The Angel's Ambivalence [Naruto]

Dangerous Curiosity

"The only thing I still believe in is you."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Third Person's POV

"... There's nothing here," Sai said quietly, "It's another dead end."

"No..." Sakura murmured, her lip quivering slightly.

"Let's go," Naruto said, "We'll search in another area."

"I don't think that would be much help," Yamato said, walking over to them with an unknown object in his hand. "I found this."

He opened his hand to reveal a single charm. It was of the Uzumaki Clan's symbol, the very first charm Minxie had received from Naruto.

"Do you recognize it?" Yamato inquired, and Sakura nodded solemnly. He gave it to Naruto, who stared at the charm with dead blue eyes.

"It's Minxie's. It was a... A present," Sakura explained, her voice drained. "Naruto gave it to Minxie for her fourteenth birthday."

Naruto nodded in solemn confirmation, his eyes never leaving the charm in his hands.

"We need to keep moving," He said suddenly. "We need to find her. Now."

"We would... If there was a chance of finding her," Yamato said quietly, and Naruto's head snapped up.

"What did you just say?" Naruto hissed out as Sakura stared at their captain in disbelief.

"A charm bracelet usually has more than one charm on it, right? At least, I'm sure Minxie's does," Yamato said. "Orochimaru is no fool. He knows we'll be tracking Minxie. Do you think he'd just lead us straight to her? He's placing charms from her bracelet around here deliberately. Minxie's scent is coming from different directions. There's no telling where she really is."

"Then we'll just have to check all of those locations until we find her!" Naruto said.

"And then what?" Yamato inquired. "We spend days searching for her, just to come up with nothing? I know about tracking, Naruto. There are times when it just doesn't work."

"If you're so great at tracking, then lead us to Minxie!" Naruto shouted.

"Don't you think I want to do that?" Yamato asked incredulously. "Minxie's a great girl. She's a member of this team. I want to find her... But I also know when it's time to give up."

"Minxie's with Orochimaru, right?" Sakura said. "Just follow his scent. That's the way we'll find her."

"I would, but I don't have any traces of Orochimaru's scent," Yamato replied. "He made sure to be cautious about where he left his tracks. I think he's planned on taking Minxie for a while now."

"Does that matter?" Naruto asked. "No, it doesn't. All that matters is finding Minxie. I'll make shadow clones. We'll search the different scents quicker that way-"