Wait [Modern AU]

Step #29


Hurriedly, I delved through more of Dad's items, trying to find if there was anything else. There was nothing. The only things that I was able to take from this was the letter from the guy called 'Kakuzu', and a note with pictures and words that were similar to the notes that my group and I got back a couple of years ago.

What even?!

I rushed out of Mum and Dad's room and went straight into mine, going through my desk to find the spiky ball that Shisui had given me. I distinctively remembered that I had stored the notes in there. Once I found it, I shoved it into one of my pockets and rushed down the stairs, calling Mum to come along, as I headed back to the Uchiha household.

"Why are you so out of breath?" Mikoto opened the door with a surprised expression, "Did you find something?"

"Y-yeah…I…did…" I was breathing heavily.

"You didn't have to leave me behind, Arisa!" Mum came up from behind me and Mikoto stepped out of the way, before heading inside.

The others eyed us when we sat down, wondering what we found.

"There were 2 things." I pulled out the letter and the note, showing them to the Uchiha's.

They looked carefully. Mikoto and Akimi gave each other a sideways glance. Akimi nodded, "Hold on to those for now."

"Huh? Shouldn't I show them to the officers?" I inquired. I expected them to say something along the lines of 'go to the police station'…but I guess not.

"They'll come back here soon, so don't worry too much." Akimi smiled. "Why don't you rest here for now?"

I put the note and letter back into my pocket. I thought for a brief moment – should I stay here and rest, or should I go out to find some more information?

"I'm sorry, Akimi, but my lunch break is going to end soon." Mum wore an apologetic expression. "I have to go back to work."

"Alright. Don't stress too much." Akimi nodded. "Take care."

"I will. Thank you. I'll be going now. Bye." Mum waved once and she was off. I heard the car drive off into the distance.

"What are you thinking about, Arisa?" Mikoto leaned on her knee. I look up at her, then back down to the ground.

"I was thinking about whether or not to stay here or go to the station." I admitted.

"And the outcome?"

"I was going to stay here. There's something I have to do." I slid off the sofa and onto the rug, in front of the table. I took out the spiky ball, letter and note. I took everything out of the ball and spread it on the coffee table, separating what I got a few years ago, and the most recent ones.

"What's this?" Akimi questioned, sitting down.

"Itachi told me about this." Mikoto watched me as I spread them out. I listened to her closely. I didn't know that Itachi knew about this. Did Shisui tell him?

"Well, what is it then?"

"I'm not entirely sure. He said it was a sort of puzzle." The Uchiha mother glanced at Sasuke. He had taken a seat in front of me, just staring at what I was doing. I guess he was bored.

"Yeah, it is a kind of puzzle…but it was from a couple of years ago. I'm surprised we found something similar that was sent to my Dad." I tried to arrange them in logical order, though my mind wasn't really on it, but rather on the conversation at hand.

"A puzzle from a couple of years ago? Arisa, don't you think there's the possibility of it being linked?" Mikoto smiled at me.

"…yeah, I do. That's why I brought all that I could, relating to this." I nodded, giving her a brief glance.

"It reminds me of when you and Shisui were little." Akimi giggled, "You would always play detective around the house and outside, with made up evidence and clues. Itachi would sometimes come along, but Sasuke was too young to go."

I laughed slowly at the memories. It was a long time ago, but like Akimi said, Shisui and I used to always go play detective. Itachi would sometimes join, though not all the time. Let's just say we were pretty good at it…I think.

When I think back to it, there were many times I played the lead role of the detective, and Itachi and Shisui were my assistants. We did rotate, but they let me play the part most of the time. Though they were always the one that solved the cases, and I just kind of took all the non-existent credit.

"I guess so…" I rub the back of my head. "Alright, I'm going to solve this, so I'll be leaving the conversation…" I turn back to the little sheets of paper in front of me, as well as Sasuke's curious but stoic expression.

I ignored the kid, since he didn't seem to want to talk at all, and went through the files that were my memories, trying to remember what I thought the notes meant at that time.

Okay. So firstly, what we have is Yahiko's letter. It had a rhyming poem on it, and was addressed to him when he found it at school. There was no sender details. Shisui said it might be a warning letter.

The second was my note. It had a dead dinosaur that was shot in the head, along with a gun that was tossed to the side, with the words 'I'm not' written on it.

The third was Yuko's note. It said 'Help me!'

The fourth was Konan's; it was the picture of an arrow.

And the fifth…isn't from the time we got ours, but now. It's a combination of all the notes that we've got, excluding Yahiko's letter.

"Wait a minute…combination?" I whispered aloud, eyes narrowing. I stared at the notes for a long time.

"Took you long enough." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"What?!" I snapped out of my thoughts and look at him.

He had a bored expression, but he pointed to the note we just found, "If this is a combination of the other notes, then that would mean that the other notes you got, and this one, are most likely from the same sender."

I was silent as I listened to the Uchiha – he had taken the words right out of my mind. Did he figure that out quicker than I did?

"I guess we came to the same conclusion." I point to the letter Yahiko received, "I'm at a loss about this one, though. It feels out of place compared to the other ones. I'm not sure whether or not it's related."

"…no, it's not related." The boy skimmed the contents of the letter.

"How can you be so sure?" I wanted to add on 'since you're only 11!' but I knew better than to say that, since the kid's actually smart and I shouldn't really question him about smarts when he's probably smarter than me.

"If you look at the way the notes were sent as, then it should be obvious." Sasuke sneered at me, "Or can't you see it?"

"Hey, hey, hey…" My lips twitch into a contemptuous smile, knowing full well that he was trying to insult me. "How can I not see it, when it's right in front of me? The letter was sent in a different format to the others."

"There's more to it than that, loser." He got my note and Yuko's, placing them next to each other, "If you analyse the writing, it looks very similar." He added Konan's note next to my note, then tapped the pictures present on both, "The pictures are very similar in style as well."

"I…never noticed that…" I inspect the notes and realise exactly what Sasuke was talking about. I didn't even see that they could be related in that way. For a moment, I was pretty amazed at his deduction skills. "We think the person who sent these was the same person, right? But you're saying that they're very similar, but that doesn't mean that they are. It could be a person with a very similar style, as you'd put it."

The boy had a thinking face on, then started to feel the paper that the messages were scribbled on. I just watched what he was doing, having no clue as to what touching paper would do.

"The paper's the same." He commented.

"But isn't paper all the same…?" I questioned with a sceptical expression.

"No, stupid. Have you ever been to an arts and crafts store?" The Uchiha sighed, "Why don't you feel the paper yourself? The letter, as well."

I did as he said, ignoring his continual insults to me. Indeed, he was right. The paper that the notes were sent on was thicker than the paper for the letter.

"So…what does this mean?" I tilt my head, completely and utterly confused.

"For starters, thicker paper is more expensive. It's not likely that the sender would use 2 completely different paper weights to send notes. It would be inconvenient. Normally they would use the normal paper that we get from stores, which would be the same as the letter." Sasuke paused, taking the notes and staring at them close up. He placed them back down and tapped his finger on the edge of one of them, "Do you see this?"

"See what?" There was nothing to see. It was just a blank part of paper.

The Uchiha lifted the note up and shoved it in my face, "Look closer!"

When I did, I saw a tiny mark on the edge, which I didn't see before. "There's a mark here."

"Yeah. Doesn't it look familiar?" Sasuke urged.

I stared at the mark again. It kind of looked like a triangle, but it was pretty transparent. It was hard to see.

"Familiar? How?" I was still at a loss.

"So you really are just stupid…" The boy just shook his head, looking annoyed and disappointed at the same time, before bringing another note, Konan's, to my attention. "It's the same as this!" He put them together and let me see the result.

"Huh?" I stare at the note that had that (which was the note I got), and then at Konan's. My eyes widened in realisation when I saw the connection. "Sasuke…you're a genius!" I praised. I think we finally got a lead, but…

My face fell when I realised where this would lead to.

"I think we have to hand these to Father." Sasuke stared at all the notes.

"Yeah. If the paper's from Arrow themselves, then there isn't really much we can do about it." I hung my head. "I thought when we'd finally gotten a clue…it turns out to be harder than I expected."

"At least you know it's someone who works at Arrow, who sent you these notes." Sasuke was now lying on the ground, arms behind his head in a relaxed pose.

"Who works there…?"

"Yeah. That paper can't be given anywhere else. It's a trademark for their company, so only their employees have access to it."

It comes to hit me that there are thousands of people working for Arrow. How do we know who to question?

"Will we be able to find Dad in time…?" I bite my thumb nail gently, staring off into the distance. Worry began to well up in me.

I thought that I could do something, but in the end, it was futile. I couldn't do anything. There was nothing that I could do.

It dawned on me that when Arrow had taken Dad, they would have made sure that nothing incriminated them, and if it did, they would've gotten rid of it. But these were left behind…did that mean that they knew that we wouldn't be able to find anything?

They knew that there wouldn't be a case?

Arrow is always in the centre of a lot of controversy, but they never get prosecuted; because there was nothing against them; because they got rid of the evidence.

Because they were above the law.