Disclaimer: Don't own Inuyasha. Don't own the Punisher. Don't own the music from the Punisher. I own a nice pair of shoes, though…
Claimer: The Punisher rocks. So, I'm a-gonna remake it with a bit of a difference – with Naraku as the bad guy, Sango as the Punisher… Anywho, Sango is in Special Ops for the military, as is Inuyasha. Kagome is a nurse, and is Sango's neighbor and friend… Miroku is a doctor. What's not to love?
By sheer force of will alone, Sango kept herself from drumming her fingers nervously against the wall she leaned against. Instead, she crossed her arms and examined her surroundings as nonchalantly as she could, trying her hardest to exude an aura of indifference.
'Come on, you conniving bastard. You're late.'
If her 'associate' was being cautious, he would have planted several – perhaps as many as a dozen – unknown pairs of eyes throughout this ill-lit alley, shrouding the hidden eyes throughout the darkness, leaving them to watch her and make sure she didn't do anything suspicious. The back of her neck prickled with anticipation and a little fear – all her hair felt like it was standing on end (of course, that might have just been the wig!). She assumed that if he had been smart enough to do that, he would have been smart enough to make sure at least some of those eyes were watching her from behind the scopes of high powered sniper rifles.
With any luck, just as many eyes were watching the watchers in a very similar way.
A very, very small smile quirked at the corners of Sango's lips.
'You bastards are done for.'
Her internal musings were interrupted by the crescendo of someone trotting towards her, through the darkness. The young woman swallowed a nervous lump in her throat, and forced herself to remain absolutely still…
"You're late, you bastard. You're lucky I had nowhere else to be!" she snarled, mimicking a thick, foreign accent.
The young man came skidding to a stop right in front of her; the young fool had been about to run right past her! Obviously, he was new at this.
"Sorry I'm late!" he puffed. "Hacking into the vault was a bit trickier than I thought it was going to be – it seems Father is much more paranoid than I thought!" Then, he smiled, self-pride oozing from his every pore.. "I had to kill several guards to get out with this!"
Sango's eyes widened just a hare; she hoped the darkness hid the momentary reaction. A vault? He found it necessary to kill people to get out? Could it possibly be? "Needed to hack into a vault to get money? I thought you were rich, Onigumo!" she tested haphazardly.
"Money! Pah! I got much better than that!" the young man relied, even more cockily if that were possible. "I stole the frickin' jewel!"
Her stomach plummeted; the jewel- the priceless gem that the crime boss Naraku had been suspected of stealing, so many years ago? The jewel that had such a strange atomic structure that scientists had suspected they'd be able to make decades of progress in materials science (and, perhaps, weaponry) just by being able to study it, but had been stolen before they had been able to even start?
If her expression had changed at all, he most certainly didn't seem to notice; instead, he took the jewel out of one of his pockets and tossed it into the air in a carefree manner. "I'm sure this'll more than pay for enough drugs and weapons for me to be able to make my own profitable business, right?"
"I imagine it would," Sango replied quickly, still feigning mild indifference in the foreign accent. It was all she could do to keep her eyes from fixating on the jewel. Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined that on her first real stake-out mission that she would not only be able to get Onigumo, son of the biggest crime boss in history, but that she would recover the jewel…
"Did you bring the stuff?" he asked, his cockiness growing into impatience. By 'stuff' he meant drugs and weapons – the two things he had apparently decided were the most profitable to acquire and peddle so as to create his own legacy and crime empire. Sango had managed to infiltrate his information sources and work her way into the deal, situating herself as the best hawker in the States…
"Of course, you dumb$$," she replied snippishly, resolutely staying in character. "It's in the warehouse right over there." She jerked her chin at the warehouse directly across the alley from her.
"It won't be enough, now. Not for the jewel," Onigumo decided, now staring fixatedly at the jewel.
"How much do you want, then?"
The handsome young playboy contemplated the thought for a moment. "I want twelve warehouses full of the best sht you've got," he finally announced. "And I want it delivered here!" He jutted a crumbled piece of paper at her; once again, Sango could scarcely believe her luck! He had just given her the address of his hideout…
"And I want you to call it in right now," he finished.
Sango raised an eyebrow, but decided that it would be best to just "call it in". Slowly – very slowly, she reached into her pristine woolen jacket and pulled out a cell phone. She dialed a number with numb fingers and lifted the phone to her ear, though her eyes never left Onigumo. He glared back with impatient blue eyes.
Of course they had planned for this – and so, a very familiar voice answered on the other line from the stake-out van parked on the street nearby…
"What?"
"I need twelve times as much stuff. I need it delivered to –" she glanced down at the paper –"Rainbow Farms, Montana." Sango lifted an eyebrow. Rainbow Farms?
'Well, I guess no one would look for a drug lord at a place with a goofy name like that…'
"You follow a dirt track off the main road in Charlottesville, which is a town about 90 miles west of the capital – after about 5 miles on the dirt track, you'll get there," Onigumo interrupted. "Don't talk to any of the locals. Don't anything. Just bring it. Put it in trucks that look like they carry animals and farm sht."
"You get that?" Sango asked her partner, Inuyasha, who was on the other end.
"Hell yeah I did. Consider it done!" Although the reply was gruff, she could almost sense the satisfaction and excitement in his voice. Sango clicked the cell phone off and returned it to her hidden pocket.
"Now the jewel," she demanded, jutting out one hand at the young man. "You know you can trust me. The shipments will be there within a week."
They had him. Men were probably already on their way to 'Rainbow Farms' – and now, Sango would take the jewel, and Onigumo would be placed under arrest…
Her thoughts were interrupted by the clicking of a gun.
"On second thought, I think I'll keep the jewel." Her hand was already flying to the gun hidden at the small of her back, but she was just a little too slow –
The blast of his handgun rang through the alley; red liquid burst from her chest as she slammed back against the brick wall and fell limply to the ground. Within the blink of an eye, she found herself staring up the barrel of the gun. Onigumo just smiled sweetly at the woman he had just mortally wounded, looking for all the world like a child who had just played the most clever joke imaginable.
"And I think I'll keep your stuff, too. But you, my dear – you are simply no longer of consequence to me." Even as he cocked the gun, preparing to finish his 'business' with her, he was entirely unaware of the dozens of lasers dancing across his entire body. Sango couldn't help but to smile, which seemed to mildly unsettle the self-satisfied crime-boss wannabe. "What the hell is so funny?!" he snarled, grabbing her by the collar and shaking her viciously. When she didn't cry out in pain from the jolting movement, he seemed to pale slightly…
"You are, you fricking moron!" screamed an all-too-familiar voice; and with that, Inuyasha, who had come running from the van at the sound of the shot, gave Sango just enough time to viciously twist the gun from Onigumo's hand before he unloaded the first bullet into the crime-boss son's body.
The young man twitched in the air for several seconds as silent bullets pierced his body. By the time he collapsed, there was absolute silence through the alley. Sango guessed that the coast was clear…
"What the hell? You frickin' snipers are frickin' SLOW!" Inuyasha shouted angrily at their unseen accomplices. Though Sango only sat there in silence, she had to agree – she couldn't believe they had let Onigumo actually shoot her! Shivers coursed through her entire body as she wondered – what if he had made a headshot first?
Inuyasha, on the other hand, was continuing his rampage at the hidden guns. "If I have to get a new frickin' partner, I'm gonna frickin' kill someone! It's hard enough to find someone who can do their frickin' half, and just because you people are frickin' slow on the trigger –"
Sango, meanwhile, had climbed into an upright position and was carefully stripping off the bullet proof vest. From the way her chest was aching, she guessed she was going to have one nasty bruise in the morning. 'Good thing father insisted I use fake-blood packets, too… Otherwise Onigumo would have immediately known and maybe made a headshot before the snipers could do anything…' The young woman's brown eyes shifted from the bullet proof vest to Inuyasha; she raised a quizzical eyebrow at her partner, but he didn't seem to be paying any attention to her. He was still shouting.
She might have been mad, too – by now his continued rampaging was beginning to get funny. And besides… there was something much more important to attend to…
Sango crawled, very slowly, to Onigumo's lifeless body. A part of her twinged with minor guilt – the plan had never been to kill the young man. They had planned on 'finishing the deal' to placate him, and then quietly placing him under arrest in a less dangerous way – but the moment he had drawn his gun on Sango, that plan had no longer been possible. So, in the end, Onigumo had sealed his own fate – but, nevertheless, the young woman still felt bad that it had to end that way.
Numbly, Sango reached into his pocket – and with wonder, she felt her fingertips brush against a smooth, cool surface. Slowly, the pulled the jewel out, and her lips formed a silent 'oh' as she stared at it. Even in the little light in the alleyway, the gem sparkled beautifully…
Even Inuyasha had silenced himself by now; the moment she had withdrawn the jewel from the dead-mans pocket, his words had caught in his throat – and now, the two just stared dumbly at the fruit of their efforts…
"The Shikon Jewel…" she whispered breathlessly, hardly believing what she held in her hands…
I like. Do you like? If you do, I'm sure many, many reviews of this and my other works would spur me into writing faster… I'm very sure indeed! So review, my pretties! Also, check back often for updates – I'll probably be editing this chapter, too… But I have to be up in a few hours, sooo, goodnight!