Small Worlds: A Detective Story

Author: remthedogsitter

Summary: eventual Kakairu AU. Iruka, rookie private detective (former crime fiction university teacher) sets out on his second mission after an embarrassing (accidental) debut. A local national history museum has been robbed that has left the police force baffled. However his investigation leads him to some sticky discoveries, just how deep is he willing to trust a certain thief who claims to know the truth about everything important to him?

Rating: M (just in case)

Disclaimer: nope, don't own anything (oh how I wish)

A/N:Should I continue this?

ooohh get ready for a long story (no I haven't abandoned Shepherd's Dog)/

Introduction: Grasping Straws

The tan man growled under his breath, piles and piles of paper surrounded him of various sizes and he wasn't quite sure where to begin. He leaned back against the couch, he was sitting on the floor so he could use the low coffee table that seemed to be his most productive spot in case of work, he hadn't noticed that the sun had gone down some time ago. He closed his eyes for a few moment, tucking away behind his ear the strands of brown hair that escaped from his ponytail until a small hand clutched and tugged at his sleeve.

He looked at the source of the disturbance to see a mess of blonde hair and blue eyes looking back at him. "Dad, its night time already, can we have dinner?" the boy of five and a half yawned and showed a few spaces in his smile.

"What time is it?" the man looked frantic, he hadn't noticed that time already passed so fast that it was already nearing eight o'clock. He stood up, not bothering to fix the papers that were once gather on his lap that were not floating about. "Come on I'll make you some ramen tonight and get you ready for bed."

"Ok." The boy yawned again but had perked up at the sound of ramen and was bouncing off to follow his dad into the kitchen.

After a quick dinner and a quick scrub in the tub Iruka had the small boy in pajamas and a very funny looking monster hat. He helped Naruto crawl into bed "Dad tell me a story."

"What kind of story, kit?" he grinned at the nickname but the boy being so tired gave a half hearted pout.

"Another one about the detective remember? Last night when the bad guy was chasing him he had to choose if he was going to jump from the train or something…"

Iruka sat on the bed near enough that the boy's head that just nuzzled itself into his lap. "Hmm, lets see where was I, oh yes Shinjiru our brave detective was stuck between his enemy Mirai and sure drop into his doom if he jumped the train. Time was running out and he had to save the passengers so confronting Mirai wasn't an option so he decided to jump. Mirai of course thought he was a fool but Shin was quick enough to see a small ledge under the cart that he could hide in and a chain hanging that he could hold on to…" the man continued with his story and slowly the blonde's breathing became slow and even and off to dream land.

Iruka couldn't help but smile. The boy was handful sometimes but sleeping like this he looked like the most innocent thing in the world. He slipped away from the boy's hold on his lap before kneeling down next to the bed to nuzzle the boy's head, smelling clean and fruity. "Goodnight kit, I love you."

The boy murmured something back before turning around and facing his back towards Iruka. Quietly the man snuck away, closing the lap by the bedside and leaving the door just the smallest bit open so a little of the hall light would stream in.

The man went straight to the kitchen to brew a pot of coffee, thinking about the detective work ahead both made his tired and excited at the same time. Setting the timer for the coffee maker he walked back to his nest of papers to make some sense of the chaos. At times, he couldn't really believe that he was living his dreams of being a detective, getting lost in his thoughts again.

"It's going to be alright Iruka." The police woman comforted him as she handed him a cup of warm chocolate, it had been a long night after he was awakened by the police that stormed into his house. Even if they tried their best to hide him he still caught a glimpse of his parents bloodied on the floor, his father in the entrance hall to their home and his mother on the stairs looking as if she were on his way up. He remembered hearing them scream and footsteps running around so he hid under his bed. His door had opened and all he could see were these big black boots walking around his room. "Come out come out wherever you are." The voice was a mocking tone, amused even as he saw tell tale drops of red on the man's pants. "Hmm, I wonder where he could be…" the sound of a door opening "not in the closet…" toys being thrown around "not in the toy box…" the feet stopped in front of the bed "how about…" a pale white hand held onto the covers hanging over his hiding place, threatening to pull it all away and the boy clutched his knees to his chest and shut his eyes, so afraid that he couldn't breathe.

There was the sound of footsteps again and doors being banged but he didn't dare open his eyes. The next thing he knew he was being pulled out by strong arms and he thrashed and screamed as well as he could only to realize that it was the police, trying to calm him down."

That was near twenty years ago and he's wanted to be a detective since if only to help people like him who lost the only world they knew. Of course that dream wasn't anywhere near possible until a year ago. He had been a crime fiction analyst for years at a local university and was a well loved teacher at that, his first trial going on the police force had been rocky, the crime division was corrupt and on the get go he knew that wasn't what he wanted. A year ago was so bittersweet that he wished that the tragedy had never happened.

" 'Fuck…' the young man swore, having no more room to run, he was cornered 'No one was supposed to know sensei… no one' his voice cracked, his grip tightened on the handle of the knife pointed at his teacher. 'I was so sure.'

'The only thing I don't get though is, why did you kill him? I thought you were best friends, you were dormates.' The man stared, assessing the boy that was one of his brightest students.

'You don't get it do you sensei? I LOVED him. I FUCKING LOVED HIM. And what did he do? He threatened me and bullied me and put a knife at my throat… every day every day the death threats.' The young man pulled at his black unkempt hair. 'Fuck and I was so sure I could pull it off…' the boy had lost it somehow, a deranged look in his eye as he looked from the knife to Iruka.

'Don't make me do this Kiro.' The man tried to calm the boy if only to control the situation until the police would arrive. Well enough he could physically defend himself, the pistol in his back pocket would be a last resort if he couldn't defend himself with his judo.

The police arrived a few minutes later, guns aimed at the boy as Iruka shouted to them not to shoot and talked Kiro down until he dropped the knife. Child services took him away, the boy lucky enough to be seventeen at the time, there would still be a chance for him. At first Iruka could hardly believe it when he received the news that one of his students Haru had killed himself via poison, the evidence being suicide was the note and the fact the room was locked. It was a wonder however to Iruka that something sounded off about the whole story, it sounded almost exactly like a story he had discussed in his class some three years ago as an exercise in how did the killer commit the sealed room murder.

When he was able to see a copy of the suicide letter however he was sure it wasn't Haru's doing despite being similar to the boy's handwriting, the small differences such as the 'I's and 'g's that caught his attention. Being gifted with an almost flawless memory for details there were small nuances enough to say that Haru did not write the letter. He went to the police first of course and to stop his insistence performed an investigation and after a week came up with nothing.

Taking matters into his own hands, the university student conducted his own investigation and lo and behold, Kiro after his sensei had showed him irrefutable evidence that links him to the crime, fled and tried to defend himself at the same time confessing his guilt recorded on the tape recorder that Iruka takes everywhere with him out of habit.

He became an overnight celebrity after that and though an honorary member of the force he still worked independently. Since then he's dealt with minor robbery cases and a few other petty crimes here and there until only a week ago the local museum asked him for assistance on a robbery case as a second opinion due to the police force's slow progress.

His eyes wandered over the papers that he was now at least able to organize, to the neatly ordered bookshelf filled with detective novel and teaching aids. He scribbled notes down into his notebook and things he should look into later because sometimes a crime like this, of this perfection he would like to call it more often than not (at least in the detective novels) had roots in other crimes in the past in one way or another this small crime was connected to a bigger picture.

Carefully he snipped a few more headlines before posting it on his cork board. On wall of his study had been renovated and dedicated to his new life as a detective, the whole wall consisting of corkboard and a sliding white board if need be and smaller hanging compartments filled with colored markers and thumb tacks.

So far, most of the things he gathered were art collection and artifact related, in some way he was taking this case personally. His parents had been archeologists but were retired to being professors and experts for the local museum, the mystery to why they were killed was never known but he could feel it in his gut to the connection it had to how his parent's work place in the museum and the university were ransacked. There were headlines about a rich art collected traveling around to add to his collection, some about up coming exhibits of newly discovered ancient civilizations amongst other things that for now he felt relevant. He would go to the unsolved murders yet or something along those lines because for all he knew, maybe the thief was just after a quick buck yeah?

He frowned at that thought, this case seemingly simple, isn't. The head curator's house was broken into but there was no sign of a forced entry and even the museum guard saw nothing out of the ordinary, two locations robbed so silently in one night. Look underneath the underneath as he main character of his favorite detective novel would say. First thing tomorrow, he would visit the crime scene again and hopefully get more answers from the 'victims' of this case.

A/N: ok, plot bunnies attacked me ok (I actually have another story idea here somewhere) Shepherd's dog for now is on standby while I think how to wrap it up. I might also start the other story I have in mind since this story is fairly outlined till the end. Continue or Abandon?