Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter.

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Snake Charmer

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Sasuke Uchiha walked through the forest. The trees and the dirt ground were more familiar to him than his own home by now. Wandering the Elemental Nations had been a choice he had made and something that he would continue to do, until he himself had deemed it enough.

That he had done his penance.

So when he heard a rumor of a snake summoner, well, Sasuke Uchiha knew snake summoners. None of them were any good citizens of the world. He himself wasn't a good man until recently, a year ago to be precise, when he had realized that following Madara and Obito wasn't the best decision he had made ─ not that he had made many great decisions since he was seven ─ and that he had to change his ways.

So, based on his knowledge of snake summoners and the type of people they were, well, he had to inspect.

The last town he had stopped at had said that there was a large snake that passed through the forest by the little town, and that there was a person, hidden within a large cloak ─ which never is a good sign ─ that seemed to control the snake, or speak to the snake by... hissing.

There were snake summons that spoke, but to hiss? He concluded that it might have been a delusion from a man that was deathly afraid during the situation. Nonetheless, Sasuke had decided to investigate.

Walking through the forest following the direction the man had shown him, Sasuke grew worried as he spotted a track of a very large snake, larger than the size of Manda. Sasuke frowned, heightening his senses and awareness of the area to better locate the threat. There was no chakra that he could sense around the vicinity, and he couldn't see the tracks of the person that the farmer had spoken about.

A rustle.

Sasuke quickly took to the trees, heading towards the source of the noise. Onyx eyes swirling into a bloody red hue, taking in every detail of the forest around him. There were small faint footprints on the ground below him, towards the edge of the forest, to a river. Gauging from the footprints, it seemed to either belong to a small young woman.

But he couldn't underestimate whoever it was.

Power came in many shapes and sizes.

Breaking through the clearing, he found a dark haired girl sitting on a rock, splashing the water with her feet.

He stopped a few meters away from the woman, his guard up, assessing the woman in front of him. "Who are you?"

The woman turned to look towards him, green eyes bright, standing out among the foliage around them. It was like the forest was dull compared to the emeralds that were her eyes. "You don't know?" The girl let out a small laugh that irritated Sasuke. "Do you make a habit of looking for people you don't know?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, his anger slowly building as the woman had the audacity to laugh again. He drew his sword, only to be stopped by the woman.

"I don't think you should do that." The woman whispered, tucking her dark hair behind an ear.

Sasuke ignored her, deciding that a threat would be more efficient in extracting a confession, or to just eliminate her in an instant.

He was reformed.

But they surely won't miss a threat ─ confirmed or not.

The woman drew up a hand and everything stopped.

Sasuke could feel his heart beat wildly, his breathing becoming labored in his panic ─ it was like that time he was a child and his clan was slaughtered by his brother and Madara.

"You should close your eyes now." The woman spoke gently towards him, and against his will, Sasuke felt his eyes close.

Sasuke felt the earth move beneath him, a warm breath caress his face, and a wet forked tongue lick at his cheek. He may not have seen what approached him, but he knew that it was the snake that he had heard about, and whose tracks he had followed earlier. A harsh hiss resounded above him, and Sasuke couldn't help but shiver at the prospect of a giant snake above him, his body immovable, out of his control, and very vulnerable to a real threat.

Sasuke hated her.

"Tom, play nice." The woman spoke.

That message could have been for his ears only, because the woman had proceeded to hiss at the snake.

"Now I have simple rules for you, if you want to live." The girl spoke to him again, this time her voice was close to him, seeming like she was right in front of him. "My snake will not harm you, unless you look it in the eye. I suggest strongly you do not do that."

Sasuke gritted his teeth. Imagining all the ways that he could kill the girl when given the opportunity.

"Now he will keep his eyes closed, do not make him open them,"

Sasuke opened his eyes once he could, sharingan swirling wildly and looked directly into a pair of emeralds. He would make her regret controlling him.

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Sasuke arrived at a white field, in the distance he could see a white castle surrounded by a forest, with a little village just below the castle.

"I don't know what you were trying to do, but I doubt I would have liked it."

Sasuke whirled around and saw the girl standing before him, looking annoyingly unaffected by the sharingan. No nightmare, no horrors of the past that would tear her mind apart, nothing he could do to change her mind to torment her.

"What are you?"

The girl looked at him queerly, her brows drawn together in a point to show her confusion ─ green eyes reflecting her confusion. "I am a girl."

"Don't play with me."

"You are the one who did this."

"This has nothing to do with me."

"Well I did stop it, whatever you were doing." The girl tilted her head to the side. "Were you trying to control my mind?"

Sasuke continued to glare at her, wishing that he could just leave and figure out another way to kill her.

"I could have told you that it wouldn't work. There have been others, and they have never succeeded." She walked around him then ─ unafraid of the threat that he was, or should be. "I have not seen this place in a long while."

"What are you?" Sasuke demanded again, turning towards her, and quite irritated when he found out that he couldn't do more than just take her arm softly, instead of the harsh and painful way he wanted to wring it.

"We've been through this before."

"Answer me."

"I'm a girl." The woman rolled her eyes at him. "My name is Hariel, by the way."

"That thing you did."

"A trick I'm very good at."

"This place."

"One of my homes."

Sasuke didn't get to ask much more, before he was thrown out of her mind.

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Hariel stood before him, as relaxed and in control as she had been since the beginning ─ like she wasn't facing a feared Uchiha. "Would you behave? Or do I have to keep you leashed like a dog?"

"Yes."

"That's hard to believe." Hariel took his hand. "I want you to swear, that until I say you are absolved from your oath, you are not to physically, verbally, mentally, or emotionally harm me or any I consider mine, do you swear?"

Sasuke had to stop himself from smirking or raising a brow at the ridiculousness of the woman before him. To think that an oath would stop him from doing what he was planning to do? He played along. This woman had it coming. She was dangerous.

"I swear." Sasuke was already drawing a list of things to do.

"You have to repeat after me." Hariel tightened the grip on his hand, a soft smile still on her lips ─ completely unaware of his plans. "I ─ what's your name by the way?"

Mutiny.

"Sasuke."

"I Sasuke hereby swear─."

Break an arm maybe.

"─to not physically, verbally─"

Tie her up definitely.

"─mentally, or emotionally harm Hariel─"

Probably feed her to his own pet snake.

"─or any she considers hers─"

Maybe have her pet snake get killed by his pet snakes and then she can be fed to them.

"─until Hariel absolves Sasuke from his oath, so mote it be."

"So mote it be." Sasuke tightened his grip on her own hand, ignoring the feeling that washed over him ─ thinking it was just a little bit of guilt for what he was about to do to the naive girl.

Gathering chakra into his free and now movable hand, Sasuke aimed a chidori towards Hariel's smiling face.

Only to be overwhelmed by intense pain.

Sasuke looked up at Hariel, who now stood over his writhing body. She had a concerned look on her face, cherry lips drawn into a pout, as her emerald eyes looked on in worry, yet at the same time with something that said she expected it from him.

"You know oath's are to be taken seriously."

Sasuke really wanted to rip her face off.

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"Sasuke."

Sasuke grit his teeth at hearing Hariel's voice. It wasn't like it was an annoying pitch like Karin or Sakura. It was just annoying because it came from Hariel. No matter how attractively husky and soft it sounded, because it came from her, it was annoying as hell.

"Sasuke, are you listening to me?"

Sasuke should have chosen death. Now he was stuck with a woman that talked ceaselessly like Naruto, yet more annoying because he could spar and beat on Naruto when they both annoyed each other. But this woman, he couldn't raise a finger, or words, or even cast a nightmare to harm her.

"Sasuke, if you don't listen to me, I will be bound to do something drastic." Hariel's aggravating voice echoed in the forest.

Then it ended.

Silence at last.

He sighed in relief, as he walked in the direction that Hariel had pointed him towards. He didn't know where it lead to, but it wasn't like he had a choice as to where they would go. Well actually, he could leave any time, but to leave her was to leave a threat unresolved. So follow her he did.

But silence should have been a warning.

Naruto was never taken lightly when he became silent.

So Sasuke paid for the price of taking Hariel's silence as a blessing.

Hariel walked past him.

Naked.

Small shoulders, a hint of a round and firm breast peaking as her arms moved, a tiny waist that swelled down to wide hips that moved seductively to and fro, and swinging her round and firm derriere, to finish off with long slim legs that seemed to go on for miles. All covered in a canvas of cream white skin, seemingly untouched by sunlight.

Sasuke stopped walking.

Hariel stopped a few feet in front of him.

She turned slightly and Sasuke had to swallow at the teasing glimpse of the profile of her breast, and a slightly soft rounded stomach.

"Sasuke?" Hariel's voice was every bit as seductively husky as it had always been. "Can you please listen to me?" A pout of her naturally plump cherry lips.

Why did she pout? Sasuke nodded his head. It was all he could do.

"I'm hungry. Go hunt for some food." With that Hariel turned around, the black cloak that she always wore, materialized and covered her deliciously enticing body.

Sasuke continued to stand still at where Hariel had left him stunned, as she walked further into the distance.

She was crazy.

She was annoying.

She was attractive.

But she was annoying.

The bitch could get her own food, it wasn't part of their oath.

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Sasuke watched wearily as Hariel hissed, summoning her snake to them.

"Sasuke, don't be scared, I've told Tom to keep his eyes closed."

Sasuke snarled at the mention of him being scared of anything, but stayed close to Hariel as the forest around them rustled and a giant snakes head, with the eyes closed, had appeared in front of them. The tree's were a little too close to accommodate its size, forcing them to break and fall on either side.

"Tom, have you been behaving?" Hariel asked as she caressed the head of the snake lovingly. The black and green scales changing colors accordingly as the sun's light peaked through the leaves, and shine on them.

The snake hissed, and Sasuke watched curiously with his sharingan as Hariel hissed back, having a conversation with the predator.

Hariel laughed lightly, patting it on the head once more before giving it a kiss at the tip of its nose. "Tom, you are so funny." She back away from the snake hissing before saying to his benefit. "Tom, be good, and remember, humans are not food, and to keep your eyes closed."

The snake hissed once more and left their sight, going the same way it had arrived. Sasuke wondered how a snake of that size could maneuver through the forest undetected. Sasuke was more surprised that the snake navigated the forest without creating noise, or destroying most of the forest.

"He's a special snake, don't worry your pretty little head about it."

Sasuke glared at Hariel, causing the girl to laugh a little, that added more to his annoyance. "Tom isn't a special name for a special snake."

"Have you ever known a Tom?" Hariel asked as she took out a small toy like object that resembled a tent.

"No."

"Well I knew a Tom, and he was special." Hariel laid the toy tent on the ground before herself. "Sure he was evil, and he had aspired to rule the world, and kill everyone he didn't like, he was still a very powerful man."

"And you named your snake Tom?" Sasuke raised a brow.

"Well I think that is more of joke on my part." Hariel smirked at him. "Tom, the man who wanted to kill me, now my pet snake." Hariel's laughter rang throughout the clearing by the lake.

Sasuke didn't know if she was crazy, or if she was some mad woman that had really turned her enemy into a snake. He wouldn't put it past her. He didn't even know what kind of bloodline she had, but it did seem endless in uses ─ even if they appeared to be menial, at least her use of it, from what he could tell.

Hariel turned her attention back to her little tent, which she had touched with one finger, and it proceeded to become a tent that would fit at least four people comfortably. Hariel stood, her cloak swinging about her, giving him a glimpse of her skin underneath ─ which lead him to think of that day that she had walked naked in front of him. He wondered if she really didn't wear anything under that cloak.

The woman was either wearing something very short underneath, which she had materialized along with the cloak ─ with that unknown power of hers.

Or she was temptress and lured men to her, just to feed them to her pet snake Tom ─ despite what she had spoken to Tom earlier, that could have been a trick to ease him.

Hariel turned to him. "Did you want to share a tent?"

Sasuk, suspicious, studied her, but her face was completely innocent with nothing but pure curiosity for his answer ─ but those were to be expected of a seductress. "What are you planning?"

"Are you thinking something inappropriate?" Hariel countered, a dark delicate brow raised at him.

Sasuke felt his cheeks reddening, which he dearly wished that Hariel didn't see it. He really hated this girl.

"Sasuke, you'd have to try better." Hariel said simply before disappearing inside her tent.

Like she was such a prize.

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Sasuke watched as Hariel laid herself down on the grass beside him. He had never seen a woman act so free before. With no care in the world. With nothing to do but just wander aimlessly, with no plans, with no destination but a point of a finger or where a stone lands.

Since the day she had asked him to hunt for him, and he refused, never once had the girl asked again. Sasuke had gone out to hunt for his food, but never once had he seen Hariel go out to hunt, yet she was never hungry ─ but he never bothered to offer her any food to begin with.

"Sasuke." Hariel had kept her eyes closed, as she spoke.

"What?"

"What is your home like?"

Sasuke grew weary. She was a threat, he knew that, but she had not yet done anything remotely dangerous since the first time they met. Either way he was keeping his guard up.

"It is not a very happy place." He thought of the days that he had stayed in Sound. The underground city, and the tunnels with nothing but lamps as the source of light. Rarely any days spent out in the sun. Though, that had been a choice of his.

"Is that why you travel." Hariel flicked grass up in the air, and watched the breeze take it dancing.

"No."

Hariel turned green eyes to him, and he couldn't help but notice how much more vibrant it was compared to the color of the leaves around her. "Then why?"

"There is no home to return to." Sasuke wasn't completely lying, Sound his home for three years was destroyed, and Konoha had not been a home to him since his whole family had died.

Hariel pouted her lips at him, her eyes furrowed as she watched him with those eyes of hers that seemed to have aged right before him. She turned away from him then. "We are the same then."

Sasuke snorted. He wanted to shout at her, tell her that she knew nothing of the pain he went through and doubted she knew any of the suffering he had gone through.

"My parents were killed when I was one."

She knew nothing.

"And the man tried to kill me too, but my mother sacrificed herself for me."

She couldn't.

"I was left with my relatives...but they weren't very nice to me."

He hated her.

"I thought I could find a home with my godfather." Hariel threw another blade of grass in the air, both of them following it as it was whisked away with the wind. "But then he died."

He didn't want to listen.

"There was no one left."

They had nothing in common.

"So I travelled." Hariel laughed then into the sky, startling Sasuke out of his thoughts. "And my only companion is a snake that I named after the killer─" She turned green eyes at him then. "─and a man who wants me dead."

Well… Sasuke wasn't going to deny that.

"At least the oath makes you pleasant company."

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They were attacked.

It was not surprising. Sure they were in a time of peace, but a mad man's ideals and dreams had moved people, and those people unfortunately still wander the elemental nations ─ which was one thing Sasuke was supposed to be dealing with too.

But this was an opportune time.

He can get rid of the girl without even having to lift a finger.

So Sasuke, for the good of the world, had stepped back, cast a genjutsu for him to be overlooked and waited.

Hariel had been caught unaware ─ he had guessed that she did not have any ninja training, and it was true she didn't, all she had was that bloodline of hers ─ as she walked along the path. Sasuke had felt a little guilty, when the first ninja, a missing-nin had broken through the trees, and all Hariel did was look up slowly with a confused look in her eyes and her lips parted.

Only a little bit.

But she had it coming.

Sasuke knew these ninjas were truly after him ─ he could be seen as a prime target to hurt Konoha by killing their wandering last Uchiha, or kidnap him ─ so once Hariel was dealt with he knew he would have to get rid of them.

But none of that happened.

In the midst of Sasuke trying to locate the chakra's of the other ninjas, Hariel's voice called for him.

"Sasuke, I didn't expect you to be like this." Hariel spoke casually, the ninja that was aiming for her was suspended in the air, immobile, like he was tied up around his arms and middle.

Sasuke activated his sharingan, red eyes rapidly swirling as they took in the surrounding.

Hariel lifted a hand towards the oncoming ninja that jumped towards her from the tree tops ─ kunai was in hand, ready to stab her in the throat ─ trapping him in mid air. He saw the ninja freeze as he was, completely still as a statue, with only his eyes looking wildly around.

"I have treated you well."

Hariel turned a barrage of shuriken into birds that flew towards the sky.

"I protected you from my pet snake."

The final ninja finally came out, this time from underground, only for Hariel to turn him into a fluffy little rabbit.

Sasuke couldn't see the movement of the little reserve of chakra within her. There was nothing that indicated a jutsu that suspended the ninjas in the air, immobilized. No strings tying them down or up, no chakra that wrapped around their body. The shurikens turning into birds was not a genjutsu. And Sasuke had the scary thought that that rabbit, was not a replacement technique. The rabbit had the same blue eyes as the man that it once was.

"What are you?" Sasuke couldn't help but ready his body for a fight. He knew he couldn't hurt her. But he could try to stop whatever it was she was going to throw his way.

Hariel watched him, she looked intimidating with the men suspended in the air around her, with a rabbit that hopped around her legs. If it was a bloodline, he was afraid of a whole clan that could do everything that she could. How would the whole elemental nation defend themselves against a girl that could do what she could do.

But if anyone got a hold of her.

That was dangerous too.

A power like her behind any country. Sure they were in peace. But to have a power like that, it could tempt anyone.

"A better person than you." Hariel whispered.

She lowered the ninjas down to the ground with a flick of a hand. They continued to be immobile on the ground, they looked like they were dead, if one didn't look into their eyes, which continued to frantically look around them, their fear and panic easy to read.

Hariel turned her hand and the men went unconscious ─ or dead. "They are still alive, I'm not one to kill people."

Sasuke could clearly hear the silent message directed to him.

She continued to gesture with her hands, the bodies of the men going lax, then both shrinking and turning into rabbits, that slowly woke up from a slumber before hopping away with the first.

Sasuke grew tense as Hariel turned her attention back to him, emerald eyes judging him. He grew nervous as a hand came up and a delicate finger pointed at him.

"Sasuke. I will say this to you once." Hariel's eyes narrowed at him. "If you don't stop plotting ways to kill me, I will turn you into a puppy."

Was that what happened to Tom?

If his fate was to be turned into an animal, why couldn't Hariel pick an intimidating creature?

Sasuke ─ his pride being kicked away, and very thankful that he was the last of his clan ─ nodded his head in defeat. He gritted his teeth at having to agree to the orders of the annoying girl in front of him.

Annoyingly powerful... and attractive girl in front of him.

If he couldn't kill her, might as well seduce her to not kill the world... at least prevent her from turning them all into kittens or mini pigs.

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When Hariel had set up her tent for the night, Sasuke took it upon himself to take up the mission of saving the world from a very dangerous woman, through the means of seduction.

Step one, sharing a tent.

Hariel had gone about her regular routine of going around their campsite in a perfect circle, waving her hands, singing a tune he was not familiar with, twirling in places at some spots, before finally returning back to the campfire once the circle was completed.

Sasuke never questioned it ─ deemed it to be quirks of a mad woman, and he was afraid his mind might melt with the nonsensical information she would give him as an answer.

"It's chilly this evening." Hariel rubbed at her arms, her cloak tucked tightly around her.

Opportunity. "This fire won't be enough." Sasuke agreed making show of his 'cold' state by putting his hands close to the fire, rubbing them together, to warm them up.

Hariel just nodded.

"It's good you have your shelter." Sasuke prodded.

"Yeah." Hariel whispered and she rubbed her hands together.

Bite already. "It looks roomy."

Hariel smiled then, an amused twinkle in her eyes. "Luxurious."

Sasuke couldn't stop the irritation from overwhelming his strategy, the woman was too annoying for him to play much longer. "I'll be sleeping in there with you tonight."

A single fine dark brow rose in question. "Is that so?"

Sasuke refused to blush. "You offered first."

"I didn't know it was an open invitation."

"Are you saying I can't."

"Beg me."

Sasuke bristled in his spot. Uchiha's never beg. They never begged even for death. Eternal torture was better than death. But to have the opportunity to wipe that smirk of her face and have it replaced with eternal devotion and twisting the roles to her begging him ─ well that was the ultimate goal, and his one important mission to save the Elemental nations from a powerfully mad woman.

So he was prepared to do it.

It will be a slow process.

But it will be done.

Hariel giggled incessantly before him, both hands waving at him ─ not an attack ─ to stop. "Stop. Don't. Oh Merlin. Your face was priceless!" She tried to stifle her laugh with her hands, but it was fruitless.

Sasuke was thinking the option of being in pain while trying to kill Hariel might actually be worth it. It was definitely less painful than being laughed at by a woman, who didn't jump at the chance of being alone in a tent with him. Karin would have already divested herself of her clothing. Sakura would have started sprucing up the tent to set a mood.

But Hariel?

She will pay.

"Merlin, that was very entertaining." Hariel brushed away some tears from her eyes and face. "Sasuke, you can stay in the tent with me ─ I think you would regret not taking up the chance the first time."

She was confident wasn't she?

Either way, he had his invitation. Progress was good, even if there was a bit of humiliation, the reward would be sweet. Sasuke followed Hariel into the tent, preparing to crawl in a cramped space with her and just climbing on top of her, only to fall flat on his face for missing the step.

"Oh, there's a few steps so you should be careful." Hariel said unapologetically as she looked down at him, sprawled on the floor.

Sasuke didn't bother giving her a dirty look for the late warning, too preoccupied with the 'tent' that he was sharing with her. It was a house, a small house filled with three bedrooms, one and a half bath, and an open concept living space with a fully equipped kitchen. Sasuke stood up, hands formed together in a sign, ready to dispel the genjutsu he was in. But with everything he did, the tent continued to be a house, and Hariel was looking at him amused. Her cherry lips set in a smirk that Sasuke wanted to rip of her face for the humiliation.

Sasuke took a deep breath.

Control.

"Are you a seals mistress?" Sasuke asked as he, with much dignity and finesse, picked himself off the floor.

Hariel had opened the fridge, decently stocked with food supply ─ he was irritated at not being offered any of the food supply, ignoring the fact he didn't share his when he thought she was without.

"Seals... is that like runes?" Hariel licked her lips after taking a sip of her apple juice. "I'm not a master at it, but I can do a few tricks."

"This tent?" Sasuke looked around the room, trying to feel for a chakra source to locate the seal, but came up with nothing, it was full of that energy that Hariel was tossing around at the fight the day before.

"This was a gift," Hariel set the used glass in the sink, rinsing it with water from a working faucet ─ in the middle of a forest in a tent. "But it would be possible to make one ─ extension charm, weightless charm... But I don't know about the water, I'd have to research that."

Hariel had a finger at her lip, tapping away lightly as she concentrated on the faucet, as if the mere act of looking at it will unravel all its secrets. When she actually does, Sasuke would like to know... this was pure genius ─ not that he would admit it vocally. Ever.

"I'm going to bed." Hariel turned away from him.

The mission.

Sasuke made to speak, but Hariel's green eyes were already on him. "Do I have to give you verbal cues each time?"

Sasuke smirked, the woman was his ─ though he was a little disappointed that there wasn't much of work or pursuit, women falling at his feet were not very fun.

Sasuke drew up close to Hariel, looking intently into her eyes before drawing them down to her lips, intent to wipe that stubborn smirk off her lips. Sure he found her aggravating, annoying and a little loose in the head, but he knew he would enjoy her. Her hair was as silky as he thought it would be, the dark strands a striking contrast with the paleness of his hand. Her body was so small compared to his, her short stature requiring him to tilt his head down and draw her body up for them to share breathes. Her chest soft against his, her hips wide and quickly rounding to her derriere, he surely would enjoy her.

Sasuke glanced at her twinkling and waiting gaze before going in for a tempting kiss.

And immediately getting shocked, with a fire that burned from his lips to the rest of his body. He quickly let go of her, stepping away from the giggling bitch.

"You are so funny Sasuke." Hariel said sweetly towards him before closing the door behind her.

Sasuke grabbed at his lips, it felt like it would burn off. He needed to learn the limits of that ridiculous oath.

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Sasuke rubbed his hand, wincing throughout the whole ordeal as he could still feel the lightning that seemed to have passed through his fingers. He had just been rubbing the lotion on Hariel's back when he had been shocked, once his thoughts and hands went to some forbidden territory apparently.

Sasuke hated it.

Her oath, that was supposed to protect her from him, from killing and maiming her, was turning out to be some sort of celibacy belt on her whole body. Thinking about it now, the whole oath seemed to be some sort of torture to all mankind. Sasuke hoped that there were no other women in her family, walking around out there that would torture innocent men like him ─ well, close enough.

And he hated that his body reacted to it.

"Are you a masochist?" Hariel asked as she lazily sunbathed beside him, topless, and with a tiny string bikini bottom that were a bright green. It was slowly becoming his favorite color.

Sasuke grunted as an answer. Still annoyed at the whole situation.

Sasuke didn't think that he was a masochist. It just happened to seem that way because the woman had made it a sport to tempt him into touching her and advance on her, to just have him be shocked. He was supposed to be the one seducing her yet she was slowly leading the game ─ not that he didn't willingly take the open opportunity to win her over to his side of things. It would make things much easier to have her under his control if she reciprocated his attentions.

Sasuke looked towards the beach, scoping the area, making sure that no one would be stumbling upon Hariel and her inappropriate dress code for the beach. She said it was all for a perfect tan, whatever that meant. Nonetheless, she was the only one he had ever seen to be topless in public ─ Anko wasn't even topless. Sure the shirt was mesh, but she had a jacket that was taped strategically to never expose herself.

"I enjoy your efforts, even if they are done with wrong intentions." Hariel adjusted herself on her towel, turning over to bake on the other side. Her skin had already taken on a soft caramel hue.

Sasuke was a little disappointed that her breasts weren't in view, but her cute derriere quickly solved the problem. "Intentions?"

Hariel had drawn her sunglasses up, assessing him appreciatively with her green eyes. "Thank goodness for your looks, or there would have been no hope for you."

"I'm not slow." Sasuke couldn't believe he was sounding like a petulant child.

"I beg to differ." Hariel snorted as she folded her arms under her chin.

"It's the oath."

Hariel rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to give you hints Sasuke."

"You have to release me from it."

"But this is so much more fun ─ doesn't it add a bit more flavor?" Hariel's lips stretched lazily into a smile ─ lips he only ever briefly tasted.

Sasuke winced as his lips captured Hariel's in a quick kiss, though his tolerance for the pain seemed to have increased.

Hariel laughed at his attempt.

Maybe he was a masochist.

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Sasuke watched Hariel as she walked through the busy streets of the Green Tea village. Hariel had laughed at the name, finding it amusing that the villages and the Elemental Nations in general had names of elements and food or phenomenon's in the world. When he had questioned her about what her country was like that she would find the nations name to be so strange.

She had said it was United Kingdom.

Sasuke did agree that it sounded much more intriguing and intimidating than the Elemntal Nations, but it wouldn't have worked with the hidden villages already established and having names like fire, rain and water.

Hariel agreed that Hidden Ninja of Surrey wouldn't sound too appealing or intimidating.

Sasuke followed along after her, navigating through the crowd that the festival gathered. He nodded and shook hands at people that greeted him along the way, thankful that the people around him had seemed to forgiven him for his past deeds and see him as a sort of hero, even if he was one only in the end.

Though he didn't have the same following as Naruto, it was nice to just have people not see him negatively.

There were dark times where his name would bring fear in people. All his fault really.

"Sasuke, are you a hero?" Hariel had appeared before him, a sugar cloud in her hand.

Sasuke angled his head slightly to the side. "Something like that."

Hariel nodded her head slowly, and Sasuke doubted that she really understood what he meant. "We aren't always good people."

Sasuke was surprised at her insight. "I sank a little deeper than that."

"I can't say it will all be forgiven, it's hard for people to do that." Hariel said sagely, her eyes looking far off into the distance ─ probably a memory about her relatives she had mentioned briefly before. "It does happen though, and the good things you do, no matter how small does count."

Sasuke followed Hariel as she quickly turned around and walked towards the station for the fireworks. It was new to him, to go to a festival after so long of only ever doing missions, or wandering the forest to thwart enemies when they appeared. And before that, he had spent his whole childhood and his early teenage years dedicated to training, gaining power, and his selfish goals to ever really appreciate the simple enjoyments in life.

Hariel handed him a sugar cloud, and Sasuke just took directly into his mouth, noting in surprise that her finger between his lips didn't produce any type of pain.

"Did you get rid of it?"

"No."

"I don't understand."

"You're just changing, Sasuke."

Intention.

That's what she had said before.

That moment, where all he thought of was how nice it was to spend a day in her company, and enjoying the festival instead of worrying about enemies, and just innocently taking up her offer of feeding him a sugar cloud, without turning it into some foreplay.

"Intention."

"I've been saying that."

Sasuke took the risk.

He gather Hariel into his arms, his eyes never wavering from her lips that were now painted a light pink in color from the sugar cloud that she was eating. All he wanted to do was to get the chance to finally taste her, and wondered if the candy would affect her flavor. Their lips were just a hairs breath away, and Sasuke looked her in the eye, and seeing the worried emeralds, Sasuke smiled at her.

"I don't want to hurt you."

She tasted just like he imagined she would.

He broke their kiss short, wanting to gleefully laugh and celebrate the fact that he could finally kiss her. He saw the worried look in her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Hariel worried her bruised and swollen lips between her teeth ─ Sasuke having the sudden urge to do it for her. "I think I might have reconditioned you ─ unintentionally!"

Reconditioned or not, all Sasuke cared about was kissing her.

.

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It was a bright, sunny, unsuspecting day in Konoha when all hell broke loose.

Naruto ran along the rooftops, rallying beside his friends towards the tall gates of Konoha where a group of Konoha ninjas were already stationed beyond and on top of the wall, waiting for the giant snake that was causing destruction with its speedy trek towards the village. It's giant head peeking over the tree tops, before diving back into the woods to resume its journey.

Naruto cursed to himself. Readying to charge ahead of his companions to deal the first blow at the snake summon in front of them. Trying to figure out who it could be that would wage an attack so soon after the end of the fourth ninja war.

The snake emerged out of the forest, causing Naruto to stop at a tree top, bracing himself from an oncoming assault, and hoping Kurama would be ready if things get messy.

A familiar face stood on the head of the giant snake. Naruto's heart stopped, fearing that Sasuke was lost to him again.

"Sasuke!" Naruto screamed, rasengan ready to form at his fingertips if the situation called for it. "Why are you doing this?"

"Naruto." Sasuke looked at him, before frantically looking at the snake and sighing in relief. "I'm home."

"What?" Naruto looked confused. "Why the hell are you on top of a giant snake? You're freaking out Konoha right now."

"Oh... right." Sasuke rubbed the back of his head, and Naruto noted that Sasuke's other arm was wrapped around a bundle.

"What is that thing in your arm?"

"Liana Uchiha."

Naruto couldn't believe it. No way. "That thing is─"

"Please don't refer to my daughter as a thing." A pretty little woman appeared right beside Sasuke, and Naruto immediately became alert when he heard the girl hiss at the snake...

Only for it to shrink, only by a little.

"What?" Naruto didn't know if he should call of the defensive or wage an attack. But there was a baby. But then again, there is a giant snake with a girl that could talk to snakes and Sasuke who is very susceptible to snake charmers.

"Hariel, my wife, unofficially." Sasuke introduced the woman beside him, who bowed at Naruto.

"Nice to meet you Naruto." Hariel crouched down and patted the snake on the head. "Our daughter can only seem to sleep when she's on top of a snake. I'm sorry we have scared you."

"Right. Baby."

"Don't be too shocked Naruto. I was always going to be a father first." Sasuke handed the baby towards Hariel.

"Right."

"Are you okay?" Sasuke looked worriedly at him.

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts. "I just thought we were under attack and that you were leading it."

"It's Hariel's pet snake, so it would be her attacking, if it came to it." Sasuke clarified.

Which didn't make things any better.

"But if she did, she'd more likely turn you into a baby fox instead of killing you with her snake."

Naruto was lost. "Did you go crazy?"

"I think I accidentally and unintentionally reconditioned him with shock therapy from his insistent efforts of seducing me for the wrong intentions." Hariel continued to rock the baby softly to keep her asleep.

That didn't really help the situation. Naruto drew a kunai out of the holster. Ready to attack and draw the signal for the others.

"Dobe, I fell in love." Sasuke had softly hit Naruto on the head with a sloppy fist. "Now let me go home so I can officially marry my wife and have my family under a roof."

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The End

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Note: It was really fun writing Sasuke in this. I wrote him a little lighter, I feel that with the whole thing behind him and all the stuff said and done, he'd be less gloomy.