City of Night

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

It felt like the world froze in place as Gaara fell and the world sped up again when Sakura heard the soft crunch of his body hitting the gravel and Ino's cruel laughter, feeling her whole body turn cold and her blood turn to ice in hers veins with cold fury. Never before had Sakura wanted to kill someone. She wanted blood.

"Dammit, Sasuke!" Sakura shrieked hysterically, thrashing against Karin's grip frantically, ignoring the hot tears streaming down her face as she tried to free herself from the redhead's powerful grasp.

Sasuke gazed blankly at her tear stained cheeks while Ino wrapped her arms around his torso from behind. "Stop struggling," was all he said and Sakura screamed at him with fury and frustration, baring her fangs at him, growling and wailing loudly from the pain in her heart, like a piece of her soul had just been ripped from her body. She let her head fall forward, her hair falling forward to hide her face while she wept.

"Let go, Neji!" Tenten screamed at her captor and Karin sniggered. "It's not like he actually cares about you anymore. Just give up struggling like his cousin over here." Sakura could hear Hinata weeping softly as Kiba watched her, his face impassive. Tenten stilled and fell silent, realising that struggling was just a waste of time. Neji was too strong.

Sakura froze and went rigid with wide eyes trained on the gravel in front of her when she felt energy return to her limbs as Karin loosened her grasp.

"Let's go," Ino snapped before sneering down at Sakura as she walked passed her. "Leave the human to her grief. We can kill her another day. I want her to suffer." Sakura heard Karin snigger from behind but she watched the ground numbly, not reacting. Tenten spat at Ino's feet when Neji released her but the brunette didn't attack once she was free. She stayed on her knees and watched Sakura's grief-stricken face with concern.

"Come, Sasuke!" Karin called, releasing Sakura's arms, and Sasuke followed obediently after Ino, with Kiba, Neji and a sniggering Karin in tow. The five of them became blurs and vanished into the darkness. Sakura didn't care. The instant she felt Karin's grip relax, she ran to Gaara, her mind blank and numb and her vision blurred by tears of anguish and grief. She lost the sense of her surroundings, there was only Gaara.

She fell onto her knees beside him when she reached him. A huge bleeding hole on the left side of his chest gaped at her from where his heart had been and Sakura knew, with a bitter feeling, that he had died the moment he had whispered her name. She sank her teeth into the soft flesh of her arm and pressed the bleeding bite mark to his lips before letting her arm drop to her side when he didn't drink, the mark healing itself. She couldn't heal something that wasn't there.

She felt too numb to cry now as she held the fallen Kazekage's head in her lap, stroking his wild red hair and lightly brushing his cheeks with her fingertips. Sakura reached out, her face a blank mask, and gripped the small vial of her blood hanging around his neck gently. What was the point of having this?

A trembling hand touched her shoulder nervously. "Sakura, it's almost sunrise," Hinata whimpered, her left eye swollen shut from where Neji had struck her and the cut on her shoulder staining the white lace of her hoodie a dark red. "We need to take the Kazekage back to the Sand to be buried by his people."

Tenten growled as she lightly prodded the deep wound in her side, shutting her eyes tightly with pain as her fingers came away red and bloody.

"Those bitches will pay," she snarled through clenched teeth, her fangs bared with fury before her face contorted with sorrow as her eyes fell on Gaara.

"They're both gone," Sakura murmured, barely hearing what her friends were saying. "Come, Sakura," Tenten pleaded, leaning heavily against Hinata, her skin coated with a thin layer of sweat as her hand clutched her side tightly. "Tenten, that wound," Hinata squeaked, "Use the vial around your neck!"