Chapter Seven

Haunted

Mother and son were having a brief, joyful morning moment, but it was evident she awoke just now, and her little boy was asking if Aunt Manami would make them breakfast. She hadn't told him yet.

Now he had to, and in the gentlest way he could, what he and Kabuto found: absolutely nothing in the body, but the bruises around the throat as well as the foreign blood. It would appear she had been murdered by someone else, and that left the man who was arrested and being questioned at this moment.

Which was why he was here.

"You both should get dressed and we can go down to the police station - or rather, Ren, you can stay with Uncle Kabuto until your mother and I return," he said, making the boy pout, but he understood. This was adult business, despite getting older to understand these matters - enough.

But the poor child did break down and cry in his mother's arms, blubbering and wishing that people they loved weren't taken from them. Including his father.

Kabuto should have gotten rest after a long night and day, but he had to make the funeral arrangements. Word must have gotten out by now what had happened - or a version, at least. And Orochimaru had to go in and hear what Toshio Matsuda had to say for himself, but he also wished Hanaru to be there due to what he said to her yesterday before her little boy.

Moments later, both of them emerged from the room, and Orochimaru confessed to himself that the sight of the beautiful, hot-blooded woman in her ivory dress covered with pale blue roses would take his son's breath away. He'd seen the way Kabuto looked at her, but the boy couldn't let himself go onto his dead best friend's wife like that. It was like Kabuto to think cleanly and decently, but if Orochimaru were right, they could make a great match someday.

They passed by Kabuto's office, and there was the sheet drawn over Manami's body, though red stained through the pure white - a sign of post-surgery. Hanaru said nothing, but she winced and forced herself to look at a weary Kabuto who took off his glasses and glanced their way...and that was when the locking of black to blue irises was noticed by Orochimaru who held his smirk back.

"We're going to the station to speak with the prisoner, Kabuto."

~o~

"Professor - oh, and you must be Mrs. Hanaru Uchiha."

"Yes, I am," she answered, pushing her hair behind her shoulder and going in first, Orochimaru right behind her. "It's nice to meet you, Sergeant." But he laughed lightly and offered his hand for her to shake, telling her to call him Samon if she wanted to, and so it was first names between them.

But then things were grim. "If only we could meet under better circumstances, Hanaru. I heard that you and the professor had a run-in with Toshio Matsuda when you first arrived here in Oto," the sergeant told her as they walked further into the establishment, which was remarkably slick for a police station in a small village.

Hanaru gritted her teeth. "Yes, and he called me a bitch when my child was in our presences!" she snapped. Orochimaru cleared his throat and looked ahead without a word.

"I'm terribly sorry you had to endure that," Sano apologized, "and I'm dreadfully sorry about your husband's death not even a year ago." She thanked him for the condolences, and it was then that they finally reached the main office where the prisoner himself was being kept by Senior Officer Chiba. He was unkempt, and she could smell the liquor on his breath like last night.

Seeing him made her stomach turn and her face twist with disgust. His behavior was just pathetic, and if Sasuke were here, he would say his brother's death did NOT excuse this kind of behavior.

"You," she spat, looking him fair and square. His eyes widened when he recognized her, but his jaw slackened and he could say nothing. She took this opportunity to go right over, raise her opened palm, and crack a blow across one cheek. "That's for last night. And this -" Another blow, this time backhanding his other cheek. "- is for calling me a bitch with my son around!"

The men in the room chuckled, but Sergeant Sano spoke up. "Ahem, if you're done, Hanaru, please let the prisoner give his story."

She scoffed, stepping back away and putting her hands on both hips to show the bastard that she was over him this time, and that he messed with the wrong woman. He literally agreed with his eyes alone - but then she saw the fear which she was sure couldn't be the cause from her. "You wouldn't believe me anyway, like the sergeant," Toshio Matsuda said bitterly, lowering his eyes. "He believes I killed your friend, but I swear to you both, I have not! I was drunk, alright, and they found me, so there's no denying it. I swear to the gods I did NOT kill her!"

His insistence was so passionate and sincere that a part of her was inclined to believe it, but before she could speak, Orochimaru did. Low and icy cold. "If you didn't kill my daughter, then explain what you were doing out there," he hissed.

"I don't know. Just to get away from everything, I suppose."

Sergeant Sano towered over him, jaw taut as his words. "You sure you didn't see Manami Hashimoto, Toshio? See her and follow her into the woods? You had a round with her brother in the tavern only yesterday, and there are plenty of witnesses to swear to that. I can only put it to the fact that you wanted your revenge. Now, are you telling the truth?"

"Yes," Toshio insisted, exhausted now. "I'm sure of that, at least."

Hanaru frowned at him; that meant he must have seen someone else, and now her brain was sparking with ideas. Maybe it was the man I saw... "Wait, are you saying you saw...someone else up there?" she asked, getting all the men's eyes on her, especially the suspect himself, who was clearly shocked that she was paying attention to what he was saying.

Toshio glanced down at the floor again. "I did, but none of you would believe me, which is what I tried telling the sergeant." He took a deep breath.

"It was my brother. My brother who's dead and buried out there. I saw him as clearly as I see you all in front of me. He was all...gray and in a shroud, eyes unnatural and staring back..."

You could almost hear a penny drop in the sudden silence. In Hanaru's mind: the man I saw...he was the man in the coffin?! Well, I know that face wasn't this one's, but if it was his dead brother, how the hell was he up and walking around, and no one saw him until last night?

"Mr. Matsuda," Orochimaru finally spoke while the rest of them were disbelieved and speechless - especially Hanaru, who was trying to wrack her brains with her own memory, too eerily similar to what this man said. "Your brother is dead."

"I know, sir! Didn't I bury him myself? I know that he's still lying in his coffin," Toshio said. His face fell when all of them said nothing and just exchanged glances with each other. "You don't believe me, after all."

"On the contrary, I do believe you." Orochimaru!

That answer definitely shocked the man as well as the sergeant and his senior officer. It was Orochimaru to have his reasons, but what exactly was going on in his head? Never mind that, she decided to say her part, unable to bite her tongue. "So do I. Mr. Matsuda, I know what you're talking about."

"Hanaru?" Orochimaru looked surprised, perhaps wondering what she wasn't telling him, either. She shook her head, reaching up to rub the raw crystal between her thumb and forefinger.

"I never told anyone this, not even my own brother. Because they would just say that the bereaved widow was projecting in order to cope with her grief."

"You mean you...lost your husband?" Toshio asked, finally regretting how he treated her before. She allowed herself to give him a small smile before going back to serious.

"Yeah, he was one of the men who went out to fight in the Ame civil war. I don't know all the details, but he was shot in the arm; before that, he was very sick, and it was exactly the same as your brother and the others from this village. But Itachi's body vanished before our dear friend, Dr. Yakushi, could perform the autopsy. So there was no body to bury at home in Konoha. But to keep a long story short: the morning before yesterday, I left our son at home and went for my morning jog...and I know I saw my husband. It looked like him, yet it wasn't, and he matched the description you gave of your brother."

By the time she was done speaking, she reached up to wipe the corner of her eye which burned.

Orochimaru was rigid as a statue, the emotion of skepticism and consideration seen in his yellow gold eyes. Sergeant Sano and Officer Chiba both glanced at each other, half-inclined to believe the testimony of Jurou Matsuda up and walking around when everyone KNEW he was dead.

As for Toshio Matsuda himself, he was devastated. But he seemed to find sympathy, except that didn't mean he was off the hook, since there was no solid proof beyond their words. And until a conclusion was reached, he was going to spend his time here in this prison.

If his brother is dead, how is it that he was seen by us both - just like I know I saw Itachi?

~o~

He was so tired. He just got done making the funeral arrangements with the priest who came to the house, and Ren really made the old man's day by talking about things back home. Unfortunately, they were back to business in no time.

Now Kabuto felt like he was back to where he started. He'd thought his sister got the illness that afflicted Itachi and the men of this village, but there was nothing in her body indicating a malady of any kind. But I remember that there was no examination on my friend, and I was denied cutting open the dead here.

But that doesn't mean anything. I have to keep an open mind that something CAUSED all of this. My friend and all of us got dragged into this mess. However...

Those times when he thought he saw his deceased friend and comrade, husband of the woman of his secret affection, he thought he was going crazy after everything. Looking down at Ren, seeing his father's features, he convinced himself that he wasn't seeing any hallucinations.

Orochimaru and Hanaru came back in no time, and what they had to tell him was enough to make him nearly fall out of his chair. And to list it off like this:

Toshio Matsuda was arrested for suspicion of Manami's murder, though there stood the testimony that, despite his drunken state, he saw his dead brother before his eyes - and Hanaru also said she saw the same man, when she hadn't had a drink that night.

But she also dropped the bombshell in that she thought she saw Itachi the day Orochimaru came to see her and Ren. Kabuto understood why she never breathed a word until now.

A new thought came to his mind: if it's true, what if they were both never dead to begin with, and just stayed hidden for some reason?

He didn't mention this at all, unsure until he heard more evidence.

Now he, Orochimaru and Sergeant Sano were out, Hanaru back at the house with Ren. The three men were at the mining site where his beloved sister's carcass was found - and where Jurou Matsuda supposedly was. In broad daylight with the wheel of the mill turning in clockwise. Kabuto could hardly believe that he never knew of this place's existence! "What do they mine here, Sergeant?" he asked.

"Silver, Doctor. There is a rich vein that runs down here which is worth quite the fortune."

Now, if that were true, then there had to be a rational explanation as to why no one seemed to pay attention to this place, and why it fell into decay the way it did. Ivy creeped up and around, other shrubs without a sign of life paying tribute to a lost, prosperous time - but someone was down beneath these grounds, getting that wheel running.

Orochimaru asked Sano the reason for the state of this site. "Well, there's been a lot of accidents many years ago, Orochimaru. Miners were killed and maimed, and in the end, they wouldn't go down there again, claiming it was bad luck." He managed to crack a grin. "Old bailiff was furious, but he had no choice but to shut it down."

"Has Hashimoto tried to reopen it?" Orochimaru asked, bringing up the man himself. The one who owned this property - the one who had been his brother-in-law, and hadn't yet visited Kabuto for not telling him of his wife's death.

Admittedly, Kabuto had his reasons for not breaking the news to the man, since his suspicions were still in place. If her death took place on these grounds, then he had reason to hold Hideo responsible for now. Maybe he was being too petty.

"Oh, no. He'd need the money for that, and I can't rightly say where he gets it now. He was away when his father died, in foreign parts - somewhere in the Caribbean. Then he was abroad to serve in the civil war where some of our young men have gone."

That's right...he was there, where Itachi died and four of the Oto victims supposedly contracted the disease and brought back here.

So, here was the story as soon as Hideo Hashimoto came home with a new bride, his Manami, in tow: he was left the house, unpaid bills, and then shut himself up without seeing anyone except his wife. And soon after, there were young people about spending money like water.

Kabuto suppressed a grimace at how creepy all of this was. From the way the sergeant was speaking, it was implied that this old mine was haunted, but he was certain that his former brother-in-law had something to do with this, because it wasn't a coincidence in the slightest...