Kashii held his breath, the handle of a kunai gripped between his teeth. He held himself suspended at least fifteen feet from the ground, flat against a wall. Any time now. It was getting close to five, the building would be opening. His job was to infiltrate silently and assassinate the director inside. Naturally, everyone else from the building was fodder as well, but insects tend to scatter when their "queen" was taken out. So she was the primary target, though anyone in his way would get killed too.

A few more minutes and the door below him clicked open. He waited a few moments for the body to emerge, and dropped, switching the kunai to his right hand. The man's throat was slit before the two bodies had a chance to fully hit the ground, and Kashii darted inside before the door could close and lock.

The first thing that hit him was the smell. Formaldehyde, a strong-smelling preservation fluid. He sneered at the stench. So the profile had been right. He had to discover the nature of the experiments occurring here. Arming his fingers with more weaponry, he moved silently, scouting out the territory. He'd need to find a place to hide until the building was mostly vacated and the lights went out. Killing the director was the main objective of the mission, to begin breaking up the experiments here, but he needed to learn the nature of the experiments as well.

Finding a storage room, he let himself in, finding an old wooden crate to stay in until it was time to do his work. The area was rather dark, especially inside the crate. He could watch out the slats easily. He just had to wait until the lights went out. The floor of the crate was lined with straw, the musty scent telling him it was rather fresh. His fingers traced ragged claw marks on the inside of the wood. Were they using large animals in their experiments? Tch. He'd salvage what he could when the mission was complete.

Kashii took a seat in the straw, relaxing a little. There would be time yet, at least two hours. He just needed to wait, watch, and listen. Closing his eyes, he focused more on scent and sound, and kept himself alert by thinking. There was a little girl waiting for him to come home. She'd started talking so much now. He was "Papa." Cat was "Kitty." She gave him reason to hold himself together more. He needed to be able to care for her when he got home rather than nursing his own wounds. He'd gotten much more careful. Perhaps he was just getting soft.

There was a sudden, sharp sound. Gold eyes snapped open, and he looked through the gaps of the crate. Someone had entered the storage area. He held his breath, listening, listening. The silhouette in the doorway lit up, and he was momentarily blinded by the light coming on. He could hear the soft footsteps coming towards him, and his eyes adjusted to see a woman wearing a white lab coat coming in. He continued holding his breath, watching through the slats as she walked past the crate he was in and found her object farther in. It was a small, white box. He tried to catch a glimpse of the writing on the side of the box. "GOOSE INC." Goose? His head tilted slightly. He'd heard the term before. Mother Goose. But he couldn't remember where he heard it, just that the name unsettled him. This wasn't a nursery rhyme.

The woman silently left, and he heard the door click behind her. It had been locked. Tch. He sat back, eyes needing to readjust to the darkness. Goose… Goose… he'd research more into it after this mess was over. What little light was in the room dimmed to nothingness. The building was closing. He emerged from his hiding place, brushing the straw from his clothes. The path from here to the door was a right then straight down. Darkness was nothing when you could see the path in your mind. Reaching the door, he turned the knob, reassuring the fact that it was indeed locked. He grinned. Shame he didn't bring his lock-pick kit.

Listening against the door, he confirmed there was no one in the direct vicinity of this area. Gripping the knob with both hands, he twisted until the mechanism cracked, and the knob popped off. Carefully setting it aside, as much as he wanted to toss it, he stuck a kunai into the hole and jammed it through with both hands. He could hear the knob on the other side bounce against the wall opposing the door and clatter onto the floor. He swung the door open.

Kashii flattened himself into the dark corner outside the room. The noise had attracted people. "Who's there?" he heard a male voice call, mid-thirties at best. The beam of a flashlight crossed the darkness, and the man turned into the hall. The beam fell upon the doorknob some feet in front of Kashii, then to the open room. "Hello?" The beam moved again, the guard found himself looking at the torso of a golden-eyed Iwa shinobi, headband glinting with the reflected light. That would be the last thing the guard would see, for a kunai pierced his heart and the shinobi went on the move again. The man didn't even get a chance to scream.

Kashii moved quietly against the walls, stepping quickly and lightly. He flattened against a corner, peeking around with his pocket mirror. No people, but he noticed a blue glow. Turning the corner, he found walls with wide windows in them, a blue glow coming from them. He placed his fingers on the pane of the window, peering in. There were large glass containers, lit from beneath and filled with the blue fluid. So that's where the formaldehyde was coming from. He could see dark masses within the fluid, but before he could discern what was inside them, he saw the reflection of someone much larger than him in the glass. He started to turn to attack, but a large hand clamped over his mouth like iron. The sickly sweet scent filled Kashii's nose and mouth, and he held his breath, trying to pull off the man's strong grip, kunai digging into the man's arm. He barely got a chance to fight back before a knee jammed into his back, and he couldn't help but gasp, inhaling the sweet scent of the chloroform. Someone knew he'd be there. The kunai fell from his grip and skid across the tile floor, and darkness fell upon him.

Kashii's head was pounding when he woke. Blinking to clear his eyes in the bright light, he found himself in a small room. The chill through his skin led him to realize his shirt was gone, and moving led him to realize his arms were bound behind him. They'd stripped him of his weapons. Having realized he was alone, for the moment anyway, he pulled himself into a sitting position. Gold eyes scanned around the room. It appeared to be an examination room. But there were no instruments visible that one would normally find, just a counter, sink, and steel table on one side. Must have been the closest convenient room to toss him in.

He pulled at his bonds. They were tight, biting into his skin. "Fuck..." He looked around again, then awkwardly pulled himself to his feet. He realized that there was no door in this room. There was a large mirror on the opposite wall to the counter, and he instantly realized that it was a two-way looking glass. He was being watched. He grit his teeth and spun, lashing a kick out to the glass. At contact his leg jarred, as if he'd just struck a solid slab of concrete. He stumbled back and growled, staring at his reflection in the mirror. Not only did they know he was coming, they'd been prepared. Had his client set him up for a trap? "Fuuuckkk..." A buzzing click came from overhead, and he looked up to see an intercom. It was deep, but Kashii recognized the voice of a woman. A bright light came on on the other side of the glass, and behind his reflection he could make out the face of his target, Hotaru. His gaze darkened.

"Welcome, shinobi of the Rock, we've been expecting you."

"What tipped you off?" he growled at her.

"I believe I'll be the one asking questions here."he growled again, seeing the shape move away from the glass and disappearing behind the reflective surface."What's your name?"

"Seto Kaiba." he sneered back. There was a sound of rustling papers.

"According to the file, Kaiba-san, your name is Namame Kashii."Kashii grit his teeth harder. He'd been completely set up. "Does the name 'Minami Sen' ring any bells for you?"Fuck... that was the name of the man who'd hired for help. It had all been a trap. He could hear the smile in her voice. For the first time, he noticed the smell in the room. Rather, the distinct lack of smell. The stink of formaldehyde was gone. He glanced around at the ceiling. He could see a series of holes there, and a small latch gate. That was the only entrance, it looked like. The facts didn't quite add up, why did this trap room look like an exam room? He swallowed; it was likely that he did not want to find out.

"What will you do with me?" he asked, having no tricks up his sleeve. Something needed to happen or he may well be trapped down there. He needed to get his hands free, and he'd like to use an easier method than what he had in mind. A new scent met his nose, and he glanced upward again to see a light mist spraying from the holes overhead. When the cool droplets hit his skin, there was a hot, itching sensation, and with his hands bound, he could not scratch it. He didn't want to know what chemical that was. He hunched, steeling himself, he would not react to such a petty thing.

"We'll leave a message for you to take back to your superiors is all. No harm, no foul."She spoke with a pleasant tone. He'd killed two of her men already. "No harm no foul" his ass. He felt something drop onto his back, and then a lot of somethings. They crawled all over him, and he saw small black beetles crawl across his stomach. He bit back a gasp, seeing more and more of the tiny insects flooding in from the hatch he'd spotted before. Aburame. How could he forget.

He rammed his back into a wall when they started biting into his skin. He'd never personally fought an Aburame, but he'd heard tell of their capabilities with the kikaichu insects. In some ways, they were even scarier than the Kamizuru clan native to Iwa. Some of the kikai fell to the floor, but many were already starting to dig in. Leaving a message right into his hide was more like it. Despite the pain, his head raised to grin broadly at his reflection in the mirror. "It's bad luck to hurt a pretty face, you know." The intercom clicked on again.

"We have plenty of pretty faces, yours is unnecessary to add to the collection." Why would someone take that seriously. "Rrgh.." despite himself, the pain from the insects trying to destroy him was strong. He could feel blood trickling from the deeper wounds, and there were more floating in. The room was starting to look like he'd knocked down a bees nest, but instead of bees, it was filled with much more dangerous insects that craved his blood. The scree of their wings filled his ears. He just didn't have time to fuck around here. They could strip a man of their flesh in minutes. She was merely toying with him. He just didn't have that kind of time.

The pain was instantaneous, and a loud crack cut through the sound of the insects. The pain clouded his eyes but he didn't look away from his reflection, and he yanked his hands free of the binds. Left hand held at an odd angle, he yanked it back into place, forming the handsigns needed to cast Tetsu Funsai Kikku. The entirety of the swarm fell upon him. He yelled out when they bit in, and rammed against the mirrored window. Now Garourentouda.. One kick, two kicks. The glass cracked. He twisted, and landed a powerful blow to the crack with his heel, and the window shattered. He grabbed the frame and jumped into the room, jagged glass leftover slicing into his hands. The woman he had seen before when he'd been in the crate was in here, and she screamed, clearly not a combat type. Irrelevant. He'd created weapons now, and grabbed a large glass shard and hurled it at her, embedding it deep into her torso in one moment.

One down. About six million and one to go. He wouldn't be able to stop the kikaichu, he had to get out of there. He heard chuckling behind him as the assistant fell, and he lashed out again, his punch missing when she stepped back. The glass crunched under his shoes, and he grabbed another large shard, charging at her.

On impact, the woman exploded, color fading to countless more black beetles. He gasped, ramming into the wall, the glass cutting through his hands and biting into his torso. An insect clone. It earned him nothing more than new injuries and more kikaichu tearing at his flesh. There was a door. A door! The black swarm got too think for him to see. He landed a heavy kick on the door. The frame cracked, but it did not open. Locked. He rammed harder with his shoulder, and it flew open.

Once free, he all but vanished. He had to run. Faster, faster! He had to get out of there, he was going to get killed. About now would be a good time to have his weapons. He had paper bombs in there. The sounding alarm let the remainder of the staff in the building know of his presence. Fuck fuck fuck! He could outrun the insects, but who knew if there were other shinobi here. He had been told otherwise, but upon finding the mission was rigged, the info he had been supplied with could be considered garbage.

Beforehand Kashii had studied a map containing the layout of the building, but as he coursed through the halls seeking the exit, it became increasingly apparent that he had no idea where he was going. The layout did not match the map he'd been given. Kashii could hear pursuit behind him. Not that he'd be particularly hard to find at this point, what with the trail he was leaving. He needed to stop the blood. He needed his things. God damnit, if only Cat was here. It was surprising how he'd come to rely on the little beast. Sometimes it was nice knowing someone has your back. That had never been a feeling he'd coveted before. If he couldn't protect his own back, then how could he rely on someone else to? That's how he felt about it. But the large feline proved to be an exceptional partner. Unfortunately, she was at home with Shi and Saiko. He had plenty of blood to spare for a summoning, but none of his moles were combat-types. Rufus was too small, Jitters would get killed, and Behemoth was much too large to even fit in this hall.

Kashii came across one of the rooms with the blue formaldehyde containers, and shattered the window, gaining access. These rooms seemed to be used for experimentation, which meant there had to be some nifty tools he could use to gain an advantage. He crashed himself into the nearest tank, upsetting it from its pedestal and knocking it down. He jumped back away to be clear of it when it hit the floor and shattered. From inside the tank fell what appeared to be a hairless lion, the body smacked against the floor, twitched, and lay still. The smell was awful. He avoided getting splashed but the large amount of fluid on the floor came up to his shoes. If that got on him, he may as well have stayed back in the room for all the good it would have done him.

His pursuers entered the room through the window, slipping on the glass and fluid, smacking into the formaldehyde. They sputtered and flailed. The poison worked its way in their systems through the cuts from the broken glass and accidental ingestion. That took care of some of them. His eyes darted around the room. There had to be SOMETHING here... Ah! There was a roll of cloth on the work table. Grabbing hold, he ripped off strips with his teeth. He didn't have time. Tying off the places that were bleeding the worst, he left the room, noting the contents he had seen. Judging by the mutilated form of that lion, which was likely what occupied the crate he was in, they were conducting heavy experiments. He was lucky to not have found humans in those tanks, but he was pretty sure there were some in another part of the building.

Kashii rubbed his eyes. The smell in the room burned his eyes, his nose, his mouth, and he was getting light headed. But he'd taken down some of them. Met with a fork in the hall, he didn't know which way to go. Oh, how he wanted to blast through the wall. But that required his bombs, which were tucked away in the vest he'd brought along. See, this was why he didn't wear his uniform. Shit always happens when he does. He veered left. He didn't like being unarmed. He should have brought a shard of glass with him, but at this point, he didn't figure he could even hold it if he had.

The sharp sound of kikaichu filled his ears. Wrong way! He stopped quickly, turning tail and slipping on a streak of red. He needed to stop bleeding. But he didn't really have the time to try, did he? He hated being the cornered mutt. But a cornered cur is exactly the kind of beast you would never want to fight. Someone came around the corner as he came up on it; this time another woman. She carried a strange weapon. He didn't give it a second thought, he couldn't stop in mid-run. He jumped her, one hand on her chin and the other fisted in her hair, then twisted until he heard that sick crack. Letting go, he scooped up the weapon and fled, finding a window. This was not the same floor he'd started on. But now was not a time to find a path to the ground floor. Ramming through the window, he jumped out towards the ground, broken glass adding even more fun to his battered body. Kashii's body hit the ground with a crunch into the loose gravel, and he skidded to a stop. Pain, so much pain. But he couldn't stop now. He had to keep moving. He had to leave. Now.

By the time he slowed to a walk, he realized he was no longer being pursued. So that was the message she was leaving him with,eh? He stopped to catch his breath, stopping to look at the weapon in his hand for the first time. It had a handle with a strange trigger mechanism. When he pulled it, a stream of fluid sprayed out from the tip of a large hypodermic needle attached to the barrel. That seemed to be a painful way to administer an injection, he mused. The fluid inside was the same blue as that in the tanks, and with the same smell. Formaldehyde again.

"Tch..." Mission failed or success? He had no answer for that. He'd gotten the information he was looking for, but the hunter had become the hunted and he had to flee without killing his target. He needed to stay alive. Right now, that was the most important thing, even if it meant failing. He really had become soft, hadn't he? Coming across a stream that cut through the border of the small village, he fell into it, allowing the icy water to splash over him and numb his skin. He still had travel to do before he got back to Iwa.

It was well past dark by the time he'd reached the western gate of the village. He'd make his report in the morning. For now...

Making it through the checkpoint, he headed towards the hospital, smiling behind a veil of disheveled cobalt hair. Going to the hospital so willingly instead of going home and licking his wounds... Just how much had he changed? Little girls have a way of changing a man in ways one would never understand. She was his candy in this world of bitterness. He gripped the strange weapon tighter, thinking about the information that would need to be in the report to the Tsuchikage.

"Fuck..."