Title; Witch
Disclaimer; Nope I don't own any of the Naruto characters.
Adamantyne- Thank you for the correction I've read over the chapter again and have corrected the tenses. Yes I do really need a beta, you know how it is trying to proofread your own work, quite ineffective sadly.
Chapter - 4;
The IBF or Independent Bio tectonics Firm was a well-established descendant to the contemporaries of Rakes research. In the past they had provided research into similar avenues to Rakes own creations though reportedly they were much less restrained in their designs, perhaps fortunately they were unsuccessful in their attempts.
In more modern times the company had become one of the main providers of implants for military contacts specialising in eye and retina enhancements and otherwise made artificial limbs and medical equipment for commercial use.
There were those whom suspected the company continued the work of their founder however, the work of Isaac Throgs to create those who could make the heavens tremble and quake.
Hinata had descended into a fevered working pitch absorbing the information we had acquired from the IBF for a fortnight after barely pausing to eat and attend classes…I was starting feel a little snubbed apparently having been replaced by the electronic device.
She had in fact neglected to arrive at school today. I had awoken to discover her gone and almost half way through the day she was still missing in action, no note, phone call or anything. I was actually a little worried about the super powered borderline sociopath.
"Please give a warm welcome to…" I had tuned out the instructors words in favour of my own internal musings and didn't process his current message in the slightest.
"Sasuke Uchiha please raise your hand." I didn't process those words either, and similarly failed to notice them the next three times he repeated them until a classmate elbowed me sharply in the ribs and I finally raised the limb feeling a pleasant mixture of ashamed and embarrassed as the instructor glared darkly at me.
"Please assist Miss Haruno in familiarising herself with our school." Commanded Instructor Eizenhart in a tone that brooked no room for refusal given my earlier behaviour. I offered nothing more than a casually muttered almost mocking 'sure, why not' that didn't quite reach Eizenhart's ears as the new student made her way to the back of the room to steal Hinata's vacant seat next to me.
"Hi." She chirped the perky greeting…barely a word and I already disliked this girl.
"Morning." I dawdled in polite reply subtly taking stock of this foreign encroacher upon my territory. The length of her legs caught my attention- not like that- and I realised the girl was relatively tall having maybe a couple of inches on the already statuesque Hinata and bore an athletic build with a very slight chest that had it not been for her clearly feminine splayed hips and delicate facial features would have made her seem almost masculine. I supposed she was attractive if not either exotic or bizarre depending on an individuals personal leanings.
The pink pigtails caught my eyes quickly enough though and earned a grimace for their painfully bright offensive nature.
"It's dye…I'm not a freak if that's what you're thinking." She intoned misinterpreting my expression, I tried to shift my features to seem apologetic but suspected I may have failed in the attempt.
"I wouldn't mind if you were a freak…just…why pink?" I found myself half apologising and half insulting further, clearly intent on retaining my reputation as socially retarded.
"It's pretty." She defended brightly apparently not put off by my personality.
"It's not." I returned dryly to no visible effect on her ever inanely grinning front. Barely one conversation and I already sought to see the girl leave and never return perhaps even on a long voyage off a short pier.
"Men just don't understand these things." She returned almost sympathetically…as if I were somehow deprived for my inability to see the appeal of the colour pink. A handful of snarl worthy comebacks and stinging quips sprung to my mind but to be honest I was very much past the point of caring.
"Right." I muttered hollowly tuning my new charge out and answering only with the occasional monosyllabic answer usually in the very eloquent form of a grunt. As Sakura, or Mister Pink as I'd taken to referring to her in my mind as, continued to prattle on about both everything and nothing like some demented one man play I allowed my mind to stray once more from the lesson on the importance of amino acids to my missing partner in crime and more or less everything else too.
Karma it appeared was a bitch.
So maybe I'd played a part in stealing from a pizza boy and damaging his bike, half straggled a scientist, stolen a piece of likely highly expensive technology and set fire to a research building…but really did that warrant this kind of inhumanity.
"1...2...3…1...2…3." Sung Miss Spindle rather off-key as we stepped in time to both her count and the tempo of the song…they were making me waltz. Honestly it wouldn't have been so bad had Hinata been struck here to suffer alongside me but instead I was trapped with my new shadow, the ever perky Haruno, whom I could see awaiting the next inevitable phase of the lesson with unmasked glee.
"Okay boys and girls, partner up." Ordered the wicked witch Spindle as the music came to a jarring stop. Before I could even contemplate grabbing another girl- or making a desperate running dive for the open window- my hand was grasped in the pinkette's surprisingly tight hold and her other hand had snaked it's way over my hip.
I blinked in confusion staring into her far too near gleaming green eyes.
"You intending to lead?" I asked more amused than unhappy. I had expected her to blush or apologise for the mistake and rearrange herself into the correct position, she did not. Instead she stepped in taking the initiative before the music had even started and pressing our bodies together before I stepped back hastily.
"Yes." She finally answered forcing me to move with her rhythm…fantastic now I was being emasculated too. The torture didn't last particularly long though as I felt powerful hands rip us apart none to gently.
"Mine." Hissed a familiar voice and I was more than a little pleased to see an absolutely livid Hinata attempting to stare down the taller girl. Well I was pleased until my sense of imminent danger burst to life and I tried to calm the girl slightly by gently laying a hand on her tense shoulder and grasping her pale tightly clenched fist.
"Miss Kendal, you're late." Remarked the voice of Miss Spindle as she noticed the commotion caused by said late arrival. Hinata didn't bother to answer seemingly content with glaring at the still cheerful Sakura Haruno, though it also could have been that agitated as she was Hinata hadn't recognised the use of her own fabricated last name.
"Well I'm afraid you can't dance with Mister Uchiha today he already has a partner. However Mister Hozuki is missing a partner." Explained Miss Spindle I thought almost smugly, it had been apparent for a while now she held something of a dislike for Hinata and I supposed took some joy in this unwanted arrangement. Suigetsu for his part swaddled up happily next to my girlfriend sending me a wink as he did so, I allowed him a vicious grin in return.
Spindle made the mistake of looking away.
Hinata's leg seemed to blur as it lashed out striking Suigetsu's knee with an audible crack.
"My partner's hurt and can't dance 'Sir'." Announced Hinata using the title I knew others before had used to rile up the shorthaired chemistry/dance teachers temper, that said though she hardly noticed the jib instead falling upon the schools star sports student with the now likely broken or fractured leg shouting out cries for someone to get the nurse.
"Well Hinata shall we dance?" questioned Sakura to my confusion offering a hand to Hinata with for the first time an expression besides blissful stupidity marring her features. An almost predatory grin revealed her pearly white teeth and I wondered how many would remain after this challenge to Hinata. The dark girl simply removed her glasses and cracked her neck a particularly cold look in her eyes.
I didn't wait to see the results stepping through the middle and pulling Hinata away from the growing crowd that had begun to surround Suigetsu. I tried to ignore the unsettling feeling of Sakura's eyes on my back as we made it out of the gymnasium.
"Fucking bitch!" Swore Hinata sharped re-donning her glasses with more force than I thought strictly necessary before much to my surprise she drew a pack of cigarettes from her skirt pocket and lit one of the offensive things.
"When the hell did you start smoking." I asked confused, we spent practically all of our time together- I had to lock the bathroom door to keep her out half the time- and it seemed strange that such a habit could have went unnoticed. I had been certain her use of a cigarette in our last adventure had been her first and only time to actually come into physical contact with one.
"This morning, all girls my age do it." She answered, I barely held a worryingly mommy like return of 'so if all the girls were jumping off a bridge' style retort and instead sighed and wrapped and arm over her shoulders…this was hardly the weirdest or most jarring change she'd suddenly pulled over the years, actually this one was refreshingly normal.
"They're not supposed to though." I returned in a tone more playful than scolding, it didn't help Hinata's mood though.
"So who is she?" was her pressed question as we came to a stop in one of our usual spots beneath a low hanging stooped willow tree, I kissed her forehead in a gesture of comfort and I hoped reassurance.
"Just some transfer student…with personal space issues." I answered as we settled down onto the still damp grass. I sacrificed my jacket in hopes of keeping our bottoms dry. Hinata continued wearing her dark frown however, tossing the distant gym the occasional dark look.
"And where have you been all morning?" I asked brushing a stray lock of soft ebony hair from her eyes and hoping to refocus her attention while at the same time sate my own curiosity, as usual Hinata did not disappoint.
"I've been acquiring blackmail material." She answered, it took a moment before I registered the words and another still before I figured out exactly which question I should put to her first.
"On who?" I asked knowing that had I simply asked 'why' Hinata would have responded with 'for blackmail' as what she would have believed as a perfectly appropriate answer to my question.
"Rin." She answered reclining into me with a yawn that had me wondering just how early she had set out this morning.
"Why?" I asked reflexively. There were plenty of things I wanted to do to Rin, namely tie her to a stake and burn her as a witch, but blackmail had never sprung to mind.
"To blackmail her." She answered sleepily, so much for me making good use of my foresight into her responses.
"To what end Hinata?" I tried again as she shifted around into a more comfortable position her head cradled in my lap, it made it quite difficult to be either frustrated or exasperated with the adorable demi-goddess.
"We can't tell Mister Kakashi ourselves so we'll blackmail her for awhile, getting her frazzled and Kakashi suspicious. Then we'll arrange to hand over the blackmail once and for all but we'll tip Kakashi off so he finds her just as she does gets it." Mumbled the brunette snuggling deeper into my lap rather kitten like with another yawn, I was too stunned however at the breath of her plan and its potential to free Kakashi from his cursed bonds.
"How'd you come up with that?" I asked quietly, my last question before I allowed the exhausted girl her well-deserved rest. She smiled almost wistfully.
"I read it in a book." She offered proudly.
That's reassuring.
Hinata had acquired phone records, copies of emails and chat website history, falsified what looked like an aspiring medical students research paper detailing the effects- including impotence- of several chemical compounds used in the EIF creation process, another document which seemed to allude to a member of one of the science departments selling his secrets to the news and finally pictures and a recording of Rin with a mysterious gentleman…I was not allowed to see this video or the pictures under Hinata's strict 'no looking at nude bimbos!' policy.
All in all I wasn't impressed, this was Hinata, she just did this kind of stuff…and then done something utterly airheaded in a strange balancing act, like flood the apartment by leaving the tap on in the bath.
"You always said you liked the water." Commented the brunette, I felt my eyebrow twitch slightly.
"I meant the sea, lakes and rivers…not this." I responded eying the distinctly ruined carpet and some of the malfunctioning electronics as a workman moved around inspecting the damage with a critical eye. I could hear Kakashi speaking on his cell phone just outside the door, we'd barely gotten our less legal possessions hidden before he had arrived.
"Well you should be more clear in the future." Hinata suggested and I laughed a little at her smiling easy going countenance but not because of her words. The poor thing hadn't comprehended the inevitable result of the flooding.
"You know we're going to have to stay with Kakashi right?" I asked, she had not. Her expression fell almost audibly, I could understand easily enough. Not only did she despise Rin but she ranked Kakashi as a high level threat to her false identity.
"We can't." she announced quickly enough.
"Oh do you have money for a hotel?" I asked taking maybe a little too much vengeful satisfaction in teasing the distressed girl.
"I'll rob a bank." Answered Hinata with barely a seconds hesitation. I raised an eyebrow in return.
"Yeah, that's much less risky." I deadpanned with a particularly lacklustre dawdle as the weary detective stepped back into the soggy apartment with a light laugh at Hinata's exaggerated heartbroken expression, he probably attributed it to the damp and not the threat of his company.
"Looks like you'll be with us for almost a week kiddo." Announced Kakashi actually seeming somewhat happy with the idea. Of course he had always wanted me to stay with him, at first though I just hadn't been ready to stay with anyone and later I had Hinata and we had to keep our distance. I think it might have wounded the man a little.
"Great." I returned actually succeeding in keeping any trace of sarcasm from my voice, Hinata's grimace earned another small laugh from the silver haired man.
"Now now, it won't be that bad." Soothed Kakashi clapping a hand on Hinata's shoulder I noted to her increased discomfort.
"Come on, I need to stop by a crime scene before we go home." Explained Kakashi leading us out into the crisp night air and to his car. Another murder, I was beginning to wonder exactly how violent this city was. This was the third time now in a row I'd seen Kakashi that he'd needed to go to a crime scene directly afterwards.
"I smell blood." Commented Hinata morbidly as we sat in the back of Kakashi's sedan awaiting him to finish inspecting the scene himself and assign his officers in whenever way these things went.
"Kakashi's in charge of Homicide." I returned with a shrug, it stood to reason that whatever he was investigating would involve blood in one way or another but Hinata shook her head.
"No this isn't normal, there are other smells too. Burnt flesh, sexual fluids, sex products and other things." Remarked Hinata scrunching up her nose in distaste. That was some sense of smell she had there.
"Sounds like a twisted way to go." I offered in turn, as a general rule I preferred not to mix fire and sex whenever possible.
"I think I was involved." She intoned quietly and quickly catching me off-guard with the strange sentence.
"You wanna try that one again." I shot to her, she had the decency to look apologetic for the briefest of moments before she answered.
"Someone like me I mean, maybe with fire where I have the electric charge." She explained before she reached around the seat in front of her and began routing around Kakashi's car in search before unleashing a pleased 'aha'.
"What'd you find, and please don't say Kakashi's back up gun." I muttered dryly before glancing at the file my girlfriend now held. I had to steel my nerves immediately to prevent my natural reaction to gag and vomit.
There were five cases in total each bearing a photograph of a body horribly mutilated and severely burned. Together we skimmed through the files scant little information. There was nothing in common between the victims, ethnicity, age and gender all seemed at random. The first victim had been a forty seven year old dentist, Caucasian and male. The second was a twenty six year old weather girl, both Asian and female. The third was a twenty three year old male graduate student of African descent. The forth was a white stay at home dad aged thirty two, the first married victim. The Fifth had been a fourteen year old Latino girl. And the sixth was the current case, no doubt with a victim completely unique and connectable. Hinata nodded at the information though as if it were entirely expected.
"They're searching for something, that's why the chosen targets are so different. These are pot shots." Explained Hinata at my look of confusion.
"Looking for what?" I asked still very much confused, as no doubt Kakashi was. Random attacks of violence were impossible to predict and as a result they were difficult to trace or prevent. No motive no connection.
"I don't know, maybe for what we have." Suggested the dark girl with a sombre frown as she eyed me carefully and I thought protectively.
"Would you have done things like this?" I found myself asking with baited breath.
"Now, no. But I have no idea what I'd have become without you. Maybe I would have been just like this Rake, looking for someone I couldn't kill under the assumption that would be my partner." It was one of the longer sentences I had heard her speak and when she finished I drew her into a tight embrace and tried to forget that she had said maybe.
And that's it for chapter 4, hope you all are enjoying.
R&R