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XXX

I found my mom in the kitchen. She was wiping down the table with a wet rag.

"Was somebody here?" I asked in a rush.

She looked up, startled, but then mulled my question over. "No, nobody knocked, it's just been me ever since you girls left for your meeting."

I couldn't stop the growl from escaping me as I barreled down the hallway and out the front door.

My legs pumped furiously as I cascaded through the streets. There was only one person who would possibly take my things without telling me.

Finally making it back to Kakashi's office, I threw the doors open. "Where's Gaara?" I demanded.

Kakashi had the good graces to look a little nervous when he saw me. "Sakura."

I waved him off. "Tell me where he is. He took my stuff."

Kakashi rose an eyebrow. "And why is it that this stuff is so important to you?"

My tongue froze, lips unable to form the words.

"Ah," he said, rising from his seat. "Understand, Sakura, that you lied when saying there was nothing in your possession that could lead him to Sasuke Uchiha."

"I didn't lie," I said. "I just didn't think they could be of any use." It was a weak argument. He knew it. I knew it.

Kakashi looked at me skeptically, but did not speak further on the matter. "You are to remain in the village until further notice. If you do not comply with this then expect consequences."

I glared at him, and then I left without saying anything further, slamming the door behind me.

Stomping out of there and back into the fresh air, I took a deep breath.

I needed a witch, and I needed one fast.

XXX

I stopped by the house to pick up a map and the bag Sasuke left me with. It was not mine to begin with, so it should also lead me to him with a locator spell. That was the hope, anyway.

Faster than I've ever moved before, I sought out Naruto at his favorite ramen shop. Typically, I could find him there any given night, and thankfully I wasn't wrong. There he was, sitting on one of the stools and slurping down a steaming bowl of noodles.

I grabbed his shoulder and swiveled him around. His eyes were wide and a bunch of noodles hung out of his mouth, the hot broth dripping onto his shirt.

"Phey!" he said.

"I need a witch," I pushed on. "Where can I find one?"

He slurped up the rest of the noodles and licked his lips. "How am I supposed to know that?"

I rolled my eyes. "Don't pretend you don't have some sort of fascination with them. I know you've been sneaking around with someone trying to do your own magic, and I want to know who."

He sat up straighter. "How...how did you-?"

"There's no time." I waved him off. "Help me get to a witch, I need to find someone."

Naruto's eyes dropped to the brown bag clutched in my hands. "All right, all right, I'll take ya."

My fist wrapped around his shirt and I yanked him out onto the street with me. "Where?"

He knocked my hand off of him. "Easy there, idiot! Sheesh."

He took off at a jogging pace, and he wouldn't speed up even after my incessant yelling at him to do so. I was almost ready to kill him for taking so long when we finally made it to an abandoned looking building, weeds overgrowing out front, cracks running up the concrete walls.

"What is this place?" I asked.

Naruto cocked a grin and then opened the door. When I walked in, I was surprised to see Hinata sitting in the middle of a sparsely furnitured room, books open before her.

She stood up in shock. "Sakura...I didn't...didn't know you were coming."

Naruto shook his head. "She wasn't going to, but nearly killed me just to find her a witch." He stood behind Hinata, cowering away from me. "Please do what she says, Hinata, she's crazy!"

I rolled my eyes at his dramatics. How in the world Hinata of all people was a witch was beyond me. Hailing from the mighty Hyuga clan made her a hunter legacy. If her father were to find out about this, she would be disowned.

I never thought she would be so...brave.

Even though she was apprehensive, Hinata said, "What do you need?"

I thrust the bag in her direction. "Find me the owner of this bag. Find me Sasuke Uchiha."

Both she and Naruto stared at me with wide eyes and open mouths. Hinata's hand twitched by her side, but she did not make a move to take the outstretched bag.

"Please," I begged, stepping forward while still holding out the bag. "Please help me. He's in trouble, I need to find him."

She sucked in her bottom lip and looked down at the floor, her fingers fiddling with the bottom of her shirt.

I held my breath as I watched her consider.

Naruto put his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, I think you should help her." His tone was soft, genuine, but then it turned back into that harsh, clumsy drawl I could pick out from a mile away. "Besides, I think she'd just hurt us until she gets what she wants, the lunatic."

I sneered at him, but amazingly Hinata's hand lifted and her fingers wrapped around the brown fabric.

"Could you lay the map out for me on the ground?" she asked.

I did as instructed, smoothing out the creases against the cool flooring.

Hinata knelt before the map, keeping a tight grip on the bag in one hand and then reaching over to some supplies to her left. Various jars lay near each other poking out of a large round bag. She fiddled with a few different ones, crushing the contents between her hands as she spoke in a different tongue.

She opened her fingers one by one and let the broken items fall over the bag, and then she smacked her hands on top of it, fingers splaying out wide.

I gasped when she opened her eyes and they were glowing a bright purple. She was looking at me, but it felt more like she was looking through me, like she was all seeing in that moment and not even present at all.

Slowly, the bits and pieces began to travel from the bag and onto the map. I leaned over as they moved in a straight line across the paper, across the various drawn in landmarks of mountains and rivers.

They finally stopped moving, collecting atop a point not too far from here. I'd be able to get there in about an hour while running.

Hinata's eyes faded back to normal and she studied the map as well. But, I snatched it and the bag up before anything else could happen.

"Thank you," I said, and then ran out without looking back.

XXX

My body went numb after a while. The run was long, but my mind was not on it. It was on the various scenarios at which my brain conjured up for when I would arrive at my destination.

What would I find?

Would Sasuke be there, standing over a dead Gaara?

Would Gaara be there, standing over a dead Sasuke?

The sharp inhale at the thought was the only deviation from my breathing rhythm.

Everything whipped past me. I moved right, following the map, ducking under low hanging branches, jumping over large, encroaching roots.

I checked down at the paper once more. I was close, almost there now.

My body lurched to a stop when I made it to a clearing, the trees parting suddenly to reveal the large grassy area.

Standing there was Suigetsu, wearing a shocked expression as he stared back at me. "What are you doing here?"

I marched over to him, clutching the map in my hand, the paper crinkling from the force. "No, what are you doing here?" I craned my head around, looking all about the area. "Where's Sasuke? I had a locator spell done on his stupid bag, so where is he?"

Suigetsu's face scrunched in confusion, his eyes traveling to the empty bag slung over my shoulders. "That's not Sasuke's bag, it's mine."

Hot dread filled me, my whole body seemed to blanch. "What?"

He shrugged. "Sasuke told me to get a bag, so I did."

"This isn't happening," I said. "Where's Sasuke then? He's in danger."

He threw his hands up. "Look, I was given specific orders not to bring you back to him. Got my butt handed to me last time I did it, he'd probably go right and kill me if I did it again."

"Didn't you hear what I said? He's in trouble! Gaara took the things he gave me and is on his way to Sasuke right now."

Suigetsu looked to the side, his weight shifting onto his other leg. "Look, Sasuke's going to be fine, he's been running from people his entire life."

I shook my head. "This is different. They finally have something that will lead directly to him."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever, he'll be fine. Now get out of here."

I eyed him carefully. He seemed to be fidgeting, and he wanted me to leave in a hurry. "What are you doing here anyway?"

He threw his hand out, exasperated. "Nothing, just get outta here."

I stood strong. "No, I'm not leaving until I know what's going on."

He shifted his eyes again. "Seriously? All these years of our friendship and this is how you act? Don't you trust me by now?"

I put up my fingers and ticked them off. "One, I've only known you for like two months. And two, no, I do not trust you."

He sighed. "Don't make me fight you."

"Like I'd let you get the better of me a second time."

He just groaned. "You know what, it's not my fault you're so annoying. Let Sasuke deal with his own mess for once."

I perked up. "You're taking me to him?"

"No. I'm just not going to stop your ass from following me when I leave. I don't get paid enough to deal with this."

"Do you even get paid at all?" I asked.

He went silent and turned his back on me. "Just shut up and stand back."

As he moved, I saw a short stone pedestal that lay behind him. I shuffled to the side to keep it in my sight.

Suigetsu took a vial containing dark liquid out from his pocket. He looked into the sky, noting the full moon before he uncorked and poured the liquid over the stone, it pooled in the center before fanning out, slowly making its way to the edge.

"What is that?" I asked.

He shot me a look over his shoulder, but then turned his attention back to the liquid. "It's blood. Demon blood, and apparently Sasuke had a bitch of a time in getting it. I had to pour it over this thing at midnight for it to work."

The blood started to change colors from the deep red to a bright blue, and then all of it seeped into the stone itself.

It cracked, the stone yawning open in the middle where most of the blood had accumulated.

Suigetsu reached down and plucked out a smooth bluish white stone, looking very similar to the sun stone that Sasuke showed me so long ago.

"Is that...a moon stone?"

Suigetsu nodded, pocketing it as if it were nothing special.

And then he was running.

I flinched before taking off after him. "I thought you said I could follow you?"

He didn't look back at me as he answered, just kept sprinting ahead. "I said I wouldn't stop you, but I am definitely not going to help you." I could hear the deviousness in his voice as he took a sharp turn to the right.

I careened forward, missing the turn and having to double back.

We ran like that for a while. Suigetsu definitely kept to his promise of not making this trip easy for me, but I kept on his tail as best I could. Even though he was getting farther and farther ahead of me, I could still catch the sight of his white hair cutting around corners.

The route he took brought us around the side of a high, jagged cliff. The trees thinned out, and then there was an expanse of fields and a nearby lake shimmering in the moonlight.

The sounds of fighting filled the air, and I couldn't help but stand completely still as I took in the sight before me.

Everyone was paired off in battles. Sasuke was fighting that woman companion of Gaara's, a woman with shocking red hair was fighting Gaara himself, and then a large individual was fighting the man with paint on his face.

Suigetsu joined the fight immediately, jumping in to help Sasuke as he was the one nearest us.

Sasuke gave a brief look to his left when Suigetsu jumped in, and then he did a double take as he had obviously spotted me hanging around the outskirts of the area.

Our eyes locked, and I felt time stop then. Everything else faded away, and all I could focus on was his face.

But then the woman had gotten around Suigetsu, a blade flashing in the dark as she sliced right through Sasuke's abdomen.

XXX

No Q&A today from me, I just want to mini rant about my day tomorrow (Sunday).

My mom and I are going to see Avenger's Endgame! AHHHHHHHHHH I'm so freaking PUMPED! Who else is excited!? Please, no spoilers if you've already seen it! :O