Chapter 32

When I awoke next, I was back in my cold cell with a fresh set of clothing and not a mark on my body. I went through all that trouble. I did such unspeakable things in desperation, but had nothing to show for it, not even a scar.

Sasuke had such a devastated look on his face when he looked at me from behind bars. My eyes squeezed shut and I gripped the tooth necklace in my hand as I tried to keep from crying. He looked like he'd been going through hell, just like the rest of us.

I don't know what I was thinking, giving him the keys. Kabuto would obviously notice they were gone and it would be easy for him to come to the conclusion that I gave them to Sasuke. So all of that effort and trauma really was for absolutely nothing.

When my two friends across the hall awoke, they were extremely shocked to see me upright. Apparently I'd been out for more than two weeks. The guards had taken me somewhere at least once a day before returning my still unconscious body to the cell.

The passage of time had become a source of confusion for me. It felt like I'd slept overnight, not more than fourteen days. It had to have been at least two months since our capture, but for all I knew it could be even more.

Naruto and Hinata reconciled once he was able to forgive her for not coming forward with the truth about her lineage, which only made things more uncomfortable when he'd be returned to his cell after Karin called for him. I didn't know if he'd told her what they're doing to him, but I'm sure she'd figured it out by the look on his face.

My heart ached for the pair. Hinata had confided in me at the hotel that she was interested in experiencing sex for the first time with him and I know he felt the exact same way for her, but that tender encounter has forever been tainted.

No one came for the Hyuga heiress after she'd been moved to the cell beside the Uzumaki boy, which confused us all. Why go through the trouble of capturing her if they were just going to let her rot.

Multiple days passed after I woke before guards finally came and retrieved me from my cell. My friends could only give me concerned looks as I was led away. I didn't bother fighting this time around because whatever awaited me would likely wear me out.

Upon arriving in Orochimaru's lab, I was strapped down to the table as per usual, but was surprised to see a second table across the room. It had much thicker, metal, cuffs instead of the leather ones on mine.

Please tell me they don't plan to…

The doctor waited until the two guards were out of the room before addressing me with a bright grin, "Good morning, Sakura. You gave us quite a scare, sleeping for that long. How do you feel?"

My glare locked onto his form as he slid his hands under my thin shirt to feel for something near my pelvic bones, something he always did.

"Either kill me or let me go already. I'm tired of this."

My body became dusted with goosebumps as a crash sounded right outside the door. Orochimaru didn't even turn or pause in his actions as six guards struggled to control a muzzled, shackled, and raging Sasuke. His eyes glowed a dangerously bright red as he fought. Two more guards came in behind them and I caught a glimpse of multiple unconscious or maybe even dead guards in the hall they'd come in from.

My face fell in disbelief.

His movements froze when his glowing eyes landed on me and I watched in horror as they danced down to the doctor's hands under my shirt. All hell broke loose and he quickly freed one of his arms by throwing two of the guards several feet away, but he was quickly subdued by the other six and soon had his wrists and ankles held down by the metal cuffs on the other table.

The muzzle on his face greatly muffled him, but I could tell he was trying to say something to me because the tone of his voice was heartbreaking and his eyes had returned to their usual black. Tears rose in my eyes as I looked at the small cuts on his arms and face. Vampires usually heal small wounds like that in seconds, so I couldn't understand why those ones were still visible.

Orochimaru stepped into my view with an amused smile, "So this is what it takes to make you compliant."

My glare returned and I tried to tear my wrists free so I could make a fool of myself trying to pummel the vampire, "I'm not compliant, you bastard."

Karin and Kabuto entered the room as the group of masked guards exited. Everything in me was screaming to get the hell out of there. Whatever called for all three of these terrible people couldn't be good.

Kabuto's eyes locked onto mine and immediately started glowing red with rage, his jaw flexing as he obviously grit his teeth. My brow furrowed and I looked away in terror. I'd made an enemy of an incredibly dangerous vampire.

The doctor's smile widened when he noticed my unease, "Don't look so guilty, my dear. Young Kabuto has healed completely."

Bile threatened to rise in my throat at the memory of what I did, but instead I barked at him in a disgusted voice as I tried to avoid Sasuke's clearly surprised face, "I'll be sure to bite it clean off next time he tries something like that, then."

The vampire in question took a step forward, but his master raised a hand to stop him, "I admire your bravery, Sakura, but will you be able to keep it up?"

Without waiting for my response, he turned to the other two and spoke as though they were all in a business meeting, "We've gathered here, as you know, for an update."

He gestured to me after adjusting the table I was on until I was almost completely upright, like how I'd been when Karin was torturing me. Kabuto did the same to Sasuke's without needing to be told. The prince and I weakly held one another's gaze now that we were directly facing each other.

"Our lovely cherry blossom has shown incredible progress strengthening her pain tolerance, amongst other things, while her boyfriend has been giving us quite a bit of trouble."

He turned to give Sasuke a playful frown, "You've been quite the troublemaker, Prince."

Kabuto and Karin avoided meeting Sasuke's eyes, probably still susceptible to being glowed, but Orochimaru seemed completely at ease. I briefly wondered what exactly they were talking about, but my thoughts were cut when the doctor continued, "Shall we have a demonstration?"

My eyes tore from Sasuke's and looked at Orochimaru in terror, silently pleading for him not to do this in front of everyone else. The vampire grinned at my distress, "Listen carefully. You will not faint today."

I could tell that he was making that an order, but wondered if it'd work. Do glows work if the person is physically incapable of following them?

Looking satisfied, he continued, "Can Sasuke Uchiha control other vampires?"

I've never seen him do it, personally, but he told me he'd been able to glow Obito the night of the ball. That being said, I wasn't about to give that information up, so my teeth grit together as a familiar pain started to crawl up my spine.

Karin and Kabuto looked mildly surprised by my perseverance, Sasuke looked like he was the one being tortured, and Orochimaru looked proud, "She can stay silent for well over forty seconds. The pain worsens the longer she resists."

He was speaking only the truth. The hot electricity shooting around inside my body was increasing by the second. The room was silent as they watched me slowly start to sweat and breathe heavily with effort. A minute or so later and I became unable to hold in my screams. It was like every nerve in my body was being destroyed, reconstructed, and then destroyed again. My entire body soon began to tremble with the effort to keep itself together.

Karin was laughing, but I couldn't hear it and focused on not letting my mind succumb to the pain. When it reached the level of torture that I've most recently relented at, I refused to give in. This time, I'll let it tear me apart before I give the doctor the satisfaction of probing my mind.

Orohimaru's eyebrows rose in surprise as I felt blood dripping from my ears, eyes, and nose. The coppery taste of blood even arose in my mouth.

A wild and chaotic heat was rising in my skull and it felt close to ripping me in two until he finally stopped me, "Enough!"

The pain subsided and I was left gasping loudly as I tried to pick up the pieces of my body and mentality. Blood and tears rolled heavily down my cheeks as I held my glare on Orochimaru's giddy face. I couldn't bring myself to meet Sasuke's eye. Not now that he'd seen me like that.

"Incredible! I've never seen even a vampire survive that long!" Kabuto's hate of me seemed to be overridden by his interest.

The doctor let out a laugh as he acknowledged his protege, "I told you Tanaka blood is like no other, didn't I?"

Sasuke suddenly started struggling against his bindings, pulling the attention of the room. "Had you not yet deduced her lineage, Sasuke? I'm shocked."

Finally, I got a hold of myself and looked at the floor in defeat. I don't know what it meant to the Uchihas, Sasuke in particular, that Ino and I are apparently Tanakas, but judging from the prince's reaction I was in a lot of danger.

Suddenly, a loud rumble sounded in the distance that seemed to be an explosion of some sort. It sounded like it came from outside the building and maybe even above ground. Orochimaru wordlessly motioned for Kabuto to leave, likely to find the cause, before turning to me and placing his cold hands on either side of my face. He looked at me like a prized science project, "I can't wait to unlock your other gifts."

Another loud rumble occurred and even shook the room, making the beakers on the counter roll over to shatter into pieces on the floor. His once intrigued expression fell into one of annoyance, "The rest of this little reunion will have to wait-" An explosion suddenly destroyed the wall of the room to our side and the table I was strapped to was thrown to the side amidst the rubble.

One of my wrists came free in the chaos and I frantically snatched a scalpel from the rubble and tucked it into the band of my shorts. "Karin, take her to her cell."

The redhead quickly did as told and released me from the table the rest of the way so she could grab a handful of my hair and force me to walk ahead of her. I tried to turn and see where Sasuke was, only to see that his table was destroyed and both he and Orochimaru were gone. "Let's go! Move!" Karin shoved me forward with more force and I stumbled as I struggled against her grip.

The floor was littered with glass and rubble. Other sections of the building had also been damaged. I was worried about Sasuke, but in the moment I had to focus on myself and trust that he could take care of himself for now. Once I was sure we were out of Orochimaru's earshot, I reached up to try and tug my hair from the redhead's grip, but it only tightened and she pushed me roughly forward.

With a deep breath, I pulled the scalpel from my waistband and tried to reach back and stab her with it, but she easily avoided the swipes and angrily shoved me to my knees. Seeing no other choice, I gripped one of my hands over hers on my hair and sliced through her fingers and my hair.

She released me in an instant, gasping in pain as she looked at her bleeding fingers. A couple of them were completely severed, but the rest were deeply cut. Long strands of my hair fell to the floor as I swirled around and kicked her in the stomach, which shocked her into falling back onto her bottom on the concrete floor. I didn't give her any time to react and straddled her hips before pushing her shoulder down to the floor with one hand and wrenching the scalpel into her chest as hard as I could with the other.

Her eyes widened in pain and terror, but my vision was red with rage as I finally had a chance to get revenge for her treatment of both me and Naruto. I stabbed her multiple times before abandoning the scalpel and continuing to punch her. My fit was interrupted by another explosion throwing our bodies about and I lost consciousness for what felt like only a minute.

A large chunk of concrete had landed atop my arm and I could barely move it, but I was able to find Karin's unmoving body amid the rubble and swipe the keys from her belt loop before hurrying toward the cells. There was obviously a fire going on somewhere in the building as smoke was starting to fill the air, but I didn't worry too much about it since most of the building was concrete and fire wouldn't spread easily.

Finally, I arrived at the cell holding Hinata and she leapt to her feet, eyes looking over me in shock, "What's going on? Are you alright?"

I fumbled with the keys, trying each one until finally locating the right one and unlocking the door to both her and Naruto's cells. The two looked at each other in confusion before our reunion was interrupted by two masked guards coming toward us from the same direction I'd come.

Hinata pushed me behind her with one hand, those veins around her eyes spreading like I'd seen them that one time when Kabuto had taken me, "Let me handle this."

Naruto caught me as I stumbled toward him, reaching past me to try and stop Hinata, "Wait, Hina-" The small woman moved with speed and precision, hitting the two guards in specific points on their bodies as quickly as lightning and causing them both to fall to the ground in a motionless heap.

I heard Naruto's mouth clamped closed, but mine fell open slightly in shock. Another explosion sounded, this time further away, and Hinata turned back to us, the veins around her eyes still visible and protruding against her pale skin, "Let's move!"

I nodded, pulling Naruto's hand as Hinata led us through a few halls until we reached the lab I'd escaped from with Karin. It was the source of the fire, as it would seem, as the piles of rubble and broken furniture burnt. There was blood splashed around the room, but no bodies were visible to the naked eye.

I looked over at Hinata, "This is where I saw Sasuke. Can you see anything?"

She looked around frantically before her eyes widened, eyebrows rising in surprise, "I see a body not far from here."

My heart rose to my throat and I rushed in the direction she was looking, wincing as I burnt my feet on the heated floor for a few steps, but ultimately ignoring the pain. I heard both her and Naruto call after me, but continued forward until my eyes landed on what she'd been describing. A headless torso lay bloodied and damaged, but the decapitated head was nowhere to be found so I couldn't identify the male body's owner.

I heard quick footsteps approaching and turned to see someone unexpected. Ino and Sai stopped a few yards away with shocked expressions. Tears rose in my eyes and I rushed to hug Ino with my good arm, tears of relief quickly flowing down my face. To my shock, she pushed me away and I was too weak to stop myself from falling to the ground.

When I looked up, I nearly screamed and shot even further away with my injured limb cradled in my lap. Ino's usually pale blue eyes were glowing red and a beast-like hungry look was contorting her beautiful face.