Suicide
Excerpt From Sakura Haruno’s Last Assignment
March 20th, 2008
"Sometimes at night, I dream of what will happen when my life comes to a close. Most of the time the deaths are painful never happy. Once in a while, I imagine that I die while sleeping, with no pain. Why can't I just die happily? Why..."
December 30th, 2020
Shikamaru sat at his desk bored, there hadn’t been any new nor interesting cases that he was willing to cover. The lazy detective had been looking at pictures on his desk, one of his wife and son while the other picture on his desk was one of his childhood friends that Shikamaru hadn’t seen in over 20 years.
(It was this fateful day that would start the reveal of the dark truth that had been hidden, “Death Day” as the future generation likes to call it.)
A loud commotion came from the entrance of the police station, “S-sir, I’m not sure that any of our detectives will take this case, it is a decade old.”
Some other sound could be heard, mostly papers crinkling, someone was searching through a bag with rapid paste, “Look, I’ll pay anyone, to find the truth of this case. These two people meant the most to me and yet everyone still wants me to believe they killed themselves when I know this is bullshit. All I’m asking is for you to look into this case thinking of it in another way other than suicide. Everyone knows that our high school was shitty but they would never kill themselves to escape that.”
Shikamaru who had been leaning down in his desk chair decided to find someone interesting for the day and check out what was happening. The commotion had been made by a man similar in age to himself with blue eyes and blonde hair. The receptionist looked scared with half her wits.
The blond man calmed himself and began to talk with the officers that had begun to surround him in case he started to make more of a commotion. Shikamaru couldn’t clearly make out what was being said during the exchange but he could make out the words “Detective” and “Killed.”
The next thing Shikamaru knew all of the detectives from the Konoha Police Department were sitting together listening to the blond boy blab on. Mostly talking about shit from over 10 years ago. There were times like these that Shikamaru hated his job and thought instead of being a nice old house husband or at least helping investigators like his wife. Kakashi Hatake, the head detective sat right next to Naruto, while the other detectives look as if they were going to fall asleep.
Kakashi was probably the only one listening to the blond, the reason being that the highest probability being the former had worked on this case when it first came to light. Kakashi most likely interviewed this boy before and was checking the differences of the boy that had grown in over 13 years. Kakashi quickly dismissed everyone but Shikamaru claiming he was the best next to himself to which the lazy detective replied, “What a drag.”
“Right, young man, your name was Naruto Uzumaki if I remember correctly?” The boy--Naruto nodded his head, Kakashi continued on, “Mr. Uzumaki when you first came to be interviewed when your two friends were first pronounced dead, you hadn’t seemed freaked out at all more like chill many of our older officers theorized that you were going to kill yourself. So would you tell me why now you’re concerned with this odd case and tell me what you have been doing in these 13 years?”
Naruto strummed his fingers along the table with a pattern of tap… tap… tap. His blue eyes followed his moving fingers until he looked up and locked his eyes on Shikamaru, “You see I had the thoughts of joining my friends but I recalled that I had my godfather though I hadn’t seen him in over 5 years, I had been in contact with him. I was never informed of what he was doing and still haven’t. By the point of the case being declared a double suicide, I walked near a place where I could die but my body wouldn’t be recovered but then I remembered what I overheard from my godfather. My parents were alive.”
Shikamaru was listening to Naruto talk as he flipped through the files of the case. According to the file it was stated that the bodies of Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha were never found but in a river, with a high current, they had found the two’s DNA.
The DNA was from pieces of hair so it could be a possibility that the couple faked their deaths. But that was unlikely since witnesses from school reported by saying that after the death of their headmaster, Hiruzen Sarutobi, they exhibited odd behavior. One file read that they used to partner up with Sakura for projects but stopped since she would only ever talk to Naruto or Sasuke. This would be the same for Sasuke.
Shikamaru flipped through the files not everything was consistent and the lazy cop had found a new interest. Kakashi cleared his voice aiming to bring Shikamaru back into the world, “Well I’d love to reopen this case but I’m afraid this would be quite hard since it’s over a decade old and any witnesses may have moved away or have forgotten facts. Things have been slow here so maybe if we find a detective interested--”
Shikamaru found a new interest with the case and was about to accept it but before he had one question to ask, “Kakashi not trying to be rude or anything but why the hell was this case closed? It had so many damn loose ends.”
Kakashi frowned as he glanced toward the files, “...The boy’s family. The Uchiha’s. They had asked for the investigation to stop telling us it was a suicide and their son was unhappy. We were going to look into the family but after one interview with them, it was noticed that the family was happy albeit not perfect. The family hadn’t wished for the truth for some reason not wanting to know why he killed himself. It was odd but we respected their decision.”
Naruto sat between the two detectives raising his eyebrows. It seemed to Shikamaru that the blond had no knowledge of his best friend’s home life.
Shikamaru merely glanced up from one sheet of paper and looked at Naruto, “What about the girl’s family?”
Kakashi was about to speak when Naruto answered first, “Sakura’s family had been killed when she was a little girl, I can’t remember her exact age since it’s been so long but my godfather knew her godmother and they moved us in together. The godmother, Tsunade Senju had left along with h-my godfather on some strange thing. I never did tell them of what happened to Sakura so no one other than me was classified as family.”
Shikamaru felt his brain trying to wrap around what had happened but nothing came to mind. Had it been bullying? No, that school while suspicious wasn’t a place of bullying. So what other reason could have been, “I’ll take this case but I’m going to do this my way. I most certainly will not be following protocols since this is such an odd case the ways I’ll do this may or may not be legal.”
“--Shikamaru”
Naruto laughed, “For my thanks for taking a decade-old case you can have this money along with my number to get in contact with me.” The blond passed a stack of money across the table along with a number on a white piece of paper.
“Shikamaru I advised you to not take this case. It seems like you’re having some connection and that will ruin your career if you take a case on personal interest.” Shikamaru pocketed the money along with the note. The lazy cop did have some connection to the case but it was minor, to say the least, Hiruzen Sarutobi was the father of Shikamaru’s late mentor.
Shikamaru couldn’t care of what would happen if this case somehow tied into the Sarutobi’s then he could provide at least something to their family. He hadn’t been able to kill the man who killed Asuma but maybe Shikamaru could find the truth of what happened to Asuma’s father. “Kakashi I know you won’t fire me, I’m your best detective so I promise you this if you let me take this case I take whatever boring case that comes my way.”
“Fine, take these files. I doubt anyone will miss them. Mr. Uzumaki, I'll lead you out, don't do anything rash until Shikamaru Nara contacts you.”
Something gleamed in Naruto’s eyes was it happiness? Sadness? Maybe it was a cold look, but whatever it was Shikamaru couldn’t tell, the ugly truth would be revealed.
(Shikamaru still wishes on his deathbed; he never took this horrid case. Maybe if the lazy boy saw past that person's act then life would have remained the same and those who witnessed the outcome…)