"Where's Sasuke?" I asked myself in a voice so hollow that it even scared me as I clutched onto the soot stained silver locket that I found in the remains of what used to be the church. By looking at what I was sitting in, the answer should have been obvious that Sasuke was… dead. But I did not want to believe it. The very thought of it tore my heart in two. Sasuke couldn't die. He was too strong, right? And since Haku couldn't sense him it must mean that he was somewhere else, like somewhere outside of Konohagakure. That was the only logical explanation, right? I refused to believe otherwise. It was impossible for Sasuke to die. It was impossible. There was just no way.

"Hinata," Deidara said, placing a warm hand on my shoulder.

I could tell right away that Deidara had been reading my thoughts and had been feeling what I was feeling.

"He's not dead!" I snapped as I whipped my head in my friend's direction. "Sasuke's not dead. He… He can't die."

Deidara pulled me up from the ground and forced me to face him. "Look at this place, Hinata! It's been burned down. Sasuke couldn't have possibly survived this." I turned away from him but Deidara pulled my face right back to him. He then spoke to me in a tone so gentle it made my heart stop. "You can't deny this, Hinata. If you deny what has happened then it will destroy you later."

When my heart continued to beat once more, I took my eyes away from him and pulled myself out of his arms to walk farther into what used to be the church. I fondled with the locket in my hands as I struggled with Deidara's words. I knew he was right. He should know better than anyone here that denial could destroy even the strongest person in the world, but I couldn't help it. Not only did I not want to believe that Sasuke was dead, him being dead didn't sound right to me.

"We should probably get out of here before the police and firefighters show up," Naruto said.

"Wait," Haku said. He was still holding onto my cousin and silently crying. But even though he was far more upset than me, Haku was able to hold himself together.

"We can't stay here, Haku," Neji said.

Neji tried to take the gypsy away but Haku pulled himself out of his hold. Haku then walked up beside me and announced to everyone "I agree with Hinata. Sasuke cannot be dead."

"Not you too," Deidara said. "Consoling Hinata wouldn't be a problem, but comforting you would take decades."

Haku ignored Deidara and continued. "I cannot sense Sasuke and… that is odd." He walked farther into the church, staring at the black ground as he did so. "I should always be able to sense a person may they be alive, dead, overseas, human, or not. But I cannot sense Sasuke. And the only reason I should not be able to is because someone put up a magic barrier."

Neji stepped forward saying "But slayers did this and we don't have magic."

"Precisely," Haku said. None of us were catching on to what he was saying so he elaborated on his thoughts. "Only a witch can create a barrier so strong that a gypsy cannot break it. And if Sasuke is dead, why put up a barrier to hide a corpse? Sasuke is alive and he is somewhere in this area since this is where the magical barrier was set up. The only questions we should be asking ourselves are where he is, and why a witch would go through the trouble of hiding a vampire for slayers."

My friends and I exchanged glances and then we turned to Haku who was still assessing what he uncovered.

"Then if Sasuke is alive like you say he is," Naruto said to Haku, "then we need to find him. He should have all of the answers."

"Correct." Our gypsy searched the ground as he ventured farther into the church. He came to an abrupt stop after a few paces. "I believe that I have found him. But I need some muscle in order to get to him."

Neji, Naruto, and Deidara all met Haku by a hole in the ground that had been sealed by remnants of the church. As the boys began to remove the rubble from the hole, I realized that this was the basement. This was the only space that I was not allowed to go in throughout the church and I obeyed Sasuke's wish. I was curious about what was down there once, but I never went in due to the suspicion that there might be bodies kept down there. There was a time that Anko Mitarashi led me down to the basement of the church through some kind of illusion and there were bodies, old and new, stored in cells. The illusion could have been created out of my fear of what the basement held, but I don't know for sure.

"It's clear," Neji said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Let's go."

I was the last to go down the wooden steps and the last to be submerged in the darkness of underground. I was the last to breathe in the familiar sickening scent of mildew and pestilence in the old space and the last to feel my way through the narrow hallway. I was the last to latch onto the first person I could find and the last to silently pray that we would find who we were looking for. But I was the first to hear the snarling and growling of an aggressive vampire lurking in the shadows.

Naruto quickly turned on the light switch nearby only to have the bulb pop as soon as he lit it. Haku said something in Romanian and the torches on the walls lit up with flames so large and energized that the vampire cringed and curled up in the filthy corner to escape the heat threatening to kill him.

When the vampire gained the courage to look up from his palms to growl at us, my heart sank.

"Sasuke," I breathed.

"It is Sasuke," Deidara said, making me realize that it was him that I latched onto.

I stepped forward to get to Sasuke but Deidara grabbed my wrist, pulling me back to him. "No. Something's wrong with him. It's not safe."

I looked at Sasuke again and couldn't help but feel as though he needed me. "But…"

"No, Hinata," Haku told me. "Deidara is right."

I took a closer look at our friend and almost dropped to my knees at his condition. His eyes were glowing the color of blood and he was staring at all of us like we were a threat, not because he wanted to eat us. He didn't even recognize us. My eyes trailed from his eyes to his mouth and I saw blood drizzling out of it and onto the wet, scarlet floor beneath him. I realized that the blood was his own after getting a good look at his split lips and hemorrhaging stomach. I couldn't tell what kind of injury he sustained because there was so much blood drenching his clothes and hands in an awful scarlet color. Aside from the blood, I saw other injuries that I was very familiar with. Sasuke's skin was eaten away on various part of his body, such as his arms and neck, from werewolf poison. There were also deep, nasty burns on his arms and face from what looked like a cross.

"Oh my god," I said, clasping a hand to my mouth.

"This is an example of what I have been telling you," Haku said to all of us while still staring at Sasuke with sad eyes. "Slayers have been torturing their victims with their kryptonite and then killing them in a brutal fashion. Only this time they didn't kill their prey. They were toying with him in hopes to lure us here. They want us to know what they are capable of… and they succeeded."

"Why are they doing this?" Neji asked with anger and disgust in his voice.

"I do not know."

"We can discuss this later," Deidara said. "Right now we have to help him before he dies."

"What's wrong with him?" I asked. "Why isn't he healing?"

"Holy water," Neji said. "Somehow the slayers got him to drink holy water. When a vampire drinks holy water, their body goes on a constant struggle to fight the effects of its pure contents. During the process, the vampire's ability to self-heal is put on hold until all of the water is out of the body… if they survive long enough to dispose of the contents invading their body. It's a weapon that has been banned for decades because of how powerful it is. In many ways, it is worse than werewolf poison."

I was almost afraid to ask "How is it worse?"

"Holy water not only stops the self-healing process, it also paralyses the vampire and attacks all working organs, making them hemorrhage internally until the vampire drowns in their own blood. But sometimes that isn't enough to kill them. Sometimes the water causes painful blisters both within and outside of the body."

When Sasuke's snarling gave him our full attention, Neji, Deidara, and Naruto immediately stepped in front of Haku and me. Sasuke crouched down and readied himself to lunge. Despite his profuse bleeding, Sasuke sprang forward, grabbed Naruto by the neck with his bloody hand, and sunk his claw-like nails in his neck. Naruto hesitated to remove Sasuke's hand because of his injury but Deidara stepped in to pull Sasuke off.

It took a lot of effort to remove Sasuke, but when he did, it left a terrible gash on his neck, staining his uniform shirt in both his and Sasuke's blood. Haku ushered Naruto by his side to heal his wound and immediately began treatment while Deidara tried to restrain our friend.

Even though Deidara was doing his best at trying to pin Sasuke down, he was having trouble. Neji had to step in to help Deidara hold him down. Once they had him on the floor I saw just how horrible his injury on his abdomen looked. The slayers had cut his abdomen open and I could actually see his intestines and his slowly beating heart through heaps of blood and muscle. Looking closer at his heart, I noticed that a cross had been burned there too. What the hell was going on here while we were away and how come no one heard his screams? I had to clasp my hand to my mouth to stop myself from crying. I would do anything to help him, anything. Just seeing him like this was tearing me apart and I wanted to help him so very bad but there was nothing that I could do. I was useless.

"Hinata," Naruto said from beside Haku. "What are you doing?"

I stood up from the ground and approached Sasuke.

"What do we have to do to help him?" I asked Deidara and Neji who were both having trouble keeping Sasuke in place. I was feeling so tired of being useless that I blurted out the question without thinking.

The two boys looked at each other, back at me, and then Deidara answered me with a great amount of uncertainty. "We don't know."

"What if I offer my blood? Will that help?"

"No," Neji said immediately. "You are not giving your blood to him, not while he's like this. It's too dangerous."

"We have to help him, Neji!"

"Not if it means putting your life in danger, Hinata," he spat right back at me, making me wince. "You are not giving him your blood and that's final."

"But he's going to die. We can't let him die."

"There's nothing we can do for him. I'm sorry."

"What if I give him my blood?"

All of our heads snapped in the direction of Haku. He had finished healing Naruto and was approaching us. He was so serious about offering his blood that he even sat down next to Sasuke despite his snarling and flailing.

"Absolutely not," Neji told him. His patience was wearing very thin very fast.

"I will not let him die, Neji." Their eyes locked for several moments before Haku decided to ignore my cousin's objection and turned to Deidara. He raised his wrist to the blonde vampire's mouth and said "Cut me."

Our blonde vampire hesitated to even think about cutting him open. But he pushed that aside and asked "Are you sure about this, Haku?"

The gypsy nodded.

Deidara bared his fangs and cut open Haku's skin. Deidara licked the blood off of his teeth, winced, and said "Damn, your blood is strong." But despite seeming to not like the blood, he continued to lick his teeth.

As Haku brought his wrist to Sasuke's mouth, I saw Neji reach for his stake and my heart stopped. He was preparing to kill Sasuke if things went wrong, but he didn't need it. Sasuke wouldn't drink from him, which surprised us, especially Deidara. The young gypsy even smeared his blood on Sasuke's mouth. He wouldn't lick it up.

Haku turned to Deidara. "Is there something wrong with me?"

"No. Despite your sour attitude, you taste really good."

"Then why won't he-" Haku's speech broke off and he narrowed his eyes. He tilted his head to the side and appeared to be listening to the wind. "He needs blood from a virgin."

"You're… You're not a virgin?" Deidara asked completely in shock.

Everyone stared at Haku, including me, and he blushed brightly. "T-That's… I am a virgin! He needs virgin blood from a human. My blood is… inadequate." The gypsy sounded offended when he recalled Sasuke not taking his blood.

"No one's going to follow a stranger into the basement of a burned down building," Naruto said, "especially a virgin."

"We don't need a stranger to follow us down here," Haku said after licking the scarlet liquid dripping from his wrist. "Bring Sakura."

My heart stopped again and my body went rigid. "Why does it have to be Sakura?"

"No one else seems suitable for the job." I opened my mouth to detest but Haku cut me off. "Nothing will happen to her. I promise. And if something does, you can have my head."

I hesitated, but when I looked at Sasuke again I decided that I would bring Sakura here. I told myself that I would do anything to help Sasuke and this is one of them. He needs all of our help and this is my way of helping. And I guess brining Sakura here wouldn't be so bad because there are three strong supernatural creatures here to protect her if something were to go wrong. Also, revealing our secret of supernatural creatures roaming the earth was something that I had wanted to tell my two best friends for a long time. "O-Okay, I'll bring Sakura here."

"You better hurry," Deidara said as he took Haku's bleeding wrist in his hand and brought it up to his mouth. He licked the blood up slowly and Haku clasped a hand to his mouth and shivered under the foreign sensation. It came to me right away that Deidara was using endorphins to ease the pain from the cut, but the unfamiliar pleasure that Haku was experiencing was too much for him to bear.

Haku retracted his wrist and said breathlessly "Stop. That's enough."

Deidara snatched his wrist back and said "At least let me close the wound."

Neji watched with more envy than disgust as Deidara licked the cut, closing the wound with the anticoagulants embedded in his saliva. Haku successfully stifled oncoming moans and scooted away slowly as if he was trying to escape the pleasure that Deidara was giving him. When Deidara finished, Haku quickly got up to sit somewhere else.

"You're welcome," Deidara called with a devilish smile forming on his lips.

I glanced at all of my friends, whilst glaring at Deidara, before leaving the basement to go get Sakura. Deidara was just asking for trouble after doing that to Haku in front of Neji. He may not know that my cousin has feelings for Haku, but he probably suspects that he cares for him a lot, more than a normal friend would. And I think that Deidara must be an even bigger sadist than I imagined if he was willing to do that to a boy. Torturing people must be all that he lives for.

I arrived at Sakura's house and unlocked her door by using the spare key her parents kept under the flower pot on the porch. I ran up the stairs and opened Sakura's bedroom door to find both of my friends here. Shit.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked, standing up from her bed. "You look pale."

"I need you, Sakura," I said.

"Experimenting are we, Hinata?" Ino asked as she stood up from the beanbag chair with a mischievous smile.

"No time for jokes!" I said and then grabbed Sakura's wrist. "We have to go."

"Go where?" Sakura asked.

"I don't have time to explain. Just trust me."

"Wait," Ino said. "I want to come, too."

I really didn't want her to, since she'd be risking her life as well, but I didn't have time to argue. "Okay. But I warn both of you, do not run away from what you're about to see."

They exchanged glances and then nodded at me even though I knew that they probably thought I was crazy.

The three of us went to the church and I advised them not to stop when they saw what was left of the building. I took their hands and led them down the old wooden stairs. I felt them wince and their hands squeezed mine when they heard a low growl back farther in the basement. Sakura and Ino looked at me as soon as Sasuke came into view and I realized that Deidara and Neji were no longer restraining him on the bloody floor. He was now chained to an old wooden chair. Neji was standing beside him with his stake ready to penetrate his already exposed heart and Deidara was sitting beside Haku who was still flustered about the endorphins. Naruto was the one who came up to me and my friends and helped me coax them into coming closer to Sasuke.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Ino said. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"No," Naruto said. "This is why we needed Sakura."

"W-What for?" Sakura asked with her eyes wide from fear.

Naruto looked at me. "You didn't tell them?"

"I didn't have time to," I said.

"Well, I need an explanation now," Sakura said.

"Not now. After it's over. Sasuke is… Sasuke is dying."

"So you're going to sacrifice Sakura to save his life? Your ex-boyfriend?" Ino said.

"She's not a sacrifice," Neji said. "All we need is her blood. And if something goes wrong I'll be here to-"

"You are not going to kill him, Neji," Haku said.

"If something goes wrong, I won't have a choice, Haku."

"Then nothing will go wrong."

"You can't be so sure about that!"

"Enough," Deidara said. "While you all are talking, Sasuke is dying." Deidara turned to Sakura and Ino. "Stop being pussies and help us out. Human or not, he still needs help and he deserves to live."

Sakura unfolded her arms. "What do I have to do?"

Neji motioned Sakura to go to him and he cut her wrist with the tip of his stake. When my pink-haired friend presented her wrist to Sasuke, Neji positioned his stake again.

Unlike Sasuke refusing Haku's blood, he greedily drank from Sakura. She gasped from the pain but continued to let him feed even though she desperately wanted to get away. Sasuke's scarlet eyes held no compassion for her as he sunk his teeth deeper into her. It was only when his wounds began to heal that he loosened his hold on Sakura and the scarlet glow faded from his dark eyes.

He stopped drinking from Sakura completely and his body slumped in the chair. Sakura held her bleeding wrist, backed away from the unconscious vampire, and looked oddly calm.

"Deidara," Naruto called. "We need your anticoagulants."

"I'll pass. Patch her up with a first aid kit or something, fox boy."

Naruto frowned and retrieved a first aid kit from the wall. He checked the contents before assisting Sakura.

"Get him out of the chair," Haku said abruptly. "Now!"

Deidara and Neji ripped the chains off of Sasuke like it was a thin piece of string and not too long after they freed him from the chair, Sasuke got up from the seat to run to one of the corners of the room. He began to violently throw up blood with a mixture of holy water. I expected him to shake off the trauma he had experienced since he had appeared normal while throwing up, but he fainted and Haku was right there to catch him.

"The healing process is going much slower than normal," Haku said as he stared at Sasuke's slowly healing abdomen. "He will be unconscious for a while."

"How long?" I asked, sounding much calmer than I felt.

"Hours, possibly days. We need to worry about the information that we'll get out of him later. Right now he needs a safe place to rest."

"M-My place isn't too far from here. My parents are going to be out of town for a few weeks so I suppose we can go there," Sakura said. She was holding onto her newly bandaged wrist with shaky hands.

"Let's go then," Deidara said as he took Sasuke from Haku.

My cousin offered the gypsy his hand and he took it willingly despite how upset he was at him for wanting to kill Sasuke off at the slightest mishap.

"We need to go now," the gypsy said. He turned to Neji and asked "Do you feel it?"

"Yeah. Someone's watching us."

"Then let's go," I said. I turned to my friends. "I promise that I will tell you everything when we get to Sakura's house."

They nodded robotically and the eight of us went to Sakura's house. Deidara rested Sasuke on Sakura's bed and Haku glued himself beside the raven-haired vampire to hold his hand. I felt bad for Neji as he watched Haku stroke Sasuke's hair and face, and listened to him whisper sweet words to him. I wanted to give my cousin a shove in Haku's direction, so that he could be with him and not feel as though the distance between him and the gypsy was getting larger, but I couldn't do that now.

I also really wanted to tell Haku how Neji felt but now wasn't the time because I had to tear myself away from my… inhuman friends to meet my human friends in the living room. When I got there, they were talking quietly to each other but they shut up as soon as I entered the room, which made me suspect that they were talking about me and my other friends. So I didn't bother to sugar coat the details of my relationship with each and every one of my supernatural encounters and I didn't leave out the details of how I met Sasuke and my other friends. I told them about all of the good and bad times I had with my friends and the horrible encounters with real monsters. And I told them everything about the slayers. They were almost speechless after I caught them up to speed.

"You cannot tell anyone what I just told you," I said to my silent friends.

Ino swallowed a few times. "I… I can't believe that all of that has been going on in the dark… Right under our noses."

"Yeah…" Sakura said. "And you've been dealing with this for almost a year, Hinata?"

I nodded. "And I'll be dealing with much more soon. There's going to be a war between us and the slayers. I don't know exactly when, but judging by what's happening now, I think that it'll be soon."

"Well, we are going to find out when it's going to happen and possibly more," Neji said to me as he descended the staircase. "Do you have an idea who the head slayer is in Konohagakure?"

"Principal Tsunade," I said cautiously. "You're not going to find her are you? That's suicide."

"We are going to find her. And she isn't going to kill us. All we are going to do is talk."

"She isn't the talking type…" I mumbled as I followed my cousin to the door.

I looked back at my friends and they were talking to each other again. Now that they know everything that I do about the supernatural world, there's no telling what the slayers will do to them.

He pulled his car keys out of his pocket, we got in the Ferrari, and for the first time ever I actually didn't enjoy the ride in his beautiful car. I wanted him to pull over so I could vomit. The thought of standing up to Tsunade, the woman who wants to kill me more than anyone in the world, made me sick to the core. Thinking of Tsunade made me think of death for me and everyone I loved, and it wouldn't strike me as surprising if she's the one behind torturing pure and impure creatures until they died all over the world.

Neji parked in Konoha High's student parking lot and I followed him into the empty building. There was no guarantee that Tsunade was here but the school was our best bet. Finding Tsunade's house is Plan B if she is not here, but since Konohagakure is infested with supernatural beings that would love to sink their teeth into her neck, she more than likely lives on the outskirts of the city, like in Tanzaku Town, Tonika Village, or Hacho Village. So if we are going to find her house it'll be difficult.

The hallways were vacant and our footsteps echoed against the tiled floor. No one was here, which I found odd because even though it's the end of the school day, teachers and students usually are still walking around for extracurricular activities. And since extracurricular activities were posted today during lunch, I expected half of the school to be here.

"Hinata," Neji called. His voice sounded so loud in the silence, hence it made me jump. He put his hand on Tsunade's doorknob and asked "Are you ready?"

In my mind I was thinking no, but my mouth went against what I was thinking by saying "Yes."

My cousin appeared to know what I was thinking so he stayed close to me when we entered the principal's office. Tsunade was there and she looked as though she was expecting us. All of her paperwork was put aside and she fixed us with a cocky grin when we entered her space. But despite her awareness, and the gleaming glint of hatred in her eyes, she sat up in her chair and said with forced kindness "How can I help you?"

I watched near the door as my cousin confidently approached the head of the slayers with a grin just as cocky as hers.

"We came by to see how you were doing," my cousin said with the grin refusing to waver. "And we wanted to confirm a certain rumor that has been spreading around."

Tsunade crossed her legs and rested her folded hands on her lap. "What rumor would that be?"

"Are you the one behind the supernatural murders?"

Our principal seemed amused by Neji's confidence and expressed her amusement by laughing. "What if I am? What would you do about it? You can't stop me. You're an amateur slayer and your cousin over there is more than useless."

I couldn't say that Tsunade calling me useless offended me, because I knew that it was true, but it did make me wince. I wanted to help my friends with the slayers more than anything but that's not possible since I am just human and nothing more. Every now and then I offer my blood to Sasuke or Deidara when they are injured or hungry and have no way of getting blood, but other than that, I am useless. I can't even defend myself. And with this war quickly approaching, I'll have no choice but to stay home or stay with Sakura and Ino while my friends are fighting for their lives and mine.

"If you think Hinata is useless then you haven't looked into her files as thoroughly as you thought," Neji said as he smiled back at me. "As for me, I have surpassed some of the best in Sunagakure so I am not an amateur slayer. Fortunately for you, you will not get the chance to see my abilities since we did not come here to fight. We just want to talk."

"About the murders I presume?" she asked with a snide smile. "There is not much to tell you and there is not much that you need to know, Neji Hyuga."

"There is because we all know that you are behind this, there is no denying it. I just want to know why. Our duty as slayers is to exterminate vampires and only vampires, if possible. You are breaking the law given to us by the gypsies by killing innocent creatures."

"I never did like that gypsies allowed us freewill so long as we killed the undead for them. It's like they have us on a leash. So I thought, why not go against their laws? There aren't any more gypsies around to punish us if we disobey."

"That is where you are wrong, Tsunade. There is another gypsy and he also does not agree with your plans."

It was obvious that she took that as a surprise even though she tried to hide it. Haku told us once before that very little people knew about his existence seeming as he was the last gypsy in the world because of the Kirigakure townspeople massacring his clan. He was the only one to escape.

"You want me to tell you why I have been killing other creatures? It's because this world cannot afford anymore incidents like Anko. Right, Hinata?"

It took a lot of effort for me to speak up. "T-There aren't many creatures like Anko, and she was just trying to help others like her. She was just going about it the wrong way…"

"Regardless, she was willing to wipe out mankind to achieve her selfish goal. You witnessed how cruel she was firsthand when she kidnapped you and almost killed you."

"H-How do you know about Anko anyway? You weren't there."

"I had Kakashi investigate her little lair when you and Deidara left the infirmary," she said casually. "He gave me a detailed report on the witch's research on permanently exterminating humanity and what she had to do in order to achieve the ingredients necessary to perform the spell. She was a bad person and I don't want to risk having anymore creatures with power like that trying to destroy humanity."

"Is that the reason why you are killing innocents?" Neji asked. "Because you don't want something catastrophic happening right under your nose again?"

Tsunade was silent for a few moments before responding. "It's the main reason, but not the only reason. Recently, there has been something… disgusting happening that I cannot seem to let go no matter how hard I try."

"Like what?" My cousin asked with a hint of irritation in his voice. Tsunade's actions and ways of thinking have been annoying Neji more than she realized.

"Humans have been breeding with creatures such as fairies, sirens, werewolves, etc. There has been a large increase of hybrids in Konohagakure especially and I'd like for it to stop. The only way to do that is…"

"That's not right!" I shouted. "How can you kill innocents so easily and talk about it like it's just another minor problem that needs addressing in the world? Do you feel anything at all when taking lives?"

"What about you, Hinata Hyuga?"

"W-What about me?"

"Do you feel anything when your vampire friends eat people? Did you feel anything when you had suspicions of Sasuke keeping humans in his basement to sink his teeth into and suck them dry while you slept at his place or were away at school?"

"I… I felt something… I was disgusted and I sometimes felt as though I'd be next."

"Then you should understand that I am only ridding the world of these problems."

"But it's not the same, Tsunade. My friends kill to survive… It took me a while to understand that they needed to kill to survive and I almost lost Deidara to starvation because of my inability to accept them for who they were, but I eventually came to terms with it." I found Tsunade's eyes when I gathered enough confidence to look at her. "What you are doing is wrong. You aren't killing to make this world a better place. You're killing because you don't like how the world is now. Creatures other than slayers and humans are coming together and making new life and you can't accept that."

"Who would accept that? It's disgusting and the chances of the supernatural world being discovered by the humans only increased."

"That is an issue," Neji said, "but there is no excuse for murder. Our job as slayers is to slay vampires and only vampires. You can potentially mess up the order by teaching our children that it is okay to take out whoever they-"

"Do you really think that's a bad thing? Times have changed since the gypsies created us. Vampires aren't the only evil anymore, evil is everywhere. What's so wrong about showing our children that there are threats everywhere?"

"It sounds to me that you want to wipe out all creatures from existence other than humans and slayers. Tell me, what would you do if you met the creature purer than humans and slayers, the last gypsy? Would you kill the one who created us, too?"

"The one who chose our destiny for us? If it came down to it, yes, I would. Especially since the gypsy is on your side. I believe that this world needs to be reshaped by purging all of the evil within."

"By purging, do you mean the war?" I asked.

I noticed my cousin clench and unclench his jaw before speaking. "Well, I don't care how much evil is in this world. As slayers, our original duty was to protect pure creatures, but over time we came to protect all that is good. I cannot accept that you wish to exterminate all mythical creatures from existence because you dislike humans and different species coming together to create new life. And if you won't stop the heinous crimes that you are committing, then I will have no choice but to taint my hands by siding with the vampires to stop you."

The principal gave my cousin a cocky smirk. "The laws have not changed since we were first created, Neji Hyuga. If you, as a slayer, side with vampires, our enemies, then I will have no choice but to report you to the higher-ups to have you executed. If you join me now then you can save yourself."

Neji met her smirk with a smile. "What you are doing is unjust. If I had to join you in order to save myself from execution then I would rather die. I don't want salvation. I want justice."

Without anything else to say, Neji and I left the building. We ventured as far as the parking lot when Neji stopped in front of his car wearing a troubled expression. It looked to me as if he wanted to say something without complicating our situation further but he couldn't find the right words.

"Do you regret your words?" I asked as I walked up beside him. "I know that it must be hard to go against your kind and side with the ones that you were raised to kill… Or are you worried about execution?" I bit my bottom lip and tried to refrain from shaking in anger and fear. "I won't let them execute you. I just got you back. I… I know that I can't really do much, but I will try even if that means running as far away from here as possible with you."

My cousin wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him. In an instant, I was calmed by his familiar warmth. As kids, Neji would cuddle with me until I calmed down right after my father had scolded me, and sometimes he'd even invite me to sleep with him. It was rare when we were caught in the same bed, but whenever we were discovered by my father or mother, Neji would take all of the blame. Instead of seeing him as my cousin, I saw him more as my older brother, my older brother who can calm me down just by simply sharing his warmth with me.

"It's true that I'm not okay with teaming up with the very creatures that I was taught to slay, but it's better than going with Tsunade. I would rather do what's right as opposed to doing what I was taught to believe was right. Not only that, I don't think that I would be able to fight against you or Haku."

Neji bringing up Haku reminded me about how hurt he looked when he watched the gypsy glue himself by Sasuke. "Are you really going to wait until the end of the war to tell Haku how you feel? Are you okay with that?"

His grip on my shoulder tightened slightly. "No. I'm not okay with that, but he's so attached to Sasuke that I don't think he'll take my feelings into consideration. So I'm going to wait and show him what I can do in the war to increase my chances with him."

I smiled softly. "That's a good idea."

"Let's get back to Sakura's house," Neji said as he released my shoulders and unlocked his car. "Standing out here any longer than this is dangerous."

"Agreed."

I felt better driving back to Sakura's house than when driving to the school to meet with Tsunade, but I still couldn't shake this gloomy feeling overtaking me. It not only made me gloomy, but it also gave me a feeling of self-doubt. I know that I cannot do much, that much was obvious to everyone, and my friends always had to protect me from danger, but I never doubted myself or felt this useless until now. The very last thing that I wanted was to sit back while everyone was fighting. Since I was there from the very beginning, I would like to be there at the end fighting alongside my friends.

Neji pulled up in front of Sakura's house but didn't get out of the car. He turned to me instead and asked "What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing." It was a lie that he saw right through so I had to tell him what was on my mind. I didn't expect there to be a solution to my problem once I told him everything, but he actually had an answer for me.

"The last thing that I would suggest is for you to turn into a vampire or werewolf, since I know that Deidara would be more than willing to turn you into either, and I don't think that I could cope with you being an even bigger target for slayers. But even though I know that Deidara has the ability to turn you, I think that Haku should be the one to help you out." He paused for a moment before speaking up again. "Although, if Haku does have a solution for you, I don't feel comfortable with you being in the war."

"Why not? If Haku can help me out, you wouldn't have to watch over me in battle."

"Like you told me earlier about the execution: I just got you back. If I truly can't deal with you facing danger then I'll gladly lock you up far away from the battlefield until it's all over."

I smiled and let out a brief laugh. "You definitely are just like the big brother I always wanted, Neji."

A smile was the last response that he gave me before walking inside of the house with me following close behind. Sakura and Ino were waiting for our return once we got inside and updated us on Sasuke's condition. Unfortunately, he still hasn't woken up, but his wounds are still healing, which is a good sign. Haku hasn't left his side ever since we brought him here, but Naruto and Deidara had enough of waiting for him to wake and decided to hang out in the living room. Neji took that as an opportunity to fill Naruto and Deidara in on what happened in Tsunade's office. What Neji told them only made Deidara hate her even more. She spoke of hybrids as if they were abominations and Deidara was the biggest one of them all.

As Neji filled them in on his role in the war, I took that as my opportunity to text Gaara. He arrived in Konohagakure to see me yesterday and my plan was to see him again today, but the church burned down, we found Sasuke confused and injured at the back of his creepy basement, he passed out once we got Sakura to heal him, we brought Sasuke to Sakura's house, I had to tell my best friends everything about the supernatural world, I ended up going with Neji to meet Tsunade to question her motives, and I'm still waiting for Sasuke to wake up to receive the missing pieces of the puzzle, which is something that I absolutely cannot miss. Fortunately, when I told Gaara everything, he understood. But even though he understood that mess, I wonder if he'll be able to understand and forgive me for selfishly using him as my escape from heart break. If he'll want to break up with me, I'll understand. It'll be for the best.

Right after I finished texting my potential ex-boyfriend, Ino plopped down on the floor beside me, wrapped her arm around me, and rested her head on my shoulder. Sakura took the spot on the floor on my other side.

"Sorry if we were bitches before," Ino said. "This was just a lot to take in, you know?"

"Yeah," Sakura said. "And I guess we were kind of mad at you for keeping this a secret from us for months. O-Of course you couldn't have really told us that you made friends with vampires, a gypsy, and a kitsune and expected us to believe you. That would be unrealistic."

"And we are totally going to able to keep this a secret, too," Ino said. "So you can tell us everything that's bothering you from now on. And now I can even give you boyfriend advice if Gaara does some kind of weird sandy thing that pisses you off."

"Not only that, if you're gone for days without telling us where you are, we'll understand that you're probably on some crazy, supernatural mission or something."

"Totally!"

I laughed aloud. "By no means were you guys acting like bitches, but I accept your apology anyways. In fact, you didn't have to apologize at all because I understand. I'm just happy that you won't stop being my friends."

"We'd never do that," Sakura said.

"I'd be a little hard to let you go, Hinata," Ino said. "It's fun having you around, and on top of that, we love you."

"I love you guys, too."

We gave each other a tight group hug and not a moment later, Haku came running down the stairs and into the living room. His face was pale and he had bags under his bloodshot eyes from crying. He said frantically "Sasuke's awake, but we have a problem."

I stood up with my human and supernatural friends and asked "What kind of problem?"

"He… um…" Haku looked like wanted to cry. "He will not speak. He… won't even look at me."

My cousin was at Haku's side, comforting him, as soon as the tears escaped and fell down his cheeks. Neji pulled Haku into a tight embrace before he told me to check on Sasuke. He didn't have to tell me twice before I went up the stairs to Sasuke with Naruto and Deidara following in suit.

Sasuke was sitting on Sakura's blood soaked bed looking ghostly pale. His dark eyes that once studied everything and everyone around him was now staring blankly straight ahead at Sakura's closet door. I don't even think that he was aware that my friends and I walked in the room. Honestly, I was afraid to get closer to him. I wasn't sure if he would come back to reality any moment still confused and bewildered and ready to attack. I had to push my fear aside for the sake of my friend though, so I approached Sasuke with my guard up.

I extended a hand to touch him, but in my attempt to let him know that I was there, I ended up retracting my hand back and gasping at how cold and hard his body felt. It was like he was a corpse in rigor mortis and that scared me gravely. My parents' and sister's bodies were never recovered from the car so I never knew what a dead body felt like. Touching one is one of the worse things that I could ever imagine, especially since I still can't deal with death very well. If Sasuke died, I don't know what I'd do. He may not have had the best intentions when we first met, but I still care about him.

"S-Sasuke," I said, voice cracking as I extended my hand again in another attempt to capture his attention. "Can you hear me?"

There was no response or movement whatsoever. He had no idea that I was there.

"I've never seen anything like this," Deidara said as he observed Sasuke. "It's like he has no soul, or more like, he's broken."

"What does that mean?" Naruto asked.

"Whatever he had to endure in the church before it was burned down, traumatized him. This is his way of coping with the trauma. He's piecing together what happened in his mind and when he's ready to come back to us, he will."

"But what he went through was, you know, traumatizing. Won't it be a bad thing to wake up and have nothing but those memories constantly reminding you of what happened?"

"Yeah, it definitely will, fox boy. Let's just hope that when he comes to he won't try to snap one of our necks."

"How long will it take for him to come back to us?" I asked.

"Depends on what he went through. It could take minutes, hours, days, months, a year or two. It all depends."

I placed my hand on top of Sasuke's cold, hard one and felt like crying just like Haku did. Slayers were supposed to be the good guys but they attacked an innocent vampire in his own home and tortured him until he broke. It angered me and I wanted revenge. Every part of me wanted to go out right now, track down the slayers that did this, and make them suffer even more so than they made Sasuke suffer. I wanted them dead and I wanted to be the one to kill them off.

Deidara placed a hand on my shoulder. "Don't think like that. You're supposed to be the positive thinker, remember? Revenge and dark thoughts are my job."

"S-Sorry…" I said without looking at him.

"Hey," he called softly. "Sasuke's going to be okay. He can get through this. Have a little faith in him."

"You think so?" I asked.

"Yeah, don't worry," Naruto said. "Deidara seems to know what he's talking about for once, so we should just sit this through for a little while longer until he wakes up."

"Thanks for the complimenting insult," Deidara said to Naruto. "Why don't we wait downstairs with the others while Sasuke collets himself."

I looked back at Sasuke and shivered at his death-like appearance. "I want to stay here with him until he wakes up. If he does come to with all of the memories of the trauma that he had to endure at the church, someone should be here for him. And Haku's not in the best condition to be the one to babysit even though I'm sure he's more than willing to watch him."

"Then I'll stay with you," Deidara said. He sat down on Sakura's beanbag chair. "Can't have him lashing out at you without me here to protect you now can I?"

I'm not sure if Deidara heard it or not, but my heart began to beat faster at the thought of him worrying about my safety. Even though I already knew that he'd protect me, it still made me happy to hear him say it.

"I'd stay, too, but the smell of undead blood is getting to me," Naruto said as he backed up towards the door. "I'll update everyone on what's happening."

"Okay," I said as Naruto left the room, closing the door behind him.

Moments after Naruto had left the room, Deidara turned to me. I noticed the worry in his blue-gray eyes and in his voice right away when he said to me "It scares me when you think like that, Hinata. You shouldn't want to kill anyone, especially a slayer. I don't want you to end up like me."

When my eyes met his, I felt myself calm down a bit and butterflies stirred in my stomach. "I'm sorry, Deidara."

"Just promise me that you won't think like that again, and if you are going to think like that, let me do all of the dirty work."

"I… I promise."

He gave me a soft smile and then gave his attention to Sasuke. I watched him for a moment and noticed almost immediately that he had something on his mind. I didn't want to come out and ask him what was on his mind right away, so instead I decided to lighten the mood a bit before jumping into asking what he was thinking about.

"You look very pretty sitting in that pink chair," I said with a playful smile. "It really brings out your eyes."

"Oh, ha, ha very funny, Hinata, but I believe the word you are looking for is manly. I look very manly sitting in this chair." He flipped his hair dramatically. "Eat up my good looks while you still can because I won't be sitting here for long."

I laughed. "Yes, that hair flip looked very manly."

"You know it."

"What's on your mind?"

He was obviously surprised at the question and the sudden change in subject, but he responded anyway. "There's a lot of stuff on my mind, Hinata. You have to be a little more specific."

"Okay. What's on your mind right now?"

He smirked. "I'm not so sure if I should tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because even if I do tell you what's on my mind, you won't be able to relieve me of it." He then mumbled under his breath "You just might make it worse."

"Relieve you of it? Make it worse? What are you talking about?"

"Are you really dating Gaara?"

Now I was surprised at the sudden question. While I was currently dating Gaara, I don't think that I will be for long. But I didn't want to go into details or make a big deal out of it so I just said nonchalantly "Yeah. Why?"

"I just wanted to know."

"Why?"

"Because that's what's been on my mind, and I was right, you can't relieve me of it."

"And me dating Gaara has been troubling you?"

"No."

"Then what is?"

Deidara licked his lips and then ran his fingers through his hair. I didn't think that he was going to respond, but then he opened his mouth. "Are you in love with Gaara?"

My eyes widened. I felt Deidara's eyes on me but I refused to look at him. I kept my eyes on my fidgeting hands. "A-Am I in love with Gaara? Why would you ask me that?"

"Because it's been bothering me."

"Why is it bothering you?" I took my eyes off my fidgeting hands and I slowly looked up at Deidara. "Do you want to know because you still want me?"

A tint of pink spread across his face. "T-That's not it!"

"You're lying."

"I'm not lying."

I left Sasuke's side to approach Deidara. "Yes, you are lying."

"I assure you that I'm not, Hinata."

"I can tell when you're lying, and you're doing it right now."

"Drop it Hinata. I shouldn't have brought this up." He got up from the chair to, what I assume, leave the room.

"Yes, you should have." The sharpness in my voice made Deidara freeze and I fixed him with a hard look. I approached him, cupped my blonde friend's cheek, and I searched his eyes. It didn't take me long to find what I was looking for. "You still want me, Deidara. I can see it."

While it relieved me to know that he still cared for me, it made Deidara uneasy to know that I discovered the obvious truth. Deidara may say that he's a bad guy, but he's not as bad as he thinks, well, not anymore. There's no need for him to keep himself away from me and the sooner he realizes this, the better because I really want to be with him. So much so that it almost hurts.

"Stop," Deidara said, removing my hand from his face in the process. He had been reading my mind again. "What did I tell you before? I don't want you to turn back around and say 'I love you.'"

"Fine," I said. "I won't say 'I love you.' Instead I'll say, 'I want you.'"

His eyes may have narrowed, but I still saw happiness in them. Regardless, he said with a frown "That's just as bad."

"Good."

"What do you mean 'good'?! I'll cause nothing but trouble for you! I could even end up hurting you one day, or worse. I could kill you."

"You're psychotic, not a psychopath. There's a difference."

"Not much of one. I could still lash out at you any time."

"I'll take my chances."

"Chances aren't good enough! I need assurance! I need assurance to know that I won't hurt you and I don't have that."

"Stop making excuses for yourself! You're not some wild, rabid animal. You want me and you I want you. We don't need to know any more than that. Just give it a rest and follow your heart."

He frowned deeply at me and his next words made my heart hurt. "My heart is telling me to leave you alone and that's what I'm going to do."

After overcoming the slight shock that his last words gave me, I opened my mouth to retort, but a familiar voice from behind me stopped me.

"What am I doing here?" said the voice.

I took my attention off of Deidara, and he off of me, to look at Sasuke. Relief took me over and I sat beside my raven haired friend. "You're awake."

"Barely," he said as he held his forehead in pain. "I'd rather be asleep as opposed to being awake right now."

"Is it because of what happened at the church?" Deidara asked.

Sasuke nodded.

Deidara frowned. "Hinata, why don't you go downstairs to tell everyone that Sasuke's awake? I'd do it, but I have to ask Sasuke something."

I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Don't worry. I'll take good care of him and I'll try my best not to break him."

I did as he said with acquiesce, but I hated that he acted like nothing happened between us. He didn't even look flustered when my eyes met his. In any other situation I would have brought it up, but now was not the time to do that. I didn't like the idea (because I wanted to talk about it now) but I'll have to wait until I have time to bring it up again, and next time I won't let him get away from me.

Once I told everyone that Sasuke was awake they looked like they couldn't believe it. They said that it didn't take long for him to come to, so that took them aback the most. Everyone went to see him and, sure enough, Haku hugged his closest friend tightly and cried even more. Neji and I stayed near the doorway while everyone else merrily gathered around Sasuke. I knew that Neji stayed near the door because he didn't really know, or like, Sasuke, but I sensed that the main reason was jealousy and I completely understood. However, my cousin had nothing to worry about since the love was entirely one-sided.

"I hate to ruin this moment," Neji said. "But we need to know what happened to you at the church. Was it Tsunade?"

I wasn't the only one to notice Sasuke's body go rigid and his face go ghostly pale as he recalled the events at the place that was once his home. I could tell that he did not want to answer Neji's question, but he knew that he had to. The information was vital.

"It happened after Haku left for school. Three slayers broke in and tied me down. They threw my senses off so I couldn't identify their faces, and I can't remember what they sounded like, but I do remember all of the things that they did to me." He clutched his recently healed chest.

"What did they want?" Neji asked. "Did they just want to scare you or did they want to kill you?"

"Neither. They wanted information. I didn't know what it was that they were asking for, but they didn't believe me when I told them that I hadn't an idea what they were talking about. For hours, they injected me with werewolf poison and burned me. When they got bored with my injuries healing they decided to force me to drink holy water. After that, they did even more gruesome things to me and burned down the church with me still tied down. I don't remember how I escaped."

My eyes trailed to his abdomen. Sasuke refused to say how, but I'm guessing that the slayers cut open his torso and did as they pleased with his insides, such as burning a cross into his heart. The image of his body cut open will, without a doubt, give me nightmares.

"What did they want from you?" I asked. I was angry still and everyone noticed. "What was so important that they had to do such terrible things to you?"

"They wanted to know the spell to terminate all supernatural creatures."

"So Tsunade was behind this," Neji said. "But why would they demand such a thing from you when you aren't a witch?"

"I don't know."

Silence fell on the room as everyone began to wonder why Tsunade sent slayers to get a spell from Sasuke when he wasn't a witch. I tried to come up with a theory, but nothing remotely close came to mind. In my pondering, I subconsciously stuffed my hands in my pockets and came across Sasuke's locket. I forgot that I had it.

"Sasuke," I called through the silence. "I found this in the ashes of the church."

I tossed him the locket, but Haku caught it before Sasuke could. The gypsy curiously inspected the silver gift that Sasuke's late brother gave to him and he opened it. My friends and I watched the young gypsy curiously as he traced his fingers over the locket.

"There is something special about this," Haku said. "Do you mind if I hold onto this, Sasuke?"

"Of course not, Haku."

The gypsy stuffed the locket into his pocket for later inspection.

"Hey, I'm a little new at this…," Sakura said, "but why would slayers want a spell? Wouldn't it be useless since they aren't witches?"

"That's true," Deidara said. "A spell that can eliminate all supernatural beings seems a little more than advanced. They could pluck any random witch off the streets and force them to perform the spell, but an amateur witch would be just as useless as a slayer performing it, and kidnapping a strong one would be suicide."

"Do you think they have a strong one on their side?" Naruto asked.

"I can't see any powerful witch willingly helping them get rid of every supernatural race other than slayers unless they were suicidal. But it could be likely that a witch is on their side."

"Then we are at a disadvantage," Haku said. "If that is true, then we are going to have to talk strategy, and we are going to have to recruit as many creatures as possible."

"That'll be easy," Deidara said sarcastically.

"Regardless, this war is going to happen one way or another," Neji said. "I can safely say that no one here wants to be erased from existence so we are going to have to try hard to cooperate with one another. From here on until the end of the war we are all allies and we must see each other as equals. Tsunade and the slayers will not win this. I will not let them."

"So what's the plan, general?" Deidara said with a, surprisingly, kind smile.

Everyone gave my cousin their attention as they awaited his answer.

"We are going to war."