Chapter 14

It felt like the world froze in place as Gaara fell and the world sped up again when Sakura heard the soft crunch of his body hitting the gravel and Ino's cruel laughter, feeling her whole body turn cold and her blood turn to ice in hers veins with cold fury. Never before had Sakura wanted to kill someone. She wanted blood.

"Dammit, Sasuke!" Sakura shrieked hysterically, thrashing against Karin's grip frantically, ignoring the hot tears streaming down her face as she tried to free herself from the redhead's powerful grasp.

Sasuke gazed blankly at her tear stained cheeks while Ino wrapped her arms around his torso from behind. "Stop struggling," was all he said and Sakura screamed at him with fury and frustration, baring her fangs at him, growling and wailing loudly from the pain in her heart, like a piece of her soul had just been ripped from her body. She let her head fall forward, her hair falling forward to hide her face while she wept.

"Let go, Neji!" Tenten screamed at her captor and Karin sniggered. "It's not like he actually cares about you anymore. Just give up struggling like his cousin over here." Sakura could hear Hinata weeping softly as Kiba watched her, his face impassive. Tenten stilled and fell silent, realising that struggling was just a waste of time. Neji was too strong.

Sakura froze and went rigid with wide eyes trained on the gravel in front of her when she felt energy return to her limbs as Karin loosened her grasp.

"Let's go," Ino snapped before sneering down at Sakura as she walked passed her. "Leave the human to her grief. We can kill her another day. I want her to suffer." Sakura heard Karin snigger from behind but she watched the ground numbly, not reacting. Tenten spat at Ino's feet when Neji released her but the brunette didn't attack once she was free. She stayed on her knees and watched Sakura's grief-stricken face with concern.

"Come, Sasuke!" Karin called, releasing Sakura's arms, and Sasuke followed obediently after Ino, with Kiba, Neji and a sniggering Karin in tow. The five of them became blurs and vanished into the darkness. Sakura didn't care. The instant she felt Karin's grip relax, she ran to Gaara, her mind blank and numb and her vision blurred by tears of anguish and grief. She lost the sense of her surroundings, there was only Gaara.

She fell onto her knees beside him when she reached him. A huge bleeding hole on the left side of his chest gaped at her from where his heart had been and Sakura knew, with a bitter feeling, that he had died the moment he had whispered her name. She sank her teeth into the soft flesh of her arm and pressed the bleeding bite mark to his lips before letting her arm drop to her side when he didn't drink, the mark healing itself. She couldn't heal something that wasn't there.

She felt too numb to cry now as she held the fallen Kazekage's head in her lap, stroking his wild red hair and lightly brushing his cheeks with her fingertips. Sakura reached out, her face a blank mask, and gripped the small vial of her blood hanging around his neck gently. What was the point of having this?

A trembling hand touched her shoulder nervously. "Sakura, it's almost sunrise," Hinata whimpered, her left eye swollen shut from where Neji had struck her and the cut on her shoulder staining the white lace of her hoodie a dark red. "We need to take the Kazekage back to the Sand to be buried by his people."

Tenten growled as she lightly prodded the deep wound in her side, shutting her eyes tightly with pain as her fingers came away red and bloody.

"Those bitches will pay," she snarled through clenched teeth, her fangs bared with fury before her face contorted with sorrow as her eyes fell on Gaara.

"They're both gone," Sakura murmured, barely hearing what her friends were saying. "Come, Sakura," Tenten pleaded, leaning heavily against Hinata, her skin coated with a thin layer of sweat as her hand clutched her side tightly. "Tenten, that wound," Hinata squeaked, "Use the vial around your neck!"

Tenten nodded weakly.

"That's probably a good idea," she exhaled shakily, bringing the vile to her lips and swallowing the blood in one go; a relieved sigh escaped her as the wound healed and her strength returned to her. "You should drink yours, Hinata." The willowy girl shook her head. "These wounds aren't life threatening-" she stopped in midsentence, her silver eyes widening. Tenten's eyes followed where her friend was looking and the brunette gasped.

"Sakura!" She hissed and Sakura looked up and gaped at the enormous fox padding lightly towards her, forgetting her grief momentarily as it became replaced with surprise.

It was larger than a large dog, the biggest fox Sakura had ever seen, and it stopped in front of her and bowed its silky head before looking up at her with bright blue and intelligent eyes that said, "Move"

"It's you," Sakura breathed incredulously, "How did you grow so big?" The fox gave her the silent order again and Sakura stood wearily to join her friends, her legs feeling like they could collapse again at any given moment.

The fox brushed Gaara's kanji with its black nose, its eyes sorrowful and sad. Tenten frowned with confusion while Hinata and Sakura watched in silence. "Does the fox know him?" Hinata breathed and Sakura nodded sadly, "I think he does." Gaara. I'm so sorry.

I couldn't save you.

Sakura closed her eyes tightly when the world began to spin as a wave of nausea overtook her. "I think," she breathed, gripping Tenten's shoulder tightly; "I think I'm going into shock." Her knees gave out and she glimpsed a flash of red as the fox moved toward her before her eyes closed and she collapsed onto her knees. She fell forward as Tenten hissed and Hinata squeaked with astonishment, but she couldn't understand why.

Sakura didn't hit the gravel though, she felt strong and warm arms wrap around her as she fell against something warm and solid. She breathed in a pleasant and earthy scent and opened her eyes curiously as the nausea and dizziness subsided.

The boy holding her had soft, spiky golden hair and warm tanned skin and Sakura straightened up to look at his face, her arms wrapped around his bare, muscle-toned torso to support herself. The sharp bright-blue eyes of the fox stared back at her, two sapphires set into a beautiful and feral looking face.

"It's you," she breathed with astonishment and the boy watched her with a serious face and nodded. "You're the fox." Sakura reached up to touch his cheek, just to make sure the boy was really there and he released her and stood before offering her his hand. She took it wordlessly and he pulled her lightly to her feet.

Sakura couldn't bring herself to feel afraid because she knew the boy, the fox. She trusted him just as he had proven he had trusted her after weeks of visiting the tracks before she hadn't gotten herself in way above her head in a war between the supernatural.

"He's a Druid," Tenten murmured, keeping her distance and watching him wearily.

"You're a Druid?" Sakura asked softly and he nodded. "Animal-shifters. My clan and I take the forms of foxes."

"There's more of you?" Tenten gasped incredulously and the boy nodded again before moving to crouch beside Gaara with a pained and grave expression. "He was my friend." Sakura felt his grief.

"How was a Druid friends with the Kazekage?" Tenten demanded and the boy looked up at her with large and blue eyes with slitted fox-like, pupils. "He was once a Druid. The raccoon" Sakura's eyes widened with confusion and surprise and her companions frowned as what he said sunk in.

"I'll explain," the boy said quietly, gently folding Gaara's arms over his chest respectfully. "His mother was a Druid." Tenten's eyes widened with understanding.

"She fell in love with the previous Kazekage; Gaara's father. They had three children. Temari and Kankuro, both vampires. Gaara was born a Druid." The boy paused. "His mother died from illness and Gaara was seized by the Akatsuki before they made him into a vampire, under his father's orders before he too died, knowing that his son would never be accepted any other way. He hated everyone after that. Despite his father's efforts, no one accepted him. Even his own siblings were weary of him." Sakura crouched beside the boy and brushed Gaara's fringe form his eyes. "So that's what he meant," she murmured. So much pain.

"He was going to commit suicide," the boy said in a low voice, "By jumping into the sunlight. But I stopped him before he could do it. I told that he had formed a bond with me. I helped him."

Sakura looked up at him with understanding. "It was you. You were the friend he told me about when I first met him." The boy nodded and Sakura's face contorted as fresh tears leaked from her eyes. "I'm so sorry I couldn't help him." She felt the boy's warm hand on her shoulder. "Do not blame yourself for something you couldn't control. You are not a vampire."

"I hate how people keep saying that," she muttered darkly.

"Sakura, we have to go," Tenten warned, pointing to the sun rising slowly over the horizon. "But Gaara-" Sakura started frantically before the boy silenced her. "Go. Return here tonight, and bring his siblings. I will take Gaara."

"But he needs to be with his people," Hinata squeaked and the boy growled. "The Druids are his people." Hinata nodded meekly.

"Sakura!" Tenten snapped frantically, grabbing her by the arm and hauling her to her feet before dragging her desperately through the carriages to the one that concealed the entrance to the Sand just as the suns golden rays flooded the abandoned railway.

Sakura rubbed the red finger marks on her arm and wiped the tears from her eyes. "The sunlight probably won't kill you, Sakura. But it will burn you badly," Hinata explained apologetically. Sakura looked at Hinata's eye and bit into the soft flesh of her arm before gesturing to the bleeding mark. "Drink. Save the vial for an emergency." Hinata obeyed and it wasn't long before her eye looked normal again.

"Come," Sakura said seriously as she started down the steps with a bitter and grim feeling running through her. She choked back tears. "We need to tell the Sand what happened to their Kazekage. And tell Temari and Kankuro what happened to their brother."

xxxxxxx

"The Kazekage's dead?" Mei knuckles turned white from gripping the wooden table's edge so hard, "That wasn't part of the plan, Ino Yamanaka! You said you only wanted to find the entrance to the Sand!"

Ino rolled her eyes and shrugged. "He died by Sasuke's hands, not mine, Mizukage."

"It might as well have been your hands," Mei growled, baring her fangs as the wood cracked and splintered under the force of her grip. "Sasuke Uchiha is being controlled. By you." The blonde sat up sharply and Sasuke turned his blank, dark eyes to the brunette sitting beside the window.

"Need I doubt your loyalties, Mizukage?" Ino's voice was low, threatening and she narrowed her eyes suspiciously and bared her fangs in warning. Sasuke growled warningly from beside his master.

Mei composed herself and forced herself to reply through clenched teeth. "You still have the alliance of the Mist. My loyalty is still to you."

"Good," Ino snapped, pulling Sasuke down roughly to sit beside her on the couch and stretching herself, catlike, across his lap. Mei sniffed disdainfully at Ino's actions and turned her attention to the window beside her.

"Did the Kazekage mean something to you, Mizukage?" Karin asked carefully and curiously and Mei didn't turn away from the window. "He was still only a youngling." He didn't deserve to die.

xxxxxxx

"You look distraught, Mei," Tsunade rasped dryly as the Mizukage crouched centimetres away from the silver bars of the Hokage's prison cell underneath the Uchiha Compound. Tsunade lay centimetres from the bars, thin, weak and dressed in rags, nothing like her former self.

"Are you thirsty, Tsunade?" Mei whispered and the Hokage nodded, desperation flashing momentarily through her golden eyes. "I'm always thirsty down here." Mei tossed a medium sized glass vial through the bars which Tsunade caught in her hand with lightning fast reflexes. "This was the best I could do. It's rabbit." The Hokage uncapped the vial and downed its contents in seconds and sighed with satisfaction, the blood running down the corners of her mouth and down her neck. "Thank you." She breathed. There was a moment of silence before the Mizukage decided to deliver the grim news. It was the reason she was now down there in the dungeons without Ino's knowledge.

"The Kazekage is dead," Mei said in a low voice and Tsunade sat up sharply, shock clearly written across her withdrawn face, framed by messy and tangled strands of blonde hair. A look that didn't suit the once beautiful woman, in Mei's opinion.

"Dead?!" She demanded, horrified, and Mei nodded. "Ino Yamanaka had Sasuke Uchiha kill the boy on the outskirts of Suna only a few hours ago."

"He was still so young," Tsunade whispered. "And the wisest of the Kage," Mei agreed sadly. "Is Sakura alright?" Tsunade asked with concern, handing the vial back to the Mizukage through the bars. "Is she still alive?"

"She barely escaped with her life. Ino almost had Sasuke kill her too. I believe Gaara was protecting her before..." Mei trailed off. "Ino will make her move against the Sand soon, Tsunade. The only thing stopping her is that she cannot find the entrance," she said seriously. "They are heavily outnumbered."

"This is my fault," Tsunade muttered and the Mizukage raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"I shouldn't have gotten her involved with our kind," The Hokage said, her voice filled with the regret that Mei could also see in her large honey eyes. "I shouldn't have made her stay here, tried to train her, tried to make her one of us, tried to involve her in this war-"

"You gave her a choice," Mei cut her off sharply, "The human chose this all on her own. She chose not to be ignorant. She made the decision when she allowed Sasuke Uchiha to bring her here. Nobody forced her to come here, Tsunade. She could have just walked away."

"But I encouraged it. And Sakura isn't the kind of person to 'just walk away'."

"Even so," Mei said seriously, "What life would she have gone back to? The human was practically an orphan based on what I've gathered. Always alone and wasting away her days in that tiny apartment up on the surface."

"You do hear a lot, don't you?" Tsunade said dryly, "Just how many spies did you have in the Leaf before all this?" Mei chuckled, "Only as many as you had in the Mist, Hokage." There was another moment of silence before the Hokage decided to speak.

"How long will you be able to keep this up, Mei?" Tsunade asked seriously and Mei's amused smirk faded to a grave and grim expression. "I had to go along with the Yamanaka girl's plan to find the Sand Village before the little bitch got side tracked by her revenge and decided to abandon the plan in order to fulfil her sadistic desires. The best I could do was call off the Akatsuki and force those girls to leave the Leaf before they got themselves killed for nothing."

"What will you do, Mizukage?" Tsunade mused darkly and Mei fastened the vial in the hidden folds of her lace sleeves. "I can only hope that the human is as strong as you say, Hokage," she said in a low voice. "And that Ino hasn't broken her."

"Sakura is too strong for that," Tsunade murmured as Mei stood. "I will free you, soon, Tsunade, and we'll find a way out of this hellhole and escape back to the Mist," Mei headed for the steps that would lead her back up to the Leaf's surface.

"And I will help the human."