Once Hinata had been freed from her conversation with Naruto, she made a beeline for the stairs, hurrying her way up until she reached Ino's office. Neji was standing there waiting, looking annoyed that she'd taken as long as she had. She unlocked the door to Ino's office and snuck in, checking their surroundings before closing the door and locking it.
Neji reached to turn the light on, but Hinata stopped him, shaking her head. "No. No one needs to know we've been snooping around here. I just need something..." She opened a few of the filing cabinets and took a mental count, doing her best to memorize the names of the cases Ino had dropped or passed off to others. She'd distanced herself from a lot of cases lately, passing them off to other prosecutors; Hinata was sure it was related to whatever was going on. She opened up her laptop and scrolled through the list of their cases, opening one of the cabinets and checking which ones were organized where.
As she suspected... Ino had passed off a lot of the cases she was working on.
"You have access to all of her files?" Neji seemed surprised by that fact.
"Of course I do. I'm her secretary. I have to know what files she's working on, where they're located, which prosecutors are taking care of them, and the like. I have to be able to provide information to those prosecutors in her absence and know whether detectives have added new information to those particular cases." It was very much an organizational job, and she was proud to be an expert at it. She made notes on specific files and started sending them off to the printer in the office, making sure they were set to speed print double-sided so she could have as much as possible (with as little paper as possible).
"You think these files have something to do with what's going on?" Neji was standing near the door, peering out into the hall to ensure nobody was aware that they were in there. He did his best to be subtle, training his ears to listen and prepare for the chance they were interrupted. At least Hinata had an excuse to be here. He didn't.
"I'm almost certain of it. One of these cases is, without a doubt, related to what was happening." Hinata paused for a moment, pondering. "Hey... One of these involved a DNA test that Tenten did... Maybe you could talk to her about it?"
Neji's face went stern. "Why me?" He was a terrible liar. Hinata knew he wanted an excuse to talk to the quirky lab girl. "Wouldn't it make more sense for you to talk to her?" He might have had a point there, but Hinata wasn't going to take no for an answer.
"It gives you an excuse to talk to her." Hinata glanced at him. "Don't act like you didn't want one," she teased. He grunted at her and frowned, leading her to let out a soft giggle. "I know how you are, Neji. The quirkier she is, the better, right? I heard she's the best sharpshooter in the building." Tenten never had to fire on the job except for ballistics tests, and those didn't require precision, but there were... rumours that came up from the handful of officers who spent their time at the firing range that she had beaten all of their scores.
"Yeah? So what if she is? It's not like she has to carry on the job, anyway." Neji wasn't fond of his ego being poked, which gave Hinata all the more reason to goad him into challenging her. Maybe he would find an excuse to bond with her. Tenten knew just about everything regarding guns, weapons, identifying weapon patterns and materials, and the like. If you had even the tiniest speck from a weapon, she'd find some way to determine the materials. That was the magic of Tenten's capabilities.
"You might fool your coworkers, but you won't fool me, Neji," Hinata replied pointedly before snapping her laptop shut. "There. That should be all of the files I need in paper copies." She grabbed the stack from the printer and carefully straightened it, then stuffed it into her bag. "Come on. Let's get out of here before anybody notices." For good measure, she reached up and pulled her earring out, taking a deep breath as she opened the door, turning to Neji.
"See? I told you I dropped it in there somewhere. You're always good at finding these things." She dangled her earring before working on putting it back into her lobe, watching around them; their coworkers were none the wiser. She locked the office and headed for the elevator, doing her best to keep calm until they were out of there. It wasn't long before they reached the parking lot and were on their way out of the building, stopping at the apartment to drop their papers off before heading to the convention.
After leaving the hospital, Naruto's first stop was at Kakashi's place once again, filling him in on the newest details of their case: Hinata's inherent curiosity and Dr. Senju's involvement in assisting them. Adding more people wasn't ideal, but they both knew it would have been more challenging to keep Dr. Senju out of things than it was to include her. Besides, if they had a medical professional on their side, given their usual professional was on the run, it could benefit them in the long run.
Then it was back to his house before he received a call from Sai, who wanted to speak with him. He offered to have Sai come to his house; Sai was reluctant, though he agreed when he said Dr. Senju would look after Ino. Sai arrived promptly, entering Naruto's apartment and looking around. The place was... a mess, in all honesty.
"This place is..." Sai began before Naruto gave him a look.
"Shush. I pay for a maid, and she's been sick with the flu the last three days and doesn't have a replacement. It's not usually this bad!" Realistically, Naruto wasn't the kind of person who could keep house very well... or at all. The only thing he kept in his cupboards was instant ramen, and most of the time, he frequented one restaurant in particular for it. In fact, he had a cup of ramen next to him, slurping at the noodles with a disgruntled expression.
"Right." Sai seemed to think better of commenting, taking a seat next to Naruto and opening his laptop. He pulled up a series of files then turned the computer toward the blonde. "These are the files Ino and I were going over before things happened. These are financial records for her family that we were going over. I would like you to look through them and see if there is anything that stands out to you. You're the only other person with as intimate a knowledge of the Akatsuki investigation as she and I do."
"Financial records?" Naruto frowned. "What do her family's finances have to do with anything?" Sai hadn't told him that part, and frankly, neither had Ino.
"Well... We came across the knowledge that Ino's parents were former Akatsuki members. Inoichi Yamanaka, formerly known as Koton Yamakichi; Ume Yamanaka, formerly known as Hana Yamakichi; and Ino Yamanaka, formerly known as Hagi Yamakichi. She also has an older brother, Yahiko Yamakichi, a confirmed member of Akatsuki, though he hasn't been seen in years. As a result... her family's financial records became an important part of the investigation." That was a lot of information for Naruto to take in, and he was surprised Ino hadn't confided in him about it. They were... close, in a sense.
As Naruto skimmed through the records, two things stood out to him. The first one was an early financial record where Ino's father had purchased excessive gasoline. It stood out because the week before, he'd made a payment for the same thing, though it seemed like he'd paid for extra canisters. There was a purchase for a spare canister. It was the date that stood out to Naruto.
"Say, did she know what this purchase was for?" He pointed it out to Sai, who frowned and shook his head. Something was nagging in the back of Naruto's mind. It was a purchase made in July, so it could have been for a family vacation or excursion, but the date... something stood out about the date. Naruto rubbed his temples in frustration, wishing he could figure out why it stood out.
"I'll have to look at these in more detail, but something's up with them. Something doesn't add up, and I think we'll have to ask Ino about those." He skimmed through the rest of them, chewing his lip as he did. He also saw something else... There was a donation to a... hospital, days later? That had some significance, though he couldn't figure out the nature of it. It was years ago; maybe it had to do with an old case he'd looked into?
"Sure. I'll send you the documents so you can take a look. For now, I'm going to head back to the hospital and check in on Ino." Sai patted Naruto on the shoulder before closing the laptop and stuffing it back into his bag, waving goodbye to the detective.
Damn... That date was going to bother him for days until he figured it out.
The convention was about what Hinata and Neji were expecting: decent food, tons of different stalls with indie writers and fanfiction authors, speakers whose goal was to help budding authors get their works published, and a variety of bloggers who were promoting their online content. They checked out a few stalls and attended a few of the presentations, eventually sitting down for lunch in a small cafeteria area that had been set up for attendees.
"That was..." Neji couldn't seem to find the words to describe it.
"Not really your thing. I know." Hinata smiled. "I still appreciate the company. Is the food good at least?" She'd offered to pay for Neji's lunch since he'd been kind enough to accompany her.
"Yeah. It's decent." He took a bite of one of the desserts. "Baking's mediocre, though. Yours is better." His compliment touched Hinata; she always took pride in her baking skills. Hearing them openly complimented lifted her spirits considerably.
Of course, those lifted spirits were dashed as she could see a group of tall, burly, suit-clad men and women that she recognized. Her face turned to a frown, which drew Neji's attention to the group. Those were... Hanabi's personal guards? What were they doing here? The Hyuuga cousins watched as the suits searched around the room, checking here and there.
"Come on, Hinata. Let's get out of here. I don't like the looks of this." Hinata was startled by his sudden change, quickly following as they exited the cafeteria. As they were coming down one of the hallways, a girl in a hooded sweatshirt ahead of them whispered at them, beckoning for them to follow. Hinata knew that voice... She recognized the way the girl whispered them over and against Neji's protests, followed the girl until they were somewhere private.
"Damn. Thought I'd never lose those stuffy, uptight suits." The girl pulled down the hood of her sweatshirt, giving Hinata and Neji a bright, warm smile.
"Hanabi, what are you doing here?" Hinata's face was a mask of concern. Hanabi had been known for ditching her bodyguards, but this was a whole new thing. Had Hanabi been looking for her specifically?
"Looking for you, duh. I told them I wanted to go to the convention, made up some excuse about having to learn to write papers and reports for taking over the company, you know, the usual. I wanted to brush up on my writing skills. I knew you'd be here." Hanabi was... trouble, though she wasn't trouble in the way Hinata usually was. "Plus, you know, I wanted to tell ya something."
"That doesn't mean you should ditch your bodyguards," Neji scolded, and Hinata agreed. Hinata knew what it was like not to have the luxury of someone watching your back like Hanabi had.
"Yeah, but I got all excited and thought you were on a date. I was pretty disappointed when I realized it was Neji. Can't mistake that ponytail," Hanabi teased, circling Neji and tugging on his hair a little. He grumbled at her, leading her to dance away and circle further, putting Hinata between them. "Seriously, Hinata, you need a date! Isn't there a cute guy you work with you could ask out?" She was thoughtful for a moment before pressing two fingers to each of her temples like she was psychically sensing something. "I'm sensing... blonde hair, blue eyes... oh, he must be a cutie, right? Or she?"
Hinata's face flushed. "That's enough!" She squeaked, slapping a hand over her sister's mouth. "Hanabi, what do you want? What is going on?" Hanabi's sudden need to talk to her had her worried.
"I just wanted to tell you father's looking at another large business deal, but I'm not so sure about it. I saw some guy with red hair that he was talking to. I think his name was Nagato Uzumaki..? Anyway, something felt shady about it. Thought you'd wanna know since you're law enforcement and all." If there was one thing Hinata and Hanabi could agree on, it was their father's shady business deals.
Hinata looked at Neji, who nodded. "Yeah, we... saw him talking to that same man. Uzumaki, you said?" That couldn't be a coincidence. Nagato Uzumaki, Naruto Uzumaki... It had to be related somehow. Were they cousins? Relatives of some kind? She wasn't sure how common the Uzumaki name was, but it made both of them even more suspicious about what was going on.
"Thanks, Hanabi," Neji said with a nod. "You should get back to your bodyguards before they find out you're passing us information.
"Roger dodger!" Hanabi gave them a salute, unzipping her sweater and tying it around her waist, going from sleuthing heiress to prim-and-proper fashionista. "Hina! You owe me some cinnamon buns, kay?" And with that single request, Hanabi was off, leaving a profoundly suspicious Hinata and Neji with new and improved information to compile and investigate.