Chapter 10: Gemu
~Game, Match, Contest~
Sasuke wasn't exactly sure where to start looking for Naruto, he knew for a fact that Itachi had him, His older brother must have taken him from the forest where to the two of them had slept the previous night, but he had no idea where he would take him. Thinking maybe Itachi had left him a hint somewhere, Sasuke first back tracked to his house to retrieve his brother's Akatsuki rob.
He knew the only clue the garment held was who had taken Naruto. Any clue as to where they might be would be back where he had taken him from. Sasuke knew how Itachi thought. He knew that there would be a clue for him there.
This was just a version of the game the Uchihas used to play when they were little. Itachi of their cousin Shisui would take something of Sasuke's without him knowing it. Then they would leave clues from him to find the missing object.
The first clue was always something that belong to the thief. If Sasuke came into his room and found Itachi's ponytail holder on his bed, or Shisui's headband, or in this case Itachi's Akatsuki cloak, then he knew the game was on.
The next thing he had to do was figure out what was missing. In his childhood it was always something obvious ,like one of his favorite toys or books. Something he was likely to notice missing, and sometimes it was harder to figure what was taken. Once Itachi had taken a single strand of Sasuke's hair and started the game based on that. Sasuke had lost that game, he was unable to figure out what went missing, so it was impossible to find the next clue.
The next clue was always located at the last place Sasuke had seen the missing object. If his shoes were what they took, then the clue was by the door. If his toothbrush went missing, the clue would be in the bathroom. It was always easy to find the second clue, if he knew what was taken.
Itachi wasn't one to pick on his brother in the past, that's why he usually just told the younger one what was missing, making the game easier for him. But sometimes, like in the case of the missing hair strand, he would hold his silence and watch Sasuke drive himself into a tizzy trying to find the second clue without knowing what the missing item was. He seemed to enjoy watching Sasuke squirm at those times.
Sasuke ran towards the river, headed for where his and Naruto's fight had ended before. That was the last place he'd seen the blond boy, so that was where the clue would be. There was no way the ninja squads that had search the area before him could have found the clue. If this was their childhood game, the clue was be something subtle on Sasuke would notice, they hadn't wanted their parents to learn of their game.
The second clue would give him either a direction, or a destination. When he was a child the clue would have been something small like a pencil laying around pointing him where to go, a leaf telling him to search the forest, water saying to look by the river, a picture book opened to a specific page. Only Sasuke could find and decipher the subtle hints.
Sasuke searched the grounds near the river, looking for anything out of place that the other's would have missed. Itachi had once told him that the purpose of the game was to give him an eye for detail and investigation skills. He didn't even need to activate his Sharingan to find what he was looking for.
After finding the second clue, the only thing left in the game was searching out the missing item.
Sasuke just hoped he wasn't too late.