Welcome back my few but faithful!

This is the kind of chapter I have been wanting to get to, and probably what you all have been waint to read: action and the introduction of... dare I say it? PLOT DEVICES! Hooray.

Yes, this is a plot developing chapter, getting us on the roll with some good old fashioned... who's our villain, and what's our crime? Yep. Introduction of a new OC which you will definitely see more of. I won't say any more than that, speculation will be up to you. :)

I'd like to say thank you to all my reviewers, and stress my personal policy as a writer: I do well with feedback. I don't care what kind... it just really helps. It not only gives me an idea of who is reading the story, but it helps me to find out what people like and dislike. PLUS! I respond to every review, I answer every question, and I will be more than willing to talk to you about the story (just don't expect spoilers. :P). This really helps me as a writer because I get to gauge individual reactions to my story.

Also, as promised, I've attempted to draw again. (http: /yaoi. y- gallery. net/view/ 726892/) This is my depiction of Kitaka Uzumaki, middle child of Naruto's three sons. He's the son of Naruto and Gaara (as is probably obvious). Put the link back together by removing the spaces. There is a button at the top left, you will be able to view the full image (so that he doesn't look so small). I'm not responsible for anything on y-gal except my own work... which is clean. Next up will be Fumato.

I big thank you goes out once more to Kreatyve, who gave me a shout out in her newest chapter! So I'm once again returning the favor. Read her story, it's called Let's Play a Love Game (I love it for many reasons, but you should love it for the Gaga reference! Respect the Gaga). On a more serious note, she is a very talented up and coming writer, and you will all enjoy her story. It just gets better the longer it goes on, and she me makes some very nice tweaks to the SasuNaru genre. I have also written a one-shot called Neon Lights and Dance Club Fights, if you want to see a short, completed work by me (also SasuNaru). That's all I have for you, much love!

Sarai

Naruto: Kurashio
Chapter 4 – Undercurrent

Police Chief Ranmura Kaiza was a man of habit.

Every morning he awoke, precisely at five-thirty in the morning to drink a cup of coffee. He had a breakfast of eggs and grilled spam, and then he left his house at seven o'clock on the dot. He took the main interstate into downtown Ishitohi, which placed him getting to Police Headquarters at seven thirty-where he would stay until five-thirty in the evening when he returned home by the same route. Once Chief Kaiza was back home in his suburban flat, he would pop in a microwaveable dinner, plop down in front of the television, and watch a series of channels, ranging from news broadcasts to games shows, until it was ten. He would clean up his living area from ten to ten-thirty, get a shower, and be in bed by eleven.

It was like this every day.

For two weeks, Kit had been trailing the portly, balding, Police Chief, who seemed to always smell of spam... something Kit found nauseating. The mission had become a series of following this man's routine without any hint of excitement. The young Uzumaki had become so inundated with boredom, that he'd actually been excited the one time Chief Kaiza had skipped breakfast in favor of stopping to get a doughnut on the way to work.

The doughnut incident had been the single, most exciting event to report for the whole mission. Kit felt they had reached a dead end, something Teams Three and Seven had already admitted. Both Naruto and Kakashi's teams had met with little success concerning their targets. For a city being plagued by illegal weapons, Ishitohi was surprisingly peaceful.

There had not been a single violent outbreak, save for a few gang turf-feuds, all of which had been routinely handled by the police.

Perhaps they'd been chasing a rumor after all.

"What's the update, Kira?" Kitaka called through the head communicator.

"The usual… he's eating breakfast."

"Of course…" Kit mused, "It's six-forty-five."

"And… he just got up. He's out of my vision," she announced.

"Sainō," Kit knew the other boy was watching the opposite side of the house, "Do you have visual."

"Yep!" the boy announced, "He's on the phone."

"Cell or land line?"
"Um… the one with a cord," Sainō replied sheepishly.
"Land line…"
"Right! Land line!" Sainō was probably grinning at himself.

Kitaka couldn't blame him for not knowing about the modern technology. The ninja villages were tentative about allowing such things within their walls. In fact, Konoha was still running on VHS for most of their media entertainment. Naruto had smuggled in a DVD player, but if the Village Council found out about it—they would most likely remove it. Technology, the kind not useful in missions, was generally frowned upon as a distraction.

"That's odd," Kira's voice spoke his own suspicions.

The Police Chief generally never talked on his phone in the mornings. If he did, it was usually on his cell phone... and it was about work. As an added bonus, when the Chief was on a cell phone, the ninjas could easily hijack the signal and listen in to his conversation, boring as they were. With the Chief on a land line, they could only hear what he was saying; the person on the other end of the conversation was completely hidden from them.

"Yes, I understand my job perfectly," Kaiza was saying.

While the chief had been at work, Sasuke had slipped into the man's house and bugged each room. They heard everything Chief Kaiza ever did… and Kit had heard everything. The redhead doubted he could ever get some of those things out of his memory.

"We've talked about this… no, I don't mean anything by it," the police chief sounded frustrated. "You can't expect me to do this every time someone refuses to pay."

"I wish I could hear what that other person was saying," Sasuke's voice suddenly entered their communication channel.

Kit was rather surprised; normally Sasuke was out checking other leads or rumors about the smuggling ring at this time.
"He sounds pressured," Kit offered.

"Yes," Sasuke agreed, "He does. Don't let him out of your sight. I'm going to track down a lead. According to gossip there is another ninja in the city... it's not one of ours."

"Do you need any back-up?" Sainō questioned excitedly.

"No." Sasuke's tone was stern, "Stay on the police chief. If you don't hear from me by noon, contact Naruto or Kakashi."

"Yes, sir," All three of them acknowledged.

There was no further communication from their teacher; so, Kitaka assumed Sasuke had turned off his communicator. Turning his attention back to the police chief, Kit was able to hear the last line of the man's telephone conversation:

"Alright, I'll meet you a lunch. Just be patient until then."

The conversation ended with that. A few minutes later, the police chief exited his house and got into his car.
Kit watched in amusement, "Exactly seven o'clock."

"Well then…" Kira said, "Looks like we have an appointment to spy on."

"Yes," Kit agreed, "We do."

"Can we get food first?" Sainō whined through the communicator. For some reason, Kit found this more annoying than in person—probably because Kira couldn't hit the kid for it.

"Kira and I will keep the chief under surveillance," Kit gave in. It was better than listening to complaints all morning, "You go pick-up something for us all to eat."

Sainō gave an exclamation of joy and several long sentences of gratitude, but Kitaka was already on the move-his mind elsewhere. The Chief was nervous about something, which could be attributed to any number of reasons. Kit found himself hoping for excitement nonetheless.

[…]

"Well… our guy is a bust," Chino exclaimed, plopping down at a food stall, quickly followed by Naruto.

Their blond teacher only grinned, "Well that only means we get to go home sooner! Oy! Four bowls of ramen!" The chef looked at Naruto with a bright smile. The old ramen cook's eyes sparkled with the twinkle of seeing only one thing: money.

"Oh… senpai! You're buying us lunch?" Hana asked excitedly, taking the seat next to Naruto.

"What?" the man looked at her incredulously, "Are you insane… those are for me."

"Senpai, don't be selfish!"

Jira strode into the stall at that moment, "Our guy just got on a plane… he won't be back in the country for at least a week."

"Jira! Tell him that we need food too!" Chino looked at their blond team member with pleading eyes.

The eldest Uzumaki ignored his hungry teammate and went to sit next to Hana, only he found, not one—but three, pleading looks. Hana and her two pets were giving him the biggest, sorrowful eyes they could muster. Jira snorted, caught between hilarity and an overload of cuteness.

"Don't laugh at me!"

"Sorry," Jira chuckled, "But that was too funny…"

Hana sighed and threw herself down on the bar, "I fail as a woman!"

"Aww… come on, Hana," Naruto said cheerfully as he began to noisily slurp up the first bowl of ramen.

"It's true, Senpai! What kind of woman am I, if I can't get a man to buy me a bowl of ramen?" Hana turned sad eyes upon blond teacher.

Naruto almost wanted to react the same was as Jira, like father-like son apparently, but he resisted for fear of actually upsetting the girl. "Ne… Hana! Enough with the attempted manipulation. Here!" He slid a bowl of ramen her way, much to Chino's cries of protest.

Naruto was about to tuck into his mouthwatering food once more, when his communicator suddenly went of, startling him.

"Naruto."

The blond jumped at the sudden noise, nearly falling off his seat—which would have landed him with a bowl of ramen in his lap. Thankfully, his ninja reflexes allowed him to maintain balance.

"Sasuke…" Naruto whined, "You almost made me spill my ramen!"

"You don't have time for ramen," the raven's voice was strained, "I'm chasing a lead and I need back up. There's a rogue ninja in the western industrial district."

"Ne, Teme! If this is just a ruse to get me alone…"

"You wouldn't complain," Sasuke countered.

"Too true, too true…" Naruto muttered, not wanting his students to hear the admission.

"Hurry!" Sasuke urged.

"Ugh! Fine!" Naruto pushed away from the bar, finishing his bowl of ramen in almost a single gulp. He slid one of the remaining bowls to Jira and Chino, "Eat up! Don't you dare let my ramen go to waste!"

"Wait, dad!" Jira called out before Naruto could vanish from the scene, "What's going on?"

"Sasuke's found a lead… it may end up as nothing, but he wants back-up," Naruto gave him a wink, "You're in charge while I'm gone… don't do anything I wouldn't do."

The blond paused at this, "On second thought… don't do anything you think I might do either." He quickly gave Jira a hug, and then Naruto vanished out of the ramen stall in the blink of an eye. It was so quick that Jira barely caught the blur of color from Naruto's jonin outfit.

[…]

"You think everything is alright?" Hana asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

"It's dad and Sasuke…" Jira said calmly, "They're fine."

"Jira's right," Chino said, grinning happily at his free bowl of ramen, "There isn't a registered ninja in all of the five villages who could take both of them on… unless it was one of the Kages, and I doubt one of them is running around here."

Hana nodded in agreement, still not relieved. Ying and Yang both patted her shoulders sympathetically, to which she smiled. "I guess you both have a point…"

Jira nodded and turned to his own bowl of ramen. The three teammates ate in silence, wondering what they were going to do to occupy the rest of their day, when the ramen chef suddenly appeared holding a piece of paper.

"So…" the old man looked at each of them, light glinting from his large, coke-bottle glasses, "Which of you is paying the bill?"

Hana could feel her jaw drop in dismay. Their irresponsible teacher had forgotten to pay his own bill. Hana's stomach twisted as she looked at the price of their meal in horror, "Three thousand yen? I didn't bring that much!"

"I spent my money on food days ago," Chino said guiltily.

Jira only glared down at the seat where Naruto had sat just moments again.

"Well then," Hana thought to herself, "Looks like we are washing dishes for the rest of the day."

[…]

"A café?" Kira asked. She was crouched next to Kitaka on a rooftop, watching the police chief as he had a cup of coffee with a woman.

"Not a very suspicious meeting place," Kit mumbled.

The woman was the Chief of Police's ex-wife; they'd witnessed her entering Police Headquarters several times. She was a frightening woman… with bleached hair, nearly orange skin from a bad fake tan, and large lips that looked as if they could swallow a man's head… which she was currently trying to do, if her yelling was any indication.

From what they could gather, Chief Kaiza had been late paying his spousal support… whatever that was. This woman was now yelling at him in public, calling him a lazy degenerate.

"She's got that part right," Kit smirked.

After about thirty minutes, Kaiza pulled out some money and handed it to his ex-wife. The wanna-be Barbie then got into a taxi and left, leaving the police with his cup of coffee.

"It doesn't make sense," Kira said.

"What doesn't?"

Kira pointed to the police chief, "He's relaxed. During his phone conversation he'd been nervous, and he should have even been more so during his meeting."

The redhead thought about this, "You have a point."

"Plus, the way he talked on the phone made it sound detached," Kira shrugged, "Ex-wives are kinda personal."

"I think you may really have a point."

"Of course I do," Kira objected.

"No, look," Kit pointed at the police chief. The man had gotten up, completely left his coffee untouched, and headed on foot towards the industrial district.

"Sainō, he's headed in your direction. Kira and I will go around to get a better vantage point; make sure you don't lose sight of him."

"Will do," was the energetic response.

[...]

They had followed the police chief for almost a mile before the target made a turn, toward a section of warehouses and old, abandoned apartment buildings. The three genin kept to the rooftops, hiding behind ledges and short walls where they could. Finally, they saw what Chief Kaiza was looking for—a group of people at the end of an alleyway.

Kit recognized several of the people, or at least he knew what they were from. They were all members of Hi-ken, the largest gang in Ishitohi. Members of the "fire fist", as they were called, were known for dealing narcotics and were abnormally violent. One member in particular stood out to Kitaka, because he recognized him from the briefing.

"That's Royo Haisuru," Kit whispered, pointing towards the man who was standing at the head of the small group, "He's the leader of Hi-ken."

Apparently the gang members had been expecting the police chief, because Royo turned and grinned at Chief Kaiza, offering a greeting. Whatever words they exchanged, Kitaka couldn't make them out; they were too high for a good listening vantage, and the people below weren't talking very loud. All they had were visuals.

Royo Haisuru was dressed in a business suit; he could have been a legitimate businessman except for the glaring fact that his suit was the color of fire. The cuffs of his jacket were even embroidered with dark, flame-like patterns. He looked like the kind of man who would make deals, but, in the end, he would be the only person to profit from them. Kitaka could tell this man was bad news.

"Wasn't Team seven supposed to be following him?" Kira asked.

"Yeah," Kit frowned, "Which makes me worried. We need to hear what they are saying."

"What about down there?" Sainō pointed to a small, two-story warehouse with all of its windows busted out. They could get inside easily, and it would offer them a closer viewpoint of the alley where the meeting was going down.

Kit decided it would be safer for them to go the long way around; they might miss a short part of the conversation, but they would be less likely to be spotted. It took a few minutes to make their way into the warehouse, but as they eased closer to a window ledge, Kit could hear the gang leader speaking.

"Be patient, Kaiza, our guest will be here shortly and then we can both ask our questions."

"You weren't supposed to be here, Haisuru," the police chief growled.

"Kaiza, you wound me… who did you think you were protecting? I buy the guns from your contact, you protect the contact… essentially you protect me. It's how these things work," Royo said. The gang leader's voice was sickeningly patronizing, and Kit could only imagine how the man's tone was affecting the police chief.

"I'm not protecting anyone…" the Chief countered.

From their observations, Kit had found Chief Kaiza to be an honest… if not lazy man. He took his job seriously, and he took a firm hand to crime. Therefore, finding the police chief in an alleyway full of gang members and illegal weapons, Kit admitted himself confused by Chief Kaiza's motives. Yes, he had wanted action… but now that he was getting it, Kitaka wasn't so sure he liked the direction it was taking.

"Kira, contact Sasuke. Let him know where we are and what's going—" Kit's words were cut off by the appearance of another person in the alley.

"Of course you are protecting someone," the strange voice seemed to echo around the alley, even up in the warehouse where the genin were hiding.

The voice was followed by a woman, who stepped out of she shadowed crook between two buildings. Like everyone else at the gathering, Kitaka found himself entranced by this new entity.

She was tall for a female, probably six feet, with long, black hair which hung about her shoulders in large feather-like tresses. The woman was dressed in what looked to be the top half of a shinobi battle suit—thin, black-leather pieces woven together for mobility and protection. The battle suit seemed to be worn over a wispy, silver dress which reminded Kitaka of moonlight and fog; the fabric slowly waved as the woman walked up to the gathering, ending just at the woman's ankles.

"I don't know what you mean?" Chief Kiaza eyed the woman warily.

"Of course you do," She said blandly, "You work for me or I kill people you care about. You do what I tell you to protect them. Simple enough?"

The woman came to a stop, crossing her arms. One of her legs was easily visible through a thigh-high split in her dress, and Kitaka noticed how odd the woman's skin was—pale as the driven snow, but it wasn't sickly looking. It appeared healthy… perfect even. He'd never seen someone so pale look so... beautiful.

"I like this woman," Royo laughed, turning to his gang members—each of them chuckling in turn.

"You'll like me much less if you don't pay for the weapons you were given," she turned to the red-clad gangster, and Kit got a good look at her for the first time. She had startling blue eyes like his father, but, unlike Naruto, this woman's eyes were cold, harsh. Kit felt he would catch a chill if he was to look into them directly… but her eyes weren't even the most startling thing about her appearance. Around her neck, rather than jewelry, the woman wore a black, headband from a ninja village; Kit would have recognized the design anywhere. The problem was he couldn't recognize the village's symbol. The metal plate of the headband only had a single marking: a large, black dot.

"She's a ninja?" Kira whispered quietly, "The one sensei was talking about?"

Kit quietly prayed to whatever deities might be listening; he prayed that this woman wasn't what she appeared to be… otherwise they might very well be in over their heads.

"Well, I'd love to pay a pretty lady such as yourself," Royo continued, "But… times are hard in this town. Turf makes money, and we need weapons to gain more turf. So consider the weapons an investment toward the future."

"Do you have a second in command?" the woman asked quietly.

Royo looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "Of course." With a jerk of his thumb the gang leader pointed to a burly man behind him.

"Good."

The next movement was faster than any of the genin could track. One minute Royo was standing there with a smirk firmly planeted on his lips, and the next minute he was clutching his throat as blood spilled out around his fingers.

The unknown kunoichi was standing over the gangster, her hand held out to the side, stiff and blade-like. Kitaka could see traces of blood glistening on her fingernails, except… they weren't fingernails. The woman had somehow replaced her nails with sharp, thin pieces of black iron—lethal and deadly.

"You, the second," the woman addressed the large brute, "You're now in charge. Are you going to pay your suppliers… or do you want to end up like your former boss?" She kicked the dying Royo onto his back for added emphasis; the man sputtered, twitched once, and then lay still.

Chief Kaiza was watching the scene in horror, "You…"

"Now, Kaiza," the woman looked at him threateningly, "The world isn't going to miss one degenerate scumbag… there are a thousand others prepared to take his place. Isn't that right, boys?" She flashed the retreating gangsters a demonic grin.

"This is over, Cala," the police chief shouted, just as sirens could be heard in the distance.

The woman's face fell as she heard the sound, turning on the Chief with a look that could have halted light in its tracks, "You've just made a very big mistake…"

Kit was completely caught up in watching the scene playing out before him, so engrossed, that he almost leapt out of his skin when Kira's hand touched his shoulder.

"What are we gonna do, Kit?" she whispered urgently.

"I told you," the redhead hissed back, "Call Sasuke!"

"Uh… guys," Sainō was pointing towards the gathered assembly.

Apparently, in their panic, Kira and Kit had failed to duck behind the wall; therefore the attention of the entire alleyway was now focused upon their window. The woman down below locked her eyes upon Kit, and his blood froze.

"Genin…" the woman frowned, "You've brought more trouble than your worth, Kaiza. I'll leave you to sort it out."

Faster than any jutsu Kit had seen performed, the woman pointed a single hand at their window and made two signs, ending with her middle and index finger pointed at the window. Kit had never seen single-handed signs before, and he didn't get much time to marvel at the occurrence. There was a roar of sound, mere moments before a brilliant bolt of white lightning erupted from the ends of the woman's fingers.

"Get down!" Kit screamed, throwing himself backwards as the screaming energy rushed over head. The entire warehouse seemed to explode with white light, energy arcing and crackling over metal banisters and beams. He could feel his hair stand on end, and his entire body felt live wired. Rolling to the side, Kit was on his feet with a kunai drawn, rushing to the window to assess their predicament.

He was met with a barrage of gunfire; police officers and gangsters were present in the alley now, firing at one another. While the cops and hoods were content to kill one another, both parties seemed fairly interested in making certain that the ninja were pinned down.

"Kit!"

"Over here, Kira," he shouted, "Get to cover!" She appeared next to him in a second, breathing heavily.

"Are you alright," He asked. Her hair was wilder than ever, sticking up in odd places and spiking out in others. It was humorous to think that someone might actually pay for their hair to look such a manner, but Kit didn't have time for humor at the moment,

"I'm fine… where's Sainō?"

"I'm here!" their other teammate called from somewhere in the warehouse.

"Watch the entrance!" Kit shouted to him.

"Where is she?" Kira's eyes were wide, frightened even, and Kita couldn't blame her.

Kit stuck his head up to get another view of the scene below and was immediately hit in the face by a stray bullet. His head snapped back, and he heard Kira scream.

"Ow…" Kit frowned, ducking below the wall again.

Kira watched in horrified fascination as the bullet fell away from Kitaka's face, followed by a few grains of sand, "How… are you?"

"I'm fine," Kit said, rubbing his face where the bullet had struck him, "But I can't do anything from up here!" He growled in frustration, looking about for anything which would help them escape the firefight below. Everything around them was metal and steel—no earth. Kitaka had taken after his father when it came to jutsu specialty… if he was around rock, dirt, or sand… he was pretty much safe from harm; but in this iron jungle he felt helpless.

Yes, he had a last line of defense, which had saved him from the bullet, but Gaara's sand armor technique could only protect him for so long without another option readily available. Admittedly, Kit hadn't perfected the technique, and it had been taught to him by Naruto, whose own knowledge of earth style jutsu was limited. Most of the finer points Kitaka had needed to figure out for himself, and he really didn't want to put them to a test as deadly as the one below.

"Did you see her?"

Kit shook his head, "No sign… she vanished."

There was a loud crash of something slamming against metal.

"Holy Crap!"

Kit turned in time to see a cloud of smoke, which then revealed an pair of struggling Sainō, the real on and a clone, who were placing all of their might against the entry door to the warehouse, "Guys! We have company!" The boy struggled to keep the door closed as something slammed into it yet again. For a twelve year old, Sainō had incredible physical strength, something Naruto claimed was due to the boy's genetics, but even with the extra strength-no twelve year old was going to hold back a group of full grown men for long.

Kitaka was just thankful the metal door prevented bullets from going through its surface… Sainō wasn't bulletproof and neither was Kira.

"Did you get Sasuke?"

"No…" Kira said frantically, "Nothing will go through! What's our plan?"

Looking around once again, Kitaka couldn't form a plan. There were no other exits from inside this room, and even if he could get out the window and make it safely to the roof, the others would be torn down by gunfire. Kit knew he couldn't distract all of the gunmen. He didn't have a plan…

Pressing his communicator, Kitaka decided to try another channel, "Jira! Jira, this is Kit! Can you hear me? I need help!"

He was answered by nothing but a high pitched static-the sound of malfunctioning electronics. With a horrified look, Kitaka turned to his female teammate, "The communicator is short circuited…"

Realization dawned in Kira's eyes, "Oh no… the others don't know we're here."