Transfer Mission: The Blackbird's Dilemma

Felix had no idea about the woman the two were talking about, but if they both agreed on something, it was good enough for him. But he did have one question. "Are you two sure she's not one of Aidelia's?" He asked just for precaution. "If you're sure, Kymin, it will be your job to prep her for her upcoming position. Break it to her lightly and let her know that she is to tell no one. We have to get her into an Advisement position, in order to keep Aidelia back two steps, instead of one." He looked to Kana, he'd forgotten to tell her about what he'd told Aidelia a few days back. "She knows about the war, I told her myself. She thinks it's going to be in three days, but since we now know that the Sand is not really our enemy, we have to do this differently. Instead of three days, we're pushing it back two weeks. She'll be on edge when she sees that we don't attack. The ninja will be antsy as well. When we do go to this so called, 'war', we'll stage it. We'll march our shinobi all the way to the front gate of the Sand." He looked at Kymin. "Can you tell your superiors that we need them to stage a defense, only it won't be staged on their part. We're going to place Aidelia's followers in the front, maybe even have them scout ahead. I'll enter the village from the side, and let the Sand know ahead of time. We're taking out her followers, leaving our ninja in the Sand, and returning back to the Rock, where Kymin," he looked at the Sand ninja. "You'll be tracking Aidelia, got it?" He looked at Kana. "We will rejoin him, because Aidelia won't be expecting us, she'll think we're in a war." Felix crossed his arms. "That means, you have to get us names. So if that teacher knows nothing, then we have to find someone that does." He looked at the two of them. "Sound good?"

Kana and Kymin gave a look to each other as Felix asked if they were sure about her not being one of Aidelia's. "Absolutely," Kymin responded. "There's no way she's one of hers," Kana said at the same time. Kymin nodded at his instructions. He was in no position to argue, and nor would he want to. This was a good plan, so he was fine with coattailing it. "Then you have to mention her to the Kage. Briefly, if you could, put the idea into his head and make him think it was his. After all, Tanaka died when the tower collapsed, didn't he?" That made Kymin pause. "Surprising too. That old geezer has survived who knows how many wars, and for him to be take out by a slab of rock..." The black haired shinobi merely shook his head and let Felix continue.

Kana looked at Felix when he said that Aidelia knew about the war. Just when had he planned on telling her that little detail? She supposed she shouldn't press the matter. "Alright then, I guess that makes things easier."

Kymin nodded when Felix told him that he'd track Aidelia after the Rock went to attack the Sand. "Got it." Kana grinned when Felix gave her the go-ahead to interrogate the teacher, and anyone else who might have names. "Sounds good to me," Kana said. "Anything else, or can I drop the jutsu and go to bed?" Despite the fact that she'd been tired and grumpy earlier, Kana actually seemed to be in a much better mood.

So everything was good now. Great. Felix nodded when Kana asked if she could go to bed. "Yeah, I think we're all set." He stood up and looked at Kymin. "Thank you," he said with a nod. When they were out of the jutsu, Felix got up from where he was sitting and headed to his room. "Goodnight everyone." With a yawn he closed his door and laid on his bed. He wasn't exactly tired, so he just laid there, thinking over their plan and how they would stage the Kage's death. That much he wouldn't let Kana know. If Aidelia found out they were all working together, and all three of them didn't have genuine surprise, she'd know something was up. So, leaving Kymin out of the loop was a safety action.

Kymin stood up when Kana dropped the jutsu, looking between the two Crested ninja before giving a slight nod to Felix. "Don't worry about it. G'night." It was obvious Kana wasn't about to go to her room until he was out of the apartment. So when he walked to the door, he wasn't all that surprised that Kana walked behind him. Opening the door, Kymin paused before turning to look at Kana. "Take care. We don't know what Aidelia's underlings are capable of." Kana merely rolled her eyes. "I'll be fine." Kymin was silent for a moment. "Don't give away your trust so easily," he told her finally, before walking out. Kana gave a light look of irritation before closing the door behind him. "Yeah, I learned that the hard way, didn't I," she mumbled to herself, locking the door before going into her room and going to bed as well. She was going to get sleep tonight, even if she had to use a genjutsu to do it.

Felix slept rather soundly. When he woke up, he felt well rested. Getting up, he made his way to the bathroom and showered. It was nice to be under the cold water. When he was finished, he went back to his room and geared up for today. He had a few things to do, like getting to the Kage and mentioning the Lacie Tentou girl. Slipping a scroll into his back pocket, Felix left out the apartment. It was game time.

Kana slept the night away without waking up in the middle of it, like she sometimes did. Instead, she was woken up to the sound of a slight movement.

After making sure that Felix Kuriyama had left the house, a ninja with a long blond braid made his way into it, picking the lock quickly and silently. He checked through the home to make sure no one was there but his target, and quickly made his way into the brown haired shinobi's room, where he pulled out a kunai. For all intents and purposes, the assassin was silent as he was swift. His aim was to bring the kunai down into the woman's heart, which he did. But only moments before striking did a hand grab his. It seemed that he hadn't moved fast enough in killing her, for she'd woken up just as he'd been about to deliver the fatal blow. So instead of the kunai hitting her heart, the assassin was now struggling with pushing the kunai down. A battle which, for the most part, he was winning.

Kana had opened her eyes to a kunai coming down on her, so naturally, her first instinct was to grab the hand that was holding it. Even with both hands, the ninja above her seemed to be overpowering her. It wasn't long until the kunai ended up piercing her skin right where her heart was. But then something strange happened. Right before the kunai knife pierced her heart, Kana felt her chakra stir, and the next moment the weight of the assassin was gone, and the swirl of what used to be chakra was dissipating from the room.

He was almost there. Just a few inches more until his target was eliminated. A look of shock passed over his face when suddenly a spike of what seemed like blue energy came out of nowhere, and impaled him through his chest. But it didn't stop there. Instead of going through him completely, the spike seemed to pick him up and throw him against the wall, where he stayed stuck for a moment until the energy disappeared, leaving him to fall dead to the floor in a forming pool of his own blood.

Kana took in a sharp breath and sat up quickly, her hand on her chest, where the kunai had been ripped out as the assassin had been sent flying. She quickly scrambled out of her room after ensuring that the assassin was dead and into Felix's room. She was relieved to find that he wasn't there, nor was any blood. Swallowing, Kana made a few calls to her ANBU to come help take a statement before she called Felix. By this time, one ANBU had already arrived at the apartment, and she'd covered up the wound on her chest. Though she was a bit shaken, she didn't let it show. Kana didn't wait for formalities when Felix answered his phone. "Hey...why did you tell me yesterday to stay on my guard?" She sounded calm enough, but she wanted to know if Felix knew somebody was going to attack her. This was far too close in timing to be coincidental. And just...just how had that ninja died? She hadn't consciously done anything.

Felix was talking to the Kage about Lacie. He had been paying so much attention to the guy that he barely even realized that his phone was going off in his pocket. Blinking Felix looked at the Kage. "I need to take this, excuse me sir." The Kage seemed okay with it as he looked down at Lacie's file as Felix left out the room to answer the call. "He-" He was cut off as Kana went to speaking. "Aidelia made a threat on the people I cared for lives. Why, what happened?" His blue eyes narrowing as he looked around. Had Aidelia gone through with her plans? Felix's eyes widened lightly. "Serenity," he breath silently. "Kana, are you okay?"

Kana paused when Felix told her why. That explained a-...he cared for her life? She wasn't sure why that thought had passed through her head, but it had. Sometimes she surprised herself with her own stupidity. "Yeah, I'm fine. But someone tried attacking me in my sleep. I managed to fend them off, but it was clear that he wasn't just aiming to wound," she said, almost sounding irritated. There was no reason for her to mention the wound that she'd gotten. There was a pause before Kana spoke again. And she sounded almost unsure. "I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but...I somehow managed to kill the guy," she told him, looking to the side. As if he could actually see her. "You should check on your girl back in the Crested. I have a friend that I want to check on," she told him calmly. All in all, Kana sounded relatively calm. She was actually really glad that Felix had told her to stay on guard, even if he hadn't mentioned why before now.

Felix paused when she said that she didn't know how she'd killed the guy. Felix didn't understand why she was telling him about it, but it had to be for a reason. "We'll talk about it later," Felix told her. "Go check on your friend and call me later so I know everything is okay. She's on the move, which means we need to keep our guards up even more. Text you know who and let them know, just in case." Felix sighed. "Keep your eyed open." Felix was practically nerve wrecked as he waited to hang up with Kana so that he could call Serenity and make sure she was okay.

Kana nodded, even though she was on the phone, when Felix told her to go check on her friend. If only he knew that the person she was going to check on was also his friend. "Alright, I'll give him a text. I'll talk to you later," she said. "You too." She sighed and hung up, looking to the ANBU in her house. "Tell the next ANBU that comes in to get the blood cleaned up. I just want that guy's damn body out of my place," she said, to which the ANBU nodded. She hated it when they wore their masks, but it was part of their jobs. On her way out of the apartment, Kana texted Kymin.

Enemy's on the move. Stay frosty.

-KK

She only shook her head and walked at a hurried pace towards Suki's hotel. When she saw that there was a gathering of ninja and civilians alike, Kana rushed to get to Suki's room, only to find the door open, and Suki talking to an ANBU, with another girl clearly shaken up next to her, the one that Kana assumed was Tara, Suki's best friend. Kana started in slowly. "Hey, what happened here?" Though she didn't check her phone, she'd just got a message back from Kymin with a simple two words:

Copy that.

Felix hung up with Kana and called Serenity without hesitation. "Pick up," he whispered as he looked back into the Kage's office to make sure the guy was alright. Felix was dying with each ring. His blue eyes growing somber. He couldn't even get angry. Seconds seemed to turn to minutes, and minutes to hours. Felix knew he was just panicking, but that didn't change the fact that he was worried. If Aidelia had harmed Serenity or his children, he would personally deal with her. Forget the war, forget the mission. He would be out for blood.

It seemed as if no one would answer the phone. Just rings before the phone would usually go to the answering machine, someone picked up. "Hello...?" spoke a familiar voice. Serenity didn't sound as if he'd woken her up, but nor did she sound completely present. It was almost painfully clear that something had happened.

Felix died a little on the inside when he heard her voice. Sliding to the floor, the silver haired jonin wasn't sure what to do. "Are you okay?" It was all he could manage at the moment. He'd put her in danger, again. Felix shook his head. And it wasn't just her he had to worry about anymore, it was Kiara and Nora as well now too. Felix bowed his head. "What happened?" Aidelia was a force to be reckoned with. The Crested was a five day journey, her people had made it there in less than half that time. 24 hours. Felix clenched his fist and hit the back wall.

One could almost hear the relief in Serenity's voice after Felix had spoken. "Felix," she breathed. "I'm...fine. How did you know something happened?" she asked, but then started again as if verbally waving the question away. She hadn't realized the tone of her voice when she'd first picked up. "Someone tried attacking me, but didn't know I had a visitor at my place who was a ninja," she told him. "The attacker ran away, but there's ninja out looking for her now," she said, her voice quivering lightly. At home, she was sitting on the couch with her hand placed over her stomach. What if something had happened to the babies?

Felix was glad to know she was okay, but that changed nothing. When Ser said it was a woman, Felix narrowed his eyes. "Did she have silver hair?" He asked. He didn't care if she didn't. Aidelia was going to die. A very slow and painful death would be the way she'd die. Felix shook his head. "Tell whoever helped you that I said thank you. I owe them." A pause. "I'm sorry that you got dragged into this mission Serenity." Felix was going to make some calls immediately. This would not happen every again.

Serenity shook her head as she spoke. "No. Not silver hair. Dark blond," she said lightly, giving a light, almost shaky sigh. "I'll tell him you said so..." She swallowed. "Don't worry Felix. You just do your job and make sure you come home safe as you can," she told him. She knew him coming home safe was unlikely. But she could hope for something, right? There was a pause on Serenity's end, before "I miss you.."

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