title: Antebellum
PART ONE OF THREE :: Corrosion
Dedication: To Paige, who said (paraphrased) to go forth and write, and Mars, who said she'd never forgive me if I didn't.
Music: Up In The Air by 30 Seconds To Mars; The Phoenix by Fall Out Boy
Notes: Demonhunting!verse.
Notes2: Also, I know I'm a horrible updater, but this one is all planned out (and see the dedication).

Sakura Haruno didn't know many things about Sasuke Uchiha the first time they met.

The day Kakashi brought him by her training room marked the fourth anniversary of her parents' deaths. The Spawned had burned them in a house fire so bright that it had looked like a second sunset, more gold and ruby than the sun itself. She'd seen the blaze before the smoke from a full mile off on her way home from an afternoon at Ino's. The house had nearly been engulfed by the time she got there, spun into an inferno by the hypnotic and frenzied dancing of the demons outside.

All she could do was watch and listen. She had seen the prone forms stapled into the glass of the bay window in the living room. The back of her mother's head was a mess of blonde hair and matted blood, she remembered, and her father's body was unnaturally curled against the pane until his head met his heels. They didn't answer her cries, and they didn't wake up, even when the glass melted into them.

She'd observed everything from the street, held back by neighbors that asked her to leave, begged her to stop screaming, told her it would be okay even as she watched the forms, black like coal and red as embers, leap through tongues of flame and wielding blazing whips.

The police had sent her to counselors when she'd cried about the spikes and fangs and open sores with bubbling and seething pungent liquid that burned everything it touched. They'd brought out the prescription pad for sleeping pills even as they nodded, said, "Yes, yes. I'm sorry for your loss. And how has school been recently? Trouble with classmates?"

Thankfully, the League had had its fingers in all sorts of pastries, looking for people who could see to fill their ranks, and they'd sent Kakashi to collect her.

That night had been the first time she'd seen what evil looked like, and she'd been alone in her fear. She would make it face the same helplessness she had felt that night.

She'd been in the middle of practicing the newest symbols when the door had opened. In an instant, she'd looked towards it with her hand reaching for her katana and shifting her weight into her heels without a second thought.

A boy a little bit taller than her walked through the door, head low and hands deep in his pockets like he was searching for loose change. Sakura stood up to her full height and looked him square in the eyes. He was probably fourteen or fifteen, just like her, but she had never seen him before during her random explorations of HQ or in the dining hall, but she'd seen enough of his kind, with their fine black hair and red eyes, to know what he was: an Uchiha.

She supposed the way she thought about it made his family seem like a rare and exquisite breed. The Uchiha were a clan known not only for their talent with symbols and bow but the ability to ignite their enemies and fan flames into destruction, not too unlike their insignia. Once, when she'd just begun training, she'd seen one of their elders on the League's Council, her back steepled with age, perform the New Year ritual, twisting and weaving a powerful rhythm out of fire into a sigil with no more than a paper fan, its fragile charcoal-covered edge set on fire. It had pulsed, a heartbeat made of light and deep lines of ash outlined on the floor, and Sakura had felt it.

She had been entranced, changed; awe had settled into her, bringing with it the yearning to reach that level. Perhaps Kakashi wasn't wrong to worry that she was overdoing it by practicing every day she wasn't able to move, but everyone had seen the fruits of her labor.

Now, she stared at this strange boy, hair slicked back as if he spent all of his time running his fingers through it. He'd probably lived and trained in the clan compound for the past however many years of his life, hidden from other League families – and the likes of her.

Sakura wondered what it was like, to grow up learning to fight. He probably had years of experience on her. The idea on its own lit a small fire of envy in her. At least, she comforted herself, he couldn't have actually fought one of the Spawned yet.

Her teacher leaned against the doorway, giving her more than a sneaking suspicion of why he'd interrupted her practice. His smile was hidden beneath his mask, but she could see the crinkle of skin at the corner of his eyes. "Sakura Haruno, this is Sasuke."

"Uchiha," her mouth said.

His eyes flicked towards her, two commas motionless around his pupils, and a shiver went down her spine. "Haruno."

She'd heard rumors about him; being best friends with Ino Yamanaka, the heir to her clan and the only friend Sakura had in both her old and new life, made it difficult to be in the dark about any of the words whispered in nearly empty hallways.

"Apparently, the Uchiha head has two sons," Ino had said around a mouthful of rice. "The older brother's Itachi. He's, like, the strongest fighter of our generation. No one can compare to him. I heard he defeated his father in a spar within five minutes – when he was our age."

Sakura had wow-ed like she'd been expected to, though it was half-hearted. At that point, she'd only been at Headquarters for a few weeks. She hadn't known what a spar was or how strength "worked", for a lack of a better word. It made sense that it was impressive, she supposed, defeating one's father. She settled for taking another bite of her ginger-glazed salmon instead of commenting.

Ino had that determined glint in her eyes. "He has a younger brother who is our age. Sasuke. I haven't heard much about him."

Blinking, Sakura tilted her head. "Yet."

"Yet," the blonde had agreed before turning the topic to someone named Kurenai-sensei who was apparently pregnant.

Last year, though, her best friend'd fixed her blue eyes on Sakura's face. "Remember the night the alarm went off last week?"

Sakura had nodded.

Ino's lips had barely moved as she continued. Sakura'd had to lean forward just to catch her words. Her voice was grim as she said, "That was Itachi – he ran away."

She'd nodded judiciously as Sakura's jaw nearly dropped. Maybe she wasn't born into this life, and certain people wouldn't associate her because of the taint, but if there was anything she'd learned outside of her lessons, it was this: The only thing less honorable than entering the life was leaving it.

It was a family thing, like owning a company or a medal from some long dead relative that meant something deep to the bone. Casting it off wasn't really an option because it wasn't an inheritance that you could keep in a safe or on your desk to look at whenever you feel sentimental. She bit her lip. Maybe some would consider it a prison sentence of sorts.

As far as she knew, they'd never caught him. Ino didn't talk about it anymore, having moved onto much juicier news, but Sakura found herself considering what would make someone want to leave this life, enchanting and dangerous all at once. She'd known something else before, and the was faint and smudged in comparison to the distinct vividness of this secret world, hidden just underneath the reality most people were stuck in.

Who would willingly go there?

His brother couldn't provide her any of those answers, even though he seemed reluctant to be sharing this room with her. His gaze wasn't disdainful, but he wasn't moving away from the door. Kakashi had to push him forward.

"We're sparring partners. I guess."

Sakura hm-ed. "What can you do?"

A fire seemed to light in his eyes, and his teeth flashed at her, dangerous, cunning, and cocky, as he said, "Why don't you find out?"

She tilted her head and considered him, twirling a strand of pink hair around her index finger. There was a quiver of arrows on his back and a bow hooked to its carrier. A fan and what looked like a pencil stuck out of a belt loop and pocket, respectively, but she knew better.

She wanted to know how good he was.

She held her katana in front of her body, blade capped so that the worst it could do was bruise. "Don't hold back."

He didn't smile, then, but he smirked as he came at her, whipping his bow out simultaneously. "Only if you don't."

As Kakashi turned away and closed the door behind him, Sakura thought she heard him say, "This is going to go well."

.

.

.

Seven months later, they're breathing hard, staring at each other from across the training room. They smelled strongly of sweat and blood; there was a bruise on Sasuke's face that hadn't been there before hand, and Sakura could've sworn that her favorite katana hadn't had that scratch on it when they'd walked into the room. The right leg of Sasuke's pants was half a foot shy of his ankle, showing a small trickle of blood, while Sakura was missing the midriff of her shirt somehow.

Within a week of their meeting, Sasuke and Sakura had been moved to a bigger room after they'd broken all four walls of her one-person room in the middle of a spar. Kakashi had tried to get permission for them to train outside, but the best the Council would do for two students in training was give them something that looked like the gym Sakura had had physical education in when she was five.

Still, it was an improvement.

"Again?" Sasuke was the one to ask, though it wasn't really a question. What other option, after all, did they have?

That was the question.

Sakura groaned, massaging the muscle on the back of her neck. It was cramping up, she was bored, and she wanted to know this: when would they be getting their first kill?

Meanwhile, Kakashi was sitting in a space in the wall ten, fifteen feet up with a glass panel between him and the fighting. From his vantage point, he had seen the two fight. Even though seven months seemed like a long time, the changes in the two were profound. Personally, he thought they balanced each other out because while Sasuke was good at long to middle distance fighting, he couldn't deny that Sakura more than gave him a run for his money when she brought the fight up close.

Given, if they could stop arguing, they would be even better off than they were now. In that regard, they'd completely failed his expectations.

Sakura squinted up, and seeing that the orange book had been brought out again, called up, "Kakashi, isn't there something else we could do? I can already predict his movements."

"And she's slow," Sasuke drawled, sliding an arrow into place and shooting vertically in a fit of pique and boredom.

She punched him in the shoulder, making him wince and bat her hand away. "Am not."

He raised an eyebrow at her, and Sakura barely resisted grabbing him by the jaw and prove to him that he was underestimating her.

"Children, children, you are being -." Their teacher tensed as he jumped up, just in time for Sasuke's arrow to land right where his knee had been.

Sakura slipped a hand through her folded arms and held it out to Sasuke for a high-five. They could get along for some things, especially when it involved an attempt to either outsmart their trainer or get his dirty so-called literature away from him. Sometimes it involved both. In any case, they were incompatible on most things. She snorted.

Kakashi vaulted over the glass and landed on his feet silently. He had just opened his mouth to tell them off, Sakura presumed, but he paused. There was a voice coming from the earpiece he wore. She couldn't pick out a word it said, seeing as it sounded like a little mosquito buzzing by his messy silver hair. She exchanged impatient looks with Sasuke as they waited for Kakashi to stop nodding and the voice to go quiet.

He turned to them and they looked expectantly at him. "Well," he said, tucking his book under his arm, "it seems like this is your lucky day."

.

"'Lucky', my ass," fumed Sakura as she dashed down the dirty alley. She'd already slipped in several puddles and lost track of Sasuke – and they'd only been on a hunt for an hour! From her reading, they were after the easiest kind of demon, one that generally stayed away from humans. They were more pests than anything else, like demonic termites, and she hadn't even been able to stab it with her new iron-bladed katana yet.

Of course, their bites were still fatal…

The September air was fresh, a slight wind blowing past her as she looked at dark corners for her partner.

"Sasuke." His name came out of her mouth as a hiss as she pressed the voice piece deeper into her ear, hoping that it would magically allow him to hear her. There was a sound of static, and she glared past the dumpster she'd last seen the cat-like demon run by.

"What?" Sakura jumped when his voice came close and he landed next to her from on top of some storage container.

"This isn't working." They were both severely out of breath as they jogged towards the dead end, both much more worse for wear than the cat-demon.

"Really? And what gave you that idea?"

"When you shot me."

She threw her arms out, nearly missing a rusty motorcycle that someone must've left out in the rain and cold for too long. "You got in my way! I almost had it."

All he gave her was an eyebrow raise and, "Because that would've been the end of things."

"Then you should've put the damn sigil down and -."

Kakashi cut in from his observation spot on top of the main offices for the storage center, his tone more crisp and distinctly less amused than usual. "Guys, the Spawned is halfway down one alley over. Maybe you should have your little married spat after you've sent the thing back to whence it came?"

"Like I'd marry him," were Sakura's parting words before she put a bit more effort into her pacing.

"I'd rather die first," Sasuke muttered, passing her.

"That can be arranged," Sakura said, flexing her fists.

She could see the demon then, its skeletal spine curved in a gross mockery of the actual animal and covered in leathery skin that showed every single bone in its body, but so could Sasuke. He already had an arrowed fitted to his string. It was like he'd forgotten the last time either of them had tried to shoot the damn thing, it had phased through the wall and appeared elsewhere.

"Stop!" she called, just managing to catch his bow before he'd let it go. It missed the demon by a long shot, scaring it off.

He swung around before she could run after it. "What was that for? I almost had it!"

His grip was painful on her forearm, sliding towards a tight hold on her wrist. Trying to tug it away before he could twist her arm, she gasped, "Because that worked the first time!"

"It would've worked."

She tried to be light when she said, "That quote – insanity being trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. We need to try… something new."

Her wrist was still tight in his hand, but the pressure of his nail against her pulse was a little lighter. "Meaning?"

Sakura looked around their surroundings. The damned thing, as stupid as it was, had learned their weaknesses; it seemed perfectly confident running right across Sasuke's path and staying yards away from her. She could hear something. It was the vague sound of nails scratching against the steel doors before a hiss and skittering down concrete.

Interesting.

Turning to face him, she smiled and forcefully pulled her arm out of his. "Meaning I have a plan."

.

Sakura held the charcoal between her sweaty fingers. Nerves tickled her gut and drew her breath out in a raspy shudder. Almost worse was the taste of her pre-hunt protein bar on the back of her mouth. She flinched when she heard the clack of nails and smelled the rot that accompanied the hell spawn.

She was utterly reliant on Sasuke's ability to use her katana and it scared her.

"Don't forget to skewer it, not slash it. That would mean we have two parts to exorcize. Oh, and leave me a decent amount of room to write the right symbols," she'd told him as they searched the storage area. "Use both hands – if you pull any fancy one-handed crap with it and end up damaging the blade, I'll cut you."

"I'm well aware," he'd said. "Do you know what symbols to use?"

She'd leveled him with a look. "Do you take me for an amateur?"

"Yes."

Sighing, she'd lightly tapped him on the forehead. He'd tensed at the movement. For a moment, she looked at him in concern, but decided to leave him be. It was probably nothing, after all.

Sakura'd gotten on her knees and traced with a finger the two sigils necessary to send the demon back to hell on the cement. "Is that good, your majesty?"

Sasuke had shrugged. "Close enough. No time to train you differently now."

From her spot around the corner, she watched Sasuke carefully approach the demon, blocking its swipes with the flat of her precious blade until it was backed into the door. The iron in the steel caused the creature to screech even as Sasuke stabbed it.

Jumping from her spot, Sakura quickly wrote the required marks on its body despite its wriggling and flailing limbs. As soon as the last stroke was completed, it stopped moving.

Its skin shriveled, and when the wind hailed towards them, it stank of graves and blood and a special smell that Sakura strongly suspected came from hell itself.

She threw up on the spot, and thought she could hear Sasuke do the same.

In her ear, she heard Kakashi say, "Walk it off, walk it off."

.

Standing in the training room the next morning, Kakashi was the one waiting for once. He was late, though not as much as usual, which made him wonder when he'd trained his two protégé to take promptness lightly.

He checked his watch and sighed, scratching his head. "Those two are going to be the death of me… If they survive long enough."

He chuckled humorlessly. At least their first hunt had been a success in more ways than one.

Opening up his hand, he saw the miniscule and barely legible notes he'd left himself to discuss with them individually.

Sakura – shogi, chess, symbol

Sasuke – suicide drills, blades, meditation

A quick analysis of them had Kakashi speculating whether they would be catch on.

Maybe he was their teacher and should be teaching them things in the training room, but if there was anything Minato had taught him, it was that you learn best in action and from those you work with. In a way, he thought, it was like a training exercise in trust – that you know they're so good at something that you would spend time with them and let them in and ask for help in a world where honor and confidence are one's greatest defense. You must let them in and see your weaknesses so you may strengthen them and learn that you don't have to be afraid of those you work with. In return, you teach them because they're the ones watching your back while you look ahead.

"You can't be strong on your own in this business," Kakashi said aloud.

He didn't know how to do that with these two: a girl who had built up her shields so high and thick that she couldn't climb over them, and a boy who had been isolated the second his defense had walked away, opening him to a barrage out of external forces.

They got somewhere yesterday, but he wasn't sure that it wasn't in spite of themselves and not out of willingness or an epiphany.

It was when he'd given in and pulled his book out that he heard voices on the other side of the door.

"I landed the death blow, so it's my kill."

"I set you up, so it's my kill."

"You were the one who missed the shot in the first place!"

"And you were the one who accidentally shot me."

Kakashi shook his head. Maybe he was being too optimistic.

.

.

.

They generally don't sit in the dining hall together. In fact, he generally doesn't eat in HQ at all. Sasuke told Sakura once of the dining room he shared with his mother and father, the white walls with the glow of candlelight flickering as they chewed. She asked him once what they talked about while they ate.

He'd given her a look. "Can't talk and eat at the same time, right?"

Sakura had rolled her eyes.

Kakashi, though, had made one meal together each day as part of their "training". He didn't say how he'd follow up on them, but his two students secretly agreed he had eyes everywhere. In any case, they stuck with it.

This evening had been after a hunt. There was still the stench of ash all over them, making everyone around them give a wide berth. She tilted her head and watched him pick at his fish as if he expected its pieces to create something new – perhaps a less well-done steak?

"What's eating you?" She snickered at her pun, but he just kept tearing the meat from the bone morosely. Maybe there was a shrug there, a curl in his shoulder that she prodded across the table with her finger.

He brushed her off. "Nothing, it's a… family thing."

Sakura set her fork down and beamed at him. "Oh, I know all about those. Basically an expert."

All she got was a dubious look, although a sigh soon followed. "My parents want to…" Sasuke mumbled the last bit.

Nesting her chin in her hand, she gave him a look – eyebrows high and very much amused. "Sorry, I didn't catch that, so you're going to have to say that a little bit louder. Maybe… announce it?" She shook her head. "I mean, annunciate."

He stuck a piece of fish in his mouth and watched her stare at him, a bored expression on his face. Her gaze followed the twitch of his throat as he swallowed before returning to his face expectantly.

Groaning, he ran his fingers through his hair. "Fucking a, my parents… they're…" He kept pausing, ruffling his bangs, and Sakura couldn't help it. She tapped her fingers impatiently before leaning forward until she could smell the fish on his breath. When was he going to actually say it? At this rate, his parents would be dead before he even finished his sentence.

God, she'd be dead, though the question would be whether she'd died of old age or boredom first.

"Yes?"

"They're meeting with the Inuzuka clan today. They have a daughter."

"And a son – I've heard he's our age. Don't they do things with dogs?"

"They train dogs and fight alongside them, if that's what you meant."

"… Yeah, let's go with that. Anyway – what does it matter, what their children are?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth, a small but sharp sound that made her tense. "Arranged marriage."

She stared at him. "We're, like, sixteen."

"Speak for yourself," Sasuke muttered. His hair would start giving off static electricity any second now. "I'm still fifteen."

"Almost sixteen."

He waved it off. When she tilted her head the right way, he looked older than she was. She wouldn't tell him he looked a little… fragile. Because he'd probably try to kill her with the fish's spinal cord.

"Well, I don't know what that'd be like," Sakura said, settling back into her chair. Her eyes fixed on the fireplace behind him, little sparks jumping off flames only to snap in mid air and become nothing. "'Snot like I have parents. Or a clan."

Even though she wasn't looking at him, she could see him staring at her in disbelief. "Do you ever think about what comes out of your mouth?"

She shifted her line of sight to him. "Am I supposed to?"

Instead of an answer, Sasuke smirked, and raising his bowl to his mouth, started eating in earnest.

Wrapping a lock of hair around her finger, she bit her lip as she considered him. There was a lightness to his eyes that she couldn't attribute to the lamps lining the long table they sat. It made her feel a bit better, so she grabbed his wrist as he made to grab a second dinner roll.

"Hrm?"

She grinned widely at him, which drew a confused expression from him. "No worries," she said cheerfully, grasping his hand tightly. "I'll crash the wedding, save you from the bride. We could..."

Sakura tried to think about how things usually went, according to Ino's explanations of the latest romantic film at the movie complex. "We could run off into the sunset together. I think that's how these things go."

Sasuke blinked before squinting at her, testing her forehead with the back of the hand she wasn't holding. She swatted him away this time. "Really?" he asked.

"What are friends for?"

They looked at each other, oblivious to the continuing conversations around them, before turning back to their food.

"Why are they so interested in your love life, now, anyway? Is there something… magical, demonic about being almost sixteen?"

His face clouded over and he stabbed the last dinner roll on the communal platter with his butter knife, lips pulled tight into a near invisible line. "I wasn't the heir before."

Not knowing what to say, her immediate reaction was to reach around the lamp between them and mess up his hair further.

"… Sakura?"

Looking to him, she waited for the reprimand that came when anyone but him touched his hair. "Yeah?"

"Thank you."

And thank you for reading!