A/N: Oh my gosh, I can't believe I took this long to update… T.T I feel ashamed of myself…I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter since I put off doing my project to complete it.
On a side note, I was reading through my previous chapters and cringed at pretty much everything I read. I would like to thank you all so much for enduring through my first horrific chapters and reading my story :D!
Tsunade walked down the sidewalk, shivering slightly.
The weather that is considered spring in Tokyo could easily pass off as mid-winter in Osaka, thought Tsunade, pulling her jacket tighter around her.
She passed two girls who were wearing shorts. Obviously, when the weatherman said it would be much warmer, he meant it from a Tokyo native's point of view. He was right about it being a beautiful day though.
The sky was a piercing bright blue, and the formerly dull landscape was slowly coming back to life. The trees were dotted with tiny soft green leaves and some even had small blossoms already blooming. Bird songs rang out occasionally from various parts of the environment.
Tsunade felt her mood lighten considerably. Tokyo truly is beautiful, she thought happily, despite the weather, I wouldn't mind living here for a few more years, or decades, or for life.
Her seminar had been rescheduled to last until 5 pm since the instructor decided to invite a guest speaker at the last minute. She had been disappointed, but Keiko had agreed to move her to the evening shift and Reborn had just chuckled and told her he didn't mind rearranging a few classes (or skipping them all together) to meet her a bit later. The thought of seeing Reborn again, even if it was a bit later than she had originally planned, made her heart flutter with happiness, overwhelming her senses. For the first time in her life, she was completely oblivious to her surroundings—
-which is why she didn't notice the black-gloved hand that shot out of the alleyway, covering her mouth and nose with a chloroform soaked cloth. Her instincts kicked in and she managed to elbow her attacker in the stomach, but it was too late. Black spots swirled in front of her eyes as she fell to her knees and blacked out.
Reborn tapped the table, worried. He checked his phone for the hundredth time and sighed.
It's already 6:30, he thought worriedly, she should've been here an hour ago, and she hates to be late.
He had called and texted her several times, but to no avail. When he had asked Keiko, she simply shrugged and simply said she hadn't heard from Tsunade since she called in to change her shift. Reborn could tell that Keiko's smile had become a bit forced, and that she was really worried too. He twirled his phone around on his finger, and almost dropped it when it began ringing. Reborn looked at the screen eagerly, but his heart sank when he realized it was just Iemitsu. He briefly considered not answering it since he still couldn't quite forgive him just yet, but then he realized that if anyone knew where she was, it would be Iemitsu. Reborn flipped open the phone with a sigh and held it up to his ear, "Hello?"
"Reborn-kun, do you know where Tsunade is?" said Iemitsu, panicked.
Reborn frowned. "You mean she's not with you?"
"I thought she was with you!" answered Iemitsu, his voice rising slightly as his anxiety grew, "She wasn't at the seminar today, so I thought she might have skipped it to…"
His voice drifted off, but Reborn could hear the unspoken words clearly. "To avoid me."
Iemitsu cleared his voice and continued. "But afterwards, I tried calling her and she didn't pick up. She usually answers by the third ring, so I thought she could be distracted, and the only time when she didn't answer her phone was when," his voice darkened a bit and he muttered the last few words reluctantly, "she was with you."
Reborn ignored the insinuation and tried organizing his thoughts. If she never made it to the seminar, that means something probably happened to her between the time when she called and the time when the seminar started, approximately between 11 am- 12 pm. The question is, what?
He felt his phone vibrate again and saw that he received a text from an unknown number. Reborn frowned. Odd, he thought, my number should be extremely difficult to get. For a second, he thought that it might be the number of a girl Leoko met when he accidentally took his phone and filled it up with the numbers of girls at the bar, but something about getting a message in this situation gave him a bad feeling.
"Hang on," said Reborn, "I got a text."
He opened the message, and his blood ran cold.
Attached was a picture of Tsunade knocked out and tied up. She seemed to be lying on a board barely balanced on a beam several feet up above the ground. Around her neck was a noose that was tied onto the beam above her, currently loose, though a few feet could pull it taut in a blink of an eye. His throat became dry as he realized what would happen if she accidentally rolled over and fell. Below the photo, there was a single line of test.
Tick tock.
Reborn resumed the call, and based off the amount of swearing coming from the other end, he assumed that Iemitsu received the same message. "Can you trace the message?" he asked urgently.
"I'm trying!" yelled Iemitsu, the clicking of keyboard keys filling the background, "The person that did this bounced it off several cell towers all around Tokyo! It's going to take at least five min—"
"No need," said Reborn. He suddenly realized why the scene seemed so familiar. It was because he had jumped up there to avoid the bullets that were directed at him by certain drones with thermal detection technology. He shot up out of his chair and hurried to the door, reassuring a very alarmed Keiko that everything was alright.
"She's in the building at the far right corner of the campus, about 20 minutes from her apartment," said Reborn, "I'll be able to get there in five minutes."
"I got it," said Iemitsu, "I'll meet you there."
Reborn hung up and jumped on his motorcycle, tearing down the road. He hoped he wasn't too late.
Tsunade slowly opened her eyes and squinted at the glaring bright lights. Her head was still swimming from the effects of the chloroform and whatever other drug was used to keep her knocked out. She tried to groan, but found that her mouth couldn't move. The events that occurred earlier came rushing back to her and her eyes snapped open. She quickly took stock of her surroundings and her situation as her training dictated and immediately stiffened when she noticed the noose around her neck.
If I fall, I'll hang myself, thought Tsunade, a lot calmer than she should be. Carefully maintaining her balance, she lifted her head slightly, wincing at the sharp pain in her head.
My hands are bound together with coarse rope. I'm fairly positive I can get out of them—if I could actually move without risking the possibility that I'll die. I seem to be on a platform extremely high up. Even if I got the noose off, my head is still spinning and I won't be able to land on my feet.
As she struggled to think of a solution to her dilemma, Tsunade heard a faint pop and crackle as a broadcasting system came on. A computerized voice spoke.
"Kudo Tsunade, you gave me quite a scare" said the voice, "I thought my subordinates may have overdosed you on accident, that wouldn't have ended well.
Tsunade narrowed her eyes. This must be the person that ordered for my kidnapping. What does he want?
The voice continued to speak.
"Daughter to the deceased Kudo Jinsuke and Shima Minazuki, sister to deceased Kudo Tsunayoshi. Joined the Interpol at age 17, promoted to highest level of clearance and became Special Secret Agent code name "Black Rose Huntress" at age 18. Partner with Sawada Iemitsu, currently has the highest success rate of all Interpol pairs. Accepted mission code name, "Toy Tokyo" to take down an underworld weapons dealing organization. Resignation form and confidentiality agreement turned in yesterday at 9:34 pm."
Tsunade felt her heart rate speed up in shock.
How could he know this information? No one but Iemitsu, the director of the Interpol, my great-aunt, and I know this, and the digital database where it's stored is nearly impenetrable by anyone who doesn't know the correct bypass to the firewalls that surround it. It even take Iemitsu a few hours to access the database with the bypass!
The digital voice laughed, sending a shiver down Tsunade's spine.
"Poor little Tsunade-chan," the voice said mockingly, "You had a tough childhood, didn't you?" The voice turned harsh and bitter. "It was nothing compared to mine! I suffered in silence and had my life taken away from me! I was forced to watch a little brat live the life I was supposed to have! You know, I worked very hard to get where I am now, and I'm not going to let someone like you get in my way!"
Tsunade knew she was missing something, something that was just barely on the edge of her reasoning. However, her brain was just barely stirring and was completely incapable of higher level thinking at the moment.
"You'll regret ever coming to Tokyo and interfering with my plans, Kudo Tsunade," said the voice furiously, "I'll make you pay dearly for getting involved. I'm so close to finally regaining what I lost, and since you're in my way, I have no choice but to destroy you." There was a pause, then the voice chuckled. "It looks like your knight has arrived," said the voice smoothly, as if they had just been discussing how the weather was rather than Tsunade's impending doom, "He may save you now, but the lion with defeat the resurrectionist in the end."
With that, the crackling stopped and the voice disappeared.
And the platform under Tsunade began to tilt.
Reborn rushed into the shooting range. He saw Akai bound and gagged in a corner and immediately went over to him. Reborn took out the gag and gently, but firmly, shook him awake. Akai groaned and opened his eyes a bit.
"Don't worry, Akai-kun," said Reborn reassuringly, "It's just me, Reborn."
He began untying Akai, but Akai, slowly coming to his senses, shook his head and murmured in an urgent tone, "Not now…Tsunade-chan…Black Diamond course…Boss Chamber…tilting platform."
Reborn's eyes widened in panic and he stood up abruptly. After promising Akai that he would be back soon, he ran off through the break room that led directly into the Boss Chamber. Once he was in, he spotted Tsunade almost immediately. She knew better than to struggle, but even as she froze as much as she could, the tilting platform was slowly getting to her and the instinctual fear that comes with impending death was threatening to overwhelm her. Reborn quickly pulled out his gun and took aim.
"Get down!" he yelled. Tsunade's eyes flickered over to him and relief washed over her. She put her head flat against the board, wincing when she slid down half an inch.
Reborn took a single shot.
The bullet sliced through the air, neatly severing the rope above her head. At that moment, the platform tilted enough so that Tsunade fell off. She braced herself, preparing to regain her center of balance and spin to land on her feet, but it wasn't necessary. Before she was even halfway to the ground, Reborn jumped up and kicked off a nearby pole. He caught her and landed on his feet, skidding a couple meters before coming to a complete stop. After taking a brief moment to catch his breath, Reborn took the gag out of Tsunade's mouth and was about to put her down, then he changed his mind and swooped in for a kiss instead.
Tsunade, who had regained her breath and was working on the ropes that bound her hands, found herself robbed of her breath again as the ropes slipped off. She leaned into his familiar embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck. Tsunade felt a huge surge relief as the adrenaline rush of nearly dying slowly wore off. Though the worry of having her cover blown was present, it didn't matter as much right now. She was pretty sure she could Iemitsu could help repair that.
Iemitsu…
Tsunade's eyes widened as she remembered that she needed to talk to Iemitsu. Reluctantly, she pulled away and almost melted at the look of pure love and concern in Reborn's eyes. She wanted to stay like this a bit longer, but she knew she had to tell Iemitsu immediately.
She tried to talk and ended up coughing, her throat extremely dry. Reborn put her down and patted her back. "Are you ok?" he asked, concerned. Tsunade nodded and croaked, "I'm fine, but I need to talk to Iemitsu-nii."
Reborn nodded and helped her outside where Iemitsu had just pulled up. She felt Reborn tense up and realized that he was still angry at Iemitsu. Not wanting to stir up conflict, she turned to Reborn and asked to go help Akai first. He reluctantly agreed and headed back inside. Iemitsu ran up to Tsunade and nearly crushed her in his embrace.
"Tsunade-chan! Thank goodness you're ok!" exclaimed Iemitsu. Then, remembering what happened, he promptly let go of her and looked down at the floor. Tsunade sighed and decided she should be the one to talk first, "Iemitsu…we need to talk."
Although he was shaken up, Akai insisted he was ok and just needed to drink some water and rest. Reborn was currently rummaging through the cabinets in the break room, looking for a bottle of water while trying to organize his thoughts.
Why would Tsunade be kidnapped? he wondered, slightly frustrated, It couldn't possibly be my rivals since they don't know about my resignation yet, let alone my reason for leaving. But, Tsunade's just a normal student, other than my criminal world connections, there shouldn't be any reason for her to be kidnapped, right?
Suddenly, his phone rang and he jumped up, swearing as he banged his head against the top of the cabinet. Annoyed, he answered it without checking the caller ID.
"Hello?" he snapped.
"Hey there, Reborn-kun," said Leoko cheerfully.
Reborn blinked in disbelief. "Leoko?"
"Look, I overreacted the other day," said Leoko sheepishly, "I respect your decision to leave the company."
Reborn felt a rush of relief at Leoko's words, "Thanks, Leoko," he said gratefully, "I'm glad you—"
"But first," interrupted Leoko, his voice suddenly serious, "I have some information you may want to hear, information that may change your mind…"
"…and that's that," said Tsunade, finishing what she was saying, "Thanks."
Iemitsu was silent for a moment before hugging her tightly once again. Then, without another word, he got into his car and left.
Tsunade smiled as the car drove off. She knew Iemitsu would do what he had to. Tsunade felt Reborn's aura grow stronger, a sign that he was approaching. She was about to turn around to meet him, but she felt a coldness in his aura that made her hesitate. There was something wrong.
"You should head back now," said Reborn, "I'll give you a ride."
Tsunade nodded, hiding the frown on her face. It was present in his voice too, that coldness. As she got on the motorcycle and wrapped her arms around his waist, she felt a burst of anguish from his aura before it was covered up again by the coldness.
Something was very wrong.
When they got to her apartment, Tsunade unlocked the door and pulled Reborn inside in one fluid motion. She swiftly locked the door again and leaned against it, scowling. Reborn tried to get past her, but she just flipped him over and onto the floor.
"I can tell there's something wrong," she growled, "so spill."
Reborn glared up at her. She could feel his previously restrained anger and sorrow breaking through his calm façade. Tsunade was shocked, but not as much as his next words made her.
"I think you know exactly what's wrong, Tsunade," he snarled, "Or should I say,
the Black Hunter?"
A/N: Yep, another cliffhanger. I seem to have a thing for those XP. It saddens and excites me to say that this story is slowly coming to an end. I would predict about 2 or 3 more chapters and maybe an epilogue left for me to write. Thanks to all you faithful readers and additional thanks to one anonymous Guest, mayumi, and smileysparklea for reviewing!
R&R PLEASE!