The first time Kiba woke up was with the sun, with eyes too bleary to see the time on his clock was just past seven in the morning. Being away from his house for three days he had turned the alarm off and of course he had forgotten to turn it back on when he got home. He had slept on the floor with Akamaru before, but right now the bed was calling to him. Staring the day wouldn't be for another four hours to his radio turning on to play "Hungry like the wolf" by Duran Duran. Right on cue and all too appropriate as he felt his stomach rumble at him.
Sitting up in bed and scratching his face, Kiba realized it was finally time to get up. A shower and a shave were just what he needed. While wiping down the mirror he heard his sister call from the other room. "I'm here to pick up Akamaru, Shino wanted me to remind you about that paperwork you have from the last case." His sister was the real K-9 officer, but more often than not Kiba wound up working with Akamaru because she oversaw twelve other teams in the city area. Just finishing applying the shaving cream to his face, Hana angrily opened the bathroom and talked while chewing something. "I'm worried about you baby brother, you need to do more to take care of yourself. Buy some groceries," licking her fingers, she swallowed what was clearly the last of his beef jerky, "I'll see you later Kid." With a slug on his shoulder, and a bark from Akamaru, they were finally gone.
As long as he could remember, his sister had avoided calling him by name. It was always "kid" or "junior" or "baby brother" to her. It never really bothered him, just one of the many eccentricities of his family he had come to accept. Like his mother joking that she scared his father away, but the nights when she gingerly held his father's dog tags she always wore around her neck told him more about the man his father was than she ever did.
Walking to his room, he let his hands run along his suits for a moment as he decided what he wanted to wear today. The pink shirt he chose used to be white, but a red headscarf had been left behind in the Laundromat made his load of whites red, he refused to buy new shirts and pink had been one of his trademark colors ever since. A white sports jacket and pants completed the look. A bulge in his jacket pocket reminded drew his attention, and then he remembered that was where he hid his new cassette. Smiling, he realized what he was going to listen to on the way to work. The opening electric guitar chord and keyboard sounding like an organ sounded like some preacher had gone mad at church. Slippery When Wet got his blood heated up, set him on a good edge for the day.
He got into the station half past noon, right as everyone was taking lunch break. The officer at the front desk raised his eyebrow when he heard Kiba was still whistling "You give love a bad name". Making a stop at the break room, he rummaged through the fridge and grabbed an apple and half of someone's tuna sandwich before making his way to his office. Shino was sitting in the next room over, and Kiba wanted to make sure he was sitting down before his partner started speaking. Sure enough, his partner promptly put down his newspaper and made his way over as Kiba took a bite from the green apple.
"Do you know what time it is?" Shino asked, not seeming as though he wanted an answer.
"Yeah, it's lunch time." Kiba took another bite from the apple.
"You were supposed to be in at nine this morning, and now it's twelve forty."
"Itadakimasu." In three bites the sandwich was gone, and Shino's expression went from dour to sour.
"Green apple and tuna fish sandwich. You didn't happen to see the name on the bag you stole from today did you?"
"Shh shh…" Kiba raised a finger to his mouth and switched on the radio. As a commercial ended, Dionne Warwick's "That's what friends are for" started playing. "I came back from a long and tiring road trip, I haven't had time to buy groceries yet. You know how grateful I am to you for your friendship Shino." Standing up, Kiba went over to Shino to give him a hug Shino did not return. "You're the best partner I could ask for."
Barely batting his eyelashes Shino's head crooked to leer at the radio. "One of these days I'll figure out how you manage to summon just the right song on the radio to keep me from beating your smug a-"
"Ah chief, how are you?" Kiba as Sgt. Nara came in the office.
"Please stop calling me chief, Inuzuka." Nara was a solid officer, but he had even less of a sense of humor on the job than Shino did. "I've got a new case for you two to check out," holding out a folder he hesitated a moment before extending it, "But first you've got to give me the paperwork from your last case."
"What's the combination on your locker again? 17-29-6 was it?" Kiba tossed a memento from his visit to Shikamaru's locker to his superior, a brass wings lapel pin. Nara caught it, rolled his eyes, and handed Shino the file before leaving the office to change the combination of his locker again, but not before Kiba could get in a last word, "One of these days you're going to have to share the story of that pin with us."
Already half-way through the folder, Shino began muttering to himself, "This is sloppy work for any killer." Getting Kiba's attention, Shino put the folder on the table and began to spread out the pages. "In the past four days there have been three people found dead from the Coconut Groves neighborhood. Nothing that really connects them except for they all were found to have overdosed on a very specific blend of heroin and cocaine."
"Hot Doses? Most druggies know enough to not make that mix. We've got anything to go on?" Kiba finished chewing on the apple core and threw it into the trash.
"Not much; their addresses show they all lived close to each other. One had a record, spouse abuse, separated from his wife. Second was a student on break from the University. Third was a known bodybuilder, apparently famous in the local scene, along with the hot dose there were traces of steroids in his system."
"Where do you want to start?" Kiba got up to grab his coat.
"Well first I want to be able to eat what's left of my lunch, and then we're going down to the Medical Examiner's Office. Note here says to meet up with Dr. Haruno before going downtown, apparently she was in the middle of an investigation when this file was made."
"Alright, I'll see you in the Red Fang." Shino hardly raised an eyebrow at the comment meant to provoke some reaction. "Come on man, not even a smile? Ladies love a man who smiles."
"I suppose with your looks you need all the help you can get." Perhaps it was Shino's cool demeanor that contributed to his ability to burn anyone is the coldest way possible.
The drive down to the Medical Office was easy enough, the day was a little humid but the air was just the right temperature. In the distance was the Stadium and Kiba tried not to look at it.
"You do know the game was two years ago and even then it was held in California. And you're still mad about the stupid Dolphins losing to the 49ers so much you can't even look at the stadium?"
"We all have things we bury deep inside our hearts, mine just happens to be a giant sports arena."
"Just drive."
Getting to the office, they checked in and found their way to Dr. Haruno's office. Sakura was a good sort, smarter than anyone had the right to be, with a better tan than someone who spends most of their time inside hospitals should have. Of course she wasn't in her office, so after a few questions they found her in one of the examination rooms hunched over a very large corpse that was most likely the bodybuilder from their case.
"You two should know by now that this," Sakura didn't look at them but instead made a gesture with her free hand, "this is my office. Don't bother to look for me in that file closet with a desk I sometimes take my coffee break in."
"What do you have for us Sakura?" Shino wasted no time; or rather he wanted to cut to the chase before Kiba had the chance to waste time.
"Right." Taking a step back, she took off her gloves and stepped to the side of the body. "I can't say I know exactly what connects our victims, but I have found something very peculiar. They all have these needle holes pokes into their right sides. If it was just one it would be barely noticeable, but each one has at least three holes."
"A new style of injection?" Kiba suggested.
"Decent guess, but no." Sakura picked up some pictures from a table behind her. "These are pictures from the other two bodies; I was just about to perform the same check on this one when you got here but I'm confident it's the same. Someone was performing biopsies on the livers of these three while they were still alive."
"Is there a clinic in the area that has those records?" Shino asked.
"I already made calls, there's no clinic in the area that performed tests on any of these three. Whoever is doing these tests is doing them under the radar."
Thumbing through the case file again was more of a nervous tick than anything else. His mother and sister were both certified veterinarians, but anything medical had a way of making Kiba uncomfortable. The three victims had nothing in common: a divorced salesman, a bodybuilder, and a university student… then he read it - Miller School of Medicine, University of Konoha. Handing the file to Shino, he explained, "I think we have a lead on those biopsies, one of them was a medical student."
Author's note: Shikamaru is a sergeant at the police office, quite happy doing paperwork unless it deals with Kiba and Shino's cases.
Kakashi is their supervising Captain.
Hiruzen is the "chief" their inspector.
Hana, Kiba's older sister, is the best K-9 cop in Konoha. Akamaru has not featured much in the story (note written as of Chapter 19), but I have intentions to include him more prominently by the time the story reaches "Case 5".
Sakura works for the Medical Examiner's Office and will be featured prominently in the story as she supports Kiba and Shino's investigations, it's also noteworthy that she is Hinata's room mate.