Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox
Written by Neon Majestic
(DISCLAIMER: The Naruto franchise and the characters therein belong to and were originally created by Masashi Kishimoto.)
OoOoO
CHAPTER 4 – Abuse of Power
12:00 noon, lunchtime at Konoha High School. "Oi, Ino!"
"Eh?" Ino turned and saw Naruto hailing her from up the corridor. "Ah, Naruto!"
"Whew, I thought I'd never find you!" Naruto exclaimed, hurrying up to her. "Going to the cafeteria, or are you eating lunch from home again?"
"I think today I'll go to the cafeteria—they've got pudding again today, and I intend to get some!" Ino said with determination.
"All right, since you're so hyped about it, I guess I'll try it too," Naruto acceded. "I definitely wanna get my hands on their turkey sandwiches—they look really big, and with the fried potato wedges on the side, who can resist that?"
The two fell in step together and walked in the direction of the cafeteria. "So, Naruto, have you made any other friends since you've been here?" Ino asked, for the sake of conversation.
"Eh? Other friends? Um…not really," Naruto admitted, sheepishly scratching the back of his head.
"…you're kidding." Ino looked him straight in the face. "You're not kidding. Seriously?"
"Well, do I have to? I mean, you're pretty cool company, right?" Naruto grinned.
Ino blushed a little. "I'm happy you think that way, but you have to expand your horizons a bit, Naruto," she chided him. "I mean, it's not every day you'll be able to hang out with me. And if you and I spend all our time with just each other, then people might think we're…you know…"
"Might think we're what?" Naruto asked.
Ino rolled her eyes at his clueless-ness. "That we're boyfriend and girlfriend—you know, a couple," she whispered.
Naruto's eyes bulged. "WHAT? Me and you? A couple? Really?"
The other students around them stared at Naruto's outburst. Ino's face reddened. "BAKA!" she shrieked, hitting him in the top of the head with one fist and sending him face-first to the ground. Then, in the next beat, she was grinning sheepishly and waving the crowd off. "He was just joking, joking!" she cried frantically, while giant drops of sweat appeared on the other students' heads.
"Oi, oi! What's the holdup here? Don't crowd the corridor! Make way for the Hall Monitors' Guild!"
On hearing the demand, several students immediately moved to the two sides of the corridor, leaving the middle pathway clear for a group of militant-looking students who were coming along. "That's it, that's it, make way," the student at the front of the procession declared with a smug expression.
"Uh-oh…" Ino glanced down at Naruto, who was still lying facedown on the ground. "Hey, Naruto, hurry up and move!"
"Huh?" Naruto slowly picked himself up, just as the Hall Monitors' Guild came up to him.
"What's this all of a sudden? Move aside, runt! Don't get in the way of us hall monitors!" the front student snapped impatiently.
They were right near a classroom door at that point—and just at that very moment a young bespectacled student burst out from inside the room, arms full of books, and collided with one of the hall monitors. "Oops!" the boy cried out, falling to the ground even as his books scattered all over.
The hall monitor he'd collided with glared down at him. "Hey, brat, what's the big idea? Watch where you're going!"
"Oh, uh…sorry, sempai," the other student apologized, scrambling to pick up his books.
"Sorry? Is that all you can say?" the hall monitor demanded, his dark eyes flashing. "Do you have any idea who I am, kid? I'm Rokusho Aoi, the chief hall monitor! And that means a brat like you must show me greater respect than that!"
"H-hey, he already said sorry," another student ventured.
"Did you say something?" Aoi shot a glare at the speaker, frightening him into silence. "No? That's what I thought. Now, kid," turning back to the student who'd bumped into him, "if you really want to apologize, do it the right way—kiss my feet and call me Rokusho-sama!"
"Yeah, that's right, kid, do it," the other hall monitors jeered.
"U-um…" The student was clearly unnerved, even as a small dribble of snot suddenly appeared from his nose.
"Well, what's the hold-up? Do it now!" Aoi shouted. "Or do you want me to recommend you for detention for insubordination?"
"S-sorry, sempai—I mean, Rokusho-sama," the student whimpered, and now he prostrated himself and began to kiss Aoi's shoes.
"Hey, no! Cut that out!" Naruto exclaimed, stepping forward—but Ino pulled him back.
"Naruto, cool it!" Ino hissed. "The hall monitors can have you thrown into detention for the slightest infraction! Even if it means they use their power to push other students around…" she added darkly.
"Push other students around? Well, call it what you want; we're simply exercising the natural law of 'the strong rule the weak'!" Aoi said boastfully. "And you, blondie," addressing Naruto, "you'd better listen to your friend and not oppose us if you know what's good for you. And that goes for the rest of you, too!" addressing the other students, who were witnessing the display with a mixture of silent outrage and fear.
The beleaguered student was still kissing Aoi's foot. "All right, all right, that's enough now, I don't want your dirty spit or your nasty snot all over me," said Aoi, using his other foot to roughly push the boy off. "Hall Monitors' Guild, let's go!"
"Yes, sir!" the other hall monitors replied in unison, and then they all followed Aoi as he marched off.
"Grr…damn bastard…who the hell does he think he is? Hall monitor, my ass!" Naruto spat.
Ino, meantime, went over to the still-downed student and helped him stand up. "Are you all right, dear?" she asked.
"I…I think so…just my pride that's busted, that's all," the boy answered, adjusting his glasses and sniffling hard to reclaim the escaped snot.
"Never mind, those guys are gone now," Ino consoled him. "Here, let's take up your books. Naruto, give us a hand, would you?"
"Yeah, sure," Naruto nodded, and he bent down to take up the nearest book. "Where are you going with all these books, anyway, kiddo? Are you a walking library or something?"
The boy smiled a little. "No…I just like to take time during the lunch break and study." He accepted a few of his books from Ino. "I'm Udon, by the way."
"Ah, yes—I'm Ino, and he's Naruto," Ino introduced the two of them. "Are you a first-year student, by any chance?"
"Yes, I am," Udon nodded. "And you guys look like second-year students."
"Yeah, pretty much," Naruto nodded, picking up another book from the ground and giving it to Udon.
"Say, Udon, would you like to join us for lunch?" Ino suggested.
"Uh…I wouldn't want to cause you any trouble…I've already done enough of that just now," said Udon.
"Nonsense! It's no trouble at all…" Ino delicately pointed to his nose. "Just get your nose wiped and that's all we'll ask, okay?"
OoOoO
A little while later, the three were outside near the school's playfield, enjoying their lunches together. "Mmm! Pudding is so divine!" Ino gushed after a few spoonfuls of the delicacy.
"Heh…it's pretty nice, I'll admit," Naruto chuckled, savoring his own pudding.
Udon was sitting across from them, eating a sandwich. "Thank you for having me eat with you," he said shyly, blushing a bit.
"It's not biggie, really," said Naruto.
"Yeah…just blow your nose, please, or you'll ruin my appetite," said Ino, swiftly handing Udon a handkerchief.
Udon accepted the hanky and discreetly blew his nose. "You're really nice, both of you, for second-year students," he remarked. "Almost makes me forget about those hall monitors…"
"Ah, yeah. Them." Naruto put down his pudding, his appetite ruined. "What's their deal, anyway? Just because they're hall monitors doesn't give them the right to step on people like that! Especially that bastard Aoi…"
"That's what happens when some people get too much power," Ino sighed. "Aoi was personally handpicked by Neji-san to be the chief hall monitor, and he in turn picked the other hall monitors from among his friends. Now all of them take every opportunity to throw their muscle around on the other students, as long as they think they can get away with it."
"Well, why don't the students just report them?" Naruto wondered aloud.
"They can't, Naruto—they won't do that because they're scared of retaliation from the hall monitors," said Ino. "I remember a few months back, near the start of this school year, shortly after the Hall Monitors' Guild was established, one of them tried to flirt with a third-year female student. The girl rebuffed the guy…and then next thing she knew, she was brought before the school's disciplinary committee on a charge that she'd stolen a cell-phone. The hall monitors even got a couple of witnesses to testify against the girl…and in the end, she was forced to pay for the phone!"
"You're serious? They could actually do that?" Naruto asked in disbelief.
"They could, and they did," Ino said darkly.
Udon looked depressed. "That means they can do whatever they want, and nobody can stop them…"
Naruto scowled. "As far as I'm concerned, those guys should've been stripped of their commission already. Nobody should use such a position of power to bully other people and expect to get away with it!"
"But what are you going to do about it?" Ino protested. "It's not like back when you…" She suddenly remembered that it wasn't just her and Naruto talking together, so she couldn't reference his past. "…told me about the responsibility of using what you've got at your disposal for the right purpose—this is someone who's gotten direct power from the Student Council that we're talking about here! Do you intend to go up against them by yourself?"
"Hey, if they do the job they were told to do without abusing their authority, that's one thing. But if they act like jerks, then of course I'm gonna speak out," Naruto said stubbornly. "Besides…" He turned his gaze on Ino. "This Aoi character is no better than Mizuki. At least Mizuki was brave enough to bully people openly…Aoi is bullying people while hiding behind his position as a hall monitor."
"That may be so, but even still…" Ino mused.
"You still have to put a bully in his place, no matter what methods he uses to bully others," Naruto said firmly. "And anybody who uses their power to trample on others is worse than trash."
"Wow, Naruto-san, you're really brave…I wish I had your courage," said Udon.
"He's not the kind of person you should be emulating, Udon-kun," Ino waved off the boy's comment.
OoOoO
5:30 that afternoon found Morino Ibiki and Umino Iruka in the parlor of Konoha Town's mayor, Senju Tsunade, both seated before her desk even as she appraised them. The mayor, a blond-haired beauty with a purple dot in the middle of her forehead that many passed for a birthmark, bore a poker-faced expression that made it difficult for the two cops to tell what kind of mood she might be in just now. That neutral expression, Iruka told himself mentally, definitely did not seem to be the kind of expression one would expect from a public official waiting to give congratulations for a job well done.
"Thank you for coming, officers," Tsunade greeted them. "As your chief of police would have told you, this has to do with your recent arrest of the criminal Mizuki and his gang members."
"Yes, ma'am," both men said simultaneously.
Tsunade nodded. "Give me a basic rundown of your report into Mizuki's arrest, please."
"Yes, ma'am," said Ibiki. "In addition to Mizuki himself, the police were able to collar approximately 30 members of his gang, the majority of who are currently in hospital receiving medical treatment. Mizuki himself is currently under heavy police guard in hospital, and we expect to bring him in before the court in due course, on several counts of murder, robbery, extortion, malicious destruction of property, and assault. Mizuki has also confessed that, contrary to earlier assumptions and his own previous boasts, he is not in fact associated in any way with the Nine Terrors."
"Very well. And your report, Officer Umino?" Tsunade turned to Iruka.
"My report gives largely the same information, ma'am. However…" Iruka frowned. "When I interviewed some of the gang members in hospital the day of the arrest, they gave a tale about how all of them had been defeated by a single individual…a blond-haired male teenager with whisker-marks on his face."
"Hmm, yes…Mizuki did mention that his gang was opposed by a boy fitting that description, who he said was an actual Kyuushingai member and who had identified himself by the moniker 'Kurama the Fox'," said Ibiki. "So far, though, we have not found anyone in town who answers that description."
"What measures have you taken to find out whether such a person is still in Konoha Town?" asked Tsunade.
"For now, we're keeping it quiet so as not to alarm the public—they've already had to endure three months of Mizuki claiming he was a Kyuushingai," said Iruka. "All officers in the department have been notified of the boy's description, however, and are under orders to bring him in for questioning, as discreetly as possible, should opportunity arise."
"Smart." Tsunade intertwined her fingers underneath her chin. "Which brings me to why I called you here, officers…I have a visitor here from out of town, someone who says he has intimate knowledge of the Nine Terrors. He had agreed to come and verify whether or not Mizuki was telling the truth about his link to the Nine Terrors; now that that's been established as false, I'll ask the gentleman to ascertain for us whether we still have anything to worry about."
She stood up and walked toward a nearby door, opening it. "You may come in now," she spoke inside the doorway. "I hope you've been comfortable?"
"But of course, Mayor Tsunade. I thank you for your hospitality," a different voice replied. Then its owner came into view of the two cops—a gray-haired and bearded old man, clad in a light-brown tweed suit with a matching bowtie, and a smoking pipe in his mouth. "Officers," he nodded at the men.
OoOoO
"Shopping, shopping, shopping, shopping…" Out of her school uniform and clad in a purple mini-dress with matching sandals, Ino sang happily to herself as she swung her plastic shopping bag on her arm, walking with a carefree step along the sidewalk in the town square. "Hey, Naruto, how're you holding up back there?"
A little distance behind her, Naruto was struggling with two heavy bags in both hands, a third hanging from his neck, and a fourth being held in his mouth by its handle. "Aw vis fer shoes?" he grunted out, his speech heavily affected by the bag-strap in his mouth.
Ino giggled. "Yes, Naruto, all this for shoes," she replied. "Now be a lady's gentleman and continue carrying my bags like you agreed to do."
"I didn't agree ta zhis! You shaid we were gonna go ta Gurger Castle!" Naruto protested in his gagged voice.
"No, I said we were going to run a few little errands and THEN go to Burger Castle," Ino corrected him.
"Dis ish not a few 'liddle errands', you fwave-dwiver," Naruto sulked.
"Hey, at least be grateful I'm not standing behind you with a whip—that's when you'd know me as a real slave-driver," said Ino.
Suddenly she paused. "Eh?"
On the other side of the square, there were several familiar-looking figures. "Say, aren't those Rokusho Aoi and his Hall Monitors' Guild members? What're they doing out here?"
"Hmm?" Naruto stopped next to Ino and looked at the group in question as well.
Over on the other side of the square, Aoi and his followers were laughing and joking noisily, pointedly ignoring the barbed looks they got from nearby store owners and shoppers. "Say, guys, how's about we head over to the arcade? I hear they've got some really neat new games there!" Aoi exclaimed.
"And miss all the pretty girls walking around here?" one of his entourage exclaimed in a mock-shocked voice.
"Hmm, yeah, that's true," Aoi remarked. "Like that one over there, in the black jeans and black boots. How would you rate her? I say she's a 7."
"A 7? Nah, boss, that's a definite 9!" another of his followers replied.
One of the other boys glanced around and spied a woman in a floral dress. "What about that one? She's a 9, too, isn't she?" he asked.
"Oh, please! That is a definite 7!" Aoi scoffed.
Hearing the comments, Ino snorted in disgust. "Such a bunch of perverts…"
But clearly Aoi and his band weren't done. "Hey, hey, hey, look at that hot chick in the blue dress," Aoi said lecherously. "That's a perfect 10, right there."
"Unanimous decision!" his cronies yelled. "Go chat her up, Aoi-sama!"
"Hey, why the hell not?" Grinning, Aoi dashed up to the woman in question. "Excuse me, miss, but do you have accident insurance attached to you? Because I scraped my knee while falling for you."
The woman was not amused. "I'm sorry, sir, but I already have a boyfriend," she said shortly.
"Hey, that's no problem. He doesn't have to know. Just a friendly cup of coffee and some talk, that's all I'd like to invite you for," Aoi persisted.
"You're such a pathetic little man. Ugh!" The woman made a disgusted face at him. "Now step off and leave me alone before I call the police."
The grin on Aoi's face vanished. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the woman by the arm. "Do you know who you're talking to?" he asked venomously. "I can have any girl I want, any time I want. You're not all that, so don't go acting like you're the Queen of Sheba."
"H-hey, let me go! Somebody help!" the woman shrieked.
Immediately, two burly passersby stepped forward. "I believe the lady said to stop bothering her, punk," one of them scowled at Aoi—but he and his fellow would-be rescuer got the shock of their lives when two of Aoi's group rushed forward and tackled them to the ground.
"Boys, anybody else try to be a hero, waste 'em!" Aoi shouted to the other members of his entourage, who nodded assent. "Now as for you, little lady, you think you can refuse me just like that? I'm the chief of hall monitors at Konoha High! And what I want, I will have!"
"Let go of me, you creep! Help!" the woman screamed, frantically trying to pull away from Aoi's much stronger grasp.
"Come with me!" Aoi demanded, pulling the woman toward him…
…and the next thing he knew, he felt a sandaled foot slam into the side of his head and send him sprawling. "Aoi-sama!" his followers cried in horror, seeing their leader assaulted so.
Landing from her flying kick, Ino patted the woman's shoulder. "Get out of here quick, lady!" she hissed, and the woman wasted no time taking to flight. "Rokusho Aoi, you're a disgrace!" Ino continued, turning to Aoi. "And you dare call yourself a hall monitor of Konoha High? You don't deserve to even wear our uniform, much less hold that title!" she spat.
Pulling himself into a sitting position, Aoi rubbed the side of his head where Ino had kicked him. "You little bitch," he snarled. "I'll make you pay dearly for that. Boys, get her!"
Yelling and cursing, the gang of youths rushed at Ino—but some were promptly challenged by nearby shoppers. "Leave her alone, you bunch of trash!" some of the shoppers shouted, bashing the surprised hoodlums with their bags of purchases.
"Piss off!" the boys shouted back, throwing their fists out and knocking the bystanders aside.
Seeing that their approach toward her had momentarily been delayed, Ino turned to run—but a hand shot forward and grabbed her ponytail, painfully yanking her back. "Ow!" she cried as she fell on her rump.
Tightly clutching Ino by her hair, Aoi grinned menacingly as he reached into his pocket with his free hand and whipped out a switchblade. "You put your dirty foot on my head, chick," he said, flicking the knife open. "Just for that, I'm going to give you a very special kind of punishment you'll never forget." He turned to his entourage. "Boys, I'm going to have a little one-on-one with this brat so she knows who's boss! Anybody tries to stop me, stomp 'em!"
As if on cue, several other bystanders dashed forward to help Ino, and a few of the store-owners ran to join them—but Aoi's boys promptly grabbed some of them around their necks and forcibly drew them back, or punched them repeatedly in their faces or stomachs to halt their progress, while those not attacking anyone directly pulled out switchblades of their own and opened them up in sinister fashion to discourage anyone else confronting them. Other bystanders, those who hadn't tried to intervene, looked on with terror on their faces, though one was brave enough to pull out his cell-phone and start dialing a number.
Unfortunately, Aoi noticed that one bystander. "Hey! No calling the cops, now! Guys, get that one with the phone!" he hollered, and at once three of his followers dashed toward the freshly-terrified man with light shining from their knives and blood in their eyes.
"ENOUGH!"
Everyone froze and looked in the direction of the angry shout. Right there, the shopping bags dropped to his feet, Naruto glared daggers at Aoi even as he removed the shopping bag that had been hanging around his neck and set it on the ground. "I was willing to stand by as long as there were people able enough to put you in your place, but clearly you don't intend to stop," he said acidly. "So I'm going to stop you."
"Ah, it's that brat from school today," Aoi sneered. "And what're you going to do about it? Do you intend to oppose my authority as chief hall monitor of Konoha High School?"
"We're not on school grounds now. So you don't have any authority anywhere. I, on the other hand, have enough authority in my pinky finger…" Naruto wiggled said finger for emphasis. "…for me to kick the crap out of you."
"What'd you say?" Aoi asked dangerously, his eyes narrowing.
Naruto's eyes were similarly narrowed. "I'm giving you one chance, Aoi. Let go of my friend's hair, put away your knife, tell these people you're sorry, and get out of here…or else you'll all be leaving here on stretchers."
"Don't make me la—" was as far as Aoi got before Naruto rocketed forward and shot one fist into his face, sending him flying and scattering a number of garbage cans, dropping his switchblade in the process.
"AOI-SAMA!" Aoi's followers gaped at the sight.
Now ignoring the downed Aoi, Naruto bent down to tend to Ino. "You all right?" he asked.
"Y-yeah, I think so," Ino replied—and then she paled. "Naruto…!"
Glancing around, Naruto immediately discerned that Aoi's boys had surrounded the two of them. "How dare you hit Aoi-sama, you wretch!" one of them yelled. "We're gonna bury you now!"
Slowly Naruto straightened up, his hair briefly overshadowing his eyes. "You guys have pissed me off once today already. Now you've pissed me off again." Then he held up his head, and not only were his eyes narrowed into slits, but his teeth were bared and his fists tightly clenched. "Those of you who want to have their bones broken, come and get me."
From where he'd been punched, Aoi stood up amidst the toppled garbage cans. "Arrogant little bastard, aren't you?" he demanded. "Well, I'm gonna look forward to seeing your corpse laid out here today. Boys, KILL HIM!"
Aoi's followers promptly prepared to charge at Naruto, their knives at the ready, even as several of the nearby bystanders watched with bated breath.
OoOoO
"…so that's the situation, then?" Tsunade asked the visitor.
"Quite so, madam mayor," the old man replied. "As I told you, Mizuki has no connection whatsoever with the Nine Terrors. He was just a braggart riding on the coattails of a terror-filled set of stories from the recent past."
"Even so, that still leaves the issue of what the detectives, here, have in their reports," Tsunade said gravely. "Even if it's just an allegation, just the idea that a genuine Kyuushingai member is in the area would cause a panic among the citizens."
"Hmm…perhaps not, in this case," the visitor said thoughtfully.
"Pardon?" Tsunade and the cops looked quizzically at him.
The old man sucked deeply on his pipe. "Kurama the Fox…the young man who bears that title…from the reports I was able to glean from survivors of the 365-day carnage, that person was in fact one of the more benevolent members of the Kyuushingai," he said.
"You were in Kumo City at the start of their rampage, weren't you?" Tsunade queried.
"I was," the man nodded. "The night before it all began…I was there…and I saw him…"
OoOoO
The elderly gentleman looked curiously at the young man, who appeared to be no older than eleven or twelve, sitting quietly on the pier at the docks, seemingly staring out at nothing beyond the horizon of the dying sunset. "Hello, there, youngster," the man ventured. "Shouldn't you be going home? Your family might worry if you're out late."
The young man looked up with a weary expression. "Sorry, gramps, but I won't be able to go home for a while," he said softly. "There's a whole lot I'm gonna have to do…"
"You make it sound like you have a whole big burden on your head," the old man said kindly. "Mind if I sit with you? I'm good at listening to stories, if you have any to tell."
The boy gave him a lingering look. "You mean well. I appreciate that. But I want to tell you something, gramps, and if you're as smart as I hope you are, you'll listen."
"Eh?"
The boy looked toward the horizon again, as the twinkling stars above became predominant over the now-gone sunset. "At midnight tonight…there's going to be a lot of action. And it's not going to be pleasant. And people are going to get hurt." He shook his head. "If you have family or friends in this city, please take them and get them as far away from here as you can."
OoOoO
"The way he said it…the look in his eyes…it was a look of utter resignation…a person with eyes like that could not be making up imaginings just to unsettle an old man," the visitor recalled. "So that night, I took my grandson and went to stay with my son. Hours after I left Kumo City, I got the first reports that the Kyuushingai had struck." He sucked on his pipe again. "But to this day, I ask myself…if the Kyuushingai were all heartless, why would this one, out of the whole lot, go out of his way to warn me to safeguard myself and my loved ones right before the year-long massacre began?"
"With all due respect, that doesn't change the fact that all the Kyuushingai are wanted criminals," said Ibiki. "We have to stand for law and order, and if even one of them is running loose in this town, we have to do all we can to stop that one."
"Hmm." The old man sighed. "I'm sorry, but if it's not too much trouble, could your window be opened, Mayor? The air conditioning unit is getting a bit too cold for me."
"Not a problem," and Tsunade got up and went to open the window, which up to now had been closed and a white drape drawn over it. She drew back the drape—and was greeted with the sight of a street fight two stories below. "What the hell?"
Hearing the alarm in her voice, the old man and the two detectives got up and came over to her. "Problem, Mayor?" Iruka asked.
The visitor looked out the window and beheld the fight in the square…and then he paled on seeing one of the combatants. "That is…!" Then, taking the other three by surprise, he turned and dashed out of the office at a speed belying his age.
"H-hey, hold it! Wait!" Tsunade, Ibiki and Iruka turned and ran after the visitor, who was now rushing down the staircase. "What's going on all of a sudden?" Tsunade asked in bewilderment.
"That boy I saw down there—that's him! Kurama the Fox!" the man flung over his shoulder.
"WHAT?" the other three cried out in shock.
OoOoO
END CHAPTER 4
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NEON MAJESTIC: The fight between Naruto and Aoi's henchmen concludes next chapter! Chapter 5 is coming up!