Purpose and Expectation

Chapter 5: Search

Once Hinata had been freed from her conversation with Naruto, she made a beeline for the stairs, hurrying her way up until she reached Ino's office. Neji was standing there waiting, looking annoyed that she'd taken as long as she had. She unlocked the door to Ino's office and snuck in, checking their surroundings before closing the door and locking it.

Neji reached to turn the light on, but Hinata stopped him, shaking her head. "No. No one needs to know we've been snooping around here. I just need something..." She opened a few of the filing cabinets and took a mental count, doing her best to memorize the names of the cases Ino had dropped or passed off to others. She'd distanced herself from a lot of cases lately, passing them off to other prosecutors; Hinata was sure it was related to whatever was going on. She opened up her laptop and scrolled through the list of their cases, opening one of the cabinets and checking which ones were organized where.

As she suspected... Ino had passed off a lot of the cases she was working on.

"You have access to all of her files?" Neji seemed surprised by that fact.

"Of course I do. I'm her secretary. I have to know what files she's working on, where they're located, which prosecutors are taking care of them, and the like. I have to be able to provide information to those prosecutors in her absence and know whether detectives have added new information to those particular cases." It was very much an organizational job, and she was proud to be an expert at it. She made notes on specific files and started sending them off to the printer in the office, making sure they were set to speed print double-sided so she could have as much as possible (with as little paper as possible).

"You think these files have something to do with what's going on?" Neji was standing near the door, peering out into the hall to ensure nobody was aware that they were in there. He did his best to be subtle, training his ears to listen and prepare for the chance they were interrupted. At least Hinata had an excuse to be here. He didn't.

"I'm almost certain of it. One of these cases is, without a doubt, related to what was happening." Hinata paused for a moment, pondering. "Hey... One of these involved a DNA test that Tenten did... Maybe you could talk to her about it?"

Neji's face went stern. "Why me?" He was a terrible liar. Hinata knew he wanted an excuse to talk to the quirky lab girl. "Wouldn't it make more sense for you to talk to her?" He might have had a point there, but Hinata wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"It gives you an excuse to talk to her." Hinata glanced at him. "Don't act like you didn't want one," she teased. He grunted at her and frowned, leading her to let out a soft giggle. "I know how you are, Neji. The quirkier she is, the better, right? I heard she's the best sharpshooter in the building." Tenten never had to fire on the job except for ballistics tests, and those didn't require precision, but there were... rumours that came up from the handful of officers who spent their time at the firing range that she had beaten all of their scores.

"Yeah? So what if she is? It's not like she has to carry on the job, anyway." Neji wasn't fond of his ego being poked, which gave Hinata all the more reason to goad him into challenging her. Maybe he would find an excuse to bond with her. Tenten knew just about everything regarding guns, weapons, identifying weapon patterns and materials, and the like. If you had even the tiniest speck from a weapon, she'd find some way to determine the materials. That was the magic of Tenten's capabilities.

"You might fool your coworkers, but you won't fool me, Neji," Hinata replied pointedly before snapping her laptop shut. "There. That should be all of the files I need in paper copies." She grabbed the stack from the printer and carefully straightened it, then stuffed it into her bag. "Come on. Let's get out of here before anybody notices." For good measure, she reached up and pulled her earring out, taking a deep breath as she opened the door, turning to Neji.