26th April, 2032, Hyuga Mansion, San Francisco, Time- 11:17pm
The first thing she noticed when she walked through the hallway, somewhat dazed and mildly embarrassed by the way she'd allowed herself to be quite literally swept off her feet so quickly, was that the study lights were still on- not a rare occurrence in their household, but one which piqued her interest nonetheless, especially when she glanced in on the room to check who was inside and took a near double take as she recognized the pineapple shaped up-do characteristically sported by Shikamaru.
Noting the way his back stiffened as he realised someone else had entered the room, she commented, "You're up late. This is rare."
"Well considering 'work' doesn't count as high-dining with corporate moguls in everyone's diary, it's kind of a necessity." he said, not missing a beat in recognising her tone and choosing not to turn and greet her, instead lifting the mug of what must have been tea slowly to his mouth level.
"What are you even doing? A data backlog from the office? Don't think for a second I don't know you'd be shoving this onto Neji or someone if they weren't denied access to the files." she said, slightly teasingly.
"Where's your boyfriend again, shouldn't he be around to shut you up?"
"You really suck at the random insults, you know."
She watched him lift the mug to his lips, sighing something that sounded vaguely like 'troublesome' before he tensed, his gaze fixing itself intently on the computer screen as he haphazardly set the cup down and started working on the computer almost panickedly- before pausing to sit back and frown confusedly at the computer screen.
Walking up to stand behind him at the desk, a hand on his shoulder as she pushed the mug of tea towards the center of the desk, away from where it could so very easily tip over onto stacks of paperwork, she asked, "Something wrong?"
"An anonymous file sent to the computer, which should be impossible because of the firewalls and IP servers I'm using. A Trojan, I thought, but..." he trailed off, typing further on the keyboard initiating what looked to her like another security scan of the file.
"But what?" she prompted, peering over his shoulder now.
"It looks entirely clear. And untraceable."
"What is it?"
"I don't know, it's risky opening it."
"But you said its clear."
"Or something I can't trace yet."
"Or it could be something you'll actually find useful."
"You think?"
"Just open it. Worst comes, you need to hack it and override it."
"But that's so much more effort."
"Shikamaru," the stern reprimand in her voice was enough to dissuade his whine as he proceeded to download and access the file, opening up a series of what looked like schematics and planning designs for some sort of device.
"Holy shit," he said, as she watched him narrow in on the diagrams, piecing together what it was supposed to create in his mind.
"A bomb?" she asked, though knowing as she studied the diagrams and lines of code in front of her that she was wrong, putting together the pieces of something she wasn't quite familiar with, something which Shikamaru quite evidently was.
"No, a cloaking device." he said, before frowning further and adding, "And what looks like coordinates."
She watched him pull up a separate window on the screen, and run what looked like a cross reference for said coordinates to figure out where they were pointing to.
She heard him curse under his breath again, switching back to the schematics, his eyes sweeping over the diagrams and lines of code once again, disbelief evident in the way his eyebrows arched as he continued skimming through the files.
"Coordinates to where?" she prompted, feeling the need to draw him out of his own thoughts before he began ignore her entirely.
"You should know, you were there two days ago." He said, pushing the screen aside and angling it till she could fully see the map he'd pulled up.
"Mission district, Warehouse 4b, what's th- oh, hell." A failed raid. Cloaking device? Rare, but not unheard of. Not at the level of technology they expected to be going up against- it would be perfectly reasonable. And something they hadn't thought about.
Her heart lurching as she felt something click in her mind, the missing puzzle piece in their flailing case, she spoke quickly, near breathless with excitement, "This is it, Shikamaru, this is how they've slipped under our radar. Tayuya was right, Kabuto wasn't lying. All the proof we need must be there."
"Who in their right mind would just happen to send the one file we need to solve the case and practically deliver it on our doorstep? Looks like a trap if I ever saw one."
"Or an anonymous tip. It could be someone working from the inside. You said, its a clean file. What's the trap in figuring out how to disable a cloaking device?"
"You're being unrealistic, Sakura. Even if we managed to find whatever they've cloaked, it could just be a way to get us all in one place and pick us off."
"It's worth a try, Shikamaru." she pleaded, following whatever low gut feeling told her, instinctively, that this was the solution. "And we can trace a source afterwards. Atleast figure out if we can get this cloaking device disabled. It could even be a practical joke of some sort, but its worth a try."
Something in the look he fixed her with, told her that something in what she said had gotten through to him, that he'd been convinced, albeit dubiously, as to following through on what she was saying.
Sighing, muttering something which sounded suspiciously like 'what a drag', he finally, audibly agreed, with, "...okay. But geez, get out of my hair I've had enough of Ino this evening I can't handle another one of you now, shoo!"
27th April, 2032, Unknown Location, San Francisco, Time - 00.54pm
"There's seven members that we know of in the so called 'inner circle'. Who control the experiments and research, for the larger part of it."
Kisame watched as Nagato began breaking down information that took the Akatsuki months, even years to gather and put together on what controlled the Uchiha corporation, to the scraggly white haired uncle who seemed to be the latest person Itachi deemed to trust with the information.
Since Itachi had first put the team together, they'd gotten much closer to their initial goals, yet the identities of the people who largely called the shots were still a big question mark in their records. While the Uchiha corporation was responsible for direct experimentation and laboratory trials, they were controlled entirely by a larger, more anonymous entity. The same entity as was responsible for Mikoto's capture, that which directed how the experiments were to be conducted. The inner circle was the closest they'd gotten to whoever was controlling the Uchiha Corporation from behind the scenes, and Itachi'd decided it was high time they filled in his uncle on what they'd found out about said inner circle.
Standing next to the Uchiha in question, Kisame noted his attention seemingly almost scattered- he hadn't been quite his usual stoic self since he'd gone awol the other night when Sasori'd been arrested. As a friend, he was tempted to give the guy a break and take him out for a night off of some sort, but there were more pressing matters to attend to at the present time.
"So wait," he heard the white haired scarecrow (or so he'd come to refer to the man as in his mind) interrupt Nagato's drone after the other man had finished surmising much of what they'd currently brought themselves to know about the ones pulling the strings, posing the question, "The only one in this 'inner circle' who's identity you actually know is Zetsu?"
"Identity and role, yes. Zetsu is essentially the link between the inner ranks and everything else they control- he's the only one to directly interact with the scientists, research, and with Itachi and Sasuke." Nagato answered, the tone of his voice never once rising above its normal monotonous drone.
"But we have other profiles, just not exact identities." Sasori chipped in.
"Like this one," Hidan interrupted, pushing a folder across the table to where Kakashi sat. "Goes by 'the Siren'. She's probably the only woman in on it at this level, the one we know the least on. But she's important. Powerful. Hella sexy too." he finished, grinning moronically at his pointless innuendo
"You've never seen her, she's also faceless." Itachi cut in, rolling his eyes before finally directing his attention towards the meeting itself, directly asking Hidan the question on which they'd hinged their entire last minute meeting that night, "What's the new intel you said you had?"
Purple eyes flicked back to another folder on the table in front of them, singling out the one which bore the label 'Mask'. "One of these dipshits entered the city yesterday morning. Its about fucking time we figured out who one of them is." He passed the folder over the table to Itachi, who's response was to frown, the gears in his head visibly turning to process this newfound information, in a pensive silence.
Peering over his shoulder, Kisame's eyes skimmed the now open folder, mind taking in lines of information he already knew as he read over the summary of Maski's role in the 'inner circle' they'd identified.
Mask; Recruitment in-charge
Screens and selects experimental subjects and/or talented scientists, laboratory professional [irrespective of a connection to the corporation] and arranges for their untimely 'death'/'disappearance'.
N.b; these subjects are proven not dead, have been removed to a remote and unknown destination where it is assumed further experimentation take place.
Further responsible for removing all threats to the anonymity of the circle.
Kisame knew, from memory, that the file went on to detail the abilities and potential threats Maske posed, which seemed to be the subject of Itachi's scrutiny as he scanned through the file.
"Thousands of people come into San Francisco on a daily basis, that's like looking for a needle in a shitstack!" Deidara's voice drew their attention to the other end of the table they sat around.
"But we know whoever the fuck this guy is he's not from this side of the fucking Atlantic. That narrows it down a fucking fair chunk." Hidan countered, defending the value of his intel against the blonde's cynical question.
"It could be anyone, but it's the closest we've got. We could actually track them down and get them in one place now." Sasori added, dull brown eyes glaring pointedly at Deidara.
"Well we've given him quite a headstart with all the shit you pulled yesterday!" Deidara retorted, bringing up mention of an arrest which the rest of them had done a fairly good job of avoiding till then.
"Atleast I wasn't sitting around the hospital being absolutely fucking useless" Sasori shot back, still pissed off about their near scuffle with the law.
"Keeping an eye on whatever sick shit your bitch pulled with her kids!" the blonde continued, having not had the opportunity to bring this up as a group as of yet.
Seeing Sasori tense at the verbal jab, Kisame sensed it was time to step in before the conversation escalated above anything more than snide remarks, "All right, cool it. You know Sasori was there on Itachi's say-so, stop behaving like two year-olds. We'll need lists of all flights/ trains/ ships into the city in the last forty eight hours; if you're lucky, this will finally be your chance to stop raking up tensions going stir crazy around the house and actually get to take it out on something worthwhile!"
"Geez, next thing you know they'll start stomping their feet and rolling around on the floor every time they throw a tantrum," Hidan chipped in, while Nagato followed up on the second half of what Kisame said, typing rapidly on the keyboard open in front of him.
Chuckling lightly at the vivid image placed in his head by Hidan's comparison, Kisame went on to nudge Itachi, asking, "What do you make of it?"
The Uchiha, still looking relatively vacant as though his mind was focused elsewhere, responded by once again asking Hidan, "What was your source?"
With an almost mortified look at the prospect of Itachi's doubting the legitimacy of his intel, Hidan responded with, "I tapped a phone call. Zetsu and this guy. Voice scramblers so I couldn't make out who the other bloke was. Couldn't trace the call either- these guys are fucking skilled with their shit. But they were finalizing shit about moving someone else out of the fucking city- to some other location. They mentioned some 'island' shit."
"So you just happened to listen in on a snippet of conversation between two people you very conveniently couldn't recognise or trace?" Kakashi asked, eyebrow raised cynically.
"Don't worry, Hidan's intel is usually solid." Itachi said, dismissively.
"So, we look through everyone entering the city in the last fifty hours, no use narrowing it down to countries of origin seeing as they could easily have landed in another state and followed through to here if they thought they'd be tracked. Any other ways we could narrow the search?" Kisame asked, taking charge of bringing the discussion back to some solid plan of action.
"We're looking for someone who's travelling again out of city within a few days, likely travelling alone on the way in but with company the way out. Most probably a different destination in mind for the return trip- they could be using private transport, flag those ones. It's a start, I'll make enquiries elsewhere. Someone shadow Zetsu- don't get caught." Itachi's attention seemed to have returned to their objectives by threefold as he rattled off their next steps, finishing with a nod to Kakashi and closing their meeting, once again stressing the importance of anonymity as they left the old abandoned casino basement where they'd met for that particular night.
Kisame was one of the last to stand up to leave, the thought of inviting Itachi out to catch up for a while afterwards flitting in his mind before he felt his phone buzz in the pocket of his jacket.
Glancing around to check if anyone else had heard the notification, he pulled the device out, eyes scanning the lockscreen and frowning at the unidentified number attached to his message notification.
Nobody unknown was supposed to have that number.
Nodding to Hidan as the silver haired man walked out of the basement, heading towards creaky stairs, Kisame proceeded to open the message, reading it suspiciously, dubiously eyeing the subject matter.
I have information to offer that should interest your group.
Don't leave the basement.
Don't tell anyone.
Any deal is off if Itachi or any of your other pals get to know.
-S
A moment of panic spread through him as he looked around almost jerkily, realising that someone entirely unknown to them was privvy to their meeting for which they had gone out of their way to remain undetected.
Was it a potential ally trying to reach out to them? Wishful thinking, more likely being someone with an agenda which may as well be a threat to everything they'd achieved till then.
"Are you coming, Kisame?" Itachi's voice attracted his attention as he watched the dark haired Uchiha standing near the base of the stairs, his white haired uncle looking down at them from further up the stairwell.
"You guys go ahead, I'll catch up with everyone later." Kisame called back, gesturing for the other men to leave already, a reassuring grin on his face as he sat back down to recline in his chair.
It was a split second decision to take up the anonymous text's offer. It could be a trap, of course, or a threat of some sorts. But his interest was piqued, and he felt a sneaking suspicion he'd inevitably regret not following up with said anonymous message if he left then.
Watching Itachi and Kakashi leave, Kisame found himself waiting in that dark, old casino room for almost half an hour thereafter. Bored to tears and on the verge of leaving, near dismissing the text as some prank or empty threat, he'd spent the last thirty minutes thinking of any possible way someone could have listened in on their conversations. The first idea coming to his mind was of course, the prospect of the room having been taped with cameras or audio recorders. But a quick scan and check had proved that impossible- especially considering the provisions they took to avoid being traced with their meetings.
The only other feasible option he'd thought of, was the consideration someone'd been watching them through the casino's old two way mirrors on the far side of the wall- the type of mirror which observers could see through from the other side. He'd ruled out the possibility initially, sure that Itachi's abilities could identify immediately any unwanted presence in the building.
But Itachi had been a hair's breadth away from scatterbrained for a large part of the meeting, hadn't he? Could he have missed something?
The sound of sharp heels echoing against the bare concrete floors snapped his head up instantly, as he watched a shadowy figure emerge from the far end of the room, from the mirrors he'd just been contemplating.
"Kisame, I take it?" a smooth feminine voice further brought his attention to the figure, mind vaguely registering that she was approximately five foot seven, did not seem to be visibly armed from the looks of her dark professional suit and matching coat but could easily be carrying some form of hidden weapon.
His eyes rising to look at her face, he nearly did a double take as he took in the sight of long dark hair and commanding, crystalline blue eyes, with high cheekbones and pale skin which reminded him almost entirely of Arisa to begin with, before small subtle differences in their faces became more apparent to him. This woman was clearly older, not in the way of old age but more in the way of authority, she seemed to demand his attention with every supple step towards him, both in her seductive physique and her lithe stride.
"And you are?" he asked, deciding against standing up to greet her, hand hovering closer to the gun he'd left on the table.
"I believe you know me by the name 'Siren'" her response sounded, an almost amused note in her voice as she came to a stop three meters away from him, at the head of the table.
His hand instinctively clamped around the revolver, cocking the gun as he aimed at her feminine frame. Her hands equally well trained, had drawn her own smaller hand pistol from the folds of her coat faster than he could blink. "I suggest you put that down, Kisame. If I wanted to kill you I'd have done it half an hour ago." she said, the amused smile very much present as her voice took a condescending lilt.
"Why don't you stop fucking around and answer the question, who are you?" he said, his voice harsh as his gun remained firmly in place.
"Like your friend- Hidan, was it?- mentioned before, I'm in the 'circle', as your group so adorably puts it. Important and powerful, I think Siren should suffice. I'll let you be the judge of 'sexy' why not." she continued, a slight chuckle in her voice. The smile never reached her eyes as her voice proceeded to take on a sterner note, going on to say, "Put the gun down, Kisame. You'll want to hear what I have to say."
"And why should I trust anything you have to say?" he retorted, still cynical as he lowered his gun ever so slightly, careful to keep his weapon aimed at her torso.
"Well, I never said you should, did I? We want the same thing, and you can help me out for the intel I have for you. Its up to you if you believe me." she said, lowering her weapon till it pointed towards the table in front of them
He found himself fixed on her piercing blue eyes as she spoke, almost instinctively lowering his guard were it not for the fact that she's one of the very people they were working to bring down.
"What's your intel?" he asked, still guarded in his expression as he kept his eyes trained on her.
"Obito Uchiha"
"Sorry, what?"
"He's the man you're looking for. 'Mask' was it?"
"Bullshit"
"And what do I get from lying to you?"
"Obito's on our side. What wouldn't you get from sending us on a wild goose chase after one of our own?"
"Is he really? On your side?" she asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically as though his words were the funniest thing she'd ever heard.
"No mind games goddamit!" he retorted, standing up abruptly, just about ready to leave.
"He's here to kill/capture Tsunade Senju. I'm pretty sure Itachi won't want that happening. And neither do I."
"And what proof do you have?"
"Just have a look into it, why not. You'll figure out for yourself I'm sure." she said, bringing a hand up to twirl her weapon skillfully around her finger before sliding it into its holster within the folds of her coat.
"Atleast tell me your name" He tried for one last attempt at finding out a little more about the enigmatic woman who'd appeared before him seemingly out of nowhere.
Taking several steps towards him, he felt her delicate soft hand rest on his larger, calloused, largely discoloured one as her soft touch relaxed his grip on his weapon almost involuntarily. "Don't tell anyone about this little liaison, ne?"
Faster than he could blink, she'd left the room, not even the echo of her footfalls in the room, the only remnants of her presence there being the lingering warmth of her hand on his wrist.