The Big Row [IO,NK,Yoichi]

"Get out of here, you little shit." Kozachi grabbed the little kid by the scruff of his neck and lifted him up to the sign. The kid was a scruffy little orphan kid, who clearly didn't belong there, in the Uchiha clan compound. Specifically, they were at the gates, where the kid had been accosting the various clansfolk passing in and out of the compound. How the fuck had he gotten in here in the first place? Maybe he'd subverted one of the guards. Kozachi hated people like this. Did this little nobody believe that he was an exception to the law because he was in need?

Disgusting.

"Read the sign." She indicated the rather large and very obvious-looking sign.
"Uhm.... no soliciting, no trespassing, no begging..." Yeah, no goddamn begging, bitch. What was interesting to Kozachi was that the kid could read at all, and it didn't take him long to form the words. Maybe he was working for some high class criminal? If that was the case, he REALLY needed to be kicked out of the compound.

"It's understood that you're in violation of the rules, then. Begone!" With that, she threw him on the ground and gave him a vicious kick, sending him out of the gate and onto the hard pavement outside. Justice shall be served, she thought, as she turned to go. While she was there, there would be nothing to disturb the propriety of the Uchiha clan compound.

[WC 244]

Both of his teammates deserved presents for Christmas, and while Yoichi didn't like going to clan compounds often, he was willing to deal with a few stuffy old elders if it meant giving his squadmmates what they deserve. He just wished it wasn't so crowded..

Justice. What did it mean? That was a question too complicated for any man to answer, let alone a kid trying to do the right thing like Yoichi. As much as he tried to follow the laws, it was the simple truth to him that some things needed to be changed. He only wished that he had the power to do it. That was probably the only reason he went through this barbaric shinobi system, to fix and free his village from the nastiness and crime that addled it like a plague. 

His only regret so far on the path of heroics was that he couldn't save everyone. But, as luck would have it, someone who was in need presented themselves to him ten meters away. What a poor, poor child; it was obvious from how dirty and mangled his clothes were that he was an orphan, probably recent from the terror Kirigakure brought down upon his home, too. But, as much as the universe hated him enough to rip away his family from him, his misfortune was still not over. A girl that looked just about Yoichi's age heckled and pulled his collar around. Overall, she was being pretty nasty and rude and it wouldn't have surprised him if the situation devolved into some far worse. It was unfortunate that no one else besides him seemed to care or want to help, though. Was this what their village had turned too under Kirigakure's rule?

And to think, he only came here to give a present to both of his teammates. Time and time again he bore witness to the cruelty of this world, but he never thought it would come from such an esteemed clan like the Uchiha in times as dark as these. But, as much as he wanted to leap in and give her a few roundhouse kicks to the skull to teacher her some manners, it was best to assess the situation first and give her the benefit of the doubt (well, as much as you could give to someone who was into bullying orphans). And to that end, Yoichi decided that preparing himself through the Substitution was probably the best way to handle things until he could figure out whether she was hostile or not.

With her attention diverted towards the little, it wouldn't be hard to get a little tricky; handseals were woven as Yoichi picked up a nearby log, synching himself with it in the unfortunate event she went feral and attacked. Since she was busy giving the poor kid a lecture, it wouldn't be -too- hard to pull this off..and, y'know, the orgy of people walking around helped too. What were the odds of her noticing without a freak accident occurring? Luckily, it looked like the exact opposite of deus ex machina day for her.

The Genin calmly, but briskly approached the scene, just as the child was kicked violently and left crumpled on the floor, right around the time she was about to head in. If she wasn't going to Hell before, she certainly was now...just a few feet away from the demon, stil well within the range of his Substitution Technique.

"Woah. Kicking orphans? Someoooone was on Santa's naughty list this year, weren't they? So any real reason you had to give that kid your boot instead of shooing him off, or can I go ahead and report this whole incident to our superiors and make you pay his hospital bills?"

As he attempted to grab her attention, he made sure to listen out for that kid. After all, he had to get him to a hospital, right? But with how hurt he seemed, he probably wasn't going anywhere. Did he expect this to go as smoothly as he hoped? Doubtful. As much as of a Casanova as he was, him and females never seemed to get along when it came to "simmering things down". This one seemed no different; he just hoped that she wasn't about to set fire to a crowd of people.

WC: 722

Jutsu Used: Substitution Technique
AP: 190/195

Who the fuck was this? Kozachi noted the headband and the boy's features. Okay, well.... if he was going to threaten a clan member on her own turf, he was making a huge mistake. Only someone with some form of mind-numbing bravery or extreme stupidity would do something like that, and Kozachi despised both. Well, he certainly wasn't worth her time. She had better things to do than be seen squabbling in the street with some brat who thought he was on some kind of moral high ground. Ha! What a joke. Well, she'd just ditch him as quickly as possible, though she didn't want to use force on someone who didn't justly deserve it.

She glanced at the kid, then at the sign, then back at the kid again. Yup, no rules broken.

"Sure, report away, kiddo." Giving the kid a wry glance, she gave sort of a half-hearted shrug. The girl knew well that she was fully in the right, so there wasn't even the thought of any consequences coming her way in the slightest. In other words, the boy couldn't even touch her, which was just how she liked it. She found it distasteful to hang around people like this anyway.

"Anyways, welcome to the Uchiha compound." Kozachi began again, blandly. "Do no harm, cause no trouble." And with that, she began to walk away. Unless the boy tried anything stupid, of course, in which case she'd be pretty fully prepared for action. Naturally, she had no way to gauge how strong she was, but she figured that if he was a truly knowledgeable shinobi, he wouldn't have fucked with clan matters on clan property anyway, so her initial opinion of him was pretty tarnished. She tossed her hair a little as she stalked off, not entirely in a bad mood.

[TWC 548]

Shit! That little witch actually called his bluff! Were the jerks around here really getting that much more intelligent? Call him a bad person, but he really preferred it when they were more easier to manipulate and confuse. And of course, this Uchiha sounded just like he predicted; crass, bland, whatever other synonyms you'd use for those words..this was the stereotypical princess that believed she was better than everyone else. If she wasn't completely within her rights, he would've yearned for the opportunity to give her a taste of her own medicine right then and there..but, unfortunately, that wasn't the case. If he wanted to flex on her, he'd have to do it some other time. It was more important to tend to the orphan, anyways.

"Oh, you must be so fun with your friends!"

He just had to get his last little jab in. It was a habit of anyone who's mouth ran a mile a minute, he simply couldn't help it! But as soon as he was sure she left the area, Yoichi would go ahead and try his best to help the orphan, who by this time could manage to stand up. For now, he would save all the scolding; that encounter probably gave him all the warnings he would ever need.

"Hey, sorry about that. I'm Yoichi."

He crouched down, offering his hand to the child who shook it with a surprisingly firm grip.

"I-I'm Yumei.."

"Look, I guess it's real hard to be on the streets, but it doesn't have to be like that, you know? I know a real good orphanage that'll treat ya right and get you prepared in life.."

"R-Really? My parents died recently, and I've been lost ever since..I'm so sick and tired of begging, I only want a warm and comfortable bed again.."

While he could never really the agony he was going through, he could at least try to help. People like that woman were the real problem with Konoha and why they were in such dire straits. What type of world were they in when someone could show such cruelty to a child? How many people ignored his plight?

"Don't worry dude, I've got you. C'mon!"

Sure, his teammates presents would have to wait, but he was sure they would understand the delay. Plus, it was little things like this that made the whole job worth it all!

"And don't worry, the food is one of the best in the village!"

WC: 413
TWC: 1135
EXIT

Claims: 5 stats, Impact Fluids (1135/2000)

The sarcasm was something she could ignore, of course, though she still turned to look at the extremely rude kid. Insult a girl on her family's property? He ought to be kicked out. Still, she was unsurprised as he went just outside of the gates to tend to that pathetic orphan child. From the short distance away, Kozachi could catch snatches of their conversation. ... Seriously? Was this insulting Yoichi kid seriously so trusting of such street scum? The worst part was, he was actually giving the kid advice that he had probably heard already. At this age, nobody who begged in this part of the town was ignorant of the orphanage and the benefits it gave. Since the olden days, the orphanage had consistently produced miraculous figures in the shinobi world, and by no means was it stigmatized.

The fact that this street child was here meant that either he'd been rejected from the orphanage for some reason, or he had found employ with some kind of shady street or underworld guy. Tcheh. The thought of a criminal trying to sneak his way into the Uchiha compound using pity disgusted her. Was he with the people that Kenjiro had been trying to take down? She frowned as she walked back toward them.

"Yoichi, right?" She began, her eyes now blazing red with the pattern of the sharingan. "You're way too trusting of this kid. Let me show you a trick." The girl turned to the orphan, her face cold. "Go lay a flower by Gisei's grave for me, brat. Now scram." The kid's face twitched ever so slightly. Without the sharingan, the girl might not even have noticed it, the muscular movement only distorting the skin slightly. Still... it was there. Bingo, she'd gotten the reaction she wanted. So this guy WAS with some kind of underground movement. Son of a bitch.

The kid spat at her feet, and ran away. "You see that?" She began again, turning to Yoichi again. "All you have to do is monitor their facial topology. You can tell if a person is lying, or who they work for, or even what their favorite color is. There's scum on the streets everywhere. This one in particular was attempting to do harm or retrieve information while within my family's property, most likely."

She made another "hmph" noise, and looked down the street worriedly at the retreating form of the orphan spy. What were they up to now? Things could get really tricky. "Well, I hope you learned a lesson here. Don't trust anyone, especially the ones who look weak."
[TWC 981, interrupted exit via timeline]

A part of him hated that she was right. Well, a big part of him actually! That kind of made him look like an asshole for earlier, and he'd definitely have to apologize for it(maybe after he made a smartass comment or two). He just couldn't believe that in trying times like these, people had the audacity to trick one another? If he could get a hold of that brat, he might've gave him another kick himself! 

"Woah, not every day that I'm wrong about something. Buuuut, in my defense, I don't have built in lie detectors in my eyes. Parents must've not had enough money to get that feature installed."

He chuckled at his own joke, but was positive that he'd be the only one doing any laughing. That was the problem with ice queens like her, they took themselves too seriously! 


"And, yeah, I totally get what you mean about being too trusting, but that's who I am, y'know? If I see someone I think is in need, I have to lend them a hand. And if they're trying to trick me? Well, that's what the prison is for! I think you can learn to live with trusting people a little more, it's not great for the good ol' teamwork skills  if you're so paranoid about every little thing, y'know?"

Speaking of working together..he was wondering if his next idea would pan out well. It was obvious their village had a crime problem that needed stamping out, so if they could do their part and help erase a nefarious criminal organization that was brazen enough to employ -orphans-, everyone would win. Since she wasn't the most fun peorson to be around though, he was slightly hesistant on asking to bring her along. He was sure he could handle this on his own, but better safe than sorry, right?


"And shouldn't we make sure that kid wasn't like, I don't know, scouting the perimeter for reasons that wasn't only begging? For someone so paranoid, you kinda suck at the whole cop thing! I'm pretty sure we could catch up to him, he's toooo slow!"

It wasn't a good idea to keep poking a prodding a dragon like her, but what was the worse that could happen? To her credit, she at least was able to keep her cool pretty well. Whether or not she decided to tag along for the whole investigation though, Yoichi was in hot pursuit, leaping and bounding across buildings, scouting the ground area for that kid.

Sigh. At this rate, Minato and Fukuro wouldn't get their presents today, but when did anyone say being good was easy? Balancing his duties as a Shinobi and as a good person was incredibly difficult, and it didn't help that most people would think he was crazy for half the views he had. Yoichi was always the naive, optimistic boy to people..

Hopefully he could live in a world where his values weren't merely schlock in a comic book, but stuff that people took seriously. Whatever happened to help thy neighbor?

WC: 512
TWC: 1647

Impact Fluid: 1647/2000

She didn't respond to his remark about her eyes, as annoying as it was. It was practically the clan's only selling point, one way or another. Sure, they were the eyes she had been born with, and potent weapons regulated by Uchiha clan law, but that was neither here nor there. This guy was pissing her off again, and though she didn't let it show, she was losing patience with him. There was really only so much bullshit she could take from a single person, and she was getting closer and closer to that limit every time this prick opened his mouth.

"If I kill him, what do you think happens? Think carefully, now." If he'd listened to anything she'd just said, he'd be able to figure something out for himself. Then again, if he was the typical lunkhead that the academy churned out on the daily, he might not be as smart as she hoped he'd be. Dumb folk were the most boring kind of company. Obviously, even though Gisei was dead, the fact that this kid was here meant his organization was still in action somewhere, somehow. Or maybe it was some kind of splinter remnant of the old criminal group. Still, she considered telling Kenjiro about it.

No, it would not turn out well for either of them if Ken knew. His mental state was unstable enough as it was, lord knew. If she told him that he had failed to wipe out all of the jackasses, he'd probably go mad with revenge. Better to focus on the here and now. In other words, this kid.

"Besides, what good is prison? State-run facilities like that never rehabilitate their inmates, so they come out worse than when they went in. Also, prisons are craaaaaazy expensive. You'll find out when you start cryin' over taxes." Yup, it was true. Government prisons sucked ass, and prisoners needed to be cleaned, fed, and clothed. The more crowded the prisons were, the more of a burden they were on society. No sane person would want to shoulder that kind of burden.

[TWC 1330]

What a bucket of sunshine he'd had the fortune of meeting today! Just as he expected, she didn't even crack the slightest of smiles at his jokes. Sure, they were a little bit on the douche side, but did she have to be so stoic all the time? It was like bantering with a wall! And of course, her views on the value of life were so depressing..but, honestly, he understood her point of view, if only a little. It was dangerous to have such a philosophy like Yoichi's in a world like this, but the world wasn't going to get any better if they kept doing the same thing, was it?


"I know prisons suck, but that's why we should work on reforming them. Not every criminal deserves to be put to death, and there's plenty of stories of a goon or two going straight just as there's many tales of people who never strayed from the path of crime. People say I'm too idealistic, but damn, I just can't shake the feeling that mankind in its entirety has more potential that we aren't usin'."

He was getting a little rambly. Whoops. 

"Ah, sorry 'bout that...and sorry about all the insults earlier too, I get cranky when I wake up early!"

Pretty quickly, he found that orphan child that was causing so much trouble. He was tired, out of breath, afraid. Even if he was a criminal, Yoichi couldn't help but feel pity for him. But, maybe after all of this was over he would realize this type of life wasn't worth it. Despite all his taunts and quips, truthfully, Yoichi had hopes that all those criminals he fought on the daily would reform, even if it was a ridiculous hope.


"S-Stay away from me! Get 'em, boys!"

Six older teenagers emerged from the shadows, wielding various weapons that they could find around the area. Rusty pipes, wrenches, shivs, all sorts of intimidating stuff that would scare him if he forgot he were a ninja.

"Aw, c'mon dude! This many people? I was hoping we could get some one-on-one time, now this feels plain old impersonal!"

Three of them charged straight for him, clearly not amused with his comments. Despite their efforts in trying to knock him out cold, he bobbed and weaved his way around their strikes. It was like they were moving in slow motion to him!

"Aw, boys, boys, boys! You're gonna have to practice those swinging skills in prison if you want a shot at hitting me!"

With a display of inhumane strength, he clasped his hand around the wrist of one of his opponents, swinging him into the other two, knocking them out cold with the force. Sure, close combat wasn't his forte, but he still knew a thing or two that came in handy whenever he was trying to look cool!

"And now here's the home run!"

The last of the three slammed face first into a wall, slumping him for the rest of the fight. At this point, the other three thought they'd have better luck with Kozachi and went after her instead, but he wasn't worried.

"O-Oh crap.."

That child was shitting bricks. Metaphorically, of course. Yoichi moved closer, tying him up with rope without any resistance.


"You know, your life doesn't have to be this way, right? Serve your time, get out of your life of crime, and suddenly you're gonna find your life sucking a lot less."

No kicking, no pouting, no complaining. Usually, the people he took in to jail were a lot more beligerant. Maybe this guy wasn't that type, or maybe he was thinking on taking his words to heart. Whatever the case was, Yoichi would just wait for the Uchiha to finish up here. He just hoped that she wasn't going to brutalize them.

WC: 639
TWC: 2286

Was this kid really that fucking naive? Reform was never that easy. Human beings, especially ones wrapped up in the red tape of bureaucracy, would never change. You could only change a few things about people, and one of them was whether they were able to do evil or not. You could kill them, sure, but you could also maim them, intimidate them, so on and so forth. Show mercy to the undeserving, and they'd pay you back in betrayal and ingratitude, not improvement. Sure, in an ideal world, a person had enough good within him to reciprocate in kind and take the "new chance" that had been offered him, but that wasn't how the real world worked. Well, it wasn't up to her to show this kid the brutal reality of life. She wasn't that arrogant, despite her heritage. She supposed he'd just have to learn the hard way. Life would bend him over and f-

Just then, her thoughts were interrupted by six kids down the street, who had taken it into their hands to gang up on this orphan. Tch, this proved her point. Human beings, even at such an early age, demonstrated their tendency toward evil. Pathetic. Still, there was more to this, wasn't there? When Yoichi started running to the boy's rescue, she just scanned them with her sharingan. Those affected movements, still driven by purpose... something was going on here that she couldn't quite figure out. The girl decided to watch further as the events unfolded before her eyes. Maybe Yoichi would think she was a coward, just standing there and watching, but she didn't give a shit. Let him think what he wanted. Really, in the end, it didn't matter at all. She was getting what she wanted from this fight, and it's that these guys WANTED her to follow them. Apparently, Yoichi was just a factor that they hadn't expected. She almost rolled her eyes. Nobody expected the upstart hero, right? How sad.

Well, it was clear and evident from their actions against Yoichi and the way that they were brandishing their weapons at her that they had both threatened and attacked a shinobi of the village. So, it's treason, then, she thought to herself. And the penalty for treason in any village was death. Being an arm of the law, not only was it up to her to dispense such a punishment, it was her DUTY.

With a quick motion of her hands, a series of bright red fiery heads went coursing down the way towards the unruly teenagers, and there was a brief flash of light and heat. And just like that, all that was left of them was three disgusting, oily, charred husks and the stench of seared human flesh. This kind of thing didn't bother her since the night in the academy basement, when Kenjiro had almost died. She'd only ever had to do what was necessary for her and her brother, and now her brother could take care of himself.
[TWC 1833]

Okay, so Kozachi didn't immediately swoop in and preferred to let her prey come to her. No big deal! He was having way too much fun messing with his opponents to mind so much. Maybe she was the type of girl that liked to start things slow? Whatever, he still managed to tie things up on his end pretty neatly.

For a moment, Yoichi was satisfied. All the loose ends were wrapped up, the criminals were stopped, and it appeared that no one actually died! It was a miracle how things worked out that way when he was working with a psychopath. But, just as soon as he was about to relax, his hopes came crashing all the way down.

A sickening smell entered his nostrils; in a village where most people preferred to use Katon, he could recognize the smell of burnt flesh anyways. He turned quickly towards the source, and in his horror, his eyes met the charred corpses of teenagers. A slew of emotions were running through his body at the speed of light, the strongest of them all an unyielding rage. Sure, these low lives might not have been upstanding citizens but to murder them in cold blood out in the middle of the day was far too excessive! But, what could he do?

With how barbaric the law was, she was technically still within its confines. Not to mention, if her flames could do -that-, then what chance did he have? He couldn't do anything but accept the cruel, twisted ending of this particular mission; at least for now. If it weren't for the small sounds of crying that reached his ears, he would've left the scene already.

"I d-don't w-want to die.."

It was the same child that got them into this mess in the first place. He might not have been able to save the others, but the least he could do was save him. Yoichi knelt down to meet the kid face to face, a serious, solemn look on his face.


"Yeah, I'm sorry you had to see all of that. It was pretty messed up..but I hope it gets you thinking. You still have a whole life ahead of you. Don't waste it on something foolish, alright? Now, you gotta tell us what you were up too besides snooping around. We know someone is in charge of you."

He stopped crying, at least long enough for him to spill all the beans he had. Fear was a -really- powerful motivator for making lips move, but that didn't mean he approved of how things went down here.


"Okay, okay, okay..my boss, I don't really know him. His name is Scorpion, he told me he wanted to snoop around the Uchiha compound for some secret files and told me he'd kill me if I said anything to the cops! He's like, the leader of some type of black market trading gang.. His base is in that warehouse down the street, just p-please don't let me end up like them..I promise that's all I know about them!"

Yoichi wasn't about to let another kid up end dead here if he could help it. He whistled, alerting a nearby police officer to his location.


"Hey, this guy knows a ton about a local criminal organization. Can you hold him for us?"

And just like the wind, the two of them were gone in a swirl of leaves. Man, the Shunshin technique was badass!

But, while he could save one life, it still pained him to see the corpses. It was such a disgusting world they lived in when such an excessive abuse of force was considered legal. What type of horrible life did she live that made her like this? He couldn't fathom what someone had to go through to think something like this was alright on a moral level. Worst of all, someone this as insane as she was was the type of people he was expected to work with on the field of battle. During times like these, he always wondered how things would end up if he decided to start his own village.

But that wasn't feasible, unfortunately. Too many factors played into it, and underneath all the grime and muck that covered Konoha, he managed to see a diamond. It would hurt him too much emotionally to leave with his parents, even if it hurt him almost as much to stay. And knowing his luck? The universe wouldn't do him a solid so that he'd never have to see her again. He'd have to deal with her blatant disregard for the lives of other people over, and over again.

In spite of his rage though, he genuinely wished she could somehow turn over a new leaf. But, how did you change someone so ingrained in their ways? He didn't have all the answers. He was an enforcer of the law, not some therapist. But..maybe this meeting happened for a reason. Ever the optimistic youth, he wondered if perhaps their second meeting might not go so awful as this one. If he could help even one person change like he helped this child, then the world would become better one step at a time.

So, in spite of his brain telling him to leave the area as soon as he could, he turned his attention towards Kozachi, trying his best to muster up a smile.


"So, uh, partner..let's go follow up on that lead, alright? I think we can beat them pretty easily. Lead the way, madame."

He was still pretty new to the whole Shinobi thing, so this was the first time he'd ever seen dead people. Despite that, he tried his best to maintain his chipper, upbeat disposition. If he gave in to his fear and negative emotions all the time, life would've drived him insane ages ago!


"A black market though..the most obvious guess I have is he's looking for Sharingans to sell. Let's show him that type of stuff ain't appreciated in Konoha!"

WC: 1005
TWC: 3291