Echoes

Chapter Five

Calls May Be Recorded

Sakura was up and about by the time the doorbell of her apartment chimed (repeatedly) the morning after the party. Knowing who it would be, Sakura merely shouted to Ino that the door was open and waited for her friend to join her in the kitchen. Ino's heels tapped sharply on the tiles of the kitchen floor and Sakura sat silently at the counter, knowing that she was about to get an earful.

"Sakura Haruno!"

'Here she goes.' The pinkette thought dryly.

"What were you thinking wandering off on your own last night? Do you know how much I was freaking out when I got your text? Especially when I found Hinata and Tenten and realised that you hadn't gone home with either of them. And don't get me started on how Gaara and Temari both had no clue as to where you were! Does that big forehead of yours just hide empty space!?"

Just as Sakura was about to interject (really, the forehead again?), Ino cut her off.

"And another thing! How many times have I told you not to leave the front door unlocked? It might not have been me standing at the door you know. Sometimes I wonder how you manage to survive."

Judging by the fact that there was then three seconds of silence, Sakura gathered that Ino's little tirade was finished.

"Good afternoon Ino, so nice to see you." Sakura knew the overly peppy voice would annoy the blonde but she also knew that she needed to set Ino straight and so she decided to behave and lower her voice for her (most likely hungover) friend. "You seem to be forgetting that you were the one who ditched me last night, not the other way around. I text you to let you know I was fine, and see here I am alive and breathing.

"I knew it was you at the door seeing as most normal people ring once... what happened to the key I gave you anyway?"

Ino huffed moodily. "I left it in my other bag, I can't be expected to keep track of everything, especially when there is a drill inside my head and my mouth is dryer than Gandhi's sandal."

Sakura smirked lightly but took a small amount of pity on her friend. "The kettle boiled a few minutes before you came in, you'd best make yourself some coffee. Did you have fun last night then?"

Ino shuffled across the kitchen and Sakura listened as she began pottering about. "I think so... but I'm not too sure. With a headache like this though, I had better have a had a damn good time."

There was blissful quiet as the blonde girl made up an extra strong cup of coffee and poured an ice-cold glass of water from the fridge as well (it's best to have all your bases covered after all) before rejoining Sakura at the counter.

"So who did you get a lift with anyway? Your text was pretty vague."

"You remember the guy who knocked me over the other day?"

"Yep," Ino muttered, only half listening. A few beats of silence followed before her sluggish mind put two and two together. "Wait! You mean he took you home? I didn't even know he'd be at the party! What was his name again?"

"Sasuke Uchiha," Sakura said happily. "I ended up sitting at the same table as him to escape the crowds. We got talking an he offered me a lift home. You want to know the best bit though?"

"Of course I do! Do you not know me at all, Sakura?"

Sakura traced the tip on her index finger around the rim of her glass as she relished holding this huge piece of gossip over her friend's head. "Well when we got back to the apartment he asked if he could take me out sometime."

Ino's gasp made Sakura's day, so very rarely did she get to surprise her like this.

"Ah! I can't believe this Forehead! I hope you realise that you should be thanking me for this... I mean without the party you wouldn't have seen him again. You have to let me meet him really soon so I can tell you how hot he is, although things seem quite good at the moment, I mean all the Uchiha men I've seen so far have been completely gorgeous."

"Keep dreaming Pig, I don't want to scare him off. Besides I haven't heard off him yet today, for all I know he might chicken out or he still felt bad last night so he decided to ask me out on a whim."

"Nu-uh," Ino disagreed. "I bet you'll hear from him by the end of the day. I mean he must want to go on a date with you or he would have just ignored you last night. It's not like it's hard to sneak past you, after all."

Ino yelped as Sakura kicked her in the shin.

At that precise moment in time, a certain Sasuke Uchiha was sat at his desk in the KPD, fiddling with his mobile phone. The address book was opened to Sakura's number and his thumb hovered over the 'call' button, but he just couldn't make himself press it. Sasuke couldn't believe he was chickening out of calling a girl just because he was sort-of-not-really-okay-maybe-just-a-tiny-little-bit scared that said girl would reject him. He had never had such an issue before, because women would always ask him out, leaving Sasuke at a loss at this very moment. What was the correct procedure for asking a girl out and then possibly dealing with rejection. Not that he thought Sakura would reject him, but maybe she had decided over the past twelve hours that he was in fact a jerk who liked to shout at blind, pink-haired girls?

His inner wallowing was interrupted by the very vocal lamentations of the loud-mouthed blonde sat opposite him.

"Oh my head!"

Sasuke sent Naruto a scathing glare but it, unfortunately, went unnoticed by the man who was too preoccupied with blocking out the harsh rays of the sun which filtered through the blinds. Naruto had decided to bring his work into Sasuke's office as they both poured over the files for the poisoning case.

"Shut it Dobe. It's your fault you got completely smashed last night. You knew we had work today."

Naruto merely groaned in response and rested his forehead on the cool wood of the desk.

Sasuke sighed and let the idiot be, putting his phone to one side for the time being as well; he really did have to get a move on with this case.

He had decided his first course of action would be to follow up the lead that Kakashi gave him the night before and check out the records the restaurant kept on their staff. Picking up the landline phone on his desk, Sasuke typed the number for the restaurant from the file in front of him and waited for someone to pick up. After many seconds of waiting Sasuke was about to put the phone down, concluding that there was no staff in this early in the afternoon. He pulled the phone away from his ear when the irritating ringing noise stopped and was replaced with a female's voice.

"Hello, The Jade Leaf Restaurant, Setsuko speaking, how may I help?"

"Yes, hello. This is Officer Uchiha from the Konoha Police Department calling. Would it be possible to speak to the manager?"

"Oh! I mean, yes Sir. I'll just put you through to his office line, one moment please."

Sasuke waited for only a few seconds before the line was picked up again, this time by a haggard sounding man.

"Yuudai Hotaka. Who am I speaking to?"

"Hotaka-san, this is Officer Uchiha from the KPD. I'm one of the officers working on the poisoning case, I was after just a few moments of your time."

"What now!? You do realise this is the first day since that god-awful night that I've been able to open my restaurant. Do you know how much money a place like this looses every night it's closed?"

"Hotaka-san, I am not ringing to close the restaurant. I am merely calling to ask if I could have come down to the restaurant this afternoon and take a look at the employee records?"

"I suppose that would be fine... there would be no disruption of tonight's service would there?"

"None at all."

"Well okay, I'll get the records ready for you."

Sasuke thanked the man quietly and put the phone down. Getting to his feet he tugged Naruto up by the collar as he rounded the desk, ignoring the chocked spluttering coming from the man.

"Come on Dobe, we've got work to do."

Thirty minutes later, Naruto and Sasuke were seated in the Jade Leaf, looking over the staff rota from the night of the poisoning while Yuudai Hotaka hovered anxiously behind them. It appeared that Yuudai really did not like any disruption to his usual regime.

The staff rota was longer than Sasuke would have guessed. Six pieces of A4 paper stapled together, listing everyone from the chefs to the dish-washers, gave the KPD officers a good overview of who was in the restaurant on the night of the crime and when. The temp staff were listed on the back page, printed out in neat columns with their contact details next to the names, presumably to make things easier to contact in case they were not needed that night.

Sasuke's eyes were immediately drawn to one name on the list: Saburou Shin.

The name had been crossed off with a red ballpoint pen line and next to it was a handwritten name: Osamu Takeshi.

"Hotaka-san?" Sasuke waved the manager over. "Why has this name been crossed off and replaced?"

Hotaka peered down at the list and frowned. "Oh, Saburou. Yes he fell ill or something of the like and completely ignored protocol by not phoning me directly himself. He instead called a friend of his from the staffing agency, this Osamu fellow, and asked him to cover for him. He left it so late I tell you! Barely an hour before service and I get a call from Osamu informing me he would be working that night."

"Did you get his contact details?" Naruto had perked up slightly from his hangover.

"No, didn't get the chance, it was an extremely busy night for me, we had many important guests on our list as I'm sure you know. Didn't even have time to verify it with the agency so I don't suppose the man has been paid yet, I've had better things to do."

Sasuke exchanged a look with Naruto, both apparently thinking the same thing. "Hotaka-san, do you by any chance record all telephone calls that come into the restaurant?"

The portly man nodded. "Of course, training purposes and all that. We record the reservations that come in by phone so we can make a note of any people who don't turn up for their table and refuse them the next time. The calls into my office are recorded also, so I can chase up staff members who don't make it in like Saburou... with all the chaos lately I haven't had time to check if he was really sick or just being lazy. I haven't seen him around since either, we haven't had need for any temp staff lately... we've been pretty quiet."

Sasuke ignored the bitterness in the man's voice. "We're going to need the recording of that conversation, Hotaka-san, and a physical description of Osamu Takeshi... I have a feeling we are going to need to match him up with the CCTV footage we have from that night."

Hotaka moved around the office to a large, walnut filing cabinet, opening the second drawer and rifling around inside for a few moments before pulling out a labelled and cased CD. He handed it over to Sasuke who gathered it up along with the staff rota while Naruto took out a notepad and pen, ready to write down the description of their mystery worker.

"Hm, let's see. Osamu had dark-brown hair, cut short, and blue eyes. He was probably around the same height and build as you," he pointed at Naruto here.

"Any distinguishing characteristics?"

Hotaka shook his head. "The waiting uniform is long-sleeve shirts and trousers, it doesn't really leave much skin to see. Although I do remember thinking that he must not have worked in many restaurants before."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke pressed.

"Well he had contact lenses in, quite obvious really the way he was blinking and rubbing his eyes all the time. I've seen it a thousand times before, the kitchen gets very steamy and dries out contacts like you wouldn't believe. Most people quickly learn that it's better to just wear glasses, it's a lot more comfortable for the eyes."

Naruto made and note of everything and then he and Sasuke shook Hotaka's hand, leaving the restaurant quickly. They were seated in Sasuke's car soon after, both turning the new information over in their heads.

"Should we head back to the station and tell Kakashi what we've got?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke glanced down at the staff rota once more, the red line over Saburou Shin's name drawing his eye. Through the line he could still clearly read the address printed there and he shook his head, passing the papers and CD to Naruto.

"I have a better idea."

Saburou Shin lived in a modest apartment block, close to Konoha University. Sasuke would venture a guess that the twenty year old (as it said on the rota) was still a student and working his way through his degree.

The outside door of the building needed no form of key or code so Sasuke and Naruto let themselves in and walked up to the fifth floor, quickly locating room 5B and knocking on the door.

There was no answer.

Trying again, louder this time, Naruto accompanied his knocking with calls of Saburou's name. With still no luck, Sasuke pushed open the letter box and peered in to the flat. His eyes were sharp enough to notice that things were not as they should be. A table in the hallway was overturned and the rug on the floor was twisted and askew with signs of a struggle. He could hear the faint sounds of a television playing on low and noticed that the curtains were still drawn against the afternoon sun.

Straightening up, Sasuke nodded to Naruto who stepped out of the way. With a well-aimed kick, Sasuke succeeded in breaking the latch on the altogether-unsteady door. Naruto flitted past him and headed carefully for the living room and Sasuke followed him, feeling the weight of his gun tucked into his side.

The living room was a total mess, the television was still on but had been knocked over onto its side. Sasuke's eyes skimmed over books on human anatomy and biochemistry – this boy was training to be a doctor.

While Naruto walked further into the living room, Sasuke's attention drifted towards the kitchen. The remains of a half-eaten meal sat on the small table with mould overtaking what it had previously been. There was a door at the back corner of the kitchen, slightly ajar, and it would have been completely unremarkable, if not for the smudge of blood on the silver doorknob.

Not wanting to touch anything, Sasuke made his way to the door and carefully used the muzzle of his gun to open it fully. There were splashed of blood here as well, Sasuke could vaguely see that a few of them were actually partial prints from the soles of someone's footwear. Being careful not to step on them, Sasuke followed them back into a bedroom. The bed was neatly made and nothing was out of place – Sasuke's attention was purely on the open door of the adjoining bathroom, or more specifically, the bath.

"Naruto?" He called out and heard his friend's muffled answer from across the apartment. "Call Kakashi, we've got a homicide."

Sakura was feeling very impatient. Ino had long ago gone home, her head feeling slightly better, leaving Sakura to stew in nervousness as she waited by the phone for Sasuke to call. It was getting late, she knew that, having just listened to the ten o'clock news on the TV.

Maybe Sasuke didn't want to see her again... maybe he was just being nice. She sighed heavily but smiled when she felt Metsuki nudge her with his snout.

"Don't worry, you're still my favourite." She assured the lab.

There was relative silence in the flat, broken only by the television, playing audio description of one of Sakura's favourite sitcoms. The episode was almost at its end when the sound of her phone startled Sakura.

Scrambling to pick it up, Sakura felt her breath catch in anticipation (and maybe hope?).

"Hello?"

"Sakura? Hi, it's Sasuke. Look, I'm sorry about calling so late..."

"No it's fine. It's nice to hear from you. Everything okay?"

"Yeah, just a rough day at work. I realise this is probably not the best way to do things but would you like to go out on a date?"

Sakura smiled. "I'd love to. When?"

"Now?"

"Now?" Sakura echoed in confusion. "What time is it?"

"Just gone eleven. I'm sorry for ringing so late and it's fine if you're not up to it. Like I said I had a rough day and I sort of got a little perspective from it."

"I'll come," Sakura assured him quickly. "You can come pick me up whenever is good for you."

"That's great. I can be there in fifteen minutes. Just dress comfortably and bring a jacket."

The pair said their goodbyes and Sakura had a mini panic attack as she tried to do a million things at once. She changed out of her pyjama shorts into a pair of jeans and pulled a comfy sweater over her vest top, made sure her hair was behaving itself and decided to forgo make-up. She just had time to grab her bag and stuff her purse, keys and phone in it when the doorbell rang.

Before Metsuki could dive up and race to the door, Sakura commanded him to stay. She heard his claws skitter a little on the kitchen tile before stopping and she smiled. She patted his head and he followed her to the door, where he waited obediently as she opened it.

"Sakura."

The girl was happy to hear Sasuke's voice in person again and smiled widely. "Hi. Um... do you want to get going?"

"If you're ready."

Sakura nodded and grabbed her coat from behind the door, shrugging it on before turning to her faithful companion.

"Be a good boy, Metsuki. I'll be back soon."

"You're not bringing him?" Sasuke sounded surprised.

"No, I wasn't really sure what we were doing and I'm gathering that we won't be out too long. It's late so he'll be happy just to curl up on the sofa and go to sleep."

"Ah."

There was an awkward silence and Sakura realised that Sasuke was unsure of how to proceed – was he supposed to grab her hand or just walk off without her? Deciding to take the initiative, Sakura linked her arm through Sasuke's and smiled up at his face.

"After you."

A warm puff of air passed over Sakura's face and Sakura realised that he must have let out a silent laugh – or at least she hoped it was a laugh.

Sasuke's car was somewhat familiar territory for her, even though she had been in there only once before, and the silence surrounding them was comfortable.

"So where are we going?"

"I suppose you could say that it's a surprise." Sasuke's voice was measured, apparently he had anticipated the question. "It will likely be a little unorthodox for a first date I'm afraid."

"That's okay," Sakura smiled. "I'm not the biggest fan of normal things."

There was a few more minutes of silence between them and Sakura heard Sasuke sigh wearily a couple of times.

"Are you sure you're okay? Did you want to talk about the rough day you had?"

Her question was met with more silence and Sakura feared that she had overstepped some invisible line. Just as she was about to apologise however, Sasuke's smooth voice broke the tension.

"I've been working on a case for a short while now and aside from the initial crime nothing serious has happened. Today though, urgh... I found the body of a twenty year old in his own apartment. Things like that never get easier."

"I'm sorry." Sakura's voice was quiet yet sincere.

"It's okay, it just gave me that perspective that I was talking about on the phone. I was hovering between calling you or waiting for you to call me earlier on and then I found that body and it reminded me that the little things I stress about don't count for anything really."

Sakura gathered up her courage and moved her hand to the gear stick, hoping that Sasuke drove like her father – with his hand always on it. Her fingers lightly brushed the skin of his hand and she let her hand slide down to cover his own (or as much as she could with her significantly smaller hands) and rubbed his hand soothingly.

"I'm glad you found that perspective then."

The silence that followed was without tension or expectation.

"Sasuke, will you please tell me what we are doing?"

Sakura was very confused. Sasuke had parked up his car and led her over what -as far as she could tell - seemed to be grass. When the walk began to go uphill she had decided to voice her question.

"Don't worry, we're her now."

"Where is 'here'?"

Sasuke gently directed her to take a seat on the grassy slope they were stood on and she did so without complaint. She felt Sasuke sit next to her and was satisfied when he began to answer her.

"Do you know the amphitheatre in the park? Just the stage surrounded by the slopes of grass?"

"Yes." Sakura said slowly.

"We're there."

"And why are we here?"

"Just wait. You'll get it in a second."

Sakura could hear other people, not very close to them, but she could hear their voices faintly on the wind. She felt a sort of anticipation building in her stomach – the good kind.

"You can lie back against the grass if you want, I think it gives you more out of the experience personally." Sasuke's voice was quiet next to her, and to prove his point Sakura felt the warmth from his body disappear as he lay down in the grass.

Following his lead, she lowered her body down next to his and her arm pressed lightly against his own through the thickness of their jackets. Neither moved to rectify this fact. Sakura could feel Sasuke's eyes on her face, apparently waiting to see her reaction to whatever was coming.

There was perhaps three minutes of further silence before the sounds of a violin swayed through the night and Sakura jumped slightly. A viola and cello joined the violin and Sakura recognised the opening of a piece by Chopin, although she didn't know the name of it.

"Wha-?"

"I come here almost every week." Sasuke murmured in her ear. "The Konoha Orchestra puts on midnight symphonies over the weekend for people to come and listen to. If I can't sleep then I spend some time out under the stars and listening to the music."

Sakura couldn't help but smile as the sound of a flute reached her ears. Sasuke had given her an experience that she had never had before, and one which required no sight.

"Thank you." She whispered back.

Her fingers ghosted along his own, and Sasuke took her hand in his, reading her signals perfectly. She hoped that this would be a regular occurrence.

There you go, I get to fit in some plot development and you guys get some fluff. I'm not going to proof this yet, I have to get up in just over 3 hours and so it will have to wait. The next chapter will be up very soon, it's all written and I just have to change some little details to now fit with this chapter – and I really like the next chapter :D

The most depressing thing about this chapter: I've just pumped out a 4 thousand word chapter in less than four hours. On the other hand I have a 3 thousand word essay due in on Wednesday and I've barely started it despite having it for over a month... my mind doesn't function correctly!

The most entertaining thing about this chapter: My spell check wanted to change Sasuke's last name to 'Chihuahua'.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, leave me some love ;)