Kitsune no Ken GAIDEN Chronicles
Written by Neon Majestic
(DISCLAIMER: The Naruto franchise and the characters therein belong to and were originally created by Masashi Kishimoto.)
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GAIDEN 04 – Iron Justice
(N.B. This Gaiden chapter takes place in Year 1 of the main story's 15-year time-skip before the finale.)
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, from the outset of this trial, the prosecution has sought to present my client, the defendant, as a brute, a black-hearted individual who murdered his own wife without a shred of remorse," the defense attorney said to the twelve-member panel, his arms casually folded over his chest as he walked back and forth while speaking. "But as a jury, you have sworn an oath that you will judge this case based on the facts, and only the facts, as they have been brought before you in the evidence exhibits and the testimony of the witnesses who've been called to the stand these past five weeks. And what are the facts in this case? My client killed his wife, yes, and he never once tried to hide it, so that is not under dispute—what is also fact is that, contrary to what the prosecution has sought to convince you, it was not a cold-blooded act of premeditation, but a desperate act of self-defense."
The prosecutor, Kaneko Zeshin, a dark-skinned man with curly black hair and clad in a brown suit with a dark tie, sat at his designated table and lightly tapped the tip of his forefinger on the table's surface as he watched the defense attorney continue his closing arguments.
"You heard the evidence from our medical examiner, who told this court that my client sustained serious defensive wounds from his wife the day she was killed," the defense lawyer went on. "You heard the evidence from the two doctors, who testified that he had previously been treated by them for bruises, lacerations and other injuries sustained in fights. You heard the evidence from the police witnesses, who acknowledged that he had previously filed assault complaints against the deceased. You heard the evidence from the deceased woman's own father and sister, who both testified that she had attacked my client unprovoked on at least three separate occasions, and from her co-workers, who told this court that she had once tried to run my client over with her car. This is not the image of an innocent woman who died a senseless death at the hands of an abusive husband, as the prosecution would have you believe; this is the pattern of a woman who was prone to cruel behavior, and that my client killed her was merely his last-ditch effort to protect himself from her latest act of barbarism."
Zeshin allowed his eyes to drift briefly to the defendant, sitting in his place at his lawyer's table, wearing a resigned expression even as he watched the defense attorney's movements and listened to the continuation of the closing arguments.
"Should he have killed her? The law says absolutely not," the defense lawyer continued. "Should he have taken some other measure to deal with the problem he was faced with? Most of us would say, absolutely. But should he be condemned just because, in the heat of that moment, he lashed back at a bully who he happened to have married? That is for you to determine. And in your deliberations, all I ask of you is that, when you make your decision, you show mercy to my client—the mercy he was not shown, the mercy he was driven not to show because he had to think about preserving himself. It's all up to you."
The attorney turned and walked back to his table, sitting down confidently beside his client. All eyes in the courtroom now turned to Zeshin; he, in turn, carefully stood up, his own closing arguments on the tip of his tongue even as he replayed the conversation he'd held with the opposing counsel two months earlier...
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"Look, why bother wasting time and resources going to trial? It's already been established from Day One that your client did it—he himself admitted to it in the Q-and-A session with the police," Zeshin said calmly, but with a slight edge in his voice, as he sat across the table from the defense lawyer and the defendant. "So, let's make this easy on everyone, eh? He pleads guilty to Murder One, and he gets the minimum sentence—25 years."
The other lawyer scoffed. "How about this—he pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter, he gets 10 years."
Zeshin's brow furrowed. "Your client stabbed his wife all over her body. Twenty-seven times."
"While they were fighting—and he's got the injuries to prove it," the defense lawyer said coolly. "Plus it wasn't the first time, nor was he the initial aggressor during this incident."
"That's only going off your client's word," said Zeshin. "The only other person at the scene who could tell us what happened one way or the other has already been put in a box and put in the ground, because of your client's actions."
"And my client had never gotten so much as a speeding ticket before all this," the other counsel pressed. "Plus he didn't try to flee the city—he turned himself in to the police."
One corner of Zeshin's mouth curled downward. "Well, I can see neither one of us is going to budge. I guess I'll see you both at trial, then."
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"As my friend said in his closing arguments just now, it's established that his client, the defendant, killed his wife—that's not under dispute," Zeshin addressed the jury. "What has been under dispute, however, is this—whether, as the defense has contended, that act of killing was an act of self-defense done in the spur of the moment, or, as the Crown has put forward, that it was an act of unparalleled and disproportionate brutality. So the other lawyer has said to examine the facts—so let's examine the facts."
He clasped his hands behind his back and walked from one end of the jury's bench to the other, talking as he strolled. "The coroner testified that the victim sustained twenty-seven stab-wounds all over her body, eleven of which were deep enough to be fatal. You have also heard audio-recorded evidence collected from the accused man's mobile-service provider from the night of the incident, in which it took him almost an hour after he stabbed his wife that many times to even attempt to call police or hospital services. And the police's records show that, yes, he turned himself in, but not until nearly twenty-four hours after he made that first phone call to say what he had done—and during that time in between, where was he? Taking refuge at his family's home six blocks away. Ladies and gentlemen, that's not the act of a man trying to take responsibility for what he's done—that's the act of a man who's afraid to come clean because he knows that what he did was wrong."
Zeshin glanced at the defendant; the man wasn't looking his way, but rather was keeping his eyes on the table, his face agitated, though of course he stayed silent. The defense attorney had his arms crossed over his chest as he eyed Zeshin like a hawk.
"Now, let's be real here," Zeshin went on. "Spousal abuse is a very bad thing to have happen, whether it's the man abusing the woman, or the woman abusing the man. And we're not trying to downplay the severity of whatever might have been happening in this defendant's life, whatever he might have had to endure from his wife. As a man, it would no doubt have been utterly humiliating to have to put up with that. But what was his response when she provoked him on this fateful night? He could have walked away. He could have gone elsewhere. He could have filed a report, like he'd done before. Or, if he felt he had to get physical to defend himself, he could have tried to hold her back, restrain her arms—he's six-feet-seven, and she was five-feet-eleven; he's 175 pounds, she was 151 pounds—big difference in size and weight, it could have happened that way, and our police expert on self-defense techniques testified as much. But what did he do? He grabbed a knife from the kitchen, a knife with a blade eight inches long, and..." Here he held up one arm and brought it down in a stabbing motion, several times in succession. "...stabbed her twenty-seven times, sending the blade right in to the hilt, not stopping until she was on the floor, bleeding all over, losing so much blood that no ambulance would have been able to get her to the hospital in time to save her even if they'd been called immediately afterward—which, as I just pointed out, didn't happen here."
Zeshin turned to face the jury fully. "I am asking you today...in the interest of justice...let your verdict be one of Guilty. Every crime, no matter what the reason for it, must be answered with accountability. This man did not show himself accountable for what he did, no matter how sympathetic his reasons might be. Today, I am asking you to change that. Let justice win. Let accountability win."
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Fifteen minutes later saw Zeshin sitting in the hallway, idly going back over the notes he'd made all throughout the trial. Sheesh...not as open-and-shut a case as I'd first hoped it would be...if the jury's as sympathetic as I think they are, who knows what direction the case will go...
Bzzzzzz! Bzzzzzz! Bzzzzz!
The vibration of his cell-phone in his pocket broke his train of thought, and he quickly pulled it out and looked at the caller-ID. "Uzuki Yugao...there's someone I haven't talked to in a while," he muttered as he pressed the button to accept the call. "Yes, hello?"
"Hi, Zeshin," Yugao's voice came on the other end of the line. "Hope I haven't caught you at a bad time."
"Not really...I'm on the tail end of a murder trial," Zeshin answered. "The jury went to deliberate fifteen minutes ago. It's been a pretty stressful five weeks."
"The murder case where the guy stabbed his wife twenty-seven times and said it was self-defense?"
"That's the one," Zeshin answered. "But anyway, you know we can't discuss the specifics of our cases until they're finished."
"Well, it'll soon be finished anyway, right? As soon as the verdict comes in, all that'll be left is sentencing."
"True enough." Zeshin waited. "So, anyway, what's new with you, Grape-hair?"
Yugao chuckled on the other end of the line. "It's been ages since we passed the Bar exam together, and you still haven't gotten over calling me that, have you?"
"Hey, not my fault your hair looks like you dyed it with grape juice," Zeshin deadpanned.
"Har, har, har. Well, to answer your question, I'm calling to ask a big legal favor."
"Really? And what is so massive a legal matter that you can't swim with the sharks yourself, Grape-hair?"
"...I've been asked to serve on a prosecutorial team for the upcoming commission of enquiry concerning the Futona Seigi scandal. And I've been instructed to find competent attorneys to serve with me." There was no humor in Yugao's voice now.
Zeshin's smirk slowly vanished. "And you want me to serve with you on that body."
"Could you?"
"Hmm..." Zeshin leaned back in his seat. "The fan's going to get really messy with this one, isn't it?"
"I'm afraid so."
Zeshin's brow furrowed. "Prosecuting politicians...it would be a first for me, I have to admit."
"Same for me, Zeshin, but it has to get done. With the way LOVE blew this whole scandal out of the water when they held Parliament hostage last year, somebody's going to have to be held accountable for the mess that started all of this. And Gama Jiraiya isn't going to be the only one."
"I'd expect that much. So...can I think about the offer and get back to you?"
"Actually, I'll be passing through your neck of the woods this afternoon. Maybe we could make it a dinner meeting? You could get to meet the other lawyer I've approached for this endeavor."
"Oh, so you have someone on your team already?" Zeshin sounded interested. "Anyone I know?"
"Yeah, I think you should know him. Kato Dan."
"...oh. THAT guy." Zeshin scowled. "The bleeding-heart defense attorney who does what he does to give defendants a 'fair shot,' as he calls it...and gives criminals a chance to escape due punishment. Just like he did with that Kyuushingai kid you were telling me about."
"Cut Naruto-kun a break, would you?" Yugao sounded offended. "That tribunal wasn't about whether he was guilty or not—everybody agrees he WAS guilty. It was just about whether to put him before an official trial by jury. And as it stands, he's doing his penance by working directly under Byakuren-sama."
"You know, I'm actually surprised to hear you talking up for that fellow—you were the prosecutor in that little tribunal, weren't you?" asked Zeshin.
"Yes, I was. And I accepted the judge's ruling when it came down. And then I got to know Naruto-kun better. He was a Kyuushingai, yes, but aside from that he's a good kid—he just made some bad choices, and right now he's paying for them."
"Hmph. Well, since he's under direct government supervision now, I guess I can't complain too much...though given what the Nine Terrors did back then, I'd personally prefer if they had guys like your friend Naruto-kun under stricter guard," said Zeshin.
"Well, look at it this way—if you serve on this team I'm getting together, you'll get to punish the people responsible for the existence of the Kyuushingai in the first place," and Yugao let out a chuckle.
"And working with the enemy in the meantime. I'm not about to let a bleeding-heart like Kato Dan draw me over to the dark side," Zeshin scoffed.
"Every lawyer has to take the risk that at some point they'll have to serve in a defense attorney's role even if they're part of the DA's office, or vice-versa." Yugao chuckled again. "Or have you forgotten that time you got drafted to be defense attorney in the 'assault-by-tiger' case?"
"Oh, whatever," Zeshin growled. "At least I WON that case."
"Yeah, you did." There was a pause before Yugao went on. "So...what do you say? Can we meet up later?"
Zeshin bit his lip as he considered the invitation. "Ah, well, why not? It's been ages anyway, Grape-head."
"Do you still go to that old deli in Ame Town?"
"Religiously," and now Zeshin smiled. "7:00?"
"7:00 it is."
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Hours passed. Then 7:00 came, and it saw Zeshin, heavy overcoat covering his suit, walking into the designated meeting place, with a knapsack slung over one shoulder. As he stepped in through the deli's front door, he took a long whiff of the scent that permeated the place. "Whew…"
His dark eyes shifted left and right, missing nothing in the deli…and over in a far corner, he spied a familiar wave of purple hair, its owner sitting in a booth across from an even more familiar figure. Taking a deep breath, Zeshin walked over to the two diners. "Yugao-san…Kato-kun," he addressed them.
"Ah, great, you're here now, Zeshin," Yugao looked up and smiled at the newcomer. "Come, sit, sit. We've got much to discuss."
Zeshin slid into the booth next to Yugao, cocking an eyebrow at Dan as he did so. "So have you seen the error of your ways and decided to join the side of justice, Kato-kun?" he deadpanned.
"Nice to see you too, Zeshin-san," Dan replied with a straight face. "And you know as well as I do that justice doesn't only consist of prosecuting criminals…it also entails defending innocents."
"Well, I defend innocents too—by ensuring that the people who hurt them never get to hurt them again," Zeshin said starkly.
Dan scoffed. "You say that as if you've never prosecuted an innocent man or woman."
"There is no being in this world who is completely innocent, man or woman," Zeshin replied.
Yugao lightly clapped her hands. "All right, boys, now that we've established that the two of you are on extremely opposite sides of the legal spectrum, can we get to the matter at hand? Zeshin, I made the invitation to you when I called you today…have you had a chance to think about it?"
Zeshin's expression turned grave. "I have. And it didn't take me long to do." He nodded. "Sign me up."
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END GAIDEN 04
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NEON MAJESTIC: Another Gaiden chapter is done…and it sets the stage for the commission of enquiry into the events of the Futona Seigi scandal; that commission will be delved into in a later Gaiden chapter, though perhaps not in full detail.
Kaneko Zeshin, the prosecutor introduced in this chapter, is not an originally-made character. In canon, he was the first A, the first Raikage. And he will be making a presence in that future Gaiden chapter.
Another note—I had originally intended to go more in detail into the case Zeshin was prosecuting in this chapter, but given that I have actually covered court cases in the past, I can tell you that trials tend to be flat-out boring and can take AGES to start and finish, so instead I decided to focus on the lawyers' closing arguments, outlining it based on how I have seen it done in the Law and Order franchise and also based on how I have seen the facts presented in real-life trials I have covered as a journalist.
Speaking of which, the case outlined in this chapter…you'll probably ask, what was the jury's verdict? Was the defendant found guilty of murder, or of manslaughter, or was he acquitted? Well, the point of this chapter was not to give a definite response to that; I have seen and heard of police procedurals (including the aforementioned Law and Order) that had episodes end before certain major revelations were made, resulting in the audience drawing its own conclusions. In like manner, I leave it up to you to decide what the defendant's fate in this chapter would probably be, based on the evidence presented by Zeshin and by the opposing defense counsel.
And while I'm still here, I want to address something else coming from the main story—the members of the Council of the Dawn and who among them would have been the strongest and the weakest. Considering a few major factors as shown in the main story itself, my personal list of the Council members' strength levels, from strongest to weakest, are as follows: Gaara (obviously, as the leader and a Kyuushingai); Temari and Kankuro (due to Temari saying Kankuro is the only one who could match her in a fight and Gaara being the only one who could defeat them both); Matsuri (due to being trained directly by Temari and also under Kankuro's and Gaara's supervision, and how she was able to restrain Yagura at one point when he attacked her in a rage); Yagura (he would have been immediately behind Gaara by virtue of being a Kyuushingai, but see the previous notes on the others before him, plus him being held off by Hinata and Neji when he assaulted the Hyuga mansion); Darui (it took the Ino-Shika-Cho combining their efforts to defeat him); Yura (he was able to overpower Karui and Shino in separate matches and gave Kakashi an even duel, though he couldn't defeat Shino's father Shibi); Chojuro (able to hold his own against Lee in both their fights); Sumaru (proficient with a handgun, able to briefly hold his own against Naruto); Kurotsuchi (over-relied on her flame-thrower and got knocked out in one hit by Naruto when he caught her off-guard); and Menma (never shown in physical combat, proficient with a handgun, got his knee shot out by Han and only really rose to a higher tier when he got the assault helicopter in the final arc).
So for those familiar with TV Tropes terminology, the Sorting Algorithm of Evil is subverted as far as the Council of the Dawn is concerned; Yura, the seventh-strongest of the eleven members, was the first Council member fought by any of the protagonists, in Chapter 131; Darui, who's in the exact middle of the totem pole at sixth-strongest among the eleven, was the second one fought, in Chapter 134; Chojuro, eighth-strongest and fourth-weakest, was fought third, in Chapter 146; Kurotsuchi, the second-weakest, was the fourth opponent in Chapters 156 and 157…in other words, there was ping-ponging as to who on the Council's totem pole was fought by a protagonist, and at what time.
Okay, now that that's out of the way…more Gaidens to come! Keep looking out for them…and for those who are likely to be affected by Hurricane Matthew or those who have already been affected at the time of this writing (September 30, 2016), please be safe!