July 20, 2022

San Diego, California

10:17pm PST

Knock Knock Knock

Keith knocked one more time, 'They must have hit the booze earlier than we planned.'

The door swung open revealing Rock Lee with a bottle in his hands. "First Serg! Welcome, come in!"

Keith patted him on the shoulder. "Bunch of Blue Falcons, you guys didn't wait for me, huh Badger?" Badger's name is Michael Spunk, but his constant nagging and asking for things from the old squad earned him the nickname 'Badger'.

Badger mocked been hurt. "First Serg, I just opened this beer waiting for you, here you go." As Keith walk in he saw the rest of his old squad dress as different characters from Naruto. He himself was dressed as Sasuke, they each were trying out their costumes before heading out to Comic Con tomorrow.

"Flash!" A lady dressed as Tsunade stood up and hugged him. "Captain" He replied hugging her back.

She took a step back and looked at him. "How does it feel to finally be out of the Army after all this time?"

"Well, I wasn't getting any younger, I figured I might as well enjoy the rest of whatever much I have left." keith responded. Captain Hurst, or Sweeney , led them out of many difficult spots. They all respected her.

"Always acting old First Serg, you are younger than my son!" A voice said behind him, he turned around to see Thompson dressed as the First Hokage. Thompson, or Candle as he is called by anyone that served with him, was one of the most reliable guys to have with you if shit hit the fan. His only downside was how stubborn and slow he was to learn things, he didn't like change.

"You had your son when you were 12!" A voice came from further into the house. Soon a guy dressed as Naruto came over to greet them.

"Barbie!" Keith hadn't seen Barbie in almost 6 years, he earned that nickname for always dressing to impress no matter the occasion, even now, he must have spent quiet a bit of time fixing his outfit , it was immaculate.

"Welcome home First Serg." Barbie raised his beer.

"Nice to be here, who else is missing, where is Wylie?" Keith said as he reached the living room with everyone else.

"You know High Speed, he either forgot about today, or I bet you he will come as a character from Dragon Ball instead." Badger said as he sat down on the couch, the living room was big enough to host all of them comfortably, they had planned this months ago, they were just waiting for him to sign his discharge papers as he was the last one still in. 'Not anymore as of yesterday.'

Keith took a seat, moving his sword out of the way. He watched anime on his off time or on mandatory fun days , he even got his battle buddies to enjoy it , his favorite one was definitely Naruto, but he enjoyed a wide range of them. While he liked Naruto, his military side liked Sasuke more, as well as he thought he was a bad ass. If he , with his talents, put in as much effort as Naruto, he would have been the strongest Ninja of all time.

"What are you planning on doing now Flash?" Sweeney asked as she took a seat next to him. They have had a fling or two together before, but nothing concrete, and they had to keep it in the down-low , but everyone in the unit knew.

"I actually don't know, killing and healing is all I know, you know I joined right out of high school, and don't know anything else. Maybe some contractor work, join NSA maybe? That would be good money. Maybe I can ask Barracuda for a referral" He really did not know what to do, he join as a combat medic or 18W and quickly got voluntold to tryout for 18D, or basically a medic for the special forces. Most of the special forces in the unit he was attached to were in their early thirties, but he had had more than enough and just decided to retire after 12 long years.

"I told you before, you can always come to work in my company, you could even be the CEO, you got a good head on you, and I know you can manage a company that small easily." She said looking straight into his eyes, as if trying to see something there.

He sighed looking down. "I am just planning to take some time off for now, I got plenty to get by at the moment, I really appreciate the offer." Keith glanced back at her eyes. "I mean it Sweeney , thank you." He gently squeezed her hand.

She smiled back at him and caressed his hand, she opened her mouth to say something back.

Ring. Ring. Knock. Knock.

She rolled her eyes and said. "That has to be Todd, late as always."

"I got it." Keith said as he got up. Logan Todd, the only one out of all of them with no nickname, go figure, was always late no matter what. One of the reasons he got verbal and written counseling many times.

On the other side of the door stood a Sasuke ordered from Wish. "What the-, Are you Sasuke?" Badger said behind him.

Keith took a good look at Todd, he had spiky black hair wig on, and a white bandana covering his forehead, while white bandages covered his arms. He laughed despite himself. "I know who he is!" He patted Todd as he pushed him inside. "It's been a while Todd, come in."

"Flash, how have you been?" Todd smiled as he walked in.

"Caw Caw! Blue Falcon here came as Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho." Keith said as he patted Todd, presenting him to the group.

"Caw Caw!" Where the replies off the group as they all raised their drink in mocking cheer.

"Hiei is still a ninja , isn't he? Same thing." Todd mumbled as he headed to the kitchen.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

July 23, 2022

San Diego, California

2:32am PST

Keith dumped Todd onto the bed, throwing the blanket on top of him. "Only one beer because I have to drive." He mocked at the drunk figure on the bed, turning around and walking out of the room, closing the door behind him.

The only two left standing where just him and Captain Hurst. Seeing his expression she chuckled. "Let the boys be, they wanted to have fun, and after you made a speech about all those we lost along the way, you can fault them for wanting to drink until been dragged by you. " She said smugly.

He sat next to her, shacking his head, reaching out for his own beer.

"Azu mai..." He heard a barely audible whisper, turning to face Captain Hurst he asked. "Did you say something."

She had a twinkle in her eyes as she whispered. "What say you we go to the room at the end of the hallway?" A coy smile playing in her lips.

Keith was about to reply back when he felt an intense headache, it felt like his head was about to explode. He could hear someone screaming. 'Am I screaming? Or is that Sweeney?'

The pain intensified, he couldn't even open his eyes from the pain, slowly the whispering he heard earlier seem to intensify.

"Le mar sayu , le tundere ivaka..." The voice kept getting louder and louder, he could only feel an extreme cold, nothing else besides that voice.

He wanted to yell back at the voice, every word felt like it pierced his soul, slowly chipping little by little, he wanted to open his eyes, but he couldn't tell if they were opened or not, all he saw was black, a black darker than black.