Chapter Six
Part One
Captain Kakashi glanced at the small, scribbled-on calendar propped up next to a picture of two smiling kids. He carefully drew a large X through one box with a thick black marker, then, capping the Sharpie again, he sat back in his chair with a sigh and a groan - from the chair - and viewed his handiwork.
It was still winter, and that would’ve depressed Kakashi alone if it hadn’t been for the recent problems in the precinct. He knew - if one could call it knowledge, though it was only a hunch - of Sasuke’s preference of the sexes. He could’ve guessed that much with all of Sasuke’s combined behaviors. He, unlike what both Sasuke and Sakura had feared, didn’t mind. He allowed a small, ironic smile to cross his face and scowled. As long as it didn’t directly affect him, that was. He also knew that Sasuke and the suspect in the murder case - what was his name? Naruto? - had more than simply a cop-and-robber relationship. And that, preference or no, was unacceptable. In addition to that, several of his coworkers had come up to Kakashi expressing concern for Sasuke. He’s acting strangely, they’d said. Ever since Sakura died, Sasuke hadn’t been himself and was more than a little eccentric and withdrawn, aloof. As Kakashi thought of it he couldn’t remember seeing a smile recently on the detective’s face. He frowned, his fingers absently stroking his chin as he stared into space, lost in thought. I should probably give Sasuke a few days off, he thought, give him time to --
“Captain Kakashi, sir!” He bit off a curse as he was forced to concentrate on the present and on the policeman before him, anonymous and looking like all the others in his immaculate, dark uniform with its patch, and Kakashi had to control his angered comeback. Instead he sighed.
“What is it?”
The man’s voice was clipped with barely suppressed excitement, and proud at being the one to relay the news to the Captain. “We’ve discovered there’s a body, a dead one, outside the building!”
Kakashi jumped to attention - this was new. “What?” he snapped, springing up, and followed the policeman with a jaunt that belied his aging years. “Where? How long ago? Who found it? Has it been identified yet?”
The policeman, whose name Kakashi had yet to remember, tried to answer the questions as fast as they were flung at him, but found himself fumbling for words as question after question was asked. “Uh - well, about fifteen minutes ago - in the back, behind the garbage cans - I think it was Detective Markus-san -”
Kakashi ignored his response and instead addressed the aforementioned Detective Markus-san, who was controlling the crime scene as Kakashi came up. “Markus!” he barked, bringing the detective to attention, “What happened here?”
A crowd was gathering behind the precinct’s dumpsters, and the yellow tape labeled CRIME SCENE - DO NOT ENTER was being put up as they were speaking. Markus, his half-American heritage prominent on his tanned face and wide blue eyes, said in near-perfect Japanese - for an American, that was - “Captain Kakashi, sir, thank goodness you’re here. I discovered the body first - I called everyone in, and sent Tashea-kun to get you.” At the mention of his name, who Kakashi finally remembered, thanks to Markus, the infinitely younger, barely bearded man puffed out his chest with a proud look. Kakashi gnawed his bottom lip and swore. “Where is Uchiha?” he demanded of the nearest policeman. “Somebody get me Uchiha, now!”
Almost an hour later, Sasuke was viewing the body with disgust - not because of the smell emanating from it, or the dead look in the young man’s eyes, or the rather sickening overall appearance and stature of the dead man, but because he’d been awoken from a sound sleep and he was annoyed. Call him disturbingly impervious, he didn’t care. He was chagrined that he’d been disturbed from his slumber and he cast a glare toward the unmoving and smelly body, as though casting blame upon the body - though it was hardly the kid’s fault he’d been killed. With a bit of an edge to his voice, he snapped as he took in the scene and the little mechanisms in his head that made him so famous for being a detective, “The kid didn’t get a chance to run, he was too drunk, most likely, or hyped up on drugs, and he saw it coming - but he wasn’t killed here. No.” Broodingly his dark eyes scrounged the surrounding pavement and spotted what he was looking for. “He was dragged here, probably to give the murderer more privacy to finish off the dirty work.” He kept his nerve-racking accusations to himself, the nagging little clues that made his blood run cold as he quickly realized something wasn’t right. The body, the manner in which he was killed, the ferocity and strength in which his neck was snapped... the only thing that didn’t fit was that the kid was male, and a junkie, but it still didn’t faze Sasuke. As he gazed down thoughtfully at the body he felt certain that his hunch was correct. Naruto wasn’t the murderer. He was still out here, loose, killing those who got in his way, or who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time... he cut off his train of thinking and raised his previously scowling expression to see the captain staring at him, eyebrows raised. He gave Kakashi a puzzled look in return over the hustle and bustle of the regular crime scene people. Kakashi sighed and shook his head slowly before dipping his head down to continue listening to the hotshot young kid who thought he was an expert when really this couldn’t have been a case he couldn’t count on his fingers.
Sasuke returned to his brooding and general decoding of the scene. His mind working furiously, he briefly thought of yelling at everyone to get out of here so he could think, but he decided it was a too impulsive and emotionally-driven move. Instead he concentrated on thinking as hard as he could.
The body had been dumped behind the dumpster - a fitting place, Sasuke observed dryly, for a junkie - and from the tiny specks of torn off skin on the rough pavement and the condition of the kid’s back it was obvious he’d been dragged here, either by his feet or by someone grasping his armpits. From the way the arms were held at an odd angle, as though they’d been thrust up, Sasuke was pretty sure of the latter. His sharp eyes followed the trail of torn-off skin that marked the area, and followed it carefully, his eyes narrowed as he slowly made his way up to the side of the precinct building, and several people stopped to stare in curiosity at this wierd detective that looked like he was stalking a snail, then finally shrugged and returned to their work, figuring it was just the Uchiha strangeness.
The trail ended right at the corner of the building, where someone could hide in the shadows and watch the door, a perfect hiding place. He scowled thoughtfully at the door, then up and down the sidewalk. Turning, he said sharply to the young detective who’d followed him - Tashea-kun - “Get me the cop who talked to the kid before the murder.”
Eyes wide, the young kid murmured a reply of acknowledgement and ran to do Sasuke’s bidding. He didn’t have long to wait - a rather beefy, square policeman walked up to Sasuke and said gruffy, “I’m Officer Kaziko. I saw the kid before he died.”
Sasuke contemplated the dull-looking, brawny man before him. Asking Tashea to find the cop who talked to the kid had been a hunch, but a good one. He figured the kid hadn’t been dead until the early morning hours, maybe around the shift change, and since he was hanging around here he was bound to ask someone - a cop going home to sleep - for some change. It was no surprise that he’d been right. “Tell me everything,” he said shortly.
“Uh, well....” the cop scratched his head with a large, beefy hand, “I was just going home - y’know, the usual - and the kid asks me for money. I told him no, I didn’t have none, and left for home.” Sasuke looked at the man’s hands with a mixture of disbelief and humor - they were huge. The fingers were large and stubby, and probably a full inch around; the palm was disproportionately huge. He looked over the rest of the man; he wasn’t fat, but more muscle and thick bone. He practically had no neck and his eyes were small in his square-like face. Sasuke lifted one side of a lip in revulsion and, at the silent snarl, the man blinked, taken aback and startled.
“What...?” he said, his deep voice puzzled. Sasuke shook his head abruptly.
“It’s nothing. Continue.” But the hands had set off another furious thinking track - the hands, he thought, the hands were the key. He recalled sharply in his mind the manners of the way the others were killed. Either blunt force trauma to the head, or a broken neck. Or the way Sakura had been killed... the way her nose had been driven into her brain so deeply she didn’t have a chance in the world... he clenched his jaw as he remembered vividly the body he and Sakura had viewed, their discussion over what had caused the cave in the victim’s head... no way that damage could have been bare hands. No way. The skull was bone, for Christ’s sake! No hands, no matter how strong, could cause such damage. He raked his teeth over his bottom lip and scowled thoughtfully. What did Naruto’s hands look like? Small, soft, feminime, just like the rest of him. Too timid to ever become aggressive enough to cause any damage at all, much less break someone’s neck or smash the side of a skull in. Unless backed by strength, by fury fueled by... by what? What would possess someone to kill, and not just kill, but so brutally? So heartlessly, so cruelly... He became aware of, once again, Kakashi staring discreetly at him in a curious manner and he raised his head to glare ferociously at the gaze he felt upon him, then lighten up when he realized it was his boss. Annoyed, he walked over to the white haired man.
“You want something, Captain?” he said in a tight voice, hoping that Kakashi would take a hint.
Kakashi did. He sighed. “Sasuke, I need to talk to you. Be in my office in fifteen minutes. The rest of the detectives can handle this.” With that he left, leaving Sasuke to stare with an unfriendly look at his boss’s retreating back.
At the prescribed time he knocked on Kakashi’s door and the captain called tiredly, “Come in.” He didn’t meet Sasuke’s gaze as the detective entered and sat himself before Kakashi in silence, waiting for his boss to tell him what it was he had to say. They didn’t say anything for a long minute, and Sasuke was beginning to get impatient, when Kakashi sighed again and laid the pen he’d been using to write down and looked at Sasuke, who looked expectantly back at him. Uncomfortable, Kakashi cleared his throat. “...Sasuke-” he began in a voice that clearly resonated his discomfort, as did his ever-shifting posture in his black chair, “some of your coworkers are becoming concerned for you.”
“Yeah? Why’s that?” Sasuke said disinterestedly. Frankly he didn’t give a shit about what the other cops thought of him, and he wasn’t going to start. He crossed his legs and leaned back, putting a hand up to his mouth, his eyes blank with boredom, a perfect picture of indifference and apathy. Kakashi sighed again, a sound that was beginning to annoy the detective, and frowned at him.
“Well, that’s not really what I called you here to talk about,” he said almost reluctantly. This kind of stuff definitely made his job suck. Sasuke got a look of interest on his face, but so slight that the Captain didn’t notice. In fact he was trying to avoid the detective’s gaze and looked at his hands, folded in his lap. He cleared his throat again. “Sasuke,” he said, “listen. You might not want to hear this and by Kami, I don’t want to be the one saying it, but there’s things you’re doing that will get you fired.” This time he didn’t miss the look that came over Sasuke’s face. Surprise mixed with anger. “I know about your, ah, status,” he said, for a lack of a better word, and as Sasuke opened his mouth he quickly added, “I don’t mind, it’s not that that’s the problem, but it’s the suspect that is. That elementary school teacher. Uzumaki Naruto.”
Sasuke glared at Kakashi. “What about him?”
Kakashi opened his mouth, shrugged his shoulders, closed his mouth, then opened it again. “I know - well, I know that before he was arrested you had a... you went out with him a few times, and your relationship with him as a detective and suspect is highly unproffesional.” He wasn’t liking the almost murderous look on Sasuke’s face now and rushed to finish. “So I don’t have any choice, I don’t want to fire you but I’m taking you off the case.” He said it all in a whoosh of air and then sucked up some more, looking hesitantly at the angry detective.
To his surprise Sasuke seemed to have an almost blank look in his eyes. He shrugged, but, as he stood, Kakashi could see his jaw was tightly clenched. “Thanks, boss,” he muttered through gritted teeth. “But I’m not going to give up. Naruto isn’t the murderer, I know it, I’m going to solve this case with or without my badge.”
And with that he was gone, the door slamming derisively behind him. As it closed with a bang, the captain jumped at the noise, then slumped and sighed. He was getting too old for this. He pondered what to do about his unruly detective, but finally decided to leave him be - if he did anything to get in trouble, it couldn’t be blamed on the department, and if he solved the case, well, so be it. Satisfied, he leaned back and tapped his pen absently on the desk.
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Chapter notes: Haha... Sasuke's such a hardhead... anyway, enjoy and review!!!! Thank you, SBP
Btw... all this forensic stuff I've tried to cram in here... don't blame me if I've made a mistake, I only know so much! Please excuse anything amiss you see, or better yet, tell me and I'll correct it. ^^ Thanks!