Heeeeeey! Hugs to all!

Here's chappie 22.

randomness: Lordi! "Hard Rock Hallelujah"!

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Whore Street

Iruka rubbed the aching scar on the bridge of his nose. The rain was warm and heavy, soaking his clothes until they felt like cleaning rags on his tired, irritated and just plain stressed body.

Gaara had, yes, left again in the night. Iruka's team monitored the redhead's movements as much as they could, but just as in the afternoon and night before, they lost him somewhere in the City's alleys.

And now, Iruka was confronted with the disappearance of a whore. Though, he mused bitterly, that was nothing new. After all, whores had taken to disappearing regularly these last two months. Not enough to pique the interest of his superiors – but when boys from the villa streets, the pampered and spoiled firstborns, began to evaporate into thin air as a result of tricks reminiscent of the dreaded Sandman...

The right hands were filled with cel-chips, and Iruka was put on the case.

He glanced over at his only significant lead in this, looking as always – eyes cold and shuttered, body tense, face expressionless.

Puh...as long as he came back from his trips, Iruka didn't really care what he did. Though it surprised him – his men were no match for the Sandman, and he could easily have slipped away and stayed away often enough. For some reason, Gaara wanted to solve this thing as much as Iruka did.

Well, maybe that was putting it a bit too strongly. Gaara didn't want to do things other people considered as normal. And solving a case was most certainly a normal person's wish. So... Gaara had his own reasons for aiding, however listlessly, Iruka's team.

"So, Mr. Forcer. What are you going to do about Hika-chan?" The whore looked expectant, challenging Iruka to answer.

Normally Iruka wouldn't be fazed by an attitude like that. But if you paired it with a mass of leather strips and a threatening, swishing whip... "Whatever we can, miss."

"Look, okay? Hika is really important to us. Find him." She turned away.

Iruka nodded, and gestured to his people to continue the questioning of the group for hints. He walked over to Gaara. "And? Would he have been to your taste?"

A shift.

"Thought so. You know, it probably wasn't the best to leave during the night when this one disappeared."

No reaction.

Iruka sighed and turned away. When Gaara found something that he considered important, he would walk off, and Iruka's team would follow him, usually led to either clues or people who knew something. At least Iruka's suspicions in that area had been correct.

Whoever was behind this thought almost exactly like the Sandman. The kidnappings were executed with perfection, and without Gaara they would have stayed unsolved forever. But the Sandman's insane mind recognized the patterns, a certain angle there, a car here... they were alike, the current criminal and the dormant one.

Hopefully dormant one, Iruka amended.

One of the Forcers finished asking a curvaceous young woman questions and moved to Iruka. "Well, basically, we know this: The kid was blond, had blue eyes, very pretty. Was seen last around midnight. Nobody saw the car he got into. Otherwi – shit!"

Both of the Forcers jumped slightly when Gaara appeared next to them. The Sandman shifted slightly, his eyes catching on both of thembefore slidingaway.

Iruka was pretty used, by now, to interpreting these things. He followed the redhead's gaze to the Konoha. "What about it?"

The redhead gave the almost-shrug and went back to where he'd been standing before, at the edge of the proceedings. Iruka exhaled into the rain, begging for patience from... wherever. He fixed his gaze on the Forcer from his team. "Repeat what you just told me."

"All right... So, the kid who disappeared is blonde, blue-eyed --"

"Naruto!" Iruka pivoted. "Gaara! Do you mean Naruto?"

A shift of the shoulders.

"But... he let him go. Why are you --"

The eyes hit him full force, and he remembered the panic during the Sandman's reign over the city, the hushed nights when only fools went on the street. But those that he wanted, he got anyways. And the worst thing was...

... to be let go.

To be let go by the Sandman...

... had promised more to come...

it had been the worst, because --

-- it meant he'd take you again.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

hah...more PLOT.

Review, luvs!