Chapter 3: More company

The whole room was overtaken by an uncomfortable silence and Sarada almost wanted to take back what she said. All three people in the room were gaping at her and she could feel Karin's eyes on the back of her head. She opted to look at her father, his eyes showing no emotion what so ever other than the slight widening a few minutes ago. Her father was a tightly closed book.

"I-I'm not your mother Sarada." She heard Karin say, finally breaking the silence in the room. Sarada turned her head to face Karin and she was taken aback for a moment at the way Sarada looked at her.

"Don't lie to me. I need to know the truth. I want someone to give me answers." She said adamantly, her dark eyes boring into Karin`s.

"Honey, I'm not your mother." Karin said gently, her eyes softening at the child before her. Sarada let out a tired sigh, knowing full well she can get nothing out of Karin. She turned her gaze to her father again and his impassive eyes made something click in her. This man had the nerve to stare at her so stoically when he had for the first time met his daughter and has barely spoken any words to her. Sarada's onyx's eyes flashed with anger and she straightening her back, glaring at her father.

"You may be my father…but I will never call you that." She said evenly but still surely, keeping her anger perfectly at bay. The father daughter duo continued to engage in a staring contest, neither of them breaking down. Her father's continued silence and impassivity only fuelled her anger more. She could feel her face heating up and going red with anger.

Suddenly, her father's eyes turned to the door right across from the one they had entered through. Sarada was startled at his sudden action and only could stare at him in confusion as a response. He stared at the door for a few more seconds, his one eye as impassive as it had been a moment ago. The scraping of his chair as he stood up made her jump, the sound doubling in the silent room.

As her father walked out of the room through the door he had stared at, she wanted to scream at him to not walk away from her, to give her answers. But catching the gazes of the two other occupants in the room, she got the feeling they knew something she didn't.

Sakura ran frantically through the forest, tree branches hit her as she ordered her feet to run faster. She didn't care that she had scrapes over her arms, neck and face. She didn't care that her legs felt like they were about to fall off. The only thing on her mind was the fact that she hasn't found her daughter and she had been missing for over five hours now.

Her heart hasn't stopped trying to beat out of her chest since she found the letter, neither have her hands stopped shaking.

"Sakura, we need to take a break. You shouldn't be travelling this fast for this long. Didn't Shizune-san tell you to rest?" Sakura heard Sai's voice from beside her. Even if she tried to take a break, she wouldn't be able to. Her child is missing for god's sake.

"No, I can keep…" she halted mid-sentence and dropped down to the ground. She turned her head towards Sai and he seems to notice as well. Sai nodded his head in agreement, confirming her suspicions.

"Sakura." The first thing she noticed as her name rolled off his tongue is that the way he says her name hasn't changed one bit. It was no different from the bored drawl he used to say it with when they were children, reminding her of all the heartbreak he had caused her despite the clean goodbye they'd had the last time they separated.

"Sasuke…" she murmured as that tiny bit of sadness was filled with happiness at seeing him after five years. But the next moment, her happiness was replaced by frantic motherly concern. "Sasuke, Sarada is missing. She ran away to come look for you." She said desperately, knowing full well she can get him to look for Sarada as well.

There were so many questions she wanted to ask Sasuke. But she didn't think about thembfor more than a passing moment because her first priority is finding Sarada.

"I know." He said as she finished her sentence.

"What?! How…is she with you?" she asked surprised as her heart lifted with relief for a moment.

"Come with me." He motioned for Sakura and Sai. Sakura's fist balled in anger, staring at the back of Sasuke's head.

"Sasuke, just tell me if you have her." she said in anger not wanting to deal with his odd way of answering her questions. If she's not with him, she didn't want to waste any time here. Sasuke turned his head towards her but for some reason didn't answer her, which only made her angrier.

"Sasuke. Please tell us if Sarada is with you before ugly here starts throwing punches." Sakura heard Sai say from beside her and if she wasn't so focused on finding Sarada, she would have thrown a punch or two directed solely at Sai.

"She's with me." Sasuke finally answered. Sakura let out a sigh of relief just as the words escaped his mouth.

"Thank god!" she said as her eyes filled with tears and her heart filled with relief. Her legs seem to want to give out under her and her head was feeling dizzy, her exhaustion catching up to her. Sasuke started walking again and Sakura followed, pushing her exhaustion to the back of her mind so that she could see Sarada.

As she followed behind Sasuke with Sai beside her, her eyes blurred, Sasuke's black cape and his dark shoulder length hair moulding into one big blur in front of her. She blinked the blurs away only for them to come back a moment later. She was vaguely aware as they entered a dark entryway but it was getting harder and harder to hold on to her consciousness as exhaustion, lack of food and the fact that she hadn't fully rested after waking up from a faint spell caught up to her. The next thing she knew, Sasuke was standing beside her but before she could even look at him questioningly, she had lost consciousness.

Sarada sat at the table nibbling at her rice porridge, not being able to eat despite the angry rumbling of her stomach. Suigetsu quietly ate bedside her and Karin sat in front of her, not even touching the bowl of porridge in front of her. Sarada was very uncomfortable, she wanted to leave the room. Who would've thought the absence of her father in the room world only make it more uncomfortable?

She heard the door behind her open and looked up at Karin as she stood up abruptly. Her red eyes were slightly wide and Sarada also saw from the corner of her eye as Suigetsu also turned his head to the door standing up a moment later.

"Wow! What'd ya do this time?" Suigetsu said just as Sarada turned her head to look at the door. Her chair fell back as she stood up, her heart beating wildly as her eyes landed on her mother in her father's arms.

"Mama!" she called as she ran towards them. She could feel her father's eyes on her as she tried to get a good look at her mother. "Sai-Oji san, what happened to mama? Is she alright?" she asked frantically looking at the only familiar face other than her mother.

"She just fainted from exhaustion. Nothing to worry over." She heard her father's voice say and she looked up at him worriedly, her eyes tearful at seeing her mother and knowing full well she was the cause of it. "It's not your fault. She does this kind of stupid thing all the time." he said as if he had read her mind. She was shocked to hear him say that as if he knows her, as if he's been with her the last twelve years. Despite that, she felt relived at knowing that. She nodded her head at her father and turned her gaze to her mother's face. She had several cuts on her arms and her face but she didn't seem to be too badly injured.

She looked at her mother's face as it rested on her father's shoulder. 'She looks exhausted' Sarada thought with a sigh. She watched as her father walked away from them towards the hallway she had previously come from.

"She's just tired. Don't worry about it. She'll be fine." Sai-Oji san said as she continued to look the way her father had disappeared through. She nodded her head before she walked the same way, following the hallway looking for the room her father had placed her mother in.

She continued to walk, looking for any signs as to where the room was. As soon as she was in front of the open door, her feet stopped moving. She quickly side stepped to her left and peered inside the room.

Her mother laid on the bed and she had arrived just as her father pulled the covers over her body, gently placing it on her. She watched as her father looked down at her mother, she couldn't see his eyes but she wished she could because she wanted to know what he was thinking. After looking down at her for what seemed like forever, he slowly sat down beside her allowing Sarada to see her father's eyes.

Sarada's eyes widened and she supressed a gasp as she saw his softened eyes and what Sarada could only label as a tiniest smile grazing his pale lips. Just as he lifted his hand and ran the back of his finger over her mother's cheek ever so softly, Sarada felt like she was witnessing something she shouldn't be. She felt like she was intruding, she quickly turned her head away from the room, her back flat against the wall.

'What the hell was going on here?' she thought as she quietly walked away from her mother and her father.