Last Time:
"Barely anybody does," Kiyoshi said. "The Uzumaki believe in interclan marriage. It's a bit dated but they like to stick to tradition. I was for it too until I met my fiancée. She and I met in the Youth District. She was working at The Brewery."
"That's where Hinata and I had our first date," Naruto commented.
Kiyoshi chuckled. "I guess that place has some sentimental value for the both of us. Say, Nephew. When all of this is over, I want you to meet my daughter. I think she'd like you. Her name is Namiko; she looks just like her mother."
"I'd love to meet her," Naruto said. "Make sure you introduce us properly when this is over."
Kiyoshi was silent. He nodded. "I'll do that. And introduce me to your girlfriend too."
"Sure."
The light turned green. Kiyoshi hesitated for a moment before pulling away from the light. "It's going to be a long night."
Opposites Attract: Chapter 42 – "Whirlwind"
He yawned loudly as he sat on the hood of his car and stared up at the darkening sky. He laid there with his hands behind his head and listened to the noises of the distant city. "How much longer do you think Whirlwind and The Eternal Flame are going to fight with one another?"
"Not too much longer, hopefully," a woman muttered as she continued to play cards on top of an empty oil drum. "Whirlwind hasn't surrendered yet and Master Kyosuke finally had Haru and the boys hit one of their shops. If I'm being honest, Master Kyosuke's scared."
"Don't let him hear you say that," her opponent muttered. "Father was saying that back in the glory days of The Eternal Flame, Master Kyosuke wouldn't even think about hesitating when it came to challenging someone. Nowadays though, he seems pretty reserved."
"He does, doesn't he?" the man said as he sat up and looked at the two women playing cards. "I mean by now, we would've at least been ordered to kill several of their higher ups, but he's only wanted us to get in fights and avoid casualties on their side. It's ridiculous."
"I wonder what's bothering him," the first woman muttered.
"Eh, who knows," the second woman said with a shrug. "Maybe it'll just die out and fizzle."
The rest of them all murmured their sentiments of agreement. It was quiet for a few moments longer before they heard crackling. That put them all on alert and as they each gathered their own guns and held them at the ready. They began to spread out around the cache.
"Fire!" one of them shouted.
"Hold it!"
The Uzumaki froze as they heard a chorus of guns being cocked. They all glanced behind them and saw a group of Whirlwind members standing just a few feet from them with their guns aimed and at the ready.
"Drop 'em," Anko urged as she kept her gun aimed. "We don't want to hurt any of you."
All the Uzumaki looked at one another before coming to a silent agreement with one another. They slowly began to put their guns down, but before their guns touched the ground, a shot rang out. Whirlwind ducked and the Uzumaki smirked.
It turned into a fire fight in just a matter of seconds. Some were hit before they could take cover while some managed to duck behind concrete barricades. Anko cussed as she held her cover while Shin shot over the barricade beside her.
"Put out that fire!" one of them ordered.
A shot rang out from the distance from a different gun.
"Sniper!" another shouted.
"Good boy, Iruka," Anko complimented as she looked around the barricade. She quickly brought her head back as one of the women who had been playing cards knocked off a chunk of the barricade with a large crowbar.
Shin pulled Anko back before the woman could strike again. As the woman raised the crowbar above her head, she shrieked as it was shot out of her hand. She snarled and lunged for Anko. Shin tried to shoot but quickly ducked out of the way of the lounging man from earlier trying to hit him with a metal pipe.
The woman had her hands around Anko's neck and squeezed tight. Anko gasped for air and clawed at the woman's arms. When the woman refused to let go, Anko grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it into the woman's eyes. She released her grip and Anko kicked her off. Anko coughed and gasped for air as the woman tried to rub the dirt and gravel out of her eyes.
Shin blocked the lounging man's bat with his arm and clenched his teeth at the impact. He wrapped his arm around the bat and pulled. The lounging man stumbled, and Shin managed to take the bat away from him. He tossed it into the air and grabbed the handle and stepped back. He planted his foot and swung, the bat clashing against the lounging man's head and sending him into the ground.
"Anko!" Shin shouted before throwing the bat to her.
Anko caught the bat and turned around in time for her bat to crash against the woman's crowbar. A metal clang rang out and Anko gritted her teeth. She stepped back watched as the woman lunged for her. Anko lunged for her as well and tackled her into the ground. Anko punched her repeatedly in the face but howled when the woman's knife plunged into her side.
The woman grabbed Anko by her hair and flung her off her before hopping back onto her own feet. Anko got up as well with gritted teeth and her hand wrapped around the hilt of the knife. Instead of attacking the woman again, she immediately fell to her knees and watched as a bullet went clean through her forehead.
"Took you long enough," Anko complained as she pressed her forehead against the ground. "Kakashi's going to be so mad at me."
Shin ran over to Anko and immediately ripped off his sleeve and held it against the wound. "We need to get you to a hospital."
"Just get me to Rin," Anko urged before groaning.
In various parts of The Whirlpool, Whirlwind and The Eternal Flame clashed. The Eternal Flame did their best to drive Whirlwind into various traps set up across The Whirlpool but none of Whirlwind took the bait. In their fits of rage, The Eternal Flame was blinded with their will to survive.
The Whirlwind managed to corner a lot of The Eternal Flame and get them to surrender without hurting too many of them. Other times, it wasn't so easy, and lives were lost. Whirlwind worked as swiftly as they could with their hostile takeover and in just a few hours, the only place they hadn't taken was the Uzumaki Estate.
"And why exactly should I put my trust in someone who refuses to show their face?" Kyosuke questioned as he propped his feet up onto his desk. "For all I know, you could just be another member of Whirlwind."
"You and I both know that that's absolutely not true," Kaguya answered. "Plus, you've seen my face plenty of times. And you know I would've come and spoken with you myself, but I can't exactly run the risk of getting caught with you, now can I?"
"Cowardice," Kyosuke scoffed.
"You would know a thing or two about that, now wouldn't you?" Kaguya commented.
Kyosuke gritted his teeth. "I don't have to sit here and listen to you insult me."
"Then don't," Kaguya countered. "Oh, well that's certainly interesting. Is that smoke in the direction of The Whirlpool?"
Kyosuke blinked a few times. Just then, the doors burst open and Haru came stumbling in, injured and bloodied. "Haru?"
"It seems you have some business to attend to," Kaguya yawned. "It's quite late so do try to get some rest. Otherwise, do enjoy the rest of your evening. And I wish you the best of luck. It seems you'll need it."
The line went dead. Kyosuke sucked his teeth and looked at Haru. "What the hell happened?"
"Had you answered your fucking phone, you would've known what the fuck was happening!" Haru shouted. "Whirlwind attacked our caches and when I tried to send the rest of our people out, they got overwhelmed by Whirlwind."
"What are you saying?" Kyosuke asked.
"I'm saying that the last bit of property that you own in The Whirlpool is this complex," Haru informed him. "And they're coming."
Kyosuke felt his heart beat quicken. He flinched at the sound of thunder. He looked outside and finally noticed the downpour happening outside. There was already a large puddle forming outside and that was enough to tell him how long it'd been raining. He hadn't noticed.
They heard a car horn blare from outside. Haru sucked his teeth and took his gun off his belt. He removed the clip and replaced it with a fresh one before cocking it and heading out the room. Kyosuke followed him.
As they headed outside, all they saw was a cluster of cars lined up outside with Whirlwind members standing around. They were all bloody and bruised but still standing. Standing in the center of all of them and closes to the steps was Naruto.
"You have some balls coming here, Little Cousin," Haru snarled as he began to descend the steps towards him.
"Wait." Kyosuke grabbed his arm.
Haru stopped and that's when he noticed it. Standing behind and mixed in with Whirlwind were dozens of red haired individuals. Uzumaki. "What the hell is this?"
"This is your last chance to surrender," Naruto called. "I don't want to have to hurt you, Kyosuke."
"Surrender? Uzumaki don't surrender!" Haru shouted.
"What the hell did you do?" Kyosuke snarled.
"I didn't realize this, but The Eternal Flame didn't fully understand the full extent of Whirlwind's strength and power until tonight," Kiyoshi answered. "You'd been giving them false hope for almost twenty years; you led them to believe that they were capable of standing up to Whirlwind when the reality of the situation is that The Eternal Flame never stood a chance. When they saw that The Eternal Flame was powerless against Whirlwind, they gave in and switched sides. That's the thing about the Uzumaki, we may not surrender but we do know how to survive."
"Cowards! All of you!" Kyosuke shouted.
"Kyosuke," Naruto called again, "you brought this on yourself. Otou-san and Okaa-chan both admitted that they only let you keep The Whirlpool because you were family. Had that not been the case, then The Eternal Flame would've died years ago. You can consider your reign these past twenty years a common curtsey on Whirlwind's behalf."
Kyosuke gritted his teeth. "Haru."
"You don't have to tell me twice." Haru tossed his gun to Kyosuke and came down the rest of the steps. "Come on, Little Cousin. You wanna be big and bad, show me what you got. You were nothing more but a bloody mess on a bathroom floor the last time I saw you so I wanna see what you're really made of. Let's go!"
Naruto took off his jacket and cocked his fist. He brought them up and made his way towards the middle where he met Haru. Haru immediately swung for a left hook but Naruto blocked it with his arm and landed his own right hook. Haru stumbled and touched his lip. He smirked at the sight of the blood.
"You don't have your brothers to back you up this time. It's just you and me!" Naruto shouted.
"I didn't need my brothers to beat your ass the first time and I sure as hell don't need them now," Haru spat before tackling Naruto to the ground.
It was brutal. Every punch hit harder than the last. They were evenly matched despite Haru already being in a fight earlier that night with another member of Whirlwind. He even had a gunshot wound in his shoulder, but he pushed through that pain and continued to scrap with Naruto.
"You know," Haru chuckled as he struggled against Naruto, "when this is all over, I might go pay that girlfriend of yours a visit. She's pretty cute but I'm sure that's just an act, right? She's really a hoe willing to spread her legs for anybody, right?"
Naruto snarled. He grabbed Haru's head and headbutted him. Haru fell back and shook his head violently as he tried to recover. Blood streamed down Naruto's forehead and there was a darker look in his eyes. "Don't you dare say another word about Hinata."
Haru laughed. "That's the spirit! Show me what you're made of!"
A gunshot rang out. Everyone ducked and looked around. Kakashi was the first to notice where it came from and where the bullet had gone. "Naruto?"
Naruto looked at his shoulder where Kyosuke just shot him. He touched the wound and eyed the blood before looking up at Kyosuke. Kyosuke shot again, this time hitting Naruto's arm and then his side, thigh, and grazing his neck. Sasuke ran over and caught him before he hit the ground and immediately took off his shirt and pressed it against his neck.
It took one shot to Kyosuke's knee to put him down.
"You're gonna be okay," Sasuke assured Naruto as he looked at the other wounds that seemed to be gushing. "You'll be fine."
Naruto groaned and put his hand over Sasuke's. He sat up slowly and looked over to where Kyosuke held his knee. Lightning struck, and thunder cracked. He got up.
"Naruto!" Sasuke called.
Naruto pulled Kiyoshi's gun off his belt and began to limp towards Kyosuke. As he walked, he made sure to keep Sasuke's shirt held against his neck and push pass the pain of being shot several times by his own grandfather.
Before Haru could get up, Naruto made sure to shoot him in the knee. As Haru cried out, Naruto landed a swift kick to his head before continuing towards Kyosuke and he forced his way up the steps to where Kyosuke groveled.
Kyosuke looked up at Naruto and as lightning cracked, and thunder roared, he felt his blood run cold. The look in Naruto's eyes was unlike anything he'd seen before and for the first time in Kyosuke's life, he was terrified.
"Otou-san said that only cowards hide behind the barrel of a gun," Naruto muttered as he aimed at Kyosuke. "Okaa-chan had hoped and prayed that one day the two of you could reconcile with one another but she realized early on that it wouldn't happen."
"I don't have a daughter," Kyosuke snarled.
"Luckily, she found a father in Grandpa Jiraiya," Naruto assured him. "She was taken care of after you abandoned her. And I can't think of any reason why you should stay alive. You've made it clear you want nothing to do with us and I don't want anything to do with you."
"You're a monster," Kyosuke snarled. "You're no better than that father of yours."
"It happens." Naruto shrugged and shot Kyosuke in the stomach.
Kyosuke cried out and held his stomach.
"I know that won't be enough suffering to equate the amount of pain you put my mother through but I'm not going to let you go easy either," Naruto confessed before taking Kyosuke's gun. He began to walk back down the steps. He'd only taken a few steps before his vision began to become blurry.
He blacked out.
three days later
"Well, that's quite unfortunate," Kaguya sighed as she continued to read the paper. She tossed it onto the table and Toneri picked it up in turn.
"Uzumaki Kyosuke, age 65. He is survived by his wife Uzumaki Kaori, son Uzumaki Kiyoshi, and daughter Uzumaki Kushina. He has two grandchildren," Toneri read. He took a sip of his coffee and handed the paper over to Urashiki who was texting and eating. "You predicted it would happen."
"That I did," Kaguya muttered. "Though I expected Naruto at least leave the poor man alive. He was just desperate to leave a legacy and yet, here we are. Konoha is now underneath Whirlwind's full control."
"That'll last for a few years," Urashiki murmured as he passed the paper over to Momoshiki. "What do you say, should we get started?"
"Now is as good a time as any," Kaguya agreed.
To Be Continued...