IMMORTAL DEATH

CHAPTER 24

- Worry -

Sakura was getting anxious. Itachi and Shino weren't still back and they left an hour ago. She would have thought finding a proper human didn't take too long. Or should you be picky when it came to your food? Sasuke didn't mention anything like that to her when she had turned. Could vampires be infected by human diseases? Or STD?

Sakura paced in Sasuke's room doing her best to not barge through the front door and track down Itachi just to demand what was taking so long.

Sasuke was yet to get any better. He was still laying motionless on the bed and Sakura had no idea if he was even alive anymore. His skin had yet to heal and it was still black and reddish from the fire. Sakura knew very well that fire was vampires biggest enemy and Sasuke had taken a great risk to safe her and Hinata. She should be thankful for him but instead she wanted to slap him so hard that he realized what he had done.

How can someone be so stupid!

Sakura's fingers clenched as her thoughts continued to provoke her. She was so annoyed and wanted to yell and scream at Sasuke. He is so stupid and reckless and never thinks.

And she wanted to cry.

All energy left her body and she slouched on a love seat in the corner of the room. She felt so lonely. From the moment she woke up someone had always been there for her and explaining things but now there was no one. Well Lee was downstairs doing whatever he does but she didn't feel like getting to know anyone new. She wanted Sasuke to wake up and hug her.

Just as she wrapped her hands around her mid body the door opening down stairs made her jump off her seat and sprint back on to the over-look of the foyer. Hinata's giggle was the first thing she heard before she looked over the railing and a flow of relief passed through her body. Just then she realized that she had actually missed the toddler who was held in Neji's arms.

Neji was taking Hinata's white jacket off at the moment and Sakura immediately hopped over the railing and even before Neji could properly position Hinata back on his hip Sakura swooped in and took the child. Neji stood there his hands hanging in the air eyes wide in shock as Sakura retreated back upstairs with the giggling baby.

She honestly had no idea what she was planning on doing with Hinata, but she needed someone to spend time with and who is better than an ever moving toddler. Hinata was giggling in happiness for Sakura had jumped back on the landing not even caring about the stairs as she left Neji alone in the foyer obviously dumbstruck by her actions.

Sakura was well aware that they had promised to keep the baby in a safe distance at least for a while as she got used to her hunger and other abilities that came with her transformation, but she needed a distraction. She couldn't bare another second worried for Sasuke's life and waiting for Itachi to come back with some blood for his brother.

She wanted things to move in some direction and the fact that no one was allowing her to do anything to help the situation didn't ease her mind even for a bit. Sakura needed to do something other than sit around and hope. She had thought for a moment to call her mom but as she thought of the idea more and more she came to the conclusion she would definitely break if she heard her mom's voice.

She needed someone to assure her that everything's going to be all right. That Sasuke would wake up any given moment and not just lay there in the hands of death. But calling her mom was out of the question no matter how understanding the woman was and Sakura wanted to talk to her about Sasuke and of her worries. But the mother hen she was she would explode in worry that Sakura was involved with some bad people and in no time would come and take her away and leaving Sasuke behind was the last thing she wanted.

And with Hinata in her arms Sakura started again pacing around Sasuke's room while allowing the toddler to play with the necklace around her neck. It was just simple metallic piece of jewelry Gai had found from the attic when he had dug through his stuff to find proper clothes for her girls. Sakura had a pair of black shorts on and a simple white top.

She was grateful for Gai for lending them for her for she didn't want to walk around in her tattered dress. It had been a very nice one and if she admitted one of the best dresses she ever had, but it was ruined and she felt a little sad because of it. Ino had chosen it for her and Sakura had a doubt that Ino would take it lightly when she will hear what had happened to it.

The door opened to the room and Neji walked in. Sakura didn't stop her walking when Neji stopped to observe her. He spared a quick glance at Sasuke, who was motionless as ever. He had to admit he's never seen the older vampire being still for so long and it started to bother even him. There was something unnerving in the way that he still had not woken up, but there's nothing none of the could do at this point than wait.

Sakura's raspy and unsteady voice broke though his thoughts, "What did the doctor say?"

"They gave her pure oxygen there and observed her for a moment before releasing us. The doctor said that we should go back if her condition worsened in any way. They couldn't see anything wrong with her so they let us go."

"Good."

"Everything's thanks to you." he continued quietly and Sakura stopped walking and turned to face Neji.

"What?"

"You saved her. Without you she would have died and because of that I'm in your debt. She's the only family member I have, so thank you."

"It was nothing." Sakura's worried face softened and she gave a small smile at him. Unfortunately, she couldn't make herself smile for too long since Sasuke was laying so close to her and she couldn't do anything about the depressing thoughts that once again filled her mind.

"I'm sure he's going to wake up soon."

"How do you know that?"

"He's Sasuke. What else would he do?"

Sakura was sitting downstairs holding a sleeping Hinata on her arms as she stared at the TV. Tenten and Ino had woken up a mere ten minutes ago and were now sitting opposite of Sakura while Ino channel surfed. None of the girls opposite of Sakura had said or commented anything to Sakura, who sat quietly, her fingers gently petting Hinata's soft locks.

Ino was really cranky when she woke up and Sakura was still at the time walking in the room from one wall to another. The blond had crunched her eyes in annoyance when the door opened and Itachi walked in to the room, pulling two unfamiliar people behind him. They had returned with Shino a while back with three humans in tow. Sakura had been able to smell the liquor all the way upstairs, even if she hadn't stepped a foot outside the room in which Sasuke and the two girls were resting.

The smell of fresh blood had caused her throat to throb. She had to shook her head to get rid of the blood lust that suddenly took over her body. She felt baffled since she had no trouble staying with Hinata and be as close to her as possible without bloodlust, but when Itachi and Shino bring in drunken people she fells how dry her throat is.

The loud sound of tumbling downstairs woke up the toddler with a start at the time, but luckily she merely looked around sleepily before laying her head next to Sakura's neck only to fall back asleep.

Sakura unconsciously pulled Hinata's warm body closer when Itachi carelessly allowed a drunken man fall on the carpet. The woman who was trapped in Itachi's tight hold was whimpering in pain, but Itachi only glared at her before pushing her on top of Ino with a look of expect. It took a moment for Ino to caught on of what she was supposed to do for she had had only just woken up but soon her fangs sunk into the neck of the woman.

The poor girl wasn't even able to utter a word for Ino had quickly placed her hand over the woman's mouth to prevent her from making any sound as she tried to trash away from the vampire. While the blond was drinking Tenten started to stir awake and Itachi didn't waste time pulling the man up on pushing him to Tenten. After that everything had been a blood sucking festival, until Itachi pulled the humans away from the two vampires.

Ino's and Tenten's faces were covered in blood that was slowly cascading down their throats and on to the blanket still covering their lower bodies.

The two humans were still alive when Itachi pointed at a stack of clean clothes for the girls before retreating away from the room with the humans in tow. Ino was the first one to get in the shower leaving Sakura alone with Tenten and a sleeping Hinata. Neither spoke anything to each other but Sakura had noticed the way Tenten glanced at the unconscious Sasuke with longing her eyes.

At the time, she had wanted to do nothing but glare at her and tell her to not to even look at him for he was hers, but she kept her mouth. She didn't want to wake Hinata up and instead she succumbed to the uncomfortable silence that was finally broken when Ino switched places with Tenten.

Only after both girls had walked out of the room to go downstairs had Sakura followed after and since then she has been sitting in the living room watching as Ino continued to channel surf. She was still wary of Tenten, but the girl for now seemed to be okay if you forget the way she had looked at Sasuke.

Itachi and Shino were with the humans in one of the other rooms looking over Kakashi and Naruto, who were apparently waking up. From what Sakura could hear Naruto had fallen off his bed a couple of times and Kakashi seems much more active than him. But what worries Sakura is that Sasuke has still yet to wake up. His skin's been healing quite nicely for the past hour and seems to be almost fully healed, unfortunately he doesn't show any signs of waking up.

Neji appeared in the room from the hallway with a small cup in his arms with a small pink spoon in the other, and a sweet scent of fruits filled the room. Sakura immediately knew that he was going to feed Hinata, so she offered the baby to the older vampire, who took a seat next to Tenten. The girl immediately leaned her head against Neji's shoulder and they exchanged a few words that Sakura immediately drowned out. She wasn't going to listen and watch as they cuddled when her mind was filled with worry.

Suddenly feeling uncomfortable Sakura left the room for she didn't want to watch the couple. Ino didn't mind for she leaned her head against her hand and looked utterly engrossed with the TV show playing in front of her. Sakura herself couldn't bare to watch any loving contact at all, so she quickly made her way back upstairs and into Sasuke's room that was now less occupied since the two girls had woken up.

He was still unconscious when Sakura went to lay on the bed next to his. She didn't move the blanket to be on top of her she just laid there staring at the ceiling. Naruto's mumbling was loud enough to be heard and Sakura shook her head in dismay when he apparently realized everything and gave out a loud curse. Ino was humming to herself and the only other sound coming from the living room was Hinata's happy cooing when she was given the food.

Lee and Gai were somewhere outside doing some sort of an exercise for they were counting out loud.

"Hundred and twelve. Hundred and thirteen." came the chorus of the two of them.

Kakashi had already left his and Naruto's room and was walking past the door when he stopped and knocked on the door.

"Yeah?" she raised her head to see Kakashi peeking inside.

"You okay?" the area around his eyes was wrinkled with worry as he asked with a soft tone.

Sakura only nodded and gave a encouraging smile. The door closed soon after and Sakura's head fell back on the pillow. From that on no one bothered her. She laid there in her own world for who knows how long. At one point she was sure it had been a couple of days when Kakashi had knocked on the door, but she wasn't so sure anymore. She had closed her eyes a long time ago, her arm covering the light coming through the windows covered by dark purple curtains.

A small part of her was telling her to at least call her mother but she couldn't make her body to comply, so instead she waited.

Something familiar shook Sakura back to awareness. Her eyes opened instantly and her head turned left to see Sasuke still on his bed. He had not moved an inch. Nothing was different about him, so what was it?

"Where is she?" came a too familiar demanding voice from downstairs.

Sakura's body shot up from the bed and she was out of the room faster than she could even believe it herself.

Her mother was on the door with Tsunade right next to her. Tsunade looked aggravated and ready to destroy everything in her path just like Sayuri, who's arms were over her chest as she glared at Itachi. There was a certain degree of recognition in her eyes when Sakura looked at her over, when her mother looked at the older Uchiha brother with annoyance.

"I want to see my daughter, right now!" she yelled.

Even Itachi flinched a little his hand raising to try and calm the woman down, but before he could utter a word Sayuri's eyes landed on her daughter. The worried mother didn't even waste a minute and pushed past Itachi with Tsunade in tow, who had still yet to see Sakura and realize why Sayuri was running up the stairs on to the landing.

Sakura's body was frozen from shock of seeing her mother her in New York and when warm arms wrapped around her she couldn't make herself to hug back.

"Why haven't you called me?" there were tears in Sayuri's eyes as she hugged Sakura as close as possible, before pulling away but still keeping Sakura at arms length.

She looked Sakura from her to toe and the more she looked the more her brows furrowed. It was obvious that she was noticing the difference and the fact that she wasn't in a wheelchair like she was supposed to.

"Umm..." she mumbled confused. "Where's your..?" her sentence drifted off at the end.

"Mom, I'm so sorry."

"Sayuri." Tsunade's stern voice attracted everyone's attention. "Remember what I told you." The two women shared a look that made Sayuri's eyes turn a little skeptic when she turned back to Sakura.

"I didn't want to believe it when Tsunade told me." her voice was gentle.

Sakura's lips pursed in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

The older woman leaned closer to Sakura and whispered, "Vampires." There was a certain level of uncertain in her voice and Sakura smiled. She truly smiled after a such a long time. She wasn't entirely sure why but the way her mother said 'vampires' was heart warming. She felt much more comfortable and before she knew it she had wrapped her arms around her mother and hugged her tight.

She had been missing her mother so much that her body started to shake. She couldn't control her body's reaction for she was so relieved to have someone she cared about and trusted in with her right now. She needed this. She needed her mother more than she could have ever realized. And the fact that her mother knew about vampires now was a relief. She didn't have to struggle not to tell her and keep secrets from her. It felt surreal. She was so sure that her mother would freak out when told about everything and disown her, but here she is hugging her and being comforted by her.

She loved her mother.

"It's okay, honey." they swayed from side to side as Sayuri continued to comfort Sakura while petting her hair.

Itachi had left the foyer leaving Tsunade alone looking at the mother and daughter. Soon Tsunade's soft steps walked closer to them and Sakura pulled away.

"Can I see him?" Tsunade asked looking at the door slightly a jar.

"Go on." Sakura pointed at the door. She had nothing against the idea of Tsunade taking a look at Sasuke, but Sakura didn't want to be in the room while she did it. Seeing Sasuke being examined brought a lump to her throat because it meant that something was wrong with him.

Tsunade's gentle tone came from the room, "Have you given him blood?"

Sayuri visibly trembled at the word 'blood'. Sakura raised her hand to hold her mother's.

"I don't know."

The amber eyes woman walked out of the room.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I've been sleeping for a while."

"About two days." Ino's voice replied from downstairs and Sayuri's head whipped around in surprise, "Ino?" She couldn't believe her eyes when her daughter's former best friend walked to them in a blue sundress, her hair on a high ponytail.

"Hi, Mrs Haruno. Long time no see, huh?"

"Long time indeed.. What are you doing here?"

Ino's smile was almost contagious when she said with an air of proud, "I'm a vampire."

It was almost comical they way how all blood drained from Sakura's mother's face. It was truly a sight to see.

"Y-you, t-t-too?"

"Yep." she said and swayed from heel to toe, "Oh, and no Sasuke hasn't had any blood during these past couple of days. No one didn't want to interrupt Sakura when she finally got some rest."

"Go and get some blood." Tsunade's tone was strict before she again retreated back into the room leaving Sakura and Sayuri alone for Ino skipped her way back downstairs.

"This requires time to get used to all of this."

"I know, mom, but I also know you can do it."

Sakura woke up in the middle of the night. She was leaning against her hand that was supported on the couch's hand rest. Her knees were tucked close to her chest and the slight snoring on her right made her want to giggle. Naruto was head bend over the back of the couch and saliva falling down his chin. His t-shirt had lifted and was showing a small part of his lower abdomen while Hinata was sleeping on top of his chest. Both were deep asleep.

Everyone else were asleep, too, even Sayuri who was sharing a room with Tsunade in Kakashi and Naruto's former room. Gai and Lee where in their own rooms and Neji was sleeping with Tenten on the third couch made into a bed. Kakashi and Itachi were nowhere to be seen and she couldn't even sense them anywhere near, and neither could she sense those humans.

The three humans were kept in the cellar for a while as far as Sakura knew, but at some point they got rid of them. She didn't know whether or not they were still alive and well or buried six feet under.

But something was disturbing her mind. She had a nagging feeling that was not allowing her to fall back asleep. Pursing her lips she got up and made sure she didn't wake up anyone as she left the room. Her bare feet padded on the wooden floor and before she knew it she was skipping her way up the stairs and heading towards Sasuke's room.

The door was closed like she had left it when she had went to see him after Tsunade had checked on him and given him some blood. Sakura's mom was having a hard time waiting outside the room with Sakura, when Ino came back pulling a drowsy man behind her and walking into the room. The older woman had swallowed hard and excused herself with a kiss on Sakura's cheek before she left to see what was going on downstairs.

Sakura's hand was hesitant when she grasped the handle. As if afraid that she would wake up Sasuke she gently twisted the handle and pushed the door open. The room was completely black for it was night time. Sakura stepped inside the room, but her body stopped mid-step when her eyes landed on the bed of Sasuke.

He was nowhere to be seen. The bed was completely empty of the body that had just laid there not too long ago when she hadn't gone asleep. Sakura's chest hurt instantly and she felt like vomiting. Had someone kidnapped him? Or was this a joke? Because if it was a joke than it was a very bad one. She was just about to turn around and alert everyone that Sasuke was missing, however when she turned to run through the door a dark shadow had appeared and closed the door, trapping Sakura and who ever it is, inside.

This is either the second last chapter or third. I'm pretty sure next one is the last one... I'm getting really sad because of it.

Thanks for reviewers:

sasusakushipper

Reignashii

dino

Sandra

kitanalao

Chachiha

and three guests.

Everyone's follows and favorites and reviews mean so much to me, so please review! They make me happy.

- Jakura