Author's Note: Sorry it took so long for the next chapter to come out. The new semester began, and it the work-load was like being hit by a speeding truck. Enjoy the latest chapter~! Constructive Criticism is always welcomed.

Chapter Nine:

Story

In the week that had followed Sakura's first spoken conversation with Sasuke, she had managed to attempt smaller conversations with him when she was absolutely sure that they were completely alone. She didn't allow for even the slightest chance of someone to overhear her, so nervous was she about her own voice.

It took time for her to access her full vocal chords again. She didn't realize how frustrating it could be to not be able to control her voice. Then again, she had never needed to. Not for years. But Sasuke was with her, encouraging her every step of the way. He kept their conversations general and firmly ground in the present. It still caught him off-guard when he heard her voice; he was all too used to interpreting her body language instead. It seemed that since the first night he had met her, she always seemed to surprise him.

The next time she managed to leave him in astonishment was on a normal, every day night as she sat down for dinner at the table. He and his father had just entered the room, and Mikoto was laying a particular dish in front of "Ame," one that she knew was the quiet girl's favorite.

Mikoto smiled warmly down at the rosette haired girl when she smiled back and said, "Thank you," as quiet as a whisper, but stronger and clearer than when she had first spoken Sasuke's name. Mikoto's eyes widened in shock as the serving spoon fell out of her hand and clanged alarmingly on the table. The entire room froze.

The jade-eyed girl looked anxiously up into the mother vampire's face, uncertain of herself for a moment until Mikoto all but burst into tears of unrestrained joy and she hugged the petite woman fiercely.

"How-? Why-? When-?" It seemed like she couldn't make up her mind of which question to ask first.

"She spoke for the first time last week," Sasuke informed her. "Mother, Father, I'd like you to meet Sakura Haruno."

Mikoto held the young woman out at arms length and studied her face. "Sakura?" she breathed.

Sakura nodded timidly, her face flushed from all the attention, but the small smile on her face was hard to deny. She loved making Mikoto so happy.

"Haruno, then?" Fugaku asked himself. "Now we may be able to get somewhere now that we have a name to go off of."

Sakura gently released herself from Mikoto's hold and shook her head. "There is no need. I…," she braced herself for the inevitable. "I will tell you everything."

Fugaku studied her apprehensive but determined face before nodding. "Alright."

"With just the three of us dear?" Mikoto asked, stroking her fingers through Sakura's hair in comfort.

Sakura studied her hands gripped tightly in her lap for a long moment, the family giving her all the time she needed. She looked up at Sasuke after making a decision. "Bring everyone."

"Are you sure?" Surprise laced Mikoto's every word.

Sakura locked eyes with Sasuke and he nodded, understandingly. "Yes," Sakura answered. "Just the once."

The three Uchiha's understood what she wasn't saying, even without the words. Re-living it once would be bad enough. Why put herself through the torture of having to repeat it to any curious ears later? Besides, she had grown accustomed to most of their presences surrounding her on a daily bases, and there was no time like the present to truly put herself to the test. And with Arashi's warning still prominent in their minds, all four knew that the sooner he was taken care of, the better off everyone involved would be. He knew who she was with, which meant he now knew where she was. It would only be a matter of time.

Sakura steadied herself as she heard the door open and another pair of voices add to the growing crowd inside the Uchiha home. While everyone present had now heard that Sakura could speak, it was still only Sasuke, Mikoto and Fugaku who had actually heard her speak. She winced at the manner in which they would be introduced to her voice, through her story.

She watched as all of Sasuke led Naruto, Hinata, Ino, Shikamaru, Tenten, and Neji with a sleeping Suzu in his arms. She smiled tentatively up at them and Ino, Hinata and Tenten all gave her encouraging smiles back.

"I always knew you'd warm up to us," Ino winked, trying to break the tension that was growing in the room. Sasuke had informed them all why they were there, and they had agreed to hide their shock from hearing her voice as best they could. Naruto had been asked twice, much to his annoyance.

Light conversation between the friends sprung up until the rest of the group entered the room. Mikoto entered first, her husband not far behind. Itachi and his breath-taking, dark-haired mate trailed in silently right on their heels. Tsunade brought up the rear.

Now or never, Sakura thought as she watched everyone filter in. Are they ready for this? Am I ready for this?

Sasuke slid into the seat next to her, providing warmth and security as she felt a wave of chills overtake her body. Slight panic began to well up inside her as she realized the magnitude of this moment for her. She caught Sasuke's eyes and simply watched him for one long minute until she had centered herself again. She closed her eyes, breathed in deeply; opening her eyes once more as she exhaled slowly.

She waited until they had all gathered around and settled into their various positions in the room. She had always avoided being the center of attention at all costs. To go unnoticed was the only way to survive. But as she watched everyone relax in comfortably she reminded herself of the importance of this moment, of its sheer vitality. Not only would everything she knew help Sasuke and his family and friends bring down the haunted figure of their world, but it just might reconcile her own nightmares. She might finally be able to put all her ghosts to rest.

"I'll take what I can get. It's not much and I know I could be betrayed in the end, but for what it's worth…I like it here. I've never been in a place where I have felt so completely safe and wanted before. Not in years…

"I feel clean again. As if I have finally awoken out of a nightmare that I know will still be there, waiting for me, when I fall back asleep, but still…right now, I feel happy. For the first time a very, very long time…

"I know I have a boundary, and that I use it to keep everyone at a certain distance. There's been too much to forget, too much I remember. You can't even begin to imagine what I've been through. I wouldn't wish it on even my worst enemy." She caught the looks of disbelief in the room and smiled sadly. "That's right, not even him. Not even Arashi." She breathed in deeply, exhaling slowly as if to steel her for the next part of the story.

"And of course, he's the one who started it all. I hope you have a strong stomach, it isn't pretty." She felt Sasuke squeeze her hand in reassurance and solidity and she took the plunge.

"My name is Sakura. Sakura Haruno. It was the name given to me by my parents, although I have never had a chance to use this name much before. I do not really know the person who belongs to that name; I was never given the time to." She looked around the room. Except maybe now. "The name I grew up with was Tori. It was the name given to me by Arashi. He always said I was his pet 'bird,' his favorite toy. He has always loved his little games…

"I grew up in the dark. So much so that I do not clearly recall my parent's faces. I was so young when we were snatched from our home that everything is more of vague impressions that clear memories. I do know that my mother was beautiful; she had long, soft, wavy hair, gentle arms and a loving voice. My father was slender, but strong, he always protected us as much as he could.

"I suppose that was the problem. He never let anyone who worked for Arashi near us. I'm sure you can imagine how tired they grew of that after awhile. I was too young to 'play' with yet, but my mother…they wanted her. He wanted her." Her eyes became glazed and to everyone else in the room it was if she had forgotten where she was, seeing something only her eyes could see.

"There was a struggle one day. It was such a flurry of movement and shouting that it wasn't until I felt the splash of warm liquid dripping down my face and my mother's horrendous shrieks of anguish filled the echoic room that I even realized my father was dead. There were other people in the room, prisoners like us, but they couldn't have done anything to help. They would have been killed too. I don't blame them for not interfering…

"My mother was never the same. He bit her once and she didn't even react. He was disgusted with her; he simply tossed her aside and left in a temper. One thing stayed with her though, me." Sakura closed her eyes as she recalled the bittersweet memories of her mother. "She continuously played with my hair and held me close. She wasn't always in her right state of mind, she chattered to herself a lot, but I learned a lot from before the darkness, including my name. She would repeat it over and over again…I think it was because my father was the one who named me; I was the only thing of him that she had left.

"She knew this well and never let me leave her side for any length of time. I didn't mind. I loved her and she was all I had left in the world. To tell you the truth, I didn't want to leave her side either." Sakura opened her eyes again as if the next memories weren't something she could face in the darkness behind her eyelids. "But the day finally came that I was considered old enough to 'play' with. My mother refused to let them near me. I'm not sure if she even felt the pain they inflicted on her," Sakura's tone became bleak. "But the struggle went on long enough that Arashi had grown impatient and came to see for himself what was taking so long…

"I could barely make out the sickening grin on his face before he caught me himself…" Sakura's knuckles turned white in her grip. "I'll never forget the feel of his fangs burying themselves into my neck. It was one of the most agonizing pains I have ever felt. My neck felt like someone had heated twin pokers that stabbed and twisted as they sank further into my veins. The scream of pain that was torn from my body was unrecognizable to even my own ears…"

By now, Sasuke's fair skin had already turned paler from the stress.

"My mother screamed out my name then."

Mikoto's face was wet with tears as they coursed silently down her face.

"I believe to this day that she finally came back in that moment. Her scream was cut short just before I lost consciousness…I never saw her again."

Sakura paused for a moment to swallow the lump in her throat before she pressed on, unwillingly to stop now that she had started.

"Of course I woke up in the dark again, but I wasn't alone. I felt like I had been beaten all over my body, and my head pounded with the slightest of movements. But she was there. Maria. Her voice was soothing and soft. She wasn't very old, probably about that same age I am now, but she looked after me. She took care of me until I felt better and after."

Sakura tilted her head to the side as if still thinking about something. "I don't know much about her. She spoke about her family all the time, but always in the past. I did not know then or now what became of them or how she came to be there with the rest of us. I didn't ask. I don't think I wanted to at the time, but I learned of the outside world through her. That another time and place existed out of our darkness. That there was a thing called light and a sun…

"We became attached very quickly. That was my mistake." Sakura's features fell. "They came for her soon enough. One of them had been given permission to have her. I heard later that he became overzealous in his feeding and drained her completely."

Sakura blinked rapidly to clear away the memories and continue forward. "Time moved on I suppose. Others tried to take me in, but I never got too close again. I never spoke. I kept my distance. I ate when I was told to because I do not believe I would have ever again otherwise. It became darker. I did not hear or see anything around me, so I didn't notice when we received a new guard.

"He was young, idealistic and a human. He had left himself be hired to help his family. As long as he worked, his family was left unharmed in their home, going about their daily lives believing their son was guarding a factory under a prestigious company. Ironically, they weren't too far off…

"He noticed me. He later told me that I resembled his younger sisters. He tried to befriend me, but he couldn't break through, I wouldn't allow him to." Sakura's gaze lifted to stare out the window at the pale gray clouds gathered in the sky. "Then one day he said something that reached even my ears. He said he was going to help me escape; he was going to set me free.

"He never told me anything but to be prepared at any moment. I couldn't have been more prepared than I already was. I had nothing to keep or take but myself. I didn't want to believe him, but Maria's stories of the day and of the night had sparked a flame of desire and hope in me against my will." She watched as the clouds grew darker. "One night it happened.

"When everyone was asleep he managed to sneak in as stealthily as any vampire and smuggled me out in his arms. I couldn't believe he had done it," the awe in her voice was still present. "It wasn't until we made it outside that I realized I was actually free. I knew then that I was no longer dreaming because I had never been able to envision the night sky before. It was probably the single most beautiful sight I have ever seen in my life. There were millions of stars alighting everything around me in a brighter light that I had ever seen before…the very air itself was something cold, fresh and new."

Sakura saw it again in her mind like she had that night.

"As he carried me, dashing through the streets, I could do nothing but stare around me in awe. The world was so much bigger than I could have ever imagined. He ran for a long time, telling me his family was in hiding, and that we too were going to hide.

"I had never had a true concept of time before, but as the clear glass of night shifted to dawn, I experienced my first sunrise. We stopped then, on a deserted street way. No one was up and he needed to catch his breath. I was fixated on the brightening of the sky; it burned my eyes but I couldn't bear to tear my gaze away.

"I had believed the night sky to be bright, but this warmth and light blew away all my expectations. That first sunrise surpassed the night in ways I could not even begin to describe. I trembled like a leaf before collapsing where I stood and cried for the first time since my mother had died…

"He picked me up again, but this time I rode on his back. We checked into an inn. He left the room as I had the first bath I could ever remember. Then I had my first real meal, though small it was stunning, and slept in my first bed as the run rose higher in the sky.

"I now had a concept of time that followed moving at night and sleeping during the day. It took a few days before I could fully adjust to the intensity of the sun's rays, but I never missed a single sunrise.

"I saw my reflection for the first time then too. I stared at myself for hours as he slept, discovering my face, hair, arms and eyes. Everything was so new to me. It felt like a dream and like all dreams, it didn't last."

Rain began to patter the window, slowly at first.

"Nine days after our escape they caught up with us," she sighed wistfully. "He had been tense and nervous all day long and that night was no better. We ran faster than ever before, something I was enjoying; using muscles I had never used before, never even knew I had before.

"He stopped in the middle of an empty alleyway. Stark figures stood in wait at the end. He told me to run as fast and as far as I could in the direction we had come. He tried his best, but it wasn't enough. They caught him. I watched over my shoulder as I ran, torn between wanting to help and my own institutional need for self-preservation. My answer was given to me; I bumped right into it. Or rather, I bumped right into him."

The rain began to fell faster, lulling Sakura into some comfort that only the rain used to be able to provide.

"Arashi did nothing more than gaze upon the guard with an amused malice before dragging me back by my hair. I screamed and cried the entire way. I was dragged up in front of the guard and then mercilessly bitten without presumption. The pain was worse than I could recall," she grimaced. "I heard the guard screaming for me as my mother had before him but with the same end. Only this time, I heard his voice echo along with my mother's."

Sakura's voice lost her emotions. "I awoke back in the darkness, but this time was worse. I had tasted freedom, had been free. I was tortured by my own memories, and they all took some sick pleasure in it…

"They toyed with me, with promises of the night sky, of the sun. Eventually something inside me snapped. I became doll-like, impassive and resigned. I wasn't as much fun anymore. I was left alone. My one constant visitor was Arashi. He seemed to be studying me as I grew older and time passed.

"Then without warning I was dragged out of the room, through hallways and up stairs before being tossed unceremoniously into the cement outside, looking up at the velvet night sky. As I stared up in shock, Arashi's profile entered what had been a heavenly view, his sickening eyes lit with a fire's glow and his own twisted pleasure…

"He said, 'Alas me petite Tori, I do believe you have missed this. And I miss your vivaciousness, so I decided on this resolution. I shall let you go. Think of it as a running head start. It is nearly dawn; we shall begin our search at sunset. Please move quickly, I wish for this to be a wonderful game. Let's begin.'

"The light was doused and I was alone. I knew he wanted to play a game of cat and mouse, or bird rather, and he had every intention of catching me whenever he pleased. But I was going to use his pride and arrogance against him. I may have broken, but I had had a lot of time to think, and that young guard had explained many things to me during those nine days. I was ready. I ran.

"I ran long and hard for days. I stopped for short rest as sparingly as I could. I listened to the shadows and whispers, and remembered everything I saw and heard. I stayed one step ahead of them. He became frustrated," Sakura's lips turned into upwards briefly in grim satisfaction. "But I didn't account for hunger. I ate what I could, when I could, by any means necessary…I was lured that way by a man once. I didn't understand what was happening until it was too late."

Mikoto was now buried in her husband's shoulder; he tried rubbing soothing circles on her back. Sasuke looked like someone had just kicked him in the stomach. Some of the other room's occupants simply stared at the young woman before them in shock, disbelief and horror. More than one had an undercurrent of anger swelling just beneath the surface.

"The pain and shock was astounding. I fought for all I was worth, but it wasn't enough. I was strong enough…I kept away from people after that. It didn't always work; I began losing strength quicker than I could gain it back. Several other men found me like this. I'm not always sure what followed. Anytime one touched me, innocently or not, I wouldn't remember anything until after his touch was gone." She tried to shrug unconcernedly. "Self-preservation."

The rain was now pouring outside the windows.

"I couldn't keep up the same pace I had started with. The whispers on the street let me know I was losing ground in considerable amounts as each day passed. I thought I could make a bigger gain on him when it rained one night, but I didn't know that had had found me just hours before." She breathed in deeply.

"As the water poured from the heavens I felt his eyes on my back, as if he were close enough to breathe in my ear. I panicked without paying attention to where I was going. I slipped, skidded and fell too many times to remember what hurt first where. And then I ran into that alleyway."

She gave Sasuke's hand a gentle squeeze, and he realized with a jolt that he knew the rest of the story.

"I had no way out. He sauntered closer to me like he had all the time in the world. And he did. I could feel it. My body had been pushed too far past its limits. I wouldn't last more than a few more moments on my feet. He never said more to me then 'You are mine Tori.' He grasped my chin in his hand and that was all I knew. That I had reached my end. There was nothing left now. All sound, all sight, everything vanished as I retreated into my mind…

"I snapped awake to find Arashi was gone. Standing in front of me was another male. But something was different, something in the expression on his face was all I could register before there was a whooshing noise and my body finally gave out against its will. I felt something warm and soft break my fall before I was completely under.

Sakura's gaze scanned the room's occupants, taking in the various emotions written across their faces. "The next time I awoke was here on this couch, in the warmth of this room, wondering if I had awoken into another dream."