Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or NCIS
Sasuke's mind immediately began racing. Edgar Tement was the name of the person who took out the contract. If he had been traced, would he try give up the shinobi to save his own skin? He knew speculation would get him nowhere, so he turned his attention to the interrogation room, where Gibbs was quietly observing the other man.
Inside, Edgar Tement was fidgeting in his seat under the gaze of the agent, his baldhead shining with sweat. He was growing visibly agitated as time went on, and Sasuke knew it wouldn't be long before he cracked.
The teen's prediction was proved correct, when a moment later he spoke.
"Alright!" he exclaimed, and Gibbs shifted in response.
"Why did you bring me here?"
Silently, the agent opened the folder sitting before him and pulled out three photos. The first was a photograph of Andrews in uniform, the second, of him in the café and the final photo was of the sergeant on the autopsy table.
Edgar Tement looked at them briefly and shoved them away. Gibbs left them on the table, refusing to return them to the folder. The other man glanced down and swallowed heavily.
He looked back up at the agent, who met his gaze expectantly. The man looked indecisive and was hesitating; finally, Gibbs decided to push him along.
"Why did you kill Sergeant Andrews?"
Edgar Tement's entire body language changed at those words. "I didn't kill him!" he said, anger visible in his tense posture and tight muscles.
"So who did?" questioned Gibbs.
At this, the other man deflated. He's really bad at hiding his emotions, thought Sasuke, from his position observing the interview.
"I don't know," he said, but it was obvious to everyone present that he was lying.
"You didn't like the sergeant, did you?"
Tement was defensive again. "What's that got to do with anything?"
Suddenly, Gibbs stood up and slammed one hand on the table, the other holding the photograph of Andrews in the air. "A Marine is dead, and you had a grudge against him! What do you know?"
Tement jumped and looked away from the picture. After a period of silence, he looked up at Gibbs, and the shinobi could see the change in his demeanour.
"Alright," he said quietly. "I'll tell you."
Naruto and Sasuke, hidden from view in the observation room behind the glass tensed, hoping that the man was not about to reveal them.
"I hired someone to kill him," Tement admitted.
"Who?" Gibbs prompted, quieter now that his suspect was confessing.
He swallowed before replying. "It was-"
Suddenly, his words were cut off on by a choked gasp. Edgar Tement bent over coughing and gasping for breath.
As soon as it started, DiNozzo began moving the shinobi out of the room.
"Shin-ob-i," he gasped before collapsing on the table. Gibbs, who had moved behind the man in an attempt to help him pulled out his phone and began making a call.
Naruto and Sasuke stood outside the room, now unable to hear what was proceeding inside. They knew what was happening, but the agents obviously didn't. It was a safety protocol, in place since the shinobi first started taking jobs outside the Hidden Continent. A seal was placed upon the contractor, and if the person was to speak to someone without authorisation they would begin choking. It wasn't fool proof, but it was still a complicated seal.
As DiNozzo began to move them away from the room, Sasuke looked back and saw Dr Mallard hurry in carrying a bag. He turned his attention back to the front, and saw Naruto make a subtle sign.
"The seal?" he had asked. Sasuke gave a small nod, barely noticeable, and after that the two shinobi followed the agent in silence back to the squad room.
Gibbs watched the man with an unreadable expression as Ducky attempted resuscitation but he could see that it was not working. An ambulance had already been called, but the agent had a feeling that they would arrive only to pronounce the man dead. He wasn't quite sure what to feel on the matter. On one hand, the man had brought about the death of a marine, but on the other, the man could no longer tell them whom he hired to do the job. The agent wondered if the teens recognised him, they could at least try to find the person attacking them.
Gibbs was brought from his musings by the arrival of the paramedics. As he expected, Tement was pronounced dead after they had performed several checks and the body was moved to autopsy.
At this point, Gibbs left the room to return to the squad room. He pressed the button for the elevator and as he waited, he glanced at his watch for the first time in hours. Upon doing so, he was surprised to see that it was almost midnight, and the team had begun working early that day. He knew that they would be getting tired, and resolved to send them home when he arrived upstairs. The kids would have to stay at his house for the night, they couldn't spend another night at NCIS and there were no suitable safe houses available.
The elevator let out a bright ding and the special agent stepped inside, pressing the button to close the doors immediately. Granted a brief moment of solitude, he sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. This case was getting more complicated by the hour, and they were running out of leads. He hoped the rest of the team had more success than he did in the interview; otherwise the only thing they had to go on was the dying word of the man. Shinobi. Whatever that was. Gibbs raised a hand again, but this time it was to rub his temples, trying to fight off an oncoming headache.
He dropped his hand and strode out of the elevator, entered the squad room and sat down at his desk. His team and the teenagers looked questioningly at him, and the man knew they wanted answers. Instead, he gave orders.
"Go home," he told his team. "Naruto, Sasuke, you'll stay with me tonight. We would get you a safe house, but we have nothing suitable."
For a minute, it looked like the agents were about to argue, but Gibbs cut them off. "Go – I've already told Ducky and Abby." The final push was enough, and the team bid goodnights to him and each other before grabbing their gear and heading off to the elevator. Naruto and Sasuke on the other hand, moved closer to his desk, waiting patiently for him to be ready.
Gibbs stood up, and managed a half smile at them. "Well?" he said, beginning to walk towards the elevator. The teens grabbed their belongings and hurried after him. The ride downstairs passed in silence, and it was not until the group got into the car that anyone spoke.
Naruto and Sasuke started up a quiet conversation in the backseat, and Gibbs had to strain to hear what they were saying. From the few phrases that he did manage to catch, the pair seemed to be talking about Hatake and Sakura. After a couple of minutes, Naruto looked up.
"Hey, Gibbs?" he called. The agent inclined his head to show that he was listening.
"Have you heard anything from Kakashi-sensei or Sakura?"
Gibbs shook his head, but replied aloud. "NCIS hasn't heard anything. Should we have?" he asked.
He glanced backwards to see Naruto shaking his head. "Nah, I was just wondering."
Gibbs suspected that he was worried about the pair, as there had been multiple attacks on them over a short period.
"I'll be calling them in tomorrow. I have a few more questions," Gibbs said, and the car fell silent again.
The group soon arrived at Gibbs's house, and he gave the teens a quick tour. There was only guest bedroom, which contained only one bed. However, when asked, the teens said that was fine, with Sasuke going on to say that Naruto would sleep on the floor. This led to a small wrestling match between the pair, which Gibbs intervened on before anyone got hurt.
They were just settling down for dinner when Gibbs heard his mobile ring. Frowning, he pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open.
"Gibbs," he said shortly, standing up from the table. There was no answer on the other end, and the agent hung up quickly, before a trace could be completed. He returned to the dinner table and sat down, contemplating what the call could have been.
"Who was that?" asked Sasuke, his face expressionless.
"No one," replied Gibbs, and he saw a frown flash across that dark haired boy's face briefly before he regained his emotionless mask.
Naruto started a conversation, chatting to Gibbs for the rest of the meal. Sasuke, on the other hand stayed quiet, appearing deep in thought.
After eating, the three migrated to the basement. Gibbs continued working on his latest project – a table set for the children's ward at the hospital while Sasuke and Naruto sat down against the wall. Gibbs thought they might be bored, but a moment later Sasuke pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen from his pocket and started writing in Japanese.
Gibbs watched for a moment before Sasuke looked up, appearing to sense Gibbs's gaze.
"Homework," he explained, and Gibbs nodded before going back to his work. The room fell into silence apart from the quiet scratching of Sasuke's pen and the scraping of Gibbs's chisel. It was peaceful, and for the first time all day Gibbs felt himself relax slightly.
After a while, Naruto got up and left, claiming that he needed to use the bathroom. Gibbs glanced up when he left, distracted, but looked back at his work a moment later. Out of the corner of his eye, Gibbs saw Sasuke fold the paper he was writing on, now covered in characters, and place it in his pocket along with the pen.
"What time is it?" the teen asked Gibbs, breaking the silence that had fallen. Gibbs glanced at his watch.
"10:30," he replied. Sasuke nodded and stood up, stretching as he did. He joined Gibbs at the table, dark eyes scanning the partially finished project.
Gibbs resumed his work, the regular scraping filling the silence, but the agent couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. A covert glance at Sasuke showed that the teen was on edge, his muscles tense even as he leaned casually on the table.
A few minutes later, the sound of footsteps disturbed the quiet as Naruto returned. Sasuke looked up as his friend entered.
"Hey Naruto, do you remember the poem I told you and Sakura, when we were camping a few years ago?" he asked. The blond looked confused.
"No, I didn't remember it then and I don't remember it now. Wasn't it some stupid long thing?" retorted Naruto, his face showing his confusion.
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "It wasn't stupid," he protested but let the issue drop. "Do you remember what happened afterwards?"
"Is your memory going, Sasuke? Because you know I wasn't there," Naruto replied.
Sasuke nodded slowly, and stepped away from the table.
"Wrong answer," he said, and Gibbs looked up at the change of tone. It seemed they were about to have another fight.
"What do you mean?" asked Naruto, before he exclaimed in surprise.
Gibbs blinked. In the blond teen's hand was a weirdly shaped blade that had definitely not been there before, while Sasuke was holding a similar blade.
"Where is Naruto?" snarled the dark haired teen, his weapon raised threateningly. Suddenly, Naruto's voice changed. He let off a deep, menacing chuckle that was unlike the previously happy go lucky kid Gibbs had previously known.
He decided to intervene – this was getting out of hand. With his hand resting close to his weapon, Gibbs called out. "What's going on here?"
Naruto glanced over, and flicked his hand. A second later there was the distinctive clang of metal hitting metal and two of the strange knives clattered to the ground. At the same time, Naruto had spoken in that unnaturally deep voice.
"Haven't they told you about me? My, my, Sasuke-kun, I thought you knew better than that," he said, and with a puff of smoke Naruto disappeared, to be replaced by a man who could only be described as snake-like. Gibbs, although a hardened veteran himself, had to supress a shiver at the sight of the man's slitted yellow eyes. The man's tongue emerged from his mouth curling around unnaturally, as Sasuke hissed in annoyance and anger, eyes fixed on the man.
"Orochimaru," Sasuke growled. "Last time. Where is Naruto?" The man, now dubbed Orochimaru glanced at him unconcerned, and now Gibbs was sure he could detect amusement in his expression.
"Naruto-kun? Don't worry, I haven't hurt him. He's simply unconscious. Wouldn't want him interrupting us now would we?"
Gibbs slowly inched his hand towards his gun. As he was about to grasp it, he felt a cold hand grip his wrist. A reflex action, he looked up, only to see Orochimaru directly in front of him.
"I wouldn't do that," he warned, before stepping back. A moment later, and he was back to his original position.
"I'll take my leave," he announced, tongue once again twisting unnaturally outside his mouth. "I'm sure you two have much to discuss, and Naruto too."
With one last creepy smile, the man vanished, and Gibbs immediately turned to Sasuke. The teen looked furious, and slowly putting his blade back to where it had come from. He turned to look at Gibbs.
"Naruto first," he said, before hurrying upstairs. Gibbs hastened to follow. He had many questions, but he agreed with the teen. The safety of his friend came first.
Later that night found Sasuke sitting with his back against the couch where Naruto was laying, with Gibbs leaning against the wall across from the pair.
"I want answers," Gibbs said, leaving no room for argument.
Sasuke looked up at him, and for the first time Gibbs saw exhaustion pass across his face. "I can't tell you much. You have a meeting with Kakashi tomorrow," he replied. The agent wondered when the meeting had been scheduled, but pushed the thought away for the moment.
"Who was that?" he pressed anyway. Sasuke looked down.
"Orochimaru. Remember when I told you people wanted to experiment on me?" he replied after a moment of silence.
Gibbs nodded, and Sasuke continued.
"Well, he's pretty much the main person. At least, he's the biggest threat to me."
"Is that why you're in DC?" Gibbs asked, mind racing as he tried to process everything.
Sasuke shook his head, a bitter smile on his face. "No, but we had hoped that he wouldn't follow us here."
"So why are you here?"
"It really was for a school trip," Sasuke replied. "And I can't tell you anymore."
Gibbs was about to protest, but the teen must have expected that because he added more.
"Your laws," he said, resting his head on the cushion behind him and closing his eyes.
Gibbs changed his questions. "You and Naruto. What's the story there?" he asked.
Sasuke looked back at him, alert once more. "He saved me, I saved him, mentally and physically," he answered cryptically. Gibbs was about to ask more questions when he saw Sasuke close his eyes again and rest.
"Night, Sasuke," he said instead, before turning and leaving the room. The agent saw brief look of surprise flash across his face before the pair was lost to view. Gibbs let a small smile cross his face before he entered the kitchen. They might have kept some secrets, but they were still a couple of kids who needed protection.
A/N: Hehe... please don't kill me? So sorry for the long wait, but a heap of stuff happened and life got in the way.
Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story, and for reviewing, adding to to favourites and alerts. Also, I'm sorry to the people I didn't reply to for the last chapter, I lost track of who I had and hadn't. If I didn't - then thank you for reviewing and I hope I didn't disappoint.