Transfer Mission: The Blackbird's Dilemma

Oh no, she was panicking. Felix shook his head slightly when she started mention how he was already taken. No he wasn't! Him and Serenity were only bound through those kids that weren't really his but DK's. Felix shook his head. He was wrong for that. Those were his kids and him and Serenity had agreed to wait for each other. "You're going to pass out if you get any pinker," he told her. "And just so you know, just because I'm 'taken' doesn't mean I can't get out every now and then. I'm days away from the Crested and I'm immortal and so is Serenity. We have forever to be together, so I can do as I please." Felix paused. "Wait...that sounds terrible...forget that I said that."

Suki held back a small groan of embarrassment when Felix mentioned how she was blushing again, tapping her pointer fingers together lightly while she kept her gaze on that rather than Felix. Why was she always so embarrassed around him? Maybe it was because he kept making all those embarrassing comments. Yeah, she was going with that. She glanced up at him when he started his next sentence off with 'just so you know'. In her experience, those sentences were usually fyi's. Though when he paused after his sentence and started sounding a bit flustered, Suki smiled a little. At least she wasn't the only one feeling awkward now. "It's okay. I get what you're saying though." She then looked down, for her next statement was something she was actually a bit worried about saying. "I've...actually wondered about that for a while now...even if I met my true love, so-to-speak, I...I'm not sure I'd be able to spend an eternity with them...without a break either..." she muttered, giving Felix a small glance before returning her gaze to the table in embarrassment.

Felix seemed to be lost in the his own world for a moment as his expression went blank when Suki said she couldn't spend an eternity with her true love. Felix was very silent for a very long time. He'd done his best to be kind around Suki, to act civil, so she wouldn't see the real him. He'd tried to shield her from the darkness that surrounded him. It was hard not to feel a bit of sympathy for the girl before him and a twinge of hate for her mistake. Felix wasn't sure how he'd managed to live amongst these ignorant mortals. He'd tried to see past the flaws, especially in Suki, but that statement destroyed the barrier. It would have been better for him to just get up and walk out, or to say that he needed to go to the restroom, but Felix's sanity was very unstable.

"If you're referring to Serenity, then I will gladly correct you. She is not my true love. My true has been dead for over eight hundred years and I wouldn't dream of wanting a break from her." Felix's tone was nothing short of dry. He wasn't trying to be cruel, but he did not think of Serenity as his true love. She could never replace Meridian. Just the thought of his orange haired love made his heart ache. He suddenly wanted to just go to the apartment and sleep for the rest of the day in hopes that she would appear in his dreams. He looked down at the table. "If you want to leave you can, I won't hold it against you."

Suki looked at Felix when he was silent for a while, but when he finally spoke, she regretted having said what she did. It had been stupid of her to say such a thing, and she knew it. When he said that she could leave if she wanted, she looked down at the table. Was that his way of saying he wanted her to leave? "I-I'm sorry, I didn't...didn't mean anything by it..." she told him quietly. "I...don't want to leave, but...if you want me to, I will," she said, glancing at him with an apologetic expression. She felt bad about hearing that his true love had been dead for so long. Or rather, that she was dead at all. Maybe she should have phrased it a little differently, because she had meant something by it, just not the something that Felix had taken it to be. Then again, Suki didn't believe in true love. At least, not the way other mortals did, she guessed. Who could stand the idea of being with the same person for all of eternity? Eventually things would turn sour, wouldn't they? After a moment, Suki sighed. "Actually...I'm sorry...I can't leave. I don't want to be the reason you have a bad day...please let me make it up to you?" she asked lightly, this time trying to keep her gaze on him, as to let him know she meant it. Though now she was slightly nervous. What if he just told her to go away?

Why couldn't she just go away. Felix needed time to think over what had just been said and then apologize later, like he always did. She was right, you do run from all of your problems and when it's most convenient for you, you come back and try to make up. That method is getting old and you're doing nothing but hurting people in the process. You should have just stayed away and none of this would have ever happened. You're so weak minded, so sensitive. Eight hundred thirty-six years of living and you've made no progress in life. How's it feel to be this weak? Felix avoided looking at Suki and was glad when the waiter came back with their drinks and food. "Sorry about the delay," the guy said quietly, noticing the silence between the two.

When Felix didn't respond, Suki's gaze dropped again. She should have just left him alone. She didn't think of it a few minutes before, but she'd probably brought up some unhappy memories in him. Or worse, happy ones. When the waiter brought the food, she gave the guy a nod and a small "Thank you." Suki sipped her tea quietly for a moment. What should she say? Should she ask again? Should she just leave, even after saying she didn't want to leave him in a bad mood like this? She felt at a loss. For once, tea didn't seem to be helping anything. She wondered if he'd get mad again if she tried to press helping him feel better.

Raising her tea cup to her lips, she paused just before taking a drink, then sighed, lowering the cup back onto the table. "I'm sorry. You probably need time alone," she said quietly. Taking out money from the small pouch she carried with her, she left enough on the table to cover her own food and a tip, before standing. "I...hope you feel better. Call me when you're not busy?" she said kindly, giving a light smile that was only to let Felix know there was no hard feelings, before she turned to walk out of the restaurant.

Felix remained where he was, even when Suki left, he stayed put, starring into the glass of water in front of him. He'd barely heard anything she'd said and he'd completely missed the smile. He felt horrible. He'd gotten mad at Suki for something she couldn't possibly understand. Felix shook his head. "I should have left her alone to begin with. This always happens." The lone shinobi rose to his feet, leaving money for the food and a tip of his own. He started for the apartment after he was sure Suki was gone. He looked down at his phone and then put it back into his pocket. "There's no good days in this life," he whispered. "Just those filled with sadness and sorrow, and a longing to return to home that no longer exists. Where do I belong in this world? What is my purpose?"

Kana had been going around making sure everything was in order. She'd requested that she be the one to do the interrogations. It was what she was good at. And aside from that, leaving the captives waiting only scared them. Which was why she hadn't gotten started yet. And then a jonin Kana knew to be Semai Tokeinari had come up to her with news about one of the captives.

"What the hell do you mean one of them committed harakiri?! I thought we stripped them of their weapons when we took them in! That had been taken care of, what the hell happened?!"

Semai gave a nervous grin. Even having been on Aidelia's team, and Aidelia was a fierce woman when she wanted to be, this Kianashi woman scared him half to death. "Ahah, d-didn't you ever hear the phrase 'don't shoot the messenger'? Jun sent me to find you, he's the one in charge of them," he told her. "I don't really know the details."

Kana's hands clenched. She was half ready to beat Tokeinari to death for not being serious about this situation. "Doesn't he realize that not all of these guys are gonna talk? We need as many as we can get!" The brown eyed shinobi gave an irritated sigh. "Just tell him I'll be over in fifteen minutes. If he's smart, he'll harakiri himself before I get there."

A flash of fear crossing his face, Semai tried to keep his nervous grin, and gave a mock salute. "Got it boss." And then he turned and started off, glancing back at Kana as he turned a corner before gulping. "That woman..."

Sighing, Kana leaned against the nearest building, rubbing the back of her neck. She was tired as hell, and it didn't help that she'd ended up getting stabbed in the back by one of the remaining enemy ninja, and the wound was aching something fierce. She hadn't gone to get medicine yet because there were other ninja far more injured than she was. They needed the medicine more than she did.

(Oh Kana)

Hiroki sat silently. He was a captive and that didn't bother him, much. He was only worried about whether or not they'd keep him captive or let him go afterwards. He sighed and looked around the small room. He'd heard from outside that someone had killed themselves, he was not going to do that. "Harakiri, I don't have the guts." He gave a tiny chuckle at the pun.

Felix didn't go home. He left the village. He needed some fresh air. He need a second to clear his head before things went down south. He wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to face Suki ever again. Tara had been right about him, he was no good. He sighed heavily. "Why me? Of all the people, why did I have to become immortal. I was happy as a mortal, ignorant to the tragedies that engulf an immortal." Felix stopped at the edge of the forest. "I should have taken that potion years ago."

Kana stood against the building for a few moments longer. This was getting to be too much. Usually she could handle stress fine, but she felt like she was the one running the village right now. She wasn't in charge of the ninja, so-to-speak, but if she didn't give directions, they were pretty much useless! Where the hell was Kymin when she needed him?

Shaking her head, the brown eyed girl pushed herself lightly off the wall and started towards the holding cells. When she got there, she told the first person she saw to bring in one of the enemy ninja into an interrogation room. Then she went over to deal with Jun. "Hey. What the hell happened? I thought we took away their weapons."

Jun was relieved to see that Kana wasn't shouting like Semai said she might. "The one had a needle hidden in his teeth."

Kana blinked. "A needle. He committed harakiri...with a sewing needle?" That was a bit difficult for her to wrap her mind around. When Jun looked to the side, she figured there was more to it. "What?"

"Er...well, turns out, when the guy put his chakra into the needle, it turned into a small sword." Jun found himself stumbling backwards when Kana suddenly punched him.

"You idiot! Something like that has a trace to it, a jutsu already set in place, it could have been found before this happened!"

"I don't get what's the big deal, it was just one guy..."

"Yeah, you don't get it. If the guy had been a bit braver, he could've taken out a good few of your comrades before word got out that he was loose!" At that, Jun flinched. "Exactly. Re-search them all."

"But..."

"Do it. All of them except the one I'm having brought in. If he has weapons on him, I'll deal with it." With a sigh, Jun nodded.



Having seen Felix going towards the village gates, Aidelia sent her 'assistants' off so she could talk to him alone. She'd done her part to try and get on Kianashi's good side by letting her take charge of the interrogations. Hopefully it didn't turn up anything that would indicate she or Felix had anything to do with it. Aidelia stayed at a distance while following the other silver haired shinobi, only approaching him after he'd stopped. She'd caught what he'd said, but it wasn't in her place to bring it up. She was still tired as it was, and wasn't looking for a fight. Hell, she hadn't slept since before the war had happened. Too much to do in too little time. "Kuriyama?" she called, keeping at a reasonable distance, so that he wouldn't think she was about to attack him.

Kymin, contrary to Kana's beliefs, had been tailing Aidelia since the war, albeit discreetly. He wanted to see what she would do, now that this war was over. Would she immediately try to take power, since she'd been the one to kill the leader? Pretty convenient for him to be dead. And in such a way that his memory was unreadable. Along with tailing the woman, he'd been giving orders to his ANBU to remain inconspicuous, and to appear as if he was actually doing stuff. When he saw Aidelia leave the village, he became suspicious. Using a transformation jutsu, he turned into one of the most common animals found around the Rock; a gray squirrel. Even though it was winter, there was never much snow around the village, so the squirrels never hibernated. So he didn't have trouble following Aidelia out of the village, using the trees and other squirrels as cover.

Felix turned slowly when he heard Aidelia call his name. He should have been more alert, but at this moment, he couldn't really care. "What do you want," he asked shortly. His blue eyes were blank, matching his facial expression. He was in no mood to associate with the silver haired kunochi. All he wanted to do was stare out into the open space and imagine that he was somewhere different. He'd come here to clear his head, talking to her would not help. Aidelia was the cause of his headache, had he not done enough already to put her at the position of Kage? What more did she want from him?

Aidelia was glad he hadn't immediately perceived her as a threat. That would have been troublesome. He didn't look like he was in a good mood though, so she wasn't about to make this long. "Several things, trivial, really. I saw you leaving the village, so I thought I'd catch you before you went too far." She was trying to seem as if she was perfectly fine, but she'd sustained too many injuries in the battle to make it seem as though she was completely unharmed. "First, I wanted to see how your injuries were doing. Like I said, trivial. Secondly, I was curious as to how you managed in such a short amount of time." She was clearly talking about the attack, but even though she didn't think she was followed, she didn't want to be careless in mentioning those things. "And thirdly, I wanted to extend my gratitude to you. If all goes well, you'll be out of the Rock in less than a month," she told him kindly. She was being honest. While she had more time than most to exact her revenge, she didn't like wasting time, as it was. And Felix had helped her immensely in that respect.

Felix kept his expression blank as she spoke, his blue eyes unblinking. She could have just waited for him to come back, but clearly that was not the case. She wanted to talk about how and why, he did not. "My injuries are fine," he said just as shortly as he'd greeted her. "As for how, that's not really important. It happened like I said it would." He paused shortly. "Anything else, or are you going to leave me alone so I can continue to clear my head." He was being less than pleasant. One couldn't really blame him either, he had just done the ultimate crime, bringing in a bunch of rogues to take down the village, killing the Kage, and on top of that, he'd betrayed Kana. If the Crested ever found out about this, he would be in prison for life. Didn't matter really, Felix was used to running. All that mattered was that he was going home.

Aidelia wasn't surprised by his lack of willingness to talk about how he'd done it. Or his lack of kindness, really. But she had a feeling in her gut that something was about to go wrong. Literally. That wound in her stomach had her feeling nauseous since she'd gotten it, but this was a different feeling altogether. She'd never had anything done with it more than stitching and wrapped in medical bandages. Without looking at Felix, she pulled out her cellphone, clicking a few buttons before turning away from Felix. "I'll leave you. But if you want to continue to be left alone, you should probably leave the area." Half of her reason for turning away had been because she'd known the color had just drained from her face. The other half was when she'd put her hand on her stomach, she had felt it bleeding through the bandaged. Aidelia started away at a slow, unsteady walk, with her phone to her ear as she went. "Juna. I'm outside the village, just before the forest. I need you to send out a medic. Or three," she stated, her voice trembling lightly. "Quickly."

Kana went into the interrogation room, which had a table and two chairs, one of which was bolted to the ground, with handcuffs held to the table. It was much like an interrogation room in a prison. The enemy ninja had already been brought in, and cuffed to the table to prevent him from trying anything. Pulling out the chair that wasn't bolted to the ground, Kana sat down, looking at the guy casually. "You got a name?" She wasn't usually one to play the nice cop, and being in such a shitty mood, she had even surprised herself with it.

Felix gave a nod when he was told he should leave the area. He might just do that. Ignoring Aidelia as she walked away, Felix made his way farther away from the village, completely leaving the forest. His blue eyes half closed, he wondered where he would go. Part of him wanted to walk forever, never to stop until found some reason to live. He felt emotionally and mentally drained. Maybe he should work on physically draining himself as well. At least then he would be able to sleep.

Hiroki was looking at the door until Kana came in. Then he directed his gaze to the table. When she spoke, he didn't look up. "My name is Hiroki," he said. "I don't have a last name." Born a rogue under Haven's wing, he didn't bother looking for his birth parents, or taking on their last name. A first name was perfectly fine.

Kana looked at man, noting how he avoided eye contact. At least this one was well trained. Doujutsu could be a powerful tool, if someone in this village possessed it, that was. "Alright Hiroki. Who told your leader about the Rock's situation, then? You were one of his right hand ninja, he must've intrusted that information to you, right?" she asked, keeping her gaze on him. She didn't exactly want to torture the guy today, or anyone for that matter, but she was going to get this information out of someone. It would prove that Aidelia had planned this whole thing to make herself look good to the ninja of the village. And that was all she needed to make sure Aidelia was either kicked out of the Sand, or killed.

Hiroki shook his head. "No one told, we already knew. We're a local group and usually don't cause trouble. One of our people came in a few weeks ago and heard of some issues that were going on, a rumor that the Kage was sick." Hiroki was still looking at the table. "Haven figured it'd be a good opportunity to take over. Everyone knew the guy was on his last legs anyway." The rogue fidgeted with his handcuffs, just to have something to do.

Okay, that was fair enough. But Kana wasn't gonna take this guy at his word. "And your leader couldn't just wait for the Kage to die, could he? He had to go and send someone in to kill him? If he was on his last leg, why bother going through the trouble to attack him first?" She was going to go through this thoroughly. There was nothing she would miss. She was determined to get it out of him that Aidelia was the one behind this.

"Why wait for the guy to die? By killing him we through the village into chaos. You never suspected an attack, you just thought we were going to kill the guy and leave." Hiroki shook his head. "That and Haven's an impatient guy. He sent me in to do the job, so if you have issues, I'm all yours." He continued to look at the table. "I don't understand why you're questioning me," he said. "What are you looking for? We're just a bunch of rogues looking to expand, the Rock is the most pathetic village in the region, have you not seen the way this place has been going down hill? It was a walking target."

Kana was getting impatient and irritated. Irritated that all of what this guy said made sense. It was a pain in the ass, and not helping her cause at all. "I'll let you in on a little secret. Your and your leader's group weren't the only ones looking to take over this pile of rubble." She paused and glanced towards the door. "Come on, give me something. I know someone hired you guys." She turned her gaze back to Hiroki, and lowered her voice. "I can't make promises, but you give me something, and I'll try my damnest to make sure you get out of this village alive. I don't know how long they plan on keeping you and your comrades, and I can't make promises for them either, but I'll do what I can for you."

Hiroki raised an eyebrow. "What? You're offering me a deal? You're pretty corrupt lady." Hiroki nearly looked up, but decided against it. He wouldn't take a chance. "I don't have much to go back to, so you making a deal with me is pointless. As for the others, they have the same story as I do or no story at all. I told you, we did this on our own account." He tilted his head. "Are you trying to pin this on someone? Is there issues going on within the village." He smiled. "I wouldn't be surprised, because as I said, this place is a wreck."

Kana nearly punched him for calling her corrupt. "It's not corruption, it's standard here. Instead of putting you behind bars for a shorter amount of time, however, I'm offering to let you walk free." She couldn't stand the idea of being dirty. That's not what she was trying to do. "You could say that. And yeah, this village is in shambles, I won't deny it. But I'm trying to prevent it from becoming worse. I'm trying to prevent future wars from breaking out." She paused. He had nothing to go back to. "Fine. Instead of going free, why not become a village ninja then? I'm sure this village could use someone with your potential," she told him, tilting her head a bit. "You can look at me, you know. I don't have any eye jutsu, if that's what you're worried about," she said.

Hiroki gave a tiny chuckle when she said he could look at her. "Really now? Maybe I just don't want to make eye contact. You might be one of those intimidating kunochi, I don't like intimidating females." He directed his gaze past Kana and to the door. "I can't tell you anything you don't already know, which is what I've already told you. If someone is causing problems here, we have no association with them," he stated. "Sorry I couldn't be any help, best of luck to your village though."

Something about that made Kana chuckle. Intimidating. "I've been told I can be a bit intimidating," she admitted. She also glanced at the door. "Okay, so maybe Haven didn't tell you anything about being hired. Did you see him talking to anyone strange before he planned the attack?" she questioned. She could approach this from tons of different ways. She didn't want to play the bad cop yet. In her experience, it was actually better to play the good cop card first. And since Felix wasn't anywhere to be found, she didn't have a partner to do good cop- bad cop with at the same time.

"Then I don't like you," he stated jokingly. Hiroki shook his head. "Lady, how many times do I have to tell you, we don't work with outsiders. We came on our own accord. Haven didn't like working with people unless it was his rogues. They guy thought everyone was against him, so his rogues were his most trusted allies." He tapped the table lightly. "We can't help that we came at a bad time." Why was this woman so persistent.