Second-to-last chapter. You all are seriously going to hate me. Seriously. It's a deadly cliff.

Disclaimer: Mine when the sun rises in the east.

Dedication: To Pandastacia, 'cuz she's awesome like that. Also to 'The Medic Droid'. Sniffle. I miss you…

---

The room stank of old blood and dirt and some nasty fungus. I delicately wrinkled my nose at it, and pretended that it didn't bother me. It was dark, and I couldn't really see anything in the gloom. I wanted to snarl, and light a match, but I didn't.

If only because that's the way this works.

"Ka-buto, Ka-buto, where a-re you?" I half-sung into the blackness, and, to my delight, light sprung up in the form of torches along the walls. They left patches of thick blackness, but they gave off enough flickering light to see by. The ceiling was still obscured by thick, black miasma, but I knew it was there.

It was a long, rectangular room, and the flames extinguished just short of the far end, where I knew, I just knew, that Kabuto was hiding. He was probably curled up in a corner, pretending he was cool.

I shot a glance up at the dark, high ceiling. What the hell is it with leeches and really high ceilings?! It is just me, or is that just not normal? And how come the buildings always look way bigger from the inside than is possible from how they are on the outside?

I dislike disproportionate things. They're very… unsettling.

The walls, too, were very strange. They were covered in almost Egyptian carvings, and I suddenly felt like we were in tomb, ancient, and that had been closed for eons. I shuddered in distaste. The creep's choice of décor was a just a little bit over the top.

"Ka-buto, where a-re you?" I called again into the darkness, and this time instead of light as my answer, there was a soft, musical hiss.

I smiled into the darkness.

"Hello, little one, how have you been?"

And then the dark end where I knew Kabuto would be lightened, and there he was. He was sitting on an almost-throne, a little bit too simple to be called a throne entirely, and a little bit too grand to be called a chair. His head was bowed, his greasy white hair falling over his face, so I couldn't see his eyes. His hands were held Mr. Burns-style, his fingers tapping tap-tap-tapping against each other.

My body wanted to scream and shudder and slam a knife into him, but I knew I wouldn't be that lucky. "Oh, I've been good. Anko says hello."

There was going to be a very long, very annoying fight here. I pulled out one of the daggers in my hair surreptitiously, and I was happy when it didn't make a sound. I knew that the way I had positioned them in my hair was very, very dangerous for my hair. If I moved too fast when I pulled them out, I would have chopped off basically every bit of hair I had.

He still didn't look up. "Ah, I should have known she would have. You take after her."

"Of course I do. Tell me, why did you pick Anko?"

But, if I had the chance to take them out slowly, they wouldn't make a sound. The weird little twist was courtesy of Hinata. Thank you, Hinata!

I stood there, dagger in one hand, gun in the other, and I knew that I could kill him right now. I could shoot him through the head with a bullet. If I threw the dagger just so, I could hit one of his veins. Of course, as vampires don't seem to bleed, it wouldn't do much.

But Sasuke had said that Kabuto had re-humanified himself. If he had, then he would bleed. If he hadn't, then he would still turn to dust, bullet or knife, take your pick.

But I did promise Hinata I'd try out that poison for her.

Kabuto looked up at me, hatred shining in his eyes. From here, I could see that the bruises on his neck, from when I'd nearly crushed his windpipe, were still there.

"Simple, really. It was revenge."

I snorted. "Revenge, really? I should have killed you when I had the chance."

"Yes, you should have. After you're dead, I'm going to drink you dry. Did you know that, little one?"

"You wish."

"It's not a wish. It will happen. But I must thank you, Sakura."

"Oh, and why is that?" I said amicably.

This is the way we play. I'll taunt you, you'll taunt me, but don't let me get behind you, because you know I hate you and I'll kill you if given the chance.

"Because, this is the best revenge I could have asked for. Little Anko won't be very happy when she finds out that her only daughter is dead."

I snorted again. "Puh-lease. If you think you can kill me, you've got another thing coming."

"It's the most perfect revenge. After your dead, I'll leave the place. And Anko will suddenly understand what it's like to lose one's most precious person."

"You really need some better lines. Cry me a river, build me a bridge, and get over it."

Kabuto snarled, and I smiled dangerous at him.

There was a flurry of movement, and then we were fighting, moving fast, dancing in and out and in and out, trying to get close enough to kill the other, but never managing it. Kabuto didn't need weapons; he had fangs and sharpened-to-points nails.

It gave me both an advantage and a disadvantage. He had more control over his limbs, giving him better accuracy, but me, I had weapons that gave me longer reach.

"She killed the one person I would have died for!" Kabuto's eyes were lit with a crazy light that I really didn't like. It was creepy.

"Do you blame her?! He would have changed her!" I spat at him, the slight fear that was in my chest grabbing hold of my throat, and raising the pitch to an unbearable level.

"It was an honour to have been chosen for that. Orochimaru-sama was a god."

"You are insane." I punctuated the last word with a bullet that purposefully went whizzing past his ear. I don't want him to die just yet.

I swore as I barely managed to duck in time as his hand went sailing by my face. As it was, two of his nails caught my cheek and tore the skin there open. The bastard was trying to rip my eyes out! I hissed, jumped backward as far as I could, and shot him in the leg.

He screamed in pain as the magicked bullet tore through his flesh. I smiled sadistically, and got close enough to slam my dagger into his side.

I let go of it, and raced backwards. I didn't care about it; it was only one dagger, and it Kabuto wanted to use it, and kill his advantage, then fine, I was totally up for that. I still had another three in my hair, and I pulled the second one, slowly, out while he was distracted with getting the dagger I'd just shoved in his side out of his body.

He didn't bleed. Damn, how annoying. That meant he was still leech-ish enough that he would burst into flames and ash, and I could watch and 'ooh and ahh' as much as I wanted, like spectators at a fireworks show.

"Oh, Kabu-chan, by the way, what did you do to the leeches on the outskirts of town?"

Then we were fighting again, my knife clashing against the one that had previously been mine. He obviously didn't know what to do with it, and I managed to slash along his leg.

"You mean my little children? I just gave them an… advantage."

I scowled at him. "That's not very nice, did you know?"

He lunged at me, and I twisted myself -with something that could almost be considered grace- out of the way. He hit the ground for a second time, dropping the knife. It went spinning off into the darkness. I smiled slowly as he got up, panting.

"You're not used to fighting for long periods of time, are you Kabu-chan? I wonder how long you'll last."

He snarled, his face a twisted mask of hatred, and he charged at me, his claws pointed straight for my throat. I laughed, and got out of the way.

'Course, I wasn't getting out of this unscathed, and I knew that as soon as I felt his claws raking across my back. It stung like a bitch, and I wanted to screech, but I didn't voice the scream that was hiding in my throat.

I wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

It was then that I knew that this fight was serious, when there was blood dripping down my right shoulder, from where he'd broken through the skin. He hadn't shredded my clothes, somehow, but I knew that one of us was going to die.

He came flying at me again, and I got out of the way, ducking my head, and shoving my body hard against his, and scoring his back twice more.

Down he went.

My breathing was laboured, but his was worse. He was getting tired. I smiled, and whipped the sweat from my forehead.

He forced himself up, but his movements were strange, slow, almost like he was moving through liquid, or jelly. It was then that I realized what Hinata's poison did to leeches.

It froze their muscles.

I smiled, and moved towards him. I danced around his backside as fast as I could; leaving knife slashes up and down his arms as I went. Whatever the poison was, it worked fast, and his muscles were freezing faster and faster, as I shoved more poison into his body.

I smiled happily at him, and he sent me a glare so fierce, anyone else would have withered and died. But I'm kind of immune to glares like that. I mean, come one, I'm… doing something (dating?) with Sasuke.

I stood in front of him, having done a full circle, and I just looked at him, slightly disgusted, as he swayed where he stood, his body rigid. He couldn't move, not even if he wanted to.

I reached one hand out, extended one finger, and gave him a very light push.

Kabuto went toppling backwards, and hit the floor with a 'thud'. That sounded like it had to have hurt. I knelt down next to his body, and watched as the poison Hinata had so wonderfully concocted froze his body. His eyes were flicking back and forth frantically between his already half-frozen eye-lids.

Apparently, that's the way the poison works. They eyes always freeze last. Wow, that's a sadistic little twist, isn't it?

I smiled slowly, the crazy little five-year-old's sadism getting the better. "Do you want me to end it?"

He was probably trying (and failing miserably, for that matter) to shake his head. But, since he could neither move nor speak, I took his forced silence as a yes.

"That's what I thought."

I stood up, and looked down at my favorite handgun. The metal shone sickly in the firelight, looking green and dangerous. I leveled it at his head in grim satisfaction.

"See you in hell," I murmured softly.

And then, with the gun pointed straight between the slimy bastard's eyes, I pulled the trigger.

---

He shuddered as the bullet impacted, but, strangely enough, he didn't make the gargling sound, nor did he burst into flames and turn to ash.

I watched coldly as his body slowly began to crumble. Literally, it was like he was an ancient, dead, mummified being exposed to light and wind, and his flesh began to fall away. Disgusting.

Maybe it was because Sasuke was right, and Kabuto had tried to make himself human. But personally, I think it was because of whatever was in that poison. It must have slowed the process of the magic, must have kept him alive longer, long enough for him to really feel what it was like to die.

I'd have to thank Hinata later. She'd really made my day, not to mention making this whole fight-thing a hundred times easier.

I spun around on my heel, and headed for the door, a sugar-sweet smile on my lips. I paused though, when my hand was on the knob, and I turned around, and looked at Kabuto's still crumbling body. There was almost nothing left of him. I allowed myself a victory smile, and then I slammed the door behind me as I left.

Sasuke was right outside, in the glossy marble hallway, leaning against the glossy marble wall, a sardonic smirk on his perfect perfect-perfect-so-perfect-that-it-hurts-to-look-at-him lips. He looked so calm, so cool, even though his white shirt was stained red in places.

I knew it could only be his blood, because leeches did not bleed. I glared at him, worry and annoyance probably clear on my face.

Sasuke is not a colourful person, and red really doesn't suit his complexion. And I'm honestly surprised he got hurt at all. He normally had something against letting a leech pull one over on him.

I walked over to him, and I reached out and grabbed a fistful of his white-and-red white-and-red-and-white-and-red-and-white-and-red-and-white-tainted-white shirt, and I watched him wince. I could feel my colour draining away as he grinned guiltily at me. Had he not even taken care of his own cuts and bruises?

I snarled unintelligibly at him, but he understood what I wanted. He pulled his shirt off, wincing with each movement he made, and I was presented with the most horrifying thing I'd ever seen.

A sickly purple-yellow-green the-colour-of-clouds-before-a-twister-purple-yellow-green bruise was forming across his chest, from his left pectoral, all the way up to his left shoulder. There was a gash across his stomach, shallow but bleeding profusely, and very, very long, from his right hip, to just below where the bruise started.

That was the major things, not to mention the other cuts and bruises that probably lined his shoulders and arms and back.

I swore loudly. "Why didn't you get fixed up?! Are you fucking crazy?!"

His breathing was soft and shallow with pain. "I had to get back up here to you."

I shook my head, touched, as I shrugged off my outer shirt. I pulled the other two knives out of my hair, and dropped one of them to the ground. With the other, I started slicing my shirt into long, wrap-able strips.

When I finished, I just glared soundlessly at him, and he raised his arms enough to let me attack the cuts and bruises and wrap them up. I knew he wouldn't die, not when he was wrapped up like this, but we still needed to get him to a hospital, or else he'd bleed out, and then we'd both be fucked.

I'm not losing him. Not now.

"What the hell happened? This couldn't have been just from the leeches down there. You're better then that, and we both know it."

He winced. "There was something about those vampires. They were faster then normal vampires."

"It was like... no, nevermind, I'll tell you later."

Just as we were about to leave, there was a long, high-pitched screech that made me clap my hands over my ears, and then there was a loud, crashing rumble. As it ended, I watched spider-wed cracks run along the length of the marble floor.

"…Shit," Sasuke hissed, and he grabbed my wrist.

Then we were running down staircase after staircase, me shaking (and thinking that it was a hell of a lot easier to go down stairs then up), Sasuke probably in undeserved pain, and everything seemed to blur as we bolted past.

I didn't see the others anywhere, but I hoped they were safe.

We got out the front doors, just as black and white and gold flashes of light began to conglomerate into a huge ball.

"What the hell is that?" I hissed, awed and slightly terrified. There was just something about the way it almost pulsed, almost spun, around-and-around-and-around-like-a-beach-ball-in-the-summertime that made me want to touch it.

For once, my common sense won out, and I drew away from the still growing ball of light light-made-of-liquide-made-of-light-made-of-liquid-made-of-light.

Sasuke and I looked up at the huge ball of black-white-gold light black-light-doesn't-make-sense-sense-sense-not-at-all, and I whispered into the icy air "The chains that hold the world together are beginning to fall apart, Sasuke."

He turned his face towards mine, and caught my eye. "So what, princess?" he asked with a dangerous smile.

"So we're all going to die is what, you stupid bastard," I murmured softly, regret taking my voice to lows that I'd rarely reached.

"Princess, I have you now. I'm never going to let you go, death or not," he replied just as softly, albeit a bit more… strong, a bit more lasting, then mine was.

And I looked at him. In the face of this huge ball of dark light (oh, I like that oxymoron… Wait, what am I thinking?! We're about to die), I really looked at him. I looked at the dark hair, the pale skin, the perfect lips, and the unswervingly straight nose. I let my eyes trace the planes of his face, and then I looked him in the eye.

I always saved his eyes for last.

The so-empty-they're-full onyx orbs stared back at me, and I knew. I knew what he'd been thinking this entire time. Damn. Why had I never looked at him like this before? 'Because you were afraid of what you were going to see, you dumb bitch' a voice in the back of my head lilted.

I let the little voice gloat for a bit, and then I kicked it out of my head. There should be no one in my head, no one except me. I didn't know how Sasuke could have ever stood having Kaeleo in his head; it must have been hell.

We stood there, and stared up at the huge, still-growing ball of light. It was mottled, black and white and gold, but while the colours swirled around each other, they never seemed to mix, never seemed to become one.

It was so bright.

And I reached for Sasuke's hand, of my own volition, and curled my fingers around his. I didn't want to be alone anymore.

His fingers twined through mine, and for a second, pure, undiluted joy raced through my veins as he mouthed the words "I love you".

"I love you, too," I mouthed back, and I was shocked to see how light his eyes got, even though they were always so very dark.

Then there was a flash of light black-white-black-white-black-white-in-equal-measure, and I didn't think anymore.