"We're here. Remember, don't try to antagonize these two, and keep your distaste for humans under control." Adam said looking back to the Lieutenant.
"I've got it covered let's just get this over with." The lieutenant said. He already didn't like the idea of meeting with the ones who took down the witch. The fact that Adam planned on offering to work with them only made matters worse. The last problem that came to his mind now was that they didn't choose where they were meeting. The other two did.
Adam walked up to the door of one of the many warehouses in this district and knocked a specific pattern.
After a few painfully slow seconds the two faunus heard the creaking of the doors opening. What met them was a man wearing a black suit with a black shirt and red tie on. He also wore red shades. On his hip was a dust pistol and a red machete. "Just the two of you correct?" He asked receiving a curt nod from Adam. "Follow me." He said before leading them deeper into the warehouse. Well it looked like just a plain warehouse, but the henchman then led the two down some stairs leading to an underground series of hallways.
The two White Fang members realized this had Torchwick written all over it. Apparently, he was holding more out on Cinder than they had thought.
After walking through the winding maze of corridors they entered a larger open room. In the center of the room was a table surrounded by the two people they were looking for. Different documents and what looked like reports were scattered across the table with the two looking them over.
Without looking Itachi spoke up. "I'm glad to see the both of you made it. This base is quite the maze."
"Yes, I noticed during our walk here." Adam said without moving from where he was.
Itachi looked up and eyed their two guests. "You can go back to whatever Roman had you doing now. Thank you for leading these two here." He said to the henchman who nodded and returned to his own task. "Now if you would come sit. Negotiations tend to go smoother if all parties are sitting comfortably." He finished as he and Kisame cleared the table.
There were already chairs at the table with two on each side. After they had put the reports away, the duo returned to the table and took a seat. Hesitantly Adam and the Lieutenant followed suit.
"I assume this meeting is about my offer to you all from the other day?" Adam asked getting straight to the point.
"Yes, that is why we called you here." Itachi said with a nod. "You said that we could join your organization if we wished to, did you not?"
"Yes, that was what I offered you." Adam said with a small nod.
"What is it that the White Fang does? What is it meant to do because the news paints your organization in a bad color." He said still watching them. The Lieutenant seemed to be trying to hold himself back from doing something, but without seeing his face, it was hard to tell exactly what. Adam kept his own stoic mask.
"We seek to gain equality for the Faunus people." Adam said simply. He knew how the media and public viewed their organization, so it would be best to just answer their questions directly without a fanatical show of patriotism to the faunus.
"And to gain equality it seems that you've moved from peaceful protesting and boycotts to arson, robbery, and murder?" Itachi asked neutrally.
"… yes, the old methods while peaceful, weren't making a great enough impact. The methods being used now are making that impact. Faunus are being treated better now than they have in a long time." Adam answered.
"Purely out of fear of possible backlash from the Fang itself." Kisame grunted finally contributing to the conversation.
The Lieutenant was listening, but his sole focus was on the shark-like man in front of him.
"…" Adam didn't say anything to that.
"You know I once knew a man like you Adam. He was dealt a bad hand in life like most of us. He had been hurt by the world through the loss of his family, his friends, and those he once worked with he watched them all fall one by one. Despite all of this he sought out peace. He felt that conflict could only stop once everyone has felt the same pain, and once that happened fear of that pain would ward against future conflict. With that in mind he set out to bring real pain to the world, and you know what? In the end he failed. Even with his best efforts he couldn't achieve his goal. He was stopped by another person with the same end goal, but a better, if slightly more difficult, path to reach it." Itachi said with a wistful look. "Tell me… is this current path the only one you can see?"
Adam was completely silent lost in his own thoughts of the past. His own childhood that had been taken from him. His escape from those damned dust mines. The loss of the rest of his family… The hope he'd had when joining the Fang. The disappointment with the lack of progress. The friendships he'd made and broken with his own hands. His own desire to make the humans feel just what he felt. For them to experience what it's like to be branded like nothing more than an animal. Was that all he was fighting with the Fang for?
The Lieutenant had shifted his focus over to his commander. 'Is he actually questioning our leader's righteous quest all because of the words of some human?' He asked himself shocked.
Itachi was glad that Adam was at least thinking over what he had said, but they did have other things to do. Namely Ruby's training session and retrieving the weapon he had asked her to put together. He could only hope she stuck to the specifications he had given her but knowing her he doubted that would happen.
"You don't have to answer this question right now." Itachi said breaking Adam from his thoughts. "When you have the answer to that question then we can resume our negotiations." He said sliding a scroll over to him. "When you're ready just give us a call on that and we will arrange something, but for now we have other business we need to attend to." He finished signaling Neo who had been sitting in the corner of the room with a bowl of ice cream.
Neo stood up and placed the long empty bowl next to where she had been sitting and put her hands on both faunus' shoulders before disappearing in a flash of light. The next thing the two knew they were outside the warehouse again, and before they could say anything Neo disappeared in another flash of light.
"Let's go." Adam said walking away. Slowly the Lieutenant followed lost in his own thoughts as well.
With Itachi and Kisame
"What do you think?" Kisame asked his partner after Neo disappeared with their guests.
"I'm not sure. Only time will tell for this situation. There are too many things I don't know regarding him and whatever makes up his past, but I am pleased to see that he was seriously thinking about what I said." Itachi said as he stood up and got ready to leave.
They had been looking over the reports Roman had given them regarding the HA all morning. Truly if a simple criminal mastermind has people in something like the Hunter's Association then they didn't really need to question how their unknown enemy could do the same. In Kisame's eyes the lack of security around their "classified" documents was almost offensive.
The main reports they had been focused on were the situation at the town of Ardent, the sudden disappearance of the vice-chairman of the Association, and the recent passing of two of the HA's veteran pilots. All in all, there wasn't much to be done with any of it, but it did give them further insight into the HA itself.
The next thing on their agenda was something that both of them definitely enjoyed if for different reasons, training their young hooded friend.
The two gathered some supplies they might need in order to make the training 'interesting' and left the base that was serving as their current residence. Roman had given them reign over most of the underground area to use for whatever they may need, and while they didn't necessarily trust Roman, they understood the kind of man he was. He was a survivalist plain and simple, and he knew betraying them wouldn't be in his best interests. Even so, they had taken a few precautions here and there just in case. A backup plan or two never hurt.
They quickly and quietly made their way out of the base. After the first improv training session they had decided to meet up at different places in Vale before going to one of the many places Ruby found for herself to train, whether it be a training ground from the past with her uncle or a more recent place she found.
"Where are we meeting with her today?" Kisame asked.
"There is a small park in the residential district that she suggested." Itachi answered.
"Do you think her sister will try and follow her again?" The shark asked.
"She has apparently done so each time, so this probably won't be any different." He answered.
Another new development it seems. Yang had recently taken to trying to follow the girl whenever she went out into Vale or with the duo somewhere, and while it was commendable for an older sibling to try and watch out for their younger sibling, the duo could tell it was grating on the young rose's nerves. She could just follow their suggestion and simply spar with her, but she was hesitant to do so although the reason wasn't completely clear.
Regardless they continued the training every few days. Should she disappear everyday she wouldn't be able to properly bond with her teammates, and it would be even more suspicious than it already was. That and she needed time to recover since the training usually left her very sore.
When they reached the park, they found Ruby already waiting for them with a bag. "Hey guys!" She said happily as she jumped off the swing she was sitting on with a small thud. "Are you guys ready to go?"
"Yes." Itachi answered as they started walking to their destination. "Have you gotten used to them yet?" He asked.
"Yea it wasn't too hard. And I think it's working." She answered.
"Well then little red what do you think we should work on today?" Kisame asked.
Ruby had long since gotten used to the nickname Kisame seemed insistent on calling her. "Well… I'm not really sure. We could keep trying that move from the other day, but it's hard to do with the weights on." She said looking down slightly.
"Sometimes your opponent will be much bigger than you, so the weights help build your strength and prepare you for situations like that." Itachi said. Of course, this specifically had to do with fighting against other people since very few people would take on Grimm with just their hands. Kisame is an outlier it seems.
"I know I know." She said shaking her head. "We should be almost here." She added on after a moment.
They were in a small clearing that wasn't too far away from the city. Itachi and Kisame didn't plan on sparring again, so there was no need to go too far outside Vale.
"Here we are." She said gesturing to the open area. "Now before we start, I wanted to go ahead and give this to you Itachi." She said setting her bag down and pulling out a cloth-covered object.
"Now I know you gave me specific instructions to follow, but I may have maybe added something to it." She said quickly rubbing the back of her head as she handed the object to the Uchiha.
"I had a feeling this would happen don't worry about it too much." He said with a smile. He unwrapped the cloth to reveal a simple black sheath with a red hilt coming out of it. 'Nothing out of the ordinary yet.' He thought as he pulled the blade out. What he was expecting was a chokuto reminiscent of the one his brother fought with, and it was basically that, but with a few extra grooves in the blade. "What're these grooves for?" He asked getting a sheepish smile.
"Well you said you didn't want it to be a gun, but rather a simple and reliable sword, but I thought it could use a little extra variety." She said getting a questioning gaze from the two ninja.
"Variety?" Itachi asked suspiciously.
"Here I'll show you." She said taking the sword. She then pulled a dust crystal from her bag. A burn crystal to be precise. "If you just insert a little crystal here." She said opening a small compartment in the handle and placing the crystal inside. "Then you activate it with your aura, or for you your 'not quite aura, but something close enough to it' then this should happen." She said as the blade of the sword burst into flames. "The grooves were where I added some conductors to channel dust through the weapon. I may have asked for a little help from Weiss for this part." She said before deactivating the crystal and thus extinguishing the flames.
'Interesting application.' Itachi mused to himself.
Ruby was slightly nervous because of his silence. "If you don't like it then I can remake it like you originally asked..." She said looking down to the ground sadly.
Suddenly she felt a hand on her head. "There's no need for that this is perfect." Itachi said rubbing her head and trying to get her to cheer up. It seemed to work when she looked up happily.
"Really?" She asked hopefully.
"Really." He said with a small smile.
"Yay!" She said hugging him before quickly backing away. "I tested it with fire, lightning, and ice dust, but those were the only three I checked."
"I'll be sure to put it to good use." He said sheathing the blade. "Thank you Ruby I couldn't ask for a more suitable sword."
"What're you going to name it?" Ruby asked making Itachi pause.
"I'm not sure I've never named a weapon before." He admitted shocking Ruby.
"You've never named one of your weapons before?!" She asked very confused.
"Naming weapons isn't as popular where we're from as it is here." He said.
"But what about Samehada? He has a name." Ruby said pointing to the sword on Kisame's back.
"I'm not the one who named it though." Kisame said. "Its original creator is the one who probably named it long before any of us were born."
"Hmm…" Ruby thought. "Well I think you should name it."
"Perhaps I'll call it… Shingetsu." Itachi said looking at the sword in his hands.
"Alright then I like it!" She said happily.
"Now that this is finished let's get back on track, I believe it's time to train some more." Kisame said pulling out some weights.
Ruby sweat-dropped. "More weights yay…" She said through a forced smile.
"They don't weigh that much Ruby." Itachi added as he decided to try and figure out where to put his new sword, so that it wouldn't hinder his movement too much. Back in the Anbu he had a sword across his back… He supposed that would do until it proved to cause a problem.
While Ruby and Kisame were debating on how much weight to add, Itachi strapped his new sword to the back of his cloak like Kisame had his, but with a smaller strap.
"Alright Ruby, Kisame, let's begin." He said looking to the other two.
Nodding Ruby got into her stance that they had been working on.
I'll leave what the stance looks like to your imagination.
Itachi walked a few steps away before turning back around. "Now come at me." He said calmly activating his Sharingan.
Ruby took a few seconds to adjust to the additional weights now strapped to her arms and legs before rushing the Uchiha. Itachi usually helped her hone her accuracy and speed when it came to hand-to-hand while Kisame taunted her to help make her attacks stronger.
When she shot her palm forwards, Itachi brushed her attack to the side. She used the already forward momentum to throw an elbow into his stomach. Itachi sidestepped the attack and hit her in the side sending her to the ground. She quickly got up and got ready again with a determined look on her face.
With a calming breath Ruby started using her aura. She shot off at the Uchiha much faster than she had before and started throwing a flurry of punches and kicks with Itachi dodging each one before punching her in the stomach knocking her back again, but not down.
Gritting her teeth Ruby got ready again. Tapping into her semblance she sped forward with a punch to his face that he blocked. Without letting up she punched again from behind only to hit nothing as Itachi tilted his head to the side. He then brought his leg around to kick her away. She decided to jump onto and kick off from his leg and tackle straight into his stomach, but in an impressive display of agility he completely bent back letting her fly over him, and then flipped back to kick her where she landed. Earning him a small grunt from the girl below him.
She got up again, albeit slower than last time. "Damn I thought I'd get you with that one." She said as she got into the stance again.
"You're steadily improving, but you aren't there yet." Itachi said before looking to the weights. "Take off the weights and let's go again."
"The new ones or all of them?" Ruby asked.
"All of them. Just like before except now I want you to go all out on the final attempt." He said earning an excited nod from the girl.
Ruby took all the weights off and put them in a pile a few feet away.
"Oh I feel so much lighter." She said jumping up and down a few times.
"Good maybe you'll hit me this time then."
Ruby frowned and focused. 'First attempt no aura.' She thought running forward quickly and sweeping at Itachi's feet. The young Uchiha jumped over the sweep just like she wanted. With a small grin she turned with the rest of her leg and punched towards the still airborne Itachi, but he saw this coming. He reached out and grabbed her arm pulling himself towards her before flipping over her shoulders and then throwing her across the ground hard.
Standing once more she growled under her breath. 'Second attempt aura, but no semblance.'
Pumping aura into her legs she shot off at Itachi like a bullet.
'So about her speed when using her semblance with the weights. Impressive.' He thought before moving to the side again. She was expecting this and grabbed his arm as she ran by and heaved with all her might, and with a spin threw Itachi up a few feet into the air, but to her dismay he righted himself in the air and landed in a crouch. He hadn't hit her back yet, so she still had another opportunity before the final attempt. With that in mind she got up in his face and started another flurry of quick punches that he continually dodged before catching one fist and then the other. With her hands being held she tried a headbutt but was kneed in the stomach and then thrown onto the ground again.
"Is this all you can do?" He taunted.
She got up once more with an angry look on her face but took a deep breath and calmed down. 'Final attempt. Give it everything!' She thought activating her semblance.
She was a red blur running every which way. 'This is what we're looking for.' Itachi thought with a smile as he instinctually ducked a kick aimed at his head. One moment she was there the next she was blurring about again looking for an opening. As she ran, she picked up some dusty dirt in one hand as she continued circling the Uchiha. Following her movements Itachi saw her hand scrape the ground and smirked. 'Trying to take away the advantage of my eyes. Smart.'
She appeared in front of him spinning and letting the dust fly into Itachi's face before blurring away again. She saw him standing still and no longer following her with his eyes, so she tried for the new technique they had shown her. She ran up from in front of him and slid before trying to kick up into his stomach. She even saw his eyes closed, but because of the collar of his cloak she couldn't see the smile he had on his face. Without warning he jumped to the side and spun a few times before landing with one hand on the ground. Without opening his eyes, he ran forward and hit her with a shoulder tackle sending her tumbling across the ground.
When he opened his eyes, he saw Ruby sprawled out on her back panting heavily. Kisame was off to the side watching. 'Held nothing back on that one how cruel.' He thought with a grin on his face.
"I thought… I had… you that time…" She said between breathes as he approached.
"There are very few things that my eyes can't see, but just because I can see them doesn't mean I'm always fast enough to react, so if you want to hit me then you just have to become faster than me." He said offering her a hand. She took it and stood up.
"Easier said than done." She muttered with a playful elbow.
"You still got enough in the tank for my turn?" Kisame asked as they approached.
Ruby bent down and started putting the weights back on and groaning slightly at the extra weight on her sore limbs. "Let me get a drink then I'll be good to go." She said before Itachi tossed her a water bottle.
"You don't want to keep him waiting trust me on that." He said with a wink before stepping off to the side. He was still needed to observe but didn't play an active part in this segment of the training.
Tossing the water away Ruby got ready with Kisame across from her.
Unlike Itachi's she wasn't trying to land a hit, but she was trying to land as good a hit as possible. Kisame would block most times and take a hit occasionally. Itachi was watching to make sure she didn't waste any of her aura in her attacks. It was slightly different to chakra, but he had adjusted to be able to judge her aura control.
Also, unlike Itachi's part there was only one level. Everything she had.
Building up aura in her arms and legs she started with a series of punches and kicks. Kisame blocked each with his hands smirking all the while. "Watching earlier I thought you were improving, but it appears I was wrong. I was expecting to at least feel these hits." He taunted.
She knew he was taunting her, but that didn't lessen her annoyance any. Channeling even more aura into her arms she started doing what Itachi called compacting it since she was compacting more aura into one part of her body to hit or kick harder. It also tended to increase the speed of the attack which helped with the force of the hit.
She started punching and kicking again aiming for his 'big annoying face' and putting all she could into the barrage. Kisame started taking a few hits but was still smiling. "Come on I thought people tended to perform better if their crush is in the audience." He taunted once again knowing that one probably hit harder than the other.
'Pardon?' Itachi thought.
If looks could kill. Ruby let out a short 'Ahh!' while channeling even more aura and letting lose on the man in front of her. 'How dare he say that out loud!' She mentally screamed, and then… rose petals started coming off of her arms as she punched over and over again.
Itachi and Kisame noticed the change, but Ruby hadn't seemed to notice yet due to her frenzied attacks.
'I never thought her semblance could be applied to individual parts of her body.' Itachi thought while Kisame grinned. The punches were coming faster and hitting much harder. 'This is so much better than it was not even seconds ago.'
Catching both of her fists Kisame stopped the onslaught. Or that was the plan, but she jumped up and headbutted him with a few rose petals appearing around her head. "Calm down red we're done for now." Kisame said shaking the girl slightly.
Calming back down she glared at the shark-like grin on Kisame's face. "Did I say something you didn't like?" He asked with a smirk.
"Hmph." Ruby said? Turning her head away trying to hide the small blush on her face.
"Very impressive Ruby." Itachi said walking over and getting a confused look form said girl.
"What was impressive?" She asked.
"You were able to channel your semblance into a single part of your body, so you powered up your attacks with your semblance." He said making her open her mouth.
"I did?" She asked before looking around and catching a glimpse of one of the last fading petals.
"Yes, you did but seeing as how you didn't notice I'd say you were distracted by something else. Speaking of did you have something you wanted to tell me?" He asked.
"Nope nothing at all." She said making an 'X' with her arms. 'At least nothing right now.' She thought looking away.
"Mhmm." Itachi said before looking at Kisame for a moment. "If that's the case then shall we move on to the next part, or are you too tired after using your semblance that much?" Itachi asked, his attention back on the cloaked girl.
"We can keep going… I haven't used my semblance… that much…" She said growing quieter before falling forwards. Luckily Itachi caught her.
"I had a feeling." He said aloud. Her aura was very low after everything they had done, so this was probably aura exhaustion. It doesn't usually happen to the point of passing out, but she put a lot into it today.
"Kisame if you would, help me get her on my back. I don't want her to fall off." He said.
"Right." Kisame said still grinning.
Once she was on his back, she unconsciously wrapped her arms around him, and rested her head on his shoulder.
With Itachi's hands full Kisame picked up all the bags and the duo began walking back.
"You amaze me sometimes." Itachi said to his partner.
"How so?" Kisame asked his grin never faltering.
"There are some buttons even I wouldn't push, but you went and pushed all of them." He said with a small chuckle.
"It wouldn't have meant anything if it wasn't true you know." The swordsman said.
"You're probably right, but its been a very long time since I've thought about anything related to romance or affection." The Uchiha said.
"Oh really? Was it before we met?" Kisame asked curiously.
"Before the massacre. She was the first one I killed…" He answered.
"I didn't know the person too well, but the last one I was interested in, or at the very least seemed interested in me, was one of the ones I was ordered to kill on a mission, so I have an inkling of an idea of what it was like." The sharkish man admitted.
It was strange for the ninjas. They were never very open about their respective pasts, but with each thing they learn, they realize they're more alike than they had thought.
"What'll you do about it then?" Kisame asked nodding towards the sleeping Ruby.
"I will see what she does. I was never very experienced when it came to women. I tended to ignore most of them back in the academy, and after that I was always surrounded by people older than myself, so I haven't been in this situation before." He said calmly.
"I see. It's interesting… being in some far-off world isn't it? Back then we were both wanted men everywhere we went, and yet here we've been allowed just about anywhere without having to worry about being randomly attacked by people, well aside from that Tyrian person." Kisame mused.
"It is definitely something I never pictured happening." Itachi admitted as they reached the city.
"We should probably get her back to Beacon, so her hothead of a sister doesn't tear up the town looking for her." The mist ninja joked as they walked to the bullhead port. It wasn't their preferred way of going to Beacon since there were cameras and security everywhere, but with an unconscious Ruby it was probably the quickest and safest way to get her back.
Without causing too much of a scene the duo boarded the ship with the still sleeping Ruby on Itachi's back.