Chapter Twenty Two: Day and Night

All Tadashi Uchiha wanted to do was to go home. From the police station, Tadashi could almost smell the wafts of his wife's aromatic cooking. The happy trills of laughter of his seven year old daughter rang in his head as she ran into his arms to greet him every night that she returned. His wife wasn't from a prominent clan and his daughter had no desire to follow his footsteps, but that was fine.

All Tadashi Uchiha needed in his life were his two girls and he was content.

With extra vigor in his step, Tadashi made his final rounds through the holding cells. It was routine to check up on the prisoners before swapping shifts. While the prisoners often sneered at them while they did so, Tadashi knew it was just an extra protocol in place to ensure nothing had happened to the prisoners.

The highlight in Tadashi's career had been when he was dragged into breaking up a brawl in the cells a year ago. It was particularly messy, with at least seven prisoners involved. Broken teeth, bust lips, bloody eyes, bruised torsos were just one of the many outcomes as a result of that particular brawl.

Since then, Fugaku Uchiha laid down the rule to keep prisoners separated if they had enough holding cells. And seeing how most of the prisoners were kept in for minor things, like stealing or causing disruption in the village, they always had more than enough empty cells to spare.

Tadashi breezed by the empty holding cells, shining his flashlight into them just in case a stray animal happened to crawl in. No such thing. Tadashi continued along his way to find that most of the prisoners were already sleeping at the time or simply ignored him. That was fine with him; he'd rather not have to deal with any troubles that arose.

Of course, there was always that one prisoner who would throw his body against the metal bars of the cell, yelling at Tadashi to let him out. Tadashi promptly ignored the man, leaving the rest of the prisoners to tell him to shut up.

The holding cells were quiet once more.

The eagerness to get home intensified as Tadashi reached the end of the hallway, signalling the end of his round. Peering into the left cell, Tadashi noted the prisoner to be peacefully asleep. Then he turned to the right, expecting the same since it was so quiet down here, but had to resist the urge to vomit all over the floor, right then and there.

Tadashi had wished for no trouble. It turned out he had spoken too soon.

In the right cell, the Hyuga prisoner was lying face up in his own pool of blood, glassy eyes staring at the ceiling.

With as much speed he could muster, Tadashi bolted out of the holding cells, heading to inform Police Chief Fugaku Uchiha exactly what he had found. The Chief wouldn't like this, not one bit. The village was going to pin the blame on the Uchihas once more and added on to the fact that it was a Hyuga, a member from their rival clan only made matters exponentially worse.

It was going to be a long night.

Exactly twenty two minutes after Tadashi reported his findings to Fugaku Uchiha, four Anbu members showed up at the scene. Or rather, two were still dressed in their Anbu uniform sans the mask, revealing their identities to be Shisui Uchiha and Kakashi Hatake. The third was the clan heir, Itachi Uchiha, but from the way he stood with the two Anbu, it was clear that he was here to investigate the case as an Anbu member, not as an Uchiha. And lastly, there was Rin Nohara, donning her medical coat and latex gloves.

Fugaku stood there, with his arms crossed. Every Uchiha present knew that he hated to have outsiders interfere with their business, but if the Uchiha attempted to conduct an investigation of their own, they were liable to be blamed for being partial. So the Third had wisely sent Team Ro, consisting of two Uchihas to ease the Uchihas of some of their worries, a tracker, and a medic.

Rin was the first to enter the cell where the Hyuga laid, still in the original position that Tadashi found him. She pressed two fingers to feel for a pulse, which baffled the onlookers. It was clear that the man was already dead. The onlookers continued to watch silently as Rin moved the Hyuga's head, examining the wound on his neck. The plastic of her gloves moved to brush aside some of the crusted blood to give her a better look.

The examination of the rest of the body was quick.

"A deliberate assassination," Rin announced, nodding at Tadashi to take notes. He furiously began to scribble everything the medic said, word for word. "There are no signs of struggle. There are bruises littering his body, but judging from the color, it's safe to say that those have been a couple of days old. Perhaps from the scuffle that landed him in jail in the first place."

The more that Rin spoke, the more that she impressed the Uchiha clan. Even Fugaku was pressed to admit that he was slightly impressed at her competency in the matter.

"Ichiro Hyuga. Age twenty four. Member of the Hyuga clan. Blood type O negative. Clean medical history." No one really questioned how Rin knew all of that from the top of her head. Even the Uchihas hadn't known the Hyuga by name, Tadashi included. They had simply known he was a Hyuga from the white pupils. Still, Tadashi scribbled that information down, even if he wasn't sure how it would be relevant to the investigation.

"Cause of death was the shutdown of the brain."

That earned questioning looks from the Uchiha clan. Wasn't it clear that it was blood loss?

"The wound is a single, sharp cut to the neck," Rin went on to explain. Tadashi continued to scribble. "The cut severed the internal carotid artery which cuts off blood flow to the brain. From his height and weight, I'd wager his brain stopped functioning approximately six minutes before he would have died from blood loss. In that case, the injury would have been made approximately five minutes before his time of death. When did you say you found him?"

"I was making my final rounds before I got off shift at 9:30, so around 9:25?" Tadashi answered.

"It's almost ten o'clock," Rin murmured. "Rigor mortis still hasn't set in yet, so the time of death can be anywhere from just before seven o'clock until Tadashi san found him."

"Pull the tapes starting from 6:30 to 9:25," Rin ordered. Fugaku Uchiha sent one of the Uchiha to do as Rin asked. "We'll start the search from right outside of this cell. We can rule out the killer approaching him from the cell door because for the cut to have been done at that angle, it must be done from behind. So the murderer must have snuck in through the window-" to which Rin pointed at the small window near the ceiling of the cell "-or a teleportation technique. Teleportation is a bit unlikely since I can feel the chakra suppressing units placed all around the cells."

"But the window is still intact," one of the Uchihas pointed out. "No damage has been done to the metal bars."

"It's also entirely possible for one to transform into a smaller creature, say a rodent, and sneak in," Rin countered. "Now, if you'll excuse us…"

Kakashi set his ninkens to work, sniffing out the surrounding area. Itachi and Shisui attempted to find any traces of the killer, even if something as simple as a footprint or broken twig. Meanwhile, Rin had taken the body in for a more thorough autopsy, hoping to narrow down the time frame for death.

The Uchihas pulled the tapes, only to find that the tapes had been tampered with.

The word reached the Hyuga's ears. They wanted to demand retribution from the Uchiha at the death of their own kin, already pissed that the Uchiha had thrown one of their own into jail in the first place. The Third delayed their inevitable confrontation by citing that there was a twenty four hour grace period for investigation to be conducted.

At the end of the twenty four hour investigation, the case was unconcluded. Whoever the killer was left absolutely no trace of himself, not even a stray hair anywhere. Rin had successfully determined the time of death, but that wasn't helpful other than to figure out who had an alibi and who didn't. That only mattered if the perpetrator was actually the Uchiha police force.

Team Ro strongly suspected that someone was purposefully framing the Uchihas, but had no evidence to prove otherwise. Just as easily, a Uchiha could have approached from the outside and killed the unsuspecting Hyuga.

Shit went down at the emergency council meeting, where Hyuga demanded retribution from the Uchihas. The Uchihas were adamant in maintaining that they were innocent in the situation. Team Ro was to remain impartial to the case and delivered all of the facts they knew, which didn't help disprove or prove the Uchiha's innocence.

The council went around and around in circles, until it was finally deemed that the Uchihas were innocent until proven guilty. A compromise was reached, in which Anbu would watch over the police force to ease the villagers' minds. Clearly Fugaku was not a supporter of the compromise, but what other choice did he have? The Hyuga seemed to be momentarily satisfied with the compromise.

But the damage was done. Other than being under observation, the Uchiha clan had mostly come out unscathed from the council. Not from the villagers however. The word began to spread through the village about the incident, rumors leading the story to become more twisted than it actually was. Still, the distrust was evident.

The authority that the police force once had was waning. Villagers began to fight back against the Uchihas, claiming that they didn't want to go to jail to end up dead. How could they trust them when there was a killer among them?

The situation had gotten so bad to the point where the Anbu had to step in to maintain order. From there, it became an unspoken arrangement that the Uchiha police force remained in name only. The real authority laid in the hands of the Anbu.

Naturally, the Uchihas weren't happy about it...

Team Ro was given a break. Or rather, Itachi and Shisui requested a leave of absence to deal with clan matters. Their request was granted and Hiruzen decided to give the other two members a break as well. Once in a while, Kakashi would still be roped in to help with the policing efforts. Rin made use of her break by showing up at the hospital to help out.

Itachi caught up with Rin with a four year old Sasuke in tow. Upon seeing the Uchiha symbol on the back of their shirts, the civilians turned their faces in disgust. Itachi had noticed it, as did Rin, but Sasuke remained blissfully ignorant.

Ah, to be a kid again..

"There's going to be a clan meeting tonight," Itachi explained. "I don't want Sasuke to be involved, so is it too much of a bother to ask you to watch him?"

"Alright," Rin agreed. "Hope the meeting goes well."

Except for the fact that nothing concerning bitter Uchihas ever went well. And both of them knew it. With a few words to bid Sasuke goodbye, Itachi handed his brother off to Rin. Unlike Naruto, Sasuke didn't seem to have an interest in latching onto her hand. Instead, he walked rigidly next to her, a pout displayed all over his face.

Clearly, someone wasn't happy to leave his brother.

Rin didn't know what to do with four year olds. Naruto had driven the conversation, but Sasuke remained stoically quiet. And what had she been doing at four years old? Probably pouring over complicated medical texts that were too much for her four year old brain to comprehend.

She took Sasuke to a familiar house, knocking lightly on the door. The old lady informed her that Naruto wasn't in before rudely shutting the door in her face.

At least Sasuke looked amused at her demise.

The second place she went looking for Naruto was at the Academy, where she ran into him the first time around. And as she expected, Naruto was perched in the tree, his tiny arms hugging the trunk as his blue eyes stared longingly at the gates of the Academy.

"What are we doing here?" Sasuke grunted, folding his arms across his chest. It might have been an effort to look more intimidating on his part, but when a four year old did it, Rin found it to be cute.

"You'll see," Rin responded cryptically before calling Naruto's name. Out of surprise, Naruto almost stumbled out of the tree and Rin was ready to flash step to the base of the tree to catch him, but Naruto caught himself in time. In record time, Naruto descended from the tree, running to her with his arms outstretched.

Naruto latched onto her left leg. Rin managed to pry him off a good five minutes later. A glance at the dark haired boy informed her that he was less than impressed at the presence of a newcomer.

"You didn't visit me!" Naruto accused, pointing a chubby finger at her face. "I stayed here everyday, waiting and waiting, but you didn't come! Even Kakashi nii came to visit me!"

"He did?" Rin was certainly surprised that Kakashi might visit the blonde haired boy out of his own will. Rin figured that he would be the type to observe from afar and claim that he was "looking after him" but really could only be labelled as "stalking."

"Yeah! He even taught me how to throw a kunai!" Naruto exclaimed loudly. Rin wanted to face palm. Of course Kakashi wouldn't do anything other than to train the boy. Did Kakashi know how to do anything normal outside of training? Probably not.

"Can we go? Can we go?" At Naruto's request, Sasuke seemed to be mildly interested, but tried to play it off like he wasn't.

Well fine, if that got the stoic boy to open up.

Rin agreed, much to the delight of Naruto. Although Sasuke tried to hide it, Rin didn't miss the smile on his face.

To put it simply, Naruto's aim was...atrocious. Sasuke's aim was exceptional for a four year old, no doubt the influence from his brother. While Sasuke managed to hit almost the center with every kunai that he threw, Naruto's kunais didn't even hit the target at all. One after one, his kunais littered the grass near the target.

And of course the young Uchiha had to look over at Naruto's progress and make a scathing remark about how the boy would never be as good as him. That started an argument, the two boys trading insults to the best of their four year old vocabulary.

Sad to say, Naruto's vocabulary was no better than his kunai throwing skills. Eventually the blonde boy gave up in a fit, tackling the Uchiha boy. The momentum of his tackle sent the two of them rolling through the grass, each of them grabbing at each other's clothing or limbs in an attempt to get an advantage.

At least Naruto seemed to dominate the brawl with his infinite amount of energy. Rin let them have it, figuring that was their way of letting loose. After all, that was what she witnessed Kakashi and Obito do all the time and their friendship turned out fine.

Let it be known that Rin's definition of "fine" had been slightly warped from the traumas in her genin days.

In the end, it turned out fine. Both boys eventually ended their scuffle, laying on their backs in the grass side by side as they tried to catch their breaths. Occasionally, they would still trade insults, but now it was done half heartedly and out of spite, not out of real anger. When Rin found them, her first thought had been how much she wanted to laugh at their current conditions. The second was how she was going to explain to Naruto's caretaker and Itachi why their clothes were covered in mud and grass stains, and why random leaves, branches, and stalks of grass protruded from their hair.

Well, at least they had fun.

She decided against healing their various scratches and bruises, deeming that it would serve as a lesson next time they decided to fight. When she returned to their respective guardians...then Rin would heal them.

Neither of them requested to go home. Instead after they were adequately rested from their scuffle, they went back to kunai throwing. Except this time, Sasuke was giving Naruto pointers although it was mixed in with insults.

No dobe, hold your kunai like this.

Baka, your aim is off because you don't put enough force into it.

My nii san told me the trick to hitting the center is…

And so on. At least the two of them were getting on, leaving Rin to be able to lounge under the tree's shade. That day she pulled a Kakashi, sitting under the tree, reading her book, peeking out every so often to make sure Naruto and Sasuke didn't kill each other yet.

That was the life.

When they got tired of kunai throwing, Rin happily provided shurikens. It kept them occupied for another hour.

By the time she had gotten tired of reading, Naruto announced that he was hungry, yelling at her that they had to try the ramen at Ichiraku. Sasuke had never tried it before, so it was settled: Naruto Uzumaki had to introduce him to a bowl of ramen at Ichiraku. Nevermind that Rin was the one going to pay…

At Ichiraku, Rin moved to help lift the two boys into their respective stools, but they both insisted they could do it all by themselves.

They were grown up, they told her. She didn't argue; instead, she slid into the seat closest to the wall while Naruto and Sasuke practically made it a contest to see who could get in their seat first.

The only time she interfered was to keep the stool from toppling over and smashing Naruto. Ten minutes later, Rin could see both kids had finally gotten into the stool. She was proud to see them work together, after struggling to get on the seats by themselves. Sasuke boosted Naruto up into his seat, then Naruto returned the favor by giving him a helping hand up into his.

It would be a shame if they weren't placed in the same three man squad. Who the third member of their squad would be, was a question for another time.

Upon his first taste of Miso Ramen, Sasuke grudgingly admitted that the ramen was good, earning a whoop from Naruto. In his excitement, Naruto had almost knocked over his precious ramen, and would have, if it wasn't for Rin's ninja fast reflexes to catch the bowl as it was tipping over. And sliding it out of the blonde boy's range until he was ready to calmly eat again.

As they were finishing up their ramen, Rin felt Kakashi's chakra signature approaching. Sure enough, he poked his gravity defying head under the flaps of the stand, catching Rin's eye and indicating that he had something important to tell her.

Only to be busted by Naruto's loud greeting.

"Sasuke, this is my nii san!" Naruto practically shouted, pointing a finger at Kakashi. Kakashi offered a small wave as way of greeting. "I bet he's a better ninja than your nii san."

"No way," Sasuke argued. "Itachi nii is way better."

And thus, the two started an argument over exactly whose brother was better. The two adults were ignored, so they conveniently took the opportunity to slip out of the ramen stand. Kakashi stood lazily with his back against the wall, posture slouched, and hand in the pocket of his Anbu issued pants. Rin stood beside him, making sure that she had a clear view of the two arguing kids. Of their dangling feet at least.

"Babysitter duty? Didn't know you were taking on D ranked missions again." There goes Kakashi sarcastic sense of humor, which made its first appearance a couple months after their sensei's death. It had been strange to hear Kakashi crack a joke at first, but over the years, Rin had gotten used to it. Mostly.

"What do you want?"

"Itachi and Shisui want us to meet at the cliff by the Uchiha compound at 3 in the morning. You game?"

"Not if the kids are staying with me overnight."

"Pakkun can watch them. And you can leave a clone if you are paranoid."

Rin agreed. By the time the two boys had stopped arguing to be aware of their surroundings, Kakashi was already gone and Rin had slipped back into her seat like she never left at all.

Turns out the two kids were staying with her overnight. Akemi, Itachi's cat, found its way to Rin's apartment, informing her that Itachi wanted Sasuke to stay with her tonight. Strapped onto his back was a change of clothes. Just for the fun of it, Momo had followed two and suddenly, not only did Rin have to house Sasuke, but two cats as well. At least Akemi and Momo didn't require any care.

Upon hearing that Sasuke could stay the night, Naruto also demanded he stayed. Rin didn't even bother fighting that losing battle with him and sent a clone to inform his caretaker and grab a change of clothes for him. When the clone dispelled, returning her memories to her, Rin hadn't been pleased that the caretaker didn't even seem to care about Naruto's whereabouts. In fact, the old lady was more eager to get him off of her hands.

At the agreed upon time, Rin left a clone with the sleeping kids and slipped out of her apartment. She had been the last to arrive, not surprised that Kakashi was actually there on time. He was never late for important matters.

"It's as we feared," Itachi began grimly. "The Uchihas are beginning to grow restless at the lack of inaction. Most believed that it is a plot done by the village to frame us and slowly strip our powers away. Even my and Shisui's objection to a rebellion didn't curb their spirits."

"This time, Fugaku san is on their side," Shisui added. "And the clan is not divided like it was before. Only a small fraction of members are maintaining their stance on peace."

"And what exactly are they planning?" Kakashi questioned.

"A coup."

"I plan on using Kotoamatsukami on Fugaku san."

"Is that wise?" Rin asked. "Will the other members still carry through the coup even if the clan head disapproves?"

"Probably not," Itachi admitted. "I think the clan is tired of not doing anything. First with not taking back the Sharingan from taichou, then not rebelling after we were pinned for the Kyuubi attack. The clan has had enough."

"The fragile peace won't last much longer…"

"What do you two plan to do?"

"The peace won't last unless Konoha makes some serious concessions," Itachi admitted. "We will talk to the Sandaime tomorrow. It won't be easy and unlikely to succeed, but it is our last chance for a peaceful negotiation."

"If the negotiation falls through, there will be conflict," Shisui continued. "And if that's the case…"

So many things were left unsaid.

There could be another war.

We could be pitted against each other as enemies.

We could all die.

Itachi closed his eyes. "If anything happens, please take care of Sasuke for me."

If…

At the rate everything was happening, "when" would have been more appropriate. But no one had the heart to correct Itachi.

Not when they were all silently wondering what they would do if they were pitted against each other.

Not as friends.

But as enemies.

A/N: Hi again!

Had to add some wholesome Naruto/Sasuke moments in there lol. Always wondered what it would be like if they sort of got along...haha. And well, I think you knew this was coming; who do you think it behind the murder? In case you don't remember, this is the same Hyuga that Rin fought against way back in the jonin exams (1 v 1 battle).

How is everyone doing? Anyone have any guesses as what will deviate from canon? Any hopes of what you want to happen?

Next chapter is called Shades of Greed.

Thanks so much for reading, as always! Until next time!

-MM