#ssm19d9

A/N: I wrote this really quickly again because poor planning skills. I’m excited for tomorrow’s it’s family fluff :) have a college au for now

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“That’s all it takes to get you drunk? Really Sasuke? What have you even tried?” Sasuke cradled his can of hard seltzer and warily eyed Sakura as she marked a tally on her arm again, putting her up to shot number 7.

“Rice wine at a family party.”

“That’s it? Have you gone outside, like, ever?”

“Can’t say I have,” Sasuke drawled. But Sakura always enjoyed his dry humor, so when she punched him on the arm it was cushioned by the sight of her pretty smile. They were at a party, their first together despite having dated for nearly two years. They were both busy with school and typically stuck within their own circle, or stayed home together. Naruto liked to call parties the perfect cocktail of “babes, bros, and beer,” which made both of them wildly uncomfortable thinking about a drunk Naruto trying to pick someone up, so they usually declined when he invited them out.

“Yo, Sasuke! We’re about to play a drinking game, you down?” one of the guys they knew casually called.

Sasuke eyed the table covered in red cups filled to the brim with cheap beer, “not sure about that. I’m not really trying to get drunk tonight.” He just wanted to go home and sleep and eat snacks.

“Aw come on,” another guy goaded, “it’s just beer. It’ll be lit.”

Sasuke was about to refuse once more before Sakura stepped in, “We’ll play, I can drink for him. I took shots but I’m still not really feeling anything.” She waved her arm around to show off the tally marks. For someone so petite, she could really put them away.

Everyone standing around the table looked over at Sakura: small, pink, and a girl. “Bro, what kind of guy lets his girlfriend drink for him? Don’t tell me you’re drinking seltzer, that’s for females and shit.”

Sasuke thought about it. Sakura was strong in many ways. Physically, she spotted him at the gym and pushed him to hit a new max, she opened jars for him, and she constantly towed around heavy medical textbooks. Sasuke knew he was strong too: he carried her to her bed when she fell asleep studying on the couch, he was excellent at smashing bugs, and he carried their groceries on the way back because Sakura liked to talk with her hands. Sakura was strong enough to not be turned off by his sour moods and aversion to being vulnerable in the early days of their relationship. Sasuke supposed he was strong enough to have a girlfriend who had a mind of her own and would go on to become more educated than him and probably make more money than him. Sasuke supposed he was just that kind of guy.

“Have you even tried this shit? It’s fucking tasty. Fuck off, she’ll outdrink you, don’t test her,” Sasuke decided to finally answer. “It’s 2019, what kind of guy even cares?” he added. Sakura smiled up at him and turned to face the guys gathered around the table, “so who’s chugging first?”

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When they finally made their way home, with Sasuke carrying Sakura on her back because she outdrank all those guys like a champ, she mumbled in his ear, “so, got any rice wine recommendations? We should throw a party. But just us. And just rice wine. It’ll be classy and cute and kind of like a honeymoon.”

Sasuke set her down on her bed, “I’ll let you know tomorrow. Right now I have a little recommendation for you, it’s called water. Have you heard of it?” And since his girlfriend was smart and studious, she began listing the properties of water.

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A/N: Sasuke says fuck gender roles! Sasuke says equal rights! *mic drop*

Tsunade seemed taken aback before such declaration. Her mind quickly making the connection of his intentions after listening to him.

“I see, so you’re not looking for the alternatives of your clan after all”

Observing how little by little Tsunade went on responding favorably to his intent, Sasuke confirmed the high priestess’ suspicions by continuing explaining:

“If I could link my soul to that of the white witch, the possibility to gather my kind and impose order over those wrecked souls, would not only help my species, but also to mortals themselves”.

In silence, the blonde priestess walked behind the counter to hide the rest of the objects that were located on it.

Sasuke reluctantly withdrew his coat off the furniture and placed it over his lap, finding a seat in one of the stools near the area Tsunade was emptying.

He was about to question what were her intentions when the girl of pink locks entered again to that room. Soon after, she walked to the main door and locked it. Before that, Sasuke reserved to only observe with curiosity.

“Since Sakura arrived to the outskirts of the village, I could sense there was a strangeness to her” Tsunade explained as she placed the wood box right at the center of the table.

It looked like an inoffensive box, made of wood and saved between books to some clusters, laid the wine bottle the priestess had mentioned.

It was only until Tsunade started to place on the counter the contents of that box that he realized the precedence of said objects.

Area maps, scrolls in extinct languages, emerald gems and branches of cherry blossoms. This was the archive of Sakura, the girl who had arrived to that small protected village in search of aid.

“I’ve been studying the origins of Sakura, all of them indicating that her village was eradicated by the same beings you seek to confront” Tsunade explained, spreading one of her scrolls so they all could appreciate it and, before her words, both Sakura and Sasuke raised their gazes only to meet with the other.

“You’re one of them” Sakura whispered, her face showing how her mind quickly worked to gather the information implied after that explanation.

Sasuke, although surprised, couldn’t help but smile at the girl’s cleverness. Surely one of the traits why Tsunade had decided to keep her under her care.

“However, none of the registered information on my files indicates they could survive after a bite or even poison an immortal being” the elder continued explaining and, before this new information, Sasuke’s eyebrows furrowed in contemplation.

“There’s no register of such precedent either” the dark-haired male agreed “Are you sure the bite was made by someone of my kind?”

Nodding as response, Sakura, who was located on the other side of the furniture, collected her pink strands and took them to the other side of her shoulder in order to reveal her long neck and fair skin profaned by two marks perfectly aligned in the joint between her shoulder and her neck.

Still wallowing in concentration, as a reflect movement he led his hand to cover his face -or rather, his nostrils. Since even if that was a subtle move, her fragrance wasn’t for someone like him. Swallowing, his mind tried to compose itself after such improvise.

“There’s a possibility, though” Tsunade continued after a second to make sure Sasuke regained his composure. “To try the theory that brought you here”

Removing the scroll from the table, Tsunade displayed a book in a different language, one Sasuke was rather very familiarized.

“All these species that assaulted and eradicated Sakura’s previous home were just neophytes. Falling to their desires without the ability to control their instincts and maybe not as resistant as the founding clans”.

“They all wore crimson eyes, but, according to Tsunade-sama’s records, only a vampire of high status could wear the three tomoes on their eyes” Sakura continued, eager to find out more about the kind that had chased her away of her previous home.

“The tomoes could be worn by any clan of my species, it is not a matter of blood, but rather a matter of maturity” he discarded the girl’s suspicion while he shook his head. “But that does not make them any less resistant to human blood, but rather, they’re on that experimental phase where their hunger is related to their physiological search of the kind of blood that it compatible to their diet”.

Sakura made a face trying to suppress her disgusts, Sasuke ignored it and Tsunade clarified:

“Would it be like carrying out an allergy test?”

“But no vampire is allergic to human blood, not even the oddest. There must be something else that is poisoning them after trying her blood”.

“What about her magic ability?” Tsunade ventured.

“A human foreign to the Senju clan with magical power?” Sasuke questioned incredulous.

“But Tsunade-sama, I’ve never executed any conjury. How could I possibly—”

“You have not had the need to make them since your hands absolve it once you try to heal”

“Absolve?”

“White magic, the ability to heal and amend” Tsunade clarified, certain of her suspicions “Not even a priestess of my clan has managed to execute healing conjures without the aid of herbs or symbolisms. Contrary to the white magic that only requires the will of its carrier, only possible if the person inherits the magic abilities from an immortal being”.

“But” Sasuke interrupted, contemplating the facts Tsunade had just recited “, these abilities can only awaken if the human gets to establish contact with an immortal being. Like the neophyte’s bite.”

Sakura, who had remained petrified at the end of the table, processed the information laid before her.

“A white witch…” she murmured to herself, still unable to believe what she was listening.

“As I suspected, those barriers were not only to protect your village, but to avert her from my kind’s sight” Sasuke said.

“The only thing I did was protect the mortals endangered by the other species” Tsunade continued, denying the vampire’s suspicion.

“But she is not just a human, if she is a white witch, she must have the descendance of an immortal” Sasuke discerned.

“Or a Senju” Tsunade completed.

Sakura, who processed the avalanche of information, closed her eyes while she denied before opening them and voice out the doubt that had her agitated:

“So, are you saying I am an objective to them?” referring to the vampires, and in general, to all the immortal beings outside those protective barriers that Tsunade had made.

With their attention returning to the unusual girl of pink hair, Sasuke explained:

“A healer, or white witch, is idealized as the perfect partner to my kind” he empathized he referred to his kind, that information that had caught his attention and that, after Sakura listened to his words, only made her blush lightly at his choice of words since ‘partner’ could be interpreted differently according to its context. “Whoever manages to link to a white witch, gains the recognition as the strongest of our clan”.

“But it the link doesn’t work, both bodies start to degenerate” Tsunade added.

“Both!” Sakura exclaimed alarmed, soon turning her face in the direction of her mentor in search of help, to which the high priestess could only answer with an apologetic look.

“Through all this time I’ve been looking for a way to reduce the adverse effects to that bite, but I’ve run out of options” the high priestess explained, and then, turning her face to the immortal contemplating these revelations, she extended the bottle of wine to him.

“Maybe it’s time for you to take your alternative” they heard Tsunade say at the time she took him out of his absorption and observed the bottle of liquor before him with attention.

Of course, he thought. Wine rice.

To link two souls, it was necessary to drink the same wine rice. Old ancestors linked their souls together with this symbolic liquor far earlier than religions, far earlier than the sacred writings.

Hence, it was an oath that prevailed as unique to those unions without distinction of species, gender or preference.

This was a knowledge that the legendary priests transmitted with the passing of time to heir disciples for generations, until reaching Tsunade’s knowledge, one of the high priestesses with the greatest knowledge in that kingdom.

However, by sharing this information, it took them a little to both prospects believing this would method would work to ese their worries.

She, a supposed healer of unknown precedence, and him, a first-generation vampire of one of the oldest clans to exist in the world.

Both looking for something in common: survive.