The rest of the trip wasn't that interesting. When we all met up I found out that Chouji's trip was more embarrassing than mine. He fell into some garbage when trying to impress his group by juggling and although he did impress everyone with his skills, they remember more about him not just landing in garbage but also being half attacked by a raccoon he scared. He looked awful and immediately went for the showers.
Sasuke gave us a speech about how it's a fixer upper and that Gaara, who apparently got here faster than everyone else, already inspected the house and sees that there is some work that needs to be done on the second and third floor so we shouldn't go up there. I guess his mansion is only three floors high, but there is a whole underground area to it. Apparently, it has some tunnels that go to places that even Gaara and Temari don't know about. We were told that the guys would be spread out on the first floor for rooms and the ladies would have rooms in the underground. I didn't think anything of it because I thought it was awesome, but Tenten mumbled about how they were just being ridiculous. I guess she feels that the guys wanted to keep us safe, but were being a bit dramatic about it. I was going to argue with her and think they just didn't have anywhere else to put us, but the door that leads to the underground is like a hidden compartment that blends with the wooden floor. While we were down there setting up our rooms I did very little investigating and came across a room that looked like a dungeon. There were bars, chains, and ... dried blood? Before I could do too much discovering Sasuke found me and told me I shouldn't go off on my own because they haven't done a thorough look to make sure everything was structurally sound. As he was dragging me out I noticed a skull, but I'm just going to assume that was some Halloween decoration.
I finished unpacking and Neji had a pack meeting. He was discussing some rules and I noticed that the other royals weren't here. Neji noticed that we weren't paying attention and promptly scolded us all. He informed us that the rest have already started working on repairs. He explained rules about respect for one another and our privacy basically saying not to enter people's rooms without invitation. He also went over the arrangement about how repairs was going to go. Ino and I had been grouped together to work on gardening. I knew Ino would love that, she just has a natural green thumb. We were also grouped with Shino and Kiba. Everyone else seemed to be working on more construction type repairs. Apparently third floor had a room with mold that just need to be completely removed and Neji basically campaigned that we make it into a relaxing room with big, curved glass windows. The second floor had a few walls that needed to be teared down and rebuilt and both floors needed new paint jobs. Who I learned was Lee from Ino's nudge to my arm and whisper, asked about decor and if they had any say in it. Neji seemed to be annoyed that he was derailed and harshly replied that it be discussed once the necessary repairs were finished. I couldn't blame Lee it be awesome to decorate especially because we finally get to go shopping free roam and find all kinds of things that we would never see in the community.
After a few weeks of hard work most the structural repairs that needed immediate work were fixed up. The room that had the mold is still being argued whether or not it'll become a nightviewing room as Neji is calling it and currently has temporary blockades on it until the decision has been made. The garden has been sorted out with some good soil and we already started on a few plants. Sasuke had made a side note about wanted quite a few tomato plants. I got to know Shino and Kiba a lot more and Kiba again apologized to me saying he took into better account what Tenten had said earlier. When I got a chance to get to know him better he really wasn't that bad of a guy he just came off really douchy. I got along with Shino even though I hate bugs it was still awesome to see how passionate he was about it. He knew about all these interesting things like how some spider babies will eat their mother. He was talking about starting a butterfly collection which I thought was really cool because he had a goal and was ready to achieve it. Also, I would like to see beautiful butterflies all the time too, although I'd rather see them alive than stuck in a box. He showed me some pictures and I'd only seen monarch butterflies in real life before, and I learned about so many more. Everything was going perfect and when the construction side of repairs were being finished off more people were helping outside. Some had started a new construction project of building a big playground, and I loved that idea because I like to go swinging to clear up my thoughts. We had spent some of the days playing outside games like Red Rover, which we added a twist of splashing everyone with a big bucket of water before starting. It made it a lot more difficult to keep our hands together tightly as people ran through them soaked. We also played board games outside because the weather had been amazing since we got here. It was great to spend all this time together and having no disturbances from duties of the community or humans if they could disturb us. It almost felt like we were on a farm because the property was so big and reached so far, and there is this massive forest circulating the house that hides us from the outside world, and it's a wonderful secluded spot. As much as I want to meet the humans it was nice to know we'd have privacy and to just be us. We even all howled at the full moon, vampires too. It was probably one of the best memories I'll ever have because we were all so happy even Gaara, who we had to practically beg to come join us all, but once he did even he couldn't help but smile.
Then one night the sunny times came to a halt because a thunder storm came by and we had a black out. We all cuddled together with flashlights and candles and ate all different flavors of ice cream. I was sitting next to Shino and Lee and Ino was next to Sasuke and Shika across from me. Ino and I only really talked at night, I mean we talked to each other sort of during the garden set up but that was more we were both talking to Shino and Kiba and not to each other. Gaara told a scary story that we all first laughed about, but it actually kind of gave me the jitters. Naruto tried to jumpscare Tenten and she almost knocked him out, but we all laughed about it shortly even the two of them. I guess Sasuke was right that this was going to be great and my mom was right that it be worth it. We were still getting to know each other, but we are starting at a great spot. We played some board games and everyone had all kinds of different conversations. Shino was scaring Gaara with a creepy bug story, which was hilarious to watch. Ino eventually went back to latching onto Shika, but something was off. I didn't bother reading too much into it. Chouji started juggling for all of us to see and we all started clap dancing around him at one point, while Neji played some bonjo drums.
At one point Naruto asked me a question I hadn't put much thought into, "How do you think we are going to get human blood. If we don't have some soon we'll all get hungry and start transforming and the more we mutate the harder it is to control the hunger." There are rumors about the olden days and how inhumane people became because of the hunger. There used to be a lot of massacres because eventhough we don't need that much blood, people would suck humans dry because they were too hungry to control themselves to stop. Almost like eating chips when you are full, but you love them too much to control yourself. I got distracted too easily and forgot about it, but I also excused it because I figured the royals already had a plan.
That night before I went to bed, while in the underground, I thought I saw someone go to a tunnel I hadn't investigated before. I tried to follow them because I wanted to warn them that Sasuke said we shouldn't go too deep until he has labeled it clear, but when I turned the corner of the tunnel there was nobody there. I was kind of dumb founded and for a second I thought I saw a ghost. Then I shook my head and told myself it was just Gaara and his stupid scary stories getting to me or maybe it was Shino's scary story that even scared Gaara. The electricity came back on when I turned around which made me jump. All the tunnels became lit and I almost flung the flashlight across to about my room. I turned around quick in case I just couldn't see someone due to the dark, but there was still nobody there. I jokingly told Ino about it when I went into her room before going into mine to check on her. I don't think she heard me she looked gloom. I was going to walk up to her and ask, but something told me she needed some alone time so I let it be.
After a few days something odd happened again. I couldn't sleep so I went out my room to go for a walk and before I opened the hatch to go up I heard some footsteps down that tunnel again. I ran to it, but by the time I got to the corner the footsteps were so faint I couldn't tell if it was the same sound or if I was at the point where I was imagining it to prove a point to myself. Odd things like this happened here and there and eventually I decided to try and tell Ino once again. She was listening this time and was shocked and said she hadn't seen anything like that. I asked if she would camp out with me and see if she hears anything. The first two nights was a no show, but on the third night we were so used to nothing happening we played a game of head's up and almost missed it. We heard some footsteps and Ino almost went ghost pale because she had been doubting me since the first night failure. We quietly snuck out of my room, but we spent too much time giving each other second glances because the time we started having a steady motion forward and before even the end of this tunnel the footsteps had faded out. We told all the other girls and we decided to make camp again. It was a whole week and nothing happened and everyone was getting too tired to keep it up so we called it quits. The first night that I was alone and going to my bed late after getting a night snack I heard a voice at the end of the tunnel. It sounded like a distant scream. I just shook my head and slapped myself fairly lightly and told myself to snap out of it. I went to bed. The next day the royals had severed us all a big bowl of fresh human blood. They had them in these packages that I think I've seen in doctor shows. We were all happy to finally get what we needed. That night I heard some struggling noises and I decided I'm not going crazy I just need to do more than just go to the end of the tunnel and so I did. The struggling noises actually got louder and I could follow them this time. This time I was going to figure it out. Then I heard some shuffling and for some reason I felt like I need to hide, so I quickly walked down a tunnel and hid around the corner. I heard two voices go by and I thought I recognized them, but I was too scared to look and confirm. I continued down the tunnel that the two voices left when the coast was clear. Eventually I came across the dungeon again. I started remembering that Sasuke said it wasn't safe to be down here, but then I saw something odd. There was a human here tied up, blind folded, and had a tube through their arm getting blood. So this is how they are getting the blood. The human didn't look injured other than the wrist abrasions from the chains. I went to bed because I didn't know what else to do.
After a few days, I decided to tell Ino. At first, she was interested simply because she wanted to know what had happened that night, but she quickly moved on. I was shocked because it meant we were keeping someone hostage. Ino shrugged it off because it didn't really matter. Survival of the fittest she said. I couldn't believe she just said that. That was a life we were holding, but she tried to reassure me saying one life isn't so bad. I kind of stomped off, not dramatically,. I waited awhile for the conversation to derail and die out before making a complete exit. I just left and shook my head. I couldn't believe Ino had no care for life when she always talks about how we need to care more for our environment. Eventually I got up the courage to ask Sasuke. I went up to his room and knocked on his door and took a deep breath. He answered and invited me inside. I found out that they were only holding the human hostage for a limited time and they weren't going to hurt them. They were going to set the human free a few miles away from here unarmed after two to three more weeks from now. I nodded and understood that this wasn't ideal but necessary. He told me that there is also something called this black market that sells fresh blood occasionally and they have first dibs and there would be a batch soon so we wouldn't need to kidnap another human for at least four more months. I was eased, not pleased, and went back to bed.
I understood, but I still couldn't believe Ino just shrugged it off. She didn't know the condition this human was under not that she cared. I started to wonder how different we truly are from all the bad guys in our history lessons. We were taught about now killing humans because it was unnecessary and create war. We were taught to be compassionate and understand that humans have done what they done because they don't understand. We were always taught we accidentally started it, and I don't see how this is any different, just less extreme than killing a village or taking freshly buried bodies. I still felt off. I thought about how the last few days there was different moments when Neji and Sasuke would over emphasis that they'd never hurt this pack. Humans aren't part of the pack... I thought about that human and even though he didn't look hurt I wonder what happen if he struggled too much. Sasuke and Neji have short tempers. Occasionally I've seen them both quickly snap, but they usually go back to their normal selves and I don't know if that is simply because we are their pack. Something inside me said it was a necessary evil, but I still think there is more going on than what Sasuke said. Why would he keep it a secret if he was only doing what he said he was? I think I even heard myself say thankfully they are letting out what anger they have on a human and not us if that's what else they do. How selfish of me to even think that. I went to sleep and shook it off because there is nothing else I can do and there isn't any proof to prove otherwise of what Sasuke had said.