DISCLAIMER : I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. ALL CHARACTERS WERE CREATED BY MASASHI KISHIMOTO.
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Writing this chapter was harder than I thought! This chapter was also longer than what I usually write. But here you go, tenth chapter;) enjoy!
Chapter 10 : Make Up Your Mind
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The Inspector viewed the crime scene. The lady, Hitoka Chiaki, was at the centre of the bedroom; her body was hanging only from the rope hanging on her neck. A fallen chair was there next to her. The woman's hair was silky black, but some of it were already turning white. Ah, she was 53 years old. Her daughter, Akiko, was the one who called. The girl herself was 25 years old. The silver-haired man stepped closer to the hanging body to take note of her condition. Hanged to death. Oddly there were two types of lines on her neck. It could suggest that there was another way of her dying besides the hanging. The lady was wearing a black silk robe. Rich woman, huh?
Their house was extravagant as well. It was a two storey house with a chandelier in the middle. Two staircases curved at the middle of the hall, leading to the second floor. A typical rich people mansion, the man thought to himself. If this woman was that rich, then there was a possibility that this was not suicide, but murder. But based on his observation on the crime scene, it seemed they can wrap this sooner that they thought.
There were ten officers that entered the house; Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were among them. Sakura was sent to help on the forensics. However, the aura among the three of them was very tense. The man observed the three youngsters in front of him. Naruto and Sasuke took down the lady's corpse together and placed her on the floor. The pink haired girl was observing the body to check on her condition. The three of them wouldn't even talk to each other. So far for having a great teamwork. The man raised his eyebrows as he realised something about the tenseness of the three.
They were obviously stuck in a very odd love triangle.
Kakashi Hatake sighed and flipped his notebook. He just hoped that their love business wouldn't get in their way of dealing with the case. But that pink haired girl was clearly not in her head right now. He needed to separate them, at least for now.
"Sakura, can you check these items for fingerprints please? And please move the body to the headquarters for autopsy. Call Shizune if you need help."
"Yes, sir!" said Sakura. She looked relieved, actually. She quickly went back to the headquarters with the body, along with two other officers.
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"Naruto," said the silver-haired man. The blonde was just finished taping the room in police tape. "Go and ask the woman's daughter for more information. Make sure you ask every detail."
"Yes, sir!" said Naruto as he dashed out of the room.
Kakashi looked at the dark-haired Uchiha that was standing in the middle of the room with a raised eyebrows.
"You can help me search for finger prints. I wanted Naruto to practice his interview skills."
Sasuke just nodded to the statement in silence, and both of them continued their job.
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Naruto was glad the inspector separated them. It was super awkward! Naruto was now sure that he liked Sasuke. Yeah, he liked the man. But he wasn't quite sure how to say it to the other man. What if Sasuke rejected him!?
And about Sakura.. the blonde could say that now he had moved on from the pink-haired girl. But she was acting really weird for a week, or even more! She tried her best to avoid him. So, Naruto decided to keep quiet until the girl decided to talk to him. Sasuke was trying to act normal, but Naruto couldn't forget what the raven said to him. Does this mean that Sasuke liked him too? And what did that kiss meant!? The blonde sighed to himself. How was he supposed to know if the raven liked him back?
Naruto exited the grand bedroom and saw a blue-haired girl sitting on one of the giant staircase. The girl looked pretty with her pale complexion. She was sobbing hard. The blonde gulped and sat next to her.
"Hello. I'm Sergeant Naruto Uzumaki, I am one of the officers here," said Naruto. "Your name is Akiko Kuroba, right?"
The girl wept her tears. She was wearing a pink flower patterned dress. It looked nice on her, Naruto thought to himself.
"Yes, it is." said the girl with a smile.
"Kuroba-san.. I know it's very tough to deal with this right now. I'm sorry for your loss."
"You can call me Akiko if you like," said the blue-haired girl. Naruto noted that her hair was similar to Hinata's. "Thank you, sir."
The blonde smiled back and opened his notebook. Okay, here we go.
"Okay, Akiko. Judging from the stiffness of your mother's body, she might have been dead since 4-5 hours ago, so probably at around 9-10 am," the blonde began his questioning with a serious face. "Where were you at that time?"
"I was at work, sir. I left home at around 7 am," said Akiko nervously.
"How did you discovered her body?"
"I-I left some of my files at home. I need to give it to my boss for the meeting. I reached my house at around noon. But when I reach home, I called for her, but she didn't respond. So, after I gathered my things, I searched for her. I figured she must be resting in her room. I opened the door, but then I—" Akiko stopped talking and broke down again.
Naruto stopped writing to help her calm down. It must be tough. Naruto didn't remember anything about his parents, so he couldn't understand how the loss made her feel. He tried to ask her again after she stopped crying.
"I—I'm sorry, sir. I just…"
"It's alright. We'll take this slow, okay?"
"Okay.."
"I wanted to check on her background first. Your father.. where is he?"
Akiko looked down and fidgeted with her hand. "My father died of cancer a year ago."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Naruto looked at her with sympathy. Shit, wrong question. But he guessed he needed the information anyway.
The girl nodded slowly to the blonde man.
"Could you tell me more about it? And.. what did your parents do for a living?"
"My parents were the owner of the trading corporation called The Eastern. My father was the CEO, and my mother was one of his employee. They got married, then my father asked her to join him as the owner. Then after years of building the family.. My father was diagnosed with blood cancer. It was horrible. After two years of it, he passed away. Now my mom was the owner of the corporation. She only came to work if she needs to." explained Akiko.
Naruto wrote the description on the book.
"Akiko, did you think your mother hanged herself?"
The girl took a very deep breath before answering the question. "No, no, I don't. I know she was beyond sad after my father's death, but she made a promise to me to keep supporting me until I have my own family."
"Alright. We will try to determine that later, okay?" said Naruto. "Was there anyone living here beside you two? Like a housekeeper?"
"Well, we have three maids here. Three of them also stayed in this house."
Three maids!? Well shit. He wondered if the girl could give him one, heh.
"Were they at home at around the time of death?" Naruto was trying hard to hide his obnoxiousness. The eye-patched inspector had given him a warning to not screw up, before they entered the mansion.
"Yes, one of them supposed to go to the market to buy ingredients for dinner, but the other two were home."
"Can you ask them to come here?" Naruto stood up as Akiko followed his actions. "We should move to another place."
"Yes, we should move to the living room downstairs."
Just as they were about to go down, Kakashi and Sasuke appeared from the room. The two joined Naruto and Akiko to the first floor for further questioning.
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The three maids were here. Their names were Ayami, Hana, and Mai. All three of them were black-haired, and was wearing the typical maid costume in black and white. Ayami's hair was medium cut, just about shoulder level. Hana's hair was braided to the right side, it was a very long hair. While Mai's hair was a short bob just below her ear. They bowed to Akiko and the officers while introducing themself.
"Please take a seat," said the inspector.
After they took a seat, Naruto filled in the details he got from Akiko's interview. Then, Sasuke filled in details that he got from inspecting the room.
"We sent some items to the headquarters, and they said there was a fingerprint on the rope," said Sasuke.
All of them looked at the raven, but it turns out he still had something to say.
"It was not the victim's."
Their eyes widened in shock.
"W-what?"
Kakashi cleared his throat. "We cannot ruled this out as either murder or suicide yet, but we will take your fingerprints to make sure of it. After this, we should all go to the headquarters for further questioning.
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"Ah, Sakura. Thank you for calling. How was it?"
Kakashi pressed the phone to his ear as he drank the tea served by Ayami. Naruto and Sasuke was awkwardly sitting next to each other without talking. Sasuke was looking at the window while Naruto was tapping his feet and looking at the ceiling.
"Is that so? Well, thank you for the information. We can wrap this case sooner than we thought. Thank you, Sakura," said the man before he ended the call.
Sasuke looked at him. "Is that..?"
"Yeah. Just as we predicted, Naruto, Sasuke," smiled the man.
"What do you mean?" asked Akiko nervously.
"It's alright, Miss. I think that's about it for the day. We suggest you to stay somewhere else until the case is solved."
"Thank you, sir."
"However, we must ask Ayami, Hana and Mai to come with us first to the headquarters, for further questioning."
The four of them just followed the man's orders. Akiko looked nervous, but the blonde reassured her that everything was going to be fine.
"Well, all evidence will be revealed at the court," said the inspector lightly. "Please refrain from entering the crime scene until we said otherwise. We will contact you again."
"Akiko, we promise you that we will solve the case!" said the blonde while giving a thumbs up to the girl.
"Thank you, Uzumaki-san," said Akiko as she smiled to the man.
The inspector and the raven went straight to the door. Other officers guarded the three maids to the cruisers. Naruto waved Akiko goodbye and followed them outside.
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Naruto drove the cruiser back to the HQ.
"Hey, Inspector? We already knew that the maid, Mai, was the one who did it, right? Her fingerprint was all over the rope and the lady's necklace," asked the blonde while he focused his eyes on the road. "Then why don't we just arrest her here and now, y'know like those detective stories! They would reveal the plan whatsoever and the killer would cry!"
"Naruto, we can't just solve things immediately. Sometimes these things had to be settled in court," answered the silver-haired man that sat next to Naruto. "We knew it from the physical evidences. But I'm not the boss here, you know. I have to discuss this to the higher authorities, then we can issue a warrant to arrest the girl for good. We need more evidences and background check on that Mai girl."
Sasuke was sitting silently at the back seat. Naruto was quite nervous at that. The man usually talk to him, well at least in insults. Being absolutely silent to Naruto didn't make the blonde calmed down.
"However, this was a simple case. The maid was pretty reckless, so she left plenty of evidences inside the room. We just need to submit our findings and let the higher authorities decide, you two are newbies after all. Don't go around doing reckless things, okay Naruto?" said the man in a serious tone.
Naruto nodded to the man, "Roger that, Inspector!"
Actually, he felt bad for Akiko. They already knew who the killer was but they didn't arrest the maid. But then the inspector explained again how they would keep an eye on the maid girl. Naruto wanted to act, but Sasuke had taught him a thing or two about thinking before acting. It was a pretty smart move.
The inspector was reading his porn all the way. Naruto would glance back to his mirror to check on Sasuke every once in a while. The man was just staring at the window, the blonde couldn't read his expression. They reached the headquarters after a 30 minutes drive.
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Naruto just finished delivering the report to the eye-patched inspector. The man dismissed him, he said that he would settle the things with Asuma. However, instead of going home, Naruto went to the training ground. He was supposed to go home after this, but he knew he needed to train.
He gritted his teeth. He knew he liked the raven, but that man was still better than him on the field. There were only a few people working out in the gym. He walked to the left to where the shooting grounds were. Naruto walked to the shooting ground that was empty. He put on the glasses and ear covers there and held the hand gun with his right hand. He pointed at the target that was about 50 meters in front of him.
BANG!
He missed it.
"Fuck," muttered Naruto as he felt anger boiling inside. He had to beat Sasuke!
Naruto tried holding the gun with both hand. The thing felt lighter if he held it this way. His right hand would press the trigger while his left hand would support the gun's weight, it actually helped him to aim a little. He tried to focus on the target once more. He squinted his right eye and bit his lips. C'mon, man!
BANG!
It was close! Naruto grinned in victory. Yeah, he was getting better. The blonde tried to position his feet better and flexes his toned muscles. Let's go!
BANG!
Still didn't get the centre target like he wanted to, but he knew he was progressing. One more!
BANG!
One more!
BANG!
One more!
BANG!
One more!
BANG!
Naruto was panting now. He still didn't hit the red dot, but he was getting closer. He put the gun on the table to rest for a while. The blonde took off his peaked cap along his dark blue shirt and placed it on the ground. Now he was wearing a tight white T-shirt that was soaking with sweat. He flexes his arms and stretched his hands. He glanced at the clock. It was 8 pm now!? Wow, he was staying here for more than two hours. The training ground was going to close in an hour. Well, he needed to train until that time.
He had to beat Sasuke!
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He held the gun with both hands once more and adjusted his feet positioning. Okay, left feet in front.. Yeah that felt right. He squinted his right eye again and focused on the red dot. C'mon..C'mon..
BANG!
Ugh! It was close! He missed it by centimetres!
BANG!
Again!
BANG!
Ugh, again! Until he hit the red dot!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
After dozens of bullets flying around, Naruto still missed the red dot. Shit, he was pathetic.
"Hello, sir? The training ground is closing."
Naruto took off his ear covers and glasses, and glanced towards the source of voice. "A-ah! Sorry! I'll go out soon!"
He put down the gun and returned it to the original storage place.
The blonde was sweating hard. He decided to go home now. He put his uniform top on and placed the peaked cap on his head. Tomorrow, he will continue his training. He had to hit the red dot!
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As Naruto walked out to the door, he saw Shikamaru from afar walking towards the same direction. Oh, yeah! Right timing!
"Shikamaru!" called Naruto as he waved his hand while jumping up and down.
"Calm down, idiot," smirked the man. "I thought Kakashi dismissed you earlier?"
"Yeah, but I went to the training grounds to practice," grinned Naruto.
"I figured that out," said the man. "I suggest you to reserve your energy. In two days you will be even more tired than this."
"Why?"
"The Inspector organised a three-day training session with the Suna Police Department," said Shikamaru with a yawn. "That, would be extremely troublesome. They wanted me and Sasuke to greet those people when they are coming."
"Oh, sweeeeet!" said Naruto with excitement.
"Anyway, Naruto, you looked like you want to talk about something. What is it?"
"Whoa, Shikamaru, you can really read people, huh?" said the blonde with a surprised tone. Both of them walked to the train station together. "Heh, yeah, I guess I need to ask you something."
"Go ahead."
"Ahaha! Okay, you see, you know, if you, you know.. like a.. what if.."
"Naruto, it's just me. Don't be nervous."
Naruto took a very deep breath and asked the man. Okay, calm down Naruto. It was just Shikamaru.
"WhatifyoulikeyourmalefriendslashrivalwhatshouldIdodammit."
Oddly, Shikamaru was not surprised. The man just yawned and asked him back. The two men reached the train station. It was pretty quiet. They climbed the stairs together.
"Do you think the man likes you back?"
"How would I know!?"
Shikamaru sighed. This man was truly, an idiot. "Okay, Naruto. Pro tip : He likes you back."
"Oh shit! You know who it was!? Or did he say that to you!?"
"No, idiot. It's so obvious that you and Sasuke liked each other."
"Eehh!? For real!?" Naruto's eyeballs were almost popping out.
"Yup."
Naruto's jaw was dropping now. "Oh shit. That explained Sakura's..!?"
"I suggest you to talk to that girl first. You don't want to be on a girl's bad side. Trust me, they are troublesome. After that was done, you make your move to Sasuke."
Naruto gulped. He hoped that Sakura wouldn't punch him. But this tip was useful!
"Sure, Shika! Thanks!"
"Anytime, Naruto," replied Shikamaru with a smile.
Naruto stood on the platform together with the black-haired man as they waited for the train. He looked to the ceiling as he was thinking to himself. Shikamaru's explanation really made sense. Sasuke was angry at him that day because he thought that Naruto only saw him as a friend. Well that explained everything. Naruto tapped his feet on the ground. He DID like Sasuke, and being together with the raven seemed to be a warm thought. Should he ask him out? He needed to come up with a plan.
Thank you for all the reviews! I love it! As hinted in this chapter.. Next chapter there will be new characters! Who will come to Konoha Police Department!?
Writing a murder story was quite difficult. That took a while. I'm sorry if that was not detailed enough.. I'm quite a newbie, heh. Did you like the chapter?
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Q : Why did you decide to make the story SasuNaruSasu?
A : To me, Naruto and Sasuke are equal. Neither of them were more dominant than the other. As for their bedroom business, I guess they would switch positions a lot. These two gay ninjas are competitive, aren't they? Well, this is my opinion, though.
Let me know if you have anything in your mind! Thank you for reading :)
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Love, myfavoriteramen.