Chapter Thirty-Four

"With my heart in your hands, closing your grip..."

As if Kakashi had heard the words Anko had spoken to his image in the bunker throne room (and for all I knew, he probably had - I wasn't sure anymore just what I really knew about vampires and their magical abilities), the silver-haired assassin awaited us in the main lair with the rest of the vampire minions now under Anko's command. He had abandoned his face mask, no longer feeling as if he needed to hide his true self from the rest of us, and for the first time I really witnessed the face behind the mask. All I could think that Sakura would have described him as 'even more handsome than you, Sasu-cakes'. Even though his every fiber gave away that he had been through hell and back seven times over, it all added to his intricacy.

With deep and genuine respect, the vampires all knelt in unison, right hand clenched and pressed tightly against their chest. Kakashi was the one who spoke. "My Lady, if I may-"

"Rise, Kakashi," Anko spoke with a sudden royal tone deeply rooted in her voice. Without a whim, he complied, and before he had a chance to remind her that they really needed to get the ceremony going, she kissed him deeply and passionately. Stunned at first, it took Kakashi a moment to find his bearings and by the time he had, they had already broken apart. "Only those inferior to ourselves should bend a knee to us, Kakashi," Anko said softly. "And on this day I may be called your Empress, but I refuse to condemn you to an eternity as my servant." She briefly kissed him again. "As a friend and as your lover I ask you to never, ever, be that fucking disrespectful to yourself again, okay?"

Everyone including Anko couldn't help but laugh at Kakashi's sheepish look as she walked over to the throne not two hours ago still occupied by her father. The ceremony was short and straightforward; Kakashi spoke to the other vampires and demanded they vow to serve the Emperor's daughter as they had served the Emperor himself. Should they fail to pledge their allegiance or fail to hold up this eternal promise, they were to be exiled and condemned to a life of mortality. Some of the more loyal elite that served as the Emperor's personal guard caused a ruckus, reluctanct as they were to accept their new monarch, but Anko was implacable and promptly ordered the rest to execute them.

Naruto elbowed me. "Remind me to never cross that woman ever again."

"I thought you liked to dominate the dominant ones?" I teased.

"Are you crazy? She gave me the shivers before with her fangs and her glowy eyes and stuff, but now I'm downright terrified."

Itachi smacked the blond on the back of the head to shut him up and we watched the rest of the ceremony in silence. Afterwards, Kakashi walked over to us while Anko was already appointing duties to the for the most part mindless minions. "Things are going to be a lot different here, and I'm not sure they're going to like it," the silver-haired man said to us while joining us in watching his newfound lover handing out orders. "No more feeding banquets, no more prisoners, no more random killing sprees and vampires running rampant."

"What's Minato planning with these fellas?" Itachi asked. Kakashi shrugged.

"I think he wants to generate a steady stream of contracts to Anko to keep the vampires fed on her marks. Let's just hope that it's enough, otherwise she'll have to revoke the no prisoner rule."

"I know I'm not supposed to say it, especially to two of my superiors," Naruto hissed, "but I wish I wasn't obliged by the Code to allow some of my contracts a quick death."

"Is that you or the beast talking?" I asked surprisingly seriously, remembering how much dark energy had flowed through his veins less than an hour ago. Naruto just looked me deep in the eye.

"Wouldn't you want to draw out Madara's death for as long as humanly possible?"

I didn't reply, my mind overflowing with terrifyingly vivid images of everything Madara could be doing to Sakura right now, and I had to admit Naruto was right - Madara deserved everything but a quick end to the suffering that would be my wrath. Not even with my most benevolent thoughts and under Sakura's influence I could not think of anything less painless than a lifetime of being used as feeding source for an entire tribe of vampires that would satisfy my thirst for revenge. Knowing Minato, he too would want nothing more. But as the head of the Black Rose, he could never admit that, and he would say something along the lines of putting the Code and the greater good above our personal trifles.

With my eyes still closed, I lit a cigarette and took a long draw from it. The bittersweet taste of smoke rejuvenated me and I sighed. "We aren't Moon's Eye. The sooner Madara's dead, the sooner we're done with this fucking war. Every day he remains alive is another day in danger of him escaping and fucking us all over a second time."

"Now you're just trying to sound like my father."

I took another few draws from my cigarette, bending the smoke into a figure slowly slicing another figure into small pieces. "Yes. Madara's death will be an exception to the Code."

Naruto and I ignored Itachi's protests and made our way outside where I lit up another smoke and started manipulating the smoke again without really paying attention to it.

Before I even realized what was going through my head, the smoke had formed a spitting image of Sakura and I was crying on the shoulder of my best friend.

I just miss her so much.

Loss and mourning were so commonplace in our lives that I was genuinely surprised no one ever since way back in the Middle Ages ever took it upon themselves to include it in our job description; I had been witness to good people being taken from me from the age of ten. However, death was absolute and permanent. When Itachi pulled the trigger on our father, I knew he would never come back. I could close the chapter and begin moving on. What got to me this time was the agony of purposefully being kept in the dark. If he had wanted to, Madara could've easily come up with a way to show me whether or not Sakura was still alive and in what condition.

Frankly, I would rather be cradling her dead body now just so I had something tangible, something to move on from. Solid ground to start walking again, instead of splashing around in desperation lashing out for anything to hold on to.

Naruto embraced me tightly, sensing my inner distress. In my head I just begged him to say anything to lighten the mood, not caring if he could actually hear it or not.

"Hey, do you reckon that Hyuuga chick is going to be as much of a bother to date as your girl?"

Apparently he did hear, and the flimsy strand of comic relief was just enough for me to pull myself together again. I rubbed my eyes out, took a couple of deep breaths and looked to the sky.

"Well, aside from the sex-obsessed mutt, I don't think you'll have much competition at HQ," I said smirking. "Suigetsu won't dig her, the guys at Intel are probably too busy keeping us updated to even get some off time, and Chouji's already married to his food." Again, I couldn't help but laugh. "Karin might be into her though, but Hyuuga doesn't strike me as a closet lesbian."

"Wouldn't that be like the hottest thing ever though?"

"If Karin doesn't rip your heart out during your imaginary threesomes, Hyuuga will. She doesn't seem to like sharing, considering she damn near killed Itachi with nothing but her eyes when he took care of that brother of hers."

"Fair point."

With that, we decided that we should probably head back inside to see if we could help with the procedures of establishing a new reign over the entire vampire population. While watching the half-witted husks running around with dead people, human remains and live prisoners that needed brainwashing, in the corner of my eye I caught Itachi arguing with Kakashi and Anko. The vampires wanted to stay at the lair to oversee the extreme home makeover personally, but my brother wanted his longtime partner and friend to return to HQ with the rest of us because we needed a guy with his skills. It was getting heated, up to the point where both vampires started baring their fangs at Itachi.

"We'll set up comms in the back room," Kakashi said. "CETs, CRU, ACSUs, ICD, we got pretty much everything here already. We don't need the guys from tech to come over to-"

Itachi raised his voice. "Kakashi, I'm glad that your life took a turn for the better for once and you know I wish you all the happiness in the world, but I'd appreciate it if you took your eyes off your girl for two goddamn seconds and see that we're still at war, and if we want to have any hope of stopping Madara, we need to get those two -" he shot a fireball at and startled Hinata, who tried to sneak off, supporting a still disoriented Neji, "back to HQ for interrogation and we need to do it fast."

Itachi's fireball was a silent order to capture and secure the two mercs, to which Naruto and I complied with the precision and routine of the experienced martial artists we were. Within seconds, Naruto carried a bound and unconscious Hinata, nudging Neji to start walking. The Hyuuga was still nowhere near regaining his senses, and reminded me of a 'victim' (the sceptic in me was still not sure if those weren't just accomplices) of a classic hypnotist. After receiving another order from my brother to bring the two back to HQ while he handled the unfinished business with the vampires, Naruto and I set out on another one of our silent journeys home.

Once we arrived and briefed Minato on our success, the master accompanied us to the holding cells. Naruto was a little too casual in tossing Hinata's body into the cell adjacent to Neji's, giving away more than he hid by doing so. He avoided his father's eyes and ran back up, quite certainly to his room for a drink. Unable to get anything decisive from his son, Minato turned to me for an explanation. "Did Jiraiya teach you to teach prisoners like that or is Naruto..."

I tried my hardest to keep a straight face, but the tiniest twinkle in my eyes gave away that I, too, found the situation most amusing. "Afraid so. He's got the hots for her."

"Huh." He paused for a second, scratching the back of his head. "Well, my friend, as one straight male to another, I honestly can't blame him."

His sudden change in demeanor caught me off guard, and unintelligible stammering was all I could do to respond to it. He snickered and started making his way back to his office. Still dumbfounded, I followed him, and only along the way I started to realize that he was finally starting to turn back into the man I remembered from when I was just a boy: a goofy, cheerful and protective adult with a free spirit and a hint of childish rebellion blended in. He dropped himself in the chair behind his desk, letting out an exhausted sigh, rested his feet on the tabletop and folded his arms behind his head. "So, this girl, Naruto's crush. Who is she?"

I took the liberty of treating myself one of the guild master's personal cigars, carefully lighting it and manipulating the smoke with my tongue before inhaling it. Just from the delicate smell alone, anyone who ever smoked even once could tell that this was a piece of art, crafted with respect for the tobacco. I took another draw and lifted the cigar from my lips. "Her name is Hinata. She's a Hyuuga," I simply said, knowing that that would suffice.

"Freelancers," Minato said softly, already visibly putting every brain cell to work trying to comprehend the conspiracy behind everything that was going on. "Working for who?"

"That's what we're hoping to find out."

The blond-haired man caught my gaze for a second while Kurenai walked in. She too seemed surprised by the master's informal appearance, cautiously notifying him that she would oversee Tsunade administrating the sedatives to the prisoners. Minato thanked the woman with one of his award winning smiled his son inherited from him, and while she turned around to leave, I even caught him staring at Kurenai's backside before he turned back to me. "So, you were saying?"

"I take it your acting as 'one of the guys' instead of our leader doesn't mean I can punch you for being an unprofessional twat?" I said smirking.

The sound of the master's genuine laughter filling the room was rejuvenating, not only because fun and happiness apparently weren't as dead as I thought, but also because it reassured me that some things that appear to be gone forever can return just like they were. He taunted me to try, and for a second I had to stop and make sure that I was in fact talking to Minato instead of Naruto, who was usually the only recipient of my immature behavior. Aside from Sakura, obviously, but thinking about those times simply hurt too much still and I tried my hardest to forget that I thought about it again.

I explained to Minato how we had no idea who or what sent the mercenaries to help us, and just like myself, the fact that the two apparently knew about our mission unsettled him. It was our job to be one step
ahead of the game, and we seemed to be outclassed at everything as of late. The master's eyes glazed out, the super computer that I imagined his brain to be processing and examining all the pieces of intel at speeds far beyond average human capability.

"Anyway," I concluded while stretching, "Anko is Empress of Sanguine now, she's all lovey-dovey with Kakashi and Itachi hates him for it because he feels like Kakashi's being selfish and ignoring the greater good."

"How surprising," Minato said dryly while he summoned Kurenai again. "Tell Tsunade to prepare the blindness poison as well. These Hyuugas are tricky little fuckers, and we don't know if Kakashi can make it back to wipe their memories."

Kurenai nodded and made her way to Tsunade again while Minato dismissed me and told me he would let me know when interrogation would start. I nodded and thanked him for the cigar, laughing out loud when he casually flipped me off with a fake glare. My feet carried me to Naruto's room, I noticed when I registered the muffled sound of angry music carrying through the hard-wooden door. I didn't bother knocking and he didn't look up when I entered, instead just offering me the bottle of whatever it was he was drinking at that moment.

On a happier day in a happier time, I might have considered this a sign of the extremely special bond I shared with my friend. On days like this however, I just blamed his demonic instincts like the cynical pessimist I had turned back into. I took the bottle from him, slightly disturbing the highly alcoholic liquid inside, and took a swig. The burning sensation of the alcohol numbed my mouth and throat as I swallowed it, wincing but barely from the oh-so-satisfying burn that one never really could get used to.

Naruto was looking at the ceiling and his eyes reflected the soft light from the one source of light in his room, while also emitting their own faint crimson glow. His face was blank of any emotion - I suspected the alcohol might have had a part in that - and he was absent-mindedly playing with a bullet casing, twirling it between his fingers. I took a seat on his desk, something I would never be okay with had it been my room, and observed him in silence after offering the bottle back to him.

He took another drink and let the liquid roam his mouth before swallowing it.

"Why does it always have to be the bad girls, Sasuke?"

His voice was as broken and human as his face was stone cold and blank. No further explanation was needed to know what he was referring to. I beckoned him to give me another drink, tasting the sweetness of the actual drink through the alcohol this time, and shot a meaningful look in his general direction. His gaze was still fixed upon the ceiling, almost as if he was begging it to cave in and release him from his turmoil.

I didn't answer and simply stood up, pacing up and down the room a few times before swiftly pulling my gun out and blatantly shooting the man on the bed in his stomach; a very slow and painful death and perfect to extract information from a subject, with putting him out of his misery as leverage. I walked over to Naruto, pressed my thumb in the wound and smirking maliciously when he started to writhe and scream in agony. "Where is he?" I demanded, ignoring his pleas for mercy.

I relieved the pressure on his the wound so he could stop screaming and talk. "H-how.. did you-"

I picked up the cigar I had set on Naruto's ash tray and relit it with the precious Zippo lighter I carried with me at all time. I leaned in to the blond, almost feeling good about torturing him, blew the smoke in his face and played with the idea to push the hot end into his wound. He didn't know I would be against it, but bluffing wouldn't hurt and therefore I hovered the cigar an inch or two above the circular hole in his torso and smirked. "Hard to believe you still consider yourself in a position to ask questions. Where is he?"

The blond started laughing arrogantly, and in my rage I jammed the smouldering cigar half an inch into his wound, turning the laughter in a deathly screech. Fed by the magical flames I channelled through my hands into the tobacco, the cigar would burn forever, concentrated so skillfully that it would slowly melt away his flesh. When he started twitching, I elbowed a pressure point in his chest that paralyzed him for a good minute. I lifted the cigar from his wound and ignored his silent whimpering, furiously glaring at him; I was half tempted to shoot him in between his glowing red eyes on the spot, but I holstered my pistol and grabbed a knife from Naruto's desk.

"Y-you- you're... g-good, Sasu-" he coughed, struggling to speak. "Sasuke..."

"Where." I pushed the knife against his throat. He gulped with great effort. "Is." I applied a little pressure on the blade, slowly breaking the skin and drawing blood. "Naruto?"

He tried to cough again, and I lifted the knife just in time to prevent it from cutting open his throat. He took a few deep breaths and smirked. "Fine, you win. Naruto Uzumaki is probably interrogating the poor Hyuuga girl right now about how she helped her cousin escape your prisons. She will have no idea what actually happened and your master will explain her ignorance as toughness, unfortunately pushing her too far over the edge and killing her."

"Who are you working for."

"My boy, as an descendant of the infamous Uchiha bloodline, you should already have figured it out by now." He smirked. "After all, the one pulling the strings from the shadows you claim to love... Is one of your own blood."

[Author's Note]

No comments at all. Just trying to wrap this up as quickly as possible.

-V