Author's Note: I may have forgotten that this was posted here.

More than a week had passed since Sasuke and Father had disappeared and there was still no word from either of them. Itachi wasn't part of any tracker units but had managed to weasel his way into the one searching for Sasuke with sheer willpower. He had pawned off his duties to Mother with a fledgling of guilt as he was far more worried about Sasuke than getting an extra supply of shuriken. While Mother had initially been part of a tracking team, she'd taken up office when Itachi had demanded to go searching for his little brother. He couldn't be more grateful to her.

The two cats sent from Sora-ku were leading the way. They'd caught a strong scent trail and apparently Sasuke was travelling with a few other people now. The scents of those people were not discernable, but the confirmation that Sasuke was okay and alive almost brought Itachi to tears.

Yashiro said he could sense something that might be Sasuke, but it was far out of his range and barely distinguishable. Still, it meant that they were getting close. Itachi was going to grill Sasuke when he found him. Why had he left? Who was he with? Where was he going? Why not leave a message? Why did he take all his belongings? Where was Father?

(Father was evidently nowhere near where Sasuke was because the team that was tracking him had gone off in the opposite direction.)

Then, after making sure Sasuke wasn't dying, he would pulverize him. No, no—not pulverize—just have a little combat practice with him. A brotherly spar.

"The amount of nature energy in this area is far less than normal," Tekka said, examining the seal he'd wrapped around his wrist before they'd left camp. Tekka was the up-and-coming Uchiha seal master, being just a year younger than Itachi. What he was wearing was allegedly a monitoring seal (Itachi didn't know shit about seals or how they worked, so he'd have to believe that Tekka was telling the truth) that was designed to pick up on Sasuke's distinct stormy lightning-fire chakra signature. "I'm hardly picking up anything."

The cats usually didn't use chakra to track, so they hardly cared. However, the other three shinobi all turned to Yashiro for an explanation. "There's plenty of nature energy here," he said, eyes squinting in confusion. He frowned and made a hand seal, presumably trying to figure out what was wrong. His brows furrowed the longer he focused which is what worried Itachi more than anything else.

"It's all trapped underground," he finally said. "There's something absorbing it, but I can't tell what it is."

"Is it a threat?" Itachi asked, eyeing the area around them warily. Inabi already had his sword out. For a lack of nature energy, the wildlife sure seemed to be flourishing. Yashiro grunted after a few moments which Itachi took as a no.

There was a looming castle within their sight when the cats mentioned that their senses were becoming disoriented. They couldn't tell in what way or why, but they didn't seem to deem it important. Itachi had zoned out by then and probably would've let the statement fly over his head if Tekka hadn't forced them all to stop for a moment.

"I'm placing warding seals on all of you," Tekka said, his hands digging through his bag for ink. "It'll be easiest to just draw it on your backs, so shirts off."

The cats didn't come down from the trees, instead choosing to laze in the sun while the Uchiha did what they needed to do. Tekka worked fast. Itachi was the last one to get a seal. He felt the cold brush sliding across his back, but it dried just as quickly as it came. He felt lighter once Tekka backed away, as if something had been squeezing him before and now it wasn't.

"Are you not going to apply one?" Itachi asked, tugging his shirt back over his head.

"I already have a general one in place," Tekka replied. He looked up at the tree where both cats had decided to take a nap. "You two also need one," he said loudly. Denka's ear twitched which was a clear indication that he was awake enough to listen. Tekka jumped up beside him and crouched down, brush in hand. "Either you cooperate or we'll hold you down to apply this."

"Fine, nya," Denka said indignantly with one eye open. He rolled over onto his back and stretched. "Do Hina first."

While Tekka did that, Itachi asked the first question that came into his mind.

"Why is there a castle here?" He looked up to where he could see the structure's tall spires through the canopy. Inabi and Yashiro both followed his gaze. Inabi sat down and took out a map instead of answering. He analyzed it for a few minutes while Itachi and Yashiro found suitable places to sit as well. Finally, Inabi shrugged.

"Dunno."

"Let me see that," Yashiro grumbled, snatching the map away from Inabi. The gray-haired man's eyes flicked downwards before he hummed.

"This was where the Hyuuga clan were situated when our clans fought for this land," he said. "Once they built it they were sure that they would win easily, but they did not anticipate Madara on the battlefield."

"I didn't know of this," Itachi mused, wondering if the very land they were sitting on was once a blood-stained battlefield. There was no evidence of any fights, no scars on the trees, no stray shuriken that were more than a few decades old.

"Madara told that story long before any of you were born," Yashiro explained, referring to the rest of the team. "Although Sasuke did ask about it once. I'm not sure how he found out."

Itachi's guilt and worry rushed into the forefront of his mind. He looked up to check if Tekka was done yet. He appeared to be finishing up. Good. They were wasting time like this.

"Madara-ojii must've told him himself," Itachi mumbled. "If Sasuke wasn't with me, he was with him. If Madara-ojii hadn't entertained him, he'd destroy everything he could find to pass the time."

"You and your brother stressed Madara out so much that you drove him to the grave."

"We'll find him," Inabi butt in. Yashiro, despite his best efforts, was really not helping the mood. "Him and Fugaku-san, so stop sulking."

Itachi nodded mutely and an uncomfortable silence settled over them until Tekka came back down with the cats.

"There's something stored below us, nya," Hina reported at once, folded ears flattened back against her head. "Very big or very numerous. Can you see it?"

Even with the sharingan, Itachi saw and felt nothing worth noting. If there was enough chakra below them that the ninneko assumed that the sharingan would be able to pick up on it, the problem was worse than what Itachi had initially thought.

Stopping to investigate was the last thing Itachi wanted to do, and that must have shown on his face. "I don't think we should just leave this alone," Inabi said, tapping his foot on the ground. "But it's your call."

The longer they spent here, the further away Sasuke got. Itachi would not search for an answer to why this area was so strange if it wasn't strictly necessary. However, Inabi was right in that they couldn't just leave. They'd look around for a few minutes first and if they found nothing definitive, then they'd leave. They could always double back, but that might end up being more effort than it was worth so he was reluctant to do that.

"Is there an easy way to get down?" he asked. The cats both looked at the resident sensor. Yashiro nodded and turned his chin towards the castle.

"Some of the nature energy is seeping out of there."

"Lead the way."

Yashiro took them into the lowest level of the castle which was a storage area a few feet underground. It had been easy to infiltrate as it was only used by civilians. Any blood seals the Hyuuga made in the past had long since been scraped away. Itachi wondered how they'd managed to remove permanent seals like those. Surely there would've been some. Had the civilians somehow convinced the Hyuuga to do it before they left? Had shinobi who specialized in sealing inhabited the castle before the civilians found it? There were a lot of questions to be asked, but Itachi didn't have the patience to mull over it.

He squeezed through a narrow gap hidden behind a dusty cupboard, dragging himself along until the tiny passageway opened up to a cave. There was a dim light from Tekka's torch which he had unsealed from a storage scroll. Itachi could still hardly see, but it was better than not being able to see at all. He activated the sharingan but it didn't help any, so he blinked it away to avoid wasting chakra.

"This should go directly to whatever is collecting all the nature energy," Yashiro said, taking slow, cautious steps. The path was smooth, straight, and had a slight decline to it. There were a few beams reinforcing parts of the cave but not enough that Itachi was reassured that it wouldn't collapse on them.

Itachi felt something bump into his leg. He looked down and saw the reflection of Denka's eyes and nothing else. "This is a drop," the brown cat said quietly. "But the room there is huge, nya. Use a fireball."

Tekka lifted the torch forward at Itachi's curious stare. Denka was right. There was no floor or wall in front of them. The cave opened up to a large chamber even deeper than the cave itself. Itachi formed the necessary hand signs and blew a long stream of fire over the chamber.

His three companions stepped back in surprise. Even the cats' fur had puffed up. All Itachi could see was the fire under his nose.

"Look," Inabi said, putting a hand on Itachi's shoulder to get him to cut the stream. Inabi pointed down into the darkness before using his own katon, allowing him to see what was so surprising.

Hundreds of eggshell-white bodies that seemed to be in stasis. Itachi stared, eyes wide. Those things weren't people and they weren't natural. He pulled out two shuriken and some wire string.

The light flickered and vanished. "Keep going," he told Inabi, tying one shuriken onto the wire string. He moved to the edge of the drop and threw.

Tekka almost dropped the torch when Itachi pulled one of the bodies up.

"What are you doing?" he hissed. "We don't know what those are."

"Exactly," Itachi replied, poking the body with the end of his kunai. It seemed somewhat rubbery, but he definitely wasn't touching it. Its eyes were closed and it had short green hair. There was nothing else to distinguish it from an oversized doll. He used his foot to flip it over.

On the small of its back was a symbol of what appeared to be a folding fan with a fire emblem in the center. Itachi recognized a Hyuuga symbol when he saw one. What was it doing on this thing? The only explanation he could come up with was that these had been created by the Hyuuga. That didn't make sense. They didn't have any specialists in science, even in their civilian city, as far as Itachi knew. However, this chamber was directly connected to what was once their castle.

"That's not great," Inabi said blandly. "What's this supposed to be?"

"They don't need people for anything other than fighting," Yashiro said quietly. "And it's not as if they're dwindling in numbers there, either."

"You don't think they've been left here since…" Itachi trailed off, exchanging a wary glance with the cats.

"They seem pretty dead," Inabi said, giving the body a kick to demonstrate. Itachi waved him away.

"If these are absorbing all the nature energy from the surrounding areas, they need to be cleared out."

"What, you want us to dice 'em all up?" Inabi asked, appalled. There must've been hundreds.

"No, it'll take too long," he said, straightening up. "Denka and I will continue following Sasuke. Tekka and Hina will figure out what these are meant to be, or tell the Hyuuga to deal with them. Yashiro and Inabi, you go back and report this. Our clan is situated the closest to here. Prepare for a possible attack and try to find any other information about this."

"They'll kill them on sight," Yashiro deadpanned. "It's not even that important."

"This whole area ruined our senses," Itachi replied. "Tekka's seals are the only reason we can think at all. If the Hyuuga are planning an attack, we need to know."

Yashiro grunted and glanced back down at the body. "Understood."

They left the cave and the castle in silence. There was no way to communicate between them, but that was just as well. If there was any danger that needed to be reported, it should go directly to the clan and nowhere else. Itachi hoped he hadn't made the wrong decision. He knew confronting the Hyuuga was dangerous, but there was no way he would waste manpower to clean up another clan's mess. The Hyuuga were the only ones situated closer than the Uchiha to this strip of the mountains.

He needed to get more used to this. Until Father returned he was the head of the clan. He'd already broke a multitude of rules by going on a mission that wasn't life-or-death for the clan. They could suck it up and deal with it. As if he'd just leave Sasuke.

"At least we're on the right track," Denka said. Itachi snapped out of his thoughts. It had been less than an hour since they'd split up.

"What?"

Denka stopped running and pointed his nose forward. They were just in front of a waterfall, except much of the top had been reduced to rubble. There were zigzagging cracks spreading from an area where a rock had broken off and fallen. There was only one jutsu Itachi knew that could cause damage like that. On one hand, it was a clear indication that Sasuke had been here. On the other, he must have gotten into a fight.

Itachi hummed, eyeing the charred bushes around the river. Definitely Sasuke. "Let's keep going."