A/N: Quick thing: I rewrote the Haku/Shikamaru scene from the last chapter. Was pointed out to me by a very smart reviewer of mine that it was a tad too emotional for Haku's usual character, so I toned it down and changed the dialogue. Still largely the same scene, but different in tone.

This chapter will be quite long, as I need to set up a few different things.

Time for Chapter 37

Enjoy!


Ibiki Morino was a patient man.

Interrogation was a process that could, and usually did, take a fair amount of time. It was professionalized mental warfare. Different people had different things that made them tick, and finding those things was key to forcing them into errors they couldn't simply paper over with a rushed qualification. Some were more difficult to break down than others, and Ibiki had solved thousands of different mental puzzles during his tenure as lead interrogator. Despite his experience, Gaara of the Sand was decidedly different from the rest.

Even now, well over two hours into what had essentially become a full-scale interrogation, the genin had not faltered even slightly. He was calm to the point of being disturbing, and yet, he maintained just enough outward emotion to avoid sacrificing appropriate reactions to certain prompts. His narrative was consistent, as were his alibis. By all reasonable metrics, Gaara was passing his questioning with flying colors. No matter how many times the redhead flawlessly maneuvered his way through or around Ibiki's questions, the interrogator could not shake his suspicions.

'You're loving this, aren't you? You get a kick out of this crap.' Ibiki silently projected to the Suna boy, who was sitting calmly in a wooden chair across the dimly lit room. In truth, Gaara was far more in control than Ibiki was. He had been since the very start. His utter lack of any outward stress painted him as nearly robotic at times, but at the drop of a hat, he could conjure up convincing shows of emotion. Ibiki had been entirely unable to build a base from which to start, and now, he found himself feeling the pressure.

'Nara was right about one thing, at least. This kid's not normal. Whether he did it or not, he needs to be watched.' Ibiki thought to himself. Just as he began to think up another approach to try, his train of thought was interrupted.

"I suppose I haven't been entirely honest with you, Morino-san." Gaara said out of the blue, leading the verbal dance for the very first time. Ibiki's eyes narrowed at the redhead's odd tactics. He was up to something, that much was clear.

"Speak up, then. We don't have all day." the interrogator said gruffly. Gaara nodded and refolded his hands in his lap. His eyes then dragged up from the floor.

"When I told you earlier that I hadn't committed a crime in Konoha, I was stretching the truth a bit. I'm not so innocent." he began, drawing a raised eyebrow from Ibiki. The redhead's gaze fully met the older man's.

"I stole a few packages of dried meat several days ago. I had forgotten my wallet, and I just couldn't help myself. I enjoy trying new things. I'll take any punishment you see fit." he finished, his voice dripping with fabricated regret. Ibiki's hands tightened into fists. He was being openly mocked amid his own operation.

'You've got some nerve, brat.' he hissed within his mind. While his temper was flaring, and his patience was wearing ever more thin, the interrogator maintained a look of calm composure. Any hesitation would render the procedure meaningless.

"I'll pass that on up the food chain. We'll get back to you in a few days." he said evenly. The redhead gave a sigh of relief. To say he was laying it on thick would have been a painful understatement. He was nonchalant as could be beneath his cold exterior.

"May I leave now? We've been at this for quite some time." Gaara asked politely. Ibiki took a step closer to him, bearing down on the boy one last time.

"I'll ask you one more time, kid. Do you have any information that might be useful to our investigation?" he asked. Gaara easily maintained the challenging eye contact.

"Like I said, I'm as lost as you are. If I could help you, I would." he shot back. There was no fat in his response. No excess emotion or verbiage. Quick, to the point. Choosing to cut his losses rather than waste more time than he already had, Ibiki made his way over to the door and opened it, allowing light from the hallway to stream inside.

"You're free to go." he said, doing his best to veil his very real frustration. The redhead made no rush. He rose slowly, and he walked with a casual sluggishness that brought a twitch to Ibiki's face. He had won, and he was rubbing it in. With slow steps, Gaara passed the interrogator and began a slow walk down the hall toward the stairs that would lead him back to the lobby. As he walked away, Ibiki stepped fully out of the interrogation room.

"How did it go?"

Glancing off to one side, Ibiki saw that Hiruzen was standing just to the left of the doorway against the wall. The interrogator kept his eyes fixed on Gaara's back.

"Officially? He's clean. About as innocent as can be." he said. The Hokage removed his pipe from his lips and slipped it into his robe pocket.

"What do you really think?" he clarified. Ibiki began to respond, but paused when Gaara halted just before the flight of stairs. A moment later, the redhead began his descent.

"I think he's a psychopath." the interrogator said bluntly. It was a harsh word to use for a person, but the shoe fit. It was an apt description of the boy Ibiki had spent hours rapping his skull against.

"That's all well and good, but it doesn't answer my question. Do you think he's responsible?" the Hokage pressed.

"Absolutely." Ibiki said directly. The response had been automatic. No thought required. Gaara radiated shameless guilt, no matter how expertly he ducked and weaved his way around the blame. He was a seasoned manipulator, but even a skilled liar could not hide their deceit entirely. Hiruzen moved out into the middle of the hall.

"And we just let our man walk free." he said tiredly. Ibiki joined his leader in the center of the corridor and slid his hands into the pockets of his trenchcoat.

"We still don't have evidence. We could try cross-examining his alibis with his siblings, but something tells me it would be pointless." he said. Hiruzen nodded in agreement.

"I got a good look at them in the lobby. Even if we could force them to talk, they're far from new to this." he said. It was a frustrating situation down to its very finest details. No matter how certain they were of his guilt, Gaara stood firmly in safety. He was too thorough. Too smart.

"Where do we go from here?" Ibiki asked. The elderly leader sighed and began slowly walking in the direction of his office.

"Write up a profile on him. Follow the book." he said. The interrogator nodded and went on his way at the silent cue.

Whether the profile was meant for Gaara, or some faceless apparition, Ibiki knew not.


Temari suppressed a fresh wave of frustration as she was soundly checkmated for the fifth time that afternoon. Chess had never been her strong suit, but there was little else to do. She had been stranded in the lobby of the executive building of Konoha for the better part of three hours, and her only company had been Kankuro, and Shikamaru. There was a fourth person in the room, a girl appearing to be roughly her own age with long brown hair, but she had spoken very little.

"You're way too good at this." Temari grumbled as Shikamaru arranged his pieces again, preparing for a sixth match. The Nara boy shrugged his lean shoulders.

"You asked to play. I warned you, too." he pointed out. The sand kunoichi scratched her cheek absently. She had known that Shikamaru Nara was an intellectual giant of sorts. His match during the preliminary round, and his incredibly resourceful tactics in the forest had made that much perfectly clear. Despite the prior knowledge, Temari still found herself bewildered by his skill on a chess board. He was hardly trying. He looked half-asleep a fair amount of the time. He won effortlessly regardless.

"I'm still gonna win." the fan wielder insisted, setting up her own pieces quickly. Kankuro had been the opposite of talkative since their arrival in the lobby. He was stoic and controlled. Temari herself had tried on such a mood briefly, but had found that she could not maintain it. Equal parts due to her personal desire to speak to her future opponent, and the sheer pressure she felt in the silence. It had been Temari who had notified Shikamaru of Gaara's nightly excursions, and while it was highly unlikely that her youngest brother would be made a prime suspect, the situation had been made far more tense by her actions.

She had been well aware of the risks associated with sharing such things with an enemy, but that had been the point. Shikamaru was far too moral to simply ignore such a damning piece of information. At least, that had been her impression of him. It appeared that her instinct had been correct. It had taken him several days, but Shikamaru had indeed acted on what he now knew.

'From here…it's all up to chance.' Temari thought to herself, moving her first pawn. Her reasoning was layered, and delving further into it would be nothing but a distraction from where her decisions had brought her. There was little point in self-deliberation. Shifting her focus to another topic, the fan wielder made a small gesture toward the brown-haired girl on the opposite side of the lobby.

"Do you know her? She's been staring a hole through my chest since we got here." she asked in a low tone. Shikamaru's half-lidded eyes drifted up from the chess board.

"Her name's Haku. It's a long story." he said vaguely. Sensing a great deal of turmoil within him, Temari shelved any serious inquiry. Tensions were high already. Tightening them further would have been a cruelty.

"I don't think she likes me. I can feel her glaring." she commented. Shikamaru leaned his cheek on the heel of his palm and cut off Temari's maneuver on the board.

"Try not to antagonize her. Today's already stressful enough." he muttered. The blonde kunoichi suppressed a smirk. She was far from lacking in street smarts. The signals were blatant and hilariously exaggerated.

'If you don't like me now, you're gonna hate me pretty soon.' Temari silently taunted the girl. The fan wielder hardly considered herself an unpleasant person, but that opinion was subject to perception, and she was well aware of that fact.

"I won't. She looks about ready to snap anyway." Temari said dismissively. Shikamaru mumbled something under his breath, but the sand kunoichi was unable to catch a word of it. The Nara boy then took one of her bishops in one fell swoop. Scowling at the board, Temari ran through the short sequence of leads and counters they had exchanged.

"You forget about your own positioning a lot." Shikamaru said through a yawn. The sand kunoichi clenched her jaw slightly. As with before, he was hardly even trying.

"That, and you make a lot of risky plays." the shadow user added. Temari suppressed her rising frustration and carefully considered her following action. A simple shifting of a pawn. A safe maneuver. One meant to draw out further action for the sake of analysis. Shikamaru stared at the board silently for a few moments. Just as it appeared that he was truly puzzled for the first time, he made his own move. He shifted a pawn of his own. At a glance, the move was inconsequential. Just meaningless fodder. The longer she studied the new game state, however, the clearer it became that it was anything but.

With one simple twitch of a pawn, Shikamaru had severely truncated her options. She was now in a precarious position. If she dared to move a piece other than her powerless pawns, she would be harshly punished. If she opted to follow the safest course of action, she would be digging herself further into the trap he had set for her. He was always in control, no matter how carefully Temari considered her choices.

"Is this all you do with your time?" she asked in irritation. Shikamaru glanced out of one of the windows lining the lobby walls.

"I watch clouds. Naps are pretty neat, too." he listed matter-of-factly. His eyes remained fixed on the sky beyond the window. Temari studied him intently. He was shakable when forced into a scenario outside of his control, as she had proven with her provocative advances during his brief stay in her motel room, but in his own territory, he was a stalwart of enigmatic intelligence.

'What's going on in that skull of yours?' she pondered. Despite the many games they had played, there was nothing comfortable about their situation. Especially for Shikamaru himself. He had reported Gaara. He had put himself directly in the line of fire. Yet, he was completely calm. Outwardly, at least. Before Temari could break him down any further within her mind, the creaking of floorboards overhead snapped each of the four to attention.

With bated breath, the group brought their collective thoughts and considerations to a halt. The creaking soon shifted to audible footsteps descending toward the lobby. Within the same minute, Gaara emerged from the short hallway behind the receptionist's desk. His expression was unreadable. He wordlessly retrieved his gourd, which he had been forced to abandon at the entrance of the hallway, and then turned his attention toward the seated Shikamaru.

Seeming to sense that all eyes were now on him, the shadow user stood up. Gaara crossed the room slowly, eventually halting just in front of Shikamaru. He then slung his arm across the front of the leaf genin's shoulder and leaned into his ear. The boys then exchanged hushed words. What was said was a mystery. After the brief trading of whispered barbs had concluded, Gaara stepped away from Shikamaru and plodded his way out of the lobby and out into the street.

Once he was gone, the Nara boy sighed heavily and visibly filtered out whatever negative emotions were coursing through him. He didn't quite look afraid, but he was certainly unsettled. Haku was soon at his side, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. He then looked to Temari and Kankuro.

"You guys wanna grab a late lunch?"


Naruto swatted a gnat on his arm as he trudged through the wooded pathway. Night was approaching, and he had finally completed his self-guided drilling for the day. Well over a dozen cumulative miles of running, and a truly unholy number of repetitive taijutsu sequences he had been assigned. He was sore all over, and his lungs burned. It was a welcome pain. He was doing the necessary work, and it was certainly paying off. He was stronger than he'd ever been. Kakashi Hatake was an unconventional teacher, but he was undeniably effective.

Naruto would have to wait another two and a half days to resume training with the man, but it would be worth the wait. It always was. There was the open question of Satsuki's preparation with the man, as her visceral breakdown had occurred little more than a day prior. Naruto could only assume that things had resumed as usual upon her early exit from the hospital, as he had seen neither his teammate or teacher that day.

'She could have at least left a note. The staff thought I had something to do with it at first.' the blonde recalled in irritation. The squabble had been resolved quickly by a number of witnesses claiming that they had seen the girl strolling along on the road below, thankfully. Shifting his focus away from the unpleasant discussion that had consumed his morning, Naruto kicked a small stone down along the path he was traversing.

His minor wounds from the previous day had almost entirely healed. His recovery had always been accelerated, especially in his sleep. Despite that fact, he could still feel the harsh grip of Satsuki around his throat. The experience had been a deeply unpleasant one. He had come to Satsuki's dwelling with the intention of entering her home without permission, but upon hearing her strangled cries of pain, he had dropped any notions of etiquette. He had been entirely unprepared for the sight awaiting him.

She had been tearfully screaming, slamming her forehead into her wall repeatedly. She had cut multiple trenches into the wood with a kunai she had been holding by its sharp edge. Raw anguish. It certainly hadn't helped that she was barely clothed at the time. He had felt as though he were witnessing something he shouldn't. His own feelings had overpowered this discomfort with ease, and he had reached out to assist her. It had nearly cost him his life.

With rabid aggression, Satsuki had violently tackled him to the floor and stabbed her blade down toward his throat. His reflexes had saved him from an early funeral. The choking came soon after. Her grip had been ironclad. The most terrifying part of it all had been her eyes. Wide, bloodshot, and feral. Consumed by a dark madness born of something deep-seated. Her return to her senses had come just as Naruto had begun to lose consciousness from the strangulation.

Even after Sastuki had regained her faculties, Naruto had sensed her instability. He had never intended to leave, even when he had offered to. It had been nothing more than a test of her reaction to the notion of being left alone. As expected, the Uchiha girl's refusal to let him go had been resolute. No matter how expertly she hid it, Satsuki was fragile underneath her rocky exterior. What had been a surprise had been her reasoning for stopping him.

"You're…making me feel safe."

Recalling her words brought an odd mix of emotions to the forefront of Naruto's mind. At the face of it, he felt joy. Such a statement was a gesture of unwavering acceptance, something he had always desired. Beneath the surface, however, he found her words unsettling. She was feeling unsafe simply left on her own. An implication of self-endangerment. That notion was strongly backed up by her brutal spiral mere minutes after the Jinchuuriki had tended to her wounds.

Had he not been present, Sastuki's fall down the dark abyss her psychosis had pushed her down into would have been far more precipitous and vile, and even with assistance, the girl had been in absolute shambles. More disturbingly, her bodily control had been seemingly compromised.

'She tried to choke me again. She pulled back, but she definitely tried.' Naruto thought to himself grimly. Her second grip on his neck had been gentle, but the intentions had been clear as day. Beyond her feeble second attempt on his life, Satsuki's grip had felt distinctly different during her breakdown. Rather than fearful or desperate, the raven-haired girl's hold on him had felt as though she were trying to consume him. To make him a part of her body. Shuddering at the memory, Naruto shook his head.

Shaken though he was, the blonde still felt nothing but relief at her continued health. His determination to stay with her had been born of genuine concern and care. If anything, above all else, he was proud to have stuck it out. She had needed him, and he had followed through. Finding satisfaction in this conclusion, Naruto finally relaxed.

'I'm just glad she's alright.' he thought to himself. He then passed into a clearing. While initially seeming to be quite ordinary, several details quickly stuck out to the genin. First and foremost, the trees and ground were all littered with what targets. Weathered ones, at that. Second, the trunks of the trees in the vicinity were all marked with a litany of cuts and dent marks. Naruto was afforded no time to process the oddities, as a rustling sound from the canopy overhead sent him scurrying behind a tree.

Carefully poking his head out from behind the tree, Naruto's eyes widened slightly at what he saw. Flying out from what appeared to be every direction, a swarm of kunai hit each and every target dead-center. Even several that Naruto had missed entirely. Just as his mind jumped to the obvious questions of 'who' and 'how', the first of them was answered. Sailing down from the trees below, Satsuki landed elegantly in the middle of the clearing.

By way of sheer, dumb luck and timing, the Jinchuuriki had stumbled upon a personal training session of sorts. With his eyes fixed on his teammate, Naruto watched in silence as the Uchiha girl picked her kunai from each individual target. A look of distaste quickly formed on her face. Logic and circumstance dictated that she had likely missed the mark at least once by some margin. Eventually, she had gathered up all of her supplies.

Then, with her pouch and hands fully reloaded with blades, Satsuki jumped straight up into the air. Craning his neck to follow her, Naruto looked on in awe as the Uchiha girl sent forth each and every one of her kunai. She twisted, turned, and rotated mid-air with a grace and ease that left his mouth slightly open. The kunai each flew with an intended purpose. Some flew straight into the center of their target. Others acted as a catalyst for another blade to ricochet in the right direction.

When it was all said and done, every single kunai had sunk into the bullseye. Each target was pierced in its center. Perfection was a rarity, especially in combat, but Satsuki had come as close as one could. Landing weightlessly in the clearing once more, the raven-haired girl took several deep breaths with her gaze turned up toward the treetops. Naruto found himself struck by something that had never occurred to him before that moment.

Satsuki Uchiha was a beautiful girl.

For all her prickliness, antagonism, and inconsistency, she was a sight to behold. Her pale skin contrasted with her dark, midnight hair in almost haunting fashion, and her facial features were deceptively soft. Combined with the fact that she was wonderfully put together physically, Naruto's face quickly gained color.

'I hate puberty.' he lamented within his mind, pushing away the hormonal rush that had hit him out of practically nowhere. He then took a step back to begin carefully retreating away from the clearing. Unfortunately, he snapped a twig loudly the moment he set his foot down. Satsuki's head instantly jerked in his direction.

While she said nothing, Naruto knew he had been caught. Scratching the back of his head sheepishly, Naruto stepped out fully into view.

"You're really good with knives." he opened, immediately wincing internally at how pathetically awkward it sounded. Once again, his teammate gave him no response. Instead, she took tentative steps toward him. Swallowing a nervous lump in his throat, Naruto remained in place as the Uchiha girl approached him. Within moments, Satsuki was right in front of him at the edge of the clearing. At a closer proximity, Naruto got a clearer look at her expression.

Her lips were twitching ever so slightly, though he could not discern whether they were teasing a frown or a smile, and her eyes held a look of reserved apprehension.

"You okay?" Naruto asked, his head tilting ever so slightly. For the third time, Satsuki remained silent. She then reached out with her left hand. The very same she had strangled him with. Her fingers grazed over the front of his windpipe. There was no aggression in her touch. Only a reluctant curiosity. Naruto shivered at her touch. His reaction caused Satsuki to pull the hand back with a flinch.

"I'm…sorry." she whispered, her head shaking almost imperceptibly. She then took a step back. Before Naruto could react, her form flickered, and she vanished into the trees up above. Alone again, the blonde released the breath he had been unknowingly holding.

'Why am I shaking?' he thought to himself, holding up his quivering palm. Sighing deeply, the blonde chose to save his consideration for privacy, and followed his teammate's example in the opposite direction.

Once both genin had left, a lukewarm wind blew through the trees.


A/N: I must apologize for the wait on this chapter. I got lazy yesterday and started really late at night writing this chapter, so I ended up passing out before finishing

To make up for it, you'll be getting another chapter tomorrow :)

Please leave a review if you're able. It means a lot :)

I love you all

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