I may have forgotten to mention one tiny detail last chapter, which resulted in a fair few number of readers PM-ing me to see why I disappeared in the past couple of weeks. I had surgery a few weeks ago, and as a result was in the hospital up until a few days ago. Sorry for the delay! But thank you for all the support that you've given me c:
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. I wish it did. loljk I do not have the capacity or the talent to appease the millions of Naruto fans around the world.
This story will not have any relation to Naruto's dream of achieving Sasuke Uchiha's return or defeating Orochimaru. This happens a little bit after the Rescue Gaara arc. In other words, kind of AU (Alternate Universe). Thought you should know.
A month.
Thirty-three days, seven hours, and sixteen minutes, to be exact.
A dull ache throbbed in Gaara's chest as his gaze swept over the red Konoha forehead protector that sat in plain view on his desk. After Kakashi and his team had been alerted to Kohaku's disappearance, a village-wide search was conducted by the Konohagakure shinobi. The Copy-Nin had wordlessly returned Kohaku's forehead protector to Gaara after having taken it for Pakkun to use as a scent sample, and Gaara had been grateful for the jounin's discretion and lack of questions.
It was evident that they would not be able to find the missing Root ANBU within the confines of Sunagakure, and that was when Team Kakashi had asked for permission to leave Suna to widen their search perimeter.
Gaara had immediately acquiesced, and demanded to be allowed to join the search, but the village's counsel of elders had berated Gaara's enthusiasm to be involved in what they deemed to be 'none of Suna's business'. The young Kazekage had not taken the criticism well, and that was when Temari had to step in to mediate while Kankuro dragged his seething younger brother away before he well and truly lost his temper.
There was a knock on the door, and Gaara tore his gaze away from the forehead protector, swiftly masking it with a few sheets of paper. "Enter."
A flash of white-blonde entered his vision, and Temari entered his office, with a familiar brunette in tow. Next to him stood a shinobi with red tattoos on his face.
The Konohagakure envoy had arrived.
Finally.
Gaara was a patient person, but this was one of the few rare times when patience was not a virtue he possessed. It took all he had to not snap at them. "I see the Fifth Hokage has finally deigned to send a response and some help to look for your missing shinobi."
Despite the fact that they were anxious to begin their search outside of Suna, Team Kakashi had had to obtain permission from the Hokage to be allowed to put their Suna mission on hold whilst they left to look for their missing teammate. However, the request that had been sent out almost immediately after Kohaku's disappearance had not received a response, until a few minutes ago when Shikamaru had entered with Kiba.
With an ever-present frown on his face, Shikamaru bowed respectfully before saying, "Apologies, Kazekage-sama. It was not our intention to delay the search, but there were a few…. problems that we encountered that caused the wait."
Gaara's eyes shifted from Shikamaru to the hovering Inuzuka behind him. "Just one person from your specialist team of trackers?"
Kiba's eye twitched at Gaara's indifferent tone. "One person is better than no one at all, I'll have you know!" he grumbled, folding his arms across his chest with a huff.
"Before I get into the small details, I'd like for Team Kakashi to be here," Shikamaru cut in, "There's something that I need to talk about, and everyone relevant needs to be present."
The Nara's tone lacked his usual drawl, which caught Gaara's attention. He knew him very well, from the many visits Shikamaru had made to their sandy village during his days off. He lacked his usual laconic air, which had been replaced with a seriousness that Gaara could not ignore.
"I'll go get them," Temari briskly walked out of the room, leaving the Kazekage alone with the two Konoha shinobi. Gaara took this opportunity to ask the questions on his mind.
"For you to personally come all the way here with an incomplete tracking team…" Gaara narrowed his eyes, "Is there something amiss that you're not telling me?"
Shikamaru sighed. "That's why I said I needed Team Kakashi to be here. Shino and Hinata aren't here because they're off tracking another missing Konoha shinobi," he then jerked a thumb in Kiba's direction, "This one's been working nonstop to look for the other one, which is why he's here. The minute he heard that I was going to investigate this case, he insisted on coming along."
Gaara regarded Kiba with a cool gaze. "And why do you think that this case has any connection to yours?"
The redhead's indifference and lack of interest did not do anything except fan the flames of Kiba's irritation and tension. The brunette resisted from making a snarling expression as he replied, "Wouldn't you try to follow every possible lead if you were me?"
Gaara smoothed over a glare that itched to display itself on his face. That was the problem. He wasn't Kiba. He wasn't just a regular shinobi. He was Sabaku no Gaara, Kazekage of the Village of the Hidden Sand. He had responsibilities and commitments to his village, and despite desperately wanting to go and look for Kohaku, he couldn't. The girl mattered so much to him, but he knew in the end, despite his arguments with the village elders about not being allowed to search for the girl, the village came first. He had made a pact to never abandon the village the day he became Kazekage, and he was not about to do that now. That said a lot about him as a leader, but what did that say about him as a person?
Gaara felt torn.
xxxx
Kohaku didn't have an answer for Itachi's revelation. She wanted nothing more than to deny the claim, but she knew better. The Uchiha had invaded the innermost parts of her mind, and instead of discovering what he had intended to, he had learned something that even Kohaku herself had not known.
She was a disgrace to the Root Foundation. Nothing more than a failed experiment that Danzo would have eliminated, if he ever found out. As she realised this, Kohaku knew for sure that she was not afraid of death.
She was afraid of losing the people she cared for.
The sudden epiphany surprised her somewhat, but a small part of her felt a begrudging acceptance. Had she felt this way all this while? When had she started to accept the fact that she did care about these people?
Itachi watched as Kohaku stared blankly into the ground. The genjutsu was still active, but Itachi knew he was ready to dispel it. It had not brought the results he had wanted, but it had resulted in something far more interesting than he had hoped.
He raised his hands, and wove a seal. At the same time, Kohaku lifted her head, and met his eyes.
"Dispel."
xxxx
When Kohaku regained consciousness, she became aware of the fact that she was not walking, but she was moving. Her arms dangled uselessly over her head. She attempted to survey the area around her, but nothing. It was pitch black. Night had fallen.
Her face bumped awkwardly against something hard, but the surface was soft. Cottony. She attempted to move, but with no avail. There was something around her waist that prevented her from moving.
"You're awake."
Itachi's voice vibrated through his back, and Kohaku felt it against her nose. That was when she realised that he had slung her over his shoulder.
"Please put me down."
Itachi stopped, and did so. As Kohaku straightened out her clothes, she could barely make out his face in the darkness of the forest. Just as well, because she was not ready to face him just yet. The memory of their confrontation in her mind came rushing back, and for the first time in her life, she had no idea what to do.
What could she do?
Even if she continued pretending like nothing was wrong, there was no escaping the fact that she wasn't what Danzo wanted her to be. And Shimura Danzo was not a stupid man. He would find out, eventually, and have her killed. That much she knew. What she didn't know much of was the truth of what Root did. She had never questioned what Root's goals were, only carrying out her missions and completing them without a word. What she had thought was unshakeable, steadfast loyalty seemed… irrelevant, now. Sasori had planted seeds of doubt in her, and from the very first day they had met, Itachi himself had hinted at a darker side to the already shadowy organisation.
"I see that you have quite a lot on your mind."
Itachi's quiet voice broke her out of her reverie, alerting her to the fact that she was not alone. "I am sufficiently clear-minded."
A scoff would have been an appropriate response to Kohaku's evident lie, but Itachi remained passive. "If you're questioning your loyalty to Shimura Danzo, and your own principles…" his voice trailed off as he watched hints of emotion flicker across Kohaku's face.
"I am doing no such thing," came Kohaku's curt reply.
"Hm," was all Itachi had to say. After a few minutes of standing in the dark silence, Itachi then said, "We should get going. Kisame must be at the shrine now."
As they started their trek again, Kohaku walked wordlessly beside the Uchiha. Itachi looked askance to see that her eyes were blank with a faraway gaze.
xxxxx
"Well, it's about time you showed up, Itachi-san!" Kisame greeted his partner with a slight desperation that could only mean that he had probably spent a little more time alone with his prisoner than he had thought he could handle.
"Oh great, it's the funeral otter again. How you doin'? Had a nice, long walk, did ya?" A sarcastic voice piped up from a few feet away from where they stood, and Itachi saw the copper-haired girl chained to the leg of a stone lantern. It seemed Kisame had found a use for the extra chains that Sasori had given them, after all.
Itachi's eyes looked down to survey the puddles of water that scattered the courtyard of the shrine, and back up at his partner. "Did it rain here?"
Kisame shrugged. "Eh, a little," he jerked a thumb towards the small wooden building that sat in the clearing. "Shall we?"
"I'm not even gonna bother asking why you need to rob a shrine," Kyuushoneko called out sardonically, "Because we all know you're going to hell anyway."
Kisame ignored the shinobi's sarcastic jibe. "Shall I chain this one up?" He jerked his head in Kohaku's direction.
Itachi rested his cool gaze on her momentarily before looking back at the shrine once again. "No need. She'll stay put."
Kisame raised an eyebrow dubiously. "I applaud your faith, but whatever floats your boat, Itachi-san. Shall we?"
As the two men walked towards the seemingly empty shrine, Kohaku was left standing in the shadows of a tree with her thoughts.
"So, what's new with you?"
And a loquacious genin.
"I mean, there's not much up with me, I guess, except being chained to a stone lantern."
Kohaku sighed.
"Oh, hey! You showed emotion! Very nice! It's about time!"
xxxxx
The atmosphere was tense when everyone Shikamaru wanted to be present was finally assembled in Gaara's office. Even Naruto had stopped chattering when he had entered the sombre room. Kankuro and Temari stood on either side of their brother, while all the Konohagakure shinobi stood in front of his desk. Shikamaru stood in the middle, his body slightly tilted so that he could face both his comrades and the sunagakure shinobi.
Eyes closed, he brought a fist up to his mouth and then cleared his throat. "Thank you for assembling here quickly at such short notice," he then opened his eyes, and looked directly at Sai, "But we're all here to look at Sai."
If he felt any surprise, the Root ANBU hid it very well. Sai remained smiling as he tilted his head in what passed off as confusion. "Excuse me?"
Kakashi frowned, shifting his gaze from Shikamaru to Sai, and then back to the tactician again. "What's going on, Shikamaru?"
"Yeah! I know Sai's shady an' all, but there's no way he had anything to do with Kohaku's disappearance!" Naruto exclaimed hotly, "He's our teammate, and so is she!"
Everyone else had similar responses to Shikamaru's words, but Gaara remained quietly staring at the smiling ANBU. Tsunade's warning about giving both Sai and Kohaku adequate caution rang clearly in his mind, and suddenly he wondered if Kohaku had disappeared willingly. His heart sank suddenly at the epiphany, but as his hand brushed against the protector hidden by the papers, the feeling dissolved. If she had gone willingly, she wouldn't have left behind signs of a struggle. She wouldn't have left clues.
Gaara mentally berated his momentary lapse of faith in Kohaku. So much for expecting her to trust him, when he couldn't even return the favour.
The sound of Shikamaru's voice pulled Gaara out of his thoughts. "I thought Sai was alright too, so if I'm just being paranoid, maybe he could tell us what he was doing when he intercepted your request to put the Suna mission on hiatus to go look for Shishimiya Kohaku with a tracking team," the Nara turned towards Sai expectantly, "Well, Sai? The floor is yours."
"I'm afraid I don't understand your accusation," Sai replied, smile intact, "How could I have done that? I've been here in Suna all this while, and there is nothing for me to gain with Shishimiya's disappearance."
"That's bull," Kiba growled, "I could smell you all over the hawk that was attacking the other one with the message! It was a good thing that Hinata saw them when she did!"
At this, Sai's smile immediately dropped. His face was devoid of expression as he regarded the mixed reception of hostile and shocked stares that the room was giving him. Naruto and Sakura were slack-jawed with surprise, but Kakashi had a look of on his face that indicated that he had had suspicions that had just been confirmed.
"W-Why the fuck would you do that, Sai!?" Naruto was on him in an instant, grabbing Sai's collar and shoving him against the wall, "She's our teammate!"
"Naruto!" Sakura grabbed his wrists, attempting to pull the blonde off Sai, "Stop it! Hurting Sai isn't going to do anything! At least let him explain himself!"
Kiba and Kankuro both grabbed the trashing blonde, and pulled him away and towards the other side of the room where they kept a tight hold on him. Sai ignored the glares Naruto was sending, and faced Shikamaru. "I was only doing what I was ordered to do."
"So your secret mission, given to you by Shimura Danzo, is to intercept any kind of communication between Suna and Konoha? Is that it?" Shikamaru narrowed his eyes, "Because it's not the first time you've done it, is it?"
"Shimura Danzo?" Sakura echoed, the name foreign to her, "Who on earth—?"
"I knew it! I knew you were hiding something from us!" Naruto yelled as he struggled against Kiba and Kankuro's arms.
Sai's face betrayed no emotion. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Shikamaru scoffed. "When Gaa- sorry, when the Kazekage-sama sent a letter to the Hokage inquiring about Shishimiya Kohaku, you intercepted that message too, did you not? But that hawk managed to fight off your hawk and get the letter back to Tsunade-sama safely, but not without injuries that the vet had to tend to."
"Sai," Kakashi's voice had an icy tone, "Is there something you're not telling us?"
The room was pregnant with a deafening silence for a very long time. All eyes were on the statuesque Root ANBU, whose face betrayed nothing that was on his mind. Finally, Sai closed his eyes and sighed.
"I know where Shishimiya Kohaku is."
And the ball gets rolling for Kohaku's return! Once again, I'm very sorry for the unannounced delay, but I hope this makes up for it! To that end, I may delay in updates in the coming weeks or months due to some family issues that just recently cropped up, so I hope you all will understand.
Thank you, and feel free to ask any questions if you have any! Or dropping a review to tell me how you liked it is good too. Heh.
Luv,
Pichuzilla