Chapter 10

My fingers shook as I unbuttoned the large shirt I was wearing and laid it on the ground against the wall furthest from the door before helping Ino sit down on top of it. She was crying loudly and the sound was actively breaking my heart.

Her entire body was trembling with fear. I couldn't blame her in the slightest. I was scared and I wasn't even the one about to give birth. The sound of fighting outside was only getting louder.

"S-Sakura, I need him to be here!"

I knelt down to lay a hand on her shoulder, "He's coming, Ino. We just have to keep fighting a little longer. You can do this." She leaned back to lay down as another contraction tore sounds of pain from her mouth.

My brow furrowed. I didn't know what to do or how to help her. Before I could try and figure it out, the door to the room opened and the two vampires that have been defending us backed their way inside, still holding off Kaguya's men as they followed them.

Madara sounded extremely angry as he barked out without looking back at me, "How's she doing?"

I looked down at my sister, who was squeezing my hand tightly with her eyes closed as she tried to even out her breathing. Her skin was pale and covered with a sheen of sweat. "We need to get her out of here immediately."

"Did you think we'd let you fucking walk out of here?"

My neck turned to see Hidan enter the room with even more men to reinforce him. His lips turned up into a cocky grin when our eyes met, "Time for a rematch, Baby."

Anger shot through my veins and I went to get to my feet so I could face him, only for Ino to tighten her hold, "No! Please don't leave me!"

Sasori glanced back at me before dashing over to attack Hidan and prevent him from coming any closer to us. As they began to fight, it quickly became obvious that while the foot soldiers weren't even close to being strong enough to overpower Madara and him, their numbers were beginning to become too great for them to hold them all back at the same time.

I looked down at Ino and squeezed her hand in between both of mine, "Ino, I have to help or we'll all be killed. I know you're scared, but I have to."

She sobbed as I pulled my hand away and tears rose in my eyes at the fear easily readable on her face, but I had to turn my back to her to meet the handful of men who'd managed to slip past our guards halfway across the room to keep them away from my sister.

A wave of relief came over me when I swung at the first one with all my might and my fist went through his chest. Kaguya's power was still within me. I grit my teeth and continued fighting with the others. I can do this. I have to do this.

Honestly, I was doing pretty well for a long time and eventually cleared the extra soldiers before joining Sasori in facing Hidan, like I promised I would when he agreed to aid our escape.

Ino was letting out cries of pain every couple minutes and the length between them was gradually getting shorter. She was getting closer to giving birth.

Feeling desperate to end this quickly, I dashed forward to swing at Hidan's face, but he dodged and kicked my feet out from under me. My hands managed to hit the ground before my head, but my reflexes weren't quick enough so my temple still smacked against the concrete loudly. I winced before forcing myself to get up and move away so he wouldn't have a chance to get me while I was down.

A dull throb was shooting through my skull, likely a concussion from the impact. Blood was starting to drip slowly down the side of my face as I followed Sasori's instruction and tried to distract the silver-haired menace.

Madara was facing all of the footmen on his own. The sound of his growls and grunts reassured me because it meant he hadn't been bested yet. I couldn't risk turning to look at him, so I had to trust he could handle things until we could help.

With a deep breath, I shouted over the loud room, "Face me, you coward! Quit running away!"

Hidan swung at Sasori and the redhead jumped back to start fighting one of the footsoldiers so the stronger vampire would focus on me instead. "You're not gonna land a single hit this time, Baby. Come on, try!"

I did my best to remember the small amount of training Ino had given me before our first trip to Ame as I swung my fists and dodged and moved around. Hidan's eyes were glowing bright red as he suddenly appeared right in front of me and I had to dash to the side, only for my back to hit the left wall of the room. I barely managed to duck in time for his fist to collide with the concrete where my chest had just been.

When I came back up I landed a hit to his side, but he didn't even flinch when my fist went through and simply grabbed my arm before I could pull it back out. My back hit the wall roughly as he pressed against me, "I'm gonna do whatever I want to that body of yours since you're doing the same to me!"

Frantic anxiety and panic shot through me when I glanced over his shoulder to see that Kaguya's son, the one with the reddish-brown hair whose name I didn't know, had entered the room and Sasori was now fighting him. That meant that he wasn't going to be able to help me like we'd planned.

Hidan's face came to block my view and he glared, smile falling slightly, "Don't be fucking rude, bitch. I'm talking to you."

My body moved on its own and I wrapped my legs around his hips so I could reach his neck and sank my teeth into it as hard as possible. The metallic taste of his blood flooded through my mouth, but I had to persevere. He released his hold on my arm in shock and I used the moment to press my back against the wall and use it as leverage to move my feet against his chest and shove him away from me so I wouldn't be cornered anymore.

He held a hand to his bleeding neck and both of us looked stunned when we realized it wasn't healing like it should be. "What the fuck did you do!"

The sound of fighting in the room became louder than it ever had, but Ino's sudden scream was louder than all of it and my neck jerked to the side to see her holding her stomach as she lay on her back with tears falling heavily down her face.

The air was knocked out of me when I was suddenly thrown to the ground and Hidan straddled my hips with a sneer on his lips, "I've had enough of your bullshit, Sakura."

He wrapped one hand around my neck and squeezed while holding my wrists against my stomach with the other. I kicked and bucked my hips to try and knock him off as I struggled to pull in a breath.

"Your blood will still be delicious when you're dead, bitch. We just can't have you fighting back, can we?" He taunted as he leaned over me more to grin in my face.

A choked sound left my lips when I opened my mouth to try and respond. My heart was beating so hard in my chest that it felt like someone was punching against the inside of my ribcage. Black dots started to dance over my vision and my ears and eyes felt like they were on fire. My fighting ceased as I lost the energy to move. Tears continued to fall from my eyes as I closed them in defeat so I wouldn't have to look at this awful vampire's face in my last moments.

Something hot splashed all over me and suddenly the grip on my throat went slack. My eyes shot open as I coughed and forced myself to move out from under him. My entire body heaved as a wave of emotion overcame me so strongly that I froze halfway through my shaking movements.

Sasuke was staring at me with wide red eyes as he dropped Hidan's heart to the ground and let the dead vampire's body fall to the floor. I slowly shook my head when he took a step toward me and my voice was incredibly hoarse when I yelled above the room, "N-No, don't help me! Help Ino!"

My eyes darted over to see Sai come into the room, noticing now that Madara and Sasori had finally gotten rid of the rest of Kaguya's men and were both facing her son. Ino cried out in pain once more and her husband shot across the room, Sasuke and I following him, to kneel by her side.

"I-Ino, you're-!"

My sister's eyes opened and relief fell over her face when she met his eye, "Sai!" He kissed her lips and then her forehead before pulling back with a look of utter disbelief as his eyes trailed over her pregnant body.

Before any of us could say anything, a loud thud met our ears and we all turned to see that Madara had torn Kaguya's son's head off and Sasori had ripped his heart out. They won the fight. A smile came to my lips when Madara turned to meet my eye and he returned it, looking worn out but otherwise okay.

Sasuke wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling my attention away from his uncle and I turned to face him, "Sasuke…I-I'm so sorry!"

His lips were shoved against mine in an instant and I froze in shock for a moment before returning it and pulling him closer so I could wrap my arms around him. It was like I was whole again, being able to hold him.

He pulled back after a moment and glared at me with blazing eyes, "What the hell were you thinking?"

My hands rose to cup his face and I somehow managed to respond through my crying, "I don't know. All I know is that I love you, Sasuke. I love you." He opened his mouth to respond, looking unhappy with my response, but was interrupted by a familiar voice that brought dread over my entire being.

"Everyone stop!"

The room went silent as Kaguya's orders controlled them. My eyes widened when I realized that, while it hurt worse than any orders I've fought up until this point, I could finally disobey her. Wincing and panting for breath, I pulled away from Sasuke's frozen arms and turned to face the woman.

Her eyes were wide as she looked down at her son's corpse and I could feel the rage building within her, "I warned you, Kaguya. I told you to let us go home."

Her head snapped toward me in an instant and terror washed over me at the unhinged expression on her face. She took slow steps as she approached me and I wanted to meet her halfway so she wouldn't come close to Sasuke, Sai, or Ino, but knew if I moved I'd succumb to the mind-numbing pain I was experiencing.

Her voice was husky and menacing as she growled out, "I am going to tear the heart from your chest and eat it. You killed my child!"

Just like the first time she came close to me, my body moved on its own and I firmly grabbed her face with both hands. Energy surged through me like it had before. Everyone around us unfroze as she screamed, sounding like a banshee, and shoved me away.

Sasuke caught me before I could fall to the ground and I panted for breath as I pushed past him to approach Kaguya again, "This is your fault! I told you we would leave and never come back!"

My eyes widened when Sasori and Madara suddenly tried to attack her from behind, but she waved a hand absently and they were thrown against the wall on either side of the room, landing heavily and staying down. I didn't need to check. If they weren't dead, they weren't going to be getting back up any time soon. It was too dangerous to let myself worry about either of them so I shoved my panic to the back of my mind.

Ino's cries started up once more behind us and I heard Sai softly attempting to comfort her, giving her encouraging words.

"Prepare to die a most painful death, my reincarnate. You will rue the day you came to this village."

Sasuke spoke in disbelief, "What's going on?"

Her eyes darted over to him and I moved to stand in between them, "Don't you dare." My voice was more threatening than I ever thought it could be.

"You stole my love, my Tenji. You don't deserve to keep yours." She lunged forward, obviously to attack him, but I shot forward to stop her.

Our hands interlocked and we both shook as we tried to overpower one another. Black veins were protruding from her skin, branching out from her eyes as she cried. My heart fell when I felt the power I'd stolen from her start to be sucked back in through her hands and I tore one away so I could hit her.

She staggered back a few steps before grinning, "No matter how hard you fight, you're still just a human." She waved a hand at me.

One moment I was standing and the next I was thrown backwards into Sasuke hard enough for us both to tumble to the ground. He wrapped his arms around me and broke the fall. "Sakura, tell me what's going on! Who is she?"

I climbed out of his arms, breathing heavily as I glared at the vampire in question, "The original Tanaka." He and Sai both went quiet in disbelief, but I ran at Kaguya again. I had to end things before she got a chance to take back the rest of her power.

She met me halfway and we went to the ground, struggling for dominance over one another. "No matter how hard you fight, you're still getting weaker!"

The ancient woman suddenly reached up from under me and I managed to grab one of her hands, but the other grasped my shoulder tightly, "I'm strong enough for this!"

The sickening sound of my bones crunching met my ears before the blinding pain shot through my shoulder. A cry of agony tore from my chest. Desperate to end things before my body could fold due to the unbearable ache, I shoved the hand I'd caught to the ground and slammed my foot down on it so I could wrap my hand around her neck as tightly as possible.

I couldn't move my other arm because of the damage to my shoulder, so she easily overpowered me and rolled us over, grinning widely with her fangs glinting in the light. Before she could do anything further, she was suddenly tackled off of me and I stumbled up to my feet to see Sasuke take her to the ground.

"No! Don't!" I was the only one who could face her. Somehow I just knew it.

My hand reached around to grab my injured shoulder as I tried to rush over and pull him away before he could be hurt, but I wasn't quick enough. He managed to land a couple decent hits to her before, suddenly, two holes shot through his torso.

A strangled scream left my lips and I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away with all the energy I could muster. Kaguya tried to stop me and go in for more, but I released him to hit her with rage fueling every ounce of my body. It connected with her face and she was thrown clear across the room.

Without waiting to see if she was getting back up, I returned to Sasuke and knelt down to shove my wrist toward his face, "Sasuke! Bite me! Do it now!" If there was ever a time to bite the bullet and turn, it was now.

Ino was screaming almost nonstop and I could see that Sai was sitting between her bent legs with his hands under her skirt as he continued to talk her through it.

Sasuke was going to die if I didn't do something. Blood was pooling quickly around him and he couldn't even keep his eyes from fading back to black. He shook his head and spoke in a weak voice, "You can't-"

I grabbed the front of his shirt and bent down to glare into eyes, "I'm trying to save your life! Bite me!" I shoved my wrist against his lips and he glared up at me, obviously beyond pissed that I was doing all this damage to myself for everyone else's sake, but still opened his mouth and clamped down on my wrist.

Before I could lean down to bite him and get some of his blood, a hand shot through my stomach. We both looked down as my blood poured heavily onto him.

"Sakura!"

Kaguya pulled her hand back out and spoke in a triumphant voice from behind me, "It hurts, doesn't it, knowing that you're both going to die?"

My eyes were wide as I stared at Sasuke's distraught face. There was nothing but pain. Nothing except a burning coursing through my entire body. I felt myself getting rapidly weaker and fell forward against Sasuke's chest.

He wrapped an arm around my body to keep me from falling off of him, "Sakura, drink it, hurry! Open your mouth!" I felt him move as he undoubtedly bit into his wrist, but everything went blank and empty before he could get it to my lips.