Soku has been missing for a week now, and it was causing those of us who had grown close to him to worry. Before going missing he went out on a grocery errand for Pein and hasn't been seen since. The groceries that he had gotten were outside the door on the day of his disappearance but there was no sign that he had ever even been there. I put on my cloak and got ready to go out on another search mission with Kisame. We've been doing them periodically hoping that just maybe his body will at least pop up somewhere, we all had little hope at this point. As I went to meet up with Kisame by the front door I bumped into Sasuke who was just coming out of his room. He looked up at me a little hopeful that maybe we could find him today. I rubbed his head with a small smile and set out with Kisame. We jumped through the trees and that's when Kisame shouted for me.
"Itachi! I found him…." The tone in his voice made my heart drop as I jumped tree-to-tree and joined him at his side. Kisame was crawling from the water with Soku in his hands as I joined him at his side. Soku was covered in bruises and small cuts, I examined the ropes that were around him and found them to be chakra eating ropes. Whoever did this made Soku suffer over that week he was missing. Kisame felt for a pulse and quickly removed the gag from Soku's mouth, he started pumping on his chest, and trying to flush air into his lungs.
"Kisame we've got to get him back to the base. He's been out in freezing temperatures for god knows how long. It won't matter if we get the water from his lungs if he freezes to death." Kisame nodded and we rushed back to the base. Thankfully we hadn't gotten very far upon finding him and were able to get him inside where it was warm. We ignored everyone as we entered the base and ran him straight to the infirmary. Sasuke saw him and followed us closely behind. Kisame managed to flush the water from his lungs while I heated up the room to start bringing his temperature up.
"Itachi he's waking!" I wrapped Soku in a blanket as I removed a majority of his soaking wet clothing.
"Soku, where have you been?" He slowly seemed to awaken from his dazed state and looked up at me. He looked fearful to talk to me and glanced around the room.
"I don't know where exactly, I do remember I was in a dungeon like place. Water dripped from somewhere far away from me, but my eyes were blindfolded for most of the time. I remember feeling two powerful chakra sources in the room. I couldn't find them exactly because my chakra was so low. I was being constantly cut by something as I was bound standing up, they weren't painful, but they stung a little. That's when the beatings started was when the blades didn't affect me like they wanted I guess." I could see he wasn't being completely truthful when he mentioned not knowing the chakra sources, but I needed him to tell me when he was most comfortable and by the way he was glancing everywhere he wasn't currently comfortable.
"Get some rest we'll be out here." The others left the room to wait out in the living room and as I turned to leave he gently grabbed my sleeve. I looked back at him and saw the misery in his eyes.
"I love you Itachi, I needed to tell you that just in case." I leaned down and kissed his forehead before walking out of the infirmary. Something bothered me about the way he said it and how miserable he looked. It looked as though he expected someone to come in and murder him. Did someone from inside the Akatsuki hurt him? And if so, who? We've all grown so close to Soku. And why would the need to kill him? It all suddenly clicked as I thought back to all that Soku was. Soku is a wolf demon and a weapon trained to fight in ninja wars. The only way to gain advantage over the Akatsuki was to get rid of him because Soku would protect us all with his life if it came down to it. And if Soku is killed the person could potentially steal his power and become unbeatable in battle. It wasn't about who Soke was, but more about what he was. I needed to make sure that whoever was after Soku didn't actually get their hands on him or else the entire Akatsuki was going to fall to someone from the inside.