I apologize for the long wait, I knew what I wanted to do for this chapter but at the same time had writers block.

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Chapter Ten

Mate?

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Vampires, a species that is feared and even hated. Blood suckers. Contrary to Dracula and other vampire stories you may have heard, they aren't as frightening as they are portrayed. They don't drink human blood straight from the source, and if they do, they have no intention to kill the human. There are however, rogue vampires, who don't care about the hosts survival, human or not.

When it comes to mates, both sexes are loyal to their partner, if one dies, they usually remain faithful and never seek out another, or they die because the loss is too great. Not all are so fortunate to find their life partner and are forced to find another.

Males – when they find their significant other, they are fiercely protective and possessive. Protecting her from harm, the female's life is placed before his own.

As the five intruders appeared in the doorway, surprised when Sasuke declared a certain pink haired teenager his mate…said Uchiha, had no idea what he had just done.

His toned form still hovered over Sakura protectively, ready to rip out anyone's throat who dared approach her.

Filing in slowly but remaining by the door as they watched Sasuke's Sharingan appear as they did so and gave the unconscious girl a glance and turned back to the others. Just as suddenly as it came, Sasuke's eye's returned to onyx and he looked at the shocked faces of everyone. "What?" he asked, his tone indifferent to their stares.

No one said a word.

Confused Sasuke looked down, instantly noticing how close an annoying girl was. As soon as he had seen her, he backed off, hitting the wall. A scowl lined his fine features as he stared down at the girl with narrowed eyes, which then noticed the healing puncture wounds on her neck. 'I drank from her?' he asked himself. Now that he thought about it, he could taste something appealing on his tongue, something he craved more of.

'I marked her?' he was furious with himself and his face twisted with disgust.

While Sasuke was stuck in his thoughts and glaring at the girl with distaste, the blonde haired female watched the young prince with auburn eyes. A smile formed on her lips. "Hm…seems her blood does possess healing properties."

"Hn," the Uchiha walked toward the exit, hands shoved in his pockets and a calm and collected expression, as if nothing had happened, on his face.

Just before he disappeared through the door, Itachi spoke to his younger sibling. "She's your mate now Sasuke. You should wait until she wakes."

"Hn, it was a mistake."

"You had to have felt something for you to proclaim her yours, Sasuke," and he was gone.

Silence continued to waft throughout the room, the older Uchiha sighed at his little brothers actions. He liked Sakura, and he felt she would be good for Sasuke. She had a personality about her that made her likable and Sasuke was a hard person to get passed his barrier, but she had clearly made it through – perhaps somehow that Sasuke didn't even know.

The look that crossed Itachi's face had the others turn to him curiously, eyebrows rose in question or they simply waited for him to explain. Understanding what they wanted, his onyx eyes linger to Sakura's still form and to the area the young vampire vanished before he returned his attention to his friends and grinned. Instantly everyone comprehends, minus Naruto, what exactly ran in the elder prince's mind. A matchmaking scheme had been born.

Sakura was different from all the other girls who threw themselves on Sasuke, that's what made her the best candidate for his mate. Sasuke had no idea how well he picked.

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"Mmm…" the pink haired girl groaned, stirring slightly. Jade orbs opened before closing as a bright light blinded her. She blinked to adjust her eyes.

When she turned her neck she felt a stinging and placed her hand on it and as suddenly as it came, it was gone.

Slowly, to keep herself from getting dizzy, she sat up. The sun shone brightly through the window.

"Sakura!" she jumped at the unexpected noise.

A tick mark was throbbing above her brow, her eyes turned menacing as she turned to the spiky haired blonde who barged through the door. "Naruto could you not do that!"

He cowered behind the doorframe, he'd never met this Sakura before, she was scary…

"S-S-Sorry…" he epped out. "You were out for two days. So I was worried…"

Only when her posture didn't hold its deadly pose did he relax, knowing she wasn't going to kill him if he approached.

"What happened, all I remember was Sasuke and—" she looked around, finally realizing she was in the bed Sasuke had occupied. "Where is Sasuke?"

"Uhh," the half-blood searched for words scratching the back of his head.

"He left after you passed out," came the monotonous voice of the elder prince, followed by Kakashi and a blonde haired woman she didn't recognize.

Sakura felt her blood boil, 'After what I did for him…I'll kill him…'

"What you did was risky," Itachi said.

"Huh? What did I do?" the human was confused and she noticed the woman smile slightly. She had blonde pigtails and a purple triangle in the center of her forehead and amber colored eyes. She was better endowed than she was and Sakura had to stop herself from looking at her own flat chest for comparison. Her skin was beautifully tanned. A cream colored tank-top and green Capri-like pants and high-heeled sandals dressed her slim figure.

"Sakura, this is Lady Tsunade," Itachi felt it was time for an introduction. "Tsunade, this is Sakura. And to answer your question, feeding Sasuke your blood had some risks." At this Sakura became nervous, her hand coming to hold her neck. "Vampires who eat from a human host have no intentions to kill, usually, but for reasons other than eating, are to claim mates."

Her emerald orbs held a little understanding, not really getting it. "Vampires are very careful who they claim as their significant other, but in the confusion of Sasuke's mind..." Itachi paused, he had a feeling Sakura wouldn't like what he would tell her, "you are now bound to Sasuke as his mate."

"What? This wasn't supposed to happen! I let him drink my blood so it would heal him and that's it! Where is he?"

"Uhh," Naruto cowered behind Kakashi, "in the training grounds…"

Sakura bolted out the door faster than the others could blink, moments later her voice echoed through the halls, "Where do I go from here?"

The silver haired vampire pulled out his book and lazily walked to her assistance. Hopefully she wouldn't attack him.

After countless halls and walls Sakura could smell the fresh air of the outdoors, and yards away from the entrance was Sasuke. She huffed and stormed toward him.

He knew she was coming, she was stomping like a rhinoceros on a rampage, and truthfully he didn't care, it's not like she could hurt a vampire. He continued with his sword training and trying to improve his already perfected technique. The sound of her heavy breathing and approaching footsteps reached his ears; he could even hear her mumbling under her breath. 'Annoying.' He thought, he couldn't believe he'd been so careless to claim her as his. 'A mistake. Nothing more.'

As much as he said he didn't want her as his mate, he never wanted one, remember? The part of him that made her his tried to call her to him, becoming possessive and protective, but Sasuke would never give in to that side of him that craved her companionship. He would kill himself before he let her hang on him like a fan-girl.

His body was half-turned in her direction when Sakura stopped behind him she started shouting, "You jackass! You can't go around biting women and acting like nothing happened! I can't even believe I missed your jackass self!"

He just stared at her blankly.

"You even marked me as your mate! You could have at least tried to not do that when you drank my blood. That was for healing purposes only! And since you marked me, you should have stayed and apologized—"

"I don't apologize." He said monotonously, expression remaining blank.

Her face grew red with anger, "Then you could have stayed and explained the situation instead of having someone else doing it for you."

"Hn, marking you was a mistake, remember that. If I were in my right mind I never would have marked you to be mine. You mean nothing to me, you're just a nuisance who gets kidnapped and needs protection. I wouldn't even be protecting you if I wasn't ordered to. You are just a mission I have to complete, once it's over you will not even be a memory in my mind."

"Ouch," she spat sarcastically, "just so we're clear, I hate you."

"The feeling's mutual. Now could you leave you're annoying me."

"Your protection details are over, Naruto will be my bodyguard!"

"Eh!" Naruto and the others had followed her and stood by the entrance (flashing exclamation marks over the blonde's head).

"Hn, that's fine by me."

"Maybe I should have let you stay in that coma you were in."

"You should have, I have a horrible taste in my mouth because of your blood. Your body is polluted and no one would want to drink it if you were the last person on the planet to eat from." That was a lie, her blood was quite delicious.

Once he finished, he nonchalantly watched Sakura's face break out into a slow grin, "That's not what you told me…it was just the opposite in fact."

If he weren't a master at hiding his emotions, he would have given away that he was surprised by her words. The memory was a little foggy, but he remembered saying something that to his ears sounded corny.

"Your blood appeals to me."

"Hn, I don't remember such trivial things," he said coolly, "and whatever I said, I was delirious, if you knew anything about my race you would know that when we are injured we do things we normally wouldn't do. Whatever I said, forget it, because it wasn't true, I regret every moment drinking your blood and having to save you from Tsukiumi."

That part, she couldn't deny, had stung.

"And I regret ever feeling a little bit sorry for you being in that condition because of me, but who cares, I have a better bodyguard now and you can waste your time doing whatever it is you do." She replied angrily, her temper boiling over.

"Fine by me, now leave." Instead of waiting for her to answer him, he walked off into the dense forests and out of sight.

The others could hear the girl mumbling words.

And Itachi sighed slightly, their relationship was back to where it was, probably worse. This only made his work harder…

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Sorry again for the wait, I'm not sure how I like this chapter, but I figured I'd better get something up and out for you.

Hopefully it was alright and don't you love Sasuke and Sakura's relationship?

Anyway, reviews and criticism are welcome and much appreciated.

Until next time!