Hi. Been a while, hasn't it? Hope it was worth the wait.
This chapter includes the plot significantly more, and has been split into two parts, so here's the first. Enjoy
25th April, 2032, UCSF Benioff Children Hospital, 1975 4th Street, San Francisco, Time- 19:50
"Hello, I'm Ino Yamanaka, FBI, was wondering what you could tell me about a child brought in earlier this evening? Which of your doctors are on the case?"
The blonde, assertive and snarky in her words, was quick to pull out her badge and assert her position as soon as she reached the front desk of the hospital mentioned in Arisa's phone call from Deidara earlier on. Admittedly, she had spent the majority of the quick trip down to the hospital in worried apprehension of what she might find out about the child, and what its implications might mean for her 'on and off' lover and his partner, but now, as the hospital staff quickly directed and escorted her to the fourth floor, to a waiting lounge where two doctors were already there to bring her up to date on the details regarding the kid's admission to hospital, she felt a strange sense of satisfaction. A gut instinct, one may call it, that this would finally give her team the push they needed to close their case once and for all.
"Alright doctor, tell me everything." she said, meeting the man who'd been given charge of treating the child.
"Subaru Ryand, 8 years old, last documented hospital records date five years ago. He was brought in by his handler at 5.30 this evening- a particularly bad fever being the then stated reason. The fever was a result of infected sutures, an incomplete operation which our tests show involved artificial kidney removal."
"And that's a clear sign of abuse?"
"In this case, having no medical records of a child who was reported missing five years ago, yes. Plus, multiple bruisings, lacerations, signs of malnutrition- we had valid reason to report the person bringing them in."
"So you're suspecting child kidnapping? As well as abuse?"
"We don't suspect anything. That's for you officers to decide."
"What about the child now? Is he conscious?"
"Conscious but not up for any visitations. He's in a critical state."
"I see. Thank you for your time, doctor." she finished, watching as the doctor turned to leave, before being distracted elsewhere by the shout of her name.
"Ino! Thank goodness you're here!" the obnoxious voice of the long haired blonde turned her head in his direction as he walked up to where she stood.
"Deidara. Have you been here the entire time?"
Stopping a few feet in front of her, he replied, "Nah, Sasori called me just before they took him to the station. Said he didn't want to leave the kid alone at hospital- not that they'd let me see him."
"And he's detained now?"
"Yeah, but I've been sitting here alone bored out of my mind I'm so glad there's someone else finally! Can I go now?" He whined, looking utterly disinterested.
"No. Arisa and Shikamaru are going down to the police station now. They might need us to do more digging." Seeing the annoyed pout on his face, she added, "But I'll stay with you. Can't be that boring, can it?"
Ending the call, Shikamaru looked across at Arisa sitting in the driver's seat of his car as they made their way to the police department closest the Children's Hospital Ino had made her way to.
"That was Ino." he drawled, quickly relaying what their blonde teammate had told him about the child's condition.
"So they're accusing Sasori of kidnapping? That's insane!" She commented, as soon as he had finished, scowling as she drove.
"It's obviously connected- to Tayuya and Orochimaru and our raid last night."
"But Sasori's got nothing to do with it. He's just been in the wrong place at the wrong time." she defended.
Pulling up the accused's files on the laptop in front of him, Shikamaru stared blankly at the screen in shock before turning to face Arisa.
"You do know who Sasori is, right?" he asked.
"...Yes."
"Know what he's done?" he asked again, half in disbelief.
"...Yes..." slightly hesitant of what was to come.
"Accusations of taxidermy, kidnapping and killing domestic animals, stuffing dogs and handing them back to owners? The sort of stuff which blacklists you in police records?" he read off the charges on the file in front of him.
"...Yeah- that was just once. And it wasn't even Sasori who did the killing! Hidan did it- Sasori just stuffed the lady's obnoxious dog and sent it back to her doorstep." she said, wincing slightly at the memory of said incident.
"And asked for the reward offered for bringing it back." he deadpanned.
"So what if he's got some anger management issues, he didn't hurt this kid." she defended.
"How can you be so sure?" he asked, though already acknowledging he trusted her judgement in this.
"He didn't." she said, with a finality which begged for the topic to be closed.
Staying quiet for several minutes, hiding the smirk on his face, he started again, "So you're saying its okay to kill and stuff animals?"
Sighing in annoyance, she humoured him with a reply, "That's what they do in the museums. Besides, he's gotten over it. So's the owner, too. I think."
Raising a quizzical eyebrow, but letting the topic drop, he brought a hand to his forehead as he said, "Lets see what we can do to get your friend out of this mess then. And get some leads on our investigation too."
Shikamaru was a genius, admittedly. But most of the people at the Hyuga mansion rivaled his intelligence- at the very least, they could hold their own in a game of chess against him. That's why he appreciated the comfortable dynamics he shared with each of them- but it did spoil his fun from time to time.
25th April, 2032, Hyuga Mansion, San Francisco, Time- 19:53
"What on earth was that?"
Sakura looked across her room, having just set down the package Sasuke had handed her earlier next to her bed, to find Neji's lanky figure leaning against the frame of her open doorway.
"What was what?" she asked, turning away from the bed and walking to lean on the windowsill as she faced him.
Pointing to the bag she'd placed on the floor, before gesturing towards the window from where one had a clear view of the driveway she'd been standing in minutes ago, he said, "That."
"Believe me, I'm asking myself the same thing..." he caught her muttering under her breath, before she looked up at him again suddenly, seemingly scandalised as she said, "Wait...you saw that?!"
"Hard not to from the kitchen window." he replied dryly.
An embarrassed flush crept up onto her face as she looked quickly away from her adopted brother standing in the doorway of her room.
"As an FBI agent," he began, drawing her attention again, "You are perfectly entitled to seduce your targets to extract whatever information you think relevant to our case- however" he went on, adding the last part to refute her open expression of protest, "You might want to make sure its you who's doing the seducing, not the other way around."
A sharp, angry edge to her voice as she spoke, she retorted, "As an agent off duty, I'm perfectly entitled to date whoever I want in my free time- might I add, without overprotective brothers sticking their nose where it clearly doesn't belong, thank you very much." His comment on seduction had clearly ruffled her feathers the wrong way, if her steadily rising waspish tone was anything to go by.
"No need to be so prickly. This 'overprotective brother' is trying to keep you away from a man who may as well be the criminal we crack down on at the end of this investigation." He replied, this time his own voice rising several notches above normal as he walked into the room.
"I thought we decided he's no longer a suspect!" she cried.
"I wouldn't trust that man as far as I could throw him, and you shouldn't either." He said, finding himself growing steadily angrier.
Opening her mouth to speak again, Sakura was interrupted by a third person, who spoke from the now vacant doorway.
"What's going on in here?"
The twin brown buns and red quipao blouse characteristic of Tenten announced her presence as soon as she spoke, she quickly walked into the room.
"Arguing about something?" she pressed, her curious nature unrelenting.
Looking at Neji, who seemed in no hurry to answer the question posed, Sakura said, "No. We're not arguing- Neji was just about to leave."
Scowling at Sakura, he said, "This conversation isn't over.", before turning to leave the room.
Once he was out of earshot, Tenten raised an eyebrow, saying, "Care to tell me what that was all about? Or why there wasn't just one, but two drop dead gorgeous guys outside our doorway earlier on today, both looking for you?"
Sighing as she sat down on her bed, she said, "I'm exhausted. Can we do this tomorrow? Lunch outside somewhere, maybe?"
Her curious gaze softening as she saw her sister's exhausted face, dark circles under her eyes- a result of almost two days nonstop field work and drama, she said, "It's okay. Lunch tomorrow, sounds great. Get some rest, I'll make sure no-one else bothers you tonight."
25th April, 2032, San Francisco Police Department, 1251 3rd Street, San Francisco, Time- 19:50
"This doesn't look good, Sasori."
Arisa stood in front of the shiny metal grills which marked the prison cell they were holding Sasori in, the man in question sitting on the wooden bench inside. It had taken a flash of Shikamaru's badge and some sweet talking the officers on the investigation to get them permission to speak to Sasori, which was what Arisa was currently doing while Shikamaru further spoke to the officers outside.
"I know." he said, the fear not evident in his voice. But she knew he was afraid- after all, things weren't in his favour at all.
"What were you even doing with a girl like Tayuya? When did you even meet her?" She said, exasperated at the Akatsuki's ability to get themselves involved in the worst sort of situations.
"Where's Itachi?" he asked, completely avoiding her questions.
"Nobody knows. You can't just sit around waiting for him to show up- he likely won't be able to do anything in the first place. Tell me something."
Frustratingly, annoyingly, the redhead on the other side of the bars remained silent in reply.
"How do you expect to get out if you don't tell us anything?"
Seeing him still reluctant to say anything, fast becoming impatient, she asked, "You didn't actually...kidnap the kid did you? Or do all that shit with organ transplants? You hurt him?"
"God, no!" he said, finally protesting, "You really think I would?"
"I wouldn't be here if I did." she said wryly.
"I can't tell you anything, it's dangerous...none of us want you getting in harm's way." he said, reminding her once again of how much she grew annoyed of the Akatsuki's somewhat endearing insistence on mothering her.
Sighing exasperatedly, she said, "Look, I'm not the same kid you guys picked up back then. I don't need protecting, I'm the one helping you now. And I can't help you if you don't tell me anything. So am I going to get anything out of you?"
Looking up at her with reluctance, sleepy hazel eyes hesitant to give her any information without speaking to Itachi first, he finally relented, saying, "Tia Fitz. That's all I can give you."
"A name? That's all?!" she was borderline angry by then.
"A pseudonym. Tayuya Fue in person. Tia Fitz in records. Figure the rest out yourself."
A plan clicked into place in her mind as she understood the implication of what Sasori just said- an explanation for the seemingly nonexistent files they'd been looking for earlier that day, and also a way to shift accusation for this crime from Sasori to Tayuya, releasing him from custody.
Dialing up the familiar number of yet another of the Akatsuki, the silver haired, violet eyed Hidan picked up on the other end.
"The fuck do you want, Arisa?" his usual, pleasant greeting to any phone call he bothered picking up.
"Don't whine. I need you to find someone." Had it been anyone else, he'd have hung up by then.
"Maybe another fucking time. Try next week." he said dismissively.
"It's for Sasori. I'm giving you a name, just find them, okay?"
"Which fucking pansy do I have to chase after this time?"
"The name's Tayuya Fue. Redhead, has a foulmouth which rivals yours, dollmaker by profession. Shouldn't be too hard, should it?"
She heard him sigh audibly on the other end of the call, proof that he was agreeing to help her out this time. She knew he would, though. "How long do I fucking have?"
"An hour max."
"Fine. But you fucking owe me big time, got it?"
"Say that to Sasori. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to pay you back." she said.
"But where the fuck is Itachi? He's supposed to do this stuff, we don't want you running around putting yourself in trouble and overworking yourself even more doing work he should be sorting out." he said, actually cutting out the profanity from his statement- the closest you ever get to having his genuine concern.
"Believe me I'd tell you if I knew..." she said, inwardly wondering where her dark haired friend could possibly be.
Hanging up, she walked out of the holding cells to find Shikamaru and tell him about latest developments.
25th April, 2032, Mount Diablo, San Francisco, Time- 22:21
Something in the stars and the moonlit city that stretched in the valley before him reminded him uncannily of the look of bewilderment on her face that first day he'd brought her out to the mountain in the cover of the night. Perhaps it had been the sheer force of the memories he'd revisited in the past couple of hours, but as he knelt down in front of the gravestone he himself had dug there so many years ago in memory of her life, placing the bouquet of white carnations, which he'd bought from a gas station in a memory induced haze before reaching there, in front of the large stone with the name Cynthia Tsutsugami carved in the center, he found emotions he'd buried away years ago resurfacing afresh.
Back then, the same night he fell asleep foolishly, optimistically thinking that everything would be okay with Cynthia, Neji, Sasuke, and his mother, he'd woken up to find himself and his brother in the same abhorrent experimentation his father had forced on Cynthia so many years ago. Having the news of Cynthia's death delivered to him there, added to the fact that his brother was in the hands of those scientists and he could do nothing to stop it, was a crippling grief and guilt which haunted him for days.
Six months after coming out of that experimentation, he packed his bags and left the Uchiha Corporation, cutting all ties with it. Of course, with the exception of a promise to Sasuke to come back and help save their mother.
In the years that passed alot of the grief and guilt he'd associated with Cynthia's death had been buried and locked away, by both choice and circumstance. But that night, it all came flooding back. As fresh as the memory of her look of innocent amazement when she looked down at San Francisco from the top of Mount Diablo for the first time.
Sitting down cross legged next to the gravestone, he leaned against the cool stone surface, absentmindedly staring into the expanse of free ocean that lay beyond the city, pulling out his phone which he'd neglected to pay attention to the entire evening till then. He noted distractedly, that the phone battery was dead- likely had been for several hours . Either way, nothing important could have happened till then. Even if it had, he had no plans of returning to the city before midnight.
Putting the phone aside, he lost himself in his thoughts as he ran his fingers over the imprint of the name carved on the side of the gravestone he sat by.
They cloned her, he remembered. A thought greeted with both nostalgia and anger, he could bring himself to despise the scientists who'd cloned her as much as he wanted, but he couldn't think anything malevolent of the child. She was living with Neji and Arisa at the moment- perhaps they'd let him meet her...
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~Raven