Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

XXX

My surroundings came to me slowly, a steady image surfacing to the forefront of my mind.

I lay upon a soft bed, the blankets tucked securely around me. As I recalled my earlier encounter with Sasuke, I shot into a sitting position.

The room was dark, a lone window settled to the left showing a slowly brightening sky. Not much time must have passed since Sasuke knocked me out.

But, where had he brought me?

I tossed the blanket from me and got to my feet. I crossed the distance to the window quickly, looking out across the expanse that lay beyond.

Nothing. There was no visible marking to show me where this place was. Low hanging clouds that canopied the view were the only clue I had. This place was somewhere up high. The side of a mountain, perhaps?

The door creaked open behind me, and I hurled around with both fists up, ready for anything.

Well, not anything I guess, because before me was a maiden, a young woman with short black hair pulled back at the nape of her neck. Her eyes were bright and shocked when she spotted me out of bed.

"Miss, I didn't think you'd be up so soon-"

"Who are you? Where am I?" I didn't lower my guard one bit.

Her hands lay crossed in front of her, not taking up a fighting nor a defensive position as she took a step further into the room. Everything about her told me she was not aggressive, but I was in an unfamiliar place. I wasn't about to lose my life by underestimating enemies.

However, if they wanted me dead, wouldn't they have already killed me by now, rather than allowing me to sleep in a plush bed?

The woman remained calm, a human trying to soothe an anxiety ridden animal. "My name is Yuko, and you are in master Sasuke's home. He has instructed me to tending to you, and to bring you to him when you awaken. Since you are up now, would you mind coming with me?"

I stared at her blankly for a few more seconds, unsure of how I was going to respond. Yes, I wanted to see him so that I could continue our fight. But, it should really be my priority to get out of her as quickly as possible so that I could go find Tsunade and the others.

Yuko seemed like a genuinely nice person, making the brief thought flit through my mind of how someone so nice could be employed by a vampire. She seemed well-cared for enough for me to recognize that she wasn't being mistreated or malnourished.

But, still, I was going to have to take her down and get out of here before she raised any kind of alarm. So, I nodded. "I'll come with you."

She gave me a warm smile. "Wonderful. He is this way." She gave a slight bow of her head and then opened her arm to the left, gesturing to follow her down the hallway.

I walked to her, following closely behind, eyeing the back of her neck. Now I had two vampires incapacitate me in such a manner, it should be no problem for me to do the same thing to Yuko so that I could get away from this place.

I pulled my arm back carefully, but just as I was about to unleash it a hand stopped me. Strong fingers clasped onto my wrist, and I whipped around to see Sasuke staring straight at me, amusement dancing in his eyes for the briefest of moments before being replaced by guarded weariness.

Yuko had turned around after hearing the commotion. "Oh, master Sasuke. I thought you wanted to meet your guest in the library?"

He held my gaze before looking at Yuko. "I was feeling restless, so I wanted to move about. Just good timing that I ran into you both here."

Letting go of my wrist, he then said, "Thank you, Yuko. You may leave us."

She gave a slight bow before disappearing through a nearby door. Once it snapped shut, I threw a well-aimed punch to his face.

He caught my fist easily enough, not even blinking at the sudden motion.

I growled. "What have you done? Where did you take me?"

His eyebrow rose, but he didn't answer me. Instead, he said, "Will you stop attacking me so that we may have a conversation?"

I could feel the bite of my fingernails as they dug into the palm of my hand. I couldn't help but tighten my fist at his request.

"How dare you? You kidnap me and act like I'm the crazy one here!"

He pushed my arm back, letting go then. I stumbled a step before immediately righting myself.

He turned on his heel then, showing his back to me, completely unafraid of my attacks. "Follow me, I will explain."

I waited before he was at least ten feet in front of me before I followed. I reminded myself that if he wanted me dead, I would already be on the floor by now. Even though I couldn't trust him, I could trust in that one fact.

He wanted me alive. But, why?

"Are you going to make me some sort of sacrifice in order to get power?" I asked.

His head gave a quick tilt to the left, his eyes seeking me out as they appraised me with an amused expression. "No, you are not a sacrifice."

"Then what else could it be for me to still be alive?"

His steps halted, the still air hung in the air between us. Without looking at me, he said, "You are alive because I could never hurt you. And you are here because I need to make you stronger."

My head tilted and lips parted, but nothing came out for a while. After a few more seconds of silence, he turned to finally look at me.

"As you are, you are not strong enough. I thought I would be fine with letting you go back to your team, but I couldn't do it. I could not watch you walk away knowing the dangers that are out there. Knowing how ill prepared you are if a true monster were to attack you."

"So…" The words formed in my head, but it was a struggle for them to pass my lips. "You want to help me?"

He nodded once.

Not a single thought flitted through my mind for a while, it was as if my whole being had gone completely numb.

What did this mean? He wanted to help me?

"I...don't understand."

He sighed and began walking again. "You don't need to understand, you just need to get stronger."

Without thinking about it, I followed him. He brought us further down the hall, and then we were walking through a huge, open space where the entire wall to the left was made of glass. By now, the sun was started to creep out, filtering between the wispy clouds scattered before us.

There were couches strewn about elegantly, small tables lay before them. A fireplace rested up to the wall on the far side of the room with even more chairs and couches nearby. It was a large living room.

Unlike the hideout I had first awakened in, this place was much more light, more liveable it seemed.

As we walked through it to get to the other side, I couldn't believe that Sasuke walked right through the loose sunbeams cutting their way across the room without a second thought.

"You can walk in the sun already?" Fear gripped me, my throat tightening and a cold sweat forming at the back of my neck. So, it was possible then, vampires could walk in the sun without any repercussions anymore. There truly was no safe time anymore.

He shook his head as somber words spilled from him. "No, the windows in my house have all been spelled so that the sun has no effect on me when the light comes through them."

So, we were still safe for now. Though, I felt an odd sense of pity from his obvious moroseness.

He opened a set of double doors and lead me through them. Before us was a large, round room. The myriad of deadly weapons mounted along the walls truly was a sight - swords, spears, bows, daggers, and more. There were also dummies lined along the curved wall that looked to have been beaten many times over the years.

The left side of the room rose with a couple steps, creating a viewing platform.

I walked to the center of the room and spun around slowly, really taking it all in. "This is some training room you have here."

He gave a smirk before joining me in the center. "It's gotten a lot of use. Suigetsu likes challenging me to spars."

"Vampires spar?" I asked, never really having that image in my head before.

"Yes, of course we do. Hunters aren't the only ones who want to hone their skills."

I'd really only thought of vampires as monsters without the capability of rational thought. I mean, I knew they could be semi-human in their actions and thoughts, but Sasuke was really throwing a wrench into my beliefs.

"Things are...different with you," I said. "How come you're so...so…"

"Captivating?"

I shifted the weight from my right leg to the left and stared at him with wide eyes. "No! That's not what I was going to say. I was going to say deliberate or something."

"I much prefer captivating." The corner of his mouth just barely lifting in the presence of this ongoing joke of his.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at him. "Like that! How are you capable of joking around?"

"Ah," he sighed. "I see the Academy isn't doing a great job of preparing its students for what a real vampire is like."

"Yes," I screamed, too excited that he was able to get my line of thinking. He flinched a bit at my volume. "Sorry, but yes. I don't get it, why have they just been teaching us that vampires are mindless, bloodlust-filled demons when here you are being so-"

His eyes lit with mirth.

"Rational," I finished, my eyes flitting around the room. "Not captivating."

The smirk remained on his face as he turned away from me, walking over to the nearest wall filled with weapons. His fingers lightly traced them absently. "For the most part, their teachings are accurate. The lower form vampires are monsters for the lone sake of savagery itself. They crave the chaos that killing brings, the more blood they can take the better for them. They are the young ones."

"But, not you?"

"No, not me. There are many vampires who are capable of rationality as you so put it. They are mainly older, though even among the ancient ones you will find they can still be just as vicious in other capacities."

"How come we don't learn that then?"

He picked up a shiny dagger, twirling it around in his hand, inspecting it from the hilt to the tip. "I imagine that it's because they haven't gotten their hands on any of us like that. We are too careful when it comes to hunters. It's the young ones you run into on missions, those are the ones that get captured and studied."

I blew an impatient puff of air and fisted my hands over my hips. "I've only been on one mission, and I was taken by that Suigetsu. I still haven't run into any young vampires yet."

A look of pain shot over his features. "Then all the more reason for me to train you."

A rush of hot anger came through me. "I am strong!"

He nodded. "I'm not saying that you aren't. I'm just saying that you could be stronger. I can't have you out there in the world getting taken by someone other than me. There are far worse fates you could meet if that were to happen."

"Why do you care so much about me?" I asked, wanting to know the answer for some time now.

But, he didn't give me an explanation. He put the dagger back in its spot and strode back to me, and said, "Training starts now, Sakura."

His fist burst forward so quickly that I barely dodged it, throwing my weight to the side just to be hit by an oncoming kick.

My body crashed to the ground, rolling over a couple times before I pushed myself back into a standing position.

Sasuke stared at me, his eyes unflinchingly resolved.

And I was finally able to grasp what this was. This was a chance to fight a full-fledged vampire, to learn their weaknesses and grow to be that much more of a capable hunter, a dangerous fighter. The Academy could never have given me such an opportunity.

A smile cracked across my lips, causing a brief glint of confusion to show in Sasuke's eyes.

"Careful what you wish for, Sasuke."

And I attacked.

XXX

So, I'm going to be doing something different with my writing! At the end of any chapter, I'm going to post a Q&A session to let you learn more about me! If you don't want to know, then that's okay, you can just skip passed them. XD But, now it's time to get to know meeeeee better:

Q: What weird food combinations do you really enjoy?

A: So my absolute weird thing to eat is cottage cheese with nacho cheese Doritos. Yes, haha I use the chip as a shovel into the cottage cheese and then eat them both at the same time. It's utterly delicious, and you should try it! What about you? What weirdo food thing do you eat?