The Makings of a Hunter

"Sakura Haruno." Iruka-sensei called her name letting her know that it was her turn to receive her life choices. It probably sounds weird to you, but in her world there was a perfectly good reason for it. When in her society it was the survival of the fittest. If you were good, you lived; if you were you were placed in society to forever be the prey.

What was better? Being the prey, or being the hunter?

"Sakura…" Iruka began; he cleared his throat of a lump that had formed. He hated telling students this, they were about to be doomed to a life of pain. "Tsunade-sama would like for you to visit with her."

Her eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly. "S-sensei, I think she may have made a mistake." She replied.

"No mistake." He corrected. "You're the best student in the Academy."

"B-but I…" Sakura shivered. She couldn't do this. She couldn't face that part of her past. She couldn't face those evil beings that had ripped from her all she knew and loved.

Iruka smiled at her. "You can do this Sakura." He assured her. "You really are the best."

-XxX-

Sakura timidly knocked on the door to the office of the one who ruled this village. "Tsunade-sama?" She asked. "You sent for me?" She asked.

Sakura Haruno was far from ordinary. Pink hair and bright green eyes. If that wasn't enough, she was also the top of her class that was probably what got her here.

"Yes, please come in and have a seat." Tsunade replied gesturing to a chair across from her desk.

Tsunade was the woman in charge. Or at least, she was of Konoha. She ran it all, from the laws placed throughout town, to the Hunter Association.

But it was the Hunter Association that made Sakura afraid to be here. She knew that they wanted her to be a part of it, but she couldn't do it. The Hunters were always putting their lives on the line. Whether they were fighting witches, demons, werewolves, or Vampires. Vampires were usually the only ones who cause trouble now a days.

Tsunade sighed. "The East Hunter housing was recently broken into by a gang of Vampires and each member of that housing suffered some sort of injury from small to large. Luckily only one person was killed in the incident that is the very reason I have asked that you be here."

"You want me to replace that person." Sakura guessed.

"Yes." Tsunade answered even though it was more a statement then a question. "Out of all of Konoha, you are the most promising, and the group that last their third member needs a replacement as soon as possible. I understand your feelings about Vampires, but you are not the only one who has lost their family to a Vampire attack. It's time that you proved to your parents that you're not a coward, and can fight like they once did. Your parents were fine hunters. You will be too."

-XxX-

And that was how Sakura got herself here. Standing outside an old looking building with a bag in hand. She walked through the door and glanced around shocked at the transformation. The outside made it look like a crappy old building, but the inside was anything but crappy. It was huge.

"C'mon already! All the other bathrooms are being used and I want a shower Shikamaru!" Some girl yelled from the upstairs as she pounded at the door. The door opened to reveal a bare chested man brushing his teeth. He was pretty masculine which wasn't a shock. He was a Hunter after all. Everyone in this house was.

"You can wait." He replied. "Besides, you're just going to get all sweaty and dirty later, so I don't see the point. Just take one when you get back."

Like hell I'm going out smelling like this!" She objected.

"You're going out to kill vampires, not attract one." He retorted shutting the door in her face making her make a frustrated sound. "I will destroy your life!" She added turning around and heading down the stairs before she caught sight of the pinkette. Her expression changed from frustrated to happy. "Hello! You must be Sakura!" She exclaimed.

The girl had extremely long blonde hair pulled into a ponytail. He bangs which were also pretty long covered right eye and ever so often bounced out of the way to reveal a pair of soft baby blue eyes.

"Yea." Sakura replied.

"I'm glad! My name is Ino Yamanaka! Welcome to the East housing!" She greeted.

-XxX-

"This'll be your room." Ino informed her. "The room across the hall belongs to Sasuke one of your group members and the one to the right of you belongs to your other teammate, Naruto."

Sakura set her bags down in the empty and bare room. White walls and a bed that needed bed clothes but was otherwise a nice room. No bloodstains like she'd imagined there would be. Nothing was like she imagined really. The people she imagined to be cold and harsh, but Ino was pretty much happy and kind.

"Well, let's go find people, so I can introduce you to everybody!" Ino exclaimed taking her hand and leading her from her room down the hall. "We'll start in the lounge, 'cause that's where everyone pretty much hangs out. It's basically what keeps us from getting bored. Television with dish cable, Game systems and much much more." Ino elaborated.

Sakura let out a small laugh. "Sounds nice." She commented.

Ino smiled at her. "Don't be nervous okay. It's a rarity that someone gets killed. We take extreme precautions to avoid that. You're going to be fine here." After that she opened the door to the lounge revealing a group of people all doing some different things.

Sakura scanned everyone over with her eyes; there were eight people in the room not including herself or Ino.

"Yo everyone pause a second and say hi to the new girl." Ino called.

And they did more out of curiosity rather then because the blonde told them to.

"Sakura you'll be part of group 7 with…" She scanned the group. "Okay well of course neither of them will be here, but you're with Sasuke and Naruto."

"Sasuke-kun's still in the hospital." A girl said shyly. "And Naruto-kun just went into the kitchen to get something to eat."

"Huh?" Ino asked. "I thought Sasuke-kun was supposed to come back today."

"Kakashi-sensei called, they're going to be late." A boy who looked similar to the shy girl replied.

"Oh." Ino retorted before turning back to the pink haired female. "Sakura this is Hinata Hyuuga of group 8." She introduced gesturing to the shy girl.

Hinata smiled at her. She had shoulder length straight black hair. Her eyes were a silver color that was defiantly intriguing.

"And this is Neji Hyuuga of group 9." She introduced before adding "They're cousins."

"Hi." Neji said simply seeming like he wanted to avoid human contact. He had long brown hair, longer then Hinata's that ended in a ponytail near the bottom.

"Over there watching loafing out on the couch and watching TV would be Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame from group 8 with Hinata."

She looked at the two one reminded her of a dog the other of a bug. Although it sounded weird. Kiba had wild brown hair and two tattoos on his face that looked like two blood red fangs. Beside him on the couch was another boy with darker brown hair that was almost black but looked like it was an afro. He was also wearing sunglasses inside and the shirt to his clothes came up and cover his nose and mouth although when he moved you could see his face a little bit.

"And here is Tenten; she doesn't have a last name." She pointed to the girl who just walked up and smiled. She had brown haired pulling in two buns on top her head. It looked more Chinese in style really even if she did look Japanese.

"Hey." Tenten greeted with a kind smile.

"And over there arm wrestling with himself…" Ino pointed to a boy in the corner who really was arm wrestling with himself. "That's Rock Lee. I would like to believe that's not his real name. Tenten and Lee are on Neji's team."

Sakura giggled a little at Lee before smiling at Tenten.

"And over here is my group 10." Ino lead her over to two boys who were just lazing about of snacking on a bag of chips. "This is Shikamaru (bastard useless lazy ass)." She introduced sticking her tongue out at him after her introduction.

Sakura recognized him as the boy who was in the bathroom earlier only now he was wearing a shirt. His hair was also pulled up into a ponytail that looked actually similar to Iruka-sensei's.

"And this is Choji!" She said gesturing to the chubby one who was snacking. "He may not look like much, but he's pretty scary when he gets mad." She added. "And Naruto's in the kitchen?" Ino asked Hinata now.

Hinata nodded.

"Let's go." Ino said taking Sakura's hand again and leading her to another door not far from where the lounge was. "The kitchen is like your basic kitchen. There's food all over the place and it's usually up for grabs, but eat person also gets their own cabinet where they can keep the foods they don't want someone else to steal. It became necessary after Choji showed up, because he really eats too much. Just don't call him fat kay; I've seen many a Vampire die a cruel death under his hands for that."

Ino then pushed on a door that swung open leading into a room that looked like any other normal kitchen. Only there were a few cabinets with names written across them. Sakura caught sight of her own and sighed. They must've already known she was going to be here.

Then over by a stove was a boy with blonde spiky hair who was staring intently at the water in a pot over the burner.

"A watched pot never boils, Naruto." Ino commented making him look up at her.

He had bright blue eyes that shone like sparkling ice. What she also noticed was the scars on his face. Three lines on each side of his face that resembled whiskers.

"This is Sakura, your new teammate." Ino added.

Naruto looked at Sakura for a moment before smiling. "Hey! Nice to meet you!" He greeted.

"He's only glad, because he gets to go out tonight." Ino commented to Sakura.

The pink haired girl gave her a confussed look.

"Rules don't allow a hunter to go out alone. With Sasuke in the hospital, Naruto didn't have a teammate to go out with." Ino elaborated.

"Oh." Sakura replied.

"Hello." Sakura finally said actually getting the chance to talk to her new teammate.

He smiled at her. "Well at least you seem nice. Most of the newbies are so full of arrogance. Unless you're the Teme, then it doesn't matter how long you've been here, you're still arrogant." He said matter-of-factly.

"Aw, you learned a new word." Ino teased.

His face flushed to embarrassment. "Damnit Ino! I'm not that stupid!"

"So you admit that you're stupid." She commented.

He glared for a moment but was soon distracted as the water began to boil and he went from angry and frustrated to happy and excited. "Ramen time!"

-XxX-

Sasuke walked across the hospital room over to a table where there was a picture that Naruto had dropped by earlier that day. A picture of him and their lost teammate. But he was dead now. Sasuke let out a breath of somewhat angry air before knocking the picture in the trash. He was already dressed just waiting for the doctors to finish the last of the paper work so he could go back home. Or at least what his home's been since he was eight.

He grabbed his black jacket that was slung over the back of a chair and shrugged it on before reaching up and cupping his neck for a moment. Another angry breath and he opened the door leaving the hospital room behind.

"I'm tired of being here, so I'll be at home." He told Kakashi.

"You're going to leave me here alone to deal with the paperwork?" Kakashi asked.

"You can handle it." He replied heading towards the elevator. He'd have to walk all the way home and it was already getting dark, he really didn't feel like wasting time on the stairs.

"Sasuke…don't get into trouble." The older silver haired male said almost hesitantly.

NearKunn: Okay, so there are way too many Sasuke is a vampire and Sakura is the human stories out there, but honestly, how many of them are about both of them being human?

Naruto: What are you talking about?

NearKunn: *whacks him for his ignorance* Well, the story is about two Vampire Hunters who end up falling in love!

Sakura: You mean me and Sasuke?! :")

NearKunn: Yep!

Sasuke: …

NearKunn: So far our favorite couple hasn't even met each other yet and I actually spent two days trying to figure out how to turn this into a love(ish) story between the two. I managed to come up with something, but I'm not going to spoil for you, so you'll just have to wait and see!

Ino: Now, look to in the center below, do you see that button "Submit Feedback" click it. Now tell us what you thought.

Naruto: NO FLAMES!

Sakura: See you next chap! *waves*