Precious Little Angel {Naruto/One Punch Man Crossover}

26 - Finding the Culprit

Hitomi's POV

When morning arrived, it was something nobody was expecting. Zombieman was murdered and Child Emperor had reason to believe that the killer was one of us. "The sword belongs to Atomic Samurai. Maybe he did it." I said. 

"It wasn't me, man." Atomic Samurai denied. Everyone broke out into an argument, accusing who could be the culprit. "Wait, why isn't Hitomi a suspect?" Metal Bat asked, frowning. "Me?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. 

"Now, hold on! There's no way Hitomi could've done it!" Kiba defended. "And what makes you say that?" Child Emperor asked him. "Because she was with me the whole night." He answered. "Huh?" Squad 8 and all the heroes looked at us and I sweat dropped. 

"It's not what you think. We didn't do anything except sit around near the deck." I said. "Everyone was drinking last night except for Hitomi. She probably wanted to have a clear head for when she assassinated Zombieman." Meta Bat accused. 

"Hey, now wait a minute. I wasn't the only one who wasn't drinking last night. Kiba, Shino, and Hinata weren't drinking either." I stated. "Yeah, we're not old enough to drink." Kiba agreed. "They were probably in on it! They're guilty!" Metal Bat said. 

I rolled my eyes. "I didn't do it." I stated, bluntly. "But I heard you that you could drink even if someone said you couldn't, isn't that right?" Flashy Flash said. "Yeah, but I wasn't able to drink because Saitama caught me and gave me orange juice instead." I explained.

"Yeah, that's right. I caught Hitomi and Kiba trying to sneak in a few drinks, but Kurenai and I stopped them." Saitama said, in which I stuck my tongue out at him. "See? Proof that she didn't do it." Kiba said.

"But it could've been you, Kiba. Or maybe someone from your team." Child Emperor said. "What? Why suspect us?" Hinata asked. "Yeah, we don't even know the guy. Why would we have any reason to kill him?" Kiba stated with a frown.

"Perhaps your team is jealous of us heroes, so you decided to eliminate one of us to prove that you guys are worth something." Metal Bat assumed. "That's ridiculous." Kurenai said. "Oh, come on. Cut it out already. There's no reason to start accusing them. They're innocent." I defended them. 

"Look at that! She's protecting them! She was in on it the whole time!" Metal Bat yelled. "You really are simpleminded, aren't you?" I asked with a sweat drop. "Wait, Zombieman's immortal, right? Maybe he's not dead. What if he's just unconscious?"

"Even if he's just unconscious, we still need to find out who's the culprit to his demise." Child Emperor said. 'Or we could wait for him to wake up and he'll tell us who did this to him.' I thought, sweat dropping again.

"Your friend there seems awfully quiet. Maybe he's got something to hide." King said as he was referring to Shino. "Shino? But he's always quiet." Kiba mentioned. "I didn't commit the crime." Shino said, emotionlessly. "Shino, where were you last night?" Child Emperor asked.

"...I'd rather not say." He said, hesitantly. "Why not, Shino?" Kurenai asked. "Because he's guilty of his crime." Flashy Flash said. "That's not why." Shino denied.

"Come on, just tell us already, Shino." Kiba urged. "You're not gonna like what I tell you." Shino informed. "I doubt it," Kiba rolled his eyes. "Just tell us where you were so we can prove that we didn't kill this guy!"

Shino shrugged his shoulders. It was kind of hard to read his facial expression because of the dark shades on his face. "All right, but you insisted. Last night, I was outside because my bugs were getting sick from the smell of alcohol." He explained. 

"Bugs?" Child Emperor repeated. "Shino stores bugs inside his body." Kurenai informed.

"It's a ninja thing." Kiba said as Shino continued. "While I was outside, I saw Kiba and Hitomi. That's it." Shino finished. "That's it?" Metal Bat repeated.