"Gone? How can she be gone?" Sasuke exclaimed, rushing forward. Naruto came in when he heard Sasuke's exclamation.
"Where'd Eneko-nee-chan go?" He cried, confused. Itachi merely watched out the window, looking for any possible clue he may have missed the first three times he scanned. Sasuke quickly went over to Eneko's things piled up in a corner of the room and searched through them. A single piece of paper dropped out of a kunai holster, but he kept searching, making a mental checklist.
"She took her fans…she took her clothes…left her robe, kunai, shuriken, and scrolls…" He finally saw the slip of paper and picked it up, reading it quickly. "Uh, aniki? She left a note…" He called nervously. Itachi and Naruto both looked over to him and rushed over. Itachi took the note and read it out loud.
"Dear boys,
I'm sorry for worrying you, but I don't want you to get hurt any longer because of me. I hope you can forgive me and my selfishness of bringing you along. Please live on in my absence.
-Eneko"
Itachi read the note silently again before Naruto snatched it away from him and looked it over.
"This isn't her handwriting –ttebayo. And besides, Eneko always signs her note with a little heart that says 'Ene-chan' beside it. She doesn't sign her note by just signing her name!" He exclaimed. Sasuke, who had gotten over the original shock of finding the note, added his agreements. Itachi held up his hands for silence and it still took a while for them to be silent. Itachi's mental eyebrow twitched.
'How can Eneko do it and not me?' His inner self whined. Itachi growled at his mental self and mentally slapped duct tape over his mouth. Itachi on the outside was just glaring for no apparent reason. Naruto and Sasuke shared a confused look before Sasuke poked Itachi's arm, snapping him back to reality and preventing him from killing his own inner self.
"Anyway. It's obvious the ANBU caught onto us faster than we'd hoped. We're just going to have to get her back. Boys, battle ready. Get going." He ordered. The two boys saluted and ran to get their things. Itachi gathered up Eneko's things and put them gently in his own bag, thanking the confused old lady profusely before jumping out the window with the two boys close at his heels.
"How are we going to find her?" Sasuke asked, doubtful of his tracking skills. Naruto nodded slightly, lost in his own train of thought. Itachi kept silent, unsure himself. Suddenly Naruto remembered something that could help them out a lot.
"Sasuke? Did you ever see Eneko's charm when you looked through her stuff?" Sasuke, annoyed at himself for not being able to find the one he thought of as his older sister and loved her like she was family, snapped back at him.
"Of course I didn't find her charm, you dobe! She embedded it in her fans and her fans weren't among her stuff! Jeez, dobe sometimes you…" Sasuke stopped and his eyes widened, finally getting what Naruto was hinting at. "She has her fans with the charm embedded in them! Naruto you're a genius!!" He cried. Naruto grinned and Itachi looked back and forth between the two of them from over his shoulder.
"What charm? What are you talking about? Would somebody care to explain what the heck is going on?" Itachi snapped, annoyed that he hadn't thought of anything to find Eneko.
"Okay, okay, listen, Itachi. We've been looking for you for around seven months. One time, while in the process of looking for you, Naruto and I got separated from Eneko and we didn't find her for about a week. Let's just say she wasn't at all happy with us, but hugged us like we had been missing as long as you had, scolding the living daylights out of us, but we knew she mean well. She then took both of our headbands and both of her fans and made a charm, making it be absorbed in the Konoha symbol on our headbands and in the dragon's eye on her fans. She told us that if one of us ever got lost again to activate the charm and it would help us find whoever was lost! Don't you see, Itachi? It's perfect!" Sasuke cried. Itachi nodded, frantic to find Eneko before something really ghastly happened.
"I'll do it!" Naruto cried, tracing the Konoha symbol on his forehead with his index finger. All of a sudden, a small beam of light shot out of the center of the Konoha symbol and led the three boys an opposite direction. They all quickly turned to move that way, running as quickly as their legs would carry them. Itachi handed each of them a small soldier pill.
"Only eat that if you're in dire need of it. Those pills do crazy things to your system and weird things to your head. Got it?" Both boys nodded. The beam of light flickered and faded; the last place it was pointing was a small clearing.
"I guess nee-chan's in there." Sasuke murmured. The other two nodded and all three of them pulled out kunai knives. Itachi was the first to step into the clearing, sharingan active, followed by Sasuke and Naruto. Three ANBU members quickly formed a half circle around them, one standing by Eneko's unconscious form. Sasuke tried to step forward, but Itachi held him back. Naruto growled at the ANBU members.
'Four ANBU. One for each of us as long as Eneko wakes up in time. Either that or I'm going to have to fight two of them. Gods this is annoying.' Itachi thought, sighing to himself. One of the ANBU, who was obviously the leader, stepped forward.
"Who are you and what are you doing with these boys?" He asked coldly. Itachi glared at him, and he stepped back, noticing the sharingan.
"These boys are traveling with my fiancé and I. We were heading home but you stopped our progress by kidnapping my fiancé, Tsubasano Eneko. That means, you have made the last two Uchihas and the son of Minato Namikaze very angry." He smiled sadistically. "Prepare yourselves." The ANBU all took steps back, feeling the dangerous aura radiating from the three boys. Sasuke and Naruto both darted forward; using techniques they learned from Eneko in the past seven months and Itachi quickly used techniques he had learned in the past five or six years. Itachi's ANBU member fell first, quickly followed by both Naruto and Sasuke's. Itachi smiled at them, then looked over to the last ANBU member. He was holding a kunai to Eneko's throat.
"Get away from my nee-chan!" Naruto yelled, rushing forward. Sasuke, knowing they worked better in a team, darted forward with him. Itachi didn't have time to grab onto them to stop them before they tried to attack the ANBU member. The wolf-masked ANBU tossed some kunai at them, obviously bored. Both boys dodged and rushed forward even faster. The ANBU member swatted them away with one hand, making Itachi have to save them from running into a tree. Itachi growled, then stopped, looking down at the two boys. Both of them had been cut up badly. The elder Uchiha's eyes widened and he looked up at the ANBU member, who he could feel was smirking at him. Both elites felt the wind pick up in the clearing, almost eerily. Itachi looked up; the clouds weren't moving as fast as the wind was.
"What's going on…?" Itachi heard the ANBU mutter to himself. Itachi himself was confused. He knew Naruto was a wind user, but now Naruto was out cold along with Sasuke and Eneko. Itachi stopped, his eyes widening again. Eneko. She was awake and playing unconscious. Itachi smirked and stood up, moving forward. The ANBU member leaned the kunai into Eneko's throat even closer. Itachi kept coming forward.
"Do not touch her or you will regret it." Itachi warned. He saw a small smirk appear on Eneko's face before disappearing so she could keep up her act. The ANBU moved it closer and closer as Itachi moved forward slowly. Finally, the ANBU got fed up with Itachi and raised the kunai, stabbing down on Eneko. Itachi smirked victoriously as all the ANBU stabbed was a small log. The ANBU backed up, looking around for Eneko.
"Why did you side with a traitor, Uchiha? She kidnapped your younger brother. I don't understand how you can forgive someone that hurts your family." Sarcasm was now dripping along with venom from the ANBU's words. "Oh wait. You already hurt your family!" Itachi growled low and dangerous as the ANBU charged him. They both fought for a few minutes before Itachi threw the ANBU back where he was originally standing. Sasuke and Naruto had just started to wake up, wincing as they sat up. The ANBU, trying to throw Itachi off guard, threw a few shuriken at the still-half-asleep boys. Itachi quickly moved to deflect them, giving the ANBU an opening. He threw a kunai at Itachi, who was preoccupied, aiming at the back of his head.
Suddenly, a category five hurricane-level wind picked up in the clearing, blowing all weapons away. Eneko stood in front of Itachi, the kunai the ANBU just threw in between her index and middle fingers. The ANBU and Itachi both backed up at the menacing aura pooling around the girl. Her normally green eyes were exceptionally dark and she was glaring straight at the ANBU member.
"That was a cheap shot." She growled, making even Itachi flinch at the coldness of her voice. "And I will not forgive you for trying to hurt those I love." She turned to Itachi, her eyes bright green again. "Please, Tachi-kun, get them out of here. Don't let them get hurt anymore…" Itachi saw the sadness in her eyes and pulled both boys to their feet.
"Come on, you two, Eneko's going to take care of everything." He murmured to them. He put the soldier pills in their mouths and made them chew and swallow. Both were immediately alert again. Naruto tried to run toward Eneko, but Itachi held him back.
"I'm not leaving." Sasuke said stubbornly. Naruto added his agreement and Itachi looked at Eneko with an 'I don't want to leave either' look. Eneko smiled and nodded.
"Then I will finish this quickly." She told them, turning back to the ANBU member with that same cold exterior. "You have caused my family pain, and I will not forgive you." A snap was heard as she pulled out one small fan with metal-plated edges that were intricately designed with feathered dragons. "Secrets…" she murmured dangerously, "of the dragon's wings…" The ANBU member was immediately blown back with such a force that he crashed through fourteen trees before slamming into the last one and falling down with a sickening thud. Sasuke, Naruto, and Itachi all stared at her with surprised expressions. She began to fall backwards and Itachi was immediately there to catch her. She was breathing heavily and trembling. She looked up at him, almost ashamed that she had hurt the ANBU that bad.
"I didn't mean…to hurt him that bad…" She murmured. Itachi hugged her gently, kissing her forehead.
"I know, koi…I know." Sasuke and Naruto both walked over and hugged Eneko tightly.
"We're glad you're safe, nee-chan."
"Yeah, don't know what we would have done without you." Both the boys murmured. Eneko smiled.
"We're going home…and then we'll be a family…even you Naruto…you'll be our family too…everything will work out…you'll see." She breathed. Naruto smiled and nodded. Itachi smiled and picked Eneko up.
"Well boys, let's plot a course to Konoha." He said, cheers being his response. Eneko laughed.
"No, Itachi. Let's plot a course to home!"