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"I trust these weapons will live up to your description then? Not only protecting the user but also being able to attack and even spy on enemies of their own accord?"

"They are the perfect tools of war, Mr. Malfoy."

"Forgive me if I seem dubious Mr. Himura. It only strikes me as unlikely something this powerful could exist and my associates be unaware of it."

"Even Death Eaters have their faults."

Lucius glared at Himura for his insolent comment, but he hoped it was true. After the defeat at the Department of Mysteries he knew that his family would be in danger. Voldemort did not bother with punishment, preferring instead to terminate anyone who could not carry out his orders. It was only thanks to his ties with the Ministry and some blackmail that he was able to delay his trial for three days. It would be his only chance to make provisions for his wife and son.

"Be careful what you say Mr. Himura. In any case you have stalled enough. Where are these 'perfect' weapons?"

"They are already here." Himura inclined his head to the painted screen on the far right wall.

Lucius let his gaze flicker to the two men - if you could even call them that – now standing in front of the screen. They hardly seemed older than Draco from what he could see of them. Only their shoulders were left visible, the rest was covered in a black bodysuit with grey armor, and white mask with red designs. Both had swords strapped to their backs.

"What is this about?" He was not amused.

"These are the weapons," explained Himura.

He must mean the swords, but even if they are charmed swords they cannot possibly do everything he said! Thought Malfoy as his displeasure showed on his face.

"Mr. Malfoy," Himura interrupted his line of thought, "I am a specialist in the field of Asia's deadliest magic weapons and I can assure you that these are superior to all others."

"And so you give these items to children?" sneered Lucius Malfoy. "I'm afraid in my country we use a little more common sense when handling dark objects, Himura. However, if they are the delivery boys, just hand the weapons over and we can forget how you wasted my ti-"

The Japanese wizard's face became a little more pinched as he cleared his throat. "I do not think you understand Mr. Malfoy. They are not carrying the weapons, they are the weapons."

At this Lucius stood up and used his wand to summon his coat from the hall. He should have known dealing with the bizarre wizards of the East would have ended like this. It was rumored they even used the wandless magic of beasts still. The faint hope he had that they might have some secret powerful object to keep his family safe was quashed by the ridiculous situation he found himself in. He grabbed his coat and began to stalk out. "I expect that the deposit I gave you will be returned in full to my accounts before tomorrow morning, Himura."

"Stop Mr. Malfoy! You do not know what I had to do to bring them here." The strain was evident in the dark art dealer's voice. The two young men in the corner watched on, still not having moved since they entered the room.

"Nor do I care."

A rush of words in what he assumed were Japanese suddenly ended with the British wizard five feet off the ground and pinned to the wall. Before he could even think to be furious he was looking to two eyes and there was a burst of light. He was alone, in his the downstairs den of his house. In his hands there was a copy of the daily prophet he must have been reading before he dosed off. Strange, he didn't feel tired, but perhaps a cup of coffee wouldn't hurt.

"Toppsie!" When the house elf didn't immediately arrive, Lucius became slightly annoyed. He called out for the three other house elves, but none appeared. He tossed the newspaper onto the side table before making his way to the kitchen. If the house elves didn't know how dangerous it was to cross him, they would soon. He ignored the twinge of apprehension he felt at the fact that their magic bond should have brought them to his side by now.

"You stupid cretins! I don't care what mindless task you're involved in, when I su …"

The astringent smell of vomit and blood forced itself up his nostrils. A dark figure was crouching on the worktable of the kitchen with a triangular knife held in his hand. Beneath him Narcissa was trying to scream through her gag. At least, it looked somewhat like his wife. It was hard to tell since one of her eyes was completely scraped out and the other was oozing from where the knife had punctured it.

Lucius began to pull out his wand when a blank upside-down mask shot out in front of him. Inside the holes left of the eyes he could only see pulsing, bleeding muscle before something black and pointed started to emerge. Lucius tried to turn away, tried to run to his wife or perhaps even away from this, but his entire body felt like he was under the body-bind curse. Two needles emerged from the gaping sockets and shot into his own eyes as sharp aching electric pain shot down his body and everything went into reddish blur.

"-AAAAAAUUUUAGH!"

The red was gone. The pain was gone. He was still pinned on the wall in Himura's foyer by the same triangular knives from whatever the hell just happened to him. There were dozens of them sticking through his sleeves and pants. Lucius breathed deep shallow breaths as he tried to quell the bile in his throat.

"Get me down." It was a command but it certainly didn't come out that way.

Himura yelled at one of the boys in his language and the other quickly ran to Lucius. He removed all the knives in seconds, placing Lucius gently on the floor. Himura continued to yell angrily at the young man who had not moved to help, gesturing to Lucius. The young man shrugged his shoulders and uttered a single phrase that seemed to only incite more rage in Himura. However the man did not utter another word.

Lucius looked up at the boy helping him. "Get away from me!" He jerked backward as he saw the mask the boy wore even though it was not quite like the one in the vision. Lucius fumbled for his wand as the boy slowly backed off, hands held out in a sign of peace. As he backed away he also spoke in Japanese, and Himura translated.

"He says not to worry. It was only an illusion."

"An illusion? They were in my house! Everything looked exactly the way it should, how could they know that if they haven't seen it? No one can create an illusion that convincing. A pensieve could not have been more accurate."

"I hope that despite the heavy-handed use of his skills," Himura glared at the boy who had yet to move, "you realize the point of this little test. They are more capable of keeping your family safe than you know. They might even be of use to that dark lord of yours."

Lucius was listening, but not fully. He now saw that the pattern on the mask of the boy Himura yelled at was the same mask both men in the vision had worn.

"But can they be trusted?" asked Malfoy.

"They are shinobi - tools and weapons that can be used for a price. They would no more disobey you than a hammer would strike the hand that wielded it. So long as you pay them, of course," said Himura.

"And they will be able to do everything I described to you?"

Himura smiled, glad that this difficult client was finally seeing the value of the things he was providing him. "That and much more."

"Very well," Lucius paused. "I want to see their faces first."

Himura blanched. "They will refuse."

"Tell them!" He had had enough secrets tonight.

Himura turned to the young men and spoke rapidly. The two turned to each other and briefly argued. The one who had helped him finally ignored his partner as he turned to Lucius and lifted his mask. His tan face was between the plumpness of childhood and the angles of an adult. He was genuinely smiling, though a little grimly. His eyes were blue and beneath them were three scars on each cheek. Spiky hair that was more yellow than blonde completed the picture. He looked about Draco's age after all, maybe a year older. The second one lifted his mask as well. Pale skin and dark eyes framed with ink black hair that stuck up in the back. His features were almost delicate, but his overall sinister demeanor at the moment ruined their beauty. Lucius could tell the illusion was his doing.

"Fox," Himura said gesturing to the blonde, "and Hawk."

Lucius found himself grinding his teeth as he looked at Hawk. He would pay for that little stunt. "Fine. Now, let's discuss the fee."

Looks like we're finally getting somewhere. Naruto thought as the two men began examining some numbers Himura wrote down. His eyes shifted to Sasuke, who was gazing at nothing in particular. Naruto continued staring at Sasuke until he turned to look at Naruto as well.

'What the hell was that for you bastard?' Naruto formed the words with his lips but didn't make a sound. 'You could have seriously fucked up his head. He's a civilian.' Sasuke only smirked and Naruto wondered, again, if Tsunade had given them this mission just to get Sasuke out of the village. The former missing-nin had only recently been given clearance to go on missions again, and it had been a disaster. He had a complete disregard for the welfare of any other shinobi he was assigned to work with, and there was at least one report that he had deliberately left someone to die. But thankfully no one had. Yet. Only Naruto seemed to be exempt from this ambivalence, but perhaps that was because of his own skill rather than concern.

But I stopped him from trying to destroy the village and convinced him to come back after Madara Uchiha was defeated. That has to mean … something. What that meant was not apparent to Naruto though. He could only hope that Sasuke would regain some of the humanity he had lost. And if he didn't, Naruto would just have to shove some down his throat. I didn't spend all these years spent trying to get the dumbass back to give up just because he's stubborn.

A small sack was dropped with a hallow thud on the table by the client and Naruto knew that whatever Himura's payment was for bringing Sasuke and himself there, it wasn't money. The businessman got up and approached them.

"He has agreed to the monthly payments your Hokage laid out and I will send the deposit to her one you leave. So, I trust the financial matters are taken care of?" Sasuke and Naruto nodded once. "Good. Here are more detailed instructions on your mission and here are the translation amulets. We do not have a spell that will make you fully understand the language, but this will allow you to speak, understand, and read about 5,000 common words in English until you learn it on your own." The two shinobi tucked the amulets underneath their chest armor.

Naruto laced his fingers behind his head and pouted slightly. Learning an entire language in a few weeks did not sound like fun.

"When do we leave?" asked Sasuke, testing out the amulet. His English was slightly accented but easy to understand.

"Now." The client said as he threw something into the fire that made it green. He stepped inside and yelled something before completely disappearing.

Naruto stretched his hands up and let them fall to his sides. This mission was already off to weird start.

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