Song: Requiem: Lacrimosa
By: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
-In the streets of Yugakure-
"This is it! This is the place where I will open my restaurant. It will be the greatest restaurant in the world!"
Before the four people sat a grungy, run down building with a 'For Sale' sign out the front. The sign was overgrown with weeds and had so much graffiti it was basically undecipherable. The building itself was situated in a small, dirty dark alley beside a busy street bustling with people. The building was practically unnoticeable, not exactly the kind of place you would use to attract customers.
"…Papa, you're weird," the red-haired boy stated tonelessly.
Once upon a time, Yurei lived in a brothel.
He didn't really know what a brothel meant, but it didn't matter because he had a family there. He'd had a mother – her name was Lady. She could be harsh and strict, demanding obedience, but she cared for him like a real mother. He's had five sisters, one of which was also his best friend. Her name was Sasayaki. While his other four sisters, Ran, Ko, Chou and Eiko worked at the brothel, he and Sasayaki had brought in money with the help of the Gang.
But that was all gone now. Yurei didn't know if any of them were still alive – after all, he'd seen Chou and Eiko murdered right before his eyes. They were killed by a man with a white mask.
Now, he had a new place to live, a new best friend – her name is Kazuyo – but sometimes, he still thought about his old home and his old best friend.
Once, Sasayaki lived in a brothel.
But then, Danzo had the workers there killed to cut her ties. In the process, one of their fellow Gangsters was killed - Yurei. Kiyoshi knew this, had put the clues together from the moment he saw her white rabbit mask and ANBU uniform. Suddenly her 3-week disappearance after the massacre of the brothel made a lot of sense when they'd all thought she was dead, as did her sudden friendship with the Kyuubi boy and her sudden application to the academy. An application which should have been impossible as an unregistered gutter rat. He didn't know why she had been ordered to be friends with the Kyuubi boy, nor why she had been recruited into Root, but it certainly opened up avenues for him and Junko to use. After all, they'd need all the power they could get for when they would decide to get out of the village.
Once, Anko visited a brothel.
It wasn't just any brothel, it was a brothel that had been recently massacred by Danzo to recruit a new member. The official story stated that a man had gone on a killing spree and had been captured but not before killing all the inhabitants save one – but Anko knew better.
Anko and Ibiki had been ordered by Danzo to check it out as a possible information gathering hub. It was a sign of trust from Danzo towards the Hokage that he had employed the Hokage's men to do the job rather than his own Root men – it meant that the Hokage was being kept in the loop about what he was up to.
It still didn't make Anko any less suspicious, especially when she knew there were several other places around the village being scouted as potential hubs of information. Not only that, Danzo was having passages constructed that lead from his underground network straight into the hubs, creating multiple entrances into the Root compound.
What these passages were for was unknown to her, and the Hokage would keep his head in the sand unless Danzo was proving an immediate threat to them.
Still, she couldn't help but wonder.
Once, Naruto used to be lonely.
But then he met a girl who became his best friend – sister even. She was a bit crazy and weird, like how she even wanted to be friends with him in the first place. She also giggled a lot at really weird times, and she was a very bad liar. But he decided not to pursue why she was getting these strange lessons with a mysterious teacher who was teaching her to use CC chains and a chain style; he wanted to stay friends with her, after all. She introduced him to an awesome group called the Gang and he wasn't lonely anymore. The Gang were a bit weird – they always wore tattered clothes and spent their time tricking or stealing money from people. They had this weird whistle thing they would do to call meetings, and they all knew how to do sign language because one of the Gangsters was mute (Naruto was starting to learn too), and they prayed to someone called 'the Founder' at the start of each morning meeting. But he still really liked them, even though Junko forced him to teach them things he learned at the academy. But it was fun, so he didn't mind.
Also, everyone except the Gang seemed to think Sasayaki was a boy. Well, Naruto supposed she did look like a boy but it surprised him when she never said anything and he decided not to question it. She seemed to find it funny when people called her 'boy'. She is weird like that.
Once, the stall-tender had a sense of dignity.
But then the demon boy and Whitey had come to his stall and ruined everything. They stole masks and wigs from him and the Whitey had even kicked him in his precious family jewels.
He hoped to never see them again.
Once, Shikamaru saw a kid with dirty white hair slip past a man and take the contents of his pockets on the way past.
Shikamaru couldn't be sure of their gender, but to make life easier he assumed they were a girl merely for the little braid she had. The girl was long gone before the man noticed the lack of weight in his pockets.
Shikamaru said nothing, silently commending the street girl on her skill and assuming he would never see her again.
Until he did, on the first day of the academy. She was friends with the boy called Naruto that everyone knew to stay away from.
They didn't have any other friends, and they ditched many of the days at the academy anyway. Iruka-sensei seemed to have a soft spot for them though.
Also, she was actually a he. Shikamaru accepted this with a shrug of his shoulders, as he did with her strange appearance at the academy and her friendship with the one everyone stays away from.
It was best to stay out of these types of matters anyway.
Once, Iruka though Naruto would never pass.
Then, shortly after meeting that white-haired boy Naruto began to actually learn some of the things he taught, like the leaf-sticking technique and even the substitution jutsu.
And on the occasional days he turned up to class, it was with a book on fuuinjutsu.
Iruka decided to ignore the fact Naruto wasn't actually listening to any of his lectures and let the boy be as he turned pages and absently drew with a calligraphy brush.
Once, Kabuto went on an S-ranked assassination mission with a five-year old.
She was tiny and frail with adorable wide, charcoal-black eyes. Kakashi had carried her across miles of land on his back, and Kabuto knew she weighed next to nothing. After all, he had done her medical examination in Root. She was to be used as bait to lure out Orochimaru-sama, and it had worked. Kakashi had tried to protect the white-haired girl by placing her as lookout, away from the action despite the Hokage's orders, but he had accidentally placed her right where the action was to occur.
She almost killed him that day. While his master held her like she was an incredibly cute puppy he had just received, she had manipulated her hidden Chakra-Conductive chain to shoot towards him. He hadn't been expecting the storage seal to be engraved on the CC chain, and her substitution had been seal-less, an incredibly difficult feat especially for an academy student.
It was a rather ingenious technique, and despite the fact he almost died he had to marvel at it.
His master accepted the deal Danzo proposed, although he did kill that Yugao woman and take the teenager with the mokuton. Danzo certainly didn't like that, but he still had no choice but to accept it unless he wanted to lose Orochimaru-sama's support for his plans to come to fruition.
Once, Sasuke believed the lie that his brother had a best friend in his year.
The white-haired boy who claimed to be Itachi's best friend had been in the hospital when he had visited, in the bed next to Itachi's. He had fallen off a swing that Itachi had been pushing, and had ended up in hospital. In hindsight, Sasuke questioned the validity of the story.
Still, even though the weird kid was friends with that blond-haired boy Sasuke considered the idea of getting to know the boy a bit better. After all, if he knew his mysterious brother then he clearly had to be someone of interest.
Yes, Sasuke decided with a determined nod. He would find out more about this boy.
Once, a white-haired boy interrupted his grieving.
Kakashi found himself taking the boy to a little tea shop even as the boy yelled obscenities at him. For a Root member, his emotional (and physical) training quality was highly questionable.
Not that this was a bad thing. In fact, Kakashi found himself feeling intensely relieved.
The boy ordered ten mochi using his money, but Kakashi let it slide. Especially because it shut him up.
He seemed to really like mochi.
Before he knew it, Kakashi had offered the boy who was his teacher's son's best friend an apartment. His own apartment, because the boy wasn't eligible until eight years old. Not that he had told him that. Kakashi didn't need his own apartment; after all, he lived obsessively in his old clan home and the only reason he had an apartment was because the Hokage had forced him to buy it in the hopes he would leave his clan home and the ghosts that lurk there.
He hadn't.
And now that little apartment would serve as the home for his sensei's son and his Root-affiliated friend.
Once, Sasayaki only had 3 goals.
Now she has five:
1: Make friends with Sasuke in case I can't stop the Uchiha massacre so we can be friends before Sasuke turns all angst-y, and Naruto and I can support him.
2: Get Sasuke away from the Uchiha district when the massacre happens so he would not be so traumatised (if massacre happens).
3: Stay friends for life, become awesome ninja and kick Orochimaru's, Obito's and Madara's asses.
4: Get Tenzo the fuck away from Orochimaru ASAP.
5: Get Orochimaru/Kabuto to teach me the impure resurrection technique so I can revive the maidens, Lady and Yurei.
OMAKE
Adventures of the Gang
Pt. 5: Kiyoshi
By: Shinda-Shikai
Kiyoshi breathed in slowly, the conversation he'd had with Junko replaying in his head.
"Kiyoshi, I need you to track down a certain man. He looked like a ninja, he had blond hair with a yellow and black jester hat and tights, and he also wore a black trench coat. He had three kids with him. I think he might be able to help us when the time comes."
"But Junko, from what Takeshi, Yurei, Emi and Eri were saying he was dangerous and hardly sounds like the type of person to help a bunch of gutter rats."
Junko had smiled at him, eyes like steel.
"He left a book with a note. The others didn't notice what was written on the back of the note that Yurei read out. It's a name. I think it might be a way to contact him."
Kiyoshi had taken the note, immediately recognising the name.
Takumi Sato.
"…I see," he'd murmured. "We'll need all the help we can get to get out of here, however we are going to need to be careful. I know of this man; he only deals with the highest-security people, famous or extremely dangerous ninja. He's an ex-Konoha ninja, but he is not listed in any bingo books because the Leaf are too ashamed of his defection. This jester man you're talking about is most certainly dangerous if he has access to Takumi."
Junko had nodded, eyes as cold and hard as steel. She read between the lines; she knew that asking Kiyoshi to get into contact with this Takumi man and subsequently the strange jester man was a massive risk to him.
But she was willing to take that risk, and thus Kiyoshi was where he was now; hidden in the eerily silent foliage of the forest outside the immediate perimeter of the village.
Before him stood a bulky man with rugged features and greasy brown hair.
"You said you were in contact with Takumi?" Kiyoshi asked, his voice soft but firm.
The man nodded agitatedly.
"Kid, I already told you I passed on your message to Takumi and he got a response from your contact. Now give me the goods and I'll hand you the reply.
Kiyoshi nodded slowly. The price for this transaction was a hefty one; getting in contact with someone as reputable as Takumi was extremely expensive, especially when he had few things working for him in the first place. Kiyoshi had had to save for weeks working overtime as an errand boy and go-between much like the man before him, and even then he'd had to raise his prices.
The response to his increased rates had caused outrage but no one dared harm him as he was an invaluable resource. He did, after all, have a reputation as one of the most reliable errand boys and an attack against him was an attack against his other clients who used him religiously. Plus, he had raised the prices only enough that his clients were still willing to pay for his services.
Slowly, he handed the bag in his hand to the man, and the man thrust a single card in his direction.
"Nice doing business with ya kid," the man smiled a foul smile with yellowed teeth.
Kiyoshi took the card, ignoring the man as he checked the contents of the bag before disappearing.
The card in his hands was a joker card, a twisted face grinning up at him devilishly.
On the back, a tiny note was attached. Kiyoshi took it off and unraveled it.
'Keep this card. When the time is right, channel chakra into it.'
It was signed with a little peace sign.
Kiyoshi frowned at the card, tucking it securely in his pocket. His fists clenched at his side.
The card gave no indication of the price of the jester man's services.
That was not a good sign, but when the time came it would likely be a risk they would need to take
Song: Requiem: Lacrimosa
By: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Check my DeviantArt, I posted a pic of the 'Demonic Duo'
Question:
Who is your favourite character from the Gang (not including Naruto or Sasayaki of course)?