Eyes Just Scratch the Surface
A ringing phone, blinking eyes awake. Orders, directions, slowly waking up. Hinata Hyuuga had overslept today as well.
She went through her morning routine swiftly and efficiently, with minimal make-up (Kiba always told her that she’d look weird with a full face of make-up on, but it wasn’t as if she wore it for his sake anyway) and hair unstyled. Her phone went off again, Shino asking her for a lift to the crime scene, and the second she’d finished drinking her coffee she was out the door.
He was waiting for her when she pulled up outside his house, and she couldn’t see his face, but she was willing to bet money that he was glaring at her.
“You’re five minutes late, Hinata. You overslept.”
“I appreciate the concern, Shino, but let’s just get to the scene, shall we?” she muttered, still tired.
“Fine. I’ll get you coffee on the way?”
“Yes please.”
It was after the brief stop for coffee that Shino brought up the proposition, and Hinata had to wonder how long he’d been planning this talk for. Crafty bastard had waited until she was woken up by caffeine and unable to escape him, and if she weren’t so sympathetic towards him, she’d have been furious. As it was, she sat quietly and listened as Shino kept talking – it was the most she remembered him saying at once for a long while, and it was a lot to take in.
“I know that Kiba’s talked to you about this already, but we both know he’s downplaying it. Now why is that? He doesn’t want to rush you into making a decision that you aren’t comfortable with.” He was sitting shotgun to her, his face unreadable behind the glasses and coat. He should have been nervous, yet his voice was calm. “I agree with him that we don’t want to pressure you, but I would like you to take his offer seriously, if you weren’t already.”
Her hands gripped the wheel, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose. Her eyes stayed on the road. “Shino, I appreciate that, I do. Still, it’s…even put casually, it’s a big thing to consider. I’m not sure dating one of you would be a good idea – both of you at once, though? When I’ve never dated more than one person at once before?”
“I understand that, yes. Just…think it over, please?” he responded, letting out a sigh, and maybe the coffee hadn’t been enough, but weariness seeped into her bones and settled.
That feeling wouldn’t leave her for the rest of the day, she would find, as Kiba accosted her as she left her car, saying “So, you, um…you might want to avoid this one, Hinata. Just sayin’.”
“Kiba, I know it’s easy to think of me as some kind of fragile flower, but honestly, you of all people should know better,” she snapped, and it hit her that he really didn’t know better. He wouldn’t have pulled his punches with the dating thing if he had. “How long have I been doing this job?” she asked, Kiba’s face turning into a grimace. She hadn’t broken her stride for anything, and she nodded politely when Kiba lifted the yellow tape for her.
“Nah, Hinata, it ain’t like that. I meant…I wouldn’t be warning you like that over nothing, you know? You’re a tough nut, but this…” he explained, stopping when she held up her hand. She could see the body, and Kiba didn’t need to explain anything more.
The body was stuffed into the garbage, arms and legs snow white against the black bags and poking out at unnatural angles. The body was clothed, the gaping holes in the torso filled with shadow, the entire body framed by long, beautiful raven hair. Black, white, and red, blood forming an apron on the body, long-dried and crinkling the material. The eyes were half-shut, silver and made blind by death, when in life they had seen everything. The curse seal on his forehead was gone, creating a void as obvious as the stab wounds.
Anger quickly overtook Hinata’s shock, the injustice searing through her head. This was no way for a Hyuuga to die.
“Oh, Neji. What happened to you?” she heard herself say. The only answer she received was a gentle hand on her shoulder. No one moved for what felt like several minutes, time condensing around that moment of newly discovered grief; Hinata took a deep breath, steeled herself, and time resumed around them.
“Alright then. Kiba, explain the case to me as if this weren’t personal, and I will take it from there,” she said. Contained, if nothing else. Kiba worried his lip between his teeth, before sighing and putting his game-face on.
“…Okay, if you insist. The victim, as you’ve probably guessed, is currently identified as Neji Hyuuga. The cause of death appears to be from multiple stab wounds, but we can’t say for certain until after the autopsy – judging from the size of the holes, it’s pretty safe to say that the wounds weren’t inflicted by a conventional weapon. That’s all we got so far.”
Hinata cast her eyes briefly across the body (the body, not Neji, and perhaps she could stave off the sorrow by pretending that this wasn’t him somehow), to the surrounding area, the oddness of it leaping up at her. “Well, you don’t need the All-Seeing Eye to notice that this can’t be the crime scene. There isn’t any blood here that isn’t on the body, and there’s no sign of a struggle here. So…so he was killed elsewhere and dumped, like…”
Like garbage, but she couldn’t bear to finish the thought. God, the person who did this deserved the worst kind of retribution. “…So, this isn’t our crime scene. Who found the body?” she asked, deliberately ignoring how Kiba’s face crumpled with sympathy.
“The worst person, aside from you. From what we could gather, Neji had planned a meeting with Rock Lee this morning, and Tenten was driving him there when he decided to track Neji’s phone – he followed the signal here, where he caught sight of Neji’s hand sticking out the dumpster. He went back to his car, where Tenten made the call,” Kiba imparted, before gesturing over to a parked people-carrier across the street. “He’s still there, if you want to talk to him – not sure you’ll get much out of him, though, he’s still pretty upset.”
“I’ll be sure to talk with him, yes,” Hinata muttered, before backtracking. “Tenten? I’d have thought she would have known what Neji was up to, given that they were partners. When was the last time she saw him?”
Hinata heard footsteps behind her, and someone’s throat clearing. “That would be last night. I rang him at around 8pm, just to make sure he was home okay,” Tenten stated, Hinata looking at her from over her shoulder. “He answered the land-line number, and he seemed okay. A little tired, possibly preoccupied, but he sounded find otherwise. We said goodnight, and that was it.”
Hinata was quiet for a moment, processing information. “…So then, he died at some point between 8pm and 9am, killed somewhere else and dumped here…Tenten, was there anything fishy about this meeting? You said he seemed preoccupied – do you know what about?”
“Not at all. Neji…he’d been really secretive with me lately. Said he was dealing with a lot of things that he didn’t want me getting involved with, but that it was okay and that he was fine on his own.” Tenten shrugged, defeated. “If I were more like Lee, maybe I would be blaming myself for this. But you know Neji – he was a stubborn fool. Even if I’d have insisted on knowing what was up, he wouldn’t have told me.”
“You’re probably right. Thank you, Tenten,” she whispered, her hand resting on Tenten’s elbow, comforting. She let go, and straightened up. “Let me see what else I can find here,” she said, closing her eyes and concentrating hard. She reached out for her internal magical energies, pushing them and forcing them into her eyes, imbuing every layer with magic until she felt something click open, and she was seeing with her eyes closed.
The All-Seeing Eye. With this, nothing physical could escape her sight. A natural, magic-based mutation that ran through her family line, it had been instrumental to her own success as a detective – it was difficult if not impossible for evidence to be hidden from her, especially combined with Kiba and Shino’s tracking abilities. If the crime scene weren’t there, they would find it without doubt. The dumpster itself, his clothing, the road leading to the alleyway – everything was open and vulnerable to her. Her eyes opened, never sure whether to turn to the people she was talking to or to save them from having to look at her veined, pulsing eyes.
“Neji only has his phone and his keys on him, in his pockets – which is strange, if he were killed elsewhere and moved then it would be logical to remove such objects from the body. There are tire tracks on the road that came from a van, that seem to be…six hours old, now? I’ll draw a copy of it, see if we can trace the tire tracks to whoever did the move.” She glanced at Kiba, who had that same awed look on his face that he always did when she used the eye. “Kiba, you use your nose, and Shino can use his bugs – we WILL find the initial crime scene, alright?” She saw Kiba nod resolutely, saw Shino approach and flex his hands expectantly, and she felt their support surround her. As they walked off, determined to carry out her order, she took another deep breath and looked through and into Neji’s body, saying a silent apology in her head, taking note of any irregularities.
“He’s been rained on since he was here, so that narrows the time frame for his death even further. The wounds are definitely too large to be knife wounds, and the angle indicates that it either came up at him through the floor in front of him, or down from the ceiling behind him – either way, he would have seen it coming. He got into a fight with someone, and it was likely that he was in close quarters with them when this happened…” A fight likely involving magic, she thought, something that Neji was no pushover in dealing with. There was no way Neji had been caught off guard, so…
“…Whoever did this was a talented enough mage to get through Neji’s defences. I could count the number of people who could do that on one hand,” she said, her eyes dimming, shifting back to normal.
“Then we already have a small suspect pool,” Tenten said severely.
Hinata nodded, before striding away from the body. “Tenten, is Lee still there? I need to talk to him about this meeting.” Hinata didn’t really need Tenten’s answer, since she could see him in the car, head bent low, tears falling heavily.
Lee flinched when Hinata opened the car door and got in behind the wheel, before relaxing slightly. “Lady Hinata…I am so sorry. You should not be the one dealing with this right now,” he said, his voice cracked from tears.
“…I’ll be alright, Lee. I just want to solve this case as best as I can, catch whoever did this. Will you help me?” she asked, resting a hand on his fist, tense against his leg. He looked up at her, blinking stray tears from his eyes.
“I swear to you, on my life, that I will help you as much as I can. What can I do for you?” he said. Hinata smiled weakly – his eyes held some of that fire he was renowned for. She wasn’t the only one who cared about Neji’s death, and she felt a surge of resolve power through her.
“You can answer some questions, if you can. You were on your way to meet Neji – when and where was this meeting meant to take place?”
“9am, at this dumpling place, only a block or so from his home. I would have been there on time, too, but when I called, he didn’t answer.”
“Tenten mentioned that he’d been secretive lately – did he say anything to you about it?” She’d gotten her notebook out, eyes darting down to check her writing.
“No, not really. Just that whatever it was, it would be a great scoop for me. He said…well, it was odd, but he mentioned that it was the kind of information that could change a lot of the goings-on in the city, for the better, he hoped. Does that help?”
Hinata turned it over for a moment, her smile sweet. “Yes, I think it does. Thank you for the information, Lee, and I’m sorry. I’ll call you if I need you again, alright?”
Opening the door, turning her body to get out, she felt his hand grab her wrist. “Lady Hinata…Neji was strong. Stronger than the both of us. In all my years, I know of only two, perhaps three people who would have had the strength and motive to kill him like this. You know who I am referring to.”
Hinata sighed, her face solemn. “I know.”
“Whatever this was that Neji was involved with, it cost him his life. And if my gut feeling is correct, then the people who did this would have no problem harming you, too. Please, be careful and stay safe.” He let go of her arm, and waved weakly as she walked away.
She stopped walking a good six feet from the car, her hands shaking. Everything she knew so far about his death – secrets that went unrevealed, strong magic, and a body disposal that was well-executed – pointed to the mob, or rather, a select few mob bosses with the magical strength to uphold their places.
“Oh, Neji. What had you gotten yourself into?” she found herself asking. She wondered if she would make it out alive with the answer.