Hey y'all! So, I'm just starting in this new story, and I... really, honestly like it. I have a feeling that some of you will share this excitement to get this whole thing done and ready! Oh, at the end of every chapter, I plan to give you a full character description of 1 of the main characters in the story! Exciting, right? So, not only do you get to read the character in action, you can read why the character is the way they are. And trust me, they're good.
So, I'm still new here on Fan Fiction, but I've discovered that I'm actually becoming pretty popular relatively fast. I'm not sure if I'm just choosing good topics, or if I am just lucky, but either way I'll take it! Just wanted to thank those who actually take the time to read the stuff I write. So, thank you from the bottom of my moderately shallow young heart! Just kidding, I loves y'all!
Just a few key points for this story. So, the character this is listed under, "Naruto", is a bit vague, because, yeah, the story'll be told from his point of view most of the time, but there will be some other, majorly important characters in this story too. So, pay attention to them too! If you come across a character at some point in the chapters of the tale, and you aren't precisely sure of it's use in the story or even if it's just important, here is a small hint.
Read the character descriptions at the bottom of each chapter in bold! They will tell you if a character is important enough to recognize or not!
Disclaimer: I really don't own Naruto, but I own these AU versions of everybody, 'cuz thems mine!
*Well, on with the show :D *
Chapter 1: Insanity Don't Choose You, You Choose It.
. . . . .
He could feel it coming, the resounding boom just dying to echo in his ears and to reverberate around inside the small concrete room. His grin was impossibly wide as he watched the man across the room from him fall to his knees and swear under his breath once the sound had rung clear in the air. Naruto stood up slowly, his hands beside his head, palms facing forward, before he slowly slid them behind his head and laced his fingers together. He chuckled under his breath at the incredible roar that filled the room. The door opened with a bang, and several young men rushed inside, attempting to slam Naruto into the side of the vehicle that was pulled up in his open garage.
"No way! Man, Naruto, you suck. I've been trying to get my engine running that clean for weeks." Naruto pushed himself off the hood of the navy blue Corvette and wiped his hands off on a grease rag before offering one large palm down to the teenager that was sprawled out on the driveway. "How much do I owe ya this time, Blondie?" The young man brushed his trousers off with his hand before digging into his back pocket for his wallet. Naruto raised a hand to his chin and lowered his eyes to stare down at the shorter male condescendingly, who just blushed under his gaze.
"Call it a hundred and we're even for this and last time too." Naruto held out his hand to the lad and shook his soundly, each party mumbling 'deal' over their clasped hands. Naruto pocketed the bills before turning back to the car and pulling the two skateboards taped together he used to slide under the vehicle out from under the front tire. "Y'all want to get the thing back on the ground? I just spent a half hour under a grease trap in the summer sun. Need I say more?" He watched as his client, a stocky fellow named Choji, and his friends immediately rushed over to the vehicle.
He sat back in the shade that his open garage door provided and drank a bottle of water in one go. He peered up at the sky from under the tip of his black golfers hat and let out a quiet 'tch' before kicking open his minifridge and getting another cold drink for himself.
"Ya know," Naruto called over the hum of his washing machine to the young men struggling with the jack holding up the Corvette, "ya should've come by the shop during store hours instead of waiting 'til Saturday at noon to drive by my house. I could've been doin' something, and where would you have been then?"
"Banging on your front door? For real man, where you gonna go on a Saturday?" The car hit the ground with a loud thunk, and Naruto winced visibly.
"No wonder this car went from new to crap in less than a year." Naruto ran his hand along the newly re-done paint job and smiled, staring at the flawless reflection of his pearly whites and blonde hair.
"It ain't crap so long as you're here to fix it." Choji tugged the door open and climbed into the passenger seat, rolling down the window before the door had even shut. "Thanks again man, you're a life saver." The car accelerated off the driveway, into Naruto's trashcan, and down the street before Naruto could even tell the 16 year old to "Get your fat butt back here and clean up my driveway you reckless idiot". Naruto glanced up painfully at the garbage spilled all over the edge of his lawn, driveway, and even in the street.
"Psh, man. Forget it." Naruto jumped as he ran towards his garage, grabbing the handle on the underside of the door, and slid on the smooth concrete towards the door to his kitchen. The garage door shut with a resounding 'boom' just as he opened the kitchen door and felt the loving slap to the face of the air conditioner. A stupid smile made its way onto his face as he kicked off his work boots and pulled his greasy t-shirt over his head, knocking his hat to the floor.
He walked his way through the familiar rut from the door, to the cabinet for a glass, to the fridge for some ice and a pop, and then to the sofa for his butt. He relaxed back into the plush, obnoxiously orange sofa and kicked his feet up onto the simple coffee table in front of him. He took a swig of the orange flavored soda and scooted over a few inches in his seat to sit directly beneath the ceiling fan.
He nearly fell asleep in the almost quiet room, apart from the whir of the fan and the distant sound of cars driving by outside. "I love Saturdays." The words came out in a sigh of bliss just as his head hit the cushion behind him.
The doorbell rang.
Naruto squeezed his eyes shut just a little tighter and sighed again, this time a bit heavier. "But God knows that Saturdays don't love me." He stood and shuffled his way over to the front door, pulling aside the white curtain that covered the glass. A small smile lit up his face. He opened the door to the little girl that was standing with her hands shoved in her tiny jean pockets and ruffled her hair. He crouched down on his haunches in front of her as she threw her arms around his neck for a quick hug.
"What can I do for you Moegi?" Naruto asked as he jumped quickly to his feet, his hands on his hips. She just mocked his position playfully, putting her weight onto her left foot and placing a finger to her bottom lip. She took a moment to think, and Naruto began to slide the door shut slowly on his neighbor before she cried out in anger at his childishness.
"Naru! No! You're not s'posed to shut a door on a pretty woman. It's mean." The 6 year old cried indignantly. Naruto smiled brightly at her. Moegi handed him a few letters, mumbled something that sounded like a very begrudging 'You're welcome' before spinning around on her heel and jumping down his porch steps one big leap at a time. "You're mail got mixed up with ours again Naru. Bye bye!"
Naruto shot out a casual wave to the little girl before kicking the door closed with his heel. He slunk down the hallway and deposited the small stack of mail on the dresser beside his bed. He pulled a pair of jeans that at least vaguely resembled clean and a t-shirt from his closet before heading for the shower. His phone lit up with a bleep when he walked by, and just casting a glance at the weather update had him groaning in complaint.
"It's gonna be hot as Satan's fire in the ring tonight." The shower door slammed shut.
. . . . .
"Menma! Menma!" The short man swore profusely over the loud din of the bar. He pushed his way through the crowd that was gathered around the mock boxing ring and almost did a double take. He climbed on top of the nearest table top, and dove into the ring, attempting to break up the bloody, devastating mess. Menma stepped back and wiped some of his opponents' blood off on his shirt before laughing at the sight of the small bar owner that was doing his best to drag the unconscious man to the infirmary in the back room.
Menma climbed up onto the rubber-covered steel bars that surrounded the ring and pumped his bloody fists in the air above the crowd in time to cheers of "Menma, Menma, Menma!" God, he felt good.
He stepped down and roared to his audience. "Who's next?! Huh? Who can take on the Demon-Fox?" He stomped a foot for good measure, his steel-toed boots banging loudly on the stage of the small arena. He bounced his weight from heel to toe, his hands behind his back while he waited for his final opponent of the night to climb on stage. Menma slid his left leg behind him, leaning forward in a lunge towards the man that must've been at least six and a half feet tall and nearly half as wide in the shoulders.
The smaller blonde turned his neck until it cracked, then leaned down on his finger tips. 3... 2... 1... The bell sounded with a ring.
Menma ran at the carrot-top giant, leapt into the air several feet in front of the huge man charging towards him, before throwing his weight down to his feet and abruptly sliding under his legs, grabbing him by the ankles, and pulled him down to the ground with his advantageous momentum. He grabbed the man's, Juugo's as the crowd new him by, right ankle and twisted it up behind him until his foot was pressed up against his muscular back. There was a loud pop from Juugo's hip, and the giant cried out in pain. Menma laughed loudly over the cheering crowd, then twisted the leg in his hands until the knee popped, then the ankle.
Menma stepped back from Juugo and watched as the man rose to stand on his left foot, avoiding weight on his obviously dislocated leg. Menma let the man rush him, ducking down to his haunches just before the moment of impact, slid his palms up onto Juugo's chest, and latched onto the man's t-shirt. Menma rode out the flip with the larger man, curled into a tight ball, and waited until Juugo hit the ground with a painful sounding thud.
Menma gripped his opponents' shirt tighter in his fists and settled his weight over the man's neck, his knees pressed into his shoulders. Menma punched once at his cheek with his right hand. Juugo grunted in pain while Menma laughed heartily. He swung again, harder this time, and felt at least one bone shatter in Juugo's jaw. Blood leaked out from between the mammoths' lips. Menma aimed for the nose this time, then the temple, then the eye, and kept going until he wasn't even aiming any more, just brutally attacking.
Juugo tapped his hand on the ground 3 times, the sound lost over the roaring crowd. Menma stood, making sure to step on Juugo's hand as he made his way from the ring. He tore his leather gloves off with his teeth and gave a final cry of victory from atop the drink bar in the room. He gave a bow, jumped from atop the tall surface, and slipped out of the smoky room and into the brightly lit hallway towards his dressing room. His footsteps were heavy in his boots and the leather belt tied tightly around his abs was beginning to chafe from his sweat. He threw open the door with his name written in sharpie across it and stumbled into the room. He kicked the door shut behind him while a crazy grin made it's way onto his face. He kicked his boots off of his feet and shuffled over to the small vanity in the cubicle of the dressing room.
He unclipped the irritating belt from around his waste, managing to remove it without cutting himself on one of the studded spikes embedded in the leather. He untied the drawstring holding the loose-fitting, lightweight pants up above his hips and let them sag down, his orange boxers peeking out over the top.
Menma flipped the handle on the sink up and waited a few seconds for the water to run down through the pipes to his sink. He scrubbed his hands under the relatively clean water and watched the blood swirl down the drain. He shut the sink off once all of the red had faded from his sun-kissed skin and dried his hands with the stained rag on the towel hanger.
"Menma! Great job tonight, I really mean that. Just super, excellent job." The bar owner crammed his way through the door, it having only opened about a foot before jamming.
"At least I didn't kill anybody tonight." Menma smeared the cotton ball across the black nail polish on his finger nails and smiled when the normally stubborn crap came off easily with the remover. 'I guess good people do get blessed every once and a while.'
"Yes! Thank you very much. It's not like anybody missed the guy from last week, but if you'd kept on killing people, eventually someone important would end up finding out."
Menma fixed the short man with a look that clearly said 'What the heck do you think you're talkin' about?' "What kind of important person comes down to an illegal brawl-bar on a Saturday night?"
"Well, we just don't know that 'til we find out. You're paycheck is in the mail, probably got there this mornin' in fact."
"Yeah, I got it, just haven't gotten around to openin' it yet."
"Alright then, kiddo. Shut off the lights when you're done. I don't wanna have to pay for any more bills than I have to already." The stubby man sucked in his beer belly and shoved his way through the door before sliding it shut with a click.
Menma slunk over to his sink and lifted the handle so that it was just barely letting out a stream of water. He chuckled while he pulled off his mask and tugged a shirt over his 6-pack. He shimmied his way into his jeans, shoved his feet into his boots and was out the door in seconds, phone in hand, checking the weather for tomorrow's forecast.
. . . . .
Naruto crept through his front door and slid it closed gently before falling in an ungraceful heap over the soccer ball in front of the door.
"Sure, I can beat up a guy that eats steroids for breakfast, but look at 'The Mighty Menma' being brought down by a," Naruto scooted up to his knees and picked the ball up in the semi-darkness of his foyer, "size 3 soccer ball. Where on earth did I get this dang thing from anyways?" He chucked it over the sofa in his living room and walked quietly down the hall on the left to his room. "4am, huh?" He patted the clock on his bedside table as he sat down on the bed.
A pile of papers and envelopes fluttered down to the floor in a heap. "Sunday's don't like me either, do they?" Naruto slid down to the floor from his bed and gathered all of the papers up, walking back around to the desk up against the wall. He pulled the wooden swivel chair out from under the desk and slid into the seat.
Naruto spread the mail out over the smooth surface, immediately sorting the bills and other crap he didn't want to read into one pile and the other stuff, like his paycheck and a few letters into another. The weekly letter from the local jail updating him about how long he'd been out and exactly how much longer they'd have to notify him about his "progress" went straight to the shredder beside his feet.
Naruto hummed some random song he'd heard on the radio while driving back from the bar while he worked on opening the first letter from his 'I care enough to read this pile' with a pair of broken scissors. He eventually just gave up on a nice and pretty cut and just went straight ahead to tearing the entire front of the envelope off. He tugged the letter from its snug little home inside its packaging and unfolded the thick printer paper.
To the Uzumaki household, but more specifically, Menma:
Naruto froze. No one knows my stage name is connected to me, not even my boss knows what my face looks like. His eyes skimmed faster over the page.
My organization has been watching you for the past several years.
Now, Naruto dear, don't get the wrong idea. Here, I actually appreciate what you can do as such a well-rounded man.
I'd like to extend a personal invitation to you, in the form of an all expenses paid trip to visit my business in Japan.
Everything will be explained further as soon as you arrive here at my company.
June 4-11. Plane leaves at 5am on the 3rd of the month.
I do hope you will join me soon.
~Sound HQ-Mr. O.
Naruto stared blankly at the letter. One thing coming to mind.
"I better not owe this creep money."
. . . . .
"Alright, alright. Sound. Sound! Ah, here it is." Naruto's grin was illumined by the glow of his computer screen in the darkness of his living room. He clicked on the link on the bottom of the Google search page and waited for his dial-up to load. He took a swig of his coffee and nearly dropped the mug when his laptop 'pinged' loud enough to wake his neighbors up.
"Shhhhh! Okay, so, says here that Sound is a manufacturing company just outside Tokyo, Japan. It's been around for about 14 years now, blah, blah, blah. This doesn't tell me crap about nothin'. What do they want me, or rather, Menma for?" Naruto leaned back from the screen and squinted at the fancy print of the letter, analyzing it for about the seventh time in the past half hour.
"Guess I got nothin' better to do. Maybe I should humor this guy. And if it doesn't work out, hey, free trip to Japan. Get a little closer with at least half of my heritage. It's decided then." Naruto said as he slammed his laptop shut then headed off to pack and hopefully sleep until at least noon the next morning.
. . . . .
End Chapter 1!
And now it's time for your character of the day! Get ready! Okay, scroll down. :)
. . . . .
-Uzumaki, Naruto:
Age: 18
Height/Weight: 6'/210 Ibs
Origin: USA/ State of Texas
Appearance: Shaggy blonde hair that is parted on the right with sweeping bangs spiked over his left eye; spiked up in layers all over. Tan skin. Blue eyes. 6 whisker-like scars on his cheeks, 3 on each side, born from the "Fox-Demon" incident. Wears orange constantly, claiming that the color "May be obnoxious, but it calms Him down." Wears a crystal necklace for reasons unknown. Moderately tall, broad shoulders, and slightly above average muscular build. Wears a black band tied around his forehead to keep hair from getting in his eyes.
Background: Born and raised in Sherman, Texas. Nothing is known about his early childhood. Left school at age 16 and sought employment while living at local orphanage before getting thrown in prison for causing mass hysteria and several severe injuries in what he claims as a "momentary lapse of sanity" and what others to this day call the "Fox-Demon" incident. Released from prison 6 months after he turned 18, two years after admittance, and turned over to the psychiatric ward of the state due to what was believed to be "Split Personality Disorder" that effected rational thought when faced with anything that shows resemblance to whatever caused initial incident. He was shunned by the town as a demon, so he moved to San Antonio to attempt to start over, despite still enjoying a dirtier line of work. Works part-time as an engineer for a local company. Still does a lot of underground street fighting for fun and profit on the edge of the city. Under surveillance of the local jail and police system for security reasons.
Cause of Insanity: Unknown
Current Location: Outskirts of San Antonio, Texas
Family/Relations: Unknown
Personality: Often happy and polite, quick to defend another person, and rarely ever harsh. Compared to a small child in maturity and is kind to even people that spit on the ground he walks on. Determined and loving, yet incredibly stubborn and often foolish and brash. Menma-(street name)-quick to draw blood, unrelenting, and violent. Has murdered on more than one occasion and feels no remorse. Split opposite of Naruto.
Special Skills: Excellent hand-to-hand combat, above average marksmanship, average knowledge of weaponry, poor tactical skills.
. . . . .
1. I'd better not be the only one anticipating what's going to happen.
2. They only get better from there folks! I loved developing these characters so much, so I can't wait to see what you'll say about each of them after you read their descriptions at the end of each chapter.
3. Expect another chapter up relatively soon, because I'm kind of favoring this story to my other one at the moment, but if you're reading Dignity of a Criminal, have no fear! I haven't given up, progress is just momentarily slowed!
4. That doesn't sound much better, does it? -_-
5. Anyways, I got the idea for this story at 1 in the morning last night, spent 4 hours writing up and doing all kinds of research to build these characters ('cuz, as I've said, I'm quickly becoming very attached to them) and then spent another 2 and a half writing this chapter and working on revisions.
6. Let me feel the love from all you readers after pulling an all-nighter!
7. To clarify for anyone who might possibly be confused about anything, Naruto and Menma are the same person (for those of you who are fans and watched the latest movie, you'll get this! *wink wink*). Menma is Naruto's stage name while he's doing his shadier work. And if you read the character description above, (yes, above, ye who holds the power of the mouse) then the whole chapter will make infinitely more sense with the alter-ego aspect. Yes, the character descriptions are, in-fact, useful in helping you as a reader understand the reason why these characters are so quirky and interesting.
8. Alright, I guess I should end my ranting here. Wait! What's that tiny voice in the background shouting? One more thing? Oh yeah! Thanks annoying voice!
R & R, because remember, AMB11 loves you! Well, AMB11 loves to see reviews you post anyways, but you're generally included in that, right? ;)
'Kay... I think I'm done now. BYE!