Yeah, this should probably just be called a continuation of chapter 5, but, meh…

Chapter 6: The Cover Up

"Kurenai! What happened?" The younger woman asked as she ran to her friend.

"Henso, he murdered my parents, I saw him do it, so I killed him," she said bluntly, speaking so softly Anko had to kneel next to her to hear what she was saying, then jumped up in rage.

"We have to get the Hokage! He'll take care of those Kanemochi's-"

"No." It was the first word she had spoken strongly since walking into the house. "No, I don't want him to know. No one can know."

"Why, Kurenai? Who are you protecting? You acted in self-defense. No one will be angry you killed him."

She didn't want to tell her it was almost a matter of pride. If everyone in the village knew that the man she had fallen in love with and given up everything important in her life for ruthlessly killed her family and destroyed her life, she didn't think she'd be able to face anyone again.

After receiving no answer from her friend, Anko began to look around the room, from Kurenai to the kunai to the bloodstained carpet. "Well, what are we going to do? We can't just leave it all like this."

"No." Kurenai was in no state to think up plans, so Anko set her mind into the devious mode she used to live her life by.

"It was a robbery. We'll say it was a robbery. Everyone'll believe that. You, you and Henso, came to visit your parents. You left the house to go find me. And when we got here, everyone was dead and there was stuff missing."

"But, nothing's missing."

"No one has to know that, Yuuhis have so much stuff anyway, if you just say some really really valuable stuff is missing people will believe you. Ok? Does that sound alright?"

"I guess so, yeah. Yeah." She said as she slowly worked on standing up, without success, "I just don't know if I can do it. I've never been very good at lying."

"Don't worry, I'll take care of everything. You just, I don't know, look stricken with grief," she looked down at her friend's pale face, eyes mostly glassed over, mouth slacked, "Yeah, like that."

After helping Kurenai to her feet and getting her set in the parlor where she didn't have to stare at her dead family, Anko pocketed the contaminated kunai and ran out of the house, quickly finding some Shinobi out on patrol, and sent them to go get some authorities. Recognizing Anko as a jounin, and themselves only newly appointed chuunin, they quickly complied, and within moments officials were swarming the largest of Yuuhi manors, searching for clues, questioning neighbors, making sure Kurenai was okay. One of the jounin placed his vest over her slightly shaking shoulders, the tough fabric feeling very comforting on her skin as she watched legs walk back and forth through the parlor until the Hokage got there. He took one look at her and ordered Genma to take her back to his office where she could get some rest. The jounin took her gently by the shoulders and led her away from the house, slowly walking her toward the ever-vigilant Hokage Mountain. He might have been trying to say comforting words, or he might have stayed silent the whole time, Kurenai couldn't recall. All she could remember was the faces coming closer, seeming to nod at her with every step she took.

Genma got her up to the Hokage's cluttered office with little trouble. He moved piles of papers from the green couch he hadn't even realized was in there due to the constant 'organized-mess' the Hokage preferred to live in. He set Kurenai onto the couch, then knelt down so he was face to face with her.

"Do you want us to arrange for someone to take you back to your house?" He asked in a smooth voice. She shook her head from side to side.

"Fair enough. You just get some rest now, we'll figure everything out whenever you're up to it." He said, squeezing her bare arm before walking out and closing the door. She couldn't find her voice to tell him she didn't really want to be left alone, but decided it was for the best, as he had things he had to do, and she knew she should really just lie down.

As she settled onto her stomach she heard something in the jacket crunch near her left breast. Sitting up again, she dipped her right hand into the pocket and pulled out a crushed pack of cigarettes. Flipping the top open she saw there were still at least half of the sticks left, although some of them were no good now. She made a mental note to give the jounin some compensation when he came to retrieve his jacket, and wished she had paid attention to whose jacket she even had. Oh well, he'd have to get it back eventually, and when he did she'd be sure to thank him and pay him for his damaged cigarettes. After resolving that insignificant matter she dropped the pack next to her and settled back onto the couch with the vest still covering her like a small, useless, but somehow comforting, blanket, and went to sleep.

As emotionally exhausted as she was, she woke up about a half-hour later, shaken from the nightmare that had moved from her conscious into her sub-conscious, convincing her she would never be able to achieve peace in any facet of her life again. From then on her dreams would taunt her, showing her the happiness she had had with Henso on their wedding day, then having him go on a killing spree, murdering all the guests. Or have him kill her parents when they first met as she stood by and smiled. And she dreamt of their non-existent children, who adored their father, and killed her in her sleep, surrounding her bed with smiles and kunai.

"Go away!" She screamed as she bolted up-right, her hair flying around her face so she could just make out the man standing precariously in front of her, who now looked as though he wanted to run the other way. She couldn't blame him.

"I'm sorry Kurenai-san, I didn't mean to wake you up." He said in a gruff voice. She pushed her hair back as she shook her head.

"No, you didn't wake me, and I wasn't yelling at you," she then noticed he was wearing the normal jounin outfit, sans green vest. "This must be yours." She said as she pulled the make-shift blanket off her shoulders.

"Yeah, but if you're still using it that's fine. I don't need it right away."

"No, it's fine. I can- wait, is that you Asuma?" She asked as she looked a little bit closer. He now had a full beard covering his jawline, his forehead was hidden behind the protector he used to wear on his arm, and, if possible, he looked taller than the last time she saw him. He nodded and said, "Yeah, it's me," then didn't say anything else. They just looked at each other for a moment before Kurenai finally said, "You look good."

"Thanks, you do too." It was the common thing to say after 'You look good,' but somehow, saying it to a woman who just lost her whole family in a horrible murder sounded incredibly wrong, and he silently vowed that one day he would become an eloquent speaker.

Kurenai just nodded at his comment, not really noticing the inappropriateness of it, and stood up, holding out his vest, "Thanks for letting me borrow this, I think it helped a lot, oh!" She patted her side with her free hand before remembering she didn't have any pockets, "I'm sorry, I owe you some money, I accidentally crushed your cigarettes." She said as she reached down to the couch and picked up the crushed pack she had further damaged through her tossing and turning while attempting sleep. She handed both the pack and vest back to their original owner, who just smiled.

"Don't even worry about it, I should quit anyway. And I'm glad the vest helped a little." He wasn't sure how exactly it helped her, but he was very glad he had decided to lay it on her shoulders in the spur of the moment when he ran into the house and saw her sitting there, tragically beautiful, and knew he had to do something.

They stood there for a moment before Asuma put his vest back on and said, "Well, I better get going. You look like you could use some more rest too. Do you have a place to stay?" God, he hoped that didn't sound like a come-on. She shrugged, "Not really, I'll probably stay here, or go to Anko's."

"Yeah, that makes sense. Well, take care Kurenai, I'll see you around."

"You too, bye Asuma, and thanks again." She waved as he walked out the door and left her alone in the room with her painful memories, and she suddenly wished she had kept the vest just a little longer.

Anko oversaw most of the investigation, which allowed her to make sure no one got too close to discovering the truth. Kurenai stayed at her apartment, refusing to go back to the home she had once shared with Henso, and not wanting to see anyone else. There was no way she could come face to face with a Kanemochi, not after what they did to her, and what she did to them.

Within a few days it was made public that the whole ordeal had been a fatal robbery, which Kurenai was lucky to have escaped. Anko headed the search for the robber/murderer, which, oddly enough, kept coming up with no results. After a few weeks of absolutely no progress the Hokage, with approval from Kurenai, officially disbanded the case.

And with the death of both her parents and her husband, Kanemochi Kurenai became the single richest person in all of Fire Country.

A/N: Ah, there. Hope you all are appeased by this installation. If not, leave me a review and I'll be sure to get back to you.