It was not his first excursion into the "great outdoors," as Sakura put it, he knew her words were borne not from a place of malice but of boredom, nor was it his second. It was during the third check, the one Sakura had told him not to take, that he saw his brother, from his location he could see him clearly, and unfortunately, his eyes were not deceiving him, this was his brother, his teenage brother, not the adult, following the crow. Thinking quickly, he made the summon go away, it would not be good for the crow to lead him straight to him.
The crow had been infused with a bit of Sakura's chakra, he had no doubt that's why his brother looked angry, his posture was stiff, and his eyes were roaming the perimeter, one hand at his sword. If he didn't know his brother the way he did, he would think this reaction was simply out of the possibility of his presence, but Itachi knew better, he knew it was Sakura's chakra that had triggered this reaction.
While Itachi was labeling his brother's reaction as cute, he also understood how bad the situation was. The crow had led the wrong Sasuke to him, watching his brother he understood one thing, showing himself now, would not have any results. His brother would not give him a chance to talk, he would seek out Sakura, and he would eventually find her. Itachi couldn't afford to move, not with his brother watching everything so closely, there were no large crowds for cover, would it be so bad if he met them? He let his mind wander to the best-case scenario, even as he considered this, he knew Sasuke was a danger to Sakura and Sarada.
He had to deal with one problem at a time, and his problem was leaving the immediate area to warn Sakura. However, Sasuke was intent on finding something off with the area, staying still was really his only choice. "Finally, you were in such a rush, you really need to slow down, this is so obviously, a trap." Itachi didn't know who the guy was, but he didn't care, this was the diversion he needed.
Sasuke only saw slight movement, but beyond that, there was nothing there. Everything about today was strange, this game his brother was playing was out of character, but what did he know? He had never really known his brother. From the area, they found the man, there were multiple trails, all too obvious, they were meant to distract whoever went there, but the crow had been there too, waiting for him.
The entire situation was bizarre, his brother didn't want to be found, based on the multiple trails, but the crow had been determined to lead him to this location, stranger still the crow had still had a destination in mind when it vanished, it was still headed somewhere, the only reason it would vanish is if Itachi had been nearby. "Juugo, look for anything that seems strange. We'll meet up here in one hour. Suigetsu get us place to spend the night, we need to blend in." As for himself, he too would do his own investigating.
Sasuke knew he needed to separate himself from the situation, look at it objectively. Besides, Itachi using Sakura to get to him was absurd, but why else would the crow wait for him? He didn't know what he was expecting, but already he could tell things were beyond his control. If Sakura was with Itachi it was likely because of her healing capabilities, which would explain the different trails, he didn't want Sakura to be found by Konoha, but why the crow? The crow was the confusing aspect, if Itachi didn't want Sakura found why would the crow be leading him somewhere. The fact is that Itachi was near, he knew it, it wasn't just the crow vanishing, somewhere the moment he saw the small village he knew Itachi was there. Noticing that Suigetsu had yet to leave, he left first.
Suigetsu decided the situation was a pain, and maybe just maybe staying with Karin would have been the better choice, but he knew better, that girl was a pain in the ass that he did not want to deal with on a good day. Not caring for either of their wraths his choice was simply to obey, finding an inn was easy, he simply asked the first person he saw for directions.
As for getting the actual room, that was slightly more difficult, the goal was to blend in, yet he had no money to pay for the room, or an idea as to how long they would be staying. He also had no idea when Karin would show up (there was no way in hell she would let Sasuke-kun go without her). Thus, instead of offering money, he offered the guy behind the counter a chance to live longer, as for selecting a room, he wanted one on the highest floor, but was disappointed to know that whole area was taken, and paid for already. When he questioned the man on how strange that was, the man added, "a young man showed up last night, paid for every room there, you just missed him. That's all I know. You can have the floor below it!"
Suigetsu sighed, but accepted the offer, he still had had forty minutes to spare before the meeting, entering the room he decided a short nap would be fine. As he laid down and closed his eyes however, he heard a crying baby coming from the room above him. This was not a good day.
A/N: I decided to be more subtle in how to show Sasuke is worried about Sakura, by not having him really think ahead, I also changed a lot of what I wanted to do because I was struggling so much with writing it. As always thank you for reading this!