Normal

"Speech"

Thought

Kyuubi

Warning: I don't own Naruto. Rate "M" for adult themes, situations, and language.

Chapter 60: Death's Doorstep

Sakura and Sasuke arrived at the hospital to be greeted by Tsunade. The Blonde Hokage's face showed signs of fatigue and the graveness of the situation. "You did not need to come, Sakura, nor did you need to bring Sasuke."

"Shizune said it was important." Sakura explained. "She also said I should bring Sasuke."

Sasuke merely glared at Tsunade. He was curious about this man that was dead, yet breathing, but he was rather pissed off about his evening being interrupted.

Tsunade shook her head. "Shizune was rash in contacting you in my absence. I was aware of Nakahara's admission to the hospital. I was on my way to the emergency room when Shizune found me. By the time the yelling and stomping had ended, you had already left your apartment."

"Hn. That doesn't explain why you called for me." Sasuke huffed and crossed his arms.

Tsunade frowned. "If anything, you were called for positive identification."

Sakura blinked. "What about Myra and Naruto? Or Sephie and Gaara-sama?"

"Myra and Naruto are occupied at the moment and Gaara is asleep. I don't care if I am the Hokage, I am not waking him up. Ms Persephone, on the other hand, should be here in a matter of minutes." Tsunade kept her scowl.

Sasuke's eye started to twitch. "I can accept not waking Gaara. Dobe and the Cazy..." Sakura shot him a glare. "Myra and Naruto… Why aren't they here?" I was occupied with Sakura, but that didn't stop them from calling us, he thought bitterly.

"I do not have to explain my reasoning to you, Uchiha." Tsunade snapped. "We only needed two witnesses to identify the man to begin with."

In a matter of minutes Sephie, still dressed in club regalia carrying messenger bag, came skidding around the corner, nearly causing Sakura to topple over as Sephie used Sakura to stop her skid. Her eyes were wide and she had a grin from ear to ear. "Oh… Sorry Pinky… Just a little excited. Has he kicked the bucket yet?"

Sakura was slightly appalled at Sephie's comment. Tsunade shook her head in disgust. Sasuke let his classic smirk cross his lips. Sephie had the right idea as far as he was concerned. The blonde Hokage sighed. "Nakahara has not yet expired."

"COOL! I got to see one BEFORE he dies…" Sephie was giddy as a school girl and started to pull something out of her back pack.

"What are you talking about girl?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow. Sakura gaze matched that of her mentor. Sasuke looked amused.

Sephie pulled out a small silver camera. "Oh… Well it's an unexplained death of a Yakuza criminal, right?"

Sasuke's eyes went as wide as Sakura's. Tsunade kept her eyebrow raised. "How do you know so much Persephone-san?"

"Oh that's easy." She handed Sakura the camera and dug in her bag to pull out a thin sliver notebook PC. "It says so right here." She lifted the top and read aloud. "Nobu Nakahara, known Yakuza boss, allegedly has his hand in several night clubs, gambling casinos, and brothels throughout Japan and the western world. Started as a body guard and worked his way up to "Cleaner", then supposedly took over a kidnapping gone wrong. Though no bodies were ever found, he is alleged to have killed over fifty people, including a government official's wife and five year old daughter, which elevated his status to Boss." She turned the laptop around to show the gathered three the web page. There on the web page was a picture of the man slowly dying in the hospital room.

Sakura looked over to Tsunade. "Shisho, we have Yakuza in Konoha?"

The blonde Hokage closed her eyes and sighed. "Not anymore."

Sephie smiled. "Yeah… Death Dealers… Gotta love 'em. And in Konoha no less… This is truly the best night of my life."

Tsunade kept her reaction to herself. She was most unsure how much Sephie really did know, or how close she was to the truth. Before she could really stop the conversation from going any further, Sasuke picked that moment to be talkative.

"What is a Death Dealer?" the Uchiha demanded.

Sephie looked at Sasuke like he was absolutely crazy. He was a ninja for the love of God, and he didn't know? Sephie shook her head and sighed. "He's one of you? Isn't he? I mean he's gotta be. It makes SOOO much sense. Once the whole underground society of ninja was explained to me, I figured he HAD to be a shinobi, ninja, whatever."

"Sephie," Sakura put her hand on the blonde girl's shoulder. "Make sense please."

Sephie blinked in utter confusion. Myra had for so long told her the rumors and sightings of the elusive "Death Dealer" was, just that, rumors and conspiracy theories. Sephie may have only been in the shinobi world for a month, but there was so much that became clear and made sense. Gaara had sworn her to secrecy for most of it, but "Death Dealer" was still open for conjecture. "The Death Dealer is a ghost I've been chasing since I was little. My dad is a HUGE conspiracy nut. As a "bonding" exercise for me and my dad, I started listening to his half baked ideas. My favorite is still that there is only one Fruit Cake in the entire world and it has been passed from family to family for the last few hundred years."

"PERSEPHONE!" Sasuke roared.

"Oh… Right… Sorry… The Death Dealer… No one really knows who he is. There are just a whole bunch of rumors and unexplained deaths of high ranking low lifes. You name the criminal organization, there has been one or more unexplained death within the higher echelon. You can track the deaths back over eighty years. After the death of your high ranking no-gooder, there is a ginormous investigation and the organization is usually stopped until another takes its place." Sephie shrugged.

Tsunade squinted at the short girl with tons of suspicion. "What else do you know?"

"I don't know…" Sephie got a sly look on her face. "What you got for me?" She smirked.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "This is not open for negotiation."

Sephie smiled happily. "Sure it is… Knowledge is power and knowing is half the battle. I know more. You want to know more. I am willing to sing like a canary but I want something in return."

"I don't see where this has anything to do with you, normal…" Sasuke sneered.

"Oh ho ho… Normal I may be Fucktard, but I know more about the world above than you seem to know. And as I see it, this is one of those things where I can come in pretty handy. Myra too… That is if you can get her to answer her phone." Sephie grumbled.

"Quiet!" Tsunade snapped specifically at Sasuke. The Uchiha glared at Tsunade. The Hokage ignored him and looked at Sephie. "Perspehone-san, what else can you tell me?"

"I want pictures and the exclusive autopsy report for my blog." Sephie's hazel eyes sparkled as she sat in the waiting room chair.

"You can not mention Konoha, or its location." Tsunade crossed her arms.

"Deal…" Sephie nodded. "I'll bet you dimes to doughnuts the cause of death will look like a massive stroke or heart attack. There are two other factors that will tell me who did it, the master, or the student…" Sephie smiled.

"Master? Student?" Sakura questioned.

Sephie rubbed her hands together and started pecking away at her keyboard. "About three years ago, the cause of death shifted slightly. Go back through the not so bloody trail Death Dealer has left, and you will see that the main cause of death is a major overdose of adrenaline. SOME of the deaths in the last three years have a slight difference in the pattern. A massive adrenaline concentration in the blood stream is the main cause of death, however, another interesting occurrence is the bodies have no electrical conductivity." Sephie paused to look up at Sakura. "I have suspected there was more than one Death Dealer for a long time, but this shift in pattern, confirms there is new Death Dealer in town AND the hits overlap in spots, classic Master/Student dichotomy."

"He's nothing more than a glorified hit man!" Sasuke raised his eyebrows.

"That may be the case, but there is probably more to it that we do not understand." Tsunade had a grim look on her face. "This ninja that has taken on responsibilities the rest of us have ignored. Before the hidden villages, we were single family clans that warred against each other and did what this ninja, or ninjas, have continued to do. Eighty years ago the Shodia Hokage established Konohagakure to bring the warring clans together in an effort to promote peace. We were established to protect ALL the people in the Fire Country, however, we shinobi have become caught up in our own petty wars and have forgotten the reasons the village was established.

"These Death Dealers are the true janitors of the shinobi world and the world above. Criminals like Nakahara prey on the weak and helpless left behind in the wake of devastating wars, social disruption, and government neglect. Criminals are drawn to the ease of furthering their own gains and establish themselves as tyrant leaders. We shinobi turn a blind eye to them because they are NOT shinobi and because we are caught up in our own problems. We leave criminals, like Nakahara to bounty hunters and the other criminals of his ilk. It is vicious cycle and a sad truth that I have recently been made more aware of." Tsunade never allowed her expression to show the remorse she felt.

"Lady Tsunade, this means this person was, or still is, in the village. You would have to give permission for him to enter the village." Sakura looked at her mentor in shock.

Sephie, who did have a pen in her mouth, let it drop to the floor. This was the scoop of a life time. "He's HERE!"

Just then a loud shrill single note of the monitor from the other room signaled that Nakahara had lost his battle for life. Tsunade sighed heavily. "All of you go home. It is late and I have work to do. Sephie, you will have the report tomorrow afternoon." The Hokage turned to go into the hospital room.

Sasuke kept glaring at the Hokage. "You didn't answer Sakura's question."

Tsunade stopped at the door but did not turn to address Sasuke. "I have told you more than I should have already. Take what you have and go." The door closed behind her as she entered the room

Sakura and Sasuke both looked at Sephie at the same time. Sakura's expression was harsh, but Sasuke sacred Sephie. Sephie stopped typing and looked up at the pair a little nervously. "What?"

"How does one contact this Death Dealer?" Sasuke tone was demanding.

Sephie rolled her eyes. "How do you contact a ghost? I don't know… And quit with the creepy eye thing… You're scaring me… I don't work well under pressure."

"Hn." Sasuke turned to start walking. "If he can kill, then he is not a ghost."

Sakura ran up to him and grabbed his arm. "Sounds like this ninja kills with no remorse."

Sephie popped her head up from her laptop. "I beg to differ."

Sakura and Sasuke turned to Sephie again. "Killing is not something you get paid to do." Sasuke spat at Sephie.

"And what exactly DO you get paid for on a mission?" Sephie tilted her head and smiled at him. Sasuke took a step back. Sakura turned her gaze to the floor. There had been more than one mission with Naruto where the mission was to bring a missing nin to justice. None went easily and all were brought back in a body bag.

Sephie shook her head. "I thought as much. I may be "normal" like you say, but I'm not stupid. Ninja, the last time I checked, are paid to do a job. The Death Dealer performs a service, just like you do. They don't hunt other shinobi. They hunt the "NORMAL" culprits you "SHINOBI" don't care about anyway. They don't hunt the innocent either. Every drug lord, mafia boss, Yakuza, or filth they have taken out of this world, was because they had committed serious crimes against us "NORMALS". Didn't you hear the part about Nakahara murdering at least fifty people? Doesn't that cause you to stop and ask if the world is a better place without him?"

Sasuke took a moment to think. He looked over to the hospital room where the Yakuza felon was lying dead. The world will be a better place without Nobu Nakahara, there wasn't a doubt in Sasuke's mind about that. Killing people was a choice and it was a hard choice to make in any situation. But Sasuke was thinking about it from a noble perspective. He took another moment to consider life from the other side.

It was easy to take a life if you felt no remorse and cared nothing for life. Sasuke clenched his fists tighter. He would have been that way if he had continued down his path of self destruction. No one had the right to take a life needlessly. Sasuke had learned that lesson all too well. Scum like Nakahara take life for granted and step on it like you step on a blade of grass, with no thought as to how it will forever change the landscape. But was he guilty of the crimes he was accused?

Sasuke turned his gaze back to Sephie. "There has to be a way to contact a Death Dealer." He had to know how the Death Dealers knew a person deserved the fate they were given.

Sephie laughed. "When you figure that out, let me know, I would love to talk to one."

"Come on Sasuke, these Death Dealers are contract killers." Sakura still didn't like the idea of what they did. Needed or not, what they did was wrong. "The only way you're going to be able to talk to a contract killer is to put out a hit on someone."

Sasuke turned to Sakura. "What did you just say?"

Sephie looked at Sakura with a raised eyebrow. "Now why didn't I think of that?"