Happy St. Patrick's Day!

"Potter-san, would you be willing to meet me after classes are over for the day?"

Sakura blinked, and looked at Professor Maru.

"Okay?" she said confused.

A few hours later, she had her expanded bag with her, and the pelt was rumbling calmly.

Professor Maru was at his desk, and the door to his office was closed.

Sakura walked up to him and he looked up from his paperwork.

He looked her in the eye and she had to hold back a shiver. There was a strange sort of thrill that went through her whenever she looked at his eyes.

"I'm going to be blunt. I've heard about your...adventures... for the past five years and I want to cut off any belief that I have any interest in going after you like the past five teachers have."

Sakura blinked at that.

"What?"

"Which is why I'm going to offer you a deal. I've seen your grades for Defense, and I heard about how you're the reason most of the sixth years had a decent grade last year after...her...interference."

Sakura blinked, then she caught the undertone he used when mentioning the Toad.

"Do you have an issue with Umbitch, sir?" she inquired.

Professor Maru growled at the mere hint of her name, before he caught what he called her.

"The only person in England I plan to deal with permanently is that woman," he growled. It sounded more canine than human, except she instinctively knew for a fact he wasn't a werewolf.

It was also ridiculously hot, though she wouldn't say as much.

"Question," said Sakura, her voice oddly calm. "Do you plan to make the toad's death as slow and painful as you can devise, or kill her quickly?"

"Slow and painful. She used the diplomatic visit as an excuse to steal two important artifacts from my house," he replied tightly. "I know the location of one, but the second is outside my reach."

Sakura seem to be considering something.

"...Apprentices are expected to live with their teachers year round, correct?" asked Sakura.

"Generally, yes."

"I'll help you find the Toad bitch in exchange for an apprenticeship contract," said Sakura.

Professor Maru blinked.

"You have a guaranteed way of making her show up?" he asked intently.

Sakura had a dark smirk on her face.

"I know certain facts she would like to keep secret and would never dare allow anyone else besides the people involved to know. If even a word was breathed to her minions, it would be used against her and she'd never accept that. Besides...I have the sneaking suspicion you could handle any extras she did decide to bring."

Professor Maru agreed to the contract, partly because Sakura intrigued him. But mostly because he suspected there was a reason his mokomoko refused to separate from her and it had nothing to do with any spells she cast. It was unusually clingy around her, which had only happened to one person he could think of...particularly after she became pregnant.

Once the contract was signed, notarized and accepted by both Ministries, Sakura wrote a letter and used a disposable owl to send it.

Professor Maru...or rather Sesshomaru waited with eager anticipation, mostly because he hadn't expected one of his prey to be delivered to him almost on a silver platter.

The look on Umbridge's face when she realized who the handsome "wizard" present was when she was supposed to be dealing with the Potter brat was absolutely priceless. Sesshomaru took great pleasure in eviscerating her as slowly as possible.

Though he came back to a great deal of amusement as apparently his delight in killing that foul human caused his pelt to react in a rather...interesting...manner.

Sakura was waiting for him, with a red and flushed face. It took him a second to realize why...apparently his pelt had been rumbling while moving in an...amusing...manner while he took his time killing the toad. It was very clear to him that his new apprentice liked it, a lot.

The best part of the whole deal was the slow realization of how badly the toad had fucked up by angering the wrong people. First she angered the Lord of the Western territory by stealing highly personal and important items to his house, and then she went and pissed off a girl who had zero issue setting her and her two cronies up for her guaranteed demise.

One week later...

"You convinced Professor Maru to take you on as apprentice?!" said Hermione incredulous.

"Apparently he heard rumors about my past five years and wanted to nip it in the bud. In addition I'm automatically exempt from all homework because I'll be helping everyone else with the practical lessons."

"Lucky..." said Lavender.

"Oh it gets better," grinned Sakura, knowing the two gossipy girls would eat this up. Sensing good gossip they lean in eagerly. "The apprenticeship I have with him is to learn how to use swords."

Seeing they didn't get it, Sakura's grin widened.

"Think about it... I'll be exercising with him in something other than bulky robes, working up a sweat, getting up close and personal..." she hinted.

The second it dawned on them what she was implying, Parvati and Lavender threw pillows at her.

"You lucky bitch!" said Lavender.

"You have to share the pensieve memories of that with us," said Parvati eagerly.

"I don't have one, let alone know how to deposit memories," said Sakura.

"I'm sure my sister can figure out how to make one or convince one of the older girls to share if they have one. For a cause like this, it would be worth it!" said Parvati. Seriously, Professor Maru was some of the best eye candy she had ever seen and she wasn't going to let something as ridiculous as not having a pensieve stop her from having something to ogle for a long time.

Unknown to the girls, the mokomoko sensed the sheer amount of female hormones and shivered. At least Japanese girls were reserved enough to be discreet...he was trapped in a castle filled with hormonal teenagers with nothing better to do and magic at their disposal.

Sesshomaru...mentally resolved to make an order of special portable wards to prevent scrying, recording or any sort of observation magic. It was expensive but it would absolutely be worth it to keep his privacy.

At least Sakura was a diligent student.

Halloween was her absolute least favorite holiday, and she refused to deal with the feast unless she absolutely had to. Considering what she went through the past five years, she wanted nothing to do with it if she could get away with it.

Fortunately, Professor Maru shared her dislike of the holiday and gave her an unofficial out. Namely helping him grade papers for the entire night so she couldn't go to the feast. The amount of sugar made him gag, and he had no interest in a holiday where humans went around parading to be 'monsters'.

They spent a peaceful night of paperwork, far from the hustle and bustle of the main castle. It was the most peaceful Halloween she had in years.

But as with all things, the other shoe had to drop. McGonagall called her in the next morning, looking irate at the fact Sakura was not at the feast.

"Ms. Potter, what on earth were you two doing all night?" she demanded.

Sakura twitched, already in a pissy mood at the tone.

"One, I hate Halloween. It's an established fact by this point. Two, Professor Maru gave me a chance to avoid the feast and ruining the festive mood. He dislikes the holiday almost as much as I do...we spent the entire night grading the papers. Three, any hold you have over me as my head of house ended the second Professor Maru agreed to give me an apprenticeship contract."

McGonagall looked like she had been slapped.

"Be that as it may, you are still an underage witch and one of my students," she replied.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. She wanted to play that card did she?

"I stopped being underage after the ministry decided it was perfectly fine to try me as an adult. By their laws, I am a fully adult witch, and even the goblins agreed because when Professor Maru took me to Gringotts I was given full control of the family vaults and given the rings signifying that I am the head of my houses. The only reason I even bothered to come back at all this year despite the track record my schooling has had is because Madame Maxime informed me that I've spent too many years at Hogwarts and they have different qualifications for NEWT's."

As it was, one of the reasons she asked for an apprenticeship was to get away from Hogwarts and her yearly misadventures.

"So you're saying nothing happened between you and Professor Maru?"

"He told me up front he had heard about my track record with Defense teachers, and explained rather clearly he only came to England to retrieve something stolen from his family by a Ministry employee and to personally teach said employee the error of doing so," she said patiently.

"...This employee wouldn't happen to be a certain toad, now would it?"

"I admit nothing," she said flatly. Like hell was she stupid enough to implicate herself in helping to brutally murder that bitch. She heard it was so bad that they had to call in senior aurors who still had trouble holding their stomach down.

McGonagall had to wonder when Sakura stopped trusting her or the other teachers, and if it was too late to fix it.

Professor Maru was just annoyed everyone believed he was so unprofessional as to sleep with his student.

He wasn't that foolish... he would wait until they were no longer tied to the castle before he tried anything, as he didn't like being interrupted by busy bodies who saw his apprentice as their property.

Needless to say, Sakura and Professor Maru spent an extra two hours working out their frustration by sparring with the wooden swords Madam Pomphrey insisted on once she learned about Sakura's apprenticeship. Even Professor Maru rightly worried about angering that woman.

She was less than amused at the amount of bruise balm Sakura had to use that night, and even less happy about why they overdid it.

Professor Maru was happy to have an excuse to leave the castle for a short period of time. Teachers were permitted to leave for the Christmas holidays the same as the students...it was just that most didn't because they earned holiday pay for staying.

He didn't need the money, and his reasoning for becoming a teacher was to find someone without alerting his prey to the fact he was there. With Umbridge dead and a solid lead on the missing items, he really didn't need to stick around.

Besides, he wanted to get his apprentice (who was extremely gleeful about leaving the castle for the holidays) a chance to acclimate herself to Japan and to alert his family of her existence.

He found her rather entertaining to spar with, as she picked up things quickly and didn't complain about minor injuries. Though he still couldn't shake the sense that he knew her much longer than the scant few months he had been in the castle and that she was deeply familiar to him.

Sakura cheerfully packed her special bag and was out like a light once they were on the plane. Sesshomaru noticed her favorite sketchbook laying loose under her arm, but didn't bother to look through it.

As the entered his personal manor, his brother came to greet them.

"So this is the apprentice you took," said Inuyasha.

Sakura's eyes gleamed as she remembered something amusing and the best part was he was still wearing the necklace.

Inuyasha did not trust the look his brother's apprentice had.

"Woman, why are you looking at me like that?" he demanded. Sesshomaru bristled, but what happened next completely made up for it.

Sakura smirked, and said the magic words. She was more surprised than anything that she had the ability to make it work, considering only Kagome (Inuyasha's wife/mate) did it only a handful of times around her personally.

"Sit, boy," she said loud enough for him to hear.

The startled yelp as the magic in the beads activated making him faceplant had Sakura holding back a cackle. Sesshomaru was immensely entertained by the scene. No matter how often he saw it, it was still hilarious that his idiot younger half brother wasn't the one who wore the pants around his mate.

"What the hell..." said Inuyasha, cautiously getting up. "Dammit, why didn't you warn me she could use the spell too!"

"I didn't know," said Sesshomaru simply, before he turned to Sakura. "How did you know the command spell?"

Sakura blinked.

"I saw it used on him once and thought the command was odd so I remembered it," she said honestly. "Which reminds me... I believe this is yours."

She reached into her bag...and to the complete disbelief of both brothers, pulled out a very familiar sword.

Inuyasha sputtered.

"What... How did you get that?"

"It was left in the same room as Lord Sesshomaru's pelt," she said honestly. "There was no way I was going to leave it there when the English morons shouldn't have it in the first place."

Inuyasha took the sword and was somewhat surprised it was more or less undamaged. It felt good having it back though. He looked to his brother, who looked a tad surprised his apprentice had the sword the whole time and had given it back without being asked. Then his mind caught up to something.

"Where did you learn that name? I was using a pseudonym at that school for a reason," he demanded.

Sakura looked at him incredulous.

"You mean you honestly haven't picked up on it? Your pelt recognized me immediately, so I thought you knew already," she said confused.

Sesshomaru was highly confused by that statement. It would still be some time before he figured it out and he would be kicking himself for it for months when he did.