"Excuse me, but 'he' would actually be more correct to use here," said the blue individual. "And my name would be 'Hanku' - just to avoid all that improper 'it' sort of thing."
"A blue gorilla wearing glasses and a lab coat," said one of the doctors who'd wanted to see what exactly this kid could do to help them out.
"Actually, my physical form was in the database," said the 'gorilla' as he adopted a lecturing pose that all of the doctors and the few nurses recognized despite the differences in physiology. "It involves primate and felinoid aspects, true. However the overall appearance belies that while I do indeed possess layers of artificial flesh, that I am indeed a multipurpose android primarily intended for the medical field."
"Uhm," said one of the physicians.
"Now gentlemen, ladies," said Hanku as he adjusted his glasses. "If we might get started? I am quite anxious to get to business as it were."
"This is the target, 'Naruto Uzumaki' - genin of Konohagakure."
"Aw, c'mon, a raw genin? He's got to be all of twelve?"
"You're squeamish?" asked the chunin. "It doesn't fit your reputation."
Kisame Hoshigaki looked skeptically at the chunin. "You kidding?"
Itachi favored the chunin with a cold gaze. "You are hiring Akatsuki to perform an assassination mission on a child. It is understood that you have the resources to pay. It is also understood why you wish your village to be anonymous for this and are going through our organization for it. My colleague doesn't object to murdering a youth. My colleague is rather more put out by the sum paid and that the target has little or no strategic value."
"That and there ain't no challenge involved whacking some kid who's barely outta diapers," added Kisame. "What's next? We gonna get hired to take dogs for walks or change diapers or something?"
"Calm yourself, Kisame," advised Itachi. "Our reputation is such that they used some expendable chunin-level operative as a go-between."
"He ain't much better," said Kisame. "I couldn't even warm up on a guy like this."
"Uhm," said the chunin.
"I'd advise you to run," said Itachi to the chunin. "You see, a mission of this sort is an insult to Kisame. He doesn't take well to insults."
"Hey, Itachi, think I can kill this guy in under three seconds?" asked Kisame.
"It would take you that long?" asked Itachi.
"Uhm," said the chunin.
"Well, no, but I want to at least make it dramatic," said Kisame.
"No need," said Itachi, using his Sharingan briefly. "There."
The chunin dropped to the ground.
"Huh, what you do to him?" asked Kisame, prodding the twitching man in the ribs with his foot.
"An experiment," said Itachi. "Do you remember that film Deidara was watching?"
Kisame stopped and looked at Itachi in disbelief. "You're kidding? Oh man. I actually feel sorry for the guy now. I woulda just killed him."
"S-s-so you just need to k-k-ki-kill this kid," said the chunin as he laid a photo down on the table.
"I'm surprised someone this shaky was hired as a go-between," muttered the missing-nin. "What? A Konoha nin? What the kid do, sneeze on someone?"
"Y-y-you're refusing?"
"Nah," said the missing-nin. "I just want guarantee of payment. If I go infiltrating Konoha, I'm going to have to lay low for a little while afterwards."
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(Posted Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:45)
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