Kakashi closed the gate to Jiro's cell.
"Wait!" said Jiro in a panic clutching the cells iron bars, "this is the police station you can't leave me here?"
Kakashi turned, "why not? This is where you belong after all, better in fact considering I smelled a nice miso soup cooking in the kitchen, its more than trash like you deserve."
Jiro let go of the bars, he spoke casually but certain sharpness could be felt on the edge of his tone.
"I'll die if you leave me here, you promised me."
"I promised not to tell the Mist Village about you" he corrected continuing to walk away from the begging man, "I said nothing about freeing you, let alone protecting you."
Jiro fell to his knees, "I'm begging you, you know what those two will do to me once I'm left alone for too long."
Kakashi opened the door to leave the cells, "Sorry but what those two do with you hardly concerns me."
With that Kakashi closed the door on the screaming Jiro.
One of the local police sergeants approached him, "Sir… I was told to find you, there's been another murder."
"A what?"
Naruto stepped into his room feeling both awake and refreshed from his shower; he had dressed in his spare clothes not bothering with his sleeping attire. Tenten was still sitting on the bed by Hinata silently looking out the window; her hair had been put up in their usual twin buns again.
"Feeling better?" she asked turning to face him.
"A bit" he admitted scratching the back of his head and sitting on the bed looking at the girl sleeping in it, she looked far too peaceful to be wounded, if it wasn't for the bandages on her he wouldn't even have known she had been injured, for a while the only sound in the room was that of Hinata breathing.
"You ok?" Tenten asked noticing his lingering stair.
"Yeah… you can go to bed Tenten I'll watch over her" he said stretching a bit and making sure he had a good amount of kunai in his holster.
"You need to get some sleep Naruto; you can't watch her all night, you've already gone through one hell of a day."
"I'll be fine" he said moving up the bed and propping himself up on the head board, "I'll just have to sleep in the morning, besides if that guy tries attacking us here it will probably be during the night, and I'm the best one here to handle him aside from Kakashi Sensei."
Tenten smiled at him a little, "I guess Hinata would feel a little better knowing it was you looking out for her."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto asked quizzically lifting an eyebrow.
"Oh nothing" she said turning to leave.
Naruto laid back and looked out the window to the raining city, listening to it patter on the window, ten minutes later Tenten entered with a mug and pot of coffee.
"What did you mean?" asked Naruto looking at Hinata.
"Has anyone ever told you your thick headed?" she asked deciding she wouldn't be able to dodge the question a second time.
"Sakura has," he admitted with a little chuckle, "almost every day."
Tenten smiled at the joke, "I'm just saying, Hinata's unusually fond of you Naruto, when we're alone she likes to talk about you."
"She does?" he asked. Tenten smiled and nodded closing the door behind her, "Night Naruto, wake me up if you need me to take over." Naruto looked over to Hinata and sighed; he took the pot of coffee and poured himself a mug.
Kakashi stared at the three mangled bodies, a small family had been attacked in the middle of the night; the woman's body was all cut into tiny pieces. The man's chest cavity had been blown apart and burned; the little girl was pinned to the wall by two tantos in her shoulders while her belly was split open and intestines dragged out, the girl possessed obvious signs of rape. The scene was positively sickening Kakashi had felt an unpleasant lurch in his stomach.
Whoever had done this grizzly work he would bet his collection of make out paradise books it wasn't the same people who had attacked him today.
"Wasn't enough to kill grown men anymore was it?" one of the officers asked, "now there targeting families too, the man was a former number runner for Gatō's company."
Kakashi sighed, "It looks more like a copycat killer if you ask me, and a very bad one at that."
Kakashi moved to leave, "Tell me if anymore murders happen, I have a feeling more will pop up."
Kakashi cursed the last thing he needed was another person going around killing people, Kumo and Nenshō were in no position to be killing anyone after their encounter just a few hours ago, whoever had done this couldn't have been wounded or low on chakra, either the man's connection to Gatō's company was a coincidence, or this killer wanted to make it look like it was Kumo and Nenshō. Meaning those two were about to make more enemies than they could handle.
Naruto cursed himself, he had managed to doze off for a while; he was a lot more tired than he had originally thought. He had been awoken by Hinata thrashing on the bed violently, she was screaming in her sleep. Naruto grabbed her wrists and tried to keep her still, she was going to open her wounds if this continued.
"Naruto!" she cried in her sleep sitting up and screaming, the blanket fell away exposing her bandaged chest.
"Hinata!" he called trying to see if he could wake her and calm her down, "Hinata, it's just a nightmare… calm down."
Hinata struggled against his grip before finally calming down; she slumped down leaning against him her face resting against his chest, Naruto grabbed her shoulders to lay her back down when she started to struggle again and he was forced to restrain her from hurting herself, he wrapped his arms around her pinning her arms to her side and keeping her from moving away from him. He felt awkward holding her close to him like this her body dressed in nothing but underwear leant by Tenten and medical bandages. Her thrashing began to become less violent but he still held her down in case it became more violent, Naruto sighed and hoped he wasn't going to have to explain anything to Kakashi or Tenten in the morning.
Hinata's body relaxed and clung to his clothes breathing steadily, he loosened his grip on her and let her sleep against him; he looked out the window to the sky starting to turn blue with the rising sun. he brushed her hair away from her eyes and watching the sky lighten.
Jiro woke with a start, he had been trying to stay awake in case he had to scream to the guards to help him, not that he believed a few ordinary guards could stop Kumo and Nenshō in there relentless killing spree.
"Noburu?" he asked recognizing his superior standing on the other side of the bars, the black haired man crossed his arms.
"Looks like you got yourself in a mess of trouble Jiro… you'd think a shinobi could avoid being captured by common police."
Jiro grabbed the bars, "Please Noburu you have to help me, if I stay here they'll kill me, they've already tried."
Noburu lifted an eyebrow, "Who will kill you? Did you see the man who's been killing my men?"
Jiro nodded, "It's Kumo and Nenshō!" he said, "They escaped from the Hidden Mist somehow and there here to get even."
Noburu turned to leave, "The killers have a face now this certainly simplifies things."
"Wait" cried Jiro, "Aren't you going to get me out?" he asked desperately.
"Aren't you supposed to be a shinobi? And you can't escape this simple prison pathetic."
Noburu closed the door on his man leaving him to die.
Sunlight seeped through the window and touched Hinata's face causing her to stir, she felt sore and woozy, and her head felt like it was ablaze. She stayed still hoping sleep would find her again but to no avail, she had slept through some nightmares about a man named Kumo who had fought her with puppets, she had watched as they cut open Naruto and pieced him with arrows.
She opened her eyes to see she wasn't propped up against a pillow but was lying against a sleeping Naruto, her face would have turned red if she hadn't lost so much blood. She lifted her head and looked at him leaning against the head board eyes closed and resting. Hinata tried to move off of him but when she did his eyes snapped open and locked with hers.
"Your awake" he said almost in a daze.
Hinata didn't say anything she just kept staring into his blue eyes.
Tenten hand Kakashi had already eaten there breakfast and were heading up to check on Hinata and Naruto, Kakashi had already told her about the murder scene he had seen last night along with Jiro's interrogation.
"You think it was a good idea to just leave him in that cell for them?" she asked starting on the stairs to the second level of the inn.
"Think of it as a peace offering" explained Kakashi, "If we show a willingness to allow them to continue their work we can move off their focus as a potential threat and they'll continue their work."
"But is allowing them to continue their work such a good idea?" she asked climbing the stairs.
"If my estimations are right they've already knocked ten pages out of my bingo book, there's nothing really illegal if they decide to knock off another ten."
"But there wanted criminals" she argued.
"Exiles Tenten" he corrected her, "Officially those two are merely exiles from the Hidden sand, according to Jiro Kumo was merely exiled for political reasons, trying to avoid a war with the Leaf Village and the Hyūga clan, Nenshō's reasons remain a mystery but I doubt a child just barely out of academy could have done something too nefarious."
Tenten reached for the door know to Naruto and Hinata's room. "Didn't Zabuza kill over a hundred academy students at the age of 9?"
"Yes" he admitted, "but I hardly doubt that is the case here."
Tenten cracked open the door and shut it again, "Something wrong?" asked Kakashi.
"No" said Tenten, "we should check on them later."
Hinata's eyes were locked with his, Naruto wondered if she really was acting like herself or if this had something to do with the blood loss. He just stared into her silver pupil less eyes, she was moving closer to him crawling up his body; Naruto's arms moved and clutched her waist as he drew into him, he could feel her breath tickle his face she was so close.
Hinata gave out a little squeal and her face contorted in pain. Naruto felt something hot and wet touch his hands and pulled them back to see she was bleeding. He cursed this was just what he hoped wouldn't happened.
"I'll get some fresh bandages" he said laying her back down and leaving the room to get them.