Chapter Text
Asuka hated seduction missions with every fiber of his being.
They made his insides feel all twisted up in disgust. In horror that would run down his spine in a cold rush– that one day he’d be forced to do those things. With his body. Today, he was accompanying Rat-senpai for “field training”, something he was fairly relieved about.
Rat-senpai was like an older sister to him. She was one of a number of people that Asuka could count on one hand that knew about his secret. Before they had left the village, she reassured him that while she was training him for this sort of thing, it’d be all observation and theoretical lessons until he became of age to actually do these sorts of missions.
(The rational part of Asuka’s brain knew this was all procedure in ANBU. The emotional part of Asuka’s brain thought about how in times of war, kids were graduated early, like Spider-taichou, and made to kill people. Why wouldn’t they do the same for–)
“Usagi-chan,” the microphone around his neck crackled, “It’s go-time.”
Asuka sighed.
Their target was a wealthy Water Country businessmen who was rumored to have… peculiar tastes. He supposed that was why Rat-senpai insisted on doing the majority of the actual job alone.
He shunshined to their designated meeting place. Outside of the royal suite, top floor. His uniform and rabbit mask were sealed away into a scroll in a pouch buried beneath the layers of his light green kimono. The hallway was vacant, silent. A light flickered like the tail end of a firefly. It cast twisted shadows across the beige walls.
Inside the hotel room, Asuka could hear noises that could only really be described as a cross between a cat in heat and a dying whale. He shuddered. He was really only on this mission to help Rat-senpai with the interrogation once she’d hooked the man. To glean as much information from him as possible, then kill him.
Once he retired from ANBU– rather, if he retired from ANBU–Asuka figured he’d go join T&I. He’d always liked Ibiki. Plus, he reckoned T&I didn’t care if you were a boy in a girl’s body, just that you were efficient.
He heard one last horrible, high-pitched moan and then there it was: sweet, sweet silence.
He rapped his knuckles against the door. “Housekeeping.”
The door swung open almost immediately.
“Usagi-chan!” cried Rat. Her honey-colored hair looked like a bird had made a nest in it. She wore some sort of very revealing leather strappy vinyl get up, complete with lace up, six inch high heeled boots that went up past her knees, a collar, and cat ears.
“Senpai, what the hell are you wearing?”
Rat’s eyes became huge. She immediately slapped a hand over his eyes. “Avert your gaze, young one!”
“Senpai–”
She pushed him inside the room, paused to check the corridor, then quietly shut the door.
Asuka blinked, steadied himself up against a wall, and slowly took in his surroundings.
The room looked like a tornado had passed through. The bed, a plush thing that he was admittedly envious of and would steal if he could figure out how to get it into a scroll, had been torn to shreds. Feathers floated everywhere. The half-naked target was tied to the bed frame with ninja wire. He looked blissed out of his mind.
“Ew,” said Asuka.
“Don’t look at me like that,” whined Rat from the connected bathroom.
“Senpai, I’m not even looking at--besides, this is our job. ” He suppressed another shudder. The dark wood coffee table was broken in two. How? You know what, he didn’t want to know.
The blinds were drawn tightly shut. Asuka took out his pouch from where he had it strapped to his leg. He pulled out several sheets of paper and started to put up barrier seals around the perimeter of the room. Then he layered silencer seals over them. He heard the noise of running water coming from the bathroom. Despite her code name, Rat hated being dirty.
They’d been on the same squad in ANBU since Asuka had joined three and a half months ago, and she was one of the people that made all the blood and the death and the nightmares worth it. After every mission they were on together, especially missions like this, she always had to take a shower. Even if it was to the team’s detriment.
Asuka snorted, remembering the time Spider-taichou nearly popped a vein because Rat’d nearly been caught and killed after assassinating a daimyo because she had to have a shower as there had been “too much blood everywhere.”
ANBU are eccentric. Usually you don’t get into that line of work, or successfully get out of it in one piece if you’re not slightly crazy.
Asuka considered himself perfectly sane, thank you very much. But he was in fact aware of the fact that thinking something like that was a red flag, in of itself.
Asuka walked over to the bed’s desk side table which held a small instant coffee brewer with several tea options off to the side. He opted to heat up two cups of hot water while he waited.
“Ahh, tea, Usagi-chan? You didn’t have to,” remarked Rat, towling her hair dry. She was back in her regular ANBU uniform. Several reddish marks and bruises littered her pale neck. She gave Asuka a kind smile.
I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know.
“Green tea or black tea?”
“Black, since it’s caffeinated,” she replied. He dropped the bag into the cup and watched as it steeped slowly, like ink excreted by an octopus.
Asuka watched as Rat put her mask on and gestured for him to do the same. He went into the bathroom. The lighting was off-amber. He didn’t look sallow or sickly like he usually did. Asuka stared at himself for a minute and wondered if at this moment in time, if he really did look like his dead aunt.
He wore the kimono to blend in. Here, in this love hotel, most would either assume he worked there, or gag, he was a patron. Before they left, Rat had forced make-up on him. Not a lot, just enough to cover the imperfections and his distinct purple clan markings.
He saw a brunette girl with her hair twisted up. He saw a girl frowning back at him. He briefly wondered if Aunt Rin ever frowned like this. He’s aware he’s now older than she ever got to be. Asuka heard his grandmother’s voice: “You’re ruining that pretty face of yours! You’ll get lines and wrinkles, Asuka-chan!”
He felt a stab of guilt.
Asuka unsealed his ANBU uniform. He put the Rabbit mask on first, then the rest on quickly.
When he emerged from the bathroom, he spotted Rat standing in front of the foot of the bed. Her posture was rigidly straight. There was to be no more joking around.
“The paralytic poison should be wearing off about now,” Rat said.
Asuka hummed. He walked up to the left side of the bed and sat next to the unconscious man. Five minutes passed, and the man awoke thrashing.
Ah, thought Asuka dryly, This is why we have the restraints.
“Where the fuck am I? Who are you people?” he roared, desperately trying to yank his forearms from the bindings. Though unfortunately, he only managed to slice through his skin. Blood dripped down onto the white sheets.
“My name is not important, though you can call me Rabbit,” said Asuka.
“Fuck you!” The man spat, “Why are you doing this?”
Underneath the mask, one of Asuka’s eyebrows rose. “Why are you funding a genocide?”
The man narrowed his eyes, took a deep breath, and hocked a loogie right on Asuka’s mask.
“Karatachi Yagura, what’s the appeal?” Asuka asked, standing up and wiping the spit off of his mask. “Why are you financially backing the Fourth Mizukage?”
“Hah, you’re just a stupid Konoha brat.” the man sneered, “You know nothing of how life’s been in Kirigakure since Yagura-sama took over.”
“You’re right. I am just a brat. However, if there is one thing I know, it’s how to sever limbs in such a way that you’ll still be around to sing like a canary,” Asuka said, pacing around to where Rat had stood. She’d made herself scarce for the actual interrogation, but he could still feel her chakra so it was likely she was just transformed into an object. He took his tanto out from its sheath and said with a smile in his voice, gesturing to the man’s genitals, “And I was thinking of starting with this one.”
Instantly, the man blanched. “No–No! I’ll tell you anything you want! Just don’t do that! Anything but that! ”
Sometimes, his job was so easy.
For effect, Asuka took the tanto and stabbed it a hair’s width away from where the man’s crotch was. The businessman looked like he was about to vomit.
“Good, now that’s settled,” Asuka clasped his hands together, “Why are you funding the Fourth Mizukage?”
Blood rolled down the edges of the wire.
“It’s cause and effect, sweetheart. If I give my money to Yagara-sama, then when my rivals die out in the purges, I make even more money. And so on and so forth.”
Asuka was disgusted. He flared his chakra surreptitiously, and felt Rat’s response: kill him.
“So, honey, are we done here? Are you gonna let me go?” The man gave him a queasy smile.
“No,” Asuka took the tanto and threw it through his windpipe. The blade went through the headboard.
*
“Usagi-chan!” Rat tutted, “You are brutal!”
“Thank you, senpai,” Asuka said, then he paused and asked, “Are you going to make me fill out a psychiatric report when we get back to headquarters?”
“Nah,” Rat replied.
It was nearing three in the morning. They had been running for hours, and had yet to reach the Water Country border. Even at the speed they’d been traveling, they still had another day of travel before they reached the village.
It was wet. Super wet. His sandals were coated in mud. And Asuka was tired. The moon was covered by a thick smattering of misty clouds. It was hard to see, and the coniferous forests they’d been in earlier didn’t have branches that were strong enough to support the weight of a shinobi.
He heard a noise behind them.
“Senpai.”
Rat nodded and pulled out a kunai. They kept moving forward as though nothing was wrong.
It appeared that they may not have been as careful as they believed they were.
Because that’s what the mission was– an assassination. Bonus interrogation. (Which is why Rat chose to bring him along, what with his gift in it and all.) And the mark was important, prized by the Fourth Mizukage. Asuka supposed if he had been profiting that much from it, surely the Mizukage was too. And if this quid pro quo was that important…
“Motherfucker,” he muttered.
Bodyguards. Surveillance. This money is how the Mist stays bloody. Perhaps Spider-taichou should’ve sent a larger team?
A thud came from behind Asuka. He slowed his pace just slightly, and his eyes widened as he saw a kunai graze Rat’s arm. She flashed several Konoha ANBU signs: Several enemies in pursuit, call for backup.
“Fuck!” Asuka swore. He lifted the bottom of his rabbit mask and bit his thumb. He backed up against a tree and watched as sparks flashed from Rat’s kunai clashing with an unknown assailant. He slammed his hand on the ground. Summoning jutsu!
A black rabbit appeared. She had a Konoha headband tied around her neck. “Katsuki! Go find any of the other teams in the area–” Asuka stole another glance at the fight happening behind him, “--preferably quickly. Thanks!”
Katsuki merely blinked and nodded. Then she disappeared into the forest.
Rat-senpai must’ve already killed the other pursuers, he thought, masking his chakra to the point of invisibility. He dug into his pouch for some exploding tags and a few shuriken. I only sense one hostile chakra signature.
Asuka was nearly blinded as a gigantic fireball roared through the woods. The shadows where he hid retracted into themselves and the heat rocketed to the temperature of a boiling summer’s day.
Asuka managed to pick his jaw up off of the floor and formed the signs for the water dragon jutsu. His beast crashed into the fireball with violent gusto, plunging the woods into darkness with the hiss of steam.
He closed his eyes for a second, trying to track the hostile signature.
“What the fuck? Senpai, did you kill that man? His chakra signature disappeared!”
“No,” groaned Rat, pushing green healing chakra into a wound on her shoulder, “Rabbit, I was wrong– there’s only one enemy.”
Only one?
That’s probably not good news. Like, at all.
“Well, shit,” said Asuka.
The forest was completely silent. He heard no chattering of raccoons or possums, no chirping of crickets. It unnerved him. Then he felt it. The chakra signature was back, like it had never left, only it was now twenty meters to the north.
Asuka weaved through the signs for his next jutsu, the water bullet, and let it fly towards their assailant.
The man’s chakra disappeared again.
And reappeared.
Right in front of Asuka.
“What the fu–”
He felt blinding, searing pain.
Asuka clenched his teeth. He touched his gut and came up with sticky, hot blood. He was stuck to the tree. He physically couldn’t move, he realized. He had been impaled. Asuka grunted and shifted, then groaned as he felt like his stomach had been set on fucking fire. Gut wounds were bad. He felt like he was seeing stars. Little twinkling things, red and white and orange and teal. All spiraling around his head.
I’m going into shock, he realized.
The back of his standard issue tank was wet. His stomach was wet. Blood ran down the wooden pike that held him several inches up off the ground.
Wait– wooden pike?
Mokuton?
“Cat-senpai?” he yelled.
“No cats here, Usagi-chan,” Rat yelled back. She grunted and parried another strike from the mystery assailant, then threw a barrage of shuriken at him. Asuka didn’t know if it was just the shock, or he really did see the shuriken phase right through the guy.
Oh fuck. Fuck. Shitfuck. This was really, really bad.
Rat yelped. She stopped suddenly for some reason and then the guy appeared behind her. Then she just narrowly managed to dodge a killing blow, aimed at her carotid artery. Their assailant growled. A glowing red eye flashed from behind his spiral mask.
Asuka snapped the wood spike holding him up in half. He was no med-nin, but he wasn’t stupid, so he opted to leave the gigantic splinter in because he didn’t fancy bleeding to death.
“Hey dickface!” he yelled, “Your battle is with me!”
The man snorted. Asuka felt insulted. Rat looked at him fearfully.
“You want to die that badly, girl?”
“Fuck you, shithead,” he snapped. Asuka was tired and had already lost a lot of blood. His patience was running a bit thin.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” said the masked stranger, and he materialized behind Asuka and kicked him into a tree.
“Usagi-chan!”
His mask shattered upon impact. Blood welled up in his mouth. Asuka’s lungs felt like they’d been turned to jello.
He felt dazed. Darkness threatened to overtake his vision, but the fuzzy stars, violet ones and green ones and blue ones and gold ones, held it at bay. He felt Rat’s chakra, bright and vibrant and purple, flaring desperately. He tried to push himself up but his arms shook hopelessly. He collapsed onto the ground and spat up a mouthful of blood.
Rat screamed– more of a war cry than a shriek– and he heard the masked man hiss in pain. Adrenaline flooded his veins. Asuka managed to push himself up. Pieces of porcelain clattered off of his face and he stared briefly at his ruined mask before getting up and running to Rat.
He was down to about half of his chakra reserves. He’d have to be smart about this if he and Rat-senpai wanted to get out of this fight alive.
He formed several hand signs and the ground became flooded with all of the moisture in the air. Asuka held the stake in and jumped up into the tree. He saw the masked man standing on top of the water, holding Rat by her throat. He took her mask off and she spat out a mouth filled with fire at him. The man dropped her and she sprinted away.
Asuka knew a signal when he saw one. “Lightning style: deep fried asshole!” He formed the signs and a bolt rushed down and electrified the pond. Purple light flashed and crackled. A deep sense of satisfaction formed in what was left of Asuka’s stomach. He poured more chakra in the jutsu, just to be sure.
“Got you, fucker.”
“That plan would’ve been smart, had it worked.”
Rat-senpai’s body was littered with kunai, floating in the middle of the clearing.
He was behind him.
Asuka leaned forward and vomited.
“Just make it fast,” he said, looking up into the man’s single sharingan. Asuka shut his eyes and waited. And waited. Yet, death hadn’t come yet. He opened them. His vision was beginning to blur.
“Rin?”
Asuka thought the man sounded like he was about to cry. He tried to take a deep breath, and felt his organs moving around with a nice side of more burning pain. The man cupped his cheek, with he dare say, tenderness. Asuka, however, still hated this guy for impaling him and kicking him into a tree, so he opted to cough up blood onto him.
“Oh, Rin,” the man whispered and Asuka could’ve sworn he sounded so heartbroken– or maybe that was the concussion, “What have I done to you?”
“‘M not Rin,” said Asuka, watching the stars spin, “But I’m pretty sure I’m gonna go see her real soon.”