Transfer Mission: The Blackbird's Dilemma

Kana put her tongue to the side of her mouth in irritation when Felix spoke, rolling her eyes lightly. The Kana he knew. Exactly which one was that, anyways? "Tch. Urusei na..." she muttered as he turned around. "Don't get pissy with me, a'right? I've been working my ass off. There's nuttin I can do at two in the mornin anyways," she told him, then walked over to the table she had her drink on and finished the last bit of it in one go. "Mendokusai..." she mumbled under her breath.

Felix turned and looked at her when she told him to shut up. Felix placed his hands in his pockets. "Whatever," he said as he opened the door. "If this missions goes down hill any more than it already has because of you, then be my guest, I'm going home anyway." Felix left the bar and looked at the Executioner. "Get up, we're leaving." The yellow beast stood up and shook out it's fur. Felix petted it on the head and then started to climb up. "We're going home, our real home." The Executioner dipped it's head lightly. Real home meant the Crested, right?

Kana looked towards Felix as he told her to pretty much do as she pleased, then shook her head, which turned out to be a bad idea. Ugh...dizzy. "See ya," she told the Rock shinobi as she walked out of the bar rather unsteadily. Ugh, the world felt like it was spinning. Something told her she was gonna regret this in the morning. At least she didn't remember why she'd been so pissed off earlier.

The brown haired shinobi blinked and put a hand on her hip as she saw Felix climbing up onto the Executioner. "Huh? Where ya goin? Thought there was something you had to tell me..." she said in confusion. It was why she'd finished the rest of her drink in one go anyways. To follow him out and see what was so important that he had to tell her. Anyways...what the hell had he been doing all day that he felt the need to scold her like he had?

Felix finished his climb and then looked at her. "Go back to your drinking and pool. It can wait until the morning, considering you're too drunk to remember anything. And you reek with alcohol, I don't want to sit her and stand that horrid smell. Like I said before, call me when you're sober." As if he understood this conversation was over, the Executioner gave her a growl and then started away. It's spikes slowly rising as it did, almost as if it expected Kana to do something foolish.

Kana raised an eyebrow at Felix as he told her to go back into the bar. When the Executioner started away, her jaw clenched and she crossed her arms. "Whatever. Fuckin hypocrite," she said, waving him off before she turned around and started back inside. She suddenly wanted to drink herself unconscious. She was sick of being the one who got all the fucking blame. She was gonna forget everything, if only for the night.

The Executioner stopped when Felix looked over his shoulder. "Hypocrite?" He gave a small smirk. "How about you enlighten me on that one," he spoke. Felix dropped to the ground, his silver hair out of his eyes. Despite the circumstances, Felix was being rather cool headed about this entire thing. Usually he'd go off the deep end, but she was drunk, so he'd let it slid. Or maybe he had a hidden agenda.

Kana stopped when he asked her to enlighten him, rolling her eyes before turning around. "Yeah, sure. Why the hell not. You're allowed to do whatever the hell you want, aren't ya? But when it comes to everyone else, better watch your back, Felix Kuriyama's gonna be there to call you out on it when things go wrong! You're allowed to have fun, ain'tcha, but no one else. You can destroy a fucking floor in the Kage's building and lose your head and kill allies, and it's all fine n fuckin dandy. I give my trust to the wrong person and get drunk and it's the end of the goddamned world! I get my head ripped off for bein reckless a few times, and here you are goin out into a warzone with a concussion, yeah, that's not fuckin reckless, and not just to you! I've bin workin my ass off to fix the shit I've done, where the hell were you today? I didn't even catch a glance of you, what were you out and about doin?" She could probably go on, but she was starting to get dizzy again from talking so much all at one time.

Felix grinned. "You really want to know what's reckless Kana? Hiring a bunch of Rogues to attack the village. You want to know what's reckless, throwing myself out of a window. You want to know what's reckless, purposely getting stabbed so I can get the hell out of this hole. You want to know what's reckless? Killing the Kage and making it look like I was the victim. Never mind, I take it back, that's fucking genius." Felix's grin grew. "You want to know what I did today, I got out of the hospital, went to lunch with Suki, blamed her for all the problems in my life, then I went out and sat near a river wondering why the hell I'm here. That's when it hit me, go back home and find a way to fix this, but then my partner was out in a bar getting sloppy wasted with a bunch of musty guys." Felix started to climb back onto the Executioner. "So I'm going home. Good luck with your mission."

Kana wasn't any less pissed off when Felix grinned at her. In fact, she was even more pissed off. She was trying to absorb everything he was saying, but from the very first thing he said, it seemed to throw her off. What about hiring rogues to attack? Suddenly the things she'd been doing earlier seemed to come back and hit her like a brick in the back of her head. Right. She'd been trying to figure out what had happened that the rogues had gotten in so easily.

Hold up, Felix had killed the Kage? No, that couldn't be right. Hiroki had said to watch out for silver hair. Aidelia. To watch out for Aidelia. That had to be. In her drunken state, the fact that Felix too had silver hair didn't seem to register. And then he told her what he'd done all day. Made fucking sense with all he'd told her. When he climbed back onto the Executioner, Kana blinked. This was too much to take in. What was going on again? Had Felix just told her he'd been the one who'd planned the entire attack? She...really didn't understand. To hell with this. She was going home and laying down. "Yeah, whatever," she mumbled when Felix told her good luck, rubbing her head. What the actual fuck was going on these past few days...?

"Fuckin' drunk," Felix mumbled as he rode away. When he got home he packed his bags and left the village. He left nothing to indicate where he was going. If anything, the blue eyed shinobi was gone without a trace. Felix found a small town where he could spend the night. It was no more than twenty miles away from the Rock. He didn't want to be in the Rock anymore, and he was going to go back to the Crested and sign the papers to quit as a ninja. It would be the first time he'd quit as a ninja, but not the first time he'd quit something. Felix laid down on the bed and shook his head. "Tomorrow things will change."

The next morning, Kana woke up with a searing headache, to the ringing of her phone. "What...?" she answered it groggily. "...no, no training today, idiot. Your village has been attacked. It's cleanup duty," and with that, she hung up. Speaking of being hung up. Kana slowly sat up. She felt horrible. Looking around, she realized that she was in fact in her own room. A good thing too, because last time she'd woken up with a hang over, she hadn't the faintest idea where she'd been.

With a small groan, Kana went into the bathroom to take some aspirin before going into the kitchen to start cooking something. While that something was in the microwave, she went over to Felix's bedroom door and knocked. "Oi. Felix. You up?" she waited a few moments before pushing his door open, to find that he wasn't there. Must've gotten an early start. She vaguely remembered him saying he needed to talk to her. Oh well.

Unlike her partner, Kana didn't mind having oatmeal for breakfast, and it's exactly what she was eating. When she started waking up a bit more, bits and pieces of the night before started making their way into her mind. That's right, Felix had spoken with her the night before. Just what had he told her? Something about being reckless. Had he been scolding her again? God that sounded childish. But no. He'd been talking about himself. Kana knocked herself on the head a few times, which turned out to be a bad idea. But it did jog her memory. Hiring rogues. Jumping out a window. Killing the Kage. As far as she knew, Aidelia hadn't jumped out of a-

..............................

"SON OF A BITCH!" From outside the house could be heard a loud smash, as Kana had flung her bowl of oatmeal against the wall, which shattered upon impact, upon remembering just what it was Felix had told her. It hadn't hit her last night, what Felix had been trying to tell her. If it had, he probably would have been in a coma.

Going into his bedroom, Kana checked around, only to find that Felix's things were gone. She hadn't noticed before, because she hadn't been looking. Calling Felix's cell as she quickly got dressed, it only pissed Kana off more when she found that he didn't pick up. This wasn't happening, this wasn't fucking happening!

Running out of the house, Kana went first to the Academy, to one of the teachers she knew had known Felix. "You, have you seen Felix Kuriyama today?" she asked quickly.

The teacher Kana approached was grading paper for the younger ninja in his class. The guy blinked confused. "No," he said simply. "If I see him I'll let him know you were looking for him," he said as he went back to his papers. He wasn't going to question what was going on, too much work to be done.

Felix had turned his phone off. When he woke up, he didn't care to turn it on and check to see who'd call him. If Kana had sobered up and remember what he'd said last night, she'd be blowing up his phone. If Serenity needed him, he'd be seeing her in three days time. If it was Suki, Felix didn't need to speak to her. If it was Aidelia, she should be working on banning them from the village if Kana came after him, that way, they couldn't stop her work. Everybody wins, except Kana that was. Oh well, crap happened. Felix was going through the town gathering supplies. He was kind of happy to be so close to returning to the Crested.

"Don't bother," Kana told him, immediately turning to go out of the Academy. She didn't bother trying to hide the fact that she was in a hurry, she needed to talk to Felix, and his shit was gone, and he wasn't answering his phone. Even so, Kana tried calling again. This time she left a message. "Dammit Felix, pick up your phone. I don't know why you're trying to cover for her, but this isn't cool, and it's sure as hell not funny! Dammit, just call me back!" Hanging up, the next place Kana was starting for was the Kage's tower, hoping to find Aidelia there. But instead she ran into someone else. Literally.

"Well good morning to you too. You gotta start being careful, word's going around that you're a fun drunk," Kymin teased with a grin. However, the grin faded immediately when he saw her expression. "What happened?" Suddenly he was on high alert.

"Have you seen Felix around?"

"I saw him yesterday with some girl, but not after-...actually, I did see him talking with Aidelia outside the village yesterday, now that you mention it," he told her thoughtfully. "Why, what happened Kana?"

"Where's Aidelia? Do you know where she is now?"

"Yeah, she's in the hospital. Passed out yesterday from internal bleeding because of a wound from the war. Should still be passed out, she just got out of surgery last night. Are you gonna tell me what's going on?"

"Dammit dammit dammit!" Kana punched the wall of the building, causing some of the brick to crumble.

Kymin's eyes widened a bit. "Hey, calm down, I'll help you look for him, okay?" It was becoming obvious that her partner had disappeared. And right after the attack. He couldn't ignore what he'd heard the day before. Putting the pieces together, he was starting to believe Felix was the cause of the attack.

"Urusei, you're making my headache worse," she said angrily, starting off again. Aidelia was out cold, in the hospital. She'd kill that woman. Why was Felix covering for her? She didn't understand it, what could he possibly have gained?! Kana swallowed as she walked, her hands clenched. Was there anyone else who knew where Felix might've been..?

Kana suddenly stopped walking. '...out of the hospital, went to lunch with Suki...' Suki. She'd know, right? Felix was close with her, wasn't he? Kana pulled out her cellphone and dialed Suki's number, waiting impatiently for someone to answer.

And then a soft voice came, one that Kana could only imagine belonged to the owner of the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey. It's Kana." She was trying not to sound panicked. Wasn't really working.

"O-oh, hi. Is...something wrong?"

"You were with Felix yesterday, right? Did he say anything about leaving somewhere?"

"Leaving..? No, why, is he missing?" Kana heard a small gasp on the other line. "O-oh no, we kind of fought yesterday, could that be why?" And now the younger girl sounded panicked. Great.

"No, I'm sure that's not why. Listen, I need you to think, are you absolutely positive he didn't say anything?"

"No...I-I mean, I'm sure, no he didn't say anything...I-I'll try calling him," she said.

"I wouldn't bother. His phone goes straight to voicemail," she told Suki. "Thanks. If I find him I'll let you know." She hung up. Probably not. She was far too preoccupied with wondering what the hell Felix was thinking. Tapping her foot lightly, Kana tried calling Felix's phone again, leaving a message similar to before. Only now she sounded both pissed off and a bit panicked. Looked like she was going to have to go to the hospital and wake that silver haired bitch up after all.

(oh Kana, your task amuses me.)

Felix exited the last store and then summoned the Executioner who he armed to travel. Still not bothering to turn on his phone, the immortal climbed upon the yellow beast and started in the direction of the Crested. It was finally time for him to go home and be with Serenity and the little ones. Felix's blue eyes shinned at the thought. "Time to go home Ex," he said as they started out of the town. Someone had once told him running from his problems held not one bit, but it was helping in this situation.

Going to the hospital, Kana requested Aidelia's room number, which she was surprisingly granted without much fuss. When she got up to the room, which was on the third floor, she gave a knock and walked in after no answer. But funnily enough, there were two people in the room aside from Aidelia, who was sleeping in the hospital bed. The two had been talking, but stopped when they saw Kana. Giving a glance to each other, the two got up and each grabbed an arm as they led the protesting Kana out of the room, shutting the door behind them. Juna crossed her arms, and Semai glanced at Juna before doing the same, clearly mimicking her in a childish manner. "What the hell are you two doing? I just need to talk to her," Kana said in obvious irritation.

Juna tilted her head. She didn't look like she liked Kana much. "About?"

"If she's seen my partner. I heard the two of them have been getting along lately," Kana responded, pushing her tongue to the side of her mouth as she too crossed her arms.

"Yeah, right. Gonna accuse her of setting up the attack too? Word is you're going around trying to figure out who was in cahoots with the rogues," Semai spoke up.

"Look, right now I'm just trying to find my partner. And if I do accuse her of anything, at least it's founded."

"Founded on what, exactly? What proof could you possibly have that Aidelia had anything to do with the attack? She's in the damn hospital because of it, and there's a chance that she might not even make it," Juna spoke angrily, but in a hushed tone so as not to attract attention.

"Well then, better for the village, isn't it?" At that, Semai's gaze became angry and he immediately started forward towards Kana, but was stopped by Juna's arm reaching in front of him. Kana looked at them both. "Why the hell do you two protect her? She's a damn spy, she's trying to hurt your village, not help it," she told them both.

Juna crossed her arms again when Semai stepped back, both were glaring at Kana. "She may be a spy, but she's no traitor to the Rock. She's not here to harm our village or anyone in it. She wouldn't do something like this."

Kana rolled her eyes. "You two are so damn naive. She's not here on orders from her village. She's here for her own personal reason, the only reason she wants to be Kage of this village is to use it for war. She doesn't care ab-"

"Don't act like you know what you're talking about," Juna snapped. "Aidelia confided in us long ago why she was here."

At that Kana blinked. "She didn't tell you everything then. She's trying to-"

"Get revenge on the Sand using our village? Yeah, we know," Semai growled.

Kana paused, looking confused. "Then...why...?"

"Because in order to get her revenge, she has to first bring this village up to greatness. That's something we haven't had in a long time. We need an ambitious leader, even if it's for something as ridiculous as revenge." At that, Juna slapped him upside the head, and he turned to glare at her. "What?"

"Her reason for revenge isn't ridiculous. It's well founded. You just don't understand because you're a male." Juna turned her gaze to Kana. "So back the hell off. We know why she's here, and that's why we're protecting her. Maybe you should think before speaking on things you know nothing about. Now get lost, Aidelia's still resting from her surgery. We'll tell her you stopped by with your best wishes," she said sarcastically.

Kana didn't understand this. That woman only wanted to use this village for war, and these two were all for allowing that. This didn't make sense. She was beyond confused. And in addition to that, her headache was coming back. "I'll be back later," she said angrily. "In the meantime, I'll ask that you keep a look out for my partner," she told them as she started out of the hospital. Her bad mood had just gotten worse.

Felix had made a great distance from the town when he spotted movement. Petting the Executioner lightly to keep the yellow beast from bristling, Felix slipped a kunai into his opposite hand. The blue eyed ninja glanced to his left and then to his right. Someone was following him. "No point in running," Felix mumbled. He jumped down from his summoning. "You can come up," he called to his followers. "I'm willing to negotiate." When two ANBU of the Crested stepped out, Felix sighed. "Never mind, I think I'd rather fight." The ANBU both shrugged and started for the silver haired jonin. Felix grinned. "This is going to be fun."

Felix had put up one hell of a fight before the ANBU had managed to stop him. The female's mask was shattered, her right arm was broke and her left one was dislocated, so her partner was handling Felix as they walked back. The black haired ANBU's vest was litter with spikes and kunai. He had a nasty bite mark on his leg, causing him to limp and his mask was in half. Felix had not gotten out unscathed either. He had a ragged scar across his right eye, leaving him partly blind. In addition to the scar, his leg was badly injured and his side was burned from a fire style. Despite his defeat, the silver haired ninja walked with his head held high, for he'd given the Dogs of the Kage a run for their money.

Kana sighed as she walked towards the gates. Next thing to do was see who'd been on guard duty the night before, ask if they'd seen Felix leaving. What she saw instead was Felix being escorted back through the gates, by two Crested ANBU. They all looked like they'd been through hell. The third of the Crested ANBU was waiting for them inside the gates. Looked like they'd contacted him, because there were a couple medics as well as jonin there waiting. It looked like some kind of ordeal.

When the third Crested ANBU saw Kana, he quickly made his way over to her to prevent her from going forward. She immediately questioned the guy. "What happened? Where was he?"

The ANBU glanced over his shoulder before responding. "It seemed like he was on his way back to the Crested," he told her, returning his gaze to the brown haired jonin. "When confronted, he tried to fight off my companions, given by their current condition."

Kana gave a glance towards Felix when she was sure he wasn't looking, then looked back to the ANBU. "What's going to happen to him?"

"He fled in the middle of a mission, without obvious cause. That in itself is punishable. He's going to be escorted to jail where he'll have his wounds taken care of and will await a trial. An investigation's going to be done on him, much of it concerning the recent attack on the Rock."

Kana swallowed lightly. "Why is he being investigated about the attack?" She knew the answer. But hell if she was going to say a damn word about what Felix had told her until she talked to him about it herself.

"A bystander heard one of the hostages mentioning their leader talking about someone with silver hair. As far as we're aware, there's only two people in this village who fit a description like that." He looked to his companions. They were escorting Kuriyama to the prison themselves. They never trusted anyone with things like this. "The bail should be set soon, but I wouldn't expect it to be a low amount. He's been a constant danger to those around him, as well as a flight risk now. I'm sure they'd let you speak with him, if you ask, though. I've got to go. Good luck with your investigation."

Felix's did not notice Kana, but he did notice the stares he was getting from all of the villagers. Somewhere shaking their head, some were talking about how they shouldn't trust outsider ninja, others were barking insults, and had it not been for the two Crested ANBU that were somewhat protecting him, he'd probably would have had people throwing stuff at him. If that had happened, Felix wouldn't be behaving as well as he was. He didn't even care to get an apologetic look when he saw a group of Academy ninja standing on the side of the street with large questioning eyes. Felix owed them nothing. When they got to the holding station, Felix was placed in a cell where he awaited a medical ninja to tend to him. The woman worked quickly, wrapping his leg, applying burn ointment to his side and then wrapping it, and finally cleaning the wound over his eyes and stitching it, before being escorted out. Felix sat back against the wall and crossed his legs. He had no weapons, no scroll, no tags, and he was surrounded by a chakra shield, keeping him from using jutsu.

It took a couple days before the bail for Felix was set. And like the ANBU had said, it wasn't cheap. However, since Kana's life had consisted of nothing but high ranking missions and transfer missions, she was more well-off than most ninja. So there she was, waiting outside of the holding center, for Felix to come out. Since the other day she'd calmed down, but not much. She'd been in a bad mood ever since talking to that ANBU, and she'd been trying unsuccessfully to find a way to pin the attack on Aidelia. She wasn't sure what to think anymore. Why the hell would Felix do something like this if they were so close to completing the mission? Crossing her arms, Kana leaned back against the outside of the building.

Felix had been released and he had no idea why anyone would post bail for him, but he was on his way out the door. Although they refused to return his weapons, which Felix thought was childish of them. He was a ninja, he knew how to fight without weapons and if need be, he could always purchase more. The jonin gave a slight smirk at the thought of being denied to purchase weapons because of a ban on him. Ridiculous. He was almost tempted to try it. When he saw Kana outside, his smirk disappeared and his expression returned to the blankness from before. He could only imagine what was about to happen next.

Kana glanced at the door a few times when people came out, though the first two weren't the ones she was waiting for. Her expression wasn't so kind upon Felix, though she was trying to keep from looking absolutely livid. "Come on," she said, pushing herself off the wall. "I'm sober, and we need to talk," she said, her voice laced with a bit of coldness. Oh, she'd still be pissed at him if she found out he didn't do it, because that meant he was trying to cover up for Aidelia. But she would be even more pissed if he actually had hired the rogues. Without looking back at Felix, Kana started towards the apartment. If he didn't follow, she'd gladly drag him there with no regard for his injuries.

Felix smirked when she said she was sober. "So it seems." He slowly followed after her because he was still limping from the wound. He kind of wished that they'd given him the Executioner back, but that wasn't going to happen. The silver haired Jonin placed his hands in his pockets and shrugged it off. What did it matter. He wasn't going anywhere. It was too much trouble and he was tired of working his butt off. At least he was off the mission.

Kana didn't really appreciate his smart remarks, but she was trying to behave until she was sure he deserved an ass kicking. What the hell was she thinking, he deserved one just for deserting!

When they got to the apartment, Kana waited until Felix got in before shutting the door. She'd let him take a seat or get comfortable or whatever before talking to him. She followed Felix to where he went, but didn't sit down, and only crossed her arms. "I want you to repeat to me what you told me the other night when I was drunk. Because I'm positive that somewhere during that night's sleep, my memory got mixed up with a bad dream," she told him coolly. She was lying. That never happened. But god damn she was hoping that was what had happened.

Felix took a seat in the kitchen. His blue eyes focused on Kana as she spoke. "I'm pretty sure your memory is just fine, but since you insist on making sure everything is clear, everything I said that night was true. The death of the Kage, the attack on the village, it was all my doing. I'm surprised you didn't catch on sooner, but I guess you were so focused on this being Aidelia's doing. She's not the only one with reason." Felix gave a slight smirk. "You should have known this was coming though. You know, with the blue demon attacking you and Kyla, then I had to summon it again to save your life, or did Kyla not let you in on that little secret. Cat's out of the bag now." Felix's grin disappeared. "And before you ask why, the answer is, because as you said, I can do whatever I want and think it's okay. Add in my lack of sanity over the past few months and it's a clear as daylight. Does that answer all your questions?"

Even with her arms crossed, Kana's hands still clenched into fists at Felix's words. He was covering for Aidelia. He had to be. But why? Even if this was his doing, why? She couldn't wrap her mind around this. Just because he could wasn't a good enough reason to do something of this caliber. When she saw him smirk, she suddenly wanted to punch him. Her face went blank though, when he told her that he had to summon the Blue Demon when she'd gotten sick. What..? He said what now..? That little fact only fueled her rage. He'd summoned that thing again!? Why didn't he just leave her, she would have gotten better eventually, rather than putting everyone in danger by summoning that thing!!

Kana shook her head lightly. She wasn't done questioning him yet, so she wasn't about to kill him just yet. "Because you can isn't a good enough reason for something like this," she spoke. It was clear from her voice that she was holding herself back. In fact, she was leaning against the wall opposite of where Felix was sitting, just to keep herself from doing something stupid. She was sure it wouldn't last long though.