.Legs.

'Temari, are you awake- whoa.' Shikamaru stopped in the doorway at the sight of Temari scrabbling for food wearing only one of his t-shirts- which, while fairly large, didn't really hide that much.

'Oh, morning. Getting some breakfast. We can't work on empty stomachs,' she said, glancing over her shoulder, as she pulled out a box of cereal. 'Found this. That okay?' she asked, holding up the box.

'Um. Yeah,' Shikamaru replied, shaking his head slightly. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but stopped.

Temari's forehead creased. 'Are you okay? You look a bit out of it,' she said.

'Yeah, you… um…' Shikamaru waved his hand in a general gesture towards her attire.

Temari looked down. 'Oh. Does it bother you?'

Shikamaru gave a small snort. 'There's a beautiful half-naked woman in my kitchen looking for food. I wouldn't say it bothered me, more… distracted.'

'And you need to keep your mind on the case, right?' Temari laughed.

'That's the idea, yeah. The shower's free, if you want,' Shikamaru told her, a wry grin on her face.

'Oh, great. I won't be long,' Temari said, hopping through and gathering up her clothes. 'Thanks, though,' she grinned as she passed him.

'I can't even remember what I said,' he replied, eliciting a laugh from her.

'I promise I'll be decent when I come back,' she called.

'I'm supposed to be grateful, right?' he replied, moving into the kitchen.

'That's the idea, yeah!' was the laughing reply.

'I want to check in on Tsunade before we head down to the morgue,' Shikamaru told Temari as they walked into the station. 'She was quite close to Commander Sarutobi.'

'Whoever this bastard is, he's going to fry,' Temari replied.

'Oh yeah,' Shikamaru muttered darkly.

'You guys hot on the trail of the fucker, then?' Kiba called, sliding in front of them.

'As much as we can be with what little he's left us,' Shikamaru replied.

'I heard about Commander Sarutobi. Sucks like hell. Are you sure you can't pop a few rounds in him when you do catch up, call it self-defense?' Kiba asked.

'That would be a bastardisation of the justice system,' Shikamaru replied.

Kiba shrugged. 'Yeah, but we'd all feel so much better. And no-one in this station would push the issue very much.'

'We'll see what happens when the time comes,' Shikamaru told him.

Kiba looked Temari up and down, and a smirk grew on his face. 'Hey, Lieutenant Hotstuff, weren't you wearing that exact outfit yesterday?' he asked.

'Do you live in the foyer of this building?' Temari replied good-naturedly.

'Just waiting for you, babe,' Kiba returned as Shikamaru and Temari split paths from him.

'He's going to assume the worst, you realize,' Shikamaru remarked to Temari as they strode away from the grinning Lieutenant.

'Let him,' Temari replied.

'And he's going to tell the whole building his assumption as if it were fact,' Shikamaru continued.

'If they've got nothing better to talk about, then maybe we should make sure your friend doesn't become a liar,' Temari replied, flashing him a sly grin, and taking a couple steps down a different path to him. 'I'll meet you in your office, okay? Gonna see if I can guess your computer password,' she called, grinning, leaving Shikamaru staring after her suspiciously, momentarily distracted by the suggestion in her previous statement.

'Tsunade?' Shikamaru said, opening her office door cautiously.

Tsunade looked up tiredly, her eyes red and puffy.

'I'm sorry,' Shikamaru said quietly, closing the door behind him.

Tsunade gave a tired chuckle. 'Sorry that he died?' she asked wryly.

'Sorry I didn't catch the bastard before he did,' Shikamaru replied.

Tsunade waved at him to sit down. 'I've seen the case reports, Shikamaru. You have little to go on/ I don't blame you.'

'Konohamaru does,' Shikamaru said grimly.

'Konohamaru requested leave this morning. I've granted him as much time as he needs. He's always been a family man, and Hiruzen did raise him,' Tsunade said.

'A part of me agrees with him,' Shikamaru told her.

'Don't. You have no need to. You're a good cop, Shikamaru. One of the best this department has. You have absolutely no reason to blame yourself,' Tsunade assured him.

'He was your mentor. Your teacher,' Shikamaru said.

'As was Asuma to you,' Tsunade pointed out.

'But the situation is completely diff-' Shikamaru started.

'That doesn't make a difference. You didn't kill him. You didn't push him down the stairs. Listen to me, Shikamaru,' Tsunade said, leaning forward on her elbows. 'This isn't your fault. I don't blame you. No cop in their rational mind would blame you. No-one can rationally blame you.'

She leant back in her chair again. 'I don't blame you. But I do want you to get the hell out of my office and find this fucker.'

Shikamaru gave a nod. 'Understood.' He stood up.

'Shikamaru.' Tsunade's voice stopped him as he reached the door. 'Remember what I've said. As your friend and as your commander, I am telling you this. It's not your fault. There's nothing you could have done, no way you could have known. I don't need one of my best men to get morose on me and start blaming himself because one grief stricken man lashed out.'

Shikamaru paused. 'Thank you,' he said, and left the office.

'Did you manage to hack my computer?' Shikamaru asked as he strode into his office.

'No,' Temari replied, leaning back in his chair, with her feet on the desk. 'Turned it on, took a couple guesses, but didn't get anywhere.'

'You wouldn't,' Shikamaru said, squeezing behind her and leaning forward, his arms on either side of her, his fingers flying over the keyboard as he typed in his password.

'Your clue made no sense either,' Temari told him.

'It makes sense to me, not that I ever use it. My password is a seemingly random alphanumerical sequence,' Shikamaru told her, leaning on the edge of his desk as the computer desktop started up. 'Being a genius with total recall definitely makes my password protected accounts a lot more secure.'

'Most people just use the name of their dog,' Temari muttered.

Shikamaru shrugged, a small smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. 'I don't have a dog.'

Temari laughed. 'You know what I mean,' she said.

Shikamaru chuckled. 'Get out of my seat,' he told her as the computer pinged.

Temari spun around as he read the email.

'You needn't sit down again, though,' he said as she stood up, wobbling slightly. 'Autopsy's done. Sakura's waiting for us.'

'Let's go, then,' Temari said, blinking a couple times. 'Just give me a second. Haven't spun around on anything for a long time.' She shook her head to clear it.

'You done?' Shikamaru asked, smirking slightly.

'Yeah,' Temari replied, as he gestured for her to leave the room ahead of him, quickly locking his computer.

'Don't trust anyone, huh?' she remarked as he caught up with her outside the door.

'Some of my so-called friends have a very warped sense of humour. Which will only be heightened by you working here, sadly,' Shikamaru told her.

'A little laughter goes a long way in a death-filled job, doesn't it,' Temari sighed.

'Quite.'

'What have you got for me, Sakura?' Shikamaru called, entering the pristine morgue.

'Good morning to you too, Shikamaru,' Sakura replied sarcastically. 'Traces of chloroform in his airways, as with Asuka.'

'COD?' Shikamaru asked, wincing imperceptibly at the mention of Asuka's death.

'Broken neck,' Sakura informed them.

'From the fall?' Temari asked.

Sakura shook her head. 'I thought so, but the directionality of the fractures indicate that his neck was broken by someone twisting it with force. I also found finger-shaped bruises on his neck that support this theory,' she told them, pointing her finger at the cleaned neck.

Shikamaru and Temari leaned in to see where she was pointing.

'Quite small hands,' Temari commented, her brow furrowed.

Sakura nodded. 'It looks more like a woman's hand print than a man. I suppose it could be a very delicate man with slender fingers, but it looks more like a female hand print.'

'So we're looking for a woman with a navy blue car,' Temari muttered.

'My car's navy blue, but I can I assure you I didn't do it,' Sakura quipped.

'Really? I figured you for a lover of brighter colours,' Temari remarked, surveying the petite medical examiner.

'Because of the hair, right?' Sakura said.

'That did factor in,' Temari smiled.

'The car's a temporary situation, borrowed from a friend. Mine got totaled fairly recently, and I haven't found a replacement yet,' Sakura explained.

'That makes sense,' Temari commented.

'Back to the dead commander on the slab,' Shikamaru muttered. 'Was his neck snapped before or after he was shoved down the stairs?'

Sakura grimaced. 'After. With all that bleeding, the injuries sustained from the fall could hardly be post-mortem. But you already knew that, Shikamaru,' she said.

'I'd hoped I was wrong. Thanks, Sakura. You've been very helpful,' Shikamaru told her, giving her a smile.

Sakura looked faintly surprised, and turned to Temari. 'What did you do to him? He's all…' Sakura looked Shikamaru up and down. '… not snappy.'

Temari shrugged. 'I slapped some sense into him.'

Sakura smirked. 'So you didn't, I don't know, spend the night at his place?' she asked innocently.

'Have you been talking to Kiba?' Shikamaru demanded, and turned to Temari without waiting for an answer. 'See, I told you this would happen.'

'I heard you,' Temari told him.

'So you're not denying it?' Sakura asked cheekily.

'I did, but not in the way you're thinking. The case kept us up late, and I crashed on the couch, in a manner of speaking,' Temari explained.

'In a manner of speaking,' Sakura repeated.

'On a spare mattress, in the lounge,' Temari clarified.

'I am leaving this madness and going upstairs to solve a murder,' Shikamaru declared, 'Whether you come with or not is entirely up to you.' He gave a brisk wave and marched out of the morgue.

Temari sighed. 'I should probably follow,' she muttered.

'You know, I think the spending the night at his place might be infinitely more fun than slapping him. Unless you're into that sort of thing,' Sakura amended.

'Does he not get action very often or something?' Temari exclaimed, 'Because including you, that's two people who think I should sleep with him.'

'Is the other person Kiba?' Sakura inquired.

'No,' Temari replied.

'Oh. Then make that three people,' Sakura informed her. 'Wait- four.'

Temari raised an eyebrow. 'Who's the fourth?'

'The police shrink.' Sakura replied. 'Although I think she was thinking more in a friend capacity than psychologist when we were talking.'

'You guys were talking about me?' Temari asked wryly.

'More about Asuka and Shikamaru, but your name came up, yes,' Sakura admitted a little sheepishly.

'He's lucky to have friends who care about him as much as I've seen you guys all do,' Temari smiled. 'Anyway, I should go. Murderer to catch, you know.'

'See you,' Sakura said, giving her a warm smile.

'Finished nattering, have you?' Shikamaru commented idly as she slipped into his office.

'A couple minutes, loosen up, will you. She had something to tell me,' Temari replied, sitting in the chair she had claimed as hers.

'About the case?' Shikamaru asked.

Temari suppressed a smirk. 'Nah, just… girl talk.'

'More girl talk? What is it with women?' Shikamaru complained.

'Just forget it,' Temari told him, unable to hide a little grin of mirth.

'Okay. Onto the case. So it's a woman,' Shikamaru said.

'I think the nursery rhymes are important. She seems to want to fit as closely to the canon of the rhyme as possible,' Temari hypothesized.

Shikamaru leaned back and considered this. 'Go on,' he prompted her.

'Well, I think she'd hoped the fall down the stairs would kill Sarutobi, nice and simple, but it didn't, so she had to snap his neck. Finish him off in a way that could still be caused by the fall,' Temari explained.

'The nursery rhymes didn't say anything about drugging people either,' Shikamaru mentioned.

Temari waved a hand. 'Means to an end.'

'I'm never going to be able to look at children's rhymes again,' Shikamaru muttered.

'Maybe that's a path we can follow,' Temari suggested.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. 'What, do you think Mother Goose is the murderer?'

Temari flashed a sarcastic smile. 'Ha. Funny. No, I was thinking more along the lines of… Who works closely with nursery rhymes?'

Shikamaru heaved a sigh. 'I don't know. Kindergarten teachers. Publishers. I don't know. Maybe it's just a nursery rhyme aficionado,' he suggested.

'Do you get those?' Temari asked doubtfully.

'You get all sorts,' Shikamaru replied, 'I see where you're going, but the problem is that nursery rhymes- especially the two that have been… dramatized, for want of a better word- are common knowledge. Every one knows them, off by heart. I don't even remember where I learnt them,' Shikamaru pointed out.

Temari groaned. 'You're right. There's probably not a person on earth who can't recite them from memory, even without total recall.'

'Some people might need a little prompting, but everyone knows them,' Shikamaru agreed.

'And the people who don't need any prompting are kids and parents, and while I'm no psychological profiler, I really don't think either of those would really do something like this,' Temari muttered.

'I think that's a safe bet,' Shikamaru replied.

'Well, now that you've totally shot that idea down, what else can we do?' Temari sighed.

'We have practically no leads. The paper the rhymes were written on was your average, run of the mill white printer paper, there wasn't any DNA found at either crime scene, no weapons or binding was use to possibly identify… We know that it's a woman, and that she drives a navy blue car- and that's not even confirmed, it's just a highly probable assumption,' Shikamaru declared frustratedly.

'This bitch is either really smart, or fucking lucky,' Temari said.

'Or she has a little smarts and a little luck, because a combination of the two can get a person far in life,' Shikamaru told her.

'Either way, we've got next to nothing. You can't get fingerprints from a bruise, right?' Temari asked helplessly, burying her face in her arms.

'If it could be done, Sakura would have already done it. She was probably wearing gloves,' Shikamaru replied.

'Don't medical examiners always wear gloves?' Temari mumbled, her voice muffled by her arms.

'I was referring to the perp,' Shikamaru told her.

There was a short pause. 'I knew that,' Temari's voice declared.

'Sure you did,' Shikamaru replied, pinching the bridge of his nose.

'Okay, so what else do we have?' Temari asked, raising her head from the table.

'Nothing, we've just gone over this,' Shikamaru reminded her.

'Look, I don't know, maybe we should just check on kindergarten teachers that might have had contact with- I don't know, did Commander Sarutobi ever pick Asuka up from kindergarten?' Temari asked helplessly.

'I think so,' Shikamaru said slowly, 'I mean, Hiruzen always loved his grandchildren, doted on them. He and Asuka spent a fair amount of time together, and Kurenai often was quite busy, so it stands to reason that Hiruzen fetched her from kindergarten more than a few times.'

'Maybe we should check there. See if there's… well, anything, really,' Temari said. 'I mean, kindergarten teachers are mostly women, aren't they?'

'Yeah, I'll- I mean, it's quite a good kindergarten- it's got a reputation for being safe, and it's got excellent references, but… well, right now, I'll take anything I can get,' Shikamaru said, then stood up, grabbing his jacket. 'Ready for a field trip?' he asked, a slight smile on his face.

Temari grinned in reply. 'Action's action, and we don't have anything better to do. Let's go,' she replied, standing up and following him out the door.

-TBC-

A/N: This chapter was already getting quite long, so I figured let's end it here so I can get more chapter's out of this- I'm still not entirely sure how these chapters are working, but I'm figuring it out. ^^

But, the good news, is that, with the exception of a few minor details, I have the story planned out from hereonin, so it should flow nicely. I think the story might be finished within the week. Hopefully. Certainly, I'm on a roll now, and am probably going to go straight on to the next chapter. As for Oh Baby, the next chapter is eluding me slightly, as I'm not sure if I should conjure up some filler or skip a huge time gap, so if you're following that… help me out, will ya?

In other news, I am sitting at about 7000 words behind on NaNo, which is palatable enough to catch up on. Also, I am terrible at willpower, considering I spent a good hour or so reading Klaine (KurtBlaine, from glee?) fics, of which there were a few amusing ones. Also, Darren Criss is very funny, and I now can't wait until I turn 80 (okay, I can totally wait, but it's a big one) to become a wood-nymph. That would be from his interview on gleefandotcom (I think). Anyway.

Also, I have decided that I shouldn't write murder mysteries, because I'm really bad at planning. And while I know have the murderer and motive that was missing when I started, I have now come to the realization that they do an awful lot of sitting around because I left a distinct lack of leads and trails they could follow. As it looks now, the only suspect they'll have is the murderer. But we'll see how that pans out. Remind me never to write a murder mystery again, kay?

As horrifically unplanned as this is turning out to be, I hope you're still enjoying it, and I would love to know what you think!