Six years of medical school, countless late nates on that rookie doctor shift work schedule, dozens if not hundreds of complicated surgeries that had lasted hours on end with no break. Not once in all of that time had Sakura Haruno succumbed to the pressure. She'd watched all her friends, peers and colleagues battle caffeine addictions, and worse, watched them gain pounds after dangerously easy grease fuelled diets, watched their metabolisms suffer.
But Sakura was above all that, her body had been her temple, and her greatest weapon. There was no way she would compromise that for the temporary benefits of sugar and endorphins.
It had only taken three weeks as a fully fledged Detective for Sakura to finally slip after late shifts with hours of tense interrogation, no sleep and a stiff wrist. On her way home early one morning she'd unfortunately caught the scent of the bakery at the end of her block. She'd found herself staring in the window of the place for a full ten minutes before she got the gall up to go inside.
And that's when it had started. She'd woken some hours later from a coma, surrounded by the wrappers and powdered sugar residue of her biggest shame. The look on Lady Katsuyu's face should have been enough to trigger a guilt that would put her off doing it again… but it had happened on multiple occasions now. As Sakura stood in front of the gas station they were meant to be investigating there was only one thing going through her mind….
They might have powdered sugar doughnuts inside.
"Haruno, would you hurry up and get in here? Stop spacing out on me, woman." Kakashi's head appeared from the sliding doorway and broke her reverie.
"Oh, right, surveillance footage. Got it." Reluctantly she followed him inside, pleased to see that there was little to the facilities other than a stocked fridge and a shelf filled with crisps. At least she wasn't craving salt. "So the officers were stopped outside, broke protocol by both leaving the vehicle unattended, and the perp was able to get into the passenger's seat without being noticed, slide across and drive away.."
"That's about it, yeah."
"Shouldn't we just proceed to the crime scene directly, Kakashi? There are already cops here getting statements, we can get the information later..."
"It's on the way, I just want to check it out before we move on, it's only going to take a minute. We need to get a step ahead of this guy, and if we can get even a grainy security image of a suspect that's more than we've had for years."
She couldn't fault his logic, he was correct, Sakura just wanted to get on with the job at hand. She knew what was awaiting them down the road and the anticipation of examining the scene was almost more than she could bear. Behind the counter, pushing past uniformed officers with a flash of her badge, Kakashi and Sakura crowded the single monitor that showed the feed from the two cameras attached to the facility. One pointed solely at the cash register, the other was a panning camera on the forecourt.
"Damn it. That panning camera is going to be an issue." Sakura muttered more to herself than to her partner but he responded none-the-less.
"Don't be so sure, we could get lucky. This is the sequence of the van coming in to the station. Camera is a motion based one, so it's aimed at the entrance when it comes in, everything's fine. Pans to the van coming to a stop at the pump."
It happened in a flash on the monitor, so quickly that Sakura barely had time to catch it, Officer Tenten had jumped from the passengers side and come around the front of the vehicle toward the door to the station. Officer Chouji slowly got out himself. There was a brief view of light on the camera as the passengers side door was opened and then closed again, but that was it. The camera was now focused on the two officers moving into the gas station. Once they were inside the camera remained motionless at the door, a nice view of the pavement until it jerked back up in time to see the van speeding out of the exit.
"Did you catch it?" She side eyed Kakashi.
"Yeah, are you able to bring it up closer on screen?"
With a few taps of the dusty old keyboard attached to the monitor there was a zoomed in partial of the gas pump itself just as the van was pulling into the entrance.
"That's a shoe, right? Our perp was hiding behind the pump and waited until the camera was down until snatching the vehicle. Clever."
"That sounds a lot like praise, Haruno. Are you complimenting our thief?" Kakashi continued without a verbal answer, the veritable glare she shot him seemed to suffice. "So no visual, damn. If we trawl back far enough we might be able to get something of the guy getting into position..."
"If we're lucky..."
"We are a bit pessimistic today, aren't we? Did you not get enough time to go to the bakery this morning?"
"What's that- how did- oh never mind. Let's just send this through to the precinct and get Gai to comb through it. I'll make time in my calendar to kick your ass later."
"I'll look forward to it. Want to grab anything here before we head to the crime scene?"
"Are you kidding? Let's just get there fast, we're going to have so much paperwork to do later."
"Listen to you, sounding like a seasoned and jaded detective already."
"And I wonder whose fault that is?" Sakura rolled her eyes, watching as Kakashi grabbed an enormous bottle of blue sugar liquid and leaving some money on the counter. He had the audacity to wink at her before heading back to the car. Without thinking Sakura took the driver's seat again, her wrist wasn't so sore now, and she had been driving in short stints back and forth to the lab this last week. But it had been a long drive to get here and she would be lying if she said it wasn't a little stiff.
"Not much further now, you sure you're up to-"
"I'm fine, Kakashi. Just..." She hadn't meant to snap at him. Despite his sometimes questionable behavior, Kakashi had been the only thing she'd been able to count on in the last three weeks. He was a constant pillar of support, unwavering and always there when she had a question or needed a hand that wasn't fractured. He would joke and gripe about it maybe but he always helped immediately and he didn't deserve the shitty attitude she had woken up with this morning. "I'm just not particularly looking forward to seeing what we're about to see."
He remained silent in thought as she started the car, taking a long drought of the sugar syrup, it hurt Sakura's teeth just to look at it.
"This is going to sound odd, but that's a relief to hear."
"What? What do you mean?"
"Well, when you start walking into these scenes with no feeling, or worse, looking forward to it even, that's when you want to be worried, Sakura. It's good to feel, just aim it in the right direction and don't be like me."
The words were kind, uncharacteristically so, and while she appreciated them they weren't quite enough to quell the feeling inside her. It was a harsh juxtaposition to the beautiful weather and lush scenery that passed by the windows. She felt physically sick, a likely byproduct of overindulging these last few days combined with nervousness and anxiety.
She'd seen dead bodies before, that wasn't the issue, it was just a professional hazard of the careers she had chosen.
She'd never seen a fresh victim of the Kyuubi Killer before though, and the prospect of seeing someone she had known as the victim, even if it had only been intense dislike... well it unsettled her stomach and her mind. Bile would rise in her throat whenever she thought too much on the subject, it was a singular thought that turned acidic in all manner of ways.
Mizuki Tsubaki may have got what he deserved, but he'll never face justice for what he did to Samantha.
That sickness would morph into rage at the secondary thought, they no longer had a living witness to the Akatsuki dealings that they could question at will. Though she was loath to admit it, all of his information had been fruitful thus far, in between the psychotic ramblings and violent outbursts. She could never have liked the guy, let alone tolerate him, but she still wouldn't wish him dead before he had faced a judge and jury.
"At least we have imperative evidence now that the Kyuubi Killer is working with the Akatsuki, if nothing else."
"Seriously, this shade of pessimism on you is a flattering homage to myself, and I would normally love it and take pictures, but you need to focus, Haruno. We have more than just a link and you know it, he took a big risk for the first time, and it's his first real mistake in a long time."
"You're right, I know you're right, but still... How do you know this is going to come to anything and we won't end up at another dead end?"
"Because, this is the first mistake he's made with you on the case, Haruno. And I'm confident that it will be his last before we catch him."
Again the words were a touching sentiment, as was the small upturn of his lips and the way he averted his gaze as he said it. There was just something about this whole situation that didn't sit right for Sakura and she couldn't shake the feeling of doom at what awaited them around the corner.
It would be hard to miss the cavalcade of police vehicles, coroner vans and crime scene tape. Sakura parked the shitty sedan, opening the door to a wall of uncomfortable summer heat that was thick and unpleasant to be working in.
"First impressions?" Kakashi asked as he held up the tape for her to step under.
"This spot had to have been chosen specifically, secluded, private road, cover behind the trees. Main highway access in either direction so there was a quick exit in a separate vehicle, in this dry weather I doubt we'll be able to get usable tire impressions anywhere. I'll make the command to forensics to pick up the flora and fauna around the site. We may get lucky later and be able to trace the getaway vehicle at least."
"Very good. You're sounding like a real detective now, Haruno."
"I should hope so, if I start dragging people to plant stores then I'll worry. What's your first impression of the place?"
"What you said, couldn't have put it better myself. What concerns me the most is that the gas station had to be chosen specifically also, but how did they know the officers would stop?"
Sakura stopped walking and regarded Kakashi with an edge of fear.
"You think they're tailing cops?"
"Could be, or something infinitely worse." He paused too and met her eye, he didn't need to say the rest, Sakura knew what the worse case scenario would be.
The Akatsuki could have a mole in the Konoha PD.
"Took you two long enough!" Shizune's voice reached her ears, the sweating ME stumbling toward them carrying heavy black bags of gear. "I hope his lazy late attitude isn't rubbing off on you, Sakura."
"We had to make a pit stop at the gas station where the vehicle was taken to see if we could get any CCTV footage of the perp. Want to get an APB out as soon as possible. What's the situation here?" Sakura jerked her head over to the white prison transport van behind the trees. Investigators and officers combing through every surrounding shrub. Normally Sakura would have joked with Shizune for the lateness quip, but today she just couldn't be bothered, there was a tension in the air and she wanted to get away from this place as soon as she was able to.
"Go in and take a look for yourselves. It's definitely him." Shizune directed her attention to Kakashi. "He's back."
For Sakura's thinking, Shizune was panicking, they had both been present for the previous rampage of the serial killer. Her usual kept appearance was shaky, her eyes widened, and a stark contrast to the man she was imploring. Kakashi's lip quirked to the left in a semblance of a smile, but it was something different, something darker.
"Not for long." His words caused a surge of energy within her that she hadn't expected, she regarded him with quiet fascination as he spoke. "Has anyone touched the scene?"
Shizune shook her head before she answered.
"Only me. Scene is untouched, I have taken the preliminary photos but I thought I would leave it to the leaders of the task force for the rest."
"Thank you, we appreciate it." Kakashi nodded before walking away, Sakura scrambled to catch up to him. "Officer's Izumo and Kotetsu were the first on the scene, we should probably talk with them first, where are those miserable shit's-"
"Kakashi, you can't call them that, you're their superior officer. And you really need to learn to tell them apart, look there they are."
"You're telling me that you can tell them apart? I'm calling bluff."
"Of course I can, watch this." Sakura cupped her hands to her lips. "Officer Izumo!" She called in their direction, one of them met her eyes and began to walk over to them.
"That doesn't count, that's cheating." Despite Kakashi's muttering she also heard the compliment. "Nice move though."
"Detectives. You wanted to see me."
"You were the first on the scene, correct? I'm sure you've been over this a few times already, but do you mind going over it again for us?"
"Of course, Detective Haruno. We received an urgent dispatch alerting us to a vehicle accident in the area we were patrolling. Came across those bozo's..." he gestured to Officers Tenten and Chouji who were sitting in the back of an ambulance looking forlorn. "They were running in the direction their vehicle had headed off it after it was stolen from the gas station. We got word immediately, one of the clerks had phoned it in, we left in pursuit of the vehicle."
"We heard that much from the captain, what happened next?"
Sakura nudged Kakashi slightly, hoping that Izumo hadn't seen it, if he weren't within earshot she'd have hissed patience, asshole.
"Well, we phoned in for backup, tried to cover all the exits for this area with patrol cars. It's just too large to cover... we drove full tilt for twenty minutes with no sign of the vehicle and met up with the other search cars. When we doubled back we noticed the side road underneath the trees and found... well, we found what we were looking for. I have never seen or smelled anything like it."
Despite the sunshine hitting them where they stood, all the color drained from Izumo's face in an instant.
"Did you touch anything when you got here?" Sakura asked tentatively with an air of concern, beating Kakashi to the punch or whatever snarky comment he was likely to make.
"No, ma'am. Back door was open, drivers side was also open, we approached with caution. Saw... what's inside and phoned in immediately."
"Good work Officer, dismissed." Kakashi exchanged nods with Izumo before he walked back to his partner. "That gives out perp a very small window of time..." He continued to talk as they got closer to the opened doors of the van. "Twenty minutes to a half hour while the officers were looking the wrong way, another twenty to get back to where they started... An hour max, maybe. To do all this..."
Kakashi was staring into the van as he spoke, undeterred by the grizzly sight within. Sakura instead felt her eyes widen despite herself and all the gruesome things she'd been witness to in her own life. It was the blood that triggered a wave of nausea, the way it was dripping onto the ground from the van in a near constant stream. With each drip she felt that stomach acid rising to unacceptable levels.
At the back of the cab she could see what remained of Mizuki Tsubaki, and it was indeed him, the hair gave it away. His eyes were missing, he'd been shackled to the bars at the back and his legs, arms, feet... it was hard to tell there was so much blood. Suffice to say that his limbs were no longer attached to his body. Swallowing thickly and not to be outdone by her partner, Sakura pulled herself back to the present.
"An hour to partially dismember a body that would take power tools, or more than one person certainly. Doesn't the Kyuubi Killer usually hang up the victim to bleed them?"
"I'm assuming he didn't have time for this one, like Obito." Kakashi sniffed after he said the name, almost like it'd had a physical effect on him. "I understand what Kotetsu was saying about the smell, what the hell is that..."
"Seriously, Kakashi? It was Izumo and it was like thirty seconds ago. God you're such a senile-" Sakura had to pause, something wasn't right here and it had nothing to do with the mutilated corpse in front of her. "That smell isn't a body related one..."
"It's familiar too..."
Sakura began to look around the van to find the source of the pungent smell, hoping her nose would lead her to whatever-
"It's kerosene..." Kakashi sniffed and dropped to the ground instantly as if he were doing a push up, looking under the vehicle. Sakura was simultaneously questioning how he was so dexterous and what would have prompted him to do such an action. Rather than joining him she simply crouched beside him and ducked her head, the smell was stronger closer to the ground.
"Shizune's probably nose-deaf to this kind of thing, or assumed it was the van overheating-"
"It's a bomb." Kakashi had said it quietly and calmly, so much so that she didn't believe him until she looked past him and saw the pipe with wires for herself. "Sakura, get everyone out of here- now!"
She didn't need to be told twice.
"Attention everyone!" Now was the time for her best Tsunade impression. "We've found a bomb, code 10:79, repeat, 10:79, clear the area! Fast! All of you, move! Izumo, radio in for the bomb squad-"
"No time!" Kakashi shouted from underneath the van, his voice loud and commanding and not at all familiar to Sakura. "I'm going to try to defuse it, Sakura get out of here, now! That's an order!"
"50/50 Hatake, I'm not going anywhere, how long-"
"No time to talk about it, listen to me, get yourself out! I'm going to cut this wire and I don't know what'll happen next-"
"You've got to be kidding me, no I won't leave you or our crime scene!"
"30 seconds, take cover, Haruno. Now."
"Do you have the right wire, yes or no?"
"I can't see- fuck…."
Kakashi's swear was the last thing she remembered hearing before there was a shadow and she felt herself being pushed hard into the dirt. And then there was an explosion so loud it was as if someone had combined every firework that Sakura had ever heard all in one. She felt heat, but mostly she felt pressure that was keeping her covered and pinned to the ground. Her eyes adjusted faster than her ears, the ringing was almost as deafening as the explosion itself, when she cracked her eyes open (unsure of when exactly she had shut them) she was met with the sight of dusty blue and black.
It was Kakashi's shirt and jacket, it was Kakashi's chest, his body shielding her from the fiery cloud that was once a vehicle. A sickening panic rose, he wasn't moving, had the explosion knocked him out or worse… Instinctively her hands came up to grip his sides and he moved, his face looking down at hers.
"You're okay…." He asked with wide panicking eyes, she couldn't hear him properly but knew what he was saying, and she knew that he was saying it more as a reaffirming statement to himself. She nodded readily, watching his dark irises still panicking and searching hers. "You're okay…" He repeated before releasing a breath he'd been holding, and she could feel it with his whole body on top of hers.
Kakashi winced, his eyes narrowing before he tried to move, Sakura's eyes dropped and that was when she saw the blood. Kakashi's head must have been turned when the blast hit, shrapnel or something had grazed his cheek and lip, he rolled to the side and onto the ground. The black smoke and the waves from the sheer heat were making it hard to see anything that wasn't directly in front of her, Sakura scrambled to her shaky knees and found Kakashi. The back of his jacket was smouldering, without a word she helped him out of it, the shirt underneath was also burning at the back and at the shoulder.
Sakura didn't care about buttons, wasn't thinking of anything other than what needed to be done in that moment. She had gone into full doctor survival mode. She might have ripped it off part of the way. He was wearing a singlet underneath, and while she could see visible scorch marks it wasn't the flames she had seen before.
He had to be burnt horribly underneath, so she ripped that off him too.
"Sakura…" She felt a hand on her cheek, it was Kakashi's, directing her attention to his face. "I'm alright, see, no burns… just a couple of scratches."
"Thank god." She sighed and fell back onto her heels.
"Can you walk?"
"Yeah, I think so, you?"
"Not sure… We need to get away before the gas tank explodes…"
They were shouting and she was aware of it, but the after effects of the explosion had still not worn off. There was no time to delay, helping Kakashi to his feet they hastily limped to cover, she held onto him tightly the whole way, unsure if he could support his own weight.
They were immediately surrounded by paramedics, but Sakura was the only doctor in the house. From the back of an ambulance she gave orders, brushing off the MT's trying to make a fuss over her, shouting that they needed to put the fire out before any evidence was lost. At some point she lost sight of Kakashi while they cleaned up the scrapes on his face, and without him in view Sakura finally felt the panic set in.
If she had left and taken cover when Kakashi had told her to, maybe he would have defused the bomb, the evidence would have been saved. It was their first proper lead into the Kyuubi killer, the one who had taken Obito from this world, and it had all gone up in literal smoke… and it was all her fault.
The bile from earlier came up faster than she could suppress this time. Managing somehow to slink away and back to the parked sedan she finally let it all out on the side of the road and out of view of her fellow officers. Her eyes were stinging, her throat, her stomach, her wrist… When she made to wipe her mouth on the back of her hand she noticed that Kakashi's blood was still sticking to her. It made her retch again.
"Jesus Christ, Haruno, never go to a murder scene on a full stomach, even a rookie should know that."
She'd been leaning on the trunk of the car as she hurled whatever was left in her stomach, straightening to find Kakashi Hatake opening the vehicle, eyeing her with a strange look but it could have just been from the smoke. He was shirtless still, it looked as if a cut had been glued at the side of his head, but he was otherwise without a scratch.
"How did you manage to get out of that unscathed?" It even hurt to talk.
"Luck, dumb luck and nothing more, not entirely unscathed though. I'll have this nice scar and a twisted ankle. That was no ordinary pipe bomb, that was TNT…" Kakashi leaned into the drivers side of the car, popping the trunk which startled Sakura. "There was no way I could have defused that in under two minutes without any tools, he didn't have time to clean the scene so he blew it up." Dodging the pile of vomit, Kakashi came to stand beside her. "How are you doing? I came down on you pretty hard, is your wrist okay-"
"I'm fine, I'm fine… I'm…" She couldn't meet his eye so she settled for staring at his bare chest. Another time and she might have been pleasantly surprised by the rippling muscles that he'd been hiding, but right now she was spiralling into a train of thought that was only chaos. "This is all my fault, what a fucking mess, we've lost…. everything…"
"This is not your fault, alright. I am telling you, this is not your fault, and I'm never wrong, got it?:" He'd put both his hands on the sides of her upper arms. "There was no way to know that it was a trap, and it was timed perfectly. You couldn't have foreseen that."
"It's almost like they were watching us and knew when we would be there."
"It is, but try not to think about that just yet. Take a minute to catch your breath, if you can with all this goddamn smoke." He relinquished his hold of her before peering into the trunk. "I was so sure I had another shirt back here…"
"How the hell do we come back from this Kakashi? It's one thing after another, we've just lost our best chance of catching him-" her voice had begun to waver, later she would blame it on the smoke.
"Not true, we're our best chance of catching him. We have pictures of the scene that Shizune took before the blast, and better than that, he's changed his MO. He's scared, and scared perps make mistakes, trust me." He spoke while hastily putting on a plain white t shirt he'd managed to find in the mess of the trunk.
"It's like trying to look left and right at the same time… We're working on the Akatsuki task force meanwhile this guy is getting away with- what are you doing?"
Sakura stopped her rambling when she caught sight of her partner, he had pulled his phone out, enabled the camera and pointed it in the opposite direction.
"I'm looking left, while also looking right." He held up the phone for emphasis. "And if I count your eyes and camera then I'm looking in four directions at the same time. We've got this, Sakura. I know we do, we're so close I can taste it."
"That might just be the blood in your mouth."
Kakashi smiled and it had the odd side effect of calming Sakura. She just wasn't used to this, like she wasn't used to seeing Kakashi in a snug fitting t shirt without his collar and jacket. She wasn't used to the late nights, surviving on caffeine and no sleep until the job was done. But she was going to, she would have to, and fast. There was no other solution.
Taking a deep breath and steadying herself Sakura attempted to pull herself together. This was stupid, it was the adrenaline talking, the fear and nothing more. As long as she had Kakashi with her they would both be fine.
Starting today, she would go back to the regime that worked best for her. Healthy foods, exercise, keeping her mind active and stress levels low. But first she needed to get the after taste of vomit and smoke out of her mouth. Going against all her better judgements she reached into the sedan and withdrew the bottle of blue liquid Kakashi had bought earlier, popping the cap and downing half of it in one hit.
"Hey, that's- did you hit your head?" Kakashi approached her with concern.
"No, why?"
"Well, just last week you told Detective Genma that you would rather drink bleach than..."
"I know what I said, shut up, gotta get that taste out of my mouth, here." She threw the bottle at him.
"That's more like it."
"You tell anyone that you saw me throw up or drink that shit and I will gut you like a fish, got it?"
"There she is, welcome back Detective Haruno."