Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait; my schedule was very messed up this week, and I had a minor case of writer's block. But no worries, I've finally finished this chapter! 

The Ninja Game

Chapter Nine

"There. The woman with the brown hair. She's talking on the phone." Pakkun pointed towards the woman in question, "Her name is 'Sa-ra' I think."

Minato nodded, "Wish me luck." He muttered, and then stepped out from the corner he had been hiding behind into the street.

He did not feel nervous, at least not the nervousness he felt the day of his jonin exam, or on his first S-ranked mission. But there was a slightly apprehensive part of him, though if it rose from fear or something else, he could not tell. He was, after all, going back into the tiger's den, back into enemy territory, albeit an incompetent enemy.

The best way to find Kakashi, he reasoned, is to work together with these people. At least they know the city better than he did, an expertise he desperately needed now. And who knows what other gadgets they had here that they did not have back in Konoha. The woman lowered her phone from her ear and snapped it shut with a click. Minato took a deep breath and started to walk towards her. She was his best choice, partly because she seemed to care most about Kakashi according to Pakkun's reports, and she was probably the only one that he had yet to meet and therefore was probably not greatly suspicious or scared half to death of him.

As he approached, she looked up, her eyes widening. He gave her his best friendly smile, "Ano-" he began, but was cut off as she started backing away, reaching down towards her belt for a weapon.

"You!" she said, her eyes widening in recognition and no small amount of alarm. She had pulled her weapon from its holster in her belt. It was a black, metal, strangely-shaped weapon that Minato had never seen before, but he was sure it wasn't pleasant. So much for peaceful negotiations.

Now, she pointed the metal weapon at him, and he could see a small hole in the end of the weapon. He had seconds to react, but he was not called the Yellow Flash for nothing. Before Sara could lift the safety, he had disappeared. She blinked in confusion, just as a hand closed over his mouth, and she felt a strong arm around her waist.

Then the world disappeared in a dizzying blur.

"Gomen." Minato apologized as he put Sara down on the roof of the nearest building. He did not like using force, but he did not have time to explain things calmly. Sara stood up unsteadily, disoriented from Minato's speed and the suddenness of the move. Her first reaction, of course, was to reach for her gun, but she found nothing; Minato had been smart enough to leave it behind. She cursed, just her luck to be kidnapped by the same dangerous suspect that had managed to escape from under the noses of the police.

"What do you want?" she asked, watching him warily.

"Gomen! Ah, I…sor-ry." he corrected, "But I need you to help." he held up his hands to show that he was unarmed. He hoped that she didn't know he knew over a dozen different ways to kill a man with his bare hands.

Sara scowled, "Don't play games with me." She said, "I know that you are Kakashi's sensei. You were the one who gave him the scars, right?" the rational portion of her mind was screaming at her not to antagonize him further, on pain of death. But she ignored it, feeling the anger seethe in her veins.

Minato frowned, taken aback. "Scars?" he repeated, not knowing where she was going with this. Every shinobi had scars, he knew, and Kakashi was no different. It wasn't as if the scars were a reason to be ashamed, on the contrary, many shinobi liked to show off their "souvenirs" from the battlefield, bragging about how they had gotten them. And they were, according to Minato's own sensei, very attractive to the ladies, though Kakashi was a little young to be interested in those kinds of things. So when the topic of Kakashi's scars came up, Minato merely shrugged in reply, "Scars is fine." He said, "Kakashi a-cus-tam to it."

The CSI's anger boiled over. Before she could stop herself, her hand shot out and, to his utter shock, hit him across the face. He stood there, a look of shocked disbelief plastered across his face, with a bright red handprint on the side of his face, for a few seconds.

True, he had been slapped before, by Tsunade who blamed him for trying to escape from the hospital all the time and having a bad influence on his silver-haired student, and by a pretty kunoichi from the Whirlpool country called Uzi…Uzumaki, who had misunderstood something he had said.

Of course, Sara's slap did not hurt as much, considering that her strength was nowhere near the Whirlpool kunoichi's, let alone Tsunade's, a fact for which Minato was very grateful. He had no desire to experience the wrath of an angry kunoichi, especially ones famed for their inhuman strength. But still…

"Itai!" Minato winced slightly, putting a hand to his stinging cheek. "You hit strong." He muttered. He had no luck at all with strong women, but at least he was not slapped as much as Jiraiya, since he knew better than to provoke Tsunade.

"We will find Kakashi." Sara said, sounding more confident than she felt, "And you're going to spend the rest of your life in a prison." A small part of her mind was wondering whether she had gone crazy, talking to the suspect who was highly dangerous and, she suspected, not quite human. She still had no idea how he had gotten them onto the roof in such a short amount of time, a feat that, according to the laws of physics, should be impossible. But a larger part, the more emotional portion, was telling her that the man in front of her was the cause of Kakashi's scars, and, in her opinion, the worst kind of scum there was.

"Maa, be calm." Minato soothed. "Don't want fight. Need help. You help find Kakashi."

Sara paused, taken aback. "What are you talking about? Isn't Kakashi with you?"

Minato shook his head, "Iie, missing-nin ab-duck him." Sara frowned, wondering whether he was telling the truth. He looked sincerely worried, not at all like the cruel, uncaring man that she had assumed him to be.

"Abduct." Sara corrected automatically. "And what do you mean by 'missing-nin'?"

"Long sto-ry." He said. "Tell later. You help?"

Sara bit her lip, hesitating. Finally, she nodded. "Alright."

He smiled, "Arigato."

"But you have a lot of explaining to do."

*~*~*

Kakashi could not wait for the end of the mission, assuming that he survived that long. He suppressed a cough, wishing that he had his mask on; the air in the room was damp and stale, and tickled the back of his throat causing a persistent inch that he could not scratch. He could smell all kinds of mold and who knows what, and there was the faint trace of grease and exhaust, which seemed to permeate all corners of this strange land called 'Las Vegas'. Not for the first time, the boy wondered how exactly the people could survive when they were surrounded by all those awful scents.

But now was not the time to be wondering about the survival capabilities of the natives. The first thing to do, Kakashi reasoned, was to free his hands. That was easier said than done, but Kakashi was not one to give up easily. Carefully, he tried twisting his right hand, wincing at the sting of the steel cutting into his flesh. There was not much space between his hand and the wire; the missing-nin obviously did not want him to escape. After ten minutes he was growling in frustration, there was no way he could reach the kunai hidden in his sleeve.

Then I'll just have to work with what I have.

Unfortunately, what he did have was…nothing. Well, almost nothing. Kakashi was not a genius for nothing, and he had come up with a plan. Closing his eyes, he concentrated his chakra in the tips of his fingers. It was not easy; molding chakra took a lot of energy, especially if he wanted to squeeze it into such a small area. Still, it was his only option, so painstakingly, ignoring the slow drain on his chakra, ignoring the fear hidden but still present in the pit of his stomach, and ignoring the painful friction of the steel wires on his arms, Kakashi squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated.

The seconds passed, merging together until he no longer knew whether it had been a few minutes or a few hours, until he was starting to worry that it would not work and he would be left at the mercy of the missing-nin. But finally-

Got it!

Chakra was gathered along the side of his hand, forming a jagged edge. Kakashi knew it was far from perfect, but it would have to do. But the hardest part of his plan was yet to come. Slowly, he began to rub the chakra against the wires.

It was a slow and tedious task, not to mention a constant drain on his chakra. And he was not sure how much longer it would be until the missing-nin came back. So Kakashi worked fervently, praying to whatever gods there were in this strange land, that he would make it in time. Gradually, he felt the wire start to give under his blade of pure chakra.

Finally, when Kakashi's chakra was almost depleted and his hands were stiff and chafed from rubbing against the wire in the same position, the wire broke with a barely audible snap. Kakashi could have sighed in relief. But life, it seemed, was not done messing with him.

The sound of the door creaking open alerted the boy, and that could only mean one thing. He immediately resumed a stiff, awkward position that he hoped would hide the fact that his hands were no longer bound by the wire.

Sure enough, the missing-nin was back, carrying a small, bulging sack and smiling in a way that Kakashi knew was definitely not good for him.

"Hello, brat." The missing-nin sounded almost happy, "Time for things to get interesting."

*~*~*

Grissom looked at his watch, frowning. It had been almost four hours since Kakahsi had disappeared from the hospital, presumably kidnapped. "Where is Sara?" he muttered, "She should be back by now."

Nick and Warrick looked up from their work, sheets of documents describing the symbols that were used in all kinds of cults, and the picture of the blurred sigil that had been found at all three crime scenes. Catherine continued to pour over the photos of the most recent scene—the holding cell, hoping that there would be another stroke of luck, but she was having no success.

"I thought she was coming back with Brass, since she doesn't have a ride." Warrick said.

"But Brass just came back a few minutes ago."

At that moment, the door opened and Greg stuck his head into the room. "Is Sara in here?" he asked. Nick, Warrick and Grissom shook their heads. "We were just wondering where she was."

Greg frowned, "You don't think that-"

But before he could finish his thought, the sound of a familiar voice from behind him drew their attention. "Hey, I'm back."

"Sara! What took you so long?" Greg asked, grinning.

Sara smiled apologetically, "Sorry, I got caught up in the traffic."

Grissom nodded, "Then you'd better get to work." He said in his usual curt manner, "We are still in the most critical hours, but the case is getting cold already." He had missed her presence, and was glad to have her back. But there was still something off about her, some nagging discomfort as if she were hiding something.

"Um, I have something to tell you guys. It is relevant to the case we're working on." Sara said, sounding a bit uneasy. Grissom raised an eyebrow, hiding his own growing disquiet.

"It's a long story." She said, then bit her lip, trying to find words to describe the situation. Grissom's eyebrow rose further, this was probably the first time he had seen Sara at a loss for words. Finally, she sighed, coming to a conclusion. "It'll probably be easier to let you see for yourselves." She muttered.

Turning towards the hallway, she beckoned for someone to enter. A few moments later, a second figure came into view, a young police officer with startling blue eyes. If Grissom's eyebrow rose any further, it would have fallen off.

"And this is…?" Grissom's feeling of unease deepened. He knew that she would not choose this critical time just to introduce them to a new boyfriend of hers, but he could not, for the life of him, think of any other explanation for this stranger she had brought among him. Besides, his uniform indicated that he was a patrol officer, not someone who would be associated with homicide or the crime lab.

The police officer grinned. It was surprising how a simple act could cause such a change in a person. Whereas the CSIs had no idea who the young, sober-faced police officer was, the grinning, blue-eyed man in front of them was unmistakably Namikaze Minato, the very man for whom they had been searching for the past few hours, and the only suspect in their ongoing serial murder investigation.

"Yo!" Minato made a movement with his hands, and soon he was surrounded by a cloud of blue-gray smoke. When the smoke cleared, he was standing once more in the green vest and dark clothes he had been wearing when they had first seen him.

"What the-" Warrick's first reaction was to reach for his gun. Catherine had already pulled out her own weapon, and was now pointing it in the direction of the blonde, her finger a hair's-breadth away from the safety catch. "Don't move."

"Eh…" Minato sighed, raising his hands in the air, "I not here to fight." He said, wondering what it was about him that caused people to try and threaten him with weapons every time they met. Was he really that scary?

Thankfully for Minato, or perhaps more for the CSIs, Sara intervened. "Guys! It's okay." She shouted, stepping in front of Minato.

"Sara, move away from him." Grissom commanded, but his hold on his pistol wavered, just the tiniest bit.

"Guys, just let me explain." Sara pleaded, "It's very important, I promise."

The CSIs looked towards their Supervisor, who could clearly see his own uncertainty mirrored in their eyes. A brief moment of consideration, and he nodded curtly. Catherine was the first to lower her gun, followed by Nick and Warrick. Grissom placed his own pistol on the table, but close enough to him that he could reach it in a heartbeat.

"Sara, please explain." He directed a stern look at Minato, warning him not to make any rash moves. The blonde pointedly ignored his look, slouching back nonchalantly with his arms crossed. His long fingers tapping rhythmically were the only outwards sign of his impatience.

Sara took a deep breath, knowing that it would definitely not be easy to explain everything. She hoped at least they would hear her out before assuming that the stress of the job had finally gotten to her. "You see," she began, "Minato is a ninja…"

*~*~*

TBC