Chapter 19 - Sarada vs Roba: Sarada's Conviction!
The consistent crashes coming from the suite scared away the animals nestled in the tree near it. For the past half hour, Ryoma had been beating her shoulder against the barred window. She hoped to knock at least one bolt loose and escape, but all her labor seemed to do was make her left arm numb.
'Come on... Break!' she frantically thought. 'I need to escape and warn Father and Shojiro!'
The flesh on her shoulder was turning red, but Ryoma refused to stop. She wasn't going to lose another member of her family to Minoru Yamabe.
She stopped, bent her knees slightly, and charged at the barred window one last time. It was the loudest "crash" she had created, and with her near-nocturnal eyesight, she saw a single bolt fall from outside.
She smiled. "Yes!"
Her elation dropped just like the bolt when she heard the knob of the suite's door rattle. She looked back at it.
"Damn. It's locked," a man's voice said.
"You think we should just knock it down then?" another man asked.
"Are you joking? Look at this thing! It's reinforced right down to the lock! No way we could break it by ourselves."
Ryoma sighed in relief. The men at the door must not have been given the keys. She could still escape before they came in. At least that was what Ryoma thought. Just as she was pushing the bars back, she saw another person's shadow on the wall. She peered back again and saw a man who was halfway inside the room, and halfway out. He simply phased through the wall like it wasn't there.
He made a face when he saw Ryoma. "What the... A girl?!"
His companion poked his head in. "What? What do ya see?"
"Some little girl is tied up in here!"
The second man passed through the wall just like the first did. He adjusted the shaded glasses that he wore despite being inside a building in the middle of the night.
"Hey... Are you related to some guy called Shojiro Hanimura?" he said.
Ryoma's eyes widened. "You know my brother?!"
"Ah. You must be that sister he was talking about."
"Hey, Tsuno. You know her?" the first man asked.
"All I know is that her brother is super over-protective, and her dad is the only person to even half-way impress the boss. Anyway..."
He walked up to Ryoma. When he reached his hand out toward her, she backed away. Tsuno, however, was faster and caught her shoulder.
"Calm down, already. Geez..."
Tsuno turned Ryoma around and started unwinding the wires that bound her. When they dropped to the floor in a loop surrounding her feet, the young Hanimura looked back at Tsuno bewildered.
"...who are you?" she asked, massaging her newly freed arms.
Tsuno smirked. "You're a part of the Seven Great Clans and you don't know who I am? I'm a member of the notorious Oza Clan – the clan known as the Ghosts of the Underworld! I'm the clan's next head: Tsuno O-"
"Yo, Tsuno. If you keep yapping we're gonna be late," Tsuno's companion interjected. "You don't want Eda pissed at you again, do ya?"
The stocky-haired yakuza glared back at his partner, then sighed in way that suggested to Ryoma that he got this sort of treatment a lot.
"Whatever... Come on Shojiro's sister," Tsuno said. "We're getting out of here."
"Wait." Tsuno stopped. When he looked back Ryoma was bowing to him. "I thank you for rescuing me, Sir Tsuno, but still... how did you know about this place?"
"...'that woman' told us."
"What woman?"
"To think she'd just turn around and help us after trying to kill us. That Sawako chick is something else..."
Sarada was panting like a ragged ninja hound. For the past ten minutes she had been hiding from Roba, but no matter how often she hid, no matter how bad both of their sights were, his kunai always found her eventually.
While hiding behind one of the vault room's pillars, she could hear Roba's footsteps.
She gripped the ends of her skirt. She couldn't let it end like this. She had come to rescue Ryoma. No way was she going to be taken out by some foot soldier before that goal was even accomplished, but what was she supposed to do?
She thought about what her father would do in this sort of situation. For one: Sasuke Uchiha wouldn't let dire odds intimidate his decision making.
Sarada took a deep breathe. 'Okay...'
She shut her eyes and ran through what she knew.
First, her weaknesses:
1. I'm still just an academy student.
2. The only jutsu I've mastered is the Fireball Jutsu.
3. My chakra reserves are almost drained from using it once already.
4. I'm still not 100% sure on what this guy's techniques are.
5. My glasses are broken and they're messing with my sight. That particular weakness gets even worse when I factor in how dark this room is.
6. This Roba guy wears glasses too, so he must have some ability that lets him locate me in the dark.
Then her strengths:
1. Even though I'm still in the academy. I'm already physically stronger than Roba. Judging from what I saw on the rooftops a couple nights ago, his taijutsu is probably around Genin level still.
2. I know that his kunai manipulation technique and that binding move of his are related to each other some how.
3. This guy isn't all that bright. Compared to Onbara who even made Mom back off, he's kinda dumb.
Sarada opened her eyes. She had three to six odds in Roba's favor. It wasn't good, but it also wasn't bleak enough to make her give up.
'If my odds are six to three, that just means I have to give this guy twice of everything I've got...'
Sarada stood. If was time to stop hiding.
Roba sighed. 'This little girl is really good at playing hide-and-seek,' he thought.
Suddenly, he heard a noise; a "clack" from behind him. He wheeled his head around to look. Laying on the floor was a red glasses temple. Tape was still on the end of it.
Roba realized too late the ploy he had fallen for. From behind another pillar Sarada popped out and made the hand signs Snake → Ram → Monkey → Boar → Horse → Tiger.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
A massive ball of flames fired at the Yamabe yakuza like a molten cannonball. Roba jumped away at the last second, an ember still managing to lick his sandal.
Unfortunately for him, the fire-spitting Uchiha wasn't done. As soon as she shot the first fireball, she made another set of hand signs and shot another, exactly where she knew Roba would end up landing.
Roba's eyes widened. 'That little brat...' He smirked. 'She almost got me.'
At the height of his jump, just as he was about to descend, Roba stopped. Not only that, he stood; suspended in the air, much like the kunai he controlled.
Sarada stared in disbelief. 'He... He can float now...? What kind of technique is he using?!'
Roba clapped slowly, a overly pleased smirk still stuck on his face. "That was pretty good thinking, using a piece of your glasses as a distraction and all. You almost caught me. Hard to believe you're still an academy student." Roba hummed. "You're Sasuke Uchiha's daughter, right? I bet you would have grown up to be one monstrous kunoichi. Too bad it all ends for you here."
Roba raised his hands and made his kunai dance like a maestro at a concert. From the shadows of the vault room, even more kunai appeared to join the already heavy artillery at Roba's control.
"How about one more dance, Uchiha girl?" Roba asked rhetorically.
His army of kunai knives came at Sarada from nearly every direction. She flipped backwards to avoid the first waves, but her legs and wrists still got light cuts. She tried dashing behind the pillar, but Roba twiddled his fingers and choreographed a pincer attack that Sarada barely evaded.
This time her arms and right cheek were cut. Realizing that the pillar wasn't giving her enough protection, she tried going around and heading for the exit. Doing so before had proved more hazardous than anything, but right now, she didn't have a lot of options left.
In spite of her efforts, she couldn't even make it that far from the pillar before once again falling prey to Roba's mysterious binding technique.
"Gah...!" She was yanked into the air, then her back was slammed against the pillar.
Roba looked at her, still afloat in the air. "I'll give you another chance before putting you down for good. Where is the egg?"
Sarada glared up at him. Oddly, she moved something around in her mouth that made her cheek swell up. Then she spit something out of her mouth that wasn't fire. It hit Roba right into one of his lenses, and knocked him off balance, prompting him to fall from midair.
Sarada knew from her first experience that Roba's binding technique was interrupted whenever he lost concentration. Just like she thought, she was freed.
'This is my chance!' She thought while running toward the plummeting Roba. 'I have to grab the egg and take him down before-'
"Ugh...!"
It was sudden. It was also the worst pain Sarada ever felt. So much so that it made her stop in her tracks and sent her keeling forward.
Five kunai were jutting out of her back. She hadn't seen them. She completely believed that Roba was incapable of directing them without having full concentration. From the blood soaking the back of her pink cardigan, she had thought wrong. All she could do was groan meekly at the pain that had paralyzed her. The coldness of the floor was almost pleasant in comparison.
Sarada could hear footsteps. She didn't bother looking forward. She already knew who it was, what he was holding in his hand.
"So you really did have the egg on you this whole time. Imagine my luck," Roba said while examining the egg in his hand. "It's a shame that it cost me another pair of glasses. I just got these after your dear old mom broke my old pair along with most of my face. Speaking of which... I'm still holding onto a grudge from then."
With a single "whoosh" of his hand, the kunai still jammed into Sarada's back floated up and brought her with them. She dangled helplessly in the air. Her crooked glasses even fell from her face. It didn't matter. She didn't need to see to know what was about to happen. Every kunai Roba controlled was orbiting around her.
"I guess you call this killing two birds with one stone!" Roba mocked.
A disgusted voice suddenly groaned. "You're just awful..."
Alarmed and confused Roba looked about the vault room.
The one place he didn't bother to look was down.
Like a ghost, a woman rose from the floor beneath Roba and sent him flying back with her knee.
The egg was lost from the bespectacled yakuza's grip and caught by Eda. When Sarada dropped from the air along with all of the kunai knives, Eda caught her as well.
"Y-you?!" Roba exclaimed while he rubbed his chin on the floor. "You're that woman from the Seven Great Clans Meet. One of Saizo's bodyguards!"
Eda pulled the kunai from Sarada's back. "Nice of you to remember, four eyes. You're just as tough as I thought you were: menacing little girls with corny lines."
She removed Sarada's cardigan, and pulled up her vest and the shirt underneath so she could see her bleeding back. Eda's empty hand glowed with a green aura as she used a healing jutsu on Sarada's wounds.
Roba forced himself up and wiped the blood leaking from his lips. "You really think I'm going to let you do whatever you want?!"
He waved his hand and the kunai came at attention. Eda sighed. "Really, to still have a temper tantrum at your age..."
As the kunai rained down at the girls, they sunk into the floor like it was quicksand. The iron daggers ricocheted as they hit the floor panels. Roba was once again befuddled.
Sarada felt a pleasant sensation on her back. A nice contrast to just a few moments ago. She looked up at the woman who was treating her. She couldn't see properly without her glasses, but she knew the woman had lengthy Autumn brown locks, and that she wore a suit. Sarada briefly wondered what type of business she participated in.
After a moment, when the pain subsided enough for her to pay a bit more attention to her surroundings, Sarada noticed that everything around her pitch black. The only sound she could hear was the healing jutsu being performed on her. It was like she was receiving medical attention in a void.
"...who are you?" she eventually asked, fatigue still heavy in her voice.
"Feeling good enough to speak?"
"...where are we?"
"Feeling nosy too, huh? To answer the second question: in the ground. To answer the first: Eda Oza."
Weak as she was, Sarada still made a conspicuous face. "Floor? ...how?"
"It's the secret technique of the Oza clan. We call it the Phantom Tread Jutsu. With it, we can pass through any surface and hide inside anything, even if the inside of it is already taken up by something. Like the floor, for example." Eda moved her hand lower on Sarada's back. "It's the reason the other yakuza clans call us the Ghosts of the Underworld."
Sarada blinked. "...so you're in the yakuza too?"
"Surprised?"
"Not really. Everyone I've met lately seems to be. ...why are you helping me, though?"
"Long story. To make it short: the Yamabe clan killed all of the clan heads of the other yakuza clans except ours and the Hanimura's. We found out through an assassin the Yamabe hired that their clan's leader is hiding out here while Hell is breaking loose, so we came here to make him and his goons pay. One of those goons just happened to be the guy who was about to kill you."
"So... coincidence?"
"Pretty much." Eda's hand stopped glowing. "You should be good enough to move again."
Sarada sat up and pulled her clothes back down. "Thanks."
She looked down at the egg that was still cupped in Eda's hand. Before Sarada could even say anything, Eda dropped the egg in her lap.
"Keep this safe from now on, alright? As funny as it was to watch four-eyes tumble from the sky, I wouldn't suggest spitting it at people again," Eda told her.
Sarada was bewildered. "I thought everyone in the yakuza wanted this."
"No. Our leaders wanted it. Now that most of them are dead, two of them are trying to keep the whole organization from falling apart, and one of them is responsible for all of this, fighting over the egg is pretty much pointless. We've all got enough on our plate as it is. Now then." Eda stood. "You stay here and rest. I'll be back after I've dealt with four-eyes."
"Wait!" Sarada wobbled a little as she tried to stand. "I've got a score to settle with him first."
Eda gave her a look. "Are you insane? I mean, seriously. You can barely stand. You can barely see. And I know from those fireballs I saw you spray everywhere that you've barely have any chakra left. You did good for someone who's not even a Genin yet, so just sit this one out."
"No. You said this guy is a member of the clan responsible for all of this, didn't you? That means everything Ryoma had to go through – Roba, his boss, their partners – they're the cause of everything." Sarada gripped the egg tightly. "I'll never be ever to make the entire Yamabe clan pay for how much they've made Ryoma and her family suffer, but I can at least settle the score with the guy above us."
Eda couldn't help but look at Sarada strangely. She never knew a kid that was so obstinate.
'Wait. Yes, I do,' she thought. 'But at least he knows to back down after getting five kunai stuck in his back.'
She sighed. "Oh, well... I guess it just can't be helped. Let's see can you back up your talk... what was your name again?"
"Sarada Uchiha of the Hidden Leaf's Uchiha clan."
When Sarada and Eda finally resurfaced, Roba was still standing in the same position he was in when they vanished.
"I've been waiting for you..." he said with a battalion of kunai knives floating above him.
Eda eyed the kunai carefully. "Those things were a pain back at the Tengoku Hotel... We'll have to figure out four-eye's abilities before we can take him down-"
"I already figured out what his technique is," Sarada said plainly.
Eda blink. "...what? When?"
"Just before you took us into the floor. I already had an idea while I fighting him, but now I'm pretty sure how it works. I still need to test it, though."
"And how do you plan to do that?"
Sarada peered back. "Can you use your clan's jutsu on people beside yourself?"
Eda nodded. "Only for five seconds, though."
"That'll work. Can you use it on me just before Roba launches his kunai at us?"
Eda nodded again. She still couldn't believe how composed Sarada was, especially considering how seriously she was injured just a few moments ago. Regardless, when Roba moved his hands and his kunai flew their way, she did as the young Uchiha wanted.
She made the hand signs Dog → Ox → Snake and touched Sarada's back. "Secret Technique: Phantom Frame Jutsu!"
Sarada could feel a light pulse. After that, Eda sunk back into the floor. Roba made his finger dance and his kunai fly. Sarada saw the knives coming and shut her eyes.
'I can't really see anyway, so it doesn't matter if my eyes are closed or not,' she thought. 'What's important now is timing...'
The first kunai hit her. 'One...' The rest of the barrage followed. 'Two, three...' Hundreds of continue shot through Sarada. 'Four...' The last kunai came. 'Five.'
Her eyes sprang open, and she moved out of the kunai's flight path just as the jutsu's effectiveness wore off. She then reached her hand out and clutched where one of the kunai had flown. The kunai in question abruptly stopped and hit the floor with a "clank."
Both Roba and Eda who resurfaced next to Sarada were shocked.
Eda looked at Sarada's hand. "What happened? What are you holding."
"The trick to Roba's technique. It's a wire," Sarada saw while she stretched it in her hands.
Eda squinted to see it, while Roba's jaw came apart slightly.
'How... How did she...?' he thought in total befuddlement.
"A wire, huh? It must be pretty thin," Eda said still struggling to look at it. "Probably reflects light too. But what does it have do with flying kunai?"
Sarada began to drag the kunai the wire was connected to back to her. "I once read a book about puppet masters. The way they control their puppets is by channeling their chakra into strings and attaching the puppets to move them. Roba was doing the same thing with the kunai, except he channeled his chakra through wires that were already connected to them. I explains how he was able to bind me and what he was standing on in midair. He was just using wires I couldn't see. He probably has wires set up around the room too so that he can always tell where people are."
Sarada used the kunai she reeled in the cut the wire connected to it loose. "The wire probably gives him an advantage his opponents don't see coming."
"Sarada, you're giving four-eyes too much credit. The real reason he probably uses the wire is because manipulating kunai without one would be too hard." Eda shot Roba a malicious smile. "He probably isn't all that skilled. Most yakuza tend not to be. A lot of ninja academy dropouts and Genin who could never pass the Chunin Exams make up most of the organization's fodder."
Roba grinded his teeth. There was only one thing he hated more than brats, and that was being mocked.
"So what if its a cheap parlor trick?! It doesn't change anything!" He put up his hands. "I'm still going to kill both of you!"
With his kunai raised once again, Roba was ready for the finale.
Eda looked down at Sarada. "So what now? You've managed to piss him off. What's plan B?"
Sarada hid the kunai in her sweater vest. "Can you use your jutsu one more time? I'm going to finish him off."
Roba watched the girls chatter. He clicked his tongue and sent his kunai their way once more. Eda grabbed Sarada's shoulder and the both of them sunk into the floor again. Roba looked around. He could tell from his wires that they hadn't resurfaced, and he made sure to look down this time.
He should have looked up.
Eda appeared from one of the pillars and jumped down on top of Roba. He barely avoided her kick. The uppercut that followed was much more accurate. Roba put up his hands to counter but Eda's onslaught of blows were much faster than anything his hands could stop.
With his hands too busy blocking, Roba couldn't manipulate his kunai properly. A close-range brawl was his worst nightmare.
When the pummeling ended, Roba's back was against the vault room's vault door.
"Man, Sarada wasn't kidding when she said you suck at taijutsu," Eda said working her wrists. "I have a cousin who's still in the academy and even he'd destroy you in fist fight."
Roba growled. "...it's the academy all over again. I can't do taijutsu. I can't do ninjutsu. I'm completely talentless... but so what?! So what if I fight using cheap tricks?! So what if I'm still only as strong as a a genin in a fist fight?!" Roba raised his fist. "I'm done being everyone's punching bag!"
Eda caught Roba's fist easily. "Actually, there's still one more person you need to settle things with before you can retire from that role." She tightened her grip. "Phantom Frame Jutsu!"
Eda pushed Roba into the vault door and he passed right through it. Still confused about what was going, Roba looked around. The vault had been emptied out after the casino's owner died. Not a single gold bar or ryo could be seen, but there was still one thing standing inside: a girl with dark hair, equally dark eyes, a yellow sweater vest, and one of the scariest glares Roba, who had been a part of the yakuza since his youth, had ever seen.
"...three, four, five," Sarada counted.
She dashed at Roba as soon as she finished. She jumped up, spun her entire body, and launched her foot directly where she saw her mother's fist go over a week ago.
Eda heard an impressive "thud" from outside. She smiled and made the hand signs Dog → Tiger → Rat.
"Secret Technique: Ghost Pulse Jutsu!" she exclaimed with her hands on the vault door.
The door became translucent, and an unconscious Roba with a broken nose and cracked spectacles fell through it. Sarada came out after him panting. She sat down against the wall near the door.
"You're pretty amazing for an academy student," Eda complimented. "Hey, what do you say about joining the Oza clan?"
Sarada smiled slightly. "My clan is little short on members, so..."
Eda sighed. "Really? Well, that blows. If only you had a brother or something..."
Sarada made a face. Eda's words made her remember somebody, and that somebody made her gaze up at the ceiling.
After finding Sasuke's chokuto, Hana sheathed it and used it like a crutch. His leg still felt terrible, but he was just going to have to muscle through until he and Bolt escaped.
"Bolt? Bolt, wake up," Hana asked while prodding at Bolt's face with his finger. "We've got to go and find Sarada."
Bolt mumbled something, but he didn't wake up. Sighing, Hana decided to haul the unconcious blonde over his shoulder. His leg, of course, didn't agree with this idea. Something it made very clear by almost driving Hana to tears. Regardless, the young Fujikaze trekked on.
He stopped once and looked in the direction Bolt had blown Onbara away. Debris and smoke was still heavy there. He kept Onbara's necklace close as he kept walking. Then he rubble being moved.
'…no way...' Hana thought while looking back.
From underneath a lop-sided roulette table arose a familiar yakuza. He had severe burn marks going down his shoulder, and his vest he was so proud of was now scorched, but he still in one piece. Remarkably, disregarding a few stray strands, his hair had gone relatively unscathed.
Onbara put his hand on his neck and cracked it. "How many times have I almost been killed by a kid, now? Twice, right? ...actually, no. If you count the time Monster Girl almost made my head go splat on a rooftop, then it's up to three."
Onbara walked down from the small hill of debris. "Man, I swear... kids these days are something else." He stopped and exchanged looks with Hana. "Still got something to say to me, kiddo?"
Hana's mouth was trembling. When he finally decided to open it, every door in the show room burst open. Both Hana and Onbara were taken by surprise when an army of suited men flooded in. All of them looked intimidating. Not a single soft face could be found.
Even stranger, the men themselves seemed confused to see the other groups had arrived.
"...hey! You guys are with the Sakata clan, aren't you!" one man barked.
The man he pointed at glared back. "The Handa clan? What are you bastards doing here?!"
Another man stepped forward with his hands in his coat pockets. "Both the Handa and Sakata can just disappear. Everything happening at this casino is Shimamura business from this point on."
"You're joking right?" another man asked while spitting onto the floor.
"Of course he is," one of his companions said. "Everything about the Shimamura clan is a joke."
One of the Shimamura glared at the man. "And who the hell are you?!"
"We're the Kato clan, of course. What? You don't recognize the greatest clan in the yakuza?"
The conversation among the yakuza clans got fiercer and their language got fouler. A fight was about to break out when Onbara stopped them by whistling loudly.
"...have I gotten your attention now?" He looked around the silent room. "Good. There's children present, so make sure ya keep ya manners. Now, what the hell is going on here? Why are four of the Seven Great Clans gathered at this casino?"
A member of the Handa shot Onbara a look. "And who the hell are you? Giving orders like you run the damn place."
"Wait... This guy... He looks familiar," a member of the Shimamura looked at Onbara oddly.
One of the Sakata clan's eyes widened. "T-this guy... He's Kamikaze Onbara of the Yamabe clan!"
Every suit-wearing man in the room made an expression: some of shock, some of surprise, some of fear. Eventually, they all degenerated into boiling hate.
"This son of a bitch... He killed my best friend almost a year ago!"
"He detonated over forty bombs at my apartment complex while my brother was still there..."
"I lost my eye because of him...!"
Hana had never seen so much malice come from so many people at once. It was sweltering Onbara, who was on the receiving end of it all just scratched his chin.
"Oh yeah. I forgot I kinda of famous throughout the underworld," he said.
He walked away from the debris until he was standing in the center of the room.
"It looks like everyone of you guy's got something against me. I might of killed a friend. Maybe a relative. Took something from you, whether it was an object or even your future. Everyone of you probably hates my guts enough to rip em out." Onbara smirked. "Well, I'll tell you what. I'm kinda banged up at the moment, so to anyone who wants to kill me: feel free to come try. ...if you've got the balls, of course."
Hana saw the fury in the room escalate to murderous proportions. Onbara just couldn't stop smiling.
The necklace dug deep into Hana's held as he held it tighter. "Onbara..."