The Darkness Before Dawn

Shots Fired

Mother smiled as she read the headlines from the papers. "MYSTERIOUS ILLNESS CRIPPLES CITY!" one screamed, "MOGUL ASSASSINATED AND MUTILATED!" screamed another. Her favourite was "COPS BAFFLED BY CRIME SPREE". "Nakio!" She called for her maid. "Yes Mistress?" Nakio asked her, bowing as she stood in front of Mother. "Pass along to Tenno that I am proud of my girls" she said before waving her hand dismissively. The young maid bowed again and left the room.

"Yes. I see. Yes. Of course. Thank you" Tenno said before hanging up the phone. He looked at the women gathered around the kitchen island, mugs of tea and coffee in their hands, plates of breakfast eaten and dirtied. "Mother is pleased and she wishes to congratulate you on a successful first phase" he said as he began to gather the dishes and place them in the sink.

"Well that's good to know" Umiko said, finishing her drink. "I have to head to the hospital now. It's difficult pretending to be stupid when I know very well what is causing the illness" she said as she grabbed her bag and car keys from Tenno and left the residence.

"I have money to steal" Shinju said as she got up to leave. "I have to look over the virus' mutation rate to ensure that it's not too fatal" Yukiko said as she went downstairs to her lab. Kay looked at Tenno and said "I have sweet fuck all to do. Perks of just killing people and getting it over with" she said. Tenno smiled and continued with his chores as Kay chatted with him.

He was enjoying this assignment much to his surprise. When Mother initially told him of his task he was hesitant. He had never looked after women before, let alone four of them at once! And he was skeptical about their skills and abilities despite knowing that they had committed these crimes in other Nations and hadn't been caught. But they grew on him and he found himself looking forward to beginning each day, to getting to know them as individuals and as a group and when he was alone, fantasizing about them.

Kisame walked into the Ballistics and Explosives room of the station. It was a fair distance from every other department as Deidara was known as a loose cannon and had a tendency to rebuild and set off the bombs he was investigating. He entered to see the crazed blonde at the firing tank as he was emptying a few rounds from a handgun. "Pein has evidence for you to examine" Kisame said while tossing the casings onto Deidara's workbench.

The scientist and DNA expert watched Deidara fish the spent rounds from the tank and bring them over to his microscope. He placed one of his rounds on one side of the microscope and the round from a crime scene into the other. He looked through the eyepiece and scowled, "it's not this one either! Hm! If the retarded cops could get a better description than "small, black handgun" it would fucking help a lot! Un!" Deidara ranted before he looked at Kisame. "What do you want, blue freak, hm!" he asked.

Kisame pointed to the evidence bag on his workbench and Deidara's blue eyes widened at the new puzzle in front of him. He removed the casings and examined them. ".308 Winchester rounds, standard military rounds, nothing special about them" he said tossing the casings aside. "What about the markings?" Kisame asked, pointing them out to the impatient expert. Deidara looked at the casings again and saw the slashed 'X' mark on them and ran his fingers across the etchings. "Whoever killed our guy was leaving his mark. If we can find out what the mark is, we can get the guy, yeah!" "So you've never seen this before?" Kisame pressed. "No! I'll ask around at the next conference, un. It's in a few days at Kumogakure. I'll bring pictures and maybe the others have seen it, yeah?" "Sounds good" Kisame said as he left the room.

He stood in front of the computer screen as he read the graph."No genetic abnormalities detected" the screen read. Kisame sighed and rubbed his eyes, wishing he had a cup of coffee. His assistant appeared at his side with a steaming mug full of the energizing liquid. "Thanks" he said, smiling at her, as he took the mug from her.

"He wasn't a chimera" she said quietly. "No, no he wasn't" Kisame replied. "So why did he have two DNA profiles?" "That, my lovely assistant, is what you need to figure out. Run the genome sequence on the second set of DNA. If it's similar then it's part of his physiology. If it's different then it means it was introduced to his physiology. Either way we'll rule one scenario out" he said as he walked back to his desk, sat down and began deciphering reports.

Hidan groaned as a beat cop dropped a file onto his desk. "Why do I have to do shitty paperwork?! You're the higher grade, isn't this your fucking job?!" he said as he tossed the file to Kakuzu. "Hidan! Kakuzu! Get to the hospital! Someone's kicking off" Pein shouted from his office, his voice echoing through the bull pen. Hidan stood up, grabbing his suit jacket and fixing his tie. "Let's go fuck face!" he said, happy that he was getting out of the cramped and stuffy room.

Hidan and Kakuzu walked into the hospital. It was a mess of panic and confusion as doctors, nurses and other health professionals scurried around getting oxygen, nebulizers, honey tea, anything to help soothe the irritated respiratory systems of the ill and to keep the patients alive and breathing.

A tall man was arguing with a female doctor. "I know your wife is sick, sir, but we don't have any available beds right now. Please be patient and we'll admit her when we have the space" Umiko said. "SHE'S DYING! SHE CAN'T BREATHE! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GOOD FOR IF YOU CAN'T HELP HER?!" The man yelled as he swung to punch her.

Hidan's hand reached out to block the punch. "Didn't your mother ever tell you to not hit a woman?" he asked as his magenta eyes glared into the man's yellow ones. "Fuck you!" The man replied and spat on Hidan. "Fuck YOU!" Hidan roared as he pushed the man away. He didn't expect the man to pull out a gun, aim it at him and fire several rounds.

The sound of the gunshots reverberated around the room and people screamed and tried to find cover. Hidan heard nothing as bright red blood began blooming on his crisp white shirt. He looked at Kakuzu and smiled. "You got your wish, old man" he said as he collapsed to the floor. "HELP HIM!" Kakuzu yelled at Umiko who was frantically trying to get him on a gurney. Kakuzu picked his partner up and placed him on the gurney and watched as Umiko and her colleagues rushed the stricken man from the lobby. All Kakuzu could do was watch helplessly.