Sleeping Foxes

Chapter 1: Prologue

-I own nothing-

-X-

"Talking"

'Thinking'

-X-

Shukuba Town, literally translating to 'Inn-town'. In it's early years it had been a small trading outpost for merchants that didn't want to travel all the way to the village of Konoha to sell there wares despite being a two day walk away. But what use to be a thriving little trading town was now a pleasure town, full of casinos, massage parlors, bars, love hotels, and brothels.

"Listen here you stupid son of a bitch, we've been nice and gave you more than enough time to pay us what you owe!" Yelled a thug as he held a chubby man's head while wielding a bat in the other hand. Two other men were holding the wide man by the arms while another had a young teenaged girl crying and on her knees as he held the girl by the hair, making sure that she didn't try to run or cause trouble for them. They were in a small but popular clothing shop that made good money making custom kimonos for well respected people, probably one of the few shops that didn't cater to some perversion.

"Please, just give me more time!" the shop owner cried before being jabbed in his large belly with the end of the bat.

"We gave your fat ass more than enough time," the thug sneered, pushing the mans head aside roughly, "One month to get us the money you owe, our boss is a understanding and generous man but even he has his limits."

The girl cried and sobbed as she watched the man, her father, get punched in the face before being forced over to the counter, where one man made him lay his arm on the surface and held it down. She jumped and screamed at the sound of her father crying out as the thug shattered his arm with the bat, then his wrist, then his hand.

"That will be enough," said a voice from the side.

The thugs looked to the speaker before letting the shop owner go, allowing him to fall to the floor in pain as he cradled his battered and broken arm. Standing over near a display rack was a slightly older man, in his mid to upper twenties compared to the young thugs. He was dressed in a black suit and tie with a white shirt and they could see the corner of a tattoo on the side of his neck.

The man was smoking a cigarette, but the biggest attention getter they saw was the missing end of his pinky finger, signifying him as a Yakuza.

"You have two days, Mr. Panchi. If my Boss doesn't have his money by then we'll be taking your daughter and putting her to work until the debts are paid." The Yakuza exclaimed before taking a draw from the cancer stick, "And if I have to personally come back here again because you refused to pay, I promise you that your daughters employment under us will be beyond your worst nightmares."

Shukuba Town… a den of perversion run by Yakuza, many of which openly flaunt their affiliations proudly and mockingly to the law. It was not illegal to be a member of gangs or organized crime so many would just parade it out in the open.

But it was not these that those of law enforcement hated most, those that openly flaunted their connection to organized crime were often at the bottom of the ladder, never trusted with real information and deals. It was the ones who hid their connections, the middle ranks, those that the leaders turned to knowing that they would get things done without the world knowing until it was too late.

These men and women were the bane of everyday law enforcement, faceless yakuza that could get something done without anyone knowing until the job was done.

But while it wasn't a crime to belong to a criminal organization, doing something illegal was still… illegal.

-X-

Walking down a brightly lit hallway, two ninja headed towards their next case. It was rare that more than one were assigned to a interrogation but in cases of extreme importance this kind of thing happened.

Heading the pair was Ibiki Morino, a Tokubetsu Jounin feared by even ANBU level ninja for his use of mental torture, often breaking prisoners without even laying a hand on them. He was a tall, imposing man with scars all over his head and face, proof that he'd been tortured in the past. He was also the commanding officer of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Force.

Behind him was another well known figure, Inoichi Yamanaka, a member of Konoha's Intelligence Division that often worked together with the Interrogation Force using the Yamanaka families secret techniques, capable of looking into a target's mind if the person is mentally weak enough or acting as a sort of lie detector.

They entered the interrogation room, a poorly lit square room with a metal table bolted to the floor in the center of the room, two chairs sitting across from each other at the table, and a window to the side of the room that was a mirror on one side, signifying it as one way glass.

Ibiki took the lead, sitting down across from the prisoner wearing chakra suppressing cuffs while Inoichi stood to the side. The head of the Interrogation force placed a large file that he'd been carrying on the table, a file close to an inch thick and full of papers. He then opened it and started the interrogation.

"I'm obligated to tell you that this is all going to be recorded on both video and audio, do you understand?"

The person across from him raised an eyebrow, glancing at the recorder on the table and the camera off to the side then nodded once.

Looking at the first sheet, he cleared his throat and started, "Prisoner 0-104, former Genin of Konoha… Registration number: 012607. Accused of aiding and abetting, multiple counts of assault, aggravated assault and battery. Charges of bribery, conspiracy, and fraud. Multiple charges of vandalism, identity theft, money laundering, forgery, extortion, pandering, drug trafficking, and distribution… and a charge of indecent exposure as well as public intoxication." Ibiki said before taking a breath, "That's just a broad list of what we're charging you with, now, state your name for the record."

The prisoner leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, hands cuffed together by the chakra suppressors as he rubbed his cheek. He was young, a lot younger than them, probably around 17 and yet he had the rap sheet of a criminal much older than himself. He smirked at them with pearly white teeth, his blue eyes shining in amusement as his fingers brushed against three whisker-like scars.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto."

Ibiki nodded slowly, "Along with the crimes listed earlier, you are also being charged with treason and espionage, you understand that this… well all of these charges are very serious."

Naruto nodded, "Yeah I know that,"

"Then your aware that you could face life imprisonment or even execution for these?"

"Of course,"

"Why would you betray your village?"

Naruto looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "What?" he questioned, ignoring Ibiki's own question, "No torture? No threats? Not only that but you open things up with a question like that?"

"You're a special case," the man muttered darkly, "Believe me, I'd like nothing more than to make a traitor like you break."

"Oh lucky me then," the teen chuckled, not effected by the subtle attack from the man that would make other people afraid, thinking that he might snap and attack them if they pushed him. "But I'll indulge you… The way I see it, I never betrayed the village, you can not betray what has already turned on you. We all know what I am, what's locked away inside me. We all know what happened to me when I was little, after the first few beatings, Konoha stopped being my village so as far as I was concerned, I was trapped in a enemy village."

"I see… well let's ask something else… how long have you been a yakuza?"

The teen smirked, "Ever since I realized that the people of Konoha will always see me as a demon and that the yakuza are in fact, much better people than a normal villager. I've lost count of how many normal villagers tried to hurt me but a yakuza? If anything they showed me respect for going through all that."

"That didn't answer the question,"

"I wasn't aware that I have to." he snorted. "I'm not saying another word."

Ibiki shrugged, "Fine, you don't need to… soon enough we'll have more than enough evidence to put you away for a long time."

With that, the man closed the file with a snap and stood, "Within the hour, you'll be on your way to prison for a very long time kid, I hope whatever your protecting by not talking is worth it."

-X-

An hour later, Ibiki reentered the room with Inochi following behind silently. The master of mental torture stalked up to the table with a glare and sat down roughly, his glare never wavering as he looked at the teen. "It seems that the evidence we had against you vanished, there's no trace of it ever existing… care to explain that?"

Naruto just sat there.

"For that to happen… that must mean that we have a leak somewhere… that you have an inside man in the system…"

Once again, the teen said nothing.

"You must be a very dangerous man, Uzumaki…"

Inochi turned and walked over to the camera, shutting it off.

Not moments after the camera was off, the door opened and in walked the Hokage himself, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Hokage-sama," greeted the two interrogators as he entered, taking a seat in the chair that Ibiki vacated just moments before. The man then moved around to the blond and uncuffed him before leaving the room with only Inochi, the Hokage, and Naruto in the room since he had other duties to fulfill.

"Sorry about how your were treated Naruto," the old man apologized, "But it needed to be as real as possible if we're going to do this."

The teen smirked and waved it off, "It's fine old man, I knew what I was getting into when I signed up for this." he mused before rubbing his wrists, "Oh and some of the ANBU that tried to arrest me really need to step up their training, I could've gotten away five times during that chase."

The old man nodded with a small chuckle. When ANBU were sent to 'arrest' Naruto, he had told the teen to run and make it convincing. Long story short, the teen made a fool out of two ANBU, knocked one out, and led seven more on a merry chase all throughout the village before being 'caught'. But even then it took four of them to hold the teen down long enough to put the cuffs on while another uncuffed the unfortunate ninja that had been restrained with his own set of cuffs when he tried to handle the blonde alone.

"I'll keep that in mind. But Naruto… I won't try to talk you out of this… hell it's already too late for that anyway. Your ninja career as of now is in the gutter, everyone in the village will know that your associated with Yakuza, all your friends will see you as a traitor."

"I know that old man," he exclaimed, "but we need an inside agent in the Yakuza and I'm the best bet with my past."

Hiruzen nodded slowly, "Yeah… I know…" he sighed. "Naruto… as I've told you before, deep cover assignments like this… they're dangerous not only for you but for the village too. Spending so much time undercover is very stressful… not just physically but mentally and emotionally."

"I know old man," the teen repeated, "You don't have to keep telling me that, but what are the details of my assignment?"

"First off, you need to keep up the image of a yakuza with some inside people in the village government. We'll be able to supply you with some things later on to reinforce that image but for now just make yourself seen around the red light districts. The news of your arrest and removal from duty will be officially released soon and some shinobi trained muscle is always wanted. You're free to leave the village at anytime and move around as needed for your work."

"Any rules I need to follow while I'm out there?"

The Hokage shook his head no, "When news of this gets out, we want everyone to think that you're a dangerous man, you need to play the part as well. If anyone gives you a reason to, make an example out of them to show that you are just as dangerous as rumors say."

"What about money?"

"Well…" the man started while rubbing his nose, "The paperwork will show that we confiscated a large amount of funds from hidden accounts in the different banks, as such we had to drain your real account."

"Say what!?"

"Calm down now, just relax, we closed it down but whose to say that you didn't have something hidden away? You'll have enough to last you for awhile but… your going to have to make money like a Yakuza."

"Like selling drugs, pimping girls, extorting businesses and so on?"

"I don't like it but yes, if it helps cement your reputation as a yakuza and helps you get in deeper with them then do it."

"Understood,"

To be continued…

-X-

Review and tell me what you think and if it's worth continuing.