Chapter 9
Itachi was in the kitchen making breakfast when there was a knock on the door. He rushed to open it, knowing that it would be the backup he had asked for. On the other side stood Sasuke, Naruto, Sai and Kakashi. Itachi waved them in and served up the eggs he had cooked.
"Why are we sitting and eating? We need to get going to find Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed loudly.
"Sit down and eat dobe." Sasuke ordered. "We need food to give us the strength to save Sakura." After Sasuke's explanation Naruto sat down and shoved the eggs down his throat.
They all finished quickly, wanting to get going as quickly as possible. Itachi took them straight to the pit he'd found the ribbon in a couple of days ago. He gave the ribbon to Kakashi. "This is where you found Sakura's ribbon?" He asked. Itachi nodded in reply. "Has it rained since Sakura went missing?"
"No, however it may rain in the next couple of days." Itachi informed him. Kakashi summoned his dogs.
"Yo, what's up?" Pakkun greeted as he poofed next to the group of ninja.
"Sakura's been kidnapped. We need you and the boys to track her. It hasn't rained since she went missing but I've been informed that it may rain in the next couple of days." Kakashi explained the situation in detail to Pakkun.
"You got her scent?" Pakkun asked Kakashi. He held out the ribbon and let Pakkun sniff at it. "Alright boys, we're looking for Sakura. She still smells like Jasmine and the hospital. We need to work quickly as it may rain." All the dogs then leapt into action sniffing for any trace of Sakura's scent.
Kakashi walked over to Itachi. "Why does she still smell the same? Normally a person's sent changes slightly when they become involved with someone else." He asked him quietly.
"As you know Sakura didn't really like the whole arranged marriage idea. I'm not going to force anything on her; I want to let her get used to the idea of being married to me." Itachi replied at the same volume, not wanting to alert the others to the situation between him and Sakura. Kakashi nodded agreeing with his chosen method.
"There are four different scents in this area. This one here," Pakkun said, walking over to an area and walked a line. "Belongs to Itachi. This one over here," he walked over another imaginary line from another direction leading directly to the pit. "Belongs to Sakura and goes directly into the pit."
"How did Sakura not see that big pit?" Naruto asked. "She's normally quite observant of her surroundings.
"She was a little upset just before she went missing." Itachi explained vaguely.
"Listen up, this is where it becomes a little complicated." Pakkun stated, grabbing all their attentions. "We found it hard to find Sakura's scent again; it was almost like it had just disappeared completely." He told them. "This is where the other two scents appear, they belong to two strangers." He walked over to another area pointing to some faint tracks. "We've scanned this area very thoroughly and Sakura's scent appears very faintly close to the pit fall trap along with the two strangers. Her scent then disappears completely." Pakkun then finished relaying their findings.
"The two strangers must have carried her." Kakashi stated. "Pakkun, could you and the boys follow the scent of the two strangers." Pakkun nodded before rounding up the other nin-dogs and set them to their task.
"We had better set up camp nearby. We're running out of daylight, it will make tracking very hard." Itachi suggested, the others nodded and found another clearing not to far from the area they were searching in.
OOO
It had been two days since following the scent of the two strangers. Every now and then Sakura's scent would appear when they found traces of a temporary camp. It was now raining.
Itachi, Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, Sai and the nin-dogs were all out in the rain trying to follow the small traces left before they disappeared with the rain. They regrouped yet again to see who had the trail. "Nothing from our area." Sasuke reported immediately for him and Naruto.
"My ink creatures didn't find anything." Sai said as he dropped down into the group of ninja.
"None of us could find any trace of the trail." Pakkun reported for the whole of the pack of dogs.
"I couldn't find anything either. How about you Itachi?" Kakashi asked. Itachi shook his head, down hearted at losing the only way of finding Sakura. "There's a dry cave nearby in which we can camp in until the rain stops. There's no point in becoming ill trying to find something we're not going to find in the rain. They all nodded and followed Kakashi to the cave.
Once inside Sasuke set up a fire using one of his family's fire jitsus. Naruto and Kakashi started to set up the sleeping area. And Sai started preparing some food for cooking. Itachi walked over to an empty corner of the cave. He wanted to be alone.
After a few minutes Sasuke walked up to him and sat down beside him. He didn't say anything for a while sensing that his brother didn't really want to talk. "You wanna talk about it?" He asked simply, knowing that at some point he would want to get it out of his system.
"Not really." Itachi replied on his monotone voice. There was silence for a couple of minutes. "It was my entire fault. We had been sparing and on our way back to the house she asked me about the list the clan had given me. I told her the truth, well not quite all of it. She then asked me if I loved her. I froze; I thought she must have known." Itachi paused. "She placed a binding jitsu on me and ran off, just because I didn't tell her that I loved her. I searched for her for days and it was then that I found the pit and her ribbon. I knew she was in danger. I immediately wrote to Tsunade for the need of a team." When he was finished with the confession there were a few minutes of silence.
"That sucks. I know what it's like to lose someone you love." Sasuke commented.
"What happened between you and Naruto?" Itachi asked.
"How do you know about that?" Sasuke asked, surprised.
"We saw you pinning him against a wall, shoving your tongue down his throat at our wedding." Itachi replied smugly.
"Well we got quite a bit further that night. He didn't remember a thing and I didn't even try to remind him. Within the next week he was dating Hinata." Sasuke then looked at Naruto with a pained look in his eyes. "I'm really happy for him, but every time I look at them together it hurts so much."
"There will be someone out there for you; it's just a matter of finding them." Itachi replied trying to comfort Sasuke in some small way.
