Old Lady Matsumoto

I was too old for this. But misfortune rarely ever gives you any consideration based on your age. Dealing with assholes had always been part of this job. The problem was when you had to deal with assholes who could strike back at you significantly. If there was a list of such assholes in this town, boss Kuro would top that list. He started out providing protection for rich moneylenders as they were building up the new part of town. He was a former shinobi and had good contacts with the hidden leaf ninjas assigned for the protection of the town.

In time he became a force of his own, starting his own financing, gambling and prostitution business. He ruled with an iron fist and was able to come out on top in the fight for dominance of Kurashiko town's underworld. There were still factions who resisted him but he was indisputably the man on the top. I had held out some hope that the idiot we tossed wasn't actually affiliated with Kuro. But unfortunately, according to the information I received from my trusted contacts, that little fucker Fuji was Kuro's nephew. I was already on his shit list owing to the fact that I had refused his advances to let him into my business. Add to that the charge of dishonour to his family, I wasn't likely to get off easy.

Had it been just me, I'd have told him to go fuck himself. But this business still meant something to people that I cared about. I was most worried about Mina. She may not be able to keep up with her payments if we were to shut down operations. If I knew of at least one hostess bar in the city that I thought she could survive in, I'd have sent her there. But, at her age, they'd use her and churn her out before long.

The image of her little girl's face was enough to make me swallow my pride.

Even though I'd done nothing wrong, I'd sent a message via an acquaintance to Kuro's people to tell them I was willing to negotiate a price for leaving us the fuck alone. I got the reply that Kuro agreed to it on principle but was reluctant to set a specific time.

I'd played this game enough to know that it meant only one thing. He intended to make a show of his strength before having me sit down with him. Exactly what form that display would take, god only knew.

Hana

I knew that boss Kuro was bad news from the moment Old lady Matsumoto said his name. I'd find out just how bad in the following days.

The bar had closed early that night after the incident. Nezu was pretty shaken up as I took her up to her bedroom. I consoled her as best I could. She told me that she'd felt weird about Fuji since day one. Tonight he had asked her to do something she really didn't want to do and he'd shown his true colours. I couldn't help but feel guilty about what happened. It was because of me that Nezu had come into contact with Fuji in the first place. I'd also gotten a bad vibe from Fiji but I'd ignored it in favour of all the business his friend Botan was bringing for me.

I really hoped that Old lady Matsumoto would be able to handle this situation.

Old lady Matsumoto had told Nezu to take it easy for a couple of days and not to worry if Mina and I had to handle some extra work. It turned out that there was no need to worry. Both the restaurant outside and the bar had a lot less traffic compared to the day before. I barely made 70 yon by the end of the night. I was pretty sure that this was related to the incident that happened the day before. If the retribution was just us losing business for a little while, I could live with that.

The trend of decreasing customers continued till day 4 when we had just 2 customers for the whole night. I knew of Mina's situation at home. She had a whole family to look after and her husband's life was dependent on her keeping this job. I lied and said that I wasn't feeling very well and told her to attend to all the customers. She'd smiled at me appreciatively, letting me know that my act hadn't fooled her, but she appreciated it all the same.

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It was almost time for us to close up shop when one of the servers came screaming into the bar from the kitchen asking for Old lady Matsumoto and screaming about Jin. I ran to the kitchen door and exited to the dirty alley behind our establishment. I was rooted to the spot for a moment at what was in front of me. I saw Jin lying against the wall there with a small puddle of blood pooling beneath his massive form. His right leg was at an odd angle as he lay there gasping. Two of our kitchen staff were standing there screaming at the sight, unable to do anything.

As much as I was shocked to see Jin this way, this wasn't the first time I'd seen a friend or comrade in this condition. I grabbed a bunch of freshly laundered towels from the kitchen and rushed to Jin's side. I told one of the kitchen staff Mei to stop screaming uselessly and made her sit down on the alley floor. I applied pressure on Jin's wound to slow the bleeding. I shifted his position so that he was lying down on Mei's lap so that he was more comfortable. I was reasonably sure that the stab wound had been made with a kunai (Throwing knife). His right leg seemed to be broken in multiple places. We needed to get him to a hospital soon.

I turned around to see Old lady Matsumoto standing at the doorway with an expression of sorrow mixed with disbelief. Our eyes met as she understood what I wanted to say without even saying it. She immediately turned around and started barking orders to people to make sure that Jin got to the hospital safely. A few people scrambled to get Jin safely to a hospital. I wanted to go to the hospital with them, but Old lady Matsumoto told me to stay put. She went with him to the hospital after she arranged a couple of guards outside every door and we closed up shop.I had no doubts as to who was responsible for this. It was no mere coincidence that we found Jin in the exact same spot where he’d tossed Fiji just a few days ago. It looked like things were starting to get out of hand. I had left the life of a ninja because I never wanted to see another friend in the state that I’d just found Jin in. And yet, it seemed that violence had followed me again.

I felt my blood boil at the image of Jin lying in that alley. But, I couldn’t give in to violence. If I started down a path of revenge, there was no telling where it’d end and who’d end up getting hurt. Old lady Matsumoto had managed to keep this business afloat for longer than I’d been alive. I had to trust in her to solve this and prayed that Jin would be alright. Mina was shaken up and she was escorted home by one of the guards. Nezu was in a right state after she heard what had happened.

“It’s all my fault, I should’ve just done what he wanted and none of this would’ve happened.” She sobbed,

“It’s not your fault Nezu. Doing this job doesn’t mean that you’re a slave. You have every right to say no to something that you find uncomfortable. If it’s anyone’s fault it’s that asshole Fuji’s fault. I’m sorry it was because of me that you met him”.

“Oh no. You couldn’t have known Hana. You were just trying to bring in more business.” Nezu said with a watery smile.

“Then I guess we can both agree that it’s not our fault and that Old lady Matsumoto is going to be able to resolve it soon. She’s been running this business for longer than we’d been alive. I’m sure that she’ll come up with a solution.” I said.

Nezu nodded but continued to look a bit glum.

“I’m sure Jin will be fine, Nezu”.

“You really think so?” She asked with hopeful eyes.

“Yes, his wound wasn’t that deep. He might have to rest up for a while but I think he’ll be fine” I said with a reassuring smile.

This seemed to cheer Nezu up a bit. I said good night to her and headed over to my room. What I neglected to mention to Nezu was that there was a very real chance that Jin might never regain the use of his right leg. I was still hopeful though. The hidden leaf village, and by extension, the land of fire had one of the best operating medical infrastructure in the continent, courtesy of one of the most famous medical ninjas in the world, Princess Tsunade. She was one of the three famous students of the third hokage and was widely known for bringing about radical improvements in medical infrastructure and treatment techniques for ninjas and commoners alike. In a very short list of ninjas who’d done some actual good in the world, she was near the top.

Just a couple minutes after I turned on the lights in my room, I could hear a sound coming from my window as if small stones were hitting it. I dimmed the lights and cautiously opened up the window to see a person wearing a hood standing near the embankment of the canal. As he saw me, he lowered his hood and lit a lighter close to his face. It was Botan. His face clearly showed that he was in some distress as he signalled me that he wanted to talk to me. Bringing him in with guards on all the entrances was extremely difficult. So I signalled him to wait as I made my way to the roof and exited the building under the cover of darkness. I wondered what exactly prompted him to seek me out in the middle of the night wearing a disguise. I guess I’d find out soon enough.