Good Evening All! First off, I did want to warn you that the subject matter does get a bit dark near the end of the chapter. So if torture references/the discussion of torture are not your thing just skip the last quarter of the chapter by all means. It won't be a common theme but I feel like it was appropriate in this case, so I'm just glad that the M rating is in place to cover the gravity of the subject matter.
Very exited I was able to get this chapter out faster than expected, plus it has some interesting things happening. I would like to wrap up a few things before we finally setup the real meat of the story, which is exciting to finally be approaching. Not much else up here; as always please do leave a review if you have something nice to say, it always helps to get some encouragement to lift the pen once more.
Please do enjoy yourself.
Sasuke awoke, blinking the sleep from his eyes as he immediately noticed a dozing Tobio sitting in a large chair at Sasuke's bedside. Sasuke rolled his eyes. Unfortunately, he greatly underestimated the level to which Tobio would take his new role as part of his peerage. Tobio had insisted on essentially becoming both his personal bodyguard and advisor. To be fair, both were jobs to which he was certainly qualified for; it was his current intrusion of Sasuke's personal space that was an annoyance more than anything. Such is the burden of leadership though; the Hokage was never without his Anbu shadows, nor was Danzo ever without his Root operatives. Putting the thoughts from his mind Sasuke stretched as Tsarmina awoke as well, taking her usual place on his shoulders with a sleepy hiss.
"Why is this servant in our quarters father?"
Sasuke gave her a meaty thump with his middle finger.
"As I have told you multiple times before young lady, he is not a 'servant' and you will not refer to him as such."
Tsarmina hissed at the offending appendage before finally capitulating.
"Very well Father, why is this 'Tobio' here in our chambers?"
Sasuke nodded approvingly.
"Better. Tobio will be locating next door once we knock out the wall between my apartment and the vacant one next door, as he has insisted on becoming a personal bodyguard of sorts to me as my new peerage member."
Tsarmina laughed silently with her fangs.
"Bodyguard father? The enemies that could challenge you would crush him like an offending bug."
Sasuke eyed Tsarmina sideways.
"You're not wrong; but then that is often the case with a martial organization of any sort. The leader is typically the most competent combatant, but he must save his strength for when he fights with his own peers. Competent footsoldiers are always necessary to watch for threats and see to the lesser attacks while leaving the leader free to deal with the more serious incursions."
Tsarmina hummed in amusement.
"Cannon fodder then? How utterly pragmatic of you father."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her.
"He has pledged himself to the service of my interests; thus I will also look out for his own interests just as intently. Loyalty is what separates a good organization from a ragtag collection of individuals that will splinter at the first sign of pressure."
Tsarmina's eyes darted up.
"Someone is at the door Father."
Sasuke raised his voice slightly, startling Tobio from his slumber.
"Indeed; and she should enter with all haste lest I question the reason for her hesitancy."
Tobio rose and bowed from the waist.
"Good Morning my liege, I shall see who it is at once."
Sasuke refrained from rolling his eyes as Tobio began striding towards the door, Tsarmina snickering as she moved to Sasuke's ear.
"If it walks like a servant, talks like a servant and looks like a servant..."
Sasuke turned a baleful eye her way.
"Finish that statement at your own peril."
Tsarmina silently resumed her usual place on his neck, smugly flexing her coils as the door was opened to reveal a disheveled Xenovia.
"Master! You didn't tell me you were hiring additional help! Is this your new servant?"
Tsarmina's smug silence didn't help matters as Sasuke took a few deep centering breaths, much to the alarm of both Xenovia and Tobio.
"Is everything alright my liege?"
"What's bothering you Master?"
As Sasuke gave them an impatient wave, the two locked eyes for the first time. Finally, Xenovia broke the silence.
"Are you currently in a relationship?"
Tobio paused before slipping on the smiling façade he used for host club.
"Now why would a beautiful woman such as yourself be asking me such a thing?"
Xenovia gave him a deadpan stare before moving her gaze to Sasuke.
"He's pretty, but is he strong Master?"
Tobio found himself in the very unusual position of being ignored as he stood frozen in place with an increasingly fake smile plastered to his face.
Sasuke rose and stretched like a cat, his muscles rippling to Xenovia's obvious delight.
"He is strong. But I believe you were here for another reason yes?"
Xenovia immediately got down on one knee, all business as Tobio dropped his fake smile and turned to Sasuke as well.
"Master. I have retrieved the criminal known as Valper Galilei; he is currently in stasis outside this room just as you instructed."
Sasuke gave Tobio a look as he bowed and retrieved the overweight priest, a look of shock frozen on his face. A simple time dilation spell was still in effect and would remain so until it was manually released, or until another 18 hours had passed. Sasuke also noticed with some dark amusement and disgust that he was stark naked.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"I suppose I don't have to ask what method you used in order to get him alone. How was the resistance on your infiltration?"
Xenovia hesitated.
"Surprisingly minor Master; almost suspiciously so. Valper had few guards and I spotted no sign of Kokabiel or one of his higher lieutenants in the area. It was very simple to present myself as a lost maiden and get taken to Valper's personal chambers."
Sasuke began pacing.
"Tobio, confirm that this is in fact Valper. I believe a DNA sample run through the Grigori's databases would suffice since they would immediately detect any polymorphs or magical interference."
Tobio bowed and used an odd disc shaped device to deactivate part of the stasis field, just enough to get a blood sample before plugging it in to another square shaped device he had to fetch from his travel bag.
"It's him, no question. No magical interference or cloning detected and the DNA is a perfect match."
Sasuke smiled thinly.
"It appears then that with the disaster of the Excalibur project, our good priest became a liability that Kokabiel would like quietly disposed of without expending any real effort on his part. I would wager he removed any guards he had once our intentions became clear, as we were doing his dirty work for him quite literally."
Tobio gave a puzzled frown.
"Why did Kokabiel not silence him then, just to make sure he didn't spill any secrets to us?"
Sasuke chuckled briefly while petting Tsarmina absently.
"No doubt because the priest knows nothing of any real value anymore. Now that the Excalibur shards are once again in the Church's possession and his scheme failed, Kokabiel has no further use for Valper."
Sasuke raised a finger to head off Xenovia's question.
"As to why he didn't simply eliminate the man himself, that would be so he doesn't cause dissent in the ranks. Any organization gets nervous when allies or especially fellow group members get terminated; it inevitably occurs on occasion but the more you can mitigate it the better. I doubt anyone particularly liked or cared about Valper, but he was part of the 'group' so to speak and it would make Kokabiel look weak or unstable if he was killed out of turn. Much better that he be captured and killed by the enemy, so that his soldiers can be pointed at outward threats instead of inward disputes."
Xenovia shuffled in place as Sasuke turned to her.
"You have done well Xenovia; whether or not this was an easy operation does not matter, your ability to carry it out successfully speaks volumes. You will find a generous payment in your personal account, and I give you the next few days to relax before you resume training once more."
Xenovia beamed.
"Thank you Master! I would prefer to skip the break though; this easy assignment has let my skills get rusty the past few days."
Sasuke stroked his chin in thought.
"Tobio, I know you take your position very seriously and I do not begrudge you that. Would you be amenable to switching with Vali for a few hours so you can train with Xenovia and show her your strength?"
Tobio sighed in a put upon way before accepting, even as the doorbell rang.
Sasuke gave a predatory smile.
"Perfect timing, I do believe that is Kiba and Asia now."
Xenovia opened the door past Tobio's protests even as Asia squealed in excitement.
"Xenovia-san, you made it back safe!"
Thus followed a very...voluptuous embrace between the two females that every male in the room noticed in detail before it (sadly) ended and she moved on to Tobio.
Kiba stood in the doorway, eyes locked in hatred on the frozen priest, his sword hilt creaking in protest at his white knuckled grip on it.
Sasuke gave Kiba a dark grin before gesturing for him to enter.
"I would ask that you make your report before indulging yourself in anything Kiba, he certainly isn't going anywhere."
Asia finally noticed the object of scrutiny and gasped then blushed at the naked priest frozen in place.
"Saint-sama, is that..."
"Indeed, that is Valper Galilei. For his many crimes against children he will be judged, punished then summarily executed."
Everyone in the room shivered at Sasuke's arctic tone except for Kiba. Kiba eyes remained glued to the fat priest as his lip curled in hate, before he settled himself and turned to Sasuke.
"I'm glad to see you are a man of your word Sasuke-san; this means more to me than you will ever know."
Sasuke gave him a curt nod of acknowledgement.
"Very good. Now, if you would both please give your weekly report."
Sasuke tried his utmost to stay awake through the report; past all the usual scuffles and internal bickering there were a few bright spots.
"The training of the recruits has gone surprisingly well. While we obviously cannot arm them directly with advanced weaponry and magic from the Underworld, I have managed to acquire certain rings I had engraved with the Yakuza symbol. These symbols will give them just enough of an edge to make a difference without raising suspicion. The best part is that they are attuned to the loyalty of the wearer; the stronger the loyalty the greater the effect, and vice versa."
Sasuke steepled his fingers from his position on the living room sitting chair.
"When you say an edge, what are we talking about here?"
"An increase to overall reaction time and reflexes, strength and stamina increase, and an overall intellectual boost. The highest possible boost will be 100 percent increase from the baseline, though most will only see closer to 50 percent."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"Well that's certainly a good start. Obviously they would still just be fodder in terms of the non-human community, but at least we can cement the local turf since they can easily overpower most vanilla humans at this stage."
Asia chimed in.
"Indeed, ever since Kiba's contribution we have seen a recruiting increase of 300%. At this stage we can start being selective about membership versus just receiving the outcasts that the other major organizations have rejected."
Sasuke chuckled internally at Asia's "business face" that she utilized primarily for Yakuza meetings. Looking back, it was such a good investment he had made in her. She was a truly beautiful and rare flower that just needed nourishment to grow to it's full potential.
"Very good. I believe that concludes the business portion of this meeting..."
"About damn time King! I was about to fall asleep over here!"
Sasuke clicked his fingers together in annoyance. He was very curious to see what might develop between Xenovia and Tobio; so curious he had allowed Vali to hang out around him in a serious setting, which was always a poor prospect.
"What are your preferences Kiba? Your prize is before you; Valper Galilei is yours to do with as you please."
Asia's eyes got wide as Vali adopted an uncharacteristically serious face.
"Saint-sama, what do you mean he belongs to Kiba now?"
Sasuke let out a long sigh as he absently petted a silent Tsarmina.
"Asia-chan, I have always sought to spare you from the darker portions of what we do. I know that you are aware at this point of many illegal and distasteful things that are done by the Yakuza, but you have not had to see them up close and personal."
Sasuke rose to his feet and walked closer to Asia, looking her in the eye much as a falcon would a field mouse.
"Valper Galilei is the worst kind of person; he directly caused the death of many innocent children over the years, often in the most gruesome ways possible. He is, truly, a monstrous figure that the world would be much better without."
Asia looked down, her kind nature obviously much in conflict with grim reality. Looking over and seeing a similar conflict on Kiba's face, Sasuke made a single phone call and signaled everyone to hang tight for a few minutes even as Asia sought comfort in Kiba's arms.
Minutes later a portal opened in the living room, Rias and Akeno stepping out in a breathless rush. Rias immediately went to Asia and extracted her from Kiba's arms into her own, her knight giving her a grateful look.
"Asia-chan, you and I are going to go to the Gremory estate for a while, won't that be fun? I heard that last time..."
Sasuke and Rias locked eyes as she continued coaxing Asia to the portal Akeno created to the Gremory estate. Sasuke gave her a nod of gratitude as Rias' eyes sparkled in warmth before the portal swallowed them both.
There was an awkward silence for a few seconds before Vali broke it in traditional fashion by spitting on the floor.
"I got no stomach for this sort of thing King; crushing a worm underfoot should be quick but I get that he's a rotten one. I'll be in the other room if yah need me."
Sasuke looked to Kiba as the door to the other room shut.
"As I said Kiba, it is up to you as to how things proceed from here. Nevertheless, I will present a few options to you so you can better decide his fate."
Kiba simply nodded, not breaking his hate filled stare at Valper the entire time.
"Option one, an execution. You kill him with no fuss or muss and just get it over with no emotion involved."
Kiba shook his head vehemently in the negative.
"Option two, you make it hurt. You visit pain upon him with sword birth and anything else you can get your hands on. I warn you though, as satisfying as that may be to you right now, once you go down that particular road there is no way back from it."
Kiba said nothing, just hungrily staring at the naked priest as though imagining him as a pincushion.
"Finally we come to option number three. There is a certain type of person that truly enjoys causing pain in others; Akeno here is one such person as I'm sure you are aware. While you would not have the satisfaction of inflicting the pain on him yourself, you would know that he would feel true agony before the end for his many crimes while not dirtying yourself, outside the killing blow of course."
There was a long silence as Kiba mulled over his options.
"Just remember, if you choose option number two, part of you will always be a stranger to Asia-chan."
That notion jolted Kiba out of his stupor as he turned to Sasuke.
"Is that why...?"
Sasuke gave a grim nod.
"Indeed; Asia is a beautiful girl but I never took her up on her offer because of the stains on my ledger. Too many times in my life I chose option two and gladly paid the price for it each time, but it leaves its mark on you."
Kiba stared at him boldly.
"And Rias?"
Sasuke glanced at the silent Akeno before continuing.
"Rias was raised in darkness, raised in a society where marrying off your daughters as political pawns is commonplace and subterfuge is a way of life. She has ink on her own ledger already, and i'm sure she will have more as the years pass. So no, I have no qualms about pursuing Rias because she is not nearly as innocent as Asia-chan."
Kiba bowed his head in understanding.
"I choose option three. But I have to watch, to know he suffered as my friends suffered from his actions."
Akeno smiled wickedly as she sized up her new prey.
"This is going to be a night neither one of us forget Kiba. With your permission Sasuke-san?"
Sasuke waved his assent as Akeno opened a portal to her "workshop" located deep in the underworld, a grim faced Kiba wordlessly following her as the portal closed behind them.
And that was the last time anyone ever saw Valper Galilei, murderer of children and abuser of all things good in the world.
A bit of a grim end to the chapter I know, but I feel that too many authors err on one side or the other. Either it's all sunshine and daisies or it's laughing maniacally as they visit vivid graphic mayhem upon the evildoer, so I sought some middle ground. I realize especially with Shonen they generally keep it light (even though honestly Naruto had some pretty dark moments) but this has been marked as a Mature fic, so we will dance on the dark side every now and then. Valper is basically a Nazi scientist, he experimented on living people until they died, multiple times, and he did it on children. Obviously they downplayed this for the Anime and just referenced his atrocities vaguely but I think Akeno getting her rocks off on his suffering is him getting off fairly lightly all things considered. To be clear though, what happened in Akeno's little fun cell will only be vaguely referenced from here on out; you all have vivid imaginations i'm sure so we'll just say Valper didn't go quietly in the night and leave it at that. Thanks for reading everyone, next time around we'll get back to the regularly scheduled and leave behind the grimdark (for now at least).