Part 7: The Viper's Fangs
Back in Montenegro, Sasuke finished his story, and Sakura finished her dessert.
"What about after that?" Sakura asked.
"I spent another two days in the hospital," Sasuke began, "Went home in a Federal Reserve Helicopter, spent six weeks instead of four in my apartment, finally removed the bandages," Sasuke placed his fingers against the scar, "And this was there."
"I don't mind it," Sakura said as Sasuke paid the check, and they left the restaurant, "It actually looks hot."
"Hot," Sasuke said as he stood next to the driver-side door of his car, "I don't even remember the pain."
"You're tough," Sakura said, "You would have toughed it out."
Sasuke and Sakura got in the Stingray, and drove back to the hotel.
"You want to go over the plans for security tomorrow before we go to sleep?" Sakura asked.
"Sure," Sasuke said as he made a left, and continued driving, "I'd love to."
Sasuke and Sakura arrived back at the hotel, and once inside Sasuke's room, Sasuke laid out the blue-prints for the conference center Duncan would be making his speech from.
"Now we're going to have to stay close to Duncan," Sasuke said, "I'll be strapped with the revolver, and my sword. Hopefully whoever attacks us, if there is one, will be carrying some kind of blade."
"Why is that?" Sakura asked.
"Because that way it'll been an even fight," Sasuke said, "I'm good at mid-range, and I'm the perfect example of short-range engagement," Sakura looked at Sasuke with a fascinated look, "But at long range I'm halfway useless."
"You're skilled at short-range," Sakura asked as she put her hand on top of Sasuke's, "How skilled?"
Sasuke looked into her emerald-green eyes, and smiled, "A master," Sasuke said as he leaned in close, "Completely perfect."
"Completely," Sakura asked as she leaned in closer, "Would you be willing to prove it?"
After they kissed, Sasuke looked back into her eyes, and all that escaped from his mouth was a simple, "Yes."
It was right around 2:32 A.M. when Sakura's eyes snapped open, and she pulled the covers further over her chest, it was way too early to get up, but she looked over at Sasuke who was lying awake next to her, the sheets hung low at his waist.
(Will get into more detail later)
"He wasn't lying about being a perfectionist at short-range," Sakura thought as Sasuke looked over at her, and smiled.
"I thought you were asleep," Sasuke said with a smile.
"I was," Sakura said, "But I think it's about the time we need to talk."
"About?" Sasuke asked.
"About us," Sakura said as she sat up, holding the covers at her chest, "What's going to happen to us now? Where will we go from here? Did you think we made a big mistake? And what does this mean?"
"We can solve those things later," Sasuke said as he placed his hand against Sakura's shoulder, and lowered her back onto the bed, then raised his head upon with his hand, "The only question we can answer right now is what we are."
"What's that?" Sakura asked.
"A couple," Sasuke said as he leaned down, and kissed Sakura, "We'll take this one day at a time. If it becomes something more than good, if not, we should talk about what we should do."
"Ok," Sakura said as she smiled at Sasuke, "Good night."
Sasuke laid down next to her, "What the hell are you doing Sasuke?" Sasuke asked himself.
The number two rule of being undercover is not to get in to deep, when you're in too deep, you get careless, and when you get careless you could blow your cover.
When you blow your cover, the whole thing is blown, and the people you've built a relationship with hates you.
In Sasuke's case, he needed people to like him, he was literally an ocean way from the United States, and he had twenty miles of ocean between him and the rest of Europe.
It is impossible for a human being to swim that far, and if you're able to stow away on the ship, you'd still have to cross through several countries to reach any possible kind of safe haven.
But even if you make it there it can go one of three ways, they can welcome you to their country with open arms, they can send you back, or they could shoot you the second you set foot in their country.
The next morning, Sasuke and Sakura got ready for Duncan to make his speech. Sasuke was dressed in a European-Style military officer's uniform, mimicking an SAS officer, the Colt Python at his belt, and his sword placed in a position so he could draw it easily.
While Sakura was dressed in an ankle-length red dress with red high-heels, and had her Walther PPK strapped to her right thigh.
The party was lively, a European band played some pop music for the first part of the night, and then the slow music came on, and Sasuke was the first one to take Sakura's hands.
While they were out on the dance-floor, Sasuke wrapped his arm around Sakura's waist as Sakura put her hand on Sasuke's shoulder.
As they were dancing, Sasuke looked around, "What is it that you see?" Sakura asked.
"Everything," Sasuke said, "He's walking among us."
"Who?" Sakura asked.
"That's the question," Sasuke said, "He'll wait until Duncan starts his speech."
"Why," Sakura asked, "Why not now?"
"Not enough witnesses," Sasuke said, "Whoever's after the board members is trying to make a statement. He'll attack while the cameras are rolling. If one of the assassins attack, you make sure Duncan gets out of here in one piece."
The song ended suddenly, and as Duncan took the podium, Sasuke and Sakura moved in front of the stage, "Ladies and Gentlemen," Duncan said, "It is a momentous day here in Montenegro, today the Central European Bank opens a new office here in Podgorica…"
It was then that someone in the audience yelled, "HE'S GOT A GUN!"
It was then that Viper came running out of the crowd carrying a suppressed Remington M24 SWS with a hand-made bayonet that was welded onto the bottom of the barrel.
"Get down," Sakura said as she pushed Duncan to the ground right as Viper fired, missing Duncan and Sakura completely, as he pulled back on the bolt, Sasuke pulled out the Python, and fired twice in Viper's direction, "Get Duncan out of here!" Sasuke exclaimed.
As everyone ran out of the room, Sasuke spent the bullets in his chamber, and Viper had spent the ammo in his rifle.
Sasuke tossed the gun aside, and tore off the European-Military jacket to reveal his black-tee shirt, he then swiftly drew his sword, and slid on the gas-mask Tsunade sent him.
"Another Delta," Viper said as he held the Remington like a spear, and they circled each other.
"Former Delta," Sasuke said, "I defected."
"Maybe you did," Viper said as the chairs him and Sasuke were stepping on made a metal clanging sound as the soles of their boots hit them, "But we Ex-Deltas have a motto. Once a Delta, always a Delta."
"Maybe that's the case," Sasuke said, "But at least I defected, instead of taking bribes!"
Viper charged with the M24 outstretched, Sasuke moved out of the way of the blade attached to the end of the rifle, and struck Viper across the back of the neck.
Viper reached up to the back of his head, and there was a small splotch of blood smeared on his fingers, he looked back at Sasuke, and smiled, "Very, very impressive," he said, "No one's ever been able to land a blow on me before."
"There's another old saying," Sasuke said, "Know when you are beaten."
Viper charged himself, and as Sasuke moved out of the way, Viper managed to bring the butt-stock of his rifle against Sasuke's rib-cage.
Sasuke reached around to his rib-cage, and felt it the extent of his injuries, Viper's rifle broke at least one of his ribs.
They then charged at each other.
Sasuke and Viper then crossed blades, the edge of Sasuke's sword was scraping against the part of the blade that was welded to the M24 and the bottom of the suppressor.
They disengaged, and Viper pressed the attack, throwing a stab at Sasuke who moved out of the way, and swung at Viper who dodged the blade.
Viper then swung at Sasuke, and made contact with the glass of Sasuke's mask, Sasuke fell backwards, and landed against the ground with a thud, he opened his eyes, and saw the glass was shattered, it was obvious Viper was wearing his steel-plated gloves.
Sasuke stood up, and as he threw the mask aside, he realized his sword was missing, he looked toward Viper's feet, and saw his sword was resting there.
"I won't fight an unarmed opponent," Viper said as he picked up Sasuke's sword, and stabbed the tip into the ground, "Pick it up."
"Delta Force code of honor," Sasuke said as he picked up his sword, "Who hired you?"
Viper said nothing, and attacked again, this time he swung at Sasuke, which was deflected and then let the momentum of his swing carry the rifle in a full circle.
Sasuke took the side of the rifle against the side of his head, and sent him to the ground.
Viper then tried to stab him, Sasuke quickly threw his boot back, the sole of the boot shattered the visor of Viper's gasmask, after swiftly turning over, he kicked Viper again, and sent his opponent to the ground.
Sasuke then jumped to his feet as Viper threw his broken mask aside revealing a Caucasian male that was completely bald with a scar that ran down the side of his head.
Viper charged once more, Sasuke deflected the blow, and rolled backwards as Viper swiped at him with his knife.
"That's a little unfair," Sasuke said as he stood up, rolled underneath Viper's swing, swiftly turned around, and then sheathed the blade of his sword into Viper's leg.
Viper swatted Sasuke across the face, drawing blood from his nose, and knocking him backwards, landing against the floor with a thud.
Viper then yanked Sasuke's sword out of his leg, and threw the blood-soaked blade on the ground.
After picking himself up, Viper held his M24 above his head, and as he brought it down, he heard a 'CLANG' as Sasuke swiftly put a chair in front of himself as a shield, the blade pierced the chair, but Sasuke was holding it with his arms crossed on his chest, and if his arms weren't there to add additional support, the blade would have pierced his heart.
Sasuke then twisted the rifle out of Viper's hands by flipping the chair around, swept Viper's legs out from underneath him, then threw the chair aside, grabbed another, and swung it at Viper as hard as he could once his opponent stood up.
There was another 'CLANG' as the chair made contact with Viper's skull, and caused blood to explode from his nose.
As Viper laid flat against the ground, Sasuke placed Viper's leg in between the folds of the chair, and then stomped on it, breaking his opponent's foot.
Viper screamed in pain as Sasuke retrieved his sword, and the mask.
"Rule number one they added just after you and your cohorts were expelled," Sasuke said, "When outmatched, cheat."
Sasuke then picked up the chair Viper's M24 was stuck inside, pulled the rifle out, and used the butt-stock to beat Viper on the head until the man lost consciousness.
"Ok," Sasuke said as he latched his gas-mask onto his belt, sheathed his sword, and strapped Viper's M24 around his shoulder, collecting it as a trophy, "You're under arrest."
Sasuke grabbed Viper by the leg, and dragged him toward the door.
Everyone on the other side of the door was waiting with Montenegro Riot Police, and the SAS.
They saw the door open, and Sasuke came out first, dragging Viper behind him.
The crowd then exploded into applause as Sasuke pulled him onto the side-walk.
Sakura rushed up to Sasuke, threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him.
Duncan walked up to Sasuke, "Well done my boy," he said, "Well done."
"Sir," Sasuke said as he handed off his unconscious opponent to the SAS, "Allow me to introduce you to Viper."
"One of the assassins," Duncan said as he looked down at Viper who was bleeding out of his nose, and a large cut on his forehead, "He doesn't look too good."
As the SAS threw Viper in handcuffs that wrapped around his entire body, and took him away, Sasuke, Sakura, and Duncan just watched as Sasuke got patch work done on his broken rib.
"I can tell you right now it's going to take some serious work to get any kind of information out of him." Sakura said.
"You don't know how right you are sweetheart," Sasuke said as he wrapped his arm around Sakura's waist, and pulled her against him, "Let's get him back to London."
Four to go…