It was somewhere near one in the morning, the new moon invisible behind stars and clouds. The ring of a black-corded phone reverberated through the deadly silent station. Without fail, one man, clad in blinding orange, dashed in to meet the call. He had hardly picked up the phone when he heard the screams at the other end.

"Pick up! Pick up! Oh, someone help! Help!"

Naruto held the device about two feet away from his head, and he yelled back, "Hey, calm down! Where are you? Ma'am?"

The woman didn't pause. "Is that N-Naruto? Naruto! I…I'm at the Academy! Come quick, help her! Help!" Hinata cried from the earpiece.

Naruto ran up to the door, trying to push the damn thing open, but it wouldn't budge. "Oh shit!" he exclaimed, and pulled the wooden door agape, rushing through the gained exit. As he did with every call, not knowing anything other than a location, he started calling down the halls, "Emergency! Emergency! We gotta go to the Academy!" If there was one benefit to this, it was that no one had an excuse for not knowing where the crime was. "Come on, Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei…" He banged on the doors as he passed. Then, turning a corner, he shrieked, "Teme, Bug-boy, Sai!" And racing through a third hall, he continued, "Come on, Ero Sennin!"

The said officers and detectives each emerged from their rooms, Sasuke being the first to straight out tell the blonde to, "Shut up!" He neared his boyfriend, adding, "Or I'll make you…"

The blonde flashed an innocent smile, but erased it quickly, becoming very serious. "Hinata's at the Academy. We need to help her, now!"

~xXx~

"Hinata!" Naruto skidded to a halt next to Hinata's hunched form, taking her trembling hand. "It's all right, Hinata," he murmured, pulling her to her feet. He looked up, and waited for eye contact with Iruka. As soon as he caught it, Iruka swiftly made his way to the crying Hyuuga.

"Come on," he coaxed quietly. Hinata sniffled as she was lead away, and the investigation began.

Sasuke ordered Sai to his side. "Go to Hinata. Ask her for details on what happened before…this occurred." The pale boy nodded and went off with Iruka to comfort the poor Hyuuga Hinata that had to witness such a scene; prepare her before the interrogation started. "Shikamaru…do what you do. Naruto and I will collect more data for the profile." He grimaced at the smell that flooded his nostrils, the scent of blood, death. The corpse was nearly indistinguishable, but the scraps of clothing looked similar to… "Oh, God. Naruto, it's…" Naruto nodded slowly; he had already recognized her: Yamanaka Ino.

"Ino…we'll catch whoever did this to you," Naruto promised. That was their job, what they signed up for when they joined the ANBU. Some people were born to become criminals; some people were born to catch them. "Let's…get started."

Naruto and Sasuke, along with help from Iruka, Kakashi, Jiraiya and Shino, scoped the site, but found only blood where the body itself lay. There were no fingerprints that didn't belong to teachers of the Academy, no dirty footprints leaving odd exits of the school, not anything but one clue. A note, carved deep into Ino's right forearm: emevigrof. No one understood what those crudely cut letters meant until Shikamaru pointed out blandly that it was 'forgive me' backwards.

~xXx~

The team sat around a wide circular table, files, graphs and images scattered about the surface. "Tell me, now. What's the point of writing that backwards? And who would expect forgiveness for killing someone?" Naruto demanded, once this fact was shown to him. "I mean, what's it for?"

Shikamaru sighed. "The exact reason isn't so clear, but it did help me with the profile. This person, though I'm not certain of all this, is most likely employed and works; there was also a sedative in her blood, so she was unconscious when captured—"

"Whoa, wait! Captured? What do you mean by that? She was in the school," Naruto said.

Shikamaru shook his head. "She was bound by her wrists and ankles, then tortured while awake. This person has either contact with medic supplies or an illegal source. They also, by looking at her cut hair, seem to have little respect for women, perhaps in general, or this person's status. Most murderers don't pay attention to things like hair. I suspect a male, but…" Naruto leaned in slightly. "If this unsub had no respect for the victim and was also male, they would've most likely showed their contempt in a more…intimate manner." Naruto understood that. "Judging by the placement and number of incisions, it seems this is another matter that points to having experience in the medical field.

"Furthermore," Shikamaru droned, hating to speak of his friend, Ino, in such a degrading manner, "the prey of this unsub might not have even been a specified target, but a random choosing. That possibility will make it more difficult to catch the perpetrator, but we all should take the notion to mind when determining this criminal's identity."

Shino spoke up, "We also found a gift. You know the Yamanaka flower shop? Iruka and I found traces there. A message above the headboard of her bed was written in blood. We brought back samples and discovered that it was indeed Yamanaka Ino's DNA. Our unsub must've gone back to write that after the kill."

"So?" Naruto said impatiently. "What did it say?"

Shino glanced up from behind dark, full-moon shades and stated firmly, "Hate."

Sasuke offered up, "So, does this mean that the unsub hated Ino, though they obviously knew her well enough to know where she lived, and what room? Or do we need to read further between the lines? We'll try to see what other hints there are of the personality by breaking down and translating the strike patterns, but there is still work to do." He tapped the folder in his hands, no doubt having the worst of the images.

Kakashi raised a hand, finally setting down his book. "Hate, you say? How queer. When I was with Sakura in the autopsy, we had to cut right down the center of the word 'hate' in the process of the Y cut."

"And," Shino interjected, "scattered over the mattress were flowers, roses. Each was torn, the petals blackened. I would say they were burned; the unsub burned a symbol of love."

"We should assume this is personal then?" Jiraiya decided more than asked. "I'll gather more information from relatives and friends about old relationships." Naruto almost stopped him, but the old man was quite good at getting that stuff without much resistance. "I'll check about high school enemies as well." With that, he stood and took his leave. He had quite a few people to interview.

Eyes returned to Shikamaru, who had his hands in his thinking position. While the Nara genius was in that pose, no one interrupted his thoughts. Five seconds passed, ten, fifteen. He looked up. "Thanks to Jiraiya mentioning high school enemies, I think I've got this figured out, but I'll need to check with someone before I give uncertain information. I need to question Inzuka Kiba."

He stood and was going to find the person, with six others following him. "Why do you need to talk to Kiba?" asked Naruto, as he walked alongside his colleague. "What? You think he and Ino were rivals back in school?"

Shikamaru only shook his head, stopping as he neared Iruka. He was still holding Hinata's hand, eyes red and puffy from the sight that haunted her. "What's happening, Nara?"

Shikamaru quickly explained, "I need to question Inzuka Kiba."

At this, Hinata looked up, but only slightly. "Is…has the killer gone after Kiba-kun?" Everyone knew about Hinata's…fondness, shall we say, of the dog lover. "Will you protect him? Please?" She didn't want the killer hurting anymore of her important people.

Naruto grinned and comforted, "Of course, Hinata! The ANBU exist to protect everyone!" The timid girl could only nod and think, Except Ino…

Shikamaru turned to face his fellow ANBU team members, saying, "And guys, I can handle this one on my own. You don't all have to follow me." Sasuke paused before turning. "What?" The Uchiha looked as if he had something to mention, but continued on the way to his office.

There's a poll on my profile if you want your guess of the killer to be anonymous. Or say in a review. And don't worry about Not So Different and The Thunder God Girl. I just need to make the chapters slightly longer, so they'll be done soon.