily the most discerning and bizarre eyes she'd ever seen. They were piercingly red and the pupil was surrounded by three tomoe. They were spinning lazily, and the sight was strangely hypnotic. Suddenly, he gripped her tighter, and the tomoe sped up, until they blurred into a circle. She could feel her eyes strain from trying to follow.

She winced and braced herself, expecting some strange vampire ability. A minute passed seeing no movement from the two. Curiously peering up, she saw him furrow his brows, seeming more frustrated by the second. She stayed as coiled and tense as a prisoner on execution day.

Simultaneously, they fell apart, as if both realizing something incredibly stupid had just passed between them. Sakura was confused, having expected the worst. Sasuke looked... dissapointed was the best word.

What was he trying to do? Sakura stayed in a defensive pose. Vaporise her with his glare?

When it seemed he was weireded out, she made the most of the situation and attacked. She was optimistic but not stupid. With reference to her fight with him in the graveyard, she would be lucky to graze him, much less land a hit.

Which was why she was taken aback when her knee connected solidly to his stomach.

He doubled over with the impact, and fell back with pain. Unfortunately, his heel caught on the edge of Sakura's thick carpet which landed him sprawled haphazardly on her bed.

His hair flipped over his face, and he stayed on her bed with his knees hanging off, arms spread and palms facing the ceiling.

Sakura relaxed a bit when it didn't look like he'd be moving soon. And she was all pumped up and ready to die, too. Walking over, the urge to grab his dangling shins and drag until he hit the floor overcame her.

"How uncool," she told him as she hovered over his figure. So much for the creepy 'I've got you, little slayer.'

He made a noise that sounded like a sigh and a groan.

"That was a low blow, you know?"

"Huh?" With the gingerness of a police dog on a minefield, she stepped closer.

"I was hit by a train," Sasuke actually looked ashamed. "Did that escape your memory?"

Actually, it did. In the heat of the moment, she'd completely forgotten that he was really the wolf she'd saved.

He groaned a little and rolled over.

"Sakura! Are you home?" The unmistakenable voice of Hinata, the roommate, sounded muffled and unclear. "Could you get the door? I left my keys."

Oh, shit.

If Hinata saw Sasuke, one of two things could potentially occur. One, Hinata could freak out leading to Sasuke mass murdering the two of them (still a possibility even without Hinata). Or two, Hinata could tell Tsunade in which case Sakura would be put under surveilence, max guards, and other unpleasant circumstances.

"Ghrg," Sakura made an unintelligent noise, as she frantically searched for a place to hide a five foot eleven vampire with the strongest aura she'd ever felt, in her bedroom.

* * *

Nothing could usually shake the stolid Uchiha; the lifetimes he'd spent on planet earth had pretty much shown him everything there was to offer. He'd had plenty of his share of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Which was why he was so surprised when his Sharingan failed him for the first time.

His mesmer, a technique taught through his clan for generations, didn't seem to affect the girl at all. She'd just stared back at him with confusion. Thinking back, he must've looked pretty stupid just staring at her.

"Sakura?" the female called again.

"I'm coming! One second," Sakura called back and threw an unpleasant glance at him. "Can you please leave? I'll get back to you."

Sasuke, whose wonderful day had consisted of getting hit by a train, being treated by a hunter, having his techniques fail him, getting kicked in the exact same spot and falling flat on his ass, didn't feel like complying. He didn't enjoy being tossed aside nonchalantly, and he didn't feel like conviniencing her when he was in such a foul mood. Maybe he was being childish, he was beyond caring.

"I'm not going anywhere," he told her. God, he must have sounded like an _idiot_. After she'd kicked him in the stomach, all traces of his bloodlust fell out the window along with his dignity. But he could still be stubborn. Lord help him, he would be stubborn and uncooperative until he annoyed the hell out of her.

She glared at him. "Look. I don't know what you're problem is, but if my roommate finds out you are here, deep shit will come to the both of us."

"It's really cold out here, Sakura," the female voice chimed in from outside the door. Liar, Sasuke thought. It was a perfectly toasty seventy degrees the last time he was out.

"Oh wait, I got it." The lock of the door clicked open, and he heard the hinge creak.

"Sakura," her roommate's voice was much louder now. "I found my keys. Are you okay? You weren't answering." The clank of keys hitting the table and footsteps sounded. He could feel the vibrations through the mattress.

The panic that filled the Sakura's face was almost comical. Perhaps it was just the lingering humiliation from being gracelessly (and _temporary _he reminded himself) beaten by a girl, but he felt impudent. He thought that her widened eyes, tilted eyebrows, and open mouth slightly resembled a constipated beaver, and he told her as much.

She was not pleased, needless to say, and in the future, when Sasuke looked back to that memory, he would blame the next sequence of humiliating events on his childish impulse to insult her.

With a furious glance at him, now sitting cross legged on her bed (she was pleased to note he was wearing socks but not shoes), she swung his legs fully on the bed with superhuman speed and strength. Then she pulled the comforter (the cute one with the teddy bear print that he was sitting on and _completely_ destroying with his vampire aura under which she could never sleep again) around his body and wrapped him like a log so that he was covered from head to toe. Then she wrestled him into a curled up position and wrapped him up in another set of sheets, sushi-style. She pulled her sheets over _that_ bundle and grabbed her pillow.

Then she climbed on her bed and sat on the whole thing, namely sheets, comforter, and Sasuke.

At this time, Sasuke had no memory of what the scene looked like because he was successfully mummified and shoved into a sarcophagus of cotton sheets, with large boulders weighing him down. Namely Sakura. He had never been so grateful that vampires didn't need oxygen.

"There you are- what are you _doing_? What is that lump on your bed?" Sakura's roommate's voice sounded from the door, and her aura entered drifted in with her. Strangely, her voice sounded very familiar to Sasuke; he could have sworn he'd heard it somewhere before.

"The lump? They're comforters and blankets! I'm… " Sakura seemed to be at a loss for words. Sasuke wasn't really sure since one of his ears was pressed against the mattress while the other was presently located somewhere under Sakura's calf. Or her butt. He wasn't really sure. At least his stomach didn't hurt.

"I'm spring cleaning!" she replied suddenly. "You know, beating the dust out of comforters and such."

Dread filled Sasuke for a split moment. She better not do it. But she did.

Although it was hard to feel through the layers of fabric, he could clearly hear the thumping sound and a faint pounding against his back. She was actually trying to beat the stuffing out of him.

Just as he was debating the option of simply ripping through the sheets, a faint ringing sounded in the room. He felt Sakura's roommate leave the room calling, "Gotta get the cell."

Immediately, he felt the weight on him ease up. A mixture of humiliation and anger caused him to throw the blanket off, and seize her. His stomach had stopped hurting, but his wound, torn open with his tousle, started to seep.

God was he hungry.

* * *

As a medical student, Sakura had memorized of all the chemicals in the human body that caused energy rushes and mood swings, namely hormones and adrenalin. The multihundred paged textbooks and colored diagrams of med school still lingered under the recesses of her mind. What she didn't learn in medic school though, was the inner workings of a vampire.

When she saw Sasuke lying on the bed, rumpled and tired, she'd let her guard down. She assumed that he had given up, and went so far as to sit on him.

Now, with her arms stilled by an iron grip and her back pressed against his front, she deeply regretted her ignorance. In a split second, all of the lethargic laziness in him had faded, leaving only coldness and predatory instinct in his eyes. His irises had changed color too, from crimson to black scarlet. The three tomoes almost blended in, leaving a bizarre kaleidoscope in his eyes.

With a start, she'd realized that she had tilted her head back to stare at his face. The back of her head rested on his collarbone, and his arms wrapped around her stomach, pinning her arms down.

Although the intimate embrace would have normally thrown her off, Sakura knew better. Experience taught her that most vampires adopted such a pose when they were about to feed, to mesmerize the victim. The actual experience of having blood drained away could be as pleasant as a kiss or as excruciating as torture. Although she'd had experience of neither, Sakura had known plenty of human girls who chased after vampires for the sake of the former.

Assessing her situation, she found that her limbs were completely immobile. She was losing consciousness too, as if his presence was drugging her. She wanted to scream for Hinata, but her roommate was no slayer. They would have no chance of defeating him, and Sakura would have to protect Hinata.

She wanted to hope futilely that Sasuke wasn't that hungry, that he would only take a little blood, but the edge present in his gaze told her otherwise.

Just as she was about to go limp in his arms and give up, the room around her blurred. Her familiar furniture and cheery rooms melted away into a modern but sparcely decorated apartment.

Then her stomach lurched, and she doubled over.

* * *

**A/N: **Hi guys :) So how long has it been? Anyway, for this chapter, I know that Sasuke acted out of character, but I wanted Lamiaphobia to be a departure from the angst "ohmahgawd u so hot suck my blood" type of story I see so often nowadays (post-twilight coughcough). I don't a specific outline for this story, which is why updates take so long. I do have an ending and a plot, but the scenes in between are up for grabs. That means if u guys have any suggestions, or any kind of scene u want to see, u can pm me or review :) Thanks for reading.


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Naruto, Romance, Supernatural