Chapter 33:

All in a Day's work...or, rather, eight or so hours?

….

Or, alternatively, the chapter wherein shit gets real for like eighteen people and Noone remembers to communicate successfully

See this? This is what happens when you can't text someone.

…..

"What is going on?" Rikari demanded, dark eyes flashing between the two of us, even as I wrung my arm free and I shifted to collapse into the chair right beside Gin's pillow. She looked to be a healthier colour than the last time I'd seen her, still pale but without that worrying chalkiness.

"Masaru-san," I waved a tired hand at the older woman, her back still pressed against the door with the well-known gleam of paranoia in her eyes, "saw the man again. Found me. Figured he might try something once we were spotted."

The Officer frowned, dark brows pulled low and puckering the skin around her eyes and forehead. "Did he see you?" she barked, rising to place a deliberately gentle palm on the other woman's elbow.

I mentally stalled, enough of a pause for Masaru to gather up her own response. "He followed me to the marketplace, where I met with Kiharu-san."

Dark eyes met her girlfriend's. "And afterwards?"

Finally, Masaru stepped from the doorway, shuffling over to perch on the chair beside her lover. "Maybe? We…" here, despite her age and seeming maturity, the barest flush of shame coloured Masaru's cheeks and I felt my own heat up to match. "We ran here straight away out of concern that he would approach-"

"Gin," I piped up.

Masaru nodded, chin jerking towards the sleeping blonde, before continuing.

Rikari, although I had expected nothing less, seemed particularly aggravated. "Have you noticed him before, Saru?" Masaru shook her head negative. "He may have simply been scouting out the situation but… by running to Dazai-chan…"

I grimaced, gripping Gin's hand to stop myself from wringing my fingers red. "He might suspect we're in the know."

Rikari nodded, draping an arm along the back of her girlfriend's chair. I wondered briefly how long they'd been dating before all this shit went down before realising I was in for it now. With multiple parties.

I paused, breathing deep and eyes half focused in thought. "Uchiha-san, can we stay here? For protection?"

"Your freak-out may have provoked them. Yes, you may."

Fuck my life, Uchiha's didn't hold back.

Masaru was looking even more ashamed, eyes glued to the strip lights despite how they must be burning her at least a little bit, so I decided fuck it and stuck my neck out a little more. "I'm glad you came to find me, Masaru-san," I nodded as surely as possible when both women glanced over. "What if he had been there to try again? Or he'd come to see me afterwards? He could have been any old customer and I'd never even realise."

This was, in actual fact, disturbingly true. Whilst at the shop, the sheer sensory overload made distinguishing anything a fucking nightmare and I never usually bothered. I only recognized certain people, mainly beloveds, on instinct alone. Like a scent version of a double take.

And who was to say that he hadn't been there to grab Masaru again after she'd escaped the last time? What with Rikari on shift here and my own personal dramas unfolding like the most depressing Soap Opera since Malinda's Husband, what's-his-face, in Ghost Whisperer died and then possessed that dying firefighter. That was a whole bunch of yikes. Or what-

Anyway.

Rikari was right. We may have freaked the guys behind this out, whether they attack us directly or go underground for a while, we probably fucked up.

However.

I wasn't going to apologise for our collective breakdown because we were valid. Masaru had decked her attacker and escaped, I'd decked Gin's attacker and we'd both escaped. All three of us were on the Shit List for fucking sure. And whilst I didn't think we'd be nabbed in broad daylight-

Hitoshi and I had almost been knocked off in this very same hospital before lunchtime. Daylight didn't mean safety much anymore.

Sorry Shisui, I mentally apologised.

Rikari's lips were looking particularly white, pinched like she'd bitten into a lemon expecting an apple. "I'll inform the Station."

My nostrils flared. Ensui. Dammit.

After Rikari had ducked out of the window, flagging down a patrolling Officer with a few flicks of her fingers and then, work done, resituating herself beside Masaru, I turned my attention from the couple to the girl beside me.

Behind her eyelids, the impression of her irises flickered wildly. I wondered what Gin was dreaming of so actively. Probably making boys cry or living the life of a celebrity seamstress in the Capitol.

Without her claw like nails, which had been carefully filed down by Hoshiko-senpai after the blonde had snapped a few in the scuffle, Gin's fingers looked so very strange. Short and stumpy.

Ten minutes later the door opened to reveal, not Ensui, but his boss.

Detective Osamu.

He was as tall as I remembered, however, hair pulled into a neat little ponytail that flicked cutely at his nape and glasses sliding low on his aggravatingly perfect nose. He was also, for the first time since I'd met him, wearing a flak jacket and I tried not to freak out at the implications that he was ready for a fight if necessary.

I was only allowed one breakdown a day. It was mine and Tou-san's new policy.

Nevermind, surely an accelerated heart rate was good for my circulation.

"Masaru-san, Dazai-san," he greeted, Uchiha-dark eyes flicking across the ceiling and taking in, what I guessed, were all the escape routes. His restless gaze paused longest on his Officer. "Anything?"

Rikari's white lips flattened into a hard line. "Nothing, sir."

Osamu-san nodded, a slow loll of his neck as though he had already expected as much. "There isn't anyone hanging around outside of here who matches the description. Better keep together for the time being, however."

I narrowed my gaze. "Detective?"

Dark eyes, so blue they were almost black, flashed over. A brow quirked and I took it as a sign to continue. "Have there been anymore missing girls?"

"Dazai-san, I cannot discuss an ongoing investigation. I understand that you are both presently involved and well-aware, however-"

Wincing slightly at the rudeness, I cut across the older man anyway. "I'm sorry, Detective, but with two girls lost and three witnesses, I don't believe for a second that the guys behind this aren't panicking. They are working at a loss right now-"

"You've been talking to Sergeant Nara, haven't you?" His eyes narrowed shrewdly and I was abruptly taken aback by the change. He'd always had the vague vibe of a paperpusher, a future politician perhaps, and to see the equivalent of the glint of a blade in his demeanor was...unsettling. I gripped Gin's hand tighter, feeling the flutter of her pulse against my fingers.

I wasn't done though. "I've been drawing my own conclusions, Detective-san, but if Ensui had a similar idea then surely it's more likely the truth?"

He stared at me for a long moment. "What do you think is going on, Dazai-san?"

"Some kind of job," I answered promptly. "Smuggling or something. It makes sense seeing as Gin's attack and Masaru-san's were well spaced without being too random and by different men. They were approached in the same way so they probably worked for the same cause or person. People, especially girls, go missing all the time."

The last part was said bitterly, the truth of it twisting in my mouth.

"Hitoshi - my Tou-san's partner-" I elaborated just in case the panthers infamousy wasn't quite what I suspected it was "- scented my clothes after my nose was broken. Seeing as I couldn't get a trace, he tried. But it rained," here, I couldn't swallow the angry huff that puffed out my chest. Fucking weather. "And-"

Gin's hand in mine twisted and, with a shockingly sudden viciousness, her blunted nails bit into my palm.

Hair sent flying as I whipped around to stare, I tried to jerk my hand free, a shriek bubbling in my throat.

Gin's pale eyes snapped open and I threw myself from my chair to bounce against the nearest wall.

"Gin!?"

The blonde in question struggled upright, pupils barely a pinprick and her breathing dangerously quick. She scrambled against her regulation hospital pillows with limbs clumsy and still half asleep, but the terror in her eyes lodged my heart in my throat.

"Gin-san-" The Detective immediately held his palm up and out, not making any move to approach, tried to gather control of the situation. Masaru had echoed my own shriek at the sudden awakening of a supposedly comatose girl and hunkered down in her own chair behind Rikari. "Gin-san, please-"

"THAT FUCKING BASTARD!"

I pressed the entire length of my spine flat to the cold mint green walls and sucked in a breath.

"Gin-san-"

But Gin wasn't having it, carding her hands through her own hair like a demon possessed, her expression twisted into something both gut wrenchingly lost and scarily furious. "HOW COULD-"

The door slammed open and Ensui's healer schoolmate - because of course - burst in, taking in the situation in a heartbeat. A senior member of staff was hot on her heels.

"I'LL KILL HIM!"

Peace talks were evidently useless so-

I steeled my jelly weak spine and moved back towards the bed, ignoring the nurses frantically gesturing for something to calm Gin down. "Kill who?"

Pale blue-green eyes met mine and a slither of sanity returned. The anger, however, increased twofold.

And by the time Gin's answer had registered, I was halfway out the door.

"That fucking Blacksmith!"

"Is wasn't him, Gin!" I screamed straight back at her, flinging the door open but waiting just a bit longer. I hadn't recognised the man, so why was she saying-?

"I told her, I said it was weird-"

And then I was off, ducking around the healers who paid no attention to me with a patient freshly awake and wracked with distress. Neither of the Officers came after me either.

My sandals slapped on the lino, a cruel mockery of all the other times I'd raced through this damned hospital, both at night and day, both leaving and arriving. There was a reason the shinobi avoided hospitals after all. It was not a place of good memory.

That fucking Blacksmith-

That fucking Blacksmith-

That fucking Blacksmith-

Gin had always hated Hoshiko-senpai's boyfriend. I'd always thought it was some kind of jealousy, although I didn't think the two apprentices were a great match either, and the older boy had always been...nice. Nice like most teenage guys were at least, in that absentmindedly way of strangers coupled with a teens disinterest with kids younger than them.

He'd never given me any bad vibes though.

There was a good chance that Gin had been out of it. The purpling crescent marks where her nails had bitten into my hand were evidence enough that she hadn't quite registered me as a non threat, although that also could have been because the last time she'd been properly awake a man-

Well.

Despite the fact that, not half an hour ago, I'd been racing to the potential safety of Gin's hospital patrol, I was flat out sprinting by the time I hit the streets now. Hitoshi's runs had kept me reasonably healthy and, even as my lungs heaved and the copper taste of blood tainted the back of my throat, I was able to keep going.

Thankfully, I wasn't going far.

"OJI-SAN!" I threw myself at the doors, staggering inside and ignoring the furious glare of the receptionist. I prayed that my voice would even carry in a place like this.

"Dazai-"

My hands skidded across the desk, sweaty palms leaving streaks, as I skidded to a thumping stop against the edge of the wooden top. "Inoichi-oji. I need him. Emergency."

Her teeth bared but, thank the fucking fates, she pressed the under-desk buzzer even as I bore my own teeth at her.

Bracing my arms, I allowed my head to drop down.

My eyes, however, remained wide open and I felt near feverish with thought.

Why would Hoshiko's boyfriend be involved? It wasn't him who grabbed her, so why was Gin-?

He had grey eyes, pale like a cloudy day, and-

Hitoshi followed his trail for two whole blocks before it cut off, but surely the tracks-

The tracks.

Oh, my fucking-

I wanted to slap myself, a proper head-aching slap, as if a blow to the head could double my brain cells as opposed to destroying them.

I wish I was smarter, playing detective with information I wasn't supposed to know and a million crime dramas under my belt had in no way-

"Kiharu-chan!" The far door opened and the tall figure of my uncle appeared, closing the distance and coming around the reception desk with long strides. "What's happened? Are you alright?"

I sucked in a deep breath through my nose, picking out the lingering scent of dust and grief. He must've been lingering over Inokumo's files again.

When Inoichi's warm palms situated themselves bracketing my shoulders, I let him crowd me back towards his office. "My nose, Inoichi-oji. He broke my nose."

Calloused fingers, made soft by the hand cream Sora placed around their house, danced over said feature and Inoichi's voice, soothing without his professionalism, was tainted by bewilderment. "Your nose is fine, Kiharu-chan…"

I pressed my cheek into his middle a little more.

This was too fucking much, too much drama and too many revelations. I had whiplash for fucking sure.

"The guy who tried to grab Gin,"

"Ah." My Uncle sighed in comprehension.

"How did he know to break my nose?"

A pause.

"Are you sure it wasn't a random hit? I thought he lashed out in panic?"

Eyes closed firmly, I scanned my memory to make absolutely sure.

"I-I-I didn't see," I gulped, remembering his expression when the searching torches had found us in the dark alleyway. "He'd been yanking on Gin and when I pulled back, her head it the wall and she went limp and-"

"Shhh, Shhh…" one hand shifted to cup the back of my skull, like I'd seen the blonde do to a napping Ino a hundred times. "Take it easy, Kiharu-chan. That's it, breathe easy." Feeling every inch the over-wrought child, I followed his gentle instructions as much as I could. "Now," Inoichi started, once some of the tension had fled my body. "Memory cannot hurt us, Kiharu-chan."

I severely doubted that.

"Try and focus, okay?"

I vaguely registered that my uncle was sitting down, probably in his office chair, as I was tugged onto a firm knee.

The alley way was so fucking black, even my own eyes couldn't-

Purpled shadows shifting, dark like my nose and eyes in the hospital after he'd-

His grip had been so strong, like Steel clamps. I'd thought, tugging desperately, that he'd break her arms for sure. Surely her bones would snap, surely he was stopping the blood from-

Her head hit the wall and his grip shifted, one arm like a band across her ribs and the other-

Despite my struggles, the quarters were close and the hit wasn't hard.

And his fist landed smack bang on target.

There had been recognition in those pale grey eyes. He'd known exactly who he was punching.

…...…

It was Seiichi's turn to take over the files. Inoichi had taken the most annotated - the potentially most significant - map with him but, lifting up the safety deposit box, it was the Chuunin's turn to do his own digging before his noon shift at the Tower.

He'd been at it for a grand total of three hours before Hitoshi, slumped against the door like a particularly unhappy draft-stop, finally decided to speak up.

Seiichi had been playing the long waiting game since last night's drama for the taciturn carnivore to finally give over and say what had his tail in a knot.

"Are you really going to sit there all day?" The slow, bored drawl interrupted the scuffling of paper. "I think this is the most reading you've done in months. Truly...remarkable."

The sarcasm lacked it's usual biting relish. Notable, considering how Hitoshi usually savoured every opportunity to mock the humans surrounding him.

"Is this your delicate way of asking to help, Hitoshi?" The summoner spoke up lightly.

White fangs flashed in a sneer.

"What would you rather I do instead, then?"

The panther sniffed. "Bring me lunch."

Ah. This was about Kiharu.

"Didn't Ki-chan leave you a haunch defrosting in the garden?" She usually dragged it out first thing on a feeding day, so she could jump in the shower straight afterwards without worrying about forgetting and then having to put up with a pissed off pussycat. Hitoshi, without a "kill" available, tended to demand a human food equivalent.

An adult portion of ribs was expensive enough without the panther demanding a dozen or so servings.

"She said so but she would've left her head behind if it wasn't attached this morning." He sniffed again with great dignity.

Finally looking up from the nonsense notebook before him, Seiichi stared in disbelief. "And you can't...check?"

His partner didn't even blink, not even a whisker twitching. "It's her responsibility, so we should go and ask her." When the brunette didn't immediately clamour to agree, the cat tacked on: "I won't have her neglecting her role."

Seiichi decide to bite. "Okay, spit it out."

Emerald narrowed. "I beg your pardon."

"The thing." He elaborated. "The thing. That's, you know-" he dropped his pen to wave a hand about in the vague direction of his daughter's bedroom, "- bugging you. Is it about Shisui-kun? Because I've already had words with both him and Mikoto-sama, and Genma also said he'd-"

"The kidnapper. The kidnapper, Seiichi-sama."

With deliberate calm, Seiichi smoothed a palm down the open spine of the notebook before him. "Oh?"

The faint click of deadly claws on laminate flooring and the panther paced closer. "She's at the end of her tether, Seiichi-sama. She wakes as though she hasn't slept at all."

Catching the knowing look in his Summoner's eye, Hitoshi hastened to add "if she suffered from insomnia, she would keep me up, the noisy brat."

The brief amusement faded however. Seiichi buried his face in his palms. "What would you suggest?"

"You catch him and I eat him." Hitoshi replied blandly.

Kami, he wished they could. "It's not our investigation."

Hitoshi's expression visibly soured. "That's not stopping the cub."

Slowly, the Chuunin's eyes slipped shut. "Oh fuck, tell me she's not-"

"Indeed."

"And the gift basket?"

"Used it as an in to meet someone. A witness, I gather."

"Fuck."

A heavy weight eased onto his knee, hot as a furnace through his regulation trousers. "What would you have me do, Seiichi-sama?"

An obedient Hitoshi was...sobering.

"Watch her?"

A puff of warm air against his in-seam. "Anything new, I meant."

Fatherhood was much more stressful when you threw a genius Baker, a panther and ninjas into the mix. Seiichi eased himself back in his office armchair, running soothing fingers over the pages before him for some kind of grounding.

"I couldn't hire a bodyguard, could I?"

"Decent but insulting. To both myself and her pride."

"Ah," Seiichi agreed. "She's so cute when she's affronted."

The head in his lap pressed down harder in reprimand. "Only when at someone else," the panther refuted with a grumble.

His finger hit a ridge in the page and, lost in thought, the Chuunin traced his finger over it for the sake of repetitive motion.

"Perhaps you could lend yourself to Ensui-kun," Seiichi mused.

Pink nostrils flared. "What are you doing?"

Seiichi stopped fidgeting, blinking slow at the other. "Uh, what?"

But the cat wasn't paying much attention, snuffling around the edge of his desk and inhaling, like the time Kiharu had hid a surprise sandwich for him in his desk and forgotten about it until Hitoshi had smelled something rotting. "Hitoshi?"

"What is…" a shoulder shoved incessantly at his knees for access so, still mute with bemusement, Seiichi pushed back from the desk and let his hands drop into his lap.

Hands which were promptly being snuffled by a certain velvet muzzle.

"Toshi?" Seiichi almost smiled, letting the panther sniff along his fingers like he hadn't since he was a cub.

"Resin."

The nose in question nudged the fingers of his right, dominant hand. "You have resin on your fingers."

The Chuunin blinked. "I'll go...wash?"

The panther's glance was withering.

"It's new."

Oh. Hazel eyes snapped up to the notebook. Oh.

And there.

A raised lump in the paper, something bubbled under the surface enough to seep through and transfer scent to a warm, rubbing fingertip and Seiichi checked the page even closer.

It wasn't one page but two glued together.

"Another page," he breathed. The resin would've held better than glue, less vicious and likely to lump.

Inokumo… you paranoid bastard.

"Hitoshi, come."

Long strides ate up the distance, notebook held in both hands and firmly gripping the incriminating secret page, as Seiichi entered the kitchen and clicked on the kettle (full, of course - "You can't leave a kettle empty, Tou-san! Do you know they can explode if you click it on empty by accident!?").

It wasn't an elegant operation by any stretch of the imagination but both man and cat were kept to rapt attention as the page was held over the kettles steady stream of steam, once, twice, a third time.

Every time, the resin weakened, the corner Seiichi was focusing on slowly loosening to peel back gently, gently.

The kettle had to be refilled a little before, after over an hour of making sure they pages weren't saturated, that Kiharu's beloved kettle didn't overheat, to slowly peel them apart-

And the hidden pages were revealed.

For a second, Seiichi didn't understand what he was looking at. These notes, unlike all the others besides the maps, weren't written in ink pen but in a soft, faded pencil.

Three inns, two of which on the borders of Fire Country, with the owners names and details.

A few merchants, some unknowns.

And then a small heading labeled 'Kono'.

Konoha. Surely, surely, it was for Konoha.

And underneath? Two names.

Soko.

Jun.

They didn't ring any immediate bells so Seiichi tentatively crossed them off his mental list of shinobi. He didn't recognise them from the office paperwork or the family names.

He pulled his notebook from his upper vest pocket and scrawled everything down, throwing in a few poor illustrations in replacement of certain words as usual in case it was later nabbed. Not particularly hard but still leaving room for false interpretation.

"Hitoshi," Seiichi slipped a sheet of Kiharu's kitchen plastic wrap between the still slightly sticky pages before snapping the book closed and running back to his office, shoving everything back into the cubby before sealing it up. "Go to Ensui-kun. Tell him you'll be his nose and eyes, he's a smart enough kid to not say no. I'm going to see Inoichi."

"And the cub?"

Quickly washing any evidence of resin from his hands in the downstairs washroom, Seiichi spared his summon the briefest glance. "It's lunchtime. Genma-san will be with her. Raidou-san too, I'd imagine."

…

Pupil-less turquoise bore into my own eyes. "You're certain?"

I nodded, a quick, jerky movement. "It was...calculated. Right on the bridge of my nose, not to the side or to my eyes or anything. And there was a pause…"

-Gin's head hit the wall with a sickening 'smack' and I could barely breathe-

"-and then he decked me."

I bit my lip, the poor flesh already chapped from being gnawed useless. "What are the chances a random guy knows I have a good sense of smell?"

Inoichi's reply was very carefully phrased. "That would be… Unlikely… however, Kiharu-chan, a broken nose is a popular tactic for anyone to throw off an opponent. The chances that this man did it expressly to deaden your ability to trace him…"

"I know," I admitted. "But I had the thought about Hitoshi's trail going dead in the rain. He's followed leads in the rain before."

"Not always," Inoichi pointed out.

"Not always," I agreed again. "But that's not why I ran over here."

The knee supporting my weight shifted slightly so that my uncle could peer at my expression with greater ease. The unsettling thoughts I could feel bubbling up again, like some kind of toxic potion, must've shown on my face. I couldn't even tell what I was broadcasting anymore.

Was an easy day of lighthearted baking too much to ask for? I felt like poor Bilbo Baggins, for fuck's sake.

"I was at Nekki's today," I started. "Mikoto-hime has the day off you see so it was just me and one of the girls. And then the lunch rush came and Masaru-san arrived."

A faint line creased the Yamanaka's forehead. "She's the first victim to get away. She never saw the guys face but she compared…notes, I guess you could say… with me and they were two different guys. But she saw him in the street and she knew it was him and she thought he might be there to...you know." I shrugged a little, feeling queasy at the thought. "Finish the job. So she came to Nekki's."

This time, Inoichi frowned properly. "She led him to you? Did you inform the police? Surely you have officers on premise during lunch, Kiharu-chan?"

Oh.

Oh, god, we hadn't even-

"No," I squeaked, sounding a bit like a mouse that had been trod on, my shoulders up around my ears. "We were just suddenly scared about Gin so we ran to the hospital and when we were there, she woke up!"

Without breaking stride in the narrative, I showed him the red marks on my hand, which he silently cradled between his own palms. "She was so mad, I thought she was having a fit and then she started screaming about how she was going to kill him and-"

Inoichi's hand squeezed tight, his expression demanding. "Kill who?"

"The Blacksmith! Hoshiko-senpai's boyfriend is a Blacksmith's apprentice, but the man who attacked her wasn't either of them-"

And then I was interrupted.

"Kiharu-chan," Inoichi's tone had gone very quiet. "Would you please go to the Police Station and find Ensui-kun, and then stay with him?"

My mouth flapped open for a moment. "W-what?"

"In fact, could you please summon Hitoshi-san to take you there?"

I sat back, forcing a calmness through my body and swallowing against my day throat. For the first time, I clearly registered the papers so uncharacteristically strewn across my uncles desk, the faint but today-fresh scent of both my father and our panther.

I set my jaw. "Why can't I-"

"Kiharu."

My teeth ached a little from the clench as I stood up, knotting my fingers through the stupid fucking signs and slamming a hand on my uncle's stupid fucking floor.

Hitoshi didn't come.

FuFu did.

A small boulder of fuzz flopped on plate-sized paws, ungainly in the cute way I was both not in the mood for and powerless against.

"Mwrol?"

Oh, for-

I cast a glance over my shoulder, still pissed to be out of the loop I fucking provided, to gesture to the baby current slipping over to me. "Either I've gotten worse, FuFu really wanted to play, or Hitoshi redirected me."

I knew he'd been here. That was my nice way of leaving an opening for my uncle to elaborate.

Which he proceeded to not do. "I suppose a dog-sized kitten is better than nothing. Does she know the difference between friends and the rest?"

Naturally, strangers were given no benefit of the doubt.

"Pretty much," I admitted, letting her sandpaper tongue investigate my proffered hands. Better the hands than the face. Or the hair. "She knows to follow our own reactions. It's how cubs know to hide behind mama in the forest."

"Good."

He was too soft to tell me to shift it.

"Right, baby," I straightened from my squat, the tiger-mix cub brushing my hip with her head with the most aggravatingly expression of adoration. It was way too cute, I was supposed to be angry. "Let's go."

I had yet to take my baby girl out around Konoha and an escort against kidnappers wasn't the first venture I'd had in mind-

It was a distraction, I'll give it that.

Fuji, for all her oversized...ness… was still a baby and a baby cat at that. She was at least the size of a German Shepard, foofy to the extent of almost comedy and so inquisitive that I basically wanted to lie on the floor and pass out within the first thirty feet.

I had no leash.

She had no collar.

The streets were full.

So?

I ended up stooped, both hands twisting my torso aside, to grip the special flap of fur at her nape with tightly clenched fists in an attempt to keep my grip against her truly impressive strength.

Unfortunately this flap also had the psychological effect of making her as limp as overcooked udon.

So, there I was, a small girl lugging a huge sack of kitten through the main streets of Konoha.

I'd have probably been weak with, and inevitably collapsed from, laughter if it was at any other time.

As it was, my eyes weren't on the street ahead of me nor the curious gazes that followed my progress, but on the ninjas on the rooftops, eyes straining for a familiar ponytail, either blonde or dark. But nothing.

I managed a single street before I gave up.

For the record, despite the hard packed earth of the streets, the occasional cobblestones, and the many people, Fuji had expressed, neither vocally nor through body language, nothing but the mellow chastation of a cub in mama's maws.

"Okay, baby," I finally staggered to a stop, eyes dropping from the afternoon skies (crikey but it must be past four by now) straight down to the cub at my heels. "Take Two."

How I managed to get a fucking heavy cub to piggyback me-

Well. It took two unwitting pedestrians, roped in with kitten eyes (one set real, one set as good as), to give Fuji a...paw up.

Her chin snuffling through my hair, which I had already mentally waved goodbye to, and a paw pressed bruisingly heavy on each collarbone, I hooked my elbows under the crook of her hind legs and, with a bounce, set off again.

You're probably wondering why I had even gone to see Inoichi-oji in the first place. Why not Ensui straight away or my grandmother or Mikoto-hime?

It was because I needed to get my uncle involved. There was something going on. The way the attacks were spaced out, the way Gin started on about Hoshiko-senpai's boyfriend of all things? I knew the police handled the civilian crimes.

Ensui had been looking into the possibility of prostitutes making up a greater percentage of the hits than the civilian ones. In fact-

Not counting Masaru and Gin, that was four girls in two months disappeared.

I know one of them, an academy student from merchant parents, had actually been labeled as a runaway. But the way Ensui had noted how her case had lacked motivation…

What if...they weren't just taking anyone?

What did the girls have in common. Gin wasn't a shinobi, neither was Masaru.

They were all… civilian-born.

Every last one was Clanless.

But why had they been targeted? Why those women? If it was anyone on the streets at the wrong time, why were no boys being taken? Rapists or traffickers usually didn't care too much.

That was why I had needed to speak to Inoichi. Ensui had even said the reason enough.

"I thought it was another Officer taking the sabotage a little further but...the pages had been amended."

Ensui had been sent in to survey the inner workings of the Station and the fact that he'd found what they had feared?

If they weren't taking just anyone, there had to be a profile the bad guys were following. Ensui still wasn't any closer to finding the leak/editor so, in the wake of Gin's little comment-

I'd decided to go over the Police's heads.

Something about the way Inoichi-oji had reacted, really everything he'd done as soon as the words had left my mouth, told me that Gin's words had been big.

I tried to wrack my brain about Hoshiko's boyfriend and.

Well.

I didn't know much. Fuck but I didn't even think I remembered his name.

Hoshiko had been… blushy, when he first came onto the scene. He was a blacksmith's apprentice which meant, I could easily gather, than he was a bit of a popular one for his age. After all, he was sure to get fantastic biceps from all the work, a good income in a shinobi village too, so I could imagine a lot of lingering eyes on the boy.

Hoshiko, in contrast, was quiet. She didn't like to spend much time in the marketplace, although she was able to visit it for supplies easily enough, because attention always had made her curl up into herself. The wooing of the Smithy's apprentice - for fuck's sake, let's just call him Mo - the wooing of Mo had been both a boost to her self esteem and a bit embarrassing.

Gin had been sour from 'hello'.

Okay, that had been a lie. When Hoshiko had first been asked out, she was like a lioness on the hunt, catty and demanding of every single detail.

And then they'd kept going out. And Gin's mood had gotten worse and worse and worse.

Hoshiko tended to go on casual dates with him, if I remembered correctly. Lots of talking. They'd walk places - kind of like now - and have picnics under trees. All that gentle wholesome shit.

I wondered… what kind of things Hoshiko-senpai had talked about to him.

I mentally paused.

Had she talked about Gin to him? I wasn't sure, when that kind of conversation came around in the back room of Yuri-oba's shop, I tended to zone out!

Then again, she really must have. Gin was her best friend and had plenty going on in her own life, between her brother's marriage and her increasing desire to move out and find her own place-

"Can't believe she actually asked him! As if I would take that boy's advice-"

Oh.

Hoshiko had spoken to Mo about Gin recently.

She'd asked her boyfriend if she'd known anywhere that Gin could rent in the neighbourhood and he'd tried to recommend a few places-

He'd been there after the attack, in the waiting room with us. If he was involved, he'd come in with us to see her-

I needed to get to the Station.

The other girls were probably there and if they weren't, then someone could take me to Mikoto or, better yet, Ensui.

Another two streets later, spine sticky with sweat and arms shaking hard, I staggered to a stop.

Hoshiko-senpai was walking in the street with her boyfriend. He was as nice looking as I remembered, pretty long hair and broad in the shoulder from all the anvil work and lifting.

My eyes flickered from the couple, meandering hand in hand, to the roof of the Station just visible in the distance.

Bugger, fucking hell, shit-

I may not have become a ninja.

But by fucking Kami, if I wasn't an idiot.

…

Genma was having… an ordeal.

He'd had plenty of ordeals before. In fact, he'd probably go so far as to use that term as a job description.

'Role: Handles various ordeals.'

That was assuming his entire file, or at least 90%, wasn't blacked out though. Or that a job like his needed a CV, let alone an applicant description file.

Genma's...day job… was a bodyguard with perks.

The perks being. Well. Classified.

The number one perk, classified just as much as Genma himself was, was his partner.

In ANBU, in the Guards, wherever, Genma had been spoiled by the presence of his best friend. So much so that his left side occasionally, sometimes, on the rare occurrence Raidou wasn't around, felt a little chilly.

Not that anything short of a Mind Walking session would ever have him admit it.

Complacency was the biggest danger in a job like his, though. Getting comfortable.

But, in the long gap between the more vicious hits he was called in for, between the shorter gaps for regular ANBU missions, it was hard not to develop...a certain degree of comfort.

Granted, Genma knew perhaps more than most that in-village was in no way synonymous with out-of-trouble.

Top of that Criminal List, in Genma's mind at least, being one Dazai Kiharu.

Genma actually remembered his first meeting with the young brunette very well. And that wasn't for lack of trying.

… the guys hadn't stopped calling him '-chan' for nearly two fucking months.

But Yondaime-sama had been a bit of a fan of the kid, a Baker still missing an adult tooth of all things. Scratched up knees and carefully brushed hair, she was… interesting.

And, dammit to hell, he was fond of her.

She had spunk, he'd give her that. Her and that huge panther and he'd been relieved to see her make it through the years alright.

So what if he was a bit of a regular.

Okay, so she had a nickname for him. And he hadn't tried to crush the habit too hard. And she was so fucking embarrassing with Raidou, he was still trying to weed out what asshole in the barracks had set her up to that-

But Genma was an assassin and a coldblooded professional.

Don't ask him why he was flipping pancakes, and not for the first time. Just ...don't.

"You're old Genin teammate would be proud of your enthusiasm, eh?" Raidou smiled, inordinately pleased with himself for being a bad cook and having to sadly handle drinks orders instead.

Genma cast him the stink eye. "Don't even go there, you know he'll somehow hear-"

Another crooked smile, this time aimed at the lid he was pressing over a cup of takeaway tea. "From all the way at the border?"

The Tokubetsu rolled his eyes, smiling wanly at the kid eagerly reaching for their pancakes. He reminded him of a certain trio of misfits a few years back. Jeez.

An image of Gai, poised in a head stand or something equally… him… hearing Genma's comments on the wind before racing back to announce something to do with his youthfulness…

Rinsing the ice-cream scoop, Genma snorted and jabbed an elbow into the other man's ribs. "Don't doubt it."

Raidou passed over the tea, accepting the money which he then dropped into the till. They both waited until the door had jangled shut behind the family before Raidou turned back to him.

"So you said that woman was a Police Officer?" The scarred man's tone was dubious. "She didn't look like an Uchiha. And she wasn't… trained."

"She's definitely been at the Station, I wager. Maybe she's involved with one of them. Seemed awfully touchy and why else would she need to borrow the kid like that?"

Grabbing a damp flannel, Raidou wiped the spotless countertop.

Leaning a hip against the side, Genma didn't bother with the curl of bemused warmth nestled somewhere beneath his sternum at the other man's fussing. "Shouldn't one of us go check on her?"

Genma cast an eye to the couple by the far corner on their cute little date. "We'll drop a hint to lover boy later, yeah?"

His partner shot him a vaguely incredulous look. "Really?"

"Hey! What?"

Raidou poked him again, unimpressed and one eye on the Chuunin in question. "The guy's on a date, a first one too. Why don't you just hail down an Officer? They usually loiter outside-"

The ring of the door saved Genma from any more pinching.

"Oh!" Raidou blinked, looking a little guilty at the familiar face. "Shisui-kun, hello.."

In the corner, Ensui did a double take over his date's shoulder before hunching down lower. When his gaze met Genma's, the older man couldn't quite smother his smirk.

"'Sup, kid," The Tokubetsu interjected when his partner made it obvious he didn't have the heart to tell the Jounin immediately. "Kiharu-chan had an emergency swing by - literally - but she did say lunch was on her."

Genma wasn't a heartless man and watching the kid visibly shrivel at the news definitely twinged something disturbingly close to that particularly vital organ.

"Oh."

Raidou, for all his professionalism and by-the-book mentality, was even less of a heartless shinobi tool than his partner and immediately started making up the biggest box for the inevitable freebies.

They'd seen enough of Kiharu today to know the Softie had made all of her best friend's favourites. And they knew Shisui enough to know he'd love anything Kiharu had been involved with, let alone her own recipes.

The young Jounin took that as a sign to slip into the nearest counter stool, arms folding to brace his weight.

God, the kids had made him soft-

"Cheer up, kid," Genma kept his eyes on Raidou's scarred hands as they carefully tried to maneuver another tartlet into the leftover space. "She looked gutted to go."

In his perceptual vision, the Tokubetsu watched as that nugget made the Uchiha's puppy-beaten head jerk upright again. "Where did she go?"

The two stand-ins paused before brown eyes met brown.

Well? Genma asked.

He's a good choice, Raidou pointed out.

"Some woman came in here a little over an hour ago and begged her to come with her." Genma shrugged, his casual tone at odds with how he carefully watched the emotions flicker across Shisui's face. The kid was right, he was expressive for an Uchiha. "The kid tried to get her to leave but something she said convinced her and they left. Kiharu definitely owes me a tab, though, I'd wager."

By the end of it, Raidou was sending Genma a look for neglecting his own correspondence with Kiharu. Much more interestingly, however, was the steady flush on Shisui's cheeks.

The assassin made a mental note to watch this one in the future.

"She just left with her?"

Raidou almost said something but stopped before he could give anything away. Sharing a wavelength was a useful thing.

"'Course," Genma shrugged.

"Right," Shisui agreed. "Right." Or not, then.

"I'll just- right."

And then he was hopping off his stool and leaving.

"Uchiha-kun, your lunch-" Raidou blinked at his empty hands. There was a crumpled note on one palm in replacement, more than the current display was worth. Well then.

The bell sounded a good few seconds after Shisui had zipped off.

"Well then." Genma vocalised, reaching for a senbon to gnaw. "That was memorable."

"Are you sure that was a good idea?" Raidou grouched, piercing his searching hand with another look before glancing pointedly at the "No weapons!~" sticker that Kiharu had slapped - she had actually slapped it on, mid shift, with her eyes boring into his own, the cheeky brat - to the front of the till machine. When Genma feigned blindness, he actually reached over to halt him. "We shouldn't have let her go off in the first place," Raidou continued, forever conscientious.

Shaking off the warm grip, grumbling a little without true heat, Genma snagged a cocktail stick instead. "I did ask her. She's a Chuunin's age now, she knows better than to do something too stupid."

Really? Raidou blinked, hand still suspended by the Tokubetsu's hip.

In place of a reply, Genma popped the sharp end between his teeth.

…

Ensui had been staring into his coffee - a nice change of pace from staring blankly at his, cough Ryuu's cough, report - when the asshole in question came back from his smoke.

Ensui had actually lost count on how many Ryuu'd taken so far. He was certainly away more than he was present. Still, he was pretty sure the other man had only smoked heavier in the past two months or so. He'd have chalked it up to stress if he didn't know better.

...

Hm.

"-oi!" Speak of the demon and he won't shut up. Something was tossed at the Nara's head and, without looking up, Ensui tilted just so that the missile would sail harmlessly past.

"Was the date that shit?" His asshole partner snarled, face twisted like the excess smoke had cloyed on his tongue. Ensui didn't bother looking over. Ryuu seemed to take that as a weeping confirmation. "Ha! I could've told you that, in fact I fucking did-"

"Shut up or I'll fuck up your report on purpose."

Out of the corner of Ensui's vision, he could see the way Ryuu's thighs hitched themselves on the edge of his desk, fabric taunt and ankles crossed. Great, that was Ryuu's bitch pose.

Well.

Bitchier.

"Touchy~"

Thankfully, whilst Ryuu had been on his X number smoke break, he'd missed a certain someone's arrival.

"Remove your disgusting aroma immediately, human. I wouldn't even eat your reeking corpse."

Ryuu shot up like he'd touched a live wire, landing behind his own desk with a hand on his weapons and the pissiest expression Ensui had seen since, oh, this morning?

"Who fucking said-"

The shadow that wasn't a shadow, which had taken it upon itself to express it's displeasure by slowly crushing Ensui's legs below the knee, raised its head so two viciously green eyes were visible over the lip of the desk.

"Bitch."

Ensui slowly tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling for a while instead.

His coffee date with Kagen had been...nice.

It had been a long time since anything in his life had been so uncomplicatedly nice. It was a weird feeling. But, he tentatively decided, not a bad one.

It was a shame Hitoshi had, true to form, appeared in a piss enough mood to ironically piss over his parade.

He'd been looking for him for ages, he'd declared.

Not too hard then, considering he'd been in Nekki's, Ensui had replied. Which was when he'd received the three scratches across his bicep.

Seiichi-san had told his panther to aid with the investigation, said Summon had then continued.

Too late for that, considering the outing that morning, Ensui had quipped back.

He'd almost had an ankle bloodied for that one.

Deciding that discretion really was the better part of valour, the Nara had then allowed himself to be shepherded away from the direction of his flat and back to the Station.

At this rate, it wasn't even overtime, it was a lifestyle.

"Could you two," Ensui mused at the ceiling fan, "shut up?"

Predictably, he was ignored. Overlooking the increased pressure on his abused limbs of course.

The late afternoon sunlight really was fucking depressing, though. Having been up at the ass crack of dawn for the world's most ridiculous stake out before an interview with the Madame, a first date over lunch, and back to the ol' desk before four.

Great.

Nevermind the fact that, snarling hissyfits aside, he had been staring down at the two transcripts of their interview for a while now, waiting for Osamu-senpai to get back from the call, Ryuu hadn't specified what for, he'd disappeared on a few hours ago.

Had he followed another lead? Were they supposed to just sit tight and wait for him?

Hazel eyes flicked to the clock of the far wall. 16:15.

Dammit, he needed to talk to the boss.

Ryuu hadn't even been able to debrief, having barely stepping into the man's office before the Detective Inspector had rushed out past him, a post it clenched in one pale fist.

The Madame from this morning had been… helpful.

In many ways, she had been helpful in what she hadn't said more than what she had deigned to say.

Or rather, the girls gone missing had been of their own accord, with notice handed, and often...pregnant. Such things, the Madame had taken a slow drag of her own cigarette, were tragic for a prostitute's career.

She ran a business, not a nursery, and any girl who found herself with an occupied womb was told in no uncertain terms to move on.

There hadn't been any abductions that she'd been aware of.

Fuck. Another trail dead.

Ensui's eyes glanced up at the clock again, could imagine the aggravatingly slow tick of the hands (imagine only, the Station bustle drowning such a small chime out so very easily). Where the fuck was senpai?

"Hitoshi, why aren't you out there?" Ensui interrupted the hissing match to jerk his chin in the direction of the main doors and, consequently, the world outside. "I don't think Seiichi-san meant for you to be shackled to my desk with me."

The panther glanced over briefly before his own eyes slipped back shut. "I was told to help with you."

"Your chakra flickered a while ago," the Nara accused.

"The cub attempted a Summoning."

Ensui blinked. And then blinked again, before saying slowly; "and...you didn't think to, I don't know, go to her? What if she needed you?"

A huge paw came down heavily above his knee, claws like needles just pricking the skin through his trousers. "Don't try and lecture me, brat. Do you think I would neglect her so?"

Ensui leaned back in his chair a little, trying not to think about how close those insanely sharp claws were to his junk. "Then why?"

The claws slowly retracted. "She didn't summon out of desperation. She was aggravated. And I don't fancy being called in to clear out bad customers."

Oh great. Ensui leaned forward, bracing his hands on his hips so that Ryuu, who had been watching the free entertainment with the eager expression Ensui knew meant he wanted to see him get mauled, couldn't read his lips.

"You haven't been with her all day, have you?"

Green eyes opened.

"I am, primarily, Seiichi-sama's."

The irked tone wasn't promising but, at this rate, Ensui was willing to risk another swipe for some Kami-damned clarification. "No, listen, Kiharu's not been at the shop all day."

A frown puckered the plush fur of Hitoshi's forehead. "It's her day on shift." The pressure on his feet increased. "She's the only one in today."

Ensui pressed his lips together with a helpless gesture of 'what can you do?' "I was there over lunch and it was only one of the waitresses with Genma and Raidou covering her. They didn't say where she'd gone off to but when Shisui came in around two-ish, something they said had him packing pretty quick."

The panther, obviously unnerved, started kneading his front paws into the top of Ensui's shin. "Hitoshi?"

"Who did she leave with?"

Unsettling, that he didn't know.

Hitoshi was just as unimpressed and the Chuunin found himself scrambling out of his chair, a mouth full of very very sharp fangs in his face. "You don't know?"

"Genma-san and Raidou-san didn't know! How was I supposed to know?"

In hindsight, it was… beyond stupid. Most people could be trusted to go about their business and not get into the most unbelievable scraps.

Most people were sane. Kiharu was neither 'most people' nor capable of acting like such.

They couldn't just babysit her though.

"Well, you rejected her summoning."

At that, the panther suddenly rose, heading straight for the door. A little bewildered, something the Nara hated on a genetic level, Ensui followed half a step behind. "I did, but someone answered."

Som-

"She summoned that thing?!"

A warning growl snarled up the panther's throat and Ensui put just a little more space between them as they loped down the steps onto the street. Right. He was it's dad. Right.

With two great bounds, the panther took to the rooftops and Ensui, thrusting chakra into his legs, followed a second later. "Where are we going?"

But today was one of those days.

"Ensui!"

His name echoed from the building opposite and, turning to see, Ensui stared at the head of dark curls as the figure quickly leapt over the street to join Chuunin and panther. "Shisui, what the fuck?"

"I can't find Ki-chan!" The younger boy forgoed pleasantries, face twisted with concern. Oh, for-

Ensui settled a bracing hand on his friend's shoulder, squeezing for a moment before dropping his grip to get moving again. Hitoshi wasn't going to wait for much longer, his tail already lashing impatiently from where he was poised the next building over. "Listen, I'm sure you can talk to her later-"

But Shisui wasn't letting Ensui go, snatching his hand out of the air as the older boy dropped his hold and wrapping his fingers around Ensui's wrist with all the unmoving stubbornness of a handcuff. "No, wait, listen- I asked around the street in the market square because no-one actually knew who Kiharu-chan was going with. They ran all the way to the hospital! But I asked your girlfriend at reception-"

"-oh, fucking hell-"

"-and Kiharu had left again, not half an hour later! Running! Kiharu- running!"

"Listen, Shisui-"

"But guess where the woman took her? To that girl's room, the blonde - Gin - she broke her nose over."

Ensui stopping tugging on his arm, breaking into a run and dragging the Jounin with him instead. "I know who that was."

Shisui's grip squeezed. "Who?" he demanded, taking the leap without a thought and then following obediently as Hitoshi immediately set off again.

"Masaru-san, the first escaped victim."

Shisui was more than a little confused, out of the loop on a lot of shit, but Ensui didn't pay his demands any mind.

Think, Nara. Think!

What else was he good for if his brain refused to cooperate.

Fifteen tampered files.

Five women.

Three witnesses.

There was little chance any women from the Red Light District had been taken too, but Ensui wasn't ruling anything out just yet.

Kiharu had run off with Masaru-san to Gin's room. Why? The last time he'd seen the two together, Masaru looked like she'd rather never see her face again. But she had approached her.

Only fear would do something like that. Something had definitely happened to her to chase them all to group together.

Was that the call Osamu-senpai had received earlier? That would...make sense.

He must've been called around half an hour after Kiharu had left the bakery, seeing as Ryuu had arrived inside the Station in time to see him leave and Ensui had arrived at Nekki's just after Kiharu had left. Yes, yes, that fit.

Kiharu had then tried to summon Hitoshi out of frustration.

Hmm.

"How's Itachi-kun?"

Without even looking at him, Ensui sensed the way Shisui jerked at that particular line of inquiry. "Fine."

"Right. Sure. Fine." But Ensui let it go. Now ready wasn't the time anyway.

Hitoshi had been steadily leading them across town… toward the Hospital. Even if Kiharu wasn't there anymore, the reason she was AWOL definitely was.

A black blur slammed into the roof tiles beside the Nara, a gloved hand lashing out to punch Ensui's upper arm so hard it threatened to go numb.

"Would you stop that!?" Ryuu spat, not even acknowledging Shisui's own low oath at the sight of this particular clansman. "If you have a lead, I'm-" he jerked a thumb at his own chest "-coming with you. We split credit on cases, and I'm not letting you fucking throw me under the bus for your precious Senpai!"

"Could we please focus?" Shisui whined, speeding up to leave the two Officers behind him and running in sync with Hitoshi's fast strides.

"Wow," Ensui parried back. "Great to know that an Officer of the Law is only looking for his own advancement, especially in cases such as these."

Ryuu's face was like marble. Grouchy marble. "You're an idiot if you think we're all angels of goodwill." They ducked around a trio of chimney pots, bracing their feet along the low-running wall before they were all leaping the distance, finally, onto the hospital roof. "Let me guess, you always dreamed of protecting the streets of your home?"

Nah, I'm just a plant.

"Well, your cynicism is irrelevant right now. Hitoshi-" Ensui turned to address the panther. "What now?"

God, how had he ended up looking to a cat for instruction.

…

Seiichi avoided the first trickles of what could become the lunchtime crowd by, as most shinobi did, taking to the roofs. The duo was able to slip into the flow of shinobi traffic and reached the T&I offices within minutes.

Inoichi, as expected, was pouring over his brother's map when Seiichi rapped a knuckle on his door before poking a head inside.

"Seiichi, what brings you here?" The Yamanaka greeted him, sitting up straight. "I thought you were going to be at the mission's desk by now?"

"I was," The Dazai admitted, slipping inside and closing the door as soon as Hitoshi was passed him. "But I found something."

At that, the Yamanaka rose, extended a hand to accept the slip of paper that Seiichi wordlessly extended to him. His fingers might have shaken had he been anyone else. "Where was it?" he whispered.

"Two pages were glued together," Seiichi answered, grim. "Do you...recognise them?"

"Here, there, and pure…"

The brunette blinked. "I took it to mean Konoha, and then two names."

Inoichi looked down again. "Hm." The note page Seiichi had copied from Inokumo's book was tucked into his own chest pocket. "We have files here that lists everyone registered within Konoha. Birth certificate registers, death, as well as immigration."

"How long will that take?"

Inokumo glanced at the clock. 11:20.

"Let me get you a seat."

…

16:45

"Surely, this isn't smart?" I eyed the poker, gaze flicking between the dulled blackened metal and Hoshiko's uncharacteristically stern expression.

On my back, Fuji-chan started nibbling on my ears again.

…

A/N- it's been ageeeeesssss~

Which is…Nothing to be proud of, admittedly. However my coursework is done and I'm a free bird and it's taken ages for me to feel able to start writing again. Thank you to everyone who commented, reviewed, liked, followed/faved, kudos-ed, etc etc this whole time, they really made me not want to just…. Walk away from the fic. It's hard to come back to, especially when I had to look up small details and try and remember what my shit notes had planned but I think I've covered the corners. However, if I've fucked up, please do let me know. Unless it's a massive mistake, I won't be editing on FFnet because I absolutely loathe the format there with editing and replacing uploaded docs ughhhhhhhh

Anyway, this chapter is also a little shorter than the past few because it just came to a natural ending I guess. This arc ends in the next two chapters also and I need to try and maintain this writing momentum to soldier on through. The minute details are murder if I take another break and forget most of them...again…

So please wait for the finale of this arc patiently! Thank you again for reading x