Now back to our regularly scheduled program. It's a straight shot to the finish folks, so sit tight and hope you enjoy this next batch of finishing chapters.

XXX

Team Flint, Outlaw Man Diner

The first thing that tipped him off was when the commoner boy they had hired reentered the Diner despite having been practically shoved out the door. The bell tinkled, causing them both to lookup from the time schedule Romaji had just pulled out onto the kitchen's cutting board. Flint easily put it out of sight, turned to face the boy. "Your shift's over, Heikichi," Flint told the other coolly.

For a moment there was no reply, then the boy gave an artificial shrug and said, "I, uh, forgot a magazine in the main dining. Sorry."

Romaji clucked his tongue. "Make it fast, we can't close shop until you're gone."

He nodded and disappeared in the back, his pockets jingling with coin. With another swift look, Flint pulled out the sheet again. "Everything's mostly in place," he murmured. "The only thing we're missing is the confirmation the Kages will be in their suites tomorrow, and of course Source M will tell us about that." He glanced at Romaji, who was slightly pale. "You're aware of your side in the plan, right?"

"Of course," he replied testily. "It's just... knowing what happens at the end."

"This isn't any different from any missions we've done."

"It's not the killing that bothers me."

His tight posture, his pale face... "I can't think of any better cause to lay my life down for," he spoke quietly but firmly. "Dent knew it, and he died smartly."

"It wasn't his time," Romaji bit out. "But for us... we know when it'll happen."

There was truth in that. Not knowing what else to say that could sooth them both, Flint wondered aloud, "Did the kitchen boy leave?"

"No, he's still back there."

"Heikichi, hurry it up!" Flint called out the window into the main dining. He squinted into the dimmed lights, did not see anyone there.

"Hold on," came the echoing reply-

"His voice his bouncing off walls," Romaji said slowly. "There shouldn't be an echo effect in a space that big..."

Flint was already walking our the kitchen, his footsteps ghostly silent. He gently eased open the kitchen door-

"Romaji," he beckoned softly. "Here. Now."

His accomplice stealthily exited the door, and Flint heard his breath catch. Coincidentally, as the air entered his lungs, the shape of their young worker backed out of the electrical closet, his eyes tense, and shut the door as quietly as he could.

That was as far as he got. In a burst of intense speed, Flint crossed the space between them and the boy in a second, his ceremonial- dagger flashing in the dim light. The boy saw him, of course, and he jerked back in instinctive surprise. His hand came up and miraculously caught the hand holding the knife handle, managed to lead Flint forward and past him, so that the experienced Takigakure-nin went stumbling past. The boy skittered to his feet, made a break for the kitchen door-

Romaji was waiting, his own kunai already swinging. A moment later, it was over.

"Bribed," Flint snarled, his hand exiting the dead boy's pockets and spilling the shining coin onto the floor. "We don't have to guess who."

"And the boy's movements," Romaji added, his voice taut. "Shikamaru Nara... his genin teammates, wasn't there a Yamanaka Clan member on it?"

The team leader swore viciously. "You don't think...?"

"I've dealt with the Yamanaka before," he replied grimly. "Subtle mind intrusion. Nara bribed the boy to search the electrical closet, and then had his teammate remain inside his mind to be sure they got the information." Romaji swallowed, gestured down at the boy. "This is different from killing some lonely ANBU, this kid has parents, a family. They'll make inquiries, the police could get involved-"

"Typical Konoha rats," Flint raged, sheathing the kunai violently. Their plan, in a matter of minutes, was being jeopardized. "No, they expected us to kill the boy, or maybe just capture him. We were both right; we know that they can't get the evidence legally, so they're trying to get someone official to do it for them!"

"So what do we do?"

Flint considered their options, going through a calming exercise. But Romaji words echoed through his mind: 'It wasn't his time...' could it be ours? Now?

"Flint?"

"They're expecting us to be professional in how we handle this, to allow us to try and mislead the authorities so we stick with the original plan. So, we stop being professional."

Romaji looked at him blankly. "What?"

Slowly and deliberately, Flint unsheathed the kunai that had been passed down to him. The shimmering blue liquid in the pommel seemed to shine with a light of its own... just as the Leaf Village would tonight. "I'll lock the doors, you get the cables ready."

"You can't be serious," Romaji protested. "Todo's strike team won't be ready until the actual Kage Summit, to go a full day ahead of schedule-"

"Would you rather wait for someone to come in and get the evidence first-hand?" Flint demanded harshly. "No, we were given a mission to do, no matter what got in the way. You have your orders, Romaji."

For a moment Romaji looked at him not as a partner, but with the sort of downcast look an old friend may give another who was leaving him. Which was what was going to happen to some degree, but the details did not matter. "Please," Flint added quietly.

Romaji gave him a thin smile, then went into the electrical closet, where he could here the slithering and crackling of cables being uprooted.

Alright, time for the light show.

XXX

Shikamaru Nara

"Ino, Ino!"

She was on the ground, eyelids fluttering to quickly for his own eye to count. Her skin was going the color of porcelain; something had gone wrong.

"Ino!"

"Sh-Shikamaru?" she rolled the words off her tongue like they were from a different person.

"What happened?" he asked hurriedly.

"Th-they killed the kid," she whispered. "I was inside his mind, they reacted to fast for me to try and save him. He died, I felt his pain, saw his memories-"

"Relax, relax," he soothed, though his heart was beating rapidly. They had paid the boy to go investigate, that was all. Had he done something more? Or were they just that protective of what was going on inside? Either way, his chest clenched with guilt: they had sent the boy to his death.

"There's a hole in the floor," Ino whispered delicately. "They're... digging into the electrical tunnel beneath the restaurant, that's all I saw, all the boy could understand..."

"You did brilliantly," he said quietly. He looked around them; it was only a little before midnight, the streets were mostly deserted, though the lights of several buildings were lit up. It was the night before the Kage Summit; no doubt the Universal Voice Movement was plotting their move on how best to disrupt it. From their alcove just a building away from the Outlaw Man Diner, he could see hundreds of lights, both in the sky and on the ground. Enemy lights, in his very village...

We're all on the same side. I just have to show it to all of them.

"Ino, listen to me," he said quickly. "When you recover, alert Kakashi to send a detachment over to the Outlaw Man Diner. Get patrols running through the village, tonight might get ugly real quick."

"Where... where are you going?"

He smiled tightly, untangled himself from her grip. "To try and stop them first."

"You can't!" she immediately replied, her words slurring. She tried to move after him, but she only hit the ground. It must've really messed her mind up, he thought sadly. He shook his head at her.

"We have to act quickly. I'm going in. If the patrol finds me in a... less operable state, tell my parents what happened, will you?"

He tore away into the building, concern not only for himself but for the village mounting. As he put his first foot on the first step, the lights inside the building seemed to blink off and on perhaps a thousand times in a second, almost blinding him. He staggered forward, and his hand miraculously found the door. He tried pushing, found that it was sealed shut from the other end. He curled his fingers into a fist, then slammed it through.

The glass door splintered, as did the skin covering his knuckles. Blood poured freely from them, but he ignored it. He was standing in the main dining room, which was now in utter darkness. His eyes blinked, trying to adapt to the lack of light. Not even the moonlight gets in here.

"Well, we guessed it was you," came a triumphant voice from behind him. Shikamaru whirled, holding his arms protectively before him, but there was no one there- at least, he couldn't tell there was anyone there.

"Disorientating, isn't it?"

"Where are you?" he called into the darkness. He could see his hands, and the blood oozing off the left one. But none of his surroundings was visible to him.

A sharp blow struck him in the cheek, and he stumbled about, crashing into a table and its accompanying chairs. He managed to grab the back of one of the chairs, stopped himself from falling to the floor.

"Are you an administrator or a ninja?" the invisible man taunted. Shikamaru strained hard: it sounded as if the other was in front of him. He stood himself up, then launched himself forward. As his body stretched, another painful strike came into his side, but this time he responded in time. He landed on the floor on his two feet, wincing from the pain, then drew his legs around to sweep the feet out from the other. He heard the telltale sign of the other drawing his own feet away, his sandals skittering across the ground.

Shikamaru frowned. How is he doing that? The sound had stopped; in fact, he couldn't even feel a presence close to him anymore. He straightened himself up. The darkness seemed unnaturally thick around him; it was as if a blindfold had been drawn about him.

Genjutsu? No, my chakra flow is doing fine. What is this, then?

There was the tiniest sound of displaced area. Shikamaru ducked, but it wasn't even swinging for his head. One of the fancy chairs struck him in the rump, causing him to lurch forward. He heard it splinter with the impact, and then a powerful kick finished him off. His momentum carried him forward, and he collided headfirst with another table. Stars shined in his eyes, and he dimly watched his arms and hands fall to the ground in front of him.

Careless, careless! he thought angrily to himself. How did I get myself into this, I'm smarter than this!

He gritted his teeth. Only myself to blame. Now only myself to get out of this mess.

"Spent to many days behind an office desk, didn't you?" his opponent taunted out again. "You and every other "Great Nation" shinobi. It's disgusting. Too much time spent sipping your drinks and practicing wordplay, instead of practicing to throw a shuriken."

"You should talk," Shikamaru snarled, more out of frustration than pain. "What game are you playing?"

"Do you mean what we're about to do, or the nice jutsu you fell right into?"

So it was a jutsu. If not genjutsu, then it had to be ninjutsu. "Why not both?" he ventured. His hand fumbled about in the darkness, trying to find something to hold onto to pick himself up. The sole of a sandal foot crushed his fingers, and he recoiled his blooded handed away. His hand recoiled painfully.

"You're a clever one," the invisible man said instead. "Poking around at our plans, trying to find out what we were up to. Why, when you never would've found out in time?"

"It was worth a try."

He laughed. "I guess so. You had your mission, we had ours. Reminds me of the older days when it was every nation for themselves."

"Can't say those we're better days."

"Nor can I." The other seemed to tense. "But before we can go forward, we must go backwards."

Shikamaru's eyes scanned the darkness around him. There. "What makes you say that?"

"Words can only go so far," the voice said bitterly. "Action and violence makes things go faster. And action and violence aren't what we want, but we must go through it anyways."

"At what cost?"

He could almost hear the other shrug. "The deaths of the innocent and the guilty. War and her servants don't care which of them dies, but they must."

"That's a cost with no receipt." His hand inched forward unnoticeably.

"People die everyday. It was the same as the past, and it will have to be repeated now as well."

Shikamaru couldn't help but think of what Mirai had said again. She got in to deep with this bunch. All of them, corrupted and working for Skeleton, thinking like Skeleton. No self-will, so self thought, only the illusion of it.

And he knew that in the next few moments, knowing he was about to either die or live to fight a little more, he send a thought into the emptiness. I'm sorry, Mirai.

His hand, following his blood now hovering in thin air on the sandal of the hand that had stepped on his hand, now clasped it where the ankle should've been.

"What are you-"

"Ninja Art: Shadow Strangle Jutsu!"

Across his arm, a dark streak quickly ran across it and vanished into the nothingness in front of him. Rushing, like a black stream, across his arm-

"War doesn't care which of them dies," Shikamaru echoed grimly. "But the way I see it, the more of the guilty that die, the better."

Snap. Instantly, he could see, or at least he could see marginally better. Moonlight flooded the room, and he could at last see and sense his surroundings.

Thud. The body of his opponent fell to the floor. The sinewy hands of his jutsu we're only just leaving his neck, and the other contorted in a grisly dance on the ground for a few moments before he finally grew to an unnatural stillness.

And he realized he was still not alone.

"I came here with two friends," said the man he had originally sold the Kurai Niku Diner, too, the one had he assumed was the leader. The same one that had gone to try and stop him from getting into the electrical closet, and he could see why now. Like a beast with its entrails cut open, a rainbow delta of wires and cords spilled out of the room, all ending at the feet of the man here.

And he sat, cross-legged, staring at Shikamaru with a squinty look in his eyes.

"Dent died trying to kidnap the Seventh Hokage's daughter, and now you've killed Romaji while he tried to contain you." He shook his head with a sad smile, and Shikamaru saw tears in his eyes. "Lord S did not tell me I might feel such terrible pain on this mission."

"Did he tell you we're going to die on this 'mission,' too?" Shikamaru challenged, stepping forward menacingly.

"Yes," the other replied simply. "However, we knew we were dying for a higher cause, a better future for the next generation."

"And what is this mission you keep going on about."

He smiled thinly, and his right hand emerged with an antique looking dagger. The pommel held something shimmering blue, dancing about inside-

Shikamaru had never prided himself on history, but even he could not ignore the object before him. "That's one of the Daggers of Kiroshi, the famous blacksmith from Takigakure."

The other nodded. "Yes, I have one of them in my possession. Passed down, generation for generation, carrying out all sorts of assassination and murder with it. I hoped never to pass it onto my son, least he have to use it the same way."

"Nice sentiment," Shikamaru replied sardonically. "But I know what's inside it, inside the pommel."

He nodded again. "Ah, then you also know what it does?"

Shikamaru took another step forward. "Yes, two friends of mine went to your village some time ago to stop one of your rogue shinobi from obtaining a whole gourd of it."

"And why would any man covet it, when in the end it only grants temporary supremacy in exchange for permanent ill health?" His tone grew deadly serious. "The Hero Water, I like to think, was made only for those who knew they were to die anyways."

"Do you think you're a hero?" Shikamaru asked angrily, taking another step forward. "Knowing what you're doing, the deaths and pain you want to cause-?"

Of course, he had long realized, that his final enemy wasn't about to allow him to just walk right up to him. But the way he was stopped made him again criticize himself. But even a genius like Shikamaru couldn't have foretold the attack: from above, the lightbulb shattered as the electrical cable that powered it suddenly broke its way through the delicate ceramic, and in a matter of seconds had coiled around his torso. By the time he was aware of what was even going on, it had wound around his legs as well. He toppled to the ground, unable to move in the slightest.

"Romaji was right, you are more of a desk hand than a shinobi," the other commented. "Your own downfall, I expect. But where I could kill you, I won't, the main reason that originally I had expected Romaji to have survived up until this point, and I did not want to do this alone. It's... a lot to bear alone."

Shuddering, the other put the pommel of the dagger to his mouth, and unscrewed it with his teeth.

"No!" Shikamaru cried. "Stop, whatever you're doing or want to do, whoever you are, please-"

"My name is Flint," the man said, his voice cracking. He's afraid! Shikamaru thought wildly. Afraid of dying? "If you survive, please, do not speak of my name in the history books. For the sake of my son."

Shikamaru thought of his own daughter, safe with Temari in Sunagakure until they could come visit again. Afraid for his children. He's unsure of what'll be at the end of all this, despite what he says he believes in.

"To victory." And the pommel unscrewed, and poured the small amount of shimmering blue liquid into his mouth.

XXX

Darui the Fifth Hokage, Konohagakure Kage Hostel

He was snapped out of his pleasant dream of cutting through wave after wave of White Zetsu in the war by the sound of his alarm clock exploding. Instantly, he was out of bed, puling a melted piece of plastic out of his exposed shoulder. He wasn't immediately aware of what had hit him, and he looked around for the room for any sign of an attacker.

But the spacious quarters harbored no other beings. His own guards would be downstairs, no doubt enjoying a drink and a game of shogi with the other Kage's guards. They were all on the same floor; Kurostichi was on the other side. Praying she wouldn't kill him for barging into her room, he shook himself, cast another cautious eye around the room, then ran for the door.

Or rather, tried. His left leg lifted normally, but as soon as he had, his right was tugged out from underneath him. He looked around in confusion, and saw that the cables to his lamp has inexorably wound themselves around his ankle, and was reeling him in like the tongue of some monstrous creature.

His hand flared with electricity, and he brought it down on the cable. However, it, too, flared with electrical power, and his hand did no more than if he had slapped it. And then he was being electrocuted, thousands of volts flowing through him, lighting his brain up like a firework.

Scream, make noise, get help! But he could not even scream: the lights above him had popped, and their own little cables had come out as well. They enveloped his head, coating him in pounds of rubber and copper. His mouth was gagged, and he found his body leaving the floor, being suspended in midair.

Muffled cries were coming from the room next to him: poor Chojuro, could the same be happening to him? His ability to hink was slowly leaving him, his mind was growing fuzzier by the second. His mind seemed to be demanding sleep from the waves of pain crashing down all around him. Maybe just... just for a little while...?...

XXX

Flint, Outlaw Man Diner

The Kages were all subdued: Chojuro, the Sixth Mizukage, was the only one to put up any ample effort, but even he was soon subdued, held in a comatose state as his electrical waves shut down their brains. No permanent damage, he summarized, but enough for them to be disorientated for days after the fact.

His body felt endless, infinite even, but he knew that was not the case. The Hero Water's effects would only last a few moments longer, and then his return to normalcy would begin, and then it would kill him. The magical liquid was not meant to be taken in such small quantity: he would die within the next few hours, and he had to make sure the Kage's remained contained until then.

He looked at the hopelessly tied up Shikamaru Nara, who was now actively trying to free himself. "No point," he said powerfully, his voice echoing impressively around the entire room. "It's already begun. And now, the men of Lord S will finish it. I need only-" he winced, his voice cracked. The first pang of the Hero Water had already begun: No time for small talk. Have to do it now.

Still, it felt unfair to at least not give Shikamaru, who had admittedly been an entertaining opponent in brains. "I need only... light the signal."

XXX

Todo, Crater above the Hokage Monument

As it happened, he was enjoying a sandwich with nothing inside it- indeed, not even made of bread but rather two flats of a mushroom crudely crushed together- when in the distance, he saw the Southern Quadrant's electrical grid explode.

He stood up in a flash, jumping forward to get a closer look. There was no mistaking it: blue and yellow sparks we're being tossed high, oh so high!, into the dark sky.

A full day early? he thought quizzically. That was not the original plan at all, it was to be the day of the actual Summit! They must've run into trouble, they must've started to been caught on. Careless, sloppy, mishandling! Poor performance all around, if they weren't already destined to die I'd kill them myself! Damn it all, this messed everything, Lord S's plan-

But I'm in command now. He froze, his lips trembling, twisting, finally curling into a smile. Not that skeleton-face wearing freak! Where is he, not even leading his own plan. No, it's my plan now. Destroy-

-and kill-

everyone? Are we really going to kill everyone? Man, woman, child? Everyone?

He was already striding back into the Crater entrance, shouting for his men to put on the special uniforms. There was so little time: the people would be so fresh, ripe, like fruits to be picked at the right time. They would be spilling out of their homes, dazed and confused. People of how color, uniform, ancestry, age, nationality- so many types of people, so many!

Death and destruction. To make an example of Konohagakure for the world to see-

Yes. Everyone.