Guard duty in the prisoners' ward was one of the least glamorous jobs around. The need for the place to be utterly silent in order to instill psychological fear in the prisoners before their time for questioning made the place unbelievable dull. It didn't even have the nice sun, open air, and pleasant conversation you get from guarding the front gate.
The only job worse than guarding the prison would have to be the night shift guarding the prison. But because this job was monumentally awful, it also paid pretty well. So there was still a good supply of people to stand at the door to the newest prisoners from Kumo. Though they had to be paid extra to insure that no one decided that three people was two more than they really needed. Attacks during peace talks were generally frowned on if not expected by this point, and Kumo had a history of trying to kidnap little girls from Konoha. So a certain level of hatred was a given.
The prisoners hadn't been interrogated yet. They had only had their pre-interrogation screening, where they were analyzed, and introduced to their interrogators as well as some of their favorite tools before being sent back to their cells for the night to piss themselves about what is going to happen to them once the real deal starts. The imagination is an untrained minds worst enemy.
The place was so quiet, that when the sound of something metal bouncing on the floor reached their ears, it sounded like the crack of thunder. The dozen Chunin were immediately on guard, turning towards the direction of the sound with hands at their weapons.
With an exchange of a code preformed by tipping the stone walls, three of them broke off from the group to scout the area where the sound came from. They moved quietly through the darkness, trying to determine the source of the nosy one of their feet brushed up against something on the floor, causing more noise to echo through the hall. The guilty ninja bent down to pick up the object. "A soda can?" He mumbled in surprise.
The scouting group spun around as they heard several thuds against the floor accompanied by the ringing of metal being dropped against the ground. A shadow was perched over the of guards who were all sprawled out over the ground.
The scout holding the can dropped it to reach for his weapon, but the moment the can hit the ground it popped and a heavy mist exited it. The remaining guards gasped as the smoke filled their lungs and in a few more seconds they were unconscious.
"Well that was anticlimactic." A tall man with blue hair and red eyes mumbled as he straightened up over the unconscious group he had just taken out. His spear rose up and was set against his shoulder. He was wearing an odd dark blue body suit that seemed to blend into the shadows, thick enough to be more than just a jump suit but not true armor. Around his neck was a headband with the symbol of Kiri on it with a slash through the center.
"Don't complain, we are just hear to do a job, and nothing more." Said a woman with long purple hair and a figure that could make most men's eyes widen with shock. A headband with the symbol of Kumo was tied over her eyes, acting as a blind fold. "Since when have you been a thrill seeker?"
"Sorry, you know how we magus are. We change our perceptions in order to achieve optimum results. Guess I'm subconsciously acting like Lancer now." The blue haired man said with a shrug.
When Rin had told Shirou she was going to use a mixture of magecraft and chakra to cement a transformation jutsu around the two of them during this little mission, he hadn't expected the forms that she would choose.
So the Faker was finding himself impersonating the Hound of Culann while Rin had taken the form of the fallen goddess of beauty. It was a bit of a surreal feeling.
"Just say close by while I do my work." Rin said as she worked over to the door of the prison. There was a seal on the door. "Would you mind being a gentleman and opening the door for me?"
"Sure thing." Shirou said, pulling out a traced copy of Rule Breaker and quickly destroying the seal like they had done with so many others on their way into the building.
Shirou leaned up against the wall, feeling the barrier to contain noise in the air around them. He shifted the steel gray spear between his fingers.
He hadn't used Lancer's spear. That would have been horrible. His objective didn't involve killing everyone in sight. No, the spear he traced up wasn't a famous Noble Phantasm, but an old enchanted spear called Lián Dāo. It wasn't a weapon he would trace often as it sort of defeated the point of a weapon.
The mystic codex on this spear was something of a puzzler, taking advantage of another loophole in magecraft; the absence of absolution. You can never truly know cause and effect and it is one of the easiest elements of the world to bend if not break. For example, if someone is cut, then they are wounded. If they are wounded, then they feel pain. It is a simple train of logic, but with a bit of manipulation it can become, someone is cut, therefore they feel pain. The wound simply being removed from the equation.
Thus the spear could remove targets without the need to kill them.
Actually, Shirou wished he had more chances to use the spear. Sadly, taking the enemy alive was rarely a choice. One should always remove the threat before it can get out of hand. Letting targets live and get to keep whatever they learn about you, that is a recipe for danger. Which is way he and Rin were currently removing any information the ninja may have collected on them. Keep the damage to a minimum.
There had not been any sound, but Shirou still sensed the man's approach. His eyes moved towards the indivdual who lurked in the shadows, unaware the Shirou both knew he was there and could see him with his reinforced eyes. He had better take care of this before Rin was done. While the witnesses could live, as they had no clue what was actually going on, letting people raise the alarm would cause more trouble.
Morino Ibiki had been making preparations for the next days interrogation. He had little doubt that they would get every last scrap of information the men had even without having to harm a hair on their heads. His mastery of the human psychology was renown, and he rarely had to resort to actual physical torture.
What he hadn't expected was for the prison to come under attack. The moment he had noticed something was off with the alert systems, he didn't check for any technique difficulties. Instead, he sent for someone else to do that while he went straight to the cells to make sure nothing was wrong in person. Experience had taught him never to assume anything, so even though they have had technique problems in the past but never any kind of prison break, he still wasn't taking any chances.
He moved silently, even with his dark trench coat that he wore in order to cover as much of his scarred boy as he possible could. His eyes had long since gotten used to being inside of the dark tunnels, so while his vision was impaired, it wasn't gone completely. He moved though the shadows within the darkness, as he approached where his men should have been standing guard.
The change was sudden, one moment their was not even a peep, the next step he heard the screams of prisoners. On the ground was the dozen guards who had been stationed in front of the door and the dark shape of a tall man holding a long spear was leaning up against the wall in a casual position.
Invaders, in the prison? How had they gotten so far without alerting anyone or tripping any of the alarms? These prisoners were brand new. Had they been researching the prison for months in advance in case they needed to infiltrate? That seemed unlikely, and considering the screams, it wasn't as if this was a rescue party.
So this man was a guard and he had one or more partners inside of the cell. Ibiki guessed that there was only one inside of the cells themselves, perhaps another performing a patrol to check for trouble, but if they had another person, they would not only have a single one standing guard. Unless this individual was such a professional that they didn't believe that anyone could possibly make it past him.
"You just going to stand their watching me all day?" The man said. Ibiki was shocked, he had believed himself to be completely concealed, yet the man knew he was there. He quickly considered his options, but they were shot down by the man. "Just come out here. You try to run and you won't get far. The second you try to turn your back I'll already have pushed a spear though it. You're a specialist when it comes to interrogations, but in combat, you are hardly any better than these guys. Hunting you would be a breeze."
Ibiki didn't respond immediately. The man was right. Though he had been made a Tokubetsu Jounin for his skills in interrogation, the twenty year old man was no combat expert. His skills in fighting and chakra control were enough to pass the Chunin Exam, but no better. He hadn't had time to train them in years, and his body had been left forever weakened by his experience in Kirigakure. If this man had indeed taken out all of the Chunin guards without being spotted, then he would not stand a chance at getting away.
However, while there was no chance in him escaping, in a fight, nothing was ever certain.
Ibiki drew his blade and prepared himself to try to do whatever he could. If it was his time to die for his village then so be it.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" The scar faced young man demanded.
The spearman chuckled to himself. "Does anyone actually answer that question?"
The move was so fast that Ibiki hardly had time to attempt a guard. There had been nothing in the man's stance or tone to suggest that he was going to attack. One moment he was completely at ease, the next he had covered half the distance between the two in a single step, that reminded the scarred ninja of the pounce of a large beast, the spear head flashing up towards his neck.
Ibiki swung his short blade up to deflect the attack, but right before the blades met, the spear was draw back, letting his blade pass by before lunging like a snake. The change in momentum gave only a slight window of opening for Ibiki to dodge.
Horrible pain shot through his left shoulder as the head of the blade sliced through it, but the pain was nothing to Ibiki, a man who had suffered physical and mental pain beyond the imagination of normal individuals. He didn't hesitate for second. The moment his body hit the ground, he rolled, throwing his short blade up at the man who deflected it in mid flight, even though the blade should have been invisible to him in the near perfect darkness.
Ibiki used a hidden weapon seal inside of his right jacket sleeve to summon up a bit of gun powder over the floor, igniting it with a spark to force the man to keep his distance for a moment, as well as hopefully blind him if he was not trained to deal with the sudden light.
The scarred ninja checked his body's damage, expecting to find himself bleeding out and his muscles in to much disarray to continue to be used. But to his shock, there was no wound at all. His arm was still usable.
Had the attack missed? No, he had felt the pain from when the blade had pieced his body. He knew that he had. His mind was not effected by any genjutsu. He narrowed his eyes at the man.
In the dying light from the moments fire. He was dressed in an odd blue jumpsuit with metal shoulder guards. His hair also seemed to be a dark blue, but the thing that was most interesting to the interrogator was the missing nin headband around his neck.
He reached into his jacket again, activating two more seals and retrieving a pair of kunai to help defend himself. The man's guard seemed to be down. He rushed through the fire, ignoring the burning on his legs as he used the flames to hide his movement and his attack.
Didn't make a difference. His swipes with the kunai met nothing but air as the spear head went straight for his chest. Pain again shook through the scarred ninja's body, but again, there was no injury. He pushed through, continuing to attack, but each time his attack's were easily avoided or parried and his body was struck again by the strange weapon.
Any normal man would have passed out from the pain, but Ibiki kept going. Trying to figure out what was going on as he continued to try to pin down the spearman. It felt like something out of a dream.
After it became apparent that cutting him wasn't doing any good, the spearman disarmed the Konoha ninja, before smashing him in the stomach with the butt of his spear.
Ibiki staggered back and pretended to cough and he pushed up the pouch of oil hidden inside of his throat. The oil spread into his mouth near the piece of flint hidden in his molars.
The technique was an old one, and an unpredictable one, using no handsigns that could give the enemy warning. Ibiki couldn't even use a normal fire jutsu. but by spitting the oil out as he ignited the flint in his mouth, he could take the enemy off guard.
The pain involved in using this was unbelievable. It was considered a kinjutsu, a forbidden technique, as it mutilated the users mouth, if not destroying it beyond the skill of a medical ninja to repair. A mistake in its use could lead to death. It was only to be used in the most dire of moments.
Ibiki was preparing himself to use the it, pulling the air into his lungs that he would need to compress the oil pouch. In the narrow corridor, and without any time to defend, the attack would surely kill. But as he opened his mouth wide, the spearman moved in, shoving his hand into Ibiki's mouth, stopping him from igniting the oil.
The ninja didn't gag. He had trained down such reactions. He tired to get the spearman away from him, throwing a punch at the man's stomach while the two were so close together. The blow hit, marking the first time he had managed to hit the blue haired man, but as they were pushed apart the man pulled the oil pouch out of Ibiki's throat.
Ibiki staggered as he then needed to recover his air. How had the man known about the oil? Even if there was a bright light, it would have been hidden in his mouth.
"The hell do you think you're doing? If I hadn't smelt the oil, you would have just killed your own allies as well as yourself." The spearman half growled, throwing the oil bag to the side.
Ibiki was a bit taken aback. He only just noticed the light breathing from the men on the ground. They weren't dead, only unconscious. He remembered how the spear didn't seem to cut, only induce pain. He hide his surprise with the skill of a master.
"I see. That weapon of yours can't kill. Was it your unwillingness to kill that lead to you going missing?" He asked the blue haired man, spitting out a bit of the oil from his mouth. As he checked his stomach, he found a bruise from the butt of the spear. So it was only the spear head that had the strange properties. "I suppose living in the bloody mist would be rough on a man like you."
The spearman, still posed to attack, paused. "Maybe. How about you, Morino Ibiki-san, you're pretty much the boogie man of the intelligence world, aren't you? Why'd you go into this line of work? Not the most heroic job out there." His voice was cocky, maybe even angry, but he was curious.
The best way to get information was to give information. "I took the job to best serve the village, and to remind myself of my failures. So that I would never be allowed to forget why I am alone."
The spearman let out a sound of disgust. "You are one of those kinds of people, huh?" After a short moment of silence, he spoke again. "Lancer... I'm called Lancer. Though I doubt you will find it in any of your Bingo books. You're right, I don't like killing when I can help it. It's a pity how often killing is a necessity in my line of work."
Lancer? What a strange name. It didn't form well on the ninja's tongue. He wondered what it meant.
The spearman then spread his stance even further. His body stretched out, his spear head low to the ground, one hand loosening near the center while the other twisted near the back.
"Sorry, this is really going to hurt. No hard feelings." The spearman said.
Ibiki had been prepared for it. He had been prepared, but completely powerless. The move was so... perfect. His attempt to dodge it could have only been considered laughable. The spearhead went straight through his body, pushing him to the wall where he was nailed to the stone.
The pain was beyond words. No one should be able to experience such pain and stay sane, let allow awake. But Ibiki endured.
Two swift hand signs and then he throw his black trench coat open to reveal two massive explosive tags. "Release..." He gasped through his agony.
Some bits of fire appeared around the seals edge, moving inwards to where they would release the explosion held within. Ibiki closed his eyes, ready to embrace death.
But the explosion never came. He opened his eyes as the spear was pulled out of his chest and he received a hard punch to the face. He was pulled out of his trench coat by the man and tossed to the ground. His coat was on fire from the seal's flames. But what had happened to the explosion?
"You bastard! I can't believe you were about to kill yourself!" The spearman stood in the light of the fire, a look of anger on his face. He was shouting and waving around a small oddly shaped knife. "Did you even know what you were dying for!? Treat your life with more care, dammit!" Ibiki's head was still hammering from the pain, but he still tried to get up. "Why do you keep moving?"
"If it was for Konoha... I would gladly give my life... This pain is nothing." The ninja said, trying to get to his feet again.
"How stupid." A calm voice joined them. Ibiki was shocked as the stone underneath him quickly started to swallow him up. In just a moment, only his head was above the surface of the stone. "Lancer, you are lucky all of your playing around hasn't brought us any undo attention."
The woman was... unbelievable. Her dark purple hair reached down to her waste. A pale complexion that was beautified even further by the light of the dancing flames. Her arms were crossed underneath a more than impressive chest. As she turned towards him, Ibiki saw that her eyes were covered by a missing nin headband. He hadn't noticed until that very moment that the sounds of the prisoner's screams had stopped.
"Sorry, Rider. This one is rather stubborn. Did you get what you needed?" Lancer said, putting the knife away and replacing the spear on his shoulder. He started to rub the back of his neck, an embarrassed expression on his face.
"Yes, I did. Now lets move, before more complications show up." The woman said, turning away and walking as if she was in no hurry.
Lancer shook his head before glancing back at Ibiki. "Let me tell you something. Heroes die for two reasons. Either they are given a task that is simple impossible to survive, or they forget why they were trying to be heroes in the first place. Go find yourself something worth living for. Get a girlfriend or a hobby or something." He said before moving off after Rider.
Ibiki was stuck there, staring after were they went. The only thing he had to do before people showed up to dig him out was think.
Get a girlfriend? Not very likely. His body was heavily scarred. The last time he walked around outside without something to cover the top of his head, all the children in the street burst into tears at the sight of him.
A hobby maybe? Hm... Well, he did like those cat shaped good luck charms. Perhaps he would start collecting.
"So... they don't remember anything?" The Hokage said in disbelief when the Jounin had gathered again.
Ibiki was standing before them, a large lump on his face covered by a bandage, but otherwise completely as usual. He was standing at attention, giving them the results of the mornings interrogation.
"No, they remember something, its just not what happened." Ibiki repeated. "They believe that they did try to kidnap the girls, but that is where they get confused. According to them, they were attacked by a group of missing nin who were trying to steal their prize from them. They were taken off guard been an ambush and slaughtered, but when Konoha ninjas got close, the missing nin figured themselves outnumbered and fled."
The Jounin were all shocked. They didn't even know what to think about it.
"The missing nin from the night before had something to do with this, though I don't know how or why." Ibiki continued. "If I had only heard this in reports, I would have said it was impossible. No jutsu exists that can create memories of this quality. There exist jutsu that can bury memories by weakening the cognitive connections, but not creating memories. On top of that, nothing we did could get them to remember what really happened. We were as thorough as time has allowed, which is a good deal more thorough than we expect the Kumo's questioners to be."
"Do you have any idea why they might have done this?" Asuma asked, reaching for one of his cigarettes. He had a feeling this was just going to be one of those headache days.
"A few theories, though nothing certain. If they wanted to gather information and then cover it up, killing the men would have been easier. We were unable to identify either of the intruders in our records. If I head to take a guess, the man who called himself Lancer seemed allergic to the idea of people dying for a cause. An attempt to avoid war is a possible reason to do this, though it still begs the question of who they are and how they did it." Ibiki said, shaking his head. "His weapon was using an odd jutsu that prevented him from physically harming people though it still inflicted pain as a way to immobilize or dissuade enemies."
"An the woman, what can you tell us about her?" Kikashi asked.
"The woman... I didn't get a good chance to evaluate her. Though there was something unnatural about her." Ibiki said, his brows pushed together.
"And what would that be?" Shibi asked, after the scarred ninja had been quiet for a few seconds.
"I think her boobs might have been bigger than Tsunade-sama's." Ibiki said seriously. Most of the men in the room flushed and the women seemed unsure what to think. "I wish I knew whether or not they were real. It could be important information in her psychiatric profiling. To desire such a figure would likely stem from..."
"Morino-san, that is enough!" The Hokage said, breaking the man out of his punderings. The old man coughed into his hand a few times, trying to force down a flush. "You have been through a great deal in the last day. Go and get some rest. You can write up your report on a later date, though all information about our surprise visits would be considered a B-rank secret until further notice."
The interrogator nodded, snapping his heels together and giving a short bow. "Understood, Hokage-sama." He said. He was out of the room before a smile passed over his face. Teasing people was rather entertaining and less morally questionable that torture.
Once the door was closed the Hokage sighed and shook his head. "Well, this is a twist." He mumbled, starting to rub at his temples.
"It solves a fairly large problem of ours. A scapegoat is no longer needed." Danzou said with a nod. "But it opens up new questions."
"Who the hell were those people!?" Stone Lee shouted.
"Whoever they were, they probably know full well what happened with the kids, and they want to keep it as quiet as possible." Shikaku said, resting his chin in his hands. "To many unknown factors for us to make any moves. We can't start asking about for information. Searching for them will give away more information than it will retrieve. We can't even conform that they were missing nin to begin with. How troublesome."
"For now, we will do what we can. Keep ears open for anyone asking about for the children, and maintain watch. Someone will need to create false report that are in line with what the captured Kumo ninja had said." The Hokage said. "Beyond that, this matter seems to have been brought to a close."
"Not quite." Uchiha Fugaku said calmly. "There is still the matter of the turn coat among the Kumo ninja. We have yet to discuss what needs to be done about him. Needless to say, if he is returned to their village, he will die with the rest. I don't feel like it is a fate deserved of the young man."
The Hokage nodded. "Yes. I've already decided to have him listed among the dead. His life as a ninja is over, lest he catch the eye of his village. We will give him some money to start a life on and release him to do as he pleases. Should he chose to stay in the village, he may stay as a civilian under watch."
The Jounin seemed to have little problem with this, though it was not to Danzou's liking. Hiashi sat in the room listening to them all talk, marveling at his stroke of luck and worrying about what kind of people had just gotten news of his daughter.
Regardless, they could finally put these events behind them, and more on into the future.
Shirou channeled his inner Lancer for a bit. Not as potent as his inner Archer.