Smoke and Mirrors
Prologue
A dull "ping" broke the silence of a second floor office in downtown Konoha. Its sole occupant lifted her head from her steaming mug of coffee, squinting at the freshly-delivered email in her inbox. It was from Kakashi. Sighing, she set down the mug, knowing fully how the chief of police had little to no email manners. Better be safe. For all she knew, it could be a grisly crime scene photo, attached inline on the email. Better not be holding something scalding if there's a jumpscare risk staring at her straight on the face.
Her slender fingers tapped the trackpad of the laptop and she waited for the email to load. Just as the first few pixels of the image started rendering, she was startled by the sound of her door slamming open.
"Sakura-chaaaaaaan!" Naruto called from her doorframe, grinning widely. "Congratulations on your work, have you seen the article? We should celebrate and have ramen! Did Kakashi email you yet? He said he would!"
"Well," Sakura began, tilting her head quizzically, half-amused, half-irritated. She wouldn't be surprised if one day the hinges of her office door will just give up. "I'm just about to read his email."
At this, the grin on Naruto's face stretched wider. "Read it, Sakura-chan! And don't forget me when you get a bonus from that case!" he sang, before waving a vigorous goodbye and walking down the corridor to his desk.
Sakura glanced back down to her laptop screen, Kakashi's email finally done loading. It was a news article covering the bust of an extortion group. So this was what Naruto was talking about.
A bubble of pride swelled in her chest as she read the article. Her work had been crucial in pinpointing the whereabouts of the group's headquarters. Through the bust, Kakashi's team was able to recover precious information which they suspect will link the operations to a bigger syndicate. Not shabby at all.
Hitting a button, she quickly typed a reply to Kakashi. So, do I get a bonus or raise for this? I've been making your police division look too good on the press these days.
A reply came a few moments later. Haha that's something that needs to be discussed. Anyway I'm letting you guys involved in the case out early today to celebrate the bust. Naruto reserved us a spot at the usual.
Taking the police chief's reply as satisfactory enough, Sakura laced her fingers and drew them upward, feeling a delicious stretch radiate from her back. What would she give for a promotion and a better office chair. Making a mental note to bug Kakashi about it further, she quickly stashed her phone into her bag, eager to get out of the police building while the sun was still up.
Dinner proved to be a rambunctuous affair, a given whenever Naruto was in the mix. Surrounded by the laughter and antics of her colleagues, Sakura found herself relaxing as well. After a couple bottles of beer, she excused herself from the group, desperate for some fresh air and quiet.
"Kakashi." she greeted, stepping out to the balcony to join the older man. He seemed like he just got off from a work-related phone call, judging by the weary look on his only visible eye. She never really saw her boss' full face as it was always obscured by his trademark black face mask, to which Kakashi attributed to his year-round allergy.
"Sakura" he greeted back, mirth seeping back to his eye. "I know I congratulated you earlier, but let me express my gratitude once more." He tapped her shoulder twice. "We wouldn't have been able to do that bust without your work."
Sakura huffed. Two weeks ago she was briefed for the first time on the case. An extortionist group happened to gain access to a businessman's indecent photos with his mistress, which they had been using to siphon money from him. Sakura was called in to the assignment to trace the whereabouts of the criminals. Her analysis of the different IP addresses of the senders and sending patterns revealed that the extortionist was most likely a group, headquartered in what was declared as a BPO office. Once she was sure of her hunch, the ground squad set off to perform the bust while Sakura staged a simultaneous virtual attack on their servers. She encrypted all their access and data both on premise and cloud before the criminal group could wipe them out. Embroiled in the panic of trying to restore their access and make all the evidence of their crimes disappear, the perpetrators were caught, investigated, and revealed to be operating using this modus for quite some time and have swindled more than a dozen individuals.
"Tanaka-san wasn't very happy about being charged with adultery by his wife." Kakashi continued, his voice tinged with amusement.
"He deserved that one, let's be honest." Sakura stepped toward the railing of the balcony, relishing how the cold wind weathered away the tipsiness she was feeling earlier. "Though I have to admit I do miss being on the ground. I felt like I aged 20 years just sitting in that moldy office."
"Aah I understand, however you're the only one in the task force who can do the work that you do." He replied, gesturing with his head towards the group they have left, now having an arm wrestling competition. "The fish we caught" he brought up his phone, implying that it was the topic if his previous call "was just fodder."
Sakura inclined her head, a gesture for him to continue.
"I was on the phone with Ibiki just now. One of the guys we caught fessed up. Their operation was just a small-time branch of a bigger thing. Their work was still sloppy because it's the newly-established arm, dare I say, tail of a bigger syndicate."
"A bigger syndicate?"
"I believe you have heard of Juubi."
TBC