Sakura had been surprised when she opened the door to find Suigetsu there, but Suigetsu was more than surprised to see Itachi standing behind her, he was in complete shock. He only managed to mutter an "oh shit," before Itachi placed him under a genjutsu, lead him inside the room and closed the door for Sakura.

Even through Sarada's crying (those lungs!) he could hear Sakura ask, "what the hell is he doing here?" She placed Sarada on the bed, and approached Itachi, hoping that Sarada being further away would make it easier to communicate.

"Why would you open the door so carelessly!?"

"I AM SORRY, LACK OF SLEEP MAKES PEOPLE DO STUPID THINGS!"

"If he is here my brother can't be far, it is best to control our voices."

There was sudden burst of clarity in Sakura's green eyes as she spoke, "I don't think anyone can hear us over Sarada's crying. By the way, she got those lungs from her father, I was a quiet baby."

"A moment ago, you appeared concerned with, I am sorry I don't know his name?"

"Suigetsu."

"Yes, you appeared concerned with Suigetsu being here, and now you are making jokes. Why?" He tried to hide the concern from his voice in the why, something told him he wouldn't like the answer.

"Because it means your brother is in this inn." Itachi concluded a few possibilities from this, and he didn't like any of them. "We can keep an eye on him through Suigetsu, at least while he is in the inn." Before a no could escape Itachi, Sakura continued, "this is a small town, as things are we can't even leave the inn, Suigetsu will be easy to get information from, we can have an idea of where your brother is or how long he will be here." Itachi was still unconvinced, "can you come up with a better plan?"

"No, and you clearly know him, I have to trust you. I don't want to, but I don't really have a choice." He held back his sigh and asked, "do you want me to add to his genjutsu or will you free him yourself?"

"Make sure the genjutsu leads him to the door, you will go to your room, I will free him."

He hesitated a little, but did as she told him, from his room he could hear Sarada crying, and was not surprised to discover that Sakura and Suigetsu's voices could not be made out. Peeking through his door he saw Sakura invite Suigetsu into her room, but she didn't close the door. He could see Suigetsu blushing, and nodding his head. The conversation went on for some time before Suigetsu left, the moment he left Itachi went to her room, and immediately asked, "what did you learn?"

"They are literally beneath our feet, I'll find out more tomorrow. I convinced Suigetsu to buy us breakfast tomorrow."

Itachi didn't bother to hide the shock in his voice, "you what!?"

"I got us a free breakfast."

"It's a little impulsive, what if my brother-"

"You can't leave the room with Sasuke wandering around looking for you. I can't leave because you won't let me, and it's not like Sarada is even an option. Suigetsu is getting us our food tomorrow, though I think he believes I am paying."

"And what do you expect me to do?"

"Stay in your room waiting for the leftovers. We need information, especially since they are close, how has Sasuke not found us?"

"What do you mean?"

"Karin, she is one of the best sensors I've ever met, and she is in his group. She should have found us, led him to us by now even. Yet, the one who showed up was Suigetsu, not Karin and Sasuke. We know Suigetsu and Sasuke are together, the only conclusion I can make is that she isn't with them."

"I cannot say that is disappointing, her absence is actually beneficial to us. Why does it concern you so much?"

"Because, Karin is in love with Sasuke, she wouldn't just leave him."

"My brother could have easily left her behind."

"He wouldn't, his goal is to find you. Karin is what he considers his best chance."

Deciding the conversation could go on forever, Itachi decided to change the subject, "how exactly do you plan on getting information from Suigetsu?" Sakura didn't want to tell Itachi that the brief amount of time Suigetsu spent in Konoha after the war he was practically drooling whenever he would see her, she didn't think her brother in law would appreciate that she was planning on flirting with a man that was not her husband. However, her hesitation was enough to inform Itachi of her plans. "You are going to flirt with him?!"

"It's not like I am going to cheat on your brother."

"That's not the problem, I trust your loyalty to my brother. I just don't think flirting with him will provide the intended results, the flirting may make him uncomfortable." He hadn't meant it as an insult, but she had been clearly and for rightful reasons offended by his statement. "You recently gave birth-"

"Just because I am a mother does not mean I am no longer attractive!"

"That's not what I meant. Sakura, you are very beautiful, I have no doubt my brother had competition for your affections, even in my time you have quite the reputation." He had placated her anger, good. The issue, is that you have excess milk. There is nothing that would entice me to flirt with a woman that is leaking."

"You make it seem like its constant!"

"Well it does occur with some frequency and-"

"It's really adorable that you think all men would have those standards. As a medical expert, and as someone who has worked in a hospital, let me tell you something," she paused, waiting to have full command of his attention, "people are perverts."

"I am not some innocent child that does not know there are perverts out there, I just do not believe my brother would associate himself with one."

She almost laughed at the innocence of his statement, choosing to ignore him, she went towards Sarada, "it would be best for you to remain in your room until I go to you tomorrow."

"Fine, but you will send Suigetsu for the food, and you will have it here. Understand?"

"Yes, now go to your room and stay there until further notice, you need sleep as badly as I do. Goodnight." Sakura could tell that Itachi wanted to say more, he clearly wanted to place rules and a time limit. She pushed him towards the door and closed the door behind him, approaching Sarada, she couldn't help the smile in her face when she told her, "you are loved."

Hours passed, and Sakura had not even slept for five minutes when there was a knock on her door, while she was positive it was Suigetsu behind the door. However, she had since learned her lesson of opening the door so carelessly. Approaching it carefully, afraid of waking up Sarada who had fallen asleep minutes before her, she asked, "who is it?"

"I'm here for our breakfast date. Let's go!"

Sakura had to hold in her groan, she was more than disappointed to discover that Suigetsu was an early riser. She opened the door, holding a finger to her mouth in a shushing motion, "If you wake her up, you are dead."

"So how are we doing this?"

"Well I was thinking that you could get us the breakfast, and bring it here."

"Yeah, your kid is asleep, and I am not waking up that little demon." Noticing the glare she sent in his direction he quickly added, "cute demon though. We could make it a dinner date." Sakura ignored the flashy grin he sent her way.

Deciding that knowing what Sasuke was up to was more important than Itachi's self-punishment, she did the only thing she could think off, "I'll meet you downstairs in a bit, I have a friend in the area than can watch her for a few minutes. I bet she kept you up all night, breakfast is the least I could do. After all you were very patient." Suigetsu seemed content to be on his merry way.

Sakura wasn't surprised to find that Itachi opened his door the moment Suigetsu left. She didn't give him a chance to protest though. "We need to know what your brother is up to. If I go out, I can also look for my husband, it will be thirty minutes max. Sarada just fell asleep, she shouldn't wake up for at least two hours." With that she went to her room and grabbed her cloak, there were two things she was certain of, the first was the Itachi would argue if she gave him the chance, and that her pink hair was a giveaway because it always was.

When she approached Suigetsu he was quick to point out her cloak in the middle of April, she lied and said she felt a cold coming on, and couldn't risk it. She let Suigetsu lead, something she quickly regretted when he took her to a ramen stand. Sasuke once told her that Suigetsu and Naruto had a few similarities, but this was just ridiculous. As soon as they ordered, he asked, "so what brings you to the middle of nowhere?"

"My husband and I were heading home. We ran into some trouble, and he thought it prudent to send us away."

"You don't sound very happy about that."

"Well that's because he sent us away in a panic. Enough about me, what brings you here?"

"The boss leads, we follow."

"You have traveling companions? I am sorry, my daughter must have kept all of you up."

"Nah, it's not your fault. We shouldn't even be in this town. The boss is obsessive." When their food arrived they ate in silence, but Sakura could tell something was bothering him. "You know, on the way over here we ran into this guy passed out on the ground. No signs of a struggle, Sasuke, the boss, didn't care though, when it comes to his obsession there are no distractions."

Sakura had to keep herself from asking more details about the man they found, feigning disinterest was hard though, and she could feel Suigetsu's eyes on her, "really now?"

"Yeah, but like a I said, my boss has a one, track mind, he followed a crow here. Eventually he asked me to look for a place to stay. Which I did, but last night after I met you, I remembered something," Sakura could feel her heart beating faster," the guy who gave me the room, said that a guy came in and rented all rooms in the top floor. Only you were there though." Sakura knew the implication behind his words, "Sasuke asked me about you, in detail, he asked me to distract you. Wanted to see it with his own eyes that you weren't her." Suigetsu sighed, "it's nothing personal pinky." With that she heard the explosion from the direction of the inn.

A/N: sorry for any mistakes, which there will likely be a lot of them, I am updating this within minutes of finishing it. Timely has always had multiple possible endings, I set it up in a way that I could end it in different manners, it was just I needed a character to pull the trigger on their route, I always knew Suigetsu would be able to solve where Itachi was if he really thought about it, its just that up until I was writing it, I didn't know he had indeed thought about it... originally Karin was gonna be character the pulled trigger on her route...

I have a few things to address on this author note first of and I hope this doesn't sound angry, cause its not supposed to be... someone commented that they didn't think Sasuke would reveal the truth of the massacre to anyone, or not really Karin... something along those lines. Obviously I disagree or I wouldn't have written that in there. When I initially considered Sasuke telling Karin there was huge logic behind it that I ended up forgetting as I actually wrote that. The logic is Karin was going to find out anyway, she was there when Sasuke fought Danzo... Sasuke doesn't care as much if she finds out because she was going to anyway. And the same reviewer also pointed things out that were written that way on purpose, like I said I've had multiple directions, it was just I needed a character that would pull the trigger.

and I also wanted to apologize for taking so long to update. and like I said, this story was never on hiatus, I worked on it when I could, sometimes I would only be able to write a sentence at a time, and then the next time I worked on it I would delete a whole paragraph... very little progress... and maybe some of you noticed beginnings was being updated, and I am not going to ask you guys to read it, but sometimes there is information on the updates for timely in there...

sorry for such a small update too, and as always thank you guys for reading, when I first started this story I told myself that even having one person interested in the story would be enough... so this story having as many follows and favorites as it does is just amazing to me.