Mwahahaha...Merry Xmas everyone!!! Big bunch of updates for you all!! The only fic that's not gonna be updated is the guide fic. Other than that, enjoy! I'll try adding fluffs, don't worry. After writing the last chapter I was like, oh my god! What have I done...there's absolutely no fluffs!! Fluffs are the answers to everything!!Ok ok tehe...on with the show.

Chapter 11 - A Step Up

"Sasuke, is it just me or the weather is getting rather cold?" Sakura asked her companion. Her arms we're beginning to have goosebumps.

"Vampirian winter is coming." Sasuke explained.

"You guys have winter?!" she exclaimed.

Sasuke just raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "Yeah we have summer, spring, and autumn too incase you we're wondering."

"Haha, go ahead and laugh...bloody vampires." Sakura muttered and rubbed her arms to get more warmth. It really was a chilly afternoon.

"So we're called bloody vampires now?" Sasuke demanded and took off his coat.

"Yup, always is always will." She smirked. Her eyes then widen as Sasuke placed his coat on her. He blushed slightly and looked away. He hated being nice.

"Sasuke, what about you? Won't you get cold??" Sakura asked touching his arm to see if there's any warmth. It was bloody cold.

"Well we bloody vampires as you call us have tough skin and immune system. We don't get sick." Sasuke lied. God...its fucking cold...

"Yeaha...vampires don't get sick my butt...I bet you're fucking cold." Sakura teased and leaned closer to him.

Damn...she read my mind...

"And I bet, I read your mind." She predicted and wrapped her arms around his arm to share the warmth.

Damn...she did it again...

"Hn, whatever." He uttered and tried to keep his cool. His arm tingled with warmth and pretty soon he wasn't cold anymore from being too hot in embarrassment. Sasuke was after all, a male vampire. A grown male vampire at the very least. Unconsciously, he slightly leaned against the small female beside him.

"Where shall we go next?" Sakura asked quietly. "We've been to almost every village that you know."

"I don't know...either you want to keep on walking and hope to meet some vampire rogues, go to the castle, or face akatsuki." Sasuke replied grimly.

"Oh..." she answered and bit her lips.

"What it is Sakura?" The vampire sighed and stopped. Something was bothering the girl again.

"Huh? What?" She said innocently.

"Your grip tightened a minute ago. What's in your mind." He asked gently.

Inner Sakura: Darn...that sneaky vampire...

"I was wondering...are you really ok with all of this?" she sighed, Sasuke knew something was bothering her so it was no use hiding anything from her anymore. And it did bothered her for quite some time now. Sasuke never really complained about watching her slay his fellow people and aided her whenever he could. She wondered if he was hurt inside.

"Well...I guess..." he said slowly, choosing his words carefully. "I mean, there's not really an option for me to decide you know. Either I go back to Orochimaru, kill my mate, and let him use me, and pretend that nothing has happened or I listen to you and help you. Besides, I don't really have any intention of going back and I trust you."

"Thank you..." Sakura whispered, she was very grateful for his sincere answer and before she knew it, she tiptoed and gave him a peck on the cheek. "For staying by my side."

"...Hn."

"Target located."

Kabuto smiled in the distance as he observed the two lovebirds strolling down the path. It was quite unusual for Sasuke to warm up to a girl. Too bad he'll have to ruin their moment.

"Sakura, stay alert. I sense someone coming. He has a lot of chakra." Sasuke said suddenly.

"Yeah..." Sakura let go of Sasuke and returned his coat. She sensed the person too. "Who do you think it might be? A rogue?"

"No...wondering vampires aren't usually this strong...plus this chakra seems familiar. I think it's someone from the castle. Orochimaru probably sent him to get us." He answered.

"He's coming fast." Sakura noted.

"Yeah, JUMP!" Sasuke suddenly shouted and jumped from where he was standing with Sakura following after. An explosion erupted from where they were standing separating the two.

Sakura jumped onto a tree to get a better view of the surrounding and pulled out her scythe that had been strapped onto her back.

"Sakura watch out!" Sasuke shouted again from the opposite end.

"Wha?" Sakura quickly realized what she was talking about and ducked hastily to avoid incoming pins.

Wait pins?

"Not too shabby for a mortal." A new voice immerged.

Sakura searched for the source of the voice and found that it came from a vampire with small glasses.

"Kabuto, did Orochimaru send you?" Sasuke demanded angrily recognizing the person immediatly.

"Not a very nice greeting there my prince, but yes. His highness sent me to retrieve you and capture this mortal." Kabuto smiled. His face was covered with the word entertainment.

"Sakura! Avoid his pins, they're poisoness." Sasuke called out to his mate and activated his sharingan.

"Gotcha." She nodded and prepared to fight.

"Sigh, I guess I have no choice then. I was hoping you would go back to the castle with me obediently." Kabuto said sarcastically and disappeared in a flash.

Inner Sakura: He's so fast that I can barely keep up with just my eyes!!

She suddenly saw Sasuke jump down from a tree and performed a shadow shuriken jutsu. She watched in amazement as Sasuke fought, he seemed to be able to keep up with every one of Kabuto's move. Although somehow she felt an uneasily and uncertainty going through her.

Why wasn't Kabuto attacking? He had only been dodging for the last ten minutes. Something was wrong. Sakura followed and watched as Sasuke kept on chasing Kabuto and noticed that he seemed to be going north for quite some time now.

This may be a trap!!

As fast as she could muster, she quickly ran ahead of the vampires and stopped suddenly as she saw thousands of strings tied to every tree in the area. Above her, uncountable deadly pins were waiting to strike down. She knew as much as Sasuke's eyesight was ten times better than hers, the chances of seeing through the trap was really low.

"They're coming this way..." she said to herself as she heard loud crashing noises in the distance. Seeing there was no time, she quickly set off to work. There was no way she would get beaten in the medical field, this afternoon the hunter was about to become the hunted.

"So, where did that mortal go my prince?" Kabuto asked casually. His formality was getting more sarcastic by the moment.

"How should I know?" Sasuke replied and quickly performed the katon no jutsu.

"Maybe she ran away." The spy called out.

"Sakura? Nahh..." he smirked and put his sharingan to the test. Catching Kabuto unexpectedly with his gaze, the spy quickly plunged into darkness. Not wasting a moment of time, Sasuke quickly summoned up his chidori. As the jutsu developed, he looked at Kabuto who was just standing there like an idiot, obviously still caught in his genjutsu.

"Come on..." he breathed, urging himself to gather up his chakra faster. "There!"

With the chidori fully charged up, he dashed towards Kabuto to deliver his final blow. He didn't deserve to be saved by Sakura.

"Cancel!!" Kabuto suddenly shouted and panicked for a second as he saw a blinding blue light coming his way. Shit...the chidori...Pumping chakra into his feet he quickly jumped away but Sasuke was too fast and plunged his chidori into his chest.

Instantly, blood came squirting out from his chest and mouth. Luckily, it didn't hit his vital organs, but it still hurt like hell. Sasuke had crushed through his chest cage and almost went through his spine. Staggering up to heal himself, he forced a smile on his lips to show his enemy that he wasn't about die and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"That coward!" Sasuke growled, but no matter. Kabuto can't have gone too far. Then his eyes widened.

He's going after Sakura in the north!

Digging his heels deep into the dirt, he propelled himself forward hoping to arrive to Sakura in time. Speeding through the forest, he noticed the forest became denser and denser and more trees blocked his way. Cursing the damn trees in his mind he continued to head north when he was suddenly stopped by an incoming object.

"What the..." he jumped back and saw a silver scythe at where he was before.

"Sasuke!" Sakura called out and appeared beside him.

"Are you trying to kill me or something?" He demanded.

"Nup, just trying to save your ass." She replied with a smile and went to pull out her weapon. "He's here. Be careful, it's a trap. Watch out for three strings." She said bluntly and hopped off.

"Strings?" he echoed and then looked around his surrounding and caught up. Looks like Sakura really did save his eyes. But then he paused for a minute. Did she say three strings? How come I'm seeing thousands?

"Not bad, I was wondering where you were" A voice rang loudly through the forest. "You found out about my trap, but you're still going to die."

"Think again, I bet you were ordered to capture us back alive. You're just bluffing." Sakura said boldly. "These aren't poisonous pins; these are only normal pins with paralyzing solutions on it! You're just planning to paralyze us."

"Oh, you're a medic nin too? No wonder Orochimaru-sama sent me." Kabuto realized and snickered.

"Yeah yeah...underestimating me again, let's fight. Sasuke do you want to save him?" Sakura called and looked behind her.

"No." Sasuke answered truthfully and prepared to join the fight.

"Stay where you are. You had your fun, now it's my turn." Sakura said confidently and grinned.

Arrogant woman...Sasuke thought and rolled his eyes. But, he stayed where he was.

"Shall we?" Kabuto offered and lunged at her before she could answer.

"Cheapo." Sakura uttered and blocked his punch. He's going for my pressure points...in that case, I'll fight fire with fire!

Dropping her scythe down, she went into fight stance. The scythe wasn't going to do much good. She still had strings to think about.

Sasuke observed from the distance and soon became very curious. First off, Sakura's fighting stance was very weird and different from most. She placed her left foot in front of her right foot and her hands we're wide open revealing her palms. It's almost like ancient Chinese martial arts.

Inner Sakura: Hehe...when I go back, I have to thank Hinata-chan for teaching me some of her gentle fist moves.

As Kabuto attacked, she blocked each one and went for his pressure points. She managed to hit two but it wasn't really a direct contact. It only made him falter a bit. She on the other hand got hit once but it wasn't a direct hit either. Both of them took care of not bumping into the strings or else it would be in an instant death.

Finally, Kabuto quickly drew out some extra pins which made it harder for Sakura to fight.

Damn...if this keeps going on, I'll lose for sure...I guess I'll just have to use that...I only got one chance now...Sasuke, you better not fail me!

"Sasuke!!" She suddenly shouted to get his attention.

"Aww...can't handle me anymore?" Kabuto taunted. But Sasuke knew her well enough that she was planning something.

"Yeah, right. Sasuke LEFT!!" Sakura shouted out and quickly pushed Kabuto to the right while getting stabbed in the arm in the process.

Left? LEFT?! What does the mean?...Three strings... Sasuke looked in front of him and saw three strings placed exactly in a same line. Three strings...could it be? Quickly he took a kunai out and slashed the left string loose. Seeing this Sakura rolled away and watched as Kabuto tried to dodge the flying pins.

"Scum! You messed with my strings!" Kabuto cried out angrily and jumped back, away from Sakura.

"Sasuke, MIDDLE!" She commanded as Kabuto jumped back like she predicted. Sasuke did what he was told and broke the middle string. Pins showered down and Kabuto dodged again but got hit with some on the arms in the process. Not even his speed can help him now. Both of his arms are now paralyzed.

"Damn..." He cussed and jumped to the left to avoid anymore. There was still one more string left.

Inner Sakura: Shit...he jumped to the left.

The last string was supposed to shower pins to the right! Looking around, Sakura noticed her scythe still lying on the ground waiting for someone to use it. Running quickly over to it, she picked it up with her uninjured hand and threw it as hard as she could to Kabuto forcing him to go the right.

"NOW!" She cried. Sasuke didn't need to be told twice to cut the last string. Pins then flew down at top speed and plunged into Kabuto at every parts of his body.

"My turn." Sasuke called out and started summoning his second chidori. "Die Kabuto, I never liked you." He stated bitterly before inserting the chidori deep into his heart making him scream out in agony.

Sakura closed her eyes to avoid seeing such a gruesome sight. Blood splattered everywhere and the whole body ripped apart. The lungs, the heart, everything. She opened her eyes when the screaming stopped and saw Sasuke glowing in red.

Rubbing her eyes and opening them again, she still saw Sasuke glowing in red. Slowly the light faded and the vampire turned towards her and faced her. "Guess you never seen the result of a vampire killing another vampire huh."

She shook her head and looked at where Kabuto had been. Instead of turning into blue dust, he just turned into dirt. His bonding rings were left on top of the pile of dirt. "What happened?"

"Unlike you, when another vampire kill another fellow vampire the victor will engulf all the vampire's powers and make it his own. The loser will become dirt like you see here." He explained and sighed. "Ever wondered how the Akatsuki became so strong?"

"...They must've slain a lot of vampires then." Sakura said sadly.

"Yup." Sasuke wiped Kabuto's blood off of his face and picked up his rings. "Let's return this to Orochimaru."

"Good idea." She agreed and attempted to strap back her scythe onto her back when she realized she can't move one of her arms.

"You ok?" He asked and walked over to her worriedly.

"Yeah, I'll soon regain control of it. It's just paralyzed it for a while. You're not hurt anywhere are you?" She asked in return. He just shook his head but she knew he was exhausted from using the chidori twice.

"Will you still be able to fight?" Sasuke questioned and poked her arm curiously.

"Yeah, and I can't feel anything Sasuke...so stop poking." Sakura scolded and did some medical jutsu to make the healing go faster than normal.

"Hmph...then let's go." He pouted and they set off towards Orochimaru's layer. "Hey, I just remembered something. What was that fighting technique that you just did awhile back? It looked strange."

"That? Oh, one of my friends back in Konoha taught me that. It's a technique where you aim for the opponents pressure points. Of course, you need Byakugan to make it fully work." She explained.

"Byakugan?" He echoed in confusion.

"Yeah, it's another special bloodline thing that my friend has. It's kind of like Sharingan, except it enables the user to see 360 degrees all except for one blind spot, they could see through objects and chakra." She continued.

"Whoa...is she strong?" he asked.

"Yeah, but her male cousin is a lot stronger...kind of like you." She smiled.

"Hn..." Sasuke muttered, obviously flattered. But he kept his cool like always. "Too bad I won't be able to meet him, I kind of want to duel him."

"Yeahh..." She sighed.

They traveled to the castle silently and arrived at the castle when Sakura remembered she still had something that she kept when she was in Konoha. She shuffled her pockets for a while before finding it.

"Sasuke, take these." Sakura instructed and handed him a pill. "It's called soldier pill; it'll boost your energy level temporary."

"I don't need pills to fight." Sasuke scowled and refused it.

"Don't be a baby, your exhausted now take it." She demanded and shoved it in his mouth unexpectedly making him choke.

"Y-You almost...had me k-killed!" Sasuke coughed, trying to swallow the pill before he could talk normally again.

"Yeah well, it's for your own good." She said matter of factly and popped one into her mouth too. She always brought some during missions for safety.

"Whatever." Sasuke grumbled and cracked his knuckles. The pill seemed to be working, he feels as if he never fought at all. Sakura rotated her semi-paralyzed arms now that it had completely healed.

"Alright." She breathed nervously and looked at the gigantic castle. "Let's go in." She had a bad feeling about going in.

"Yeah, be careful. Orochimaru is very strong." He warned sensing her uneasiness.

"Sasuke...if we do separate or don't make it out alive, I just want to say thank you for everything." Sakura said sincerely.

"Don't say your last words just yet...we're not even near death." He joked bitterly and frowned. "We'll make it out alive."

"A-And, I also want to say umm..." She trailed off and blushed heavily.

"Yeah?"

Without thinking, Sakura grabbed Sasuke's face and pulled her down to meet her lips. "I love you." She whispered against his mouth and let broke off. Sasuke stayed where he was, too stunned to do anything. Pretty soon colour started rising in his cheek.

Sakura giggled patted his head like a little puppy. "You look cute...for a bloody vampire."

"Hn...whatever...let's go." Sasuke muttered trying to hide his embarrassment. It was the first time he had ever kissed a girl. In his heart, he suddenly felt an old feeling that he hadn't felt in a very long time, happiness. Unknown to them, both of their rings pulsed a faint red, symbolizing another step towards their relationship.

Orochimaru grinned as he heard uproars and screams outside his corridor. They we're coming. So fast too.

"They should be here soon now." He smiled darkly.

As if on cue, his doors swung open revealing two young teens. A vampire and a mortal...no, a slayer.

"Hey King Loser...long time no see." Sasuke smirked.

"Sasuke-kun...how rude. Anywho...you guys came just like I suspected."

"So you sent Kabuto to come and retrieve us even though you knew he would die?" Sasuke demanded.

"Of course, but its not like you care." He said carelessly.

"That's so cruel!" Sakura suddenly blurted.

"Ah...the infamous slayer speaks. So I'm guessing you already saved every vampire in the castle." Orochimaru said sarcastically, emphasizing the word.

"That's so smart of you." She snapped with equal sarcasm. "Of course I saved everyone, but I'm definitely not going to save you."

"Oh, a fiery one." The king chuckled and stared at the two with his snakelike pupils. "Just like Sasuke-kun. I presume, your mate?"

"Shut up Orochimaru." Sasuke interrupted. "What does that have to do with this?"

"Oh, I just found it peculiar how your ring chose a mortal for you. A slayer for that matter. Isn't it ironic? Your mate is actually going to slay you in the end." Orochimaru taunted and laughed. "Yes, I know about the prophesy. Your brother and I we're one of the first that found out."

Both of them kept silent and glared at him, not knowing what to say.

"Aww how cute, now now...don't look so mad." He continued. "After all, the real fun is just about to begin!"

Orochimaru took off his royal cloak revealing a brown battle garment underneath. Licking his lips with his long tongue, he snickered and looked at Sasuke and Sakura with amusement.

"Let's...play."

TBC

Tada!! Enough fluff for you guys? Was it too sudden? Sorry if it was, the story is moving so fast and all. Anyways, please tell me what you think!! Oh and please review and tell me whether you guys want a happy ending or a sad ending. I personally preferred a sad ending, but since its Christmas, I'll leave it to you guys to decide!! So REVIEW!! Heh.

Thanks to those that reviewed after such a long time of not updating! I lurve you all!! And also to you guys dear readers who didn't review.

Phyphor – I will!! Here's your update!

ninjas-of-the-nite – yeah I kno! Thanks for reminding me about the fluffs!

Jigoku no Kamunagi – Thx! You encouraged me a lot!

Someone – Lol, I dunno who you are but you're welcome!!

dark Alley – thx for reviewing a lot faithful reader!! –hug-

lilxcutexmonstah – thx for understanding

Angelic Warrior – yeah, sorry about the weirdness. Thx for the reminder, I'll work on it. If you have any questions…ask away!!

sassyk1992 – you know what? I'm going to end it at chapt. 13, hope you don't mind. :)

aziangurl723 – sasusaku rules!! Thx!!

tomboy14 – lol, so I'm guessing you want a happy ending hehe.

inugirl13 – thx! Here's your update.

Shinobi Darkbeak –thx thx thx :)

Amaterasu Haruno – first review!! Hell yeah!! And don't worry, I'm going to read it, expect me to review within this week ;)

Thank you all!! Merry xmas!! Tell me about the ending you want!! Ciao.