Darker than black
Chapter 25

4 months later…

Sakura leaned into Sasukes strong chest and just enjoyed the feeling of being finally able to be close to him again. The last months just flew by them in a rush, both Sasuke and Sakura had to heal from their wounds firt and then they had to take care of other, more urgent matters. After their final showdown with Kabuto, Sasuke and his brother managed to finally lock him up. When Itachi, Sasuke and their father finally went through the events from the previous weeks, they unanimously decided that it was time for the Uchiha clan to take action. And they did the only ting they could have done in a situation like this, that endangered their world and the world of the humans too. They contacted every clan and every vampire that owed the Uchihas a favor and ordered them to New York.

Sasuke and Sakura watched the conference hall of the mansion fill by the second with vampires from all nations and colors. Sasuke had his arm around her shoulders and gave her the steadiness she needed in her nervous condition.

He squeezed her closer to him. "Are you okay? You can leave, if you're not ready for this." He said in a hushed tone and looked down on her with concern in his steely eyes.

Sakura enjoyed the change in Sasuke. His dark black eyes were still as hard and cold as before but only for her, there was something more in them. A gentle shimmer of adoration and something deeper. Something that was only for her.

"I'm fine, just nervous. Remember, human." She pointed at herself with a finger with a small smile in his direction.

With a growl he leaned down and quickly grazed her lower lip with his fangs, just enough for her to feel the pressure and the slight pain. She shivered when his lips slightly drew along the line of her ear. "No longer, mate."

Just when Sakura was about to say that he could be more obvious for others in the room, she saw Ino, Tenten and the other women she developed a tight friendship with, coming towards her. Tenten who was now no longer able to hide her belly waddled at the top and split the crowd, Neji close behind them shooting death glares towards anyone who simply dared to look at his mate. No one wanted to touch a mate not even accidently, especially a pregnant one, while her mate was close to her.

"Sakura, there you are. We already thought you wouldn't attend today." Tenten said and hugged her new won friend tightly. They had developed a strong bond since Sakura had saved the pregnant Tenten from Kabuto when he had invaded the mansion months ago. "Are you okay so far?"

"I'm good, don't worry. I'm just excited for this to start."

Ino nodded, her arms crossed tightly in front of her. "It's the first time since the great wars that these many vampires are gathered. I'm scared, to be honest. Never has this happened before."

Sasukes jaw tightened together with his hold around Sakura. "We'll figure it out."

"We all know you will." Sakura said and took his hand.

While Sasuke and Neji were talking about strategies they wanted to go through after the meeting, when Sakura saw a vampire out of the corner of her eye, standing at the end of the hall. He was tall, had long brown hair and wore a dark leather trench coat over his worn out jeans and shirt. Their eyes met over the heads of the crowd, sea green and dark blue clashed and Sakura quickly averted her gaze.

"Sasuke, who is that?" she quickly asked, feeling more than just uncomfortable and she pointed towards the entrance doors.

He followed the given direction and went completely rigid. His entire body posture changed from relaxed to open displayal of dominance and power. Sakura who noted the change in Sasukes behavior within a second, looked at him with concern. "Sasuke, are you okay?"

He tightened his arms around her "That is Marcus. He is a leader, just like my father."

Sakura arched her brows "A leader, as in, from another clan?"

Sasuke nodded "The crows and the Uchihas, we had- difficulties in the past. We tolerate their presence."

Sakura glanced over her shoulder again, only to notice that the vampire had already vanished.

When Sasuke saw his father and his brother, he gave Sakura one last kiss. "Sit down, the gathering starts."

Sakura squeezed his hand before she let him go. Sakura followed her friends and took place in row at the back of the conference hall. The other vampires also sat down and silence came over the room.

Fugaku stood at the head of a long table, Sasuke and Itachi by his side. They truly looked like a royal family. Sasuke, brute force and ruthlessness, the perfect soldier. Itachi, the cunning mind and the rational heart. But Fugakus booming voice cut through the silence and demanded unfettered attention.

"1900 years ago, my ancestor Madara Uchiha started a war. A war against peace and life itself. My father did everything in his power to stop Madara and he did, at least we thought so."

"We all know what happened, Fugaku. Many of us were there, we fought in the great wars against your ancestor. Stop praising your damn lineage and get to the point." A dark voice snapped from across the hall and Sakura saw the same vampire she had already spotted at the entrance.

A loud murmur went through the room and even a few snarls form the Uchihas became loud. Fugaku narrowed his eyes "I know you were, Marcus. Let me get to the point, as you put it so nonchalantly. My sons-" Fugaku pointed at Sasuke and Itachi. "Discovered, together with the help of my son's mate, the drug that killed so many humans. A drug that was infested with vampire blood. They found Kabuto, Madaras henchman, and locked him up in our prison."

"Your father took the head off of his fucking shoulders and we all saw it." Another vampire said.

"I bet you knew all along he wasn't dead! You traitors!"

"Enough!" Sasukes powerful body pushed in front of his father and his black eyes bore through every vampire who dared to only look at him. "You're a fucking waste of time. Madara is back, that's the stand of things. We will fight and this time, we will kill him and this time, he won't get away."

Itachi who could only shake his head over his brothers dangerous temper, put a calming hand onto his shoulder. "These are dangerous times, for everyone. Not only for vampires but for humans also. To protect our families, our friends and our secret are our top priority. But we have another task and that is to protect the humans."

"Yes, that's right. Both my sons are right." Fugaku stepped forward again. "I have a family to protect and an entire clan. What do you all want to protect the most? Think of it, while facing the dangers of the future, while facing our enemies and losing comrades. So, the question is, will you joins us?"

It was quiet for a while and Sakura clawed her hands into the armrests of her chair, while she anxiously awaited the answer of the vampires. When they decided to turn their backs on them, when they wouldn't fight-

Marcus stood up and walked up the few stairs and stopped in front of Fugaku and his sons. Then, he slowly extended his hand. "You can count on us. The Crows will join you."

And then, one after the other followed Marcus up the stairs and within seconds, the Uchihas had an entire army to fight against Madaras evil.

An hour after the gathering had ended, Sasuke, Itachi, Naruto and all the other warriors from the order sat in a smaller room in exhausted silence, their mates close to them. Their previous fights had taken a tall on all of them, physically but also emotionally. Sakura, who had been living a normal, boring human life before she had met Sasuke, was especially affected by the day. She was still confused, the mind of a journalist was thirsty for more information about Madara and the great war, as they called it but the other side of her, the rational side, just wanted to lay down and to process all the input first.

Finally Ino broke the heavy silence. "Am I the only one who feels like a truck drove over me?"

Sakura leaned her heavy head against Sasukes shoulder. "You're definitely not."

"Honestly, I don't know what to think." Tenten let out a heavy sigh, her hands caressed the swell of her belly. "Everything was fine and now we're at war? I mean, how crazy is this?"

Neji put his hand on his mates shoulder. "I won't let anything happen to you two. Sasuke and I have a plan and together with the help of the other clans, we'll get rid of Madara in no time."

"I don't really want to be the gloomster of the round, but if- and only a big if- Kabuto tells the truth we're up against a vampire who is now over four thousand years old and who is powerful and I mean really powerful." Ino said, a serious look on her normally bright face. "I'm really worried about you guys."

"We'll find a way." Sakura said. They just had to and Sakura had to put faith in Sasuke and the rest of his team. She just had to believe that Sasuke would end victorious.

A knock on the door interrupted the conversation abruptly and the disheveled vampire, Marcus, entered. His stern face and eyes fixed on Sasuke, who immediately stood up and got in front of Sakura. "This a private meeting, get the fuck out of here."

Marcus pulled his lips back and revealed his fangs, a gesture of disrespect. "Calm down, Uchiha. Your father called in first round. I don't want to wait for your ass the entire day."

Naruto grabbed Sasukes arm, just in case the Uchiha wanted to attack and tear Marcus limb from limb. "Get out of here, Marcus before I let him go."

In Sasukes and Sakuras rooms…

It had been hours since Sasuke joined the conference with his father, his brother and the rest of the order. Sakura tried to get a little rest but her mind was uneasy and allowed her none of the much needed sleep she wanted so badly. So she went under the shower and joined Ino for a little girl talk, to take her mind off of the situation. When Sakura returned to her quarters, she noticed with relief that Sasuke was already waiting for her. He had changed from his combat attire and wore black sweat pants and a matching black shirt with long arms.

A small smirk grazed his lips when he saw her enter their rooms. "I was about to fill a missing report."

Sakura laughed and joined Sasuke on the couch. He wrapped his strong arms around her shoulders and Sakura allowed his warmth to fill her cold body. "Are you okay?"

It was still so strange for Sasuke to answer a question like this. Before Sakura, no one had ever cared if he was okay, let alone get the idea of asking him something like that. "Tired. I was about to strangle Marcus during the conference."

"What happened, between you and Marcus?"

Sasuke was silent for a long while and Sakura knew he was fighting an internal fight with himself if or if he shouldn't tell her the story behind his animosity towards Marcus.

"The Uchihas and the Crows, we have very different point of views on may things. Political nature and personal nature. Before the great war against Madara, the Uchihas always voted to protect humanity but the crows, they were not as content with it as we would have liked them to be. So, I guess you could say it was always a strained business relationship. But Marcus, he is still not able to follow our rules and breaks them on regular bases. He's royalty even though you can't see a damn thing of his powerful heritage in him. So he can do whatever the hell he wants without any saying something against it."

"If you say royalty, you mean he is like you?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, he comes from a long line of pureblooded vampires. But he is nothing like me." With a sigh, Sasuke leaned his head backa gaisnt the armrest of the couch. "Did I ever tell you that you are far too clever for your own damn good?"

With a small laugh, Sakura nodded "More than one time. Comes with being a journalist, I guess."

He laughed gruffly "Well, I consider myself lucky then." But Sasuke knew his mate well enough by now to knwo that her mind was still reeling and she wouldn't stop chewing on it until she spoke it out. "Sakura, tell me before you bite your tongue off."

"What will happen now, Sasuke? I mean, Ino was right with what she said earlier. If it's truly Madara we're up against and he is as powerful as I think he is with all I've heard about him, you're up against an opponent- I don't even want to think about what might happen when-" she couldn't finish the sentence. The thought alone was disturbing for her.

Sasuke himself sat up and grabbed her chin between two fingers and looked her in the eyes. "Sakura, I won't die. I've spent a thousand years looking for you. Nothing will ever take me from your side. Not even death will be enough to keep me from you."

She felt tears well up in her eyes when he continued and she knew he was for the very first time, wearig his heart on his sleeve so openly in front of her. "I know you think I saved you when we first met, but the truth is, that you saved me. I've been in the dark my entire life, the world was black and white for me. But it was you, who saved me from my own darkness." His eyes changed, his normally stern and strained face relaxed and she knew all his walls were down. "I always tell you, you belong to me. It's the direct opposite, mortal, I am the one who belongs to you. With every damn fiber of my body."

Sakura refused to ruin this almost magic moment with her tears and threw her legs over his hips. "You know, you promised me eternity a few days ago. And you just admitted that I have you wrapped around my little finger." She leaned down and kissed him deeply, she knew he wasn't great with words so she gave him something back the way he understood the best. She poured all her happiness, her love and her devotion for him into the kiss. "You know, I could make your life hell."

Her devious grin made him growl in excitement and he threw her playfully under him. Looming over her, his eyes changed from black to the glowing amber and his fangs slowly extended in anticipation for what was about to come. "I will love to watch you try, mate."

TAAAAAADAAAAAAA!

Ladies and Gentlemen, my most dearest readers, this is the end of Darker than Black. Thank you all so much for sticking with me and my stories once again after they got deleted (Thanks to the asshole who reported me unnecessarily, I hope you burn in hell) but it's all in the past and I got the chance to improve and smooth out DTB. It's been 3 years since the release of the story and my writing style changed and I have to admit, I love this new version of DTB. This last chapter was very modified and I love it!

Before I start to cry again, back to business. Sasuke and Sakura and the rest of the order will be back in Chapter 1 of Red as Blood. I will give you all a notification before I release the first chapter. I decided to change the course of RAB and I am sooo excited to know what you think of it:) Nonetheless, I have tot ell you that I will put my focus on Being human for the time being, because I want to get the story forward. I will, nonetheless, work on RAB at the same time, so be a little patient with me ;)

HOWEVER, I would love and appreciate it if you would leave me a review what you thought about the chapter and the story since it's been re-uploaded. I'm always open for creative criticism.

Hugs and kisses to you all, love Alessandra :)