Chapter 1: First Impressions
December 24th, 2016
It was Christmas Eve in the city of Tampa, Florida, and the skies grew dark as rain began to pour from above. Many of the citizens began to pull up their hoods and umbrella's while others ducked for cover beneath or inside many of the local businesses. One establishment in particular, the Cluster Luck, appeared to be the only business not benefiting from any new traffic. The Cluster Luck was a rather low class bar, most commonly home to drug dealers, drunkards, and gamblers down on their luck. In any event, if someone needed to lay low for a while, the Cluster Luck bar was the perfect place to do so.
That was exactly the reputation that Jay was betting on.
The bell at the door dinged and a few of the regulars turned around to inspect the fresh blood. It was obviously a man, standing at about 5'11" based on the doorway. He was wearing a black-and-grey shirt with a hood pulled up over his head, covering most of his features, with a worn black leather jacket over that. As he walked inside, they could see that despite the heavy rain outside and the obvious signs of wear on his jacket, there wasn't a spot of moisture on him.
Jay maintained an indifferent attitude as he walked to the counter, most other patrons quickly grew bored and returned to their own business. However, the warier of the bunch continued to keep a cautious eye on the newcomer.
The bartender was a dirty-blonde in what appeared to be her late 40's, standing a few inches below Jay with a low cut black top and jeans and an unlit cigarette in the corner of her mouth. The choice of top was low cut enough that it was obvious to anyone that she'd chosen it specifically to appeal to more of the male, and some female, customers.
Seeing the new customer, she swaggered over to his seat and bent forward with her arms crossed on the counter, providing an excellent view down her top and into her cleavage. Even knowing the bar's reputation beforehand, Jay wasn't impressed. "Alright newbie, I gotta see your ID before I…" The bartender began before looking up and truly taking in Jay's appearance.
She trailed off as Jay met her gaze, the eagle-eyed customers from earlier watching from behind in shock as the bartender's eyes grew wide before she gave him a lazy grin and her eyes seemed to dull, as though drunk. "Don't worry about it hun, it'll be our little secret." Without him even ordering, she poured and slid him a shot of whiskey across the counter. Jay nodded in thanks, watching as the bartender winked and sauntered over to the next customer, who seemed to be just as curious what he'd done.
Sighing, Jay quickly downed the shot and winced as he felt the whiskey burn on the way down. Not like there was anyone left to berate the young 20-year-old; those old drunks in the back certainly weren't the only ones who wished they could drown their sorrows tonight. But first, he had a job to do.
Under the illusion of coughing from the whiskey, Jay took a glance around at the other customers, searching for one face in particular. The sound of glass shattering to his right had Jay instinctively whirling around to face the unfortunate man he'd been hunting for the past week.
Jesse Willson.
A man in his early 30's, with close cropped brown hair, standing at about 6 feet tall, known to frequent the Cluster Luck bar in Tampa. The man in the booth matched his description perfectly; Willson was the main source of drug export in Tampa, suggesting that at least 3 of the 6 men sitting with him were bodyguards and definitely armed.
Perfect. It'd been a long time since Jay had gotten to fight.
The shattering glass had come from the red-faced waitress, a petite dark-haired woman who, judging by her young age, had probably only taken the job to pay her way through college. Unfortunately, the gang she'd been serving were less than understanding.
"What the fuck! This useless bitch can't even bring us our drinks properly!" One of the men shouted, bald and wearing a leather coat. No doubt about it; bodyguard.
The waitress only bowed her head in apology, shaking in either anger or fear as the group grumbled amongst themselves and only grew angrier. "I'm so sorry, sir!" She began to edge back as one of the drunker members began to stand, before being stopped as Willson raised a hand.
"Don't worry about it, luv." He had a smug smile, and the waitress couldn't help but shiver as Willson seemed to look her over with a predatory gaze. "Why don't you come on over, don't be a stranger."
The others in his group seemed to realize his intentions and shared a grin, gesturing for her to step closer. Reluctantly, the waitress did so, standing beside the rowdy booth. While the rest of the customers had all looked away, Jay heard the two others at the counter near him began to speak quietly about it and began to listen in.
"It's so sad, the poor girl." An older man sighed regretfully, while the man beside him nodded in agreement.
"He always goes for the new waitresses, it's like some sick rite of passage to work here." The second man muttered in disgust, downing the remainder of his beer and dropping some change on the counter as the two quickly left.
Jay was shocked at this point; he knew that Willson was a key player in the drug trafficking business in Florida, but he hadn't expected this. Gritting his teeth, he turned back to the booth, seeing Willson openly groping the poor waitress's ass as she looked down in shame and disgust.
Even across the bar, Jay could hear all the vulgar comments from the other members at Willson's booth as they spoke about what they'd do to the waitress later. As he saw Willson begin to slide his hand down the front of her skirt, Jay decided he'd had enough.
One second, Jay had been sitting at the bar and by the next he was on his feet, his shot glass shattering against the side of Willson's head and the limp body slumping to the floor with a resounding crack. Nobody had seen it coming, and the bar instantly grew dead-silent in shock at this young man's stupidity. The young waitress took advantage of this and quickly ducked through the doors to the employee section, followed by the bartender who flashed him a thankful look before exiting.
The rest of Willson's group shouted in outrage, clambering and stumbling to their feet. Jay smirked beneath his hood as he saw the alcohol affecting the gang members, but frowned as they drew weapons. The two bodyguards were wielding pistols while the remaining four idiots held knives. The knife-wielders would be easy, but the guns would cause an issue if he weren't careful.
"Looks like I'll have to make this quick." He murmured under his breath, leaping forward in a flurry of motion too fast for their drunken minds to process. Grasping the slide of the first bodyguards pistol, the bald man from before, Jay separated it from the pistol body and quickly whipped him across the face with it. There was a crunch as the man's nose broke beneath the force of the blow and he cried out in pain, retreating and clutching at his nose while scarlet blood leaked between his fingers.
Seeing the fighting begin to heat up, the other customers who weren't on Willson's payroll quickly evacuated the premises, knowing the cops were going to be showing sooner or later. Considering most of the patrons of the Cluster Luck were all criminals of differing levels, nobody wanted to stick around for that.
Swinging around, Jay used his forearm to block an overhead strike from one of the knife-wielding thugs and used the momentum to pivot forward and deliver a quick blow to the man's throat, incapacitating him.
He gagged and stumbled backwards, but before he could recover, Jay twisted the blade from his hand and efficiently slashed it across his throat. The man gurgled as blood spurt from his throat, clutching futilely at it as he fell to the floor. Out of the corner of his eye, Jay could see the other bodyguard unholstering his pistol.
Time seemed to slow down as Jay reached beneath his coat at the same time as the bodyguard raised his pistol. Eyes flashing crimson for a brief second, Jay smirked and flung three objects forward just as the bodyguard rapidly squeezed the trigger.
Three shuriken met the bullets midair, shattering and deflecting them all, much to the gunman's disbelief.
"Impossib-," The bodyguard was cut off by his own shout of pain, as Jay's knife was thrown into the center of his chest. He didn't even get a chance to cry out again before Jay had leaped forward in a lightning fast kick, slamming the blade even deeper and crashing the corpse into a booth.
Rushing in, the remaining three were blinded by drunken fury and were like toddlers before his skill. Jay moved like a lightning storm through the bar, ducking and dodging blows before striking with devastatingly quick and debilitating strikes.
Ducking beneath a swing, Jay unleashed a quick succession of two blows to his chest and an uppercut to the face before kicking him back against the wall. The unconscious body slumped to the floor with a thud. Despite how easily he continued to take them down, the thugs continued to blindly rush him.
Not that he minded. No, Jay had plenty of anger to work off on these fools.
He slid to the side as a blade thrust by, and quickly returned fire by slamming his elbow into the thug's face. The man cried out in pain as his face crumpled beneath the blow, and didn't notice as Jay stole the knife from his hand.
The thug didn't notice it until he felt something warm flowing down his throat, his eyes widening in realization even as he hit the floor.
Finally realizing the danger this man represented, the final thug froze in fear. Unfortunately, Jay did not, and he quickly lodged the blade into his heart and let both drop to the floor. Without even turning around, he threw out two more shuriken and ended the lives of the two who he'd only incapacitated.
Before he could turn towards the exit, a gunshot rang out and his eyes widened in surprise. On the floor, bleeding from his head injury, Willson held a revolver with smoke drifting from the barrel.
He wore a shit-eating grin as he'd pulled the trigger, at least until he'd heard the sound of glass shattering behind the counter where Jay stood. His hand began to shake as he saw this hooded figure standing before him, not even flinching from the gunshot. "What..." Willson's voice wavered in fear as this man, no, this devil turned to face him with glowing red eyes beneath the hood.
Willson was transfixed in pure, unadulterated fear by the sight of those eyes. They were blood red, glowing ever so slightly with what appeared to be three comma marks spaced out equidistant from the pupil. Seeing those, he finally realized that he'd bitten off far more than he could chew and was about to pay the price.
Jay stepped forward, totally unaffected as bullet after bullet was fired by a panicking Willson. Each bullet seeming to phase through him and impact the bar behind, as though he were some supernatural deity brought to punish the wicked, much to the man's distress.
"To think… that scum like you would push me this far." Jay spat with disgust, looking down upon the tearful and bleeding face of one Jesse Willson.
He pushed his hood back, revealing messy dark hair and a face that couldn't be older than 19 or 20. However, the dark circles beneath those blood-red eyes and the way he seemed to carry himself made Jay seem years older than he was.
All this was missed by Willson, as he scrambled backwards across the floor, anywhere to get away from those unnatural evil eyes. "D-devil!"
Jay just tch'd, crouching down in front of the injured drug lord with a bright grin on his face that sharply contrasted from the burning fury residing within his eyes. "Now that's just rude, I'm no devil!"
The grin fell, and Willson felt his whole-body trembling as he watched the three comma in each eye began to stretch and elongate, connecting with one another to form a shuriken-like shape around the center of each eye.
Jay's voice was deathly serious now, filled with killing intent and rage bubbling just below the surface. "I'm so much worse."
Briefly closing his left eye, Jay grit his teeth in exertion as his power surged through his anger, directing and molding it within his left eye. Ignoring the scum begging and pleading before him, Jay felt a sense of cruel satisfaction as he opened it wide, the energy bursting into existence amid Willson's screams.
"Amaterasu!"
From the outside, it looked as though a firebomb exploded within the Cluster Luck. Unnatural black flames burned throughout, totally resistant to the efforts of firefighters and the rain itself as it melted through the old buildings supports. The fires burned bright and hot, ignorant of the torrents of water that evaporated the second they drew near. Fortunately, all the employees at the bar had already escaped earlier during the fighting and were in no danger.
Unable to support itself any longer, the Cluster Luck shuddered and groaned before crashing down on itself with an earth-rattling crash. Reporters and camera crews were everywhere, surrounding the rubble of the Cluster Luck as they all tried to be the first with the groundbreaking story of the night. Anyone and everyone within a mile radius of the former bar were frantically interviewed for information.
One woman, a neighbor who'd been walking back from a shopping trip, was still shaking in terror after feeling the intense scorching heat of the flames. "The fires of hell itself," as she described. While the flames themselves had not burned beyond the walls of the bar, the pure heat of them had withered the neighboring grass and cracked the asphalt in the parking lot.
Surprising everyone, the moment the building collapsed, those supernatural flames seemed to dissipate and extinguish themselves. It was as though their purpose was served. In all this frantic excitement, nobody noticed a hooded figure with scarlet-eyes phase through the rubble and merge into the crowd.
Nobody bothered to follow this stranger as he exited the crowd, following the road before turning off into an abandoned alley that nobody had lived in for years. Because of this, nobody was there to see as the air seemed to distort and swirl around his right eye like some form of dimensional whirlpool, sucking him in and leaving no trace of his presence.
Authors note: That's right, I'm back to writing and now with my first ever Naruto story! I hope you all enjoy the first chapter, I've got some great plans for this story. While the story may take place ages beyond the time of the Hidden Villages and our favorite knucklehead ninja, there are some families who never forgot their shinobi roots or are descendants of clans with a kekkei genkai. Although not actively practiced anymore, those abilities are merely dormant and can emerge, such as with Jay's Sharingan. Before everyone asks, yes, I know that Amaterasu and Kamui are Mangekyo abilities, but rest assured that Jay has suffered more than enough to activate the Mangekyo and that's all I'll say on the matter... for now.
I know some people may become worried whenever there's a story featuring an OC, but rest assured, he won't ever be some overpowered 'Mary Sue.' If he wants power, he will have to work and train to achieve it; none of that overnight godly bullshit. Right now I'd classify him as a high-genin level strength, just to put it in perspective. Just because he may have the Sharingan, that doesn't mean he knows how to utilize it to its fullest potential either. I think that's more than enough background for now, I'll see you all... eventually... with the next chapter.
Well, so long as I don't get lost on the road of life.
I do not own Naruto nor anything related to the franchise; any OC characters are all of my own creation.