Chapter 4:

Call Forth the Witness

There was one part of his job Naruto absolutely hated; interviewing the witnesses. There was nothing worse than trying to get a sensible piece of information from someone who either wouldn't stop crying, or was threatening legal action against anyone who dared walk up to them.

It came as a pleasant surprise that there weren't much of either. The odd rich snob or close friend, they were annoying. But everyone who knew old man Sarutobi closely seemed to share the old man's stoicism, offering anything they could.

Naruto was finishing up an interview now, with the old man's son. "What happened after you talked with him" he asked the man.

Asuma's skin was a pale ash colour. "I remember," he said, "that he was going out for a smoke, I think. Kurenai told me to go get him after a while, but I thought h..he wanted some peace and quiet.

"Thank you for your co-operation" Naruto said, closing his notebook. "And I'm sorry." Asuma did a little nod, then walked away to where his wife was, silently crying into her hand.

Naruto looked around the room, but he couldn't find a trace of Sasuke. He let his eyes drag across the walls, until...there. Sasuke was chatting with some person in a corner of the ballroom, his back to Naruto. "Shirker" Naruto thought. "Let me talk to all the weepy witnesses." The ninja began to make is way to his partner, straining to see who he was talking to.

"...and he's got a chin like mine" Sasuke was saying. He turned to see Naruto approaching him. "Got anything useful?"

"By useful, do you mean 'Absolutely no help whatsoever?'"

"Liven up. You starting to sound just like Shikamaru."

"Is there anything else?" a new voice said. It came from the man behind Sasuke. Naruto peeked over his friend's shoulder... "Ah, great."

It was Sai. The coldest sonnuvabitch working the Leaf City police force. They said if you looked at him long enough, you'd go blind from the sheer blankness coming off of him. But, he was also the best sketch artist they've had in years

"Is their anything else, Uchiha?" he repeated. He tapped his sketchbook.

Sasuke scratched his chin. "Yeah. One of his ears is split on the bottom. Kunai wound from long ago."

Sai rubbed something out with his pencil, and quickly scribbled onto his paper. He ripped the sheet off the pad when he was done, and handed it to Sasuke. "Next time, please get to the point. I have work I need to get done." And he wandered off."

"Jackass" Sasuke snorted, when Sai was out of range.

Naruto chuckled. "Don't be to hard on him. D'ya hear what he used to do?"

"I know. Foundation work is supposed to mess with your head. Doesn't mean he has to be a rude jerk."

"Then why did you start talking to him?"

"I needed a sketch done."

"That sketch?"

"Yes, this sketch."

"Can I see it?"

"No, you can not."

"Really? So it's one of those 'mysterious Sasuke' things."

"Yes."

Naruto took a long, hard look at his partner, who had stuffed the sketch into his coat pocket. "Alright then. Let's go get the big fish."

The two detectives made their way through the crowd, to a big table in the center of the ballroom. Sitting there were five people, one woman, three men. The first man was elderly, and a veritable hobbit; short and stout, grey ponytail, with a big nose hanging a luxurious mustache. He wore a green three-piece suit, with an inverness that hung down straight to his feet.

The second man was the exact opposite. He had dark skin, and silver hair that hung from his head. A silver goatee sat on an angry face; his mouth and eyes were set in a permanent scowl. As large as a house he was, with rippling muscle definition and fists the size of frozen turkeys. The muscles on his arms alone threatened to burst out of his tailored suit.

The woman seemed the most approachable. Flowing auburn hair hid brilliant blue eyes, down the rear of a back-less blue cocktail dress. Her limbs were slight, but she exuded a feeling that it would be unwise to turn your back on her.

The fourth and final person was the youngest, a man around the age of Naruto or Sasuke. Ember coloured hair pointed from his scalp, the latter of which stretched down into a flat, crease-less face. His eyes were ringed by black bags. Most striking was his dress; over a sand coloured suit he wore a sash, which in turn held aloft on his back a giant gourd with black symbols painted on it.

These were no mere aristocrats; these were the Gokage, leaders of the capital cities of the countries that ringed The Land of Fire. Sand, Stone, Mist, and Cloud. And now two low-ranking detectives had to questioned them. The red-haired man turn his head, and broke into a small grin.

"Detectives."

Naruto returned the smile. "Good to see you, Gaara." He flipped open his notebook and pulled up a chair. "I assume you all know why we're here."

Raikage, the big man, grunted.

"Good." Naruto pulled up a chair for Sasuke. "Now, would you all prefer to do this alone?"

"There's no point" said the Mizukage, the woman. "We've mostly spent the night in each others company."

Sasuke nodded. He took out his notebook (bigger and newer, much to Naruto's shame) and retrieved a pencil from his pants pocket. "Alright. Answer in whatever order you can. Where we're you exactly two hours ago, around 9:30?"

"I was discussing something private with one of my governors" said Gaara.

"Eating. I was just about to send my meal back for being too raw" said the Tsuchikage.

"I was attempting to dissuade the Raikage from fist fighting the bar tender" said the Mizukage.

"The little prick should have known better than to refuse me" the Raikage growled. "Limit my ass; I could drink everyone here under the table."

"I have no doubt you could."

"Up yours, Sand whelp!"

Naruto held his head in his hands. "Anything else? Some important detail that, God willing, actually involves what's going on?"

"Do I hear a hint of pretension in the fox detective's voice" the Tsuchikage snorted. Naruto was about to unleash a cuss tirade against the old man when Sasuke stepped in.

"Yes, you do Tsuchikage. Now, is there anything else?"

Gaara scratched his palm. "I do remember something." The two detectives flipped their notepads to a clean page. (No need, seeing as they hadn't written anything in the first place, but best look professional).

"I was speaking with Kankuro about some trade matter, and I looked over his shoulder for a brief second" Gaara said. "And in the crowd, I saw this one man..."

Naruto was not so in tuned to Gaara to notice that Sasuke's shoulders tensed. "Continue" he said.

"He...I can't exactly describe it. But as I watched him walk across the room, he , uh, shimmered." Gaara followed 'shimmered' with a hand motion, waving his fingers in a slight wave to accentuate how the mystery man shimmered.

"Shimmered?" Naruto asked.

"And they saw I drank too much" Raikage scoffed under his breath.

"Yes" Gaara continued. "His form seemed rough around the edges, blurry. I couldn't make out his face, so I'm not sure how helpful this might be-"

"You're sure he shimmered?" Sasuke asked, rather quickly Naruto noted. "Pardon what I'm about to say, but you sure it wasn't a illusion from...Shukaku?"

His bluntness caused Gaara to raise an eyebrow. The Two Tails wasn't something his friends were not comfortable talking about, much like the Nine Tails and Naruto. Clearly, the shimmer was important.

"No" Gaara said clearly. "I know those illusions. This wasn't it."

"Thank you, everybody" Sasuke said. "My condolences for what's happened tonight; I know the old man was your friend." And he got up and briskly walk away, seemingly with a purpose.

Naruto was left sitting dumbfounded with the Kage. "...What he said" he said, and ran to catch up with his friend. When he had caught up with Sasuke, He grabbed the raven-haired man by the shoulder and spun him, unleashing the tirade he swallowed for the Tsuchikage's sake .

"What the hell was that?! You leave me sitting there like an ass with all those fancy politicians, you act like you had a gun shoved up your anus once Gaara started talking, and excuse me, but didn't we all agree not to bring up the-Are you listening to me; don't fumble for papers when I'm chewing you out!"

Sasuke took the aforementioned paper he was fumbling for, and stuck in Naruto's face. Naruto took it, and shut up immediately. It was Sai's sketching; a profile picture of Itachi Uchiha. Sasuke's older brother, with a rap sheet that could go around the moon; murder, drug-smuggling, weapon-running, assassination...if there was a law ninjas could break, Itachi smashed it into shards.

"Sakura said old man Sarutobi's eyes had experienced a Sharingan, meaning unless you think I'm a murderer, Itachi's back in town."

"And he ripped off the old man's head?"

Sasuke shook his head. "Gotta be working with someone. That's not his style. Point is, he's a prime suspect."

"...Meaning this is probably an assassination case. Itachi's a sociopath, but he doesn't just kill people. Too distasteful for such a 'sophisticated' guy."

"I'm worried a little bit more about the guy he's working with. If he's willing to do what he did to Sarutobi, I don't think he's all that stable. And Itachi-"

"-can only control someone with enough self-preservation and intelligence to be controlled" Naruto said, finishing that sober thought. Itachi, a master of Ocular Jutsu, and a crazy Über-thug. The two digested this idea, and immediately began running to find Kakashi.