He hadn't seen her for three days.
At least, he hadn't seen her beyond that photo on his mantle.
((Years ago))
He woke up to a numb pain that grew into a sharp pain. His left eye wouldn't open. He tried to lean up but—
"Augh!" A sharp pain sent him back to laying on the sof—Where the fuck was he?
"What the fuck…" He moaned.
"See that's what I said. Like at least two hundred times last night." It was Naruto, laying in a recliner, seemingly immobile, swollen, bruised, and bloody.
"What the fuck happened to you?" Sasuke mumbled.
"You, you jackass." Naruto spat back and glared for a moment before he followed it up with a chuckle.
"You got fucked up before noon yesterday, but you usually do that this time of the year so I just went along with it, you know, and next thing I know we're all the way in Dupont at a dive bar, the one with the hilarious name… what's it called…? The safari themed one, you know?" Naruto paused but Sasuke didn't offer a reply.
"Anyway, this fucking asshole starts spewing some racist shit and suddenly you went all vigilante on the dude, he deserved it, but like, you fuckin' raged on him dude. I thought you were gonna beat him to death, so I grabbed you, and at this point the fuckin' bouncer grabbed us both, and threw us right in the middle of Connecticut.
And that's when you got the idea to beat the shit out of me, but fuck if I'd let you do that… So I beat the shit out of you, right in the fuckin' middle of Connecticut."
Naruto stopped there and sighed. The idiot smiled.
"What's that look for?" Sasuke muttered.
"It's just, you're gonna be so pissed about what happened next."
"I'm already pissed."
"Yeah, but like, you're eternally pissed. This is gonna increase your 'pissed' level by at least ten."
If Sasuke was the sort to roll his eyes, he would have rolled his eyes.
"Okay, so obviously, two shitfaced assholes fighting in the middle of the fuckin' street gets the cops called, and we, well at least, me, you were a little out at that point, try to flee, but ya know, there was the whole shitfaced part…. So yeah, we got taken in."
"Shit."
"But don't worry dude, Old Man Sarutobi got us out. Well, for now. You know, that asshole owes me anyway."
"...Sarutobi? Like director of the FBI Sarutobi?" Sasuke suddenly felt like puking.
"Yeah, dick, you've met him. Old family friend of mine."
"...fuck."
"...yep."
"Well, I guess my chances of getting an internship with the FBI this summer are zero."
"Did you just make a fucking joke, Uchiha?" Naruto laughed and they sat in silence for a moment.
"So, where are we?"
"The old man's place. You really don't remember? Well, we're dead when he gets back, so I guess it doesn't matter anyway…"
They sat in silence again.
"What is it, anyway?" Naruto asked. He looked unusually small in that moment, like he wasn't sure if he was allowed to ask that question. "This time of the year… what-What happened? Is it, uh, when—"
Sasuke sucked in his breath before saying it. Naruto already knew. He knew his parents were dead; it was something they had in common... But he'd never told him the details. He never told him about Itachi. Naruto didn't know it was that day.
"My parents died. And my brother's girlfriend. Car crash. My brother too, I guess."
"You guess?"
"They never found the body… Just a bloody trail in the snow. The cops, they think he went to get help and got lost."
"Shit."
Sasuke said nothing. He didn't talk about it ever, especially not on that day. But, he he was, beaten and sore, acknowledging it for the first time in years. It was the day he lost everyone he cared about. He could feel tears at the admission.
"I'm sorry. I know… I know—I get it. Doing what you do, to cope…on that day."
"When?" Sasuke asks. Naruto gets his meaning 'When did your parents die?' Sasuke couldn't think of when Naruto annually went down a bender other than—
"My birthday."
Oh. That made sense. Sasuke let out a short 'ha.'
"That's shit."
"Tell me a-fuckin-bout it."
Silence.
"So, uh," Naruto started, "We gotta do something about this. We need to get some fucking help, man."
It wasn't that easy but, they got some fucking help.
If anything had held him back, it was the charges he got that night. Assault. Under-age drinking. Possessing a fake ID. Public drunkenness…
He'd really fucked himself over there, but he had changed.
Sure, law school didn't work out, but, against all odds, he still became a detective before he turned thirty. A recommendation from a former FBI director hadn't hurt either...
PTSD was still shit, but he was better. Better than back then.
It didn't make that day any easier though. He was just more… functional.
So he sat at his desk, at 8am, writing a report about a bike shop robbery he'd investigated last week and let that distract him while the office was still relatively quiet.
"I'm just saying, why did we have to work on President's Day? It was a fucking ghost town around here, what the hell was gonna happen?"
"I don't know, Inuzuka, the same day-to-day shit as usual?" Sasuke's new partner replied to the ever obnoxious K-9 officer. Shikamaru set his coffee down on his desk and sighed.
Sasuke liked Detective Nara. He was new to the force, new to Arlington County. He'd worked with the Diplomatic Security Service for years and then Capitol Police; he was experienced and versatile. Shikamaru was relatively calm, reserved, and pretty damn sharp. All qualities that Sasuke liked in a person (Ironically, also all qualities that Naruto distinctly lacked...).
They had similar upbringings, both the sons of cops, great-grandson's of immigrants, brought up in rather traditional Japanese-American families.
He could be pretentious, but Sasuke figured Nara was the best Kakashi could do when it came to finding a temporary partner for him while Naruto was on leave to work on Jiraiya's senate campaign.
(Shikamaru, coincidentally, was an old friend of Naruto's from high school. It was Naruto that initially encouraged Shikamaru to apply for the open position.)
Sasuke did not particularly care for Officer Inuzuka.
"You know what I mean. What's the point of holidays if you still gotta work? Where's my three-day-weekend?"
"Why don't you go get a nice Federal desk job and then you can enjoy your three-day-weekend?" Shikamaru replied curtly as he logged into his computer.
"Fuck that. I'm not working no desk job."
Shikamaru didn't reply. Inuzuka looked like he was about to open his mouth to say something stupid again when Sasuke spoke up.
"Isn't K-9's office downstairs, Inuzuka?"
"Good morning to you too, Uchiha. Guess I'll get the fuck out of your hair. Hope you don't need anything from K-9 any time soon!" Kiba sarcastically waved as he made his way to the stairs. Shikamaru smirked.
"Thanks. I can't believe he's still bitching about having to work on Monday. It's been three days."
"Hm. Inuzuka's annoying."
"He's not so bad, but it's too fucking early and I've only had half of this coffee."
"..."
"How are you?"
"Shitty."
"Same."
Shikamaru let the small talk stop with that and worked independently at his desktop.
Sasuke tried not to think about the dream he had the night before.
8am turned to 9am and 9am turned to 10am before the captain made an appearance in the office.
Captain Hatake rolled in, late as usual, wearing his usual anti-viral mask, uniform somewhat disheveled under his coat, with a venti Starbucks cup in one hand, and that rough looking orange book of his in the other.
Kakashi didn't even look in his direction as he peeled off the anti-viral mask and said:
"Nara. Uchiha. In my office."
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at him and got up to follow Captain Hatake.
Sasuke stepped into the office last and closed the door behind him and Kakashi settled in to his desk.
"Captain Hatake."
"Got a case for you two. Just got the call on the way here."
Sasuke and Shikamaru nodded.
"John Doe found hideen in the bushes by jogger near the GW Parkway and Key Bridge."
"That's federal jurisdiction." Sasuke said.
"Yeah, well, they called us in too. Park Police are on the scene. They already suspect homicide and gave me a call. GW parkway is shut down for the time being. Made me late."
"Don't you live in Falls Church?" Shikamaru pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I moved." Kakashi deadpanned. "Now get on with it. Nara, check in with Asuma. He should have everything you need ready." Shikamaru nodded and left. Sasuke turned to follow when Kakashi stopped him.
"Sasuke," Kakashi said with a knowing look. "You got this?" Could he handle a homicide investigation on the anniversary of the day everyone in his family died?
Probably.
"Yes." And he turned to leave.
"Shouldn't this fall under ISB jurisdiction?" He asked as the law enforcement ranger led him through a thicket of vines, brush, and trees south of the parkway, on the edges of the ramp up to Key Bridge.
"Well, yes. Tricky business, really. Agent Yamato from ISB arrived on the scene around 9am. He suspects that the body was just placed here. Traced a trail that makes him think the assault and subsequent murder happened in your jurisdiction. Isn't working around here fun?" The ranger sighed and led him past the crime scene tape to the body. Sasuke inhaled.
He would never 'get used to' the sight of a dead body.
He never could. Not after-
The man was young, lanky, with a mess of dark floppy hair on his head, and a purple bruise that discolored the exposed side of his neck. Blood matted his hair. His eyes were closed and his body was curled perfectly into to fetal position.
Blood, so much blood. It had dried in his mother's hair. It had been so cold that Izumi's bloody had frozen with the snow. His father—
"Shit." Shikamaru muttered. "He can't even be thirty."
"No ID him so far." Came a new voice. A man in an army green police vest with messy brown hair and dark eyes approached them. "Kakashi sent you?"
"Detective Sasuke Uchiha. Arlington County PD." Sasuke stuck his hand out.
"Detective Shikamaru Nara."
"Agent Yamato, National Parks Investigative Services Branch," Agent Yamato shook Sasuke's hand. "Captain Hatake and I are old friends, so when I got called down to Arlington, I gave him a call first, just to check in, but then I got to the scene…" Agent Yamato paused and kneeled down.
"There's no sign of a struggle here. That wound to his head would have bled a lot, but as far as I can tell, no blood in the area. It's clean. And look how he's placed. Fetal position, carefully covered by trees and brush, covered by leaves and branches." Yamato continued.
"If someone wanted to keep a body hidden, two hundred yards off the GW parkway isn't exactly ideal." Nara scoffed.
"Exactly." Yamato replied.
"They wanted us to find him." Sasuke said as he surveyed the surroundings.
"Or they didn't have time or the means to move the body somewhere else." Shikamaru offered. Yamato shook his head.
"That's where it gets interesting." Yamato beckoned for them to follow him back towards the parkway. "It snowed last week; the ground is still soggy from the melt." Yamato pointed to footprints in patch of mud.
"Two sets of prints. They're deeper than the other prints around here."
"Like whoever left them was heavier." Shikamaru replied.
"Or carrying a load. See this?" Yamato pointed to sandy, tall grass, dead from winter. "It's bent. They left a trail. I was able to trace their steps back to Arlington, through Gateway park. These guys carried the victim across the god damn GW parkway and didn't get caught. It doesn't add up."
As Yamato led them back to the parkway, an Arlington County PD car and van pulled up.
"That must be crime scene and forensics. It's about damn time."
"That's our people." Sasuke stated lamely, wondering why the ISB agent hadn't called the Feds instead.
"Look, I'm gonna tell you what I told my supervisor and Kakashi," Yamato explained. "We're short staffed, underfunded, and backed up at ISB. It's better I send him off to your crime lab instead of just having the feds put it off. And, that kid was murdered in Gateway Park, I'm certain. That's your jurisdiction. He's better in your hands… Let take care of these guys and then we'll go to the park." Agent Yamato made his way over to the field technicians. Sasuke let his eyes take in the surroundings. The parkway was backed up with traffic since the right lane had been closed for emergency vehicles, but it wasn't the flashing lights of the park police cars that caught his eye.
Under the ramp that led up to Key Bridge, the concrete wall was littered with graffiti and patches of gray paint that the park service had used to cover up old graffitti. In the forefront of it all was a red symbol that caught his eye.
It was Japanese. The kanji character was encircled in a curling red line; a cloud, he realized.
"...I want a cast of these footprints, hey careful there! And want you to bag this piece of…" They heard Yamato say as he descended down into the brush towards the body.
"You want to follow him?" Shikamaru asked as he wrote in his notepad.
"Take a look at that." Sasuke nodded in the direction of the graffiti on the bridge. Shikamaru glanced up for a moment with feigned interest.
"Huh. Pretty ballsy to graffiti the bridge next to the parkway." Shikamaru returned to writing.
"The red is recent."
Shikamaru glanced up again with a slight twitch and looked at the red kanji encircled in a red cloud.
暁
"Akatsuki?" Shikamaru asked.
"Dawn." Sasuke went after Agent Yamato.
On that day, when he awoke, frozen and bloody, surrounded by the dead bodies of his family, it had been the break of dawn.
"You both speak Japanese? That's damn convenient." Yamato asked as he surveyed the red graffiti. Before the field technicians moved the John Doe to the medical examiner's lab, Sasuke asked to take a look at the man's hands. His instincts had been correct. Red flecks of paint were spattered over his left hand.
"We'll have to get a sample of this paint too." Sasuke instructed the field technician as Agent Yamato got a closer look while another officer snapped some photos.
"Well, let me show you two what we found in the park and then I'll get out of your hair." Yamato took them over to his vehicle and and produced two evidence bags, one with a jacket and and another with a wallet.
"No ID or card in the wallet. Just fourteen bucks and a coupon for Potbelly's. There is however, blood here, see? The jacket didn't offer any insight into who he is either. Just a tissue in the pocket and blood on the sleeve, but I found it about ten feet from the wallet on a bench." Yamato handed the bags off the a field technician and showed them the tracks he had been able to follow.
"Do you have experience in, uh, tracking? You seem to know what your talking about." Shikamaru asked dully. Yamato let out a short laugh.
"Did search and rescue out west for a few years when I was young, and then I worked with the US Fish and Wildlife Service… Not a lot of people with tracking experience around here. They always put me to work because of it."
Crime tape outlined where Yamato had found the coat and wallet. Yamato explained in thorough detail what each broken limb and patch of scuffed up dirt meant. Shikamaru took notes. Sasuke let his eyes wander and just see.
Whoever did this didn't care about leaving behind evidence.
Or at least, they wanted them to find what was left behind.
Sasuke wandered outside of the yellow tape. Gateway Park was an urban park, all open spaces, trees encircled in mulch, flower beds, and brick paths. How could an assault, murder, and subsequent moving of the body across the god damn GW Parkway all happen unnoticed?
How did a wrecked car on a mountain road go unnoticed for thirteen hours before anyone called emergency responders? How did Itachi wander off into the woods for help only to never be seen again? How-
His eyes wandered to trash can next to him. He reached for the maglite in his pocket.
"Detective Uchiha?"
"Agent Yamato, do you have any nitrate gloves handy?"
"Uh, yeah, hold on."
A can of red spray paint laid amongst the empty water bottles and Starbucks cups. Sasuke bagged it up to send off to the crime lab. While the park police were preparing to completely reopen the parkway, Sasuke insisted that they stay a little longer to sweep the area and Gateway Park one last time. The sun was hanging low in the sky before they parted ways with Agent Yamato.
"Well, it's in your hands now. If you need anything, give me a call." Yamato handed them his card before heading off.
"Well…" Shikamaru sighed as he climbed into the passenger seat of the cruiser. "That Yamato guy was interesting…"
Sasuke nodded.
"I just don't understand how the hell, if Yamato's right about the tracks and all, two people murdered a guy in a public park, carried him across the parkway, and dumped him in the woods without anyone noticing. We're gonna have to go through all the 911 records from last night, aren't we?"
Sasuke said nothing and merged onto the parkway.
"I need a smoke." Shikamaru sighed.
Sasuke needed a drink.
The sun had been down for several hours before Sasuke left the office. Shikamaru left after they finished pouring over 911 records from the previous night and turned up nothing.
How could no one notice?
Sasuke went over it all again to make sure they didn't miss something; they didn't.
Naruto had called twice, he knew why, and he didn't feel like dealing with Naruto's energy so he ignored him.
That day was almost over when he made his way home. He parked his car out front of their townhouse but he didn't go inside.
He didn't want company, but he didn't want to be alone and, dammit, he wanted some whiskey.
He made his way down the street to a dive bar off of Clarendon that he and Naruto frequented from time to time. It was nothing fancy, in the first floor and basement of an older office building, but it was cheap for Arlington and relatively quiet for a dive bar.
He sat at the first stool that wasn't next to anyone else and asked for an Old Fashioned. On the rocks.
He stared at the missed calls on his phone, tapped his finger on the bar, and waited for the bartender to return. He looked up when the bartender started to make his way over to him and that's when he saw it.
Jesus, he hadn't thought about her all day until now.
Pink. Pink on the opposite end of the bar. He inhaled sharply and wondered if he should chug the drink and run out the front or just abandon it.
There she was. It was pure chance and there she was, seated at the opposite end of the bar like it was a fucking movie.
The bartender set his drink on a napkin. The condensation was already beginning to collect on the glass.
He briefly thought about how that didn't make sense because it was the dead of winter.
He looked up from the glass and straight into those green eyes.
Shit.
She was looking right at him.
He looked back to the front door, he could probably get out before she realized who he was. Did she even know what he looked like? Naruto was annoyingly active when it came to sharing photos on facebook, but maybe… The bartender was saying something, but he was still trying to figure out how to escape unnoticed when he looked back down at the opposite end of the bar only to see she was gone. Where had she—?
"Are you going to pay the poor man or just keep him waiting all night?" A feminine voice asked. Sasuke blinked and let his senses return to him.
Pink. Right in front of him. Green eyes glowing.
Wow. She was really—
Embarrassed, he looked away to the bartender who stood waiting. Sasuke, finally realizing what he was waiting for, reached into his back pocket for his wallet.
"There you go." She said as he handed his card over to the bartender.
"Start a tab?" The bartender asked impatiently.
"Uh, yes." He managed to croak. The bartender shuffled off with is card.
He looked at his phone. 0:00am. Midnight. A new day.
He looked up. She was still there, right in front of him.
That day was over and he was looking right into the glowing green eyes of the woman in his roommate's photo.
...TBC…
A/N: The murder mystery begins! And they finally meet! Yay! Now kiss!
Idk why, but Yamato being a park ranger is the cutest thing to me. Can't you just imagine him on hikes and bird watching? So cute.
I'm not a fan of lengthy author's notes, so you can skip the note below (not important to the story) but I wanted to address a few things. I apologize and A/N from now on will always be short! Anyway… Long A/N below...
I do want to acknowledge how I'm stretching reality a bit here; based on the many true crime shows/podcasts I love (I know, some very academic research methods here haha) while it's not uncommon in National Parks/Forests in the rest of the country to share/give authority of a case with local/state departments, I think it's unlikely that would happen in the DC metro area given the shear Federal presence in the area, and while ISB is understaffed, Quantico and the whole damn FBI is not far away, but eh… I'm getting to that in ~future chapters~
It's also unlikely that someone with a record as an adult (even as the 19 y/o that Sasuke was in the flashback) would be able to work in law enforcement… But just trust me on that one guys, I'm getting to it.
Finally, I wanted to acknowledge an anon review I got: Yes, Sasuke is not the only person in Naruto that didn't receive the care he needed after childhood trauma. Naruto takes place in a world ruled by militant states where children are made into soldiers. Trauma is arguably used to control them at times. It's awful, but it was a tool that Kishimoto used to motivate his characters/action. But, it has no place in my modern AU; Sasuke needed help with his PTSD to become the detective that he is in the fic. Of course, many people today still don't always get the mental health care they need either because of financial limitations (raises hand) or the stigma of mental illness or literally so many other things, but this is a story about Sasuke. And Sasuke, with encouragement from Naruto (who also had his own stuff to deal with), did. I didn't mean to trivialize the traumatic experiences of other Naruto characters. I'm just not writing about them right now so I only mentioned Sasuke.
Finally, my work schedule is slightly slower than usual and I've made a lot of progress on this fic, so I'm committing to weekly updates on Saturday nights each week through April 6th of 2019. After than, I'm back to my third (yes, three, ugh) job for two months and will probably update infrequently/irregularly until the summer. Tonight's post counts for this week, so next update is on March 9th!
Tl:dr: Some of the police/federal agent stuff isn't exactly accurate. Everyone in Naruto saw shitty stuff and experienced trauma, but this is a story about Sasuke and Sakura so it will focus on their trauma from a present day perspective. And I'll be updating weekly on Saturday nights from now until April 6th.
Thanks, Nimmie.
i do not own naruto