title: leave out all the rest
characters: eventual SasuSaku, ensemble
rating: T
category: romance/supernatural/action (my attempt at least…)
warning: clearly, this is AU, probably some OOC

Watching both seasons of Vampire Knight plus seeing Eclipse three times already led me to this plot bunny and I just couldn't get it out of my head. So yeah…I'm kind of obsessed with vampires and I think Sasuke would make one damn sexy vampire…

Disclaimer: I own my book and DVD copies of the Twilight Saga but that is all. What I wouldn't give to own Uchiha Sasuke, Edward Cullen and Kuran Kaname. A girl can dream…

"Sakura-chan, it's nearly closing time, would you like anything else to drink before I start cleaning up?"

Sakura blinks and looks up from her textbook, a light rosy tint on her cheeks, "Its nine o'clock already?"

The young woman working behind the coffee counter smiles down at one of her most frequent customers from the corner table she's working at. "Time sure flies lately, huh?"

Sakura nods in agreement before holding up her Styrofoam cup, "I'm fine with this, thanks Ayame-chan." She begins to pack up her books, sliding them into her messenger bag before lifting it onto her shoulder.

"Have a good night!" the barista calls out, waving the broom in her hand as a goodbye. Sakura waves behind her head as she pushes the door open with her hip, using her other hand to wrap her white scarf around her neck. A cold gust of wind blows into her face, nearly knocking the girl off her feet.

It's a cold, wet, late September evening, the kind that makes you want to curl up next to the fireplace with a good book and a warm cup of cocoa. That thought alone makes Sakura wish her apartment were closer to campus so she wouldn't have to endure walking nearly ten blocks just to get to her favorite coffee shop on campus.

She checks her watch; the last bus would have left just five minutes ago, meaning she'd have to wait another twenty-five minutes for the next one. With a sigh and one last gulp of her lukewarm coffee, Sakura decides to make the trek back home by foot and heads to the back alleys as a short cut.

Reaching into her bag, she pulls out her red iPod, only to frown when she remembers the battery died when she last used it this morning. The only sounds in the cold night air are the wind howling and the occasional drip-drip-drip of leftover rain water falling from rooftops after this afternoon's showers.

Soon Sakura thinks she hears footsteps off in the distance. The back of her neck prickles, but when she looks behind her, she sees no one. Crossing the street into another alley, she tightens her grip on her bag and begins to speed up her pace.

It's just your imagination, Sakura, she tells herself. You've been drinking too much coffee and reading too many vampire books. You're almost home, just keep walking.

However, she can't shake that feeling that someone is watching her, following her. This time keeping her pace steady, she quickly glances behind her with only the corner of her eye and sees three shadowed figures in the close distance.

Her heart jumps and her stomach twists as her mind races to come up with a plan. Her first instinct is to run and scream for help, but she's sure there's no one around to hear her. Being a first year medical student, her analytical mind works think of something. She wishes she hadn't laughed in her father's face when he offered to buy her a bottle of pepper spray. She wishes she knew how to throw a right hook. All her anatomical knowledge won't do any good if she doesn't have any weapon to use.

She doesn't have any valuables to give them. Maybe her iPod or her cell phone, but that's about it, unless they want some massive college textbooks. She grabs her phone, sliding it open to dial for help only to let out a frustrated cry when she sees that she has no signal.

A faint voice in the back of her mind reminds her that it's probably not the messenger bag they're after, but her.

Looking back over her shoulder, Sakura is surprised that the figures are gone. She stops and turns around fully, not realizing until it's too late that she's let her guard down.

When she faces forward again she jumps as she comes face to face with the three men once more. They're dressed in strange black cloaks with red clouds on them. She's never seen cloaks like that before, but figures they must be in some kind of gang or yakuza.

"I don't have much money," she tells them flat out, forcing herself to stand up straighter. Her hands grip the leather strap of her bag so the men won't see how they shake.

Her comment makes the men laugh, once again proving to her they aren't here to rob her. The man in the middle, the leader, she's assuming, steps forward. He has dark hair pulled into a low ponytail and eyes as black as night.

He grins down at her, "We don't want your money."

"I—I'm HIV positive!" she lies, trying to come up with some reason for them to want to leave her alone. While she's never heard of it happening before, she's fairly sure a rapist isn't going to want to risk catching the deadly virus.

The men laugh even more, much to her dismay. Who are these people? "Fortunately that won't have any effect on us," the leader explains, a condescending smirk on his face.

Sakura's heart thuds in her chest and she swears these men can hear it. They look at her with hungry looks in their eyes…in fact, the leader's eyes have turned red as he stares at her.

It's at this point that she realizes these people may not be ordinary humans.

"What do you want from me?" she asks suddenly, her voice cracking in the middle.

One of the other men, with blonde hair in a high ponytail, smiles wickedly at her. "We want to hear you scream, little girl."

She steels herself, getting a better grip on her bag before turning and racing back down the way she came. She knows this isn't going to do anything, there's no way she can outrun them, but she isn't going to let them do anything to her without a struggle.

She's barely made it through one alley before the third man is in front of her. His beady eyes gleam in the moonlight and its only now that she notices his teeth are rather pointed, his skin a little too gray.

The three begin to close in on her and Sakura feels herself beginning to panic as her heart thuds in her chest. A hand reaches out and yanks her scarf away, the thick wool chafes at her neck and jerks her forward. She bites her tongue from the way her head jolts and now her vision is spotty from the action.

The blonde grabs for her, tangling his fingers through her long pink hair and pulling her head back so her neck is exposed. His other arm crushes her to his rock hard form. She shudders as she realizes he doesn't just have a firm body…he is literally as solid as rock.

"Who are you?" she manages to gasp out, only to have the blonde bring his fist down into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her.

The leader's eyes flash red and he smirks down at her, stepping forward. His cold hands caress her face and Sakura struggles to break free of their hold. "You're only making this harder on yourself," he tells her with a patronizing voice.

She swears she sees something strange in his mouth but it's so brief her brain can't comprehend what it is. The man bends over her and without even having to think Sakura brings her foot up to kick him in the knee. He grunts and stumbles back, looking up at her through his bangs in surprise.

The blonde holding her slams her into the brick wall behind them as punishment. He turns her around so her front is pressed into the wall, her cheek digging into the cold bricks.

"I've had enough of this," the leader says, recovering from Sakura's blow. "Hold her down."

And then his body is behind hers, it feels so cold she swears he's made of ice. Even his breath hitting the back of her neck is freezing. Sakura screams at the feel of him pulling her head back to expose her neck once more.

"Get off me!" she screams, her fingers clawing at the wall.

Suddenly he's thrown off of her, as is the blonde one pinning her. Hesitantly, Sakura turns around to see all three of the men in cloaks are on the ground. There are two other men—a blonde with spiky hair and strange marks on his tan face and another man with skin like moonlight and ink black hair. His eyes are that same strange red as the other man's…could they be related somehow?

"How rude of you to interrupt, otouto," the leader in the cloak says with a smirk on his face as he stands up, brushing himself off. His partners are standing now as well, flanking his either side.

"Leave her alone," the dark haired man who saved her says in a low baritone. His partner crosses his arms and glares at the others in warning.

The beady eyed man with gray skin frowns mockingly, "Are you always going to ruin our fun?"

"If your idea of 'fun' is murdering innocent humans as a game, then yes, we are!" the blonde shouts, his fists clenching.

The leader just chuckles, "I bet there's a part of you that wants to join in on our fun, Naruto. The part locked deep inside you."

The blonde—Naruto, Sakura is assuming—growls lowly, "You don't know anything about me, Itachi!"

"Enough of this," Naruto's partner says, stepping forward. Sakura looks from him to the man called Itachi—did he call him his little brother? "It's time for you to leave, Itachi."

Itachi smirks and steps closer as well, the black commas in his eyes beginning to spin. "Oh, I think we'll stay. We haven't had our…dessert yet."

Sakura shivers as everyone turns to her, wishing she could just wake up from this horrible nightmare she's been caught in. The large, gray one smirks at her, eyeing her with his dark eyes, "Maybe we should keep her. I could use a new toy…."

"You won't touch her!" Naruto snaps.

The shark-like man lunges at her and Sasuke is in front of Sakura in an instant. He pulls out a large sword and swings it at the man, who narrowly avoids the blow.

It's nearly pitch black out now but the occasional flashes of lightening provide Sakura with enough light to see what's going on as all five of the men begin to fight. She watches as the two who helped her—Naruto and Itachi's younger brother—manage to hold their own despite being outnumbered.

But suddenly Naruto is fighting the other blonde and Itachi and the gray man are up against the other one. He's backed into a corner, his hands flashing with a strange blue electricity. Sakura fears he may be in trouble and, seeing that Naruto is busy holding off the other one, decides that she owes it to this man to help him, even though she has no idea what she's doing.

She races forward, pulling her heavy messenger bag from over her shoulder and swinging it high over her head. It connects with the back of the gray man's head, sending him sprawling across the street with a loud crack! Her bag broke from the impact and her textbooks are strewn across the wet concrete, already soaked in rainwater, but Sakura finds she doesn't really care. The dark haired man stares at her looking almost surprised, before he shoves her behind him and faces his brother.

Sakura hears Naruto shout something—Did he say Rasengan?—and suddenly strange star-shaped objects surrounded by light fly into the other blonde, knocking him off his feet and surrounding them all with a thick cloud of smoke.

Itachi glances back at the man in front of her before chuckling as they all disappear in the smoke. "Until next time, otouto…"

When the air clears, the three in the strange cloaks are gone. Naruto is panting and leaning against a wall. He turns to them and grins at Sakura.

"Ne, are you alright?"

The dark haired man turns around to face her, his eyes no longer crimson but a beautiful onyx. Sakura opens her mouth several times and finds she can't seem to make words. Somewhere in the back of her medical mind she's vaguely aware that she's probably going into shock.

"I…I…I…"

"That was pretty great, how you hammered Kisame with your bag! What's in there?" He squats down and picks up some of her wet books, trying in vain to wipe them off. "Anatomy…neurology…biochemistry…jeez what are you studying?"

"I'm a med student," she manages to whisper.

"What's your name?"

"S-Sakura," she pants. Naruto and Sasuke exchange a glance at this but she barely notices. Her chest is throbbing and her heart feels like it's about to burst. Sakura leans back on one hand, the other one is clutching at her chest.

"I'm Naruto! Teme over here is Sasuke," Naruto continues, jerking his thumb over at his companion. The blonde eyes her critically, "Hey, you don't look so good…you're really pale!"

He's moved in close enough that Sakura can get a good look at the strange things in his mouth and realizes that they're the same things she saw in Itachi's mouth. Two elongated teeth pull down to a point on either side of his incisors. She can't help but stare as she realizes all of these men have…fangs.

"Idiot," Sasuke mutters, crossing his arms. "She's going into shock."

"You're…you're…" Her head is spinning and before she knows it, she's lost her grip on the wall behind her and she's falling into darkness. She's vaguely aware of a pair of strong arms catching her before she hits the ground and suddenly she's lifted up against a firm chest, her head lolling onto the person's shoulder.

Before Sakura completely falls into the darkness, one word echoes in her mind.

Vampires.

When she comes to, Sakura's first thought is that she dreamt the whole thing. But as she slowly blinks her eyes open and sees she's in a dark room she doesn't recognize, she knows the night's events were all real.

She sits up slowly, rubbing her temples to calm the throbbing. Damn what she wouldn't do for a glass of water and some aspirin.

Muffled voices come from behind the door and she can see light coming from underneath it. Naruto's loud voice bellows into the room but the rest of the voices are too quiet for her to make out. All she can gather is that there are definitely more than Naruto and Sasuke out there.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Sakura pushes the door open and makes her way down the hall, following the voices. She finds them all sitting in a large common room, Sasuke's scowling in an armchair in the corner while Naruto is standing in the center of the room, waving his hands animatedly.

"I still don't get why Sasuke decided to bring her here," a boy with dark hair and red triangles on his cheeks says from where he's lounging on a sofa. A little dog rests in his lap, nuzzling his stomach while he sleeps.

"I'm telling you, she's the one!" Naruto insists. He opens his mouth to continue when another man—seemingly the oldest of the bunch, with silver hair and wearing a strange mask on his face—turns to face her in the doorway.

"Ah, you're awake."

Sakura flushes as everyone in the room turns to her in silence. Nervously glancing around the room, she sees that everyone looks to be about her age except for the silver haired man. He makes his way over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and guiding her into the room.

"Are you feeling alright? Can we get you anything?"

He seems nice enough but Sakura can't find it in herself to let her guard down. Being in a room full of strangers with fangs, she can't help but feel a little tense.

"Um, I guess I'd like some answers…" she says quietly, glancing from Naruto to Sasuke.

The silver haired man nods and brings her to an empty chair next to a blonde girl. "Fair enough. For starters, my name is Kakashi. You can think of me as a sort of…adoptive father of these youngsters."

The boy with the dog snorts, "He wishes."

Kakashi gives him a look before turning back to Sakura, "That's Kiba, his dog is Akamaru." He continues to introduce her to everyone—the lazy looking boy with a ponytail is Shikamaru, the blushing girl is Hinata, her cousin with matching white eyes is Neji, the brunette with her hair piled into two buns sitting next to Neji is Tenten, and the blonde girl sitting next to Sakura is Ino.

She nods, trying to process everything. Kakashi doesn't beat around the bush as he acknowledges they all have fangs and several of them have uncommon physical features. He explains that they're a group of vampires who choose not to drink human blood and feed on animals instead.

Kiba interrupts, admitting that sometimes for fun they like to rob blood banks as a rush. Kakashi glares at him and explains to Sakura that he doesn't usually like to broadcast that part.

"Who were those guys who attacked me? They had those cloaks on…." Sakura trails off and everyone gets quiet.

"Akatsuki," a low voice says and Sakura looks at Sasuke in surprise. This is the first time he's said anything since she woke up. She can't help but stare at him, while he is extremely masculine she almost thinks he looks beautiful in a gothic, tragic kind of way. His pale skin, dark hair, aristocratic features, and penetrating gaze leave her feeling mesmerized.

"Their leader, Itachi, is Sasuke-teme's older brother," Naruto explains to her, drawing her attention back to their conversation. "They're a group of rogue vampires who hunt for fun. They like to torture humans and kill even if they don't need to drink blood."

"We're trying to stop them," Ino explains, flipping her long hair behind her and moving closer to Sakura. "Most of us have been here for years."

"Not that I have a problem with it…but why don't you guys drink human blood?" Sakura can't help but ask.

Ino shrugs, "Because it's wrong. Contrary to popular belief, you don't lose your soul when you become a vampire."

"Some people just choose to ignore it," Tenten adds from her place next to Neji. Judging by the way they're angled towards each other, Sakura assumes they're together. She wonders if anyone else in the group is a couple and subconsciously, she finds her eyes drawn back to Sasuke.

A door from the back bangs open and a boy with an awful bowl cut bursts into the room. "Has her youthfulness awakened?" His eyes land on her and he sweeps towards her, pulling her hands into his own.

"Are you feeling well? I was most impressed when Naruto regaled us with the story of your youthful bravery!"

Sakura's eyes widen and she tries to subtly pry her hands from his grasp as Ino leans towards her, "That's Lee. He's a little…enthusiastic sometimes."

Sakura smiles at her, "Just when I thought I had everyone's names down."

The blonde laughs and Sakura wonders if they could've been friends if situations were different. That thought brings her back to her most important question. She turns to Kakashi, "Um, I was just wondering…what am I doing here?"

"You passed out," Naruto explains. "Teme caught you and we didn't know what else to do with you so we brought you here until you woke up."

She watches him, not buying his story. "Before I heard you say something about me being 'the one.' What's that about?"

Naruto anxiously glances at Sasuke before looking to Kakashi for assistance. "Sakura," Kakashi asks softly, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder once more. "Were you, by any chance, adopted?"

She blinks up at him in surprise. "Yeah. How did you know?"

"I knew it!" Naruto cheers, pumping his fists into the air while Tenten rolls her eyes at his display.

Kakashi glances over her head at Sasuke and she's getting fed up with everyone looking to Mr. Silent-and-Broody without giving her any explanation. Whirling around to face him, Sakura narrows her eyes and asks, "What's going on, Sasuke?"

His midnight eyes bear into hers and it's as if they're frozen in time, locked in each other's gazes. He's searching for something, she can tell, as he holds her gaze. She can't tell if he finds what he's looking for but eventually he turns to Kakashi and nods to him.

"In the vampire world, there are certain ranks of vampires," Kakashi begins. "Purebloods are at the top, they're like vampire royalty. Then there are nobles who have human ancestry mixed in their bloodlines. The more human your ancestry, the lower you are in rank.

"The Uchiha clan is one of the final pureblood clans, and several years ago nearly the entire clan was wiped out by one of the two heirs…Itachi."

Sakura's eyes widen, "Sasuke is a…prince?"

Kakashi nods, "After the clan massacre, Itachi became a rogue vampire and soon created Akatsuki. Sasuke, the new Uchiha heir due to Itachi's banishment, was brought to me to be raised."

"So, how many Uchiha are left?"

"…Two."

Her heart breaks at the idea of what Sasuke had to go through—having his entire family wiped out by his older brother. No wonder they couldn't get along. She looks back at him but he refuses to meet her gaze now.

"When Sasuke was first born, he was betrothed to the daughter of another pureblood clan, in hopes to bring the two clans together and create a twice as powerful clan," Kakashi continues. "Around the same time of the massacre, this clan was destroyed as well but no one knows who the murderer is. The princess was kidnapped and never heard from again…."

Sakura blinks up at him in confusion, "I don't get what this has to do with me…."

Naruto jumps up, "You're not telling it right, Kakashi! The princess had pink hair, Sakura-chan. How many people do you know with naturally pink hair?"

"Wait a minute—" She puts her hands up in front of her. "You can't be saying…."

"How did your adoptive parents decide to name you Sakura?"

She hesitates, "I…they didn't. They said my birth parents gave me that name."

"Aha! The princess's name was Sakura! You can't say that was coincidence! For years we've been looking for a Sakura with pink hair who wasn't born into her family," Naruto refuses to stop, his eyes glowing with excitement. Sakura looks over to Sasuke who finally looks back up at her, his eyes tell her that he at least is considering what Naruto is saying.

"You're Sasuke-teme's fiancée, Sakura-chan! You're our long-lost vampire princess!"

Whew that was a long one! I completely fail at writing short stories if I'm trying to include a plot :/

I wasn't intending to, but I kind of ended up tying in pieces of from all three plots into the story. I think it ended flowing together pretty well. Sure there are still lots of unanswered questions, but this was just supposed to be like a snapshot.

I kind of want to continue this one…any thoughts?