~Chapter Six~

~Tastes like Poison~

The Kyuubi kid was harder to find than Sasori initially thought. He didn't exactly have much information to go by. All he really knew was that he was looking for the fourth Hokage's son, Jiraiya of the sannin's Godchild and that he was in Gaara's year at the academy. Finding people was more Zetsu's forte, not the red head's, so naturally he was finding it difficult. In fact, he was more skilled in poisoning the boy, not locating him.

Sasori decided the best place to begin looking was the library, which he did as soon as Gaara was dropped off at the academy and Deidara and Hana had gone to the Inuzuka residence. Unfortunately, all he could find about the fourth's child was that the nobody knew what had happened to it, and is presumed to have died along with its mother before it could be born. Obviously that was wrong, and he ruled out asking the villagers, since they would all think he was dead.

When Sasori went to pick up Gaara from the academy that afternoon, he scanned the crowd of little children looking out for any blonde haired, blue eyed children that could be related to Minato Namikaze. Luckily, he managed to find two suspects. One of which was a little girl, so she was ruled out immediately. The other, was Naruto.

It surprised him that his next door neighbours could possibly be related to Konoha's yellow flash. However, Sasori doubted they could be. For one, any of the books he read in the library never mentioned that he had two children. In fact, he wasn't married to his wife long enough to be considered Deidara's father without some gossip or scandal coming arise.

Secondly, he subtly quizzed the boys on their parents, just to make sure. Naruto (sadly) claimed never to have known them. Deidara gave a vague description of them, which didn't match the Namikaze's. According to him, they got their looks from their Mother, not their Father, which certainly didn't fit.

Now, Sasori was in a stump. He didn't know where to look or who to ask next. Well, he did have one plan up his sleeve that he really didn't want to resort to. But, then again, desperate times call for desperate measures.

That night, he dropped Gaara off to have a sleepover with Naruto. Deidara wasn't pleased at having to babysit him, but Sasori didn't give him much of a choice. He then headed straight to a certain apartment belonging to a certain ninja. More specifically, Gaara and Naruto's teacher at the academy.

It was midnight when Sasori arrived at his destination, an apartment overlooking the wall surrounding Konoha. It was a dark night, despite the blanket of stars above. The moon was hidden behind one of the few clouds spread out across the sky. It was the perfect night for his mission, as he won't be too easily seen. The puppet master didn't waste any time on getting to the apartment. Sending chakra to the balls of his feet, he ran up the wall and disappeared quickly and silently through the window as he could.

For a ninja, this teacher wasn't very careful. It was a warm night in Konoha, he'd give him that, but leaving the window open was a rookie mistake. Sasori crept along the apartment silently and sidled into the bedroom, staying as close to the wall as possible. His target was asleep on the bed, snoring loudly, like he was expected to be.

Smirking, he tip toed over to his victim, pulling a small vial out of his pocket as he went. Sasori brought a few bottles of poison with him on this mission. He thought they would've come in handy at some point. That time was now. With a 'pop', he pulled the cork out of the mouth of the small bottle and tilted it above the man's head.

The violet liquid poured out of the bottle and into the academy teacher's open mouth. His eyes flung open as he felt warm liquid slide down his throat. He began to choke, but the poison was already swallowed. A cool, pins and needles feeling washed over him. He felt his blood ran cold. His heart beat slowed. Breathing became harder and harder and he felt himself gulping for air.

Within a moment, he was dead.

Sasori emerged from beneath eh bed where he dropped down as soon as his victim awoke. He pressed two fingers against the throat, checking for a pulse. Satisfied that his victim was dead, he hoisted the corpse onto his back and crept over to the window. He set the body onto the window sill and attached chakra strings to him. Quickly checking to make sure no one was watching, he lowered him down to the ground below.

As soon as he was placed down carefully and quietly, Sasori leapt out the window and landed neatly next to the lifeless corpse. Lifting up the body again, he began to make his ways through the backstreets and alleys of Konoha, making his way towards the Hokage tower to begin the second phase of his master plan.

Deidara was… pissed, to say the least. First, Sasori shows up on his doorstep, drops off Gaara and then runs off before the blonde could even ask 'why'. Then, he doesn't even bother to come back to collect the poor kid. They were currently at Ichiraku's having breakfast (It was Naruto's idea as you could probably guess. Deidara really needed to get him to break that habit if he ever wants to eat read food again) and Gaara had barely touched his ramen.

Deidara noticed that Naruto was oblivious to his friend's depressed state. He just continued to chat animatedly, paying more attention to his ramen than anything else. It was hard to understand him while he talked with his mouth full, but he could make out the words 'Hokage' and 'ramen', even the odd 'believe it' so he could make an educated guess what he was talking about.

Gaara didn't seem to care much about the one-sided conversation Naruto was having with him for once. He just stared into the still full bowl, poking the ramen with his chopsticks as he let out the odd sigh. Considering the events of the past day, Deidara was sure the boy was worried about his older brother, most likely wondering where he was and if he was alright. He, on the other hand, really couldn't care less as long as he hurried up and came back and started taking care of Gaara again. It was bad enough he had to unwillingly look after Naruto, never mind another kid on top of that.

Luckily, some deity somewhere put him out of his misery and Sasori strolled into Ichiraku's and sat down next to Gaara as if he hadn't just ditched the boy the previous night without even so much a word why. He waved at the old man behind the counter to bring him a bowl of miso ramen and ruffled Gaara's hair, who perked up with the arrival of the puppet master. Deidara glared at him from the other side of the two academy students.

"Where were you, hmm?"

Sasori glanced over at the younger artist before turning his attention to the newly acquired bowl of ramen. "I went out for a midnight walk and stumbled across a corpse," he began, breaking apart his chopsticks. "The boys' teacher, actually. I brought the body to the Hokage's office and offered to become his temporary replacement until someone more suitable was found to take the permanent position."

That story seemed all too suspicious to Deidara… For one, why would he go on a midnight walk and why wouldn't he take Gaara with him? The boy was an insomniac, he discovered last night. It wasn't like he should be sleeping. Two, it seemed a little too coincidental that he came across his little brother's teacher's dead body on the one night he decided to take a walk. To him, it sounded like Sasori got a little hungry for death and that the academy teacher was the one to satisfy it. Why him of all people, Deidara couldn't figure out. There must have been some vendetta against him, Sasori didn't seem like the type to kill without reason.

Then again, he had been wrong before. Not very often, mind you, but still, he had made a few mistakes…

"You're our teacher now?" Naruto exclaimed through a mouthful of ramen, bright blue eyes sparkling as he swallowed his breakfast. "That's awesome! Believe it! I like you more than the other guy. He kept glaring at me for some reason…" he said, trailing off at the end as he pouted in thought, before grinning at the eldest red head again. "You start today, right?"

Sasori gave him a small nod. "Considering your last teacher is dead, yes."

"But he still could come back as a zombie!" Naruto exclaimed, wiggling his fingers in what he thought to be a threatening manner. Gaara's head whipped around to stare wide eyed at the blonde, who nodded at him. "Yeah! Except instead of teaching us badass techniques, he'll eat our brains and grind our bones to make his bread!"

"I'm sure that last one is done by giants Naruto, not zombies," Sasori said nonchalantly and took another bite of his ramen, ignoring the piercing glare coming from the opposite end of the counter. Even though Sasori was acting normal, Deidara is sure there is something fishy about what he claims to have happened the night before, and he was determined to find out what really happened, and why it did.

After all, there is a suspect for every crime, and Sasori should be on top of the list.

Hiruzen Sarutobi opened the door to Konoha morgue and was instantly hit with the stench of death and blood. He hated having to visit here. The odour was terrible, and he couldn't stand to see residents of his precious village's corpses. It was depressing, seeing how some of them were killed. But, he had to if he ever wanted to get to the bottom of the academy teacher's death.

He was shocked when Sasori stumbled into his office, attempting to carry the larger, limp body. When Sasori told him what happened, he had the corpse sent to the morgue straight away to get analysed, especially since his death was mysterious. The Hokage wondered if it was murder. He didn't know who would want the man dead. A disgruntled parent perhaps?

He didn't know, but he was going to find out.

"S'up Old Man!"

Sarutobi was surprised when he spotted the purple haired woman grin at him from the lab table she was sitting on. "Anko-san?" he asked, eyeing her confused. "What are you doing here? Where's Shiro-san?"

"Shi-kun had to leave for some apparently big emergency out in the forest of death." Anko replied, casually shrugging her shoulders. "Some kid was found dead there and they wanna know what killed him. I wanted to go too but Shi-kun said I had to stay and wait for you." She added, pouting, clearly unimpressed at having to be left behind.

"I see..." Sarutobi replied slowly, still eyeing the girl. She never told him why she was here. Although, quite frankly, he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know. She was Orochimaru's student after all… "Did Shiro-san leave me a note?" he asked, looking around the room in hopes of spotting an envelope or something similar with his name on it.

"Nope," Anko said bluntly, sliding off of the table. "I helped him examine the corpse so I'm supposed to tell ya~!" Sarutobi paused momentarily, before nodding at her and waved for her to explain.

Anko led him to another examination table on the opposite side of the room. There was a body lying on top of it, and he instantly recognized it as the academy teacher's. There was a white sheet covering him from the neck down, which he was glad of. He wasn't entirely sure if he wanted to see him cut up or anything of the like… Anko stood on the far side of the table and poked the corpse in the chest. "He was given some poison that Shi-kun never seen before and he thinks it killed him at around one last night." She explained.

"That's terrible..." Sarutobi muttered.

"Yeah..." Anko said quietly, letting out a sigh. "You think whoever did this would've put more imagination into his murder. Poison is so overdone. I mean, if it was me who was going to kill him then I'd-"

"I'm sure you'd do an excellent job, Anko-san," Sarutobi said quickly, interrupting her before she could finish her sentence. "But does Shiro-san have any idea on who did this?" The culprit was what the Hokage was most interested in. Sure he wanted to know how he died, but it was more important for the safety of the village that the murderer would be caught before another innocent person was killed.

Anko shook her head. "Nuh-uh. There wasn't any fingerprints on the body or a hair or anything." She told him. "He reckons it was an expert in poison at the least. He says he might come across more clues when he examines some of the poison he extracted from the dude's stomach. Shi-kun found it hard to get it though, since most of it was in his bloodstream and is still melting away his insides as we speak but he managed to."

"My word..." he breathed. Never in all his years of being a ninja had he ever heard of a poison that could eat away at the flesh of the body from the inside out. Whoever did this is surely someone who shouldn't be trifled. "I'm electing you and Kakashi Hatake to investigate this further. Inform him immediately."

"Will do!" she nodded, grinning wildly. "Ha ha! This feels like CSI!" she laughed at she walked towards the door. Before she left, she turned around and waved. "Later old man!" she sang, disappearing into the sunlight. Sarutobi kept his eyes firmly placed on the body and sighed.

"Goodbye Anko-san. And good luck."

A/n:

This is a little short but I wanted to get this posted. Sorry for taking so long! D: I've just over a week left of summer, after that updates will be few and far in between. But I'll try and post as fast I can! I'll make sure you get one chapter a month at least. .

I don't think I have much to say about this chapter. The first section with Sasori was the first time I wrote someone dying. I hope I did a good enough job with that. D; And you've got to love Anko. And I apologise for all the KakaXAnko I keep throwing at you guys. I can't help it. xD

Anyway, thanks for all the feedback as usual! I love you guys~ x3