Disclaimer: I do not own the series Naruto or any of the characters or concepts within it. I still don't own Onimeno-sensei or any of his 'acquaintances' either; all I lay claim to are the various relatives I've stuck Sakura with.

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Now You See It

Chapter 24: Relative

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Tsunade looked upset, which wasn't exactly a rare occurrence, but it never meant anything good. Especially because she wasn't flinging furniture around or yelling. Sakura shared a hidden glance with her teammates, and fought the urge to shift from foot to foot, like Naruto was. She personally had nothing to be worried about, because she hadn't had the chance to do anything upsetting, and Hinata was basically an angel. Shino was discrete at all times.

That meant, whatever it was, the one at fault was probably Kiba or Naruto—

"Uchiha Sasuke has missed his last two check-in times."

—Or Sasuke.

Wait.

"What do you mean, Shishou?" It was Hinata who spoke, fingers knotted together in obvious worry.

The Hokage sighed, rubbing her face tiredly. "I'm saying that as of five days ago, the squad he was assigned to woke up to him gone, and we've had no word in the meantime. I figured it would be best to let you know immediately and up front, since you all ended up haring off after him the last time he got himself kidnapped, or whatever's going on here."

Sakura reeled in shock, rubbing her mouth as she took everything in. Technically, Team Ten had helped out too, and they had been reinforced by Hinata's cousin's team, but neither were as… historically impetuous as Teams Seven and Eight happened to be. She could admit that much.

Silently, at least.

"Is there another explanation?" Sakura wanted to know. There was death, obviously, but Tsunade's demeanor made her think that something else was up.

The Hokage bit at her thumbnail. "…it's still just speculation and based in hearsay, but when Konoha was attacked a reserve of Sharingan that were being preserved and kept under constant guard until Uchiha Sasuke came of age and could make a decision on what was to be done with them might have been hit. None of the eyes seem to be missing, but one of my men inside that group hinted that at least one was never officially accounted for."

Hinata sucked in a breath, and any other time Sakura might have grabbed her hand for comfort's sake. As it was, she was thinking furiously, and Naruto was kind enough to pick up the slack. Fortunately, the mood was too solemn for Hinata to swoon.

"So if it was never officially accounted for, and it hasn't turned up in any biopsies or reconstruction efforts—" Sakura began slowly.

"It may have been taken in the chaos of the attack." Shino shifted his chin up, frowning over his collar. "This is somewhat worrying. Why? Because, for such an asset to go unaccounted for, it meant that it was valuable enough on its own that its existence would raise the danger of its container, living or otherwise."

"I've heard the Sharingan can do some freaky shit," Kiba admitted, ignoring Naruto's hot glare and scratching Akamaru's ears as he thought. "I mean, it was supposed to be one of them who forced the damn fox to attack, right?" Naruto's glare abruptly faltered. "At least, that's what all of my older relatives said was the general explanation. It's gotta be the same asshole we're dealing with now, so why would he want a third one?"

"Reconnaissance has reported that the mask our enemy wears only has one hole in the eye," Shino reasoned. "Perhaps he decided the time was right for a replacement of what we might assume to be a damaged or imperfect eye."

"And," Sakura realized. "If it was powerful, it might have been something along the same lines of what Sasuke recently developed!" She raised a fist to her mouth and bit the knuckle, reasoning it out. "Do you think he might be planning on testing out which of them has the stronger set all together, and then keeping whichever turn out to be the best?"

Tsunade was grave and drawn. "…I sincerely hope so." Sakura got the impression that there was more the older woman was holding back about the situation, but her train of thought was derailed before she could pursue it.

"We gotta get him back!" Naruto burst out, one hand fisted and one gripping Hinata's like a lifeline. It was nearly identical to the pose the last time he declared that, and despite the ill tidings Sakura had to force down a smile. Even if the world went crazy, it was nice to know that Naruto would never stop being Naruto.

"We currently have no leads," Tsunade told him plainly. "His squad searched everywhere in the area for him, and found no trace of him ever being there, let alone forcibly taken."

"He would never have—!"

"I know that," Tsunade said, stopping him dead with a simmering glare. "But what I'm saying is that whoever took him covered their tracks impossibly well, and we can't do anything until we have at least a scrap of information about Uchiha Sasuke's condition or location. And that means I need you to show some modicum of self-control until then."

"He could be bait as well, Naruto-kun," Hinata pointed out quietly. She looked despondent, but squeezed his hand back and mustered a small smile. "We can have enough faith in him to hold ourselves back for a little while longer, can't we?

Naruto was quiet for a moment, allowing a strange tension to form in the office. "Yeah," he said finally, and with no little reluctance. "Yeah, we can trust him to take care of himself, until we can find him."

Sakura let out a sigh of relief.

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"S-Sakura-san!"

Sakura sucked in a breath of pure unadulterated apprehension.

Not because of Choujuurou's greeting—not really, anyways—but because of the two beaming samurai caging him in on either side. It was too much to hope that her cousins wouldn't know about her crush at all, but they had at least known better than to let word slip to any of their uncles. Tsutomu was another story; he may have well been the first person to notice.

Luckily, he seemed to be content to simply act as a spectator, sometimes literally as it turned out. He wasn't watching now, because he had a meeting with some other nobles, but she was willing to bet he would extract a brutal play-by-play from the twins later.

She thought it might be payback for taking so much entertainment from his not-so-romantic misadventures.

"Hey, Choujuurou-kun," she said, jogging towards them and refusing to let her smile falter as the twins shot eachother exaggerated, mockingly saccharine looks behind his head. "Hey, Interchangeable Brats One and Two."

"Wow." Tatsuo scoffed, crossing his arms. "Wow. Really feeling the love there, cousin. Here we are, trying to have some fun with dear Chou-chan—"

"You know he's a full year and change older than you, right?"

"—DEAR, DEAR CHOU-CHAN," Tatsuo repeated firmly. "And then you just burst in and start being rude."

"Very rude," Toshio agreed, frowning at her in mock disapproval. "You're supposed to be a young lady of excellent breeding. Really, what would Mebu-oba say?"

"Maybe something like, 'Quit spewing outdated sophistry, you pretentious brats'?" Sakura hazarded, stopping a little in front of the trio and smiling apologetically at the Mist-nin caught in the midst of their normal banter. "And then she'd hit you." Her smile turned patronizing as it was redirected to her cousins. "You forget the type of excellent breeding we have."

Despite all evidence compiled during Sakura's early childhood, the Haruno clan did not produce shrinking violets, no matter what the gender. Even her aunts, who were demure and graceful to a fault, had their violent sides. Being even tempered didn't mean they were passive, after all.

"Point to Pinky," Tastuo ceded gracelessly.

Sakura rolled her eyes behind Shino's extra glasses, shaking her head. "Thanks. Ass. Was there something you wanted, Choujuurou-kun?"

"Oh!" He blinked, shaken out of watching their back-and-forth, and smiled sheepishly. Or, well, it would have been sheepish, if sheep had teeth that sharp. It was endearing all the same, however. "I was just wondering if you, um. If you wanted to have a match? Things have been busy lately, so we haven't done it in a while."

"Make sure you don't let our honored Sofu-sama catch you sparring like that, cousin." Tsutomu had said, near the beginning of it all.

Toshio and Tatsuo seemed to share that impression, because they jumped in before she could even begin to think of a proper reply.

"Oh, that's not really a good idea, Chou-chan," Tsohio shook his head emphatically. "If somebody catches you fighting with Sakura-chan, then a whole bunch of people will want to join in on the fun. There are a lot of samurai who want to know where they stand when matched against a Swordsman of the Mist, you know?"

"That's right, that's right!" Tatsuo agreed fervently, slinging an arm around Choujuurou's neck. "You'd get like one spar in and then everybody would be clamoring for a turn and then Sakura-chan would have to explode some heads before they'd even think of leaving you alone."

"Oh." Choujuurou bit his lip, shoulders sagging ever so slightly. "I-I apologize. I didn't mean to ask you to do anything problematic," he insisted, glancing at the ground. "But you look… you look upset, and have all day. I thought, since it helped last time…"

"Thank you," Sakura said, sincerely touched. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, having foregone her ponytail for the day, and rocked back on her heels. "If it's all the same… do you think we could just talk, instead? I can't really mention what's bogging me down, but that helps blow off stress just as much."

Tatsuo made a gagging face, and the pulse of chakra she sent into his system manifested, ironically, in making him choke on his own saliva.

"Are you okay?" She asked, packing concern into her voice. "Toshio, why don't you take him to the medics, to make sure he isn't getting sick. That cough sounds bad." She turned back to Choujuurou and took his hand, tugging him free of her cousins. "Why don't you and I grab something to eat, and then find some place to ourselves?"

Choujuurou managed a surprise nod of assent, and managed a wave good-bye to the twins befoe she all but dragged him off.

Evenn if he was dense, if he spent any more time around her cousins he was sure to figure things out. And Sakura still didn't even know how she wanted 'things' to progress.

Still, for the moment his hand was rough and firm in her own, and some of the tension that had been coiled in the pit of her stomach since Tsunade dismissed the teams that morning finally eased up.

She would take what she could get.

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Chapter Word Count: 1,805

Total Word Count: 46,235

Targeted Word Count: 40,000

Sorry, only one update today. I spent most of the time driving home for break today, and then I slept for like five hours.