Drawn Out Decisions

Chapter One: The Immortal

beta: strawberries and napkins

….

In a dark field, a young girl sat alone, crouched, with her head between her hands. She sobbed openly, loud and strong, that the birds had hushed their singing, and the babble of the crook was quiet. Sasuke was taking a walk by himself when he heard the sad screams and cries. He walked through the bushels and trees aimlessly, until he found the girl, just sitting there in her own tears. He watched quietly, he couldn't see her face, but the soft pink of her hair was proof enough that this girl was probably a fine beauty. A Haruno. He approached her slowly.

"Beautiful girl, why are you crying?" He whispered softly enough so that she could see him before she heard him, and she lifted her head up and gazed back at him with the most beautiful emerald eyes he had ever seen.

She sniffled. "Ino-chan told me that because I was ugly, when I grow up, no one will marry me and I'll die by myself. I'll be all alone!" The tears began flooding back to her eyes. He knelt beside her on the dead grass, sighing.

"Now why would she tell such a pretty girl like you that you were ugly? She must only be jealous." He reasoned.

"Nuh-uh. She already had a boyfriend, and she said that when they grow up they'd get married. No one would marry me."

He looked at her, both amused and saddened for her. She truly was a beautiful girl, with gorgeous pink hair, and dazzling green eyes, Sasuke found himself drawn to her.

He sighed. "How do you know no one will marry you?"

"B-Because no one wants me to be their girlfriend…"

He stood up, and shook his pants of the grass stuck to it. "Very well then, young maiden, I want you to be my girlfriend."

She stared up at him, as if he were crazy. "But you don't know me, and I don't know you…what if you mislike me?"

He outstretched his hand for her to take. "You're a beautiful young girl who seems very sweet and very kind. How could I not like you?" He smiled gently at her.

She still seemed wary, watching his hand closely as if it were going to bite, but then she wiped her eyes of tears and accepted it, as he pulled her to stand.

"Let me take you home now, alright?" He looked at her. She nodded softly, and sniffled, wiping her facial tears on his leg.

They walked in silence together, hand in hand before she spoke up again. "Do you really to be my boyfriend?"

"Yes."

"And you promise we'll be together …forever? No, for always?"

"Yes, I do."

"And then when we're older, you'll marry me too?"

He hesitated, looking at the delicate, fragile girl before him. She was already upset as it was, what could he do? There was no turning back. "Yes, I will marry you. You will be my future wife."

She smiled. "My name is Haruno Sakura."

"Uchiha Sasuke."

"Sasuke?"

"…"

"Sasuke-kun? Sasuke?"

"Hn? What?" His eyes snapped back open to his reality with an amused pinkette staring down at him at his desk with arms folded over her chest.

"Thinking again?"

He ran a hand through his bangs and gave her a loose smile. "Yes, I'm starting to do that more often now, thinking, I mean."

She nodded and took a chair to sit, bringing it up close. "What were you thinking about, then?"

He grabbed her small, thimble hands; blue veins were visible, yet her hands were still gorgeous. On her right hand, sat a fairly large diamond, set on a white gold band. It shined in the dim sunlight brilliantly. "I was thinking…about how we met."

She furrowed her brow in thought for a moment. "Ah, yes I remember. You promised to marry me when I was only a child, because I asked you. It seems as though it was only a thousand years ago.." she grinned at him as he looked at the engagement ring.

"Yes, but I kept my promise, did I not?"

"You most certainly did. But now I wonder if you're doing this because you really love me, or because of a duty.." She pouted.

Sasuke sighed, and wrapped his hands around the back of her neck, pulling her in for a deep kiss. When he released her, he smirked a tiny bit. "You talk too much."

Sakura blinked a few times and ran her tongue over her tender lips. "I think…I would've much preferred you to say it."

He sighed again. "I'm marrying you Sakura because I am in love with you and plan to spend my eternity with you."

She then smiled, and the two intertwined fingers in mutual graces for a long moment until Sakura finally sighed and released his hands, standing up out of her chair and gracefully moved over to the window with the curtains drawn back. Sasuke's eyes followed her, amazed at the way she moved, quietly and swiftly, in only her satin black robe. She had truly grown and matured since he met her.

She spoke slowly. "It took me years to grow immunity to light, Sasuke-kun. You know, I've always loved the sun."

He shook his head. "You're not supposed to enjoy the sun. What kind of vampire likes sun?" he chuckled.

"Maybe I'm just not a good vampire."

"You're talking as though you would rather be a mortal."

She clicked her teeth. "There you go again, always talking about mortals like they're the worst creatures in the world. Life would be better for everyone if maybe vampires and humans could actually get along."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. She was always like this, talking like an idyllic human would. Humans, particularly how short their life spans were; she loved about them, they had always amazed Sakura. Sasuke didn't. If they ever fought, it would be about this.

Although in all honesty, Sasuke didn't have much against humans. He didn't like them, but he didn't like them either. They were food. Sasuke used to be like Sakura though, thinking that humans would be eager to accept them as easily as Sasuke could. It's all a fairytale though, a human will always be afraid of vampires, true vampires, no matter how glamorizing they like to make it in movies, books, and TV.

A human would never accept a vampire. And a vampire should never accept a human. Not as an equal, at least. That's just how it's always been.

"You know how much I love it when you talk like an innocent vampiress." He said sarcastically and leaned back in his chair, smirking at his fiancé's angry pout.

She leaned against the windowpane and frowned. "You need someone like me around or else once you're in power you'll probably demand the extinction of all humans everywhere."

He frowned jokingly. "No, I wouldn't do that. I'd just demand that every drop of life must be drained of them for our consumption."

"That's the same thing."

"No it's not."

She glared at him and then snorted haughtily. "Look at me, putting ideas into a young chancellor's head."

He stood and up and brushed his pants off. "Soon to be chancellor, if you haven't forgotten about my important ascension rituals."

"Ah yes, how could I forget? The reason you think now. How did it go again? 'Uchiha Sasuke, born heir to the throne and future chancellor to all vampire kingdoms.'" She said mockingly and spread out her hands as if she were reading a sign.

He sighed, "Can't you take these politics seriously? They'll be of importance to you soon one day as well."

"I still don't know what it is exactly you do." She pointed out.

He ran a hair through spiky bangs. Sometimes, Sakura proved not to be the sharpest knife in the drawer. But he couldn't exactly blame her, this whole 'heir to the throne' thing was sudden, now that his father had mysteriously deceased, and the whole balance of the vampire world could be thrown into chaos had his brother not been sworn into his "royal throne" as young as he was. That left the position of Chancellor; the one Itachi had left behind.

"While the King's job is to run the palace and keep peace between the different kingdoms, such as peace and government duties, it is the chancellor's job to run the law and court areas of the kingdom. Such as managing rules between vampires and humans." He looked at her pointedly. She smiled sheepishly.

"So then, what are the chancellor's wife's duties?"

"Wait in bed like a good wife until I come home to relieve me of my day's stress."

She pouted. "That's not very funny."

"I wasn't joking."

"Sasuke!" He put up his hands in defense, clearly amused at her blushing yet angry expression.

"Alright, relax. You are more irritating than normal when mad."

"...Jeez," she rolled her eyes and turned her back to him, facing the now setting sun in all its delicious orange beauty. She stood there in silence, totally absorbed until she heard the familiar creaking sound of Sasuke's chair. She turned back around.

"You're leaving?"

"Yes, I haven't…eaten today. The easiest ones are the ones arriving home from work."

"But," she smiled, exposing her twin top-set of fangs, "your meal is right here."

He shook his head, putting on his cloak that lain on the back of his chair. "We tried that remember? I got too greedy; I don't want that to happen again."

She sighed and walked over to him, placing her hands on his cheeks, she pressed her lips against his in a chaste kiss. "Be safe?"

He smiled and placed his hands over hers. "I always am."

It was late, the sun had already deeply set into the night, and the first few stars were beginning to unravel their beauty in the cloak of the night. The wind chill had picked up, and was finally seeping into Sasuke's bones. Winter nights with nothing to eat did nothing to ease Sasuke of his hunger. Sasuke had miscalculated, it has taken him too long to find an appropriate victim, and before he knew it, all the traveling home workers had already crawled back to their shelters.

Sometimes Sasuke was too picky for his own good.

"Next time I'm taking Sakura up on that offer, and I'm getting more than just a meal." He sighed to himself and wrapped the cloak closer to him, blending back into the shadows of the dark.

Naruto punched his timecard into the slot, the tiny click ringing like music to his ears; his shift was finally over. And good thing too, because if he had to reorganize another can stack of tomatoes, he'd blow his brains out. He ripped off his Wal-Mart tag and vest, throwing it his satchel bag before bidding his colleagues goodnight.

'Almost out the door…'

"Naruto! Get your lazy ass back here!"

'Fuck! Sooo close…' Naruto sighed and turned around, putting on his best smile to his irritatingly perverted boss, Jiraiya.

"I'm off my shift, Jiraiya." He sang sweetly while tapping his foot impatiently. Jiraiya glared at him.

"Don't sass me boy," he shook a finger at him. "And anyway, I just wanted to let you know that you don't have to come in tomorrow, Karin's taking a double-shift to make up for her time off, running off for that idiot boyfriend of hers," he sighed loudly.

Naruto laughed. "You're just jealous you don't get laid everyday like she does."

He shrugged at him. "Tsunade's mad at me again." Naruto made a small 'ah' sound, and patted his larger boss on the shoulder.

"She's always mad. Try violets. She loves violets." He saluted him, smiling brightly, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a tiny yet comfortable home to get too."

Jiraiya nodded, watching his blonde employee walk through the automatic sliding doors. "Hey, be careful brat, all things that go bump in the night are roaming around at this time!"

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto waved him off.

It was getting later and later. The only thing Sasuke would be able to find at this time would be a drifter or a graveyard-shift migrant worker. Ick, they had terrible tasting blood. He sighed and continued moving swiftly through the dark alley, searching for some wandering soul. He was beginning to lose hope, it was getting too cold, and who would walk in alley way this late and cold at night?

'This idiot, that's who.' Sasuke smirked to himself when he heard the familiar stepping of feet shuffle in his direction. He'd be running right into his death. In the shadows, Sasuke cloaked his figure and sounds, making himself as invisible as possible so the victim wouldn't notice. Although he didn't have any plans on killing whoever it was, he did intend to get his fill.

In the dim of the moonlight, Sasuke made out his prey. A young, blond man, with a strong build and a shapely face. His eyes were a sparkling blue, rivaling the intensity as Sakura's. He shook his head. 'Dinner time.'

In an instant, Sasuke had tackled his prey, knocking him against the wall hard enough to keep the boy breathless. He grabbed him tightly by the neck, whispering in his ear in a chilling voice.

"Now, what do you think you're doing out here so late at night? Didn't anyone tell you to stay out of dark alleys?"

The boy started gasping air through his strangled throat, struggling against Sasuke's grip. "Please…whoever you are, take my money, but just don't hurt me."

Sasuke chuckled. "I assure you, I don't want your money."

Naruto choked back his rising tears. "Who are you? What are you going to do to me!? Please!" He whimpered as Sasuke grazed his lips against his prey's skin, darting his tongue out in places to lick the salty skin.

"Mm…"

"Please…" Naruto whispered.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and slammed the blond's head back into the wall again, watching blue eyes fill with dizzying pain. "Be quiet. This will only take a minute." He opened his mouth, revealing the pearly white fangs to Naruto, who gasped and started screaming and shouting harder than ever.

"A vampire! No, please, don't! Vampires are scary! Vampires are scary!"

Murderous beasts, all of them...kill all of them...

"W-Who? What?" Sasuke dropped his victim and clutched his head in pain to the memories that suddenly surged back to his brain that he couldn't fully remember. His mind was cluttered with thoughts but his heart was still pounding, anxious at the thought of taking precious blood from that blond…

"Wait!" He snapped his head up and found the blond who dropped his bag and immediately started running down the alley as fast as he could. Cursing, Sasuke picked up his bag and caught up to the blond quickly due to his vampire speed.

He cut off the blond from running by stopping in front of him, taking his time to look over the disheveled, and bulging blue eyes of the man in front of him. He frowned and held out the bag to him. "This is yours, is it not?"

The blond was panting heavily. He stared at Sasuke, and then the bag. Quickly, he snatched it out of his hands and began backing up slowly. "Don't approach me anymore."

"I'll do no such thing," Sasuke nodded softly, highly amused by the scared boy. "Sorry to have frightened you, I'm very impulsive."

"Yeah well," the boy pointed an angry finger at him. "You just keep that filthy mouth away from me, vampire."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow; there was so much hate in his tone. "What would you know of vampires?"

He stopped moving, and looked between Sasuke and the exit behind him. "You…are a vampire correct?"

"Yes."

"And you were planning on killing me, right?"

Sasuke shook his head, tiredly. "No. If I were planning on killing you I would've aimed for your chest, where your heart is for one. If a vampire isn't aiming for the chest at least, he doesn't have it in his mind to kill you."

"I'll keep that in mind." Naruto snorted sarcastically, and then shouted when Sasuke took more steps forward. "Hey! I thought I told you to back the fuck up!"

"This is the only way out of this alley. I promise I won't hurt you. I'm not barbaric; you can take my word for it."

Naruto gulped loudly and nodded slowly. "Just…please, don't hurt me."

Sasuke nodded once again, but Naruto didn't start moving.

"What is it now? I need to go, I'm very hungry."

"You're going to do this shit to someone else?" Naruto shouted at him.

He shrugged. "That's the plan."

"No. No way man, I'll call the cops on you."

Sasuke chuckled darkly at the blond. So scared and yet pretending to be brave. It was admirable, and mildly cute at the same time. "I don't even see a phone on you. But if you called the cops I'd kill you."

"What?!"

"Just joking."

Naruto glared. "Vampires don't joke."

"Well, not most of them. I'm just one of many vampires."

Naruto shifted uncomfortably as Sasuke took a few more steps closer to him. The space between them was dwindling, but Naruto didn't feel as if his life was in danger anymore, so he didn't immediately move away. "There are more than just you?"

"Quite."

Naruto blinked a few times in confusion. 'What the hell is going on here? Who is this guy?' Naruto had never seen a man quite like him, dressed darkly, contrasting terribly with his porcelain-like skin, with black hair and the most interesting onyx eyes. The dark vampire's cloak was a little cliché however, Naruto would admit.

So fascinated by the vampire's looks, he hadn't even noticed Sasuke had already quickly closed the gap between them and had already started walking past Naruto until he came to.

"H-Hey, where do you think your going?" He shouted and tripped over his feet to catch up with the fast moving raven.

"To find food. I told you that."

"Please, don't do what you almost did to me to anyone else. I won't be able to live with it," he muttered sadly to himself, but Sasuke had heard it anyway. He stopped in his tracks and placed a hand on his temple, rubbing it in an irritating manner.

"Look," he said pointing at the boy, "I have somewhere to be and I need to find food or I really will kill the next person I see. Now, either we part here, or give me your blood so I can⎯"

"Alright."

"Huh?" Sasuke said, looking at the blonde in confusion. "You didn't want me to touch you a few minutes ago, and now you're offering?"

"I'd rather you finish what you started than hurt someone else," he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, hesitant to meet the vampire's curious gaze. When he did, he flushed immediately under the blank stare.

"Well, are you going to or not?"

"Hn, yes." He approached the blonde swiftly and shoved him back against the cold stone wall. Sasuke placed his lips over the blonde's taut skin, feeling him shiver under his touch. He licked his lips and leant in, teeth grazing over his skin and⎯

"Wait." The blonde gulped, his voice cracked. Sasuke leant back, and saw the tears pooling in the boy's eyes. He blinked.

"Before you…uh, eat me, can you tell me your name?"

Sasuke smiled and leant back in, whispering ever so softly in the boy's ear. "...My name is Uchiha Sasuke."

"Uzumaki Naruto." The boy whispered back before he whimpered when Sasuke sank his elongated fangs into his skin, and began drinking until Naruto's vision became blurry.

"Please…" he whimpered softly, the dirty streetlights were dimming in his vision.

"Make sure…I don't die…alone, you bastard…"

Okay so what do you guys think? I've always loved a vampire OC of my favorite two shinobi FYI. Please review! It really encourages me to keep going. Thanks guys!

~Queen