Chapter 3 - Yakuza

Cleaning a canvas is always a bigger challenge then covering one. This was a truth that Bolt had learned from several pranks gone awry – all of them ending with him being a one-man cleaning crew. That afternoon was no different.

"Come on, Bolt! Scrub harder!" Hanabi barked. "I want to see my reflection in those tiles!"

Bolt was on his hands and knees while he scrubbed clean the roof of Hyuga's dojo. The fox tail that stretched and swerved over the length of the roof was as tenacious as the first two Bolt had spent most of the afternoon removing. His knees and arms ached as much as his face did at that point. The temptation of running away was powerful, but the sound of Hanabi's shinai tapping the roof's tiles kept Bolt working diligently.

Himawari was also watching Bolt clean. She walked with him from the academy, and patiently observed his labor from a tree in the estate. Her father had instructed her to tell on Bolt if he ran. She honestly was on the fence about telling on her brother, but with Hanabi present, there wasn't a lot Himawari could do for him.

"Brother! Do you need any help?" she called from the tree.

Hanabi pointed her shinai at her niece. "No sibling assistance allowed, Himawari! Bolt wants to play artist, he can play janitor too."

Himawari made a disappointed face. Bolt saw her expression. He quickly flashed her a smile.

"Don't worry, Hima! A little elbow work like this is nothing for a genius like me!" he declared.

"Hey, Genius. You missed a spot," Hanabi said while tapping a tile with her sword.

Bolt clicked his tongue and crawled over to the spot. Himawari giggled.

"Why do you even have that thing?" Bolt asked. "The Hyuga clan doesn't practice kenjutsu."

"I use it for killing rats."

"The estate has rats? Geez... You guys are always saying that I'm junk up the place, but doesn't look like you need my he-"

Hanabi swiftly struck Bolt's behind with her shinai. He yelped while jumping to his feet.

"Yooow!" He shot Hanabi a boiling glare. "What was that for?!"

Hanabi shrugged. "Sorry. I thought I saw rat crawl between your legs. Guess I must have been seeing things."

Bolt growled. Then he huffed and went back to scrubbing. Hanabi was surprised by her nephew's lack of furor. She wondered if it had anything to do with injuries.

"Bolt, you've gotten some new bruises I don't remember giving you," she said. "What happened?"

Bolt kept scrubbing. He patiently inched closer to the roof's edge. Hanabi tapped her shoulder with her shinai.

"Did you at least win?" she asked.

"I didn't lose."

"But you still didn't win. Well, don't feel too bad. A draw is still-"

"It wasn't a draw."

Hanabi snorted. "Will you quit already? There wasn't a winner or a loser, so that means the fight ended in a-"

"It's not a draw, because the fight didn't end! We're both still fighting, and we'll keep fighting until there's a winner! ...No matter how long it takes."

Hanabi blinked. Then she smiled at her nephew's back. "So you made a new friend. That's nice."

Bolt glanced over his shoulder, flustered. "He's not my friend! In fact, next time I meet him, he's gonna be top ramen! Believe it!"

"Yeah yeah~ Hurry up and get back to cleaning," Hanabi said while twirling the shinai.

Bolt pouted as he went back to work. "...It's no wonder you're still single. You're in your mid 20s and you don't even have a boyfriend yet."

Bolt felt Hanabi's shinai strike him again. There was much more passion in this blow than in the first.

"Oh look... " Hanabi said with a ominous grin on her face. "More rats."

Bolt quickly regretted his earlier words as Hanabi started flogging him like he was prisoner at a detainment cap. Himawari watched the scene pitifully.

"Brother... you really need to learn to think before you speak."

Hana sat in the kitchen with his hands politely on his knees.

"Ow, ow, ow..." he whimpered as Sakura applied ointment to his injuries.

"Don't you 'ow, ow, ow' me! Honestly, I never pictured you as the type to get into a fight on the first day of school, Hana."

"But it was taijutsu class..."

"You don't get bruises like these from sparring! Geez..."

Sakura put the ointment back in her kit and got out some bandages. Sarada was on the opposite side of the table, reading a book titled The Strings Attached to Puppet Mastering. She ignored the whining sound Hana made when Sakura starting putting bandages on him.

"Who were you fighting with anyway?" Sakura asked.

"A guy who's just as big an idiot as he is," Sarada remarked.

"You fought Bolt?!"

Hana was surprised at how Sakura guessed who it was just from Sarada's comment.

"Who started the fight?" she asked.

"Well, it doesn't really matter who started the-"

Sakura slapped a bandage onto his cheek.

"Ow! ...Bolt did."

Sakura groaned and finished with the bandages. She closed her kit and put it back in the cabinet where she kept her 'emergency equipment.' This equipment included kunai, shurikens, fuinjutsu scrolls and a few tanto. Hana remembered hearing that Sakura was a medical-nin on par with Konoha's fifth Hokage and one of the Legendary Sannin, Tsunade. The delicateness in which she cared for his wounds put a inkling of doubt in Hana's head.

'Could somebody like Miss Sakura really be such a monster?' he wondered.

Sakura closed the cabinet. "Hana, are planning on making peace with Bolt tomorrow?"

"Nope.".

Sakura made a face. "Why? Don't tell me you two hate each other already..."

"It's not that. In fact, I really like Bolt now. I actually hope we can become friends before we graduate."

"If you want to become friends, why don't you just make up with him?"

"Because that would be cheating."

Sakura stared at Hana queerly. Sarada licked her finger and flipped a page in her book.

"You should just leave him alone, Mom. Those two knuckle heads are made for each other, anyway."

Sakura sighed and dropped the subject just as her daughter advised. She turned on the stove as she prepared to make dinner. Sarada peered up at her mother's back.

"Mom... Is Dad going to make it home tonight?" she asked.

Sakura looked at her daughter and shook her head. "Sorry, sweetie. Your dad had an appointment with Lady Tsunade tonight. He's not going to make in time for dinner."

"...Right."

Sarada returned to her book without another word. Sakura wore an empathetic look as she watched her. For the past few days since Sasuke had returned, almost all of them had spent away from home. He and Sarada had yet to spend ten whole minutes alone.

One day, Sasuke had no other appointments in the village, and Sarada didn't need to go the academy. It was the first opportunity the two had a chance to spend time together, but before Sarada was able speak to Sasuke, he had already left the house with Hana to show him around the village. Sarada wanted to go over a genealogy book of the Uchiha clan she found with him. Instead, she waited patiently at home for Sasuke to return. When he did, it was already night.

Sarada jumped from the couch when Sasuke entered. "Dad, you're back! Uh... I mean, you almost missed dinner."

Sasuke removed his cloak. "It's fine. I already ate."

"...You did? Where?"

"At Ramen Ichiraku!" Hana exclaimed while entering after Sasuke. "That place is great! The noodles are sooo soft. And the beef the owner uses is sooo tender."

"You overate like you always do, Hana."

"How couldn't I overeat while being served something so amazing? You thought it was good too, didn't Master?"

"Eh... I'm not as big a ramen fanatic as Naruto is."

"The Seventh Hokage loves ramen too?! Can you invite him the next time we go?"

Sasuke sighed. "You can't just invite the Hokage out to eat like its nothing."

"The Seventh Hokage is an upstanding man. He understands the sacrifice that a delicious meal sometimes requests out of you."

Sasuke snorted and smiled. Sasuke always seemed to break out of his usual cold persona when he was with Hana. Sarada had taken note of that.

She opened her mouth. "Dad, I..."

Sasuke looked at her. "Sarada? What is it?"

Sarada was hiding the genealogy book behind her back. She stared at the floor.

"…Nothing. It's nothing," she said. "I just wanted to make sure you ate."

Sasuke paused and eventually nodded. He headed upstairs with Hana close behind him, still parading about Ramen Ichiraku. Sarada stood in the living room and gripped the book until her fingers left grooves in the cover.

"Sarada, you've been reading that one page for a long time," Hana said.

His comment brought Sarada back to her thoughts. Hana was right – Sarada had been reading page 18 for the past ten minutes. Sakura was already cooking beef on stove.

Hana laughed. "I guess you must be on a really interesting..."

Hana stopped mid-sentence upon receiving an icy cold glare from Sarada. It wasn't the type of glare you gave somebody who was annoying you while you were reading. It was the type of glare you gave someone you had sworn to kill.

"Uh... I'll just let you read," Hana said while leaving the table.

He smiled nervously while exiting the kitchen. Hana didn't know where that glare came from, but he did know that it was best for him to give Sarada some space.

'Maybe the roof would be good place to relax...' he thought.

'Damn! They're going to catch me at this rate!' Ryoma thought as she dashed from roof to roof.

Two men were gaining on her tail with each step. She reached into her furred jacket and pulled out kunai. She flung them at the men tailing her, but both of them evaded effortlessly. The bespectacled one landed on a water tower, and threw kunai of his own. Ryoma dodged them just as easily.

"Hah! Is that all you've got!"

Ryoma felt her face collide with something. It was like she flew into a fence in midair. The glasses man smirked and clenched his hands together, somehow binding Ryoma's body. Then he brought his conjoined hands down like he was hammering the air, and Ryoma plummeted to a rooftop below. She groaned while the two men flickered out in front of her.

"Took ya long enough, Roba. You couldn't have done that earlier?" the man with a gentleman's vest and slightly tanned skin asked.

Roba coughed nervously and adjusted his glasses. "It's not like I wasn't trying, Onbara. This girl moves like a falcon."

"Obviously, dumbass. She's a member of the Hanimura clan. The sky is her playground. Speaking of the sky..." Onbara knelt down. "There's a little bird that we're looking for. A bird that's going to lay a 'golden egg' for our boss. You wouldn't happen to know where that bird was, would you?"

Ryoma glared at him.

"Hey, now! No need to shoot off looks like that! I'm just asking friendly questions here. Tell you what – if you tell us where the bird is, Roba here will buy you all the ice-cream a little girl like you can eat."

"Why do I have to pay for everything?!"

"Would you stop complaining for one-"

Ryoma spat in Onbara's face. He looked at her. Then he sighed and pulled a handkerchief from his vest.

"You need to learn how to respect your elders, young lady," he said while wiping his face. "Roba. Do it."

Roba held out his loose sleeves. Dozens of kunai floated out of them and danced around Ryoma.

"Last chance, girl. Tell us where the bird is or-"

Before Roba could finish, Hana appeared next to him. He jumped up and kicked Roba's face with his bare feet. As Roba reeled, Hana landed and swept his feet. Roba fell and Hana jumped up, ready to finish the bespectacled man with an elbow drop to the stomach. Before his blow could connect, however, Onbara's foot caught Hana's side and punted him away.

The young boy rolled and tumbled to the other side of the roof. When he caught his footing, he stood and glared.

Onbara whistled. "That kid is something else, eh Roba? He sure kicked your ass."

Roba clicked his tongue while standing. "That brat caught me by surprise! It was just one lucky hit!"

Onbara hummed. "I don't know about that, Roba. If I hadn't had stopped him just then, that kid would've gave you the..." Onbara made a choking sound while slicing his thumb across his neck.

Roba bit his lip as he and Hana exchanged glares. If there was one thing Roba hated, it was being made a fool of; especially by a little brat. He twirled his fingers like he was a grand maestro. Most of his kunai that had fallen when Hana attacked him began dancing in front of him. One had been left behind, and laid beside Ryoma's foot.

Hana examined the situation carefully. When he saw Onbara and Roba attacking a girl from the rooftop, he dashed to her rescue. His plan going in went as such: first, he would knock Roba out in two decisive blows. Then, he would throw one of Roba's kunai at Onbara to move him, or at the very least, throw him off balance. Finally, he would take the girl and rush back to the Uchiha household.

The plan failed. Onbara noticed Hana as soon as he got to the roof, plus he was too fast and stopped Hana from finishing Roba off. He was obviously the stronger of the two. Hana knew that dealing with him would be the hardest part. He eyed the kunai next to the girl's foot. Then eyed the girl it was sitting beside. She and he exchanged a look.

'OK. Here we go!'

Hana dashed at Onbara. The latter shrugged like he couldn't believe a small boy dared pick a fight with him. Roba, angry that Hana was ignoring him, launched his flying kunai his way. Hana bobbed and weaved around them all. Roba smirked and twiddled his fingers. Hana glanced back and saw that all the kunai he had dodged were homing in on his back. He looked straight ahead and kept running.

Once he got close enough to Onbara, the girl kicked Roba's fallen kunai toward Hana. Both Roba and Onbara where surprised by this, but not Hana. While still running, he picked up the kunai and threw it at Onbara in a single motion. Onbara sidestepped it easily, but Hana expected him to do that.

"Windmill Style: Windmill Step!"

Hana disappeared then reappeared behind Onbara who's eyes shot toward the sky. Hana caught the kunai he had just thrown and slashed at Onbara with it, but before his blow connected, his hip exploded. Hana coughed up blood and crumpled at Onbara's feet.

Onbara exhaled. "Whew~ That scared the crap outta me... Kids sure are scary these days." Onbara peered down at Hana who moaning while massaging his scorched side. "Probably wondering what happened just now, eh kiddo? Well, remember when you were about to KO that dumbass Roba, and I kicked you right before you could land the finishing blow? On the tip of my sandal... was this."

Onbara pulled out of his vest a miniature explosive tag.

"These puppies are small enough that even trained ninja won't notice em if don't keep their eyes open. They don't have as much punch as normal-sized tag would, but they're killer during a street fight. ...Literally. Anyway..." Onbara hid the tag. "Roba, he's all yours. Don't make too much of mess this time, alright? The boss hates it when you leave a scene."

Roba scoffed as he approached Hana. "I'll be honest, you're pretty good for a kid your age. Too bad we won't get to see how good you could have become."

Roba raised his hands. His kunai circled the air above Hana's back.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" a girlish voice exclaimed.

Roba looked over his shoulder. A wave of flames was about to bowl over him.

"Move it, dumbass!" Onbara shouted while kicking Roba out of the way.

He pulled his foot back before the flames caught it. While he was in the middle of regaining his balance, Sarada attacked him.

Onbara managed blocked her first kick, but Sarada spun in midair and delivered a heel to his shoulder. He caught it right before it landed, but Sarada continued her assault by placing her opposite foot on his other shoulder and squeezing his neck. She rocked forward then back. Using the momentum, she back-flipped while carrying Onbara with her. He released Sarada's foot before his head collided with the roof, and flipped safe distance away from her.

He stared at her with a disheveled look on his face."That little girl is a monster..."

Hana coughed. "S-sarada... Why are you..."

"Just be quiet. It's your fault I'm out here," she said. "Just had to go and play hero... Mom was worried sick."

"...I'm sorry that I-"

"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" Roba was throwing a fit. "I've been made a fool out of not just once, but twice?! You little brats!" Roba raised his kunai. "I'll kill both of you!"

"You'll die first," Sakura said.

Roba looked to his side. He could barely see Sakura because her fist was blocking most of his view. Two hundred and fifty-five feet – that how far Roba flew when Sakura punched him. He bounced off of three roofs before crashing into the water tower he stood on top of earlier. Hana was wide-eyed.

'M-miss Sakura really is a monster...' he thought.

The pink-haired monster turned her sights toward Onbara who was casually whistling and unbuttoning his vest. She sprinted at him and was about to deliver the finishing blow.

"Time out~" Onbara sung while opening his vest.

Sakura stopped her fist barely an inch away from Onbara's face. Thousands of miniature explosive tags had been hiding behind his vest.

"These tags don't pack a lot of punch on their own, but with these many together... even the legendary Cherry Blossom Sakura might not survive."

Sakura shot Onbara a look. "You don't have the guts..."

Onbara chuckled. "Do you know what organization I'm affiliated with, Mrs. Uchiha? It's the yakuza."

Sakura shuddered.

"From your reaction I'm guessing that you're familiar with us. Familiar enough to know that in the yakuza, death means nothing. Guys like me drop like flies everyday, and I wake up every morning thinking that I'm gonna be next. But, ya see, I'm a huge scaredy cat. I'm too afraid to head to the afterlife on my own, so I'd really like to bring someone along with me. What do ya say? Wanna take the dive together?"

Sakura paused. She lowered her fist and backed away.

"If I see you again-"

"You'll kill me, I'll regret it, I won't get another chance... I've heard em all before, ma'am," Onbara said while buttoning his vest. "Now, if you'll excuse. I have to go retrieve a dumbass from a water tower. Hopefully, he's already drowned."

Onbara strolled to the other side of the roof. He shot Ryoma one more look.

"Looks like you got lucky, Miss Hanimura. Too bad it won't last. I hope that bird is worth your clan getting destroyed over."

Onbara flickered away. The girl glared at the space he was just standing in. Then she passed out. Hana watched her with an equally pitiful look on his face.

"Hana, are you OK? How are you wounds?" Sakura asked while examining his body.

"...I'm fine."

"You're not fine! You were already hurt to begin with! Now you've got these severe injuries on top of that! What were you thinking?!"

"He wasn't thinking. He's just jumps into the first mess he sees, unaware of how it affects others or himself," Sarada said coldly. "He's just an idiot."

Sarada walked away and waited on the roof's edge for her mother to finish treating Hana and Ryoma. As Sakura was healing his side, Hana stared at the stars. He took in the night air.

'Huh. Maybe I really am an idiot...'