The Investigation

"Clear. Nothing here." Ino spoke into the small communicator Naruto made her take. It plugged into her ear and she only had to press a button to talk, it was used specifically for undercover cops because up close it looks like a pair of earbuds and you can't even see it from a distance.

"And you checked everywhere?" Came the hoarse reply.

"Yes. We're on the right floor but this isn't the right room. The guy wouldn't have even had a clear shot from this room. The garbage can is blocking the path the bullet would have taken."

"Move on to the next room."

"Naruto, who's to say we're even going to find anything here. The guy could've completely erased any evidence that he was here. We might as well be chasing a ghost."

"Or not. I found something. Room 17L."

Ino made her way from her half of the building into room 17L, Naruto was kneeling in front of the window, a small golden bullet in his gloved hand. Looking out the window, Ino saw a clear path to the cafe. "It's a .308 winchester. Meaning a different gun." he sighed.

"We should take it back to H.Q. Have it analyzed, maybe there's fingerprints on it."

"No. This guy's good, I doubt they'd be stupid enough to leave something as trivial as fingerprints behind. But maybe- Ino! Look out!" all of a sudden Naruto jumped from his spot onto Ino, shielding her body as the window shattered, glass raining down on them.

"Oh my god!" Ino screamed, "Naruto! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me! Take cover!" Naruto moved from on top of her and stood at the side of the window, out of sight of whoever was shooting at them. Ino quickly recovered and moved to the other side. She was a cop too, dammit! 'Get it together, Yamanaka'

Peering his head around the corner, Naruto looked outside. Nothing. Dammit. He scanned the area for any sort of movement, then he saw it. The glint of a gun as the sun reflected of it.

And he moved his head just in time for a bullet to fly by where it just was. "Ino, I saw him. I'm going for it. Stay here." She began to protest but Naruto cut her off, "That's an order. I need you to distract him. So you staying here is crucial to my plan. But don't get yourself killed. Occasionally shoot at him, but stay covered.

He's hiding across the street in the supermarket. Meaning there's probably hostages. We need to do this quickly. So don't shoot blind, make sure it's him you're shooting at."

"Got it." she said.

And with the nod of his head, Naruto was out of the room. He made his way downstairs, and out the back door. If he went through the front, the shooter would surely know he was coming. He would see him and Naruto would get himself killed. He heard a couple shots as he made his way out of the hotel.

The back of the hotel exits into an alley straight across from the supermarket, crouching and moving slowly, Naruto came to a stop at the front of the alley. He stayed hidden behind a couple of stray crates and tried to get a look into the supermarket.

He saw him, the man was completely covered, he had a black hat on with a ski masked pulled up ending directly under his eyes, a black turtle shirt with matching black pants and black boots. If Naruto didn't know better he'd have to say he was a Gothic having a bad day.

Naruto has been waiting for this day for months, now the moment's really here. He can finally avenge Sakura and stop this man from hurting anyone else. Aiming his pistol, Naruto shot directly at the man's head, but he was fast. A little too fast. He dodged out of the way before Naruto could even blink.

His speed was unreal. 'Shit.' The man turned and ran, moving from his position Naruto took off after him. After all this time, he wasn't getting away. Naruto couldn't let him. The man ran to the end of the block and turned right, the next thing Naruto knew a white van was speeding out of where the man just turned.

Naruto jumped out of the way in time for a dozen bullets to be shot at where he was just standing, getting up quickly he took cover behind a small trash can and shot at the van, hoping to hit a tire or the gas tank. Anything to stop the vehicle.

"Fuck!" He yelled when he could no longer see the van. "God dammit!"

"Naruto!" he turned quickly just in time to be embraced by a shaking Ino. "God Naruto! I saw you go down. Right after the van pulled out, i saw them shoot and you disappeared. I thought they got you."

"I'm alright. No worried." he said as he pulled back to look into her eyes.

"You're bleeding. Your arm and forehead."

"I probably got those cuts when the window shattered. I'm okay. Now, we need to go check and see if anyone was in the supermarket." he said as he turned and headed back in the direction of the store. "You should've done that before coming to find me."

"I thought you got shot, asshole!" she yelled at him. "Of course coming to make sure you were safe was a priority. You don't always need to be the hero!"

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"I saw your record, okay? All the times you've been put in the hospital because you sacrificed yourself on a mission, does that ring a bell? You're going to get yourself killed if you're not more careful."

He turned to her, "Your priority is the civilians. I can take care of myself. Next time, make sure the civilians are okay first. That's an order, Yamanaka. Got it?"

She gritted her teeth but nodded. Moving past the man she called her boss, she made her way into the supermarket. The place looked almost empty. That is until she heard a small cry. "Hello?"

"We're here to help." Naruto called, "The man that was shooting is gone. We're the police. You can come out now, you're safe."

A small child came out from one of the aisles with a older woman attached to her hand. "He's gone?" she asked. Naruto nodded his head. The woman burst into tears of joy as she cried, "Thank god! I thought he was going to hurt my daughter. He came in yelling at us not to move and I thought he was going to kill us.

We we're so scared! We hid and then he started shooting." Ino moved closer to the woman to console her, grabbing her hand, she encouraged the woman to take deep breaths. "I own this store. It just happened so fast."

"It's going to be okay, ma'am. He gone now." Ino cooed.

"Sarah. Her name is Sarah, and that's her daughter, Katie. Sarah, where's Tim? Your husband, is he at home?"

Sarah looked up in surprise, then her eyes widened, "Naruto? You came home?"

"I'm here on business."

She walked over to Naruto and hugged him. "I'm so sorry." she whispered.

"Is there anything you can tell me about the shooter?" he cleared his throat. "Any characteristics? Features? Anything that might help."

"He was covered in all black. But I'd say he was about 5'7", parts of his hair stuck out under his hat, he had black hair, and his eyes were black too. He was slim, and really fast. That's all i can tell you, I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Go home Sarah, I'm sorry this happened."

"Come on Katie, let's go see daddy." Katie let go of Ino's hand, who knows when she grabbed onto it in the first place, and ran to grab her mothers instead. Walking out the door, Sarah uttered four words that Ino was pretty sure had a double meaning; "It's not your fault, Naruto."

"So you weren't kidding when you said everyone in that town knows each other, huh?" Ino said an hour later as they were in Naruto's car heading back to H.Q. "So, that's really where you grew up? It doesn't seem like the kind of place I pictured you coming from."

He gave her a questioning look, "What do you mean by that?"

She scrunched up her brows in thought, "It's just, everyone there seems really nice and gentle. And you? You're kind of cold and distant."

"I'm not cold or distant." He protested.

"Yes you are. You didn't even give me a heads up about that place. I didn't know you grew up there, i didn't know you were engaged to the first victim, hell i barely know anything about you. We're supposed to be partners in this, i need to know things like that."

"I didn't think it was relevant."

"Naruto, any bit of information, no matter how tiny, is relevant with this case."

He grimaced and focused back on his driving. "You know," Ino said after a couple minutes of awkward silence, "I was curious, how did you get the scars on your face?"

"You just don't know when to stop asking questions, do you?" He rolled his eyes.

She smiled, "It's what makes me a good cop."

"Touché." He laughed, and Ino couldn't help but think that was a beautiful sound, "A bad case. Everyone gets those, the ones you don't want to talk about. The ones that leave you with nightmares for months. The ones that are so bad that they pull you off active duty for a while and do multiple psych evaluations. It was a really bad case."

"Jesus," Ino whispered, "that's terrible. What happened?"

"It was a drug related crime, I was only twenty-two at the time, there was three civilians dead by the end of it and one cop. It was just supposed to be a quick, in and out thing. We had back up all around, twenty of our men and there was supposed to be only twelve of theirs. It was a five story warehouse, completely abandoned and withered looking. Only six of us went in, including myself, Sakura, my best friend Sasuke, a friend named Lee, some guy named Sai, and Miles Parks, the third victim. But we were ambushed. It happened so fast, one minute we were just scanning around the place, the next it was a full out gun fight.

Somewhere along the way, Lee and I got separated from the others. We ended up on the fifth floor, I'm not sure if the back up had made it's way in the building by now, I'm sure it had, but it was too late. I was jumped and this guy was screaming in my face something about a virus? I don't know, but he said he was going to show my true colors and he made these scars in my face. Lee was dealing with another guy at the time so I did what I had to do, I killed the man on top of me. That was the first time i ever shot someone. He fell off me and i went to help Lee.

The man saw me coming and he ran, Lee was hanging off the railing in the warehouse, five fucking stories high, i grabbed his hand and tried to pull him back up, but it wasn't enough. Lee fell. After that, I don't think I was ever the same again."

Ino's mouth was open, eyes wide, "What happened to Lee? Did he...?"

"He was declared dead. But the weird thing is, we never found a body. It's like he just disappeared along with all those men that night. That was the worst night of my life, until recently when Sakura was murdered."

"I'm so sorry, Naruto."

"Don't be. It's not like you killed them. Let's just get this bullet analyzed."

"What happened after?"

"His funeral was held, close friends and family only. It was his foster dad, myself, Sakura, and Austen Hadaway that attended."

"Austen Hadaway? Where have i heard that name before?"

"He was the fourth victim."

Something suddenly clicked in Ino's head, "Wait... Naruto, was Austen Hadaway a part of this case?"

"Yes. Why?" He asked wondering what she was getting at.

"Sakura, Miles Parks, and Austen Hadaway. All a part of this case with the drug dealers that got away and they were all victims."

"Oh my god!" He slammed on the breaks, "Ino! You're a fucking genius. Kobe Natsumi and Noah Fairweather were also there! They were backup!"

"Warn me next time you slam on the goddamn breaks, Naruto! Jesus Christ!" she said while rubbing her head which had hit the dash board.

"We need to talk to chief Tsunade. Now. Because if this guy is killing people that were a part of that case, then there's ten more people out there on this guy's hit list."

'And I'm one of them.'

"Chief Tsunade," Naruto said as he sat in the chair opposite of her desk, Ino next to him "We think that the drug case from 2012 might have something to do with the murders happening now. All the victims so far, were a part of that case."

"Okay. So what exactly are you asking for, Uzumaki?" Tsunade questioned.

"I want unlimited access to the files from that case. And anything else I might find useful."

Tsunade took a moment to consider it, "Okay. Deal. Shizune!"

A young woman with short black hair stuck her head in the door, "Yes, chief?"

"Get Uzumaki and his partner here all the files they want. Follow her, she'll take you to where we keep all the old files."

Naruto nodded his head, "Thank you." Standing up, he followed Shizune out the door with Ino close on his heels. They walked farther down the hall and turned right into a large room full of filing cabinets.

"Alright," Shizune said, "It's all yours. Whatever you need, please just make sure to return it to its original spot when you're done." She turned and walked back down the hall.

"Ino," Naruto smiled, "did I tell you how much of a genius you are?"

She smiled back at him and laughed, "I believe so, but i don't mind hearing it again."

He turned and looked down the long aisles of files, they seemed to be labeled by year, and then by date. Moving to 2012, he looked around until he spotted it. July 19, 2012. The day Lee was killed and those men got away. "I found them."

He pulled out a dusty box and moved to the lone table that was in the room, scanning through all the he could fell a headache coming on. Ino sat next to him and grabbed the other half. Naruto has no clue how long they sat there, reading over everything, but it felt like an eternity. "Find anything?" she asked?

"Not really, but i made a list of every cop that was involved. I also made a list of some of the drug dealers that were there."

Ino glanced at the paper, "I guess we should make some phone calls, huh? Try and warn these people."

"I guess it's about time I called Sasuke anyways. It's been a while. This isn't exactly the first thing I want to talk to him about for the first time in years, though. Well, our friendship was always kind of interesting."

"Naruto?" Ino looked at him, "I'm glad that i got assigned to this case with you. It beats all the boring stuff I was doing previously."

"Yeah, me too."

"I'm trying to say: you're not alone. You know that, right? I know this case is personal for you, but I'm here for you."

"You're right. It is personal. That's why I need to solve it. I'm going to go make those calls."

Ino nodded her head and watched Naruto walk out the door.

When Naruto came back, Ino had her head laying in her arms, fast asleep. Looking at the watch on his wrist, Naruto noted that it was nearly 11. 'She's kind of cute when she's sleeping.' He shook her shoulder gently and whispered in her ear, "Ino, wake up. It's time to leave. I'll tell you about the calls tomorrow."

"No. I'm tired." she moaned falling back asleep.

Naruto picked her up bridal style and thought, 'only one thing left to do.'. With that, he left the police station.

A/N: I just want to say thank you to everyone that Favorited, followed, or reviewed. Your guys encouragement is amazing and I'm so grateful for it. Thank you! Please, follow, favorite, and review. :)