Dear Tsunade,

I know you won't really believe me, but I am alive and safe for the moment, you don't need to worry about that. I will remain alive for the near future as well, no harm will come to me as long as I stay here. It's not like I have a choice really, the vampire who has me won't let me go until I train with him. I can't even write his name down in this letter because he's so paranoid, the jerk.

I've been told that even if you were to have a locator spell done for me that it wouldn't work because where I am is completely untraceable. I don't know the exact intricacies of this place, but I can tell that there's powerful magic at play. In the few days I've been stuck here, I have already looked for ways out, but all the doors are spelled shut and the windows are unbreakable. I can't get out of here, I've tried everything I can think of.

Sorry, there's not much else I can include in this letter about who I'm with or any details of the location or else he won't let me send it.

Tell everyone that I'm okay, and I miss you all. Especially mom, tell her please?

Love, Sakura

I looked it over a few more times once I finally got it the way I wanted. Since Sasuke gave me the paper two days ago, I've been through many versions that have been shot down by him. The first one was riddled with all sorts of information on who had taken me, the view from the windows I could find, the sun bomb and the like. Sasuke snatched it from my hands and then shook his head, each time telling me what I had to take out.

This time it had to be acceptable.

I watched as his eyes roved across the words, his mouth quirking up when he got to a certain point before returning to its normal straight line.

"Liked when I called you a jerk, didn't you?" I called him out for it.

"When you say you've observed that my windows cannot be broken, how did you come to that conclusion?" he asked cooly.

I suddenly found interest in the fabric of the couch I was standing against, tracing the line where the different pieces met and were sewn together.

"I leave for only a few hours every day and you immediately seek to break my things."

I snorted. "I highly doubt you care for anything that I could get my hands on. The stuff you really want to protect are shut behind locked doors. Why is it that I can't get into the training room when you're not here?"

He straightened from the chair he'd been sitting in and strode over to the glass wall, looking out over the expanse of mountainous terrain. "It's not only when I'm not here, it's always."

I rose an eyebrow and crossed my arms in front of my chest, waiting for him to elaborate.

He finally turned back to face me. "The door is spelled shut to anyone but me. I am the only one who is capable of opening it."

Thinking back on the last few days, it had been he who opened the doors when we trained. I hadn't even so much as touched the handle; he made sure to be the first one there.

"Why is that?" I asked.

He gave me a dark smirk. "Because, Sakura, no matter how comfortable our back and forth may get, I know what you are, and I know what I am. I do not wish to be dead, not yet when I still have something to accomplish."

I focused in on the not yet part of his explanation. "Do you wish to die, though? One day?"

My question made him pause, reflect on what he truly wanted. Being an immortal seemed like such a daunting fate, to live on for all eternity was too long of a life. After a while, did it all become meaningless? Things that once held his affection, once gave him pleasure, did they no longer mean anything to him? I had always pictured the passing of time for a vampire to be a cruel thing.

"Yes, one day," he said. "I should have died long ago."

We still haven't talked much about Itachi, and I still didn't have an answer as to how Sasuke and I met in the past either. He had remained unwavering in my pursuit of these two topics that I continued to broach.

"Just tell me about it already," I said. "Tell me about Itachi, and about the day I met you. I just...have the feeling that there's a connection between the two."

He rolled up my letter into a neat scroll and rose from the chair, starting to walk down the hall.

I followed close behind him, all the while waiting to hear some sort of response. Most likely I would get the 'Not now' answer that he'd always given.

"I think I will tell you," he said, his voice completely flat.

My eyes widened and my mouth slightly parted. "Seriously?"

He brought us through the halls until he stopped outside his bedroom door, the one that I haven't been able to open either. My breath halted as I waited for him to turn the handle. More than anything, I just wanted to get a glimpse at what lay beyond, what Sasuke adorned his room with.

Before he did so though, he cut me a look, making me straighten my spine.

"I have no doubts that you have already tried and failed to open this door," he said, pausing for a bit, daring me to even think of disagreeing.

Well, I could not.

So, he continued. "It is spelled shut with the same spell as the training room, only I may open it. What lay beyond is my living quarters, which also contains my falcon keep. This means that you may not send off letters without my knowledge."

I waved my hand. "Yes, yes, I get it."

His features shone with mirth. "And that does not bother you?"

"Of course it bothers me," I said. "But, I can understand concepts regardless of my emotions towards them; I'm not an idiot, Sasuke."

The side of his mouth quirked up, his amusement lingering as he turned his face away from me to open the door.

He walked in and I followed.

The door led down two paths, left and right. To the left lay another door, which was propped open halfway, revealing a slight living space and a loft above holding a grand bed.

I didn't get to see much else of it as Sasuke turned right and continued down that path, which led to the falcon keep Sasuke just mentioned. There were five or so birds lining the far wall, all tucked into individual alcoves that contained perches. To my surprise they were not in cages, but rather they were able to fly about the room as they wished. It wasn't a particularly huge room, but it still surprised me that Sasuke allowed the birds to live uncaged.

He went to the closest bird, picking up a small harness that lay beneath it.

I watched in awe as he donned the harness around the creature. Sure, back at Konoha, messenger birds were used often, but I'd never seen the process it took to get the falcon ready.

And Sasuke was...so gentle with it.

Harness on, Sasuke dropped my short, rolled up paper into the carrying tube strapped to the falcon's back. The bird hopped onto Sasuke's outstretched arm, and the two of them went to the high arching window.

Sasuke unlatched the glass and guided the bird near it in one fluid motion. "Konoha," he said and jerked his arm forward so that the bird took off in a flurry. He watched after it for a few moments before latching the window back into its locked state.

His eyes slid to me then, a seriousness weighing within them that was not there this morning. The memories being trudged up to the front of his mind in preparation of my long awaited explanation.

A sigh escaped him and he gestured for me to exit the room. I hesitated before conceding. But, when I made it back to the entrance, I stopped and stared into his room just a few paces ahead.

His voice filled the empty hall. "What's wrong?"

I instantly bristled, standing up straight. "Nothing." Turning left to walk out the door, I caught a glimpse of Sasuke's calculating look. "What?" I asked defensively.

He observed me for a few seconds before repeating my own answer back to me. "Nothing."

"Well, all right then," I said and stomped out of there. I didn't even stop to see Sasuke close the door, I just kept walking until I made it back to the large living area.

I took a seat on one of the plush chairs and waited for Sasuke to join me in the room. He was about a minute behind me, and he took the seat directly in front of me. He leaned over, putting his elbows on the tops of his thighs as he once again leveled me with a calculating look. His hands were clasped together, holding something.

"Just start talking, enough with the staring silently," I said.

Rather than being met with one of his smirks from my quip like I was expecting, his lips remained in a thin line, no longer willing to joke around with me.

"I told you this before, but I'm going to remind you once again. I am a monster, Sakura. I am not one you want to befriend, not an individual you should associate with once we are done here."

My lips parted as I took in every word, the spelled sunshine running through the windows and cascading over my lap, warming me somewhat when the air around us felt so chillingly cold and stagnant.

He opened his hands to show me a small rigid crystal. It was a muted purple with a crack of black along its side.

"Rather than tell you, I thought I would show you," he said. "This will allow you to see my memory of the day we met."

I scooched forward in the chair, leaning in closer to view the small crystal.

He continued. "What you will see is...graphic and will probably cause you tremendous grief. Are you still willing to look?"

Silently I nodded. My whole life I'd remembered his voice, replaying it over and over again until it created a permanent imprint in my brain. Of course I would look, how could I not?

He didn't look pleased by my answer, but handed the crystal over to me regardless. I chose this, he respected that at least.

I held the crystal lightly in my fingers, brushing my thumb across its rough surface. "How does it work?"

"It's a memory stone, capable of holding in a particular memory that one does not want to slip away." He stood and walked over to me, taking the seat on the left side of the couch. "I must take you there."

It was then that he lifted his hand and gave me a questioning look. I lay the crystal flat in my palm and held it out. But, rather than taking the crystal back, he covered it and laced his fingers with mine.

The sudden contact made me jump, and bumps lined the top of my arm nearest him. There wasn't much time to dwell on it though because a second later I was transported, hurtling through darkness and time.

I was back in Konoha. It looked the same, maybe a few different buildings here and there, but I knew I was standing in my village.

Something stopped me as I made to walk down the sidewalk, and I looked down to see Sasuke's hand was still entwined with mine. I made to escape his grasp, but he held firm to it.

"Don't," he said. "If you break contact with me, the memory will stop."

Begrudgingly, I stilled my movements. The warmth of his hand had my mind constantly wandering to it, feeling the calluses from years of training, fighting. The way it fit mine so seamlessly was-

Before us, a couple emerged from around the corner of a building, walking between them was a small child. A young girl with pink hair.

"That's me," I said numbly. "And there's mom. Then that's…"

My eyes glossed over at the sight of my dad. I had very few memories of him as he'd died when I was little. Being able to see him alive and well, even smiling at my mom had brought up such a feeling from within that I had to blink back the tears before they'd start falling.

I felt Sasuke's eyes on me, but I was unable to tear my gaze from the happy family before me.

"Your dad," Sasuke finished, his voice more pained than I'd ever heard it before.

Without thinking, I took a step in their direction, but then something else came into the vision. A dark figure stalked across a nearby building above, slinking so silently that there was no way the family could have known they were being watched, followed, hunted.

Just as the family walked another block, the figure jumped before them.

Dad was closest to the dark figure, so he was the first victim. The figure tore into his throat and blood went everywhere, all over mom and all over the younger version of me.

Mom screamed, pulling me into her arms and backing away, crushing the young me to her chest as if that was all the protection I needed from the monster before them.

I watched on in horror as my dad was tossed to the side by the figure, his body lying limp and lifeless on the cold cement, blood continuing to pool out around him.

Now it was just mom and me.

"No!" I pulled on Sasuke's arm and then we were running to get to them. When I reached the figure, I kicked out my leg in an attack, but it just phased right through him.

Sasuke firmly, but gently, tugged on my arm, bringing me back to a standing position at his side. "Sakura, this has already happened. You can't do anything about it in my memory."

"Then-" I looked to the figure's face, my breath halting as a rush of uncertain heat flowed through me.

And I stared into the face of my dad's murderer.

Midnight hair.

Shining red eyes.

XXX

Dun dun duuuuuuuunnnnnnn! Whoever could it beeeeee? ;)

Q: What movie quotes do you use on a regular basis?

A: Well, not so much movies, but I am constantly referencing The Office, Spongebob, or Adventure Time. Every moment of my life can be made better by comparing it to one of those three things. Plus, I can do a pretty good LSP voice, so it just makes the reference even better. :)