Twenty three: who did it?
Sunsets are beautiful and pure best enjoyed on your back with the one you love. Sagat was planning to spend the sunset with Tsunade and hoped that she would make it in time, but Shizune had taken the day off to spend time with Ayame, the couple were still holding strong despite outbursts from some members of the village. Keiji had helped quieted them down at the request of Anko, but the two were busy taking care of their children. It had been a year since they were born and the two seemed to be doing well. Gaara was named the godfather of the girl and Kakashi was the god father of the boy. Keiji seemed to be doing well as a father especially since he never grew up with one, but he worked hard to make being a father his whole life. Sagat was wondering about himself after learning that Tsunade could and was carrying his child. Apparently her youth wasn't the only thing working for her as her child birthing years were still ongoing and would probably always be happening, but he was glad that he would get a chance to be a father and they would always be immortal, as long as they weren't stabbed or murdered. His jutsu and his blood guaranteed that.
He had just set the blanket down for her to lie on and rest after signing all those papers, but there was also another reason why he wanted to lie on the blanket. Sunsets always put her into a mood and when she got in that mood they would always end up riding each other on the hard wood floor. He felt lucky that she thought of him as a lover and not as the murderer of Dan, it was the one thing he was afraid of when he admitted what he did to her.
"The rain drops keep falling on my head," sang Sagat just before he heard footsteps. "Hey baby what's up."
He turned to look up, but saw someone else, someone he didn't expect to see. He just waved his hand for her to join him before Tsunade showed up. Then he saw what was in her hand, glistening in the sun light.
"So I guess you know," said Sagat. "Well if it helps, I'm sorry."
Tsunade was rushing to get to the mountain top before sunset where Sagat was waiting for her with a bottle of sake hopefully. She could use a drink to help her calm herself from all the work she had to do setting up papers for everything in the village. She never remembered having to do paper work for things as mundane as trying to cover a sports festival for the genin. She decided to put Naruto in charge so she didn't have to deal with that crap. It was that kind of stuff that made her wish that she hadn't become the Godaime Hokage.
As she reached the top of the hill she saw Sagat already lying on the blanket waiting for her, but something about him just seemed wrong. He was lying in an uncomfortable manner that one wouldn't lie in. She moved a bit closer telling him how sorry she was that she was late and how she had to sort crap out at the office and would like to thank him for waiting for her. As soon as she got close enough, she saw that there was something red on his mouth. Her first reaction was ketchup thinking that he had eaten without her, but as she got closer she could see that he was bleeding.
Sagat," she screamed as she rushed to him and immediately started applying chakra to stop the bleeding. "Come on Sagat please don't die now, please stay withme."
Ts..na..de," said Sagat as he looked into her yes. His eyes were hazy and looked like he was about to pass into the next life.
"Don't talk," she said. "Conserve your strength and live. Please you have to live, I can't be happy if you die."
Sagat held his hand up to her cheek and then passed out from blood loss. Tsunade put her hand to his neck to check for a pulse and was rewarded by a faint pulse. She screamed for someone to get help while she closed his wounds up and tried to massage his heart rate back to normal. The guards ran to her trying to pull her apart from Sagat so they could get him to a hospital, but she refused to leave his side. Tears were falling down from her eyes like rain drops, but those rain drops were shared by someone else, the person who stabbed Sagat.
"Okay here is the deal," said Genma talking to the little kids. It was career day at the academy and two ninja from each occupational slot were sent in to talk to the students. "I have a hangover.Now can anyone tell me what that mean? Yes Yahiko?"
"Doesn't that mean that you're drunk," said Yahiko.
"Wrong, mean I was drunk yesterday," said Genma with a smile. "Yes little kid who I don't know?"
"It means you're an alcoholic," said the little boy.
"Wrong again," said Genma.
"You wouldn't come to work unless you were and alcoholic," said the little boy. "Why else would you be here if you didn't have a disease?"
"Okay little boy who I don't know, shut up," said Genma. "The reason I'm here drunk is because I lost a friend yesterday. He died because he made a mistake. That cemetery is where they're going to bury you mistakes is that clear?"
All the kids nodded their heads, not wanting to admit that some of them couldn't grasp the aspect of loosing someone so dear to them. Shino and Kiba both looked at Genma, knowing that even though what he did was extreme, but necessary. These kids must be ready to lose a friend when they become genin. It was at that time when a messenger arrived asking for the two shinobi to meet the Hokage in her office immediately. The accent was on the immediate part.
"Yes Hokage-sama," asked Shino as he looked at her quizzically. "You wanted to see us about something."
"Yesterday, Sagat was attacked by someone as you know," said Tsunade. "I would like you both to help Naruto track the assassin and protect Sagat from further attempts."
"Yes Hokage-sama," said Shino. Explains the pained look in her eyes.
"You can count on us," replied Kiba with his trademark grin.
The two left the office and decided to find Naruto to see what he had gotten. The first stop was to see Naruto's house, but only Hinata was there. She pointed them towards the crime scene and Shino felt a sort of admiration for Naruto's seriousness in the case. They found him analyzing the scent of the attacker since the kyuubi nose can pick out anything.
"Found anything yet," asked Shino.
"No the attacker used the scents of others," said Naruto. He scratched one of his fox ears (he now walks around in the fox-humanoid form). "They used the scent of Shizune and Ayame it seems, but the reason why those two seems unknown. I don't know of any reason why either of them would want to kill Sagat, especially since he made Tsunade happy."
"Well it would seem that we need to search into his past to find out anything about him," said Shino.
"Well then I'll leave that to you two since that's not my area of expertise," said Kiba. "I'll just go look after Sagat and see what the security is like."
Shino nodded and turned to face Naruto. He asked, "Have you asked Keiji about the background history of Sagat?"
"Yes and it brought up one incident in which he stopped an assassination attempt on Tsunade at the funeral for her first lover Dan," said Naruto. "I found it odd that a mercenary would risk his life like that so I wondered if he had felt it was atonement for something."
"Atonement for what," asked Shino.
"I asked to have a look at the wounds left on the would-be assassin and another setoff wounds," said Naruto. "I should be getting over top the morgue soon to check the records."
"I'll go with you," said Shino. The two walked towards the village and the trail of the criminal.
Kiba decided to change the guards on duty for ones who weren't sleepy. In the rush to get the best protection for Sagat, Tsunade absent mindedly chose guards that had had at least two shifts already. It didn't help to have tired guards on duty so he found fresher ones. It was when he went to check on the guards that he found them nodding off a bit. Then he yawned and realized that someone had placed something in the vents. But who could get that close, asked Kiba. He then collapsed on the floor like the guards and the assailant walked right past them into Sagat's room. The assailant then raised the katana that was in their hand and stabbed down with all its strength. There was no blood because there was no Sagat, only a mannequin that looked Sagat.
"Ayame I presume," said Naruto from behind. "I know it couldn't be Shizune."
The assailant took off her mask to reveal that she was indeed Ayame.
"How did you know," asked Ayame. "How did you know it was me and not Shizune."
"Oh it was you now," said Shino stepping out from the darkness. "But Shizune was the one who tried to stab him in vengeance for her slain uncle, Dan."
"Is that why she tried to kill him," asked Ayame.
"So you knew she had tried to kill him, but not why," asked Naruto.
"When I came to our apartment yesterday I saw the knife with the blood still on it," said Ayame. "Then I heard Shizune crying because she failed it and I heard about Sagat. If he was the reason she was in so much pain than I would gladly give up my life to kill him."
"But you mustn't," said a voice from the doorway. It was Shizune with tears in he eyes. "I tried to kill him, but it seemed like he was just happy to die if my pain would end. I couldn't take his life. It wasn't my uncle's killer, it was someone else. I knew he was my uncle's killer long before, but he never knew. When I told him I was a lesbian, I never admitted to going out with him to get close to him. I could have killed him if he wasn't so kind, but I'm glad I didn't. Then Tsunade-sama would have no one to love her like he does. Please over look Ayame's crimes, I beg of you."
"No Shizune," said Ayame. "I love you and I am ready to face our punishment together."
"Actually at the request of Sagat, no charges have been filed," said Shino as he left the room.
"Is this true," asked Shizune and Ayame.
"Yes you two are free to go and apologize to Sagat," said Naruto as he followed Shino.
"Well are you sure we shouldn't have told them," said Naruto holding up Shizune's lipstick.
"I think the whole matter should be kept underwraps," said Tsunade. "I don't even think we should inform Keiji of the presence of the mysterious ninja in the village. You are sure that this is the one who attacked you two?"
"Yes I'm positive about that," said Naruto. "But I don't know why he'd go after Sagat, he never met the guy. His fight was with Keiji, but I can tell that he wants to fight me."
"Maybe he's going after Keiji's friends another reason why we can't let Keiji know about this."
"I just pray we don't have this problem again," said Naruto. "If he can create a lipstick that can make someone violent then we might be dealing with a dangerous foe."
"It doesn't do turn them violent," said Tsunade. "It just takes away all fear so that they can do what they want. It was used a long time ago, but it also inspired rebellions so the idea was scrapped."
"Well I guess we have to keep our eyes open then don't we," said Naruto. He looked out the window to his compound where Hinata was waiting. He wondered if this would ever happen to him, but he stopped not liking the idea. "Well I better head home."