The Slayer - Beginning

- Back in Konoha, village and home of Haruno Sakura -

Walking down the streets, Sakura headed for the Hokage's office, suitcase in hand. "The wind... It's blowing, just like it was that night..." she thought to herself. "No! Get a hold of yourself Sakura; you can't let him keep getting to you. He's not even here anymore!" Her inner was mentally shaking her.

"Sakura! Sakura-chan! You're back!" shouted a tall blonde male, dressed in an orange jumpsuit.

"Naruto? What a relief. You almost scared me!"

Looking away shyly, the boy said "Sorry Sakura-chan. I didn't mean to."

Smiling at the boy she'd grown up with, she said, "No, it's just I didn't expect you to be back today! I'm happy to see you again. Would you like to walk with me to Lady Tsunade's office? I need to report to her about my last mission."

"Of course Sakura-chan. And actually, I've been back for a few days but you've been away. I'd actually like to hear about your mission. You don't look hurt, so I guess everything went fine right?"

Giggling a little, she said "Of course I'm not hurt. I'm stronger than I was back when we were kids."

Naruto, still acting like his childish self, stuck his tongue out at Sakura and she giggled in response.

- At Tsunade's Office -

"Sakura, it's nice to see you've returned in one piece," chimed the Hokage, Tsunade.

"Yes, Shishou, I'm back. I have something terrible to report to you though," she dragged on, "I... I have gotten rid of my target successfully, but Tsunade-sama, it would seem Orochimaru is trying to turn people into what I believe to be.. vampires?" She said as a question. The room fell silent.

"WHAT?!" Naruto roared. "Vampires aren't even real, Sakura-chan! Are you sure about this?"

"I know what I saw! I'm positive about this, and it's worse than we think. Orochimaru is evil, and he won't stop with just one." she explained.

Anger coursed through Naruto's body. "Will this happen to Sasuke too!?"

Grimacing as memories flooded back to her with the mention of that name, she gritted her teeth and clenched her fists.

"Naruto, Sasuke is stronger than Orochimaru. There must be something going on with Orochimaru for him to sacrifice Kabuto so easily." Tsunade said, trying to explain this thing and keep her cool. She continued, "Sakura, you've done well. Thank you for reporting this to me with such urgency."

Trying to smile, Sakura said "Thank you, Shishou. Here's what I got for completing the mission." She handed over the suitcase full of money to the Hokage.

"Thank you. You're dismissed. Take the next few days off to rest."

- In the Village -

Taking in all of the scents leaving the Hokage's Mansion really did remind Sakura of the home village she loved so. The trees were changing colors and losing their leaves; an obvious sign that autumn was here. Kids were running around laughing and playing, just like most of the other kids. Some of them were training to become ninja like she had. Then, the smell of ramen caught Sakura's attention. She hadn't eaten in a long time.

She stopped by Ichiraku Ramen, Naruto's favorite place to eat. Ironically enough, there Naruto was, eating a bowl of his favorite ramen like it was going out of stock. She sat down next to him and ordered some for herself.

"Sakura-chan! You should have told me you were hungry and I would have offered to take you here earlier." Naruto said between bites.

"I needed to go back home and unpack my things first..." Sakura lied, only half paying attention to what he was saying.

Thinking to herself, she thought about taking it upon herself to investigate Orochimaru even father. She wanted answers, but more than anything she longed to see him...

"Sakura? Hello? Sakura-chan did you hear me?" Naruto said with a worried look on his face, waving his hand in front of hers.

Hesitantly, she answered, "I'm sorry Naruto. I'm just really tired. I think I'm going to go home and go to bed."

"Can I walk you home then? It's already dark and I don't think you should be walking around alone." Naruto said, hoping desperately that she would accept his offer.

She thought about it for a moment. "Sure, but I don't want to cause you any trouble."

"Sakura, you're never any trouble to me. We used to be teammates back on Team 7," he answered.

"Okay, Naruto. Let's go," she answered, smiling a genuine smile for the first time in a long time.

Walking side by side, Naruto and Sakura were both lost in their own thoughts. Passing by, all of the lights in people's homes were beginning to go out, one by one. Naruto was trying to think of something that he could say to Sakura, after all he hadn't been able to talk to her in a long time. He was gone training for almost three whole years, and he came back while she was gone on a mission. It seemed like forever since they'd had a good long talk about their lives. Of course, Naruto had gotten stronger... But then again, Sakura was able to take down Kabuto! She must be amaz-

"We're here Naruto.." Sakura said, causing him to lose his train of thought. He snapped out of his own world and took Sakura into a tight embrace.

"We will find Sasuke. I promise, Sakura. I know how much he still means to you." He whispered in her ear and released her.

"Naruto..." She said, keeping the tears in her eyes from spilling over.

"I'll see you tomorrow, right Sakura-chan?" He said, hopeful.

"Of course!" She answered in return as he ran off to his home.

Sakura watched Naruto walk away in the direction they had come from. He never looked back once. When he was finally out of sight, she looked up at the night sky. She missed watching the stars and the moon, but did the moon seem different tonight? No. It had to be her imagination. Pushing the thought aside, she opened the door to her house.

"Ahh," she thought. Her house was just the way she'd left it.

She was so ready to just get into her bed and go to sleep, she'd temporarily forgotten every thought about Sasuke. She dragged her feet across the hardwood floors, walking upstairs to her room with a tap.. tap.. rhythm. Plopping down on her bed, she looked through the window, falling asleep as clouds covered the full moon. She had no idea what would be awaiting her in the very near future.

The Slayer - Beginning

It was still dark outside when Sakura woke up from her deep slumber. Sweat running down her face, swept over by cold chills. Sakura decided that it was time for her to wake up. Not only did she have a terrible nightmare, it was one of her new worst fears. Vampires.

She thought she'd gotten stronger since Naruto had left the village, but here she was, a trembling, helpless girl once again. The dream had been so terrible though, she just couldn't help it! Her dream had started out in Orochimaru's hideout...

- In Sakura's Dream -

I witnessed it then. That unspeakable fear. Sasuke had willingly allowed himself to be injected with that awful thing Orochimaru had invented that turned humans into vampires.

"Why would he do that?!" I thought to myself. "I just can't get that look out of my head.. Those awful fangs that protruded from his lips, and the look of menacing evil plastered across his face." I wanted to run away in the dream, but something held me in place.

He'd betrayed Orochimaru. Drained every ounce of blood from his body. Then... the dream flashed forward. Sasuke was killing people, even innocent children. Then the recognition of the faces hit me. He was drinking Ino's blood. Ino's!

"Why is Sasuke back in Konoha?! And why is he killing my best friend?!" I shouted, no answer in return. When he was finished, he threw her body to the side of the street and didn't look back; all he did was wipe the blood from his mouth and continue forward. Sasuke continued until he made it in front of MY house... I was stupid enough to open the door. That's when I saw his face.. and that's when I woke up.

- Back in Reality -

"Sakura, it's just a dream. Sasuke would never allow himself to become a monster like that!" She tried really hard to convince herself, but it wasn't working very well. She turned the lights on and walked into the kitchen; why not stay up? Clean a little? Do ANYTHING. It's almost morning anyway. It wouldn't hurt to get a head start today, right?

She walked over and started making a pot of coffee and ran back upstairs to take a shower. Afterwards, she sat down at her small kitchen table, finally starting to calm down from that dream. No. That nightmare. Just as she was finishing her coffee, there was a knock on her door. Sakura's eyes grew wide in fear. Could it be...?

There was another knock.

"Grow up and answer the door." Her inner said.

Straightening her backbone, but with slightly shaking hands, she opened the door and let out a sigh of relief.

"Naruto? What are you doing here this early?"

"Granny Tsunade has called us. Let's go," He replied, his voice still raspy as if he had just woken up. Sakura pulled on her shoes and locked the door behind her.

- In the Hokage's Office -

"Ahh, thank you two for coming here this early in the morning. I'm sorry if I disturbed your sleep, but I needed you two for a mission." Tsunade stated. "I'd like you to bring Neji and Shikamaru with you for this one."

"Why aren't they here then?" Naruto asked, mad that he was the one who had gotten woken up instead of one of the other two.

"Because. I'm not sure how you two would react to the mission that I'm assigning you." Tsunade replied, serious.

"I'm going to put this simply. You all need to investigate the strangeness of Orochimaru's behaviors. You also need to locate Uchiha Sasuke immediately. If there's even a chance of him becoming one of Orochimaru's experiments, then it's Konoha's job to take care of him. Understood?"

Both of them too shocked to speak, they simply nodded in agreement and soon left to join up with Neji and Shikamaru at the village gates.

The Slayer - Beginning

My heart was beating at an extraordinary pace when Tsunade broke the news to Naruto and me. I couldn't speak. All I could do was nod in agreement to do her wishes. The nightmare came back into my head, as clear as it was when I had experienced it this morning.

I pushed it aside from my already numb mind and walked next to Naruto the whole way to the village gates to meet up with Shikamaru and Neji.

It felt like years had passed, but it was only moments.

"So, by the look on your faces, I assume you're going to go through with this mission?" Shikamaru asked.

Naruto replied with a fast "Yes. He was our teammate. Let us take care of him."

"Well then, we should probably start forming a strategy," Shikamaru stated. "I already have a few planned, and I will now explain the best one for the people in our group."

"Neji, I want you to be in the front of our group so that you can use your Byakugan to be on the lookout for anything strange. Sakura, you'll be behind Neji and give him support if there is an attack from an enemy since you use close-range combat. I'll be behind Sakura, so that I can see almost everything and change our plans as needed. Naruto, I want you to bring up the rear. I don't want you charging into anything, understood?"

Everyone chimed in, "Hai."

With that, the team of four set out on their mission. Sakura thought to herself about how she was during her previous mission, and compared herself to how she was at this moment. She thought about it for a while, and she resolved that she no longer wanted to rely on the help of others. She was stronger when she didn't have to worry about it.

She would be a strong and confident kunoichi at all times from this moment forward. No tears. No regrets. Most importantly, she would NOT let her emotions effect the mission. She strived to make the village proud, and to do that, she needed to be focused.

"Shikamaru. We've been going for quite a while. We should rest for a while in order to keep up our strength." Sakura said, tilting her head back towards Shikamaru.

"Right now? I think we should at least try to make it to the next village." Neji replied.

"No, Sakura is right. I think we will be better off resting here," Shikamaru stated.

Night had fallen. Naruto had barely said a word the whole time, which is very unusual for him. Is he actually taking a mission serious? Well, there's a first for everything.

They were sitting around the fire and Sakura hadn't realized that she was staring straight at him when he said, "You don't have to worry about me Sakura-chan."

"Huh? Oh, sorry Naruto. You're just not acting like yourself, but I understand.." She replied.

"I've failed so many times in the past to try to get Sasuke back. This time, even if we do get him back, there's a chance that Sasuke might not be...Sasuke anymore." Naruto said gravely.

"It's not just Sasuke anymore. If Orochimaru has made it possible for people to turn into vampires, we're going to have a lot more trouble later." Neji stated.

"Trouble as in, ridding a word of vampires that Orochimaru single-handedly created." Shikamaru said.

Sakura looked around at her team. "Doesn't it scare you guys to face something you have no knowledge of?"

"A little. But, we have you Sakura-chan. You've fought a vampire. What's it like?" Naruto said.

"It's very different," she replied, speaking slowly, trying to word it right. "It's not like fighting a ninja. It's almost like fighting someone without a level-head."

Everyone nodded their heads in understanding.

"We'll be leaving soon. Everyone needs to rest." Neji stated. Tsunade-shishou must have appointed him captain of this mission.

Sakura lay back, looking up at the night sky. No moon? That was weird. Last night, the moon had been full, hadn't it? Who knows. Sakura closed her eyes so that she could take in the sounds of her surroundings. It reminded her of her previous mission that she had taken alone. No wind, just a fire that was dying down. Other than the sounds of her teammates breathing, it was silent.

Odd. She sat up at once and looked around into the pure darkness around her. Where were all the animals tonight? Turning around to get a better look at her whole surroundings, Sakura noticed a pair of eyes. "I guess the animals are just quiet tonight."

She lay back down and drifted off into a light sleep, thinking about the pair of red eyes she had just seen from a few trees over...

-The Next Morning-

"I wish people would leave me alone..."

"C'mon, it's time to pack up and get moving Sakura-chan." Naruto said to her quietly. It was still very, very dark outside. What time was it? Had any of us even slept at all?

"Hai.." Sakura said, yawning and rubbing her eyes, trying to wake herself up. She remembered the eyes that were watching her before she had fallen asleep. She jumped to her feet instantly, spinning around on her heel, taking her team off guard.

"What's wrong?" Neji asked.

"Before, when we were all sleeping, I remember seeing red eyes right over there." Sakura said, trying to keep her voice low and calm.

"Neji, check with your Byakugan." Shikamaru ordered. He nodded and activated his kekkei genkai.

"Sakura, whatever you saw is long gone. I'm sure it was just an animal." Neji said, implying that she was losing her mind. Maybe she was.

"Vampires eyes are red..." She said, her voice barely audible. Naruto put his arm around her and began guiding her in the direction of the others.

"Sakura-chan, I think you're just really tired. You were talking in your sleep the whole time," Naruto said.

"You were going on and on about the moon and the sky, which I totally couldn't figure out, because there IS no moon tonight Sakura-chan." Naruto said, totally confused.

It was then that he picked her up and carried her.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" She asked.

"Please, Sakura. We need our medic to be well rested and ready for anything. I'll carry you so that you can get more rest, 'cause really, I think you're about to crack. Don't worry about a thing and leave it to us!" Naruto said. He'd just called her crazy, and made it sound like a good thing.

Sakura refused. She didn't want to be a burden. "Naruto, please put me down. I'm fine, I promise." She tried reasoning with him.

"Something's coming from behind us." Neji warned.

"I don't see anything, but I can sense it." Naruto said as he set Sakura down on her feet.

She peered into the darkness waiting for something to appear. That's when a pair of red eyes looked directly at them and charged.

"Aargh!" It shrieked.

Shikamaru, Neji, and Naruto all fell to their knees with their hands pressed over their ears.

"Guys? What's wrong?!" Sakura screamed at them.

"We can't.. Move.." Shikamaru answered, body paralyzed.

The thing was coming at me. Why me? Why wasn't I on my knees unable to move like the rest of them - not that I wanted to be.

I didn't have time to think. The vampire slashed away at my face with its claws while I was trying to dodge.

"Oof!" I yelped as I was slammed into a tree. How was this thing so fast? I didn't even see it coming that time! At this point I was beginning to get fed up with it, along with confused which added to my annoyance. I didn't like to be knocked into trees.

But then anger turned to fear as the vampire grabbed me from behind and had me in its steel-like grip. Now I was close enough to tell that this vampire was male, blonde, and eyes red as blood. He was hungry, and planned to make me his next meal.

I didn't know what to do, so I reacted with my instincts. I broke free from his grip and twisted around, trying to punch him. My fist connected with his abdomen, causing him to fly through three trees before he stopped. I pulled out my katana and ran forward, severing his head before he had the chance to get up. How cliche! He turned to ash! Kabuto didn't even turn to ash. Weird.

"Sakura!" My team yelled at me, as they approached, now able to move.

They came running over to where I had killed the vampire, now just a small pile of ash.

"That was.. A vampire?" Shikamaru asked me, disbelief strong in his voice.

"Yes..." I answered, still in shock that one had openly attacked us. "What happened to you guys? Why couldn't you move?" I asked curiously.

"I don't know. When we heard that shriek, we just... froze. We tried, but we couldn't move. It was as if something was holding me in place." Shikamaru was trying to explain.

"Naruto, what about you?" I asked.

"I couldn't move either. The vampire did something, and when you killed it, I could move again. I wasn't afraid, it's just like Shikamaru said." Naruto answered.

What was going on? A few days ago, vampires didn't exist. But they DO. And somehow, I was able to fight them when no one else on my team was! Shikamaru, for once, didn't have any answers to this problem. Was I really going crazy?