ROOT OF ALL EVIL ~ 13
K sat up in his seat and crossed his legs, "Kumo is more than eager to help Iwagakure, but," His eyes focused fully on Onoki, and his words carried an air of seriousness behind them. "What are your true intentions?" K's questioned startled Onoki, but his tense facial expression let him know he was serious.
Onoki laughed and stroked his beard with his hand, "I showed you the future, I want to export that to the world!" K's stare prodded him to go on, "We've been working exclusively with the village's own Dr. Briefs. We'll be demonstrating some of the prototypes very soon, if you don't mind."
"That's excellent," K offered an uncharacteristic smile that made Goku spit out his juice and stare at him. His blank stare returned for the slightest of moments when he looked at Goku, but he turned back to smile at Onoki. "I see the pratical uses in this new technology, but what about the military uses?"
The Tsuchikage reached under his desk and got out a towel, wiping the apple juice Goku had spit on him off. His scowl was fixed on Goku, ready to call him an 'annoying brat,' but he remembered he was in an important meeting. He turned his head quickly and smiled back at K, "We haven't explored fully explored the military uses of our inventions, but we have developed amazing sensor technology." The man clicked a button under his desk, and the center of it started to slowly rise up.
The platform flipped and revealed a screen that was built into the desk. It slowly lit up, before a hologram image of Iwagakure popped up, and showed different colored dots moving throughout the map. Onoki looked up from it with a smile, while K and Goku still looked at the intricate map of Iwagakure.
"I can see any and everything going on in the village," Onoki informed the two interested foreigners, before clicking the same button that brought the map to life. It retracted back into his desk, "All of Iwagakure is covered by a grid that picks up every heat signature there is, and it can trace any movement."
"So you knew about us before we entered the village?" K questioned out of pure interest, and received a simple nod from Onoki. "That's interesting."
"Where did you get all this shiny stuff from anyway?" Goku raised a curious brow and looked at Onoki suspiciously. "This isn't the kind of thing you just come up with over night."
"We've worked tirelessly for the better part of a decade, gathering information, materials, and funds to put together such amazing projects. It helps that I have one of the brightest minds the great nations could produce working under me," Onoki answered smoothly and smirked at Goku. "But this an adult matter, why don't you keep drinking your apple juice, boy."
Before Goku could fire back, there was a knock on the door, and it effectively silenced the room. From behind it, a woman spoke up, "Dr. Briefs and his daughter are here for the demonstration, Lord Tsuchikage, is it okay for them to enter."
"Yes, they may enter," Onoki instructed floated from behind his desk to the middle of the room.
The door opened, and Dr. Briefs stood there awkwardly. He was a short, stocky man with gray hair that had hints of blue in it, and a gray mustache. The doctor of course wore a lab coat, over a blue shirt that was tucked into his pants, and despite being outside of his home; a pair of slippers covered his feet. He was loosely smoking a cigarette, pushing his large glasses up, and stepping into the room slowly. A smile crossed his face, "Hello everyone," He nodded toward all the men in the room in the most respectful manner he could.
After a brief moment of silence, a girl came in pushing a cart full of equipment. She sounded exhausting from what they heard, and she nearly collapsed once she entered the room. The doctor's daughter wore a black jumpsuit with the 'Capsule Corp' logo on the right arm of it. Her bright turquoise hair was tied into a tight braid, and had a red bow in it for decoration, "Damn it, daddy, why didn't we seal all of this into one capsule!?"
"I suppose that would have been smart," Dr. Briefs tapped his chin in thought, and then broke away from it when he realized where he was at. He smiled at the Tsuchikage, "Shall we get this demonstration started?" The three men nodded in unison, ready to see what the doctor had to show off. "Very well then, Bulma go on."
Bulma picked up one of the boxes set neatly on the cart, and opened it up to reveal multiple capsules of different colors. She picked one out and clicked the top of it, making it poof in smoke, and when the smoke cleared a device was sitting in the palm of her hand. The girl handed it over to her father.
"What's that?" Goku questioned with child-like curiousity, jumping out of his seat to grab it out of the hand of Dr. Briefs. The man had no problem clicking a button on the side of the device, and it instantly lit up with five small blue dots. "Is that us?" Goku asked pointing at the screen.
"Indeed it is," Dr. Briefs patted the boy on the head for his observation. "While it's small scale, it can track chakra signatures nearby. As of right now it can only hit a certain radius, but with modifications..." The old man grinned at everyone in the room and let their imagination do the rest.
"It almost eliminates the need for sensor ninja in the field, and saves actual chakra overall," Bulma chimed in to add to her father's explanation. "By absorbing a bit of your chakra, it sends out a pulse that picks up whatever's in the area, and tracks its every movement. In the future, we might be able to track more than just humans, such as certain substances found in weapons."
Goku wasn't even looking at the chakra radar any more, his tongue hanging out like a dog once he heard Bulma talk, "Hot and smart," but K pinched him on the back of the neck. He looked at the man with the same scowl he would give him when he misbehaved, "It's the truth, K-sensei."
Bulma blushed, but not at Goku's comment. Her eyes were locked on the emotionless man that pinched him, "It's okay, K-sensei," she winked at him, and he looked away in an instant. She frowned and folded her arms over her chest, rolling her eyes.
"While the radar is interesting," K decided to speak up about what he saw, "I don't think it's amazing enough to fund world-changing money into it."
Dr. Briefs smiled, not even slightly offended, unlike Onoki who was glaring at K. He went and picked up another capsule, "A lot of the things I make require little to no chakra to use, such as these capsules. These might be my most ground breaking invention actually," He said as he showed the small pink capsule to the room. "It's similiar to a sealing scroll, but much more portable. It's even based on the same fuinjutsu principles, but it doesn't need any chakra to seal items within, and you can seal almost anything in this bad boy with a click of a button."
"You can seal a whole house in this thing," Bulma helpfully added in to her dad's spiel. "And as far as military use, you can seal multiple cases of weapons inside it. You can arm your whole force in a matter of seconds with these capsules."
"I'm sure you have more to show to K and his friend Goku," Onoki raised a brow and floated closer to Dr. Briefs, and the man's smile never left his face. He simply nodded, "Well, show us."
"I don't want to destroy your office," Dr. Briefs said calmly as he set down the pink capsule in the case, and carefully picked up a black one. "I think I have something that will pique Kumogakure-san's interest, and I'd like to take you outside of Iwagakure to show you."
"I'm fine with that," K cooed quietly as he stood up from his seat, and Goku promptly did the same.
The doctor happily clapped his hands together, "Ok then, let's go."
. . .
(Somewhere In Tsuchi no Kuni)
Multiple vehicles rolled through wastelands of Tsuchi no Kuni at a fast pace. They were brown in color, blending in with the natural colors of the land. The Iwagakure insignia was printed on the back of each vehicle, and their large tires left imprints in the ground as they tore through the lands.
Under the vehicle, a woman was cautiously clinging onto the many pipes and mechanical parts that made it run. She was slowly moving toward the edge of the vehicle, while pulling out a small gun with a large, circular barrel. Her eyes searched for the blue sky, slightly peeking her head out from under the vehicle.
Once she saw it, she pulled the trigger and a large flare was sent into the sky. The woman took a deep breath and dropped herself from the moving vehicle and tumbled across the ground. The flare had gone unnoticed, and the convoy kept driving through Tsuchi no Kuni.
"God, I hate doing the dirty work," The woman complained to herself. Her face was covered by a black-ski mask, and the rest of her body was concealed by a black body-suit. She was breathing heavily, after dropping herself from the moving vehicle, and she was sure she had a few bruises to show from it.
The flare she had sent up into the sky attracted what she wanted, which was a giant bird that came swooping down, and grabbing her body with its talons. It was no normal bird, its movements were robotic, and it had a few metallic features. It even released a machine-like caw, which still made the woman a bit un-easy.
"I guess I've gotta work on that," She mumbled to herself, before knocking on the metallic frame of the bird flying quickly through the air. "Take me to the meeting point." The bird looked down at its creator and its red eyes flared to life, before taking off at even faster speeds.
It wistfully moved through the sky and started moving closer to Iwagakure, as it was off in the distance, but the bird wasn't heading directly to the village. More along the outskirts there was a secluded area full of mountains, and a single hut in the center of it all.
The bird started to get lower to the ground and dropped its creator without warning. She was screaming loud as she fell and hit the ground with a thud.
Inside of the hut, the man living inside of it heard the loud crash outside, and decided to go see what it was. He opened the door of his home, to see a twitching woman clad in black, but he didn't seem worried. "You okay?" He sung out sweetly as he walked up to the woman's battered body.
"Fuck you, Jiraiya," She sat up and pulled the the mask off of her face. Her straight blonde hair dropped down to her lower back, and her brown eyes locked onto the Toad Sage's grin. "Why couldn't we meet somewhere nice, like a hot spring, or a private restauraunt? Maybe even a hotel!"
"Because working in my spy network isn't that luxurious," Jiraiya offered a hand to the woman and pulled her off of the ground. "You're a special agent though, Tights, and I might be able to work out some benefits for you."
Once she could stand up again, she pushed past Jiraiya and went inside his small hut. It wasn't much, but it had everything she needed to be comfortable now. The woman dubbed Tights went and sat down on the man's floor in front of his table. There were two cups of tea set up for them already, and he joined her within.
She rested her cheek within her palm and sighed, "All you made me is tea?"
"Well I figured our meeting would be brief," Jiraiya burst out into laughter, but it slowly faded once he realized Tights was completely serious. "Come on, that's a killer right there, I'm sure your dad would laugh at it!"
"I'm not my father, I'm a thirty year old woman; who just dropped out of a cargo truck to bring you this information!" She slammed her fist against the table and the drinks shook wildly within their cups. "Now do you want to hear it or not?"
"Well I figured we could talk about life a little bit first," Jiraiya said playfully as he picked up his cup and pouted his lip like a child. "But if it's that important to you, go ahead and debrief me," The man couldn't hold back his giggles, and only received an irritated look from Tights in response. He settled down and smirked, "No seriously, tell me what's going on."
"Ok, do you want the good news, or the bad news?" She asked while sipping at her hot tea.
"Um, start me off with the good news," Jiraiya frowned slightly at the thought of bad news. The world was already taking an interesting turn, so bad news could only make it worse.
"Gato, the owner of Gato Industries was found dead in his factory a few days ago, and it was completely empty." Tights couldn't help but smile at the news of Gato's death, "I never really liked him, so that's cool with me, but..." Jiraiya's interested face made her go on, "His company is still exporting like crazy, and a whole shipment of those alien weapons are heading to Iwagakure at full speed. I think someone has taken over Gato Industries in his place."
Jiraiya groaned, slamming his cup against the table and nearly cracked it in half, "God dammit! He's been running a whole multi-million ryo operation under my nose in Hi no Kuni," He calmed down and focused on the situation at hand. "We need to find out who the new leader of Gato Industries is and take them down, if these weapons get into the wrong hands; power will be shifting immediately."
"It doesn't help that my daddy is working directly with that crazy old man," Tights frowned as she held onto her cup, "He's suppyling him with vehicles and technology that would have taken him decades to get, and ever since those kids appeared with their alien tech; it's been made even worse."
"I'm working out a plan for that old bastard, but for now I need to return to Konoha," Jiraiya tried to wrap his head around his next few plans of action, and Tights was quietly doing the same.
"You may want to talk to Kakashi when you arrive, he ended up killing Zabuza Momochi while he was working with Gato, so he might know something," Tights fed him the last bit of information she had before finishing off the tea and setting it on the table. "I'll be laying low here for a couple of days, I've got some new things to write about after all."
"I'm jealou-" Jiraiya and Tights abruptly fell to the ground after the sound of an explosion rocked the area.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"
. . .
(Tsuchi No Kuni)
Goku had his face pressed against the window of the aircraft. Dr. Briefs had it stored in one of his many capsules, and at this point Goku couldn't lie and say he wasn't impressed. He had never flown in the air like a bird before, "This is amazing!" Goku yelled out toward Dr. Briefs, who sat in the co-pilot seat next to his daughter.
The doctor smiled at the boy, and so did Onoki, who was sitting next to K during their rides to the outer parts of Tsuchi no Kuni. K sat in silence, not showing any interest in what was going on.
Dr. Briefs swiveled in his chair and smiled at everyone on board, "I'm going to be showing you all the true storage capabilities of my capsules." They were putting a lot of distance from the village, which had finally spiked K's interest as to what he was going to show them. "You'll be able to make an entire base camp in scant seconds thanks to these capsules, and not just a bunch of makeshift tents with some fire, but a whole house! I think I'll call it an insta-base!"
"We'll work on some better names," Bulma said as she started to slowly lower the ship down to the ground. "It is amazing though." She pressed a button, and the hatch on the side of the aircraft opened, and let out a set of stairs for them to walk down.
Onoki was the first to float slowly out of the ship, and the rest of them followed suit. Dr. Briefs slowly walked out in front of the group, "If everyone would please step back." They did as instructed, and the man pressed the top of the capsule, before throwing it away from his body.
In a large 'poof' of smoke, a fully built house appeared in the clearing. Onoki smirked, K stared at it, and Goku's jaw was nearly on the ground. Dr. Brief's demonstration didn't end there, throwing another capsule, and an alterrain vehicle appeared in an instant. He kept throwing capsules, and more items came into existence. A crate full of food, weapons, and toiletries were stacked on top of each other.
The old man doctor turned around with a smile, "These capsules will change the battlefield and then the world, and it requires zero chakra to seal or activate it." He grinned while holding one last capsule, which was the black one he had brought with him from earlier. "It's so simple even a baby could do it."
"I'm impressed," K folded his arms and walked around looking at the items that spawned from the capsules.
"How much for one of these bad boys?" Goku asked as he jumped on the ATV.
"If things go well, Goku-kun, you can have it," Dr. Briefs smiled generously toward Goku, and the boy looked at his sensei with bright eyes.
Dr. Briefs began resealing everything back into their respective capsules, and Goku frowned when his ATV disappeared.
K rolled his eyes and turned away from everything and started walking back toward the aircraft, and Dr. Briefs followed behind him, "I think I've seen enough." He sat back down where he once did, and the rest of the group filed into the ship.
"There's one last thing I want to show you," The doctor had been holding one last capsule so carefully, and once everyone was inside the ship; he walked up to the door with the hatch still open. "Bulma take off, and move us a little farther out. I'm going to show Kumo-san one last thing, to show him that we over here at Capsule Corp, and Iwagakure mean business."
"What are you about to do?" Onoki raised a curious brow as the man stood in the doorway of the aircraft, winding flying in rapidly as they flew away from the clearing. He didn't know what more the doctor could possibly show a seemingly unimpressed K to convince him to give them the money.
Dr. Briefs clicked the top of the capsule and tossed it out of the aircraft. He nearly jumped up and down after throwing it, and clapped with glee, "You guys better grab onto something?"
"What? Why?" Goku didn't understand what was going on, and from he could see; nothing was happening. They were waiting for a while, sitting there in blank silence. For that reason alone, he didn't accept the forewarning of grabbing onto the something.
The whole area was illuminated by a blinding white light, and immediately after a large explosion rocked the area. The aircraft shook crazily in the air, and Goku flew across the floor, nearly falling out of the ship in the process. Everyone in the ship, save for K, was screaming at the top of their lungs.
Even Dr. Briefs hadn't expected such a powerful explosion to happen, and when he looked outside; there was debris flying everywhere. He awkwardly turned his head toward Onoki, his cigarette hangling limply from his lip, "I guess it's a little unstable?"
"UNSTABLE!? THAT BOMB COULD WIPE A WHOLE CITY OFF THE MAP!" Onoki looked out the window and saw that large part of that area had been leveled by the capsule. There weren't any more mountains for miles, and not an animal in sight; not even birds. "We need to go down and check for collateral damage!"
The doctor grinned and scratched his neck nervously, "That might not be the best idea, I don't know how our bodies would react to such a bomb this early. We should give it a few weeks before we come back here."
Onoki was fuming with anger, "WHAT!?"
"I can't say I had the healthiest things in mind when I made this explosive," Dr. Briefs explained and tried to calm down the irate Onoki. "It probably wouldn't be in your best interest to breathe in all of that gun powder."
K was standing now that the aircraft was stable, and he walked up to Dr. Briefs, looking down on him. It was safe to say he was interested now, "You said there was no chakra needed for this ... bomb?" He looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"No chakra at all."
. . .
Next Chapter: The Dangerous Doctor