Hello everyone. Another chapter done, and nothing has been answered! Hope you all still enjoy.

(unbetaed)

Chapter 4: More blood

Uchiha Sasuke had to deal with a lot of road blocks in his life, being a detective it was common. Usually they were political, but this was the first time he was being barred from researching a temple.

"Sarotobi-sama, this isn't right I need access to those files, I know that the temple is linked to the murder of Yuugito Nii," he stated with frustration.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was the commissioner general of the National Police agency, that he had to go all the way to the top to get access was just ridiculous. But asking his own chief had been pointless, then he went to superintendent, the commissioner and he was here. He had been fobbed off, slighted and given the run around, they were a week into their investigation and were getting absolutely nowhere. All he needed was access to Zenkokuji temple or at least family that managed it; but none of his supervisors seemed to see his point of view. The only reason he even managed to see Commissioner general was because the older man was a relative of his partner.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was in his late 70's, his skin was tanned and set with deep wrinkles around his eyes. His hair was white with age and thinning just slightly over his scalp, he kept it short but trim and he sported a goatee. Lastly two small dark moles were on his right cheek, giving the older man a distinctive look. The similarities between him Asuma were plain to see, to anyone who knew them.

"Detective Uchiha I understand your dissatisfaction, but this has to be handled delicately. If we are seen harassing the family of a victim it will be very bad press for us, and you know that the public has a negative opinion of us," he replied with a sigh.

"But Commissioner-"

But Sarutobi held up his hand to stop him. "I know what you were going to say Uchiha, and I agree it is urgent, and while I cannot give you access to the temple or family, you can have a talk to the young man. He is a material witness, and therefore you have the right to talk to him," he said with a small smile.

Sasuke instantly understood what Sarutobi was saying, as long as he could talk to Naruto it meant that he could get a chance to further investigate that place. He nodded to the older man left his office, and went down stairs to the parking garage were his car was parked. He got in and the checked his phone noticing he had a missed message from Asuma. He quickly pressed redial and held the phone to his ear. It rang a few times, and then his partner picked up.

"Fuck Uchiha where are you? There's been another body."

"Another body?" He asked putting on his seat belt.

"May be the same M.O as Nii..."

"Okay where are you?" he asked putting the phone into the charging dock.

Asuma gave him the address that he put into his GPS and started driving. The location was Ueno park, a more public area than the abandoned building Yuugito Nii had been found. Although Ueno park was an area of many attraction like shrines, natural attractions, a zoo, and museums; but it was also a place where a lot of gangs roamed the area. When Sasuke was still doing patrol he had busted so many punks, pushing drugs, mugging, and prostitution. At night Ueno became a different place. He pulled his car up nest to a patrol car and realised that the location was near the Kaneiji Temple, Sasuke continued to walk through the forest following the line of police barriers and crime scene techs running around.

It was a small back-way path that looked like it was used as a hiking path. It was hidden away and obscured by trees, and the only way to actually know about this path would have been if had walked it before. Sasuke reached a cordoned off area, and looked around there for Asuma. He spotted the older man standing not too far away, coffee in hand talking to an officer with a notepad. He showed the guard his badge and went under the barrier to meet his partner.

"Asuma what do we have?" he asked.

The man looked towards him, his expression grim. "I'll show you," he nodded his head towards tree line, Sasuke followed him as he was led to an equipment shed.

The door was opened, and tech in a white body jumpsuit rushed out of structure towards the edge of the crime scene to puke. Now that was bad, normally crime scene techs could handle the gore better than the average officer. The closer he got to the shed the better he could smell the rancid smell of decay coming off, this was not a fresh crime scene. He took the face mask that Asuma handed him and looked inside the mess.

His eyes widened at the sight in front of him, unlike Nii, this time it was young man, and unlike her, this body was nailed to the shed wall like he was crucified. The guy looked young, maybe no older than 17, he was pale with a blue tinge to his skin. Light grey hair fell over his face, and Sasuke knew that with some trepidation that his eyes would be missing. The chest was pried open again, showing that the cavity is empty, looking around the room he saw a pile of rotting organs under the body.

"Eyes were missing again," Asuma commented, Sasuke just nodded.

"Do we have an ID?" he asked.

Asuma nodded and took out a plastic baggy that a wallet inside. "Just like last time the killer made no effort in hiding his victims identity. This is 23 year old Kiri Yagura, unemployed."

23? Now this had the raven stumped, this guy looked so young and child like. A closer inspection of the body showed that the nails used to pin it to the shed were with railroad spikes. There were at least three on each arm, punctured right through the bone, and another two nailed through his top of his feet and into the wood behind it. Yet there wasn't a lot of blood, there should be more blood around the body. Had they cleaned the body?

Sasuke didn't voice his concern, instead he looked around the room and noticed that the this place just like the abandoned building in Kubukichi was filled with bloody unreadable writing. Sasuke couldn't look at the room anymore, and turned around and tried to think.

"This crime scene is old."

Asuma nodded, "Yeah, maybe two days +."

"Why was the body not discovered earlier?"

"This is temples equipment shed, the monk only comes around here maybe twice a week so it wasn't noticed until now."

Sasuke nodded and started looking around the perimeter thoughtfully. Unlike their previous crime scene this place gave the murderer seclusion, but whoever did this must have known the monks cleaning schedule to time it right.

"Have you questioned the monk?"

"He's 87 years old I don't think it was him," Asuma replied with a self-deprecating chuckle. "You know Ueno has never really been that safe of an area, but I'm starting to think that this place being called 'demon's gate' may be the correct name for... hey, where are you going Uchiha?" he shouted noticing that the other man was walking away from him.

Sasuke wasn't listening his attention was taken by something just beyond the barrier. Ignoring what Asuma was saying he walked under the police cordon to a tree, that looked like it was leaking a lot of sap, but there wasn't enough light coming from the trees for him to see what it was properly. He fumbled through his pocket, and took out his phone quickly pressing the flashlight function and shined it onto the smear. It was suspiciously red in colour. Rooting through his pockets he got out a clean tissue, and wiped it across the stain and brought it to his nose. It smelled metallic.

"I've got blood here!" he shouted, gaining everyone's attention.

Quickly Asuma and someone in a white jumpsuit came where he was.

"You found more blood?!" Asuma asked, Sasuke nodded and showed him the tree.

The tech started taking scrapings from the tree, and another came to photograph and label the new found evidence. Sasuke meanwhile looked around, his sharp eyes instantly noticed another tree smeared with blood. He nodded to Asuma who followed him, instructing the techs to take samples as they went. It was like a parody of Hansel and Gretel, but instead of following bread crumbs they were following a trail of blood.

"These aren't just random smears of blood, I think it's the same damn symbols that are all over the cabin," Asuma commented studying the smears.

"Did you find out what they mean yet?" he asked as he continued to follow.

The older detective shook his head as he instructed an officer to make drawings of the symbols. "No but I have a cryptologist or something coming in a few days."

Sasuke nodded his head, and kept following the strange markings from tree to tree, until he noticed one tree, that had a long white strip of paper nailed too it with a rusted railroad spike.

"Well this is new?" Asuma commented looking at this new clue.

Sasuke didn't know what to say, but that was definitely a shinto talisman, he had seen many of those before when he was younger. Only this one instead of being written in black ink, it was red like blood. He took a step closer, but a squelching sound mad him stop. Sasuke tsked and lifted his right leg thinking he stepped in some mud, instead he saw a very familiar sight on his shoe, blood. He frowned, and looked at the ground in front him. He grimaced at the sight.

"I think we may have found our primary crime scene."

OoOoOoOoOoO

Naruto felt tired, he had been feeling tired ever since he had come back from the hospital. It was not just physical, but also mental. There hadn't been a night since he got out of hospital that he hadn't had a nightmare. Naruto didn't even know what they were, only that it caused him to wake up every night drenched in sweat and out of breath like he was running from something. He didn't tell Tsunade and Jiraiya what was happening to him, they were worrying enough without him adding to it.

He sighed again, taking a deep breath and shook his head to wake himself up. He had to get ready and help the old lady clean the temple and manage the garden. So the blonde got out of bed, and went to take a shower. He stepped in the bathroom and took off his shirt, and bottoms throwing the garments into the hamper, avoiding looking at the large bathroom mirror and reflection of the mark on his stomach. He hurried into the shower and washed himself vigorously with cold water hoping he could wake himself up. He then dried himself and brushed his teeth, before leaving the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and went back to his room to get dressed.

Tsunade was already downstairs making breakfast, the old man was nowhere to be seen, probably already out by the temple setting things up. His godmother looked up when she heard him coming down.

"Have a good night brat?" she asked, setting down several plates of traditionally cooked food on the table.

"Yeah Baa-chan I slept like a baby!" he replied back cheerfully, and quickly got cuffed on the back of his head.

"Don't call me Baa-chan, brat. Now eat I will meet you at the temple. Remember to get the polishing spray out," she finished and left the room so that the blonde could eat.

Naruto ate quickly, and went inside the cleaning cupboard to take out the all the cleaning equipment. Went he stepped out of the house, Naruto was surprised by how bright it was. He squinted down at the path in front of him, the path forked into two, one leading down into the main drive while the other was a small short-cut leading to the back of the temple. He put his things down, picked out the dust cloth and the furniture polish; and got a start on the statues and frames to a high sheen. Next he got out the broom, and started clearing out the dead leaves from the stone court yard, and then mopping the wooden floor of the temple.

By the time he was done, Tsunade had come carrying with two large glass of cold lemonade and some onigiri on a tray. "Brat time for a break!" she shouted putting the tray down on the porch. She was wearing her full miko robes.

Naruto put his drying cloth down with the rest of the stuff and joined his godmother on the porch. It was then he realised that he hadn't seen Jiraiya all day.

"Ne, baa-chan where's the pervert? He left early again today," actually Naruto hadn't seen the older man in a long while. He left early in the morning and would come back late at night. Naruto knew at least that old man came home since he heard the familiar noise of the car engine pulling into the drive late at night.

"Huh, oh him," she said taking a bite out of her onigiri. "He's helping out at another temple as an advisor."

"Advisor?! Him?!" Naruto couldn't help but exclaim. "What is he advising them on, how to peep on women at the onsen?" he couldn't help but snort.

Tsunade gave a short laugh, and leaned back against pillar. "You may be right brat, but that's what he told me..."

The blonde arched an eyebrow, this was not the normal reaction from his godmother. The old man and her had an odd relationship. They had known each other since childhood and followed into the family footsteps by entering the temple. Although it was obvious that Tsunade and Jiraiya where head-over-heels in love with each other they never married. Maybe it was because Jiraiya was a pervert, and loved to flirt to pretty girls; or maybe it was because Tsunade loved her independence and hated the idea of someone tying her down.

Naruto didn't know, but he didn't question their relationship. Whatever they had it worked for them.

Saying that though.

His godmother's behaviour right now was odd, she was too calm and relaxed. Usually anything to do with the old pervert would have her grumpy, especially when he was gone for so long. Tsunade was known for her temper. Naruto thought about bringing it up but thought better of it. He rather not get cuffed around the head again, she packed a mean slap.

They finished lunch, and Naruto went inside the temple while Tsunade took the tray back inside the house. He was putting some new flowers into the vases, and was on his way to the garden to throw away the leaves into the compost, when he saw two people approaching the temple.

One was tall, with a long black hair that was parted down the middle. His skin was pale, but his eyes were bright almost like two silver coins. He wore formal clothing, a black unbuttoned blazer, a white shirt underneath, finished with black skinny jeans and boots. The other was a few inches shorter with wild bright red hair. His eyes were green like jade, tanned skin, and just peeking out from on the right side of his forehead, from beneath his red hair was bright red tattoo, that was the kanji for 'love'.

Both came to the temple with purpose and Naruto couldn't help but think that they were actually very intimidating. But he had to greet visitors, it would be rude if he didn't. So he took a deep breath and plastered on a smile to meet the new guest.

"Welcome to Zenkokuji temple, if you will wait a few minutes service will start. You are more than welcome to look around the garden until then."

"Uzumaki Naruto?" the dark haired man asked.

Naruto was confused at how the guy knew his name. He didn't look familiar at all. "Er... yes? How can I help you?"

The red head stepped forward, his green eyes staring into Naruto own sky blue. "We been looking for you," he said with a deep voice that sent shivers down the blonde's spine.

Naruto did not feel well.

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