Alright, so here is my reboot fic of 'The Saintly Maelstrom' and hopefully it works well.
Honestly doing an easier way of this fic instead of a different gang works for me better, because I can then work more smoothly than before. Again my apologies.
The fic will be set in the very beginning, and planning on Naruto and the Playa (female) to be in the original Saint Row 1 - The reboot was just dog crap, not gonna lie.
Here and enjoy.
Morning
In the early morning, a bus was making its way through the city of Stilwater which had its better days long in the past, as it now was a warzone of a kind that could be compared to what it was in some parts of the world.
Stopping at a halt, a couple of people exited the public transport, and among them was a young man in his 20s, dressed in brown boots, a black shirt that squeezed his chest, and noticeable cameo pants that showed the assumption he might've gone overseas, this young man just come back from a warzone himself, he had a duffel bag with him that had his belongings.
"Welcome back to Stilwater, Naruto." The bus driver said, waving him as he drove off, "Stay safe!"
Waving off the bus driver, Naruto Uzumaki is that young man who slung his bag over his shoulder as he decided to walk through the streets of Stilwater, his city of birth as much as he could remember.
Having been raised in the now rundown orphanage, Naruto didn't have many options after he graduated from High School and left the home at age 18, having left the city for a few years to serve overseas with the Armed Forces, but had to leave due to circumstances that weren't his fault.
It was a long story for another time as the bright spiky blond kid was making his way through the Row to try and see if he could go back to find something like a motel, even when it was in the middle of the night with all kinds of people on the street.
"Saint's Row, Home Sweet Home."
"Watches! I've got watches!" One street hustler was shouting out for customers while holding some watches that weren't real, and spotting Naruto, "Yo! Hey man, this shit'd cost you 600 dollars in the store…"
Naruto declined by just walking past the hustler.
"...Aw whatever." The hustler continued to try and make a sale, "Watches! I got watches!"
As Naruto kept on walking, he noticed that a few people in front of him were waiting to cross the street, with also a few working girls in skimpy outfits standing nearby, with one black lady in such an outfit spotting him in his pants.
"Hey baby, I could show you a good time…"
Naruto looked at her, not denying she looked fine but was about to respond until-
"Oh, hell no!"
He, the working girl, and a few other bystanders turned to the angry shout that came from across the street and saw it was coming from one of Stilwater's main problems that turned this city into a warzone.
Gang members, specifically a couple of yellow-clad guys who were part of the Vice Kings, two black guys, and an obese white guy, were upset that a Rollerz tag showed up on their turf, as it was claimed.
"Man, fuck the Rollerz!"
The bald black dude turned to his friend, "Levar! you gonna let these bitches disrespect us?"
"Shit, what you think?" The guy named Levar responded by pulling out his spray can and starting to tag over the Rollerz hit-up, with the three Kings not knowing they were being approached from behind.
With these guys wearing blue, these were Rollerz, and they did not look happy.
"Aw shit…" Naruto said then taking action, "Lady, move now."
"What?" The working girl was confused, "I-"
"Go, this is going to turn up bad, move while you can." Naruto told her and gestured to the others also, "Move, everyone."
The bystanders understood and began dispersing, not wanting to get caught in the soon-to-be-expected crossfire, Naruto had managed to get several people out of there.
"Fuck you think you're doin'?"
Naruto turned back around to see the Rollerz now confronting the VK taggers, who were not stepping back one bit, words were exchanged, and then…
*WACK!*
One of the Rollerz started the fight by slamming a bat against a King's head, causing a fistfight to unfold that quickly turned in the VK's favor, with one Roller even having been sprayed across the face by the same tagger while another was getting beaten down by another King.
"Hey, there's someone there!"
Naruto heard that and spotted a small figure, a girl with baggy pants, sneakers, and an oversized hoodie that covered her head who was not paying attention to what was happening around her, seen listening to music with beats as she was sitting down on a bench.
"What are you doing…" Naruto muttered to himself, dropping his bag aside as he crossed the street to reach her, just when a red hoodless Hollywood car drove up the street, it was going up the gang fight.
"Hector says Buenas Noches…"
Gunfire erupted out of nowhere, causing Naruto to lay facedown on the street, and by the sounds of it, it was automatic gunfire that was going off he turned around to the source and saw what had just happened.
Los Carnales had entered the fight and they had taken it to another notch by doing a drive-by, with one firing a machine pistol from the shotgun seat while another was firing a rifle from the backseat, both mowing down a couple of VK's and Rollerz who were caught by surprise.
Turning back to the girl, Naruto saw she still was listening to her music - so he stood right up and ran at her to grab her by the shoulder.
"Huh, what the-"
"Get down, there's a shooting going on!"
"FUCKERS!"
More gunfire went off as both Naruto and the girl found themselves jumping out of the way when they saw the Carnales Hollywood race towards them, crashing against the wall behind them with the car catching fire.
Having just escaped narrowly from that crash, Naruto noticed the driver was shot in the head with the shotgun guy also dead, but the backseat Carnale lay on the ground next to the car, paralyzed and in pain.
"N-Naruto?"
Caught off guard, Naruto turned to the girl who he noticed wasn't some young girl, but one of his age who had green emerald eyes, freckles across her face, and locks of red hair that fit with her soft skin, and the moment he spotted those eyes he recognized her.
"Kate? Little Kate?"
"Naruto, it is you!" Kate smiled at him, but found herself embarrassed when she realized what was happening, "Wait…what-"
More gunfire erupted, causing Naruto to cover his body over her, seeing that it was the remaining Roller who had turned up and emptied his rifle into the dying Carnale, he looked satisfied.
*POP!*
The Roller got dropped with one shot to the back of his head, from a GDHC.50 pistol that was used by the last standing VK, who turned then towards the two bystanders he noticed were only a few inches away.
"Naruto, what-"
Naruto kept his body over Kate, shielding her as the VK walked up to them and aimed his gun at them.
"Wrong time, wrong place, dawg…"
Kate tried to say something, but Naruto pulled his weight over her as he closed his eyes, willing to take the bullet for her…
*BANG!*
A gunshot was heard, yet nothing was felt, causing Naruto to open his eyes to see that the VK was the one who got dropped…
"You okay, Playas?"
An African-American man wearing a black backward cap, black jacket, purple turtle-neck shirt, black pants, tan boots, and golden chains hanging around his neck. Offered his hand to Naruto, who hesitantly accepted it to get upward…
"Julius, let's move!"
"Naruto, get up, I can't breathe!"
"Lemme help you out, kid."
Accepting his help, Naruto got pulled up by Julius and Kate, both proceeding to support Naruto away from the burning car with the unknown white guy who was covering them with his revolver, just then when the car exploded when they left.
"Put him down there."
Kate did so and helped Naruto sit against a wall with him seething in pain for a good moment but managing it.
"That don't look so bad, you should be fine," Julius said before introducing the man behind him with the gun, "That's Troy. You can thank him later."
"T-Thank you," Kate said, not hesitating a moment to thank him. "For saving us."
"Hey, no problem." Troy said, lowering his gun and asking the blond, "You doing alright?"
"Yeah, doing fine, this is nothing." Naruto replied, even complementing with a smirk, "Nice shot by the way."
"Don't mention it."
"The Row ain't safe no more, son. We got gangs fightin' over shit that ain't theirs," Julius spoke to Naruto directly, "and you in the way. They don't care if you representin' or not."
"Julius, this is no time to recruit…" Troy argued.
Julius replied with a frown. "We need all the help we can get, son."
"No, we need to get our asses outta here." Troy urged him, the sounds of sirens could be heard in the background, and more signs were not needed to tell them they got to bail.
"In a minute!" Julius ordered him, turning back to the pair, "Look, the Row's got a problem. Come to the church when you wanna be a part of the solution."
The two men soon left the scene, thus leaving Naruto and the girl, with them both then leaving the scene themselves before the authorities arrived.
What a night, not even an hour back in the Row and already getting nearly killed.
…
In a different block was Naruto, seen sitting on a bench by himself as he noticed his leg only got hit slightly by the Carnales car that skimmed him, with only a few bruises on him, the blond could walk on his own two feet.
Times had changed in over five years since he left the city, and it looked like it had gone far worse than he realized, with him having tried to contact anyone from the orphanage, the numbers were unusable, and the violence was getting way out of hand in his old neighborhood. Heck, he just came across Kate, who usually used to be silent, and barely was able to save her in the middle of a shootout.
…something had to be done, and seeing the old Saint's Row Church in front of him, he decided to stand up and go on Julius' invitation…
Saint's Row Church
In front of the rundown graffiti-ridden house of worship, dozens of people dressed in purple were bunching up at the main entrance, and it didn't take long before Julius Little himself came out and started addressing the folks.
"Every muthafucka here knows what we need to do. Those bitches be ridin' around thinkin' they own these streets. I don't care what flags they're flyin'… Rollerz, Carnales, Vice Kings… no one's makin' this nigga scared to walk the Row. We 'bout to lock this shit down… right now."
The purple-cladded crowd responded with cheers and agreement, with most of these people being from the Row, they were willing to throw themselves into the mix.
"Alright! Yeah!"
"Yeah!"
"Fuck Yeah!" One Asian with white dyed hair said before spotting Naruto, "Who the fuck's this guy?"
"And who's she?" Another guy said, with a few eyes turned to the girl in the hoodie, Kate who had also come along on her own accord, she was only a few feet away from where Naruto stood.
It didn't take long before some of the crowd began surrounding them, with them being suspicious of the two, it was Julius who broke the tense state.
"Troy and I found them, I was gonna see if they'd ride with us."
The white-haired dude brought up, "Julius, if they want to run with the Saints they've gotta be canonized."
"He's right, Julius. Everyone had to do it." Troy agreed with a stick hanging from his mouth.
Julius glanced at his second in command before his eyes landed on the blond and the redhead.
"You ready for this?"
Dropping his duffel bag, Naruto cracked his neck as he was prepared for it, and by the looks of Kate who just removed her hoodie, showing her elegant ginger-red hair, she was as confident as him.
"Let's go."
The first punch didn't take long to happen as one man in a hoodie hit Naruto from behind, causing him to block it as he turned around and slammed back at him others tried to join in but had to catch the hoodie man before Naruto went on the offensive and punched the guy in the gut.
"Hey! This guy is going fast."
"Look at his pants, he fresh off the Army."
Two more tried to lay a jump on the fast blond, charging at him but one to kicked right in the knee while the other got his arm grabbed and twisted it, forcing the man to kneel. The guy who got hit in the gut managed to get back up and slammed Naruto across the face.
Yet that didn't stop Naruto from falling as he whipped the blood off his nose and threw himself at the big guy, forcing him into the ground before he began punching him in the ribs.
Meanwhile, Kate was having a more difficult time as she was getting dunked on by multiple guys and girls, as she was throwing hands wherever she could, she managed to knock a few people off before bursting out and surprising the others by her wild nature of fighting.
She took another woman by the hair and tackled her before she began punching the woman underneath her as others tried to do that to her.
"Damn! She is wild!"
"She doesn't even react, damn."
Naruto then slammed another dude into the ground, and was about to punch him across the face…
"Time's up."
Julius' call came in after a minute, and everybody around was surprised at how it went in just such a short time, with Naruto and Kate seen standing up with no problems.
"Just like old times, huh?!" Kate said, smiling like an innocent girl with a bruise over her eye, she approached Naruto, "Remember how we used to fight those bullies when we went from school back to the house?"
Such a chirpy comment made Naruto smile, remembering the incident, "Yeah, those guys from the suburbs, can never forget that."
The people around them were slowly getting up with Troy walking up on the two with an extended arm to fist bump them.
"You both earned your colors today." Troy bumped them both, complimenting, "You took good care of yourself."
"Been fighting since I was seven, so thanks,"
"You still serving?"
"Nah, just got out of the force just today."
"That's some impressive shit." A light-skinned guy wearing a denim jacket and pants with a purple and black shirt underneath, and his purple visor approached from behind to speak, "The only other Saints who kicked ass like that was Johnny."
"Shit, took me half the time," Johnny said, he wore a purple jacket, a light-purple tank top underneath, dark-purple pants, and he had two gold chains hanging around his neck. The guy looked at the blond and noticed, "Say, you look familiar…"
Naruto smiled and said, "Well, Gat. took you a long time to remember me, remember detention?"
"...No fucking way…Naruto?" Johnny realized once he recognized him, dabbing hands with him, "God damn if I knew early on I would've joined in on the canonizing."
Naruto laughed with the two bumping fists, "That I would not doubt."
"Hold on, you two know each other?" Troy asked the two.
"Me and Naruto here go way back, like when we were kids," Johnny said while tapping the blond's shoulder, about to ask more until Julius walked.
"Welcome to the Third Street Saints."
He fist-bumped both Naruto and the girl before he got the center of attention back.
"Let's get down to business." Julius started earning much attention from him. "If we're serious about takin' back the Row, we gotta let those mutherfuckas know what time it is. Now you break it down, and it's all about respect. Get enough of it, they're gonna back off, and we're gonna move right on in."
Basic gang warfare 101, is something that the Vice Kings and the Los Cornales have been doing since the late 70's.
"We got some friends in town that could use some help. Give 'em a hand. 'Course, you can always drop any muthafucka flying the wrong flag. So long as words gets out that the Saints is on the Row, I don't give a damn how you do it. You feel me?"
Everyone nodded and paid attention to their boss' words, with all of them then ordered to be dispersed by their lieutenants, it was Dex and Johnny who were Julius' officers in charge.
"See you later, Aisha will love this." Johnny said to them and said, "Oh, and nice girlfriend you got. She can fight."
Naruto and Kate looked at one another and they blushed, with the other Saints heard laughing and joking, the two were about to protest.
"Wait, we-"
"Troy, you take them two under, will you?" Julius instructed him as he walked back into the church, "And make sure they're strapped."
In a matter of moments, only Naruto and Kate were left with the white Saints member who just earlier had saved both their assess, now was going to teach them the ropes of gang life.
"Alright, time for you two to buy a piece."
Meanwhile
In a building up in Adept Way, in one of Stilwater's safer and cleaner areas sat one of this city's most influential gangsters who had climbed up the ranks from being a street thug of Sunnyvale Gardens.
He'd rather call himself a businessman nowadays, one that had an army behind him that had his name. The large black man in a suit with a yellow tie was Benjamin King.
Now going through this week's finances, he saw that Kingdom Come Records, the label studio and a legal front that was being run by Warren, was making a formidable amount of money with record sales, and it also laundering cash that was coming from its illegal sources.
Like the prostitution rings that were under the control of Tanya Winters, a girlfriend of one of his lieutenants who he knew was just new to being a shot caller of her own men, yet was bringing in money in unexpected numbers.
And there was Anthony Green, who ran a bit of everything but was also responsible for the frontline foot soldiers, who were fighting on all sides to protect territory and their businesses from Hector's Carnales and Mr. Sharp's Rollerz.
But now, the fighting had reached the Row, and the bodies coming out of there were non-desirable, not at these numbers. With civilians and gang members dying or getting wounded on the streets, it was a fight King wished he could've avoided but could not ignore.
Now from what he was hearing from the streets, his lieutenants, his contacts in the police, and even some secretaries of his from Saint's Row, is that a new gang was being organized, with locals from that neighborhood, youths and local hoods who were done being pushed around, and all are rounding up around one man.
"Jules…I wish this didn't come to this…"
*Knock!* *Knock!* Knock!*
King turned his head to the far end of the room, seeing the large wooden door opened and there poked out the head of one of his secretaries.
"Mr. King, Mr. Green is here to speak with you."
"Alright, let him in."
The secretary did so and opened the door, where a large bald black man of lighter skin entered, wearing a checkered shirt as he wore expensive clothing, Anthony Green approached him.
"Mr. King."
"Anthony, how's things down the Row?" King asked out right from his best lieutenant, leaning back on his seat. "I heard things are getting rough."
"Not going to lie Mr. King, but they are. The Rollerz and Carnales are holding ground in the south end of the district, but our boys still have a presence there - but that's not the reason I came here."
Benjamin raised his eyebrow, confused by it he asked. "What brings you here then?"
Then pulling out from out of nowhere, Anthony threw something like a Police file on the table and shoved it in front of King.
It read Naruto Uzumaki.
"We got something from Steelport you might find interesting."
Saint's Row
*CLICK!*
Loading a magazine inside the Vice 9 he just bought with Troy, Naruto had just settled inside the home of Little Kate.
It was surprisingly a large home that was fairly alright for a place like Saint's Row. sure it was one large room where there was a kitchen and living room and bedroom, there was a bathroom that was in a separate room, but it was something he could live with.
"You doing okay, N?"
Looking up, Naruto saw Kate coming out of the bathroom - in nothing but towels, and that caught him off guard.
Underneath that clothing was a body women would kill for and many men would fall for, slender as she was, she had bottoms that were peachy and legs shaven that showed her good skin, and her red ginger hair was long and beautiful even when wet, it fit with her chest that didn't lake bust neither.
"Sorry, the heating is not working, and I am a bit late with payment so…" She walked over to the sink in the kitchen, just then turning to Naruto to see his state. "Something wrong?"
"Uhm…."
Kate then saw what he was staring at and smirked, "Really?"
"You have changed…"
"Yes, that is what puberty does - bodies change." She joked around and made an innocent giggle as she went over to him, "I am glad to see you back, Naruto. I can only imagine what the others would say."
"Wait, others?" Naruto asked surprised, "Like from the orphanage?"
"Yes, you are the only one I know who actually went outside Stilwater. Many others stayed and tried to build themselves something up." Kate said while drying herself up, "I can call a few perhaps, but it might take a while - phone bills aren't that kind to me either…but what about you?"
"What about me?"
Kate gave him a funny look, "I mean what have you been doing lately, silly?" She pressured him, "I doubt you and I had the same plan today to sign up as gang bangers like that."
Naruto took a moment to find words for a proper answer…
Then something fell down, coming from the bathroom, Kate stood back up and ran across.
"Damn it, what now!"
As she leaves Naruto for a few moments, this him to then grabs his duffel bag and pulls out something.
It was a framed picture of him young with nearly half a dozen children with him, all young and surrounded by several nuns and volunteer social workers - once living in Stilwater's Good House Orphanage when times were different.
Times when Naruto thought he was just an abandoned child with just a pearl necklace he pulled out from the bag, and a combat knife - including a three-pronged Kunai knife he got from his trip to Japan.
"Tomorrow's a new day - new chances."