Empty Eyes: The Sequel

Chapter 4

For the next three days, my life was a living nightmare. If I wasn't on the cusp of passing out from blood loss, I was being fed on by one or more of the Amegakure vampires. Even if they promised to keep an eye on me, all Obito or Madara could do was help me safely regain my energy once the others were done.

Two of the advisors were worse than the others when it came to both scaring me and drinking more of my blood than the others. The first was Hidan, unsurprisingly. He had a knack for waking me up in the middle of the night to do it and taunting me when others were.

The second was, to my utter shock, Sasori. He didn't do anything on purpose to make me uneasy, but the odd way he treated me during and after that first morning made my skin crawl. Not only that, but he always drank way too much and I had to warn him each time that I was going to faint if he didn't do something.

Deidara was a close third because of the mouths on his hands. I was driven to sobs the first time because he didn't warn me that they, too, can be used to suck blood. Other than that, though, he was one of the only ones that stayed with me for a bit once he was done to make sure I was alright.

I didn't want to admit it, but Madara had been right when he warned me about the level of trauma I was experiencing. The sense of defeat rising steadily in my body was akin to what I felt when I was locked in that cell in Oto, being tortured each day.

Every time I'd get a moment to myself, all I could do was wish for Sasuke to somehow appear and comfort me, but I knew it wasn't going to happen. If he couldn't be here with me, I wished I could at least have that god awful fang hidden in my underwear drawer back at the castle in Konoha. It'd helped me through those long three months, so it could probably do it again.

When I get home after this, I'm going to hug him close for as long as possible to try and undo some of this damage.

Finally, in the early morning of day five, Ino returned. When she walked in on Hidan on top of me, I thought she was going to actually end his life. The silver-haired vampire got bested almost instantly and left, mumbling under his breath about how crazy Tanaka women are.

Once I was healed and both of us had a chance to shower and get dressed, we walked to Yahiko's office hand in hand to finally end this awful chapter of our lives.

"I'm impressed, Ino! Not only did you get the files we requested, but you managed to snag some others as well. Are you sure we can't convince you to relocate to Ame with your husband?" Konan grinned at my sister, obviously joking.

Ino shook her head, "I'm flattered, but what I really want is to return to my home. Is there anything else you require of us before we leave?"

The blue-haired queen shared a look with her husband with an odd expression. We both noticed, "What is it?"

She seemed hesitant, but the ruler admitted, "Per your request, we've done so asking around about what happened to your mother and we may have found something useful."

I glanced at Ino as we both perked up and waited for the woman to continue.

"We have some friends in Kumogakure who said they saw a human woman matching your mother's description with a vampire named Tenji who hails from Sonukuni."

"Where is Sonukuni located?" I asked without hesitation.

"It's in between Konoha and Kumo. I've never been there, personally, but I'm told it's an incredibly small and private village."

After formally bidding the royal couple farewell, we packed our bags and met Madara outside so we could leave. He was finished with his business, as well, and offered to drive so we wouldn't have to ride with the others again. Somehow, I convinced him not to outright tell Ino how bad things got while she was away, but she still might overhear either of our thoughts if we weren't careful.