Author's Note: Except the Kamen Rider, and a certain girl, all other racers are 'faceless', and won't get much development. The Black Riders are mostly anonymous. Haku's disguised racing identity, Kamen Rider, is a tribute to one of Tokusatsu's finest franchises.
For that reason, and that reason alone, their retirement will be a blaze of glory, since I have a massive amount of respect for the Kamen Rider franchise, and would never shame it.
Canon References Note: The bridge in the Western Reaches is what became the Great Naruto Bridge in canon, and the Demon Brothers are reimagined as the riders that Naruto has to deal with to clean up the area. Zabuza is given a boon through trying to earn money legitimately.
Naruto Zero Plus 1: The Race Across The Waves
Chapter 2: The Fall Of The Masked Rider
Name: Zabuza Momochi
A 'retired' mercenary, he went into promoting the skills of his ward, Haku, one of the refugees from a community in the Northern Wastes, after Haku was almost killed during a period of xenophobia that saw many gifted people murdered by friends and family.
He currently works from a garage that is installed into the trailer of his truck, which also doubles as living quarters for himself and Haku. He's notable within Wave for that, if anyone working for Gato comes near his truck, he reminds them of his old job.
Currently, Gato has been putting pressure on him, due to the fact he's one of the few people who owns a garage that doesn't operate within Gato's guidelines, due to the fact it's not a permanent structure.
The Western Reaches were a mostly uninhabited section of Wave. It was dotted with several unfinished housing developments that had been modified into part of some of the multiple race tracks that were based around the area. The major feature in the area was an unfinished bridge, which had been modified into a bike parking area, the old man sighing as he saw what it had become.
"That bridge was what was originally going to save Wave… Then Gato chased off anyone who tried to either get the bikers to stop parking in the superstructure or even continue it," The man sighed, "Name's Tazuna, by the way..."
"Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki." He replied, "So, What did you do before this became the norm for Wave?"
"I was the foreman in charge of building the bridge and helping out with the town that was going to be the stop off point, but the money ran out when a group of punk bikers came along and harassed the workers," Tazuna explained, sighing, "Nothing's been done with the construction since,"
"So, What happened to the punks that ran you off your job?" Naruto asked.
"Gato swept in. He offered to modify the traffic management in 'selected areas', promising to compensate anyone inconvenienced by them..." Tazuna stated.
"Right..." Naruto snarked.
"Well, the younger generation got tempted by the lure of easy money, people started betting, The promise of only using selected areas got broken…" Tazuna continued, slumping, "Now every road on the island is one of Gato's tracks, and each island is it's own league..."
"Explains why the traffic lights are more like race lights..." Naruto mused, "What about the promise of compensating anyone who didn't get involved in the gambling and the races?"
"Lost to embezzlement, when the people who were working on it disappeared due to poking too much into Gato's accounting..." Tazuna replied, sighing, before shaking his head, "Let's leave that, and discuss the league in this area. Since you came in here alone, you're not going to meet Gato's main pair of goons,"
"Oh, why is that?" Naruto asked, confused. Seemed like there was some measure of control.
"The Demon Brothers are the kings of Tandem Racing," Tazuna stated, "Races in this area only start attracting them when you are in a team. No partner, No broken bike. You race singles, well, you're not going to get trashed, if you know what I mean..."
"And if I wanted to do these… tandem races?" Naruto asked.
"How fast do you want to get killed, kid?" Tazuna exclaimed.
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.
"I can guarantee you that you'll never find a single racer who'd want to give you more than fourth place overall, and almost half the racers in this circuit who run tandem races fight over who gets last place in the most convincing way. Well, like most Black Riders, the Demon Brothers are liberal with their anger..."
"Their anger?" Naruto asked.
"The Demon Brothers have scored first or second every time for one of them, and no lower than sixth for the other. The only time they even score second though is when the Black Mamba and their partner the King Cobra are racing, and they occupy first and third, and usually the Demon Brothers get second and fourth." He explained.
"What the hell? So, pretty much no-one's placing podium?!" Naruto stated, "That's stupid..."
"They NEVER occupy any other slots. If you notice those two black bikes on the track, you don't race your best... since no racer tries to get 1st place with a black bike there. I've seen many a bike get trashed because they lost count of the number of blacks on the track..." Tazuna continued.
"So, If there's a black racer on the track, you pretty much play 'How convincing can I fake my bike breaking down', or they'll break it for you?" Naruto asked, before cursing, "That's not racing! That's stroking the egos of the punks who Gato handed the roads to in the first place!"
"That's been the rules of the road for years around here..." Tazuna sighed, "I can see the Kamen Rider ending up like a previous guy who bucked the trend… Neither the bike nor the rider finished the race. The city coroner gets a lot of business since Gato took control..."
Several miles away, a slim figure put away a pair of binoculars, thumbing the control for their bike's radio transceiver.
"You sure? A Hyuuga?… Lavender and purple bike… OK… and there's another Hyuuga parked up at Last Chance?" They replied, "Get one of my body doubles to do my next race, probably that dipshit who felt me up. Use that piece of shit you want crushed, and tell them that you paid of all the black balls…"
They paused, waiting for the tirade to finish.
"Yes, I know they'll kill them, but… I'll be out of town for a couple of days. I have a parcel to deliver to the police officers outside..." They continued, "Good idea, they'll cap you the moment they figure out we switched… Got a mark in mind, his current rider is a suicide pact waiting to happen,"
This Hyuuga sneaking into Gato's territory gave them the perfect opportunity. And they knew the Black Riders would be busy elsewhere, just by having their body double poke their head out. Somewhere, a pool hall would be mighty annoyed with the Black Riders, if they went by how many pock-marked black balls were in their pockets.
A few hours later, Gato paced in his office as he cued up a recording on the large screen, looking at the group of men and women in the office. For the past hour, none of the race areas had Black Riders.
"And Kamen Rider goes out in a blaze of glory..." The recorded news announcer stated, "A sudden fire overtook the elite racer in their most recent race, as their bike's engine developed a fault which caused it to catch fire. They refused to let it get to them, with one of the first cases of a racer caught in an accident both finishing the race and coming in first place! Kamen Rider's manager posthumously accepted the trophy, stating that it is the first and only case in recent history of a straight 1st place placing for an independent racer!"
"So, Care to explain to me what the hell went wrong?!" Gato snapped, "And use small words, clearly some of you have some brain cells missing, since the Kamen Rider played us for fools!"
"They substituted practically everything, mocked up the Kamen Rider's bike, put a fake in the saddle..." The leader of the Black Riders stated, "Hell, for all we know, they skipped town. Bloody security team were too busy watching the race. Turns out the real Kamen Rider had found out about a glitch in the sensor system. Literally, the guy with the most black balls on the circuit, still alive, wasn't even present for their lynching..."
"So, you didn't even kill the RIGHT Kamen Rider?!" Gato snapped, looking up as one of the security staff ran in, with a set of pictures.
"Sir, There was a police car at Last Chance. We checked the security camera there. Someone handed them a box binder and left, and they opened it, seemed to rifle through it, then were out of there like a scalded cat." One of the security staff stated, "Oh yes, something about what they got out when they were looking… A video tape."
"You SWORE you wiped all the tapes that implicated the riders!" Gato snapped, "I want you to go find Zabuza. If he has any riders in his garage that look like they might be Kamen Rider, kill them, and blow Zabuza's knee caps out. Any bikes… Donate to the local garages, I'm feeling charitable."
"Zabuza drove his mobile garage out of town just after picking up his winnings, and is heading away pretty damn fast…" One of the people observing the area stated, "You'd almost think..."
"He was just waiting for the race to finish..." Gato growled, "How much did we lose?"
"Considering he was the only legitimate race promoter to actually get paid..." His assistant stated, "Several million..."
Meanwhile, Naruto was busy poring over rulebooks ready to head off out onto the roads.
"Tandem Races involve 10 teams of two racers who battle to earn as high a ranking as possible for one or both of their team," Naruto read.
"It's pretty lucrative, if you're the Demon Brothers or one of their cronies..." Tazuna offered, "Original rules went 10 for first and second, 9 for third and fourth. Then 8, 7, 6… If your co-rider did well enough, you could beat first place with the minimum fuss..."
Naruto looked up the entry on scoring, frowning. The first place and second place ranking were now 10 and 9, with it going down 1 point for each ranking, instead of every other ranking, and, when it reached 11th place, it had -1, continuing to decrease until 20th place nullified any rank you'd earned, being -10.
"And the Demon Brothers never get less than 15..." Naruto mused, "And I bet that somehow, they're able to make sure no-one gets 16 or above, ever… Maybe even guarantee it somehow. As you say, their 'anger',"
"The more legal ways are that you're not allowed to pit except in the start area, and the race won't exactly stop for you to deal with it," Tazuna admitted, "There used to be an allowance to do more, but Gato stated that it was logistically difficult..."
He then paused, before adding, "Almost half of every team has at least one really bad 'mechanical fault' before the end of the race. Admittedly, most of them aren't faults, it's the weight of the black ball they got slipped last time they were in the top four..."
"Like this one?" Naruto asked, taking out the pock-marked ball he'd got off the old man.
"Yep..." Tazuna sighed, "Get 5th place or above in any race, the race organizer walks up to you and hands you one, with a nice note signed by Gato about how he'll be watching you. You trash the black riders, even accidentally, you get another one. The only way to get rid of them, blow the race."
"How does that work? Point for every place you drop in the ranks?"
"If only… It's scored on that every non-black rider who doesn't finish due to your very convincing accident, you get a ball taken off your total. Of course, you're not included," Tazuna stated, "Guaranteeing that really scared riders will throw the race for practically the entire grid..."
"So, they basically use these things to sculpt a perfect racing paradise for those who will take Gato's colours, furthering his control over the situation in the country," Naruto stated, Tazuna nodding, "While, if anyone was to look into it, the balls are not exactly heavily publicised, so the results look legitimate..."
"And the more you race, the more you stick bulletproofing into your equipment," Tazuna offered, "You actually race, you're likely to rack up stigmata with the handful who have held the upper part of the rankings for years, and end up with enough black balls to stock a pool hall..."
He then sighed, before adding, "Join them, you'll make a cool several million ryo a week of winnings and marketing Gato does for you, more than enough to make the criminal records you'll rack up, due to the fact the Police know full well who's staging the accidents, disappear..."
Tazuna paused, hearing the radio.
"I can see the Kamen Rider coming back under new racing colours. The pool table worth of black balls he earned are nullified by the simple fact he's officially dead..." He mused, "Admittedly, Gato will have him shot dead the moment he figures out how he pulled off that stunt..."
He then ducked into a shack near the bridge.
"I'll let you in on something…. Since you're clearly not an idiot..." Tazuna stated, "Once saw a guy, perfect 10's all round, the Black Balls and all that shit hadn't quite happened yet, Gato hadn't yet got enough influence to do it…"
"So, the worst thing for Gato's promotion, and the Black Riders were pissed as hell..." Naruto stated, Tazuna nodding.
"Bike gets accidentally picked up along with the junked ones and crushed. Cost him almost all of his winnings and he got shot by a sniper on his next race." Tazuna sighed, "The really sick thing… Kamen Rider trashed one of the black bikes last race. He'll get charged for that repair job, they won't,"
When Naruto got back to the garage, he noticed a sheaf of papers in his saddlebag. They were the results for practically all the races in a particular area, Naruto finding the last name of the owner of the store, then Tazuna's son. When Tazuna noticed him find the names, he winced.
Naruto could even see the racer from Tazuna's story. Every race, win, win, win, consistently good times. Then, a few weeks into a group of names appearing at the top of the lists, Naruto noting each one, 'DNF', and he disappeared off the pages. Tazuna pointed to where his son was marked as 'DNF'.
"He was part of a group who wanted to, if the races continued, reinstate the old scoring and get rid of the fact that somehow you can get penalized for coming in first place..." Tazuna sighed, "Was doing his third race, had publicly destroyed one of Gato's black balls on live feed shortly before…"
Tazuna held in the tears that were about to come, as he almost sobbed, "He abruptly span out of control, bike was fine… Him… well, the local coroner got an exception to the rule about something other than a bike on the road… No recorded investigation was done,"
Naruto winced. This wasn't just a mild case of fraudulent results in races, and deliberate sabotage. He even had evidence that Gato likely assassinated racers… but he couldn't just walk out on this.
"You keep video of that race?" Naruto asked, for Tazuna to wince, and take out a bullet in a police evidence bag.
"Here's the bullet the coroner dug out of him. Supposedly, The tapes were 'accidentally wiped' as part of an archiving blunder..." Tazuna stated, before going to a rack of old movies, picking out one with a picture of an egg with a duck bill sticking out of it on the cover, and put it into a battered old VCR.
The first part was a young man decrying the 'Black Balls', and detailing the fact that no racer got higher than 6th place without getting handed one of these and told to throw their next race, before he took out a gun and shot it, saying that, one day, those who work hard and race hard would always win, while Gato's trained thugs would go back to their rightful places… at the back.
The next showed a clip of the race, and the first place rider suddenly gaining a neat hole in the back of their suit, as the black rider behind him swerved oddly, their left hand not on the handlebars. Even Naruto could see the glint in his hand as he was swerving, then the lead bike lost control and the clip ended.
Naruto checked the information he'd found, noting the racer who had pulled out a gun got pulled from the races, likely to keep him from being found by the cops, then was back to getting straight first place positions.
"As I said, no recorded investigation was done..." Tazuna stated, "Got the full evidence write up done by one of the cops the coroners brought in with them, who later found out their brake lines had been cut… They'd left me a copy, suspecting corruption on the force, and told me to keep the bullet..."
"More likely one of the Black Riders cut the brake lines to keep their investigation information in Wave. There's no doubt that you could have matched that bullet to one of the revolvers they carry round all the time. More than likely the same revolver was thrown and they got a new one." Naruto mused.
"Here's the fun thing..." Tazuna stated, "The gun was matched to the same gun used in the demonstration, and only had clear prints for him on it. The officer in charge of the investigation suspected it was since the Black Riders all wear thick gloves. They probably took his gun, shot him with it, then put it back in his bike later."
There was then a knocking at the door, Naruto looking out to see a young woman.
"I'm looking for a partner for a tandem race…" She stated, "Your rider looks acceptable, all I need him to do is avoid the pile ups, and place 9th or 10th …I will try to make up the rest of the points, but we're not trying for 16 points,"
"What if I want to get podium?" Naruto stated, "I doubt you're a bad racer, if you're so sure of yourself..."
"Demon Brothers are idiots, but they know their maths. They get 1st place, they've got the grid..." The girl stated.
"Well, Tell you what... Let's disprove that. I guess you're a straight 1st place racer, right?"Naruto interrupted, the girl nodding but looking worried, "Tazuna, when the Demon Brothers and the pair of snakes are next racing at the same time, me and her here will be taking 1st and 2nd place, 19 points. Believe it!"
"That's suicide, plus my bike is custom-made, and you're telling me... Great, you've lost your mind..." The girl moaned, before, crossing her arms in anger as she snapped, "Mamba and Cobra will DESTROY our bikes and leave us in the hospital rather than give up their places, and the Demon Brothers too..."
She looked towards Tazuna, adding, "OK, Now I know you're a dumb punk... Tazuna, take him to the road off the island and tell the border guard to not let him back in. I'm going to go burn up the Central Ring for a few hours to forget someone offered such a dumb idea to me."
"Does Gato rule this island that well that you're going to blow me off for having a good idea?" Naruto snapped back, looking at her, "How often have you thrown a perfect race just since one of Gato's thug bikers is on the track?"
The girl froze, turning round. "I'll admit it. I've thrown races I could have won with a comfortable margin because of the fact my bike would get trash compacted, if they don't do Cat and Mouse, you against 10 Black Riders, first one to give you a dirt nap wins..."
She then sighed. "My bike for other races, not the custom one I take out every few days and never on a black balled race, is onto it's fourth incarnation due to me forgetting to check the grid,"
"I want you to be honest with me, right now... If you raced, just plain raced... Didn't have all this 'Because we gave you an eight-ball, you've got to slow down or get wrecked next race...' crap... Could you beat any of the Black Riders?" Naruto asked, for the girl to roll her heels slightly and sigh.
"OK, You win... I'll admit it, but only to you two... I could lap even the fastest of them." she said with a cheeky grin, then looked at them, "Name's Haku Yuki, also known as Yuki-hime or Snow Queen. So, Want me to tell you the truth about what I think of the Demon Brothers and the Tandem Terrors?"
"Do tell..." Naruto stated, looking curious.
"Well, I'll only ignore the threat of the Black Ball if Naruto here can actually race, so you and me, no-one else, then I'll buy us something to eat if you manage to show me some good skills," Haku stated, "If you drive like crap, well, Tazuna can still get you out of here..."
Naruto nodded and walked over to his new bike; a standard Nodachi with none of the mods normally associated with bikes in this circuit. Tazuna had promised Naruto some mods if he won, but for now it was clean racing. He sat on the seat and revved the engine, listening to the engine purr before nodding to Haku who leapt gracefully onto her own. Tazuna levered himself to his feet and walked to stand between the two.
"Alright you two. The race is to the last bridge column above the tide and back. On your mark... Get set... GO!" he yelled, swinging his cane down, the two racers gunning it down the badly cracked street. This wasn't a race to win. This was a race of the kind Wave hadn't seen in years...
A race of skill.