Sorry for the long wait, but as any fanfiction writer knows, sometimes real life gets in the way. I haven't forgotten about this story and thank you for your patience.

Chapter 27

Well, this didn't go exactly as Sasuke had planned. Not that he actually had a plan. He had wanted to spent a bit more time learning about his uncle's "business" before turning him in, but the police raid forced him plans ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, Madara and Orochimaru had gotten away and Sasuke doubt they would take this lying down.

Sasuke shifted his arm and the wound on his shoulder twinge. His arm had been seen to after the raid and was now in a sling. It was thankfully a flesh wound and only required a few stitches, but it still annoyed Sasuke. He was tired of getting shot at.

After getting arrested and tended to, he was placed in a holding cell with other prisoners until a detective was ready to talk to him. That had been fun. Not. It was a seperate cell but a large one with the other lackeys they had caught during the raid, a few drunks and a prostitute. The only one kept in a seperate cell was a person that had been arrested during a barfight and that was because the officers were afraid to place him in the same cell as the others in case he became violent again.

Now, he sittting in an interrogation room, and had been for the last hour. A detective had walked in, one he didn't recognize, but Sasuke refused to speak to him. He requested Naruto. He knew there were other detectives he could have trusted, but he knew he trusted Naruto, so he didn't want to speak with anyone else but the blonde K-9 trainer.

He hoped it would be soon. If Madara found out that Sasuke had talked, then he didn't to think about what could happen to Itachi's family. Sasuke knew Madara had no compunctions on harming his nephew's family. Madara had once sent one of goons to kill an associate's family because the associate had double crossed him.

Not that Sasuke could phycially prove it.

He sighed. That was the trouble. Madara left very little physical evidence, and the evidence he does leave behind could be construed as rumor or hearsay. It was how Madara opperated his underground dealings for so long. He chose men loyal to him and dealt everything under the radar. Most of the dealings were on Uchiha properties, so any questions answered could easily explained as checking on the warehouses and merchandise. Without physcial proof, not many would belief Sasuke.

If only he could have gotten Madara's ledger, but the problem was that it was on Madara's person the whole time. If not on in his pocket, then in a safe. Sasuke doesn't know the code to the safe. Madara didn't feel it safe to reveal thatbit of information yet.

The door opened and Kakashi walked in. Sasuke had met him briefly while recovering in the hospital after his reappearance. He knew Naruto respected the man, and Sasuke knew that meant that he could be trusted, but Sasuke couldn't take chances.

Thankfully, behind the man, Naruto hurried in. His face was flushed and clothes rumpled. There were grass stains on his jeans. Sasuke knew that Naruto never wore grass stained jeans or a casual t-shirt at work, so it was likely Naruto had the day off and was called in while playing with Aoi and Kyuubi.

"Sasuke!" Naruto all but yelled.

Sasuke allowed himself a small smile at the sight of the blonde. The thought of Naruto during his time with Madara had managed to keep him calm, but the sight of Naruto was better than anything anything he could think of.

"Naruto," he said softly. "Am I glad to see you. How Aoi?"

"She's fine," said Naruto. "She misses you. A lot of people misses you."

"I miss them too," said Sasuke.

"Why did you just want to talk to me? There are a number of other cops you could talk to."

Sasuke look away sheepishly before answering.

"I didn't know who to trust," said Sasuke. "I know my uncle has some cops on his payroll, and I didn't know who. And..." He turned to Naruto with a complete serious tone. "I missed you."

Naruto smiles back.

"I missed you too," he said.

Kakashi cleared his throat and Naruto blushed slightly.

"Right, work! Sasuke, we need to know what happened last night. We know Madara was there with Orochimaru, but why were you?"

"Madara is looking for an heir and chose me," said Sasuke. "I didn't want to, but he threatened Yahiko."

The he told them everything, about Madara coming to his house to "recruit" him, the men watching him, and giving Aoi to Naruto.

"Why threaten you if he believes you're to replace him?" asked Kakashi.

"I guess it's because he believes he can't completely trust me," said Sasuke. "As another Uchiha Bastard, I was the perfect canidate to become his succesor. I hated my father, and it seemed like I hated Itachi too when I disappeared, and although I did hate Fugaku, I loved my brother. I would never do anything to hurt him or his family."

"Do you know the locations of where the deals go down," asked Naruto.

"Yes, but we never go to any that are on Uchiha property. I can't be certain, but I think they belong to my brother's competitors. I know my father and grandfather blackmailed them in order to gain better investors and contracts. Madara might be doin the same thing to allow him to use their warehouses."

"It's possible," said Kakashi in thought. "A couple of weeks ago was the first time we ever had an undercover cop get inside Orochimaru's ranks. It was dumb luck he was at the warehouse with you and Madara last night."

"I always thought he might try a takeover of the company," said Naruto. "With the recent plunge in the stock in the company, I thought he'd try to boot Itachi out."

"It's because of Madara," said Sasuke. "He's been gradually paying the head of accounting to shuffle low amounts of money to an offshore account to bankrupt to company, and getting the investors to invest in bogus shellcompanies to make it look like they're better than Uchiha Corp."

Both men looked at Sasuke in surprise before Kakashi smiled behind his mask.

"Well, aren't you a fountain of information," he said.

Sasuke smiled up at him.

"I'll tell you anything you want to know."

Kakashi picked up a pad of paper and a pen to set in front of Sasuke, but before he could, the door to the interrogation room opened and a man walked in. Sasuke looked in shock at the man in the entranceway. Sasuke had seen him many times before, usually whenever Madara needed a loophole around a contract or plausable deniability.

"I hope you haven't been talking to my client without legal council," said Tobi, walking into the room and setting his breifcase down on the table. "Because I can have your badge for that."

Kakashi sent a glare at the man. Since every call in the building was monitored, he knew Sasuke hadn't called for council. The only call he made was to his brother, pleading with Itachi to take Konan and Yahiko and to go somewhere safe. The pleading tone in Sasuke voice made him contact Neji and ask him to call in a favor with his uncle. Neji was more than happy to provide a security detail for his cousin and that had been hours ago.

"What are you doing here, Tobi," said Sasuke angrily.

Zetsu looked at him in an almost confused face, but Sasuke knew it was just an act.

"I'm here to help," said Zetsu. "It would look awful for a member of the Uchiha family to be put in prison."

"I'm not going to prison," said Sasuke in all confidance. "And you're not helping me."

Zetsu looked at him in shock.

"Sasuke..." he said in warning but Sasuke ignored him.

"Captain Hatake, I don't want him as my lawyer," said Sasuke. "Call my brother and ask for the family lawyer, but make him leave."

"Your family lawyer is already here," said Kakashi. He was glaring at Zetsu for the interference of the interview. Sasuke had a look of relief. Even if he hadn't asked Itachi, his brother sent their lawyer, their cousin, Obito, to help Sasuke out. Obito had a strong sense of justice and but he wasalso open-minded, so he wouldunderstand the position Sasuke had been in and help him get out of it.

"You heard the man. Go."

Zetsu glared at the two cops in the room before gathering his breifcase and walked to the door. When he opened the door, Obito stood on th eother side. Zetsu glared at the younger man before turning to Sasuke.

"You will regret this," he said and then left.

Obito walked in and looked at the three men in the room.

"That must have been interesting," he said.

The comment had been so unexpecting, that Sasuke couldn't help but laugh.

It took a couple of hours, but Sasuke had managed to give Naruto and Kakashi every bit of information he could remember. Kakashi wrote everything down as Naruto nodded encouragingly. Obito just sat next to Sasuke, offering any legal advice if needed. Apparently, Itachi had sent him as a "just in case", but with Sasuke being a willing informant, Obito had only needed to arrange leniency in exchange for information. The defense was that he was being threatened to work for Madara, which was true, but without evidence, it was hard to prove in a trial. If there was a trial.

Finally, when he was done, Sasuke picked up a glass of water and took a drink.

"We'll have to work quickly," said Kakashi. "With what happened last night, and the few hours between then and now, we might be able to get enough evidence against Madara and his operation."

"Madara is smart," said Sasuke. "I've only been with him a couple of months. I might not even know everything. He has safe houses and bank accounts under assumed names. He never uses the same place twice in under a year."

Sasuke knew this because Madara had taught it to him. It was like the mand wa trying to impart forty years of wisedom in Sasuke in the shortest amount of time.

"Why you?" asked Naruto, speaking for the first time in an hour. (Why did he pick you to take over?"

That he had been silent for so long was a surprise to Sasuke. All throughout high school, the blonde had been loud and boisterous, always inciting a laugh in everyone around him, and theough the time Sasuke had lived with him as Kurogane, Naruto was constantly talking, to Kyuubi, to him, the television, phone. If there was a reason to talk, Naruto would find it and use it.

"I think it's because I'm a Uchiha Bastard too," said Sasuke. "That the sameness between us would connect us, and that I might understand why he does what he does."

From the outside looking in, it might have made sense. Sasuke, the rebellious son, working with Madara, the known Uchiha Bastard. The two unwanted Uchiha sons working together, possibly to takeover Uchiha Corps, but Sasuke didn't want to be a part of the company. He didn't want the intrique, the deceptions, the manipulation that came with being a businessman. He had been quite happy working on his foundation.

The look Kakashi gave Sauske was almost pity, but Sasuke didn't want the silver haired man to look at him like that.

Sasuke gave locations, names of associates, merchandise perchased or sold, and even corrupt police officers, district attorneys and goverment officials. Once Sasuke gave his statement, Obito spoke up.

"In return for the information Sasuke has given, I believe it's only logical that he be placed in protective custody until trial," said Obito.

Sasuke turns to his cousin defiantly.

"No," he said. "I'm not running."

Obito turns to him.

"Sasuke, Itachi told me to make sure you got out of this safely and without being vindicated for Madara's crimes," he said. "If you being in a witness protection program does that, then I will make the deal. You're family. We don't let family down."

"Madara's family," said Kakashi. "What about him?"

"Madara stopped being family a long time ago," said Obito. "We had known for years that Madara wanted to take over Uchiha Corp, but without proof we couldn't do anything. Fugaku didn't care what Madara did as long as the money rolled in."

"Jury's not going to believe Sasuke just on his word," said Naruto, miraculously speaking for the first time in several minutes. Since high school, Sasuke had never known Naruto to not talk a mile a minute. "They will want some sort of physical proof."

"Do you still have my affects?" asked Sasuke.

Naruto and Kakashi looked at each other curiously before turning back to Sasuke.

"Yes, why?" asked Kakashi.

"Get them."

It took several minutes, but Kakashi returned with the box containing all of the affects found on Sasuke after ther raid.

"Take out my pen and keys," said Sasuke.

Kakashi did and set them on the table. The pen was normal look. Sleek black with a gold clip and there were several keys on the chain, supposedly to Sasuke's apartment, car, the Uchiha corperate building and his brother's house. The keychain was of a cute puppy, wide eyed and pink tongue hanging out with a paw raised in the air. Naruto thought it was an odd item for Sasuke to have.

Sasuke picked up the keychain and pulled the puppy's head off. The torso revealed to be a flashdrive.

"I bought is just before Madara had be followed everywhere." He looked up at Naruto. "The day I sent Aoi to you."

"I thought I saw you!" said Naruto loudly.

"I didn't want Madara to threaten anyone else in my life, and I knew she would be safe with you." He held up the flashdrive. "This holds every thing I found out about Madara and his organization."

"How were youable to accumulate so much?" asked Kakashi.

Sasuke picked up the pen and held it up.

"During my rebel days, I'd record my classes while I slept." He gave a sheepish smile. "I might have been angry at my father, but I did want to continue my schooling."

Naruto burst out laughing and Sasuke thought even Kakashi would smile.

"You would have made a good undercover agent," he said.

"No," said Sasuke with a smile. "Too much paperwork."

That made them all laugh. Naruto looked at the man in front of him. Sasuke had changed a lot in the years since he had disappeared. He was a much easier person to be around, and he smiled more. Naruto found it a nice change.

"There's still the problem of a safe place for Sasuke," said Obito. "If there are more dirty cops in the department, no known safe house is enough."

"He can stay at my place," said Naruto. "He'll be in police custody the whole time."

"Naruto, are you sure?" asked Kakashi.

"Yes. It's not a safe house the police would know. And only the people we trust would know."

Obito looked towards Sasuke. Sasuke nodded.

"Okay."

TBC