Rabbit Princess [Gaara] [3]

☾ 26 ☽

The following morning arrived and Tsukiko had barely slept the previous night: she had spent her entire day at the library, looking through all the research and documents about Chakra-exchange and imitation. When she had stepped out of the library, she realised the sun was rising.

Rather than wasting the morning, Tsukiko went on toward the Children Therapy Centre for the morning paperwork that they needed to do and only found Ino.

"Sakura's not here yet?" Tsukiko inquired as she stretched her arms and back, pushing out the sourness. "She's always on time with this stuff..."

"I thought that she was with you," Ino replied, looking confused as well. "But don't worry, I'm sure she'll come in soon – we did have a long day yesterday,"

Tsukiko agreed with this and the two of them had gotten busy with the work in the Children Therapy Centre but as the sun continued to climb a little higher and the rest of the village woke up, there was still no sign of Sakura. By now, concern was growing in Tsukiko and Ino.

Leaving everything behind, the two girls went to check on Sakura at her home, where Haruno Mebuki informed them that Sakura had not come home that night.

Ino dragged Tsukiko to Sai's home as soon as the white-haired girl confirmed in great concern that she could not sense Sakura's Chakra anywhere in the village.

"Sai!" Ino called out, knocking on his front door while Tsukiko continued to focus on looking for Sakura around the country. "Sai! Are you sleeping?!"

The door finally opened and Sai stood in the doorway, dressed only in his underwear and trying to dry his hair with a towel. Tsukiko gave him an annoyed look for assaulting their eyes with his paleness but next to her, Ino's face had gone beet red.

"So, Sai," Ino had started but cut herself off with a gasp, her eyes wide. "The thing is – whoa! Hey! W-why aren't you wearing any clothes?"

"Sorry, I was in the shower," Sai replied, looking at Tsukiko with confusion as if to ask her if he had made a mistake by appearing in front of them like this.

Sai had thought it would be fine to open the door to Ino like this, but apparently, it was not. Tsukiko looked mildly annoyed with him but was totally calm. On the other hand, the mysterious part was that not only did Ino get angry, her face also turned red.

"Anyway, what's going on?" Sai inquired. "It's so early,"

Ino shared a look with Tsukiko and turned her gaze back on him. Her face was still red, but her expression held a hint of tension. Tsukiko, however, was the one to speak.

"Sakura's missing," Tsukiko informed him.

"Sakura?" Sai asked as the hands moving the towel on his head stopped.

"I went to the therapy centre early this morning," Ino replied. "Tere's some paperwork we have to do together. Tsukiko arrived but Sakura never showed. So, we went to her house, and she's not there. Tsukiko tried detecting her Chakra, but couldn't find any trace of it,"

"It's probably Kido and his gang," Sai muttered with a sigh.

"That's what Tsukiko and I thought too," Ino replied.

"Let's go look for her," Sai said, and went into his room to pull on his uniform quickly.

"They've taken her somewhere that I can't pick on her Chakra," Tsukiko told him from the Genkan. "So, they must want her for something – likely to do with Sasuke,"

"Right," Sai replied. "If he wanted to get in the way of our investigation, all he'd have to do is take her down right then and there. The fact that she's gone means they've taken her somewhere,"