Grasping with Both Hands
Hinata slowly lowered herself into the chair on the other side of Kurenai’s desk, trying to quash the frustration building up inside of her. Kurenai threaded her fingers together, elbows on the desk, and her gaze seemed tired, reluctant.
“Hinata, you know why I’ve called you here,” Kurenai said, seeing clear as day the tension that had collected around Hinata’s shoulders. “You can’t work this case, I’m sorry. Take it from me, even if I let you work this case, you won’t want to be on it by the end.” And just like she was expecting, Hinata took a slow, deep breath, her hands balled into fists in her lap.
She could do this, she’d had worse arguments before. Calm, measured, keep at it. “With all due respect, sir, I would argue that…”
“Please save it. You know as well as I do that a cop who’s too close to the case is always going to argue that they can handle the case regardless, even when they know they can’t. And before you even start,” she added as Hinata took in a breath, as if to interrupt, “if you dare to pull that ‘you just don’t understand’ bullshit with me, then not only are you off the case, but you’ll be suspended.”
Hinata felt anger, so rare in herself, bubble up to her lips. “I understand where you’re coming from, sir, but I insist that you let me continue with this case.” Kurenai sighed, throwing up her hands. “Hinata, I know all about personal cases. When my husband was killed on the job, I wanted nothing more than to go out and catch whoever did it.” She looked down at the table, painfully aware of the photo facing her on the desk. “You know what actually happened, though? I realised I was not the right person for the job and that vengeance would get me nowhere.”
“But that’s just it, sir – I know that I am the right person for the job! If anyone is going to discover what Neji had gotten himself involved with, then surely it would be me?” Hinata protested at last, louder than she’d been in a long time. Kurenai stood up, having to restrain herself from thumping the table.
“And then what? You’ll get yourself killed just like he did?”
Hinata stood too, feeling brave. “No. Neji went into this alone, but I…I have help. I have friends, and we’ll find whoever did this, together. I just…I want to be involved.” Her tone took on something resolute, harder than before. “No, I need to be involved. We can do this, sir, please trust me with that.”
Kurenai glared at her for several moments, running through protocol and personal feeling in her mind. Her shoulders slumped, and Hinata knew then she has won.
“The second it looks like you’re in over your head, I’m pulling you from this case and straight into suspension. Do I make myself clear?”
Relief washed through Hinata’s body, and if things weren’t so serious, she would have smiled.
“Crystal clear, sir. Thank you.”
Shino leant against the wall as Kiba sat cross-legged on the floor, the magic coming off his skin in gentle tremors. Shino’s fingers twitched, the bugs under his skin buzzing and irritable, and he was surprised that Kiba didn’t so much as flinch as he placed a hand on his shoulder with a heavy thud.
“Kiba, do we really need Akamaru’s help for this one? I would rather we got moving, before the trail gets any colder,” Shino whispered harshly to him, getting a shrug in return.
“You and me both, Shino – but you know I work best with Akamaru. I want to come at this with my best, Hinata wouldn’t expect any less of us.” Shino heard the bizarre clacking sound of dog claws on concrete long before he saw Akamaru bound towards them, Kiba not moving away when the dog licked his face and demanded a fuss.
“Come on, Akamaru, we have work to do,” Kiba grinned. If Shino didn’t know better, it would have felt like he were being ignored, though he’d long come to accept that Akamaru was as intrinsic a part of Kiba’s life, and even his body, as his own insects were. Kiba closed his eyes, and just like every time he did this, he seemed to bristle, as if his features and limbs were being sharpened somehow. Akamaru seemed to do the inverse, blunting himself, straightening out and becoming aware of the world in a way that he wasn’t before.
Unlike the last time Shino had seen this, Kiba growled, flexing his hands, watching with delight as his nails turned into claws of his own. Shino noted the harsh rise and fall of Kiba’s chest, the sharpness of his teeth, bared by a feral grin, and he was unable to quell the surge of worry.
“Kiba, are you feeling alright?” Shino asked, and Kiba laughed, low and savage.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Haven’t done this in a long time, though…” he noted, his and Akamaru’s heads tilting upward. They both sniffed, eyes dark and clouded, and Shino almost missed it when he said, softly, “the air just reeks of his blood, right, Akamaru?”
Shino didn’t get a chance to ask again if he were really okay as they both bounced up, a newfound energy in them. “We got a trail, a strong one, from the blood and the rubber tires. Wanna try it with your bugs, too?”
Shino nodded, sending his thoughts out to his bugs and feeling the sting and itch on his body as they chewed their way up through to the surface. They took to the air, tasting it, searching for the residue of magic, before flying back and communicating the information back to him.
“Yes, I can sense it too. Two people, Neji and someone else – if it isn’t the murderer, then who is it? The person who disposed of the body, most likely.” He shivered, feeling a hunger for energy that wasn’t his own. “Lead the way, Kiba – if we can find the scene of the crime, then I can find out if multiple people were involved, and where to go next.”
Kiba grinned, and Akamaru bared his teeth in an expression that might be an imitation of his master’s. “After you, then.”
Contrary to what Hinata always overheard the rookies saying amongst themselves, the morgue was bright and, while cool, rarely dipped into a temperature that she found to be freezing. After the long day she’d had so far, there was something almost pleasant about it, the chill settling in on the back of her neck.
She was greeted there with a hug and a sympathetic smile, an apology that could never be forced. “I’m sorry this happened to you, Hinata – you know I’m here for you, if you need me, right?” Sakura said, her voice low and sympathetic.
“Thank you – I’ll let you know, okay?” she replied, her smile not quite reaching her eyes. Sakura took hold of her hands anyway, warm like the spring days she was named for.
“Well, Ino and I make a habit of going out each month – maybe you can join us sometime? Whenever you feel ready for it, of course,” Sakura offered, and it was moments like this that made Hinata remember just why everyone loved her so much.
“Last time I went out with you and Ino…she kind of…well, she sort of told me all about your sex life together and threw up on my shoes.”
“Ah yes, I remember that,” Sakura said, grinning from ear to ear. “Good times, good times. I’d like to say that she’s calmed down since then, but hey, I’m just glad she hasn’t gotten arrested yet.” Hinata laughed, her hand covering her mouth on impulse. “Well, I’m sure that if she is, she knows plenty of good lawyers.”
They both laughed at that, not stopping for several minutes – every time they tried, one of them would giggle again, setting it off once more. There was something sweet about this, Hinata thought, something normal enough that she could almost pretend this was just an ordinary case. She grabbed at that feeling with both hands, holding it close for as long as she could.
Eventually, that feeling left them, and reality set in for the both of them. Sakura straightened up, her face turning severe, and Hinata nodded and gestured. “You should…probably tell me what you’ve found.”
“…Alright, just…alright.” Sakura picked up her clipboard of notes, barely looking at them as she went on. “The cause of death, rather obviously, is severe trauma to the major organs in the chest, combined with rapid loss of blood, and as likely as it was that the killer was a mage – and a good one at that – the wounds don’t necessarily lend themselves to that idea,” she said, all business now. “He was impaled, and while the diameter of the wounds is too big for the weapon to be a knife, the shape of them suggests a stake of some kind.”
“So, it’s possible that he was just stabbed …” Hinata murmured to herself – saying it aloud didn’t allow it to make more sense to her. Hinata had tried incorporating a knife into their sparring sessions before, and every time, it would be out of her hand and stuck in the walls or floor before it could come within a foot of him.
“Right. Having said that, Neji was a powerful martial artist, and the weapon penetrated his torso deep enough to leave exit wounds in his back – if a conventional weapon was used, then someone had to overpower him and stab him with an incredible amount of force,” Sakura explained, honestly looking puzzled. “If that is how this happened – which it might have been, I’m not ruling it out – then the killer would have been impossibly strong, and skilled enough to fight Neji in a face-to-face stand-off.”
Hinata caught Sakura’s eye, and it was as if a shared understanding fell between them, a singular name flashing in the forefront of Hinata’s thoughts. Sakura frowned and looked away far too quickly. “Although, the toxicology report isn’t back yet – he could have been drugged, which would have made something like that easier to accomplish.”
Of all the things to hope for when investigating a relative’s murder, this didn’t feel like it should have been one of them. Sakura flicked through her notes and settled on a specific page.
“The time of death was around 2am, and having looked at the weather reports, it rained for an hour starting at 3:15, so your timeframe for the move is in that window. That should help you get a hold of any CCTV footage.”
“Right,” Hinata sighed, “We pulled CCTV footage from the streets leading up to the spot where Neji was found…if we could find the actual crime scene, then we’ll have a lot more to go on.” She turned to walk away, before thinking better of it, holding out her hand for Sakura to shake. “Thank you for this – I know it can’t have been easy, working on a friend.”
“Same for you, Hinata – just look after yourself, okay? Promise me that,” Sakura insisted, again taking hold of Hinata’s hand.
Hinata knew perfectly well that her evening would involve not eating and sleeping at 4am, after examining the evidence so thoroughly that she could remember it by heart.
“I promise,” she said, her smile not quite reaching her eyes.
“So, what do you think we’re going to find?” Shino asked as they weaved through the late morning foot traffic. “I can’t imagine that they would have left the crime scene the way it was, having taken the time to move the body.”
Kiba and Akamaru stopped, sniffing the air again in unison, before correcting their course. Shino had to break into a light jog to keep up with them, excusing himself to people he bumped into. “There’s gotta be something there – a scent, some blood, the weapon, something. You can clean a crime scene, but there’s always something that ya miss,” Kiba shouted over his shoulder, stopping again to let Shino catch up. “Also, why ‘they’? We don’t know if it was more than one guy.”
“They can be used as a singular pronoun, and for all we know, there could have been multiple people involved – do you smell more than one person?”
Kiba looked at Akamaru, and if the dog could have shrugged, he would have. “Not yet, but we might do when we get there.” Shino nodded, and for a while, they all remained quiet, following what their senses were telling them.
After several long minutes, Kiba cleared his throat. They had made their way through the crowds, into a quieter segment of the city – the pavements had faded in favour of warehouses and workshops, the distant sounds of backbreaking work on an even volume as Kiba’s words as he said, uncharacteristically soft, “I’m worried about Hinata.”
Shino would have scoffed at him, if Kiba hadn’t been so serious. “Don’t be. She’s tough, you know that as well as I do.” At once, Kiba clenched his fists, and Akamaru whined, long and high-pitched.
“Yeah, but you know as well as I do that Neji was more like her brother than her cousin! And Hinata’s that kind of person who doesn’t let on when she’s feeling sad, so she’ll make us think she’s okay when she really isn’t, and next thing we know she’s calling us at 3am sobbing and ranting about how she regrets not getting him a better present last Christmas.”
“…Even when you’re trying to be sensitive and considerate to other people’s feelings, you end up being a dick. It’s amazing, really.”
Kiba snorted and rolled his eyes. “Ah, you know what I mean. I just…it’s selfish, I know, and I know she can handle this by herself, I just…I want to help her. But I can’t.” Kiba’s hands rested on Akamaru’s head, petting him absentmindedly. “I’m useless to her right now.”
“I don’t know about that,” Shino said, finding Kiba’s free hand and grasping it tightly. “I think she can find her own uses for you, in the coming months. Just be there, and it will be impossible for you to be useless.” He gave Kiba’s hand a quick squeeze, before letting go and putting both hands in his pockets. “For now, we can help her get this case sorted. Am I wrong?”
Kiba grinned, his whole face lighting up. “Are you kidding? Smart-asses like you are never wrong.” He stopped, inhaled deeply, and his smile widened. “And our crime scene is right over there.”
They’d wandered into an industrial complex, empty and echoing – even in daylight, there were shadows around every corner, the buildings towering and menacing. One in particular, at the back near the fenced borders, carried the thick smell of blood. The three of them pulled open the front door and made their way inside, magic at the ready.
That it was as abandoned and empty on the inside as the outside had suggested was a major problem.
“Well, the bloody smell comes from here and leads outside, but…” Kiba said, gesturing to the floor with a shrug, “I might have to steal a line from Hinata and say that you don’t need the all-seeing eye to see that there’s nothing here.”
Shino raised an eyebrow at him. “And here I thought that there’s always something that was missed?” he said, insects swarming out from beneath his sleeves. They soon covered the floors and the walls, and he crossed his arms, smiling. “It might take them a while, but they can figure out whether magic was used here, and what kind. You smell anyone new?”
“…Actually, I do, but I don’t know them, and I’m not sure if I can get a trail on them from here – they did a damn good job making it seem like nothing happened here. That makes…one person committing the murder, and someone else called in to dispose of the body?”
“Right. And that works out well for our killer – gives them time to clean up after themselves. And something I can detect right away is that the magical field here is pretty strong – it’s unlikely that any technology would work around here. Even if there is a CCTV camera here, we don’t have any film.”
They looked over at each other, quiet for a long moment. Akamaru finished his rounds of the building, whining and pawing at the floor.
“So,” Shino said, reluctantly, “does this mean we have nothing?”
Kiba nodded, his hands curling into fists again. “We got nothing.”