Chapter One

Pilot

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Bones

Airport

"I'm late…" Ino muttered while making her way through the crowd in front of the arrival boards. She looked up to see that they were malfunctioning. "This board is broken. The arrivals board is not working. Uh, did anybody meet the flight from Guatemala? Aviateca airlines? What gate? Yeah, right. I'm late." She sighed before stepping up to a customer service desk.

"Excuse me, uh; you have a computer glitch at the arrivals board." Ino said but the customer service agent just ignored her.

"Hello! Sir, excuse me, yoo-hoo!"

The customer service guy holds up a finger to silence her.

"Great."

So Ino ripped open her button down shirt revealing a lacy bodice, getting the young guy's attention. "Yeah. Hi. The flight from Guatemala?"

"Tell me you tried 'excuse me' first. " I said while walking up behind Ino chuckling while looking over her outfit which consisted of short skirt and fancy blouse.

"Sweeeeetie. Yes, I did." she said while hugging me after buttoning up her shirt again. "Welcome home. Are you exhausted? Was Guatemala awful? Was it horribly backward?"

"And yet I was never reduced to flashing my boobs for information." I smirked as we started to walk towards the exit of the airport.

"Flash them for any fun reasons?" Ino winked.

"I was literally neck deep in a mass grave, not romantic." I said while peering over my shoulder only to see a man walking suspiciously close to us obviously listening in to our conversation.

"You know, diving in a pit of cadavers is no way to handle a messy break up."

"Ino, nothing Kiba and I ever did was messy." I said pretending to look over at her but really just look behind my shoulder to see if the man was still following us, which he was.

Ino laughed. "Then you were not doing the right things."

"Sir, why are you following us?" I asked quickly turning around and dropping my bag to confront him. He reached out to grab my arm so I pushed him back and then kicked him in the gut before bending his arm behind his back and forcing him to the floor.

"Attack! Security! Hello! Who runs this airport? Ino yelled before joining into the fight by hitting the man with her purse. "Kick his ass sweetie!"

"Police! Mam, step back now!" A security officer yelled as he pointed his gun at me.

"He attacked me!" I yelled in disbelief.

"I'm Homeland Security!" The man who I had pinned to the floor said.

"Oh, little misunderstanding here." Ino chuckled backing up.

I put my hands in the air so the police would put their guns away. "You can put away your guns."

"What is she in charge now? No. I'll tell you when you can lower your weapons." the agent said to the officers before looking back at me.

"Hand over the bag." He ordered.

Reaching down to retrieve the bag I said, "Is that what this is about?"

The Homeland Security agent opens the bag to reveal a skull.

"Boo." I said to him and he quickly dropped the bag. Ino smirked in the background at his reaction.

Sakura sitting at a table being question by the police.

"I am Doctor Sakura Haruno. I've been in Guatemala for two months identifying victims of genocide including him." I said gesturing to the skull.

"Most people in this situation, what they do is, they sweat it." The agent said.

"Guatemala, genocide? How are you scary after that?" I deadpanned.

"You know who doesn't sweat it?" The female agent who was also in the room asked, "Sociopaths."

"I am not a sociopath, I'm an anthropologist at the Jeffersonian."

"Who works for the FBI. Which I'd maybe believe if you had an ID that did more than allowed you access to the cafeteria." The agent stated.

Behind me, another man in a suit entered the room carrying a book.

"You were illegally transporting human remains ma'am and you assaulted a Homeland Security agent."

"Look, I'm sorry if I embarrassed you in front of your friends but, next time you should identify yourself before grabbing me." I said before turning to the man who just came in. "What are you doing here?" I asked rudely.

"FBI. Special Agent Sasuke Uchiha, Major Crime Investigation, D.C. Bones identifies bodies for us." Sasuke said holding up his I.D. to show the Homeland security agent.

"Don't call me Bones. And I do more than identify." I said turning back around in my seat.

Holding up the book, then sliding it across the table to the other agent Sasuke said, "She also writes books."

The agent picked up the book, and looked at it noting my name.

"Fine. She's all yours."

"Great. Let's grab your skull and let's vamoose."

"What! That's it? She's all yours? Why did you stop me?" I yelled in frustration at the agent.

"Why does it matter? You're free to go. Let's just grab your bags…" Sasuke before I cut him off.

"You set me up." I said to Sasuke. "You got a hold for questioning request from the FBI didn't you?" I asked the security agent. The agent instead of saying anything just said, "I love this book." before handing it back.

I grabbed the skull and book before stalking past Sasuke and out of the room.

Inside of an SUV with Sasuke driving.

"That's the best you can do?"

"What?" Sasuke questioned.

"Getting Homeland Security to snatch me so that you can stage a fake rescue." I scoffed.

"Well, at least I picked you up at the airport huh? Hey, come on. I went through the appropriate channels but your assistant there, he stonewalled me!"

"Yeah, well after the last case I told Naruto to never, ever to put you through. He's a good assistant. You can let me out anywhere along here." I said pointing at the sidewalk.

"Alright, listen. A decomposed corpse was found this morning at Arlington National Cemetery down…"

"Arlington National Cemetery is full of decomposed corpses, it's… a cemetery."

"Yeah, but this one is your type of corpse, it wasn't in a casket."

"If you drive one more block, I'm screaming 'kidnap' out the window." I threatened as he continued driving.

"Do you know what, I'm trying to mend bridges here."

"Pull over."

Sasuke pulled over the car and we both got out.

"I'm going home." I said walking quickly away from Sasuke who started to follow.

"Great! Could we… Look, could we just skip this part?"

"I find you very condescending."

"Me! I'm condescending? I'm not the one who's got to mention that she's got a Doctorate every, five, minutes."

"I am the one with the Doctorate." I turned around and smirked at him and then continued walking away.

"Yeah, well you know what? I'm the one with the badge and the gun huh. You know, you're not the only forensic anthropologist in town."

I laughed. "Yes I am. The next nearest is in Montreal. Parlez-vous francais?"

"What's it going to take?" He asked seriously.

I stopped and turned to face him. "Full participation in the case."

"Fine."

"Not just lab work, everything."

"What? Do you want me to spit in my hand? We're Scully and Mulder."

"I don't know what that means."

"It's an olive branch, just get back in the car."

Arlington National Cemetery

Sasuke and Sakura walked down a grassy hill, filled with row upon row of headstones, toward a large pond.

"What's the context of the find?"

"Routine landscaping, dropped a load in the local pond, one of the workmen thought he saw something."

We got to the Jeffersonian Medico-Legal Lab van. It opened to reveal my assistant Naruto Uzumaki.

"Hi Naruto."

"Agent Uchiha, you remember my assistant Naruto Uzumaki?"

"Oh yeah…"

"How was Guatemala? Dig up lots of massacred victims? Learn a thing or two about machete strikes?" he asked me before I sent him off not really wanting to talk about it.

"Naruto, I need water samples and temperature readings from the pond." I said getting straight to the point.

"Right away Dr. Haruno."

"He's got no sense of discretion that kid. Typical Squint…"

"I don't know what that means."

"When cops get stuck, we bring in people like you. You know? Squints. You know, you squint at things."

"Oh, you mean people with very high IQ's and basic reasoning skills."

"Yeah." Sasuke said looking chastised.

Sasuke and I got on a boat in the middle of the pond, dropping an underwater camera that feeds to a video screen on the boat.

"What exactly am I supposed to be squinting at?"

"Oh you know, it's like pornography, you'll know it when you see it."

Out of nowhere the screen showed a skeleton under water, wrapped in what looks like chicken wire.

"Yeah okay. This is a crime scene." I announced.

3 hours later

I was examining the skeleton on the shore, late at night, while Naruto was taking pictures of the skeleton.

"Remains are wrapped in four-milled, flat poly-construction sheeting."

"PVC coated chicken wire." Naruto said.

"Weighted. That's why the body didn't surface during decomposition. The skeleton is complete but the skull is in fragments."

"What can you tell me?" Sasuke asked as he joined us.

"Not much. She was a young woman, probably between 18 and 22, approximately 5'3", race unknown, delicate features."

Sasuke sarcastically said, "That's all?"

"Tennis player."

"How do you get a pretty tennis player out of that yuck?"

"Epiphyses fusion gives age, pelvic bone shape gives sex…"
Naruto stated smugly.

"Bursitis in the shoulder, somebody this young, must be an athletic injury." I said.

"When did she die?" Sasuke asked.

"Ehhhh….." I answered.

"Ehhhh…? What does that even mean?"

"Means wait until our bug and slime guy takes a look." Naruto explained.

"No clothing." I said.

"You know, in my line of work, no clothes usually means a sex crime."

"In my line of work, it could also mean the victim favored natural fibers."

"Your suit, for example, will outlast your bones by decades." Naruto told Sasuke.

"Collect silt, 3 meters radius, to a depth of 10 cm." I told Naruto before turning to Sasuke. "Your FBI forensics team can take the plastic and the chicken wire, we'll take the rest."

Jeffersonian institute

Dr. Jairaya and I were walking down the hall of the Jeffersonian with Naruto tagging along behind us.

"Dr. Jairaya, I wish you wouldn't just give me to the FBI."

"As a federally funded institution, the Jeffersonian must seize every opportunity to prove our worth to our friends in Congress which means, I loan you out as I see fit, especially to federal agencies."

" 'Loan out' implies property Dr. Jairaya the FBI will never respect me as property."

"I do not view you as property Dr. Haruno, you are one of the Jeffersonian's most valuable assets."

"An asset is, by definition, property." Naruto interjected.

"What's the rule Mr. Uzumaki?"

Naruto sighed. "You only converse with PhD's. You realize I am half way through two Doctorates? Two halves make a whole, so mathematically speaking…"

"Go polish a bone Mr. Uzumaki!"

Leaving Naruto behind, Dr. Jairaya and I entered an atrium in the museum.

"Dr. Jairaya. FBI agents will never respect any of us as long as you simply dole out scientists like office temps."

"Dr. Haruno, are you playing me ?"

"You know I'm no good at that." I said while flicking my bubble gum pink hair over my shoulder.

"mmm. Thus far, but you have a disturbingly steep learning curve." He said with a pervy smile while trying to check me out when he thought I wasn't looking muttering something about research.

Medico-Legal Lab at the Jeffersonian

"The pond is not only warm and teeming with microbes, which accelerated decomposition, but it houses black carp and coy which fed on the body." Shikamru said.

"Can I, as the only normal person in this room, say, Ew?" Ino said in disgust.

"I got three larval stages of trichoptera, chironimidae…"

"As we cut to the chase…" I said while not really knowing what he was talking about.

"The body was in the pond one winter and two summers."

"Spring before last."

"You really think I'm Levy?"

In a confused manner I looked at Ino who explained to me what Shikamaru was talking about.

"The book."

"No, No, No. You're not in my book."

"Sure he is! We all are…" Naruto said with a huge smile while slurping on some ramen.

"Naruto!" I screeched. "Get that out of my lab!"

"I'm going!" he yelled in a scared voice while running off before I could hit him.

"No, none of you are in the book. Those are fictitious characters based on…." I said after Naruto saving himself from me strangling him.

Shikamaru interrupted us and showed us the ribcage on the screen we were standing around. "I found some small bone fragments in the silt."

"We're out of the book now, we're back in real life…" Ino said not really caring what Shikamaru was talking about.

"I guess Rena Temporaria."

"Frog bones…" I translated for anyone who didn't understand.

"Also some tiny gold links, those from a fine chain…"

"Point of clarification, I'm not a virgin. Nowhere near in fact." Naruto said as he came back and started talking about my book again.

"Who you captured perfectly, is Sasuke. Buttoned down but buckets of sexual confidence which, uhhh, I for one would love to tap." Ino said with a love struck smile.

"It's not right to discuss tapping asses in front of a soaker." Naruto said referring to the body.

"I can't bounce back and forth between my book and real life. Since we're stuck with real life let's just forget the book."

"I haven't analyzed whatever it was the victim was holding in her hand but it looks like cellulose." Shikamaru said while staring intently at his microscope.

"Paper?" Ino questioned.

"Possibly."

"I found microscopic grit embedded in the skull fragments, I need you to identify those too. Remove the remaining tissue, I'll rebreed the skull fragments myself, reassemble it so Ino can put a face on our victim." I told Naruto.

"Good. I prefer holographs, they don't stink." Ino told us all while flipping her long blond ponytail over her shoulder.

The group began to disperse to do their job while I walked over to Naruto.

"Naruto, I don't like those terms for human remains; soaker, crispy critter…"

"Sorry Dr. Haruno." Naruto said as he bowed his head in shame.

Several hours later I found myself in the lab at a table reconstructing the skull piece by piece. I continued throughout the night and before I knew it I was being woken up by Naruto setting a cup of coffee on the table for me. We chatted for awhile before I headed home to take a well deserved shower.

Kakashi's office (Kakashi is the deputy director of the FBI,so Sasuke's boss)

"So, you guaranteed a squint a field role in an active murder investigation."

"Yes sir."

"The one that wrote the book."

"Yes sir."

"Thought you said that she wouldn't work with you anymore."

"Well, the last case we worked she provided a description of the murder weapon and the murderer but I didn't give her much credence."

"Why not?"

"Because she did it by looking at the victim's autopsy x-rays

The director snorted and said, "Well I wouldn't give it much credence either."

"Turns out she was right on both plus the pond victim, Sakura gives me the victim's age, sex and favorite sport."

Kakashi chuckled and said, "Which is?"

"Tennis"

Kakashi said in awe, "She's good."

"Oh, she's amazing. If the only way I can get her back to my side is to bring her out in the field, I'm willing."

"Well, Squints like to stay safe, back at the lab. What's with Haruno?"

"Remember a case back in the early 90's, a couple goes missing on the interstate, car was found at a rest stop?"

"Yeah. Upstate New York, upstanding citizens, nobody found anything…"

I bent forward and interlaced my fingers while setting my chin on top of them. "Those are Sakura's parents."

Kakashi thought for a moment before he decided. "Fine. She's on you. Take a Squint out in the field, she's your responsibility."

"Thank you sir."

Sakura's apartment

I was sleeping at home when I heard a noise. I scrambled over to the side of my bed and pulled out the bat that I had hidden underneath. Quietly slipping down the hall, I held the bat up incase I needed a weapon. As a man walks through a bead curtain I slammed the bat into the front of the TV that he was carrying.

I held the bat up in the air and looked down at the guy I had knocked down. "Kiba?"

"It's not rational for you to choose the first day I'm back to reclaim your television." I started after we had moved into my living room and were drinking coffee.

"While you were away, I thought a lot about why we broke up."

"We fought all the time and don't like each other anymore."

"We fought because you are emotionally distant and cold but sexually speaking, I think you'll agree…"

I interrupted. "You didn't come for your TV, you timed this for a booty call!"

I stood up and took the coffee from Kiba that I had given to him. I began to push him towards the door.

"OK, you're leaving."

"Your intimacy issues are probably due to being orphaned so young."

"Uhh… I hate psychology and you're just horny."

"Sakura, do you really want to spend the rest of your life alone?"

"Ok, I don't know about the rest of my life but I sure as hell wish I was alone right now."

I reached for the door and pushed Kiba out of it.

"So what, we split the cost of the TV?"

"Goodbye."

I slammed the door in his face and the phone started to ring. I picked up the phone and in an annoyed voice answered.

"What?"

Medico-Legal Lab at the Jeffersonian, Ino's office.

Sasuke was off brooding in a corner when I got to Ino's office.

"Good morning. Does Sasuke know how this works?"

"This computer program, which I designed, patent pending, accepts a full array of digital input, processes it and then projects it as a three dimensional holographic image."

"Hn."

"You get that?" I asked him not sure what his answered meant.

"Yeah, that and the patent pending part." he said like the smart ass he is.

"Sakura reassembled the skull and applied tissue markers."

Ino, Shikamaru, Naruto, Sasuke, and I were gathered around the machine while Ino spoke.

"Her skull was badly damaged, but racial indicators, cheekbone dimensions, nasal arch, occipital measurements suggest African American."

"And…. We have our victim."
A full upper body appeared on the machine in holograph form.

"Ino, rerun the program substituting Caucasian values."

The image altered slightly.

"Does she look familiar to anyone?" I asked.

Shaking his head in disbelief Sasuke answered. "No…"

"Split the difference, mixed race." I told Ino again.

Ino makes the change and the image is altered again, while Sasuke is taken aback.

"Ino, reduce tissue depth over the cheekbones to the jaw line. "

"Does anyone recognize her?"

"Not me." Naruto said while squinting at the holograph.

"Wait, is that who I think it is?" Ino asked.

"The girl who had the affair with the Senator?" Naruto finally said realizing who it was.

"Her name is Cleo Louise Eller. Only daughter to Ted and Sharon Eller. Last seen approximately 9pm, April 6, 2003 leaving the Cardio Deluxe Gym on K Street, she didn't even make it to her car." Sasuke informed.

"Pretty good memory." I commented.

"Yeah well, it's my job to find her."

"Well, in that case, congratulations on your success." Shikamaru told him.

"This isn't exactly the way I wanted it to end."

Steps of Jeffersonian

"Cleo Eller is not just some missing girl." Sasuke stated.

"Yeah, she's a senate intern who was boinking Senator Allen Bethlehem." Shikamaru said while gazing up at the clouds.

"I was secondary in the investigation to the disappearance of that girl and we couldn't confirm that." Sasuke said with a frown.

Back inside again

"How did you recognize her before she even had her own face?"

"I recognized the underlying architecture of her features, the rest is just window dressing."

"I'm not an expert but, shouldn't he be happier?" Naruto whispered to me.

"Oh no, believe me, I'm happy." Sasuke said after eavesdropping.

"He's not happy because Senator Bethlehem chairs the Senate Committee overseeing the FBI." Shikamaru stated from over where he was staring down into his microscope.

"You seem happy to me." Ino said while cocking her head and staring at him.

"I need this kept quiet." Sasuke said to us all.

"Ha! Cover up!" Naruto said in excitement.

"So what do you do first, confront the Senator?" I asked Sasuke.

"Listen, Bones, I know…"

"Don't call me Bones!"

"I know we talked about you coming out in the field and all…"

"Ughh.. You Rat Bastard!"

"A case this big and the Director is going to create a special investigation and if I line all my ducks up in a row I could maybe, maybe I can head it up."

"I don't know what that means but I think I could be a duck."

"You're not a duck ok! On this one we stick to the book. Cops on the street, Squints in the lab."

"Well in that case, the Jeffersonian will be issuing a press release identifying the girl in the pond."

"You do that, I'm a dead duck. What are you trying to do?"

"Blackmail you." I said while staring up into his dark onyx eyes determinedly.

"Blackmail a Federal Agent?"

"Yes."

"I don't like it."

"I'm fairly certain you're not supposed to."

"Fine. You're in."

I smirked as we headed to his car.

Kakashi's office

"You're certain it's Cleo Eller?" Kakashi asked.

"The profile's dead on, age, race, height…" I said.

"Plus the timeline fits, I mean Cleo Eller did play tennis in college."

"Talk to me about the Senator."

Sasuke handed him a photo of the senator.
"Cleo Eller, the victim, worked for Senator Bethlehem…"

"It was reported that they were involved sexually."

"We couldn't confirm that." Sasuke said.

"Oh Bethlehem's a hound, everybody knows that." Kakashi chuckled.

Sasuke again handed his boss another photo.
"Ken Thompson, Cleo's boyfriend."

"Thompson's still Bethlehem's aid. Thompson keeps Bethlehem's calendar, no way the Senator has an affair that Thompson doesn't know about. No sexual relationship, no motive. What about the ahh, nutcase?"

Sasuke handed him yet another photo. "Oliver Laurier."

"You like him for this?"

"Well he's a stalker."

"What's your first move?"

"I'd like to inform the Eller's that we found their daughter."

"It's better to keep this quiet, it's been what, two years? What's another few of days?"

"With all due respect sir, I've come to know the family pretty well, especially the Major and two years is a hell of a long time in my book."

I absorbed everything in around me and jumped in to help.
"I'll have details of cause of death by this afternoon."

"Then that's where we'll get started." Sasuke told me.

Sasuke and I were currently in his SUV heading towards Cleo's parent's house. I was looking at a Jeffersonian file and a small bottle full of dirt in my hand.

"Shikamaru identified the particulates embedded in Cleo Eller's skull as rolled steel most likely from a sledge typed hammer also there's concrete and diatomaceous earth."

"What's that?"

I handed Sasuke the bottle full if the white powder.
"Looks like that. It's made up of prehistoric sea creatures, it's used as an insecticide, filtering agent, cleaning abrasive, ceramics… It's very common."

"Diatomaceous earth. Common or not, it's a clue." He said.
And that was the end of our conversation. We sat in silence the rest of the way to the Eller's.

When we got there we were ushered into a very nice and formal living room where the Eller parents were waiting for us.

"You're positive it's our Cleo?" Mr. Ellen asked.

"We established 22 matching points of comparison…" I said before Sasuke cut me off with a rude look.

"Yes. We're certain." Sasuke said.

"Did he do it? The Senator. One military man to another."

"Major Eller, we can't discuss the investigation in any way."

"Can you at least tell us if our daughter suffered?" Mrs. Eller asked with a sad look on her face.

"Given the state of her skull…" I started again before Sasuke cut me off with another stern look.

"Cleo never saw it coming." He answered for me with a lie.

"Thank you."

"Mrs. Eller, can you tell us what Cleo wore around her neck?" I asked.

"Her father's Bronze Star. Ted won it in the first Gulf War then, he gave it to her for luck."
Mrs. Eller then broke down in tears and Sasuke looked at me again.

Back in the SUV

"Those people deserved the truth." I told Sasuke.

"Their daughter was murdered, they deserve the kindness of a lie."

"There'll be an inquest report."

"Which they won't read because they don't want to, especially because toward the end, Cleo and her parents weren't even speaking."

"They told you that?"

"You know, getting information out of live people is a lot different than getting information out of a pile of bones, you have to offer up something of yourself first. "

"What exactly did you do in the military?"

"See? See what you did right there Bones? You asked a personal question without offering anything personal in return and since I'm not a skeleton, you get zilch. Sorry."

Medico Legal lab in the Jeffersonian

There are stab marks here and odd markings on the distal phalanges. Nothing I've seen before." I said aloud.

"In a nutshell; anxious, depressed and nauseous." Shikamaru randomly said.

"Take a sick day." I told him.

"Not me. Cleo Eller. Pupil casings show that she was on Lorazepam, Chloradiazepoxide, and Meclizine Hydrochloride."

"Nausea. Show me those bone fragments."

On the screen Shikamaru pulled up a picture of the bone fragments enlarged.

"These aren't frog bones, Cleo Eller was pregnant."

"Fetal remains…." Naruto said in a sad voice.

"Malleus, Incus, Stapes, these are fetal ear bones."

"The girl was pregnant." Shikamaru said again even though we already knew.

"Not very far along."

"Do you want to try to get a DNA reading see if we can prove paternity?" Naruto asked.

"You can try, let's hope there's enough genetic material to test."

"This Senator, ahhh he is smart. He gets an intern pregnant and then murders her when it threatens his career and he has the connections to get away with it." Shikamaru said from over at his table where he was looking in his microscope.

"I hate it when you make paranoia plausible, it's like sliding off a cliff."

"Special Unit? No way your FBI pal heads it up unless the dark powers in charge are convinced he knows where his political bread is buttered. Either way, this is where this investigation ends." Shikamaru said.

After we found out that we couldn't take the investigation of the body any farther I went to take a break in our lounge where Ino joined me.

"Want to get a drink? Non-topical application. Glug, glug, Woo hoo! " Ino said and then in a softer voice, "Come on Sweetie…"

As we were walking down the hallway I decided to tell Ino what was bothering me.
"What if Sasuke's right. What if I'm only good with bones and lousy with people?"

"People like you." She said in a soft voice.

"I don't care if men like me."

Ino chuckled wryly. "Okay, interesting leap from people to men but I'm sure it means nothing."

"I hate psychology. My most meaningful relationships are with dead people!"

"Who said that?"

I sat down on I bench in the hallway and turned to face Ino who also sat down.

"It's true! I understand Cleo, and her bones are all I've ever seen. When she was seven, she broke her wrist probably falling off a bike and two weeks later, before the cast was even removed, she got right back on that bike and broke it all over again. And when she was being murdered, she fought back hard, even though she was so depressed she could hardly get up in the morning. She didn't welcome death, Cleo wanted to live."

"Honey, you ever think you come off kind of distant because you connect too much? "

"I hate psychology, it's a soft science."

"I know but, people are mostly soft."

"Except for their bones."

"Yeah… You want some advice?"

I sarcastically said. "glug, glug, woo hoo…"

"Offer up a little bit of yourself every once and awhile. Just… tell somebody something you're not completely certain you want them to know."

I laughed "God! That's the second time I've received that advice."

"Well, you know I give great advice." she smiled.

Hart Office Building of the US Senate. Sakura is meeting with Thompson and Senator Bethlehem in an atrium of sorts.

"I'm a little confused as to why the Director of the FBI would send you to speak to the Senator instead of coming himself."

"Probably because I'm the one who found out that Cleo Eller was pregnant."

"You can tell the girl was pregnant from her skeleton?"

"We found fetal bones, The only question now, Senator, is which one of you is the father. Are you willing to submit to a DNA test?"

Thompson told Bethlehem, "You know what, given the sensitivity, don't say anything on the subject without your attorney present. That's my advice."

"Advice I intend to take. Ken, we have a vote to get to."

The Senator tosses some gum into a trash can and I ran to retrieve it.

"Ummm, hehe, what are you doing?" Bethlehem asked.

"Saliva, say from chewing gum, is an excellent source of DNA. I intend to compare it to the DNA in the fetal bones."

"You need a warrant for that. Ken, she needs a warrant."

Thompson walked up to me intending to take the gum. He grabbed my wrist so I turned swiftly and elbowed him in the
stomach causing him to drop to the floor.

As I was walking out of the building I turned to the men and said, "If we have any further questions, we'll be in touch."

"Ken, you okay?" Bethlehem asked him.

An hour later I was sitting in Kakashi's office and he looked pissed.

"When you work for the FBI Dr. Haruno, you're a Federal Agent, government property, I own you."

"I'm not certain that's accurate sir."

"Well how's this for accurate. I could place you under arrest on a Federal charge right now for uttering threats against a United States Senator."

"What…?"

"Bones…" Sasuke moaned and pinched the bridge of he's nose.

"I own her, but she was your responsibility." Kakashi told Sasuke.

"Yes sir."

Kakashi spoke into his intercom. "Send in Special Agent First." He then turned to Sasuke. "I warned you about taking squints out to the field but you vouched for her, said she wouldn't screw up."

"Yes sir."

"She accosted a Senator, assaulted his aid that counts as screwing things up."

"No! No! Uchiha didn't know I was going to see the Senator, I wanted to get a sample of his DNA."

Kakashi looked to Sasuke. "Exactly."

"Not helping…." Sasuke muttered to me under his breath.

The Agent First enters the office as Kakashi sits down behind his desk.

"Tomorrow morning I'm announcing the formation of a special unit to investigate the murder of Cleo Eller at which time your investigation will be officially terminated. You will not head the new unit." he told Sasuke.

Addressing the Agent First Sasuke said without looking him in the eyes. "Congratulations Neji."

"No hard feelings." he said back to Sasuke.

"Right."

"I need the complete case files in the morning."

"Of course, they'll be ready."
Sasuke told him while I took in the scene. The agent had long brown hair and pupil less eyes. I wondered how he got away with the long hair since it wasn't in the male agent dress code.

"Thank you Agent First." Kakashi told him.

Getting up to leave Sasuke said "At least Dr. Haruno found out that the Senator Bethlehem was having sex with Cleo."

"I did?"

"Report said there wasn't enough DNA in the fetal bones to determine paternity." Kakashi told Sasuke.

"Senator Bethlehem didn't want Dr. Haruno to take that gum, he's hiding something."

"He didn't know there wasn't enough DNA." I told Kakashi.

"I suggest you ummm, go back to your lab Dr. Haruno and get used to being there."

"Come on Bones…"

We left Kakashi's office and Sasuke asked if I was okay.

"Don't be nice to me after I got you in trouble."

"Your heart was in the right place."

"No, I'm not a heart person, you're a heart person, I'm a brain person. You vouched for me."

"Forget it…"

"No, I won't. you think it was the Senator?"

"Look, the Senator has had sex with a dozen of these interns and he hasn't killed any of them, our best bet is still the stalker."

"You want to check him out, we can, I don't, what do you call it, roost him?"

Sasuke smirked. "Rouse."

"Rouse. Well the murderer snatched a Bronze Star from Cleo's neck so…"

"I've got twelve hours before this case is over and I'm off it so, let's go rouse."

Oliver Laurier's house

I was currently standing at Oliver Laurier's door. He had it open as far as the security chain would allow.

"Mr. Laurier, we have a warrant to search your apartment…."

He slammed the door in my face and turned to run but was stopped by Sasuke who snuck in through the back door. Sasuke grabbed him and pushed down to the floor. "Don't run Oliver." Sasuke calmly said.

Sasuke showed the warrant to Oliver and then went to let Sakura in. She flipped her pink hair over her shoulder and walked in.

Oliver was reading the warrant thoroughly as Sasuke took a look around the apartment

"Agent Uchiha is under the impression that you may have something that is pertinent to a case he is working on."

"You're looking for a Bronze Star? Like the one that Cleo wore?"

"Exactly like that one Mr. Laurier."

"I don't have it."

"Sometimes stalkers retain keepsakes."

Sasuke picked up a tiny book that was in a stack on Oliver's coffee table. "What the hell are these things huh?"

"Miniature lives of the Saints, I hand them out…."

Sasuke tossed in to me. "Heads up Bones."

He told Sasuke. "I hand them out for donations, I'm not a panhandler, help yourself."
"I never stalked Cleo." He then told me.

"Then why did she get a restraining order?"

"Okay, okay, no. First of all no. Ken Thompson, her supposed boyfriend, got the restraining order with his boss, the Senator but Ken is only concerned with his job and his tropical fish. They colluded to ruin my reputation with this specious, stalker label when in actuality, I was Cleo's close friend."

"Then why'd you run from the warrant?"

"My fight or flight response is heavily weighted toward flight. If there is anything I can do to help you catch Cleo's killer, just tell me."

"Oh! Full confession that would be great." Sasuke said in a taunting voice.

"I love Cleo. Why would I hurt her?"

"If you don't mind, I'm gonna keep one of these little books."

"Whatever you need, Dr. Haruno."

Jeffersonian, Ino's office, looking at the holograph of Cleo Eller

"This is a rough composite but, you get the idea."

"Skull trauma was not the cause of death, Cleo was stabbed first. She was stabbed 5 to 8 times with a military issued K-Bar knife."

"And I just completed this rendering. The defensive wounds to the bones of her hands suggest that it wasn't until the third or the fourth penetration that…."

I interrupted Ino,"That's likely the fatal stab right there."

"..that Cleo stopped fighting back." She finished.

"I believe that the distinctive damage to her distal phalanges, the tips of her finger bones, was caused by the murderer using a knife to remove her finger pads. Cranial fragmentation suggests a 20lb hammer striking four to five times while the victims head rested on a cement floor containing traces of diatomaceous earth, that's the best explanation for the particulates found in her skull. This was not a crime of passion."

"Cleo never saw the first stab coming, it didn't arise out of an argument. Why smash Cleo's face, why whittle away her finger tips, remove her clothing and her jewelry?" Ino asked

"Sink her body." Naruto said.

"The murderer put more effort into hiding the victim's identity than he did into the murder itself." I stated while staring intently at the holograph.

"In case Cleo was identified, the murderer planted evidence. The little book that Sakura got from the stalker matches the cellulose I found in Cleo's hand."

"Military cemetery, military knife implicate her own father. More misdirection." Ino stated.

"Sound like any conniving, son-of-bitch senators you know?" Shikamaru asked in disgust.

"You expect me, to declare war on a United States Senator based on your little holographic crystal ball." Sasuke asked.

"It's not magic. It's a logical recreation of events based on evidence." I corrected him.

"No more valid than my gut."

"A good hypothesis withstands testing that's what makes it a good hypothesis." Naruto said.

"It's not a hypothesis, you have a dead girl and a United States Senator. This is exactly why squints belong in the lab, you guys don't know anything about the real world."

I glared at Sasuke and left Ino's office. "Come on, we're done here."

"Wow. Touchy…" Sasuke said to Ino who stayed in her office.

"You must know about her family. Both parents vanish when she's fifteen? Probably counts as the real world."

"Yeah. I know the story, read the file, cops never found out anything."

"Yeah. Sakura figures that if maybe somebody like her had been there…"

"For someone who hate psychology, she sure has a lot of it."

firing range

I had decided to go to the shooting range to take out some frustration. Sasuke saying that we knew nothing of the real world just really made me mad. Why does he have to come barging into my life and think that he knows everything about me? Or tell me what I should do to make it better!

"Thought I'd find you here. You know, you being a good shot and doing martial arts, it's all your way of dealing. Who knows better than you how fragile life can be?"

"Maybe an Army Ranger sniper who became an FBI homicide investigator?"

"Ah, you looked me up, huh?" He then referred to the gun. "Do you mind?"

"Be my guest."

"Thank You."

Sasuke took the gun and purposely made a lousy shot. Sakura chuckled.

"Were you any good at being a sniper?"

"A sniper gets to know a little something about killers. Senator Bethlehem, he's no killer."

"Oh, and Oliver Laurier is?"

Sasuke backed Sakura into the wall of the firing booth and got right in her face.

"The way I read Laurier, he's unhinged. That makes him dangerous."

"That'd be your gut telling you that, correct?"

"You know, homicides, they're not solved by scientists. They're solved by guys like me asking a thousand questions a thousand times, catching people telling lies every time. You're great at what you do, Bones, but you don't solve murders, cops do."

"Cleo Eller was killed on a cement floor sprinkled with diatomaceous earth. Traces of her blood will still be in that cement. One of us is wrong, maybe both of us. But if Bethlehem wasn't a Senator, you'd be right there in his basement looking for that killing floor. You're afraid of him. Your hypothesis is that squints don't solve murders and cops do, prove it. Be a cop."

She smirked at turned to leave. Sasuke picked up the gun and quickly spun around firing three shots. Two to the heart and one to the head. All perfect kill shots.

Sasuke's office

Sasuke was watching some home videos of the Eller's when Sakura walked in.

"They look pretty happy, don't they. Otherwise they wouldn't turn on the camera I guess." I said to her while still watching the screen. She walked up to my desk to watch with me.

"Naruto said you wanted to see me?"

"That something you don't like to talk about? Families? Sakura, partners they, share things, builds trust."

"Since when are we partners?"

"I apologize for the assumption." I handed Sakura a piece of paper.

"You got a warrant to search Bethlehem's place?"

"You were right. If Bethlehem wasn't a Senator, I'd be in that basement, looking for that killing floor. But you're wrong, I was never afraid of that guy and I'm not doing this because you're a genius, I'm doing this for Cleo."

She smiled at me before we headed for the mansion.

Senator Bethlehem's mansion

"The warrant says they're searching for blood traces, a sledgehammer and diatomaceous earth." Thompson said.

"What the hell is that?" Bethlehem asked.

Thompson angrily stormed up to me.

"You're making a big mistake."

I Ignored him and looked to Sasuke. He seemed to be in a heated argument with Neji. I felt like I was being watched so I flicked my hair over my shoulder and turned to the gate. Oliver Laurier was watching me.

"What are you doing here?"

"Look at him, for all his politics he's got nothing. He should have loved Cleo properly like I would have. Will you sign my book?"

"Stalk me Oliver and I will Kick. Your. Ass."

Just then an agent came out of the building with a sledge hammer in an evidence bag.

"I don't recognize that, that is not mine. That is not mine!" Bethlehem yelled.

"At least we got the hammer." I said to. Sasuke as he walked up to me.

"Yeah but that's all we got."

"The cement floor in the basement?" I asked while staring up into his onyx eyes which I could find myself at times getting lost in.

"Yeah, no blood, diatomaceous earth. We needed a trifecta Bones. Physical evidence, murder weapon, crime scene…"

We sighed simultaneously before I headed back to the lab ad Sasuke went to take care of paper work.

lounge back at the Jeffersonian

We were all sitting around having a drink to top off the day.

"They won't even arrest him?" Naruto asked.

"Don't worry, if that's the hammer used on Cleo Eller, he'll get arrested. A toast to getting this bastard." Shikamaru said.

"The hammer's not enough. He's gonna get away with it. And maybe Sasuke is right, maybe outside the lab I'm useless."

Shikamaru held up Oliver's book.
"Let's take guidance from the lives of the Saints."

"Alburtus Magnus, Patron Saint of Scientists." Ino said.

"I thought Magnus was the Patron Saint of fish mongers?" Naruto said while cocking his head to the side and putting of a cute little frown.

"Two separate entities. Albertus Magnus was a 13th century philosopher, the fish monger saint was a …" Shikamaru started.

"Fish!" I exclaimed and everyone looked at me. "You said that diatomaceous earth could be used as a filtering agent."

"Yeah, for swimming pools, water filters…" Shikamaru started again.

"Or tropical fish. Oliver Laurier said that Ken Thompson kept fish."

I jumped up and began to rush away.

"What's your hurry?" Ino asked me.

I turned back.
"Thompson read the warrant, he knows we're looking for diatomaceous earth. Get in touch with Uchiha, tell him where I'm going, okay?"

Ino turned to Shikamaru. "She didn't actually say where she was going, did she?"

I pulled up to Thompson's house to see him spreading gasoline over the floor.

"Stop! You can't destroy evidence." I yelled at him from outside his house. I grabbed a planter from the ground and through it through a glass panel in his door and reached through to unlock the door.

"This is a private residence, I don't suppose you have a warrant?"

"I'm working with the FBI, if I have reasonable suspicion of a crime being committed, I don't need a warrant."

"What crime?"

"Destruction of evidence pertinent to a Federal investigation."

"I'm just cleaning up. Is that alcohol I smell on your breath?"

"This linoleum looks fairly new, what's underneath, cement? The same cement that was embedded in Cleo's skull when you bashed her head in."

"You might want to get out of here." Thompson warned me.

"I can't let you destroy evidence."

"How are you going to stop me?"

"I'll stop you." I said cockily while flipping my hair over my shoulder.

He laughed. "Not before I burn this place down with you in it."

I quickly pulled out my gun and shot him in the leg. I rushed over and held the gun on him to keep him laying down.

"I don't get it, it wasn't jealousy, it wasn't passion, Cleo wouldn't get rid of your boss's baby and so you got rid of her. What kind of psychology is that? What kind of person are you?"

Just then Oliver Laurier appeared in the door way.

"Sakura. Are you alright?"

"Oliver, I understand you're here out of a misguided concern for my safety but I apparently don't read people very well and you could be in some kind of psychotic collusion with Ken so I'm going to ask you to go over there and apply pressure to his wound until the police get here, you understand?"

"Okay. Okay. Did he kill Cleo?"

"Yeah…"

"Okay. Well, I'm down with him bleeding to death."

"Did I mention that applying pressure to a gunshot wound is extremely painful?"

Cleo Eller's funeral

All of us attended the funeral. Well Ino, Shikamaru, Naruto, Jairaya, Sasuke and I. I left the group for a minute to lay a white rose on her coffin.

"Is the FBI going to lay charges against Sakura?" Ino asked.

"She only shot him in the leg. Once." Shikamaru said as if it would help at all.

"She didn't give him a warning. She just shot him, with alcohol on her breath." Sasuke said.

"It was her first shooting, you can't expect it to be perfect right out of the gate." Jairaya said.

"How much warning did you give people before you sniped them?" Naruto said to Sasuke.

Sasuke shot him a dirty look. He then left to catch up with Sakura who was walking across the cemetery to the road. He caught up with her and falls into step beside her with a smug grin on his face

I laughed seeing the smirk on his face. "What?"

"Told you it wasn't the Senator."

"And I told you who it was, so we're even."

"Except we work on the same cases and you end up on the New York Times Best Sellers list."

"I didn't know that!"

"Number Three, with a bullet."

"That's good right! The New York Times with a bullet…"

"It means you're rich, call your accountant."

I again laughed. "I don't have an accountant."

"Well get one."

"Okay, how does that work?" I said while looking up into his eyes with a smile.

"ugh, you need to get out of the lab you know, watch TV, turn on the radio, anything! Pick up the phone and…."

Sasuke stopped and looked back to funeral where Mr. And Mrs. Eller were laying roses on the coffin.

"You know, if it weren't for you, those people would never have known what happened to their daughter. That's got to be worse than the truth."

"I know exactly how the Eller's felt about Cleo. My parents disappeared when I was fifteen and nobody knows what happened to them."

"You know, being a sniper I took, a lot of lives, what I'd like to do before I'm done is try and catch at least that many murderers."

I laughed at first. "Please! You don't think there's some kind of cosmic balance sheet…" I caught myself before I finished. "I'd like to help you with that."

Sasuke smirked. "Ehhhh…."

Laughing I smacked Sasuke in the arm while looking at the ground while a small blush crawled up onto my face as we walked away.

Please review! Tell me if it sucks or not. If it is completely horrible I'll probably just delete the story. I know it a big change from everyone's normal personalities. Sasuke is a lot more talkative and not as cold. Sakura is kind of lost about the real world and she is completely rational and doesn't understand why some people joke around but that slowly changes as Sasuke integrates into her life. Shikamaru is less lazy and a conspiracy theorist. He is also the bug and slime guy which would normally be Shino but you'll see why he's not later on in the story if I continue it. Ino is probably the closest to her anime personality. She is an artist as Sakura's best friend. She is beautiful and funny. Naruto isn't his normal stupid self. He is smart and the apprentice to Sakura. He will eventually become Sasuke's best friend.

So I guess just review and let me know how it is so I know if I should continue or not.

-Fox girl66