The Nine Ornament

YAOI, AU, WiP. NaruSasu

A/N: This story takes place in between the real world and Kishimoto Masashi's world. There will be fictional parts, goverments and forces in it, which was semi-created by me. I hope this story won't be too tale-like, and you will enjoy it.

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It was the very first time in his life when Uzumaki Naruto stood in such a huge building. The great hall was abounded with people, and their voices echoed in the enormous space. The glass walls and ceiling let in the sunshine and gave a pretty view of the beautiful blue summer sky. The top of the hall was about 3 floors high.

In the other side of the hall stand the escalator which went to the second floor, and from there another one take the mass to the third, but neither storey was in the way of the view of the clouds. The young blonde man almost fell backward as he watched the cotton balls travel trough that blue ocean.
The shining sun gave the feeling of a hot summer, but in fact the building had a cool weather inside.

When Naruto finally managed to take his eyes of the sky, he glanced at the clock which was hung on the wall above the information bureau. It was almost two o'clock. He checked his tie for the last time and went a little nearer to the bureau's table to look up the right room number once more to be on the safe side. He supposed to go to the office of the Criminal Investigations Branch which was placed on the second floor and look for Umino Iruka, who was stationed there as a representative of the Administration Branch, and was in charge of the newcomers. Naruto found his name on the board but there was no room number. That's the Japanese FBI for you, thought the man, and decided to go upstairs for more information.

As he ride the escalator he couldn't decide where to look, the blue sky was tempting but the mess below his feet was also interesting enough to look at. So many people was going back and forth on the first floor talking to each other, writing something on their notes while they murmured a silent 'Excuse me' or hand-waved to the other who they bumped into. Others pressed their cell-phones to their ears tightly and spoke on it while half-running. Everybody was so busy that Naruto almost got dizzy just from watching them.

When he arrived at the second floor he spot the inquiry office right away, of course he would, the young lady behind the counter was beautiful. He tugged his suit on his chest once and targeted the woman.
"Excuse me, Flower" he waited for her to look at him and then continued. "I've never seen something as beautiful as you in my life. But I'm a man of nature, so I would never tear off an amazing creature like you against your will. If you had some free-time later today, I would definitely love to drink something in your company, my honey."

The woman froze in mid-air and all the others around the counter looked at Naruto as he was some alien from another planet… but nobody called the supervisor of the 51st area after all, so the man sighed and laughed. When the lady realized it was kind of a joke she started to breath again.

"What can I help you, Mister?" she asked kindly, like nothing happened.
"Ahm, I'm looking for Umino Iruka." Naruto started. "I have an appointment with him."
"I see, Mr. … Uzumaki?" asked the woman after a little search on her computer.
"Yeah, that's me" grinned Naruto, but she only got more confused about his intentions.
"There's a hallway on the right side," she pointed to the other end of the second floor's hall "go that way and you will find the Criminal Investigators' office at the end of the hallway. If you ask the secretary there, she will guide you to Umino-san."
"Oh my God, thank you very much. You saved my life, angel" he looked at her gratefully. "Can I ask for your name, sweetheart?" Naruto never was a man to give up.
"It's Tenten, but you're late, sir" said the woman pointing at the clock above her.

When Naruto realized it was five past two he started to hurry. Waved for the lady, shouted a 'Thanks, Tenten, let's date later' to her and run through the hall. It was his big day, he couldn't be late from this appointment.
There were a lot of doors and hallways opened from the hall as Naruto walk through it. He'll certainly have a hard time to get used to this place, but let's see what should come first, he thought.

The office of the Criminal Investigations Branch was a very big room, but there were too many tables and shelves situated inside to realize it. The people inside was either working alone at their desk or gathered in a group and had conversations which looked more like enthusiastic debates. A little after he stepped inside the room a short, black-haired woman asked him shyly what he wanted and took him to Umino Iruka's office.

"Uzumaki Naruto is here, Umino-san" she let Naruto inside the office.
"Oh, Mr. Uzumaki, nice to meet you. I'm Umino Iruka" the man said and bowed behind the table. "Thank you, Hinata."
The girl bowed and looked at Naruto before she left. She was blushing. Naruto was happy to see it, since she was a cute girl. If Tenten turned him down, he could try asking her instead. He was distracted from his manly thoughts when the man sat down at his desk and pointed to the chair on the other side. Naruto got the invitation and took his seat.
"I'm sorry I'm late, Umino-san" he said politely.
"It's ok, and please call me Iruka. Can I call you Naruto, we will be colleagues after all." The man smiled kindly, as a teacher did, when he talked to his student.
"Sure, thank you." The blonde was a little surprised, he expected a strict guy for this interview.
The man took out some documents and started to look them through with great interest, so Naruto had some time to look around in the little room. There were a lot of bookshelves on the sidewall and more books on the table. The atmosphere there matched the busy feeling of the whole place pretty well. Like life never stops there, even for a minute, they always have important work to do and never have time to rest. It made him tired in itself, even before he could start his work as one of them.

"So, Naruto-kun," the man started, "you was a student of Konoha Police Academy." Naruto nodded. "That's nice, a lot of great investigators graduated there. That's a given" the man looked up at him and smiled again.
"Yeah" he grinned back at the man. "It was great that I passed the last exam, after failing three times." He immediately regretted what he'd just said when the man looked less amazed.
"I see. But a pass is still a pass." His smile came back as did Naruto's confidence. "Why, exactly, do you want to join to our forces?" Iruka asked.
"Let me see," the blonde started, "I've always wanted to be a detective, when I was a kid." The man behind the table looked surprised, but not disdainful, so Naruto continued. "After I got into high school I realized I had talent. I was the one who always found the neighbour's cat, when he went missing." Now the man gave a shocked expression, like he couldn't decide if Naruto was joking or not. "Then I went to Konoha Academy and decided to surpass the great investigators, who had they picture on the wall."

Iruka nodded and his smile appeared once more.
"So you want to be like the four great plainclothes man of Konoha Academy. That is really something to live for. They were the most famous detectives of America in history, they did real big deeds for their country, you know" the man spoke with great admiration.
"Yeah, that's why I want my own picture beside theirs."
"Oh, really, such great ambitions we have." Iruka laughed and put down the document on the table. "Well, you see, one of the keywords in this kind of job is 'teamwork', so it's nice if you want to get higher, but you can't actually do a thing without the others. Do you understand what am I saying, boy?" the man had soft features, but his eyes were strict and show seriousness, so Naruto felt the need to swallow hard. This was a very important interview, he can't have failed it, he had to get this job. So he took a deep breath and spoke up:
"Yeah, I know. I'm absolutely a man of teamwork. I don't want to be one of the best investigators just because of my own profit, but also because I can, then, help my co-workers too." He didn't take his eyes off of the other man even for a minute, he wanted to see every reaction he had. That was one of the most important things for a detective to be able to do, scan your enemies face and if you can read the emotions shown on it, you are in a firm advantage.
"Teamwork, sure, that's the first word in my dictionary" the blonde smiled with confidence, he'd already known he is in.

Iruka had several other questions about Naruto's academic years, and how did he imagined his work at the Criminal Investigators Branch. Later on, after they finished their coffee - which was brought into the room by an intensively blushing Hinata, who almost tripped on the rag and poured the drink all on Narutos lap while the man couldn't stop grinning - the elder man led him out of his office to introduce him to the captain of the Department.

In opposite to the entry was the captain's office. Only a glass wall separated it from the main office where the agents and other employees worked. It must have been because the chief could keep his eyes on the staff all the time. But at that moment the Venetian blinds were closed so it couldn't be seen what was happening inside.

When Naruto stepped into the office after Iruka, the first thing he saw was a silver grey scalp behind a suspicious looking orange book. The blonde stepped beside the older man, who led him in and saw his face was blushing. Naruto tried his best not to smile in the face of his boss, but he knew that book pretty well, since his caretaker, Jiraiya was the author. He breathed a sigh of relief that his so famous boss, Hatake Kakashi is definitely something out of the ordinary, and not in a way how the rumours spoke about him.

Iruka cleared his throat and succeeded to bring the grey haired man attention to himself.
"Kakashi, this is our new agent, Mr. Uzumaki Naruto" he introduced the blonde to the captain who now put away his book into a drawer.
"Well, well. Welcome here" he said in a very low voice, smiling, he spoke slowly, like he had all the time in the universe. Naruto bowed without a word. After the man take the book away the blonde could see that he was wearing a mask and a winding-sheet in one eye, so only a very little piece of his face, the other eye was exposed to the public. It was utterly strange, but for the blonde the guy was more and more appealing. The weird ones are always the interesting ones, Naruto thought.
"Thank you, Iruka." The dark haired man rolled his eyes and left the room, it seemed he was less amazed by their chief, and the blonde felt sympathetic towards the leaving man for a moment. It must be hard for a teacher-like person to work below a porn-reading boss. He laughed inside as he imagined the two man's labour relationship.

"I'm glad we have you here, I heard a lot about you from Sarutobi-sama," the man started standing up from his table but always looking in the eye of the blonde "your headmaster from Konoha Academy. I'm sorry to hear about that accident, poor old guy."
"It wasn't an accident, he was murdered" Naruto interrupted his speech, but he didn't seem surprised, his eyes kindled and his mask moved on his face. He must be smiling, Naruto thought but didn't really have any idea why he would do that.
"Hm. That's true, it wasn't a simple case." The man stopped beside the window to the stuff's office and looked out between the blinds. "Please take your seat. I want to talk about your partner, unfortunately he is out on a mission right now, but he will get back later this afternoon and I want you to meet him by all means."
"Sure, I think I still have a lot to do in the building so I'll wait till he arrives." Naruto said with a smile on his face.

"Ahm, so his name is Uchiha Sasuke" Kakashi started and waited a little, then scratch his head. He looked like he was waiting for some kind of reaction but Naruto didn't have any. Sure, the name was kind of familiar, but he didn't really know where he'd heard it before. And if he didn't remember something, then that couldn't have big importance. So he looked questioningly at the captain.

"Well, I guess you don't know him then" the man said with a sigh "it's okay, nothing really important. But you have to know some stuff about him." He went to a coffee table and poured some for himself and held out the pot towards Naruto if he needed some, but the blonde refused. He had already drunk one with Iruka and that was more in itself than the amount he could take at once.

Kakashi shrugged and continued, "He is a loner. Well, don't misunderstand me. He's one of the best man I have here, he joined two years ago, and he is the same age as you." He sipped from his coffee, Naruto blinked. He'd heard it but hadn't seen the mask moving, he blinked two more times and tried to concentrate on the information rather than on the mystery of the boss' mask. "It's kinda hard to work with him, but I hope you'll get on well with each other. He's a really good investigator." Kakashi sighed and put down his cup when he realized that the young man was more enchanted with his drinking style than with what he said. "So, if you had any problem, please feel free to come and talk it over with me, 'kay?"

Naruto looked up in his eyes and grinned. "So to be honest, you put me beside an antisocial guy, who must hate his colleges, since you wouldn't warn me if it weren't the case, and also say that I probably will have some problems with him… hope he is not a psycho, I heard there are a lot in this department." He was anything but happy. It was the worst case scenario to start this job. He liked people, any kind of people, and could easily make friends. But how can you make friends with somebody who hates people? And since teamwork was so fucking important in this business… unlucky day, thought Naruto.

But Kakashi only laughed on his statement.
"Look, he don't like socializing but that doesn't mean he's a bad person. He's not a psycho… or not the kind who would kill its own partner." Kakashi smiled and tried to show a relaxed expression, like everything were okay with an only half-mad partner. "And he is very intelligent."

Naruto wasn't the kind of person who judged by the first impression, but if you know you had to work with somebody for years, then it wasn't the greatest thing to hear that he is one of those idiots who looks uninteresting and indifferent, don't talk with people, don't have friends and one day you realize he had a hobby of sawing doll clothes from women skin after they are arrested and executed because of homicide.

"So he is not just an antisocial psycho, but also a nerd. Awesome." He could imagine a short guy with unwashed hair, glasses, wearing clothes which he inherited from his grandfather. Or maybe nicely ironed shirt, his mother must do it for him every morning. He must live with his mother. And a nice cardigan around his neck, like those worn by American university students. He remembered the scene from Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season, where Matt Damon went on killing those nerds and he
laughed out loud.

Kakashi looked at him questioningly but didn't voice his thoughts. He turned to the door but stopped before opening it.
"Whatever, you will see when he arrives. But I hope Iruka told you about teamwork, it's very important in this kind of job." Naruto remembered very well and that's why he started to panic. Teamwork is based on trust and it's much easier to trust somebody who is your friend. Not with a nerd psycho who lived with his mother and had no sense of fashion.

Then the captain went out to the stuff's office and waved Naruto to follow him.

"Everybody, listen here!" he spoke a little louder, trying to draw the attention of those in the room. When most of them went silent and looked at their direction he continued.
"Let me introduce you our new agent, Mr. Uzumaki Naruto" Kakashi said, pointing at the blonde. A little whispering took place before the officers clapped for the newcomer. Naruto bowed gratefully and secretly run his eyes through the women in the room, then smiled at the fact that most of them was very charming.

"Nice to meet you," he started looking at the black-haired girl who take him in, her cheek was still red, especially when she realized he was watching her. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, but you can call me Naruto. I'm glad I can work as a member of your group. Please take care of me." He bowed once more and smiled.

Everybody greeted him back, some of them was whispering, others talked out loud. There was a guy in funny green clothes and with implausibly thick eyebrows, who was the most enthusiastic. He shouted a 'welcome' to Naruto with a huge smile on his face. His teeth gleamed and he showed a thumb up. It was frightening, but there was something charming in the guy's furore, thought Naruto.

After the introduction and some little talk with his colleges he took a seat beside his new table and waited for his new partner. He couldn't hide his excitement. He held his badge in his hand and looked at it proudly, he got it from Kakashi and it was the proof, that finally, he was here, part of the coolest detectives on the world. He was so focused on the item in his hands that he didn't even sensed the person behind him. Only when two palms closed on his eyes did he recognized it.

"Guess who?" a woman's voice called near his ear. It was a familiar voice, but he didn't know exactly who it belonged to. He reached for the delicate hands and tried to collect some information by touching. When he said nothing the woman started in a squealing voice, "Ow, I can't believe you, Naruto. You forgot all the beautiful months we shared in high school? I'm totally disappointed."

Then it all made sense, he jumped from his seat, spun around to grab the woman into a hug. "Oh my God, Sakura, long time no see." Now the pink haired woman laughed in his arms and spanked his back. He knew that the girl was working in Japan, but never thought that she was working for the FBI. They knew each other pretty well after going out for two years in high school. Actually Haruna Sakura had been his first love, they matched well with each other, so he became a lot more self-confident while dating with her. But after months of being together they realized that it was kind of a "my friend, my lover" relationship, so when he started to look for other girls he decided to tell the girl that he is not mature enough yet. He thought it would be better to have the girl's friendship till they grow old, than have they way as lovers for some more time and then part bitterly. Sakura had taken it better then he had thought she would. But well, she was just as much of a flirt as Naruto was.

"I can't believe my eyes. You finally got in here?" she said while backing a little to take stock of Naruto's whole appearance, and so did the blonde. She was really beautiful and definitely more matured in some body parts than she was in high school. She wore a nice black woman's suit with a pink blouse which matched her hair perfectly.

"Well, yeah." He started, still looking at the girl. He felt warm and happy to see an old face, somebody he knew. He moved to Japan three years ago when he started the Police Academy, but he never really could become acquainted with the Japanese culture, he missed his American friends so much. But now, here was Sakura who reminded him those good old times. "But I'm surprised to meet you here, Sakura-chan. I knew you moved back to Japan after graduating, but I thought you work in some fancy hospital or somethin'."

"No, no, no. Well, at first I wanted to work in a clinic," she started with enthusiastic gesticulation, "but then I got a really great offer from one of my teachers in the Academy. So here I am."

"To rearrange poor dead guys' insides." Naruto added with an apologetic smile and she nudged him. Well, Sakura was a really clever girl and she was interested in medication since the blonde knew her. She had already won first places in state competitions and got into Tokyo Medical University after graduating from high school in the States. It wasn't unexpected that the FBI would want someone as good as her. It was just strange to meet her again.

"Do you want me to walk you around this place? I can show you where I arrange the guts" she offered with a smile and grabbed the blonde on the coat.

"O-kay. Can't refuse such an invitation" he said and followed the girl.

They walked around the whole place, from the parking lot to the rooftop. They spoke about school days and old friends, and those years when they went to university and hadn't had the opportunity to meet with each other. Sakura told him about how she decided to be a pathologist and showed him the dissection chamber, which was located underground of the great building. Naruto spoke about the hard training in the Academy, and told her the story of his late headmaster, who was an admirable detective and died in suspicious circumstances in Japan, and so that's why the blonde wanted to work here. The girl wasn't completely unfamiliar with the story, she heard about Sarutobi in the FBI a lot.

He was an old detective, who solved a lot of important cases in his youthful years, there were rumours about him, that he was a Japanese spy in the World War II.. Regardless of this gossip, he worked for the American FBI for years. After retiring he became the headmaster of the famous American Konoha Police Academy, but still had a great influence in the military forces. He died in Japan when he was visiting some council meeting, it seemed to be an accident, he fall down from a hotel window. There was no clue in the hotel room, no fingerprints, no hair, nothing. It was a closed case in the police archives, but the FBI wasn't satisfied, there were a lot of investigators in the Branch who didn't thought of it as an accident.

In the cafeteria they meet again the fuzzy-browed guy with green clothes. He turned out to be Sakura's boyfriend, which was a great shock in Naruto's eyes. He was aware of the fact that the girl liked hot guys, but this Lee kid was anything but hot. When they went on and the weird guy left them alone Naruto confessed his thoughts to Sakura. She just laughed, and admitted that there was a gorgeous guy who she had been in love with since she became an employee there, but he never realised or cared about her feelings, so she moved forward and accepted the feelings of her long time admirer instead.

When they arrived back at the office Sakura squealed in Naruto's ear. "Look, here's your partner."
The blonde's forehead started to sweat. 'There it goes' he thought, 'bring it on, madman'. And he started to scan the room for his psychotic nerd partner. But what he saw there was something else. Beside his table stood a guy, he looked like some visual kei model, who just stepped out from a fashion show. He was tall, about the same height as Naruto, he had ebony hair and his figure was elegantly slender in his black cord pants and leather coat. In contrast to the blonde's imagination he was plain COOL. Yeah, COOL, with capital letters, thought Naruto.

The blonde stepped closer to him and introduced himself, bewitched by the superior aura which surrounded the man.

"Hey. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, your new partner." The guy pulled his black sunglasses a little lower to look at Naruto with same black eyes. Then with a 'Hn' he turned around and left in the direction of Kakashi's office.

'Fucking great. An arrogant prick with the look of a supermodel', thought Naruto and felt that it won't be an easy match.

TBC.