Fandom: Naruto, Suicide Club
Rating: M for violence, gore, etc in later chapters.
Pairing: SasuSaku(?)
Summary: “Do you think this is a game? That fifty four school girls committing mass suicide is funny?” There are no happy endings in this one, just in-betweens.
Disclaimer: Anything that you recognise does not belong to me. And anything that you don’t recognise probably doesn’t belong to me either.

Chapter Eleven: Bang, Bang, Bang
And you’re all dead

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“But Uchiha-san—”

“Sakura. I told you. Don’t leave the house. Draw the curtains, and lock the doors. Don’t answer the doorbell for anyone except Naruto, Sai and myself; look through the eyehole carefully so you know it’s us.”

“Is Sai with you?”

“No, he’s gone off to get information from an acquaintance of his. I don’t know when he’ll be back.”

“… Uchiha-san, what exactly is happening?”

“I don’t know. And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“Are you and Uzumaki-san alright?”

“We’re fine. Just get enough rest. We’ll be late, so don’t wait up. I’ll be missing school tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

“And Sakura?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t turn on the television. Or the radio. Don’t even go on the computer, or answer any phone-calls. Whatever you do, drop all forms of communication from the mass media after this call.”

“Why—”

“Just do it.”

The line went dead.

“I don’t see the point in me having told her that,” Sasuke said, as he sat down at the long table.

“Better safe than sorry,” Tsunade mumbled. “Having been so close to the string of suicides in her school, she might be a target. She’s better off this way. Isolated. Now, all we have to do is wait for—”

“Sorry I’m late, Tsunade-sama,” Nara Shikamaru drawled, walking into the room and sitting down on the closest available seat.

“You’re late.”

“I can see that; after all, I just told you I was. Besides, I don’t even work in this department. Why did you guys call me up?”

“You should know,” Naruto scowled, “having an IQ of over 200 and whatnot.”

Shikamaru smirked, which only made Naruto’s scowl widen.

“Anyway,” Asuma said, drawing attention away from the two boys. “So, what exactly are we supposed to do? The tip-off was obviously faulty, and out stake-out ended disastrously.”

“We need to review this properly. Come to a final conclusion. Stop all this madness,” Tsunade said. She stood up and walked over to a large whiteboard filled with pictures of the crime scene and evidence. “We have almost all the pieces of the puzzle here. We just need to know how to assemble them. That’s where you come in,” she added to Shikamaru.

“This is so troublesome,” Shikamaru muttered, but got up and walked over to the board nevertheless.

“This is all that we have,” Tsunade said, gesturing to the whiteboard before handing Shikamaru a board marker and taking a seat. “Asuma here says that you were brilliant at problem-finding and strategies when you did your training under him. We’re counting on you.”

Shikamaru let out another sigh and examined the board for a few minutes in silence. Then, with his back still facing them, he asked, “I suppose that you all have heard of the Law of Parsimony?”

Tsunade, Asuma and Sasuke nodded their heads, while the rest of the detectives at the table stared at his back blankly.

Without turning around, Shikamaru shook his head slightly and made a soft ‘tch’ sound.

“Never mind. It was probably too much to hope for to think that all of you would. Anyway, the Law of Parsimony is that when faced with a problem and multiple solutions, the simplest is usually the correct one.”

“Meaning that there’s a really mundane reason why people everywhere are committing suicide?” Genma said disbelievingly. “You have got to be shitting me.”

“I said simplest,” Shikamaru snapped back. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that the answer is simple.”

Genma shut up. Kotetsu snickered, using his hand to muffle the sound.

Shikamaru continued, “That website. The one that the Bat—Sai—gave to you. Has anyone counted how many dots are on it altogether?”

When he received no reply, he turned around, only to find everyone at the table looking sheepishly at one another, and Kotetsu scrambling around to find his laptop.

“Kill me now,” Shikamaru muttered, glancing upwards.

“Wait a minute… Hold on, almost done—”

“Just fucking finish counting, okay?” Genma said, whacking Kotetsu’s head.

“One hundred and seven females and forty eight males. A hundred and fifty five people altogether,” Kotetsu finished.

“About the number of people on the forum,” Naruto said, growing impatient. “We already know all this, so why—”

“We have to go about this slowly and methodically if everything is going to be covered,” Shikamaru said. “Interesting. This means that the incident at Shibuya and the Konoha Academy weren’t the only ones included on this list. Meaning that it’s safe to say whoever’s compiling the dots on the website has information on the suicides, and that these particular suicides are related to whoever‘s behind this.”

“Uh…?”

“This site doesn’t include every suicide that has ever taken place,” Shikamaru clarified impatiently. “I’m pretty certain these incidents are also purely Japan-based. I don’t think whoever is behind this could stretch his or her control over these borders. It’s too much knowledge.”

“Sai told me during our first phone conversation that the dots appear before the suicides are reported,” Sasuke recalled.

“Hey, I remember that,” Naruto piped up. “He even said that he thinks that they appear before a suicide is even committed. I don’t know how that would work out though. I mean, is the guy making the list psychic or something?”

“I highly doubt it,” Tsunade said dryly.

“Me too,” Shikamaru agreed. “Prior knowledge to the suicides…” he muttered to himself.

“Could whoever is making the list be the one killing them?” Asuma asked.

“No,” Shikamaru said. “It’s too many people, too sparsely spread out. Besides, there are witnesses who saw the girls at Shibuya jump off the platform, and Haruno Sakura was there when her friends jumped off the rooftop.”

There was a moment of silence while everyone digested this piece of information.

“You know,” Gai said, “it’s quite sad why so many lovely young girls would kill themselves. The female death count is much higher than the male one.”

“Yeah,” Naruto joined in, squinting his eyes. “Why is that, eh?”

“I don’t know yet. What is the range of ages of those who committed suicide?”

“Thirteen to twenty two,” Tsunade read off a report. “These are only the ones that we are aware of, though.”

“That’s peculiar. This would mean that—”

“Shit,” Kotetsu swore, eyes glued to his computer screen. “The screen just refreshed itself automatically.”

“And?” Tsunade asked sharply, standing up.

“Around ten more dots have appeared. No wait—it refreshed again. Now there are like, twenty more new ones. And—oh fuck, the numbers just keep on increasing.”

The rest of the detectives at the table stood up simultaneously.

“We have to get out there. Now.”

Hyuuga Neji was sitting in his office sipping his cup of coffee, when his phone rang.

“Hyuuga,” he said blandly. His shift was almost over, and it had been a long night.

“Oi, Neji! It’s me,” Naruto’s loud, obnoxious voice blared from the earpiece, making Neji wince.

“Uzumaki,” Neji said, closing his eyes and sighing. Something told him that the long night wasn’t over just yet. “What do you want?”

“Uh, well, sorry to bug you and all, but we’re going to need you to work overtime. But you know, only just a bit.”

“How long?”

“Uh…” Naruto trailed off. “I’ll call you back. We’ve got reason to believe that dozens of people are committing suicide as we speak. We’ll need you to check them out after, y‘know? So yeah, that okay? Thanks, see you later!”

Naruto hung up.

Neji sighed again.

Oh yes, the long night wasn’t over just yet.

“Oi! Hurry up and get down here, you losers! Dinner’s ready!” Temari barked up the stairs, waving her spatula in what she hoped was a threatening manner.

“Coming, coming!” was the only reply she received. “Geez, tone it down will you, loudmouth?”

“I can hear you!”

“Meh, whatever,” said the young brunette, Kankuro, descending the stairs. “So, sis, what’s for dinner?”

“Your ass, if you don’t get down here any quicker,” Temari snarled before turning around and stomping back to the kitchen.

Kankuro shrugged and rolled his eyes. He had no idea what was wrong with his elder sister. He already visited three different gynaecologists, each one who was adamant that it wasn’t physically possible for a girl to be on her period every day of the year.

Kankuro didn’t believe them. Those degrees on their walls looked fake anyway.

But, he supposed, it mustn’t be easy being Temari. Their mother had died while giving birth to their youngest brother, and their father had been killed by a manipulative co-worker a few years ago. Ever since then, Temari, being the oldest out of the three siblings, had taken it unto herself to fill the large gap that both their parents had left, taking on the responsibility of looking after them all, letting her younger brothers concentrate more on their studies for their future, at the cost of her own.

It was hard to be sympathetic though, when not only did she not want any pity, but was on a permanent PMS.

“Where’s Gaara?” Temari asked him, shaking Kankuro out of her reverie.

Kankuro shrugged, and turned around, bellowing, “Oi, Gaara! Dinnertime!”

When he received no reply, he walked over to the dinner table and pulled out a chair.

“He’s probably emo-ing in his room or something,” Kankuro said nonchalantly, sitting down. “Or maybe he’s just got a lot of homework he needs to get done. He just transferred to that Konoha place a couple of days ago, you know?”

“Yeah,” Temari agreed, handing him a bowl of rice, “I suppose. I mean, he did go there really late in the semester. He probably has loads of catching up to do. But, it can’t be helped, can it? What with all that drama at happened at Suna High.”

“Mm.” Kankuro nodded and picked up his chopsticks. “Well, it’s best if we just let him be. We’ll just save some food for him for later. Itadakimasu.”

“Itadakimasu.”

Naruto swore for the umpteenth time that evening.

“Shut up, dumbass. Your vulgarity is annoying me.”

“So?” Naruto burst out. “Sasuke, calls are coming in left, right and centre. It’s like half the people in the city are offing themselves, and we aren’t even close to finding out why!”

“And we won’t get any closer no matter how many religious gods you swear off,” Sasuke said monotonously, stepping on the brake when they reached a red light.

“Seriously, if that old hag had just listened to me in the first place, we would have probably found out the reason behind all these suicides already,” Naruto grumbled. “There’s no way that all these people want to die all of a sudden.”

“Even if that’s so,” Sasuke said wearily, trying to placate his partner, “what’s done is done. Now calm down so we can figure out who is behind this.”

Naruto rolled his eyes and leaned back in his seat, staring out of the car’s window.

“Or what.”

“Gaara! Get down here! It‘s almost eleven o‘clock! Eat something already, God damn it; I know you want to look like you‘re the emo-shit in your skinny jeans or whatever, but seriously, it‘s getting late!”

When he didn’t receive a reply, he walked over to the living room and plopped down on the sofa with a heavy sigh.

“Still no sign of life from Gaara, as per usual,” he said to Temari, who was sitting in the armchair adjacent to him. “I say we just let the brat starve.”

“We can’t do that, you bumbling idiot,” Temari said irritably, rubbing her temples. “It’s irresponsible. Now come on; I’m going to drag him out of his room and force-feed him if that‘s what it takes to get some food down his throat, and you’re going to help me.”

“But my show’s just starting—”

“Kankuro!”

“Fine, fine,” Kankuro said, getting up. “Let’s go, then.”

They made their way up the stairs and to Gaara’s room, which had a large, welcoming KEEP OUT sign attached to the door.

“Well?” Temari said. “Aren’t you going to knock?”

“What? Me? Hey, this was your idea in the first place,” Kankuro said quickly, backing away.

“Eurgh, fine. Pussy,” Temari snarled, before knocking on the door loudly. “Gaara?” she called out.

No response.

“Gaara?” she said, this time louder. “Gaara, what are you doing in there? It’s really late now, come down and have some dinner.”

When Gaara showed no sign of coming out of his room, Kankuro sighed, and sat down on the floor, closing his eyes.

“Maybe you should go inside and see whether he’s dead or not,” he said wearily, crossing his legs.

“Maybe I should.”

“Wait, what?” Kankuro’s eyes snapped open. “Are you suicidal? You know how much Gaara hates people going into his room without his permission. I was only joking just now!”

“Stop overreacting, you big pansy,” Temari said. She knocked on the door once more. “Gaara, I’m coming in, okay?”

Kankuro brought his knees to his chest and leaned his forehead against them.

“Well, it’s your funeral,” he said, his voice muffled.

“Shut up, idiot,” Temari said, before opening the door.

She doesn’t really remember what happened after that.

But Kankuro does.

Temari shrieked, a sound so loud and piercing, that Kankuro had to cover up his ears. Even so, he couldn’t fully block out his sister’s terrified scream.

“Oi, what are you screaming at?” Kankuro yelled.

Temari collapsed on the floor and started sobbing hysterically, alarming her brother.

“Temari? Temari, what’s wrong?” Kankuro asked, rushing into the room.

The sight that greeted him wished that he hadn’t.

“Oh. Shit. Oh shit.”

He bent down and grasped Temari’s shoulder in an effort to calm his sister down.

“Gaara… what did you do?”

His question was drowned out by the sound of Temari’s cries. He pulled his sister into a rough hug with one hand, while using the other to dig into his pocket for his cell phone. When he found it, he dialled 110.

“Hello?” he said. “Hi, I—oh wow, I have no idea—but my brother just committed suicide, could you send someone over please? My address? Oh, it’s—sorry, my sister’s crying right now, let me go somewhere quieter, just a second—”

With one last reassuring squeeze, Kankuro let go and walked out of the room to talk on his phone, leaving Temari alone in the room with the corpse of her youngest brother, which was hung by a rope on the ceiling fan.

So upset and traumatised was she, that she didn’t even notice the brightness of the computer monitor behind her brother, despite it being the only source of light in the dark room.

If she had, she might have had approached it to see what her brother was doing on it.

And if she had done that, she would have seen an e-mail delivery notification, saying that his message was successfully sent to one Haruno Sakura.

Of course, she hadn’t done any of that.

Her brother had just died, after all.

A/N:

I cannot even think of where to begin with my apologies. Really. The whole WOOHOO, FREE TIME! just got a bit to my head.

With that said, I still don’t know where to go with this. I don’t know why I killed off Gaara. I really don’t. Maybe I might kill off more people in the next chapter. Maybe. I was actually contemplating on making this into a whole PSYCH, WE’RE NOT REALLY DEAD, YO! story, but then I realised that I would be losing all my braincells and any sort of intelligence I might have in the process. It literally hurts my head just thinking about it now.

Or maybe I might make Shino the genius mastermind behind all of this. You never know.

An extremely big thank you to DaRk MiKo18, whose review is what made me get off my ass and actually start this new chapter. And an equally big thank you to everyone who’s ever read and reviewed this, because when I got stumped around the Neji!section, reading past reviews kept me going. I never expected so many people to like this story, especially since the focus of it is a very sensitive topic, but all of your wonderful feedback is what makes writing is all the more enjoyable, and for that, I am so very grateful. Really, I am. This chapter is dedicated to all of you.