"Come on, Sasuke, it's only one date!" Sakura whined outside of the Hokage's office. Her arms were close to her chest, pleading eyes leaving the boy across from her on the other benches unamused.

"How many times do I have to tell you 'no'?" The asshole snarled, looking away from the group.

Naruto gave an inaudible sigh, looking out the window. Sasuke and Sakura were always doing this; he absolutely hated it and in turn, possibly them. He just wanted to leave all of this: his worries, his sadness, his hatred, his mask, his apartment, his friends, his teachers, and, of course, his village. He wanted out but, he wasn't strong enough. "Soon." His mind cooed to him.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura shouted, suddenly standing with an accusing finger pointing at their sensei.

Kakashi just sweat-dropped before waving half-heartedly, "Yo." Sakura and even Sasuke gave him a glare as the latter stood up from the benches. The Jonnin rolled his eyes, "Alright everyone, ready for another mission?"

"I hope it's not another D-ranked one," Naruto whined slightly, having to get back into character. He was already mentally preparing a scenario in his head of the conversation that's about to go down inside of the Hokage's office.

"Well, your hope is not in vain." Their sensei gave the three an eye-smile.

The blond haired teenager furrowed his eyebrows as excitement grew in his stomach, "Are you telling me that we have another C-ranked mission?!" One thing that came naturally to him was excitement and happiness. He didn't have to fake that.

"Correct."

"Yes!" Naruto cheered, dancing around in a circle in the middle of the hallway on the tips of his toes. Okay, well, maybe that was acted because he doesn't dance… at least not like that.

Kakashi gave a chuckle, seeing the slight eagerness in both of his other students. He walked up to the Third Hokage's office door and knocked twice. "Come in." Came the muffled response from the older man. The Copy-Cat Ninja walked in with his three students. The old man smiled warmly seeing the utter happiness from Naruto. He directed his eyes towards the Jonnin, "Ah, Kakashi, I was wondering when you and your students would be arriving." He chuckled. The Third Hokage looked at the gennin, "Of course, I could already hear them outside of the door." Sakura's face flushed with embarrassment, knowing that she had made most of the ruckus this time around.

"So, I hear you've got another mission for us." Kakashi shrugged, itching to pull out his dirty book of sex and mischief but refrained for the meantime.

"You heard correctly, Kakashi." The Third Hokage stated, pulling out a scroll and a folder before handing it to him, "There is a small string of murders in a northeastern town about two hours from here. If needed, you four are going to need to go undercover. If not, you will spy and report any weird behaviors. If the time calls for action, the owner has asked for you to take initiative. Inside the scroll are more details on the mission and the folder has the victims' bio. I hope that you all take this seriously."

Kakashi furrowed his eyebrows, "Hokage-sama, don't you think this is a little advanced for gennin? This sounds like a B or A-ranked mission, not a C-ranked one."

"That would be true if it were ninjas who were murdered. The place you all will go to is a civilian run town. There are no ninjas in that area." He said, folding his arms over his chest, "I don't doubt that your students will be able to handle this. They did, after all, go against Zabuza Momochi and a Kekkei Genkai user."

The silver haired man nodded in understanding, turning back to his students, "Alright, in an hour, we'll meet up at the bridge for a briefing on the details of the mission. We'll leave shortly after that. Dismissed." Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura disappeared from the room to go collect their stuff for their mission.

Naruto hadn't spoken a word since they left on the mission. His eyes were clouded over as if he were in some trance or deep in thought. He was way ahead of the group, his fists balled tightly. They were shaking with some emotions that neither his sensei or teammates knew. Earlier, Sasuke had caught Naruto barring his teeth as if in some sort of angry stupor. It was actually quite scary. The three didn't like to admit it but, at this point, they were starting to worry about Naruto's mental state.

"What do we do about him?" Sakura whispered to the two beside her.

"I'm not sure, he seems pretty pissed," Sasuke stated, crossing his arms over his chest.

Their sensei had put his book away a while ago to keep an eye on his student, "There isn't much we can do. He's obviously mad."

"Do you think it's because of the mission?" The only kunoichi asked, cocking her head to the side in curiosity and confusion.

Kakashi tapped his chin, "It's possible but so is virtually anything else."

The Uchiha narrowed his eyes, "I haven't seen him that livid since our academy days."

The Copy-Cat Ninja looked down at their, "Did either of you two say something?"

"I don't think I did," Sakura stated honestly.

"No," Sasuke replied.

Unbeknownst to them, Naruto could hear everything they were saying. It just made him more infuriated. He didn't know whether to be furious or completely upset. He wanted to shout. He wanted to cry. He wished that he could have been there to stop this.

The murders were precise and clean. The victim was knocked out with chloroform by the suspect and then taken to a different location. Police officers from the town didn't know where the suspect went from there because there wasn't any evidence left of the disappearance. They held the person for at least two or three days, taking their time in torturing them. Each was malnourished slightly since they were only held for less than a week. Bruising and discoloration of the skin lead police to think that they were tied up somehow. However, it gets worse. The forensic scientist that had performed the autopsy on all four victims stated that they were drained of the blood inside of their bodies. The suspect stopped just short of killing them, making sure that they were still conscious. This is still in debate between police officers and forensic scientists. However, one thing is for sure. The murderer chopped the body up all the while the victim was conscious.

"How sickening." Naruto thought to himself.

Naruto did everything in his power to stop all of the threatening thoughts that clouded his mind but it kept traveling back to the list of names of the victims:

Andreas Hazeldine.

Cotton Paige.

Rudy O'Shea.

Sapphire Vogel.

Four victims. To an ordinary person, these were just some faceless men who had no connection to their own lives. To him? They were all of which were like his family; the family he never got to have. Those four were all he had; all he trusted. Two were clients of his boss, the other two were dancers… just like him.

He never even got to thank all of them for everything they've done for him.

The first victim was one of Naruto's boss' top clients. Andreas Hazeldine. Naruto was especially close to this older man. In the teenager's eyes, Andreas was like the father he never got to have. The thirty-some-year-old man had curly brown hair with dull green eyes and a small beard on his face. He was a little taller than Naruto but Andreas was full of muscle. He used to work on the docks when he was twelve to sustain his long since deceased family all those years ago. Though, Andreas was happy with his life. He'd show up every Saturday for a show, not Naruto's because that would have been weird for the both of them considering their father-son relationship. The two would sit by the bar and talk, Andreas having a shot every now and then and Naruto with a glass of lemonade since he wasn't old enough to drink. They'd talk until he had to perform again which would make Andreas leave. Naruto looked up and respected Andreas for everything he'd done for the teenager. He didn't mind calling the boy his son to the people around and Naruto didn't mind calling him his father. Naruto never even got to say that he loved him as his dad.

The first second and third victims were killed together. They had apparently decided to walk home together after work since they had lived a few minutes from each other. Rudy O'Shea and Erich Vogel were these two. Rudy had a man-bun of flaming red hair that had been dyed over a year ago; he absolutely hated his dirty blonde hair. He also had one of the prettiest blue eyes Naruto had ever seen. His dark, tanned skin complimented these features quite nicely. Rudy was also extremely thin and tall, almost 6'2. In contrary, Erich was only about 5'3 and slightly muscular. He has thick thighs and a booty like no other. He was pale with light colored freckles on his face. He rocked his short brown hair and equally brown eyes. Both men were dancers, having the late night shift. Rudy was the last dancer on stage before the building closed for the night. All the while, Erich waited for him. Naruto was pretty sure that the two had a thing going for each other. He was happy for them. Rudy was like his older brother. The two of them were inseparable. And Erich? He is – was… his first best friend. That's why it was so hard to hear that they were gone. The three of them were going to travel the countries and perform for people. It was a dream. Now, all of that's gone.

The most recent victim, only being murdered about six days ago was Cotton Paige. While his name may sound feminine to most, his closest friends and family knew him to be a wild spitfire. There was no other way to describe him. He used to be a boxing champion a few towns over before coming a staying in his current resident. Cotton was another major client Naruto's boss practically fawned over. He soon became a self-defense teacher in the very building Naruto worked in. He taught the dancers how to protect themselves should something arise for them to fight back. Cotton was Naruto's mentor. Even if he is – was… when is he going to get it through his head that they're gone – a mere civilian and had nothing on the ninjas of his village, Naruto had believed his teacher to be the strongest person in the world; both mentally and physically. It was a childish thought. Now, the man who taught him everything so far was gone.

He never even got the chance to say goodbye to any of them.

"How could anyone do that to such great people?" Naruto questioned himself, the confusion and utter disbelief erasing his previous anger, "Why… why would they take them away from me?"

"He stopped shaking," Sasuke informed, referring to Naruto's previous anger. They'd been walking for about an hour. An hour of silence from the teenager.

"Maybe things have finally blown over." Kakashi shrugged his finger itching to grab the perverted book in his book.

Sakura looked down at the ground, "Should we talk to him?"

"No." Their teacher stated, shaking his head, "I doubt he'd share something like that with us."

"Why?" The two teenagers asked together.

Kakashi thought for a second. Why was Naruto like that? "I think it's because of his isolation from the past." He said honestly.

"So… he doesn't trust us?" The kunoichi questioned.

"I'm not sure. Sometimes he acts like he adores us and the next he becomes distant." The silver-haired Jonnin specified, "Though, I'm not sure. Maybe I'm just overanalyzing the situation. He could just be mad that someone would kill another person."

"But in a workforce like a ninja one, that's kind of unavoidable," Sasuke stated.

"Yeah." Sakura agreed.

"You know; you guys can stop talking about me." Naruto growled out, the words shocking them, "I'm right here you know and I can hear everything you say!" He turned around, anger and darkness clear in his eyes. No one said anything. Sakura felt petrified by the hatred in his eyes. Sasuke was utterly shocked; he hadn't ever seen his teammate like this, not even in their academy days. Kakashi was confused and curious; he didn't know what to say. Naruto frowned, "Now that I've called you out, you can't even say it to my face!"

"What is wrong with you?" Sasuke meant it to be a friendly gesture to get him talking but it obviously didn't work.

"What's wrong with me?!" He started laughing, "You have no idea." Such a vague answer but Naruto didn't give them any time to respond because he had picked up the pace and was already continuing on their journey.

A/N - I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of my new fanfiction. This is going to be a really fun experience. I've never written a mystery before so I hope you all with be hyped for the next few chapters. This is probably only going to have about eight to ten chapters but that doesn't mean that they aren't going to be well-written (I hope!). Well, that's it for this author's note! Ta-ta~