Heartlines

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.

- Bill Cosby

Sakura

The moment I opened the door, a chorus of yells assaulted my ears.

Of course, under the circumstances, I completely expected there to be some, but I still cringed when I heard it. I'd never failed a mission in my years of being a slayer and had therefore never been to the Leader's corner of it before unless it was under better conditions. I could already see her fuming face in the corner of my mind before I even fully opened the door. The fact of this made me feel even more guilty about what I'd done (or forgot to do, for that matter).

Her face contorted in an angry frown, she set her intense eyes on mine and opened her mouth. "Do you realize what you've done?!"

I feel the urge to reply with a sarcastic "of course," due to my apparent anger, but I can tell she's clearly not in the mood for anyone's shit at the moment. It's a rhetorical question thankfully so I stay quiet, shaking silently.

She paces behind the back of her desk slowly, her light blonde hair moving behind her. "Do you realize how much danger this has put us in? Those damn vampires could come for us at any time, and it's all your fault! I didn't expect this from one of my personal students of all people!"

This statement makes me feel even worse about the situation because it's true. I have put everyone in danger; it's true that those vampires could come at any moment. And I myself was especially in danger considering I was the one who went after their leader.

"M-maybe...maybe I could go back?" I quietly tried to reason with Leader. "Maybe Uchiha Sasuke hasn't healed yet? Maybe I could go and finish him off?" Hopefully, luck was on my side, and he was still lying there in that alley, drenched in his own blood.

Leader glares at me, and I shrink down, feeling significantly smaller under her gaze. "You better hope he's still there or so help me, God Himself will have to pry me off of you."

I stand and bow to her, grateful that she has allowed me another chance. Her eyes soften a great deal at this and she wishes me luck on my journey back. I smile at her as she turns away from me, but we both know it's forced.

After exiting the office and making my way back to the training area, Naruto immediately runs up to my side. His usually easygoing look is replaced with one of worry and concern. In my anger, I almost brush him away, but I think twice. It isn't Naruto's fault. It's all mine and I have absolutely no right to be angry at anyone but myself.

I shake my head and try to walk on, but Naruto stops me with a hand on my shoulder.

"If you're going after him," he starts. "I'll go with y-"

I put my hand up to stop him. I couldn't let Naruto be in danger because of one of my careless mistakes. If I was going to go after Uchiha Sasuke, I was going to do it alone and on my own terms.

"I can't let you do that," I replied to him. "I'm going alone."

At this, Naruto's expression rapidly changes. "No, Sakura! Don't you know how dangerous that would be? Uchiha Sasuke is not only a vampire, but he's the vampire, the leader of all of the ones in this area. You'll not only have him after you, but also his mate, and the rest of his clan. You can't just march into that by yourself."

I began to protest, but Naruto was already dragging me down the hall towards the entrance. I tried to dig my feet into the floor, but Naruto has always been stronger than me, quickly overpowering me. He stops and lets go of my hand only to shove a couple of items we might need into my hands. I open my mouth to protest once again, but he puts his finger over my lips.

"Let someone who cares about you help you for once, Sakura."

I blushed a light red at his words, but said nothing. And with that, we set out, with me silent the entire way.

It didn't take much longer for Naruto and I to reach the alley which I had attempted to kill Uchiha Sasuke. It hadn't been long since I was last there, but his silvery red blood was already dry and beginning to be covered by the constantly falling snow. I huddled closer to Naruto as he approached the stains of Uchiha Sasuke's blood.

Taking out a Tracker, he swiped the device over the stains once, quickly picking it up to read the status of it. I stood off to the side, frantically looking back and forth for vampires. It seemed as if there weren't any in the area of course, but I was still reluctant to let my guard down. I turned back to Naruto who shook his head before standing up.

"Results are inconclusive," he said.

"What's the problem?" I asked, curiously.

"I'm not sure," Naruto replied. "Either something is wrong with the Tracker or-"

He stopped short as he looked over my shoulder. His calm expression immediately melted into one of shock and horror. I didn't want to turn around, already knowing what I was going to see, but I did nevertheless. Despite already knowing, I stared up with my face twisted into surprise. There standing at the top of the building was Uchiha Sasuke, red eyes flashing.

He smirked. "Or the vampire is relatively close," he finished for Naruto.

His eyes flicked over to mine. "We meet again, female slayer. I don't believe I caught your name last time we had the pleasure of being in each other's presence,"

I glared at him and choked down my fears. "Well, it's kind of hard to introduce yourself to someone when you're in the midst of slitting their throat,"

He laughed sarcastically. "Funny, slayer. If I'd known you'd be this amusing, I probably wouldn't have rounded up my clan for an attack."

I gave up on keeping myself calm. In a situation like this, if he was telling the truth, then he and his clan were going to attack the base. Everyone would be in danger all because of me. Not to mention no one would know if Naruto and I didn't get back in enough time to inform them. Uchiha Sasuke probably planned on killing us anyway.

"An attack?" I gulped.

"That's right," Uchiha said, and stood back to give us a view of the entire top of the building. Behind him, tens of red eyes flashing dangerously. I wasn't able to make out anything else besides their eyes and their figures which made the view even more frightening.

Uchiha bares his teeth as he looks down at us, his fangs flashing with his eyes and a dangerous smile on his face. "Good luck slayers,"

We watch as the rest of Uchiha's clan disappears as if they were never there. With one last look, he disappears along with them, his eyes the only thing visible.

"You're gonna need it,"

Naruto and I ran as fast as our legs could take us back to the base, but I knew it was all in vain. It seemed like Uchiha was already a step ahead of me, and this time wouldn't be any different. When we reached the base, I was already worried sick about the state of it. Everything seemed calm. Which meant something was wrong.

Uchiha's vampire clan was gathered at the entrance, huddled around something. I caught a glimpse of bright red blood that could only come from a human. Which meant they were feasting on a slayer. I ran forward, Naruto at my heels. If we had just gotten there in time...

My heart was already heavy over seeing that a slayer might have lost their life, but I felt as if my heart had stopped when I seen the identity of the person. Her long blonde hair was flowing out behind her, although it was caked with her own blood. Her neck was completely tore open by the teeth of one of the vampires. I felt the tears coming to my eyes, and the bile rising in my throat.

Ino.

Author's Note: After five painful months of having no computer to write with, my parents got me one for Christmas. Merry Christmas to all of you, by the way! Thank you to those of you that stayed with this story despite the fact that it was on such a long extended hiatus. I'm sorry if this chapter wasn't what you expected, but I tried my best to keep with the storyline I wanted even after all this time.

Please review and tell me what you thought! :)

Terms Used In This Chapter

Tracker - A device used to track a supernatural being (mostly vampires in this case) by their blood. Can only be used when the vampire is a fair distance away.