A shinobi is a high school student like another - 13
A huge, huge thanks to Tampopo-sensei for betaing. Sensei, I can't thank you enough.
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Saturday came both too quickly and too slowly - it depended from which point of view you were observing things.
It came too quickly for the ninja who never seemed to have enough info on the rendezvous place, and the enemy - I was one of those. And it came too quickly for the teenager who was searching for answers without finding any - and that was me too.
It came too slowly for the guy who was just waiting for a good evening-party which would maybe answer some of his questions.
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The no-longer-used warehouse turned nightclub located in the ancient industrial area, and which was the place where the meeting was planned to happen, had been under observation night and day by one team for a week already. An extra team would go to join this team once we were in position .
All the data we had on this place had been carefully gone through; surprisingly, this data wasn't part of the growing mass of info we had confirmed as falsified and/or erased. So we were sure the former bosses of this nightclub had been involved in different embezzlements and criminal affairs, from falsified tax forms, to procuring, without forgetting criminal conspiracy. The current bosses were clean - well at least they weren't suspected of anything… yet.
It was really the perfect place to illustrate the kind of world we were maneuvering in, and that the majority of the Konoha population knew nothing about.
Another team had infiltrated the place as soon as it opened , ready to and for anything, mixing with the varied customers. I think paranoid is the word you're looking for… Hey, it was Sensei who was meeting the big bad wolf; even if he could get rid of it without breaking a sweat if he needed to, we might as well be ready for all scenarios - we still have a need for a future Yondaime, and preferably in one piece and good as new.
The team Sensei had chosen for the meeting was composed of the 'Infernal team' plus one. That meant that Raidou, Zabuza, Genma, Kodia and I spent all week training together; we had to get used to Kodia's combat style, and to know when and how count on each other, even if we knew it already.
The Weather Forcast Channel had announced snow for Saturday night, following the announcement was a weather alert for Konoha and the land around; thirty centimeters of fresh snow were expected downtown.
It was well past eight p.m. , and night had since long fallen on the city. It would soon be our turn to appear on the scene.
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We were going to meet the yakuza-style guys, and to beat an enemy, as well play with the same weapons as him. Sensei wanted an impressive and classy entrance.
The night had fallen on Konoha ; the city lights were reflected on the low and heavy clouds as an orange halo. The nightclub park car and the road leading to it were barely lit , far from all regularly used streets.
Zabuza - and the roaring motorbike he had choose to ride – was leading our group, closely followed by the car -my bad, by the black limo driven by Raidou, and I was watching our back on another motorbike.
The 'greeting group' was waiting for us at the car park - there were no weapons in sight. Well, either those guys were taking the whole 'neutral area' very much to heart, or they were more clever than your average villain, and had choosen concealed weapons. In any case, we hadn't been crazy enough to come unarmed. We were the weapons after all.
Zabuza and I climbed off our monsters and got closer, as the good watch dogs we were, to the limo from which Sensei, Raidou, Genma and Kodia were exiting. I noticed a nearly imperceptible movement coming from Sensei, and I knew that the two snipers hiding somewhere on the roofs around were in position. I allowed myself a smile behind my mask. I would hate for the evening to end in a free fire party, but I knew that up there, there was someone who would be pleased with this kind of turn of events, as long as he could play too.
Vincent, sorry, but I hate gunshots.
Tadaam. We were now coming straight from a yakuza movie - Sensei, Gen' (and his toothpick) and Rai' were wearing plain black suits, Kodia was wearing his without his tie and looking like he was a bit out of it, playing the part of the guy you don't pay attention to until he begin to smile with too many teeth; Zabuza wearing his uniform and bandages on the lower part of his face instead of his mask, and me in full garb were playing the good watch dogs. Discreet and nearly invisible, but there nevertheless. Raidou and Genma had slightly changed their features with a simple henge, just enough not to be recognizable later without it.
The greeting group offered to show us the way. We got inside - and our entry went totally unseen. The music was blasting, flowing over the space used as a dance floor, the multicolored lights were turning in all known ways in the cramped space. I spotted the bar, already crowded. I spotted our people too, in strategically-thoughtout positions: near the back doors, the front doors, the stairs, the bar.
We all went up, to what was pompously christened the 'VIP lounge'. The big shot was there already, waiting for us with some other people. Counting everyone, there were nine bad guys, and fifteen people in all. I quickly opened my left eye to scan the room. There were effectively fifteen chakra signatures, all different; but my scan wasn't enough to show if there were any weapons in the room along with us. Though, it was enough to show me the video camera hidden in a corner. A chakra-charged toothpick and an unseen move later, the camera was suddenly off.
The big shot stood up from behind the table and bowed to Sensei to greet him, and offered him a seat to discuss things more comfortably.
The end of this wouldn't come quickly enough. I disconnected my brain from what they were saying, letting my training take the lead and give it only the important parts.
For one, already from the bow, I could see that this guy was sticking to his traditions like a monkey falling from his tree was sticking to the branches. Most of the time, this kind of reaction was Not Good.
Two, while staying at the back of the room, I could note that three of the guys who had been waiting in the room looked a bit high. Just a little bit. This was a drug cartel, but it seemed crystal clear that the organization was taking its part of the merchandise.
It was as good a way as another to guaranty the relative loyalty of his men - as long as they could still operate under their own power and that they weren't larva yet.
The VIP lounge was built on a mezzanine floor, so as to look over the dance floor below through the large windows acting as one of the walls. I thought I spotted familiar heads under us - yeah, I could spot them easily: Kaneda and Yamagata, and others I knew only because I had seen them into the HQ's files. They had done a meteor-like stay at school and I had found them shortly after associated with a motor gang in the street. After a few seconds of careful scrutiny, I knew what was bothering me with the dancing crowd below: the only heads of a color other than black were very obviously dyed.
I cast a glance into the room at the 'villains'. They were all Asian-looking - not a mixed-looking one nor a European in sight. Our team was standing like a colorful sore thumb here, between Sensei's shining blond, Genma's fair brown, Raidou's darker one and the exotic looking ( and very mixed) features of Kodia, without forgetting my eerie silver gray hair. Only Zabuza seemed to fit in here.
We wouldn't be able to play those guys - we had been the ones played. They were not only doing drugs (and other things) traffic, but they were also from the resident extreme right. And the night club was part of their territory. I straightened slightly, catching Zabuza's attention at the other side of the room - he was used enough (too much?) to my body language to notice that something was wrong, and he straightened too. Kodia was already in alert behind his 'out of it' facade, his sense of smell had warned him of the change in my emotions.
Sensei and the big shot, who had introduced himself as Otsuka Shigeru, were still chatting. Well, to be realistic, they were exchanging diplomatically veiled threats.
To make a long story short, Mister Otsuka wished no more than to have the monopoly on the underground's business, and to achieve his goal he needed to wipe out the opposition. He was going on by saying that both of our organizations were currently fighting for the same thing , and that it would really be stupid to throw a wrench into each other works, especially given the means he had access to.
Sensei was replying to that saying that our 'organization' goal, asOtsuka had called it, was not, in any case, to allow one gang, no matter which one, to gain whatever monopoly, or to even hope to thrivie. It would really be stupid for a major settling of scores to turn into an underground war, especially given the means Sensei had access to.
Add some embellishments, some beating around the bush, some bottles of sake and a little more than one hour, and you have the whole meeting.
The way this guy was talking was making me bristle. The very well hidden insinuation were making me bristle too. Those guys were definitively far far right guys - there were sentences like 'give Konoha back its past honor' (I was really wondering what the hell this kind of sentence was fucking doing in this discussion ) that was directly implying the disappearance of the European district and of the immigrant part of the population.
I'd like to see this guy with a Konoha inhabited only by 'true Konoha people'. That would maybe leave a quarter of the inhabitants, if that ; Konoha herself, the Konoha of the ninja times, had been built by people coming from all over the countries at the time - for the purity of the original blood, we could come back later. This guy needed a good hard hit on the head, and a proper history course.
I could see that Sensei was beginning to lose his patience too; it was showing in the way he was sitting, in the way he was talking, in the way he was looking at the guy sitting in front of him.
I was scanning the room periodically , to keep the most part of my chakra if it was needed later. This was why and how I saw, before even Kodia smelled them, the ten or so thugs coming up to say hi. We hadn't been careful enough - one of the guys had to have a way of communicating we hadn't seen, and he had to have obeyed a sign of his boss's, who was looking like he was feeling he wasn't controlling the discussion anymore. I suspected one of the guys to be less high than he looked. And shit, we had been had like newbies.
I made a quick gesture, relayed by Kodia, and all our team tensed imperceptibly. Sensei stood up from the table.
"I thank you for your reception Otsuka-san, but I'm afraid our discussion, as pleasant as it is, has to end here."
The door cracked open, letting the thugs stream in, and cutting off all ways to retreat. Those guys were armed. Big Shot stood up from the table too.
"I'm terribly sorry Uzumaki-san, but given our... disagreements on the current concern, you see me forced to ... eliminate the present subject of dissension. I really appreciated speaking with you." Big shot bowed once more, then he straightened. "Get rid of those half-bloods for me."
The thugs streamed quietly into the room, getting into position. No-one of us moved. Sensei spoke up, before Otsuka-bastard stepped out of the lounge.
"You're making a mistake Otsuka-san, a deadly mistake ."
Some guy sneaked up behind me, and I felt the unmistakable cold bite of a firearm on the back of my neck, on the few centimeters left naked between the uniform's collar, my hair, and the leather straps of the mask. I hate firearms.
"Mm, pretty boy, such a shame, really a shame," he whispered to my ear, and I'd rather not get into the details of what was implied by this tone of voice.
My stomach made a back-flip.
Otsuka got out of the room, leaving his thugs get rid of us. Ah, sorry, letting us get rid of his thugs. Do I really need to give the gory details?
We did it 'neatly', quickly and well-done. The guy behind me didn't last long. Not one of those guy was a match to us, it was pitiable.
The neat lounge was suddenly a bit more messy, a bit more stained, a bit more littered. Kodia would not go to see his girl whining he was hungry tonight. The dancing crowd below hadn't noticed a thing. I could still feel the cold of the gun's mouth on my neck, and I was feeling nauseous.
We innocently climbed down the stairs, and the infiltration team wasn't in sight. Sensei frowned. We got out of the night club.
My communicator hissed, saying that two nin were following Otsuka, and that the rest of the team was at the rear with three of the thugs. Sensei ordered for them to be dragged back to the HQ and properly cooked, before we could turn them over to the police. A quick inspection of the vehicles to be sure nothing had been added to them and Vincent's confirmation that no-one had come close, and we were off on our way.
The cold was now cutting through me, and that chill slowly sliding down my spine. I was definitely nauseous.
We turned right and left, made some U-turns, before we all stopped in a junkyard bordering the former industrial area, where we abandoned car and motorcycles. We made our way to downtown Konoha like shinobi, jumping and sliding up and down from roof to roof, unseen and un-followed. We weren't crazy enough to come back to the HQ in vehicles - anyone could follow a car, but no-one could follow a shadow.
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By the time we made it to the HQ, I was all cold inside, and I had a feeling like I would puke sooner or later - and more sooner than later. Fortunately, the debriefing was quick - at least for us - and we had the authorization to leave immediately, with the advice to be more extra-careful than usual.
"Can I drop you home, or...?" asked Raidou, when we were the lasts ones standing in the car park; Zabuza had left immediately after the debriefing, and Genma's piece of junk wasn't in its place anymore.
I think I was trembling slightly at this stage. This night tasted like the ones I was ending at Rin's, hidden in her arms and sheets. But tonight, I couldn't. I didn't want to. Iruka had asked me to come at a party, and I intended to go, wanting to puke or not, cold or not.
I softly shook my head in answer.
"Thanks, but I'm going to go back to my place by foot..."
It was half past midnight, the ninja's night was ending.
It was half past midnight, the student's night was only beginning.
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Kaneda and Yamagata come from AKIRA, Otsuka Shigeru is an OC, you're free to hit him and cookies for those who'll guess from where come Vincent.
Questions, flames and such - you know how it works. The 14th chapter should come out (more) quickly.