Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or CSI, I'm just borrowing them for my own entertainment, and hopefully yours as well.
A/N: I know I have other stories waiting to be updated, and I promise I'll update them eventually, but I couldn't resist writing this! Oh, yeah, the title will make sense later on.
It's a CSIxNaruto crossover. Why, you ask? Well why not? Hope you enjoy!
The Ninja Game
Chapter One
"You understand the importance of this mission, Minato."
"Hai, Hokage-sama."
"Good, then start your preparations. You will depart tomorrow morning."
"Ano, Hokage-sama, may I ask a favor of you?"
"Mm, what is it?"
"I would like to bring Kakashi-kun with me on this mission."
The Third Hokage's eyes widened, "But he is just a child!"
"I am well aware of his age, as well as his capabilities." The blonde-haired jonin who stood before the Hokage replied, "I am his sensei, after all. And I know that he is good enough to take on this mission. Besides, he's been wanting a challenge for some time now."
"Are you sure, Minato?" Sarutobi did not seem convinced, "This is an S-class mission."
"Don't worry, old man. I'll be there to protect him."
"Alright then," the old man sighed after a moment, knowing that there was nothing he could do to change the stubborn man's mind. "The two of you will depart tomorrow morning."
"Hai!" the blonde jonin exited the office, a broad, triumphant grin on his face.
"Come on out, Kashi!" he said as soon as he got out of the building. Immediately, a dark figure dropped down from a nearby tree; a boy with silver hair and a face obscured by a dark mask.
"How did it go?" the boy asked. His voice was soft and controlled, with none of the enthusiasm or childishness expected from children his age. Yet it was not controlled enough to hide the anticipation.
"You're in!" the blonde sensei exclaimed happily, "We leave tomorrow at dawn!"
"Hai, sensei." Despite his reserved manner, the boy could not keep the hint of excitement from his voice.
"Come on, 'Kashi! You could at least sound happier!" Minato said, ruffling the boy's silver hair, "Aren't you excited?" beneath the mask, the boy scowled. He was going on an S-class mission, yet his sensei still treated him like a child.
"No." with a huff, the boy disappeared in a puff of smoke. Minato chuckled to himself, kids were so cute!
*~*~*
Gil Grissom sighed in exasperation as his pager rang again, the third time that night. Impatiently, he picked it up, "Grissom speaking."
There was a long silence as he listened, while his face grew grave, all the impatience gone. "Another one? Yes…okay, I'll be there immediately." He snapped the phone shut, and got up from his desk.
"Another case?" Catherine, his assistant supervisor, asked as he walked past her in the hall. He nodded curtly, "The Ripper struck again."
"Ah." Catherine said sympathetically. The Ripper was the name for the serial killer who had recently appeared in Vegas, known for the bloody remains he left behind. "You know…I could come with you."
"But your own case-"
"I've just wrapped it up, and yours will probably be a lot more work. Not to mention bloodier." Catherine interrupted.
"Thanks, Cath." Grissom said gratefully.
"No problem."
The two of them left in Grissom's car and drove off towards the crime scene. It was going to be a long night.
*~*~*
Their mission was simple; to hunt down a missing-nin from the Mist. The target wasn't even that strong, only a low-ranking jonin whom Minato knew he could defeat easily. Not someone whose elimination would be considered an S-class mission. No, what was much troublesome was the place the missing-nin had escaped to.
It was a city across the sea, on a faraway side of the world, where no one knew of chakra or shinobi, in a city called, um, something like "Las-vee-gas". Not much was known about this almost separate world outside, but Minato couldn't wait to find out.
And he was not disappointed when, after five days rough, stormy traveling by sea and two days' journey by land, during which the two shinobi picked up on the local language, they finally arrived at their destination.
Though it was night, the city, which Minato now knew was called "Las Vegas", was still bustling with life. It was huge, bigger than even Konoha, larger, in fact, than any city the two shinobi had ever seen before. And noisier. And more crowded.
The blonde jonin looked around in awe, absorbing the lights and sounds and sights of the metropolis. The people walked past, without even looking at the two strangely-dressed shinobi. In Las Vegas strange people were a common sight.
"Sensei," Kakashi's voice interrupted Minato's thoughts, and he adverted his gaze from a woman wearing a skirt that was way too short. Well, what did you expect? His teacher had been Jiraiya, after all. Kakashi stared at him strangely.
"What is it, 'Kashi?" Minato could swear that he was smirking.
"That's a guy."
"What!?" Minato gaped, his face turning a strange greenish color at the thought. Kakashi snickered uncharacteristically, unable to hold back his mirth.
"Sensei." He repeated again once the laughing fit had passed, "Shouldn't we be looking for the missing-nin?"
"Yes! Of course!" Minato seized the change in topic eagerly, "Can't you summon some nin-dogs to sniff him out?"
"Sorry. I can't unless we have a sample of the missing-nin's scent."
Minato sighed in exasperation, grabbing at his hair. The city was so big, how in the world were they going to find the stupid missing-nin? "Let's divide and conquer." He finally said, "Meet me back here by dawn."
"Hai," and both of them disappeared in puffs of smoke, leaving behind a street full of confused pedestrians.
*~*~*
Nick and Sara were already on the scene when Grissom and Catherine arrived. Yellow tape surrounded the scene of carnage, and even Grissom winced as he saw the blood splattered over the walls of the small suburban house. Water mixed with blood dripped down the walls and pooled on the floor in puddles. The coroner, David, knelt by the mangled mess that was, presumably, the body.
"This is the fourth victim." He said needlessly, stooping under the tape with Catherine. "Based on liver temperature, the time of death was about an hour ago."
"Same M.O.?" she asked. David nodded.
"The victim was stabbed multiple times, the body mutilated, and the internal organs pierced multiple times. With these injuries, it's almost impossible to tell the cause of death, but it would be a safe guess to say blood loss." The coroner replied.
Catherine looked around at the walls, which were practically dyed crimson. "Uh huh, it's a bloodbath in here."
"And no murder weapon found. The house has also been flooded with water, like the last three cases." Nick added.
"Any clues yet?" Grissom asked the two CSIs. Nick and Sara shook their heads. "We've just started, but there is nothing at all. Just like the last times."
"Keep looking, the killer is bound to be careless."
Catherine carefully stepped over a puddle of red water as she made her way into the house, "Where does all this water come from?"
"All the faucets in the house are turned off." Nick supplied, "And there were no fingerprints. It's almost as if it just…appeared."
"From thin air? We're looking for a murderer, not a magician." Grissom said sharply, "There must be a scientific explanation for all of this."
Sara snorted. "Right, tell me when you find it."
*~*~*
To be honest, Kakashi didn't think much of this new land. First of all, it was too noisy. The sounds of those hulking, ugly, abominable things that they called 'cars' never stopped, accosting his sensitive ears until he felt that he would go deaf. And the odors they gave off! He never thought that he would come to hate his extra sensitive smell. His nose twitched slightly at the memory, and he could even taste it in his mouth.
Not to mention the people. It almost gave him a heart attack when he realized that the pretty lady his sensei was staring at was actually male, and the strange man painted silver in the streets, and the acrid smell of alcohol, smoke and other things clinging to almost everyone he met.
Oh yes, he couldn't wait until they finished this mission.
So now he was hiding in the shadows of the tall tree next to the house, pursuing a lead. From inside the house, he could feel the very faint presence of chakra, possibly remnants of a jutsu that was performed inside the house by his quarry, the only other ninja besides himself and his sensei in this strange land. The fact that it was a water type jutsu merely served to strengthen his assumption. If only he could get inside, then maybe he could summon his nin-dogs and hunt down the missing-nin.
The only problem was the large crowd surrounding the house. Really, he thought idly, it was only a few people dying—he could smell the metallic blood from where he was—there really wasn't anything interesting to see. His life was filled with death, and the war with Iwa, so a few more did not seem to be anything to make a fuss about.
But the people here seemed to think that it was a very big deal. And so Kakashi was stuck outside, wondering what to do now. Maybe he could just walk up and sneak in and hope no one suspected the silver-haired, masked child wandering around the crime scene. Right.
A thought passed through his mind as he considered. What would sensei do? Suddenly, a foreign chakra coming, not from the house, but from behind him, caught his attention. It did not belong to his sensei. It did not feel friendly. And it was coming straight towards him.
Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu.
Kakashi had a split second to react before the attack reached him, and he instinctively leapt out of the tree just before the branch he was standing on exploded as a pillar of water crashed into it.
The silver-haired chunin landed gracefully on the trunk of another tree, using his chakra to secure himself to the bark. "Hah, fast little brat." He heard a voice say. The dim light of the moon illuminated the scarred face of a Mist shinobi, smirking cruelly. A long scar ran through his hitae-ate, the mark of a missing-nin.
Shit!!
Kakashi dodged two kunai that flew towards him, landing on an outstretched branch. His sensei's advice came back to him, If you come into contact with the enemy, run. Don't engage in combat for any reason.
Throwing a few shuiken back in retaliation, Kakashi retreated quickly, in the direction of the houses.
"Too slow!" Kakashi's eyes widened as the missing-nin appeared in front of his face, grinning widely, holding a kunai in his right hand. "Goodbye, brat!" the kunai stabbed downwards into Kakashi's stomach…and he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"Kage Bunshin?" the missing-nin growled.
He easily moved out of the way as a kunai sped towards him from the treetops, "Did you really think you could get me with that?" But Kakashi was smarter than that. An explosion shook the city for miles as the exploding tag tied to the kunai detonated in the missing-nin's face.
Kakashi was dimly aware of the fact that the people surrounding the house were now milling outside, searching for the source of the explosion, but he had more pressing matters to tend to. For example, the missing-nin who had, unfortunately, not been killed by the exploding tag, and was now furiously trying to kill the silver-haired boy.
"Damn brat! I'll kill you!"
He's fast! Kakashi thought as he dodged the hail of blows aimed to kill. He rolled out of the way of a shuiken aimed at his head, and fell off the tree, landing in a crouched position on the ground. Immediately, he flipped back onto his feet and rolled to the left, avoiding yet another deadly weapon.
What's taking sensei so long? He wondered, leaping backwards, away from the succession of shuikens that slammed into the ground where he had been just milliseconds before. Then he felt the chakra gathering around him and realized that he had just walked into a trap.
Kuso-!
The water pooled on the ground from the missing-nin's first jutsu moved, gathering into long, needle-like shapes. Surrounded, Kakashi tried with a burst of speed to dodge, but only managed to partially avoid the water-needles.
"Heh, looks like it's not a clone this time. Not bad, kid, you avoided all the vital points." The missing-nin said, appearing in a flash before the boy fallen on the ground. "But still not good enough."
Kakashi stayed silent, gasping for breath. Scratches covered his body, with an especially nasty cut through his left shoulder, where he had barely dodged the needle that would have pierced his heart.
"Too bad, kid." The missing-nin twirled a kunai between his fingers, a smirk on his face. His hand rose, clutching the kunai, and started to descend…
The sounds of voices nearby caught their attention. "LVPD! Who's there?!"
The missing-nin smirked, and stabbed downwards. The kunai embedded itself in the ground beside Kakashi's head, "Looks like you got lucky today." The missing-nin said, "But next time, I'll kill you for sure." And in a puff of smoke, he disappeared, leaving Kakashi bleeding on the ground.
His last thought before losing consciousness was Where the hell is sensei?
*~*~*
TBC
Not bad, right? Right? (please say yes…)
