I'm so sorry for such a HUGE delay. ALOT had happened in my life and I couldn't work on my story for a while. I'm back now!

But...I do have a small problem; because I had been out of touch for such a long time, I lost my beta-reader. I'm currently searching for another one, so excuse me if there are still some mistakes left.

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After they had passed the night tidying up the place, Kina had made some breakfast. Right after hearing the two brothers mentioning Itachi's name, Sakura had managed to avoid Sasuke the whole night. She knew sooner or later, she had to explain herself.

Sasuke and Sakura had breakfast together with Reishi and Kina in the morning. Kina had purposely cooked Itachi's favorite meal for Sasuke; a dish of vegetables, some broth and some onigiri.

At first he hesitated to eat, but after seeing Sakura had already begun to eat hers, he gripped his chopsticks and began eating.

He was somewhat dumbfounded at how he had eaten everything up, despite not knowing these people. Not only that, but Itachi's favorite dish was simple and he hadn't expected that it tasted so pleasantly.

Even Sakura was surprised how good the dish was. It had been a very long time since they had eaten a hot meal.

"Thank you for the meal," Sakura thanked them and glanced a look at Sasuke, hoping he would say something.

"Itachi loved seaweed onigiri. Are you fond of it too?" Kina asked.

"I like the ones with dried tuna in it best," Sasuke answered as he lowered his head and continued eating some onigiri.

Sakura observed the two brothers as they ate their breakfast. Reishi kneeling with his back straight, ate quietly while Kina was sitting with his leg crossed and he was loudly drinking his broth. When his brother scolded him for it, Kina drank even more loudly.

"When will you understand, Kina?" Reishi sighed, "People get to know who you are by observing your attitude."

"I don't give a damn about what the villagers think!" Kina yelled.

"Please forgive his insolence," Reishi apologized after looking at Kina with a stern expression.

"No, it's okay," Sakura replied.

"Do you like it, Itachi's brother? I cooked these seaweed with my own hands!" Kina announced proudly.

"My name is Sasuke," he replied, "This onigiri is not bad."

Sasuke continued drinking the broth, ate the salted vegetables and took another onigiri. Sakura watched quietly, in a corner, the interaction between Sasuke and these two brothers. She had noticed Kina's caring behavior started to melt Sasuke's grumpy mood.

These two brothers reminded Sasuke of himself and Itachi. The younger version of himself that naively followed his elder brother's every step.

"Could you tell me a little about Itachi?" Sakura asked,

"Truthfully, I don't know much about him," Reishi answered,

"He came and bought his medicament once or twice a year. But…"

"But?" asked Sasuke. After a moment of hesitation Reishi continued,

"But he said that if one day his brother had come here, it would have meant that he, probably, had already died….he's dead, isn't he?"

"I'm sorry…" Sakura apologized as she glanced between Reishi and Sasuke.

"H-how did he die?"

Sasuke didn't know how to answer. Everything he had heard so far was still processing in his mind. It was typical of Itachi, everything so minutely foreseen.

"I'm sorry for asking," said Reishi, looking away.

Sasuke shook his head, "You've nothing to feel sorry about."

At that point, Kina spoke up; "Itachi was always calm and quiet. He even helped me when those from the Sendo Clan were annoying me. It also happened that he would stop and slept in the shrine on the back until the medicament was ready. From time to time I brought him some seaweed onigiri. At first, whatever thing I asked him, he just remained silent. However, little by little he began talking to me. That's why I knew about his younger brother….you. One day I tried to ask him what kind of guy you were and he burst out laughing happily."

Sasuke listened to Kina silently, while Sakura observed and tried to figure out what Sasuke was thinking. He might yell at her later when they are alone but she knew she had made the right choice to lie and drag him along this journey.

"After a moment of hesitation, he gazed into the distance and told me that you were like me as far as simplicity and honesty. He added, however, that since you were completely unable to show your good intentions, he continuously had to keep his eyes on you to prevent you from getting into troubl- Sasuke, are you crying?"

"No, it's just me eyes that…" Sasuke quickly turned away.

"U-uhm what does this classification system with symbols and numbers mean?" Sakura asked to change the subject and quickly pulled out Itachi's request out of her pocket,

"This used to be Itachi's."

"The number refers to the medicament. In order to protect the customer's privacy. It's forbidden to write their names down." Reishi answered.

"What about the wording below?"

"It shows the intensity of side effects: we have, not very effective medicament and contraindication-free. Then, there are middle-ranked ones, that don't develop any kinds of toxicity if ingested for limited periods of time. In the end, there is one last kind, that is extremely effective medicament, though they have strong side effects. Itachi's case, a temporary loss of sight can occur."

"Tell me about this Sendo Clan." Now Sasuke joined the conversation.

"It's a group of failed ninjas. They're the ones who deal with the hypnotic illusory medicine. After the village's declaration of neutrality, the unemployed ninja formed a gang and under their leader's guide, Jiryu Sendo, they began selling poor quality stuff," Reishi explained,

"Our Kotaro is authentic. The recipe is written on the blood of us members of the Kodon clan."

"Do they want to take possession of the Kotaro?"

"The Kotaro is a hypnotic illusory that our father created in order to get rid of a monster named Roen. Jiryu Sendo put his eyes on the very powerful hallucinogen and he's plotting on taking possession of it to gain from it."

"How so?" asked Sakura.

"There are numerous shinobi that can't adapt to a neutral state and use the medicine to escape from reality."

"I don't give a damn about this village. When our father died, the villagers changed their attitude towards us! Damn them!" shouted Kina, slamming his fist again the flour.

"Why?"

"They all claim that our father controlled Roen and made it to attack the village." Kina answered saddened.

Sasuke and Sakura both had a déjà vu; the story Itachi hand told them; Madara Uchiha attacking the village, controlling the Nine Tailed Demon. Uchiha's forced to move into a corner of the village just to keep an eye on them.

"Sasuke and miss Sakura, I'm sorry but you came at the wrong time," Reishi abruptly interrupted Kina and glared sternly at his brother,

"Because of yesterday's big commotion, all the medicaments' jars broke. I need time to prepare medicaments. I'd be grateful if you could come another day."

"I guess I'll wait." Sasuke answered immediately.

"It's not easy to prepare a medicament. After picking the medicinal herb, you need-"

"make it exsiccate, then wash it and cook it well. A lot of time is needed for the components to alter themselves. Don't worry, we know." Sakura interrupted,

"we won't cause any trouble."

"Kina…" Sasuke called out to him as he stood up, "add some salt to those onigiri. Should you need anything, you can find me in the shrine."

With those words, Sasuke left the Hypericum's Shrine, but not before glaring angrily at Sakura.

"Excuse us," she said politely and hurriedly followed Sasuke. She knew what that glare meant; he had some serious questions for her and warned her not to make him wait.

XXXXX

"Explain, NOW." Sasuke didn't waste a second to confront Sakura and the stunt she had pulled.

~sigh~

There was no point of hiding the true purpose of why he had to come along. It wasn't a lie or something, so far everything was true.

Itachi frequently visited the boys for some eye drops. Just like Sasuke, Itachi had issues with eye irritation.

He also planned ahead that if Sasuke would ever find this shrine, it would've probably been after he had died.

The only thing Sakura hid from Sasuke was the fact she had received the eye drops from Itachi instead of somewhere else and also it was Itachi's idea to bring Sasuke along to the Shrine.

"Why?"

"Sasuke…would you've tagged along if I had told you the truth?" Sakura sighed,

"besides, this was also a chance for you to fully process everything you had learned so far. I know it hadn't been easy for you and I can't imagine how you feel after learning everything you knew, was a lie."

Slowly she approached Sasuke who had been sitting on the stairs next to the fence and sat next to him. He had been staring at the ground, listening and thinking what she had told him so far,

"Itachi had given you space so you could carefully think what you want to do after learning the truth. He said; no more lies and no more manipulations. It was time you make your own decision."

"I don't know what to do…" he muttered to himself. Sakura however had heard him but just pretended she didn't. She knew he hated to express his feeling, even though she wanted him to let her in, she knew she shouldn't push him.

XXXXX

Later that night, Kina visited them. They were still sitting on the stairs, surrounded by the dusky breeze, watching the fireflies hopping around the bushes.

"They're not common fireflies. They're called, 'shogun fireflies'," Kina explained to them.

"Shogun fireflies? First time hearing that name," replied Sakura.

"They only live on the Three Wolves. You can find them all year long."

One of those firefly left the bush to settle on the mask that Kina was wearing. Soon after another one followed.

"Why are you wearing your mask?" asked Sasuke. Kina didn't answer and slightly lowered his head. Sasuke stretched his hand and removed the mask. He had several scratches on his cheeks and his lips were split. Clearly suggesting that he had been beaten.

"Omg, what happened to you?" Sakura quickly jumped up and closed the small distance between her and Kina. Kina however, didn't answer and simply handed the bag full of onigiri to Sasuke.

Sakura motioned Kina to sit on the stairway and started to heal his beat up face. In awe Kina observed her glowing hand on his face.

"Pretty," he muttered, "you're a medical ninja?"

She nodded and gave him a genuine smile. Kina somewhat reminded her of Naruto.

"The villagers did it," Kina told them as he noticed Sasuke was busy eating the onigiri with dried tuna,

"I see…" was all he said.

"Aren't you going to ask me why they did it?"

"It's your right not to talk about it…..what's up?" asked Sasuke after noticing Kina's sudden surprised expression.

"Nothing…it's just that…Itachi told me the same thing once," he answered, lowering his eyes,

"A long time ago a monster called Roen lived in this village. It was a huge silver wolf that sucked the men's charka, granting himself an everlasting life. Ten years ago when I was still an infant, my mother and father were killed while they were hunting that monstrous creature. It was my brother who raised me."

"Why do you hate this village?" Sasuke questioned him, trying to snatch some information from him. Before opening his mouth, Kina stared into space for a while.

"The people of the village are convinced that my father unsealed Roen on purpose. My brother told me that coincidently, that very period they were taking decisions about the neutrality of this village; the Kumanoi clan, which had created the blue explosive powder, was in favor, while my family was against. The Kumanoi's cylinders revealed themselves to be completely inefficient, " Kina explained in a choked voice.

"What are the cylinders"

"Is a weapon. The blue explosive powder blows up if it makes contact with water. After putting it inside the cylinder, it detonates with the moist component of human breath."

"It didn't work on Roen?" now Sakura joined their conversation. Kina shook his head,

"I hate them, because my father gave his life to get rid of that monster, but the villagers…"

"They spread the rumor that your father undid the seal?" asked Sakura.

"It was the Kumanoi who spread this! I'm sure!"

"What's left of that clan now?" asked Sasuke.

"They left, thanks to the money gained from selling their invention. The Village of the Wolfs Cry became neutral making use of the blue explosive powder, instead of shinobi. The members of the Kumanoi clan knew that they would always have some money available wherever they moved to."

"However, suddenly the chance to redeem our honor has appeared. Lately some unusual cases of murder have been taking place," Kina continued, his eyes gleaming.

"Wait…you don't me-"

"Are you referring to those drained corpses?" Sasuke cut Sakura off and glared at her, meaning, from this point on she needed to stay out of this conversation between him and Kina.

"If I managed to catch the culprit, maybe the villagers would change their minds of our clan," said Kina and stared at Sasuke in the eyes.

"You've come to us asking for our help?"

"Don't you want to?" Kina asked with saddened voice.

"Why would we do such a thing? We only came here to take a medicament."

"Sa-" Sakura wanted to call out his name, but immediately stopped. He had already warned her to stay out of it. She watched as the little boy bowed his head deeply.

"I am a ninja. If you want our help, you'll have to give me a reward."

"R-reward?"

"Exactly. From tomorrow on, every day you'll bring me onigiri with dried tuna." Sasuke explained.

"Deal!" Kina jumped up in joy.

This was not what Sakura had expected at all. Whenever something had nothing to do with him, he would just brush it off and mind his own business. But this? This was something completely different. She saw somewhat a different side of Sasuke. Was Kina reminding him of his past relationship between him and Itachi? Or maybe just like her, reminding of Naruto.

Sasuke sigh silently and watched Kina dancing with joy. Thinking; Kina was nothing but a fool.

XXXX

To Be Continued!

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