May 12, 2012
3:42 PM
Helicarrier
"So you've had the kid for... nearly a decade now?" Agent Coulson tried to clarify. "That's a pretty long time to keep a kid a secret."
Tony chuckled, though even that sounded sarcastic. "Oh, Agent, Agent, Agent... You really think he spent all his time with me? You saw what he looked like back there. Do you really think I would have let that happen if I'd been able to stop it?"
Agent Coulson blinked. "You said he was from the Elemental Nations."
"Yep."
"Shinobi?"
"Unfortunately."
"And you couldn't do anything?"
"By the time I found out, well..."
o.o.o.o.o
March 29, 2003
8:53 PM
Malibu
The letter was sent, and no reply received. Tony started worrying that maybe he'd been judged an unfit guardian because of the tabloid stories and other well-known issues. He'd never had any reason to properly want a kid before, but recent events had forced him to reevaluate a few things, including his lifestyle. If he was going to be raising a kid, he was going to have to cut back on his less reputable habits. Drinking and sleeping around were things that he had fun doing, and it helped him forget all the shittier parts of his life, but such well-known vices were sure to be scored against him when it came to his suitability as a guardian. Tony was actually rather scared that he wasn't getting a reply because the people from the Village Hidden in the Leaves had decided he wasn't good enough.
Pepper reminded him that the communication method of choice appeared to be carrier hawk, and that any communication method that relied on a bird was more than a little liable to be slower than he was used to.
Tony calmed down a lot after that.
(He wouldn't stop drinking and sleeping around, but if he had to cut something out of his schedule in order to make time for the kid that would soon be his, then it wasn't allowed to be the inventing, and probably wasn't allowed to be the board meetings.)
(The kid came first; Tony would not be his father.)
(Hell, Tony was even trying to learn Japanese, though languages were not his forte. He could become an expert on new scientific fields overnight, but languages took a little longer.)
He was in the middle of working on one of his cars when JARVIS alerted him to the fact that someone unauthorized had managed to get into the house, and was invisible to some of his sensors.
Tony figured that was probably a bad thing. "Kill the lights, except one over wherever this person is. Let them know that we know they're here, and just... ask them to stay put until I get there."
"Yes, sir."
Tony glanced to his left at all the weapons that were laid out on the tables, some finished, others not, and then sighed and grabbed one of the finished pistols, loading it. "I hate using these."
"You are the one that created them, sir."
"I know, J, I know. Doesn't mean I have to like using them." He really preferred less... mundane weaponry. Remote-controlled and tracking projectiles were much better. He knew how to shoot, of course, and was actually an incredibly good shot, but... guns were just so crude.
Tony hefted the gun in his palm, making a face, and kept it lowered to his side as he made his way up the stairs.
The sight that greeted him at the top of the stairs was one that was rather... confusing. A person with silver hair, some sort of uniform, and a white mask with red markings on it.
The man, slouching where he stood in a single beam of light, raised a hand and waved it at Tony. "Yo."
Tony was still tense, but he thought he maybe knew what was going on now. "JARVIS? Bring up the translation program again, on the wall. English to Japanese and back."
"At once, sir." JARVIS answered.
The man in the light didn't visibly react in surprise as most people did when faced with JARVIS for the first time, which, even with the mask, Tony found impressive.
"So, man in the mask, who are you? Why are you here? Mind taking the mask off? Etcetera, etcetera, just talk to me a bit." Tony gestured lackadaisically with the gun, having turned the safety on and not nearly as worried about it to go off. The man followed the gesture to look at the wall, which had the translation projected upon it.
"Ah..." The man sighed, straightening up, and Tony looked to the wall to understand what the man was saying, still not quite confident enough in his language skills to try playing it by ear. "I am here on behalf of the Village Hidden in the Leaves to escort you to the village to speak with the Fire Shadow. You may call me ANBU Dog."
"JARVIS, don't translate that title. The Fire Shadow thing. And leave the first-name-last thing as-is." Tony waved a hand almost dismissively at the ceiling. "So, have you been ordered to take me back no matter what, or is this just an optional thing?"
"Optional. However, it is very difficult to gain access to the Hidden Continent without a shinobi escort." The man tilted his head at Tony. "The Hokage and council refuse to allow Uchiha Sasuke out of the village unless he is escorted by an ANBU guard and you have met with the Hokage himself for some discussions regarding Sasuke's future due to contracts that were signed by his parents when he was a child."
Tony froze. Contracts. Contracts. He hated contracts. A lot.
That was the moment that he decided that, if he was going (which he damn well was), Pepper had to come with him.
"I see. So, why'd you jump in through the window at..." he glanced at his watch. "9:02 PM?"
"I only just arrived." The man's head tilted slightly, almost mocking. "And the window is my preferred method of entry."
Tony snorted. "Alright, Mr. Cloak-and-Dagger. Let's assume I trust you. So how about you answer me a few things? You're probably some kind of Black Ops, and I'm guessing you aren't here because I'm particularly important to your country; there's something special about the kid. The question is: what's the big secret?"
The man in the mask tilted his head. "Do you know of the Sharingan?"
"...it's about the goddamn eyes."
"Essentially."
"Son of a bitch." Tony pressed a hand up against the side of his head. There was a reason his mom left. "How did you get into the country?"
"Completely legally, funnily enough." The man's voice was mechanically altered, probably by the mask itself, but it still carried an air of certain amusement. "Will you be coming with me?"
Tony smirked. "Let me bring along my own protection detail, and show me what's under that mask, and I might just think about it. Oh, and do you have some official correspondence from your... boss?"
If going along with a shinobi was his only way to get the kid, then he would be going along, but he had to read through the other possibilities that JARVIS had looked up and research this guy's credibility first.
The man tilted his head, dug out a small scroll, and tossed it over to Tony.
Tony fumbled the catch.
"Gee, thanks."
"I'm afraid that, while I have permission to take of my ANBU mask in this specific case if requested to due to personal reasons involving the Uchiha clan, you will likely be rather disappointed by what lies beneath."
"Humor me."
"Heh." The man reached up, grabbed the mask, pulled it away and revealed... another mask.
With a strip of fabric and metal covering one eye.
There was, maybe, fifteen percent of the man's face visible.
And from the look in the visible eye, the man (now seeming much younger without the mask) was smiling the most shit-eating grin in the world.
Tony stared.
"...I like you." Tony decided.
o.o.o.o.o
April 3, 2003
11:18 AM
Just off the coast of California
"Tony, you do not need me here. Happy would have come along too, if you asked him."
"Hush, Rhodey. No complaining now. Besides, Happy can act as a bodyguard, but he can't fly the plane" Tony patted his friend's hand, which was on the controls for the jet, and then looked up at ANBU Dog. "You look confused."
The man looked at him for a second, and then glanced down at the small phone that Tony had loaned him for the sake of translations. "We were not aware of your financial status. It is rather... surprising. Several of the council were worried that whoever you were, you would attempt to gain custody simply for the money that was left to Sasuke by default after the clan's death."
"It's probably not even two percent of my net worth." Tony raised a glass in ANBU Dog's direction with a smirk. "Trust me, not a big deal."
"Tony, we are on your personal jet. I'm pretty sure he's realized that by now." Rhodey rolled his eyes.
"Down boys." Pepper reprimanded them, not looking up from the computer on her lap. "Rhodey, don't feed his ego. Tony, stop flashing your ego."
"I could flash something else." Tony offered, almost nonchalant.
"No, Tony." Both Rhodey and Pepper answered, sounding more bored than anything, a little too used to his antics.
"Hey, Pepper, aren't you supposed to call me Mr. Stark?" Tony tilted his head, probably in a way that he thought was cute.
"Tony, the number of times I've caught you with your pants down, quite literally, is far more than I'm comfortable with. The number of times I've tided over press scandals for you are astronomical. The number of times I've cleaned up your messes is ridiculous. I have the right to call you by your first name if I feel like it." Pepper never even looked up from the screen.
"...Thanks, Pepper."
"...You are all very strange." ANBU Dog commented.
o.o.o.o.o
April 4, 2003
3:02 PM
Hokage Tower, Konohagakure
"So... that was a disaster and a half." Tony said brightly.
"They had nowhere to land the plane, Tony. It would have been nice if you'd checked in about it before we took off." Pepper was still a little jittery from the problem that had arisen.
"They took care of it!" Tony insisted. "They managed to expand their little dirt road enough to let us land within minutes of us radioing in the problem!"
"Not our best moment, Tony. Not our best moment." Rhodey was rubbing the heel of his palm against his eye. "We might have ended up having to crash land if they hadn't been able to do that."
"But we didn't." Tony insisted. "So let's let bygones be bygones, and try to figure out how there are thirteen-year-old kids jumping across rooftops that easily instead. Are you curious? I'm curious. That doesn't science."
"Science isn't a verb, Tony." Pepper reminded him.
"It is now." Tony decided, crossing his arms, tapping one finger against his arm. "Hey, Doggy boy, when do we get to meet the head honcho?"
The man that had accompanied them, now back in the mask that he'd first showed up in, tilted his head as Tony dug his phone out for the translations. "The Hokage will call us in when he is able to. I would not suggest entering beforehand, as you are nowhere near as influencial and immune to consequences as you are back in the Outer Contries. Our military heirarchy is rather different from your own, and your money is both unknown and irrelevant to us."
"...I call bullshit."
"I thought you might." Even with his face hidden behind the expressionless animal mask, the man gave off the air of grinning. "Your wealth is, in some ways, very relevant to your situation. If you were to become a patron of Konoha in any way, it would be very helpful to us, and to your own case in regards to cementing custody of Uchiha Sasuke. However, your wealth will not protect nearly as well as it did back in your home country, and any opponents you make on the political field will not be so easily cowed."
Tony thought it over for a second. "Is this because you guys decide that whoever can bash the most heads is the one in charge?"
"We do put a little more thought into it than that, but you are, essentially, correct. Very few positions of power are held by those who do not have large quantities of chakra-based power, or are at least knowledgeable enough about how to use their power on a battlefield to win against those who normally dominate the field. A candidate for any position must demonstrate power, loyalty, and intelligence, or at least a willingness to take counsel and consider problems carefully, and while the latter two are more difficult to measure, the first quality is liable to put you in danger should you insult the wrong person."
Pepper put a hand on Tony's shoulder, pulling him back down into his seat. "If it's still getting you angry, then you can do something about it later. For now, just play along until you can actually see the board instead of making moves blindly."
"Oh, Pepper." Tony smiled at her. "I never knew you were into chess metaphors."
"If you make one about sex, I'm not covering for you at the next board meeting you miss." Pepper anticipated his comment before he even made it. Damn. "Rhodey? Any thoughts?"
"I agree with you, honestly. I haven't really gotten much of a chance to see how this area works on that front, but what we know tells us that we're not exactly in a position of power right now. Playing it safe might actually save your life this time, Tony."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Hey, doggy boy, tell me some more stuff about how your wall-walking thing works while we wait."
"...Well, chakra can be used as a binding agent when applied properly..."
o.o.o.o.o
A/N: A helicopter cannot make it that far on a single tank of gas, and Tony's too impatient to go on a boat, so they used an airplane. Kakashi decided to be a little shit and not warn them about the lack of landing spaces. He definitely warned the Hokage (which is why it only took a handful of minutes to get the road expanded), but Tony? Nah.
By the way, I'd like to warn you all that I've been reading Journey Into Mystery, Young Avengers, and Agent of Asgard (among other titles, but these are the relevant ones at the moment), and have gotten a better picture of what the Asgardian family trees are like in the intervening period. Given how much conflict there already is between the comics and the movies on that front, such as Frigga's role in the movies being a mixture of Freyja (Odin's wife) and Gaea's (Thor's mother) roles in the comics, I'll be excercising a little creative liberty insofar as Asgardian familial politics and histories are concerned. However, none of this will begin to come into play until May of 2010 in-universe, and that's still a ways off. You may be getting hints of it in the opening scenes of each chapter, the ones set during the Avengers movie.
Just... thought you ought to know.
Ja ne,
Phoenix
