The Blood Prison, Republic of Fire
10:45 P.M.
5/05/17
~Sasuke Uchiha~
Hiding in plain sight as a prison guard was something that Sasuke was used to. It wouldn't have been the first time he'd done it. But never in the most secure prison in the entire Republic. There was a reason that the prison was called the Crimson Fortress. Anyone who tried to escape only became another layer of red to blood soaked stone walls reinforced by 2 meters of a steel alloy.
With a sigh, he pushed the prisoner along into an interrogation room in the southern wing of the prison on the fourth floor. From what Sasuke could tell, there were only really 2 entrances and exits into the Prison. The north and eastern entrances. To the south was a sheer 500 meter drop into the sharp rocks of the Bay of Flames and to the west was the largest mountain range in the Republic of fire blocking the way. The builders of the prison could never really break through all the way so they left it as a natural barrier. Its floors were too thick to be dug through, the sewer pipes were too small for a person to fit through as well as the vents and same with the windows. There were guards posted at every cell, each armed with an HK416 assault rifle.
Across from him the other guard roughly shoved the prisoner into a steel chair and sat across from him. The third guard moved positions to behind the second guard. She dipped her head and let her brown eyes lock onto Sasuke's own.
"Camera's hacked. You are good to go guys." Came Kurama's voice.
Sasuke rolled his neck and clenched his fists tight. Across from him, Tenten lifted her head up and stood waiting for Sasuke to make the signal. Behind him, Sasuke felt the fourth guard shift around and move to the side. The sound of Tenten's fingers tapping the slide of the pistol handle at certain intervals was the only sound in the room.
On your go. I'll take out the guy to the side and you take the guy interrogating. Sasuke nodded and lifted three fingers. Two fingers. He put a hand on the dagger strapped to his forearm. 1 finger. Tenten's hand moved the handle of the dagger in the tactical holster on her right thigh. No fingers.
Quickly, Tenten smoothly took the dagger out and threw into the fourth guard's exposed neck, whilst the dagger slipped out from its scabbard and was thrown into the interrogator's forehead. And then without pause, Sasuke took out the dagger stuck within the fourth guard's neck and cut the prisoner's binds and lifted him up.
"Alright, the HVT should be in the extreme isolation which if I remember correctly is in the top floor of the north wing. Move out." Sasuke said, attaching a suppressor onto his Glock, reached over to the dead guard to the right and tossed his Glock over to the prisoner who shed his prison jumpsuit and slipped on the second guard's uniform. "Nice acting guys, sorry about making you the bait Shino, but you do have the highest pain tolerance and are the quietest out of all of us. Anyways, let's go!"
Sasuke swiftly opened the door and shot the first guard to the right in the head, whilst Tenten shot his partner. Craning his head to get a better look around the corner, Sasuke realized that the rest of the guards don't know that something has happened to the other guards. They could easily sneak through the prison without getting caught. But that would take too long and they were on a tight, tight schedule.
"Cut the lights."
And then everything went black.
Before the guards could realize what was happening the three of them went to work and eliminated them as fast as possible "Alright, power should be out for approximately 10 minutes. I've also managed to open up the cells in the east and west wings to cause a distraction." Kurama told them, the sound of her rapid typing bleeding over through the coms.
"Good job. Satoru any word on Bravo team's end?" Sasuke asked, slipping in a new mag and pulling back the slide. He then opened the door into the stairwell and began to jump from floor to floor, Tenten and Shino following closely behind him.
"Akaza Shibuya has yet to show up, but according to traffic camera and nearby phone cameras, he is well on his way to Warehouse 417 with a squad of 10 Rising Sun elites. ETA is 9 minutes. I'd advise you not to rush things and possibly make a stupid mistake, but time is of the essence go fast, and do it efficiently. Satoru out."
"How corny." Tenten snickered, shooting a guard up in the upper floor in head causing him to fall down to the ground. "But he is right I guess. Time's a wastin!" She ducked under a bevy of fire and slid into cover before taking out three guards near the entrance into the cafeteria.
"Hn." Shino mumbled as he ran past her, reloading and then swung his pistol into the windpipe of the south wing's warden. "Taken out one of the wardens. I'm taking his uniform. Why you ask? Because if we need to return here, disguising myself as warden will allow me to get into places that a normal guard won't be able to."
Sasuke nodded in approval. "Alright, Kurama think you could seal off the south wing?" He kicked open the door to the cafeteria and quickly took out the two guards standing by the vending machine having a little chat. They were the only guards in the cafeteria. I guess they're probably over in the west and east wings dealing with prison riots. There was a chance that things might go south as the Blood Prison never really had a prison riot of this caliber if at all.
"You got it boss."
Unlike the south wing, where the least unruly prisoners were held, and unlike the west and east wings which housed the most unruly, the north wing was scarce with inmates. Only the worst of the worst and the most dangerous were locked up in the north wing. Each cell was in isolation. But the top floor of the north wing was extreme isolation. There were only 2 inmates on the floor and each on the opposite side of the wing. Each of them were guarded by 20 guards each with cameras covering every angle imaginable. Getting into the extreme isolation cells required four access codes that changed every hour and a retinal scan of either the warden of the north wing or the head warden.
"Alright, remember, there's a quick way up to the top floor without having to go through all the guards in the lower floors." Satoru called out. "There should be a small, unused maintenance elevator to your far right. It should take you all the way up, but only one at a time, unless you could somehow find a way to all fit in."
"We'll find a way. Status update on Bravo team?"
"Still no sign of Akaza Shibuya. He should be arriving soon though. Don't worry. I'll notify you when Akaza gets here and I'll patch you in to Sakura in case something unexpected happens. Satoru out."
With a deep sigh, Sasuke holstered the Glock and silently and swiftly made his way to the small and old maintenance elevator. It certainly looked unused alright. Rusted iron bars protruding up from the dented metal platform. The chain of the counterweight was pretty rusty as well and it looked like the cable holding it up would break at any moment.
"That doesn't look safe at all." Tenten commented, looking up into the blackness of the elevator shaft. "Couldn't we just climb it? I mean, I would definitely feel safer that way. It would take longer though."
"I'm not worried about it taking longer." Sasuke replied. There was no way in hell he was going to use the maintenance elevator. Not if he valued his life. "I'm worried that you two won't be able to keep up with me." To which Tenten scoffed and Shino simply raised his eyebrows. "In fact, I'll give you two a 10 second head start."
Before he even finished, Tenten and Shino were already on their way up, climbing the wall like they were lizards. I think I've given them more than enough time. With a slight chuckle Sasuke grabbed a hold of a crack in the wall and began to climb. The elevator shaft was falling apart. Cracks covered the walls and several pipes jutting out making for easy foot and handholds. He scaled the walls like a monkey. He only stayed in one spot more a moment before leaping to next crack or the next pipe. It wasn't exactly quiet, but it was quick and there was no one near the elevator shaft.
He reached the top floor in half the time it took Tenten and Shino to slowly climb up. Though it was slow to him. The hallway, was slate grey with the occasional panels of white and black. Sasuke spied at least 15 cameras. "Kurama, can you hack the cameras?"
"Already done boss. By the way, those black and white panels? Yeah, those have an infrared and magnetic scanner hidden inside to scan the entire length of the wall. I've managed to disable them, but only for 5 minutes though. Same goes for the cameras."
"Thanks for the information. Moving on, you got the access codes?" Sasuke asked making it to the other end of the hallway in 8 long and quick strides.
"The first access code is 401040501050702. The second is 90151208022012, the third is 40167 and the final one is 00010001. Think you can remember all of those? If you want I can plug them in myself. It might take a while to get into the system but I can do it."
"Alright go ahead. Satoru can you see the location of the north wing's warden? We need her to get into the cell. If not, we can probably just blow into the cell using Deidara's modified C4. Though I'd rather not. It attracts too much unwanted attention. "
"Ah…Let me see…Okay, according to the camera feed, the warden should be on the move. She's currently by the cell on the opposite side of the wing and it looks like she's headed your way. Probably to check on the codes and switch them up. You guys think you can take out all twenty guards and incapacitate the warden?"
Sasuke scoffed. "What kind of question is that? I think the real question is, how fast can we take out all twenty guards and incapacitate the warden. And the answer to that is very fast."
"Alright whatever, the warden is right around the corner. Satoru out." Looking over to his teammates, Sasuke nodded and turned the safety off before opening the door at the exact same time as the warden.
Right before anyone could react, Kurama cut the lights. And just as the panic was about to set in Sasuke grabbed the warden, shot the five guards across from him in their exposed necks in quick succession. He then shot the two guards standing by the cell door and then the third who was walking by.
To his right, Tenten took out the six guards near the front entrance into the section, before switching her to the lone guard standing by the intercom and the one by the out of place fichus plant. Shino quickly disposed the remaining five quickly. Sasuke then tightened his choke hold on the warden until he felt the woman pass into unconsciousness.
"Alright room cleared. How fast was that Satoru?"
"That took you guys 6.78 seconds." Satoru actually sounded surprised. "You know I'm still wondering why we didn't just do what people do in spy movies and forge his retinal signature or whatever it's called."
"Because we barely had any time to prepare for this remember? We only had 3 days to come up with a plan and we still had that meeting with Akaza Shibuya and a weapons dealer to worry about." Sasuke replied handing the warden over to Shino who forcefully opened her eyes and placed it in front of the retinal scanner. "Speaking of which, how are things going on their end?"
"The meeting is going fine. But Akaza is playing a little hard ball and is trying to negotiate for a cheaper price with weapons dealer. Ana says that she has a clear shot at Akaza. Should we let her take it?"
"No. The plan was to tail him back to the Rising Sun hideout in Tanzaku Gai, and gather all the information we can find out about it. We can't take him out just yet. We need to figure out a plan to capture him. He's one of the captains of the organization, so he probably knows a lot, or knows just enough. Regardless, keep him alive. For now just watch and see how the dice falls."
"Sasuke! We need your help opening the door." Tenten called out as she and Shino gripped the side of the door. Shaking his head, Sasuke went on the other side of the slightly ajar door and began to push as Tenten and Shino pulled hard. After half a minute of hard pushing and pulling the door was open. "Whew! And where is our HVT?"
Cowering in the corner, looking very malnourished and bruised was a man with silver hair and pale skin. He had his head tucked into his knees and was whimpering lightly. When Sasuke approached, he began sobbing.
"Mizuki Asashiro. The only man stupid enough to betray the most dangerous crime lord in the Republic of Fire and lucky enough to live to tell about it." Sasuke lifted the man by the collar of his prison suit and looked him right in the eye. "And you're going to tell us all you know."
Warehouse 417, Tanzaku Gai, Republic of Fire
10:59 P.M.
5/05/17
~Sakura Haruno~
Under the cool, dim lighting of the warehouse, Sakura watched as Akaza Shibuya finalized the deal and quickly took the briefcase before handing it off to one of the elites. Akaza was a giant of a man. Standing at over 6 feet 6 inches, he was 220 pounds of muscle. I could take him. Muscle heads like him underestimate smaller people. Don't think they can punch above their weight. As Akaza stood up, he pulled out the Smith & Wesson 500 Magnum hidden in his sport jacket and shot the dealer in the head before ordering his men to take back the money. Why he didn't just do that in the first place is beyond me.
The Rising Sun captains did a lot of weird things, Sakura found out. Over the past six months, Sakura had seen taken out a lot of captains. But it seemed like more and more lieutenants were being promoted than their small group could kill captains. At this rate, we're gonna have to go straight to the source and take out the leader. If we actually knew who it is and where they are. Akaza was one of the higher up captains in the syndicate and was one of the few who were actually a member of the first iteration of the organization. And what made him dangerous was that he was a physical specimen with intelligence.
As Akaza left the warehouse, Sakura smelled gasoline. With narrow eyes, Sakura quickly climbed out of the warehouse and began to slide down the roof. She didn't have time to stop a warehouse from burning down. It was abandoned after all, so no one would care. Just as she reached the edge, Sakura propelled herself upwards and grabbed the nearby ledge and pulled herself up. She then ran across the rooftops as silently as possible and leapt over a protruding vent parkour style. Waiting for her at the edge of the premises were Ana and Lee.
Sakura felt a slight smile creep up her face as she remembered how they managed to recruit Ana in the first place. She had woken up in the Nest and instead of screaming bloody murder, was calm enough and smart enough not to panic. That was something that Sakura could respect. When Sasuke appeared, a murderous, yet admiration and respect filled look appeared on Ana's face.
"You made me miss. How?" Sasuke only smiled and told Ana was he told Sakura. "But…Even so, I shouldn't have missed those follow up shots! Heck I even missed all of the civilians behind you. I…I never miss."
Sasuke had strolled forward and had told Sakura to undo Ana's binds. "Everyone misses. Your grandfather and even you. Why? Because we're only human." Ana turned silent. "Listen. I have an offer for you. You have a talent that no one I know can match. Your accuracy is nearly perfect. I read your file and you said you joined the Special Forces because you wanted to eliminate the evil crime syndicates and terrorist cells that plague the world, to avenge your siblings and death. If you join us, you'll be able to do that. And the people who you'll work with, they're not going to be like your Special Forces unit. They're the best at what they do. Just like you. So what do you say Ana?"
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Sakura motioned for the three of them to get a move on. She then gave Ana the go ahead to fire a tracking dart at the lead car with Akaza in it. And Sakura had to say, it was an impressive shot considering that the only view Ana had of the lead car was a small opening between two crates. A very, very small opening. Lee whistled.
"Nice shot. Now what?" Lee asked, leaning against a crate. "I suppose we're going to tail Akaza back to his hideout, plant some bugs, maybe a camera or two, and maybe steal some information from their computers and all that stuff?" Sakura nodded, jumping down from the crates. She then began to make her way to her motorcycle.
Sitting in the lancer to her right was Deidara who was on his phone and in the back typing away on his laptop was Naruto. After rapping on the window, Naruto rolled it down.
"Yeah?"
"You got the tracking signal?" He nodded. "Okay, remember in order to keep the signal, you're gonna have to keep yourself at least 50 meters out. The signal also reaches out till 5 Km. By then the signal will have dropped. I suggest you hurry, because right now, their convoy is on the move."
Without any further instruction, and as Lee and Ana got into the car, Deidara drove off, though albeit still jumpy at the modified lancer's silent engine and the fact that it hardly made a sound as the wheels rolled across asphalt. Sakura revved up her motorcycle and began to follow the convoy. Instead of taking the avenues and roads, Sakura drove down the alleyways and side roads while following the tracker at the maximum distance with the tracker still sending signals.
"This is Alpha team we have the package. How are things on your end Bravo team?" Sasuke's voice buzzed in her, and presumably everyone else's, ear.
"This is Bravo team, we are tailing Akaza. He killed the dealer though. Do we change our plans?" She asked while taking a sharp right turn. "He could have had some information on the Rising Sun."
"It doesn't matter. Proceed as planned. I had thought that Akaza would kill the dealer. He's smarter than the other captains and he's undoubtedly going to be the hardest of the captains to take down. And remember, be careful. Akaza isn't one to underestimate. Sasuke out."
With that Sakura rolled her neck and drifted across the pavement as she accelerated to over 200 Km/H. She blew through several red lights and stop signs, but it seemed that the police were nowhere to be found. Then Sakura remembered that most of the police were over in the city hall dealing with a terrorist group. I think they were called the Cult of Jashin or something like that. Oh well. It doesn't matter to me. She looked down at the GPS and noted that the signal has stopped moving. "This is Sakura, I'm moving in for a closer look. Ana get into an Overwatch position."
"Roger that."
A sigh passed through Sakura's lips. What a pain. I'd prefer if we just took the leader out directly, but that wouldn't solve any problems. It would only create a power vacuum that every captain is going to try to fill in and cause an inter-gang war. That won't end well. "I guess I'll play along Sasuke."
The hideout was a fairly large casino with a giant neon sun at the front. Emblazoned horizontally across the building, covering up a large portion of the casino. Akaza and the convoy parked at the back of the casino. "Tch. Any of you know the name of this casino? I can't see the sign up front."
Naruto spoke up. "Uh yeah the place is called the Blue Dragon Casino. If you want I can get you the schematics of the place and upload it to your phone, but it might take a while. The place has…decent security I guess."
"No. It'll only waste time. Start hacking into the Casino cameras and systems and find out all you can. I'm going in." Sakura replied, flipping herself over to the rooftop. To the right she spotted an entrance into the casino. It would have been easy to use that, but Sakura had a feeling it only lead into the main area. To the far left was a large vent that Sakura bet she could drop into.
However, before she could move, the door creaked open and out came one of the Rising Sun elites. This one however, if Sakura remembered correctly, was Akaza's right hand man. An ex-assassin by the name of Arisa. Just Arisa. She was the only female of the group. From observations, she could tell that Arisa wasn't like the other so called "elites". She wasn't just given a highly modified assault rifle and fancy body armour. No, Sakura could tell that Arisa was not a person to take lightly. A slight grin formed on Sakura's face. Good. Maybe this'll be fun after all. So far every "elite" I've gone up against were absolute fools armed with gear they didn't know how to use the full potential of.
Arisa strolled over to the edge of the casino and took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one up. "This is Ana. I have a clear visual on the elite. Do I have permission to shoot? Over."
"Negative." Sakura murmured, staying still. "If there's even a slight chance that you'll miss, it'll be over for us. This one isn't like the other elites. If you miss, she'll know you're there and inform her boss immediately. I can't risk that. Stand down for now." Ana growled but nonetheless obeyed. With that out of the way, Sakura slinked off into the darkness and began to make her way to the vent as fast and as quiet as possible.
"Tch. What a pain in the ass this is." Arisa said, rolling her neck. She pulled out a small ornate kukri and began to twirl around in her hand without a care in the world. "Hopefully something exciting will happen soon. Otherwise my talents are going to be wasted in this damn fucking casino ~da ze~."
Thankfully, Arisa seemed too pissed off to notice Sakura lower herself into the vent and close the vent grate behind her silently. "This is Sakura, I am in the vent. How are things going on your end Naruto? Deidara, Lee?" She asked, crawling her way through the surprisingly spacious vent. To her right, Sakura could see a faint source of light pouring through a vent opening.
"You remember how I said that their security is pretty good? Yeah…Aparently it isn't. It's just a really weak firewall and a bunch of other really stupid shit. But whatever. I haven't found anything interesting or useful so far. At least to my knowledge. I'll notify you when I find something of interest." Naruto called out.
"Akaza has yet to move from his spot down in the bar. There isn't anyone out in the streets that look suspicious or important either. We'll notify you if something happens though. Over." Lee's voice was almost drowned out by the sounds of the casino. That and of Deidara's terrible flirting. "And I'll try to make sure that Deidara's youthful face doesn't get disfigured too much."
"Hey!" Before Deidara could say anything else, Naruto cut out his audio and Sakura sighed in relief. The last thing she need right now was Deidara's incessant talking to ruin her concentration. If she were to be discovered, not only would this mission be in jeopardy, but so would her life. There was no doubt in her mind that Arisia and Akaza would kill her no problem. That is if I let them.
As she neared the source of light, Sakura lifted her head up to look through the grates. She could just barely make out the face of one of Akaza's false elites with a woman whose face was flushed red. The two of them were too busy making out for them to notice the vent grate open. In fact they didn't even notice Sakura drop in.
Only when Sakura snuck up behind the pair did the woman notice her and by then it was too late. Sakura grabbed the elite's head and twisted it 90 degrees with an audible snap and before the woman could scream Sakura knocked her out too. Sakura didn't worry about the woman discovering her. She was probably too drunk to remember what happened at all so Sakura didn't think too much on it. And in case she did remember, as much as Sakura hated it, then Akaza would kill her to keep the fact that one of his Elites was killed a secret. Though it would have been much easier to just hire another of these false elites to keep up appearances.
After arranging the bodies in a way that made it appear that they had just fallen asleep, Sakura left the room quietly, but not before checking the schematics of the casino on her phone. Satoru better finish that holographic intelligence interface that he's working on. Having to turn my phone on and off is going to pose quite a problem, not to mention quite tedious. "Alright, this was useless. No hidden passages or rooms or anything." She would have to go right Akaza's office and search there directly. Why she couldn't just kill him right then and there was baffling and it made Sakura irate, but she knew how to restrain herself. I could always take my anger out on Sasuke whenever we're sparring. She had yet to lose to him once and did not intend to do so.
The hallways of the casino's innards were empty. There were cameras here and there, but not so many that Sakura would have to have Naruto hack into them. From her observations, the cameras had a visual radius of up to 5-8 sometimes 10 meters and had a range of movement that was limited to 75 degrees. From what the schematics had told her, the casino manager AKA Akaza's office was on the top floor at the very end of the first hallway to her right coming up the stairs.
Sakura had yet to see any other elites aside from Arisia and the one she had killed. But she did not doubt that they were indeed here and while Sakura could easily take them out, she would rather not have them announce her presence in the casino with assault rifle fire. Though there was a chance that she could eliminate them silently before they could even think about firing upon her.
And soon enough, two more elites showed up at the end of the first hallway to her left. Both of them were looking out the window. One of them had a hand on the stock of his rifle, and the other had a pack of cigarettes in hand. Tch. Amateurs. As she rolled across the hallway, Sakura quickly drew her supressed M9 and shot the two elites in the back of the head. Then out of the corner of her eye, Sakura spotted a lone elite round the corner. Before he could even react, Sakura flung a pair of razor sharp shuriken, with poisoned tips. They tore through his neck, one slicing the carotid artery and the other lodging itself into the elite's vocal chords.
She didn't have the time to hide their bodies, and such continued upon her merry way, turning right around and going right, or in this case left towards the manager's office. At the end of the hallway was a window where she saw the unmistakeable tiny glint of a sniper scope. Huh. I didn't realize Ana had a good view of them. And sure enough, the ace sniper was grumbling about kill stealing. With her back against the wall, Sakura made her way to the door. "Ana you have a clear visual of the door?"
Seconds later, a small red dot appeared at the center of the door. "Affirmative. Waiting on your order."
After taking a deep breath, Sakura opened the door, surprised to find it unlocked. Why didn't I check to see if it was locked or not in the first place? She was getting sloppy. Perhaps she should've brought someone along with her. To which she immediately shook her head. None of the others, aside maybe from Ana, could have snuck into the casino like she did.
Waiting in the room, sitting against the windowsill across from her, was Akaza. His sport coat was laid out across the desk just a few feet away in the center of the room, and in his hand, was a massive Smith & Wesson 500 magnum. The giant mob boss was idly shining his already spotless magnum, pretending that he didn't see Sakura sneak into the room. What the hell!? He's supposed to be down in the bar! Unless…A double.
"Sakura I can take him out right now. Just give me the order." The red dot from Ana's laser sight moved across the dark room and settled on Akaza's forehead. Despite this, he didn't move at all.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Akaza's voice was deep and menacing. Fitting for someone of his size and stature. Still, he had yet to look up from his task of cleaning his magnum. "I'm certain you saw my right hand Arisa up top right?" Sakura narrowed her eyes. Damnit! I should've been more careful. A green laser cut through the black of the night and stopped at the center of the sniper glint. "Now, you must think I'm really dumb don't you?"
Akaza slipped on a vertical shoulder holster and slipped the giant hand cannon inside. He stood up and donned his sport coat before sitting down in the swivel chair and planting his feet on top of the desk. "You I think I didn't see you? Listen, most of the other captains, they're not taking this threat seriously. They should be. Already, 10 captains and their entire crews have been eliminated. Yet the others keep insisting that it won't happen to them." He scoffed. "Wrong. I know who you are Sakura Haruno. The Pink Flower of Death. One of the deadliest assassins ANBU has ever produced." An impish grin formed on Akaza's face as he drew a Sig P226 from a hidden compartment and aimed it at Sakura. At the same time, Sakura smoothly took out her own M9 and leveled it at Akaza's exposed forehead.
"Again, I wouldn't do that if I were you. Right now, I have at least 40 guys down in the casino floor, all surrounding your two men. All armed to the teeth. And they don't care about collateral damage. And Arisa? She doesn't miss. And even if she does, that M110 semi-auto sniper rifle of hers will make that she doesn't miss a second time." He doesn't know about Naruto. A small smirk appeared on Sakura's face. "Now put the gun down."
Sakura rolled her neck, put her hands up and slowly loosened her grip on the handgun. Akaza's aim didn't once falter as the M9 dropped to the ground with a thud. "What you do want?"
"I want you to leave." What? "You can't win this fight Sakura. You've been outmaneuvered, overmatched. You can't beat me. But I'm a merciful man. I'll let you leave unscathed, if only for the chance that you'll be able to amuse me."
Whilst Akaza was talking, Sakura was crashing her teeth together in certain intervals, hoping that the device that Satoru had implanted into them would work and send her message to Naruto. We've been caught. Get out their systems now, but before you do, cut the power. I still need to make a getaway. "That's it? You're letting us go because it amuses you? That's a mistake you're going to regret Butcher of Tanzaku."
The Rising Sun captain chuckled and fired a shot, intentionally missing to the side of Sakura's head. "Currently, you aren't in a position to be making statements like that. One shot to the head and you're finished."
"I don't know, people have survived shots to the head before. So why can't I? I survived an encounter with Itachi Uchiha. You think that this intimidates me? If so, then you're wrong." If anything Akaza only laughed harder.
"Yes, yes. The mighty Itachi Uchiha. The agent-killer. Absolutely unstoppable, unbeatable, a one man army. I've heard all these things said about him, and frankly, even if any of them were true," He leaned forward and stage-whispered. "I don't give a flying fuck." Sakura merely smiled. Now Naruto.
And everything went black. Sakura reached up and disarmed Akaza and knocked him out with a quick and powerful uppercut to the jaw. Outside, the sound of Ana's M82A1 firing round after round filled the air, as well as the distinct sound of an M110 sniper rifle. Even from upstairs, Sakura could hear the sound of fighting coming from the casino floor, accompanied by a couple of small explosions that rocked the casino. So much for not attracting attention.
Several elites attempted to get in her way only to end up lying on the floor in a pool of their own blood. Quickly sliding down the railing of the stairs and shooting anyone that got in her way, Sakura arrived in the first floor in no time flat. Waiting for her, in the center of a sea of blood, was Rock Lee, cleaning his bloody fists with a rag from the bar.
He raised an eyebrow at her. "What took you so long? I sent Deidara back to the car to pick us up."
"Never mind that. We need to go now. I'm certain that the Rising Sun have already sent reinforcements to eliminate us and we don't have the time or the logistics to take care of that. This was supposed to be a recon mission. But I guess nothing ever goes as planned." Someone was coming down the stairs, if the sound of frantic footsteps was any indication. "Hurry!" Sakura sprinted towards the exit as Arisa jumped from the top of the stairs and onto the next set, a G36C in hand. But Sakura and Rock Lee were already gone.
"Fuck. Akaza's gonna kill me ~Da ze~!"
The Nest, Konoha
2:04 A.M.
5/05/17
~Satoru Uchiha~
While Satoru would have preferred to sleep, he had work to do. And that was to make sure that their new friend didn't escape. And that meant chipping him with a tiny tracker in a place that no sensible person would ever think to look. His crotch. Just above the penis. Thank god this guy has no hair. Oh that would have been a nightmare. He also attached a pair of non-restrictive handcuffs made of a lightweight polymer based material. It took Satoru some time to come up with the design of it, but not even Shino could get out. Not without effort that is. And just to be safe, Satoru placed a thin contact lens embedded with an even smaller tracker chip over the right eye. And after that was done, he had to go and sort and refill and clean and inspect all of the gear that was brought along.
"…Alright and that should do it." Satoru muttered, placing the tracking device on a rack amongst other devices. Afterwards, Satoru made his way to the control room. Sitting in her seat, Kurama had her earbuds plugged in and was listening to some music as she took a short nap. The others were cleaning themselves and would probably arrive soon. The redheaded hacker had been up since 3 in the morning. She may have said that hacking into the Blood Prison was easy, but clearly it was not. It was the most advanced prison on this side of the continent for a reason. And Kurama had spent nearly 5 hours getting in. All without break. Naruto had offered to help her, but he had to leave early to get some supplies for Satoru's invention and to go to some café he was going to be working at for training or something like that. And no doubt hacking into the Blood Prison would probably have taken less time with both pieces of the Fox hacking.
Sighing, Satoru brought up the HVT's file on the smart table that he called the ASU or Advanced Support Unit. The ASU was a 3 meter wide by 6 meter long table made of a smooth polymer material with an 8K resolution monitor built into it. The table had access to the databases of every intelligence agency in the world thanks to Kurama and Naruto, as well as access to almost all of the satellites up in space except for the recently launched one. Some other features that the ASU held included facial and voice analysis, code decryption and holographic projection. Though that was only a prototype that Satoru wasn't actually sure would work, But regardless, he had been working on it for over half of his life and to see it actually work, albeit with some problems, was the biggest achievement he'd had in his life yet. At least until he had a chance to start working on that other project of his.
According to the file he had brought up, the man that Sasuke had brought back to the nest was a Black market Information broker by the name of Mizuki Asashiro. A former police lieutenant who was caught selling information to various crime organizations in exchange for money and women among other things. After he was caught, Mizuki continued his work as an Information Broker. And he was one of the most sought after information brokers too to boot. That was until he gave the leader of the Rising Sun false information that lead to arrest of over 100 members of the Rising Sun as well as the identities of all 50 captains. Suffice to say, that this was worst mistake that Mizuki would ever make. One that Satoru simply couldn't understand.
Even if this wasn't the most powerful Crime Lord in the Republic and one of the most powerful in the world, Mizuki's days as an information broker would have been over. No one would want to hire someone that was known to feed false information. It didn't make sense unless Mizuki himself didn't know the information he had was false. Information brokers had to get their intelligence somewhere. And believeing everything you hear in the underground world of crime is like believing everything you see on the internet. And now that Satoru took a look at the information that he had given the Rising Sun, he noticed that there were a lot of contradictory information within. Something an experienced info broker would have noticed. But that brought up the question. Mizuki was a veteran information broker and according to his files, was good at analysis. So for someone like that to miss such easy problems with the info he was given? It didn't make sense.
The sound of the door opening brought Satoru out of his reverie. Out of the door came Naruto dressed in a white shirt with a nine tailed fox design on the front and khaki shorts. He stretched and yawned as he sat down in his chair and wheeled it over to the ASU. The blonde's eyes were bloodshot and he looked ready to fall over asleep. Satoru chuckled. "Why don't you take a nap? The others are busy getting changed and cleaning up, so you have at least 20 minutes."
"Nah, I'm fine. It's just…Oh really tired. Well, how long is this meeting gonna take anyway? It probably won't take longer than 5 minutes right? I mean Sasuke, Sakura and Shino and you are always right to the point. And besides, I've gone an entire week with only 2 hours of sleep spread out over 7 days. I think I can handle this."
Satoru shrugged. "If you say so. But…Just close your eyes for like 5 minutes or something. It's not like you're going to be missing much. And besides, don't you have work tomorrow? Isn't it like your first day at that café downtown?"
Naruto nodded weakly before wheeling back over to his station and pulling a video. And soon enough Naruto began nodding off and by the time Sasuke and the others arrive, Naruto was slumped over at his desk, listening to some tunes just like his sister. Afterwards Sasuke and the others arrived. It was only a debriefing of what happened during the mission, so to be honest, Satoru wasn't really paying any attention to what happened. It's a good thing I'm recording all of this on the ASU. That was how most nights ended. Satoru either too tired or too bored to care to listen, so instead he often just recorded the conversations and studied them the morning after when everyone else was still asleep.
The next evening, after listening to the recording three times and spending the entire day working on perfecting the ASU's holographic projection, Satoru donned a simple black shirt with the words MADE IN KONOHA and BORN FROM FIRE in a stylized design and a pair of black jeans. He also slipped on a red zip up hoodie with a holster sewn on the inside. After holstering a Glock 18 select fire pistol, Satoru got on the bus to the Kasai Ward. Even though it was rather late at night, the Kasai Ward was still teeming with teenagers, tourists, young couples and the occasional business man. The Kasai Ward was home to the busiest metropolitan station in the world. Every day at least 2.5 million people passed through the complex maze that was the Konoha metro system as well as the 5 tallest skyscrapers in the city. Surrounding the Kasai Metro Station on every side were department stores, electronic stores and the occasional outlet mall. And in within this beautiful mess was the small café called the Green Basilisk. This was where Naruto was hired.
Satoru didn't really know why Naruto got a job. It wasn't like he needed the money or the work experience. And it wasn't like Naruto was even good at…whatever people who work at café's do. He was a hacker with barely any social skills, but had the charisma and the friendliness to become someone with social skills. He was a gamer, and one of the best as well and he was a regular streamer that made decent cash.
And then Satoru walked into the café.
Naruto had said it was small, but clearly he was lying. Despite it being late at night, the café was already at full capacity and the line was actually pretty long. Almost all the way to the door. If Satoru's observation skills were any good, then there at least 30 tables within the café and all but 3 of them were full. There were also some tables outside as well. Those would be filling up soon. Walking all around the café were men and women in maid and butler outfits. The moment Satoru saw this, a menacing smile formed on his face. Oh I'm never gonna let him live this down. Satoru felt his hand move closer and closer towards his phone, ready to take a picture of Naruto the moment that he appeared.
Out of the corner of his eye, Satoru saw a group of 4 people, probably two couples get up from their seat. Satoru made his way through the sea of people and sat down at the now empty table. As Satoru sat back and observed, he noticed that more and more people were beginning to leave and after half an hour, most of the place was empty. As it turns out, most of the people in line had left the moment they got their drink.
"Sir, the café will be closing in half an hour." One of the maids called out to him. She was pretty. Like, really pretty. Comparing the other maids to this one in specific would have been like comparing a stereotypical female nerd to a stereotypical cheerleader. Not even comparable. Her outfit also screamed that she different from the other maids. Instead of a black and red maid outfit with a skirt slightly just above the knee, she had a black, white and pink maid outfit with a skirt that stopped halfway down the thigh. A white rose stood proudly on her chest as she swept her long auburn hair behind her ear. "Just thought you should know." If only she had a nametag of some sort.
Then, rounding the corner, was Naruto. And Satoru had to admit, he looked pretty dapper for someone whose wardrobe consisted of video game and anime graphic tees and three pairs of black jeans that looked the exact same. Naruto's butler uniform consisted of a pink button up shirt with white rose decals and a high cut vest with black slacks and a pink bowtie. The blonde hacker's face flushed red the moment he turned the corner right into a barrage of pictures from Satoru. His co-worker snickered and it was at that moment that Satoru realized that, she and Naruto were the only maids and butlers left in the café. Huh, it seems they left while I was busy ogling Naruto's co-worker.
"Is he your friend Naruto?" The maid asked, wiping a nearby table clean. Naruto sighed and nodded. She chuckled and moved over to another table. Some of the remaining customers laughed about something stupid and again the café seemed pretty lively.
Sliding into the seat across from Satoru, Naruto rolled his neck and glared at him. "What are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be back in the Nest helping Kurama decrypt that computer chip that Sakura found in Anzaku Gai?"
"Not really. She finished decrypting it before lunch and I was working out the kinks of the ASU's holographic projection system for most of the day. Bat anyways…" Naruto groaned as a wolfish grin appeared on Satoru's face. "…I knew you were going to work at a café, but I didn't realize that it was a maid café."
"Ugh. Don't even start. You came on a good day. Most of the time when I come here, all of the maids usually are neko-maids. Cat maids. With cat ear headbands. And stop smiling like that." Naruto scowled and folded his arms. "Look, I got a job here because it's relatively close to the Anime Globe center. You do know what that is right?" Satoru shook his head. "The Anime Globe center is the largest anime and manga merchandise store in the Konoha and one of the largest in the world. Plus the KHA24 have their theatre and their own café relatively close by."
Satoru raised an eyebrow, a smile on his face. "Uh huh. And what's the real or rather main reason you decided to work here? And don't say because the coffee is good here. Everyone knows that the Griffin and Phoenix café just a few stores down has the best coffee in the Ward. Is it because of the girls? They're pretty, and those maid outfits really show of their legs." Naruto groaned and Satoru laughed.
"Ugh…Fine, yes I got this job because of the girls. That and sometimes KHA24 sends some of their own girls to perform. And plus Sasuke said to get a job close to the Rising Sun hideout in the Kasai Ward so this was the perfect place." Satoru chuckled. "You know something Satoru? You came right on time. I was just about to go home." He then turned over to lone maid cleaning up the tables. "Hikari! I'm going now!"
So that's her name.
"Alright! But remember, try to come on time tomorrow. I don't you to get fired on your second day of work. And unless the traffic is horrendous, you should be on time." Satoru chuckled as Naruto shot Hikari a dark look, with Hikari herself laughing lightly.
"Whatever." Naruto muttered. "Come on Satoru." He shrugged on his blazer and stood outside while Satoru payed for his latte. Naruto was waiting at the nearby manga store when Satoru left. "Now can you tell me why you're here? I thought you said that you'd rather kill yourself than go anywhere in Konoha." The hacker asked, flipping through a volume of MPD Psycho.
"I don't remember saying that once." Satoru replied, shoving a hand into a pocket and pulling out a volume of Gantz from the shelf. Naruto snorted, and pulled out several more volumes of MPD Psycho "And since when did you start reading that? You haven't even finished the second season of Bloody Monday."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Really? If I remember correctly, the moment we met, you said something along the lines of, there's only 3 things you need to know about me. My name is Satoru, I like technology, and I hate Konoha and I'd rather chug bleach than go anywhere in this shitty ass excuse for a city. I'm sure you said some more cursing, but it was something like that."
"Alright now I know you're making shit up. I said the first two things, but I did not say that I'd rather chug bleach." The Uchiha replied, as the two of them strode over to the cash register. "I don't hate Konoha. I just don't like it. There's a difference. What that difference is, I don't know. And I don't care either." Naruto shrugged and slung his shopping bag over his shoulder. "And you still haven't answered my question about Bloody Monday."
"That? I just couldn't stand how unrealistic the hacking was and even though the art was really good, and the story really good, as are the characters, I just couldn't stand it. As a wizard-class hacker myself, it's an affront to me and my sister. I could get past how unrealistic it was during the first season but…ugh! Maybe I'll go back and finish it, if only for the story and the characters."
Satoru snickered. "Well, I guess so. Onto other, more recent things." His blonde friend groaned as the duo began going down the wide steps into Kasai Station. "How was your day? And who was that girl? She looked like she was around our age and yet she seemed like she was the boss."
"Hikari? Yeah she's the boss alright. The boss of me. We're the youngest ones at the café and she's probably the most talented one there. She doesn't shuffle across the floor from table to table, she glides. And she hardly ever drops anything. And even though she's only been working there since the year started, she's already the chief maid. And to answer your question, the day was…tedious. You wouldn't believe how many girls were asking for me specifically. Ugh…You know how on the internet it's always said that working in stores and restaurants are the worst because of the customers? Well it's true."
Just as they were about to get onto the metro, Satoru felt something in his pants vibrate. Quickly fishing out his phone, Satoru answered the call from Sasuke and motioned for Naruto to stop. "Hello? What's up? Something wrong? Naruto and I were just about to go back to the Nest."
"Listen, according to the chip that Kurama decrypted, there should be a Rising Sun safe house nearby. I want you and Naruto to see if you can find some information from it. And also, we intercepted one of the Rising Sun's transmissions and there was something about a shipment arriving soon. See if you can find any information on that. Report back if you find anything interesting." Sasuke said over the sound of a car accelerating.
"Okay, and you sound like you're going somewhere. Mind filling me in? It sounds important." Satoru asked as he and Naruto began to make their way back up to street level. "And don't you guys need me to oversee the mission? I mean, I taught Kurama the basics on how to use the ASU, but I'd be more comfortable if it was me doing it."
"No it's fine. We're going to be meeting with Sakura's contact within the Rising Sun. There isn't a need for worry. Now hurry, I have feeling that shipment is holding something important." Sasuke replied. "Sasuke out."
With a sigh, Satoru turned to Naruto. "Well…What do you say we go on an adventure?" Naruto groaned and smacked his forehead. "Exactly.
