Chapter 23 – Unexpected travel Plan's

When Sakura woke up this morning, she probably would have laughed if someone told her this would happen. Out of every single out come that could have happened, this was the one that she most feared, this was the one that she would have given her left leg for if it meant avoiding it.

All she'd wanted to do was hunt, nothing more, nothing less. It may not have been the most normal way to spend your Friday night, but Sakura was never the one for hitting the streets with her friends and getting drunk out of her mind at some random club like Ino. But that was hardly the point, because right now, under the cover of darkness where the clouds covered the sky, turning it into nothing but a black canvas, stood Sakura, completely terrified.

It was a rare thing to find Sakura scared; her life on the streets had hardened her up. But in that time, she still couldn't shake the fear of pneumonia, starvation, men with wooden bats, and vampires… All reasonable fears she had concluded, but that didn't mean she wanted any of them to happen.

So she stood there, blood dripping down her chin and cheeks, the woman she had snatched laying unconscious on the ground in front of her, and at least five angry vampires blocking her only escape from the ally. She stood, completely petrified and uncaring of the still bleeding woman at her feet, the only thing she could concentrate on now were the haunting figures in front of her, fangs blaring and white, colourless eyes following her every move, which wasn't very much.

The eyes scared her more than anything, they used to stalk her in the dreams she used to have after her parents were killed, they stalked the dreams she'd been having ever since that blue haired bastard had shown up too. They were the eyes of pure evil, an unnatural white that was never meant to exist on this not so simple earth. They were the eyes that looked only at death.

Her breathing was hard and ragged as they began to approach, shocking Sakura's system into movement once more. She backed up with numb limb's and tripped a good few times over thin air as her frozen fingers rummaged around in her winters jacket for the small stash of pencils she kept hidden.

"Oh no you don't!" One of them shouted, a woman, Sakura noted. She had short fushia coloured hair and dark tanned skin, and apparently could only speak English. Sakura was only fast enough to pull out the pencil and make a pretty poor swing in the woman's direction before she and another, slightly bigger man came up and restrained her.

Sakura had to admit that she wasn't putting up much of a fight, which was pretty pathetic in her opinion, if it was anyone else they would probably be black and blue by now. But that was what fear did to you. She flinched as they twisted her wrist around and forced her to drop the pencil, nearly breaking her wrist in the process.

She took in a sharp intake of air as Sakura felt her wrist being pulled back. It all came crashing down then, the reality of it all. They could so easily kill her, just snapping her neck in the right place could end it all, and then what would happen? Would they go for Sasuke and Itachi? They weren't good enough for five against one, they could probably pull it off if they were both together but that was unlikely, it was late and they'd both be home right now. She had to get free somehow…

On that thought she began to struggle and thrash as the man and woman attempted to drag her over to a very ominous black van. A string of very colourful language coming from the female vampire as she tried to bring Sakura back under control.

"Shit, stop struggling you stupid bloody fucking worthless piece of shit! Oi, you lazy assholes! Stop twiddling your fucking thumbs and get over here!" She shouted. Before Sakura could even so much as register the sentence, two pairs of hands grabbed her legs as she attempted to kick them and the other took a hold of her head, causing the world to swirl around her. It didn't take long before she realized what he was attempting to do. The guy apparently wasn't very good at it though, the fact that he had to actually make physical contact was enough to tell her in her groggy and slightly nauseous state that he hadn't been a vampire for very long.

Sleep. Was the only thing she heard before the entire world fell into darkness.

…!...

Sasuke was out jogging, admittedly he didn't usually choose exercise as a way to pass the time but ever since Sakura had started teaching him self-defense, he was out on a mission to impress her. In fact he usually went out in the mornings but was bored as hell since Sakura had obviously forgotten that she was meant to be staying over tonight, and in complete and utter boredom, had decided to go out jogging.

Sakura would probably kill him for this too, he thought absentmindedly, one of her rules were not to go out at night alone, but he had at least shoved about three pencils in his pocket including one that he'd hidden in a place that would make a nun blush. Speaking of Sakura, Sasuke couldn't help but think over once again the strange behavior of his half vampire girlfriend. She been acting a little under stress lately, it was well hidden he had to admit, it took him a while to actually notice it, but when he did she seemed like a completely different person in his eyes. Her smile didn't quite reach her eyes and wasn't quite as bright or the fact that she seemed to find more and more reason's to have some childish spat with him, she'd even woken up drenched in sweat one night when she was staying over, but he didn't think that it was a good idea to ask why, she looked pretty spooked and he was pretty damn tired since it was four in the bloody morning.

He was just turning a corner when he noticed a black van slow to a stop behind him, instantly catching his full attention. That very same van had drove past him about five minutes ago, it going in the complete opposite direction that he was going in. Either someone was incredibly lost or it was some sort of vampire posy wanting to drain him dry. That was unlikely though, it had only been two weeks since Sakura had approached him on the matter, plus thing's like this didn't just happen, because if they were evil blood suckers, then to come here in a van after driving past only to turn around, drive at a freakishly slow pace a good two hundred meters back just screamed planned and Sakura had said that nobody was after him, his brother or Sakura, she'd promised him.

Never the less he sped up in his jogging, hoping that he would get home faster somehow, starting to get slightly freaked out by the whole ordeal. He turned a corner into a quieter less bright street and felt like groaning out loud, did it have to be such a dark street? This place was the last thing Sasuke needed if he had suspected to-be-murderers following him. He heard the van turn the corner with him and without even thinking about it he broke into a full out run, happy that he was a little faster now that he'd started running every morning. He heard the sound of an engine speeding up behind him, which only fueled him to run faster. The park was coming up on the next corner and even though it probably wasn't the smartest idea it at least meant that they'd be forced to ditch the van.

He turned another corner at full speed, heading straight for the closed gate on the other side of the road, listening out for the van and trying to judge by ear how far away it was, he guessed about one hundred and fifty yards or less. It did no use guessing however as it was getting closer and closer to him. Sasuke reached the gate and without even thinking about it grabbed the top of it with both hands and swung his legs over without even stopping once.

He ran through the swing park at full speed knowing that on the other side of the wooded area up ahead was the road leading to his parents mansion, and Sakura. She would know what to do in a situation like this, she knew what went through their minds, she was the only comfort he had at the moment and he'd be damned if he was caught now.

But it was no use, he could hear the gate behind him crashing open and several pairs of feet racing across the ground at a speed much faster than Sasuke could ever hope to achieve. So in desperation he attempted to speed up once more even though his legs ached with fatigue and his breath coming from his lungs was hard and fast as sweat matted in his hair and face. He couldn't keep up this pace, he knew that for a fact that however was tailing him would catch up soon, he wasn't as fit as he'd like to be.

He reached his hand into his jacket pocket and took hold of one of the pencils he'd stowed away before leaving his home. He could hear the footsteps grow closer and closer until they were right behind him and did the only thing he could now that flight was out of the question. He turned sharply around and pulled his pencils from his pocket at the same time, the led conveniently missing as he managed to make contact with one of his attackers face, surprising them all. The pencil sliced across the person's white-eye and it was only then that he realized it was a woman, the short boyish haircut had confused him for a moment. In normal circumstances he would feel terrible about slashing a woman's eyes, but considering the fact that she was a vampire who's planning on doing who knows what to him he really couldn't care less.

"Fucking ass licker! What are you fuck nuts waiting for? Get him!" Sasuke's first thought was that she quite clearly wasn't from here, other wise she would have spoken in English. Plus it didn't help that some of the words he didn't really understand, but that didn't matter right now.

He tried to run off again but he didn't get far before something very large and very heavy hit the back of his left knee, causing him to come crashing down in a heart beat. His leg felt like it was broken, even though it was probably his own imagination, but there was no faking the fact that his knee screamed with pain when he tried to stand up.

Is this the end for me? He thought, knowing that with a busted knee he wasn't going anywhere fast. He then felt a solid hand take a firm grip of his hair before pulling him up to his feet by it. With his teeth gritted he attempted to shout out or show any signs of the fact that what the man was doing hurt like hell.

"This the guy?" Said a low, booming voice right in front of Sasuke's face. Whoever it was that had him yanked his head back to get a better look before chuckling darkly. Sasuke opened his eyes to glare at the man who was currently yanking so hard on his hair that it was bringing tears to his eyes.

The first thing Sasuke noticed about the man was his eyes. They were white, but not just white, they were glowing white, they were not shaded by darkness in the least. They were almost like two moons if not for the lightest of light grey outlining the irises and pupils. The next thing he noticed was the dark orange hair that seemed to stick out in every direction except up. Those were the only two things that he bothered to make out before he started struggling, he grabbed the large mans hand that was still pulling on his hair and attempted to pull it off, only now realizing that he'd dropped his pencil when he fell over.

"Hey, quit squirming you! It just makes are job harder." The big man threatened him, only looking away for a moment so he could signal some of the other men to come over, the only other one was staying back with the woman who was yelling something out in English, a lot of which Sasuke couldn't really get but he had a feeling it wasn't polite.

"What are you doing?" He blurted out when the other two finally came into sight with black duck tape and a pair of handcuffs. Sasuke tried to pull the hand out of his hair again but only managed to make the hand, grip tighter. He tried to kick the man in the shins but he couldn't get enough swing because of his sore leg.

"Hey, boss, should we put him to sleep like the other one?" The vampire in front of him shouted out in perfect English.

"Nah, you hit him pretty hard with that brick. The little shit ain't goanna be going anywhere fast."

Then Sasuke remembered that nobody had answered his question yet and gathered that they probably couldn't speak Japanese. So as the two vampires advanced with the duck tape and handcuffs he quickly blurted out his question again but this time was sure to speak in English.

"What are you going to do to me?" He yelled out in a thick accent. The vampires didn't even stop in the advancement and Sasuke had no choice but to pull at the hand in a futile attempt at freedom.

He tried to turn his head when one of the vampire's pulled off a long black strip of duck tape with a screech but it only hurt with that hand still firm in his hair, making resistance useless. Both hands, which had been trying to pull the hand away from his hair, were tugged away behind his back where they were confined by the cool click of the handcuffs.

"What are you going to do with me?" He shouted again, just as the duck tape closed over his mouth. He really starting to get pissed off with him now, not that he hadn't been already, but he had been concentrating more on getting away then. The big man that had been holding onto his hair shoved Sasuke so he was facing the other way before leading him roughly in the other direction, despite Sasuke's struggles.

"You'll find out soon enough… Stop moving around so much or I'll rip that little neck of yours right open!" He threatened.

Sasuke was never one for taking orders though and only increased his efforts, although his knee did limit the amount of freedom he had. The other three vampires were currently looking over their boss's eye and had more or less left the other one to deal with a rather uncooperative Sasuke.

He continued to struggle and muffle out protests for a while but found it hard when the vampire finally got fed up and threw him over his shoulder like Sasuke was some irritable female. He didn't give up though, even though the ominous van was drawing near, the van actually made him a little scared, it sort of made the whole situation hit home that he was quite possibly about to die.

The man stopped a moment, looking around to see if anyone noticed him with one of the richest men in Japan flung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He opened the van door's and very ungraciously tossed him in, not bothering to check if he'd seriously hurt his kidnapee, which he had, in a sense, Sasuke had landed awkwardly on his sore knee and then face planted the floor, probably turning his nose blood red from the impact.

Sasuke moaned a little in pain through the duck tape before turning his face away from the floor and freezing, eyes wide, for right before him, laying in some messy heap of oddly placed limb's in the corner of the van was Sakura. Her breathing was deep and even, showing Sasuke that she was both alive and unconscious, he was glad that she wasn't dead, but it was the fact that she was here that spooked him. Hadn't she been able to get away? Sakura was a much faster runner than both himself and Itachi combined and was a very skilled fighter, so why was she here? It didn't give him much confidence in their escape and only made him worry over her, why was she unconscious? Had they hurt her?

They'd better bloody not have or Sasuke was going to unleash hell, once they freed him of course. Sasuke began to worm his way over to where Sakura was crushed into the corner of the van.

"Mahama!" Sasuke attempted to shout through the duck tape over his mouth but she didn't so much as twitch, which was weird all in it's self, Sasuke knew from experience that Sakura had a thing for kicking lump's out of him when she stayed over. It made him wonder what the hell they'd done to her, she wasn't handcuffed or anything like he was, if it wasn't for the fact that she was still breathing, he'd think she was dead.

It was right at that moment that his kidnappers decided to finally get in the car, he could hear the woman swearing like a maniac from one of the passenger seats as two of them opened the doors and climbed into the back with himself and Sakura. Sasuke sent a deadly glare their way when one of them gave him one of those smirks, the ones that held no sympathy, only evil intent, creating that curve on his lips.

The other walked over to Sasuke before kicking him to the side with his foot, sending his back flying right into Sakura's sleeping form. Sasuke watched with more venom than he thought he possessed as the vampire then continued his way over to the front and knocked the small grate window. The window was suddenly pushed aside by an unknown, he gave a grunt to the other vampire who seemed to be in as bad a mood as everyone else in the damn van.

"How's the boss?" The Orange Haired Vampire asked, sending an ice-cold glare in Sasuke's direction, a sneer forming on his face. Instead of answering the vampire was pushed out the way as the woman, who Sasuke had more or less guessed was the 'Boss', moved in front of the small open window and answered, now a clean white bandage across her injured eye.

"Concern yourself with the next fucking target ya' tool. I'm goanna kill Henry next time I fucking see that Bastard." She grumbled before slamming the small window closed again as the van finally drove off. The momentum of the moving van caused Sasuke to squash Sakura even more, he was still amazed that even that wasn't enough to wake her, Sasuke was pretty heavy.

The same vampire walked past him and over to a large red rucksack in the corner opposite and began to open it, seemingly unaffected by the van's movements. It was only when he pulled out another pair of handcuffs that he finally realized what that woman had meant when she said the next target, they were going after Itachi. Sasuke felt his eyes widen at the prospect of his own brother, who hadn't done anything wrong, being kidnapped like himself, being handcuffed and gagged and thrown into the back of this damn van like a sack of potato's. What had they done anyway?

It made no sense, if they were just after his blood then they wouldn't have shoved him in the back of a van, plus Sakura was here which meant that it was definitely planned, plus the fact that the woman had already said it. But what the hell did they want them for, or, more specifically, how the hell did they find them in the first place, Sakura had said that they hadn't found her in years, that her track had gone cold, had she lied? It was definitely a possibility, like she didn't want him to worry or she thought she could take care of it herself.

The more Sasuke thought about the situation, the more muddled up his thoughts became, there were just simply too many outcomes to think about and then there was also his soon to be kidnapped brother to consider, which really didn't make him feel all that great. Sasuke hated feeling useless, like he couldn't do anything, and right now he was both of those things. If he could take down even one of those bloody vampires… But he was currently tied up and unable to move, if anything, he was a burden.

The van skidded to a stop, making him squash Sakura again much to his irritation, the two vampires who had been talking quietly by the door's both stood up with the hand cuff's and duck tape like before, causing Sasuke to panic ever so slightly. He really didn't want his brother mixed up in this, but what could he possibly do?

After the men left the van, leaving only the injured woman in the front, the panic in Sasuke only rose. His breath was coming out in harsh puffs from his nose and his forehead was beginning to sweat, this really wasn't his day.

About twenty minutes passed until he finally heard the tell-tale sign's of scuffling and shouting outside the van. Sasuke took a deep inhale of breath before holding it in and slowly exhaling, trying in vain to not get worked up about the situation.

The door opened with a loud clang before a large body was thrown in next to Sasuke. At first it looked a bit like a dead body, but after a while it started to move around hysterically. Sasuke couldn't see the face but he knew that it was his brother, his long hair was a dead give away. He was attempting to shout out something too but it was muffled from the tape around his mouth.

Itachi attempted to kneel and try for another escape, only the big vampire stopped him easily by stamping his foot firmly on Itachi's back. He let out a muffled grunt at his chest and face collided with the hard dirty floor. Sasuke felt rage at the vampire, how dare he do that to Sasuke's older brother! Of course it was only then that he noticed the man holding his shoulder like it was about to fall off, there was also the unmistakable patch of blood that was slowly oozing down his T-shirt. That made him feel slightly better, at least Itachi had gotten pay back for Sasuke's knee.

"Oi, where's Steven?" The woman shouted from the small window as the big Vampire sat down and lent back on the metal wall of the van.

"There was some woman in the house with him, she decided to fight back, so he's still taking care of that, shouldn't be much longer." He answered simply, shutting his eyes and leaning his head back.

Sasuke instantly noticed Itachi's entire body freeze, and his breathing accelerated shortly afterwards. They were doing something to Taya, what they were doing, Sasuke couldn't say, but it was bad. She had nothing to do with this, she knew nothing, so they would have to leave her safe and sound, right? For Itachi's sake, Sasuke hoped so.

Sasuke couldn't do anything to comfort his brother as he lay there facing him, terrified out of his mind. Sasuke more or less felt the same, except the woman he loved was currently squashed in a corner because of his fat ass.

He let a sigh escape from his nose, looking up as the fifth member of bat squad climbed into the back of the van and closed the doors, sitting across from the other in much of the same position. Sasuke didn't like this guy, not one bit. He had this cold look in his cream coloured eyes. It was like he was completely emotionless, there was just simply nothing behind those still eyes of his. Sasuke narrowed his eyes slightly, remembering to be more cautious when around him.

The van gave a large shudder as the engine came to life again before pulling out, the driver obviously ignoring or not noticing the three body's sliding across the floor whenever he made a sharp turn. Sasuke once again crashed into Sakura, Itachi not far behind, knocking the air out of him. Itachi was a lot heavier than he looked apparently.

…!...

Sasuke didn't know how long they were in that van, it could have been hours or days, he was simply clueless. Sakura was still out cold and the longer her body stayed limp the more worried Sasuke became. He wasn't able to turn around and face her, because of his awkward position and dodgy knee, and it irritated him to no ends.

With every bump and curve in the road the three hostages would slid into even more uncomfortable positions than the last. The two vampires that sat next to the doors, seemed unaffected by the bad driving, and only lightly conversed occasionally, supplying the only other sound apart from the rumbling of the engine.

Sasuke dozed off at some point, he wasn't too sure when, but when he did, there was the early morning light streaming through the crack in the double doors. They had been driving for a long time, which was for sure. Itachi seemed to be fighting the sleep when Sasuke looked over, his eyelids were drooping every so often and the dark bags under his eyes were evidence enough. Sasuke knew he was probably the same, his eyes also felt pretty heavy, despite having just slept. He then looked over his shoulder, trying to find Sakura's face. She was still out cold, the only movement he got from her was the deep rise and fall of her chest and the odd strand of hair moving in front of her already covered face..

Sasuke couldn't work out what they had done to her, he knew first hand that they could erase memories, but could they put people to sleep? And as deeply as Sakura seemed to be? It was both intriguing and terrifying all at the same time. But what else could they do? Sakura had once said that full Vampires were stronger and more skilled than she was, and that was what worried him the most, for how would they escape? How could they escape when the strongest of them all was in fact the weakest of Vampires? They were all in way over their heads…

She didn't look all that healthy either, Sasuke noticed with alarm, her skin was pasty and pale, and her fingers were twitching as well as the rest of her body, something he hadn't noticed before, even her breathing was slightly labored. It was only then that he realized what was wrong, it was exactly the same as last time, her body was shaking like she was going through withdrawal symptoms and he would bet anything that her skin was freezing. It was quite clear that Sakura hadn't finished feeding, she had dried blood around her mouth, but what if it wasn't enough?

He felt a bubble of panic rise within him as Sasuke turned completely around to face her, groaning in pain all the while, causing Itachi to lazily frown through half lidded eyes. Sasuke continued to study her, never getting to close, knowing that it would only make matters worse. But it was morning, or early morning at least, so if she hadn't fed enough, then wouldn't that mean she'd be dead by now? Last time she'd only lasted till a little after one, and by Sasuke's guess, it was about five, maybe later. So why was she still breathing? He wasn't about to complain of course, but it was still odd.

Sasuke studied her weak form, trying to decide what to do, he couldn't exactly skip over and lend her his neck to chew on, they were moving and he doubted that he'd be able to even get her semi-conscious for it. Sasuke moved closer, only slightly though, but at the same time drawing the attention of the big orange haired vampire at the back.

He watched curiously as Sasuke began to get more frantic by the second, looking around the van for something. He knew what the problem was, of course, you'd have to be a complete dunce not to notice really. The mutant needed blood, she quite obviously hadn't finished off what she was eating when they approached her. The vampire let out a sigh and stood up, catching the eye of the Vampire in front of him. He stepped over Itachi, seemingly unaffected by the vans movements and grabbed Sasuke by the collar, throwing him to the other end of the van, his legs sprawled over the other Uchiha.

He knelt down in front of the pink haired mutant and lifted the hair out of her face, noticing how bad she looked. This was irritating, he thought with yet another sigh, ignoring the muffled shouts coming from the two men behind him, they obviously thought he was up to no good, he couldn't blame them, really, but if they kept that up then he'd put them in the same state as she was in. He walked over to the small hatch and knocked twice, waiting for someone to slide the window open.

His boss's tired and irritated face filled the grated window and eyed him with annoyance, a look he was very much used to.

"-The fuck do you want?" She spat, snarling through the grate. He sighed once again before answering in a monotone.

"The mutant ain't doing so hot, boss. How long till we get there?" He asked

"What's wrong with it?" She asked, ignoring one of the human's protests at the back when she mentioned the word 'it'. He simply yawned before answering.

"She's not fed properly. Her bloods all diluted, she was probably still on her first body when we came along, that's most likely why she's lasted so long." He explained. His boss simply eyed him before answering, not caring about how she sounded, she never did.

"Why the fuck should I care? The only thing that matters is that I get it to Henry alive and I get my pay. Besides, we're nearly there, as in we just passed the gates, so shut the fuck up, alright?" She didn't give him the chance to answer before slamming the hatch shut in his face, he could here her mumbling in her 'oh so polite toungue' before turning around and walking over Sakura and the other two humans, the younger still sprawled over the other.

Sasuke watched the exchange with deep annoyance, he did not like that woman. She was fowl and heartless, and dared to call Sakura 'it'. If he weren't tied up with a swollen knee, he would have slashed her other eye.

He continued to think of different killing methods until the van finally, finally choked to a stop, the engine spluttered as it was turned off, showing its true age. Sasuke felt yet another bubble of anxiety rise in his throat as the two vampires by the door stood up and opened the door. Sasuke was momentarily blinded and groaned as it hit his tired eyes.

The orange haired vampire got to his feet yet again and grabbed both Itachi and Sasuke by the collar and pulled them out of the van and to their feet, the other simply threw Sakura over his shoulder, her shaking only worsening. Sasuke winced as he leaned on his bad knee, pain shot up his thigh, rendering him to a pathetic limp as they were forced to walk around the van to the front.

Sasuke looked up for the first time, taking in his surroundings before freezing completely, Itachi stopped and looked at Sasuke before looking forward again, wondering what was wrong. Sasuke simply stood and Stared, surprise clear in his eyes, he gulped and couldn't help but think, What is he doing here?...

...!...

Right...um...sorry its so late? I seem to be saying that a lot these days... But this time was really bad, so sorry about that. I couldn't get the chapter right so i kept rewriting it, this is like the tenth version, still don't like it though but whatever. I hope you'll find it in your hearts to forgive me and review! That would be amazing, plus i might get some motivation back! You never know after all! So, until next time!