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He was running. He was running quicker than he had ever ran in his life. He had known it would have been dangerous for her to be in his life, but he always presumed he'd be able to prevent anything from happening to her. And yet he realized he hadn't done his best, he hadn't really been careful about his movements, too engrossed in the mystery and the temptation that was Sakura. Naruto had known about her, he should have immediately thought that others would catch on as well, he should have imagined his enemies would have tried to get at him through her. Still, as much as he could have been distracted by her, he would have noticed if anyone was watching or following him, it hadn't been a week yet that he had met her, and they had already found her.

Shikamaru ran closely behind him "She has your smell all over her Sasuke, it wasn't a slip in your attention. It was actually inevitable that others would know immediately about her. The only way to prevent this would have been to lock her in your house from the first moment you saw her, and this would have been impossible" his ever attentive friend was of course immediately aware of what he was thinking.

Yet what he said didn't comfort Sasuke at all. He could have prevented this. He should have marked her as his, as much as he hated the notion of exposing her as a possession – he knew she would hate it – it would have at least warned vampires that there would be consequences if anyone dared to touch her. He should have taken her blood, had he done that he would have known immediately the moment she was being taken, had he done that he would have been able to look over her every moment. And he would have even be able to prevent it. While now as he was running, even at the top of his speed, he knew she was already long gone; he was running as if she'd be waiting for him, yet they had already taken her. He only hoped they had taken her to manipulate him and not to hurt him by killing her. He hoped it for her. For him. He hoped for them he didn't find as much as a scratch on her, when he took her back.

As he neared the building of the Sabaku he immediately noticed a shaken Ino who was pacing in front of the door with her phone in her hand.

He signalled the others and the got on the road a few metres away from the building. The moment Ino saw him her eyes widened and she scurried towards him "Uchiha-san! I can't find her! I don't know what to do! She isn't answering her phone! She never does that and I have a really bad feeling about it! She simply left without saying a word!" Sasuke interrupted her grabbing her shoulders and said "Calm down now, you are not helping Sakura by overreacting" when he was sure she had calmed down – he had after all, in some way, told Sakura he wouldn't compel her friend; he intended to keep his word – he released her saying "Now tell me exactly what happened"

"I don't know! One moment she was there watching me, the next she left with a guy, about our age, a bit taller than her, couldn't see his hair of face since he was wearing a hoodie. And she didn't even acknowledged me when I called 'forehead'!" Sasuke gritted his teeth, they had most probably compelled her. At least she hadn't been taken by the use of brute force. But not even this thought managed to put his mind somewhat at ease. They had taken her and they would pay.

Ino went from observing a blank faced Sasuke – which was making her even more agitated, for god's sake, didn't he care for Sakura at all?! – to staring into another pair of black eyes; suddenly she calmed down and felt the strange need and willingness to answer any question he would make.

"Is this everything you know? Can't you remember anything else that could be of relevance?" Shikamaru stared at Ino, making sure she wasn't withholding anything. She answered dazedly "No. Except that when I saw her face as she got out of the room she looked a bit spaced out as if she was daydreaming. But I think it was just my impression."

"I need to find her" Sasuke turned around and was about to take off to look for her scent when Shikamaru stopped him "Wait, we need to plan ahead, and we'll go together. It will not help her if we rush into things. One mistake and she is dead or out of our reach" then he turned towards Ino "You won't tell anyone what you have seen, Sakura has left for a short trip with Sasuke and is unreachable through phone. That boy was Sasuke's driver" Ino nodded dumbly and made her way to Kankuro to ask him to take her home. Shikamaru watched her momentarily go with unusual attentiveness. Then he sighed, knowing things were about to get even more complicated "Troublesome".

Then he turned to the calm fury that was his leader "Now, for the plan"


It was hard to breath.

Why did she have such a struggle to breath? It was the same feeling of when she was in bed with a high fever and couldn't help but deepen her breaths and fall asleep.

But she didn't have a fever. Had she?

The last thing she remembered was Sasuke leaving her at the party. Could she be ill? Maybe Sasuke took her home and into her bed.

Her bed wasn't this hard.

She struggled to open her eyes, but to no avail. The she started to hear the voices.

"I'm going to go call him" ah, a familiar voice. Familiar but not welcome.

"Yeah sure, in the meantime we'll have a little feast with this tiny bird we've captured." Laughter. A hand on her chin.

Then a thud. "Don't touch her. He wants her for himself. And he wants her untouched, if you value your newfound life you will not dare to put a hand on her. Even your smell on her skin will anger him"

Steps. A door closed. Chairs were moved around.

Then all faded into silence again.


Perched on the roof of his home he waited.

He hated waiting, he had never been the patient type. But he would wait, for her. He'd be patient for her sake because the better the plan, the more chances of rescuing her unscathed.

He waited and thought. He thought about the last time he had been in such a place. It had only been two nights. It had been with her. And the night had seemed so much warmer. Now, alone – again – , the shadows of the night felt like his own shadows; dark thoughts clouded his mind, the images of the lifeless, faceless bodies of her captors ingrained behind his eyes.

Shino was here. With deadly grace Sasuke let himself fall down on the balcony and moved into the flat were he found all of them reunited.

Shikamaru had his hands joined at the tips of his fingers, in the usual way of when he was devising a plan. Then he opened his eyes and met Sasuke's unblinking ones "Shino already sent his bugs to follow her scent. Once we are aware of the situation we will proceed" Shino looked deeply concentrated.

After a few more moments, which were some of the most tense Sasuke remembered in a lot of time, Shino raised his head "The girl is in a basement. The house is full of her smell. It is her home. Three more are with her. A fourth scent can be distinguished but the subject is absent"

Kiba and Naruto showed bewildered expressions, Sasuke remained blank – but inside he was fuming at the thought those filthy beings invaded her home – Shikamaru smirked "Clever"

When the two bewildered eyes turned towards him he sighed "It is obvious: they brought her there, for one, because it would be the last place we would think about. Moreover, if we followed her smell and were brought to her house we'd only think it was an older trace, it could never be recognized if she was actually present in there, since she is in the basement probably unable of calling for help and the house is so full of her smell, we would not check the house thoroughly and we'd probably follow other leads. They didn't consider however Shino and his bugs. You see the bugs of the Aburame clan are especially bred to track people. They have the ability to discern smells and hold onto the most recent or the past one. For them smell is like footprints on the earth, an expert is able to distinguish between who passed today and who passed yesterday".

"That's all good. But now we need to act." Sasuke had had enough, he wanted her safe, possibly in his home and in his arms.

Shikamaru explained the plan "We don't know who they are. Or what level of danger. I say, as a precaution Sasuke and Naruto should sneak in and evaluate the situation. You two are the oldest among us, you are the ones with the highest possibility of sneaking in undetected as you have a control and power superior to ours. If they deem it necessary they will signal for us to come inside for help, otherwise they will dispose of them as Sasuke wishes."

Naruto jumped up in excitement, being his usual self at the prospect of some action, "Yeah! That's right!".

But Sasuke was already out on the balcony shifting form to leave "Let's go" and with that he left, leaving the others to scramble behind him, trying not to lose sight of him.

As they reached Sakura's home they hid their presence, both mental and physical, Shikamaru nodded at Sasuke and Naruto. The two of them shifted into the form of water vapour and slid inside from under the door; undetected they made their way inside in that form until they reached the basement.

Sasuke saw a greyish room, with no furniture except for a table and a few chairs, that Sasuke recognised were from Sakura's foyer; at the table, lazing off on a chair was a blonde vampire, another was leaning against the table standing, while the third was positioned in front of the stairs that led up to the foyer.

Amateurs. Sasuke thought as he and Naruto passed the oblivious guy at the entrance. His judgement was further confirmed when the two at the table continued their conversation without having a hint of the danger they were in.

"How do you plan on walking in the sun now?"

"Are you an idiot? Do you see any exterior changes in me? No one will notice, and it's not like we burn or sparkle in the sun. Wasn't it explained to you when they changed you, what you can or can't do?"

"No! and it's not my fault they omitted these things!"

"But you at least know about him, right?"

"Would you two keep quiet? I'm trying to check if anyone nears the house!" the third one intervened.

He was however ignored "Of course I know. That's exactly why I told you not to test his patience and leave the girl alone. You know I would like to have a bite of her as well, but we have orders!"

Sasuke had heard enough. Mentally connecting with Naruto to signal they should act, he materialised behind one of them "So you touched her, ha?" the fledgling had the time only to turn around and watch in terror, as he understood what was happening, before Sasuke drove a hand into his chest extracting his heart, then he took hold of his hair with one hand and with the other he severed his head.

Looking up he saw Naruto had ended his job too. This all was done in the span of a few seconds.

Turning to the last remaining vampire Sasuke ordered "Grab him"

Only then did Sasuke allow himself to look at Sakura. He had been aware of her presence in the room since he had entered it, had heard her reassuring breaths, but knew that if he had turned to her immediately he would have lost focus. Now he knew he was right. She was laying on the floor, without as much as a blanket to make the hard ground a bit more comfortable. He couldn't see bruises or any other injury on her, but she was pale, her dress was crumpled and muddy, her breaths so deep and low any human would have thought she wasn't breathing at all. And seeing her like that was the last straw.

"You!" he growled loudly, turning towards the one who would soon become the object he would vent his fury against.

Naruto reading the emotions into his eyes, didn't even try to stop him, knowing that in this state there was no way he could be stopped. Waiting for the worst he held the fledgling who was now whimpering in terror.

But then "S-Sasuke?"

He froze. Everything seemed to freeze in that moment around him.

Slowly he turned around and watched as her eyelashes strived to open. Her breaths became quicker as she fought sleep.

When she opened her eyes he was in front of her, his expressionless face analysing her own. But his eyes said so much more. He was worried, Sakura though with warmth, but she read fury in them too, an anger that was tearing him apart. An anger she had never seen before.

With struggle she lifted a hand to cup his face, with her thumb she stroked the skin under his eye "Don't be so angry. You'll get wrinkles" she tried to weekly joke "Were does this come from? You are not this person, at least you never showed me this person. Are you telling me you deceived me? You're the good one, right?"

And as if she compelled him, his anger settled down, and he was filled with relief at seeing she was still behaving like usual. He was good. She said he was the good one, after everything that had happened to her she didn't view him as a bad person. She wasn't resenting him for all the confusion and for the kidnapping.

And as he met her warm eyes he couldn't contain himself anymore.

Sweeping down, he claimed her lips as his own. Pressing his lips against hers he kept the kiss chaste, and the moment she returned his advances he felt his heart was about to burst, and suddenly he didn't care anymore if Naruto was in the room, if an enemy was witnessing a very week moment on his part, if there probably was a conspiracy against him, he didn't care about anything else than the lips that were pushing against his, the small puffs of breath that hit his cheek and the hand that was now clenching in his hair. The feeling of her was bliss, and in that moment he felt all the years of loneliness had been worth it if they had been for him to find her. This was enough. This simple touch of her lips, this simple feeling of her acceptance was enough for him. He lifted her body without detaching himself, and gently gathered her in his arms, away from the hard, cold ground.

As her hand fell from his hair and she went motionless under him he raised his head watching through lidded eyes her sleeping face. He momentarily closed his eyes, revelling in the way her head hid in the hollow of his neck. He guessed he could break the compulsion, but she had struggled mentally and physically a lot, it would be better to let it wear off, and let her rest in the meantime.

With Sakura in his arms he turned and ignoring Naruto's smirk he motioned for him to take Sakura so he could deal with their hostage. Then he turned around and made the trembling vampire sit.

"Why? Why did you take her?" he felt anger resurfacing.

When the vampire turned his head around as if looking for an escape route, Sasuke slammed his hand on the table "I demand an answer. Don't make me make you regret challenging me"

"She is leverage, because of her connection with you" the vampire found himself muttering, in fear.

Sasuke sneered leaning even more towards his enemy "Do you think I didn't get as much? What I want to know is what you wanted to do to her, what is your objective. How did you wanted to use her. Who is he."

His eyes widened "I-I can't tell you that!"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and answered growling " Maybe you don't quite get what happens if you do not collaborate. I will kill you."

The vampire suddenly dropped his head between his hands "He'd do much worse!" suddenly meeting Sasuke's eyes with a twisted look he murmured "I can't" and before Sasuke or Naruto realized what was going on he had taken out a long blade and sank it directly into his heart, collapsing in the chair, immediately motionless.

"Damn it!" Sasuke threw the table against the wall.

"Hey, that's pointless" Naruto tried to get his attention and moved on Sasuke's side "Come on. She needs you" and then observed as Sasuke's eyes immediately dropped to the girl in his arms and he instantly was in front of him relieving him of her.

"Tell someone to clean this mess. I want this room to be in the same condition as before this scum touched it" He said coldly as he gathered more comfortably Sakura in his arms.

With a more sedate look watching her, he said "Let's go home"

He never once dropped his gaze from Sakura's face as they took off in the night.


Finally!

Sorry for the wait :) I took a bit more time for this one, but I warned you ;)

So? I really can't wait to hear what you think about this chapter…

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-debs