Concealed in shadow, I prowl down the dark corridors of an underground base operated by a group of criminals I had been hired to eliminate.
This isn't my first solo assassination job, but I had finally proven myself skilled enough to be trusted with a higher-ranking client's contract.
With high-profile, high-paying clients, no job is off the table. From more personal, intimate hits, to political assassinations, as long money was involved, we were bound.
So, wanting to prove myself worthy of claiming my birthright as a member in the Zoldyck family business, I pulled together all of the rigorous training I had endured to rightfully gain the respect and notoriety that would come with my success.
Like a lethal, life snuffing vapour, rolling silently and unseen, I clear each room without the next knowing what was heading their way.
I close my eyes and focus on the different voices coming from the next room down the darkened hallway. I determine, by the varying voices and heartbeats, that there have to be about five or six unsuspecting men laying wait inside. However, I feel a slight wave of relief as I didn't detect any aura. I've made it this far without running into a single Nen user.
I creep through the shadows towards the room, making sure my Aura is completely concealed, and stop just before my feet cross the light spilling into the hall.
Without making a sound, I pull six poison tipped needles from my belt and indue them with my Nen as I ready them between my fingers.
With empty lungs and a silenced heart, I peer around the corner.
It's exactly as I'd thought.
There are five men inside the room. All of which have no idea that death is stalking just outside of view.
Boxes upon boxes of weapons and ammunition are stacked high around the room. This must be the makeshift armoury of smuggled weapons that I'd been warned about.
Unlike any of the lives I had already taken tonight, these men are heavily armed. I don't yet have a lot of experience with guns, but it doesn't really matter. As long as I am concealed, one flick of my wrist, and they'll all be dead before they know what's happening.
I raise my hand, readying the throw, and exhale-
"Oy, kid. Whattya ya think yer doin'?" a deep voice booms from behind me.
Flinching in fright, my needles slip from my hands and scatter onto the floor around me. I quickly turn in the direction of the voice and am met by a man with short blond hair and piercing wild eyes glaring down at me.
How the hell did he sneak up on me?
"That was some pretty good Zetsu you were usin' kid, but yer not quite on my level yet."
The man laughs and grabs me around the shoulders before roughly shoving me through the opened door and into the room. I fall to my hands and knees. The five heavily armed men stare at me, and all I can do is stare right back.
Before I have time to think of a plan, I grab the needles that had fallen beneath me and throw.
I kill three men instantly, cleanly piercing their frontal lobes. The other two I miss by mere inches.
Damnit! This wasn't supposed to happen!
The man with the wild eyes points his gun at me as he steps into the room with a heavy boot. I'm able to hear as the heartbeats of the remaining criminals simultaneously pick up speed. Their fear billows from their bodies like an aura. They are truly terrified of this man.
"What's a kid like you, doing in a place like this?" the man asks, a crazed grin twitching at his lips as he chambers a round.
My father told me never to give up information, even if it meant certain death. So despite the trembling I can no longer suppress, I stay silent.
The man sighs and his lips press into a firm line. I watch as his eyes flit to the two remaining men standing behind me before he sets his sights back onto me. I barely have time to register the motion as his index finger shifts from the slide to the trigger.
BANG
