"It's not him!" Naruto shouted for the nth time. "I'm telling you!"

Sakura shook her head. "Are you suggesting that we've been chasing the wrong man this whole time? It's extremely unrealistic."

Naruto turned on her, his eyes flashing. "After watching those tapes, I am completely confident in my decision. And I want to find out if it's really the person we think it is."

Sakura sighed, exasperated. "Look, Naruto, you can't assume that's not him after that grainy camera image."

"Did you forget what Sai told us?!" Naruto yelled. "If there's anything at all that can point us to the truth, I'm willing to investigate it!" He began walking away to the computer room in the police department. "Bye, Sakura."

"Naruto--Naruto, wait!"

*Flashback*

Daiki had quickly retrieved the tapes from the shoe warehouse. They'd been hidden in an odd place under the counter, in a strange sort of cabinet.

This cabinet was situated between two others. It was especially thin and narrow, since it made out of the dividing wall that separated the first two cabinets from each other. The inside of the wall had been hollowed out, and the tapes were laying neatly inside.

Sakura watched as Naruto delicately lifted them out, his eyes shining in triumph. He immediately stood.

"Let's go! Thank you so much for your help, Akiyama-san!"

Daiki looked pleased, though he tried to hide it. "It was my pleasure. I hope this lifts all suspicion from my shoulders."

"For the most part, yes." Sakura replied, waving her hand dismissively. "Of course, we'd still like to question you a bit, but nothing more."

The ride back to the police station was louder than usual as Naruto chattered away. It was only natural for him to be excited, Sakura thought with a smile. Their line of work was so serious, it was easy to forget that in reality, Naruto was still only an eighteen year old boy.

"This is amazing, Sakura-chan! We finally have some solid proof! Right here! I can't wait to watch them!"

When they pulled into the station, Naruto jumped out of the car and began jogging towards the building. "I'm going to report to Lady Tsunade, Sakura! Bring Akiyama-san and hurry up!"

When Sakura and Daiki finally arrived in the room, Tsunade and Kakashi stood listening to Naruto's words as he filled them in.

"--and so these are the tapes. Can we view them right now?"

Tsunade took the tapes in her hand and began to inspect them. "I suppose we can. They appear to be in decent shape though they've been sitting for years. They're a bit dusty though." She rubbed them with a cloth.

"By the way, where's Orochimaru?" Kakashi asked. "Shouldn't he be present at this meeting?"

Tsunade looked up. "He called in earlier, saying there was some urgent business he had to take care of. Though now that I think about it, he never specified exactly what it was."

"Ah." Kakashi didn't look appeased. "He needs to stop running off. I'm becoming a little wary of his activities."

Tsunade nodded in agreement. "I've never fully trusted him. When he comes back, we'll definitely have a talk."

Naruto shifted from foot to foot, looking impatient. "Are they ready now?"

"Yes," Tsunade replied, walking over to the DVD player. She placed the first tape inside. The room fell silent as everyone leaned in to watch.

The first tape was a mere five minutes long, and contained nothing more than a grainy image of an empty sidewalk. The scene had been filmed at night as well, lowering visibility even further.

"Sorry," Daiki apologized. "I couldn't recall which one held the scene you were looking for."

"That's all right," Sakura assured him. "Let's play the next one."

The second tape held much of the same content. Sakura sighed, and was about to pull it out, when Naruto stopped her. "Wait. Rewind a bit."

Sakura furrowed her eyebrows at him, but complied.

"Alright, right here. Lady Tsunade, can we higher the volume to the max? Thank you. Listen, everyone."

Although no one appeared on the screen, faint shouts could be heard in the background. A female voice yelled something inaudible, but Naruto squeezed his eyes shut. "That's...my mom," he whispered. "She was telling him to stop and lay down his weapons."

The tape ended there, and Sakura quickly grabbed the final one. "This should be it." She inserted it into the DVD player, and everyone watched intently.

The shouts grew louder still, and suddenly, two people came into view under the streetlight. Tsunade quickly paused the film.

One person, Sakura recognized instantly. She'd know that long, red hair anywhere; Kushina Uzumaki. Naruto's mother.

The other, Sakura had to squint at for a moment. The image was so grainy and low quality, it was hard to tell. Then she realized. It was the Uchiha, though he looked a bit different than she remembered. His hair was definitely longer, tied back in a loose ponytail, and his face seemed a little thinner. But it was definitely him. At least, she thought it was...

Naruto seemed to be having the same doubts. "Huh...he looks kinda different, don't you think, Sakura?"

Sakura opened her mouth, then closed it. She had to admit, he did look a bit off, but it HAD to be him! Who else could it be? "No. That's definitely him, Naruto."

"What's with his eyes?" Tsunade said suddenly, zooming in on the boy's face. The picture quality grew even worse, but it could be plainly seen that the boy's eyes were blood red. "What on earth...?"

Naruto was frowning. "Those demonic eyes...when I fought with Sasuke last time, he had them. Those same red eyes. I don't know what they are or what they do, but I don't like them."

"See?" Sakura said. "Only he has those eyes."

Suddenly, a knock sounded on the door. Tsunade covered the TV screen before shouting, "Come in!"

The door opened, and another officer walked in. It was Sai, a strange man with no last name who had also been assigned to work on the Uchiha case. Sakura liked him, though he had his quirks, and he was known as a reliable and intelligent officer.

"Ah, it's just you," Tsunade said, lifting the cover off the screen. "We were viewing the film of the fight from four years ago that we just recovered."

"Ah yes," Sai said in his monotone voice. "About that. You recall that you told me from the start of this case to uncover as much information about the Uchiha as possible? Well, it seems I've uncovered a valuable piece of information."

Naruto raised his eyebrows. "What is it?"

"I tried once again to find any history of the Uchiha family, and finally, I found some. I had to hack several files to find it. It seems someone wanted to completely erase any trace of their existence, because even the information I gathered was minimal."

"But you learned about the family history?" Tsunade questioned.

Sai nodded. "Their family tree stems back to long ago, over three centuries. Apparently, they were once a powerful family. However, somewhere along the line, during the generation of Madara Uchiha, they experienced a fall out. Madara aimed too high for power, and ended up losing everything. Since then, the Uchihas have kept a low profile."

"Is that all?" Sakura frowned. "That's not very helpful to our current case."

"No." Sai looked her in the eye. "I eventually traced the family tree down to Sasuke Uchiha. When I checked for any immediate relatives, I discovered he had a brother--"

Naruto tensed.

"--and that brother died four years ago."

Sorry it's kind of short! But school is finally out, so expect more updates soon!