"Sir! Please stop! Please!" The first few to be beaten lay on the ground, covering their heads and begging amidst the baton blows, "We're just civilians who were called here! This has nothing to do with us!"
"Now you remember you're civilians?" an Uchiha, swinging his baton six times a second, glared with his Sharingan. "Too late! You dare attack the police headquarters—will you be storming the Hokage building tomorrow?"
Quickly, the fleeing rioters scattered through Konoha's streets and alleys, chased by police officers wielding batons.
A few passing villagers, not knowing what was going on, were sternly ordered back home by police: "What are you looking at? Curfew tonight! No one leaves! Or you'll be treated as a rioter!"
With that, the officer leaped atop a wall, accelerated, and jumped down to kick down a fleeing protester, baton swinging instinctively.
The scene frightened unrelated villagers into running home and locking doors and windows. In moments, the streets were left only with fleeing rioters and their pursuers.
Meanwhile, three ANBU on a mission witnessed this. One asked, "Jonin Nagai, should we stop them?"
"Can't you see the police are enforcing the law?" Nagai Seiichi glared at the two special jonin with him. "Let's just report back to Lord Hokage and avoid trouble."
The nearly full-mobilized police force was still outnumbered by the rioters, but their training showed. After catching a few, they drag the battered rioters back to headquarters.
Konoha's streets echoed with screams and cries.
Sakurai and teammate Fujiwara chased a fleeing troublemaker through the alleys.
Clearly, this guy wasn't an ordinary villager—no ordinary civilian could run so long from two ninja.
Four of them ran into a dead end, and the two police ninjas followed. But inside, they found several others hiding. The original target grabbed a wooden chair and smashed it, handing out the broken legs as weapons.
Now, emboldened by numbers and makeshift arms, one stepped forward to accuse Sakurai and Fujiwara: "Ninja should protect the village! How can you attack villagers?"
"You people who act recklessly, disregarding the Will of Fire—do you dare call yourselves villagers?" Sakurai retorted angrily.
"Sakurai, what do we do? There's a lot of them." Fujiwara hesitated. Fresh out of the academy, he hadn't even mastered the last jutsu issued by the police. He was among their weakest fighters and felt nervous facing the mob.
"What are you afraid of!" Sakurai snorted, taking off his headband. "Did you forget what the Deputy said? Don't disgrace the police!"
He took a deep breath, raised his baton, and stepped forward.
Fujiwara gritted his teeth and followed.
A brawl broke out instantly. Sakurai fared okay—he'd been a top civilian student in the academy, and after joining the police, learned Uchiha-style swordsmanship. He could handle a four-on-one. But Fujiwara, the weakest, could only rely on chakra-enhanced toughness to withstand attacks.
Even as he struggled, Fujiwara still swung his baton hard.
Suddenly, one of the rioters whipped out several shuriken and flung them at the two.
Sakurai narrowly dodged, but Fujiwara wasn't so lucky—he barely avoided a fatal hit, and a shuriken slashed his thigh, blood gushing out.
"You're a ninja?!" Sakurai roared, pulling out his own shuriken to retaliate.
But the disguised Nara clan private ninja had dropped all pretense and started forming hand signs on the spot.
"Fire Style: Flame Bullet!" He blasted a fireball at the wounded Fujiwara.
Sakurai tried to help but was too far—the two had gotten separated during the fight. In a panic, he shouted, "Dodge!"
Fujiwara tried, but his injured leg barely moved.
Just as Fujiwara was about to be killed, a figure leaped in front, slashing the fireball apart with a ninja blade.
"Squad Captain Zaito!" Sakurai and Fujiwara cried in relief—it was Uchiha Zaito.
"You're useless. After this mission, once you're healed, get ready for hellish training!" Zaito glared at Fujiwara.
"As for you," he turned to the Nara retainer ninja, "You dare try to kill police? Tired of living?"
Since the enemy had used shuriken and ninjutsu, Zaito no longer held back. He charged, easily subduing the chuunin-level attacker in three moves. The remaining villagers fled as soon as he used ninjutsu.
"What are you waiting for? Go after them!" Zaito barked, and Sakurai hurried to chase.
Soon, the curfew order spread across Konoha. But there were always some bleeding-heart villagers who, seeing rioters chased by police, opened their homes to hide them.
But the police, barged in and beat everyone inside.