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The Hunting Ground	By : Ljiljana Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 1010 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
Many thanks and
much love to Flawless Beauti for beta work!

Chapter Three

It was almost
inappropriate, how bright the sun was. People in grief did not seemed affected
by it, and still, it felt unreal to be in such a big group of people in
mourning clothes when the weather was so clear and hot.

Sasuke was standing at the place he could see everyone
present, a little on the side. Many people were crying, but the dark haired
woman was obviously the most distressed one and Sasuke hadn�t bothered to
confirm that she was the girl�s mother. The broken repeating of the girl�s name
through sobbing was more then enough to convince him.

They were civilians. It was not unorthodox they had a
daughter in the Academy -Konoha was still giving a large grant for it- but if
these people actually expected her to do anything but die young they were just
fooling themselves. A ninja from a civilian family, without a blood limit or
inherited jutsus, even with a special talent and good teammates, was vulnerable
and weak.

A cold blooded murder was probably harder to take then KIA,
as the girl was at home mere hours, if not minutes before she died. The woman
was clutching a small boy, presumably another child, who looked lost and
confused, and a bit annoyed at her for wetting his hair every
time she would squeeze him tightly, as if to make sure he is real and still
there. The child was just old enough to have an opinion on small things like
that, but still too young to grasp the fact that his sister was dead and that
he would never see her again.

Sasuke stopped looking at boy�s face with some effort,
trying hard to keep voices and pictures at bay, and that was when Naruto came. People
straightened even more, because that was the signal that the final ceremony was
about to start, giving him space to approach to the open coffin, with several
people in his wake. Hinata separated from the group and walked to where Sasuke
was standing without a word.

Naruto gave Sasuke a single nod, with some apologetic air in
the simple gesture. Was it because he was not giving him more courtesy in a
public place or because he stormed out of the station earlier? With Naruto, it
was hard to tell, it might have been something entirely else, so Sasuke allowed
the people who took Hokage�s arrival as a sign it was time to bid last
farewells to the dead girl to come between them. They lined up, each with a
single white flower in their hands, picked from a tray of women with teary eyes
and obvious semblance to the father in her hands.

After Naruto placed a flower next to the coffin, Nara produced from
somewhere a bouquet of white lilies and left it on the opposite side from the
one Naruto chose. Then others that came after them. It was a good strategy, in
a way; for Hokage not to do anything different from the villagers, while his
adviser makes sure he is showing special attention in the name of the direction
at the same time. Sasuke did not move, and neither did Hinata, until the
graveyard was almost empty, looking more like a place
for kids to play on in the bright sunlight, then a place where Konoha was
burying soldiers. Of course, in this case, the deceased was both.

Sasuke placed his own flower on the top of the huge cluster;
the last one from so many people that came to bid farewells to the dead girl.
Her face was covered, but a curl of dark hair escaped from under the cloth.
Sasuke wanted to fix the little imperfection, but it wasn�t his place, so he turned
away from the coffin to do what he was here to do.

The parents were finally left in some privacy, holding onto
each other with the boy in the father�s arms. Sasuke made his way to them, with
Hinata in tow. They expressed their condolences � well, Hinata did, and
introduced themselves.

�We need to ask you some questions.� Hinata warned, but all
she got as an answer was some empty staring that slid right through her. Taking
it as the acceptance needed, Sasuke asked the first, most obvious question.

�When was the last time you saw your daughter? Alive?�� The man blinked, like mentioning the girl
cleared his mind somewhat, and recognized Sasuke.

�Why would I talk to you? I know who you are!�

That was not unexpected. That
kind of reaction was one of the reasons Nara
was so against Sasuke being in charge of the case. No matter how much time
passes or how many good deeds a runaway does in the name of redemption, they
will not be forgiven; not by people that discovered what a war is because of
the decisions they had made in the past, as it was in Sasuke�s case.

�I am in charge of your daughter�s murder investigation.�
Sasuke calmly said. �You have to talk to me.�

�I�m not�� the father started, but his wife shifted and
squeezed his arm; a warning and support at the same time. He gave her an
annoyed glance, but didn�t continue.

Hinata used the opportunity to add; �We were chosen by the
Hokage himself. He is confident we are capable of handling this.�

That made the man no less angry, but he shut his mouth
stubbornly and looked at the side.� If
anyone else was the Hokage, what Hinata said would have been enough to grant
them cooperation, if not acceptance. As it was, they were lucky he wasn�t
insulting them. Not only that the person sent there to catch a murderer was a
criminal himself, but the Hokage sent him of his own will. Was he trying to
help them, or make them all killed? From the look on his face, this man
believed the other option.

What more was Naruto supposed to do to assure these people
he really wants the best for them? How many sacrifices they will demand before
they could sleep at night without the fear of Naruto going berserk and killing
them all?

�If you want to know what happened to your daughter, we are all
you�ve got.� Sasuke explained, but he got nothing for the effort, so he said,
�If you refuse to cooperate, we�ll arrest you for�� something, and he needed something good, �disrupting
investigation.�

If would be embarrassing to really arrest him and bring him
back to station only to search the part of it where the cells were located and
a way to operate them in front of him. Luckily, the man raised his head and
gave Sasuke a measuring look, as if he was trying to figure out if he was
telling the truth.

It was the mother who talked, though.

�She� She had dinner with us that night.� She answered
finally, in a sobbing, broken voice. �And then she used the bathroom and went
to bed. We haven�t seen her after that.�

�Does she always go to bed that early?� Hinata asked, in a
gentle, calming tone.

The parents exchanged a glance.

�No, not always,� this time the father answered, maybe
because Sasuke was not the one who asked the question. �She said she was tired
and that she had a team meeting early in the morning.�

The meeting was something that could be verified.

�Nothing else? Nothing
out of the ordinary? Maybe she was acting oddly or��

The answer was no, and the questioning went in circles after
that. No, she was not fighting with anyone lately. No, they saw no reason why
this would happen to their little girl.

In short, they got nothing out of the parents. The next step
was talking to her teammates and the team leader. Hinata knew who they were, so
the two of them visited the female jounin�s,
with unfamiliar name, house. She was out on an urgent mission.

With the next stop they were also not lucky, because the boy
they were looking for was not at home. According to the sub-text Sasuke managed
to pick up from the mumbled apology the mother gave them, he was moping
somewhere.

The third team member was a Nara,
so Hinata and Sasuke walked out of the urban part of the Konoha and headed to
the Nara farm.
The boy was home, just arrived from the funeral. They could have talked to him
back there, if they haven�t spent so much time with the parents.

The boy had sharp dark eyes and short hair. He invited them
in, offered refreshment and started to talk before anyone asked him anything.

�I saw her the afternoon before she died.� His voice broke
just a bit on the last word, but he cleared his throat and continued, �Our sensei told me we have a meeting in the
morning and to tell everyone, so I went to her house. She looked tired even
though we didn�t have a mission that day, but otherwise normal.��

Hinata went through more or less same set of questions, and
she got more or less the same answers. The girl was a good daughter and a good
friend, she was nice and smart and no one had any reason to kill her. Only she
was dead, and none of that �don�t speak ill if the dead� was helping. Saying
that she�s only twelve could maybe work on someone else, but Sasuke could still
remember clearly what he was capable of at that age.

As the silence spread over the three of them, when Hinata
was trying to think of the next question, the boy said to Sasuke. �You weren�t
there the last time.�

The last time? Was he interrogated
by someone before they got here? If he was, then there was someone stepping
over their boundaries, and all over the two of them, which was insulting. What
made Sasuke not react was that Hinata visibly stiffened in the chair next to
his.

�The last time?� He asked the boy,
who raised his eyebrows, but answered anyway.

�A month ago, when a murder like this one happened the last
time. I was there, but I don�t think you were investigating then.�

Just how many �murders like this one� had happened before?

Sasuke said nothing. He was obviously wasting his time. He
just had more questions now. How was Naruto expecting of him to find out who is
doing this if he wasn�t even entitled to the appropriate information? How was
he supposed to know what to ask and where to look? A murder of a single person
was an entirely different thing then a series of murders.�

When Sasuke walked out of the house, Hinata followed.

�How many people have died like this? How long has this been
happening?� Ha asked when only thing visible of the farm was its roof, looking
straight ahead and not expecting at all for Hinata to answer.

�I am not allowed to say.� She answered with much less
regret then her general character suggested she would inject in such a blunt
refusal.�

So that was it. Sasuke would be breaking in the Hokage tower
that night.

��
# # # # #

It never went that far, and Sasuke was almost sorry for it.
He needed to move, to take some action; not that getting past Naruto�s guards
would be much of a challenge. But even that would be more then what he had
lately.

He took a bath to wash the day�s sweat off his skin, but the
night was so stuffy and warm that the feeling of cleanness and refreshment
would not last for long. It was like that for months already, not a drop of
rain and then sudden, furious hail storms that were not helping the agriculture
� or the windows. Even the spring was too hot, and the last winter was warm and
without snow or the need for jackets and cloaks during day.

The dinner would probably be a better idea, but Sasuke
settled on the edge of the hiding place for weaponry under the floor of his
room that he had made with Itachi�s help a long time ago, and cleared and
sharpened all his bladed weapons. What he actually needed was sex; that helped
a lot with keeping his head leveled and mind focused. Because Naruto was not
only a moron, but also a vengeful hypocritical asshole, that was not
available.��

The irritation lingered despite of the satisfying clinging
of sharpened blades, and Sasuke was about to give it all up and try to sleep
for a couple of hours when there was a knock on the door. It startled him,
because he couldn�t feel anyone outside and his protective barrier showed no
signs of being disrupted.

So what was Naruto doing here?�

Sasuke made his way to the door only after the knocking
repeated, this time more loud and longer. It really was Naruto on the other side, pointedly bright against the darkness
of the early night behind him, which seemed surreal until he grinned widely and
pushed the source of the spicy smell into Sasuke hands; a paper bag presumably
full of ramen.

�Hi!� He said, like it this was all normal, not hard and
uncomfortable. �Would you mind letting me in? It�s kind of cold out here.�

Yeah, very cold, about a half a degree colder then in the
fire demon dimensions. Deciding Naruto was speaking metaphorically about how
insulted he was because Sasuke failed to give him a warm, brotherly hug on the
first sight, he turned back and left the door open. Naruto followed, as a good
Hokage should.

�I thought we�d have dinner.� Naruto continued.

Sure, they could have dinner. Naruto could talk, Sasuke
could glare and be rude, and then Sakura could come to help them dig up
Kakashi, and everything will be perfect. Maybe Sasuke could find out some
answers along the way as well, like what
the fuck had changed?

�I�m not hungry. Anything else?�

Naruto took a chair at the kitchen table, with his back to
the solid wall in the position that allowed him to see the entire room. The
grin was still there when he reached for the bag and then looked back where
Sasuke was still standing.

�Well, I�m hungry, so we should have dinner anyway.� He
answered, and the paper bag opened under his fingers without a sound. �And a talk.��

�About all the important case information you forgot to tell
me?�

�I did not forget
to tell you.� Naruto answered, after swallowing just enough of his first
mouthful to be comprehensible. �I was outvoted on the subject. No matter what
amount of Hinata�s back pain salve I was offering, it wasn�t making any
difference on the results. Weird, the stuff is really good.�

What was weird is that Naruto was trying to bribe his in
average very young committee with a back pain salve. He must have spent too much
time with that Hermit sage after all. Sasuke made his way to check if ramen was
still warm; it was, so he turned to take a bowl for it. No reason to eat from
paper cup when he doesn�t have to.

Naruto added. �For all kinds of sores, you know?�

The statement was innocent enough, but Sasuke almost stopped
in mid-movement anyway. It was right there, in Naruto�s voice; the obvious
implication. And when it comes to sex�

�No, I don�t.� Sasuke said. �How many murders like this one
had happened before?�

Naruto laughed a little, probably at the first part.

�Hmmm,� He said after laughing some more at the glare he got
for his manners. �Four, all in the last year.�

�And you think that�s funny?� Sasuke asked. He was not in a
good mood to begin with. Naruto showing on his doorstep and laughing without a
reason in inappropriate times was not helping. Just sitting at his kitchen
table, Naruto was making him irritable.

The words made Naruto stop the snickering right away, as
they were supposed to. �It�s not funny. I wouldn�t be sneaking around like some
kind of a thief to tell you things you are not permitted to hear if I thought
it was finny.�

�Why am I not permitted to know things about the case I�m
supposed to solve?��

�So you wouldn�t manage to actually solve it, I imagine.�
Naruto answered looking longingly into his paper cup and then pleadingly into
Sasuke�s unfinished bowl. �It wouldn�t look good on all those people who tried
before you.�

Sasuke resisted the temptation to ask who exactly tried
before him and ate the rest of his dinner, enjoying thoughtfully both his ramen
and the growling sounds of Naruto�s stomach. It was his own fault he couldn�t
judge how much he needed for a meal, so there was no place for guilt. Or sharing.

�We first thought about just letting you break into my
office and steal the files.� Naruto told him; giving up the hope he�ll plead
more food out. �But I have some observant watch dogs.�

They expected him
to break in? That sounded as if he was being led on and it made Sasuke even
more annoyed. �Your guards would never have even noticed me.�

The grin was back, wide and more like a really big smirk
then anything.

�You think? But I would have to fire them then. I hate firing people.� Then
Naruto added, in a more dignified tone. �Kakashi loved that part.�

Sasuke stood up and dropped his now empty bowl into the
sink. Talking about Kakashi with Naruto � or anyone else for that matter � was
on the very bottom of the things he was willing to do. Things were better back in
the time Kakashi was the Hokage and, more importantly, alive. Things were
better because they were not quite as lonely.

But Naruto was right. Kakashi did like dismissing people. He
said it was helping building the character of Konoha ninja; it was just a thing
a proper Hokage should be doing. Sasuke thought he was looking for the most
idiotic pair so he could get away with escaping for some time alone at the
memorial from time to time.
�
Naruto thought he was writing his own series of books and
thus needed someone really strong to make sure he would never be caught at it,
not that Sasuke had that pleasure to hear it directly from him. But Sakura
found it funny, and told him about it through laughter.

�This would be much easier if you brought those files with
you.� Sasuke finally said, obviously startling Naruto from wherever he drifted
away. �You could leave them and go.�

Naruto glared at him and stuck his right hand under his
shirt, where the files were stuck in his belt, waiting to make an appearance.
Sasuke thought about how rumpled the files will be and then he found himself
quite a bit fascinated with the little bit of flesh Naruto showed in the
process of retrieving them.

This was not good.
Thinking about Naruto in any kind of sexual way was fucked up, unhealthy and
doomed to end in pain and blood. It was the direct consequence of practically
being banned from having sex. So he should stop staring, obvious or not.

�Um, Sasuke?� Naruto called,
breaking his inappropriate awareness effectively. �You look sick.�

That made sense. Maybe he was sick.

Not willing to dwell on the little slip of his sanity,
Sasuke took the files. They were thick and worn out, like they were read and
reread many times.�

�Are you okay?� Naruto asked after he grew tired of waiting
for some response.

I will be once you�re
out of my sight.

�Yes. You can go now.�

Naruto insisted. �But you are really pale.�

I�m always pale when
I�m horny, as much fun as it would be to say it, was not a good idea.
Neither was But you�re suntanned in some interesting places,
so Sasuke said, �Hn,� and opened the first file.�

The relief not all the victims were kids was overpowering
his need to kick Naruto out for the moment, so there would be no blood, unless
the moron kept insisting. Naruto didn�t, so Sasuke read on.

The first case that had happened almost a year ago was about
a forty year old man who was drowned in the fish tank he had in his store.
Sasuke remembered when that happened; people were talking about the freak accident
loudly enough for him to hear. No traces of struggle or bruises that suggested
he was held under water, but the right side of his brain was active at the time
of death, a good reason to believe he was under the genjutsu until the last
moment.

The second case, some really old woman was drowned in the
public toilet. Pictures going with the file were disgusting and on the side of
bizarre. Results pathology gave could have been a copy from the previous file,
if not for the name of the victim.�

Third case was a guard on the back gate. He told his partner
he was going to use the public convenience and never came back. He was found
with his head in the mud puddle not a hundred steps away from the guarding
spot, just around the corner. Same pathology results, but the blurry pictures
of the scene made Sasuke stop and look at them more carefully. For some reason,
he kept thinking of Shusui � not from the time he died, but from before, when
Itachi and he were kids, ordered to take care of Sasuke�

Sasuke snapped out of the weird memory. It will do him no
good to think of the past right now; he curved the file so the picture was more
or less obscure at the odd angle and thus couldn�t distract him.�

When he finished reading, Sasuke became aware of the nervous
shifting on the chair across from him. Naruto looked uncomfortable and maybe a
bit embarrassed for some reason.

Sasuke snapped. �Why are you still here?�

Naruto licked his lips. Sasuke refused to allow himself to get sidetracked by the gesture.

�Well, that is not all.� Naruto declared, waving at the
files. Sasuke did not like the regretful expression on his face, or the
troubled quality in his voice. It suggested Naruto did, or thought he did,
something very wrong. �And it�s not getting better.�

Tbc
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The Hunting Ground