II
How It Began
Recap: Sakura's mind felt numb. She was turning into one of them. She was changing into a bloodsucking, dead thing. Kamui and Suki could only watch as she slowly closed her eyes and give another jerk of pain. They saw, with a heart filled with guilt, a single tear roll down her heart shaped face, and onto the ground where her pale pink hair lay limply.
I'm turning into a vampire…
You can say that again…
As Sakura lay there breathing heavily, she asked herself how unlucky she could get. As another wave of pain flashed through her body, Sakura's eyes widened, and she bit her tongue to keep her scream at bay. Hoarsely, she took in ragged gasps of air as the pain receded slightly, enough for her to deal with at the least. Time seemed to drag on, she found herself counting the minutes, the seconds until the torture on her body would end. Trying to numb the pain, she came to the decision of meditation. Of course, mediation could only do so much; at the least it would stop her from screaming bloody murder.
Sakura gave a weak mental chuckle at her last thought. Bloody murder? Man, the tribe was really rubbing off on her. As she closed her eyes and tried as best as she could to take slow, deep breaths, Sakura found herself having random flashbacks of her life. Memory to memory, it seemed like pictures were flashing past in her mind. Then, the flashbacks seemed to slow as it came to where it all began.
Author Note:The flash backs going to be really long…sweatdrop… actually…this whole chapters going to be a flashback, sorry…
Flashback
Haruno Sakura
Age: 18
Rank: ANBU
Field Name: Cat
Team: #9
Specialty: Medical Ninjutsu, Genjutsu Specialist, and Katana Master
Bloodline Limit: None
Missions:
10 D-ranked
23 C-ranked
9 B-ranked
18 A-ranked
11 S-ranked
Harono Sakura, a pride of Konoha, one of the Konoha 12. It all started with a yearlong S-ranked mission…
Sakura was sitting in her apartment fuming about random things in life. Things like why Ino always wore purple, why her hair was pink, why Sai, Naruto and Kakashi left her behind on their self assigned mission to finding Sasuke. How was it possible that Sai, who met Sasuke only once, who didn't even care about him, was allowed to go but she was left behind? Have you noticed that Sakura left out the sensei in Kakashi's name, and the kun in Sasuke? Yeah, that's how pissed off she was.
Sakura was known throughout Konoha, and most of Fire Country, as the second Tsunade. Surpassing her not only in medical skills, but in beauty, strength and smarts as well. Ok. Maybe not that strong, but she was beautiful, strong and smart. It was also a fact that she surpassed Tsunade in medical skills and matched her, if not surpassed her, in smarts and strength.
She was fuming because right after her 18th birthday, her idiotic team left to go fetch Sasuke, leaving her behind. It had been four months since their departure, and many people still remember the horrible yell of anger that exploded from the small, pink haired girl. The yell had rung out all through Konoha, and it even sent shivers down the male members of team seven's backs, who had been far away in Wind Country by then.
"Man, I'm getting a bad vibe…" chuckled Naruto weakly.
"Ugly's going to kill us isn't she?" asked Sai, a bit too happily for the current situation.
"Yeah" Kakashi and Naruto agreed at the same time.
"I'm so going to torture them up when they come back." Sakura hissed.
Just then, there was a knock on her door. Grumbling curses that made the messenger Jonin outside her house, sweatdrop and murmur a quick prayer to Kami-sama, Sakura slammed open her door with a bit too much strength…it broke.
"Oops…" Sakura said, glaring at the poor Jonin as if it was his entire fault. "Well? What do you need?" she snapped.
"Um…S-Sakura-san…Hokage-sama…w-w-wants to see you…about a m-mission." he stuttered.
"Kami-sama! Get a hold of yourself! You sound like Hinata in front of Naruto." complained Sakura.
"Gomenosai." he whispered meekly.
"Tell Hokage-sama I'll be there. As you can see, I'm only wearing a long shirt, so you better leave before I brand you as a pervert." warned Sakura.
"H-Hai!" the man stuttered before dashing away beet-red in the face.
Grumbling, Sakura walked upstairs to her room to change. She quickly put on her mission outfit. Her outfit was a "remodeled" version of the ANBU uniform. First was a long, tight, black, tank top like, standard muscle shirt. Over it was a tank top/corset styled outer top. It was made from the same white, durable, leather like, material of the original ANBU uniform. The outer part hugged her curves and went down to the middle of her thighs. On the bottom half of her outfit, she wore tight shorts that were the same material and color as her inner black muscle shirt. For shoes, she wore the standard black sandals, except for the fact that it was more like boots because it went up, covering her calves, to right underneath the knees. On her elbows the same white, ANBU material, encased them, being held together by a small silver buckle. Finally, on her back was a katana in a black sheath.
Looking at herself in the mirror, Sakura brushed her soft, pink, shoulder length hair off her face. She found herself thinking of how much she had grown, and sighed. With that, jumping out her window, she dashed towards the Hokage Tower.
Arriving at her destination, Sakura politely knocked on the door to the Hokaga's office. Receiving a curt, "Come in", Sakura did just that.
"Tsunade-sama, you wanted me?" Sakura murmured meekly. Tsunade sighed at her former students antics.
"Sakura, stop being so formal with me. I swear! After you became an ANBU you've become more distant from me." Tsunade was now crying anime tears.
Sakura sighed and said, "Gomenosai. What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?"
Tsunade's face immediately became grave. "Sakura, what do you know about vampires?" she asked.
Sakura blinked in confusion. "I only know that they are mythological creatures that look like beautiful humans, and they drink blood with their fangs."
Tsunade chuckled as she replied, "You got the beauty and the blood drinking right, but vampires aren't myths…they are very much real."
Sakura thanked her ANBU training. It kept her from making very disturbing faces. She didn't want to believe her, but looking at the Hokage's expression, Sakura knew that Tsunade was being dead serious.
"Ah…" was all she said.
Blinking blankly Tsunade stared at Sakura, while Sakura stared at Tsunade. "Well!! There you have it! A big secret of life!!!" Tsunade dramatically declared. Still not getting a response, Tsunade sweatdropped and dropped her head in a defeated way, "I'll get on with the mission details" she mumbled dejectedly.
After listening to Tsunade's long, long, long, very long, explanation, Sakura went home with a headache. As soon as she walked into her apartment, she immediately started to gather everything that she would need for her mission, into the middle of her living room.
As she worked, Sakura made a mental list of all she learned today:
Vampires exist...
1.They travel the world in small groups called tribes.
2.A group of 18 arrived in the outskirts of Fire Country and requested a ninja, for a, cough-tourist-cough, guide.
3.The group that was here were "vegetarians", which meant that they didn't drink human blood.
4.The group was staying for a year.
5.They aren't affected by garlic, pictures of them can be taken, they do have reflections, they can't be killed with a wooden stake, they aren't affected by holy water or the cross, they can't sleep, are very beautiful, grow fangs when they feed, extremely power (Like super speed, strength, sight, smell…etc).
6.Eyes turn red when thirsty, and they can lose control if they are extremely thirsty, or if a human is unlucky enough to cross their path when they are hunting.
7.Are immortal, don't age, and can only be killed by their own hands.
8.Cannot have children, a human can only turn into a vampire if a one bits them and they survive.
That was the list of what Sakura learned about the vampire tribe that she would be staying with for a period of a year. Tsunade told her that even though they don't drink human blood, accident happens. So it seemed that Sakura was to stay with the tribe of vampires for their yearlong stay, be their guide, and make sure that mistakes don't happen.
Soon, she had everything that she would need piled up in the middle of her living room floor. Unrolling a scroll, that seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere, she calmly sealed all of her necessaries into the scroll, then replaced the scroll back into its original location where every that may be.
After checking to see that everything was in order, Sakura walked out of her apartment and locked her door.(A/N I have no idea how she fixed her door...Maybe magic?...) With a sigh, she headed off towards Ino's family flower shop. She grimaced at the thought of meeting Ino, who would definitely try to pry out information about her mission.
When she arrived, Sakura coolly pushed the glass door open, causing the small silver bells hanging on the door to tinkle. Ino looked up from reading a medical scroll and blinked in surprise.
"Forehead-girl? Your going back on another mission after you just came back two days ago?"
"Ah…" Sakura replied.
"How long? What's the rank? What's your mission?" Ino asked in a hurried rush. She didn't want Sakura to go so soon. She was worried about her. After Naruto, Sai, and Kakashi left to go find Sasuke, leaving her behind, Sakura had grown more distant, forcing herself to do more and more missions.
"A year. S-ranked. Confidential." Sakura replied shortly.
"A year!!! That long for a S-ranked mission?!!" Ino cried.
"Yeah. So I need the regular." Sakura replied
Ino gave Sakura a sad glance before going into the back room to get Sakura "her regular." Whenever Sakura went on a mission, she always came to Ino's flower shop and bought a bouquet of white lilies. After buying the flowers, Sakura always headed towards the cemetery, by herself. Today was no different. When Ino handed Sakura her bouquet of lilies, Sakura gave a small thank you, paid, and walked out of the shop towards the cemetery.
When she arrived, she immediately walked down the rows and came to a stop in front of a tomb. Sadly, she placed her flowers in front of the tombstone, and just stood there, gazing at the names written.
Here lies Haruno Yuki, and Haruno Karou wonderful and loving parents.
Sakura gazed mournfully at her parent's graves. They had been both killed by a missing-nin who had a grudge against Sakura. Sakura stilled blamed herself for their death, and regretted going on the mission that had led her away from her parents when they needed her most. With a sad sigh, Sakura headed out of Konoha towards her destination.
Even though the mission was an S-ranked, Sakura found no need for herself to wear her ANBU uniform and mask, though she did bring both just in case. Traveling at a steady pace Sakura estimated that if she kept this pace, she would arrive at her destination in two hours.
Meeting no trouble, Sakura soon managed to arrive at Tennyo, an interesting name for a village. Taking another glance at her mission scroll, she saw that she was supposed to meet someone at the Northeast gate. When Sakura had asked Tsunade how she was supposed to know whom she was supposed to meet, Tsunade just replied in a rather annoying cryptic way, "You'll know" and cackled like the crazy drunk she was.
When she arrived at the Northeast gate, Sakura looked around for anyone that was interesting. No one caught her eye though. Just then, someone behind her asked, "Are you the guide from Konoha?"
Sakura spun around pulling out a kunai in the process. She cursed to herself mentally,how was he able to sneak up on me like that? Inner Sakura then decided to make an entrance.
OMG!!!! HE DOESN'T HAVE A CHAKRA SIGNAL!!!! AND HE'S HOT!!!!
Sakura sighed at her inner's behavior, but realized that she was right. The man really didn't have a chakra signal. Then, Sakura realized that he did, but he was concealing it amazingly.
The man who stood in front of her was tall, wiry, pale and extremely handsome. His hair was a dark silver ash color, his eyes black and he looked about twenty years old. The aura that surrounded him made Sakura shiver slightly in clear nervousness.
"Um…Hai." She answered unsurely.
The man nodded his head in acknowledgement and replied, "My name is Kamui. I'm from the tribe and here to guide you to it."
"My name is Haruno Sakura, an ANBU of the Leaf."
"It's a pleasure meeting you Haruno-san"
"As I, as well" Sakura murmured politely.
The vampire named Kamui, started to run out of town, into the forest, and Sakura followed.
After a few minutes of silent running, they arrived at a large clearing. Sakura blinked in surprise at what she saw. Right smack in the middle the clearing, in the middle of a forest, was a large, old mansion.
Kamui, seeing Sakura's puzzled look explained that the mansion used to be the home of a rich man, but he died and left all his fortune, including the mansion, to his favorite niece, who was a vampire. The niece didn't live in the mansion so she let groups of wandering tribes live in it for periods of time.
Kamui also explain that he was the youngest out of all the vampires, but probably the most controlled in not drinking human blood because he never tasted human blood in his whole vampire life, which was saying something. Most of the vampires in the tribe drank human blood, but grew depressed about it, so they quite.
Just then a small boy of about ten came running over. He was so angelic, so beautiful that Sakura felt her heart ach. The young boy had a slim, short build, with pale flawless skin. He had a heart shaped face and honey golden hair. The most amazing by far were his eyes, a large, wide, childish, pale yellow-green.
When the boy arrived in front of them. Kamui bowed respectfully and murmured, "Suki-sama."
The boy named Suki smiled and said, "Hello, I'm Suki, the one in charge."
When Sakura blinked and stared in surprise he explained, "I may look the youngest here, but I'm actually the oldest. Though I may be the newest addition to the tribe, and probably the least controlled, the rest of the tribe insisted that I become the leader."
Sakura nodded in understanding. Kamui then added, "Suki-sama is also a royal. It is a great honor that Suki-sama decided to join our tribe."
As the weeks went by, Sakura soon became quite close and at ease with the tribe. She especially became close to Suki and Kamui. The tribe of vampires accepted Sakura into the tribe with open arms, but the only thing they refused to allow her to see was them hunting. When she asked why, the only replied that when they hunted, they lost control.
It seemed that royal bloods weren't called royal just for show. They were more beautiful, stronger, and all vampires loved and revered them. It was impossible for another vampire to disobey, or harm a royal blood in any way.
When one day, out of curiosity, Sakura asked how they became royal, Suki replied that no one was sure. It seemed that once a vampire was born, they were always either Normal: which was the most common,Knight: which was rather rare, Noble: very rare, and Royal: Extremely rare. No one knew why some became a normal and some became a royal.
One day, after staying with the vampires for about 9 months. Sakura decided to go visit Konoha for a while. Well, Sakura didn't want to, but Suki insisted. As Sakura was traveling in the direction of Konoha, she heard something like a snarl. Wondering what in the world it was, she quietly headed in the direction she heard the noise.
When she got there, Sakura's eyes widened in surprise when she saw that it was Suki and Kamui. Sakura swore silently in her mind, they were hunting. She had to get out of there! Turning quickly, Sakura gave a yelp of surprise when she saw that somehow, Suki had ended up behind her.
"Suki-san! I'm s-sorry for intruding. I-I'll leave now." Sakura stuttered while backing away from him.
"Prey-chan? How do you know my name? How can Prey-chan be intruding?" Asked Suki innocently.
Sakura's eyes widened in fear as she thought, Prey-chan? Crap! He doesn't know who I am.
Knowing that if she stayed, Suki could kill her, Sakura started to run…
Author note: Yay! I'm done with the chapter. This whole chapter was what had happened to Sakura before the first chapter. The next chapters the one that really starts things up. I want to also thank my reviewers. Thank you! I don't know if I'm going to do a pairing or not, but I'll think about it.
