Warnings: medium-heavy violence. Also, spoilery warnings at the bottom.

Humanity, it's a Fragile Thing
By icecreamlova
Part Two

- : -

Earlier...

Akatsuki. Clay bombs. A stone plunged into the pit of her stomach and sank there beyond hope of retrieval as the air tingled. The records she had carefully read danced in front of her eyes, and the words couldn't have been more attention-grabbing if each letter was a different colour and dressed in tutus, like the ballet dancers among the wealthy city-kids.

"Sasuke..." she said slowly, "didn't one of the Akatsuki use clay bombs as a weapon?" When he looked questioningly in her direction, she nodded at the window, where the candle's bright flame was reflected hauntingly. The darkness pressed heavily. "The house's foundation. It's made of clay." That wasn't exactly accurate, but it was like saying the sea was made out of water: so close to the truth that it didn't matter. "That's why the air feels so strange."

Sasuke wasn't looking at her any longer. Rather, determination flittered across his face as he peered at the floor. "You're right. It's a thin layer and hard to see, but..."

"Down there?" Sakura asked, gesturing to the centre of the room. At Sasuke's nod, she began stripping off the rugs and tossing them aside. She marched to the centre of the room, concentrating.

The wood cracked beneath the heel of her boot as she stomped through it with chakra-enhanced strength. The floor vibrated beneath her feet. She aimed one more time at the centre of the spider-web of cracked wood, and with a sound like thunder, the planks broke away to reveal the clay foundation.

And the ink seals splashed onto it.

- : -

Sakura's eyes snapped open, the memory of fire still playing beneath her eyelids. Her lungs expanded too quickly; she coughed like Naruto had, when she set him the nastiest remedy she had ever come across.

Sasuke kneeled beside her, eyes fixed on the brightly blazing house he had so happily set alight. Their equipment - which he had evacuated, until only the shadow-illusions actually remained inside the house - lay scattered around him. The fire threw blood red light for at least fifty metres in every direction, splashed colour on his pale skin, and made the depths of his black irises gleam with... something. He offered her a glass of water; Sakura snatched it out of her hands, taking deep gulps.

"You... should have... warned me," she gasped, watching as the huge fire spat sparks into the slowly lightening sky; it was maybe an hour until dawn. "Shadow clone's... memories... so vivid..."

Sasuke looked surprised. "I thought you knew," he said slowly. "You spend enough time around the idiot."

Sakura's eyes slipped shut. She couldn't look at him (because everyone knew closing your eyes made problems vanish) as she mumbled, "I remember everything. Shadow clones don't have emotions, but I did."

She had known, clinically, what had shaped Sasuke's decisions - had roundly abused his common sense, had agonised about the way her suicidal pet hamster had better survival instinct than he did - but until the moment her eyes should have skittered away in fear, but instead fixed on Deidara's crimson and black robes... until then she hadn't really understood.

The absolute, inarguable necessity of revenge, for someone she wouldn't (couldn't) believe was dead yet. That rage, as hot as the results of Sasuke's undiagnosed pyromania, but as cold and hard, at its core, as the stares Naruto had received in Leaf. (Not the stares due to his incurable urge to paint pictures of Barney on the walls of Sai's home. The other, older, ones, from perfect strangers.) Was this how Sasuke had felt, his entire life?

Sakura couldn't imagine her mind ever bending along those paths, as naive as that was, considering the profession of most of the people she loved doomed them to death by murder. How could Sasuke stand it?

"The thirst for revenge?" Sasuke asked, almost wryly.

"Yes." Sakura's eyes opened again to meet his - watching her carefully. Her breath hitched; her heart, which had been slowly returning to a normal pace, sped up again, until it seemed so embarrassingly loud Sasuke had to hear it pounding too. "I've been spending too much time around you, Sasuke. You're rubbing off on me."

"I doubt it," Sasuke said dryly. "You didn't fight Deidara."

"I didn't, because it might have made him die faster," Sakura said. "And if he destroyed my clone, or found out that the holy water didn't actually exist, he would have left before you finished." A gasp of laughter slipped out unexpectedly. "To think I trusted you while I was unconscious from making the clone. You tried to destroy Leaf, you already left us once, and I still didn't believe you would leave me there."

Sasuke began to shift away. Sakura's hand darted out for his elbow. She pulled him back, even though the effort made leopard spots dance in her vision. Sakura was too tired for emotional restraint.

"Don't you move."

"You're too tired to hold on," he said casually, gaze falling to her hand, then climbing slowly up her body to meet hers again.

"Or maybe," Sakura said determinedly, jerking him closer until they were eye to eye, "I'm rubbing off on you too, because you've gone back to trying to make me understand you. Unless you've got a livejournal account you're not telling me about, that's not how you treat a casual ally. I'm not the only one holding on."

If Sasuke understood the reference to the pre-war website, he didn't show it. He didn't try to pull out of her grasp, even though it meant she could feel his soundless breaths brushing across her skin - and this time her shudder was not of revulsion.

"I don't need you to tell me to go back to Leaf."

"No, you don't," she said quietly. "Except for when you do."

Reaching up, his fingertips ghosted across the swell of her cheek, lightly, almost familiarly. Brushed across the line of her chin, pausing momentarily at the scar at its base. Her eyelids sank when he reached her throat, where her pulse jumped erratically, but she somehow knew that his were wide open - with confusion, maybe, or surprise, but watching, in between their mingled, ragged breaths, as though his life depended on it.

Heat rushed downwards, but it was just as she began dragging him even closer - just as he clumsily cupped the back of her neck - that a cold, unwelcome thought crashed into her brain and dragged her back to reality. "You said there were at least three vampires. Where are the others?"

He stilled, and there was a shift, a physical and emotional withdrawal. Sasuke tilted his head towards the parking. Only two of the four cars that had populated it, when they'd first pulled in, were still there. One of them had belonged to the receptionist.

"Sasuke," Sakura said quickly, clutching onto the welcome change of subject, "the recep -"

"He's dead," answered her partner. "Drained." The receptionist. She couldn't remember his face and she had never learnt his name. Even if the vampires would have found the motel and attacked anyway (they were safe only among the destroyed towns and ghost-like prairies), guilt rubbed at her heart, until it was tender and raw. Her fists clenched over her knee; a shudder ran through her. Sasuke's face was unreadable as he took every exposed emotion in, and added, "But your acting was good enough that Deidara's dead, as well."

"It was your lightning blade that destroyed the seal, once I'd found it," Sakura reminded him.

There was a beat of silence.

"We should leave," Sakura said, forcing aching muscles to move and push her up. She winced as she swung her heavy pack onto her back, turning purposely away from the fire. "There might still be more vampires around."

Sasuke nodded absently. They gathered their tools, sweeping it into Sasuke's bag and adding more to hers, until she was sure she would cave under its weight, like Naruto under the threat of no more ramen. Naruto...

Silently, the duo trudged past the neighbouring house. They were passing by reception when Sasuke stopped suddenly, eyes fixed on the corpse inside. "It moved."

"What?"

Her question was shouted at his back, as Sasuke raced towards reception. Cursing, Sakura followed, feet kicking up dust that shone faintly with firelight - blown by the wind up towards the sky, which was beginning to turn grey.

The moment Sakura entered the room, she knew there was something wrong - and not the man's corpse, either, which was lying on the counter, bloodless, eyes filled with the reflection of the faintly humming computer monitor. Wooden chairs lined one corner, and a board from which keys dangled was nailed next to a door leading to the rest of the building, but the room was otherwise empty.

"Sasuke?" she said.

There was no reply, except for the creak of the door as it swung loosely.

At this point, Sakura had stopped being surprised at the ways her night had paralleled a B-grade horror film. She took a step back, towards the entrance, fists clenched. Then she sighed, slipped out of her backpack, and brought out her least favourite but most powerful tool: her flame-thrower, straps and everything.

There was still no reply by the time she had prepared fully, and resignation was slowly being replaced by fear. What was Sasuke doing? What had he seen? The perpetual humming of the monitor offered no answer.

Once she was done, Sakura hopped over the counter. Carefully, she nudged the door; it opened to reveal a labyrinth, lit from above by dim, flickering light bulbs.

Sakura's mouth dropped open. "You have got to be kidding me! I don't have time for this!"

Unfortunately, her vision did not instantly waver and reform into a single large room.

Gritting her teeth, Sakura reminded herself that she couldn't set the entire thing on fire - Sasuke was still inside. Grimly, she promised herself that she would rest after everything was over, popped chakra boosters into her mouth, and walked down the path up until the first corner.

Without a word, Sakura drew her fist back, and sent it right through the screen. She walked on.

The second wall didn't offer any resistance; neither did the third. But at the fourth wall, just as she was about to punch, movement flashed at the corner of her vision. She spun around, flames streaming towards the figure... who simply batted the fire away with a flick of his hand.

Before she had time to move, there were hands at her armpit, lifting her up, and before she could blink, she was bodily crashing through the fifth wall.

Sakura twisted well as she could, but still landed awkwardly in a pile of rubble. Her vision swam. Distantly, she registered that her pack had fallen ten metres away, out of reach.

"This is so anticlimactic," she groaned.

"I agree," said her attacker. His face was masked, eyes like gold coins peeking out through the holes, and she was too tired to be surprised by his crimson and black robes. "But it hardly matters to me. I already have an Earth heart."

"Where's Sasuke?" she demanded.

"He's Uchiha Sasuke? Another fire affinity," he said. "Also useless. I suppose that makes you Haruno Sakura. Pity."

"Excuse me?"

"It's a waste to kill people if you're not paid for it. Although," he contemplated, "if I have the full set..."

Whatever that meant.

"You know," the vampire said, almost pityingly, attention returning to her, "both your friends put up more of a fight than this. The Uchiha tried to set me on fire." He laughed, as though it he'd said something witty. "The other one did better, at least, he managed to destroy three of my last hearts. Made him pay for that, of course -"

The other one.

Her head throbbed, blood trickling down the bridge of her nose.

The full set.

The full set.

Her. Sasuke. That meant...

Deidara was Sasori's partner, and Ino had gleaned from their prisoner's head that members of the Akatsuki weren't told more than they needed to know. Deidara hadn't known; this one did.

It was this member of the Akatsuki who had taken him.

Sakura didn't know how she could moved so quickly - she was only human - but she was on her feet and flying at him - Instinct leaving behind Mind in a cloud of dust and screeches of "bad idea!" She hurtled into him, knocking him off his feet and ending his monologue.

The vampire recovered quickly. He ripped her hands off his neck and flung her into another wall. Sakura tucked herself into a ball, spinning to land feet-first, but underestimated his strength. Her knees nearly collapsed, and she had to muffle a cry of pain as she dropped onto the ground.

There was new wariness in his stance, but Sakura barely even registered it.

"WHERE IS HE?"

"The Uchiha? You can't -"

"WHERE'S NARUTO?" she screamed, forcing herself up again, her knee healing with burning, acidic chakra.

She didn't give him time to answer. Her flame-thrower was useless, and she wasn't particularly good at casting, but even vampires couldn't stand a fist through their heart. She leapt for the floor in front of him. The vampire dodged, blurring in front of her eyes, and her punch shattered the ground uselessly, leaving it cracked and crumbled.

He simply laughed. "Stop that. I'm not paid as much, if the goods are damaged."

"Here's my offer you bastard!" This time her punch punctured one of the outer walls, letting in a beam of dim, grey, early morning daylight.

Even in the heat of the battle, it froze her when the light touched the vampire - and he didn't collapse into a pile of dust.

He...

(Ino was not going to believe this.)

He sparkled.

Sparkled, like his skin had been set with a layer of diamonds.

"What -"

"Thought it was a myth?" There was a smug grin in his voice. "You're not the only one."

Most vampires Turned into creatures of the night. The vast majority. But rumours floated around about how very, very, very few retained their chakra, and because of that, sparkled, instead. Until that moment, Sakura had thought the rumour was sourced from some author with an overactive imagination.

It changed nothing.

If anything, she was going to live, to ensure Leaf received confirmation of the rumours.

She went after him again, hounding his footsteps. The walls cracked and swayed under her fist, expanding their arena until it was almost rectangular, even as he grew visibly impatient

She couldn't pinpoint when, exactly, the battle changed, but at some point he lashed out and she was forced to begin dodging and running, calling on all of Tsunade's skill to help her.

Chakra rushing through her veins, she was almost succeeding. Then he attacked.

Stars burst in her vision as he grabbed hold of her arm and slammed her head-first into a pile of rubble.

Her head snapped to the side as he backhanded her so hard, she skipped across the corridor, finally sliding to a stop against the wall. Her cheek throbbed dully, and she was dimly aware of the horrible numbness in her left arm, which hung at an odd angle. Before she could move again, he was right in front of her, fist plunging down.

Sakura rolled desperately out of the way, feeling air whipping her painful cheek in a miniature sonic boom. She scrabbled onto her knees, grimacing through a mouthful of blood and trying desperately to crawl away even though one arm hung at an odd angle, but then a hand was on her neck, lifting her up, choking and kicking.

He turned her around to face him.

"'Where's Naruto?' Did you come all the way out here to find your friend?" he rasped, horribly, horribly amused.

She spat her mouthful of blood at his exposed eyes, sent chakra into her toes, and lashed out with her foot.

The floor slapping at her knocked her breath away, slapping against bruises and broken bones. Blood ran into her eyes; she brushed it quickly away. Through a haze of pain, Sakura watched the vampire wipe her blood off his mask.

Watched him break off the lower half of his mask.

Watched his fangs lengthen.

Felt teeth sinking into the flesh at the juncture of her neck and shoulder, and what felt like concentrated acid blazed through her veins.

She was screaming. She knew she was screaming, but somehow, she couldn't hear it. Her feet kicked uselessly in midair, and oh god the burning -

"Let her go!"

It couldn't be, she was hallucinating from pain -

The chattering of thousands of thousands of birds filled the air in nostalgic, welcome familiarity. Without warning, they were crashing through another set of walls, and the gentle, pink light just before sunrise stabbed her eyes.

She didn't want to move. She wanted to stay there and scream at the pain in her shoulder, at her double-vision, at the fading numbness of her arms. But Sasuke was facing a vampire, and even if she couldn't get up for herself, she could pull herself together for him.

When she could see again, she realised that Sasuke's bleeding side was the most interesting thing in her field of vision. Half of his shirt had been torn off, and his elbows were scraped raw. They were right outside the reception area - she could see her backpack, the jars of holy water cracking on the ground - and as her eyes wandered back to Sasuke, she saw he very still, focused only on her. Years-old bite marks glared vividly out of his neck; Sakura was so woozy from the blood loss, she was half-convinced that the moment she looked away, they would start pulsing.

"Did he feed you, Sakura?"

"What?" she murmured, watching his marks very, very intently.

"Did he force you to drink his blood?" a dangerous edge entering his voice.

"No," she said quickly, to herself as much as to him. "I'm still me."

He relaxed, minutely, attention shifting back to the vampire. Until that moment, Sakura had never imagined she would see Sasuke struggle to keep his jaw from hitting the floor, as he really looked at the vampire again. Beyond Sasuke, the vampire stood, sparkling, but worse for wear. One hand was clutched to his chest, crimson running between his fingers until it looked like he was holding his heart. It was the fact he was bleeding at all, that told Sakura how severe the injury was.

"You -" he seemed lost for words.

"Electricity beats earth," Sasuke said, recovering. His long shadow moved with him as he shifted, slightly. She could hear the smirk in his voice. "You only have one heart left."

The vampire considered this briefly. "True. But in the long run -"

And Sasuke was flying back in an arc, the vampire at his throat.

About to push herself up, Sakura caught sight of her backpack again. Electricity, earth... fire affinity was useless...

This was going to hurt.

The vampire didn't notice her scream as Sakura grabbed hold of her dislocated shoulder, gritted her teeth, and wretched it back into its socket. He didn't notice her heavy panting, her groaning, as she walked slowly, swaying, towards her supplies. He didn't notice her at all until she was beneath the elongated shadow of the reception building, kneeling by her pack, and that was when she felt hands lifting her by the back of her shirt. She gasped as her collar tightened painfully around her throat, veins feeling like they were on the verge of exploding.

"You know what the irony is?" the vampire asked her. He didn't wait for a response. "The friend you left Leaf to look for was back there the entire time, though I'm not sure where exactly in Leaf Madara's keeping him."

His grip shifted; Sakura gulped down air. She gasped out, "No... that's not... the irony."

He turned her around, easily catching the slow fist she sent at him. "Did you think -"

His expression changed.

The vampire looked down at the stake punching through his ribcage, stabbing his heart. Before her eyes, the sparkle of his skin dimmed, began to fade away.

"Water beats fire," Sakura said softly. "Especially a stake dipped in holy water."

Dim points of light hovered in the air, where he had stood. With nothing left holding her up, she collapsed onto a pile of dust.

- : -

It was a very, very long time before they could move again. Longer before they made it back to Sasuke's car. Sasuke sat in the driver's seat, though 'sat' was maybe a generous term; he was in slightly better condition than she was, but the deciding moment had been when Sakura asked him, "How are you holding up fifteen fingers?" The sharp smell of antiseptic lingered, mixing with the herbal scent of her most potent creams.

"Looks like we're going back to Leaf," Sakura said, eyes closed, wincing as dull throbbing everywhere clamoured for attention, now that her adrenaline rush was fading away. She would sleep for a day after this for multiple reasons; for now, her chakra glowed softly, easing her concussion.

There was a moment's silence.

Then, after Sasuke ignited the engine:

"I suppose there could be worse places."

Their eyes met. Sakura could see, in his, the memory of the stake buried in the vampire's heart, juxtaposed over how her hand touched his now, as lightly as a butterfly's wings. She wondered what it was that he found, when he stared past the window of her eyes.

His warm fingertips touched hers, as an edge of brilliant sun burst beyond the edge of the world, throwing off rays of warm gold. Even the old, rusted skeletons in the distance seemed less threatening, rimmed with a soft, glowing halo. With barely a bump, they left the parking lot and the rest of the cars - which had, mysteriously, been set on fire.

Prairie grass rushed past. They drove steadily towards the distant horizon.

- : -

Spoilery warnings: sparkly vampires, character death

Well?