AN: The 1 month Extravaganza continues with this new story which has been bugging me to give it a chance on the big stage so here you go.
I hope you like it
Disclaimer:
This is a DeanBeans NarutoxSasuke production of massive proportions. The characters and the original stories I unfortunately do not own but I'm working on that (along with every other fanfic writer but whatevs I like the competition).
If you don't like then…*drops head* I'm sorry. Review and tell me why. No flames please. If you have enough time to flame then you have enough time to get a life that's productive.
Onwards on a new adventure!
"Sasuke! We got a problem."
Sasuke looked up from his desk to see Shikamaru Nara standing in the doorway with a pensive face. Sasuke was instantly alert. Usually, his lazy bum of a team member would be sleeping by now let alone be standing at his office door. If the king of cloud watching was in Sasuke's office looking frazzled, then something must be wrong.
"What happened?"
Shikamaru frowned. He really didn't want to tell Sasuke this, but Sasuke was the boss of this investigation and to not tell him would cause even more problems too troublesome to deal with.
"Kiba just called in. The scene he was working on was confirmed to be a part of Akatsuki case. There's another victim."
Shikamaru barely had any time to get out of the way before Sasuke was up grabbing his leather jacket and power walking out of his office, demanding directions and for Shikamaru to come with.
Three years. Three freaking long ass years, Sasuke has been working this case (officially, not including 6 years of previous intel he gathered by hacking FBI, Interpol, SIS, NATO, JSDF among others)* trying to find a hint of Akatsuki's plans and more information on his elusive brother who joined the criminal group a couple of years ago.
Before he rushed out of the building with Shikamaru on his heels, he prayed a quick prayer to whatever or whoever may be listening. Hopefully this will be the day Akatsuki finally slips up and leaves a clue to finally catch the motherfuckers.
SNLOVE NSLOVE SNLOVE NSLOVE SNLOVE NSLOVE SNLOVE
Shikamaru and Sasuke parked as close as they could to the front of an aging red-bricked six story high apartment building surrounded by cops, CSI's*, ambulances and yellow tape closing off nearly the whole block.
A sinking feeling started to build in the young Uchiha's gut. What the hell happened in there?
Just from the chaos occurring outside and the increasing crowd of reporters, Sasuke knew he had to be on his toes. At least five ambulances were parked outside and at least twenty officers were coming and going from inside the apartment. The windows of the squad cars and the windows of the apartment building reflected the flashing red and blue lights from each police vehicle and ambulance until the colors blended into a purple hue surrounding the area. It was dizzying in its intensity.
Agents in all white suits continuously moved back and forth between the building and the ambulances carrying a never-ending stream of black body bags as they went.
Sasuke took a look around and sighed. Hopefully he will be able to get in soon. He didn't fancy being stuck out in the crowd of bystanders very long. The quicker he and Shikamaru got in to meet Kiba the faster they could leave. He wouldn't be surprised if the crime scene hadn't left indication of Akatsuki involvement apart from the signatures done to the victim's body. It wouldn't be the first time they had to go back to the drawing board to await the next victim in the line of murders.
Steeling his nerves, he looked over to Shikamaru and proceeded to the nearest officer for entrance. Just as the two CIA agents made it through the tape one of their teammates, Kiba, approached them.
"Hey Boss. See you made it over."
Kiba was one of the men assigned to his team specifically for this case. Sasuke had actually recruited the loud, boisterous, pain in the ass from FBI. His knack for finding evidence at crimes scenes and tracking down a potential suspect or witness was second to none.
Hell his nose was nearly on par with a bloodhound. The Uchiha was sure the brunette was at least part dog. If it weren't' for the mutt's big contribution Sasuke would have fired his hyperactive ass, puppy-dog eyes and all. The tracker's personality was definitely not for everyone but he could be serious when needed and it looked like this was one of those moments.
"Hn. What do you have?"
"Well, as you probably already heard we think its Akatsuki. No sorry, we know it's Akastuki. Neji is in the main crime scene seeing if he could find extra leads."
Sasuke heard the phrase 'extra leads' and felt his heart pound in hope. Did that mean that they already had a lead? The mere idea left him impatient to get to the area of the body.
"I'll take you there now. Um you might want to watch your step and roll up your pants legs if you're attached to them…"
Both Sasuke and Shikamaru looked at each other then looked down to Kiba's pants. The legs were rolled up and stuffed in white socks splattered with blood. Kiba followed his colleagues' line of sight and grimaced.
"…Yeah. It's that bloody inside."
Sasuke was going to be sick.
The scene could only be categorized as grotesque. The blood covered the ground like water would from a leaking pipe left without fixing for hours. Barely was there a clean place of marble or carpet for the Forensics, let alone the Detectives, to stand on.
The lobby was filled with victims.
In the sitting area to the left, there were at least five whole torsos in the mist of a countless amount of limbs and heads littered across the floor like second hand garbage.
The bodies were cut with a clean slice, probably from a sharp sword or a heavy-duty sharp wire. The wire just so happened to be one of Akatsuki member's weapon of choice.
To the right at the concierge desk, two bodies lay behind the desk while five bodies lay in front, probably a family. These people didn't have the mercy of being instantly cut into pieces. Each of the bodies lying on the floor looked like they had gone through a shredder.
Their skin lay in pieces on the floor around them some of it still clinging stubbornly to the muscle. Pieces of bone could be seen through the flaying muscles of the slowly decaying bodies. All stab wounds were rough around the edges; it undoubtedly caused an unmentionable amount of pain.
The smell of death, flesh and blood permeated the air until it felt like a heavy fog, watering Sasuke and Shikamaru's eyes. This was not something the Uchiha thought he would see when he was called for an Akatsuki case. Looked like they were upping the stakes now. Either that or taunting the law enforcement. Sasuke grit his teeth. They would catch them.
Forensics continued to work through the bodies, picking up pieces and bagging them when need be. It was sickening to think this wasn't even the full amount of bodies. The CIA agents passed by the elevator; it looked the same as the lobby. The blood was smeared along the walls creating an illusion a red box*. It looked like a mini explosion occurred within leaving more pieces of bodies strewn along the elevator walls.
"Shit!"
The Nara took one last look around the elevator. And for once, he didn't look bored or lazy while talking.
"This is disgusting."
Sasuke's sentiment's exactly.
He gave Kiba a look saying "Are you sure this is Akatsuki and not just some serial murderer." Kiba merely nodded and showed them the way to the stairs. They would have get answers when they arrived at their destination.
The stairs were an all too welcomed break from the horror scene until they arrived at the second floor. The hallway of the second floor was not nearly as gruesome as the carnage left in the lobby of the apartment building. It looked like there were two different murderers maybe even three at the scene of the crime.
While the bodies in the lobby looked like they were killed for sadistic pleasure Jack the Ripper style, the victims in front of the detectives now were all dealt one fatal stab like professional assassin work typical of Akatsuki. Why they decided to create the carnage downstairs Sasuke was sure now that they were sending a message.
Kiba lead his boss and team member to room 222 only to see a pale-eyed, long, brown-haired man waiting outside the open door for them.
"Hey Nej. Find anything new while I was gone?"
"No. Not really. Sasuke. Shikamaru." The man gave a curt nod to both receiving nods in return.
"Here, I have latex gloves for you, two in case you want to poke around." Neji stated.
Sasuke and Shikamaru highly doubted they wanted to "poke" around the room if it looked anything like downstairs.
Neji Hyuuga was another essential part of his team. The man could see through anything even better than Sasuke could at times. Sasuke was pretty sure it had something to do with the pale lilac color of his eyes and most people, including Sasuke were surprised the Hyuuga wasn't blind when they first met him. He was one of the few people the Uchiha could say was a friend along with Shikamaru (and surprisingly enough Kiba but he would never admit that). His quiet contemplative personality matched the Uchiha's well.
"Alright. Follow me."
They were led into a relatively nice apartment. To the right was a living room like area where the murder victim had a big screen tv sitting within a a state of the art entertainment center. To the left sat a small dining table in front of a kitchen with kitchens knives strewn across the counter top and the tiled floor.
"There are 2 relatively large blood stains that are about five feet from each other in the living room to the right in front of the couch."
"Neji said it's the suspects." Kiba chipped in.
"Because of the Butcher knife? I'm guessing from the blood stains that it was a self defense weapon?"
Leave it to Shika to figure out the scene within 10 seconds of arriving.
"Yeah the murder weapons used on the victim is completely different plus the knife was left here. While the body in the master bedroom still has the murder weapons in it.
Weapons?
"Stupid Shika stealing the thunder. Ouch."
Kiba turned to glare at Neji rubbing the back of his head. The glare was promptly ignored. Not like he doesn't need slaps to the back of his head every once in a while (every hour on the hour is a bare minimum).
Stupid mutt never figures out there is a time and place for jokes. This time and place not being one of them. Neji decided to ignore the extra grumblings coming form his "injured" colleague.
"She obviously put up a hell of a fight. You can tell by the amount of chaos in the apartment. She had to be skillful to be able to handle Akatsuki in order to gravely injure them. We already know that group is basically a compilation of assassins trying for political power. She fits the memo of all the victims or at least the main targets of the Akatsuki. She could fight back viciously and on par with the two assassins, at least for a time."
Sasuke nodded. This was all stuff he knew of course. He was hoping they would get to the point of what proof they had against the Akatsuki. He knew they wouldn't have called him unless there was solid rock hard evidence pointing to the group he has been chasing for years.
Kiba saw his boss getting anxious and decided to head to the main evidence.
"We'll show you the victim now."
"I guess you want me to take some blood samples of the stains to Hinata now while you examine the victim with Neji and Kiba."
Sasuke turned to Shika and nodded. If both he and Hinata, from forensics were working on the blood samples they should be able to get results soon. With that, Nara gathered some samples from the blood on the floor and hurried out the door to visit Hinata.
Sasuke walked into the bedroom and froze. The murder was gruesome as always and there were definite signs of Akatsuki.
The victim was a blonde with dark brown eyes that were open in a grim resemblance to life. She most likely in her mid to late twenties.
She lay in front of her king sized bed on her stomach spread out as if in a sick impersonation of Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man except she lay on her stomach. Six 3ft long black poles stabbed though both hands, both forearms, and both biceps.
One stood disgustingly proud in the middle of her back crushing her spine. Six more stood in both of her thighs, both shins and both of her feet.
The last black pole was probably the fatal blow if the one in her back didn't kill her during all of this. It stabbed through the middle of her neck.
Only one word summed it up.
"Fuck."
"Yeah. This part solidifies the proof that it's Akatsuki."
Sasuke looked to where Neji pointed to on the woman's body and noticed the palm sized circular patch of skin missing just like all the other victims they had discovered over the years. This lady's missing patch was located on the right side of her lower back.
Sasuke frowned if only they could figure out what was the importance of removing the skin from the body. It couldn't have just been a murderer's collector's item. Out of all the murders the Akatsuki accomplished there were only six other cases where a circular piece of skin was taken. Or maybe it was ancollector's item and just one specific assassin was that sick of a fuck to collect the skin of his victims. Unfortunately, that doesn't explain the difference in murder methods of each of those special victims.
The Uchiha was so caught up in his musings he didn't see his two agents look at each other, he didn't see as Kiba pulled out a picture from a catalogue bag nor did he see the barely concealed excitement on the other's face.
"Boss. There is something else that we got from the scene that could very well be our big break to catching these psychopaths."
The raven-haired man looked up to the malicious grin of Kiba and the smug smirk of Neji. He took the piece of paper and noticed that it was a picture. And by the target shape on the back of the picture, he knew that it had previously belonged to the assassins who were here.
It was of a fairly familiar stoic face with blood red hair, sea foam green eyes, pale skin and a distinctive kanji for love on the left side of his forehead.
*CSI: Crime Scene Investigator.
*From Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro about this Demon that eats mysteries but ran out of mysteries to eat in the Demon world so he came to Earth and worked as a detective so he could come into contact with more mysteries. One of his main antagonists is a kid named Sai (this is the name of crazy weird people apparently) who kills people and then somehow or other puts their bodies in a relatively small clear box and all you can see is blood…
Good Anime Neuro(the demon) is freaking hilarious.