Author's Note: Pretty excited for this story, not gonna lie.

breathe breathe

Uchiha Sasuke moved to town a week before Sakura's sixteenth birthday.

She began hearing all about him the moment he stepped through the door of Konoha High School—about six feet tall, the other girls told her in hushed, giggly voices, with dark hair and eyes, looks too old to be a sophomore, but damn, aren't we lucky?—but did not actually see him until the five minutes between third and fourth block.

And that was it. She'd never encountered one before, but she could tell. He was one of them.

He was one of them, and he was here for her.

Lifting her chin, she walked toward him, not slipping through or skirting around the other students as she normally did, but making them part for her. Not that she noticed—she was watching him, only him, and he her. She went right up to him, said softly, "I know what you are."

Faintly, faintly, he smirked. "Could say the same to you."

Being that close to him, to one of them, make her feel a little fear, and a little thrill. Sakura liked it. She went on, "And I'm not afraid of you." Tossing her hair, she added, "Just so you know."

"Well." He lifted a brow. "That's a relief."

She swallowed. Her heart beat fast in her chest, bum-bum-be-dum, bum-bum-be-dum-dum. She asked, "How old are you?"

He considered her for a moment. "Older than you."

The bell rang. By this point, the halls had emptied of all the other kids; they were alone, she and Sasuke. In a week's time, this would be the worst situation imaginable.

As it was, she rocked back on her heels, peering up at him through too-long bangs. "My name is Haruno Sakura," she said lightly, "but you know that. My birthday is March twenty-eighth, and you know that as well." She tilted her head. "How long have you been counting down the days?"

He placed his hands in his pockets. His gaze was heavy on her, and his tone cool when he noted, "You are afraid." His eyebrows drew together. "But not as much as you should be."

She smiled. It was a slow, wicked smile, and it lent a wild light to her eyes. "Do you want to know why?"

Sasuke shrugged, moving to pass her. "Don't really care. It doesn't make a difference either way." Turning partway toward her, he said calmly, over his shoulder, "I'll kill you all the same."

"You'll hunt me," she corrected, still smiling even as her heart crashed-crashed-crashed against her rib-cage like waves against the shore, "but you won't kill me. I'm ready for you, Uchiha Sasuke. I've been ready for a long time."

He was clearly unimpressed. "Then I hope you'll at least put up something of a fight. I've killed witches before, Sakura. It's not hard."

Quietly, she said, "Then I hope you're prepared for a change of pace."

Do you love witches, yeah I love witches, do you love witch hunts, yeah I love witch hunts...

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.