Author's note: I don't own Naruto. If I did lots of sexy things would happen on a regular basis. Enjoy :)

Sakura woke up the next morning and the first sensation she was hit with was the splitting headache she had. The second sensation was the warm chest that she had been laying on. The full force of what happened the night before came crashing back, and she immediately blushed. After they arrived back at the Inn, Sakura asked if she could sleep in Kiba's room so that she didn't wake Hinata up in her drunken state. Sakura ended up falling asleep as soon as she laid down, and apparently she decided to cuddle up to Kiba in her sleep.

Something seemed off, however, as the sun was much further in the sky than she knew it should be. They were supposed to set out for Orochimaru's hideout at the break of dawn. With that realization, she shot up in bed, waking Kiba in the process.

"What's wrong?"

"It's late. We should have left for the mission hours ago," she stated.

She got out of bed and quickly threw the door open so that she could head over to her and Hinata's room, but nothing could have prepared her for what she found behind the door.

Sasuke.

She thought she might be dreaming. This couldn't be right. She moved to pinch the skin on her arm painfully, earning a questioning look from the man in front of her. Nope, definitely not dreaming. There he was in front of her, all angles and dark features against pale skin. He wore the same outfit that he wore when Naruto, Yamato, and Sai had found him the first time after he first left the village, how fitting.

Wondering what froze Sakura in her tracks at the door and had Akamaru sniffing the air, Kiba made his way over to the doorway to see the last person he expected or wanted to see.

"Sasuke, funny seeing you here. What do we owe this wonderful coincidence to?" Kiba asked, a slight annoyance in his voice.

Sasuke didn't immediately respond. His eyes taking in Sakura and Kiba's undoubtedly disheveled appearance, coupled with the fact that they were in the same room together. "I got a letter from the Hokage about the attacks and the disappearances of kekkei genkai users. I gave her the information she needed and figured I should stop you guys before you needlessly infiltrated Orochimaru's hideout."

"Ah, how kind of you. You kind of caught us at a bad time, we were in the middle of something," Kiba said pointedly.

Sakura, who had been too stunned to say anything, broke her eyes from Sasuke to look at the ground, finding that she couldn't make eye contact. "No, that's not true. I was just on my way to my and Hinata's room, actually."

"No one answered when I knocked. This room was not my first choice in contacting your group," Sasuke said as he shot a glance towards Kiba.

Kiba smiled, although it didn't reach his eyes. "Awe, we missed you too Sasuke. Didn't we Akamaru?"

Akamaru just tilted his head.

Sakura quickly moved past Sasuke and into the hallway, wanting to break the tension between the men. There was too much going on right now, she needed to focus on what really mattered at the moment, and that was Hinata. "I wonder why she didn't answer. Something isn't right here."

Sakura pulled her room key out and entered the room to find it hadn't been touched since they left last night to go to dinner.

"She never came home last night…" Sakura trailed off. She felt unbelievably guilty. Her friend had gone missing last night and she was too busy sucking Kiba's face to even notice. Why didn't she check on her when they came home? This is why she never went out of her comfort zone, bad things inevitably happened.

"And you didn't notice?" Sasuke inquired.

Sakura didn't respond, her guilt beginning to consume her as tears pricked her eyes. Kiba, bless his heart, did instead.

"Sorry Sasuke, we were kind of busy."

"Jesus. Enough already. This is not a pissing contest. Hinata is missing. Regardless of what events transpired last night, we need to find her. The sooner we start looking for her the better our odds are." Sakura was in full shinobi mode now, not allowing herself to cry in front of these two. Their old mission was just replaced with a much more pressing one. If something happened to Hinata on her watch, she would never forgive herself. She didn't even want to think about how Naruto would react.

"Kiba, I need you and Akamaru to go back to the village now. If you travel on his back you can make it there before nightfall. Tell Tsunade everything that has happened, and request backup. In the meantime, I'll start asking around. Hinata has memorable features, someone had to have seen her at some point last night."

"I'm not leaving you here by yourself. Hinata disappeared last night in this very town and you're asking me to leave you in it?" Kiba asked incredulously.

"She won't be alone. I'm still a shinobi of the Leaf and would be more useful on this mission than you would be." Sasuke said cooly.

"Right, you'd be more useful on this mission than me and my dog, who have superior tracking skills. Makes sense." Kiba retorted.

"Kiba, the reason I'm asking you to get reinforcements is because of your tracking skills. There's no telling where this might end up taking us, and the backup needs to be able to find their way to us wherever we end up. Please, this is about Hinata. Our friend, our teammate. We owe it to her to handle this in the best way possible," Sakura evenly stated.

Reluctantly, Kiba agreed with her. "Okay, we'll pack up and leave right now. Please be careful," Kiba said quietly as he gave her a strong hug before pulling away and going back to his room.

Sakura just nodded her head, mentally cursing the blush that unwillingly spread across her face and refusing to look at Sasuke. "Let me change real quick and we will head out too."

"Hn."

Sakura and Sasuke started their search in silence, going to the club where the group had split up last night. The first few shops that they stopped at hadn't seen Hinata at all. They got lucky when they stopped at a shop that sold jewelry made from the beautiful gems and precious stones. The owner said that he saw the girl last night looking at the merchandise when she was approached by a young girl in tattered clothing. He said that the girl asked Hinata if she had any food to spare so that she could feed herself and her younger brother for the night. Being the bleeding heart that she was, Hinata quickly obliged and that was the last the man had seen of her.

"Thank you, that was very helpful," Sakura bowed as they continued to walk further down the road to see if there were any shops that sold produce in the vicinity, assuming that's where the duo headed next.

Sakura couldn't stand the silence any longer, and decided to break it despite inner Sakura telling her to keep her mouth shut. "So, how did you find us at the Inn? Did Tsunade tell you where we were staying at?"

"Yes," Sasuke lied. In reality, Tsunade hadn't mentioned anything to him about who went on the mission and where they were stationed. It was only because he saw Kiba and Sakura at the club last night that he knew they were staying in Tenzen. He wasn't going to tell her that, though.

Frustrated with his short response, she pressed the conversation further. "What were you doing in Tenzen? News of our mission couldn't have gotten to you any sooner than yesterday, so you had to be staying in this town at the time. Is it because Orochimaru's hideout is nearby?"

Sparing her a sideways glance, Sasuke thought about how he wanted to answer her. He didn't exactly want to tell her what he was really doing here: drinking and fucking. "That's merely a coincidence. This town is large and has a lot to offer, so I've been staying here for a few weeks in between missions."

"Ah. The women here are truly beautiful, aren't they?" Sakura mused thoughtfully.

"I haven't noticed." Sasuke dismissed, hoping to change the subject.

They came up to a little market about 5 minutes from the last shop they stopped at. Sakura walked up to the owner and described Hinata, asking if he had seen her.

"Sorry, but if you aren't going to buy anything I am going to have to ask you to leave," he quickly stated, trying to get them out of his shop as soon as possible.

"Sir, please answer my question! She went missing last night, we haven't heard from her since.." Sakura trailed off.

"I'm sorry, I've not seen her. Now please leave," he ushered them towards the exit and locked the doors behind them once they were out.

Sakura looked to Sasuke, gauging his reaction. "What the hell was that?"

"That was someone who knows something they shouldn't, something that could get them into serious trouble," Sasuke stated while moving away from the shop.

"Well he clearly knows something, we can't just leave!" Sakura pleaded.

"We can't make a scene in the middle of the street on such a busy shopping day. There will be too many witnesses. We will come back after they close at 5 and get some answers, even if we have to force them out."

Sakura wasn't happy with his answer, but she knew he was right. She just felt guilty that they had to waste precious time waiting until they could pry answers from the man.

Her stomach audibly grumbled, and she realized she hadn't eaten since dinner last night. "I need to eat something, want to grab some food while we wait? Do you have any recommendations? You've been here longer than I have so you have to know what's good and what isn't."

Sasuke thought for a moment before answering. "There's a place that sells really good miso soup about ten minutes from here."

"That sounds good. I'd be willing to eat anything right now."

They had ordered their food and ate in relative silence. Sakura wasn't really sure what to talk about. She had mixed feelings about seeing Sasuke for the first time in over a year. He had changed in that time; his hair was a little longer where it fell above his shoulders. He was still just as handsome, but something was different that she couldn't quite place her finger on.

The thing that was most conflicting for her was the night she spent with Kiba. She enjoyed herself, being able to fully accept his company after making the executive decision to move on and forget about her feelings for Sasuke. Now that Sasuke was here in front of her, she knew that she was lying to herself. She would never be able to move on from him, the best she could manage was swallowing her feelings while she pretended to move on. Prior to his departure from Konoha, they had spent a lot of time together. Nothing they did was particularly noteworthy, but the fact that Sasuke allowed her to be around him so much meant something to her. She was probably looking too far into it, but it still made her happy. That's why his decision to leave had hurt her even more than the first time. He had allowed her into his life in ways that she never imagined, to think that meant nothing to him was painful.

She wasn't sure how to feel. Her emotions were all over the place, made worse by Hinata's disappearance. She was a mess mentally, trying her best to hold it all together and be the strong kunoichi she wanted everyone to see her as.

She was disrupted from her train of thought as someone called Sasuke's name.

"Sasuke-kun! What're you doing here, especially without inviting me?" A newly familiar voice whined.

Sakura had to do a double take as she looked at the woman approaching their table. It was the dancer from the club that she saw last night. What was her name… Rose?

"Oh, sorry I didn't mean to interrupt!" Rose exclaimed as she reached the table, her eyes resting on Sakura's face. "Hey, I'd remember that pink hair anywhere! You were at the club last night, right?"

Sakura blanched. She was not prepared for this, especially explaining to Sasuke why she was at a strip club.. but wait. This woman was clearly familiar with Sasuke, so how did they know one another?

"Uh, yeah… that was me," Sakura changed the subject quickly, "So how do you two know each other?"

Sasuke was mentally practicing how he was going to handle this situation. The woman he'd been fucking for the last month and the woman he hadn't stopped thinking about fucking for the last year were together right in front of him. Not an ideal interaction by any means. He knew he had to interject before he was no longer in control of the situation.

"Rose and I met my first week here at this very restaurant actually," he answered while shooting a pointed look at Rose, knowing she would follow suit.

"Mhmm! Sasuke has been in good hands during his stay here," Rose smiled sweetly. "How do you know Sakura-chan, Sasuke?"

"She is an old teammate from my home village."

Sakura's heart fell a little at the formal title he gave her, he never missed an opportunity to let her know exactly where she stood.

"Oh that's cool, so you're a shinobi then? That's amazing!" Rose paused for a second, before continuing, "So how did you two meet up here, did you run into each other at the club last night?"

And, there it went. Any semblance of control Sasuke had on the situation just flew out the window. He prepared for the worst.

Sakura shot him a look, before inquiring, "You were at the club last night?"

"Oh yes, he's there every day during the weekends!" Rose explained.

Sasuke was going to kill her. This must be some weird female territorial thing that he didn't understand. Why else would Rose be so forthcoming with information about their relationship even though Sasuke made it obvious that he didn't want Sakura knowing the true nature of it?

An amused look crossed Sakura's features. "Oh are you Sasuke-kun? I never pegged you as a man who would be interested in strippers."

"And I never pegged you as someone who would be interested in dogs, but here we are," The words left Sasuke's mouth before he could stop them. He let him temper get the best of him.

Sakura was struck with the realization that he must have seen her and Kiba at the club last night, which would explain his lack of reaction when he found them in the same room together. Oh, god, he must have assumed the worst between the two of them. Why did she care, though? He clearly had no issue with being involved with other women. Sakura couldn't compare to Rose in any way, the woman was lightyears more attractive than she would ever be.

"Well, there's a first for everything." Sakura stated, not wanting to continue this conversation.

Rose was clearly pleased with how she turned their interaction sour, dismissing herself. "It was nice to see the both of you, enjoy the rest of your day!"

Neither of them spoke to one another for the remainder of the meal.

Sakura was the first one to give into the silence, because she knew there was no way Sasuke was going to break it first. After their meal, they went and sat on a bench on the side of one of the busy streets, waiting until they could question their suspect.

"I'm sorry if I acted bitchy in front of Rose. I don't want her to think there's anything going on between us, and the way she acted makes me think that she does."

"Hn."

"So, are the two of you together?"

She was just as annoying as ever. He knew at this point there was no reason to lie, at least he could use the opportunity to get the information he wanted as well. "Yes, we've been spending a lot of time together in the last few weeks. What about you and Kiba?"

Sakura thought about how much information she wanted to give him. He had answered her question, but didn't give any details. She would follow suit, "That's a recent thing."

"Ah."

She decided to press further, taking advantage of his willingness to talk. "She's very beautiful. Do you think you'll take her back to Konoha?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, was Sakura… jealous? Interesting. "No. It's not that serious."

Sakura was relieved, but she refused to show it. "That's unfortunate, but probably for the best. If you brought her back everyone would fight for her attention," she allowed herself to laugh, in spite of how she was really feeling.

"I suppose," Sasuke responded, not sounding very interested in where the conversation had gone.

Sakura wasn't sure what the motivation was for what she said next, it just sort of happened. "Last night was the first time Kiba and I did anything like that together. We danced at the club together and I didn't want to wake Hinata up when we came back to the Inn so I slept in his room. That's all that happened."

"I see," Sasuke responded while shooting her a questioning glance. Why did she want him to know that? He was relieved, though.

"So… what have you been up to since you left Konoha?" Sakura asked, hopeful that he felt comfortable enough to indulge her.

"Initially I just picked up random missions, trying to remain busy. About a month and a half ago, I pushed it too far in a battle with a group of rogue ninja. I let my guard down and suffered a pretty severe injury, which is what let me to Orochimaru's hideout so that Karin could tend to the wounds. That's when I decided to take a break for a few weeks and found myself in Tenzen."

"Ah, Tsunade said she hadn't heard from you in a few weeks. We were beginning to worry."

"Hn. I just needed some time to think about what I was going to do next."

"Did you ever think of coming back to the village?"

He looked at her now, wanted to gauge her emotions. "To be honest, not really."

Sakura looked down, unable to maintain eye contact with him. "Did you ever plan to actually come back?"

Sasuke knew that his answer had hurt the girl, but he wasn't the type of person to lie just to spare someone's feelings. "I didn't. I don't feel like there is a life for me in Konoha. The best path for me is to be remote ninja of the Leaf. I can still help the village; however, this way I don't have to deal with all of the politics."

"There could have been a life for you there, you just refused to see it." Sakura said as she got up and walked towards their suspect's shop. It was almost time for him to be closing, but mostly it was because she didn't want Sasuke to see the tears that slipped down her face.

Sasuke didn't say anything, letting the truth of her words soak in. He silently stood and followed her.

The pair slipped into the second level of the man's shop through a window, careful not to make a sound. They secured the area, making sure there wasn't anyone else there that could interrupt their little interrogation. They easily caught the man off guard, making quick work of restraining him. You'd be surprised how forthcoming people can be with information with a kunai pressed to their throat as Sasuke did at this very moment.

"So, I'll ask you again. Have you seen our friend? Make a sound other than an answer to my question, and my partner here will end you in a heartbeat. We'll be gone as silently as we arrived before anyone can make it to help you" Sakura began, taking a seat in front of the man to meet his eyes.

The fear in his eyes was obvious, and Sakura didn't think they would have an issue getting what they wanted from the feeble man.

"I can't tell you anything even if I knew where your friend went. You have no idea who you're dealing with. They'll kill all three of us!"

Sasuke grunted. "I wouldn't be so sure of that. Your biggest threat right now and in the future is the two of us, that much I can assure you."

The man clearly didn't believe him, still refusing to give them what they wanted. Sakura had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but she was wasting precious time here.

The man began to scream and struggle against his restraints. Sasuke shot Sakura a look before he realized she had placed a genjutsu on the man. Smart girl.

"She was taken by a group known as the Black Shadow! Oh GOD please stop, I'll tell you everything!"

About 5 minutes later they had everything they wanted. The Black Shadow was a group of shinobi that did the bidding of a boss known as Tomoe. Tomoe was an elite shinobi who had been in the bingo books for years now, but no one who got near him ever lived to tell the tale. Apparently, they controlled everything is this town to some degree, holding the safety of the residents over their heads in exchange for them to keep their mouths shut. The little girl that was seen with Hinata was a tactic the group used to lure in females, what they did with them was unknown.

Deciding she had enough information to go off, Sakura knocked the man unconscious and untied him.

"Okay, this is around the time that Hinata would have gone missing yesterday. Time to play the game of human bait."

Sasuke wasn't enthused with Sakura's plan, but he had to admit it was a good one. She was going to wander along the shops as Hinata did yesterday, with Sasuke trailing closely behind her in hopes that they would run into the little girl at some point and that she would eventually lead them to Hinata.

Sakura had returned to the Inn, changing into her best clothes and doing something more appealing with her hair. She undid the braid she put in that morning and allowed her hair to fall around her in a cascade of waves.

Sakura started at the shop right next to the club and made her way down the line all the while feigning interest in what they had to offer. They had no such luck of the little girl interacting with them, they had been at this for hours. Just when she thought about giving up for the night, she saw a pretty girl talking to a young girl in tattered clothes three buildings ahead of where they were currently. She looked up at Sasuke, who was currently on the roof of the building to her left. He nodded to her, closely watching the interaction up ahead.

The little girl started to lead the older one down the street, and Sakura began to tail them with Sasuke following from up above. They walked for a while, making their way to the older, poorer part of the city. The pair went into an alley way, making their way towards a young boy who was sitting in a makeshift shelter who was also in tattered clothing. Sakura made sure to stay out of view, and when a man opened the door to the building the young boy was stationed up against and threw a cloth over the woman's mouth, she had to stifle the gasp that almost escaped. The woman struggled for a brief moment before she succumbed to whatever was on the cloth. He dragged the woman's limp body into the door he just came out of.

The little girl hurried over to her little brother, giving him what appeared to be some kind of medicine. Sakura's heart ached as she realized the extent of what she just witnessed. These people were using that little girl to do their dirty business in exchange for her brother's health. If she were upset before, she was seething now.

Quickly making her way up to the roof Sasuke was on, she did her best to conceal the tears that threatened to make themselves known. She wasn't successful, and the tears streamed down her face. Sasuke regarded her carefully, not sure what to say or do in that very moment.

Sakura was mad more than anything, and her tears were the only thing keeping her from busting that entire building down to the ground. "We have to stop this. This just got so much bigger than Hinata going missing. These men are controlling everyone in this town; who knows just how deep this runs."

Sasuke nodded, allowing her to continue before interjecting.

"We can't wait for backup, we have to make a move tonight."