*See author's note at the end. I also blame my beta for any and all typos that I very likely missed lmao*
Hana Sarutobi really was trying to be quiet, okay? Seriously. She went out of her goddamn way to be silent as she scrambled out of the stranger's bed, totally naked, to search for her clothes and leave before he woke up and they ended up stuck in the awkward "morning after" conversation.
And she thought she had been doing a fairly decent job, except for the fact that she just couldn't find her stupid panties.
Like seriously. She went out last night in a bright red thong. There should have been no reason as to why she couldn't find it. And it wasn't even like the room was messy, because it wasn't. With the exception of their clothes strewn about from last night, the guy's room was almost spotless. The floor was a light hardwood, the walls a soft cream, hell. Even the bedsheets went with the light color scheme with them being a soft gray.
But nope. Even in the near immaculate room, her underwear was nowhere to be found.
So Hana abandoned that task and thought "fuck it" as she shimmied into her jeans from the night before, hooked her bra on with one hand, and shrugged into her black t-shirt.
"Man, you're loud in the morning."
She froze with her hand buried in her sandy brown hair and risked a look over her shoulder to see her one night stand stirring in the bed directly behind her.
His voice was hoarse and still thick with sleep while his unruly inky black hair stuck up in different directions.
"Sorry," she said right away. "I was hoping to be out of here so we wouldn't have to do this."
He yawned and sat up in the bed, the gray bedsheet pooling dangerously low around his bare hips.
"And what is 'this'?" He asked as a lopsided grin took over his face.
"The awkward morning after conversation," Hana answered, her eyes scanning the sparse room for her shoes and purse.
There was a chuckle from behind her as she leaned down to slip on her Vans before he spoke up again.
"You have experience with that?" His voice was still rough from sleep, but there was a lightness in his teasing tone that made her stomach flip.
Hana turned around to give him a half-hearted glare, but when her hazel eyes found his dark ones, her 'glare' only seemed to weaken.
There was just this mischievous little glint in his dark eyes that made her see flashes of the night before, and she remembered being totally charmed by his innocent little schoolboy act in an instant. She remembered being so charmed that she hadn't even thought twice about going home with him.
"Watch yourself," she said with a soft chuckle under her breath.
"I'd rather watch you get back into bed," he said right back.
Hana rolled her eyes but could feel the corner of her lips betray her and quirk upward without her permission.
"You practice that line in the mirror?" She shot back after she grabbed her purse from the floor and slung it over her shoulder.
His grin only widened and that twinkle in his eyes intensified.
"Why? Is it working?"
This time she couldn't help but scoff and she took a step closer to the door of his bedroom.
"No," she said. "Some of us can't lounge around in bed all day. Some of us have to go to work."
Whether they actually did or not, her words seemed to pique his interest, as he was cocking his head to the side and watching her carefully.
"Yeah? What do you do for work?"
Hana clicked her tongue and immediately shook her head as she said, "no way. It's a well-known rule that one night stands don't share that kind of information."
A soft breath that sounded like a cross between a sigh and a laugh escaped his mouth, and he held his hands up in defense.
"All right, all right," he straightened his back until it let out a satisfying crack. "I'll walk you out."
"Uh no," Hana said right away. She took another step closer to the bedroom door and shook her head. "I'm a big girl. I can walk myself out. Just tell me where to go."
"I never said you weren't." He raised one eyebrow above the other and smirked. "But fair enough. Go down the hall and make a left. The front door is right in the living room."
Hana nodded and gave him a once over one last time.
"Thanks for the sex," she said with a cheeky grin before all but running out of the room and slamming the door shut.
Shisui groaned in relief as he ducked his head under the stream of scalding hot water from his shower head. The water worked out the kinks in his back from the night before, and he flexed his arms and shoulders to work out any other knots that might have found their way into his muscles.
He could have spent the whole damn day under that stream of water.
But then there was the distinctive sound of Itachi banging on the bathroom door to rush him that made his thoughts come to an abrupt halt.
"Shisui, hurry up or else we're going to be late," Itachi said from the other side of the bathroom door.
Shisui let out a deep sigh and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Yeah!" He called out.
He stood there for a few more moments, soaking up the last of the burning water, and then turned it off and towel dried his hair and body.
When he stepped out of the shower, he loosely wrapped a towel around his hips and ran a hand through his damp hair, already feeling the curls beginning to form.
He was quick to get dressed, donning a pair of beige slacks with a belt, and a close fitted black polo. He then walked over to the other side of his bed, the side furthest from the door, and opened the drawer of the nightstand to grab his late father's watch.
As he slipped it on and fiddled with the clasp, his eyes caught sight of something on the floor, almost under the bed that was red and lacy?
Once he closed the clasp of his watch and the familiar weight of it settled around his wrist, he leaned down to pluck the thing off the floor.
The second he saw what it was, he let out a snicker, way too satisfied with himself.
His one night stand had left her panties at his place, which meant she had left that morning going commando.
That was kind of hot.
Shaking his head and dropping the girl's panties back on the floor to deal with later, he smoothed out his shirt and headed out of his room. His hair was still damp when he entered the living room, and Itachi was sitting on the dark sofa watching the news on a small TV.
"I trust you had a good evening," Itachi drawled, standing up with catlike grace before he clicked the TV off. He walked over to the coatrack that was hung on the wall and slipped into his blue nylon jacket with FBI printed in big yellow letters on the back.
Shisui gave him a cheesy grin and grabbed his own jacket and followed Itachi out of their apartment.
"I did," he said.
"That's the third one in less than two weeks," Itachi started. "When I said you needed to get over Yumi, I didn't mean you should go out and sleep with anyone with a pulse."
Shisui scoffed as they headed outside to catch the subway.
"I am over her," he said. "I'm just having a little fun. Lighten up, would you?"
Itachi hummed and said, "it's been four months and you've probably slept with more people in that time than most of the frat guys at Sasuke's school."
They shouldered their way through crowds of people on the busy street and descended the stairs that led to the subway, going through the familiar motions of swiping their passes and waiting on the platform with hundreds of others hurrying to get to work.
"I think that's a bit of an exaggeration," Shisui said.
"I don't," Itachi said right back.
"I'm just having a little fun," Shisui said. "And I'm always safe, so why does it matter?"
"It doesn't," Itachi said. "I'm just making an observation."
The train pulled up and he and Itachi stepped onto it, choosing a place to stand somewhat near the doors as there was no place to sit.
"Come on," Shisui said, nudging Itachi's elbow with his own. "You really think I should cool it?"
Itachi gave him a bored look. "A little."
Shisui nodded. "All right fine. I'll ease off."
"Good," Itachi said. "Besides, with this case, it sounds like neither of us will have any time to go out at all."
Shisui smirked. "I'll find time."
Itachi rolled his eyes but didn't say anything back.
It was quiet for a little bit longer, and unable to contain himself, Shisui grinned from ear to ear.
"That girl from last night left without her panties."
Itachi only huffed in annoyance and shook his head without saying a single word.
"Cutting it a little close there, aren't you, Sarutobi?"
Hana shot Genma a glare as she settled in the chair beside him before the meeting started.
They worked together at Byakugan Times and for whatever reason, the newspaper's owner, Mr. Hiashi Hyuga, called a last minute meeting with all of the paper's writers. He didn't say what the meeting would be about in the email and didn't even say how long it would be. All the email said was that every writer was expected to be there, no exceptions.
"I woke up late," Hana said. She took a survey of everything as the last few people scurried through the frosted glass door and settled around the mahogany table that served as the conference room's centerpiece.
The room was on the minimalistic side, as most things at Byakugan Times were. With the exception of the mahogany table (that probably cost more than what Hana made in a year) and the chairs around it, the room was empty. There were no awards hung up on the wall despite the fact the paper had plenty, there were no pieces of framed art—nothing at all.
Then again, Mr. Hyuga was a firm believer in letting your work and reputation speak for itself.
"I'm sure you did," Genma drawled as wiggled his eyebrows at her. "I saw you about to go home with that guy."
Hana snorted. "And I saw you actually go home with that girl."
"She was a freak," Genma said, still smirking. "I've never slept with a contortionist before."
Before Hana could say anything back, Mr. Hyuga walked in and the words died on the back of her lungs.
"Good morning," he grunted. "You all have deadlines and I have a conference call to get on, so let's make this quick."
Hana idly toyed with her pen and tried to seem interested as he rattled off a few things about making deadlines, working on the online presence so the paper didn't die off and trying to stay "ahead of the changing times". As if there was some way to thrive in the dying newspaper business that didn't consist of selling your soul to social media and pumping out hundreds of bullshit stories every day.
Hana was just too hungover to pay attention. And seriously? This was the important spiel he had to give at an impromptu meeting on a Friday morning? The same spiel he gave just about every week?
It was all she could do not to fall asleep. But that was before Mr. Hyuga went on.
"On a final note," Mr. Hyuga started. "I know you vultures have been on me left and right about covering the recent string of murders going on in the city."
That got Hana's attention. She narrowed her eyes and exchanged a curious look with Genma before she straightened her back in her seat.
"Normally, I'd say that topic is beneath Byakugan Times, but it looks like it isn't for The Konoha Post and they've gone on and dubbed these murders the Ryuchi Killings." Mr. Hyuga's eyebrow twitched and his lips pursed into a firm line. "The public has lost their damn minds over it and it seems the police force has as well since they've adopted the damn name."
Hana stared and her mouth felt dry. She had read the article Mr. Hyuga was referring to, the one where the writers over at The Post said the city was under the attack of a serial killer and named them the Ryuchi Killings. The idea behind the name being that each body had been discovered somewhere in Ryuchi Caves National Park, be it the caves themselves or the wetlands and forest surrounding them.
And Hana knew what Mr. Hyuga meant and where he was going with this. She could see it from a mile away and she leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table.
"I've decided that the Byakugan Times will be covering the story."
The response was immediate and almost palpable. The other writers looked at each other and grinned and whispered and plotted. And Mr. Hyuga was having absolutely none of it.
"Before you lot get any ideas," he drawled with a fierce scowl etched on his face. "I've already given the story to Yamato. So please refrain from your premature bloodbath."
The room fell silent in an instant, and Hana couldn't help it when she snorted.
"Yamato? You're giving the story to Yamato?" She deadpanned.
Mr. Hyuga's light eyes wheeled on her in an instant and his eyebrows arched high on his forehead.
"Is that a problem, Sarutobi?"
"Yeah, is that a problem?" Yamato echoed and Hana blatantly ignored him.
Genma kneed her hard under the table and she winced and kneed him back.
"I just think that picking someone seemingly at random for such a sought after story is—"
Mr. Hyuga didn't miss a beat and cut her off before she could even finish her sentence. "And here I thought that it was my decision who got which stories."
There was a chorus of stifled laughter from the other writers at the table and Hana's cheeks flamed, but that didn't deter her.
"I just think that maybe giving a story like this to someone with more experience—"
"And you have experience covering serial killers?" Yamato stated from across the table.
Hana bit down on the inside of her cheek and met his glare with one of her own and said an even, "maybe not serial killers but I have plenty of experience covering serious topics like this."
Yamato didn't even flinch and didn't seem to care that they were surrounded by their coworkers and peers when he said a smug, "no one cares about the Ame piece anymore, Hana."
Hana could have leapt across the table and throttled Yamato right there in front of their fellow writers and Mr. Hyuga himself had he not interrupted her silent rage and stopped her from doing so.
"As entertaining as this is, we all have work to do. You want the story, Sarutobi? Take it up with Yamato. I don't have time for this," Mr. Hyuga said with a tone of finality. "Does anyone else want to complain or are we quite finished here?"
None of the writers said anything else and Mr. Hyuga nodded.
"Good."
He was the first one out of the conference room, followed by other writers that looked amused with Hana, annoyed with Yamato, or both. She sat back in her chair and stared Yamato down from the other side of the table and Genma nudged her with his elbow.
"You got a death wish?" He asked. "You can't talk to Mr. Hyuga like that."
She hardly even registered Genma's words because her thoughts were already occupied.
"I'm getting that story."
Genma groaned, "just leave it alone."
Hana watched as Yamato gathered his things and left the conference room, wearing an easy expression. She could just feel how smug he was and it went right up her ass.
She let her body switch to autopilot as she gathered her things and returned with Genma to their respective cubicles.
She had to have that story. She just had to. Goddamnit, in the eight months that she had been back in Konoha City and working at Byakugan Times to appease her father, the only things she ever covered were celebrity weddings and their affairs and who wore what at some fancy red carpet event.
To say she had a negative interest in it would have been too kind.
Mr. Hyuga knew that too, but he still gave those topics to her because she was quick and she had the ability to pump out articles fast enough to meet the ridiculous demand for celebrity gossip. Mr. Hyuga himself didn't even like those types of stories, but he was at the mercy of the public in order to keep the paper alive in their dying industry.
Hana understood why he did what he did, but that didn't mean she had to like it. Especially not when she had the portfolio to prove she was above those stories.
Swiveling her chair around so she could talk to Genma, Hana grabbed her phone off the messy counter of her cubicle and cleared her throat to get her friend's attention.
Genma looked up from his laptop and raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
"Raido. He's still at the station downtown, right?" She asked.
Genma could read her face and her words faster than she could even get them out and he was glaring at her and pointing his index finger at her like she was a kid in need of scolding.
"No. You leave Raido out of this," he warned.
Hana rolled her hazel eyes. "Oh come on. "
"No, I mean it," Genma started. "You leave him out of your schemes. He isn't one of your sources."
Hana waved her hand dismissively and began to type out a text to her old friend and Genma's roommate.
Before she could even push send, Genma rolled his chair over to her cubicle and plucked her phone out of her hand and glared.
"Hana—"
"Chill! I'm not going to hurt your precious little Raido. I'm just asking him a question," she teased.
Genma's brown eyes widened and he relinquished her phone with a scowl that rivaled even Yamato's from earlier.
"You've been too goddamn stir crazy ever since you got back," Genma muttered under his breath. He went back over to his cubicle and chewed furiously on his toothpick as he fumed. Hana shot him a grin, over the moon with her little victory and wasted no time sending her text to Raido.
"Can't imagine why," she said in a singsong voice.
"You actually make me insane," Genma said back. "I mean it, Hana. You leave him out of it. Ask him your question but you're not going to use him as a source. Got it?"
Hana looked up from her phone to see Genma's brown eyes trained on her, so she held her hands up to show she meant no harm.
"Got it," she said.
Genma frowned but turned back to his laptop at the same time she did.
She sighed and rested her hand on her chin as she pulled up a half-finished article on Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki's upcoming wedding. She stared at the words on the screen with disdain.
Her eyes drifted to some of the pictures pinned to the wall of her cubicle and they lingered on one of her in a rainy village with her mentor. She couldn't help it when she sighed. She could almost feel the misty rain on her face if she just closed her eyes…
Her phoned buzzed and Hana's hand was faster than a snake to grab it, seeing the text from Raido.
'Yeah, I'm still downtown. Why?'
Her response was instant.
'What do you know about the Ryuchi Killings? Tryin' to finesse a story from Yamato.'
Her fingers tightened around the phone and she stared at the text chain, waiting and waiting and waiting…
'For real? I can't tell you anything & you know that.'
She clenched her jaw tight—too tight and typed back.
'You owe me for last month.'
Hana was vaguely aware of Genma staring her down through her peripheral vision, but he didn't interject as she read Raido's next text.
'You'd hold that against me?'
Her response was quick.
'Never! But you still owe me and I'm calling in that favor now ;)'
Raido didn't respond for a solid few minutes and Hana was just about to jump out of her skin when her friend finally texted back.
'…'
'Naka Park. If you want something good you should get there soon.'
It was all the information Hana needed. She threw her laptop into her work bag and swatted Genma on the arm, grinning from ear to ear.
"Come on. We're going to Naka Park."
Shisui and Itachi had been in Konoha City's downtown police station for all of ten minutes before the call came in.
Another body had been discovered in Naka Park—which technically was part of Ryuchi Caves National Park—and they were sent out without a second thought.
They hadn't even been fully introduced to their team when the call came in. Some poor jogger had been out midmorning and stumbled across a body. But as shitty as it was, at least it kept Shisui's Friday interesting.
So there he was with Itachi, walking down one of the dirt paths of Naka Park towards the terrified runner who was recounting her story to an officer.
"Never thought Konoha would be the place with a serial killer on the loose," Shisui said. He plunged his hands into the pockets of his nylon jacket that distinguished him as an FBI agent and went straight to where the body was.
"Neither did I," Itachi said. "But it's one of the largest cities in the country, so I suppose it makes sense."
Shisui frowned. "This kind of shit will never make sense to me."
He walked up to an officer standing behind CSI and nodded once as he extended a hand to the man.
"Shisui Uchiha, FBI," he introduced.
The man wore black sunglasses despite the fact that they were completely shaded by the towering trees above them, and planted his hands on his hips rather than shake Shisui or Itachi's hand.
"Itachi Uchiha," Itachi said, coming to stand beside Shisui.
The man frowned and said a tight, "Ebisu. I didn't know the feds were part of this now."
There it was. The inevitable 'you're a fed. I don't want to work with you' bullshit that came with every single murder case Shisui and Itachi had ever been assigned to.
"Well it looks like you've got a serial killer on the loose, so we're here to help," Shisui said with ease.
Ebisu's eyebrows furrowed. "Is that what four seemingly unrelated murders are now? The work of a serial killer?"
Itachi beat Shisui to it, and good thing too since he was infinitely calmer than Shisui would have been.
"The victims have all been killed in a similar fashion. They're also all the same race, in the same age range, and they've all been college students. They've all been dumped in Ryuchi Caves National Park, and all of these murders have happened with significant time between them over the course of a few months. This is a textbook serial killer," Itachi said. His voice was even and almost relaxed, and it visibly unnerved Ebisu who was now pulled taut like a string.
To add insult to injury, Shisui added in a quick, "if the Bureau didn't believe this was a serial killer then we wouldn't be here." He couldn't help it when he smirked. "This is our specialty."
Ebisu frowned and crossed his arms but didn't argue after that.
"I guess this is what Chief Shimura meant when he said things were about to change," Ebisu said. He sighed and nodded at the body that CSI was in the process of photographing. "Gotta Iburi. Does kendo at the University of Konoha. Twenty-one years old. Supposed to graduate this year."
Shisui pursed his lips and walked closer to the body as he recounted facts of the other victims in his head.
"Does he have that mark on him?" Shisui asked.
"I don't know," Ebisu admitted.
Shisui shot Itachi a glance and then turned his attention to the photographer with CSI that was dutifully ignoring him.
"Do you know?" Shisui asked.
The photographer cleared her throat and said a tight, "on the back of the neck. Left side."
Shisui crouched down and rocked back on his heels to get a closer look without disturbing the crime scene. And sure enough, on the left side of the victim's neck and just above a puncture wound was the mark made up of three tomoe that had been on every victim thus far.
Shisui exhaled and stood back up as he tried to formulate some kind of explanation for the mark. When he and Itachi had gotten the case files for what everyone was now calling the Ryuchi Killings, he spent hours trying to discern what the marks were and what they meant. But he hadn't been able to come up with anything and seeing the mark in person only frustrated him that much more.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Ebisu's voice came out in a short hiss and Shisui looked away from the body to see the officer fuming with his arms crossed, looking over his shoulder, and muttering angrily beneath his breath.
Shisui followed Ebisu's line of sight to see a group of people approaching the crime scene, but being stopped by officers along the perimeter.
He raised an eyebrow and shot another glance at Itachi, but Itachi seemed just as confused.
It was common for bystanders to want to get a closer look at murder scenes. As long as there was an established perimeter, why did it matter?
"Am I missing something?" Shisui asked.
"Nothing but buzzards—every single one of them," Ebisu spat. He stalked over to two figures that were a little too close to crossing the perimeter for comfort and immediately started yelling at them. Shisui narrowed his eyes and moved to stand beside Itachi.
"What just happened?" He asked.
Itachi crossed his arms, looking perpetually bored with the situation. "I haven't the faintest idea."
Shisui looked on curiously, almost feeling bad for the people who were facing Ebisu's wrath, but paused when his eyes focused on the person who was now yelling back at Ebisu.
He knew her.
It was that girl from last night. The tall one with freckles and messy hair that ended up in his bed.
A smirk overtook Shisui and he elbowed Itachi after he crossed his arms.
"Hey, 'Tachi,'" he started. "See that girl Ebisu is talking to?"
Itachi looked in their direction and sighed, "can't keep it in your pants for one day, Shisui?"
Shisui snickered, "that's the girl from last night."
Itachi's eyebrows rose but he didn't say anything. He only gave Shisui a careful look, one that told him he better leave it alone.
"Oh come on," Shisui said. "Can't I just say hello?"
"No. We have a crime scene to examine. Let's go," Itachi said. His tone was final and Shisui knew better than to argue with him when he got like that.
So Shisui bit back a smug smile and followed Itachi back over to the body.
"This is a crime scene! No press allowed!" Ebisu half whispered, half screamed. "You need to leave!"
Hana wasn't having it. She crossed her arms and stuck her chin out.
"Oh bite me, Ebisu. You're not in charge," she taunted.
Ebisu just seethed and made a sound that was some sort of a cross between a hiss and a growl, like an agitated cat or something and it took Hana all of her self control to not burst into laughter and to egg him on even more.
"This is Raido's doing, isn't it? The press is probably just now finding out about the murder. How else would you have known to come here?" Ebisu said.
"Hey, leave him out of it, would ya?" Genma quipped from beside Hana.
She couldn't see his eyes behind those black sunglasses, but Hana imagined that they got pretty big because Ebisu stepped closer so he was standing against the yellow tape of the perimeter and just about broke it.
"It is, isn't it?" Ebisu demanded. He shook his head as his jaw clenched. "Just wait until I tell Chief Shimura about this. He'll rip Raido right from the case—"
Genma's reaction was instant, taking a step closer and almost touching foreheads with Ebisu as he chewed on his toothpick in somehow the most threatening way possible.
"I said to leave Raido out of it," he warned, his tone falling to an impossibly low one.
The tension was too much and it too obvious as it was quickly earning attention from other officers.
Hana placed a hand on Genma's bicep and pulled him back half a step.
"We just went out for a walk after our meeting," she lied. "Did you know that Yamato is the one covering the Ryuchi Killings?" Hana said. She gave Ebisu a sickening smile and he absolutely, positively, did not fall for it.
He snorted. "I don't believe you. You probably weaseled your way into covering it—like you do with everything."
Hana feigned hurt and placed a hand over her heart.
"And here I thought we were friends," she said as she pouted her lips.
Ebisu practically snarled at them like a dog before he began to stalk away from them and Hana took that as her chance to slip under the police tape to follow Ebisu.
She was vaguely aware of Genma trying to whisper/yell at her to stop so they didn't get in trouble, but she ignored him under the guise of walking with Ebisu.
And it worked because no one said anything to her.
"C'mon, Ebisu! Give me something to chew on! A statement or something!" She urged.
He turned over his shoulder, too lost in his rage to reprimand her for crossing the line.
"You just said Yamato was covering this!"
"He is! I'm just trying to help my fellow writer out. C'mon. We're all friends here. Give us a statement," she said. "Wouldn't you rather help Yamato than Mizuki? You know he'll be here soon enough since he's the one covering this for The Konoha Post."
She had followed Ebisu dangerously close to the scene of the crime and she was earning a few passing stares from other officers, particularly the ones who knew her and knew that she worked for Byakugan Times.
Ebisu's brow twitched and he huffed.
"Just… Just hang on!" He barked at her before he walked over to another officer.
Hana took the moment alone to her full advantage, letting her eyes survey as much of the scene as she possibly could.
The tall trees of Naka Park provided optimal covering and shade for someone to dispose of a body. The path the body was found on was one of the lesser traversed ones, obvious from the overgrowth of shrubbery and the tree roots that were rising up from beneath the ground.
It was at least a twenty-minute walk from the entrance and paved road to get to the initial dirt path and another ten minutes to get to their current location. There wasn't even a clearing or a stream to drop a body at, but rather enough rotted logs and decayed leaves to drop someone off and let nature do the rest to camouflage the corpse.
If only she could get closer to the body itself…
But before she could even attempt it, there was a voice at her ear, sending an involuntary shiver through her body.
"You left your panties at my place."
Author's Note: Title of this fic comes from Knuckle Puck's song "Untitled".
I love Shisui. You love Shisui. We all love Shisui. So here's the Shisui story I wanted to post back during Christmas but didn't because I revamped it.
There's 27 drafted chapters, give or take a few as I edit. Weekly updates on either Monday, Wednesday, or Sunday (since those are my not-so-busy days). If you have a preference for which day let me know, otherwise I'll probably stick with Sunday or Monday.
Reviews and feedback are SO very greatly appreciated! Thanks so much for reading(:
