Poison Spiral

by Evil Riggs

Later in life, Naruto Uzumaki is deployed to a distant industrial town on cryptic orders. In a city torn between warring clans and rotten with secrets, Naruto slowly finds himself coming unraveled. For those who like a bit of noir with your ninjutsu. Conceived of before—and does not follow—the series' canon ending. Rated M for blood, sweat, tears, and other precious bodily fluids.

5. 5

5

"Ah! Chompin' at the bit to make yer mark, eh?" the little man says. He winks with an eyelid like a bat's wing. "You come to prospect, then? Trawl the hills in search o' phantom stone?"

Naruto gazes levelly at him. "No," he says.

"Goin' to find work in the city, then? Work the mines? Maybe get hired on at a forge or factory? I hear the stockyard's hirin'—"

"Yeah. Something like that," Naruto says, cutting him off.

"Oh ho, he plays the mysterious stranger!" says the little man. "Well, fair enough on ya'. A man's got a right to his privacy, I suppose. Now, what was it you were wantin', again?"

Naruto's eyes narrow. "Information. About Tokusei. I'm guessing the city's not far, then?"

The shopkeeper nods and smiles. Naruto notices black filaments of tobacco stuck among the man's vile teeth. "Sure," he says. "Sure. But that bein' said, all things are for sale here. Sir."

Grimacing, Naruto stuffs one hand into the lining of his coat. His fingers spider through the legion of pockets and pouches sewn into the garment's lining. He emerges with a toenail-sized gold nugget, looking for all the world like an old coin crushed by some unfathomably heavy object.

"This enough?" he says. Naruto proffers the chunk of gold. It sits in the middle of his palm like a dirt-caked panacea. Irritation prickles up and down the back of his neck.

Before Naruto can even blink, the little man snatches the nugget from his hand. He examines it with one squinty eye, and then pockets it wordlessly. No biting, Naruto notices. No amateur, then.

The little man smiles horribly and says, "Well, that's more like it. The name's Daigo, stranger. Daigo Shimura. Been livin' around these parts for goin' on twenty-five years." He spreads his arms as if in magnanimous greeting. "And yer right—Tokusei's less than twenty kilometers away. Seventeen-point-four, if you want to get technical.

"In any event, ya' need only follow the same foot-road ya' been on. In about a kilometer, it'll drop you onto a bigger highway. Goes all the way to Tokusei. Impossible to miss it."

Daigo nods, clearly pleased with himself.

Naruto's shoulders sag with relief . . . and then knot into boulders with frustration.

"Hey," he says. "That's hardly a gold chip's worth of information! I could've figured that out on my own, man."

Holding up his hands and attempting a grotesque imitation of obsequiousness, Daigo says, "Ah, yes, yes. This ain't a problem. You want to know more about ol' Tokusei." Another awful nightmare-wink. "So. Whadyawannaknow?"