Naruto sat quietly in his closet, waiting with baited breath until the noises stopped.
He would never forget when the men came and knocked on the door of his mother's modest house. One look out the window and she had told Naruto to go hide in his room.
Naruto peered out of the crack in the door, watching as tall men in long dark coats walked back and fourth through the house. They were wearing scarves over their faces, protecting themselves from the winter's cold and recognition.
He could hear their muffled voices speaking harshly.
"Where is he? "
"I don't know! Please don't drag him into this!" He heard his mother weeping.
"Don't lie to us, woman! Where is the brat!" He hear the sound of skin hitting skin and his mother sobbing.
"I don't know!" She sobbed.
"Hey boss, look." said a blond man with a slightly softer voice. Naruto heard footsteps coming towards his room, coming closer and closer. Naruto's blood froze. They had found him.
He panicked, looking around wildly for an escape. He found one in the crawlspace above his closet. He shut the panel quietly behind him just as the blond man opened the closet door.
"Nothing here, boss!"
Naruto pressed his ear against the dusty floor. The man was leaving. He heard soft thudding noises and then the sound that Naruto would never ever forget for the rest of his life. The sound that would forever make his blood run cold.
A gunshot.
There was never any sound before that, just deadly calm. There was no screaming, no pleading...just...silence.
He sat, frozen in fear in the dusty attic of his mothers modest house, crouching behind an old wooden chest.
After what felt like eternity, he quietly, cautiously opened the panel in the top of his closet, peering down. His closet door had been shut tight. He was locked inside. He let out a moan of frustration, mixed with grief.
"Momma!" He screamed through the solid panel, pounding his fists against the door. He knew full well no one would come. He was going to die here.
He collapsed against the door, sobbing quietly to himself. Those men had been here before. He was too young at the time to understand, but they had come just after papa passed away.
Naruto wiped his tears from his eyes, shaking and hiccupping in the darkness.
He forced himself to be quiet when he heard people walking around outside. He pressed his ear against the door, ready to bolt up into the attic at a moment's notice.
He heard voices, different from before. There was a woman's voice, she sounded panicked, that would be Mrs. Livingston, the elderly neighbor lady. The other was a man's, cool and calm, and unfamiliar.
He heard footsteps approaching and for a moment, Naruto considered fleeing. But the door opened to a tall man in a pinstripe suit and a fedora hat. He looked down at Naruto with mismatched eyes.
"Naruto Uzumaki, Huh?"
Naruto began to tremble, but he nodded nonetheless. The man crouched down in front of him, showing him a badge in his wallet.
"I'm Kakashi Hatake, Private Investigator, you can just call me Kakashi. How old are you, kiddo?" Naruto stared at him. No one had called him kiddo since he was nine.
"T-twelve, sir."
Kakashi smiled, his tired looking eyes arching upwards. Naruto stared at him.
"Where is my mother?" Naruto asked, looking past Kakashi into the living room. He saw a figure draped in a white sheet being carried out on a stretcher, his mother's pale hand draped delicately over the side. He saw the pool of blood on the floor.
"Mother!" Naruto screamed, rushing towards her lifeless body as the investigators carried her out. Kakashi caught him in midair, his strength was surprising. He pulled Naruto close to his chest.
"Calm down, kiddo, it's going to be okay." Naruto stopped fighting against the man's chest. He smelled nice, and he was warm, and well muscled. Naruto listened to the steady, comforting beat of Kakashi's heart through his shirt and let a few tears streak down his face.
"It's okay, kiddo." Kakashi said evenly. Naruto fisted his hands in Kakashi's shirt, beginning to sob uncontrollably. Kakashi stroked his hair and whispered words of encouragement into the young boy's ear. Kakashi pulled away after Naruto had calmed slightly, standing up.
"Come on. It's time to go." He put his hand firmly on Naruto's shoulder and led him out of the house. He attempted to divert Naruto's attention from the sight of the crime scene, but morbid curiosity gripped his eyes. He tried not to puke right there as the coppery smell of blood hit his nose. Kakashi's grip on Naruto's shoulder tightened as he steered the boy out of the house.
There was a fancy looking car waiting outside along with the police cars. An officer in a blue uniform approached them.
"Hatake, we're not done with the boy."
Kakashi frowned.
"Hayate, don't you think the kid's been through enough today?"
The officer coughed into a handkerchief.
"That's just it, Hatake. We need to haul him in for questioning. He's a witness." Officer Hayate coughed again, covering his mouth. He stopped after a long time and looked at them with tired eye's. To Naruto, he looked a bit like a puppy with his hair pressed flat against his face by his hat. Naruto simply stared at him.
"Tomorrow." Kakashi said, steering Naruto away yet again. Hayate opened his mouth to protest but nothing but more coughing escaped.
Kakashi sat Naruto in the passenger seat and left to address the police. Naruto felt hollow inside. What was going to happen to him now?
Where was he going to live?
How was he going to survive the streets of Butte, Montana, with the winter coming and all. It was going to be a cold one, or so mother had said...there was always the orphanage...but they sent you into the mines the moment you turned thirteen...
"Mother..." Naruto whispered as one of the police wagons rolled away. Kakashi returned to the automobile, looking as cool and collected as ever.
"Hey, kiddo." He climbed in and started up the vehicle. Naruto remained quiet as the automobile pulled away from the house and rattled up the steep streets. He let out a heavy sigh, grabbing the knees of his pants. Kakashi hummed a nameless tune as he navigated through the winding streets of the mining town.
"Mr. Kakashi?"
"Hmm?"
"What happened to my mother?"
Kakashi was silent for a long time as they wound their way up the streets of the mining capitol.
"Well, Naruto...She was killed." He said quietly. Naruto stared at him.
He wanted to grab the steering weal away from the man and scream that he wasn't a little boy anymore. But that wasn't polite.
"What I am trying to ask, sir, is who killed her."
Kakashi was quiet yet again.
"Well, kiddo, that's why I'm here. I've been hired by someone very important to find out why. And you're going to help me."
"How am I going to do that?"
"You're going to tell me everything that you saw."
Naruto stared out the window.
"Do you agree to this?"
Naruto stared at his shoes. "Yes, sir."
"Good." Kakashi said with a good natured, catlike grin. The car was silent yet again.
"Um, Mr. Kakashi? Where are we going?" He said, looking around at the tall apartment buildings that dominated Copper Street.
"Well, kiddo, I'll be taking care of you until we figure out just where you go. Orders from the man who hired me."
Naruto let out an audible sigh of relief. Kakashi chuckled and pulled up in front of a Jazz club. Naruto stared at the blinking lights as Kakashi got out of the car. He leaned down.
"Hey, kiddo, you coming?" He said with a chuckle.
Naruto pried the car door open and followed Kakashi to the side of the building. A Chinese laundry sat behind the building and as Naruto climbed the stairs to Kakashi's apartment, a pair of fathomless black eyes peered at him through the slats. Naruto stared back before Kakashi tugged on the sleeve of his jacket, pulling him up the stairs.
Naruto sat in the living room of Kakashi's apartment in one of the squishy chairs. His cerulean blue eyes took in every detail of the room, from the romance novels that sat on the table beneath the lamp to the pictures adorning the walls. Kakashi peered at him from over the top of a desk in the corner, a green bank lamp lighting him eerily.
"Okay, Naruto, tell me once again. The men in the long coats, did you see any insignia on them?"
"Any what? Where?"
Kakashi put his hand down patiently. "Insignia, emblems, badges, that sort of thing. What were they wearing, what did they look like, smell like, anything you can remember."
Naruto sat there in silence, the ticking of the mantle clock driving him crazy. He thought back, God, it was so hard to remember...He could hear the sound of music coming from downstairs, people's laughter. How could they be laughing?
He sighed, taking a deep breath. "All I know is they wore long black coats and covered their faces with scarves." Naruto heard the scratching of pen on paper.
"Anything else, kiddo?"
Naruto fought against his memory, searching for details.
"They called a guy 'boss'."
"They? Who's 'they'? Were there more than one?" Kakashi said patiently. Naruto stared at him like he was stupid. Of course there were more than one.
"Yes, sir. I know of at least two."
"And what can you tell me about them?"
Naruto played with the seams in his pants.
"One had long blond hair, like a woman's. And he had a softer voice than the other."
Kakashi's eyes lit up.
"Now we're getting somewhere, kiddo. What about the other one?"
"I...I really don't know. I couldn't see him."
"And are you sure the blond man was not a woman?"
Naruto nodded. "yes, positive, sir." Kakashi looked elated. He finished writing the information down and ripped it from the notepad.
"Naruto, you stay here and don't open the door to anyone. I'm going to run down the street and make a phone call. In fact, if anyone comes by, pretend you're not here."
Naruto nodded and watched as Kakashi pulled on his coat. "and don't stand in front of the window..." And with that, Kakashi left.
Naruto sat there in silence, the ticking of the clock defining in his ears. He looked around for something to do. The romance novels sat on the table. Naruto made a face. What kind of man would read a romance novel?
He got up an looked around. He opened a cupboard and found it was a radio. He hated to admit it, but this was the first time he had even touched one. He remembered his mothers old phonograph, but it was nothing like this. He twisted one of the knobs and the speakers popped. Naruto leapt into the air his, skin crawling as he dove behind the sofa. To his relief, the only thing that followed was the soft buzz of static. He sighed, letting his muscles relax and came around the side of the couch, sitting down and staring at it, the low hum of static somehow calming his nerves.
He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. Today had been the worst day of his life. Worse than when the men form the mine came and told his mother that his father had been killed in a mining accident. Back then he was only a half-orphan...and now...
He could feel his chest begin to heave as his heart pounded in his chest. He fought back the tears but they started to fall freely down his face.
"Crying is for girls and babies!" He sobbed to himself, but he just couldn't hold it back anymore. His father was gone, his mother was gone...he was really alone now...
He let out a hitched breath and wiped his eyes, looking up. The same pair of fathomless black eyes were staring at him through the sheer curtains on the window. He stopped crying almost immediately and glared back. A boy's moon pale face became visible as he pulled a contorted face. Naruto stared blankly at him. The boy had to be no less than a year older than himself, yet he was pulling faces like a child. Naruto glared and stuck his tongue out. It was then he saw a hand grab the back of the boy's shirt and take him away. Through the door, he could hear a heavily accented woman's voice.
"Leave Mr. Hatake alone, Sai!"
"But Mrs. Chin, It's not Mr. Hatake, it's a boy!"
Naruto hid behind the couch as the woman peered inside. Naruto caught a glimpse of a small, angry looking Chinese woman through the curtains.
"Downstairs, now."
"Yes, ma'am."
The woman didn't leave, but rather, Kakashi came back. Immediately, Mrs. Chin began to ask him questions.
"What's this about a boy in your apartment, Hatake?" She said, her high voice piercing the walls. Kakashi sighed.
"He's a friend of mine's kid, he's staying with me until his parents come back from business in Chicago." Kakashi lied without batting an eyelash. Naruto scowled at him through the curtains, fully aware that Kakashi couldn't see him.
There was no reason to lie, was there?
Kakashi managed to shake the obnoxious woman and key in to the apartment.
"Naruto, get out from behind the couch."
How did he know? Naruto stood up.
"Sit down, kiddo, here's the story..."
