Author's Notes: Sorry it took so long to update this but I still don't know how to end this.

The Reports

On his way to see the Hokage, Hiashi made two quick stops. First he dropped by the hospital and demanded the preliminary autopsy report and trace evidence lab analyses. Then he dropped by the photographer's and requested the contact sheets for the negatives and any prints that were ready.

Time was of the essence, so Hiashi quickly blew by everyone in his path - brushing past Sandaime's receptionist, and knocking Raidou out of the way, until he arrived in Sandaime's office.

He immediately made his proposal, "Sandaime, I'm here to request the detention of all Sand visitors. Do not let any of them leave Konoha. I have evidence that the Sand were involved in two deaths last night. In addition to Hayate, we found the bloody remnants of bone and metal on the roof of a guest dormitory, near Kikyo's Tower."

Sandaime took a long puff from his pipe and held it. The nicotine from the tobacco helped to clear his head as he thought of the possible ramifications. Finally he asked, "What proof do you have?"

"I found (he failed to give Hanabi credit) an abundance of blood with bone fragments, metal fragments, and sand generously mixed in, on the rooftop of the dormitory with the two fishtails. Based on the path of the sandal prints, and their overlay pattern, it appears that the victim, an older boy or girl with size six sandals, was killed by a younger one. The remaining Sand genin team is still there. I interviewed them and I'm confident that the one with the gourd was involved, since he wears size 5 sandals, consistent with the prints found at the crime scene. In fact, there were quite a few good bloody prints we can match up."

"That boy is Gaara of the Desert. He crushed his opponent's left arm and leg with sand during the preliminary chuunin exam that was held to cut down the number of participants," Sandaime said thoughtfully.

"Well, the metal and bone fragments were pulverized and mixed in with sand, consistent with his method of attack. I suspect the victim is most likely dead and another person with size nine sandals removed the body. I just dropped off the new evidence samples at the hospital and picked up their preliminary reports." Hiashi had threatened the staff with Hakke Rokujuuyonshou if he did not get the preliminary reports within 60 seconds.

"Hmm…Is that it? Sand and sandalprints?" asked Sandaime skeptically. "Who was the victim and how does this tie into Hayate's death?"

Hiashi had to confess, "I haven't had time to identify the second victim. We can check to see if there's been any missing persons report filed this morning. As for how the two crimes are related, sand was found at both crime scenes. The size 11 sandal prints I found by Hayate's body are consistent with the general description of the Sand genin team's sensei. "

"Was it exactly the same type of sand found at both sites and were the same sandal prints found at both sites?" asked Sandaime astutely.

"Well..." Hiashi hesitated. He knew in his gut that the two crimes were somehow connected, but there was no physical link, yet. "The sand found at the two crime scenes don't appear to be identical, but both samples are not indigenous to Konoha. They're likely from the desert. The sand collected at the dormitory rooftop seems to be more dense and has a red hue…"

"So it's not the same sand," Sadaime cut to the chase, "and the sandalprints?"

"I didn't find Hayate's or his murderer's prints on the dormitory roof, but…"

"So there is no evidence connecting the two crimes?"

"Not exactly," Hiashi said nonchalantly, but his ears started burning. He knew he didn't have the evidence yet, but he had to stop the Sand from leaving. "Isn't that enough to hold the Sand genin and their sensei for questioning?"

"What if the sand were planted there by Orochimaru to implicated Hidden Sand Village? Perhaps he's trying to turn us against our allies," said Sandaime, playing devil's advocate.

"But according to the autopsy report, Hayate was mostly likely killed by a wind jutsu," Hiashi pointed out.

"Other shinobi like myself and Asuma are capable of wind jutsu, and pure quartz sand can be retrieved from the deserts of Wind Country by anyone," Sandaime insisted.

But Hiashi persisted, "We must prevent the Sand shinobi from leaving. We should take DNA samples and stall them until we get all the test results back. There was enough blood on Hayate's sword for a DNA test. If we can get a sample from the Sand sensei, we can definitely prove he's the murderer. We should also ask the exam hall cleanup crew to shift through the garbage and find the sand from the chunnin exam fight to compare with... "

"No, if the Sand are involved with Orochimaru, we can't tip our hand to let him know we know," Sandaime said while shaking his wise wrinkled, age-spotted head. "For now, let's just go through the evidence."

Preliminary autopsy report:

Subject: Adult male identified as Gekkou Hayate, age 23, special jounin of Hidden Leaf Village

Estimated time of death: midnight

Cause of death: blood loss from severed jugular

Summary of findings: 9 lacerations on the upper torso, 2"-6" in length, the cuts are concave, similar to being cut by a curved weapon. Depth of cuts range from 1/4" to 1" deep. The body was protected by the shinobi vest, which suffered only superficial damage. The arms appeared to have been raised in defense and suffered the deepest wounds. The lacerations are clean with no jagged edges and devoid of trace metals.

226 punctures on parts of body not protected by the shinobi vest: range in depth from 1/4" - 1/2" with size and shape consistent with a crow's beak. Lack of blood indicate that the wounds were made post mortem.

Preliminary Lab Results:

Packet#/coordinates/evidence description/test results

1. (3,5) blood taken two feet from victim's body/AB type matches victim

2. (5,5) blood taken from victim's clothes/AB type matches victim

3. (2,5) blood three feet from victim's body/A type unknown suspect, DNA results pending

4. sword/ blood/A type unknown suspect, DNA results pending

5. bloody fibers on sword/A type unknown suspect, DNA results pending; fibers are Kevlar fibers consistent in type and color with flak jackets worn by the shinobi of Hidden Sand Village

6. (2,5) sand taken from the ground three feet from victim's body/pure quartz sand with negligible other mineral deposits, not indigenous

7. (5,5) sand taken from the body/ pure quartz sand with negligible other mineral deposits, not indigenous

8. sand taken from victim's sandals/mix of indigenous soil and pure quartz sand, not indigenous

Sandaime studied the reports in silence. After a few minutes Hiashi could wait no longer and suggested, "If you have a list of all foreign shinobi present in the village the past couple of days…"

"Even if I gave you a list it won't help. I'm afraid most of them have already left the village and there are no extradition agreements. In fact, I must ask you to keep this investigation confidential and let no one know of your determinations.

"What? Pretend that I failed to solve this case? Do you mean to brush all this under the rug, like Hizashi's death?" the head Hyuuga demanded.

"You know what a political pickle we're in. Our relationships with our allies are tenuous at best. If we don't have solid proof, we'll just be antagonizing them and we can't afford to risk another war," Sandaime explained patiently.

Hiashi's face clouded in anger but he mastered his fury and shrugged. "Finding the truth is all that matters to me, but his family and friends deserve to know."

The Hokage shook his head. "Tell no one of your conclusions. That's an order. We can't afford to have shinobi plotting their own vigilante revenge. We must not give any excuse for the Sand to declare war."

Hiashi nodded and bowed before the Hokage while thinking, 'Not again, I swore I'd never let something like this happen again. Somehow the truth must be known. In any case, war will come soon enough.'

-…-…-…-…-

Author Notes: I think the next arc will involve the ANBU girl.