Author's Note: Yes, another one, but this one is a bit different. I'm not sure how I feel about it. So, I guess I'll just let you guys decide on it and let me know what you think. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, just the plotline. Thanks!
Warnings: Language, talk about sexual situations, un-beta'd.
Word Count: 3,583
It was a much needed little reprieve from the war for Hashirama and Tobirama. It was nothing extravagant. They just went to a nearby town that was neutral to their war against the Uchiha and made their way into it to get some food and relax for a few hours before having to return to the stress of wartime. Hashirama seems happy about the small break while Tobirama appears to only be there to watch his brother's back, not caring much for the scenery or the people.
They find a dark shop to sit at so the brothers can get a drink in peace. It may be a town neutral to the war, but there is always the risk of running into someone from an opposing clan, Uchiha or spies for the Uchiha. The last thing Hashirama wants is to bring their war into this quant little town. He just wants a moment to relax before going back to his battle. Well, their battle.
It was while they were sipping at their brew that a man approached them. Tobirama was immediately suspicious, but Hashirama's hand on his arm from under the table relaxed the younger man slightly. Enough so that he would allow them stranger to stand at the Hashirama's side of the table without shoving the Raijin into the man's chest. Hashirama smiles at his little brother before looking over at the stranger with raised eyebrows.
"Hello," Hashirama says, simply, "can we help you?"
The stranger pulls up a seat and sits down. Tobirama narrows his eyes at this stranger's audacity. Hashirama didn't seem to mind, and turns his full attention to the stranger.
The man smiles, and leans close, as if he's got a secret to tell. "You two are shinobi." It wasn't a question, it was an observation. Hashirama doesn't bat an eyelash at it, but Tobirama frowns even more, fingers twitching by his side. Thankfully, they are in a dark little corner and the bar was busy and loud. No one else seemed interested in them or their conversation.
"What of it?" Hashirama asks.
The man's smile widens. "Are you fine gentlemen part of that war between the Uchiha and Senju clans?"
Hashirama turns his eyes toward his little brother, locking gazes with him. It was obvious that this man was keen enough to notice two shinobi that weren't exactly hiding, but wasn't trying to stand out. Although, it appears as though he wasn't as knowledgeable about the shinobi world as it originally appeared. He could tell they were shinobi, but not what clan they were from.
That relaxes the two brother's slightly.
"And if we are?" Tobirama asks, eyebrows pulling together tightly.
The man leans in closer. "My boss has an offer that you can't refuse. A possible asset to help you out against your enemies," the man says smoothly, eyebrows raised high toward his hairline, as if he was already certain that Hashirama and Tobirama would jump at the chance to get this 'asset'.
Hashirama frowns at that. "What do you mean?"
"The asset is of top pedigree and capable of taking out any target, regardless of the fortress and the guards. Usually his skills are used to shift power balances in the Lands, but for a limited time, his price has been lowered significantly," the man says, smiling playfully.
Hashirama starts to shake his head, having a bad feeling about this. "I'm not sure we're interesting in something like-"
"Why is his price lowered?" Tobirama asks, cutting his older brother off. Hashirama glances over at him, frowning a bit more but doesn't stop his little brother. "Is there something wrong with him?"
"Oh no," the man shakes his head, "he's still our top asset. There is nothing wrong with him, it's a decision from the top that wanted to give people a chance to see what the best of the best that we have to offer. This is the chance to..." he pauses for a moment, squinting over the top of Hashirama's head for a moment to try and find the right words. "This is the chance to expand the customer pool," he decides upon. He smiles again.
Hashirama still doesn't seem like he's too interested in any of this, but's Tobirama that continues the conversation. "I see, and what exactly would this... asset be able to do for us in the war. What makes him so special?"
The man smiles. "He's capable of being and doing just about anything. Within acceptable boundaries of both his gender and age. Other than that, he can do pretty much anything, be pretty much anyone you want him to be."
Tobirama stares at the man, unimpressed. "And what exactly might that be?"
The man lets out a little laugh. "A tough sell, I love it! It good to see there are still people in the world who actually analyze the situation rather than just jumping into it! I love favor men like yourself." Tobirama blinks, but says nothing, so the man continues, "He's of top pedigree for our assets. He's by far, the most beautiful, physically powerful and gifted of all of our assets. It's a steal, I guarantee it. There is very little our assets can't do, and there's even less that he can't."
"He sounds too good to be true," Tobirama say simply. "Why would you try and sell your top assets abilities for so little, if he's so good?"
The man lets out a sigh. "It's true, I do believe it a shame, but you see, this boy is gifted, both in abilities and beauty and people are easily enraptured by both of those aspects, but unfortunately, he has such a high success rate, it's hard to find customers that can afford him. So, this limited time offer is... well, basically hook, line and sinker." The man smiles, unabashedly.
Tobirama blinks slowly. "At least you're honest."
"Most clans are quite wealthy, especially the two warring ones. Wouldn't it be wise to hire outside help for the nasty jobs you don't want smearing your honorable name?" The stranger asks, looking between Hashirama and Tobirama. Hashirama looks a bit affronted by the insinuation, like their clan would do anything to squander their honor, while Tobirama is nodding slowly. He doubted under his brother's rule they would do much that could be considered morally questionable, knowing Hashirama, but it's still an interesting prospect if this person is as good as this man wants them to think.
"And," the man says slowly, catching Hashirama's face, "if you are looking for a good partner for the night, he's our best as well."
Hashirama's eyebrows shoot up now. "What? He's a fighter and a prostitute?"
"No," Tobirama says, red eyes shining in understanding. "He's a male geisha. He's an assassin. They all are."
"Such a crude way of putting it," the man says, shaking his head. "We merely refer to them as assets, because that's what they are. They are vital to us, and they can be whatever you want them to be. Do not think them dispirited, sirs. He's our chameleon. He's a pretty face, stoic, most of the time, but I've been reassured that he always leaves our clients satisfied. In whatever they end up asking of him." His words at the end are not lost on the brothers.
"His bedroom talents mean nothing to us," Tobirama says dismissively. "What can he do against shinobi? Obviously yourself is somewhat knowledgeable about shinobi, but how much more so is he?"
"Very," the man says. "I am merely a hunter. I search for people who would be interested in his, and the other's abilities, - whatever shape they are desired to come in - but they were professionally trained. They can be mistaken for true shinobi." He chose his words wisely. Merely calling them shinobi when they have no clan name is dangerous when dealing with shinobi. It's like calling someone who's a master swordsman a samurai without the armor and strict code they live by. It's insulting.
This isn't this man's first rodeo.
"How does this even work?" Tobirama asks simply. "If I even wanted these services, how would I be able to hash out the details?"
"There is a network of hunters that you can locate pretty much anywhere around the nations. You can locate us by these bands." The man turns to the side to show off a red band wrapped around his right forearm with a human body with what appear to be black bird wings in it's exaggerated shadow. "Just tell us who you want and what you want and we will be able to write up contracts for you. Anything below an 'A' can go between us and the clients, but anything about an 'A' ranked mission, must go through a coordinator, which we can get you in touch with."
Tobirama tilts his head to the side, looking over at his brother in curiosity. Hashirama doesn't appear to like any aspect of this entire thing, and it shows by the frown on his lips, but the older brother knows the younger well enough to know that while Tobirama is interested in it, it's not for nefarious reasoning. Tobirama has an unhealthy thirst for knowledge. Once something has captured his attention, he's got to study it down to the bare bones, until there is nothing more than inference behind everything.
But in this case, it's a good thing.
The Uchiha and Senju clans use missions to pay for their war. They have to or their coffers would have dried up long ago from maintaining a standing force for over a hundred years.
These people are dipping their fingers into the mission pool and scooping up good ones out from under the Senju and Uchiha without them knowing, it's best to learn as much about them as possible, in case they become an issue in the future. Hashirama doesn't like it, not a single part of this man's sales pitch has captured his interest, but he knows what is brewing in Tobirama's brain and trusts that the younger of the two knows what he's doing. Hashirama will just be along for the ride, whether he likes it or not. He's not going to leave his brother alone with these strangers all on his own.
"This top class asset," Tobirama says slowly, "would we be able to view him? His abilities?"
The man smiles. "You bet, sirs. In fact, he's here."
Hashirama's large brown eyes flicker up to the room around them, the place was full of people. Drinking, playing shogi or go, muttering to the barmaids about grievances the poor women couldn't visibly care less about, and hanging with friends. There wasn't anyone, that Hashirama could sense, that appeared to have a powerful chakra signature. They were mostly bums off the street, local bandits and mercenaries. Nothing too extreme. There wasn't even a slightly powerful chakra signature there with him besides Tobirama.
Hashirama looks over at Tobirama to see the white haired man staring back at him.
"There is no one here," his eyes say while his lips stay closed.
Hashirama nods ever so slightly. So either this man was lying to them, or this person has their chakra cloaked very well. Either was equally possible.
No matter how minute the exchange between brothers was, the man seemed to have noticed it, because his smile just about split his face in half. He looks between the two Senju. "Can't locate him, can you?"
Tobirama glares at the man. "Where is he?"
The man lifts a finger and points directly above them.
There is a pause where both brothers lift their chins to look up at the wood ceiling within the smoky, loud shop. Now that they're focusing on the area above them, there is something up there. It's tiny, muted, weak. Nothing to get frazzled about. But they are professionals, and know the dangers of underestimating an opponent they have yet to see.
"A coordinator is here. He's the asset's personal coordinator, actually, he takes care of our top package and would be happy to meet with you now, if it would please you, sirs?" the hunter says, smiling wolfishly.
Hashirama still looks unhappy about this, wanting nothing more to do with this, but Tobirama's stare told him that they had to. Tobirama needed to know about this stranger person now. It's not often that someone can get so close without him being able to sense them, it's something that he has been able to take great pride in for a long time, it would hurt his pride to see that his skills have gotten shabby somehow.
"Brother..." Hashirama says slowly, looking over at Tobirama. He waits until those keen red eyes slowly slide over to him before he continues, "I don't want to do this."
Tobirama nods slowly, mentally considering something before looking back over at the man. "May we view this... asset before making any sort of deal?"
"Of course, of course!" The man says, clapping his hands together. "Come, today is your lucky day! This way!" The man jumps to his feet and easily slides between the many tables to the other side of the room to a flight of stairs, pausing only to say something to the man behind the bar before continuing to the stairs. Tobirama follows after three steps behind with Hashirama right at his heels, still unhappy about this. But there was no way in the world he was going to let his little brother go up there with some stranger.
He doesn't like any of this one bit. But he's not going to leave Tobirama alone. He trusts Tobirama, knowing that his little brother was one of the most powerful ninja in their clan, but he was still Hashirama's little brother, and no matter how powerful Tobirama is, Hashirama is always going to want to have his back. It's just the way he's wired.
They climb up a thin stairway before the reach the second floor. There is a bunch of people up there and taking a single step off the stairs, Hashirama feels a barrier seal wrapped around the upper floor. And now he can sense almost everyone up there. There had to be thirty different people, sitting around at tables all around the room with a single door on the opposite side of the room, probably an exit. It looks very similar to the room downstairs but with one extremely out of place addition. A strange, large bolder with a seal diagram written across it in the center of the room and laying sprawled out on that slab is... someone. It's hard to tell from the angle he was standing at the top of the stairs.
All he can see is long, pale bare legs pulled up and draped to one side and some kind of black, long sleeve top that looks too short to be worn how it is. It doesn't even look like it would reach their knees.
But it's like a black hole right there. Their - his, he's got to be the asset - chakra is nonexistent. Absolute perfect chakra control, most likely. Or perhaps it's the seal underneath him that keeps it hidden, but either way, if he wasn't on display over there, then Hashirama doubted he would have realized that boy was in the room with them. And that was alarming.
Hashirama and Tobirama both exchange looks.
"This way," the hunter says weaving his way through the tables over to the table next to the stone platform. There was a large, overweight man sitting there, drinking heavily and reading some papers scattered around the table in front of him. The man glances up when the hunter gets to him, looking over at Hashirama and Tobirama, who slowly approach, noticing that they are the center of attention now. Everyone in the room is staring at them.
Except for the boy on the slab. He's staying laying back, unmoving.
The hunter helps clear the table of all the papers while the fat man grins at them broadly, climbing to his feet and walking around the table with his arms spread wide. "Hello, hello!" The man says, walking up to them. He takes Tobirama's hand, shaking it briskly, and then taking Hashirama's and doing the same. The man waves them over and returns to his chair. "Come, come take a seat! Even take a look at the asset, if you'd like!"
Tobirama's eyes scan the crowd, taking a moment to place everyone around the room, judging their threat level and how long it would take for him to kill them all should someone try anything strange. Meanwhile, knowing that Tobirama was doing just that, Hashirama took a step closer to the unmoving body in front of him. Then another one, until he's right in front of the slab.
The asset is revealed to definitely be a boy. He's laying slightly to his side with his head tilted to the left, same as his legs, with his long, thin black hair all pushed to the right, laying on the slab. His right hand is laying across his stomach while the other hand is laying loosely by his thin face. His fringe is lightly laying against his neck while long thin lashes resting against pale, high cheekbones. His face is so thin, with lines down both sides of his face, from his eyes. Obviously from stress. And there is prominent dark circles under his eyes too. Lack of sleep. The large black, long-sleeve shirt that he's practically swimming in, doesn't reach his knees. It's just past the middle of his thighs and hanging off one of his shoulders.
Hashirama must have stepped too close in his observation because the next thing he knows, the man says, "Don't get too close to the asset, sir!" and the boy is moving. The boy's hand easily slid into Hashirama's pocket, removing a kunai as he stood up on the slate, standing over Hashirama, looking down into his eyes with a kunai to his neck.
Standing on slate, the boy is taller than Hashirama, the brown haired man's eyes level with the boy's prominent clavical. Hashirama looks up at the boy while the boy stares down at him. One hand armed with a kunai pressed against his throat while the other rests gently against the curve of Hashirama's neck. Hashirama didn't tense up, didn't move, but Tobirama did, immediately reaching around to grab the boy's wrist - the one armed with the kunai - while his other hand was holding his sword. He was the only thing that stopped the boy from slitting Hashirama's throat, since the man didn't even attempt to move to save himself. Tobirama's red eyes were narrowed into dangerous slits.
Hashirama could only stare up into the calm, soft black eyes of the boy above him, and couldn't summon any fear for his own life. There was nothing in the boy's expression - his eyes, his calm face, and even his posture - that was threatening. Which is surprising because he was holding a kunai to Hashirama's throat. There was something so serene about the boy in front of him.
His face was thin, despite his obvious youth. He couldn't have been older than his teens. Maybe thirteen? Fourteen? Maybe fifteen? And that's stretching it.
The boy's long fringe hangs down between them, lightly tickling Hashirama's face, as they stare at one another.
Hashirama's unease finally surfaces again as he realizes to his absolute horror why there was something about this child that didn't settle well with him. Not that there was any part of this situation that could settle well with him. But now, staring into this child's eyes, knowing what he knows now about this child. He can't believe not only his horrible luck, but the horrible luck of this child.
Tobirama's grip on the boy's arm doesn't loosen. He steps around a bit, glaring at the boy, who didn't appear to even notice Tobirama was there. He was too busy staring down into Hashirama's dark brown eyes. Tobirama couldn't understand right away why his brother wasn't moving, wasn't even breathing. A part of him feared that the boy had managed to slit Hashirama's throat before Tobirama could stop him. But looking down at his brother's throat from the side, there was no blood, the kunai hadn't cut flesh.
His eyes raise slightly to look up at the boy, only to realize now why his brother wasn't moving. Wasn't breathing. Wasn't even attempting to defend himself against this obvious attack on his person.
Without a doubt, irrevocably, the boy before him was an Uchiha.