The Start
Shikamaru knew it would be a long day, hell a long week when he was given this assignment to look over. The young man sighed, hand reaching for his shoulder to massage the knot forming at the juncture between his neck and shoulder.
"What a drag…" he sighed at the wall with the pictures of all the women that had been found dead by what they all are now assuming is Naoki's doing. The map on the rolling board on the opposite side of the wall wasn't any help. What the hell was he supposed to do with all this? There was no connection. These women ranged from civilians to shinobi, old and young. There was no pattern.
"The places where they were all killed were near their home towns…" He reached for his packet of cigarettes on the table and paused. The manila folder staring up at him with a name written on its margin. "...Sayuri…" he picked it up, flipping through it, stopping at her recent shinobi picture. Sharp eyes turning to the wall of dead women he moved to pin her picture there.
She was targeted by this man in Suna….Why…? Shikamaru took a step back and looked at the wall. Why…?His eyes fell on the picture of one of the women who had died in the Suna incident. He remembers her. She had been escorting Temari two months ago when she came to Konoha.
"Wait…" He yanked the picture off the wall. "Temari had said she had a kekkei genkai." His eyes turned to Sayuri's picture and he pulled it off the wall as well. He turned to the files of another victim. Yuumi. "Village girl, worked at a weapons shop, no immediate family member that was a ninja…" he read her file, flipping through pages until something caught his eye. "Her mother came from a family that had a kekkei genkai."
He turned to the wall, finding Yuumi's picture and yanking it off the wall. His eyes landed on the picture of a ninja from Hidden Cloud. "Saori…" he read the name under the picture.
"Shikamaru-sensei?" A young man stepped into the room, a tray of herbal tea in hand.
"Yoshi, call the others. I need everyone here to look through these files."
xxx
Naoki hummed a tune to himself while he waited in the interrogation room. All he had to do was wait. Either they bring the woman to him or...The sound of a fight breaking out outside his door caught his attention, he smiled.
Two bodies hit the ground with a painful thud and finally the door handle turned as the person on the other side pulled it to open. A man dressed in ANBU gear was not what Naoki was expecting but hey, beggars can't be choosers.
"Took you long enough." he joked as the ninja unlocked the chains, keeping his hands to the table. Naoki stood and the ninja quickly undid the chakra seal on him.
"We needed to wait for an opening. Sending Sayuri to the hospital was not part of the plan,"
"So he speaks." Naoki rubbed his wrists.
"Sir." another ANBU appeared at the door. "We have eyes on the Marihasha."
"Good." Said the man that released Naoki. "Let's end this."
XXX
"If there was one person that I expected to have my back, it was Moriyo." Sayuri said into her folded arms, shoulders falling even deeper into themselves shying away from the dark eyes of the man leaning against the tree.
"The decision she made was difficult for her as well...think of it rationally. You would have made the same choice if you thought you could get information from him."
Sayuri narrowed her eyes on the village below her. The late winter breeze chilled the atmosphere as the sun set behind the village she called home. Surprisingly all the damage was concentrated on the main gate, the rest of the village hummed with life almost as if the attack was already long forgotten.
But not to me...she thought bitterly.
"Holding everything in won't help you."
She huffed. "The kettle calling the pot black." she pushed herself up, wincing at the pulling sensation at her abdomen.
Sasuke watched her carefully, "I… know I'm the last person who should say this, but-"
"Sasuke, I don't need a lecture. I needed some quiet." She turned to him. "I just want you to-" She huffed, a twisting feeling in her chest. She drew a hand to it, expression downcast.
"You want me to…"
"Just… stay..." she whispered, drawing into herself once again. "But you're not very good with that, are you?"
"Sayuri…"
"Stop. Please. Just..." she breathed. "That day...when I almost killed you...I felt...I felt like my whole world was falling apart." She blinked, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I couldn't live with myself if you died. And then I thought of Hinode and Madara. How they were each other's downfall and I couldn't-" her voice broke, head shaking. "I couldn't do that to you.
I was scared. I am scared. Not of my own death, but of yours. That's why I pushed you away. You mean...so much to me."
"Sayuri-"
"I'm sorry. I'm so...so sorry for everything that I did to you. I thought I was protecting you but you were right." She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hands. "I'm not the only one involved. I shouldn't be making decisions for both of us." She raised her gaze to meet his. "But I-"
"Well isn't that touching." Sayuri startled at the breath that ghosted her ear. A hand gripping her shoulder, yanking her back and into the man's arms.
Sasuke felt his sharingan activate but stopped at the hiss that came from Sayuri when a senbon was pressed against her neck. "Ah ah ah," the man said, wagging a finger at the Uchiha. "One wrong move and she dies. We don't want that right?" He laughed then turned to her. "Hello beautiful, miss me?"
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm completing a mission sweetheart." Naoki smiled.
The chirping of the Chidori had the man turning back to Sasuke. "Let her go."
An explosion shook the ground around them. All three turned to the south tower bellowing in smoke. "That's my cue."
"Sayuri!" Sasuke shouted as the two vanished into thin air.
XXX
"Naruto!" Sakura shouted, reaching the blonde at the base of the now destroyed south entrance. "What happened?"
"Bombs." A ninja stated landing before the two. "The southern gate was attacked in sections all have bomb residue left behind at the site of the explosion."
"There's no other attack?"
"No sir."
"What the hell?" Naruto turned back to the gate, bewildered by the act. "Why would someone do that?"
"Naruto!"
"Shikamaru! What are you-"
"Where's Sayuri?!"
"What?"
"Where's Sayuri?!" He yelled in frustration.
"Shikamaru…" Sakura started. "What's going on?"
"It's Sayuri…They, Naoki and his men are after her. We need to know where she's at! She needs to be under surveillance"
"But...Naoki is locked up." Sakura stated.
"Not any more. We found his jail cell empty. The ANBU assigned to him are dead."
Both Naruto and Sakura felt their bodies grow cold.
"Naruto! Sakura!" the two startled as Sasuke landed before them. "He took her! Naoki took Sayuri!"
XXX
It's cold...Her eyelids felt heavy as she blinked away the sleep. A sharp intake of breath alerted her captor.
"Sayuri...long time no see."