36. Beginning of the End

"How do you know?" someone asked. If Tiashi was only able to catch one small detail to prove that Suki was lying, how was Sakura able to tell that everything was a lie? She wasn't as experienced as the blonde woman in such a job, so how was it possible?

"Because of the description she gave," Sakura said simply. "When a person is being bitten, it feels exactly like how she described it."

"As if you're being shocked by lightning multiple times," a recently-changed man whispered.

"Exactly. But when you are being syred by a Sannin Vampire the experience is completely different . . ."

"How so?" one person asked. A shiver passed through Sakura. She was told it was best not to remember, but there were times when her memories resurfaced at full force. With a deep breath to calm herself and her nerves, she began her own story . . .

"Sakura, when you feel that your leaving is ready, do call for me and I shall escort you home," Juugo instructed. The young woman nodded and headed toward the large building after pecking Juugo on the cheek. As always, he would stand outside and wait for her to simply say so and he would hear her request.

Sakura hoped that the meeting with the village doctor would go quickly so she could get back to Juugo. She was going to have a little talk with him about finding someone who would be willing to syre her. it would be three years tomorrow that Sakura had boldly announced to Juugo about her desire to become a vampire. Tomorrow was also the day that Sakura turned nineteen. The day people would no longer see her as a child, but instead as a young adult.

When she had last mention said wish, her immortal friend only said that he needed more time to think about letting her be turned. And that was over six months ago.

As Sakura walked up the stairs in the building, she slowly started to feel a little nauseous. The feeling began stronger the higher she ascended. She came up to the door, the letter she was to give the woman inside starting to wrinkle under her firm grip. Sakura raised her free hand and rapped her knuckles on the wooden door three times. From her soft knocking, the door creaked open, revealing a darkened room.

The light from the setting spring sun filtered into the room through a window that was covered in shredded fabrics. There was broken furniture and several scrolls scattered all over the floor. Sakura walked slowly through the room, cautious of the bits and pieces of glass that was laying everywhere. As she looked through the eerie shadows, Sakura noticed a figure in the corner of the wrecked room. They seemed to be hunched over. Upon getting closer, Sakura was finally able to recognize the person.

"Madam Tsunade!"

Sakura tried to hurry to the famous doctor, but then she felt her body suddenly freeze. The woman's eyes were wild, her expression becoming slightly animalistic. It was such a sight that it left Sakura almost quaking in her fancy shoes.

With quick speed, Sakura was knocked over to the ground with Tsunade leaning over her, in a way that was meant to be dominating. A chuckling man walked into view from the darkest corner of the room, his pale skin and long, greasy black hair a prominent feature. His eyes were shinning with a yellow light that slowly seemed to fade into a deep red. His pupils were like that of a cat.

Sakura had only known one other person to have eyes like that.

"Go ahead, Tsunade; take a little bite, it won't hurt anything," he chided smoothly, his voice sending hard chills up and down Sakura's back. Sakura looked up, staring right into the honey-brown eyes of the person she had always so greatly admired. There was pain and slightly confusion in those deep eyes. But they were quickly overcome by a sudden bloodlust and desire for thirst, and Sakura came to two fearfully shocking revelations.

One: Madam Tsunade was a vampire. But this little fact didn't even compare to the second thing that Sakura had realized.

Two: She was going to die here.

With that thought repeating itself mercilessly in her mind, Sakura thrashed around with every fiber of her being. But it was pointless. Juugo had been right. She was frail and weak. He had been right all along.

Suddenly, Sakura felt a slight pinch in her neck.

And then it was the beginning of the horrifying end.

She heard this loud, high pitched noise suddenly fill the room and felt her throat go all scratchy. The little pinch in her neck had become like a knife being stabbed into her. a dry, rusty knife covered with salt. As the female vampire drank from the wound that she had inflicted, Sakura slowly felt the rest of her body go completely numb, which had felt so odd after being so tense and filled with adrenaline. In comparison to the rest of her body, the numbness made the pain in her neck seem even more painful that it already was.

Sakura then became aware of everything else around her. She saw Tsunade struggling internally to pry herself up off of the floor. Orochimaru just happened to be fighting off an enraged Juugo, who was crying out for his beloved friend. Said girl then felt like there was poisonous molten lava with fire running through her veins, burning her insides. And the, slowly, the burning sensation of the sun itself cooled, and cooled, and then took on a sensation like freezing. She felt every part of her go so cold, it was as if she was frozen in a block of ice in the middle of the cold arctic, twenty feet under a pack of snow. Why did she suddenly have to be brought back to all of the pain?

As the pain in her body became greater, switching between burning and freezing, Sakura's mind became weaker. She felt unbearably dizzy and the ability to form a coherent thought was long gone. The only thing that Sakura could make any sense of was the fact that the pain would sooner or later be over.

Her soul would be let free.

Sakura stood up abruptly and stalked out of the room.

"Sakura, what's wrong?"

"Idiot, she was having another flashback."

Once outside, Sakura raced as fast as she could to the top peak of the mountain segment she was on. The desire to be alone was acting as her body's long-gone adrenaline. Within minutes, she was perched on a sturdy branch, high up in a green pine tree. Sakura gazed out over the entire west side of the mountain, taking in all of its memorizing details. The cabins and cottages that were scattered along the slope of the mountainside; the black roads that were spiraling along, around nature's creations, moving with the land instead of through it; the bustling town on the small valley in the side of the mountain.

Why did she all of a sudden remember all of that? It had been over eleven hundred years—and she had done so well keeping it locked away for so long, why now? Why now when things were crazy, and she needed to keep a straight head? She didn't need any distractions.

Though it was a good thing she didn't tell the group the entire story—only what the bite of a Sannin Vampire would feel shuddered, like compared to a regular bite. Sakura shuddered, her hand going to the hollow an inch under her ear, where a scar would always remain.

'What the . . .?'

Sakura focused her vision on a point about two miles from the foot of the mountain. She suddenly stood up and dashed away, fear taking her back to the others.

'I have to warn them!'

Here you go! Okay, so after a while, a started up again on the sequel's story (albeit, slowly). I'm not giving up on this series. Also, sooner or later, I'll be posting a short story about Derek Souza. It'll be three chapters, but each one will be LOOONNGG! (like, seriously long.)

Also! PLEASE CHECK OUT MY PHOTOGRAPHY! There will be a link on my profile, but I'd really like to get some more support for it!