Over the last couple of days, he had given a lot of thought as to who could possibly be his partner. He evaluated each type of mercs very closely, examining all of their weaknesses and strengths. He eventually came to the conclusion that only a fellow ninja was good enough to be his companion. The reasons behind this were quite simple when he thought about it, most mercs other than ninja tended to have too many weaknesses.

Mercs who came from Warrior's Village, and Kage thought these people made the best mercs (outside of ninja's of course), wouldn't be able to keep up with him. Their swordsmanship was unparalleled, but Kage had no use for people who had insufficient speed and could not be stealthy when the situation called for it.

The country of Zexen seemed to be a breeding ground of mercs, but most ordinary people could not control their emotions, a major weakness most people did not know about. That left most humans out. Kage had considered approaching Sydonia the bandit, who had some truly weird abilities, but he needed someone who was nothing but serious all the time, and Sydonia tended to be a sort of goof-off at times. That marked bandits off his list, since the only other one he would of was Varkas, who now had a nice comfortable job as the head of border patrol for the Toran Republic.

There was only one elf who Kage made all the requirements, but he had no idea where this man would be, and it would take to long to find him. Wingers tended to be unreliable, as they often just take the money and run without ever having executing the contract. Finally, Kage knew of no great kobold mercs (he didn't consider Fu Su Lu great) or dwarf mercs.

So all of this led back to ninja's, who were the only ones who could meet all of his requirements. The problem was, that most ninja now seemed to be content with living and dying in obscurity, not one person outside of the tiny hamlet ever knowing they existed. But Kage didn't think he wanted a ninja from Rokkaku anyway. They had little experience with the outside world, and because of this most of their skills would be more than rusty. Sure, there were exceptions to this, like Hanzo, who's skill may even exceed Kage's own, and Kasumi, his former ally in the Gate Rune War. However, Kage was pretty sure that neither was going to exactly drop their posts in excitement and partner up with him to do something they objected to.

He continued to watch the 'robots' and consider who he could choose as his partner, when something struck his eye. Coming out of the trading center was a ninja draped all in red. He didn't have a shroud to cover his face, but his face was not what Kage was looking at, it was the color of his suit. Red. At last Kage knew who the perfect partner would be. A man who was so fed up with Rokkaku that he left it TWICE. With his mind positive that he had found his partner, Kage took off to see the Chikou Star of the Gate Rune War.

Meanwhile, on the ground, a leaf dropped in front of a ninja. Mondo looked up, but saw only the outlines and shadows of the squirrels and birds.

"Weird", he said to himself, "I could have sworn somebody was up there."

[Dragon Knights Fortress]

Kage appeared at the front of the Dragon Knight's Fortress two days later. He hadn't walked two steps when he was accosted by a female Dragon Knight. She had flowing, blonde hair that extended just past her shoulders. Her face, which Kage recognized despite not having seen it in 3 years, showed a little confusion to go with a lot of suspicion.

"Who are you?" she asked picking up a lance and thrusting it at Kage.

Kage found it more than a little confusing that she could not recognize. After all, how many people in the world dress like him? "Hello, Millia" Kage stated simply, pushing the point of the lance away from him a little.

"Kage?!" she replied, giving the intruder an awkward glance. She eased up a little after that, but kept the weapon up and still pointing at Kage. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to someone" Kage replied curtly.

"Who?"

"Take a guess" Kage answered, becoming a little annoyed at the run-around game she was playing.

"Ooooh" Millia replied, a look of understanding coming over her face.

"Is he here? I wasn't sure, but I figured he probably came back"

"Yeah, he's in his usual spot. I think. Anyway, I'm afraid I can't let you go alone, I will follow, you don't exactly have a fantastic reputation Kage" she said, finally lowering the point of the lance.

"Understood. If you don't mind though, what I have to tell him is personal, so if you could just stand back a ways, it would be much appreciated."

"Deal" Millia replied as if Kage was actually giving her a choice.

They walked up to the castle and took a right. They walked up the right side of the building until Kage could see the slightest of clothing poking out past the castle wall. Kage instructed Millia to stay there as he approached another of his former ally's.

"Hello, Fuma" Kage said, upon reaching the ninja, "I have a proposition for you".

"The Knights have another job for you Mr. Kage-" the man began, but upon seeing Fuma, the man quickly shut his mouth. "Who the hell's he?" the man asked, his temper rising quickly.

"That's none of your business. He's with me." Kage replied sharply.

"Oh, o-okay. Well, anyway, like I was saying, we have another job for you. We need a deserter wiped out. He belonged to the Knights for five years and then disappeared. Deserters are the worst kind of scum, and so we would like you to take care of it." the man said, constantly eyeing Fuma up and down.

"100,000 potch" Kage said without hesitation.

"Wha-wha?" the man tried to respond. "What the hell do you mean 100,000 potch?! That's insane, maybe we could swing another 70,000 your way, but not 100!"

"This is not a negotiation, understand. It's either 100,000 grand or me and my partner walk" Kage said, a smirk on his shrouded face.

"I-I don't think-" the Knight began, but as soon as he got a look at Kage's eyes he thought better of it. "Fine. You win, 100,000 potch".

"Very good, now what is the job?"

"Well, like I said, a man named Slade joined with up with us about five years ago. A little while ago, he ran away, deserting us. That's a crime that the Knights of Camaro can not forgive! What we want is very simple, we want you to kill him." the man reported.