Echoes

Chapter Seventeen

Location, Location, Location

At breakfast Sasuke had his laptop on the table next to him, flash drive in the side as he scanned through the files Neji had given him the day before. Itachi and Sakura were speaking quietly, giving him the time to focus.

If only it were that easy. The screen was a mess of formulae and figures, and none of it seemed to be registering in Sasuke's brain.

"How's your science, Itachi?" He spoke up suddenly, pausing the conversation that his breakfast companions were having.

"Well it's not exactly my forte but I did well enough in school."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Itachi had never just done 'well enough' at anything. "Can you make anything of this?"

He turned the computer around and Itachi's eyes squinted slightly, scanning through the equations on the screen. He shook his head. "That's very advanced stuff, Sasuke. I think this bit." Here he motioned a smaller chunk of equations. "Looks like a degradation of material, but I can't be sure. I think most degree level candidates would struggle."

Sasuke nodded and pushed the lid of the laptop closed, sighing. "Yeah it's going to have to be a job for one of the brains at work." He rubbed his eyes with one hand and shook his head. "So how is the office coming along?" Sasuke asked, turning the subject away from the case.

"Good. The contractors are hard-working and I think that the major refurbishment will be completed ahead of schedule."

"Are you going back there today?"

"No," Itachi shook his head. "I think I had best start to look for somewhere of my own to live."

Sasuke nodded. "I have work today otherwise I would offer to go with you."

"Perhaps Sakura would like to accompany me?" Itachi suggested.

Sakura, having been only listening up until this point, started. "Me? Well I'm not sure how much help I'll be..."

"You would be good company at the very least." Itachi pressed.

Sakura nodded. "Alright then. I'd be happy to go with you."

Sasuke frowned and gave his brother the stink eye, Itachi choosing to ignore it.

"Excellent. I will call up the estate agent and see if he is available today." With that Itachi got up and took his dish to the sink, washing it swiftly before leaving the room.

"You're rather quiet." Sakura mused, turning her attention to Sasuke.

"Am I?"

"Mm. You are okay if I go with Itachi, right?"

"Of course."

"Good." Sakura said, also standing from the table and sending a wicked smile his way. "Because I would have gone anyway."

The first thing that Sasuke did when he arrived at work was to drop off the flash drive and it's puzzling equations. He headed up to the brightly lit labs full of masses of computers and the KPD's resident geniuses; he was sure that he would find someone there who could shed some light on the contents of the drive. While the members of the department could most often be found rebuilding corrupted files and wiped hard drives, the people working there were also very smart and would relish the challenge. Sasuke knew at least one of them had to have post graduate degrees in the sciences. If even they were stumped then they would have to look in to bringing in outside help.

Sasuke handed over the drive to a man sat near the door. He signed the small plastic stick over and requested (as politely as could be expected from him) that they make it a priority. Just as Sasuke was about to leave the room, a blonde, bespectacled woman sidled up to him.

"Erm, Uchiha-san."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the nervous woman. "Yes?"

"You are working on the poisoning case? I saw you just give that USB in but you see, Neji Hyuuga sent me the actual hard drive to look at."

Sasuke perked up. "Did you find anything?"

"Well I was able to find some encrypted files... they seemed quite suspicious and out of place. They are very well protected so I don't know what they say yet." Sasuke sighed inwardly. "But," the woman continued. "I was able to pull an email address from the file details... the same email on all of the files."

Sasuke nodded. "Patterns are good." He noticed the woman cringe slightly and he frowned. "But let me guess, the email address isn't traceable?"

"Well I wouldn't say it's impossible but they have routed it extremely well."

"Then they must have something to hide. Do you think you can trace it for me?" The woman nodded. "Thank you. Let me know when you find anything."

"Of course."

Sasuke turned to leave again when a thought struck him. "What's your name?"

The woman looked surprised. "Shiho."

"Then thank you Shiho"

Sasuke found Naruto hanging around by the coffee machine, using the hot water button to fill a cup of instant ramen. "Breakfast?" Sasuke asked sarcastically.

Naruto nodded happily, ignoring Sasuke's obviously distaste and set the pot on the counter while the contents softened. "No Sakura today?"

"She's helping my brother find a place to live."

"How romantic, their own little love nest." Naruto teased and Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Shut up. Are you ready to head out and check in to our victim's life?"

"Yeah let's go!" Naruto reached for his food and Sasuke shook his head.

"The ramen stays here." Sasuke said seriously.

Naruto gave him an affronted look. "You can't tell a man to leave behind his ramen."

Sasuke shook his head, despairing for all future progeny of Naruto Uzumaki. "You are not eating that in my car."

"I'll be careful I promise." Pleaded, his blue eyes wide and sincere.

Sasuke groaned. "Fine. Let's move."

"Sorry." Naruto laughed sheepishly as they climbed out of the car in the centre of the city.

Sasuke eyed the noodles and broth soaking in to the carpet of the passenger foot well and sent Naruto a murderous look. "You're paying for it to be valeted."

Naruto grumbled under his breath but did not otherwise protest and followed Sasuke as he approached the imposing, glass fronted building. The foyer was pleasantly sunny and welcoming; ice blue chairs were scattered around the space and one of the walls was actually a softly rushing waterfall.

A harried-looking receptionist was at the front desk, busily scribbling down a message over the phone. "I'll pass that straight on to him. Have a good day." She put the phone down and smiled up at them. "Good morning gentlemen, how can I help?"

Sasuke and Naruto flipped open the leather cases on their waists, showing the woman their badges. "Officers Uchiha and Uzumaki."

The woman's face became uneasy. "Are you here to see someone in particular?"

"Yes. We are investigating the death of Rin Rikei. We have a warrant to search his office again, but we would like to speak to his direct superior if possible."

The receptionist nodded and hastily dialled a number, her voice low as she spoke. Sasuke and Naruto averted their eyes, pretending not to listen.

"Floor eighteen." She pointed at the lifts on the far left of the room. "Karōshi-san will be waiting for you."

"Karōshi-san," Naruto held out a hand for the man to shake. "I am Officer Uzumaki and this is Officer Uchiha. We are part of the team investigating the deaths of Rikei-san."

Karōshi was a small man, made to appear even more diminutive by his slumped shoulders. His face was drawn and ill-looking and his voice sounded like coarse fabric being dragged across gravel when he spoke. "Of course, it is nice to make your acquaintance. I have already given a statement so I am not sure how much help I will be, but please." He gestured for them to follow him.

They passed through an eclectic mix of desks and large scientific equipment, with men and women in white coats working on computer screens and peering in to microscopes. They passed by a large metal set of double doors, a key pad on the right side. Karōshi jerked a thumb towards it. "That is the main lab. We do most of our testing here on this floor. This," He gestured to the room at large. "Is where we analyse the results of our studies."

He ushered them in to a large, well-kept office and motioned for them to take seats.

"And just what is it you are studying here?" Sasuke asked.

Karōshi slipped off his lab coat and lay it over the back of his chair before sitting down. "We are producing artificial food. From a small amount of genetic matter we are growing meat in the lab."

"Fake burgers?" Naruto looked ill at the thought.

"In a sense." Karōshi nodded.

"That doesn't sound like something worth killing over."

Karōshi nodded at Sasuke's words. "We have fanatics who complain about the natural order of things, but this is quite tame. I've worked on projects in the past much more controversial than this. Couldn't leave the building without a guard. I don't think Rin's death is connected to his work. I mean who would kill when the result could be eradicating world hunger? And why only target him?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Maybe it wasn't his official work that was the problem. Do your employees ever take on freelance work?"

Karōshi frowned. "It is not usual, in fact it is actively discouraged. Research such as this comes through official channels. And even if someone was able to get permission to research something, we would not allow them to do on the company's time. Rin was here a lot, sometimes he had to be reminded to go home – if he was doing his own work then he should not have been."

Naruto scratched his cheek. "Could we look at Rikei's office?"

Karōshi stood. "Yes. It is just down here." He led them out of the room and down the corridor. Rikei's office was tucked just around the corner.

"Rin was one of the lead researchers and so had his own office."

"Privacy. " Sasuke noted. "Did Rikei ever mention anything about threats to him? Did anyone ever single him out individually?"

Karōshi shook his head. "No. As I said, the threats have been very tame. Angry letters deploring what we are doing but nothing violent."

Naruto nodded and gave the man a smile. "Could we take a look around here?"

Karōshi, stepped back towards the exit. "Help yourself." He hesitated a moment before leaving and cleared his throat. "There is one thing. When Rin died we had to get his research from his computer. I looked through the files directly. Everything seemed in order but there were a few files that were unusual."

"Unusual how?"

"Well we encourage our employees to encrypt their files for security reasons. As the direct supervisor however, I have access to them. Rin appears to have gone a step further and added his own security to these files. We have not been able to access them."

"Could we have those files, Karōshi-san?" Sasuke asked. "We can have our team work on accessing them. It could be important."

Karōshi hesitated. "Yes, but if it turns out they are to do with our project..."

"You have my word they will be returned to you, and no one else will see them."

Karōshi nodded and left the room.

Sasuke was beginning to feel hopeful. With the data they were working on from Rin's home computer and the files that Karōshi was fetching them… well perhaps they were two halves of the whole picture.

"This apartment is spacious and modern, and is situated in a chic and prosperous area of the city."

The droaning voice of the estate agent was beginning to grate on Itachi's nerves and, judging by her rather vacant expression, Sakura was feeling the same way.

"What do you think, Uchiha-san?"

Itachi looked around the open plan apartment. There was no doubt it was an attractive property. The kitchen was large and contained various gadgets that Itachi was sure he would never discover what they were actually for, let alone use them. There was a mezzanine level that held the bedroom and the large windows gave a spectacular view of downtown Konoha. Something about it however, just left him feeling cold.

Itachi shrugged and turned to Sakura who was frowning slightly, Metsuki sat at her side. Itachi had noticed the man sending annoyed looks toward the dog throughout the morning and it was just one more reason for him to dislike the smarmy realtor. "What do you think, Sakura?"

The pinkette sighed and tilted her head to her side. "Well it's a little drafty so I'm assuming either the windows could be of better quality or just that it's a cold apartment. Either way you'll probably be spending a lot on heating."

The estate agent bristled. "Oh please, you can't seriously-"

Itachi sent the man a dark look and he promptly shut up. "Go on." He encouraged Sakura.

"It's a bit nosy too. Listen." Itachi did as she asked and sure enough could hear the rumble of traffic from the streets below.

"It's hardly deafening!" The estate agent protested.

"True." Sakura conceded. "But you were right – this is a popular area. My friends and I come to clubs near here quite often and I know that it is even noisier in the evenings." She shrugged and addressed Itachi. "It's not a bad choice if you are looking for a city apartment. It's just you strike me as someone who likes his privacy and quiet. Like your brother."

Itachi smiled – the woman really was very perceptive. "Do you have any more secluded properties?" Itachi asked the miffed estate agent. "Well no. We specialise in city living for the successful business person."

"Okay." Itachi nodded. "Then I will no longer be needing your services."

Ignoring the angry spluttering coming from behind him, Itachi allowed Sakura to take his arm and together they (with Metsuki, of course) left the room.

"What a pompous windbag." Sakura muttered.

"I do hope you are not talking about me, Sakura." Itachi joked.

Sakura laughed. "You've got a chance, but no."

"Well you are right. Both in that that man was an idiot and that I would be better suited to a home with more privacy."

"Well you appear to be one estate agent down. What's your plan?"

Itachi huffed out a laugh. "I'm going to search for local estate agents on the web. The internet is a wondrous place."

"Absolute genius." Sakura lauded him, laughter in her voice.

Rin Rikei's office was neat and well kept, though Sasuke wasn't sure whether that was due to the habits of their now-deceased scientist, or the tampering of the police department. Naruto was stood at the bookshelf looking through the titles and shaking his head.

"Hey, Teme?"

"Hn?"

"What does 'immunofluorescence' mean?"

Sasuke looked at him, baffled. "Why do you want to know that?"

Naruto shrugged. "Just saw it on the title of this book. It sounds interesting."

Sasuke pushed down the urge to throw the heavy paperweight on the desk at Naruto's head. "Focus, Dobe. If it interests you that much then buy a dictionary and look it up."

"Oh ha ha." Naruto quipped. "It's not like you know what it means."

"It's a micro-scoping technique."

Naruto paused and narrowed his eyes. "How do I know you're being truthful?"

Sasuke ran his hand over his face. "Why would I waste my time lying to you? Like you said, you'd have no clue."

Naruto stuck his tongue out and went back to the bookcase, pulling out the books one at a time and flipping through, looking for loose pieces of paper. Sasuke focused his attention on the desk, opening the drawers and rifling through.

The initial police sweep had taken most things and only a few sheets of paper remained. Sasuke looked through, eyes skimming over the timesheets lists of internal phone numbers that comprising most of the pile.

In the top draw there was a nondescript blue pocket diary. Sasuke flipped through and saw that it was empty, apparently never been used. He was just about to close the book and put it back when a small patch of black ink in the corner of one of the pages caught his attention.

Sasuke studied it, and saw that there were odd black lines and curves all down the edge of that page. Sasuke sat at the desk and stared at the ink marring the otherwise pristine book. His eyes stared at the shapes for a long while, the sound of Naruto shuffling things in the background fading from his attention. He tilted his head and observed that one of the ink marks looked rather like a katakana symbol.

He raised an eyebrow – could it be?

Sasuke shifted the items on the top of the desk before finding a clean sheet of paper. He plucked a pencil from the pen holder at the corner of the desk and laid the paper over the book. He began gently rubbing the pencil over the paper and as he did, the otherwise invisible impressions on the pages of the book below began to reveal themselves. Once Sasuke had made sure he revealed everything the book had to offer he put the pencil down and lifted the paper.

It seemed that Rikei had written a message on a sheet of paper, the pocket diary open below it as he did so. As such what he wrote was now clear for Sasuke to now read... well some of it. The pocket diary was smaller than a normal sheet of paper and so only part of the message had imprinted in to the book below:

tests have confirmed

is unstable. The tests

breakdown of stability

tual failure of

osis soon follows.

ed that the project should

ned. I cannot continue in

am withdrawing my

aru has been informed

usal would be disasterous.

Sasuke read through the words several times. It didn't give away much but what it did not sound good.

"Dobe?"

"Yeah?"

Sasuke met his eyes and waved the paper in his hand. "Jackpot."

Karōshi has given them a disk as they left, containing the encrypted files from Rikei's computer. Sasuke had asked, in passing, if Rikei's work had included anything particularly volatile or unsafe, or if he had withdrawn his support from a project.

The reply had been a confused, and yet resounding, no. Their project had been very successful, and the benefit of working with the food was that there was no messy legislation involved with things like human testing.

Sasuke and Naruto had left soon after that, thanking Karōshi for his help. Though Sasuke had a feeling that the partial note was the best thing they were going to find that day, they still made a pit stop at Rikei's house. They focused on the office but found nothing of interest. No random pieces of paper floating around with messages on, no incriminating meetings pencilled in to his planner. Nothing.

"You think Kakashi will be happy with that message?" Naruto asked as they drove back to KPD.

"I think he will. Rikei was obviously working on something in his spare time, and it sounds like whatever it was took a turn for the worse. I think we have our motive for his murder – he tried to renege on an agreement and whoever was in on it with him didn't like that."

By the time Sasuke walked through his front door he was exhausted. Kakashi had been pleased with the note they had found. He had sent it to be run through a computer program that would try and complete the partial words on the note, hopefully allowing them to make more sense of it.

It probably would be of little help however, as there seemed to be quite a bit of the message missing and therefore too many variables. The disk with the protected files had also been sent up to the computer lab – really Sasuke thought, the people working in the labs must have been getting fed up of this case by now.

He and Naruto had talked at length with Kakashi but it seemed that their best course of action was now to wait for their evidence to come back. Kakashi had asked for a rush job on the results and Sasuke hoped that the lab would acquiesce.

Sasuke walked through to the kitchen and saw Sakura and Itachi were sat at the table eating takeout and chatting good naturedly. His brother looked up when he entered.

"There you are, we were wondering if you were coming back tonight."

Sakura smiled and nudged the chair next to her out with her foot. "The food's still hot. You must be hungry."

Sasuke sat down gratefully and grabbed the nearest container of food. "How did the house-hunting go?" "

Sasuke raised an eyebrow when Sakura giggled.

"It was slow to start." Itachi spoke, smirking slightly. "But I believe we have found a perfect place."

"Really? Where?"

"Number 47 actually."

It took Sasuke a few moments to comprehend what his brother had said. "47, as in the house at the end of my street?"

"Our street as it turns out." Itachi's smile was now outright devilish. "The papers are being draw up now and the current owners hope to move by the end of the month."

Sasuke groaned pinched the bridge of his nose. "Any reason why you want to be neighbours?"

Itachi shrugged and withdrew a prawn from his noodles with his chopsticks. "Sakura made a good point – I'm like you in that I appreciate the option of solitude. When I saw that the house was for sale it seemed perfect – I already know I like the area after all."

"Sakura said that did she?" Sasuke quirked an eyebrow.

Said girl bit her lip to hold in her laughter and ducked her head, letting her hair curtain her from Sasuke's gaze.

There was good natured banter passed back and forth as the food was consumed. When the meal had largely disappeared, there was a knock at the front door and Sasuke frowned, wondering who would be calling so late.

Answering the door, he was surprised to see Kakashi stood there, one lazy eye staring back at him.

"Yo."

Sasuke stepped aside and let his superior pass him, the man walking through to the kitchen.

"Sakura, Itachi." He greeted pleasantly.

"Hatake-san." Itachi returned politely, having only met the man briefly before.

"Kakashi!" Sakura smiled, perking up.

The man chuckled. "Glad someone is pleased I'm here."

"Why are you here?" Sasuke asked, gesturing for the man to take a seat.

He shook his head. "It won't take long. I was just about to leave when a girl from the computer lab came to find you. She passed on the message and I thought you might like to hear it?"

Sasuke's mind went back to Shiho and what they had spoken about earlier.

"Have they made progress with the hard drive or the equations?"

"No." Kakashi scratched the back of his head. "It's about the email address they've been trying to trace."

"That was quick," Sasuke muttered. "Did they pinpoint it?"

"Not exactly. They are still working on narrowing it down but they've got a general location. At least they're almost certain it's correct."

"How general are we talking here?" Sasuke asked, leaving on the wall opposite Kakashi.

"City-wide."

Sasuke frowned. "How does that help?"

"I didn't say it was this city did I?"

"Are you enjoying this?" Sasuke asked with narrowed eyes.

"Just a bit." The older man deadpanned. "They've traced it to Otogakure."

Sasuke processed the information for a moment. "You think...?"

"I think we both know of someone with the money and lack of morals to be involved in this."

"But what about proof?"

"We have none." Kakashi conceded. "Not yet at least."

"We have no jurisdiction in Oto. You'd have to ask the Oto PD to chase the lead."

"We would, if a certain man was not coming to Konoha this weekend for a charity gala." Kakashi's eye drifted over to the kitchen table. "It's why I came actually. I want to ask Sakura for help."

Thank you guys for all your lovely messages wishing me a speedy recovery. I'm feeling much better now and wanted to get this chapter written for you all.

So as I'm ridiculously absent minded lately, I cannot remember for the life of me if I actually gave the scientist a name before this chapter? I would go through my other chapters and check but I want to post this chapter. I'll double check when I have time, but if someone knows that I have actually named him I'd be grateful if you could let me know. When I'm writing my notes down I tend to just call him 'the victim'. If not then great, his name is now Rin Rikei!

Also as an interesting note, when trying to come up with a name for Rin's boss I found the term Karōshi which means 'death from overwork'. It fit in my mind as I imagine him to be a very stressed individual.

Talking of names, it took me forever to find what Shiho's name was. I remembered her from the manga but could not recall the name at all!

I quite like this chapter, and mainly because it means I can post the next chapter. I think you will all like it… very much so actually ;)

I'll be posting very soon hopefully but I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter in the meantime.

One last question: I started this story thinking it would be a little light-hearted thing that I updated when the mood struck me. Writing it however, I got really in to it and the plot sort of snowballed and took on a direction I hadn't planned on (my short, light-hearted story turned in to a an episode of Law and Order haha).

So my question is: do you think this fic should stay as Romance/Humour, or would it be better filed under Romance/Crime?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.