The Detective and the Gangster

Episode 1: Mission Briefing

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO

THUMP!

SMACK! SMACK!

He watched it all dispassionately; his teal eyes calculating the scene before him like a butcher weighing the amount of meat he could get out of a dying cow. It was sad really, how the man before him was going to die. He had been so promising, so creative, but he had crossed one too many lines...

"G-g..." The dying man sputtered, only to be hit violently again. Silk red blood spilt from the man's mouth briefly before he was yanked back into a semi-erect position.

With a nod, the orchestrator of the entire event signaled the men holding the dying man up. The guards grunted and tossed the beaten form into a large metal cage. The cage swayed violently back and forth as it was sealed, and then locked by one of the two burly guards.

"G-g..." The dying man tried to say, only to fall silent as the piercing teal eyes met his. The cold, calculating eyes stopped all defiance, executed all resistance. There would be no arguing with this man; the dying man whimpered softly.

"Light him," came the soft, velvety tone from the orchestrator. Again, one of the guards grunted before preforming the assigned task. With an almost fluid motion the guard drew a silver lighter from his jacket and flipped it open. The man started to make a final protest, however it was already too late; the flame from the recently ignited lighter sparked with the fuel coating the entire metal cage.

Gaara No Sabaku watched with no apparent interest as his closest associate, perhaps his only true friend, burned alive above Suna's moonlit streets.

It was a brisk Autumn morning when a sleek black truck pulled into the parking lot of a nondescript stone building. Said building had only one door and not a single window; the only thing that made the building stand out from the other dozen or so stone buildings was a sign that read "TOILET".

The owner of the truck quietly slipped out of the vehicle and slid his hands into the well-worn pockets of a faded pair of jeans. Walking up to the building with a casual air, he replayed the conversation in his mind that had happened after Naruto had placed that particular sign over the doorway. Apparently the Hokage wasn't a huge fan of jokes...

Taking the cigarette out of his mouth and dropping it onto the ground, the man placed one of his sneaker on top of the nicotine filled tube and ground it into the concrete before opening the door to the stone building. The inside was just as spartan as the outside; there was a simple wooden counter, a doorway at the end of a blank hallway that was opposite of the entrance, and a couch across from the counter that was to the right of the hallway. He noticed that there was a man with silver hair sitting on the couch reading a book and a young kid, a Genin, standing behind the counter looking at a magazine.

"She's expecting you," the Genin said without looking up at the man that had just walked into the office, as protocol dictated when speaking to a Jonin. The man grunted lazily as he walked by the kid and headed towards the lone door at the end of the long hallway. Once he reached the end of the hallway, he stopped and knocked respectfully.

"Get in here!" A feminine voice barked from the other side of the door. Great, she'd been drinking...

"Agent Nara, reporting as ordered," Shikamaru said calmly as he entered the inner office. The room had the same spartan appeal that was the norm with everything else associated with the building. There was a large, paper laden desk at the back of the inner office, to the left there was a large, marker stained map, and to the right there was a book shelf loaded down with volumes of books. Behind the desk was a large metal safe with an eight digit code and hand dial combination on the front; which was hanging open, revealing more papers with red markings. Tsunade rarely used her office at ANBU headquarters, thus she didn't care to decorate it too much. Plus, in their line of "business", it was better to remain inconspicuous.

"Sit," Tsunade snapped and took a long swig from a bottle wrapped in cheap paper. Shikamaru scowled, but did as he was ordered. The Hokage stared at Shikamaru for a moment before she shrugged and pounded down more sake. "You look awful," Tsunade commented as she belched in his face. "I figured you would be ecstatic that she got married."

"What's the mission?" Shikamaru said calmly, but his eyes were hard. He didn't want to talk about last night. He didn't want to think about them right now. What he wanted to do was go on a mission and kill something. Preferably a lot of somethings.

"Shika..."Tsunade said softly. "You can't it forever."

"Tell me what the mission is, or I'm gone," Shikamaru said coldly, all attempts at being civil were over. He wasn't Naruto or Jiraiya; he couldn't just snap at her at will, but right now he really didn't care if she was the single most powerful being in the entire city. He did not want to talk them right now.

Tsunade's face softened and she nodded, "alright, but if you want to talk-" she stopped at the first sign of his growl. "Alright!" She complained and rose from her desk, noticeably a bit tipsy.

"The mission is a two part op," Tsunade explained as she walked around him towards the map that hung on her left wall. "The first part, obviously, is going to involve reconnaissance," she said as she pointed at a large city sitting deep in the belly of a massive desert.

"I'm going to Suna?" Shikamaru asked calmly. The Nation of Fire hadn't sent operatives into the capital of the Nation of Sand since the Glass War. That had been a long time ago.

"Yes, sadly." Tsunade said as she turned to face him, "Have you ever heard of Desert Flower?" Tsunade asked as she reached into one of the many pockets hidden inside her long green robes of office.

"Yeah, it's a white flower with a tan stem. Makes a great air freshener," Shikamaru said as he watched his boss pull out a medium sized plastic bag that was packed full of a tannish powder.

"That's what it used to be," Tsunade said as she handed him the plastic bag. "As of a week ago, Intelligence found out it's also a major hallucinogenic and psychoactive drug."

In response, Shikamaru raised an eyebrow while he emptied a small portion of the substance into his hand. He was momentarily surprised at just how soft it felt, it was almost surreal how powdery the substance was. Noticing his look, Tsunade smirked slightly, "I know, I thought the same thing when I examined it," she said as she walked back towards her desk and reached inside the open safe that sat behind it. "Your full briefing is inside this packet, but I'll skim through the basics for you."

Tsunade paused as she collected her thoughts and then began her lecture. "For an unknown amount of time, Suna has been supplying a recently discovered, chemically treated, hallucinogenic and psychoactive drug to an unknown number of people. This drug has been confirmed to be known as Desert Flower and is apparently the strongest hallucinogenic and psychoactive drug on the market.

We, Intelligence, have discovered and confirmed the sale of Desert Flower in three separate nations—the names are in your packet—beside the Nation of Fire. We do not know yet if this is a government backed operation or if this is strictly an underground operation by whatever is left of the Suna drug lords.

We do know that one of the current salesmen in Konoha is Gan Manaika, so you can start there if you want," Tsunade paused briefly to let everything she had just said sink in. "Again, this is a reconnaissance mission," she said with a pointed look at Agent Nara. "After we have located the culprits behind this whole thing and have substantial evidence against them, and only after," again, a pointed look at an innocent looking Shikamaru, "will we move on the the target in force." She eyed him once more, Shikamaru hoped privately it would be for the last time. "Please remember that I want you back in one piece, do not engage anyone unless you are absolutely sure you have the advantage. And even then, be careful."

"Yes mother," Shikamaru said calmly as he rose and took the offered folder from the Hokage's hands. "I'll check out Manaika, then I'll report back, don't worry," he said, smirking, before heading towards the door. "Try not to kill Naruto, he's waiting outside expecting to sneak in here as Kakashi," Shikamaru told her and watched a devious grin cover her face.

"Tell him to come in then, thanks," Tsunade told him before heading over to her desk and sitting down.

"Will do," Shikamaru told her and wiped a matching grin off his face as he opened the door and returned to the office/lobby. "Hey Kakashi," Shikamaru said to the silver haired agent. "She said to let you on in," he explained and watched the older agent close his pornographic book, grunt, then get up and head towards the door at the end of the hallway. Shikamaru, knowing better than to hang around the Hokage's office, headed towards the entrance. He hadn't even turned the doorknob fully before a loud splash could be heard followed by swearing.

"BAA-SAN! IT TOOK HOURS TO GET THIS OUTFIT RIGHT!" Naruto cried pitifully as he stood dripping wet in the doorway of Hokage Tsunade's inner-office. The silver wig was now a wet mop of hair, which suggested Naruto had probably glued it to something to keep it from falling off. The tan skin paint was melting off of the youth in waves and the faded, worn out jacket that Kakashi always wore was now completely ruined. This produced an even louder shriek. "THIS WAS HIS ACTUAL JACKET BAA-SAN! HE'S GOING TO MURDER ME!" Naruto cried, sounding very much like a little girl as he stared in justified horror at the ruined jacket. Shikamaru was smirking as he left the outer-office at long last and was almost to his car when he heard an even louder shriek. "DON'T YOU DARE SEND HIM THAT VIDEO!"

Giving up, Shikamaru collapsed onto the ground and broke out laughing.

It was several days later when Shikamaru found Gan Manaika eating at a ramen stand. The man was in his mid thirties, however his hair was already mostly gray, which led Shikamaru to guess he was under a lot of stress. The drug business would do that to you. Gan was wearing a simple sweatshirt and jeans and was casually slurping up the remainder of his meal when Shikamaru walked into the stand and paid for two more bowls.

"Can I help you?" Gan asked, his tone slightly unpleasant as he stared at the man that had suddenly decided to eat right next to him when the entire stand was all but empty.

"Yeah, actually, you can," Shikamaru said in his most pleasant voice, which wasn't very pleasant. "My girlfriend and I have been fighting," Shikamaru said as he placed one of the two ramen bowls that had just arrived before the drug dealer. "And I really need to just forget about it for awhile," he said and slid an additional wad of cash across the counter towards the man. "I was told you could help me out," he added.

"That so?" Gan asked as he stared suspiciously at the bills and the food. "Who told you?" he asked, not having moved a single muscle towards the offered money.

"You think I'm going to mention names here?" Shikamaru said incredulously as he glanced quickly at the cook that was behind the counter preparing meals and the couple eating at a table less than ten feet away.

Gan grumbled but nodded in agreement, "fine, let's go see what I can do," he said before taking the money and paying his bill. He did not touch the offered second bowl. Shikamaru, leaving his own food also untouched, followed Gan out of the stand and onto the streets of Konoha. The two men walked quietly until Gan suddenly turned off the street and into an empty alleyway that ran between two apartment complexes.

"Alright, how much do y-" Gan started to say as he turned to face Shikamaru, only to receive a fist straight to the face. Staggering backwards, Gan barely had enough time to react before a well placed knee strike took his breathing from him and sent him flying into a nearby wall.

"Y-you..." Gan struggled to say as he attempted to stand up, however Shikamaru delivered another brilliant punch and knocked Gan back into the wall. Any further movements by the drug dealer were halted at the sound of Shikamaru drawing his sidearm and cocking the action.

"You have exactly ten seconds to tell me as much about Desert Flower as you can, or I kill you where you are," Shikamaru said coldly as he aimed the pistol directly at Gan's forehead; Gan swore at him. "Your choice," Shikamaru said an lowered thd calmlye pistol and fired off one round into each of Gan's legs. Clutching at the bullet holes in both legs, Gan, instead of swearing, spat—and missed—at Shikamaru. Two more bullets, this time one in each arm.

"Alright!" Gan screamed, both out of pain and out of rage, "but don't think this makes any difference, He'll get you in the end. Just like He get's everybody!"

"Talk," Shikamaru said and shouldered his firearm, he knew when he had broken someone and when he hadn't. "I'll give you medical treatment when you're done."

"Oh that's rich!" Gan cried, "heal me up so He can kill me himself, that's genius!"

"Talk," Shikamaru said coldly.

"Okay! Okay..." Gan said, still fighting the pain, "All I know is that the shipment comes in Tuesday nights, I take the stuff and hand over the profits. The guy that brings the drugs takes the cash and goes somewhere, I don't know where! Honest!" Gan informed him as he tried to stop the bleeding, however it was rather difficult considering that all of his limbs were numb from the bullet wounds in each.

"Is there anyone else in the city selling this stuff?" Shikamaru asked as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a small metal cell phone.

"No, just me...they didn't want to risk a big operation getting smoked," Gan said, still in pain, as Shikamaru hit him with a perfectly aimed kick. The criminal collapsed, out cold before he had even hit the ground.

"Get me Ibiki Morino please."

Lots of bits of Naruto facts in here, hope someone can identify them all. I am very curious if anyone knows who Ibiki Morino is and what the meaning behind the Glass War was. Also, for those of you that didn't know, my VERY FIRST fic EVER published on FANFICTION was a Naruto story, so this is something I am really excited to bring back into my writing life. Naruto is one of the best fanfiction areas to write in. So many possibilities and so many characters.

Any who, this is going to be mainly ShikaxTem, which was also the FIRST PAIRING I ever wrote on fanfiction. I'm tearing up if you can't tell. I MIGHT add in a Gaara romance somewhere, just because Gaara is my favorite character of all time. Feel free to request others, fight over them, whatever you want.

Please let me know what you think in a review and PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my Blog and Facebook accounts. I'm trying to branch out—midlife crisis I guess—and I would really like it if my (recently revived) Naruto fanbase would help out in the subscribe/like count.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, Episodes come out every Monday! (might change to Tuesdays or bi-weekly based on work schedule and reviewer/subscription rate)

Lostsword