"Did you hear the news?" Tenten said, waving the morning paper as she walked to Lee.
"No, what happened?" Lee asked eagerly. Tenten smirked, tossing it over.
"Hinata and her sister Hanabi is what happened. Last night, someone killed both sisters, strangling them."
Thirteen hours had passed since Hinata's and Hanabi's death discovery. A servant ready to clean the bath found the two girls in the pool, motionless and dead.
Around 4:00 AM, the servant announced the girls' death, causing the Elders to call a meeting. Already, far too many Genin had been killed under their noses and within Konoha at that.
Ever since Ino's death had been announced, Nearly five children, no more than ten to thirteen years old, were found dead with limbs that were torn apart or signs of being attacked by an animal.
Investigations were made, but the murderer had escaped cleanly. Other deaths were suicidal, forcing families of victims to give up further, possible correlated investigations and bury their dead.
Although many had mourned the loss of young shinobi, whoever killed Hinata and Hanabi was the last straw for the Hyuga Elders. Someone was behind the scenes, and they needed to stop him.
"What?!" Lee gasped. "That's why Neji didn't come!"
Team Nine were told to gather at the training grounds. Lee and Guy Sensei normal did training so early in the morning before the meetings, but today Guy Sensei had been called for an emergency meeting at the Hokage's office. Therefore, when Tenten arrived, Lee was the only one training by himself.
"Who killed them!? They must be brought to justice!" Lee exclaimed, throwing himself into a fighting position, jabbing the air with kicks and punches for good measure.
"Who knows? But if they can't even defend themselves from a basic intruder, Hinata and Hanabi shouldn't even try to be ninjas," Tenten mocked, walking away.
"Tenten..." Lee trailed off, watching his teammate leave without any sense of sorrow or pity.
He knew a couple weeks ago, she became stern, serious, and sarcastic. She didn't say too much and often had a snarky attitude. But when had she changed so much that she...lost her compassion?
"Raicho!" Sakura burst into the therapy office in a panic.
"Sakura, what's wrong?" Raicho asked, standing up from behind the main desk.
"H-Hinata! She's dead!"
"I know. I just read the paper," Raicho sighed sadly, pointing to the opened paper on her desk. "I heard the Hyuga Clan is holding an important meeting right now."
"I have to tell Ino--" Sakura stopped, her words caught in her throat.
"Sakura..."
"Sorry. I know, silly me! I'm going to look for Kakashi Sensei." Sakura ran off without a word and left as quickly as she came.
Throughout the entire afternoon, when Raicho went to the market, all she could hear was Hinata's and Hanabi's death. Everyone spoke of the mystery culprit and kept whispering and gossiping.
"News travels fast, huh?" Shikamaru muttered, walking up next to Raicho. "What a pain."
"I guess it's also rude," she added. "What are you guys doing about the investiagtion? I heard you guys are supposed to call in for an interview or something."
"The Hokage called Team Seven, Ten, and Nine to answer some questions for investigators. I bet they're going to ask us who we think the murderer is," Shikamaru said somberly as they rounded a corner. "The investigators have a ton of evidence that this criminal is young, so maybe about our age."
"Well, who do you think it is?" Raicho asked curiously. Shikamaru looked up at the sky.
"Well," he scratched his head absentmindedly. "I have a few people in mind."
"Like?"
"You."
Raicho froze, not knowing if he was joking or not. "Um..."
"I'm actually kidding. You would probably be one of the suspects in the middle of the list. You're the type of person who has such a believable front, it is hard to know, no offense if you had actually committed murder or not."
"Oh. Thanks for not...susepcting me...so early, I guess?" Raicho laughed warily.
"But for real, I do have someone else in mind," Shikamaru frowned, holding the door open as she walked into the Utility Scroll shop.
"Who is it?" Raicho whispered, running her hand over the clean, untouched scrolls all in neat stacks on the shelves.
"Tenten and Neji. Sakura has been coming to me, telling about Tenten's attitude and that makes her the highest suspect. There's also a good possibility that Tenten may have even encouraged Sasuke to leave the village," he answered walking beside her.
"No way..." Raicho looked aghast. "Do you know why?"
"Attention. She feels ignored, although her way of doing it is rather twisted. Honestly, if she wasn't running around killing people this wouldn't be a pain."
"She did tell me that too," Raicho sighed.
Everyone was falling apart. Kiba lost all his teammates and suffered emotionally for it. Sasuke left Team Seven, while Naruto and Sakura flailed over his disappearance. Tenten's attitude and change toward humanity caused her teammates and Sensei to be wary of her, distancing themselves from her strange demeanor. Ino's suicide impacted Team Ten so much because now their formation was gone. Team Ten needed to either find a replacement for Ino or be placed in a new three-man team.
"We need to find this murderer and end everything," Raicho said, the furrow in her eyebrows refusing to leave. "You have to find him. For all our sakes."
"I know," he sighed. "and it's going to be a pain."
YOU ARE READING
Forked Shadows
Fanfiction"I'm leaving." Her eyes were slightly glazed, the once strong resolve shattered to pieces, and her shoulders hunched over in defeat. Her head tucked in, away from the accusing looks and mocking threats, and her entire appearance was that of a war s...
