Life is hard; I'm not going to lie.

There is always some big hurdle coming your way, even if you just passed the last one. My first hurdle was trying to get over my family's death. I tripped, and fell.

--

"Sakura-chan!" I looked up in time to see a kunai about to bury itself in my skull. I grabbed it between two fingers and threw it back into the darkened room as soon as I heard movement.

We were in a special training room for night missions. Night missions were a lot more difficult, and tended to focus on eliminating victims of the virus from spreading it to new carriers.

Basically, they were assassination missions. But, since we're a "civilized" organization, we try to call it something else. It wouldn't be good if our benefactors knew that we killed vampires, not patients for the benefit of mankind as a whole.

Naruto was still prowling in the dark, and was very clumsy. I could hear every sound he made in the empty, echoing space around us. I could barely make out my face in front of my hand, yet there was just enough light to see the flash of metal before it lodged into my arm.

Another kunai.

Naruto was getting impatient to try the same trick twice.

I kneeled down on the floor, not making any sound. He was trying to make me scream, but in his position, I would have done the same thing. We all tend to get a little sadistic after awhile.

It comes from the whole killing people for a living thing.

Grimly, I pulled it out of my arm and threw it into a wall, hoping to distract Naruto as I spotted him. I dived in for the kill.

--

"Geez Naruto, you need to get less clumsy. I could hear every sound you made in that room." He pouted as I wrapped my bare, bleeding arm in gauze.

"Come on Sakura, with that big empty room, you could've heard a pin drop. Especially you. You have the best senses of anyone in our age group. Hey, have you heard we're getting a transfer?"

I looked up, surprised. Transfers were about as common as dancing pink bunnies.

"Who?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

"Another boy?" I pouted.

There weren't nearly enough women on base. Half of them were off duty for marrying their co-workers and getting pregnant. Another fourth were only here to be secretaries and organize who goes on what mission. The rest were either way older than me, and there-for not available for friendship, or still in the classes. There were three others in my age group, and I was only really close with Ino. Hinata was training to be a secretary and medic, and Tenten went on more missions than I did, so I hardly ever saw her.

Since my age group was difficult to control, we were given low-level missions and advanced training. I was a special case, and was sent on missions of a middle caliber.

But hey, I was still twelve. I would get plenty of chances to take out plenty of vamps in the future.

Naruto frowned at my attitude.

"He's got a rough history. His older brother became infected, and killed his whole family. Since Sasuke was only six, he ran away. He's been dead set on killing every infected out there, and is still after the guy who infected his brother. Apparently they never caught him."

Vampires are mysterious humans.

That sounded weird.

Let's just go with Vampires are a lot different from other hominids. They each still have their own personalities; they just become overwhelmed with the need for blood.

Some become consumed by it and feed without thinking, and those are the ones we catch first. The middle kind are like the ones who attacked my parents. They're afraid to die, but hate what they've become.

The worst kind are the ones who enjoy it. They live for the chase, and will stop at nothing to get what they want. They retain their sanity and control, and tend to form large hordes that may start smuggling humans or even blood. The vampire community itself is like a stream. It flows from one town to the next, always spreading and moving on. The town of Konoha is so large that there is always a good-sized population present. The city alone has over 50,000 people. Only maybe 5,000 at a time may be infected, but to us, that's 5,000 to many.

So we deal with the never ending curing and inoculating. We can only hope that it's doing some good.

"Wow. So he's in our class?" he nodded. "When's he getting here?"

"Today I think." We looked up as a voice came over the loudspeaker.

"Will all members of Class 7 report to the debriefing room? There is an emergency meeting that will start immediately." Naruto and I looked at each other, and we dashed out into the hall, gone in an instant.

--

The debriefing room is basically Tsunade's office, just given a fancy title to make it seem more important. It was round, with large windows and lots of artificial lights for when it was dark out. Right now, sun streamed in onto Tsunade, making her glow golden. Her frown was back on, and deeper than usual.

Beside her was a boy around my age, maybe a little shorter than me. He was extremely pale, more so than me, and had very dark hair. His nose was long and skinny, and his mouth was thin and stern. He was standing awkwardly, with stiff shoulders, and fists tightly clenched. He looked up through his hair, and I saw his eyes were so dark with anger that I almost took a step back.

Almost.

He was so angry, and not at anyone here, just angry in general. He was so filled with hate for the world that I could almost see it under his skin, like an ugly bruise that wasn't going to go away. He glared at me, and Tsunade stood up and introduced him. He glared at me, and Tsunade stood up and introduced him.

Naruto had been right, he did have a hard life. He had spent the rest of his childhood in another local chapter of the Organization, in the town of Sound. Sound was a lot tougher than we were, and tended to teach things that weren't always ethical in the eyes of Konoha.

They thought that once a person became infected, they weren't a person anymore. And we didn't believe that, so we cured, not killed. At least we try to. After a certain period of time, about a year, the miracle cure didn't work anymore. We had to kill them then.

"Sasuke, Sakura will be the one to get you settled." She leaned down and whispered into his ear. He looked at her sharply before giving me an appraising glance. He scowled again and followed me to Class 7's corridor.

"The hag said you're the best in our class. Is that true?" he spoke for the first time, and I almost jumped. Almost.

"I guess I am. Konoha's branch is small, so there aren't many people to compare myself to." I looked back at him, and he was frowning again.

"Why is your hair pink?" he shot at me suddenly, and this time I whirled around with my hands on my hips.

"Can you stop talking? You're annoying. My hair's pink because my father's hair was pink. Duh. If you want to try your skills against me, sign us up for a training room later this week, I don't mind. After all," I smirked at him. "I am the best."

His scowl deepened.

"Hn."

"Fine. Whatever. This is the mess, and across the hall is the communal bathroom. We have hot springs, but not very many, so both sexes have to share." I gestured to both rooms and kept walking. He didn't say another word.

---

Two weeks after Sasuke was transferred here, Naruto and I were sent on a mission with him to cure a small horde of three infected. There were proving to be less than cooperating with us however, and I could see Sasuke shaking to kill them all.

"Bitch!" I flinched at the hateful word. I quickly threw the needle into the vampire's arm and held him down. I pushed the plunger in, and he went limp underneath me. Naruto was subduing his captive in the same manner I did, but Sasuke was pinning his to the wall with the edge of a kunai, and the young woman he was supposed to administer the cure to was slowly suffocating.

"Sasuke! Stop it!! Give her the cure, now! She doesn't to deserve to die!" He ignored me.

I rushed over and forced him out of the way. I injected the needle in one swift motion, and pressed by booted foot unto Sasuke's chest.

"Bastard! When I give you an order, you obey! I was assigned team leader, and you're supposed to listen to me. You never kill someone that's more than easy to save. I don't know what they taught you at Sound, but just because they're infected doesn't mean that a person isn't human anymore! Think, stupid head!"

He spat up at me, and it took all my self control to not kill him where he…er, laid.

I hate Sasuke Uchiha more than life itself.