Standard disclaimer applies.

Pein sat still in the leather chair, hands folded across his lap, and you'd have to really know him to see the strain in his posture, in the way his breathing was almost nonexistent. The tension around his eyes and mouth.

Sakura, for her part, wanted to disappear into the couch.

She watched Pein, however, just because he was there, and he dominated the room. Dominated any room he was in, really. It was more than a little unsettling that this ancient, powerful creature in the room with her was watching her with a predator's gaze and with a clenched jaw.

Pein licked his lips and finally—finally—said, "And the children? You killed them all?"

Sakura almost laughed at how similar his question was to Shikamaru's. "Yeah," she said, then took a deep breath. "Every last one."

"And they were . . . scarred?"

Sakura rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. She felt tired and achy all over. If the torture session hadn't taken all her strength, the last hour of conversation with Pein had. Sakura had a feeling just being in a room with the man was an Olympic event, to not react to everything he said and did. "My guess is that the leader of the witch coven used the children for power like she wanted to do with Ino. And some spells require blood and bone," she said, then shrugged. "I didn't look all that hard at the children, honestly."

Pein nodded and rubbed at his mouth. "What about the witch coven today?"

"Unhappy coincidence," Sakura said nonchalantly. "I don't think they knew me—well, besides me being a vampire. Today's witch coven had nothing to do with how I was turned." She looked him in the eye, let some of her monster bleed through, and it was almost too easy to let go of that sliver of control. "I was thorough, Pein. I took care of all loose ends."

"You run," Pein said almost harshly, but not quite. "You don't stay in any one country for more than a few months."

"I travel," Sakura said, emphasizing the word, "because I enjoy it. It's not running, because there's not anything to run from." She sighed. "Ino always wanted to see the world, and I might as well do it for her."

"And . . . Naruto?" Pein asked, almost spitting out the word.

Sakura smiled something unfriendly and biting. "Naruto," she practically purred, just to spite him, "is a very good friend."

"How good?"

"He was the first vampire I befriended after I turned," Sakura continued, ignoring the way Pein's leather chair creaked with strain. "He taught me control, showed me how to live. Taught me how to hide, if I ever needed to."

"And you used it to run across the globe until he couldn't even find you," Pein said slowly.

She nodded. "Yeah. Something like that. I spent a few years with Naruto, learning the ropes, but I had good control and after a while I wanted something . . . new. And I wanted to be alone. So I left."

Pein narrowed his eyes. "You have more control over your bloodlust than a century old vampire, sweetheart."

Sakura huffed. "I don't know, okay? I was more than a little OCD when alive, and maybe that traveled over. Maybe Ino put a little something extra in my tea. Does it matter?"

Pein shrugged one shoulder. "I just find it interesting, love, that you don't leave a body count behind."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't enjoy killing," she said tightly.

He tilted his head at her, considering. "You hate yourself, don't you, sweetheart?" he purred. "All those children with scars and burns on their bodies and you just tore through them like they were nothing." He smiled, and it almost looked a little reverent.

Such obvious bait, Sakura thought, forcing her hand into a fist to prevent herself from tearing out Pein's eyes. She tilted her head up, looked down her nose at him in a way Ino would have been proud of. "I don't have to explain myself to you," she said, with the smallest of curve to her lips. "You know a bit about self-loathing, don't you, Pein?"

He tensed by the smallest margin and Sakura felt a moment of wicked delight. Because what would living as long as he had do to a person? Awful, awful things, Sakura bet.

But Pein just narrowed his eyes at her in the next instant and leaned further back in the chair, grinning over at her like she was the most fascinating thing in the world.

He hummed. "I know a great many things, sweetheart," he murmured. "I know about cages and chains, and how best to make someone scream for mercy. I know how to touch a woman in just the right places, how a brush against the inside of a knee or a kiss on the pulse point on a neck can elicit a response out of even the most stubborn of women." He smirked. "And yes, I do know a thing or two about self-loathing, and I'd be more than happy to further expound on any one of these topics."

Sakura thought, for the briefest of moments, about throwing her tea in his face.

Instead she said, her voice so very carefully neutral, "What do you want from me, Pein?" It came out hushed, like a secret or a threat. "You know my secrets now. Good for you. And there's no one for you to deign out retribution on for me, since I killed them all years ago, so that's out. And I think I've made it clear I won't be your kill or fuck buddy. I have no interest in being anything to you so you can just throw me away when it suits your fancy or you get tired. And you promise—" she almost chokes on that word, so full of intent and broken things to Sakura. Ino promised a great many things to Sakura, and yet here she stood while Ino did not. "—not to cage me, but we both know that's a lie. That you're too manipulative for me to compete against, that there are ways for you to cage me with your words and promises."

She took a breath. "So no, Pein, I don't care to 'further expound' on any of those topics for the sake of my sanity, thanks ever so much."

Pein watched her for a moment, so still in the chair. It was the kind of stillness that nothing alive could ever achieve.

Then a blink, and he was kneeling at her feet in front of her. Sakura sucked in a breath and flinched, but held herself still, refused to run. He could kill her so, so easily and she knew it.

He reached a hand up to her face, hovered over it. Something ancient lurked in his gaze, and for once, Sakura's monster was silent and still in the face of this man.

"Sweetheart. Love." He paused. "Sakura. Let me make myself very clear."

His hand trailed down her neck, her shoulder, her arm. Never touching her, though. Always leaving that breath of space between his hand and her body. Between his hand and her skin was the kind of space where sin and promises and seduction were formed.

"I have been alive for a very, very long time. I've met painters, philosophers, kings and queens, beauties beyond compare. I was around for the fall of Rome and the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire, and not once have I ever found myself having more than a passing fancy of anyone.

"And I'm not even talking about love or sex or lust," he went on, his mouth curving with some amusement. "I've indulged more than a few times in all of those things. But I've never tried to have someone, not really. Those things were simply present at the time, and I admit, I was more than a little bored. Those feelings were fleeting for me, as you will find is an unfortunate side-effect of living beyond the years anyone has the right to have. Things become muted, emotions especially. So yes, I have committed many atrocities, and I will commit many more. I do not regret who I am, and I've no desire to change."

Sakura clenched her teeth, refused to shrink away from the iron in Pein's gaze.

"But never, not in the course of my very long life have I ever become so enamored with a baby vampire who knew more about spells and cages and torture than she had a right to, who killed a witch coven—multiple witch covens—" he amended, and grinned widely, "and still somehow manages to draw moral lines. Who can kill so ruthlessly but only when needed, who can dance in the most provocative little dress imaginable and test what little restraint I have and not kill any of her meals. Who came at me with steel in her spine and gave a tongue-lashing to me so easily."

"You're being very dramatic," Sakura muttered, and Pein laughed.

"I'm trying to tell you, sweetheart, that I want you. I want you in every filthy way you'll let me have you, but I'll take what you give me," Pein said, smiling wickedly up at her, and then he did touch her. Just her hand, where his fingers brushed so very gently up to her wrist, where he flipped it over and lazily drew circles on her inner wrist, where the skin was thin and sensitive and her blue veins stood out.

He shrugged. "If it'll make you feel better, I'll call one of my witches to come here in the next hour and have her draw up a blood pact between us with my promises. I will not cage you, Sakura."

Something shattered in her at that. Blood pacts were forever. Pein would not be able—physically and mentally unable—to go back on his promise.

To offer it was . . . something else entirely.

Sakura swallowed and leaned forward to set her tea on the coffee table, already cold and long forgotten. His fingers on her wrist were entirely too distracting, and Sakura was a little surprised that her monster wasn't clawing at the surface as much. She felt apprehensive and calm, a kind of lucid awareness.

"I cannot promise you that you won't regret me," Pein said, bluntly. Her eyes flew to his. "I can't. But I can promise that I'll . . . try. I won't change, love, I'm far too old for that. But for you I'll make concessions."

"We'll fight," Sakura said. "I won't deal with vampire politics, Pein. I won't bow to you for the sake of appearance. I'm bossy, and I'll nag you. You might have a few centuries on me, but that means nothing to me besides you know a few more good vacations spots than I do."

Pein slowly shook his head and he smirked at her, dimples on full display. His hand traveled up her arm and Sakura pretended not to notice. "I would never ask you to bow to me. And any old vampire who would insinuate otherwise will find themselves quickly without a heart."

"Old dogs can learn new tricks."

He chuckled. "You may try."

His hand was traveling up further. "I won't promise you forever," Sakura said, narrowing her eyes and pointedly looking at his moving hand. Pein grinned and pulled it back to draw circles on her inner wrist again. "I can't even promise you now."

He shrugged. "What's a few years between the immortal?"

"Centuries," Sakura amended, almost like a dare.

"Even then," Pein said, then pointedly licked his lips as his gaze went straight to her mouth. "But I plan to make it very difficult for you to take that long."

"No secrets," Sakura said, like she was reading from a list. "I won't ask you to not protect me in your obsessive and frankly slightly creepy way, because I know you'd just do it anyways—" Pein gave her knowing look, far too pleased with himself. "—but I won't accept you keeping secrets from me. I want to know what you do concerning me." She paused. "And I want to know before the fact. None of that telling me after you've had a hundred witches put random ass protection spells on me."

"And tracking spells," Pein said idly.

Sakura narrowed her eyes.

He shrugged. "You've already got one on you, thanks to your red-headed witch, sweetheart. That was all you." He grinned.

Sakura huffed. "You manipulated a perfectly good spell that was meant to prevent you—and anyone—from tracking me and used it to your advantage, you complete—"

And then Pein was on her. His hand traveled up her arm to her waist, which quickly traveled between her back and the couch. His other hand cupped the space between her neck and head, cradling her. Pein slanted his mouth over hers in a whisper of a kiss, and because Sakura was tired and exhausted and maybe a little without restraint, she smirked and fisted her hands in his shirt, pulling him closer, until he had one knee up on the couch, hovering over her.

Her hands trembled slightly, because she had never been kissed like this and it took her a little aback. Because Pein was a monster that she would never fully understand, and she was okay with that against all reason. Because she understood that he would kill and maim and burn cities to the ground again, kill more people than she ever met, and accepting him didn't mean being okay with any of that, but understanding that he would listen to her, maybe concede for her.

All relationships had issues, and if theirs including killing and getting blood on the new one-of-a-kind Persian rug, then so be it.

There was clashing of teeth and mouths, and Sakura bit down on Pein's bottom lip at some point until she could taste blood. Pein growled low in his throat, and he gripped her harder. She licked at his dimples—those damnable dimples that could make angels sin—and let her fangs peek out. She glided them across his cheek and tilted her head back when his mouth went to her neck, kissing and licking her pulse point until her toes curled. When she felt his fangs glide across her neck, Sakura weaved her fingers in his red, red hair and pulled him back, smirking before she mashed her lips to his again, ignoring his half-hearted growl of protest.

When Sakura heard the sound of footsteps, she pushed Pein away and straightened her clothes, looking towards the door. Pein growled, annoyed, but sat back down in the leather chair with an indignant huff and a pout to his lips when Sakura gave him a pointed glare. She was a little too proud when she saw how red his lips looked, and how he licked them when he looked at her.

She also noticed how much her monster was practically purring.

Naruto walked through the door not even a moment later, whistling loudly and tunelessly. He looked between Sakura and Pein and narrowed his eyes for a split second before grinning widely at Sakura.

"So," he said cheerfully, "I take it we're not going to kill the bastard?"

Pein snorted.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Not right now, no. Where've you been?"

Naruto's face went hard, his eyes unreadable. "I took care of the witch coven."

"Ah." Sakura nodded, grateful. "Did you find anything out?"

"They just seemed like your normal crazy, vampire hating witch coven. The whole tree branch and your hair thing was the result of a few rumors they heard and apparently wanted to try it out," Naruto sighed, then shrugged one shoulder. "I contacted Shikamaru and gave him a heads up. He'll take care of the rest."

Sakura saw Pein turn to her out of the corner of her eye, raising one pierced eyebrow. "Shikamaru Nara?" Pein questioned. "The one on the witch counsel? That Shikamaru?"

"He's an old acquaintance," Sakura simply said.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Anyways," he said, looking between them. "he's taken care of it. The deaths won't be traced back to us."

"And what do you have over Shikamaru Nara, sweetheart?" Pein questioned, looking amused and . . . maybe a little impressed. "To have him owe you favors like this."

Sakura huffed. "You know, some of us don't have to hold anything over others to get them to do what we want," she said indignantly.

Pein's eyes narrowed knowingly. "Ah. An old witch friend. A friend of a friend, perhaps." He chuckled. "No wonder you're so well protected and can disappear without a trace, love."

"Not all witches are full of malice for vampires," Sakura whispered, glaring.

He smiled at her with fangs.

Naruto cleared this throat. "Yeah, sooo . . ."

Sakura turned to Naruto and tapped her fingers on the couch. "How do you feel about Amsterdam?"

He grinned back at her, his eyes flicking over to Pein and back to her, a bit of his own monster peeking out at her, so very amused. "I love Amsterdam."

When Naruto walked out of the room, whistling loudly and off tune, Pein flashed over to stand in front of Sakura, holding out a hand to help her up. Sakura ignored it and stayed seated.

Pein chuckled. "Well, then. If all the problems have been sorted out, I think I'll take my leave. For now." Sakura pointedly ignored that.

Sakura stood up, made a point of looking over her manicure. There was a chip on her right pointer finger and she just knew it was going to drive her crazy until it was fixed. She thought about how she was a little tired of red nails, and maybe a nice light blue would be cute?

Pein leaned down and Sakura froze. His breath was warm on her ear and cheek, and he whispered, "Just remember what I said, sweetheart. I surely won't be forgetting this conversation anytime soon." He looked towards the door Naruto had just walked out of. "And I'm a much better tourist guide. I do, in fact, know more vacation spots than your blonde vampire ever would."

"Being old as dirt would do that," Sakura quipped.

He breathed a whisper of a kiss over her cheek, in that dangerous spot on the corner of her lips, his lip piercing cool against her skin. Not enough, never enough. "I'll be waiting when you change your mind."

And then he was gone, and Sakura thought about how, one day, maybe in a decade, maybe in a couple centuries, she would take Pein up on his offer. But she'd make him wait a bit, make him prove himself with more than a few heated touches and pretty words.

But first she really needed to do something about her nails. And her hair.

Fucking witches.

Author's Note: BE SO PROUD OF ME.

I did it. I effing did it. I finished three chapters in under a week, and I hope y'all are happy that I somehow (really, it was feat of God) got all this done before I start school tomorrow.

So. I have an idea. Of sorts.

I don't really want to start another long story with multiple chapters, just because I know I'll be super busy starting tomorrow. However, I don't want to stop writing. So here's my idea: I'll start taking drabble prompts. Sakura centric prompts, of course.

I see two ways to do this: anyone can private message me here with a drabble prompt that I hope to get to at some point. Or, y'all can go find my newly made Tumblr page thingy and message me there with the prompt, since that seems to be where most authors get their prompts from. My Tumblr is under OfPaintAndOil as well. Please do not post the prompt in the comments here.

Two main rules, however, if I do this: I'm not doing any smut (nothing M rated) and I get to say no to any prompt I don't wanna write.

I'm thinking I'll just publish the prompt and my 1,000-ish word story here and each chapter will be from a new prompt. I make no promises to how soon I finish each prompt, but I'm thinking this might be a fun thing to try while I'm in school and can't undergo a huge multi-chapter story. (Also, I should also say I'm very, very new to the whole Tumblr thing, so I might need to figure that out and everything.)

This might work, it might not. I might not even get any prompts and this is me wasting breath. Who knows.

I hope you all enjoyed vampire!Sakura and her original-vampire-stalker!Pein. It was so much fun to write.

Please REVIEW!