AN: A big thank you to those who favorited or followed my first chapter. Another thank you to Skyfishin for the pairing suggestion. Honestly I wasn't sure of a pairing for this story yet due to figuring out how to pull Naruto out of his shell, but I feel like Naomi Misora has an attitude that Naruto would appreciate. To be clear on Naruto's attitude for this story, I plan to keep him as in character as possible. He will generally be the same old Naruto, just emotionally distant from other people. Here's the next chapter of Death vs Maelstrom. All future chapters will probably be quite a bit longer than the pilot. The next update will probably be in about a week.
"Speech"
"Thoughts"
"Speech through voice filter"
Chapter 2: Confrontation
As a pair of crimson eyes opened to the screeching of an alarm clock the owner couldn't help but grumble. Naruto Uzumaki was NOT a morning person. As he stumbled into the bathroom and started his shower he went over his plans for the day. He had to go get his degree in law enforcement forged and updated to his new identity, forge school records and employment records, and brainwash some people into thinking they taught him and worked with him. Kotoamatsukami really sucked to use, it always gave him a migraine.
As he let the hot water cascade over his body he stared at his palms, the sun on his right hand and the crescent moon on his left. With Indra's soul bound to him the cycle of reincarnation had ended for the sages sons and with it the cycle of hatred that plagued the shinobi world. As he snapped out of his memories he quickly scrubbed off and got out of the shower. As he brushed his teeth he began to wonder how Kira could kill so easily. He knew it couldn't be a jutsu, the shinobi world was scattered and forgotten when the Elemental nations were claimed by the sea. As it turned out Atlantis wasn't as much of a myth as people thought it was, they just got the name wrong.
After he finished his morning rituals, he walked back into his bedroom and threw on a pair of black slacks and an orange dress shirt. After fixing a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast he slipped on his shoes and activated the henge that kept his eyes blue and walked out the door. As he rode the elevator down it stopped on the thirteenth floor and a man wearing a black overcoat and a suit stepped in. Naruto glanced down and noticed the little orange book peeking out of his bag and smirked. "Damn those books make me a lot of money." He thought to himself as the elevator began descending again.
-Break-
As he re-entered the building after completing his days tasks, he grimaced and rubbed his very sore head. He had received no less than ten emails from his editor bugging him to send in his rough draft. He knew if he put it off any longer he would have to start ignoring phone calls as well. He hurried up to his apartment and emailed the draft to his editor. After he fixed a sandwich for lunch he sat back down and began checking his papers. After checking, verifying, and rechecking his papers he was satisfied that all of his information checked out and he could approach the NPA and work towards bringing down Kira.
His identity was especially difficult, and expensive, to create this time. His application and information would likely be run through the ringer by high level government officials and probably even by L himself. His identity had to be airtight if he wanted to avoid drawing L's suspicions on himself. He'd run by the NPA's office tomorrow to finalize his "transfer" from Gunma and hopefully not get arrested. It's a shame he needed the police to find Kira, otherwise he'd probably just kill him himself.
He went to sleep that night knowing the next day would test his patience with humanity.
-Break-
Naruto woke up feeling better than the day before and after showering and getting dressed, he felt refreshed and ready to get to work. Too bad he couldn't wear any orange on his suit. Damn stuffy government agencies and their obsession with black. It frustrated him immensely to be so creatively restricted. He wore orange boxers just to spite the bastards. He quickly left his apartment and after a boring elevator ride down was on his way.
As Naruto was making his way to the NPA's main building he couldn't help but think back to the last time he had played the role of a detective. He had solved a serial murder case that lead to arrest and hanging of a Dr. Henry Howard Holmes. The bastard was sick and he was glad he had taken him off the streets. His thoughts on the H. H. Holmes case came to an end when he stepped into the NPA building and walked up to the reception desk. "Excuse me sir, is Deputy Director Kitamura in?"
The receptionist glanced up and asked, "What is your name and reason for visiting?"
Naruto flashed his forged badge before speaking "Uzumaki Naruto, transfer from the Gunma office, I'm here to assist with the Kira investigation." Hopefully they wouldn't dig too hard into his records or they would notice that he had never actually been paid anything. It would take days if not weeks to puzzle that fact out though, and by then he could already have a lead to Kira.
The receptionist picked up the phone and called ahead before telling him to head to Kitamura's office. After a short chat with Deputy Director Kitamura he made his way to the Task Force Headquarters Serial Murder office. He saw a man with slicked back black hair and a mustache at the head of the room talking to another man with an afro. "Thank you Aizawa, let me know as soon as you have more information."
The man now known as Aizawa nodded before replying, "Yes Chief." and moving back to his seat.
"Ah Chief Yagami, my new boss. I should go introduce myself. Hmm? Who's that creepy guy with the computer at the back of the room?" His eyes lingered on L's motif on the screen. "Ahh, so that's how L is staying in contact with the police." Naruto thought to himself as he approached Chief Yagami. "Chief Yagami a pleasure to meet you, I am the transfer from the Gunma Prefecture sent here to assist in the Kira investigation." He said before bowing slightly.
Chief Yagami turned to look at him before replying, "Ahh, Uzumaki-san I've been expecting you. You can take the seat next to Matsuda." A young looking man with black hair waved at Naruto from his seat while smiling like a loon.
"Great," Naruto thought morosely, "This guy reminds me of myself when I was young, and if he is anything like me I'll be contemplating shooting myself by the end of the week. Not that it would do any good." He sighed as he turned back to Chief Yagami. "What should I be working on for now, sir?"
"At the moment we are investigating the availability of the information of the victims and the times of death for all victims and compiling a time frame for the killings. Just take some of Matsuda's files for now." The Chief quickly went back to looking through his own stack of papers before Naruto could protest the grave injustice of being forced to work with the innocent and probably annoying rookie.
As he sat down next to Matsuda he could practically see the boy vibrating in his seat. Before he he could even grab a file, the questions came spilling out of Matsuda's mouth. "Wow, so you're a transfer from Gunma, what's it like there? Is that your natural hair color? How do you get it to spike like that? What about those marks on your cheeks? Wow, you look kinda like a manga character!What about..."
Naruto sighed and proceeded to ignore the chatterbox as best as he could, answering as few questions as possible, with as few words as possible. His patience with humanity was being tested. His focus immediately went to the case however when he began sorting through the criminals files and recording the times of death. Matsuda didn't seem to notice that he wasn't really paying attention anymore and rattled on for another five minutes before finally shutting up and working. He began carefully memorizing and sorting this information in his mind so he could search for patterns later.
-L POV-
L listened to Aizawa give a report to Chief Yagami about a few people who called in claiming to be Kira. Preposterous, as if the real Kira would confess to his crimes. He obviously believed himself not only above the law, but a paradigm of justice as well. His attention was quickly drawn do a man with blonde hair, blue eyes, and strange whisker marks on his cheeks. L didn't miss the way the man's eyes quickly scanned the room, or the way they lingered for just a split second longer on Watari and the computer. The man was fairly tall, he would approximate, at 5'10", and tan. Suspicious. He watched as he introduced himself as a transfer from Gunma Prefecture. His name was clearly Japanese and spoke the language flawlessly and without a foreign accent, yet he looked very much like a foreigner. He watched him sit down next to Matsuda, and as the rookie began to ask questions in rapid fire at the man, he couldn't help but feel a momentary pang of pity for the poor blonde.
His pity was soon swept aside for suspicion as he studied the man closely. He pulled up the blonde's file and began to read. "Why did he wait until now to transfer? Why didn't he do it as soon as the investigation into Kira became official? It must have been the broadcast. That's the only significant event which corresponds to his request for transfer which came in the very next day. Maybe he was impressed by my skill and felt compelled to join the investigation? Unlikely. He walked into Headquarters like he owned the place. His posture shows he isn't nervous or even tense. He just looks bored, and irritated. I would be too if I had to sit next to Matsuda."
As he skimmed over his file he decided a full background check was in order.
-Naruto POV-
The next few days were extremely trying for Naruto as he sifted through information and ignored Matsuda's rambling. He felt something tickling the back of his mind as he glanced over his list one more time. Then something hit him he handed his notes on the victims times of death to the man in charge of organizing them, someone called Tamaki if he remembered correctly. "Hey, your name is Tamaki right?" At the mans nod he continued, "Can I take a look at those notes?"
Tamaki handed him the notes he had collected with a confused look on his face. "Sure but why do you want to see them?" the man asked.
"Nothing to worry about Tamaki I just want to check something." He began scanning through the notes ignoring the section detailing calls and tips and checked the section examining the availability of the knowledge. His eyes widened fractionally and his posture slightly stiffened. "Shit, I really hope my hunch is wrong." He thought as he handed the notes back to Tamaki and gave him his own as well. "I mean. Needing only a name and face to kill someone, that's absurd!"
"No more absurd than a tiny, blonde, human-sized being able to single handedly knock humanity back to the stone age." His brain helpfully supplied. Kira's victims all had their names and photographs broadcast on T.V. While this wasn't conclusive in and of itself, a man who Kira killed had his information broadcast on T.V., followed by another man whose name was misspelled. The second man whose crime was worse wasn't killed until the News station ran another story on him the next day, in which they apologized for spelling his name incorrectly and ran a story with more information on his trial. He remembered watching that one on T'.V. The criminal was killed within minutes of the broadcast being he made his way back to his seat, there was no way for him to know that L was watching his interaction with Tamaki.
-L POV-
L watched as the task force assembled their processed information. He especially watched Naruto. What he had found in the last couple of days was disturbing. Or rather, it was what he hadn't found that bothered him. All of his records checked out. A few bits here and there were missing but that was to be expected. No, what bothered him was that he couldn't find a single picture of the man anywhere other than on his official papers. He was a ghost. Another inconsistency was that the Gunma Headquarters insisted he was at work last week. Yet he had discovered that the blonde had just flown back into the country a few days ago from the U.K. When he tried to check the airports surveillance footage of that day, he found that all video footage and pictures he was in that day had been erased. Suspicious.
"If it weren't for the fact that the man had been out of the country at the time Kira started killing, I would suspect him of being Kira. As it stands he still may be an accomplice. I need to keep a close eye one him. No one normal can pull the kinds of strings he pulls, I should know I pull those same strings all the time." He pondered as he watched the blonde walk over to Tamaki He thought it odd that he asked to see the notes Tamaki was compiling. When the blonde suddenly stiffened and his eyes widened, he didn't miss it. He had noticed something, but what? What would he notice in those notes. "What did he notice in those notes? I'll have a copy of them sent over after the meeting tonight is concluded."
L watched as the blonde handed the notes back to Tamaki before sitting back down next to Matsuda, pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing. He would watch him carefully in the meeting as well.
-Naruto POV-
As he sat back down he felt exhausted. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. This was why he stopped detective work after the H. H. Holmes case, it was too damn tiring. As the minutes passed by Chief Yagami called the meeting to order starting with the tip line report. As the man named Mogi mentioned that twenty-one people called in claiming to be Kira the negative emotions in the room spiked. As Tamaki read off the time frames for the murders no one but L noticed Naruto stiffen again as he correctly deduced that Kira was likely a student. As L voiced Naruto's previous thoughts on Kira's identity he couldn't help but sigh.
When Matsuda opened his mouth and mentioned the decrease in violent crime, Naruto, again, had to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Yeah sure it'll all be good for a while. But eventually the people will fear Kira and that will eventually lead to panic and possibly yet more violence. Seriously when will people learn that ruling by fear never works!"
"Chief Yagami, please have a copy of all the notes taken tonight sent with Watari." L's mechanical voice said before the meeting was dismissed. Naruto was one of the last to pack up. As he stepped out into the night air he heard L's filtered voice from his left. He looked over and saw a black car with the back door being held open by Watari. What L said made his stomach bottom out as unease filled him. "Uzumaki-san, please allow Watari to drive you home. In the meantime, I think we need to have a little chat."
"Well shit." Naruto thought.
AN: That wraps up chapter two. I doubt the next update will be as fast as this one but I already had this partially typed up and the free time to finish it. From this point onwards things are going to be getting more intense as Naruto has to avoid L's suspicions and deal with the deaths of the FBI agents sent to Japan. Thanks for reading please rate and review! Flames will be ignored.