HoneyFlower15: Thank you! I'm glad this story is worth the wait; I know of a few stories like that. Even though you find this story worth the long gaps of updates, I still am trying to update as quickly as I can. I am entirely grateful for your comment, it made my day (actually days in reality) :)
Janice K: I'm getting to it, though, it might take a while (so far I have planned at least ten more chapters), I hope you will still read the story :)
AshenMarsha: lol :) Dolly mix is a new one for me. I agree amicably about the beard. Ah, so you caught on to the Sakura hint there? I was kind of worried if people would get it since I asked my baby cousin (he's ten but still a baby in my mind) and he was all, "I don't get it, Auntie and I ain't stupid." Anyway, I glad you like the story :) Oh, and you better watch A Bronx Tale, missy!
Unknown: I AM SOOOO SOORRRYYY! I am really glad I got you all curious and I feel really bad about not updating in so long (you'll probably have to read the story all over again). Please accept my apology!
Echo Uchiha: Thank you kindly! :)
I am terribly sorry for not updating in so long. Please enjoy the chapter, young grasshoppers!
I don't own Naruto
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It's been a long couple of years and the streets and the people are proof of it. Something about the city seems older, colder, reckless, and violent. There are now laws that say Northerners can live in South Side but from what I know, no Northerner has been dumb enough to try it. Sure, some Northerners have tried using our street as shortcuts before but that was quickly taking care of. Apparently, experts say that if things keep going the way there are, over one million people will be murdered within the next year and a half. I think they might be right.
Seven years change a person and I've done a hell of a lot of changing. Ma doesn't approve of me hanging out with Killer Bee but every day after school you'll find me over at the Court Side Bar. Killer Bee says that if anything happens to him, I'll be the one taking over the Business. I'm now a Mobster too, making my way quickly up the ranks. I'm already a capodecina which means I'm in charge of ten men and I take my job very seriously. Kin, Dosu and Zaku also joined a couple years back but they aren't anything more than Soldiers. They are also part of my unit.
Sai is still around, I see him around the neighborhood sometimes. We had a falling out when we turned thirteen, that's when I decided to become an official mobster and he, with his past experience with the those kind of originations, told me that if I did choose the Mob, I would lose him. Of course, I had to choose my family. Sai normally keeps to himself now, I don't get any complaints 'bout him so he's flying under the radar and that's a good thing, it would be a shame to have to whack him.
Killer Bee's cracking down on me more so than ever, I think it's 'cause he wants to make sure I'm good enough to take his place. I now carry a gun with me wherever I go, rival originations have been out in full-force but none of them have been able to penetrate our defenses at Burgess Street (about nineteen blocks east from my street). I've only been to Burgess Street once before and it's like hell there, the houses are fire and the streets are in chaos. I'm glad I live on good old Small Took Boulevard.
2:17pm, Thursday, October Eighth, 1964
I placed my fedora on my head whilst grinning up at Zaku. "Come on, it's not like its full-time thing! I'll even help with some of the work," I tried to persuade my six-foot-five friend as we headed out of the school gated grounds and onto the streets of Oto.
Zaku glared down at me. He wasted no time telling me off. "Hell no, Kiba, I ain't a babysitter, I'm a mobster. I don't have time for children." The tall teen spat the last word out of his mouth like it was shit. With his trench coat swaying with the icy wind of October, his inky gray fedora plumped on his head carelessly and the irritated expression on his face, the Abomi really did look the part.
"Zaku, you are in my unit and I'm telling you as your superior that it is mandatory for you to babysit my nephew," I decreed. Yes, I did just pull out the I'm-your-superior card. I was not exactly proud of it but there was no way in hell I was going to babysit; it was not good for my repetition. Zaku's on the other hand… I do not think that the Giant of Oto would be thought of any less.
A long stream of heat escaped Zaku's mouth, a sigh. My friend shook his head while his enlarged hand took off his fedora so as to run his fingers through his slicked back hair. "Kiba, why must you do that to me? You know if word gets out that I babysat, I will never be thought of anything more than a pansy." He dumped his hat back on his head, a glare firmly fixed on me. It seems as though Zaku was getting more stubborn every day but I knew that he would babysit as to not upset son of Killer Bee.
The sound of two sets of feet slamming against the sidewalk echoed from the concrete. I could recognize those two footsteps anywhere. Abruptly, I turned around, causing Zaku to look at me funny. "Kin, Dosu!" I called, waving my hands at the two teenagers racing. The two saw me and headed over.
"Hey, Kiba," Dosu nodded to Zaku, "Hey, Zaku. How's it going?" Zaku did not acknowledge him but walked away from us. Dosu's face slowly twisted into that of annoyance. "Hey! What's your problem?" If Zaku heard Dosu, he did not show it.
Dosu was about to go after him but I stopped him. "He's just in a bad mood 'cause I need him to babysit," I explained. The odd shade of red that had spread across Dosu's face faded into the color of paste. His mouth flopped open. "Huh?"
Kin, successfully ignoring the fish-like man, playfully punched my arm. "And what are you doing tonight that is so important that you can't watch your nephew?" she questioned slyly.
Kin hasn't really grown much like the rest of us. She's still the same size as she was when she was twelve, five foot even. It was kind of sad, Kin was a really tough woman and all but sometimes it was really hard to take her seriously because of her height. I can't tell you how many times she had to beat up guys because they thought she was ten.
I shrugged vaguely. However, I was not given any time to come up with some sort of excuse before Dosu butted in. "Yeah, what makes you so special? It ain't Zaku's nephew. Families are supposed to be there for each other, you can't have him watch it." Kin and I both turned to him with our eyebrows raised. Since when did he care for family? This was the same guy that lost his infant brother in the supermarket not too long ago.
Dosu noticed our stares. Slowly, he turned his head away from us in embarrassment.
Kin rolled her shoulders. "You know, I think it would be a good idea if this lump over here babysat. Maybe being around someone with the same IQ as him will do him good." Dosu crossed his arms and struck a sad puppy pose.
An idea suddenly popped into my mind. "Hey!" Dosu jumped at my abrupt rise in voice. Kin snickered at him though her attention was entirely on me. I smirked at Dosu before continuing. "Why don't you guys come over to my house tonight? We can gamble some and Lee owes me a favor so I can get him to deliver us some free food from whatever place you want."
Kin shrugged. "Make a curse into a kick-ass hang out… That will work but Lee ain't staying or I'm leaving."
Dosu nodded. "Yeah, Lee is a no-no." I sighed; for some strange reason Dosu and Kin do not like Lee or rather any teens on Small Took Bl. that were not in some way connected to Killer Bee.
"Fi-" I glanced up when the sky went dark. What seemed like hundred military aircrafts streamed across the sky. Sunlight turned their heavy metal coating into reflectors. The giant machines clucked and chugged. Skinny long black clouds trailed behind the planes. If one were patient enough you could follow the black clouds all the way back to the military base just outside of the city.
"What the hell…" The words were in everyone's minds though only a few found a voice to speak it. In the oddity the airships came so they left. Wisps of smoke from the planes' engines were the only thing that could separate reality and imagination.
"What was that all about?" Dosu was still staring upwards when he spoke. Kin gazed at him blankly. "You don't read the newspaper, do you?" At the headshakes she got, the teenager grumbled to herself. "The Government has issued that all schools must have at least one Northerner or Southerner. The stupid president is trying to make Otogakure seem more 'appealing' to other countries."
"Yeah, but what does that have to do with the freaking army of planes?" Dosu was pretty shaken up from the experience. The little nut was a chicken when it came down to things. He was supposed to be a mobster not some sort of worrywart.
A hard slap to the face and Dosu was back in business. Kin dusted her hands off. "Anyway, the military is involved so the Northerners can get in and out of school safely." I was barely able to comprehend the words that came out of her mouth. My mind was still focused on one thing; Northerners were coming to my school.
My eyebrows furrowed with one another; my senses were in a loop. "I got to go." I rushed past my friends hastily. Sweat hooded me like sweater. It was getting harder for me to see; random blobs of color floated in and out of my vision. I could not tell which way I was going; I just hoped that it was the way home. Shudders erupted throughout my body. My world was breaking down; the world of all Southerners was crumbling.
Someone bumped into me roughly making me spin. "Hey! Watch it!" BBUUUUUUZZZZZZZZZ. I held my hands to head as the sharp pain of realization overcame me. I gradually fell to my knees and threw up. With a grand outcry, I banged my fists repeatedly against the sidewalk. It cannot be true. The Northerners were winning. I refuse to believe it. My strength in my hands failed steadily. I laid my head next to the puke in shame. "I refuse..."
A Southerner was not supposed to be in this kind of situation. That shit was for Northerners.
"What a damn shame."
:/line/:
"Ma, the Southerner's up!"
The sound of bare feet thumping on hard wood floors was muffled behind an old, dilapidated door. Little children screamed mama whilst making the noise. My ma would kill me if I did that. Rapidly I blinked; the image of a ceiling with white paint smeared across it was in my gaze.
Unpredictably little hands and feet attacked me. I quickly jump out of the bed, knocking kid after kid off of me. The children fell to the floor with their cherry hair flying behind them. I stared at them horrified. Without hesitation, I patted myself all over to make sure all my limbs were still there. Even now, I have not forgotten what Zaku said about Northerners when we were nine.
"Where the hell is my gun?" I murmured, noticing the old friend was not in my back pocket. Could it have fallen out when I was running? I felt vulnerable without my gun in this strange place with Northerner children.
"Karin! Tayuya! Moegi!"
The three little girls got up and raced out of the room, pushing each other when they came to the door. With the girls gone, I sat on the bed, listening to it squeak as my weight fell upon it. I closed my eyes having my head buried in my hands. "What the hell is going on here?"
"Sakura!" I heard the voice from before screech. "Bring our guest some supper!" Jeez, that woman was loud. No wonder her children were stomping like they were, they were all deaf.
I glanced up when the hinges on the door cracked open. A girl around my age stepped in, a bowl of dumplings in one of her hands. She nodded her head at me without really looking and set the bowl on the nightstand. "You'll get your gun back when you leave."
I glared at her. "And where am I exactly?" She snorted rudely. "What manners you have. Like hell I would tell someone like you." My knuckles popped from being clenched together. The girl glimpsed down out my hands for a second before rolling her eyes.
"I could say the same thing, Northerner," I jeered arrogantly.