Chapter 22 – Sakura's worry
Sasuke entered the bedroom with the feeling of uncertainty, at first he'd entered with the remainders of his annoyance with that stupid reporter but it had melted away when he traveled further through the doorframe. The room was shaded from the curtains that restricted the amount of light aloud in the room. The deadly silence in the room was haunting. Sasuke only knew that the room was occupied because of the large lump under the bed covers, plus it helped that one of the maids said she hadn't left the room yet.
Sasuke moved closer to the lump on the bed, making sure to think carefully, he didn't exactly know what he was dealing with here. She claimed to be sick, but he had a sneaky suspicion that it was far from the truth, plus he was her boyfriend… whoa… wasn't she meant to spill her guts to him at every opportunity?
Sasuke frowned at the silly thought and gently shook the lump, trying to get a response. There was a light moan from under the covers and he took that as a sign that Sakura was indeed alive, before pulling the sheets away to reveal a blob of pink hair.
"Sakura?" Sasuke whispered. He had no idea why he whispered, but the silence felt like it was too fragile to break by the sound of his voice. At the sound Sakura's shoulders twisted into her body more, like she was trying to block out his existence, which for the most part was true.
She personally had no idea that the dream would have had such a huge affect on her, but it had. Once she'd gotten in the shower it was the only thing she could think about so by the time she got out she was too depressed to even bother with getting out her clothes and just changed back into the nightgown and crawled back into bed, from where she hadn't moved since.
The whole thing was rather annoying; she blamed that stinking vampire that had approached her yesterday. Plus she had no idea what to tell Sasuke, since he had no idea what was going on, which was mostly why she was ignoring his existence for the time being. But he made it difficult, what with the shaking and whispered name-calling. It was rather distracting actually. So with a small groan of displeasure Sakura peeked up through her tangled pink hair at the man who looked down at her with a frown, slight worry wrinkling between his eyebrows as he looked down at her.
"Sakura? Are you okay?" He asked, with slightly more volume in his voice than before. He sat on the bed and leaned over her, not knowing exactly what to do, he'd never really had to deal with something like this before, since she was normally pretty optimistic, but now as she looked through her tangled pink locks he couldn't help but notice the slight depression in the downward curve of her lips or the slight laziness of her eye lids. Sakura huffed and sluggishly sat up, pushing Sasuke's hand from her shoulder so she could sit up against the headboard.
"I'm fine, just had some thinking I needed to do. How have you been? I've not seen you since the other morning." She sent him a small smile and wrapped the covers around her waist and moved over so Sasuke could take a seat next to her.
"Yeah I know, what have you been thinking about?" He questioned, ignoring her question for the time being. Sakura resisted the urge to growl, she didn't want to talk about herself, she was just starting to cheer up too.
"Nothing that you would be interested in. Now tell me what you've been up too." She didn't bother asking, it was more like a command than anything else and she didn't miss the obvious eye roll Sasuke sent her way. She elbowed him for that one, probably a little harder than necessary but whatever, he wasn't going to get away with cheek on her watch.
"You recover fast I see." He moaned out, rubbing his sore side. Sakura sent him a small smile before replying.
"Your distracting me, so keep it up please." She leant back against the headboard and looked up at the shaded roof, waiting for him to take the hint and tell her about his damn day.
"Okay… it's been pretty boring actually, I ended up leaving early. Then I got ambushed by some stupid reporter who doesn't know how to take a fucking hint." Sasuke growled, remembering his aggravation for the stupid man. This caught Sakura's interest, and not for the gossip either, what if it was that guy, whathisface, Henry? Whatever. Sakura knew that he wouldn't wait long to get down to business, that was how the Old Ones worked; she knew that better than anyone. Plus the last thing she wanted was Sasuke or Itachi getting caught up in it all.
"Who was the reporter?" She asked, trying her best to sound calm and only slightly interested. Sasuke scoffed before folding his arms like a moody teenager and gave the slightest of pouts, much to Sakura's amusement.
"I don't know, if I did then I'd be on the phone suing his ass before he could say 'Paparazzi'." Sakura couldn't help but snort. True she hated it when he snorted at her, which was growing in numbers these days, but she could help it. Sasuke sent her a glare, only a mild one but a glare nonetheless.
"Don't snort at me. I'm perfectly serious. You don't go around demanding you answer their bloody questions!" Sasuke was resisting the urge to sulk, she could tell, the way his eyebrows were pulled down and the small downward curve of his mouth showed it all.
"What was he asking then?" Sakura prodded, hoping not to come as not to obvious, luckily Sasuke wasn't paying much attention to her, he was mostly glaring at the bathroom door opposite. She didn't know if that should have offended her.
"He was asking about are relationship, not much more though." He didn't stop glaring at the door. Sakura felt her eyebrows lift without permission, the guy was asking about them? She shouldn't be surprised, really, after all, she was the lead singer of a popular new band and Sasuke was the third in command of a major talent agency, fans would be dying to know. Or at least she thought so.
So maybe it wasn't that vampire, she thought. It could have just been some out of line reporter who didn't know the meaning of the word private. Sakura needed to calm down slightly, it wasn't like he would discover their relationship this quickly, he wasn't that good. Nobody was.
But that didn't mean that he would never find out, if Sakura was ignorant enough to believe that everything would be okay if she simply avoided him then she might as well stick a target board to Sasuke and Itachi's back. She'd have to find a way to protect them, but that was the annoying thing, she wasn't always going to be there, they needed to be able to look after themselves. She could turn them into the male versions of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It could work, but she didn't really want to trouble them with the knowledge that someone was after them. It would be too troublesome, and Sasuke would get all clingy, not an appealing situation in the least.
"Hey Sasuke?" Sakura spoke up in an unsure voice, catching Sasuke's attention quickly as the frown lifted slightly into one of confusion as he turned towards her. Sakura met his eyes, hoping that her idea would work.
"You know that the night's are coming in pretty early now?" She questioned. Sasuke just looked at her confused before nodding slowly, wondering where she was going with this.
"Yeah…?"
"Well, you know… since it's dark a lot now and cause you and Itachi walk home sometimes it probably wouldn't be very safe and stuff so I was wondering if…" Sakura broke off at the end when the confusion in Sasuke's eyes reached its peak. She'd never felt so under pressure before, as stupid as that sounded…
"Wonder if…?" Sasuke prodded, wanting desperately to know where she was heading with this, Sakura could be so confusing sometimes. Sakura bit her bottom lip before taking in a silent breath, this was annoying her, it wasn't like it was hard to say or anything!
"I was wondering if you wanted lesson's on slaying." She blabbered out, hardly making sense to Sasuke's ears but he got the jist of it, somehow.
"…Why…?" He finally responded, now even more confused than before. Sakura let her head drop, that man could be so painfully dense sometimes.
"Because believe it or not but there are vampires in Konoha who just so happen to hunt human's at night and not all of them hunt where I do. In fact, I only hunt there because there isn't anybody else there. Let me worry over you guys a little please." Sakura sighed out, Sasuke shifted his weight a little before snorting out at her.
"What the hell was that for! You twat!" Sakura yelled meeting his eyes with a pissed off glare. He just smirked down at her before speaking.
"I see your feeling better." He noted, causing Sakura to blush slightly.
"Don't turn this on me teme!" She shot back, causing Sasuke to chuckle at her sudden change in mood.
"You've been hanging around with Naruto too much." He stated, smirk only increasing. Sakura felt her eyes turn into small slits, he's a twat, she thought.
"I believe you've said that somewhere before. Now are you going to do it or not?" She demanded. Sasuke sighed and lent back further into the head board, ignoring the sarcastic comment at the beginning of her sentence and only answered that last part.
"Sure I guess. I'll take it you want Itachi to come as well?" He asked, looked at her from the corner of his eye. She nodded and fiddled around with the covers at her waist.
"Yeah, that's what I said wasn't it?" She questioned with a raised eyebrow. Sasuke ignored her sarcasm once again and continued to question her.
"Why the sudden interest in turning my brother and I into mini Van Helsing's?" He quirked an eyebrow down at her and smirked as she childishly stuck her tongue out at him.
"It just came to me this s'morning." She answered simply. Sasuke then remembered why he'd originally came here in the first place, it was rather annoying that he could get side tracked so easily.
"Tenten said you were sick, a hang over I think? I thought you didn't drink?" Sasuke questioned as Sakura only laughed nervously.
"Ah, I don't. But Mikoto offered me a glass of wine last night and I didn't know how to refuse." She lied. Sakura hoped that Sasuke would buy the excuse, after all it was believable, he knew how low her tolerance for alcohol was and in truth one glass of wine was enough to give her the badest of bad hangovers, as pathetic as that sounded.
Sasuke nodded in acceptance, Sakura let out a silent breath of air in pure relief, if he'd chosen to not believe her then she was screwed, that was the only excuse that she could think of. She'd also be screwed if Sasuke chose to check in with Mikoto later, but she didn't want to think about that right now.
"So, will you ask Itachi?" Sakura prodded, turning the conversation back to the vampire killing. Sasuke scratched the side of his jaw, and uncommon habit, Sakura noted before Sasuke looked at her to answer.
"Sure I guess. We'd have to do it here though, my apartment might be big enough but I'm not really fond of the idea of learning self defense in there." Sasuke answered. Sakura grinned up at him, happy that he was complying with her wishes.
"Great! Now get lost, I need to get changed and you need to phone Itachi!" Sakura commanded as she got up and pushed a reluctant Sasuke out the door.
…!...
"You want me to do what?"
"Itachi, quit whining. You know perfectly well why I wanted you here. Now do it!"
"But don't you think it's a little… Foolish?"
Itachi stood there, in the centre of an unused living room in a far corner of the mansion. All of the furniture had been pushed to the side to expose a large area in the middle. Itachi shifted his footing slightly, peering to the side to see Sasuke sitting on a coffee table to the side of the room, smirking in pure amusement.
This was the last thing he'd imagined doing when he woke up this morning. Sakura let out an impatient huff across from him and sent a mild glare his way, showing that she was loosing her cool with him.
Itachi looked down at the bright green silly straw currently held in his palm and sighed. There really wasn't any getting out of it, was there? So with an irritated groan charged at Sakura, preparing to jab her in the side with as much vengeance as possible.
She dodged easily, obviously. It was still his first go so he wasn't exactly upset about that, even if he had landed a harsh jab, then his embarrassment at attacking someone with a silly straw of all things would at least settle somewhat.
"I said to go for the vital points! You twat!" Sakura scolded. Itachi only glared back, not remembering at all where the 'vital' points were.
"And where were they?" He asked as he attempted to jab her again, missing by a good four inches. Sakura muttered something under her breath that Itachi couldn't pick up but knew it was some form of insult, what else would it be?
Sakura then unexpectedly whipped the straw out of his hand and in the same motion pushed him effortlessly to the ground, holding the straw directly above the back of his neck. Itachi turned his face away from the carpet, finding it difficult to breath and raised an annoyed eyebrow at Sakura. She moved off of him and sat cross legged next to him, tossing the straw his way when he got up.
"There are three main vital points on a vampire, one: The heart. The most obvious and the one I expected to actually go for, but whatever. Two: The point between your eyebrows, not as easy to hit so it's not really used all that often. The third and quickest way to kill a vampire is to hit the point at the back of the neck that allows the brain to send messages to the rest of the body, it can kill instantly if done right." She explained, her eyes never once straying from his. Itachi huffed, taking in the new information before standing up with his trusty silly straw and waited for Sakura to stand as well.
"Do you mind telling me why I'm using a straw?" He asked, a frown showing on his face. Sakura stood up before answering.
"Because there the closest thing I could get that won't seriously hurt me if you make contact, and that's a very big if. The easiest thing to use to kill a vampire is actually a pencil, since it's made of wood, plus they're easy to hide and you won't look suspicious if caught carrying them around." Sakura explained, taking a defensive stance.
Itachi merely shrugged, accepting the answer easily before charging again, aiming for Sakura's heart. She effortlessly glided to the side every time he attempted to jab her heart.
"You're not being subtle enough. Remember that I have the upper hand in physical ability, but you have the upper hand in brains." Sakura informed him, jumping back when he made to strike. Itachi nodded silently, agreeing with her method of thinking. If he were to get her in a corner by looking like he was carelessly swiping at her, forcing her to move back then she would loose a lot of space to move around in.
With his plan made up he found it hard not to smirk, he couldn't wait to see the surprise in her face when he finally got her trapped.
Sakura jumped to the side as he started to jab the straw left, right and centre, forcing her to move back. She caught him looking over at the corner of the room behind her and Sakura almost groaned in annoyance, did he have to be so bloody obvious? He was clearly getting ahead of himself, but at least he wasn't blindly striking anymore, that had to count for something. Sakura rolled her eyes, thinking that it was time to burst his bubble, she took the first opening provided by Itachi and got behind him in one swift move, grabbing the arm that had the silly straw and bending it back behind his back, causing a sharp intake of breath to come from Itachi.
"Word of advise, if you plan to corner the enemy, don't look at the freaking corner you spoon. That's like screaming out what you're wearing." Sakura said, letting go of his arm and standing back. She could hear Itachi grumbling about methods of teaching but ignored it, knowing that it was for his own good in the end.
"Don't you think your being a little harsh?" Itachi looked over at her with a death glare to go with it. She could tell that he was starting to get pissed off with her, but luckily she couldn't care less, hopefully it meant that he'd actually get properly into it.
"And the enemy won't be? Grow a pair Uchiha." Sakura shot back sarcastically, noticing the dark look he sent her. She only hoped that this would motivate him a little more… Which it did.
Before Sakura registered what was happening Itachi was jabbing at her chest, the odd swipe at her forehead was made too, unnerving her slightly since she didn't exactly want to be jabbed in the eye by a silly straw. Sakura had to move faster and concentrate more on his body movement than before, his movements were tidier than before too, he was clearly serious about stabbing her in the chest. Sakura didn't know if she should have been happy about that or not.
The attack went on for about ten minutes before Sakura realized that she was getting dangerously close to the back of the sofa. She thought about maybe moving to the side, seeing what his plan was by this point but lost the chance when her butt bumped into it. In the same instant Itachi went for the kill, aiming straight for her heart, Sakura reacted instantly and grabbed his wrist, preparing to throw him over the sofa. Just as she was in the middle of this, she instantly stopped, the unfamiliar feeling of a heavy pressure on her chest.
Sakura looked down, letting go of Itachi who was now half way over the sofa, his fist was pushing against her chest. Confused, she stepped aside to look at Itachi with a raised eyebrow.
"Care to explain why you decided to punch my chest? It wont help you in the least." Sakura asked, looking over Itachi as he straightened up and gave her a smug smirk.
"Because if this was a real fight, I would have had an extra weapon hidden up my sleeve, ready to take my opponent by surprise. When you tried to pull me over the sofa it gave me the leverage I needed to stab you since I'm not strong enough." Itachi explained, his smugness at his victory only growing in size. Sakura's eyebrows shot up in the air, as did Sasuke's, Itachi noted. He'd all but forgotten his brother's presents until a few seconds ago.
Sakura seemed to be thinking over the mock fight before a huge grin lit up her face, amusement glowing in her green irises. He'd got her, she realized. He was better than Sasuke had been, she could confidently say that, after all, he hadn't been able to beat her. Sasuke had way to many fighting habits that he needed to get rid of, plus he wasn't pissed off like Itachi had been.
"you Itachi Uchiha, are a vampire Slayer in disguise." Sakura laughed out. Itachi merely smirked and turned to Sasuke who was walking over, slightly annoyed at the fact that Itachi had once again over taken him.
Sasuke felt like sulking, it wasn't fair, it really wasn't. Itachi always managed to out do him in everything. And know Itachi's impressed his girlfriend when it was clearly his job! But he couldn't show his disappointment, if he did then Sakura would never let him live it down. Of course that didn't mean that he could get better.
"What's the matter?" Itachi inquired, a smug look covering his usual blank face. Sasuke gave him a mild warning glare, silently telling him not to push him, he didn't think Itachi would listen to him or anything, but it was worth a try after all.
"Ah, he's just jealous that you're better than him. Before you came his cockatoo feathers were all puffed up with pride because he wasn't flailing the silly straw around like it was on fire." Sakura teased, unaffected by the harsher glare he was sending her. He didn't like it when she reminded him of his apparent likeness to the bird, it was annoying, his hair so didn't look like a cockatoo, not even one bit… or at least he thought so.
"Shut up." He snapped back, feeling his eyebrow twitch slightly as she simply grinned like he wasn't giving her his best glare.
Itachi watched the two argue for about ten minutes more before deciding that enough was enough and stepped in. There was only so much petty squabbling that one could take, although he had a feeling that Sakura was actually having a rather fun time. She really was weird. Her tone was more teasing than anything else and that was probably only angering his brother more.
"Would you two please for the love of all that is holy, just shush!" Itachi snapped, standing in the middle of the two hoping to break up the bickering. Sasuke looked up to meet Itachi's eyes with a scowl and straightened up, acting like he hadn't just been in some childish argument, even though there was no disguising that small pout.
Sakura let a small smirk slip through as she looked up at Itachi as he turned around to face her, the look in her eye told him that she wasn't going to pay attention to him if he started nagging. He rolled his eyes at her instead, he found it odd how there roles from a teacher to pupil could change so quickly. One minute Sakura was praising Itachi for his fighting skills and the next Itachi's having to split up an argument like some teacher on break time duty.
"Is there anything else that we need to learn, Sakura?" Itachi asked, hoping it might change the subject. Sakura took a step back and actually looked like she was thinking it over.
"Yeah actually, you need to have at least some resistance to mind control. I'm pretty sure that you guys have never experienced mind control before, so it'll be easy for you guys to be manipulated." Sakura informed them. Sasuke humphed from behind Itachi, his arms crossed over his chest, clearly he was still in a mood with her. But in the back of his mind he couldn't shake some unknown feeling, he couldn't put a name to it, it was simply there, a tiny feeling in the back of his mind. It was like it was trying to break free of something, but Sasuke just ignored it for know, it was starting to irritate him slightly, plus he was still focused on beating Itachi so he could rub it in his face later.
"What do we have to do?" Sasuke asked, moving to the side so he was in sight of Sakura. She looked at him with clear green eyes that had a hint of amusement and cheek still dancing through them, just the way he like them. She smiled before answering.
"Ah, simple really, I'm going to have to invade your mind." She said with a grin that slowly turned more devilish as the seconds ticked by. Sasuke felt his eyebrow twitch at that comment, and the fact that he trusted her about as far as he could throw her when it came to his mind.
"I don't really think I'm all that comfortable with you in my head, Sakura." Sasuke replied honestly, causing Itachi to snort. Sakura's head whipped around to glare at Itachi so fast he was surprised her head didn't continue turning.
"Did you just snort?" She growled low in her chest. It was that inhuman sound again that both Uchiha siblings could easily recognize as danger. Sasuke saw Sakura's eyebrow twitch ever so slightly just like his had done a second ago, and gulped.
"Oh you two are so in for it. I'm going to mess around so much with your head's that the only evidence left is a blob of lumpy custard!" She growled again as she leapt forward. Attempting to catch both brothers as they ran around the room like cartoon characters.
And she would do exactly as promised, Itachi thought as he leapt over the sofa, simply because that was Sakura. Even though she was acting like her usual, anger controlled self; he couldn't help but think that something wasn't quite right.
...!...
hey! sorry i've not updated in forever, i really don't have an excuse this time apart from a lack of muse... oh well. It'll probably be a while until the next chapter is out too since i seem to have lost all intrest in this story ='[. But whatever, thanks for reading anyways and bear with me! I shall finish the story but it's goanna take longer than i first thought, my fault. Anywho, please review! you never know, you might relight my muse once more and i'll be a wee typing machine again... oh well, thanks again for your patience.