Emotional Silence 20- Older Brother

"Nii-san!" I grab Neji's shoulder and stop him before he runs past me.

"What's wrong?"

"Look ahead."

"Who is that?"

"Itachi, my older brother." He's spotted us! That coat, he really is in Akatsuki then. But, who's that guy with him? Itachi turns to face us. "Don't make eye contact with him." Neji nods and I step forward.

"Well, looks like my little sister got a boyfriend." I smirk.

"How many times do I have to tell you, Nii-san? I don't like guys. What are you doing here?"

"We're on an errand. You don't need to know what that is." I roll my eyes and run at him.

"Karin!" I smile and cross my hands. Kage-bunshin no jutsu! Three doubles appear and dodge the second guy's retaliation. Itachi defends himself.

"You can't hope to beat me, not by yourself."

"I can drive you out then!" I land a kick to his face and jump back. It looks like the other guy uses water based chakra, so my fire attacks won't have any effect on him. And I can't use water based attacks to counter Itachi's fire based chakra. My best bet is to use my shadow doppelgangers to bind the other guy and take care of Itachi with my fire dancing.

"And especially with the circumstances."

"What circumstances? If you remember, Nii-san, I'm three times as strong as Sasuke. I've been strong enough to fight you for years."

"Then why haven't you come after me?"

"I have other priorities, and you aren't at the top of my list." I run in and start gathering chakra.

"Fire dancing, Nee-chan?"

"I've improved the style." I jump into the air and spin, falling down in a tornado of flame. I land and look around. The second guy is holding Itachi up. Good, that means I got him pretty good. They disappear. "Damn!"

"What was that all about?"

"Family dispute. Though this is a bit more deadly than your family troubles."

"Did you find out why he's here?"

"No, but I have a feeling. And I can't talk about it. Let's just get going." He nods and we start back on our run to the gate. We get there and the others wave at us. Tenten is glaring at me. She definitely likes Neji. This will be interesting.

"We ready to go?"

"What took so long?" Neji and I exchange a glance.

"We got held up by a visitor."

"Really?" I nod.

"Yea, we live right next door to each other, so we figured we'd walk home together, and I had a guest and Sasuke wasn't home, and I didn't want to deal with them alone."

"You don't strike me as the insecure type." I shrug and start walking.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go." They nod and we start out. I stop. We don't even know what direction to start.

"What's wrong?"

"What direction are we supposed to start looking?" I sigh and pull out a scroll and needle.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting help. The best way to track someone is to either have a sensory ninja in the team or use another method."

"What method are you suggesting?" I smile and prick my finger with the needle.

"Summoning."

"What, dogs?"

"No, birds. We don't have a sample of the target's scent. It would be pointless to use dogs." I open the scroll and run my finger across it. "Stand back; there will be a lot of them coming out. Kuchiyose no jutsu, Flock of Eyes!" I lay the scroll on the ground and hold one hand in a symbol, two fingers up and the other two pointing at the ground. A flock of black birds with red, sharingan, eyes flood out of the scroll and I roll it up.

"Mistress Karin, what are you summoning us in force for?"

"We're on a tracking mission." The largest bird lands on my head and looks over the team.

"Are you over them, or are you under the weirdo in green?"

"Gai is over our team. Stop being rude and listen to what I need you guys to do, Yuzu."

"Sure, Karin-sama." I roll my eyes and smile at the others.

"Don't worry about Yuzu, he's a sour puss. Now get off of my head so I can look at you, idiot." The bird rises slightly and then lands on the ground in front of me.

"What are we tracking?"

"Four ninja from Otogakure."

"That minuscule little village? What did they do?"

"Assisted in killing the Third. Now, that's beside the point. Our job is to locate them and report back."

"Do you have some way for us to tell who they are?" I nod and pull out the folder with the pictures in it.

"How did you?"

"Guess and you get a prize, Gai. Now. These are the ones that we're looking for." Yuzu bobs his head and flips through the images with a claw.

"Okay, we've got the images memorized. Our objective?"

"Simply locate them and notify me. We will search in the direction of Otogakure. Have the team split up and communicate via visuals. Go as far as you need." He flaps his wings and rises slightly. "Remain high above them, so as to conceal your eyes. They will be able to recognize the trait and know they are being tracked." He bobs his head and signals to the rest of the birds to start flying.

"Explain?" I pick up the folder and put it in my bag.

"I'm an artist with a photographic memory. I copied the pictures in the folder at my house. It only took a moment to make an identical folder to use. I also put a false mission briefing in the back in the event that they discover our intentions and manage to get hold of one or both of the folders. Both look official and both contain different information. Therefore, they will have no way of knowing what our real mission is."

"Oh! But what about the birds?"

"One of my specialties, you could say. Those birds are specifically linked to the Uchiha family and have worked with my ancestors. Basically, they do what I tell them and nothing else. The point of them now is to spread out our search range in a discreet way."

"So we're heading towards Otogakure?" I nod.

"For the moment. I have a feeling at least one bird will find them on a different path and we can go in that direction to confirm it."

"I'm really surprised you're not in charge of a team."

"Looks like she's taken over this team."

"I'm not trying to. I'm just trying to help make this more efficient and less energy wasting. The more time we spend wasting energy searching in every which direction, the less time we'll have to recover if we're discovered. The more energy we manage to conserve, the more energy we'll have in the event of discovery or a conflict."

"All in favor of Uchiha-san being in charge of this mission?" I laugh as all three of them raise their hands.

"You're impressive for a kid." I roll my eyes.

"If you're impressed by this, you really should see me in combat. Kakashi couldn't even keep up with me. Now, we need to get moving. We haven't made any progress except get our range increased." They nod and we start running in the direction of Otogakure.

"You look distracted."

"I'm trying to see what certain of the birds are seeing. That's how they'll let me know that they've found our targets." I stop. "Stop running, right now."

"What's wrong?" I hold up a hand and look at Neji; he understands and starts using Byakugan.