I had fallen asleep against the door, so when Ino banged against the wood I felt it with my whole body.

"Sakura," she called. "SAKURA! Open this door!"

Stumbling a bit, I managed to turn around and unlock it. Before I could twist the knob, Ino burst in and tackled me into a hug. She was a crying mess, clutching onto me as tightly as she could.

Her face was buried into my neck, making it impossible to distinguish anything she was saying. It was all just loud, sobbing mumbles.

But, I understood anyway.

I started crying along with her, wrapping my arms around her as I said over and over again, "I missed you."

Even with Ino though, I was unable to tell her everything about my adventure. I kept to the facts, and I did not speak about the confusion swirling around in my head where Sasuke was concerned.

"So," Ino said, "he just let you go? Seriously, just like that?"

I nodded.

She tilted her head from side to side, her eyes still puffy from all her crying. "It must mean something, but I can't think of what."

Tell me about it.

I snuck a glance under my bed at the crumpled up note Sasuke left me with. A new wave of anger came over me, but I ignored it and brought my eyes back to Ino.

Tsunade came down the hall and stood in the doorframe. She took one look at us on the floor, which made her pause for a moment, caught off guard by our location.

"Sakura, we have to go to the Hokage's office. Ino, you come, too. It's a team meeting."

I stood up, holding out a hand to help Ino get to her feet as well.

"I have to tell my story again, don't I?" I asked.

"Seems that way," Tsunade said, walking out of sight.

Ino and I followed her out the house and then down the familiar paths through the village. It felt like years had passed since last I was here, but it had only been about two months.

When we got to Kakashi's office, Naruto and Sai were waiting for us, along with Gaara, that blonde woman I saw in Sasuke's mountain base, and then another ominous looking guy with painted markings on his face. Must be some kind of mage thing.

Naruto zipped over to me and gave me a hug. Much like Ino, he too was a blubbering mess.

I gave him a warm hug in return. "I missed you, too."

Tsunade pulled him off me, and placed him on the other side of her. "Okay," she said. "Now we know that Sakura is back, she was returned to us by the vampire known as Sasuke Uchiha."

Nobody in the room looked surprised by this.

Kakashi folded his hands before him, leaning forward in his chair while giving me a steadying look. "Explain everything. Carefully."

And I did. Just not in the way that he wanted me to be careful.

He wanted me to give over everything I knew, everything that I'd gone through. Give them the secrets of their enemies, the whereabouts, the plans.

Still, I could not find it in me to give up all that I knew.

"Throughout my stay, Sasuke was nothing short of kind to me. He trained me into becoming a better fighter," I finished.

It was Gaara who made the first move as he strode forward, coming face to face with me with barely a couple feet in between us.

"Stay?" he asked. "You make it sound like a choice."

I fought back against my instinct to step away from him. I met his gaze boldly. "I wouldn't exactly call it a prison, if that's what you mean. I was not allowed to leave, but I certainly wasn't mistreated."

His eyes narrowed. "Would you say you have come to have an attachment to these vampires then?"

"What? No-"

"Then I find it very odd that when I saw you in the mountain that you were not fighting to get away from Sasuke. You did not help us to stop him from escaping. Correct me if I am mistaken, but what explanation do you have for behaving in such a manner?"

My mouth flopped open and shut.

An answer didn't come to me right away, but then I finally said, "He was taking me to the sun bomb. Why wouldn't I go with him?"

He stepped even closer. "Then where is it?"

I shook my head.

"He showed it to you, took you to its location, and you did not seize it from him? Why?"

I thought back on it, on that night he brought me down deep below the ground. That small room had been closing in on me and I needed to get out of there. I had been scared, so scared that I just needed to run.

"Enough, Gaara," Tsunade snapped, placing herself between us, her forearm pushing against his chest.

He gave her a steely look before his eyes crawled back to me. "Did you at least bring back anything at all we can use to track him down?"

I cut a glance over his shoulder to look at Kakashi before looking back at him. "No. There's nothing that I can give you to track him."

He was dissatisfied with my answer, I could tell by the look on his face, but Kakashi gave a slight cough, cutting off any further questioning he may have had for me.

"Sakura," Kakashi said. "Thank you for sharing with us all that you have gone through. I'm sure you want to take it easy, stay in the village for a while now that you're back." He turned his attention onto Tsunade then. "You and your team won't be getting any missions taking you out of the village anytime soon, Tsunade."

She bowed her head, dipping it slightly and closing her eyes in answer.

"You may go," he said, to which my team and I left while Gaara and the other two remained.

XXX

Tsunade lead us to the training ground after I suggested getting some sparring in. She looked at me doubtfully, but I was able to convince her that it was what I really wanted.

I looked over at Sai. This time was going to be different, it was going to end in my victory. Though, he had a funny look on his face, as if he was deep in thought.

It occurred to me that it must have been overwhelming to hear about his distant relative being a vampire. Here he was, a hunter, sworn to kill them, and yet it was a member of his own family. I wonder if that gave him reason to pause.

Sasuke had already given me plenty of reasons to pause, to think about the intricacies of hunter and vampire relations, so I could only imagine that Sai was going through something similar.

"Sakura, you're nuts," Naruto said. "Only a crazy person would want to jump right in after being a captive for so long."

I cut him a look. "I'm not crazy. I want to show you what I learned."

He shrugged his shoulders and got into a defensive position. Ino and Sai did the same.

Tsunade looked at us all before saying "Begin."

I took a deep breath through my nose and pushed off towards Sai. I was so much faster than before, and he was caught off guard.

I punched him right in his stomach, and then pushed my other fist up to collide with his jaw. His head snapped back so fast, and then he collapsed on the ground. I just made sure he was still breathing before dashing off toward the other two.

Naruto saw me from the corner of his eye, but it was too late. I let out a kick to his side, turned my body around and then followed it with a punch to the side of his face.

I took one look at Ino before she held her hands up in defeat.

Tsunade appeared beside me, her eyes slightly larger than normal. "When you said he trained you, he really trained you."

I couldn't help the smile that came over my lips, feeling pride in the acknowledgement. "Want to test me for yourself?" I asked her, hungry to see how well I matched up against her.

She stared at me silently. Honestly, it was surprising that she was even considering it at all. I would have thought it'd be a quick dismissal from her.

A few more heavy seconds went by before she shook her head. "Get Sai and Naruto to the hospital. Hopefully they won't be out for too long." Then she disappeared.

I sighed. Someday I was going to fight her, and when that day finally came, I was going to win.

Ino let out a low whistle. "You were fierce before, Sakura, but now you're...I don't know how to even explain it. It's like you've been turned into a weapon yourself or something."

I rolled my wrists. "I like that."

She blanched a bit, but then made her way over to Sai's side. "I'm just glad you're on our side. I wouldn't want to find you in a dark alley."

We brought Naruto and Sai to the hospital like Tsunade said, and then we walked back home. Ino hugged me again when we got to my house before she waved and kept walking down the street toward her own house.

It was weird to be alone again, and I found that thoughts of Sasuke came to me quickly without anything to distract myself.

I remembered the way his brow would furrow when he was concentrating on something. I saw the way our bodies moved in a spar that made it seem like more of a dance sometimes than an actual fight. I heard his voice as it rumbled through the silence, the way it wrapped around me with every syllable.

I groaned.

Sasuke was still with me even though we were apart. Even though I was unable to walk down his familiar halls again and see him lounging on one of his living room sofas.

He had got into my head, and he was there to stay.

I paced through the house and then into my room, only one thing on my mind. I had to look at the Eye of Amavi, I had to see Sasuke again.

Was this why he gave it to me in the first place? Did he know that I would want to see him after he forced me out?

I shoved open the door and crouched down on my hands and knees, grabbing the bag and yanking it out. Dust came with it, swirling in the air.

Something was wrong though, the bag wasn't as heavy as it had been before.

I threw the top open and scoured the inside with my hands and eyes. Empty, it was completely empty.

I looked under the bed, but it wasn't there either.

And neither was Sasuke's note.

XXX

Thank you to all who read, review, fav, follow, etcccccccc. You guys are amazing, I love you all :D

To angelicfrosty: Thank ya very much! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well, things are starting to pick back up again. The plot train has left the station, choo choo! XD

Q: How often do you buy clothes?

A: Not enough! I am not loving anything in my closet, you guys. Not a single thing. With Spring now here, it is looking more and more likely that I am overdue for a shopping spree. Haha not really a hard question this time. XD