Hello once again! I have to say thanks to the reviewers who have reviewed since my last update: sharkswillruledaWORLD, EvansXAlburn, unknown98, CherryTree230, a Guest I shall name Sir Larry, and MeMyselfAndZafir. I must confess that this chapter is a little bit smaller than the last one, and it is somewhat a filler. I found that Sakura had been mostly inside her own head for the last couple of chapters so I added some side character development. I must also confess to having a bit of trouble when I started this chapter, so if it's a little rough at first I am severely sorry. I found that I added a character to the list (you'll see when you read) and I am working on personal relations in this chapter. Reviews on how I did with this will greatly help my writing. Thanks again my readers! (And I have cracked the 10,000 mark! WOOOHOOO!)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto... DX

Façade-sama

Sakura sighed and glared at the notebook in front of her for the nth time that morning. The security footage had been grainy and hard to comprehend, and it had taken her until nearly midnight to find all of the suspects for the murder case. And now, she had carefully written out the suspects' names and information she had gathered so far in the pocket notebook clenched in her hands. The two files the police had had on two of the suspects were also added. Combined with that, she had written down all the evidence and information pertaining to the case that she had acquired before the suspects list was formed.

Man that was a lot of work.

And you still wondered why the bags under your eyes were darkening.

Sakura was in no mood to speak to her Inner. Instead, she read the information gathered so far. She had been smart enough to document the times each and every suspect had gone past Sakamoto-san's apartment, and when the police information was reported.

Alright, to start we have the Haruno murder investigation. It happened on the twenty-first of August, and around 4:30 pm all three of the Harunos were murdered in their home. They all had the same types of wounds: a stab to the left leg, and a shot to the abdomen post mortem. All three had been originally killed by a shot to the frontal cortex. Sakura suppressed the urge to cry at the memories once again.

Keep going, once this guy's behind bars you can cry. But crying now won't solve anything.

Sakura continued where she left off reading, skipping two sentences ahead to the evidence gathered so far. Her own calligraphy calmed her down a bit. Knowing that she had this much stuff on the murderer was empowering.

The bullets from all three victims were .33, characteristically found in a handgun. This was also a match to the bullet found to have killed Sakamoto-san. Sakura had pulled the latest files on the case earlier and had been pleasantly surprised at the newfound information. No other forensic evidence was found at either scene.

Moving on are the two currently known suspects for the investigation with reported evidence from the police force:

Wantanabe Satomi:

Characteristics: Brown hair/Brown eyes

Height: 1.62 meters (about 5.2 feet)

Gender: Female

Age: 43

Vocation: Chef at a Kare-ya*

Other Information: A single parent with three kids, all in elementary school.

Wantanabe-san was seen driving out of the apartment driveway at 9:34 pm. She has never been seen visiting the apartment complex before that night.

Takahashi Itsuki:

Characteristics: Black hair/Brown eyes

Height: 1.80 meters (about 5.9 feet)

Gender: Male

Age: 32

Vocation: Technology Consultant

Other Information: Single, working male with no past record of arrests.

Takahashi-san was seen near the victim's residence at 9:47 pm. He was walking home from work a half hour later than he normally did.

Sakura sighed as she viewed the information accumulated by police. We could have found more with an online search!

Of course we could have. If we hacked their email we could find whether or not they're the culprit. Too bad that's kind of illegal.

Not like that has stopped you before.

Moving on to the five stills I found whilst watching the footage myself. They're currently being processed by my program to find out just who was near Sakamoto-san's apartment before he was murdered.

I can't believe the police missed that guy that was walking in the alley way.

Think about that statement for a second. If it had not been for my incredibly advanced computer the blob wouldn't have even been recognizable as a human face.

Her computer beeped as it spit out the five names. Three were people that lived in Sakamoto-san's apartment building; the other two were from different cities entirely. All her computer showed was the name and affiliation of the person. Anything else would need to be gathered by an online search or from police records.

Sakura shot up as her eyes began to droop. It was currently 3:46 am, and Sakura's drowsiness was keeping her from completing the current mission.

You don't have to 'meet' Itachi again until Thursday. Remember, you said you'd give him the information in two days' time.

Yeah, that doesn't mean I can just sit idle. And, technically, Thursday is tomorrow.

Sakura logged onto her hacker account for the first time in a couple days. She still had the one alert from her hacker friend. What he could still want - especially at this hour – was definitely a mystery to the tired, pink-haired girl. She clicked on the alerts anyway.

'I've made some recent progress hacking the firewall for the Hyuga Corporation. But it's still not working out so far. They seem to have an impervious defense against hackers and any programming I've used. Though I must ask how you have ever been able to make it into their systems.'

T1M3ST0P'

Sakura just smirked at the deviation from her thoughts. The Hyuga Corporation had been one of the hardest firewalls to hack in all of her experience with computer coding. The fact that it was a computer and housing security corporation may have been the root cause for the hard hours spent cracking the system. In the end it had become very worthwhile. She had played a prank on the tech people responsible for the system firewalls just to ensure that they knew someone had gotten into their 'impregnable' network. Sakura had rigged the network with a virus that continuously printed out a historical argument between the first Hokage and his political rival, Uchiha Madara – one of Itachi's ancestors. When the tech analysts realized their system had been hacked they had had a horrible time trying to get rid of the little 'prank' placed into their computers. When they had finally gotten rid of it, her hacker handle had appeared on each and every screen connected to the Hyuga Corporation servers.

It's your stupid apprentice again. Inner jolted Sakura out of her thoughts of the past.

He's so determined to learn from me. And then Sakura had an idea. Hey, Inner. What if we have him help us with the case? I could use some actual help with the name searches.

Fine. Better than the stupid Uchiha.

Sakura smiled as she typed out her request to her aspiring apprentice. His hacking style was somewhat unpredictable, but only because she had been making him work on being untraceable. If he wanted to become a master hacker he would have to be able to avoid the police. She didn't want anything he knew about her getting back to them if he was caught.

Not that he knows very much anyway. Just the hacking style you use and all the places you've managed to get into in the last year.

That's way more information than anyone else knows about me.

Yeah, but you know his face and real name.

Only because I hacked his web cam to make sure he wasn't the police.

And the guy turning out to be a thirteen-year-old kid is so much better?

I started my hacking career at a younger age. Now, to business: 'Good work, T1M3ST0P, but now I have a favor to ask of you. I have some names I would like you to search for me. Any information you can get would be appreciated. Just remember that all of this is a secret side project of mine. But the faster it's done the better. The names I'm giving you are all current Konoha residents: Sarutobi Rin, Shimura Danzo, and Kobayashi Aoi. I need everything you can find, including police records and prior arrests. All the information must be compiled and sent to me immediately. While this may be a side project I am still on a slight deadline.

Ryuu'

Do you think that's enough information without going overboard, Inner?

Yep. Now go to sleep, I'm tired and we still have school tomorrow, or I guess today.

Sakura sent the message to her self-appointed apprentice with a grin on her face. Maybe between the two of them they could get the information to Itachi that much quicker.

The pinkette groaned as she entered her first period class. For the past few days she had about eight hours of sleep for every night combined. It was already affecting her performance in the mornings. She no longer bothered to make an architectural structure with her food, and her daily jab at Karin's less than 200 calorie breakfast had flown out the window as well. Instead she almost stuck her whole face in her plate of chocolate chip pancakes and barely noticed Karin making her daily breakfast of toast.

"Sakura, you don't look very good this morning," Gaara, her only friend in first period, commented as she slouched in her seat. He had noticed the forming eye bags yesterday but hadn't said anything when they had gone away by lunch. But today he would not ignore them. "You haven't been sleeping very well, have you?" When there was no answer from the petite girl he took that as an affirmation. "Have you talked to Ino about this?" Gaara was treading on unfamiliar territory. He wasn't usually the one to ask about a friend's problems unless it was Naruto. And even then the blond kid came to him on his own volition.

"Ino wouldn't understand," Sakura commented to the redhead. Her voice was a bit raspy from disuse. It hadn't escaped Gaara that Sakura seemed to be in her own head more than she talked to their group of friends these days. It was a bit unhealthy, but then again who was he to judge? He hadn't had any friends until Naruto introduced him to the group freshman year. And he was never one to join conversations unless pulled into them with an inquiry about his opinion on a matter.

"If you want someone that will just listen, you can tell me about it," he had hesitated to say anything in the first place. This territory was making him nervous. His voice had dropped a bit when he had said that betraying the way this conversation made him feel.

Sakura turned to face him then. She already knew what it meant for him to actually voice that to her. It was an abnormal occurrence, one in a string of many from this crazy first week of junior year. "Thanks Gaara, that means a lot. But right now I need to handle this situation myself. If I need to talk to someone later about it though, I'll tell you."

Gaara was going to kick himself later for his next comment, but he said it anyway. "Bottling up your emotions doesn't work, Sakura. Take it from someone who's tried it."

Sakura thought about Gaara's words all through her next two class periods. By lunch she was stewing over the fact that the redhead had been able to understand her thoughts so easily. He's right, Inner. This murder investigation has me reliving that day over and over again. And the fact that I can't think about anything but the investigation has me severely frazzled.

Currently, Sakura was sitting in her French III class clicking keys on her computer as if she were taking notes on what the teacher was saying. In actuality she was playing solitaire.

All you have to do is solve the case. Then you'll be able to sleep peacefully at night.

I guess. But it seems like there's more to it than that. I hate emotions sometimes because they seem too complex. And there really is no way to vent my frustrations other than by hacking.

Then hack.

Sakura smirked at her Inner. At least her computer was already out and ready, and her some of her friends were currently in a boring Pre-Calculus class – one that Sakura had tested out of and hadn't had to take this year. Maybe she should give them something to talk about other than functions and parabolas.

I guess I could do it.

Don't guess, hack!

She exited solitaire and began her fun. The tiredness she had sustained was quickly replaced with adrenaline, her eyes lighting up with the prospect of doing this while Kurenia-sensei lectured, and the lingering thoughts of getting caught echoed in her mind.

Sakura quickly bypassed the school's security firewall and set to work. Kakashi-sensei's Pre-Calculus class was next door, so she hoped to hear the outcome of her fun through the paper-thin walls. She started by taking over his projector, turning it on so she could see the mass destruction that would ensue upon his quiet classroom. Making sure she could still see – without the rest of the class seeing her – she loaded a YouTube video to the screen. It was a random music video that uploaded quickly on her demand. But it wreaked havoc on the quiet atmosphere Kakashi had set for their current assignment. Sakura had turned the speakers up to blast the unintelligible musical sounds. The sudden intrusion of the very loud noise jolted all of the occupants in the Pre-Calculus room, and several students from adjacent rooms, to their feet in a matter of seconds. Sakura watched as utter panic broke out in the room she had just pranked as well as the room she was currently residing in. Kurenia-sensei was trying to usher her students out of the French room with quick sweeps of her hands. The music was so loud that Sakura couldn't hear the female sensei's words above the din.

Like a good little follower, Sakura walked after the other students out the door. She closed her laptop, leaving the turmoil as it was for the time being. She rather liked getting out of the stuffy classroom earlier for lunch.

All of the students, as well as herself, were herded into the gym. She stuffed her computer, still very much running, into her bag and went to find her friends. Ino was laughing with Hinata over the whole thing in a corner near the closed bleachers. Sakura joined the pair, soon followed by Tenten and Neji as well as Sasuke, Naruto, Gaara, and a very annoyed Shikamaru.

"Did you see the look on Kakashi-sensei's face when the music went off?" Ino laughed. "He almost jumped out of his skin!"

"A-and t-t-then he m-made us all l-l-leave the r-room really q-quickly, grabbing a-all h-h-his books as-s if it w-were a f-fire alarm," Hinata added with a small giggle.

"Aw man, I missed Kaka-sensei's reaction!" Naruto commented with a small frown. "Asuma-sensei just pushed all of us out the door and took us here."

"And no one knows what caused this?" Sasuke asked with his own frown at the situation. Shikamaru glanced at Sakura but said nothing. She knew he had been monitoring her computer usage for the past couple of years. He should have a mild evaluation of her skills after doing such a thing for so long. He was a Nara after all.

"No," Gaara commented. "Not even Shizune-sensei."

"If Shizune-sensei has no idea what's going on, then won't the principle, Tsunade-sama, be having trouble as well?" Tenten asked, exasperated at being stuffed into the gym with no explanation on why the music had started. Neji put an arm around her shoulder reassuringly.

Sakura felt a tinged of regret at her choice of amusement. But hacking was the only way for her to blow off some steam. And Inner hadn't been bugging her for the past half an hour. She almost smiled at the thought, but stopped when she realized the small smile would not be appreciated at the current moment.

Tsunade burst through the doors of the gym, shaking the pink-haired girl out of her thoughts. She was pissed, and the look she gave the students near the entrance she had stepped through was one of utter contempt. The population of high school students quieted as she cleared her throat. "It seems that, as the computer science teacher is gone for the day, there is no one who can fix the system in Hatake Kakashi's room. However, I have gone over the current roster for the advanced computer science class and decided that if one of the students from said class can fix the systems I would be forever grateful. Therefore, I have to ask for all of those in the class I have just specified to follow me to Kakashi's room."

There was a ripple of hesitation from the students gathered in the gym. Sakura clasped her back pack strap tightly until her knuckles turned white. If they found out it was her she could be suspended.

Sakura peeled away from her friends to follow Shikamaru through the crowd. Only a handful of kids were in the advanced computer science class and Sakura was one of two girls. She didn't want to stand out, not with the evidence against her in the back pack she wore. She and the rest of the group pooled around Tsunade. Shikamaru gave her that look once again. The one that said: 'why'd you have to go and do something so troublesome?'

Not like he's going to be the one to fix it anyway.

Inner, you're not helping. And I thought you left.

I never left. I just chose to observe your destructive side.

Sakura resisted a groan at her thoughts.

The principle led the group of teens towards the offending noise. Apparently it was a lot louder inside the room than Sakura had first thought. Everyone pulled their hands over their ears to try to stop the offensive sounds. But the blasting music continued its near eardrum destroying sounds. Sakura was regretting the use of metal music at this point.

The group gathered around Kakashi's computer. Sato Hayate took the challenge first. He tried to stop the atrocity coming from the computer, but Sakura's absurd firewall block had taken affect. She liked to make sure that no one got into a system when she was hacking it. And now she was cursing herself silly at the prospect.

When Tsunade wasn't watching, Sakura slipped a computer drive into Shikamaru's hand. Then she sent him a kicked puppy look. The Nara sighed at the look, but stepped forward none the less. He quickly hooked in the port without anyone noticing and pretended to type something onto the screen. The coding that was keeping the music playing on the projector disappeared and was sent back to the source, made untraceable by the port Sakura had given the Nara. Sakura and all the rest of the class let their hands fall to their sides in relief. The blaring had stopped and her computer skills were still safe. That was a good half a day's work for the pinkette.

Tsunade sighed and gave a small smile toward Shikamaru. "Thank you Shikamaru. Now classes can continue as they have been."

Right after she said that the bell rang for first lunch. Sakura smiled at the sound while the principle just sighed. "Alright, go. I don't want to see anyone for the next couple of hours."

The group left the room with smiles on their faces. Shikamaru handed Sakura back the port with a glance that told her he would have words with her later about her behavior. Usually she just hacked a random citizen and played slender on their computer remotely to scare them and make herself feel better. This sort of thing at school had never been done by her before. At least she hadn't left her hacker handle behind this time. No one would ever be able to link this with Ryuu as long as she didn't make this sort of thing a habit.

Sakura walked with Shikamaru to the table where her friends were currently residing. Naruto was grinning wildly at their appearance. "Sakura-chan, Shikamaru, which one of you fixed Kaka-sensei's computer?"

Sakura pointed to the Nara as she stuck the port into her pocket. She was fine with the guy getting all the credit. She had no desire for any of this getting back to her.

And that was when Ino saw her eye-bags. "Haruno Sakura what the hell have you been doing to yourself?" She was pointing at the offending objects beneath both of Sakura's eyes making all the rest of the table (namely Naruto, Hinata, and Tenten) look at her surprised.

"I haven't been sleeping well. Don't worry, I plan on going to bed early tonight," she answered rather quickly. She looked anywhere but at her blond best friend's face. "I'll be sleeping better from now on."

Ino looked at her doubtfully, but dropped the subject. Sakura felt the beginnings of a headache forming. And just think, Inner, it's only been half the day so far.

And I have a feeling the rest of the day is going to go downhill.

Sakura couldn't agree more.

Thanks for reading! And I now have twelve followers (coughMINIONScough). Please review, follow, favorite, or all three! Your input is greatly appreciated!

And by the way, *Kare-ya is a Japanese restaurant that specializes in curry rice dishes.

Façade-sama