The next morning was like the last - minus Sai sleeping in.
Toshio left for the clinic, Naruto was shut in his make shift room in his forced sleep, but Sakura stayed back in Toshio's home with Sai instead of giving Toshio a hand in the clinic.

Sai sat in the gazebo outside the back of Toshio's home leaning over a blank canvas. It was a warm sunny day and Sai looked oddly natural in the sunlight and he lifted his head often to look up to a small garden and trees that he was painting at the time.
Sakura closed the door to Toshio's home behind her and made her way across the rich green grass to the gazebo where Sai was. She made her way up the steps and sat beside Sai and observed his painting as he continued to ignore her presence.

Sakura had originally thought that his painting was of the small garden and trees, but while observing his art she saw that it was another of his strange abstract pieces that Sakura never really understood but enjoyed.
He lifted his head again to observe the garden that somehow became inspiration for his abstract piece before he lowered his head again and painted several more strokes.
Sakura turned her attention to the gardens on Toshio's property and observed the arrangement of colours and flowers that made her think of Ino.

"Sakura?" asked Sai as he lifted the brush from the canvas and straightened himself before turning to face Sakura with a questionable expression on his face as though he knew what was on Sakura's mind.

Sakura returned her attention to Sai and smiled to him in appreciation that he had finally noticed her or more, stopped ignoring her.

"Is something on your mind?" asked Sai again, tilting his head slightly and giving a small you-can-trust-me smile.

"Well I uh – " started Sakura hesitantly.

"You know Sakura, you can trust me if there is something you wish to say. I am your comrade now and we must trust each other with our lives" continued Sai still smiling to her, oblivious that Sakura was about to speak.
Sai 's smile faltered when he saw Sakura glaring to him.

"Well I was about to speak but you –" her glare finished her sentence for her, "Anyway, well I wanted to speak to you about Naruto" stated Sakura becoming more shy about the conversation and fiddled with her fingers.

"Yes, what about him?" asked Sai, looking more curious to where the conversation was heading.

"Well he….just…..the last couple of nights….i mean since he has become a shiki he….has….well," Sai tilted his head, becoming ever more curious as to what she was wanting to say and as to why it was so difficult for her to say. "he has been…..seeing me…..well I mean, each night he has been," Sai cocked an eyebrow and titled his head to the opposite side, Sakura decided she had to get it out right then before Sai began to think the wrong things, "I mean, that, every night he comes into my room and talks to me" finished Sakura, cautiously looking for any clue as to what he was thinking.

Sai continued to look to her with the same face, only tilting his head back to the other side.
"And what is it you both talk about?" he asked.

Sakura let out a long breath and shrugged to him.
"Nothing really. He never stays long. Last night I asked him about Hinata but he only said that the shiki attacked her, nothing else, and then he went all funny and left"

"Funny?" asked Sai pulling another questionable face.

"Yeah, he was talking then he went quiet and he just stared at everything like he was scared then he just left in a hurry" replied Sakura letting out another long breath. Sakura left out the bit about the red in his eyes as she wasn't sure if she had seen it or only imagined it or what the red even meant.

Sai didn't reply for a long moment and instead painted a few more strokes on his canvas before he put the brush down again and turned back to Sakura.

"Maybe, he left during your conversation for a good reason" stated Sai. When Sakura looked to him but didn't reply he continued, "Remember that he isn't Naruto anymore. He is a shiki," hearing Sai say such things about Naruto with such little emotion in his voice angered her, but she held it in and listened to him anyway. "And shiki drink blood" his comment was so simple, but made good sense.

Naruto was a shiki, Sakura had let that pass by her earlier when she and Naruto spoke, but in reality, Naruto was a shiki that only fed on blood. As it was, he had already been awake for a couple days and yet he hadn't had a drop of blood.
Sakura wondered how long a shiki could go without feeding. They knew that shiki couldn't last very long without blood, but how long?
And when they did taste blood they enter a sort of feeding frenzy and drink as much as they can in a sitting.
The image of Hinata biting into Naruto's flesh crossed Sakura's mind which left an unpleasant feeling in her gut.

"I'm sure Naruto is starting to get hungry," continued Sai, oblivious to Sakura's thoughts, "And so far the only person he has come into contact with is you." He made another point.

Naruto had probably left her the night before because he was hungry. He had said that he wasn't going to hurt her, but if his thirst of blood is growing he would have to stay away from her to keep that promise or until he fed and then returned to her, but then he would be alright only for another couple of days till the cycle started again.

But she wanted to be certain that that was the reason he had left.

Sai looked to her, waiting for a response.
"Yeah, you are probably right. Thanks Sai" she said with a false smile on her face.

Sai continued to look to her, studying her expression. She hoped he couldn't tell that her smile was a false one. If he did he didn't point it out.
"Lets go out today" he said suddenly smiling to her again.

"Where?"

"Just into the village. We might see Akira and Kaori again"

Sakura didn't really want to go anywhere.
She wanted to wait for a response from the Leaf's Hokage, which usually arrived the day after Sai sent a report to her. The response message was sent via Sai's painted bird, so it wasn't an issue if they moved places because Sai's bird would always find him no matter where he went, but still Sakura was anxious for her reply.

Each of Tsunade's replies so far hadn't held much emotion for Hinata or Naruto and had only asked for them to continue their investigation.
Plus, the last report Sai had sent had stated that Naruto had come back from the dead and was now a shiki, and Sakura wanted to know what Tsunade had to say about that.
They had explained in previous reports what they knew about shiki, information that could seal Naruto's fate. Tsunade could easily ask for Naruto to be returned to the Leaf village so she could see for herself, but after seeing how Toshio studied them Sakura wasn't sure if she wanted Tsunade to see Naruto like this, even though she knew that Tsunade wouldn't do such things.

"Yeah alright" replied Sakura and stood ready to go.
Sai smiled up to her. He knew she needed to get away for a while, so he placed his painting and utensils inside Toshio's home before he and Sakura left for the village.

They had both decided that their time in the village should still be spent on their mission so they went to visit some of the 'ill' people who had been targeted by the shiki.
They went to Natsuno's home where he spent the daylight hours so that he didn't scare any of the villagers that still thought he was dead, but he didn't have any new information to give them.

"Why don't we check out the house where Hinata and Naruto stayed while in the village" offered Sakura.

"But we do not know where that is" replied Sai, making another point

"It shouldn't be that hard. I'm sure some villagers would know" replied Sakura remaining optimistic.

They had turned around to head back towards the village's main road when a voice called out to them.

"Sai, Sakura!" called Kaori as she approached them with her dog beside her.

"Hello Kaori" said Sai when she reached them and gave her a friendly smile.

"Is something wrong?" asked Sakura

"No, I just saw you both and thought I should come to say hi" she replied with a wide smile and Sai and Sakura relaxed.

"Hey, Kaori, you wouldn't by any chance know where the other two ninja from the Leaf village had been staying?" asked Sakura, getting her hopes up, but felt a bit disheartened when Kaori looked confused.
"You know the boy in the orange clothes and a girl with purple eyes" tried Sakura with less enthusiasm.

"Oh them, they were staying in the cursed house" she replied joyfully

"Cursed house?" asked Sai looking down to the girl

"Yeah, everyone calls that house cursed because the last three tenants have all died, your friends included. No other home has had so many deaths occur from the shiki" replied Kaori.

Kaori led them through the village and past a field of crops before they reached a small group of homes. Out of the group of six homes that sat on either side of the road, Kaori stopped in front of the closest house and announced that it was the house the ninja had stayed in.
Happy that she had done something to help them she said farewell and headed off back towards the main part of the village followed by her dog as she went.

The house was similar to many of the others homes throughout the village. They were small and simple homes, usually dull browns and greens and even dull grey-oranges that made the village like no other. The windows were covered by the houses curtains and the small garden out the front had begun to sprout weeds. Whoever the owner of the house was hadn't been caring for it since the last tenants' deaths.

They approached the house and went to test the door but found that the door was already unlocked so they went inside, leaving the door open behind them.

"Why would it be unlocked?" queried Sakura out loud as she examined the main room, but Sai remained silent as he too examined the room.
Sakura set to work opening the curtains to let in the natural light and Sai pointed out blood soaked into the carpet that looked to have been there for some time.
They made their way further into the home and into one of the room that connected to the main room. The room was a simple bedroom with a familiar lump on the ground that resembled a bag. Making their way to the bag they opened it and pulled out the contents to discover that the bag had belonged to Naruto and another bag in another room belonged to Hinata.
There was no doubt that this was the place they had stayed at during their mission, but they must have left in a hurry or expectantly to have left their bags behind and the blood that Sai had pointed out most likely belonged to either Hinata or Naruto.

They left the house with Hinata's and Naruto's bag and closed the door after them and entered the street again, halting when a man approached them.
He was a young and fit looking man who wore long pants and a sleeveless top with matching colours that appeared dull compared to his bright blue spiked hair that had two slightly darker blue triangle shaped spikes of hair that stood out like animal ears on either side of his head.
The man looked like he defiantly didn't belong in the village.

"Yo" he said joyfully as he approached them with a one handed salute and his other hand in his pocket.
"Name's Tatsumi" he finished with a smile before them and lowered his other hand to his pocket.

Sakura and Sai knew exactly who Tatsumi was.
He was the lead were-wolf that led the shiki from the village.
He was the one who had planned the attack in Hinata and Naruto.
And he was the one who wanted to eliminate them both and Toshio.

But Sakura and Sai ignored that information and played dumb for the time being, it was possible that Tatsumi didn't come there to attack them. But there was no doubt that their Leaf ninja headbands gave away their identities.

"So I noticed you were snooping around in one of my houses" stated Tatsumi, giving an over-confident smile.
Sakura and Sai held their tongues.
The fact that he had said 'his house' meant that he was the one who rented it out to the people who were attacked by the shiki including Naruto and Hinata.
"I know you knew who was the house last," continued Tatsumi looking more smug with every moment that passed, "The girl has become quiet helpful, but the boy…not too sure where he is. Say, you wouldn't happen to know where he is would you?"
He was talking about Hinata doing his dirty work and he wanted Naruto too. Sakura so badly wanted to hit him with everything she had, but had to hold herself back.
Surprisingly it was Sai who acted out.
Sai ran forward and slashed at Tatsumi with a kunai, but Tatsumi had animal reflexes and leapt out of the way, landing several meters away from them and laughed to Sai's attempt.

"Well, I take that as you do know where the boy is" smiled Tatsumi slyly before he turned and left with a wave.
Sakura walked up to be beside Sai and placed a light hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry Sakura, now he knows where Naruto is" he said looking to where Tatsumi stood earlier.

"He may not know exactly where he is. He most likely knows that Naruto is with us, but as long as we are careful he won't find Naruto. And I'm sure Naruto wouldn't go with him" replied Sakura, remaining optimistic and giving Sai a comforting smile.

Having arrived back at Toshio's home they received a reply from the Leaf's Hokage.

Sakura and Sai, you are both doing well and I am sorry to hear about Hinata and Naruto. These shiki creatures sound to be a problem that must be dealt with. I would like you both to remain in the village and aid the villagers to rid of the shiki and to eliminate the problem.
As for Naruto, keep an eye on him and if he harms anyone you have my order to eliminate him.
I am sorry if it comes to that, but it is your duty to eliminate these shiki creatures, including Naruto.
I will send a backup squad to you if needed.

Sakura and Sai looked to one another with grave faces, not willing to think about Naruto and Hinata's fates.