Stillbirth

You've got the police force. You've got the rogues. You've got the bounty hunters. You've got the assassins. At least they have categories so you know where they stand; the MAIH don't. –

Asuma Sarutobi

Zwei

"MAIH, doesn't sound very intimidating does it?" a drawl and inhale of smoke, blowing it out and it fluttered up; clogging the air. "You want to know what it means?" chuckling and a tap on the rim of the ashtray – ash falling from the cigarette. "Technically it's a grammatically misleading word that may point to a specific sort of group. Actually," inhale, smoke curling. "It's a generalized term that the HALE use. Want to know what that means to, huh?"

More laughter, coarse voice continuing after another drag of the slowly disappearing cigarette, "HALE stands for Heavily Armed Law Enforcers. At least, that's what the government wants you to think." The cigarette was snuffed out, another drawn from a pocket and lit, put between lips. "'Course the public seems to believe that they have their best interest at heart; taking out the trash and whatnot. Hunting down missing kids and people, putting murderers, rapists and thieves, drug dealers and all those people who help make the world go around out of everyone's lives." Chuckling, "Yeah you heard me right," inhale and blowing out.

"Not jail. Hunt them down, kill them wherever they are like rabid dogs," index curling and firing the imaginary pistol. "Bang." A pause then, "HALE and the government doesn't really take too kindly to the bounty hunters, since they seem to suck their money out of their pockets like a bunch of leeches, but they still pay of course. The little sects people live in, like a family of forty or so, are being broken up so that they have no choice but to thrive off the HALE. Taking away their guns, ammunition, even pepper spray – taking away their means of protection so they have to depend on them; pay them and listen and obey. That's why they hate the MAIH."

A sigh, "You still around for the MAIH, aren't you?" tongue cluck, "Mercenary Agents Illegally Hired. Not just mercenaries; scouts, bodyguards, anything. But they keep to this name to put them out of business, make them to be suspicious of to force them to come crawling to the HALE for dependence. Bastards. Complicated, but what do you expect from a bunch of punks who have money in their eyes?" inhale, exhale.

"If anyone asks you who you heard it from, you can tell them but you might end up in a loony bin. After all," large smile, lazy and smoke exiting from a long slit in a tanned throat, "dead men can't talk."

…

…

"Eight hours, Tsunade."

Hazel catlike eyes flit to the ticking clock above them on the opposite wall, hands folded beneath her chin. "So it is."

Dark eyes narrowed, usually lazy and not alert, "What now?"

"It all depends. We could just…consider her dead, or we consider her still missing and we send out search parties." Tsunade's voice was even and reptilian in the most horrid of ways.

"We consider her missing and we're going to have a meeting on her disappearance."

She sighed and tipped back in her chair, "Shikamaru, you and I both know that we are running low on people, it was too risky sending just two of them to the Bad Lands, but our best scout?"

Shikamaru stared back evenly, "Hinata was sent out willingly, she knew the risks."

Tsunade looked off, "No one was able to be sent with her?"

"Neji had been in the infirmary, Kiba and Shino had just arrived from Osaka being bodyguards to an uprising politician. Temari and Naruto had just come back from stakeouts…Lee was in the infirmary along with Tenten."

"And Gaara?"

Shikamaru stuffed his hands in his pockets, "Incapacitated."

Tsunade looked at Shikamaru, "Nara you are taking full responsibility for this and whatever you're planning had better be worth this."

Shikamaru scratched the back of his head, standing from his chair, "It will be."

He opened the door and turned back to throw something over his shoulder while he left, "I'll gather everyone in the gathering room."

The door shut after his departure and Tsunade stared into her sake cup. Grabbing her glass, "Cheers, Nara." She downed it her alcohol in a single gulp.

…

…

A blank white eyed stare. "Come again Nara?"

Shikamaru sighed, "She was sent in as an escort for the supplies truck. She sounded like she was being attacked and then, nothing."

Neji, one of their top assassins stared unflinchingly at the black haired Nara. His eyes narrowed, "You lost my cousin, Nara."

Shikamaru said nothing, feeling guilt ripple through him like a stone being thrown in water. "I know."

"You sent her to her death Nara. What the hell were you thinking, sending her to the Bad Lands?" Neji's voice, while even was menacing, undertones of pain being promised to his equal.

"I know I did Neji, and there was no one else to send. You and your squad just came back from your mission this morning." Shikamaru stared back at Neji whose jaw clenched.

"If I find her body Nara, you won't have the same privileges she will have." His voice was a razor made of ice.

Shikamaru said nothing for a moment, expecting such a statement (not a threat) from Neji, "Tsunade wants us all to gather in the gathering room." Neji didn't nod, only glared, ice picks in his eyes. He shut the door heavily in Shikamaru's face with a loud bang.

Shikamaru walked away and his fingers were itching for another cigarette.

"I win."

He stared blankly at the computer screen while the other beside him on her chair sighed loudly, "I can't believe it. You beat me at pinball."

Shikamaru shrugged at Hinata, "I told you you'd regret it."

Mumbling she sighed and waved at hand at him patiently, "Alright, alright, enough with the subtle gloating already." Her face reminded him of his when he had to do overtime or anything that required energy. "I never thought you were one for sweets."

Shikamaru shrugged, "I like them well enough."

Hinata's nose wrinkled at him, "Hm, raisin and peanut butter cookies eh?" Shikamaru nodded slightly closed his eyes and leaned back into his chair. A moment of content silence, not including the small clicks and beeping noises the computers let out. Shikamaru withdrew a cigarette from his jacket and was going for his lighter, but was stopped. "Don't smoke," Hinata's nose was wrinkled a bit and she'd stolen his lighter.

Shikamaru let out a loud sigh, "Don't be troublesome Hinata."

Hinata frowned at him, "Just don't smoke when I'm around okay? It smells horrible."

Shikamaru sighed, "Troublesome," he muttered when Hinata handed him his lighter back, leaning back in her chair and Shikamaru tucked the cigarette behind his ear.

"Thank you Shikamaru."

Another loud sigh and he clicked 'restart game'.

Rounding a corner, there was a disposal can and he reached into his pocket to withdraw his last pack of cigarettes. He stared at the dark purple label for a moment. "Don't smoke them while I'm around, okay?" He tossed the pack in the trash can and walked away silently, with a blank look on his face. Troublesome.

…

…

"You can't kill me," a taunting voice, the shine of blades in the night with a full moon. Crisp cool air that nearly caused her to shiver, sweat beaded at her temples and her arms ached.

"Yes I can!" she ran at him, prized battle fan at her side, and a large meat cleaver in her other hand. She'd moved so quickly but he only stayed in place. Her fan snapped closed, and went straight through his heart, out the other side and the large meat cleaver sliced through his neck almost completely, leaving him as a human Pez dispenser.

He went still, slicked back silver hair shining in the light and light green eyes still glowing, smug grin on still on his face.

Temari got closer to him, "Yes I can. I can."

Then he blinked and his head twisted to look over at her and his grin faded, replaced by a bitterer half smile. "I wish."

He twisted and slammed his leg into her solar plexus, with her hands still holding on to her weapons tightly so she also ripped them out of him.

She landed heavily and looked up to watch the muscles and veins of his dismembered neck slowly stitch together while his skin stretched and covered it. No wound was left.

The three bladed weapon he wielded was lifted, "I told you. You can't kill me."

Temari stared at him, "I will. I'll gut you and rip out your fucking organs with your own goddamn scythe and eat your heart you son of bitch."

A blade touched her neck, "Promise? For me?"

Behind him, the moon cracked open like an egg and dropped from the sky, leaving darkness.

"Temari…Temari?" teal eyes snapped open to look at the blonde partner beside her. Bright blue eyes gazed at her, "Why were we called here?" he questioned, looking at the sterile white room they were currently in, the two of them leaning against a wall.

"I don't know Naruto."

He frowned and stared at her almost disapprovingly, "You still thinking about that guy?"

Her eyes met his and she didn't look away, "Just a dream I had, that's all."

He nodded once and took a look at the other people gathered in the room with them; the two medics Ino and Sakura stood side by side without bickering, Neji, Lee and Tenten all grouped together with looks as though they had just visited a graveyard on their faces, Kiba and Shino, Chouji, Shikamaru…even the rookies and apprentices were there; Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon. Except one.

Tsunade strolled to the front of the sterile room to the white desk, leaning on it. "I've called all of you here because we have a…problem that we need to"-

"A problem? A problem is less serious than the kidnapping of my cousin and our best scout," Neji hissed, eyes flashing and Naruto stiffened, turning to Tsunade.

"Neji"-

"What!? Hinata's been kidnapped?! Are you shitting me?" Naruto blurted out.

Tsunade sent Neji a dirty look, "Yes, while she was out on an escort mission to the Bad Lands, the supplies truck had been late so she was going to search for it, but she was attacked and then it cut off."

Silence, awkward, stifling silence and Tsunade dug into her shirt, reaching between her mammoth sized breasts to draw out a silver flask. "What are we planning on doing then?" Kiba's voice came out, gruff and concerned for his friend.

Tsunade tipped the flask and swallowed before answering, "Your Commander has decided that we consider her missing. We will be sending out a search party for Hinata and another one to find out where the hell the supplies truck went"-

"Screw the goddamn truck Tsunade! One of our men is missing and you want us to play hide and seek with a truck?"

"One you brat, you're out of line, two that goddamn truck is our supplies truck; not just ammunition but water and food that was supposed to last us during the winter since you know that the companies won't send their people out in bad weather where they can be easy prey for bandits. Unless you feel like starving, then fine, everyone search for one scout and forget the supplies that we will die without." Her voice was a razor, thin and sharp; eyes cold and reptilian like a snake's.

Naruto fell silent, "Who are you going to send to look for the Hyuuga?" voice like a violent current of dark water cut through the silence after Tsunade's outburst.

Tsunade rose a blonde brow, "What's it to you? You know you can't leave the base Uchiha."

Sasuke, leaning on the wall near the door gave her a dark look, "You're going to be short on men Tsunade."

"We're already short on men Uchiha. I see no reason why I should let you out of the underground base to take a wee little tinkle, much less look for our best scout or the supplies truck."

Sasuke snorted, "You think that excluding one of your best mercs is a good idea?"

"After the little show you displayed the last time you went out on a mission, yeah, it's a damn good idea."

Sasuke's mouth curled into a smirk, "The Bad Lands is my home, Tsunade. You think anybody else knows it as well as I do?"

Tsunade returned the smirk with a nasty grin of her own, "Gaara does."

Sasuke shrugged, "Yeah, one merc. Two search parties; not the greatest equation don't you think?"

Tsunade's cat eyes narrowed at the Uchiha before her eyes snapped shut and she chuckled, "Fair enough Uchiha. You finally get to outside and take a piss. Everyone else, you get new groups and you will search for what you have been directed to search for, understand?"

Temari turned her head to Sasuke who was no longer smirking, but a blank look on his face. He must have felt the blonde's gaze because he turned and met her dark teal eyes which narrowed further. I'm watching you Uchiha.

Sasuke turned from Temari's sharp gaze back to Tsunade who was assigning the teams.

…

…

Gaara stood in front of the tall metal door.

"So, what now?"

"Now? Now you die."

Gaara closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against the cold metal of the door, inhaling after voices of the past invaded his thinking space.

Gunpowder in the air, dark sky and empty buildings – goddamn his side hurt, bleeding, bleeding. The smell of his own blood clogged his senses. Coughing – forget his side, his whole body hurt like hell. Silver gun lay in his hand – blood smudges. He coughed again and felt wet on his cheeks.

Crunch of gravel, geta shoes, white kimono, pale skin, pale eyes, dark hair, "What now?" the familiar looking grim reaper had come for him. If death looked like this, maybe dying wasn't so bad.

Fingers twisted dark hair, "Now?" another hand lifted and he saw a black handgun. "Now you die."

Huh. Who would've thought death used a gun?

A sudden gunshot rang in the air.

His eyes slid closed and he opened the door. It creaked on its heavy hinges while doing so.

He stepped slowly into the room; all forms of odd botany taking up space of the room. Twisted trunks of miniature trees gave life to several flowers – purple as poison. Drooping flowers hung from the ceiling that had vines running all around it. Odd perfumes and aromas assaulted his senses and he sneezed twice.

Only one person would ever want to live in a jungle when they had all been bred in the desert or the big city.

His eyes were still open and he was still breathing. Death stood over him, eyes not on him. The sound of a body dropping to the ground answered his unsaid question. "Are you going to kill me?"

The shadows on death's face shifted and he knew death looked familiar. "I should."

Gaara nodded and coughed up blood, "You should."

Gun tucked into her obi, she stooped and gripped under his arms. "I thought you were death," he couldn't speak clearly, or think clearly apparently.

"Do you really think death would look like me?"

He didn't say that in his mind, if death looked as nice and gentle compared to the apparition he was surely going to get one day, he wouldn't mind dying anyway.

He reached out to a particularly lonely looking flower confined to a small table in the corner that was browned and wilting. The petals slipped from it and carnivorous teeth lashed out at Gaara, long tongue with needles slicing his skin. He pulled back from it quickly and stared at the flower. The dead petals had been shed to unveil black petals that bordered red and a light shade of orange.

It stood straight and tall now while feathery short plumes of petals rose up beneath its jagged green leaves. Gaara watched this transformation and saw in his peripheral vision a vial of red standing beside a small pile of botany books on her nightstand.

The other plants seemed the shift at the sense of someone there to feed them.

He walked over to her nightstand and opened the drawer, seeing a bound book of leather lying on the bottom. He stared at it; 'The History of Artificial Intelligence and the Origins of Cyborgs.'

Hinata was a botanist, a scout – she was not a machinist. He ran a steady hand through his hair, ruffling his bangs.

Picking the book up, it opened and he came across highlighted places; odd drawings of cyborgs he'd never seen before – their original blueprints were completely different from the ones that were sold now. They looked to be cheaper to make and environmentally efficient. He turned the page – dozens of unknown mathematical formulas were also highlighted and a few solutions, corrections and extra formulas were written beneath the drawings and along the sides.

Arrows pointing to certain parts of the cyborg had page numbers written on it.

Gaara flipped through the book, skimming it quickly and found highlighting, corrections and add ins everywhere.

A small barely noticeable bulge came from the beginning introduction to the book and he opened up to the page. Something fluttered to the ground and Gaara felt his blood freeze.

A black slip of paper with a single red cloud stared back up at him from the floor.

…

…

Naruto followed Temari, feeling the bad vibes radiating from his deadly partner, also feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up while his spine shivered, "Temari?"

"What is it?"

"I've got this…really bad feeling in my gut that tells me something's going to happen – and when it hits the fan…it's gonna be hell to clean up.

Temari stopped short and looked at Naruto from the corner of her eye, "Going to happen? Naruto, whatever is happening is already in motion and from the looks of it, only two people in this whole freaking building have any clue on what's happening. One is Tsunade," she held up one finger, "And the other one is that lazy smartass of a commander we have," another finger went up. "And I don't think they're going to tell us till the last minute."

"Temari aren't you being a tad paranoid? I c'mon. They're our superiors so they've got no reason to hide anything from us." Naruto stood in front of the blonde whose wild hair was pinned up by four pigtails.

"Just because they're our superiors doesn't mean they're going to keep us in the loop about everything Naruto."

The blue eyed male was taken aback by the harshness of her tone of voice. "What the hell makes you think they're hiding anything in the first place?"

"Tsunade can be cold, but sounding like she wanted to let Hinata's disappearance slide like that, low on people or not, is suspicious activity in its own, but letting Uchiha out of the base so soon?"

"Tsunade said that Sasuke could only go because he knew the Bad Lands!" Naruto protested loudly.

Temari gave her partner a cold look, "Exactly why he shouldn't go in the first place."

Naruto stared at her, "What's your problem Temari? I mean really. What the hell? You're being really paranoid and bitchy!"

"I'm always paranoid and bitchy you dimwit!" she snapped, irritated at her partner's density.

"Not like this – you're so tense I bet I could bounce a coin off your tatas and have it hit me back! Not only that but you keep giving off a murderous vibe."

Temari stared at him, only Naruto would bring up the subject of tatas when he was concerned. "Naruto there's just something…eerie going on and you know how I get when I'm out of the loop."

The other blonde didn't budge, only observed her, "I guess this means you wanna beat on me, huh?"

"…Yeah. Be at the training area in ten minutes," it was an order and with that she walked away to her room.

Naruto looked after her. Temari's words were cryptic caused the blonde to give pause. His partner was an odd person all around, bloodthirsty, intelligent and all around intimidating because she was what she'd been bred to be. It was hard to describe her, she was just what Gaara had been born to be, what Kankurou…

Naruto winced. Kankurou; the jackass who hated kids had been ruthless and a total bastard but still a reliable person…

He had been perhaps the only person besides Gaara who could ever describe and fully understand Temari. Well, he used to be.

Whatever was driving Temari into such an alert state wasn't going to be good; it gave him chills. "Uzumaki." Naruto turned to come face to face with Sasuke who was staring at him with a serious gaze. The blonde scowled at the raven haired mercenary.

"What is it you bastard?"

"Whoever got Hyuuga probably knew what they were doing." His voice was even and the blonde wondered if he was mocking Hinata. Naruto felt his hackles rise at the thought.

"What?"

"I've checked her stats, she seriously lacks in strength and battle tactics but out of all of us, she's the best at hiding and running. She's smart and fast. She shouldn't have been caught so fast." Naruto stared at Sasuke and realized that his black haired friend was completely serious. "Whoever the hell got her must have been a professional. This is not just a kidnapping. She was our best scout and scouts are on their toes more than mercs are because they can't fight or take hits like we can."

Naruto saw a pair of red rims in his friend's eyes. "So…what are you saying?"

"She's a Hyuuga – what are the chances that some big shot wanting a piece of a fortune she could bring would be behind this?" Sasuke stared hard at Naruto who met his gaze.

"Sasuke…"

"It would be a top secret selling profit – Black Market deal."

Naruto clenched his fists, "Did you tell Tsunade?"

"No. She should know by now and if she doesn't, then what's the point? She's not the one bringing back Hyuuga."

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke glared at Naruto. "I'm only on this mission because I'd like to get some fresh air from this hellhole and I owe Hyuuga a small favor."

Naruto blinked and out of shock said nothing, "Favor?"

Sasuke closed his eyes and ignored Naruto, "We leave tomorrow morning. Get some sleep idiot." He walked away from the blonde silently who looked after him.

-

-blush- You guys are great, so many reviews and they're so long. O///O Hah! I didn't give you the teams. Next chapter they depart and the teams are given out.

Keep sending in requests for pairings if you like. I'm not anti-reviews cause I like them all; the good the bad and the ugly. For this story, there may be character death and it could be anyone; i.e. Hinata, Gaara, Naruto, Sakura, Tenten etc. I'm already leaning toward killing one character, you may suggest who I can kill because sooner or later I'm going to have to kill someone (for the plot's sake people, cripes). However, do NOT send reviews screaming 'zomg! Please don't kill…! Because you can't kill (insert name!) If you do then I won't read or review your story!!11 D:' yeah. That'll just piss me off and make me want to kill them more. :D Huzzah passive aggressiveness. XD

I got a job…as an assistant. So freaking awesome.

Explanations:

The man at the introduction is pretty obvious I hope, but if you don't know who it was that started the chapter, it was Asuma and yes he is dead, but I just wanted to try something out.

'Mercs' is just a shortened word for mercenaries; you guys don't really need it explained but just in case.