Author's Note - I have trapped myself in a hole, here, guys. I got so many reviews that made me smile that it is TOUGH to pick my top one, so I cheated and picked two. You all made me smile and get warm little butterflies in my belly, but naming all you porkchops off would just take up too much time. I thank ALL of you for reviewing. It really gives me that boost I need to keep my writing up. The two reviews that stood out to me the most were:

hellothreeheads - that review was crazy long and crazy great.

saku-ann - I really like it when you guys share what the hell is going on in your crazy heads, and that's what this review did. I loved it!

TO ALL THE REST OF YOU PEOPLE: I F*CKING LOVE YOU OKAY AND I AM THANKFUL FOR ALL THE SUPPORT YOU'VE GIVEN ME. YOU ROCK.

Warnings: Curse words and what I call a 'slight filler slight OMFG WHAT' chapter.

Disclaimer: Holy moly this AN is already long enough no one cares about this anyways like who reads this? Say I. (cricket cricket) - Enjoy!

XXX

Kakashi frowned over his notes, sighing in frustration. He had been given the name of a criminal that had been reportedly seen lurking through the town. He had been through the archives and found that a couple of years before he had been arrested for a month. After his release, he had fled to another state. Kakashi took a long sip of his energy drink and stood up, tired of letting the words swim in front of his eyes. He'd just got ask around the station to see what everyone else knew of him.

Walking into the lounge, Kakashi leaned against the doorframe and watched Neji, who was staring at a wall in utter concentration. He took another drink of his juice and pulled his sleeve up to check the time. Neji had been staring at the wall for ten minutes straight. He needed to get this poor boy on a case.

"Hey, Neji." Kakashi said casually, as if he hadn't just been studying him for ten minutes.

Jumping, Neji glanced over and blinked. Then he nodded his hello and messed with his loose tie.

"Do you remember a case involving a Sai character a couple years ago?" Kakashi questioned, and Neji's mood seemed to darken even further at that.

"Yeah, I was the one who brought him in. Why? Is he back?"

Kakashi shrugged, not wanting to give away false assumptions. "There have been supposed sightings of him, but no one can be sure. Do you think you could handle partnering this case with me?"

Neji turned back to the wall and slumped forward. "I don't think my skills would be very useful in this case."

Kakashi rolled his eyes and set his drink down hard. "Neji, I don't pay you to sit around and mope like a five year old. I understand that seeing a loved-one commit a crime like that is a shock to the system, but you can't let even more criminals get away with acts like that just because you're shocked."

Neji turned to him with a slight glare. "You don't understand."

"You're right, Neji. But I don't need to understand. I need you to get off your powerful ass and help me crack this case. You brought Sai down once, and I know you can do it again."

Neji turned away and stood up with a growl. "Fine. I'll do the outside of the station work, you do the inside."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the order but kept quiet, standing along with Neji. He held out his hand and smiled with Neji begrudgingly shook it. "Let's take him down, shall we?"

"Not if you keep talking like you're from the eighteen hundreds."

Laughing, Kakashi watched fondly as Neji exited the lounge, his shoulders stiff with purpose.

XXX

Neji glanced at Ino, who was painting her nails as they all waited around for a call. Itachi was out patrolling, Neji's least favorite thing to do. Ino glanced up and smiled at Neji. He stared back, biting his lip as he sat down next to her. She brushed her vibrant hair out of her face and her big, blue eyes snagged his.

"Been a while since you've watched me paint my toe nails, eh?"

"Maybe that's because it's such a disgusting habit." Neji said with an eye roll, and Ino growled at him.

"You know you like a woman more when she's got gorgeous toe nails. It just shows that they take better care of themselves."

"Yes, but they can do it other places than at work. Like at home, for example." Neji picked up the bottle of dark purple polish, staring at the name. Ino raised an eyebrow and grabbed her white nail polish and painted it onto her other foot.

"Ugh, why are you mismatching them?"

Ino huffed and stared at him. "First of all, they're not your toes, so you don't even have to complain about them, and second of all, you have the purple nail polish."

Rolling his eyes again Neji set the polish down and got to the topic he had come in the room to ask her about. "Remember that Sai guy from a couple years back? The one who was running that massive drug circle? With the killer lawyer?"

Ino had finished with her toes and was recapping the polish. "I think so. He was kind of cute, right? Pale, with dark hair?"

Neji ignored the faint blush he felt when she described Sai. "He's not me, Ino." Neji said coolly.

Ino smiled slightly. "I know. He's more black and white."

Neji bit his lip and stared at a spot on the wall. "So, do you remember what state he went to? It wouldn't be much, but I could look for a license plate with that state, and a driver with his description."

Ino nodded, as if agreeing with the idea. "Yeah, that's a start. But I don't know, much less remember, what state he went to. You'd have to go to the archives or Sakura to find that."

Neji nodded and stood up, finding himself rather reluctant to leave. "Good idea. Enjoy your mismatched toes." Ino rolled her eyes, but smiled softly all the same.

Neji then walked down the hall and into Sakura's open office, where she was spinning lazily in her chair. Raising an unimpressed eyebrow, Neji waited for her to notice him. When she did, she sat up straight and blushed slightly.

"Oh! Hey, Neji. Sorry about that- kind of bored right now. What do you need?"

"I could tell. Can you look up what state Sai moved to a couple of years ago? His current last name isn't registered, if that's going to cause any problems."

Sakura shook her head and smiled at him, typing away quickly on her computer. Neji stood in the doorway, taking in her office. Her walls were the same as the rest of the station; white. She had a couple of newspaper clippings on her wall, but other than that all she had was her desk and a couple of office chairs for guests to sit on.

"Aha, here it is…" she clicked on something then clucked her tongue and waited a couple more seconds. "Does he look like a black and white painting?"

"That would be him."

"He moved to California two years ago. He hasn't been registered anywhere else. Did he move back?"

"Sightings." Neji said absently, his mind already tracing back to remember what Californian licenses looked like. He thanked her and walked briskly out of the station, hopping in his everyday car and pulling quickly out. On the road he drove slowly, eyes scanning for every single red cursive license plate he could find. His eyes snagged a couple times on some, only to have the driver be either elderly or a woman.

Finally, after two hours of maddening searching, Neji pulled over on the side of the road, letting his head bang against his steering wheel. His horn went off and a couple people jumped and glared and him. He didn't even care. He couldn't concentrate on anything. He kept seeing Hinata's wide, frightened eyes. Her short hair, much different than her old, longer locks. The new people she had stood next to, as if they were her family. As if she had never sworn to Neji that she would always be there for him.

Rocking back in his seat, Neji smashed his fists against his dash, screaming. How could she? How could she have done that to him? She knew that he was a police officer, that eventually he would figure it out, that she couldn't hide forever. Neji closed his eyes and tried to remember the last he had heard from her. It would have been at least five years ago, at least. He knew that she was smart enough to change her phone number, and most likely smart enough to use an untraceable phone number. After all, she was his cousin.

Sighing, Neji watched the people outside walk happily along the sidewalk, smiling and talking and living. Then he glanced down at his phone and dialed Hinata's old number, feeling a ridiculous hope growing in his chest as the phone rang. After the seventh ring, there was a long beep, then an automated woman's voice came over the line. Neji threw the phone to the side of his car in disgust. He would think about his betrayal later. For now, he had an asshole to track.

XXX

"Eh, asshole, come over here. Check out this psycho pounding his steering wheel." Sai said, looking out the bakery window. Orochimaru grunted from his place behind the counter and continued shuffling dollar bills around in his hands, licking his lips. "Orochimaru! He's literally having like, an attack or something," Sai said, snickering.

"Do I look like I fucking care?" Orochimaru asked, glaring greasily up at the pale boy. Shrugging, Sai continued to watch as the long haired man with light eyes attacked his dashboard.

"Hey do you know how much we rolled in today?" He asked absentmindedly, watching as the man drove away in his black SUV. He turned back to Orochimaru and flicked the bakery sign to CLOSED.

Orochimaru coughed and sifted the money between his long fingers greedily. "A couple hundred, at least. Are you going to make that trip to Hy-Vee to restock?"

Sai shrugged and sat himself down in a chair, filling his nails down to perfection. "I thought people would actually be able to, you know, tell the difference between processed crap and the real thing."

Orochimaru tutted and glanced up, almost in a fatherly fashion. "Now, Sai, don't get mad at them. It's not their fault they've been taught to endure processed filth. Besides, it helps business."

Sai laughed and stood up, shaking his head. "You know, sometimes it's hard to remember that you're really the drug overlord."

Orochimaru glared and stuffed the hundreds of dollars into his pocket and closed to cash register, following Sai back into the large, completely empty kitchen in the back. Sai made sure the door was closed behind them before he pushed a cabinet to the side. A set of dark, dank stairs appeared before them. Orochimaru pushed past Sai impatiently and trotted down the steps quickly, Sai following close behind.

Once down there, Sai flicked a light switch on and a single, fluttering bulb lit up the small, musty space. Sai immediately went over to a dark brown cabinet filled with old clothes, rifled through them until he came to a pair of old socks. Pulling them out, he reached in and retrieved a small pouch filled with a dark green plant that was so sweet it was choking. Sai shuddered as he inhaled it's scent and quickly shoved the socks away.

Orochimaru looked on with disgust, lighting himself a cigar as he watched Sai's shaking hands move over the lighter. In a flick and crack as the flame ignited, the blunt caught fire and Sai took a long drag. His eyelids fluttered closed and he sighed in bliss and leaned backwards gratefully.

"Enjoying your filthy weed?" Orochimaru asked with a curl of his lip, watching as Sai's own plump ones wrapped around the burning paper.

"Oh, Maru, yes. I love you so much, you know?" Sai crooned, relaxing into the wall unsteadily.

Orochimaru softened at those words and smiled as he held the cigar up to his thin lips. Blowing the thick smoke back out of his mouth, Orochimaru gazed heavy lidded down at Sai, who was wrapped up in watching the smoke make lazy circles around his head.

"When's our client coming?"

Shrugging, the brunette glanced over at the unimpressed Orochimaru. "He said he'd come sometime. He never gave me a time." Sai took another long drag and coughed slightly. "It's a drug deal, Maru, what the hell do you expect? It's not like we're going anywhere, anyways."

Orochimaru crossed his arms haughtily as he blew more pungent smoke from his mouth. As he stared at the crumbling old wall, he suddenly remembered something.

"Say, Sai, does that old flame of yours still live here?"

Sai blinked heavily as he processed the question. "Naruto?"

Orochimaru smiled slightly at the name and nodded, flicking ash off the end of his cigar as he waited for an answer.

"I think so," Sai said, looking abruptly bored. "I don't know for sure though. Like, he could have moved somewhere. California would be a good place for him. With all that pretty blonde hair."

Orochimaru stiffened with jealousy and reached forward, hauling Sai up. He made eye contact with the zoned out boy and grinned, trailing a pale finger gently down his face. "Do you like his pretty blonde hair?"

Sai swallowed nervously and nodded, then wedged his arm between them to take another large lungful of his blunt.

"Do you want my hair to be blonde?" Orochimaru whispered, flicking his tongue out to trail it across Sai's jawbone. Sai, too high to comprehend what he was doing, just sighed and closed his eyes. Orochimaru smiled cruelly and leaned in, pressing his thin, sour lips to Sai's own. He closed his eyes and groaned, uncaring that the pale boy wasn't responding to his ministrations, too doped up to register anything other than the cracks on the ceilings. Orochimaru trailed his hands down Sai's side and gripped his waist, smiling as he pulled back. Sai was still staring above him, and Orochimaru forced his chin down.

"Who do you belong to, my little druggie?"

Sai's dull eyes rolled. "You. Hey, where's the good stuff?"

Orochimaru ignored Sai's pleading and smiled happily to himself, living in the fantasy of a rotten love.

XXX

Naruto kicked a pebble along the sidewalk and tried to keep his thoughts from straying to Sasuke. But he couldn't stop them. It was like trying to close a gap of rushing water the size of your body with only your fists. No matter how much he wanted to prevent the pour of feelings and memories, they came anyway, a wild mass of confusion and happiness.

Kiba walked alongside him, continuously pulling his hood farther down over his face. He was wearing a dark gray basketball sweatshirt and sweats, with his hands jammed down in his pockets. He watched as Naruto kicked the pebble along with them, keeping his eyes trained carefully forward.

"Man, I don't know why you insisted that we go on a walk. You know how paranoid I am. Why didn't you take Suigetsu?"

"Because you're my best friend," Naruto replied easily, sending a happy smirk over to Kiba.

"Okay, well what does that have to do with me walking with you?"

Naruto shrugged and gave the pebble an extra hard kick, watching forlornly as it whizzed out into the street and away from him. "I just wanted to talk. How's the Hinata mission coming along?"

Kiba stared at him, his eyebrows raised. "Are you like, PMSing or something, dude? You never just want to fucking talk."

Naruto let out a groan and fought the smile tugging at his mouth. Kiba always knew exactly how he felt. Even if he didn't always know what he was thinking. Plus, talking about Sasuke wasn't so bad. "I'm distracted. I can't stop thinking about Sasuke. About where he is right now, what he's doing. Who he's with." Naruto watched as two small children threw rocks into the pond and squealed when the water splashed back at them. "What if he has a girlfriend? What if he has a boyfriend? I can't stop doubting myself. It's driving me insane."

Kiba bent down and picked up a stick, then whacked at a tree branch above his head. "Do you trust him?"

Naruto let out a growl. "Of course. The person I don't trust is me. I held a gun to his head because he asked if we had a roof. How can I have a relationship with him when I can't trust his safety around me?"

"You can't," Kiba said softly, tossing the stick to the side and reaching down as if to pet Akamaru, then pulled his hand back to his pocket when he wasn't there. "You just… Sasuke doesn't seem bad. He seems laid back and cool, and had big enough balls to punch Gaara, which is saying something." Naruto blushed at the thought of Sasuke's genitals, remembering how he had tasted in his mouth. "But if you trust him, and if you really like him, then don't let whatever Hinata or Gaara says get to you."

"I just don't want this to end up like the Sai thing, Kiba." Naruto said helplessly.

"Then Jesus, Naruto, don't see him. I don't know what I'm supposed to tell you. You either see him or you don't. There's no gray area here. We all know that. I think the only one who doesn't know what's going on is you."

Naruto bit his lip and shrugged, almost tripping over another small child as they circled the park again. The girl looked up at him and smiled, tugging at his pants leg. He smiled back and ruffled her hair before she scampered off again.

"When are we going to stop?" Kiba asked softly, staring at the little girls retreating back.

"Stop what?"

"This," Kiba said, gesturing to everything around them with his hands. "Breaking the law. How else are we going to start fresh unless we go to jail? It's not like we can go and grab a job at McDonalds and work our way up. We've made a cage for ourselves, Naruto. You and I, we started something and pulled too many innocent people in with us. Sai sealed the deal. How can we fix something like that?"

Naruto stopped walking and turned to look at him, his eyes wide. "What are you trying to say?" He asked cautiously.

Kiba sighed and shook his head. "I just mean," he glanced over at Naruto before turning back to his feet. "Maybe it's for the best if he arrests us. I'm guessing only a year's sentence for each of us. That's not too bad, Naruto. It could be worse. And I feel like if we continue to scamper around the law like we've been doing, that time will get bigger. We've got our whole life ahead of us. I mean, come on, we're both twenty one. Hinata isn't even, she's twenty. We've been doing this for too long."

Naruto swallowed thickly, trying to get past the sudden knot in his throat. Kiba's words were true, they were all so true. But Naruto was comfortable. He was happy. He enjoyed the adrenaline rush that breaking the law gave him. He felt young and alive and free, and he enjoyed it. He didn't want it to end. He didn't want to trade all this in for an everyday job just so he could pay for an apartment and eat food, then repeat every day.

At the same time, though, he did want to just drop everything and turn himself in. He wanted a life after the crime. He wanted to raise a family and grow old and laugh with friends and be forgiven and cleansed of his crimes. He wanted to be able to live guilt free, wanted to let his blonde hair stay blonde. Wanted to go out in public and chat with his friends as they ate chocolate and talked about the newest movie coming out.

He didn't know how to choose.

He didn't want to.

XXX

Itachi knocked for the second time on Sasuke's front door to his apartment, standing impatiently outside. He had come here instantly after work to check on him, and had been absolutely furious when his younger brother hadn't picked up his phone to respond. He slammed his fist against the wood again, louder and in rapid succession.

"Sasuke! You idiot! Open the door before I kick the damn thing down!"

Nothing.

"Sasuke, I'm giving you to the count of three."

Suddenly, there was shuffling on the other side of the door and a hoarse call, "Wait! God,"

Itachi instantly relaxed and lowered his throbbing fist, watching as the abused door open in front of him. Sasuke stood there, his face a map of bruises and bumps. He had on a baggy shirt and huge sweatpants, so Itachi couldn't see his abdomen, but from the way he carried himself he could tell he was sore there. Fear and anger and protectiveness rushed to the surface and he took a step forward.

"Sasuke! You said you had a couple bruises, not a whole mess of them. Have you even put ice on these?" Itachi's hands fluttered protectively over his brother's face and he watched as Sasuke winced and pulled away, beckoning him inside.

Itachi stepped in and immediately made for the kitchen, grabbing an ice pack from the refrigerator.

"Sit down, sit down," Itachi muttered, pushing his brother onto his couch and instantly applying the ice to his swollen and purple face. Sasuke winced but allowed the ice to stay there, going limp on the couch. Itachi glanced over at the TV and smirked when he saw that Sasuke had been watching Cake Boss on Netflix.

"How did this happen?" Itachi demanded, watching as Sasuke's face clouded over.

"You know how drunken bastards in a bar are; looking for a fight."

"And you were the one to fight?"

"I was the drunken bastard."

Itachi rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, noticing his brother's jaw twitch ever so slightly.

He was lying.

"Sasuke," Itachi said, frowning down at his little brother, who was weakly trying to grab at the remote. Suddenly Itachi remembered something. Sakura had returned from her lunch today and told him that she had seen Sasuke. She hadn't mentioned any bruises at all. "Why didn't Sakura tell me about these bruises?"

Sasuke flinched at the sound of her name and sat up, grunting when the ice pack fell off his face. "It was pretty recent, so the bruises hadn't quite formed all the way."

Itachi rolled his eyes. "You idiot. I know you didn't get in a bar fight, so drop the act, okay? Tell me what happened."

Sasuke sighed tiredly and pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "Sit down," he said finally.

And so he told him. He told him of how he had tracked Naruto, how he had found their apartment, how Jiraiya had knocked him out, the voting for him, the bedroom (minus the blowjob), the gun, the fight, and then finally Sakura.

Itachi blinked a couple times, staring down at his hands in stunned silence. Then he looked up, opened his mouth, and closed it again. "You…" he turned away and stood up, pacing angrily. "That's where you were? How could I have been so stupid… I knew that was a bad part of town…"

Sasuke stared at him in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Itachi turned to him. "You don't seriously think that I'd let you prance around without a tracker on your phone? I saw your location last night, Sasuke. And how the hell do you get beat up that badly from that scrawny little redhead? I thought I trained you better than that. Also, I can't fucking believe that you went over there in the first place, you fucking idiot!" Itachi huffed and grabbed his long hair before taking a quick seat.

"You knew… you know…" Sasuke had gone pale as he stared at Itachi, realization filling his veins.

Itachi wasn't paying any attention however, too busy trying not to have a heart attack. "Hold on," he said, and both brothers paused, letting the crazy tension ebb away as they both gained their composure.

"Yeah?"

"Sakura said she'd keep your secret?"

"Yeah, why?"

"She's nice and all, but she doesn't strike me as one to keep a secret that big and important just because you're a swell guy." Itachi closed his eyes. "Jesus, Sasuke, you are one naïve bastard."

"Look, I wasn't even thinking straight anyway, my head was killing me." Sasuke grumbled, and Itachi frowned at him.

"Why was your head killing you?" Itachi asked, carefully casual.

Sasuke sighed and leaned back into the couch. "Isn't that a side effect of being roofied?"

Itachi froze and blinked. Roofied. Roofied?

"What the hell do you mean?"

Sasuke stopped moving and refused to open his eyes as he realized his mistake. He had left that part out of his story. His shoulders slumped and he opened his eyes sheepishly. "Uh, yeah. They roofied me." He didn't bother giving it an explanation; his brother wouldn't care.

"You've got to be…" Itachi threw his hands into his hair and scrunched his face up. "Those bastards. You're sticking your neck out for them and you don't even know them, and you're only infatuated with Naruto. And they have the gall to treat you like that?" Itachi stared pacing around again, and suddenly his eyes lit up. "I'm going to go on a jog. Stay here and be safe for once, okay?"

Sasuke watched in confusion as his brother whirled out of the room, closing the door swiftly behind him.

Itachi grinned to himself on the other side of the threshold, pulling out his phone. He still had Naruto's apartment down on his phone. And he was going to find him, them, and make them see just how civil Sasuke had been. When he was done there, they would be quivering in their boots and begging for real mercy.

Snapping his jacket quickly over his shoulders, Itachi made his way back down Sasuke's apartment building and into the cool evening air, where he quickly caught a bus. He checked his phone at multiple intervals, and finally hopped off in a dingy neighborhood where sick looking children played basketball with shoes too small for them and dirt smeared on their faces. Wrapping his jacket tighter around himself, Itachi quickly navigated his way through the crumbling wreckage of homes.

Finally, he came to a stop in front of a rather plain building crawling with cats and greasy looking men. Itachi checked his phone and smirked when he saw he had arrived at his destination.

Full of confidence, he walked into the danger zone.

XXX

A/N: So? How was it? Not boring, I hope... ANYWHO: I have decided that I want to try something new for my ending AN, and all the lovely people who take the time to read it. I'd really like to know where all you guys are from, because I want to get to know you a little bit better and see how far my story has reached. So, if you're up for it, please leave your country (or state) in a review! Thank you all so much! Much love,

-IC