Chapter Three: Ryuu-sama the Great

"The game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet, you can't win."
- Robert Heinlein

Tiger handed him the prisoner. The prisoner wasn't a large man, but he was sweaty and he smelled of fear. The fear helped. This wasn't going to be too hard. They had killed all the other sound nin in the small camp except him and the last ninja was darting glances between the three of them, his body literally wracked with fear. Their ANBU outfits were quite fearsome, after all. Iruka squatted down and smiled at the prisoner nicely. Of course the man couldn't see his smile since it was covered by his porcelain mask but he liked to think his brown eyes gave off a warm feel. He wanted to put the man at ease before he began. He could feel the gaze of Hawk at his back.

Iruka was Owl. And he rather liked the name. Nothing too fearsome and he felt the name rather fit his persona. And with a bit of mad irony that this world was throwing him, his taichou was Hawk. His every mission was to be paired with Itachi. At least he could keep an eye on his murderer this way, he thought with an inward sigh. The other member of their three-person team was Tiger, who he knew to be Genma. He wondered if the man was going through senbon withdrawal since he couldn't suck on them while wearing the porcelain mask.

This was a sort of test, he knew. He was part of the team and every member functioned as part of a different set of separate specialties. He knew perfectly well what his specialties were supposed to be. And as he looked down at the quaking sound-nin, he knew that he needed to make a good impression.

"We need to be going, Owl." he heard Hawk say behind him quietly.

"Just give me about five minutes." Iruka said softly. He preformed the Kage Bunshin jutsu and four of him appeared behind him and started tying the prisoner down with chakra wires, as well stripping him naked. He felt the questioning looks of his teammates but he ignored them.

"No, no, please don't!" the prisoner started screaming.

"Hush." Iruka placed a muffling jutsu on the mouth of the prisoner.

Iruka continued tying the prisoner up until he was completely tied up, spread eagled, staked to the ground. Then he sat indian-style on the prisoner's chest and looked down into his face. The prisoner looked up at him, fear wide and shining bright in his eyes.

"Now, are you going to be quiet?" Iruka asked.

The prisoner groaned.

"Why are you moaning? I haven't even hurt you yet." Iruka laughed and hit him upside the head the head with the backside of a kunai.

The prisoner whimpered in anxiety.

"You have a few minutes, ne? To answer my questions. Let's play a little game, us. I like games." Iruka leaned forward and peered down at the prisoner. There was an odd lilt to Iruka's voice. He knew it; he had added the tone to his voice on purpose.

"Four minutes." One of Iruka's clones said looking at his watch.

"Okay, here's the game. We're going to play truth or dare!" Iruka laughed lightly. "Surely you played that in Sound, right? I'm going to ask you a question and you're going to tell me the truth." Iruka tapped the head of the prisoner with his kunai again. Then he laughed again. "And if you don't, well, then I'm going to be dared to be creative! Simple, ne?"

"Fuck you." The prisoner whispered.

"Fuck me?" Iruka laughed. "Aww…tempting offer but you're not really my type. Besides, you haven't even heard about the grand prize!"

"Three minutes, thirty seconds." One of the Iruka clones said.

"The grand prize is that we'll let you go free if you tell me." Iruka said, his voice taking on a solemn tone, peering back down at the prisoner's face. "Seriously, I know it sounds like a lie, but I'm telling you the truth. Our mission isn't to kill you. You could get away. Tell me where the Akane Morioka is hiding and we will let you go."

Iruka could feel the prisoner tremble beneath him. He wanted to tell. He was very close.

"Three minutes." One of the clones said.

"Let's start the game, ne?" Iruka said, leaning down and rubbing his masked face against the prisoner.

He paused.

"I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but I have you tied up with chakra wire. I have an exploding tag tied to each of your hands, feet and your dick."

"Two minutes, thirty seconds." One of the Iruka clones said.

"Tell me where Akane Morioka is." Iruka asked again from where he was sitting on the prisoner's chest and tapped his chest with the kunai again. "Or I'll explode one of the tags."

"Two minutes." An Iruka clone said after a few empty moments of silence.

"Fuck you." The prisoner said weakly.

"Sorry, darling. Wrong answer." Iruka said sadly and stood. "Let's see…which one shall I…?" He exploded the tag on the man's right hand. The prisoner cried out in agony.

"One minute, thirty seconds." One of the Iruka clones said impassively.

The prisoner was crying pitifully, his hand a mangled mess. Iruka leaned over, did the signs for healing chakra and began healing it. The prisoner looked up at him in astonishment.

"One minute." The clone said.

"Tell me where Akane Morioka is. And we will let you go free." Iruka said softly, earnestly. "I give you my word."

"Thirty seconds." The clone said.

The prisoner looked up into his warm brown eyes. The prisoner hiccupped and started explaining about the location. When he was done he bowed his head and looked at Iruka who nodded and finished healing his hand.

"Thank-you very much." Iruka said gratefully then stood bowed to the prisoner. He then severed his spinal column quickly with his favored wakizashi blade. Blood splattered on his white porcelain mask and he looked up. Hawk was standing very close, watching keenly.

"Hn." Hawk said.

Tiger was also watching, but he turned to the side and retched slightly. It was obvious unlike Hawk; he had no stomach for torture.

"What?" Iruka said in a defensive voice towards Tiger.

"Did Bear teach you that? Was that…exactly honorable, Owl?" Tiger said.

Iruka shrugged. "First of all, you said I had very little time. I got the information we needed, didn't I? And…no, Bear is all brute force. And it depends on your definition of 'people'? He was an enemy shenobi, Tiger. And that's enough of a technicality to keep T&I dizzy for centuries."

"I don't think about it like that." Tiger said.

Iruka growled at him. "Then you shouldn't watch me work. And get off your high horse." He turned and started to stalk away. "Oh, well, what do you know?"

Tiger stopped him. "Didn't you used to teach pre-genin a few weeks ago?"

"That man died." Iruka said absently.

Tiger tried to stop him. "You alright?"

Iruka rolled his eyes at Tiger. "Top of the world, let's just get going. Don't we have someone to assassinate?" Iruka walked over to Hawk. "Shouldn't we be gone?"

"Yes." Hawk said.

Iruka had to admit, it didn't bother him as much as he thought it would. He had been trained in torture from Ibiki but he had never done it before personally. He wasn't sure exactly why but he felt as though he could compartmentalize the necessity of it much better now. Something was different, though. Iruka knew in the past he would've been up for weeks crying about this. He brushed the emotion off. He assumed it was wisdom that came from age. Or determination from laying out his plans and goal to save Konoha. Objectively he felt bad for the prisoner but he was from an enemy village and that was part of shenobi life. He was a Tokubetsu jounin and ANBU now and knew his specialty was T&I. It was time to start earning his keep.

Iruka looked down at his hands; they were covered in the Sound nin's blood. They weren't shaking. He knew that sound mean something but he couldn't exactly place it.

The three of them surged forward into the night with chakra in their feet, dancing through the trees. They reached the safe house where Akane Morioka was being held. It almost looked too easy. Very few guards, they apparently didn't believe they would be found. Twinkling lights of candles shone through a few of the windows. The building was roughly donut-shaped, with a courtyard in the middle and walkways around it. Silently Hawk passed orders around to Tiger and Owl. They nodded, and then descended on the house. Hawk took point, followed closely by Owl and Tiger took the rear position. The quickly cleared all the guards from the perimeter silently with a few well placed jabs with kunai to pressure points. They masked their chakra and stuck to the shadows and entered the house through a window and separated into two groups.

Tiger went by himself and Hawk took Owl in the other direction. Iruka did not take it personally. He knew the psychology of the whole thing. He knew he was the rookie and he completely understood the reasoning that they were keeping him with the more seasoned member so that he could not only gain experience, but be protected as well as have his performance evaluated. The only part of it that grated on his nerves is that it was Itachi. He was still trying to get over the whole 'murderer' thing, hard not to dwell on it when you have to work with him every day.

As Itachi and him stalked down a particularly long hallway it split into three rooms; Itachi motioned for him to check out a room by himself. Iruka opened the door silently, crouched low. It was an office, a large number of scrolls lying on the desk. Iruka's interest peeked, unabashedly. He couldn't help himself. His thief's nature reared its ugly head and before he realized what he head, he slipped one of the scrolls into his kunai pouch and he was slipping back out of the room.

Hawk was standing in the corridor looking at him. Iruka shook his head, nope nothing to see, no one in the room. They continued searching and met up with Tiger at the far side of the house. The other ANBU had found Akane Morioka and already dispatched him. Oh. Well, that was anticlimactic, Iruka thought. I guess it's nice being part of a team. They left the silent house and continued onwards towards home.

Later that night they were on their way back to Konoha after the assassination. They stopped for the night to rest; Tiger had volunteered for the first shift. Iruka was pretty sure he just wanted to get away from him. He sighed. Had something shifted in their relationship? He had always gotten along well with Genma in the past.

He sat against a tree trunk and closed his eyes, trying to sleep, although he knew he wasn't going to. He didn't hear Itachi but he sensed his chakra nearing. He tensed up internally. He had told Sandaime and Itachi that Kakashi had taught him chidori because they were friends. Of course since Kakashi was luckily out of Konoha on that mission for two months he couldn't deny the fact they didn't know each other. Of course, once Kakashi actually returned he'd have to come up with a better reason. He was still pretty sure they didn't believe him since Kakashi didn't really have friends and probably wouldn't teach other people his signature technique. He felt Itachi sit nearby. Iruka couldn't help himself; he opened his eyes and studied the younger man.

They were wearing their ANBU outfits with masks. But he could see the younger man was watching him as well.

"Want to play cards?" Iruka asked.

Itachi seemed a little confused, his head tilted to the side.

"Cards?"

Iruka dug into one of his kunai pouches and pulled out a deck of cards. "It's better with more people, but more fun than just sitting here, ne?"

Itachi shook his head a little.

"Back to contemplating my lunacy, Hawk?" Iruka offered.

"Always." Itachi said and Iruka got the feeling he was smirking.

Tiger jumped down from the trees into the clearing. "What are you going to play?" He asked, almost hesitantly.

"I was thinking about gin rummy…?" Iruka said and began to explain the rules.

Iruka began dealing the cards and soon the three of them were playing, occasionally making comments as they discarded and acquired cards. Iruka won the first game, then the second game, and the third game. Itachi narrowed his gaze at him and he shrugged.

"Are you cheating, Owl?" Tiger complained. "I can understand you beating me, but how can you beat Hawk?"

"I like games, ne?" Iruka said and laughed.

Genma turned a little green.

"You know, just because I'm not a 'prodigy' doesn't mean I'm not smart." Iruka felt himself say tartly, folding the cards back into their case and putting them away. "And I wasn't cheating."

"I didn't think you were cheating." Hawk said. "I saw your intelligence scores in your file."

Iruka turned and looked at the man. He wanted to yell at him for snooping about him in his files, but on the other hand, Itachi was his taichou. Iruka's file very well may have been given to him to review since he was to be a part of his team and it may make him look foolish to get angry. He may have a quick, fiery temper but he really was working to control it. Iruka took a deep breath and nodded, and put his cards away in his kunai pouch, swallowing his anger that the man had read his file.

"Can we just head back now? I'm not tired and if we hurry maybe I can sleep in my own bed." Iruka asked, putting his cards away.

The team looked at each other and Itachi nodded slowly.

Iruka stood and erasing signs that they'd been there. Then they were off. When they reached Konohagakure, they separated, each going their own way. As taichou, it was Itachi's responsibility to see that the mission report was completed and handed in. Iruka walked off towards his apartment, glad to have some time to himself. The first mission hadn't been that difficult at all, he thought to himself. He had, in fact, probably done some missions as a chuunin in his past life that he had much more difficulty with. Iruka was bothered by the fact that he wasn't more troubled by the fact that he had tortured the man, but he reasoned that he had been trained to do this job. Dawn was cresting over Konoha. He stopped at a market and picked up some strawberries, and walked home.

He changed out of his outfit, showered and slipped into his favorite soft pajama bottoms; they were a gift from Naruto; blue with little dolphins on them. He knew they were ridiculous and a little small for him but he liked them. He flipped on the television and sat on the couch, reading a book on advanced medical on ninjutsu training. He wanted to pick up a few extra skills for his team. He already knew basic healing having learned it as a teacher, but some more healing would be a nice extra skill to have he thought since he knew fighting wasn't his strong suit. He leaned over and ate a strawberry absently.

Iruka realized he needed to make a decision about who he was going to take out next. He had mental list and he sighed. He was a little nervous knowing full well who he wanted to kill next. The sheer audacity of what he wanted to do and what he was planning to do. He had would have to do it carefully of course. He had to look underneath the underneath. He would have to look one way while having his hands moving in the opposite direction. Misdirection. His hands fidgeted nervously. He couldn't believe he was contemplating killing Danzo. But it really had to be done. Sooner, rather than later. How did one get around all of the Root bastards? Obviously a blunt attack was just…not possible. He put his mind to thinking and ate another strawberry.

Then he remembered the scroll that he stolen on the mission earlier in the night and he smacked his own forehead. Idiot! He got up and raced back to his bedroom and pulled the scroll out of his kunai pouch and sat on the floor of his bedroom to read it excitedly.

Iruka frowned. It was a complicated scroll, old with lots of seals and kanji symbols. It was, he realized after a few moments of holding his breath, a summoning scroll. A very powerful one that probably belonged in someone's forbidden archive. He spent a good hour reading and re-reading the scroll for any hidden loops in the contract. He wasn't going to put his name to any summoning contract that gave away his power or attached his name to something that he didn't want it to. A summing contract was binding, after all. And not easily undone. This wasn't exactly something he could go to Sandaime to explain he if made a muck of it. Better to have it and explain the future existence of it later at some point, the reasoned…

He cut his palm with a kunai, then laid it on the contract and poured some chakra it and summoned his will into the scroll. He groaned as he felt the willpower, the spirit, the force of the being thrust forward. Iruka groaned dizzily and fell back against the floor and looked up.

There was a dragon in his bedroom.

Seriously, a tiny dragon flying over his futon. And it looked rather grumpy. This was completely surreal. It was about twelve feet long, with a long curling tail, and two webbed wings. It had horns on it head and four feet. It looked scaly but, not cold. It was an iridescent red color. Its wings were flapping in the air, holding itself aloft in the air gently.

"Who are you to call me up from my slumber, mortal?" It said, a little forked tongue peeking out between its lips.

Iruka waved the contract feebly. "Contract…" Oh, crap, Iruka thought. Does it always take so much chakra to call forward a summon? Or is it just because he didn't have much chakra to begin with? Or because the dragon was so large a summon? Kakashi never seemed so severely depleted after he summoned Pakkun! Iruka looked at the dragon with wonder. He didn't even realize there was such a thing as dragon summons until this point. This was…so much cooler than a pug. He couldn't wait to tell Kakashi. Well, if he ever became friends with Kakashi again.

"I see that." The dragon said and even appeared to be frowning.

"I'm sorry." Iruka began. "I have never had a summons before. I didn't exactly know how to go about doing it. What is your name? I'm Umino Iruka." Iruka said politely. He sat up and smiled.

"And I am not merely a creature to summon up at your whim. Who says I want to be your summons, dolphin? Who ever heard of a dragon obeying a dolphin, anyways?" The dragon said; a little puff of smoke curling out of his mouth.

The dragon uncoiled in the air until he was even bigger and blew out a puff of fire. "I am the great… Ryuu-sama! Mortals tremble at my presence! Mountains quake at my fire! Clouds part before my fire! Gods have-"

Then Iruka's blanket caught on fire and Iruka stood up then started yelling at Ryuu and pointing angrily.

"Damnit, Ryuu my blanket is on fire!" He rolled the blanket onto the ground and put it out and stomped the fire out. He seized the offensive blanket up and growled at the dragon then held up his fist and shook it in the dragons face.

"Don't ever set fireballs up in my apartment again! Never!" Iruka yelled, his face flushed.

The dragon's tongue forked out and it almost appeared he was pouting. "You're not entirely mortal, are you, Dolphin? How old are you?"

Iruka sighed deeply and set his singed blanket down. "Collectively or right now in this timeline?"

"Time traveler, eh?" The dragon's tongue forked out again, looking intrigued. "Hmm…Well, maybe this dragon will allow a dolphin to befriend him. Not order him around or anything…"

Iruka smiled brilliantly up at the dragon. "Well, Ryuu, that's good because I don't want to order you around. A friend sounds really nice."

"Eh, that's Ryuu-sama the Great to you, dolphin!" The dragon said, puffing himself up.

Iruka scoffed and picked up the summoning scroll from where he had dropped it on the floor and tucked it into his secret stash of all his precious scrolls.

"I really don't think I'm going to call you that." Iruka laughed. "Hey, do you like strawberries?"

"Strawberries? I'm a dragon, not a Chihuahua. What are you, gay?" The dragon groused.

Iruka laughed.

"No, you are?" The dragon groaned. "Of all my luck!"

"Oh, shut up."