Chapter Two
Author's Note: Hello minna-san...this will be my second chapter where our delicious, gorgeous and handsome Itachi finally makes his appearance.
As always happly reading
ButterflyYuna xoxo
She spun around only to find a bank of expressionless faces staring back at her."Did one of you have something to tell me?" she asked. "Have you seen
Haruno Kaien? Do you remember his ship?" None of them replied except with sheepish grins. "Think it's great fun hoaxing a stranger, do you?" Sakura snapped. "I see some things are the same wherever you go."
With an indignant huff, she turned back to her informant. By now he'd had plenty of time to study the likeness. But when she looked around, all she glimpsed of the fellow was the back of his faded blue tunic disappearing into the crowd.
"Come back!" she cried, tearing after him. "Thief! He has my locket. Someone please stop him!"
But no one on the quay seemed willing to help her. Quite the opposite, infact. Men who moved aside to let the thief escape quickly stepped back into Sakura's path, hindering her pursuit.
"Shikamaru! Naruto!" she called, though she knew her travelling companions must be far out of earshot by now. She didn't dare stop to look around for them or she might lose sight of the man who'd stolen her locket.
"Please," she cried, "you can have the necklace! Just leave me the picture!" Catching sight of the bridge out of the corner of her eye, she hoped the thief might run that way and perhaps overtake her friends. Instead he darted down a crowded street in the other direction with Sakura in breathless pursuit. After five months aboard ship, she was not used to running, especially in such oppressive heat. Sheer desperation pushed her forwards.
The thief dodged into a side street. Sakura reached it just in time to glimpse him entering the mouth of an alley. By the time she staggered to the spot where she'd seen him disappear, she was gasping for air while a hot flush smarted in her cheeks. No doubt he would have slipped away, leaving her with no idea which way he'd gone.
But, no. When she peered into the alley, there he was, strolling towards her as brazen as could be—the same clothes, dark eyes and shaved head Pl
anting herself in front of him, she signalled him to stop. "I want my pic
ture back. Come now, it can't be worth anything to you."
The man scowled at her as if she was the one who'd done him wrong. He muttered an answer in his language. "You could speak English well enough a few minutes ago!" cried Sakura. "Or did you forget it all while you were making away with my property?"
The man's scowl turned into an outright sneer as he pushed past her."Oh, no, you don't." She caught his sleeve and hung on. "I'm not about tochase you through the streets again in this heat. Just give me back my picture!" Tugging his sleeve roughly out of her grasp, the man unleashed a flood of words Sakura could not understand. But she recognised violent anger when she heard it, no matter what the language. This was the man who'd stolen her locket,wasn't it? Were his cheekbones perhaps a little higher? His face a trifle thinner?
"I—I beg your pardon if I mistook you for someone else." She pointed down the alley. "Another man ran that way. He had something he stole from me. Did you see which way he went?" The man she'd accosted heaped more abuse upon her. Suddenly Saukra realised he was not alone. She was surrounded by a score of men all dressed the same, all glaring at her in a way that sent a shiver down her spine. Was she in danger of disappearing in this lawless, foreign outpost the way her brother had? And if she did, would anyone care enough to come looking for her?
"The mace and nutmegs sell for seventy-five Spanish dollars a picul," Uchiha Itachi informed the Swedish captain from whom he'd just bought a cargo of iron. "You won't get them cheaper from any of the other merchants in town. The situation in Java has driven prices up for everyone." The craggy Swede scowled. "Maybe I take my iron to Batavia and trade direct with the Dutch for their spices."
"Be my guest," Itachi bluffed. He'd hate to lose that cargo of Swedish iron. "Pay the outrageous tariffs they charge in Batavia. You'll have less money in your pocket at the end of your voyage. That is, if you're lucky and the pirates don't get you between here and Sumatra. Perhaps I could come down a dollar or two on the mace, but not the nutmegs. My partner is due back from England soon and he'll have my hide if he catches me giving our goods away at such prices."
Part of him eagerly awaited Hadrian Northmore's return. It would be arelief to have someone else shoulder half the workload. Since both his partners had gone back to England— Shinsui for a brief visit and Kisame to stay—Itachi had taken on the responsibility of three men.
In spite of that, he was reluctant to surrender control of the company to his senior partner. Hadrian was an ambitious, astute man of business, but he had areckless streak of which Irachi had never approved. He preferred the steady,