AN: thought I'd might as well start this since Dichotomy is coming to a close soon. I doubt I'll be updating it very often since it took me a good month to figure out this much.
PS –I'm looking for a beta, primarily to straighten out Dichotomy and Blindly. I'll be focusing on continuity/description rather than grammar, and I must warn that I'm extremely stubborn.
Warning: From the very beginning of this fic, death/murder/etc. will be a major theme, considering that its premise is a murder mystery. If things related to death/suicide/murder/etc. are a trigger, I would advise you to hit the back button. Like, now.
xxx
Sasuke Uchiha had been shifted from aunt to uncle, cousin to cousin, only for each of them to be slashed across the throat in the bathroom after four months. When he found his parents, the only thing he could do was cry, throw up and cry. He was seven when it first happened.
He remembered that earlier that day they had been talking about cousin Shisui at the table. Itachi had left the room extremely upset. Sasuke had seen the quiver of his brother's lip. Shisui had been drowned in a river, apparently a suicide.
That night, Sasuke had gone to the bathroom to pee, only to find his parents—throats slit, hearts cut out—in the half-filled tub. He had stumbled around the house, blind with tears. The phone was in his hands all of a sudden, his little fingers dialing the emergency number.
According to the EMTs, Itachi had been nowhere in the house, but was finally found a few blocks away, unconscious, and in shock. Both brothers were taken to the hospital to spend the night. Then the police, in vain, tried to keep them together as they were carted from house to house in search of any of the extensive number of family members scattered through Konoha were willing to take the two in.
Suddenly fingers were pointed at Itachi. They claimed that the thirteen year old boy was capable of cold blooded murder, and child services found him and sent him packing. He had only seen Itachi once since then, briefly, in middle school. Barely enough to ask and not get an answer.
So now, on the eve of his first day of spring break, he was packing his clothes—as many as would fit—into his sports bag. His eyes burned with unshed tears. With a start, he remembered that he would need to pack his allergy medicine; he was horribly allergic to dust and pollen, to the point where he could barely breathe.
But he wouldn't be able to get anywhere without money. He quickly checked his pockets—only a few coins, barely enough to pay for a bus fare. With some hesitation, Sasuke finally decided to take some of his cousin Hiromaru's money from the emergency safe. A hundred? A hundred-fifty? What would get him the furthest...?
When he heard the front door unlock as Hiromaru came home from work, he grabbed the whole pile, slammed the safe's door shut, and bolted back to his bedroom. His heart was racing as he stared at the enormous sum of money in his hands. Hundred-dollar-bills.
With a quick count, he surmised that he had just robbed his cousin of approximately two thousand ryo.
xxx
The following morning, he got out of bed, went through his morning routine, and sat down to eat breakfast. Hiromaru—a pale man with short brown hair and glasses, a high-ranking businessman—was reading the newspaper. One of the front-page headlines was about how some rich girl was missing...one of the clandestine Hyuga, he noticed on further examination.
He was somewhat acquainted with Hinata—one of Naruto's ex girlfriends—and more familiar with Neji, her cousin and the arrogant head of the martial arts club, a club Sasuke had been in briefly. He preferred soccer, and was even the soccer team captain.
Unconsciously, he leaned forward to read the article better, and ended up spilling his bowl of cereal.
"Damn it!"
"You need to be more careful," Hiromaru murmured absently. "You know where the cleaning supplies are."
"Yeah, whatever. Can I have that when you're done?" he asked, pointing at the newspaper.
"Huh. Wow, Sasuke. I never thought you were the type to read the news."
"An article on the front page seems interesting. ... So? Can I have it?"
"Sure, yeah, just clean up your mess." Hiromaru waved a hand in the direction of the closet.
Sasuke grabbed the cleaning spray and some paper towels and set to work, quickly getting the milk and soggy cereal sopped up. "Now can I have it?"
"Okay, okay. Gotta go to work anyway...Say, I saw you had your duffel bag packed. Going with Naruto somewhere?"
"Uh, yeah, he wanted to take me on a road trip to the middle of nowhere...like always. I decided to take him up on it this time." He shrugged, hoping that Hiromaru hadn't decided to take a closer look.
"Alright. Leaving today?"
"Uh, yeah. Maybe you could drop me off at his house on the way to work?"
"Alright. It's good for you to go out with friends, you know."
After a few minutes of shuffling around in his room to grab his soccer cleats—they could come in handy—and a pocket knife, Sasuke went to meet Hiromaru at the car.
Surprisingly, Hiromaru had volunteered to take Sasuke in, and now he had stayed there for two months. Surely the social workers were running out of nearby relatives by now. He thought maybe the four months thing was a reference to the old superstition of "four equals death". That wouldn't get him anywhere, since it didn't get the investigative teams anywhere. Maybe if he went near to Oto...There were a bunch of freaks there. They probably could tell him something.
He got in the passenger seat and slammed the door shut, not caring if Hiromaru reprimanded him. The ride to Naruto's was mostly silent. When they did arrive, Sasuke hopped out with a wave good-bye and prayed Naruto was home.
Naruto's dad—well, adopted dad—answered the door. "Oh, I expect you're here to see Naruto, eh?" He paused, half-turned. "Naruto! Sasuke's here!" He nodded at Sasuke before retreating into the house.
Naruto half-ran to the threshold, pulling up his shorts. "Hi there! Damn, you're here early."
Sasuke pulled out his cell phone to check the time. "It's eight o'clock."
"Yeah, early!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I need a ride."
"Oh. Huh. I thought you had your license."
"I don't have a car."
"Oh, gotcha! Where did you wanna go?" Naruto scratched at his messy blond hair.
"The bus stop. It's too far to walk."
The blond frowned in suspicion. "I need to cover for you again, don't I? Are we gonna go on that road trip?"
"Yeah. Whatever." Sasuke tapped his foot in frustration. "Can you take me there or not?"
"On one condition."
"I don't have time for this."
"Keep me updated on what you've been doing. Your phone doesn't have internet access...maybe I could help you."
Sasuke was filled with relief; he had expected Naruto to ask to come with him. Something occurred to him just then. "Okay. Did you read the newspaper?"
"No? I never do. It's really boring. Why?"
"Hinata's disappeared. It was on the front page."
Naruto's jaw dropped. "You can't be fucking serious!"
"Read it yourself," he muttered, and thrust the front page into Naruto's face. The other boy sputtered and tossed it to the ground, where Sasuke picked it back up.
"No. I believe you." Naruto picked at a stray thread on his orange and blue jacket. A nervous habit of his. "Was she kidnapped?"
"You going to give me a ride or not?" He did not have time to talk about Hinata. There were only two months left to find
"Fine, fine, jeez. You're worse than Sakura."
x
Naruto's little red car pulled up to the bus stop. Sasuke got out and bade him good-bye.
"Hey, I expect you to keep me up to date, okay? If not, I'll come after you and drag you back here." Naruto smirked. "You don't want that to happen."
"Um. Okay. Whatever."
"I guess I'll go on that road trip with Sakura alone then." He winked up at Sasuke, then drove off.
After a few minutes, Sasuke sent a text to Kakashi Hatake, his soccer coach, mentioning that he'd be away for most of spring break on a trip with Naruto and Sakura. He went to the nearest bench and dropped the duffel bag on the cement before sitting. The bus schedule was posted nearby; it would be 9:00 before the next bus arrived.
He got a text back a few minutes later, wishing him a safe trip and to bring him a souvenir.
Sasuke made a non-committal utterance and scrolled through his contact list, deciding what to do with the half hour he still had left to wait. Naruto would take a good twenty minutes before he got back home, so it would be useless to ask him to look up-
The bus had come early.