The office had a musky, dry air to it, while dust clung onto anything it could attached itself to, a large curved desk sat in the middle of the room, while all around it clutter was everywhere. Notes and scrolls with ancient symbols, which at the right angle seemed to glow say sprawled out onto the ground, like a sandstorm had blown in from the desert outside, claiming the space for itself.
The evening sun glowed and crept its way in from the large window at the back of the office, as a middle aged man in long white robes sat at his desk, reviewing files and various books and scrolls in between sentences. He sighed and proceeded to reach into the right bottom drawer of the desk, pulling out a small box of cigars, after a quick, but pleasurable smoke, he returned to his work, the scent of tobacco still pungent in the air. He reaches into the innards of his cloaks to reveal and silver pocket watch, the time read as 8:30. "Damn him," he said in a husky voice, " I called him 3 hours ago, where the hell is h-"
"Jeez if I knew you were going to be uptight about it I would have come sooner" a sarcastic voice comes from the right corner of the semi circular shaped room, nearest to the door. The robed man jumps in slight surprise, then scowls, and "Damn you, sometimes I wish you weren't a ninja, anyway what took you so long?" Akio stepped out of the corner, revealing an assortment of bandages and gauze wrappings. "Well," he said, a tinge of embarrassment came from his voice, while he scratched the back of his head, " I was about to come, then the Old Hag found me again..."
A smirk rang across the second man's face; he reclined in his chair as he laughed. "Still getting the snot beaten out if you by Kate huh, HA! To think you were a candidate for Kazekage," he laughed harder now, while Akio grumbled to himself. "What the hell do you want anyway?!" The embarrassed man yelled, ready beat the crap out of his "Highly Respectable" superior.
"Ha ha, what?, did I make you miss a hot date?" That comment thoroughly pissed off the damaged ninja, who stomped up to the Kazekage's desk lightly tossing a small blue box admits the unorganized papers and reports. "Actually," he retorted, anger flaring up his tone, "you did, Thanks jack-ass" Akio turned to leave, done talking to his boss, while the Kazekage picked up and inspected the ring box, now realizing what he had just said.
"How long have you two been together now, three years?"
Akio stopped at this, sensing that the man had felt sorry for what he had said, "Three years today...". the Kazekage sighed and stood up, he had known Akio his entire life, ever since they had first met in the academy all those years ago. "you know", he began "When you first rushed into my office like a bat out of hell to tell me you were now going out with Megan HÅseki, I thought you had taken a long walk into the desert!" he laughed at this, remembering the gleaming smile on his face, and the way he slid and crashed into his office that day yelling obscure, non-sensible cry's of joy. "ha.. and to think, Her of all people, the prettiest, smartest student in the academy with one of us slack-offs that would piss off the teacher just for the hell it," he walked toward his old friend now, clasping a hand onto his shoulder, "And now twelve years later, you're about to pop the question, and I became the fucking Kazekage for Christ sake!" Akio chuckled at this, bringing his head up.
"yeah, I didn't think they would accept you after the Scorpion Incident"
"Ha ha, the look on Sensei's face when he went into his house!"
"He was cleaning out scorpions for weeks until he finally found the summoning scroll!"
The men laughed and laughed, recalling old memories for what seemed to be an hour, acting like they did in school, just a bunch of slackers with wild dreams. "Ha ha, well I know you're dying to get back to her as soon as possible, so lets go over your mission." the Kazekage started for the door, ushering Akio to follow through the buildings hallways. "I warn you though," He began, "this will not be any easy mission, Megan told you it was B-class?"
"yeah"
"well I lied, didn't want her to panic. Its actually an A-class, maybe even higher"
"Higher?"
They stopped at a door on the left, almost on the other side of the building. "yes," the now serious leader said darkly, "higher" he opened the door to reveal a fellow sand ninja, or what was left of him
The body was a bloody mess, the limbs that were still attached hung off the eviscerated body. there were stab wounds all over him, even scorch marks that ran down his chest. the only arm still visible was missing its hand, and inverted. His skull was crimson red, as if he was scalped then drowned in his own blood. It looked more like a half decayed animal then it did the corpse of a Sand Ninja. "my God..." Akio was stunned, who could have done this...
"His name was Takara Suzume, a rookie just promoted to Joinin a month ago, he had called in to HQ a week ago sounding frantic, telling us he had information about his mission, information that was vital we know about, he never got the chance to tell us. We found him yesterday out in the desert" Kazekage explained. "what was his mission?" Akio inquired. " that's just it, he wasn't on a reconnaissance mission, or any form of a mission involving crucial information being and needing to be transmitted back to us, it was just a simple escort mission, which we have now found out that said target is dead, in the same fashion." the Kazekage then throws a bundle of files he had hidden in his coat at Akio, who started to inspect them. "those all are victim case files from the FBI, an American government organization," Kazekage continued, "all of them died a similar way, which leads to your mission" He handed the joinin a passport, a passenger ship ticket, and a slip of paper with the words "FBI Headquarters" and an address. "you are to go to Dakar in the country of Senegal a country off the coast, then sail to America to meet with two FBI agents working on those cases, reporting back to us whenever possible." The ninja stood there scanning the files for awhile before responding "alright, all of this makes sense, you want me to support the Americans' with what seems to be dangerous serial killer, which I've done things like this in the past, except for one thing that's been nagging at me" The Kazekage raises one eyebrow in curiosity, "and that is..."
"why is this an A-class mission, I can see this being a B mission or maybe a C mission with my students"
The Kazekage sat in serious silent.
"what makes this so serious, and why was he involved in thi-"
"His body was found inside the Barrier," The village leader interrupted with dread," we found him two miles inside:
"H-he was in..." Akio stuttered, complex shocked by this impossible action. The Barrier, The young ninja pondered, is the ultimate defense of the village, it keeps us hidden and all living creatures out within a five mile radius of the village walls...
"Are you saying we have a imposter here in the village, a murdering ninja?"
Kazekage looked up into his eyes, his look of dread, anger, and complete confusion made Akio worry all the more. "No, all available ninjas were reported in HQ the time of his death, and patrols saw no other people out in the desert" Akio fell to the floor, trying to process this information, "w-what are you saying?"
"Someone, or something found a way into the village, and killed him"
Kazekage now stood overlooking his soldier's course, perhaps blaming himself for what had happened. Meanwhile Akio had now regained his composure, standing up, "this mystery enemy now threatens the entire village, including Megan," he started for the door," I'll kill it myself"
"Akio!"
He froze, slowly turning his head back towards the direction of his boss. "There's more," He said, "he was a puppet ninja, but we never found it on him, the killer stole it. If ANY one were to find out how to use it, it could spell disaster for us all."
But by the time he finished, Akio was gone. Kazekage walked back to his office, staring out his wide outstretched window,
" A killer able to break the Barrier, versus Akio the Sand Fortress. Hmmm, things are going to get interesting..."
Meanwhile...
The insufferable groaning of the restrained sailors did little to affect Jerry's concentration as he tore through the files with eagerness. This was by far one of the best ships he had been on in the past month, hell, the past year seemed like. To Think, Jerry thought to him, I was starving to death nearly a day ago, and now I've found a government filled with international secrets and classified files! "Where were you men heading to anyway? this is a lot of information for just one man to read hmm?" As per the usual, he got the 'Kidnapped and Gagged Sailor Beaten half to death by a super powered freak with an axe' grunt, which after about five or six years of sailing on his own, Jerry has come up with two different meanings
1. Oh!, why yes I would LOVE to tell you everything I know, because you're just so damn gentlemen like and obviously WAAAAY better looking. Want some tea?
Or
2. LET ME GO SO I CAN STRANGLE YOU, YA NO GOOD SHIP KILLER! YOU'LL HANG FOR THIS!, I SWE- Ow Ow Ow everything hurts...
Jerry sighed, although he'd liked to think that the first one was correct, 5 out of 5 times it was the second one, probably...
The claws were playing
Three of them were tossing the distinct green orb of a human soul, like it was a children's ball, as if it meant nothing at all. Two were whirling around and lashing out against each other, seemingly fighting like feral dogs sparing for leftover scraps after the kill. The other three were actually helping the "Master" with his work, turning the pages of various manuals and books, stirring strange liquids, even helping with sewing up the strange object their creator was slaving over...
Jerry entered the darkly lit room, finding a dozen wooden cabinets filled with boxes, binder, folders, film reels, and cassette tapes. "Alright, let's start searching..." He walked to the first cabinet, blowing off the dust that painted the boxes and files...
Suddenly the door swung open, energetic and eager rays of light invaded the dark workroom, touching and invading any space it was allowed in its reach. "Master... We've found two more" the shadow figure opened a large box he was carrying, blinding light burst from it as a pair of spheres was visible, sparks jumping back and forth from itself. One was, Deep blue, a blue that made the very seas look bland and grey, the other a Baja like yellow, seeming the same color as sand, the "Sparks" on this one seemed more like shifting sand, ever changing, ever flowing...
"Let's see... Victim files? No. Reports on corrupt government officials, nope. Flying mysterious objects? I'll keep that one"
Two of the talons bring the case to their working leader, "Excellent Mr. Fletch. tell me, where did this one come from exactly, doesn't look like any of the other 'gifted' "chuckled the Master, as he picked up the sand colored orb. "We found him during one of the hunts sir, he was defending a human, it took us weeks to finally kill him, even made us go out to the Sahara"
Jerry was now onto the third cabinet, with little to no luck. "Damn..."
He kept searching through everything he could, "there's got to be something here, anything..."
A knock came at the door, which Mr. Fletch answered, whispering to whatever was on the other side. After a couple minutes he closed the door again, "more good news sir, very good news..." The shadow hackled," we've found them milord"
The cabinet came down with a crash, knocking everything over, Jerry kicked the newly formed clutter in frustration, "Damn it all!" Jerry kicks another cabinet, He scanned every inch of the room until he finally stopped at the last shelf. "What do we have here?" The pirate said to himself. He pulls out a large metal box with a massive padlock, TOP SECRET was painted in black on the lid.
"Hehehehe, excellent..." The Master now stopped his work. His talons collie and snap at each other when he turns to fully face the shadow servant.
"Where are they, where is this 'school of gifted'?"
Jerry read the files carefully, fully intrigued by what they had to say. "Eye witness accounts of strange incidents seemingly impossible feats... Flying men, people turning into various animals...", he puts down the file and continues on to the next report, "Reports of disappearing school children... Seemingly vanishing after running into pillar... Kings Cross Station..."
"In England sir, the entire civilization is well hidden from the non gifted, but with the souls we've collected so far, we have the power to avoid these defenses"
The master grinned a long, psychotic looking grin, " to think, an entire nation of super humans, living right under Briton's nose, and you have the location of the academy?"
"Yes Master, we only await your orders..."
He puts the newly discovered items in a bag which was slung over his shoulder, "well this is my first lead in a year" Jerry thought openly to himself, as he navigated his way back to the deck of the ship, "that and I'm not really sure how flying disks will help me find a lost sea..." He jumps off the deck and lands on the Mary's Son, making the little boat sway violently in the sea. "So I guess it's been decided then", sitting down after adjusting the sails, "To Kings Cross Station!"
"Activate an entire division of Them, we begin our attack as soon as She is ready", the Master sits back down and proceeds to continue working, "Your target is the School of Gifted, bringing back lab rats, and any informational texts about their powers as you can find"
"Yes milord, right away" the door swings close, the roar of the impact echoing in the room"
" he he he, it's almost time to play my newest child..."
"Almost time, Mein kleines Spielzeug..."