As soon as forensics hit the scene, Kiba was on his way home for some well-deserved sleep. One of the advantages of his sleep schedule was it gave the lab personal time to sort through the evidence to find a useful lead. As bad as the scene looked for the band, they were likely not involved. But, it wouldn't hurt to follow up with them once they were sober and had time to stew in the holding cells for a few hours.
Finally arriving back at his place, Kiba saw Hana's car parked in the driveway. The lights were off, which meant she was likely asleep on his bed, a suspicion confirmed by the sound of snoring coming from his room. Akamaru was on the living room floor; he raised his head and sniffed before resting back down on his paws. Shaking his head, Kiba took off his jacket and pants and put them on the kitchen counter before grabbing a blanket and lying down on the ground with Akamaru.
A few hours passed before Kiba lost his pillow and slept flat on the ground. Blinking sleep from his eyes he saw Hana brushing Akamaru's coat with a scowl on her face. "You do know you're in charge of Akamaru's grooming right?"
"I gave him a bath the other day, and he got a haircut last week. He couldn't have gotten that dirty." Yawning, Kiba groggily set about working the coffee machine.
"You could use a little grooming yourself." Hana teased.
"Very funny. You want any?" Without bothering to look at her nod, Kiba doubled the batch and turned it on. He hadn't gotten enough sleep, but some days started out this way.
"You have your own apartment and you can always stay with mom. Any reason you felt the need to crash here?"
"Oh I'm taking Akamaru to an elementary school in the neighborhood this afternoon. Didn't want to make it a long drive."
"No… you've been avoiding mom. Didn't she say she wanted to hook you up with somebody out on Doral?" Kiba felt it wise to not mention the fact he saw his mother's car the other night. It didn't do for a son to get too involved in his mother's personal affairs, or worse to involve his sister in them.
"I'm not talking about any of mom's country club friends, and you are going to keep your mouth shut about my love life if you know what's best for you." Akamaru gave a light yelp as Hana's hand was a little hard on the brush. "Sorry boy."
"Fair enough. But I expect the same courtesy. No more of this older sister, 'you need to find a girlfriend' stuff."
"Mom and I aren't worried about you Kiba. You're rough around the edges, but we trust that we've done our job to make sure you treat ladies right."
"Which means the real trouble will come to the girl when I introduce her to the two of you."
"Nobody is as critical as an Inuzuka woman, that is true." With a laugh, Hana gave Akamaru a pat and stretched her back. She then took off her shirt and threw it in the washing machine as she went to the bed room to change.
Pouring himself a mug of coffee, Kiba went out to check the morning paper and scowl at the sun. Nothing in the news was of particular interest; there was an ad for the upcoming cop movie Lethal Weapon which he had wanted to see ever since he first heard about it. All he had to do was make it to the end of the week and a new cinematic adventure would unfold itself.
Looking up, Kiba saw Hana come out dressed in her blue uniform and cap. She adjusted her belt and waited for Kiba to give a nod to her appearance before grabbing her cup of joe.
"Any case you working on right now?" Hana asked as she downed her very hot coffee.
"Just started one last night. Murder, prostitution, and a local rock band. Hopefully the details will be sorted out by the time I get to the station."
"Just let me know if you need any of the dogs." Hana said as she rummaged through the fridge. Spinning in his seat, Kiba was surprised to notice it was actually full of food. Getting up, he took the package of bacon Hana handed him and cooked up the entire thing. Between Akamaru and the two of them they polished off the entire package with some grapefruit and toast.
"You get that?" Kiba said, finally satisfied.
"Nope. I think you've got yourself a guardian angel."
"Well that's comforting, but I feel sorry for the angel." The two laughed and finally Kiba decided it was time to get ready to go himself. "Have a good one Hana."
"Stay safe Kiba." With a last bark from Akamaru, they were gone.
Picking up his phone, Kiba dialed Hinata's office phone and waited for her to answer. There was no response, which was usual for this time of day. She usually had morning meetings and was rarely in her office, which was perfect for leaving obnoxious messages on her answering machine.
"Hey Hinata, it's Kiba. Itadakimasu!" Hanging up the phone, Kiba realized he wasn't even sure if it was Hinata who had filled up his fridge. But his gut told him she had, so he didn't worry about it.
After getting dressed Kiba jumped in his car and made his way down to the station as the radio played "Start me up" by the Rolling Stones. With a chuckle, Kiba sped down the road to the station in a brighter mood than he'd felt in a while. The case he was on was confusing, but his instincts said it was going to turn out all right.
It was mid-morning and city traffic had cleared up from the morning congestion. Sakura tapped the café table she was sitting at and adjusted her seat. It had been a week since she had called Konoha's Police Internal Affairs Office and had chatted with some guy over the phone for twenty minutes about her experience with Sasori and only last night did she get a message for a meeting with an IA agent.
"Already ten minutes late. What is going on?" Sakura looked at her watch and grumbled.
"Sakura-chan!" A familiar voice yelled out.
"Ino?" Turning her head, Sakura was surprised to see her old friend holding a bunch of flowers and coming to sit with her. After a hug, Ino sat down and began gabbing.
"Haven't seen you since your graduation from Med School. You've been holed up at the morgue for months." Ino held one of Sakura's hands on top of the table. When a waiter came by she ordered an espresso before continuing their conversation.
"It's not the morgue; it's the medical examiner's office. It's a great opportunity, really."
"You don't have to convince me sister." With a laugh, Ino smiled but it was a smile Sakura knew all too well. It was a front, a fake. Ino was putting on a show, but why. After their drinks arrived and the other customers left the outdoor café, Ino got that old look in her eye and that's when it hit Sakura.
"You're the Internal Affairs agent? I thought you worked at your mom's flower shop."
"I do, but dad has been running Konoha's intelligence network with Ibiki for years now. Ibiki is the intimidating front, nobody wants to know more about Internal Affairs, so they don't even know dad exists, let alone me and the others."
"Is there really that much need for secrecy?"
"We live in a major port city, with billions of dollars in international money, drugs, weapons, people, and trade going through each year. With that much money going around, you bet the police department is going to see some of that go to dirty cops. Ibiki had managed to keep things relatively clean by doing things his way, so he's given authority to do what he wants. And it was Ibiki himself who chose dad to help keep him straight."
"And where do you fit in all of this?"
"We both know I'm more than just a pretty face." Taking a sip of her espresso, she reached into the bunch of flowers and pulled out a file from the outer wrapping. "After Hinata gave us a call we stated doing a little research on Dr. Sasori. He's been head of Konoha's Medical Office for eight years, has four doctorate degrees, he's independently wealthy, and the oddest part is that while he's 42 he looks like he's in his 20s. Guy takes care of himself."
"On more than one occasion he's recommended this one spa downtown."
"Next time he does, get the address and we're going, because whatever they do down there is working."
"Ino…" Sakura chided Ino, but was glad that her friend was still the same old boy chaser as always.
"Right. On the surface he looks really clean, but we were able to find a few things about him that someone really wanted hidden." Flipping a page, Ino handed Sakura a photo of Sasori dressed in military fatigues. "The Vietnam war was still going on after Sasori got out of college. Fearing he would be drafted, Sasori skipped country and joined the French Foreign Legion."
"That's an odd choice for someone trying to avoid the draft."
"You're telling me." Handing Sakura another photo, "You ever see this picture?"
"Yeah, Sasori actually has it in his office. Never asked who it is."
"That's President Mobutu of Zaire, a man who got tired of butchering his political rivals and just bought them all off instead. Not the nicest guy you're likely to ever meet."
"Okay, so Sasori has some sketchy history. Where do Kisame and Zabuza fit in?"
"We don't know yet. Fact of the matter is that outside of your testimony we don't have much to work on. But our eyes are open now and we're on the case." Looking at her watch, Ino nodded. "It's about time for you to get to work." Hiding the file back in with the flowers, Ino stood up to give Sakura a hug. "If you're ever in trouble, give the flower shop a call. Ask for Purple Roses and we'll come running to wherever you are."
"What have I gotten myself into here? This is old cloak and dagger business."
"You're not going to try to bail on us?" Ino tilted her head and smiled that fake smile again.
"Of course not," Returning the same fake smile, Sakura stood up boldly, "Give my best to your mother."
A little weirded out, Sakura went to work and found a dead body was waiting in her examination room toexamine. Shizune, one of her co-workers had already prepped the body and had a few samples she was looking at. Reviewing the file, Sakura wasn't surprised to see the names Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame as the detectives assigned to the case.
"Suspected dead prostitute, found naked in hotel bathroom, anything out of the usual Shizune?"
"I've got some cloth samples I'm looking at here. We've got cocaine, which I confirmed by looking in her nasal cavities. Point of death is blunt force trauma to her skull. I'm not sure which breaks happened before or after that though. We're still looking at the crime scene."
Taking out her magnifying glass, Sakura looked over the body. Another young woman in her 20s, it hurt to say but she actually looked an awful lot like Ino. Sure enough, there was also a fracture on the girl's right humerus and left fibula. "Wait a minute, what do we have here?" Lifting the girl's left hand, Sakura noted scratches along the skin, as well as the proximal phalange on the ring finger. "You missed one Shizune. Someone broke her ring finger. Lack of clotting from the scratches on her finger say this was done after she died. Did someone steal a ring from her after she died?"
"Maybe… I'll add it to the report. Never know what detail will be important."
Sakura felt him enter the room. Dr. Sasori had been hovering around the past few days, but was this awareness springing from her suspicions of the man, or his paranoia of his staff.
"Sakura. Glad to see you hard at work. I noted a few errors on your last file, nothing major."
"Thanks, I guess I've been tired the past few nights."
"I've noticed. Why don't you take off a little early this evening? Get some rest; maybe treat yourself to some time at the spa."
"You know what… that doesn't sound half bad actually." Remembering Ino's suggestion, Sakura smiled to herself and wondered what her feelings would be when Internal Affairs finally nailed Sasori. She wanted to laugh, but there was work to be done.
*(Note) - Been a little down the past few weeks. Getting back into the swing of it though. Summer isn't my most productive time though, summer colds aside.