Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Colour of Your Blood ❯ Chapter Two: Kaiyo ( Chapter 2 )

The Colour of Your Blood

 

A Sakura-Gaara Story

 

Chapter Two: Kaiyo

 

“TenTen?” Sakura asked, hardly believing her eyes.

 

“Sakura!” the girl cried. She ran past her dark haired companion and Gaara and tightly embraced the bewildered Sakura. “It's so good to see you again!” TenTen exclaimed.

 

“We thought you were dead!” Sakura choked. TenTen had lived next door to the Harunos when Sakura was a young child. TenTen's parents were almost always out of town on business, so the Harunos practically adopted her. She had been the older sister Sakura never had, until she was sacrificed eleven years ago.

 

The two girls stood in the middle of the entrance hall, hugging and crying, completely oblivious to the two vampires watching them. Gaara let the door swing shut and cleared his throat.

 

“Sakura, take her up to your room,” he commanded in his even voice. Sakura, with raised spirits, grabbed TenTen's hand and ushered her up the stairs, chattering away already. The two vampires glanced at each other before heading off to Gaara's study in silence.

 

 

Sakura and TenTen sat on the bed together because of a lack of chairs. Sakura had been chatting about the goings on in the village since TenTen left. Not a lot had happened.

 

Sakura had been staring at TenTen's neck the entire time. On the left were two small pearly scars. “So how have you been?” Sakura finally asked.

 

TenTen gave an airy sigh. “Oh, well, you know…” she drifted off with a dreamy smile.

 

“I don't get it,” Sakura blurted out, “This whole vampire sacrifice thing. Everyone always said the sacrifices were sucked dry, but nothing has happened yet.”

 

TenTen gave Sakura a pitying look, like she was an idiot. “The village is wrong,” the brown haired girl began patiently (and slowly), “The vampires aren't evil or anything like that. You should know that by now; haven't you read the book?”

 

Sakura glanced over at the huge book on the small round table. “That sleeping pill?” she asked dryly.

 

“You should read it; there is quite a lot of information.” Sakura grunted in reply. “Well, it explains about the sacrifices. We aren't eaten and killed; we are more like companions. What happens is a vampire will leave a specific mark or object on the sacrificial table, signalling that they need a new human. The village then leaves an offering for the vampire to pick up, and they are bonded for life afterwards.”

 

“That's stupid, why do the villages give the sacrifices?”

 

“Because the vampires protect the villages, silly,” TenTen explained, “The village leaders just don't tell you that.”

 

“So they don't feed on you?” Sakura looked at TenTen's neck sceptically.

 

TenTen tried to hide a small smirk. “Oh, they feed on you,” she muttered.

 

Sakura looked worried. “Does it hurt?”

 

“A bit the first time,” TenTen managed to choke out between giggles.

 

“What's so funny?” the pink-haired girl demanded.

 

“Read the book.”

 

 

Gaara had made no attempt to clean up the study. Books and scrolls, priceless artefacts, were strewn across the floor and a chair had been smashed to bits in a blind rage. Gaara walked overtop of the mess, throwing his gourd against a wall and sitting behind his desk. Neji carefully picked his way around the papers to stand in front of the red haired vampire.

 

“Have you heard anything from the others?” Neji asked. Gaara merely shook his head. “I'd imagine they'd be showing up over the next few days. You know what we are like, we just turn up on the door step.” Neji had no idea why he kept babbling on. “They will come,” he continued confidently. “This is, after all, the third one this month.”

 

Gaara's eyes shot up to glare at the dark haired vampire icily. Neji stuck his words in his throat. He went too far too soon, and he knew it. He remembered the pain.

 

 

It was two in the morning, and the two girls were still up talking.

 

“What is Neji like?” Sakura asked. She had pulled the comforter off of her bed and spread it out on the cold floor while TenTen stayed on the bed.

 

TenTen blushed a little at the question and didn't meet Sakura's eyes. “He's…sweet, I guess, but only when no one else is around.”

 

“Do you love him?”

 

TenTen traced a circle with her finger on the sheet and kept her eyes down. “I thought I hated him at first, for taking me away from my home. I actually threw a chair at him at one point.”

 

“A chair?”

 

“It was only a lawn chair,” TenTen declared defensively. “Anyway, I was really depressed for the first few weeks and I cried like a baby and threw temper tantrums and acted like a brat, even though Neji was giving me all this stuff to try to make my room look more like home. Neji stayed with me all night and we just talked about nothing. And—”

 

“And then what?” Sakura asked mischievously.

 

“And then, I don't really know. Since then we are with each other almost all the time, and it just works. It just happened.”

 

Sakura sighed. “I wish I had got one like that,” she said dreamily, “Instead I got some psychopath. He suffocated me when he came to get me at the table. I think he is insane.”

 

“Well,” TenTen said quietly, “He's had it pretty rough lately.”

 

“Why? What happened?”

 

“I don't know if I should be the one to say this, but, his last human was killed. They had been together for over three hundred years. Her name was Kaiyo.”

 

“Three hundred years?” Sakura screeched incredulously. “Who killed her?”

 

“I don't know,” TenTen's voice was getting lower, and Sakura had to lean in closer to hear. “Neji wouldn't tell me, but I overheard him talking to another vampire, and he said that thirteen human companions had been murdered in the past two years.”

 

 

Gaara stood alone on the roof, the cold night breeze blowing through his thin clothes. The roof was beautiful, a desert oasis filled with stout trees, hardy grasses, and bright flowers, and the occasional cactus. They were starting to wither and die, though, because no one was taking care of them. Because she wasn't there any more.

 

“I told you not to leave your room,” Gaara said in his emotionless voice. Sakura tentatively stepped out of the stairwell that led to the top floor of the castle.

 

“I heard about Kaiyo,” Sakura began awkwardly, “I'm sorry. I guess I understand now why you were being such an—” Gaara made no reply or any gesture to acknowledge that he heard the girl's babbling. Sakura decided to change the subject. “So what's your thing?” she asked in a curious voice.

 

“What?” Gaara turned his head to give the girl one of his looks.

 

“I was taking with TenTen and she said that all vampires have a special thing, like a technique or a special power or something like that. What's yours?”

 

Gaara turned his head back out to the endless dunes. “The sand protects me,” he said simply.

 

“Wow, really? That's so cool. So if I threw something at you, it would just bounce off of the sand?”

 

“Yes.” Thump. “Did you just throw a chair at me?”

 

“It was only a lawn chair,” Sakura mumbled sheepishly.