Happy Accidents

Chapter 43: Backtracking

Sakura made it to the office and rushed through her paperwork, organizing it before she marched upstairs. Her first stop was Detective Uzumaki's office; seeing his door open, she closed the door and locked it behind her, turning with her hands on her hips to face him.

"Sakura? You look like a woman on a mission," he teased lightly. "What's up?" As always, he was the cheeriest person she'd ever met; no matter what happened, that wasn't going to change.

"Not the time for jokes," she said seriously, walking over to his desk. "What the hell was that earlier? What happened over the weekend while we were gone?" He wanted answers, and if she had to demand them, she damn well would.

"Okay, look, calm down, and take a seat," Naruto said defensively, gesturing to the chair. She narrowed her eyes at him but did as asked, taking a seat in the chair.

"Sai was looking into Idate Shimura for a case he was working on, one that he suspected was linked to the Akasuna case," Naruto explained, reaching for a few files. "Something to do with Akatsuki. So far, it looks like they're more than just a street gang; they're something bigger, something more dangerous than we'd expected. We haven't even put together all of the details yet. Sai's been trying to identify members of the gang through cases he was following. He's determined that Idate Shimura has some link to them; we just don't know exactly what yet. When you two arrived this morning, we'd run out of time to hold Idate, and we had to let him go. We didn't have enough evidence to hold him. Sasuke's convinced that Idate is Itachi, but like I said–"

"There just isn't enough evidence," a voice said from the door, drawing both of their attention. It was Chief Hatake; he'd noticed the two were talking and opted to join them. "Sorry. Should have knocked, but I figured I had an idea what you two were discussing regardless." He took a seat next to Sakura, letting out a heavy sigh.

"And so... what did you do about Sasuke? He's probably wound up tighter than a nutcracker doll right now," Sakura said, rubbing her temples.

"I sent him home on administrative leave. I don't think he's in the right mind for fieldwork after today, but he is in a determined mood to find evidence, I'm sure. Administrative leave still means he can look into leads and search for information. If he finds something, then we can use it... and Idate and Danzo are none the wiser about it. We have a few others running surveillance to make sure Idate doesn't disappear unexpectedly. We're doing everything we can."

Sakura sighed, rubbing her forehead. "So he's probably at home, wound up and upset, and not in a good mood. Great," she muttered sarcastically, knowing it was going to be a difficult conversation. She was already running late; she had a feeling he was going to want to go to bed by the time she got there. She hadn't even made it home to make him dinner like she normally did. She already felt guilty about that part; going home was going to be even more difficult.

"I'm sorry it happened this way," Naruto reassured. "But... Sasuke will be okay. He's nothing if not resilient." Giving the chief a wave as he left the room, he waited until it was just the two of them before he continued. "He cares about you. He'll be okay." Naruto gestured at the door. "Go, head home to him. He'll need it."

Sakura stood, glancing back at Naruto. "Thank you," she said softly. "For... for doing what you could for him. He needs you just as much as he needs me."

"I know," Naruto replied. Leaving Naruto's office, Sakura went downstairs to grab her things, glancing at the time and feeling a pang of guilt. She would have to go home and go straight to bed, given the time; she was exhausted. She just hoped that she could convince Sasuke to do the same.

Reaching the house, she took a deep breath as she stood in front of the door, slowly unlocking it and peering inside. Sasuke was sitting on the couch, staring absently off into space with a nearly empty bottle of bourbon in front of him. He looked up at her with a glassy-eyed gaze. Had that been all he had all afternoon? That wasn't a good sign at all.