Calamitous Intent...

Chapter 24 - Calamitous Intent...

The next morning after the devastating previous night, Naruto dressed in orange cargo shorts and a black t-shirt with a leaf on the front and his clan spiral mark along with his name on the back stood in his very quiet kitchen in front of a dozen dark colored bottles filled with some kind of liquid with rags sticking out of the tops of them. A yawn escaped his mouth as he had been up for the vast majority of the night interrogating their friend for all he could tell them about what exactly the endgame for Mad Gear just so happened to be.

Still, he was unable to get the location of Mad Gear's weapons cache out of the man. They had to have a pretty significant stash of weaponry, because when Naruto brought it up the night before on the rooftop the man just started laughing like he knew something that Naruto didn't.

Well in the middle of the night he tagged out interrogation duties with Cammy after she got home from her rather long evening at the arena downtown. If Cammy's direct method of interrogation didn't break the fool then a little good cop/bad cop routine would probably work after Cammy was through with him.

…The poor bastard.

It needed to be stated again because it bore repeating; Cammy was a sweet girl. She meant well. She was a little stiff, but it didn't really take much to loosen her up and she was a smart little thing. That being said she had very little tact and knowledge of what was supposed to be appropriate, and unless something drastic had changed in the two days that Naruto hadn't seen her he didn't think that would have changed.

So until then, he was preparing for the inevitable big blowout of a battle that was going to occur. Hopefully it could be controlled… by someone… because he definitely wasn't going to try to. He was running enough damage control by trying to find a way to put an end to all of this Mad Gear crap, he didn't need to be responsible for policing himself too. There were other people that cared about that who could do such a thing.

And speak of the devil, one of them unlocked Naruto's door with the key that had been presented to her years ago and walked right inside and removed her shoes at the entrance. Sakura, wearing a white jacket with red trim and a short pair of red shorts as was her summer attire.

"The next time you decide to blow town the day you wake up from a coma you could at least stop by first and tell me. It's three blocks." Sakura chided as she shut his door behind her and moved across the room to his kitchen, "…Just up and leave for two days into the mountains to play ninja games with Ibuki-chan." She muttered as Naruto turned around and met Sakura with a hug, "You jerk." She mumbled through the fabric of his shirt where she buried her face.

Naruto tried his best not to laugh as he rubbed her back through the hug, "I'm sorry. I just had to get out and do something, anything. Did you have a long night?" He was unable to prevent a snicker when a muffled 'Mh-hm' from his best friend told him all he needed to know, "Cam told me what happened. I had one too you know, just not one that got me on TV this time. The arcade district got wrecked last night, and a few other places too."

"The news didn't come on last night because of the fight broadcast." Sakura informed Naruto, pulling away from the mutual hug with a frown marring her pretty face, "No one outside of town knows about it Naruto. Neither does anyone that doesn't live in those areas."

Nobody lived in the arcade district. Very few people lived around the high school that Naruto went to. And the people that had caused the havoc the night before were all gone. Fuck, Mad Gear knew what they were doing. It wasn't just some short-sighted random act of mob violence after all. It had been a last ditch effort hunt to take down the potential enemies of the organization before whatever was supposed to be happening tonight, and the major event at the arena disguised it from the rest of Japan's view.

All of the town's spots where notable figures were known to be had been hit. The areas of the high schools with notably strong students, the arcade district where lots of people hung out even with many of the shops closed… it was intentional targeting. Casting a wide net on exactly who was left to take down.

So was Naruto supposed to be a target, or just a distraction to get to the real targets? If he had gone to the arena and if he had fought Hugo instead of street-sweeping like he wound up doing, the Saikyou-ryuu students wouldn't have lasted long enough by themselves for Dan to bring Blanka, and Dan definitely couldn't beat all of those people so Blanka might not have been able to either if he had been left alone. They all would have gone down had Naruto gone to the arena to deal with Hugo and Poison's challenge.

Who else had been taken out like that in the past while he had been down and out in his coma?

Thinking so hard about such serious things wasn't his strong suit, but there he was; pacing about his kitchen and racking his brain. This was unfolding for him way too fast. At first he thought it was just some organized gang making a power play with taking control of Japan as their rhetoric to attract people, but now it seemed to be a bit serious. That kind of social planning to use a widely seen television broadcast to block out news coverage was way too advanced a tactic for it to just be a group of people uselessly barking ideology.

While Naruto continued to ponder, Sakura's attention was drawn to the little yellow kitten that she knew that Cammy had adopted over the last few weeks before Naruto had woken up, "Man, that kitty is really loving on that Molotov cocktail." Sakura pointed out as she watched Special Agent Jack Bauer repeatedly lick the side of one of Naruto's prepared weaponized bottles.

Snapping Naruto out of his train of thought, he walked over and picked up the cat before it could continue to ingest the ignition fluid of the homemade incendiary, "Yeah, he's got a thing for gasoline. Batsu said he likes to sleep in it." He informed Sakura as he carried the little yellow fuzzball to Cammy's room, "Cam take the cat. He's trying to lick up the weapons I'm making for you."

The pleasant British accent from behind the door greeted him "One moment." The door to the girl's room cracked open and Cammy poked her head out as Agent Jack scampered out of Naruto's arms and into her personal abode, "Good morning Naruto. Do you want the prisoner back?"

"Is he not saying anything?"

"Oh, he's saying plenty. I just wondered if you wanted to have him back."

"No, I'm good. If you're hungry, I can go with Sakura-chan to get breakfast and bring you something back."

"Yes please. Take your time."

With that the door closed once again and from within Naruto could hear the voice of the guy he had caught last night, "What the fuck is wrong with you kids? Who has a conversation like that about breakfast while they interrogate someone?"

"I haven't eaten since yesterday afternoon." Cammy matter-of-factly replied and left it at that as Naruto walked away from her bedroom, "And since you're so talkative maybe you can tell me a bit more about some of your group meeting places."

XxX

(Genhanten)

Inside of the restaurant that was currently getting its windows restored after the damage that it sustained the night before via the Mad Gear raids. The jackasses didn't even know that it was under his management, they were just out to raise hell. Well mission mostly accomplished.

As he walked around his establishment, he took note of the only person that was not a worker sitting inside at one of his tables, "We're not open yet." Sasuke said in an exasperated tone of voice once he stopped by where his visitor was seated.

Now lacking the jacket and helmet of her full biker gear, Akira wearing a forest camouflage tanktop sat at the table with her cheeks in her leather-gloved hands. Her shoulder-length brown hair concealed her eyes from view until she brushed it out of her face to look up at Sasuke. She didn't say a word but she just frowned up at him.

"I know. You want to find Mad Gear to try and get them back for your brother." Sasuke replied without even being verbally prompted, wondering why she was so docile now when she'd been so tough and commanding last night, "But you screwed that up when you started trying to beat up every crony you ran into on the street. You wasted all of that time and we lost the opening to find the people really responsible." Why he didn't just ditch her last night he didn't know.

Akira still didn't say a word to him, but now her eyes switched to a bit of a glare as it sounded like Sasuke was blaming her for the lack of results from their impromptu team up. She wasn't going anywhere, because he was the only person left that she knew in town (barely knew at that since they had only met last night) that she didn't deem a rival who could fight Mad Gear and who seemed smart enough to point her in the right direction.

In return, Sasuke supposed he wasn't being adamant on Akira getting out of his restaurant and out of his intention to assassinate the top brass of Mad Gear due to the fact that she was not like any other girl that was capable of fighting… at least that he'd met. She was tough and she was actually extremely quiet when that helmet was off. She hadn't said a word since showing up thirty minutes ago and she wasn't even talking when he was speaking to her.

It was a serious change from the norm when he was the one that would be considered the talkative one out of a pair of people.

Even more aggravating still, the bell to the door of his restaurant chimed and his eyebrow twitched when he saw Naruto and Naruto's friend Sakura walk in. Great, because that was just what he needed right then; something annoying and blonde with whisker-marks, "I wonder if this place does take-out." Naruto commented to Sakura as they looked around, "Didn't he already put windows in?"

"Damn it Naruto for the last time, we're not open!" Sasuke said with a glare at Naruto. Seriously, take-out? Genhanten was supposed to be a legit restaurant with full cuisine and a respectable sit down atmosphere. He didn't even know why he felt pissed. It wasn't even his restaurant, he was just managing it, "Until the sign on the front of the door and window is lit up and reads 'open' we're closed you dumbass. Get out, I'm busy."

Both teenage interlopers weren't discouraged at all by Sasuke's request to leave. They just ignored it altogether, "Was your friend always so angry?" Sakura asked Naruto quietly, though Sasuke could clearly hear her, "That's really not healthy. It's bad for your heart you know."

Naruto nodded sagely in agreement and opened his mouth to comment on Sasuke's anger issues until he caught sight of Sasuke's guest and paled, "Oh shit. I knew I'd seen that bike out front somewhere before."

Looking at Akira, Sasuke noted with some interest that her eyes were trying to bore a hole straight through Naruto with the intensity behind them. Not only that, but her fists were balled up as if she would punch him if he got too close. So she didn't like Naruto. That honestly put her up a notch in his book. Naruto seemed ready to bolt had Sakura not grabbed a hold of his arm to keep him from vacating the scene.

Okay, so he found a use for Akira. She could keep Naruto away from him or at least make him shut up. Whatever he'd done to piss her off in the past he really didn't want to be in the same place as her.

The glare subsided when Sakura sat down at Akira's table and grabbed both of her hands in a consoling gesture, "I heard about how your brother and his whole gang got hurt. I'm sorry about that. Daigo might have always disliked Naruto, but he was a good person aside from that." Akira just looked away sadly and nodded.

"They got Daigo, Edge, and Gan?" This was news to Naruto. So he really was right about what he had been thinking on earlier? Kazama Daigo definitely wouldn't have let Mad Gear run roughshod all over the town. It was a periodical weeding out of anyone worth a damn in Aohura City, "Whatever. I've got Cammy interrogating some guy back at my place to find out where Rolento is so we can put a stop to this. If we don't by midnight something huge is going to happen, and for some reason that guy says that we can't stop Mad Gear if it gets that far."

"What if you don't get what you need by tonight?" Sasuke interjected with his arms crossed, "If you can't locate Rolento, or find out exactly what the endgame is for Mad Gear what are you going to do?"

Naruto shook his head and started pacing around the restaurant, "I don't know. I want to say that I'll just go to where the enemy is going to be and I'll fight them there, but wherever they're going to be they're going to have guns." He didn't like guns, "I don't want to take anyone else into that, but I don't think I can do it by myself either if it comes to that."

"I know where their guns are being held and guarded."

Three pairs of eyes turned to Sasuke suddenly at the revealing of such information. He looked very disinterested in the stares he happened to be receiving from the three other people before him and his body language expressed as much. While Naruto and Sakura looked very interested, Akira was just giving him another stern look that spoke volumes without her ever saying a word to him. It was time to put the kibosh to that crap.

"It's your fault we didn't get to it." Sasuke said to Akira in response to her glowering at him, "You kept picking fights with nobodies and I had to keep saving your tail feathers all night long until the streets cleaned out. I missed my opening." A shake of his head came at thinking about how much time he wasted before the streets cleared of Mad Gear, "I like you more without the helmet. You listen better."

"Hold on a minute." Naruto cut in, "You didn't go straight to the weapons hideout so you could protect Akira, someone that you had to have met only all of a day or two ago at most if even that?" He looked from Sasuke over to the biker girl in question herself as she just shrugged at him. She didn't know enough about Sasuke to know how much he hated working with people, "But you hate teammates."

Sasuke scoffed and walked back towards his workers to oversee the construction of the restaurant, "I've got to take advantage of what I can so I accepted the team-up. I'm still sort of hurt just so you know. I don't have your freaky fast healing ability."

Naruto looked down at his stomach and gave his belly a quick pat, 'I'm still not running on full myself. I know the feeling.' Alright so he would let that one slide, "Well are you going to tell us where the weapons are?"

"Come back at four." Sasuke said before heading back into the kitchen, "If you haven't pulled up anything on Rolento yet come here and we'll drop a full offensive on the weapons storage facility. I can guarantee you that someone there would be in contact with that bastard, and then we can put an end to this crap. Now get the hell out of my restaurant." It took a moment, but he popped his head back outside of the door to clarify what he had just said, "Akira can stay because she doesn't annoy me, but you two can get out."

XxX

(Karin's Personal Manor – With Karin)

Being informed that Mad Gear had chapters in other places around Japan had the well-to-do heiress begin to do some digging around. Her body was still a bit sore and she was sporting a bandage on her cheek from the wound she received from Poison's whip, but the work of the wealthy and benevolent was never done.

On a computer map of Japan she had marked several smaller cities with varying proximity to Tokyo, much like Aohura City in population and overall importance in the scheme of Japan's system. They weren't big places; small cities with average populations that many would be hard-pressed to name if they didn't have a reason to go there.

But all of these cities had very easy methods to reach Tokyo. With a little bit more digging she found that Mad Gear had neutralized any gangland threats, the way they seemed to be trying to do in Aohura City, only they had actually succeeded due to the lack of such dogged resistance that held them back. The normal people in those towns seemed to actually love Mad Gear's militia, seeing them as a neighborhood watch of sorts that would actually take action against the hooligans of their town.

It didn't go down like that in Aohura City because the hooligans of the town were what the place was synonymous with. A lot of people actually loved them and picked favorite gangs to support from afar like sports teams. It was a different kind of place, and it showed in how difficult it was for Mad Gear to 'conqueror'.

'This is not good at all.' She didn't want to act paranoid, but things never added up like that for no reason at all, 'All of these cities corner Tokyo.' If the whole crazy rhetoric of changing the country by taking it over and overthrowing the government was real, and it seemed more and more real as more of these things came to light, they would have a real chance of catching the capital off guard.

Rolento was a military man as well, so he had to be able to orchestrate an effective surprise strike with the resources available to him (rudimentarily trained civilians) and make it count. Otherwise his little uprising would be crushed. The police in their town and the other towns under Mad Gear's bribery didn't care, and they couldn't get into contact with anyone that was actually important.

'It always seems to be down to us…' Karin thought to herself with a sigh, uploading all of the information she had compounded into her cell phone before using it to make a call. All she knew was that he had better be home since his new cell phone apparently wasn't active yet, "Hello, Naruto-san? Yes, I am fine. Nothing but mere flesh wounds at worst. Listen, I need to speak with you and the others that are going to fight Mad Gear. I have potential information we need to share. You do as well? That is fine, name a meeting place."

Well, well, well. Naruto was somewhat on the ball for this one already. She would never admit it aloud to anyone that she knew, but things had been awfully dreary while he had been out of commission. Naruto's waking up was apparently the kick in the ass that they needed to take matters into their own hands instead of waiting for proper authorities to do it.

Hopefully when she was an adult that inherited her family's massive wealth she would be more proactive about possible trouble than the ones that currently ran the country, the economy, and the world. It definitely felt better, that was for certain.

XxX

(Aohura City Old Industrial District – Mad Gear Hidden Warehouse)

Sodom was surprised at Rolento's mood. It was notably chipper despite the fact that their soldiers had been beaten up rather badly the night before in two particular locations. In the five other areas they had been dispatched the militia had gone unopposed and it seemed to be a precursor to how they would march the streets of Tokyo after it was all said and done and the revolution ended.

The large American samurai was just as strong as Rolento was, as both of them had been elites in Mad Gear before taking complete control of the group themselves, but that creepy content smile on the military man's face was rather unnerving. It didn't promise that things were going to be going smoothly for someone somewhere, "So you think last night was a success?"

"You said that no one was directly killed as a result of the fighting." Rolento said as they walked past the open stores of weaponry that they had amassed, "Our only casualties were the injured, and while some are more severe than others that is still to be expected. Aohura City was supposed to be the most difficult training exercise for our shining soldiers, and they survived it. I never expected them to actually destroy all of our foes."

"You just wanted to show them what it was like to fight someone considered superior to them."

"Exactly." Rolento said, picking up one of the small arms set out on an exceedingly long table along with new-age light armored vests that numbered every gun present, "The moment that the JSDF gets wind of what happens they will try to reverse what we have accomplished. They more than likely will be superior to our men, but they won't be faster than our men can aim, they won't have ki manipulating abilities, they won't be freaks to the men. They'll be human, and they will not fear a fight with them."

"And we'll have the armory to combat them if it comes to that." Sodom concluded. And it was true. They had not only the infantry hardware of an actual army they had attack helicopters, military transport vehicles, even a few tanks, "You think a shock attack will work?"

"How would anyone that could stop us know we were coming?" Rolento asked, hopping onto a tank's treads to walk on the beautiful vehicle of death, "Everyone will be plain-clothed, the weapons will be hidden until it is too late. The vests go on underneath. With the right positioning after we finish capturing the figures of the government branches we can disperse and confound the enemy until their lack of leadership brings things to a close."

If everything went as planned there would be no knowledge of any kind of revolt until it was already over. No time to declare martial law, no time to get any word out, nothing. The fastest, quietest revolution in recorded history.

"Our men on the inside of the security details are ready to prevent any peep of an attack from slipping out should we get bogged down anywhere."

Sodom felt himself getting excited behind his samurai garb and his mask. This was actually coming together. They were actually going to pull this off. Rolento was going to get the first step in his dream of a utopia, and he himself was going to get his goal of having Mad Gear strengthened by the presence of the people that he felt were the strongest warriors in the world. They would be set up in Japan for life.

At midnight that very night, upon Rolento's orders, the militia in all of the towns with members stationed there would finally be outfitted with their official firearms instead of practice pieces and would board the trains to Tokyo. Within three hours of that they would all be in the city, some already in position to do their intended deed, and by sunrise it would all be over before anyone could do a thing about it. And they would fly victoriously into the city.

XxX

(That Afternoon – 5 pm – Genhanten)

The party was as full as it was going to get for the forthcoming show, as Naruto, Sakura, Batsu, Karin, and Cammy were present in Sasuke's restaurant along with Kazama Akira who was tagging along for her own personal vendetta purposes.

Cammy had actually managed to squeeze some really relevant information out of the captive inside of her and Naruto's apartment, and had managed to pinpoint several Mad Gear hideouts on the map inside of Aohura City. The way they were positioned was in something of a defensive position, but not for the armory, which sat in a far less populated area near the edge of town away from prying eyes.

Karin's finger pointed out a marker she had placed on a map on her phone, allowing Naruto to see it, "This is where Rolento would be hiding, I can assure you of that. There is no place better in this town for such a thing, and it fits in to his connection with the smuggler companies from my father's holdings." Not only that, but it was surrounded in a close enough proximity by the rest of the bases as if they were a defensive perimeter of sorts, "…So what is our plan of action to take?"

"I have to kill them both." Sasuke said, sitting in a chair away from all of the others, "Rolento and Sodom have to die or my mission is incomplete. But they won't be in the same place. I choose the weapons storage area as my place of attack."

So they were splitting up were they? That was well enough anyway. It was a better use of their combined resources than just attacking one place and going about their approach in that manner.

Akira raised her hand to wordlessly indicate that she was going to assault the weapons storage area as well. She got a nod in return from Sasuke accepting this as a feasible method of action. It took a moment of thinking, but Cammy also volunteered her services in that front of the impending battle, "I will go as well. I think I know weapons well enough to have an idea of what we're dealing with if things get that serious."

"I'm with them too." Batsu stated flatly, looking extremely roughed up from his difficult previous night, "It's an uneven number of us and I'm not going with the group that has both Naruto and the rich girl on it. It's not worth the headache after getting busted up by a giant on national TV." Even levelheaded Sakura couldn't control both of those egos coexisting on the same battlefield, and she wouldn't even have the opportunity to try and do so.

So that left Naruto with Sakura and Karin to go for what Karin was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt was the hiding place of Rolento. A shipping company's local skyscraper was their destination.

Both Naruto and Sakura looked at each other and a silent agreement that they were going to kick some serious tail went through between the two as they started playfully punching one another in the arm, "Don't choke and trip up in the middle of an attack Sakura-chan. You do that from time to time."

"Don't get lost on the way to the skyscraper Naruto." Sakura returned just as jokingly, not rising to his attempt to razz her, "Your sense of direction sucks so it's a wonder how you ever found Ibuki-chan's village at all."

Taking good note of the separate 'teams', Karin nodded and stashed her cell phone before getting up from her chair to leave the building, "Very well then. Those of us that are taking the approach of dealing with the smuggling and business avenue of things come with me. As this is my area of expertise you two would only be liabilities if left by yourselves. Come along now."

"I'll 'liability' you… you pompous little-, grr." Sakura muttered to herself, angrily standing up from her chair with her hands poised to try and launch a Hadoken at Karin's back. Nothing big, just one to show her what was what. She would have until she was interrupted by a sharp stinging pain on her backside, "OW! Damn it Naruto, stop it!"

"Be the bigger person and I will Sakura-chan. She might be the devil, but she's our devil." Naruto said as he flexed his hand out from spanking her again. He could seriously get used to doing that, especially since she was honor-bound to not hit him back as long as he could justify a reason for doing it, "Let's go." Still rubbing her butt from the strike, Sakura followed him out as they got into Karin's limousine.

Sasuke just watched them leave and breathed a sigh of relief when they did. Maybe he was left with the more tolerable group? Hopefully he was, "So what's the deal with Naruto and that Sakura girl? Are they dating or something?" If so, how ironic. It was almost enough to elicit a chuckle out of him.

"No because they're either both too stupid to see it and just go for it, or because Naruto trapped himself in the friend zone years ago." Batsu said in response. That was exactly his question to Naruto for three years and it hadn't even been answered. He wasn't even going to get into his issue with Naruto and the other girls that he knew.

"What about her then?" Sasuke asked, gesturing towards Cammy who looked at him confusedly as to what he was possibly implying, "She lives in his apartment, and she looked pretty comfortable from what I saw."

Batsu shook his head and gave a thumbs down, "Nope. I don't think so. Naruto said something a few months ago in Thailand about how Cammy or her sisters would probably try to rip a guy's junk off if they made a move on any of them." He involuntarily shivered at the thought, especially since it seemed like real threat due to how brutally forward he was aware Cammy could be.

She had after all been retrieved for that particular gathering after interrogating a grown man that seemed rather scared of her by the time she left Naruto's place with him still bound in her room.

"I would never do such a thing." Cammy defended, knowing by now that they were referring to her somewhat cold personality to those that didn't know her and her frankness. That didn't mean she didn't know how to be gentle as well… she just found that more things got done with a sterner touch. Naruto knew that from living with her, they got along well. She wasn't an ice queen, "I was very gentle with Naruto when I took care of him during his coma. I owe all of you far too much to ever treat any of you that way, especially him."

Thoroughly bored by the conversation and rather antsy to get out and get to work, Akira's chin had by then sunken onto the surface of the table where she spoke up softly, as was being shown to be her docile nature without the helmet and scary full biker outfit to hide behind, "…Can we just get to work now?" She asked gently, in a barely audible voice that the others didn't hear over the sounds of their discussion.

"I don't think my demeanor really bothers him since he knows I would never hurt him." Cammy continued to argue in her own defense, "Why else would he have allowed me to live with him if that were the case?"

Batsu didn't bring up the fact that there was really not much other choice than to let her live with him. She had amnesia and there was no one else that she could stay with other than Naruto, "You tried to kill him four months ago back in March." Cammy obviously didn't remember that from the look on her face, "…And you don't remember that. Of course you don't, I forgot."

"To be fair, who in this room hasn't tried to kill or severely hurt him at some point?" Sasuke interjected in a rare show of interest as to what was going on around him, "I did it, she did it, I think you did it too because you seem like you might have." Batsu had to begrudgingly agree because he did fight Naruto when he first met him, "He does have that kind of personality."

And true enough that put a stop on the discussion because it was true. All of Naruto's closer friends tried to kick his ass at some point or another with the notable exception of Ibuki who wasn't there to say as much. It was like some kind of twisted fraternity that only included people that had come close to inflicting permanent damage on Uzumaki Naruto… and it had been started by him.

Even Akira had taken it upon herself to try and run Naruto down on a motorcycle only ten months ago.

Wait, where did Akira go?

Outside of the restaurant, the revving of the engine to the girl's racing bike could be heard. Looking outside of the window, impatience could be seen on her face as she revved the engine in her own way of trying to say that if no one was coming she would go by herself. Since no one could hear her voice over their discussion it was the best method available for her to get their attention.

Cammy was the first one up and outside to get on the back of Akira's motorcycle to get a ride. Batsu observed that happen and before his mind could drop to the gutter a thought hit him, "Wait, if Cammy's the only one that can ride on Akira's bike how the hell are we going to get across town to the weapons storage place Sasuke?" He asked, getting no response, "Sasuke?"

But Sasuke was already gone and Batsu cursed to himself as he remembered that those real-deal ninja guys didn't need a vehicle to travel exceptionally quickly. Apparently Akira saw Sasuke leave from the roof too because she pulled off as well.

"Goddamn it, I should have gone with Naruto, Sakura, and rich girl." Batsu said to himself as he walked to the door and locked up for Sasuke while making a call on his cell phone, "Yeah, hey mom if you're out from work by now I need a ride somewhere…"

XxX

(Two Hours Later – With Naruto's Party – Synth Logistics Company Building)

"There are normally not this many security guards." Karin stated with some concern as her limousine had been parked a few blocks away so that Naruto could use his Henge and get a good scouting going of the building they intended to infiltrate. Upon his return he revealed to her and Sakura that there were at least forty-seven suited guards out around the building doing patrols and doing sentry work, "I have been here several times during the spring before all of this began happening."

As a part of her ongoing testing to see if she was worthy enough to inherit her family's fortune, Karin had to see to her father's local affairs in the region and that required her to handle business situations as if she were the head of the Kanzuki Zaibatsu. Thus she had been inside of the building, around the building, had taken a helicopter and landed on the roof of the building, the whole nine yards.

The guards out front were also sort of familiar, to not only her but to Sakura and to Naruto, "Those are definitely Mad Gear members." Sakura said from her place next to Karin inside of the car. They had Naruto on speakerphone of Sakura's phone so that they could both talk to him as he rounded the block repeatedly under the guise of different businessmen, "The guy with the red hair and the glasses with the bandage on his nose, I'm the reason that he has the bandage on his nose. I remember that one. Maybe I should have hit a little bit harder."

"Then you probably would have killed him Sakura-chan, but oh… that's such a good move. He took the guys we beat up already off of the street so they can heal for a bit and stay busy with training and guard duty? Damn it, who is this Rolento guy?"

"Shall we set up a meeting on the top floor office and find out?" Karin asked as by now it was past seven at night. The sun was beginning to go down and there was no more time to lollygag around. In five hours the proverbial Pandora's Box was going to be opened on Tokyo, and since no one would believe or pay attention to a bunch of kids crying wolf it had to be up to those very same kids to save the entire damn country.

"I don't see how. I can't get close without being seen while the sun is out and I bet there are even more guys inside too. They're keeping their eyes open and watching everyone like hawks. Each time I walked past they seemed like they were just about to run me into the street, no matter which form I took. There's no blind spot to get to the building from, and even if I Henged into a fake guard I don't have the credentials to get past the electronic security to even get inside. I hate technology."

For Naruto to say that there was no place to sneak in from was a big deal. He was always convinced that there was nowhere he couldn't sneak into. He had proven as much when he got into Shadaloo's base without raising a single alarm until he was deep inside. But this was a place with much, much less ground to watch. More eyes were covering less possible territory to scout for an infiltration.

So why sneak in at all? All they needed was one hell of a distraction, and luckily they had one at their disposal that wasn't as obvious as Naruto's clones. They would only spook Rolento if he tried to beat down the guards with them, "Karin…" Sakura said, getting her rich rival's attention, "Those mercenaries at your mansion. Do you think you can actually get them up to do something useful?"

"They are mercenaries Sakura-san." Karin said with a knowing smile, "Like Naruto-san but less reliable even in large numbers and with far less moral scruples. Defensive security work is their main focus, but for the right price I believe that they will rain down hot lead onto whomever their clients wish."

"Uh, yeah… let's not go that far, dattebayo." Naruto said as he heard the plan over the line, "These guys aren't really soldiers. They're office cubicle workers, teenagers, housewives, normal people that like the flash. Just people that are sick of the way things are. I'd rather not get hundreds of people killed in a shootout downtown with Karin's mercs… her dad would tear her flesh from her bones after she did it anyway."

A shiver went down Karin's spine at the thought of her father catching wind of her being responsible for abusing the power of the mercenaries he hired for her safety. If that went public the reputation that the Kanzuki Zaibatsu had would take a severe hit, 'And that is exactly why I consider Naruto-san a confidant.' She thought to herself, "Ah, I do not think it would be necessary to resort to such methods either. I believe a simple diversionary tactic would be all that is necessary for us to get inside. I will call them now."

"Come back to the limo and sit tight with us Naruto." Sakura said, getting herself into a comfortable position to wait for their help, "There's nothing to do for now unless you want to fight your way up the whole tower." If he did that and Rolento was there the man would flee immediately.

"…You know, now that I think about it I think I could probably take these guys and get up-."

"No. Distraction." Both Karin and Sakura chimed at once decisively, cutting off Naruto's sales pitch on running through the whole enemy gauntlet like a samurai on a feudal battlefield.

"Aw, you both made up. That's so cute. Heh, I knew you two could get along." Both girls just rolled their eyes before choosing to pass their time waiting for Naruto's return by glaring daggers at each other.

XxX

(Meanwhile – Aohura City Industrial District – Mad Gear Hidden Warehouse)

There wasn't a more desolate spot in town that someone could choose to hide things at. No one had really used the warehouses in that area for over ten years. The bigger companies that operated out of Japan's larger cities chose to store their things closer to their headquarters in the big commerce hubs instead of in little side towns like Aohura City.

So the district had fallen mostly into something of ghost town-like conditions. The city just didn't have the money to bulldoze most of it for public projects and there weren't very many entrepreneurs looking to buy up the cheap property over there.

Either way, there were no people over there that would be able to see the sole bustling warehouse that was gated off and being protected around the clock by sentries on the ground and at lookout points.

It was a good thing too, because what they caught sight of might have been kind of scary. It probably would have made people wonder if the warehouse had been converted into a temporary supply depot for the armed forces. The three military helicopters on the roof and the fleet of army trucks and hummers on the ground out in front probably would have made them think that.

"Dude they've got helicopters…" Batsu said over the phone from his personal hiding place down the block from the target facility, "This all came from Russia?"

"Karin says that these things were shipped through the Kiril Islands customs. It's supposed to be far easier for Mad Gear to bribe." Cammy said on the other end of the line, "Akira and I are as close as we're going to be able to get without being discovered. What about Sasuke and yourself?"

"I can get closer I guess." Batsu started trying to jump rooftops and fire escapes to get himself closer to where he needed to be, "And how would I know where Sasuke is? I don't even know where you two are. You all ditched me at the restaurant, remember?"

"I wouldn't call it ditching you. We figured that you and Sasuke had worked something out which was why he left. Akira doesn't have Sasuke's number by the way so we can't reach him. Would it help if I apologized?"

"It does actually." Such a nice little assassin that Naruto kept in his home, so pleasant when she wasn't breaking necks. And it was very weird that he found that to be the most normal thing he could think of at that moment. His life was crazy-awesome. Even his mother was getting used to it from how she dropped him off no questions asked, "So what the fuck are we supposed to do?"

There was silence over the line until Cammy finally spoke up again, "Akira says we should just attack them. They don't have any firearms in hand so we can take them on." More silence for a short time, "She says that we should do it now before more gather."

"Why's she speaking through you?"

"She isn't really. She's just so quiet you can't hear her voice through the receiver. Sorry Akira."

"…" Batsu opened his mouth to say something else, but a stray random thought hit him right as he was jumping between buildings and almost made him miss his landing point. He had to climb his way up to safety before he could go about asking his weird question, "Hey Cammy you're not wearing clothes with pockets, just that green leotard and the beret. So where do you keep your phone?"

"In my boot when I'm not wearing casual clothes. Why does it matter?" Oh thank God. Because his mind had dropped right to the gutter and stayed there. If she had confirmed any of his hidden perverted suspicions he would have been no more good. The last thing he needed was to suffer a nosebleed right before a fight, "I don't see what this has to do with the mission."

It didn't have anything to do with the mission. Just curiosity really. Who knew if any of them would be alive to bring the topic up later? And Akira did have a point, because from his new vantage point Batsu could see five more Mad Gear members entering through the gates.

XxX

(Inside of the Warehouse Grounds)

The front gates closed behind the five newly arriving Mad Gear militia soldiers as they walked across the premises past all of the other hundreds of members that were excitedly chattering amongst themselves.

When a few of these folks greeted the new arrivals, other than a quick 'hey' here and a 'hello' there they simply kept moving until they reached the inside of the warehouse. At that point, the group members started drifting apart and walking around like they had some kind of purpose. Amazingly, a lot of their work went undisturbed as they started sticking slips of paper with strange writing on them, centering around the kanji for 'explode', on the insides of dark supply crates that were still being unloaded, underneath tables that gear was being set up on, to the undersides of ammunition crates, etc.

Eventually, that came to an end though when one of them tried to go up to the higher level from the ground floor via the stairs, "Hey!" One of the more attentive Mad Gear members said as the caught man stopped in his path right on the steps, "What are you doing? You and your friends have been acting weird ever since you came in here, and you know no one is allowed up there without orders!"

Upon getting close enough, the man noticed that the figure of his suspicions had a glazed over look in his eyes as if he had been hypnotized, and wasted no time before brandishing a stun baton to shock him into sweet unconsciousness.

"All of you guys, stop Squad 16! They've been brainwashed by someone!"

Instead of being afraid of someone trying to stop them, over a month of dealing with the overly powerful denizen fighters of Aohura City had them fired up to stop someone that was trying to put an end to their social movement.

It was strange, because they all knew exactly who was being referred to and everyone inside of the warehouse pounced and detained them. Upon the issuing of the order even many of the people outside entered and like some kind of organized mob they picked up the five men and carried them outside before throwing them out over the fence and cheering. There wasn't any way that something so underhanded would keep them from going through with everything.

Those men were still their comrades, but they just wouldn't be allowed back inside the warehouse or on the mission at midnight. It was for safety and security reasons of course.

Yes, they were on the ball.

And then the massive doors to the warehouse shut with clicking clangs that immediately caught their notice. They turned around at the suddenly startling noise and many of them that realized that they had been locked out rushed to try and open some of the doors.

Some of the military vehicles out front were then blown sky high in fiery blasts that made them second guess getting anywhere close to the warehouse. Mostly because there was a wall of fire in the way. That tended to make people hesitant to jump towards a door.

XxX

(Outside of the Warehouse Grounds)

Both Cammy and Akira watched the panic begin to circulate after the explosions out front from their hiding place lying down on a rundown billboard scaffold. They had a bird's eye view of the whole thing, "…Subtle." Akira said quietly, but the sarcasm was evident.

"I don't think any element of surprise would matter any longer." Cammy said as she stood up from where they were laying. It wasn't like there was going to be a better chance to get a drop on them, and even though the approach was as delicate as a rhino, the explosion separated them from their firearms. This was a very workable situation, "Shall we go?"

"How would we get down-?" Akira's question was cut off when she saw Cammy use her very protective red gauntlets to slide down a wire leading from the scaffold to drop into the warehouse grounds, "…I can't do that…" She stood up and looked at the chain belt around her waist before sighing and throwing it up over the wire that Cammy had just used, "For Daigo-nii I guess."

Getting revenge against dangerous people was a serious pain, even when the wounds were still fresh. How could some people find themselves so dedicated to do such a thing.

XxX

(Roof of the Warehouse)

Well Sasuke's genjutsu plan failed royally. He wasn't able to get to everything that needed to be destroyed in the warehouse before his temporary suggestion drones got pinched. That was okay though, you had to be able to adjust on the fly and luckily he was given a banner opening to get himself inside and keep others from doing the same.

He didn't know where the other people that had decided to come with him were, but they weren't on the grounds when he set his explosive tags off and that was what mattered.

Once he got inside and locked the place down he decided to finish what his original plan had called for. Those weapons needed to go, and none were more important in his mind than the attack helicopters on the roof.

Not because he wanted to stop Mad Gear's insurrection, but because if they actually succeeded he would be harder pressed to achieve his mission. So attacking a vital part of their plan, by way of their air support, was only meant to flush out one of his targets.

The soft sliding noise of steel against steel was the only warning Sasuke had before a katana slash was sent out to slice him in half. Instead of it being Sasuke though, it was an empty metal fuel barrel that felt the unforgiving cut due to a timely Kawarimi no Jutsu.

A safe distance away, Sasuke glared at his towering samurai-armored foe who stood back in a very well studied stance that showed that he knew what he was doing. Red armor on his chest with the kanji on the front, blue jeans, tabi socks, geta sandals, and the imposing helmet and mask combination… yeah this was one of the guys he was supposed to take down, "Sodom I presume."

Sodom nodded as his eyes looked over the crouching figure of Sasuke; the assassin from China that had failed in a previous bid to take down Rolento in Tokyo, "Die job death car?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the gibberish that had just come out of his intended enemy's mouth. Was that even established language? He tried to repeat what Sodom had said under his breath to test it out for himself before just going for what he felt he should have said from the start, "…What?"

"Die job death car?" Sodom repeated as if it was obvious that Sasuke should have been able to understand him.

A bit more thinking on Sasuke's part linked some things together. Sodom had a New York accent and those words sounded like English to him, thus Sasuke switched up to speaking English to address his foe and get his understanding correct, "Did you just try to ask me 'Dai joubu desu ka?'" He queried, "You seriously just asked me if I was alright or not. Don't speak Japanese again… please."

"So you've come for me like you came for Rolento." Sodom acquiesced to speak English. Even though Sasuke couldn't see it, his face was quite red from being called out on his terrible accent when speaking the language, "That's pretty courageous to come here alone, even for an assassin."

"Tch." Sasuke just scoffed before choosing to get down to business, "It's not really courage if it's nothing to be afraid of dealing with in the first place." He then had to jump back onto the propeller blade of one of the helicopters to avoid another attempt to rend him in half by Sodom. It looked like he had stricken a nerve.

A test of Sodom's reflexes came when Sasuke quickly attacked Sodom by launching three shuriken at him. It was child's play for him to deflect the ninja stars, and Sasuke hadn't really expected to harm him with any of them, because even if they had landed Sodom was wearing armor over his vital areas.

Upon getting sight of the weapons that Sasuke used, Sodom's eyes shone behind his mask, "You're a ninja?"

"I haven't been called a ninja directly in a long time. But yeah, I am." Sasuke admitted, but he was then thoroughly confused by Sodom's actions.

The man had bowed to Sasuke, full on at the waist as if he were showing Sasuke respect, "I've always wanted to fight another battle against a ninja. This is really an honor for me." He looked up to find Sasuke no longer on the propeller blade, and took a series of small burning attacks to his back.

"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu)!" Sasuke had gotten to Sodom's blind side and had scored a direct hit with each of his several miniature fireballs that sent the man to the ground, sliding across the roof until he crashed into one of the helicopters, "If you've fought a ninja then you should know not to take your eyes off of them. Game over." He said as he made the tiger seal.

He had already placed explosive tags on the points of the helicopters that would disable them, and upon his triggering they exploded. Sodom was so close to the blast that there was no way he escaped it. He simply had no time, even to get back up from where Sasuke knocked him down.

Either way, that was enough of that ridiculous Mad Gear crap. Armory: trashed. Leadership: crippled. Time to move on now to the next victim.

A propeller came flying right out of the smoke and the fire that Sasuke's explosive tags had caused and he was forced to jump out of the way to keep from being maimed or killed by it depending on how sharp the blades were. He was of the mind that they were sharp enough to mince him up.

He left the ground and Sodom dashed out like a small car flying down the street. He grabbed Sasuke's leg and smashed him into the ground, dragging him across the surface of the roof without slowing down a step before he wheeled around and hurled Sasuke like a ball and chain in the opposite direction, "Daikyo Burning!"

Sasuke was hurled through a set of empty metal fuel barrels and groaned as he started to stand back up again, "Okay… you get one. Everybody gets one." He seethed under his breath. The back of his shirt had been rendered to tatters, as had the skin on the top of his back. A terrible case of road rash along with the trauma of getting slammed like a doll and pitched away like a softball.

That was his mistake. He had deemed his opponent an outright fool for bowing and taking his eyes off of him. Sasuke had figured that Sodom had no chance of surviving the first attack he had dealt him, but Sodom was wearing armor on his body, head, and face. It wasn't as if he himself had actually been burned if he was wearing equipment that was any good.

"I underestimated you at first glance." Sodom admitted, holding up his katana to face off with Sasuke once more. His form was still smoking from being caught in a fire and his pants were burned quite noticeably, "You say that you're a ninja, but you don't dress like one. Ninja or not, I won't be taking you lightly again."

Nothing was said in return from Sasuke who merely activated his Sharingan and stood at the ready. He couldn't get eye contact with Sodom though. The facemask of the man's helmet kept him from peering through the darkness of the eyeholes to ensnare him in a genjutsu. Maybe that was why the ANBU in Konoha wore those full face porcelain masks? So that no Uchiha could beat them that way. His ancestor was the enemy of the inaugural Hokage after all.

But Sasuke had to pay close attention to his enemy when he saw him slowly draw a second katana to dual-wield the deadly weapons. It was time to find out just how well he could actually use those things, "Well I don't like assassinating targets that can't fight me back anyway…"

XxX

(Downtown Aohura City – Synth Logistics Company Building)

The sun had gone down, and now the security force at the company had something to legitimately be concerned with. Jet-black vehicles had pulled up at the front gate and the back of the facility, and the Mad Gear militia under the guise of contracted security guards immediately closed the gates off and waited in something of a standoff with the professional mercenaries that got out and looked as though they were formulating a plan to storm the building.

This was what they had prepared for. What Rolento had trained them to get ready to deal with. It was just a little bit early. A warm-up if anything before midnight that night. They weren't about to be bullied by a bunch of 'professional soldiers' that a concerned citizen with deep pockets dished out the money to hire.

They seemed to be evenly armed, as there was no way that a group of mercenaries were going to engage in a gun battle in the middle of any city in the heart of Japan, thus they had melee weaponry such as tazers, batons, and things along those lines. That was just fine because that was what Mad Gear planned on bringing to the dance as well.

With the standoff at the front and back of the tower taking the focus of the security spotlights so that no movement along the lines would be missed with night having fallen over the city, it was far easier for someone like say… a ninja, to sneak past and begin scaling the side of the building.

Even if he was clad in orange fighting gear.

"Do not drop me Naruto-san! If I fall I will never forgive you."

…And carrying up two sixteen year old girls tied to him in a crappy makeshift harness.

Hey, if he could climb the face of a mountain monument in broad daylight and graffiti it up before anyone noticed him he could definitely pull this off.

"If you fall you'll be dead so I don't think you not forgiving him will be much of a problem. Now stop pestering him." Sakura chided tranquilly with a small elbow to Karin's side as the two girls trailed beneath Naruto while he continued to climb upward, "I'm sure Naruto's done this before."

And he kind of had, but with actual rope, not double dozen-bound ninja wire wrapped around the thighs of the girls and extending upward to where it was super-wrapped around anywhere secure on Naruto; around his shoulders and waist, "Just don't wiggle around too much, and be quieter or we're busted. How long are those guys going to stay there by the way?" Naruto asked about the diversionary mercs on the ground.

"I hired their extra services for twenty-four hours, so I can keep them there for that long at the most before they can contractually return to my manor." Karin answered, trying not to look down. She didn't need to be reminded that her physical wellbeing was in the hands of someone that she had seen fall down in the hallway at school without even running or tripping over anything.

And Naruto could understand her fear, because he barely trusted himself to pull this off either. That was why he had been extremely thorough when applying ninja wire liberally around the thighs of the girls. Much to his good fortune, Karin didn't choose to blacken his eyes when he did so, and Sakura was always pretty much good with just about anything he did. Now that was some serious trust.

Karin's eyes couldn't have been closed any tighter if they had been held shut with clothespins though, and it would have been funny if she didn't have a completely legitimate reason to feel that way. Sakura seemed oddly calm though for being over twenty stories off of the ground with her life hanging in the balance, "Why aren't you scared Sakura-chan?"

"Oh, I am scared." Sakura said in an alarmingly calm voice, "I'm petrified actually. I'm focusing as hard as I can on not screaming my head off because this is really stupid and why'd I let you talk me into doing this?" She finally broke down in a bit of a desperate whine, "I should have just let you fight your way upstairs like you wanted to from the start. Now I'm dangling like a yo-yo in the wind."

Stairs were for chumps.

"We're almost to the top so just be cool." Naruto informed the girls. Make them fight a damn criminal organization in the jungles of Thailand and they were fine. Have a militia under the control of a special forces commander use their town as a base for trying to overthrow the national government and they were both all for fighting them to stop them. But climb one itty-bitty skyscraper tied together with thin metal wire and they got all fidgety and scared.

With only a few large windows left before the top, both Karin and Sakura peered inside while being carried up and came face to face with someone that had been walking down the hall until he had seen Naruto climb up the glass. From that point he just stared even as two teenage girls were hoisted up into his view.

Rolento could only stare at Sakura and Karin and the two girls could only do the same as if they were all confused by the circumstances in which they were looking at each other. The reality of the situation then set in on Rolento and he turned tail down the hall to begin running.

That snapped Sakura and Karin out of their states of disbelief and both girls pushed off of the glass pane with their feet to swing back and kick their way through the window to land inside the building in respective crouches, freed of Naruto's ninja wire harness. Both girls smirked at each other before taking off to try and chase Rolento down.

XxX

What kind of shitty luck did he have? This was what Rolento was thinking to himself.

He had just come back from inspecting the guards on the ground level that were preparing for a raid from the mercenaries outside. There was no concern there. Research on the exact company that had dispatched them for hire revealed their reputation for having nothing more than a bunch of wash-out soldiers filling their ranks. If gunfire wasn't an issue, and it most certainly wasn't in the middle of a city, his men could easily handle them without putting themselves into much jeopardy.

And then on the way back to his office he saw not just one, but three of the remaining few people on 'the list' of the most dangerous denizens of Aohura City climbing the side of his building.

Needless to say he took off toward the stairwell and upon reaching the steps started trying to run the remaining twelve floors to his top floor office to barricade himself in and utilize his countermeasures, but first…

Rolento took his radio from his belt and immediately began speaking into it, "Dispatch the Ka-50 now!" He shouted into the receiver, "I know it's not time yet, but we have a gigantic pest climbing on the outside of the west wall of the tower! Kill him and you'll be promoted! Consider it your last field test!"

XxX

(Outside of the Building)

"Where the fuck did the girls go?" Naruto asked himself. He climbed a bit higher after hearing a dull crash noise, but it didn't take any longer than a few seconds for him to feel that he was missing the burden of the two girls weighing his climb down, "Oh man, they didn't fall did they? How the hell am I going to tell Karin's dad that I got her killed without him ruining my credit for life? And Sakura-chan's mom is gonna kill me with cast-iron cookware!"

The panic had to be put on the backburner when Naruto heard propeller blades whirring. A few moments later from the very top of the skyscraper a helicopter flew overhead and shined a light down, managing to peg Naruto and get him in sight.

"No…" Naruto groaned to himself as he saw the main cannon at the front of the helicopter begin to spin and warm up, "There's a chopper here? Damn it, Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!" Naruto quickly formed the blue ball of chakra in his hand and slammed it through the window just as the helicopter began firing on him.

Naruto covered his head while dodging shells behind desks and cubicle walls that were about as effective at blocking bullets as newspaper.

Fighting a helicopter with his bare hands. Sure, why not? That would be a new one to put in the biography one day.

He just hoped that it wouldn't have to be written and released by someone else other than him posthumously.