Chasing After You || Itachi

Ch. 12 - New Expedition

Sighing, Tora leaned against the wall of a hospital room with her arms crossed over her chest. Three days ago, Itachi and his partner were spotted and disappeared. Since then, Sasuke and Kakashi had been admitted to the hospital, but neither have woken up. After she had been questioned about the incident, Tora visited Sasuke's room every day. Was there anything she could've done differently to prevent this? Did Itachi have to go that far? All this did was further hurt his reputation, not that it would have mattered to him.

"Back again, Dakuo-san?" The nurse smiled as she entered the room to check Sasuke's vitals. "It's nice to know that there's someone looking after him. A young pink-haired girl often comes around too and brings new flowers."

"Any changes?"

The nurse shook her head solemnly. "Not yet. There's too much physical and mental trauma to say when."

"I see. Thank you for your hard work."

Tora walked out of the hospital and decided to head home. Sitting in that room all day wasn't going to solve anything. On the other hand, she needed to ready herself. Soon, she was going to leave and meet her father. Packing for a trip like that would be the easiest thing; getting everyone on board with her departure would be the hard part.

The house was silent as the female walked in. Her mother didn't say she was going on a mission, so she must've been out and about. That only made the packing part easier. Knowing she didn't need too many things, she settled with the essentials and cleaned up a little.

"Are you getting sent on a long term mission or something?"

Tora turned around to see her mother standing in the doorway. She didn't know how long she'd been in her room, but honestly, she'd been too focused on packing to think of anything else. Sitting on the floor, she sent her mother a sheepish smile. "More like a solo expedition. My vacation miraculously got approved."

"Where are you going to go?"

"I want..." Tora paused for a moment, contemplating whether she should come clean or not. "...to go to the beach and relax for once. I'll still train so I don't get rusty, but I just want a break from everything, you know?"

Jaga raised an eyebrow as she watched her daughter continue to pack. She could understand where the young woman was coming from, however she should've known better than to try and fool her. Ever since she'd told Tora the truth behind everything, their relationship grew stronger but she knew eventually her daughter would want more than just her words. The only unknown variable was time.

"So you weren't planning to go and find your father?"

Tora paused for a moment and figured this may as well be the time to have this conversation. "It crossed my mind."

'Don't act coy with me, Tora." Jaga crossed her arms. "I worked hard and risked my life to make sure you could live a good life. You going back there will do nothing but undermine everything I sacrificed."

"He doesn't even know that I exist and you don't have any proof that he knew about the attack on our family prior to." Tora stood up so she could be eye-level with her mother and show her how serious she was. "I have to at least give him some benefit of the doubt."

"You know nothing about the Hidden Cloud. Do you think he's going to welcome you with open arms or something?"

"That's a valid point. I don't know how he'll react, but I'll cross that bridge once I get there."

Her mother scoffed at this and rolled her eyes. "I never raised my child to be so selfish."

"Selfish?!" Tora was flabbergasted. "You deprived him of even knowing he has a child. You're just as selfish-"