"We're severely outnumbered." Gintokin said.
Several Shokei started towards the group. Without hesitation, the Konoha ninjas drew their weapons. One of the Shokei stopped, drew a weapon and swung at Kaida, who ducked and came up with an uppercut. The others took on the rest of the ninja team. It didn't take long for the team to take out the small group of Shokei but behind them was a very large crowd of their friends. They were rallying behind their fallen comrades. This was about to become a full scale riot.
Satori looked around at the mob. In his field of vision he saw approaching men, woman and surprisingly, children, none of who seemed anything less than in full fury.
"Break them apart." Satori said. "Slow them down and maybe we can get out of this."
Five people converged on Satori, with his sais drawn he took on the five people. He whipped around his right arm and knocked down one of the women. A roundhouse leg sweep knocked down two more, and a left jab landed on another.
As one of the Shokei ran away, Satori grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him forward into his upraised knee. Another came up and managed two quick punches into his ribs, forcing him to exhale. With cries of rage, they converged on him once more, and this time he dropped into a squat to prevent them from getting a good grip. Quickly, flipping the sais around to use the handles against them, he propelled himself upward, with handles and elbows making contact. The cluster broke apart as he kicked out, knocking one boy over another man.
Sparing a glance, he spotted Junshin taking down a woman while neatly ducking another's punch. Gintokin was flailing with his fists, a veritable punching machine, keeping attackers at bay.
A man ran at Satori with a tool in his fist. Holstering one sai, he used the other to block the weapon, and he grabbed the man by the arm, spun him around and kicking him in the back to propel him away. A woman jumped on his back and Satori reached over his head to break the hold. The woman tugged at his hair and wrapped her legs around Satori's waist for greater support. Satori finally forced himself over, letting the woman's weight carry them crashing to the hard ground. The woman's hold broken, Satori was able to quickly disengage himself and got back to his feet.
"Attack her, she's pregnant." One man yelled.
Satori instantly knew they were referring to Yukino. He turned around just in time to see a man grab Yukino's arms and another come up to punch her midsection. The man cocked his arm back and thrust it forward. It was only inches away when it was pinned to the wall by Satori's sai. The man looked back to see the business end of Satori's foot crashing into his face. The man fell just as another man tackled Satori. They tumbled to the ground, Satori striking his right shoulder hard. He couldn't get his hands free and he was too entwined with his attacker for his feet to do any good. With little choice, he reared back and smashed his forehead protector into the man's nose. He heard cartilage break and the wet sound of blood. He screamed in pain and let go, his hands flying to his injured nose. Satori scrambled to his feet to see Yukino take out her attackers as well.
There were too many people to use standardize weapons such as shuriken or kunai. Plus he was tired of being diplomatic with these people. They had to use their jutsus.
"Everyone use elemental jutsus. Put these people down."
Everyone did their respective handseals to use the elements. It seemed like every element in the book was used. Katon, Raiton, Suiton, Doton and even Futon were used to take out the rioters. For the moment, the rioters left the ninjas alone and allowed them to breathe a bit. For the time being.
Once the Shokei left, it was now the Beigun's turn. It almost seemed as if these people were allowing the other to take turns at the ninjas. It was like a storm. Almost suddenly Satori and his team were surrounded. The Beigun began hurling things at them.
Kaida was several feet away, being attacked with something heavy. She ducked under it and swept a leg to tackle her opponent. Junshin did handseals to do a Raiton jutsu to down the people on the nearby rooftops. Shattered concrete made running tricky as did the lack of lighting, since the nearest light pole had been bent at something like a forty-five degree angle.
Yukino ran over to assist Kaida who now had a much larger crowd around her. Her eyes seemed sympathetic to her approach. Someone ran a hand into her hair and yanked her off her feet. She fell to the ground and tried to get back up, but a booted foot found her hand and grounded it.
"We'll deal with you in a minute." A man snarled and then turned towards Kaida. He withdrew a thin obsidian stick on which he pressed a hidden release. A gleaming steel blade emerged, long and thin but very deadly.
Yukino reacted instantly. With her good hand, she drew a kunai and stabbed it into the man's calf. The man yelped in pain, releasing his hold on Yukino. She then stood up, grabbed the man and tossed him to the ground.
Few had seen the man attack Yukino. They only know that one of their neighbors had been taken down by a Konoha ninja. That was enough to touch off a fresh round of violence and people began pounding Kaida with their fists. She be damned if she didn't fight back.
A woman, her child in a carrier on her back, kicked Yukino in the back.
"What the hell, lady?" She said.
Shock and anger replaced the stab of pain, but Yukino only gripped her kunai tighter. She did not want to react out of emotion, but from need. Kaida certainly had need of her. Fists drove her to one knee and she swung wildly to protect her head. Yukino ran in attacking the crowd with the hope of dispersing the crowd.
Kaida flashed her a smile and then reared back and planted a punch on an oncoming attacker. The man was knocked back and over a fallen form.
Yukino turned her head to see a crowd of people run away from Junshin who had knocked down several people with a Raiton jutsu. They were running blindly, and in their panic they didn't notice the woman who had kicked Yukino, the one with the baby, lying on the ground. She had one arm around the infant, still in his carrier and was holding her ankle with her other hand. She had obviously twisted her ankle. She was going to be trampled.
Yukino began to run toward the crowd but judged she was too far away to reach the woman in time. Instead, she did a few handseals and then slammed her hand to the ground to perform a Doton jutsu.
She caused the ground in front of the woman to rise up and cause the crowd to divide. At first, people ran right or left, away from the newly risen rocks. One man leapt over the rocks, but he caught his foot on something and went sprawling. He fell right on top of the woman and the infant, and all Yukino could hear was the combined scream of man, woman and child.
The man was scrambling to his feet, ready to keep running, ignoring the woman and child. Yukino was already there, her arms and legs spread to prevent the man from going anywhere. She turned her attention to the woman and saw her cradling the child, who did not appear to be breathing. When the jonin reached toward the woman to help, the gesture was greeted with a snarl. Yukino recoiled, then stood for a moment, watching. All other sounds receded and her field of vision was limited to the bodies in her immediate area.
"Is the baby hurt?" She asked in a quiet voice.
The woman did not respond. The man, though, tried to break away, but Yukino grabbed his upper arm and whipped him about, forcing him to look at the woman. Silently, they watched as the woman cuddled the baby, listening for any sign of life. As the woman whimpered, Yukino strained her hearing for any sign from the infant. No cry of pain, no sound of any sort.
"Stupid bitch." The man said to himself.
Yukino snapped. She punched the man in the midsection, knocking the air out of him so that he doubled over. Viciously, she kneed him back up and then struck out again with her fist wrapped around a kunai. The man was quickly turned into a punching bag, the recipient of the bottled up hate and fear that had never truly found its release since the Reaper attack. Every hit, punch and kick was payback for the death of her sister, the angst that Satori went through and for the foolishness of the disease that had driven a country to the brink of madness.
The man was long past being able to defend himself and soon was not even able to call for help. He was limp, taking the beating without any hope of a swift ending.
Yukino reared back for another blow but her small fist was caught in Satori's hand. She squirmed for a moment, then went limp herself, her body falling against her boyfriend's comfortable body.
"I think he paid the price." He said soothingly.
"Is he breathing?"
A pause as he looked over her head at the body on the ground. "Yes."
"Then maybe he hasn't paid the full price." She said between deep breaths.
"I'd say he has. His fall killed the baby, but it wasn't intentional."
"Children shouldn't be out here. No one should be hurt."
"No one's innocent here, no one's blameless." Satori continued, his hand stroking her hair, providing comfort. Yukino heard his heart thumping loudly in his chest, his words softly overlapping the now distant sounds of the riot. She didn't notice that most of the people had been run off or knocked out into silence. Nothing seemed to sink in other than his steady, rhythmic heartbeat.
"The baby isn't the first innocent to die today, I'd like to think he's the last, but I don't' know. We won't know for awhile I guess." He said.
Looking down at the man caused her to feel anger and some shame but then realizing she was in Satori's arms made her feel comfortable.
