Empty Eyes: The Sequel

Chapter 9

A week passed and Sasori snuck me away every single day. My plan was working, just not quite as quickly as I needed it to. According to Kaguya's prediction, Ino only has three days to both give birth and live.

The odd Ame vampire has gotten more comfortable around me, for sure, but I still didn't feel like it was enough to ask him to betray both Kaguya and Amegakure for my sake. Not only would I be asking him to risk his life, but he admitted to me that he's never even befriended a human being.

He didn't come right out and say it, but I could almost guarantee he's never gotten physically close with one either, other than to feed on them. As I thought about it throughout the week, I realized it'd surprise me if he was even interested in something like sex. He doesn't appear to get much enjoyment from physical contact. Even after multiple days, he never touched any part of me but my arms and it seemed like he only did that to keep me in place where he wanted me to stand.

I learned a lot about his life as I gently coerced conversations out of him during our visits. At first, I was stunned to learn that he's a cousin of the Subaku siblings in Sunagakure, but immediately saw the resemblance between him and Gaara. Sure, their hair was almost the same color, but their bone structure and eye shape were also nearly identical.

It struck me as a dark kind of funny that both redheads from Suna were emotionally challenged and struggled to empathize with humans.

Kaguya visited a couple times and it made me a bit happy to see her visibly diminishing. Once bright red eyes were as dull as rust now and her skin was sickly pale. Whenever she was in my presence, I felt myself getting stronger. Before defending myself against Hidan, I hadn't noticed it, but it was almost hard to ignore these days.

Even if I hated her, I kept asking our captor to release us for her sake. My life wouldn't exist without her, seeing as she's the woman who began the Tanaka, or should I call it Otsutsuki, bloodline. It seems a shame, somehow, that something so ancient and sacred was dying because of me, but my pity ends there. Each time she showed her face, she'd demonstrate a different incredible power as though trying to prove to us that there's no way we'll survive.

Through Hidan, who was often the one to bring us meals, I learned that her blood can not only heal all who ingest it, human or vampire alike, but also sometimes grants them special powers of their own. He said in some cases the powers are permanent and sometimes they only last as long as the blood is in their system.

When I asked if he had any special powers, he said he can't die from blood loss, which is why he didn't react more harshly to having two holes put through his body when I fought him. Of course, the silver-haired vampire didn't give me any of this information easily. I had to withstand loads of insults and threats, as well.

Kaguya could also command anyone she wanted. That didn't come as much of a surprise because when she glows me, my body won't even try to fight. Despite all this, I was confident that if we escape and Sasuke finally turns me, I'll be able to defeat her if she ever tries to come after us.

The topic of me being turned kept coming up between Madara, Ino, and I, as well. They both wanted me to allow Madara to do it so I'll stand a better chance of surviving if things end up getting violent, but I just couldn't let it happen. Their logic made sense and I felt so selfish for refusing because the extra strength would aid in getting Ino out of here, but even the thought of someone other than Sasuke turning me made me want to be sick.

Not only that, but half-ling vampires often form an incredibly strong bond with their creators. Ino wasn't sure if she was affected by it because she was already head over heels for Sai by the time he turned her, so I'd run the risk of starting something inexcusable with Sasuke's uncle. It shouldn't and couldn't happen, for his, Madara's, and my sake. All parties involved would be affected.