New Partner
( Sasuke's point of view )
"So who is this girl anyway?" Jugo asks while pointing at the picture of Hinata. "Someone special to me" I answer. He smiles, "she must be one hell of a girl to have captured the ice cold heart of Sasuke Uchiha," he says jokingly. I smirk, "She is..." I whisper. "Tell me about her," Jugo says. Should I tell him about her? I'm sure he's only asking to keep me talking and to distract me from the pain.
"What do you wanna know?" I ask. "Well, whats her name? Is she out-going or shy? How long have you known her?" he asks me a series of questions. "Her name is Hinata, sunshine. I think it suits her very well. She's extremely shy" I say and chuckle as I remember her crazy blush. "I haven't known her for too long... just a couple of months" I answer truthfully.
"Why does sunshine suit her?" he asks. Hmmm, "She's a very bright person... especially when you compare her to me... She was nice to me even when I was mean to her..." I say thinking back to the time she bought me lunch when I stayed up all night because of Itachi.
"She always tries to find the positive things about people..." I chuckle. "She gets mad at me when I make fun of others even if it is funny," I say remembering the time we danced at the party.
"She picked me up from jail once, that was fun," I say remembering not being able to sleep the entire time I was there. Jugo chuckles, "well when they pick up your sorry ass from jail you know they are a keeper," he says. I smile, "she's defiantly a keeper" I whisper. After that we stay silent, he concentrates on his work and I let my mind drift to Hinata. "All done" I hear him say as he puts down the tattoo gun. "That fast?" I ask and look at my arm, "I'm fast and I'm good" he says and begins to put away his things. "You'll make a perfect hooker then," I say jokingly. He shakes his head and laughs.
I look at my arm and see Hinata's smiling face, the tattoo cuts off about halfway down her torso. It actually looks really realistic. I stand up and look in the mirror for a better view, its perfect. A little red but that's the swelling, that should go away in a couple of days. I continue to stare at the tattoo as Jugo tells me about how to clean it and take care of it for the next couple of weeks.
"You think she'll like it?" Jugo suddenly asks me, "who?" I question and look at him. He smiles as he wipes away some spilled blue ink, "Hinata, do you think she will like the tattoo?" he asks, I look back at the mirror. "I hope so or else it's going to be really awkward," I say and chuckle.
He laughs, "I have another client, but I'll see you around," he says and I nod. "Yeah, I'll see you around," I say and leave. I walk outside and take a deep breath of the fresh morning air. It sucks that an old childhood friend was involved in this but now I have a lead. Now I can keep my promise to Hinata and find the person who did this.
I get inside my car and drive back to my apartment. As soon as I make it inside I lay down on the couch and kick off my shoes too tired to even walk to my bedroom. Sleep overtakes my tiered mind quickly, I don't fight it.
I am suddenly awakened by banging on my door. I sit up and rub my eyes, "shit" I mumble and stand up. Bumping into beer cans and other trash that litters my apartment. I make it to the door and open it, ready to yell at the person who woke me. I look at the person, they seem familiar but I can't put a name to the face.
"Yes?" I say to the blonde woman in front of me, she has her hair in a ponytail and has on designer clothes. She smiles at me despite my tone. "Sasuke Uchiha?" she asks unsure. "The one and only," I say sarcastically, she ignores my tone again and smiles wide. She removes her sunglasses, "I'm Ino Yamanaka" she says as she stuffs the sunglasses in her black clutch.
"What do you want?" I say annoyed, she doesn't answer my question and instead barges inside my apartment. "Hey!" I yell out and shut the door, I turn to her. She looks around disapprovingly. "My, My this place is filthy! You need to clean up!" she says and starts to pick random things and throw them in the trash bin.
I walk to her and snatch away the bin, "What do you want? Did you just come here to insult me in my own home?" I say angrily. She giggles, "It's not an insult, its the truth. I'm afraid a mouse will run across the floor with the way you keep this place" she says and snatches the bin back. "And for your first question. I'm Hinata's best friend and Hanabi told me you have been trying to find the person who did that to her, I'm here to help!" she says with a smile and continues to pick up.
"For starters, we should pick this place up!" she says as she picks up the garbage. I stop her, "Listen I don't need your help," I say in a bored tone. The smile drops from her face as she looks up at me.
"I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this for Hinata. I don't care if you claim not to need my help. I can't just sit around at home and let those idiot policemen let this case go unsolved. It pains me to have to visit my best friend in a hospital wondering if she can even hear me when I talk to her... I can't help her wake up... But I can help put the guy who did this behind bars" she says with a serious tone.
"I'm going to help you solve this whether you want me to or not," she says and goes back to cleaning. "Alright," I say not even bothering to fight with her, she looks at me and smiles. "Now go get the broom and mop, we have a lot of work to do," she says cheerfully.
After Ino and I finish cleaning the apartment we order take out and I show her all the files I have and tell her about Kiba. "That's a pretty good stroke of luck finding out about Kiba. Sasuke if I were you I would get some lottery tickets" she says and takes a sip of her drink. "Luck?" I say confused, what's lucky about being friends with a guy who did something like that?
"You haven't seen this guy in years and you run into him randomly. And minutes, before he leaves Konohamaru comes unexpectedly and notices how the voice is the same one? That seems like luck to me. I think its a sign that even the gods want us to find Hinata's attacker" she says with her eyes wide. I chuckle, "I guess I should go out and buy a lottery ticket then," I say agreeing. Ino can be pretty annoying sometimes and come off as bossy but she has her perks. One of them being that she sees the good in everything, just like Hinata.
We continue to talk about the case and I tell her about my suspicions of Naruto. "I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he is the one who did this... I never trusted him, not for one second. You know the day this happened I had begged her during lunch to leave him" she says with a sad look on her face.
"I mean it's not like he cared about her and she didn't really seem to care very much for him anymore," she says and then pauses. She turns to me and gives me a sly grin, "And whats this I hear about you going over there drunk and spending the night with her? Sasuke you sly dog I bet you weren't even drunk, you probably just used it as an excuse to sleep with her" she teases.
I feel my cheeks go warm, "I did no such thing! And who told you about that!" I say defensively. She laughs, "your blushing! I never even thought you had emotions" she says and continues laughing. She's lucky she's a girl or else I would have punched her.
I look away from her as I hear her laugh like a little kid who found out a secret. I turn to her when her laughter cuts off suddenly, she has a serious expression on her face as she looks down at one of the files.
"What is it?" I ask she points to the picture of what Hinata's stolen things look like. "What about her necklace?" she asks. "What necklace?" I ask, she looks up at me. "The one that has the symbol of her clan on it, her father gave it to her as a gift years ago. She never takes it off, and it has real gems on it. Anyone who looks at it would know its worth money" she says.
"Well, maybe they didn't see it?" I suggest, she shakes her head. "They chocked her Sasuke, they had to have seen it around her neck," she says. "Are you sure she was even wearing it? I've never even seen it" I say. She nods her head, "she always has it on, usually its tucked under her shirt so you couldn't have seen it" she says.
"How come Naruto didn't report it stolen also?" I question. "Its small, if you've never seen it and you look at her every day. Then I doubt he has ever seen it" she says. I sigh, "so we have a missing necklace also?" I say and add it to a sticky note. She nods her head and stands up. "I'm going to call the local pawn shops and see if they know anything about it. If they have come across it, its unique enough that they would be able to remember it" she says as she takes out her phone and goes to another room for privacy.
I also take out my phone and dial Suigetsu, he answers after the 3rd ring.
"Hello?" I hear the other line say
"It's me," I say
"Whats up?"
"I need you to get me another file on someone, actually two people"
"That's a tall order, whats in it for me?"
"What do you want?"
"Hm... *I hear him snap his fingers* to hear you say please"
"I'm not joking around Suigetsu!"
"I'm not either, I will like to hear you say it once before I die"
"Please... Can you get me some files on two people"
"Wow... I didn't think you would actually do it..."
"Suigetsu!"
"I'm joking. What are the people's names?"
"Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka"
"Alright, I'll get back to you soon as I can," He says and hangs up. I roll my eyes at the rude hang-up. I look up as I see Ino enter the room again. "Any luck?" I ask, "not on the necklace but two guys did say they might have a ring that looks like Hinata's," she says with a smile.
"That's good," I say, "yeah, tomorrow we will go and see if they are her ring or not. In the meantime I have to get home and sleep, it's been a long day" she says and walks to the front door. "See you tomorrow morning be ready by 8 AM!" she yells and then shuts the door behind her. I walk to my bed and flop down on it, now that she's gone I can sleep.