The Case-Book of Kakashi Hatake

The Murders of Silver Blaze {Part 1}

Shortly after I had become housemates with the consulting detective, Kakashi Hatake, and the Momochi arrest had occurred, one of the strangest cases that we had ever faced arrived by telegram one morning.

I was eating breakfast with Genma at the time, trying to explain to him how my prosopagnosia worked.

"So, Jin, you really can't recognize any faces at all?"

I nodded as I took another bite of eggs, and swallowing stated, "Yes. I'm lucky in that I can recognize most facial expressions, at least, while many others with the disorder can't even do that."

"Really, why?"

I shrugged as I moved on to the sausages, "No idea. It's still a relatively new diagnosis. No one knows why it happens or how it works only that many cases, like mine, are directly linked to head trauma."

"How do you recognize me even when we run into one another around town?"

Smirking, I cast an evaluating eye over his seated form, "It's simple, really, between your long hair tied back in that bandana and that silly gait of yours where you walk like you own the very stones at your feet, you're hard to miss." At his aghast expression, I continued, "You find things other than someone's face that make them recognizable."

"But what if you could only see someone's face?"

His inquisitive look nearly made me laugh.

"Then I don't recognize them. Well, I can try. If, say, I saw someone with grey hair and eyes and a scar down the left side of his face, I would instantly be able to guess that it was Hatake. But that's all that it is, a guess. When I see someone's face, it doesn't just click like it used to. I can't glance around and know that, oh, that's Hatake or that's Shiranui. Make sense?"

"Genma."

I was slightly taken aback; I had asked a yes or no question, and "Genma" certainly wasn't a yes or a no.

"Huh?"

"Please call me Genma. I hate it when you call me Shiranui; it makes me feel like my grandfather."

"If you say so, Genma."

He smiled and nodded, "And while I can't really relate to what you said, it does make sense."

"I'm glad that my explanations aren't totally rubbish, then."

That's when the doorbell rang. Genma started to stand, but I beat him too it.

"Don't worry, I've got it."

He smiled in reply, and I walked from his small table to the front door, pulling it open to find a young mailman holding out a telegram.

"For Mr. Hatake."

"I'll make sure he gets it," I replied while taking the offered missive.

"So you get Kakashi's mail too?"

I turned around after closing the door to see Genma standing a few paces back, arms crossed.

"I don't mind. Besides, he's down at the coroner's right now, something about the bruising capability of dead bodies. I didn't really ask for details earlier."

Reading the address, I found that it was from a policeman out in the countryside, and since it probably had to do with a case and had the possibility of being urgent, I decided that Hatake wouldn't mind too terribly if I opened and read it. And slipping my finger under the seal, that's just what I did.

Mr. Kakashi Hatake,
     I write to you in the throws of great need for there is a case which, in all of its strangeness, requires someone of your immense, youthful skills. A body was discovered early this morning in the stable of Colonel Jirocho Wasabi, and his prized race horse, Silver Blaze, has gone missing. I implore you to aid me in this hot-blooded pursuit of a murderer. The address of the Wasabi estate is enclosed, and I shall await you there until after the last train from Konoha has arrived.
Most sincerely,
Inspector Maito Gai