Chapter 1: Victims

All was silent except for the muted sound of a phone vibrating. A few seconds passed before a figure rose from the warm cocoon of the bed to shuffle over and silence the alarm. Clothes were strewn all over the floor hinting at what had occur hours earlier. After a few moments of rummaging through the clothes, the phone was located and the alarm turned off. A quick glance at the time warned the stranger that it was time for her to leave. Grabbing her clothes, the mysterious figure headed towards the bathroom barely sparing a glance at the man sprawled on the bed. The light from the bathroom illuminated the stranger's face forcing her to confront her reflection. A look of pure disgust and hatred marred her beautiful face. She quickly grabbed the towel and threw it over the mirror before walking over to turn on the faucet.

Stepping into the shower, the woman languidly washed all evidence of last night's exertion from her body. Although it was enjoyable, she felt dirty and retched. She scrubbed every inch of her body until her skin was raw. Satisfied, the woman stepped out of the shower and dried herself with the towel. After quickly putting on her clothes and running her fingers through her long hair, she headed out to say farewell to her current lover. This would be the last time she would be seeing him.

He was still laying quietly on the bed. No movements or sounds could be heard from him. A pity she thought as she examined him. He was toned, had a decent face and was fairly rich. The ideal guy for most women, yet, she despised every inch of him. Gently she brushed away a strand of blonde hair before briefly kissing him on the lips. They were cold and hard...just like her heart. A laugh threatened to escape her lips but she quickly smothered it. Walking over to her purse, the woman pulled out her little origami cherry blossom that she enjoyed making in her free time. Strolling over to the man, she placed the cherry blossom over his heart.

"Something to remember me by."

With that the woman turned away and walked out of the hotel room, already on the prowl for her next victim.

"Sasuke. GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!"

Barely registering his boss screaming his name from across the room, Sasuke rose out of his chair and slowly made his way through the maze of detective desks. He already had a faint idea why his boss was already yelling before her morning coffee. Not bothering to knock, Sasuke walked into the office and plopped down on the couch.

"Here I am."

A pair of amber brown eyes fixed a glare at the black haired man sitting on her couch. He was one of her best detectives and she expected a lot from him. Especially when it concerns his lazy, bad mouth, disrespectful partner.

"Where is he?"

Sasuke refused to flinch under Captain Tsunade's death glare. He had been transferred into this unit after working 4 years in narcotics and he could honestly say his last boss was only half the man, or in this case woman, as Captain Tsunade. She worked her way through the ranks and earned everyone's respect. Plus it was a well known fact that she had a horrible temper and dared anyone to disobey her orders. Regardless of her faults, she was the one you wanted to work under, especially if you decide to transfer into ANBU's homicide unit.

"Naruto?"

"Who else?"

Sasuke could see the vein already throbbing against Tsunade's right temple. Muttering a curse under his breath Sasuke steeled himself for another lecture on how it was his responsibility to make sure his partner arrives on time.

"He probably overslept. Let me step out a bit to call him..."

Tsunade knew Sasuke was trying to weasel his way out of listening to her lecture. Frankly, she didn't give a damn. There was a new case that she needed to two to start working on right away.

"Go and remind him that the next time he comes in late, he will be fired. Before you leave, here are the files for the newest case. Look it over and after your partner decides to show up, head over to the crime scene."

Sasuke reached out to take the manila folder from Tsunade. Flipping it open, he did a quick scan on the murder details. Male, approximately 25 to 30 years old found dead in a hotel room. No indications of a struggle and no murder weapon. All that was found was a single origami cherry blossom. Red alarms flashed in Sasuke's mind as he recalled another case that was very similar to this one. Glancing up at Tsunade, he could already tell from the expression on her face that she knew it couldn't be a coincidence.

"Get out and get to work."

Not even waiting for Tsunade to finish, Sasuke walked out of the office and headed towards his desk. After clearing off some of the older cases and paperwork he still needed to finish, Sasuke settled down and reached for the phone. Not even looking at the dial pad, Sasuke punched in the numbers he had memorized by heart.

"...Hello?"

"Hey Dobe, were the hell are you?"

"Crap! I'm on my way. I'll be there in 5 minutes. 10 minutes top."

"Hurry up and get your ass here. I already had Tsunade chew me out because you overslept."

"I didn't oversleep! I was just...busy."

"Yeah, tell Hinata I said hi."

Sasuke hide a smile as he heard Naruto sputtering into the phone.

"I wasn't with Hinata! We are just friends!"

"Uh-huh."

"I'm serious! I was only running late because I was reading the newspaper and ended up..."

Sasuke heard static and cursed the horrible reception.

"I can't understand you. Just get here and you can tell me all about it."

"...yeah...fine...be there...soon"

After decoding Naruto's muffled voice, he hung up the phone and continued reading the case file. There were too many similarities to the other case they had investigated 2 weeks earlier...

"Morning Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke felt something creep down his spine as he recognized the voice. Not even wanting to acknowledge her, Sasuke focused on the file.

"Sasuke!"

With small thump, Sasuke resigned himself to address the woman who decided to sit on his desk.

"What is it Karin?"

"Ahh...well I just wanted to know if you are free..."

"Nope."

"Wait I didn't even finish!"

"You don't need to finish because the answer is still no. I will not go out with you."

"Why! I know it's not because of how I look."

To demonstrate, the woman brushed back her long red hair to reveal the low cut shirt that she was wearing over a pair of black slacks. Barely even looking at her, Sasuke continued to work on the case file.

"Hmph! Why are you ignoring me?"

Sasuke felt his temper rising. Couldn't the girl take a hint? Unconsciously, Sasuke reached for the pack of cigarettes he kept hidden in his desk. Feeling the familiar shape, Sasuke grabbed it and quickly rose from his desk.

"I need a smoke and don't follow me."

Karin watched as Sasuke walked off. He was so good-looking and she wanted him, but he kept ignoring her advances. She needed to be more forward and aggressive. Sliding off of Sasuke's desk, Karin slowly made her way to her cubicle, already plotting her next attempt to ask Sasuke out and possibly get him in her bed.

"Damn! Where the hell is my lighter?"

Rummaging through his pants pockets, Sasuke was irritated to see he didn't have a lighter on him. There was no way in hell he was going to walk back to his desk in case Karin was still there waiting for him. He didn't even know why she was in the homicide department. She was part of the computer crimes unit, but she always seemed to have something to do in the homicide unit. Letting out a sigh, Sasuke leaned against the wall of the building and closed his eyes.

"Do you need a light?"

A feminine voice broke Sasuke out of his thoughts. Opening his eyes, he was shocked to see a gorgeous woman addressing him. She had long pink hair that was tied into a messy bun. Few wisps of hair embraced her heart-shaped face. She had bright green eyes that had a mischievous look to them with a sensual mouth that was curved into a smile.

"Yeah...if you don't mind."

The woman's smile grew wider as she leaned over to light Sasuke's cigarette. Her perfume surrounded Sasuke and he found himself becoming intoxicated by the smell.

"There you go. See you around."

With that, the woman began walking away before Sasuke could even say thank you.

"Hey Sasuke! I made it. What are you looking at?"

Naruto walked up besides Sasuke and followed his gaze and saw a woman's retreating back. A smile crept onto Naruto's face.

"Glad to see you are interested in girls."

Sasuke tore his gaze away from the woman to glare at Naruto.

"You are late."

"Yeah I know, but I have a good reason!"

"Tell me back in the office. Just let me finish smoking. Oh! Check if Karin is still lurking around my desk."

Naruto chuckled in response to Sasuke's request.

"She still chasing after you?"

"Yup. She doesn't understand the word no."

"Ha! Then hurry up and get a girlfriend! Or just tell her you are gay. I'm sure that would work."

"Get your ass upstairs. We have another case."

"Fine, but I have to show you what I found first."

"Ok. Now go."

Sasuke took a long drag from the cigarette as he waited for Naruto to disappear into the police station. His thoughts wandered back to the case and then to the woman who had offered him a light. He didn't even get a chance to ask her for her name. Taking one last drag from the cigarette, Sasuke crushed the cigarette butt out with his shoe. Running his hand through his hair, he made his way back into the office wondering if he would ever see that woman again.

The woman peered around the corner of the building to see if the man had left. She had felt his gaze on her as she had walked away. She usually didn't socialize with strangers unless it was necessary, but he seemed so interesting. A smile played across her lips as she recalled looking up into the pitch black eyes that were slightly covered by his ink black bangs. Too bad she already had her eyes set on another man. A cell phone ringing broke the woman out of her thoughts. Rummaging through her purse, she brushed past several disposable phones until she found the one that was ringing.

"Hello?"

"Sakura! I miss you. Come see me."

A grimace twisted the woman's pretty face, she didn't want to go see him but if she took care of him now, then maybe she could focus her attention on the next one...

"Sakura?"

Realizing she was still on the phone, she quickly responded.

"Alright. I'll be right over, I just need to change. Meet you at the usual place?"

"Yup and don't you dare be late!"

A soft chuckle escaped her lips as she hung up the phone. Of course she wouldn't be late. With a quick snap, the phone broke in two. Sakura threw the remnants of the disposable phone into a trash can and began making her way to her apartment. After today, it wouldn't be necessary to call that man ever again.

"Took you long enough! Did you check out the news?"

Sasuke shook his head as he made his way back to his desk.

" I'm lucky if I even get to sleep. Why don't you go work on our newest case instead of reading the gossip column."

Naruto blushed in response to Sasuke's comment.

"What the hell. I don't read that crap...Anyway, that's not what I'm talking about. Remember that case we investigated 2 weeks ago...well its front page news."

Sasuke recalled the case they were called out to investigate in downtown Konoha. The victim was a 25 year old male who was strangled to death. The only evidence they found at the crime scene was a single origami cherry blossom. It was similar to the crime scene of the newest victim.

"Yeah, I was thinking about it. The case was supposedly closed. The wife was cheating on him and her lover decided to kill the husband so he could have the wife all to himself. They are both in prison now."

"Yeah I know. I was there too, but that's not what I was talking about. There's been another murder and a cherry blossom was left behind at the crime scene."

"...Give me that."

Sasuke grabbed the newspaper out of Naruto's hands and quickly skimmed the article. The article relayed the same details he had just read from the case file that Tsunade had given him.

"You don't think we put the wrong person in jail...do you?"

Sasuke didn't even respond because that was a possibility.

"I don't know, but that's the case Tsunade just assigned us. We need to head over to the crime scene. How the hell did the reporters find out about this?"

"What do you expect? It's their job to be ahead of the police. But Sasuke, you don't think we are dealing with a serial killer?"

"I told you, we need to investigate the crime scene first."

Naruto sighed before walking over to his desk to grab his badge and keys.

"Fine, but what do you know. This will be our first serial killer in 10 years. Now if the killer is a female, then we would've set a new record."

"Shut up Naruto, and let's head out before our boss reads the paper."

Sasuke didn't even want to imagine what Tsunade would say when she saw the paper. The fact that they already had details about the crime scene before the homicide unit could even investigate would cause Tsunade to explode. Especially since she had a personal vendetta against the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Jiraiya.

"Hai, hai...but you have to admit, a female serial killer would be cool."

"Che. Yeah right, no woman would be capable of doing this. Now come on. We have a crime scene to investigate."

"Oh? I've seem to have made front page. How interesting."

After skimming the article, Sakura smiled before crumpling up the newspaper and throwing it in the wastebasket. She didn't need him to see that.

"Sakura! I'm almost ready."

"I can't wait."

Slowly she walked over to bed and plopped herself on the soft comforter. Reaching over, she grabbed the glass of wine that she had poured for herself. She preferred to be a little buzzed before she lay with the bastard.

"Sakura..."

Holding the wine glass to her lips, Sakura peered over the glass to stare at the man who was leaning against the doorway. He was dressed in a black robe that was tied loosely at his waist. The robe parted at the waist to reveal a hint of a six pack. As her eyes slowly took in the sight, the man had a smirk planted on his face.

"Like what you see?"

Arching an eyebrow in response, Sakura placed her wine glass back on the night stand and got up from the bed. Slowly she made her way over to the man, letting her robe fall to the ground. Standing before him in her black lingerie, she looked up at him from under her lashes.

"Do you like what you see?"

The man gulped in response as he took in the sight of the woman standing in front of him. He could feel himself getting hard as he imagined what he would do to her.

Sakura smiled and pressed herself against the man, looping her arms around his neck. She felt his arms snake around her waist, pulling her closer against him. She could feel the hard length of his desire pressing against her thigh. Slowly the man lowered his lips against hers, but Sakura halted his advance by pressing a slender finger against his mouth.

"I have a question before we start?"

The man froze as he mentally went through a list of possible questions she wanted to ask him. The first one that popped in his head was "do you love me?"

"How would you like to be front page news?"

That threw him off and it took him a bit before he could respond.

"Well, that would be awesome, but that would never happen."

Sakura smiled up at him.

"You never know..."