Disclaimer: The Naruto characters and places, and well, everything Naruto don't belong to me. I don't own any lyrics from A Perfect Circle either.

Full Summary: In our modern day society, the abnormal and the unatural tend to be shunned and locked away from mortal eyes and used instead as bedtime stories that mothers tell to their children to frighten them. But, what if one of those whispered secrets were to emerge from the dark shadow of mystery, to hide in the perfect spot. Plain site.

Warnings: Suspense.

Tear My Stiches.

The bell rung, signaling that it was lunch time, and, with a sigh, a sun kissed blonde teenager stood from his desk in the math room. After grabbing his beaten up old backpack, me made a dash for the door, running the whole way down the hall before slowing his pace right before the cafeteria door. Fixing his composure, he calmly opened the door and made a beeline towards two somewhat out of place girls.

The thing that made these two girls peculiar, was their hair. The first, bolder one was Sakura Haruno, her pink hair a perfect contrast to the blue-ish black hair of the girl beside her, Hinata Hyuuga. The two girls were both fawning over something when the blonde boy sat down.

"Hey Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed, pulling her attention away from the paper momentarily to smile at him.

The boy, now know as Naruto, smiled a bright smile right back.

"So, what are you two up to, hmm?" Naruto questioned, a suspicous grin on his face.

Hinata held up two pieces of paper, one a few paragraphs and the other a picture of a boy. When Naruto saw the second one, his grin faltered. This boy, he was almost sickly pale. His cool teal eyes ringed in black stared back at Naruto hauntingly, the red kanji for love on his forehead accenting the darkness of his clothing.

"Th-this is v-very important, Naruto." Hinata stuttered, who then turned to Sakura to explain.

"This," she said, "Is Gaara Sabaku."

"And?" Naruto asked, silently hoping that he wasn't just some boy they liked. They were his best friends, but he really wasn't looking forward to sqealing.

"He's been missing for six months," Sakura stated, she wasn't one to beat around the bush, "But he's still alive."

"How could you possibly know that?!" Naruto questioned, his eyes widening.

"B-because, e-every so often, h-his siblings receive phone c-calls from h-him." Hinata stated, examining the photo.

"But the really weird thing is that every time the police try to trace the call, their whole system crashes, it's like everything paranormal in the world doesn't want him tto be found." Sakura stated, her tone barely higher than a whisper.

"So, this must be the case you told me about earlier then," Naruto said. "How'd you get the police to let you help them with this?"

Sakura and Hinata had always wanted to work as detectives for the police, ever since they had been in grade school. And, from what Naruto had seen, they were very good at it.

Sakura lightly dusted the already-checked crime scene, carefully avoiding the blood smears that decorated the floor and walls.

"I've got a fingerprint!" Sakura cried, turning to Hinata, who in turn had found a hair sample in the fireplace. Whoever had comitted the crime had tried to burn some of the evidence.

"C-come on, S-Sakura, we h-have to get to th-the police with this!" Hinata replied, before they both bolted out the door and to the police department with their findings.

In the end, the murderer was caught, all thanks to the two girls.

Sakura's uncle worked with the FBI, that's how they landed most of their cases, otherwise, the police just let them help, since they were super slueths.

"My uncle told some of the guys at his job about Hinata and I, and they agreed to let us help with this case since it's been open with no leads for so long." Sakura alborated, staring at Naruto intently.

Naruto nodded, it made sense. In Konoha, stuff like this was common, except for the fact that the kid's were either found or dead by three months at the most.

"How old is he, Sakura?" Naruto asked, a serious look in his eyes.

"Sixteen." Sakura stated, her expression grim.

Sixteen?! That means he's younger than both Sakura and I!

"Do you have any leads?"

"N-none."

"Any evidense?"

Both the girls shook their heads.

------.-----.------

In a medium sized house in Konoha, two teenagers sat at a table, eating dinner. The blonde girl had her hair up in four ponytails and her brown-haired brother had his purple paint on his face.

"You know, Kankurou, the school play's coming up in a few months," The blond spoke quietly, "You should audition."

"Maybe, anyways, how's your assignment on Japanese history coming, Temari?"

Temari jsut shrugged, "O.K."

The siblings used to be so close, but, since the dissapearance of their younger brother, tension had begun to grow.

Suddenly, the phone rang, and Temari rose to answer it.

"Hello? Sabaku residense, Temari speaking."

"Temari." a somewhat raspy voice cried from the other line.

Temari's eyes widened in shock, "Gaara! Gaara, where are you! can you tell us where you are?!"

"Temari, I can't talk long, I'm sorry."

"No! Gaara, don't be sorry, just tell us where you are and we'll come get you!" she rushed, tears forming in her eyes.

"I can't, just, I need you to remember that I love you both." and then the line was cut, and all Temari heard was the dial tone.

"Gaara!? Gaara!" Tears fell form her eyes like so many tiny diamonds.

"Oh Kankurou! We almost had him again! So close! We were so close!" the blond was in hysterics, and her brother quickly raced over to embrace her.

"We will have our brother back, Temari. I promise."

------.-----.------

"I'm so sorry, Temari." A young crimson haired teen whispered to himself as he leaned agaist the wall before sliding down it slowly and pulling his knees to his chest.

"Don't be sad, Gaara." A smooth creepy voice said, before arms were wrapped slowly around the boy. "It's O.K."

Gaara screwed his eyes shut, he didn't want to look at his captor, he'd like that to much.

"I'll be the one to protect you from your enemies and all your demons, I'll be the one to protect you from a will to survive and a voice of reason, I'll be the one to protect you from your enemies and your choices son. They're one in the same, I must insolate you, isolate and save you from yourself." the man whispered, pulling the small boy tighter into his embrace.

"Please, Shukaku, let me be."

-----------------

Authoress's Note!

There, this chapter and the prolouge are ideal for the entire story. It's like the story is born from them. It's beautiful.

Anyways, it's kind of a cliffy, but hey, I felt that that was a good place to leave it.

The last paragraph that Shukaku says is from 'Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rythme Of The War Drums' by A Perfect Circle. Great song. Go listen to it.

I'll update soon! Review please!

-FullMoonAtMidnight.