1Disclaimer - Don't own! Don't own Billy Joel's Uptown Girl either.

Violent Wasteland

He tapped out the cigarette in the palm of his hand, barely wincing at the malodor of burnt flesh. The night air wound it's way around his body with gentle strokes, as the sounds of traffic rumbled steadily in the distance. All was quiet.

Or should have been, had a slow tapping not shattered the facade.

Usually the docks would be deserted this late, which was the reason Gaara had chosen it as the place to hold his 'interrogations,' but it seemed he'd been careless with his customary sweep. He could feel the presence of someone out there, someone who shouldn't be.

Freeing the safety of his gun, the red head began whistling an old nursery rhyme, grinning at the thought of a murder in addition to the night's activities.

"Gaara...?" A spiky blonde head popped out from inside the warehouse. "Uh, the guy's lost a lot of blood, and he keeps blacking out...Um, what should we do?"

Gaara scowled, and without turning around, issued his orders. "Have Kiba cauterize the wounds, then shoot him up with another dose of heroin. That'll keep him awake for awhile."

His associate, Naruto Uzumaki, nodded his head and quickly disappeared back inside the building.

Gaara smirked wickedly at the other man's departure. He absolutely loved having people jump to do his bidding, with no back talking, and no complaint. It made his job go so much more smoothly.

Everyone fucking feared the Demon of the Suna district. Just as they should.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are..."

Slowly Gaara moved through the shadows, ducking between buildings and behind crates that had yet to be stored or shipped off. The absolute silence of his steps was astonishing, giving due credit to his surname, 'the invisible death.' He listened again for a tell tale shuffling of feet, heavy breathing, or even the slow taps he'd caught earlier.

"Up town girl, you been livin' in your white bread world, lalala..."

He chuckled darkly. Well, that worked too.

"Bet you never had a back street guy, lalala..."

The cadence was definitely feminine, though not pleasantly so, as Gaara thought a woman's voice should be either soft and airy or low and sultry.

And this woman's voice had neither of those qualities.

Wincing at another sour note, he slipped around a corner and caught sight of the harpy who was shrieking that God-awful song. Short tufts of pink hair bobbed in time to her erratic movements, branding her an obvious drunk. She knocked into a crate and apologized profusely to it before continuing on, her heels buckling slightly with each step.

Scratch that being drunk part, he mused, she was fucking cocked off her ass.

Gaara slowly stepped forward, sliding the gun into his waist band at the small of his back.

"You. Bitch."

The growled words cut the air like razor wire, shocking the woman from her demolition of Billy Joel.

"Uh, wha...?"

Swinging around dizzily, she gripped her purse as if it were a life line in a world of spinning roller coasters. The woman swore to herself she would never indulge in more than three Bloody Marys again, if she could just survive this night without puking all over the place, or - she looked up at the scary man a few feet away - being messed up.

"...Any reason you're out this way? So late, too?"

Sakura blinked and began to back up slowly. "Naw, hic, man, just out with some girls. You know, turnin' a couple tricks. Gotta little drunk with my john see, hic, not smart in this business, I know, but hey! Hic, how can ya turn down a good stiff one?" She began laughing, almost tripping over her stilettos.

"Little working girl humor, hic, sorry."

Gaara didn't even quirk his mouth in response.

Finding herself very uncomfortable with the situation, the pinkette tried to pull things back onto more familiar ground. Well, close to it anyway, as the ground kept bobbing up and down.

She blinked, grinning drunkenly at him. "Anyway baby, hic, I'm always up for some more fun. How's about a quickie, hic, I'll even charge ya half price, since I scored, hic, big tonight anyway."

The red head moved silently forward, reveling in the fear he felt spilling off her in waves.

"...Not tonight," he slammed her body against the wall by her neck, the stench of her perfume making him want to gag. "Baby."

Retrieving his gun, he shoved the muzzle into her mouth, feeling a morbid curiosity as to how many times she'd had to swallow something long and hard in her line of work.

Pulling the trigger, he felt nothing, not even the slight curiosity.

With warm blood splattered across his face, Gaara watched the woman slide bonelessly to the floor, only a red, coagulated streak marking her descent.

He fucking hated hookers. They were lazy ass bitches, who needed to get themselves a real job.

Wiping his face with the car rag tucked in his pocket, he began the short trek back to the warehouse, knowing Kiba would whine about being the guy assigned to clean up.

But it was like he said. He reveled in being the one everyone jumped for.

23rd Precinct, Konoha City, 0900 hours

"Sakura Haruno, prostitute we've picked up approximately...wow, seventeen times. Found this morning in the Leaf River, shot once in the head at point blank range."

Neji picked up his coffee, frowning at the wet ring the mug had left on his finished paper work. It annoyed him when things weren't neat and tidy, a surprising fact as police work had to be the messiest, most untidiest work out there.

The former, however, was exactly the reason Neji Hyuuga, seventh generation law enforcement official, had been attracted to the shield.

Solving a crime was like putting the pieces of a puzzle together; neatly locking the grooves and angles so they created a picture that would lead him to the 'bad guy.' From there, apprehending said guy was usually easy, and the criminal would then be left to the capable hand's of the D.A (1).

It was simple really.

Neji curved his pale eyes in amusement. "Not much of a loss, I'd think."

Shino snickered from his seat on Neji's desk, a stub of a pencil hanging from his mouth as he continued to read. "Man, what a mess. Half her head's missing. They couldn't find the bullet either."

"Just makes our job that much harder."

Shino hopped down from the desk with practiced ease and held the papers out to his partner. "You better believe it, mother fucker."

Neji lifted an eyebrow. "You watch too much cable TV, did you know that?"

"Hell yes. Not like I'm fuckin' anyone anyway, so why not enjoy the invention of Pay Per View porno?"

"Yeah, 'cause a glass screen is the closest you've ever gotten to wet pussy."

The two men turned at the alto-ish tone, a collective sweat drop between their heads upon seeing their boss, Tsunade, giving them the mother of all glares.

She had to be at least fifty, but every male in the room would've been a liar if they said they didn't want to fuck her three ways from Sunday.

Guess the old adage about wine getting tastier with age could be applied to their captain as well.

"Hyuuga, Aburame, in my office now!"

Too bad she was such a bitch though.

Shino lowered his shades a bit, staring directly at Neji with his inky black eyes. "What the hell did we do this time?"

Neji just shrugged his shoulders and, ever the one resigned to his fate, quickly followed Tsunade into her corner office.

"Move it Aburame!"

Shino growled.

Hands folded on her desk, Tsunade quietly studied her two top officers as they settled into their chairs.

Shino Aburame. Twenty five years old, two and a half years on the force, and an excellent track record so far. He had an ingratiating personality, that seemed to soothe most people enough for them to let their guard down.

And that was when he pounced.

Neji Hyuuga. Twenty three years old, four years on the force, highly commendable track record so far. He was practically a golden boy of the Precinct, having acquired his badge at the young age of nineteen. But then again, this was expected, as he was the nephew of one Hiashi Hyuuga, the current mayor of Konoha City and retired officer after thirty-one years active service.

It was quite a lot to live up too, but the little punk, as Tsunade liked to think of him, seemed quite capable of handling it.

"So," She began, "how have my two favorite boys been?"

One pair of eyes blinked at her, as the other merely shifted in his chair.

She smiled in that sickly sweet way of hers. "Guess we don't feel like chatting this morning do we? Well that's all right, I didn't feel like exchanging pleasantries with a bunch of dip shits like you anyway."

Neji sighed. "What the hell did you call us in here for Captain? I'm sure a session of boot licking can be left up to Shizune with much better results."

"SHUT THE HELL UP HYUUGA! YOU KNOW JACK SHIT ABOUT THAT GIRL! SHE'S WORKED HARD TO GET INTO THE POSITION SHE HAS TODAY!"

Shino just snickered and muttered to his partner. "Yeah, the perfect position to go carpet diving."

Neji desperately tried to smother his laughter.

"GRRAAAHHH! YOU STUPID! ARGGG!"

Suddenly a heavy stapler bounced off of Shino's head, as a torrid Tsunade made choking motions with her hands.

"I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I DON'T JUST FIRE YOUR ASSES!"

Shino rubbed gingerly at his skull, an aggrieved scowl on his face. "Maybe 'cause we work for the city, and that makes it damn hard to 'fire our asses'...?"

Neji shook his head in pity at his partner. "You really don't know when to stop do you, Aburame?"

A few curses, and thrown objects later, Tsunade finally launched into the reason why she'd dragged them into her office.

"You know that new case you got? The prostitute?"

Neji took up the role of speaker, as Shino was currently nursing a fat lip. "Yeah, Sakura Haruno, brought in seventeen times. Charges never stuck."

"Right. Well, it seems her death is connected to the Suna Syndicate."

That instantly got both men's attention.

Tsunade smirked. "Thought you'd like that. Anyway, we got an anonymous tip about checking the west wharf's security cameras."

Neji narrowed his pale eyes. "Tell me you got an ID on the guy."

"Unfortunately...no. The camera's front light had been knocked out months before, and the image resolution was ridiculously low. We were able to ID the prostitute, but her killer was barely discernable." She grinned at her boys irritation. "However, we know for a fact that wharf is owned by Kakashi Hatake...and I'm sure you know who he is."

Neji lifted an eyebrow with interest. "Presumably, he's the leader of the Suna Syndicate, but it's not known for certain."

"Please, that's lawyer crap. What do you believe in your gut, Hyuuga?"

He grinned. "That we follow every lead until it gets cold."

"Absolutely right. So, with that said my boys, I have a proposition for one of you."

Both of them leaned in closer, not wanting to miss a word.

"I need someone to go in undercover. If we can't topple this God-damned criminal empire once and for all, then I want to at least nail the son of a bitch who murdered that girl." She paused. "And if my hunch is right, he's the same son of a bitch who's assassinated half the political leaders in this city."

Dun, dun, dun...TBC

Note - so, how does everyone like this first part, hmm? I'm not sure if I just want to One Shot it, but I like the idea so much I might continue. I got a great dynamic ready for Sasuke and Naruto. You'll just love what Sasuke does for a living...he he he. Of course, this will be mainly Neji/Gaara. But this shit isn't going to be all 'mew, mew, I'm a troubled prissy bitch, please fuck my with your steel rod of power!' Come on. Neji beats the shit out of girls without feeling even a little bad. Look at him, he's such an ass! Gaara. Don't even get me started. THE GUY MURDERS PEOPLE WHO LOOK AT HIM WRONG! I don't think either should be eternally topped by the other. There like, cool. Heh, sorry about the vent-age. Anyway, to Trekiael, my apologies about 'Fan.' As it happens, I usually work on two or three stories at the exact same time, and I mean at the same time in two windows ;) and I meant to add that comment at the end of Fan to the other story I've been working on dedicated TO YOUUUU. I kinda work on these at like, 2 and 3 in the morning, so I'm not exactly at my best mentally. I'm like Gaara in that insomniac-y aspect. Woo. But I'll have that drabble out for you soon, hun, I just hope this little ficy makes up for it. Somewhat.

Blows kisses and runs around screaming like an idiot.