Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I probably never will.
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The Nadanchi Restaurant was left in a horrible mess. From outside, it looked quite normal, yet the interior was a work of blood shed. A dozen men laid still on the floor painted with their own blood. They all seemed to have their jaw bones shattered and neared critical conditions.
A young man stood among the pile of bodies, his hands resting within the pockets of his jet black tuxedo, which glistened slightly by the artificial lights. His long blond hair flowed behind him in a neat pony tail as he examined the scene before him through his black shades.
"This is rather annoying," he whispered. Two large men in plaid suits entered the building in a hurry.
"We've got some news, Soujiro!" one of the bulky man yelled.
"Spill it," Soujiro ordered, not taking his eyes off his fallen comrades.
"Well, we've asked a few eyewitnesses around the town. They say that a weird looking boy and an old geezer left the restaurant in a hurry after they heard some loud noises coming from here."
Soujiro took in the information calmly.
"Meaning that they were beaten by some kid and a senior citizen?" he asked.
The other two gulped and nodded slowly. Soujiro shook his head in disgust. He took out a pack of cigarette from his jacket and formed a single smoke. Then he rubbed his fingers together to ignite a fire and lit his cigarette.
"Either they're strong, or we're getting weaker."
The other two men winced as they listened.
"Well, which one is it?" the blond haired man pondered before taking a drag of his smoke.
Chapter 4: Counter Measures
In the third floor of a 4 star hotel building, Rock Lee and Old Man Shinichi took refuge within the confines of a luxurious VIP room.
"Really, I don't need much other than a futon…" Rock Lee said, not being able to deny the room before him. The Old Man wandered around and inspected every corner of the room on his own. Once he was done, he turned around and gave the boy a big thumbs up sign.
"It's a good room," he said. At that moment, Lee contemplated on getting a cheap room just to get away from him.
"Anyways, let's study the Blood Hound's base of operation right away," the Old Man suggested. He took out the city map from his sleeves, which he received from Kobuki earlier on.
"Um, before that, can I ask you how you came to befriend a mayor?" Lee asked. Ever since they left the office, he couldn't quite figure out how an old man like Shinichi can make such prestigious connections around the city when he's usually cooped up in the mountains.
"What, you mean Kobuki? Bah, I knew that old fool back when he was just a horrible ramen chef, my boy."
"I-is that so…"
Lee couldn't quite hide his disappointment. 'Of course, how else would he have gotten to know a man of such stature…' he thought.
"He was always an ambitious chap. I was surprised when he actually ran for the office. And won," the Old Man continued.
Lee considered this for a moment and realized that it was quite an achievement for a ramen chef to leap into the position of a high ranking official.
"Though, he wasn't able to drive away the Blood Hounds on his own, that pathetic fool, uhahahah!"
Lee cringed at Shinichi's blunt outburst. However, he couldn't avoid the undeniable shred of truth in it.
"Anyways, if we're done rambling about the past, let's get into the meat of things," said Shinichi.
Lee nodded in agreement. Immediately, the man covered the floor with a map of the city and pointed to one of the small building structures that stood in the outskirts of the sea.
"This right here seems to be their main pad." Lee looked over the layout as Shinichi explained.
"These guys are usually roaming around the city at any given time, so attacking them directly won't serve much purpose… or so you would think at first."
" However, most of their experienced fighters usually reside within the building. We could look at this as 'chopping off their arms' if you're able to defeat them firsthand. They'll slowly disintegrate on their own, once their top fighters are down."
"So we're basically attacking the core," Lee whispered.
"Pretty much," Shinichi replied, continuing to examine the map.
"The problem is, there seem to be no other way to enter the building, but through the main entrance."
"Then we'll go through the main entrance," Rock Lee stated as if it were obvious.
"We could do that, but the entrance face this rocky hill over here, which renders it useless."
Lee checked the location of the entrance himself and found it to be odd.
"Weird architectural decision…" he thought out loud. Then his face showed a certain determination.
"Then I'll just have to build another entrance, won't I, old man?"
Shinichi chuckled at the implication.
"Why, you're not even tryingto sneak in there undetected, you fool!" he shouted.
"But if it's you, I guess it could work."
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The city people peeked from their windows as a mass army of men in black suits roamed the streets, searching for a boy and an old man responsible for hurting their companions. They entered buildings without warrants and violated their privacy, sometimes even going so far as to destroy their living spaces. From the other side of the street, a small group of officers marched towards the gang. The head officer stepped up, his knees shaking violently, and took the initiatives to stop their activities.
"H-halt!" he ordered. Couple of Blood Hounds faced the officer and heed to his command.
"What do you want?" one of them spat out disgustedly. The officer gulped and tried his best to look calm.
"We've let your faction to do what ever you want, for far too long!" he screamed, not being able to believe that he had it in him afterwards. Smug looks spread all around the Blood Hounds as they stared at the officer.
"So what are you going to do about it?" one of them asked.
"We will stop you at all cost," the officer announced confidently.
"Yeah? You're gonna do that all by yourself?"
Puzzled, the officer looked around to see that all of his men have already fallen. His expression turned grim as cold beads of sweat formed on his forehead.
"So how shall we cook him?" the large man with broad shoulders asked his companions.
"Fucking kill him."
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The central department was heavily guarded in the odd hour of the night. In the brightly lit office in the second floor of the building, Kobuki sat in his cozy chair as he contemplated on his next move.
"Sir, the city officers have already been taken down," his advisor reported. Kobuki remained seated with his face hidden from view. The advisor hated to see the mayor behaving this way and stepped closer to his desk, coughing as he did so.
"Sir, with all due respect, I think your decision to bring in the outsiders to take care of our problem was a huge mistake. It might not be too late to turn them in and apologize. We were co-existing rather well in this city before this mishap," he said.
The mayor stirred from his chair. His cold eyes pierced through his advisor.
"Do you truly believe that? Do you really believe that we were better off before this incident?"
The advisor stood still, his head hung in shame.
"The Blood Hounds had us pressed under their thumb all this time, pushing us around like some common bullies!" he continued.
"Now our only hope is that boy…and Shinichi. That bastard will not let me down," Kobuki guaranteed as he reflected on his old friend.
Just then, there was a knock on his large wooden door. The advisor walked over to greet the guest and found himself flung across the room as the door smashed into the office room. The cool and collected Soujiro stood in the exit with his feet extended in the air. Kobuki tried to get up, but the blond ninja threw his kunai, strung in one end with a piano wire and tied down the mayor to his chair.
"Sup," he greeted. Kobuki gritted his teeth as he found himself in bondage. Soujiro walked over to the desk, glancing around the office on his way. He whistled in admiration.
"Nice place you got here…" he complimented.
"You're pushing it, Blood Hound!"
Soujiro grinned and slid his sunglasses off the bridge of his nose. His eyes were bright blue with a glint of intense flame burning within his pupils. He placed his shades in his breast pocket and snapped his fingers together to ignite a tiny flame between his thumbs.
"If you want to see that you end this term safely, old man, you'll tell me where I can find the boy and the geezer," he said. The mayor stared into the flame and felt completely mesmerized by its heat.
"I…th-they are currently resting in the Houshin Hotel," he blurted as if in trance. Soujiro smiled and snapped his finger again, causing the flame to vanish from his thumbs. In that instant, Kobuki's face hit the desk from all the exhaustion he experienced during the hypnotic session. Then the blond ninja performed a simple hand seal and gathered a large sum of fire in his right palm. Once he did so, he threw it out of his hands and watched the office burn slowly in front of him.
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The Old Man snored peacefully on his side of the king size bed, while Rock Lee set up on the edge of his side and ran the plan in his mind in repetition. He felt that he can go at any moment and found it difficult to stop his body from tensing up. He shook in exhilaration and decided that he would try and drain away his excitement by performing some midnight exercises.
Getting up from the bed, he made sure not to stir Shinichi as he walked over to the door. He closed it behind him and walked around the hallway as me admired the expensive hotel rooms.
"Gee, we really didn't deserve something like this," he whispered. As he rounded the corner, he noticed a strange looking man in a large black overcoat. His face was covered with a gas mask and his white hair stood tall like a giant flickering flame. Lee pretended to not take notice of the man as he crossed path with him. Then turning around sharply, he saw him disappear behind the corner. Lee carefully traced his steps and watched the man lurk the hall.
"So you're Rock Lee."
Lee gasped as he felt the tip of his prey's kunai pressed against his neck. But as he calmed down, he had an overwhelming sense of familiarity.
"Ka-Kakashi sensei?" Rock Lee inquired softly. He felt the tip of the dagger draw away from his neck. He turned around and saw the copy ninja take off his gas mask to reveal his standard lethargic expression.
"These lame disguises don't fool anyone nowadays, do they?" the jounin sighed. Lee was taken back by his presence.
"What…What are you doing here?"
After discarding his mask, Kakashi scratched his head.
"Always to the point, both you and Gai," he whispered. The genin was quite happy at the mention of his favorite instructor's name.
"How is Gai sensei!?" he blurted. Kakashi glanced above his head in deep thought.
"He's been well, once he stopped crying after your departure. And as for your first question…the Leaf village had their eyes on this city for a long time now, inspecting the Blood-Hound's operation. We are only allowed to move if the help was inquired by the city itself, but they seemed content with their position. Since it was out of our own jurisdiction, we weren't able to take any form of actions, until a huge incident like this occurred."
Rock Lee gathered the information, but something still didn't make sense to him.
"But the incident only occurred yesterday. How is it that you were able to get here so fast?"
Kakashi flashed his rare smile.
"I was around, performing a mission very close to the harbor city. Pure coincidence."
Rock Lee smiled confidently, now that he knew he had all the help he needed to cleanse the city of the Blood hounds.
"Anyways, I've been informed that the mayor was murdered a few minutes ago by my confidente in this city."
Lee snapped out of his thoughts.
"What?"
Kakashi grimaced.
"More importantly, it's very urgent that we mobilize right away. The Blood hounds know where you are," he stated. Rock Lee was still absorbed by the news of the mayor's death.
"The mayor was…murdered?"
Kakashi looked down when he was reminded of his own student. At the very core of their souls, Lee and Naruto shared the exact sentiments.
"But…But the mayor was the old man's best friend…" Rock Lee whimpered. Kakashi stared at the young ninja and his eyes softened at the sight.
"The mayor wished for you to protect this city. Don't let him down now," the copy ninja firmly stated. Lee controlled his trembling and gripped his fists together.
"Don't worry. I won't."
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On the outskirt of the sea, a small shinobi stood erect on a large boulder as the waves came crashing down on it. He remained standing, his long green hair draped around his well tanned face. He clutched his blue and white robe unconsciously as he tried to calm himself down.
"That damn boy will pay for disturbing us!" he shouted as another wave came crashing down on the coast line.
To be continued…
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Author's Notes: The sudden appearance of Hayate Kakashi will stir some interest in some of you, I hope.