Who Dares, Wins

by Fox Sannin's Concept Corner

She was the perfect soldier. Smart, strong, skilled, deadly and charismatic were just a few of the words you could use to discribe her. This is her story. A chronicle of the life of the greatest leader Konoha has ever known: Uzumaki Naruko. FemNaru.

6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Masashi owns Naruto, I don't.

IPORTANT A/N: I have realised that the end of Chapter 5 was a little iffy. When I was writing the chapter I toed a fine line between fantasy and modern, and in my excitement of having the chapter almost complete I tripped a little too much to the modern side. I mean Naruko getting arrested for carrying a knife? It seems that in the Narutoverse you could walk through a town with a megaton nuke and no one would bat an eye. The knife laws here in Scotland are insanely tight (For good reason) and I put that into the fic without really meaning to. I'm going to fix it soon. The story is still the same and nothing of the plot has changed, just the words which were spoken as Naruko was arrested.

For reference sake, the police force mentioned in the last chapter are now known as the Prefects and they have very simple uniforms and carry katana instead of the riot gear they carried in the first draft of Chapter 5.

Warning: Copious amounts of swearing contained in this chapter. Hey, they're criminals...

CHAPTER 6

Hiroto had been a member of the Otafuku Gai City Prefects going on thirty years, twenty-two of those spent holding his current rank as lieutenant. In those many years he'd enjoyed a mostly happy life. He'd graduated from the academy with honours, advanced through the ranks quickly, he was married to his second wife whom he loved, and had three children who he couldn't be more proud of. Of course it was not all happy times. The life of a Prefect meant hardship. The long hours, the strenuous workload, the loss of a friend on the streets had all worked to make him older than his years. But he soldiered on, determined to make it so that his future grandkids could walk the streets of Otafuku Gai without fear. And he liked to think he was doing a pretty good job so far. He liked to think that there wasn't a situation he wasn't prepared for, or a face on his streets that he didn't know.

Of course that was before his subordinate entered his office and handed him a file of someone arrested on his streets that apparently did not exist.

Lt. Hiroto looked at his subordinate over the very thin file in his hands. A file that was only one sheet long. He raised an eyebrow in expectation.

Prefect Yori, a recent recruit from the academy but one who possessed some potential, stood rigid at attention as he answered the unasked question. "Sir, that's the file on one of the suspects we arrested at raid last night. She was put in lockup with the others until we could deal with her, but when I searched the database I came up with some… rather queer results, sir."

Hiroto leaned back in his chair, the worn seat creaking with the motion. "And what were these 'queer results', Prefect Yori?"

Yori licked his lips nervously. Hiroto had been told many times how intimidating his gaze could be when it was focused directly on you, and used such fear to his advantage. He found it made office life easier. "Well, sir, as you know it's procedure to fingerprint every suspect upon arrest and search the database for any outstanding warrants."

"Prefect, let's skip the academy lecture. I've been a Prefect myself for many years you know." Lt. Hiroto grumbled impatiently.

Yori cleared his throat nervously. "Of course, sir. Well when I fingerprinted the girl the computer turned up nothing. At first I thought it was simply her first time being arrested so I thought nothing of it. She refused to say anything to us, meaning she wouldn't tell us where she lived, how old she was, or even her name. Later I went through her affects to see if I could find any ID, but that was a bust too. What I did find however surprised me. Her pockets had been stuffed full of cash, as had her wallet; far more that you'd take with you to a simple house party. My interest piqued, I asked around. It seems that no one at that party had ever seen her before. Apparently Shinobu Hibiki had invited her, and if the word is true she didn't leave his side the entire night."

Hiroto clucked his tongue in thought as he stared down at the rap sheet in his hand, if it could even be called a rap sheet. All it contained was the girl's height, gender, approximate age, a short description, and a mug shot. He peered down at the small photo. He was sure that he'd never seen her before. A happily married man though he may be, the girl was just too unique looking to forget easily. Either she was a slum girl just breaking into the scene or she was from out of town.

"Alright, I'll bite." Hiroto said, slapping the file down on his cluttered desk. "Tell me your theory."

"Sir, I believe that this girl may in fact be the one who was supplying the drugs at the party. She had more money on her than you'd feel comfortable taking to a party like that. Not only that but when we arrested her she was as cool as anything. No fighting. No attitude. No nothing. It was as if the whole thing was nothing more than a bore to her."

"Strange." Hiroto muttered, rubbing his stubble coated chin. "But nothing concrete."

"Not unless you take into consideration her relationship with Hibiki. She was next to him all night. From what the more loose-lipped partygoers say Hibiki might have been interested in her but there was nothing in their body language that suggested a close personal relationship. This makes me think that she's one of the gang's contacts outside of town."

"If that's true, is there any particular reason why you think she's visiting? I can't imagine that a dealer would come all the way from another town just to supply for one measly party."

Yori shuffled his feet slightly. "Well, sir, there is that event happening soon."

"You think she's here to attend it?"

"Why not, sir? It's supposed to be a big event. Most of the top players in the gang are meant to be in attendance, including Daiki himself, whom we've been unable to find ever since he arrived back from his little trip out of town. If she's as close an associate of Hibiki as we think she is then she could have gotten herself an invite."

Lt. Hiroto laced his fingers together, his elbows leaning heavily on his desk as he thought. This was a delicate situation. They were now closer to eradicating the Hatchet Boyz than ever before; a task they couldn't risk failing. The gang had spread quickly after its birth, too quickly for the Prefects to handle. Before long they'd firmly entrenched themselves in every pot of vice in the town, even expanding out to a few of the surrounding towns as well. They were a plague, and the Otafuku Gai Prefects were a hair's breadth away from curing it forever. If this girl had any connection to it then it was worth looking into.

"Prefect Yori, have the girl brought to the interrogation rooms. I want a word with her…"

---

Naruko had thought that the bars she had visited over the last few nights had been bad, but now she was fairly certain that she had actually discovered Hell on Earth.

As soon as they'd arrived at the station, they'd been pulled from the armoured wagons, fingerprinted and photographed, then herded like cattle into the holding cells below the station. It wasn't anything glamorous. Just a large, belowground room filled with barred cages holding dozens of loud, angry, rambunctious, smelly, and rather drunk prisoners. It seemed every single one of them was shouting, banging against the bars, or making some kind of noise in some way or another.

Naruko grunted in annoyance and shifted against the bare concrete wall from where she sat on the stone bench, which jutted out of the thick stonework. Her back was resting against the bars separating them from the next cell as she tried unsuccessfully to find a more comfortable position to sit in. She'd been here the entire night, and had not managed to get one wink of sleep; something she valued greatly.

Not that she would have slept though. Not even if the cell had its own queen sized bed with the most luxurious of coverings. Because not only did she get her own cell, she got a dozen poorly washed, loud cellmates to share it with.

And if that wasn't the proverbial cherry on top, she just so happened to be the only female in the cell.

Apparently the Otafuku Gai Prefects were all for gender equality when it came to their prisoners.

Joy.

"So, what did a sweet little thing like you do to get locked up in here then?"

Naruko ignored the fool. She just sat with her head resting against the bars, her eyes closed.

"Aw, what's the matter? You scared of little old me? No reason to be, darlin'. Why don't you come over here and I'll show you just how kind I can be?"

'I'd sooner scrub myself down with barbed wire.'

Another oily voice spoke up, high pitched and wheezy. "Maybe she's just shy? Maybe she just needs a little convincing?"

"You know what? That sounds like a good idea."

Naruko's eye snapped open and pinned the fat slob with one of her best glares, just as he was about to stand up. "You take one step over here and you and your crotch will be going to the morgue in separate bags."

Some of the other prisoners in the cell laughed, but tubby had seen the steely glint in her eye and sensed that she was more than capable of following through on her threat. The blubbering sack of waste paled and flopped back down on his butt and said nothing more.

Assured that she would be bothered no more, Naruko shifted against the wall and let her eye close. It was barely five minutes later when there was a banging on the cell door followed by the sound of someone shouting over the din.

"You! The girl! Up, you're coming with me."

Naruko's eyes opened again to see a youngish looking Prefect waiting for her impatiently, a heavy set of keys in hand. Pushing herself off the bench, she made her way over to the cell door. The Prefect fumbled with the keys for a moment before the cage slid open with a bang, only to snap shut as soon as she stepped out. With not so much as a word spoken, the young man motioned for her to follow before spinning on his heel and marching off between the cells. She followed him up out of the holding area, thankful to get away from the constant noise. The Prefect led her through a number of hallways before they came to a part of the building filled with what appeared to be offices, each with heavy black curtains over the windows. He stopped before one and motioned her inside, that stern frown still marring his face. She stepped inside silently before the door was closed and locked behind her.

They weren't offices. They were interrogation rooms. Just bare rooms furnished only by a single steel table that had been bolted to the floor, two similarly steel chairs, a barred window that looked out onto the back lot of the station, and a large mirror taking up most of one of the walls. Naruko slowly made her way around the table and lowered herself into the chair furthest from the door. She barely got comfortable when the door opened again.

The young Prefect from before was gone. In his place stood an older, more powerfully built man. Standing erect in a well pressed officer's uniform of black satin and gold trimming he gave an air of authority and station, the streaks of grey about his temples complimenting his otherwise jet black hair, giving him an almost regal bearing. In one hand he griped the sheath of his ceremonial katana which hung cinched at his waist. Under the other was clutched a very thin file. His finely polished boots clicked on the cold tile flooring as he approached the only empty chair, directly across from Naruko. He dropped the file on the table before lowering himself into the seat, his back straight and his hands folding on the surface before him. His beetle black eyes glimmered with veteran intelligence as he stared at the young woman in front of him.

He was silent for a few moments before he began. "I've never been one for preamble so I'll just cut right to the chase. I am Lt. Hiroto of the Otafuku Gai Prefect force. You were arrested at a house party on the south-east side of the village last night. During a brief search we found numerous drug paraphernalia in the apartment as well as in the possession of a number of party goers. When you arrived at the station we searched you and found a considerable amount of money; more than anyone would carry for a simple night on the town. We searched and questioned the others we arrested at the party but found no evidence as to who was supplying those drugs."

"And you think I did it." Naruko guessed, sounding quite bored.

Hiroto merely raised a brow at the girl's flippancy. Interesting. "What makes you think that?"

She simply regarded him with a droll look. "Why else would you be telling me all this?"

"So you're saying you didn't supply the drugs?"

"Exactly."

"What about the large amount of money you were carrying around? Where did all that come from?"

"Won it in an arm wrestling contest. Ask anyone there, they all saw." Naruko wasn't even looking at him now. Instead her attention was on a small bird perched on the other side of the window.

Hiroto tried a different approach. "What is you relationship with Shinobu Hibiki?"

Naruko grunted. "What relationship? We just met the other night."

"So you've never seen or talked to him before in your life?"

"Never."

"What about Shinobu Daiki? You ever met him?"

Naruko spared him a bland glance. "Who?"

Hiroto was getting tired of this. They were too close to breaking up the Hatchet Boyz for an unknown element to come in and screw it all up now. He wanted answers. "Look, girl. You're in a precarious position here. You were found in the company of some of this town's most notorious criminals, surrounded by drugs which nobody apparently sold, and in possession of a large quantity of money that no sane person would dare take to a slum party. No one knows who you are and there's no record of you anywhere in our database. I was also told that when you were arrested it had seemed like you were no stranger to drug raids. Even you have to admit that this is all very suspicious."

"Oh, so because I had money at a slum party and aren't afraid of you I must have done something? Excellent detective work, lieutenant." Naruko sneered.

Hiroto's eyes narrowed slightly in irritation, but he bit his tongue. Instead he calmly collected himself, and in a more controlled tone he said, "Okay. Forget our suspicions for a minute. Say you're not a dealer. Say you've never met Shinobi Hibiki and this is all just a big mistake. If you really have nothing to hide then I guess you'll have no problem answering a few questions, will you?"

Naruko said nothing.

Hiroto folded his hands on the table before him. "Okay, first question. What's your name?"

Naruko remained quiet. When she first became a ninja she'd been given a list of military regs to follow, and one of them was to never give out your name or the name of your village when captured. She didn't know if 'arrested' was quite the same as 'captured' but she stayed mum all the same.

Hiroto quirked his head. "What's wrong? I thought you had nothing to hide? Surely you can give us your name, can't you?" Again, nothing. "Fine. What about the name of the town you're from? Can you tell us that?"

Silence was his only answer.

The lieutenant sighed irritably and rose to his feet. They were done here. "That's it, I gave you your chance. Since I highly doubt you're from here, I feel I should tell you that any suspect in a Prefect investigation can be held for a period of up to seventy-two hours without charge. Maybe a few days in the bullpen will jog your memory."

Lt. Hiroto spun on his heel and swept out of the interrogation room, Prefect Yori following behind. Hiroto vaguely head his subordinate order a few of the other junior officers to take the girl back to the cells before he fell in step behind the ageing vet.

"Are you okay, sir?" Yori inquired as to his superior's obvious agitation.

Hiroto sighed heavily. "No, I'm not. By all means we've no reason to hold the girl. The only thing we've against her is our suspicions. There's no proof that she didn't win that money and there was nothing else on her to suggest she was dealing. But on the other hand there's a very small chance, however minute, that she could be a dealer and that she's covered her tracks very well. The fact that she wouldn't tell us her name or where she was from supports that theory." He rubbed his weary face with his hand. "I don't like this. I'm being forced to run roughshod over my own investigation just to keep it intact." They reached his office, and Hiroto dropped his katana on the desk as he took his seat.

"Sir?" Yori asked, confused.

Hiroto explained. "What do you think Daiki would think if we raided a party his little brother was attending just a few days before the biggest event on the Hatchet Boyz' calendar? He'd be naturally suspicious. We need to make the raid seem convincing. That means we need to charge someone now, even if we end up dropping the charges later just to make the whole thing look authentic. If we charge the girl with the drug offences now then Daiki wouldn't give a second thought to the matter."

Lt. Hiroto sighed resignedly as he stared at a picture of his family, the only decoration on his otherwise bare desk. "We're too close to getting rid of Daiki and his lot. As much as I hate to say it, that girl is the sacrifice that will secure the future of the town."

---

Naruko was bundled out of the interrogation room and back down into the holding cells. They were given a small meal of a piece of bread and a cup of water each before the lights were cut and the cells were plunged into darkness for the night. Despite this Naruko got no sleep. She wondered what her team was up to. Would they continue on with the mission and capture Daiki before coming back and securing her release? Or would they somehow manage to get her out before then? Either way she didn't know how they would manage it. That lieutenant seemed pretty eager to pin those drug charges on her for some reason…

Night gradually slipped into day and the sun's beams poked through the barred windows, casting blocky shapes on the floors. The occupants awoke in a ruckus of shouting, banging, cursing, farting, and groaning, and before too long the noise level rose to the same deafening crescendo as it had the day before.

After yet another scrumptious breakfast (This time including a free cup of ice cold porridge) Naruko quickly found herself bored out of her mind. With the only alternative being interacting with her fellow cellmates, she chose to do a cut down version of her usual morning routine. Finding an open space on the floor of the cell she dropped to her hands and started to churn out push-ups and rapid succession.

One of the male occupants of the cell glanced away from where he was talking to his friends and stole a look at the young redhead doing her exercises just a few feet away from him. He felt himself heat up as he watched her move. She was a fine looking girl indeed, and the way those jeans hung low on her hips and hugged her shapely rear was driving him wild. The teen was so engrossed in her push-ups that she didn't notice the lecherous grin on the guy's face, nor did she notice when he boldly reached out his hand.

She did, however, feel it when that hand came down with a resounding smack on her right butt cheek.

She froze at the height of her current push-up. Ever so slowly, her head turned until her eyes landed on the smugly grinning idiot sitting a few feet from her. The man sat back with a satisfied look on his face. He smiled oily at her. "Nice ass, Red. Real firm, too."

The guard was making his scheduled checks of the cells, making sure everything was in order and that the suspects weren't trying to kill each other. Despite being surrounded by the entirety of Otafuku Gai's Prefect force there were some people who just didn't learn and thought nothing of starting a punch up in the cages, either because someone looked at them funny or simply just for the Hell of it. Of course, the mere appearance of his uniform enticed a ton of jeers from the cells he passed. Still, he remained alert. It wouldn't be the first time one of the inmates threw their own faeces at him just because he was a Prefect. He sighed. Cell detail sucked.

He was just passing one of the cells in question when all of a sudden a body slammed into the cage bars with a resounding bang. The young guard let out a startled yelp as the man fell to the concrete floor with a thump, groaning pitifully. Blinking owlishly, he peered through the bars to see the majority of the cell, and even the cells close enough to see what had happened, staring with wide eyes at a young girl who had since gone back to her push-ups.

He was still staring when another older guard lumbered up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. Jarred from his stupor, he turned to find an senior Prefect looking impatiently at him.

"Get the door. The lieutenant wants to see the redhead." Was all the older man said.

The cell guard blinked stupidly for a few seconds before his brain processed what it was being told.

"Oh, right!" The young man fumbled with the keys for a moment before unlocking the cell door and opening it with a loud clank. The girl was called out and a pair of handcuffs were clamped around her wrists.

The older Prefect took a firm grip of her upper arm before dragging her none too gently out off the holding area. "Come on. The lieutenant wants to speak to you."

She was quickly let away from the chaos of the holding cells and through a number of offices before they came to a small side office. The Prefect ushered her inside and glanced up and down the corridor before closing the door firmly behind them.

Naruko took in the office. Its cold and dusty appearance, and the fact that the chair upholstery was torn and the desk surface was riddled with gouges told her that this office was years out of use. She was immediately on guard. She glared at the man who had just turned to face her. "What's going on?" She demanded.

The Prefect said nothing. She was about to ask again when suddenly there was a poomf and smoke burst from nowhere to flood the room. She tensed and tried to peer through the smoke at the obscured form in front of her. Quickly enough the smokescreen cleared, and in the Prefect's place stood the powerfully built form of Maito Gai.

Naruko's shoulders sagged and she let out a sigh of relief that she hadn't even known she'd been holding. "Sensei!"

Gai smiled at his student. "I'm glad to see you're alright, Naruko. How have things been in here?"

She sighed and leaned against the broken desk, her cuffed hands laying uselessly against her lap. "About as well as you can expect. They're trying to charge me for dealing drugs at the party."

"What? How did they come to that conclusion?"

"They found a ton of money on me that I won, and thought that since I know Hibiki and are from out of town I must be up to something. The lieutenant that interrogated me seemed pretty eager to lay the blame on me no matter what I said. It was as if he'd already made up his mind before he even saw me. Personally, I think they're just looking for someone to pin the blame on."

"That's all they have? And they're still trying to pin the blame on you?" When she nodded Gai frowned. "That makes no sense. I did some digging and I know they've charged others that were at the party but in those cases there was sufficient evidence. The rest they let go. Why they're trying to pin this on you I have no idea."

"Could it be that they just want to make an arrest to make themselves look good or something? You know, say they took a big drug dealer off the streets and get the credit?" Naruko knew very little about law enforcement outside Konoha. The most she knew she got from a single book in her very small collection; a novel about a retired detective investigating his old partner's murder. She didn't know how much was real and how much was fake so she was flying blind on the subject.

But Gai shook his head. "I doubt it. Konoha keeps very close watch on the towns and villages closest to us, unofficially of course. I know that Otafuku Gai had problems with corruption once, but that was stamped out years ago, and now the powers that be keep a far closer eye on them. No, there's something else going on here."

"But what?"

"That I don't know, but I intend to find out. I'd advise you sit tight in the meantime."

"What if they try to charge me anyway?" She asked somewhat worriedly.

Gai smiled reassuringly. "Never fear, Naruko! If all goes according to plan you'll be out of here by Friday. If not, then there's always Plan B."

"Plan B?"

"I sneak you out of your cell as I just did, we Henge into different disguises, clear your information from the Prefect's database, secure any evidence connected to you, and walk out the front door."

Naruko blinked. Plan B was simple, but sounded very good to her.

Gai peered through the blinds to check the position of the sun outside, not trusting the battered clock on the derelict office's wall. He sighed. "I'm sorry to cut our meeting short, Naruko, but we should get you back to your cell in case someone comes looking for you."

Naruko gave her own sigh and pushed off the desk. Gai transformed back into his Prefect personae and took her arm again, giving her a reassuring squeeze in the process as he led her back to the holding area.

---

Lt. Hiroto sighed as he opened the door to his office. It had been a damn long day and all he wanted was to go home, have dinner with his family and fall asleep in his nice, warm bed. But before that could happen he needed to finish signing some forms. Sometimes he longed for the simple life of being a regular street Prefect.

He reached for the light switch and flicked it, but instead of the piss poor light he was used to, the room remained in darkness. He tried it a few more times before groaning in annoyance. "Damn shitty bulbs. Five minutes of half-light and that's them done!" He grumbled as he fumbled through the darkness towards his desk. He cursed loudly when he banged his hip against one of the hard corners before he eventually found the desk lamp. Its light was only enough to illuminate the desk and its occupant, but left the rest of the room in a thick blackness. Setting his sword aside, he grudgingly tried to get through his work as quickly as possible so he could go home.

He was almost halfway through when the cramp in his wrist forced him to take a small break. Setting down his pen he leaned back in his chair, stretching with a loud groan as the bones in his back popped.

"A long day at the office, lieutenant?"

Hitoro's eyes snapped open and his hand flew to where he had left his katana, only for to grasp empty air.

"It's not there. I thought it better if this conversation didn't involve weapons."

The senior Prefect narrowed his eyes as he tried, unsuccessfully, to discern the identity of the intruder through the darkness. The voice was soft spoken, but sounded as if it came from everywhere and nowhere at once, making it impossible to find the intruder through sound.

"Who's there?" Hiroto demanded, his voice strong and unwavering despite his unease.

"I may tell you, but first I want your word that this conversation will remain confidential and quiet."

"You're not in any position to make demands."

"Oh, I think I am."

Hiroto felt a tap on his shoulder and immediately spun, lashing out with a fist, but hit only air. He strained his ears as his eyes darted from side to side. He hadn't even heard the assailant move. It was as if he/she/it were a ghost.

Left with little other option he relented. "Fine. I swear this conversation will remain confidential and quiet. Now show yourself."

The lieutenant noticed a slight movement in the gloom and watched as the mystery person emerged into the pathetic light cast by his desk lamp, revealing him to be a tall, powerfully built man with shiny black hair. Despite the absurdity of the man's clothing, he seemed to exude an aura of calm, quiet deadliness.

Hiroto's eyes narrowed and his anger returned when he saw the flak vest and the metal plate tied around the man's waist. "Konoha. What the Hell is a Leaf ninja doing here?"

"I will tell you if you take a seat and calm down."

"I think I'll stand, thanks." Hiroto declined tersely.

Gai sighed and decided to get right down to it. He wasn't sure the lieutenant's patience would last long. "Fair enough. You have one of my Genin students in custody. I want her released."

Hiroto blinked and looked confused. "Your student? What are you talking about? We don't have any ninja in custody!"

"The girl you arrested and interrogated. The redhead."

"Her? A ninja?" The lieutenant looked sceptical. "If she's a ninja why wasn't she wearing one of your headbands when we found her?"

"We're on a mission." Gai explained. "She was undercover when you arrested her. I need her released so we can continue our mission."

"And this mission would be?"

"Classified to you."

Hiroto frowned at that. "If you want my help you'd better start supplying some answers, ninja."

Gai frowned right back and hardened his gaze. "I don't need your help, lieutenant. I have the authority of the Hokage and the Fire Daimyo backing me. 'Any ninja mission certified by either the ruling Hokage or Daimyo is given precedence over local legislature and falls solely under the auspices of the Hokage and the Daimyo'. So you see, you need to do as I say or you'll be breaking the law."

Hiroto's fists clenched and he grit his teeth. He knew the ninja was right. By all means, he had no say in the matter. A ninja was bulletproof against local law if their actions were carried out during a mission. The only way for local law enforcement like the Otafuku Gai Prefects in the matter was to make an appeal to the Hokage or the Fire Daimyo. Still, the whole matter was very delicate and he needed to try and keep even a small measure of control.

"If I release her," He said slowly. "I need to know what your mission is."

Gai shook his head. "I told you-"

"You don't understand!" Hiroto snapped irritably as he began to pace. This was why he hated dealing with ninja. They made everything so damn difficult! "We know that girl is connected to Shinobu Hibiki, however limited, and that's what makes the whole situation so delicate!"

He slammed his hands down on his desk and held one up, the forefinger and thumb millimetres apart. "We're this close to eradicating the Hatchet Boyz! We've been at this for years, but the damn gang's been so slippery that it's been an uphill battle all the way! We need to be careful. If they even think we're close, they'll scramble to hide any incriminating evidence and we'll have lost. They'll be back to terrorizing the town, and this time they'll make sure there's nothing for us to find! If your mission compromises that I need to know so we can prepare for it!"

Gai stared at the fuming man for several long moments. The lieutenant wanted to know so he could do his duty to his home; something the Jounin could understand.

Carefully, he asked, "When you say you are close to wiping out the gang, how close do you mean?"

"Days. We can be free of them in a matter of days." Hiroto was adamant about this.

Again Gai lapsed into silence as he considered his options. By all means he should just secure Naruko's release and continue on with their mission, but on the other hand this was a decision that could effect and entire township, and that needed to be taken into consideration. If they just ignored the Prefects and proceeded with their mission, the gang could slip the noose so to speak. If the Prefects failed to wipe out the Hatchet Boyz and they did indeed grow, they could become an even greater problem within the town, and maybe even a few of the surrounding towns. And since Otafuku Gai was only a day away from Konoha as the ninja ran, that could be quite troublesome. Then again if they did help, Daiki could get away in the confusion and they would have failed their mission, and that was just not acceptable. It was all down to a simple choice…

Hiroto waited with baited breath for the ninja's reply to his plea. It could mean the future of the town or mark the beginning of its slow death.

When Gai eventually spoke, his voice rang quiet in the dark office, each word carrying a deathly seriousness, as cold as a kunai blade.

"If we help you, Lt. Hiroto, if we help you then it must be on our terms. You and I have a conflict of jurisdiction here, but I have the control. I will tell you about our mission, but you will swear on your family name to never disclose this information without my approval. If you break this vow I will have no choice but to end your life. Do you understand?"

Hiroto gulped and he could a feel hot bead of sweat trickle down the side of his face. He cleared his throat and forced his back straight. He was a lieutenant of the Otafuku Gai Prefect force and would damn well act like it. "I understand and I swear to never disclose the information without your approval. Thank you, ninja-san." Hiroto bowed low at the waist in deference.

Gai nodded in acceptance. "We have an accord then." Suddenly his expression changed from a grim scowl to a wide friendly grin so fast that it struck the poor Prefect dumb. "But please, enough of this standoffish head-butting! It's rather un-Youthful, is it not?"

Hiroto nearly keeled over as the dark atmosphere that engulfed the small office was sucked out fast that it left the old veteran's head spinning. Where was the fearsome ninja that had just threatened his life? In his place now stood a vibrant, beaming, green pile of pure… Hiroto didn't know any other way to describe it… youthful energy.

Gai held something up. It took Hiroto a minute or two to realise it was his katana. "I believe this is yours? I'm sorry to have taken it without your permission, but you never can be too careful."

The lieutenant blinked and slowly took the sword from him. "No problem…"

"Maybe we should sit down? If we're going to work together we might as well be comfortable." Gai said as he plopped down onto one of the chairs set before the desk.

Hiroto blinked again and slowly lowered himself into his own worn seat. The office was still submerged in darkness, but the oppressive weight that seemed so strong a moment ago was gone.

Gai launched into his story. "We were ordered by the Hokage to search the town for a specific man; one Shinobu Daiki. When found, we were to capture this man and transport him to our client before returning to the village. The maximum mission time was to be two to three weeks tops. When we arrived I instructed my students to comb the village and try to locate Shinobu Daiki as a training exercise. We were closing in when your forces raided the party and arrested my student."

Gai leaned back, his arms folded across his broad chest. "That is our short story. I would like to hear yours."

Lt. Hiroto had finally managed to gather his wit and collect himself enough to give a composed reply. "Like I said before, we're close. In a matter of days we'll be in a position to take out the entire gang in one swoop."

"How?"

"Over the years we've been slowly gathering information on the Hatchet Boyz. Who they are, where they live, what they do for the gang. We learned their businesses, their stashes, where they get their drugs from, who they get it from. We kept this information a close secret. If we shut them down one at a time, they'd just pop up again further down the road, smarter and more knowledgeable. So we bided our time, and kept on collecting information. We eventually managed to slip one of our agents into the gang, and for the last three or so years he's been passing us information."

Hiroto leaned forward, prompting Gai to follow suit. "About a month ago he contacted us about a gathering. Says it's the opportunity we've been waiting for. Damn near every single Hatchet Boy in Otafuku Gai will be there, including Daiki himself. A few others, including our guy, will be stationed at a specific houses and businesses at the same time."

"What kind of gathering are you talking about?" Gai asked.

"It's supposed to be some kind of celebration. Presumably the anniversary of the day the gang was founded. These guys aren't the sentimental types, but even to them this is big."

"And you plan to target them during this party." Gai guessed.

"Exactly." Hiroto grinned crookedly. "The biggest problem is that the party'll be taking place in a warehouse over in the merchant quarter. That's all the way on the other side of town. There's no way we can just march right in and arrest them; there are too many gang safe houses and business between us. As soon as a ganger in one of those places sees us, they'll haul ass and warn Daiki. They'll scatter and it'll be damn near impossible to catch them all in the chaos. So we plan to quietly raid each business on the way, silence them, then move in on the warehouse itself."

Gai blinked and leaned back thoughtfully. Take out the sentries quietly, then converge on the main target, surrounding it on all sides to prevent escape. It was a pretty solid plan.

"It sounds good." He said, nodding along. "But we need to make sure both our interests are satisfied."

"How so?" Hiroto asked, a crease between his eyebrows.

"My two other students and I will assist you in shutting down the businesses and safe houses around the town. In return, my student which you have in custody will be released so she can attempt to secure an invite to the party. We need her there to keep an eye on Daiki. If he tries to escape for any reason, she will be able to capture him. Once the gang has been detained, we will take Daiki and leave."

Hiroto rose from his chair. "Now hold on a-"

"This is not negotiable, Lt. Hiroto." Gai interjected firmly, pinning the man with a steely gaze. "Shinobu Daiki is our target. Do not forget we are assisting you out of mere courtesy."

Hiroto refused to give up. He pressed his hands flat against the desk, leaning over it. "Shinobu Daiki is our key target! He's the one that started it all! We need him for the trials!"

"That is unfortunate, but I'm sure you'll do just as well using the evidence you have already gathered as well as the testimony of your man on the inside." Gai folded his arms, unyielding.

Hiroto glared at him for several heated seconds before letting out an aggravated sigh and dropping back down into his chair. He rubbed his temples tiredly. "Fine." He consented. "You can take Daiki, but only after the rest of the gang is rounded up."

"That's fair."

"As for the girl I'd suggest we keep her in the cells for the full seventy-two hours to avoid raising suspicion. Once she gets out, finding Hibiki and convincing him to invite her to the party will be her job."

Gai chuckled and stood from his chair. "Never fear. That girl has a strange way of getting what she needs. She'll be at that party. Now, I must return to my students. Oh! I also expect her information in your database will be deleted?"

"I'll see to it personally as soon as she's out the door." Hiroto assured him.

Gai nodded his thanks and stepped back into the shadows without another word. It took Hiroto a few seconds of silence to realise that he was alone. Leaning back in his chair with a weary sigh he lay his head back and closed his eyes as he considered his unexpected alliance.

He cursed a few seconds later when he realised the ninja hadn't even given him his name.

---

It was late evening the very next day when a tired, dirty, and above all, cranky Naruko staggered into their hotel room. Lee, Gai, and Neji were already waiting for her, boxes of fresh take-out spread out on the floor. She exhaustedly scooped one up, uncaring of what it was as long as it was hot, and flopped down face first onto her bed. She sighed blissfully as the stiffness from sleeping on bare concrete ebbed from her body. Flopping onto her back, she tore open the box and took out the rice and crackers it contained before digging in with vigour.

Neji nose crinkled distastefully and he turned away from her slightly. "You stink." He said bluntly.

Naruko glared at him even as she continued to tear into the rice with very little grace. "You try sitting in a cage for three days surrounded by a hundred other people with no shower and see how you smell, pretty-boy." Seventy-two hours of incarceration had taken its toll on her patience and so she had little of it to waste on her aloft team mate.

Neji sat back slightly, his eyebrows raised in surprise, obviously not expecting a retort.

Gai interjected before an argument could start. "That's enough. Naruko, it's good to see you out of there. The Prefect raid was unexpected, but it may have worked out in our favour." He proceeded to tell them about his meeting with Lt. Hiroto and the subsequent deal they made.

"So that's why they changed their tune with me so quickly." Naruko said, laying back on her bed, her arms behind her head. The empty rice bowl sat on the floor beside the bed. "They went from calling me a drug dealer to acting all kind and polite so fast I didn't know what to think. Still, they shouldn't have tried to stick those charges on me."

"I agree, but it's understandable considering how close they are to getting rid of the gang, and how desperate they are to see these criminals gone." Gai pointed out.

"So we have a plan to capture Shinobu then?" Neji asked from where he sat on his own bed, his legs crossed Indian-style as he leaned against the wall. He was already in his sleepwear, as was Lee.

"Yes. You, Lee, and I will be assisting the Prefect squads as they raid each business and safe house in the town. Naruko will try to find Hibiki and secure herself an invite to this party. While there, you are to keep an eye on Daiki until we arrive. The Otafuku Gai Prefects will be stretched to their limit trying to raid the locations quickly enough to progress onto the warehouse itself, so it might be a while until we arrive." Gai cautioned.

Naruko nodded. "It shouldn't be a problem. Just sit back and keep an eye on Daiki, right?"

"Yes, but remember, you'll be heading into the lion's den by doing this." Gai warned her seriously. "You'll be surrounded by the worst criminals the town has to offer, some of whom have no scruples about beating or even killing another human being just because. If anything should happen just remember your training. If you can, grab Daiki and get out of there, but if you can't then try to hold them off until we arrive. Still, don't take any unnecessary risks. I'd much prefer a failed mission than a dead student."

Naruko's lips quirked slightly at the look of concerned compassion on the eccentric man's face. "I'll be fine, sensei." She assured him softly. Suddenly, she grimaced and rose from the bed gingerly. She made her way towards the shower, grabbing her own sleepwear as she passed. "S'cuse me. I spent three days in that hole and, as Neji chose to point out, I need a shower. Badly."

---

Hibiki sat at his usual table in the Old Bull bar. His friends surrounded him, but he was in no mood to join in with their drunken banter tonight. He sat hunched over the table, staring into the dark liquid of his whisky. He needed something stronger than his usual after putting up with that damn Hiroto and his lapdogs for three days straight. They'd kept him in because they wanted to 'get all the facts straight' or so they said. He rolled his eyes at the notion. Hiroto was getting to be too big of a pain in the ass these days. Maybe it was time to talk to Daiki about removing that particular pain…

He sighed, shaking his head. Grabbing his drink, he threw it back, relishing in the hot burn in his oesophagus when a voice spoke up from over his shoulder.

"That stuff will rot your insides with the way you keep tossing it back."

Hibiki dropped the glass to the dirty table and twisted in his seat. An honest, and albeit a bit goofy, smile graced his young features when he saw the ever impassive Naruko leaning against the side of the booth, a drink held lightly in her hand.

"Naruko!" He cried jovially as he bounced from his chair to greet her. Apparently this was not a good idea when you've been cuddling up with whisky for the last hour or so, and he stumbled slightly. Naruko reached out and caught his arm before he could keel over. "Thank you."

"No problem." She regarded him closely for a few seconds. "You look like Hell." She stated bluntly.

Hibiki blushed and chuckled sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. Still in a bad mood from his unlawful (In his eyes) incarceration, he hadn't felt much like ironing clothes. He'd just showered and tossed on the cleanest set he had for tonight, and so they were a little ruffled.

"It's been a long day." He diverted expertly.

She snorted. "Tell me about it."

There was a short silence between them, punctuated only by the pounding sounds of the bar around them. One red eyebrow arched. "Aren't you going to offer me a seat?"

Hibiki blinked and without looking, reached behind him and yanked one of his friends out of his chair, causing him to accidentally spill his drink all over himself.

"Ack! Hibiki, what the Hell, man?"

"I need the booth."

"So what? I was sitting here, damn it!"

"Don't care. Go away. All of you."

The disgruntled Hatchet Boyz trooped out of the small booth, throwing dark glares in Naruko's direction as they lumbered over to the bar. What ever happened to 'Bro's before Ho's'?

Although, now that they got a good look at her, they couldn't really blame him. Lucky bastard…

"You have the heart of a true leader, Hibiki." Naruko snarked as she slid into the padded booth across from the gang lieutenant. She leaned back, sipping her soda.

"They just need a heavy hand to help guide them along." Hibiki waved her off. In a slightly more subdued voice he asked, " So what happened to you after the raid?"

Naruko frowned and shook her head. "For some bizarre reason they thought that I was the one that sold the drugs at the party. They kept me in a cell for three days before I could convince them that it wasn't me."

Hibiki grimaced in sympathy and took a sip of his whisky. "That sucks. Your sensei must have been pissed."

Briefly Naruko panicked, wondering how he could possibly know about Gai before remembering her cover story. "He was. He doesn't even know I'm out tonight. I was supposed to stay in the hotel until we leave." She covered nicely.

"Ain't you the little rebel!" Hibiki laughed approvingly.

"So what happened to you?"

"Pretty much the same thing. Kept me locked in an overcrowded cage all weekend, asking me about stuff that had nothing to do with the party! They kept trying to connect me with some assault and battery charges from a while back, so I just said "Hey! You cuffed me for suspected using and distribution, so either prove I did it or let me go!". Eventually they realised they couldn't do anything to me and let me go." He took a sip of his drink. "Wish they'd have done it sooner. Wasted an entire weekend in that place."

"That's the same as what happened to me." She gave him a level look. "Apparently being arrested with you is bad for your reputation. They thought that since I was with you I was definitely up to something.

Hibiki winced at the hidden barb and looked chagrined. "Yeah, sorry about that. Those damn Prefects have had it out for me and my brother since we were in diapers."

"Somehow I doubt you did very much to change their image of you." Naruko said dryly.

"Hey, I'm the innocent one here! I didn't do anything!"

She gave him a blank look.

"…okay, maybe there might be some truth to some of the things they say about me, but I'm not as bad as they make me out to be. Honest!"

"Mmmhmm." Naruko drawled slowly, sipping her drink.

"Hey, I'm telling the truth!" Hibiki laughed.

"And I believe you."

"Then what's with that look?"

"What look?"

"The one you're giving me right now."

"I'm not giving you any look, you're just paranoid."

Now it was Hibiki's turn to look sceptical, but he let it go. The conversation moved onto other things, mostly about their lives running the streets. Hibiki regaled her with the tale of the time he and his brother got caught stealing crates of extremely expensive wine from the mayor's wine cellar, and Naruko even divulged the story about the embarrassing time she'd accidentally let a client's adventurous pet ferret loose which proceeded to lead her on a merry chase around the village before she finally caught and returned it.

It wasn't until early the next morning when the bar was emptying of its last few patrons when Hibiki broached the topic she'd been waiting for.

"Hey, Naruko?" He slurred. He'd gotten a little carried away with his drink intake and was now swaying as he stood, his eyes bleary and unfocused.

"Hm?" She asked, walking alongside his stumbling form. She'd strictly stuck to soda the entire night and apart from some exhaustion and the fact that her butt was asleep she was perfectly fine.

"We got thish thing later. Thish par'y thing. You know, down at the warehoushes? It'sh on… uh… Shaturday. Is it Shaturday? Naw, it'sh on Sunday! Sunday! That'sh it. It'sh a big par'y! Ev'rybody's gonna be there! All tha' Hatshet Boyz is gonna be there! It'sh gonna be like… like the par'y. You know? Wuz wonderin' if… if…" He snapped his fingers repeatedly as he tried to remember the right words he needed.

"If I wanted to come to the party?"

"Yeah, that'sh it! So, uh… yeah, um… you wanna?"

Naruko glanced at him out of the side of her eye as they left the Old Bull bar. "You know what, Hibiki? I might just do that."

---

Now that she had her invite to the gang's party of the year all Naruko had to do was sit back and wait as the plans for the Prefect's last offensive against the Hatchet Boyz were finalized. For the rest of the week she and her team stayed holed up in their hotel room making their own preparations for Daiki's capture and transportation. Gai made frequent trips to meet with Lt. Hiroto for updates, which he relayed to his students. It had already been decided that Gai, Lee, and Neji would split up and go with separate task forces to take out as many targets as they could, as quickly and as quietly as possible. When that was done, all the Prefects and the three ninja would surround the warehouse, to which Naruko had already provided the address, and arrest all within. While all this was going on, Naruko herself would be inside the warehouse keeping an eye on Daiki. She'd been warned that with their numbers stretched so thin there would be no one to keep an eye on her. She'd be in the lion's den with no way out until the Prefects shut down all the other properties. Naruko assured them she'd be fine and the matter was forgotten.

It was on the eve of the party that Gai found his sole female subordinate missing from her room where her team mates were performing a few last minute checks of their weapons. A quick search led him to the roof of the hotel where he found her sitting on the edge, staring out at the twinkling lights of Otafuku Gai's club district.

Gai slowly approached her and leaned on the edge beside her. "Is there something on your mind, Naruko?"

The normally blunt girl glanced at him before returning her gaze to the neon lights blazing across town. She opened her mouth a few times, but no sound came out. She looked conflicted about something. Gai said nothing, giving her time to compose her thoughts.

They finally came out in the form of a low, shameful whisper. "I don't know if I can do it, Gai-sensei."

Gai's face remained carefully impassive, not that she saw it as she never once glanced at him after she spoke. "You don't know if you can do what, Naruko?" He asked softly.

She ran a hand through her short red locks, a sign Gai had come to associate with Naruko when she was having difficulty understanding something.

"I don't… know if I can go to the party tomorrow. I don't know if I can… sell out Hibiki."

"And why don't you think you wouldn't be able to do it, Naruko? You would be removing a dangerous criminal from the streets. Removing many dangerous criminals from the street even. That's something to be proud of."

"I know." She sighed tiredly. "But these last few nights… talking and joking with Hibiki… it was almost like what I'd imagined having a friend was like."

"Naruko…"

She continued on as if she hadn't heard him. "I've never had a friend before. Back in Konoha, everyone avoided me like a plague. At the orphanage all the kids avoided me for some reason or another. When I left, there was no one to talk to. Everyone I met just gave me these looks. As if I was diseased or did something terrible or something. Eventually I just stopped trying."

Her tone softened slightly. "But it was different when I started to talk to Hibiki and his friends. They accepted me, no questions asked. We joked around, had fun, talked. Normal stuff. Except it's not so normal for me. Did you know that party was the first time I've ever been near a large group of people where no one glared at me, or muttered stuff behind my back? It was… nice. Better than nice even. They just smiled and acted like we'd known each other for years. They didn't say a word against me; didn't tell me to go away, or throw something at me, or shout, or swear, or-" She broke off suddenly, her head bowed. "I'm sorry, sensei."

Gai let out a long, slow sigh as he hoisted himself up on the ledge to sit beside her. The teen sat, leaning on her knees, staring at the dark street many stories below, dark red strands shielding her face from view. He clasped his hands before him and stared out at the town laid before them.

"No, I'm the one who's sorry, Naruko. I was so excited about you taking such initiative in your first big mission that I forgot that you didn't have the benefit of a full academy education like Neji, Lee, and I. If you did then you would have received special lessons to help you avoid such attachment to your targets. It's understandable that you don't want to betray the trust of people who have treated you well, especially given the life you've had. It didn't even occur to me until this morning that you may be having doubts or seconds thoughts. That's why I procured this from Lt. Hiroto."

Naruko watched as Gai pulled a slightly rumpled Prefect file from his equipment pouch. He flattened it out before handing it to her. Taking it, she flipped it open to find the picture of a younger, more grubby looking Hibiki staring right back at her.

"Hibiki's arrest file." She commented. Gai wasn't sure if it was a question or a statement and remained silent as her eyes scanned the file.

She allowed her eyes to drift over the personal information and head straight for the criminal record. It was not short. Continuing onto the next page, there was a long list of crimes that he'd either been accused of, suspected of, or arrested for. There were quite a few robberies listed, mostly near the top of the list, but as she read on she noticed that they gave way to much more serious crimes like arson, drug supply, and assault. She neared the bottom of the second page when her eyes stopped on one particular offence.

Attempted murder.

Apparently, he'd been accused, but there hadn't been enough evidence to go to court so the case was dropped. But that wasn't what drew her attention. It was the picture that had been included in the file.

"The man's name is Mizuriki Gendo." Gai said softly as she held the small celluloid in her hands. "Hibiki attacked him sometime last year. He was outside his home, taking down Christmas decorations from his house when Hibiki snuck up on him - beat him with a crowbar. Gendo's wife found him in a pool of his own blood. I won't indulge you with the grizzly details, but to this day Gendo hasn't been out of bed and has to rely on a machine to help him talk and breath."

Gai's voice was just a small murmur in the background, but somehow Naruko heard every word as she took in the man's wounds. There wasn't a single inch of the poor man's head that wasn't hidden by great purple bruises, swollen beyond belief, caved in, or cut open. In fact, if it hadn't been for the single, pain-filled eye staring morosely back at whoever took the picture, Naruko would have never have believed that this was someone's face. She shook her head, eyes never leaving that of the brutalized man. Those were terrible wounds. And Hibiki was the cause.

Gai leaned closer, his voice gentle. "This is why we do what we do. This is why we fight to rid the world of un-Youthful people like the Shinobu brothers. For all their kindness and friendliness when they are around others they perceive are like them, they can be viciously cruel to those who don't share their views. Hibiki may have been kind to you, but he is first and foremost a selfish and violent person who will always put himself and his need before others, and attack any who stand in his way. He is a dangerous man, and the world and everyone in it will be far better off with him and his ilk gone."

Naruko remained silent, her eyes fixated on the picture, but Gai knew she was listening. Her thumb traced one of the scars on the man's face, a particularly vicious one that ran along his jaw, as her other hand gripped the file tight.

"How do you do it, sensei?" She asked, finally breaking from the snapshot to look him in the eye. For once her eyes weren't the disinterested, blank pools they usually were, but were filled with deep longing for an answer. "How do you decide who's wrong and who's right? It can't be as simple as good and evil, can it?"

Gai looked down with a heavy sigh. "It's never that simple. Save for a very few people, no one is truly good or evil. There are hundreds of factors involved for each person, and it would take a lifetime to figure out just one. Some ninja cope with the choice differently. Some like to categorize people and believe that all bandits must be vile thieves and rapists; that all clients must have good, wholesome reasons for wanting a particular person assassinated; or that all foreign ninja must be hateful enemies that can never be trusted. Others like to reserve judgement and withhold their opinion until they have more information so they can decide accordingly. It's a far more difficult choice, but it can leave you with a far cleared conscience. Still, there are those few who decide to abandon all reason and simply become killing machines, slaughtering anyone they are told to. So you need to make a choice. Will you label a person depending on first appearances, judge each person individually, or shut yourself off from all outside reasoning and execute your duty in the simplest, most straightforward way possible?"

Taking a deep, calming breath through her nose, Naruko's head rose to stare up at the near cloudless sky hanging heavily above them. The millions of twinkling stars dotted across the inky heavens in a random, but beautiful spatter. The fat, full moon was a tiny bright ball that gave off a ghostly glow, bathing the town and the surrounding countryside in a pale light. It was quite peaceful tonight.

'Like the calm before the storm.' Naruko mused.

Ice blue eyes closed as the faint, cool breeze brushed her hair. All in all it was a simple choice. Would she label people based on speculation and popular thinking? Would she decide that a particular person must act in a particular way because that's what the crowd believed? Would she follow the herd, or forge her own path?

She snorted very softly. It was a simple choice. She didn't even need to think about her answer.

Gai watched as Naruko's eyes slowly opened again, still staring up at the twinkling cosmos high above them. She seemed much more relaxed than he had a moment ago, and there was a curious flitting about her lips, as if she were in on some private joke. The tension that he hadn't even known he'd had in his shoulders eased, and he found himself smiling too. She'd found her answer.

"Well, Naruko?" He prompted. "What will you do?"

"I think," She answered slowly, musingly. "That I'd rather give people the benefit of the doubt. All my life people have cursed me, avoided me, and hated me because of what they think I am. When I have to decide whether or not a person is good or evil, I'd rather look at their intentions ratherthan their deeds themselves. A person can do bad things for a good reason, and good things for a bad reason. I know that better than anyone."

She held up the folder in her hand. "Hibiki was kind to me. But all his life he's only ever did things for himself. He committed dozens of crimes for no other reason than because he wanted to. Oh, I'm sure that in the beginning he only did most of those things to survive on the streets. But at some point that need became desire. He wanted to steal, and fight, and lie. He didn't need to do it anymore, but he still did because he wanted to. No matter how kind he was to me, that doesn't erase the fact that he's done some terrible things."

She rose to her feet and stretched, her back popping from having been sat so long on the ledge. She looked down at her sensei, the winds of the night air pulling at her clothes and hair. "I'll always remember the small amount of friendship Hibiki showed me. But won't let him or his friends hurt someone else."

Gai was beaming, proud as anything. He stood and rested a hand on the girl's shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. "That, my student, is the best possible answer you could have ever given me. Never loose your faith in people, Naruko, it's a rare and precious thing in a ninja's life. As long as you never let anyone else think for you, you'll never be led astray." Gai's chest swelled with emotion, so much so that it looked liked he might burst. "YOSH! YOUR YOUTHFUL DECLERATION HAS EXHILERATED ME, NARUKO! COME! WE SHALL PERFORM SEVERAL DOZEN VICTORY LAPS AROUND THE TOWN SO THAT OTHERS MAY GAZE IN AWE AT OUR MAGNIFICENT FLAMES OF YOTHFUL DEDICATION!"

"KEEP IT DOWN, YOU MORON, PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!"Came a loud, sleepy, and thoroughly annoyed voice from one of the apartments below them.

Naruko choked back a laugh and quickly hopped down off of the ledge, a very red faced Gai joining her a moment later. He quickly guided her towards the door to the roof's stairwell. "Uh, on second thought, we should leave that for another time. We'll all need our strength for tomorrow!"

They soon reached their rooms and Naruko was about to open the door to the one she shared with Neji and Lee when Gai's more serious voice gave her pause.

"Naruko? You know you're not alone anymore, don't you?"

Blinking, she turned to look at her sensei who was giving her that same tender look he sported during his less boisterous moments with his team.

She threw him a small, lazy, but heartfelt grin. "I know, Gai-sensei."

---

The next twenty-four hours passed in a blurry haze, and before they knew it, Team Gai split, the males heading for the Prefect headquarters, and Naruko for the slums of Otafuku Gai where she would meet up with Hibiki.

Gai had warned her that it would be a while before they managed to hit all the chosen targets, and that she would be alone with no way of contacting them for at least a few hours. She kept this in mind, as well as his words of comfort and trust. Donning a short brown leather jacket over her top, she left the hotel and made her way to the Old Bull bar where she'd arraigned to meet up with Hibiki.

He was already there when she arrived, waiting with a group of his friends; fellow Hatchet Boyz if the black denim vests were anything to go by. She recognised a few of them from the party and nodded as they called out greetings at her approach.

"Hey, you made it." Hibiki said happily. He was dressed to impress tonight, with his hair spiked, a new set of expensive looking clothes, and the slightest hint of cologne. For his young age and rough demeanour, he cut a rather dashing figure.

"Wouldn't have missed this for the world." She said smoothly. Her talk with Gai remained firmly in her mind, and she forced herself to fight down most of the happiness and guilt she felt seeing him again.

"Oh yeah, you'd never wanna miss tonight, believe me!" The older teen laughed in excitement. In his hand he already held a beer, and she could see the others had their own bottles in their hands or stuffed into their pockets or plastic bags. It seemed the party had started early for them.

She'd walked with the drunken, bawdy group, watching as they laughed, joked, argued, and annoyed each other. She'd even thrown in a comment or two, mostly sarcastic one-liners, but apparently her timing was spot on because they had the group howling with laughter.

It wasn't long before the apartment buildings around them gave way to the large, dark and empty forms of warehouses. Rows and rows of the giant buildings sat in organised lines, with the skeletal forms of tall cranes looming over them in the gloom. The place was deserted, with not a soul in sight. The distance from any sound gave it the uncomfortable feel of a graveyard.

Naruko raised a sceptical eyebrow. "You sure this is the right place?"

Hibiki snorted and took a sip of his beer. "Course I'm sure. I was the one that picked it in the first place."

He led the group over to a particular warehouse. It was as dark and silent as the rest of the buildings, but Naruko could feel a particular vibration radiating through the ground. It was fast, rhythmic, and pulsing, yet there was no sound or movement to explain its existence.

"What is that?" She wondered aloud.

Stopping before the tall sliding door, Hibiki threw her a crooked grin over his shoulder. "That, my dear, is the sound of life."

He threw the door open, and they were nearly blasted off their feet at the tsunami of stimulation that assaulted their eyes and ears.

The entire inside of the warehouse, which looked like it had once been a factory of some sort if the large abandoned machinery was anything to go by, had been transformed into a slumtown bar or club. Strobe lights pulsed and blinked wildly to the frantic pounding blazing from massive speaker systems, their beams visible in the smoke wafting from a smoke machine. Sofas and cheap tables had been scattered all over the place, and everywhere they looked they could see people twisting to the beat, some decked out in gang colours, others not. Craning her neck, Naruko could see that the windows had been painted out, with heavy black curtains draped over them, ensuring that no light escaped. By the padding on the walls she could only guess that the building was soundproofed too, explaining why she hadn't heard or seen anything to suggest that this wasn't anything other than an innocent warehouse. A long bar had been erected in the centre of the building, and there was what looked to be an office overlooking the entire floor from an upper gantry.

"Holy…" Naruko was at a loss for words.

Hibiki laughed in delight at her reaction. "Like it?" He threw an arm around her shoulders, sweeping the other out to encompass the scene before her. "This is how Hatchet Boyz party." He tossed her a brave wink. "Trust me, this will be a night you'll never forget."

Tossing him a slightly dazed glance, she muttered, "Somehow I don't think I'll have a problem remembering tonight, Hibiki."

Finding her comment strange, but otherwise meaningless, Hibiki pulled her into the party, leading the charge towards the bar with his friends following. The large sliding door they entered from was sealed, shutting them inside, and blocking them off from all that was going on in the outside world.

Hibiki pushed and shoved his way towards the bar, calling out and waving to the many that shouted their greetings. Apparently he was quite popular; something to be expected from the lieutenant of a major street gang. Finally reaching the bar, he shouted out orders for the whole group, which were quickly served up. Naruko was a little dubious at the vodka mixer she'd gotten, but took it nonetheless. She'd only take tiny sips whenever someone's attention was fixed on her. Lowered cognitive function was the last thing she'd want tonight.

Hibiki was taking a hearty sip from his lager when a shout came from behind them.

"Hibiki, you little bastard!"

With a wide grin, said bastard spun and embraced the man that had insulted him, laughing heartily. Patting the man on the back, Hibiki held him at arm's length. "Daiki, you miserable excuse of a brother! Party's a riot, eh?"

A snort. "I'll say. You should have been a party planner instead of a ganger, you'd have been more successful!"

Hibiki slugged him in the shoulder. "You're just jealous, prick, I just know what people like! It's what makes me the popular brother."

"Obviously, if you're new friend is anything to go by." Dark brown eyes glanced over at the girl at his brother's side. "You wouldn't expect someone like this to be cutting around with you, Hibiki."

"You're an utter bastard, you know that right?"

"It's one of my many charms, but you've yet to make an introduction."

Hibiki snorted and shook his head, but complied anyway. "Daiki, this is Uzumaki Naruko. She's visiting over from Tanzaku Gai. Naruko, this worthless deadbeat is what I'm forced to call my brother and, as he likes to constantly remind people, the leader of the Hatchet Boyz, Shinobu Daiki."

"Charmed." The elder Shinobu gave her a lazy half-nod.

"Likewise." The girl nodded back just as lazily. 'So this is the guy we're here to catch.'

She'd been observing him since the moment Hibiki had embraced him. Standing just a tad taller than his little brother, Shinobu Daiki personified the bad boy stereotype. Dark brown hair, spiked like his brothers, had been bleached blonde at the tips. His Hatchet Boyz vest was covered in patches, and the inside had been lined with expensive looking crème fur, as had the wide collar that had been added to make it stand out more. He was bare-chested, revealing toned chest and abs, as well as the number of tattoos that decorated his upper body. A silver chain jangled from where it hung on low, dark jeans. Daiki's hands were covered in rings, and there was a black screw earring through the lobe of his left ear.

All in all, he looked like the very last thing any parent wanted their daughter bringing home to dinner.

"So, Hibiki, heard you ran into some trouble with Hiroto." Daiki commented as he took a drag from an expensive looking cigar. The man was obviously not strapped for cash.

Hibiki glowered as he leaned back against the bar. "Yeah. Senile old fart. Tried to nail me for stuff that happened years ago. Held me all weekend 'cause of it. Naruko too."

"Really?" Daiki glanced over the hot redhead. She definitely had an edge to her alright. "What did they try and hang on you?"

"They liked the idea that I was the one selling the drugs at the party." Naruko shrugged, taking a small sip of her drink. "It was Hibiki's fault."

"H-Hey!"

Daiki chuckled. "I like you already. So they didn't pin you with anything?"

"I'm standing here, aren't I?" Naruko held her hands out.

"Yeah, you are." The low, calculating way he said it caused her to tense, but he turned away from her without further comment.

"I'm sitting with Shanks and Ozozo. Make sure to come talk to them sometime tonight, they've got some quality product." He patted his little brother on the shoulder before wandering over to a small grouping of abused couches, a wooden board balanced on top of a few crates acting as a makeshift table, already covered with bottles. Two girls, twins, wearing as little clothing as was decent in public draped themselves over him as he sat down.

"Seems nice." Naruko muttered to Hibiki.

He snorted turning back to the bar. "You don't know him. Daiki has three settings: irritating, annoying, and scary. But somehow I've managed to go this long without killing him, so he must be doing something right."

She was about to say something when another shout cut her off.

"Little 'Biki! How ya' been?"

"Oh God…" Hibiki gave a long-suffering groan into his drink, his face a mask of resigned dejection.

"What's wrong?" She asked, surprised at the sudden downtrodden look. In the brief time she'd known him, Hibiki hadn't been one to let others get him down.

"You're about to meet the biggest pain in the ass that should have wound up as a stain on his mother's bed sheet."

"Hey man!" A loud, booming voice bellowed from behind them. A meaty had clapped Hibiki on the back none too gently, causing him to buck forward against the bar. It was a good thing he'd set his lager down, otherwise they'd have been soaked.

With a weary sigh, Hibiki greeted the newcomer. "Hello, Kenta."

Naruko glanced over her shoulder at the newcomer, then did a double-take, her eyebrows threatening to shot off up into the stratosphere. With wide eyes, she stared up at the bloody bear that had decided to wander into the party and swat Hibiki. And looking at the size of those mitts, it was a miracle the poor boy's spine was still intact. The stranger wasn't so much barrel-chested as he was wagon-chested. The striking resemblance to a bear was only strengthened by the fact that most of the man seemed to be covered in a thick layer of hair, from his bare torso (Save for his vest, of course), to his stubble coated jaw and the long, twisted main of hair that tumbled town and over a face that looked as if it had been carved straight from granite. She actually gulped when she saw his bicep. She she'd seen thinner trees.

She turned back towards the bar. She had a strong feeling she didn't want to be drawn into this conversation.

"Heard you got picked up by Hiroto's goons. Spent the weekend in the bullpens did ya'? Hope your bunkmate was kind to you."

Hibiki gave the giant a tight smile. "You don't have to worry about me, Kenta, I can take care of myself. Now, since that's out of the way, is there any reason why you're over here stealing oxygen?"

Kenta clicked his tongue. "Hey now, why'd you go and say something like that for? I was just trying to show my concern, is all. I thought we we're all family here."

"Kenta, if this gang were a family, you'd be the retarded cousin that no one can stand."

Kenta's dark eyes narrowed, yet he kept his twisted grin. He leaned down a little until he could better look Hibiki in the eye. To his credit, Hibiki didn't look the slightest bit fazed at the significant difference in size, and sipped his lager comfortably as he stared down the giant.

"I've got to say, Hibiki, your manners are a bit lax tonight, eh? I mean I take the time to come over here, show my concern, make sure you're alright, and what to I get in return but some serious hostility. You need to learn some respect, brother." He tugged on the material of Hibiki's vest. "You're a lieutenant, man, you gotta set an example. You haven't even introduced me to your friend here." His eyes roamed over the back of Naruko's body, appreciating the view.

Naruko shuddered in disgust. She could actually feel his eyes on her. She sipped her drink, the burn of the alcohol washing away the feeling for a few moments at least.

"Naruko; Kenta. Kenta; Naruko." He'd concede the oaf this if only to make him leave quicker.

"Naruko, huh?" He spoke as if tasting the name on his tongue. His grin became even more twisted as he stared at the girl who'd yet to turn around. "Pretty name for a pretty girl."

"Cheers." She grunted disinterestedly, staring firmly ahead.

"There, you've met her. Now you can leave." Hibiki said.

"There you go with that attitude again." Kenta shook his head disapprovingly. "Seriously, brother, I'm trying to have a nice, civil conversation with Naruko here, and you just barge right on in. Remember what I said about you learning some manners? Keep it up and I might teach you some myself. It might make you as good a lieutenant as me someday." He rested a hand on the smaller man's shoulder, speaking as if they were dear old friends.

Hibiki batted the massive mitt away. "Don't lecture me about being a lieutenant. You may go around parading that vest off and shouting your place as a gang lieutenant, but we all know you only got that far because you've been Daiki's best friend since we were kids." He tapped his temple with a finger. "You don't have the brains required. Face it, Kenta, as far as everyone here is concerned you're just another knuckle dragging, deadbeat bruiser."

Kenta lost his smile, and his face clouded over with fury. He leaned close, his yellowing, mismatched teeth bared. His voice came out as a low, thunderous growl. "You'd better watch your mouth, you little shit, before I take these knuckles I've been dragging and deadbeat you to a bloody fuckin' pulp. You get off on sayin' I ain't the real deal, but you still go around ordering people around like you're the boss? Get the fuck out. You're still just the same little tagalong that used to trail after Daiki like a little lost pup."

Hibiki gave the large brute a glare that could cut diamonds. In a low voice, he ground out, "Leave, Kenta, before you start something we'll both regret."

The massive Hatchet Boy snorted, but backed off. Grabbing a bear from the barman, he stomped off through the crowd.

Naruko watched him go then looked at Hibiki. "Now he wasn't so nice."

Hibiki had a sour look on his face. "That was Kenta. Biggest piece of crap you'll find anywhere. Only reason he's made it this long is because he's too stupid to understand the concept of dying."

"You didn't seem too thrilled to see him." She commented, rolling the ice around in her glass.

Hibiki turned back to the bar and drained the last of his lager. Wiping his mouth, he set it down. "Hate him. Hated since we we're kids, and I'll most likely hate him long after he's gone. Can't wait for that day, let me tell you."

She watched him as he glowered into his newest drink, which had just been set down by the bartender. Deciding that she didn't want to wait for the raid in such a tense atmosphere, she bumped his shoulder with her fist. "Hey, what happened to Mr. Life-of-the-Party? Wasn't this whole thing your doing?"

Hibiki glanced at her, and snorted. Taking a calming dreg of his lager, he turned to her, a new smile on his face. "Okey doke, then let's find something interesting to do. I hereby challenge you to a game that requires great cunning, skill, and a good bit of luck. It is the game of kings and champions everywhere, and can win you a nice sum of cash if you're a gambling woman."

"And just what might this 'game of kings' be?"

"Pool of course."

He should have known better. That party last week was warning enough that he shouldn't challenge Naruko to any form of competitive gambling. But noooo! He had to go and make up some stupid master plan to bolster her image of him. It was simple; he'd take her money via the game, then, being the nice guy that he was, he'd buy her drinks for the rest of the night, thus making him appear all sweet and generous in her eyes. If the situation played out well and he was lucky enough, then tonight could be the night that they sealed the deal. Yep, that was the plan…

Three painfully short games later and Hibiki found himself glaring at the table, which was empty save for a few balls which were unfortunately his own. His wallet was quite a bit lighter too. At his side, leaning with her chin perched on the tip of her cue, was Naruko. She still had that strange lazy/disinterested look that she somehow made so sexy set firmly in place, but that didn't stop him from feeling the aura of smugness that was practically oozing off of her. This was not how the plan was supposed to go.

Checking his glass and finding it empty, he decided he needed to get plastered while he still had the money to do so. At least if any of the guys found out he'd lost all his money to a girl, he could blame it on the booze. "I'll get the next round." He stated, scooping up their glasses.

"Sure you have enough?" Naruko smirked.

"Shut up and set the damn balls, woman. I can still win my money back."

"How long will that take? More importantly, how long can you keep matching my wagers?"

"…shut up."

Watching him swiftly, yet stiffly move away, Naruko snickered and shook her head. She'd been plundering his wallet for the past two hours already, and she'd amassed quite a pretty sum if she did say so herself. Between the money she'd won arm wrestling, the money Hibiki was basically giving her, and the money she could expect from this mission, she wouldn't have to worry about being strapped for cash any time soon. She set about racking up the balls again. Dusting the tip of her cue with the little blue cube of chalk, she leaned over the table and took aim, ready to break. She was just judging the amount of power she should put behind the hit when she felt a presence close behind her. "Don't even think about messing up my shot, Hibiki."

"Sorry, babe, wrong lieutenant."

Startled, she spun only to find Kenta's massive form towering over her. She tried to put some distance between them, but the pool table blocked her off. Kenta leaned closer and rested his hands on the table at either side of her, cutting off all possible escape routes. This close the stench of sake, cheap cologne, and sweat was even stronger. She wrinkled her nose at the musk. She tried to lean back again until she was practically lying on top of the table.

She scowled in annoyance and tried unsuccessfully to push him back. "What the Hell are you doing?" She demanded.

Kenta shrugged and looked thoughtful. That twisted grin from earlier was back and looking even more gruesome up close. "I'm curious. Just what makes a girl like you come to a party with a little bitch like Hibiki? I mean let's face it, the guy's a looser. You should dump him and come have some fun with me."

"I'll pass."

"Ah, come on, sweetheart, don't be that way. A pretty thing like you deserves a good time. And I know how to show the girls a damn good time." Sleaziness was dripping from every syllable that spewed from the brute's mouth.

"Go to Hell!" She glanced around to see if anyone was going to get the idiot off of her, but the few people that were paying attention didn't look like they'd be helping any time soon. In fact they looked ready for a good show.

"Eventually." Kenta shrugged. His grin widened. "But I'm going to have some fun before I get there."

"Like Hell-urgh!" She was cut off as a large hand encased her slender throat in a vice-like grip. Kenta pushed her flat on top of the table even as she struggled.

Her resistance only seemed to excite him more. "Go ahead, scream and fight all you want. It's not like anyone'll help. A little out-of-towner girl like you? No chance."

"…I'll…kill…argh!" Naruko tried to ground out the threat, but the crushing force around her windpipe made it impossible. All of Kenta's impressive weight was pinned on top of her, pinning her legs to keep her from kicking him.

Kenta chuckled a low, dirty chuckle. "I bet you'll be real nice. You can tell just by looking at you. Hot and tight, just like a real girl should be." His free hand lowered and began to fumble with his belt. Naruko saw this and struggled even more furiously. "Hey now, don't fight. Maybe you'll even enjoy it? It probably won't be your first. A alley rat as fine as you? Nah, I can tell you've got experience being on your back. Is it a family thing? Was your Mama a fun-girl? If she looked anything like you I bet guys came from miles around just to feel her touch, didn't they?"

Naruko snapped.

Abandoning their previous actions of tugging at Kenta's wrists, one of her hands fisted in his long greasy hair, yanking his head back and eliciting a sharp cry of pain and anger from her would-be rapist. Her other hand clenched, the knuckle of her middle finger slightly extended to form a beaked fist. With a bestial growl of fury, she jabbed that beaked fist into his throat, just to the side of his Adam's Apple, and almost crushing his windpipe. Immediately, Kenta's hands left her throat to clutch at his own as he gagged painfully for breath. Gulping down mouthfuls of air, Naruko reared her head back and smashed her forehead against the bastard's nose, eliciting a sickening crack. Kenta reeled back from the impact and she managed to wriggle her legs free. Wasting no time, she rammed her booted feet into his face, using his head as a springboard and sending her rolling back off the table, away from him. Kenta's feet actually left the ground from the power behind the blow and he hit the concrete floor with enough force to send a small tremor through it.

The party came to a screeching halt.

Almost immediately Hibiki was at her side, a mixture of confusion and anxiety twisting his features. "What happened?" He asked sharply. Around them people began to crowd round Kenta's dazed and bleeding body, chattering wilding about what happened.

Naruko was panting. A mixture of oxygen deprivation and adrenaline was causing her lungs to burn and her heart to pound in her rib cage. She rubbed her sore throat. She knew that there would be bruising. "Bastard tried to rape me." She managed to gasp out.

"What?" Hibiki snarled furiously, rounding on Kenta who was being helped to his feet by a few fellow Hatchet Boyz. "Kenta! You boozed-up, knuckle-dragging, fucker! What the Hell were you doing?"

A hand fell on his shoulder and he turned to find his older brother standing behind him. Daiki didn't look shocked or angry. He didn't even look surprised. In fact he looked happy. No, not happy, giddy.

"Let me handle this, little brother." He said distractedly before sweeping past. He approached Kenta, who was only beginning to get his bearing back. Daiki peered closely at his best friend before an expression of pure delight crossed his face. He covered his mouth with his hand, and it was obvious he was barely preventing himself from bursting into laugher. "Oh my God, man!" He said, his voice shaking. "She broke your nose! She made you bleed!" It was too much for him and he erupted in barks of hilarity. "I can't believe that little girl decked you, man!" He was clutching his sides he was laughing so hard.

Kenta shook his head as the last of the stars faded from before his eyes. It slowly dawned on him what had just happened, and his face morphed into a mask of pure fury. With a roar he tried to lunge for Naruko, only to be restrained by the gangers who helped him to his feet, with no small effort on their part. "LET GO! I'M GONNA KILL THAT BITCH!" He was bellowing.

"Sure that's a good idea?" Daiki asked, a wide grin in his face. He obviously thought the whole situation was the funniest thing he'd seen all year. He looked like Christmas had come early. "I mean she busted you up there pretty bad. Maybe it's time to think about retirement? Hey, we can give the girl your spot! She can take your place as the big bad bruiser lieutenant!"

The mounting rage on Kenta's face conveyed his thoughts on the matter even better than his next words. "Fuck you, Daiki! I want that bitch's head on a damn platter! Look what she did to my face, man!"

Daiki looked at Hibiki and shrugged helplessly. His giddy expression from earlier had faded, replaced by one of impartiality. "The big guy has his pride. He's got to fight for it."

"Bro, come on!" Hibiki shouted angrily. "To Hell with that junkhead! I don't even know why you keep him around, he's a retard!"

"Stay out of this, you little shit!"

"Hey!" Daiki shouted, bringing a small measure of order to the chaos. He looked at both parties, staring them down. "Now, this is meant to be a party. That means there wasn't supposed to be any of this crap tonight. I don't know what was going on and I don't care. Either find some way to settle this right now or get the Hell out of here, 'cause if you don't-"

"Let him go."

Daiki, Hibiki, Kenta- Hell, practically everyone turned to stare at Naruko in shock, surprise, and judging by the look on Hibiki's face, horror. She was staring at the restrained giant, a look of pure vengeful intent chiselled into every contour of her angular face. Her eyes were alight with artic fire, and his knuckled cracked from the way her fists were clenched tight.

"Naruko…" Hibiki tried to reason with her, but she ignored him.

"He wants to take me on, so let him." She told Daiki, her eyes never leaving Kenta. "We'll see if he's as brave when the girl he tries to jump sees him coming."

Daiki stared at her for a moment before turning to regard Kenta, who had stopped struggling in his surprise. "That okay with you?"

Kenta blinked before a savage, bloodthirsty grin crossed his face. "Yeah, more than okay."

Hibiki grabbed Naruko's arm and tried to turn her away from Kenta but it was like trying to move a statue. "Naruko, don't be stupid!" He hissed. "Kenta's a bloody psychopath! He won't care if you're a girl or not! He'll kill you! He's done it before!"

"He can try." She said as she jerked arm away from his hand. Hibiki looked at her hopelessly as the crowd began to circle them, looking for a good fight, some even making bets, and calling out encouragement.

"Kick her ass, Kenta!"

"Go, Kenta!"

"Snap the bitch's neck, man!"

Naruko rolled her head, hearing her neck crack, and rolled her shoulders to loosen them up as she moved to stand across from Kenta. The crowd completely encased them, cutting off any escape. Not that she needed one.

Daiki stood back with the crowd, looking between the two fighters. He made a motion with his hand. "Go when you're ready."

Kenta needed no further prompting.

The bloodthirsty crowd cheered as Kenta charged forward with a roar like an angry bull, one meaty fist raised to pound the girl into dust. Unperturbed, Naruko waited until he closed the distance between them. In one fluid movement she stepped to the side and brought her foot up to smash into his face with jarring force. Kenta's feet flew out from under him and he hit the floor with enough force to shake the ground.

The crowd became silent in shock and surprise at seeing the short, lithe girl deck the biggest bastard in the gang. The cheering immediately started back up again, but with some rooting for the teen this time.

Kenta pressed a hand to his abused nose, which was already bleeding anew. With a loud snarl he lumbered to his feet, swinging wildly.

Naruko ducked under his swings, delivering three sharp body blows to his thick gut. She danced around his back as he tried to grab her and booted him in the back of the leg, sending him to his knees. Before he could recover she rammed an elbow into the side of his face, knocking him on his back again.

Kenta was frustrated at constantly being made to kiss the ground and quicker than Naruko had thought him capable of, he grabbed her ankle and tore her feet out from under her.

She grunted as her back thudded on the bare concrete, but managed to roll out of the way before Kenta's fist came crashing down on the spot her head had occupied a spit second before. Getting to her feet she brought her fists up in the basic ready position Gai had taught her. She managed to block the next two punches with her forearms then caught his wrist when he attempted a third. Twisting, she hauled him over her shoulder and slammed the two-hundred pound thug to the ground with punishing force.

Kenta lashed out with his foot instinctively, catching the girl in the forehead and knocking her back a few paces. Capitalizing on his hit, he shot to his feet and yanked her head back by her hair, smashing his head to hers. The dazed teenager would have fallen if it hadn't been for his harsh grip on her red strands. He sank his fist into her gut, driving the air from her lungs. Grabbing a fistful of her jacket, he bodily tossed her across the floor and into the front of the bar, forcing the spectators to scramble out of the way.

Naruko grunted as she hit the bar. Her vision was a little blurry from the brutal head butt, but she still saw him pounding towards her. Thinking fast, she leapt up and grabbed one of the stools, swinging it into his chest, causing it to shatter on impact. He doubled over from the blow and she grabbed his head, slamming into the edge of the bar. He swung back wildly with his elbow, catching her in the jaw, forcing her to release him. He grabbed a stool of his own and swung it at her, but to his amazement she met the blow with her forearm, breaking the upper half of the wooden seat to pieces. Quickly, he grabbed one unfortunate member of the crowd and shoved him at the girl.

Naruko was taken aback by the cowardly move, but she managed to grab the man and shove her behind him. However, she wasn't quick enough to block the kick to the stomach from Kenta, sending her back a few steps. Before she knew what was happening, she felt a pair of arms encircle her from behind, pinning her arms to her side. The man Kenta had thrown at her apparently decided to try and get on the big man's good side and intervene on his behalf. Kenta delivered another kick to her stomach that sent both her and her captor flying back to crash against a metal support beam.

Naruko was unfazed by the blow and threw her head back. She head a scream and a crunch, suggesting she broke the nose of the man restraining her, and got her arms free to catch Kenta's arms as he tried to grab her. She brought up a foot to try and push the large man back, but he managed to hold her ground.

"Bitch!" He growled. He spat in her eyes, temporarily blinding her, but she managed to push off from the poor guy trapped between her and the support beam, shoving Kenta off balance and causing him to release on of her arms. Using the grip he had on her other arm, she yanked him forward, straight into an elbow to the top of the skull. He stumbled, dazed, and she tried to kick him in the neck, but he caught her leg and dragged her forward into a bear hug. His tree-like arms wrapped around her small body like a pair of constrictors, and just like the snake he hoisted her into the air and began to squeeze.

Naruko gasped as her breathing was suddenly cut off, and she felt a sharp pain in her side. He had definitely broken at least two ribs. The pressure on her ribcage and spine increased and she knew he would soon kill her if she didn't do something. Frantically, she began to smash a fist rapidly into the side of his head until the rain of blows took their toll on him and forced him to release her. She dropped to the ground, barely keeping her feet as she gulped down mouthfuls of precious oxygen. The two combatants put some distance between each other as they caught their breath and rethought their strategies.

The crowd was going wild. No one had ever managed to go head to head with Kenta before and live to tell the tale, yet here was this little out-of-tower girl matching him blow for blow. No even Daiki could make such a claim. Money was changing hands faster than anyone could count. The redhead's odds had gone up exponentially in the brief time the fight had raged, but many were sticking with Kenta as the favourite to win, believing the girl was just luckily so far. Most didn't care who won. This was a good fight, and they'd be damned if they missed it because they were too busy arguing over who was better.

Daiki leaned over to his little brother, who was watching the fight with equal feelings of shock, surprise, and trepidation. "That's some girl you got there. I can't remember the last time someone decked Kenta, and she's done it a bunch of times in the last few minutes."

"Yeah, she's really something." Hibiki muttered, not taking his eyes off her. "She's done great so far, but can she win against Kenta?" He shook his head worriedly. "Why the Hell did you have to let them fight?"

Daiki shrugged and crossed his arms. "Dunno. I was bored, and they wanted to fight. Plus it's not every day you see a young chick wanting to go fist to fist with Kenta. Made me curious to see what she could do."

Hibiki shook his head at his brother's whimsical reasoning and sighed. "I swear to God, Daiki, if something happens to her…"

Daiki snorted and nudged him with his shoulder, eliciting a grunt from his little sibling. "Don't worry, Romeo, your warrior princess'll come back to you in one piece. Oh!" He perked up at seeing movement from the duo in the centre of the ring of bodies. "Looks like they're ready for round two."

Having finally caught his breath, Kenta decided to go on the offensive again. Being the brawler that he was, he decided to go with the old tried and true method of charging in headfirst. Naruko saw him coming and with a flash of inspiration, she shot forward to meet him. As his hands came up to grab her, she dropped to the deck, wrapping her arms around one of his thick calves. Kenta, taken by surprise, tripped over her, and she capitalized by tucking his ankle beneath her arm and throwing one of her legs over his. Pushing to her feet, she pulled his trapped leg into a painful ankle lock.

Kenta screamed in pain as his leg was twisted harshly. He could feel his muscles straining and felt his bones twist and creak under the strain. If he didn't act fast she'd most assuredly snap his ankle, maybe even crippling him for life. Fighting down the pain and the screams that came with it, he slowly managed to turn onto his back. His trapped leg was being pulled even more brutally at this angle, but he still managed to bring up his free leg to her butt and shove her forward, forcing her to release him, much to his relief. He slowly got back on his feet, although he was favouring his right leg a little more than his left.

"I swear I'm gonna take my time with you, you little tart!" He growled hatefully at her. He never thought he'd meet a female he'd despise more than his mother until today.

"Big words from someone who's getting his ass kicked by a girl. Big bad Kenta; all bark and no bite." Naruko shot back, succeeding in furthering his ire.

With a wild shout, Kenta lunged. He tried to smash her with his fists, but she was too quick and too nimble, ducking and weaving between his swings like a pro, managing to land a few strikes of her own. If he wasn't so pissed he might have been impressed. He finally got the opening he was looking for when she tripped over a discarded bottle. His hand shot out to grab her by the throat and he hoisted her high above his head. He held her there for a moment before running towards the bar and throwing her into the shelves of shacked bottles with all of his might.

Naruko cried out in pain as her broken ribs connected with the wooden shelves. She fell to the ground behind the bar and threw her hands over her head as glass bottles rained down around her, soaking her with alcohol and showering her with glass. A number of sharp stings across her hands, head and neck told her she'd been cut, but after a quick examination she found none of them to be serious. One hand clutching her sore side, she pushed herself into a sitting position as she waited for the stabbing throb to die down. She rested her head against the wall behind her and closed her eyes. This wasn't working. She needed an edge to win this fight or they'd just end up pounding each other into a coma. Still, she couldn't think of anything. As the pain in her side lessened she made to get up when she felt her hand come into contact with something hard and cold. Looking down, her eyes widened and a plan immediately began to form in her mind.

Kenta paced before the bar nervously. His blood was pounding through his veins and he was panting with exertion as he waited for that redheaded wench to show her face. After several moments went by without her showing herself, he began to think that the impact had knocked her out. He was about to go over there and check himself when she slowly stood from behind the bar. She locked eyes with him and instead of vaulting over the counter, she chose to slowly walk around it. Kenta's eyes widened when he saw just what she had found behind the bar.

Around her fists and wrists, wrapped all the way up to her forearms, was a pair of thick chains. The metal links rubbed together, making a horrid screeching noise as she moved. She worked her arms to get used to the extra weight, then held up her arms and motioned for him to attack.

Hesitating for only a moment, Kenta jabbed at her face. Naruko stepped into the blow and cracked her chain-wrapped fist against his unprotected one. He hissed and clutched his hand to him and snarling in anger, swung again. Naruko simply stepped aside, smacking her chained forearm against his wrist, nearly breaking it. Kenta howled in pain and lashed out with his leg, but she caught in beneath one arm and brought the other down on his kneecap.

Kenta's agonized scream echoed throughout the warehouse as the bones in his knee shattered from the force of the blow, the shards grinding together serving as torment to him. Naruko let him go and he crumbled to the ground, clutching his broken limb. He glared hatefully up at her through tears of pain, his teeth gnashing together so hard he risked breaking them too.

"Give up." She told him.

If anything the advice only made him angrier. Showing tremendous will, he slowly and painfully managed to climb to his feet. He was in bad shape. There was blood all down his front from his busted nose, his face was swollen in places, and he was barely standing, his left leg and will power the only things that were keeping him up.

Naruko grimaced and prepared to end this. She shot forward and swung for Kenta's head, but much to her surprise the giant of a man wrapped one thick arm around her's trapping it. She wildly swung with her free arm, trying to get free, but that too was caught. Kenta snarled, his face a mask of fury. With a roar he smashed his forehead against hers. Stars bloomed before her eyes and she tried to stagger back, but he wouldn't let her go. Again and again his thick skull pounded against hers, and she felt something hot trickle down her face. It was getting harder and harder to stay conscious now. Blearily, she felt him release her arms, but her relief was short lived as she felt two massive hands wrap around her throat and hoist her off the ground as he started to squeeze.

Her neck nearly broke outright from the pressure. Frantically, she beat her chain-wreathed fists against the back of his arms, trying to force him to let her go, but his grip was unrelenting. Her movements started to slow and become sluggish. A loud ringing filled her ears as darkness encroached upon her fading vision. Only one thought made it through her oxygen-starved brain.

'I'm going to die…'

She never knew why he did it. Maybe he just wanted to beat her and not kill her, or maybe he just wanted her to suffer more before she died. Whatever his reasoning she was thankful that it spared her her life. Just before she succumbed to the darkness, Kenta swung her around with his massive strength and with a loud shout she tossed her limp body across the warehouse. She crashed into a stack of rusted oil drums. The pile gave a wobble from the collision and with a colophony of bangs, like the stampede of a herd of angry metal elephants the cans came down on top of her, burying her beneath their weight.

Kenta sucked down great lungfulls of air. When the girl didn't reappear from beneath the metal pile he relaxed. The adrenaline slowly bled from his system and the pain from his wounds caught up with him. He groaned as he felt the shattered bones of his knee pulse and throb, sending sparks of pure agony through his system. There was a fire in his lungs and his ribs ached, but none of that mattered because he had won.

The crowd went wild as Kenta threw his fists into the air, shouting in victory. Money switched hands leaving many shaking their heads, wondering how on Earth they could have been so stupid as to back a little girl when she was up against the likes of Kenta.

Kenta panted as he took a proffered beer from one of his brother Hatchet Boyz. Popping the lid, he upended the bottle and began to guzzle it down.

The next moment happened so fast he never even caught it.

Naruko exploded from beneath the oil drums, sending them flying as she rocketed towards her target, little more than a red blur of movement. Kenta barely registered the noise of the cans being blown apart before a chain-gloved fist smashed through his beer bottle and directly into his face with the force of a sledgehammer. Dozens of bones broke beneath Naruko's fingers as the bear of a man was lifted off his feet, the power behind the blow so great that it actually sent him flying across the warehouse floor. He cleared the bar counter and impacted the shelves behind it, crushing them beneath his weight and pulverising the glasses that hadn't fallen when Naruko had hit it. Kenta seemed to hang in the air for a moment before he slowly slid down the ruined bar into a crumpled heap on the bare concrete floor. He gave one slow, gurgling sigh as his eyes closed and he moved no more.

Dead silence hung in the air of the warehouse. People blinked and stared back and forth between Naruko and the bar which now blocked Kenta's ruined form from view. They were a good fifteen meters apart and Kenta hadn't even touched the ground when he was launched through the air. The kind of power needed to do something like that was…

"Fuck me…" One of the gang members breathed, unable to believe what he had just witnessed.

That seemed to open the floodgates. As one the voices of the crowd rose up in a deafening crescendo. People were shouting; most exclaiming disbelief over the unexpected turn of events, and quite a few demanding the money they were now owed. A few arguments broke out, but there was nothing serious. Everyone was in agreement though: that had been one Hell of a fight.

Daiki slowly made his way over to the ruins of the bar. He carefully peeked over the busted counter at the battered and bloody form of his best friend, lying in a pool of booze and his own blood. "Yo, Kenta? You alright, man?" He asked softly.

No answer.

Daiki blinked and slowly turned to stare at the small redheaded girl his little brother was checking on. He numbly plopped down on one of the few stools fortunate to have avoided being knocked over or reduced to kindling in the fight. Grabbing an errant bottle of beer from the counter, he gulped down a mouthful as he tried to wrap his head around what he had just witnessed.

"Naruko! Naruko!"

Naruko staggered back and thanked down onto a crate as a frantic Hibiki came rushing over, looking very pale. Elbows on knees, she hunched over and tried to catch her breath.

Hibiki finally reached her and held out a hand for her shoulder, but stopped before he touched her. He couldn't believe what he had seen. Kenta was one of the most ruthless people in town, maybe even the most ruthless, and Naruko - small, little Naruko! - had somehow managed to put him down. "Um… Naruko? What the fuck just happened?" He asked gently.

Panting, she looked up at him blearily through her sweat streaked hair. She hadn't escaped from the fight unscathed either. There was a nasty looking bruise on her jaw, as well as a large purple bruise around her neck, and a trickle of blood ran from beneath her hairline. She shrugged at his question. "I won the fight." She said.

Hibiki blinked hard at the overly simple answer. "But… um… okay?" He really didn't know how to respond to that.

Naruko hunched back over as her breathing began to return to its normal rhythm. She blinked when a bottle was waved beneath her face and she looked up at Hibiki in confusion.

"Take some, it'll take some of the burn off." He advised.

Naruko was about to refuse but the fight went out of her and she grabbed the proffered beer from him and shrugged. "What the Hell…" She took a long gulp, grimacing at the bitter taste that invaded her mouth. Letting the bottle dangle from her loose fingers, she rubbed at her sore side. Hibiki was about to say something else when Murphy's Law came into effect as the one thing that could have went wrong did go wrong.

There was a loud bang as one of the side doors was kicked open. Everyone looked around in confusion as an out of breath and near hysterical Hatchet Boy came barrelling in, hollering at the top of his reedy voice.

"DAIKI! DAIKI!"

The Hatchet Boyz leader held out a hand to steady the young ganger as he came skidding to a stop in front of him, hands on knees as he tried to catch his breath. By the looks of him he'd ran all the way here from the other side of town. Daiki recognised the kid and knew immediately that he was not invited to the party. He didn't need to look at the terrified expression on the kid's face to know something was terribly wrong.

"Hey, calm down!" He shouted as the teen began to blabber nonsense. Daiki grabbed him by his vest and shook him. "I said calm down! What the Hell are you doing here, Isamu? You're supposed to be handling the merchandise over at out place in the casino district."

Isamu's eyes were wide and his movements frantic and jerky. His words came out in a rush and it was hard to understand him, but they all got the gist of what he was trying to say. "I was, but Daiki-I was sitting with the guys and we got hungry so Shin told me to go get something and I went out and got something but when I came back- Prefects, man! They were swarming all over the place, busting down doors and dragging Shin and the others into the wagons! I didn't want to get caught so I ran! It's chaos out there, boss! The Prefects are raiding all our businesses and they're even busting guys in their own apartments, man! They're all over the place! It's like they know where everything is!" The man was shaking like a leaf in a gale by this point. "I heard one of them talking. Daiki, they know! They know about the party! They know about this warehouse! They're on their way here right now!"

All colour drained from Daiki's face as he made sense of Isamu's words. Numbly, he looked up at the rest of the gang, each of whom was sporting a look of abject horror much like his own. Hiroto. Somehow that bastard had gotten dirt on them. He didn't know how and he didn't know when, all he did know was that someone was going to die painfully because of it.

Desperately, Daiki grabbed Isamu and a punishing grip and demanded answers. He was loosing his cool and shouting at the top of his voice. "How did they know? How did they find out where everything was? How the fuck did we not know about this until now?"

But Isamu was shaking his head, tears in his eyes, whether from fear of his leader's fury or the sheer helplessness of the situation no one knew. "That's not the worst part of it, boss." He whispered aguishly. He gripped at Daiki's vest as if wanting something to hold onto so he didn't get swept up in the madness. "Daiki, they've got these people with them - kids! - that are helping them! You should have saw them! They were running all over the place, decking guys like flies! There was this one freak with white eyes, he just touched a dude and he hit the dirt! They were running up walls and shit, man!"

"Running…" Daiki looked like death warmed over as he realised just what he was being told. "Ninja? They have ninjawith them?" His breathing began to quicken as panic overtook him. Dragging a hand through his hair nervously he looked around, praying for a solution to jump out and present itself but none did. "FUUUUUUCK!" He booted a stool so hard he sent it rocketing across the warehouse, forcing gangers and guests to leap out of the way. It hit the wall and shattered into splinters.

Gripping his hair, he fell against the bar and tried to regain his sanity. How could this have happened? Everything he spent years building up was now crashing down around him and he couldn't even do anything to stop it. The Prefects knew where all his boys were, where he kept all the important stuff, and they were on their way here now! How did they know so much? How did they know where the party was being held? He had everything planned out to the smallest detail. The only way they could have known was if they had…

Daiki froze. Ever so slowly, his head rose. His dark eyes peered between his fingers as he stared blankly across the floor at the only discrepancy in his plans. "You…" He whispered softly.

Hibiki looked warily at his brother. He'd never seen Daiki act like this. The empty look on his face was scarring him. Perhaps the shock had broken his mind. Hibiki approached him carefully, one hand held out to him "Daiki?" He asked carefully.

Daiki didn't hear him. His eyes were fixed on something over Hibiki's shoulder. "You…" He whispered again as he staggered to his feet. Hibiki hurried forward to catch his arm when it seemed like he was going to keel over, but Daiki still didn't look at him. Hibiki followed his brother's eyes to whatever he was staring at so intently.

"Naruko?" He asked in surprise. "Bro, what's wrong? What about Naruko?"

"Her." He was rambling. "It was her. She did it. She was the one who sold us out."

Hibiki recoiled as if slapped. "What?" He looked between the two, looking at Daiki as if he had lost his mind. "Are you insane? Naruko isn't a ninja! That's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard! She's not even from Konoha! She's from Takzaku Gai. Get it together, man."

But Daiki wouldn't be swayed. "Tanzaku Gai, huh? She's from Tanzaku Gai? That's what she told you, is it?" He looked over at the girl who had gone very still. "So you're from Tanzaku Gai, are you?" He asked loudly for all those gathered to hear. Folding his arms across his chest, he had an overly curious expression on his face. "And, erm, just what street were you born on again?"

Naruko hadn't moved from the crate she was sitting on. She was staring back at Daiki unflinchingly and remained silent.

When she didn't answer Hibiki looked round at her. "Naruko?" He asked. Why wasn't she answering?

Daiki smiled in satisfaction, but in reality it looked more like a grimace of pain. "I knew it." There was no triumph in his voice.

Hibiki stepped away from his brother. His eyes were fixed on Naruko, as were the eyes of every other Hatchet Boy there. "Naruko?" He asked again. "Is it true?"

"Of course it's true!" Daiki shouted, but he wasn't angry at Hibiki. He was raving. "How else could she have beaten Kenta? He's a fucking fighting machine and she took him down! Even I'd have trouble doing that and here she goes and does it all by herself! She's been working for that rat bastard Hiroto this entire time! Hell, her name probably isn't even 'Naruko'!" He stared hard at the girl. "You've been planning this all along, haven't you? You were always going to sell us out to the Prefects, weren't you? WEREN'T YOU?" He was getting angry with her stoicism. He wanted her to scream and try to deny it, but here she was, acting like the world wasn't falling down around their ears. Acting like it wasn't her fault. 'Damn her!'

Hibiki stared at her - the girl he thought he knew. The girl he'd thought of as a friend - in complete shock and betrayal. He felt like he'd just taken a sledgehammer to the gut. How could she do this? He shook his head helplessly in denial. "No." He breathed, taking a shaky step back. "Naruko…"

Naruko took a deep breath and bowed her head, her red fringe covering her eyes so she didn't have to look at the anguish in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Hibiki." Was all she could say.

Hibiki tore his eyes off her, unable to look at her anymore. His heart felt like someone had just ripped it right out of his chest. "Damn it!" He cursed violently under his breath. He leaned heavily on the bar counter and slammed his hand into it. "Damn it!"

Diaiki finally managed to take his eyes off her, and his gaze swept over the assembled gang who were all staring at the redhead in equal measures of shock, betrayal and anger. "Well?" He shouted, looking at them all. "What the Hell are you idiots waiting for? Kill her!"

One of the Hatchet Boyz looked at the gang leader as he swept past him. Daiki grabbed his distraught brother's shoulder roughly and began to drag him towards the metal stairway leading up to the gantry where the office looked over the warehouse floor. "Boss?" He called out. "What are we supposed to do? I mean, she's a ninja! We can't do anything against that! They have all those freaky powers and shit! What do we have?"

"How about the fact you outnumber her at least thirty-to-one, retard?" Daiki snapped back as he hauled his brother away. "Enough of your whining! Kill her!"

Naruko stood from the crate as the gang began to close in around her. Knives, pipes, broken bottles, sticks, brass knuckles, and dozens of other weapons appeared in their hands as they cut of any possible routes of escape. The non-gang guests had already cleared out of there as soon as they realised what was going down. This party was officially over.

Naruko backed up as she tried to evaluate the situation. She was surrounded on three sides with the wall to her back and she had no possible way of contacting Gai or the others. She placed her hand on her hips and hung her head. Couldn't she catch a break?

She looked up and held out her chain-gloved hands. "Come on then."

With a roar the gang surged forward.

The first Hatchet Boy came in screaming, brandishing a switchblade in his hand. Naruko stepped forward and booted his legs out from under him, sending him careening head over heels as she blocked the pipe aimed at her head with the chains. She cracked the pipe's owner across the jaw and ducked just as a crowbar came sailing over her head. Sweeping around, she knocked the guy's legs out from under him and stood, bringing her hands up to stop a pair of baseball bats aimed at her skull. She stomped on the downed man's head, knocking him out cold, and laid out the two with the bats with a one-two combo. Someone tried to grab her from behind but she stomped on his foot and snapped her head back, breaking his nose.

She kicked one attacker in the chest, sending him flying back into a group of his friends, knocking them down like skittles. She ran over the carpet of bodies to escape the ever constricting circle and turned, back peddling, as the gang came after her.

She ducked a woman's wild swing and flipped her over her shoulder, a table shattering beneath her weight. She caught a kick and used the trapped leg to swung the man around like a shot-put. She managed to knock a few people unfortunate enough to get too close to the ground with her impromptu human weapon, and let him go. The man flew over the heads of his comrades, striking a support pillar before crumpling to the floor.

Naruko caught a guy's fist and twisted it. The man screamed as his arm was turned the wrong way and he fell to his knees. Naruko used the grip she had on his arm to yank him forward, smashing her knee into his face.

She yelped in pain as her hair was grabbed from behind. She lashed out at the Hatchet Boy who came running forward, intending to run her through with a wakizashi, and he fell to the ground, clutching his broken knee. She broke the hold of the person with the grip on her hair and spun under the female's arms to get behind her. Naruko twisted her fist in the girl's long indigo hair and actually threw the girl ganger up and over her, smashing her down through a pinball machine. Naruko glared down at her as she rubbed her stinging scalp. "Tilt."

She felt a hand land on her shoulder and her arm automatically shot up and wrapped around the offending arm. The Hatchet Boy yelped and arched his back as he tried to prevent his arm from being torn out of its socket. With a small twist Naruko did just that and sent him to the ground with a kick to the chest.

A group of Hatchet Boyz decided to band together and charge her. She punched one in the face, but the one behind him managed to grab the chains that encircled her forearm. She tried to punch him, but her other arm was caught and she was forced to let the links slither from her arms. She spun in a perfect roundhouse, kicking three of them off their feet. She dropped as one aimed a kick at her head and she put all her weight on her knee, pressing it down on his foot as she pushed him over onto his side. The Hatchet Boy screamed as his ankle was broken and the ligaments along the inside of his leg was torn.

Naruko ran, ducking and weaving between her enemies. Using a stool as a stepping stone, she hopped up onto the bar, running along its length, having to skip over hands and weapons that tried to grab or strike her. In one smooth motion she bent low and scooped up a cloth that had been laying on the bar, cart wheeling off the counter, landing on her feet with all the skill of a trained gymnast, avoiding a brick thrown at her head.

She ran for the pool table and turned to meet her pursuers. Grabbing the eight ball from the table, she wrapped in the cloth, twisting it around so that it wouldn't fall out, creating a makeshift bludgeon.

"I'm gonna cut you in half!" A Hatchet Boy yelled as he came barrelling forward. Naruko blocked his clumsy attempt to slash her face with her forearm and smacked him across the mouth with the bludgeon, emptying his mouth of teeth in a spray of bloody saliva. The second man foolish enough to come near got the same treatment. A ganger with her blonde hair shaved into a buzz cut tried to spear her with a long, sharp piece of pipe, but Naruko managed to swerve out of the way and wrap the cloth in her hands around the woman's throat, pulling her over her shoulder and pounding her against the floor.

Someone's hand fisted in the back of her jacket and she was pulled back. Allowing her arms to slip from the sleeves, leaving her in her tank top. She managed to catch the collar of the jacket just as her arms slipped free and she used it to pull the Hatchet Boy into a headlock. Three sharp jabs to the side of the skull and a knee to the face put him out of commission and she dropped him just as a barstool was smashed across her back.

Naruko grunted in pain as she fell to her knees. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the burly ganger who hit her raising the remnants of the stool over his head, ready to bash her head in. With a growl she turned and punched him square in the crotch. He squealed like a stuck pig and dropped the stool and his hands flew to his abused package. He was doubled over, fighting for breath, and it was no problem for her to grab a handful of his hair and rear her head back, smashing their foreheads together. He was out before he hit the floor, probably thankful that he didn't have to feel the torturous pain from a full on nut shot.

Groaning, Naruko tried to push herself to her feet, but a kick to her side sent her sprawling onto her back, barking out in pain as the blow broke yet another rib. A hand wrapped around her throat as a thin, sickly looking gang member dropped on top of her. His fist reared back and her hand scrambled for a weapon. It came into contact with something lying a few feet from her. She swung the brick, breaking his face with it and sending him tumbling off of her.

"Argh! Damn it!" Naruko cursed, cradling her battered ribs. She placed her other hand to the ground and managed to get to her own two feet again, albeit a little shakily. Panting, she examined the situation. There were only a few gangsters left; six in fact. After seeing the devastation wrought to their friends they looked very reluctant to approach her at all. Despite the pain it caused, she couldn't help but snort at that. She couldn't blame them. The floor of the warehouse was littered with the broken remnants of the Hatchet Boyz. Some were groaning and writhing in pain, and others lay still and silent.

Naruko rolled her neck and winced. She probably pulled something in the tussle. She waved the remaining gang members forward tiredly. "Let's go."

The last few looked at each other, clearly not wanting to fight her, but not wanting to seem like cowards either. So with each bearing an expression akin to a prisoner approaching death row, they let out a desperate war cry and charged forward wildly.

It wasn't hard to disable them as they came at her. Blocking the punch of the first whilst simultaneously punching him across the jaw, backhanding the second, kicking the third in the stomach then kneeing him in the face, spinning inside the fourth's punch and elbowing him in the side of the head before continuing with the spin to wrap the fifth in a headlock, pausing only to send a kick backwards into the approaching face of the sixth, before a sucker punch sent poor fifth straight into the Land of Nod.

And then there were none.

Hands on her knees and panting for breath, Naruko looked out over the destruction. Everywhere you looked, the place was littered with the one proud Hatchet Boyz, laying out on the floor, sprawled across chairs and couches which had been upturned, hanging over railings, or crumpled in the shattered remains of poorly constructed makeshift tables. Broken bottles, poles, and other weapons lay all over the place, and just a few meters away from her, the once impressive bar was now nothing more than a broken ruin. Huh. She guessed all that training paid off. Now all there was to do was to catch up to Daiki before he got away.

Taking a breath and ignoring the pain wracking her body, she stood up straight and turned towards the stairs leading to the gantry when a sharp pain even worse than the broken bones bloomed in her side and she stared, shocked, into the cold dead eyes of Shinobu Hibiki.

Gasping, she looked down to see the blade of a knife penetrating her stomach, just a few inches above her bellybutton. A dark stain was already spreading around the wound, and she could see little droplets of ruby red dripping down Hibiki's fingers which were curled tightly around the grip, his knuckles white and shaking.

She hacked, a small trickle of blood running down the side of her mouth. Her breathing hitched as her wide blue eyes tore from the knife sticking out of her stomach to lock with those of the youngest Shinobu brother.

"H-Hi…bik-ki…" She stuttered painfully. The pain was excruciating. Like a red hot poker being driven into her gut.

"Why?" He whispered. It was only then that she noticed the tears running from his eyes, and suddenly the pain in her stomach didn't feel as bad as the one in her heart. "Why did you do it? Why? I thought we were friends. I trusted you. I actually liked you. I thought that-" He cut off abruptly, looking away before he dragged her eyes back to hers. His face was set into a rictus of pain. "Why the Hell did you sell us out?"

"Hi-Hibiki…" She gasped, her hands clutching at her bleeding stomach. "I'm… s-sorr-ry…"

"LIAR!"

Naruko screamed as the knife was torn out of her. The bleeding increased tenfold now that there was nothing to stop it and she crumpled to the ground beside the pool table, pressing her hands against the wound to try and stop it. She curled into a ball on her side. Through tears of pain, she looked up at Hibiki standing over her, his face defeated and resigned. His knife, covered in her blood, was held tight at his side where the rest of him seemed lax in disappointment and betrayal.

He stared down at her. She seemed so vulnerable now, a sharp contrast to the usual cold, aloft Naruko he was used to. The truth of her betrayal was like a fist in his chest, squeezing and twisting his heart. He wanted her to deny it. To prove that she wasn't working with the Prefects and that this was all a misunderstanding. But deep down he knew that there was no mistake. Naruko was a ninja, and she'd been planning to stab them - Him! - in the back since the very moment they had first met that night in the Old Bull bar.

Taking a shuddering breath, he wiped at his tears. It was over, he knew it. The Prefects would be here soon and they'd be carted away for years, maybe even life. He didn't care about that anymore. The only thing he cared about was trying to lighten the pain killing his heart the only way he knew how. 'Betrayal begets betrayal…'

"I'm sorry…" Hibiki said as he turned his knife over, the blade poised to strike her though the heart.

"Me too…" Naruko whispered.

Hibiki hesitated only a moment then with a anguished yell, plunged the knife down towards her helpless body.

She'd always be thankful she remembered to slip it into her boot before she left the hotel. Just as Hibiki's knife came cutting down through the air, Naruko twisted. Her combat knife, a gift from the Sandaime Hokage himself, stabbed straight through Hibiki's forearm. The shock hit him before the pain did and he dropped the knife as he cradled his bleeding limb to his chest. Wasting no time, Naruko quickly reached up and grabbed his head, slamming it against the edge of the pool table. Hibiki crumpled to the ground beside her.

Her breath coming in harsh, shaky pants, Naruko reached up with a bloody hand and used the pool table to slowly haul herself up. She cried out in pain as her stomach wound pulled at the motion, and she had to lean on the table to catch her breath. Looking at Hibiki's downed form, she gulped and grit her teeth against the pain as she leaned down to pull the knife from his forearm. She risked a glance at his face. He looked rather peaceful, like he was sleeping. If this was to the last time she would ever see him she was glad it was while he had such a serene expression.

"I know you hate me… and I know you have the right…" She said lowly. If he had been awake he would have been the only one to hear her. "But no matter what has happened… I'll always consider you my first real friend…"

Unable to look at him anymore, Naruko turned away from him. She looked up at the dark office above them on the gantry. There was only one thing left to do now.

Gritting her teeth, she pushed off from the table. With her bloody knife in one hand, the other pressed tightly over the dark red stain covering her stomach, she staggered towards the dark metal stairs that led up onto the gantry. Her feet clanked loudly on the metal grates as she used the railing to pull her battered body up the steps. Twice she had to stop to catch her breath. She was feeling a little cold. Probably from blood loss. She didn't know how long it took to bleed out from a stomach wound, but she did know that stomach wounds bled hard and fast, particularly if you were moving around. She'd neglected to bring a blood replenishing pill with her, so she'd have to catch Daiki fast and get herself to a medic soon.

When she finally made it to the top of the stairs she fell out onto the gantry, and had to grab onto the railing blocking the walkway off from a two story fall to the solid concrete below to prevent her from hitting the deck. The lights of the office were out and she couldn't see inside. She managed a snail's pace as she pulled herself along towards the closed door. She leaned heavily against the railing to get her breath before pushing off and standing before the door. Redoubling her grip on her knife, she kicked it open and stepped inside the dark office.

She barely caught the movement in the shadows to her right before something cracked across her forehead. Stars erupted before her eyes and she staggered back, feeling a torrent of something hot and sticky run down her face as she fell against the railing.

Daiki stormed out of the shadows of the office, a metal pipe clutched in his hand. Snarling furiously, he swung. Naruko cried out and dropped her knife as he caught her across the shoulder and she crumpled to the gantry floor.

"You - dirty - lying - miserable - cheating - conniving - bitch!" Each shouted word was emphasised by a hard blow from the pipe. Dissatisfied, Daiki tossed it aside and pulled her to her feet, throwing her against the railing. Naruko's world spun before she felt the familiar feeling of a pair of hands wrapping around her neck. Her eyes nearly popped from their sockets as Daiki squeezed with a strength that was only enhanced by his madness.

"This is going to be the most satisfying this of my entire life!" He snarled as he stared into her bloodshot blue eyes. He wanted to remember every twitch of this bitch's face as she died.

Naruko gasped airlessly as she grabbed his wrists and tried to pry them away from her. That only seemed to make him angrier and he doubled his pressure, bending her back over the railing. Left with little option, Naruko did the only thing she could do.

She brought her knee crashing up between Daiki's legs. He hacked in pain and his grip loosened only slightly, but it was enough to distract him. Grabbing a fistful of his vest, Naruko swung him round. The old railing finally gave way under their combined weight and the two of them flew out into the air above the warehouse floor.

"Fuck!"

"Damn it!"

Naruko barely managed to turn them as they careened down the two stories to the solid concrete below. Barely thinking, Naruko grabbed Daiki and twisted them so that he was beneath her. A look of utmost shock was the only thing she registered on his face before they came crashing down through the pool table.

She didn't know how long she blacked out for. Maybe it was only a few seconds, maybe it was an hour. She didn't know. The only thing she did know was that when she came to, she found herself lying on top of an unconscious Daiki. She made sure he was really out of it before she allowed herself to release a very long, very tired sigh. This had been one of the longest nights of her life.

With a shaking hand, she reached up and used one of the broken halves of the pool table to help her up. She stumbled away from the crash sight, barely keeping her feet.

A lone couch and a small table had escaped the chaos. She plunked down onto it and groaned aloud as some of the tension eased from her muscles. These worn, tattered, and stained cushions were a Godsend. Her head dropped to the side and she stared at the crumpled Hatchet Boy that sat slouched beside her. Strong drink and even stronger drugs had knocked him out long before everything went to Hell, allowing him to snooze through the chaos as peacefully as a baby.

Glancing down, she slipped the untouched beer from his hand. She took an experimental dreg and found it to her liking. She patted the ganger on the shoulder. "Thanks." She shoved him off the couch. She tiredly put her feet up on the small table and slouched further into the cushions. Taking a long mouthful of the beer, she let her head fall back against the couch with a weary sigh and closed her eyes.

She didn't get much time to enjoy the silence before the sounds of shouts and barks filled her ears as the doors to the warehouse were thrown open and in poured the majority of Otafuku Gai's resident Prefect Force. They stopped dead in their tracks at seeing the towns biggest criminals laying sprawled across the floor of the warehouse like the scattered toys of a child.

Disgruntled at the blatant interruption of her peace, Naruko held out her hands to display the devistation around her. "Welcome to the party." She snarked.

Lt. Hiroto, his katana held uselessly at his side, could only gape at stare at the scene before him. The Hatchet Boyz; the largest and most powerful criminal element in Otafuku Gai's entire history, had just gotten their collective asses kicked by a girl no older than his young daughter. This… would make for a very strange report…

"Naruko!" Gai rushed forward. Lee and Neji were behind him. Both were staring at the carnage around them with more composure than the stupefied Prefects, but still with clear surprise. Neither of them had any idea that Naruko would have been at the level needed to take on such a large number of foes at one time just yet. They could do the same, but they'd had years of training already, while Naruko had all of four months under the tutelage of Gai with no prior experience in combat. They looked at each other. Obviously they had underestimated their latest team mate.

"Well… this is most unexpected." Lee muttered to Neji. "It would appear that you were wrong about her failing. Where is your fate now, my Rival?"

"Bite me." Neji uncharacteristically snapped back as his eyes swept over the area. This wasn't possible. This was the work of a ninja, not a mere civilian. That girl should not have been able to do all this, no matter how hard she had trained. It was not her fate. Then how…

"Hello, Gai-sensei." Naruko said as the Jounin stopped before her. In fact, it came out more as a sigh if anything else. She was exhausted and just wanted to go to sleep, and this couch was rather comfortable despite its shabby state. She had almost fallen asleep before they had come barging in. God help anyone if they tried to get her to move…

"Are you alright? You're bleeding!" Gai started as he saw the large stain on the front of her tank top. A cold feeling of horror dumped into his system as the notion that he had nearly sent her to her death entered his mind. Unbidden, he started to ramble. "What happened? Was there a fight? How did it start? What happened to Daiki? What-"

"Sensei!" She said, cutting him off before he could get too worked up. "I'm fine. Daiki's somewhere over there by the pool table. They found out what was going on and there was a fight, but I won. I'm fine, really." She had to lay a hand on his arm to get him to calm down.

Gai sighed. He moved to sit beside her on the couch as he regained his senses. Around them Prefects were already rounding up the gang. No one put up a fight, what with many of them being unconscious. The ones that weren't were just happy to get away from the psycho-girl who had kicked their asses. The Jounin in Gai took command as he made sure the mission was accomplished. "So the target was secured? Shinobu Daiki is in custody?"

"He's not going anywhere soon."

"Very good." Gai nodded. He leaned back and stared up at the flashing lights that had been installed to turn the place into an illegal club. "Excellent. Now all we need to do is get you fixed up, grab Daiki, make a quick stop in the forest, then we can be on our way."

"Why do we need to stop in the forest?" Neji asked, bemusedly.

Lee looked shocked that he would ask such a question. "Neji, don't you remember the Youthful Vow Gai-sensei and I swore as we left Konoha? Neither Gai-sensei or I were the ones to capture Shinobu Daiki, Naruko was. As sworn in the Vow, we must each now carry a five foot tree back to Konoha with us! By doing so we will be strong enough so that the next time we have a mission to capture a Shinobu Daiki, we will be the ones to capture him, thus further increasing our Flames of Youth!" The fires of passion burned in his eyes as he clenched his fist.

"Well said, Lee!" Gai cheered his adorable student on.

Neji blinked at the boy's logic. "That… is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. And considering how long I've been a part of this team that's saying a lot."

"Such un-Youthful words! I must fufil any Youthful Vow I declare with the best of my ability! Why, if I were to forgo my Vow that would be… it would be… it would be worse than burning my jumpsuit!"

"Please do, that thing is hideous."

"BLASHPEMY!"

Neji was about to launch his retort when a strange sound reached their ears, stopping their argument in its tracks. It was strange; something that neither of them had ever heard before. It was a rich, throaty sound, and took them a minute to realise that that strange sound was the sound of Naruko laughing.

She had her head thrown back, her shoulders shaking as her rich laughter shook her entire body, coming straight up from her diaphragm and ringing loudly in the air. Even Neji had to admit that it was quite a nice sound.

The laughed was cut short when Naruko hunched forward, clutching her gut. Her face was a mixture of humour and pain. "Argh! Argh! Shit-ow! Ugh! Gai-sensei!" She was still laughing.

"I've got you, Naruko." Gai waved over the first-aid team that had been standing by and moved aside as they began to work on his young student. Naruko sighed and let them do their work, a chuckle escaping her every few seconds.

Gai smiled down at her and placed a hand on her messed up hair. She looked up at him, a wide grin on her face. "I'm very proud of you, Naruko." He told her sincerely, proud enough to burst.

Naruko only laughed all the more.

---

A/N: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand DONE!

Sweet Toothfairy's edible thong that was hard! This is officially the longest thing I have ever written. My hands are killing me! Ugh. Hopefully this makes up for the long wait.

Some of you are probably scratching your heads at the fight scene. In many fics I've read it has Genin going out on their first C-rank and taking on literally armies of bandits and coming out without a scratch. I wanted to make this a more realistic story, thus the brawl between Naruko and the Hatchet Boyz (Good God am I thankful I won't have to type that name any more). I didn't want her zooming around like Lee, decking them all in seconds, and I didn't want them running up to her one at a time only to be knocked out with no struggle. One sided fights are boring. Hopefully it was entertaining anyway.

Now that this behemoth of a chapter is out I can focus on churning out my other neglected stories.

Oh! And watch out for a brand new story set to come out sometime in the next few weeks. It's a real doozy and I've never seen one like it before so I'm really excited to write it!

Please people, make the struggle to get this chapter out worth it and review!

Peace out, y'all!