Chapter 2: How To Feel Young Again

Tokyo

Another rainy night in the capital of Japan. Hinata was looking down onto the city she was born in, fuller than ever with nostalgia. "Being back here makes me feel like a little girl all over again."

A low chuckle came from behind her. "Kind of ironic, considering it's supposed to be the City of the Future." Itachi said, coming to stand beside her on the balcony. "But, I understand what you mean, makes me feel like a little kid too."

Hinata sighed letting out a short laugh. "When my family finds out I'm back in Japan, there's no escaping a family reunion."

They stood like that for a while, looking down onto the city that was their home. The young woman's peacefulness was slowly replaced with anger, remembering why they were here in the first place.

"I hate him." She finally snapped, without needing to elaborate, she knew her partner understood exactly who she was talking about. "How dare he, come into my city and kill my friend!?" In her anger she reached for the metal bar of the balcony and grasped it in a white knuckled grip. She felt as though the city was tainted for her now. Before, when she thought of her homeland it brought peace into her heart. Now all she could see was the lifeless corpse of Agent Kurenai, her mentor and friend – now dead. She felt like crying when out of nowhere a warm hand found its way on her shoulder.

She turned to find Itachi looking at her, his brow furrowed and mouth turned into a scowl, the clear grief apparent on his face. He looked right about how she felt, that's for sure. And it was understandable. They had both lost someone today. After all, Kurenai had been his partner too after all.

In an effort to comfort and be comforted she wrapped her pale arms around the man before her and he didn't waste time locking his arms around her. "Hinata," He breathed after a minute of silence, making her look up at him. "He might come after you too, you know."

Hinata buried her face deeper into his chest at that. "I know that." she murmured.

The raven haired man put his arms on her shoulders and pulled away slightly to look her in the eye. "Promise me you'll carry your gun with you." At her nod he pulled her back into his embrace giving himself a silent promise.

'I won't let anything happen to you.'

Uchiha Sasuke sat at his desk, bored out of his mind. He was writing up a report on the victim they had found yesterday morning, occasionally quoting the medical examiner's and the forensics report on the case that he'd hand his lieutenant together with his.

He stopped writing last night's events, or lack of thereof, filling up his distracted mind. His lieutenant, Tenzō Yamato, had informed him that two FBI agents would be joining him and his team on the investigation of their Jane Doe's death, or murder rather. It appeared as though the way she was killed matched the MO of a known serial killer in the United States.

The lieutenant said he wasn't given the names of the FBI agents, but Sasuke had a hunch that he knew at least one of them. 'He is Japanese after all, and a cop here at one point, nonetheless' He thought to himself hopefully. Sasuke hadn't seen him in almost a decade. He had been still in high-school when his older brother was recruited by the Bureau, and he hadn't seen him since. The work he did was secretive and classified and it kept him busy all the time, but he still managed to call from time to time. 'I wonder if those lousy feds would even tell me if something happened to him.'

He was snapped out of his thoughts with Ino's low shriek. "Everyone! The suits are here!" She whispered loudly making Sasuke wonder how she managed to do that. The quick glance the blonde detective gave him let him know that he was in fact, right, about his hunch.

With sudden anticipation he turned his gaze to the entrance of their department. First came the black suit then the slim waist and long neck. Then came swinging the long dark blue hair that framed the pale features of a... 'A woman?'. There stood a young woman, clearly japanese, her grayish lavender eyes sharp and confident, just like the way she carried herself.

Sasuke didn't let his confusion take over for too long because soon by the young woman's side came in view his brother. There stood Itachi Uchiha, tall, brooding, in all of his broad-shouldered glory. His hair longer, the wrinkles under his eyes deeper, his complexion tanner than Sasuke remembered. But he still had the same eyes, dark yet warm.

As soon as their eyes met he felt like a little boy under that gaze. He felt like running into his brother's arms like he did so many times before as a kid.

Itachi smiled. A mild upturn of the man's mouth in anybody else's eyes, but to Sasuke, it felt like family. Home. Itachi's eyes traveled down to Sasuke's chest where his gold, sergeant badge was hanging. He could see the pride in his brother's eyes. 'He's proud of me.' The mere thought surprised him. Sasuke never sought out anyone's approval, or at least he thought he didn't until he got Itachi's.

He was once again pulled out of his thoughts, this time by the object of said thoughts. "Sergeant Uchiha." the older brother acknowledged extending his right hand. Sasuke stared at it as if he didn't know if it was real or not before deciding to grasp it. The young sergeant released a breath he didn't realize he had been holding when his hand didn't actually meet air, but solid, warm flesh.

After a long moment of silence the young woman beside his brother cleared her throat. "Do you guys need a room or something?" She joked looking from one Uchiha to the other, before focusing on Itachi. "I could go talk with the lieutenant alone, if you want to reconcile with your little brother." She suggested making the younger Uchiha glare at her for the condensing tone she used when referring to him.

"Ah, right." He sighed and they let go of each other's hands. "Sasuke, forgive me. We need to talk with your lieutenant first, chain of command, y'know." The Uchiha agent spoke, sounding almost sheepish.

Sasuke blinked. "Yeah, it's fine." He said, pointing ahead to the room where the Homicide Lieutenant was. "That's his office."

"Thanks." Said the bluette curtly, and stormed off, dragging his brother by the the arm into the office.

When they had gotten inside Hinata was hit with the musky scent of wood and for good reason too since everything on the lieutenant's office appeared to be made out of wood, Hinata made a wild guess that it was oak. It didn't look much different than Kakashi's office, minimalistic yet traditionally Japanese in a way. She had been so distracted by the interior, that she hadn't noticed the Lieutenant extend his hand to her. Returning the handshake made her even more distracted. His hands were callused, very much so too. 'Aren't lieutenants usually just paper pushers?' This man didn't seem any different. 'So why...?'

"You're a woodworker. " It wasn't a question, it did sound like one in her head. She was about to apologize for her bluntness, when she noticed the lieutenant didn't seem put off, nor did he look offended. If anything he looked flattered even impressed.

"Nice deductive skills there, agent..."He paused and she remembered that she hadn't even introduced herself yet.

"Hyūga. Hinata Hyūga." The bluette offered.

"Yamato Tenzō, it's a pleasure." He said, releasing her hand. "I work with a whole department of detectives and officers, and they seldom notice my hobby." He chuckled and went to sit at his desk, not before offering the two to sit down in the armchairs in front of it. Hinata was experiencing a slight dejavu.

"In my defense," She began, sitting down. "It's not like you were hiding it, and I'm a profiler, it's my job to 'deduce' these sorts of things, lieutenant."

He breathed out a laugh again. "Well I hope there's more where that came from, because we don't exactly have a room where we know our killer spends most of his time in."

"Trust me." Itachi interjected. "There is.."

The lieutenant shook his head in slight amusement. "Now then." He pulled out a case for from his desk. "I think we have more urgent matters to discuss."

"Everyone." Boomed the voice of Yamato Tenzō through the whole department, catching everybody's attention. "Briefing room. Now."

At the lieutenant's order all officers and detectives and other staff left what they were doing and gathered in the said room.

Hinata and Itachi following suite accompanied by the department's lieutenant. When they entered, Hinata counted about over dozen people, surprisingly a lot of familiar faces.

As the two agents made their way in front of the small group Hinata was the one to speak, as she found out earlier from Yamato that Kakashi put her in charge of the investigation.

"Morning." She mumbled, immediately regretting not making Itachi do this in her stead. "I am Special Agent Hinata Hyuga. You can call me Agent Hyuga." She extended her arm in Itachi's direction. "And this is my partner, Senior Agent Uchiha Itachi." He in turn gave a small bow of his head. "We are part of the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. I assume most of you know why we are here?"

A young Chinese looking woman with brown hair pulled into two twin buns raised her hand, Hinata nodded at her to speak. "Detective Tenten Liu. I just wanted you to know that we've actually been kept in the dark. So we don't really know why you're here." The detective said nonchalantly.

Hinata almost wanted to groan out load. She knew that, Kakashi told her. "Right." She mumbled. "We're here because of the open homicide you have on..." She trailed off searching for the photo in the file she was holding. When she finally found what she was looking for she held up a photo of a very much alive and formal looking woman they had found lying dead yesterday. "Kurenai Sarutobi."

There was a silence in the room before another woman, this time a blonde one, spoke. "She somehow related to Asuma Sarutobi? The guy who's running for mayor? " The blonde inquired and thankfully she was close enough for Hinata to read the badge around her neck which revealed her as Detective Ino Yamanaka. Yet another, this time even more so, familiar face and name.

Hinata smiled at her and the detective smiled back with recognition. "Yes, Detective Yamanaka. She was his wife."

A few gasps resounded in the room. "That's not why we're here." She clarified, sticking the photo on the board behind her. "Five years ago I was the MPDC detective in charge on a case of a serial killer known by the media as The Bishop Killer." She proceeded to stick photos on the board of corpses that had the same Kanji in a circle of stitches on different parts of their torso.

"These are some of his victims. Wherever the mark was found on their body they'd be missing an organ. In Mrs Sarutobi's case – her heart, one of the more frequent organs he steals."

A hand rose in the crowd before a young pink haired woman, wearing a white lab coat stood up. "Dr. Haruno Sakura, Medical Examiner." The green eyed woman introduced herself. "Why exactly was Mrs. Sarutobi a target? I've learned of this case a while ago, all of the Bishop's victims were around the age of twenty, no? It doesn't seem as though she fit the killer's MO." She inquired, sound a bit too smart for Hinata's taste.

The bluette sighed. "You're right Dr. Haruno this murder is different from others the Bishop Killer has committed. Unlike other murders, where the victims had almost nothing in common, save for the age range, and the extraordinary good health, this one was a crime of passion." She told them tiredly, she didn't like to talk this much, and she certainly wasn't a people person; the fact that it was her friend she was talking about didn't help her case the slightest bit either.

"Kurenai, is-" Hinata bit her tongue at the mistake,"was a colleague of ours and Agent Uchiha's ex-partner. She was a federal agent on official business here, that's why she didn't appear in the media along with her husband." Hinata looked down at the next paper in the file, it was the cover page of an old looking newspaper. The photo on the page was of her and the brunette woman taking an interview from the journalist in front of the MPDC.

Clearing her throat she took the piece of paper and pinned it on the board. "Five years ago I was a detective in charge of this case before I was joined by the FBI, that is, Agents Sarutobi and Uchiha. I am certain that Agent Sarutobi was murdered because she investigated the case all those years back."

Another hand rose, rather lazily, into the air, it belonged young man with a spiky ponytail. Hinata tried to remember his name 'Shika-... Shika…?' "Detective Nara Shikamaru." That's what it was. "Why would the killer go after her if you didn't even catch him?" He drawled, making it seem as though this whole thing was a waste of time in his eyes.

Finally came the time to explain their failures, hers in particular. "We were close, very close but he had set a trap for us. We had concluded, amongst other things, that the Bishop Killer was a doctor of some sort, most likely a surgeon. We had finally narrowed it down to a person who fit the profile in what we are certain was the same hospital the killer worked at, because after we had our suspect under custody another doctor basically disappeared without a trace. All the data on him - gone. As if he'd been a ghost. No photos, nothing. We had no way of finding his whereabouts."

By the time Hinata finished, she had been left with a bitter taste in her mouth. All these years she had been kept busy enough that she didn't think about the Bishop if she could help it. And now that she had been reminded of all those events she didn't quite feel so good.. It had been her only open case as a detective for the MCDC.

She knew that another year working as a detective after the fact and four more as an agent, would definitely increase her chances in catching him this time. That, however, didn't stop her from feeling uneasy.

Itachi had probably picked up on her absent mindedness, because he had stood up from where he was sitting and positioned himself beside her.

"That's about it. If anyone would like to brief us on your side of the case, please." The raven haired man suggested, pointing to the front of the room, where they were standing. He smiled down at Hinata when she gave him a silent thank you with her eyes before the two went to sit down.

Sasuke glared at the blue haired's woman hindhead from the back of the room, perplexed by the interaction between her and his brother."Yamanaka, go ahead." Ordered the Uchiha sergeant, to which the blonde detective trotted over to face the room, the sound of her heels echoing in otherwise silent the room.

She gave the file in her hands a quick look before addressing the present company in a sharp yet very feminine voice. "The victim, now identified as Sarutobi Kurenai, was found by a witness, resident of one of the buildings the deceased was found between." She reported, sounding nothing short of professional.

Hinata watched the confident woman before her share information the team got from the crime scene investigation. She couldn't help to notice how the blonde hadn't changed much since they were in junior high. She still looked stunning and still looked like she was very aware of the fact, if her clothes were anything to go by. The blonde tight leather pants and turtleneck sweater – that was short enough to reveal a rather unmodest but very Ino-like part of her slightly toned abdomen. It had been a surprise to the Hyuga to find her old friend as a police detective, in Homicide nonetheless.

She had always thought the Yamanaka would become a model, or something in that area, what with her good looks. Never once had she imagined Ino, or a big of her former classmates to make up almost a whole Homicide department. Well, except Naruto, he was always going on about wanting to be a cop, but he was nowhere to be seen now.

Hinata was dragged out of her thoughts when she heard the female detective mention something peculiar.

"Wait, what did you say you found on the body?"

Ino raised a brow but answered nevertheless. "Particles of leaves and soil on the victim's shoes."

The indigo haired agent turned to face her partner, he mirrored her exact same perplexed expression. "That's impossible." Itachi and Hinata said at the same time, sounding confounded.

The blonde woman just started at the bizarre exchange between the two FBI agents. "Quite possible, actually. Killers do leave evidence from time to time you know." She started with a raised eyebrow. "And Shino–" the blonde pointed at a man in a white lab coat and a hoodie over his head. Despite the black sunglasses he wore Hinata still recognized him as her former classmate. "–our lead forensics expert thinks he can, with enough tests, narrow the soil to a general area, not too specific but-"

Hinata gave her an annoyed look, a first in their lifetime. "That is not what I meant, detective." She closed her eyes and sighed in an effort to calm herself down. "The Bishop Killer had over two dozen victims, not a single piece of evidence, nothing that would suggest so much as his height." A pause as her breath seethed quietly. "And now you're telling me we have something that might give us a possible location?"

Ino squinted, taken aback by her former friend's outburst. "You don't sound as ecstatic as I hoped you would be."

Hinata was about to retort, but was glad when Itachi answered in her stead. "We'll need to see the body." He voiced her thoughts, always reading in between her aggravated speeches.

His younger brother gave them a questioning look before seemingly giving in. "Haruno, take them to your office."

The pink haired ME jumped slightly at the order. "Of course, sergeant." She stood up and walked over to the door. "Follow me, Agents."

And follow her they did. Hinata barely noticed as they entered the elevator. She had more pressing matters to ponder on. Like the Bishop Killer, for one. Why would there be evidence on the body? The Bishop, was careful, meticulous, a perfectionist, Hinata was sure he even had OCD. It was very unlike him to leave evidence, even something as seemingly insignificant as dirt on a shoe.

Maybe he had gotten rusty. After all, he had, allegedly, not killed anyone within the span of five years, not with this MO anyway.

Stepping down the last bit of stairs that separated them from the pinkette's office, Hinata watched said woman walk in front of them. She hurried over to the corner of the floor with metal walls that had retractable, human-sized, shelves in them. The medical examiner however led them not to one of the shelves but to one body on an examination table, covered with an off-white sheet.

A/N: ayyooo, my first update/2nd chapter to ever see the light of the world or another person's computer screen

first of all I'd like to thank you for the reviews it really warms my heart to read them and motivates me a lot even through my small writer's block.(I'm like stuck on ch4 even though I'm writing ahead of it -sweats profusely as the date to post it nears-)

second of all. now that you actually got to see a bit more of Hinata's character i think you can see exactly how OOC she is in my story, i hope you don't mind. I will reveal more as to why she is like this in as the story goes on (i didnt just make her like this bc it'd be cooler, she has a background alright?)

also about the honorifics i was going to add them but when i did, it just kinda felt wrong since they already use titles like sergeant, lieutenant, doctor and agent, and to add honorifics on top would be too much. plus Sasuke is one of the MCs and he doesn't even use them (in canon and consequently here too)

to those who await the romance to come; it will soon, in a chapter of its own because that's how i felt it best to introduce the romance and pairings into this somewhat dark story.

I'D REALLY APPRECIATE CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM- I see this a lot on other works where ppl just say things like they loved or hated the work. I'd really like to know why if you're gonna do that
Thank you for reading but please review and tell me if you didn't like something or felt that something wasn't there for good reason this is my first story and i need guidance! see you next week!

P.S. Sorry for the long Author's note,