Chapter 16 - The Invasion of Imaeda Palace
Bolt was a total flunkee. The worst in his year, by far. The only student in his class who could rival this failure was Hana, who was already making better grades than him. Beyond all the failed tests, however, there was at least one thing Bolt took prize in: shurikenjutsu.
A loud "thunk" was heard as Bolt's shuriken landed dead between his father's eyes. It was a picture that Bolt drew ages ago using Inojin's tools (without his permission.) It wasn't the most realistic piece. In fact, Naruto looked like a snaggletoothed, angry eyed imbecile, but Bolt still kept it pinned up in his room. He thought it made for perfect practice target.
Bolt smirked as another shuriken hit Naruto's nose. "Not so high and mighty now, are you Dumb-kage?"
A knock came from his door. "Bolt?"
The blonde nearly fell out of his bed when he heard his mother's voice. He quickly removed the shurikens and ripped the picture from the wall just before Hinata came in.
"H-hey, Mom..? What's up?" Bolt asked while hiding the picture behind his back.
"I just came to see if you were hungry. You never answered when I asked what you wanted for dinner."
"Oh. Uh... I'm good for now. I'll just eat some instant ramen or something." Bolt kicked at one of the shurikens on the floor. "Besides... it'd be lonely if it was just the two of us..."
A downcast look came over Hinata's face. "...I see. Well, I'll just make breakfast in the morning then. Goodnight."
"Yea... Night."
When the door shut, Bolt sighed heavily. He plastered the picture back onto the wall, and gathered up his shurikens, placing them in a small pouch that hung off of his bedpost.
The pouch was Himawari's idea. She had woven it herself and gave it to Bolt on his eighth birthday. He remembered how scratched up her fingers were. It made him wonder how many hours she spent making him that present.
Bolt grumbled and hit the pouch, causing it to sway. 'I yelled at Dad for not being able to do anything.. but wasn't I the useless one...? Himawari saved me; her big brother, and got put in the hospital cause of it...' Bolt watched the pouch settle. "Argh! I'm so freaking useless...!"
Bolt scratched the back of his head erratically. "...I need to breathe."
Bolt approached his window. He opened it then stuck his head out. He hoped to just catch a pleasant breeze on his face. What he caught instead was the sight of two figures rushing through the streets.
"Who's that...?"Bolt asked himself while squinting.
The figures ran under a street lamp, and Bolt recognized them immediately. "Sarada and the momma's boy? Where are they going?"
The two turned a corner and headed toward the train station. After watching their shrinking figures disappear, Bolt shut his window.
"Whatever... Doesn't involve me," he said while slumping into his bed.
He stared at the ceiling for a moment. Then he peered over at his shuriken pouch. The pouch his sister cut her hands up making for him.
Eventually, Bolt stood, grabbed a handful of shurikens out of the pouch and left his room without his mother noticing.
Imaeda Palace surely lived up to its name. It stood five stories high, behind a gated area. The lights that would have been lighting up the area looked foggy from not being used in so long.
"This place is amazing..." Hana gaped.
"All it is is a casino. A fancy one, anyway. It's nothing too special," Sarada said dismissively.
"Are you kidding me? This place looks awesome! Just look at it! It's like a super decked-out castle!" a third party added.
Hana looked. Sarada looked. Bolt looked. Then he waved.
"Yo."
"Bolt...? How did you get here?!" Hana blurted.
"I followed you. I saw you two heading toward the train station, and thought I'd see where you were heading."
"Does Miss Hinata know you're here?"
"Does Sakura know the both of you are here?" From the looks on their faces, Bolt knew the answer was 'no.' "So, there you go. We all sneaked out. Now let's-"
"Wait a minute." Sarada stepped in front of Bolt. "You don't think you're going to follow us, do you? You don't even know why we're here in the first place."
"...does it involve the guy who put Hima in the hospital?" Once again, Bolt received expressions instead of answers. "I knew it... I don't know how you guys found him, but I want in. That jerk is gonna pay for hurting my little sister."
Sarada pressed the tape on her glasses' temple again. "Bolt, I get that you're frustrated, but right now-"
"You don't get anything! Back then, I could do was watch Hima get blown into the air! If I just let this dude get away with-"
Sarada slapped her hand over Bolt's mouth. "Keep it down you idiot...! You're going to get us caught...!"
Bolt made a face and nodded slowly. "S-sorry..." he apologized. He saw Hana chuckling behind Sarada and grumbled. "...if I let this guy get away with what he did, I'll never be able to call myself Hima's big brother again. I've already been avoiding her over, uh... jealously, I guess. I suck as a big brother already. I don't need to add another score to the board."
The children from the Uchiha household looked at Bolt oddly. It was the most somber they had ever heard him. They didn't know Bolt could even make such an expression or hold such a tone.
"Bolt... are you sick?" Hana asked.
A vein bulged on Bolt's forehead. "What do ya mean 'am I sick?' You got something you wanna say, momma's boy?!"
Hana laughed. "Heh. Never mind. You're still you, after all."
Hana kept laughing while Bolt glared daggers into him. Abruptly, Sarada slapped her hands over both their mouths.
"What part of 'you're going to get us caught' don't you dummies understand? Are you two going to shut up or not?!" The two nodded their heads as fast they could. "...good."
Sarada released them and faced Imaeda Palace. "Bolt, listen up. We came here to rescue Ryoma, not to fight. If we meet this guy along the way, and push comes to shove-"
Bolt interjected "We'll take that jerk out!"
"We'll run."
Bolt's made a face again. He was on the verge of shouting an objection, but Sarada started approaching the casino before he got a chance. Hana hurried behind her, and Bolt, begrudgingly, after him. The three invaded Imaeda Palace.
Ryoma was laying down, eyes wide open. For the past couple hours she had been staring at the barred window, watching the leaves on the nearby branch occasionally dance in the night breeze.
'So this is what being a caged bird is truly like. All this time, I've comparing myself to one,' Ryoma thinly smiled. 'How foolish I've been...'
She stayed there wondering if her message had gotten out to anyone. In truth, she doubted this. The message itself was messy, and any chance of one of the Hidden Leaf's ninja extracting information from a turtle-dove was slim to none.
Ryoma bit her lip. Never had she felt more helpless. 'Brother... Father...'
For the second time that day, Ryoma heard the door open. She looked up and saw two men enter this time. Neither of them was the man from before, but one of them Ryoma recognized.
"You...! You were chasing me with that other man a week ago!" Ryoma barked at Roba.
Roba huffed and pushed his glasses up. "Still as indignant as ever, huh? You think you would have learned from our last meeting, little girl."
Ryoma would have kept glaring, but the other man who came in caught her attention. He had black hair which he wore in a high ponytail, and a faint T-shaped scar going diagonal over his forehead. He stood in front of the bed and eyed Ryoma carefully. She wondered what he was trying to gauge. Whatever it was, he must of found it, because of satisfied look came over his face.
"Roba, bring me a seat," the man ordered.
To Ryoma's surprise, Roba nodded and went to retrieve a stool from the small bar sitting in the corner of the room.
'Whomever this man is, he must be powerful,' Ryoma concluded.
The man sat down, and balanced his chin on his fist while he continued observing Ryoma. Eventually, he muttered "You really do look like her..."
Ryoma tensed up a bit. "...who are talking about?"
"I can see it in your eyes. Her's were that shade of blue as well," the man continued, completely ignoring her.
Ryoma started to get annoyed. "Please, don't ignore when I'm addressing you."
The man suddenly frowned. "But you've got Yusano's personality. What a shame... You even got your hair from him too."
"You know my father...?"
"Know him? He and I were best friends back in the day. Back when Konoha City was still in construction, we would run the streets like we owned them. We practically do, now."
Ryoma was shocked. She was unaware that somebody like her father could even have friends, let alone one from so long ago. She was positive that Fudai was the only person he ever confided in. Then the thought came to her.
She was almost nervous when she asked "If you knew my father, did you know my mother as well?"
"Hmm? You mean Nozomi? Of course. She was the one I was comparing you to."
Ryoma's face lit up.
The man folded his arms and sighed. "Seriously, who could ever forget that woman... She was a walking disaster. Everywhere she went, destruction and carnage followed. To this day, I still don't know how Yusano managed to tame that girl. She was as giggly as an infant when he was around."
Ryoma couldn't believe any of it. For the first time, she was learning about her mother. She was learning about her father before he became the sullen man he is now. It was almost worth being kidnapped, but Ryoma wasn't fooled into thinking her situation was different from before. She had to ask "Excuse me, but.. who are you?"
The man made a face. "Why so curious all the sudden. You never asked what Roba's name was."
"He doesn't matter," Ryoma said bluntly.
Roba stewed angrily in the background.
Ryoma continued. "The reason why I'm asking is due to the fact that I've never met you before. If you, my father and mother were indeed so close, I should have met you at some point during my childhood. That I haven't makes your existence... ominous."
The man was taken aback somewhat. A captured, helpless ten year old girl was sitting before him, and she spoke to him with more confidence than most yakuza he met had.
He smiled. "Yusano, you've raised one hell of a daughter. Fine. You want to know the reason why your father and I don't talk anymore?"
Ryoma nodded. The man scared the scar on his forehead.
"It's because I killed your mother."
Ryoma stopped. She wasn't doing anything due to being tied up, but she still stopped. "W-what did you-"
"Actually, to be specific, I didn't kill your mother. The guy I hired did. I could tell you his name, but honestly, I can't remember for the life of me. These goons all look the same after a while."
"Wha-"
"It was tough hire too. Nobody wanted to get near Nozomi, even when she wasn't going berserk. Thankfully, she got pregnant. This made the assassination much more convenient." The man smiled at Ryoma. "Wasn't expecting you to live, though."
Ryoma was appalled. "...why? You and my father were friends... so why?!"
"It's complicated. To put it simply, though... It's kinda hard being best friends with another yakuza leader."
"You're a... clan leader?"
"\Minoru Yamabe, head of the Yamabe clan – currently the most powerful clan in the yakuza. Or at least it will be soon." Ryoma could feel Minoru's entire demeanor change. It was like he was a completely different person.
"Right now, the yakuza is in a complete state of disarray," he continued. "Just this morning, I had Roba and a new employee massacre all the clan heads of the Sakata, Handa, Kato, Shimamura and Oza. Their clans are floundering around like fish right now, and while they are, I'm going to use the opportunity to eliminate my biggest adversary..." He pointed. "Your old man."
For the first time, Ryoma was in a total state of shock.
"Uh... boss. You got one thing wrong," Roba said. "The Oza clan's leader lived."
Minoru blinked. "Wait, what?! That old badger Saizo is still kicking? Who else lived?"
"The Hanimura kid. Not this one, but her brother."
Ryoma looked at Roba for a brief moment before looking back down again. 'Brother... you're alive? Thank goodness..."
Minoru sighed between his knees. "What the hell am I paying Sawako for? She does such a sloppy job."
Roba looked at his feet. "Actually, her... sloppiness... might be one of the reasons she's so good at her job..."
"If you say so..." Minoru Yamabe stood and started for the door.
"Wait!" he heard from behind him. "You don't have to do this! What you want isn't my father's life; it's the bird, is it not? I can-"
"Stop it, Ryoma. I already know that you don't have it," Minoru said. "Onbara checked before throwing you in here. Who did you give it too? Was it one of those kids in the park?"
Ryoma pursed her lips. Minoru shrugged.
"Whatever. We'll get it back eventually. For now, Yusano's death is my biggest priority. You'll make for a good hostage in the meantime." Minoru saw the angry, distraught look in Ryoma's eyes. "Heh. You really do look like your mother."
The door shut, and Ryoma was left alone, once again. This time, more helpless than ever.
"Man... this place is super fancy," Bolt commentated as he, Hana and Sarada walked through the casino's hallway.
"Yeah... Even though it shut down a while ago, everything still looks brand new," Hana said while looking around. "Master and I actually visited a casino while we were traveling."
"Was it anything like this?"
"No way. This place is way more-"
"Shut it!" Sarada hissed to the both of them. "Do you guys ever shut up?"
Hana scratched his cheek. "Sorry, Sarada... It's kind of boring just walking, so..."
"What's your deal, anyway? We're being quiet enough aren't we?" Bolt asked with his hands behind his head.
"If this is you two idiots' idea of sneaking, you should drop out of the academy as soon as possible." Sarada touched the tape on her glasses. "Though with the grades you two have, that might not even be necessary."
Hana gave a sad chuckle while Bolt just sneered. Sarada ignored them and continued onward toward an archway. As Hana watched her go, he noticed something. It was hard to spot in the dark, but some moonlight shone in from a nearby window and danced off it.
He realized what it was and shouted "Sarada, stop!"
Sarada looked back, but she didn't stop her foot in time. The wire was touched and the trap triggered. Ten paper explosives stuck to the archway above ignited. The explosion didn't harm her, but the rubble that fell as a result was different story. Sarada rolled out of the way of the debris, but she was now separated from Bolt and Hana.
"Sarada! Sarada, are you okay?!" Hana called from behind the rubble.
"Yeah, I'm fine, Hana, but I'm separated from you two now. You'll have to go on without me."
"What?! But we can't just-"
"I'll be fine. I'm more capable than both of you, after all."
Sarada didn't have to see Bolt's face to know the expression it was making. "Alright, you show off! Do whatever you want! We'll go find Ryoma by ourselves! Come on, momma's boy!"
"Be careful! Okay, Sarada?" Hana called out.
Sarada heard the boys' footsteps disappear. She took a deep breath and looked back toward the hallway that wasn't blocked. She pressed forward.
'Don't worry, Ryoma... I'm coming.'