Note: So this is the halfway point of this story and I'm happy because now the romance between Sakura and Gaara increases greatly.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line.

Chapter Fifteen:

Shame Carved On This Face

We traveled for two days none stop as we made our way to the small village than Tsunade had ordered us to search for Itachi in.

Our orders were clear we were to stay in the town until we found him and then we were to follow his every move until we had found the location of the Akasuki. The mission itself was simple enough because once we found the Akasuki and we made a little bit of commotion then we would most likely find him. The most difficult part of it all was not to be recognized or seen by either the Akasuki or the Uchihas.

We stood in the middle of the town's market all three of our stomachs growling with hunger and our legs aching for the rest that they dissevered.

"So how much money do we have?" I asked my companions as I pulled out my pouch of money that was nestled safely in the middle of my backpack.

"Uh…" Naruto pulled out his own green toad wallet, which made me giggle at the sight of it.

I couldn't believe he still had that old thing- he had bought it when he was twelve- I would have bet anything that he had thrown it or at least had given it away by now.

"What?" he asked me rather loudly.

"I can't believe you still have that!" I laughed even harder as I pointed to the frogs gaping mouth in front of me.

"Why?" he asked, "What's wrong with it?"

Pulling myself together I said rather forcefully, "Nothing."

"Is that all we have?" I asked them with slight disappointment.

They nodded their heads all three of us seeing that we only had enough to eat on and get one hotel room.

I sighed taking the money from them and placing theirs with my own; it wasn't very much but it would have to do for now. I knew that if we were going to be staying in this town until we had located Itachi then we would have to look for a job tomorrow.

"Why do you get to keep the money?" Naruto asked as we made our way to a local inn on the other side of the street.

I didn't answer him; my brain was calculating what we should do.

Should we go ahead and try to start finding a job tonight?

Or should we wait and rest then look for a job?

"Its not very clean," Gaara stated as we entered the pub and he was more than accurate in that statement then you could possibly know.

The inn smelled like stale beer and grossly enough urine, but what poor creature's urine I didn't know and honestly didn't have the stomach to investigate.

A rather large woman dressed in very revealing clothes leaned over the old counter with a smirk on her lips, "Are you chaps looking for a place to stay?"

She was looking at Naruto and Gaara when she said that and she seemed to be ignoring my presences completely. Unfortunately neither of the boys knew what she meant by "place to stay" which made me wander how much they really got out.

"We're not here for that or anything for that matter we were just wandering if you could point us in the direction of a place to stay and somewhere to eat for the night," I stepped in thinking it was better for me to handle this than them.

She gave me a sidelong glance then said, "How much you got?"

"Enough for a place to stay," I growled at her, not wanting to answer her question out loud in the ear shot of the sleazy customers that they seemed to support.

"This is the only inn in the entire village kid," she turned back to the boys, and was about to tell them something when a tall, black haired man came up to the bar with an annoyed look on his face.

"Mai," he said as he ran his hand through his hair, "Where are those two waiters you told me to hire yesterday?"

Mai looked at him for a moment with hesitation, which seemed to make the man grow even madder with each second that she wasted, "You mean they're not here?"

"If they were," he said, I could only guess that he had not seen us at that moment, "I wouldn't be two employees down now would I?"

He glanced my way and his face seemed to brighten just a little bit making me feel uncomfortable; I could feel that the boys were starting to get what this place really was and were both tensing from behind me.

"Is this lovely young woman the new girl you promised me?" he asked her as he took one of my hands in his.

I jerked my hand away from him, and trying to control the rage that I felt bellowing deep inside me, I said, "Where's another inn that we could stay at?"

The man realized that I was not the girl that was promised to him by the bartender and heaved a heavy sigh, "There is only this inn and no where else. The village was and still remains to poor to build another one at this moment and time."

Naruto who had placed his hand on my shoulder, jerked me back so that both him and Gaara were now in front of me between the man and me.

"We want a room," Gaara informed him taking our money out of my hands and shoving it into the man's face, "And we want food."

The man blinked once, before finally getting that he had made the two mad by assuming that I was one of his working girls; I couldn't help but smile it felt good not to have to defend your honor when two of your guy friends would.

A fight started to break out at the end of the room right before what I only assumed to be a stage mostly because I had seen music performers on it right as we entered the entrance way.

"Mai," the man ordered as he began to head toward the two that was fighting, "Give them a room and some food!"

Mai shot me a dirty look- that might I add I return with as much venom as I could possibly muster- before leading us up a flight of creaking ancient stairs and down an musty hallway that smelled of boiled cabbage and sweat. She stopped in front of a door with the number three-fourteen on it, then said to us as she opened the retangular piece of wood, "The amount of money you handed to Aiko is enough for one room with two beds and three meals- one for the each of you."

She swung the door opened allowing us to enter the tiny room that held an even stronger scent of cabbage than the hallway had, "I'll be back with your food in a minute."

With that she closed the door to the room, knocking a picture off the wall revealing a tiny white square against gray.

"Sakura you can have a bed to yourself since you're a girl," Naruto offered me with a tiny smile, even he couldn't help but show displeasure to the room we had received.

"First thing tomorrow," I said as I slung my backpack to the ground and entered the bathroom to inspect it- surprisingly enough it was clean with out any rings in the porcine bathtub or toilet, "We need to find jobs okay?"

They both nodded their heads.

"Naruto you can have your own bed I don't sleep," Gaara told him as he dropped his gourd to the floor removing his back brace that supported his heavy sand, and undoing his maroon trench coat taking it off.

I couldn't help but notice a deep scar on his felt arm.

Naruto undid his own jacket tossing it to the ground with out second thought, then moving to his shoes he replied, "Thanks!"

Mai knocked on the door and once I had let her in she said, "Alright here you are."

She left us alone with a rusty cart with three different trays of food on it; we all began to eat the food she had given us slowly scared to ask what each dish really was.