Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto!

~Chapter Twelve~

Fugaku kept Sakura locked up in the cell, refusing to let her out. Since she had retrieved her memories he wouldn't trust her. Sakura desperately wanted to help out with capturing Orochimaru and eliminating the army that he was creating, but it was impossible to do so from the confines of her prison. She could lead them to his hideouts, tell them how to get in. Heck, she could even take down Orochimaru herself with her recovered strength.

She wondered if the snake had heard of the news. Would he know she was a vampire again? She hoped he would come looking for her, so that she could take him out as soon as possible. The longer the war dragged out, the more casualties there would be on both sides. Her stomach dropped at the thought of Sasuke, Naruto or Shikamaru getting hurt. She prayed to Kami that Ino and Tenten wouldn't get caught up in the battle. Maybe it would have been best to erase their memories, then she could have told them all about the supernatural world after the war. Orochimaru could capture and torture them for information if he knew they were best friends with Sakura. She knew exactly what the monster was capable of, he would break their bones and shatter their souls to get what he wanted.

Sakura could smell her before she saw her. Karin's face appeared outside the cell bars. She seemed wary at first, seeing Sakura for the first time as a vampire, but when she saw that the pink haired girl was safely locked up a massive grin slowly grew on her face.

"Fancy seeing you here." Karin said, taking a sip from her mug, "Would you like some blood? It's O negative." She moved her hand backwards and forwards over the top of the mug, wafting the scent towards Sakura's nose. The pink haired vampire shrunk further into her cell, trying her hardest to resist the temptation to rip the mug out of Karin's hands. "Too bad." Her smile seemed to expand as she watched Sakura struggle with her instincts. She hadn't had a drop of blood for over a hundred years; her body was ravenous.

"You're not supposed to be here." Sakura said. After she finished the sentence she held her breath, but the memory of the scent was still fresh in her mind. Vampires could hold their breath for about ten minutes, a lot longer than the average human.

"Keep up, Sakura. The Ruler needs every vampire, werewolf and shapeshifter he can get on his side. There is no evidence to prove that I am a spy. However, a little birdie must have told otosan about a spy under his nose." She loomed closer, her face almost pressed up against the bars. Sakura winced when Karin referred to Fugaku as 'father'. She guessed the wedding was still on.

"He figured it out for himself."

"Maybe, but you must have told him that it was me."

"What are you going to do, rip my throat out? Because I'm a lot stronger than you are Karin. I'd like to see you try." Sakura said, standing up to her full height. Karin took a step back and the sneer on her face faltered.

"Look at where I am, and look at where you are. No one trusts you. Your birth family must have been pleased when you died." Karin used air quotations when she said the last word, but she stumbled over backwards when Sakura leapt at the cell door.

"Don't bring my family into this." Sakura growled. She placed her hands on the bars, wanting to pull them apart. Her weakness was always her temper. However, when her bare skin touched the metal her body convulsed, her blood sizzling from the contact. She threw herself backwards, releasing her grasp from the metal. The bars had electricity running through them. Now that Sakura knew, she could hear the faint humming coming from the door. She should have noticed it before, but her mind was still groggy from the transformation.

"Why are you here Karin?" Sakura asked, her voice deathly quiet as the red haired vampire chuckled.

"To give you a message. Orochimaru said that if you don't join him, he will kill you."

Sakura wasn't surprised by Karin's message. If Orochimaru couldn't have her on his side to help him fight for the throne, then he would assassinate her. He didn't want anyone getting in his way. The two vampires, creator and student, were both out to kill each other. When they next meet, it will be a battle to the death, and Sakura was determined to win. Konoha and its civilians needed peace, and Orochimaru on the throne would result in the complete opposite.

Footsteps sounded to her right, and then two familiar faces appeared in Sakura's line of sight.

"We are really sorry about the Ruler," Tsunade said. "He'll come around."

"He needs you on his side to win this thing. Locking you up in here isn't going to do him any favours." Jiraiya added. They both stood at either side of the cell doors with swords in their hands.

"I will never fight for Orochimaru again. That was my past. I'm not who I used to be." Sakura said. She wanted these two to know whose side she was fighting on. She wasn't going to betray her friends.

"The Ruler has ordered us to guard your cell. He doesn't want you trying to escape or anyone capturing you."

"As much as I hate being cooped up," Sakura sighed, "I'm not going to try to escape."

"Good, because those bars are electrocuted. They can't kill you, but they will give you a shock." Jiraiya warned. The three of them sat quietly for at least an hour, with only the patter of rain coming from outside breaking the silence.

"Do you forgive me?" Sakura asked. Even though she spoke softly, after so long sitting in silence it felt as though she had shouted the question.

"We met once, in the winter of seventeen eighty three," Tsunade's eyes glazed over as she delved into the memory. "I had heard rumours about you, but I never believed them until I saw you with my own eyes. You were washing your blade in the river. You sensed me and turned around with a blank expression on your face. I tried to deduce what mood you were in, whether to run or not. But do you know what you said to me?"

"Don't turn out like me." Sakura whispered. She remembered the scene like it was yesterday. She had been bored so she decided to clean her katana for the third time. Orochimaru had taken Kabuto off somewhere to train him, so she had nothing better to do with her time. She was thinking about the family she had left behind: her beautiful mother, her reliable father and her playful, lovable little brother, when she sensed another vampire behind her. She didn't normally think about them, but earlier on that day she had witnessed a family of four who were visiting an almost empty beach. The father was chasing his son into the sea while the mother taught the little girl how to build sandcastles. Sakura had watched, perched on the top of a rock pile. The laughing and giggling thawed her heart just a little, and for the first time she regretted some of her actions over the years. However that had all changed when her creator returned the next day, who had punished her for merely feeling love towards her human family.

When Sakura had turned around to face the vampire, she felt sad, longing for the days before her illness, before everything went wrong. The blonde vampire was a newborn, not yet tainted by anyone's manipulative personality.

"I always thought you had the coldest heart, but there is always light in the darkness. In answer to your question, yes, I do forgive you."

"Jiraiya?" Sakura directed her question to the werewolf. She wasn't sure what he would say, she had never really had a conversation with him before. From the aura he always gave off when she was near, Sakura guessed that he didn't like her very much.

"I despise what you have done in the past, and I do not forgive you for slaughtering innocent beings." He said, drawing an invisible picture on the floor with the hilt of his sword, "but I can see you are a different person now. Not everyone would agree with me," Sakura knew that he was talking about Fugaku, "but most people up there in the palace want you to fight. They believe you are our only hope."

"Thank you," Sakura muttered, feeling relieved that not everyone hated her. Once again they sat in silence until a familiar figure made an appearance beside the two guards.

"I'd like to be alone with Sakura." Sasuke ordered, giving Tsunade and Jiraiya the famous Uchiha glare. The two would know that he wasn't allowed down there, but Sasuke refused to listen to his father. He needed to see her.

For the past three days while Sakura was changing, the youngest Uchiha had been arguing with Fugaku. The Ruler had thrown Sakura into a cold, dark cell as soon as he found her in his room, like she was a lowly prisoner. Fugaku had commanded three guards to shadow Sasuke, making sure that he would not visit her. He had finally managed to shake them off, losing them in the vast corridors and rooms in the palace. He wouldn't have long to talk to Sakura, but he was determined to free her from her prison.

The two guards looked at each other, debating whether to obey his command. Tsunade gave a slight nod, and Jiraiya then diverted his narrowed eyes to glare at Sasuke.

"You have five minutes." They both got up and left, but the Uchiha knew they were just around the corner, easily within hearing range.

"Sasuke!" Sakura exclaimed, running up to the front of her cell.

"We haven't got much time. I'm going to get you out of here and then we can hide in a safe place." He eyed the electrified bars, trying to identify a weak spot in the metal by the loudness of the humming.

"You mean run away?" He stopped searching when he saw the sad look in her emerald eyes. They were reflecting the only light source in the corridor, and he could see his own face in them. They were tearing over, threatening to spill.

"You can't stay locked up in here, Sakura. We can think of a plan when we're out of here."

"I can't. That will make things ten times worse. Fugaku will think I've betrayed him. I'm going to stay here until I earn his trust, and there's nothing you can say that will persuade me otherwise." Her expression turned angry, and she quickly wiped the water from her eyes.

Sasuke sighed, leaning up against the wall. Once Sakura had made up her mind, there was no changing it. "And how are you going to earn his trust sat in there day and night?"

"I don't know, but escaping won't help. There are some important things I need to tell you." She explained what Karin had said earlier, and also about Kabuto's visit. Sasuke tensed when she explained. "Orochimaru wanted to add another vampire to his collection, so he started looking for another kid to influence. He chose Kabuto, an orphan who pick pocketed and stole food to stay alive. He trained him like he trained me, but Kabuto was always jealous. It was obvious that I was Orochimaru's favourite, and Kabuto wanted to surpass me, to impress our creator. I bet he threw a party when I died, and now that I'm back I think he wants me dead, again." Sakura placed her head in her hands, "I should have told you sooner."

"What does this Kabuto look like? I'll send people out to look for him."

"He's much more powerful than he looks, Sasuke. He's extremely good at lying and acting. He'll pretend to be a normal civilian, a teacher, a friend, while at the same time he'll be gathering information to report back to Orochimaru."

"What does he look like?" Sasuke stressed each word.

"Black soulless eyes behind glasses and silver hair tied up in a ponytail. He has-"

"I told you to watch him!" Fugaku's voice boomed from the floor above. Heavy footsteps were running down steps towards the dungeons. Sasuke cursed, reluctantly leaving Sakura behind to make his way back up to his room via some other steps. Tsunade and Jiraiya took their place outside Sakura's cell, and when Fugaku reached them they claimed they had been there all along and hadn't seen Sasuke.

"Time for my break." Tsunade said, getting up and stretching out her limbs. "I'll be back in twenty." Sakura couldn't tell as there were no windows, but she calculated from the amount of time that she had been in the cell that it must be night time, maybe one or two in the morning. Vampires didn't need as much sleep as humans, and darkness was the natural time of day that they were the most alert, but Sakura found herself drifting in and out of sleep. The change had taken its toll on her body, and the lack of blood that she had consumed was making her drowsy.

Jiraiya remained outside her cell, gently humming a tune to himself that Sakura had never heard before. His sword was laid on the floor at the side of him, Tsunade had taken hers when she had left.

A big grey wolf lunged on top of Jiraiya, and it would have torn his throat out if he hadn't have ducked at the last second. Sakura jumped up, almost forgetting that the bars were electrocuted. Jiraiya managed to throw the wolf off him while shifting himself into a slightly larger white wolf. It must have been a full moon outside.

Sakura resisted the urge to cry out. The two wolves snapped at each other until another bounded down the corridor and grabbed Jiraiya's flank by the teeth.

"Stop it!" Sakura tried to rip the cell door of its hinges but the electric shock pushed her backwards. She gripped her hand in pain. If only she could get out. "Someone, help!" She screamed, hoping someone, anyone, would hear her. The palace was full of the supernatural, people with sensitive hearing. Someone would come. "Jiraiya!"

The three wolves snarled, growled and leapt at each other; a fight to the death. Sakura paced her cell, the cogs in her mind working overtime. She needed to get out, but how?

"What is going on down here?" A worried woman's voice said. Sakura froze. Anyone but her. Mikoto was small and fragile, she didn't want the Uchiha mother to get hurt.

Her figure appeared in the corridor, the candle light flickering off her face. She stood frozen, her hand to her mouth.

"Mikoto, run! Get help!" Sakura screamed. Mikoto did the opposite and ran to a control box at the side of Sakura's cell.

"There is no one about. Fugaku has sent them all off to hunt for Orochimaru." She fiddled around with some controls, getting more and more frustrated. "I can't remember the code to turn the electricity off!" She exclaimed, her hands violently shaking. Sakura realised that she was trying to turn the electric bars off so that the pink haired girl could get out of the cell and fight. Just then three unfamiliar vampires all dressed in black appeared behind Mikoto. One had a stake in her hand.

"Mikoto!" Sakura howled. The woman spun around just in time to dodge the stake that was aimed for her heart. Instead it embedded itself in her shoulder. Sakura spew out some words that were not for the ears of children and pounded her fist against the brick wall. However, the walls had been reinforced and would not knock down easily, even with her new found vampire strength. The cell was built to keep a creature like her in.

"Sakura Haruno. We have come to take you to Lord Orochimaru." One of the vampires said. So the snake did know where she was being held.

The grey wolf slammed Jiraiya into the back wall, knocking him out cold. The two wolves then turned their attention to the already surrounded Mikoto.

"No!" Sakura yelled, kicking at the metal bars. She didn't care that she was being shocked with slam of her bare foot, she just wanted to get out. She wrapped her hands around the bars, gritting her teeth, and pulled with all her might. The bars creaked off its hinges and she chucked it at one of the wolves who got trapped underneath it, knocking it out. The pink haired vampire's hands were badly burned, but before her eyes the skin was healing.

"Get away from her." She said quietly. The female vampire with the stake swallowed and stepped back. The male vampire next to her fled down the corridor to wherever they had come from. The wolf that wasn't underneath the metal door – the grey one – launched itself at her throat, but she grabbed a hold of its neck and effortlessly broke it. Its body crumpled to the ground.

She bent down and picked up Jiraiya's sword without taking her eyes off the remaining two vampires. She took a few steps towards them until she was next to Mikoto.

The vampire with the stake threw the sharpened piece of wood at her chest, but in a moment she caught it in mid-flight and plunged it into the heart of the female vampire. In the same move she dug the edge of the sword into the other vampire's side. He screamed in pain, but as Sakura went to take the stake out of the dead body's chest so that she could use it again the vampire took off, following the path of his comrade.

Sakura took a few seconds to breathe before turning her attention to Mikoto.

"Are you okay?" She asked. The woman was clutching her shoulder, and blood was running down her arm, pooling by her feet.

"Nothing some rest and blood won't heal." She gave a small smile. "Thank you, Sakura." Just then Tsunade came running back and hovered over Jiraiya.

"I'll take care of the wolf and see to Jiraiya. You two go." The blonde vampire said, checking Jiraiya for any head injuries.

"I'll help you upstairs, come on." Sakura said, wrapping Mikoto's good arm around her shoulders and helping her up the stairs. They were halfway to the hospital wing when they bumped into Fugaku. He immediately ran to his wife, asking her what had happened. It was only a couple of minutes later that he noticed Sakura.

"You-"

"Let her be, Fugaku. She saved my life." Mikoto said. "I owe you, Sakura."

Finally, the next chapter! I'm so sorry its late, I've moved into Uni and I've been so busy! I've settled in now though and hopefully the next chapters will be more regular :)

Please read and review!