"Sasori!" BANG BANG BANG "Sasori, Konan says it's time to get up!"
"Go die," the Akasuna growled from under his covers. Sasori's previous late night adventures with Deidara had left him completely exhausted, and being woken this early by Tobi of all people was not his ideal start to the morning.
"But Sasori, we have a mission to do!" Tobi whined helplessly from the other side of the door.
Sasori's mind inched closer to consciousness at the statement. Mission?
As quickly as he sleep-deprived body could, the redhead threw on the closest pair of cargo pants and boots, before stumbling to the door as he pulled on his wife-beater. "What do you mean, mission? Wait, where's your mask?!"
Tobi, much to Sasori's shock, was standing before him sans orange swirly mask. Instead, a pair of wide, reddish eyes glanced directly into his own, a surprised look on the chipper male's face. Apparently he didn't think going maskless was a big a deal as Sasori was making it out to be.
"Well, Kisame and Konan told Tobi that the Falks might not like being unable to see Tobi's face, so for now the mask is a no-go! But don't worry, Tobi's making friends left and right! Pretty soon Tobi'll be able to wear his lucky mask again!"
Yeesh. Sasori was positive that there could be no excuse for any refugee to be this peppy so early in the morning, and seeing Tobi smiling from ear to ear in such a manner was only making the cheerful attitude more annoying. "Look Tobi," Sasori grumbled in a sleepy voice, "You said something about a mission. What did you mean by that?"
"Come on!" Tobi ordered while pulling the redhead out of the room. "Tobi will tell you on the way!"
"All right, I'm coming," Sasori grumbled as the fellow soldier tugged him along, not wanting his arm to pop out of its socket.
"Konan got a transmission from one of the neighboring VUM branches," Tobi informed the Akasuna as they walked down the hall. "Something about it benefitting humans and Falks, but that's all she would say before telling Tobi to get you. Now we have to attend the meeting!"
"What meeting?" was all Sasori had time to ask before he and Tobi walked into the mess hall, which was completely packed with VUM rebels and human soldiers. At first the Akasuna panicked as the where he would be sitting, but was fortunately flagged down by Kisame and Deidara, who were sharing a bench near the front of the room. Tobi and Sasori quickly made their way to their friends and sat down, trying not to draw attention to themselves even though it was painfully obvious that the duo had arrived late. "What took you so long, un?" Deidara whispered once Sasori was seated.
"Pardon me, Tobi just now told me that we were supposed to meet here for some kind of mission meeting thing!"
"Quiet you two," Kisame ordered. "She's here."
Konan had indeed just walked into the room, immediately silencing what little chatter had been going on before her entrance. Pein was fast on her heels, arms full of maps and charts, whereas Konan held naught but a tiny jump drive in her hand. Both rebels had serious expressions on their faces, making Sasori feel that this meeting wasn't going to be about team morale.
"Attention, everyone!" Konan called out as Pein hissed and clicked behind her. "I will be speaking in English for our 'uman guests, and Pein will be speaking for ze rest of you. Now zen; you are surely wondering why you 'ave been called togezer today, oui? Ze reason is simple."
Pein turned and pinned a map of Verden to the wall, then dodged out of the way as Konan violently jabbed a finger towards a spot on the south-eastern side. "We 'ave received intelligence from our fellow freedom fighters zat zere 'as been some unusual activity going on in the mines in zis sector."
"Mines?" Sasori inquired.
"We used to run on solar energy," Deidara whispered. "But after the war broke out, we had to go back to mining inpes crystals un."
"Never heard of them."
"They're extremely toxic to mine, un," Deidara gravely informed him. "Even Falks need special suits to stay in the mines for existential periods of time, un."
"I think you mean extensive, but I get it."
"It is here- (at some point during Sasori and Deidara's chat, Pein had hung up a new map, this one showing a labyrinth of tunnels) zat we 'ave noticed an increase in mining activity, despite ze fact zat all reports indicate zat zis area was picked clean years ago. Somezing is rotten in denim, as you like to say."
Several clicks from the Falkian rebels interrupted Konan at that point, forcing the leader to halt her briefing. "They want to know what this means for us, un," Deidara translated before Sasori could ask.
"Simple," the blue-haired woman said. "We need to know what is going on in zere, but cannot risk sending in any of our present operatives already working ze mines, for fear of exposing zem as being in cahoots wiz us. Zerefore, our sector shall be sending in a few select fighters to infiltrate ze mines and figure out what ze bloody 'ell is going on."
"How will we get in, un?" Deidara inquired.
"Ze mines 'ave been in use for many decades," Konan explained. "As a result, zere 'ave been many shafts zat 'ave been abandoned eizer from being mined dry or considered a cave-in risk. One of zese tunnels (here she pointed to the map again) stretches nearly four miles away from ze central mining zone, and is only a little ways from our target. We will sneak our way in, infiltrate ze target area, and zen get out as quickly as possible. I must warn you, ze only protective suits we 'ave are ten years old. Even wiz zese on, anyone who accepts zis assignment still runs a high risk of sickness from inpes exposure. Who is still willing to go?"
The warning about being contaminated by toxic chemicals seemed to destroy any chances of willing volunteers to complete the assignment. Finally, Deidara's hand shot up. "I'll do it, un."
"Deidara!"
"Well no one else was going to do it, danna," Deidara argued in his defense.
"That doesn't mean you- oh, forget it." Sasori's hand was the next to rise. "I'll do it too."
"The radiation will cook you like pomato, or totato, or whatever those things are, un!" Deidara protested as hushed clicks and whispers echoed through the room.
"I'm not going to let you go in there alone, brat," Sasori was quick to retort. "And just because I'm human doesn't mean I can't handle this. Trust me, ok?"
"This is not about trust-"
"Right zen, I will require zree more volunteers for zis mission," Konan called out, and was pleased when she quickly acquired the necessary manpower. Apparently the other Falks weren't too happy about looking more cowardly than their fragile human companions. "Magnifiques! Zen we shall set out at oh six 'undred 'ours!"
"…Erm, Konan," Kisame gently began, "That was over an hour ago."
The woman blinked in surprise, and then slowly began counting off on her fingers. Konan suddenly hissed to herself, and even if he couldn't understand the language, Sasori was pretty sure the commander was swearing. "I meant sixteen 'undred 'ours! Be prepared; ze rest of you, find somezing productive to do!" And with that, the group was dismissed.
"Urgh, I need some breakfast, un," Deidara grumbled as he stumbled out of the room, though he looked more sick than hungry. Sasori felt a pang of guilt as he watched the blond walk out; he hadn't meant to upset his friend, yet it appeared he'd managed to do just that. Come to think of it, the blond's reaction wasn't what he'd expected at all. Must be another failure to understand Falks. Speaking of which, Sasori still needed to talk to Kisame.
The redhead caught sight of his commanding officer walking out the door and rushed to intercept him before the shark could make his way to the mess hall. "Kisame!"
"Hm? What is it, Sasori?" Kisame suddenly grinned a very sharky grin, as though believing he'd figured out what had caused his subordinate to stop him. "You get cold feet about the assignment and want me to talk Konan out of making you go?"
"Not at all," the puppet master stated with an air of finality.
"Then what?"
"I need to talk to you. In private," the redhead added for clarification.
Kisame's smile faded away, replaced by a concerned frown. "Might I ask why?"
"Trust me. It'd be better if we were alone for this."
-
"All right, spill," Kisame ordered. The duo had gone back to Kisame's room to ensure privacy, and now Kisame sat comfortably on his bed while Sasori reclined nearby in the room's only chair. "What's so secretive that you can't talk about it in the open?"
"I need to ask you some questions about Falks," Sasori explained. "I'm not sure where to start, but there's a lot I need to ask. I'm confused about how attached they get to people or things, how emotional they can be-"
"Sasori, before this goes any further, please tell me you didn't sleep with Deidara," Kisame begged.
"What?! NO!"
"Oh thank Kami."
"Why would you even suggest that?!" Sasori demanded as his face turned from pink to scarlet out of sheer embarrassment.
"Well you and Deidara are getting really close, and it's reminding me of how Itachi and I started out," Kisame wistfully replied.
"Why does that give people the right to assume we're having sex?!" a humiliated Sasori demanded, blushing all the way up to his ears now.
"Trust me, it's important for me to know whether or not that's the case, but I'll get to that in a moment. For now, we'll start with the basics. What do you remember from your training manual about Falks?"
"They're years ahead of us as far as physical strength goes," Sasori replied in the robotic manner that accompanies memorized information being regurgitated for the seven millionth time. "Their language is harsh and straight-forward, as are their thinking styles. As a result, figures of speech tend not to translate well. Although not widely studied, it is believed that they have evolved beyond most of the emotions we humans experience."
"Yeah, I thought your manual was a load of shit," Kisame muttered to himself, surprising the Akasuna with such a harsh judgment of the redhead's training. "They're physically ahead of us and couldn't understand figures of speech if their lives depended on it, but emotionally…well, it's difficult to explain. They don't usually show as many feelings as you and I do, but the ones they feel are ridiculously strong. You've seen Konan and Deidara when they get upset, right?"
"You mean that's normal?" Sasori gaped. All this time he'd been thinking Konan and Deidara were just bad at keeping their anger in check. If the rest of their race was anything like that…well, Sasori decided right then and there that he was going to do his best to stay on the rebels' good side.
"Yeah, and one of the strongest emotions they can feel is jealousy, which is why I was panicking that you and Deidara might have gotten intimate, so to speak. For some reason, it's especially a problem with humans."
"Why?"
"HSES, or Homo Sapien Exposure Syndrome. A psychologist began to study the long-term effects of human and Falk coexistence, but the war broke out before he could get much done in the way of research," Kisame informed the surprised redhead. "Basically, his report suggests that humans experience a brief period of discomfort as they adjust to living together, but then get used to their presence."
"Like moving into a new neighborhood," Sasori suggested.
"Right. But most Falks have a slightly different reaction. Being around humans makes them…not unstable, but more prone to express emotions that typically would remain dormant. The normally volatile expressions become more so. Whether this is helpful or hurtful in the long run was never determined, and the doctor performing the research was killed several years ago in an air raid, so you can't exactly ask his opinion on it. After his death, no one was willing to dump additional funding into the study, and the file got buried years ago. Hence why you still have the same information in the manual that the troops were given more than ten years ago."
The Akasuna allowed a few minutes for the information to sink in, before asking another question. "What do you think?"
Kisame took a deep breath and clasped his hands in his lap, trying to find the right words to tell Sasori. "I don't know about its overall pros and cons, but I know Itachi had it and felt the effects. Sometimes it was scary; I saw him rip a man apart with his bare hands when my life was threatened. But," Kisame added, seeing the rising panic on Sasori's face, "at the same time, he became more forgiving and kind. At least when I was around." A miserable sigh escaped Kisame then; no doubt caused by painful memories. "Basically, you can't expect the same kind of reactions from a Falk as you would from a human. You have to learn to read them, figure out what things will and won't set them off, and then treat them like you would anyone else."
Sasori frowned at the statement, turning Kisame's advice over in his head. From the way the shark described them, Falks were like normal people who felt different emotions at different levels, had diverse triggers that could set off laughter or tears, and reacted more strongly around certain people than they normally did. Such a conclusion would have been a welcome addition to the training manuals that painted their opponents as creatures that were nearly as different from humans as a garden slug. "Anything else?" Kisame asked, breaking the redhead out of his musings.
"No, thank you," Sasori replied, his mind still pondering this most recent information.
"All right. I will say this though. Falks have a little more difficulty forming bonds than humans do. They'll work well together and live peacefully side by side, but they're not exactly all BFFs."
"Understood. Thank you Kisame."
"No problem." At this point, the shark glanced across the room to the clock hanging from his wall. "On a separate note, you might want to get some lunch before your mission." Shocked by how much time had passed, the Akasuna nodded and showed himself out the door. He needed to eat and pack.
-
"How the fuck did I get roped into this?!"
"Because, monsieur loudmouz, ze rest of my men voted unanimously zat you were not to be trusted at ze base while I was away," Konan informed a rather grumpy Hidan. "It is your own fault for being so angry and yelly all ze time."
"Look who's talking," Sasori whispered, making Deidara jab him in the side as the blond attempted to stifle his giggles.
What was supposed to be a small party of Konan and a few others had grown into nearly a dozen soldiers. Sasori and Deidara were still in the group, as was Hidan, which of course meant Kakuzu had to tag along as well. The rest of the group was made up of Falks that Sasori couldn't name, but recognized from walking around the camp. They weren't outwardly friendly towards him, but after his talk with Kisame, the lack of open hospitality didn't bother the Akasuna nearly as much as it might have. Currently the group was riding a small aircraft that was not only cramped when packed full of soldiers wearing protective suits, but was flying so low that several times the bottom of it scraped against the treetops badly enough to make Sasori fear for his life.
"Now listen," Konan began. "Ze details of ze plan are as follows. We will be brought wizin 'alf a mile of ze mines; any closer, and zeir censors would notice us. We shall exit single-file, one behind ze ozer, and make our way to ze mineshaft entrance. At zis point, we shall meet our informant. 'E is, I believe, wearing blue pants and a beret, like moi. If you do not see someone like zis, assume security 'as been bleached and abort ze mission. If, 'owever, nozing goes wrong, we shall zen be led down ze mine and into ze target rooms, 'ave five minutes to collect our data, and zen flee like little girlies running from a spider. Understand?" Nods from everyone, albeit Hidan had to be prompted by a shove from Kakuzu. "If zat is ze case, we shall remain silent until our arrival."
After another half an hour and what had to have been at least five near death experiences, the aircraft finally began to descend, eventually making a soft and silent landing in a narrow clearing. Konan was out of the aircraft faster than Sasori's eyes could follow, and the rest of the Falks were not far behind. The redhead hurried after Deidara, determined to prevent the duo from being separated, and a healthy round of cursing from behind told him that Hidan (and by proxy Kakuzu) were not far off.
The group marched single file behind Konan, keeping as quiet as possible. The jungle, fortunately, provided plenty of background noise to conceal their approach, while at the same time making Sasori go crazy with panic. Every animalistic shriek of the local fauna, every snapped branch, every rustle of the leaves made the Akasuna feel as though they were about to be ambushed by the Falkian army, with little chance of escape. The others, if they felt as nervous as he, concealed it well as the squad continued on their journey.
A short eternity later, Konan held up her hand to halt the group, bring the others to a complete standstill. Slowly, eyes glued dead ahead, the woman extracted a set of binoculars from a pouch on her hip and brought them to her face, peering off into the distance. Moments later, she let out a relieved sigh and pocketed the binoculars again. "We are in luck; it is our informant."
The blue-haired woman began sending troops to the resistance member, two at a time, with herself in plain sight during the affair. At last, bringing up the rear, she approached the man and shook his hand, whispering quickly and quietly about their arrival and subsequent plans. Their informant barely spoke, not even giving a proper introduction before scurrying down the mineshaft and beckoning the others to follow.
The mineshaft was, put simply, a mineshaft. It was dark, dank, full of dirt, and altogether a rather unpleasant place to be. After walking for a short while, Sasori began feeling a slight tingle in his arms. With Konan and Deidara's warnings echoing in his head, Sasori prayed that whatever radiation he was getting from this area wouldn't kill him, or at least not make him glow in the dark. Trying not to think about it, the Akasuna kept pressing onward.
The group continued on in silence for another half hour (though to be fair, Sasori had no concept of time, and it could have been half a day for all he knew), when suddenly their ears were assaulted by a low, faint hum of machinery coming from the far end of the shaft. "Sounds like Konan's information was accurate," Deidara murmured.
"What the hell are they doing down here?" Hidan grumbled, having joined the duo on their walk.
As they went on, not only did the volume of the noise increase, but Sasori was able to make out faint pinpricks of light. Konan was on the edge now, urging complete silence amongst her troops and having them hug the wall as closely as possible as they went along. Yet even as she demanded caution and care, the Falk seemed to be increasing her pace. They'd only get one shot to acquire their information, and any time wasted could not be retrieved.
At last they rounded a corner and came to the source of the light, and possibly the noise. Strings of old lanterns were hung from the ceiling, a whitish-blue flame being emitted above a burning white crystal. The sight confused Sasori; namely, because along the walls, not but a few feet from the lanterns, he could see strings of electrical wires with attached lightbulbs. "You seeing what I'm seeing?" Hidan inquired, the noise now loud enough that they could talk at normal volumes without fear of being detected.
"Mhm."
"Dude, something's seriously fucking weird here. Look at the doors."
The 'doors' Hidan had pointed out could only be called doors because they met the most basic door criteria. They were large, rectangular in shape, and appeared to separate the main passage in the mine from the halls or rooms concealed behind them. However, it was apparent that they had been crudely put together (one appeared to be half a soda logo, as if cut from a billboard and salvaged for this purpose), and not a single one of them sat properly in their doorframes, which had been so terribly constructed that Sasori wagered he could fit his entire arm through the gap between the frame and the wall in some places. Some didn't even have a frame, and the Akasuna feared that touching the poorly-seated wood might cause it to fall inwards on the room it was meant to guard. All signs pointed to this location being fashioned in a hurry, without even having power to the lights yet.
Konan acted as though this was exactly what she had been expecting to find, and had the resistance members split up to search the rooms one at a time. Sasori went through two chambers, finding the first to be a room filled with dried beans, and the second to be a long, winding corridor with nothing in sight. He realized on some level that because he couldn't see anything in the chamber, it would be best to leave it, and continue his search. However, gut instinct told the Akasuna to keeping looking, and not move on until he was sure there was nothing to be discovered. Quickly, Sasori extracted a flashlight from his supplies and hurried down the corridor.
He knew he'd struck gold when the humming noise grew louder and louder, and finally the chamber abruptly ended in front of a large, steel door that had been installed with far more care and caution then the other doors in the main hall. A quick attempt to turn the handle informed him the door was locked. Sasori was not one to be deterred, however, and he soon noticed that as well as the door had been constructed, there were still gaps in the wall around its frame. He held the flashlight in his mouth, pulled out his pocketknife, and began chipping away at the material near the handle, until at last he was able to reach his arm through, grab the handle from the inside, and open the door.
As soon as he stepped inside, the puppeteer realized that the humming they'd been hearing was coming from several large generators in this room. The generators were all linked up to one gigantic device that looked like a supercomputer from old sci-fi movies, complete with a panel of hundreds of buttons and a screen larger than he was tall. He approached the machine, baffled by its size and the incredible amount of electricity it must need to run. The truly shocking thing was that Sasori could swear he'd seen this device before. The question was where he'd seen it. Normal people obviously didn't keep such things in their homes, and he was at least 90% this hadn't been on any military base or ship he'd visited. So where would he have seen it?
Baffled beyond all reasonable belief, the Akasuna began walking around the machine, hoping that a company logo or tag could give him a hint as to this behemoth's purpose. Unfortunately, it appeared that someone had taken great car to meticulously scrape off any name or trademark on the machine, wanting its purpose to be just as concealed as the device itself. Finally, Sasori came across a tiny metal plate on the back, declaring that this machine was property of NADSRaD. It wasn't much, but it did ring a bell in Sasori's head.
The Akasuna wasn't given any time to contemplate on the machine's familiarity, because at that moment his wristwatch began vibrating, indicating that they were out of time, and if he didn't want to be left stranded here, he needed to flee the area post haste. Cursing his luck, the redhead gave the machine one last look, and took off down the hall.
-
Fortunately for everyone involved, not a single member was left behind in the mines, and within an hour they were on their way back to the base. "All right, listen up," Konan ordered. "When we return 'ome, everyone is to be sprayed down in ze chemical showers to make sure your bones don't turn to jelly from ze radiation. After zis, you will be allowed a brief reprieve in your chambers before coming to my office and presenting your findings. Until zen, speak of nozing you 'ave seen. Zere is always ze chance of prying eyes and ears finding out what zey best not know, and we cannot afford such a security breach, oui?" No one objected to the woman's logic, and what followed was a relatively peaceful ride back to the base.
After disembarking and being sprayed down by a pink goo that smelled of pine and had the consistency of fondue, Sasori made his way back to his room and began contemplating on the machine he'd found. Obviously the puppeteer had no idea what the device was used for, as it had been turned off and looked different from any equipment he'd either used or seen used outside of motion pictures. That left him with an acronym to decrypt; the familiar yet unknown NADSRaD. "What could it mean," he muttered, pacing the room.
"What could what mean, un?"
"GAH!" Sasori jumped a good three feet in the air at the sound of Deidara's voice. "When did you get in here?!"
"Just a moment ago, un," the Falk replied, shutting the door as quietly as he'd opened it. "Did you find something in the mines?"
The Akasuna nodded, figuring that if there was anyone in the base he could trust, human or Falk, it would be Deidara. Throughout all his adventures, good or bad, Deidara had never done anything to put Sasori at risk, and at times like these, Sasori needed someone to confide in. "One of the tunnels I went in had a well-made door, guarding a room with generators and a huge…I don't know. Some kind of machine, like a huge computer."
"Well that's useful, un."
"Good to see you're picking up on sarcasm," Sasori grumbled as he resumed his pacing.
"What is sarcasm, un? Finding something is better than nothing."
"Yes, but if I can't tell Konan what that something is, it may as well be nothing!"
"…You humans make no sense whatsoever, un."
"Anyway," Sasori went on, "I don't know what the machine was, but there was a logo on the side with a company name: NADSRaD."
"Nadsrad?"
"N-A-D-S-R-A-D. I know I've heard of them, but I can't remember where or what it was about." Sasori groaned, rubbing his temples with both hands. "If I could just figure out who they are, it might help us discover what that thing does. But I can't figure out the damn acronym!"
"Well what could the letters stand for?"
"The A's probably Association or Area…R is Research, no doubt…S could be Study, or Surveillance…"
"What about the N, un?"
"National, New, North-" Sasori froze in mid-step, mouth agape as the pieces began clicking into place. "That's it, un."
"What is it?"
"NADSRaD: North Atlantic Deep Sea Research and Development," Sasori explained, trying to get the words out as quickly as he possibly could. "I remember now; about a year ago, they made a major breakthrough in underwater exploration. Some kind of new robot that could go deeper than other devices, with the capability of lasting much longer with less power under huge amounts of pressure than any of the previous models. They were going to be given an ungodly sum of money to see about putting a whole colony at the bottom of the ocean, miles down from anything we have set up right now. It made headlines in all the science journals for weeks."
"But why would one of their computers be in a mine, un?" Deidara inquired, confused beyond belief. "We're hundreds of miles away from anything you humans would call an ocean, un."
"I don't know," Sasori admitted. "But I'm sure that the NADSRaD who made that computer and the NADSRaD in charge of ocean studies are one and the same. Let's hope Konan can figure this out."