After spending a long day in the office going over both cases, Shisui kicked his younger relative out and under the pretenses that they both needed to get some drinks in their system. They had gone into a nearby hotel restaurant and situated themselves by the bar. It was a slow day.
"Don't forget, my sister's coming over in five days," his cousin reminded, "here are the opera tickets," he handed him a white envelope, "be good to her…you know what a huge crush she has on you."
Itachi placed it inside his jacket and was about to respond when Shisui's phone rang. The older male flipped it open.
"Hello, sweet and sexy speaking."
"Shit, for real?"
"Itachi and I will be right there, love you, babe," he said hanging up and turned his attention to Itachi, "six bodies found in the panels of the greenhouse."
"Let's go," Itachi replied getting up.
"Fuck, the bartender hasn't brought my –,"
"Now," Itachi growled as he left money for their ordered drinks. Shisui cursed under his breath as he followed the lawyer out of the hotel bar.
.
…
.
Well into the night, Itachi was with inside the greenhouse of his suspects. Police lights were flashing all over and the street cops had just finished putting the yellow tape around the perimeter. Itachi went to flash his badge but paused – reminded that he wasn't a detective. Shisui showed his I.D and they were permitted to speak with the M.E and go over the preliminary findings. So far it was 6 bodies, all girls, and all had been beat with a blunt object in the head. That was as much as he could tell them
"We will run D.N.A, but it might take a month…maybe more," the M.E said taking off his gloves.
"What? Why?" Iruka asked trying to stifle a yawn.
"There was a building explosion a few hours ago in the outskirts of town – all living bodies were sent to Konoha hospital. Both our forensic departments are swamped with hundreds of samples since they say it might have been a terrorist attack. Everyone is under federal watch. I can get you your results in a three weeks possibly, maybe more."
"I can get the judge to move the court date," Itachi replied, glancing at the rotten skeletons which were being photographed.
"We don't have enough on them to keep them held up in their cell for that long!" Anko shouted, completely frustrated. She never liked letting a bad guy walk lose.
Itachi gritted his teeth as he walked off to the side and flipped his phone and pressed his number nine speed dial.
"Hello?" A soft female voice whispered.
"I need you to run some forensic work for me."
"Itachi, I can't I'm –," – "Hey! No cell phones allowed!" A male voice in the background yelled, "Who are you talking to?"
"It's a friend, just needed –," Itachi heard her try to respond before the phone was snatched away.
"Hello? Who is this?" A man who had obviously believed that he was in charge.
"Itachi Uchiha," Itachi replied, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice.
"I don't care who you are, do not call this number again unless you want to be a prime suspect," The angry man hung up.
"Fuck," Itachi breathed out as he snapped his phone. When it came to terrorism – federal agents were assholes and would probably twirl him around in so much red tape he'd want to find a new profession. If only the idiots could prevent the shit from happening rather than clean it up.
"I told you," the ME said shaking his head from side to side as his assistant came around to give him something to sign.
"What now?" Anko asked with knotted brows.
"I am going to regret this," Itachi muttered so lowly that only Shisui caught the words that he said. There was only one person who the feds would not touch.
He called Shikamaru.
"It-aaa-chhhi," the young hacker picked up on the other line, "do…do you know the time?"
"Redirect my call to Sakura Haruno's cell phone."
"Wha? What? Why?" Shikamaru sighed, "no…don't tell me. I don't care. Ugh, how troublesome."
Less than a minute later, the other line was ringing.
"Hello?" A familiar female voice picked up.
"Are you busy?"
"There was an explosion, ton of patients in the ER who need bandaging up and – wait who is this?"
"You have knowledge on forensics, correct?"
"Oh my god, Itachi? How the hell did you get this number?"
"There are six dead girls, all under the age of ten – the Konoha detective branch needs D.N.A proof to convict two suspects."
Silence met his demand. He could hear the hospital intercom in the background.
"And why are you calling me if this is a police matter?"
"The detective is a friend," Itachi fiddled with the truth. "Will you?" He was getting more annoyed by the second.
"Bring me all the samples the medical examiner provided," she replied with a clenched jaw.
.
…
.
Anko and Shisui had gone home after the M.E had finished his work at the scene and provided all substance materials to be given to their specialist.
5 hours later, Iruka and Itachi watched Sakura work through various test tubes and with different machines that neither understood. She would randomly mutter to herself different things that made no sense to the detective and lawyer.
"Okay, you see that, over there," she pointed at the plasma screen on the right.
"Yes," Iruka said nodding.
"That's pubic hair of a mature male. Running it through the system, now. The M.E's report says there was evidence of forced entry but they were unable to recover any sperm samples. So this is as good as it gets. Now the other samples you gave me…they don't match anyone in the system. No finger prints either. Their bone mass is significantly less than the average child in the metropolitan area."
Sakura moved to the side and walked towards her microscope to replace the slides.
"What does that mean?" Iruka asked as Itachi remained silent. Had it not been for the girl getting mixed up in his living quarters he might have had some respect for her.
"It means that they were farm-born, probably…or born in a third-world country and smuggled here," Sakura replied, "but…look at the other screen." She pressed a button on her remote.
They turned to see two strange patterns side by side.
"That is the D.N.A pattern of the male and female suspect you have in custody, now check this out…" she moved to her computer and began to type in certain commands.
"Five of the suspects have half and half their D.N.A," Sakura said as the plasma screen changed to show five of the suspects D.N.A in comparison to their parents.
"Are you saying that all five of those are their children?" Itachi finally asked to clarify his conclusion.
"Exactly, but the fifth one, she's been dead the longest…M.E estimated ten years, and I'm running the finger print imprints left on her gloves in our passport system. But if I had to guess, the girl is the female suspect's sister, or half sister."
"Every time we work with our forensics department it takes them days to get a quarter of this much," Iruka complimented the pink haired doctor.
Sakura flashed him a smile, "I have top of the line equipment, and I'm used to having to get information quickly," and then returned to her serious demeanor as she turned back to the evidence, "okay, now some partial finger prints were lifted – I have to play jigsaw puzzle with them to see if they match your suspects."
"I'm convinced we have the bad guys in custody," Iruka said, "What I don't understand is the motive to it."
Itachi didn't respond and Sakura was concentrating on running various systems through her computer to give them her absolute attention. After an hour of more forensic work, everything pointed at Valintina and her husband. When Sakura was signing off on the evidence release forms, Kabuto entered her lab.
"Good morning Sakura, company?"
"Oh, yes," Sakura said looking up with a greeting smile, "Iruka is a criminal detective and he asked me to look into a case."
Itachi narrowed his eyes at her and she ignored him. As far as Sakura was concerned Itachi had nothing to do with the case but only there to overlook to make sure that she didn't butcher it in revenge.
"You sure you should be mixing your jobs like this?" Kabuto asked as he glanced around her lab, noting that the screens were showing D.N.A. graphs.
"It's not a problem," Sakura said handing Iruka the paper work for him to sign as well.
"I'd hate to think that you've placed your initial job on the back burner," Kabuto continued.
Sakura's tone dropped threateningly, "I do believe my contract gives me ample time to work on whatever tickles my fancy."
Itachi crossed his arms as he observed their interaction. He liked the Kabuto fellow for apparently pushing her buttons, though he did not like the buttons he was pushing.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be insulting," Kabuto said, with no hint of sincerity, "we are very grateful for your prescience."
"Mmmm," Sakura replied under her breathe as she smiled at Iruka, "let me know if you need me to come to court…now if you'll excuse me, I have to get ready for my weekly rounds with the interns so please kindly get the hell out of my office before I contaminate it with deadly airborne pathogens that only effect the male species," she finished off with a big sweet smile as the sliding glass door swooshed open and she waited for everyone to leave.
When she heard the hospital elevator door open and close, she let out a monstrous yawn.
"God…damnit," she muttered as she grabbed her copy of the detective's report and walked to her file cabinet to place it in its appropriate slot. She kept records of everything anyone asked her to do. "Two hours with interns and tumor removal on a five year old…" She whispered.
She turned around and walked towards the steel fridge in the back of the room, "legalities, semantics, meh," she continued to mutter halfheartedly as she pressed the bright red decompression button and a fifteen-number code on the side of the device where the keypad was situated. A loud slush sound echoed in her lab as the door cracked slightly and ice cold steam escaped from the cracks. Sakura opened it and reached through the fog to grab a large syringe whose needle was almost two inches long. She kicked the door closed with her leg and elbowed the decompression button to secure its lock.
She took off her lab coat, lifted the sleeve of shirt, and gave herself the shot that she had developed for the U.S marines two years ago. It was only to be used on special ops missions, but hey, her job was close enough.
It caused severe insomnia and released a constant dose of adrenaline for ninety-two hours, which made it perfect for those covert and dangerous missions out in the desert and for long days. Of course like most drugs, it had a few side effects.
At least she countered that whole heart stopping thing already so death wasn't possible except in cases of extreme overdose. She cringed as the icy-blue liquid disappeared from the vile and into her body, her temperature would drop and her heart rate would slow to a steady 40 beats per minute. Most importantly, it kept the fatigue at bay, the last thing she needed was not being at her optimal level during a surgery, plus with Kabuto's rude comment echoing in the back of her head – she had to find some sort of breakthrough in her research before her serum wore off. She was not going to let him report her to the Board for slacking.
.
…
.
Itachi was busy working on the upcoming case for the next few days and didn't care much for Sakura's existence. She provided him with proof he needed and Judge Pein had set up the hearing for the upcoming Monday. He was going to be going up against some big hot shot from Washington, and was busy building his opponents case.
The reason Itachi never lost, was because he was his own devil's advocate. He worked to the best of his ability building a solid case against himself, and then he'd take a hammer and smash it to pieces. He'd made more than his fair share of criminal defendants damn him to hell.
He was good like that.
.
…
.
Sakura could feel her palms begin to sweat, her special serum effects were wearing off and she would be unconscious in less than seven hours. She had been working none stop, and often kicking out everyone who came into her lab to 'check up on her'.
Damn them all to hell.
And damn Itachi again too.
Because Itachi always deserved an extra damning as far as she was concerned.
She had to find a cure or a way to resist the multiplication of cancer cells because she was not going to let anyone think that she was inadequate at her job or didn't deserve her position. She had to find something….
She had to.
Usually, left to her own devices, she would recreate the virus from scratch and then figure out how to tear it apart and leave it impotent. Problem was, apparently it was unethical.
That's why she preferred to work in foreign countries, their idea of unethical only occurred when there was no product to show after grant money ran out. That was unethical and an injustice to all citizens of the world.
She recalled, when she was working on a strain of plague virus, the Russian government offered her death row test subjects.
She hated experimenting with humans during the early stages of research, but when she was left alone with a man chained to the wall who had kidnapped; raped, tortured, and left for dead over twenty disabled women…nothing could stop her from taking slight pleasure in using him as a guinea pig.
There were a few cases where she had injected the human lab-rats with lethal injection because she could not bear the psychological trauma they induced on her. It was the downside of knowing fifteen languages; she understood every word of their description of their horrible acts and what they'd like to do to her and had done to others. They always wanted to rile her up – to get her to expose her emotions to them. She would much rather kill them than let them see her be affected by their words.
Sakura shivered involuntarily, the A/C in the lab was chilling her uncomfortably. She looked up at the T.V screen on the right as she wiped the sweat off her forehead with her forearm.
"Work harder, damnit," she muttered to herself as she changed slides on the microscope, "come on."
.
…
.
"Damn, Itachi, that was brutal, you sent that man crying home," Shisui congratulated Itachi as they made their way down the courthouse stairs.
"Good," the younger replied as he avoided the reporters who were currently attacking his opponent and his lawyer with a fever of questions he didn't want to be a part of.
"You look like hell, man, let's go celebrate."
"I have another case going to trail tomorrow morning, I have to get back to the office."
"Jeez, seriously – you're already like a hero in the legal world, what are you trying to become a God now?"
Itachi replied with a glare.
"Okay, okay, chill. So how's the pink haired cutie? Iruka told me she's even hotter than the pictures showed."
"Really?" he deadpanned.
"Well obviously not, but he used all those proper English-man adjectives that only means if he was a sleazebag he woulda tapped that."
"He's Korean."
"Korean, English…who cares."
"God, how the hell do you win your cases?" Itachi asked sarcastically.
"It's my good looks and charm; the constitution bends in my favor."
"Sometimes I doubt your father is your biological parent," Itachi said in a cheek in tongue manner.
"Meh, old geezer thinks he's all high and mighty to be on the Supreme Court – I could do his job in my sleep. You wouldn't believe what –"
His phone rang. Shisui picked it up.
"Shisui, super sexy lawyer who always saves the day and rescues the lady while kicking bad guy ass….hey Anko…yes, be right over," he hung up, "Looks like a rain check. I need to go to the precinct to be briefed and they need a search warrant on suspect involved in international smuggling," he told Itachi and before his younger cousin could ask if he needed help Shisui gracefully declined, "I'll take care of it, you go finish your courty stuff and get some rest. Let me know if you need any help."
"Mmm," Itachi nodded as Shisui raised his fist, and more of a habit than actually courtesy, he fisted him back.
His cousin was never going to act his age and sometimes Itachi was forced to stoop to his level.
.
…
.
When he got back to his apartment, which had been fully furnished by the most expensive black and white Italian leather known to mankind, he half expected Sakura's stuff to be completely gone. After all, she hadn't made an appearance for almost 4 days, and even though he, himself, was very overworked, it was nice to feel "at home" again.
Of course the stupid pink haired girl could never let anything go right.
After a quick microwave meal and shower, he forfeited doing his paperwork until tomorrow and made his way into his bedroom.
There he discovered the vain of his existence taking up the entire bed with her outstretched limbs. Itachi was fully capable of grabbing her and tossing her on the floor and was about to do so until he got closer.
It was the moonlight's fault.
The glass ceiling allowed the natural light to shine in giving her hair a skin a beautiful glow and her face looked divinely peaceful. His mother and nanny's had taught him to always be chivalrous and proper to ladies, especially when they were in a defensive position. He cursed them both under his breath. He just couldn't attack her now…even for the damn bed.
Itachi being more Itachi than a hormonal male became so disgusted with his thoughts that he stormed out of his bedroom and went into the living room angrily. Muttering a long line of curses and insults to every deity he could think of from Greek to Japanese, he turned on the brand new flat screen T.V and flipped to through the channels till he came to one that was showing an old James Bond rerun.
He laid sideways on the ten thousand dollar couch and watched the movie, ignoring the fact that he wasn't able by his moral standards, to kick her out of the bed when she was asleep like that.
.
…
.
Itachi had woken in the middle of the night, not due to the T.V, or his internal clock telling him it was time to get up, but by the most annoying ring known to mankind.
Rising up from the couch and trying to orientate himself in his sleepy daze he followed the sound of the techno music, only to come into his bedroom where the stupid wretch slept. In his bed.
She didn't even stir from the ear piercing ringing of her phone. Itachi snatched up her navy messanger bag which was at the foot of the bed and when he reached inside the ringing stopped.
Then it started again.
He grabbed her phone, saw RESTRICTED as the ID, dropped the bag down, and then walked towards the master bathroom and tossed the phone into the toilet. The phone fell to the bottom, the ringing continued for two more seconds before fizzling out.
With another fleeting look at her body, he couldn't imagine a corpse being able to sleep through such an annoying loud ring. The only reassurance he had that she wasn't actually dead was that she was still breathing. God knows; if she turned up dead – he'd be the primary suspect.
.
…
.
Eventually 5 A.M rolled around, and Itachi folded his laptop closed – after Sakura's cellular disturbance, he was unable to go to sleep.
He quickly changed into his workout clothes and went downstairs to the second floor gym. After a ten minute warm up on the bicycle, he went over to the treadmill and turned on the T.V that was directly above the machine.
Getting onto his favorite news station he began his 5 mile run of the day.
"The Senator refused to comment on the alleged bribery by the suspect of the Cohen scandal," a male anchorman with black sleek hair and impossibly bright blue eyes dictated from a prewritten script.
"Spectators believe th –," the overpaid spokesman paused, his finger going to his earpiece, "we just received breaking news. As we reported at 8:43 P.M last night, Doctor Sakura Haruno, graduate of Harvard College and John Hopkins University, had claimed to have found a treatment and a possible cure to people suffering with melanoma without the need of surgery or chemotherapy. We have just been informed by the Science Academy of the Nations that preliminary testing has confirmed Haruno's findings. We go to Mary-Sue on the scene at Konoha Hospital with the team of testers."
Itachi increased his speed as his face gave no indication of his mood.
"Thank you Mark, we are here in Konoha hospital where the top scientists have been flying in since 9:00 P.M last night. They have been diligently working on confirming or disproving Sakura Haruno's findings. Doctor Tarum, can you tell us what you have found?"
"Yes, of course," the Arabic doctor said in a thick accent, "it seems as though Sakura had created a mutating agent with a self destruct configuration. In lemans terms, the counter-measure she created freezes the cancer cells from reproducing and then over a period of a few hours naturally decomposes them. The waste is then is removed naturally through sweat, breathing, and excretion. We need more testing to see how safe this method is, but on our experiments on lab rats and monkeys – both have experienced a stead elimination of the disease in the past five hours."
"Wow," the anchorwoman said with more emphasis then needed, "how soon do you think this will go on the market?"
"Well, it will probably be in its experimental stages for about a year before we can endorse it in case studies…and maybe two years from now, if it is proven safe – we will be using it as treatment."
The anchorwoman turned to the camera, "you heard it here first, the major type of skin cancer may be curable within the upcoming year. Back to you, Mark."
"Thank you, Mary-sue. Now isn't that something? And all this within the two weeks of Dr. Haruno's contract with Konoha, the hospital's sure to give her a raise! Haha. Unfortunately, Dr. Haruno has been unavailable for questioning but we will keep you updated throughout the day on this spectacular discover. On another happy note – farmers have…."
.
…
.
"Dude! Holy shit did you hear?" Shisui said walking into Itachi's office.
"I am surprised how you are able to keep all your bad verbal habits out of the court room," Itachi replied without looking up as he reviewed a case the D.A had placed into his mailbox.
"Nah, I've let a few shits and fucks go…but only to the judge that are old farts. Anyway," Shisui said loosening his tie and sitting down in front of Itachi's large desk with piles of paper work.
His younger cousin ignored him.
"Dude…skin cancer…cured. Do you have any idea how popular tanning is going to get again?"
"Obstruction of justice," Itachi muttered to himself as he took notes on his yellow pad.
"Yes…yes legal mumbo-jumbo, dude, tan lines are going to be back in style…I can already imagine it…no more pasty pale…sweet caramel…mmmmm….tan lines are like highlights for the naughty areas…so awesome."
"You sound like Guy," Itachi said about a fellow youth-enthusiast coworker.
"That man's a pedophile in a suit, I'm offended."
"Anko was 13 and you were 20."
"Must you go there?"
"You were 8 and she was still shitting in diapers," Itachi continued as he wrote another legal term on his pad.
"Itachi, only you know how to downplay a cure to cancer…"
"What would you like me to do?" Itachi finally looked up, "jump for joy like a catholic school girl and do cartwheels across the room because idiots who are incapable of putting sunscreen on can officially opt for kitchen oil and fry themselves under the sun without all those pesky health risks?"
"I just imagined you in a catholic school girl uniform with pom poms," Shisui avoided the pen that was tossed straight at his head like a dagger, "jeez cheer up, dude – you are living with the best medical medicy lady known to mankind. Get her to wear one of those skimpy nurse outfits and let her…relieve you of that stick up your ass."
Itachi's jaw tightened.
"Okay…okay…so, my sister came in this morning…thankfully Anko had already left for work. You're still going to take her out tomorrow, right? You know how much I need this. She'd probably let you get a quickie in the theater if you –"
"I will murder you if you don't get out," Itachi deadpanned.
"Got it, got it…jeez," Shisui said standing up defensively with his hands raised, "I think someone needs their yearly shrink-assessment and maybe a new set of meds," he added before making his hasty exit.
Itachi sighed.
Why the hell did she have to be a medical saint AND have a spine?
.
…
.
Next afternoon:
Sakura stirred from her deep sleep, and felt her body begin to tremble due to her entrance to consciousness. She made a mental note to see if she could subdue to side effects of the insomnia shot, and then made another mental note not to think for a few years as jackhammers went off inside her head.
She tried to moan, but that hurt.
She tried to move, but that caused more pain.
Breathing and keeping her eyes closed worked.
She was unaware how long she stayed that way, but when she finally got the energy to open her eyes again, she discovered that it was twilight. She turned her head to the side causing her neck to crack three times, and watched the sunset.
"God," she muttered in a raspy voice, "if I believed in you – I'd hate you a lot right now…"
She looked back up at the glass ceiling and watched the clouds pass by.
"Ugh, phone," she muttered as she forced herself to sit up. Another set of dozen joints snap, crackled, and popped.
The number of bone cracking was uncountable and every single movement seemed to irritate her joints. She cursed herself as she reached into her bag and looked for her cell phone but it wasn't there.
She growled, must have left it in the hospital. She needed to call Tsunade…and Ino…and all those other people who were probably raping her cell phone and voicemail.
Sakura ran her weak fingers through her hair – it was oily and hay-like. She sniffed her underarm and with a disgusted expression, declared that she needed a shower. She looked across the room at the master bathroom door. It was so far away. After five minutes of mentally attempting to make the door come closer, she decided that she was being ridiculous.
With slow, precise, and careful movements she got up and walked into the bathroom. Then stopped, and turned around.
That was not the bed she ordered.
And those weren't the bookshelves she picked out.
She definitely did not buy that nightstand or lamp either.
Her eyebrow twitched.
"Bastaaaahd," she knew it was somehow Itachi's fault.
Then something caught her eye, she looked down and was greeted with her phone in the toilet bowl.
Now that was definitely Itachi's doing. That man needed to be cremated alive.
A/N:There will be plenty more chapters with revenge schemes :D...I just kinda wanted to have a plot in there...somewhere ;)
Thank you for reading, commenting, and I hope you enjoyed! :) I love receiving reviews so much 3
Just out of curiosity - who are you rooting for? Team Sakura or Team Itachi?