"Are you sure they came this way?" asked Kakashi.

Reena took the time to look around before answering.

"Though the smells are fuzzy with this mist, I strongly believe that they did."

The group of eight shinobis had hurried along the river to catch up with the trio of chuunin they had sent ahead. When they reached the end of the river and found no one, they started worrying. Trying to call them by radio had not worked either. They had only gotten a long dead silence as an answer. While looking around, Reena finally declared that she had managed to catch on their smell. Since there was no reason to stay where they were, the group had decided to follow the trail.

Thus, the group had been eventually guided back to the little village they had run through earlier. Walking around, they noticed quite a few people looking their way in a very unfriendly matter but disregarded it as they were no danger to them. Finally, the white hair girl stopped in front of a very large hotel.

"A hotel? You sure?" asked Kakashi again.

"Since when do you doubt me so much?" she answered with another question.

By the tone she had taken, it was quite evident that she was irritated by his lack of trust. After being on so many missions together, she strongly believed that he should know her better than that by now.

"Finally! I'm really getting soaked with this mist!" shouted Naruto in relief.

"Seriously, after all this rain, some time to dry off will be really good for us," added Sakura with a nod.

Asuma was at the door before anyone else. He did not understand why his team would be resting here and was worried that something could have happened to them since they had not been getting any answers on the radio. Leaving everyone else behind, he hurried inside.

"Welcome! Welcome!" greeted an elderly woman.

After taking a quick look around, he walked up to the woman.

"Good afternoon. Would you have perhaps seen three young shinobis, such as myself, walk in here?" he asked with all the patience he could muster at the moment.

The lady smiled sweetly.

"Oh yes! Those very lovely kids seemed quite exhausted when they came here. They ended up renting three of my rooms in the west end."

"West end, hm?"

"Would you kindly guide us to them?" asked Kurenai who had walked up behind him.

"Well, of course!" the elderly woman said.

Without any questions, she walked out from behind her desk after putting a small sign on it to indicate that she would be right back. By the time she reached the space between Asuma and Kurenai, the rest of the team had gather around them.

"Well aren't you all a lively bunch!" she commented with another sweet smile.

"Just trying to be as lively as possible with this weather," joked Kakashi as an answer.

"Just this way!" motioned the lady as she walked ahead of the group.

The wet group of Shinobis followed the host up the grand stair and then turned left. They took note of how big this hotel was as they walked down the hall. She finally reached some glass doors at the end of the corridor. The elderly woman stopped.

"Those kids really seemed depressed so I thought it would be nice to sell them the nicest rooms of the west end at a discount price. Besides, all the rooms here are connected to a main room which has its own grand patio. Thought they could use the privacy."

Asuma nodded.

"Thank you."

Leaving the group there, the host turned around and left. When he saw her turn to go down the stairs, Asuma opened the door. There, in the middle of the place, he saw two of his students discussing.

"...it makes me worried," mumbled Ino with her arms wrapped around her as if to reassure herself.

"He might just need his space," answered Choji.

The opening doors caught their attention.

"Asuma-sensei?" said the blonde girl with wide eyes.

"How did you all find us?" asked her teammate, taking note of the whole group.

"I found you, luckily," answered Reena as she tapped her nose with her finger.

Sakura, behind everyone, made sure to close the doors properly behind them, as if to provide some privacy.

"We tried to radio in," said Asuma.

"Our radio is dead. We think it might have happened when Shikamaru fell in the water with it," explained Ino.

"Did you find...?" continued the sensei.

Knowing what he was asking, both Chuunin shook their heads before he even finished his question. Anger filled the man. This could definitely not be over.

"Shikamaru found her pouch but that's about all we found. We can't find her… body… anywhere," explained Ino, struggling at the thought of having to find Sora dead.

Asuma took the time to take a deep breath to calm himself down. He knew he had to keep his head cool for what was to come.

"Speaking of Shikamaru, where is he?"

"We don't know. He seemed out of it last night and last we've seen of him was him entering his room."

"Well, this hotel you found is quite nice. Kakashi, why don't we go book more rooms for everyone. I like the idea of having all our rooms connected like this," said Kurenai.

She knew it would be better to leave the team alone for a bit to discuss things out. They needed to face this new obstacle together and having a whole group of shinobi staring at them was just not going to help. The group started to follow Kakashi's lead as he opened the door and left. Just before leaving, Reena walked up to Asuma. She put her hand softly on his arm to get his attention. When he looked at her, she looked up toward the ceiling. It took a few seconds for the man to realize what she was saying but finally nodded. Afterwards, the white hair girl left and closed the doors behind her.

Asuma turned and looked at his two students.

"Care to elaborate on what happened?" he asked all while crossing his arms.

"Well…" Ino looked at Choji.

The brown hair boy decided to continue.

"We followed the river, all the way till the end. We got to that wall of rocks and Shikamaru told us to split up and look around since Sora wouldn't have gone through the rocks. We didn't find anything and we came back didn't seem to be doing too well. He was just sitting there beside a pouch he had found in the water. We confirmed it was Sora's but it's the only thing we found."

Asuma hung his head. He reviewed the information in his head. The trio didn't find anything along the water. The rest of them had followed the same path and had not found any further information. What the hell could have happened to Sora? He finally shook his head. He needed a cigarette badly.

"I want the two of you to go meet the rest and the reception desk. Make sure that they we get rooms here, near yours."

Without a word of complaint, the two chuunin nodded and left the room. When the door was closed behind them, he walked to the other two glass windows leading to the giant deck outside. He opened the doors and inhaled the fresh misty air that came to meet him. He then walked outside, took out his pack of smokes, and started a cigarette.

He closed his eyes as he started puffing on it. He hadn't had a cigarette since they had gotten on their way this morning to find his students. With pure delight, he finally opened his eyes and looked the backyard of the hotel. It was quite vast and excluded from the rest of town. This hotel was pleasing him more and more.

Finally, he puffed out yet another cloud of smoke. While still looking at the backyard, he spoke out loud:

"Aren't you going to give me the big speech about how cigarettes are going to kill me one day?"

A few seconds of silence followed. Yet, Asuma did not take his eyes of the backyard. A response eventually came from the rooftop behind him.

"No," said the voice coldly.

Asuma kept smoking his cigarette. He knew he had to go slow with Shikamaru. His student cared just as much as he did about his goddaughter.

"We won't stop looking for her," he said.

"It's too late. We're too late."

Shikamaru's voice was flat yet cold. His sensei knew him as the realistic but not the pessimistic. Something about Sora was altering his judgment.

"We need to find her, alive or dead. We won't give up until we found her."

"Sure."

It was only then that Asuma turned around. Leaning back on the railing, he looked up to see the boy laying on his back and looking up to the sky. He didn't seem to move.

"We'll try to go one team at the time to look around and we'll switch up every day. For now, we can expect to rest. You guys did enough."

"Okay."

This conversation was obviously going nowhere. Asuma sighed as he looked up to the sky himself. He didn't know what to do with his student. Maybe he just needed to give him time to himself. Knowing he was safe and on the roof was enough for now. Finishing his cigarette, he squashed it on the ground and started heading to the door. As he reached for the door's handle, Shikamaru called out to him.

"Sensei…"

Surprised, the man backed up a few steps and looked up. Shikamaru was now sitting and looking down at him.

"What if we never find her?" he asked.

His face showed clearly his pain. He was definitely not doing well. Asuma shook his head.

"We will find her, no matter what it takes. I promise."

Slowly, Shikamaru nodded his head and then layed back on the roof, resuming his previous position. Watching the clouds somehow brought him comfort.