Echoes

Chapter Two

Networking

Sasuke entered the KPD shooting range to find Naruto already firing away at the targets on the opposite end of the long room. The loud blonde did not notice as his friend shrugged off his jacket and picked up a pair of goggles and ear muffs before accepting a small-bore rifle from the range officer.

Sasuke moved swiftly over to the cubicle next to Naruto and unleashed a torrent of bullets into the paper target. Naruto, having seen the target next to his rapidly become Swiss-cheese, paused in his own firing. He waited until Sasuke moved to change the clip before tapping his agitated friend on the shoulder.

The brooding Uchiha yanked his safety gear off before turning to face Naruto.

"What?"

"Geez Teme, you're even more uptight than usual, and you were late, plus there's a big stain on your trousers and-"

"Shut up Dobe. I know all that."

Naruto scratched the back of his neck. "What happened while you were out?"

"Who said I went out?" Sasuke busied himself with reloading his gun.

"You weren't in your office."

There was a long moment of silence in which Naruto tipped back and forwards on the balls of his feet watching as his friend turned the firearm over in his hands.

"I bumped into someone on my way back and knocked them over."

"Ah," Naruto nodded. "And that's how you got that stain?"

Sasuke nodded. "I yelled at her to watch where she was going."

"A girl? Not very gentlemanly of you, but we all say things like that I suppose. Don't beat yourself up so much." Naruto turned to go back to his booth but Sasuke's next words froze him in his tracks.

"She was blind."

The blonde gaped at Sasuke for a moment before shaking his head slowly. "You told a blind person to watch where they were going? Wow, no wonder you feel like a jerk."

"Hn. I didn't know she was blind."

Naruto grinned. "I wish I could meet her, I've been trying for years to make you feel horrible about yourself."

Sasuke was saved coming up with a reply when Kakashi entered the shooting range. The tall silver haired man looked between the two men and sighed.

"I have no idea what you two have been talking about but lets keep fatalities to a minimum shall we?"

Naruto cast Sasuke a teasing look before practically skipping over to Kakashi.

"Hey, Kakashi! You'll never guess what Sasuke did on his lunch break!"

"Hey Ino."

The scent of dozens of different types of flowers drifted into Sakura's nose as she entered the Yamanaka flower shop. The beautiful perfumes in the air made it be one of Sakura's favourite places to be.

"Sakura!" Her friend's bright voice sounded surprised. "I didn't know you were coming over today."

Sakura allowed Metsuki to pull her over to Ino. "Neither did I, but I thought we could go get lunch or something."

"Sounds good, business has been a little slow today."

Sakura listened as Ino moved over to the front door and turned the lock. "We'll go out the back way and… um Sakura? Why have you got chewing gum on your backside?"

"Huh?" Sakura reached down and lightly felt the seat of her jeans. Sure enough there was a conspicuous wad of gum. She felt the giggles rising in her throat. "Oh, that's rather embarrassing. It must have happened when Sasuke knocked me down."

"Sasuke? Since when do you know a Sasuke?" Ino was beside her again, looping her arm through Sakura's before tugging her to the rear of the shop. "Come on, you can tell me everything over some lunch."

Sasuke was once again sat in his office, failing miserably in his attempts to concentrate on the files before him. At the shooting range he had tried unsuccessfully to ignore Naruto and Kakashi's sniggering and had had to suffer their teasing ever since.

It wasn't their childish antics which irked him, he was forced to deal with that on a regular basis. No, the thing bothering him was why he felt like such an idiot over a genuine mistake. He had said worse things to strangers without feeling any remorse, so why should a remark (which in any other circumstances would have not been all that insulting) cause him so much strife?

Perhaps it was that he had inadvertently mocked a young women who had no control over the fact she couldn't see. Maybe it was because she hadn't bit back at him for him below-the-belt barb. Or it could be that even after the potentially hurtful words had left his mouth, the small, pink-haired girl had not stopped smiling. Indeed she had apparently found the whole incident rather amusing and had treated him like they were friends, or at least casual acquaintances.

Sasuke sighed, pulling his fingers through his hair, making the already spiky strands even wilder. In some weird way it made him feel like a miserable dolt; here he was, often brooding and with nothing really wrong with his life (dysfunctional family aside), and yet a blind girl, who would never get to see her wedding, or her children, was smiling brightly as though she hadn't a care in the world.

Sasuke shook his head, it was not like him to dwell in his thoughts like this; he was most definitely a focused worker, and if there was work to do you could bet he would get it done.

So why couldn't he get thoughts of Sakura out of his head?

Ino Yamanaka stared at her pink-haired friend and watched as she took another bite into her sandwich.

"I can't believe he'd say something like that!" Ino was quite outraged at Sakura's earlier experience. "What a complete-!"

"Ino," her friend cut in, "it's fine, really. He didn't know and he was very apologetic about it when he realised. I found it very funny."

"Yeah, well you would." Ino muttered placing her chin on her hand and chasing a cherry tomato around her plate. Beneath the table Metsuki's tail rhythmically thumped across her feet as the dog found himself caught up in a dream.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Sakura pushed her empty plate away from herself and reclined further in her seat. The light breeze played through her hair as the two girls ate their food at a pleasant little patio restaurant.

"You're a weird person, Sakura. No one should be so happy all the time."

Sakura scoffed at her friend's words. "Well what do you get out of life by being miserable? I'd much rather be happy than sad."

Ino made a non-committal noise and abandoned the rest of her salad. "Sasuke… hm, that name rings a bell somewhere in my mind, but I don't know why." She drummed her fingers against the white, tablecloth for a moment before sighing. "I don't know. I don't suppose you got a surname too did you?" She joked, not expecting it to help any.

"Yes, Uchiha."

Ino stopped drumming immediately. "No wonder it sounded familiar! The Uchiha's are a very wealthy family you know." Ino was an expert when it came to gossip and knew the ins and outs of Konoha's big families like the back of her hand. "Let's see, Sasuke Uchiha." She thoughts for a moment before grinning. "Yes, I remember now. Sasuke Uchiha is the youngest member of the Uchiha family. His dad owns a chain of banks, brings in a lot of money and the oldest son, Itachi, is something of a genius."

Ino paused for a moment and watched as Sakura's face screwed up in confusion. "They named their son 'weasel'?"

Ino almost fell out of her chair. "I just told you that the guy who knocked you down was big money and all you can think about is his brother's weird name!?"

Sakura shrugged. "Is that why you knew Sasuke's name?"

"Partly. You see he didn't join his father's company like everyone expected him to. He joined KPD and I think he's partnered with that loud guy that Hinata likes."

Sakura nodded. Hinata Hyuuga was another of her very good friends and her cousin, Neji, worked in the pathology department for Konoha Police. "I'm guessing Hinata met her crush through her cousin?"

Ino chuckled. "That or Tenten, she's almost as good a matchmaker as I am."

Both the girls shared a laugh at that. Tenten, the final component to their group of friends was a notorious tomboy. She loved all thinks sharp or dangerous and worked with Neji trying to decipher what type of weapon may have inflicted a wound on a body.

"I don't think Hinata's ever talked to that guy, she's too shy."

Sakura sighed in agreement. "She'll get there eventually, she just takes some time. Oh! Before I forget, Temari called and said she and Gaara are going to be in town from Monday. It might be nice if we all do something?"

"Yeah, that sounds nice." Ino smiled ad looked at her watch. "I'm going to have to be getting back to the shop now, Sakura. Want to come with?"

Sakura stood up, Metsuki doing the same beside her. "Sure, I've got nothing better to do today."

"Sasuke."

The onyx eyed male looked up to find Kakashi stood at his door.

"Have you come to mock me some more?" Sasuke said sarcastically.

Kakashi grinned beneath his ever present mask (of which no one had ever figured out its purpose), and shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Neji said he's found something on that sample you sent him last week."

Sasuke stood from the pile of unfinished work and strolled over to the door, pausing in front of his mentor. "I sent Hyuuga a lot of samples last week." It was true, there had been a particularly unpleasant death at one of Konoha's top restaurants. The victim, a prominent figure in the science of genetic engineering, had suddenly gone into a violent seizure and died a little more than two hours later.

"Ah well, he didn't give me the specifics," Kakashi shrugged. "He just said you might find it interesting."

Sasuke nodded and moved past the taller man. "Does Naruto know?"

"I don't know where he's gone, he's not in his office."

Sasuke groaned and nodded, heading down the hallway to the lifts. His partner was most likely over at the canine training facility arguing with Inuzuka. The metal doors slid open and Sasuke stepped in to the cool, metal box. He pressed the button for the second basement level and the doors closed before him.

KPD's pathology department was located in the cool sub-levels of the complex, and an ever-present chill permeated the windowless corridors. Sasuke walked briskly down the gently sloping floor, bypassing the morgue and entering the first lab on his right.

At first glance the room appeared empty but as Sasuke took a few steps into the sterile room, he caught sight of the long-haired Hyuuga seated behind a computer screen. He cleared his throat and Neji looked up.

"Uchiha."

"Hyuuga. What is it you think you've found?"

Neji moved over to an incubator at the back of the room and returned with a sealed vial of colourless crystals. He placed it down on the desk between himself and Sasuke and sat back behind his computer.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked, picking up the vial and peering at the contents within.

"It's strychnine." Neji said simply. "We found residues of the crystal form in the victim's soup bowl.

"A poison?"

"Yes, but a rather gruesome one. Strychnine causes muscle spasms which get more violent on contact, starting with the head and neck and eventually completely scrambles the neural pathways which control breathing. Death usually comes two to three hours after exposure."

Sasuke frowned at the vial lying innocently in his hands.

"What I don't get," Neji continued, "is why someone chose strychnine specifically. There are a lot of other poisons which act more discreetly. Why cause such a scene?"

"Maybe they wanted to be noticed. Perhaps they had a motive to get people to take notice of this death." Sasuke muttered lowly.

Neji narrowed his pale eyes. "You think it could have been an activist? Genetic engineering is a touchy subject after all."

"Perhaps. But I don't imagine it can be easy to get a hold of such a poison."

"We say that about every drug, poison and toxin we look into." A new voice entered the conversation and Sasuke turned to see Tenten arriving with some bagged and bloodied bullets.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her and she shrugged.

"Shikamaru and Chouji's case." She replied in a way of explanation. She deposited the evidence in the tray on her desk before turning to grin wickedly at the Uchiha stood in front of Neji. "So, I heard about you're little incident with dear Sakura-chan this morning."

Sasuke's eyes immediately narrowed. "How did you know about that?" A sudden thought seemed to strike him. "Sakura-chan?"

Tenten nodded. "It's a small world you know. I've been friends with Sakura for years, along with Hinata and another girl called Ino. Actually, Ino jut got off the phone to me ranting about how some jerk had knocked Sakura over and asked if she was blind."

Neji cut in. "What's wrong with that?" He knew of Sakura from Hinata but had never actually met her.

"Sakura is blind."

Neji snorted and Sasuke glowered.

"Yes, well if you are done having a laugh at my expense I'll just be going." He deposited the vial containing the strychnine back on the Hyuuga's desk before turning to leave.

"Oh Sasuke!" Tenten called. "Before I forget, my friend Ino had suggested, seeing as how some of our other friends are going to be in town next week, that we have a big get together at the Hyuuga mansion."

"And that involves me how?"

Tenten sighed. "Neji's going to be there," she did not allow the coffee-haired man to cut her off. "And Hinata will want Naruto to come along, seeing as how she likes him." Again she ignored the noises of protest from Neji. "So in the end we decided that we should just invite everyone! Sakura will be there too, the least you could do would be to apologise."

"I did apologise!" Sasuke said defensively.

"Well do it again."

Tenten smirked as Sasuke grunted and turned from the lab, the back of his neck burning uncomfortably.

I had the urge to write something (never mind that I'm procrastinating on college work) and I'm having a block on my other story. This chapter was really just introducing most of the others and setting up for future chapters.

Thank you to everyone who read the first chapter and a big thank you to those who reviewed!