Marvel-ous Ninjutsu

00180. The Hands new direction.

After the family summer vacation a couple things happened. The first one was Jacob and Ben started looking for new employees to hire. With all the new equipment it was time to hire people who were skilled with it. They didn't want to mess with the current harmony they had in the shop so they took their time to find people and interviewed each of them.

As for Theo he ended up having to do a lot of work to make sure the people he wanted had interviews. Sure they didn't have as much experience as some of the other people Jacob interviewed. But Theo made sure they would be able to work and jell with everyone in the shop. It helped that they were all ninjas and had spy and infiltration training, which helped a lot. They also all had an interest in cars and the type of work they would be doing.

It took almost the rest of the summer but Jacob and Ben finally hired the people they wanted for the shop. Minato and Kushina were hired as paint specialists and could do a lot of really custom artwork and pinstriping. Their skills with fuinjutsu made some of the work like pinstriping very easy for them to pick up and master after the memories were implanted.

Next was metal fabrication which turned out to be a blacksmith who was famous for making chakra blades. His skills with blacksmithing and the knowledge he gained with the help from Inoichi made him adapt quickly. He was actually one of the most skilled people Jacob ended up hiring and would help save a lot of time when it came to metal work. Sure he had to learn how to use more modern tools, but a hammer and anvil were still one of the tools used for metal fabrication even in this day and age.

The next person who was hired was a Nara clan member. She was pretty lazy like most Nara but she enjoyed building things and liked computers. Once she discovered CAD and how she could make things without much effort it was over and she was hooked. After the experience she gained, some cramming to learn a few things in math and other subjects, she easily passed all tests Jacob had for her. She was mostly in charge of the CNC machines, plasma cutter and milling machine. She would also use CAD to help mockup designs for projects going forward.

A good welder was next on the list and the person they found was Sasori. While he was new to welding, he was technically an amazing engineer. All the puppets he created and designed throughout his life were hand made with simple tools. It took a lot of passion and creative engineering to produce his puppets and he brought that enthusiasm into welding. He also learned CAD and a few other things which made him a great addition to the shop.

They followed Sasori up with an upholstery specialist, since they planned to do everything in house from now on to control quality better. As for the person they hired, it was one of the crafters who was originally a clothing maker for ninjas. They worked with all types of material from cloth to leather and everything the ninja world could produce. Upholstery work for cars would obviously be different from making clothes, but it wasn’t a major departure and they picked it up quickly along with the implanted memories they copied from other upholstery specialists in the industry. 

The last person they hired was an electrical specialist for wiring and other types of issues. Darui, the person who was supposed to be the fifth Raikage, ended up with the job. While his lightning release wouldn’t help him much with work, he actually had a talent for electrical wiring and was interested in cars. With the memories he was granted and practice he was easily hired after Jacob and Ben gave him a working interview. It was actually something they did for everyone, since they wanted to make sure everyone was skilled in what they said they can do. It also helped that Theo took photos of the practice projects he had everyone work on to gain practical experience and had them use that for a work portfolio.@@novelbin@@

With the shop almost fully staffed near the end of summer and Theo happy that the people he wanted were hired. He focused back on other issues, mainly the dismantling of the Hand. The fingers, under watch from Theo and his helpers, systematically dismantled and consolidated the Hand into a new group. The problematic members after some debate were disposed of since most of them had no morals and did things that weren’t redeemable. Sure they were conditioned to be that way, but they were pretty much broken and beyond saving at that point.

The next group of people were the ones that might have killed people before, but still had some humanity left. Theo had Yamanaka clan members help them out and work to deprogram them and save them. Some ended up breaking and Theo was forced to put them down, but most of them were saved. Theo still wanted them to atone for what they did so he assigned them to work as ‘nameless’ heroes who would go around fighting crime. They were all skilled fighters so Theo figured why waste their talents.

The last group and also the largest was the recruitment organizations spread all over the world. Besides the people who ran them and maybe a helper or two, no one knew what their true purpose was for. Since they were mostly designed to bring in wayward kids and find feature members for the Hand. Well, Theo kind of kept that the same expect he added to it. Instead of focusing on just teaching kids how to fight, he expanded the programs and gave them more people to help kids and the communities around them.

Sure they taught martial arts, but now they had programs to help kids study after school. For older kids they helped them figure out what career path they might want to choose. They would also help teens to prepare for college, or find work internships for teens that wanted to go into trades. They set up food and clothing drives for the underprivileged people in their areas and would help people find jobs. The programs also helped older people learn new skills for free so they could get better paying jobs.

They also set up homeless shelters with the goal of rehabilitation for anyone who entered. Sure Theo cheated a little with that and would send a Yamanaka to the shelters to help people with mental issues. But they also worked well to break people from having addiction issues. With those issues fixed people were given help to get back on their own feet. While not everyone had a good skill set to find a job, Theo made sure that people who came into the shelter system were given the chance to learn one.

The shelter system besides giving each person, or family their own place to live while they were there. Also taught people how to manage their money and save it properly. For younger people they were taught other useful skills for living alone like doing laundry and cooking. Theo’s goal was for people to go into the shelter system and come out within a year or two as a healthy and functional member of society who had money and a stable job.

The process wasn’t completely finished but Theo was spending all the money the Hand made over the years to make it happen. He was also in the process of liquidating all the land, buildings and other things the Hand owned that was no longer needed. Theo figured that by the end of the year he would have most of it done and the Hand would no longer exist as it used to.

As for the fingers of the Hand, after they finished what he needed them to do he took them to the medical base and put them on lockdown. Basically they were placed into a medically induced coma locked inside what amounted to a tiny prison cell. They weren’t the only people in the place, Theo currently had about twenty plus people saved here. Normally he would just kill them and be done with it. But a few of them were saved for certain reasons and plans he had for the future.

The only issue Theo had with everything was the Chaste, who were still attempting to fight the old members of the Hand even though they wouldn’t fight and just run away. Theo gave them orders to no longer engage the Chaste and to run if they were attacked. While it worked in practice, the Chaste didn’t seem to care and were emboldened to fight even more. So Theo finally stepped in and he would teleport to any fight the Chaste started and beat them senseless. Afterwards he would leave a note on them that basically said, ‘The Hand is under new management, call me so we can talk. xxx-xxx-xxxx’

It took about a month before someone finally called and set up a meeting with him. Actually Theo, currently henged into Ezekiel, just finished getting ready for the meeting before he created a portal. He stepped through the portal to end up inside an empty warehouse in NYC. It was almost midnight and the only light in the building was from the half full moon that shined in through the broken skylights above. Ezekiel glanced around for a moment and even with his improved eyes didn’t see anyone hidden inside the place.

After a few moments a speaker crackled to life and someone said, “Neat trick. Is that some kinda innate power?”

Ezekiel shrugged as he glanced around and said, “Just a magic trick.”

A moment later Ezekiel noticed a camera almost hidden from his view and focused on it as he asked, “Is this how we’re going to do this, or is someone going to show up and talk to me in person?”

“You're too dangerous to meet in person and you’re also connected to the Hand.”

“I haven’t killed a single member of your little group and I also saved a couple of them from the Hand right after I took it over.” Ezekiel said with a friendly smile.

“That doesn’t mean you can be trusted. We have been enemies with the Hand for over five hundred years and you are now part of them.”

Ezekiel let out a sigh before he asked, “So does that mean you don’t want to talk?”

“What do you want?”

Ezekiel focused on the camera as he said, “I would like you guys to stop harassing the former members of the Hand.”

“We can not do that.”

Ezekiel raised an eyebrow and asked in an annoyed tone, “And why not?”

“Because they are the Hand and we are the Chaste. Our purpose is to destroy the Hand.”

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, “I already told you, they are no longer the Hand and under my leadership now.”

“What about the five fingers? Where are they?”

“Taken care of after they transferred leadership to me.” Ezekiel said with a smirk.

“So you’re the current leader of the Hand?”

Ezekiel nodded slightly as he said, “Yes, after I cleaned house I took over leadership of what was left.”

“Then that makes things much easier.”

“Why do you...” Ezekiel didn’t get to finish his question as the warehouse around him exploded.

The warehouse itself was completely leveled to the ground and most of the warehouses around it were also destroyed. Car alarms and animals could be heard for several blocks around the area from the noise of the blast and almost all windows within a certain distance were shattered. Ezekiel for his part was perfectly fine as he stood in the fire and rubble of the building. A magical shield flashed around his body as the flames touched it sometimes. Ezekiel glanced around the destroyed warehouse for a moment before he created a portal and disappeared. It looked like he would need to be a little more forceful with the Chaste going forward.