Blackmail and Betrayal

AN: You’ll have to forgive how the scenes jump around in this chapter since it is meant to cover a small span of time!

Thanks for being so patient in waiting for the update! I hope it doesn’t disappoint!

Thanks to Hina for reading most of this for me at the last minute!! You were a big help, sweety!

/hugs


Chapter 18


Sasuke sat upon the faux leather barstool and rested his elbows on the lacquered, light wood of the bar. A barely touched drink rested between his elbows as he rested his chin on his folded hands. While it was hard to gauge his mood by the lack of expression on his face, he still managed to radiate an unapproachable aura that kept most people away.

His visit with Kakashi, once he had finally managed to catch the elusive shop owner actually in his store and not the large breasted, fish-net wearing, man-hating bimbo that he had sitting in for him, had produced unsatisfactory results. The car-bomb had been the top story in the news that night so it had come as no surprise when Ebisu had related the incident to Kakashi, although it had relieved Sasuke to know that Naruto was safe and secure. However, the FBI agent still hadn't shared Naruto's location with Kakashi. Sasuke might have been one to doubt the silver-haired man's word, but the worried look that he had sported had allayed his suspicions.

They were both in the dark.

Furthermore, Sasuke had been informed by Ebisu via Kakashi that his presence at the subsequent blackmail trials would only hinder their case and cast doubt as to the validity of Naruto's previous testimony. He had been told that it would be best for him to concentrate on his reinstatement as a detective in the new precinct in which he had been assigned. His protest was quickly stifled as it was pointed out to him that failure to do his job would end up in him being fired once again and this time legitimately.

So here he was, sitting in a sports bar on his one day off for the week. He was watching the news on one of the wide screen televisions, reading the closed captions and hoping to catch word of how Naruto was fairing. Frustration and worry for his lover (and god wasn’t that awkward even to think in his mind) constantly gnawed at his gut and he found himself frequently chewing on antacids. He figured at this rate he would have ulcers before it was all over.

But it was almost over. He had heard the last of the trials were wrapping up and as soon as Naruto walked down those courthouse stairs for the last time, they were getting the hell out of this town.

He would put in for a transfer and he had no doubt that it would be granted. By the sideways glances to which he was constantly subjected, he knew that the other detectives were uncomfortable at best around him, at worst he didn’t want to be caught in a dark alley alone by some of them. It was bad enough that he had testified against his captain who was “one of their own,” it was even worse that he had been in a sexual relationship with another man.

It would be best for him and Naruto both to be somewhere else.

He would do what was necessary to make sure that Naruto’s cousin received the best care that he could afford wherever they went. He knew that Naruto wouldn’t leave Ino behind, not after everything they had went through and he didn’t blame him. Family was important and there was no way that he would deny Naruto the one thing that he himself had lost and still mourned to this day.

The words scrolling across the bottom of the screen were telling about the final jury decision and the delicious details of the scandal in which the current defendant was involved. His eyes idly took in the view of the outside of the courthouse as his mind started to mull over their options.

Maybe Naruto would like to go someplace quieter, a small city or perhaps a large town. Someplace where they could both get work and lose themselves in anonymity. Nothing too small naturally as people in those places were too damn curious, too damn eager for something new and exciting to gossip about, but someplace a little quieter wouldn’t hurt.

His eyes focused in on the image of Naruto, surrounded protectively by several men in suits, walking out of the doors of the large, stone building. The reporters rushed forward and his escort moved to press them backwards, trying to keep them away in case one of them intended him harm and also to keep them from impeding their progress towards the vehicle waiting for them.

The tanned skin was slightly pale from stress and probably lack of sleep, but the look on Naruto’s face was one of relief even if tinged with a little anxiety.

Sasuke couldn’t help but feel a yearning surge go through him. It had been too damn long since he had heard the other man’s voice, too long since he had felt his presence. He would have given anything to have been there with him, to have been able to give him a reassuring look or a slight brush of the hand. Anything to let the numbskull know that he wasn’t alone.

Naruto’s body was suddenly slammed backwards and to the ground.

The ice of adrenaline flooded Sasuke’s veins as he saw people all around diving to the ground. The FBI agents formed up tightly around the downed man, preventing Sasuke from getting a clear view. He saw a couple of them reaching down and lifting as others drew their guns and frantically scanned the area for potential assailants.

As they shoved and pushed their way to the waiting SUV, the words scrolling across the bottom of the TV screen caught Sasuke’s attention.

[…a gunshot was fired, appearing to hit Uzumaki…]

Sasuke’s eyes were drawn upward once more as an instant replay from a different camera angle showed the impact. Naruto’s body jerked, arms and head taking a second to catch up to his torso as the initial impact hit his chest. Sasuke felt his heart pound harder in his chest when his sharp, detective’s eyes noticed the thin red ribbon of blood streaming outward as Naruto began to fall backwards.

The next thing Sasuke saw was the door to the bar in front of him. He didn’t remember getting up and running that direction, but it was irrelevant. He had to get to Naruto. He had to verify that he was alright. Naruto had to be alright. Nauseating panic churned in his stomach as the scene played once more in his mind.

He was in his car. Right. Car. Where the hell were his keys!? Sasuke fumbled through his jacket pocket, almost ripping it as the keychain caught on a loose thread.

His shaking fingers found the correct key and jammed it into the ignition. He was breathing too hard. Something was clenching brutally around his heart but it was hammering away through the constriction, seemingly unaware that it was tearing itself apart. He knew that he was in shock and that he shouldn’t be driving but his body wasn’t listening to reason.

He had to get to Naruto.

He paused, his pulse racing as his eyes darted unseeingly over his consol. Where was Naruto?

Thrusting his hand into his other pocket, he dragged out his cell phone and quickly dialed Kakashi’s number. It rang once and went straight to messages. A call to the porn shop produced an irritatingly familiar rough female voice. He hung up without bothering to say anything.

He took a deep, unsteady breath as he tried to calm his nerves so that he could think rationally. Calling dispatch wouldn’t do much good since the FBI was already in charge of the situation. Calling to the hospitals in the immediate area of the courthouse wasn’t likely to yield much since they would be prevented from giving out the admittance information by the feds. His eyes narrowed as he remembered that the FBI building had its own small medical facility. He wasn’t sure if it was equipped to handle this extreme of an emergency however. Still… it wouldn’t hurt to be thorough.

He dialed Sakura’s number and waited anxiously through the two rings before it was answered.

“Hello, Sas-”

“Sakura, I need you to do me a favor,” he interrupted brusquely. “I need you to call around to your nurse friends in the city and find out if Naruto’s been admitted to any of the hospitals.”

“Naruto? Has something happened?” she asked worriedly.

“He’s been shot and I need to find out where they took him,” he explained as he started up his car.

“Oh my god! I’ll get right on it!” she assured him.

“Thank you, Sakura,” he said sincerely as he pulled out into traffic.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine. I’ll call you when I find out something,” she said right before hanging up.

Sasuke flipped his phone closed and headed towards the Federal Bureau of Investigations building.

******************
“What do you mean he isn’t available?” Sasuke growled to the woman on the other side of the desk.

She gave him a singularly unimpressed look at his tone and leaned forward slightly. “I mean that he is not available, Detective, as in not at hand for you to see him,” she explained carefully as if to a particularly slow student. “He may not be in the building or he may just be involved in another matter that needs his attention. Either way, he is not available. I will be happy to take your number so that he may contact you at his earliest convenience.”

Sasuke glanced down to see her ID tag partially covered by her jacket lapel, only her first name “Kurenai” able to be read, and the gun that rested in the shoulder holster below that beneath the maroon jacket. It was apparent that he was wasting his time trying to intimidate her.

He let out another frustrated sound before practically snarling, “Then I’ll wait.” He turned on his heel and walked over to the semi-padded chairs in the blue carpeted lobby. He swore he could feel her eyes on him the whole way, but when he turned to sit she was concentrating on her computer.

Minutes crawled by, the only reprieve when Sakura called to inform him that she hadn’t been able to locate Naruto in any of the city hospitals. He tuned her out after that, her concern and attempts to comfort him perversely making him worry more. After a few moments, he thanked her and excused himself, pleading the necessity to follow up on a lead before hanging up on her.

After staring blankly at the floor for an indeterminate amount of time, Sasuke glanced up to see the female agent staring at him with a glimmer of sympathy under her imperturbable façade. Noticing his gaze, she calmly looked away as she picked up her phone to make a call.

Sasuke sighed and dropped his head into his hands. He swore to himself that if something had happened to Naruto that he was going to find Ebisu and personally-

“Detective Uchiha?” Kurenai’s voice cut through his dark thoughts.

He glanced up at her and quickly stood and walked to her desk at the expectant look on her face. “You have word?”

“I was unable to reach Agent Ebisu, but I was able to get a hold of one of his men,” she informed him. “He’s away on an emergency at the moment. Someone was injured and had to be airlifted to a different facility. He isn’t expected back today.”

“Where-”

“I’ve told you all I can, Detective. Go home,” she urged gently but firmly. “You will be contacted as soon as there is news.”

Sasuke let out a slightly choked scoff. “You mean the same way that they’ve kept me informed of everything else? They tell me nothing.”

“Be that as it may, it’s all I can give you. It’s all that I know.”

Sasuke stood stiffly as he warred internally. He wanted to reach over the desk and force her to give him answers that she professed not to have, but he remembered her gun and reminded himself that he was in a federal building full of armed individuals who would react badly if he resorted to physical violence.

He compelled his feet move; made himself walk away from her desk and towards the doors. He jerked his phone out of his pocket and immediately tried Kakashi’s number again.

One ring and then voice mail.

‘Naruto, be alive. Please God, let him be alive.’

******************
Sasuke sat on his couch, staring at the glass of bourbon on the coffee table. It had come from the half empty bottle that had remained untouched in dark depths of the cabinet since last New Year’s. He had already worn a trail in his carpet from pacing until he had given up on someone miraculously calling and telling him just what the fuck was going on. The only thing that had been left to do was to try to sooth his frayed nerves and wait.

A knock on the door jostled him out of his thoughts and he stared for a brief moment before what had just happened registered. Once it did, he was immediately up and reaching for the latch, not even bothering to ask who it was in advanced.

He jerked the door open to reveal a rather banged up Kakashi.

There was surprisingly no convenient scrap of cloth or obstacle obscuring Sasuke’s view of the older man’s face and, more specifically the swollen and split lip that adorned it. The beginnings of what would soon be a spectacular black eye shown around the edges of the eye patch and the man held himself carefully as if he ached in unseen places.

Sasuke stepped aside wordlessly, uneasiness churning in his stomach and trying to crawl its way up his throat.

Kakashi limped almost imperceptibly as he entered the premises, turning when he heard the door close behind him.

“I’m sorry.”

Sasuke tensed. He knew what those words meant. “No.”

“There was nothing else they could do.”

“No.”

“Uzumaki Naruto died an hour ago on the operating table.”

“No!”

“His funeral will be held day after tomorrow at-”

Sasuke lashed out quicker than Kakashi could react. Pain exploded on the side of his already tender face and the scent of synthetic fibers filled his nose which was now an inch from the beige carpet.

“You’re lying!” Sasuke yelled desperately. “He’s not dead! You’re lying!”

Kakashi gently held his jaw for a moment as the man above him continued to spout denials and accusations.

After a moment the words died and Sasuke let himself sink down onto the floor beside the older man.

“I hate you,” Sasuke whispered venomously.

“I know,” Kakashi said tiredly as he slowly stood. He spotted the alcohol on the coffee table and helped himself to some. As he sat down on the couch, his eyes closed in pain as the first soft strain of sobs met his ears.

He wanted to do nothing more than to leave Sasuke to his grief, but he didn’t trust the young man alone. Sasuke was too volatile, too unpredictable and he wasn’t ready to read about the detective having put a bullet in his head in tomorrow’s headlines.

He owed it to Naruto to make sure his lover survived.

********************
Sasuke was furious. Even in death Naruto was surrounded by the press, by gawkers and in general by people who had no business being at the funeral service. It had gotten so bad that they’d had to rope off the area of the coffin and had police officers standing before the casket to keep people away.

The FBI was nowhere in sight naturally. Naruto was dead; they had no further need of him.

Because of all of the sons of bitches that didn’t belong here, Sasuke couldn’t even go up to say good-bye. It eerily reminded him of his parents’ funeral; the media, the cops, the people that were there to assuage their curiosity and him not daring to show a single emotion so as not to feed the frenzy.

He would have given anything to be alone with Naruto for just a few moments. A moment to caress his whiskered cheeks, a moment to gently run his fingers one last time through those wild blond locks, a moment to gently kiss his deathly pale lips one last time.

Only the very top half of the coffin was open, revealing Naruto’s face. Everything else from the shoulders down was covered and he had to wonder grimly how bad the damage had been.

The service was fairly short as there were none to stand up there to speak for Naruto. Sasuke didn’t trust himself to say anything that wouldn’t result in him either raging at the parasites around him or reducing himself to humiliating tears. It was best to silently pay his respects and mourn his lover (ironic that it was easier to think that now) in private.

As he watched, he couldn’t help but notice the occasional well, but casually dressed visitor that seemed to step inside of the door, study the body for a long moment before turning and leaving. After the third such individual, Sasuke’s eyes narrowed in new-found purpose.

He was going to find out who was responsible for Naruto’s death and he was going to make them wish they were in hell.

**********************
The first obstacle was, surprisingly enough, Kakashi. The man refused to put him in touch with Ebisu so that Sasuke could demand to be allowed to assist in the case.

They were once again sitting in Sasuke’s apartment, drinking from a new bottle. Sasuke wasn’t sure who had invited him over, whether it had been him or Kakashi himself, but wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Let the FBI do their job, Sasuke. They know what they’re doing,” Kakashi tried to point out reasonably.

“Like they did when Naruto was shot?” he growled out.

“They will find who’s responsible.”

“Not if I find them first,” he responded darkly.

“Revenge isn’t going to change anything, Sasuke.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” he demanded. “But dammit Naruto deserves to have justice, Kakashi. No one gave a damn about him until it was convenient for them to. I’m not going to let the bastards get away with what they’ve done. They’re going to pay.”

“Sasuke-”

“Please, Kakashi,” the younger man said, his voice holding almost no inflection as he stared at his empty glass clutched between his hands. “I need to do this.”

Kakashi sighed and looked around the apartment, trying to distract himself from sympathizing with Sasuke’s pain. “The place looks emptier,” he noted absently.

Sasuke’s eyes slid around the apartment, already knowing what they would find, or rather not find. “Sakura finished moving her stuff to her parents’ house,” he murmured. His eyes moved back down to the coffee table which was covered in mail; some of it bills, some of it flyers from local department stores; a single sheet from the local cable company advertising new channels, a postcard from a casino in Vegas. “Wish you were here!”

He wished he was there, too, but only if it had been with someone in particular. He wrenched his mind away from that line of thought. It wasn’t productive and it hurt too badly to indulge in it.

He refilled his glass while he waited for Kakashi to make up his mind. Had the other man not been contemplating it, he would have continued to try to dissuade Sasuke.

“I’ll ask him, but I can’t promise anything,” Kakashi finally muttered.

Sasuke took a long drink, something inside of him easing a bit at the capitulation.

********************
His next obstacle was, predictably enough, Ebisu.

Several days later, they were sitting in a café that was busy enough that Sasuke had to control himself, but afforded them enough privacy so that they could talk. Sasuke was sipping at his first coffee, wishing he had something with which to spike it while Ebisu was already halfway through his second mug.

“You look like shit,” Ebisu announced casually.

Sasuke flickered up to take in the fading bruise along Ebisu’s jaw and gave a slight snort. “You’re not far off, yourself.”

Ebisu lowered his eyes to his mug as he slowly turned it between his hands. “I’m sorry how things turned out,” he said quietly.

Sasuke’s hand tightened on his cup until his knuckles turned white with strain. He repressed every desire he had to lash out, to blame the man in front of him for not being good enough to keep Naruto safe. As a cop he knew that you couldn’t always protect someone, but dammit Ebisu should have found a way.

His eyes burned and the nausea that always seemed to lurk under the surface threatened to boil out of his stomach and surge up his throat. He swallowed thickly and tried to bury everything back down again. He had a purpose. He had a goal. He had to find the mother fuckers who were responsible and personally choke the life out of them.

“If you’re so sorry then let me in on the investigation.”

Ebisu surveyed the dark smudges under the bloodshot eyes, the unhealthy shade of the normally pale skin and, perhaps even more importantly, the tenuous hold that the young man seemed to have on himself. Kakashi was right, no matter how much of a bad idea he thought this was, Uchiha needed it.

“There’s going to be some ground rules,” Ebisu said after a long silence.

Sasuke’s body tensed in anticipation, his eyes eagerly lifting up to meet Ebisu’s.

“This is not a full time occupation for you. You will continue your duties in your precinct and they will come before this investigation. I will keep in contact with your superiors. If I find that you are slacking on your cases, I will yank this away from you so fast that it will make your head spin. Do I make myself clear?”

Sasuke’s upper lip twitched, wanting to form a sneer. “You do.”

“Anything you find will be reported directly to me. Any requests you have for additional information will be made to me. Any additional evidence you discover will be turned over to me. No one but me. Do you understand?”

Sasuke’s other hand joined the first as he pictured Ebisu’s neck in place of the heavy ceramic coffee mug. “I do.”

Ebisu studied him for a long time before letting out a long sigh that seemed to deflate him. He slouched slightly in his chair, looking a bit tired and worn. “I’ll send copies of our files over to you through Kakashi. I’ll make sure my cell number is in there in case you need to get a hold of me.”

Ebisu stood while pulling out a ten dollar bill from his wallet. He dropped the money on the table before taking a step forward to pause next to Sasuke. He laid a hand on the younger man’s shoulder, feeling how the muscles immediately tensed.

Sasuke forced himself not to move out from under the touch. The anger blazed up inside of him again, but he knew better than to release it. He couldn’t afford to have this chance taken away from him. He waited for Ebisu to make the expected statements about revenge not bringing back the dead, etcetera or how he should move on, but that wasn’t what emerged from the other man’s mouth.

“Try not to do something that will get you killed.”

Sasuke frowned, slightly uneasy about the tone of the warning.

He looked up but Ebisu had already moved on, leaving the man’s back to his uncertain gaze.

*******************
It was almost a week and a half later and Sasuke still hadn’t been presented with the case file. He wondered if Ebisu had reneged on their deal and then wondered why he would be surprised by it. It just meant that he had to start his own investigations while he continued to harass the FBI agent.

Of course the crime scene was old now and there wasn’t a shred of physical evidence which he could get into his hands.

He sighed and looked down at the printed picture that he had shown around the docks while he had been searching for Naruto. The blue eyes seemed to glow up at him with a life of their own out of the pixilated ink.

He grabbed the half empty bottle and refilled his glass, rum this time instead of bourbon. It seemed to be the only thing that helped him sleep anymore. While it wore down his barriers and made him feel his pain worse for a short time, it also eventually took that pain away so that it didn’t haunt him all hours of the night.

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.

Glass still in hand; he walked to the side of the door. “Who is it?”

“Avon calling!” said a cheerful, distinctly male voice.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and unlocked the door. Kakashi’s face was blocked by the manila file folder he was holding up. As Sasuke reached out to take it, the older man turned and locked the door behind him.

Used to Kakashi’s idiosyncrasies by now, Sasuke walked over to the armchair while allowing the other man to take his previous spot on the couch. He never allowed anyone else to sit in the armchair now and he didn’t feel like sitting that close to another person.

He set his glass on the end table and opened the file folder, ignoring Kakashi as the man took the glass and poured himself a drink. Settling his lanky form on the couch, Kakashi began to idly flip through the accumulation of several days’ worth of mail as Sasuke poured over the documents in front of him.

“You really need to pay your bills,” he commented casually as he began to stack them to the side.

“Hn.”

He began to make a second stack of things that could possibly be important but he wasn’t sure because the envelopes were too non-descript. He figured it wouldn’t be long before the outburst.

“There’s hardly anything in here!”

Right on cue.

“There is no way to pinpoint who exactly pulled the trigger.” Kakashi gave a slight shake of his head. “They used a common rifle, a Remington M700, with a common caliber round, 7mm magnum. The shooter picked up the spent cartridge so there is no way to get fingerprints from it. There were no prints on the doors leading up to the rooftop that trajectory suggests was used.

“The cameras mounted on the buildings surrounding the area were unable to get a clear view of the shooter. It’s as if he knew where the blind spot was.”

“Professional,” Sasuke murmured.

“Yeah, that’s what Ebisu was thinking.”

“I don’t give a fuck what Ebisu thinks. If he had been doing his job, Naruto would still be alive.”

Kakashi sighed. “Sasuke, you know as well as I do that if law enforcement were completely capable for anticipating every situation that there wouldn’t be any crime.”

There were a few more minutes of silence as Sasuke continued to read. “There are hardly any suspects listed,” he growled out in bewilderment. “This list should be twice as long!”

“Maybe he had already eliminated the others?” Kakashi offered.

Sasuke muttered something about “eliminated alright” but didn’t expound upon it. “This whole file is shit.”

“Well,” the other man said as he started looking through the remaining pile of junk mail, “it looks as if you will need to start from the beginning. Then maybe you can find out what really happened.”

Sasuke shot a questioning gaze at Kakashi, but the ex-fed was currently studying a postcard advertisement. Sasuke gave a grunt of discontent and lowered his eyes back to the pitifully sparse notes.

“Have you ever been to Vegas?” Kakashi suddenly asked, his good eye still studying the card in his hand.

“No.”

“Hm. Maybe you should look into it. Take a vacation there someday,” he mused.

Sasuke paused long enough to send another glare towards the couch before getting up with a sigh. He grabbed his yellow legal pad and began making notes.

Kakashi watched for a moment before setting the postcard on the stack of bills. “I’ll leave you to it then.”

Receiving no response, he let himself out the door.


TBC